Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 77

The Children of Light had relatively little issue defending the keep from the counterattack of Gods of War. Their morale was higher, and with the defensive position they had the advantage. It didn’t hurt one bit that some of the members of Gods of War found themselves getting attacked by undead as they tried to get to the battlefield. While they were on alert, they didn’t expect zombies, ghouls, skeletons, and more to come out of the ground. After all, none of these were native to the area. Still, they made some noise while burrowing, so some people noticed and weren’t surprised. Quietus lost quite a number of undead, but he didn’t send any of his destroyer type since he didn’t want to risk them.

None of the undead attacks happened within sight of the keep, mostly because Quietus wanted to keep his being a necromancer mostly secret as long as he could. The reason mostly ended up being that he liked actually having a secret from his cousin. Even if she found out, he would obviously keep the fact that he was an assassin secret. Though, he hadn’t done much in the way of work for the assassins lately. He’d been busy with necromancer stuff. In fact, he had more things he needed to do as a necromancer.

He had just passed level 300, which meant he had to choose his path. He couldn’t choose to be a Blood Necromancer, because they got the skill “The Power to Reject Death”, which he couldn’t have in conjunction with “The Power to Accept Death”. He could theoretically give up his skill, but he had put a lot of “work” into it. More importantly, he was used to it now, and he thought it was more convenient for his activities.

This left him the choice between “Spirit” and “Mind”. Mind necromancers dealt with illusions and curses. Quietus liked the thought of that. Those sorts of abilities would certainly be useful, especially if he kept up assassination. On the other hand, he really liked the idea of ghosts, and becoming incorporeal. He wasn’t sure exactly what abilities a Spirit Necromancer would get, but he felt some affinity with ghosts. He looked down at one of the rings on his hands. He had gotten this incorporeal ring from the Moaning Mines.

Spirit ring

Durability: N/A

This ring has no physical form. It is full of the lingering memories of an angry ghost.

Equip:

Wearer deals +10% damage (and pain) to those who have injured the wearer of the ring, or their friends. Effect stacks for each individual affected, up to a limit of +50%. (Does not stack on bosses).

+40 Sadism

Special: Cannot be equipped, unless manifested into physical form

Requirements:

Must have the Sadism stat.

It was still useful at his level, because of the percent based increase. In addition, it increased the sadism stat, which nothing else he had found did. Sadism was very important to him for mana regeneration. Although he was somewhat of a hybrid of physical and magical abilities, he had a decently sized mana pool. It was not as high as a pure caster would have, but with enough regeneration he offset that issue.

Quietus also remembered the nightmares dreams he had suffered experienced after dealing with the Moaning Mines. Though they were somewhat annoying, he had found them intriguing. He was certainly interested in learning more about ghosts and spirits, and if there was a difference.

Thus, he decided to take the path of the Spirit Necromancer. Though he was interested in curses, he could still get some of those anyway. Though the Mind Necromancers would get better ones, he could live without them. Especially if he got to turn into a ghost. They were exceptionally stealthy, and he was enjoying his stealthy playstyle.

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Quietus went to the nearest capital city to find a necromancer’s guild. Though he felt that those who didn’t come to the guild were probably more powerful, they were probably harder to find. Thus, he went to where he knew he could get guidance on the direction he should go.

The guild was a lot less gloomy than he would have expected, and much more brightly lit. Well, since it was a public facing organization, it wouldn’t do for them to look bad. In addition, as long as they stayed within certain guidelines, they were a respected casting class. Not that Quietus planned to follow any guidelines if they were inconvenient. Actually, having gained Aullet’s legacy, he probably was already outside of the guidelines. Not that anyone should know that.

After talking to several people, he finally got a meeting with someone who could direct him down the path of class advancement. Of course, he would have been happier if his quest had just told him where to go and what to do, but sometimes people had to be involved.

The person he was directed to, a sub-guildmaster, whose name Quietus didn’t bother to remember, started to speak. “So, you wish to progress down the path of the Spirit Necromancer. I see that you have enough power now to specialize. In fact, there is something you could help us with that would both serve as a proper test and give you some insight into the path. In the Fields of Misery, there was a large battle in ancient times. Many died there, and went unburied. Even now, their souls linger behind. However, recently they have been more agitated than before, and are moving to nearby areas, and causing danger to the populous. Find out what is causing this and calm their spirits.”

You have received a quest!

Calm the spirits

The spirits of the Fields of Misery are restless. Prevent them from causing trouble for the local population.

Rewards: Advancement to Spirit Necromancer, additional rewards based on methods of success.

Quietus was glad of his destination. He had heard that the Fields of Misery had quite a few herbs good for making potions. He had been wanting to work on his alchemy skills more. Plus, there were a lot more herbs that were good for poisons there. Of course, very few people went there to collect herbs because of the large number of ghosts, but Quietus would probably be fine. Besides, since he needed to be there anyway, it didn’t matter if he stopped to collect some herbs. Preferably some he could mix into a good airborne poison. Although he could be affected by that, and it could be dangerous even with his poison resistance, he would still be fine as long as he didn’t have to breathe. Undead mimicry had many convenient uses.

Thus, he set off for the area. He would probably do best to start in the nearby towns to see if he could learn something about what was happening. If that didn’t lead anywhere, he could probably just kill all the ghosts. It would still fulfill the actual quest requirements.

End Chapter 77