The group finished the remainder of the ghouls quickly.

Nico hadn’t used any spells, only the arrays he drew. His MP bar was completely full at the end of the fight. Vera, Chris, and Keith weren’t exactly in tip-top shape, but nowhere near as exhausted as to when Nico first met them.

They stepped into their respective magical regeneration formations to replenish as much power as they could. No words passed among the four. Chris reviewed the plan with the team several times before the fight. Every second counted after fighting the first wave. They used that time for a quick recovery.

Nico did his post-fight duty silently. With efficient, graceful strokes, he redrew spell formations scuffed or outright destroyed by the fighting. Permanent marker wasn’t so permanent against magical fights.

He took that time to quickly assess how the fight went. The ghouls numbered twenty, but the trio of mages, plus Nico, made quick work of them. More accurately, the fight itself lasted only a few minutes. Measure gave a more precise estimate of five minutes and forty eight seconds.

To Nico, that fight felt like it lasted forever.

But in that small amount of time, the ghouls had ripped through Keith’s armor eighteen times. Keith’s special ability allowed him to cover those rips each time, but it came at the cost of thinner armor. Nico suspected Keith wouldn’t be able to thin the metal for much longer without rendering the armor useless.

Chris had used multiple colored arrows. Each one had their own unique properties and effects. Out of the trio of mages, he seemed the most efficient with his magic, using his arrows to maximize the most damage he could.

He hadn’t even broken a sweat during the fight. Nico was sure the archer was holding some in reserve for the upcoming fight. According to their party leader, every treasure room they encountered had a guardian of some sort. That fact alone raised several questions for Nico, but he curbed them to focus on the upcoming fight.

Finally, Vera’s timing on her spells seemed off during the fight. It only occurred to Nico three minutes and thirteen seconds since the first ghoul attacked that she probably wasn’t used to having so much magic in reserve.

The magical regeneration array combined with Nico’s modifications to her spell formations lowered the cost of each of her spells by making them more efficient. It wasn’t difficult for Nico to make the modifications. Most of what he did was ground her system back toward Gallahad’s principles.

Regardless, this was Vera’s first fight using both the modifications and the regeneration array. She was probably used to always being low on magical power, and wasn’t used to having left over magic.

It allowed her to be more flexible in the timing of her spells, but it didn’t mean she mastered it.

Keith was busy replenishing his magic. Chris kept his eyes steady on the treasure room, gaze fixed on the black coffin standing erect in front of the gold.

Nico finished redrawing the arrays, using the extra time as an opportunity to approach Vera. He said, “Do you want me to redraw your old arrays? I feel like my modifications are throwing you off.”

Vera smiled sheepishly. “No. It’s okay. I’m so used to constantly firing off my spells, I feel awkward when I have a few seconds not to do anything until my teammates need a buff or a heal.”

Nico chuckled. “Well, if anyone understands how you feel, it’s me. I didn’t do anything during that fight except maintain the debuff for the Grey Dead. All it did was slow them by a small amount.”

Vera twisted in a perplexed look. “Not true. You gave some key insights about the ghouls to Chris with your weird divination. I’ve never seen him act on someone else’s information without heavily vetting it. He spent a whole week researching our map to validate if the contents were real. And it only reveals a portion of this tower.”

Nico nodded. Chris acting on Nico’s suggestions was surprising.

“Hey, I have an idea,” Vera said. “Why don’t you give me some of those insights during our next fight?”

“Excuse me?” Nico asked, confused.

Vera shrugged. “I mean, if you can divine the weak spots of the ghouls, you can probably do the same for the timing of my spells. You’re like a magic-math genius.”

Nico took a second to absorb her offer. She hadn’t asked it out of pity for Nico. Vera sounded like she really wanted his help and was willing to work together with him.

He tilted his head to the side, voicing aloud a doubt. “My divination requires breaking through the pranic barrier of living things. You’re at least a full step in power above me. Divining information from you….”

Already, he could feel Measure correcting his concerns. He wouldn’t have to pierce her pranic barrier to get any useful information. All she required was adjustments to her timing.

Nico’s position as the guest in their party of three wouldn’t have to be a disadvantage. In fact, it could help them. Chris would still lead. Nico could simply suggest some minor adjustments to Vera’s timing.

He nodded, and smiled. “Alright. I don’t know much about tactics--”

Measure corrected his thoughts internally. Not true. He read several books out of curiosity as an angsty teenager on war tactics and fighting philosophy out of a love of Bruce Lee. Most of those tactics he even used to place high in the leaderboards in online games.

His ability correcting his thoughts was both a confidence booster and annoying as hell.

“Nico?” Vera asked, concerned at his sudden silence.

He shook his head. “Sorry. Yeah. I got your back. Chris’ word is still law, though.”

“You’re damn right it is,” the archer agreed gruffly. He gestured for everyone to return to their positions. “No more flirting. It’s time.”

Vera’s head whipped away from Nico so fast, he couldn’t see what her reaction was. Nico felt his cheeks warm. Focus, man. Focus. He walked to his position in the team, all the way in the back, safest from harm and closest to points of egress.

Chris nodded silently to Keith, who took a few hesitant steps toward the treasure room, his shield braced in front of him. The warrior made sure his steps didn’t scuff any of the formations on the ground.

Auto-Scan notification: density of atmospheric magic coming from treasure room increasing at a rate of 2% per second.

Nico blinked away the notification. Two percent didn’t seem like much, but that rate was compounding. He yelled to Chris, “I’m getting compounding energy output from the treasure room!”

“Cease approach. Let me say hi,” The archer commanded, drawing his magical bow while knocking one white arrow. He released the white arrow. It whizzed through the air, leaving a trail of misty white speckles from its flight path.

The arrow collided into an invisible wall. It broke apart into a thousand glittering grains of sand that evaporated as soon as they touched the cold stone floor.

A hollow voice chill as black ice invaded Nico’s ears like a poisoned whisper. “I sense no students who hold the legacy key or his blood. Death is the sentence to all invaders of these principled halls."

Chris lowered his bow, and fished out an iron key from his side-sack which also held the portal scroll. He lifted it in the air as if in offering, and bellowed. “Mighty guardian, I have the key to your master’s sacred treasure right here! Allow us all safe passage!”

Tense silence filled the hall. Nico gulped. Vera looked tense. Keith only widened his stance and raised his mace, ready for anything.

The ice-chilling voice spoke again, but this time, sharper, like a knife breaking into flesh. “You are no student of the master, no blood either. You are a liar.”

An aura of magic permeated from the coffin so powerful, it knocked Nico to his knees.

The black coffin shook, and the voice whispered dark and sharp. “You are a thief.”

Nico found it harder to breathe, the air thick with the scent of rot and bile. He could feel Measure trying to sharpen his senses back to normal, but even his ability was muffled under the intense pressure.

The cover of the black coffin fell to the side, smashing into the stone floor so hard, the stone cracked. The voice gravelled, cold and black. “I will shred your bodies and dissolve your souls as meal for the master’s tower. Invaders, delight in the knowledge your path ends in the halls of the greatest mage to cross the realms.”

A skeleton wrapped in tight, rotten meat, and clad in ancient armor stepped out from the coffin. The hollows of its skull glowed red. On its bones were carved intricate patterns which Nico could not decipher from where he was.

He was too busy trying not to choke on the magic in the air.

Auto-Scan Notification: Grey Knight estimated at warlock-class in power. Black miasma permeating the hall with magical properties of the Grey Dead.

Speed lowered by 56%. Clarity of mind lowered by 37%. Magical recovery lowered by 83%.

A list of debuffs filled Nico’s screen. He had to focus every ounce of his mind to be able to read the notification while trying not to choke on the density of foreign magic.

However, he could feel Measure pushing back against the mind-fog of the enemy’s magic, with increasing strength. Soon, he could see past his own knees in the blur of his vision, and looked up.

Vera was on her knees as well, breathing erratically as if in a panic attack. Keith was on one knee, but straining to keep his other leg up. And Chris. Where was Chris? How much time had passed since the grey knight’s mental attack?

The grey knight stood toe-to-toe with the archer. Chris’s tight grip on his bow loosened. His posture was both defiant and wrong. He raised chin high in pride, staring right into the grey knight’s eyes. And yet…

The entirety of Nico’s vision cleared.

Nico’s heart sank. Chris’ feet weren’t touching the floor. Blood ripped from his boots.

The grey knight’s giant bastard sword skewered Chris’ abdomen, lifting him up with a single hand. Chris dropped his bow. It fell to the floor along with the silver key and satchel.

Chris went limp. The grey knight tossed him to the side, the archer’s body sliding off the sword like loose meat.

The sword rose in the air, black mist coiling at the edge of its blade, and fell.