"There's something here," Elise muttered. She and Samara had joined forces to comb the gravesite of anything magical. With her expertise in magic combined with Samara's elite skills, they were able to find something out of place relatively quickly.

Mark walked closer and looked at what they found. Underneath the larger gravestones were large indents, only reachable after some digging. But this one seemed to contain an illusion.

"I can't really tell what it is, but there's something magical here. Mark, can you dispel this?" she asked.

He nodded. Mustering up his magic, he let it flow through the stone and into the place where Elise indicated. A crack sounded moments later.

"I still can't get over how good you are with that," she muttered. "I can only form spells, and not wield the energy as well as you do externally."

Mark ignored her compliment. "Let's see what happened," he said, tapping his feet for a while. "Hmm. Nothing. There might be more of these keys."

"At least this confirms there are secrets." Elise smiled. They had been emboldened by a success, and continued to try finding other illusory spots.

As their legs and bodies grew sore from all the bending, more than half a day passed inside this cavern. "This is taking a lot longer than I thought," Mark whispered. His bear was still at the entrance, so nothing had happened, but the room was rapidly getting colder. Though they had managed to unlock three of these keys, seeing nothing happen afterwards was discouraging.

"Let's keep going," Samara said. She refused to give up. Even Elise had to agree, and after taking a short break, they began to discuss what they could do better.

"We might have to dig underground," Mark said. The first spot had been underneath the gravestones. The other two had been on the walls, though they were a bit out of reach. Samara had to boost Mark up for him to unlock the magic.

"Or the ceiling," Elise muttered. She flopped down on the floor while they brainstormed. Dirt marred her clothes, but she had stopped caring.

"I hope not," he said. He turned to his bear. It helped them dig out large swathes of land between each gravestone, and they discovered two more markers hidden in pockets of dirt.

Samara looked down and her expression became solemn. "Impossible to find normally," she murmured.

"And there are five of these keys as well," Mark muttered. "Looks like Mage-Thieves do hold a massive advantage with their magical senses. Very few could do what we did without spending an incredible amount of time."

Once he dispersed the final magical spot, a shimmer appeared over the empty space in the cavern. A large building came into view. It was old and desolate, with architecture that bore a resemblance to the ruined castle, confirming the presence of the ancient dead.

Samara stepped backwards at the sudden appearance of the ruins, but then she forced herself to stop. If she continued being fearful, she knew she would not be able to survive in the new world. So she walked with the other two to explore the perimeter.

Five skeleton warriors stumbled around, searching for enemies. After they did their search, he left one behind to guard the entrance to the cavern. With the bear and skeleton mage taking up most of his mana, these were some of his weakest.

They went into the ruins. Instead of the grandeur they expected, the first and only room here was filled with arches. Below them contained more graves, except unlike the gravestones, some contained well-preserved bodies.

"My god," Elise said. "What is this?"

"Careful," Mark whispered. "They're dormant." He guessed that if the sentry ghost outside had been able to scream, some of these undead would have woken up to attack. Maybe even all of them.

Samara was not at all frightened of the things she could harm. With fast, steady steps, she slipped into the arches and observed everything she could. Then she returned shortly afterwards.

"There are symbols carved underneath the arches," she said. "Similar to the ones outside."

"Would help if we knew more about the writing," Mark muttered. "Anything else?"

"Not that I know of," Samara replied. "Probably need to just go for it."

But Elise looked a lot more nervous. "Are you sure? We can't face them all at once," she emphasized. "There's no way we can survive."

"There's a chance," Mark said. "The spell awakening these undead might not have the power to wake them all up at once. So they'll come in waves."

"Yeah, but what if this place is different?" She waved a hand around. "This setup looks a lot more imposing. Your other fights were powered by a single mana core, but what if this place has more?"

Mark agreed. That was true. He turned to Samara and asked, "Can you try finding them? We might not have to deal with as many at the same time."

She nodded and slipped away again to creep between the coffins. A slight movement from one almost startled Elise, but Mark clenched a hand on her shoulder to keep her steady.

Samara looked back and signaled for someone to help her. Mark was able to trace her steps and walk quietly enough for none of the undead to wake up. More than a few trembled, but their eyes remained closed.

He got up close and saw what Samara had seen. There was another slight indentation within the wall covered by a solid illusion. Dispelling it would be no problem, but it might awaken the dead prematurely. They could only take care of one of these mana cores - if they were even mana cores. It could be a false spot.

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"Was this the only one you found?" he whispered.

Samara shook her head. There were three other spots nearby with similar illusory traces. He had four choices to choose from.

She signaled if he wanted her to go find more. But Mark felt like that would be too much of a risk. He looked at Elise and pointed at the door, indicating she should leave.

Then he broke through the illusion and grabbed the item inside. The moment he did so, the undead began to rise. Slowly at first, giving him the chance to look down.

Instead of a pulsing mana core, he was holding onto an egg. Then when he inspected it, he found out it only contained an already dead animal. This was worthless.

Mark immediately went for the second closest illusory spot, grabbing it and running as soon as he succeeded. A claw reached for him, but he barely slipped by.

"No luck," he said to the other two as they retreated behind his bear. "This will be a tough fight."

Three groups of five undead, all above Level 20, had arisen to defend their resting place. Fifteen in total. Their numbers made up less than a third of the mausoleum's coffins, but some of the graves had been empty. He hoped this was all they had.

"Elise," he said, "you won't be of much use here. Can you sneak in and go defuse some of those mana cores? The undead have all risen." He hoped he had taught her some things by letting her watch his magic.

But she shook her head. "Uh, I think I'm just gonna go. Is that alright?"

"And survive on your own? So be it," Mark said. He began to ignore her after that.

Samara peppered the undead with arrows. As she did so, Mark cast Identify on the three skeleton warriors leading the rest of the undead.

"Level 24 skeletons. Slightly weaker ghouls," he muttered to her. It looked manageable. But he also remembered seeing a different coffin at the farthest end of the mausoleum. One made of pure white, unlike the stone gray coffins all around it. Would that one hold a Level 25?

Her arrows managed to kill off only two ghouls before they caught up to them. Then Mark's undead Light Infused Bear swung into motion.

Beams of light pierced a third and the bear rumbled towards the first of the skeleton leaders. Jaws clamped down, crushing its skull, with nothing but a slight scratch on its skin. But then, Mark frowned. In the distance, another group of undead stumbled through the mausoleum doors, ready to join the fight. Four to replace those which they had just killed.

"Keep the skeletons alive," he shouted before Samara could assassinate another leader. "Wait until we're ready."

The skeletons were generals, strong physical fighters with the ability to empower their allied ghouls. They moved faster than the ones in the back. A gloomy aura suffocated the air, though diminished by their kill.

Samara ran around the courtyard, distracting a few undead while the rest surrounded his bear. Though their weapons carved off chunks of flesh, it didn't mind. Mark blew off a few pieces of his own with his spellfire.

Then a scream shattered the brief stalemate in the fight. Elise hadn't run away. Instead, she was attempting to sneak around the battlefield and return to the mausoleum. But one of the newly awakened ghouls had discovered her, blocking the way with its slavering jaws.

"Samara!" he shouted. An enchanted arrow blew open a hole in the monster's head and enabled Elise to seize the moment. Her fire arrows flew into the wound and incinerated the area. Meanwhile, Mark switched to his Magic Missiles and cracked open a few more undead bodies. He made sure to not kill them until he saw Elise emerge.

Elise successfully disappeared into the mausoleum. Mark counted down the seconds in his mind, waiting for an opportunity for her to break open one of the hidden spots. After watching his bear accumulate an incredible amount of gaping wounds, he shouted, "Now!" again.

Samara shot off two skills in quick succession, rapidly tiring her out, but killing one of the skeleton leaders. His bear emitted eye-rays and crashed through the undead to tear off another's skull. Then Mark exploited the chaos and managed to land a swarm of close-range Magic Missiles on the third while its back was turned.

But the effort required to break the stalemate had caused both his bear and Samara to become exhausted. The endlessly-drooling ghouls had recovered quickly enough to rip his bear apart, while Samara's hands trembled too much to fire off more arrows. Only one more hit the skeleton leader before she had to flee.

Fortunately, Elise had come through. Three of the ghouls collapsed and freed up his skeleton warriors to finish off the third skeleton general. Then they were able to swiftly slay the rest.

Congratulations! You have reached Level 23.

She returned, her face completely white. "I came too close to death there," she panted out.

"Thank you," Mark said. "You helped save our lives today." She smiled in response, but Mark refocused on the battle. His magic surged and he cast Raise Dead on two of the ghouls nearby. Then he turned and reanimated a skeleton general for good measure.

While his two teammates rested, Mark pushed through his headache and healed up the skeleton general as best he could. He patched up the holes in the other minions and sent them to defend against the next crashing wave of ghouls.

"Just two more waves," he muttered from the general count of the coffins. Fortunately, his minions were able to rip apart with ease the three stragglers who arrived first. They only had to deal with eight total undead on this wave.

While they continued to heal, Mark frowned, because he failed to see more undead emerging afterwards. Were they done already? Or was the next wave building up?

"You can do this," Elise cheered as she laid flat on the floor.

"No, I can't," Mark said. "If you have any potions or other consumables, now would be the time to use them. The wave after this might be much more difficult."

Elise struggled to stand back up, but limped a mana potion over to him. "Would this help?"

"Yes, thank you very much. I'll let you both take first share of the loot later," he said, giving them some morale for the next two fights. "Those bodies are mine, though. All of them."

Samara took out her own methods of healing: an herbal concoction. She truly was a ranger. Meanwhile, Mark sipped at the mana potion, enough for the next battle.

With upgraded minions, they had an easier time in the second round. Mark made it through the second wave by exploiting the bloodlust inherent in these ghouls, separating them from their groups and eliminating them one by one. Elise helped out whenever she was able. Once the wall of ghouls crumbled, Samara mustered the strength to pierce a skeleton general, causing the rest of the dominoes to fall.

Congratulations! You have reached Level 24.

Mark Winters - Level 24

Class: Mage (Common)

Stats: 9 Free Points -> 0

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 5

Endurance: 11

Vitality: 12 -> 14

Intelligence: 46 -> 50

Wisdom: 17 -> 20

Nice, rounded numbers. Hope this is enough.

The damage incurred by his undead was great. He replaced them, drank the mana potion for some extra mana, and waited for the final wave. Four ghouls and one skeleton leader emerged first. Simple.

Elise smiled, ready to encourage him for one last time, but then she stopped with her mouth open wide. A final, sixth undead monster had just walked out the mausoleum, a bright glow encasing its pristine skull.

Skeleton Paladin - Level 25

Not so simple.