As they agreed the day before, around noon Bones headed toward the address Mirami had given him and after a twenty minute walk he stopped. Mirami had lived in a spacious basement of an apartment building cluttered with gears, cogs and contraptions of different sorts Bones had never seen before nor could identify what they were used for. Mirami was a bit of a hoarder and welcomed Bones with toggles on and dirt smeared on her shirt and face.

“Hey Bones! Is it afternoon already?!” Mirami checked the small circular object on her wrist and exclaimed, “Darn! Time sure flies by! Well, come on in!”

Mirami led bones around the basement, swiftly avoiding clutter on the floor and approached the working table full of gadgets. She shuffled through it until she picked up a small object that looked like a lightbulb.

“Here! This is what ye were looking for!” She said and handed an object for Bones to take a look at. Bones picked it up and inspected the object but didn’t know what he was looking at.

“To be honest Mirami, I am at a loss here. What am I looking at?” He asked.

Mirami took back the object and started instructing Bones on how to use the gadget and what each part does. “Ye already said ye need to disperse the powder which is great, because that’s what this dispenser is intended for! I also use the powder for smoke bombs!”

“See the top part?” She asked and Bones nodded. “Ye twist and take the top off then add yer powder substance inside the container and twist the top back on. Make sure ye twist it tightly so no air would leak inside! Next is this needle right h…gimme a sec.” She paused and searched the table again for a needle while Bones waited. Mirami rummaged through the table, then the drawers one by one until she found a small box with a transparent lid. She took the box and opened it. Inside were dozens of needles. She picked one out and handed it to Bones. After Bones took the needle, she continued with the instructions.

“Sorry ‘bout that. It’s a bit of a mess right now. The needle is the igniter ye need to pierce all the way through the top. When ye want to activate the dispenser, all ye need to do is gently imbue some mana into the needle and it will activate. Yer bomb will detonate on impact, or after two, maybe three seconds so be careful about that!”

“This is amazing, Mirami!” Bones praised the young dwarf. “This is better than I expected! I thought about inscribing a rune to ignite the powder and I am not confident I could inscribe the runes yet!”

Mirami nodded in understanding. “I know what ye mean. I’ve never bothered with rune smithing so I worked around that.” She said and grinned. Bones had merely a dozen of pouches full of grinded powder but the dispenser was small and he estimated he could make around thirty bombs with it. Mirami was a bit reluctant to part with thirty dispensers but Bones compensated her greatly. Mirami preferred mana stones to gold and luckily, Bones had mana stones in hundreds.

After finishing his business, Bones went back to the smithy, hoping Darsumi was there with all the information he required to calculate the cost of his new ID. Bones entered the smithy and heard a loud conversation ensue. For some reason, the kitchen was the place to hang and converse, instead of a living area. Bones figured that was because both drinks and food were at hand's reach there.

“What got you all so worked up?” Bones asked after entering the kitchen and greeting everyone. Hem and Dar were sitting at the table with two more dwarves. Belmus, who Bones met before and one of the dungeon farming members, Thaddeus.

"Bones! Come sit and join us." Darsumi said. "You remember Thaddeus from the dungeon? He just returned from the capital and brought us interesting news."

Bones greeted Thaddeus once more and asked what was new in the capital. Bones listened as each dwarf at the table spoke at the same time, outdoing one another. What Bones could make out of the conversation was that prince Tristan had returned from the frontlines after being away for over a month.

Crowds of people welcomed and cheered him on upon returning, but what really drew everyone's attention was that the prince was missing an arm. What the dwarves were so passionately discussing was the prince's grand accomplishment on the frontlines. Bones was puzzled on what accomplishments they were talking about, as losing an arm and failing to push back the enemies didn’t seem like an accomplishment to him. He was quickly put down by everyone telling him he didn't understand just how great of an accomplishment it was to fight an ascendant as an equal!

"Mr. Bones, you have to understand that ascendants fight other ascendants, not people below them in rank and level. It's not unheard of but it's quite rare for a third tier to fight an ascendant and only lose an arm!" Belmus pitched in and Hemdus continued. "Wit da resources he has at his disposal, 'is arm will be as good as new within a month!"

"That long? Doesn't the royal palace have healers capable of regrowing limbs?" Bones asked, feeling that one month is a long time to regrow an arm.

*snort* "There aint no healers capable of healin an ascendant or sum'one at princes level in da kingdom! There is a third tier healer in da palace but even he cant regrow limbs on sum'one like da prince!"

“Hemdus is right, Bones. As you level higher, your body becomes more resilient to healing of a lower level. Only healing by someone of the same level would have an effect and healers of that caliber are rare to come by! Otherwise, it wouldn’t be so hard to level pass the third tier with a healer non-stop by your side.” Darsumi finally had a say in it, feeling left out in a conversation.

After the prince left the frontlines, so did the ascendant. Unscathed but enraged that someone beneath the rank of an ascendant could fight him on par. Sure, he did what he was instructed to do and stopped the prince from taking back the fortress, but the fact that he was given so much trouble in doing so, Kidllams accepted as a loss on his part.

The thing about Tristan was that he was born with a golden spoon. From birth he had the privileges of a prince. Which meant the best tutors, teachers, resources and unlimited access to the Hagos Dungeon. He was pampered by the king as he was the only child the king had in the last two hundred years. Tristan was 148 years old and one of the youngest prodigies waiting to ascend. His battle prowess was a result of dual class, with the main class being capped at lvl 99. His exact classes were unknown, classified. After the prince ascends, the Wezar Kingdom would become a powerhouse among the minor kingdoms and that’s why the citizens so proudly welcomed their prodigy prince back from the war.

“Bones, shall we switch to a more private place so we can discuss your plans for after the festival?” Darsumi said in-between the conversation going on.

Bones nodded and followed Darsumi into the workshop where they sat at the remote table he previously used as a worktable. Darsumi took out sheets of papers, laid them on the table and started going through them before speaking out.

“Alright, good news, everything has been arranged for your new ID and it will be ready for use by the time you pick it up.”

“Will be?” Bones questioned. Darsumi held his hand out, asking Bones to let him finish and continued. “Forging a new ID is a process, Bones, and can take up to a month to finish. I took into account you going on the front and traveling north east as you said. Your new ID card with a new adventurer badge will be waiting for you in a branch of an adventurer guild located in a small town in the Remore Kingdom.” Darsumi handed a map to Bones and pointed with his finger at the location on the map. “That’s your destination and after that, it’s up to you. The rest of the details regarding who you’ll be meeting with and an exact time of an exchange, you can read about in the documents at a later date!” Darsumi handed the said document and told Bones not to lose it.

“Now, this is important, Bones, so listen up. Seeing as how you revealed your…past to us, I felt the need to warn you and explain some things regarding your new ID. What I am doing is bribing one of the administrators in the branch office of the guild to falsify the mana signature and register you as a new adventurer. Your mana signature as Bones is already recorded in the database in every headquarters of an Adventurer Guild and maybe in branch offices by now.”

Darsumi paused, waiting for Bones to process everything he said so far, but felt like he needed to properly explain what he said just now.

“Mana signatures of every new and existing member of the guild are recorded and stored within the crystal display they use in every Adventurer Guild’s building. The larger crystal displays are able to store a lot more information and are used in every headquarters in every kingdom or empire. All the info on members is stored within the large displays, while local info on adventurers, quests, monsters, criminals etc. is stored on smaller displays used in branch offices. The HQ database gets updated once every month, depending on a location of a branch office and time needed for the new information to reach HQ. You have to be careful when you visit the guild so as to not get your mana signature pinged twice!”

“If you do get pinged twice, the administration office will be alerted and your mana signature will be linked to two different names. Both your ID’s would be revoked, following a personal inquiry in everything you’ve done so far as a guild’s member. Since you’re doing all this to hide from Silva and you said he has contacts within the guild, you don’t want to be discovered!”

After Darsumi finished talking, Bones said he did wonder what those strange crystal displays on the reception desks were used for. He thanked Darsumi for everything and asked how much everything was going to cost him. Just bribing an official cost him almost as much as an orc skeleton. With all the additional expenses, Bones forked out one thousand and five hundred gold. Out of five thousand he received from the dwarves, after he paid for the orc skeleton and now his new ID, he was left with half the gold. Bones didn’t mind spending it all! As far as he was concerned, gold was easily obtained.

“Dar, do you plan on going to the capital once more before the festival?” Bones suddenly asked. Darsumi shook his head and said he didn’t plan to, but Thaddeus will be returning to the capital a day after tomorrow.

“Great! He wouldn’t mind delivering a letter for me, would he?”

“Not a problem. Just don’t forget to give him the letter before he leaves. I think we covered everything now, Bones.” Darsumi said and stood up, ready to return to the kitchen. Bones didn’t follow him, saying he wants to start working on his new golem. Darsumi nodded and left, leaving Bones to work.

Bones started engraving the new skeleton in preparation for when he obtains another mana core. The bones of the once-very-alive orc proved to be difficult to work on due to its level, but thanks to the engravings done on himself, Bones progressed faster and easier than expected. He stopped working after midnight and slipped outside under the cover of the night. Bones wasn’t done making the bombs and he still had one more thing he needed to acquire before he could finish.

The local cemetery was located inside the city walls in a remote place within walking distance from the residential area. Bones casually walked along the fence of a cemetery and jumped over, landing in a crouching position. He slowly stood up, looking around but saw no one. I thought someone would be here, overseeing the cemetery. I guess working hours are over.

Bones walked between the tombstones until he reached the far end of the graveyard. He looked around once more before taking out two shovels from the inventory. He summoned Skully and handed him a shovel. Dig…