The lower sections of the crenellation on the wall had alarm traps, but Disarm Traps dealt with them easily, and I slipped to the walkway on top. Then, I had to Dodge and activate Light Speed to avoid the Zombie Guard. It was fast and armed with a sword and shield. I drew my longsword and haladie and engaged. I was barely keeping up with it in speed, and it was stronger than I was. I am lucky there was only one.

My arms were still exhausted from the climb, and I was underpowered and under-skilled. In desperation, I lined up my sword at neck height, activated Lightspeed and aimed to decapitate it. My sword shattered against its shield. I don’t know if it was lucky or fast enough. I very much hope it was luck. The force of the strike pushed the Zombie off balance, and I was able to get two Quick Strikes and Slashed in with the haladie across its neck. Zombies don’t bleed, but the punch rocked to my back, and I finally decapitated it, and it collapsed.

I looked around. We didn’t attract any attention, and Zombies don’t speak. I pulled out another looted single-edged sword before I crept into a corner to recover. That was very close. With Undead guarding the place, I was not going to be able to sneak. I need to be able to hide from their sensing skill, and I don’t know the range of the Zombie Guards' sensing skills.

I waited for the loot: copper coins, meat and a core. The core was empty.

I looked at the Stronghold that rose above me. To get into the stronghold proper, I would have to go down three floors to ground level and then across the wide road that ringed the wall. There are three areas that I figure I need to check out. There will be a throne room and somewhere behind that, but close will be a place for the Monarch to get ready for royal audiences. Then, there will be the Royal chambers themselves. Finally, there will be a vault somewhere, probably below ground. Maybe more than one vault.

I was planning to start with the vault. The first thing I needed to do was get to the ground. I could go down inside this tower or another tower, or I could climb down the inside of the wall. I watched the road, and there were pairs of Zombie guards. The question is how far can they sense.

Hopefully, the tower would allow me an element of surprise. The walls do hinder their senses a bit. There was no Zombie Guard on this floor of the tower, so I started down the stairs. I am not opposed to fighting single Zombie Guards. I need to improve my Basic Longsword Skill, and I can only do that with practice. Two would be too much for me. The trial is out to kill me, so I need to plan for two.

There was only one on the floor below, and it attacked me as I was halfway down the stairs. I jumped to the floor and settled into the dance. I kept on the defensive to start feeling out the Zombie and the type of sword and shield skills it had. I was trying to learn its dance moves. It was fast and strong like the other one—stronger than me, and it had some sort of shield bash I had to avoid. The first time, it caught me full on, and Steady Footing broke, and I went flying across the room. I am sure I cracked a rib. It was on me straight away, and only Light Speed gave me some space. It was not the first time I’d had a skill break from coming against a stronger skill, so I rallied quickly.

It had no answer for Light Speed, Quick Hands gave me the advantage in speed. It had counters for the Basic Longsword moves, but Steel Sperpant regularly surprised it. Cutting Light can take limbs, and Zombies, like the Undead Hounds, are susceptible to fire. That knowledge gave me confidence in how to take on more than one.

My preference would be to sneak through the Stronghold, but I have no counter to the Undead senses. Wait a minute. Maybe I do. I still have three Skill Points to Spend, so maybe I can find something to hide me from their senses.

The last time I looked, I was looking for Healing skills and Weapons techniques, not stealth skills.

My stealth skill is almost ready to max out, and I might get choices to advanced skills when it does, but there is no guarantee, and in this place, it is only useful against the Infernal.

Shadowmeld is … no it is 5 points. Ethereal Step is a stealth movement skill and 8 points. Chameleon Skin and Cloak of Invisibility I can do with my Light Manipulation. Mindfog creates a mental fog in the enemy, but it is not clear if it will work on the undead. Plus, these are all too expensive.

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I can already do all the invisibility options. Pocket Dimension is… 20 Points. Phantasmal Disguise is fantastic and might work if it wasn’t 10 points. Mimicry also sounds great but is too much. Echo Cloak… no. Three points is just not enough.

Ok, it was worth a look, but we are back to plan A.

The next floor was empty, but the ground floor had two zombies. It was a mad scramble until I managed to cut off the leg from one of them. I then practised improving my Longsword on the other until I killed it. I tried to use only my longsword, but I wasn’t there yet. It did level. I was learning this dance, and I think the Slayer’s bonus to Intelligence is speeding up the learning.

The ground floor had equipment storage, or it used to. The weapons lockers were emptied, but I checked for hidden spaces with my Observant Eye and Spectral Vision (See-thru). I found an undisturbed potion cupboard and grabbed the common potions in it. There were ten moderate health potions, five stamina, and five mana potions.

I tried to dash across the road between Zombie patrols, but they sensed me, and I ended up fighting in the smashed doorway to the main structure. Fortunately, the small room was empty, but I didn’t finish them fast enough, and the next patrol also came to join in. I tried to hold them in the doorway, but that shield bash was nasty. My Cutting Light was the thing that evened it up in the small space.

A Skill stone dropped from one of the Zombies, and I appraised it. It was the Skill Shield Bash. I tried to learn it even though I didn’t have a shield, and I couldn’t. I tried several times and then realised why. It was because I needed at least the Basic Shield Skill before I could learn the Shield Bash. I had no shield skills at all. Thank you, Trial, for giving me a useless skill stone. I stored it away to sell if I never ended up with shield skills.

I started moving through the rooms and corridors, looking for a way down to the area that must be below ground. Some rooms were empty. Some had a Zombie Guard, some had two, and some had undead hounds. I hadn’t encountered any infernals or Orcs yet.

I scrutinised each room for hidden spaces and hidden stairways. I found a few coin stashes, but that was all. I found the servants' passages, which were hidden from the main corridors. I went to explore them even though they would definitely not go to a vault or anywhere with loot. They should take me to key places where nobles used to be, though.

I found the kitchens first. And that was bad. I tried to back out without them sensing me, but the Undead Hounds were too quick, and the Infernal Cats quickly got my scent. The Hounds I could deal with it was the cats that were the problem. They weren’t big cats like the lynxes and lions. No, they were small domestic cats who were quick and vicious.

I killed the hounds, but my sword was not agile enough for the cats, so I dropped it and went with the Haladie, a knife, and Razor's Edge. They were infernal, so I let loose with Bloodletting and the standard Holy Strike and Quick Strike. I was never more glad of the armoured Trousers, the Lion hide vest and the dented helmet. If I hadn’t had those, I would have bleed to death regardless of regeneration. My arms were ripped to shreds by the end of the fight, and the Lion hide vest was in tatters. At least my trousers would self-repair. Medium Armour Levelled.

Below the kitchen were the food storage rooms. The food was gone, but I found a full set of butcher knives and two skill stones. The stones both contained the same skill, which was the Butchering Skill. It was a small-blade technique that involved skinning and butchering various carcasses for food. I learned it easily. I can become a butcher if I am ever looking for a job. I stored the spare stone to sell.

Then it occurred to me that the Butchering Skill will be very closely related to the Harvesting Skill. The Harvesting Skill allows the harvesting of monsters for extra materials before the loot appears. The Butchering Skill is for non-monsters, but if I can learn this, I can probably learn the other. I don’t need the other. Yes, I would get more things to sell, but I have nowhere to keep them anyway. My 40-slot Spatial bag is basically full. Just move on.

One of the small Infernal cat cores had a skill. That got me excited. How many hundreds have I checked since getting the Minor Regeneration? To many.

Please don’t be useless, please don't be useless.

It wasn’t useless. It was just a skill rather than an ability like Minor Regeneration. It was a very useful skill. Cat Reflexes 1 enhances all my reflexes, and I thought it was amazing. It was basically a boost to my agility and dexterity, and it would level. It seemed it would synergise very well with Quick Hands, Acrobatics, and Dodge in particular, and I spent a bit of time in the kitchen practising and getting used to it.

I found the throne room first. I didn’t want to. I really didn’t want to, but as soon as I realised where I was, there were already a half-dozen eyes on me. Sitting on the throne was a massive Orc with a crown on his head. He had three massive spears beside the throne. Standing beside him were two slightly smaller orcs, one with dual wickedly serrated swords and the other with a sword and shield. All three were heavily armoured.

Shit. I don’t know this dance. I have never fought Orcs before.