Huff Huff Huff. I looked ahead at Nick and the other heroes. We have been running for 20 minutes straight, without Fang it really has been hard to find our way to the gate.

“Where is it, does anyone remember?” Sean was worried.

“I don't know, but shut up!” Nick panicked, 20 minutes ago we split with the group of guards and left them with that Demon.

“Are they still alive?” Elizabeth had tears coming down her face.

“They should be, you know how strong Fang is,” the words that came out of my mouth were probably lies, the demon was probably a lot higher in level.

“Come on guys, hurry up. We are lucky enough to not run into any battle wolves so far,” James motioned for us to get a move on.

“Alright, let’s go,” Nick took off running down the tunnel and everyone followed.

James slowly wandered back and began running at my side, “Dante. As much as I hate you, thank you for protecting Elizabeth back then.”

“Okay?” I was confused, our lives were on the line but he still slowed down to tell me this.

-------------------

I feel exhausted.

“Dante, hurry up!” Sean yelled out.

The room was wide, the gate was on the other side. A sinister feeling had been chasing us for the past five minutes.

Earlier, Elizabeth had passed out from exhaustion. Nick had picked her up to carry her for the rest of the way since he was the strongest here, we wouldn’t slow down much.

They were almost to the gate, as Sean and I were left behind, even with the small power up I received Sean was still a bit faster than me. The sounds of our feet echoed around the room. Bang!

The ceiling began falling around us, Sean readied his staff and began mumbling words.

An ice bolt smashed into a piece of ceiling that almost fell onto him breaking it into multiple pieces.

I rolled out of the way of a piece that had almost crushed me into a pile of meat and looked behind me, the demon was slowly walking towards us.

“Pitiful, the last one put up quite a good fight but still was too weak,” the demon tossed something over and with a Smack it landed between Sean and I.

My vision was slightly blurred from the dust so I couldn’t make out the object that was thrown. When the dust settled, a face of horror was staring at me, a scar that was across the eye revealed that this face belonged to Fang. Shit…. Fang’s head was laying a couple feet away, it was completely detached from it’s body.

“See, humans are weak!” the demon chuckled as he looked around, “How about this, if you make it through the gate I won’t chase you for the sake of a game!” He smiled and licked blood off his fingers.

“Tsk.. If only I could ,” Nick grunted.

Sean was the first one on his feet, he began running towards the flight of stairs. The demon noticed this and smiled, “Trying to escape all ready?” The demon launched a spear, it whizzed through the air towards Sean stabbing him in the leg.

“Arghhh!” Sean collapsed under the pain, “Help me!” He looked at the spear which slowly turned to red mist and reappeared in the demon’s hand. I got on my feet and looked towards the stairs, there was no way that I could make it…

“James, I can grab Sean since he is close.. but Dante,” Nick looked towards James.

“Alright, you grab Sean and I’ll grab Dante,” James smiled as Nick nodded his head.

Nick turned his head, “Elizabeth, I’m going to have to let you down.” Elizabeth nodded, and got off of Nick’s back. “Go through the gate, we’ll see you on the other side.”

The demon was playing with us, when he saw Elizabeth get off of Nick’s back. He was intrigued by the belief that we were going to fight back.

Nick bolted towards Sean, picking him up in one go and turning away to run back up the stairs. James took the same motion, but going further to come towards me. “Insolence!” the demon’s voice was filled with anger, a murderous aura filled the cavern. The demon began to mumble, growling was heard from down the tunnels followed by loud barks. Battle wolves.

I took off and began to run towards James, battle wolves shot out from the entrance to the cavern. We fled towards the gate being chased by the swipes of claws. Nick disappeared through the gate looking back with a face of worry, Sean was still cringing in pain. A feeling of pain shot through my leg, a large gash appeared to be leaking out blood. Urgh.

James kept his face locked onto the Gate, we were almost there. James slowly looked down at me, who was being carried in his arms. “Dante, it’s because of you…”

“What do you mean?” my face cringed as I spoke, pain was spreading throughout my whole body from my leg.

James smiled, “Without you, maybe Elizabeth will look at me.” James lifted me and threw me down the flight of stairs.

“James, what the fuck!” I yelled as I was falling, the last vision I saw was him slipping through the gate.

The Demon stared at the gate, “hmmm, I like that one. The prophecies may be true after all.” Smiling, one last time before looking towards the battle wolves, “Good, kill him as your treat!” The demon turned into red mist which dissipated into the air.

“Argh!” I yelled as flesh was being ripped from my body. Pain coursed through my body, my limbs went limp. Blood dyed my leather armor a dark red. The Battle wolves in the back growled and clawed trying to get a chance to eat. I’m going to die! My vision became blurry from the loss of blood, the sound of barking and growling felt far away.

“Now you can carry the curse,” a voice rose from the back of my mind. A surge of power came from my chest, it spread throughout and covered the feeling of pain. Black mist poured out of my chest and began to surround me. My feeling came back to my limbs and they seemed to be stronger than before. My vision began to blacken, only hearing a ding and seeing the last messages delivered to my mind.

Ding!

A blast of black miasma destroyed the Battle wolves in your surroundings! 26 Souls Collected.

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I awoke staring at the ceiling of the cavern, the smell of copper drifted through the air into my nostrils as I began to breath. Hmmmt?

My body felt more sturdier before, looking down I see my body is still intact. My armor was ripped in multiple places, and some parts were even missing.

Ding!

The Grand Necromancer, Malgor has gifted you the powers of the Necromancer! (Class Changed!)Your stats have been modified and you will now have new skills!

You have been revived and are no longer a hero, and people will fear and try to kill you if they find out you are a Necromancer!

Ding!

You have unlocked the requirements of the Artifact, “Harvester”! Once a powerful dagger wielded by Malgor, himself. He used it to relinquish the lives of his foes! You must use souls to power up the weapon to unlock it’s full potential!

Necromancer? I do feel more magic power than before…

I looked at my hand, an ID card appeared.

ID CARDName:DanteRace:HumanHealth:1200/1200MP:2000/2000Alignment:NeutralEXP:25%Class:NecromancerLevel:22StatsStrength143Intelligence162Endurance126 (+2[128])Magic256Agility122Soul Pool26Active SkillsRend (450 MP) - Harnessing the power of death, you can use the black miasma to rip a target to pieces.

Soul Freeze (200 MP) - You are able to freeze one’s soul for a limited time, depending on their level/power.

Resurrect (1000 MP) - You are able to keep sacrificed souls to bring someone or something back to life, the person or thing will be under your control. You will maintain a soul link with the victim.

Black Bolt (250 MP) - A ball of black miasma launches from your hand at your target.Passive SkillsOne With Betrayal: You have been destined to take up this role, and will have to live with it for the rest of your life. (Ability to see through lies)

Death's Embrace: Black Miasma Resistance 100%

Matching Armor Bonus: 1+ Endurance for wearing four pieces of the same armor.

Personal Soul Pool: You will grow in power by the amount of souls you have collected in your Soul Pool. These will improve your stats.EquipmentDestroyed Apprentice Leather Helmet:

0 Endurance

Damaged Apprentice Leather Vest:

1 Endurance

Destroyed Apprentice Leather Leggings:

0 Endurance

Destroyed Apprentice Leather Boots:

0 Endurance

I finally have power! I will not be called weak again! A series of events ran through my mind as I recalled the past hour. I bit my lip, blood began to drip down my chin, “That fucking bastard!” I clenched my fists. The last moment before my death, I was thrown down the stairs straight into the fangs and claws of the battle wolves. My nails began to dig into my palm, I looked towards the gate. I felt angry, but the relief of being alive calmed me down. James will regret everything… Standing again, I looked around the room. Two words that would describe the place was absolute slaughter.

I looked around, bodies of battle wolves laid over the pools of blood, death lingered in the air. Blood clung to the inner walls of the cavern, black miasma leaked from the open wounds of the battle wolves, slowly eating them from the inside out.

“Disgusting…” I looked towards the closest dead battle wolf, “Maybe I can try out the new skill I got?” The first thing that came to my mind after viewing my ID card was . This skill seemed to be the most powerful in my arsenal, but had the most MP cost. I touched the body of the battle wolf, and activated it.

Ding!

Not enough Souls! You need a total of 75 souls to resurrect this monster. (Lvl 24 Battle Wolf)

Hmmm...

I stared at the gate, the king probably has sent people to check to see if their word is true. I don’t think he’ll believe one of his best elite guards, Fang, would die. If they discover me around, they may drag me back and question me since I "survived".

"I should test out the rest of my new abilities before I go." I muttered and began walking in the opposite direction of the gate, heading deeper into the tunnels.

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A small black ball of miasma began to form in my hands, growing in size filling my palm.

The ball of miasma launched towards the battle wolf and smashed into it’s side. The miasma began to eat the side of the battle wolf enlarging the initial wound.

As the battle wolf fell down on it’s side, the two other battle wolves in the group charged at me.

Black Miasma launched out in thin lines and began to rip through the skin of the two battle wolves causing them to stop their charge and fall lifelessly to the floor.

Ding!

You have gained three souls!

Rend may use a lot of MP, but it is incredibly powerful…

I took a gaze at my ID card, “Almost level 24..” Spending hours fighting battle wolves didn’t seem to give a lot of EXP. The soul pool held fifty-five souls. Without a party hunting battle wolves, which tended to stay in large packs, was rough. Only when they would leave their packs could I attempt to kill them,

I sighed while putting my ID Card away, " I guess it’s time I start heading towards the exit of the dungeon. " Spending hours hunting in the tunnels allowed me to memorize most of it, I began walking my way back to the gate.

----------------------------

Hours passed the events of the dungeon, the heroes returned to the castle exhausted. Nick went for a conference with the king, while the others returned to their private rooms.

“What do you mean?” the king was staring at Nick in disbelief, “Fang is dead?!”

Nick nodded his head, “Yes, we came across a demon…” Nick was exhausted, but he still made sure to report everything to the king. “We also lost Dante...” Nick was feeling regret, someone that actually came from their world had died in the dungeon as well.

Hmmph, “A Demon you say?” the king slammed his fist on the table, “They dare mess with us now!”

The king pondered for a bit and stared at Nick once again, “Get some rest, I will handle this and recover the bodies… at least if they have a body left they will be able to have a funeral.” An event such as this truly shocked the king, the only ones that knew of the hero’s leaving to the dungeon was the higher ups in the kingdom. The demons are known to have planted spies around the kingdom, but he did not think they would figure out and transfer information around that fast.

Nick nodded his head and left, closing the door behind him. The king began tapping his finger on the table, “It is a shame that our elite guards had to die, the worthless hero had no potential in the first place...” Turning his view to the guard in the room he said, “You, I need you to gather up a force of elite guards and go towards the dungeon to look for this demon and exterminate it if you can!” The king paused placing his hand on his chin, "If you see Dante, make sure he dies as well. If what we recovered in the ruins that one time are true, then the demon could have spared him so he could become a Demon King." The king had hoped that their would be no problems in the future.

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Thanks to everyone reading, I enjoy any sort of comments that get posted on the chapters!

I may not reply because of time restrictions at times, but I read them!

Thanks to the editor, Son of Kasei as well!