I sat there on the bone throne, looking at the pop-up. It wasn’t like any of the others that I had ever gotten. It told me that the owner of the Throne was still alive. The Death Walker, who was clearly a necromancer, was still kicking around somewhere, but he hadn’t been here in a long time.

I didn’t know what would happen if I took the Throne from him. Would he be told who did? Would he even know that it was taken? If he was would he be okay if I just gave it back to him? Not that I would want to give it back since I was sure this guy was a hundred percent evil. Who would be messed up enough to make a throne with blood running down it?

I sighed and nodded. “Not like I’m not making enemies anyway.”

I selected yes to claiming the forsaken Throne of the Death Walker. I felt a rush of power flowing into me from the throne. I didn’t know what happened, but I smiled, mostly from pain, but still, I was as happy as a footless man could be.

Still smiling, I said. “Maybe he’s forgotten his Throne. After all, he’s forsaken it, and if it meant anything to him, he wouldn’t have let it sit for so long.”

I reached out to the throne to see if I could pull anything up. But before I could, I got another pop-up.

While the Current Deathwalker is still alive, he has lost his Throne.

Do you wish to claim the Title Deathwalker?

Yes/No

I wish I could have said I thought about the long-term problems of claiming a title from some ancient being. However, I did what I thought was expedient and might give me some power boost. Every title I had gotten so far came with something that helped. So I selected yes.

New Title

Deathwalker

+20 intimidation for all who know your title -10 Social interactions with all Necromancers Ownership of the Crypt of the Deathwalker Ownership of the Mantle of the Deathwalker Size of controlled horde increased by 75% +10% chance to take control of undead already owned +10% damage to all undead +10% after bonuses and equipment to mana Unbreathing Lifesense 100 feet +75% to all hidden attacks

***Requirement***

Forsake the Darkones with a binding Soul Oath

Yes/No (No will kill you)

I yelled, “What the hell! Could have told me there was a soul oath at the start!”

I spat to the side and selected yes to the soul oath.

I felt my body stiffen, much like when I used the communication spell to ask Sam a question. Then I felt myself start to speak.

“I, Arn of house redacted, swear on my soul and my honor that I will never join with the Dark ones, nor will I aid them knowingly in any way, shape, or form. I recognize their destructive nature and desire to destroy all worlds.

I understand that by breaking this oath, I will not only betray those who trust me but also incur the wrath of the powers that be. My soul will be forever tarnished, and I will be forever branded as a traitor losing 1000 HP, SP, and MP forever.

May my words be binding and my actions be true.”

You have taken a Soul Oath to forsake the Dark ones

No one needs to know of the oath for the effects to transpire.

+10% reaction with all who oppose them -10% reaction with all who side with them

I shook my head. I wasn’t happy about the oath, mostly about the effects just happening. It didn’t give ranges, so I didn’t know if that meant that others who were with the dark ones just happened to know of me if they would just start acting like they hated me sooner. Or if they would have to see me to think negatively of me. Same, I guess, with people who oppose the dark ones. Would kings on the other side of the world like me more now, even though they didn’t know me?

I let a deep breath out and tried to focus through the pain. The title that I had just gotten was something else. By far, it was the most powerful of the titles, even if it seemed very focused on being a necromancer. That said, there was that odd hidden attacks bonus as well.

I reached out again to the throne. I wanted to see what it would do.

Throne of the Deathwalker

This was the throne of the Winter Champion, the Deathwalker.

It is now the Throne of Arn the Deathwalker.

As your Throne levels, its helpfulness increases

Level 52/75

General

Throne of the Deathwalker

Level 52

Type item core

Class godly magical

Durability 70000/70000

>Growth

To level your item core, you must use it for its purpose and provide it material to level to the next level.

Mana 100% Bones of your enemies 45% Memento of foe 45% Rubies 10ct or larger 7% Silver 100% Mithril 75% Darksteel 60% Marble 100% Heads of lichs 0% Shadows 85% Blood of the willing 100% Bound servant 50% Intact Hearts of foes level 27 26% Skill books 0%

>Traits

Durable- This Throne is durable, it will not wear out from normal use durability will only decrease with targeted attacks. Mana reservoir- 1740 mana unlinked 600 mana linked to traits. Recharges at a rate of 10 mana per hour can be forced charged. Mobility- This throne is both stronger and lighter then one would think by looking at it. Rebuild Field- All undead who serve the necromancer on the throne within 700 feet will be rebuilt at 1 hp per minute. Shroud of protection- The enthroned is protected by a magical shield of 6000 points from magical, physical and holy attacks Rulership of the Deathwalker- The necromancer’s control over undead is increased by 300%. The ability to claim undead is increased by 100%. Skill of the Deathwalker- The owner of this throne gets a plus 50 or plus 25% which ever is greater to the following spells. Claim Undead, Steal Health, Drain Mana and Nightmare. The owner of the throne gets a plus 25% to all other necromantic spells and skills. Power of the Throne- All attacks made when seated on the throne are increased by 50%. Range on all magical attacks increased by 200%. Fear from all those who are not allies to the necromancer is increased by 50% while seated. Presence of the Deathwalker. While seated, you may view whatever any one of your minions can sense. Range one mile. Bound Servant- This throne acts as a soul anchor for up to 10 wraiths. (7/10 bound servants)

I shook my head for a moment, trying to clear my thoughts. Then I scrolled back up and took a closer look at the list of traits. The Skill of the Deathwalker was the one that I smiled at most. It showed that I should get a plus 50 for my Claim Undead spell and 25% for the rest of my spells. Which meant that I should be able to raise the skeleton guard a bit higher.

I was less than happy with the bound servants, but they were what they were. At this point, I wasn’t even sure if those wraiths could be let go without destroying the throne, so I wasn’t about to try. I needed this thing if I was going to beat the lich.

I started to chuckle. “With this, I might even be able to claim the lich himself and make him my minion. Then we can find out who those humans are that have been helping him.”

I did a quick check and saw that, yes, my spells had gone up. I had also gained a new spell Nightmare.

This is a Necromancy spell.

Spell/Level/Mana cost/ Cast time

Nightmare 50/250/10 seconds

This spell temporarily places the person’s soul into a nonphysically harmful nightmare. This nightmare is based upon the target’s fears and will take an undetermined amount of time for the target to escape of, no less than 30 seconds and no more than level times 30 seconds.

During this time, the target will not respond to non-damaging interactions. To forcefully remove the target from a nightmare, the target must take skill-level damage.

I nodded slowly. I would have thought that nightmare would have been under the Terror spells and not under necromancy. I checked a second time, saw it was in both places and nodded. Now it was time to find out what else was around me.

I grabbed hold of the skeleton guard and released it, then reclaimed it. I smiled as I saw it go from level 3 to level 54. Claiming it wasn’t hard at all while sitting on the throne, and now I had something that could fight.

Skeletal Guard (Lizardman) Level 54 (90)

Undead (claimed)

HP 486 (875)

Mana 300 (550)

Weight 65 lbs

Armor rating 18 (30)

Weapons

Bone claws sharp 35 (60)

Bite puncturing 23 (40), Magical 17 (30)

Tail blunt 6 (10)

Halberd 120

I tried to poke the flowing blood on my throne, but nothing happened. Nevertheless, it was there; I could tell as I could feel it move. That said, it didn’t get me wet, and when I pulled my finger back, there was no blood still on it.

I shook my head and smiled. “At least I won’t get more blood on me.”

I looked at my debuffs and saw ones I didn’t know. I knew something was going on, but I wasn’t sure what. My brain, while working, seemed not to be doing as well as it should. There was no reason I should have gotten distracted from what I was doing to poke the throne, but I did.

I took a deep breath hoping it was oxygen I needed. Then I reached out to the skeleton and had it start to explore for me. I wanted to know what was in this place, and it could move faster than I could. So I synced my senses with it and had it loop behind the throne.

As it moved, I realized the throne was in the middle of the room. The skeleton didn’t need eyes or ears to hear and see. I could experience the world through the minion. If the lich was inside my range, then I could, in theory, attack him without even getting off my seat.

I quickly explored where I was. Directly behind the throne led to a tunnel that ramped away. The tunnel was big enough that I could have driven a pair of tanks through it if I had one. However, I didn’t head up because I wanted to explore a few other places first.

I needed to see what was through the equally large tunnel behind me and to the left. So I sent the skeleton down that way. After walking a good hundred yards down it, I came to a pair of giant doors. I had the skeleton reach up to the large handle and pull.

Once I could haul the door open and walk in, I saw the same room as before, filled with drawers. However, some of the drawers on this side were more than five times the size of the ones that I had seen. I had the skeleton pull open one of the larger drawers to see the bones of an ogre.

I tried to reach out through the skeleton to pull up the information on the ogre but couldn’t. I shook my head and saw that the skeleton did too. Not being able to use some of my abilities at range would make things a bit harder. Not impossibly so, but hard enough that I wasn’t going to be sailing through this mess.

I had my skeleton guard start to run through the cabinets. I wanted to see if there was anything different. Knowing what all was here was almost, if not more important now than setting up a dungeon. If there was something that I could use to change the battle, I needed to find it and use it.

Just about everything was drawers. It wasn’t until it got to one end of the room that things changed. There were a series of doors, each about ten feet apart. I had the skeleton pass through the first one.

When it walked into the room, I quickly saw that it was a supply room for parts. There were bones everywhere in neat little bins. It looked like someone had been sorting things when they just up and left.

The next room was about the same but with different types of bones. Then there was one filled with armor and another with weapons. The next one after the weapons appeared to be a forge with supplies to start making things. The last one, however, was filled with black crystals in bins.

Even though I couldn’t use my senses and had to use the skeleton’s, I just felt like those crystals were bad news. I didn’t know why I did, but they just seemed like whatever they were couldn’t be good. I momentarily paused the skeleton and worked on picking up a few black shards.

It was far harder getting the shards picked up than I thought it should have been. Between the smooth sides of the gems and slippery hand-bone hands, I had to take great care in getting even the four I could pick up. Then I brought the guard back.

I cut my vision with it as it came back so that I could focus on myself. I needed to figure out how to deal with the lightheadedness and my extreme lack of mobility. If I didn’t get those things solved and solved soon, it would be much harder to save my friends.

I checked my party and noticed that they were gone now. I didn’t remember when we left the party, but I couldn’t see anything going on. I tried to reach out to Blink. I couldn’t make any connections. She just wasn’t there.

* * *