From the darkness a massive figure emerged. It was bulky and humanoid in proportions but at a size that barely fit into the corridor. Additionally, it was completely made out of stone. There was no head either. It was a terrifying display.

[Tomb Golem - lvl ??]

Fearful, Liz stood completely still as the golem moved into the room. She was still barely in the room. Still directly next to the path the golem was taking. Just as it was about to pass her by, it turned its whole body towards Liz. Before Liz could react, the arm of the golem shot in her direction.

It hit her square in the stomach, pushing all air out of her lungs and throwing her back three meters. Gasping, Liz struggled for breath as the heavy footsteps neared her.

Before the golem could get another punch in, Liz rolled out of the way. The stone fist hit the spot she had been in just a moment before, cracking the floor beneath it.

With shaky movements, Liz was able to get up, only to duck away from the next punch. It hit her left arm, still hard enough to dislocate it. Her entire arm went numb.

Liz attempted to get some distance to the golem lashing out again. Her bow was lying behind the animated construct, out of her reach. Only her spell and daggers remained.

Running to the other side of the room, illuminated by the faint light of the crystals spilled out of her backpack, Liz tried to reposition her shoulder joint.

She had already activated her aura and charged mana shortly after the first punch. Yet, she struggled to aim at the fast-moving stone construct. No matter how fast she ran, the golem kept close to her heel.

At least it didn't get any more hits in. With a short sprint, Liz managed to get enough distance to turn and release the accumulated mana onto the headless golem.

Before she could see her damage dealt, she had to turn again and run from the damaging stone fists. One lap of the room later, let her turn again to shoot another Blast at her pursuer. The stone chest was completely unblemished. Just like the Undead the golem seemed to absorb her Arcane magic.

Still Liz tried to damage it using the Blast. Three more laps and two more shots left the golem as spry as ever. Liz however started to feel the exhaustion of her fast sprint creeping in. Her arm was still dislocated, her stomach had fortunately healed at this point. Her mana was nearing its limits as well. She could of course tap into the crystals spilled near the center of the room. But they were the only light-source she had.

She was also lucky that the golem seemed to be pretty dumb, as it didn't try to catch her by cutting through the middle of the room. For minutes the only sounds in the room were the dull stomping of the golem and Liz's heavy breathing.

Desperate for a new idea, Liz focused on repositioning her arm. Another two laps and even closer to overexertion, the arm finally popped back in its proper joint.

While her regeneration took care of the damaged and numb tissue surrounding the joint, Liz tried to reach for her bow. It was still on the ground in the middle of the room.

Two attempts nearly cost her another punch to the side. But on the third, Liz was able to take hold of the wood. Careless of what she took, Liz grabbed an arrow from the heap next to the bow.

Half a lap later, Liz managed to nock the arrow and release it. She had been unable to see what kind of arrow it was. Until now.

It was one of the eccentric variants. Labelled as 'Wrath of the Stars', it caused dozens of extremely hot 'stars' to spring from the impact point. Half of the stars fell off the golem and sizzled on the floor, but the other half managed to stick to the stone construct, melting the stone for a few centimeters before extinguishing.

It caused no visible reaction from the golem. Without a head Liz couldn't read any facial expression and as far as movement was concerned the construct still followed her relentlessly.

Liz was elated to have finally damaged her opponent. But when she turned back as she was grabbing another arrow, she was horrified to see the damaged holes already closing.

'Oh shit! Why does everything have to regenerate!'

A barrage of back on back arrows at least managed to slow down the regeneration, but not without Liz getting hit in the hip by the barreling fists. It slowed her down considerably, her only consolation the fact that the golem also finally slowed down and was even missing a whole arm from an explosive arrow.

She also realized that the golem could only perceive his surroundings in a radius of around 5 m. Liz leaving the perception and making a quick turn left the golem barreling in the original direction until it reached the wall. It then somehow managed to hone in on her pretty quickly again.

All arrows that were easy to grab in passing were gone by now. The rest were contained in her backpack, lying in the center of the room. Thankfully with the golem slowed down considerably, Liz could possibly succeed in grabbing it.

Grabbing the heavy backpack still took multiple tries. Not to mention the hit to her shoulder blade, nearly leaving her toppling over her backpack before she was able to catch herself. At least the hit held considerably less punch than the ones before.

Liz was already up and running again before the golem had withdrawn its fist enough to lash out again.

Running and simultaneously pouring through a bag on the search for a particular object was no easy feat and Liz left a trail of objects behind her, most immediately trampled by the golem.

Eventually though, she found what she was looking for.

Throwing the bag to the side, Liz turned around and threw the vial of acid at her pursuer. It exploded front and center on its chest. The liquid spray hit the whole torso. It immediately started to sizzle and bubble. Liz still needed to run away, but after a minute she turned around again to see the golem drop to the ground, stopping most of its movement. A few moments later it stopped moving completely, just as a new notification entered Liz's mind. Liz dropped to the ground, gasping for breath.

-- You have killed a [Tomb Golem - lvl 64] --

-- [Arcane Blast] has reached level 14 --

-- [Call of the Hunt] has reached level 8 --

-- [Call of the Hunt] has reached level 9 --

-- [Pain Suppression] has reached level 19 --

-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 30. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --

⋮

-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 32. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --

-- Congratulations! You reached level 32. Additional skill slots unlocked. Level rewards adjusted --

-- WARNING: Differing foci detected; skill slots incompatible; adjusting slot distribution --

-- +3 [Arcane] skill slots --

-- +1 [Tamer] skill slot --

-- New skills available --

-- WARNING: Differing foci detected; skill selection limited to focus-exclusive --

'Ahh! That wasn't too bad! lvl 64! A new high! And definitely not twice as hard as a lvl 32 Undead! But I didn't need to use the stat point. And so many levels... Wait...I can select skills now? And what the hell are focus-exclusive skills?'

Arcane Bolt - Arcane

[Skill available to selection]

Form a bolt of pure Arcane magic, severely damaging to all it hits

Arcane Eye - Arcane

[Skill available to selection]

See what has been hidden before. Perceive mana at will

Arcane Shield - Arcane

[Skill available to selection]

Form a shield of dense Arcane magic around yourself, weakening any incoming magic-based attacks and blocking weak physical attacks

Transfer - Arcane

[Skill available to selection]

Transfer yourself to a destination near you

Pack Healing - Tamer

[Skill available to selection]

Give your health to your bonds. At a cost

Pack Life - Tamer

[Skill available to selection]

When in vicinity of your bonded, your needs are reduced

'Hell yeah! That all sounds great! But I can only pick 4? That is just unfair. Transfer is certainly on the list. Arcane Bolt sounds like a concentrated form of Arcane Blast. Arcane Eye would undoubtedly help, if just to understand how some magic works. Arcane Shield is probably the most helpful. I lack severely in defense. In comparison, I need the perception more than Arcane Bolt. Just to round out my skills. Now, the Tamer skills. They both sound good. Though, to be honest, the healing is rather useless. The cats get far less injury than me. If it were in the other direction, I might have considered it. But this way, I think I will go with [Arcane Eye], [Arcane Shield], [Transfer] and [Pack Life]'

Some more mental acrobatics later, Liz managed to select her choices.

-- You have learned the passive class skill [Arcane Eye] --

-- You have learned the active class skill [Arcane Shield] --

-- You have learned the active class skill [Transfer] --

-- You have learned the passive class skill [Pack Life] --

Her stat points were also quickly distributed. Liz relished in the euphoric feeling of the level-up after the exhausting fight.

Name: Elisabeth Larson

Class: Arcane Mage - lvl 32

Title: Deviant

Status:

Health: 407/408

Stamina: 254/374

Mana: 510/624

Vitality: 34

Endurance: 34

Strength: 34

Dexterity: 32

Perception: 37

Wisdom: 39

Intelligence: 37

Unassigned stat points: 1

Traits: Persevering, Arcane Enhanced

General skills:

Arcane Magic Immunity - lvl 3

Archery - lvl 5

Cold Tolerance - lvl 3

Compulsion Resistance - lvl 3

Eastern Plains Common - lvl 3

English - lvl 7

Health Drain Resistance - lvl 1

Identify - lvl 3

Lightning Resilience - lvl 1

Mathematics - lvl 1

Meditation - lvl 4

Pain Suppression - lvl 18

Stamina Drain Resistance - lvl 1

Class skills:

Arcane

Arcane Blast - lvl 14

Runic Intuition - lvl 4

Spell Channeling - lvl 10

Mana Draw - lvl 4

Arcane Eye - lvl 1

Arcane Shield - lvl 1

Transfer - lvl 1

Tamer

Bond - lvl 4

Call of the Hunt - lvl 9

Pack Life - lvl 1

Liz immediately tested each of her new skills. Arcane Eye was just a conscious nudge to see magic and left Liz stunned. Surrounding her was a mist. Yet she could perfectly see through the mist. And get blinded by the lines on the floor. They were a maelstrom of light. Fearing damage, Liz deactivated the skill. Only to see as much as before. No blinding but neither any reduction of her night-vision in the dim light of the crystals. This reminded Liz to pick up the light-orb again, lighting the room up once more.

Reactivating the skill, Liz inspected the lines again. Rune-like patterns of mana flowed through the floor around the main mana flow. What surprised Liz as well was that the mana flow happened towards the sarcophagi and not the other way around as she had thought before. And it was so much more mana-intense than the crystals lying atop the stone floor.

Still keeping Arcane Eye active, Liz tested her new shield. She saw mana leave her chest and spread over her body, settling just a few centimeters above her armor or skin, where some of it very slowly dissipated into the mist of mana surrounding her.

Using one of her daggers Liz tried to cut herself. Her Pain Suppression had truly changed her manners. She felt a distinct resistance where she met the mana. It was like pushing through very viscous jelly before she managed to reach her skin. Where she actually managed a small cut with enough pressure. While her blade was inside the mana-bubble the expenditure had risen. At her current level she would likely be able to sustain it for a bit more than five minutes.

The same could not be said about Transfer. Using the instinctual understanding of the skill, Liz imagined herself to be on the other side of the room. She saw a small tendril of magic explode out into the direction near instantly. The next moment she lost 300 mana and was standing on the other side of the room, thirty meters from her previous position.

'Bummer! I can't sustain that for long. But TELEPORTATION! I can fucking teleport myself! Just like that!'

Drawing more mana from the crystals, Liz spent a few minutes just teleporting through the room. Constantly laughing during it. Until she remembered her location and how her last act of carelessness had left her clinging to a ledge in the ravine. Liz immediately stopped, and her laughter ceased, not wanting to attract even more attention. Because where there is one [Tomb Golem] there is the high chance of another.

And she still had to find another exit, though getting back through the ravine might prove easier with the Transfer skill. For that to work she had to see where she wanted to go. Although, it also worked if she had a good memory of what the room looked like when she closed her eyes.

Despite her chance to exit through the ravine, Liz was interested in finding out where the lines led. It was just too strange. Hundreds of undead somehow linked to something and getting mana from it.

Following the flow of mana through the lines led Liz through more of the rooms, some with more murals, all depicting scenes out of a war of what she would call demons and the beings the Undead were made out of. She even encountered more golems, at least six different ones. But unwilling to engage, Liz always kept her distance in the hopes of not getting detected by the golems. Fortunately it worked. The golems would simply exit the room through another corridor. They seemed to patrol through the dungeon, but always on top of the mana lines.

Liz even saw several of the caved-in corridors to her previous position from the other side. She could identify them pretty quickly as the mana conduits snaking through every other corridor were missing at the entrance of the caved-in tunnels.

Before she could find any exit or even the source of the mana, she began to feel tired. It must have been late evening. Liz became worried about the cats. They would have normally gotten their meal by now.

'For once I hope they manage to get through the latch on the pantry'

Liz's own supply would hold only for another meal. She needed to leave this massive dungeon soon. But first she needed rest. There was no way around it. Without rest, she wouldn't be able to face whatever she might find in her way to freedom.

'Just my luck. This is the second time I am stuck in a dungeon, looking for a way out and needing to rest. At least here I have a good idea what I am about to face'

The next caved-in tunnel Liz decided to use as a way station and made herself comfortable on the rubble.

Liz woke to a sword-tip pressing on her neck-guard.

In front of her lying form, three small figure were arranged. All three were heavily armed and had their swords aimed at her body.

[Knight of Argentuvalur - lvl ??]

"What the fuck!"

Recovering from the initial shock, Liz tried to scramble away from the sharp blades aimed at her head. The visibly undead easily kept up with her movement. They were way faster than any she had encountered before. The undead in the middle opened its mouth.

"Ur tri ret?" a guttural voice emitted from the being.

"What?" Liz uttered, dumbfounded by the intellect of the undead.

"Ull! Ur zir höh zong?" the undead replied.

"I can't understand you!"

Liz suddenly felt a connection similar to the stag's telepathy establish.

»What moot thine purpose be? Doth the liege want its power once moe?«

Liz was surprised to suddenly hear a voice in her head. And one speaking what sounded like an ancient variant of Commons at that. With her low skill level it was hard to decipher all it said.

She had no idea who the voice belonged to, but she got the distinct impression that it wasn't one of the undead still holding their swords at her throat.

"Ehhm... I don't think so? Who are you? And could the swords maybe leave my throat?"

»Are thou no servant of his gentle lord?«

The swords remained where they were. Liz became worried that the interaction might soon turn ugly. It was kinda how all her adventures ended in the past. She therefore began preparing to transfer into the clear behind the undead before she answered.

"I don't know what king you answer to, but outside the nearest royalty is hundreds of kilometers away! And I am definitely no servant of anybody! I am my own lady!"

»How dare thou to assume thouself above thy station! I, Argentuvalur of Arthwys, shall be the only king to rule these lands! Mine power shall thwart thy uprising!« the voice roared in her head.

Deciding that now was the time to make a move, Liz activated her new teleportation skill. In the blink of an eye she was standing behind the undead. Just at the right time, as the space formerly occupied by her throat was filled with sharp steel in the next moment.

»Ynough! Thou shall pay for thy nyce endeavour! Thou shall feel the wrath of Argentuvalar of Arthwys! Rise my loyal! Take up the arms once moe«

The three undead whirled and charged her.

'Oh shit!'

Liz barely managed to transfer to her backpack before she would have got skewered by the sharp blades of the knights.

»Halt! Thou shall not resist thy judgment!«

Liz felt the compulsion accompanying the words. Fortunately it was laughable in comparison to the stag's suggestions. While it still caused her to still for a moment, her resistance quickly broke through the magic and Liz could move once more. Just as the undead closed in on her again.

Liz sprinted down the hallway, away from the three knights at her heels. All her skills were active at this point. While she ran, she fumbled to equip the bow strapped to her back.

She finally managed just as she reached the first room. In it she was shocked to find all the sarcophagi open and the dozens of undead formerly confined to them moving in her direction in a purposeful stride. Totally unlike all the lost Warriors from before. They were all also in way better condition than the ones she had met before.

[Eternal Warrior - lvl 32]

Fortunately the warriors acting as if heavily charged with mana were not equipped with any weapon, unlike the knights who had easily kept up with her up until this point.

Liz had to transfer behind the first line of warriors blocking her way. The second line was barely formed as she barreled through the gaps of it. Dead and cold hands reached out to her from all sides, but Liz continued on.

She had no idea where she was and where to, but knew that she had to get away from the hordes of undead already forming organized fighting setups.

Picking an exit close to her at random, Liz left the room filled with undead soldiers behind her. The hordes of small creatures had at least slowed down the similar sized knights. The short reprieve allowed Liz to properly put on the backpack and nock an arrow.

Just as the knights reached her again, she fired the arrow at them. It was one of the basic fire ones. She hit the middle knight and the arrow immediately did its job flawlessly. It erupted in flames just as it hit. The dead flesh quickly caught fire as well, flames practically exploding into existence. The fires eating away the reanimated muscles let the undead fall behind its running companions, but not before also setting fire to their arms and subsequently bodies.

After just a few moments all three ceased running. Liz kept running, even as three kill notifications entered her mind.

-- You have killed a [Knight of Argentuvalur - lvl 64] --

⋮

-- You have killed a [Knight of Argentuvalur - lvl 64] --

-- [Transfer] has reached level 2 --

-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 33. 1 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --

-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 34. 1 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --

Liz paid little mind to the notifications. Instead, her focus was on the path in front of her. She was just a few dozen meters from the next room, and she could already make out humanoid figures moving through the dimly lit darkness in front of her.

Looking down she also realized that she was moving opposite the mana flow, distancing herself further from her known exit. But she couldn't form any plan to correct her mistake as her full focus was now needed to evade the Warriors trying to intercept her.

She needed to never stop moving, else dozens of cold hands would take hold of her. To her horror she also had to realize that when one of the undead got hold of her, teleporting became a hundredfold more mana-intensive to the point that she sucked a whole mana crystal empty before she cancelled her attempt to transfer just a few meters to the front.

She was barely able to loosen the unyielding grip of the warrior before another knight suddenly appeared out of the masses around her and a blade slashed towards her head.

Liz moved out of the way at the last moment, leaving the blade to glance off her shoulder instead. Her armor in addition to her new Arcane Shield were barely able to stop the steel from digging into her flesh.

The incursion in her shield sapped massive amounts of mana, Mana Draw was barely able to supply it. At least she wasn't foolish enough to possibly power the undead with her Arcane Blasts.

Her already small crystal stash in the backpack was diminishing quickly. Not to mention her stamina, that just couldn't compare to the dozens of warriors uncaring for their physical condition.

Liz managed to breach the lines of undead and get enough distance to them to release another arrow into their midst. This time, it was of the 'Flames of Annihilation' variant. The phalanx of flames springing into existence made a perfect barrier between Liz and her pursuers. But also blocked her from reaching the only tunnel she definitely knew led back to the surface.

'Fuck!'

Without another option and with some undead moving through the flames despite barely making it two meters beyond, Liz moved further into the corridor and away from the advancing front of scorching flames. Not to mention the smoke quickly spreading into the tomb.

'Double fuck! Toxic smoke was the last thing I needed!'

For the first meters Liz held her breath, unwilling to breath in any toxic compounds, much to the protest of her lungs aching for more oxygen.

Running as fast as she could, Liz fled from the expanding cloud of smoke and ash, ever deeper into the dungeon until she finally felt free to breath again. Weirdly she didn't reach another room after the normal distance. Instead the tunnel went on for some time before the walls gave way to the biggest dome yet.

Liz could only see the ceiling because an immensely bright silver-white orb was hovering in the middle of the space. Liz accidentally had Arcane Eye still active, to which the orb was truly blinding. Dozens of strands of mana were entering the sphere from around it and leaving it in a river of magical power below.

The floor was just as impressive. Right below the sphere 8 pillars were arranged in a circle. On each, except for two, more bright magical objects sat, their exact shape hidden by the bright radiance of power emitting from them. But the impressive magical infrastructure wasn't what held Liz focus. No, her gaze was caught by the pedestal exactly below the orb. It was brimming with just as much magic as the pillars surrounding, yet on it another undead was resting. Its elaborate armor was adorned by a golden crown atop its small head.

[Argentuvalur - lvl ??]

It wasn't moving, unlike the dozen of knights surrounding it. They were evenly spaced between the pillars, facing outwards. Just as Liz realized that they were shielding the body from her, the voice resounded through the still open link again.

»Thou hast durst to challenge me? I shall squash thine meager flesh!«

As the last word echoed through Liz's head, the orb suddenly began shrinking from its basketball size down to an orange and began lowering itself towards the prone body. The mana flow from the pillars increased exponentially as it closed in on the body. Liz, with her gaze on the dozen deadly blades, slowly retreated towards exit again. Just as she suddenly bumped into an invisible barrier, she felt another notification enter her mind.

-- You have breached the inner sanctum of Argentuvalur's tomb --

-- You woke the Eternal Guardian of his people, Argentuvalur the Vengeful --

-- May you find glory or perish --

'Triple fuck!'