“Hey! I wasn’t talking to myself! I used that new skill and there was a spirit lady that wanted to talk to me!”

“Mhm.”

“Wait...did you just make a joke?! You did, didn’t you?! Ha, I can’t believe it!”

“You are wrong, human.”

“No, I think I’m right. And I think that you think you’re funny! No matter what you say I know the truth.”

The blade didn’t respond and Kass just laughed even more. A blinking screen in the corner of her vision caught her attention, distracting her from the topic. “Alright we’ll resume this conversation later,” she said as she pulled up the screen, still smiling.

Her smile grew even wider as she read through the contents.

Title Unlocked: Champion of Morund - You have been crowned the champion of the town of Morund, its people will forever shout your praises - +5% Overall Damage, +3 Charisma. Status Updated.

Emelia’s Blessing: +5 to all stats

“Wow, she gave me plus five to all my stats and a title that increases my damage by five percent and gives plus three to charisma. That’s huge!”

“A great gift indeed.”

“What is charisma anyways? Is it another one of those hidden stats like luck?”

“It is.”

“Why even mention it then? If nobody can see it or measure it.”

“A question that many have had. In truth, nobody knows the answer.”

“Seems kind of dumb in my opinion, but I’m happy to have the plus three whatever it does.”

“I believe that such stats are just as important as the others, but are harder to gauge their effects as they change.”

“Yeah that makes sense, I guess. So do you think that the plus five bonus to all stats includes those hidden stats?”

“I do not know,” the blade answered honestly.

“Well, I guess that’s a dead question.”

“A what?”

“A dead question. Oh right, it’s just a saying from where I’m from...it means something that you will have to find out when you’re dead.”

“Why would that be important when you’re dead?”

“I....” she sighed, “I guess it wouldn’t be, but there might be other questions that are important when you die? Like why do you even exist, or where do you go kind of a thing?”

“Hmm, I find your people very strange, yet also very intriguing.”

“Says a talking sword, yeah, okay.” She laughed and then closed the window screen in front of her. “What do you say we find this tunnel?”

“A good plan.”

“Glad you approve. Okay, where’s that altar…” She looked around the room but didn’t spot anything that fit the image in her mind. Hmm…

She walked a full circle around the room and then stopped back where she started. “That’s weird, I thought for sure it would be in here. Where else could it be?”

“Perhaps it-”

“Hold on a sec, what’s this?” she pointed to the small grooves etched into the floor beneath her feet. Kass dropped to her knees and began brushing away the dirt and dust all around her, finding other grooves similar to the first cut into the ground.

It took nearly twenty minutes to clear the entire area that made up the altar, or at least what she thought was the altar. Once she finished, Kass stood up and dusted off her knees and then moved back towards the coffins. She jumped up on top of one and looked back at her handiwork.

There it is… Large runes were visible on the floor, their designs intricately carved into the stone. “Definitely not what I had in mind when I thought of an altar. I was thinking more of a bloody pedestal with a knife resting on it or something… I’m actually kind of glad this is what I found.”

The blade didn’t bother answering her, but she didn’t mind, she was more or less just talking out loud. “Alright, so behind the altar would be right there,” she said, closing one eye and making two L’s with her fingers and then putting them together to make a rectangle to look through. “Any ideas how we blast through that wall?”

“If the Anderstone is still active, it would be difficult to do. Perhaps with your shadow bolt it would be possible?”

“It’s worth a try,” she said, getting herself into position and preparing to cast the spell.

“It might be beneficial to try and search the wall first for any clues as to where the mouth of the tunnel would be. Also, I would advise you not to hit the Anderstone, if at all possible.”

“Yeah good idea, let’s go take a look. And if I hit the Anderstone will it blow up or something?”

“Most likely, yes.”

“Oh...that would probably be bad…” She looked up at the ceiling above her and imagined it collapsing down on her. Really really bad…

She moved over to the wall and pulled out the Crohulian dagger from her spatial inventory, using it to tap on the stone and listening for any sounds of hollowness. She started on the left side and slowly worked her way to the right. In her mind, she had imagined the tunnel to be near the dead center of the wall, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized how silly that had been.

They randomly found the tunnel, not built it, so it could be anywhere. She just hoped it wasn’t twenty feet in the air.

Kass made it to the other end of the wall and took a step back. What are we missing… She leaned against the doorframe to the necromancer’s room as she stared at the wall in thought. Wait a minute, what did it say again?

She pulled out the diary and carefully flipped to the last entry and read it again.

‘A tunn__. Disc______ ___ing c__struc___ of our sacred and fin__ resting place. I com___ded my villagers to ____r it, for w_ ___ not leaving. The vill___ Anders__ne ___ pla___ wit____ _he wall to protect us, and ____ it shall r__ain. The alta_ __aws from its power a__ _ __om it. The two s__ close to__her. I go no_ __ m_ __st, my ___k finally complete.’

“The altar draws from its power and...I from it. The two... sit?...close together… Huh, so I did have it wrong, it doesn’t say anything about being behind the altar, just near it…” She brushed a hand through her hair, deep in thought, and it got tangled more than a few times. She pulled hard at a particularly stubborn knot and it finally slipped free, the sudden release of resistance sending her hand punching out and it smacked into the wooden door.

“Oww! Stupid door,” she said, kicking it with her foot and sending a boom throughout the the cavern, a softer boom echoed from within the hollow room. The sound curbed her frustration immediately and she focused intently on it.

“Wait a second...of course! How could I have been so stupid! The tunnel, it’s in the room! It is the room! Of course the necromancer wouldn’t want the Anderstone to be far away from him, and it’s still close enough to the altar to make sense.” She opened the door to the room and strode inside.

“He must have made this room from part of the tunnel or something.” she said as she looked around, seeing if she could spot any differences in the rock. She glanced back at the door and looked at the stone around it. Now that she paid more attention to it, most of it seemed to have been chiseled out away from the door.

She drew a mental line from the door to the back wall and then walked over to the spot she had marked. She put a hand to the stone and felt for any differences. Finding none, she began tapping with the pommel of the dagger, soft at first, but increasing in force with each try.

On her forth strike, a piece of the wall chipped away and she continued pounding away at the point where it fell. More and more chunks broke away until she had created a small crater of her own in the wall.

Kass paused and drew in a deep breath. A bead of sweat falling to the floor. She looked at the pommel of the dagger and saw that she had dented it a bit, but for the most part it was still intact. Strong dagger, wonder what it’s made of.

“I still think we’re in the right spot, I don’t think I would have chipped away as much if the wall was actually solid stone.”

“You were hitting it with a lot of force. Perhaps if you had the guardian’s hammer…”

“I actually thought about that, but I don’t know how to get it back. It’s kind of attached to the door that sucked up into the ceiling, remember?”

“Unfortunate.”

“Yeah, I agree, that would have made this a lot easier...if I could have even lifted it....” I did just gain some strength...I wonder how much of a difference those five points would have made… “I think I’ll try using shadow bolt and see if I can dig in deeper. If that doesn’t work then we’ll try something else.”

She moved away from the wall and through the doorway, moving back until she felt safe enough. She lifted her arm and channeled the spell, eyes focused on the spot she had chipped away.

Kass released the bolt of magic and it zipped from her fingertips, impacting the wall a second later. The small explosion of energy that followed ripped out a fist sized portion from the wall and blew chunks of rock across the room. One of the inkwells on the desk shattered, and Kass watched as another flew from the table and broke into a hundred pieces as it hit the ground.

“It might take awhile, but I think it’ll work.” She fired another and then another, the hole continuing to grow wider and wider with each bolt.

Two hours passed as Kass slowly dug away at the rock wall. She had to stop multiple times to let her mana recharge, but blast by blast she penetrated deeper into the rock. More than a few times she second guessed herself, worried that she had made a mistake once again and was just wasting her time.

She had decided to stick with it for a little longer, the practice she was getting from casting shadow bolt over and over was probably a good thing.

During her breaks, Kass read through more of the necromancer’s journal. Starting at the beginning, it was easy to see what Emelia had meant about this man. Almost every entry was detailed with plans and ideas to improve the village that he himself had founded.

From what she read, the village seemed to thrive almost from the start. The earliest settlers were mainly from a mining community that had traveled for weeks to get there. When they’d heard word that a wealthy nobleman had discovered a rich Dalenium vein only a day's journey from the prominent city of Remeric, and was offering premium wages for those he employed, they packed up all of their belongings as quick as they could, leaving their old employer and traveling far to the North in hopes of a better life.

The miners arrived in high spirits and were even happier to find the rumors were true. A few others had arrived before them, but they were by far the largest group. Saulthron was more than pleased, and hired them immediately.

Soon, Dalenium ore began to pour from the mine and the wealth of the small village skyrocketed. This attracted the attention of all sorts of people, including other noble families seeking to invest. Before long, a tavern was built by a wealthy businessman, stocked with enough food and drink to feed an army.

The stonemasons and carpenters that built the tavern ended up staying, hired on to build better housing for Saulthron and his family, and also the miners. The nobleman ordered them to start with those of the miners first, which surprised Kass. This guy was amazing...and look what happened to him...

She shook her head and then glanced at her resources. Mana’s back. She closed the diary, sending it back into storage before standing up. She cracked her neck and stretched out her slightly stiff back and then moved over to her position facing the doorway to the room.

“Have you ever heard of a city called Remeric?” she asked as she launched a bolt from her fingertips.

“Remeric was a large city, yes. Well known throughout the Brightlands. I have traveled there, though only a few times.”

“In his journal, the necromancer said that their village was only a day's journey from that city. Do you think that means we are close to Remeric?”

“Possibly, unless they traveled a long distance to wherever we are now. Though if we are near Remeric, we are further away from the coast than I thought...hmm”

“Why? What’s near the coast?” Another blast struck the wall, breaking off a good sized portion.

“A place where we can find help. At least, it was years ago. But we should try to reach Remeric if we can, there might be someone there that can do something about this demon soul.”

“I’ll try to find out more about where we are from the journal. It’s been pretty detailed so far and might contain something else useful.”

The fourth shadow bolt left her fingertips and zipped into the wall, creating a small purple explosion that ripped into the wall. Suddenly, another explosion erupted from the wall, sending a wave of energy through the room that instantly blew the wooden door from its hinges and knocked Kass off her feet.

The door splintered against the opposite wall as she struggled back to her feet, dazed from the hit. “Ugh,” she groaned, “what was that?”

“That, I believe, was the Anderstone you were not supposed to hit.”

She regained focus and looked back to the wall, but instead she found herself looking at the opening to a dark tunnel beyond. Hovering in the dead center of the passageway was an orange, triangular shaped gem the size of her palm. It pulsed with light like a heartbeat, making her feel as if it were alive. Woah, that’s an Anderstone?

“Is it safe to go near that thing?”

“As long as you don’t shoot it again…”

“Yeah yeah, I’ll be careful. You sure?”

“I believe that whatever enchantment it powered is no longer active, so it should be safe enough.”

“Alright,” she replied, picking her way closer to the hovering gem. “I hope you’re right about this…”

She slowly crept up to it, the whole time feeling like it was going to explode again. Luckily it didn’t, and she stood in front of it. It’s beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it… The stone was as thin as a piece of cardboard and when she looked at its surface, different shades of orange swirled around like wisps, leaving trails behind.

Unsure of what else to do, she carefully reached out towards the flat gem. As soon as her fingers touched it, whatever magic was causing it to float there disappeared and it fell. Kass scrambled to catch it, feeling like she had just dropped her new smartphone, and snatched it out of the air with both hands.

“Phew…” she breathed with relief. “That was close.”

The stone was warm in her hands, and it felt abnormally smooth, like there wasn’t any resistance at all when sliding a finger across it. What are you?

A window appeared above it.

Anderstone - Inactive