When I came to, I could still hear the sound of metal clashing against metal. I started and began to get up but a hand firmly pushed me back into the ground.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Clair asked.

  “I was going to help.” I began, my mind still a little hazy.

  “There’s only one left and Harold's using it to try and either advance a skill, get a new one or evolve an old one.” Clair said, “We don’t know which and there is currently a betting pool. You want in?”

  "2 coppers says he gets the skill evolution from this." Raven said. I turned to see that Raven and Taylor were sitting next to us eating what looked like sandwiches.

  “Here Luca, this should help.” Taylor said. Their hands glowed green and blue for a second and I felt a chill invade my body. It started in my chest and raced through me, every part of me felt Taylor’s cold mana for a brief second before it settled around my head. I grabbed at my head as the brain freeze set in, I was about to complain when it disappeared and left me feeling better.

  “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that feeling.” I said.

  “It’s not like it's changed in the last 8 years.”

  “It just feels really weird.” I said and Taylor shrugged, turning their attention back to Harold.

  I turned to where Harold was facing off against the skeleton. The skeleton was completely featureless except for the fact that it wielded a shortword and wore the armour of a captain of the royal marines. I frowned as I watched. It wasn’t using any skills, it was mindlessly hacking and slashing in a simple pattern. An overhead slash into horizontal left to right cut, followed by a thrust. Harold blocked every attack with his shield like he was playing with a child.

  “What makes you think it’s an evolution?” I asked.

  “The way he’s moving,” Raven explained, “He’s using a defensive skill to stop every attack, then he’s trying to counter attack just below the breastplate, it's a weak spot. The problem he's running into is that his movements are off by a little too much.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Watch, he's about to try again.”

  Harold blocked the overhead slash and the horizontal cut, when it came to the thrust though Harold made his move. He angled the shield so that the thrust slid off the metal sending sparks flying. The skeleton lurched forwards slightly off balance, Harold took two quick steps to be positioned at the skeleton's side. It looked like he was in the perfect place however when he thrust his sword forwards it caught the breastplate and sent the skeleton stumbling sideways. Harold swore as he reset himself and went back to defending against the skeleton's attacks. I watched him try two more times before I turned to raven.

  “5 silver says he runs out of stamina before getting the evolution.” I said.

  “You think it is an evolution?” Claire asked.

  “Yeah, he's repeating the same actions so it's not a new skill otherwise he'd have it by now.”

  “Damn.” Clair said before pulling out two copper coins and tossing them to Raven.

  “Thank you.” Raven said, pocketing them. “I'll take you up on that bet.”

  “Taylor, would you mediate?” I asked.

  “Why don't you trust me?” Raven asked sweetly.

  “I'd expect you to either cheat or try to steal my money to pay your debt with.”

  "You lot are so childish." Taylor shook their head but held their hand out, we gave them the coins to look after and mediate the gambling.

  We sat there and watched Harold ‘fight’ the skeleton and if I'm honest, it was actually quite boring. It was amazing to watch Harold maintain focus for so long but, like all things, eventually it came to an end. Harold managed to successfully land a counter attack. The skeleton's spine exploded away and it collapsed to the floor, a quick bash from his shield and it was all over. Harold stood over the pile of bones victorious. A river of sweat poured down his face and matted his hair tainting it a mud brown colour. However, the look on his face gave me the impression that he didn't get the skill or evolution he wanted. Raven and I waited as Taylor walked up to Harold holding out a towel and a stamina potion.

  “How did it go?” Taylor asked

  "Damn." Harold muttered softly, but we all still heard it.

  "BOOOO!" Raven shouted and threw part of an apple she had been eating eating.

  Harold's shield whipped up and deflected the apple harmlessly. For a split second it looked like he might charge up but then recognition dawned in his eyes and he relaxed. He smiled sadly and shook his head.

  “I could feel it,” Harold said wistfully, “I was so close but I'm missing something and I'm not sure what it is.”

  "What are you trying to evolve?" I asked, while collecting my silver from Taylor.

  "Did you just…" Harold began to ask before letting his words die out.

  I put the coins into my coin pouch and dropped it into my bag. I felt slightly bad that I'd gambled on him not getting the evolution however this was not the first time we'd gambled on things like this. It was just the first time Harold was the subject of the gambling.

  “You know how it is," I smiled sheepishly at him, "didn't you bet that Raven wouldn't evolve her class when she hit level 25?"

  Harold's pensive look disappeared as he flushed with embarrassment. He had bet me 1 gold piece that when Raven hit level 25 she wouldn’t be offered a different class from Rogue, despite her wishing to get a more theft/stealth oriented class. I had taken those odds believing that Raven had done enough to get the variation. Unfortunately I'd lost that bet.

  "HE WHAT?!" Raven exploded. "I demand those winnings, that is outrageous!"

  Taylor, Clair and I burst out laughing as Raven shouted at Harold. She blatantly ignored her own hypocrisy and claimed that class evolution was far too important to bet on. It took a while for us to stop laughing but once it began to die down, Clair cast her call creature spell bringing the spooked demon steeds back to us.

  "Is there any loot on the skeletons?" Taylor asked.

  "I didn't check." I confessed.

  "Nothing from the skeletons on the road and none from Luca's group. I still need to check the ones that were on the ridge." Raven said, pointing to a small outcropping that overlooked the road.

  Now that we were out of danger I actually took the time to look at where the ambush had been set. It was almost the perfect place. The left side of the road had a few trees that looked like something had tried to maul them but had gotten bored and moved on. A narrow but surprisingly deep ditch ran parallel next to the road, there was a small mound of dirt where the skeletons had climbed up. On the other side of the ditch, the cracked remains of a large boulder had given the skeleton archers the little cover they needed to stay hidden.

  The ice walls Taylor had created had been dismissed but they left large cold, damp patches on the road. The other side of the road, was a sharp incline that continued to a ledge about 60 feet up and set about 30 feet back from the road. Raven was already scaling the incline as if it wasn't even there. While I waited for Raven to find any loot I looked over my clothes. Once again they were bloody however they weren't too badly ruined. I hoped I could fix them up with a needle and thread later tonight, slowly I was running out of clean/not ruined clothes.

  "Find anything good?" Harold asked, when Raven came back down. She had a smug smile on her face indicating she'd found something good.

  "Maybe?" she shrugged, trying to feign indifference. "I haven't identified it yet?"

  “Why not? I thought you bought that Identification spell book." Harold said, his face creased into a frown.

  "Do you know how much that spell costs?" Raven complained, "50 gold, 50 GOLD! I could sleep in a nice inn for almost a year with that kind of money."

  Raven looked around for support and agreement but didn't find it. Spell books were expensive for 2 simple reasons; firstly, the mage creating the spell book had to give up the spell as well as any levels they had for it, if they wanted to cast the spell again they'd have to relearn it from level 1. The second reason was that spell books gave instant results and greater understanding of the spell, this mainly meant that anyone using a spell book could instantly cast the spell with good effect.

  “Cheapskate.” Clair said, shaking her head.

  "So how exactly is our thief meant to identify what is good loot and what is rubbish?" I asked.

  "They bring back everything that looks valuable to the party and they can identify it." She said with an impish grin.

  “And what if you leave the good stuff behind because you can't carry it all?” I asked.

  “It’s a good thing that we have a bag of holding now isn't it?”

  “I'm never going to leave it with you.” I said flatly, “you'd probably use it as collateral for a bet.”

  “I…” She began but Harold cut her off.

  “Just like you did with the Ring of Light.” Harold added.

  “And that Never-Miss Bow we found.” Clair said regretfully.

  “I feel like I'm being ganged up on here, Taylor, you're on my side right?” Raven said, looking at them pleadingly.

  “My mother's dagger.” Taylor deadpanned and Raven's shoulders slumped.

  “I got that back for you.” She argued weakly.

  “After six months.”

  “Fine, I'll get the spell when we next visit a magic shop.” Raven said defeated. She held out the bag of loot and I took it off her. I laid the items out on the ground and Raven added a bow to the pile.

  “Ok then, let’s see what we have.” I said as I cast Identification again and again.

  Item: Dead Wood Bow

  Rarity: Uncommon

  Weight: 15lb

  Description: A black and silver longbow made from the dead wood of an Elder Tree. This bow deals extra damage to the living and nature attuned creatures/objects.

  Requirements: n/a.

  Item: Dented Golden Necklace

  Rarity: Uncommon

  Weight: 0.2lb

  Description: An old golden necklace made by an unknown jeweller that has suffered minor damage.

  Requirements: n/a.

  Item: Boots of Leaping

  Rarity: Uncommon

  Weight: 3lb

  Description: A pair of stylish leather boots that have been enchanted by an unknown enchanter. These boots increase the wearer’s jump distance by 15 feet.

  Requirements: Bipedal humanoid creature.

  I looked at the 3 items of interest and sighed. Raven had picked up at least 10 other items but they were pieces of armour with broken enchantments or baubles that were a violent shake away from breaking. I didn’t need any weapons since my scythe was perfect for my fighting style. I never really wore armour, my summoned robes were better than almost anything I’d ever come across. What I really needed was something that would help me repair my equipment or clothes since I went through sewing thread at an unbelievably fast rate.

  “Nothing of any real interest I’m afraid.” Taylor said slightly dejectedly, they’d also been identifying items.

  “Really?” Raven asked, sounding disappointed as well. “Even these?”

  “They’re a set of lodestones which is interesting but their durability is at the point where if you dropped them on the floor I’d be surprised if they didn’t break.” I replied.

  “Well shit.”

  “These did come off the bodies of the undead that were probably scrounged from Mountain Guard.” Harold pointed out, “anything of value was either taken but the goblins or crushed under the feet of the horde.”

  “Did you want the bow?” Taylor asked, offering it up to Clair.

  She reached out and touched a finger on the bow before recoiling as if she’d touched a flame.

  “It’s a perversion of nature. I don’t want to own it, I want to destroy it.” Clair said with disgust, “any objections?” No one had any so she took the bow and set about destroying it.

  “I want to claim the boots.” Raven said, holding them up. Lots of little bones fell out of the boot and clattered to the ground. “After I’ve washed them that is.” She winced and wrinkled her nose. No one had any objections either and she turned to me. “Can you put it in the bag of holding till we come across somewhere I can actually wash these?”

  “Sure.” I said holding open the bag and keeping it away from me. “If it stinks up my bag, you’re paying whatever it costs to clean out the inside of the bag.”

  “Sure, sure.” she said, almost throwing them inside.

  “What’s in that bag?” Taylor asked, pointing at a bag I’d put to the side.

  The bag looked like a small leather coin pouch that had faded with age. Something told me that it held something extremely valuable in it and that everything I could ever want would be mine if I did so. I shivered as a chill ran down my spine. I hadn’t opened it because Mana Sense told me that it was almost bursting at the seams with mana and Danger Sense told me that opening it would be very bad. There had to have been some sort of magical compulsion on the bag.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “I’m not sure, I haven’t opened it because it’s filled with mana and my Danger Sense is going crazy over it.” I warned as I passed them the bag.

  “Yeah that’s why I didn’t open it as well.” Raven said, here eyes glinted and I could see that she hadn’t quite shrugged off the compulsion as easily as I had,

  “In that case, I’m going to need a few minutes to set up an isolation ritual.” Taylor said as they held out a hand to me. I pulled out their pack from the bag of holding and they rooted around in it for a few minutes. “This is going to be boring, I’ll call everyone back once I’ve set up the ritual.”

  We all moved away from Taylor so that we wouldn’t distract them while they were working. We’d accidentally done so in the past and the ritual had blown up in our faces. None one wanted to repeat that especially after the rebuking we received courtesy of the healers in the Adventure Society medical wing. Slowly we all backed away till we were at least 20 feet from Taylor.

  “What does everyone wanna do in the meantime?” Raven asked.

  “I’m going to take care of the horses,” Clair said from the pile of ash that had been a bow a few moments ago. “The poor things were terrified from the ambush and ran off but I have a spell that can locate them.”

  “That's a good idea.” Harold said, “did you need any help?”

  “No thanks, it'll be faster if it's just me.”

  “Alright then.”

  “What about you Luca?”

  “I think I'm going to carve, I've got a new set of figurines and I think once they're done it might push my skill level through the bottleneck.” I said when everyone turned to me.

  “Boring.” Raven sighed.

  “Want to spar?” Harold asked her.

  “Now you're talking my language,” Raven grinned, “Technique alone or skills included?”

  “Movement skills only, I need to work on my dodge in order to get the evolution.”

  I left Raven and Harold as they discussed what exactly they wanted to train during their sparring match. I needed to find a comfy spot if I was going to be carving for a while. There's nothing worse than having pins and needles when you're using a ridiculously sharp knife. That's how you lose fingers. The left side of the road was a no go. Safety concerns aside, the ditch was mainly mud and slate looking stone. Also I didn't really want to carve in a ditch. The right side of the road was more fruitful, there was a ledge that raised up over the road. I used Etheric Step to appear on top of the ledge and stumbled as my left foot slid on a small pile of bones. I wind milled my arms as I struggled to keep my balance. The outcropping had 2 more similar piles of bones and 2 cracked bows as well as a few arrows laying on the floor. I looked around and saw a flat rock that rose up to my knees, the top was flat and the sides weren't overly sharp. I ran my hand over the top to make sure it was smooth, it was, with a smile I sat down. I was about to pull out my carving knife when the notification that had been blinking at me stopped letting me put them off. The first opened up unbidden and filled my view.

  You have slain a Skeleton Warrior Level 6, as this creature is recognised by your class as a foe, you do not receive any penalties. You have earned 5xp.

  You have slain a Skeleton Warrior Level 6, as this creature is recognised by your class as a foe, you do not receive any penalties. You have earned 5xp.

  You have slain a Skeleton Warrior Level 6, as this creature is recognised by your class as a foe, you do not receive any penalties. You have earned 5xp.

  You have slain a Skeleton Warrior Level 6, as this creature is recognised by your class as a foe, you do not receive any penalties. You have earned 5xp.

  You have slain a Skeleton Warrior Level 6, as this creature is recognised by your class as a foe, you do not receive any penalties. You have earned 5xp.

  You have slain a Skeleton Archer Level 8, as this creature is recognised by your class as a foe, you do not receive any penalties. You have earned 10xp.

  You have slain a Skeleton Archer Level 8, as this creature is recognised by your class as a foe, you do not receive any penalties. You have earned 10xp.

  No skill, spell or level increases, just kill notifications. Worst of all they showed that I'd only gained 45xp. I remembered the notification that told me my class had a severe experience penalty from combat and I shook my head, a sad smile played across my face. It had been an extraordinary long time since I'd received that message.

  Disappointed, I pulled out my carving knife and a small block of wood. I stared at it for a while and turned it from side to side, it wanted to be something specific but I wasn't sure what. My ideas of other adventurers didn't fit right with it, like the wood wasn't destined to become an adventurer, as stupid as that sounds. I thought about the set I was making and I had a flash of inspiration. I put knife to wood, and furiously carved the block of wood.

  To an untrained eye it looked like I was stabbing and slicing randomly but…who am I kidding. My movements were more instinctive than active knowledge. Wood chips flew from cuts that I wasn't sure why I was making, I just knew they needed to be done. I was still following my idea and let myself be absorbed into the process. My breathing slowed down and I entered an almost meditative state. My awareness of my surroundings shrank just like my block of wood. My world became me, my carving knife and the block of wood. Time became an abstract concept as I became one with my craft. I cut, sliced, stabbed, twisted and jabbed the wood, like a child cutting vegetables for the first time thinking that they are some master chef.

  An undetermined amount of time later I held up the figurine to the sky. The sun was still up but it had moved quite far across the sky but I wasn't sure what the time would be. I blew and the loose bits of wood chips and sawdust fell away to reveal a warg and goblin rider. The warg was positioned to look like it was in the middle of landing from a large leap. I had carved its mouth to be filled with sharp teeth and its eyes seemed to be filled with the intelligence a real warg could display. I could almost hear the growl in my head. The goblin on its back had a spear that was being thrust forwards, its face looked like a mix for rage, glee and seemed to be snarling. I didn’t remember cutting the wood like that, but it gave the goblin a sense of realism that it brought back memories of the battle with the goblin king.

  I pulled out the other figurines I had carved and lined them up on the stone. There were a total of 11 of them. Harold, Taylor, 3 goblins, all 5 members of The Lonely Hearts and the warg with goblin rider. As I looked at them I felt an odd but welcome tingle from my Wood Carving skill. I’d had this feeling a few times when I’d started work on a large project, it was the feeling of looking at an incomplete item set. Because it was incomplete my Identification spell wouldn't work on them other than telling me that they were carved wooden figures of an incomplete set. That didn’t matter though I was too excited by the prospect of creating an item set.

  An item set was a group of items that formed a synergy between each other and came together to create something better than each individual piece. For an adventurer it was a force multiplier, for a merchant it was a massive payday. For a crafter like me, it meant massive amounts of skill advancement. I was on the border of grand master and needed something like this to advance my skill. I sat there imagining my skill gains like a dragon imagining mountains of treasure. I was dragged out of my thoughts when Taylor shouted.

  “I’VE GOT IT!” Taylor shouted.

  I looked over to see them standing up and looking at Harold and Raven. I packed up my figurines and tools before using Etheric Step to join them. On the ground was a large circle with symbols and magic script written inside and outside of it. Taylor had once tried to teach me how to create ritual circles but I had been more than hopeless at it. While I had no idea what the script said, I could feel what it did. It was like a mana barrier, except it pushed back all the ambient mana that would flow through a regular barrier.

  “You finished the isolation ritual?” Harold asked as he and Raven walked over.

  “Not just that but I've also identified what exactly is in the bag.” Taylor beamed.

  “So what is it?” Raven asked.

  “It might be better to show you.”

  Taylor carefully stepped over each line of the circle making sure not to disturbed it. When they reached the center they cast Mage Hand and put the bag down before making their way back out.

  “How can you use Mage Hand if the circle isolates mana?” Raven asked.

  “I've given the spell mana form which is why I had to be inside the circle,” Taylor explained adopting a teaching tone, “I can't supply it with more mana without getting in there meaning that if it gets damaged, it's gone. Also due to the isolation barrier it has severely weakened my connection to the spell so it can only perform the most basic tasks, such as, open the bag.”

  At Taylor's words the magical hand reached down and opened the bag. I felt a shiver run down my spine seconds before a torrent of dense black mana exploded out of the bag. It filled the center of the ritual circle in seconds and Taylor's spell and the bag itself disappeared.

  “What the absolute fuck is that.” Raven shouted, having rolled backwards to dodge the explosion of mana.

  I activated Mana Sense and let my senses flow over Taylor's ritual and the mana contained within. The ritual circle felt cool, like a cold breeze on a winter morning. It was Taylor's magical signature. Inside the circle also felt cold but this was a different type of cold, it was a cold that I'd come to learn all about and had to get used to.

  “Death mana.” I whispered.

  “Yes, a whole lot of death mana.” Taylor nodded in agreement. “There's a mana generator in the bag.”

  “What?!” I said, my head snapping to look at them.

  Mana generators were crystals that absorbed ambient mana and attuned it before expelling it. They were expensive to make, easy to break and had an infinite number of practical applications. A death mana generator would be a source of unending horror. It would kill off anything that wasn't death attuned if it was left to soak up the death mana. I had handled mana generators before but it had been a very long time since I'd seen a death attuned one.

  “So what do we do with it?” Raven asked. “Is it worth anything?”

  “It's worth quite a bit.” Harold said, “Mana generators go for a few thousand gold coins.”

  “It depends on what it generates.” Taylor corrected, “a water-attuned generator would be worth at least 3000 gold, a fire-attuned generator would be worth 7000 gold. A death one though.” They winced and I cut in before they could continue.

  “I'd recommend destroying it.” I stated.

  “You'd destroy our gold?” Raven asked incredulously.

  “Only a necromancer would want a death-attuned generator and if left alone, it'd slowly turn the kingdom into a toxic wasteland that would only be fit for the undead.”

  “But…but…”

  “That generator is a weapon of mass destruction, imagine the damage it could cause if that,” I said pointing at the roiling death mana, “was released in Sunak or in any of the military camps we’ve stayed in. That bag we left as a trap.”

  “A trap?” Harold asked.

  “It had a compulsion attached to it that made me want to open it. Imagine if a soldier found it after a battle, they’d open it amidst the army or in a medical tent with all the other injured soldiers.” I let my words hang in the air. I didn’t need to tell them the effects of death mana, we’d all seen it during the invasion. You never quite forget watching someone rot away in minutes.

  “Damn, that’s horrifying.” Raven whispered.

  “Exactly, so I recommend we destroy the cursed generator.”

  “Luca's right.” Harold said with a sigh, “as much as I want the money, something like this shouldn't be sold or left alone.”

  “Not you too. What about the money the guild owes the Adventurer Society?” Raven asked.

  “You mean the money owed from you getting caught breaking into the director's office?”

  “Yes, the money the guild owes.” Raven said, ignoring Harold.

  “It's not worth it, we need a home to come back to, what would be the point of all of this otherwise?”

  “We could use it.” Taylor said they'd been strangely quiet all this time.

  “What do you mean, use it?” I said as I narrowed my eyes at them.

  “I mean that I could probably alter the crystal so that it doesn’t generate mana and instead leads us towards the person who made it.”

  “How?” Harold asked

  “A mana generator is an arcane construct that requires a lot of mana, for it to be death attuned means that whoever created it had to be a pure death mana user. Their mana signature is going to be all over the crystal.” Taylor held up a small device that was flashing a few different colours. “I can use this to turn the generator into a tracker.”

  “What? Is that even possible?” Harold asked.

  “After 24 years of magical study and research and about 10,000 gold worth of tuition fees. Yes it is.” Taylor deadpanned. “I don't think you'll understand the magical theory or the magitech that I'm going to be using. Luca might be able to feel the mana and what I do to make it a tracking device.”

  “That's very generous of you Taylor, but we both know that I'm not technical when it comes to magic.” I said, shaking my head. “I know magic instinctually and that makes me terrible when it comes to magitech. There's a good chance that I’m not going to have any clue as to how you’ve done it.”

  “That’s fair enough. I’ll start then.” Taylor said.

  I activated my Mana Sense so I could watch Taylor as they worked. Taylor spent the next 20 minutes using her magical tools to alter the crystal. I could sense them manipulating the mana, twisting it and turning it. There was something else that helped, however I couldn’t sense it. It was like an invisible hand guiding the mana as it warped. It gave them greater control and caused the mana to reverse. I had no clue what or how they were doing this and sensing the mana twist into the various shapes and forms, completely blew my mind. I hadn’t thought to do anything like this and it seemed to be working. I continued to watch like a child seeing fireworks for the first time. Taylor for their part maintained a rigid focus despite sweating like they were a teenager being questioned by a crushes father about their intentions.

  I watched as the writhing mana folded in on itself and shrank. It went from pushing against the barrier, to touching it. Then after another minute it only covered half the area in the barrier. At the 20 minute mark the death mana had all but vanished from the barrier. All that was left were tattered leather scraps from where the bag had exploded, and a small black crystal. I watched with fascination as the crystal began to slowly edge toward the side of the ritual circle.

  “Luca…make sure...you grab…the crystal,” Taylor panted, then fell to one knee. “It's…going to…try to…fly off.”

  “Okay,” I said, walking around to the side of the circle it was edging towards. I positioned myself in front of the crystal so it would slowly move towards me. “I'm ready.”

  Suddenly the ritual circle deactivated and the barrier around the crystal disappeared. A few things happened at exactly the same time and my brain couldn't keep up with everything. Taylor collapsed to the ground and sprawled out in the road, Harold cried out and rushed over to them. The crystal disappeared from inside the circle almost instantly. My eyes failed to track its movement, it was like it teleported. Something hit me in the stomach so hard and drove all the air out of my lungs. I doubled over wheezing and in pain. I heard someone else shout and a pain of hands grab my shoulders. Something wiggled against my stomach and my hands wrapped around it whatever the fuck had just slammed into me was going to pay. I pulled my hands back and saw that I was holding a small black gem, it was just smaller than an orange and it seemed to devour the light giving it a midnight black colouration. I used my Identification spell to inspect what it was.

  Item: Altered Crystalline Mana Generator

  Rarity: Rare

  Weight: 20lb

  Description: A midnight black crystal mana generator that has been attuned to produce death mana. This mana generator has been altered via a magical ritual to seek out its creator. It will attempt to fly directly towards the creator of this crystal regardless of anything that is in its way.

  Requirements: n/a.

  I stared at the crystal in disbelief as I struggled to catch my breath. Taylor had done it. We now had a way to track the necromancer, rather than hoping we stumbled across his trail. I looked over to Taylor as Harold was taking care of them. They were passed out, probably from mana depletion, and just needed a long rest. I looked at the person who held me, I was expecting to see Raven but instead I turned and stared into Clair's big purple eyes.

  “Are you okay?” She asked, concern in her voice and something told me that this was not the first time she'd asked that question.

  “I'm…okay.” I wheezed.

  “Good, you have me worried there.”

  “Tell us the good news.” Harold said.

  “Taylor did it.” I said once I could breathe normally again. “We have a way to track the necromancer, we just need a bag or something to tie it to so it doesn't fly off.”

  “I've got a bag and some cord.” Raven said and she tossed over a small black pouch. As I picked it up I felt that there was something inside, Clair opened the pouch and pulled out the cord. She quickly made a large loop that could fit around someone's neck and tied it to the drawstrings of the pouch. She held it out to me and I stuffed the crystal inside and pulled it closed.

  “Who wants to keep a hold of it?” I asked.

  “I will for now,” Clair said, “But I think when Taylor wakes up we should give it to them, that way they can make sure that it doesn't break.”

  “That's a good idea.” I said as I sat down properly.

  We all relaxed a little as we waited for Taylor to regain consciousness. I pulled out chairs and a table from my bag, I set them out so we didn't have to sit in the road. I also pulled out Taylor's bedroll and we moved them onto it so they weren't lying on the hard dirt road. Raven pulled out some cards and we all joined her in playing poker. We stayed like that for a few hours until Taylor started to groan and move around.

  “Oww, my head.” Was the first thing they said. Clair was there in a flash holding a mana potion out for them. “Thank you.”

  “It's okay, glad to see you're still alive.”

  “Me too.” Taylor chuckled before looking around and seeing the rest of us sitting at the table. “Did you catch the crystal?”

  “Catch?” I scoffed, “It hit me like a minotaur’s punch. If the crystal had intent of its own then it would have activated the ability on my robes to turn me etheric.”

  “So you have it?”

  “I have it.” Clair said, she lifted the pouch-necklace and put it on Taylor.

  “A necklace, smart.”

  “That was my idea.” I said, I couldn't help the smile that played across my face.

  “So tell us about our new tracker.” Harold said, handing his cards back to Raven.

  “Well, the good news is that we have a very reliable way to track the creator of the mana generator. Whomever made it tried to cheat and take a shortcut.” They said in an excited rush, we all stared at them blankly. “The generator wasn't purely formed out of mana. They used a communication crystal as the base and built up the mana around it. Honestly it's extremely creative and ingenious, I'd be highly impressed if it wasn't so dangerous.”

  “What does that mean?” Raven asked, giving Taylor a dubious look.

  “It means that handling the crystal isn't dangerous but if the crystal is destroyed, the entire area will be flooded with death mana. I'll work on enchanting the bag, but at present, we'd have 15 minutes or so to get as far away as possible.”

  “What happens if we don't manage to get away?” Raven asked

  “Your body will start to rot away.” I said with a grimace. “The first you'll know is when you start bleeding from every orifice.”

  “That's fine, I don't need to know.” Raven said, going a little pale.

  “Then your teeth will begin to fall out,” I continued on ignoring her, “your hair will begin to fade and fall out as well. Next your skin cracks…”

  “You asshole.” Raven said as she punched me, except I turned ethereal and her hand passed through me.

  “You're pretty squeamish for an adventurer.” I joked as I dodged a follow up punch. “I thought rogues were good with viscera.”

  “I'm a thief, not a rogue.” Raven said, attempting to punch me again. I used Etheric Step to appear on the other side of Clair.

  “So where are we headed?” Clair asked, trying to suppress a smile as I continued to tease Raven.

  “I'll show you.” Taylor said.

  They let the bag lower so that they were only holding it by the strap. Raven and I stopped messing around and watched as Taylor held their arm out. The bag didn’t point downwards, instead it was leaning back towards Taylor, we all looked at the bag then back up to Taylor expectantly. Taylor shook their head and stepped to the side, it pointed towards the right side of the road. We all looked up to the large cliffs in the distance that were poking over the top of the outcropping.

  “That’s Wyrm Territory isn’t it.” Raven stated rather than asked.

  “Yeah.” Clair said dejectedly.

  “Well shit.” I added..