Sylver had to remind himself to look up as Lola walked into the room. The [Lesser Perception] of the [Eye Of The Half Lich] perk made it so that he could see the world around him without looking.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was close enough to what Sylver had been used to when he was an actual lich, that he had immediately gone back to his old ways, and had to force himself to use his eyes. He could see his surroundings using his mana, but it was limited, and the range was small.

[Lesser Perception] was as if he had an extra set of eyes floating around his head, that gave him nearly 360 degrees’ worth of sight.

[A skill similar to [Appraisal] has been successfully blocked!]

Lola reached into the fold of her robe, and ever so slightly bent her knees. Sylver remained where he was and just stared at her.

[A skill similar to [Appraisal] has been successfully blocked!]

[A skill similar to [Appraisal] has been successfully blocked!]

[A skill similar to [Appraisal] has been successfully blocked!]

“It’s me, stop it, the noise it makes is annoying,” Sylver said and had to hold back a laugh as Lola’s ears twitched at the sound of his voice.

“Syl?” Lola asked with a hesitation and uncertainty that hurt Sylver in a way he didn’t expect.

“Is it that bad? That even with the hair, and eyes, and that I’m in my own house, you still have trouble recognizing me?” Sylver asked from the sofa on which he had been resting until a minute ago.

In his current state, laying down felt uncomfortable. His newly made organs hadn’t enjoyed their metamorphosis and were taking their sweet time getting used to their new locations.

“Your face is different. You’re not even sitting like you used to. Even your mana feels like a completely different person’s,” Lola explained, as Sylver could do little other than shrug his shoulders.

“I’m sure there’s a polite way of saying this, but I can’t think of anything at the moment. This is just meat, Lola. I changed the meat to suit my purposes, I don’t know what else to tell you,” Sylver explained, as he gestured towards his face.

Lola walked towards Sylver, and with a weary hand reached out and touched his face. She poked him in the cheek, and Sylver felt a tingling feeling spread throughout the entirety of his body.

[A skill similar to [Appraisal] has been used!]

Lola’s eyes widened to the point that Sylver could see his reflection in her slightly bloodshot whites.

“I thought there might be something like this. But as long as Leke can’t see my status, I’m not going to worry about it too much,” Sylver explained, as Lola pulled her hand back, and just stared at him in shock.

“What did you do?” Lola asked.

“A couple of minor upgrades… My mana channels are finally well above 40% conductivity, so I no longer need to worry about burning out while using my magic… I gave my mana core plenty of room to grow, and I solidified my soul a bit… Oh, my actual “body” is inside my chest, where my heart and lungs should be, except I removed its arms and legs, and all that’s left is a ribcage, and a squashed head,” Sylver explained, as Lola just stood there, and gradually moved her eyes towards Sylver’s torso.

He felt a faint burning on his robe, and out of the kindness of his hearts, parted the pitch-black robe to expose his torso to her. Sylver could tell by the way Lola’s eyes were moving, she was looking through him and seemed to be quite disgusted by what she was seeing.

“The rest of the changes aren’t really worth mentioning…” Sylver added, as Lola silently walked over to the armchair near the sofa Sylver was laying on and plopped down into it.

“Why didn’t you wait for me?” Lola asked, and caught Sylver mildly off guard.

“To be completely honest with you, I just started preparing to distract myself from everything, and then decided the faster I get it over with, the sooner I can go to Edmund,” Sylver explained.

He still couldn’t feel Lola’s soul, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t read the high elf’s body language.

“You’re leaving… What about the dark elves you brought with you?” Lola asked.

“I’m going to talk to them, or their leaders to be precise. But I’m not sure what I can do until the Krist situation is taken care of… I was going to settle them down in eastern rock valley, the one with the combustible ants and-”

Lola made a face.

“I bet I can guess it in 3 tries,” Sylver said.

“The Krists kept attacking that area, and eventually this enormous larva thing popped. It flooded the tunnels with molten rock, and everything within 100 kilometers has been labeled a hazardous zone. I don’t suppose the dark elves are fireproof?” Lola asked with a faint smile.

Sylver drummed his fingers on the sofa’s wooden handle.

“What about Urth? The necropolis?” Sylver asked, and reached up with a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose as Lola made another face.

“The Krists forced a lot of undead out of hiding, the vast majority of whom were hiding and isolated for good reason, I’m told. Some genuinely can’t help themselves, some despise the living for personal reasons, some consider being alive a curse, and try to “help” the living, but long story short, I would recommend against it,” Lola explained.

Sylver continued to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“While we’re on the subject, they’ve had like 10 different leaders in the last 6 months. I don’t know what’s going on in there, but I know that every second leader has instigated a “suck the living dry,” policy. I’m not entirely sure they even have food there right now, all the reasonable undead have long since abandoned Urth,” Lola finished, as Sylver released his nose, and waited for a good idea to make itself known.

He spoke when none did.

“Can we meet at Ron’s tomorrow morning? I’ll introduce you to them, and we can all sit down and figure something out,” Sylver asked.

“Mid-day would be better for me,” Lola said after a moment of thought.

“Sure. I was planning on going to check if Leke could see my status anyway, I’ll do it in the morning in that case,” Sylver explained, and Lola made another face.

“Novva’s wife gave birth to a boy 4 years ago… Yeva is considered a master level crafter…” Lola said.

“I’m very glad to hear that.”

“Leke left Arda and went to Torg 2 years ago… and hasn’t been back since. She asked about you before she left, and I honestly told her I have no idea where you are, or when you’ll be back. I think she sent Tera a letter a few weeks ago, but I don’t know what it said,” Lola said, calmly, but noticeably upset.

“I’ll ask her when I see Bruno.”

“Sophia also left. Disappeared is probably a better word to use. She took a small group of priests and paladins, and disappeared in the middle of the night, without telling anyone, even me. No one knows where she is, and the new head priest is a major asshole, be careful,” Lola said.

“When?”

“4 months ago. She helped me out, big time, and disappeared the moment I no longer needed her help.”

They both remained where they were, as Sylver thought things over.

“Are you going to tell me what you were doing for 5 whole years?” Lola asked, after roughly 10 minutes of complete silence had passed.

“It’s a very long story…” Sylver said as he swirled his hand in the air, and a sigil-covered bubble formed around him and Lola to stop any curious phantoms from eavesdropping.

Sylver created a small illusion using [Mirage], and surrounded them with bleak white snow, to help set the tone. Lola leaned back into the armchair, and let out a relaxed sigh.

“The prickling on my skin informed me that I still had skin to prickle…”