Keir and his party had left the village with resentment towards the chieftain. When they explained what happened in the village to the guild authorities, the chief was made to compensate a large amount of gold to the four guild members and was banned from ever requesting a mission while informing about it the other famous guild to be careful.
Keir was in his room in the guild. It was almost midnight, but Keir was now in a conversation with the voice.
"So? what is this?"
Keir asked as he observed the stone
'It is a Cursed Item I created while I was alive.'
The voice replied.
The voice used to be a human with immense power but was killed later in his life because of his deeds is what the voice claims to be and its name was Abel.
'This is an item that you can use for Necromancy, one of the strongest dark arts there is. Once you absorb everything in it, anything you kill would follow you. You can either choose whether you want it to follow you or whether you want it to disappear into the Great abyss, where I am right now and yes, the most important feature it contains is that once you choose for one to follow you, you will be able to share their memories and skills."
Abel explained in a plain tone.
"How do I absorb it?"
Keir asked.
"Place it on your forehead and imagine you are sucking in the thing inside the stone."
Abel replied.
He took the stone and placed it on his forehead and started imagining sucking in the stone. A few minutes later he started feeling something going in his brain and into his heart. A piercing feeling started rising in his chest and it increased. It was getting stronger and let his hands drop, but the stone was stuck on his forehead. Keir started groaning in pain. Water started pouring from his eyes.
The pain was as if needles were piercing his brain and a heavy weight was dropped onto his chest. It got even more intense until Keir couldn't bear it, and started crying and wailing because of the pain. He grabbed his head and let his legs loose and fell to the floor, crying with pain. Even though Keir never felt a sliver of emotional pain, that day he was experiencing pain in his heart.
An hour later, Keir lost consciousness.
Keir now finds himself facing the sky and is moving. His view moved, and he saw a stiff-looking green hand that had grabbed a bunch of hair and was pulling them. As the hair was pulled, he moved along with it until he realized it was his hair, but Keir did not have long hair.
He was dreaming and seeing from the point of view of one of the women who were dragged and slaughtered by the kobolds.
The kobold threw the woman into a hole from a distant height. She broke bones and got hurt but didn't die. The kobold on the top left while another one grabbed her by the broken legs and started dragging her.
A couple of moments later Keir heard voices. The woman was screaming, the kobolds screeching and squealing, while the kids and women were shouting and screaming with fright.
The kobold brings in the woman deep underground and drops her in an empty pool later Keir's vision turns dark and could see nothing.
Again Keir finds himself in a body of a baby who is again dropped in the empty pool and his vision goes dark. The same process continued. Sometimes he would be a girl, sometimes a small boy, sometimes a woman and a baby even. It continued until he was in a body of a kid who ran away from the hands of a kobold and was hiding. The kobolds threw in the last child and they surrounded the pool filled with alive and dead people.
The kobolds started saying words, enchanting, and a red patterned circle appeared above the pool. The bodies rose in the air and the bodies started shrinking, blood from the bodies of the children and woman poured into the pool.
The kobolds continued to enchant, the bodies continued to shrink and blood continued to flow. The bodies were sucked dry, but the pool wasn't filled. The kobolds left and brought in more humans, and repeated the process until the pool was full. Later, a kobold brought a black stone and threw it in the pool of blood and they started enchanting again, but this time it was a black patterned circle.
Keir's vision went dark and did not see any other visions but woke up. Rays of light fell on his eyes, waking him up.
Keir got up and felt an urge to know more about necromancy. He felt curiosity for the first time. He went downstairs and had his meal. He went and woke up Mira who had messy hair and was annoyed to see Keir early in the morning.
Keir requested her to get ready and go on a journey with him, but she declined. He later went to Raj and Jin, who also declined his request. In the end, he couldn't get anyone for a mission.
He entered a shop filled with books and hanging signs in many different letters, the air in the shop had a certain smell, a dry smell of paper and oil, and blades of lighting lit most of the area except a dark area where he saw a moving figure.
He neared the figure. It was an old lady whose skin was loosened and filled with wrinkles and her eyes looked like they were almost closed. She had shining white hair and had an arched back.
"Do you have a map that shows the infestations and the danger level of monsters?"
Keir demanded.
The lady opened her eyes and looked at the boy with wide-open eyes.
"May I see your guild token?"
The old lady said with a dry broken voice grumpily.
Keir put his hand inside one of his pockets and pulled out a bronze token and put it on the table in front of the old lady. The lady grabbed it and observed it for a second and put it on the table.
"Can't, you have to be at least D rank or you have to be able to use Qi to buy such an item."
The old lady said while she returned Keir his token.
"I will pay more."
Keir demanded, trying to bribe the old woman.
"How much?"
The woman said eagerly
"Twice the amount of the Map."
"Thrice"
The woman increased the amount eagerly.
"Fine"
Keir gave up.
The woman opened one of the drawers of the table and brought out a roll of paper.
"3 coins of gold and 5 coins of silver"(10 bronze coins make 1 silver coin, 10 silver coins make 1 gold coin"
The woman said.
Keir pulled out a heavy-looking pouch filled with coins that the chief compensated to him. He picked ten gold coins and five silver coins.
"Show me how it works!"
Keir asked the woman without giving her the coins but keeping them in his fist.
The lady pulled off the ribbon on the roll and spread it on the table. It seemed like any other map. The lady pulled out a blade and cut her palm and blood poured on the paper.
The blood on the paper started moving and separating and for some reason, the paper didn't soak any blood. In some places, the blood went dark, but in a few other places, the blood went pale and transparent.
"The dark parts are where the powerful monsters reside and the pale and transparent are the opposite. The smaller the liquid, the less the monster and the map will move with you with a diameter of five kilometer."
The lady finished explaining and Keir handed her the coins while he took the map and he left the shop.