Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 30

Quietus watched the fortress of the Crimson Raven from a nearby tree. He felt it was severely lacking in fortress features. It was more like a decently sized stone building. Not much bigger than his house, although a bit taller and less spread out. The thing that made it more like a building than a fort? Windows. Sure, they were on the second floor. Quietus did have to admit they weren’t very big. He did, however, note that they were not in fact arrow slits. Just small windows.

Around the fortress was a nice forest. The only place he’d been able to find any traps was on the road. He did notice that they at least hadn’t let the trees grow right up to the edge of their nice fort. No moat though. Sure, there were no convenient rivers, but they should have been able to get something like that somehow. He couldn’t tell from here, but he bet they wouldn’t have a real portcullis or anything.

Quietus was now waiting. He didn’t see anyone on the walls, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. He just assumed it meant that he couldn’t see them. So he was waiting. Preferably, people would start walking out into the forest by themselves. He wouldn’t mind that. Realistically, he was waiting for night. He was confident that he could sneak in at night time. During the day, he would just stand out in the field if anyone half-competent was watching. Instead, he waited in his tree.

Abaddon hadn’t logged in recently. Quietus had been getting bored of him anyway. The level gap had been getting larger, and Abaddon had been mostly divested of his equipment. Quietus had left him in a tree deeper in the forest. He hoped that when he woke up, he would unbalance himself from his precarious position and fall to his death. It would be almost funny, and that was all of his usefulness that Quietus could think of now. He wasn’t even any good as a zombie. Obviously the guy hadn’t put even a single point in any physical stats. In fact, Quietus was pretty sure he had neglected them enough for his strength and agility to drop. He’d sent his Abaddon-zombie against a rabbit, and it had been a close fight. The zombie lost though. It was only close because he had health that far exceeded his other physical stats. Basically, the minimum amount for a level 30 or so character.

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Jim had always liked guard duty. He wasn’t a high ranking guild member, but that was okay with him. He enjoyed going out with some of his guildmates to kill other players, but there was always risk involved in that. Here on guard duty, he was paid to just walk around. Boring? Sure, but it also allowed for him to get decent equipment to use. He couldn’t believe people would do something like hit a scarecrow for the same amount of time as a shift of guard duty to get just one stat point.

Today’s shift was especially uneventful. Lots of the guild members were out, so he didn’t even have anyone to visit him. He just walked around the wall and stared at the moon and the forest.

He didn’t even really feel the knife as it stabbed into his back. He just got a message.

You have died.

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Quietus was almost ashamed to be scouting this place out. He had crossed the field, using his dark cloak of course, but he didn’t think anyone even glanced in his direction. He didn’t see anyone at all, actually. He had considered going in the front doors… but they were probably locked. He snuck around to look at them, and they really didn’t have a portcullis. Disappointing.

It was time to take a look at the walls. He looked at the walls. It was basically a standard castle. Layered stones. Some of them jutting out at random places. Basically, a castle made by idiots. Quietus started to climb. While it was relatively simple, he knew it couldn’t be done by anyone without the climb skill, or those in heavy armor. Maybe the uneven walls weren’t such a big deal. They did, however, allow a warlock to sneak up onto the walls.

He peeked into a window, but he couldn’t see inside well without sticking his head into plain view of anyone who might be inside. He decided to just finish his climb.

It wasn’t exactly easy, but it was significantly less stressful than hanging down from a beam while golems walked beneath you. He probably wouldn’t even die if he fell from this height. Even if he did, he wasn’t going to fail a one time quest. As he got near the roof, he heard someone walking along. Noisily. If he didn’t know better, he would have assumed they were doing it on purpose.

After the footsteps had gone past, he climbed up behind the clunky guard. Decently heavy armor. However, it was heavier in the front. Right where it didn’t need to be. Quietus was glad he’d been gaining proficiency in his style. Backstab was now much cheaper. Not cheap, still, but more reasonable. Perforate artery was still out of the question though. He really wanted to try it.

The guard went down easily. One stab, and his health bar dropped to nothing. It didn’t even pretend to not be instant death. No need for bleed damage or follow up attacks… or the now wasted poison. Still, better wasted poison than no poison. Quietus now had a pair of gauntlets. He hadn’t used Soul Bind, so the body of the guard would disappear. He considered using him as a scout, but decided against it. Although he could take over the fine movements of one zombie, that would, at best, make him about as stealthy as a normal person. Plus, it was harder to control someone else than his own body, especially since he had more agility than most he controlled.

He descended the roof through the door. It was unlocked. Why would you lock your guard on the roof anyway? It was actually the logical choice. Wrong though. Inside, Quietus figured out why it didn’t feel like a real castle.

It was a guild hall. Of course it was, but this was the kind of guild hall that was for relaxation. Cushy chairs. Fancy rugs. Alchemists labs. Quietus took a moment to procure some supplies from there. It wasn’t stealing, since they had tried to kill him. Had killed him. Plus, their guilds were at war. So he was just looting the spoils of war. Well, pre-looting. Unfortunately, they didn’t keep any finished potions around the lab. Maybe they weren’t entirely stupid.

Quietus found a large number of unnecessary bedrooms. He even found someone taking a nap in one. Well, they had been taking a nap anyway. Fortunately, the hinges were well oiled, and the carpet was soft. Quietus got a ring, and more infamy.

Quietus was disappointed. No traps. This place was ridiculous. Where were the other guards? Oh, there was one. Not any better than the one on the roof though. What was Quietus even going to do with a halberd? He pulled the body into a bedroom. Might as well be safe while it took its time to disappear.

On the next floor down, he found a kitchen. He took the time to get a bite to eat. Then he decided to poison everything else. He had some spare herbs, after all.

He soon found small groups of people. However, they were sitting around talking, and alert. Quietus decided to ignore them. He might come back later, but he was currently exploring.

He made his way down two more floors, to the basement. One way led to a dungeon- empty, and it looked as if it was only there for the sake of feeling, rather than use. This guild probably just killed people.

The other direction led to a dead end. Well, pretty much. There were two guards in front of a vault door. Quietus would definitely be back. He started up the stairs, and ran into someone.

All he could see was a shiny golden breastplate with a red bird on it. He looked up and smiled casually. He tried to pretend he didn’t have a murderer’s mark and his name above his head.

“Quietus huh… We don’t have one of those.”

Quietus was almost proud that the fight lasted a whole thirty seconds. His quick use of backslide to dodge the first attack helped with that. It also left him on the ground. Stairs weren’t good for quick, backward movement. Quietus tried some attacks, but he didn’t have enough range to use most of his magic… and the armor on this guy was too thick. He couldn’t pierce it enough. What’s more, the man was strong enough that Quietus couldn’t properly do any of his other techniques, such as breaking a wrist or dislocating a shoulder or two. After he was backed down the hallway, he fell to one good slash from this fancy warrior, as well as some attacks from behind.

You have died. You cannot log back in for 22:30 (90 hours in Royal Road time.)

Cool. He’d increased his skill mastery for The Power to Accept death.

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When Quietus got back into the game, he was in a church in an unfamiliar city. He went outside, and somehow felt an easing of tension. The town wouldn’t be too far from the fortress. Quietus checked his inventory for what he’d lost. Nothing significant. All the loot he’d picked up in the fortress, but that wasn’t a big deal. One of Abaddon’s other rings, with +5 int. He’d get it back, and if not, it hardly mattered. He decided to head back to the fortress for some more scouting.

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The group of Crimson Raven enforcers followed a rogue out of the church. They confirmed it was the right one from the description they had received, even though he was much earlier than expected. Maybe they had gotten the time of death wrong. Either way, The Crimson Raven couldn’t allow anyone to sneak into their guild hall and get away with it. To them, that meant getting away without losing even more gear. Preferably something he hadn’t stolen from their guild members.

They were hoping he would head out of town quickly, and they got their wish. He walked along the street, oblivious to them. After a little while, he turned down a side street, after looking at the blacksmith sign. Probably going to repair his gear. They wouldn’t mind killing him in the city, as long as it was in a back alley like that.

Interestingly enough, the rogue actually went past the blacksmith shop, deeper into the back alleys. They began to be suspicious. The warrior in the group went out ahead, with the cleric and wizard hanging back from the alley so that they wouldn’t be the first hit. The cleric was slightly in front of the wizard, so that he was close enough to heal the warrior. If he’d had keen senses, he may have noticed a slight grunt from the wizard.

The cleric did, however, notice when a zombie started mauling him. Well, mauling may not have been the best word. Heavily leaning on might have been more appropriate, based on the terrible physical stats and lack of dangerous weapons the wizard possessed. He still screamed in surprise. The warrior turned turned to look, but the cleric was actually doing just fine at beating up the undead wizard. It wouldn’t take long. He did hear the warrior become engaged in battle, however. He needed to finish the battle quickly.

The cleric cast a nice holy spell, and the zombie was soon turned to dust. He turned back to face the warrior. He would need to heal him once the real fight started. Instead of a warrior, all he found was an armored zombie. This would be a bigger problem to take care of.

The cleric was glad that the warriors stats had apparently been capped at a lower value. It must not be a very good necromancer. He did have trouble fighting the zombie, but his holy spells worked well enough. He was a little apprehensive about facing the rogue alone. Actually, he wasn’t entirely sure where the zombies came from. So quickly too. Furthermore, how had the others died?

Ah, this was how. Dagger in the back. Curse his luck. He’d thought there was only the rogue, but obviously he’d gotten at least one other rogue and some kind of necromancer on his side. With the element of surprise, and probably numbers on their side, it was no wonder he died.

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Quietus was surprised. These people were idiots. Not that they had bad party formation, but they weren’t subtle. They also didn’t seem to think that he could possibly be “up”. All he’d had to do was quickly scramble up onto the low roofs around, and he was invisible to their eyes. He’d had a close call with the wizard, but fortunately he’d caught him as he fell. Quietus was also glad that his spells didn’t actually need to be said loudly.

That allowed the group to be distracted back in the other direction, while he circled around to what was now behind the warrior. He didn’t go down right away, but a good backstab, copious bleeding damage, and some decent poison severely hampered him. Quietus had to cross blades with him for a little bit, and took the worst part of that exchange. Well, the part after the backstab anyway. Even grazes from the warrior’s sword took large chunks off of his health. Not large enough, however.

The cleric was easy. Quietus didn’t really need to wait until he killed the warrior’s zombie, but he wanted a short break to digest a potion and recover some mana. Fortunately, the mana process was rather quick, because his Sadism skill was in full swing. Bleeding damage then poisons and killing people certainly helped. Apparently, making zombies also counted, although they barely even made up for their own cost, and not immediately.

Still, the cleric was almost as squishy as the wizard. Well, about as squishy as Quietus would have been with a bit less armor.

Now it was time to get back on the road. After loot, of course. There was still the matter of those traps on the main road… When the real guild battle took place, he felt it would be convenient to not have them there. Plus, maybe he could find some other less than stellarly powerful members of The Crimson Raven out on a walk.

End Chapter 30

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