Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 64

Quietus had learned some interesting things in this dungeon and the area nearby. First, that there were plant monsters. Various kinds, such as the vine monsters, ones that were almost piles of dirt, walking trees, and more. Second, that they could still be made into undead. Third, that they counted as having souls, at least for the purpose of Soul Transfer, which was all that mattered. So, after having a dungeon full of undead plants, he took on the boss. He learned there for sure what he’d already pretty much assumed: bosses couldn’t be turned into undead. At least, not with any skills he had.

He hadn’t found any signs of Aullet anywhere in the dungeon. However, the dungeon wasn’t exactly a high level area. Other players had already been through this area. However, Quietus trusted the information from his guild members. So, theoretically, there was a secret door or something around. It would be annoying if anything attacked him when he was searching the dungeon, so he made sure to turn them all into minions, or use Soul Bind and Soul Transfer on them. Anything he made into a minion or whose soul he used took much longer to respawn.

Quietus looked around the dungeon and finally found a small tunnel, which opened a secret door like the first area, where he had found the destroyer skeleton. Quietus used the same method of floating an eye with his Spectral Hand skill. This time, however, he turned into a ghoul first, so he couldn’t feel the pain. It was much better that way. In the room was a bookshelf. Most of the books were useless, but Quietus found one that might be useful.

Before he had time to look at it, however, he was notified that his minions were taking damage. Dying, even. In the time it took him to notice, three had died. In the time it took him to think about reacting, another was gone. Quietus was surprised. The monsters in this dungeon hadn’t been that high of level, but anyone that should be in this dungeon should have a harder time than that killing his minions. They kept dying, so he called them all to the boss chamber with him. There was plenty of room.

It seemed they couldn’t run towards him fast enough, because more kept dying. It was actually rather impressive, the rate of killing hadn’t gone down and the undead were in full retreat. Finally, the survivors those that hadn’t been killed staggered into the room, followed by a white blur. At first, Quietus had thought it was a spell, but it seemed to be some kind of creature. He ordered all of his minions to attack it, and watched its movements.

Fortunately, it seemed to move mostly in straight lines, bouncing from monster to monster. Quietus waited for it to come towards him. Finally, it did, and Quietus used Perforate Artery on whatever it was. It was a critical hit, so he knew he aimed right. He’d used enhance alchemy on one of his best poisons, so this thing should be dead. However, instead of even slowing down, it seemed to get faster.

That’s when Quietus noticed something weird. Although this thing seemed to be able to knock his minions into the wall, killing them instantly, seemingly at whim, it stopped killing them straightaway. Instead, Quietus started noticing bite marks on his minions. Quietus could vaguely see the health bar of the monster, and it seemed his perforate artery really had done the trick. It was at half health. Since it should be taking massive bleeding damage, it would likely die soon.

Well, that is what Quietus thought. Instead, its health was slowly going up. Quietus was quickly running out of minions, and he couldn’t really hit whatever this was. However, he couldn’t turn his back on it. Finally, all of his minions were dead. The monster was almost full health again, and it charged straight for him. That’s when Quietus finally got a good enough view of it to see what it was.

You have died!

Cannot log in for 14 hours 30 minutes.

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Mortimer was usually pretty much okay with dying in Royal Road. How could he not be, with the Power to Accept Death at Advanced level, rank 1. It cut about a third off of his death time, and he gained lost experience back at almost double the rate. This time, though, he was troubled. He’d lost all of his minions, and while that was an unfortunate setback, he could make them again. Better ones, too. No, what really bothered him was what had killed him. He’d looked into its eyes, but he didn’t really understand.

He needed to talk to someone about it. However, Angela was still in the game, so he waited. Then, he told her. “I died, just a bit ago, in Royal Road.”

“And? You die like… every day. Why are you upset about it this time.”

Mortimer didn’t really know how to say what he wanted to say. However, he needed to talk to someone about what had happened, so he just said it in the simplest manner possible. “I died… to a rabbit.” There was no other way to put it.

Angela just looked at him for a second, and then started laughing uproariously. At first, Mortimer was annoyed at being laughed at. Then, he was just wondering at when she was going to stop laughing. He thought about the situation a little bit longer, and then started laughing too. He’d died to a rabbit. That wasn’t something that somebody in the mid 200’s could legitimately say often. It was, after all, pretty funny.

“No but seriously… what killed you?”

Mortimer shook his head. “I’ll be right back.” He came back after getting the last frame he’d seen before death, recorded by the capsule. “Rabbit.”

The picture wasn’t perfectly centered, but it showed the rabbit quite well. If you could call it a rabbit, anyway. Sure, the ears and tail were there. There wasn’t really anything wrong with the structure of the animal, to call it a rabbit. However, rabbits generally weren’t covered in blood from the neck down (although Mortimer was pretty sure that had been about half his and half from the rabbit itself). Generally, they also didn’t have spiked collars. This one also appeared to have some bracelets of some sort… or maybe rings, around its paws.

Angela just stared at the picture. “That’s… a weird rabbit.”

Mortimer agreed.

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After logging in at another time and finding the dungeon happily devoid of rabbits, Quietus checked his inventory. Instead of what he wanted, Quietus just found that it was an excerpt from a journal of Aullet.

The churches are condemning my research. I considered burning it, but that would give them what they want. Instead, I shall pull the wool over their eyes. Beneath the very field that our final conflict shall happen, I plan to bury everything. How unfortunate that I will not be able to see it. Still, to defeat an army of that magnitude, I will need the ultimate Destroyer Skeleton. Thus, I must use the best soul available. Once I see them coming, I will complete the ritual, at the cost of my own soul. Whether or not they destroy it, they will not have my research. They cannot be allowed to waste it.

Quietus was disappointed to not have the research in hand, but he realized that the dungeon hadn’t been nearly an appropriate challenge for that anyway. He was pretty sure he knew where the battle had taken place, but he was unsure how to recover the research. Maybe he really would need to learn how to burrow.

End Chapter 64