'Looks like everything is going according to plan…' Ashton thought to himself while laying on the dirty bed that reminded him of his early days in the enclosure.
If he wanted, he could have recovered from the wounds in an instant. But first he needed to make sure not to leave any loopholes in his story that could expose what truly happened inside the cave.
Also, since he was no longer using the [Grim Reaper's earrings] both his mana and intelligence were back to somewhat of normal levels. Which meant outsmarting a lot of people wasn't worth trying at the moment.
That being said, he had pulled a hell of a performance a few hours ago. Although allowing the acidic rain to burn his flesh might have been a bit over the top, it wasn't wise to use an umbrella or some shit to cover himself up as he had 'escaped the cave hurriedly'.
So far everyone seemed to be believing whatever he had said, but he was sure they had their questions regarding his tale. Therefore, he was taking a bit of time to sort out his story completely before 'waking up'.
'I was a bit worried about storing Sven and the skeletons wolves somewhere, thankfully the [Valhalla] skill saved that trouble for me. If they had seen me walking around with a bunch of reanimated creatures… it would have led to quite an interesting chat.'
While the skill [Resurrect] raised people from the dead, [Valhalla] was the skill that every necromancer would want to have. [Valhalla] skill essentially worked as an inventory, but rather than storing items, it stored reanimated beings in a pocket dimension which could be accessed at any time by Ashton.
At the moment, Ashton could only store 10 souls in it, which meant currently he had Sven and nine skeleton wolves under his authority. However, there was a problem. The limit of souls directly depended on his intelligence.
While Ashton was equipping the earrings, his intelligence was high enough to save 10 souls. But the moment he took off the earrings, he lost the ability to access 7 out of the 10 souls because his intelligence wasn't high enough to control all of them. Thankfully, Sven was not one of the souls that got locked.
Still, in order to embrace the Necromancer class in its full glory, Ashton either had to increase his intelligence using some other gear or skills, or he would have to find a way to conceal the earrings while wearing them. But for now, he had something else to take care of.
'Time to start acting again… sigh, it's tiring but a man's got to do what he got to do.'
Ashton abruptly got up from his bed, bewildered. He didn't have any weapons but his hands were tightly clenched into fists, ready to fight. Obviously, he wasn't going to fight anyone, he was simply pretending that he did not have any recollection of making it back into the ruined city.
"Ashton, easy, easy! You're safe!" Virgil and Baiter rushed in to calm the kid down before he did something they could get into trouble for.
"When… how long I was out?"Ashton sat back on the bed, his face buried in his hands.
"A couple of hours…" Fae replied, "Here, drink this potion, it'll make you feel better."
"I don't have time for this! I have to inform the king about the dungeon. Those beasts… they killed Seven… right in front of me and I couldn't shit!" Ashton screamed in rage.
They never knew Ashton and Seven were so close. But they could have guessed as much. After all, Seven was his bodyguard, it was obvious they shared some kind of a bond. The guys didn't know how to console Ashton, but the ladies immediately sat beside him, trying to calm him down.
Once he was a bit calm, Virgil asked the most obvious question… what exactly were those creatures? After all, Seven was likely a bit over level 30 and for him to die just like that was a bit concerning.
"They looked like direwolves, but they were much worse." Ashton began recounting about Wraith wolves, "They had multiple horns along with translucent skin. At first, we thought it was good as we'd be able to see their organs and strike them there. But soon realised things were not going to go as smoothly as we thought."
He continued, "No matter how many times we stabbed them, burned them… they kept regenerating. Our attacks could temporarily stun them and make their pace slow, but we couldn't kill them. Not a single one. Seven thought if physical attacks aren't working then we'd only have to use magical ones…"
"But even those didn't work… I guess?" Virgil completed Ashton's sentence, to which the latter nodded, "It almost feels unbelievable. After all, there have been night creatures known to only suffer through either physical or magical attacks, but hell, this is the first time I've heard neither of the attacks working on them."
After that, everyone remained silent. None of them knew what to say. Especially when they couldn't even believe such a creature existed in the first place.
"Seven knew things would end up badly for both of us… that's why he took it upon himself to make sure that at least I got out of there. Someone had to inform the king about the creatures and find a way to get rid of them."
"That fcking royal brat…" Virgil chuckled, "They always have to think about others first. Even if it means to embrace death. Men having such resolve are rare… because we keep losing them over and over. So what's next?"
"I guess we should head back now. I need to inform his highness about… Seven and the creatures." Ashton replied and once again stood on his feet, "If we can get rid of the monsters, that would also help the king financially. Therefore I think he would be a bit interested in the cave."
Everyone got confused with what Ashton had just said. Clearing a dungeon could give them riches, there was no doubt about that, but the money they'd make wouldn't be a sum what would attract the attention of the king. Unless there was something else Ashton did not tell them yet.
"Don't tell me you actually found-" Fae uttered in surprise.
"Right in the middle of the cave, there is a garden, filled with histeria flowers.." Ashton mumbled before taking out a bunch of histeria flowers from his inventory, "This should be enough to entice him and let me take my revenge on those bastards for killing Seven."