Taking a seat at the dining table, Asher stared at the unassuming parcel. The Reaper was written on it in plain, black letters, and the parcel itself had been sealed with some sort of glue. Identify wasn't giving him anything to go off of, which meant it was all guesswork as to where it had come from.

[Parcel] - Sealed

Who would not only think to give me such a nickname, but have the means of finding me all the way out here? he thought, tapping a finger on the table. He knew from his extensive reading and rereading of The Big Book of Elements: Volume Six, which was well Incorporated into his brain at this point, that there were a handful of elements with skills similar to scrying. But as far as he knew, he hadn't come across anyone with access to one of those.

Draken would be the main suspect, but it could be that Rosh hired someone to find me after he received my letter. Maybe this was supposed to be some sort of bad joke that came across poorly. Deciding he had no way of knowing without checking, Asher sighed, pulling out a dagger and slicing open the parcel.

The moment he cut through the glue, the parcel exploded open, causing him to flinch back and suck in a lungful of bright blue powder. Choking, Asher knocked his chair over as he stood up and stumbled away from the open parcel, his face and exposed skin already starting to tingle. His very lungs seemed to seize and stop working, and he managed to get all of ten feet away from the table before he dropped to the ground, gasping and wheezing as he tried to force his paralyzed lungs to take in air.

I have Complete Resilience… He thought, the room swirling around him as his vision began to dim and his heartbeat gradually slowed down as the powder quickly made its way through his bloodstream. Poison shouldn't work on me…

As his consciousness faded and he realized the poison very much was working on him, and rather quickly at that, he was suddenly reminded of one of the first items he'd stored in his rift.

Antidote… he thought, his mind swirling as his head hit the floor and he began shaking, unable to focus well enough to access his Personal Rift. Need… Antidote…

Eternal Regeneration - lvl 22

Eternal Regeneration - lvl 23

Asher's eyes shot open as he gasped, sucking in a deep breath before immediately coughing it all back out, his lungs feeling like they were on fire. Twitching, he slowly pushed himself into a sitting position as he dismissed his notifications and tried to figure out what just happened. Based on the angle of the sun coming in through the window, he'd been out for at least a few hours.

"Did I just… die?" he croaked, rubbing at his throat and coughing a few more times as he pounded on his chest. What the hell was in that envelope?

Forcing himself to his feet, Asher warily looked over at the parcel, expecting to see the deadly blue powder scattered everywhere. But to his surprise, there wasn't so much as a blue speck anywhere to be seen.

"What the hell?" he croaked again, clearing his throat and taking a few more shaky breaths. "What kind of poison was that?!"

Whatever it had been, the poison hadn't given a damn about his Complete Resilience skill, despite it being at level 20. His memory of the entire thing was fuzzy, but he was pretty certain he'd lost consciousness less than five seconds after inhaling the blue powder. If it hadn't been for his newly evolved Eternal Regeneration…

Asher's blood ran cold at the realization that things could have been far worse. Sure, his body was wracked with pain at the moment, but that would fade in due time. What if Samantha and Brian hadn't gone out hunting today, and Samantha had opened the parcel out of curiosity in his absence? Or Gods forbid, Brian?

Vowing right then and there that he'd see whoever had sent this parcel dead as soon as he could find them, Asher trudged over to the table and looked at the parcel once more. His Identify hadn't given him any useful information when he'd first looked at it, and it wasn't giving him anything to work with now either.

[Parcel] - Empty.

Hell of a lot of good that does me, he frowned. Despite knowing it might kill him all over again, Asher carefully examined the table and surrounding furniture for remnants of the deadly blue powder. The last thing he wanted was Brian or Samantha to sit down and accidentally get any of it on their skin. Yet no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find any trace of it, even with his Identify and Secret Seeker skills working overtime.

"Some sort of insanely deadly poison that vanishes after it's used," he muttered, quite easily realizing what had happened. "Someone tried to assassinate me. Or, The Reaper, more like. But why?!"

Well, perhaps why was the wrong question. Asher had certainly killed plenty of dangerous people during his brief stay in Whikoga, and it wasn't all that strange to think some of them might have like-minded friends or family looking to get revenge. The list of potential people looking to do him in might very well be far longer than he thought, which meant Asher shouldn't waste his time trying to figure out why.

No, he should devote his efforts to finding out who, so that he could take care of the problem before someone innocent got hurt.

Realizing he was going to be hunting down and fighting against people again, Asher couldn't help but feel his heart start to race at the very thought of going blade to blade with an opponent intelligent enough to lay such a trap for him. Monsters just didn't hold a candle to a person with their back against the wall, and he felt a hungry grin spread across his face at the very thought of taking down his own would-be killer.

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Putting that thought on hold, there were still the more immediate concerns he had to take care of. Not wanting to take any chances, Asher grabbed some water from the nearby rain barrel and began cleaning everything that had been even remotely near the blue powder. By the time Samantha and Brian got home, he had not only cleaned practically the entire cabin single-handedly, he'd taken a rather thorough bath as well, and had even hidden his clothes after scrubbing them to the best of his ability.

He'd considered burning them to be safe, but they had actually been Samantha's father's old clothes that she was lending him, and he wasn't about to get rid of anything that had once belonged to her parents without checking with her first.

Tracking the duo's progress with the Eternal Mark he'd left on Brian, Asher met the two of them halfway between the edge of the forest and the cabin, greeting them with a big smile.

"Welcome back!" he said, nodding at the two rabbits Brian was proudly carrying on his belt. "Did you hunt those yourself?"

"Yeah! I hit them both first try and everything!" Brian grinned, miming shooting an arrow at Asher. "You should have seen it, it was amazing!"

"I'll try and join you guys for the next one," Asher chuckled, before turning to Samantha. The hunter seemed to have picked up on the fact that something was wrong, as she was giving him a strange look. "Hey Brian, do you mind if I chat with Samantha alone for a little bit? Maybe you could show your friends the rabbits you took down?"

"That's a great idea!" he said, his eyes widening at the very thought. "I'll be back in a bit for dinner!"

"Don't be too long!" Samantha called at his back as he took off, rushing into town in search of his friends. "What's wrong?" she asked, turning to peer at him. "Did something happen?"

"You could say that," Asher sighed, pulling her into a tight hug and holding her close as he tried to figure out where to even begin. "So, there was this parcel…"

It didn't take long for Asher to fully explain what had happened. By the time he was done, Samantha just stared at him with wide eyes, her expression a mixture of horror and outrage.

"You're telling me you… you died?!"

"I think so," Asher admitted, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. Part of him felt like he should be a bit more freaked out over his own death than he was, but seeing as it hadn't lasted very long, the whole thing just felt rather surreal. "Only for a bit, though! You know the regeneration skill I told you about? I evolved it, and now so long as my body is in one piece, I'll heal even if something kills me."

Samantha continued staring at him, looking at him like he was insane. "Asher… Skills don't work like that! I've never heard of a skill that keeps functioning after a person has died!"

"I told you my element was unique," he shrugged, not sure how else he could convince her of the rarity of his Eternity element. "Anyway, that's not the important bit. Like I said, I'm totally fine. The problem is that seeing as whoever tried to kill me somehow figured out where I live, they might be able to figure out that their first attempt failed. And if they try again…"

"They might succeed, or Brian and I could get caught in the crossfire," Samantha finished, looking more frustrated than concerned. "Damn it! I just got you back from the city! This past week has been wonderful, Asher, I don't want you to go again so soon…"

"This won't be like the last time," he reassured her, pulling her tighter against him and kissing the top of her head. "I have Recall now, remember? I can literally teleport back and forth between the cabin and wherever it is I'm staying."

"I guess…" Samantha said, her voice muffled as she spoke directly into his chest. "Promise you'll come back often?"

"You think I'll be able to stay away, knowing you and Brian are waiting here for me?" Asher chuckled, pulling back and smiling down at Samantha's distressed face. "Don't worry, I'll spend as much time here as I'm able. I promise."

"Alright," she said, the slight waver in her voice quickly vanishing. Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself, nodding up at him. "In that case, you need to figure out who the hell thought they could send a parcel full of poisonous powder to my doorstep and risk hurting Brian. I want this person dead, Asher, they don't deserve to live after doing something so reckless."

"Yes, ma'am," Asher grinned. "Though I find it a little funny you got over the fact that they technically killed me so quickly."

"Eh, you look as good as ever," she grinned, reaching up and giving him a kiss. Her lips lingered for perhaps a few seconds longer than usual before she broke away, letting out a relieved sigh. "I'll admit, while obviously this whole situation is terrifying, I thought you were going to have far worse news when I saw your face."

"What the hell would be worse than telling you someone tried, and managed, to kill me?" Asher asked, laughing at Samantha as her face got all red.

"I don't know, maybe that you were having second thoughts about us or something!" she stammered, huffing at him as she turned away. But despite her acting, she still reached out and grabbed his hand, her grip just a bit tighter than normal. "Come on, let's get started on dinner. Brian's going to want to eat one of the rabbits he shot, but we can at least get everything set up and get started on the sides."

"We've got plenty of time, he's still trying to find his friends," Asher said, focusing on his mark and sensing Brian run around the village.

"That's a really useful skill, you know that?" Samantha said, tugging him along behind her as she dragged him toward the cabin. "Before you head off to take care of whoever did this, you should use it on me as well. I mean, if you want of course. I'm not one to tell people what to do with their skills, I just thought it would be useful."

"You wouldn't mind me knowing where you are all the time?" Asher asked, surprised by her comment. "Or that I'd be able to teleport to you whenever I wanted?"

"Asher, I want you to be with me whenever you can," she snorted, turning just so he could see her roll her eyes. "And I don't care about you knowing wherever I am. If anything, that makes me want you to use it all the more. What if another crazy undead wizard kidnaps me out of the blue? Or whoever just tried to assassinate you decides to step up their game and tries to take me and Brian hostage? I'm plenty capable, and I can more than hold my own in a regular fight, but I'm well aware there are powerful forces in this world common folk are practically helpless against. Take you for example. You literally just came back from the dead. That's insane!"

"Fair enough," he chuckled, realizing she had an excellent point. With all the craziness that had happened in Whikoga, he'd almost forgotten the fact that Samantha and Brian had been kidnapped and imprisoned within the lich's tower for an entire week. If he hadn't come along to save them, he had no doubt they would have been dead by now. "In that case…"

Asher didn't need to worry about making physical contact seeing as they were already holding hands, so with a quick flex of his skill, he sent a sliver of energy from his core into Samantha. Closing his eyes just to make sure, he was in fact able to feel precisely where Samantha was, and he even knew she was in perfect health at that moment.

"Alright, skill is active," he said, giving her an apologetic smile. "Let me say sorry in advance if I accidentally teleport to you and surprise you when you're about to shoot a deer or something."

"If that happens, you'll just have to make it up to me," she grinned, squeezing his hand and dragging him toward the cabin once more.

"Now come on, after hearing about how you died today, I'd like at least a few minutes to just sit with your arms around me before we have to get started on dinner. I don't think that's too much to ask!"

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