A Vulpine Spanner in the Works
Chapter 7: Ninya: Divine Intervention

Day 5:

I yawned as I awoke from the sunlight that streamed through my room's small window. That same window is what woke me up every morning if it wasn't cloudy which helped me when I didn't awaken on time. Sadly, this very same window only gave me a view of the sidestreet of the inn I resided and the tiled roof of the building across from the inn. This was part of the reason why the rent for this room is so much lower than the others.

Throwing off the blanket covering me, I sat up from my bed and stretched. It had been difficult to sleep last night since I couldn't help but feel nervous at the prospect of being taught by Kashia today. The thoughts had even bothered me yesterday during the simple monster hunting job outside the walls of E-Rantel.

What would she be teaching me today? Would I be able to Kashia's expectations or would I only disappoint her? I did my best to avoid thinking about Kashia ending my training because I wasn't powerful enough.

Even with my talent of magical aptitude, I couldn't help but wonder if without it, would I even be able to get to the level I am now, or would I just be a disappointing failure? It didn't help that whenever I was complimented about my magic ability, it was always compared with my innate talent. Being propped up by my talent would certainly never fade away but I could at least try to make my skills stand out higher than my innate one.

Looking down at the shirt I had worn yesterday and slept in, it looked like it needed a good washing, smelled like it too. It was at times like these that I wished I knew the [Clean] spell so that I didn't have to borrow the wash basin from the innkeeper. She was kind enough to let me use it without cost. I assumed that my age had something to do with it.

My age also made it increasingly difficult to hide my true gender from everyone as it was becoming more painful to bind my breasts while my face is losing the androgynous looks from before and becoming more feminine. It was even worse when I had to hide my monthly bleeding from the others without it being noticeable.

I didn't always hide my gender like this. It wasn't until two years ago when my sister was taken by a noble that I started hiding myself. I still picture the day it happened; horses ridden by soldiers charged into our village and they started to collect all girls above their tenth nameday on the excuse that 'The baron wishes to help educate young girls into proper ladies'. It was a pitiful excuse, and yet, none outside of our village would question it.

Before my sister, Tuare, was taken by the soldiers, she took me into our home and used her knife to chop off my long hair to look more boyish. After that, she quickly fitted me into some of our father's old clothing before hiding me away with her knife.

I can still remember the noises of the soldiers kicking down our door and taking my sister while she screamed and fought. I stayed in that hiding place for an entire day before leaving it to find that the whole village had been ransacked. Anyone that had put up any resistance had been beaten until their faces were barely recognizable or were killed. Many that received those beatings had died soon afterwards since we lacked access to any healers.

Tuare and I are the only family we have left, and when she was taken, I packed anything that I would need to travel before I left the village in search of her as well as to become practiced in my growing magic talent so that I could eventually rescue Tuare from wherever she might be.

Even after two years of searching, I still didn't feel closer to finding Tuare then when I started. When I traveled to the baron's castle under the guise of a job, I didn't find Tuare or any of the girls that were taken that day. Neither did I attempt to question or exact vengeance on the baron since I was too weak. I still think that I'm too weak to go back and meet that baron.

Perhaps that might change with Kashia teaching me.

Yet, the baron, Baldric, was only a single member in the group of corrupt nobles serving the Eight Fingers. It had taken a while, but I eventually dug around enough to learn about Eight Fingers. They are a criminal empire that have roots in multiple illegal activities in the Re-Estize kingdom. One of the largest businesses was slave trade until Princess Renner made the activity illegal.

When I finally rescued my sister from wherever she might be, I think that I will try and do what I can to break up the slave trade. There is enough evil in the world without groups like the Eight Fingers making it worse. This idea is still just a pipe dream at this point. I need to become more powerful first before I can attempt any of my goals.

Standing up from my bed, I walked over to where I set my pants and put them on. Next was the horrible chest bindings followed by my shirt and boots. After that, I slung my satchel over my shoulder and pulled my cloak over that.

I still had no conceivable idea about how Kashia could also tell I was female because of my body's movements. My cloak was meant to obscure how I walked, so something about my cloak must be giving away my gender. Either that or I still couldn't master hiding the movements of my hips.

Reaching into my satchel, I pulled out a dried strip of beef and started eating it to satiate my hunger. I'd need to head to the market sometime later as I was running short on supplies. I had only four strips of beef and a small amount of hardened cheese as my rations. The cheese was quite awful, but it at least deterred me from eating it unless I had no other option.

Picking up my staff that I left leaning in the corner of my room, I made one last check of all my supplies and gear to make sure I hadn't left anything behind. Staff, rations, coin pouch, adventurer knife, and my sister's knife. Everything was where it should be, so I finally opened the door of my room and left for the Adventurer's Guild.

Since it was early morning, a few of the other patrons were also leaving the around the same time I was for whatever tasks they needed to accomplish. Some were fellow guild members that were heading the same way that I was while others were more suspicious.

One of the quieter tenants of the inn, Marz, was always quiet and left each day as quickly as he could, coming back later in the night without a sound. The innkeeper, Sharice, never had a complaint about the man as he always paid his rent on time and without missing a single copper missing. I personally think that the man is involved in some type of illegal business, but I lack any proof to fully believe this.

I think that every inn has some tenants that are stranger than normal, I just happened to have chronic encounters with our inn's oddball in the mornings. Aside from Marz, there is also Selene who is a prostitute. Profession aside, she isn't hard to talk to and is quite personable when you get to know her. I would have talks with her when we met each other, yet she wasn't up this morning.

That is a bit odd. Perhaps she had a long night and is just sleeping a bit longer today.

Continuing my normal morning routine, I exited the inn and began walking the streets with multiple things on my mind. Yesterday, Peter had said that he'd picked up a job that we'd be doing with Kashia today. It's supposed to be clearing a growing horde of undead in the graveyard.

For some unusual reason, there had been a lot of jobs commissioned by the city guard to take care of the undead prowling the graveyard. Where once, we'd get requests for this job every two weeks, now we are getting requests almost every day. At this point, a lot of adventurers were getting sick of these jobs as the last small party who had entered the graveyard hadn't left.

Since then, the copper-plate rating of the jobs in the graveyard had risen to a silver-plate rating. With the rise of job classification, that meant that the job's pay should've increased. Unfortunately, the guards were too cheap to increase the pay to a proper silver-plate amount, so it had only been raised to 50 copper pieces instead of to silver coins.

That pitiful amount of pay for more dangerous work didn't attract as many silver-plate adventurers as it might've. The reason that Peter was getting us to take this job for a slight raise in pay of 60 copper pieces was due to an agreement that Peter had made with the guards. If we did this job for that small amount of pay, they'd also owe us a favor that we could cash in later.

Having a favor from the guards would be useful if we ever got in trouble or needed their help for some reason. Very valuable depending on the circumstances for calling that favor in.

I wasn't that worried about this job since Kashia would be joining us for it. With how powerful she is, there wasn't a monster that could harm her before being destroyed by her magic. That also made me a little excited as I always became giddy like a young child when I saw such high-level displays of magic. Hopefully Kashia could perform another spell that I haven't seen yet.

That spell she performed the other day to refill any mana I expended was something I'd only heard a few members of the Mage's Guild talk about, and it was normally in a negative tone. The problem with that spell is that while it allowed one caster to augment and refill the mana of another's, it sucked up so much mana from the caster that it wasn't a viable spell to learn. And yet, Kashia didn't show any sign of her mana depleting when she used it in tandem with all the other spells she casted.

It made me wonder how much mana Kashia must have compared to an average person.

These thoughts continued to plague me as I walked through the market district and bought some rations to refill my lowered stock. I always made sure to have enough rations for any situation since I started traveling and working. I've heard too many tales of travelers dying on the road due to running out of food, and I lacked the hunting and foraging skills that someone like Dyne had to survive in the wild.

After buying food, I quickened my pace to the guild to arrive on time. If this was like any normal morning, the others would be sitting at one of the tables upstairs waiting for everyone to arrive. Peter would usually be going over a battle plan for any potential encounter, while Dyne would assist by pointing out potential flaws in his plans. Lukrut would typically pick a seat by the balcony upstairs to watch people downstairs.

Unfortunately, by Lukrut's standards, that meant that he'd be ogling any attractive member of the female gender that managed to catch his eye. Though, this had lessened somewhat since he met Kashia. His eyes were usually glued on her these days, a lot of male members of the guild were. Yet yesterday, when Kashia had been working on some personal errands, Lukrut had been in a depressed mood. Even his normal ogling was less enthusiastic than usual.

In a short span of time, I finally arrived at the entrance of the guild and entered it. Inside, the building was buzzing with activity as adventurers were entering and exiting the doors repeatedly while a few lines were building up at the desks of the guild secretaries in order to take on jobs.

The activity happening now was a typical sight to see in the morning. It would slow down in an hour or so due to a lot of members taking jobs early in the morning while expecting to be finished in the late afternoon or near dusk.

Some members, typically known as carrier pigeons, received this nickname due to their tendency for taking jobs nearby the guild, completing them in an hour or two, and then coming back to the guild for another mission afterwards. Most carrier pigeons were newer members who needed the money or wanted to rank up quickly.

They weren't as hated as the job poachers who sat at the benches downstairs and waiting for an easy and high paying job to appear before quickly snatching it. There was unspoken guild etiquette that found it rude to wait for a job instead of just picking from what's available. Even now, one of the more hated job poachers, Cassius Carth, was sitting at a bench and waiting for a job to appear on the board.

Cassius showed all the signs of a job poacher. His armor, well made and expensive, hardly had any scratches on it that one would typically expect from a rich adventurer like that. He had a well-groomed face that lacked any stubble and his dark hair had been groomed and cut by a professional.

My first encounter with that man had been early in my career when I had grabbed a simple job that paid well. While in the line, Cassius had made the effort to bump into me to distract me as he switched my job flyer with another. I didn't even notice until I made it to the front desk and gave the secretary the job flyer which was completely different from what I had earlier.

I was not the first victim of that stunt of his, and I doubt that I'd be the last. It didn't help that Cassius was a gold-plate adventurer which gave him a wider range of jobs to snatch. He'd probably get his just reward one day when he pulled that stunt on the wrong adventurer. After all, not everyone in the guild is a moral person. There are quite a few criminals within our ranks that people didn't want to mess with.

"Hello, my cute little student! Miss me?" I couldn't help but jump at hearing the voice and feeling a pair of hands on my shoulders. Looking over my shoulder, I saw the grinning face of Kashia as my heart tried to slow down.

"Did you really have to spook me like that, Kashia? And, when did you even get here?"

"Just after you did. Surprised that you didn't notice me. Guess you were really deep in thought when you walked here." How in the world did someone like Kashia not get noticed? Everything about her screamed attention grabbing. That question would have to be answered another day, and hopefully Kashia would actually answer it.

"Right…" I replied unconvinced, "Shall we go upstairs to meet with the others? They're waiting for us." Kashia nodded and the two of us started walking towards the stairs. "By the way, did you accomplish whatever it was that you were trying to do yesterday?"

"I certainly did. And, before you ask, no; I'll possibly tell you what I was doing at a later date." Was she reading my mind? Because her answer was frighteningly accurate to what I wanted to ask her. "Anything interesting happen with you and the others?"

"Not much, just a boring monster slaying job. We should be getting a silver-plate job in the E-Rantel graveyards to clear out the undead." Kashia looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"That's strange. I took on one of those jobs a few days ago. How come there are still a lot of undead running around after I cleared them out? Are the guards just too lazy to do their jobs?" So, she also pulled a graveyard shift? I could imagine the destruction she caused when she accomplished that job which makes me wonder how there is still a chronic slew of undead striding about the graveyard?

"While the guards can be lazy, the reason that the ones guarding the graveyard hire adventurers to deal with the undead is because they are meant to be ready to fight for the city at a moments notice while us adventurers normally take a neutral stance in political actions of the countries. If the city were to be attacked by the Slane or Baharuth, the guards would need to be ready instead of the adventurers. So, they hire the job to adventurers in order to lessen the risk of getting injured."

Kashia didn't get to question me further as the two of us were called over by Peter. "C'mon you two. We've been waiting for you to show up." I couldn't help but smile at the blond's invitation. It was strange how Peter could always make me feel positive about my day. I guess his natural charisma helped in that matter.

Actually, it was pretty amusing how Peter could unintentionally steal the hearts of a few of the girls he encountered. He could be so oblivious at times that he wouldn't even notice how his presence caused girls to react.

"Good morning, everyone!" I returned to my team as Kashia and I hurried over to their table.

"Hello, boys." Kashia said in that breathy tone of hers. "Mind informing the two of us on what happening at the graveyard?" The two of us quickly took our seats at the table and got a better view of a map of E-Rantel that was splayed out on the table.

"Ah, Ninya informed you about what we're doing today. That's good, though I need to inform you about the rest of the job that I didn't tell the rest of you yet. I wanted your opinions first before we did it."

"What opinions?" Lukrut and I asked together.

"There is a side objective to our job which involves a rescue mission. Since yesterday, a group of adventurers called Dragon Furnace went missing in the graveyard. They were supposed to clear out undead up to the Hangman's Tree about a hundred and fifty yards from the entrance gate. While it's not an actual objective in the job at hand, I was asked to try search for them as a personal favor to a friend. What do you think?"

This must be serious if someone was personally asking Peter for help. Even with my doubts that Dragon Furnace was still alive in that graveyard, I couldn't ignore that there might be a chance to save them or, at the very least, bring back their bodies for their loved ones.

"I'm fine with this side objective." I answered quickly.

"I also agree with Ninya. If we can save Dragon Furnace, then we should." Dyne answered with that altruistic side of his. If there was one personality trait that anyone could think of when talking about Dyne is the unerring kindness that he showed everyone. Even with him being a silver-plate adventurer, there were quite a few gold-plate groups that would love to recruit our druid due to his reliability and personality.

To be honest, I always felt that Dyne might be much stronger than he let on, at least low-leveled gold-plate if I underestimated it. His connection with nature is quite strong, and I always felt that he could use his druidic magic with greater intensity than he displayed normally. Perhaps, he held himself back because he preferred our team compared to a gold-plated group.

With Kashia joining us, and the immense amounts of power that she barely reined in, it might get Dyne to display more of his real strength since Kashia didn't tend to hold back. Even those spells that she casted the other day, while lower leveled, were charged with an intense amount of mana behind them. She only held back from wiping out all the ogres and goblins at once since she wanted to see what we could do.

"What would the Swords of Darkness be if they didn't have their trusty archer by their side?" Lukrut stated with a grin as he propped his feet up onto the table and leaned back into his chair. With everyone accepting the side mission, there was only one person left who hadn't answered yet…

"I don't doubt your skills, Lucky, but I'm going to accept since someone has to make sure that all of you make it out of this job in one piece. And," Much to my surprise, Kashia wrapped her arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to her, "I have to make sure that my little student is able to train with me today!" I couldn't help but blush at how doting Kashia was acting right now.

Peter laughed, whether at my current predicament or just from pure joy, before he spoke, "Excellent! Thank you all for agreeing with his side objective. We should start heading to the cemetery now while the sun is shining down on us and hopefully take care of the undead and find Dragon Furnace before the daylight is hidden behind the walls." After saying this, Peter got out of his chair which signaled for the rest of us to do the same.

Peter wasn't wrong in wishing to get this task done quickly while we still had daylight. The undead in the cemetery tended to become stronger in darker areas, and the tall walls surrounding the cemetery tended to block the sunlight after the noon passed. It didn't help that the cemetery tended to be foggy for some reason which obscured any undead reaching out from their graves or lying on the ground in wait.

The Mage's Guild theorized that this perpetual fog was a side effect of whatever magical phenomenon caused the undead to rise. That created more questions than answers which bothered the naturally curious side of myself. Why might fog arise due to undeath? A question that still lacked any answer.

As the five of us stood together, I thought about why the undead in the cemetery were appearing in greater numbers than before? Some of the more religious citizens of E-Rantel claimed that it was a sign of displeasure from the gods of their displeasure about our continuous war with the Baharuth. I highly doubted that if the gods were displeased, they'd only raise some undead instead of performing more noticeable signs. I'd be more believing of the gods' displeasure if lightning rained down from the sky and started smiting people.

Actually, when I talked to Dyne the other day, he noted that it felt like the life force of the plants and animals of the city were slowly being drained. If there was any logical answer for why the undead were appearing more often, I'd hazard a guess that it'd be due to what was happening to the life force of the city.

"Pop quiz, kiddo!" Kashia stated which pulled me from my thoughts.

"Pop quiz? What's that?" I'd never heard that term used before, it sounded strange.

"It's just a name for a quick and unexpected test that is short. Now, enough about asking me questions since I'm the one that's meant to be asking all the questions. Ready?" While I did wish to ask what she was planning, I remained quiet due to her command. She must be trying to learn about what knowledge I already knew.

"Ready." I answered with determination.

"What types of magic and attacks are undead weak against?"

"Bludgeoning attacks along with fire and holy magic are their major weaknesses." I answered confidently.

"Good answer, though you did miss that they have a weakness to attacks attuned to the good alignment." I groaned at how I missed that weakness. The good alignment attacks were rarer to see than the other three. "Chin up, kiddo. You can't always be right, and failures are meant to inspire you to remember that knowledge for later."

"I'll try and keep that in mind." I answered with a nod.

"Here's another question; what types of attacks are undead immune to?"

While that question was slightly harder, I quickly tried to recall everything I learned about undead up to now, "They can't be affected by mind-altering attacks, sleep effects, poisons, and disease. Those are all that come to mind right now."

"Very good. Just remember to add that they have immunities to energy-draining attacks and a biological need to breathe. I've seen adventurers that didn't learn about an undead's weaknesses beforehand and popped off spells that worked against average monsters like goblins or orcs. They quickly got their ass handed to them along with their pride." The utter amusement in Kashia's voice as she said this told me that what she saw was likely very funny.

"What happened to the adventurer afterwards?"

"I decided to help after watching them run about like a headless chicken. Both of us had been exploring the same dungeon, and I felt a little grateful to the person for going ahead and setting off all the traps so that I didn't accidentally trigger them. Wasn't the last time I encountered them, but that's a story for another day." She said, ending the tale of hers, "From all the weaknesses we've discussed about the undead, what spells do you know that can capitalize on them?"

"I can cast [Firebolt], [Flame Wave], [Magic Missile], and [Force Blast]. I don't have any spells that can utilize the holy or good element which prevents me from using those damage types." I answered in slight nervousness as I hoped that my spell list wouldn't disappoint her.

"Quite respectable. You have the fire and potential bludgeoning damage depending on how you utilize your spells. Though, I recommend that you pick up at least one spell of the holy or good element if able since you never know if an undead has some item or trait that negates fire and bludgeoning damage. From my experience, fire resistance is more popular to use than others."

"As an archer, it can get annoying dealing with undead at times." Lukrut spoke up next to us. The blond pulled out an arrow from his quiver to show the arrow's sharp tip. "Depending on the undead, these arrows can fly through their bodies without even damaging anything." He stuck the arrow back into his quiver before reaching inside once more and pulling out a new arrow with a tip that was much broader than the previous one. More like a bulb with a point than an arrowhead.

"It's why I started making these arrows. While they create more air resistance than my other arrows, these bullhead arrows slam into undead like a club." Lukrut bragged with a grin.

"How many of those arrows do you have stored on you?" Kashia asked with interest.

"Fifteen. The downside of these arrows is that they take up more space than normal arrows. My arrow count in total would be thirty-five." No doubt, those arrows also weighed Lukrut down more than his usual arrows due to the greater amount of metal making up the tips.

Kashia put a finger under her chin in thought after hearing Lukrut's answer. "Seems that your skills as an archer are being held back by how much you can carry. I might have a solution to that problem, but you'd need to give me a day or so to get it ready." That grabbed Lukrut's attention and caused the archer to sidle up next to Kashia.

"Oh, a solution? I'd love to hear what your idea might be?" The blond asked excitedly. Kashia simply tapped her fingers against Lukrut's forehead and caused the blond the be slightly pushed back.

"Patience is a virtue. It's rude to rush a woman, after all." She playfully patted Lukrut's cheek before picking up her pace and laughing. The pair of us looked at each other, and I couldn't tell if his face was turning red due to Kashia's patting or because he was blushing. That torch that Lukrut was carrying for Kashia was unlikely to go out anytime soon.

Hopefully, Kashia didn't end up breaking his heart. I highly doubt that Celica's restaurant had enough alcohol stocked to handle a depressed Lukrut. Celica had certainly seen Lukrut drink himself to unconsciousness due to a bad breakup. Part of the problem was that the romantic archer tended to chase women that were beautiful but were horrible human beings.

Kashia didn't seem like that. She acted quite kind, though I haven't spent enough time around her to confirm if that was an act or not. One thing for certain; I believe that Kashia has a bit of a sadistic streak from the way that she acted when talking about my training.

"Ninya, you think I've got a chance with her?" Lukrut asked me. I gave him a glance before patting him on the back.

"No idea. I wish you luck on your quest since it appears that you're going to need it." I believe that the best course of action when dealing with a lovesick man and a woman who could easily kill him is to stay back and watch it play out. I've seen Lukrut's attempts at romance and have learned since then to stay back and let him figure it out on his own.

The rest of the journey to the cemetery wasn't anything to write home about. It was quite dull, and yet, I could see Kashia discussing something with Peter in depth. I could only assume that it might be plans for the job which I didn't wish to interrupt just in case it might be something important.

It wasn't until we arrived at the front gate of the cemetery that anything of interest could be noted. Up ahead, a pair of guards could be seen standing in front of the gate, while atop the walls connected to the gate were multiple other guards that were focused on something within the cemetery.

When we approached the gate, the two guards began looking us over with bored interest until their eyes landed on Kashia. The moment they saw her, their eyes grew wide with shock…and fear?

What could Kashia have possibly done to make these guys afraid of her? "Oh shit, the woman is back!" I heard the bearded guard loudly whisper to his partner. Both quickly stopped slouching and stood straight like arrows.

"Hello, boys, remember me?" Kashia loudly asked as we approached the pair.

"Y-Yeah. Do you need anything? Should we open the gate and get out of your way?" The bearded guard quickly stammered. The reaction of the guard wasn't noticed by only me, as the others gave the blonde questioning looks.

"Uh, Kashia, how do you know these guys?" Peter asked with interest.

"My first day here, I took a job to clear out some undead in the cemetery. Unfortunately," Kashia emphasized while glancing at the terrified guards, "these two doubted my ability to handle myself. I proved them wrong when I turned the undead, the cemetery, and the headstones into a molten crater." Upon saying this, she snapped her fingers and allowed a small ball of fire to burst alight in her hand.

"Oh." Peter said in surprise, not that I could blame him. Even with my knowledge that Kashia was probably the strongest mage that I've encountered, it still seemed hard to believe that someone could have so much power without seeing proof of it.

Regardless of the party's thoughts on what we just learned; Peter fell back into his calm demeanor to keep the rest of us focused. "Mind letting us through? We're the group called the Swords of Darkness that were hired to help clear out the cemetery."

"Right away!" The bearded guard answered quickly. Then, he and his partner walked up to the gate and removed the heavy wooden plank that was barring the gate. Normally, I would assume that it might take more than two men to lift the plank barring the door, but the two guards seemed empowered to remove the plank as quickly as possible to get us on our way.

After pulling one of the doors of the gate open, the bearded one said, "You can proceed now! Good luck!" Then he and his partner hugged their backs to the wall and waited.

Kashia and Peter were the first to step through the gate, and I believe that the sorceress winked at the two guards as she passed them. The rest of us quickly followed after them and arrived on the other side of the gate.

We finally were able to witness what Kashia was talking about we looking less than forty meters ahead of us. The ground was completely blackened and dead around a crater with a radius of ten meters. The remains of gravestones could be spotted surrounding this crater and were mostly melted.

What kind of heat would be required to melt stone?

I was pulled out of my thoughts when the gate behind us slammed shut. I glanced over my shoulder and narrowed my eyes at the cowardly guards. It was moments like these that made it hard for adventurers to respect city guards of any main city.

Typically, guards posted at cities were weaker and more cowardly than those posted on the roads or those drafted for the unending wars with Baharuth. The reason that these cities had lower quality guards was due to said guards either being really lucky in getting posted here or they bribed their way to a cushy job away from any real conflict.

The problem got worse the closer you were to the kingdom's capitol as the bribery was worse and the influence of the criminal organization known as Eight Fingers got stronger. It was one of the reasons that E-Rantel was more tolerable than most cities in the kingdom as it was the only city standing between us and the blood-soaked Katze plains.

"Those guys were in a hurry." Lukrut noted to the rest of us as he unslung his bow from his shoulder and nocked an arrow in preparation, "Maybe we should try to do the same."

"I agree." Dyne stated as he pulled out his mace, "Something feels wrong with this cemetery. Something unnatural." I couldn't stop the chills that ran down my spine when Dyne said this. Normally, the druid was completely calm and unflappable, yet the tense demeanor that he emitted put me on edge.

"At the very least, I can spot Hangman's Tree up ahead. Shouldn't take us that long to get there." Peter said while drawing his sword.

"Even better, the undead are coming to us. We'll probably clear out enough undead by the time we get to said tree." Kashia added. Up ahead, I could see the standard undead moving towards us while more were digging themselves out of the ground to join the growing horde.

"I don't think that I brought enough arrows for this." Lukrut said as he loosed an arrow at the horde ahead of us, easily scoring a headshot that downed the monster. This seemed to cause the horde to charge towards us as one.

Lukrut began firing his arrows repeatedly while I joined the ranged fighting by evoking firebolts at the charging undead. We were eventually joined by Kashia, who strangely shot spears of ice at the undead. Even stranger was the way that the undead reacted when pierced by these ice spears. The moment a spear touched or pierced them, they would stop moving while bright white light shot out of their orifices like geysers. Then they would collapse and stop moving.

"Kashia, what type of ice spell causes undead to react like that?" I asked while continuing to fire attacks at the slowly shrinking horde.

"It's not due to it being an ice spell. It's enhanced with holy magic." She then stopped firing ice spears at the horde and patted Peter and Dyne on their shoulders. The moment she did so, both were shrouded by white auras that faded to barely visible levels. "You two are buffed. Go kick some ass." The sorceress then pushed the fighters forwards with an encouraging pat on their backs.

With that accomplished, the two fighters charged forwards and eventually met the undead horde midway between us. Under normal circumstances, anyone would assume that those two would be swallowed up by that horde and quickly killed. Instead, the moment the first skeleton scraped its hand against Dyne, a blast of bright light emitted from Dyne and launched the skeleton and any undead near it backwards.

Upon seeing the effects of Kashia's spell, Peter and Dyne seemed to become invigorated with new strength. This could be seen as the pair started cutting the undead down like a pair of holy paladins. I couldn't help but chuckle at how giddy the pair seemed in the midst of an undead horde.

"Really happy that we have Kashia with us now. This job would've been awful without those spells of hers." Lukrut stated as he fired another arrow at a zombie that seemed more interested in us than Peter and Dyne.

"Is it normal for this many undead to be prowling about? It wasn't as crowded when I was last here." Kashia asked while picking off any undead that tried to approach our fighters while they were occupied.

"Not really. Largest wave I've seen yet." I answered. And it was true, I've never seen this many undead grouped up in the cemetery like they were now. Reminded me more of the tales that some soldiers told us in the guild about the Katze Plains. Most battles out there became a three-way battle between Re-Estize, Baharuth, and the undead that prowled the plains.

From what I heard; it's been becoming such a problem that both nations tended to enter an unofficial truce to clear undead from the battlefield before starting their next battle. Yet, it was an effort in futility since the undead that they destroyed would quickly be replaced by the casualties of their latest battle.

"Then I'll try to give you all some breathing room." When Kashia said this, she stopped firing ice spears at the horde and held her hand out which caused a magic circle to spiral out from her palm.

Instantly upon doing this, the ground, under a section of the undead horde behind the section that Peter and Dyne were fighting, grew stony teeth before growing into a massive pair of jaws that snapped up a massive section of the horde and quickly crushed them with a few chomps. Then, the stony jaws sunk into the ground with their hapless victims in tow. The rest of the skirmish was quickly taken care of as Peter and Dyne eradicated the remaining horde.

When the last zombie was put down with a slam of Dyne's mace, Lukrut and I looked at Kashia with shocked expressions at what just transpired. "Kashia, why didn't you just lead with that?" Lukrut asked.

"I wanted to give you all a chance to feel good about yourselves. That changed when I felt a little worried that the horde might be too much for all of you to handle." Kashia answered as she took off her spectacles and quickly cleaned them before putting them back on.

"Makes me feel a little sad that you didn't believe that we could take care of ourselves." Lukrut said with disappointment.

"Sorry about that. I'm still not completely used to fighting with others, and I become quite worried that you guys could get hurt. I'll try to be less coddling if that's what you want?" Kashia apologized with a smile. The way she was acting seemed more like a mother than a teammate. In a way, it seemed quite funny to be honest.

Eventually, Peter and Dyne joined up with us and were still grinning like a pair of loons. I think that spell of Kashia's did more than just protect the pair of them, either that or they were still filled with a rush from the battle.

"That was one of the more excitable jobs in the cemetery that we've taken. What was that spell that swallowed up all those undead?" Peter asked as he rested his sword on his pauldron.

"It's called [Jaws of the Earth Dragon]. The spell can swallow up a large group of enemies and pull them underground to be crushed if they don't escape quickly enough." Kashia answered while resting her hands on her hips. "I think it's appropriate that the dead were returned back to where they belong."

I'll be honest, if I ever got to learn a high tier spell, that would be one of the first that I'd choose. It looked amazing in practice, and it would be so useful when fighting larger groups of enemies. Even with how long I've been using magic, it still amazed me with the way that I could become completely enamored with seeing powerful spells being cast. It was like I was a young child, again, watching a traveling mage performing tricks for the village children.

"Even so, more might rise up, and I'd rather not have our investigation get interrupted by more hordes. Ready to move?" Peter remarked to the rest of us while scanning the area for more enemies.

"I'm in agreement. I don't like being around dead bodies at the best of times, especially when those bodies are trying to tear my throat out." Lukrut added. That was also the moment that I noticed that Lukrut's quiver was running dangerously short of arrows.

"We should hurry then. The tree is just up ahead." I stated to the others. We quickly marched forwards after this, with Peter and Dyne taking the lead and chopping down any zombie or skeleton that attempted to crawl from the ground ahead of us. At the same time, Kashia remained at the back of the party and incinerated any undead that tried to attack us from behind or at the sides.

Lukrut and I remained in the middle and slayed any undead coming from the sides. I'm guessing the only reason the two of us got to take down any undead was because Kashia let them come towards us. Probably to let us feel like we were actually helping the party instead of being useless.

It wasn't long before we finally reached the appropriately named Hangman's Tree. From what history I remember of E-Rantel, before the cemetery grew as large and infested with undead as it is now, executions were performed here. Criminals would be taken to these trees and hung until death. Following this, their bodies would be dumped into a shallow grave and forgotten.

The two theories that have become widely accepted is that due to the strong emotions from those that were executed, as well as, the treatment and desecration of their bodies, it caused either the souls of the spiteful dead to vengefully hunt those who refused them a proper burial or that the gods themselves, seeing such horrific actions of the mortals, to curse this land and never allow the dead to rest as long as the bodies of the desecrated were refused a proper burial.

I tended to believe the first theory before the second. From what I've read, undead tended to rise where great bloodshed or conflict occurred. And based on E-Rantel's history of executing criminals here, that fulfilled the bloodshed requirement.

Even now, as we approached the tree, I could spot the rotten and molded remnants of nooses that were still tied to the branches of the tree. I couldn't help but wonder how many had been sentenced to die by those ropes? Even worse was the thought of how many of the criminals hung on those ropes might have been innocent.

"Guys, look around the tree for clues, but stay on guard for any more undead." Peter ordered. We didn't say much as we began walking around the tree and looked for any clues that the members of Dragon Furnace might have been here. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for me to spot something of interest.

When I had circled to the back of the tree, I spotted something that stood out within this cemetery. On one of the roots of the tree that grew from the ground, I spotted a forearm that held onto the root in an unbreaking grip.

While the limb of a dead body wasn't that odd to be strewn about the cemetery, what was odd was the condition of the limb. Brown cloth of a torn shirt still remained tucked into a well-maintained gauntlet with a strange symbol carved into the top of the gauntlet. The location of where the limb had been torn off was covered in dried blood, with some of this dried blood having long since dripped onto the ground.

"Guys, I think I found something of interest!" I called out to the others. Quickly enough, the group arrived to where I stood and looked down at the unattached limb. Kashia was the first to approach the limb, where she slowly kneeled down and took an audible sniff near the limb.

When she finished, Kashia spoke over her shoulder to us, "The limb is recent and lacks any form of rotting smell that undead usually exude. Blood also still smells relatively recent, even if it has already coagulated." Disturbingly, Kashia then gripped the forearm by the rest and ripped it off the root of the tree with the audible sound of the bones in the fingers breaking.

She then walked over to Peter with the limb in hand before holding it out to him. "The armor on this arm has an unusual symbol on it. Do you recognize it?"

When Peter investigated the limb, his eyes quickly sparked with recognition before he looked back at Kashia. "That's the symbol for Dragon Furnace. Most of their armor was made by one of their members. He was known for etching his symbol into each piece that he worked on." Slowly, Peter took the limb from Kashia and pulled out a small burlap sack from his bag that he stored the limb inside.

"Selene is going to be upset when she sees this." The blond muttered to himself, "Kashia, would your sense of smell be able to follow the smell of this limb?"

"I'm unable to track the owner of that limb by smell from a far distance right now. The combination of this graveyard and the stench of the city hinders me in that regard. But," She then pointed towards a muddied area further past the tree, "the scent of that arm, as well as anyone else, disappears at that spot. Almost like they were dragged underground."

Peter glanced at the muddied area before waving at us to follow him. He didn't say anything, but I already assumed that we might be digging up that section of the cemetery. Upon arriving at the mud, Kashia waved her hand which caused a magic circle to flash before her.

Moments later, the dirt before us began churning until it started to act like a liquid while anything in the dirt started floating to the surface like logs of wood. While there were skeletons and older, rotten bodies that floated to the surface, I quickly spotted a group of four bodies that looked relatively new in comparison.

All of them were covered in mud, yet one of the corpses that wore mud-caked armor was missing their right arm. With another wave of her hand, the four bodies floated over to us before being deposited onto the ground in front of Peter.

Peter quickly wiped mud off the armor of the corpses, eventually revealing the same symbol we found on the gauntlet also being etched into the other armors of the group. We had found the bodies of Dragon Furnace. Yet, I didn't understand why their bodies had been buried in the ground like they were. Undead didn't have any drive except to kill the living, so why had the members of Dragon Furnace been dumped into the ground?

"I don't understand. Why were all of them buried in the ground?" Lukrut asked. "Undead don't bury bodies."

"It's quite obvious," Kashia answered, "there was an intelligence that wanted these four buried. It could've been a criminal that killed them with the hope that the undead would be blamed. But, the other option is that a necromancer commanded the undead to kill these four for some unknown reason. Either way, we should figure out what we want to do with the bodies and leave this place quickly. We don't know if whoever buried these four might still be watching us."

"We should take the bodies with us and leave them with the guards. I can contact my friend afterwards to verify them." Peter reasoned with a slow nod.

"If we're finally finished with this job, then can we get out of here? This place is really freaking me out." Lukrut asked. I was in agreement with his assessment. Especially since Kashia seemed uncharacteristically serious.

It was a silent trek out of the cemetery as all of us continued to think about how the members of Dragon Furnace had been killed. It could've been an accident or it could've been intentional. It was very likely to be intentional from the evidence that we'd seen, and Kashia let the guards know this when we left the bodies with them. After this, the guards quickly paid us for our job and we headed back to the guildhall to register the job's completion with the guild.

Oddly, even with everything that I'd seen, my excitement for my training after the job was barely marred. In fact, my urge for training was filled with resolve as if I got stronger in my magic abilities, then I could be more likely to prevent such a tragedy from happening in the future. After we split the money up among us, Peter was the first to leave so that he could give his friend the news. Following this, Kashia and I left the guildhall for training.

"Kiddo, do you feel up to do training today? I'll understand if you need a bit of time to process everything that you've seen." Kashia asked me as we traversed through the city.

"I've seen much worse when my village was attacked." I answered. When the Baron sent his men to take the girls of my village, they didn't just take the girls. They killed many of the protesting villagers very horrifically. Some had their stomachs cut open to let their innards spill out. From what a few of the survivors said, a few had still been alive attempting to put their innards back into their bodies.

My answer satisfied Kashia as she gave me a nod. Then, she asked me something surprising, "Lukrut told me a bit about your past. Not everything, mind you, but enough to give me a basic idea about who you are. Would you be open to telling me a bit more about yourself or would you like to wait?"

Ever since I left my village, I'd only told the rest of our team about everything that had happened to my village, the way that my sister was taken, how I'd spent years looking for my sister. In all of this time, it's been so rare to hear someone ask me about my past in the village.

"What did he tell you?" I asked, quieter than expected.

"Only that you've had a harder life than most, and that your sister was taken by nobles. Would you be willing to share more?"

I was silent for a few moments as I processed this. Then, I spoke, "I grew up in the village of Sunreed. It was named after the gold color of the reeds that populated the small lake near us. We were a simple people that mainly exported crops and fish. But, since our village was small and away from major cities, we were ruled over by a lesser baron that tended to abuse his position due to how far away from his lords we were. But, even with the greater tithes that we had to pay, the people of Sunreed eked out a living."

Thinking about how my parents and sister would remain positive even during our harder times caused a smile to grace my lips. "It wasn't all bad, at times, travelers would come by with things to entertain us with. There was a mage that came to our village once and performed spells for us. And, once a year, we would have a summer festival to celebrate another year of good harvest. There'd be a carrot cake that Old Seville would cook for the village which was the highlight of every year."

I can still remember what Seville's cakes tasted like, and never have I been able to find anything close in taste to what Seville made. Sadly, the secret to her cakes died with her.

"Unfortunately, a few years ago, a sickness came to our village and took so many of us, even my parents weren't spared from the fever. And, since we were so far from any city, we couldn't get healers to the sick until it was too late. When the sickness had finally passed, about half of the village had died. That was the beginning of Sunreed's hardships."

"Since so many villagers died, our production had taken a nosedive and we couldn't keep up with the baron's tithes. I learned later on that the baron had a love for living a lavish lifestyle. Clothing, food, feasts, you name it. He was able to afford it because of the large tithes that he made us pay. Yet, when we couldn't produce as much as he demanded, that lavish lifestyle ate into his coffers. I think it's the reason that he sent his men to our village one day."

"They came to take the girls of our village that had reached their tenth nameday or higher. My sister saw this and ran to where I had been playing. She didn't say anything as she took me inside our house and used her knife to chop my hair down. Then, she put me in some of our father's old clothing and hid me away with her knife. Soon after, the baron's men arrived at our house and took her away. I don't know where she is, but I have been searching for her for the past two years. Two years, and I still don't feel any closer." I finally finished my tale with a long intake of breath.

Then, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Looking at the gloved hand, and then up to Kashia's eyes. I expected to see pity or anger within her orange eyes, instead, they contained a warmth to them that I hadn't seen directed at me in years. "Ninya, you don't have to look for your sister alone anymore. I'll help you."

"W-What?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Kashia stopped us from walking any further and turned me to face her. "I promise you, right now, if you are willing to delay your training for a little longer then I will find and bring your sister back to you alive by the end of this day." I felt my heart pumping hard at what Kashia just promised.

I'd be able to see my sister…

Two years of searching would finally be over…

"Y-You can b-bring Tuare back t-to me?" My voice kept choking as I tried to speak.

"When I make a promise, I keep it. Would you like to see your sister today?" I couldn't speak at this point, so I just nodded. "Then, we'll go get your sister." I couldn't stop myself from wrapping Kashia in a hug and just repeating the words 'Thank you' over and over.

She returned the gesture, and in a single moment, the world warped around us until the floor beneath us was no longer a cobblestone road and instead was made of wooden planks. When I broke away from the embrace, I noticed that we were both standing inside of a room of an inn. At least, I thought it was an inn since the distant noises of patrons could be heard from here.

"If you're wondering where we are, it's just my room in the Hero's Respite. Now, take a seat since I'll need your assistance for the spell that I'll be casting." I was quiet as I followed Kashia's instructions and sat down at the small table in her room. She then took a seat at the other side of the table.

"Now, I have a few methods to locate your sister. One of them would take time since I don't know where I should be looking, the other is unavailable since I don't have an item of your sister's to use, and the final method will take preparation to cast." Kashia stated. I quickly reached into my satchel and pulled out Tuare's dagger.

"That's Tuare's. I've held onto it for all of these years. Can you still use it for your spell?" I quickly said. Kashia simply smirked before she reached over and picked up the dagger. Holding it gently, she inspected the object before looking back at me.

"This will do." Kashia said before setting the dagger back down onto the table. "The spell that I'll be using locates the owners of an object. Since this was your sister's dagger before entering your possession, the spell can still find her. It just needs to be cast at a higher level." She held her hand above the dagger and spoke, "[Locate Owner]."

A white magic circle appeared above the dagger. Then, a glowing orb floated upwards from the dagger until it stopped at Kashia's eyelevel. "Ninya, no matter what you see or what might be happening to your sister, remain calm." After giving this warning, the orb began to dim and revealed the image of a bed with a naked woman laying upon it.

The woman was unnaturally thin and looked like she hadn't bathed in some time. Her body was covered in so many bruises and cuts, especially on her lower body. It was horrific, especially since even with all the filth, the cuts, and the bruises, I knew this woman. I knew that blonde hair, those turquoise eyes, that face…

It was Tuare.

I tried to remain calm, yet I found the act to be increasingly difficult the more I examined all the abuse that my sister had taken. How much pain must she be in from all of those untreated wounds?

"Ninya, we're going to teleport to your sister's location. I'll do what I can to get her into a moving condition, then I'll be sending Tuare and you back to my room. Understand?" I tore my eyes away from Tuare and quickly nodded to Kashia. Then, she stood up from her chair, I followed in suit. A moment later, the entire room warped and we arrived at the foot of the bed that Tuare was on.
The first thing I noticed upon arriving here was the stench, it smelled of old sex and sweat. Even through these walls, I could hear moans and screams of pain and pleasure. If the stench smelled terrible to me, I couldn't help but wonder how much worse it must be for Kashia?

Regardless of what Kashia must be smelling, she still moved quickly to the side of the bed and whispered, "[Healing of Freya]." The moment that Kashia cast her spell on Tuare, I noticed an immediate difference. Her skin took on a redder hue as the bruises and cuts all over her body faded and healed until no sign of injury remained. Finally, the labored breathing of Tuare stopped while her chest rose and fell in a healthy cadence.

"Ninya, can you pick your sister up?" I took a place at the side of the bed and scooped Tuare up in my arms. What worried me was how light Tuare felt as I cradled her in my arms. "I'm going to send you back to my room. Stay there until I come back." I didn't get a chance to respond as I found myself back in the room of Hero's Respite.

Quickly, I walked over to the lone bed in Kashia's room and set Tuare down before I pulled the bedsheets over her. I held Tuare's thin hand in my own, fully afraid that if I let her go, she might disappear on me again.

Then, I cried tears of joy.

I had my sister back…

Hello, Ten-Tailed-God here.

It's nice to see that people like this story on this site. I'll let you know now that this has been reposted from Spacebattles to , but I mainly did so because I've been getting back to writing things on again. To answer a question now, there's one more chapter after this that'll be reposted tomorrow from Spacebattles before I've caught up to the same point. But, and it's a big one, I plan to post chapter 9 by the end of this week to early next week.

To answer a few questions that you've been asking:

-Kashia won't be getting a harem to my knowledge. I have a thing against harems, mainly because they seem impractical most of the time, and that it's something I wasn't really focusing on while writing this. Probable romance, but you'll have to wait a while to see how it plays out.

-People have been asking about Ainz/Momonga, and my answer to this is...Ahahahahahahaha :D

-I will be focusing more on Kashia working more closely on her town herself starting chapter 9.

-And finally, I'm going to be posting Kashia's stat sheet with chapter 8 tomorrow.

With all of that settled, I'll be seeing all of you tomorrow. Thanks for all of the support, I truly appreciate it and I will try to be faster with my updating schedule. Thankfully, my spring break was extended for University because of a corona scare, so I'll have plenty of time to do so. Until next time.

Stay Frosty My Friends.