The next floor was more crowded with undead. I even encountered some skeleton warriors. Basically they aren’t that different from normal skeletons. They just have some armour and decent weapons which they actually make proper use of instead of just blindly trying to hit their target. But this also means that their crystals are bigger since their movement patterns are more complex.

Skeleton warriors are usually created from dead soldiers since they already have the equipment. It only makes sense that there would be many dead soldiers since this place used to be a well defended castle. It also looked like there had been some fierce fights in the area, recognisable through burn marks on the walls, which were presumably caused by magic, and many destroyed undead. Luckily nobody bothered collecting their crystals, so I could quickly gain power without actually fighting their previous owners. I still had to be careful not to get the attention of more than two enemies at a time. It wasn’t too difficult though, since skeletons haver neither good hearing nor good eyesight.

The next floor also had windows which left in light from outsight. This meant that I had arrived on ground level. After roaming the surrounding of the basement entrance for some time I concluded that it was the area where kitchens and other food related rooms were located. There even was a dining hall, but the entrance I found had been barricaded and the insides were swarming with undead. ‘Seems like a large number of people took a defensive position in there. But in the end they were still overrun.’

After spending some more time wandering around I found the castle to be too much like a labyrinth. I got lost multiple times and had to carefully backtrack my steps in order to find my way back. It was terrifying. After some time I started scratching signs into the walls to guide me back. Of course I did it in a way that wouldn’t put my hideout in danger. The signs couldn’t easily be understood by anyone else and they only showed the way to a room nearby the staircase, not the staircase itself. With the signs to guide me I ventured farther into the castle.

As time went on I found more and more ways blocked in one way or another. In some cases the ceiling had collapsed, in others there was a huge hole in the ground. There were many circumstances that hindered my progress. I was able to bypass some of them by walking on the wall, but others were impossible to overcome. After being faced with many of these hindrances I noticed that some of them seemed to enclose a specific area. All ways into this area were blocked by the caved in ceiling. I found it strange and began inspecting the surrounding, but I was unable to find a battlefield that would justify such widespread damage. And even if the fight had taken place in between these collapsed areas there would have been traces outside.

I began to suspect that it was intentionally caused. ‘But was it to keep something inside or to keep something out? If it was a powerful undead, the necromancers probably would have dug it out unless it was permanently dead, which would mean I could easily get a big crystal. And there is also the possibility it was cut off to protect something valuable.’ I became curious and tried harder to find a way inside.

After some searching I found a hole, just small enough for me to pass through. There was just one problem: the arms I hadn’t taken control of jet got in the way, so I had to get them under my influence first. It worked with hardly any problems. After activating the eighth limb my movements slowed down a bit, but I judged that it wouldn't seriously affect my ability to fight. And with that I squeezed through the hole.

On the other side there was a small area mostly consisting of corridors. I found a few skeletons. Most of them seemed to have been inhabitants of the castle, although I didn’t understand how the necromancers were able to revive them in here. After searching for quite some time without finding anything noteworthy I began inspecting the surrounding for a clue as to what happened here. Then I noticed it: A wall that looked the same as the entrance to my hideout.

Actually it wasn’t that hard to find, since I knew what to look for. The door was marked by unusually symmetric stones that centred around a stone you had to push in order to open the door. Filled with excitement I looked around to make sure there were no undead nearby, before opening the door. Behind the door was a room with normal more door on one side. But what really surprised me were the two humans inside the room. They looked too old to be called children, but they weren’t quite adults either. ‘Maybe they can tell me more about what happened here? But not beeing able to talk will be a Problem' Actually I couldn't even make any kind of sound myself, let alone talk. 'This might be problematic'

The older human, a female, seemed just as surprised as me, if not more. The younger one, a male, lay sleeping on a blanket and seemed to have a rather serious wound. The girl quickly overcame her shock, grabbed a sword lying beside her and rushed to attack me. I had plenty of experience in fighting against enemies with swords, because of the skelleton warriors. It didn't take long until I managed to pull the sword out of her hands, disarming her. Unfortunately she seemed to perceive me as a threat. Considering the situation of the castle it wasn't a completely unreasonable reaction. Still, if I wanted to get information about what had happened here, I couldn't afford to fight these humans. I would have to somehow show my good intentions.

Having lost her weapon, she hurriedly stepped back and stood between me and the boy on the ground. ‘Maybe I should bring medicin for the boy. It would be proof of my good Intentions.’ After thinking for a short while, I used the stolen sword to scratch a message into the ground: “I am a friend. Will help wounded. Wait here.” After that I laid the sword down, left the room and closed the door. The I went to get the flasks labelled with ‘recovery’ and ‘wound closing’.