With a roar, the Level 25 feral orc mage charged forwards. Its entire body blazed with flames, deflecting the arrows Samara shot from the top of her tower.

Followed closely behind was another orc wielding a giant axe. Though its level fell short of Mark's by three, its strength vastly outmatched his skeleton general. He had to send in all his minions, while Samara and Elise suppressed the incoming goblins.

The orcs exchanged blows. His undead orc took a glancing strike to its side, but the wound was quickly repaired. After using its body to slow the weaker orc down, it slammed a fist into its head, stunning it. Samara shot an arrow straight through its torso. Even as a tide of blood gushed out, it still remained standing.

Mark slammed his mace onto its head, then slipped behind his undead orc. It tried to shove past his orc mage, but received an elbow to the face.

The stronger orc mage, delayed by a mixture of hobgoblins, skeletons, and a ghoul, grew enraged. Flames erupted from the earth all around its outstretched arms and lapped at Mark's feet. Though it hurt, his eyes gleamed at having found treasure. He gritted his teeth and endured.

After the spell faded away, the feral orc warrior staggered away with its body filled with cuts. The last of its steps were used to exit the fire before it collapsed onto the ground, unmoving. His undead orc hadn't been stunned by the fire.

Samara sent an arrow through its neck and switched her attention to the approaching undead. All the other goblins had perished in the flames, along with the rest of his minions, including the ghoul. It was orc against orc.

Mark focused on healing his undead as it endured the enemy's slashes. Its body began to crumble, but his skill kept it alive long enough for it to open a gaping wound on the enemy. Then it forced itself forwards, falling onto the other orc's bladestaff, pushing ahead to grab their neck. The enemy orc struggled to free itself for a moment.

Mark sprinted in and smashed his mace as hard as he could into the back of the orc's head. He did it again and again until its body unraveled. The rot from his mace sapped away at its strength, and a few chance arrows from Samara gave him the leverage to secure the kill.

Congratulations! You have reached Level 27. +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, +3 Free Stat Points

Congratulations! You have reached Level 28. +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, +3 Free Stat Points

His orc mage wrenched the bladestaff away from its insides. But the damage had already been done. It could only stumble and limp, its muscles shriveled from excessive use of Repair Corpse. Mark ordered it back while the rest of the skeletons approached.

Elise finally had the chance to shine. Her light rays, improved through battle, washed through the tide of undead and turned them into dust. She used up all her mana to cut a swathe in their ranks, enabling Samara's arrows to take out some of the leaders. This also bought time for Mark to heal up his orc mage enough for it to walk steadily. Once he had done all he could, he sent his orc mage in for one last attack, a cracking bladestaff ready to erupt like the previous Staff of Fire.

With a guttural roar, the undead orc threw itself into a large mass of skeletons and exploded into a sphere of flames, taking out another huge chunk of undead.

Congratulations! You have reached Level 29. +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, +3 Free Stat Points

The battle ended soon after. Though they were all exhausted, piles upon piles of bones and dust laid broken by their feet. Behind them, goblin buildings burned. A grin was on all their faces as they tasted the sweetness of victory.

Mark and Samara turned to look at Elise, who grinned wildly.

"Level 25," she almost screamed. "I can pick a class!" The glow of magic immediately appeared. Not much time passed before her eyes turned back up to meet theirs again.

"Light Mage," Elise said in response to their stares. "Should help us much more than the other choices."

"Good work," Mark said, walking over to Lifedrinker and picking it up. The blade had not been damaged at all in the battle. "Let's rest first. Then we'll go and see what these undead have been guarding." He sat back down and concentrated on recovery.

Unlike the fight with the skeleton paladin, his companions had the stamina remaining to do whatever they wanted. Samara chose to pluck out the bones from the skeletons, sharpening them into arrows. Elise sat down with Mark, trying to mimic him for a while, but she grew impatient. Instead, she played around with her new comprehension of light magic.

Time passed by quickly as Mark regained a sliver of magic. It would have to be enough for now, since they had work to do. His skeleton mage was surprisingly better at recovery than him, and was able to reanimate a goblin warrior to serve. It was one of the strongest he found - Level 23 - and was decked out in armor without any cracks. Samara had killed it in one shot through a gap in its helmet.

They continued deeper into the cavern. Ahead of them was another effigy. Its features had also been eroded by the passage of time, looking like a chunk of metal from a distance. But this idol of worship stood taller than even some goblin buildings.

"What is this thing?" Elise asked curiously, being the first to probe the statue closely. Ignoring Samara's warnings, she poured her magic into the object and tried to activate it. Nothing happened, fortunately.

"You shouldn't have done that," Samara scolded. "What if you summoned another horde of undead?"

Elise turned around, a little perturbed. "How?" she asked. "And it wouldn't be a problem, anyway." She smiled with reckless confidence.

"What if there was a paladin?"

Elise's smile fell away. Then she looked down. "Sorry," she mumbled. "You're right. That was reckless of me."

Mark patted her on the shoulder. "I know you're excited, but please do refrain from becoming overconfident. This place is still quite dangerous." Since nothing had happened, he used Identify on the statue. It returned information about the origins of the effigy - another nameless deity, though different from the first. What was interesting was that the statue was made of magical metal.

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"Hehe," Elise giggled, "That was Identify, wasn't it? I know it too now," she said. "It's a nameless deity."

Mark shook his head. "You're still missing information."

"What do you mean?" Elise asked. "Other than that, it says that the statue is made of an immensely durable metal." She peered closer. "Yeah, I can see vague features. Isn't it scowling?"

Mark nodded. "True, but it's telling me that the metal is magical. And I don't need to get so close to the statue, either."

Elise finally noticed him still standing about a few meters away and understanding dawned on her face. "I get it," she said. "Okay. There's still a lot to learn."

Other than the statue, there was a medium-sized building in front of them, but it couldn't have held such a large army. There was no basement under all the dirt. Only stone awaited them. Faded markings appeared all over the walls, floor, and ceiling, though.

"Think it's obvious the skeletons came in through a portal," Mark said. "Impossible for so many to hide here in this small place."

"If there's a portal," Elise said, "Maybe we could open it again? And find out where the skeletons came from."

"Good idea," Samara said sarcastically. "And get rushed by a bunch of Level 25 monsters?"

"That's not what I meant."

"Save it until we take care of that woman."

Mark wanted to say something, then stopped. It was better for them to handle it themselves. Instead, he looked around for the loot he expected to be here. He soon found it sequestered away in the back corner of the building: a small, pearl-like object with engravings all around it.

"What is that?" Elise asked. "Wait, let me try!" She took the gem from his hands and let her magic flow. Then she handed it back. "It's a gem, meant for storing mana like a battery. Did I get it right?"

He nodded. It was interesting to see the difference between his and her skill. Like she said, the artifact was just an Uncommon storage device, enabling the wearer to place some mana inside it for use later on. Some of the deficiencies it had were revealed to him but not her, though.

It couldn't store too much mana, only about ten percent of his pool. And withdrawing the magic still required ample focus and time. The thing basically served to improve regeneration, and wasn't quite at the level of an instant battery or potion. Mark told her this and she sighed.

"Guess I still have a long way to go," she said.

Meanwhile, Samara watched this with a frown. She came up to him after Elise had walked away in search of more treasure. "I don't know if you should encourage her," she said. "She might get into a dangerous situation later and not know what to do."

"I think she'll be fine," Mark said. "We'll be there to support, I hope."

"I only say this because the recent fights have been tough. That woman's outpost shouldn't be any easier. She should be perfecting her spells, not treading new territory."

Mark noted her advice. To be frank, he didn't know how to deal with people. He wanted to encourage her to keep trying her best. But letting her run headfirst into danger didn't seem good either.

When she returned, Mark voiced his concerns. But she smiled instead. "I know you're worried. But I've grown a lot stronger now," she said. "Look! I can deal damage, heal people, blind monsters, and see clearly even in these dark caves. As long as I stay behind you during battle, I can be a big help."

"If you're sure," Mark said. "Please do try and stay behind us though. I mean it - a healer shouldn't be in melee, though you should still learn how to defend yourself from Samara."

She stuck out her tongue. "Nah, fighting with weapons is not what I want to do. I don't know why you like using that mace." After the refusal, Elise then took out a few of the things she had found. There were more packets containing well-preserved herbs for Samara. Then there were a few more masterwork weapons which she handed over to him, after a glance at the dead bodies behind them.

Mark sighed. "Looks like there wasn't anything important here after all," he said. "Unless we can get that portal open."

"I still think we should try to find out some hints," Elise said. Once the ranger returned from her looting trip, she repeated, "Samara! I think we should still try and break open the portal. We need the treasure, don't we?"

Mark looked into her eyes and Samara understood, though she was getting antsy. "Fine. Try it then. Three hours. I'll be waiting in the back."

While Elise tinkered around with the statue, Mark continued resting. Though he was probably the most experienced person from Earth with portals, he needed to focus on replenishing his minions. So he instead had a nice, relaxing meal and let his skeleton mage sip the mana-creature-infused water from the oasis. Then he considered his status sheet.

Mark Winters - Level 29 (F)

Class: Necromancer (Uncommon)

Stats: 9 Free Points -> 0

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 5

Endurance: 11

Vitality: 14 -> 15

Intelligence: 64 -> 70

Wisdom: 28 -> 30

Once he had regained enough magical energy, he went over to the orc mage's corpse and reanimated it. Then he started to heal it up. Once again, he had a powerful minion, and this time it was even Level 25. His grin almost startled Elise who was looking all around the area, but she returned to being immersed in her work.

A clicking noise appeared. There was a brief flash of light and something dropped out of the air.

Samara came rushing over. "What was that?" she asked. Her eyes went wide.

"I did it!" Elise cheered. She went over to pick up the dropped item. At a glance, Mark saw that it looked like a wooden dagger.

"You opened a localized, smaller portal," Mark said, wondering what she had done to achieve this. "I'm really surprised. Good job," he complimented.

Elise returned to him with a frown. "Can you tell me what this is?" she asked. "It's not sharp at all."

Did she really try to cut herself with it? He shook his head. "It's a Rare item. The system only tells me the generic basics," he said. Though his Uncommon Identify skill gave him a little more information about the item, it still wasn't enough.

Samara's eyes flickered to the weapon before looking away. She seemed hesitant to say something. Elise noticed this however, and asked what was wrong.

"I could try using the item," Samara admitted. "I like using daggers. But you earned this," she said. "I think you should keep it."

Elise frowned. "I don't like fighting hand to hand," she said. "Mark, you haven't taken enough treasures yet. You can have it." She thrust the dagger in his direction.

"Careful there," he said. "Don't know if it can emit magic beams," he joked. Taking the weapon, he felt a different kind of energy rise and disappear, different from necromancy. It made him curious, but there wasn't much he could do for now. So he simply pocketed it with a thank you.

It was almost time to enter the Mage-Thief's territory. These goblins and orcs were brutal, so not many skeletons were left intact. Mark had to pick out the few who could be restored.

In the end, his undead army contained two orcs, a skeleton mage, a goblin warrior, and three skeletons. Glare and Gleam returned on one, while another two became shield-spear wielders. Mark looked back up at his teammates and gave them a curt nod.