“If this is true, you could potentially learn abilities and spells from all manner of classes.”

“That sounds amazing. But we should probably get out of this crypt first, then we can test it.”

“Indeed,” replied the blade.

Kass waved away the floating book and quietly returned to the raised platform. The braziers still burned bright and other than the dead ghoul behind her, nothing seemed to have changed. Now how do I do this?

She counted twelve moving forms below, unable to tell if they were all the weaker ghoul archetype or one of the stronger knights. She doubted any of them were guardians, lacking armor and massive weapons. There could be more though...every one of those coffins could be filled with more of the things…

“Okay, kill as many as possible silently, then if they become alerted, run back here and then to the stairs behind if necessary. Do I have any other options?”

“You could alert them now and fight somewhere you are familiar with. This way you don’t potentially get stuck down below.”

“I thought of that, but there could be a lot more of these things somewhere. I think picking them off one by one would be better so that if I do have to fight, there’s less of a chance I’ll be overwhelmed.”

“It could work, though killing multiple without alerting the others will be difficult.”

“Guess we’ll just have to try…”

Taking one last look over the scene below, Kass planned her route. Ghoul on the left is alone and isn’t moving. Him first. Then move along the wall to the next one, another unmoving. Stay away from that pacing one…

She finished mapping it out and figured that she would be able to at least kill seven of the ghouls below without alerting the rest, as long as she killed them fast enough they couldn’t make a noise. There were nine unmoving that she could see, the other three were acting irregular, pacing and twitching.

With a final readying breath, Kass started down the stairs on the left, heading for her first target. The ghoul wasn’t far from the bottom of the stairs, she guessed around twenty feet away. It stood completely still, facing the wall.

She neared the closest coffin to the stairs and peeked inside. Empty. She released the breath she had been holding and continued to the next, slowly moving closer to her target. The next coffin was empty as well, and she moved on.

When she made it to the third coffin, she was less than ten feet from the ghoul. She peeked inside the open coffin, and to her dismay, saw the prone and rotting body within. Shit. What now? She paused, thinking of her next move.

Standing one first, then this one. After deciding, she left the cover of the coffin and moved in behind target number one. With Whisper held in both hands, Kass thrust out quickly, punching the blade through the skull and sliding it out in one fluid motion. The ghoul collapsed and she caught the falling corpse under the arms, slowly lowering it to the ground, hardly making a sound.

Kass checked her surroundings, but nothing seemed to have noticed. Phew...one down… She moved back to the third coffin and as quietly as she could, stabbed through the eye socket of the body inside. The blade easily pushed through and she pulled it out a second later. “Status,” she whispered.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 61.

Just one kill. So this wasn’t a ghoul? Hmm...I’ll still have to check as many as I can, just to be sure.

Kass moved towards the next target, sneaking along the wall. She checked four more coffins on her way, all were empty. Once she was within ten feet of the ghoul, she stopped. This one clacked occasionally and stood facing the center of the room. With every clack the ghoul turned its head slightly, as if scanning for intruders.

Good one to take out if that’s the case, she thought. She crept closer. Out went her blade, and another ghoul fell, caught once more. The pacing ghoul suddenly stopped and looked in her direction. Oh shit. She ducked low, hiding behind the closest coffin, the body of the ghoul pulled next to her.

The ghoul swung its head in an unnatural way and clacked. Then it began walking towards Kass. Ah hell, already? She looked around her, trying to come up with an idea to get her out of this. Her eyes stopped on the body of the ghoul beside her. Disgusting…

She looked back up and saw the ghoul, not fifteen feet away. Without another thought she lifted the body up and hugged it close to her chest. She waited for the head of the patrolling ghoul to snap to the side again and then dove inside the empty coffin she was next to, pulling the body over the top of her.

She waited, breathing shallow, unsure if she had been seen. She heard the ghoul stop next to the coffin, could see the back of its shoulder, the side of its head. It didn’t move. Two full minutes passed. Kass didn’t know how long she could stay like this. Another minute passed.

Finally the ghoul shifted, snapping its head to the side, away from her. She was about to move, to stab out with Whisper, when the ghoul snapped its head in her direction. The thing turned and placed a clawed hand on the rim of the coffin she lay in. Its jaw moving up and down as it clacked, white glowing eyes searching.

A sound from across the room caught the attention of the ghoul and Kass stabbed up quickly, punching through the half decayed ear of the ghoul. The body sagged and, trying to retract the blade, Kass pulled the body into the coffin with her. The monster’s head slid down the length of her blade and oozed a dark substance that dripped onto her neck.

She gagged silently, unable to handle the two dead and decaying bodies on top of her any longer. Get me out get me out get me out! She shifted to the side in the small space and both bodies slid down. She untangled herself from an arm and pulled Whisper from the head of the creature, the blade now fully covered in the black goop.

Kass popped her head out above the coffin and checked her surroundings. Not discovered yet...thank goodness...that was pretty sloppy. Feeling a little sick, she extracted herself from the coffin and breathed in the fresher air. It still smelled disgusting, but it was loads better than what she had been breathing for the last few minutes.

After taking a short break, she searched for her next target, spotting him on the other side of the room. Following the same tactics, Kass was able to take out four more ghouls. She came across a few more bodies inside coffins, but after stabbing them she didn’t get any notifications. Not until the last one.

*You have defeated Crypt Knight level 81.

*You have reached level 78. 1 stat point has been awarded.

She crouched in front of the half open coffin and stared at the body inside. Armor covered it in random areas and a long sword was held against its chest. So some of them are undead. Glad I checked as many as I could...really would suck to get surrounded here.

Kass put the free stat point into intelligence, rounding it off at fifty. Five hundred mana...hope it’s enough.

“Looks like only one more I can reasonably take down. After that we should probably try to take out all of those we can inside the coffins.” She moved into position, crouch walking from coffin to coffin. She checked each of them as she went, finding another couple bodies. Both were dead.

This ghoul was only partially unmoving. It swung an arm front to back once every few seconds and twisted its torso. Kass had no idea why it would be doing that, but then again, none of this really made any sense to her. Why is that the thing I find odd about this whole situation?

She shook her head and refocused, moving in close for the kill. The arm went forward, then came back. Forward, back, forward, back, forward, stab. The body fell silently, caught and lowered to the ground.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 58.

*You have successfully learned the skill Backstab, level one. Stabbing things in the back has become more of a job or maybe even a hobby. Instead of the customary use of small blades to accomplish this task, you have chosen to use a sword. Whatever the reason may be, you are good at it.

“Just learned another skill. Backstab.” What’s up with that description though?

“Truly remarkable.”

Backstab

Level 1

Uncommon

Active - 10 stamina per use

Requirements: Small blade

Backstab damage increased by 20%.

“This could come in handy. Uses stamina and I guess I don’t need a small blade to use it anymore.”

“The skill adapted, yes… I’ve seen this before, but not often.”

“I want to know more about that later, but for now, I’ve got some more undead to take care of.”

Unable to approach any closer to the suspended man because of the irregular ghouls patrolling the area, Kass instead worked her way through the coffins. She worked from side to side, stabbing body after body, not taking any chances.

She started finding more and more Knights the closer she came to both the center of the room and to the necromancer. She noticed the coffins were slightly more decorated with designs etched into the stone than the others as well. Some sort of hierarchy or something.

Kass went as far as she dared, coming within just a few rows of one of the ghouls. That left four full rows that she was unable to reach. Looking at her log, she didn’t like what that entailed.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 61.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 55.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 58.

*You have defeated Crypt Knight level 83.

*You have defeated Crypt Knight level 81.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 60.

*You have defeated Crypt Knight level 87.

*You have reached level 79. 1 stat point has been awarded.

All of those, just waiting to pop out… seems like the closer I get to the necromancer, the more of them there are. Dammit…

Kass quickly put the new stat point into dexterity, bringing it to forty eight, and then moved back a safe distance from the remaining ghouls to ask a question, “so what do you think? Try and sneak up on the others or get their attention at the top of the stairs?”

“You have been quite successful so far, perhaps we can dispatch of more of them without battle.”

“I agree. Just not sure how those ghouls are going to react. They’re so much different than the others even though they are classified as the same.”

She looked at her two options. There were still a few unmoving ghouls closer to the necromancer that she couldn’t get to without killing the irregulars first, but they could still spot her if she wasn’t careful.

Right or Left. The right side had two stationary ghouls nearby, with the irregular that turned around every ten or so seconds, by her count. The left wasn’t much better. There was only one immobile ghoul, but it was facing the irregular that paced side to side. Maybe if I can take out the stationary one beforehand…

She decided it was worth a try, not seeing a better option open to her. I might have to dash for this one. Wonder how much noise that will make… She moved to the left side, hugging the wall and staying as far away from the irregular as she could.

Three, four, five, turn. One, two, three, turn. She studied the moving ghoul, trying to find a pattern in its movements. After a few minutes it still wasn’t clear if there was a pattern, but she did find that the thing never turned around before two seconds or more had passed.

Worse case scenario I’ll have two seconds to cross in front. She looked at the open space between her and the next row of coffins. This section was set a greater distance than the rest, but still was only fifteen feet apart. It’ll be close.

Kass waited for two more rotations and then, once the ghoul turned away from her, she rushed out towards the other side. One, two, three. She made it, the ghoul turning a second later to resume its seemingly endless patrol.

The immobile proved easy to take care of. Kass moved in from the side and stabbed out, killing the creature instantly. It hardly made a sound as she lowered the body to the ground. Now the irregular.

She got as close as she could without being seen, waiting for the right moment. Having already watched the ghoul she was confident with her assessment. Two seconds or more. I can get there.

The creature turned and Kass sprang out once more, moving in quickly behind it. One. The ghoul kept moving. Two. It turned. It wasn’t fully unexpected, but it still took her off guard. She was close enough though, and knowing she needed to kill it before the creature could screech she plunged her blade through its head. A soft croak left the creature before it died.

Kass spun to the side and rolled behind another coffin, worried the sound had been enough. The body fell to the ground with a thunk and she tensed even more at the sound. Seconds passed.

Nothing. Another couple seconds. Still nothing. Lucky… She peered out from the side of the coffin and watched the other irregular turn towards her and then turn away. Phew… She closed her eyes briefly to let some of the stress fade away.

Opening them again, she focused on the coffin in front of her. The lid was still partially covering the opening, but there was a gap large enough for her to peer into. The corpse inside was different from the others. Different from the knights as well as the guardians.

Instead of armor and weapons, Kass could make out scraps of colorful clothing. She even spotted a necklace around its neck. Sorry to disturb you, she thought as she stabbed the sword through the thing's head.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 61.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 57.

*You have defeated Crypt Noble level 88.

Noble? High level too.

A screech suddenly filled the room and Kass’ heart nearly stopped. It was loud and terrifying, filling the whole room. She fought back the fear that gripped her and looked to where the sound came from. The necromancer…

She watched as the suspended body began thrashing about, ripping away the cords that bound him. He screeched again, the sound inhuman. Kass had to cover her ears to avoid pain it was so loud.

She stood, knowing she had somehow been discovered, and saw the irregular, and both of the once unmoving ghouls, rushing her way. They zigzagged through the coffins at full speed, screeching and gnashing their teeth.

Kass also watched as multiple lids slid to the side and other creatures stood, knights and nobles alike, all facing her. She stepped out into the more open area and dropped into a battle stance. Whisper held in front of her with both hands.

“Shitty.”

“Ha,” she laughed, “Indeed my friend, shitty indeed.”