One of the items Tifayn managed to find in the library were a set of plans for the castle. As Alix examined them, the data loaded up into his map, but until he travelled to each place in person, the data was still faded. The blueprints could be out of date, rooms expanded or demolished, or their use changed. One room caught his attention, appearing in the area of his map that had been a void before. Crypt.
The Crypt was in a deep part of the castle, and the path was obstructed by rubble at several points.
Just as he had hoped, the skeletons got to work, efficiently carrying out his command. The hallway that led off to the left of the once grand entrance hall was now clear and a few of the stones had been replaced in its regal arch. It looked like there used to be a door in it, but the wood had long since rotted away.
The collapse Mr Bones had mentioned was more substantial than Alix had realised. When he first traipsed down into the depths to see, he found the entrance hall filled with neatly collected rubble. The splintered and rotting wood had been thrown out into a pile in the grounds to be burned, while fresh cut logs were being used to temporarily hold up the rest of the pathway.
So the skeletons have axes and know how to use them. Once they had cleared the path, he would borrow one and see what carpentry or lumberjacking skills the ring would unlock within him. It looked like the intricacies of stonemasonry were beyond the skeletons though, so wherever the stone had crumbled beyond use, and another one wasn’t available to fill the gap, the gap was left.
It was going to take the skeletons a while to get it cleared and after speaking with Mr Bones and seeing the skeletons work, he realised they would work faster without him getting in their way. Alix had to hold in a scream every time one of them moved. Their appearance wasn’t improved by the flickering lantern light he and Tifayn needed to see by, their empty eye sockets filling with burning embers. The skeletons were more than capable of working in the dark, so after making a quick round of their progress, Alix left them to it.
“It will take several days to clear the path,” Mr Bones said, his voice twice as unnerving in the dank depths of the castle, so Alix decided to spend some time filling in his map of the castle, clearing away the fog that marred its scale.
By the time he had checked out every accessible corner of the castle, he found that at least half of it was still blocked off due to one form of damage or another, mostly collapsed floors or ceilings. He returned to Tifayn’s quarters to read more of the books they had brought back from the library.
When he first saw the pile of books Tifayn had procured for him, he was worried it would take him precious weeks, or months, to study them properly, but he was pleasantly surprised when he heard the notification bell go again after he spent most of the day carefully reading Practical Potions: Volume 2.
Title Unlocked: Bibliophile. Increased Reading Speed. Increased Knowledge Retention.
“Sweet,” Alix said to himself as he read the new benefits. It probably wouldn’t make much of a difference for potions but it should come in handy for magic. He had flicked through Practical Magic and was eager to start learning some of the things it contained. He wanted more space in the grounds first before he started throwing around fireballs though. Or maybe he could use fireballs to help clear the grounds faster? He probably wouldn’t gain any harvested materials but it would speed things up a bit.
“What’s sweet?” Tifayn asked from where she lounged on the bed, confused when she couldn’t see any food in his hands. She seemed to spend all her time in the room there, trying to tempt him to follow her into the sheets. He couldn’t deny that the thought filled most of his waking moments, but he had to control himself. Pampered might be Leon’s downfall, but he didn’t want Debaucherous to be his.
“It means something is good,” Alix replied. Even though he seemed to be able to speak the language here, slang still didn’t translate well.
“Am I sweet then?” Tifayn said with an inviting smile.
Alix blushed furiously as he almost blurted out I’d like to find out. Instead he stuttered over his words then went back to his books.
Debauchery is going to be the death of me…
Tifayn giggled and went back to the book she was reading. She had taken to reading the autobiographies that previous Darknights had left behind in an attempt to learn more about Alix’s world. Alix had expected the most recent one to be at least five hundred years out of date, but it seemed time moved differently between Babyl and the worlds the knights were summoned from. He found several that referenced events from the past century and Tifayn was currently devouring them as fast as she could, sure that they must hold the clue to defeating the Solknight.
“It isn’t healthy to resist your desires, master,” she teased.
That’s not the point, Alix wanted to say, but he knew it was futile to argue the point with her. Instead he pretended not to hear her, or notice how her robe ‘accidently’ slipped further from her shoulders, shamelessly exposing her violet tipped exceptional assets. After living by herself for so long, half of the time she had to consciously remember to put on clothes. He went back to his book, glad for his new reading retention skill, as his mind continued to wander to other things.
I know what you are thinking Alix, the ring suddenly whispered in his ear.
Alix flinched, forgetting that the ring was there for a moment. There were definitely moments when he didn’t like having a sentient object on his hand, especially one that seemed to be able to read his thoughts.
I fully support you making the most of your time here, but I thought I would just give you advance warning. There are spells you must know now that the crypt is being uncovered. You shouldn’t have had to make use of them so soon, if at all, but circumstances don’t always work out like we intend. They are powerful spells, so the knowledge might knock you out for several days. Let me know when you are ready.
Are you sure I can’t learn them from Practical Magic?
Most definitely not. The spells are from a book of Necromancy, every physical copy of which has been destroyed. You are just going to have to deal with being bedridden. Poor you. If you could just fully let go of your old life, that would be a much more enjoyable situation.
You might as well get it over with, Alix replied silently, resigned to his fate. The sooner he learned what the ring wanted him to know, the sooner he could get the fatigue over with.
Alix felt a rush of warmth flow into him from the ring. This time the influx of new information wasn’t as difficult to deal with. He wondered if his new Title was helping him to understand it better. Still, he knew the worst was yet to come. He tried to focus on the words on the page before him, as his mind swirled with new necromantic concepts of resurrection and other grisly skills.
Does this mean I’m the bad guy in this world?
Alix didn’t feel like a bad guy but he most definitely felt like he was being shoehorned into the role against his will. Who else would know such dark magic and live in such a dark castle? Who else would share a bed with a demon and have undead servants? He silently apologised to every RPG villain he had ever defeated. They were just misunderstood.
The book became impossible to focus on, even with his Bibliophile Title. Every time Tifayn turned a page of her own book she would moan and sigh heavily.
“Your world sounds like so much fun. I wish I could see it.”
“Wasn’t that Darknight a soldier in World War One?” Alix asked when he recognised the cover of the book she was reading.
“You have no idea how long it’s been since I saw a good war,” Tifayn replied, sighing heavily again, writhing on the bed as if the words were akin to an amazing massage.
Is that how bad things are on Earth? Alix wondered. He had always imagined fantasy worlds to have a lot more violence but it seemed humanity had managed to outdo even the wildest imaginings of a demon from another world.
“Maybe I will be able to show you one day. It is a lot more peaceful now than it was back when that book was written,” Alix said, giving up on his book and standing to stretch out his muscles from sitting so long.
“Really?” Tifayn suddenly lit up at the thought. “You would take me with you?”
“Why wouldn’t I? I will owe you at least that much if I manage to survive. This castle is barely habitable and from what you have told me it sounds like you don’t have a place among your own people anymore and I feel responsible for that.”
The fatigue hit him as a crippling wave of headrush. Suddenly Tifayn was there to hold him up. “What’s wrong?” she asked, leading him to the bed.
“The ring gave me some new information, but I didn’t expect it to wipe me out this quickly.”
As he lay down, the sparks flying past his eyes faded, and his vision was filled with Tifayn’s breasts hanging over him. She had completely lost her robe as she helped him to bed, and was now straddling him, looking deep into his eyes for injury. The concern slowly left her face as she realised he was alright and that he wasn’t under some magical attack.
“Do you promise to take me with you?” she said, pulling him into a deep kiss before giving him a chance to reply.
“I promise,” he managed to breath once she finally let him go, just as he was getting into it, just as the darkness overcame him.
Alix regained full consciousness three days later. The feeling wasn’t as rough as it had been before, but he still found himself in a daze. The first thing he noticed was the x3 beside the notification bell. He opened the menu and checked out what had happened to him while he was out.
* Reached Lv. 2
* Reached Lv. 3
* Acquired Necromancy Suite
How the hell did I level up twice in my sleep?
Tifayn had been a lot more vigorous in her ministrations the past few days whenever he woke up, bringing him food and drink when he needed it, and offering to crawl into bed to sooth his fatigue other ways. Always he refused, but more than once he woke up from a good dream to find himself spooning her. It had definitely helped, and he had gained a lot of experience points from it, but the Necromancy Skills had also given him quite a boost. He saw that his EXP was on the verge of reaching Lv. 4 already.
Finally, he had received his first Skills, although they were far from what he had expected. Alix wondered again if he really was the villain here, having unlocked Skills such as Animate and Soulbind before anything else. There were about two dozen ominously named Skills under the new Necromancy tab, most of which he hoped he would never have to use.
Tifayn was snoring, spreadeagled beside him, having worn herself out. It was the first time he had seen her in such a state. Usually her hair was immaculately combed, with a silkiness he had thought innate. Now her hair was a sweaty tangled mess, silent witness to the past few days activity. She still looked beautiful. He was torn between wondering what he had done to deserve her, and feeling guilty that she was only attracted to him because of the aura he seemingly emitted as the Darknight.
If you had some wizardly sex magic back home, you wouldn’t have complained about using it so stop being such a bitch! the first voice constantly shouted to the second.
At the thought of magic, the daze cleared and he felt excitement fill him. He was finally going to use magic today. Necromancy wasn’t quite what he had wanted to start with, but magic was magic.
Tifayn had given him rare updates the past few days as to the skeletons progress so he was eager to see where they were at. Last he heard, they had cleared the initial debris, and then the challenge became clearing the stairs they uncovered that descended downwards. The floor above had caved in and filled the opening, and further down the steps themselves had collapsed into the depths. Any further questioning was cut off by her pressing something or other into his mouth to sedate him.
Mr Bones had just finished reconstructing the steps when he arrived, having managed to crawl out of the bed without waking Tifayn. He knew better than to proceed without her, he just wanted to see if they had to wait any longer for whatever Mr Bones was suggesting. He still wasn’t clear on it, but he could guess well enough by putting his new Skills together with the name of the place where he found all the skeletons congregated.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
The newly cleared hallway to the Crypt was surprisingly well restored, although it was only a temporary fix until the stone could be properly refitted and the wooden logs replaced with milled timbers. It was more than serviceable for their needs though. The clean look of the rebuilt path was marred by the smell that now wafted up from the unsealed chamber below, the smell of rot, earth and long trapped air.
He forced himself to head further down the path, passing the skeletons that lined the passage waiting for their next command. He wondered if they could ever get tired out. He hoped whatever spell kept them going didn’t need to rest. He meant to work them hard, if only so they weren’t able to surprise him around every corner. He wanted to know exactly where they were at all times, so that he could avoid them. He expected at any moment to unlock the Title Bitch.
Mr Bones was waiting for him at the top of the reconstructed stairs, looking down into the dark depths. The stone steps carried on for a few metres before they were lost to the darkness. They would need to grab some torches before they attempted the descent. The last thing he needed was to trip and break his neck. At least they wouldn’t have to move his body far to his final resting place.
“Good to see you up and about again, my lord,” Mr Bones said at his arrival.
“Thanks,” Alix replied awkwardly. “This is great work. So what are we supposed to do now?”
“There are many of my brethren down in the Crypt. They should have awoken when I did a few years ago, but something has happened and the spell didn’t work. As the Darknight, you will have to replenish the spell.”
“A few years ago? I thought you had been awake for a lot longer than that. How long has it been?”
“Two hundred years I would say, give or take a few decades.”
“Who was it that woke you up then? That sounds like it was long before Tifayn arrived here.”
“The last Darknight, Farquhar. He was a wise master, wise enough to know that he wouldn’t win in the fight against the Solknight. He knew the castle would be pillaged afterwards, and he didn’t want us to perish along with it, so he put us all to rest and then went to fight the Solknight alone. He knew that the people would soon forget about the Darknight, and set a spell to wake us after a few centuries to try and undo what damage they caused before the next Darknight arrived. It seems the spells have weakened since then though, as only a handful of us woke up, not enough to restore the damage done, and then the passage collapsed shortly afterwards.”
“Well I don’t know much about magic but I will take your word for it. I will do everything I can to help. I should probably go and wake Tifayn before we get started.”
“That would probably be wise, my lord. She is very eager to explore the Crypt and determine why the spell failed. She said she could sense something was off, but I have been unable to find anything of concern. The Crypt looks exactly as I left it.”
Alix left Mr Bones and the skeletons to go and wake Tifayn. Now that he knew the way was clear, he was eager to get started, although the smell that emanated from the cavern was almost enough to put him off.
He found Tifayn just as he had left her, and heard her before he had even walked back through the door. If she’s going to make a habit of snoring, I’m going to have to learn how to craft some earplugs.
“Tifayn,” he called softly, sitting on the edge of the bed. Instantly she snorted and her eyes opened.
“Are you alright, master?” she said after a short moment of confusion. Before he could answer, she jumped from the bed, still completely naked, to make sure he was safe and recovered. “Are you sure you should be up?”
“I’m fine, don’t worry. I just came to let you know that Mr Bones has finished fixing up the path to the Crypt.”
“That’s excellent news. Let’s go at once,” Tifayn declared, marching towards the door.
“Hold on,” Alix called, pulling her back.
“Finally want to taste how sweet I am?” she said, allowing herself to be pulled back into his arms.
“You can’t go out there like that,” Alix replied, ignoring her invitation.
But think of the exp!
Shut up!
Bitch…
Tifayn dressed begrudgingly, but bent and squirmed a lot more than she needed to before her robe was securely cinched around her waist. It did nothing to hide her voluptuous figure.
Back at the entrance to the Crypt, Tifayn took the lead, rushing down into the darkness before Alix could catch up to her with his torch. Evidently she could see in the dark. Why was she so interested in what had gone wrong down there?
“Good luck, my lord,” Mr Bones rattled as he walked past.
“You are not coming?” Alix asked, surprised the skeleton would miss the thing he had advocated for himself.
“There is no need. I have faith in you, my lord. Besides, there is much work that still needs to be done.” With that he turned and motioned for the skeletons to follow him to their next job.
Alix descended alone into the darkness. The steps were cracked and gouged where the worst of the collapse had been, but after that they were solid. He expected to reach the bottom fairly quickly, but after a few minutes he was still descending deeper and there was no sign of Tifayn, although he could smell her cinnamon scent cutting through the dry rot.
Eventually the wall to his left fell away. He couldn’t tell if it was a secondary collapse or if the steps here had once been free floating, secured into the castle wall, but in the light from the torch he could see that the skeletons had just piled up the rubble underneath to build some rough steps. It did the job, but he hoped he would be able to teach them stonemasonry somehow. The castle had a lot of complicated structures that weren’t easily rebuilt by just stacking the stones up again or propping things up with wood.
When he finally reached the last step, he found Tifayn waiting for him in the darkness.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, wondering why she had run ahead. It wasn’t like any of the crypts occupants were going anywhere any time soon.
“Something happened here…I can feel it,” she replied, looking off into the darkness at something Alix couldn’t fathom.
“What is it?” He looked around, lifting his torch to spread the light further, but all he could see were row upon row of stone sarcophagi. Some of the closest had their lids cracked in half or fallen off to the side to reveal empty interiors. Others were still sealed shut. He had never been fond of graveyards or coffins so he couldn’t help but feel a constant chill run through him at the sight of the endless rows of the dead. What else was hiding out there in the darkness?
“The spell that should have been on the skeletons down here, it hasn’t just failed, it is completely gone.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“No, if the spell failed there would still be a remnant of it. The skeletons were in a kind of hibernation, so that spell should still be here, with only whatever part that was meant to wake them up having failed. I expected to find a few stragglers trapped down here, having woken up after the cave-in, but there is nothing. There is no longer any spell on these skeletons whatsoever. They are completely dead. I can sense the magic of the Darknight usually, feel it wash over me when I’m in its presence, but down here there is nothing, until you arrived. You are like a beacon of warmth beside me.”
“What do you think caused it then? Could the magic have worn off naturally after all these centuries? Nothing lasts forever.”
“It’s possible, but unlikely. The spells that used to be at work here were the efforts of dozens of Darknights over the millennia and not once before have they failed.”
“So Mr Bones wants me to wake up all these skeletons? Maybe some of them will be able to answer your questions.”
“You won’t be able to just wake them up anymore. It’s going to require a larger spell. It probably would have been better for you to practise with something smaller first, but we don’t really have time. We desperately need the help these skeletons can provide.”
“I might as well give it a shot. If it doesn’t work I can just practise until I’m ready to try again.”
Amongst the list of new Necromancy Skills, he had thought Awaken was the one he might have to use, but that wasn’t right anymore. The skeletons were no longer ‘sleeping’. It was accompanied by others Skills such as Revive, Resurrect and Animate, which sounded similar but had completely different uses. They couldn’t be revived as they were too long dead for such a spell. Animate would create mindless puppets that would be good for nothing without his constant supervision and direction. He needed them to have some semblance of sentience, so Resurrect was what he would have to try.
It looked like there were a lot of bodies down in the Crypt though. He just hoped he had enough MP to cast the spell. In an RPG he would have expected to be able to look up the level requirement and the mana cost but here he was going in blind. Resurrection was usually a fairly late game spell with a high mana cost, but he had to remind himself that this wasn’t a game. It was real life with cheats activated. If he was the villain of this world then surely he had the mana to cast such a spell.
Alix placed his torch in a holder on the wall and then activated Resurrect. Intricate lines began to form on the ground in a circle around him, similar to the one that had appeared when the Cardinal had cast his spell, but the symbols within his own circle made him nauseous to look at and they gave off a sickly glow.
The spell built until a green light shot across the chamber, illuminating the expanse of the underground necropolis. He had expected something more, expected it to need a direction, but it shot away with a life of its own. Tifayn alternated between anxious looks towards him and out into the green tinged shadows as the light of the spell fragmented and sank into every sarcophagus in the chamber.
For a while, nothing happened. In his anticipation, he didn’t notice that his MP gauge had been completely depleted. It wasn’t until he felt a weird sense of weakness wash over him that he thought to look. So that was magic. It was very anticlimactic.
“Something’s happening…” Tifayn whispered. He turned his gaze from the stone coffins to see what she was talking about, but he found her trying to fan herself with her voluminous sleeve, her skin flushed in the torchlight.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, worried his spell had somehow gone awry.
“Nothing’s wrong…your spell…so big,” she spoke in short quick bursts as she continued to fan herself. At first he thought she was in pain but the look on her face was unmistakably one of pleasure.
Before he could ask how the hell Necromancy was turning her on, a low rumbling began to cut through the dead air, followed by the moans of long dead voices. In another time it would have scared the shit out of him, but interspersed with Tifayn’s own moans, the effect was lessened. He just hoped the spell would work properly and that the skeletons would listen to him instead of tear him to shreds.
A loud scraping soon filled the entire chamber, of stone lids sliding clear of caskets and the rattling of bones. Several dozen answered his call, shuffling out of the darkness to line up before him. Either some of the lying dead were too far gone for his spell to take effect, or he had run out of mana before the spell could raise them all, but he had expected more. He only wished he could clothe them all. They wore nothing but rotten scraps at best, armour and cloth having fallen away from their bones. Maybe he would be able to craft some clothes for them.
“What do you command, my son?” the first skeleton to reach him asked, the words whispering into his mind through the ring. The words caught him off guard for a moment, but there was no time to ponder them. The space at the bottom of the stairs was quickly filling up, and Tifayn’s moans were becoming wilder. She had untied her robe to use the entirety of its length to try and fan her flushed naked body. Something was causing her to sweat profusely.
“Our castle is falling apart. I would like you all to help me fix it,” Alix commanded simply. “Mr Bones is waiting for you above.”
The skeletons began to make their way up the stairs, and the ones that came after followed them. Alix watched the procession in awe at what he had done. I just raised the dead. I guess there’s no denying I’m the bad guy now. As they marched past, a new Title appeared before him; Necromancer. Increased Mana. It also unlocked a new Skill.
* Acquired Greater Resurrection
With the new Title, his Mana gauge refilled. Since the first spell hadn’t been as effective as he had expected, he decided to give it another go. He tapped on Greater Resurrection and the strength once again left him in a rush as another green light, larger this time, filled the chamber with its pulsing glow. No inch of the chamber was left in darkness.
Tifayn’s feverish moaning reached a new level. She threw her robe to the ground and began pacing back and forth.
Another few dozen skeletons appeared and Alix gave them the same instruction. Eventually the chamber was silent again, apart from Tifayn. When the last of the skeletons finally disappeared up into the castle, she cried out an unintelligible shuddering gasp.
“What’s wrong Tifayn,” Alix said, rushing to her side.
Tifayn looked at him as if she was seeing him for the first time. “Please, don’t look at me Alix,” she managed to heave between moans as she continued her feverish pacing.
A chill washed over him at her words. It was the first time she had called him by his name. Something is definitely wrong. Tifayn tried to move away as Alix reached out to help her, but at his touch she suddenly lost control of her legs. Her fingers dug painfully into his shoulders as she clung to him for support.
“You feel feverish, Tifayn,” Alix exclaimed. A sheen of sweat covered her body and in the light from the torches he thought he could see goosebumps rippling across her skin.
“I’m fine, just help me get out of here,” Tifayn said between trembling breaths.
Alix helped Tifayn to make her way towards the stairs with difficulty. With her clothes lost to the darkness, his hands kept slipping across her skin.
“I never expected such an outpouring of mana from you,” she said as they hobbled along the wall. “In a place so devoid of magic, the sudden surge of your spells was overwhelming.”
“Is that what happened to you? Why didn’t you mention it before?”
“I didn’t realise it would happen, or that it would make me so…flustered. Please, let’s not speak of this, it is embarrassing.”
“I will try to be more careful from now on,” Alix said, still slightly dazed and unsure of what had happened.
He grabbed the torch from the wall and used his other hand to help Tifayn back up the steps. Her legs continued to shake until they got back to her room. She immediately lay down on the bed and passed out.
Alix had drained his mana twice, a move which he quickly found also drained his stamina. He probably should have tried out some of his stocked potions, but he was too busy worrying about Tifayn to think about it. He hoped in time calling on a potion would become a reflex. Despite it being barely midday, he was already exhausted from the mornings events, and soon he was fast asleep beside her.
Alix woke to darkness, with something clamped over his mouth and a weight covering his body.
“Shh,” Tifayn whispered, barely audible. For some reason she was crouching on top of him, her hand covering his mouth, staring off into the darkness.
What is going on? Alix called silently to the ring.
Before he could get a reply, Tifayn launched herself from the bed. Alix expected her to fly into the far wall, but she hit something hiding in the shadows and she fell to the ground, dragging it with her.
Alix jumped from the bed after her, quickly lighting a candle to see what was going on. The flame sputtered to life, revealing Tifayn straddling a form on the floor, a form that was writhing furiously in her grasp trying to escape. It was all wrinkles and shrivelled skin the grey colour of a miserable morning sky, but as a pair of eyes locked with his, the skin began to smooth and the pallid complexion brightened. Alix suddenly felt a bit lightheaded.
“Don’t you dare, bitch!” Tifayn yelled, swinging back her head and giving the form a swift headbutt. The intruder went limp.
Between Tifayn’s legs lay a petite girl, with the palest skin Alix had ever seen, and silver hair to match. Her mouth hung open, revealing a pair of long fangs. The two girls were as naked as the day they were born. It took him a few moments to notice that the pale girl had a pair a of black bat-like wings spread on the ground beneath her.
“What the hell is that?” Alix exclaimed at the sight.
“Vampire!” Tifayn hissed through gritted teeth.