With the Lich's head in one hand, and the unused staff in the other, Luke Lange exited the cave 20 minutes after he entered.
Amazed, Walley looked at the half-wolf and asked, "What is this thing?"
"A Lich." Luke replied matter-of-factly.
Luke's response only surprised Walley even more, who had never seen a Lich look like, not even in books, he had only heard stories about this type of monster.
Lich's were very famous for causing fear even in high level Adventurers who formerly explored the Dungeons. These monsters were carriers of an intelligence unique among monsters, and usually just a glance at the gleam in the eye sockets of these things gave off a chilling sensation, as if the Lich was also looking back, knowing what you are.
As Luke and Walley made their way back to the vineyard owner's house, Walley couldn't take his eyes off the Lich's head, which Luke held by one of the pairs of horns.
The half-wolf noticed the white-haired man's curious gaze and immediately asked, "What do you want?"
Walley looked away like a child, and slowly turned back to look at Luke. "Errr! So you noticed..."
"Yes, of course I did. Do you want to touch, charge or check if the Lich is still alive to try to control it?"
"IT'S NOT THAT, DON'T GET ME WRONG, PLEASE!" The corrupted desperately denied it. "I'm just curious what a Lich was doing here."
"Aren't Lich's part of the attacking hordes?" Luke asked.
"I don't know, that's why I didn't say anything to you. I only had access to the first plans to attack Broteforge, and my unit was supposed to be the first to cross the ranges. I don't know how things were in the other units, but I'm pretty sure there wasn't a unit with Lich's. Of course, this one could have escaped from a recent unit." replied Walley and shrugged.
Luke grinned at Walley and tossed the Lich's cracked skull for him to catch. "If there's one thing I learned today, it's this: don't overthink it."
Walley had to stretch and juggle to catch the skull without dropping it to the ground. Then he looked at Luke, who was already following along and asked himself:
'What happened inside that cave during those minutes?'
Generally, the half-wolf was the one who least acted on impulse and liked to control everything so nothing could surprise him. This controlling and methodical behavior was certainly what saved them at times, but it was also quite annoying in other situations. Anyway, Walley was a little pleased to see that this streak of Luke was starting to settle down.
After the pair returned to the vineyard, they showed the Lich the skull to the estate's owner, who was surprised and promptly paid them the 30 Melkian gold coins, which wasn't much for Luke after looting the vault's vault. Church. Naturally, Walley and Luke left the man's estate after that and went into town with the intention of showing the skull at the local guild's tavern.
As they approached the venue, Luke asked Walley to come in first and pretend to be a regular customer. After all, Walley had been in town for a few weeks now, while Luke didn't stay long, for the other adventurers it could be intimidating to see a strange man arrive with a Lich's head, but if Walley helped him unwind the story and lied well , people's suspicion would turn into deep admiration.
Of course, Walley accepted the plan right away. Although Walley wasn't a great liar, he loved the idea of a�?a�?being the first person to welcome a revolutionary hero with open arms, well, that's how he imagined Luke would be described in future books.
*
"e??? The blood on your scars will dry, and the path of the never-fading stars will guide you!e???" As usual, a bard was singing in the guild tavern.
As it was only a Thursday night, everything was calm. There were many adventurers tense with the rumors floating around the city, some of them were literally scared. Usually, monsters that fled from the hordes could be killed by groups of five to ten people, but the Vineyard Quest monster had already annihilated at least five large groups, not to mention the groups that tried to hunt the monster but returned. so terrified.
In a big city like Stahurt, fear proliferated easily and controlled people's hearts, and it was this fear that Luke wanted to use.
At one point, the bard suddenly stopped singing, which made the entire guild tavern look like a graveyard it was so silent. Before anyone could yell at the bard, everyone had figured out why he stopped.
There was a hooded man standing at the entrance of the tavern and he was holding a weird skull, yellowed, cracked and with wooden antlers.
Without a second thought, many of the men drew their swords and pointed at Luke, but the only one who really had the courage to say something was the man with the strongest aura in the room outside Luke.
"Who are you? And what do you want?" asked the man with blond hair, cut to shoulder-length, with a cigarette in his mouth.
Luke looked at the man and then looked at Walley, who was at the back of the tavern and who would be the one who would question the half-wolf. The strange man's leadership surprised him, but it was for the best, at least he wasn't attacked at first, which was a good thing.
The half-wolf threw the Lich's skull to the floor, and it was so hard it broke some of the tavern's wooden floor. Soon after, Luke removed his hood, showing the wolf ears to everyone.
"What is it? Is he a half-beast?"
"It's a monster!"
"Be disgusting, how dare you enter ours?"
"So you were the one attacking people... Did you come to kill us too?"
"Let's attack him before he does that!"
Many people shouted curses, others shouted in revolt. Luke listened to that without even showing a reaction and indicated with his eyes for Walley not to react yet.
To Luke's surprise, one more voice from the man with blond hair was the one who acted. He put his left arm in front of one of the men who was about to lunge at Luke, stopping his advance.
"Let's not be hasty, boys. You would call me a monster too if you didn't know me, wouldn't you?" The blonde asked the other adventurers and with both hands he pushed two large strands of hair back, revealing two pointed ears.
'An elf!?' Luke's eyes widened. He had never seen an elf in all the months he spent in the Melki Empire or any city he visited.
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