I had no way of telling how long I walked down that path, though the sun only moved a little. Fairly quickly though I realized that the forest seemed to be filling in behind me as I continued on. As if this road only existed when I was on it. It was an eerie and uncomfortable feeling that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

 

Thankfully I didn’t seem to get tired in this undead body. I didn’t feel temperatures like I used to, I knew the sun on my face felt warm but it didn’t feel warm. My senses weren’t dulled, if anything the opposite, but I felt like I had lost some kind of spark. There was a lot I was going to have to get used to since I saw no way of going home, not that there was much left to go home to.

 

Turning a bend I found myself at a crossroads. These were proper roads rather than the dirt path I had come from. Except the path I had come from was gone. I squinted through the forest but saw no sign of the way I had come, it was like I stepped out of an extraplanar forest and it didn’t seem like I had any way to return.

 

I had two choices of directions to go. Following the sun I went west, well assuming the sun was the same as the one on Earth. Despite me having only the clothes on my back it was far better than being naked. I was very glad I had taken the time to find them.

 

Unending stamina didn’t stop me from getting bored and overthinking as I walked. Thankfully I noticed something in the road soon after. A slaughter.

 

A carriage sat on the road without any horses. Several corpses were scattered about and even some large bird creature that looked like someone had combined a horse and an ostrich. That was definitely not something that existed on earth, birds and horses weren’t even the same class and yet as I stood over the creature it was undeniably a bird horse. The carriage was empty beyond a body slumped into the back with an arrow in its eye. Two bodies in leather armour were on the road itself. 

 

Despite being a lich even I was getting slightly annoyed at coming across death. I had the stomach for it but a town would be far more useful right now, I needed answers. A flickering orange glow from the bird horse caught my attention and I crouched down. This creature had left soul embers as well. Unsure of how to collect them I reached my hand forward, the motion caused them to be absorbed into my hand leaving a tingling warm feeling. How strange.

 

I went to the other corpses collecting the soul embers they had left. They all seemed quite freshly dead and I was immediately nervous about running into whatever killed them. After a bit of struggling, I managed to pull the sheath off of one of the armoured men and took his shortsword. I didn’t know how to use it but having something was better than nothing. I strapped it around my waist but as I approached the other armed men I realized he was alive. His gaze was unfocused and his breathing shallow but he was definitely alive.

 

“Oi, what happened?” I asked but his only response was a flutter of his eyelids. From what I could see he had a few gashes on his arms and legs which explained all the blood. I stood looking around, I needed something to use as bandages. It was a shame I didn’t get any healing magic, that would have made my job much easier.

 

Looking around the cart I noticed a bag tucked under the bench. Looking through it I guessed it belonged to the guy with the arrow in his eye. I pulled out some silk pyjamas and ripped a piece off before wrapping it around the dying man’s leg.

 

It took me far longer than I would have liked to admit for me to tend to his injuries as best I could. I even found some water in the merchant's pack and forced him to drink. I pulled him off to the side of the road and waited. Looting the bodies and looking for anything useful, unfortunately, someone seemed to have beaten me to the punch.

 

The sun was setting when the man finally seemed to come to, it had been a coin toss of whether he would simply die or not. Thankfully his cuts hadn’t been deep or hit anything vital. I had debated continuing on but I needed answers and having saved his life he was my best bet. 

 

He groaned and pressed a hand to his head where something had hit him leaving a mess of dark bloody tangles. I had cleaned myself as much as I could but still felt icky after having tended to him, thankfully disease was not a concern of mine.

 

“W-what…” he croaked and I crouched down to bring the water skin to his lips. Knowing that I could understand him I let out a breath of relief.

 

“It’s alright, don’t worry,” I replied, giving him a moment to process things.

 

“Who are you?” He asked much more clearly this time.

 

“Morgan, who are you?” I replied, sitting on a nearby stump.

 

“Henrick.”

 

“Well Henrick, where the hell are we?”

 

“On the road to Llyne. Uh… thank you for helping me,” he grunted as he pushed himself into a sitting position.

 

“Llyne eh? Where’s that?” I asked and he gave me a confused look. I had sifted through a few possible excuses to give, and I hadn’t come up with anything I was happy with.

 

“How did you end up here totally lost?” Henrick said, looking me over. I shifted uneasily.

 

“I’m not from around here, teleportation magic can be… finicky,” I offered. I was hoping since necromancy existed then so would teleportation.

 

“Hah, that would explain your strange accent” he chuckled and immediately winced. “That’s why I prefer the road.”

 

I smiled politely, proud of myself for coming up with a perfect excuse. “So what lands do I find myself in?”

 

“Well strange traveller, you find yourself in the mighty Kingdom of Sloffanil,” he explained with exaggeration.

 

“Oh of course,” I nodded as if that made any more sense. “I don’t suppose you have a map?”

 

“Well…,” he trailed off glancing towards the cart as he realized his companion's fate.

 

“What happened?” I asked.

 

“I was hired to escort a caravan of slaves to Llyne, we were ambushed. I’m guessing the others didn’t make it?” He explained.

 

“Slaves?” I asked with thinly disguised disgust as my blood ran cold.

 

“It’s cheaper than teleportation circles,” he shrugged. “And it pays well for those who need the work. I really wasn’t expecting it to be so dangerous.”

 

“I see,” I replied, my finger itching to draw blood. Managing my anger was never something I was good at. “Is slavery common in Slofannil?”

 

“For those that can afford it,” he shrugged.

 

“How far is Llyne?” I asked, changing the subject.

 

“Half a day west, we weren’t expecting an ambush so close to the city.”

 

“Good to know, thanks,” I replied and stood turning to go.

 

“Wait, what about me? You can’t leave me,” he yelped.

 

“Very true,” I replied and drew my sword, anger getting the better of me.

 

“Wait!” He began but was abruptly cut off as I hacked into his neck. I let out a breath of relief as I satisfied my anger. I watched with sick fascination as the life faded from his eyes and blood gushed from his neck.

 

I felt a rush that I had only felt once before. Maybe he didn’t deserve to die but he associated with slavers and was more useful to me dead than alive. After how things ended on earth I needed to vent my frustration and grief. I wiped off the sword and reached forward to collect the orange flames left behind.

 

[Level Up!]

 

I stood back up unwilling to move on from this moment just yet. Eventually, I decided to investigate and after a moment managed to pull up a different interface. This one seemed like a spider web of potential skills and I seemed to be able to choose one to unlock since I had levelled up as I now had one skill point.

 

There were several different options to choose from but I needed something offensive. Something I could fall back on even without soul embers. So while my choice wasn’t complicated I could also see a variety of uses.

 

[Channel Death]

You may channel unholy energy as green flames through touch or into a ranged attack causing rot, corrosion and decay to the target. More effective through touch.

 

I raised my hand and activated the skill. Green flame-like tendrils coalesced in my palm forming a ball of energy. With a flick of my wrist, I sent the bolt whizzing through the air into a nearby tree. There was an audible crack before the trunk around the impact seemed to wither and rot into a sickly black circle.

 

“Well…” That could definitely cause some damage. I channelled more green flames into my hand and held it up to the sky. This was very cool. I crouched down beside Henrick’s still-warm body and pressed my hand against his cheek. His skin greyed and shrivelled before peeling away as the flames licked at his skin, eating through his skin to reveal his teeth and gums. Very very cool.

 

I turned back to the road and pulled the body on the cart off to the ground with far more effort than I would like to admit. Kneeling beside the body I raised my hand over the body and channelled soul embers into the corpse. My arm felt hot as orange light exploded outward before funnelling into the corpse.

 

The light faded and for a moment nothing happened. Then suddenly the corpse seemed to deflate as its face split open and all the flesh seemed to simply peel off and fall away. 

 

I quickly backed away as the skeleton sat up and climbed to its feet. Now standing before me was a bloody skeleton with hollow empty eye sockets and some scraps of its previous clothing. 

 

The skeleton could only have been magic as the bones seemed to magically float in space to hold it together. It looked around, taking in its environment and me. It was terrifying and incredible at the same time.

 

“Hello there,” I laughed nervously, suddenly wondering what exactly a loyal extension of my will meant. “Climb on the cart,” I ordered.

 

The skeleton looked at me completely still for a second before turning and climbing onto the cart.

 

“Wear the corpse's armour and equip its sheath and sword,” I said pointing towards the other hired guard. The skeleton obeyed.

 

“Oh, hell yeah,” I grinned as I took in the skeleton clad in leather armour now wielding a short sword.

I walked through the night followed by my skeleton. I quickly realized I could see in the dark though the world was bathed in gray and as I did not need rest there was no reason to stop.

 

The long walk gave me lots of time to think about what else this world offered. The corpse that was now my skeleton had pointy ears and the more I thought about it the more I wondered if this world had more than humans. If it had liches and skeletons then dwarves or goblins could easily exist.

 

My skeleton had no opinions on such questions and couldn’t even speak. It was not the ideal company. Knowing that I was in a kingdom of slavers made cold anger bubble within me. Humanity was nothing if not predictable but that didn’t make me ok with it.

 

What had happened to the enslaved that had been taken by bandits? I had debated searching but it quickly proved impossible. I had found a map of the area in the slaver’s bag which gave me no insight beyond there being a large unexplored area titled the Wildlands even further West from Llyne. There were some other small towns scattered about but Llyne seemed to be a hub of sorts so close to the border.

 

As the sun finally began to rise I saw large gaming fields stretched out and castle walls in the distance. The city seemed to spiral up on a hill with farmers on the outside and several other layers of walls on the inside. This was no medieval village. This was a large and impressive city.

 

“What the hell is that!” A voice yelled as I got closer to the city. I turned to see a farmer in a large field staring in horror at me. No… he was staring at the skeleton that I had completely forgotten about. Shit!