Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 612 - 565: Death is Life

"When I was small, I already showed differences that were unlike ordinary people. As you can see, I am very tall; scholars once speculated that some of my ancestry could be traced back to ancient humans, but I know they were mistaken."

"My body is massive, yet my organs are those of an ordinary human, and even enlarged they struggle to drive my flesh. Tall yet weak, even doing simple chores would leave me drenched in sweat. Having to be cared for in daily life, it’s natural that I had little social interaction. My hunter father supported such a me until my early twenties; he was a fine hunter, with a man’s stubbornness and a naive fantasy. He believed my size was a blessing, that I only lacked nutrition..."

"I grew up on the flesh of deer, hares, and pheasants. When I came of age, my height had already surpassed the threshold of the hunter’s lodge, my large body occupying a great deal of space inside. Therefore, indoor dining turned into outdoor cooking, but that was dangerous. I know it sounds absurd, my student, but it’s true. The prey hunted by my father did not belong to him. The surrounding forests belonged to those aristocratic lords, and my father was a crafty poacher. He nourished me with stolen meat."

"I always remember the slight shadow of him with a hunting bow on his back entering the woods, almost every time he left, he would bid me farewell, almost like leaving a last will. ’If I don’t come back, don’t hate them—we’re all just taking what we need.’ Hunting is dangerous, and even the most experienced hunters can fail; bears or jackals, those beasts with scars on their face are always more dangerous. Looking back now, I might have misunderstood the man’s meaning. Because he was not killed by a resisting beast, but rather, the lords discovered his poaching. As the twelfth maple leaf fell, that man was hanged at the village’s execution platform."

"I completely lost my support in life, and my gigantic body only brought pressure. I don’t remember my name from before, because no one calls me by it anymore. Not being accepted by humans, I was expelled from that small house, scavenging in the wilderness, on the verge of self-destruction." Mr. Dragon patted the doorframe of the white bone building, perhaps in reminiscence. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"The skills learned from hunting tales didn’t help me survive long. Some wild fruits and roots could not fill my appetite, I staggered forward through the cold and hunger... and then, I met a black bear."

"A bear?" Lyle thought of the Bear Monster he had encountered in Liveser; such large, powerful carnivores didn’t leave a good impression on him. Nia, on the contrary, immediately licked her serrated jawline, issuing a chuckling laugh.

"I could use my tall body to intimidate the black bear, make him feel threatened and leave... if I were in the mood for it. At that moment, I was crazed with hunger, with moss scraped on my trousers, nearly paralyzed as I crawled in the jungle. Then I saw the black bear, saw the wound left by an arrow on his right ear, he looked at me fiercely, and I could smell the stench coming out of his mouth."

"So I cautiously... plucked a chicken fat mushroom from beside the bear’s paw, instantly stuffing it into my mouth to chew. All while maintaining eye contact with the black bear."

Lyle was stunned. Was Mr. Dragon’s past life... so intensely undisturbed?

"I had simply decided to die with a full belly, ensuring that at least when I died, my esophagus would be stuffed. My chances of survival were slim to none, whining about it to life would be too foolish." Mr. Dragon took off the Dragon Priest mask, relaxing his shoulder blades, as if searching for that feeling, and two streams of magic burrowed into the hollows of his nostrils, stoking the soul flame in his skull even more vigorously.

Liches had no need to breathe, Lyle thought this was Mr. Dragon’s way of clarifying his own profound shock.

"Animals have their own intelligence, their own souls. At least in the eyes of the black bear, I saw his soul."

"He did not kill me, but slowly turned away."

"At that moment, I felt a special sensation, as if I had awakened some Druid-like talent. I understood the black bear’s intentions, so I followed him."

"My intuition was not wrong. That black bear truly became my companion. He led me to new sources of food, places where only beasts understood where food was stored, and several streams rich with aquatic life."

"A black bear accepted me, accepted the monster of the human world."

"At that time, the corners of my mouth were smeared with fish scales, and my throat was filled with the metallic taste of blood and the freshness of fish flesh. I had never felt so alive, as if reborn."

"Then I died."

"..." Lyle was a bit irritated by the Dragon Priest’s story, with its dramatic ups and downs. He initially thought that after his rebirth, the Dragon Priest would live amongst the wilderness and wild beasts, become a human Druid, accumulate knowledge, and truly rise after death. But what came after the rebirth? Death.

"Nature is kind and yet cruel. When I encountered the Bear Monster, my body had already become a furnace for a natural pandemic disease. Even if my calf was covered with chicken fat mushrooms one morning, I wouldn’t be surprised. Forest fever and fungal inflammation were eating away at my sanity, and the weakened me ultimately didn’t make it."

[If only I had a healthy body.]

"Embracing such a wish in death, must have given birth to who I am now."

"An undying, eternal skeleton." The Dragon Priest pointed to the area below the experiment table in the center of the room, "When I was resurrected as a Lich, I was brought here, piled up with the bones of wild beasts, indistinguishable from one another. The Bear Monster was nowhere to be seen, leaving only bite marks on my leg bone. This was the grave it chose for me, but it also became the place of my resurrection."

"At first, my new form was fragile, my bones would break like biscuits upon touch, but I already possessed infinite potential. Initially, I was exhilarated; I controlled this skeleton body to run and climb in the woodland until the emptiness of the Lich quenched all my enthusiasm."

"I wandered the wilderness, aimlessly..."

"And then I saw one of my own kind, a Lich, awaken another skeleton."

"That was Dean Liveser, he invited me and told me the name of the power that could awaken comrades."

"Spirit Summoning Skill."

"I began to delve incessantly into this power, in order to resurrect these bones that lay with me. By the time I came to my senses, I had already become the Dragon Priest, Liveser Bone Spirit Summoning Department’s head professor."

"As I said, my life was bleak, my student."

"But in my death, I consider myself second to none."

The Dragon Priest put on the Dragon Priest mask again.

"Next, I will become a legend."