My greedy thief certainly raised its ugly head. Loot a Castle? That I know how to do. I reviewed the quest again.

Monarch’s Raiment

The Al’rashian Stronghold of Windshire has been overrun. Retrieve as many items of the Monarch’s raiment as possible.

Reward: Dependant on the number of items retrieved.

Monarch’s raiment, which basically means clothes and shit. That is not just raiding their wardrobe, though. To be the raiment of the monarch would be clothes or items that symbolise the monarch. A crown, probably, but possibly robes, ceremonial armour, maybe a sceptre or special sword.

It is an Al’rashian stronghold, so it will be an Al’rashian monarch. Al’rashians are a known warrior race, so armour and weapons certainly. The King from whose Immortal Soldiers I am running from claims to be Al’rashian, although he only looks human. Maybe I can get off his wanted list if I offer him the historical artefacts of their monarchs? Assuming I can get some of them, of course.

No, that is way too cheap a price. I would want a lot more riches than just being off the watch list. I would want to be made a noble, get a castle, and more. This is a big deal.

This is also a big risk. I can hide from Infernal, but I can’t hide from Undead, and there will be both.

It doesn’t say how many items there are.

If the Undead and Infernal overran the stronghold, they would not care for shiny trinkets. There could be a lot of gold and riches lying around and hiding places undiscovered. Oh, this Trial knows how to tempt people. And it is working.

The first thing I need to do is lose these pursuers and escape into the stronghold that is not watched. Over the last days… weeks, maybe? I have figured out the sensing range of the various types of undead. The archers had the longest range.

I was jogging up the track, looking for an exit off the track to make my escape. There was a cliff on one side and a growing drop on the other. Then it occurred to me that the track was reasonably narrow, and I had skills to level. The narrow track will restrict my movement, but it will only a few will come at a time, and if I choose a spot around a bend, they can’t see then the archers will be unable to shoot from a distance.

In the back of my mind, I had a sense that this was the Slayer Class influencing me to take the more aggressive route, but I did it anyway.

Longsword and haladie. Steel Serpent and Basic Longsword. Let’s dance. Two by two, forward and back, Slash, Chop, Thrust, Bloodletting, Quickstrike, Quickstrike, Block, Thrust, Parry, Longslash, and so it continued. On and on. Slash, punch, Slash, Flash, Chop, Dodge and a boot to send it off the edge. I was forced back, and I was cut and clawed and poisoned, and I stayed my ground until I was the only one standing. I was barely standing, and I drank the anti-poison potion to survive. Minor Regeneration levelled.

When I rested, I collected the loot. There was another knife and a lion's skin vest, which was better than what I had. I lost my jacket in the first fight, and the chainmail was ripped apart, so getting something to replace it was nice, but quite late in the fight. Thank you for giving it to me AFTER I needed it. If I had it earlier, it could have stopped that first lot of poison.

There were no skill stones, and all the monster cores turned to dust. What did level with the work on the monster cores was Mana Control. It maxed out. I got a point in Wisdom for that. I also got offered a choice of skills that became available when Mana Control maxed out.

Mana Sensitivity increases my sensitivity, and I guess it was from my careful control of mana in the cores. I know crafters seek this skill. Mana Strength increased the power of the mana I could use. My images could be stronger. Could they grow strong enough to affect the real world? I am not sure. Mana Disruption, to disrupt the mana flow. That has a lot of potential. A lot of traps use mana to trigger them, and disrupting it would make life easier. It might also help disrupt others' spells.

These are skill choices, not class choices, where I have limited class slots. I chose all three.

Mana Sensitivity immediately kicked in, and I could feel the mana in me and around me at a level I never dreamed of. All mana had a flavour or aspect. It was like a whole new world opened up. My mana had a light aspect, but the air was heavy with undead mana.

Why undead and not infernal? Yes, there are hints of infernal mana and something else that I didn't recognise.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

I am not yet sure how this helps me, but the skill is only level 1.

I turned my attention to the sword I was holding. It was the one with bonus damage against infernal creatures. Mana Sensitivity was giving me a mild anti-infernal vibe. Is Mana Sensitivity the key behind Appraisal skills? Possibly, it is a key component behind the Identify skill as well. No wonder enchanters and other crafters seek it.

I looked at my trousers. Self-repair was strong, probably because it was actively working. The other effects were things that affected me. Agility and stealth. The Mana in the trousers wrapped around, or perhaps embedded itself into me. There was other stuff as well, but my sensitivity needed to level. I assume it was the set bonuses that were not active yet.

Mana Strength could be used to increase the power of the enchantments, and Mana Disruption could be used to remove the enchantments. These were enchanting skills and possibly alchemy skills. I am neither.

That doesn't mean I can't use these skills to give me an advantage; I just need to work out how to do it.

Mana Strength does give a sense of solidity to my mana. I created the image of a small rat that I often used to distract people. I don’t seem to be able to make it affect the physical world like I hoped. Not even the smallest dust. There goes the first idea. I will have to experiment, and I shouldn't spend much time on it now.

There doesn't seem to be anything to test mana disruption on right now, so it's time to have a look around this stronghold.

I continued up the track until the top was only about 15m above me, and then I climbed up the cliff. This cliff was solid rock, and the climb was easy.

The land in front of the Stronghold was a gently sloping plain down away from it. It was swarming with undead, infernals and wait. Are those Orcs? That is the third flavour of the mana. Orcs. What are Orcs doing here? No wait. That makes sense.

Al’rashians and Elves are known to fight over just about anything. The only thing they might form a temporary truce over would be to kill Orcs. If, in history, Orcs were part of destroying the seat of one of their monarchs, that would help explain it. I have no doubt now that this trial is from an event in history. It has been twisted and distorted, but the basis is there.

I am not going near that plain. I turn my attention to the Stronghold. From this side, I can see more, and it is more damaged than was obvious from the other side. The gates are smashed open, and there are the ruins of a twisted portcullis on the ground. From what I can see from this angle, there was a fire, and I can see the stonework and blackened beams.

The Stronghold is also larger than it appeared from the other side, and it is multilevel. There is a large open space just inside the gates, and I can see undead milling around, and some types I have not come across before. I am not going in through the gates.

I backed down the cliff, went back down to the track, and then off the other side. I started working my way along the cliff to the stronghold’s wall. The easiest way in would be the physically hardest, and that would be to climb up the outside wall. This depends on whether I can climb the wall. If they have used Stone Manipulation to smooth it or enchantments to stop people, then the way is blocked, but it is worth investigating.

I work my way along the cliff until I am around the corner and out of sight of the plains. There is a watch tower on the corner, and going up where that meets the wall is probably best. The wall was about four or five stories high above the cliff, and the watchtower rises another two or three stories above that. There are arrow slits in the tower starting about a story below the top of the wall. My first target is to poke my nose in one of those and see what the inside is like.

I climb the cliff to the base of the wall. The wall is smooth, maybe once stone-shaped to be smooth, but it is now old and weather-worn. It is not going to be easy, but I think it is doable.

I am very glad about the investment I put into strength. The other surprising help is the Sure-grip enchantment in my boots. It won’t grip on a smooth surface, but with the tiniest cracks, it will grip, and my Climb skill adjusts to use it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Climb levels from this.

Slowly but surely, I make my way up to the nearest arrow slit. I refuse to look down. The most dangerous things are the gusts of wind. There haven’t been strong winds in this trial, but there is definitely some wind in this high and exposed place. My finger and foot grips are not strong, but the shape of the tower shelters me some.

As I near the arrow slit, I sense a different type of mana. Mana Sensitivity has been solidly stone mana up until now, and now I am approaching something different. I think it is an enchantment-type trap, and my Detect Traps skill flares a warning. That is very interesting. Mana Sensitivity is making my Detect Traps skill much more sensitive than it used to be. That is great and will help a lot.

I approach slowly. The strain is starting to shake my arms slightly. I reached out with my Detect Trap skill to try to sense what type of trap it was, and it seemed to be an alarm type only.

I try my Disarm Trap skill. Oh yes. The Mana Disruption Skill definitely improves the Disarm Traps Skill. I pulled myself up and looked through the slit. The room was dark. I used Spectral Vision to confirm there was no body heat in there, and then I used the See-thru part to check for Undead. The room was dark, and the fire had not made it this far as there was wood lying around.

The room was basically empty, and the only light was from the two arrow slits. The room was the size of the tower, so it took the floor, and there was a door at each end. The doors were broken, and I could see a corridor from one of them parallel to the wall.

There were also narrow stone stairs curving around the wall and a hole in the floor where it came up from below and in the ceiling where it continued to the top.

There was no way I would fit through the arrow slit, so I continued to climb to the top.