“When I walked, yesterday, closer lake, I saw. Them in handy weapons, and blazing fire,” the old man started talking, with Garlan trying his best to make sense of the words. “Two fought. Both burned. Roasted meat smell wafting in the air. I stopped. Around I looked. Bush found me, and I hid inside. They ravaged; goods but left the woman inside. Untouched. I hurried. Ran away to this inn. And haven’t walked out since then.”

“Do you have any idea where they went, old man?” Garlan asked, taking a seat opposite the old man. My lady stared at the old man, looking for hints of deceit. She was good at that, terrifyingly good, so it’s hard to lie to her. Not that I ever tried, because there’s no point in an undead lying.

“Large stones there,” the old man pointed away from the capital, and I realized he was referring to Carch hills. Garlan did too, for he nodded.

I was leaning beside the door when the old man’s gaze wandered to me, and fear replaced whatever little courage he had managed to garner after talking to my bread lad.

“That thing is a vile human!” he said, pointing his shivering finger at me. “Vile, cursed thing! Begone! Begone! You don’t belong here! Go back to hell!”

I sighed. If you think I will kill every other person who curses me, then I would have a pile of corpses enough to cover the entire world. I am an easygoing undead, as you know, so I just shook my head at the poor old man. He should be grateful instead of cursing me.

“He’s mine,” my lady pitched in and removed her cowl. “If you got problems with him, talk to me, mutt. I’ll show you how painful it can be to get your fingers nipped.”

She had already frozen his finger, much to Garlan’s disbelief, and my [Devil eye] ushered her to break it already. The old man stared at my lady, clearly horrified, and quickly lowered his frosted finger.

After the minor farce, we walked in the direction of Carch hill, which was only a short way west, past the woods that interrupted us. The day was still early, so I had enough time to take my lady back. Not that anyone would be worried, but now that the prince was dead, there was bound to be some more curses. And they absolutely needed my lady to be home.

Enormous boulders loomed before us once we walked past the assemblage of trees without meeting any bandits or wild animals. I suppose there is hardly any distinction between the two, but, well, it doesn’t hurt to distinguish.

The wind was sharper closer to the sloped base of the enormous rocks that had been flattened over the course of weathering. Many trees dwindled to bushes, and many fissures loitered in between the bounders that hardly reached the height of the city gates. Garlan felt for the earth mana, trying to gauge the recent surges in the vicinity, in an attempt to find a secret entrance if any ever existed.

“I’ll have a look around, mongrel,” my lady said while I tightened the cloak around her before sending her away with my [Devil eye].

“Anything, Garlan?” I asked, watching him crouch closer to one of the fissures.

“Yes,” Garlan replied. “The boulders have been moved recently, so I bet the bandits have an entire village behind this wasteful chunk.”

This was the principal difference between the undead and exclusive casters. We are least bothered to hone our skills in a single attribute, so sniffing around like a hound didn’t come naturally to us, despite having a nose. You could call us jack of all, but calling us master of none might cost you pretty heavily. Earth attribute mages have an uncanny ability to sense earth’s movements or movement of tectonic plates, as the modern world might call it, but only after honing your skills will you get such passive boosts.

Do I have such a skill? Obviously, I do. How else do you think I sniff out good bread?

“You want me to move them?” I asked, settling down next to him.

“There are traps, Rudolf. Boulders might roll on us, or we might get zapped–“

I cast [Boulder] spell and split the fissure, giving way to large, almost circular rocks rolling from the top.

“Told you, asshole!” he cursed and ran in the direction of the woods.

I sighed and cast [Gravity], once all the rocks were hurling in the air, ready to descend and crush the vegetation underneath. The rocks in the vicinity instantly stopped moving and lodged themselves in the ground, leaving prominent craters. Garlan was on his knees, and even my lady had trouble walking.

“Fuck, Rudolf! Aren’t you an Amateur mage? How come you are casting Cognoscente spell?” Garlan yelled after getting back on his feet once I stopped my spell.

“I never said that, Garlan,” I smiled at him, and my lady walked out of a clearing, smacking my head hard once she reached me. I had to bend considerably, but yes, I got struck.

“Warn me, mongrel!”

“Well, I was out of time, my lady,” I said, glancing at the large boulders around us. There were more than eight, enough to crush an Amateur mage and that old man in the inn. Should have brought him along.

“Are those bandits?” Garlan asked, staring at the silhouettes at the top of the large rocky hill.

“They look like pigs, ready to be slaughtered,” I replied with a haughty smile.

My lady glared at the newcomers and stood in front of me, ready to cast a spell, ushering me to move back. This was her fight, and maybe her first, so I understood her enthusiasm. I leisurely retreated and basked in the share of a tree.

“Hey, hey, Rudolf!” Garlan took cautious steps back. “Are you asking me to handle four mages on my own?”

“On our own, mutt!”

“On MY own, lady Letitia. What can you even do?”

She cast [Ice Shards] that zoomed past his cheek before he could even avert his gaze from her. Garlan stared at her, flabbergasted, but his overflowing pride didn’t let him acknowledge her. Well, I should warn him one of these days. For I can’t be blamed if she decided to skewer him later on.

“Still, two against four will hardly be a fight–“

The men with black bandanas slid past the rocks in unison, casting [Spark] on both of them. My lady jumped out of the way, grazing her knee as she failed to land on her feet, but her glare in my direction told me she could handle this. Garlan took it head-on, casting [Strengthen], and I think even without the spell, his thick skin would have insulated that puny electricity.

“Exhaust their mana, my lady. That’s the easiest way to beat them,” I said, as Garlan cast [Boulder] and retreated a few steps.

“That’s too easy of a fight, mongrel!” she snickered, but the men who had reached the ground held her attention.

“More mercenaries?” The sturdy one snarled. “Didn’t the guild lose enough already?”

“Arcep, Buldo, you get that fat ass,” the blady said, staring in my direction. “I’ll get that lazy ass, and Curp will handle that bitch.”

“Roger, boss,” the men said, and they were all set to sweep us off.

“What now, my lady?” I asked.

“Play with him for a while. I’ll show that bastard what this bitch can do,” my lady said, casting a wall of fire before Curp, the sturdy man, could reach her.

I tried casting [Fatigue] on the baldy boss, ready to fight if it didn’t work, but surprisingly the man fell asleep. Did I overestimate them? I wondered because even Garlan hardly fell asleep involuntarily with my [Fatigue] given that he was an Amateur high-tier mage.

[Ice Shards] followed the sturdy man, but the man dodged it blithely, casting [Strengthen] and charging through the [Firewall]. I put off the fire once it was rendered useless, obviously because of forest fires.

My lady used [Freeze] on his feet, and the man stumbled but cast [Boulder] on time, whipping my lady off her feet. Both fell at the same time, Letitia scraping her arms so badly that blood flowed out. She removed her cloak and tore the gown that was dangling down her waist close to her knees. There goes my month’s bread. I wish I had made her wear trousers.

The man struggled back on his feet as my lady cast [Ice Shards] three times in succession, sixteen sickles looming before the man before they charged at him one at a time. A couple of them pierced his arms, but he managed to dodge most of them by dancing around with his [Weightless] spell.

The man was hesitant to cast any more spells, so he charged, punching my lady across her face even though she had frozen him below the knees. The force slammed her to the ground enough to cause a bruise on her cheeks, and blood trickled down her broken lips.

She got back up, wiping her bleeding lips with the back of her hands, and stared at the frozen man with a smile. The thrill of the battle was crawling up her skin, and it couldn’t be any more obvious. She would start enjoying it soon, followed by blood, then slaughter, then domination, before it could turn to boredom, for her life was too short.

Garlan was rolling on the open ground, his clothes on fire, and hair all straight, thanks to [Spark]. I sighed, watching his terrible antics, but his next [Boulder] kept his assaulters at bay. He was back on his feet just as fast, probably because he was efficient in whirling thanks to his profound body.

My lady worked up her courage and punched the frozen man straight across his cheek. The man didn’t even flinch but sent my lady airborne after another strike across her left cheek. Both her cheeks were swollen now, and I wondered if she really thought her weak punch would strengthen magically and hurl the man across just like that. Well, if she did, it was good that she learned the bitter truth the hard way.

“This bastard needs to die!” she cursed and summoned another assembly of ice sickles that pierced the man’s body, arms, abdomen, legs and grazed his cheeks before disappearing into the sink of mana. Sadly, he didn’t die, even though he was out cold on the ground.

Garlan, too, had mysteriously managed to turn the tide of the battle, and his opponents were the ones rolling on the ground instead of him, albeit without fire. His burnt clothes needed some work, nevertheless, as I could clearly see his exposed butt.

Before my lady could glance in his direction, I threw him my cloak, which he caught gratefully and wrapped it around him.