She is probably afraid that if she makes any noise the undead will attack us. It is rather mean to keep her in the dark, but it is better than talking to her. The silence lasts all the way until we finally leave the forbidden zone and see the sun again.

Princess says "Despite your rudeness, I want to thank you for saving me! Also, I am sorry that I yelled at you."

"You are welcome, princess. However, I still have no interest in a reward. You should be able to get home from here right?"

Princess says "Yes, I should be fine. Before I go, my name is Seraph. What is yours?"

"My name is Ash."

Seraph says "Ash, are you really a summoned hero?"

"Yes, but I was summoned a long way away from here."

Seraph says "In that case, if you are interested, I am sure my father would give you a high position!"

"Sorry, but I prefer to remain free."

Seraph says "Alright, I understand. If you ever change your mind the offer will remain open. Where will you go now?"

"Back into the ruins. I am not done with what I need to do."

Seraph says "Oh, you mean you didn't come to save me?"

"No, that was just a coincidence. I just happened to see the guy in robes walking around and followed out of curiosity."

Seraph says "In that case I am very glad that you were curious!"

"That is the first time I have heard that! Is there anything you need before I leave?"

Seraph says "Um, some food if you have any, and maybe a weapon if you have one to spare."

"Food is no problem! But, do you even know how to use a weapon?"

Seraph says "I have had some training with a sword. Just enough to defend myself."

"Well, I do have a sword, but you will have to return it to me."

Seraph says "Sure! How can I find you to return it?"

"Once I am done exploring here I will be heading to the magic kingdom."

Seraph says "Then you will have to pass through Houzien, I will have the sword delivered to you there."

"Alright, that will work."

Since she has agreed, I take the fire sword out of my pouch and hand it to her. Then I start taking out various dishes from my other pouch for us to eat. Seraph's eyes keep getting wider and wider as I pull out one steaming hot dish after another.

The pouch of holding didn't phase her, but I guess my food pouch is pretty unique. It is obvious she wants to ask questions, but she doesn't, which is a relief. As soon as she takes the first bite, her eyes go wide, and then she starts eating like she is starving.

It is obvious she wasn't expecting the food to be so good, maybe I shouldn't have fed her. Now she not only knows about the pouch but how good the food is that comes out of it. If she tells other people about it, that could cause me some real problems.

Just from the description of the pouch, most people will assume that it is an artifact. If that idea spreads then I won't be able to show my face in a human city without having thieves after me. Or worse, adventurers, after all my food pouch is perfect for adventuring.

"I would appreciate it if you kept information about me to yourself as much as possible."

Seraph says "Alright. I will only tell my father."

"Thanks. I'll be leaving now. Good luck."

Seraph says "I hope we meet again!"

With a wave I turn and head back into the darkened area, leaving the princess to her meal. Once she is out of sight I cover my lifeforce with mana and go back to looking for intelligent undead. Instead of going back into the ruins I decide to check out the graveyard next to the city.

The graveyard actually has less undead than the ruins, but they are stronger on average. I am hoping that means that the chances of finding intelligent undead will be higher. I don't know if that is the reason or not, but I do find an intelligent undead pretty quickly.

It is a skeleton in armor, so probably a death knight or something along those lines. When I get close and scan it I find that it is very similar to the lich energy wise. It doesn't have any mana, but the energy in its bones is even higher than the lich.

Also, just like the lich, the undead knight has a kind of lifeforce concentrated in its head. The way that lifeforce interacts with the energy in the bones supports my theory. When an undead reaches a certain level of energy then it should have a chance to gain a lifeforce.

If it succeeds, then it becomes an intelligent undead and can continue to progress. Or at least that is my best guess, but if I'm right then it should be easy for Bones to gain lifeforce. Although, it might be different since he is absorbing power from the maker's undead.

The maker's ancient undead all had more energy than this guy, yet none of them showed signs of intelligence. It makes me wonder if the maker was somehow suppressing them from evolving. If so, it might have something to do with her energy, so Bones might have problems.

"Bones, how is your hunting going?"

Bones says "Well enough, when I can manage to find something to hunt."

"That is why I called you, I found a place on the mainland full of normal undead. I even found some intelligent undead to study."

Bones says "What have you learned, master?"

"From what I can tell, normal undead can become intelligent after gathering enough power. However, the undead of the maker can't seem to become intelligent. So, I think it would be a better idea for me to summon you over here and let you hunt normal undead."

Bones says "Alright."

"Really? Just alright? You aren't going to argue?"

Bones says "As long as I get to fight, why would I argue?"

'Summon Bones!'

Bones appears next to me and looks around, then he draws his swords and starts attacking undead. He doesn't even say anything to me, he just starts fighting, I thought he had gotten over this. Maybe I made a mistake by having him destroy thousands of undead.

"So, will you be alright if I leave you here?"

Bones says "Sure! It beats wandering around searching for undead."

"Oh, do me a favor? I am really curious what happened to this city. So keep your eyes open for any information about it?"

Bones says "Yeah, I can do that."

As Bones goes back to fighting I scan him to see where he is at, his energy has improved a lot. He already has more energy than the lich, it should only be a matter of time before he gets a lifeforce. At least I hope so, I will just have to wait and see what happens to him.