The First Lich Lord

Chapter 81

With the bear slain, I nodded toward the cave, and Maxwell and Raven rushed to it. Meanwhile, I looked at my slain foe. Part of me felt bad. Before the fight, this bear had been a beautiful specimen of what the species could be. Now it was covered in festering wounds weeping from a dozen shallow cuts.

I pulled on the death core. A few moments later the necrotic energy ate its way through, and the orb flew into my hand. I debated absorbing it but changed my mind.

I acted quickly to bind the kernel of the true soul of this creature. For monsters like this, their kernels were significantly easier to work with than those from self-aware creatures. Not to mention the moral quandaries about that one.

With monsters, their soul adapted to what their body was, with self-aware creatures they retained memories of what they were and very much remained the same person, just trapped in a different body. Sometimes I thought of it as justified punishment, and sometimes people even wanted it, I just didnt like forcing it unless they were truly bastards.

Did that make me kind of take the role of judge, jury, and executioner, maybe? But in this world is morally gray. I began to cast a spell, and I let the illusion spell fade.

Death magic swirled around me, and I channeled it into the bear. Spell diagrams appeared in the air above the fallen creature. This wasnt quite the same spell I used to create the bear in the ambush, I wanted to retain control with this one, and not create something more powerful than I was.

The death core I received from the creature was reinforced by my own death energy, then added to the spell. Taking the time to work carefully with the magic I began to cycle the death magic through the death core in a giant siphon that I ran through every inch of the bear. There werent any immediate effects with the creature, it was simply enabling me to work with powerful death energies and not rot away the flesh.

Instead, as I channeled the magic through the flesh and it changed, it became death attuned, then something else as I added my own death energy into the cycle. This is not a quick process, and I was dimly aware of Maxwell and Raven returning with big smiles.

I wasnt exactly certain what I was doing, but whatever it was I could tell it was having an effect. The bears previously brown and gray fur was replaced with ebony fur. I couldnt see its bones, but I could sense that theyd changed in some way, along with the organs. The feeling was familiar, and it took me a moment to realize it was similar to what I had felt when I became a Lich.

When I finished cycling the creature with the combination of death magic and death energy, I let the spell complete and the creature rose. I had a connection to it, and could sense my control, though it did not feel like it was absolute. When I examined the creature, I smiled. My hunch was proven right.

Morsursa

Level: 48

Morsursa are a death biome bear. Like all creatures of the death biome, they are predators, even more so than normal bears. They still retain their ability as omnivores and there are few plants even the death biome bear cannot consume.

Okay, what is that? Maxwell was examining the Morsursa as well. And why does his name sound like its from Earth?

This is more of an experiment. I knew death biome creatures had certain aspects, so I tried to re-create it. I shrugged. Pretty sure I can only do this because I have access to death energy. As far as the name goes, Morsursa literally translates in Latin to death bear, I think. Why we have Latin in this world, I have no idea. Take it up with Altor if you ever see him.

Is it going to follow us now? Maxwell asked. I feel like that might draw a lot of attention.

I hadnt thought that far ahead. I could sense that the bear actually kind of liked me, it most definitely did not remember me killing it. It felt like it saw me almost as his mother, something I was a little uncomfortable with. I guess we could let it tag along. Think about it, were getting into the area where theres more players around, players have odd pets, we would just be another group with an odd pet.

I like it, Raven said. She transformed into her lynx form and walked up to the Morsursa and sniffed it. She transformed back into her human form. Can we keep it, please?

I honestly hadnt planned on bringing the bear with us, despite what I said, it would draw attention. But Ravens pleading eyes were a little too much for me.

As long as you promise to feed and take care of it, we can keep it. I barely held back the laugh and when I looked over at Maxwell, I saw him fighting a smile as well. What did you find in the cave?

Gold, Maxwell gave me his best winning smile. It seems like this wasnt so much a treasure map for them as a location for their stash.

I followed Maxwell and Raven into the cave where we loaded the loot into my storage bag. There were other supplies there as well that we proceeded to destroy, nothing was valuable to us, and from what I remember seeing in the cave, it seemed like it was supplies for that ritual they used to transform the people.

We returned to our horses and elected to spend a few more hours in the meadow. I recharged my spell rings and proceeded to practice with Mercy. I hadnt practiced with Mercy like that since we left Omark. The familiarity of motions had me falling into a kind of trance.

When I finally stopped, I noticed that Raven had been trying to follow along with me, obviously not using a weapon like Mercy, but using her daggers. A frustrated look clouded her face.

I cant seem to keep up, she huffed.

Dont stress about it too much, I chuckled. Its not a simple thing to learn. I will try and slow it down for you next time, though I dont know much about doing it with daggers. Its different for every weapon type. If Vito were here, Id have him teach you. Have you picked a name for your pet?

Tuffy, Raven said proudly. Since he will be so tough.

I didnt care, I just shook my head. The horses had eyed the Morsursa suspiciously when it first showed up, but when he just laid down in the trees, they ignored it. I wondered if I could transfer them into a death biome version but decided that wasnt something I should experiment with right now. The last thing I needed was to destroy one of our mounts.

When midafternoon rolled around, we mounted the horses and returned to the main road. When the map updated in the night, I saw that the dots showing our pursuers had all converged on the city. However, when I zoomed out a little bit I swore. There was another cluster out in front of us. Rhea mustve enlisted more players when she realized shed been duped.

Judging by the distances, we had about a day before we would be within reach again. All of that work to buy us some time was pointless. Even if the dot still showed us in the wrong location, Rhea was smart. She clearly figured out where we had gone. Even as I watched, the dot representing me flickered and showed our true location for a bare moment.

***

We pushed hard that night, and come dawn, we made sure we took the time to rest our horses. I was certain we would have to fight, and Id rather our steeds be well rested and ready for a couple long nights and days. We could push them harder than we were, but there was no point in exhausting ourselves and our mounts now. All we would be doing is rushing toward the oncoming clash. Better to save their strength for when we were actually running away from danger, not toward it.

Even once we had rested the mounts for the majority of the day, we walked through the night until the map updated. The dots coming from the north had spread out, taking every major and minor road heading straight to us. Maxwell was busy studying his more detailed map as we walked.

I think I found something, Maxwell said and waved me over.

I looked at the map where he was zoomed in and saw an indication of another hidden road. Likely part of the original road system that span across this kingdom, like the one we used to find the treasure. It looked like whatever Rhea was using to pen us in wasnt as detailed as what Max had. The road appeared to cut through a small valley in the hills we were traveling through. There was no telling why the road had been abandoned, but it might allow us to slip through the net cast for us without having to fight. No doubt they would be better prepared this time.

Beyond the abandoned road, near the edge of the plateau, was a low land marsh that span clear out to the coast. We were getting so close, yet even as we got closer to the coast it would be easier for us to be penned in. Behind us on the tracking map was a cluster of dots already closing the distance between us. Whatever they were using to travel was far faster than our horses. That or they were taxing their mounts to an extreme I wasnt.

Heres to hoping we can make it to the coast before they catch us. I was beginning to think that would be impossible.