[Crack in Fate] [Your Melee Dodge chance now applies to Spell Avoidance.]
[Unavoidable Horde] [Undead Allies may pass on your Zombie Curse.]
[Death's Mirror] [Your Critical Strikes afflicts targets with Doom.]
Tough choice for a change. She ruminated over the three choices for longer than she usually would. Passives weren’t as exciting as active skills usually, but some of them could definitely change things more than most.
Although the other two were equally interesting, she decided on [Unavoidable Horde]. Even just thinking back to the fight that they just had against lizardmen, if her zombies had been able to cause the fallen monsters to rise up on her side, then that would have been an even easier wash for their side. In fact, with the amount of summoning she was now able to do, it would be even quicker to maintain a large horde for any fight they would come up against.
Thanks to the error of the system in giving her the bugged Necroblast and then the reset points, it seemed she had finally lucked into being the Necromancer that she had always hoped to be - even way back in the starting town of Hillan. Thankfully, these summoning skills didn’t seem to be dependent on intelligence or any kind of spellcasting Stat, otherwise she would have been in a lot of trouble. With the auras the three of them had, it turned all of her summons into individual powerhouses despite their lack of combat proficiency and simple-mindedness.
“What did everybody else choose or get?” She asked the room as she stroked the cat’s head. There was much point in asking Archie, but the ginger fur ball didn't seem much like answering, anyway.
Humphrey shrugged and grinned. “Nothing exciting, just further defensive stuff for me.”
Although she knew the Death Knight liked to hide away some of his skills so he could pop them up as a surprise, she believed that he was being mostly upfront about the reveal. Defenses were his kind of thing so, it made sense.
“I actually leveled twice,” Edward smiled, “and I have [Avoiding Responsibility] and [Shared Despair], a defensive buff and an offensive aura.”
“Neat.” If there’s one thing Sally did like, it was auras. Her opinion of the tax collector raised a couple of degrees. Hopefully, that’s not what the aura did.
“I just got a Stat passive,” Lucius shrugged, trying to look away from the group. There was no emoji bubble that accompanied his statement. “Nothing particularly useful for the Party.”
Sally tilted her head. It looked to her like she was losing the demon. Although it had been a bit much to accost him as she did, the way that he was acting now was a bit unexpected. Either he was more sensitive than she had thought or truly had something to hide. She was betting on the latter.
“Well, I chose something that is going to make our lives a lot easier. Or unlives. More. Beautiful. Zombies.” She raised her eyebrows as she beamed at the rest of the party.
The reception was lukewarm. Humphrey seemed contented enough, but the other two didn’t seem to care much for her undead companions. Theo couldn't come back soon enough. She brought up the chat window to see if he had replied yet, but there were no notifications. Neither from Chuck nor Dent. She needed a few more pen friends.
“All right, I’m going to set us up a campfire to soothe our aches, and then we can decide what we are doing next.” She shuffled the cat awkwardly off her lap and onto the wooden flooring where he just slumped down further continuing to sleep. From her Inventory, she withdrew the item and placed it further into the room in the middle of the floor. “I’m glad we found so many of these.”
“It is odd,” Humphrey smiled, “despite the atmosphere being hot enough as it is, the heat of the campfire soothes rather than makes it more uncomfortable.”
“Magic!” Sally beamed back at him as she set the object up. With a short burst of flames, the campfire became alight and she sat back to find what comfort she could on the empty floor. Although she could quite easily heal up everybody with either the Living Dead skill or medicinal kits, there was something about campfire items that was just more relaxing.
The rest of the Outsiders gathered round and even Archie groggily woke up to saunter ever closer to the flame. There was still tension in the air between the two demons and it was probably part of why Lucius had started to feel out of place. He was already far below the rest of the Party in terms of combat ability, and now that he felt he had put Edward in danger he was overthinking his choices.
“Can you play any instruments, Lucius?” Sally tilted her head, watching as the demon jumped with a start.
“Ah, no, well actually…” He looked nervously between the gathered Party as an emoji bubble appeared next to him, one of an embarrassed face. “I do a little, but I’m not very good yet.”
Sally clicked her fingers at him. “Perfect, that’s just what we need for a campfire - a little music, and maybe some food we can put on sticks to heat.”
The Death Knight sighed. “You didn't even loot the boss yet. How do you expect us to have food at the ready if you never pick anything up?”
She scrunched her face up. Although she had immediately forgotten about doing that - especially the important gathering of skulls - that was something that could be done after the campfire, so she wasn’t too worried about that. As far as she knew, the bodies wouldn't disappear anytime soon, and the respawns would be at least a day away.
If you played by too many of the Systems rules, that’s how they got you. She had resigned herself to being as untenable as possible. Make the System work hard to put her in the right box, seeing as it had started her off with one foot in the grave already. It had been working out for her partially well. If you ignored the hardship then they’d actually been doing pretty great in the grand scheme of things.
If anything, overthrowing the Dragon would just cement the fact that she was on the right track and was definitely in the running to becoming some of the greatest Players in this world. It did make her wonder whether there were any more glitched players in the new batch that joined a couple of days ago. Whether there were any kindred spirits yet to be found — or even those that might rise themselves up to be a self designated villain as she had done originally.
“Well… okay,” Lucius shrugged and withdrew a harmonica from a pocket under his cloak. The demon moved it up with both hands, into the shadows under his hood.
There was a metallic clink, and his eyes went wide, as a Demon Coin fell from the darkened recess and clattered onto the floor - spinning dramatically for longer than necessary.
The group slowly moved their eyes from the coin as it finally came to rest, and up to the demon.
“Play the song, Lucius,” Sally asked calmly.
The demon was shaking as he put the instrument back to his mouth. It did little to improve the tune. Several off-note keys punctuated his attempted song awkwardly. Without having anything to slowly sip, Sally instead withdrew the closest consumable item from her Inventory to chew on as they watched the supposed demon in silence.
After an abrupt ending, Lucius slowly brought the harmonica away from his mouth, and lowered it to the floor alongside his gaze.
Sally could see the others wanting to speak up - especially Edward - but they were giving her the option of asking first. It was tough being the leader sometimes, especially when you realized you were absentmindedly chewing on [Mount Feed].
She stood and brushed herself down, the suspicious demon remaining frozen in place and daring not to look at her. So nervous perhaps, that he didn’t even have the capacity to emote it. “Well then,” she eventually said, her voice cutting through the dead silence and causing him to flinch, “a decision to be made here…” She crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “Are you with us, or against us?”
At first, there was no response, as the demon continued to avoid engaging with anything past the patch of wooden floor right in front of him. Then, slowly, he raised his head to meet her gaze.
“I can’t… not now…” his voice was quiet and without the upbeat flair he usually exhibited.
“Who are you working for? The dragon?” Edward seethed and tensed as if he wanted to leap up from his position to strike the other demon.
Lucius looked between the enraged ex-collector and the zombie, before looking at the floor again. “…for one of the Champions.”
Humphrey shook his head. “This is why you don’t just invite any oddball we come across to the Party.”
Sally didn’t say anything, but continued to tap her foot on the floor. He had been so nice at first, full of advice and positivity. Was that just something to gain their trust? It had worked to a degree. She would be the first to admit she was happiest when people were straightforward with their intentions.
“So, what now? Did you want us to kill you, or are you going to turncoat like Edward?” She narrowed her eyes.
“It’s probably too late now… now that my cover is blown, I-“
“Lucius.” Sally withdrew [Skeleton Key] and pointed it at him. “With us or against us?”
Any response that the demon was trying to formulate was interrupted, as a sound caught the attention of everyone.
Through the large hole Humphrey had made through the wall, the constant patter of… rain could be heard. Even now, as they stared in disbelief, the raindrops became visible and the dry ground started to darken as the downpour increased.
“It’s too late now.” Lucius whispered, head hung low.
[Crack in Fate] [Your Melee Dodge chance now applies to Spell Avoidance.]
[Unavoidable Horde] [Undead Allies may pass on your Zombie Curse.]
[Death's Mirror] [Your Critical Strikes afflicts targets with Doom.]
Tough choice for a change. She ruminated over the three choices for longer than she usually would. Passives weren’t as exciting as active skills usually, but some of them could definitely change things more than most.
Although the other two were equally interesting, she decided on [Unavoidable Horde]. Even just thinking back to the fight that they just had against lizardmen, if her zombies had been able to cause the fallen monsters to rise up on her side, then that would have been an even easier wash for their side. In fact, with the amount of summoning she was now able to do, it would be even quicker to maintain a large horde for any fight they would come up against.
Thanks to the error of the system in giving her the bugged Necroblast and then the reset points, it seemed she had finally lucked into being the Necromancer that she had always hoped to be - even way back in the starting town of Hillan. Thankfully, these summoning skills didn’t seem to be dependent on intelligence or any kind of spellcasting Stat, otherwise she would have been in a lot of trouble. With the auras the three of them had, it turned all of her summons into individual powerhouses despite their lack of combat proficiency and simple-mindedness.
“What did everybody else choose or get?” She asked the room as she stroked the cat’s head. There was much point in asking Archie, but the ginger fur ball didn't seem much like answering, anyway.
Humphrey shrugged and grinned. “Nothing exciting, just further defensive stuff for me.”
Although she knew the Death Knight liked to hide away some of his skills so he could pop them up as a surprise, she believed that he was being mostly upfront about the reveal. Defenses were his kind of thing so, it made sense.
“I actually leveled twice,” Edward smiled, “and I have [Avoiding Responsibility] and [Shared Despair], a defensive buff and an offensive aura.”
“Neat.” If there’s one thing Sally did like, it was auras. Her opinion of the tax collector raised a couple of degrees. Hopefully, that’s not what the aura did.
“I just got a Stat passive,” Lucius shrugged, trying to look away from the group. There was no emoji bubble that accompanied his statement. “Nothing particularly useful for the Party.”
Sally tilted her head. It looked to her like she was losing the demon. Although it had been a bit much to accost him as she did, the way that he was acting now was a bit unexpected. Either he was more sensitive than she had thought or truly had something to hide. She was betting on the latter.
“Well, I chose something that is going to make our lives a lot easier. Or unlives. More. Beautiful. Zombies.” She raised her eyebrows as she beamed at the rest of the party.
The reception was lukewarm. Humphrey seemed contented enough, but the other two didn’t seem to care much for her undead companions. Theo couldn't come back soon enough. She brought up the chat window to see if he had replied yet, but there were no notifications. Neither from Chuck nor Dent. She needed a few more pen friends.
“All right, I’m going to set us up a campfire to soothe our aches, and then we can decide what we are doing next.” She shuffled the cat awkwardly off her lap and onto the wooden flooring where he just slumped down further continuing to sleep. From her Inventory, she withdrew the item and placed it further into the room in the middle of the floor. “I’m glad we found so many of these.”
“It is odd,” Humphrey smiled, “despite the atmosphere being hot enough as it is, the heat of the campfire soothes rather than makes it more uncomfortable.”
“Magic!” Sally beamed back at him as she set the object up. With a short burst of flames, the campfire became alight and she sat back to find what comfort she could on the empty floor. Although she could quite easily heal up everybody with either the Living Dead skill or medicinal kits, there was something about campfire items that was just more relaxing.
The rest of the Outsiders gathered round and even Archie groggily woke up to saunter ever closer to the flame. There was still tension in the air between the two demons and it was probably part of why Lucius had started to feel out of place. He was already far below the rest of the Party in terms of combat ability, and now that he felt he had put Edward in danger he was overthinking his choices.
“Can you play any instruments, Lucius?” Sally tilted her head, watching as the demon jumped with a start.
“Ah, no, well actually…” He looked nervously between the gathered Party as an emoji bubble appeared next to him, one of an embarrassed face. “I do a little, but I’m not very good yet.”
Sally clicked her fingers at him. “Perfect, that’s just what we need for a campfire - a little music, and maybe some food we can put on sticks to heat.”
The Death Knight sighed. “You didn't even loot the boss yet. How do you expect us to have food at the ready if you never pick anything up?”
She scrunched her face up. Although she had immediately forgotten about doing that - especially the important gathering of skulls - that was something that could be done after the campfire, so she wasn’t too worried about that. As far as she knew, the bodies wouldn't disappear anytime soon, and the respawns would be at least a day away.
If you played by too many of the Systems rules, that’s how they got you. She had resigned herself to being as untenable as possible. Make the System work hard to put her in the right box, seeing as it had started her off with one foot in the grave already. It had been working out for her partially well. If you ignored the hardship then they’d actually been doing pretty great in the grand scheme of things.
If anything, overthrowing the Dragon would just cement the fact that she was on the right track and was definitely in the running to becoming some of the greatest Players in this world. It did make her wonder whether there were any more glitched players in the new batch that joined a couple of days ago. Whether there were any kindred spirits yet to be found — or even those that might rise themselves up to be a self designated villain as she had done originally.
“Well… okay,” Lucius shrugged and withdrew a harmonica from a pocket under his cloak. The demon moved it up with both hands, into the shadows under his hood.
There was a metallic clink, and his eyes went wide, as a Demon Coin fell from the darkened recess and clattered onto the floor - spinning dramatically for longer than necessary.
The group slowly moved their eyes from the coin as it finally came to rest, and up to the demon.
“Play the song, Lucius,” Sally asked calmly.
The demon was shaking as he put the instrument back to his mouth. It did little to improve the tune. Several off-note keys punctuated his attempted song awkwardly. Without having anything to slowly sip, Sally instead withdrew the closest consumable item from her Inventory to chew on as they watched the supposed demon in silence.
After an abrupt ending, Lucius slowly brought the harmonica away from his mouth, and lowered it to the floor alongside his gaze.
Sally could see the others wanting to speak up - especially Edward - but they were giving her the option of asking first. It was tough being the leader sometimes, especially when you realized you were absentmindedly chewing on [Mount Feed].
She stood and brushed herself down, the suspicious demon remaining frozen in place and daring not to look at her. So nervous perhaps, that he didn’t even have the capacity to emote it. “Well then,” she eventually said, her voice cutting through the dead silence and causing him to flinch, “a decision to be made here…” She crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “Are you with us, or against us?”
At first, there was no response, as the demon continued to avoid engaging with anything past the patch of wooden floor right in front of him. Then, slowly, he raised his head to meet her gaze.
“I can’t… not now…” his voice was quiet and without the upbeat flair he usually exhibited.
“Who are you working for? The dragon?” Edward seethed and tensed as if he wanted to leap up from his position to strike the other demon.
Lucius looked between the enraged ex-collector and the zombie, before looking at the floor again. “…for one of the Champions.”
Humphrey shook his head. “This is why you don’t just invite any oddball we come across to the Party.”
Sally didn’t say anything, but continued to tap her foot on the floor. He had been so nice at first, full of advice and positivity. Was that just something to gain their trust? It had worked to a degree. She would be the first to admit she was happiest when people were straightforward with their intentions.
“So, what now? Did you want us to kill you, or are you going to turncoat like Edward?” She narrowed her eyes.
“It’s probably too late now… now that my cover is blown, I-“
“Lucius.” Sally withdrew [Skeleton Key] and pointed it at him. “With us or against us?”
Any response that the demon was trying to formulate was interrupted, as a sound caught the attention of everyone.
Through the large hole Humphrey had made through the wall, the constant patter of… rain could be heard. Even now, as they stared in disbelief, the raindrops became visible and the dry ground started to darken as the downpour increased.
“It’s too late now.” Lucius whispered, head hung low.
