Chapter 12 – Season of the Witch

After logging out, some sleep, eating, this and that, he logged back in and continued on his way to Gelt. There were almost no monsters crossing the abandoned road, so there weren’t really a lot of battles. Still, he gained a level and he even managed to get some stamina by continuously running.

When he entered the village at noon it seemed as deserted as he remembered it. Instead of hoping for a grand welcome after destroying the cause of their misery, he headed straight for the smithy.

The dead body in his arms was wrapped into several blankets to not disturb Ella even further. Hall knocked, entered and was welcomed by a wave of heat and the sight of a focused girl that hammered a piece of steel repeatedly.

He really didn’t look forward to what would come next. After Ella noticed him, her eyes opened wide and after she noticed his sad look and what Hall carried in his arms she slowly put her tools away, approaching him.

She tried to control herself, pushed some tears away and put on a strained smile. “Welcome back, I’m glad you are alright, even if you looked a little bit roughed up…so…what news d..do you ha.. have?”

In the end she barely was able to keep her composure. Hall carefully put the body in his arms on a crude table in the corner. When he turned back to Ella he took her hand and put the golden pendant that was around her mother’s neck in her palm.

He didn’t look away and held her gaze. “I’m sorry, there wasn’t anything I could do for her. But be sure, something like this won’t happen again and those responsible were destroyed and punished.”

Ella stared at the necklace in her hand for several moments without showing a reaction. When she looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears again and this time she didn’t try to stop them. Instead she put her arms around Hall and broke down crying.

He held her for several minutes, comforting her for her loss. When she calmed down, she let go of him and stepped back a little bit, trying to dry her tears. “Please tell me everything.”

They both sat down and he started to tell her what happened these last days. About the players, goblins and even about Azmodan. After hesitating first, he told her the reason for all the abductions and he could see the horrified look in her eyes. “Don’t worry, your mother didn’t become a puppet, unlike most.”

She swallowed hard. “Did she have to suffer?” Hall sighed, before answering while frowning. “It wasn’t an easy end, but no matter the pain, she didn’t give up. She was a defiant and unyielding woman hm? Wish I knew her.”

Through a veil of tears she smiled at his words. “Yeah, you would have liked her and she would also have liked you.”

After Ella regained her composure she took a deep breath. “We can give her a burial now and the villages around are little safer. Thank you so very much for this. You did more than anyone could have asked.”

*Ding*

Quest: Mama liked RosesQuest complete

You gave Ella a little peace of mind and a chance to bury her beloved mother.

Furthermore you destroyed the cause of her grief.

Rewards:

Increased intimacy with the people of Gelt

Gift of gratitude from Ella

You have leveled up!

“I’m sure my father will recover now that he gets some closure and so will the village. I want to give you something, give me a couple of hours before coming back.” Although he wanted to decline she didn’t want to hear anything about it.

As he offered to take care of her mother’s body she just told him her father would surely want to do it himself. So he left the store to get himself some new armor to replace his destroyed pieces.

Again it wasn’t anything special, only some leather armor of decent quality.

Hardened Leather Chest Defense:30Durability:60/60Quality:MagicLeather armor of good quality made by a skilled craftsman without any special features.

Effects:

+5 Strength

+10 Agility

Requirements:

Level 35

Strength: 50

Agility: 80

Hardened Leather Pants Defense:30Durability:60/60Quality:MagicLeather armor of good quality made by a skilled craftsman without any special features.

Effects:

+5 Strength

+10 Agility

Requirements:

Level 35

Strength: 50

Agility: 80

Hardened Leather Gloves Defense:15Durability:45/45Quality:MagicLeather armor of good quality made by a skilled craftsman without any special features.

Effects:

+5 Strength

+5 Agility

Requirements:

Level 35

Strength: 50

Agility: 80

Hardened Leather Boots Defense:15Durability:60/60Quality:MagicLeather armor of good quality made by a skilled craftsman without any special features.

Effects:

+5 Strength

+5 Agility

Steps are muffled slightly

Requirements:

Level 35

Strength: 50

Agility: 80

Hall paid around six gold after dying the armor black, but after selling all the loot he gathered from the mine he even made a small profit.

Afterwards he bought several weeks’ worth of supplies for his journey.

Meanwhile the village seemed to become livelier as people ran from door to door.

They spread the news about the death of their people and the end of the abductions. People were sent to other villages to tell them what happened and some were even organizing the reconstructions.

Hall just ignored it all and entered the smithy.

Ella greeted him with an honest smile. “I see you got yourself some new armor. Not bad but you really don’t like to stand out hm?”

She was right, the armor was of decent quality but without any decoration or ornaments. Hall had to find out if clothes and armor could have some effect in combination with his fear inducing skills. ‘If there is a correlation I might want to get something a little more impressive.’

Hall looked around but couldn’t find the body of Ella’s mother so he guessed they took care of it already. Ella also seemed a lot happier than before, even if her eyes still were a little bit read from crying.

“You know, the village wasn’t this lively in a long time. It’s all thanks to you. So please take this. It is a cloak that has been handed down in our family for generations, but for we are craftsmen and not warriors, there never was a use. Instead we learned from it, improved it, every generation added to it and I just finished my part. I’m sure you will use it well.”

“Identify.”

Armored Cloak of Ella’s Heritage Defense:30Durability:90/90Quality:UniqueAn armored cloak made from rare dragon spider silk. It is harder than steel and at the same time almost as light as linen. An incredible piece of work improved by generations of craftsmen, imbued with powerful magic.

Effects:

+5% Resistance to elemental magic (Fire, Earth, Water,Wind,Lightning)

Cloak will apply a low level form of stealth, diverting the attention of others

+5% Chance to evade, deflect or divert an enemy attack

Strong feelings of affection and gratefulness blessed this item:

+5% damage against beings you deem evil

If your health drops below 50% the material of the cloak hardens, doubling its defense for 10 min

Requirements:

Extremely high intimacy with Ella, blacksmith apprentice of Gelt

Strength: 100

Agility: 100

Wisdom: 80

The cloak she handed to him was incredible. Usually cloaks didn’t offer any defense at all, but this would protect him like a piece of armor would.

The black fabric barely reflected any light, though it still flowed like water when he let it run through his fingers.

There was a barely recognizable arrangement of different tones of black, like a net, reminding him of the organic pattern of Damascus steel.

It wasn’t heavy but still had some weight to it and he had to practice fighting in it.

Ella told him dragon spider silk would get different properties depending on the kind of treatment it received, that’s why the outer layer barely shined but that made it more resistant to the elements.

It seemed to be a procedure copied from the spiders themselves, using their stomach acid combined with the oxygen in the air.

The inlay was made out of thin, interwoven strings that seemed like shining black steel but that was probably the differently treated dragon spider silk, something he actually never heard of before.

When he would put on the cloak and pull the hood over his head, he would be unrecognizable and melt into the darkness of the night. As it was only a cloak and not a robe it didn’t have sleeves and was completely open in the front, so he still could use normal armor.

Luckily the cloak was wide enough to cover himself completely, protecting him from gazes as well as the cold if he would ever have to venture into harsher climates.

He thanked Ella profusely, hugging her, grateful for the amazing gift, making her blush in the process.

Hall wanted to tell her about the cattle hunt, the robberies and murders of common people, paid for and practiced by the nobles to fill the pockets of the king.

Instead he decided to keep it to himself. Ella suffered enough, the whole village did. If he would pile more on them it was possible they would lose all hope for good when they just regained a little faith that the future may hold some light.

He was determined to deal with the problem at all cost so they should be safe soon, but until then he had to make sure nothing happened.

“Ella, I need you to make me a promise. There is still something bad going on in these forests and I will take care of it, but just to be sure, don’t travel more than an hour or so away from Gelt for half a year. By then you should understand why I asked this of you, trust me alright?”

Hall was sure it was more than unlikely any more fake bandits were around, it was a huge forest and the capital, the place where most nobles resided was very far away. It was better to be safe than sorry though.

Ella didn’t know why Hall would ask something like this of her, but she trusted him unconditionally by now, so she nodded at his request. There was enough to do within the village anyway to keep her busy for a while. “Alright, but you have to promise to visit again…please?”

Her voice softened at the end, almost pleading him while staring at the ground. Hall could just smile. “Of course, as soon as I can, but it might take a while.”

He wasn’t sure when he would be able to. After all, he had a lot of quests and honestly, he wanted to leave Bredon Kingdom, too many things weren’t too pleasant here, but he couldn’t tell Ella all that. Still, if there was a possibility, he would definitely visit again.

With tears in her eyes she hugged Hall, this time without blushing, as it would be the last time they saw each other for a while.

Even he was a little sad, though they were NPCs, it felt real and although he would NEVER admit it to anyone, he wasn’t that immune to sad story developments and had to suppress a couple of tears on more than a few occasions.

He remembered a show he watched a while ago in his bed in the orphanage on his tablet. It was a classic, a pretty old anime and although he didn’t remember the name and although it wasn’t a very original story, it was incredibly emotional, and the After Story was even worse. He had to always make sure no one saw him while watching.

So swallowing hard not to show too much emotion he hugged her back and with his things gathered he took road to Roselake.

There would be a celebration in the evening, he heard of it from Ella while he was picking up the books he left with her before, but Hall decided to leave before that, as he had no intention on being the center of attention.

He was a little disgruntled because he had to walk the whole way as there was no available horse in Gelt. At least not one suited for travel and he couldn’t take a work horse from them as they needed it desperately and it wouldn’t be able to quickly cross a greater distance anyway.

So he started to run at a moderate pace, slowing down if his stamina was dropping too low. He still continued to use his chains while running to level up his skills, combining training and progress on his journey.

He knew the guards, especially the higher ranked Royal Guard inside the city, would be of different caliber than the fake bandits he faced before. Hall needed to become stronger. He needed to be faster. He needed to be better.

To begin with he constantly kept his Soul Perception active so he felt all kinds of impressions around him, of course humans usually gave off the strongest signals if there weren’t some kind of ancient beings around.

By now his skill level was high enough to pick up even weak signals in quite the distance. So he felt it if rabbits hid in the ground, even if the earth somewhat hindered his skill.

Hall could feel the squirrels and birds in the trees and other small animals running into the forest as they felt his presence. He even sensed weak impulses from insects and the plants around him.

It was a lot of information he had to deal with and if it wasn’t a gradual evolving skill it would be absolutely overwhelming, even now he had to tune it down sometimes to not lose his focus.

But it was also a quite beautiful effect. He could feel the energy around him flowing, carried by all that lived, it was like a stream of different colors, barely visible but unable to miss at the same time.

The forest was breathing around him, one living organism, connected through its very soul.

So he kept his skill active while improving his combat abilities. He kept the sword and the dagger sheathed for now because his next goal was to raise his Soul Chains to intermediate, which meant he had to reach beginner level 10.

He slashed at trees, trying to hit single leaves instead of branches or the trunks.

Jumping and letting the chains fly in a circular motion, creating a deadly tornado that would crush anything in range.

One of his new techniques was especially impressive. He wrapped his chains around a branch that could carry his weight while in motion and catapulted himself in the air with a swinging motion.

While being at the highest point he swung his chains above his head, gaining full momentum and while he fell he smashed both chains together at the same spot while concentrating as much soul energy as possible at the contact surface with the floor.

A crushing impact was the result, leaving a huge scar in the dry, hard ground. The deafening blow swept through the forest, blowing away every sound in a radius of several meters, causing a high pitched whistling noise in Hall’s ears and even disrupting his balance for a moment.

Lily and Hall looked at each other in surprise. They both tried to speak but not a sound left their mouth what made them frown in confusion. Only after a few seconds were they able to hear their surroundings again.

Hall repeated the attack and got the same result. When he changed the technique slightly he used one of the chains like a whip, cracking it with great force.

At the moment it would make its characteristic snapping sound, it hit the ground or target with a concentrated amount of soul energy, expanding and pushing the air away at the moment of contact.

The attack wasn’t as impressive as before but the sound still was enough to make him flinch.

While he walked along the road he tried it over and over again and if the center of the burst was too close to him, he again lost his balance and was unable to speak for a moment.

The most important thing seemed to be the combination of the force of the swing and the explosion of expanding soul energy.

The whipping movement wasn’t that important and it didn’t work really well considering he was using chains. ‘Experimenting seems to be pretty important, have to remember that.’

Of course he knew how useful an attack like this could be, especially because it could be used as an additional effect to a normal attack, so he hoped there was a skill to it.

After a few hours he had no luck, but was completely exhausted and had to take a break instead.

The forest was incredibly serene and peaceful. Hall slowly regained his stamina while breathing calmly and eating a couple of bites. Lily just floated beside him, taking in the atmosphere, relaxing after several stressful days.

That’s when they heard a sorrowful wailing, carried by the wind through the woods until it reached their ears.

When Hall looked up he saw a faint green glow between the trees from the same direction, so dim it was only visible because the sun almost set and the forest was covered in a blanket of approaching darkness.

He got up and went straight into the direction of the light while trying to make out his surroundings. The light seemed to get farther away and even though he picked up the pace, the sound barely got any louder. It was a miracle he and Lily heard it over such a distance.

After a few minutes he noticed he was lost. He couldn’t see any stars through the thick leaf canopy above him and didn’t even know if the road was behind or in front of him.

When he left a row of trees the dim light disappeared completely and he saw a little pond on a small clearing in front of him. Next to the pond sat a young girl, around twelve years old, crying while hugging her legs.

Hall quickly checked the area around him for any enemies and approached the weeping kid. She was dressed in a plain white dress, her shoeless feet covered in dirt.

Her face was buried in her legs as she hugged her knees, pulling them to her body and covering them with her silver hair that was glowing in the moonlight, shining from the leafless sky over the clearing.

Hall approached slowly, trying not to scare her. “What’s wrong little one?”

‘God I do not know how to talk to crying girls.’

The girl raised her head, her grey eyes were reddened and filled with fear as tears were running down her face. “A..are you one of the m…men who took my ma..ma…mama away?”

Hall frowned and shook his head. “No, I’m Hall, what’s your name little one and why don’t you tell me what happened to your mother? I may be able to help.”

She wiped some tears away with her right arm, calming down a little bit. “I’m Elisabeth, but my mama calls me Beth. We were taken away by a witch and two of her men.

The witch said she would use mama and me as a sacrifice for setting free a great demon, when they weren't looking I managed to run away, but mama was in chains.”

As she finished speaking, the girl started to sob again and more tears formed in the corner of her eyes. “Mister, is mama dead and will I be next when the men come after me?”

*Ding*

Quest: The Witch’s PromiseA witch deep in the forest abducts people sacrificing them with the intention of unsealing a great demon.

Difficulty: unkown

Quest requirements: find out about the witch

Rewards: Depending on your actions

Failure: upon death

'Interesting, it doesn't say anything about killing the witch.' This was another reason why this game felt so real. He could also choose to ally with the enemy, gaining different rewards. Of course he had no intention of doing so.

“Don't worry Beth, just take me to your mother and we'll get her back, but first things first.”

Thankfully he had his Soul Perception active the entire time. So he turned around and drew his sword and dagger. “Come out of the forest, you breathe so loud I could kill you in the dark.”

'No need for them to know how I found them.'

Their soul energy was clouded by red and black. By now he could not only tell that their souls were burdened by sin, but he could somewhat read their intentions and feelings, even if it was a bit uncertain.

“Why don't the two of you come with us or else we have to cut away a leg or two until you are more...cooperative.” A toothless grin spread over the man's face as he eyed Hall while drawing a long dagger with his right hand.

They were covered in dirty leather rags and he could almost smell the blood on them.

Hall knew he could follow the trail they left behind but he wanted to be sure. “Beth, do you think you could find the place you were held?”

Beth nodded, not letting the men out of her sight, while hiding behind Hall. “Yes, I just ran straight until my legs gave out, I think I can find my way back.”

Hall was glad. “Then there's no reason to keep them alive.” The men looked surprised as Hall leapt forward. He swung down the black sword in his right hand fast enough so the black flames, that covered the blades back, left a trail of shadows in the air.

The one who spoke had barely enough time to move his head to evade the strike. While the blade cut down, the dark flames burnt the right side of his face and opened a gash on his chest, cutting through clothes and skin alike.

He fell down, grabbing his wound in agony while the other guy jumped forward, slashing with his long dagger at Hall's face. He parried the strike without a problem using the sword and sidestepped the man, ramming the dagger deep into his side.

The weapons cauterized the wounds, leaving them alive even though their health was close to zero. Their level wasn’t too high, so Hall with his powerful class could destroy them quickly without even using any skills.

Now there was only panic and fear left in their eyes as the lay on the ground, trying to move again. The first guy was almost up, stretching his hand out in Beth’s direction, opening his mouth.

Hall didn’t wait, he rose his sword again, decapitated both men and collected the few silver and the crappy daggers they dropped.

Beth looked at him with wide eyes and a little smile appeared on her face. “Mister, you may be able to save my mama.”

Hall showed a grin. “Don’t worry, I’ll deal with that witch, I promise you that. So let’s go.”

They walked into the direction the men came from and started to retrace their steps while Beth every now and then corrected Hall.

Lily still just floated next to Hall, singing a song every now and then to keep his buffs up, but as they discussed before, they didn’t interact in front of others.

It wasn’t really necessary, they usually understood each other. Most of the time anyway.

After walking for around an hour they left the forest. A small castle was located on the hill in front of them. It was completely dark and only visible because the moon shined bright, enveloping it in an eerie atmosphere.

They came closer and he noticed the castle doors weren’t closed. The walls were made of dark grey stone, deteriorated by time and weather they still seemed very impressive.

The moment they stepped through the wide doors inside the dark building the gates closed behind them and the candles in the cast iron wall mounts and in the chandelier started to light up, illuminating a long hall.

A blood red carpet and dark, heavy furniture dominated the scene. Huge paintings were visible on the wall, portraying several sickening scenes of torture and battle.

Demons slaughtering farmers and their livestock. Monsters annihilating human armies and devils tormenting innocents. Hall had to swallow hard and grit his teeth.

The biggest painting was on the end of the hallway, a giant portrait of a young woman clothed in a big, frilly dress with a large collar. It was red and white and adorned with several pearls. On her fingers she wore several rings, an expensive necklace was visible on her neck and on her head was a red cloth hat.

Carved in the wooden frame was her name. Bathory.

Hall blew air through his nose as he read it. ‘Well, that makes sense.’

When they reached a staircase, they went down and the light almost instantly changed to oppressing darkness.

The walls were made out of the same material as before, but there were only a few torches on them.

Instead of old, wooden furniture he saw dozens of torture devices, covered in old and fresh blood. Hall had to clench his fist as he noticed countless bones laying around.

There were ripped open corpses hanging from the ceiling, their feet pierced by meat hooks.

It wasn’t completely realistic, but the darkness led him to believe to see guts and innards spilled on the floor and limbs lying around.

It was still horrible and he was glad this game was only playable if you were over 18 and if he was correctly informed the game even showed scenes like these only after the AI decided you could stomach it.

Still, by now he wished he would have a quest to pull some weeds from a field during a sunny day or maybe feed some cows. Hall slowly grew tired of constant darkness and mutilated corpses. ‘Man, as soon as I’m done with this kingdom I’m looking for some sunshine and lollipops.’

There were several more dead bodies and all showed signs of torture and were often missing limbs or other parts. On a shelf on the wall to his left were large jars with some kind of luminescent liquid in them, giving off an uncanny light. Stored inside were mostly human heads, though some were from elves, dwarfs or beastmen.

They were displayed like trophies while under them on the floor were huge amounts of bones with some residue flesh on them.

Hall constantly shook his head as he walked through the basement that looked more like an actual dungeon.

Somehow the space seemed too big for the small castle and as he reached the end of the dungeon he opened two huge metal doors. They sealed off another large room that seemed to be carved into the stone.

The room was illuminated by a giant fire pit at the end of it. In the middle, around five or six meters away from Hall was a magic circle that seemed to be drawn with blood.

He couldn’t identify the runes but they were probably imprisoning the beast inside of it. A huge monster, shackled by dozens of chains hanging from the walls and the ceiling, was in the middle of it, letting out steaming breath as blood trickled down its teeth.

It was covered in green scales, its eyes were glowing red orbs that focused on the incoming Hall. The claws, half a feet long, were clicking on the ground as bones were crushed under it.

A few corpses and limbs were scattered around the room, blood flowing out of them.

The red fluid made its way to the magic circle under the beast, forming streams as new runes were created and the circle thickened.

Hall was pretty sure this was just a game mechanic, meaning the AI created this place with the corpses just for the quest, as he didn’t think this many people were actually abducted around here. This would cause a huge uproar even in this kingdom.

It made Hall feel a little better, thinking those were not NPCs that had a family and friends, but simply things created for the atmosphere. ‘Yeah, I’m sure it’s like that, has to be, must be, it’s definitely like that...’

Beth was shivering beside him as the monster eyed them. “Please Mister, please kill the monster. You promised…please.”

Hall nodded, taking out his sword. He turned to her and smiled.

“Don’t worry, I promised didn’t I? I will deal with the witch and kill the monster in this room.”

When he finished the sentence, he looked her in the eyes, ramming the sword deep into her stomach, penetrating even her back with all the strength he could muster. “And I always keep my promises.”

Elisabeth’s eyes went wide with shock and surprise as Hall whispered the last words into her ear.

Critical Hit!

Damage Multiplier x3 (Channeling disrupted, weakened defense as a spell side effect)

Stun effect applied

You have dealt 2724 damage

Her form twisted and the surroundings flickered. Hall’s eyes seemed to play tricks on him as the light was distorted inside the room.

The body of the little girl in front of him contorted and grew, within seconds the kid in front of him changed into the young woman he saw on the portrait in the hallway before.

Because Hall somehow hesitated before stabbing her as it just felt wrong for him to attack a little girl, she was still far from dead. She was several levels above Hall’s and as she was a named boss, she had a lot more health left.

Instead of attacking, she continued to stare in shock, unmoving. It was the result of her illusion breaking down. A long stun effect if her spell was forcible canceled by an enemy.

Black blood trickled down the corner of her mouth. “H..How did you know?”

Hall’s face showed disgust and anger as he imbued the chain on his left wrist with soul energy, swinging and wrapping it around Beth’s feet without her even noticing.

Hall started to use his skills on her. He marked her for death, used Mana Drain and Soul Distortion while pouring more energy into the sword, burning the flesh around the wound, causing her health to drop slowly, but constantly.

You have dealt 125 damage

You have dealt 164 damage

You have dealt 89 damage

You have dealt 119 damage

Combined with the shock of Hall’s attack and the effect of his skills she lost the color she had left and didn’t notice her dropping health.

Hall just smiled, his lips showing an infernal grin. “I saw through you from the beginning. I can see right into your soul…and it’s rotten to the core. I will burn you and this place until nothing is left of you but a bad memory and ash.”

Her eyes almost fell out of her head as she realized what he said. She started to struggle, trying to pull out the sword of her chest.

She wanted to step back, but the chains around her feet hindered her. When she noticed them Beth started to panic. “What are you?”

Hall just let out a dark laugh. “I told you, didn’t I? I’m Hall, the one who will destroy the witch and it just so happens that you are her.”

After a few moments she stopped to struggle, she noticed her plummeting health, the stun was lifted, but the aftereffects were still bad and Hall’s skills almost overwhelmed her.

She knew she would die. Hall held onto the sword and the chain to keep her in place and now raised his dagger to finish the job. So she saw only one way out.

Hall hesitated as a smile spread across her face. “Congratulation, but my death will also be yours.”

She spoke a single word, one he had never heard before, but the effects were immediate.

Before his dagger could reach her neck, her skin cracked and he could see the dark light of her soul spread inside the room, slipping into corpses and entangling bones.

After the illusion magic wore off, what looked like a frightening beast before, now turned into a giant black horse. It was at least eight feet long, and if it wasn’t lying on the ground it would easily stand two feet taller than him.

Hall was sure it could look majestic, incredibly so. Right now though it was breathing heavily, dozens of cuts on his body with infected wounds where the chains shackled it to the walls and ceiling. Its fur was dirty, dried and fresh blood staining the black hair that held no shine to it.

The black eyes of the horse were different though. They held life and an unyielding will.

A fire was burning in them, emanating its desire to survive.

After it saw what happened in front of him, it rose its head. Filled with hope, after seeing the witch that imprisoned him being stabbed by Hall, he now looked frantically around him as corpses rose and bones formed into skeleton soldiers.

The witch sacrificed herself on the verge of death to at least take the both of them with her.

Of course Hall had no intention of fulfilling her wish.

The horse couldn’t protect itself, bound and wounded it tried to stand up but his hind legs gave in and it crashed on the ground again and again.

Hall approached it, put his blades away and with both chains swinging left and right, he delivered crushing blows to the weak skeletons.

In her panic the witch made a rash decision and chose poorly. If she had used her spells to attack him, she could have dealt some serious damage to Hall, even with his resistance to darkness magic. She was a powerful witch and could have killed him if he wasn’t careful.

But after separating her soul energy into dozens of bodies and using it to bind hundreds of bones, the power of her soul was greatly reduced. Thus her servants, the puppets she created, were relatively weak.

They could have overwhelmed a group rogue or melee fighters that were specialized in single target combat. Maybe even some weaker mages and players who decided to play as a supporter.

But Hall was not only able to fight single targets effectively, thanks to his chains he could also deal with larger groups of weak monsters.

These skeletons were barely able to slow down the momentum of his chains. They just blew them apart as they struck and continued on their deadly path.

The moving corpses were different and he had to dispose of them one by one. The monsters almost reached the helpless horse in the middle of the room so Hall signaled Lily to use her area of effect magic on the group around the wounded animal.

Lily started to chant while Hall kept the undead away. Then the ceiling was covered in light and drops of energy fell from the sky, annihilating dozens of monsters in a round circle.

The magic left the black horse unharmed as Lily didn’t perceive it as an enemy, but the skeletons and moving corpses were mercilessly slaughtered by the devastating attack.

She continued to use the spell until their mana was almost gone and Hall simply had to finish off the remaining enemies. It barely took him three more minutes.

The injured animal in the middle of the magic circle relaxed slightly and with wide, intelligent eyes it looked at Hall in wonder. “Who are you human?”

Hall looked concerned, its voice was weak and it seemed gravely exhausted and drained of energy.

So he approached the still fidgeting horse, not trying to scare it.

“My name is Hall and this witch tried to trick me into attacking you. Do you know why she imprisoned a horse in this magic circle?”

It still couldn’t stand up, but looked insulted and offended, his voice sounded reproachful.

“I am no mere horse you dimwit, my name is Arion and I belong to the noble race equui. The witch wanted my body as a vessel for a blood demon she was about to summon.

And she didn’t want you to kill me, she just wanted to sacrifice you here. It’s more effective if the victim doesn’t know it’s about to get killed. Something about the magic in the blood.

Anyway, the magic circle not only drains me of my strength, but fueled by blood it calls the demon to invade and destroy my mind.

I have no idea how someone like you could have defeated a witch of Bathory’s caliber but I would be grateful if you could destroy these chains, their magic hinders my natural regeneration. I am strong, but I am about to die.”

Hall nodded and using his sword, imbued with soul energy, he cut the chains that survived Lily’s tears of heaven like they were made of paper.

The horse seemed to regain his strength rather quickly and could soon stand up. Still, the wounds were only healing slowly as Hall continued to cut the shackles from Arion’s limbs with his dagger.

On their way out of the dungeon Hall picked up a few crystals from the witches corpse and identified them. Soul Shards, just as he thought.

Arion looked back at his prison as soon as they arrived at the stairs. “What do you plan to do with this place?”

Without looking back and with a cold voice Hall just said. “Burn it to the ground.”

‘Well, this seems to become a habit.’

*Ding*

Quest: The Witch’s PromiseQuest complete

You chose to destroy the witch, releasing her prisoner, hindering her from summoning a great blood demon that would have terrorized the kingdom.

+50 Fame

Reward: Anything in Bathory’s castle

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

When they reached the hallway from before, Hall decided he should do something else before burning down the castle.

“Arion, I know you have many questions about me and I have my own about you.” It was true, Hall had never heard of his race or even of talking horses before, so he was curious and wanted to talk with him.

“But could you wait for me outside, I want to look around here first, maybe there is something of use.”

Arion nodded, while suppressing his own curiosity about Hall, his chains and how he slaughtered the woman that could imprison him.

The large horse walked out the door as it didn’t want to spend a second more in this god forsaken building and he yearned for fresh air and the open sky.

Meanwhile Hall licked his lips with a greedy light in his eyes. That wasn’t really one of his character traits, but who wouldn’t love to be left alone while rummaging through an empty castle, pocketing everything he wanted.

Aside from the disturbing paintings on the walls, the first floor looked pretty nice. He found a kitchen, a few smaller rooms and something that probably was a living room with a large fireplace, some comfortable looking chairs and couches and a few shelves with decorative objects and some books.

He took everything that was of any value, silver cutlery, expensive looking vases, glasses and cups made from all kinds of precious metal.

Hall even broke off gold ornaments from the furniture and removed gems from paintings and decorative weapons that had no fighting capability.

Of course he identified everything he found, raising his skill quickly. Lily’s inventory was already full, while his was more than half filled and he wasn’t even in the second floor yet.

Luckily Lily’s inventory was pretty large, almost double of what he had, else she wouldn’t be able to carry all the books he found. He just couldn’t bring himself to let them be destroyed.

It was baffling, he slaughtered enemies by the dozen, but couldn’t bring himself to burn a simple book, even though both were bits and bytes in the end.

Still, who knows if there are other books like those he had left in this world. What if he would burn the last one and the information would be gone for good?

So he continued to take all books with him, he would just sell them or store them at a safe place.

It looked like Bathory wasn’t too fond of reading, there were just a few books so he wasn’t too burdened by them.

The second floor seemed to be occupied by a large bath and a couple of bedrooms.

As the bathroom was empty there was almost nothing of value. He simply broke of the faucets as they were made out of solid gold and continued with his search.

Most bedrooms weren’t that impressive, he took some golden candle holders and a few high quality clothes, mostly expensive dresses.

He even found something for himself. A set of black pants and a black shirt were stored away in an inconspicuous cupboard. Their quality was simply astounding. They were better than the best ones he could buy in Gelt and those would have cost over 10 gold.

They were soft to the touch and still seemed to be very durable.

“Identify.”

Bloodcount’s Silkshirt Defense:5Durability:35/35Quality:RareBlack shirt made of high quality silk by a skilled tailor for high nobility.

Effects:

+10 Agility

+10 Intelligence

Armor worn over the shirt will lose its durability slightly slower

Requirements:

Level 60

Agility: 100

Intelligence: 100

Bloodcount’s Silkpants Defense:5Durability:35/35Quality:RareBlack pants made of high quality silk by a skilled tailor for high nobility.

Effects:

+10 Agility

+10 Intelligence

Armor worn over the pants will lose its durability slightly slower

Requirements:

Level 60

Agility: 100

Intelligence: 100

His level wasn’t quite high enough to equip them yet. At least not with the “equip item” command, but he could put them on the old fashioned way.

Of course he wouldn’t get the positive effects, but they still looked pretty awesome. It took him a few minutes to put them on, luckily he could put his armor on the easy way or it might have taken forever.

Lily turned her back towards him with a red head as he dropped his pants, but couldn’t help herself, so she peeped between her fingers as she covered her eyes with both hands.

She blushed even more as she liked what she saw.

When Hall noticed her gaze, he looked at her with a smirk and as soon as she noticed his expression, she quickly turned around, pouting in embarrassment, which made him chuckle in return.

In the end he took a few pillowcases and put one into the other until they were strong enough to carry some loot because his inventory was completely full. Fortunately they were made with high quality fabric, so they could carry some weight.

There was only one room left, the master bedroom. It was well-lit thanks to the crackling flames in the fireplace and a few candles.

It was surprisingly empty. Nothing but a bed on one side of the room, a large cupboard covering half of the wall to his left, an old table and a single chair filled the room that was way too big for the small amount of furniture it contained. There were no paintings, no carpets and no interior decoration.

The loot was pretty impressive so far and he would make a few hundred gold after he sold everything.

This was an mind-boggling amount for one person below level 50.

Hall didn’t know it, but he was ridiculously lucky with this quest. Well, it was about time he would come across some good fortune.

The witch was considerably weakened from her attempt to summon a great demon. He also attacked her while she channeled a complicated illusion spell, impairing her strength even further. In addition her servants weren’t in the castle at the time.

To kill the witch in open battle after she had time to prepare, it would have taken ten players of Hall’s caliber, at least. If she was able to summon the demon they would have needed a small army.

So the loot for dozens of players was gathered by a single one, making him incredibly wealthy.

But something felt off for Hall, there was something missing, something that would really blow his head off. An amazing and super rare item.

So Hall looked around, thinking he might have missed something, but there was so little in the room, there was only one thing that was out of the ordinary. It was quite obvious actually.

The only candle in the whole castle that wasn’t on fire was placed on a wall mount beside the bed. He firmly grabbed the cast iron mount and tried to move it. He was able to turn it to the right and the sound of stone grinding on stone was audible.

Looking around he couldn’t see a change in the room. So he just stood there, observing everything. After a while ne noticed something was off.

The dust that was flying around without aim and direction before, now seemed to be pulled to the cupboard.

It seemed like the slowly warming air inside the room was traveling to a colder place behind the closet.

Hall put his shoulder against the dark wood and pushed. Without much resistance the cupboard moved away from its spot, exposing a small opening in the wall.

He heard a clicking sound as the closet seemed to have triggered a slightly elevated stone in the ground. A small room past the opening became visible as half a dozen candles within a small luster on the ceiling lit up after he heard the sound.

There wasn’t much in there, but enough to make his eyes sparkle. A single chest, reaching his waist and over a meter wide, stood at the opposite wall of the room.

Rubbing his hands with a huge grin on his face and dreams of gold and legendary items, he approached the chest.

‘Who cares about Bredon kingdom, I’m gonna go build my own kingdom, with….’

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Author’s Note:

Woo, chapter 12 is out,

I just wanted to get a little more action and progress in before our MC reaches the capital

Hope you enjoyed it :grin:

Spoiler : I thought about making Arion a pale horse, but then decided against it^^

I also thought about ending the chapter with a cliffhanger after Halls first strike against the witch, but then I thought…meh... and continued to write^^

Again, thanks for your comments last chapter, if your work is appreciated it always helps and is encouraging, especially when I’m tired or not really in the mood for writing :grin:

As always, please tell me your questions, opinions, suggestions and point out any mistakes you find, I appreciate the support and every comment

:bye: