Iam sat in an office chair across from merchant Eliot at the head of the table who was rubbing his eyes, while the man called Tombstone stood off to the side and watched the paintings on the wall, as if what the two argued about was of no concern to him.

Eliot was a man of large stature and his voice carried far. Even the guards outside the office winced every time he raised his voice. He was a man from a fairly wealthy merchant family and took over the family business a few years ago. The Greed family has been a part of the Merchant's Guild for generations so it was expected for Eliot to grow into a merchant, like his father did and his father before him did. He learned the profession at an early age and developed a keen sense for people… and he didn't like Iam. The only reason he tolerated Tombstone, an ex-bandit, was because the man knew how to run business and turn profit.

Eliot has been venting for the whole day because Iam, who Tombstone introduced him to a few days ago, failed to mention that a unique item he wanted to put up for the auction was an artificial dungeon core stolen from the same Merchant's Guild he was a part of. Now, Eliot was a wealthy man and one dungeon core usually wouldn't fetch a high enough price to risk the relationship with the Guild, but he already had a buyer lined up - one of the major guilds.

He was now facing a dilemma. He already talked about canceling the deal but Iam was persistent and knew how to sweet talk. Finally, Eliot relented and said: "I wouldn't be a Greed if I easily backed down from a done deal!"

"Marvelous! So we have a deal then?" Tombstone turned to the two and asked. Iam stood up and extended a hand while Eliot paused for a second before exhaling, shaking his hand and inviting them for a drink in the living area on the ground floor. While they were merrily leaving the office, Bones tensed up, thinking he would lose them and leaned forward - right through the large window.

[crash]

Before Eliot even closed the doors to his office, they all heard a loud crash. He quickly pushed the door open and saw a figure sprawled over his office desk.

"T-thief? Thief!" He yelled. The two guards rushed in and pointed their weapons at Bones while Iam and Tombstone shared a look but didn't interfere.

"How dare you barge in here? Do you know who I am?" Eliot yelled.

"You have something that belongs to me. Give it!" Bones spat out while getting off the desk.

"Hmph, what nonsense! Anything I have belongs to me! Guards, kill him!" Eliot didn't waste words.

"K-kill? The two guards hesitated, but knew their master's orders were absolute and they were allowed to kill any trespassers. Bones however, didn't wait for the guards and casted Bone Storm in the middle of the office. When Eliot saw the spell being cast, he retreated out of the office and behind Iam and Tombstone, who watched with interest. After two seconds, Bones riddled the guards with spikes and - a second after - he sent a barrage of projectiles after Eliot.

Iam and Tombstone rolled to the side, avoiding the spikes while Eliot already reached the stairs to the ground floor. Bones summoned Skully's core and tossed it out the broken window, then summoned Murdok and had him deal with Tombstone. Iam was his to take care of.

Skully ran around the mansion, killing two guards on patrol along the way, then proceeded guarding the entrance to the mansion and killing anyone trying to escape.

"What the hell are these?" Iam uttered, watching bone spikes embedded in the wall while standing up. Tombstone also saw the spikes but didn't have the leisure to talk. He immediately had to duck after getting up, narrowly avoiding a swing of the greataxe. Murdok appeared out of nowhere and immediately went on the offensive. Tombstone wasn't a bandit leader, but held a strong position as the right hand man under one of the bandit leaders. It's been years but his combat prowess haven't diminished. After one of his wide swings, Murdok showed an opening and Tombstone kicked him back into the office.

Taking a breather, he glanced to the side and saw Iam had already escaped.

*tsk*

"Useless coward… so it'll be the two of you? Fine, it's been a while since I've let loose! Bring it!" Tombstone smashed his fist and adopted a fighting stance. The man was level fifty-one and Bones sensed, as strong as Murdok but faster and more skillful.

" 'fraid not. It'll just be him. I have other, more pressing matters to attend to by the name of Iam Broke." Bones said, turned around and jumped out the window.

Skully should prevent Iam from escaping. If he did escape, then I'd need to find that merchant, Eliot.

Tombstone didn't run after Bones. After showing such bravado he actually felt relieved he would only be facing one of the assailants. He witnessed the power of Murdok's weapon firsthand and didn't know how he would handle both of them. Murdok engaged Tombstone and, outside, Skully clashed with Iam. Like Bones predicted, Iam tried to escape and when Bones reached the front of the mansion, he immediately joined Skully and pushed Iam back into the mansion.

Eliot was nowhere in sight. Even his guards couldn't find him. When Bones and Skully barged back into the mansion, the guards joined Iam and engaged in a fight, but how could they pose any real threat to the menace that was Skully. The golem went through them like a whirlwind, slicing and stabbing, leaving them on the ground wailing in agony. Bones had Skully occupy the guards while he clashed with Iam.

"You don't remember me do you?" Bones asked after finally having a one on one with him. Iam glanced around for a way out but didn't find any.

"Remember you? This is the first time I've seen you old man!"

"Hm? Oh…give me a second." Bones just realized the last time they've seen each other he had winter goggles on. He took them out of his inventory and put them on.

"What about now?"

"Y-you… I've no idea who you are. I've nothing valuable on me. This isn't even my house!" Iam tried to weasel out. Bones made a fake boisterous laugh then donned a "not-amused" expression.

"I'm not amused, Iam. I want whatever it was you took out from the chest back in Hilshall Ravine."

"Hilshall Ravine? I took…"

*gasp*

Iam's eyes widened and he looked at Bones in disbelief. "Y-you're supposed to be dead!"

"But I was already dead, Iam. Now, the item?"

"What do you mean, dead? I don't have the item with me. I can go and fetch it for you!"

Bones was speechless. Iam was shameless and regarded Bones as an idiot, apparently.

"Forget about it." I have so much concealment ointment on me it's too much of a hassle to show him I'm an undead.

"I won't be asking you again. Give me the item now!" Bones repeated himself and started walking towards Iam.

The tensions between them intensified and it was obvious that neither side was willing to talk anymore. Iam brandished his two swords, one in each hand and dashed at Bones who jumped backwards while casting Boneyard. Using Bone related spells is fine and all but Bones needed information, and he just happened to recieve the new skill he needed to test out.

The bones spikes halted Iam's charge and gave Bones enough time to cast another spell. From deep within something left Bones, traveled the distance and ran through Iam. The moment he casted the spell Bones felt something was off. His senses got mumbled for a brief moment and his vision slightly distorted. He saw Iam losing his step and falling on his knees, clutching his chest.

The bandit coughed a few times, as if a bone got stuck in his throat but nothing else happened. Beads of sweat ran down his face and kneeling, he cussed at Bones.

"What the hell was that?"

Bones didn't reply. He knew the Haunting Touch spell failed. It felt odd using the skill for the first time but he also felt he was close to succeeding, so he tried again.

Iam wasn't much of a fighter despite his level, even less of a mage, but even he sensed how vile the spell Bones was trying to cast again was. So he turned and started running but came to a stop after just a few steps. Bones casted Soul Gaze with haste, then used Soul Link to increase the chance of Haunting Touch succeeding. At least he hoped it would. Then he finally casted the new skill. Like the first time, something left him and traveled to Iam entering his body. Bones felt it more clearly this time. He would fail again.

He felt he was very close to grasping something and he focused on the skill, on the connection between Iam and him, and started feeling a sharp pain in his head.

*kugh*

So close. Just a bit more…

Bones forcefully pushed through and casted the skill again. His vision blurred and the last thing he saw before passing out was the room spinning and heard Iam screaming.

Lately, I've been blacking out often. He thought.

When Bones came to, he was standing in the middle of an empty room. The room was dark and while he was turning around he didn't see any windows or even an entrance. Then je heard a whimper coming from behind him. He turned and saw a naked, skinny, middle aged man sitting on the cold floor, tightly hugging his knees and whimpering quietly.

"Hey." Bones called out but the figure didn't respond. He walked over and put a hand on the figure's shoulders. The moment he did so, the head looked up and he saw it was Iam.

Iam? Is this the inner world? Mine or his? Or is this the skill's doing?

Whatever it was, I'm supposed to extract the information from him.

"Iam. Tell me what's in the box. What is in the chest?" Bones asked but Iam, like a child with a tantrum, turned his head, refusing to answer.

This might take a while…

Meanwhile, the outside was chaotic. The mansion was engulfed by fire and the staff, in order to escape, forced their way outside by jumping through the windows. The guards that weren't engaged in combat ran around with buckets full of water trying to quench the fire.

The fire colored the night sky red and the blaze could be seen from the town's defensive walls. Soon, town's guards came running in order to investigate and when they came close to the estate, they saw merchant Eliot pushing through the crowd of people and opening the main gates to the estate. The man puffed and was out of breath but that didn't stop him from yelling in delirium: "M-monsters! Inside - monsters!"

The guards didn't understand what the man was about and looked in the direction of the mansion. Among the people running toward them, there were silhouettes of two figures outlined by fire with monster-like features. The guards tensed and after the remaining people rushed out the gates, they drew their weapons. The two figures approached the gates and the guards froze looking at two pairs of green dots looking down on them. Skully shut the gates close and Murdok swiped against the iron bars with his greataxe, tearing a long gash in the gates before they both returned back to the mansion.

"W-we can't fight these things! Liam, send word to the captain and ask for reinforcements!" One of the guards turned to the youngest among them, Liam, and ordered. Liam was quick to respond and gladly bolted out of the area.

"What in the world happened here?"

Ten minutes later, a squad of elite guards accompanied by a level sixty-eight captain and a fire brigade composed of water mages came to the scene. The mages surrounded the burning mansion and through water manipulation and large quantities of water, extinguished the fire an hour later.

The captain of the guards, Byron, led his men through the rubble and into the remains of the mansion. The roof was gone and the stars were visible, support pillars were badly damaged and the top floor caved in and it distinctively smelled of burning flesh.

Byron frowned and immediately ordered his men to take caution and search for the survivors. After sweeping the grounds, the guards returned and reported the culprits were already gone and that they found charred bodies of dozens of people and a single survivor by the name of Tombstone in the lawn outside the mansion. There was a massacre and Byron immediately set off to meet with the survivor when one of the guards came running and relayed that water mages had found green flames they couldn't extinguish.

"Green flames? Lead the way!" Byron followed the guard to the back of the mansion where he saw mages surrounding the kneeling corpse enveloped in otherworldly green flames.