Chapter 14:  Meeting the Lich

                I climb back up the outside of the manor to the roof.  I want to work from the top down.  That may be opposite of regular logic, but I do not want to leave anything behind me and I think it will give me a slight advantage.  I need to remember to be careful and not to get cocky.  That is how people die in the stories and movies.  The zombie part I already cleared may have been easy, but it does not mean that the rest of this dungeon will be.

                I take the ladder down from the roof access I pried open and arrive in what must have been a storage room.  Ok let’s focus and prepare.  I’m inside and fighting the undead so let’s stay with a shotgun and a blunt weapon.  Betsy and the Persuader it is.  As I ready my weapons I try and think of any of my magic that might be helpful.  Magic, that’s what I forgot to test during the first part.  I became the world’s only magic using “Quadelementalist” and I completely forgot to use any magic on the first part of the dungeon.

                To be fair I have never been in a dungeon and magic is pretty new to me, but that was rather dumb.  On the other hand, if the first part was that easy when I did not even use any of my magic maybe I really am turning into an OP character.  The first magic that comes to mind that would be useful is the fire element, because in stories undead are always weak to either holy/light magic or fire magic.  Seeing as how I do not even know if holy/light magic is real I think I will stick with fire.  However, I can only use fire in emergencies.  This is real life and if I just shoot fire balls and such around I am going to set stuff on fire and burn this place down around me.

                Wait a second, do I need to be careful of that?  What if set Biltmore Estates on fire and just let it burn down and kill everything inside?  Would that count as a win?  I congratulate myself for some excellent outside the box thinking, but remember that I have not rescued the villagers yet so burning down the manor may not be the best of ideas.  However, if you can do an instance dungeon more than once then I might rescue the villagers, lead them outside and then set the whole dang place on fire.  Something to remember for the future, just because in the books they leave dungeons intact does not mean I have too.

                Ok other magic that I can use since fire is out except for emergencies.   Well I do have “bullet” spells of all types of elements.  I have a water bullet, more useful for a water fight, ice bullet, which is quite deadly, rock bullet, also deadly, and a wind bullet which just sort of pushes things back.  That settles it.  When I get back I need to develop my spells some more.  I know of all of these great spells in books and I need to try and develop them soon.  Where is my wind blade, my chain lightning, etc.  I have been so focused on developing traditional weapons that I have ignored straight magic attacks which should be devastating and completely separate.

                Ok here I go, I will just have to test out the magic I have as I go along.  I will clear each of the rooms I come to on the way to the Grand Ballroom so nothing can surprise me from behind in the boss fight.  After several rooms full of undead later I have some positive and negative results to pass onto others.  First with zombies per usual as long as you destroy the head they die.  With my limited skills this is ice and rock bullets.  Second ghosts and wraiths CAN hurt you and a lot, and they only can be hit by magic or magic weapons.  My shotgun was useless in the encounter.  The shotgun works based on magic but the pellets coming out were not enchanted so they just went straight through those transparent suckers.  That was not a fun fight.

                Finally skeletons are tricky.  Most skeletons are kind of wusses and pushovers.  Low level fodder easy to destroy with magic or a weapon, however when  they wear armor they are higher level and harder to kill.  Red glowing eyes mean normal skeleton, blue glowing eyes means skeleton mage and kill it fast and first.  I was right about the fire magic being a safety problem in real life.  Most of a room was set on fire from a fire using skeleton mage before I figured out the blue eyes and kill it first thing.  I had to waste half an hour after the fight using my limited water bullet spells to put the dang thing out.  I mean I really felt it could have burned the whole place down.  No self-preservation from those skeleton mages.

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                The best news is I have finally reached the outside of the Grand Ballroom.  I seriously underestimated the sheer number of rooms I would have to check on the way, but I am glad I did because of 75% of those rooms held undead and loot.  This whole thing has taken me hours.  If the Lich is in here after I beat it I am going to have to make a temporary camp just to rejuvenate myself.  I don’t want to camp right now without dealing with the Lich first.

                I open the door to the Grand Ballroom and quickly dart to side and hide behind a pillar.  As I peek out to survey the situation I see a large skeleton with a crown on his head sitting on a large chair/throne thing.  Bingo I was right, that has to be the Lich.  It is holding a scepter with a large ruby on top of it and it definitely has glowing blue eyes so it is a spell caster.  This all seems pretty cliché, but I have been working off my game knowledge the entire time and seems to be helpful so I should probably stop complaining.

                Alright, quick mental review of what I know about Lich’s before I attack.  They are a powerful undead sorcerer and use the same type of magic in death as they did in life.  Usually can summon hordes of undead and minions to act as shields and to help attack.  Not very physically strong, but are powerful ranged magicians.  I feel like I am forgetting something important about them though.  Oh well, it will come to me if needed, let’s think strategy.  Damage it early from a distance and then rush it and swinging so it cannot chant or summon reinforcements.

                Since I don’t have life or holy magic I think I will sneak as close to it as I can and use a magma bullet in the sniper rifle and then rush and smash with the Warhammer.  That seems to be a pretty solid and fool proof plan.  I have been wanting to try out the magma bullet.  It is one of my only magic combination experiments that has worked.  It has both earth and fire magic enchanted on it so when it hits something Lava spews out and covers it on the outside if hard enough or on the inside if it penetrates.  That was a rather fun test day on the shooting range.  It is also what I call a variable bullet.  That means it gets more devastating the more mana I put into it before I shoot it.

                I sneak off to the left and start to set up my first shot from behind a side table.  Before I can pump mana into the bullet the Lich turns its head and looks straight at me.  “I can sense your life force little one, there is no use in hiding.”  Ok this was not part of the plan.  Since I no longer have the element of surprise, let’s try overwhelming might.  I quickly dump in the maximum amount of mana this little bullet can hold.  About 250 mana that is about 10 times the amount of a regular fireball.  I line up the shot and fire it before anything else unexpected happens.

                Have you ever had that moment when a small tear comes to your eye because what you are watching is just so damn awesome?  I am having one of those moments right now.  Note to self, 250 mana seems to be overkill.  Not only is there nothing left of the Lich, throne, or much or the area surrounding it, but a little miniature mushroom cloud has formed over the area where they used to be.  Thank you "Great Game", that little extra touch made it fantastic.

                I do a little victory dance before I start casting my limited water spells as fast as I can so I do not burn down the rest of the Manor.  Now it is time to search for loot my favorite part.  As I start getting closer to where any remains might be I start getting the feeling that I missed something.  Quick review, snuck in, Lich saw me, shot Lich, Lich died, Great Game notice that this part of the dungeon was complete, wait a second there was no notice.  That means the Lich is not dead yet.  Crap how could anything survive that.