Four days later Arris had finished clearing the next level of the floor. Compared to the second level of the floor it was somewhat of a joke in terms of strength difference from the last floor. The primary boss of the level was level 11, but even having a level on the Wrathion it was still not anywhere near as difficult a fight. The boss was some sort of massive skeletal hound guarding a massive stone castle in the middle of the level. Arris dealt 93% of its health with his full combo and finished it off easily after a quick exchange of blows.

While the boss was a bit of a pushover the loot it dropped was still pretty decent. After absorbing the corpse, Arris collected a collar of strength which went around his neck and gave him 3 bonus strength, several of its massive canines which were rare crafting items, and a ton of cash.

The rest of the level seemed to have been some sort of city with a large, dead forest surrounding it. Many undead roamed the city streets as opposed to the few which stumbled about the forest. They ranged from large groups of eight to ten level 9 to 11 skeletons, solitary repeats of the Skeletal Reaver he’d encountered in the last level, or Elite Skeleton Warriors with small entourages.

With his prior experience in defeating all three groups or types of enemies, Arris was able to kill most of the skeletons in the town, netting him level 11 and most of the experience towards 12. The reavers were the easiest, Arris simply blasting them down from far away. The Elite Skeleton Warrior groups weren’t much more difficult, only having three or four minions which were easily dealt with after the Elite Skeleton Warrior went down to his magic. And the large groups of skeletons simply had to be baited into the confines of the alleyways between the city’s buildings. There were narrow passages aplenty there and Arris just had to duck into one of them and fight there where the skeletons could only come at him one or two at a time. He’d activate Warrior’s Stance, dig in, and slaughter them all.

These skeletons also dropped far better loot than the previous levels' regular skeletons had dropped. While not quite on the level of the loot of the bosses from previous levels the creatures represented, it was still a marked upgrade in average loot drops. Alongside more of the usual stuff, several uncommon pieces of armor were dropped alongside an uncommon morningstar all of which he equipped or added to his inventory. The morningstar dealt mixed blunt and piercing damage and had just a tiny bit more damage than his two scimitars would. Unlike what he had done with the mace though, Arris didn’t drop the scimitars figuring he’d eventually find a use for them. The pieces of armor brought his defense up by another 2 points, the looted items’ descriptions all below.

Mail Pauldrons of Constitution

Condition: Good

5 kg

Requirements:

13 Constitution

20 Strength

Stats:

+16 Defense to equipped area

+ 2 Constitution

Battered Sabatons of Swiftness

Condition: Fine

3 kg

Requirements:

17 Constitution

31 Strength

Stats:

+17 Defense to equipped area

+1 Agility

Steel Gauntlets of the Pugilist

Condition: Fine

3 kg

Requirements:

11 Vitality

28 Strength

Stats:

+11 Defense to equipped area

+10 Damage to unarmed melee blows

Studded Morningstar

Condition: Fine

3 kg

Requirements:

36 Strength

20 Agility

Stats:

+20 - 25 damage

+10% chance to break inflict crippling statuses

In addition to the items, Arris had also received a variety of experience gains. With his rather frequent casting of spells and usage of abilities, Arris’ abilities had all ranked up. Blunt Weapon Proficiency had increased by seven, Warrior’s Stance had increased by two, Condensed Aether Bolt had increased by four, Dark Blow had increased by three, Spirit Blast and Shard had both increased by five, and Disorient had increased by a full six.

After finally downing the skeletal hound and the various skeletons within the city Arris was less than 20% experience off level 12. Once he killed the hidden boss and found the hidden loot chest he’d be level 12 and ready to move on to the next level.

It took him many hours of searching to find the two. The hidden loot chest was the first thing he found. Like the hidden loot chest in the first level, this one was merely hidden and not indirectly guarded by the hidden boss. Unlike the hidden loot chest in the first level though, this hidden loot chest was difficult to find. The hidden loot chest was in a hidden room connected to a hidden exit to the throne room of the massive castle.

Upon seeing the castle, Arris had assumed that either the hidden boss or the hidden loot chest was somewhere within it and had decided to do a very thorough search of the premises. All paths in the building led to the throne room but even after passing through multiple times Arris was unable to discern that there was a hidden passageway leading out. He likely wouldn’t have found it at all if it wasn’t for the fact that the System decided to give him a hint in the form of a note in one of the largest bedrooms of the castle. The note was conspicuously titled ‘The Hidden Treasures’ almost directly telling him it was some sort of hint regarding the hidden loot chest. It read as below.

In the foyer find the fish jumping free,

Dragons fly overhead, they tilt their heads for me,

In the hidden rose’s petal beauty awaits,

Underneath the chair silver lies gleaming in plaits,

Up a stairway to heaven you shall see, 

Hidden treasures there for free.

It was a nice little rhyme but had no real meaning beyond the puzzle it conveyed. Arris followed the instructions within the note and first went to the foyer. It didn’t take him long to find the fish mentioned. The fish was part of a statue in the middle of what might have been a once glorious fountain but had long since fallen into disrepair. The fish was currently in the middle of being caught by a fisherman.

As nothing had happened and he was pretty sure he'd found the fish in question, Arris had to assume he needed to interact with the statue in some way. The note said the fish was jumping free. Well, in the statue the fish was halfway caught by the fisherman’s net. Maybe he needed to pull it out?

Arris stepped into the fountain, approaching the fish. He grabbed it and tugged, steadily increasing the amount of strength he was using as the fish refused to budge. Just as Arris was about to reach the maximum amount of strength he could use and was sure the fish wouldn’t budge it slowly began moving. With the loud grinding and cracking of gears, the fish slowly slid upwards into the air and out of the net. Arris pulled and pulled until the fish finally reached a certain point and slid to a stop in a crunch of mechanisms. The whirring and clacking continued for another couple seconds before silence reigned.

With the fish having been freed, Arris had finished the first step of the puzzle. The next portion involved dragons. After exploring the castle for a bit Arris finally found a series of six statues of dragons lining a corridor. Arris approached the first dragon and tried to tilt its head. It easily tilted, and a single brass note played from some unseen instrument. After a couple seconds the stone dragon lifted its head on its own.

It didn’t take long for Arris to figure out how this section of the puzzle worked. Each dragon played a different octave upon having its head tilted and all Arris needed to do to complete the puzzle was to tilt their heads in order from highest octave to lowest. When he finally accomplished the task once again the dragon's heads locked in a downwards position and the noise of grinding gears and machinery clicking started up again, but Arris saw nothing. After a few seconds, it stopped. Continuing his exploration of the castle, Arris now began to search for a hidden rose. What he was looking for he had no idea, but Arris would at least search for a little before he gave up.

Upon coming back to the throne room, however, he found that massive glass panels had folded down from the walls of the throne room and formed a beautiful maze of shimmering glass. Figuring that it had to somehow be part of the puzzle Arris began exploring his way through the maze of glass looking for anything resembling a rose. It didn’t take him long before he found it. Four glass panes in different layers of the glass maze comprised its petals and attached to each of the petals there was a sort of artistic pin or screw. He collected all four.

Now Arris needed to find a chair with silver plaits beneath it. Of all the tasks, this was the most quickly accomplished. The chair was almost assuredly the throne, and the silver plaits a reference to the silver inlay decorating the bottom most section of the throne. Arris quickly found on each side of the throne a small hole in which he could insert a pin. Seeing it as the next, most obvious and logical step Arris inserted a pin into each hole, each insertion prompting a loud click and faint whirring of gears.

Upon inserting the fourth pin all the glass panes in the room which had previously formed a sort of maze shifted and swirled through the air in a cacophony of grinding gears and machinery. After several seconds of reorientation, the glass panes finally settled into the form of a massive, shimmering, multicolored glass staircase leading up to the roof of the throne room.

After testing the panes with his quarterstaff for durability, Arris decided the stairway was safe and began his ascent. Erring on the side of caution, Arris tested all steps before he stepped on them. Not one broke. This staircase, which Arris was assuming was the stairway to heaven mentioned in the note, spiraled upwards into the atrium of the roof. An arch which he'd originally assumed had been a decoration turned out to be the entrance to a hidden passageway.

Arris took the passage, following it for over a couple minutes but found that after sloping down for a while the passage exited behind the castle with no hidden loot chest being found along the way or visible from the back of the castle. Perplexed and sure that the hidden loot chest had to be somewhere along the hidden passage, Arris went back up the passage while taping and pushing at the walls and searching for another hidden room or passage.

It didn't take Arris too long to find a hollow space behind one of the walls. Arris then tried to see if he couldn't find an activation mechanism that would open the room. It was easily found. The activation mechanism was rather obvious, a rock which was presumably attached to a lever protruding out of a crack in the wall. When the rock lever was cranked down the wall slid upwards with a loud rumble and the crunching of gears. Arris then received a welcome notification that he’d been expecting since had discovered the note and began following the trail of clues.

> Perception +2 <

Behind the wall was that blessed hidden loot chest along with a whole bunch of other equipment that looked somewhat like an over-decorated chemistry set. Upon asking the System what he’d just found, Arris was informed that he’d found an alchemical laboratory. Arris was excited to test the new equipment but before he got to that he needed to loot the chest.

Inside the chest, he found some very interesting loot that certainly fit the theme of the alchemical laboratory. There were a grand total of four magical grenades, two of two different types, several different types of alchemical components, a bunch of empty flasks, and a book titled Chamler’s Guide to Basic Alchemy. He then opened his updated inventory and the descriptions of his new items.

Chamler’s Guide to Basic Alchemy

Condition: Excellent

0.7 kg

A basic guide to alchemy, written by a being named Chamler.

Magical Grenade of Fireblast

Condition: Good

0.5 kg

Effects:

140 - 200 fire damage in a ten-foot radius from the epicenter, decreases to 50% at the edge

All affected characters burn for 5 fire damage per second for the 20 seconds following the blast

Item Triggers and Usage:

Single use

Explodes upon impact after magical activation

Magical Grenade of Mana Dispersal

Condition: Good

0.5 kg

Effects:

-200 - 300 Mana in a ten-foot radius from the epicenter

Cancels all channeled spell matrixes

Mana regen of afflicted characters decreased by 75% for ten minutes

Item Triggers and Usage:

Single use

Explodes upon impact after magical activation

Inventory:

1.0372 kg Human Bone Powder

392 Copper Coins

48 Silver Coins

0.042 kg 7 Bronze Rings

0.024 kg 4 Silver Lockets

0.030 kg 5 Gemstone Necklaces

0.006 kg 1 Gold Ring

8 kg 4 Scimitar of Synchronicity

0.276 kg Drake Bone Powder

3 kg Spiked Shield

7 kg Young Drake Bones

0.2 kg Scroll of Teleport

0.5 kg Alarian’s Journal

3 kg Studded Morningstar

0.0048 kg 6 Root of Branthia Blast Plant

0.0112 12 Leaf of Hartweed

0.0024 3 Stalk of Airwort

2.4 kg 20 Glass Flasks

1 kg 2 Magical Grenade of Mana Dispersal

1 kg 2 Magical Grenade of Fireblast

Capacity 27.5320 / 40 kg

As much as Arris wanted to do some alchemy, it would be stupid to start experimenting with his limited pool of resources. Instead, Arris turned to the guidebook for alchemy to read up on how alchemy actually worked.

Several hours later Arris had finally finished reading the book and a notification popped up.

Congratulations!

You have gained the profession, Alchemist! You have learned the necessary knowledge to combine various mundane and magical components to create a variety of substances with varied effects. You have also gained the Poison Resistance and Ingenuity stats, as they are paramount in developing your skills as an alchemist.

+5 Poison Resistance

+5 Ingenuity

Arris then opened the two pages for the stats, eager to check out his new stats.

Poison Resistance

Poison Resistance gives the character increased resistance to all poisons. Each rank of Poison Resistance decreases all negative effects of the poison by 1% per ranking.

Ingenuity

Ingenuity increases the creative capacity of the character. Each rank of Ingenuity increases the potential for the character to have new ideas by 1% and their improvisation capacity by 1%. Ingenuity does not increase base mental acuity.

Arris was pleased with these new stats. They weren’t quite as good as Perception but they were far more valuable to him than Rapport. Ingenuity was surely going to be useful somewhere down the road, and while he was a skeleton and couldn’t ingest normal poisons there was probably some obscure magically transmitted poison or some such that the poison resistance would still take effect against.

Now though, it was time to test some of the recipes in the book. Arris had actually been quite intrigued by alchemy. At first, he’d expected to find the art was just a bunch of mysticism and archaic practices, explained by and only functional because of magic. But after reading the basic guide Arris had found his original assumption to have been rather thoroughly disproven. Alchemy in very many ways actually resembled the very chemistry he’d spent several years in high school and college studying. It was very organized, and it wasn’t as simple and simplified as, ‘this plant goes with that plant and makes a potion because of magic and yeah,’ but was something more along the lines of, ‘this plant has this compound in it which reacts with a magical factor found in this substance to cause a certain effect.’ A good example would be the Branthia Blast Plant, which had concentrations of potassium nitrate in it. Mixing it with the Hyvernia Riverstalk—a plant which ignited not long after being pumped full of mana—and a source of carbon would ultimately create a blast potion, a potion that when charged would soon after explode. Stored in a vial, it was a cheap yet reliable improvised grenade.

Of the many recipes, Arris only encountered one he actually had the resources for. It was a potion of increased regeneration. The recipe was rather simple: Arris just had to mix the bone powder of any creature with a single leaf of Hartweed. For human bone powder the most effective combination ratio was 0.025 kg to 1 leaf and for drake bone powder the most effective combination ratio was about 0.015 kg to 1 leaf. Both potions required about 0.4 kg of water. Arris decided he’d make 8 potions with human bone powder and 4 potions with drake bone powder.

The process for the actual creation of the potion was rather simple. Arris simply had to grind up the Hartweed and combine it with the bone powder and water. The water was in a magically refilling flask which was part of the alchemy set, and the bone powder he could measure out by commanding his inventory to only remove a certain amount of it.

Each and every potion that Arris created was a success. Creating potions was completely unlike the process was in most video games he’d played. In video games alchemy and the creation of potions typically failed often, the needed materials common and easily obtained. But Arris guessed that in the new world with the System just getting the recipe right could be hard enough without the potion failing to come into existence half the time for no real reason. Without the book it was likely Arris would’ve never gotten the recipe in the first place.

After an hour or so Arris had finally finished making the various potions that he wanted to. A notification popped up. Arris read and dismissed it.

> Alchemist +4 <

Arris had ultimately received 8 Medium Potions of Regeneration from the human bone powder potions and 4 Excellent Potions of Regeneration from the drake bone powder. While the medium potion gave a decent quintupling to health regeneration for six hours, the excellent potions multiplied regeneration by a whopping sixty times. Admittedly, the effect only lasted a half hour but it was more than enough to totally reverse a fight. The increase would bring his Health/10 to around a whopping 3. That was a health every three seconds or so.

Unfortunately though, as a skeleton, Arris may not be able to consume the potions. That would really suck. Arris sent an inquiry to the system in the hopes that there was indeed some way for skeletons to consume things.

Calculating parameters…

Referencing index…

Finding information for undead consumption of resources…

Undead, much like their living counterparts, are able to consume a wide variety of substances. However, as magical constructs lacking any sort of an actual stomach undead instead degrade this organic matter and either incorporate it into their own form if possible or convert it into mana or health. In the case of potions and poisons, undead are capable of selectively decomposing potentially harmful things but keeping and absorbing or incorporating helpful things, such as health potions or buff potions.

Well, according to the information given to Arris by the System he could indeed consume potions and would benefit from all their helpful effects. What he hadn’t realized was that he could also consume organic matter, namely the flesh of various living things, and it would regenerate his resources. That was helpful to know. While Arris couldn’t eat the undead in this zone of the dungeon, maybe when he got to that creature themed zone of the dungeon this information would come into play.

Now all he had to figure out was how to eat the potions. After a quick search on how specifically skeletons consumed things, Arris found that skeletons simply ate things with their mouths much like any normal human would. He would have expected things to simply pour through his empty jaw and onto his ribcage, but who knew? The world was full of magic now and if skeletons could exist why couldn’t they use magic to eat things? Arris wouldn’t really know for sure until he tested it, but he wasn’t quite willing to waste one of his 12 good potions for a test just to be sure he could eat things.

Having found the hidden loot chest and beat the primary boss on the level, all Arris had left to do was to find and kill the hidden boss. Obviously not in the thoroughly searched castle or town, Arris figured that the hidden boss had to be somewhere hidden in the dead forest surrounding the man-made establishments.

So Arris began roaming the woods searching for any sort of conspicuous clue which might lead him to the hidden boss. Unfortunately for Arris, the woods were rather vast. As he wandered, Arris killed whatever skeletons he chanced across. Almost all of them were level 10, netting him another 2% experience with every kill.

After a couple hours of wandering, Arris had hit level 12 but was still yet to see any sign of any sort of hidden boss. He was getting a little exasperated. After all, he’d gotten pretty damn good loot out of this level already, maybe it would be better to simply take his gains and move on. But once again, Arris reminded himself that patience was a virtue. He had six months to complete the dungeon. If this extra loot and experience could help him down the road, then it was his own duty to himself to get it.

Not long after having those thoughts, he was finally rewarded for his patience and diligence. He found his first clue of the hidden boss, a single skeleton whose nameplate read as below.

However, more strange than the fact that its nameplate read Bound Undead Monster as opposed to Undead Monster was the fact that after Arris killed it he gained no experience. It also attacked him when he walked near it. Arris wasn’t really quite sure what to make of the situation so he just asked the system.

Calculating parameters…

Referencing index…

Finding information for lack of experience from kills…

There are a variety of circumstances which can lead to no experience being gained from kills. The first and most obvious reason would be for the killed subject to have such a lower level compared to its killer that the amount of experience the killer gained would be negligible. An example of this would be if a level 20 character killed a level 1 character. Another likely instance in which no experience could be gained from a kill would be for said killed subject to have been a Summoned or Bound creature. Summoned and Bound creatures are given form and completely controlled by another being. They are extensions of their controllers and experience is only distributed for dispatching the controller. The third instance in which a character may receive no experience from a kill would for the experience to instead flow into an experience deficit. Some skills cost experience to cast. While level and experience will not decrease with the casting of these spells, an experience deficit will be created. This experience deficit must be made up before experience can be regularly gained.

Arris had pretty much tuned out after he’d read the second option for what could happen. The skeleton was literally categorized as a Bound Undead Monster. He was almost certainly about to square off against some sort of controller of undead. Maybe a necromancer? He’d soon find out.

Wandering about, Arris found a couple more skeletons categorized as Bound Undead Monsters. He easily dispatched them all. But when Arris chanced across his first unbound Undead Monster Arris just turned back and walked back the way he’d come. Wherever the boss had been, he’d missed it. So Arris began searching through the woods, being more thorough and strategic in his search. After working his way through the woods a couple more times, Arris finally came upon a large congregation of skeletons categorized as Bound Undead Monsters.

At first, Arris hung back out of sight of the skeletons. Arris wanted to get a good read on the situation and make a plan. There were at least ten skeletons in that clearing. There was no cave or narrow passage in the forest to funnel that troop count into. Arris would need to take them in open combat which would be difficult and dangerous. Add in a strong boss and they could easily overwhelm Arris. He needed to be careful how he went about killing these skeletons.

One of the first things Arris did was check the nameplates of all the skeletons in the clearing. For the most part, the skeletons all seemed to be the same, their nameplates reading . But according to what the system had told him, there should be a controller somewhere nearby. Maybe it was shorter and somehow disguised within the ranks. Arris slunk towards the skeletons for a closer look.

It wasn’t long before he spotted his quarry. The reason why Arris hadn’t initially been able to spot the creature was that from his previous vantage point it had been concealed by a group of three of its minions while also making itself shorter by leaning over a stone altar and making inscriptions of some sort around a dead skeleton. He checked its nameplate.

It seemed to be a sort of mage boss which would use its minions to overwhelm him while it cast spells from the backline. Arris initially thought to take out the necromancer first. But after watching the intricate and difficult work it was currently doing to create a new minion Arris realized the necromancer’s minion pool was actually most likely limited to what he currently had available.

If it did indeed have a limited pool of minions then Arris should be able to deal with it rather easily. He could just use the same strategy he’d always used: bait a couple skeletons away, kill them, and then rinse and repeat until all his enemies were dead. But of course, Arris couldn’t forget the necromancer. In almost all the video games he’d played necromancers had some assortment of crowd control abilities to slow down or inhibit their enemy’s movements. If it could lock him down for even a couple seconds, that might give the rest of its minions enough time to swarm and kill Arris.

Though Arris could always just go with his original plan and kill the necromancer first. Arris was vaguely hopeful that the minion skeletons would all collapse into piles of bones upon the necromancer's death, but judging from his experiences so far it seemed unlikely. The System had never before made anything so easy for him.

This plan seemed a little drastic for Arris. He wasn't quite sure if the necromancer could magically shield itself, and if its minions swarmed him after he killed the necromancer he might be screwed. He also knew that there were some of its minions wandering through the woods, and running pell-mell away from a crowd of angry undead into another angry undead could spell his doom. 

The third and most drastic thing he could do would be to simply chuck one of his grenades into the middle of the crowd. If he used a Fireblast grenade, between the 50% increased damage to undead and 240 or so minimum base damage Arris would instantly kill all the skeletons. But still, it felt like such a waste. The Fireblast Grenades would have put the Wrathion down to about 10% health with maximum damage. Between a round of his spells and a grenade, Arris was pretty sure he could take out a boss even several levels upwards of 12. The same could be said for the Mana Dispersal grenade. Arris knew from his video game experiences that big, powerful bosses often had channeling abilities that wreaked massive destruction. If he could cancel one of those abilities with this grenade it would have serious value later on down the line.

The real question was whether this boss was worth wasting such a valuable resource on or not. Arris ultimately decided that it wasn’t. While the grenade was pretty much the perfect tool to take the necromancer down, it was the perfect tool for taking down a lot of undead bosses. He had a level up on this thing anyways, and two levels up on all its minions. He should be able to take it down, just considering the numbers. And plus, if worst came to worst he could just pull out the grenade and chuck it at the necromancer. The skeletons alone were definitely manageable.

Ultimately Arris decided he’d go with a modification of his baiting strategy. Instead of going near the skeletons, his plan was to hit them from far away, get them searching for him and split up, and then take out the necromancer. Before actually making any offensive actions, Arris prepped his now five spirit shards and waited for his mana and spirit to regen to full.

Then, Arris was ready to begin his attack. Assuming the necromancer’s skeletal minions all had the same health as him, Arris pumped about 135 mana into his Condensed Aether Bolt before releasing it at one of the Skeleton Warriors.

Arris’ Condensed Aether Bolt crackled through the dark woods before smashing apart one of the ten Skeleton Warriors surrounding the necromancer. With a start, the necromancer straightened its back and turned to peer off into the dark and gloomy woods in the general direction of where the bolt had come from.

As soon as he’d cast his Condensed Aether Bolt Arris was already moving and had gotten a good amount of distance between himself and the place where he’d cast his Condensed Aether Bolt. Arris was currently crouched in a small copse of dead trees, hidden from vision in most directions.

Then, the necromancer did something incredibly unexpected. It called him out.

“What sort of cowardly adventurer would strike from afar and then run away! How dare you disturb my work! Come out and face Jano Norry, third tier necromancer, and meet your doom!”

Arris’ spectral flames of eyes widened, and he peeked back around the corner to take another look at the undead. Speech was actually a skill in the undead racial skill store, but it wasn’t one that was available up until level 20. This thing was only level 11. How the hell could it talk? Maybe it was some strange function of it being a boss.

When nothing came out to meet the necromancer in open combat, it scoffed and waved its hand at its minions which set out into the dark woods in the general direction of where he’d last been.

“Fine then, if you are so dastardly as to be unwilling to face me in open combat then I shall simply find and crush you!”

For an undead, this thing weirdly seemed to have at least some sort of sense of honor. Maybe it was just failing miserably at trying to trick him. Who knew. At least it had fallen into his trap. Arris watched and waited patiently as the skeletons moved out into the woods, the necromancer at the back with an honor guard of three skeletons. That was a big mistake on its part. The other six skeletons, spread out and roaming through the woods, would be too far away to help if he made a direct attack on the necromancer.

Arris waited until the all the skeletons had moved past him in the woods and then slunk out of the small copse and started tree hoping, exchanging the cover of one tree for another. Then, a notification popped up.

Congratulations!

You have learned the active skill, Sneak. Activating Sneak will increase your ability to move silently and undetected.

-47.5% Movement speed

-5% Movement noise

-5% Chance of detection

Nice to know, but right now an unnecessary distraction. Arris waved the notification away and continued moving towards the necromancer. Arris figured it would know when one of its minions died so he could only take out one of its guards who currently formed a triangle around it. Arris slunk up behind one of the minions and delivered the coup de grace.

> You deal Skeleton Warrior LETHAL damage! <

> Skeleton Warrior has died! <

As a collective whole, the three remaining skeletons spun to look at Arris. Arris had already charged the necromancer, and the two Skeleton Warriors charged him as soon as they had fully turned and seen him.

“How dare you attack me,” the Skeleton Necromancer boomed as it turned to face him, raising his staff and forming a spell matrix at its tip, “a lesser being such as you has no sort of ch—ack.”

As soon as he’d seen the skeleton start to cast its spell Arris had thrown a disorient its way. It seemed to be a spell to confuse and disorient the opponent and it seemed likely it would cancel whatever spell the necromancer had been about to throw at him. While the spell didn’t cancel, what did happen was the necromancer totally botched it. Instead of the spell flying forward to hit Arris, the dark bolt of energy the necromancer released instead flew far clear of him to impact a tree some ten feet to his right.

With a grim anticipatory clack of his jaws, Arris leaped over one last fallen and rotten log before he got to the necromancer. He feinted an attack towards its head and it desperately tried to parry with its staff, throwing its staff wildly off guard and far too far away to block the next blow which impacted heavily into its chest in a loud crunch of bone. The necromancer staggered back and away from Arris.

> Critical Hit! You deal Jano Norry 119 blunt damage! <

Arris would’ve loved to pursue the necromancer farther, but he had another problem to deal with. By this point in time, the two guard Skeleton Warriors had just about reached him. Luckily though, his cooldowns were all up and he had about 350 mana to throw around. Arris raised his right arm and channeled a Spirit Blast into the nearest Skeleton Warrior.

> You deal Skeleton Warrior 73 raw damage! <

With one skeleton staggered and temporarily disabled, Arris turned to the other skeleton. He raised the other hand, a Condensed Aether Bolt matrix flashing into existence. Mana streamed from Arris into the matrix as the skeleton got ever closer. Ten feet, five feet, then the skeleton made a desperate lunge toward Arris, seeking a hit. Unfortunately for the Skeleton Warrior, it was already too late. With two deft steps, Arris avoided the blow. Then, Condensed Aether Bolt was finally appropriately charged and Arris let it loose into the Skeleton Warrior’s chest. As the skeleton was lunging forwards for a second blow, the Condensed Aether Bolt Impacted into it and it exploded into a cloud of bones and armor, its chest and pelvis flying backward while a host of small bones flew through the air and impacted into Arris.

> You deal Skeleton Warrior 218 mixed damage! <

> Skeleton Warrior has died! <

> Flying Debris deals you 0 blunt damage! <

Not a moment to spare, Arris then waved his right arm down, directing the five Spirit shards swirling around him into the Spirit Blasted Skeleton Warrior which had recovered and turned to attack him.

> You deal Skeleton Warrior 28 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeleton Warrior 28 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeleton Warrior 28 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeleton Warrior 28 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeleton Warrior 28 raw damage! <

> Skeleton Warrior has died! <

With the last Spirit Shard, this skeleton also collapsed into a pile of bones. Now it was just Arris and the necromancer. Still, though, he was in a bit of time crunch as its other minions would soon be returning to aid it. He needed to finish it before that happened.

Glancing towards the still recovering necromancer, Arris saw that another spell matrix had appeared in its hands. This time, there were no words insulting Arris or promising his defeat. Instead, the necromancer just aimed the spell matrix at his feet and let loose.

A host of hands exploded up from the ground underneath Arris and grabbed onto his legs. Further hands attempted to grab his arms and head and totally restrain him, but Arris smashed them with measured swings of his staff. A couple more seconds and the eruption of hands halted, and Arris smashed the ones which had grabbed onto his legs, stopping his movement.

Freed from the restraints, Arris started running after the now fleeing necromancer. With a couple seconds head start on Arris it was already some thirty feet away. After a couple seconds of running very little distance had been closed and Arris realized that it would make it to its other six skeleton minions before he caught up with it or his spells came off cooldown. He needed another plan and fast.

None of his spells would work, the only one off cooldown was Spirit Shards, the rest of his spells still had over ten seconds before they’d be up again. He could use one of the grenades but once again, he was so close and it would be such a waste. It was a shame he didn’t have any ranged weapons that he could use against the necromancer. Maybe he could pick up a rock and knock the Skeleton Necromancer over with that. Then, Arris had a realization. He had something better than a rock to throw.

Arris stowed his quarterstaff in his inventory and then pulled out his morningstar. Taking careful aim, Arris sighted on the back of the necromancer, now some twenty-five feet in front of him. He then whipped his arm forwards, hurling the morningstar at the necromancer’s back. With a loud crunch, the makeshift projectile smashed into its back, bowling it over. A notification popped up. 

Congratulations!

You have learned the passive skill, Projectile Throwing! Projectile Throwing increases the likelihood thrown projectiles will hit and increases the damage they deal!

Effects:

+1% Accuracy of thrown projectiles per ranking

+1% Thrown projectile damage per ranking

Arris didn't even glance at the popup as he rushed to the necromancer. Toppled to the ground, it only took Arris only a couple seconds to catch up with the recovering necromancer. He summoned his quarterstaff, preparing to pummel the necromancer into a permanent death. Just before he reached it though, it flopped over onto its back, a spell matrix flaring at the tip of its staff and a mana shield exploding brightly into existence before it. But no mana shield would be able to stop Arris at this point. With two savage whacks, Arris broke through the shield.

> You deal Mana Barrier 47 blunt damage! <

> You deal Mana Barrier 48 blunt damage! <

> Mana Barrier has been destroyed! <

He then raised his arms, raising the quarter staff for the coup de grace. Just before he struck, the necromancer tried to reason with him.

“Please, we’re both fellow undead, I’m sure—”

But Arris was in no mood to talk to the creature. It had to die now before any of its cooldowns could come up. Stalling out the fight with a conversation would help it a lot more than it would help him. His staff hurtled down, cutting off its words and smashing into the creature once then twice.

> You deal Jano Norry 59 blunt damage! <

> You deal Jano Norry 64 blunt damage! <

> Jano Norry has died! <

With the necromancer down and only 6 spread out and uncoordinated skeletons left, the remainder of the fight was a cinch. The remaining skeletons only came at him only one or two at a time, and with his blows dealing some sixty to seventy odd damage now that he was in Warrior’s Stance, the skeletons hardly had a chance against him. He could down the one or two that attacked him before the others could even arrive. About a minute later the remaining skeletons were all dead. It was a shame he couldn’t collect loot from the necromancer's minions as that number of level 10 skeletons would’ve typically dropped some pretty good loot. But the loot he found on the Skeleton Necromancer more than made up for it.

The Skeleton Necromancer dropped only two things. However, both things were incredibly useful. One was a skill book for a spell named Grasping Hands, and the other its staff. Arris learned the spell and assessed the staff.

Congratulations!

You have learnt the spell, Grasping Hands! You may activate Grasping Hands to summon a swarm of skeletal hands in a small radius at a target area! These hands do not deal damage, but instead attempt to restrain the target, inhibiting all movement if possible. The effect lasts for 3 seconds.

Effects:

Totally restrain all characters hit with less than 43 Strength within 2 feet of the epicenter

30 total skeletal hands summoned over the duration.

Costs:

-40 Mana

20 second CD

Warlock’s Bone Staff of Power and Mana Regen

Condition: Superb

4 kg

Requirements:

79 Wisdom

30 Intelligence

Stats:

+15 - 20 damage

+10 Wisdom

+50% Increased Mana Regen

+10% Additional dark damage to all spells channeled through Warlock’s Bone Staff of Power and Mana Regen

Arris gleefully tossed the morningstar from his inventory, stowed his quarterstaff in his inventory, and equipped his beautiful new staff of power. With it equipped his wisdom had risen to a massive 121 and his Mana/10 was at a full 5.64. That was over half a mana per second! Now Arris actually had some sustainability in terms of spells during fights. All the boring searching for the necromancer had turned out to be truly worthwhile.

His new staff was truly awesome and gaining his first real crowd control ability only made it even better. Spirit Blast’s stagger wasn’t too bad, but the effect barely lasted half a second. 3 full seconds of immobilizing an enemy was sure to be a huge asset.

His new loot adorning him and all bosses and the vast majority of minions cleared, Arris was ready to head to the next level. He already knew where the exit was. The central city in the middle of the level had two roads leading out of it, one going to the exit of the level and the other leading to the entrance. Arris took the pathway leading to the exit to the level. After several minutes of walking, he’d finally reached the exit. After the next level, he’d be on the final level of the floor. Arris couldn’t wait to see what awaited him there.