A few moments later the dark elf was richer by a fortitude and two vigour shards, along with a few slivers that when combined with his previous ones, earned him a third red shard.

“I really need to shore up my health count.” He mumbled to himself after absorbing the shards, feeling the concentrated life-force course through his veins.

“You should,” Quentin patted his shoulder. “However, I believe that our true priority should be to tier up. Our enemies won’t wait for us to slowly strengthen ourselves.”

“This place is an EXP farmer’s paradise.” Khan joined in to the impromptu conversation.

“That’s true,” Osmond laughed weakly. “But racking up twenty-five 5th level corpses for a minor attribute orb will still take quite an effort.”

“Come on man,” the young warrior shushed the pale youth. “Don’t ruin the mood. We’ll be cutting down plenty of these things on the way. At worst, we’ll just give each other a bus ride.”

“A what now?” The shadow touched spell caster stared at the warrior with a puzzled expression.

“It’s a video game slang for when someone gets carried by other skilled players,” Fabien explained. “If we weaken an enemy, but leave the killing strike to another, they should still be able to use that corpse as their own sacrifice material.”

“Interesting.” Cruz noted as she weaved her hair back into place.

“It’s both interesting and useful,” Amanda agreed. “We’ll have to work together if we want to reach tier two fast.”

“Haste makes waste,” Regis tried to calm down their rising ambitions. “We’ll have to concentrate on the matters at hand first. Reaching the spell weavers’ guild comes first. Anything we get done along the way is just an extra.”

“Party pooper.” Khan said between two fake coughs as the group stashed whatever loot they gained in an inconspicuous crate they took from a half broken cart, hiding it under the same cart.

The right turn mentioned by captain Hyord proved to be quite close, however as soon as they took the turn, they were greeted by another small group of fallen. This one boasted seven well armed swordsmen along with two spearmen, an archer and what seemed to be a cleric of sorts. Not far behind them a robed figure began casting a spell that was quickly snuffed out by an empowered arrow to the eye from Sophie. Despite his arcana shield trying its best, Regis managed to receive a small cut near his elbow just above his arm guards, which began to bleed profusely. As soon as he defeated the bastard responsible for the cut, he quickly cast lesser healing on the wound to erase it. The small group of fallen received reinforcements as several undead commoners and a ghoul appeared from a small gap between two buildings further along the alley. A blazing hammer strike smashed apart the head of the incoming ghoul while a pair of blades beheaded a rotting commoner and a shadow bolt melted off the face of yet another one. By the time the alley got cleared, everyone was starting to get out of breath once again.

“Are you alright there?” Quentin turned around and asked after ending his share of the fight.

“It was just a small cut,” the spell weaver answered. “The bastard managed nick me.”

“Everyone else alright?”

“Still alive.” Most of them answered while Valerie healed up a small gash on Cruz’s left side.

“She’ll live.” The infernal woman stated after erasing the injury with her magic. “You really need to get a proper armour, though. I’m sure there are some light vests or something out there that would fit with your fighting style. This thing you’re wearing might protect your chest, but you’ll get gutted like a fish if you keep going on like this.”

“If you say so.” Cruz said while rolling her eyes, pulling on the neck area of the boiled leather chest piece she wore.

“Have you guys found anything of use,” Fabien asked while rummaging through one of the swordsmen’s belongings. “Because all I found is just the general junk you’d expect. At least the weapon is made of iron though.”

“If nothing else,” Regis looked at the weapon. “We’ll be able to upgrade our own gear with the amount of iron we’ll find if things go on like this.”

“Infusing our equipment using ion is not the same as finding any actual high-grade equipment.”

“We could craft some proper stuff if we had the time and a workshop,” Amanda scoffed. “But it would take a few days to gear up everyone and I doubt we have the time.”

“Let’s just keep looking for anything of use along the way,” Quentin added. “If it fits and it’s better than what you have, then switch it. If not, stash it. Regis can always recycle it for materials later into ingots and what not that are easier to carry about.”

“Woe be to me,” the dark elf grabbed at his heart in a theatrical way. “To think that I would be degraded into a simple recycling machine.”

“At least that way you have some actual use.” Osmond patted him on the shoulder jokingly while using his other hand to stash the small pouch of coins he recently found into the satchel.

“Yeah, fuck you too.” The spell weaver shrugged as he he quickly pricked his finger to initiate the corpse sacrifice ritual.

A vigour and an arcana shard later he stepped beside the carcass of the undead cleric to cast charlatan’s wisdom on it.

{Fallen Priest of Upheaval}

{Level: 6}

{Attributes}

Allure:6

Deftness:7

Erudition:9

Luck:5

Might:6

Mind:10

Physique:9

Spirit:12

Willpower:8

{This fallen priest of unknown origins was once a member of the ‘Church of the Seven Paths’ and became an undead due to the strong presence of foul magic. Its original attributes had been halved by becoming an undead. It retained some of its capability of using its ingrained special skills, spells and items.}

‘So it really was a priest of the local clergy once.’ Regis sighed as the group finished the looting and headed out the other end of the alley once more. The rest of their journey proved to be somewhat easier as they only encountered one more small group of undead before finally reaching the goal of the day. A large building with a tower stared back at them speck in the middle of a cobblestoned square with several streets opening up into it. Dozens of fallen shambled about aimlessly, most of them obviously high levelled, judging by the equipment they donned.

“That’s a lot of heavy hitters.” Cruz stated the obvious, staring at the small undead army.

“There’s no way we can reach the guild house without a fight.” Osmond measured their chances fervently.

“And there’s no way we can take them all on at once.” Quentin added.

“Can we kite them into the alley?” Khan asked with blades at the ready.

“Not a chance,” Osmond shook his head. “If you draw the attention of one, it will bring down the rest of them on us and the alley is too narrow to fight this many.”

“So what’s the plan?” Amanda inquired while hefting her hammer onto her shoulder.

“Run and gun?”

“We don’t have enough arcana or arrows for that.” Cruz shot down the idea.

“I could try creating wall,” Regis offered his idea as the familiar yellow line appeared on the ground in his vision, making it obvious that his innate spell was usable even on a cobblestone road “I could create a half-circle in front of the alley entrance to slow them down.”

“That could work, but wouldn’t they break through the earth walls with numbers like these?” Valerie considered the idea.

“Not if I turn the walls into stone.”

“Hold on,” Amanda stopped the conversation. “You can actually do that?”

“Yes?” Regis answered with a shaky question as he looked at the half-giant blacksmith.

“Then why the hell didn’t you you do that before? It would have made the camps along the river so much safer.”

“I didn’t do it because it costs a lot of arcana and time.”

“How long would it take?” The wannabe paladin questioned as he kept counting the number of enemies.

“Creating the wall is fast, but turning it into stone piece by piece is a nightmare. Of course, it still remains to be seen whether they get drawn in by the creation of the wall in the first place or not.”

“What do you suggest?”

“All of you should get back a bit further into the alley. That way if they do become hostile, we’ll be able to run.”

“Fine by me.” Khan shrugged as he headed back into the alley.

The young spell weaver slowly edged closer to the entry point of the alleyway before activating is earth wall spell. The ground trembled slightly as condensed earth seeped through the shaking rocks, growing into a wall all in a matter of seconds. Some of the fallen turned their head towards the phenomena, but decided to continue shambling about aimlessly as they couldn’t see any prey. Reassured by his enemies’ unwariness, the dark elf continued summoning and connecting the earth walls to each other, forming a barricade at the entrance. Once done, he crouched down and sneaked closer to the wall, laying his hands on the bottom of the rightmost one. He cast ‘earth to stone’ on it, a seizable chunk of the wall hardening under his magic. It was followed by two more before he ran out of energy, having to retreat into the safety of the alley to meditate.

“It really is going to take awhile.” Fabien sighed as he looked at their new barricade.

“Preparation is the key to success.” His sister said in a businesswoman like tone as the rest of the group sat down, trying to regain as much of their strength as possible for the coming fight.

After good hour of switching between turning the earth wall into stone peace by peace and meditating to regain his arcana, the young spell weaver could finally breathe up as he looked at the now complete half circular stonewall. He even created a ramp on their side to allow them to get over it easier once the battle was over.

“Is everyone ready?” He asked his companions, earning a firm nod from everyone.

“Let’s get this show started!” Khan said with an obvious eagerness in his voice.

The members of the warband lined up behind the barricade with weapons drawn, giving the signal to Sophie. The sun elf girl aimed her bow at a heavily equipped undead warrior. As the arrow was loosed, it cut through the air with a twang, a red glint shining on its tip before it slammed into the side of a fallen warrior’s skull, drilling through its earhole. The rotting warrior collapsed on the ground with a heavy thud, catching the attention of everything moving about on the square immediately. A second arrow took down the next one with a third one following behind it soon enough.

“Here they come!” Amanda stated as the fallen finally noticed the outlanders and headed towards them with an unearthly growl.

“Fire at will!” Quentin ordered as spells were cast in quick succession to pelt the incoming wave of enemies before they could reach the barricade.

A loud bang cut through the square as Valerie’s unfurled whip burnt through the air, blasting the head of the nearest incoming undead straight off its neck.

“Keep your arcana usage to a minimum,” Regis reminded the group as he stabbed forward with his bladestaff. “More’s ought to come.”

The armed to the teeth fallen rushed the stone barricade, in their slowly trotting way, trying to reach the outlanders with little success as pointy and blunt instruments of death were swung at them. The first wave fell, then the second, piling up on top of each other before the stone wall.

“They’re climbing over the corpses!” Osmond yelled as he had to dodge an incoming sword that reached way beyond the barricade for his liking.

“They just keep on coming,” Sophie sent an arrow into yet another rotting skull. “I’m down to my last arrow here.”

“I guess now’s not the time to tell you that you should really consider picking a melee side arm, is it love?” Valerie asked while switching her whip’s shape into that of the longsword.

“I agree with the notion.” Quentin said, bashing a fallen with his shield.

“Or she could just get a larger… fuck!” Cruz side-stepped an undead squire’s large blade attack, smashing its skull apart with her mace tipped staff.

“I think we might have to retreat!” Amanda slammed her hammer into the chest of a fallen swordsman that finally managed to get over the stone wall.

“They seem to be running out of reinforcements.” Regis pointed out the lack of undead being drawn to the square by the sound of their battle.

A moment later his arcana shield shattered as an arrow drilled itself an inch or more deep into his chest, skipping between two ribs, just over an inch shy of his heart and lungs.

“Regis!” Fabien yelled as he caught the youth as he stumbled back, falling onto the ground.

“Where the…” Osmond tried to speak before Quentin stepped in front of him with his shield, barely blocking an arrow aimed at the pale youth’s head.

“Retreat, now!” The wannabe paladin ordered as Amanda grabbed the injured spell weaver, dragging him back into the cover of the alley.