As the Skeleton King gathered Oddities from far and wide and brought them back to the Laboratory for study, Annan gradually learned more about them too.
Oddities were not as "harmless" as they seemed. If he had to describe them, he would say they were like undead, carrying a Withering Aura wherever they went.
It had not been obvious before, when the Burnt Girl and the others followed Annan everywhere. But once Annan settled in Free City and they did not leave with the Fourth Legion, the first signs of that Withering Aura appeared.
Oddity House was where Annan had put them up.
According to the neighbors, the greenery along the street and their potted plants had stopped growing or begun to wilt to varying degrees. The closer they were to Oddity House, the worse the withering became.
Worse, the Oddities' Withering Aura was far harder to deal with than necromancy. Dade's nature magic took twice the effort for half the result.
So Annan had no choice but to move them to a new home: a detached residence beside the Industrial District on the Outskirts.
The Skeleton King had also worked out what "Humanity" was. It was more like "Vitality" stripped of its natural elements, a concept deeper even than the soul.
According to the Skeleton King's experiments, Oddities could steal this substance called "Humanity" from any living creature. Animals had the least, followed by creatures of limited intelligence such as Goblins and Kobolds, then humans. Long-lived Races such as Elves and Dragons had the most. This led the Skeleton King down the wrong path: he concluded that Humanity represented lifespan and saw Oddities as occupying the same ecological niche as Vampires in other worlds.
The Skeleton King discovered the truth after a mishap set two test subjects against each