Necromancer
A Royal Road Fan Fiction
By: Halosty
Chapter 35
Within the next week, Quietus saw the blond man with the sword again. Well, he may not have been blond anymore, since he had a helmet on now, but he was wearing the same armor as before. Quietus was prepared to fight him this time, but didn’t manage to sneak up on the man. Still, since he was ready, he managed to mostly avoid the sword strikes heading towards him. Quietus felt like he had fought him before. Before being killed by him on the road, of course. He didn’t have a bad enough memory to forget that… probably.
The warrior had a lot of health. While Quietus was doing better than he had before, he couldn’t penetrate the man’s armor, and there wasn’t any part convenient for good critical strikes. Although it wasn’t over quickly, Quietus was eventually worn down, until he died.
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He was in the mine. He wasn’t one of the miners, but himself. None of them seemed to notice him. Once the collapses started, he watched them struggle for survival. They would make progress, then be set back even further. It was a pointless struggle. He watched them.
Then, the lights went out. Since he was himself, he could use his darkvision skill. He watched the miners stumble around in the dark. After a time, they stopped talking to each other. They ran out of food and water. They sat against the walls, seeming to hope that another collapse would happen, and finish them off. He watched them die.
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Mortimer woke up. He felt around to find the button to open the capsule, but he couldn’t find it.
“Capsule open.”
He gave the voice command. Nothing happened.
He opened his eyes. He wasn’t in the capsule. He was in his bed. It didn’t make sense.
The dream only happened after he died, and then it played before he was logged out of Royal Road. That was the way it had worked.
Now, he had experienced the dream in real life. Somehow, it felt wrong.
Royal Road and life shouldn’t mix. That was what Mortimer felt. One was his real life, and one wasn’t. It wasn’t as if he cared about miners who never really existed dying, anyway.
Still, though, the dream had been a real dream this time. He would have to do something about it.
Of course, he also needed to do something about that warrior. He wasn’t sure what the grudge against him was, but he couldn’t stand losing to the same enemy multiple times.
Thus, he went to Master Valarao. It was the middle of the night, but Master Valarao didn’t seem to sleep ever. At least, not that Mortimer had ever seen. Whenever Mortimer neared his room, Master Valarao would be alert and ready to talk.
“Teach me how to fight against swords better.”
“What kind?”
Mortimer described the sword. A rather standard two-handed sword, very different from Angela’s rapier or a dagger.
Inside the VR training program, Master Valarao showed Quietus some specific moves. Small, quick movements to dodge were effective, but they had to be well timed. If possible, it was good to move inside the range, where the sword would have to be swung awkwardly.
Then, Master Valarao had mortimer practice against some AI opponents. This was because he didn’t use swords himself, and didn’t move like they probably would.
“Can you make it… a bit slower, but stronger? Also, bigger with more reach. And armor?”
Fortunately, the training program was quite extensive. It was capable of providing a variety of equipment, even things that were not terribly practical or used in the modern day.
Over the next week or so, Mortimer would practice against faster and stronger and more skilled enemies. Every time they got better, he would have to get used to their new strength or speed or technique. Often, he would experience the brief pain of a simulated death.
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Quietus was trying to figure out what to do about the dreams. He looked at his spirit ring, but it provided no insight. He tried talking out loud, just in case the spirits could hear him and answer him. He tried Soul Binding various things, and then he tried to release them from the Soul Bind. It turned out that he couldn’t.
You have been Soul Bound!
If you die before the effect wears off, you will not respawn in a safe location. Instead, you will respawn wherever your body is located at death or moved to after death.
He’d never tried to soul bind himself before. He couldn’t cancel the skill, but he knew it would wear off after a short time. He wasn’t sure when using the skill like this would be useful, but he took note of it.
He wasn’t sure what to do. He wasn’t even sure if the dreams were supposed to be a thing that happened, or if he was just crazy. He supposed the second option was possible. He figured he would go see a psychologist if the problem continued for too long. Before that, however, he would try all of the options he could.
Quietus went to a safe, secluded place. He mixed up some herbs with the alchemy skill, then used Soul Bind on himself. He wanted to test how it really worked. Then, he drank the poison. It didn’t kill him particularly quickly, but it was strong enough that it still worked even with his Poison Resistance skill.
You have died!
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Quietus immediately found himself in the mine. He felt different this time though. He looked around. His actions felt a lot more like conscious decisions instead of dreams. The miners still walked around and couldn’t see him. One of them moved towards him, and then through him. It appeared that he was insubstantial here. Or perhaps the miners were. Since he was touching the floor, it could be either.
He tried to move a rock on the floor. It didn’t move. So, it was him. He still seemed to be constrained by the end of the mines, though. He tried to leave, but was blocked by an invisible barrier.
The collapses started. At first, there was the calm, collected removal of debris. Then there were more collapses, and panic. Then, finally, as the lights went out, resignation. Quietus could feel the despair radiating off of the miners.
You have received a Quest!
The Suffering of the Miners
Relieve the miners of their suffering. This is the only way they will be made to move on.
Difficulty: unknown
Rewards: Based on the method of completion.
Quest cannot be refused.
So, it wasn’t that he was crazy. There really was a quest associated with it. Quietus just hoped that at the end, the spirits would shut up and leave his dream alone.
However, Quietus couldn’t find any way to interact with the miners. They couldn’t see or hear or touch him. In the end, he just watched as they died again, one by one.
End Chapter 35
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