Soulstone: The Skeleton King: A LitRPG Novel (World of Ruul Book 2)

by J. A. Cipriano

Sure, they were great for trash monster runs when the body count was high, but otherwise? Not so much, it had been why I’d abandoned my own necromancer, especially because they were so gear dependent…

  And, as I had that thought, an idea struck me. Crash had said that the classes in Titan Gate were the best number crunched way to stick the skills together, and since you couldn’t have more than ten skills active at a time and had to level them, well, it was bad all around to stray from the path.

  But at the same time, a necro would drop this guy really fast. It could use the Weaken Armor curse to increase the damage dealt to the target, and that curse stacked at ten percent per second as long as it was channeled. The problem with that curse was you couldn’t move while you had it channeled or all the stacks would drop, but since this guy was stuck, well…

  That was the problem with necros in most high end play. It wasn’t that necros weren’t effective, it’s that they were too nuanced to be used in a lot of high end situations, but you know what, we weren’t high level, and while I’d never gotten mine to max level, I’d gotten halfway there, and halfway there, was a lot higher than we were now.

  “Elizabeth, I’d like to retire Revering Vendetta, Kidney Punch, Charge, and Power Strike.” As I spoke the words, they disappeared from my active skills window and appeared in my passive skills window, giving me four more skill slots. It was a hard choice though, since those were some of my prized skills, but at the same time, most of them were useless with only one dagger. Still, once I found another dagger, I could swap my skills around.

  “What are you doing, Kahn?” Two’ Manchu asked as he stared at me in shock. The giant living armor was still thrashing in the doorway, but near as I could tell, that wasn’t doing much good.

  It was definitely stuck, but who knew how long that’d continue to be true. All it would take was for the AI monitoring Ruul to notice and then I was sure the monster would be free to kill us. No, we had to beat it while it was still stuck.

  “My original toon was a necro. I never got to max level, but I played it a while,” I said as I raised my hand. “I might not know how to do the corrosive spell Crash had talked about, but I know a curse or two.” I pointed at the monster. “Weaken Armor.”

  As I said the words, a cloud of black, sulfur-smelling energy exploded from my outstretched hand and floated languidly through the air. As it did so, a tendril of sickly, green power tethered the cloud to my finger.

  My mana began to drop by a mana per second as it fueled the spell, which concerned me, but there was nothing for it. Mana was for casting spells after all. I just had to hope we won before I ran out. As the cloud I’d conjured moved steadily toward the armor until the monster was completely encompassed by it, the symbol of a shattered shield appeared above the creature.

  “You have learned the skill Weaken Armor. It is now available for use,” Elizabeth said as a second broken shield appeared above the monster.

  “Good call, Kahn,” Dark Heart said, raising her own hand and copying the movement I’d done. Another cloud drifted from her outstretched fingers and soon hit the monster causing another broken shield to appear over its head.

  “Prepare to die,” Crash said, summoning his Spectral Blades and launching them at the monster.

  The immense living armor whirled toward the oncoming energy swords, and as it tried to block with its shield, the blades, quite simply, slashed through the creature’s defense. Molten hot slashes appeared on its armor as its health dropped by almost a hundred damage, and that was with my curse effect only stacked to three times damage and Dark Heart’s at two times.

  “Give ‘em hell, George!” I cried as my curse increased to four times damage. I’d have loved to wait until both my spell and Dark Heart’s were maxed at ten times damage, but I wasn’t sure I had the mana to channel it for long enough to kill the monster since each stack increased the mana cost of the spell by one per second.

  “You don’t have to tell me twice,” George said, unleashing another frozen blast at the creature. This time, the creature was too busy trying to ward off Crash’s Spectral Blades to even bother turning to face the bunny.

  George’s Cone of Ice smacked into the armor’s skull, pitching it forward in the hole and delivering a whopping five hundred damage. Frost spread out across its armor and cracks appeared in the metal.

  “Hit the cracks!” Crash called to Two’ Manchu. “If we can shatter its armor, it will take more damage, I’m sure of it.”

  “Okay, but you better be right,” Two’ Manchu said, lifting his bow and preparing a Concussive Arrow. “I’ve only got enough mana to do this three times, so if you’re wrong, I’ll be blowing my load before he hits max curse.”

  “Trust me!” Crash yelled back as the monster lashed out, shattering one of Crash’s Spectral Blades into ethereal sparks. The priest grunted as his mana and health dropped by a full ten percent due to the backlash of the sword’s destruction.

  “Concussive Arrow!” Two’ Manchu growled, unleashing his arrow. It sailed through the air and impacted the cracked spot on the back of the creature’s helmet. Sparks exploded from the attack and once again the monster pitched forward in the hole. Better still, the attack had done a whopping two-hundred-fifty damage, and the hole had widened.

  George followed it up with another blast of ice as my Weaken Armor stacked to six, and Dark Heart’s hit five. This time the creature’s helmet shattered, and as bits of broken metal rained down around it, a pair of burning, disembodied eyes flared like star fire.

  “This will not be enough, adventurers!” It snarled, whirling around as Two’ Manchu fired again. Only instead of hitting it in its unprotected eyes, the monster lurched up at the last second, catching the blast on its side. The metallic armor dented inward from the blow, and while its health dropped, that wasn’t the most interesting thing that happened.

  No, what was incredibly interesting was that a fiery, Cheshire cat grin appeared in the disembodied air where its face should have been right before it slammed the hilt of its own massive sword into the armor at its waist doing a hundred and fifty damage to itself. Then it repeated the blow, hammering at its waist over and over while Crash, Two’ Manchu and George kept hitting it.

  “What’s going on?” George asked, his mana nearing zero. “Why is it hitting himself? Is he bugged?” It was a little weird because the way George said the word “bugged” was sort of like a horrific curse, as though he couldn’t imagine a worse fate upon someone and felt bad about it.

  “No, rabbit!” the massive living armor cried as its health reached fifty percent and the armor around its waist shattered. Then it turned those glowing eyes upon me and pulled itself free of the hole. “Did you really think you could defeat me so easily?”

  “Oh, fuck,” I cried as it lumbered toward me, sword raised high overhead.

  As my curse stacked to ten indicating it was taking ten times normal damage from my spell, I realized we had a problem. The moment I moved or got him, I’d stop channeling the curse and my stacks would reset to zero.

  Worse still, it was only at half health, and if things stayed the same, I wouldn’t be able to run away and let the spell stack again. Even if I had that kind of time, I’d started the fight with around one-hundred and fifty mana and channeling the spell this long had cost me fifty-five mana. As it was, the remaining ninety-five mana I had left would only give us nine seconds of damage.

  “Do something!” I cried as the giant living armor lumbered closer. “If it hits me, I won’t be able to keep the curse up!”

  “Um... What about them?” George asked, pointing toward the normal living armors that were about to flow into the room as Two’ Manchu put his bow away and pulled out his hasted axe.

  “I’ll stop them,” Two’ Manchu said, charging forward to meet the first of the living armors. His axe flew through the air, impacting the creature with a loud clang, and I instantly knew we didn’t have long. I might be able to channel the spell for nine seconds if I d
idn’t get hit, but there was no way Two’ Manchu would be able to hold off the living armors that long without getting healed. No, we needed another plan.

  “Guys, I’m going to drop the curse,” I said, leaping to the side as the giant living armor buried its humongous sword in the spot where I’d been standing with enough force to crack the tile.

  As I hit the ground and rolled to my feet, my stacks of Weaken Armor vanished, and like I’d thought, the creature turned to lumber toward Dark Heart instead of chasing after me. It was smart, which was unfortunate. Thankfully, she was far enough away, it’d take a few seconds to reach her.

  “Chains of Frost!” Crash cried as the armor shattered the last of his Spectral Blades with a casual swing.

  As Crash stumbled backward under the backlash from having his magical weapon destroyed, frosty rings of iron leapt from the ground around the creature’s legs, binding him in place. Hoarfrost began to spread around the armor’s legs as it glanced down at the binding spell.

  “This will not hold me long,” it snarled, lashing out with its sword. The blade struck the frozen iron with a horrific clang, and I instantly believed the monster. Worse, Crash couldn’t attack and channel the binding, which meant it was up to me, and I’d put most of my attack skills on passive because I’d had a grand plan to respec from rogue into a necromancer.

  Now though, I was wondering if it’d been a good idea. While I was pretty sure even Revering Vendetta wouldn’t be able to deliver four thousand plus damage in the next three seconds, I’d have tried to do it, which was why I’d put it on passive, to force my own hand. Now, I had to go with my original plan.

  “Two’ Manchu, let the living armors through, I’ll take ‘em. You and George focus on the big guy.” I called as I sprinted toward him. “And try not to get hit. I don’t want to clean you off the stones with a sponge.”

  “You sure, Kahn?” Two’ Manchu asked while stepping out of the way. As he did, I stabbed the living armor he’d been fighting in the eye with my black mithril dagger. Sparks erupted from the wound as it crumbled to the ground and evaporated, revealing an infinite number of the creatures behind it.

  “Yeah, just hurry!” I snapped, raising my hand. I couldn’t worry about them right now. No, I had to concentrate. “Control Undead!”

  14

  Black oil shot from my fingers, ensnaring the three closest undead like viscous tentacles. They struggled in the corridor, their bodies shuddering and convulsing as the darkness pouring from my hand, covered every inch of their beings.

  Then, all at once, they stopped moving completely and turned their soulless eyes upon me. As that happened, health and mana bars appeared above their heads with a leash icon next to it. A quick glance revealed that each one had a hundred and fifty health and fifty mana.

  “You have learned the skill Control Undead. It is now available for use. The amount of undead you can control is based upon your intelligence divided by six rounded down,” Elizabeth said as my mana dropped by sixty points, which made me think each monster cost twenty mana to control. It was a little costly, but it would have to do.

  “You two, go get the boss!” I shouted, spinning to point at the ginormous living armor as it tried to swat Two’ Manchu away, but the barbarian was doing an excellent job of dancing like a butterfly. He weaved around the blows and struck with his axe. While he wasn’t doing much damage, he was succeeding in keeping the monster from breaking free of the binding Crash had placed on it.

  At my command, the two living armors exited the stairwell and lumbered toward their former leader. I wasn’t sure how long they’d last, but at the same time, I didn’t care that much. Every mob the boss killed would be one less for us to have to deal with.

  Clang!

  The sound of metal on metal filled my ears as I spun back around to see the one who had remained in the stairwell getting his ass beat by the armor on the stairs behind it. Well, that was no good.

  “Defend the stairwell!” I cried, commanding the controlled armor to beat down its friend. As the attacker’s sword lashed out, my monster raised its shield and deflected the blow. Then it booted its friend in the chest, causing it to crash backward into the armors behind it with a sound like a china cabinet falling to earth.

  “Good call, boss!” George said, hopping over next to me, and while I’d been about to ask him why he wasn’t fighting, I immediately realized he was out of mana. Jesus, how the hell were you supposed to win here? “But I don’t think your drones are going to help too much.”

  “Why?” I asked, turning back around in time to see the massive living armor obliterate one of my followers with a shield slam of epic proportions. As bits of debris rained down to the ground, something interesting happened. The corpse didn’t immediately evaporate. And I knew why. It’s because I was using necromancer skills, and as such, corpses were my bread and butter.

  “Raise Undead!” I said, reaching out toward the fallen corpse of the living armor. More darkness spread from my fingers, and my mana dropped by another fifteen points. The shattered corpse of the monster moved. Its pieces jerked back together like all the king’s horses and all the king’s men had for once succeeded in life.

  “You have learned the skill Raise Undead. It is now available for use. It can be used to raise the corpse of a fallen monster. The amount of undead you can control is based upon your intelligence divided by six rounded down,” Elizabeth told me, but I was too busy to listen to her.

  “Attack!” I cried, gesturing for the monster to resume its fight with the massive living armor, which thankfully, only had about two thousand health left.

  “I really hope you’ve got a better plan than that, boss,” George said, watching the guardian behind me. “We’re all out of mana. This is going to go from ‘I’m having a good time’ to ‘Oh, fuck, the condom broke’ really fucking soon.”

  Despite his colorful language, the bunny was right. We needed mana, fast. Fortunately, I did have a way to fix that. I raised my hand toward the undead blocking the stairs. His health was still at seventy percent, which was good, but not what I wanted for my next move.

  “Mana Drain!” I cried, using the skill Crash had used to suck my mana when we’d been in the treasure room with the scorpions and imps. Instantly, the monster’s mana vanished, moving into me with such speed, it was sort of dizzying. Now I had sixty mana. Unfortunately, my pet was totally drained. Still, that was okay because I had two more targets. I just had to reach them in time.

  “You have learned the skill Mana Drain. It is now available for use. It can be used to drain the mana from the target. For every two mana this skill drains, you will receive one mana,” Elizabeth told me as I sprinted toward the battle.

  As I approached, Two’ Manchu came up under the giant living armor’s attack and smashed it under the chin with his axe. The clang of the blow rang out like a gun, and as the creature wobbled backward, I realized its health had dropped to less than a thousand. We might actually win. You know, assuming we could keep up the pressure for that long.

  “Mana Drain!” I called as the humongous living armor raised his sword to shatter both my soldiers. Another fifty mana surged into my tank, giving me a total of a hundred and ten mana right as the proverbial hammer came down, decimating my undead troops. Their armor clattered lifelessly to the ground, and unlike last time, the one I’d resurrected shattered into shards, making me think I could only revive the monsters once.

  Not that it mattered because I had a different plan.

  “I only have enough mana for two more seconds,” Dark Heart cried as I lifted my hand.

  “That’s twice as long as I’ll need,” I said as I cast one more spell on the huge living armor. “Heal!”

  “That’s what she said!” George cried as the heal spell impacted the living armor like a nuclear bomb. See, heal spells did double damage to undead, and this undead had a ten times damage multiplier. I had a hundred and ten mana, all of which converted to damage, meaning I was doing an
attack that could potentially do twenty-two-hundred damage. I wasn’t sure what the boss had by way of resistance to magic, but I was really hoping it wasn’t enough to drop my attack lower than his remaining health.

  The monster screamed, its arms spasming out as the healing energy I’d cast on it turned caustic in a flare of scarlet light. Lightning crackled along the monster’s armor as an explosion unlike anything I’d ever seen threw me from my feet. I slammed hard onto the stone tiles as my experience bar shot upward like a rocket.

  “Level up! You have reached level twelve. You have gained one armor and one physical damage reduction. You have gained twelve health and seventeen mana. Your total health is two-hundred-sixty-one. Your total mana is two-hundred-twenty-two. You now have the ability to learn level three spells. Level up! You have reached level thirteen. You have gained eighteen health and twenty-one mana. Your total health is two-hundred-seventy-nine. Your total mana is two-hundred-forty-three,” Elizabeth said as I tried to shake the cobwebs out of my head.

  A quick glance at my stats made me grin like an idiot because I’d gained two levels, and the resulting power up made me smile like a dumbass because I was now strong enough to learn level three spells.

  Character: Kahn

  Alignment: Neutral

  Level: 13

  Health: 279

  Mana: 243

  Synchronization: 86%

  Strength: 20

  Dexterity: 20

  Constitution: 20

  Wisdom: 20

  Intelligence: 20

  I tore my gaze away from my stats and turned them toward the fallen monster. The only thing that remained of the boss were its massive sword and shield. Everything else had been obliterated.

  Honestly, I’d sort of hoped for more drops. Still, the thing had been strong enough to level me twice, and what’s more, I was nearly level fourteen, surely its drops were awesome too. Either way, I’d find out in a second.

  “Holy crap, I just hit level twelve and eighty percent,” Two’ Manchu said as the leveling light faded from him. “That’s nuts.”