Chapter 672: [Bonus - 1/9] The Tallykeeper

Chapter 672: [Bonus Chapter 1/9] The Tallykeeper

Thoren stood on the stone platform, staring at the ancient stone well without blinking. The cold air brushed against his face, yet he remained motionless.

His eyes fixed on the enormous circular structure before him.

The well looked as though it had existed for countless years, its weathered stone surface covered in dark stains and deep cracks.

The surroundings were unusually quiet.

Thoren continued examining it, trying to determine whether there was anything unusual about its structure.

However, before he could discover anything, a word suddenly appeared in his mind.

’Well of Grief.’

"Hmm?"

Thoren creased his brow when the words appeared in his mind. This time, he was not too surprised.

Since entering this ruin, words had been popping up inside his mind continuously, as if informing him whenever he came across a major discovery.

Although he still did not understand the source of this strange phenomenon, he had gradually grown accustomed to it.

Nevertheless, the name that had just appeared left him feeling slightly uneasy.

"Well of Grief!"

He whispered the words under his breath, his gaze deepening as he examined the ancient well once again.

Thoren slowly walked forward, allowing the floating Soul Lantern to illuminate the area beyond the well’s stone rim. He approached cautiously, ready to summon his undead at any sense of danger.

Then, he saw it.

Thoren’s steps came to an abrupt halt as his eyes widened at the sight.

A couple of feets from the Well of Grief was a pillar. Not just any ordinary pillar but..

A pillar of skulls.

The pillar was tall, covered in dense skulls of various sizes and shapes.

For several moments, he simply stared at the sight, unable to conceal the shock spreading across his face.

Thoren sucked in a cold breath as he examined the dense pillar.

His gaze moved from one skull to another, searching for some detail that might explain why so many human remains had been gathered in this place.

Then, he noticed something strange.

The skulls near the top of the pillar were wet.

A faint sheen covered their pale surfaces, and droplets of moisture clung to the edges of their empty eye sockets.

Some of the droplets slowly trickled down their foreheads before disappearing into the gaps between the skulls below.

Under the Soul Lantern’s illumination, the moisture reflected the pale light, making the uppermost skulls appear disturbingly fresh.

Thoren’s expression changed.

’Dammit! Why are the skulls still wet!’

He clenched his fist as he stared at the uppermost skulls. He could still accept seeing dry skulls inside an ancient ruin.

Human remains could survive for countless years, and finding them in a place like this was not entirely unexpected.

But the wet skulls were something he could not wrap his head around.

They looked as though they had only recently been removed from living human bodies, with barely enough time for the moisture clinging to them to dry.

The sight was so disturbing that Thoren instinctively took a step back away from the edge of the well, his stomach tightening as an unpleasant thought crossed his mind.

How recently had these skulls been placed here?

He swallowed, unable to tear his gaze away from the pillar.

Just as Thoren thought there was nothing else to discover, a figure emerged from behind the pillar of skulls.

Its appearance was so sudden that his attention immediately shifted toward it.

The figure walked slowly from the darkness, yet its steps made no sound against the stone floor.

It simply appeared, advancing toward the edge of the well as though it had been standing there all along, waiting for him to notice its presence.

Thoren’s body stiffened as he examined the newcomer.

It was a tall, thin figure draped in what appeared to be ancient grave-cloth. The fabric hung loosely around its narrow frame, concealing most of its body beneath layers of faded material.

Its appearance was unsettling, but what truly caught Thoren’s attention was its face.

There was no flesh, no eyes, and no mouth.

Instead, its face was a smooth stretch of bone, completely devoid of any features that might reveal what it was thinking.

Despite that, the figure moved with a strange sense of purpose, showing no hesitation as it approached the pillar of skulls.

In one of its hands, it carried a ledger bound together with vertebrae. The pale bones formed the edges of the book, while its thick pages looked old and discolored.

The figure stopped beside the pillar, lowered its head, and slowly opened the ledger.

Thoren stared at it in shock.

’What in the Abyss is that thing? How did it appear without making a single sound?’

He had been watching the area carefully, and yet he had failed to notice anything until it stepped into the light.

’Is this another figure guarding the Well of Grief? Or is it something connected to the skulls?’

Thoren’s eyes narrowed as he studied the figure, searching for any sign of hostility. However, the more he observed it, the less he understood what he was dealing with.

Its featureless face revealed nothing, and its movements were so quiet that they seemed unnatural.

’If it intends to attack me, I need to discover what it can do before it gets the chance.’

Just as Thoren began considering how to approach the situation, another word suddenly appeared in his mind.

’The Tallykeeper.’

"Hmm?"

Thoren furrowed his brow slightly, but his expression soon returned to normal as he stared intently at the figure.

Since entering the ruin, strange words had repeatedly appeared inside his mind whenever he encountered something important. The name seemed to identify the creature before him.

For the moment, he decided to observe it.

Surprisingly, the Tallykeeper did not seem to care about his presence at all.

The tall figure remained beside the pillar, its attention focused entirely on the ledger in its hands.

One long, thin finger moved slowly across the pages, stopping at different entries as though it were checking a list.

Occasionally, it tilted its featureless head before turning to another page, continuing its work without the slightest interruption.

Thoren watched in silence, growing increasingly impatient as the seconds passed.

The Tallykeeper appeared to be counting something, although he could not understand what the numbers represented.

Beneath the Soul Lantern’s illumination, he could make out rows of names written across the aged pages.

Some were clear enough to read, while others seemed faded, as though they had been recorded long ago.

He glanced at the enormous pillar of skulls, then back at the figure, his mind filled with questions.

Were those names connected to the skulls?

Did the Tallykeeper record the identities of the dead, or was it keeping track of something far more disturbing?

Whatever the answer, he was growing tired of standing around while the Tallykeeper continued its work.

Just as he was about to act, the Tallykeeper’s finger stopped moving.

The figure remained motionless for a brief moment. Then, without raising its head, it spoke in a voice so hollow that it seemed to emerge from somewhere deep beneath the earth.

When Thoren heard the word that came out of the Tallykeeper, he froze and his eyes widened.