Bones summoned an orc skeleton from the Bone Collector Inventory tab and laid it on the bed. He pulled up a chair and sat next to it. The skeleton was too big for the small bed meant for dwarves. Even Bones had his feet dangling off the bed when sleeping over. It didn’t matter as the orc couldn’t voice any complaints. Bones summoned his used engraving tools and got to work.

He was tempted to try and give more freedom to his lines doing complex intersecting patterns instead of simple straight lines but decided not to push it. Complex engraving patterns are of a higher skill level and above what Bones was capable of at the moment. Simple engraving lines increased his golem capabilities, mostly speed and attack power to a certain extent. Pattern engravings would make his golem a lot stronger at the cost of increased mana consumption from the mana core.

Simple worked on Skully and it will work on the yet-to-be-named golem too. Should I start thinking of a name already? Bones shook his head. Mana Core first, then everything else!

Before starting this session, he was already halfway done engraving the orc skeleton and he hoped he would finish within the next three days. Once he started though, he was pleasantly surprised at the ease with which he was making incisions in the bone. Controlling mana output and the sharpness of his lines was a notch higher than it was before the transformation.

While he was staying in the cavern, he struggled engraving his arms and then struggled some more after he started working on the new golem as the bones of the orc skeleton proved to be too resilient to cut into.

All that was a thing of the past now and Bones made great progress throughout the night until he heard the dwarves waking up from outside his room. He stopped working and joined them in the kitchen downstairs shortly after.

Both dwarfs showed great interest in the transformation Bones went through and while he was sharing his experience during the breakfast, the capital was busy with preparations for the festival.

There was a rumor being spread around the city that the festival might be postponed or even canceled due to the warring situation at the border. It would make sense given the state of the affairs, but a week before the festival the prince assured his people that the festival will proceed as planned!

The festival is a historic event commemorating the founding of the kingdom and is also the most important event signaling the end of the year. Every year the people proudly celebrated the accomplishments they made over a year and looked forward to a new and prosperous year to come.

The festival starts with an opening ceremony where thousands of participants, entertainers like dancers, acrobats and magicians march through the main street of Hagos and show off their flashiest skills in a most grand manner. The ceremony is followed by the prince's speech. The end of the first day marks the start of the music festival in each corner of a central area that would go on for two days. On the third and the last day, a small tournament would take place between silver and gold rankers in their respective tiers, followed by a closing ceremony and awe-inspiring fireworks.

The streets were already decorated with decorative lights and colorful paper flowers and flags. The big stage was set up at a location in the park in front of the tower that would host the many bands that would play during the festival. In front of the park was a large square filled with food stalls and crowds of people already indulging in festivities before the start of the main thing.

The central area wasn’t the only place bustling with activity. There were changes taking place below the city as well. The Hounds’ dogs were busy secretly transfering giant spherical containers through the sewers toward marked locations below the squares and where the stages were set up. The central area of the city had one large square and four minor squares a short distance away from each other. They were all popular places among the people and Silva coordinated an attack on all the sites at the same time.

The trips he made to the Underground in the last few months were spent making deals, bribing guards and hiring local thugs. All in preparation for one big final attack, the people of Wezar Kingdom will never forget.

It wasn't personal for Silva, not really or any other member of The Hounds for that matter. He would admit if asked, that he was a bit ticked off as this was one of the longest missions he's been on and it was a joint operation with another group in Aphiton Kingdom. Their plans weren’t set from the beginning. They formed after carefully gathering intel and analyzing what they could do to bring harm to the kingdom and a way to do it. Finding operational mana bombs in the tunnels beneath Westbrook a few months ago made their final plan come to fruition.

Varia was the Alpha of the group and the first one to be sent here seventeen years ago. Silva and Tivaara joined him a few years later and the rest came eight years ago. The whole group counted twelve members. They lost a few, but no one Silva deemed important and a core member of the group. Like the necromancer Pavlov, who Varia raised as a pupil and yet no one shed a single tear for him.

Solin was the last person to join the group and Silva picked him up four years ago. He recognized the potential in the young man he could make use of, and drive he had after losing his parents. Solin will be a great addition to the team, on par with Clover, the formation and barrier specialist. Before becoming a core member of the group however, Solin will have to prove his loyalty to The Hounds and the festival will be the opportunity to do that.

Three days before the start of the operation, Tivaara found Silva riled and drinking alone in the private booth. She slid down to a seat across and teased him about Bones.

"It's rare to see you break your, "I'm not bothered by anything", character." She said, then added some fuel to the fire. "The clock is ticking down old man, *tic toc tic toc*, and your time is slipping by." She chuckled, then asked if he prefered HER to go and fetch Bones for him. Silva wasn't amused. He waved her off, telling her he will go and catch that mouse from whatever hole he crawled into after the festival. Tiv laughed and narrowed her eyes, then said, "a hound chasing a bone, funny…", in a teasing tone.

The irony wasn't lost on Silva. It just added to his already foul mood… "You would do well to keep that mouth shut!" He threatened, practically snarling at her.

"Oh? Or what?" She replied, her interest piqued. She leaned closer, making eye contact and just waited for him to start something. Silva scoffed, turning his head away, then muttered, "Battle maniac", while standing up to leave.

Tivaara is level fifty-nine now. She spent the last six months pushing herself toward gold rank and her battle prowess were already considered on par with an average gold ranker. Silva didn't know where she was disappearing to but knew she was a member of the Assassin's Order for a reason.

Unlike The Assassin Guild anyone could join after paying an entrance fee and leave without suffering a penalty, The Order wasn't as approachable or forgiving. They would pick who to invite to join, not the other way around and after passing a harsh trial that truly tested one's limits, a new addition to the Order would be a member for life. The Assassin's Order only had elite members and Tivaara was one of those elites with decades of experience behind her.

Tivaara was hired as a member of The Order to work with the Hounds on this mission and after the mission is over, they would part ways. As their final days together were coming to a close, Tiv was showing impatience and started acting up. She was itching for a fight. Silva ignored Tiv's further antics and provocations, but the whole situation with Bones rubbed him the wrong way.

At first he didn't want Bones to feel shackled and restricted while he was with them and raise suspicion. He wanted him to level freely and at his own pace with The Hounds backing him up. Eventually he would join and depend on them. In two-three years of time, when his current body would expire, Silva would overtake Bones' body and reap the benefits of being an undead. Now? He had regrets. He felt like his chance might be slipping away, just like Tivaara so blatantly put it…

No matter. I have more pressing matters to focus on right now!

Tivaara watched Silva leave and head back to the Underground via the manavator. There were final preparations to be done and Tivaara had a job of her own to do.

On the other side of the city, in a private office of the guild leader of The Adventurer Guild, Rayne sat across his master Fluvis Frose and vice-guild leader Glem Rokniz.

Rayne had requested a formal meeting with the guild leader because he had important information to disclose regarding a potential threat on the festival.

"Rayne, how reliable is this information? How have you come by this knowledge?" Glem asked.

"From someone connected to The Hounds. My contact…is someone who wishes to distance himself from Silva, for one reason or another."

"Who is it?" Fluvis asked, clearly not intent to let any information remain untold.

Rayne paused. When he was making the deal with Bones he was asked to keep Bones' name out of it because someone within the guild was working with the Hounds. However, now was not the time to keep things hidden.

"Bones is my contact. The one I interrogated a few months back on the assault on Westbrook and connections to Silva."

"Who?" Both Fluvis and Glem asked at the same time.

"Come on now, don't tell me you've already forgotten? If it was anyone else I'd understand, but Bones is an undead. Not an easy thing to forget!" Rayne replied, but felt something was off.

Both the Guild and vice-guild leader shared a look and then Glem asked who authorized the interrogation and why they weren't given a report after the interrogation took place.

"I did write a report and sent it your way! As for the person that authorized the interrogation, it was Gustav…" Rayne replied and sighed seeing the way the two were looking at him. He leaned back in the chair and rubbed his eyes. ”It was Gustav. HE is a damn contact The Hounds had within the guild all along!”

Glem stood up, saying he would send guards to locate and apprehend Gustav, and left the office.

"Master, that's not all. Bones disclosed the location where Silva is hiding! I mean, the location of their hideout!”

"I would like to formally request a team. A small team, and I want to be the one to lead it." Rayne requested with conviction. Fluvis breathed out and nodded but remained reluctant to let Rayne be a part of the team because of his personal connections to Silva. He couldn't deny him though. Not after everything Rayne went through.

"Fine. You will have your team, but you don't do anything until I say so! Understood? Have you reported any of this to the prince yet?"

Rayne thanked the old man and said he hadn’t seen the prince for some time and thought about coming here, to his master first.

"This isn't a matter The Adventurer's Guild alone can handle. We are limited in what we can and allowed to do. I’ll send a word to the palace so appropriate steps could be taken." Fluvis said, stood up and started pacing around the room. He stopped and added: "I'll ask for the festival to be postponed until the threat is cleared, but I doubt the prince will be easily convinced."

A word of a threat reached the palace within an hour but the prince refused to cancel the festival, saying he can't make such a decision without solid proof and only on a word of an informant. Best he could do was to increase the number of guards and have them sweep the area more frequently for anything out of place.

The bombs however, weren't found nor detected no matter how much the guards searched for. After Varia inscribed the bombs, increasing their effectivness, Clover made sure to place a formation barrier around the mana bombs to hide the mana signature the bombs radiated. Over the next three days, the upper echelon and a few core members of The Hounds stealthily covered their tracks and disappeared from the tavern unnoticed. The people left behind were unaware of the entire situation and were disposable local muscle Silva hired and made connections with over the years.