Daryll didn't come back that night and by morning, Jazmyne sent one of her two lieutenants to go and find out what is keeping her husband for so long. When the party returned and the lieutenant reported what he saw and what he found, Jazmyne’s expression remained stoic, cold and calculative.

“Is that so? Did you bring me his head?“

“Yes boss.“ The lieutenant handed a bloody bag to Jazmyne. She took one look inside, then tossed the bag to the side.

“What of adventurers, Elric? What about the greatsword?“

“The greatsword was taken. It was a bit hard to get a proper read on all the tracks given the muddy ground but I reckon there were three assailants. Two light on their feet and one heavy hitter. Presumably a warrior or defender and either two rogues or one rogue and a mage. What was odd was that there were single tracks leading here but they disappeared halfway through.”

“Single tracks? And you lost them?“ Jazymne raised an eyebrow.

“My apologies… I have no excuse. I tried reading the mana residue at the scene but couldn’t get a proper read. It seems Daryll went all out.”

“Couldn’t get a proper read, again?” Jazymne repeated.

“My apologies. I’ll take a few men and patrol around the camp.”

“No, don’t bother. I’ll have something else for you to do. It appears our opponents this time have half a brain at least given how they were able to work out a strategy and take out Daryll. They are after the bounty and since they got his, they will come for mine too. And when they do, we will wait for them, prepared.”

Jazmyne increased the number of patrols around the camp. Making it seem like she tightened the security but had purposely left gaps for Bones to easily infiltrate in. She placed guards at strategic positions so the intruders would be forced to use the backdoor into the prison cells to infiltrate the fortress. Her lieutenants were ordered to act normally and wait until the intruders reached her private chambers, then put the camp under lockdown and prevent any possible escape routes.

The scheming bandit leader planned to deal with Bones herself so she waited at the top floor, with four bloodthirsty guard hounds at her side. When the night descended, she expected to at least hear about any signs of the intruders but the night passed uneventfully. Morning came and her two lieutenants reported there were no signs of anyone inside or in the periphery of the camp. Jazymne was confused, she really thought her pursuers would come running last night, not wanting to lose momentum after killing Daryll. She remained silent, deep in thought until Elric snapped her out of her thoughtful stupor.

“Boss, your orders?”

“... Nothing changes. Remain doing what you were doing. Whoever attacked Daryll, did it under the cover of the night and must have sustained injuries after the fight. Go get some rest until nightfall. If not last night, you can be sure they’ll attack tonight!“

Jazymne was half-right that Bones needed some time to mend his injuries and do repairs on his golems, but that wasn’t the main reason why he didn’t launch an attack last night. After the battle with Daryll, a slew of level up notifications bombarded Bones - a few he had been eagerly waiting for. His old skills gained levels as did the new ones, like Bone Storm. He gained a level forty-one in a Bonemancer class and pushed his Soul Weaver class to level twenty, netting him a new passive skill called Soul Resonance.

The new skill allowed Bones to take a step further than just being able to sense through his golems. For the first time, after establishing soul link and focusing on his golems, Bones could clearly see and hear what they saw and heard. The experience was so overwhelming he was losing balance and kept falling until he chose only one golem to resonate with, Skully. Closing his eyes and tuning out sounds allowed him to fully focus and experience what it would be like to view the world from the Lizardman perspective. And when he ordered Skully to start practicing with his spear, he felt like vomiting. He wasn’t in actual control of the golem, just a passenger along on the ride.

In the course of a day, Bones got used to the golems motions and started enjoying the speed and flexibility Skully had. With Murdok, the experience was overwhelming in a different way. Murdok was taller than Bones by a whole head and he couldn't get used to the difference in height even until the end of the day. Over the night he finished repairing his golems but the gaping hole in his chest still hasn’t fully mended. It didn’t restrict his movements but Bones wasn’t in a rush to go after Jazmyne. He kept his distance, lurked around the camp for a while and after seeing that the bandits didn’t have any indication of leaving, he used that time as an opportunity to get used to the new skill, while also recovering.

The next day when observing the camp, Bones saw two groups of bandits saddled and leaving through the front gates. It was a search party and in an attempt to avoid leaving any evidence of his presence, Bones made a dubious decision to cover his tracks by moving on forefoot and having no muscles, he left some bizarre footprints. The tracks confounded one of the groups when they stumbled upon them and their findings were the talk of the campfire that night. The search party returned early morning the next day with nothing new to report besides the tracks. The more search party leader talked about the newly found tracks the more irritated Jazymne was.

“The hell are you talking about Neil? Satyrs in these parts?“ Jazymne looked at the man incredulously.

“Boss, that’s what the tracks looked like to me. Here, I’ve made a drawing.“ Neil approached and handed a drawing of the footprint. Jazymne eyed the drawing, raised her eyebrows a few times - interchangeably, then flicked the drawing to the side.

“Enough with the nonsense. Are you sure you haven’t seen any signs of the adventurers?“

“Not a single clue! The ground is wet and muddy now that the snow has thawed and they would leave some footprints behind if they were still around.” Neil said with conviction.

Could it be that the adventurers returned to the guild? Was Daryll their only targetl? He lacked mana control but he was physically strong - he wouldn’t easily go down without putting up a good fight. It would make sense for adventurers to have retreated if they suffered losses and weren’t able to continue.

“That must be it! Only one set of footprints were found yesterday, no? Most likely, there was a single survivor and he had already returned to the guild!” Jazmyne came to the conclusion.

“You may return to your post Neil and… tell Elric to come see me immediately!“

“Right away boss.“ The man named Neil replied and left. A few minutes later, lieutenant Elric came knocking on the doors and entered.

“Elric! I need you to do something for me…”

“Anything boss.“

“I need you to take Daryll’s place!“ Jazmyne announced.

Elric was taken aback for a moment, then asked: “By his place do you mean… by your side too?“

“Yes, you will be my new Daryll. It is necessary to maintain appearances. I want you to rebuild the camp and recruit more men. We need that outpost rebuilt as soon as possible so assume your new role immediately!“

“Alright, what about Liam?“

“He’ll resume his position as a lieutenant. Actually, tell him to visit our contact in the guild and find who took the bounty contract on us. I want him to find out everything he can and why I haven’t been informed in time! We may be in need of a new informant.”

After hearing the new instructions, lieutenant Liam immediately headed for the stables and saddled up. The gates to the camp opened and a single horseman rushed out and disappeared from sight before Bones, looking through the eyes of Murdok, was able to see who and where the figure headed to.

Murdok stayed in the vicinity and observed any movements in the camp while Bones focused back to Skully. The training he was doing helped improve his proficiency with Soul Resonance which in turn deepened the link with his golems. The experience through Skully was refreshing but still felt limiting. Resonance did make instructing and giving pointers easier and Skully’s advanced spearmanship improved, bit by bit over time. After analyzing his fight with Daryll, Bones deduced that he was lacking in power against higher level foes. Just aiming at vital points wasn’t enough anymore. Even a brawns-over-brains Daryll knew how to guard and avoid most of the strikes to his vitals. So Bones had Skully practice strikes that would leave lacerations on his target and slowly chip at enemy's health. Actually, most of Bones’ fights ended by tiring his opponents and having them bleed to death.

Around midday, Bones had Skully and Murdok switch places. Skully adapted quickly to the changes in fighting style but Murdok…he seemed to be on a slower side when picking up new things. He really liked swinging the weapon with full power and it was fine when he wielded a greataxe but now he had a new weapon, a greatsword that was twice as big and three times as heavy.

Bones winced every time Murdok flourished his weapon. Each swing was heavy and caused him to lose balance. The giant orc lacked the strength to wield the weapon properly. Either that, or Murdok had to learn how to wield the greatsword without losing momentum.

“My dear boy, why don’t you try connecting your attacks instead of pausing after each swing!“ Bones advised. Murdok stopped swinging for a moment, looked at Bones with a blank expression then dropped his greatsword to the ground.

“What? Why?” Bones asked and wondered if his orc wasn’t defective. Murdok didn’t respond. He simply looked down at his weapon, then back at Bones.

“Do you… do you want me to show you?”

Murdok’s silence and the way he looked down again was all the confirmation Bones needed so he bent over and strained his back in order to raise the greatsword.

“I’m no expert but watch closely, my boy.”

Bones took on an offensive stance, then took three steps. On the first step he swept horizontally. Then, without losing momentum, he spun his body and continued with an upward slash and jumping forward, finishing with a downward slam.

His hands throbbed from the impact but he managed to finish the demonstration. Bones waited for Murdok to come and take the greatsword off his hands then happily walked over to the side and sat down, rubbing his wrists.

“Go for it!“ Bones said and Murdok, without a pause, took an offensive stance and repeated the three steps. His first attempt was flawed, as the orc wasn’t used to smooth transitions between the attacks, but it was successful nonetheless. Bones was just happy he didn’t have to demonstrate again and commanded Murdok to keep practicing while he summoned a collection of bones from his inventory and started constructing small spiders he would use to infiltrate the bandit camp.

Hours passed and after constructing four infiltration units, Bones stopped. He raised his head and looked up at the orc tirelessly practicing. Each swing produced a sharp sound that cut through the air and instead of three steps, Murdok smoothly transitioned between five. The first two attacks were horizontal, following an upward swing from the left, then right and finishing with the jumping downward slam.

Bones noticed the change while he was working but didn’t intend to interrupt the orc. Skully was the type that learned and adapted quickly while Murdok seemingly needed visual confirmation.

“That’s enough for now.“ Bones said, standing up and brushing the dirt off his clothes.

“Next, I want you to practice imbuing mana into the greatsword. Test it against the tree and… try not to make too much noise!“

Having received new orders, Murdok walked over to one of the trees and went to work. Bones turned in the direction of Skully, who was in the distance, still keeping an eye out on the bandit camp. With four spiders at his feet, he started walking while also testing the resonance with his newly formed golems. Having established the link with all four at the same time, he vaguely sensed the surroundings, but nothing else. At his level of proficiency, it was too much to expect more so, like with Skully and Murdok, he focused on one unit at a time.

He reached Skully’s location just in time to see the horsemen from earlier that day returning to the camp. Bones observed the fort for a while and decided to approach with more caution than usual. He sat down and one of the spiders moved, skittering on the ground and disappearing out of the sight. Bones closed his eyes and felt the vibrations through the spider’s legs as it scaled the wall and he let the experience overwhelm him.