A Bored Lich

Doevm pushed right through the clerk's ribcage with a sharp crack, squishing the slippery brown and red organs underneath his shoe. The clerk's last words never left his throat. His eyes went wide as his body went limp.

Black tendrils of mana spread out from Doevm and surrounded the fresh corpse, which twitched. Its eyes regained their light and whitened like its skin. Doevm withdrew his foot and kicked some of the blood off: "I think I'll name you, Clerk. Clerk, what did you tell the members of the resistance?"

'I told them,' Clerk said through the new mental connection, 'That you accepted the mission for that Elero girl, went by an alias by Mr. Lich, and you came here looking for advanced healing books.'

The Ghoul went around the Resistance members' corpses and sunk its fangs into them. Like Clerk, the men also rose to their feet, but not as servants to Doevm, only as newly born Ghouls. Their master was the original Ghoul, Doevm's summon. They cost no mana and, while they were a little difficult to manage, were perfect for providing a distraction.

'I did tell the resistance members about you,' Clerk continued, 'but you slaughtered them. This would have put the issue to rest if I hadn't been visited by more members of the Resistance after the creature went on a rampage.' His eyes stared into a far-off place and his head twitched around as he shifted through his past memories. 'I told them about your alias and the magic book you were seeking.'

"And the mission?" Doevm asked. "Did you tell them about my intention to treat Elero?"

Clerk shook his head: "I had figured that, the next time you showed up, I could use that information as a bargaining chip over you. I am sorry for my previous actions, master. Please allow me to serve." He stood up from the rubble and bowed, blood and organs still pouring out of his gaping chest wound.

Doevm put a hand on Clerk's shoulder. The hole in his chest closed up. The flesh around his arms slid to the floor. His skeletal arms fell limb before they cracked, split apart, and reformed as two long, sharp blades.

"The Black Market has turned into a resource for my enemy. I'll need your past knowledge while we raid it since, like the Underground, I imagine this place has changed over the centuries since I have last been here. Destroy anything of significant value. The Guriant and I will go on ahead and clear the other floors. Ghoul, you will bite as many corpses as you can and send them to the hoard up here. Ghost, follow us down."

Doevm pointed to the waiting room's front doors and windows. The bone walls closed up around them, blocking any chance of entering. 'That should hold them back for a while. Now to deal with the rats hiding behind the walls. Guriant, get the door for me.' He pointed to the door separating the storage rooms to the waiting area just behind Clerk's old broken desk.

The Guriant stepped around Doevm and Clerk. Its massive ash-covered fist swung at the door, blowing it open in a mess of shattered wood and chunks of wall, which swept in a wave over the guards waiting at the other side. Clerk stepped in front of Doevm and raised his sharp bone arms.

'Clerk, what are you doing?' Doevm asked through his mental connection. 'Step back.' He pulled his spear out of his spatial ring and had Clerk hang back with the Guriant. 'Your job is not protection, but destruction. Guriant, do not attack anyone yet. I can't waste any mana on healing any scratches you might get, and I need you both at top shape down there. We must save everything we can, even the Ghouls.'

As the cloud of dust and dirt dispersed, they revealed the contents of the first room: tall metal filing cabinets. The walls, floor, and ceiling were made of the same black stone as the Colosseum. Aside from the light crystals randomly inserted into the walls close to where the walls met the ceiling, there was nothing else of note. No furniture, no desks, not even a speck of trash. The guards, after recovering from the shock, activated their red life essence. Unlike the Resistance's men, these people didn't have necklaces, nor did they transform into monstrous creatures.

Doevm launched throwing knives into the crowd. Most weren't able to block or dodge. Half were killed, leaving five. Doevm got into a stance: "Come on!"

The group looked to their fallen companions, then to Doevm and his hoard of Undead, then to the exit behind them, then ran as fast as their legs could carry them. Doevm was faster, appearing with a puff of blue mist between their last hope of salvation with his spear pointed at their throats. In their desperation, they surrounded him and charged.

Their weapons bounced off his hardened skin and into the large cabinets. Doevm spun his body and spear, sinking fists and sharp metal straight through their iron armor. After the last guard fell to the floor, Doevm took a breath: 'Ghoul, bite them.' Ghoul shambled over and bit the fresh bodies.

Paper exploded everywhere as Clerk, with his bladed arms, ripped into the metal cabinets where the files on the Black Market's sales, deals, and blackmail were kept. While these were some of the most useless things of this place, they were still worth destroying; most things on its ten floors were. Doevm picked one of the pieces of paper up and frowned before throwing it inside of his spatial ring.

Since the Black Market was a constant target, the more valuable an item was, the lower it was stored in the facility. While Clerk destroyed the rest of the records, Doevm hopped on the back of the Guriant, which smashed its way to the exit and descended the ginormous stone staircase at the back of the room.

When the Guriant charged through the next wall between the staircase and the second floor, they found another squadron of guards waiting for them behind hastily set up barriers. Doevm heard someone running down the staircase at the back of the room, yelling so that he could warn the other guards at the third floor.

'This design is annoying,' Doevm thought as he tore a hole through the closest guard's head. Before this place was the capital, when Maximus Draken first set foot here, he had been running from something. He hollowed out this place intending to use it as a place for defense. After he passed and most of his information and kin was erased from history, the capital formed around the skeletal arm. The founder of the Black Market discovered this area, the Underground and the arm's socket, then occupied it.

Swords fell, parried by Doevm's spear and dagger. Throwing knives shot into anyone who ran, and the spear into anyone who came close. Of course, if the bone structure and these men were the Black Market's only defenses, it would not have been able to withstand the assault of the royal family for centuries. It was because of what lurked below, beings that dwelled in those dark depths.

The more valuable the item, the deeper it was stored, the stronger the defense around it. The last time the Black Market had come under attack, half the Underground fell unconscious. The attackers were stopped at the seventh floor.

Doevm knew all too well from his raid centuries ago that the guards in front of him were just an alarm system. Their sole aim was to stall and wear down any intruders.

'What floor is the advanced healing book on again?' Doevm asked.

'That should be on the fifth floor, master,' Clerk responded. 'The order goes: files, weapons and armor, slaves, artifacts, books of magic, ancient-'

'That's enough,' Doevm said as he shoved a guard's face into a wall. 'I do not intend to go further than the fifth floor. Right now, if I went down there and faced the monsters and superhumans below the fifth floor, even with all you Undead, I wouldn't return.'

Even in Doevm's previous life, he had sacrificed much to get to the tenth floor there while searching for new techniques. The things he found were well worth it though, the loot including the majority of his collection of Maximus Draken's journals. Sadly, nothing else down there mattered at the time. Not the massive piles of jewels and gold, not the secrets of history, not even the miracles, which could annihilate countries if activated. If any of Doevm's books were to be placed down here, an eleventh floor would have to be made.

The last guard fell down next to the corpses of his companions. Doevm wiped the blood off himself and got on the Guriant's back. 'Clerk, move up. Guriant, keep going down.'

After clearing the third floor, which was full of guards with red and blue life essence, slaughtering the slaves, and having the Ghoul resurrect them, the Guriant sighed. Through every battle, it had waited at the back, only being used to break open the gates. Doevm felt its sadness at the back of his head like an open wound.

'Don't worry Guriant,' Doevm said. 'Your turn is coming up. You too, Ghost, you will come in handy soon.' The Guriant looked around but couldn't find Ghost. It shrugged and kept moving forward.

Doevm had kept as much mana as he could for the fights, relying mostly on his life essence. While he did use spells on guards with blue life essence, he made sure only to use average level spells, leaving them no room to surprise him. Then they got to the fourth level, which was full of artifacts, there were a few mages mixed in.

'That's odd,' Doevm thought as he spread fire throughout the room of artifacts and men. 'Even though I anticipated the Resistance would be slow to act, they should have arrived by now.' He pushed the thought aside and concentrated on his task. The first floor was bursting with Ghouls by now, each drooling as they walked around the enclosed walls, waiting to fill their stomachs. Doevm finished off the three mages and engaged the dozen or so guards in close-quarters combat.