“You heard a voice? As in a voice in your head?” Cruz turned towards the man with the rest of the group mirroring her movements.

“No,” Quentin shook his head. “I was inside my soul-space and there was this voice echoing throughout the place, telling me that it found me worthy to allow me to thread forward on my path. Then my constellations began to glow before shedding these small motes of light that formed into a scroll that contained this new constellation chart.”

“Let me guess,” Valerie looked him in the eye. “It’s the constellation of some sort of paladin class.”

“How did you...”

“We have records of many classes,” Fabien cut into his words. “The paladin class is a peculiar one. You cannot learn it on your own, even if you match the requirements. It must be bestowed upon you by a high-ranking member of the clergy.”

“Or in your case,” the infernal woman beamed with happiness. “You were most likely acknowledged by one of the saints of this world.”

“You’re not saying...”

“He was most likely bestowed the paladin class by Saintess Elora herself.” Regis finished the meaningful explanation.

“That’s a good thing, right?” Sophie asked with an unnerved tone as she looked at her companions.

“The power plays of higher beings aren’t meant for mortals like us,” Osmond let out a sigh. “The fact that one of them actively made a move to recruit Quentin has many possible implications.”

“That might be true,” Regis agreed. “But there could be a simpler reason behind it.”

“What could they possibly gain from recruiting one man? No offence Quentin.” Amanda inquired before apologising to her comrade.

“The war that washed over the continent took a lot of lives,” the dark elf explained his thoughts. “Even if we’re outlanders, we still get to live here from now on. Quentin likely proved that he had the qualities Elora would seek for in her paladins…”

“So she must have decided to replenish her lost forces by bestowing the class on him.” Fabien concluded.

“Either way,” Valerie smiled. “I’m happy for you. It’s not everyday that a lesser deity herself bestows a class on someone.”

“It’s also good for us,” Osmond noted. “It means that we’ll have one more tier 2 in our group.”

“Alright. Enough with the chatter,” Khan stood back up, dusting off his armour with his better hand. “Let’s loot these ugly fuckers and send off their corpses to get a bit of extra for our suffering.”

“Hey Regis,” Amanda called out to the dark elf. “How strong were these things?”

“Give me a moment.” The young spell weaver said as he crouched beside the corpse of the fire mage to cast charlatan’s wisdom on it.”

{Fallen Mage of the Crimson Flames}

{Level: 9}

{Attributes}

Allure:5

Deftness:7

Erudition:11

Luck:6

Might:7

Mind:14

Physique:10

Spirit:16

Willpower:11

{This fallen spellcaster of unknown origins was once a member of the ‘Crimson Flame’ guild 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.}

“This one was a level 9 with a spirit score of sixteen.” He said as he stepped over to the necromancer, repeating the process.

{Fallen Necromancer of the Shattered Soul}

{Level: 9}

{Attributes}

Allure:5

Deftness:8

Erudition:12

Luck:5

Might:6

Mind:17

Physique:11

Spirit:17

Willpower:12

{This fallen necromancer of unknown origins was once a member of the ‘Shattered Soul’ cult 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.}

“This one is also 9th level spellcaster. Its spirit and mind attributes are both seventeen.”

He felt strange, his eyes somewhat apologetic as he bent down to check the cleric’s remains.

{Fallen Battle Cleric of Irmeg}

{Level: 10}

{Attributes}

Allure:5

Deftness:10

Erudition:12

Luck:6

Might:16

Mind:13

Physique:15

Spirit:17

Willpower:12

{This fallen battle cleric 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.}

“Apparently, the former holy man was a 10th level battle cleric of Irmeg. He had a might of sixteen with a physique of fifteen and a spirit of seventeen.”

“Damn,” Cruz let out a slight chuckle as she touched her bruised stomach. “He sure was a tough bastard.”

“Who cares about those ugly bastards,” Khan urged him on. “Check out the soldier! I bet he was a level 15 or something.”

Regis nodded at Khan before walking over to the fallen soldier’s carcass, casting the familiar spell on it. It revealed the surprising set of information.

{Fallen Commander of the Ironclad Legion}

{Level: 12}

{Attributes}

Allure:6

Deftness:16

Erudition:13

Luck:7

Might:16

Mind:12

Physique:16

Spirit:13

Willpower:15

{This fallen commander of unknown origins was once a high ranked member of the ‘Ironclad Legion’ military regiment 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.}

“Well,” Khan asked excited. “How strong was it?”

“Damn. It was at level 12,” the dark elf answered. “It had pretty high scores too. Sixteen in deftness, might and physique along with a fifteen in willpower.”

“Damn,” the bladedancer cursed. “I thought it was tougher.”

“You just fought against a 12th level abomination and lived to tell the tale with only a hand chopped off,” Cruz scoffed. “You already have a tale to brag with.”

“Perhaps.” The dark elf smiled as he cast charlatan’s wisdom on the dead knight.

{Fallen Knight of house Redmane}

{Level: 13}

{Attributes}

Allure:7

Deftness:16

Erudition:14

Luck:7

Might:17

Mind:15

Physique:17

Spirit:14

Willpower:15

{This fallen knight was once an heir of the ‘Redmane’ lower noble family 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.}

“But it seems that Quentin took the top score. The knight was at level 13 and it had a might and physique of seventeen with a sixteen in deftness and fifteen in willpower.”

“Son of a bitch!” Almost everyone cursed at the same time as they looked at the fallen knight.

“Wait a minute,” Sophie stopped, everyone turning towards her. “You once told us that the undead have their attributes halved. These people should have had attributes over thirty then, right? Doesn’t that mean...”

“That they were an actual tier 3 group,” Fabian finished the sun elf’s train of thought with a shudder running along his spine. “What the hell could take out an entire group of tier 3-s?”

“Something I don’t want to meet anytime soon.” His sister admitted as she ruthlessly began to strip off the fire mage’s equipment.

“It makes one wonder,” Quentin mused. “Where did they die? And more importantly; if they died somewhere else, how did they get all the way here?”

“The better question is,” Osmond decided to join in in to the conversation. “What made them decide to keep this particular area. Undead usually have simple objectives. They instinctively seek out the living to kill them. They wouldn’t just take up a position like this, and they would definitely not plan ambushes this detailed.”

“You know,” Cruz spat on the ground in disgust. “I always hated this part of you. Your casual thoughts always imply that someone’s out there to get us.”

“Not really us, rather whomever wanted to retake the gates.”

“As much as I enjoy your conspiracy theories,” Valerie stopped Osmond before he could delve to deeper into his rantings. “But we really have a lot of work ahead of us. Instead of theorizing, help us drag down the corpses so that we can pile them up with the rest of the carcasses we made on the way here.

“You heard the boss lady,” Fabien laughed. “Get to work!”

“Fine,” the pale youth relented. “Have it your way, your highness.”

The members of the outlander group let out a strained chuckle as they paired up to drag the corpses away more efficiently. Once the elite enemies’ remains reached the ground floor along with the crossbow men’s, they left them outside and the guard tower and turned their attention toward the rest of the corpses scattered along the way between the tower and the Scholars’ Square.

“Did we really leave this many behind?” Sophie asked as she and Amanda were in the middle of pulling a heavily armoured fallen squire towards the gathering point.

“So it would seem, although I have to admit that I have no idea what we’ll do with all this surplus equipment. This is enough to kit out a small army.”

“You can change your own gear to whatever you find to be better,” the dark elf spoke up as he dragged away the remaining lower half of two shield bearers by their legs. “I will most likely dismantle the rest of it to use for enchantments and upgrades.”

“We could I also sell some of the stuff,” Cruz noted. “That captain Fletcher and his soldiers seemed to be quite worse for wear. I’m sure they would be willing to buy some of the better arms and armour, not to mention these crossbows.”

“Or they could just call us corpse looters and confiscate everything under the pretence that all of it belongs to the local authorities anyway.” Khan reminded her.

“As much as I hate to admit it,” Quentin joined in to the conversation. “But he’s right about this one. It’s better to first ask around and find out if they are in need of spare equipment and are actually willing to buy it.”

“So,” Amanda tried to railroad the conversation. “How many did we kill actually?”

“Five at the top of the tower,” Osmond began to count. “There were also the six crossbowmen, along with the 6 shield bearers.”

“There were five squires in total,” Fabien added. “And a dozen swordsmen along with seven spearmen.”

“Don’t forget about the four mace wielding fallen and the three mages.” Sophie helped with the counting process.

“Anything else?” The pale youth looked at his companions.

“Not on this section.”

“That’s forty-eight in total, most of them being 5th level and above. That should earn us something good.”

“How do we decide who gets to sacrifice the elite ones?”

“The one who dealt the killing blow gets to be the one to sacrifice them,” Valerie sighed as she looked at her brother. “That’s the rule of the ritual.”

“In that case; Amanda, Fabien, Khan, Osmond and Quentin gets the best deal out of today’s fights.” Cruz grumbled as she began to unceremoniously strip down the battle cleric’s equipment.

It took them almost an hour to drag away and strip the fallen enemies before they could pile them up and go through with the corpse sacrifice ritual. Despite his best efforts, Regis knew after counting his kills that he was sorely lacking if he wanted to get a minor attribute orb. Letting out a deep breath, he decided to lower his expectations and aimed to trade his kills for a lesser orb of deftness.

In the end he received not only the orb, but enough shard slivers to form a fortitude and three vigour shards while getting to keep two pale blue slivers he’d later get to turn into a complete arcana shard. Once he absorbed the four shards he could use, a small but abundant burst of life-force coursed through his veins before he absorbed the lesser orb of deftness.

“Hey Regis,” he heard Valerie call out to him. “Could you be a darling and identify these things for me? I only recently began to use charlatan’s wisdom myself, so I’m not proficient enough to identify the things left behind by that fire mage.”

“Sure,” the dark elf nodded as he walked closer and crouched down beside her. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thanks,” she smiled as she handed over several small trinkets. “They look pretty and all, but I’d hate the wear cursed jewellery.”

Regis held out his palm so that she could place two rings and a strange looking amulet on top of it. He picked up the first ring to examine. The jewel was silver in colour, a dark stone adorning it that reminded him of the arcanite he used before. The stone was encircled by tiny white runes that emitted a warm glow. After casting charlatan’s wisdom on it, a familiar yet surprising description appeared in front of his eyes.

{Silver ring of arcana regeneration}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: well-made}

{Arcana regeneration boost: 5}

{Durability: 82/100}

“Okay,” he cleared his throat as he handed the ring over to the infernal woman. “This is a well-made, uncommon ring of minor arcana regeneration. As its name suggests, it boosts the wearer’s arcana regeneration by 5.”

“Oh, damn!” Khan whistled from the side. “Sounds like she hit the jackpot.”

“It definitely sounds useful for any spellcaster to have one of those around.” Osmond agreed.

“What about the other one?” Valerie asked as she quickly slipped the enchanted ring on her left hand’s ring finger. The young spell weaver picked up the second ring to get a closer look at it. It was also no made out of a silver coloured metal with a small fiery red stone faceted on it that was surrounded by tiny white runes. As he identified it, Regis couldn’t stop himself from whistling.

{Dragon’s breath ring}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: well-made}

{Fire damage boost: 5}

{Durability: 87/100}

“Well,” he swallowed his saliva while he kept staring at the ring as if it weighted much more than before. “This is also a well-made uncommon ring.”“And?” Valerie shimmied closer as he noticed the unnatural fascination in the young spell weaver’s gaze.

“It’s called a ‘dragon’s breath’ ring and apparently, it adds a flat five point of fire damage to the wearer.”

“What?” Most of the group asked as one while the infernal woman quickly snatched back the ring, as if it was the most valuable thing she ever owned.

“Seriously,” Fabien looked at his sister aghast. “Are you really going to take everything that’s actually worth something? We took down that thing together.”

“And you got to sacrifice its corpse.” Valerie retorted.