While the girls and his minions were clearing the water-filled zombies climbing the ship, he opened the MAP and realized that one of the six islands on the right side of the bridge was the ship they were on.
"Neyrelle, did you say there's an Altar of Lilith nearby?"
[Yes. I think it's on the... *Groan* island to our right.](Neyrelle)
Using his Corpse Tendrils and five Corpse Explosions in a row to clear the battlefield, mostly because the girls were being overwhelmed by the large number of enemies.
Next, while the drowned died to the miasma, he cast a couple more Corpse Explosions near their climbing points and took his party members to look for the winch.
Since these 'islands' were less than 500 meters from head to tail and even shorter in width, the group was able to quickly scour the three adjacent islands and quickly find their objective.
Returning to the ship and installing the winch, the group was ambushed by six Elites, putting them in a tricky situation since Michael lacked enough Corpses to use.
Fortunately, through Reap, the relentless attacks of the Reapers, and his Quarterback's sacrifice, the Elite ex-sailors were smushed together through Corpse Tendrils and turned into melted salt by the miasma.
With the nuisances out of the way, the Necromancer pulled the lever on the winch until it connected to the island on the left leading to the Lighthouse while also removing some debris on the way and pulling over a second sail to connect to the island on their far right.
"I guess that's our ticket to the hidden Altar."
[Number 23. Let's goooo! Next, we'll deal with the Boss!](Tia)
Michael rolled his eyes at her ridiculously exuberant personality as he used the rope on the sail to traverse across, hoping there wouldn't be any tentacled monsters waiting for them at the Lighthouse.
After collecting the Altar and clearing a ton of zombies more, the party returned to the ship, climbed onto the mast, and used it to reach the island closest to their destination.
From there, they simply had to jump over since the lighthouse walls were less than three meters away and then scale the said walls to get inside.
"That was... a unique experience."
[It was pretty fun.](Neyrelle)
[I'd like to do it again!](Evelyn)
[We could've swam here, couldn't we?](Tia)
Hearing the shorty propose such a wild idea temporarily lockjawed the other three party members, who selectively chose to ignore her proposal due to various reasons.
The drowned idols were present in an even larger quantity near the Lighthouse, creeping everyone out.
Even worse, close to the stairs leading up, a small group of three people lay dead on the ground.
[ Lightkeepers
The retainers of the flame suffered a grim fate, but they went down fighting. A clean death is undoubtedly better than joining the ranks of the Drowned. ]
Sighing and 'collecting' the three corpses into his inventory, Michael led the party to the second floor of the Lighthouse, where he felt his blood freeze upon seeing a sculpture near the start of the second floor.
[That's weird. Is that a sculpture of tentacles?](Tia)
[That's strange indeed... there isn't any other part of the monster's body. Only the tentacles.](Neyrelle)
[It looks disgusting...](Evelyn)
"..."
The Necromancer's knees were slowly beginning to breakdance, but he tried soothing himself by confirming over and over again how Blizzard wouldn't fuck around with the Chuthulu mythos since they lack the copyrights.
At least, he hoped they did.
Luckily, the Boss wasn't an Eldritch abomination but a huge Naga-like creature.
It looked like a siren, but she was way too ugly and way too fat to be called one.
[ Tidewitch Ne'Gana (Boss) - Level 58 ]
[That's even weirder. This Boss is a Nangari, but they are known for staying near the swamps, not near salty waters.](Neyrelle)
"Tell that to her trident flying at our face."
Moving his Golem to block, only to see him smacked away, Michael sweated slightly at the idea of having to face this bastard... well... bitch, in a melee.
If that absurd strength wasn't enough, once her Life Points dropped under 80%, she started throwing water bombs at everyone randomly, dealing large amounts of burst damage.
Then, at 50%, she began summoning random torrents of water from underneath the fucking stone floor, which was more than ten to twenty meters thick, prompting the Necromancer to curse at its absurdity.
Luckily, that was her final trick. After 25%, she started combining the two skills, as the minions and party members attacked her continuously.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
"*Sigh* At least the reward is decent."
[That looks like 5 Rare item boxes and one Legendary per person?](Neyrelle)
[Nice! I got a new dagger!](Tia)
Everyone was speechlessly staring at the brat who had already opened her loot before it was even distributed, wondering if she knew what manners in a party were supposed to be.
Adding this matter to the already long list of flaws this young Assasin had shown so far, Michael checked and realized he got a Focus item for his Legendary draw.
Since it was pretty trash, he directly decided to salvage it and threw it in his inventory.
[ World Stronghold Event update - Hope's Light
Objective: Ignite Hope's Light. ]
Surprised at the lack of a Wanderer Shrine, the party wondered if this Stronghold was unique, but they climbed the ladder to the top of the tower nonetheless.
Leaving aside the Quest Event, they wanted to check out the view from such a high altitude.
Halfway up the tower, there was a small portion of stone they could stand on, and they found the Wanderer Shrine there.
Walking around the tower, they couldn't find a door leading inside, so they continued climbing the second ladder and swiftly reached the top.
To say the view was breathtaking was an understatement.
The high vantage point allowed them to see incredibly far into the distance, and Evelyn even pointed out the massive tree in Túr Dúlra.
On the other hand, Michael was more preoccupied with the barrier of fog blocking his field of view when he looked toward the sea/ocean.
'I get this is a body of water and all, but it feels too unnatural. It's as if something is blocking us from gazing at whatever is out there. Shit! Am I overthinking things again?'
Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he approached the large pyre in the middle of the tower and infused some Essence into it.
Once about 70% of his Resource Pool was drained, the water-soaked wood was finally ignited, rekindling the Lighthouse for the incoming ships.
Ten minutes later, once everyone was satisfied with gawking from atop a tall building, they descended back to the middle of the tower and rekindled the Wanderer Shrine as well, effectively completing the Stronghold Event.
They were pretty high up, but the Necromancer could swear he saw some of the drowned idols on floor-level getting smashed by the energy wave sent out by the shrine.
This obviously served to strengthen his desire to get the fuck out of here, only to be denied by Neyrelle and the other two girls.
[There's a Dungeon here!](Tia)
"No!"
[But why? It's so close!](Evelyn)
"Ugh..."
[We might as well do it. Since there are no nearby Waypoints, we should clear it. Otherwise, we'd have to travel more than two hours on horseback from the nearest settlement.](Neyrelle)
Opening the MAP, he prayed for an undead prison underneath the Lighthouse but was very disappointed upon reading the description.
[ Dungeon: Flooded Depths (Level 55)
Description: More than water has made a claim to these shipwrecks. ]
Under the girls' insistence, they ended up entering the Dungeon.
[ Dungeon Quest issued - Flooded Depths
Objective: Slay the Plague Ship Rower. ]
The interior was certainly unique, as it alluded to walls sculpted out of cliffs and the wooden walls of a rotting ship.
Moving through the Keeper's Quarters, the group killed a large number of Drowned until they reached a door closed through a pulley mechanism.
Fortunately, after getting rid of the Elite guarding it, Michael could work his back muscles and rotate the damned ship helm for around two minutes uninterrupted until the gate was fully raised from the ground and the way forward opened.
Further in, the group found the log of a Knight, probably a Cathedral of Light one, as seen from the very... fanatic-like words penned in it.
[ Knight Commander's Log
After a month's voyage on the Twin Seas, our ship has run aground on the night of our return to Scosglen.
The keepers of Hope's Light apparently failed to tend to the beacon. Their singular duty!
This incompetence has cost the Father a ship and endangered the lives of my knights. I will be leading a shore party to find those responsible, bind them to the beacon, and set them alight! ]
Judging from the state of the skeleton under which they found this log, Michael could easily speculate how the land party fared.
As for what they encountered and what killed the Lightkeepers, he had no idea.
There was the possibility of the Nagari, but as Neyrelle pointed out, it made little sense for them to be here.
"Neyrelle, is there a possibility for another type of Nagari to exist? One that lives closer to the sea, or even in the sea?"
[That... I am not sure, but it's highly unlikely. The Nagari exist to worship Trag'Oul, The One Who is Forever. They wouldn't venture too far from their god's influence. Also, don't ask me more about it since that's all I know. Since he's supposed to live in Hawezar next to the Tree, maybe she knows more.](Neyrelle)
"That's pretty interesting. Anything else you know about it?"
Michael remembered Rathma's Necropolis and the place where he found the man dead.
While his body lay on the stairs, a mural depicting a huge serpent stood above as if watching him sleep.
[All I know are rumors since I didn't have the chance to search the Horadric Vault for details pertaining to it. But, it is said that Rathma learned Necromancy from it, and it also bears the title of 'The one who maintains Balance between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells.'](Neyrelle)
"What!? That's crazy! A being is capable of intervening in the conflict between those crazy bastards? Do you know how strong it is?"
[As I said... that's pretty much everything I know, and most of everything else are baseless rumors. You'll have to ask Natalia for confirmation.](Neyrelle)
Immediately adding 'pestering Natalia about the dragon-like snake' to his mental list of things to ask the woman, the Necromancer led the party deeper into the Dungeon.
The following part was even more like a ship, with few places showing signs of stone.
It didn't help either since the area they were in was called Compromised Oilstores.
[ Dungeon Event joined - Cursed Shrine
Objective: Slay as many enemy waves as you can before the time runs out.
*Mastery: Defeat at least five waves (0/5). ]
What DID help was the Shrine of Inarius, which they found in a five-by-five room and triggered the said Event.
Monsters kept being summoned at incredibly short intervals, and each of Michael's Corpse Explosion radius pretty much covered the entire room.
So most monsters died as soon as they spawned, creating a goddamn bug where the party was farming experience with almost zero effort.
It didn't help either that the Event's duration was ten minutes, which boosted Michaels' experience to 2,029,762/2,067,950, pretty much at 99% of his current level.
The room was also full of Rare item boxes, filling the group's inventory to the brim, even before they opened the Greater Radiant Chest they got as a reward for completing the Event.
Taking a portal to the nearest city, which strangely enough was Cerrigar, the party sold everything in their possession and also salvaged the useless Legendary items.
Added the coins they gathered by slaughtering all those summoned demons, Michael made 389,232 in about ten minutes.
The three salvaged Legendaries also resulted in 6 Iron Chunks, 3 Veiled Crystals, 2 Baleful Fragments, and 1 Abstruse Sigil.
Hesitating for a while, Michael found Fideg, the local Purveyor of Curiosities.
There, he spent 200 Obols in one go and got four Rare helms and a Legendary one.
The four he sold immediately, while the fifth was kept to be 'refurbished' as his new piece of equipment.
[ Adventurer's Helm of Exploding Mist
Legendary Helm
432 Item Power
Legacy Item
-----------------
540 Armor
* +16 Willpower
* +15 Life regeneration per second if not Damaged Recently
* +14% Cold Resistance
Legendary Aspect: Blood Mist triggers Corpse Explosion on surrounding Corpses. When Blood Mist detonates a Corpse, its cooldown is reduced by 0.2 seconds (Necromancer Only).
+2.5% Maximum Life (Chipped Ruby slotted) ]
[ Archon Helm of Shielding Storm
Legendary Helm
600 Item Power
-----------------
750 Armor (+210 when compared to the currently equipped item)
* +44 Intelligence
* +4 Maximum Resource
* +2.0% Cooldown Reduction
Legendary Aspect: Each time Bone Storm damages an enemy, gain a Barrier equal to 1% of your Maximum Life for 10 seconds (Necromancer Only). ]
Michael grinned after briefly comparing the two, knowing he had drawn a good one.