After that encounter, he returned to the nearby woods to stay the night. After finding a spot to lay down, Emil forced himself to sleep. The next morning, he sat up. He was instantly wide awake and fully ready to go.

From the town, he could hear and smell all sorts of things. The banging of metal, scent of things being baked, and more. The sun was up and things were lively. Emil looked over his things, deciding what he would bring with him.

‘Well, the flame boar bones are obvious since I want to try selling them. Maybe my flask of water too. Most of the other supplies can stay here though, since I won’t immediately need them. As for the memory orbs…’ He began to think.

The orbs were concentrated sources of death. He didn’t know if that was something Mages or even just normal people could pick up on. The super-sized one would definitely stay behind, just due to how large it was. As for the smaller ones, however, Emil decided to bring just one with him for his first trip.

In the best-case scenario, even a trained Mage wouldn’t be able to sense its power. But for the worst case, that was something he didn’t want to actually think about. Meanwhile, Theo crawled out of a pocket and flew over to the top of his hand.

“Hey little guy, you doing okay? It’s been a little while since you came out. That explosion with the boar must have been rough for you, huh? Good thing you were hiding there and not on my shoulder like usual, or you might have been blown away.” Emil inspected the undead roach. There was now a thin, almost translucent dark veil surrounding its body. Most likely, it was an aftereffect of being hit by the wave of death energy as well.

“Hmm. We’ll need to figure out what exactly that is. But until then, you’ll stay here too. If any animals come by and start poking around my stuff then…” Emil looked around for a moment and grabbed a pebble. “Fly over to the town, but stay high in the air. When you spot me, just drop this on my head.” He instructed Theo.

‘Okay, that settles that, I think. Let’s set a goal for today: money, shopping, and information. I need to sell these bones and hopefully make a good profit from them. Then, I want at least one enchanted scroll to check on my Sheet. As well as a couple new pairs of clothes.’

He looked down at his dirty, torn-up outfit. It was covered in a mix of dirt, soot, and had basically been ruined. On his way to the town, he had paused to try and wash some of it out. However, he had barely made a dent in his attempt to clean it.

‘Yeah, then I might as well just toss all this away. While I’m doing that, I need to find out what people are reporting and saying about the dig site. Then there’s the silver one. All I know about them is that this person lives in the town, and has silver in their mouth. That’s likely at least one silver tooth, if not more teeth.’

That detail alone would be pivotal though. Without knowing their gender, age, or really any other physical characteristic, it was the only trait he had to work with. He would need to find out how many people in this town had silver in their mouths though. Perhaps a local dentist would be the best person to ask.

But even if he could make a list of every person with that trait, how would he narrow it down from there? And even if he did manage to pick out the killer from that group, how would he then collect evidence? If possible, Emil wanted to do things the legal and proper way. By having the community and local government be the ones responsible for dealing out justice.

Emil decided that he’ll figure it out when he actually got there. For now, though, he still needed to do everything else on today’s to-do list. It was time for him to go into the town. The cemetery was seemingly at the backside. In that case, if he wanted to come in through the front gate as anyone else would, he needed to walk around. And so, he began to make his way there.

As Emil walked on a path alongside the main road, he took a deep breath of the cool air as he entered the town. He let it out, trying to push out the tension in his body along with it. Rows of buildings lined each side of the street. In the middle of the road, there was a section of grass. Growing from it were a variety of plants and trees.

There were some people walking around and driving past in their carriages. A few gave him strange looks. He knew it was because of his clothes, but at that moment, he didn’t care. After the last couple of weeks of just worrying and creating hypothetical scenarios in his head, Emil was finally here. It was time for him to do this. First things first, he needed to find the market.

Early in the morning, it would likely be the area with the most people. As everyone would likely be there for their groceries and breakfast. And if it was anything like the town he had grown up in, the marketplace was probably in or near the middle. So he would go and check there first.

After continuing to walk alongside the road, he arrived at the town square. Emil took a look around. There were food stalls around the outside, selling hot and freshly made street food. They called out to the people passing by, informing them of what they had to sell and their prices. Then there were the buildings in the area, each one with a sign describing what kind of shop it was.

A crowd of people was moving around. After the constant silence of the woods, the background noise of everyone talking and walking was a relief to his ears. Before, he wouldn’t have considered himself a people person. But now, he just felt relieved to have rejoined civilization and no longer be alone.

But this place really did remind him of his hometown. Of when he would regularly go to the local market with his family. He and his younger siblings would almost always bug their parents into getting treats. Emil rapidly blinked, wiping his arm against his eyes before the tears could come.

He regretted not writing them a longer, and more sincerely heartfelt letter before he had left the Academy. Chances were, he would never get to see or speak to any of them again. With what he had turned into, and would later become, it was safer that way. Just so that they wouldn’t be associated with him, and potentially exposed to the consequences of his actions. But… was that really the case, would they actually be safe?

Emil looked at the crowd, at each person and family. What would happen to them when Alterum returned? The dragon’s target was the gods. But that would full-blown war of literally divine proportions. How it would impact the people of this world? He realized then, that it would depend on him. On where he established the kingdom of undeath and its army. Wherever that area was, would likely be the central point of devastation to come.

Emil closed his eyes. That was something for the future. For now, he needed to do what he came here to do. When his business in this town was done, would be when he could move on. He had made a promise to find the silver one and help the children’s ghosts find their peace. That needed to be his main priority for now, he could think about the future afterward.

He let out a sigh, being overly anxious about the future was always something he did. Emil needed to worry more about the here and now. He looked at the different signs for the shops. There were a few kinds, but he needed one that would be able to buy the flame boar bones. Eventually, he spotted one that sounded like what he was looking for.

‘The Magical Artifact Emporium. Okay, let’s try there.’ He went closer to it. There were no windows on the front to let him see inside. On the front door, there was a small window. But the inner side was covered by an open sign. Emil opened the door and walked in.