Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 67

When Quietus arrived at the dungeon, it was filled with undead. This wasn’t his doing, it was just the natural state of the dungeon. Quietus sighed inwardly. It would be harder and harder for people not to realize that undead wouldn’t attack him. On the other hand, it probably wouldn’t actually matter if people found out he was a necromancer. After all, it was a legitimate class, apparently. Of course, that would also help tie him to many deaths of players, which was less legitimate, especially since he was supposed to be part of an anti-pk guild. Well, he killed pkers too, so… it balanced out. Or something. Quietus looked at his infamy stat. Well… it seemed it probably didn’t. It was a good thing the assassin’s guild wouldn’t take out hits for their own members, because otherwise he would be worth quite a bit.

Quietus sat down and waited, watching some zombies shuffle by. He wasn’t entirely sure how zombies could be challenging enough level to be in this dungeon, but then he realized they had armor. They didn’t seem to be intelligent enough to even swing weapons, but if they already had armor on, it could be used. Quietus had experienced that before, since players he raised kept their equipment until they respawned. During another test, he’d determined that he could add souls to make undead versions of players stronger and “permanent”, but they still returned to themselves when they next logged in, after the twenty-four hour death period. That was fair enough, since otherwise he’d just be stealing someone’s character to turn them into a minion, and there wasn’t anybody he was annoyed enough with right now to do that to them.

Quietus considered the benefits of getting equipment for his minions. The upside was that they would be much stronger. Armor, however, would slow them down somewhat, so it wasn’t entirely a benefit. Likewise, ghouls and some other undead relied on their particular claws and teeth to have the best effect. After all, ghouls had poisonous bites, which would likely be more effective than any weapons he could obtain many of, since it grew with them in strength. However, things like rings, amulets, and other such equipment could be solely a benefit with no drawbacks. Of course, these were also rarer and more expensive… not that Quietus was lacking in money, though he didn’t often trade with other players. He had some extra rings and such he’d looted off of player’s bodies found, and he decided he would give those to any exceptional minions he found… such as his destroyer skeleton, once he made one. Obviously, he’d want a big sword for that one… and armor wouldn’t be out of place, since it would prevent people from climbing inside its ribcage, as he had done. Not that most people would think of that.

As Quietus sat there thinking about all those things, he felt that the circumstances were vaguely familiar. Right, everyone was late. It was like a previous time, where only Angelo had shown up. Hopefully, though, the whole group would be there, since it was the most efficient system available… with the possible exception of Quietus and his army of undead alone. Well, instead of alone, they could be buffed by Maratis, since he had already been revealed as a necromancer. Obviously, the most efficient would be the entire party in addition to Quietus’ undead minions, but he still wanted to keep it a secret for a while.

Quietus continued to think along those lines for a time, but everyone was getting increasingly late. Then, Quietus received a series of messages from Angelo, Maratis, and Nilrem, informing him that they wouldn’t be able to make it. Quietus got up to prepare to leave, but then he heard a voice slightly closer to the entrance of the dungeon.

“Ehh? Now they tell me. I just got here too…”

It was a voice Quietus could not fail to recognize. It was of course, Ruby, the final member of the party. For some reason, he panicked briefly, and thought about running or hiding. He wasn’t sure why, since he wasn’t afraid, and did like to see Ruby. Plus, they were guildmates and often time party members. Therefore, he wasn’t sure why he thought about leaving. In addition, she would probably be going back out of the dungeon, since the party was basically gone.

Thus, when Ruby walked into the room, Quietus was looking in that direction. He liked looking at her, so this wasn’t really a problem. Then, he realized why he had panicked. They’d never been alone together. Well, with the exception of when he was stalking watching observing her before. Outside of Royal Road, Angela and Alex had always been around. They’d never had a private conversation, and he realized he didn’t really know that much about her. Effectively, the limit of their friendship had been having the same friends. Though she came to his birthday party, he wasn’t really sure how much that said.

As Quietus stood there and basically stared, Ruby pointed behind him. “Umm… you should probably watch out behind you.”

He turned around, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Stone walls, burnt out torches… zombies. He’d forgotten they were there, actually. They appeared to have randomly, or maybe not so randomly, shuffled closer to him, so there were about three of them within easy reach. All they were doing was standing there, and moving around slightly. Quietus instantly began to come up with excuses in his head.

“I have a special skill to hide from undead.”

That one was rather stupid. He was standing out in the open, obviously not putting any effort into hiding. Passive skills... would definitely not be powerful enough to do that.

“It’s a spell.”

Besides the fact that he wasn’t supposed to be a casting class, he obviously didn’t have anything active. At the very least, there would be some kind of glow. Although, if it was any kind of spell Quietus could actually use, it would be more of a dark aura.

“These undead are naturally passive.”

He would be found out the instant that anybody else approached them. Plus, he was pretty sure Ruby should have fought at least one by the entrance.

Attacking one to provoke them… wouldn’t be very convincing. Especially since they’d probably been standing directly behind him for ten seconds or more, without doing anything. It was also too late to look convincingly surprised, except in the “I forgot they were there” way, which he was.

He couldn’t think of anything convincing, so he just turned back around to face Ruby, and shrugged. “Yeah, it’s fine.” There wasn’t much he could do about it now.

“... Are they yours?” Ruby asked.

“Nah, those are outside buried under the ground,” Quietus answered naturally, before he could catch himself. He’d been around Alex too much lately, it seemed. He wasn’t being careful with what he said.

“Hmm. Well, you were way too good at soloing for being a typical rogue anyway.”

Quietus wasn’t sure what reaction he’d expected, but maybe because he’d been too into Royal Road to treat it entirely as a game. After all, even though necromancers felt all dark and evil, and zombies and such were a bit gross, it was just a class in a game. Plus, theoretically, most of the players who were necromancers were upstanding citizens.

Ruby continued, “So, are we going to enter the dungeon, or…”

Quietus’ first thought was that they certainly could. After all, that was what the game was for. However, he was suddenly filled with conflicting thoughts. He could recognize that he was attracted to Ruby, and of course her real self Solara. Just recently, he’d had to start thinking about his actual future. After going to college, he would become a doctor. Though that could change, that was a plan. However, a career wasn’t everything. Relationships between people, family, friends, coworkers, spouses… these were also things that were part of life.

As Mortimer, he was attracted to Solara. He liked her, and vaguely thought of her as a friend. Did anything go beyond that? He wasn’t sure. He also wasn’t sure why he was thinking of this right now, in a game, where he had leather armor, a ragged cloak, and a strange sacrificial dagger, but he was. Plus, after master Valarao’s most recent training, he didn’t really want to move around and fight, at least for a bit. He was gradually becoming more aware of some of the people around him as people… and he wanted to continue along that path.

“I think… we should talk. Though, I’m pretty bad at conversations and don’t have any subject in mind.”

She nodded. “Okay. Why don’t we start with this game… and how you became a necromancer?”

So, that was what they did.

End Chapter 67

Notes: There wasn't much action in this chapter, but Mortimer needs to have some growth as a human being... though, he'll probably still be a sociopath or whatever he is. Don't worry, it's not like the zombies are going to go away and this will become entirely about interpersonal relationships or... romance.