Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 25

Angelo grudgingly entered the Moaning Mines again. This was, unfortunately, the best place nearby for players in this level range to level. The party prepared for a slow, painful trek through the dungeon, as the previous days had been.

After a time, the party began to notice a difference. It was slight at first. There were less traps than they had remembered, but that could have just been because their minds exaggerated the “around every corner”. There may have been fewer ghosts, but with no indication of where they might spawn, it was hard to tell if it was just the path they took. The final indicator that something was different, however, was that the ghosts were behaving differently. It was very little, but there was a small hesitation in their movements. It was as if they were afraid of something. This was, of course, a ridiculous idea. Ghosts weren’t afraid of anything.

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The first thing Quietus tested after his fight with The Cursed Archer was the Dark Arrow spell. It was relatively hard to aim, but Quietus knew he would get used to it eventually. It wouldn’t be in this dungeon, however. This was simply because ghosts seemed to be immune to it. Whether they were in their normal incorporeal state or under the effect of Soul Bind, the arrows of darkness alternatively passed through them or broke apart upon contact, inflicting no damage. There was another reason he didn’t practice it too thoroughly. Like his Dark Hand spell, there was a jolt of pain when he used it. Although it was short, he wasn’t really fond of pain.

The normal ghosts were no longer a challenge of any sort, once he stopped wasting mana on Dark Arrow. Instead, he used Soul Bind and Snakebite. The ghosts were not prepared to fight in a vulnerable state, and most of them quickly perished. Once he made the ghosts fight on his terms, the fight was trivial.

Quietus continued to find and disarm what traps there were. He was getting pretty good at it. In fact…

*ding*

You have reached Intermediate level in the Search Skill!

-You now have a small chance to find nearby traps based on the level of the trap and your Search skill.

-5% less damage taken from traps.

As he explored the dungeon, Quietus started encountering ghosts in small groups. They always attempted to ambush him from two, or possibly three sides. He had to start straining himself to listen at all times.

He could still defeat the ghosts, but it took longer than he would have liked. He couldn’t kill any one of them as quickly when they were in a group, because he had to watch out for attacks from behind and because he had to use more mana at once to make them all Soul Bound. He may have been in trouble if the ghosts came in larger groups… or had any sense of teamwork beyond attacking from different directions. They all attacked at different times, but still in fairly predictable patterns. Quietus didn’t even die finding that out.

Quietus also learned a very interesting thing about Soul Bind. After killing around twenty ghosts using Soul Bind, he would obtain an increase in a seemingly random statistic. At the same time, Sadism always was increased as well. He was curious to see how long this would keep happening, so he made sure to kill every ghost he saw.

Of course, he was still looking for the named ghosts. If Quietus had a map, or even any hint at to where they were, he would have found them much sooner. Instead, he had to wait until he stumbled upon them, like the first.

Since he did avoid traversing the same tunnels repeatedly, he eventually came across a ghost named The Tormented Murderer. He could only assume it would have some kind of unknown special ability.

Quietus got as close as he could before it noticed him. Ghosts had very good senses, which bothered him.

Quietus used Soul Bind just as it turned around. The first attempt failed. He only rarely failed to use it, even at his low proficiency, because it was also tied to Dark Magic Mastery. Of course it would fail at the most important time.

Although he was still about fifteen feet away from the miniboss, it raised a claw as if to swing it at him. He prepared to dodge any projectile it might throw at him. The claw swept down, but Quietus saw nothing. He did, however, feel an attack from behind, which took out about a quarter of his health.

He turned around to look, but there was nothing there. By the time he had turned back to The Tormented Murderer, it was right in front of him. Quietus retreated from its attack, he needed to take a potion since he had taken such damage early in the fight. This time, he was ready for the claw swiping down, and even though he sensed nothing, he dodged to the side. He was barely grazed on his shoulder.

Quietus used Soul Bind again, and this time it succeeded. Quietus was quickly back in melee range, which unfortunately seemed to be the favored distance of The Tormented Murderer.

Quietus relatively easily dodged the clawed hand that swiped at him, countering with a Snakebite of his own. He dodged to the side of the claw he knew was coming down from behind.

This time, however, even though the hand that made the motion did a vertical slash, the attack came from the side. Quietus was lucky enough to have picked the direction away from the attack to dodge, but he still took a significant hit with the followthrough.

Quietus wasn’t sure how he would dodge an attack that he didn’t know which direction it would come from. He looked around to see if there were any obstacles. Thankfully, the floor here was reasonably smooth, at least compared to some of the tunnels.

After moving in for the next attack, Quietus avoided the attack that he could watch, and got in some quick slashes. Then, he dodged the attack he knew was coming from somewhere by activating Backslide.

This was when he first saw the floating hand. Then, it vanished. Not that he thought it was gone for long. Quietus knew that whenever an attack was made, the hand would appear just before.

Quietus went in for a repeat of the same action. Named monsters learned tactics much more quickly than other monsters, and thus when Quietus used Backslide, he was still hit. Although the placing of the attack had been a little off, he knew the next time it would have the distance correct. One weakness of Backslide is he always went straight back, and always the same number of steps.

So, Quietus improvised. This time, when he dodged he rapidly twisted his body first. This let him avoid the attack by changing the direction he went. Of course, with the rapid twist and quick backwards steps, he was sent rolling across the floor. He was prepared for that though. The next time, he had better control of his balance.

The time after that, he was out of mana. He drank a mana potion he had made, but unfortunately the effects took some time to recover his mana enough. He managed to avoid the ghost’s attacks by moving quick circles around it, as well as slashing at its sides. It was effective, but it consumed a lot of stamina. He barely kept it up long enough to recover a good portion of his mana.

Now, The Tormented Murderer was at barely a sliver of health, and Quietus at around 15%. Quietus went with a final series of Snakebites. He avoided the first claw attack, and somehow dodged the one from behind. This would have been perfect, except it took him into the path of the actual attack, which the floating hand was just following.

10% of Quietus’ health was gone. He slashed with Snakebite as quick as he could, using the last of his mana. Then, as a claw came towards his face, his final, regular attack hit.

You have leveled up!

Before Quietus distributed stat points, or read his next message window, he quickly pulled out some health potions. He barely drank them in time to stop himself from dying due to bleedout. He would need to make some more soon.

The Tormented Murderer has been bound!

You have learned:

Specral Hand

Creates a spectral hand at a distance. The hand can do anything that yours could do, although there is a lack of tactile feedback.

Mana cost: 10 per second.

Quietus tested the ability right away. What could he do with it? All his spells were cast with a single hand, so they should work. He created a spectral hand in front of him, and watched it move in response to his actions. The arrow was even less accurate than from his physical hand. He had created the spectral hand at a slight angle to his own, and it rotated accordingly. It was even worse when he tried with the hand facing towards himself. He meant to shoot a good five feet to his left, but managed to hit himself. It hurt. Still, Quietus was glad that the initial castings of it didn’t hurt. This would be very useful, once he could handle it. Currently, the furthest he could make it appear was ten feet away, although it could move a bit further if he concentrated on it.

Quietus went through several more rooms with regular ghosts.

Strength Rises by 1 point! (+1 STR)

Well, at least he didn’t have to increase his strength with points from a level up. He still preferred those to go to other areas.

As the inevitable passage of time would have it, Quietus finally found the third named spirit. This one was just called The Lonely Doctor. It looked a bit smaller and weaker than the other two.

Quietus’ Soul Bind was effective on the first use, and he rushed in to attack it. Surprisingly, he got in some hits, and the ghost didn’t even retaliate, it just retreated back some.

Then, Quietus heard rumbling. The ground was shaking. Then, something grabbed his ankle. Soon after that, his other ankle. Shortly after that, Quietus was surrounded by zombies. Then…

You have died!

End Chapter 25

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