Murphy didn't know what the offline situation was like for A-Feng, that unusual player, but he didn't need to find out. Within the territory he actually governed, this lost soul from another world was safe.
At least, temporarily.
"I must regretfully inform you that my earlier assessment of this soul was correct."
The necromancer Bella quickly finished examining the little player "Pants Thief." In that unpleasant voice of hers, she explained:
"Somehow, this fellow's soul was drawn out of his body. He can no longer return to his physical form by normal means. That means he'll have to exist in this perilous world in his current, fragile state as a psychic projection.
"However, he knows nothing.
"If he wants to survive, if you want him to survive, then from this moment on, he must study the knowledge of death that originates in the underworld."
"So, are you looking to take on an apprentice?"
Murphy asked with interest from the shadows.
"I thought you weren't that attached to us."
"I feel nothing for you, and I feel nothing for the world of the living. I simply witnessed a small miracle with my own eyes, and I don't want it to vanish before it has a chance to shine."
Bella didn't bother hiding her disgust for the living. She said:
"Though I have never visited the source of all the mysteries of death, and never had the chance to behold the legendary Moonlit Holy City of eternal silence, I can say with certainty that this spirit would be exceedingly rare even in the Sanghai Empire.
"His very existence represents the elegant possibility of death's essence influencing the material world. From a purely symbolic perspective, this fellow is an invaluable experimental subject.
"As for taking an apprentice...
"How could a wretched necromancer like