The New Story of Lona Falldin

Chapter 7

The first thing we needed to do when we got to the cemetery was to talk to the local gravedigger, who gives out tokens for completing the task. His house is located right at the entrance, so we immediately headed to him.

Approaching the door, I knocked and waited for an answer.

- Who's there! - a wary voice came from the other side.

- We are mercenaries from the guild. We have come to carry out the task of exterminating the undead.

- Phew, what a time you chose to complete the task. - A man dressed in baggy clothes and with a hat on his head opened the door, breathing a sigh of relief. - Didn't you know that the undead are active at night?

- Well... - I didn't know how to answer without seeming too stupid.

- Oh, okay, don't answer. I know you refugees, you probably didn't have much of a choice. I see two of you here? Well, destroy 40 skeletons and I'll give you 2 tokens.

- How will you know how many we killed?

- Heh. I'll be watching you from the roof. - the gravedigger grinned.

- Okay, let's go, girl. No need to drag it out, - said Jones, taking the whip off his belt.

- Okay. - I nodded and took my lantern in my right hand and followed him. In the game, the skeletons were pretty easy, and with a lantern you could defeat any skeleton with one arson, but what I'm a little afraid of are the skeleton archers.

- Are you going to fight with this? - the archaeologist looked at me in bewilderment.

- Yes. Skeletons are weak against fire. And I did a great job with this thing against mutant rats in the sewers.

- Mutant rats?

- Yeah, these are huge rats, the size of a large dog.

- Well, now at least I know you won't be afraid of mice, - Jones chuckled. - But still, how are you going to fight them?

- Well, I guess I can show it, it's not an ordinary flashlight, there's this button here, when you press it... - instead of telling, I decided to show it visually and, having shown it so that the archaeologist could see, I pressed the button, after which clots of flame flew out of the flashlight, by the way, noticeably larger in size, and what's quite interesting is that this time I felt that the flashlight was now drawing energy from two sources. Part from mana and, if I understood correctly, part from my stamina? I couldn't track how much stamina was being spent, but exactly one unit of mana was spent.

- …Lona!

"Why are you shouting?" I turned to the gloomy archaeologist.

- You're too deep in your thoughts. It's dangerous, especially in a place like this.

- Sorry. It's just that I first noticed that this lantern uses my mana to release fire and thought about it for a bit.

- Well, if you really have manna, then you won't have any problems becoming a mage in the future. - the man grinned. - However, where can you get such a thing?

- It should be sold on the market and it doesn't even seem to be expensive…

"Click"

Before I could finish speaking, Jones suddenly moved, followed by the crack of a whip behind me, followed by the sound of breaking bones.

Turning around, I saw a legless skeleton whose head the archaeologist had so successfully smashed. However, how dangerous is the whip in his hands, to just pierce the skull like that. It's pretty scary.

- Enough talk, time to get to work, - the man said seriously.

"Okay," I didn't argue.

The first opportunity to demonstrate my skills came rather quickly. Two skeletons came at us at once, armed, perhaps, more badly than most of the refugees. The damn skeletons wore a sword and a shield, and on their heads they had a helmet that could easily have been made of steel! - Jones could no longer deal with them quickly, because these seemingly mindless creatures protected themselves from his blows with a shield, however, since they were completely focused on him, I was able to calmly come up behind them and set them on fire.

Just one hit from the flame clots instantly set them on fire, burning completely in a couple of seconds, but their equipment was surprisingly intact.

"I think we can get a couple of coppers for the swords," I said, picking up the loot and handing half to Jones. "But I'd prefer to keep one sword and shield for myself, just in case."

- I'd rather not sell either, - said the man who kept the shield in his left hand. We must have looked pretty weird. Me with a lantern in my right hand and a surprisingly strong wooden shield in my left, and Jones with a whip and shield. But that's life. What can we do if our current weapons turned out to be more effective than swords against skeletons.

Moving around the cemetery and practicing tactics with the shieldmen where Jones distracted them and I quickly finished them off, we calmly and I would even say without stress did our job.

- And clearing out the undead turned out to be easier than I thought. - I shared my impressions, finishing off the 15th skeleton.

"You shouldn't have said that," the archaeologist muttered resignedly.

- Why? - I asked, but the next moment I felt a flash of burning pain on my cheek. At a distance of 10 meters, a skeletal archer climbed out of the ground. I don't know who I should thank, but the fact that the arrow only passed tangentially and did not stick into my head was a real miracle, and the undead clearly intended to make amends with the next shot.

With a flash of horror inside, I managed to cover my head with a shield at the last moment. And then, following the horror, anger flooded me. With a cry full of rage, I ran towards the creature, catching arrows with my shield on instinct alone.

Once I was close, I knocked the drawn bow out of the skeleton's hands with my shield, and then, throwing the lantern aside, I took the shield in both hands and, as if mad, began to hit the skeleton with it.

- What! You! Bitch! You dared! Like that! Me! To scare! - with each word I took out my anger on the bones of the skeleton that had already stopped moving, until I finally stopped breathing heavily.

"He sure scared you," Jones grinned.

- He almost shot me in the head! Naturally, I was scared!

- Quiet, quiet, - the archaeologist raised his palms conciliatorily. - Just know that you should pay closer attention to your surroundings and under no circumstances raise such flags.

Even though I understood that he was right, it was quite difficult to calm down the anger, which made me want to blame someone for all the troubles. But I really didn't want to look hysterical and someone who was better not to mess with, because I really needed Jones to survive, but he didn't really need me anymore. So, taking a deep breath, I tried to calm down.

- Yes, you're right, I'll try to be more careful. - Having said this, I picked up a lantern from the ground, as well as a bow and quiver of arrows lying next to the skeleton.

- Why bury people with weapons if the people around know about the problems with the undead? - I said discontentedly, looking at the quiver full of arrows. - And it's as if they specially treated the arrows with something so that they don't rot.

- Hmm, I haven't had time to thoroughly study the local culture, but it seems to be connected with the local religion, something about the fact that dead warriors are servants of justice and so that they can help him in the battle against false gods, their weapons are placed in their graves.

-…I wonder if I have enough courage to tell God to his face that he is a goat?