I made my way back to the Folly and sat at the counter until Jack came out of the kitchen. He caught sight of me and his eyes brightened with a friendly glint.

  “Koa! Thought you’d be off to who knows where after this morning?”

  “Just stopping by to let you know where I'm headed. I’ll be going to Grim Vale.”

  Jack frowned, concern etched on his face. “Grim Vale? You sure that’s wise? It’s not exactly a picnic out there.”

  “I’ll be fine,” I assured him, dismissing his worry with a wave of my hand. “It’s just to scout. Checking on undead activity and gauging mana fluctuations.”

  He nodded slowly but didn’t look convinced. “Still… I'm sure you know how those things can be. Keep your wits about you.”

  “I always do,” I said, injecting some confidence into my tone. “Just wanted to make sure you knew where to find me in case anyone comes looking.”

  Jack leaned closer, lowering his voice slightly as if sharing a secret. “Anyone specific you’re expecting?”

  “Not really,” I admitted with a shrug. “But if Bren or Todd ask where I am, I’d rather they hear it from you first.”

  “Fair enough.” He straightened up again and grabbed a mug to fill. “Would you like something before you head out? A drink for the journey?”

  I thought about it for a moment but shook my head. “Actually, something to eat for my trip would be great.”

  Jack chuckled softly, leaning back against the bar with his arms crossed. “Coing right up!” He went back to the kitchen and returned with a large sack. “Make sure to taste the food this time.”

  I laughed and accepted the sack, willing it into my inventory.

  “Oh, spatial equipment now? You're stepping into the high and mighty Silver Ranks alright,” Jack mused.

  I smirked. “I have a reputation to uphold.”

  “Okay then, Koa. Just make sure you come back in one piece. The room’s not gonna pay itself.” A faint grin appeared at the edge of Jack's lips.

  “I will,” I replied before turning toward the door again.

  I stepped out, running through a quick equipment check, more so out of habit than not. My sword was secured at my hip, and I pulled my cloak from my inventory. Typically, it took about a week to reach Grim Vale by foot. I intended to speed that up.

  I made my way to the East exit gate of the city, conscious that my goal was in that direction according to the mission posting. Once I was outside the city, I soared into the air, flying toward my newest target.

  As I soared through the sky, I tapped into my connection with the lightning element, summoning and feeling its raw energy crackling beneath my skin. The air shimmered around me, charged with potential, and I let it swirl around my body. With every heartbeat, I focused on grasping its erratic nature. It was wild and promised a destructive force if harnessed.

  I imagined infusing my sword with this energy and began focusing the power toward my arm. With a flick of my wrist, I directed the elemental energy into the weapon's edge. It responded eagerly, glowing faintly as arcs of electricity danced along the metal.

  “A bit like wind,” I muttered to myself, recalling how I’d infused gusts with razor-sharp precision. “But more volatile.”

  I overcharged my mana flow, letting it surge through me until it pulsed with intensity. My muscles tingled in response, awakening every fiber in anticipation of what was to come. Lightning could be devastating and a bit more direct in endangering the user. I knew mages that had learned that lesson the hard way and emphasized practicing caution. Yet here I was, harnessing the element with a freedom I knew was born from my unique advantages.

  I directed the lightning to seep into the air around me. Tendrils of energy lashed out like serpents seeking their prey, illuminating the surrounding clouds in brilliant flashes. I could feel them responding to my will, writhing and coiling in sync with my intentions.

  “Let’s see how far we can take this,” I challenged myself as I veered higher into the atmosphere, where the air crackled even more fiercely with static energy.

  My focus sharpened as I pulled at the threads of lightning around me, weaving them together into a tapestry of power that would set me apart from other lightning mages. Most would struggle to contain such fury; they lacked the finesse required that my mana manipulation supplemented to prevent losing control.

  I leaned into this method to further amplify my capabilities. Something as simple as overcharging the element and letting it grow in intensity afforded continual improvement on refining my control. I honed this further, readying for whatever awaited in Grim Vale, I felt a sense of exhilaration surge through me. A potent reminder that this journey was just beginning.

  Skill Upgraded: [Lightning Element Mastery], Skill, Tier: Adept.

  The journey continued, and I kept demonstrating greater control over the element. I directed the raw energy throughout my body, releasing the electricity in overwhelming waves that generated shockwaves with me at their center. I took it a step further by calling forth lightning, infusing the charge with my mana, its explosive force intensifying as I grappled with it, adding further surges to its might.

  I sensed and witnessed its transformation evolving from a bolt into a wave, branching into arcs, and further reforming into a concentrated spear of pure electricity. I clutched this power tightly, eager to unleash it, yet I held back and drew it inward, tempering the energy and allowing it to mold my very essence.

  I detached the energy from my body, maintaining the shape it took that mirrored my form but was composed entirely of pure lightning. Feeling a profound connection to the energy, I commanded the now humanoid form to fly alongside me.

  I felt a bit childish, overly enthused by the progression the notifications affirmed as they flashed in my vision, each trial and subsequent manipulation of the fierce element yielding rewards.

  New Utility Skill Acquired: [Lightning Shroud], Skill Tier: Journeyman.

  New Utility Skill Acquired: [Lightning Pulse], Skill Tier: Adept.

  New Active Skill Acquired: [Lightning Bolt II], Skill Tier: Journeyman.

  Skill Upgraded: [Lightning Bolt II]—> [Chained Lightning], Skill, Tier: Adept.

  Skill Upgraded: [Lightning Element Mastery], Skill, Tier: Expert.

  Skill Upgraded: [Chained Lightning]—>[Thunder Lance], Skill, Tier: Expert.

  Skill Upgraded: [Lightning Shroud]—>[Lightning Cloak], Skill, Tier: Adept.

  New Active Skill Acquired: [Lightning Clone], Skill Tier: Expert.

  Time passed, and with my newly acquired abilities, I reached the edge of what appeared to be the sudden termination of vegetation, wildlife, or any trace of vibrant existence. I recognized this as the boundary of the Grim Vale.

  * * *

  The moment I crossed into the Grim Vale, the land itself seemed to recoil. Decay. Unnatural. Those came to mind, cemented with a stillness that didn’t belong.

  Before me stretched a battlefield long since abandoned by the living, yet still restless with movement. Broken war engines and shattered fortifications loomed over the land, relics of a brutal past. Ash and soot decorated the flattened ground giving evidence to battle-worn devastation. Moving along this ground were the remnants of that past given unnatural persistence. Undead, considerable in numbers, suggested more than just scattered stragglers.

  I landed atop a collapsed watchtower and swept my eyes across the field below. I continued to observe from my vantage point, taking in the current state of view. After some time, I felt a familiarity in the order of the undead’s movement. My attention was particularly drawn to a group of corpses that stayed in step with one another as they marched along a fissure that spanned a 10 km radius with a collapsed ruin at its center. Their route seemed to convey a pattern matching a patrol. Time spent as a royal guard evidently motivated my presumptions, but I was further supported in this as other groups formed up around points of interest or other landmarks, suggesting some manner of coordination.

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  I focused my gaze, assessing a group of undead closer to broken down gate.

  Levels 51... 56... 64. The majority were standard for the reanimated. I spotted skeletal warriors and rotting knights, their weapons corroded yet not to be without lethality. Larger undead, hulking amalgamations of bone and rusted armor, sat at the higher end, nearing level 75. I picked up on an intelligence further underlined by their movements.

  A disturbance in the rubble below pulled my focus. One of the undead—an armored wight—turned its hollow gaze skyward, the dim embers of malice flickering in its sockets.

  I let lightning surge through my fingertips.

  The bolt of electricity lanced downward, striking the wight center mass. Its entire structure detonated from the force, bones splintering into fine dust before its weapon could fully be raised.

  Two nearby undead, revenants by their forms, turned, sluggish yet aware. I teleported before they could register my presence, appearing mid-air above another section of ruins. I leveled my hand downward, channeling energy through.

  A crackling arc of lightning erupted, cascading downward in jagged streams. The moment it touched the ground, it burst outward in a violent discharge, engulfing the revenants in a web of electric destruction. Their decayed bodies disintegrated in the aftermath.

  Still, more were coming.

  I pushed forward through the ruins, my movement unhindered by the treacherous terrain. I flew effortlessly, weaving between crumbling structures, scanning the battlefield for the real cause behind the undead’s behavior. Signs pointed to something guiding them.

  Gaining altitude, the larger picture revealed itself. The undead were amassing on the previous location of my attack.

  My gaze followed the movement, tracing them back to their source. Three locations, spread across the battlefield, pulsed with more power than the scattered foot soldiers.

  Necrotic storms.

  Dense, swirling maelstroms of black mana churned at these sites, warping the air around them. And at the center of each, I could see them.

  I locked onto their signatures capturing the difference in strength from the fodder.

  The first stood at the site of a collapsed war camp. A towering Death Knight, clad in blackened plate. His greatsword pulsed with a sickly green aura, his armor etched with runes long since corrupted. Despite his undead nature, there was a rigid discipline in his stance, a general commanding his forces even in death.

  [Death Knight, Undead - Level 88], High Expert.

  The second occupied the remains of an abandoned siege engine. A Lich, its skeletal frame adorned in tattered robes, its hands wreathed in violet flame. Several Wraithborn hovered around it like sentries. They were lesser phantoms, but still deadly in their own right. This one was a spellcaster, and judging by the way its magic pulsed through the undead nearby, it was acting as an amplifier.

  [Lich, Undead - Level 88], High Expert.

  The final one, the highest-ranked among them, stood at the heart of what had once been a command post. A Pale Revenant, its decayed form barely concealed beneath regal, tattered robes. Unlike the others, it radiated something deeper than simple necrotic power.

  [Pale Revenant, Undead - Level 90], High Expert.

  This was the true leader. Its presence alone dictated the tide of the undead, a calculated force rather than a mindless husk.

  I searched for more and focused past them, following a thread of power effectively channeling mana into their respective forms.

  At the center of the Revenant’s command post, embedded in the earth, was a jagged monolith of dark stone. Pulsing veins of mana webbed across its surface, sending waves of energy through the battlefield.

  Every few moments, the monolith exhaled a dull thrum, and each time, the undead around it stiffened as if snapping to attention.

  That was it.

  The artifact was feeding them, reinforcing their decayed bodies and sustaining their strength. The Death Knight’s aura flickered with renewed vigor every time the monolith pulsed. The Lich’s spellcasting quickened. The Pale Revenant which stood closest to it, had its form unusually prominent for an undead of its kind.

  The power drawn from it set them apart from their peers.

  I flexed my grip on my sword, feeling the crackle of mana stir at my fingertips.

  I could destroy it.

  With a well-placed Rift, I could slice through the monolith, collapse the storm, and cut off their source of power. Without it, the commanders would still be formidable, but their forces would lose cohesion.

  But that wasn’t my mission.

  Tyus had sent me to assess, not eliminate.

  And besides. I wanted to see how Tolany’s guild handled this.

  The cohesion pointed to a staged operation, orchestrated by forces that understood war. The artifact had to be ancient, its activation recent. Meaning someone, or something, had reawakened this battlefield’s curse.

  That information alone was more valuable than wiping out what stood to be my evidence.

  I turned, focusing on my destination and teleporting away in a long-range jump, covering leagues in an instant. The battlefield faded behind me, the cursed wind still howling through the ruins.

  Time to report.

  * * *

  Skill Upgraded: [Teleport I] -> [Teleport II], Skill Tier: Master

  The long-range teleportation pulled me out of the stilled lands of Grim Vale and planted me at the outer edge of Tolany. The shift was immediate, death traded for color, for sound, for life. I quickened my pace to the Folly..

  The door creaked open, a flickering hearth, and the murmur of mid-afternoon drinkers. Jack was at a table conversing with another, an adventurer by his gear. He spotted me and nodded his head over to the bar counter. I mimicked his gesture and took a seat at the counter. After a minute or so I heard his approach and waited till he rounded the counter to appear on the other side.

  "Didn’t think I’d be seeing you for a few days," he said, sliding a clean mug aside. “Grim Vale too quiet, or did you just think better on my offer for a drink?”

  “Did what was assigned,” I replied, throwing a copper pieces for a fill of the mug. “Didn’t see the point in stretching out more than was needed.”

  Jack gave a grunt and tilted his head. “Let’s hear it.”

  Ellie wordlessly placed a hot bowl of stew and a fresh roll in front of me. I gave her a small nod of thanks before digging in.

  “Undead presence is strong. More coordinated than expected. Three High Experts looked to be the biggest threats. Death Knight, Lich, Pale Revenant. I watched them moving troops, rotating positions. They’re organized.”

  Jack’s brows knit together. “Three Experts running a field of undead? High you say? That’s not a coincidence.”

  “There’s a source for their elevated power as well. It’s some sort of artifact. A monolith embedded at the heart of the ruins. I didn’t engage directly, but whatever it is, it’s empowering them beyond what their base level suggests.”

  Jack exhaled and folded his arms. “Tyus isn’t going to like that.”

  “He’ll need to escalate,” I said between spoonfuls. “Curious to see how far he takes it.”

  Jack rubbed his chin. “That’ll depend on how heavy your report lands. If he sees this as a potential outbreak, he’ll send two of Tolany’s Silver-rank parties for containment and sweep.”

  He glanced toward the back of the tavern where several adventurers lounged in groups, unaware of the storm building miles beyond the city.

  “Ember Blades or Gray Hounds, maybe the Iron Tide. All damn good squads. They’re experienced and if it’s a threat short of catastrophe, they’ll be his first move. If not…”

  “Stampede?”

  Jack nodded slowly. “Yeah. If it as serious as it sounds, it’ll be Stampede.

  “Led by the Cold Maelstrom, Callus Sol. Ice mage, and not the delicate kind. He’ll freeze an entire field over and leave nothing breathing. Really, the entire party is full of powerhouses or those in the making.

  “Peter Vough. The Marksman. Elemental Archer. Raw destruction with a bow. If Callus locks it down, Peter blows it apart. The two of them together? That’s a siege.”

  I finished the last of the stew, leaning back slightly.

  Jack finally took a drink, then set the cup down. “You’ll be likely to return with them. I’ve known Tyus for long and he values any capable resource…and what you’ve seen? He’ll want you close.”

  I let a breath slip through my nose. “Wouldn’t mind seeing what Stampede’s like up close.”

  Jack grinned. “Just don’t blink, Destus. You’ll miss the part where they break the world.”

  * * *

  The assignment chamber hadn’t changed. It was quiet, cool, and steeped in purpose. I crossed it without pause, retracing the steps I’d taken before accepting the Grim Vale mission. The door to Tyus’s room stood open.

  He looked up, brows raising in surprise.

  “Koa? Already?”

  I nodded once. “I’ve seen everything I needed.”

  He gestured me inside, arms folding across his chest. “Sit. Let’s hear it.”

  “Grim Vale’s got a much larger undead presence and it's organized. Entire patrols cycling through the valley, and formations guarding key areas. Everything looks controlled. Spotted a… well I’ve been calling it a monolith for now. But that might be at the source of this expansion too.”

  Tyus’s expression darkened. “Did you see anyone or thing leading this?”

  “Three. A Lich, a Pale Revenant, and a Death Knight. All of them are High Experts. The Pale Revenant is level ninety, closing in on Master tier.”

  Tyus swore quietly under his breath. “And the monolith?”

  “It’s buried in the valley ruins. Half-submerged in the stone. It’s active, deep metallic architecture, lined with mana channels, pulsing in intervals. It’s empowering the commanders and the other undead. Their mana signature deepens incrementally the closer they are to it. Left long enough we might get a Master tier ascension.”

  Tyus moved to the table, shifting one of the markers on a sketched-out map of Grim Vale. “That wasn’t there before. How is it powered?”

  “It acts like a lodestone. Draws ambient mana in and amplifies what’s already there.”

  He paced once before turning to me. “We’re moving in four days.”

  I nodded.

  Tyus looked back to the map. “I’m sending three parties. Stampede, Iron Tide, and the Ember Blades. Stampede has the firepower I want for this kind of subjugation.

  “Cold Maelstrom and The Marksman. Sol’s ice element can suppress large-scale threats, and Peter can put down most enhanced targets quickly. The devastation those two bring should handle even a Master tier if need be. The other two teams are Silver-ranked, but they’ve been through high-casualty scenarios and know how to follow a Gold’s tempo.”

  “And you want me to coordinate?”

  “You’re my pivot. You’ve seen the terrain, the command structure, and that monolith. With your Rifts and teleportation, you’ll be a strong asset for communication.”

  I stood. “Understood.”

  Tyus studied me.” Thanks Koa but I’ll have to ask more of you.”

  I nodded once, turning to go. He called after me.

  “Given your quick return, I find it hard to believe you're more than just a freshly dubbed Expert.”

  I paused at the doorway and glanced back. Tyus gave a knowing smirk to which I returned.

  I continued into the hall, plans already forming.