Transmigrated as a Ghost

Once the lich had finished preparing himself, he began to retell the painful memories of how he ended up on this small chain of islands and became an undead.

"It was several centuries ago now since all of us arrived on this world from Earth. One minute I was going about my day as usual, having gotten on the train that would take me to work, and the next thing I knew I was dead. Apparently, the train derailed and killed several people, and I was one of them." The lich said, recounting how he first died.

His story was then similar to Marcus' in how he was given the choice to come to Mirrion on descried to keep his original body.

However, unlike Marcus he did not start off as an undead but as a normal human.

"Things went well for the first few months. I am sure you know this, but level forty is fairly high level for the most part, and I was able to use the skill points I had to purchase plenty of useful skills. I was making a name for myself as a healer having picked up healing magic and other skills that helped me to be a doctor. But I should have known better than to stand out so much all of a sudden. That is how I got discovered by the ones that brought me here."

The lich clenched his hands hard enough to see his thin skin start to tear against his bones as he remembered being taken.

It took him a good two minutes to get his emotions back under control, but he eventually resumed telling his story.

"I was simply minding my business, closing down the clinic I set up in the city I had found by following the road I originally appeared on. It had seemed like a usual day, until three people came in after hours. They told me that the represented one of the lords of the city and that they needed my services. They were well dressed and showed me a large pouch of money, and foolishly I accepted. I was captured without even being able to put up a fight, and when I awoke, I found myself in a cell with manacles that sealed my mana latched to my hands and feet. Later I found out that I was on a boat, and when I finally saw the sun again, I had been brough to a remote island where a grand facility had been built. For a few days they simply left me in another cell and wore me down by leaving me isolated and giving me only the bare minimum of food and water to survive. I tried everything I could. Buying whatever skill I thought might help me escape, but nothing worked. Normal skills that I could purchase at the time were simply not enough."

The lich then took another pause before continuing, and Marcus looked at each of the lich's companions and found that they had similar expressions of pain on their faces.

'I imagine that they all went through pretty much the same thing. Now that I think about it, I am really lucky that I ended up in Borealia. Even when they found me out, they still treated me well. Going so far as to make several accommodations for me. I do not even want to think about ending up as someone's lab experiment.' Marcus thought. Shuddering at what his fate could have looked like if just a few things had been different.

"After they had left me alone for about five days, I was brough before the man who was the head researcher and he examined all of my skills. Noting that I had obtained some more since being captured. He then told me that if I cooperated that he would let me leave the island, and in my desperation, I did whatever was asked of me. Some days I would be forced to kill people they called criminals, others I was thrown in a room of crippled monsters and beasts and made to power level myself. Of course, when I leveled up the person in charge of me would tell me what skills to spend my points on and any failure to do so was met with harsh punishments. One time just to test what would happen I purchased a random skill and was put into an isolation chamber for three weeks. And that was a light punishment compared to what others received as I later found out."

The lich then turned to each of his companions and asked if they had anything they wanted to add.

None of them did though and simply shook their heads with grimaces on their faces.

"Nearly a year went by like that and when they figured that they had broken me I was subjected to the true purpose of this place. They wanted to create loyal immortal soldiers by turning people originally from Earth into all manner of powerful undead. We could pick whatever skills we wanted without having to do anything but use skill points, so when directed what to do, they could make anyone with the skillset the required. The organization these people belonged to spanned an entire continent and they controlled things from the shadows. They had abducted dozens of people like us from Earth and turned us into undead. I still remember when the necromancer they employed ripped my soul in half and tried to anchor it into a binding magic tool that would give them complete control over me after I became a lich. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how I look at it, their attempt failed. Instead, my spilt soul became bound to the area instead and now I cannot leave."

Suddenly, Marcus felt the lich's presence all around him and could see that the lich was glowing.

'I see, a part of his soul really is bound to the area. It is similar to when I was bound to Irene, but on a far grander scale. Even from just feeling this I can tell that he would die if he tried to undue this forcefully.' Marcus thought, contemplating if there was anything he could do.