by Pavel Kornev
That much was true. It never did. Never put players in them.
I was not quite a player. And I was definitely not an NPC. Something in the middle.
The usual rules didn’t apply to me.
Damn it!
Suddenly, there was a clang under my foot and a spike that jutted out of the wall nearly pierced me right through. My body twisted at the last possible moment, letting the point go past and the steel sting powerlessly rang out against the stones.
I stopped, made myself calm down and continued along, paying way more attention to what was underfoot, but then a skeleton started to twist and turn on the wall.
“Kill me!” it demanded, clacking its lower jaw.
“It’s a pleasure!” I replied with fury and raised my sword.
“Not here!” the skull suddenly said. “I’ll help!”
I froze with my flamberge upraised.
“What did you say?” I asked, unfazed by the fact that I was talking to a skeleton. “You will help? Help me?”
The skeleton clacked its jaw.
“I’ll help you. And then you will kill me.”
“Why were you silent before?”
“Little strength. Not enough... Help...”
“Tell me!” I offered.
The skeleton rattled its bones and got to the heart of the matter.
“I will tell you how to go down below and you will kill me. Do you agree?”
Do you want to accept the Kill the Keeper of the Dungeon quest?
[Yes/No]
There was nothing else I could do. I agreed.
“Count the pillars on the right side of the gallery until you reach the seventh one. That’s where you will find a burrow dug by the scavengers to the lowest level. You will come out by a sarcophagus that has a secret compartment inside. You will take the bone hook inside and kill the man that is immured in the wall there. You will kill me! But beware the captain of the guard...”
The fires in the eye sockets of the skull started to fade and I hurriedly shook the skeleton.
“Stop! Where’s the portal to the Kingdom of the Dead?”
“It’s not here...” the skeleton replied and fell apart into a pile of bones. I was left holding a collarbone.
No portal into the Kingdom of the Dead? Isabella would tear me into pieces!
If I ever managed to get out alive, of course...
THE BURROW LEADING DOWN was exactly where the keeper of the dungeon said it was. The burrow was so narrow, that an armored man would hardly have been able to squeeze inside, considering that I found it difficult even though I wasn’t wearing chainmail.
It was surprisingly cold at the bottom. The two rows of sarcophagi were covered in hoarfrost, a thin layer of ice lined the walls and pillars inside the crypt and spread all over the floor. The bluish light of the magical crystals provided no heat whatsoever and the glowing rocks were covered by gnarls of ice themselves.
I broke one of them out of a niche in the wall, cleaned the ice off it and discovered that the cold glow didn’t come from a magical crystal but from a skull that had been skillfully hewn from a single piece of crystal. It was identical to the artifact that I used to resurrect the Death Disciple.
After a little hesitation, I put the skull into my inventory and switched my attention to the sarcophagi. All apart from one had been disturbed and their stone covers were broken, with chewed bones strewn all around. However, one thing that was interesting was that a crystal skull glowed by each sarcophagus apart from the only one that had escaped undisturbed. A wall niche next to it was empty.
I had a funny feeling that was where the Death Disciple had come from. He must have taken the magic artifact with him.
I tried to push the lid of the undisturbed sarcophagus aside but it was way too heavy. Just as I used the hilt of the flamberge to crack the layer of ice upon it, I heard the thud of heavy steps. A shadow flashed past. The dark figure of a bone golem appeared in the doorway. The captain of the guard held a curved sword in each hand, with a five-pointed crown upon his head, each point looking like a deadly dagger.
The golem walked between the tombs. I hurried to crouch behind the sarcophagus. When the terrifying monster returned to its guard post, I started to break off the ice much quieter and more carefully than before. After that, I put my back into moving the stone slab, but only managed to move it a little, wary of any traps that might be installed inside.
No, all was clear.
I couldn’t see the contents of the sarcophagus through the narrow gap, so there was nothing left to do but to move the stone slab aside a little and steel myself before putting my arm inside. I didn’t manage to find a bone hook, but I managed to pull out some sort of complex golden amulet.
Considering the clinking sounds, there were still many similar things still inside and I could spend an hour taking them out one by one. I was forced to risk attracting the attention of the guard and move the slab completely sideways.
There were no human remains inside the sarcophagus, but it had been filled with all sorts of different amulets. My character’s Intelligence was insufficient to work out their properties, so I just put all of my loot in my inventory. The last thing I picked up was a double-edged bone hook which was covered with intricate carvings.
Several system notifications immediately popped up.
Deadman’s Set: Altered
Deadman’s Set: Saved
What in the name of...? I opened the stats of the predatory looking hook and swore because of the feelings that overcame me.
Soulkiller Bone Hook (Deadman’s Set: 4 out of 13)
Damage: 2-4
Special feature: When a wound is opened wider, damage increases exponentially and becomes the same as damage from soul magic.
Status: Unique
Increases exponentially? Damn! This hook would never pierce any kind of normal armor! What was the point of this kind of progression? What would I need this trinket in my set for? Who would I gut with it?
Saying that, the handle of the curious weapon lay in my hand very comfortably both with a standard and reverse grip. It was unpleasantly warm to the touch, however. It was as if the hook was alive, so I hurriedly put it behind my belt. What I mean is that I put it into the second weapon slot. It’s not like I would throw it away. I still needed to complete the quest. The damned set also just got saved, too...
I re-armed myself with the flamberge and saw that even though the rust on the blade never went away, some perfectly visible runes had been added to it, while the hilt became decorated with black engravings. Its stats improved yet again.
I guessed that by the time that I’d collected the full Deadman’s Set, the flamberge would become a deadly weapon, able to take away four hundred points of Health with one strike.
Not bad. As long as the other parts of the set didn’t end up being as useless as the bone hook.
This was definitely not the time to worry about that, so I sneaked towards the entrance to the next chamber. A trail of tracks was left behind me in the rime, but this didn’t matter anymore — I could see my target. A man was frozen into the opposite wall, his open eyes looking right at me, as if they could see me through the fog of invisibility.
Perhaps they really could?
A shadow moved by the stairs, as the captain of the guard looked like he was worried by something and looked around the room through burning eye slits. I have no idea why, but I quickly stepped behind a pillar.
That was when I saw Her. Him. It.
A cluster of pure light glittered on a short pedestal and when I saw it, my heart fluttered. Fluttered and started to beat!
I couldn’t believe what happened, so I put my hand to my chest, but no, my heart wasn’t beating. Something was just trembling and beating in turn with the pulse of the light.
A soul?
Ghostly strands reached from the pedestal to the dead man on the wall, as if the cluster of light was feeding power to the keeper of the dungeon and I couldn’t ho
ld myself back. I sheathed my flamberge behind my back, gripped the hook in my hand and ran headlong towards the pedestal.
The golem immediately rushed to intercept me, but I managed to overtake him and grab the shining light which scalded me with its coldness. As soon as I threw myself towards the dead man frozen into the wall, a curved black sword hit me in the back, giving me additional impetus. I ran two more steps and then my legs gave way so I only managed to pierce the chest of the keeper of the dungeon with the point of Soulkiller as I fell. My hand dragged the hook down with me and it ripped open the frozen flesh and ribs with uncanny ease, like a knife through butter.
The burning eyes of the dead man immediately went out and then I saw the second curved sword rise above my head, but the blade never found me. The walls cracked and the ceiling collapsed.
This time I was crushed. To a pulp.
SAND. SAND. SAND.
The harder I tried to climb out of the grave, the more sand poured in from above and I risked being buried alive forever, but then someone started to dig me out. The help was very welcome, as it was extremely difficult to get out even like that.
I crawled away from a hole with eroding edges and discovered that I it was the boy guide who helped me get out. Incredibly, the red-haired lad had waited for me and Isabella, even though he hadn’t a thing to do here after the collapse of the dungeon whatsoever.
Anyway, was our task even complete?
I called up the latest system notifications and scratched the back of my head in confusion.
The Kill the Keeper of the Dungeon quest is complete.
Experience: +1000
Undead: You’ve gained a level! Rogue: You’ve gained a level!
You have received a new quest: Sphere of Souls
And that was it. What the hell?
A kick in my side distracted me from my thoughts. The sharp point of a boot got me right under my ribs and made me flinch and turn towards Isabella, who had silently come up behind me.
“What’s going on with the portal to the Kingdom of the Dead?” she demanded.
“Take it easy!” I countered as I jumped back up to my feet and took out a pair of the hairpins that she’d lost in the dungeon. “You lost these.”
Isabella took the pins and started to fix her hair. However, she didn’t let me distract her.
“What happened with the Kingdom of the Dead?” the priestess repeated.
She wouldn’t stop, would she?
I didn’t want Roger to have a meeting with my head, so I stepped back from the priestess just in case, pretending that I was looking for a darker shadow.
“Didn’t you see the change in quest status?” I asked her with feigned surprise.
“There were no notifications!” the elven priestess assured me. She opened the menu and swore. “What the hell? The Kingdom of the Dead quest is inactive! It’s not complete, but it’s inactive!”
“What about the new one?”
“I don’t have any new quests!” Isabella furiously replied.
I considered whether I really needed the help of this volatile elf, but then decided that I wasn’t ready to interact with other players yet and sent Isabella an invitation to join the Sphere of Souls quest.
“Catch!”
The priestess stood still for a moment and then said, “I can’t accept! I need to have some sort of shard!”
I hesitated for a moment, but then got the cluster of shining light out of my inventory. Its light was not as intense as it had looked in the darkness of the dungeon, but it was still perfectly visible. Hoarfrost ran along my fingers, freezing my wrist and crawling further on. I have no idea how it would have ended if Isabella hadn’t grabbed the artifact out of my hand.
“Kitten, have you lost you mind?” the priestess exclaimed. “You can’t take such things without the proper protection!”
I had no idea what it was that had fallen into my hands, so I had to ask.
“Do you have it?”
Isabella glanced back at me with complete condescension.
“Kitten, I am protected by the patronage of the Mistress!”
“Yeah, yeah,” I replied with a frown. “What about the quest?”
“I have already joined you,” Isabella replied, “but I still don’t understand what it has to do with the Kingdom of...” She suddenly cut herself short and said with great surprise, “It’s like that, is it?”
“What?”
“Don’t interrupt!” the priestess waved me away as she sat down on the sand.
Considering her distracted appearance, Isabella was busy looking through the game forums or chatting to someone, so I decided not to bother her and worked on my level advances.
As always, it was easier to distribute the points for my undead side. I just increased my Agility by one and everything else changed by itself. My very being changed too. In the same way as before, at levels divisible by five, my undead nature changed and the emotional game mechanics changed me into a Grave Desecrator.
The swelling subsided without a trace and I became rangy, if not to say deathly thin. My eyes sunk even further, while my nails went black and sharp so they looked like the claws of a scavenger. The livid spots didn’t disappear completely, but turned into something akin to tattoos and covered my body with dark and thin lines.
To add to all that I now had the a new ability — Claws of Darkness. The very ability that the ratling had used to attack me in the dungeon. Every claw that scratched the victim dealt a base damage of one and also had a chance of paralyzing and stunning an opponent.
Well, now I’d never ever be unarmed!
I started to develop my rogue by increasing Strength and Dodge, but then spent a long time deciding on the profession specific skills as I didn’t know which branch I should develop to the detriment of the others. I even decided to raise Incognito, but this skill could only be raised at level 35. After hesitating a little, I chose one of the moves that learning Power Strike had opened up.
Knockout Artist, Crusher and Wallbreaker allowed a character to knock an opponent off their feet, disarm them and break shields and armor, but I preferred Power Lunge to all of those as it was aimed at making penetrating hits.
If I was to stick my flamberge into someone’s belly, there would be lots of critical damage as the blade was double-edged and the blade had waves on both sides!
John Doe, Executioner
Undead, Grave Desecrator. Level 15 / Human, Rogue. Level 15
Experience: [4 619/5 184] [4 663/5 184]
Strength: 21
Agility: 18
Constitution: 24
Intelligence: 5
Perception: 10
Health: 720
Stamina: 675
Energy: 225
Damage: 119-176
Stealth: +10
Dodge: +5
Critical damage when attacking in stealth mode, backstabbing or attacking a paralyzed target.
Professional skills: Incognito, Execution
Fencer: Two-Handed Weapons, Sweeping Strike, Power Strike, Power Lunge
Creature of the Dark: night sight, penalty for being in sunlight, Deathgrip, Aura of Fear, Fearsome Bite, Claws of Darkness
Neutrality: undead, subjects of the Lord of the Tower of Decay
Enemies: Order of the Fiery Hand
Immunity: death magic, poisons, curses, bleeding, sickness, cures and blessings.
Achievements: Dog Slayer Grade 3, Tenacious
After figuring out my level raises, I felt much more sure of myself. It was level thirty, if it was considered as a whole! The sun also blinded me a little less. So I would keep fighting on...
Isabella was taking a really long time figuring out the new task for some reason!
What if it had nothing to do with the Kingdom of the Dead?
I pushed away this treasonous thought and stepped towards the dark elf, but as soon as I left the shade of the riverbank and stepped into the sun, the world suddenly turned into a fiery des
ert. My skin started to hiss and smoke and my Stamina started to rapidly burn away.
Unfortunately I’d left my cloak as well as my chainmail hauberk back in the dungeon, while the mask that Isabella had given me only protected my face from the burning rays.
I had to jump back into the shadows.
“Hey!” I called out to our guide. “Boy!”
The red-haired boy looked up from his fishing rod and turned to me.
“Yes, uncle John?”
“There were some rags on the boat. Throw them over here!”
“All right!”
The clothes that the boy brought turned out to be a torn fisherman’s cape that a scarecrow would be ashamed to wear, but beggars can’t be choosers. I put it on and pulled the hood over my head.
That was better. At least I could get out under the sun now.
Isabella suddenly came to and rose in a smooth motion.
“Kitten,” the dark elf shook her head, “you’re full of surprises!”
“What do you mean?” I asked, as I adjusted my flamberge in its baldric.
“Relax!” Isabella giggled. “Things aren’t that bad!”
The skull on her staff clacked its bottom jaw, confirming the words of its mistress, but I didn’t let my guard down.
“What have you found out?”
“Our dungeon was not unique, there are many caves like that. No wonder it seemed to be too simple to you. According to legend, the Lord of the Dead hid his disciples everywhere so that they’d awaken from their lethargy at the right moment and gather an army of the dead.”
“And what about the Sphere of Souls?”
“Spheres of Souls are the focusing lenses of the Tower of Decay. One shard was placed in each hideaway and if the sphere is completely assembled then it’s possible to open a passage to the Kingdom of the Dead. They’re already offering ten thousand or more for a small piece at auction. The prices keep growing. The first to assemble a Sphere will organize a raid. The leaders of the top clans can’t wait.”
