It wasn’t long before the first test was under way.  Jude had wanted to cover himself in some fancy spectral clothes and a cloak, but the mental strain was too much and so another spectral blanket was made instead.

It didn’t take long to verify the results.

As he entered back into the room Ellie asked, “How did it go?  I heard some banging outside.”

“It went well.  They barely take notice of you when your father than 10 feet away.  Less than 10 feet and you will start to get their attention.  Less than 5 and they start getting aggressive.  Remember when we entered here?  There were a few skeletons in the rooms along the way.   Some of them are right near the doors.” Jude said.

“So they can see through doors?”

“They don’t see like we do, they can see our soul and spirit.  Walls are a minor thing to them.”

“So that means we can leave right?!  Maybe if we go back the way we came, we could somehow climb out of that hole.  Hey, can you create a rope with your magic?”

“I had the same idea, so I checked outside.  Unfortunately, they seem to have congregated over near where we came in.”

Ellie looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, “Well, as long as we have your spectral magic covering us, we should eventually find a way out right?”

“Yeah,” Jude comforted her, “We just need to keep looking.”

Jude was just as ready to leave this place as Ellie was.

Ellie then asks, “While you were out, I was wondering… Do you really need the blanket if you have that spectral shield thingy?”

Jude took the blanket off and viewed himself with his spectral vision.

I’m such an idiot!

***

After recovering mana spent on the strongest shield Jude could create, he and Ellie left their small room.  Ellie now wore a simple spectral cloak with a hood.  Jude, of course, used only his .

When they reached downstairs of the tavern, the place was eerily silent.  The undead sat in chairs or at the bar, leaning over or laying down like the dead were supposed to.  However, when they got closer, the bright spots in the eye sockets began to glow.  The closer ones would turn their heads to look at the pair.  Luckily there was enough room between the undead and the door for them to leave.

Unlike the other mobs that Jude has encountered, the skeletons don’t seem to move or patrol.  This was only made worse as they all tend to play ‘dead’.  If one used just their eyes, it would be hard to distinguish between the dead and undead.  And that was assuming you could see into all the shadows and hidden places!  But with Jude’s new version of , the Ghost Commander’s Eye, he was able to clearly see all the skeletons around him.

After exiting the tavern, they entered what was once a cobblestone street.  Ellie had only a few light crystals left, so she was now saving them for an emergency.  All she had to rely on was the weak light that her spectral cloak offered.  Jude, however, could see just fine, though it did scare Ellie a bit as his eyes were now very similar to the skeletons, they looked like two purple fires.

Jude kept one hand firmly on his weapon and the other holding Ellie’s hand.  Then he proceeded out into the street.  He took note of the positions of each skeleton slowly determining his path.

It was strange how the skeletons were perfectly arranged that there was only one way to go.  But since he had only one way to go, he hoped it wouldn’t end up in a trap.  The only other option was to try and fight his way out, but he was still level 7 and he was pretty sure that the skeletons were around level 10.  A hoard of mobs 3 levels higher than you? No thanks.

The Progress was slow.  While there only seemed to be one path, that didn’t mean it was easy to determine.  This lasted for a time as they slowly got deeper into the hill of Grimwar Caves.

The path never stayed the same.  A cave wall soon blocked off the street and the path veered off into a building.  Going through buildings, up on second floors, through large caves and back down through a destruction of houses, leading all the way back to yet another street.  This continued on for some time.

The air became stale the deeper they went in.  Mixed with the scent of decay and the occasional glowing orbs of the undead, made the darkness feel like a den of evil.  Their feet always seemed louder than it should in the quiet stillness of the caves. Then the sound of a creaking bone scraping stone would send chills up their spines.  Ellie had it the worst, she could only see a foot or two into the darkness.

Jude didn’t have it much better.  He could see, but made it a ghostly landscape.  The sheer amount of undead only made it worse.  He wasn’t exactly sure if it was better knowing or not knowing exactly how many hundreds of skeletons they were passing.  By this point, their density actually made his path quite clear.

After another turn out of a narrow passage, Jude and Ellie found themselves on another street.  It was a very straight street, lined with buildings and the rocky ceiling still above.  The presence of skeletons was now completely gone.

Ghost Commanders Eye showed no life or unlife signs besides the two of them.  The buildings along the street were shallow and mostly filled with cave walls and debris.  All that remained was to go forward, toward what looked like a plaza and a large building that was most likely the town hall.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Spectral Vision was able to see farther than Ghost Commanders Eye and as they neared the plaza he could see groupings of creatures.

Jude’s heart sunk.  Ghouls tend to be more active, smarter, stronger, and all around better than skeletons.  He was honestly surprised that he didn’t see zombies before ghouls.  Luckily they didn’t seem to be pack creatures, as they began to separate.  Apparently what he first thought were groups were the random wanderings of the ghouls.

“Alright, I’m going to need your help to bait out some undead for us,” Jude whispered to Ellie.

“What?!” She whispered back.

“There is a new kind of undead up in front of us and I’m not sure how it’s going to react to the .  Once we lead one away, I will then need to fight it so that I can gauge how tough they are.”

“Okay, what is it?”

“They are .”

“WHA-?!”  She covered her own mouth realizing her mistake.

“Not exactly what I was going to do, but it worked,” Jude said as a single ghoul came toward their direction.

They back up, leading the ghoul away from the plaza.  It was already looking like was not going to get them passed these guys.

“Make sure you stay far enough behind me; I don’t have any skills to protect you.” Jude reminded Ellie.  would only work on him, otherwise, he would have used it on Ellie a long time ago.

“But I can’t see.” Ellie protested.

Jude just realized that she wouldn’t be able to see him at all since he wasn’t wearing any spectral clothing.

“” Jude created a long thin rug.  “Stand on the other side of that and you should be safe.”

Having heard all this sound and seeing the being cast, the now started charging in.  This was fine for Jude, for this was the area he wanted to fight the anyway.

Jude’s first was activated to test his theory about all undead.  He quickly lopped the head of the off.  Not receiving a critical notification, he confirmed that undead could indeed not be critically hit like other creatures.  Unfortunately, focusing solely on the head ended up doing less damage as several swords ended up striking nothing but air.

The was now on him, attacking his .  Jude now spread out his making the strikes look like a net of swords.  Another 3 strikes of finally killed the . 

Jude received a notification that he reached level 8 as a wizard, but he didn’t have time to take joy in it.  Another 3 were on their way. 

At this time torches lining the roadway began coming to life starting near them and slowly lighting up the way towards the plaza.

“,” Jude said.  The first had whittled away almost the entire first shield he had and now he wished that he had worked on getting it to rank up.

“!” Jude cut the legs off the leading .  Again, no critical hit and the seemed to move just as fast without legs as it did with them!

“I only have one of these, so make it count!” Ellie said behind him.  He saw a bottle of yellowish liquid fly over his head and broke on the farthest .  The substance quickly spread out of the shattered bottle, foamed, then became sticky, then quickly hardened.  This completely stopped the , but with its struggles, it wouldn’t be long before it was free.

While this happened Jude didn’t stop his own attacks.  He killed off the legless one right as it reached him.  The next jumped over its dead companion just as he delivered the final blow.  This slammed into him and his shield with enough force that it knocked him down.  This blow nearly took out the shield all by itself.

His next aimed for both arms and the head, attempting to take out the combat power.  He was successful hitting the right arm and head, but missed the left arm entirely.

The next blow from the ripped through his and its black claws tore into Jude’s chest.  Along with the searing pain, he noticed that he also got a debuff: Disease.

Disease

HP no longer regenerates.

A swift kick pushed the back and another removed its remaining arm and inflicted damage to its torso.   This didn’t stop the attacks, but at least it was clumsier now.  He was able to get up and avoid its attacks until it delivered the killing blow.

By this point, the torches lighting up were almost to the plaza and the trapped was almost free.  Jude made his way towards the as it was about to break free.

It was at this time Jude thought of a new way to provide himself some defense.  He held his sword up to now as a mere object to cast his , using it to defend himself hadn’t proved very effective.  Either the one attacking him was quicker or he didn’t have the skill to effectively block attacks.  But if he blocked with a spectral sword, it would at least move faster and give him a chance to block.  The last question was; could he activate the same skill twice?  could, but that skill was fundamentally different than .  Jude was pretty sure he had a way to do it.

“.” He said.  This time only one sword appeared before him and stayed there.

The finally broke free as Jude was nearing it.  Jude used again, however, this time he only formed 7 swords instead of 8.  Just as he thought, it worked.  If he had used the full 8, he would have lost control of the sustained spectral sword, but using only 7 in his second cast of the skill allowed him to remain in control of the first.

The 7 swords still took out a third of the health.  The continued on without even noticing it.  As the neared, Jude angled the sword and intercepted its strike!  However, fight with two hands and Jude was only able to block one.  This took out another small chunk of Jude’s health, but it was far better than the alternative of being hit by both hands!

The then did something unexpected.  Instead of continuing to engage with Jude, it passed him and ran off towards Ellie!

Jude was able to strike out two more times at the back of the before it reached Ellie.  However, these strikes didn’t do as much damage as the first and it was still alive by the time it reached her!  Ellie was still level 3 and one solid hit from a could instantly kill her.

There just wasn’t time!  Jude had barely gotten off the second off by the time it reached Ellie and before he could even prepare his third strike the had already launched its own attack!  Jude immediately sent his defending sword straight into the back of the but it still didn’t die as its black claw came down on Ellie.

Ellie, now with the light of the torches, had seen the whole thing transpire.  With a last ditch hope, she swung the small crafter's hammer toward the just as a spectral sword burst through its chest.

The small hammer came crashing down on the and by some miracle, it took its last bit of health as its claws just began to dig into the girl.

“AHHhh!” She cried.  The , now dead, dead, collapsed on top of her.

Jude rushed to her side and pulled the gross creature off of her.  To his surprise he found her laughing underneath.

“Are you ok?” He asked fully curious.

“Yeah!  I mean, I got hurt, but I’m ok.”  Her shoulder was wounded. “More importantly, I got a quest!”

“A quest?”

“Yeah!  A quest to become a !!!”