Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 16

Quietus was feeling much better. His stress levels were down significantly after doing his quest, and he’d made progress in some other areas. Now all he had to do was turn his quest in. For most people, it would be a simple matter of visiting the person who gave them the quest, but in his case, it was a bit more complicated. The goal was the same, but the practical application had to be carried out differently.

He remembered the last time he had done an assassination quest... and decided he’d rather avoid any unnecessary deaths at the hands of city guards. He was confident in his ability to avoid suspicion on the streets, but if he happened upon a wary gate guard, he could be in trouble. Thus, he decided to put his new climbing skill to use, and go over the wall into the city.

That was what he had decided. Now he stood at the bottom of the wall and admired its construction. Very nice even work. Very smooth. Also, very terrible for climbing. He didn’t appreciate that part. He made some effort, but couldn’t even get off the ground- there was just nothing he could hold on to. Well, at least he’d be able to get over the consequences of death by guard quickly...

Quietus approached the gate, disguised, of course. He did his best to appear like he belonged, as if he were an adventurer coming back from an outing. The guards were certainly used to that. It helped significantly that he was technically an adventurer doing just that. Perhaps not the most upright of outings, but details were unimportant.

Having had experience being in trouble at various points, Quietus knew that looking guilty was the worst thing you could do. Next worst was looking like you were trying not to look guilty. So Quietus threw on his best innocent face. It helped that he didn’t feel like he’d done anything really wrong- it was just part of the game. Then the moment of truth came.

Quietus walked past the guard who appeared to be almost asleep, standing up. It’s a good thing they weren’t expecting a lot of criminals or an attack on the city... but now he felt silly for being worried.

He found his way back to the assassin’s guild via a shortcut he liked to call “the main streets”. Much less suspicious than darting around in alleyways. Quietus thought he heard someone pass by him, but when he looked, no one was there. It was probably his cloak blowing in the wind.

He entered the door, and went to see Frank, as usual. Frank was behind his desk. Quietus wondered if he ever slept, since as an NPC he would have to sleep sometime... probably.

Frank looked up from his papers, then smiled. “How’d the job go?”

“Better than the last one,” he said, as he handed over the ring.

“No tripping this time?” Frank grinned... or at least, it could be called something like that. Perhaps closer to a smirk. Quietus felt it was intended to be friendly.

“No. It went much better.”

“Good.” Frank picked up a small purse that had been sitting on his desk. “Here’s your reward.”

*Ting*

You completed the quest.

You have gained a level!

You have gained a level!

This time, he gained two levels. However, he hadn’t gotten enough experience to level from killing Lupin, so it went about the same as his last job... minus the death.

Quietus figured it was a good time for a break from murdering people questing so he decided he would do a bit of murdering animals hunting before logging off.

He decided to experiment with his abilities on rabbits. He could consistently kill them in one hit, thanks to his ability to sneak up on them. He would get a critical hit by attacking a weak spot, and the damage of that was amplified by his anatomy skill. Of course, killing rabbits in one shot wasn’t much of a feat, but he also wasn’t particularly high level.

Then, he tried using Dark Hand exclusively to kill one. He’d mostly gotten used to the pain this caused to him, and barely felt it. He was quick enough to be able to grab a rabbit while using it. He observes the drain it caused on the health of the rabbit, and it was over in about ten seconds... at the cost of about a quarter of his mana. Not terribly efficient. He tried several more times to be sure of the results. Then...

New stat: Sadism

Sadism

Your love of pain energizes you. While causing pain and damage, and for a short time thereafter, stamina and mana regeneration increases. You are prohibited from distributing stat bonus points to this stat, and it rises spontaneously, depending on the avatar’s action, especially if you cause ongoing damage to monsters, such as with poisons or bleeding attacks, as well as some critical hits.

Quietus pondered at this stat, but decided he wouldn’t have to worry about it. He couldn’t really influence it anyway, and he did get critical hits, and occasionally used poison.

He went back to experimenting. He didn’t notice a significant change in the amount of mana he had left when doing the same thing to more rabbits- about 5 or 10 points more regenerated in the time it took, out of about 300. He also got points in sadism for the first few, for some reason.

Quietus then tested himself on foxes, and critical strikes were just as effective. He did take a decent amount of time to prepare himself for the kills, but they were over quickly. Then, he tried his Dark Hand on a fox.

The fox bit and clawed at his arm, and he couldn’t keep a grip on it, but he did manage to keep in contact with it, which was enough for the effect of Dark Hand. This was a terribly inefficient method, and he took about half his health in damage from the stupid fox, and used up about three quarters of his mana... which was pretty good, since it took about a minute, so the regeneration seemed to be significant.

Then, it was late enough that Quietus felt he should log off. He took one final look at his status before doing so.

NameQuietusPrimary ClassWarlockReputation-200Health216Mana326Level15Strength11Agility45Wisdom36Intelligence36Stamina30Vitality11Luck45Sadism9

So far, his stats were progressing nicely. Then, he logged off. He would have a busy day tomorrow.

End Chapter 16

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