Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 10

The first things Quietus heard was the sound of Jack’s voice scolding him for being slow. In this case, he had been dead for approximately a week inside of the game, instead of the usual four days.

“I had things to do,” explained Quietus.

“Hah! Things to do, so you delayed coming back to life? Death is such a casual thing for you lot.”

“Well, it is only temporary. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“I wish I could say the same for myself. Tell me though, do you really accept it that easily? You have no fear of death?”

“No, none at all. Why do you ask?”

“Well, there are rumors among my... friends... of a secret power that can only be obtained by those who do not fear death. Of course, it may be just a rumor... but if you are interested in investigating it, it could be worth your time.”

*Ting*

Explore the ancient ruins

Rumors exist of a secret power available only to those who do not fear death. Explore a nearby dungeon and unlock the secrets held within.

Difficulty level: D

Quest requirements

Leaving the dungeon before the quest is fulfilled will result in failure.

“A secret power? That sounds excellent.” I didn’t know this game had secrets, it’s probably just a standard quest, thought Quietus, exposing his ignorance once more... but privately this time.

You accepted the quest.

“Very well then, the rumors say that the secret is located in Seeker’s Den. I’ll mark the location on a map for you.”

Quietus had heard of Seeker’s Den. While he had been in the marketplace stalking casually observing Marcus Phinx, he had overheard some other people talking about it. The summary was that it was a deathtrap, literally. Fortunately only low level monsters were there, but they had terrible loot and there were traps everywhere in the dungeon. It had been thoroughly explored for secret doors and treasure rooms, and it had been unilaterally determined that the dungeon was useless. He would be going there to search for a secret, with no skills that were any good for that. This was a rather unfortunate quest... however, if he succeeded, he was bound to get something good. Maybe all he had to do was go look around and determine there was no secret...

“Thanks for watching over me while I was out, Jack. I’ll be back with a super special secret!” Quietus smiled at Jack, although he felt none of the confidence he displayed.

“Ha! Well, with that attitude, you may have a chance. Good luck.”

Thus, Quietus went out on his first quest that did not involve the city. He hunted quite a few rabbits for practice on the way, and picked up a few levels. The dungeon was relatively easy to find, since it was near a road and not intentionally hidden.

Quietus entered Seeker’s Den, and was immediately struck by an arrow, from a trap. He resigned himself to death.

Death was coming rather slowly this time it seemed.

Fortunately for Quietus, however, this trap wasn’t actually enough to kill him with the couple levels he had under his belt. He was relieved to find he could survive the traps. He spent some time resting to recover his health, then moved on to the next room.

In the next chamber, he found his first enemy. A skeleton. Very low level, armed with nothing but its own bones, it could still be a threat to Quietus, who had no armor. The skeleton let out a strange scream, and attacked.

Fortunately for Quietus, he now had at least some indication of how to avoid being attacked. It wasn’t perfect, but he managed to avoid enough of the damage to survive until he could hit the skeleton at some weaker points of its skeletal structure. Eventually, it collapsed, leaving behind some rags. I can definitely do this, thought Quietus, feeling new confidence from his success.

Thus, when he entered the next hallway, he was surprised. Specifically because the next trap hit a lot harder than the previous one. Ah, this is that sensation I was expecting.

Quietus died.

--------------------------

When he came out of his capsule, Mortimer was slightly worried. The quest had said he would fail if he left the dungeon. Did he fail it because he died? He probably had. There went his chance at the special power.

Mortimer went to train with master Valarao, who seemed to make himself available whenever Mortimer was. Then again, Valarao didn’t seem have anything else to do here, so perhaps he felt it was easiest to be flexible with his schedule.

During the sparring, Mortimer tried to see where his master’s bones were positioned. He figured if he hadn’t failed the quest, he could at least learn how to fight skeletons. It was a very difficult process, since there was quite a bit of skin and flesh and muscle in the way. Mortimer did get a better feel for where master Valarao’s limbs were placed, or at least so he felt.

Mortimer wasn’t quite so sore the next day, so he didn’t skip out on his usual routine at school, observing stalking Solara. He was apparently tired enough to mix his words up, though.

--------------------------

Upon waking in Royal Road, Quietus was surprised to find himself exactly where he had died. He should have been returned to the temple, or in his case, the morgue. He remembered some more conversation from the marketplace about the spawn being bugged. He had assumed it would have been fixed by now, especially with the penchant for quality from the makers of Royal Road. Well, at least in this case he was lucky, because he didn’t fail the quest.

Quietus was much more careful in exploring the dungeon after his incident with the more powerful trap. Since he had died near the trap trigger, he was able to find a reference for what other traps might look like. This helped him avoid, or at least lessen, quite a bit of pain from other traps.

Quietus made his way towards what he felt was the center of the dungeon, because he figured that would be the best place to start. With his slower pacing of the dungeon, his stealth skill was much more effective. Now he could sneak up on the skeletons and get in a critical hit before the combat started, which made it much easier. They weren’t worth much experience though, and they kept dropping slips of cloth instead of anything resembling real loot.

Then, Quietus found what was obviously the main room. It was larger than the others, and it sported a slightly larger skeleton, with glowing eyes. The skeleton also appeared to be wielding an ornate dagger. It had a very impractical wavy blade, but Quietus liked it. Enough, in fact, that he forgot to watch his feet.

Fortunately, the arrow from the trap missed him. Unfortunately, the pressure plate made a click, along with the arrow against the wall. What really screwed up his stealthiness, however, was his surprised profanity as an arrow just missed his head.

Suddenly, the large skelton’s evil eyes were fixed on Quietus. Then, it spoke. “You will be sacrificed on my altar, and I shall consume your life!” Then, it made some very obvious moves to attack Quietus.

The only thing that saves Quietus from a quick death was the fact that it wielded a knife. Sure, it was “real”, unlike the ones master Valarao used, but getting hit by the “fake” ones still hurt. The skeleton was also a bit slower than the other ones. Even this would not have been enough to save Quietus as he frantically dodged around, dealing rather trivial damage since he was failing to hit the skeleton’s weak points. It was not enough for it to be slow and wielding a dagger, but what gave him the slightest edge was that it was not actually very good with using the dagger. It was probably used to sacrificing people in it’s former probably-an-evil-cultist life.

Quietus ducked and spun and performed various slashes and stabs... some of which went through empty air where vital organs were supposed to be. Somehow, though, he got inside the skeleton’s reach, and dealt a final blow to it’s spine, just below it’s skull. It fell apart, just like the others, and the light went out of it’s eyes.

*Ding*

You have gained a level!

Quietus was a solid level 5 now, and had only managed to hold his own against the skeletons because they were rather pathetic. Except for that dagger, anyway.

Quietus quickly looked for it, since he wanted it. However, all he found were two copper coins. Two coppers from something like a boss. Very weak, to be sure, but there should be something more. He looked around the room, even searching around and behind the sacrificial altar, but there wasn’t anything else to be found. Well, I guess I can’t expect secrets to just pop out easily.

He moved on to explore the rest of the dungeon. Unfortunately, he got careless after a long period with no traps, and thus wasn’t ready for the next big one he stumbled across.

He spent the next several days in and out of death and exploring the dungeon. He explored every nook and cranny of Seeker’s Den. During this, he noticed that the traps didn’t trigger when he was heading away from the central chamber. He occasionally returned to the central chamber, but he had no desire to fight the boss. It had only dropped two copper, and now it actually looked stronger than before. Instead of just glowing eyes, it appeared as if it’s whole skull were on fire. He wasn’t sure that the first time wasn’t a fluke, anyway.

At this point, he was ready to give up and leave, even if it meant failing the quest he was beginning to think was impossible. He was making rather good progress on stealth, although his deaths set him back some in that regard. Thus, when someone else, who obviously hadn’t heard that the dungeon was horrible, made entered and even made it to the boss room, Quietus watched him die. He came back the next day to watch the poor warrior come back to life and realize he had to extricate himself from this horrible dungeon manually. Out was easier than in, however.

Quietus followed the warrior to the entrance. Just a few more steps, and he would fail the quest. Still, he couldn’t complete it, so what was the point. All he’d gotten from that crazy skeleton cultist was two copper pieces, and he had been refused the shiny sacrificial dagger. The only other loot besides rags he’d received was another pair of coppers, from another skeleton in a small side chamber. A real skeleton, not one of the animated ones. It had been lying on a much smaller altar than the one in the main chamber. Quietus had determined that the poor soul had died from a very sharp blade, right to the heart, piercing even the bone. It was strange that the bones had stayed there.

Quietus looked at the outside, where he wouldn’t be haunted by traps and skeletons, and turned around, back into the dungeon, with a new determination. He wouldn’t give up this easily. There was one last thing to try.

It was not too long before he had made his way back to the central chamber. He did not draw his dagger, and walked confidently up to the altar. Out of his pocket he pulled two copper pieces. He lay on his back on the altar, a cold stone slab, much like what he had seen in the morgue, but much more grim with it’s promise of death being dealt instead of just the acknowledgement of previous death. The skeleton watched him with it’s glowing eyes and burning skull. It approached him. “You will be sacrificed on my altar, and I shall consume your life!”

Quietus put the copper coins over his eyes, and he heard the the dagger raised through the air, then come down and pierce his chest. He braced himself for the familiar feel of death.

End Chapter 10

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