"Well then, I'll leave everything to the two of you," Lux said to Garret and Emma, whom he asked to supervise the building of the town, which they decided to call, Town of Edea.
"Don't worry," Garret replied. "We will not fail you."
"If anything unexpected happens, I will contact you through the Guild Chat, Master," Emma stated. "Go and do your Ranker Trial. Our future home is in good hands."
Lux smiled at Emma's choice of words, which he appreciated greatly.
"Ready to go?" Gaap asked his Disciple who had finished saying his goodbyes to the people that would handle the work he had left behind.
"Yes, Master," Lux replied. "I'm ready to be a Ranker."
Gaap smirked as he lightly tapped his wooden stick on the ground in front of him. A few seconds later, a magic circle appeared under his feet.
"Come," Gaap ordered. "The Ancestral Lands await."
Lux readied himself and stepped onto the Magic Circle, which he believed was a teleportation spell that would take them directly to their destination.
Before the Half-Elf could even blink, the scenery changed.
He then found himself staring at a giant black dome in the distance, that was composed of black mist that swirled continuously.
As far as his eyes could see, the place looked so desolate. No trees, shrubs, or even a blade of grass could be seen in the surroundings. As a Heaven's Necromancer, he was sensitive to the presence of both the living and the dead.
Right now, he could only sense the element of death in the surroundings, and this feeling seemed to be calling out to him from somewhere within the black swirling mists in the distance.
"That is the Necromancer's Ancestral Grounds," Gaap said in a nostalgic tone. "The place where everything begins and, in a way, the place where everything ends as well for people like us."
Since Lux didn't know much about the place, Gaap decided to give him a bit of background about the Sacred Land of Necromancers.
"Any Necromancer who has stepped inside the Ancestral Ground, will leave behind their mark," Gaap explained. "This is our way of giving back for what we gain inside it, and allow the future Necromancers to partake in the wisdom that we have left behind. It's a cycle of death and rebirth.
"Necromancers don't always succeed in their breakthrough and become a Ranker. When this happens, the Ancestral Ground also serves as their graveyard, in which their souls remain for a few years until they have gained the strength to cross over to the next life."
Lux, who was about to make his breakthrough, couldn't stop himself from smiling bitterly.
"Master, can you not please raise any death flags for me?" Lux said in a helpless tone. "I don't have any intention of dying."
Gaap smiled, showing the Half-Elf his three remaining teeth before telling him something funny.
"You know, there is a saying in the Necromancer community," Gaap stated. "They say that you aren't a true Necromancer unless you died once. Some even say that Death is a per-requisite in order to reach true enlightenment. There were even rumors that the Supreme Necromancers, who stood at the Apex of our profession all died once in their lifetime.
"As to whether this is true or not, I have no idea. I have only met one Supreme Necromancer in my lifetime and that person… is unfathomable. It was as if I was staring at a bottomless pit, which had the ability to suck the soul out of my body, leaving only an empty shell behind.
"If my Master wasn't there, I might have died just by simply staring at the strongest Necromancer in existence."
The final destination of all mortal Professions was the Supreme.
As for Monsters, they all strived to become Demigods.
They were the strongest beings in the world, and once they took action, the entire land would tremble in their wake.
"Master, what is your Master like?" Lux asked. "I often hear you talk about her, but I still don't know what she is like."
Gaap, who heard Lux's question, became silent. It was as if he was thinking about how to better describe his Master, who had helped him in more ways than one.
"My master's name is Hereswith," Gaap replied after a few minutes of silence. "I do not know her last name because she said that she threw it away after stepping into the path of a Necromancer.
"My Master was a helpless gambler. This is why we almost always ran out of money during our travels. If not for the fact that I always keep a few gold coins for our survival, we would have probably suffered a lot more in the past."
Gaap chuckled as his eyes, that were usually always serious, softened as he recalled the time he had spent with his Master.
"She had long green hair and eyes, befitting an Elf." Gaap continued his story. "Naturally, her ears were longer than yours. Um, they were longer by at least an inch or two. Needless to say, she was incredibly beautiful. A beauty that could bring down a nation.
"Due to this, she always wore a veil whenever we traveled. Even then, people would still flock to her due to her Charisma. I can't count the number of suitors that always sought her during our journeys.
"Some of them were very influential people including Kings, Emperors, and Saints. If my Master had her way, a word from her would make these people go to war for her sake. She was incredibly kind, witty, and stubborn. But, most of all, she couldn't say no to those who are in need.
"Even now, I can't understand why someone like her, who only helped people, would be targeted by those bastards from the Divine Army of Light."
Gaap's tone leaked killing intent after he mentioned the Divine Army of Light. However, this killing intent faded after the Half-Ling took a deep breath in order to reign in his emotions.
He then resumed telling the Half-Elf about his Master's good traits as they walked towards the Ancestral Grounds.
Gaap mentioned in passing that the black mist that swirled around it was made up of a dense, and deadly miasma that would kill anyone who tried to step inside it, if they weren't a Necromancer.
"Lux, there is a possibility that we will meet other Necromancers inside," Gaap said with caution. "Although all of us are Necromancers, that doesn't mean that we all get along. If we see others inside, be sure to stick to me, understood?"
"Yes, Master," Lux replied.
Seeing how serious his Master was, the Half-Elf decided to pay heed to the old Half-Ling's advice.
Lux even thought that if there was a Necromancer whom Gaap thought of as an enemy, that person would definitely be a very strong person.
He had already seen a fraction of his Master's power. If Gaap's enemy could match that kind of strength, that would only mean that they were also powerhouses in their own right.
A few minutes later, the Master and Disciple pair entered the Sacred Lands of the Necromancers.
A place where they would break through to become Rankers, and the place where their legacy would be left behind as well.
