“Why are we going to look for zombies at night?” Sage asked.

  Not that it had not been her initial intention, but she was originally going to go alone before the trio basically glued themselves to her with their leader saying it was also their intention to hunt at night,

  His name was Jarris, a fellow in chain mail with a sword at the hip and a wooden shield on the back. He had a chatty mouth to go with his ever-smile, which made it pretty easy to get along with him. When he asked questions, she only needed to answer in a few words and his active mind would build up the rest of her story.

  Despite this assumptive nature, he was surprisingly competent, as shown by the four-star mercenary badge that he had flashed for the Io City Guard to make them open the gates so they could pass. Considering the fact that under normal circumstances, the gates would remain closed until the sun rose again, this act was pretty darn impressive.

  There was also the matter of his readings from the {Index}.

  Race: Human (Human)

  Physique: Grade 3

  Mana: C (White)

  Not a threat to someone like her, but definitely someone who could be considered an elite among the commonfolk. Besides, physique was simply a base measurement of strength; only when combined with skill could one know how good someone truly was; meaning this guy might be so skilled he could actually threaten her. Although she seriously doubted that was the case, it was a possibility nonetheless.

  “For the same reason you are, right?” he replied in a questioning tone; before proceeding on without awaiting an answer. “Undead usually come out at night, so probability is higher we spot one after sundown. It’s what everyone is thinking, which is why other teams will also choose this time to head out.”

  “What do you mean by that?” she asked, not having to fake being confused.

  “A bunch of us have pooled together some coin to see who can find this elusive zombie,” Jarris revealed. “The case has gone unsolved for nearly a month, everyone failed to find anything; including that dwarf couple.

  “Do you know they just strolled recently into town? Witnessed the guy fight and he’s a beast… a six-star mercenary. The only way you to obtain a higher ranking is to transcend mortality, which is basically impossible. Not everyone can be like our king!”

  The last sentence was said with the passion of a fanatic, which the leader of the trio realised as he let out a few coughs before continuing in a calmer tone.

  “Even that guy and his obvious witch lady could also not find traces of the undead reported to be in the area, imagine that!” the last two words were uttered louder than the others, something he caught onto once again as he reined his excitement in while his gaze bore down on her. “You’re a newcomer too, right Maven? Never seen you at the Guild before.”

  “Yeah,” she answered as casually as she could. “My old branch sucked, so I decided to move here; only arrived today actually.”

  “Where from?”

  This time it was not Jarris you asked, but one of his two companions; the man. He was of a thinner build, clad in studded armour. His belt was lined with numerous knives while a large crossbow and quiver hung on his back. Unlike his leader, he was reserved and constantly eyed her with his fingers never far from his belt.

  Race: Human (Human)

  Physique: Grade 4

  Mana: H (White)

  “Tima,” she replied simply.

  This man, named Rick, scoffed. “Never heard o’ it.”

  That’s why I chose it. “It’s a small town in the arse-end of nowhere, closest city to it being Rupheus. Takes a fourteen-day journey by horse to cover the distance between the two.”

  “So you’re a village brat,” the female member of the trio chimed in with a sneer. “Probably grew up on a farm, didn’t you? What, you got tired of ploughing and getting ploughed and decided to try your hand at mercenarying instead?”

  “What?” Sage narrowed her eyes at the woman.

  She was shorter than her companions, but still more than ten centimetres above Sage’s eye-level. Her skin was dark in contrast to her pale lips, with dark hair and dark eyes that burned with intensity. Although she wore mail and plate armour, the gaps between were wide enough to reveal the muscular figure underneath. On her back she carried a wooden shield larger than Jarris’ along with an axe.

  Race: Human (Human)

  Physique: Grade 3

  Mana: H (White)

  As observed by her comment, she was by far the unfriendliest of the trio.

  “Pay no mind to Anith,” their leader jumped in, probably to prevent the potential conflict that might ensue. “She’s had a bad day. Apparently, the kid she was sweet on is getting married to another girl.”

  “That must suck,” Sage responded, feigning concern while shooting the woman a nasty glare.

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  “Definitely,” the man said, seemingly not noticing. He leaned in until his mouth was next to her ear before continuing in mutters. “Especially after she used three jobs’ worth of pay to hire an alchemist so he can make a love potion for her. Guess it failed to do its job huh?”

  “That’s sad,” she responded. In a really pathetic way. She had to fight the urge not to face palm.

  The love potion was perhaps the most iconic potion known to man as it was a feature in almost all fantastical romances about love between different races and castes. The brew that was said to be completed by adding one’s blood to it before giving it to the intended target. Anyone who drank the potion, or consumed anything containing it, would fall madly in love with the one who completed the potion… forever. This was fairly standard knowledge even among those unfamiliar with rudimentary alchemy. Sadly, this was where their knowledge of the potion ended.

  If one actually thought about the implication of what a love potion could do, they would realise that such a potion was not something a run-of-the-mill alchemist could craft. A potion that brought about a permanent effect when consumed, was a really big deal; only two people in history were said to be capable of brewing such potions.

  Of course, she did not give a damn that the woman had not bothered with critical thinking when she went to a random alchemist for the task, so she kept her silence. Shooting her a side glance, she gave her stealthy sneer. Dumb bitch. The actual thing costs upwards of a thousandfold what you offered the crook!

  She was certain Anith caught her sneer, but she did not bother to find out if it was really the case as she turned to Jarris and changed the subject.

  “How much is this money pool you guys set up?”

  “Sixteen gold, I think,” the trio’s leader replied, his voice back to standard volume.

  “Sixteen gold, twenty-one silver and sixty-seven bronze!” Rick intervened fiercely.

  “Something like that,” Jarris agreed casually.

  The amount explained why these guys took an such a low paying assignment. It did not matter if the official pay was something suited for a one-star squad when the money they made on the side was more than a dozenfold.

  However, she was not happy to hear that they might encounter other mercenaries whilst searching for zombies. If they did manage to find traces of undead, cleanup would become troublesome if others get involved.

  The group had left the city through a different gate than the one she sighted on her way in. This particular gate was located north of the city, which was truly convenient for them. After leaving the city they went mostly east and sometimes north. In the sky the clouds raced to obscure the stars, but ultimately failed to prevent light peeking through the cracks and shining a clear picture of the hilly grass fields; a grey picture, but a clear one nonetheless. At least that was what she imagined the trio saw. For her, the scene was only slightly darker than what she would be seeing if the sun was up.

  Yet, the only moving things she could spot apart from herself, the trio and their shadows were the critters that nestled in the grass.

  “So the sightings were around here huh?” she asked, stopping to look around.

  Jarris shrugged. “Probably, I don’t know. Maybe if we keep going we’ll eventually see it.”

  “Oh,” was the only response she could manage.

  The four of them continued on, moving further away from the city. Even so, the terrain remained the same; all they encountered were grassy hills. The trees were few and far between, but ultimately not worth noting. There were no hidden grottos for zombies to pop out of anywhere.

  As time passed, they decided to separate, each of them on their own hill prowling the fields for anything that could be amiss. At this point, their exploration had devolved to searching for a needle in the grass. They were not going to find anything looking this way.

  “I quit,” Sage declared, putting her hands up.

  She had sent out Nyx, but even he- with his familiarity to shadows- had yet to find anything. She did not know how much time had passed since they left the city, but some of the constellations she had gotten familiar with during her time on Aran had shifted across the sky by a fair margin. What they had been doing all along was wasting their time and she was not willing to continue doing so.

  “Maybe if we go a little further, we might find something,” Jarris tried to keep his enthusiasm.

  But at this point even a child would be able to pick out the barely concealed frustration in his voice. His teammates certainly picked up on it as they too looked like they wanted to call a quits. Then one of them came out and suggested it.

  “Why don’t we come back and search tomorrow,” Anith said. “Maybe we’ll find a zombie then, and if Vestrava smiles upon us more coin will have been added to the pool.”

  “What, so you can hire another alchemist to make you a stronger ‘love potion’?” Sage could not resist the jab.

  The result earned her a fiery look from the woman, as Anith began to move towards her with eyes promising pain. However, before anything could happen Jarris stepped between them.

  “Now now girls,” he said in a mediator tone. “Why don’t we go search a bit more and return if nothing appears or stands out?”

  This, everyone begrudgingly agreed; even Sage.

  The only places undead naturally spawned at were those saturated with death. Which as far as she knew, there was no such place anywhere near Io; which made it pretty obvious that if the sightings were real there was someone behind the event. She had come all this way to meet this master. The sooner she met them, the better; so one more look would not hurt. Besides, Nyx was still out there looking. Although he had found nothing yet, she trusted his capabilities more than hers and this bunch’s combine. In this endeavour his was not useless.

  And so they soldiered on. This time they did not bother look separately, as none of them truly expected to find something.

  Why were they even scrutinising the grass? Did they expect to find the undead crawling on its belly like a snake; trying its best to go unnoticed by them?

  After going about in silence for a while, Sage spoke up. “How do we split the pay if we do encounter a zombie and trace it to its source?” she asked.

  “Since you didn’t add to the pool, you walk away with the assignment reward, while we get the pool prize.”

  Although Jarris tone was as light as ever, there was a heaviness in his eyes assuring her his words were not a jest. Looking at the other members of the trio with their now stern expressions and stiff hands that were mere inches from their weapons, she surmised they truly had no intention of letting her share in their pool money.

  Real mercenary of them, she groaned. Is that cash pool even sanctioned by the Guild? They don’t look like the type of organisation that would allow gambling on the side.

  Not that she had ever had any hope of getting any cash out of this. Even if their investigation turned out successful, she would not be able to claim the official reward seeing as she was not member of the Guild.

  Still, the trio’s quick shift in attitude irked her; so she opened her mouth, ready to tell them she did not care if they shoved their paltry sum up their arses in the kindest tone she could conjure.

  The words never left her mouth. Before she could utter them, a reaction from Nyx side got through to her. Unfortunately, she was unable to keep the discovery of the creature a secret as it rapidly advanced from the west towards them. Within less than three seconds the trio were alerted to the approaching being, causing them to draw their weapons.

  The four of them did not need to wait long before a figure appeared on a hill not too far away. It was a humanoid with multiple lacerations and tattered clothes, oozing a mixture of blood and pus in which pus held the higher concentration. Both the nose and lips of this creature were missing, replaced by a field of teeth marks. Then there was its stench; as it got closer Sage fought the urge to pinch her nose shut while she used {Index} on the creature.

  Race: Zombie (Undead- Ghoul)

  Physique: Grade 3

  Mana: D (White)

  Their quarry had found them.