I felt odd as I read the pop-up. It seemed bigger than what Kasidy had done. Yet it was just an oath, and likely the tower had just adjusted things around. Made it bigger.

I smiled at Kasidy as she seemed a little shocked at what happened and asked. “Should your oath have done that?”

Renfry laughed. “No my lord most oath’s don’t! She made a true heart oath and it seems like this dungeon might be a bit more than we thought. It sent her oath to her god!”

Kasidy shook her head a bit. “I didn’t think that the oath meant all of that and that it was binding! No wonder we don’t give the oaths much.”

“What do you meant that you didn’t think it would say all of that didn’t you know?”

She eeped and shook her head. She was almost crying as she said. “No. The oath was an ability. It’s grayed out now with a 5 year cool down!”

I smiled and shook my head. “You didn’t check to see what the ability could do?”

She slumped down. “I did. It just said trigger bard’s oath not what that oath was. Nor that there was a 5 year cool down or anything like that.”

“Does it change anything? You were following me around writing in that book of yours anyway.” I said.

She flashed a smile at me and then winked. “No! You’re right I didn’t lose anything other than the negatives for you being a dumb noble. Even better I only get half the bad reactions I would have to other nobles. By being part of your retinue I am protected from the anti-bard laws.”

“Okay with that taken care of both of you can stop calling me, my lord. Unless we are in public then I guess you have to. I want you two to keep me grounded as I don’t know what’s coming with any of this noble stuff.”

Renfry bowed his head slightly. “As you wish my lord. I will stop except in public.”

Kasidy gave me a slight smile, then giggled just a moment. “Yes, my lord. Only in public will I call you that… or when I think it’s funny. If I am to keep you grounded, then I need to treat you like I want! My lord!” Then she blew me a kiss and sat back down.

Ever since Last Port, she had been getting more and more flirtatious. I needed to end this so that there weren’t problems with Lannah. The issue is explaining it all meant telling about my level. Unless I could figure out a way to leave that part out. Then I could tell her about Lannah and see how things went from there.

I should have told her about Lannah before I got her oath since it seems like the oath was something kind of big for her. I wasn’t sure if she would have given me her oath if she knew about the bond with Lannah. Since Kasidy has seemed to be throwing me all sorts of signals.

I was about to tell them when the door upstairs opened, and Irwin called out. “Hello? Where am I?”

Kasidy laughed, and Renfry shook his head and looked down at his beer. I called back, “Irwin come downstairs. You are in a safe place. We won, thanks to you.”

Irwin came stumbling down the stairs. He looked worse for wear as his hair was singed, and he was still covered in dry mud and dirt from his panicked run from the zombies. The left knee of his trousers was ripped open. His shirt looked like he used it to stop a nosebleed as it was covered with blood stains, and his face had dried blood.

I pointed back upstairs. “There’s a bath in that room. Go get cleaned up and then come down and get food. There will be a change of clothing up there for you as well.”

Irwin stopped about five stairs from the top and nodded. Then he turned and started to hobble back to his room. Dave sat down his glass and raised an eyebrow at me.

I nodded to Dave. “If you would make a set of the highest quality basic clothing you can for free for him up in his room.”

Dave nodded and picked back up his glass. “So did you see the differences in the dungeon?”

I laughed, knowing that Dave scanned all my surface thoughts, so he knew. “Yes, and that is something that we need to talk about. Once I finish eating.”

It was only a few minutes later that I finished up my food. “Dave, once again a perfect meal. If you would bring over to a table a couple pitchers of ale. Renfry, Kasidy we have things that we need to talk about.”

I turned and headed over to the furthest table from the bar. It wasn’t Dave I was worried about but Irwin. I didn’t know who he was. I knew that his dad was a drunk and that he had great magical power. Uncontrolled, terribly powerful, magical power that cost him a lot to use. But other than that, I knew nothing about him.

As we sat down, I leaned back in my chair. “Okay, so lots of changes have happened in the past few days. We need to figure out what our plans are and where we are going from here.”

Kasidy picked up her mug. “Did anything really change. You have something that you wanted to do in Cloudia and I am following you writing your story.”

I raised my mug. “Yeah the basics are the same but the how and when. That seems to be what has changed in my mind. Also Renfry what are you wanting to do with this second life of yours. Also what are our plans for Irwin?”

Renfry thought for a moment. “My lord… I mean Arn. I am not sure about this life. I know that I am tied to you and your lands but I don’t know much more. Everything that I knew is gone. The only person that I knew was the boy and he is a lich now. So he is no more, his soul is tormented and his desire for power is all that will drive him.”

I nodded to Renfry and asked. “Thought’s on Irwin?”

Kasidy shrugged. “They left him for a reason. Now either they were scared enough that they wanted to get away or they didn’t like him all that much to start with. With how the dwarf treated him I am kind of going with them not caring for him.”

Renfry sighed. “He is incredibly powerful with war magic but if he truly doesn’t have a way to aim he is also mostly worthless as a combatant. We also don’t know much about him. Granted you don’t know much about me but I am tied to you in ways that I am not sure anyone else could be.”

I thought for a few moments about what Renfry had said. Sure, he was oath-bound to me, but I figured that was kind of like Kasidy’s oath. Which meant that he wasn’t as tightly bound as Blink. Though she wasn’t human, so I wasn’t sure what was going on there. Then there was being bonded like Lannah. Surely a bond where I had access to her mana meant she was more tightly bound than Renfry.

I rubbed my neck a bit and asked. “I get that your oath bound to me but why do you say that you are tied closer than any other could be?”

Renfry sighed and thought for a moment. “My lord.” He held up his hand to pause my reminder. “When I was remade it was through you. I don’t know how you did it but some how you etched my bones to be a soul anchor and then anchored me to them. Yet doing this you some how also made it so that I am not in pain. I am whole again but not normal and I am…”

He paused for a few moments and tried to start a few times. Then he shared his status with me. It included a description of his race that was longer than what he had given me before.

Revenant

You are not living and not dead. You are the living undead. Related to lichs but not self-reanimation and able to level, you are a second chance formed by chance and desire. Revenants all have the secondary class of Render. This is what your race is and what it does. You rend and eat the souls that are trapped on this plane to let them move on.

Revenants, by nature, can claim undead and weaken those bonds. You hunt those who are trapped and release them while yourself being trapped. Your soul is not tormented, wanting to move on, but rather it is also not its own. You are tied to the one who turned you. His life for yours and your life for his.

Current Experience: 300/22000

Total Experience: 54110

Level:22

——

Name: Renfry of house Redacted

Race: Revenant (Claimed, Arn of House Redacted)

HP: 100

SP: 90

MP: 50

Defense: 6

Magical Defense: 1 (life magic attacks at 25% more)

—

Titles

Dungeoneer (Team II)

+2 Vitality every Primary Class level +1 Wisdom every 4th level of Secondary Class

Champion of House Redacted of Westiral

+10 Defense when fighting for the honor of House Redacted of Westiral

No SP usage when fighting for the honor of House Redacted of Westrial

—

Primary Class: Lancer (6)

Secondary Class: Render (0)

—

Strength: 32

Dexterity: 20

Intelligence: 10

Willpower: 12

Vigor: 30

Vitality: 50 (56)

Revenants have a plus 1 to strength per total level Revenants have a plus 1 to dexterity per total level Revenants can not be claimed Revenants can not be forced to disobey their master Revenants take 25% more damage from all life magical attacks. Revenants take 1 point of damage per second when outside their master’s realm of influence.

—

Abilities

Poison Resistance 100%

Terror Resistance 10%

Compulsion Resistance 100% if directed to disobey master. None otherwise

—

Racial skills

Active skill

Rend 0

Disrupt 0

Primary Class

Horsemanship 22

Lance 6

Mounted Shield 8

Medium Armor 5

Short bow 12

Sword 16

Primary class Active

Charge 3

Trample 6

Wheel 10

Secondary Class

Weaken control undead 0

Track Undead 0

Digging 6

Stealth 2

Claws 0

Secondary Active skills

Rend 0

Devour 0

Claim 0

Disrupt 0

Non class skills

Reading 4

Marching 6

Light Armor 4

Planting 6

Harvesting 5

Harvesting potatoes 10

Team plowing 5

Fire starting 15

Cooking 6

Laundry 4

Fishing 3

Knife 4

Whittling 7

Whistling 2

Swimming 1

Short Spear 15

Tree Climbing 3

Tracking 12

Bar fighting 6

—

Faith

Redacted: Redacted

Chaos: 20

I know that I should have paid closer attention to his skills. However, reading over his race twice had me all bent up in knots. I wasn’t sure what it all meant, but it sounded strangely close to his soul being my slave, just like a Wraith would be. At least he wasn’t being tormented.

I was confused over his levels and figured that I could learn something by asking. Since he had a couple of skills that were higher in his new secondary class, I figured that I could ask how that happened. That shouldn’t give too much away.

I gave a knowing nod to Renfry. “We’ll figure out what all of this means. I want you to know that I don’t know how you are what you are and I will do everything I can to change those restrictions.”

Renfry nodded. I could tell that he was having some problems getting his emotions handled, but he was. While I wasn’t overly happy that I couldn’t use Lay-To-Rest near him, I was glad to see that he was an undead hunter. It would prove interesting how we would end up working with each other.

I pulled on my beard a bit. “Okay, can you tell me why some of your secondary class skills have levels, but others don’t?

He nodded slowly. “My skill overlap from Non Class skills from childhood.”

I nodded. “We are going to have to work on your new skills. Get them higher see what they can do for you. Especially your new active skills.”

Kasidy yawned. “Wow! I am tired if we don’t lively up this somber mood I am going to have to go to bed!”

Renfry and I both laughed as I poured the last of the beer. Then I said. “I know, you get tired easy aren’t use to sitting at a table talking. You would rather be bringing us more beer.”

Kasidy spun out of her chair and smiled. “Now your talking. Barkeep! Another pitcher, make it TWO!”

* * *