Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 70

Quietus pondered whether he should learn how to turn into a dullahan. After all, they were another type of undead. However, he gave up on the idea for several reasons. First, he didn’t have any heavy armor or a sword. More importantly, either of those things would pretty much ruin his ability to fight. Thus, he would be very unlikely to use that form. Other knight and warrior type undead were essentially the same, so they were also probably not worth learning. Well, if he got a full set of armor that he could equip, he’d try to get the form. It shouldn’t be too hard, with his current understanding.

However, well before he got a full set of heavy armor as drops from them, he had a reason to go elsewhere. Finally, one of his minions found something underground! It was some kind of structure, but they were unable to convey any details. It was buried, so they couldn’t really tell what it looked like.

Quietus briefly thought of unearthing it, however he quickly rejected the idea. It was about 100 feet underground, and that would take a lot of digging. More than an army of minions could do in the time he was prepared to wait. Besides, he doubted if the outside was interesting, since it was intentionally a buried structure. Thus, he turned into a ghoul and burrowed down to the entrance his minions had found.

Aside from the fact that it was the only buried structure in the region, it was quite easy to determine that this was the right place. The entrance had a barrier that stopped dirt, and thus the inside was completely unburied. That, and the fact that the inside felt very… necromancery. Quietus wasn’t sure exactly what it was, since there weren’t skulls and bones everywhere. He just got that kind of feeling.

Everything on the inside was well preserved. Unlike some dungeons that had cracks on the walls or other signs of age, this place looked new. Quietus had learned that preservation was one of the most important parts of necromancy. After all, rotting undead weren’t very useful. That was for amateurs. Even bones decayed eventually, becoming brittle. Thus, even skeletons had to be preserved somewhat, through magic or alchemy. This place was like that. A very well preserved… tomb.

Quietus wouldn’t have called it a tomb if it weren’t for the sarcophagus in what seemed to be the center of the area. It seemed to be at the intersection point of four corridors, from what he could see. Quietus sent minions to check if there were entrances from the outside at other points. He think other entrances were likely, though. Partly from intuition, but mostly because of the stone pillar with writing on it.

Welcome, necromancer!

Quietus stopped reading there for a moment to try to figure out how it was known he would be a necromancer. Theoretically, anyone could have found this place. He looked behind him, at the barrier. Ah, it probably killed anything that was not undead, or maybe it really could determine whether someone was a necromancer. Either way, it would weed out those who did not fit, whether they were technically the necromancer class or not. He continued reading.

If you wish to claim my legacy, you must pass a series of riddles. Wrong answers will lead to death. The correct solution of all three riddles will prove you capable, and unlock my legacy. Enter each of the other corridors to find their riddles.

You have gained a quest!

Solve the three riddles of Aullet’s tomb.

Failure: Death, quest cannot be retried.

Success: ??? (Aullet’s legacy)

That seemed straightforward enough, so Quietus started to head towards the center, where the sarcophagus was. However, just as he was about to enter the corridor, he got a feeling. He stopped, and looked around. Indeed, the corridor was trapped. Normally, Quietus would have disarmed it or just avoided it. However, this trap filled the entire corridor. After studying it for a time, Quietus determined that it would teleport those who entered somewhere else. However, it would also kill them. The teleportation seemed completely irrelevant with the second effect on there.

He tried to determine how to disarm it, but came up with the answer rather quickly. He couldn’t. It wasn’t that he wasn’t skilled enough. Nobody could disarm this, no matter their skill. It might be possible to negate the magic with some kind of dispelling technique, but he didn’t have one and it certainly wouldn’t be powerful enough. Plus, the teleportation and death were tied together. If the teleportation was supposed to be used, then it couldn’t be done without dying. Quietus also sensed that being undead wouldn’t prevent the death part.

Thus, he started searching the area for secret doors and similar. It wasn’t actually a large area that he could access, so it didn’t take him too long. He even checked the floor, and even the ceiling. He tried to climb up, but couldn’t get close enough to some of the spots, away from the walls and the pillar. These were actually the most likely spots, so he just stood on some undead he’d made. They appeared to be able to enter the area just fine.

Quietus would have checked the entire outside of the tomb, but that would have taken a very long time, and he had the feeling he’d gone in the only entrance. He also had the feeling that walking down the deadly and teleporty corridor was the correct way. He’d briefly thought about learning to fly, but realized that the trap would kill anything that entered the area, it didn’t require anything to be stepped on.

Well, Quietus still had a very necromancery solution to the problem. He just didn’t want to use it until he was sure it was correct. Thus, he cast soul bind on himself and stepped into the corridor.

You have died!

Cannot log in for 12 hours 30 minutes.

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The next day, when Quietus logged in, he was in a different place. As expected. It was quite easy to determine that he was down what he would have considered the “left” corridor, from the perspective of the entrance.

He found another pillar with writing, similar to in the first room. This had the riddle.

Though it seems that I do, I do not speak, hear, smell, or see, but without me you could do none of these things. What am I?

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Quietus thought it was a fairly simple riddle. Looking behind him, he saw another sarcophagus. Presumably, he would take the thing that corresponded to the riddle. If the answer was correct, he would move on to the next riddle. If it wasn’t, he would die. The sarcophagus seemed to have the bones for a complete skeleton, though it seemed that the skull, ribcage, and limbs were all for different creatures. Their sizes were all quite different.

The riddle wasn’t trying very hard, though. Either that, or it was very tricky and completely stumped Quietus, but he decided to go with the answer he was confident in. He took the skull from the sarcophagus. It was a very large skull. Similar in size to the destroyer skeleton he had fought, but that wasn’t the reason he took it, though it helped confirm his choice.

Since the first pillar had indicated that choosing wrongly would bring death, and more importantly, the failure of the quest, Quietus pondered for a few more minutes just to make sure nothing else fit the criteria. Then, he stepped into the corridor.

You have died!

Cannot log in for 12 hours 30 minutes.

End Chapter 70