Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 31

The guild headquarters of The Crimson Raven was slowly becoming very busy. Guild members were slowly trickling in from the surrounding area. Although there had been some conflicts with The Children of Light, once the guild members had started traveling in larger groups, there were less problems. Of course, there was still the matter of the rogue that had broken into their guild hall. That, and their traps had started disappearing. It was unlikely that it was a coincidence.

The leader of the guild was a warrior in golden armor, Gilgamesh. He was not a happy man. “I had to kill him myself after he snuck in here. Then, you three failed to kill a single rogue?”

“Actually, he was probably an assassin,” spoke up the wizard.

“I don’t care! How did the three of you lose to one person, who, might I remind you, was killed in one hit by me?” The angry warrior neglected the small contributions his vault guards had made.

“We’re pretty sure he had back up. Probably another assassin, and a necromancer.”

“A necromancer? If they had anyone high enough level to be a necromancer, they would have just attacked already. Plus, that wouldn’t have been a problem if you guys didn’t let yourself get killed.”

“Well, it’s not like any of our scouts have been able to find him.”

“Yes, I am aware of that. I feel like I have to do everything myself in this guild. Why do I even bother?”

The trio felt this was an unwise question to answer, so they just stood there silently.

“Worthless! All of you! Just get out of here and try not to mess up anymore.”

The small group was happy to take the chance to leave.

The warrior stood and brooded. He could only hope that all of the guild members showed up in time. This new guild was starting to get on his nerves. How dare an upstart, self-righteous guild pick a fight with The Crimson Ravens? With his guild? He would teach them a lesson, even if he had to do all the fighting himself. Of course, that didn’t mean he planned to charge into battle alone. Better to let some of these worthless players wear down the enemy some first.

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The sound of pickaxes rang throughout the mine. It was a good sound, that of men hard at work. The foreman smiled.

Then, there was a rumbling sound. A cave in. This had happened before, but they would deal with it. They set about clearing away the rubble. Then, another, bigger collapse. Any time the miners made progress, the situation got worse.

They were out of water and food. Not that they had brought much with them to begin with, since they walked from the town every day. The last light had gone out recently, and all of them were trapped in the dark.

So they waited. For rescue. The sound of diggers. The smell of fresh air. A taste of water. The sight of a single beam of light. The touch of their families.

They waited.

Until there was nothing.

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Mortimer thought about his dream. It was weird. He pretty much understood it, but that didn’t make it less weird. In fact, the weirdest part was when it had happened. He’d tried to ignore it, the first time. Then, it came back. Every time after the Moaning Mines.

Every time when he died in Royal Road, he saw the dream. The first time, he had been very confused, to wake up in his capsule after that. Normally, he would expect to be aware immediately after death, instead of entering a dream.

Perhaps others would have been disturbed by this dream of death. In it, he was the foreman, and he felt the suffering of both body and mind as he died. Mortimer was not disturbed by it. He was annoyed, yes. Confused at why it was happening. He wasn’t disturbed, though, because that would imply that he cared. After he came out of the dream, he didn’t feel for the miners. He didn’t really know them. The pain felt hadn’t really been his. They had never even really been alive. So, he didn’t care. He didn’t care about the pain and suffering because it wasn’t his or that of someone he knew.

So he was annoyed. Annoyed that Royal Road was trying to make him feel something he didn’t. Annoyed that it wasted his time. Annoyed that he didn’t know what to do about it.

Thus, he did nothing.

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The Children of Light were marching. Their ranks had grown quickly. Obviously quite a few players had experienced trouble with PKers. The large influx of players turned The Children of Light into a somewhat odd guild where a large number of the players were higher level than the guild leader. Level was of course an advantage for a guild leader. It allowed them to take part in more showy parts of combat and have a more critical role in the best dungeon raids. Level wasn’t a requirement for a guild leader though, just leadership and sometimes organizational skills.

This, at least, Angelo had along with a passion against Player Killers. The guild had been formed of a variety of jobs and classes. Nobody was refused entrance, as long as their reputation checked out. Everyone would be found a job. Not that Angelo particularly knew what good the sculptor and painter who had joined would do, but a place would be found for them. Just not in battle, unless they wanted to participate. They politely, and reasonably, declined to fight.

The only real missing element were stealth classes. Although there were some rangers with vision skills, and even a few rogues, none specialized in stealth. They were still good enough to act as scouts though. Plus, Angelo preferred this to be a straightforward battle. It was more honorable. Still, it would be practical to have assassins to take out enemy wizards or some such. Killing them, even through stealth, was reasonable because they had chosen to walk their path. Not that it mattered, since they didn’t have any.

Except Quietus. Angelo wasn’t sure where he was, but he said he was “scouting”. Honestly, Quietus may not even have been good at stealth. Just having one incident where he managed to slip away didn’t say much, and he didn’t really talk about the specifics of what he did. Still, if he said he was scouting, he was.

At first, Angelo had been doubtful that he would actually participate at all, but Quietus had been sending in information that had proved to be quite useful. Somehow he’d even gotten a map of the keep. He hadn’t been able to deliver it in game, but he drew it outside. He gave assurance that it was accurate, even if his drawing wasn’t very pretty.

Perhaps more interestingly, he had been reporting a decrease in the amount of traps on the road. The rest of the guild stayed away from the road for the most part, so they had no other information there. Still, he wouldn’t knowingly report wrong information.

Then, just as the guild was otherwise finishing up preparations to go on the attack, Quietus sent a final report.

“Traps are gone, except for a few along the road in sight of the keep.”

“Really? That’s excellent. Are you going to join back up with the main group?”

“No, I’m going to try some stuff to distract them during the attack. I’ll let you know how it goes once it happens.”

“Alright, good luck cousin. Don’t die.”

There was no response.

The Children of Light were as ready as they were going to get to go on the offensive. Everyone was organized and ready for battle. Since there was no point in wasting any time, Angelo gave the command. “We march!”

Despite the assurances of minimal traps, scouts went out ahead of the group to check for them. All of the others remained in their groups, with melee classes and most of the healers in front, and the rest of the healers in the back with the ranged classes. Angelo was positioned somewhere in the middle. Not close enough to be the first to die, but close enough to give orders if they were necessary.

Surprisingly, the scouts came back with the news that there really were no traps for most of the road. They hadn’t been able to get close enough to check the very end, since The Crimson Raven appeared to be arrayed on the field between the edge of the forest and the keep.

Although The Crimson Raven wasn’t particularly known for their great tactics, they really should have been able to do better than that. Maybe it was some kind of ploy. Still, they were committed to the attack. It would happen, so they might as well get on with it.

As expected, they did run into some traps at the very end of the road, but nothing deadly. The warriors who triggered them weren’t in any great deal of risk, and were quickly healed.

The enemy formation now faced them from nearby. If such a mess could really be called a formation. Some of their casters were in the front lines.

Shortly, the ranged attackers on either side exchanged fire. An advantage of the enemy casters being in front soon was obvious- they had less range to cover. The disadvantage was soon apparent as well. They were some of the first to die under the barrage of arrows, fireballs, and lightning bolts from The Children of Light. It wasn’t enough to kill all of them, but then the front lines charged, and the rangers and casters in the front of The Crimson Ravens messed up their movement.

Soon, both sides were engaged in pitched battle. The battle seemed to be going in favor of The Children of Light, but Angela was watching for something important. The leader of The Crimson Ravens was supposed to be a large man in golden armor. He was apparently a very powerful warrior, much higher level than anyone else in the guild. He had good equipment as well. However, he was nowhere to be seen.

The better organized force of The Children of Light eventually pushed their way to the front of the fort, the defenders outside either scattered or dead. The healthiest warriors opened the strangely unlocked front door, and went inside.

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Abaddon hadn’t logged on in a while. He was actually rather terrified of getting killed by the assassin again. He’d been having nightmares about it. He always ended up in a strange new place, and he grew weaker while the assassin grew stronger. The nightmare were like that, but worse. They repeated many times. However, Abaddon had logged on today to join in a guild battle. After he had his guildmates go looking for his killer, it was the only way he could try to pay them back- although they had failed to rescue him.

He vowed never to log on again. When he’d entered the game, he’d immediately fallen out of a tree. Not enough to kill him, but it was frightening. Then, he’d landed on some spikes. If they’d killed him, he would have accepted that, and probably still quit. Instead, the spikes didn’t kill him. They were really more like small needles. Now, he was lying on his back, half dead. Half dead, and slowly getting worse. He was poisoned, and apparently also paralyzed. He could only wait to die, painfully. He knew he was going to quit Royal Road well before the message of his death appeared for a final time.

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Inside the keep, Gilgamesh stood in his pretentious golden armor and watched the battle. It wasn’t going well. He figured he would need to enter the battle soon. Too bad his guildmates were worthless. Then, one of them entered the room.

“Excuse me sir, I have a report.” He handed him a slip of paper. The warrior took it, then ignored it.

“What’s that in the trees, sir?” the guild member asked. He pointed out the window. The warrior looked over to where the finger was pointing.

“I don’t see anything.”

“Look closer. Just there.”

The warrior took off his helmet- it was probably impeding his vision. “I don’t see-” but that was as far as he got before he felt a pain in his neck. He looked down and saw a dagger buried there. It didn’t matter much, it was just about ten percent of his health. He looked down at the black haired guild member. No, the assassin. At this point, the assassin mouthed an obscenity. One swing from his sword went clear through the assassin.

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Quietus was really disappointed perforate artery hadn’t worked better. The stupid warrior’s health didn’t look like it had gone down significantly at all, and most of his mana was gone. All of it would have been, or more, if he hadn’t been using his Snake in the Darkness Style abilities for almost everything he did. Besides spying. He saw the warrior make a movement, and knew he was dead.

Then, he was halfway across the room. Just enough mana left for one last backslide. What a lovely ability. Then he turned and ran. No way was he letting that guy hit him. He couldn’t even fight back because his dagger was still in the guy’s neck.

Quietus ran down a now-familiar corridor and wondered what he could do. Then, he noticed that he had actually regained a decent amount of mana. Not enough to do anything amazing, but his mana was regenerating much faster than he was used to- even with the potion he had chugged hurriedly.

He was moving much faster than the warrior in his heavy armor, so he was able to get to a room where he had stored something.

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This assassin was quick on his feet. His backward movement had looked like a teleport spell. He was quick at running, too, but would eventually be caught and killed. He’d only managed to do about fifteen percent of the warrior’s health, even with the bleeding and poison damage. Actually, he was wondering about that. It shouldn’t have been this much. Still, Gilgamesh knew he could power through it. He didn’t have any antidotes on hand, but a health potion should counteract the slow drain on his health.

Excellent, the assassin had run into that room. Although he had closed the door, he was now trapped inside. The room had no windows to escape out of, so it was effectively a dead end. The golden warrior planned for the dead part to be literal.

He kicked open the door, and saw the assassin’s silhouette in the middle of the room. He slashed it with his sword, and felt it hit this time. There, that took care of him.

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Quietus dropped down behind the warrior. He felt the zombie die in one hit. That was about what he expected, but he was still disappointed. He wasn’t sure how he could survive this battle. Nobody was alive on this floor but himself and the warrior, but that was a small comfort. Most of the bodies wouldn’t be able to do much. Still, he had to try and stall until he could think of something.

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This little jerk was fast. He would have been a great addition to the guild, if he weren’t on the wrong side. More importantly, that would only be allowed if he hadn’t tried to kill Gilgamesh. Now all that was left for him was a swift death. Or maybe a slow death, to make up for this unending bleeding. It was really painful for some reason.

Another zombie went down. The assassin manage to dodge around the warrior. Two more zombies, both at once. These zombies were beginning to look familiar. The other players who had been on the floor. How were they all dead? Sure, they weren’t nearly so good as himself, but they should have at least managed to cry out for help or something before dying. Worthless.

More zombies. He was tiring, but it looked like the assassin was tiring faster. He didn’t seem to run out of mana though.

Then, the assassin took a wrong turn. He went down a side corridor that led nowhere. It was even more of a dead end than the other rooms. What’s more, it was well lit and narrow. He had nowhere to go, and it was definitely him at end of the room. The warrior charged. Just as his sword was slicing through the assassin’s arm, through it and into his side, he saw a red glow. It probably didn’t matter though.

Somehow, the assassin survived. He only had about ten percent of his health left, so all it would take was another swing of the sword or a quick punch to the face. That was all it would take, but the golden warrior couldn’t move. He couldn’t lift his arm. He hadn’t even been hit. Even the assassin was staring at him in shock. Then…

You have died!

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Quietus had taken a wrong turn. He wasn’t as familiar with this side of the building. As he stood at the end of the corridor, watching a warrior who had miraculously gotten down to one third health charge at him, he was prepared to die. He didn’t want to, because he wanted to win, but he would die.

None of his dagger abilities would do any good, even if he’d had his dagger. His spells were likewise useless. He didn’t need to see in the dark, or hide. He wouldn’t have time to use Dark Hand, and it would surely be negligible damage. Likewise, a Dark Arrow or two might have helped, but not enough. There wasn’t anything to make into a zombie. Soul Bind was even more than useless, he didn’t want this guy to stick around.

So he was left with… one spell. He hadn’t used it. There weren’t any circumstances where it seemed like a good idea. Except, perhaps, when a warrior was charging down a hallway and you were going to die.

Quietus prepared to use all his mana. It was full, somehow. His mana regeneration was currently mind boggling, but he knew most of it came from his Sadism stat. The warrior had been bleeding and poisoned and still had a dagger in his neck. That definitely helped. Quietus felt like there must be something more, besides just his average potions, but it didn’t matter.

He focused all his mana and used it on his last spell. Not to increase the duration, because he only had two, probably less, seconds to live. Instead, he put it all towards strength.

“Pain Mirror!”

Well, he didn’t actually shout that. barely even open his mouth because of how afraid he was of dying at this time. It still activated though. The spell cared not about the amount of force behind his voice.

Then, a sword was going through his arm. Really though it, just above the elbow. It really hurt. Then, it went into his side, where it stopped. Pretty far in, too.

Quietus just sort of stared at the warrior. He’d survived the attack. He looked at the warrior, who was slowly turning grey. Apparently, 90% of Quietus’ health multiplied by whatever his Pain Mirror was capable of doing with all of his mana… was enough.

You have slain Gilgamesh. Because of the player’s long history of murderous action, all of their items will be dropped.

Fame +200

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

Quietus would have been happy about this, but he was busy fumbling with a health potion to bring his health back over ten percent so he wouldn’t bleed out. Fortunately, since this Gilgamesh guy hadn’t actually used a bleeding attack, that was enough. His arm was still kind of on the floor though.

Quietus thought about it for a bit. He really would like his arm to work. He picked it up and put it onto his stump. Obviously, that didn’t help.

“Animation!”

Now Quietus could move his left hand. It was kind of clumsy though. It also still fell off when he let go with his right hand. He wiggled his fingers. Still worked though. Interesting.

Quietus searched the fallen warrior for interesting loot. Just a bunch of heavy armor- useless. Coins and potions- not too bad. Giant sword- useless again. His own dagger- back into its sheath. Then, one last shiny, golden thing. Probably just gold-plated though.

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The warriors of The Children of Light opened the doors to find… nothing. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. There were furnishings, but nobody was on the first floor. Slowly, the rest of the guild moved inside after them. People were sent to search the upper and lower floors. Surprisingly, when Angelo stepped inside, a message came up.

Congratulations! The Children of Light have conquered a structure formally owned by The Crimson Ravens. Because it was taken in a proper siege, the ownership has now transferred to the victors.

It really seemed too easy. Not that plenty of players hadn’t lost their lives, but they had not yet even defeated the guild master.

Angelo cautioned the guild, “Be careful when you look around. There may still be guild members around. Especially be on the lookout for the warrior in gold armor, and if you see him come find the rest of us immediately.”

A short time later, the people exploring the basement came back. “We found the guild vault… on the floor in front of it was this key.” One of them held up a large, gold plated key.

“Great, we’ll go check that. Most of you should stay here to watch for more enemies.”

In the basement, the key easily opened the door to the vault. Inside was a nice variety of ill-gotten loot. Swords, spears, armor, and money were piled everywhere. Small piles, since The Crimson Ravens weren’t exactly the largest guild of Player Killers, but still piles. There was a good variety of equipment and other loot in the vault. A keen observer might have noticed that there were no rings, amulets, cloaks, or leather armor. There were a few good daggers though.

“Sir!” one of the scouts that had gone to check the upper floors was reporting back. “Nobody on the upper floors… however there were small piles of loot, as if some players had died there. Plus, there was a pile of golden armor.” He held up the breastplate, emblazoned with a Crimson Raven. “It looks like someone killed him before we got here.”

Angelo nodded. “Add it to the guild vault there. We’ll distribute things as needed and useful, and of course everyone will get the promised bounties.”

The system of Royal Road could keep track of what had been accomplished for the guild, such as killing players from enemies in a guild war. This allowed a relatively fair way to reward people for contribution to battle, although obviously kills contributed wasn’t the only factor.

Angelo checked the logs that were currently only available to the guildmaster. When looking at a particular profile, kills of enemy players stretched back over the last week, with a larger number during the battle. This included one kill marked Gilgamesh- guildmaster. Angelo smirked. Some distraction.

End Chapter 31

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