Ashton stared the rat-man straight in the face. It didn't even flinch at that attack just now, although his snout — that disfigured mass of flesh and bone — had sunken in considerably. Clearly, his body had been weakened considerably already.

  Blood dripped out from between his crooked teeth as the marked grabbed the staff in a moment of surprising clarity. But, without hesitation, Ashton pulled his staff down and pushed against the rat-man chest. Despite having a strengthened body as part of the transformation into his form, a lot of that strength was lost the moment the marked became a zombie. It was easy to go against this guy's grip.

  Ashton started pushing forward, trying to pin the rat-man against the opposing wall. This place was far too cluttered for that, though. Instead of making it all the way, the marked actually got caught on something on the ground, tumbling backward.

  It was annoying, but still worked. Ashton helped push the rat-man down onto the ground. Immediately, the marked's ribs cracked and Ashton found his staff inside of the rat-man's chest-cavity. This moment was accompanied by a truly disgusting squelching sound.

  But the rat-man didn't even react, as if his body was something that he had long abandoned already. The only thing on his mind was the thing reflected in his dull, dead eyes; Ashton.

  The marked kept trying claw at Ashton. Standing there like that, he wouldn't be able to hold onto the staff properly while staying at a distance, so he, instead, leapt up and stepped onto his staff. He had to squat, due to the low ceiling, pushing up against it with his hand to help with the balance. Though, his stats were enough for him to do this now anyway, even without the support from the ceiling, especially after the slight boost from reaching level ten.

  Ashton clicked his finger and summoned the wisp again. "Sorry you've got to do this again, I know these guys are pretty nasty." He smiled awkwardly at the lesser elemental, but it didn't seem to mind. Instead, it just waited eagerly as Ashton took control.

  With just a finger, he linked with the wisp, and directed it to slam down onto the ground, having the effect of the 'force' spell aimed downward.

  Immediately, the marked's skull seemed to crack open, splattering blood all over the place. It was, luckily, too dark to see everything in detail, even with the soft illumination of the wisp that threw those soft shadows all over the place.

  But... the notification didn't appear.

  "Hold on, are you seriously still alive?" Ashton asked, rhetorically, with a wry, disgusted expression. The rat-man's face had fully sunken into itself, so how the hell was there enough of its brain left to not die yet?

  "Zombies are fucking weird, man..." he groaned, slowly pulling the wisp up to just go at it again. With that second try, it would surely die. Though... that would also splatter the marked's brains and blood all over the place. He would have to essentially burn everything in here if he wanted to be safe. There might be things that they could still use...

  While the marked was still alive, it didn't look like it was still able to move, so maybe he should take the time to clear out the room.

  "Ah, wait, I've got a better idea. Wisp, hold down the staff for a second," Ashton jumped down from his weapon, and instead, the wisp happily sat down on top of it, continuing to push the staff down just to be safe. It was possible that the zombie marked might recover enough, leap up, and attack him while he wasn't looking.

  But no, he wouldn't make that kind of mistake. Ashton had made a lot of careless mistakes after returning to earth already, and being turned into a zombie by a half-dead marked wouldn't count amongst them.

  "I'm sure there was one around here," Ashton whispered, calling the salamander out of his vessel to help with a bit more light. At this point, he might as well work toward forming a contract with elementals of light and darkness, they would help out a lot. With how often Ashton acted at night recently, and would in the future, having a bit more options for visibility would be great. And a darkness elemental would actually synergise with Ashton's new items pretty well, too... He might be able to use them during the day if the darkness elemental got strong enough.

  For now, the salamander was helpful enough, though. It didn't take Ashton that long to find what he was looking for, either. An old, half-torn blanket. He quickly brought it over to the Marked and covered its face. That way, all the potential splatter will be caught and he would only need to get rid of the blanket, rather than everything in this room.

  Ashton quickly pulled the wisp from the staff. "Okay, you ready?" he asked, and the wisp let out a slight, approving glow.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Okay, then-" Ashton was interrupted. Somehow, despite its lungs having been crushed under the staff, and its face being nothing but a mushy mass of bone and blood, the rat-man let out a loud scream. But Ashton saw this in a new way, with his Veil Mastery skill. It was like the veil itself shook around the marked, vibrating the air to create the sound, rather than through actual physical means.

  A mere marked like this shouldn't have the means to manipulate the veil directly. That was something only expert mages should be able to do. And, of course... constellations.

  But even so... it was just a scream. Ashton slammed down the wisp immediately, and the death message appeared without problem. He even checked to make sure, but all the quests that were tracking his kills at the moment had ticked up as well. It was quadruple-confirmed that this thing was dead.

  "What the hell was that? What kind of constellation interfered?" Ashton stared into the air. Rather, he stared at the veil, feeling something in there shake ever so slightly.

  [Skill | Veil Mastery - Level 1 -> Veil Mastery - Level 2]

  Ashton was surprised, especially since the veil around him just became noticeably clearer. What did he just see that made him level up? That question was promptly set aside as other messages appeared before him.

  [The [Coalition of Small Constellations] has taken notice of you]

  "... The what now?" Ashton asked with a few surprised blinks. That wasn't a constellation modifier, they couldn't have the word 'Constellation' actually in there. Or at least, Ashton had never heard of one that did. Rather, this must be a group of them working together, as the name implied.

  So, that group came together and... noticed him?

  [[Eight-Legged Queen] glares at you]

  "Ah... Now, that explains it. What, did you get so pissed that you had to call your friends for help?" he scoffed, looking at the message with an eyeroll. "What are they gonna do? Look at me angrily while I get rid of whatever they throw at me?"

  [[Ruler of Rats] anxiously bites their nails]

  [[Undying Breath] yells that this is not yet over]

  [[Banner of Freedom] warns the others to be quiet]

  [[Smallest Shadow] tells you to remember their name, for they will come with vengeance]

  [[Year's First Rain] sinks back out of embarrassment]

  Ashton stared at the messages. Seriously? Six more constellations were looking at this place right now? Well, probably more. There were sure to be others in the 'Coalition' that just didn't want to speak up. And with at least ten constellations gathering their attention in a single spot, others must have noticed as well and come to take a look, especially once they realised the grand nature of the constellations following Ashton around.

  [[Guardian of the Innocent] barks at the Undying Breath]

  [[Guardian of the Innocent] growls as anger overtakes them]

  [[Undying Breath] laughs at the Guardian]

  [[Guardian of the Innocent] swears they will tear out the Undying Breath's throat]

  [[Undying Breath] stares at the mutt in disgust]

  ... Mutt? Growling, barking..? The Guardian of the Innocent, one of the most influential constellations in all the worlds, was a... dog?

  "Can you stop squabbling already? I'm kind of busy here," Ashton pointed out. Whether or not the Guardian was some kind of dog literally didn't matter to him in the slightest.

  He'd already been distracted by the fact that all these constellations showed up out of nowhere. It explained what was going on here, and how two Marked made their way inside this place, but Ashton still had another zombie to kill, probably some kind of rat or something.

  [[Ruler of Rats] looks up from their claws and chuckles]

  Almost the moment this message appeared, Ashton started hearing the squeaks of rats and mice. Small footsteps sounded out, as a flood of critters, some seeming to actually be scavenger monsters, appeared out of seemingly nowhere. Ashton grabbed his staff and pulled back, startled and worried that a zombie rat was amongst them. He pushed himself up and sat on top of his staff once again, so that he could view the small animals safely. Most of them weren't monsters, so Ashton could keep them away with a ring of fire around the staff.

  "So that Marked wasn't just any rat, but a rat king? Seriously?" Ashton groaned. Rat kings were a type of monster that had the ability to control small rodents, as the name already implied. They were generally a bit larger than other rat monsters, but in this case, with the marked, Ashton couldn't have realised.

  So did the constellations work together to use that innate ability in the marked to call on other rats, even though the rat-man wasn't able to call out anymore?

  It became especially annoying once Ashton realised that the rats weren't called to attack him, but rather, to eat the corpse of the marked. The zombie marked.

  This was bad. This was terrible. Ashton immediately wanted to throw some flames at the rats, but he stopped himself. Sure, the monsters wouldn't, but the actual animals would. There was no way there were this many of them hiding out here in the basements, so there must be a way for them to get in. And if they could get in, they could get out, too.

  There didn't seem to be any rat or mouse that hadn't eaten part of the marked yet, so they were infected.

  "... Shit," Ashton pushed his hand into his pocket and grabbed a different pre-made summoning circle, pressing it against the ceiling. "Lesser Gnome, come to me."

  Instantly, the small mole dropped down, made from the ceiling's concrete. First things first, Ashton sealed up the door. He had to let the rats keep eating while he took this time, but it was the safest way to prevent further catastrophe.

  He also quickly looked around the walls to make sure there were no holes the rats could get out through, and then focused back on them. He didn't even have to look at the Guardian's quest to know that almost all of them were zombies now.

  [[Eight-Legged Queen] tells you to have fun]