There might not be a chapter next week, because it will be Christmas time. It depends on how busy I get.

Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 79

When he logged back into Royal Road, Quietus found that the quest had been updated.

Calm the spirits

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

Defeat the dragon that is causing the spirits to be unruly.

He had already suspected that as a possibility. He wasn’t sure if it was necessarily the best solution, but it would let the ghosts leave the villages around the area. All he had to do was kill a dragon. Was it something he could do? Perhaps. He had an, admittedly small, army of undead. At least, in the scale of calling it a real army. Furthermore, there were very few minions he had that would be able to do anything against a dragon. Even ignoring the fact that it would probably fly, and he didn’t particularly have many archers, and no mages.

Undead that could fly… were not in Quietus’ army yet. Theoretically, most things with wings could still fly when turned into undead. There were also banshees and vampires. Vampires seemed to be in a category of their own, and not something he could get as undead minions. At least, not easily. Other than that, the best candidate was ghosts. Obviously, he couldn’t make ghosts yet, otherwise there wouldn’t be that much point to the quest.

There was the possibility of inviting the Children of Light to help. People liked fighting dragons. There was a lot of glory, experience, and loot to be had. However, Quietus didn’t want to ask. Partly because he didn’t want to share. Partly because he didn’t want to owe his cousin any favors. Mostly, however, because it was his quest, and he wanted to be the one to do it. Wasn’t it cool to take on a dragon?

That said, Quietus wasn’t confident in beating it alone. Even if that alone included his entire army of undead. The most likely result was that he would lose part or all of his army, and he might not even win. Sadly, his minions wouldn’t respawn. At the very least, regular ones wouldn’t. He wasn’t sure if he could revive Destroyer type minions, but he wasn’t going to experiment with that yet.

Quietus could of course make more minions, and a larger army. That would take time, and he would have to spend resources to get decent bows and arrows. He could spread rumors of the dragon to get other people to show up and fight it, but that would be worse than asking the guild for help, since people he didn’t know might get the rewards, and they would likely disrupt the ghosts.

Quietus hadn’t figured out how he was going to deal with the ghosts yet. Theoretically, they could be left alone after killing the dragon, if they returned to where they formerly were. He wasn’t sure if that was the best option. He did know, however, that even if he chose to eradicate the ghosts, he also needed to take out the dragon. After all, the dragon had a higher potential danger for the surrounding villages, and the main point of the quest was to help the villagers return to their homes safely.

He decided to take some time to observe the situation further. Obviously, the ghosts were at odds with the dragon. The dragon therefore must have some amount of threat to ghosts, which was somewhat of an abnormality even for a dragon. Quietus did have some idea of why it was a threat, though he didn’t have an immediate way to test it. When he had killed it, he had felt as if he were ripped apart, though his body was fine. His theory was that it could absorb, and perhaps eat, souls. Besides intuition, he didn’t really have any proof. It would, however, explain why the dragon had shown up in that particular location.

If that was the case though, why was it not hunting down either of the two armies? Quietus didn’t know the answer to that, but if his initial assumptions were true, then perhaps it was just full. Which meant it would eventually start hunting more of the ghosts. If that were true, then the quest would take care of itself in time. Except, of course, that the ghosts were dwelling in and around the towns, and he didn’t imagine that no damage would be done to the buildings if the dragon went hunting in and near them. Plus, he had no proof that anything would happen, and even if it worked it would be a disappointing ending.

Therefore, Quietus went scouting some more. Now that he knew for sure there were ghosts around, he didn’t have too much trouble avoiding being found, when he was careful. However, his efforts did nothing for him. There were no conversations to be overheard or information to glean. The ghosts seemed intelligent, at the very least they were organized, but they didn’t seemed interested in talking. Indeed, they were certainly not at all interested in talking with him. He tried once in the locations of each army, when he found some people that looked like officers. Normally, there would at least have been a slight hesitation to attack him, with his affinity for undead, but there was none to be found here.

He did, however, get the general feeling that they were angry and upset. After all, ghosts did not appear without reason, or some kind of lingering regret. Most battlefields wouldn’t produce even a single ghost, no matter how unpleasant war was. Therefore, there should be some kind of special circumstances. However, Quietus had no knowledge of the history behind this place, and wasn’t sure if there was much information to be found. All he knew was that it was the site of a large battle a long time before. Maybe he could get some more information through research, but he didn’t know where he would look for that.

Quietus could think of several directions he could start heading in, but his instincts told him that the best option would be to somehow calm the ghosts to get information from them. Given that he had very little interpersonal skills, and they were obviously not friendly, he wasn’t sure how he would accomplish that. At least, he couldn’t do it on his own. Thus, he would have to ask for help.

He thought about the various people he knew. Who had the right skills for what he needed? After going through the abilities of the people he knew in Royal Road, Quietus could only come up with one candidate. He sighed, and went through the list again. It was going to be tough. He wasn’t even sure if the person he wanted was busy, or would even agree to help. However, he would have to try.

He would try. Just… not right away. He needed some time to ready his mental state, and also to see if there was anything else he could do alone. Right. Therefore, he would ask for help… tomorrow. Maybe the day after. That would certainly be fine.

End Chapter 79