Traces of Jereum
There has been a huge celebration all around the City, as today marks the one year celebration since the formation of this city of Cassian.
As the Elves, threw their usual prideful demeanor and went on a drunken stupor along with the dwarves and the humans, as they celebrated the birth of the city which gave them new home.
But unfortunately not everyone in the city had a joyful mood, as Ian read the latest reports he got from the Adventurers Guild.
"A hoard of undeads, lead by a Elite Ghoul was found in the Capital city of Helos, but luckily due to the quick response of the Royal army Knight's and the local Adventurers, any major crises was averted."
As Ian read those reports out loud, his sour mood turned even worse, as it appears the second big hurdle he has to deal with, has finally made it's appearance.
'The Immortal Lich' ,Jereum a very powerful entity who sided and fought on the sides of demons, before getting his entire body and soul ripped apart by the Sword King Krugel.
Jereum is not only a master of necromancy, but before he turned himself into an undead immortal lich in a pursuit of immortality, he was a Magician at the Rank of Supreme magus.
But Unfortunately or one could say Fortunately, depending on their perspective, After turning into a lich, he lost his affinity with all the natural elements of the world limiting him, with necromancy and dark magic.
But even with just one element, Jereum was still a Supreme Magus level Magician, the Rank which is the pinnacle of Magic,with his ability to raise mass undeads he gradually made up for this little inability of his, to wield other elements.
"Is Everything alright?, what's with that big frown in your face ?"
Ian completely ignored those remarks, which seemed like a sarcastic retorts, while glancing towards Karn with a lazy looking face.
"I see you got back from your mission, how many were there this time ?"
Karn shooked his head with a sorrowful expression before saying.
"This time, it's not even half the amount of the previous one, those nobles from the Empire seemed to have sensed something was wrong, and started raising security in their mines and fields."
The main task of the Black Knight's is Espionage, while the Blue and Red Knight's maintain the security of the City, the Black Knight's are meant to hande any tasks or deal with any foreign threats, to the city.
For an entire year, Karn had led his Knight's into the empire and raided the mines and fields of the nobles, and freeing the local serfs and Slaves among them.
Till date he has rescued more than, tens of thousands of people and brought them back to the city, which led to a huge surge in popularity of the Black Knight's compared to the other two factions.
But it seems the nobles have gotten aware of their actions, as the security and vigilance has been raised by several levels.
"I'm afraid, we won't be able to rescue people any longer, unless the Black Knight's risk their life."
"No need" Ian immediately interrupted, before such dangerous thought could even enter Karn's mind. "You've done enough, if we get too greedy, we might put the people living here at risk."
As Karn gave a slight nod before giving a glance at the reports on Ian's desk.
"Undead Skeletons, I think I saw something like that on the outskirts of the Empire."
"What ?, Where did you saw them ?" Ian said, as he lost his usual calm and collected composure.
"In the border of Kronos Kingdom and the Crune Empire, but I don't think they were that big of a deal, honestly they were weaker than even a regular human."
"Because they haven't grown yet" Ian growled "This exact thought was the reason for the destruction of this continent."
"What ?"
"Nothing, Call Barnes in here I need to talk to you guys about something."
Karn immediately followed Ian's command, and called Barnes from the Blue Knight's building.
As Ian saw his two commander's standing infront of him, he said "I have a specific task for the two of you."
"What is it ?, is it some noble family,again trying to shove their claims on this city."
This Incident happens once or twice, every month, where the envoys from various noble families arrive to claim this city, only to be chased out by the templar Knight's, and if that doesn't work, they finally resort to the means of using Rustom's 'Diamond Rank' Adventurers Badge, as this trick has gradually kept the eyes of those greedy nobles at the bay.
Ian immediately shook his head before mentioning the reason he called both of them here.
"I want you to take your most elite Knight's, and search the entire Khar plains for any undead remnants,that you can find."
"Huh !, Undeads ?, Even if there are undeads here. Is that really necessary, I mean they are like just weak Skeletons, that even ordinary people could deal with."
"It's because you guys haven't ever witnessed an higher grade undeads, and definitely not in a hoarde, if those things are left to their own devices they would gradually evolve, so spread my command to everyone, to destroy every single remnants of undead they witness, no matter where and how miniscule it looks."
Barnes still had lot of questions to ask, but looking at the serious glare Ian was giving, he decided against, as he has already came to the terms that this cat is far more knowledgeable than anyone else in this city or even this entire continent.
"Understood."
After Barnes,Ian's eye's drifted sideways as he glanced at the Black Knight Commander.
"Karn I have a solo mission for you" Ian said as he glanced at the reports lying infront of his desk before saying. "Start scouting, all the surrounding Empires and Kingdoms, while looking for any traces of the undeads, and deal with them if you possibly could."
"Alright" Karn immediately accepted the instructions, for him Ian's words has always been absolute,he didn't concern himself, asking the reason for such drastic act.
"You will be gone for a while, choose someone appropriate to, lead the command of the Black Knight's, on your absence."
It will probably take more than a year, before he returns back to this city, as the position of the commander would be vacant for a while ,it won't hurt Karn to choose a proxy for him.
As Karn walked back to the Black Knight's office and glanced towards the members of the Black Knight, who have been training diligently.
As he swept his glance, before it stopped on a particular burly bearded individual who have been practicing, while swinging his large great sword on his own.
"His name is Graham,is it." Karn murmured to himself, before calling him out.
"Yes, Commander." Graham stood nervously in front of Karn, he still vividly remembered their first encounter, when he was just a mere mine guard of the very first batch of people Karn rescued,and he was afraid Karn might have still held some kind of grudge against him.
But contrary to Graham's concerns, Karn had no qualms about what happened, one and a half years ago, as he had been a diligent part of his squad, who rescued more than tens of thousands of slaves along with him, so for all their past grievances,he has already thrown that out of his mind, just like rest of the members of the Black Knight's in here.
"You were the fastest, to reach the Rank of '1 Star' Swordsman, and now you're closest to reach the '2 Star' among all the bunch here." Karn said as he placed another star on Graham's armour, promoting his Rank to 'Sergeant'.
"You'll be leading the group in my absence, if you do the job well, you can expect another promotion, and as for all of you here, don't slack off in my absence."
"Yes Commander." The group cried out in unison.
Karn is now a '3 Star' Swordsman, he knew his absence will leave quite a bit of a hole in the Black Knight's office, but he knew his squad can pull through, as he has trained each of them diligently, as all of them here are atleast at the Rank of a 'One Star' Swordsman.
As Karn said his final goodbyes to his parents and rest of members in the city that he has been close with, or have formed a bond in a span of a year, before walking towards the city gates and taking his leave.
"Wait!"
Just as he reached outside the gates of the Cassian city, he heard a familiar voice interrupting him, as he turned back and looked at this familiar black cat quietly standing behind him.
"Ian !, why are you here ?"
"You were leaving before greeting me, I was kind of upset you know."
"Ahh!, sorry" Karn immediately ruffled his head, and apologized,it wasn't that he forgot about Ian but didn't want to disturb him with all the work he might be busy with, for the city.
"Since you are leaving, you should start with the Helos Kingdom, that's where the first undead incident occurred."
Karn immediately gave a nod before speaking
"Alright, is there anything else."
Ian gave one last glance to Karn who he might not see for a while before speaking.
"Takecare"
Karn was a bit taken back by that sudden unexpected word of concern that came out of this loofy cat's mouth, before he gave a deep amicable smile and said.
"You as well, Take care of yourself and the city, I'll be back as soon as possible."
Leaving those word's, Karn immediately dashed out, leaving behind a lonely black cat, who watched his figure grow smaller and smaller before getting gradually disappear from his line of sight.
Honestly Ian was not a big fan of making Karn travel on his own, but this is a necessary factor to help Karn grow mature, and facilitate his growth.