Laizer used the Everburning Blade to sweep away the skeletons at his feet and spat on the ground: "Chk (Githyanki: Tsk), these skeletons are not easy to chop. There is no full feeling of a sharp blade cutting through flesh..."
There were only a few undead creatures resurrected because of Gale's behavior, and they were even less than the total number of people in the team. Therefore, after just one encounter, they were torn into skeletons by the adventurers who came down from the snail shell ship.
“You, bard.” The githyanki warrior stares at Ivy. “You surprise me. I thought the scimitar on your waist was just for show. But your swordsmanship is as amazing as your face.”
“Huh? Is this the Githyanki way of showing love?” Asdaelon laughed playfully and even put down his weapon and started clapping. “Putting aside the little bugs in my brain, I have discovered another thing in common between you and us. At least you know how to appreciate beauty and true art. If we can end our lives with the singing of bards, perhaps this is not a bad thing for us.”
“I never intended for this to happen! I will find the breeding room before the transformation occurs. As long as you follow me, the tragic fate will not befall you.” Laizel stared at the beast bite sword on Ivy’s waist. “Githyanki admire the strong and despise the weak. If it was me standing next to you just now, I’m afraid I would have no chance of avoiding your blade. Even now, it makes my hair stand on end... Tell me, bard, where did you learn your swordsmanship?”
Ivy patted the elven curved sword at his waist, comforting this ancient weapon that hadn't drunk the blood of greenskins for a long time: "A suitable answer for a bard is that my soul was inspired by lost stories and great legends, and I automatically comprehended this supreme swordsmanship."
"Chk (Githyanki: Tsk), lies are as common to you as eating and drinking, right?" Laizer turned his head away and no longer looked at Ivy.
In the hidden tomb chamber of Ya'ge's mausoleum, there was suddenly a sound of something heavy falling.
Then came the surprised voice of Xie Nian: "Wow, another skeleton."
"No, he's more like some kind of zombie," Gale, who was also in the hidden tomb, corrected him, "Look, his eyes are still intact!"
The team members who heard the noise crowded outside the hidden tomb, and the more alert ones held the weapons at hand.
Under the illumination of the dim green candlelight in the tomb, a shriveled creature in a sleeveless robe floated out of the stone coffin. It was hard to say whether he was still alive or not, because the skin of a normal person would not be as dry and dull as his.
“You have come before me, and you must respond to his words, just as you always do.” The gravekeeper stood on the ground with his shriveled feet, staring at the evil thoughts in front of him with burning eyes.
"The way you speak is really weird..." Xie Nian scratched her head. She had a familiar illusion about the stranger in front of her.
"Of course, waking up in this way is really unexpected." The gravekeeper tilted his head, and a little candlelight reflected in his dim eyes.
"Now, I have a question—" The gravekeeper raised a finger at the evil thought, "What is the value of the life of an ordinary person?"
"That's a really good question..." Xie Nian thought for a while with his hands on his hips, and said with a little frustration, "I only know that maybe my life is worthless. There is always an impulse in my bones, clamoring for me to hurt others... I often indulge in the sea of blood and corpses, and even chopped off the hand of a person who sought my help... He was stuck in the portal at the time... I wish I could help him..."
"Don't be discouraged, dear." Asdeln played with the dagger in his hand. "The blood on your face looks particularly beautiful. Some people are born to hurt others, such as you and me."
"Stop making sarcastic remarks!" Gale shouted angrily, "It wasn't you who had your hand chopped off! I was killed once by our good captain! No wonder you kept holding my hand just now!"
The undead creatures before had no flesh and blood, so not only did Laizer not feel the pleasure of killing, but the evil thoughts born in the blood were also the same. She even had some withdrawal reactions, feeling fear and resistance to the sudden desire to kill that emerged from her heart, and she did not feel the intoxication and obsession when she killed someone.
"I... I'm sorry..." Xie Nian took out something tightly wrapped in bandages from the small bag on his waist and handed it to Gale. "Actually, I just imagined the scene of cutting off your palm, just like pruning branches from a bush... but I didn't expect this result..."
"You carry my severed hand with you?" Gale almost jumped up. "Is this some kind of curious collecting fetish? Mystra, you are a lunatic!"
The evil thought holding the wizard's hand was obviously caught in a dilemma. The stinking blood in her body was urging her to kill, but the conversation with the gravekeeper made her resist her instinct. Looking at her companions' vigilant or concerned eyes, she unexpectedly drew out the dagger at her waist and slashed her left wrist.
The weapon picked up from the body of the Mind Flayer's victim was obviously not sharp enough. The evil thought, with his face stained with his own blood, chopped three or four times before cutting off the palm completely.
When Xie Yi picked up his severed hand from the ground and handed it to Gail, the gravekeeper's tomb was in an uproar.
"I took a hand from you, and now I give you another. That's only fair, isn't it?"
Even though Ivy had traveled through two or three worlds, he had never seen a human as crazy as Xie Nian. He twitched his mouth a few times and quickly cast a spell to stop the blood spurting from Xie Nian's left wrist.
"Crazy! It's really crazy! Magic gave me two hands again, why do I need yours!" Gail held his head with both hands and shouted in a state of collapse, "Can you help her connect her hands, Ivy? We still need her to wield weapons to deal with the troubles that are coming!"
"Of course you can," Ivy picked up Xie Nian's severed hand from the ground. "This hand is not completely lifeless yet. Just fix the wound and recite another spell."
But when Ivy tried to straighten the broken parts of the wound, his evil thoughts subconsciously shrank back.
"Hurting your own body is not a form of repentance," Ivy advised. He found that Xie Nian's brain had a completely different brain circuit than that of ordinary people. Although the evil instinct in her bones was instigating her to embrace blood and sin, there was a cautious new soul hidden in her head soaked in blood.
From the scar on her face that had just healed, it could be seen that this person's brain had suffered a severe blow not long ago. If it weren't for her special bloodline, there would be no way she could have survived.
"Life and living are never the same thing. Very good, I have got your answer. When the time and place are right, we will meet again." The gravekeeper who had been watching the farce silently spoke abruptly. After commenting on Xie Nian's behavior, he limped out the door, completely ignoring the other members of the team as air.
"Then what should I do to stop the evil impulses in my bones?" Xie Nian asked in a sad voice, holding his remaining arm.
But her expression made Ivy even more certain that this person was indeed mentally ill.
"From my experience, nothing can be solved once and for all. If you refuse to embrace it, you will have to spend the rest of your life fighting it. This will be an extremely difficult road, and a road full of thorns... However, I think you may be able to create a legend. When the time comes, I will write your name in a song and sing it to every corner of the world." Ivy continued to comfort him. Thanks to his short teaching career at Hogwarts and Strixhaven, he felt that he was quite adept at dealing with naughty children.
"Now, let me take your hand, okay?" Ivy asked softly.
"I want to keep this wound as a reminder... to remind me all the time not to indulge the evil in my bones..." Xie Nian's face was as pale as paper, but her eyes, lips, and the tattoos on her face all looked brighter than blood.
"You worry too much and do too little!" Shadow Heart commented mercilessly, "The mind flayer tadpoles in our heads won't give you enough time to find yourself! I thought you were a qualified captain, but now it seems that I may have misjudged you. I'm afraid that your impulsiveness and contradictions will soon lead us into a tragic and desperate situation."
"But you can't deny her determination, Kainyank (Githyanki: Child of the Curse)." Laetzel always competes with Shadow Heart in various places. "A person who doesn't cherish his own body obviously won't pity the enemy. As long as she can still pick up a weapon, I will help her deal with the mind flayer tadpole in her head!"
"Okay, okay." Ivy spoke up to stop the quarrel between the two ladies. He put away his evil thoughts and Gail's severed hand, and then said, "Since you want to keep that scar, why not let me make you a prosthesis."
"Prosthetic limbs?" the evil thought repeated, "Are you really a bard?"
"I'm also a part-time inventor. I can mix some potions, make some scrolls and small and effective explosives." Ivy has played his role as much as possible, but there are always emergencies that require him to add new personality settings. "Using the existing materials, it won't be too difficult to make you a prosthesis, but its flexibility may only be 70% of your own palm. If you find a suitable workbench and materials, this data can be further improved."
"Then we should set up camp and have a good rest. It will give Ivy time to make the prosthetic limbs, and we can also take stock of our harvest. I haven't eaten for a while." Gale has calmed down a lot. He originally thought that he, who was carrying a super time bomb, was the most dangerous guy in the team, but now it seems that the evil thoughts with serious personality conflict disorder are the ones who may explode at any time.
"You really put on a good show for me." Although he said so, the expression on Asdelun's face was not very good. Perhaps it was because he found that the evil thoughts that suited his taste were actually a stubborn donkey who was unwilling to embrace his instincts. "Do I have to waste the few times I can move around in the sun in this gloomy tomb?"
Although he was full of complaints, Asdeln still went to set up his tent. This pale elf had no relatives. Where else could he find people like him except a group of victims of the mind flayer who shared the same suffering?
Since he couldn't take items from the Grimoire of Destruction, making a prosthetic limb using existing conditions was not a difficult challenge for Ivy.
He is not just a spellcaster, but also a master with great achievements in the field of alchemy.
Besides, he himself had studied the creation of body substitutes and implants, but his research was mainly on biological materials with magical properties.
But after seeing it many times, it is not difficult to make. Using ropes and springs instead of tendons, and steel and wood as bones, Ivy easily put together a prosthetic hand, and the whole process even took only two hours.
When I looked up from my work that day, looking for the scarlet figure of Evil Thought, I found that my companions in the camp were gathered together, discussing something.
Ivy walked over and saw that the person surrounded by them was the gravekeeper who had left the tomb not long ago.
"As predicted, we meet again." The gravekeeper said, "I will live in your camp and provide you with my services."
"What service can a skeleton provide us?" asked Asdaelon doubtfully.
"Mend the line between life and death." The gravekeeper's voice was emotionless, as if he was talking about an ordinary little thing. "If you unfortunately die, I can call your soul back to your body again. Of course, it will cost a small price."
"This is extremely powerful magic. Why can you do it?" asked Gale, who had just been resurrected.
"This is my duty. No need to explain too much." The gravekeeper's skull face was as calm as ever.
Ivy had never thought carefully about the reason why the gravekeeper existed as an NPC in the game, but if this was a real world, what was the true identity of the gravekeeper? Who could easily recall the souls of the dead and help these adventurers change their professions?
"You mentioned the price, what do you mean?" As Shar's priest, Yingxin has always been very sensitive to such superstitious things.
"A little money, that's all." The gravekeeper was as calm as ever, but Ivy's heart was in turmoil.
As a wizard who had cast several resurrection spells, he knew how difficult it was to resurrect a person. If the gravekeeper really provided a resurrection service for 200 gold coins as in the game, then the gravekeeper's identity would be almost unthinkable except for the real death god - the recorder of fate, Jergal, was the one who found the gravekeeper in his tomb.
The continent of Faerun is indeed a wonderful place. The legendary spellcaster Ivy has only arrived in Sword Bay for less than a day, and he has already seen a nine-ring spell scroll and a true god. Even if he sees the big devil in hell tomorrow, he will not be surprised at all.
"Only 200 gold coins?" Xie Nian muttered to himself, "This is too outrageous."
“Just like life: live outrageously and die credibly.”
There were only a few undead creatures resurrected because of Gale's behavior, and they were even less than the total number of people in the team. Therefore, after just one encounter, they were torn into skeletons by the adventurers who came down from the snail shell ship.
“You, bard.” The githyanki warrior stares at Ivy. “You surprise me. I thought the scimitar on your waist was just for show. But your swordsmanship is as amazing as your face.”
“Huh? Is this the Githyanki way of showing love?” Asdaelon laughed playfully and even put down his weapon and started clapping. “Putting aside the little bugs in my brain, I have discovered another thing in common between you and us. At least you know how to appreciate beauty and true art. If we can end our lives with the singing of bards, perhaps this is not a bad thing for us.”
“I never intended for this to happen! I will find the breeding room before the transformation occurs. As long as you follow me, the tragic fate will not befall you.” Laizel stared at the beast bite sword on Ivy’s waist. “Githyanki admire the strong and despise the weak. If it was me standing next to you just now, I’m afraid I would have no chance of avoiding your blade. Even now, it makes my hair stand on end... Tell me, bard, where did you learn your swordsmanship?”
Ivy patted the elven curved sword at his waist, comforting this ancient weapon that hadn't drunk the blood of greenskins for a long time: "A suitable answer for a bard is that my soul was inspired by lost stories and great legends, and I automatically comprehended this supreme swordsmanship."
"Chk (Githyanki: Tsk), lies are as common to you as eating and drinking, right?" Laizer turned his head away and no longer looked at Ivy.
In the hidden tomb chamber of Ya'ge's mausoleum, there was suddenly a sound of something heavy falling.
Then came the surprised voice of Xie Nian: "Wow, another skeleton."
"No, he's more like some kind of zombie," Gale, who was also in the hidden tomb, corrected him, "Look, his eyes are still intact!"
The team members who heard the noise crowded outside the hidden tomb, and the more alert ones held the weapons at hand.
Under the illumination of the dim green candlelight in the tomb, a shriveled creature in a sleeveless robe floated out of the stone coffin. It was hard to say whether he was still alive or not, because the skin of a normal person would not be as dry and dull as his.
“You have come before me, and you must respond to his words, just as you always do.” The gravekeeper stood on the ground with his shriveled feet, staring at the evil thoughts in front of him with burning eyes.
"The way you speak is really weird..." Xie Nian scratched her head. She had a familiar illusion about the stranger in front of her.
"Of course, waking up in this way is really unexpected." The gravekeeper tilted his head, and a little candlelight reflected in his dim eyes.
"Now, I have a question—" The gravekeeper raised a finger at the evil thought, "What is the value of the life of an ordinary person?"
"That's a really good question..." Xie Nian thought for a while with his hands on his hips, and said with a little frustration, "I only know that maybe my life is worthless. There is always an impulse in my bones, clamoring for me to hurt others... I often indulge in the sea of blood and corpses, and even chopped off the hand of a person who sought my help... He was stuck in the portal at the time... I wish I could help him..."
"Don't be discouraged, dear." Asdeln played with the dagger in his hand. "The blood on your face looks particularly beautiful. Some people are born to hurt others, such as you and me."
"Stop making sarcastic remarks!" Gale shouted angrily, "It wasn't you who had your hand chopped off! I was killed once by our good captain! No wonder you kept holding my hand just now!"
The undead creatures before had no flesh and blood, so not only did Laizer not feel the pleasure of killing, but the evil thoughts born in the blood were also the same. She even had some withdrawal reactions, feeling fear and resistance to the sudden desire to kill that emerged from her heart, and she did not feel the intoxication and obsession when she killed someone.
"I... I'm sorry..." Xie Nian took out something tightly wrapped in bandages from the small bag on his waist and handed it to Gale. "Actually, I just imagined the scene of cutting off your palm, just like pruning branches from a bush... but I didn't expect this result..."
"You carry my severed hand with you?" Gale almost jumped up. "Is this some kind of curious collecting fetish? Mystra, you are a lunatic!"
The evil thought holding the wizard's hand was obviously caught in a dilemma. The stinking blood in her body was urging her to kill, but the conversation with the gravekeeper made her resist her instinct. Looking at her companions' vigilant or concerned eyes, she unexpectedly drew out the dagger at her waist and slashed her left wrist.
The weapon picked up from the body of the Mind Flayer's victim was obviously not sharp enough. The evil thought, with his face stained with his own blood, chopped three or four times before cutting off the palm completely.
When Xie Yi picked up his severed hand from the ground and handed it to Gail, the gravekeeper's tomb was in an uproar.
"I took a hand from you, and now I give you another. That's only fair, isn't it?"
Even though Ivy had traveled through two or three worlds, he had never seen a human as crazy as Xie Nian. He twitched his mouth a few times and quickly cast a spell to stop the blood spurting from Xie Nian's left wrist.
"Crazy! It's really crazy! Magic gave me two hands again, why do I need yours!" Gail held his head with both hands and shouted in a state of collapse, "Can you help her connect her hands, Ivy? We still need her to wield weapons to deal with the troubles that are coming!"
"Of course you can," Ivy picked up Xie Nian's severed hand from the ground. "This hand is not completely lifeless yet. Just fix the wound and recite another spell."
But when Ivy tried to straighten the broken parts of the wound, his evil thoughts subconsciously shrank back.
"Hurting your own body is not a form of repentance," Ivy advised. He found that Xie Nian's brain had a completely different brain circuit than that of ordinary people. Although the evil instinct in her bones was instigating her to embrace blood and sin, there was a cautious new soul hidden in her head soaked in blood.
From the scar on her face that had just healed, it could be seen that this person's brain had suffered a severe blow not long ago. If it weren't for her special bloodline, there would be no way she could have survived.
"Life and living are never the same thing. Very good, I have got your answer. When the time and place are right, we will meet again." The gravekeeper who had been watching the farce silently spoke abruptly. After commenting on Xie Nian's behavior, he limped out the door, completely ignoring the other members of the team as air.
"Then what should I do to stop the evil impulses in my bones?" Xie Nian asked in a sad voice, holding his remaining arm.
But her expression made Ivy even more certain that this person was indeed mentally ill.
"From my experience, nothing can be solved once and for all. If you refuse to embrace it, you will have to spend the rest of your life fighting it. This will be an extremely difficult road, and a road full of thorns... However, I think you may be able to create a legend. When the time comes, I will write your name in a song and sing it to every corner of the world." Ivy continued to comfort him. Thanks to his short teaching career at Hogwarts and Strixhaven, he felt that he was quite adept at dealing with naughty children.
"Now, let me take your hand, okay?" Ivy asked softly.
"I want to keep this wound as a reminder... to remind me all the time not to indulge the evil in my bones..." Xie Nian's face was as pale as paper, but her eyes, lips, and the tattoos on her face all looked brighter than blood.
"You worry too much and do too little!" Shadow Heart commented mercilessly, "The mind flayer tadpoles in our heads won't give you enough time to find yourself! I thought you were a qualified captain, but now it seems that I may have misjudged you. I'm afraid that your impulsiveness and contradictions will soon lead us into a tragic and desperate situation."
"But you can't deny her determination, Kainyank (Githyanki: Child of the Curse)." Laetzel always competes with Shadow Heart in various places. "A person who doesn't cherish his own body obviously won't pity the enemy. As long as she can still pick up a weapon, I will help her deal with the mind flayer tadpole in her head!"
"Okay, okay." Ivy spoke up to stop the quarrel between the two ladies. He put away his evil thoughts and Gail's severed hand, and then said, "Since you want to keep that scar, why not let me make you a prosthesis."
"Prosthetic limbs?" the evil thought repeated, "Are you really a bard?"
"I'm also a part-time inventor. I can mix some potions, make some scrolls and small and effective explosives." Ivy has played his role as much as possible, but there are always emergencies that require him to add new personality settings. "Using the existing materials, it won't be too difficult to make you a prosthesis, but its flexibility may only be 70% of your own palm. If you find a suitable workbench and materials, this data can be further improved."
"Then we should set up camp and have a good rest. It will give Ivy time to make the prosthetic limbs, and we can also take stock of our harvest. I haven't eaten for a while." Gale has calmed down a lot. He originally thought that he, who was carrying a super time bomb, was the most dangerous guy in the team, but now it seems that the evil thoughts with serious personality conflict disorder are the ones who may explode at any time.
"You really put on a good show for me." Although he said so, the expression on Asdelun's face was not very good. Perhaps it was because he found that the evil thoughts that suited his taste were actually a stubborn donkey who was unwilling to embrace his instincts. "Do I have to waste the few times I can move around in the sun in this gloomy tomb?"
Although he was full of complaints, Asdeln still went to set up his tent. This pale elf had no relatives. Where else could he find people like him except a group of victims of the mind flayer who shared the same suffering?
Since he couldn't take items from the Grimoire of Destruction, making a prosthetic limb using existing conditions was not a difficult challenge for Ivy.
He is not just a spellcaster, but also a master with great achievements in the field of alchemy.
Besides, he himself had studied the creation of body substitutes and implants, but his research was mainly on biological materials with magical properties.
But after seeing it many times, it is not difficult to make. Using ropes and springs instead of tendons, and steel and wood as bones, Ivy easily put together a prosthetic hand, and the whole process even took only two hours.
When I looked up from my work that day, looking for the scarlet figure of Evil Thought, I found that my companions in the camp were gathered together, discussing something.
Ivy walked over and saw that the person surrounded by them was the gravekeeper who had left the tomb not long ago.
"As predicted, we meet again." The gravekeeper said, "I will live in your camp and provide you with my services."
"What service can a skeleton provide us?" asked Asdaelon doubtfully.
"Mend the line between life and death." The gravekeeper's voice was emotionless, as if he was talking about an ordinary little thing. "If you unfortunately die, I can call your soul back to your body again. Of course, it will cost a small price."
"This is extremely powerful magic. Why can you do it?" asked Gale, who had just been resurrected.
"This is my duty. No need to explain too much." The gravekeeper's skull face was as calm as ever.
Ivy had never thought carefully about the reason why the gravekeeper existed as an NPC in the game, but if this was a real world, what was the true identity of the gravekeeper? Who could easily recall the souls of the dead and help these adventurers change their professions?
"You mentioned the price, what do you mean?" As Shar's priest, Yingxin has always been very sensitive to such superstitious things.
"A little money, that's all." The gravekeeper was as calm as ever, but Ivy's heart was in turmoil.
As a wizard who had cast several resurrection spells, he knew how difficult it was to resurrect a person. If the gravekeeper really provided a resurrection service for 200 gold coins as in the game, then the gravekeeper's identity would be almost unthinkable except for the real death god - the recorder of fate, Jergal, was the one who found the gravekeeper in his tomb.
The continent of Faerun is indeed a wonderful place. The legendary spellcaster Ivy has only arrived in Sword Bay for less than a day, and he has already seen a nine-ring spell scroll and a true god. Even if he sees the big devil in hell tomorrow, he will not be surprised at all.
"Only 200 gold coins?" Xie Nian muttered to himself, "This is too outrageous."
“Just like life: live outrageously and die credibly.”
