Emil opened his eyes and lifted his face from the floor. Slowly, he looked around, initially not sure of where he was. But as his mind woke up and the grogginess faded, he remembered. He was in the dungeon, and everything that happened hadn’t just been a horrible nightmare. Part of him wanted to curl up into a ball and never move again.

However, he knew he didn’t have any other choice but to accept reality. Emil pushed himself to stand up anyway and pat the dust off his clothes. He still didn’t know if he was ready to actually accept his new Necromancer yet. Or if he was willing to acknowledge the destiny tied with it. But for now, he pushed those thoughts away, and focused on the immediate future.

He knew he couldn’t stay in the dungeon forever. Even if he tried and went back for his group’s supplies and rations, a search party would eventually be sent down. Emil knew that going up to everyone else was his only real option. However, what kind of story could he possibly even tell?

He could say there was a collapse in the structure and that his entire group had been crushed under the rubble. But even then, a rescue team might be sent down. There wouldn’t be anything they could find that would match his story. Perhaps instead, he could tell a fabricated version of what really happened. He could say there was a monster that killed everyone else, and only he managed to survive and escape. It would technically be the truth.

But if they sent people down, they would eventually find the dragon’s skeleton. Though that would be an issue in itself. If Alterum reawakened, it would mean Emil had given a death sentence to whoever went down. But even if it remained dormant, they might try to take some of the bones out of the cavern. It would prove impossible due to the spells that kept it imprisoned.

He stood there, thinking long and hard about what explanation he could give. However, a different kind of idea eventually crossed his mind. Did he actually have to rejoin everyone else? At this point, did he even truly want to go back to First Light Academy?

Ever since his grades and performance had started to fall behind, he had wished he could justify dropping out. That he could run away from it all, and just hit the reset button on his life. If he wanted to, now would be the perfect time to simply disappear.

From what he could tell from where he stood, it was likely evening outside. When night fell, the others would likely be worried, but move on to their sleeping quarters. If they decided to send a search party, there was a good chance they would wait until the next morning. So while they were all gone from the excavation site for the night, he could simply sneak away and leave it all behind.

Maybe that would just be him choosing to run away. That he was too cowardly to face anyone and didn’t even have the guts to make up a decent lie. But if he did decide to commit himself down this path, it would be easier to not be around the people he already knew. If he could just go somewhere where he didn’t know anyone and nobody knew him. That way, he wouldn’t be considered as anything more than a stranger.

He let the thought of it stew in his head for a few minutes, and mulled it over. After a little time, Emil finally decided to commit to a decision. He would do it. The best thing he could do for his friends and family was to disappear along with the rest of his group. That way, no matter what happened to him in the future, they would remember him as he was now.

There were probably only a couple of hours left until sunset. Enough time for him to go back down the dungeon and grab what he could from the supplies. Three days' worth of rations for a group of fifteen would likely last him weeks.

However, it would also depend on how much he could actually carry with him. But he would take it with him out to the wilderness, and survive away from civilization. That way, he could also develop these powers without worrying about involving any people. Emil began to make the walk back to Alterum’s lair, a plan now in place.

Later that night, with a large bag filled with everything he needed now strapped to his back, he stepped out of the dungeon. The skies were clear, and the light of the full moon and starry sky illuminated the outside world. Emil took a deep breath, the clean air was as refreshing as it could get for his lungs. As he had hoped, the actual dig site itself was completely empty. All that was left for him to do now, was to simply pick a direction and go into the forest. He took one last look back at the dungeon’s stairs, and then began to walk away.

Emil was no survivalist, he wouldn’t know how to set any traps or actually live in the wilderness. But that wasn’t his intention anyway. Right now, he just wanted some time away from everything and everyone. He needed to be alone, able to clear his mind and have a chance to look inward. From what he could guess, he had grabbed enough food and water to last around two weeks. Hopefully, that would be enough for him to be satisfied. Then he would ideally be ready to do whatever he felt was the next correct course of action.

He walked for a couple of hours, navigating through the brush and trying to stay relatively close to the river. As he had been moving, clouds had covered the moon. For the last few minutes, it had begun to snow. When Emil eventually came to a small clearing free of any bush, he stopped and sat down against a tree. He set aside his bag and reached to grab a clump of snow.

‘Gods, I’m basically a monster already, aren’t I?’ he thought to himself. When he had navigated through the dungeon without trouble seeing, he had assumed it was because the dragon lifted the darkness.

But now, even in the middle of the night without any source of light, he was able to perfectly see the world around him. On top of that, even without fire during the winter, he didn’t even feel that cold. It had been several hours of exposure to freezing weather, but it only felt like a cool day in during Autumn.

Emil had thought that he would be completely normal for now. That he’d be like any other human until the transformation fully began. His new Sheet even still classified him as Fully Mortal. But now, he couldn’t deny that his body had already changed. He could see in the dark and was seemingly immune to the cold. These would have been awesome abilities in any other circumstance, but now, it felt like a slap in the face from reality.

Emil went to lay his head down, using the bag as a lumpy pillow. He felt wide awake, but he wanted to try and sleep again anyway. Maybe he hadn’t been lucky enough for this to have just been a bad dream. But perhaps he was just suffering from extreme hypothermia. He vaguely remembered hearing that you stop feeling the cold before you die from it.

If the gods wanted to show him any mercy at all, then they would just let him freeze to death overnight. Otherwise, he would have no choice but to wake up the next day and accept that he was already changed, already different, and already no longer just a normal person.