Somewhere deep underground, it was hot. In the prevailing darkness, a weak snoring sound was heard. But it was stopped by a strong earthquake.

Opening its yellow eyes, the reptile began to circle them lazily, trying to figure out where the earthquake came from. Before its eyes, the image of how the Duke of the Grave appeared and fought with Gar began to play out.

"The Duke of the Grave? What made him awaken from eternal sleep?" the creature was surprised to see one of the necromancers now.

Watching the battle, it was able to understand that both were weak. They no longer possessed bright and powerful magic. The Duke could summon a powerful army of undead from all kinds of creatures, and Gar could create anything from stone without drawing or hitting sand. He could also summon stone servants of any size and as many as he wanted.

And now they were pathetic imitations of themselves. If only they hadn't lost then, they wouldn't be suffering silently now. Closing its eyes, the creature showed that it didn't care.

After a while, it opened its eyes again to watch the battle, watching Gar's death. It was able to see how the Duke transformed Alpha's corpse into a demonic beast.

But then it saw how the mist began to circle and cover the Duke. After the inexplicable mist exploded, a black body fell out of him. Watching it and its soul, it was able to see that this creature was new to this world, and its soul was wounded.

Part of its humanity was taken away. And if it doesn't solve this problem, it will become weaker in the spiritual plane. It will be easier to control it until the feeling leaves it. And memories will decay in darkness. It will lose itself.

And it had plenty of soul energy. Even the quantity and quality of its energy were comparable to that of a newborn human. Even those who knew it would envy this energy. In the past, it would have laughed it off and ignored it, but now everyone wants this treasure.

This person can live in this world for 72 years without degradation. And it ignored the waste of energy and the fact that it could gather and steal from others.

"72 years. Can this world last another 72 years? ... Try to kill him and take everything from him ... What am I saying? I'm starting to lose myself. I won't last long. Ah... he left. Now I'll go straight to him ... I remember there should be a house. Let me watch him. And then I'll see what to do next."

The orange eye watched every movement of the black man and his dog. In the darkness, full of silence, it...

***

He walked through the forest, which was becoming darker and the trees were getting closer together.

He looked around, although he couldn't see in the darkness. It was useless if enemies were hiding. It reminded him of how a lizard fell right on him. But fortunately, Anino saved him. Although he had a few cuts and what looked like a suction on his lips. They swelled, but to his surprise, they recovered in half an hour.

"Anino, I still can't understand, you can sense enemies. How did you not feel that enemy on the tree? Then he wouldn't have damaged my lips," he said.

Anino guiltily lowered her head and began to whimper. Even if she can sense others, it doesn't mean she can find everyone, even masters in shadow attacks. Besides, she was born recently, so she still needs a lot of time to become a master and become even stronger.

"Yes, I understand. Don't be too hard on yourself. Okay? Good boy," he said, directing his right hand to stroke her head. He remembered how that beast was bloodthirsty and tore that thing apart. He is even afraid to step now. He no longer wants to feel someone violating his face and lips. Patting the sad dog on the head with a painful heart, he went further.

Fortunately, there were no more surprises like that. The problem was that he needed to find a shelter where he could stop and become stronger. Perhaps some of the current quests would help him achieve his goal. First, he needed to learn spells, second, create weapons, and third, create an army of strong creatures. However, in reality, two out of three quests were impossible to complete at the moment.

"How am I going to create a staff? I'm not a wizard from Hogwarts," he said thoughtfully. "Creating an army of strong creatures requires killing such creatures, which is also a problem. Therefore, there is only one option left - to learn spells. But where and how can I do that?"

Lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice the small wooden house that was right next to him. But when his dog, Annino, started barking to get his attention, he turned around.

As soon as he heard his dog's voice, Annino ran towards the house. Watching the dog, he finally noticed the house, which stood alone with a few trees.

Seeing the dog running towards the house, he started to rejoice. "Finally, I will meet someone alive whom I can chat with and learn more about this world," he thought.

Approaching the house cautiously, he looked around and slowly approached the door but didn't open it. First, he looked around the place, but found nothing, everything was clean. However, when he looked at the door, he noticed that it was covered in dust. The old stone door was cracked many times, and there were even claw marks on it. "How difficult it is to hold a tool in your hand," he thought, "but one must be prepared."

The handle was black with... what? He approached and examined it. The handle was also covered in dust, which meant that it hadn't been used in a long time. "It will be opened again," he thought and slowly pressed the handle, then pulled it towards himself. At the same time, the door made a strong creaking sound.

"Annino was a good boy and stood guard," he thought, "He sat and watched so that no monsters appeared out of nowhere. He even looks like a kitty. Oh, how cute! But no, you prefer cats, and snakes too."

Behind the open door was an empty room, but it was filled with blood, and the walls were covered in claw marks. The floor was covered in dust. After inspecting the room, he noticed two more doors and one window. The window was broken, and the metal bars were torn apart.

Examining the window, which was not so big, he realized that whoever did this was small in size. But the strength was enormous, and he understood that this creature must have eaten a lot of mamaliga. After that, he wanted to inspect the remaining two doors.

But instead, he looked up. There he saw bloody symbols filling the entire wall. All these symbols were words. He couldn't understand what they said, but after observing for some time, he was able to find several styles in which the same person wrote. At first, it was neat and symmetrical, but then it became more grotesque, and the symmetry disappeared, as if the person who wrote it had gone a little mad. He didn't understand what was written there, but still couldn't tear his gaze away, as if it meant something. These bloody words mesmerized him as if a beautiful dancer was performing in front of him.

After a few minutes, he was finally able to tear himself away from the ceiling and began inspecting the first door. Finding nothing, he opened it. Looking inside, he saw a room with empty shelves and another door. Closing the door, he turned to the second door and then saw that Anin was sitting at the entrance, turning his head outside and inside. So to speak, he was watching the owner and also keeping an eye out for unexpected enemies.

Like the first one, the door was full of dust. Opening it, he realized that this door, like the first one, didn't make a sound. This scared him, and he turned to the first door, but nothing happened there. The door remained closed as it was. And he waited, as in horror movies, for a monster to appear, but it didn't.

Turning to the door, he saw that the room was empty again. There were debris from the bed on the floor, and a torn doll was sitting inside them. Entering the room, he began inspecting the bed, but found nothing interesting. After that, he started inspecting the doll, which was almost a meter long, but didn't touch it with his hand.

Instead, he started poking the doll with his spear, but there were no scary moments that he hoped for. After a while, he took control of himself and took the doll in his hands, starting to inspect it. It was torn to such an extent that it was ready to fall apart.

However, something made him hold onto this doll, but what could it be? He decided to look under the doll's clothing and noticed that it was covered in skin, and something red, like a thread, was going in and out of the skin. When inspecting the doll's body, he discovered something interesting. This doll had a dumpling. Touching it, he felt a faint chill and the same feeling that arises when touching a girl's intimate body parts. Fortunately, nothing happened, as it might have seemed at first.

After examining the dumpling more closely, he noticed that there was a red thread tip inside of it. Without hesitation, he stuck his fingers inside the doll and pulled on the thread with force. The thread slowly came out, and the seams themselves began to move. At the end of the thread, it was left inside the doll's skin. After the thread had completely emerged, the doll broke apart into pieces and turned to dust. Strangely, when his fingers were inside, he felt warmth and some slippery substance, as if he was really inside a woman. It was disgusting and strange, but also frightening.

Looking at the red thread, he felt danger, but also realized that it could be useful.