Kass opened her mouth to respond to the necromancer, but nothing came out. She was completely taken by surprise. It didn’t matter though, the being spoke again after a short pause, not waiting for an answer.

“Thou hast defeated mine guardianssss, and destroyed those of nobilityyyy. Thy reasons be thine ownnnn, but be it death that now awaits theeee.”

The necromancer flung its arms out at her and three beams of purple light shot forth from each hand. Kass was already on the move though, and the beams smashed into the wall and floor where she had been. Each of them digging into the stone and leaving scorch marks behind.

She shot through the open stone doorway and took the horseshoe curved path at a dead run. When she reached the stairs she threw herself up them.

“How do I fight against magic like that?!” she asked frantically.

“With your skill set, I do not see you winning this fight...mages generally rely on range to fight, and this one can levitate.”

“Levitate, yeah…” she stopped and looked back over her shoulder. A purple glow entered the passageway, faintly illuminating the walls. “One more question, what do you think the aura does?”

“Based on my knowledge, I would assume some sort of curse magic. Whatever you are thinking, be careful. Each curse is different, and depending on the power of the caster, usually very dangerous.”

“I think the only way we win this is to get you in close and go for a quick kill. I don’t doubt your ability to kill this thing, just my own to get you there.”

“Sounds risky, just be careful.”

Kass took a deep breath, readying herself. The necromancer still hadn’t rounded the corner, but the light from its aura was growing brighter by the second as it neared. It knows I’m stuck. I’ve only got one shot at this...mana is running low. Barrier does nothing against magic. Gah…

Her confidence faltered for a second, but she pushed the feelings away. I’ve got this. Come on. Come on K. She sucked in another breath and let it go, the nervous tension falling away. She resummoned her orb and sent it down the pathway, lying in wait.

Kass dropped down the few steps she had climbed and readied Whisper in her hands. She debated whether or not to cast Gambler’s Way, finally deciding it was worth chancing it. With its low mana cost and potentially high buffs, it could make the difference between a loss and victory.

She cast the dice, holding her breath.

Moon, axe, knight.

Buff Gained: +3 Strength, +3 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, +2% Damage Reduction - Duration: 5 Minutes 22 Seconds

No debuff. Phew.

Uh oh, looks like my time’s up.

Kass took off at a full sprint towards the curving path ahead just as the necromancer floated around the corner. She recast haste on herself as she ran, wanting the full two minute duration, just in case.

The undead raised its arm in her direction just like before, and she knew what was coming. She dashed, feeling the mana drain away as her body sped up even more, each footfall kicking up dirt behind her.

The beams shot out, lighting up the tunnel with its purple light and blasting into the stone stairs. It tried to follow her quick approach, dragging the beams to the side and scorching the walls, but Kass was too fast.

In just over a second she came within range of the necromancer, easily dodging its death beams and commanding the orb to drop. In that split second, Kass felt confident, her tried tactics seeming to work again, just like they had before.

However, just as she sliced down in a powerful arc, and her orb exploded with light, the necromancer’s curse activated.

You have been cursed by Hallucinogenic Aura: -30% Sanity, -30% Perception, 60% Chance of Hallucinations, 10% Chance of Confusion - Duration: Until Spell End

Kass’ vision blurred almost instantly, but she still felt her attack connect. She heard the necromancer’s high pitched screech, it was one of pain, but it sounded far away. She took a step to the side, trying to rebalance herself, bringing her blade back up in front of her in a defensive posture.

Her vision refocused slightly and she found herself looking at Whisper....except it wasn’t Whisper. Instead, she held the body of a black serpent that coiled around her arm, its head raised in the air in front of her, poised to strike.

She screamed and tried to fling the creature away from her, but it gripped tighter around her arm, hissing loudly. She slammed it into the wall of the cavern as hard as she could and felt a painful vibration travel through her arm. The snake struck at her then, snapping back away from the wall and digging its teeth deep into her shoulder.

She screamed again, this time in pain as well as fear, as she wrenched the serpent free of her arm and spun it away from her.

She turned around, only to find herself face to face with an even greater nightmare.

She could only describe it as the face of death itself. Pale white skin. Pitch black eyes. It screamed, its face elongating and mouth expanding, showing row upon row of razor sharp teeth. Spiders and other horrors skittered across its body, coming from the tears in its skin.

Kass shied away from the creature, falling to the ground and scooting back until she reached the wall. Tears fell freely down her face as she sobbed, completely overcome by fear.

The thing stalked after her, fire blooming in one of its hands as it held onto the severed head with a familiar face with the other. Her face.

The demon shuddered, dropping hundreds of spiders onto the ground that began crawling all over her. She shrieked, kicking and rolling to get them off of her.

Suddenly, the illusion fell away, and Kass found herself writhing on the tunnel floor, no spiders anywhere. Then it returned, and more nightmares pushed up out of the ground around her. Earwigs, centipedes, bigger spiders…

But the short interruption had been enough and Kass fought against the visions plaguing her mind. They dimmed slightly, and she was able to focus.

The demon-like necromancer finished casting its spell, a bright ball of green fire floating above its hand. It vanished suddenly, reappearing thirty feet away, next to the stairs, and then pushed the ball towards her.

It lobbed through the air like a tossed softball, giving Kass only a short amount of time to dive out of the way. Her enhanced body moved though, and she dove just before the ball landed. The following explosion thrust her even farther through the air and sent her tumbling over the rough ground.

A third of her health fell away, as if sucked from her, and she lay there, coat smoking from the heat. She pushed herself back to her feet, gritting her teeth from the pain. Other than the massive health loss and the slight burns though, her body seemed to be okay.

She resummoned light into the darkened tunnel.

The necromancer came around the corner and she entered the range of the purple aura again, but this time she resisted the hallucination effects and looked upon the real form of the creature. She was surprised to see that its head was completely split in two, all the way down to the chest cavity. A dark liquid oozed from the wound and dripped to the dry ground below.

My first attack did that? How is it not dead?

The creature hissed in anger, somehow still able to make the sound with its head split. Kass sneered back, no longer afraid. In fact, she was angry too. Pissed even.

It began charging another death ball.

Kass looked at the shallow wound on her shoulder and remembered the pain from the snake bite. “From you?”

“Indeed, you...lost control. Luckily I was able to sheath myself before you sheared your arm off…”

“Heh,” she laughed. “Thanks. Ready to kill this son of a bitch?”

“I thirst for it.”

“Yeah, me too…”

The necromancer finished its spell and teleported again, this time behind her, sending the ball hurtling her way an instant later. You’re dead shithead.

She dashed, using almost all of the remaining mana that she had and instantly felt the headache as consequence. The burst of speed sent her directly at the projectile, quickly closing the distance between them.

Just before colliding with the fiery ball, Kass dropped to her knees and slid underneath it, feeling the heat emanating from it as it shot overhead. Her hair melted and her skin cracked from the heat and power of the spell, but Kass was past it now and her momentum still carried her towards the undead mage.

She pushed herself back to her feet, still sliding, and then leapt into the air. She wasn’t far now, and time seemed to slow as she neared her target. She felt the sword in her hand, the pain in her knees, and smelled the burnt hair and flesh that filled the tunnel.

The ball of death exploded behind her and a shockwave of heat pushed her from behind, but it didn’t alter her direction. Kass felt the curse latch on again, sending images through her brain, but it was too late. She was already right where she needed to be.

Whisper slashed through the air at high speed and connectected with the split neck of the undead. It ripped through flesh and bone easily and sent each half of the head spinning away in different directions. Kass redirected the blade right back in, slashing through the torso a split second later.

She landed in a crouch, four pieces of the necromancer’s body flopping to the floor around her. Its aura fell away and the light disappeared from its eyes.

Kass stayed there for more than a minute, her body exhausted in more than one way from the fight. She checked her resources.

Health

97/330

Stamina

164/420

Mana

13/500 +20*

She sighed. That was close… “You were right about that aura, I really need something to protect me from magic like that…”

“You most definitely need defensive measures against magic. You are very vulnerable.”

“Yeah I’ll keep my eye out, that’s at the top of my list.” She looked down at her torn and bloody knees and just shook her head. “I also had a small hope I’d hit one hundred from that kill...kinda went a little reckless again…”

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 58.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 63.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 67.

*You have defeated Crypt Noble level 91. Bonus experience awarded.

*You have reached level 80. 1 stat point has been awarded.

*You have defeated Crypt Noble level 89.

*You have defeated Crypt Noble level 86.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 63.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 61.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 61.

*You have reached level 81. 1 stat point has been awarded.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 65.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 59.

*You have successfully learned Evade Level 1 - You are either really hated or like to get yourself into situations where things are thrown at you. This skill might help.

*You have defeated Husk of Saulthron level 112. Bonus experience awarded.

*You have reached level 91. 10 stat points have been awarded.

*Vagabond has reached level 4. 1 Class point has been awarded.

*Barrier has reached level 3.

*Illuminate has reached level 4.

*Dash has reached level 3.

*Dash has reached level 4.

*Heightened Senses has reached level 3.

*Heightened Senses has reached level 4.

*Haste has reached level 2.

*Gambler’s Way has reached level 2.

Evade

Level 1

Common

Passive - No Cost

Increase chance to dodge by 5%

Wow, still quite a bit of level ups and all of my skills leveled at least once. Even got a new one. Evade. That’s definitely going to help. And Vagabond leveled again!

She was quite happy with the results of the battle, even though she didn’t get to level one hundred. She understood that was just wishful thinking, hoping that it would take her pain away again. Can’t rely on that K. It’s only going to get harder from here to reach each milestone.

Twelve stat points. Hmm...She looked over her status.

General Level: 91

Class: Vagabond Level 4

Subclass: None

Tertiary Ability: None

Strength

36

Dexterity

48

Endurance

42

Fortitude

33

Intelligence

50

Coronation Tier

-4

Unused Stat Points

12

Class Point Available

I think my most important stats right now are probably intelligence, fortitude, and dexterity. If I’m fast enough it will make up for the lack of strength, and my endurance is pretty high already. I’m always running out of mana and more health can’t hurt…

She put two points into dexterity, rounding it off at fifty, and then three more into fortitude, increasing her maximum health by thirty. The other seven points went into intelligence, bringing her total mana up to five hundred and seventy.

She took one last look over her totals and nodded, content with her decisions.

Not feeling like her luck was particularly high at the moment, Kass decided to forgo spending her class point for a minute and instead loot the body of the necromancer. He’s got to have something on him.

She started with the largest portion of the body that was left. It was a bit gruesome and the smell wasn’t particularly a good one, but she didn’t shy away from it and instead, dug around in the pockets of the pants he had been wearing.

She pulled a ring from one of the pockets and identified it.

Gold Ring

Huh, fair enough. She stored the ring in her slightly scorched coat. Doing so brought up a question.

“Hey Whisper, what happens to the items if my coat gets destroyed? I didn’t even think of that before…”

“Most storage items are very durable, making them hard to destroy in the first place. They also draw upon the mana signature of the owner, using this power to protect them from damage or repair them over a period of time. As long as you maintain a suitable amount of mana, your coat shouldn’t be destroyed in an encounter.

“ I’ve also heard of others that are bound to the lifeforce of the user, expiring only when the owner dies, but these are even more rare.”

“Huh, I guess that makes sense. So these scorch marks and scuffs will be repaired?”

“As far as I know, yes.”

“Good to know, thanks.”

She finished searching the body, not finding anything else, and so she moved on, making her way carefully back into the large crypt. It was dark inside now, the braziers having extinguished with the death of the necromancer.

Her orb lit the way and she picked her way along the trail of bodies that she had left behind. She made sure to stab each and every one of them that she passed, just for good measure.

None of the normal ghouls had anything of value on them, and neither did the knights, but this wasn’t the case for the nobles. She found the necklace on the first one she had come across and took it. This time her identify skill revealed something.

Scholar’s Necklace: +2 Intelligence

Score! The find made her forget about her pain temporarily, and put her in a better mood. Two intelligence was a great bonus. It was a simple necklace, a slim gold chain with a white stone pendant the size of her thumbnail. She put it around her neck and tucked it inside her coat.

Now quite excited after actually having found something, Kass moved on to the other nobles. She found other simple jewelry, and a few baubles stored within the coffins, but none of it gave any bonuses as far as she could tell. She stored it all in the smuggler’s coat. Seven rings, three bracelets, two golden armbands, three small golden statuettes, and a small box of gems in all.

Kass looked around the room in search for anything she might have missed, and noticed a door at the back, behind where the necromancer had hung. She moved over to it cautiously, and put an ear to it once she reached it, listening for any sound. She didn’t hear anything though.

After a quick debate in her head, she decided she wanted to open it instead of waiting for however long it would take for her health to regenerate more. Her mana was almost full at this point, and she thought that it was safe enough. I hope…

She pushed it open slowly, the door creaking with protest as it swung inward. She sent her orb inside to investigate, and it illuminated a small room. Ten feet wide and ten feet long.

Inside was an old desk stacked with dust covered papers and multiple dry inkwells. A few stacks of coins lined one side of the desk, ten high.

A bed sat in the opposite corner of the room, and at the foot of it lay a chest with a large lock that hung down in front of it.

Other than those few things, the room was barren.

“Ooo please be some good treasure!”