บท 8: PHANTOM
If the ground and basement floors were excluded, Bori's tower had four floors. The first one was the kitchen, where two ordinary skeletons dwelled. Apparently they were the old man's cooks, and not very good ones. Sage almost gagged when she tasted the slop they brought her. The necromancer on the other hand slurped the contents of his bowl down like it was natural. She shot him a look of disgust. There was something wrong with his taste buds. That was what she concluded when he continued to wolf down the swill.
The floor above the kitchen was a washroom that came with a privy. Seeing this, she had to fight herself to refrain from criticizing Bori for putting the toilet above the kitchen. On this floor they met another skeleton. This one looked like it belonged to a child. Bori explained that its job was to wash his clothes and linens. It was on this floor where she was offered a pair of discoloured robes, which she grudgingly accepted.
On the third floor was situated the study. This was where the old man kept all his books and scrolls. It was also the place he offered for her to rest her head. There were no skeletons on this floor so she found no fault with accepting his hospitality.
As for the top floor, it was where Bori's living quarters were located. He did not take her up there to show her, instead opting to end their tour on the third floor. He then bade her good night before climbing the stairs for the last time. The Grade 4 Skeleton Warriors continued to follow him. She guessed they were going to guard him while he slept.
Cautious isn't he? She thought. Perhaps he also did not trust her.
The two of them were linked. She could feel him even as he left her. It was probably a product of the summoning ritual. However, there seemed to be a difference between their bond and the one between Bori and the skeletons. She did not feel the need to submit to him, which she was grateful for. She could not begin to imagine the nightmarish scenario in which she was subject to his every whim.
When the old man's steps completely disappeared she began to look around the study in earnest. Study was not the word she would describe the place, it was more like a mini library. There were more than fifty books and scrolls located on the shelfs around the room. Under normal circumstances Sage would have tried to read them but she sadly discovered that she was unable to read the writing.
With that, she was at a loss about what to do.
Although she had asked for a place to sleep she was still too wary of the Bori and his skeletons to doze off, not that she could even do that. One thing she discovered minutes after the necromancer left her was that she did not feel tired in any way. She did not seem to have much of an appetite either. After having a taste of the slop the skeleton cooks prepared she had pretty much abstained from the rest of the meal and she did not feel hungry in the least bit.
So this is what it means to be an undead, she thought.
Never hungering and tiring. That was how stories always portrayed them. It seemed at least that part was true. As for the fabled hatred towards the living, Sage did not feel it. Maybe it did no effect of intelligent undead, she guessed. However, the skeletons did not seem to harbour hatred for the living either. But then again the only living person around was their creator so it was hard to tell if it truly was so.
She placed her elbows on her thighs and rested her head in her hands. Her fingers trailed the stitches running from the corners of her mouth to the tips her ears. There was another nasty patch of needlework that ran from her right eyebrow to her left jaw. The former owner of this body must have gone quite through the ordeal.
How do I remove them? She wondered.
If she were still in her former world she would not have entertained such thoughts, but in this one where magic was a thing she could not help but think about it. Her current body was messed up in all sorts of ways and had stitched threads running all over. Obviously she wanted to fix those faults. After all, being an undead did not mean she had to look like a ragdoll.
What is a phantom anyway?
The fact that her {Index} identified her as one even though she had a corporeal form was puzzling. Although she did not feel tired or hungry, her current state was different from what she imagined most of the undead.
There were some similarities to how she thought an undead should be; like the fact that she did not have a heartbeat and also did not need to breathe and only did it out of habit. However, there were quite a few things she would not normally associate with the dead. For one thing she could eat food even if it was unnecessary, she could experience pain and she could even bleed. It was something she realised when, in the kitchen, she prickled her finger on the old wooden bowl's splinter. Different from other living creatures though, the blood that trickled out of the tiny wound was so dark it was almost black.
Is that all there is to it? She wondered.
She felt there should be more to being a phantom. If not than why even call it that instead of something like Unrotten Zombie? She wanted to know what else she could do. She needed to know more if she was going to live in this world.
Having decided this, she got out of the armchair she had been sitting in since Bori left her in the study and descended the stairs. On the second floor the child skeleton stood completely still, awaiting instructions. She passed it. On the kitchen floor the two skeletons too had ceased activity. These she ignored as well, continuing downwards. The ground floor was as empty as when she had passed by it previously. It was the one with the door leading to the outside, and his target.
Taking in a deep breath and expelling it, she pushed the door open and stepped outside.
The first thing she caught sight of the sky. Billions of radiant stars hovered up there as they illuminated the world. Their lighting was not as bright as the ones from Earth though. It probably had to do with the fact that she could not see a moon in the sky.
The second thing she noticed was mountains. The tower, which was just as tasteless on the outside as it was on the inside, appeared to be situated in a clearing deep in the mountains. She did not see a way out of the place. Bori probably had a secret route he used to come and go.
I will learn it when the time comes, she decided.
For now she was going to conduct tests.
A world full of magic might sound nice, but that belief had been overturned after the encounter with the wraith. In such a world the creatures were more dangerous than the ones from where she came. If she wanted to not only survive but thrive she needed to know her limits.
Now that she possessed a Grade 4 physique she wanted to see just how strong that was. She started off by jumping vertically upwards. She bent her knees and jumped with as much strength as she could. By her estimation she managed jump two metres.
After that she looked for large rocks at the mountain foots to try and gauge her strength. She managed to lift one that was about her size and weighed around five hundred kilograms.
Unfortunately, the clearing where the tower was located was too small to test how fast she could run, so she could only move on to the next issue.
What kind of traits does a phantom have? She closed her eyes, trying to see if she could feel something. That was what people in novels always did when they wanted to gauge the changes in their bodies.
Surprisingly it worked. They moment she started thinking about it she instinctively knew what she could do. It was all so easy that she was surprised that she had not noticed it earlier. It was probably because she had been distracted by everything that was happening. Now that she had made a conscious decision to see what she could do all the information flooded her mind just like that.
As a phantom there were four abilities Sage had. The first ability she had was one allowed her to almost completely erase her weight. It was called {Lightfoot}. When she used it she would also be able to move without making any sound.
As for the second ability, she looked down at her hands and watched them disappear. They were still there, she could feel them. The nature of this ability was to turn herself invisible. This ability was aptly named {Invisibility}. If I used it and {Lightfoot} together I could escape from anyone, she thought excitedly. As long as they did not possess magic to counter it anyway, she poured cold water on her thinking. In a world of magic one could never be certain.
To try out the third ability she walked back to tower and swung a punch at its wall. The punch burst through the grey wall without causing an impact. Amazed, she retracted her hand and stared at it. This was the third ability of the phantom. It was called {Ghostwalk} and allowed her to move through physical objects.
As for the fourth ability… she looked at the foot of the mountain and focused. Then, darkness flashed for a millisecond and she was there. {Blink} it was called. A convenient name. It was a form of teleportation that allowed her to cover short distances in the blink of an eye. This was most likely the same ability that wraith had used when it was chasing her.
Fuck yeah! She rejoiced when she saw what she could do.
With these abilities in hand she would easily escape if she met that wraith again.
And so, after experiencing her first bout of joy since becoming an undead, she celebrated by {Blink}ing around the clearing.
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