"Help... Don't eat me... Don't eat me!"
Lia screamed, scrambling on all fours toward the heart of the forest. Her sharpened stick had snapped in two; one half was still wedged in the crack of BlackWhale's cranium.
"Hey! The NPC is running! After her!""Don't chase too hard! What if we tank our affinity?""You know nothing, this is an escort quest! Didn't you see the leopards aren't all dead yet?"
Ignoring the splinter in his head, BlackWhale pushed off the ground and sprang up, pointing at the two remaining Shadow Leopards. "Finish them quick! Two people follow the girl, don't let her stumble into the swamp!"
I watched this slapstick scene through the mirror.
BlackWhale and a few other skeletons surrounded the leopards. Their movements were clumsy, but that reckless, suicidal intensity actually made the beasts falter. A leopard tore into one player's shoulder, but the man—called "IronButt"—grabbed the beast by the ears and delivered a savage headbutt.
"Mutual destruction! I've got a respawn point!" IronButt yelled.
I shook my head, making a slight adjustment in the void.
[System Notice: Shadow Leopards slain. Quest entering Phase Two: Building Trust.][Current Affinity: -50 (Extreme Terror).]
Lia was indeed terrified. In her eighteen years of existence, undead were synonymous with evil—filth that the Inquisition insisted must be purged. Now, a skeleton that talked, bickered, and even "saved" her had utterly shattered her worldview.
She was slow, her energy spent. Eventually, she tripped at the base of a gentle slope and couldn't get back up.
"Huff... huff..." She closed her eyes in despair, listening to the rattle of bone joints drawing closer.
Was she going to be eaten? She'd heard the village elders say undead would suck out your soul first, then gnaw your flesh to the bone...
"Um... miss?"
A cautious voice sounded from above.
Lia curled into a ball, trembling violently.
BlackWhale stopped three meters away, not daring to go further. He looked terrible—half a wooden stick protruding from his head, two broken ribs, and a bloody iron shard in his hand.
"We're not bad guys... I mean, we're not bad skeletons." BlackWhale turned to his companions. "Hey, who's got supplies? Hand them over!"
"I've only got half a loaf left, the reward from hauling stones earlier," IronButt grumbled, pulling a piece of dry, slightly muddy black bread from his chest and tossing it over.
The bread landed precisely in front of Lia.
Lia froze. She opened her eyes, staring at the loaf that had rolled through the dirt, then at the skeletons keeping their distance, arguing about "how to raise affinity."
"Eat. No poison." BlackWhale pointed at the bread, then at his own mouth, making a chewing motion. His jawbone was so loose it fell off with a *clack* and hit the ground.
"Dammit, how embarrassing." He quickly bent down to pick up his jaw and snap it back into place.
Sitting in the tower, I watched as the dead-end despair in Lia's eyes slowly gave way to a flicker of absurd confusion.
"Is this your plan?" Seraphina leaned in beside me, staring at the bread in the mirror. "Buying hearts with a moldy piece of black bread? Highness, has your financial situation truly become this desperate?"
"It's called 'cost minimization', Seraphina." I took a calm sip of berry juice. "And to someone who hasn't eaten in three days, this bread is more persuasive than the Church's gold coins."
In the mirror, Lia's hand trembled as she reached out and grabbed the bread.
She hesitated for a long time, but eventually, her survival instinct won out. She took a massive bite.
[System Notice: NPC Lia's Affinity toward players: -50 -> -45 (Still terrified, but confused).]
"Good." I stood up. "The first pawn has been placed."
"BlackWhale." I commanded directly through the channel. "Do not bring her to the castle. Take her to the outcast camp to the west; there are people she knows there. I want the rumors of 'benevolent undead' to spread among those drifters."
"Understood, Lord!" BlackWhale stood at attention, his soul-fire burning exceptionally bright.
I watched their retreating backs, already scripting the next act. Baron Klevis's patrol would find this place soon. I needed more "lunatics" to join my legion.
And Lia would be the key to opening that door.