In Loki's Honor

A party of adventurers dared to delve into the fifth level of the "Abominable Tunnels" Dungeon. They walked the depths for days, exhausting their supplies with not a single kill to show for their efforts.

"What bullshit is this?" The leader, a human [Paladin] of Bundeus, cursed. "Where are the monsters?"

"Not here. Not anywhere nearby," His second-in-command, a dwarven [Monster Hunter] answered. "I told you, I can sense only one monster and it is in another tunnel. There are monsters above and below us, but none at this depth.

"We are wasting our time here. It is as they said back at the surface. There are no more monsters on the fifty level," The female half-elven wizard commented. "I vote to go back. We're not strong enough to go to the sixth level. That's too deep and the mana density there is stronger."

They heard a cadence of footfalls, like soldiers marching. On their guard, the adventurers found a troop of elven knights coming down the tunnel.

"Hail, adventurers!" The musical voice of an elf shouted at them.

"Hail, newcomers! We mean no harm," the [Paladin] shouted back.

The elves stopped a good distance from them. Twenty with good armor and weapons. Levels between forty-nine and fifty-five. Not the kind of party to delve. That was a raid.

"We're searching for something. Did you find anything odd around these parts?" The elven leader asked.

"Milord," the [Monster Hunter] bowed. "Is it a creature you are looking for?"

"Watch your mouth--" one of the elves started to warn but was cut off by a signal from the leader.

"You, come with us," the elf said. "We require your assistance in finding this creature."

The [Paladin] stepped forward. "He's one of us. He's not going anywhere without us too."

During the last few months since I parted with Fauralien's party, I hunted a lot of monsters. But without piling up multipliers, it's been a slow grind. I obtained a little more than two and a half million, killing them one-by-one. Since I had no professions, I split my Exp in half. The monster cores make for tasteless but filling nourishment. Since most of them are physical attackers, I can whittle them down to death given enough time. I'm undead, so time is plentiful.

I couldn't wake Nenandil up. She was slumbering inside my soul. {Water Fairy Familiar} was one of the perks locked by my not-living state. I missed her dearly. It was infuriating to hunt alone in the darkness.

You reached Undead Bard level 15.

You gained 2 Undead Bard Perks.

You reached Banshee level 15.

You gained 2 Banshee Perks.

You gained 9 Attribute Points.

You gained 3 points of Mind.

You gained 3 points of Willpower.

You gained 5 points of Charisma

You gained 2 points of Magic.

Attributes above the cap were redistributed.

You gained 30 Undead Bard Skill Points.

You gained 22 HP

You gained 27 MP

You gained 18 SP

You gained the Heal the Solid Manipulation (rare) perk. You can stay incorporeal and manipulate objects as if you were physical.

You gained the Hidden Eyes (rare) perk. When you are inside an object, you can spend MP to see up to 3 meters from the objects' surface.

You gained the Phase (very rare) perk. You can spend 100 MP per second to turn yourself incorporeal. Failure to pay the upkeep inside an object can be fatal.

You gained the HIdden Ears (rare) perk. When you are inside an object, you can spend MP to hear as well as if you were outside.

Turns out the undead bard had some perks for physical undead to become incorporeal though the cost is ridiculously high. This way, the Banshee perks I bought won't become useless in the future. The Skill points were dumped on the bard skills.

The adventurers and knights scoured the fifth level for days. They must have a [Monster Hunter] or some other person with good detection abilities. Their range is greater than mine, certainly. The only reason they didn't catch me yet was that I could cross walls. But my pursuers split.

Maybe I should face them and give up. Die and reroll. I don't know why I abhor the idea. It is like something is messing with my mind. Undeath. I might lose myself and become a raging specter. The hunger is uncontrollable. I think that's only because of my high Ego score that I can keep being myself. But my Willpower is crap. If I get too hungry with mortals nearby, I'm going to lose it.

I must die.

I saw the [Monster Hunter] touching the wall I was hiding inside.

"It is here. Just a meter in here. Is this a secret passage?" He asks.

The elves remain silent. I can see a few of them before my sight cuts but I know there's a dozen beyond my sight. A man in black leathers reminding me of Apricot's business attire approaches and checks.

"No secret door," He declares. "If I had to say, our quarry is inside the stone wall."

The [Paladin] of Bundeus turns to face the lead elf. "Is this the rumored banshee that took to haunt these parts?"

"We've seen no blight," the elf dismisses noncommittally. But he didn't deny.

Of course not. I was cleansing my own blight.

I think Fauralien told the elves about me and they sent this squad to retrieve me. I push my fingertip out of the rock. The [Rogue] jumps back and draws a dagger.

"It's here!"

I withdraw the finger. Then I put my face through the stone. "What do you want," I ask them.

The [Paladin] raises his sword, the symbol of Bundeus glowing, "{HOLY--".

The elf elbows him and covers the sword crossguard with his hand. "Don't," He chimes at the paladin. "Your job here is finished. Take the gold, leave, and don't speak of this ever again."

He meant it. The guy was fifty-seven and all the other elves are elites, above level fifty.

"We're done. We surely received payment for our services. Let's leave. This is not worth it," He claps the [Paladin]'s shoulder and drags the armored ecclesiastic away.

The elves watch them leave before they turn to face me.

"Your Highness," the commander kneels.

The others also knee.

"Fools," I berate him. "Do not drop your guard before the undead."

"My life means nothing, Your Highness. Use it as you see fit. Sate your hunger with my soul if you must."

That's so infuriating. "I wish for no death. Here's my command. Leave this place and live your life as you see fit, away from me, for at least ten thousand years."

"We must atone for our failure, Your Highness. We failed your mother when she was kidnapped by the demon cultists. we failed you when we didn't find you before your death. The Mother told us your death kept the world safe from the third catastrophe."

Fucking Yznera.

"Tell me, knight. If you have your way, what would you do?"

"We'll escort you back to Fulgen. Archmagister Sariandi might find a way to bring you back to life."

"No. You will not do such a thing. I will not walk among the living."

"We understand, Your Highness. The shame of undeath is too big to bear. What would you have us do?"

"Give me rest. Kill me. Finish this wretched existence. You know who I truly am, right?"

He rose his head. "We do. You're the Old Soul."

"Kill me. Save me from this wretched form."

The elves surrounded me. "I'm sorry, Your Highness. We can't."

One of them took a metallic object, the size and shape of a Rubik's cube. It flashed and I saw only darkness.

I recovered my senses to find myself trapped in a very well-decorated bedroom without either doors or windows.

The room's stone walls hummed with magic. I saw the cube that trapped me on the bed and a chest full of magic cores on a round table with two fancy chairs. The cores were varied and in many shapes. I could tell they had a wide variety of elemental energies. A veritable fortune.

Upon closer examination, there was a note next to the cores.

Old Soul,

We're sorry for imprisoning you here. You are our Princess and we need you alive. Our magisters and arcanists are dedicating their time to finding a way to bring you back to life. I beg you to endure your time in isolation for the greater good.

Archmagister Sarandil.

I struck the table, scattering the crystalline cores around the room. I screamed the dreaded banshee's wail for the first time since my un-death. I looked around and sent everything to my magical storage. All the objects in the room, all the fancy decorations, and artwork. The cores as well. The bare room now looked like what it really was.

A prison, a dungeon cell.

I used {Magic Eater} on the wards keeping me trapped in the room to feed. No further contact happened. I was losing it. Insanity and hunger clung to the edges of my mind. I was in a featureless stone room, unable to leave, talk, communicate. I lost track of time.

I cursed my high Ego score. Maybe if I had not such a strong sense of self, my consciousness would slip and I would wake up from this nightmare. Scraping sustenance out of the magical walls was infuriating.

The elves did not contact me. I tried all I could but I had no way of killing myself. At a point, I would even take the [Null and Void] Class Wyxnos offered just to end the torment.

I'd finally lost it. I gave in to the madness of undeath. To the hunger and the hatred.

Light invaded my prison. I rushed to the source and saw them. The council of magisters, the same people that tossed a little girl in the underground to slaughter a high-level foe. I slammed against the magical construct that was my cell. I screamed and cursed and wailed. I threw spells at the walls to no avail. Nothing worked.

The cage shrunk until it was the size of a briefcase, squeezing me in. Darkness shrouded me again. When I could see, magical chains made of translucent force bound my wrists, neck, and ankles, forcing me to kneel. I screamed at them but no sound came in or out.

I struggled but the bindings neither yielded nor hurt me. They chanted their spells. I felt the magic wrapping around in the air. I felt its tendrils take hold of me. I struggled, I tried to resist, but it was impossible to pit my will against these ancient spellcasters. The magic took hold of me and infused my very being. I felt electric as if I was overexcited and every nerve was flaring. It was neither painful nor pleasant.

Then she approached. A naked elf woman holding a dagger in her hand. She gazed upon me lovingly. It was as beautiful a scene as it was weird, creepy. I didn't like what was happening not a single bit.

As if it were a symphony - and it might even be given the elves' musical voice chanting the ritual's spells - the magic reached a crescendo. The energy wrapped around the woman's body infusing it just as it had done with my banshee's body.

The elf maiden rose the dagger and plunged it in her own heart.

I despaired as I saw her soul leave her body. Even in death, her specter was smiling at me. She mouthed something and I understood what she meant.

"Live a happy life."

As if. That was not for me.

The energies of the magical ritual sucked me into the vacant body.

I blinked. I felt my heartbeat. No. Not mine. I was dizzy and it felt hard to think but I knew. The body I was using belonged to the woman that committed suicide. Around me, the council congratulated themselves. Above me, the three moons shone fully upon the world. It was the special winter solstice. Unable to resist the call of the moons, I started to shift.

My body felt weak. I fainted.

Cyst Hybernation activated.