A piercing wail reverberated through the dragon’s chamber as Ruben dug his four-foot long claws through the stone floor.
“I want them gone, or to yield already.” He puffed, blowing the dust across the room.
“Of course, sire.” The robed figure before him bowed. “They are proving especially troublesome.”
The dragon snorted. “Send two Gold Parties along with Claw to kill or capture them. Preferably kill.”
“Two, your excellency?”
Ruben tapped his talons on the stone floor. “Are you questioning whether I should send more Parties, or fewer Parties?”
The shadowed figure paused. “…No, your excellency?”
“Good. If I have to deal with this problem personally, you won’t be around to witness it.” A wide grin of large teeth picked up the low light of the torches in the room.
“What?” Sally crossed her arms. “What? You can’t!”
Humphrey shrugged. “The crystal only works once. We have decided to pool our memories to unlock as much as possible.”
She bent down and lifted the cat up, giving him a squeeze. “But, Archiiiiie…” she whined.
“I grow tired, Sally,” he began to purr. “It has been fun, but I am not meant for this world as I am.”
The zombie exhaled and closed her eyes. Although it was better than losing a friend due to battlefield death, it still tugged at her undead heartstrings.
“You just need to meet Archie from the next area,” the ginger cat continued. “We share meowmeries, so he will recognize you. And he should be less unstable.”
“Less unstable.” Edward rolled his eyes.
Sally rubbed her face against his fur, then held him out towards the Death Knight, pouting.
Humphrey took Archie and walked closer to the crystal in the middle of the room. He murmured something that the rest of them couldn’t hear, then began the process while they couldn’t see.
[Bodyguard Removed: Archie, Domestic Cat] [Archie has left the Party]
Sally rubbed her face and hugged onto Norah, who patted her on the back. A crying emoticon appeared next to Lucius as he looked down at the floor. Edward seemed indifferent.
Humphrey alone turned his head back to them, and gave them a nod, before stepping forth to receive the crystal. The shimmering light coursed from the large stone, circling and wrapping around the Death Knight’s form. Slowly, the gem itself became dull and inert as whatever magical power transferred from it to him. After a few seconds, all the waving colors had become absorbed into his plated form and he stood with arms out.
Silence filled the chamber, as Sally wiped her eyes with the back of her arm. “Everything okay, Humphrey?”
He slowly turned to them. His face looked no different, but there was an almost shocked widening of his eyes that quickly faded. “Yes.”
“Just ‘yes’? Did it work? What do you now know?” She crossed her arms and glared at him.
“Yes. Ah, apologies. This is somewhat overwhelming.” He scratched at his chin as he stepped back toward them. “I think we should call Theo back first.”
Edward groaned.
[Sally: come on over]
[Sally: arch has gone :( ]
[Sally: humps absorb the adorbs]
[Sally: and took pyramid crystal]
[Theo: will be there asap]
She felt glum as she closed the Chat window. Even with Theo coming whenever he could, she felt bad he wasn’t able to say goodbye to the cat. Finding a new Archie seemed weird, but hopefully the next one wasn’t a mutated eldritch beast like the one from this area.
After staring at nothing for a few seconds, Edward leaned over beside her ear. “How much do you trust me, Sally?”
“With my unlife” She looked up at him and smiled.
“Excellent.” A wide grin spread across his face as his eyes blazed blue before he leaned back away.
[Norah has joined the Party]
“Hey, Norah." The zombie spun around from the demon to the mummy. "I don’t suppose you fancy being my new bodyguard?”
“That’s a lot of commitment.” The woman rubbed her bandaged chin. “We’ve only just met and-“
“Humphrey is my other Bodyguard,” Sally grinned.
[New Bodyguard: Norah, The Ever-living. Mummy Queen]
“I’m also a Bodyguard,” Edward deflated and put his hands in his pockets.
She nodded, but wagged a finger. “You’re not undead though, so you’re more like the grouchy uncle. Lucius, you’re the cousin who spends too much time asking questions and playing video games.”
“What’s a video game?” A question mark appeared beside his shadowed head.
“See? Perfect.” Sally felt pretty pleased with herself. One of the clone Archies’ might be taking an extended holiday… within the Death Knight… but she had managed to condense and enhance the found family.
Now all that was left was to-
[Dungeon Complete!]
Her STAR began to glow a golden color.
“Think of this as my gift for welcoming me into your little Party,” Norah gave a brief curtsy. “You defeated the Boss of the Pyramid, technically… and I may have fudged the numbers a little to give you as much experience as I could.”
Sally gasped. “You’re the best, Norah! Isn’t she, Humphrey?”
The Death Knight was staring off at the wall, as if reading something within his own head. He responded absentmindedly, his sockets focused on the horizon. “Hmm. Yes.”
She nudged the mummy and wiggled her eyebrows as she opened up her STAR.
[Level Up]
[Pick One]
[Necrotic Aura] [Higher averages for undead ability number ranges.]
[Share Burden] [For three seconds, any damage is shared around your undead minions.]
[Bone Gate] [Create a gateway between two corpses that you can see.]
The System didn’t make it easy to pick sometimes. She wondered if a leveling process where you only received set skills would be more or less fun. The focus might be more on smart combat than skill acquisition then. She hummed and shook her head from side to side.
Necrotic Aura sounded like too much math. Like the Architect had originally intended for there to be tighter ranges over the damage you could do. That ship had long sailed and the Party already did plenty of damage, with it being marginally better on average. Bone Gate also seemed fun, but limited to corpses that she could see - which meant mostly just within the current fight. There were possibly some of other edge case uses, but something more functional would be better.
[Share Burden]
It wasn’t the flashiest of skills, but she loved being alive. Undead. Something like that could help them punch above their weight. Thankfully, it only worked on minions, so she didn’t have to worry about inadvertently killing off Humphrey or Norah.
She clicked her fingers and looked around at the group. The room seemed dull without the active crystal being powered, and some lethargy sat on her. Edward was acting on edge about something, and Lucius had been quiet since Archie left.
“Everything okay, hun?” Norah smiled.
“Yeah…” She deflated as she sighed. “The Wastes have been very draining on us.”
“I’ve always wanted to see the wider world.” The Mummy looked up at one of the slits in the ceiling that allowed the constant sunlight to pour through, illuminating dust particles shifting in the slight breeze. “I suppose we’ll have to do a lot of fighting?”
“Oh, yeah.” Sally grinned sheepishly. “Probably should have mentioned we are constantly bouncing between conflict. Are you much of a fighter, or…?”
Norah nodded slowly. “Not so much when I was a living being, but as the undead monarch of the pyramid I have a number of skills. More of a ranged support role, I suppose.”
“Perfect!” Now that was a Party coming together. Summoner, ranged support, flexible support, tank, and melee damage. For a group of undead, plus Edward, that was a reasonable gathering.
“Let me know when everyone is ready, hun. I can take us to the starting chamber.” Norah raised her hand up and looked between the group.
They each nodded or grunted their acknowledgements, with Humphrey being a bit slower to respond, as he still seemed distracted.
With a click, they were back in the room they had slept in previously before taking the stairwell downwards. Sally grinned to herself, knowing that she had picked the correct direction, after all. Things always worked out, except when they didn’t.
She led them out into the blazing heat of the day once more and immediately stopped.
Ten Players stood in a loose formation thirty feet off. While they each wore different armors that gave a hint of their Class, they all had golden tabards on, that gently waved in the slight breeze. Behind the ten, a large figure standing almost a dozen feet tall and almost half that wide, was a bear standing on hind legs. He wore a small helmet atop his head and had loose leather armor in places that resembled something a barbarian might wear.
The rest of the Party spread out around her, growing quiet at seeing the opponents. Once everyone was still, the bear opened his sharp-fanged maw to address them.
“Outsiders! My name is Claw, and I have come to take you into service at the behest of Ruben. Or put you back into the ground.” He grinned and narrowed his dark eyes at them.
Humphrey began to walk forward. “How about a deal?”
“A deal?” Claw roared with laughter. “What do you possibly think you could offer?”
“You look strong.” The Death Knight rolled his shoulders. “Duel for our freedom?”
“I am, and no.” The bear shook his head, looking genuinely sad about having to decline. “My objective was straightforward. Either kill you or arrest you.”
“What about… if I duel all of you at once?”
Sally furrowed her brow. While Humphrey wasn’t a stranger to taking on greater odds with overconfidence, this was pushing it a little bit. If all those Golds were level twenty… “I think he is posturing for you,” she whispered to Norah.
Claw chuckled. “Seriously? How is that in any way fair? You expect me to believe you could take us all on alone?”
Humphrey rubbed his chin, the metallic scraping sound making some of the gathered Players wince. “Perhaps not. How about I can choose a second? Two versus eleven?”
The bear sighed and pawed at his helmet. “Alright, fine. You’ll die either way, I suppose. Choose your second.”
Sally stood on her tiptoes, hoping that she would be picked. She held back her excitement and managed to not wave at him.
[Edward has left the Party]
She looked down at the warm feeling in her chest to see the long silver of a blade punctured straight through her. Blood began to soak through her clothes.
“It was inevitable,” the demon whispered in her ear, before vanishing in a flash of blue light.
A piercing wail reverberated through the dragon’s chamber as Ruben dug his four-foot long claws through the stone floor.
“I want them gone, or to yield already.” He puffed, blowing the dust across the room.
“Of course, sire.” The robed figure before him bowed. “They are proving especially troublesome.”
The dragon snorted. “Send two Gold Parties along with Claw to kill or capture them. Preferably kill.”
“Two, your excellency?”
Ruben tapped his talons on the stone floor. “Are you questioning whether I should send more Parties, or fewer Parties?”
The shadowed figure paused. “…No, your excellency?”
“Good. If I have to deal with this problem personally, you won’t be around to witness it.” A wide grin of large teeth picked up the low light of the torches in the room.
“What?” Sally crossed her arms. “What? You can’t!”
Humphrey shrugged. “The crystal only works once. We have decided to pool our memories to unlock as much as possible.”
She bent down and lifted the cat up, giving him a squeeze. “But, Archiiiiie…” she whined.
“I grow tired, Sally,” he began to purr. “It has been fun, but I am not meant for this world as I am.”
The zombie exhaled and closed her eyes. Although it was better than losing a friend due to battlefield death, it still tugged at her undead heartstrings.
“You just need to meet Archie from the next area,” the ginger cat continued. “We share meowmeries, so he will recognize you. And he should be less unstable.”
“Less unstable.” Edward rolled his eyes.
Sally rubbed her face against his fur, then held him out towards the Death Knight, pouting.
Humphrey took Archie and walked closer to the crystal in the middle of the room. He murmured something that the rest of them couldn’t hear, then began the process while they couldn’t see.
[Bodyguard Removed: Archie, Domestic Cat] [Archie has left the Party]
Sally rubbed her face and hugged onto Norah, who patted her on the back. A crying emoticon appeared next to Lucius as he looked down at the floor. Edward seemed indifferent.
Humphrey alone turned his head back to them, and gave them a nod, before stepping forth to receive the crystal. The shimmering light coursed from the large stone, circling and wrapping around the Death Knight’s form. Slowly, the gem itself became dull and inert as whatever magical power transferred from it to him. After a few seconds, all the waving colors had become absorbed into his plated form and he stood with arms out.
Silence filled the chamber, as Sally wiped her eyes with the back of her arm. “Everything okay, Humphrey?”
He slowly turned to them. His face looked no different, but there was an almost shocked widening of his eyes that quickly faded. “Yes.”
“Just ‘yes’? Did it work? What do you now know?” She crossed her arms and glared at him.
“Yes. Ah, apologies. This is somewhat overwhelming.” He scratched at his chin as he stepped back toward them. “I think we should call Theo back first.”
Edward groaned.
[Sally: come on over]
[Sally: arch has gone :( ]
[Sally: humps absorb the adorbs]
[Sally: and took pyramid crystal]
[Theo: will be there asap]
She felt glum as she closed the Chat window. Even with Theo coming whenever he could, she felt bad he wasn’t able to say goodbye to the cat. Finding a new Archie seemed weird, but hopefully the next one wasn’t a mutated eldritch beast like the one from this area.
After staring at nothing for a few seconds, Edward leaned over beside her ear. “How much do you trust me, Sally?”
“With my unlife” She looked up at him and smiled.
“Excellent.” A wide grin spread across his face as his eyes blazed blue before he leaned back away.
[Norah has joined the Party]
“Hey, Norah." The zombie spun around from the demon to the mummy. "I don’t suppose you fancy being my new bodyguard?”
“That’s a lot of commitment.” The woman rubbed her bandaged chin. “We’ve only just met and-“
“Humphrey is my other Bodyguard,” Sally grinned.
[New Bodyguard: Norah, The Ever-living. Mummy Queen]
“I’m also a Bodyguard,” Edward deflated and put his hands in his pockets.
She nodded, but wagged a finger. “You’re not undead though, so you’re more like the grouchy uncle. Lucius, you’re the cousin who spends too much time asking questions and playing video games.”
“What’s a video game?” A question mark appeared beside his shadowed head.
“See? Perfect.” Sally felt pretty pleased with herself. One of the clone Archies’ might be taking an extended holiday… within the Death Knight… but she had managed to condense and enhance the found family.
Now all that was left was to-
[Dungeon Complete!]
Her STAR began to glow a golden color.
“Think of this as my gift for welcoming me into your little Party,” Norah gave a brief curtsy. “You defeated the Boss of the Pyramid, technically… and I may have fudged the numbers a little to give you as much experience as I could.”
Sally gasped. “You’re the best, Norah! Isn’t she, Humphrey?”
The Death Knight was staring off at the wall, as if reading something within his own head. He responded absentmindedly, his sockets focused on the horizon. “Hmm. Yes.”
She nudged the mummy and wiggled her eyebrows as she opened up her STAR.
[Level Up]
[Pick One]
[Necrotic Aura] [Higher averages for undead ability number ranges.]
[Share Burden] [For three seconds, any damage is shared around your undead minions.]
[Bone Gate] [Create a gateway between two corpses that you can see.]
The System didn’t make it easy to pick sometimes. She wondered if a leveling process where you only received set skills would be more or less fun. The focus might be more on smart combat than skill acquisition then. She hummed and shook her head from side to side.
Necrotic Aura sounded like too much math. Like the Architect had originally intended for there to be tighter ranges over the damage you could do. That ship had long sailed and the Party already did plenty of damage, with it being marginally better on average. Bone Gate also seemed fun, but limited to corpses that she could see - which meant mostly just within the current fight. There were possibly some of other edge case uses, but something more functional would be better.
[Share Burden]
It wasn’t the flashiest of skills, but she loved being alive. Undead. Something like that could help them punch above their weight. Thankfully, it only worked on minions, so she didn’t have to worry about inadvertently killing off Humphrey or Norah.
She clicked her fingers and looked around at the group. The room seemed dull without the active crystal being powered, and some lethargy sat on her. Edward was acting on edge about something, and Lucius had been quiet since Archie left.
“Everything okay, hun?” Norah smiled.
“Yeah…” She deflated as she sighed. “The Wastes have been very draining on us.”
“I’ve always wanted to see the wider world.” The Mummy looked up at one of the slits in the ceiling that allowed the constant sunlight to pour through, illuminating dust particles shifting in the slight breeze. “I suppose we’ll have to do a lot of fighting?”
“Oh, yeah.” Sally grinned sheepishly. “Probably should have mentioned we are constantly bouncing between conflict. Are you much of a fighter, or…?”
Norah nodded slowly. “Not so much when I was a living being, but as the undead monarch of the pyramid I have a number of skills. More of a ranged support role, I suppose.”
“Perfect!” Now that was a Party coming together. Summoner, ranged support, flexible support, tank, and melee damage. For a group of undead, plus Edward, that was a reasonable gathering.
“Let me know when everyone is ready, hun. I can take us to the starting chamber.” Norah raised her hand up and looked between the group.
They each nodded or grunted their acknowledgements, with Humphrey being a bit slower to respond, as he still seemed distracted.
With a click, they were back in the room they had slept in previously before taking the stairwell downwards. Sally grinned to herself, knowing that she had picked the correct direction, after all. Things always worked out, except when they didn’t.
She led them out into the blazing heat of the day once more and immediately stopped.
Ten Players stood in a loose formation thirty feet off. While they each wore different armors that gave a hint of their Class, they all had golden tabards on, that gently waved in the slight breeze. Behind the ten, a large figure standing almost a dozen feet tall and almost half that wide, was a bear standing on hind legs. He wore a small helmet atop his head and had loose leather armor in places that resembled something a barbarian might wear.
The rest of the Party spread out around her, growing quiet at seeing the opponents. Once everyone was still, the bear opened his sharp-fanged maw to address them.
“Outsiders! My name is Claw, and I have come to take you into service at the behest of Ruben. Or put you back into the ground.” He grinned and narrowed his dark eyes at them.
Humphrey began to walk forward. “How about a deal?”
“A deal?” Claw roared with laughter. “What do you possibly think you could offer?”
“You look strong.” The Death Knight rolled his shoulders. “Duel for our freedom?”
“I am, and no.” The bear shook his head, looking genuinely sad about having to decline. “My objective was straightforward. Either kill you or arrest you.”
“What about… if I duel all of you at once?”
Sally furrowed her brow. While Humphrey wasn’t a stranger to taking on greater odds with overconfidence, this was pushing it a little bit. If all those Golds were level twenty… “I think he is posturing for you,” she whispered to Norah.
Claw chuckled. “Seriously? How is that in any way fair? You expect me to believe you could take us all on alone?”
Humphrey rubbed his chin, the metallic scraping sound making some of the gathered Players wince. “Perhaps not. How about I can choose a second? Two versus eleven?”
The bear sighed and pawed at his helmet. “Alright, fine. You’ll die either way, I suppose. Choose your second.”
Sally stood on her tiptoes, hoping that she would be picked. She held back her excitement and managed to not wave at him.
[Edward has left the Party]
She looked down at the warm feeling in her chest to see the long silver of a blade punctured straight through her. Blood began to soak through her clothes.
“It was inevitable,” the demon whispered in her ear, before vanishing in a flash of blue light.
