1 Start of a journey

Lucas had been walking in the same direction for the past week, the trees were a light brown unlike the ones back home. He didn't hate his master for kicking him out, he had completed his apprenticeship after all.

It was the fact he had also gone to the chief saying Lucas must travel as there was no room for two undertakers in the village, there were barely thirty-odd people in the village so it always confused him why they had an undertaker in the first place.

So he chose the path the others had walked on, the looks of envy from the younger kids followed him when he left. They'd soon be old enough to leave the village, though they would have the choice to stay.

His master while cruel didn't try to send him to his death, he had bought him one of the farmer's old cane baskets to carry his stuff, along with some dried meat.

The basket straps dug into his shoulders at times but it was welcome, as it had to carry his supplies. His master had also given him the sickle he had been using since he was first adopted, somehow after all them years clearing weeds with it, it still had a sharp edge.

"Take it and use it to scare off any unwanted attention. What do you mean useless? Why you can still use it to clear weeds, that right there gives it two uses!"

Hence in his tattered clothes, he walked with a basket on his back and a sickle by his side, looking more like a lost farmer than a traveller. His eyes were pale blue, teetering on the edge between blue and grey while the rest of his features were unassuming, with short black hair and a plain face it was clear he lacked any attention from the girls from back in the village.

His body was skinny with little sign of muscle due to being poorly fed, his skin was a healthy pale pink, and with rough hands from his labour, he looked just like a normal village boy.

The past week had been uneventful albeit lacking a direction, Blackwood village from what he had heard from travellers was "In the middle of nowhere" and "A backward place", he always watched the other kids be confused about how a village could be moving backwards.

The forest in front of him had long lost any semblance of a path, he just trusted the chief's word that there was a road further onward. It was quiet today, he had spotted a couple of deer the day before but nothing today.

Hopefully, they weren't scared off by something.

There was a slightly sweet smell in the breeze and as he travelled further, it grew stronger and more metallic. He recognised the smell of blood, while rare, some of the bodies he helped his master with had fresh wounds.

In a small clearing in front of him, a man lay curled on the ground, his back towards Lucas. It wasn't the first time he had seen a dead body but he had never seen one outside of his master's workshop.

'Even after being kicked out, I still have to deal with bodies eh?' He chuckled, he knew his sense of humour was twisted but years of working with corpses did that, though on the bright side, he was relatively normal compared to his master.

More details came to light as he approached, it had occurred to him that whatever killed the man could be still around, hence his sickle rested in his hand.

The man's skin had started to change colour already, and a slight acidic smell escaped from his body. The man's clothes were something he had never seen before, they looked almost smooth to the touch, unlike his coarse clothes.

They were covered in blood too, unlike his, his back was almost completely covered in a rusty red. As he circled the man he finally saw his face, his eyes seemed to leap out of his sockets while his chest seemed to be inflating. His hair was blonde and cut short, his face might of once been handsome but now it was sickening.

He had been dead for at least four or five days Lucas reckoned, the smell tickled his nose but he had smelt worse.

In the man's grasp was a box, its colour was a deep green like the bamboo he had seen near the lakeside, it looked like a stone of sorts but Lucas only knew what his master taught him. He had never seen or heard of jade, and a box made of it would be worth more than everything his village owned put together.

His master had taught him many things, making him a qualified undertaker, and grave robber. He'd never forget when he spotted his master digging in the dead of night, his master beat him half to death to make him keep quiet.

Since then his master taught him the tricks of an undertaker and a grave robber, which bought his silence for all them years. He didn't look down on his master, they rarely got business and often he'd have to go foraging in the forest for their dinner, his master barely managed before he adopted him, let alone after.

He had managed to pry the box out of the cold hands, he noticed a ring made of the same stone as the box but it didn't fit him, so he put it to one side.

It was clear after removing the box how the man had died, a dagger lay in his chest, whoever had put it there hadn't found the body yet. Lucas became lost in thought as he stared at the corpse.

Half an hour later he stood up and looked at the scene, the corpse's fingers were now covered in dirt, barely noticeable in the distance was something poorly covered with soil. He had moved the corpse so it seemed the man had buried something with his last breath, though the box he buried now lay with the man's ring inside it.

He recognised his loot to be a book after a quick glance. His master had a few as well, and clearly, the man cared for this book as much as his master did his.

On the cover of the book, lay the words "The Necrosynthesis Technique".