Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 20

Quietus was waiting around to spy on judge appraise his cousin’s party members, when he felt and saw a distraction approaching. However, he was on a mission, so he would not be distracted by the bard and her beautiful hair. Not even her pretty face and skimpy outfit would stop him from his goal. No, he had more willpower than that. He wasn’t going to stare longingly as she strode by. He concentrated only on his goal...

… but he only succeeded at that because she happened to walk over to Angelo, and thus made herself part of his previous goal of checking out the members of his cousin’s party. That is to say, observing whether they fit well in the party. Obviously there was no other checking out involved. He listened in on their conversation.

“So did you get that rogue to join us?” asked the bard.

“Nah, like I said he’s kind of antisocial. We’ll just have to find one before we do any dungeon crawls. Now all we have to do is wait for Maratis before we can head on to Twinsburg Heights.”

Quietus was surprised that they were planning to head to the same town he was, but if he had done any research, he wouldn’t have been. It was the only area nearby that had even remotely survivable monsters for people who were ready to move beyond the wolves and other monsters near Morata. Even the low level monsters near Morata had only moved in recently, with the extermination of the higher level monsters in the immediate area. If he had started a few months earlier, there would have been nothing a low level character could survive near Morata.

At this point, a priest walked up to the pair, obviously who they were waiting for. This priest was an effeminate man, with shoulder length hair. Actually, on second thought, Quietus was pretty sure it was a masculine woman. No it was definitely… he shortly realized his current train of thought was going nowhere.

The priest greeted the pair. “There you are, Angelo. Ruby.” Maratis nodded to both.

At this point, Quietus learned the bard’s name. He likely had chances to learn it earlier, but he may have been distracted by staring at the bard watching for monsters or something equally important.

“Well, let’s get going,” said Angelo. “There’s no point in just hanging around here.”

Then Ruby said, “Don’t forget we have to stop by the river on the way. I haven’t been strong enough to get over to there before.”

There was a general murmuring of agreement, and the party started heading east out of Morata. Of course, this included Quietus following behind. They were going in the same direction as he was, so he saw no reason not to travel a large distance behind with them .

Quietus remained in full disguise until they were a good distance out of the city. The reason for this was simple. If he was not in disguise, the pesky murderer’s mark would show up. After they were outside the city, he changed into his “normal” disguise, which barely fulfilled the requirements to not display the murderer’s mark, and would likely be seen through by anyone with perception skills.

The party was far enough ahead that Quietus had trouble hearing them, even though they were not being particularly quiet. His listen skill was barely high enough.

Ruby was saying, “When we get… river… then… increases attractiveness…”

Angelo replied with, “Then… watch for monsters and…”

Quietus was then pretty sure that they nodded to each other.

As they moved along, Quietus could hear a river in the distance. It was a nice, peaceful sound.

Once they reached a certain point, Maratis stopped. “You… go on ahead… I’ll stay here, and watch for…”

Angelo and Ruby went ahead. Maratis stayed and started looking around.

Quietus climbed a nearby tree and also started looking around. He presumed the group was looking for monsters for a quest, or maybe there was a boss in this area. He could just barely see part of the river in the distance. Then…

*ding*

You have learned a skill

Spot

Allows you to find hidden enemies by sight.

Special:Combined with the Listen skill, if an enemy makes sound, detection is easier.

At the same time, not by coincidence, he saw some short figures sneaking through the trees towards the river.

Quietus quickly climbed down- yes, it still counts if you fall the last five feet if you land upright… or mostly upright. Then, he stealthily set off after the monsters he had seen.

Fortunately, the one second from the back had poor hearing, so he didn’t turn around after Quietus stabbed the first one… several times, quickly. He was honestly surprised the kobold hadn’t cried out. He knew they were kobolds because he was now close enough to see their names.

There were only three more in this group, so Quietus figured he could take them down fairly easily. Unfortunately, he failed to get a critical hit on the second from the back, and he survived long enough to make quite a bit of noise, at least relatively.

The other two kobolds turned around and attacked. However, it appeared that they took their stealth very seriously, because they didn’t even make any major sounds of alarm at this point.

With the other two kobolds, Quietus also had trouble getting the critical hits he expected. Maybe they had different weak points than a regular humanoid, although they looked close enough, if a bit small at under four feet. Frankly though, they stood no chance. Not because Quietus was particularly good, although he was decent, but mostly because kobolds were weak, and just didn’t have enough levels.

*ding*

You have reached intermediate level in the Stealth skill!

New functions:

-15% increased damage on opponents who are unaware of you before an attack takes place

-10% of the stealth skill applies even when not actively using it.

His efforts to stalk not bother the party, combined with his sneaking up on the kobolds, had paid off. The intermediate level of stealth would certainly be very handy.

After looting junk off of the bodies of the kobolds, he used his anatomy skill to examine them. He identified that they did indeed have different weak points than he was used to, although not entirely. Furthermore…

*Ding*

Level up: Anatomy

Beginner level 6

Increases critical hit damage when striking a vulnerable location by 35%

The anatomy skill, which had been stubborn about leveling, finally increased. Quietus realized that he needed to fight a larger variety of creatures for it to level up more quickly. He hadn’t seen any new monsters in his recent training.

If Quietus’ listen skill had been just one or two levels higher, he would have heard splashing in the river, just around a bend and behind a small hill. Likely, he would have gone to investigate, but alas, he had not enough skill. The mystery of why the group stopped at the river would remain such.

After examining the kobold bodies, Quietus headed back out to where Maratis was, hoping to find the other members of the party there as well. They weren’t, but after a few minutes of waiting, they arrived.

“I finished… attractiveness stat increased by…” was all he could hear of what Ruby said. Then, the group moved on, this time more directly toward their final destination of Twinsburg Heights. Unfortunately, they had to log out before they got there, since it was getting very late in the actual day. They made arrangements for when to meet up the next day, and logged off.

End Chapter 20

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