After resting for a while, whilst listening to the increasingly faint enraged roars of the undead beast from further down the passageway, Liam attempted to climb up out of the crevice. By standing upon the sword and putting his axe into the wall above him, then taking the sword out from under himself and pulling himself up before stabbing it into the wall again he was able to make slow but steady progress towards the surface.

When he reached near the top, Liam tentatively reached up to grab the ground to pull himself up. However, when his hand met resistance where there should be air, he realised escape wouldn't be possible. The barrier he had seen that repelled the spectre when he first arrived down here was still in place, and it worked both ways. The Quest he had received had told him the only ways to leave were to either slay Ander Phyris or let the lich complete it's dark ritual and be unleashed upon the world. Liam was under no illusions that he wouldn't be the first living being hunted down and killed by the free undead and that the only reason the lich hadn't taken to hunting him down itself was because the ritual was more important than his life.

He took the opportunity to rest and heal up a while, using his axe to carve an alcove at the top of the wall so he could stop worrying about his balance. He could only make it so deep, however, as the barrier made itself known about a foot in. His axe had bounced off it and it had almost sent him careening backwards in what was sure to be a painful fall. Luckily, he had righted himself in time and was more careful as he dug out his hiding spot. He thought that he should probably get some sleep, after the long day he had before all this started and the few hours since then he had almost constantly been fighting it on the run. For whatever reason though, he wasn't tired. Maybe it was his apparent resistance to sleep given by his bound Charm, or it might've been his increase attributes, but despite the weariness of [Fatigue] settling in his body, he was wide awake.

Thinking about it, he decided it was a good thing. He could worry about any side effects, psychological or physical, that not needing to sleep when he would've before the System may have but for now it meant that he could train more and prepare to interrupt the lich's ritual.

He opened a notification that must have opened during his confrontation with the beast, when he was too focused on getting out of the encounter alive to notice it.

[Undead Lore I had improved to Undead Lore II

You are now provided information on most Undead below greater, and almost every variant of Lesser Undead.]

More information was always good, and so far the Skill has helped him out of a sticky situation a couple of times, even if it hadn't been much help during his last couple of encounters. Hopefully it's improvement would let it keep up with the enemies he was facing and would reveal more of their weaknesses to him.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

He checked his status as he gathered himself, finding a strane comfort in the numbers. They represented him, both his life before the System and what he had done since it, even if that was only fight for now. He hoped in the future that it would be less militant and he would be able to pursue other things, but for now he had to survive.

[

Name: Liam Karr

Race: Human (Earth)

Path: Path of the Spirits

Class: None

Titles: Spirit Progenitor, Natural Shaman, Titan Slayer

Level: 6 -> 7

HP: 61/250

Stamina: 36/130 (117)

Lifeforce: 2/12

Strength: 24

Dexterity: 14 -> 19

Vitality: 25

Endurance: 13

Intelligence: 15

Willpower: 17

Free Attributes: 0

Traits:

None

Skills:

Analyse II

Spirit Lore I (II)

Undead Lore I -> II

Ambidexterity I

Hafted II

Powers:

Spirit of Death I, Level 3/10

Lesser Spirit of Calm (Corrupted), Level 1/10

]

He wanted to hint more of the lower level Lesser Undead to try and increase his Level more, but he realised that the beast had likely trampled them all in its mad hunt for him. That only left one direction to head in, and it was the more dangerous one. Before he set out, he made sure he had a clear way up the wall back to his little hideout, using various skeletal weapons from the groups he had slain to make hand and footholds that he could use to quickly scale the wall if he needed to. Then, after waiting for his Stamina to reach a decent amount, he set off back towards where he had last seen the lich. He hoped that wherever the ritual was being held was much deeper into the catacombs than where it had raised the 3 named undead, but he would find out either way soon enough.

He travelled along passing where he had slaughtered dozens of lesser undead, past where he had his mad dash away from the more powerful undead that had been raised to find and kill him, and then finally to where he had seen Ander Phyris conduct his reanimation. He looked around the area, noticing the symbols burned onto the ground in the pattern of a circle. They resembled the ones engraved onto his axe, only these ones had much harsher lines and sharper points. Still, there was something about them that drew him to them.

He crouched and traced them with his fingers, feeling like he was reaching beyond a veil to touch something he had no contact with before. His eyes drank them in and tried to understand them. They imprinted on his mind as he read them, and he found that he could recall them perfectly. He memorised each of them until the whole circle of symbols was present in his head. Something clicked, and a notification flashed in the corner of his eyes, but he was too busy experiencing the complete image in his mind's eye to notice.

As he was watching, understanding began to be born within him, new ideas and concepts created out of seemingly nothing. But then, from the depths of his soul, rose something else. A rolling wave of energy that fought back against these new thoughts. They were eliminated and cleaned from his mind, and the wave continued until it had destroyed them in their entirety. The symbols were cast out of his mind, and in their place was just his own thoughts once again. The energies retreated, their job done, and Liam looked to the notification to try and figure out what had happened.

[You have discovered the Path of Magic]

[Would you like to embark upon the Path of Magic?]

[No]