Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 62

Quietus sat in a dark corner in a cave, waiting. Everyone was late. He knew this for sure, because he had been late, and nobody had arrived before him. So, he sat in his corner and sulked. Well, not entirely. He was technically grinding some skills, although not a lot of effort was going into that. As he sat in the dark, he used his darkvision spell constantly. He had high enough mana regeneration that he could do that, now. He was also somewhat training stealth, although generally there weren’t any monsters around, so it was mostly just sitting quietly.

He occasionally went out, killed a group of the orcs that lived in this cave, and turned them into undead (after making sure that nobody was watching). Then he had them wander around fighting other orcs, coming back to him for repairs after every battle. Until they died, of course. Then he’d make more. It wasn’t the best way, since optimally he’d turn about a third of the dungeon into undead minions to fight the rest, but he wanted them to be around for when the party showed up. Besides, he doubted he had that much time. So he sat, and waited.

Eventually, some blonde hair, and a knight attached to it, came around the corner. “You’re late.” The knight looked around nervously, looking for the source of the voice.

“Do you always have to hide?” Angelo asked.

Quietus stepped out into the hallway. “I dunno, do you always have to wear armor? This is what my class does. Umm… where’s everyone else?”

“Oh… One second.” Angelo paused for a second, appearing to check some messages. “It looks like… everyone else can’t make it.”

Quietus sighed. “What, is everyone doing real life stuff? Lame.”

“Well, Maratis and Ruby are, but Nilrem is sick. I could get some other people but… I doubt you’d want me to, since you wouldn’t know them.”

Quietus nodded in assent.

“Since we can’t do this dungeon with just us two, we should give up. Sorry for having you show up for nothing.”

“Yeah.” Quietus answered noncommittally. Normally, that would have been sufficient. However, Angelo knew him too well.

“What, you still think we can do it?”

“I didn’t say that.” He didn’t exactly mean it either.

Angelo frowned. “What level are you?”

Quietus hesitated, before saying, “240’s.” Which was still true, even at level 249.

Angelo’s jaw dropped. “But… you die so much, and only solo… how are you outleveling me so much?”

“Umm… secret ninja techniques?” He could have just said the ‘secret’ part, but that wasn’t as fun.

Angelo turned to face down the tunnel. “Now I have to see you fight. C’mon, let’s go!”

“I assure you, it won’t be as impressive as you think.” Quietus’ words did nothing to curb Angelo’s enthusiasm, however.

In practice, Quietus was still impressive, although not anywhere as much as he could have been alone. He was best suited to fighting humanoid opponents, such as these orcs, and with Angelo holding their attention, he could backstab them with impunity. His technique was good, and his level certainly contributed to his effectiveness. He could even heal, although it was really just speeding up recovery out of combat, with bandages and stitches. (Given the option, Angelo always chose bandages, for some reason).

The pair of them easily took on groups of up to four orcs, and could beat more with some risk. Angelo’s technique was much more mobile than one would normally expect from a knight, and they rarely got a clean hit. Everything was always dodged, blocked, or deflected enough off course that it was less effective. Angelo’s offense wasn’t lacking either, with skilled, precise strikes landing criticals much more often than could just be attributed to luck. It didn’t hurt to have a shiny new sword, as well as some other upgraded items, courtesy of Quietus.

Quietus had gotten quite a haul after killing all the players while being involved with the mummies, and saving Maratis afterwards. He didn’t bother to tell Angelo the sword came from someone who probably had never intentionally PKed anyone. It was best to just pretend everything came from the latter adventure.

Angelo lopped off the head of the last orc in the particular group they were fighting. “You’ve gotten really good, cousin. We should spar again sometime.”

“Can’t. Master Valarao forbid me from sparring, remember?”

“What? Still? When can we spar again? It was fun.”

Quietus thought for a moment. “Probably never. At least, not before I want to be expelled as a student.”

“Well, can we duel then? That should be alright…”

Quietus shook his head. “Nah, it still falls under the same category. Honestly, he’d probably frown on letting people see me fight at all.”

“Ugh, your master is so weird. You’ll never be famous like that.”

“I doubt his goal is to become famous, or raise a famous pupil.”

Angelo shrugged. “Probably not, but I’d like to be famous, if I could.”

“You can. You’ve always been able to do whatever you wanted.”

“So have you. Just because you didn’t want to do as many things doesn’t make that less true.”

Quietus and Angelo continued to fight in the dungeon until shortly before logging off. Quietus could definitely have leveled up faster alone, but he wouldn’t have gained as much practice with his dagger. Not that he was improving very quickly, but it was necessary to put in the time, even if it didn’t instantly make you stronger.

Just before they logged off, Angelo brought up the search for Aullet. “You know, it’s a good thing we really owed you. This Aullet guy is definitely a pain to find information on. If our members weren’t held in such high esteem, I bet they’d be arrested for even asking. He must have been pretty bad, to have people still hate him so much after all this time. Still, we’ll find something. Then we’ll be even.”

Quietus nodded. He was looking forward to whatever information was found, even if it was just one more location to look. He remembered the beat up destroyer skeleton, and really wanted to make one, or something like it, that was at full power. He also wanted to find some way to get souls. He was still having trouble with that.

End Chapter 62