Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 49

Quietus tested out his undead mimicry skill. So far, he only had one form, that of a ghoul. It didn’t take that much mana, but the mana cost became irrelevant anyway. This was because it reduced his maximum mana significantly, along with all of his mental stats. There didn’t seem to be any continuous mana costs associated with being a ghoul. However, the cost was more relevant when Quietus changed back to his normal form. Whether or not he’d spent any mana, he ended up with just a fraction left upon the return of his proper intelligence and wisdom statistics.

Of course, being a ghoul had its advantages. All of his physical statistics increased significantly. His mental stats were approximately cut in half, but his physical stats approximately doubled. As an undead, he had an unlimited amount of stamina, which was useful for long confrontations. Quietus had sharp claws and teeth. He even had the ability to spit poison. Although his spellcasting was very lacking in this form, he found it quite useful.

At this time, Quietus was running. He was not running from anything, but to something. Since the Plains of Despair were still quite large, he had more distance to travel towards his destination. Something else quite useful, he could use the stealth skill while sprinting at his maximum speed. Although it was obviously less effective that way, since he had unlimited stamina there was no reason for him not to. As long as he spotted enemies at a distance and made an effort to go around them, he went unnoticed.

Quietus’ progress was slightly slowed by one aspect of the ghouls he couldn’t do anything about. Quite simply, ghouls were hungry. Their satiety bar was used up quickly, and thus he had to stop frequently to hunt a monster or two. Of course, this hunger was not without its benefits as well. If a ghoul’s satiety bar was full and it gorged itself on food, its health was restored by a good amount and its statistics were temporarily increased. The only thing that seemed to affect the satiety bar was time, so Quietus ran and hunted in alternation.

One final, unexpected ability of the ghoul was a new skill. While he was a ghoul, he gained “scent”. Like listen and spot, it was useful for detecting enemies, but obviously it was in a different way than normal humans used. He could find enemies by scent from far away, but it wasn’t very accurate yet. Since it was low level, it wasn’t as powerful as he’d seen from the real ghouls, but he found it interesting. He also had better sight in the dark, enhanced even further if he activated his darkvision spell.

Quietus’ goal was a fortress in the Plains of Despair. The necromancers had been there, and it was them that he was seeking. As he approached closer he saw rare pockets of undead. Mummies, ghosts, dullahans, and once he thought he saw something like an undead witch. For now, he avoided them all.

Finally, he came to a spot that was different. Although there was some new growth, it was obvious to Quietus that this area had once been burnt out. He was beginning to recognize some landmarks from the video he had seen. Soon he saw structures, mostly walls that had taken a great bit of damage from something. He had slowed down before he got near to those. He was glad about that, because he spotted some dark elves in various places. His snuck past them as carefully as he could. Finally, he spotted the main fortress he wanted to enter.

In there should be some necromancers, hopefully. He looked around for anyone watching, but there was no one. He slowly climbed up a wall, and up to a window. He got to the edge, and peeked his head over to look inside. Then, a combat message window appeared.

You have been struck by an arrow! x 20

Quietus just hoped they wouldn’t mess with his body too much as he fell to the ground.

You have died. Unable to log in for 68 hours (17 hours in real life)

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

Mortimer stared at the four envelopes in his hands. Then he looked over at Angela. “Can’t I just give one to you?”

“Nope, I don’t count. I’m sure you can find four people to give them to. Besides, do you really just want family there?”

Mortimer grimaced at the thought. In his family, there were only boring old fogeys and Angela. Perhaps there were some more people his age, but they were distantly related enough that they never showed up at events. Normally, Mortimer would slip away, but his presence would be required for this event.

First, Mortimer found Alex. That was the easiest choice. Alex was obviously a friend. One envelope went to Alex, and three were left.

Next, Mortimer gave one to Robert. Although Mortimer didn’t consider them friends, he didn’t have anything against Robert. Plus, he figured killing a mountain lion together probably counted for something.

Mortimer looked at the two envelopes he had left. He knew where one more was going, eventually. The other one, he had absolutely no idea.

While he was standing in the hall being introspective, Dr. Stevenson, the Dean of Sciences, came up to him. “Greetings Mortimer. I hear your classes have been going well.”

Mortimer smiled slightly. Although he hadn’t had and classes with Dr. Stevenson, he was his favorite professor. Perhaps that was because he had taken his side so readily in the incident, but they seemed to get along well. “Yeah, I’ve been learning a lot of useful stuff.” He felt that was true, as he’d been much better at getting critical hits after some study.

“Good. I hear you have had some interesting answers on assignments and tests.”

Mortimer thought for a moment. “Everything has seemed pretty normal to me. Nothing everyone else couldn’t do.”

Dr. Stevenson gave an odd smile. “Of course. Well, I will talk to you later. Looks like it is time for my class.”

“Goodbye. Actually… here.” Quietus handed him one of the envelopes. “For you.”

Dr. Stevenson looked at the embossed envelope. “Thank you. I will open it after class.”

Before the day was over, Quietus worked up the courage to give an envelope to Solara. He’d asked Alex to deliver it, but he got the reply, “Do it yourself.”

So he did. Mostly, he held it out, said, “Here,” then scrambled away. Talking to her at all was still weird.

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

Quietus woke up in the dark, but it wasn’t nighttime. He slowly sat up. From his new position, he could see more light, one coming from a fireplace.

“You’re back early.”

Quietus turned toward the voice. He saw an old man sitting in one of the chairs next to the fireplace. Well, he didn’t have grey hair or anything, but Quietus felt that anyone over thirty was old.

“What?”

“Twenty eight hours early, by my calculations. It normally takes foreigners a full four days to come back to life.”

Quietus shrugged.

“Don’t care to explain? That’s fine. So, what brings you to this place? Looking for me?”

Quietus considered this. “Maybe. Probably. Are you a necromancer?”

The man nodded. “I figured as much.” He pointed to Quietus’ dagger, on a table next to him. “If you carry that, it is reasonable that you would seek out a necromancer. Tell me, why did you just not bring it to someone in a large city?”

Quietus got up. “In a city?”

“Of course. Since we’ve become more… accepted, we have representatives in the big cities. Although, in this case, you would still have probably ended up here.”

“The person who told me about it made it sound like I wouldn’t be able to find who I was looking for easily. Plus, they said you were here.”

“Interesting. That dagger was made by Bar Khan for one of his apprentices after he strayed from the path of sanity. It is unfinished.”

“That’s why I’m here. I’ve been told there is a way to attune it. That it might be able to improve my magic.”

The necromancer looked over him. “It might. It will all depend on how it has been used, and by whom.”

“I’m the only one who’s used it.”

“Good, then you should be able to unlock the best potential. There is a ritual to perform, it is not too hard. It does, however, require 200 oz of your blood.”

Quietus thought for a second. “I don’t think… I have that much blood. How does that work?”

The necromancer gave him an odd look. “You don’t know a spell for that?” He looked him over again. “No, I suppose you wouldn’t, necessarily. You’re a warlock, correct?”

Quietus nodded.

“Of course.” The necromancer shook his head. He pulled up a goblet, and chanted a spell. Then, he slit his wrist with Quietus’ dagger. After filling a part of the goblet, he chanted another spell. “Here, drink this.”

Quietus wasn’t sure what was going on, but he didn’t really care. He drank the blood.

You have learned a spell!

Blood fountain

Protects someone against the detrimental effects of bleeding. Allows poisons to be purged if done correctly.

Cost: 10 mana per second

You have learned a spell!

Close wounds

Ends all bleeding effects on a target.

Cost: 150 mana

“Are you prepared to perform the ritual?”

Quietus nodded.

“Well then, let us go outside. It wouldn’t do to get blood on the floor. It takes forever to clean out.”

As they walked outside, Quietus saw many dark elves giving him suspicious looks. However, once they saw the necromancer guiding him, they seemed to relax.

The ritual involved making a large magic circle with his own blood. Quietus had it all explained to him, then was guided through it step by step.

“You could use someone else’s blood, of course, but it would not be as effective for this purpose.”

Eventually, he had the circle up to specification. Then, there was a lot of chanting. Quietus wasn’t good at this.

“That’s the problem with warlocks. They don’t learn the basics of a good magic word or two. They prefer to skip over some steps just for the sake of brevity.”

Quietus eventually got that part right as well, so there was only one more step.

“Good, now, lie down in the middle, and stab the dagger into your heart.”

Quietus did so. He’d been told about that part, and he had discovered that stabbing himself or letting himself be stabbed was more frequent than he thought it would have been. “See you in… 68 hours?”

You have died. Unable to log in for 68 hours (17 hours in real life)

End Chapter 49

Next Chapter: viewtopic.php?f=47&t=2216