“You may hold whatever reservations you wish regarding my status as a hero, but I can assure you, being one doesn't entail… this.”

  Ansel ignored the skeleton's complaints as he continued to fasten the loose cloth to the chinks in Orion’s armor. Finally, he took a step back, analyzing every inch of the Death Knight and ensuring that none of his stark white skeletal structure was visible.

  Even though Ansel had said that Orion shouldn’t speak, he also realized that to establish an adventuring party, you needed at least two members, and it would’ve been much more of a hassle to conceal Orion’s identity from some random person than to simply conceal Orion’s undead nature.

  At least, that was the hope.

  “Remember, the helmet stays on, and you cannot hurt any of the other adventurers!”

  “Hmph,” Orion grunted, and Ansel could only pray the former hero would listen. Of course, since their little confrontation just a moment ago, the skeleton seemed to at least be willing to stick around for the time being.

  “What will you do with those creatures?” Orion questioned, gesturing at Kortak and the Orc archers standing guard.

  “I guess they can come as well… people will find out that I managed to resurrect something at some point, no use in hiding that.”

  Orion nodded in agreement, glancing down at himself.

  “You look… human enough,” Ansel sighed. “Now, before we head in, what should we name our adventuring party?”

  The skeleton answered without skipping a beat. “Orion and his tiny, pathetic, sniveling, little brat.”

  Ansel sighed, then a thought popped into his head.

  Perfect.

  The first scream was startling.

  The last…

  Well, the screams were still coming.

  Orion, being so large, was already an issue in and of itself, but being followed by three glowing monsters didn’t exactly help.

  The citizens of Avon, the major town closest to Ansel’s home, were equally as startled as they were frightened of the sudden appearance of Ansel’s undead summons. Ansel had hoped things would blow over quickly as soon as people got used to the sight, but it seemed that such a dream would take a bit longer than he would’ve liked.

  “So much for not causing terror in the hearts of the people.” Orion scoffed, but Ansel ignored him.

  “There it is.”

  The adventuring guild was a simple wooden building, rectangular in shape and with a mossy roof. It had two floors, one of which was for the reception hall, and the other half for any traveling adventurers to stay as they passed through. The lower floor was where quests were posted. Each adventuring guild had what was called an adventurer stone, and in the cases of the larger major guilds, sometimes multiple. They were priceless artifacts, which made sense considering they were the cornerstone of the entire world’s economy.

  “I assume not much has changed from my time?” Orion asked.

  “Well, how did these work back then?”

  “Each guild would receive transferable quests from their adventurer stones, which adventuring teams would receive and complete, which would then pay out a reward to both the guild and the adventurers themselves.”

  “Seems about right.”

  “Then why would we want to register ourselves in this guild? They cannot possibly possess more than one stone. You will have nothing but simple, low-tier quests to complete.”

  “My father always told me that joining a pompous, well-off adventurers guild has its own downsides. They force you to meet their stupid demands and quotas. There’s nothing wrong with starting small.”

  “Guess some things never change,” Orion muttered.

  “Plus, if we find any adventurer stones, we can give them to this guild and become one of the top teams. And a bigger adventurer guild would be a lot harder to compete in.”

  “Compete?” Orion questioned.

  “Well, the team that completes the most and hardest quests gets ranked by the adventurer’s guild, and they can get higher percentages of their quest rewards compared to the bottom teams.”

  “Of course, the only thing that has changed in all these years is a system to reward those who are already wealthy,” Orion chuckled. “Typical of humans, of course.”

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  “I don’t disagree,” Ansel added. “But I think this’ll be good for us.” Not to mention that Thane and the rest of Silverstride are registered to this guild… I wouldn’t mind taking the top spot before they could after all.

  As if summoned, a familiar voice called out. “So, now you want to go and figure out how to use your skills.”

  “Malik,” Ansel whispered under his breath. The necromancer froze, his hand glued to the door of the adventurers guild.

  “A friend of yours?” Orion questioned.

  “Friend is a strong word,” Malik smiled devilishly, baring his bright teeth that almost seemed to sharpen into fangs, but he flinched at the sight of Kortak, who took a step toward the assassin class adventurer menacingly.

  Ansel finally turned, seeing his former adventuring party approaching. Luna smiled, waving slightly and secretly eyeing his new summons up and down. Thane looked onward, not bothering to even acknowledge the boy.

  “You did it!” Luna exclaimed, running forward hurriedly, then stopped, glancing over her shoulder at Thane. Her next words were a bit quieter. “I always knew you could do it.”

  “Thanks, Luna.”

  “Oh, piss off, Luna. You never believed in the runt,” Malik taunted.

  “Shut up!” Luna yelled, face reddening with anger.

  Out of the corner of Ansel’s eye, he saw Thane observing Orion, and the skeleton took notice almost immediately.

  “Who’s this?” Thane questioned, and it wasn’t exactly obvious who he was talking to.

  Ansel began to answer, but Orion was faster. “You may call me Galahad.”

  The boy bit back a sigh of relief, elated that Orion chose to use the made-up adventurer name that he had come up with. The skeleton had originally argued that it made no difference whether he used his real name or not, since no one would know who he was anyway, and Tarmak should already know that it was Ansel who had summoned him. However, Tarmak might have believed Orion was also free from Ansel in the same way the former King of Hell seemed to be, and as such, it would be wise to disguise themselves in some way.

  “Join our party,” Thane said unexpectedly.

  “Thane, what the heck are you saying?” Malik demanded, and Luna seemed similarly concerned, according to the crease in her brow.

  “He’s strong,” Thane commented matter-of-factly.

  “Well, you got that right.” Orion chuckled. “But I’ll have to decline.”

  Thane regarded the skeleton for a moment, then his gaze landed narrowly onto Ansel, and the boy could interpret the message as clearly as day. Why would he want to work with someone as weak as me, right, Thane? Well, he doesn’t exactly have a choice…

  “Suit yourself,” Thane said, seemingly not concerned with the rejection. He turned, and like a lap dog, Malik turned tail to follow. Luna reluctantly joined them, shooting Ansel a small smile as she did.

  “That boy. He’s a Dragon Lancer, yes?” Orion asked, his tone filled with an unreadable emotion.

  Ansel tilted his head slightly. “Uh, yeah, is something wrong?”

  Orion huffed, as if recalling a bad memory. “Oh, it’s nothing. He just reminds me of an old… friend.”

  Ansel’s mind burned with the desire to ask more, but he could tell that further questioning would only serve to anger the grumpy old man. “Well, it’s about time to head in, shall we?”

  Ansel pushed the door open, stepping inside as Orion ducked beneath the almost comically small doorway for a skeleton of his stature. The inside of the adventurers guild was a humble affair. An almost entirely mahogany wooden interior fortified by stone foundations. Two sets of creaking wooden stairs led up to the second floor, and beneath the balcony that the stairs connected to was the reception desk. On the left was the quest board, a wooden rectangle bordered by four simple planks. Ansel watched as one of the workers posted a new quest, in the form of a simple parchment pinned up to the black surface of the board, as two separate parties attempted to fight over who would get the right of undertaking the quest.

  “You lot got the last one, let us have a turn, why don’t ya?” A rather unruly adventurer, whom Ansel knew to be Fletcher, spat.

  The party of three across from him had already snatched the parchment, and before Fletcher could say anything else, the paper slowly dematerialized, and Ansel spotted the quest details appearing on a blue screen in front of the three adventurers.

  “You’ll have to be faster next time,” the largest of the trio growled, his deep and rumbling voice carrying across the room. He grabbed the massive war-hammer from his back, as if challenging Fletcher to make a scene. The much smaller adventurer narrowed his eyes, then dejectedly slunk back to his party members.

  Unlike the typical citizens of Avon, who shrieked in terror at the sight of Ansel’s summons, the battle-hardened adventurers only widened their eyes in surprise as Ansel, Orion, and the three undead Orcs made their way through the reception hall. Murmurs began to spread among those seated at the bar to the right, and Ansel spotted a number of his former party members eyeing him from their seats.

  “You make quite an impression, boy,” Orion said, stifling a laugh.

  Ansel grit his teeth. “Just a week ago, they wouldn’t even spare me a second glance.”

  “Well, you’ll have to get used to the attention if you want to be a hero after all.”

  Interrupting their conversation, a shrill voice called out. “Ansel! I’m so glad you’ve returned, and it seems you’ve figured out your skills! I know your father would be proud.”

  “Anita, it’s nice to see you,” Ansel smiled genuinely. Anita had been one of his father’s closest friends, and she was basically the only other person who ever believed in him besides Luna and his parents.

  “Is this a new friend of yours?” Anita asked, eyeing Orion and his terrifying stature. “He’s rather… large.”

  “Excuse me?” The skeleton grumbled.

  “Pardon me! I misspoke.” She yelped. “Welcome to the Avon adventuring guild!” I take it you two would like to register a new party?”

  Ansel nodded in affirmation.

  “Perfect! We’ll get the details out of the way quite soon; however, first we’ll need to have you,” she gestured at Orion, “complete the proficiency test. Ansel, would you like to have your’s redone now that you’ve mastered your skill?”

  “Proficiency test?” Orion questioned, his blue eyes flickering like a wildfire.

  Ansel elected to ignore the skeleton for a moment. “Yes, please.” Then he whispered to his summon. “Don’t destroy anything, please.”

  Orion laughed loudly, causing a few heads to whip around at the commotion. “I wouldn’t dare.”

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