The trip had mostly been boring, at least for me. Besides when we broke for a longer meal break, all I had been able to do was collect a few oleander flowers on the way, as well as a lot of rocks. Mia had been doing even less, only helping me with collecting a few rocks. None of her skills really applied themselves to our situation.

As I had predicted, we had been running into wolves, foxes, boars and a few bears of different levels. Though we had not run into any of the hawks, which were a shame since I would really love to get my hands on their trophies, however, they were classified as uncommon, so it was entirely possible we would not run into a single one of them on the entire trip.

One moment we were walking inside the forest, the next we were in a wide open field. It was too large to be called a clearing, as it was at least a kilometer radius from the center of the open space to the trees. The only thing maring the grassy field was the castle ruins, reduced to rubble. The once proud walls of ten meters, were now just piles of stone. The only thing that seemed to be intact were the archway where the gate once were.

Surrounding the ruins could best be described as an ancient battlefield, with rusty weapons and skeletons laying in piles around the ruins.

“Finally, took us almost twelve fucking hours to get here,” one of Al’s party members complained. He took a step forward.

“Stop,” I ordered.

Looking back at me. “What? You don’t give me orders.”

“True, but if you step much further out from the trees the dead will rise,” I said.

“You’re saying all those skellies out there will stand up and we’ve to fight our way to the dungeon?” Al himself asked.

“Not exactly. The skeletons takes up their ancient feud, but if you get close to any of them, they turn on you,” I explained.

“So we just waste all the skeletons in one area, and then move on slow and methodical,” one of the independent players said.

Shaking my head for all to see. “No can’t do. The skeletons out there can’t be killed. Sure you can put them down, but two minutes later they stand up. They give no XP and no loot.”

“That’s some bullshit,” someone said.

“Caution is the best choice, trying to cross the field in larger groups than ten is almost suicidal. Around five is even better, less likely to enter an aggro range. Anyway, we need to skirt around a bit and find a campsite,” I said.

There were some grumbling at that, mostly from the independent players. However, it had been what was agreed upon. Camp had to be set up before anyone went dungeon diving. Circling west around the field, and a bit deeper into the forest again we found a good spot for a campsite. A small clearing with a brook running nearby. Using Observe on it, revealed that the source of the water was of Below Average quality, which was the same as the publicly available wells in Blackport.

Robin set about setting up camp. Five tents and ten bedrolls was placed off to one side. A campfire was readied but not lit.

“We paid a gold each for this?” someone asked with disdain in their voice.

“Not really,” Robin said and pulled something out of her inventory. Holding it up so all could see what looked like a small wooden doll of an angel. “The money went towards helping to pay for this.”

“A doll for you to play with,” a gruff male in Al’s party said, earning him some snickers from the others near him.

“No, this is an effigy from the Temple, cost two platinum. When used together with creating a camp, it creates a protective circle. Anyone inside are not a threat to anyone outside. You can’t steal or cheat others inside the circle either,” she explained and placed it in the middle of the campfire. “But before any of you get any bright ideas, don’t think about attacking from inside it. You’ll break the protection for an hour. You’re also unable to enter it while flagged as being in combat. Meaning that you can’t run for protection if you bite off more than you can chew.”

“Still don’t see why we needed to pay a gold for the use of the camp,” the gruff man complained.

“Blue Lotus have paid over three platinum for the materials needed to create the camp. It’s a safe spot where you can log out, you can rest and regenerate Wounds and Exhaustion. We’re staying here until day twenty nine when we head back to town. That’s four nights, you would be paying the same for the cheapest communal room at any of the inns,” Ed said with an annoyed tone. “We can always give you your gold back, but then you won’t be allowed to stay here.”

“Alright alright, I was just wondering,” the man said and backed down.

“Blaze, do you mind lighting the campfire?” Robin asked and stepped away from the campfire.

Blaze grinned. “I love burning stuff.”

A moment later a jet of flame erupted from his hands and lit the campfire and effigy on fire. A wave of blue energy emanated from the effigy, reaching a radius of around five meters. It was not the largest camp, but she hadn’t taken the skill before now so it was okay.

“There, now the camp is up and running, and we can head to the dungeon,” Robin declared. Immediately my people started creating piles of the stuff they would not need in the dungeon.

Sir Miller asked loudly, “Not because I distrust anyone, or think they would do it. But is it safe to just leave your items in camp, with no one on guard?”

I let Robin or Ed field that question, since I had already filled them in on how it functioned. It was Robin who answered. “Sure it can be stolen, but anyone doing it will not like the consequences.”

“What consequence?” Sir Miller enquired.

“The camp is protected by a blessing of the Gods. Unless a guild declares war on Blue Lotus, the camp is off-limit for looting. If someone does steal something they are cursed with a visible thief marker for a day. Oh, and they receive a major Taint on their aura.”

“What’s Taint?” one of the independent players asked. Someone started to explain it to her, but I did not pay attention. I noticed the rest of our travel companions, started pulling out a few items, but they seemed reluctant.

“Do we need to put wood on the campfire every hour, or something like that?” Mia asked me while I was observing everyone. I had already sorted out my personal inventory, I was just waiting for the rest of the guild to be ready.

“Just empty your inventory and cart, put it all on there.”

“But won’t that smother the fire?”

“In real life, most likely. This is a game. It’ll just add time until the campfire runs out,” I said with a smile.

“The game seems so much like the real world, but at other times it just makes no sense,” she said with a frown. I just nodded my agreement. The first groups were already leaving, with Almighty Al leading the charge.

Ed walked over towards me. “Ready?”

“Sure, just have a few items for you before we leave,” I said and started pulling holy ointment out. I also called the others over.

“What’s this?” Blaze asked.

“It’s mostly for Petals and Robin, but the rest of you should also have some,” I said and handed Petals and Robin seven bottles of ointment each. Ed, Blaze and Marion got two bottles each. “This ointment is applied to a weapon, making it deals normal damage to ghosts instead of being reduced. It also increases damage against other undead by five percent. It lasts up to five minutes after being applied, depending on my level of Success. And before you ask Robin, one vial is enough for ten arrows.”

“That’s pretty cool, but is it really necessary? They’re worth quite a bit,” Blaze asked.

“You’ll see when you get to the dungeon,” I said and then handed each of them two bottles of holy water. “This is not for damaging the undead, but when you throw it on the ground it creates a barrier that they cannot cross. The water will only hold the power for ten seconds before it dissipates.”

“Okay. That’ll come in handy,” Ed said with a thoughtful look. “Let’s head out then.”

Mia quickly asked a question, “I’m not going to be attacked, being here alone?”

“Not likely. The Effigy is effective up to level twenty five,” Robin said and then pointed at me. “This one says that we need to head further inland to find levels higher than that.”

“Okay, but what should I do in the meantime. Butcher some things?”

“No, it would be best to do that when I’m here, bonus XP and all that. We’re probably gone until it’s time to log off, and probably some more,” I said and then looked around at the others. “So either work on Leatherworking or log off and spend some time with your daughter. Also tell the others that we’ll likely be late for training.”

“Okay,” she said. The party and I started moving quickly towards the ruins to catch up with the others.

When we arrived at the edge of the forest, we saw Sir Miller and his two parties standing there, observing the open field in front of us. As I had known would happen, the piles of skeletons had been reanimated, and what played out in front of us was a large eternal, bloodless and strangely silent battle. Sure there were the clanging of metal hitting metal, the groaning of wooden shields as they blocked blows, but there were no shouting, no painful screams or death rattles.

We could see Almighty Al’s party trying to snake their way through the battlefield, with the independent parties following close by. Sir Miller looked back at us and nodded in greeting.

“Taking in the scenery?” I asked.

“Something like that. Trying to find the optimal route, and assess the danger,” he said. “I’m surprised to see you here, I thought you were a crafter.”

“I am, but since they got the Escort perk for dungeons, I thought I might tag along. There might be some opportunities to secure better loot,” I said. Out in the field, one of the independent parties got too close to a pair of skeletons, who immediately turned around and attacked the players.

“Should we be worried about them getting killed?” Ed asked.

“Not unless they’re stupid,” I said. “The levels of these skeletons are fairly low, only around ten, and they barely got any health. They’re only a threat if you trigger too many at the same time.”

We watched in silence as the party quickly managed to put down the skeletons. Sir Miller turned to look at me, “I was pondering on what you said. How would you being there help them secure better loot?”

“Butchery,” I simply said. I did not mention the fact that there were herb garden in there.

“Yes, but they’re skeletons and zombies, not animals.”

“True, but things are a little weird in the traditional dungeons. I loot like the rest of you, but because of my skill, I get Below Average instead of Poor Quality.”

“That’s like cheating,” one of the Squirrel Knights complained.

“It’s weird, I give you that, but it’s a game. If it makes you feel any better I don’t get any XP or better chance of getting the loot. You should however consider taking up some non-combat skills amongst your party. Unless you’re a Dungeoneering party, then you should go for the Escort perk,” I said. The feature had been highly complained about, however it only functioned in the Traditional dungeons. There were not a lot of them, only a single one on the island. The old continent had the highest number of them, but when the continent was laid waste to by the Invaders, they were all destroyed. Leaving less than a hundred of them scattered around the islands and the new continent.

“We’ll look into it, it seems we’ve undervalued the importance of such skills,” Sir Miller said before he and his two parties started to cross the fields.

Ed said, “Let’s get going. We’ll head a bit south, I think I see a better route there.”

We followed were he led, and it seemed he had found a perfect route. We arrived only a couple of minutes after the others Almighty Al, and ahead of the Squirrel Knights. Unlike us, they had run into a fight or two. It was the problem with moving in a larger group of ten people.

The gate opening loomed ahead of us. There were two stone plaques, one on each side of the gate. The left one said “First Clear” and listed the three modes: Normal, Enhanced, Special. The other plaque said “Fastest Clear” with the same three modes listen. This dungeon only had three modes, but there were up to five modes, the other two being Superior and Elite.

As Ed got close to the archway, three balls of light appeared in front of him. He took a step back and they disappeared. I had already told him about it, but he seemed a bit unsure. Outloud I asked, “Ed, you’re not close to being level twenty one yet, right?”

“Nah, I’m still seven skill points away, why?” he asked and took another step forward.

“Because Normal mode is level fifteen, and our clear only counts if the highest level in the party is five levels or less higher than that,” I said.

“Okay. So just to be sure I got this right. I just grab one of the lights and throw it into the archway, and it opens a portal to the dungeon?” he asked for clarification.

“Yup, doesn’t matter which ball you grab. If you want a higher difficulty, then you throw another ball,” I said, just as the Knights arrived next to us.

“Okay,” Ed said and took a step forward, making the lights appear again. He grabbed the middle one, and threw it at where the gate should have been. What looked like a blue swirling vortex opened up, but there were no suction.

Marion gulped next to me, “That looks a bit intimidating.”

“It’s a trial of the Gods, it’s meant to be intimidating,” Robin said with a grin.

“Good luck in there,” Sir Miller wished us.

“Same to you,” Ed said before sending me an invite to join in the dungeon as an escortee. As soon as I had joined, he stepped into the portal, the rest of us just behind him.

The twisting of innards left me hunched over, dry heaving like normal. Looking miserably up at the others, I just saw smiles. It had long since been established I never got used to being teleported. We were inside what looked like a dirt tunnel.

“Okay, we’re in the escape tunnels of the castle,” I explained, and was about to say something about how the trap layout was the only thing that changed, but then I remembered Petals was not wholly read in on me being from the future. “According to what I’ve been told it leads into a secret door in the pantry. Our final destination is in the vault.”

“Okay, can we expect any resistance or traps down here?” Ed asked.

“Skeletons and ghosts maybe. There’s also traps down here,” I said, giving him an apologetic look when Petals was not looking. We would need to save up coin enough for magical contracts for all members of the guild to sign.

“Good to know,” Ed said and summoned an earth elemental. “Petals, you’re right on the heels of my elemental. Blaze and Marion you’ll be following a few steps behind. Damian you come next, followed by Robin and me.”

We started making our way down the tunnel. After the first twist in the tunnel the earth elemental got crushed beneath a pile of large rocks, not enough to kill it, but it definitely hurt. After the third, we came upon three skeletons. The skeletons were armed with short swords, not that it helped them much. The fight that broke out did not even last a single minute, and besides a small injury to Petals, all the damage was tanked by the elemental.

When they died, their weapons dissipated and they became piles of bones. It was Blaze that asked, “No drop from the skeletons?”

“Not weapons, the only weapons we can get out of here is the ones we find in treasure chests, which is extremely rare, or the vault. If it’s the latter, it needs to be bought with points,” I said.

“Points?” Blaze and Ed asked at the same time.

“Everytime you complete the dungeon you’re awarded points. Mostly a fixed amount, but bonuses for first clear and beating the speed record,” I said and moved forward to loot the skeletons. “Then at the end of each clearing of the dungeon you can exchange the points for loot from the vault. The loot get restocked every month.”

“That’s pretty cool,” Marion said.

Ed had other thoughts on the subject. “If there’s an extra reward for beating the speed record, isn’t it best to keep it as slow as possible?”

“You’d think so, but no,” I said as I bent down over the first pile of bones. “Every time someone completes the dungeon, but it does not beat the fastest time, it puts a certain amount of points into a pot. If you beat the fastest time you get the pot. However, if you’re the record holder, you empty the pot every time you clear the dungeon, even if you don’t have the fastests time.”

“I see.”

Since there were no other questions coming in my direction at that specific moment, I reached out and touched the bones. ‘Loot.’

Militia Skeleton

Quality based of Butchery Tier: Below Average

Lucky Charm: +1%

Possible Loot

2 pounds of animated bones - 76%

10 copper coins - 51%

2 pounds of animated bones - 36%

1 silver coin - 26%

2 pounds of animated bones - 16%

2 silver coins - 11%

1 manastone [1/10 (9)] - 5%

5 silver coins - 2%

The Mother was not with us, she was laughing at us. One of them dropped nothing, while the two others only dropped a kilo of bones each.

“Well that sucks,” Blaze grumbled when I told them the result of looting.

“Yeah,” Petals said. When I stashed away the bones, she asked, “Why are you looting the bones?”

“Well, they might not be the best loot, but until we find something better we got them,” I said with a shrug.

“I can understand that, but aren’t a pound of bones only worth a single copper?”

“Oh, these are animated bones, they’re Uncommon. Some of the magic that was used to animate the skeletons, are now residing in the bones, meaning that they give more crafting points. Three times the amount in fact,” I said. “These are worth ten copper per pound. Might not sound like much, but I can always use them in crafting fertilizer or glue.”

We moved on, following the tunnel, only slowed down by traps triggered by Ed’s elementals or when there were a side room. After fifteen minutes Ed stopped our progress, just as his elemental turned the corner.

Looking at the rest of us, but mostly at me, he said, “There’s a larger group of skeletons in there. Twelve of the skeletons we’ve been fighting so far, but there’s also one with a shield and axe. They seem to be guarding a door.”

“Behind the door we should find the stairs that lead up to the castle,” I said. “Don’t underestimate the skeleton with the shield. It’s more dangerous, and cleverer than the other skeletons.”

“Okay, do you think we should use some of the ointment?” Ed asked.

“Robin and Petals definitely should,” I replied.

“You heard him. I’m going to run the elemental straight at them, get the aggro. Petals, I want you to wait a few seconds, and then peel off three or four of them. Everyone else concentrate on burning down the weaker target first,” Ed instructed them. A handful of seconds later, I heard metal hitting hardened dirt, then Petals ran around the corner, followed closely by the others.

A moment later I heard Petals use Taunting Roar, followed by the sound of metal hitting wood. The constant use of Marion and Blaze’s spells followed, as did the twang of Robin’s bow.

After two minutes I heard Ed shout, “Blaze, as soon as the elemental blows, move up and use Burning Hands on as many as possible. Petals I need you to maneuver your skeletons closer.”

Thirty seconds later there was a large explosion, which meant that Ed had most likely used Premature Severing to blow up his freshly summoned elemental. That was followed by the roar of flames, and the sound of Blaze laughing.

“Back away Blaze, let the new elemental take care of tanking,” Ed called.

Blaze shouted back, “Got it boss.”

“I could use a spot of healing,” I heard Petals shout.

Robin was the one to respond with a “On it.”, followed moments later by a Terrifying Shriek.

The fight lasted another couple of minutes, and ended shortly after Ed exploded his second elemental.

“Damian, time to loot,” Blaze said after poking his head around the corner.

“Got it.”

I quickly moved around the corner in the tunnel, and found myself in a fairly large open area, with a single locked door. Thirteen piles of bones were scattered around the room. The party was busy healing and meditating. Seeing no need to disturb them, I set about looting the skeletons. The Warrior Skeleton, had a 100% chance of dropping the key to the door and the coin rewards were doubled. Otherwise the loot and chances were the same.

“So what can we expect upstairs?” Ed asked.

“Fewer Militia Skeletons, and more Warrior Skeletons, as well as some Zombie Workers, Zombie Knights and most definitely a few ghosts.”

“Okay, where’s the vault?”

“A stair behind the throne, in the throne hall.”

“Sounds a bit too easy,” Marion commented.

Chuckling I agreed with her. “The Vault need three keys to open. We need to defeat the Skeleton King, the Banshee Queen and Zombie Princess in three of the towers, and then we’ve to fight the Court Wizard when we open the vault.”

With a snort, Blaze said, “Sounds rather cliché.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” I replied with a grin.

Ed was not up for small talk though, “If everyone is done resting, we should head further into castle.”