Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 76

Though the cleric he dropped onto was in the center of the group, all the players surrounding reacted quickly. The cleric was higher level than those Quietus had killed previously, so he didn’t die instantly either. The Gods of War had a decent number of players who were experienced in player versus player combat. However, they also had some who were rather new to the scene. Thus, among all of the attacks directed in Quietus’ direction, only a small number of them were area attacks.

Phrased in a different way, some of the people panicked and used their area attack skills inside a crowd of their own guild members. Though Quietus hadn’t managed to kill the cleric in one attack, even with his stealth skills, he weakened him enough to die from the rest of those attacks. As for the individually targeted attacks, even a few of them hit fellow guild members, mostly stray arrows. Thus, the cleric in the center and a few others around died.

The target of all the attacks, Quietus, could certainly not avoid all of those attacks, even if he could comprehend where all of them were going to come from and what they would be. He certainly couldn’t survive all of them. He knew that before he had jumped down. Thus, he had immediately used backslide once he hit the ground. This sent him staggering into a group of players off to the side, but it kept him from taking all of the attacks. It didn’t stop his hit points from dropping well below half from the few that did hit or graze him though.

Quietus’ next action was to cast Mass Life Drain, while slashing at any conveniently exposed necks nearby. Of course, he was also moving among the players as fast as he could. Sadly, at least from Quietus’ perspective, the dark fog didn’t manage to refill the room, so the players could still see. After killing a few more of the weaker guild members died, some of the leaders finally managed to get across that they shouldn’t use area attacks or anything that could hit those on the other side.

It was at that point, however, that the few remaining undead minions Quietus had in the castle attacked. They managed to drag down a few weaker players in light armor before being decimated, but a few more players was still something.

However, after only a short time, the Gods of War were organized, and focused their attacks well enough that Quietus could not out heal them, even when a single casting of Mass Life Drain restored him to full health, and even though he was rather proficient at avoiding attacks. In the end, Quietus didn’t kill a single warrior type, or any player in armor heavier than leather. However, he killed about a third of the mages and clerics, by his estimation. More importantly, they were all out of position now.

You have died!

Cannot log in for 10 hours.

Quietus’ only reaction to that was “Oooh! Looks like The Power to Accept Death has reached [Journeyman] rank! That quest really gave it a lot of experience…”

//Note: I’m not sure if it should be Journeyman/Master or Master/Grand Master. I don’t remember what they had set up. However, I think having Master not be the best rank is kind of… not great.

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After he got out of the virtual reality machine, Mortimer quickly ran to Angela’s machine and sent her a message. There would be no point if his work were allowed to go to waste. Though, the death penalty was getting closer to a slap on the wrist. Granted, he had the equivalent of… many deaths under his belt. He had figured out the formula, but wasn’t sure how many he had total, plus some quests gave him experience towards it which helped significantly.

After 1 death he had reached level 2. Level 3 and 4 had each needed 2 more deaths. 5 and 6 needed 3 more deaths each. It continued that way, though since beginner level 10 became intermediate level 1, it saved some time. He didn’t get additional reduction in death timer for that, which was probably good. Otherwise, by his calculations, his death timer would be negative 1 hour at the end of mastery, effectively level 50. Instead, it would be 1 hour at the rate it was going, though that was still 4 hours in the game. Though, that would take a lot of deaths. Currently, since he just hit [Journeyman] level, he should have the equivalent of 209 deaths. However, some quests had contributed some, and the most recent one had given him an equivalent of about 50 deaths.

Mortimer had also been playing Royal Road for more than a year, so his death count wasn’t that bad. Though, if anyone else knew he thought that, they would have wanted to strangle him. A 24 hour lockout actually lost more than a full day of play. The level loss and the fact that they would have to return to their play location might actually mean they couldn’t play again until the day after, depending on what time of their play schedule they had died. This of course only applied to the people who still did other things with their lives.

Unfortunately, even though he was level 31, and thus more than halfway done in terms of level, he still had a long way to go. A total of 551 deaths would be necessary if the pace kept up with what it was. Granted, that means he would definitely master it in less than a year, even more if he intentionally died more than once a day towards the end. Since he had something productive to do with dying, creating Destroyer type undead, it wasn’t a waste to die every day.

Since he couldn’t play anymore, Mortimer went to work on studying. If he wanted to be a doctor, he would have to keep his grades good. Since that was pretty much the only way he could think of to keep his parents happy, at least among careers that he was willing to live with, he had to succeed. After all, he wasn’t willing to give up his cushy life. Even if he had to give up some game time now, for the ability to later have a more carefree life, he was willing to sacrifice a bit.

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Inside Royal Road, the Children of Light attacked the fort. The battle wasn’t trivial by any means, but it was easier than expected. Angelo soon noticed a surprising lack of spells on the enemy side. In addition, the Gods of War hadn’t been at their positions, which allowed the Children of Light to set up some siege ladders and other equipment relatively uncontested. There was no point in breaking the walls down if they could keep the keep intact. After all, they would own it afterwards, and there was no reason to increase the repair costs.

Angelo looked at Maratis and Ruby who were nearby. “Any idea what Mortimer… Quietus could have done to cause this? Also… where did that fog come from?” Ruby and Maratis looked at each other, then shrugged. This wasn’t because they didn’t have an idea of what was going on, but they didn’t plan to say anything. “He’s definitely got a secret or two that I need to pry out of him…”

Ruby spoke up at this point. “Aren’t you still under the no-bugging-him contract?”

Angelo frowned. “Ehh, that only applies to forcing him to join us… probably.” Angelo didn’t really want to make him too annoyed, though. Perhaps waiting would be best. “I’ll definitely find out eventually though.”

After everything was said and done, the losses on the Children of Light’s side were still fairly high, but quite tolerable. They would have to set up their defenses though, since a single level lost wouldn’t ruin the fighting capabilities of the Gods of War. However, if they lost in their attempt to take back the fort, they would likely back down, at least for a time. It was hard to keep so many players online consistently, after all.

//End Chapter 76

Notes: someone suggested adding spaces between the paragraphs. I have tabs at the beginning of each where I'm writing it, but it doesn't actually do that here. Since I don't read it here, I didn't really notice. Hopefully, it's easier to read now :P