Kenny’s days had been taking a turn for the better, rather it was his time alone, or with others, he had managed to find himself once again, or for the most part find someone near close to who he wanted to be. The stress of becoming a knight, falling in love, and being someone special had washed away as his mind became tranquil with the coming of his new mindset and tone about life and its meaning. To him now life was a fickle thing, a thing full of beautiful people and things that were waiting for him to discover and befriend them, it wasn’t quite that simple, he knew this, but he looked forward to his future rather it was here in Era or on the road to any of the other cities. Even his priorities had taken a shift for the better, no longer was he concerned with going to bars and picking fights with strangers, now his priorities were more strict and flexible a few of them being find a guild, do as many jobs that he could, and just live comfortably while all in the same maybe finding someone to share his comfortability with, but that was a tale for another time.

On his journey to becoming a better Kenneth, Omega had heard of a Lieutenant from the Magic Council who needed assistance with something, seeing this as an opportunity to score favor with the Rune Knights in case he opted to join them Kenny hastily accepted the offer and deemed that he would begin as soon as possible. It was the time of day he would prepare himself for whatever task he accepted. He had done all that he needed, bathed, groomed and gotten dressed in his new preferred attire for today’s job; his black tank top and cargo pants set and made a round for a quick shot of bourbon.

He exited his shabby hotel room and made his way to the lieutenant who had been at one of Era’s outside borders. The man seemed mildly disgusted by Kenny’s appearance, mostly because of his lack of armor and dull sword strapped to his back. First impressions were important, and the warrior should have better prepared himself for this encounter, maybe his armor would have sufficed better? But then he wouldn’t be as comfortable as he would have liked, Kenny enjoyed allowing his body to breath comfortably during his work and if he had to sacrifice appeal to do so, it was a necessary sacrifice. Kenny, despite the quiet judgements took the report on the job and hung at the boarding gate until nightfall as that was when his objective would come.

When the sky grew dark, Kenny picked himself up and headed for the forest unsure what to expect on his scouting expedition. He looked back once before continuing, the view of the lights had put him at ease, with a last glance and a sigh he began the mission by entering the forest in search of a few alleged zombies. Kenny didn’t quite know what to expect from this job, in the case that he was attacked he could try his best to cut through the undead, that implying they were real but given some of the things he had seen since roaming the region he didn’t put it past the realm of reality.

After searching for what felt like hours, he began to think the report, as well as these alleged zombies, were all a farce and that lieutenant was either delusional or decided to play a joke on him. Farce or not Kenny was going to see the job through until daylight broke. He wanted to see this mission through until the very end, as he did all of his undertaken jobs, even those that were tedious or painfully dull. He would soon find himself at a clearing and in its center was a meeting of sorts. It was a strange view, a large statue of some deity looming over a roaring flame surrounded by people in cloaks. To make the scene even more eerie around them were an array of corpses lined up for on the ground, some rotting heavily, others seemed freshly killed. Kenny leaned forward as the cultist began to chant something aloud and after a few minutes, one of the corpses began moving and forcing itself up and moaning aloud in what could only be described as a hungered wail.

“Zombies are real?! ” he whispered to himself before silently swearing under his breath, “So many questions…” he shook his head. Kenny got a better look at the statue when the flame had risen; it was glowing red, its eyes illuminated by the fire. Along with the statue’s bright and buzzing more dead seemed to arise a good dozen or so was present. Kenny, not deterred by the sight or smell scanned the area for further details. He couldn’t see the women’s faces, but he tried his best to put a label on each by the distinct markings on their robes. He would be no match for an army of the undead and necromancers, especially on his own with no magic and a sword that was almost as dull as his personality.

The undead horde continued to grow, the chanting got louder, and the statue’s glowing and buzzing ha turned into a vibrant display of color as it loomed over the slowly forming army of the dead. It wasn’t worth the risk any longer as the zombies began stumbling and bumbling one absent-mindedly making its way in his direction before falling flat.

Kenny turned tail and crept away from the clearing and ritual silently pacing himself before figuring he was far enough to move normally frequently. As he exited the woods, it had dawned on him that it had become morning and the sun was slowly creeping into the sky. He returned and told him what he had found. Honestly, after whatever it was he saw. Kenny was ready to take a hot shower and rest in his bed for a spell.

After giving the listen to the details of what happened Kenny obtained his reward. Hopefully, this job would allow him to gain favor within Era, especially with those involved with the council and rune knights but he wasn’t all that worried about it right now. His focus at the moment was just relaxing and attempting to forget what he had seen. After dismissal, he made his way back to his hotel room where he would undoubtedly sleep the rest of the day away.

1097/1000