Graveyard

Green's memories held plenty of common knowledge about such things, but an Eerie capable of defeating an adventuring party and killing its Advanced Apprentice Knight was very likely a Formal Rank supernatural being.

That raised a question: why had the Eerie hunted down the adventuring party?

The answer was obvious: the three female Elves!

Vincent reached the same conclusion as Green, and his expression darkened at once.

The Wilson Family might have been one of Landon City's foremost noble families, but Vincent had to weigh the costs of facing an Eerie that could kill an Advanced Apprentice Knight while remaining hidden in the shadows. Was it worth provoking a powerful enemy for a personal indulgence?

After a moment, Vincent let out a breath and stood. "Forget it. A plaything isn't worth provoking some unknown Eerie." True to his word, he did not even look at the three Elves again. He simply got up and walked straight out.

Green thought more highly of the Wilson Family's heir for restraining his desires and making a clear-headed choice. Even so, Vincent had plainly lost his enthusiasm. He hurried back to Wilson Castle to catch up on sleep.

Glad to have some peace, Green returned alone to his residence outside the castle. This time, no one interrupted him as he took out the Magic Artifact.

It was a bone whistle, white as jade. He could not tell what bone it had been made from. It felt surprisingly heavy and had a metallic texture, clearly no ordinary object. Unfortunately, it had snapped, leaving only half.

This was Green's first time seeing a Magic Artifact from this world. He held it up to examine it more closely, only to freeze. A faint blue-green glow had appeared around the half whistle in his hand. Like a wisp of cloud, it seeped into his palm of its own accord, making his hand feel as cold as if he were holding a lump of ice.

"Huh?" Green had not expected that. After a brief pause, he looked again. As the blue-green glow faded, the half whistle rapidly weathered into a small pile of powder that slipped between his fingers.

What just happened? There's no doubt the bone whistle was a Magic Artifact. It was in Green Wilson's possession for years, so why did it crumble as soon as it reached my hands? And what was that blue-green light? It seemed to be absorbed into my body. Baffled, Green stared at his palm. The white powder had all but fallen away. Even when he tried to catch it, he could not. The grains seemed to repel his fingers ever so slightly, and they were so fine and slippery that he could barely grasp them.

At the same time, Green thought he heard two faint beeps inside his head, though he could not be sure. Then came a sound like gears turning.

Green had paid little attention to the two beeps, but there was no ignoring the grinding of gears that followed.

"What's that noise? Am I hearing things?" Green suspected it had something to do with the crumbled bone whistle. He waited uneasily, but no further sound came.

Just as he was about to relax, bang! The sound was like a firecracker going off. A string of rhythmic electronic tones followed inside his head. The world spun, and he felt as though he were plunging into the Abyss. Darkness swallowed his vision. When Green regained awareness, he was high in the air, looking down on the ground. Below him lay the ruins of a city. Only one or two buildings remained intact amid its broken walls.

"What the hell? Help!"

Suddenly finding himself hundreds of meters in the air scared Green witless. He screamed and instinctively tried to flail his arms and legs, only to discover, to his shock, that he had no physical body.

A few minutes later, he calmed down and realized this was not the real world. Only his consciousness had entered this unknown space.

Then an abstract portrait appeared in the upper-left corner of his vision. When he focused on it, the portrait flashed faintly and a status panel extended to the right:

Name: Xu Mu (Green Wilson)

Class: Necromancer

Level: Junior Apprentice

Skills: None

At the sight of the panel and the strangely familiar remains of buildings in the ruins below, Green suddenly understood. Isn't this the strategy game on my phone? Did it cross over with me? But I played as a Knight. How did I become a Necromancer?

Before crossing over, Green had played a mobile strategy game similar to Heroes of Might and Magic, upgrading buildings, raising armies, and fighting wars. He had never expected its interface to appear in his mind after his arrival in this world. His class had changed to Necromancer, though. His body's Lichification had probably locked in that class, causing the game system to assign it automatically.

My special advantage! This has to be the advantage I got for crossing over! Excitement surged through Green, and he willed the view to move.

The next instant, his viewpoint plummeted as though he were falling from the sky. The ruined city below swelled rapidly, and in the blink of an eye he had entered a gray-black Palace.

In the game, the Necromancer's faction was the Graveyard. This gray-black Palace was its Town Hall, one of the few buildings in the ruined Graveyard that had remained intact.

As Green entered, the battered Town Hall restored itself to pristine condition.

Green searched for a while but found nothing. He shifted his focus again and arrived at the only other surviving structure in the Graveyard.

It was a cemetery covering more than ten acres. Broken tombstones stood everywhere, ghostly flames flickered, and Ravens shrieked like spirits. The sight made his hair stand on end.

In the game, this place produced Skeleton Soldiers, the lowest-ranked Undead creatures. Their combat strength was mediocre; they relied entirely on their numbers.

Green had come here eager to test whether the Undead creatures produced in the Graveyard could be brought into reality. If they could not enter the real world, his excitement would have been for nothing. The Graveyard would be little more than a toy for his own amusement.

But when the moment came, Green was dumbfounded.

The Graveyard that had crossed over with him was no longer a game. There was no display of resources such as gold, lumber, or stone. Five Skeleton Soldiers stood in the cemetery, but he had no way to recruit them.

Green studied the problem for ages without success. With no other option, he left the Graveyard interface for the time being. His body shuddered as his consciousness returned.

He rubbed his temples. Perhaps he simply was not used to the experience, but he felt a slight stabbing pain around them. He took out his pocket watch and checked the time. A little over ten minutes had passed between his loss of consciousness and his return.

Green frowned and pondered. So time passes at roughly the same rate. It's not the sort of place where a day passes inside while only an instant passes outside. I'll have to avoid entering the Graveyard when anyone's around, or suddenly losing consciousness will give them a fright. But not being able to recruit troops there is a serious problem. What's causing it? Touching the bone whistle and absorbing the energy inside it must have opened the Graveyard. Could it be that the whistle didn't contain enough energy to activate all its functions?

Putting his guesses together, Green arrived at that theory. To find out whether he was right, he would need another Magic Artifact. Then he could test whether it would activate the Graveyard's functions completely.