Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 36

The warrior watched the road carefully. He was confident that the person he had to kill was in this area somewhere. He needed to kill this rogue again, for his own pride. He couldn’t let him get away with just a few deaths. He was obviously much lower level, and thus even the single defeat at his hands was an unforgivable embarrassment.

Someone walked along the road. Was it him? No, this one looked very different. Some kind of wizard, with spiky red hair. Well, that didn’t mean the warrior couldn’t kill him. It wasn’t like he was restricted to killing just for revenge. He waited for the wizard to get within range. As was his custom, he would strike just after his target walked past him, catching them by surprise. The time to pull his sword was approaching…

Then, the time passed. The warrior had been ready to start the battle, but not for it to start for him. He felt an eerily familiar pain in his neck. Then, suddenly, he could see the name of the player above his head. It was him. In disguise, again. How careless. This time, though, he would have nowhere to run. The warrior swung his sword down at the false wizard, who quickly retreated.

The warrior looked at his health. Down by twenty percent? Not having his good armor was really a big drawback. Although the rogue had used both hands to stab him with the dagger, it was still more effective than the first time. Still, the warrior was confident he could catch the little punk here. He charged towards the rogue.

His first attack missed by mere inches. He had been a bit careless. He repositioned himself for another strike. His aim really could use some work, the rogue barely even dodged and he missed again. Now the rogue was slashing at him, and although he was barely penetrating the armor, the warrior’s health was slowly whittled down.

After a few more swings, the warrior managed a decent sized gash across the rogue’s chest. Not enough to kill him, but one or two more would do the trick. Then, he got in another. One more. As the last slash went in, the rogue messed up his dodge and did a weird twist where he turned almost entirely around. The two-handed sword swung down, and then the rogue was gone. He hadn’t dodge, he was just…gone.

Then…

You have received fatal critical damage!

In the back? Was there someone else?

The warrior turned around with the last of his strength. There, he saw the ever-troublesome rogue. Then, he saw a dagger heading for his eye.

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Quietus wiped his dagger on the body, although it was not strictly necessary. As loot, he got a helm. He looked down at the face of the man he’d just killed. Blonde. Somehow… familiar. Where had he seen such golden hair? Gold made him think of…the golden warrior. He’d been in the Crimson Ravens. He appeared to have a grudge against Quietus, although he couldn’t think of any reason why it would be. He’d only destroyed his guild killed him once. Well, he’d also made him lose all his items looted his money, but that was just part of the guild war. Well, it didn’t matter to Quietus. He’d just remember to kill this guy on sight and leave it at that. He had no grudge against him.

Quietus thought about his new dodging technique. It could use some work. It was hard to use. It also wasn’t entirely new. It was just a use of Backslide while twisting. This allowed him to confuse the enemy, and since Backslide was closer to a teleport than movement, people couldn’t follow his actions unless they knew what to watch for. Of course, sometimes he just ran backwards into the enemy. Some of the tests had been… awkward. It was useful for getting in position for a backstab though.

Quietus decided to use it sparingly. He couldn’t use it in real life, so it wouldn’t help for his practice with Master Valarao. The training had helped quite a bit, and he’d learned to dodge with smaller movements. It was quicker, less tiring, and could be disorienting for an enemy who didn’t understand why they couldn’t get a hit in. Obviously, Quietus still had some work to do on the dodging front, since he’d still been quite injured.

Quietus then set off to do some hunting. He needed to keep slaying monsters to be able to keep up with his… recent activities. He had to kill himself, or at least die, to get into the “mines”. He didn’t want his level to lag too far behind, so he had to get some experience. At least he would quickly gain back lost experience as a bonus, thanks to The Power to Accept Death. Still, he lost some time for leveling in between.

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Quietus looked down from his perch near the top of a tree. It should be high enough for what he needed. He looked around for the best direction. Then, he jumped. He’d discovered that if he died in the same way, he didn’t end up in the “mines”. He’d wasted a day like that. Hopefully, he’d figure out what he was supposed to be doing soon.

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Quietus had tried many things to try to help the miners. However, he couldn’t find any way to interact with them. He couldn’t touch them, and none of his spells affected them. He couldn’t affect the world around them, either. So, he had to wait for their inevitable deaths to happen. Apparently, since there was very little going on in this place, time could be accelerated much more, so not too much time passed in the real world. Not that it made the waiting less boring.

Once all of the miners died, Quietus was ejected from the mines into reality. He felt like giving up, but it didn’t matter if he did.

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Mortimer had long since memorized how many miners there were, and experienced their deaths enough that he knew more than he cared to about their families and friends. Sometimes, he saw them in his real dreams as well. Whenever this happened, he felt like he hadn’t slept. He looked at himself in the mirror, and thought he looked like a zombie. Fortunately, it was still summer, so he could afford to be a little tired. Or a lot, as it may be.

Angela obviously noticed his changed state. “Mortimer, are you okay? You look like you haven’t slept for a week.”

“That’s not true… I get… some sleep.”

“Well, why are you not sleeping?”

“There’s a quest.”

“A quest? If you need help, I’ll come. I can bring others too, if you want.”

“No, it’s not something that more people would help with.”

“Well, is there a time limit? If not, you should just spend less time playing. It’ll help.”

“I only play like… four hours a day.”

“What? Then why aren’t you sleeping? Look, if you don’t get some sleep soon, we should get you some pills or something.”

“Yeah…” Mortimer said rather tiredly. “I think… I have an idea. We’ll see tomorrow whether or not it works.”

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Quietus had spent the better part of two weeks dead. Well, almost two months in Royal Road. It had allowed him to spend a lot of time training with Master Valarao and exercising, but he wasn’t having that much fun. He’d died every day, and this most recent death had brought an interesting occurrence.

You have reached intermediate level in The Power to Accept Death skill!

Upon death, experience lost will be stored in a buffer, which will give you a 55% bonus on experience until the buffer is empty. In addition, the lockout time upon death is reduced by five hours.

New features: Undead will be more friendly and are less likely to attack unprovoked.

Quietus thought it was interesting, but not currently useful. It didn’t seem to affect his ability to interact with the ghosts or memories of the miners. Still, he could try the one last thing he hadn’t.

Quietus had used his Soul Bind ability on each miner (it just passed through them) and himself. He’d tried it on rocks, and picks, and anything else he could find. Still, there was one thing he hadn’t tried it on that might work.

Quietus grasped his dagger in his hand, and through the same hand used Soul Bind. Interestingly enough, the dagger took on a black… glow. Obviously glow wasn’t really what it did, but it had a black aura around it now, the same as the chains that formed on things when Soul Bind worked. Perhaps this would do.

Quietus walked up to a miner, and slashed. As he expected, there was no resistance on his dagger. However, unlike what he expected, there was an effect. The miner cried out in pain and clutched at his neck. Then, he fell over on the ground dead. The other miners started panicking.

Since he’d found something that at least did something, Quietus set to work. He went around and killed all the miners, as quickly as he could. No point in making them suffer any more than they had to. He just hoped they stayed dead. He just wanted them to shut up and stop being in his dreams. The collapse of the mines had barely even started when the last echo of the last scream died out. Then…

You have completed a Quest!

The Suffering of the Miners

You have offered miners release from their torment through a swift death. Although it was not the most elegant solution, they can find some solace in a mercy killing.

Level up!

Level up!

Affinity for spirits has increased.

Sadism +10

Wisdom +10

A new skill has been learned.

Soul Annihilation

Beginner Level 1

+5% damage against ghosts and spirits

Prevents respawn of ghosts and spirits for an increased duration

1% chance to delay respawn of other monsters

Special: Increased growth of statistics when destroying enemies affected by Soul Bind

Quietus was glad the quest had finished. Now the ghosts should stay shut up. The skill wasn’t bad either.

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Mortimer came to his senses in the capsule. He got out and staggered over to his bed, where he quickly fell asleep.

In his sleep, he dreamed.

He was in a mine. In the mine were miners who had friends and family, and they would not stop pestering Mortimer with talk about them. It was starting to drive him crazy.

Then, from somewhere unknown, he pulled out a knife.

From then on, he was running around in the mines, killing people and laughing maniacally. Somehow, the laughing felt appropriate.

The mines seemed continue on forever, but he continued along, staining the walls in blood.

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In the morning, when Mortimer woke up, he felt he’d had a dream, but he couldn’t remember it. However, he did feel very refreshed.

End Chapter 36

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