I had equipped the key for the moment, rather than the usual kind of key, it was a black chain on which a medallion hung. The medallion itself seemed to be a symbol of some sorts, it was circular, the edge of it was black, and it had two circles, a black outer rim and a golden inner circle, on the other rim was four over-lapping long right angle triangles going around the black rim, following its circle, the top of each triangle over-lapping the bottom of the next to form some sort of pattern.

The inside was seemingly made of a gold, but a slight silver aura escaped it, in the middle of it was a small ornate sword, due to the size of the medallion being only a bit bigger than the size of my fist, the sword wasn’t accurate, the hilt was about 1/3 of its total size and the blade was far too long and fat, clearly jewellery, perhaps the sword had some sort of meaning, but the flavour text wasn’t telling me anything.

Looking back at Alexis, she had a slight blush, and was a bit out of it, daydreams of lust, it seems her new state of not wearing a bra was still affecting her, looking at it, it was so nice. The tabard was covering the top of her shoulders and most of her breasts, but their side could be seen and right at the bottom of her breasts was were the material started to become smaller giving sight of a small bit at the bottom, pure eye candy.

Grabbing and hugging her by her waist, I gave her a quick peck.

“Alexis, I need you awake for the fight.”

“Ahh.” Shocked and breaking out of her daze, she tried to stumble backwards, but I was holding her tight.

“Are you ready for the fight, or do we need to stop for now?”

“*Huff* I’m sorry, I’m ready.” Taking a deep breath in, she calmed her nerves and nodded to me, her blush gone.

Well done Alexis, so professional!

“Okay, these seem a bit tough, so I want you to consecrate both of them, I’ll start on one of them, and then switch. You consecrate the first and when your mend gets off cooldown consecrate the second okay?”

“Mm, okay.” She said, giving a cute nod.

Race: Skeleton Warrior (Elite) level 32

Health: 3712 Mana: 0

Skills: [(Racial) Slashing/Piercing Resistance]

Once again donning shadow cloak, I snuck closer to the warriors at the foot of the stairs, seeing them a bit closer for the first time. They were very similar to the previous skeletons, quite aged, however they were wearing the remnants of a leather armour, but they carried a similar rusted sword.

Getting behind one I gripped my sword, unlike the goblin, there was nothing that gave the indication of it sensing me, in one smooth motion I drew my sword and aimed straight for its spine.

-1180 HP

*deadly hit*-440 HP

Target has been consecrated.

I jumped to its side, changing into water stance, I knew what was coming next, like clockwork a strike from the warrior came, receiving it with my sword its strength knocked me back into the courtyard.

The two of them began advancing on me, I entered earth stance and went for a strike on the second the sooner I got aggro on it the better.

*Parried*

Damn the window said parried, but it was more like a viscous strike came for my sword, it was actually the consecrated one defending its partner, it completely knocked my sword off balance, with arms above my head a rust coloured blur came for my neck.

*critical hit*-256 HP -256 Mana

*cough*

*cough*

I had tried to jump back when the sword was coming, but it still hit me, the only result it had achieved was causing the skeleton to launch me across the courtyard, rolling over and getting up, I felt I had to cough.

“Zeke!”

Damn no rest for the wicked, the two of them were ambling towards me.

Getting up into earth stance, I went for the consecrated skeleton, it was easy to tell since it was glowing with a yellow holy light.

*Parried*

Damn couldn’t even get past the weakened one, the second had parried my blow, and the first was coming for my throat, this was gonna hurt.

*critical hit*-410 HP

*cough*

Damn, don’t know why they were after my throat but it was damn annoying, if it was like this I wouldn’t be able to get past them at all, since I felt like coughing I couldn’t speak properly, so I used the whisper feature, whispering worked by thinking of the person you wanted to whisper, they had to be in range or on your friends list, they would then get a notification asking for permission, then it was like telepathically talking to them, you’d hear them in your head.

“Alexis, I can’t get past them, change of plan, what we’ll do is you channel reverence, with only one of them I should be able to get past the remaining one’s defences.”

It was a shame, but their teamwork was too strong for us to break without a big cooldown, if there was more of them inside it would be quite a difficult area for us to grind in, if only we had our classes and stats it would be so much easier.

She was already on it, getting into water stance I would have to deal with these alone for the minute, I could have had her heal me, but I couldn’t afford her getting the attention of the skeletons, I don’t exactly know how aggro worked, but they could just take interest in a high priority target and switch to them, and with my current strength it wasn’t possible for me to defend Alexis against these elites.

The first skeleton’s sword came for me, I leaned forward into the parry and took it, the force pushed me back a bit and the second came, I knew taking this hit would knock me on my feet so I stepped my back foot quite a bit, lowering my body so the skeleton’s sword would strike from above.

It hit and knocked me off my feet, but I was ready for it turning to my side as I took the blow, I began to roll with the force landing first on my shoulder, it took me quite a bit back, but thanks to rolling I was up on my feet in no time, but they had followed for the next round.

Once again I repeated it and stood in water stance, readying myself for the strike, as expected it went exactly the same way as the first, it would be a problem if there was more than two of them it might not have been possible, but I wasn’t taking any damage, they only had the one attack per round, and I could parry both of them, well just about.

After a few rounds of me parrying and dodging while kiting them around in a circle, Alexis finished her chant. I had missed the cast the last time, but managing to see it this time, the spell itself was quite impressive, she was completely surrounded by a thick yellow aura, she pointed her staff upwards and the light began to coalesce at the tip, forming a huge ball, it shot out and headed towards the second skeleton, taking it in one shot, dealing 4000 damage at this stage is a bit over powered even if it’s on a cooldown of 2 minutes.

With that I tried to attack at remaining skeleton, it was fine as long as it was one it seems, entering earth stance I struck out at the skeleton’s arm.

-394 HP

Its attack came straight after like an old timey turn-based RPG, but this fight was in real time so I could act and easily received its blow in water stance, it probably didn’t have much agility, but was breaching the gap between us with pure strength. A few more rounds passed like that and it collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, sadly the loot was still trash, human bones and a rusted 0 durability sword.

Either way it was time for me and Alexis to explore the castle itself, as we walked up the stairs I asked her a couple of questions that were bugging me.

“Alexis, you ever play games other than this one?”

“Yeah I played some mmo games with my sister.”

“You were a healer?”

“Yup, yup.”

“By the way, my spell shadowcloak is really intermediate level, but I managed to learn it anyway, is that the case for your reverence spell?”

“Mm, yeah, I got the spell and my equipment from a ritual.”

“Oh really, what kind? I had to defeat a giant shadow elemental in one on one combat.”

She started blushing slightly, was she blushing at the thought of me defeating the elemental or because she was remembering what happened at her ritual?

“Oh that sounds amazing, my ritual wasn’t so exciting, but I can’t talk about it.”

The second she mentioned her ritual she started blushing ever so slightly more, she was still blushing at the same level, but over these past few either days or weeks whichever time frame you look at, I had begun to recognize the subtleties in her blush, partially due to her becoming more used to me she was blushing less, the other reason being me getting to know her more.

Oi, oi Alexis what did they do to you at the ritual?!? You’ll have to tell me someday!

At the top of the stairs was a small garden before the castle entrance, a black fire was burning on the ground, similar to dark magic I had seen so far but something like ash was coming out of it, small white flakes flying out of it as it crackled away, it was creating a trail towards the inside of the castle, it had stopped at the doors at the end of this small garden, I’m sure I’d find the rest when I opened those doors. Equipping and un-equipping the key around my neck the trail disappeared and reappeared it might be leading towards some treasure.

Pushing the door to the castle open it gave a large creak.

“Alexis when we’re in there, we’re going to look for the master bedroom.”

A reply came in a soft voice, barely a whisper.

“Not yet…”

Worried I quickly turned around, Alexis was strawberry red, the tips of her ears as well, her hand were fully covering her face, she wasn’t even peeking through her fingers this time.

She quickly turned around and shouted as she began to run away.

“You can’t take my virginity!”

Crap, I quickly took off after her, don’t run with your eyes covered it’s dangerous!

Oi wait, what did you mean by not yet?

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Sadly guys this will be the last consistent release for a while as my exams are coming up, be sure to follow so you'll get a notice when I do submit.