Okay, time for the question everyone is waiting for the answer to... and you can already guess the answer, because of the title of this thread.

I will be posting more chapters of Necromancer.

Currently, I am planning to release one chapter per week, on Thursdays. I know, it's not a lot, but unfortunately I don't have an infinite amount of time to write. I also do other things with my life, after all. In addition, I'm Gonna be a Wizard When I Grow up (http://halostystales.wordpress.com) will be coming out on Mondays.

Thus, chapter 57a follows. Why a? Because I realized after writing later chapters that I wanted to split this one into two, and I didn't want to renumber the later chapters. Yay laziness.

Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 57a

Quietus was quite nervous upon entering the throne room, but before he did anything stupid, he realized it was a formal setting. He could easily fake the proper interactions for such a setting, like he did in real life. Thus, he waited for King Suna to speak first.

He waited, and then waited some more. Quietus wasn’t actually sure that King Suna wasn’t, in fact, dead. He wasn’t moving, and he certainly didn’t look healthy. On the other hand, he was a mummy. Quietus watched him carefully for any signs of movement. Breathing, no, that wouldn’t happen. Slight shifting, a slight movement in his wrappings? None of that. Even with his spot skill, Quietus could detect nothing from his position. He turned his eyes to the guards flanking the king, and they, too, showed no signs of movement. This was actually encouraging, since it indicated that the mummies could stand perfectly still.

Quietus attempted to stand still, but it was hard. He almost wanted to get out some bandages or something and wrap them around himself, so he could practice his undead mimicry skill. He figured that would be rather tactless, though. So, he waited. Finally, something happened.

King Suna’s head came up suddenly. “Huh, what? Who’s this?”

One of the guards answered him. “This is Quietus, my lord.”

“Who? Oh yes.” King Suna nodded. “Welcome, young man.”

Quietus succeeded in not getting angry that King Suna had been asleep, mostly because of the novelty of an undead sleeping at all.

King Suna continued, “I have heard about your adventures. I must say, you are an interesting fellow.”

Quietus was surprised that King Suna had heard of him. After all, Quietus only had fame numbering a few hundreds. However, thinking about it for a bit, he realized that his much larger infamy would be more likely to be recognized by the undead anyway. “Thank you, my lord.” Quietus sensed that King Suna was not done speaking yet.

“You are the first living soul I have seen in centuries. Tell me, what has brought you here?”

Quietus figured that there was no reason to beat around the bush. “I come because the knowledge I seek has been lost to the living. I have come seeking information about the necromancer Aullet, whom I heard you knew.”

“Yes, I did indeed know him. However, such knowledge is precious, and not to be given lightly. Now, we do not consider you an enemy, but neither are you our friends. Perhaps if that changes, I shall give you the knowledge you seek."

A quest has been updated!

Aullet

To receive information about Aullet, you must increase your reputation among the mummies.

“Thank you, oh wise king, I shall return later.”

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

Basically, Quietus had to do quests for the mummies. So, he did everything, from finding more slippers (these were just lost) to repairing injured mummies. Although they would respawn upon death, some decay remained, and the mummies weren’t as strong as they once were. Quietus purchased fresh bandages and herbs for embalming, among other things.

Quietus also spent time observing the mummies, even in combat with players. In fact, he intentionally sought those battle out. After enough observations, he gained the ability to mimic mummies as well. Mummies were slow but powerful. Unlike ghouls, their mental faculties were not weaker. They could disease people with a touch, which acted somewhat like poison, but the effects were more drawn out, and harder to fix. In a short combat, it was less useful, but Quietus saw how it could be of use in a longer battle, such as a siege. Especially if it could spread. Normally, it didn’t, but Quietus decided to explore that option.

As a side effect of the mimicry…

*ding*

You learned the skill Bandage.

Enables you to stop bleeding.

Increases life of the wounded when tended.

Special:Slightly increases the health when using Undead Mimicry to take mummy form.

Although he already had stitching to stop bleedings effects, it didn’t really help restore life. Plus, Quietus figured bandaging would be less painful than stitching, so he was glad to have another skill.

Along with the more peaceful repairing of mummies and observation quests, Quietus got quests to slay the enemies of the mummies. That is, players. King Suna’s tomb didn’t have a temple nearby, and thus no respawn point. However, some high level players had resurrection spells that duplicated the effects of temples. The key factor there was that they needed the bodies. At first, Quietus hid them, but there were enough high level players that they were all tracked down eventually. So, Quietus started turning them into undead. After that, the bodies would be unable to be raised by spells. While they were undead, they significantly helped him. He actually managed to create some ghouls and low-tier death knights. Much better than zombies.

While his undead army fluctuated in size, from players killing them off and just time, Quietus continued his sneak attacks on the other players around the area. Mummies were terrible at stealth, to say the least, so the players weren’t really prepared for Quietus. Since they weren’t prepared, they died, and so the word didn’t get out, at least until people started contacting those they knew in person. Fortunately, the closest respawn point was far enough away that returning players couldn’t arrive to help each other.

Of course, one player could not beat so many, even with a level advantage and a small army of undead. Quietus considered what it would take to get a large army of undead. Unfortunately, by the time he would succeed with such a task, more players would likely have arrived, as well as respawned players, out for vengeance.

His first thought was to recruit the local mummies, but there were too many players still around for that to be enough. Plus, all of the players were ready to combat mummies. Quietus wracked his brains for good ideas.

Among them, the first one was to sell poisons disguised as disease curing potions. Sadly, information about items stats were available for everyone to see, and his stealth skill only worked to disguise himself. Therefore, he had to table that idea.

His second thought was to flood the dungeon with a poison gas, but he didn’t have enough materials for that. In the time he would take to get the materials, he could have raised a large army of undead, and thus it had the same problem.

The option Quietus finally settled for involved his trap disarming skills. After testing, he determined he could reset traps with it as well. Although he couldn’t build a trap from scratch, he repaired and modified traps found in the dungeon. He made them harder to find, harder to disable, and covered in more poison and disease. Although the disease couldn’t spread beyond the primary target at his skill, it could still be applied to some traps to spread to whoever got hit by it.

This, combined with the systematic removal of those who could cure diseases and resurrect players, was all he could do alone. Still, it was effective enough.

End Chapter 57a