I struggled to regain my balance and pushed myself out of the drawer with the skeleton in it. As I got up, I triggered the inspection of the skeleton. I wasn’t happy with the idea that something was being called forth.

Skeletal Guard (Lizardman) Level 90

Undead (Unclaimed)

HP 875

Mana 550

Weight 65 lbs

Armor rating 30

Weapons

Bone claws sharp 60

Bite puncturing 40, Magical 30

Tail blunt 10

Halberd

This Skeletal Guard is armored with fine-quality black mail and shield. His weapon appears to be well-maintained. Though he is dead, in life, he was once a trained warrior, and many of those skills still are retained today. At level 90, this guard has access to all the active skills he once had and any gifted skills from the master worker that raised him.

Lizardmen are large, strong lizards that walk upright with the use of their tails to help balance themselves. This tail is thick, strong, and used in combat to knock opponents off balance. However, it lacks much of the weight needed to do this as a skeleton.

As a race, Lizardmen prefer living near water to keep their scales moist. These scales provide some natural protection. Very few Lizardmen wear light armor as they view dodging as dishonorable and wear the heaviest available. As a skeleton, the scales are all missing and provide no protection.

Skeletons are strong towards piercing and slashing attacks and weak towards blunt trauma.

Skeletons are strong vs. elemental attacks of Cold, weak towards heat, and immune to rot.

Skeletons must have mana to work. In no mana zones, they will fail, and if all mana is removed from the skeleton, it will fall apart. Once mana is given to it again, it can rise up and reactivate and resume its last actions.

As I was reading through and absorbing the knowledge of the Skeletal Guard, I saw him climbing out of his drawer. First, his halberd went up right. Then he sat up and turned his head towards me. All the other skeletons that I had seen had eye sockets that were just empty. This one, however, had glowing black eyes. Its stare was like it was trying to suck my soul through its eyes.

After a moment of eye contact, the glowing stopped, and the eye sockets were just blank black. Then it stood still in the drawer. The description and my first glance didn’t do it justice. This skeleton oozed power and skill. None of the others I had seen stood tall and proud, but this one almost knew it was powerful.

Just as my mind broke through the cloud of pain and my inborn curiosity, the monster kicked me. I should have been doing something, anything, but I had just been kneeling right next to it as it stood. So when the metal-wrapped foot hit me, I went flying back.

I could have sworn that it was an active skill as I landed just far enough back that the point of the halberd was aimed at my throat. I gulped and did the only thing that I could think of. I activated claim undead.

Through the pain, I was worried that my spell wouldn’t cast. It took longer than I thought it should, or perhaps that was just the feeling I got as the skeletal guard stepped out of the drawer.

I felt the spike at the end of his polearm push against my chain as I watched the light from my spell wrap around his body. Normally my spell would hit an unclaimed skeleton, and then it would be mine. However, this time it seemed like the metal the armor it wore almost pushed my spell away.

I panicked and cast again. This time I dropped the limiter for the power used and shoved all of my mana into the spell. If this didn’t work, then the level 90 skeleton would kill me and go on with whatever it wanted.

This time I saw blueish-purple light wrap around the skeleton and drive into its head. More and more mana pushed through the spell. It felt like I was channeling and not just casting the spell. I wasn’t trying to cut the spell off, but I wanted it to have everything that I had. I needed this skeleton, and I needed it now.

I roared in pain as I saw my health start to drop, and then I passed out.

When I woke up, my health was down to about 10%, and my mana was just a sliver. I took a deep and panicked breath as I looked around with my one eye. Standing just a few feet from me was the skeletal guard. The tip of the halberd was raised and no longer pointing at me.

The most noticeable thing, however, was its eyes, or perhaps lack thereof. Its black eyes were now just standard sockets, as I had seen on all the other skeletons. I pushed myself up and back a little, triggering my scan of the monster.

Skeletal Guard (Lizardman) Level 3 (90)

Undead (claimed)

HP 200 (875)

Mana 50 (550)

Weight 65 lbs

Armor rating 6 (30)

Weapons

Bone claws sharp 3 (60)

Bite puncturing 2 (40), Magical 1 (30)

Tail blunt 1 (10)

Halberd

This Skeletal Guard is armored fine quality black mail and shield. His weapon appears to be well-maintained.

This Skeletal Guard was created by a master. However, it has been claimed by one who is all but skillless. As such, the power of this minion has been locked away until the claimant is strong enough to call it forth.

No active skills of this Skeleton’s past have been unlocked. All passive skills are capped at level 5.

(Locked) Though he is dead in life, he was once a trained warrior, and many of those skills still are retained today. At level 90, this guard has access to all the active skills he once had and any gifted skills from the master worker that raised it.

Lizardmen are large, strong lizards that walk upright with the use of their tails to help balance themselves. This tail is thick, strong, and used in combat to knock opponents off balance. However, it lacks much of the weight needed to do this as a skeleton.

As a race, Lizardmen prefer living near water to keep their scales moist. These scales provide some natural protection. Very few Lizardmen wear light armor as they view dodging as dishonorable, and so they wear the heaviest available. As a skeleton, the scales are all missing and provide no protection.

Skeletons are strong towards piercing and slashing attacks and weak towards blunt trauma.

Skeletons are strong vs. elemental attacks of Cold, weak towards heat, and immune to rot.

Skeletons must have mana to work. In no mana zones, they will fail, and if all mana is removed from the skeleton, it will fall apart. However, once mana is given to it again; it will be able to rise and reactivate and resume its last actions.

I sighed and smiled. It had lost its levels, but it was now mine, at least as long as I could hold it. I pulled out my last full mana potion and downed it. I might not be able to fight as I was, but I could still cast if I had mana.

As I felt the magic power surge through me, I cast my minor healing spell. The healing slammed into me, raising my health points right as the potion was still doing its thing, which meant I didn’t lose as much as I usually would.

I didn’t know how long I had been out, but it likely wasn’t too long. I tended to wake up right as I got mana, and mine returned faster than Irwin’s did for some reason. It might just be how often overdraw happened to me or some other reason.

I took a deep breath to fight off the pain. I couldn’t imagine how much worse the pain would be if I hadn’t gotten the pain resistance ability. Even now, I wasn’t functioning well because of the throbbing and piercing pains. Worse yet was when it would go away only to change to some other type of pain, like how my eye felt like it was burning.

I willed the skeleton to come over and pick me up. It dropped its halberd and went to scoop me up but couldn’t stand. Every time it tried to pick me up, it fell forward. It weighed too little, even with its armor, to get me standing, which meant I would need to stand before it could help me.

I would be trying to walk on my nub and using the skeleton as a support. If I wasn’t already crying from my missing eye, I might have started from the thought of the pain. But as it was, my face was streaked with tears, as the eye wept uncontrollably.

I used the open drawer to help me kneel and then the handles from the next few up to draw myself up. When I got up close, I had the skeleton move next to me. It passed me its halberd and then wrapped an arm around me.

Between the halberd and the skeleton, I was balancing on the nub of my left foot. What was left of my vambance was taking much of the weight as it was slightly longer than my leg. But only if I kept my knee slightly bent.

I was sure the rest of the drawers were filled with even more undead held ready to be used. This was the preparatory work of a massive undead invasion. The drawers appeared to be more undead than even what I had killed further south. If the god of war had this army moving someplace, he would be happy, as I am sure it would cause many battles.

I turned my mind to leave. However, I knew the other doorway on the other side of the workroom was where I needed to go.

Using my animated crutch and the halberd, I struggled across the workroom. It took far less time, even with my strange, painful hobble, than it would have otherwise. If I had been walking, I would have taken the time to uncover the workstations and look in the drawers. I just knew that there were untold riches just lying around.

As it was, I had to stay focused on moving. Balance was far more complex than I would like to have admitted, and each hop forward sent pain through both of my legs. Soon, however, we got me over to the doorway that I hadn’t looked through before.

As we came around the corner, I saw what could only be the throne room of the Deathwalker, whose crypt I was in. With how high-ranked the skeleton had been, I knew it wasn’t Eric, the boy Lich. It had to have been someone else a long time ago.

The room was built on the same massive scale as the rest of the underground chamber. Yet this room, it seemed, was designed to scare people more than the other rooms. The high vaulted ceilings were the same as the rest of the space.

However, the magical lights for the room had been changed. Whereas in the workspace, the lighting had been bright and harsh, and in the file room, it seemed like a warehouse; these were mood lights. There was red uplighting aimed through the arches to create deep shadows on the ceiling. Then lower in the room were deep and slightly changing blues on the walls. The only well-lit spot in the room was a single perfect circle of yellow and blue lighting on a raised dais with a dark throne.

I gave a tight, painful smile. The last time I sat on a throne, I claimed a tower. Perhaps this time, I could claim this whole place. Then I could figure out how to turn it into a dungeon and get Kasidy.

From where we came into the throne was at least a hundred yards, a hundred painful yards. As we passed through the room, I noticed that in the walls were small alcoves with dim lights. None of them were bright enough for me to see as I passed through, but enough to give an idea of what was there.

As I got close to the throne, I saw how horrifying it was. It was all made from bones. The hand rests were small skulls with little fangs and glowing eyes. The armrests were longer, thicker bones that looked like someone had hacked at but failed to damage. In fact, the whole frame appeared to be made from larger bones. But the seat back was all small finger bones somehow held together. At the top of the throne were seven skulls. The middle one was the largest, and it had four eye holes.

Yet the bones weren’t the most disturbing thing. Not even the footrest, made from teeth. No, it was the blood that flowed out of the mouths of skulls at the top and ran down the seat back, where it looked like it was pumped back to the top by hundreds of little hearts.

Everything about this throne screamed evil monster here to ruin your short life. This Deathwalker guy had to have been something else in his day. I had the skeleton help me up and around, and then I sat down on the throne.

Just as my butt hit the bones, I got a pop-up.

While the Deathwalker still lives, he has long forsaken his Throne

Do you wish to claim the forsaken

Throne of the Deathwalker

Yes/No

* * *