When Yeoman had heard about the promotion mission, he had expected it to be a small-scale endeavor, one that only included his party; however, after grouping up with his companions, he found that wasn’t the case. There were over a hundred people gathered at the gate of the town. Yeoman wasn’t even sure where the majority of them stayed overnight. Some of the faces were familiar. Yeoman frowned. “I thought this was a promotion mission to rank C.”

“It is,” Cody said. He was sitting at the head of a caravan. This time, the wooden vehicle had two horses attached to it. “It’s a large-scale mission. There’s a B-ranked adventurer party leading it; they’re there to kill the kobold king. The D-rankers are here to deal with the rest of the kobolds to prevent them from interfering with the B-rankers. As for the plebs”—Cody gestured towards the familiar faces, the ones belonging to the abductees from Earth—“they’re there to clean up the aftermath of the battle.”

Evidently, the E-rankers from Earth did not like being called plebs, judging from the expressions on their faces. As usual, Cody didn’t care about other people’s feelings, speaking in a loud voice that anyone could hear. Yeoman thought about it. If the camp had a kobold king, there were likely up to a thousand kobolds gathered, maybe more. Rather than hiring an SSS-ranked party to obliterate the camp, it was less costly for the adventurers’ guild to hire a bunch of newbies, and it’d let the participants get some experience as well. Yeoman nodded, and a bee fell off of his head.

“Is that going to keep on happening?” Kat asked, staring at the bee. It crawled onto Yeoman’s body again, wandering around, following the green lines on his skin. “You said a fairy made you smell like flowers?”

Yeoman nodded again and examined the rest of the party. Cody was in the driver’s seat while everyone else was in the back. There were a few portions of metal attached to Cody’s bow, and Yeoman figured it was a new one. Ella was still holding onto the spear Yeoman had given her. She was wearing leather armor, but there were metal plates embedded in it. Aakash’s swords had all been changed into sabers. Joanne’s shields were also exchanged for ones that looked sturdier. Kat had two daggers hanging from her waist, no longer using animal teeth as weapons. As for Yeoman, the party had bought some things for him—with his money. They had given him a vest and pair of pants made from the thick-skinned crocodile hide. They had also bought him a weapon that suited him. Honestly, Yeoman was a bit doubtful about it. It was a two-handed mace.

[Giant Two-Handed Mace (Junk): The creator of this mace had no idea what he was doing. You, the buyer, also have no idea what you’re doing.]

The mace was indeed giant. It was about as long as he was tall. The handle was about as long and thick as his arm, and Yeoman couldn’t even wrap his whole hand around it. Extending off of the handle, there was a cylindrical chunk of metal that was slightly wider than his head. Other than that, there was nothing special about it. If anything, it looked like a child’s drawing of a baseball bat.

“It took three of us to carry that onto here,” Kat said, noticing Yeoman’s gaze. “It might say (Junk) in the item description, but that’s only because the rating system is weird. It’s a very practical weapon for you.”

Yeoman nodded. It was indeed a practical weapon for him. He didn’t have to think while swinging it, and Yeoman suspected if he dropped it from the sky, he could kill someone with it. Yeoman’s brow furrowed. He wasn’t sure if he could even fly with it. A cubic foot of iron weighed close to five hundred pounds, and the non-handle part of the mace was about four feet long. Yeoman guessed the weapon weighed about a ton. After thinking about it, if he could fly with the alphabet rock, he could definitely fly with this. “How much did it cost?”

“Twenty silver,” Joanne said. “The blacksmith sold it at a loss. He had it for years, and no one wanted to buy it.”

“Why not?” Yeoman asked. People in this world were abnormally strong thanks to mana. It wouldn’t be hard to find someone who could use a weapon like this.

“Only B-ranked adventurers could comfortably wield something like that,” Joanne said. “And by the time they’re B-ranked, they’ll already have enough money to buy better weapons.”

It was an odd explanation, but Yeoman accepted it. “Where’s the rest of my money?”

“Here,” Cody said, tossing a pouch over to Yeoman. It was still pretty weightless, but it felt like there were more coins in it than before. The gold had probably been split into silver. “We mostly bought medicine. We’re clearly supposed to create a structured party to pass these stages, but we don’t have access to any healing magic. It probably won’t be an issue in later stages when people can regenerate limbs with starfish genes, but early on, it’s a pain.”

Magic, huh? Yeoman honestly didn’t feel like the world he was currently in was very magical. The only few usages of magic he’d seen was when Swirling Wind slaughtered the goblins. There was also that ritual the goblin shaman had performed, but it didn’t feel very magical. Oh, there was the weakness spell from the goblin shaman’s staff too, but still, for a magical world, it was very lackluster. There was supposed to be time magic, fire magic, lightning magic, wind magic, but all Yeoman got was a ring that made him smell like flowers instead. “If we fly over to the eastern continent, do you think we can make contracts with elementals?” In the second book of The Blue Mage Raised by Dragons, The Kingdom Razed by Dragons, the setting happened on a different continent, and the main character made contracts with all kinds of elementals.

“Probably not,” Cody said and shook his head. “According to The Kingdom Razed by Dragons, elementals only contract with people who have abundant amounts of mana. We don’t have any.”

Yeoman stroked his chin. “What if we were able to get mana? What if a magical beast imprinted one of us?”

Cody snorted. “You think we haven’t thought about this? All I can say is good luck.”

Yeoman nodded. It would require a lot of luck to be imprinted by a magical beast; only the important characters of the original novel enjoyed that privilege.

“We’re setting off! Remember your positions!”

“Seems like it’s starting,” Cody said and grabbed the reins. As D-rankers, they were to bring up the rear of the convoy in case of an attack. “I hope there’s enough kobolds for all of us to get an upgrade.”

Yeoman grimaced. If the kobolds were anything like the goblins, Yeoman didn’t think he’d have the heart to kill them. Logically, he understood he needed to get stronger, and killing kobolds would help him do that, but at the same time, he thought it was morally wrong. There were plenty of cases on Earth where people had done morally bankrupt things in the name of just following orders or just doing their jobs. In fact, an experiment was created by a certain scientist who wanted to understand why genocides could take place, how the evil thoughts of one person could be carried out by good, normal people. The experiment involved asking a regular person to deliver electric shocks to someone, an unknown person, in another room. As long as the accompanying researcher told the regular person it was okay to deliver the shocks, the regular person would continue to shock the unknown person on the other side of the wall, even when the unknown person begged them to stop. Even when the unknown person was banging against the wall, pleading, even when the unknown person stopped responding, regular people would continue to administer electric shocks as long as they were told it was okay to continue by an authority figure. Two out of three regular people—sixty-six percent—continued to the end, shocking the unknown person even after there was no response. Yeoman didn’t want to be included in that percentage. He didn’t want to slaughter kobolds, commit genocide, just because someone told him it was okay because, to him, it wasn’t okay. He needed to get stronger to survive, but surely, there were other ways to do that, ways that didn’t involve throwing away his humanity.

“We’re here. Get ready.”

Yeoman’s body jerked. He must’ve been in a zombie’s state of sleep, conserving energy by not moving and slowing his thoughts. It felt like only a minute had passed, but Yeoman didn’t have to turn his head at all to see outside the caravan thanks to his crow eyes. The party had begun their journey in the early morning, yet the sun had already set.

“Finally awake?” Ella asked, raising an eyebrow at Yeoman. “You’re just in time.”

“We’re stopping here for the night?” Yeoman asked, following Ella off the caravan. There were a few torches illuminating the convoy. Everyone was disembarking from their vehicles.

“Stopping for the night?” Ella asked. “Do you know how long you’ve been asleep?”

Yeoman’s brow furrowed. “A day?”

“It’s been a week.”

Was Ella playing a prank on him? Yeoman glanced at his left wrist, checking the main mission. Surprisingly, there really were seven less days until the main mission was complete. What was going on? How did he fall asleep for that long? Something like that had never happened before.

“Have you been eating?” Ella asked, looking up and down Yeoman’s body. “You said you reduced your hunger levels, but … that just means you can’t feel hunger. It doesn’t mean you don’t need to eat.”

“The fungus photosynthesizes,” Yeoman said.

“So?” Ella asked. “Plants still need water. How much have you drunk? What happens when the sun isn’t out? If zombies could live off sunlight, then they wouldn’t be eating brains all the time.”

Yeoman scratched his head. Ella had a very good point. He hadn’t felt hungry at all, so he assumed the sunlight was enough to sustain him as long as he went into his low-power mode at night, but if the weeklong nap he just took was anything to go by, then it definitely wasn’t enough. The interior of the caravan wasn’t exposed to much sunlight either. Perhaps turning down his hunger levels wasn’t that great of an idea; they were there for a reason.

Ella shook her head, her expression asking what she was going to do with such a clueless party member. “Here, eat this,” she said and handed Yeoman some biscuits and jerky. “We don’t have too long to prepare; we’re about to do a night raid on the kobold camp. Also, you should thank Aakash. You’re heavy, and combined with your weapon, you’re really heavy. He had to hop out of the wagon a few times to get us unstuck.”

Aakash nodded at Yeoman. “I hope my efforts were worth it.”

“Thanks,” Yeoman said and scratched his head. The best way to prove his worth would be to kill kobolds and contribute greatly to the raid; however, he wasn’t sure he could do that. He could almost see the disappointment in his party members’ faces. Perhaps that was why some soldiers could commit atrocities during war: peer pressure.

Yeoman ate the biscuits and jerky; they were hard, but he easily bit through them thanks to his increased bite force. He hadn’t found many chances to use it offensively, only having bit through a wyvern’s stomach, but at least there was another use for it in eating preserved food. The biscuits didn’t taste like anything; Yeoman wasn’t sure if it was because he was a zombie or if it was because they just didn’t have any flavor. The jerky more than made up for it though, tasting like a little piece of salted heaven.

Yeoman looked around. Everyone was gearing up, getting ready for the raid. Yeoman wasn’t sure fighting in the dark was a good idea, but at least one member of their team would be fine: Kat’s eyes were practically glowing. A sigh escaped from Yeoman’s mouth. There was no way he could stop this raid, not when this many people and resources had been invested in it. The kobolds were going to be exterminated. Some adventurers would die. No one won except for the nobles who had ordered the extermination in the first place.

“Here’s the plan,” Cody said. “Joanne and Aakash up front as usual. Kat and Ella offer them support from behind. I’ll be in the back, and Yeoman will protect me.”

The party members nodded. None of them were opposed to the plan. Yeoman couldn’t help but wonder why he wasn’t put up front. “You sure all you want me to do is protect you?”

Cody narrowed his eyes at Yeoman. “Have you ever played any strategy games? Sometimes, you’re given a strong character at the start of the game, but that’s a trap. They’re experience-points thieves. You could kill kobolds easily, but what’s the point? You’ll get a tiny bit stronger; maybe, your strength will increase by ten percent. If Aakash kills the kobolds and unlocks their muscles, he’ll easily get fifty, maybe sixty percent stronger. I’m working under the assumption our party will carry over to the next stage. It’s better for us to get stronger as a whole.”

Yeoman nodded. Cody was a good leader when it came to practical matters, but he still had to work on the social and emotional bits. What if Yeoman had been more selfish and refused to stay behind? There could’ve easily been formed tensions from a decision like that. Luckily, Yeoman was looking for an excuse not to kill kobolds, and Cody had provided him with one. “I’ll guard you. Quite frankly, I’m not comfortable killing things. A position like this suits me better.”

Before anyone else could say anything, a short man came up to them. “Party First, are you ready?”

“We’re ready,” Cody said.

The man nodded and went off, checking the rest of the parties. It didn’t take long for everyone to confirm their status. Once the B-ranked party received confirmation, the leader shouted, “We’ll kill the king. The rest of you, go wild! Charge!”

Yeoman was baffled. What was the point of a night raid if they weren’t going to sneak in and kill sleeping kobolds? Why shout and wake them all up? However, even if he were given a chance to voice his opinion, it didn’t matter. Everyone was surging forward. Since Yeoman didn’t have to worry about fighting on the front lines or waking the enemy, he propped his gigantic mace against his right shoulder, holding the handle with his right arm. He took out his Dread Callers, using two fingers to barely grab one of them with his right hand. He hit the right Dread Caller with the left one, causing a clanging sound to ring out. He might not be fighting, but he could still increase his allies’ combat potentials and weaken the kobolds from a distance thanks to the Dread Callers’ special effect.

[Dread Callers (Rare): When the Dread Callers ring, all living beings learn the definition of fear. Reduces the stats of all enemies within ringing range by 10%. Increases the stats of all allies within ringing range by 10%. May attract the undead.]

Yeoman wasn’t sure how long the effect lasted, but considering the smart infected repeatedly hit the rods together, the interval must’ve been short. Yeoman followed Cody, hitting the Dread Callers against each other once every five seconds, while the rest of the party went forward. Cody was hanging around the back with his bow, looking for a vantage point to shoot from. “You’re not going to fly?” Yeoman asked.

“Not until all the kobold mages are dead,” Cody said. “I’ll be a sitting duck up in the sky with no cover.”

It seemed like Cody had done his research before accepting the mission. Yeoman honestly still had no idea what a kobold looked like. Cody found a particularly large rock, and Yeoman followed him up it. From there, he saw the adventurers clashing against doglike creatures. They were dogs, but they were standing like humans. They reminded Yeoman of golden retrievers, and Yeoman was glad Cody had had him stay back. Golden retrievers were too goddamn adorable. There was no way he could kill a kobold and have a good night’s rest afterwards.

It didn’t take long for Yeoman to spot the kobold mages. They had curly hair, and their coats were especially shaggy, similar to a labradoodle’s. They were shooting laser beams out of the tops of their staves. When the beam hit an adventurer, the adventurer would shout and get knocked back. An arrow flew from Cody’s bow, shooting into the crowd. Yeoman didn’t really pay attention to where it went; he lost track of it in the darkness.

The fight between the B-ranked adventurers and the kobold king was easy to spot. There was a clearing around them, but that wasn’t the only thing. The kobold king was massive, easily eight feet tall. Its fur coat made it look even bigger, and it was swinging a mace very similar to the one Yeoman had but using only one hand. Yeoman didn’t know many dog breeds, but he definitely knew about the Tibetan mastiff. He was pretty sure the kobold king was based off of one.

The fight continued, and it went pretty much how Yeoman had expected it to. The humans were suffering few casualties while the kobolds were being slaughtered. There were a bunch of humans hanging around, the E-ranked party members, who were waiting for the fight to be over. One of them suddenly let out a scream. Yeoman frowned and turned his head, looking behind himself in the direction the person had shrieked from.

Clink. Clank. Clink. Clank.

There were hundreds, no, thousands of skeletons marching in sync with one another. When their left foots hit the ground, there was a clinking sound. When their right foots hit the ground, there was a clanking sound. The sound was coming from their swords and shields jangling, tapping their rusted armor. In The Blue Mage Raised by Dragons, the skeletons were a tool of comedy, meant to make the readers laugh. However, Yeoman found nothing hilarious about the skeletons at all. They were terrifying, wordlessly marching towards the unsuspecting humans and kobolds with their weapons drawn, their jaws fixed in a permanent grin.

Yeoman nudged Cody, causing the Asian man to curse as the arrow he was shooting flew off course, striking one of the B-ranked party members in the butt.

“Never touch—!” Cody’s mouth shut once he saw what Yeoman saw through the eye on the back of his neck. “Oh, shit. Why are there skeletons? No one said there’d be skeletons!”

Yeoman swallowed, and a random thought came to mind. Skeletons were undead, right? Could it be his Dread Callers might’ve woken them up or called them over…? There was that tiny innocuous sentence at the end of the item description that he had completely forgotten about because it should’ve only applied to the setting of A Rational Zombie. This … couldn’t be blamed on him, right?