Throughout the entire palace, not once had I let the others help with the fighting. While there’d been some cursory attempts on their parts to help out, I’d shut them down quickly, not willing to take any chances. It was, after all, partly my fault we’d ended up here for going along with their overly optimistic plans in the first place.
Given that I hadn’t let Cal or Verin fight the basic skeletons and mummies, then, naturally I would not be letting them follow me into what clearly looked like a boss chamber. Even as the doors began to reveal what lay within, I was explaining as much.
“I’ll go in. Stay he-”
Seemingly deaf, Verin passed me, walking boldly towards the opening doors. “Lady Tess, while I will acknowledge your fighting prowess, if you attempt to fight whatever lies ahead completely on your own, I will be lodging an icicle in your thick skull, with all due respect.”
With a shrug that seemed to say “might as well,” Cal followed hot on her heels. I caught up quickly and ran a few paces ahead in case anything tried to take a bite out of them, all three of us now firmly past the double doors. Even as I debated how to handle their recklessness, I spared a moment to take in our surroundings.
And they were strange. Undeniably, this was not the sort of room I’d expected to find behind such imposing yet gaudy doors.
Half of it made sense, at least: Much as I would have guessed, we were in a throne room. The wide purple carpet that led up to a golden throne on a raised dais made that more than apparent. Everything else, however, told a very different story.
The first oddity was the size of the room. It was long. Freakishly so, in fact, with the distant throne several kilometers away. Were one to ever fill it with petitioners, I had to imagine it would take a king several months just to listen to all their pleas.
Had that been all, however, I would have counted it as a win. Unfortunately…
“So what do you call one of these? A crypt? Mausoleum? Catacomb? Sorry, I’m not really up to speed with all the undead lingo. More importantly, those can’t all have an undead inside, can they?”
While I flat-out ignored the first half of Cal’s rambling, the latter half mirrored my thoughts exactly.
Stone coffins filled the entirety of the room, laid out on a precise grid pattern, leaving only the central carpet untouched. In and of itself, that would have been alarming, but the coffins were actually the less distressing feature of the room.
Carved into the walls was a series of recesses, each the perfect size for someone to lie down in. Out of context, the sight reminded me of a few ads I’d seen for rentable “sleep pods,” available in lieu of living in an actual apartment. If some cheap landlord had skimped on every possible expense and opened such a venture in a dingy morgue, I imagined it would have looked much like what lay before me.
That sense was only reinforced by the many slumbering forms I spotted within. With the burial alcoves stretching from the floor to the ceiling and running the entire length of the wall, there had to be thousands upon thousands of corpses here, if not more.
“All right. Not to state the obvious or anything, but I’m getting kind of bad vibes here, you know?” Cal took a step away from the nearest coffin, grabbing a hold of Verin by the shoulders and using her as a barrier. Even as Verin started to retaliate, I was busy deciding exactly how to get them to leave the room. Stern words were less likely to get me into trouble with Verin later, but at this point, I was ready to physically throw the two out.
Before I could commit, however, the choice was taken out of my hands.
Far, far faster than they’d opened, the massive doors whipped shut behind us, nearly sending the three of us to the floor with the resulting gust of wind. While already knowing what I would find, a strong shove confirmed it.
We were locked in.
As much as I had some choice words to deliver right about then, they would have to wait.
Now, I had expected to have to fight some number of undead on seeing the layout of the room. Perhaps the coffins would open whenever I approached one of them, or a few skeletons would pour out from the walls now and then.
Not even in my worst nightmares could I have prepared for the truth, though.
Across the entire room, the many hundreds of coffins all began to slide open at once, skeletal hands rising from them, light glinting off the ornate silvery armor encasing them. At the same time, bandaged forms began to spill from the walls, soft thuds repeating over and over again as they slammed into the ground or atop one another.
Even before any of the undead had fully risen to their feet, their heads all tilted as one, honing in on us with a single hive mind.
“This is… beyond my expectations. I am…” Even as the undead began to get their bearings, Verin trailed off until her voice returned far more confidently only a moment later. “A room such as this would not be present were it not defeatable, yes? Standard tactics for large numbers of enemies dictate forming a choke point. Let us not waste any time.”
Walls of ice sprung up to my left and right, starting at the door behind us and angled inwards to present only a narrow opening out. With how many undead I’d seen, I wasn’t sure this was a reasonable strategy, but anything else would have likely seen us swarmed, so I held my tongue. Having used similar formations with my previous dungeon delving group, I knew what was expected of me, moving to plug the gap.
Soon thereafter, the first of the skeletons reached the killing grounds.
My hammer, primed and ready, swung down. With horror, I watched as it left only a small dent on the undead’s armor, a set of silver plate mail that was leagues above anything we’d seen thus far. I aimed my followup strike more carefully, a savage two-handed swipe to the skeleton’s neck, successfully shattering its skull and part of its spine even with its armor.
It crashed to the floor with a loud clatter, its animating force leaving it once its head was destroyed. As the next undead took its place, I could only grimace.
One down. Ten-thousand more to go.
With little else to do, I squared my stance and got to it.
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As I lashed out with my fire sword for what felt like the millionth time, I could only thank whatever gods had designed the first Charisma threshold. Without it, I knew that I would be up to my neck in sweat right now, only my increased control over my bodily functions preventing me from drowning in my own fluids.
Even as the mummy fell, I rapidly switched to my hammer, the next skeleton climbing over the burning corpse of its companion. Standing atop a heaping pile of other undead, it loomed above me, and I was forced to go for a low blow rather than taking its head. Using enough force to smash through the bone behind the armor, I wailed on its legs, and the skeletal warrior crumpled. With its head now at my level, I brought the hammer down once more, cracking its skull like a chestnut.
“Break!” I shouted. With the addition of the last skeleton, the pile of corpses was now tall enough to completely block us off from any further fighting. Of course, it wouldn’t last long. With whatever little intelligence the unnatural creatures had, they would soon tear down the barrier. As a small grace, though, they would go that route before trying to chip away at the ice wall.
With the minor respite, all three of us relaxed, relishing the few seconds of peace before everything began anew. I unsummoned my armor just to feel the cold air against my skin, hastily gulping down some conjured water.
A brief stretch, and I was back in action. With the lesser-used priestess part of her class, Cal refreshed a weak defensive barrier on me as well as a few regeneration buffs. For her part, Verin refreshed her ice barrier, the only thing keeping us from being completely swarmed.
The last of the corpses was pulled away, and a new enemy presented itself. A slash. A swing. For five more minutes, I fought mindlessly, on autopilot save for the occasional glance towards my stamina and mana. The prior was holding steady at about half full. Thankfully, the latter had barely budged from being topped off.
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A break. Five more minutes. A break. Five more minutes. On and on I fought, the simple, repetitive actions appealing to me. As much as it was a matter of life and death, as much as I fought for all that I was worth, in some twisted way, I found the activity low-effort. I could almost feel myself slipping in and out of consciousness at points, letting my muscles take over.
Eventually though, the sheer weight of the eternity I’d spent fighting caught up to me, forcing me to admit the unpleasant truth.
This isn’t working.
With how high the ice wall was, perhaps the others couldn’t understand. Right at the choke point, though, I could see out into the rest of the room. While most of my forward view was blocked by the endless horde of undead, I could still see the walls to my left and right, and even now, more mummies fell from their cubbies. I hardly had the time to do a detailed count, but by rough guesstimation, I doubted we were even a tenth of the way through.
There has to be something else.
What would make sense? This was a kind of boss chamber, right? There was probably an actual boss somewhere out there.
Plus, casting Sense Minds came up blank. If the abominations assaulting us weren’t actually sentient, then they had to have something controlling them. At least, that was how I thought this was supposed to work. Dealing with whoever was in charge had to be easier than this. It simply had to be.
The throne. Admittedly, I’d spent most of my time trying hard not to think too much, but I still cursed as I came to what felt like the obvious conclusion. Whatever’s controlling all of these is probably all the way up at the throne.
Given how far my goal was, I considered just sticking with our current plan, draining an ocean one drop at a time. But no. I could feel my mind starting to slip more and more. Already I’d gone for weeks without taking my usual break, and like a frayed knot, my mind was on the verge of unraveling. Enough for even an hour more of this if I really pushed myself, but as I took in the unending throng of enemies, I knew not even that much fighting would be enough.
Another five minutes. A break. I explained myself to the others, asking the questions that even now weighed heavily upon me.
“Will you two survive if I leave?” I knew Cal could go invisible. Verin had her ice armor, and hopefully she could layer enough ice walls atop one another to hunker down. But would their mana hold? I wasn’t sure, and yet I couldn’t think of any other way to handle the situation.
“Before we consider taking quite such a drastic course, perhaps we should consider what other alternatives we may have.”
Lacking the energy to argue, I let the two of them squabble, the indecision forcing me to fight for another five minutes until the next break. When Verin continued to waffle, I could tell my words weren’t going to be enough to sway her.
In a flash, I circled her, wrapping my arms around her waist even as she cried out in protest. Before she could even ask what I was doing, I cast a series of Jet Steps, pushing us into the air.
As her head crested the ice wall, Verin’s cries cut off, the sheer scope of what we were up against growing clear to her for the first time.
When we returned to the ground, she grew mute, her porcelain skin taking on the unhealthy pallor of the skeletons seeking to end us.
Once more, I was forced to fight as she digested what she’d seen, but it was once and only once. When next I turned to her, her indecision had transformed into icy resolve.
“Go,” she urged. “We will survive.” Beside her, Cal nodded along with a quick thumbs up.
It was what I needed to hear, and with a quick Jet Step, I was off.
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Flight was a powerful ability to possess, especially when your enemy didn’t have any ranged options. At the same time, it was expensive, much more so when the sheer distance I had to cover came into play. Undeniably, I was strong, but with how many of my class skills only came into play when I had mana, I wasn’t keen on starting some grand boss fight running on fumes. Spatial Step, for all its benefits, was ruled out for similar reasons.
Very quickly, I touched back down, coming to land atop one of the stone coffins. As one small mercy, the skeletons were largely unarmed, but even so, their grasping hands sought to tear me from my perch. Before they could cross the distance, I was already off, engaging in a hellish game of leap-frog as I moved from coffin to coffin. Though it made me feel naked to do so, I swapped my plate armor out for the battle apron from my cooking-themed set, the flexibility and lack of weight letting my heightened Dexterity truly shine.
Even with the morbid stepping stones and my reduced weight, such a path wouldn’t have normally been possible to take. With how packed the room was, mummies were already spilling over some of the coffins. In rarer cases, a few skeletons had yet to leave their burial places as well, striking at me from below as I landed.
In a pleasant turn of fate, however, one of my newest skills made the journey far simpler. Taking advantage of my recently upgraded Arcane Armory, I funneled the barest hints of spatial mana into my apron, recalling the strange new effect it granted.
Compression Armor
Twists and warps the space about you, adding additional distance between your armor and the outside world. Grants significantly heightened defenses against all spatial attacks.
The Arcane Armament version was similar but inverted, lessening the distance between my target and my weapon, and while I could tell that both variants were powerful, I’d strayed away from using them thus far. More than any other of my mana types, I found it unintuitive, tripping me up almost as much as my enemies.
Whenever I tested them, strikes that looked as though they weren’t going to connect suddenly did, the unexpected recoil jarring me even as it took whatever poor gryphon or panther I was attacking by surprise. Blows that I was sure were about to hit me never landed, encouraging me to dodge less and less until I overestimated the ability and suffered the consequences.
For now, though, the effects were perfect. A few centimeters out from my armor, any object started to look compressed and slowed down as my eyes tried to make sense of one area of space having more space in it than another.
My new mental variants were equally powerful, with a chance to beguile and confound any enemy who struck or was struck by me. Had the undead contained any actual minds, I would have been using the skill liberally. As it was, only the spatial enhancement held any merit. And so, as thousands of bony fingers and bandaged limbs just barely missed their marks, I bolted past the rows and rows of coffins en route to the throne.
Well before I arrived, I was gratified to see that my theory had been correct. As if reacting to my rapid approach, there was a change to the distant throne. Straight from the golden seat, a blocky, human-shaped figure was pushed out, not too dissimilar to how Elphaea exited her trees. I wondered what sort of strange monster I was fighting until the golden mass split down the side and opened up, finally cluing me into what I was seeing.
A sarcophagus. Planted directly within the throne, somehow.
As perhaps to be expected, the figure revealed within was undead, though it was unclear whether it counted as more of a mummy or a skeleton. Thick bandages wrapped around its chest and legs, almost like a set of armor, while its skeletal head and extremities were bare. A crown with wicked, jagged spikes sat atop its skull, and it gripped a gem-encrusted staff in one hand. God’s Eye at last informed me what the true boss of this room was.
Necropolis Lord: Level 23, 800/800 hp
It was a surprisingly manageable level, and its health was equally low compared to some of the monsters we’d been fighting recently. Altogether, I found myself optimistic for the first time since entering the room.
Of course, things could never be so simple.
Even as the sarcophagus melted back into the throne, depositing the ruler in his golden seat, the sides of the throne rippled in turn, spitting out three more sarcophagi on each side. Much larger than they had any right to be, they split open to reveal hulking skeletons, each of them almost half again taller than me. Unlike the silver armor their lesser compatriots wore, these six were bedecked in shining gold plate armor that covered everything but their heads and hands. If that weren’t enough, each of them held a massive greatsword.
Skeletal Champion: Level 21, 1500/1500 hp
Their readouts alone were painful. Making it clear that my progress had not gone unnoticed, the six of them turned directly towards me as they fanned out in front of the throne. I cursed.
Can I ignore them maybe? With neither the energy nor the desire to fight seven powerful enemies, the very moment I was in range, I fired off an arrow enhanced with air mana. It sailed directly for the lord, and when the champions made no move to get in front of the attack, I celebrated.
Prematurely so. I watched with dread as the arrow struck an invisible barrier, bouncing off.
A part of me considered stopping right there. If I lowered myself into one of the coffins and closed it, would they still bother me? I would fight them. I would! But after a nap. That’s what you were supposed to do before big fights, right? Rest up? Mentally prepare yourself? Certainly, I would need to be in peak condition if I was going to fight seven strong enemies at once.
Failing that, I could just switch back to my plate armor and let myself fall to the ground. The basic skeletons and mummies couldn’t really hurt me, could they?
Perhaps I would have done just that had it been only me. That would be rude, though. Cal and Verin were waiting on me. They probably wouldn’t like it if I took a nap right now, would they?
Faced with the fully unreasonable trial before me, I could feel as my mind continued to slip, but if I wasn’t allowed to sleep, there was nothing for it. At last, I reached the raised dais of the throne, a single Jet Step enough to place me before the six champions and their lord.
It felt as though my sigh should have bowled them all over with its force. When, against all odds, they remained upright, I was forced to continue.
Plate replaced my apron. My hammer appeared in my hands.
A shout rang out from someone who sounded suspiciously like me, and as I ran forth, I reflected with much regret that, once again, my break was over.