8

“Why does an elder lich icon appear on your party slot, that’s a whole lot different than a wizard icon.” Desna challenged the old man.

“It’s my subclass, I’m a wizard by trade but I specialize in the lich subclass.” The old man retorted.

“Funny you’d say that, wizards can’t specialize in the lich subclass, only necromancers and sorcerers can.” Siebold chimed in.

“Cryo, remove him from the party and run. He is not the person he claims he is.” Desna instructed.

Tapping the remove button, the man had no reaction. The trio was causing quite a commotion so the town hall adventurers were staring at the group. Necrozzo looked on, barely even making a facial expression. Well well well, what a surprise we have here. That witch is very observant. No matter, I will do what the instructions told me and eliminate this sorry group. Necrozzo thought.

“Hahaha, looks like you found me out. Time to die.” Necrozzo threatened the trio.

“Cryo, Desna, get out of here and make sure these adventurers go with you, I’ll hold him off!” Siebold shouted.

“We aren’t leaving you, we can help, ADVENTURERS, THIS MAN IS AN ELDER LICH, LEAVE NOW OR DIE.” Cryo yelled.

As he finished his shout, Necrozzo removed the wizard robes revealing a pitch-black set of lich robes of the highest tier and a skeletal body. His face melted away to reveal a skeletal head with red glowing eyes. A top tier bone staff appeared in his waiting hand and Necrozzo stared at the trio. By this time, the adventurers were already out of the town hall.

“Shield level 5!” Siebold said, producing a glowing blue magic shield around the trio.

“Reinforcement level 5!” Siebold said, adding a yellow halo to the magic shield.

“Enhance defense!” Desna said, a purple magic circle appearing over Siebold.

“Bone blight!” Necrozzo shouted, firing a green and purple blast at the trio, instantly breaking the shields and colliding into Siebold’s armor.

“Don’t worry about me, I can take this, the shields weakened the blow.” Siebold told his friends.

“Hahahahaha, that was the weakest of my spells and it burst past your best reinforced shields, you are incredibly weak.” Necrozzo laughed at the trio.

“My best shields? Ha. You’re joking right? Those were bottom tier.” Siebold laughed back.

“Those shields are designed to test you magic level and alert me of it while weakening the blow. Looks like you’re a level MAX elder lich, but I’m a level MAX++ tank, so you stand no chance” Siebold informed the lich.

“MAX++?? How?? That’s impossibly powerful!” The lich was surprised.

“I’m a top tier unit. Now say your goodbyes.” Siebold told Necrozzo.

“Sealing Shield level SUPER+!” Siebold shouted, an instantaneous blue hand grasped the lich and held him.

“Stupid adventurers, you may have stopped me this time, but next time it won’t be so easy. Take a look at my magic level now.” Necrozzo said.

“Hmph, what a joke.” Siebold said, opening his menu.

Peering at the magic level indicator, SIebold’s face went white.

“Y-you were u-using a suppressor? You’re an ULTRA level magic user??” Siebold said.

“Hahahahaha, yes I am sir, but you weaklings bore me and I have all the information I need. See you around.” Necrozzo laughed as he instantly teleported away from the group.

“Woah, that was insane. There’s no way we could have taken down an ULTRA level magic caster, that’s almost maximum level.” Siebold told the group.

“Well he’s gone and we’re safe, you put up a good effort but we still don’t even know his name. We should focus on tasks now.” Desna said.

“I agree, we need to get much stronger if we want any chance of defeating Lokuul.” Cryo said.

And with that, the trio was off to the location of the red ogre gang. The journey was very long and proved to be ruthless, because they were short on supplies and had to travel through a vast white sand desert known as the “bonelands” to arrive at their destination. The bonelands weren’t very far from the original village, and were an easy level location in terms of monster encounters, but it was difficult to traverse them because the land was inhospitable and blazing hot, so without much supplies it proved to be a hard task. Luckily, as a magic caster, Desna was capable of generating water and food so the group had an infinite supply of necessities. The red ogre gang chose this location in particular because they strived in areas with high heat, which is how they got their name “red.” Ogres were not very smart creatures, and that’s why their name wasn’t capitalized correctly. Traversing through the bonelands, the trio finally arrived at their destination.

-*~-~*-

“Necrozzo, you’ve returned sweetie.” Zebell greeted the skeletal lich at the stables.

“I am back, I gathered info like Lokuul asked. Why are you here you wench.” Necrozzo said.

“I’m here because Lokuul was too angry with you to talk to you one on one. He informed me to gather your information and then send you to him, he says revealing your true form was a massive mistake.” Zebell laughed at the pathetic skeleton.

“I figured as much, anyway, that trio has a massively powerful tank named Siebold and a witch named Desna that can use all types of magic. The weird boy is named Cryo and is classified as a ninja. The only relatively interesting thing about his aspects is his luck is maximum, which I’m assuming is the reason the max level tank is in the party.” Necrozzo informed the succubus.

“Very good, very good indeed, Necrozzo.” Lokuul said with poison dripping from his words as he revealed himself from the shadows.

“My lord!” Zebell and Necrozzo said in unison and bowed.

“Necrozzo, do you know why I might be angry with you?” Lokuul said menacingly.

“I revealed my true form sir, I am very sorry.” Necrozzo said back.

“Yes yes, that is the reason. Now come to me and face me.” Lokuul said.

“Right away sir.” Rising from his bowed position, Necrozzo walked to the dark lord.

“This is what we do to people who can’t complete a task correctly.” Lokuul said, staring deep into Necrozzo’s eyes.

Raising his hand, Lokuul snapped, and with just the snap, caused Necrozzo to disintegrate on the spot, leaving only his skull.

“Sir, his skull is still there, shall I crush it?” Zebell asked.

“No, Necrozzo was still a powerful asset. I will use his skull to reform a more loyal and powerful soldier to do my bidding.” Lokuul told the succubus.

“I see, sir, a very smart decision.” Zebell told the lord.

“Yes, indeed.” Lokuul said.

-*~-~*-

“That was quite the fight haha.” Desna laughed as the group sat around a fire and reflected on their quest.

“It sure was. I didn’t expect Cryo to finish off their chieftain so easily with that shadow strike.” Siebold said.

“Haha, I guess I am suited for this class then” Cryo laughed.

Taking a bite out of the meat they had recovered from the ogres, the group all thought about the encounter with the elder lich earlier.

“You know, those shields were not even close to my best shields, but they were still high tier and should have blocked his attack if it was as weak as he claimed it was.” Siebold said.

“Don’t worry about it Siebold, you did fine. Take the survival and move on.” Desna said.

“I guess you’re righ-” Siebold was interrupted by a growling noise.

Two blue flames peered at the trio from outside of the fire ring. It was night, so the trio could not see the body of the beast. Stepping into view, a jet-black wolf with chains all around it and blue flaming eyes appeared before the trio.

“A Hatchiyak, run!” Siebold cried out.

End of Chapter///