Morning started off a little slowly for me, but I quickly adapted myself and got on with it enough so that I wasn't too off from my normal routine. As I got on the bus later I could see that Ty was more than a little groggy himself. I suddenly wondered what the Mountain Tigers were up to, and if they had gone elsewhere like us. Which would be a little more difficult to coordinate on their end because they were a larger guild; or maybe they'd already been planning out their future leveling like we had since before the Garth incident and had since resumed such plans since its ending.

“Ain't a word about you guys on the forums the past couple of days.” he said as the bus set off on its route.

“We haven't died yet, at least.” I shrugged.

“Now that'd be news.” he said with a thoughtful look. “Still slugging through that one place, huh?”

“More or less; we bugged a salamander but I guess it went back to normal now.”

“Da hell?”

“The thing kept following us and helping us with our quests.”

“Huh.” he returned, shaking his head.

“What about you guys?” I wondered.

“Wild's got us goin' two different places; Heimgar and the Southern Plains; he figures he'd rather wait around for y'all to get through the Marshes first and then try sending people that way.”

“Heimgar doesn't seem too big; you might end up in the Wastes soon enough.” I remarked.

“True that.” Ty said. “Mongrel and a couple others already got there last night; damn college kids and their easy schedules.” he shook his head again, and I smiled.

“Nice.”

“Everyone else is doin' the same thing we are; you guys are probably the only guild out there in the Marshes on the fifty side of it.”

“Hmm... weird.”

“Yo, everyone else either hates that place or feels like there isn't enough info to deal with it.”

“I guess that's true,” I nodded. Our conversation drifted off as we fell back into a semi-conscious state for the duration of the bus ride, briefly picking up as it always did once we arrived at school. I received the usual flick, and then we parted ways. Yes, a “flick” is a conversation for us.

Rachel was at the lockers early again this time around; she smiled and gave me a hug, and then I went through my own locker to sort things out for the morning.

“Things okay on your end?” I wondered.

“Fairly,” she returned. “Andrea's parents are sorting out some details with my mother. Like rent and stuff.”

“That sounds encouraging.” I replied.

“It is,” she smiled back. We finished getting our books out, and then she looked at me with an even brighter smile.

I can never get tired of that, I thought to myself again as I always did when I saw that look on her face.

“Let's get through high school together, and then pick a university, and then...” she said quietly, trailing off as her cheeks reddened, still smiling.

“A home like Cloverbell? A place to--to get married?” I softly returned, and she nodded back as we headed in for class. I was so doped up from that conversation I barely remember anything that happened for the rest of the morning until lunch, when our little party of five met again around our two desks to eat and chat.

“So we still haven't really found a flame-charm or anything like that, but I guess that whatever's in the Spider Temple or the Necropolis should either be it or be related to it.” Mary said as we settled in. Just outside the door I could see one of her usual friends making a sour face before heading off elsewhere.

“Hopefully option one,” Andrea remarked. “Uggh, I can't get myself prepared for this place...” she lamented with a sigh.

“We'll figure something out.” Ellie shrugged.

“We still have antivenom and stuff, right?” Rachel asked.

“Almost too much, really,” Andrea recalled.

“Better than none.” Mary said. “This should be a good chance for me to build up some more of my resistances as well,” she added, thinking more about it.

“How high a resistance can you get?” I wondered.

“Cymbroga have a plus twenty-five all-resistance to start with, same for the Gaels, I think,” she said, and I nodded, “But I've brought most of them up to at least fifty-percent through various quests and outside-skill training that still feeds into the system.”

“Outside-skill training?” Andrea wondered.

“There's ways to improve your character's resistances or physicality outside of skills and stats in this VR world,” I told her. “One is to be good at things in real life, like swimming or running, or something along those lines--that's the physicality of it; another is to subject yourself to dangerous elements in-game on purpose so that it builds up immunity to certain things, the resistances.” I explained, and Mary nodded. “That's pretty deep from someone who hasn't played many games,” I said to her.

“I discovered it by accident.” she shrugged.

“Niiice.” Ellie nodded. “And the way you set up your stats probably fed right in to doing that sort of thing.”

“Exactly.” Mary smiled back.

“Wow,” Andrea remarked.

“I mean, the three of us could do it too,” I shrugged, “It'd just be more dangerous since we're not as high into Vitality as Ellie or Mary are.”

“And I'm going to focus more in Strength and Dexterity from now on since Mary's with us.” Ellie said.

“You can be the barbarian of the group, then!” Andrea teased her, and we laughed.

“There's a dig somewhere in there, I know there is.” Ellie returned with a snarky grin. A moment or two passed by as we ate, and then Andrea broke the silence.

“Think things will pick up once we finally get this first charm?”

“I hope so,” I replied. “And our play-time quietly being extended should help also.” I added, and the others nodded. We focused our attention on lunch for a few moments, and then the silence was broken again.

“Hope you're all on top of assignments, by the way.” Mary said with a faint grin.

“Of course!” Andrea and Rachel said at nearly the same time.

“I'm doing okay-ish.” Ellie shrugged.

“S-same.” I lamely replied. Rachel gently flicked me.

“You're doing good. Don't sell yourself short.” she told me as I gave her a mock-grumpy face; Mary affected a wider grin as she watched us.

“Keep at it.” the older girl said to all of us.

“Hmm... but even I'm dreading the midterms, you know?” Andrea remarked, her face a touch scrunched up.

“Yeah, the mids always suck. Remember that!” Ellie nodded in agreement, directing the last words to Rachel and me.

“Ellie, don't scare them.” Mary scolded the other girl.

“What're you barking at me for? Andi started it!” the blonde girl rightly pointed out.

“Hey!” Andrea returned, softly smacking Ellie's arm.

“Hm, that's true...” Mary acknowledged; Ellie and Andrea both stuck their tongues out at each other. “Hah, you two...” the older girl gently smiled.

“What the heck kind of lunch group have I gotten myself into...” I murmured quietly.

“The fun kind?” Rachel whispered back, grinning over at me. I couldn't help but grin back.

“Maybe so.” I shrugged.

***

Lunch, and afternoon classes, passed by like a breeze, as did the trip home. Homework, chores, and dinner then took their sweet time, after which I was finally released for the evening to do what I wanted to do. If you guessed extra studying for classes, you guessed wrong. I slipped on the Dream Machine, and returned to Panarena as soon as I could.

Not a moment after I logged back in, I saw a salamander waiting outside the house we were occupying. As Ariana logged in a few seconds after I did, I suddenly realized it was the same from last night--it was Sallymander.

“What... the...” I wondered out loud, and Ari came over to the window with me so she could look as well.

“Huh?” she remarked in a nonplussed tone. “Shouldn't he have reset by now?”

“I thought he would have done that ages ago.” I replied, and then I started. “He's been here four whole days waiting for us to get back?!” I exclaimed as I suddenly remembered the time difference, and Ari affected a look of surprise as well.

“Woww...” she said with an impressed tone. The other three then logged at almost at the same time.

“What are you looking at?” Lizzy asked us as she went over to the other window. “Ehhh?! Heali, your buddy's still here!” she said to our Sea Elf healer, who looked quite surprised.

“He should be gone by now! Oh wait, I upgraded my taming skills after the Garth-Queens War but never really tested them...” she commented, opening up her skills panel to review them.

Huh? So he might not be bugged, it's just that Heali did something to her skills and forgot about it? I wondered to myself.

“Oh, I see; 'Nature's Friend: creatures you tame will remain with you for one real week of time'. That's kind of nice!” she said with a smile. “And 'Companion's Insight: your tame creature will intuit certain quest objectives and go to complete them for you depending on the quest'.”

“That still doesn't explain how he evaded the light beams, unless tamed pets really are immune to landscape or dungeon mechanics.” I said.

“Possibly,” Ellie nodded.

“Well that should see us through the Marshes of the Wyrd, anyway. I doubt we'll be here all week -- I hope.” Maryn remarked.

“Still Wednesday for now, huh?” I mused. “That gives him to us until next Tuesday or so. We could be out of here by Saturday, depending on how tonight goes.”

“L-let's get that Spider Temple over with...” Healina said reluctantly. The rest of us nodded back, and we set off westwards to conquer our next clear objective.

The Spider Temple was the westernmost of the six, and beyond it in the distance we could see the silhouette of the Necropolis through the haze of the Fire Swamp. As to the building itself, it seemed somehow the most decrepit of the six--or maybe that was just the feeling we got from all the spiderwebs in the area. We walked along the worn path that might have once been splendid and regal, but was now dilapidated and overgrown, or sunk into the ground.

Upon passing through what looked like an old gate, Healina immediately tensed up. We all knew the reason why. Sitting on the side of the building, just above the door we needed to go inside, was a great black spider with venomous red markings on its over-sized body. Now, I'm usually most afraid of bees; but spiders, they're pretty creepy. And this thing was creepy as creepy could get. We could see it clicking its mandibles, as if daring us to come closer. I could see Healina literally shivering out of the corner of my eye. Ariana took her hand, and our healer looked over at her, gulping.

“N-no w-way... th-there's n-n-no w-way...” she stammered out. Maryn remained on her guard, looking back at us.

“We've gotten this far, we can get through this somehow or another.” Lizzy remarked.

“Lana, Lizzy,” Maryn then said to us, “Do you think this thing is the same as those other mechanics we faced? An unbeatable monster we have to avoid before getting inside?”

“That would make sense,” I agreed.

“Certainly fits the theme we've run into so far.” Lizzy nodded.

“Then maybe we can avoid it, somehow, and get inside.” Maryn said. Healina squeaked nervously.

“I-i-i-is that r-r-really...?” she wondered anxiously. I looked back sympathetically, and then looked around. It was night time right now in Panarena, and there was a patch of clouds lumbering slowly towards the moon, the only natural light in the sky at the moment.

“Shadow skills work best in complete darkness, especially against monsters.” I then said. “When those clouds hide the moon, I'm going to activate Shadow Sharing; we might have ten seconds or so to get inside before the moon comes out again. Ari, Lizzy, help Heali move forward; we can't afford to get stuck out here with that thing.” I said, and the two girls nodded.

“I'll just do this,” Ariana said, and with a few quick commands she impaired Healina's senses the way she impaired mine in the Vale of Stingers.

“The clouds are reaching the moon now.” Maryn told us.

“Shadow Sharing.” I said, and the five of us were then obscured.

We dashed ahead for the door; the creature atop the entrance twitched, but made no sign that it had seen us. The ten seconds both crawled along and sped by like the wind. I heard a sound above us; it was probably the colossal fiend of an arachnid, but I paid it no mind, getting the key ready for use. Just as we got under the doorway the moon came back out again; I touched the key to the door, and the five of us were let in just as the guardian spider began picking up on us. Ariana restored Heali's senses, and the Sea Elf recovered herself and her wits before we moved on.

Well, the inside of this place was pretty much what you'd expect. Moldy corridors covered in spiderwebs and smelling of other filth that had accumulated over the years. I used to wonder what these kind of dungeons would smell like when I played more analog games like AOH and Molek; I wished at this moment that I could tell my slightly younger and more curious self that it was more awful than he could imagine.

We fought out way through waves of smaller spiders, terrier-sized ones mostly, and a few that were larger than our pet Sallymander. The only real traps were the webs, and Ari's magic could cut through the worst of that when our weapons failed us. A silence more stifling than our previous dungeon permeated the ancient and desecrated halls, broken only by the fiendish chittering of the arachnid denizens. It felt as if we wandered around in circles for hours and hours, but when I checked for the time it had only been one and a half since entering the place. That meant two Panarena-hours since we had actually logged in.

Which means we have twelve left; practically a whole day... man, that's weird. Come to think of it, spending even eight hours was more or less a day, to say nothing of our Saturdays when we stay in here for at least two game-days... but it really is strange to spend a whole day doing school and stuff and then a whole day fighting in dungeons in this virtual otherworld, I mused to myself as I cut through another series of webs. One of my daggers then his something hard.

“Ahh--” I stopped, backing up. “Ari, you're up.” I said to my mage partner, who nodded and did away with the rest of the webs with a spell before summoning up a light to help us examine things better. We were left facing a large door with a remarkably polished and jewelled arachnid design in its center.

“Eek!” our healer squeaked.

“Hehh, that's kind of neat...” Lizzy remarked. “I wonder if I could get those gems...”

“There's no keyholes or handles or anything,” Ariana reported.

“Dang it,” I sighed, and then Lizzy's words repeated in my head. “Ahh--! Say, Lizzy,” I turned to her, and she looked back at me, “Do you remember that temple in Kemet?”

“Hmm? Oh, that temple?” she returned, immediately catching on. “Where you had to figure out how to place the gems in the right order to get to the boss... waaaiiit a minute...” she started as she looked back to the door. “So this one's the same, huh? We're already at the boss chamber, then.”

“But I don't remember looting any gems,” I said with a shrug.

“But we have looted a few gems in the other temples,” Ariana reminded me.

“Oh, that's right! Wh--huh?!” I looked back with a flabbergasted expression. “Daang it, that's way more complicated than I would have guessed...”

“Right?” Lizzy sighed in agreement. “Anyway, bring 'em out! Should be five unique or special gems or stones in our inventories.” she said, and we rummaged through these for a few moments before producing two jet stones, one onyx, a ruby, and a fire-gem. Each of them had a Hoh'mateca glyph on them, and we let Ariana and Healina examine them closely.

“Oh, I s-see,” Healina remarked after a few moments. “The n-n-name of the s-spider-god, w-which I guess is the m-most important...” she told us.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Oh! I getcha.” Ariana nodded at once. She took the other stones from Healina, and went up to the door. “Hoh... nix... tlusu... gyg... merix!” she recited, placing the gems in order from left to right above the arachnid design. The stones and gems shone with a wicked light for a moment, and then the door began to roll into the ground.

“I h-hate b-b-being r-right!” Heali gulped. We advanced cautiously into the room before us.

There were no minions, no extra doors, no traps, no aids or hindrances of any kind that we could see. It was a vast, open chamber, webbed of course in various places, and at the far end was a spider even larger than the one atop the door outside. Here Healina froze, and started going into a panic.

Oh boy. If she panics too much the Dream Machine might kick her out... which would be okay for her, I guess... but bad for us if this is a fight... I thought to myself. But then Lizzy wrapped the other girl in her arms, pressing her close and covering her head.

“We'll be okay.” she said softly; we could see Healina's head nod, but her body trembled.

“Mortalsss...” a voice hissed to us. It was the great spider.

“Maryn, Ari,” I said, and the three of us advanced. Is this a talking scene instead of a fighting scene? Because that'd be preferable right now; a bit weird, but preferable, I thought.

“You have come a long waysss to find usss; ssspeak, and name your desiresss.” it said.

“We wish to advance to the Necropolis west of here to investigate the flames,” I said to the creature before us.

“Sssss... yesss, the flamesss... they encroach upon usss... the dead onesss sssummon it; we do not desssire their... sssupremacy in these landsss... Mortalsss; you have ssslain many to reach me, but... ssss... it isss as naught; more will alwaysss be born to me... hassst I your word you will ssstop the dead and leave usss in peace?”

“If that is your wish, we will do so.” I replied.

“It isss good enough... take you thisss... it isss the key to the Necropolissss... find the Tecuhtlimictlan, and end hisss terrorsss... sss!” the massive arachnid hissed at us, and an item appeared for me to accept.

Key to the Royal Necropolis.

I accepted the item, and a portal appeared to let us out of the dungeon. Feeling a certain amount of... well, reverence, for this matriarch of the temple, I bowed, as did Maryn and Ari, and we made our way to the portal. Lizzy and Healina were almost there themselves, the halberdier leading our healer towards it the moment it appeared. It goes without saying that our pet was with them.

“Let's get out, quick!” the blonde girl said, and we went through the portal to find ourselves not very far from the Necropolis itself.

As soon as we were out of there, Healina sat upon the ground and began taking deep breaths. We sat with her, taking a group breather for her sake. Ariana and I gazed together at the Necropolis as the older girls tended to Healina herself.

“It's like... something out of a nightmare,” Ari remarked.

“I know what you mean.” I agreed.

“You think the place where the flame charm is will be the same?”

“Probably; oh! I see a wayport over there; we should get that.”

“Oh nice! Yes, it would be good to go back to Berrydell for a bit and visit the vendors,” Ari agreed.

“Yeah, we've got a lot of junk and a lot of crafting stuff; and our waggon is back there, after all.” I sighed.

“True.” she nodded. She then looked back at the other three. I looked as well; Heali seemed calmer now, and more embarrassed than upset.

“One of these days I'm going to have to pay you back somehow.” Healina remarked to Lizzy, who laughed.

“Don't worry about it!” the other girl replied.

“I'm going to worry about it, you know me!”

“Ugghh, come on, you're better it seems.” Lizzy quipped, standing to her feet and helping the other girls up.

“Thanks!” Maryn said.

“We'd better get up too,” I said, springing to my feet and helping Ari up. She smiled at me, and the five of us made our way to the wayport first before continuing on to the Necropolis looming before us.

As we approached our destination, the heat and humidity of the region grew stronger. There were some reptilian and undead monsters lurking around the path which we had to deal with, some of them elites, and one of which was a mini-boss that jumped out of the shadows as we got near to the courtyard before the massive entrance of the Necropolis. He was an unpleasant surprise that took nearly twenty minutes to deal with, but we managed. After that we took a break for a few moments to take in our surroundings.

The ancient and weathered courtyard looked like something out of an old National Geographic magazine on Andean or Yucatan ruins. Rusted or withering weapons could yet be seen leaning against stone shops overgrown with foliage from the Fire Swamp, including a moss that Healina identified as Solmoss, a special ingredient she decided to experiment with later. Skeletons of various sorts in various positions were all around us. Some seemed like they were guards, others merchants, still more had most likely been commoners or peasants, maybe even slaves, and a few seemed as if they had been either priestly or royal.

Across from the spot we had entered, which was a huge gate that was cracked and falling into ruin, a wide set of stairs set off at a moderately steep angle towards an open-air floor surrounded by intricately carved columns. The roof of this building, undoubtedly the Necropolis, went up towards the sky in incrementally smaller modules, culminating in a capstone shaped in the likeness of a skull. But I was pretty sure the roof was just for show -- since it was a necropolis, we would probably find something going down when we got up the stairs. Or maybe this was just an elaborate and showy “gate” to the actual necropolis itself.

“Haven't seen something like this since I played Kingdoms of Heaven,” I remarked with a tone of awe.

“Isn't that the mystical and martial arts MMO from that one Japanese-Korean company?” Lizzy wondered.

“Yeah, it is.” I nodded. “Heh, that one was sooo much fun; I skipped out on a few AoH tournaments to explore that one.” I recalled with a smile.

“I bet Xuanpu will make you forget all about it.” our halberdier shrugged as we resumed walking, making our way towards the stairs.

“Maybe.” I shrugged back. “I think I heard that they're remaking it for VR now, though, to compete with this.”

“Oooh! Competition.” Lizzy remarked with interest.

“This game already seems so free, I wonder why they'd try to compete?” Healina said as we weaved our way through the skeletal remains littering the ground.

“Well, some people might want something more specific or niche instead of a world where you can literally do anything.” I said, keeping an eye on the bones in case this was some sort of trap.

“True.” Lizzy nodded.

“Very true.” Maryn agreed.

“You really have been in a lot of games, haven't you?” Ari said as we reached the steps.

“It's an obsession,” I returned with a laugh. She smiled back.

“Maybe someday we'll try that one too,” she said, and I nodded to her.

“That'd be fun.”

“Fun would be if they let you convert your old character to the VR version.” Lizzy remarked. It took a moment for the fullness of that thought to sink in for me.

“Daaang it, that'd be sweet!--ahh! But maybe I'd want to start over from scratch, too... who knows.” I said, and Ari looked at me with a mischievous grin.

“What's her name?” she asked me.

“Heh--?” I looked back at her, puzzled.

“Who's the KoH version of you?” Ari said, rephrasing the question.

“Ahh...” I returned, and the other girls giggled. “What... was the name I used in that world...?”

“Don't tell me you didn't 'Lana' yourself there?” Lizzy said with a genuine surprise. We were about halfway up the steps now. Nothing had attacked us yet; I was now mentally preparing myself for a trap at the top, just in case.

“I think it didn't seem right for that character, so I might have named them something else.” I shrugged as our ascent continued.

“Hmm.” Ari said, still smiling at me.

“Oh! Feng-Ren Hua.” I suddenly recalled.

“Feng-Ren Hua... cute!” Ari smiled. “And you're right, that does sound more lore-appropriate for that kind of game,” she nodded.

“How do you go from Lana to Feng-Ren?” Lizzy wondered with a puzzled grin.

“From Lana to Hua, actually; I knew before Chinese classes that the given name comes last over there.” I shrugged.

“Hmm?” the blonde girl remarked with interest.

“We're almost at the top,” Maryn then alerted us. “Lana, do you see anything yet?” she asked me, and I turned on Shadow Vision to examine the place. There was literally nothing I could detect.

“I don't see anything, but in a dungeon like this that might not mean anything.” I said in reply.

“Gotcha.” she nodded, drawing out her sword and readying her shield.

As we approached the top of the stairs, we noticed that the columns were shaped in the likenesses of exaggerated humanoid or animal beings. Ivies and mosses were intertwined along their lengths, some more covered than others; a fair few of them were cracked in some way, but they held nevertheless. I couldn't imagine the weight of what was pressing down on them from above, but thinking about the roof collapsing for even a brief second made me churn inside.

What a dang awful way to go, even in a game... I pondered bemusedly.

We walked around the area to examine it, seeing no visible threats for the moment. There were no descending staircases on the other three sides of the Necropolis, but there was a group of four columns near the center, each of them fashioned in the likeness of a death-god, I suppose. They were skeletal, with expressions of grim delight plastered upon their faces, and each of them held a weapon. The first held a scythe, the second a staff, the third held a pair of jagged daggers, and the fourth wielded a sword pointed down into the floor. Each of them gazed outwards from the center.

These four were the most prominent and extravagantly decorated statues of all, so all of us presumed they had something to do with continuing the quest. Ariana and Healina looked around for inscriptions, while the rest of us examined the statues themselves and the area around them to see if we could find any sort of mechanism.

“Heali, over here!” Ari called out to the other girl; I looked over. Our mage had found something on one of the other pillars.

“Oh! That's it! Over here, girls!” Heali said. Lizzy responded right away, and Maryn got up to head over as well, but I kind of froze.

You did this to yourself, you may as well walk over there and-- I thought to myself, but the thought was interrupted by an arm gently hoisting me off the ground and dragging me along.

“Huh?” I wondered blankly.

“Come on, Lana,” Maryn's voice said to me in a playful manner.

“Ehhh.” I returned soullessly, beaten for the moment.

“What's it say?” Lizzy asked as we all gathered around.

“Let's see... 'Outward we gaze, and no one goes in; inward we look, and the way becomes clear'... the statues?” Ariana mused, looking back at the four behind us.

“So there is a mechanism of some sort or another, and we need to face them inward.” I said as I thought about it.

We returned to the four in question, and looked more closely this time. None of us came up with anything; and we began wandering off again. Then I suddenly noticed a slit at the base of the one with the jagged daggers. Curious, I took out the key we had been given, and tried it; it slid in effortlessly, and I turned it. Immediately the statue began turning clockwise.

“Ahh--here we go,” I said, and the others turned at the sound of my voice and the grating noise of the statue.

“Good eye!” Heali smiled.

“I guess you click it back when the thing is facing towards the center,” Lizzy said, positioning herself so she could tell me when to stop. “Almost there... almost -- now!” she called, and I turned the key again to stop the statue from moving. “Perfect!”

“Let's see about the others, then,” I said, heading to the next. This second one (the staff-holding one) was faster than the first; I just missed the mark the first time, and then out of sheer curiosity turned the key the opposite way to see if it would turn back. It did, and after about a second I turned it off again.

“Nice!” Maryn remarked.

“Two down; I wonder if this one speeds up again,” Ariana wondered as we approached the one with the sword.

“Maybe,” I said, and we set to work again. This one was definitely faster; it took a couple of tries to get it in the right spot, but we managed. Then we came to the scythe-statue. Part of me believed this was going to be faster still, yet another part considered that it might actually be the slowest. I turned the key, and my second instinct was proven correct. It was slooooww.

“Wouldn't you know?” Lizzy smirked wryly as the thing lumbered into position.

“Better not take too long...” I quipped flatly. Despite my show of fussiness, it was soon positioned inwards like the others, and then a hidden stair rose up from the floor to make itself known. Putting the key back in my inventory, I readied my weapons, as did the others, and we made our way inside.

A fell darkness enveloped us as soon as we got to the bottom; Ariana and Heali both summoned up mage-lights for us to guide with, and I used Shadow Vision to get a sense of where we were heading and what lay ahead.

I should have guessed from the name “Royal Necropolis”, but there were a lot of elite monsters here, all of them undead or incorporeal. Of course there were normal monsters as well, but for every three regulars, there was about one elite. And that was just what I could see on this floor alone. There was a staircase in the room adjacent to us, but we would have to wind our way around this entire floor to get to it.

“This just got interesting,” I said with a smirk, and with that we readied ourselves for battle.

***

It took us nearly two and a half Panarena hours, but we finally got to the bottom of the Royal Necropolis, eight floors down. Most of the floors had been very maze like, and a couple of them hosted a series of traps and tricks that we struggled to deal with. The seventh had been a trap-filled maze with monsters lurking around practically every corner; by the end I was more surprised that our levels didn't get higher than fifty-four than I was about the creatures that kept popping up out of nowhere.

Oh, I think I'm getting it, but right now isn't the time to think that through, I thought to myself as we entered the eighth floor, sorting out our stats and skills as we slowly approached the boss-room.

Just before the room we were supposed to enter was a pair of liches with a small horde of zombies, wraiths, and skeletal warriors; their fiendishly glowing eyes lit up as we came into their vision, and they readied themselves to spring.

“I think we know the drill by now,” I said as I got myself into position.

“Root the zombs and skeletons, blast the wraiths, take care of the liches, and then sweep up what's left.” Lizzy nodded.

“Ready here!” Maryn said.

“Ready!” Ariana affirmed.

“Buffs and wards set, heals prepped!” Healina told us.

“Go!” I said, and we launched our attack.

We'd figured out through our deadly excursion that if you didn't take out the wraiths and liches first, they would restore or buff their compatriots. But that was hard to do with a bunch of monsters with physical attacks running after you. So we ended up seeing if we could crowd-control those, and when it worked we went after the wraiths first and then the liches (which are kind of in-between corporeal and non- in this game). Why the wraiths and not the liches first? Well, we kind of take them both out at the same time, it's just that the wraiths are easier for Ari to melt than liches are for Lizzy and I to slice up, so the wraiths die first and then Ari focuses her attacks on the liches with us. And Maryn holds their attention while we do so while Healina keeps us alive. It had only been a couple of days, but so far Maryn had woven herself in to our teamwork effortlessly.

When this last group of monsters had been dealt with, we entered the door, and found Tecuhtlimictlan waiting for us atop a dais at the far end. He seemed more like a composite of all the undeads we had been facing here rather than belonging to any single one of them; he had skeletal and rotting features, he seemed both corporeal and incorporeal, and overall his appearance was lich-like, perhaps even vampire-like, especially the red, bat-like eyes. Lizzy let out a whistle as she registered his appearance.

“Haven't seen this kind of thing since that dev prank in the beta-test; that's a Ghoulish Lich King.” she remarked.

“Dev prank?” Maryn wondered, and the rest of us looked curious as well.

“They unleashed a horde of these things in the Aldholt right before the beta-test ended.” she said with a wry grin.

“Um. Rude.” Ariana exclaimed.

“Right?” the other girl returned.

“Gotta love game-developers and their twisted senses of humor.” I said with a soft smile.

“Any special attacks you remember?” Maryn asked.

“Nothing specific; I was only level ten, so I got wiped out pretty quick. It shouldn't be much different from how things have been for us, though.” Lizzy told us.

“Let's hope on that,” I nodded. “We'll stay on defense for a while, attacking minimally until we figure out its patterns and such; then we'll go in for the kill.”

“Got it!” Maryn agreed.

“Ready!” Healina said.

“I'll help with defense for a while, too,” Ari added.

“Let's get this thing!” Lizzy said as she settled into a springing position, halberd at the ready.

“Right then -- go!” I said for a second time, and we sprang into action again.

Tecuhtlimictlan didn't really do anything except cast moderate to high level damage spells of cold and poison at us; Healina and Ari were able to deal with that fairly well while keeping our health and resistances up. When he reached ninety-percent health, he started an induction; Lizzy immediately reacted with Thurian Stomp, interrupting it and dazing him for a moment. Maryn bashed him once he was unstunned to get his attention again, and he resumed his regular attacks.

When he was down to eighty-percent health, he tried the induction again; this time I could see what it was. He was trying to restore his health and buff himself for greater damage. This time I interrupted him, using Thousand Needle Strike. I then noticed that we had incidentally activated a debuff mechanic on him; for every induction we interrupted, he lost three-percent outgoing damage.

So he does this every time his health drops ten-percent, and he loses three-percent damage each time we interrupt him; but if we *fail* to interrupt him, I bet he *gains* three-percent or maybe even more, I mused to myself internally. I could see Maryn and Lizzy putting the pieces together as well.

“So if we interrupt him eight more times he'll have thirty-percent less damage?” Maryn noted as she coaxed him towards her with a shield-taunt.

“Sounds good to me!” Lizzy grinned.

“Stay alert for other tricks, though!” I warned.

“Don't worry, I'm keeping a lookout!” Ariana called to me.

“Thanks, partner!” I called back to her.

The fight continued in a more eager manner after that; when he reached seventy-five percent health he used a skill we couldn't interrupt to summon minions, but those were nothing for Ari and me to deal with. We resumed whittling him down after that, and when he got to fifty-percent he used the interruptable one first before the summoning spell. After the second wave of minions had been dealt with we continued hacking away, defeating his last wave of allies at twenty-five percent and then finally finishing him off with a joint-attack.

“Whew!” Lizzy remarked tiredly. A chest of loot appeared and an item from the boss himself appeared in my inventory.

“Oh! That must be the item the NPC wants!” Ari said.

“Looks like you're right,” I agreed, seeing my quest log update.

“So it's not the flame charm we're looking for here...” Healina mused in a dejected way.

“Well...” I sighed, “We'll see what happens. For now let's get back to Berrydell and finish the quest.” I said. We then claimed the loot, and made our way out of the Necropolis to head for the wayport, ending up at Berrydell a few moments later.

“Oh, adventurer, you're back! And you got me the proof I needed!” the hauflin said as I approached her. “So it was something supernatural after all? Why, what's this? Oh! It's turned into something frightful! You'd better hang on to this, adventurer! My pa would be doubly frightful if he knew I had it, and I'm not so sure I'd like to keep it myself now that I see it!” she said, handing it back to me.

“Nice.” I said in a somewhat sarcastic manner.

The quest updated as “Completed”, and then I saw that the item really had changed; in my hands I held the flame-charm. And on my map was the location of where it could be used.

“Nice!” I said in a more sincere and excited tone.

“Oh nice!”

“Cool!”

“Well done!”

“Nice work, Lana!” the girls behind me chimed in.

“We have about, what? Five hours left?” Lizzy then said, checking our time.

“At least.” Ariana nodded.

“Okay. Wayport, and then we can come back here for the waggon after we finish with the place this charm works at so we can head on to the next.” the older girl said.

“Well, it's a shortcut, so I'd guess this flame place would lead to the second objective of the overall quest.” I said as a soft counter. “Which means there's probably a portal or teleport of some kind waiting for us.”

“Ohh, right... we were doing all this to get through the area quicker...” Lizzy returned, frowning thoughtfully.

“What will we do with the waggon?” Healina then wondered aloud.

“Should we just disassemble it for now and put it back together later?” Ariana pondered. “I mean, most of what we're collecting in terms of resources are alchemical ingredients that we're using right away to create potions and stuff,” she pointed out. “If we're just going to level-up through this area for now we can forget about the waggon for now and come back to scour for resources later.”

“That's true...” Lizzy nodded.

“I vote we do that,” Maryn said.

“Same.” Heali agreed.

“I think it's probably the best option for now.” Ariana said. Lizzy made a face; it was technically her waggon, after all. I shrugged helplessly.

“Eh, I bet we can improve it anyway on the other side. Let's do it!” our smith finally smiled, and with that our decision was made. We disassembled the waggon, putting the parts and its contents into our inventories, freed the mounts to let them do as they would, and then we used the wayport to cross the vast distance of the Marshes once more.