I felt wholly wrung out. Like an orange that was squeezed for its juice. The rewards were just that juicy though. Our pace picked up. My new zombies creaked away, clearing the way forward. I could only make about five of them before I was wiped out. Even then, they pushed forward with nigh unstoppable momentum.

  Their bodies, hardened by ice, were resistant to most normal damage. Even if they suffered damage, it was minimal at best, with ice or frost bolstering their wounded parts. Better part was, after the initial heavy investment, they cost close to nothing to maintain.

  They were lesser type of undead, they functioned off ambient mana in the air. Given time, they’d get stronger, but only to a point. Their greatest limitation was their failing flesh and blood. However, ice was unique in that it could ignore such weaknesses. Allowing them to push forward with even greater might, at the cost of their body degrading ever faster.

  If I had blood magic making immortal undead would be easier. Dark mana would be more fitting as well, allowing me to make other variants of undead. Ice was more suited to revenants and puppets, from what the book taught me.

  It was still strange having so much knowledge at my fingertips. Like I’d learned it over years, and not over a single night.

  “We’re making good time now.” Tabitha added. She didn’t bother hiding how happy she was with my zombies. “I was worried we wouldn’t be able to get too far before attrition took its toll.”

  “I concur.” Grim replied, we were now moving at a decent pace. We didn’t need to slow either, as the zombies simply bowled over any minor threats.

  “However, I do believe it is time we discuss loot distribution.” Grim followed up with.

  Tabitha scowled. “Didn’t we already have a plan? You’re getting the gold coin, if any exist. Then we split the other coin drops, if any drop, with you getting the lion’s share.”

  “Yes, that remains true, but… we have another member in our party, do we not?” Grim asked.

  “What do you suggest?”

  “Not much, I understand that asking you to share with Prima would be too much, seeing as how she isn’t one of yours.” Grim started, Tabitha shot me a look but quickly looked away. Diana, for her part, continued to avoid my gaze.

  “What are you getting at?” Tabitha pressed.

  “I am simply making an observation. However, I believe she would do well earning my share of silver and bronze coins.”

  “You’d give up your share?”

  “I hardly have need for such, especially if we do encounter a gold rank monster. Is that acceptable?”

  Tabitha went quiet. The only noise in the tunnel was the creaking of my undead, and the sounds of our footsteps on the wet stone.

  “Fine. That’ll work. She’s doing the majority of the work for now anyway.”

  “Wonderful.” Grim replied back, clearly pleased. When I looked back at her, she gave me a wink. I had no idea why she was helping me or even advocating for me. Either way, I gave her a curt nod to express thanks and looked back forward.

  I wasn’t sure how deep this went, or why there were so many of these shades, but the tunnels we were going through felt odd. Like the air down here was somehow heavier than it should be.

  As we continued on, I couldn’t help but glance over at Diana. I didn’t really want to press for an engagement but seeing her actively avoiding me did get on my nerves. Sure, I deserved it for leaving her and the others in the lurch, but I’d prefer it if she yelled at me or did something, not just ignore me. At least then I’d have a foot in the door to do something, so to speak.

  Which was why we awkwardly kept walking, until something happened. Surely, an opportunity would arise…

  We had to stop, as my zombies were being waylaid by something.

  “Looks like we got a live one.” Tabitha remarked, my eyes caught the frontline and saw a shade, no, not just a shade. The shade looked different in some fundamental way. It emanated a kind of power. A power that let it easily body my zombies, throwing them about like discarded dolls.

  I readied my rifle, but Tabitha raised her hand.

  “Diana, can you handle it?”

  “Yes, I can.”

  “Good, do it. We’ll sit back.”

  I lowered my rifle and Diana shot forward. She weaved through my stumbling zombies, and broke through in an instant, leaving a trail of wind in her wake. With a soft leap, she flew through the air and tapped her foot on the ceiling before diving down.

  A swirling maelstrom gathered on her pick, it swelled and whistled. She swung, aiming right for the shade’s neck. At the last possible moment, the shade jerked away. Diana’s pick swung wide, leaving a bloody gash on the shade’s torso.

  It let out a pained cry. Diana swiftly moved, wind cushioning her full and propelling her forward. Almost weightlessly, she avoided the shade’s wide swings. Her feet touched on the railing nearby, jumping off just as the shade’s fist smashed into it, sundering the metal.

  She lashed out with her pick, leaving another large gash that worked its way up the shades arm. In mid-air, she shifted, wind swirling around her, maneuvering her and acting as a foothold. The shade swung, but the wind carried her away and pulled her in. Her pick, covered in swirling winds carved down the shade’s side and out of its waist. The wound nearly put the shade to its knees.

  Once again, wind burst out just before Diana hit the ground. Like hitting an airbag, she was pushed aside. Barely avoiding an infuriated swing of the shade’s arm.

  She landed, closer to our group. My undead had stepped aside, giving her space to maneuver. The shade, seeing Diana before it, roared and made to charge. Diana took a running stance. Wind gathering just below her heel. A sound, akin to a gunshot rang out. Wind burst out, sweeping through the tunnel ruffling my hair as she shot forward.

  It happened in the blink of an eye. A hazy line of wind carried through, carving through the shade’s neck and into the ceiling, leaving a scar where it had landed. The shade took stumbling steps forward, their head fell to the ground, and the body followed shortly after with a distinct thud.

  The shade was dead. Diana was panting but had a wide smile on her face. She wiped some sweat from her brow. Her eyes flicked towards Tabitha.

  “You need to control your wind better.” Tabitha cut through Diana’s joy. “Too much escaped, and it alerted your prey. Not just that, but you’re still making too much noise when you collect your wind. Remember, control. Like this.”

  Tabitha extended a hand, swirling maelstrom formed in the palm of her hand. It made naught a sound, nor did I feel the air shift at all, even as its speed increased to dizzying levels. To demonstrate the power of the cyclone in her hand, she casually put it against the stone. Soundlessly, it drilled into the stone.

  When Tabitha finally withdrew her hand and dismissed the swirling wind, we witnessed what it had done. Where the twister had pressed into stone, was a perfect hole. Like a drill had dug through the stone. The stone was smooth, the cut looked perfectly natural.

  “Understand?” Tabitha pressed.

  Diana froze then bowed. “I understand, thank you.”

  I couldn’t help but stare at Tabitha and coincidentally, our eyes met. We looked at each other, then Tabitha looked over at Grim, and I followed her gaze. Grim was watching Tabitha with a smile, and Tabitha looked back at me with a sigh.

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  “Prima, right?”

  “That’s my name.” I replied, shifting my gaze back to her.

  “You’ll get the next one.”

  My mind whirred, but I immediately moved to bow. “Thank you.” I spoke.

  “Don’t thank me yet. We’ll have to see if I can even do anything, oh, and drop the gun. You won’t need it for now… speaking of. Diana, no weapon from here on out. Focus on control.”

  After she finished speaking, she then extended her hand again. A strange bronze-colored smoke emanated from the body. The moment Tabitha extended her hand, the smoke gathered and swirled in her hand. She clenched her hand with a snap and a pop. And where smoke had been, was a single bronze coin. Once the coin was collected, the body began to rapidly disintegrate.

  She looked at me, likely reading the expression on my face and motioned forward. “You can give it a go when we fight another.”

  I didn’t question her, and not much later, we encountered another shade.

  “Now, these shades are Low bronze ranked. You can tell, because they’re not very strong. Bronze rank entities can passively use magic to empower themselves, tiers within ranks are low, middle, upper, and absolute. Silver tier follows the same rules, but they can actively use their magic. Gold and up are a whole other ball game as they can both empower themselves and use magic offensively, but also, they have a little extra panache.”

  “Panache?” I asked.

  “You’ll figure out what I mean by that later. Now, focus up, you’ve got an opponent here. Show me your best.”

  That she was right, I set aside my rifle against the wall and prepped. I inhaled and exhaled. I felt the ice crawl along my body. I remembered to breathe, and I felt the cold grow ever stronger in turn. With a stomp, I shot forward. A palm slammed into the shade’s torso. The blow made the ice covering my arm vibrate and toppled the shade over.

  I shot forward, positioning myself over the downed shade. It raised its arm to attack, but I kicked the limb. My leg hammered into the shade’s arm, nearly ripping it off its body.

  The shade’s other hand attempted to grab at me, but I pivoted and thrust out a spear hand in the same motion, right for the shade’s skull. My hand pierced through its temple, killing it instantly, while its hand futilely swiped right where I had been a moment prior. With its head impaled, its limbs twitched and fell to the ground and its body convulsed one final time before going still.

  I stood and shook the blood off my gloves and glanced back. Diana was giving me a look, but Tabitha.

  “I see you had training.”

  “Some.”

  “Well, it looks good, but in a real fight, it won’t matter much.” I didn’t argue, her assessment was right. The zombies hadn’t counted, they didn’t really fight back properly, neither did the shade. Against someone untrained, I could do well with my poor talent, but against a proper fighter? I had no chance.

  “I suggest, when you get the chance, you find an instructor. Though, you’ll probably be better off using a gold coin to make an instructor.”

  “You can do that?” I blurted out.

  “Yes, you can. Next time, when you get a coin, or whenever you have a free coin, make sure to properly ask what you can do with it. Regardless, that’s not the point. The point is, your just as wasteful, no, more wasteful than Diana here.”

  I didn’t think that was the case… My energy had recovered somewhat since I made the zombies, and I had held back some…

  “First, you’re doing good remembering to breathe. Even if it feels moot, if you stop breathing, your magic stops working as well. Keep breathing and your magic will keep flowing. Magic comes from your heart and flows throughout your body. Even if your ice slows your heartbeat, remembering to breathe can help mitigate the consequences.”

  I nod along. I had a feeling something was different, but it wasn’t like I had the chance to test it.

  “Second, when you swing, like so…” She makes a thrust… “You keep empowering your whole body. Don’t. Focus on the area of impact, when you exhale for a strike, imagine putting everything into the blow in that single moment. It’s a lot more efficient than constantly coating yourself in ice. Again, let me show you.”

  She inhaled and made a sharp thrust. One second, there was no wind, yet in the next, her fist and arm were covered in winds. She stopped short of her full reach, and a drill of wind shot forward like a cannon down the tunnel.

  “Conversely…” She showed what I was doing, wind covering her form, empowering her. When she swung, this time, the wind wasn’t nearly focused enough and dispersed shortly after she made the blow. No, it was more than that. The wind swirling around her briefly shuddered and expanded.

  “See?” She asked after hearing no response. “And Diana, I hope you’re paying attention.”

  “I am!”

  “Good, next one’s yours Diana. I expect something similar.”

  “Yes!” Diana looked more than excited at the idea. I couldn’t disagree, after all, I was feeling just as amped as her.

  “Now, for the final bit. Prima, just extend your hand and call to the corpse. You can tell when they have coins, because a colored haze will emanate from the body, with a thicker haze representing the possibility of getting more coins, an off-white color for silver coins, and gold for gold coins. Same principles. As you already know, event coins are automatically collected. Now, how about giving it a go? It’s pretty instinctual when you get a hang of it.”

  Just as she said, it was instinctual. Once I extended my hand, I felt it. A kind of tantalizing pull. A need. The colored light gathered in the palm of my hand, It swirled and compressed itself. The force of it condensing drew my fingers in, and my hand clenched in with a slight pop. Where the energy had been, was now a bronze coin. It looked just like the other bronze coins I had traded for.

  It had a rabbit on the face, a star on the back. It looked like a casino coin. With the main body being bronze, with white stripes along the edge. Similar to how the sheep coins were, and even the silver coins. With the only difference being the animal on the face and the color. There was clearly a theme here.

  After taking it in, I looked over to Tabitha.

  “Keep it.” She said, cutting me off. “Your part of the expedition, and I shouldn’t be holding back instruction just because you’re not one of ours. We’re all in this together, same city and all.”

  “Thank you, I do have a question.”

  “Shoot.”

  “The bodies, do they always vanish like that?”

  “If you collect the coin, they will. If you have other uses for the body, don’t collect the coin.”

  I nod and thank her again and we move on. In the back, I could hear Grim humming in amusement as we moved.

  The next fight was Diana’s. A stronger Shade, surrounded by lesser shades. My zombies worked to isolate the stronger shade, and Diana shot forward. Her first few strikes did little damage, if anything, the wind swirling just above her knuckles sent her rebounding back when they burst on impact. Resulting in more damage to herself than her opponent.

  Still, Tabitha kept us back. Her eyes were watching what was happening like a hawk. A few times, her fingers twitched, her feet shifted, or her spear shifted position which gave away her anxiety. Even then, she offered no help.

  Diana moved away from the shade’s wild swings. One, nearly clipping her, only to be diverted thanks to a burst of air. Diana kept going, tightening her movements, using less energy to avoid or dash through strikes, all the while making her own strikes.

  At first, she continued to fail, even flail about when the gathered wind burst. Soon enough, her attacks weren’t sending her flying. Each of her blows slowly found purchase in flesh. Until finally, with a shout, she replicated Tabitha, shooting a drill of wind that scored through the shade’s chest, revealing its spine and empty chest cavity.

  Diana smiled, panted. Her guard loosened.

  “IDIOT!” Tabitha shouted, Diana flinched when the cored-out shade moved forward and lunged. Only to be obliterated by a thrown spear.

  “Never, ever let your guard down!” Tabitha yelled. “Most creatures don’t die, until they’re obliterated, their head is destroyed, or you break their core. Sometimes you need to do all three.”

  “I…” Diana started. Tabitha sighed and retrieved her spear. Diana was shaking. Her teeth grit. Eventually Tabitha sighed.

  “We’ll try again next time. Alright? Think about what just happened, and… good work on that strike.” Tabitha patted Diana on the back before rejoining the group. She motioned for us to move, and we did. Diana remained quiet until we encountered another shade.

  I fought next. Remembering Tabitha’s words, and Diana’s mistake. I shot forward, practicing my breathing. A sharp exhale, a flow of ice cracked down through my spine into my leg. Stone crackled underfoot. I was a blur, I couldn’t even begin to understand where I was before I crashed into the shade. I bodied it, my body slammed into the shade’s body.

  For a single moment, my feet left the ground, the shade’s feet left the ground. Our flight was disturbed by a wall, barring our path forward. The shade hit, I followed. Crashing into it with a loud crack and snap. My body was imbedded into the shade, its chest, waist, and spine were all pulverized under the force of my charge.

  I pulled myself out, making sure to gain some distance. The shade fell to the ground, stunned. With a stomp I finished it. Only once I was sure it was dead, did I look back.

  I was covered in blood, and one look from Tabitha told me all I needed to know. At least my complete failure made Diana feel a bit better. Small wins and all…

  Next fight, Diana proved herself. Managing to blow the head off the shade with a targeted fist. She was improving quite fast, and I was as well. The next fight was with a larger group, with a pair of stronger shades.

  Both of us made short work of them, with my undead and Tabitha running interference.

  A few more groups later, I was beginning to wonder just how big these sewers were…

  “How much further do we have?” I asked, my eyes travelled over my severely damaged undead their bodies were covered in frozen over wounds and limbs that barely held on thanks to thick ice.

  “We should be nearing the entrance to the second layer.” Grim offered after a quick glance around.

  “Second layer?” I asked, thinking back to the spiders. A shiver ran down my spine. “You mean more sewers?”

  “No… the second layer is the waterworks layer. Pipes, lots of moving water, and various mechanisms. We’ll have more room to work with there.”

  “And what’s below that?” I asked, remembering the tunnel, the white figures. Despite myself, I pulled on my ice, and had to take a moment and breathe before it would recede even a little.

  “Catacombs. Further beyond are the tunnels, the depths, then far below, Tartarus.”

  I wanted to ask what all that meant, but Tabitha spoke up.

  “We won’t be going that deep. Even if we did, I doubt we’d survive going that deep. The lowest we’ll be going is the catacombs.”

  I didn’t question her and nodded.

  We continued forward and eventually, we found stairs that led further into the depths.