A flood of essence rose from the abomination and lingered around Caesar’s party, flecks vanishing over time. Now was by far the best time for his hippo to eat the purple grape. He slipped it out of the pouch and walked over. Eager, it opened its jaws to the fullest and awaited its reward. All ten eyes focused with intent. He first put five more points into the hippo’s Spirit, bringing it up to sixteen. Then, he loosened his grip.

Minutes passed. The hippo grunted and fidgeted, wounds reopening as it grew. White chains, more corporeal than ever, burst through its hide and crept upward only for black essence to beset them. Wounds healed. The chains disintegrated and surged forward again. Blood gushed out, the liquid containing lingering white chains with a purple tint. Caesar waited with tense breaths.

The power of curses inside the grape and the incompatibility of a defensive, blessing-type ability could not create enough of a reaction to overpower the tide of essence. The chains struggled to progress and crawled back inside the hippo like earthworms. Its injuries healed and didn’t return. His eyes lit up and he checked the system notifications.

[Notice]: Congratulations! Your Tomb Hippopotamus has ranked up and reached Level 21! +2 Free Stat Points

Tomb Hippopotamus: Rare

Level 21: 2 Free Stat Points

Ability: Pharaoh Blessed (S) – Rank 2

Facet: Mummify (A)

Talents: Innate Spellcasting

Skills:

Necromancy – Bolt of Decay, Withering Blast, Dark Wave, Necrotic Fog, Curse of Impotence

Warfare – Shockwave

Mana: 190 -> 240

Strength: 19 -> 24

Agility: 11 -> 16

Vitality: 19 -> 24

Magic: 19 -> 24

Willpower: 9 -> 14

Spirit: 16 -> 21

[Pharaoh Blessed (S)]: A very rare ability that provides the user with reduced damage taken and a powerful shield. Ability use is barely visible. Shield begins to repair itself once health is full.

- It also provides a weaker aura that reduces damage taken for all designated entities within the aura and grants them a barrier. Damage resistance has no entity limit. Barrier protection is limited to ten entities.

- Afflicts all enemies with the Curse of Bindings who attack any barrier. All present curses on hostiles in the aura intensify when the user’s shield is broken. All curses on hostiles are permanent unless the cursed leave the aura’s range.

The Curse of Bindings revealed two stages: reduction in speed and reduction in stats. Presumably, the third stage reduced Spirit. Although intensification only allowed up to the second stage, that was enough.

[Mummify (A)]: A facet that withers away a curse-afflicted corpse with an intact heart, then raises it to be commanded by the user. Target corpse reanimates with all stats and levels but no abilities or spells except those related to curses. Target corpse must have a rarity and a rank equal to or below the user for this to succeed.

Mummies may be told to linger around an area or entity and will defend it with their life. Mummies have Curse Resistance and replace Vitality with Endurance. Mummies persist until the user dies, but only one may be maintained at a time with this facet. Mummies cannot level.

[Curse Resistance]: This talent grants resistance against curse spells and abilities.

The increased rank gave his hippo three major advantages for the upcoming fight: +5 to all stats, improved abilities, and more spells. This was essential. Especially the spell – it’d help a lot against the enemy mage.

Curse of Impotence

[Effects]: A necromancy spell that weakens the enemy’s Strength and Magic by 10% of the caster’s Magic for three minutes. Effects increased to 15% upon intensification.

[Rarity]: Rare

[Memorization Cost]: 6

[Mana Cost]: 50 Mana

The two intensified curses combined would reduce the enemy mage's stats below rank one limits – a deadly trap to trigger.

His hippo trudged behind the Undead Abomination and began to push it towards the entranceway. While it did so, Caesar walked around the room with torch in hand. Most of the walls were an impenetrable gray. Occasionally, he’d run into barricaded gates rising well above his height, enough to fit entire chariot teams. He’d have to hack through these later if he wanted to continue exploring the place.

For now, Caesar continued exploring. His skeleton mage sent Fireballs soaring into the air, lighting up the room with echoing booms. He glimpsed nothing abnormal: only the same steel gray. But one wall differed. Sometimes, he could hear the sounds of rushing water, then nothing – as if it stopped moving. A creature? He looked back up. Since this wall contained no barricades, the entrance to the water could be above.

An oddity appeared in the middle of the room, where the abomination had stayed. As he walked closer, the shape of an altar gradually revealed itself. Excitement appeared in his eyes when he spotted the book laying on top of it – a skill book. He picked it up and identified it.

[Item]: On the Construction and Coherence of Undead Abominations

[Rarity]: Rare

[Effects]: Contains knowledge on the necromancy spell [Create Undead Chimera].

Create Undead Chimera

[Effects]: A necromancy spell that creates Undead Chimeras, who remain permanently. Monster type, rarity, levels, and abilities depend on the materials utilized to craft the chimera. Mana spent is based on Rarity of the finished product, starting from Uncommon and increasing from Rare.

[Rarity]: Rare

[Memorization Cost]: 10

[Mana Cost]: 50 Max Mana

This doesn’t seem very useful. Yet. Complex spellbooks like this required somebody with knowledge about the skill to read the book, thus learning the spell in the process with time.

The hippo finished its labor and sat down. Caesar resummoned his Ever-Shifting Faces and began to climb the abomination. He’d come back down later to collect its loot.

The tunnel led to a quiet clearing inside the forest but near the posthouse, as expected. He resummoned his hippo next to him and climbed back up. No spellfire rained down this time; he expected the skeleton mages to wait patiently in their trap.

The first two floors looked unchanged. Caesar sent his hippo to drag itself up the stairs and absorb the attacks. To the left of the behemoth’s body hid the Ever-Shifting Faces, ready to Mind Spike the first skeleton mage it saw.

Four lances soared toward the hippo as it lumbered up the stairs. It bellowed in rage but maintained its pace. Another four lances appeared, but it had already pushed itself up the final step to charge into the fray. He followed.

The first thing that met his eyes were four bowl-shaped piles of corpses with their arms in the air, as if cheering. A skeleton mage stood in each. Necromantic energies flowed between each altar, with a larger mass gathering near the skeleton mage captain, who sat in the largest bowl. A bigger ghoul guarded the underside of this bowl, growling in both fear and rage. A collar shackled around its neck crackled with necromancy, searing its neck every few moments. It fidgeted and scratched, eyes wiggling in all directions, especially at Caesar and at the captain.

A withering blast shot toward the nearest bowl, cracking the black shield that rose up to defend it. The hippo’s weight crashed through it and crunched the first mage into dust. The altar fell apart. Corpses tumbled. The energies grew weaker as the hippo rushed toward the next bowl. But the skeleton mage captain was not without options. It pointed a finger at Caesar, sending the ghoul scampering to attack.

Ghoul King – Rank 2

[Rarity]: Rare

Lightning flowed around its claws and feet. He lowered his spear in preparation for the onslaught. A Mind Spike hit it, but it barely flinched. It swung. He dodged. It kept closing in. Caesar used the wooden end to try and delay it, but it slipped between his defenses and slashed at his barrier. He sprinted away, claws constantly slicing into his back, and vaulted over his hippo. Another altar fell, and the hippo turned to face the ghoul.

The ghoul king staggered back and returned to the largest bowl. The flecks of energy coming from its collar had grown more violent during the fight. Caesar leaned against his spear, allowing essence energy to restore his wounds accumulated when the barrier broke. He felt the pain of seared flesh but shrugged it off to keep his focus on the mage captain. An array of black bolts hovered in the air, waiting for the hippo to approach.

The behemoth rumbled forward to confront the final altar. It cast a Curse of Impotence on the skeleton mage captain and thundered down the room. The trap was set. He smiled and hid behind the stairs.

Javelins of darkness sliced through the air, shattering the shield in an instant. But the hippo didn’t stop. A sudden weakness overtook the skeleton mage captain and it trembled. A few lances dissipated – their purpose unfulfilled. Others dug deep gashes into the hippo’s skin, but not enough to kill.

The ghoul king paused. White chains had crawled up every inch of its body, including the collar. No more necromantic shocks came. As the hippo rammed into the final barrier, the ghoul reached up and snapped its collar off. The mage captain tried to run, but the chains weighed it down. It made one more step before the hippo swallowed it whole.

The ghoul king looked at the captain’s legs dangling from the behemoth’s gullet, then at Caesar. It backed away to one of the windows and raised its leg over. He fingered his spear and shook his head. There was no need to attack. The ghoul leaped to the ground and ran off into the forest.

With the fight finished, Caesar took his time looting each corner of the room while his Ever-Shifting Faces kept a lookout. His hippo spat out a black cloak.

[Item]: Enchanted Black Cloak – Rank 0

[Rarity]: Uncommon

[Effects]: Resistant to sharp objects. When worn, increases Agility by 1 up to the stat limit.

Mediocre. He let his skeleton mage equip it and continued to search. Near the back of the room, where the final altar lay destroyed, stood a desk containing a black book. He held it in his hands and identified it.

[Item]: Spellbook for the Complete Beginner’s Ritualism

[Rarity]: Rare

[Effects]: Contains enough knowledge to learn the basics of the spell school [Ritualism]. Contains one basic spell.

He flipped through it and saw swirling images lending no understanding to those uninitiated in the art of magic. But this was still great news. If he truly wanted to learn it for himself, he also had the option of enlisting somebody more skilled to teach him. However, this would put him in more danger of being exposed. Instead, he kept it for his Skeleton Mage.

Caesar ransacked the desk and even destroyed it in a bid to expose a catalyst. It did not appear; although, a weird coin did. He kept looking. Max could not help here – the overpowering scent of necromancy affected his senses much worse than before. He ignored his hunger and fatigue, circling the room three, four, even five times. No spot went unchecked. No corpse went unsearched. Yet he had to give up because nothing else was left.

He sighed in disappointment. Hopefully, the abomination would have something useful in its belly. He picked up one of the coins he had found – eight in total – and identified it.

[Item]: Cursed Coin

[Rarity]: Uncommon

[Effects]: A cursed coin that activates upon touching bare skin.

More information will be available upon ranking up. He had one more chance for a catalyst, which he dearly hoped would succeed.

Caesar descended the stairs and rushed into the dark corridor again.

His hippo bit and tore at the massive corpse’s abdomen, spitting out disgusting chunks of melded flesh. Meanwhile, he unwrapped his bedroll. The familiar sounds of his summons and the coziness of the enclosed room lulled him to sleep.

When Caesar awoke, he stayed in bed listening to the whizzing of his Ever-Shifting Faces as it guarded him. His hippo stood up from its slumber and nudged him, its job complete. He pushed himself off from the floor and patted their heads. Today, he felt good. His smile widened when he saw the skull on the ground, focusing intently on the crown and ignoring the scepter and orb next to it.

It wore a coronet inlaid with brilliant gems. But one gem stood out in particular, tinted gray and red.

[Item]: Skull Gem – Rank 2

[Rarity]: Rare

[Effects]: A catalyst for rank 1 abilities.

With no other options remaining, he popped it out and into his mouth. It tasted of melted strawberry and bitter medicine.

In his addled state, visions of a black crown and scepter swam. He reached out, but they remained far away…