The means of our escape was right before us — a literal, system-sanctioned device. Those are great because they have their own power source. I don't need to dump mana into the thing. It charges up on its own. I wondered how the lich got its greedy little paws on it. It is really hard to make one.

  Did he rip one from a dungeon? Highly unlikely but conceivable. I don't recall whether there are any safeguards preventing a really determined person from doing it. Unless this place was a dungeon. It would make sense considering all the undead and magic doors.

  "How do we use it?" Marius asked the obvious question.

  "It's pretty easy, I think; just stand in the circle and a prompt will appear. Then select from a list of locations and poof, off you go." I explained with a snap of my fingers.

  He nodded, clearly understanding my perfect explaining method. So much so that he made his way to the circle. Eyes wide, I quickly put a hand across his chest, stopping him mid-stride. Frowning, the Necrochanter looked back at me with a wry smile, clearly expecting an answer.

  "Dude, that lich seems crazy enough to booby-trap it." I suggested, eyeing the circle suspiciously.

  "Breast traps? Do you think the Lich employs a succubus?"

  Struck dumb by the question, I half expected to turn back and find him with a sly grin on his face. Instead, I found a very serious-looking undead face looking back at me. That couldn't be a serious question; he had to be jesting. Nope, he wasn't, as it was pretty clear he was totally serious as the silence carried on.

  "I mean traps like giant boulders, poisoned-tipped arrows and saw blades. Temple of Doom-type stuff. Although a succubus would make a great trap."

  My mind wandered to a dungeon, not the fun kind, and a poor defenceless woman in need of a saviour. The hero, gallant and brave, lends aid. The lady is grateful and grants the noble knight a kiss. Then sucks his soul out until he is a withered, smiling husk. Damn, that would work so well.

  Perhaps dragons could have decoy princesses replaced by shapeshifting succubi. Oh, that is super genius. I should never share it with the winged lizards, lest we have a shortage of knights. Don't want a repeat of the first system quest debacle. Poor Sir Elran, Sammy really liked that wannabe dragon slayer.

  "I understand; my passion to brave the unknown has made me incautious," he said with a theatrical flourish of his hands.

  I was getting kind of used to the weirdo; being dramatic makes life a little interesting. The most fascinating denizens Sammy used to talk about were absolute drama queens. Getting swept up in every adventure they could find. In gaming terms, they were real-life role players, dedicated to the bit.

  Marius reminded me of Sam, my friend whom I callously left in the wake of my departure. So scared of repercussions, I didn't even think about how my actions would affect my colleagues. And now Marius, a walking and talking reminder of my old friend. It both hurt and comforted me to know Sammy was still going strong.

  Dipping my head in shame, I tried not to let any of my emotions show. Internally, I firmed my resolve to help this strange undead. He may be a stranger, but the closest thing I had to a friend deemed him worthy.

  "There's nothing wrong with a little passion, keeps life lively or, in your case, unlively." I made a joke that sounded hilarious in my head.

  Marius scrutinised my face, stretching this moment out for as long as possible. Finally, he revealed a soft chuckle, ending the tension. I was worried I had made an undead faux pas.

  "Indeed, it keeps things interesting, but I will take heed of the caution." He agreed, and I nodded, satisfied.

  With his desires quenched for the moment, I turned to the rest of the room. Next stop was literature looting; that bookshelf better prepare to be emptied. Under the confused gaze of my companion, I made my way to the bookshelf. Removing a few tomes, I read their titles one after the other.

  Some of them were typical magical books, so I deposited them in my bag. If I ever figure out how to use magic, they will be the first reading material I dive into. The rest were a little darker, black magic and the like. Quite a few on necromancy, I skimmed the ones that sounded interesting and determined they were better suited for my companion.

  He took the books gratefully and began paging through them. The rest, however, needed to be burned with holy fire. They comprised sacrificial rituals and encouraged human sacrifices, the more the better. Now, I wasn't the stereotypical narrow-minded sort. Sacrificial magic wasn't top tier on the morality scale, but someone can use it ethically.

  Sacrificing animals, for instance — if you weren't a vegetarian, you could even sacrifice them at the butcher and then feed a family of four. There was always a way to be ethical with dark and evil powers. You just needed to think creatively.

  Also, you could sacrifice enemy combatants and criminals. Both are kind of slippery slopes, but much better than dropping babies on a circle of blood magic. That's just the biggest dick move any warlock, witch, sorcerer or necromancer could do. I was mentally ranting, and Jenny was totally judging, but that was my sincere opinion. Evil people were just lazy.

  Marius was looking at me weirdly. I didn't blame him. I went on these mental ranting escapades whenever I encountered something I was passionate about. Some of my coworkers noticed my face going through a series of expressions.

  "Sorry, dude, just found some evil books and had a morality debate in my head." I tried to pass off the weirdness.

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  "Did you get possessed? Do you want me to sing the spectres out of your mind?" he offered, totally ready to belt out a tune of mental decimation.

  "No, all good, dude!" Quickly, I stopped a future migraine in its tracks.

  Thankfully, he stopped right before the first note, and my brain thanked him dearly for the mercy. With that out of the way, we sat down at the table and leafed through some books. He looked through the books related to necromancy. Since Marius could use some help with his class. I grabbed a few random tomes on ritual magic and what looks to be a bestiary journal.

  Studying ritual magic may have been more vital, since exp to mana dumping was the only method so far I could use. Instead, I skipped that for now and started reading the bestiary.

  It read like a personal journal with messy notations but pretty decent sketches of a variety of races. Most of the races labelled the subjects as monsters, which is funny as the system does not label them that way. Monster was a term coined by those down here, and they ran with it. Dungeon-born get most of those labels, since they are literally hostile, monstrous entities born of mana.

  The journal had a few of those dungeon-born, such as goblins, kobolds, lizardmen and orcs. These races originated in the dungeons, but one could find them across the continent. As many left the dungeons and acclimated to surface life. Eventually developing to sustain themselves in low-mana environments.

  It said so right in the journal, something that gave me a little respect for the Lich, assuming he wrote this. From what I recall, most people on this world have forgotten the dungeon origins of some races. This only spurred my desire to read further. Eventually I came upon a chapter on the vampires.

  The typical fanged humanoid sketch was above some basic knowledge of the species. Vampires were just a general category for the many variant races. The gaming gods made a bunch of alternative vampire types based on Earth mythology. I knew most of this crap and was about to skip it.

  Stopping mid-page turn, I glanced at a paragraph that detailed the vampire turning process. Most of it was dumb Nosferatu nonsense, such as drinking the sire's blood and being drained to near death. One part stuck out; that was a blow by blow description of the actual turning process.

  Specifically, what biological and magical changes happen to the body? There were the typical augments; undeath was a possibility depending on the vampire type. It was the biological alterations that kept my interest. Specifically, the effects on a subject's mana pathways. We called them circuits, but worlds like this called them pathways.

  Of particular interest was the apparent growth of new pathways over the current ones. Vampirism creates new pathways, new circuits in the body to accommodate its breed of magic.

  "No way." That was all I could say.

  I don't want to be a vampire, lots of downsides, and it pretty much makes you the enemy of most kingdoms. Years of bloodshed with other kingdoms have taken care of that. I should know; I wrote a lot of notifications, and they spoke for themselves.

  "Something interesting?" Marius asked.

  "It's a bestiary of various races; we've got a bunch of stuff on vampires and even the undead." I paged through and found a section on revenants.

  "Am I in that book?"

  "Now that you mention it, you are in here, at least your undead race is." I showed him the page while scanning over the contents.

  After reading a paragraph or two, something concerning stuck out. According to the general description of Revenants, unfinished business, usually vengeance, animated them. It consumed their thoughts every waking moment of their undead existence. Reading further down the page, I couldn't help but notice the warning about how uncontrollable and hostile they could be.

  "Well, isn't that interesting?" I couldn't help but say, giving Marius the side eye.

  "Uncontrollable and obsessive, such a poor way to say liberal and passionate." He said with a mischievous grin.

  "That's another way of looking at it."

  This still raised several questions, if Marius was truly a revenant, and I doubt the system made a mistake on his race. If we are to believe this bestiary, he should be a hyper-focused undead madman. He most definitely was not. A little weird, perhaps, but not mad with vengeance or unfinished business.

  "Maybe you are unique?" I suggested, grasping at straws.

  "I am certainly not common; perhaps that has kept me from embracing the madness." He said that while having a maddening look in his eyes.

  I suspected he had embraced the madness, just not in the typical fashion. Not a raving lunatic, just passionately peculiar. Being an esoteric class, perhaps you needed that, lest you become common, as he said.

  Shrugging at yet another mystery, I lamented over the fact that my behind the curtains knowledge wasn't infallible. There were things even I didn't know beyond what my training provided. Oddly, it was exciting not to know and to find out someday.

  We both turned back to our books, eager to learn more. Expanding our knowledge is no easy feat; it is a long and arduous path. So is grinding levels, and like an old sage from Earth once said. The grind don't stop.

  Vampirism and the revelation of its effects on mana circuits were very intriguing. I had no intention of becoming a vampire. But if I could extract that facet of the process, maybe we could correct an abhorrent mistake in my species design. The possibilities are endless.

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