The Gravecaller Who Levels While Sleeping

Chapter 8: Firelight and Old Enemies

By sunset, Adrian had twenty-five Boneguards.

He had moved through Briarwood like a quiet storm. Goblins fell to arrows, to bone cleavers, or to the simple weight of numbers. Each kill added a few points of ordinary experience and, more importantly, another possible soldier. Adrian did not record every corpse. He had learned quickly that speed mattered. When he found a goblin alone, he collected its Echo. When he found a group, he chose the best bodies and kept moving.

His stored Continuum experience was still the true engine of his growth. The dead were the weapon it allowed him to build.

At nightfall, he found a shallow hollow protected by fallen logs. He gathered dry twigs, started a small fire with a match from his emergency kit, and sat with his back to an old oak. The Boneguards stood in a silent ring around him.

Most academy students would be moving toward the exit by now. Owen Hart had repeated the warning several times: leave before midnight, because the Rift reset would restore monsters throughout Briarwood. Adrian had no intention of leaving. He wanted to see the reset. More than that, he wanted to claim another full day of Idle Accrual the second the clock turned.

The fire snapped. Adrian counted his arrows. Thirty-one remained. He could recover most after a fight, but a bent shaft or damaged head became useless fast. He made a note to buy better arrows with the Ether Core money. The choice was practical, not glamorous. Rich hunters showed off enchanted swords. Poor hunters learned the value of equipment that could be used twice.

A goblin shrieked in the dark beyond the firelight.

Adrian did not bother reaching for his bow. One Boneguard rushed into the brush, followed by three more. There was a brief clash of metal and bone. Then the skeletons dragged a fresh corpse into the light.

Adrian recorded the Echo, bringing his total to twenty-six.

"Not bad," he said.

Voices carried through the trees.

Adrian rose at once. He dismissed every Boneguard except two, sending the rest back into their black circles. Then he climbed the oak and settled among the branches. His Agility made the movement easy. Below, the little campfire continued to burn, looking abandoned.

Three figures entered the hollow.

Lucas came first. Tessa walked beside him in a new leather jacket, her face still stiff with anger whenever she glanced toward the shadows. Behind them was a compact man in a dark tactical coat. He carried a focus staff and wore a private security patch on his shoulder.

Adrian recognized him from the first timeline. Nolan Pike. A level-ten Ember Arcanist employed by the Voss family. He had guarded Lucas when the family wanted their son to feel important and had frightened enough to appreciate it.

"Someone was here," Lucas said, kicking dirt over the fire. "Where did they go?"

"Could be a student," Tessa said.

"Could be a body," Nolan answered. He looked around the hollow with professional caution. "Stay behind me, Lucas."

Lucas rolled his eyes. "It is a beginner Rift."

"That is why people get careless."

Adrian watched from above. Rage rose in him at the sound of Lucas's voice, but he pressed it down. He wanted Lucas dead. He wanted it badly enough to taste it. Wanting did not make it wise.

Nolan was level ten. His rank was not overwhelming, but a trained fire mage could destroy level-one skeletons in groups. Still, Nolan had one weakness. He had to protect Lucas.

Adrian silently summoned his Boneguards.

Black circles opened behind rocks, roots, and trees around the hollow. Skeletons climbed from each one without a sound. Twenty-six sets of dim blue eyes turned toward Lucas.

Tessa noticed first. "Lucas."

He followed her stare. His easy expression disappeared.

"What are those?" he asked.

Nolan lifted his staff. "Bone constructs. Stay back."

"There are not supposed to be skeletons in Briarwood," Lucas said.

"Clearly there are now."

The Boneguards advanced.

Nolan fired the first spell. A ball of orange flame struck the lead skeleton in the chest and shattered it into pieces. He spun and fired another. A second Boneguard collapsed.

Lucas exhaled in relief. "See? They are weak."

Then a black circle opened behind the two piles of bones, and the same Boneguards climbed out again.

Nolan's face changed.

"That is not normal," he said.

The skeletons rushed them from every direction. Nolan's fireballs exploded through the first ranks, but each time one fell, another emerged from a circle somewhere in the dark. He could not move freely because Lucas and Tessa stayed behind him. He could not chase the hidden summoner because every opening in his defense exposed his employer's son.

"Do something!" Lucas shouted as a Boneguard's cleaver struck the barrier of heat around Nolan.

"I am doing something!"

Adrian watched Nolan's shoulders tighten with each spell. Mana had limits. So did endurance. A normal summoner paid mana to keep fighting. Adrian paid nothing. As long as he remained hidden, the pressure could continue forever.

Lucas backed toward the center of the hollow. "Who is controlling them? Show yourself!"

Adrian drew an arrow but did not release it.

He wanted Lucas to know. Not yet. But soon.

Nolan blasted a wider ring of flame outward, destroying seven Boneguards at once. The explosion lit the branches beneath Adrian. In that moment, Nolan looked up.

Their eyes met.

"There," Nolan shouted. "In the tree!"

Adrian moved before the next spell formed.

He dropped from the far side of the oak, landed in wet leaves, and ran into the dark while his Boneguards closed around the hollow one more time.

Behind him, Lucas screamed his name.

"Adrian Vale!"

Adrian did not look back.

He ran until the firelight became a distant orange stain between the trunks. Only then did he slow and call his Boneguards back one by one. Several had been reduced to scattered fragments, but they returned through fresh black circles without complaint. Nolan's spells had not killed them permanently. They had only revealed the price of facing a mage who knew what he was doing.

Adrian leaned against a tree, listening to his own breathing. The ambush had been reckless. It had also taught him something useful. Lucas was terrified when he could not see the enemy. Tessa folded the moment things stopped going her way. Nolan was competent, but his mana reserve was not endless. The Voss family could buy protection, yet their guards could still be forced to spend their strength.

None of that was enough to win today.

Adrian looked toward the deep forest, where the ruined ranger station waited beyond the next ridge. Somewhere there, the Briarwood Rift Lord slept with a level-two Ether Core in its chest. He needed better soldiers. He needed a level-ten skill. He needed to stop confusing a moment of revenge with a finished plan.

The Boneguards gathered around him again, twenty-six empty faces turned toward the dark.

"We move," Adrian said.