When I stepped out of the caretaker's house, I squinted at the violet colored sunlight shining into my eyes. After all, the door was facing west. I raised a hand to shade my eyes. From my position, I saw that the rest of my companions were waiting at the bottom of the cobblestone road. When I started walking down the road, I heard Kalistra yell.

"Milord, after ten steps, please get off the road!"

Huh? "Why?" I challenged her. I had no interest in climbing down the slope when I could use the damn road!

"It's slippery!" Bjoukin yelled back.

"We added oil," Bjoukia added.

I stared at the trio incredulously when I realized what they were doing. "Are you planning to light up the road and burn the undead?" I asked. In a way, this strategy made sense because skeletons and zombies were mindless creatures that would continuously walk through a burning road in order to reach us. That being said, I still thought it was a BAD idea because the fire could easily burn out of control.

I didn't see a water source nearby to put out the fire and prevent it from spreading beyond the road. I hoped they weren't planning to use magic to put out the fire because I certainly hadn't learned to create water from thin air. And I was doubtful that Rijana knew the spell to do so either because water creation wasn't the sort of spell that an Enchanter would carry in her precious spellbook.

"No fire," the ranger waved his arms furiously in denial of my suggestion. "We decided to make the road too slippery for the undead to climb," he explained. Bjoukin's ears burned at the thought of starting an uncontrollable fire in the cemetery. It would be a sacrilegious act for a follower in the Tenets of Life and he may be cast out of the Elven Nation for doing so.

"Fine," I replied. "You three will have to clean up the road afterward." My time spent patrolling with Captain Maisen and the Watch back in Tregome was an interesting experience that had changed me in a profound way. Because otherwise, I would never think of cleaning up the road to make it safe for citizens to walk on.

No wonder my personal alignment had changed from Neutral to Lawful-Neutral. All the time I had spent with these hardcore Lawful types such as Kalistra and Maisen had changed my character. If I had met the other player character, Arthur de Vere, earlier and went adventuring with him instead of Kalistra and Maisen, I could have easily ended up becoming a Chaotic-Neutral character.

Stop having these extraneous thoughts, Larry! I took a deep breath and cleared my mind. I needed to focus on the task at hand, namely to reach the ground without using the slippery cobblestone road. I should pretend it was another brain teaser. I peered down the side of the road, seeking footholds to climb down safely. It was a shame that Jasla wasn't here or else she could fly me down.

"Milord, there's no need for you to climb down," Rijana said. She took out her levitating disc and placed it out and beyond the road. It hovered in mid-air. "Step on it and mentally think to go down," she instructed me.

I examined the disc more closely. It was as thin as a piece of cardboard. The disc was elliptical in shape and about three feet wide and two feet long. Its caption read, "Levitating Disc." I recalled Rijana offering the use of her magic item when Kalistra was still under the influence of the poison from the Double Cross Society while we were outside Bristol. Her stamina regeneration was impeded by the poison and thus, Kalistra couldn't run to Bristol on her own. In the end, I had to carry her on my back because the cat girl refused to climb on the disc.

The disc was used to carry persons or objects and the disc could move vertically upon command. Thus, this magic item could assist a person in descending a hill. "Can the disc rise back up on its own?" I asked her.

"No," my teacher shook her head sadly. Rijana was not surprised to see that I had somehow figured out the weakness for this magic item so quickly.

"Then how will YOU get down?" I asked. I tried to hide my disappointment at the limitation of this disc because if it had greater mobility, I would have tried to use it like a hoverboard from Back to the Future 2. Alas, it wasn't meant to be!

Rijana chuckled. She pulled another disc out of her bag. "I've got another one I could use." She turned back to Soiretu. "Unfortunately, you'll have to climb down," she said.

"That's fine," the caretaker replied. He was secretly relieved he won't be forced to use that thing to climb down the hill. "I have rope inside the house. I'll use it to climb down. The undead isn't intelligent enough to use the rope to climb up. So it'll be fine to leave the rope unattended until I return." Soiretu went back into the house to get the rope.

I placed my right foot on the circular disc and pushed down to test the disc. The disc was sturdy and did not move at all, despite my weight. I shifted my body over and placed my left foot on the disc, too. I took a deep breath and then mentally commanded the disc to descend. It obeyed and started lowering at a slow pace. Before I knew it, I was on the ground.

Rijana joined me a moment later. She collected both discs and placed them into her bag.

"Is that a Bag of Holding?" I asked.

"Yes, it is," she replied with a smile. "It's pretty handy for carrying stuff with large volume. But it does not displace the weight because this is a Minor Bag of Holding. I can't afford to buy the Major version."

*THUD*

I turned and saw that the caretaker had finally joined us on the ground.

"We need to close the gate now," he said and started hurrying toward the opening in the iron fence. When he reached the gate, Soiretu pushed on the heavy doors until they closed. Then he locked the gate with a key. Once the caretaker had finished this important task, he turned toward us. "We are now on lockdown until sunrise. If we become overwhelmed by the undead that we encounter tonight, please retreat back up the hill. I left the rope on the ground for us to climb. We can seek refuge inside the house or among the trees next to the house," he instructed. Soiretu then turned toward me. "Milord, we await your command."

I nodded in appreciation of the caretaker's deference to me. As a commissioned agent of the mayor, my authority was greater than his. Thus, I needed to take command of our party. "Here's what we'll do. We're going to patrol the cemetery and hopefully flush out any roaming undead. Soiretu will be our navigator and he will chart the course for our patrol. He'll also carry the lantern and serve as bait. Kalistra and the elves will stand further out and be our lookouts for any approaching undead. Rijana and I will follow behind Soiretu and prepare to use magic and holy water if necessary," I said. "Any questions?" I waited a moment but no one spoke up. "Let's start hunting undead."

Soiretu lighted the lantern and started moving west. He decided to patrol the cemetery grounds in a clockwise direction around the hill.

Kalistra, Bjoukin, and Bjoukia stepped further out until they were beyond the illuminated radius of the lantern. Otherwise, their night vision will be ruined by the light from the lantern. The trio adopted a triangle formation with the elves standing to the left and right of Soiretu while the cat girl took the rearguard.

I suspected that Kalistra positioned herself behind me in order to keep her eye on me. But I kept silent because she was the professional and she knew what to do. I would have preferred for someone to stand in front of Soiretu but that would defeat the purpose of using him as bait.

Soiretu walked slowly. He knew the cemetery by heart. Most of the disturbances occurred north of the hill and he decided to sweep the group toward that section of the cemetery as soon as possible. The leaves on the ground crunched loudly as he stepped on them. The caretaker could have walked quieter but since he was bait, Soiretu felt the need to make extra noise to attract the roaming undead.

Bjoukin couldn't help but wince at the excessive noise. After all, the ranger was accustomed to moving silently. However, he understood what the human was trying to accomplish with his noisy patrol. And the elf couldn't help but admire Soiretu's bravery.

Bjoukia, on the other hand, was becoming more and more annoyed at the caretaker. She understood that he was trying to lure out the undead with both noise and light. But the fighter was concerned that his baiting would be too successful and leave no monster for her to fight.

Kalistra kept her mind blank. Occasionally, she climbed a tree to get a better view of their surroundings. Unfortunately, she saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Every five minutes, I closed my eyes and activated my Spirit Sense ability. I knew that the undead often stayed here in the world of mortals because their spirits were restless. If they were able to find peace, then perhaps their spirits could move on to the afterlife. After an hour or so of fruitless searching, I finally detected something! "Stop!" I commanded in a low voice.

My patrol immediately stopped moving and everyone turned toward me.

"I felt a spiritual aura that way," I pointed toward the northeast. I put a hand on Soiretu's back and said, "Soiretu, I'm going to keep my Spirit Sense active and guide you toward the aura."

The caretaker's eyes widened. Spirit Sense was a very rare ability that the Church actively sought. No wonder I had the Mayor's trust! "Yes, milord." The commoner bowed deeply and started moving.

I steered the man like the way Kalistra had steered me the day before. I pushed forward to indicate that we should walk straight. I poked my thumb if we needed to turn right.

To his credit, Soiretu followed my instructions without complaint. I was both a servant of the Church and a commissioned agent of the mayor. Therefore, the caretaker had to obey my orders.

I couldn't quite see the actual auras. But I felt something and simply moved toward it. When we finally reached the area of the foreboding aura, I said in a quiet voice, "Please raise your lantern."

The caretaker quickly held the lantern held high over his head.

The illuminated radius slowly widened until our patrol discovered something at the edge. We saw a skeleton wearing a badly torn black robe and holding a scythe. It seemed to be hovering slightly in the air. On the ground, before it was a zombie which had been cruelly dismembered into pieces.

With my Spirit Sense activated, I saw a small, blueish ball of fire hovering over the zombie.

The robed skeleton opened its mouth and sucked in the ball! Its eyes glowed a foreboding red color as it digested the ball. While the creature appeared to be a skeleton, it was acting very differently than any skeleton I had encountered during my PC gaming.

When the ball disappeared, the zombie immediately disintegrated into dust.

The skeleton took note of our presence and then it turned its head and continued moving silently while heading east.

"What the heck is that?" someone blurted out. The voice belonged to Rijana.

"Doesn't matter," Bjoukia replied. "We're here to cleanse the undead. We can't allow this thing to roam freely." The fighter drew her long sword and charged the skeleton from behind!

Bjoukin pulled back his bowstring and released his arrow. The arrow smashed into the skeleton's chest and fell harmlessly to the ground.

The robed skeleton stopped walking and turned, just in time to meet Bjoukia's charge. The monster casually swung its scythe and deflected her blade.

The surprising strength of the block caused the elf to lose her balance.

The skeleton quickly made an overhead attack to cut her in half!

*BAM*

The scythe's deadly descent was stopped by another blade. It was held by Kalistra! The cat girl pushed back with all her strength and managed to knock the skeleton back a step.

With this small opening, Bjoukin quickly launched more arrows. One, two, three in succession!

*Ping-ping-ping* All three arrows struck the skeleton in the chest and fell to the ground.

"Why isn't this undead taking damage from my blessed arrows!" the ranger yelled in frustration.

Kalistra quickly jabbed at the skeleton. The blow landed . . . for zero damage! "I'm not able to damage it, either!" she announced with great annoyance.

In response, Soiretu threw a vial of holy water. When the glass vial broke and the holy water splattered on the undead, the water made a sizzling sound. "-2 Damage," he announced.

The skeleton turned and immediately started flying toward the caretaker.

"Oh no, you don't!" Kalistra swung her sword to push the undead back again.

"It's a Soul Reaper! Heal it!" someone yelled out.

I quickly looked around but couldn't see the newcomer. Nonetheless, the feminine voice sounded vaguely familiar and I decided to trust her advice. "Throw your healing potions at it!" I ordered.

Everyone started taking out healing potions at threw the vials at the skeleton.

It screeched in pain. The skeleton tried to escape but Kalistra and the elves used their swords to push it back and forced the undead to remain in the same spot.

"I'm out," Kalistra said.

The others quickly repeated her words.

Great! If no one had a healing potion in stock, there was only one way to kill this thing--with my divine healing magic. "I'm going to cast a healing spell," I announced as I slowly approached the undead. I called forth the symbol of Gaea in my mind, a simple seed, and then I reached out with my right hand to touch the skeleton.

Sensing danger, the undead tried to lop my hand off with its scythe!

Kalistra blocked the blow. "Do it!" she yelled with gritted teeth because the skeleton was so strong!

I emptied my mana and cast Minor Heal. "-30 Damage. Soul Reaper DEFEATED. +500 XP." I barely read the message before an overwhelming sense of vertigo hit me.

The cat girl held a potion in front of my mouth and said, "Drink it!"

When I obeyed and drank the potion, which tasted like lemon and honey, I received another pop-up message which read, "+30 Mana." A glance at my blue mana bar confirmed that my mana was completely replenished.

Unbeknownst to us, a portal started to form over the spot where the Soul Reaper had fallen. A growling sound drew our attention. When we turned, we saw a pack of black hounds the size of ponies!

"Hellions!" someone cried out as the hounds jumped at each of my companions. But curiously, I was left alone by these beasts.

While the rest of my party was preoccupied, a giant skeletal hand shot out of the portal and grabbed me. I struggled to break free as the hand pulled me through the portal. Alas, I was not strong enough. The last thing I heard was "NO!" before the portal closed behind me. Then, I lost consciousness.