“Listen, all I’m sayin’ is that we’re not camping here unless we’re sure it’s completely safe. I’m just gonna go check the pond, and make sure there’s not some kind of crazy fish-gator lair in a secret cave behind the waterfall,” Jack continued to pull off his armor.

“So, you want to go spelunking in an unknown cave system in an alien world full of monsters. Seems legit,” Erin scowled at him.

“No, I want to make sure there isn’t an unknown cave system to spelunk in,” he frowned.

“You don’t have to do it,” she grumbled.

“You’re right, I don’t. We can just leave, and head north,” he dropped his rucksack by the shore.

“I don’t think we’re gonna have much success with that,” Erin grimaced, looking back at the other two Chosen.

Layla was snoring loudly, sprawled next to Rory with one leg thrown over the salesman’s lap and one at a ninety-degree angle from the ground, propped against a tree. Rory had Toben’s journal laid across her leg, where he was using one of his last ballpoint pens to make notes in the margins of the precious book.

“Then I’m going to check the pond and make sure we aren’t still in danger,” he smiled gently.

“What if we are, though? What if there’s another one of those things down there, and it eats you and drags you into a subterranean nightmare dungeon full of T-Rex-sized catfish-gator-monsters, and I never see you again,” she pouted.

“Then at least it won’t eat you,” he kissed her on the cheek and finished stripping down to his breeches, then waded into the water and disappeared beneath the surface.

“Did… did Jack just… go for a swim… in the same pond the monster came out of?” Rory had looked up just as Jack passed below the water.

“Yes,” Erin grunted.

“But… why?” the salesman boggled.

“He wants to make sure there’re no monsters in the lake before we camp for the night,” she grumbled.

“And his exploratory method is to… dangle himself as bait?” Rory quirked an eyebrow.

“I mean, to be fair, did you see what he did when that thing tried to eat him?” she crossed her legs and sat down in front of the other two.

“Yeah. It was…” Rory blew out a sigh.

“Fuckin’ hot, right?” Erin grinned.

“I wasn’t gonna say it, but yeah, it was fuckin’ hot,” he smiled wryly.

Behind Erin, Jack’s head broke the surface of the water and he quietly crept up the shore toward her back.

“I can hear you, Jackson,” she didn’t turn.

“But…” he started.

“You’re dripping,” she laid back and gave him an upside-down smile.

“Fair, I guess,” he smiled.

“No more fish-gators down there?” Rory cleared his throat and looked away.

“No, no, what was that?” Erin sat upright, grinning at him. “I saw that.”

“Shut up, legs,” he replied.

“Oh, no you don’t,” she turned and looked at Jack, then slowly spun back to face Rory.

Jack was standing in the fading sun, the rays of light dappling through the trees painting his ghostly pale body in gently moving shadows and glints of refracted light. Their time here had been extremely kind to his physique, and what body fat had remained on him after weeks of fighting and marching seemed to have vacated the premises with his transformation. The result was like Michaelangelo’s David, down to the color of Jack’s marble-like skin. As the shadows played across his torso, the shaded areas revealed the pulsing of the dark heart within him, spreading ichor underneath the skin.

“You were looking,” she giggled.

“I was not,” Rory’s poker face was flawless.

She watched his gaze dart above her head and his eyes and eyebrows creep up. When she turned to follow his stare, Jack had placed both hands on top of his head and tensed every muscle from his chest to the hem of his breeches. The result was…

“You’re looking now,” she whispered.

“Shut up, you’ll ruin it,” he whispered back.

Jack finally broke down and began laughing. The mirth was infectious and Erin and Rory joined him, until their giggling eventually woke Layla.

“Mmph. Ungh. Is it? What? Morning? Breffkess?” she mumbled.

“Nope. Not even all the way dark yet,” Erin replied.

“Why is Jack naked?” she asked, eyes still bleary.

“Holy shit, Jackson. When the fuck did you get all Tyler Durden?”

She was awake now.

“Easy there, killer,” Rory laughed.

“I don’t think the undead much need body fat,” he grinned.

“So, we camp here?” Erin asked.

“Yeah. There’s nothing behind the waterfall. There’s a few more of those things down in the lake, but none over ten feet long. Poked a couple eyeballs out and they suddenly lost their appetites,” he replied. “I’m gonna start butchering big ugly and see if he tastes like sashimi.”

“Ooooooooo, fish for dinner?” Layla perked up.

“As long as it’s edible, yeah,” Jack turned to walk back to the shore.

He dressed and retrieved his carving knife from his rucksack, then went to work on field dressing the big beast and dumping the entrails into the pond. Plenty of good-sized fish, creatures that vaguely resembled turtles, and a few of the smaller fish-gators showed up for the feast. The monstrosity was labeled a “Giant Nemasuchus” by their panels and its meat was, in fact, edible. Not only that, it was almost as delicious raw as it was seared. They’d eventually discover it was even pretty decent smoked, though they’d already had enough smoked fish to last a lifetime. Only Jack had eaten alligator back home, but the Nemasuchus only vaguely resembled the gamey flavor of gator, having more of a freshwater fish taste. He salted thick steaks of the creature’s meat and seared them with small amounts of Rory’s butter. The general review was ten-outta-ten from all participants.

After dinner, he went back to butchering the monster, clearing out as much meat as he could harvest. A good portion of the raw meat went into Rory’s storage, then Jack cooked up a dozen more steaks, which also went into storage. Rory had discovered almost immediately that stored items were in some kind of magical stasis and neither spoiled nor changed temperature. Jack would’ve preferred to smoke the rest to preserve the meat, but doing so would have eaten up another full day, and they already had a hundred pounds of fish hidden away in Rory’s storage.

The keratinous plates that hadn’t been destroyed during the fight were tier two crafting materials, as well as the claws and fangs. While butchering the creature, Jack discovered at the base of each of the spines trailing down the back, a fist-sized poison gland produced a clear, sticky fluid that appraised as a tier three alchemical reagent. The beast represented a massive haul, even discounting the true prize.

“Rory, c’mere. I need your Appraise skill,” Jack called.

“Yours isn’t high enough?” the salesman gloated.

“I know you have upgrades for it, ass,” he slung a ropy string of congealed blood from his arm and dipped the carving knife into the pond to clean it and his hands.

In the other hand, he held a fist-sized crystal that glowed with a gentle inner light. He tossed the muck-covered gem to Rory, who deftly drew his dagger and caught the gem, balancing it on the quillion’s blade, never allowing the gore to touch him.

Erin and Jack, who had seen the impressive feat of dexterity, stared in shock.

“Holy shit, bud, that was awesome!” Jack cheered.

“Rory, how the hell did you do that?” Erin bounced over to him.

“I think my Agility passed the ‘strictly human’ marker around level thirty,” he smiled, then activated his Appraise skill.

“Oh, my giddy aunt. Jack… you beautiful undead greek god, you,” Rory stared at the results on his panel. “Look.”

Elite Nemasuchus Gem (Epic, Level 29)

An epic resource harvested from an elite beast. Grants the Ambush, Lurk, or Tide properties. A skilled crafter can evoke more than one quality from this resource.

“Oh. Oh my. That’s almost as sexy as you, Jackson,” Erin bumped him with her shoulder, careful to avoid his grimy forearms.

“All yours, bud. Seems perfect for you,” Jack grinned.

“Oh, no, I can’t. Think of how much this thing-” Rory paused. “Nope, nevermind. Thank you very much, Jack,” he tossed the gory gem into his storage.

“I figure we’ll get someone to toss that thing into your dagger once we get to Moryven, yeah?” Jack smiled again.

“Sounds like a damn fine plan,” Rory beamed back.

“I’m gonna take a bath and get all this off me, then I’m gonna get to building us a fire big enough that the little lake monsters won’t bother us in the night,” he turned and started toward the lake, walking nearly to the shore, then paused.

He slowly spun around, a bizarre look on his face as he stared at the giant fish-gator’s corpse. It took Rory and Erin a moment to figure out where they’d seen that look before. Erin leaned over to Rory.

“Why do I recognize that look?” she whispered.

The light bulb went off.

“Because it’s the look Layla makes before she does something impulsive and crazy…” his eyes widened in horrified anticipation.

“JACKSON AVERY HOLT! DON’T YOU DARE DO WHATE-” Erin started.

Across from them, in the setting sun, Jack’s eyes blazed with black fire and dark mana poured off his body in waves.

“Raise Zombie.”