Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 38

Quietus entered the tailor’s shop. He had some things he needed to buy. “Needle and thread please.”

The shopkeeper pulled out some needle and thread and set them on the counter. “Need anything else? We just got a shipment of some good cloth in. Lots of choices of color.”

“No thanks, I don’t need cloth.”

“You hunt your own? Too bad. That’ll be ten silvers.”

Quietus paid the man and received his goods. He didn’t bother haggling over prices, it wasn’t worth his time. He didn’t even get a discount for his fame, because he was in disguise. Of course, if he hadn’t been, besides trouble with the guards, most shopkeepers would treat him much worse because of his high infamy.

Quietus didn’t need the needle and thread for tailoring. He didn’t plan to take up any more crafting professions. Might as well leave that to, well, the professionals. However, he did need them to help him with hunting. He’d run into some problems earlier.

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Quietus stared into the face of a tiger. It was next on the list of prey in his widening list of enemies defeated. It was useful to know how to fight different things, but most importantly it helped his anatomy skill level up much faster… which helped his critical hits, and thus any sneak attacks.

The tiger stared back at Quietus. It had good enough senses that he couldn’t sneak up on it. Eventually, the tiger decided to make the first move, and pounced.

Quietus leaned to the side as he slashed. He hadn’t quite finished setting up his Spectral Hand to fire Dark Arrows at the tiger, but he’d still been ready for an attack. Master Valarao would have had his hide if he wasn’t prepared at all times. In fact, he’d been especially keen on that lately.

The tiger had still managed to swipe at Quietus as it went by, but he hadn’t taken the full force of the attack. Quietus’ own attack had been somewhat more accurate, and the poison seemed to be doing well.

Before it had time to attack him again, he started firing Dark Arrows at it. It howled in pain, with good reason. It got a few more swipes at Quietus, but he again avoided the full force of the attack. It was still quite damaging, but he managed to kill the tiger with more than a quarter of his life left. Perhaps not the best fight, but he’d get used to it.

Then, he noticed his health was still dropping. It wasn’t poison. He looked at his status window.

You are bleeding!

Health will continue to drop until proper care or magical healing is given.

Quietus knew there were herbs that could staunch bleeding, but he hadn’t bothered to keep any of them. He was also willing to bet that potions wouldn’t help, but he tried anyway.

Nope, didn’t work. Well, he’d have to find some other way to deal with the problem in the future.

You have died!

Unable to log in for 19 hours (76 hours in Royal Road)

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At school, Mortimer slipped past some dumb jocks into class. People had been looking for him, but they’d been so obvious about it he had no trouble getting past them with a wig and a jacket. Mortimer was avoiding conflict for now, but not because he was afraid of them. He was just waiting for the right time. It was possible they would give up on him, because he felt that ignoring them once wasn’t a serious problem. Obviously they felt differently.

Mortimer knew he would be fine in class, they wouldn’t risk doing anything in front of teachers. Outside of class, they couldn’t even find him if he didn’t let them. Still, it was becoming an annoyance. He’d have to do something soon. Well, for now, he’d go to class. It wouldn’t do to fall behind in classes.

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The second fight with a tiger went much like the first, although a bit better on Quietus’ part. Still, he was bleeding and needed to treat it. He rubbed some herbs on the wounds. The bleeding had slowed, but not stopped, as he’d expected. This was why he bought the needle and thread.

One of the first things Quietus noticed was that needles could really hurt. It wasn’t much worse than Dark Hand or Dark Arrow, but it was much more localized. He had to concentrate so that he didn’t twitch and mess up his stitching. His health was still going down. Then…

You have learned a skill

Stitching

Allows you to sew up wounds.

Stops bleeding and restores a small amount of health.

Quietus was hoping to get something like this. He managed to do a good enough job to stop all the bleeding, but he definitely wouldn’t say he had been elegant. Fortunately, he wouldn’t normally scar in Royal Road. Otherwise, everyone would look pretty messed up.

After a while of hunting tigers, Quietus got a strange message.

New Guild quest!

Damsel in Distress

A member of your guild has been captured! They are being held in a fort on the edge of the Plains of Despair. Rescue her!

Rewards: Fame, Experience, Guild Prestige based on contribution

Quietus didn’t particularly care about a guild quest. He was prepared to ignore it, until he saw one more line.

Name of Captured Member: Ruby

Well, he had time. He could go participate in this quest out of the goodness of his heart. After all, someone needed saving!

He started walking towards the location given, then stopped. It was really far away. Days, probably. He almost gave up, then remembered something. There was a method to get there faster… probably.

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Well, his method definitely was faster than walking. It was also much, much less comfortable. Tigers weren’t meant for riding. Some people would have wondered how he tamed a tiger, but that was the wrong thing to wonder.

The proper thing to wonder was why someone would make a zombie tiger. Well, the answer to that was simple. Why wouldn’t you make a zombie tiger? Unlimited stamina and high speed! Sure, there was the small problem of comfort. It was kind of hard to hold on, but fortunately Quietus’ climb skill helped him keep his grip.

When he got near the fort, fortunately not located inside of the Plains of Despair, it had only been a few hours. A few hours, but it felt like weeks. Tigers had hard backs, and Quietus’ rear end felt that quite clearly.

Outside the fort, or really a small castle, Quietus saw a group of people. He didn’t recognize most of them specifically, but they were wearing the emblem of Children of the Light. They were on horses, but they must still have been nearby when the quest happened. Among the people, Quietus did recognize Angelo. Of course, a knight must always be there to rescue a damsel in distress. Even more so when you’re friends with them.

Quietus wondered how Ruby even got captured in the first place. Usually, she was with Angelo and the rest. That should ordinarily have been enough.

Quietus surveyed the scene. A large stone building, but one tower stood out. It was much taller. A good place to keep a damsel. Of course, a dungeon would be better, but it seemed like a good way inside anyway. He’d first have to deal with the archers on the walls. He didn’t want to be spotted climbing with no way to fight back.

Fortunately he made it to the edge of the lower wall without incident. This was partially due to his excellent Stealth skill, but mostly due to the knights out front being really loud. Plus, he left his zombie tiger behind to expire. Zombies were terrible at stealth. He would have liked to keep it, but he had to keep recasting Animation or it would end, and then the body would disappear.

The climb wasn’t too bad, but Quietus took it slowly just in case. He had to be as quiet as he could because he was in a vulnerable position. Still, Quietus made it up onto the wall, and soon found the first archer. Watching for threats from down below.

At the same time as Quietus used backstab, he covered the archer’s mouth. There wasn’t an abundance of archers, and none of them had been placed in pairs. Sloppy. Quietus took them all out one by one. The last one actually managed to get a cry out, but it didn’t matter, since there was no one to help him.

Quietus now headed for the tower. From the sounds he could hear below, the knights were inside and about halfway through the fort. He could still make it to the tower first, if that was the right location.

Quietus picked a good location to climb up, right below a window. He didn’t particularly need to be quiet until he got near the window, so he made quick progress. As he peeked in the window, he saw a room. It sure looked like somewhere you’d keep a damsel. It could have just been someone’s room though. He didn’t see anyone inside.

After entering the room, he noticed some anomalies. First, the bed seemed to be missing some sheets. Then, the sheets seemed to be tied into a rope going out… the window on the other side of the tower.

At this point, the door was knocked down and Angelo burst into the room. “I’m here to rescue you… Quietus?”

Quietus pointed towards the window. “We’re late.”

“Then, what about the quest?”

Quest completed

Damsel in Distress

The damsel has managed to escape thanks to some distractions.

You have leveled up!

Quietus would have been more happy if he’d been more than 10% of a level away from leveling up, and if it had actually given him progress towards the next level. Well, obviously his contribution had only been as a distraction anyway. He shouldn’t have expected much different.

Angelo just nodded. “That’s what I get for logging in five minutes late.”

End Chapter 38

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