Chapter 23) Two Skilled Gentlemen. Or, This here’s a Sunset town.

We headed back into the temple as Drew demanded an explanation since Matt figured standing around outside would attract too much attention. After heading about the whole magic options I had unlocked, Drew was not a happy man.

“I could have had magic abilities too!”

Sigh. “No, you couldn’t.”

He looked confused, so then Matt chimed in.

“Tex didn’t even know that magic was a possibility when you rushed through your tutorial. He hadn’t even gone over to the other dungeon yet. Try to keep up Skippy.”

Skippy… Er, Drew, glared. Matt grinned. I tried to play peacekeeper.

"Nobody kill anyone, dying again might send you two someplace worse."

Drew slowly shook his head. “No, if you die here before you reach tenth level, you just get sent back to pop out of the gate the next morning. Only without any of your stuff, other than the same clothes I had when I got to your dungeon."

Oh. “I’m sorry you missed out Drew, if I could unlock it for you, I would. But do you have any other information to share with us?”

Drew clenched his eyes shut for a moment, then walked over to gather up the club from the goblin me he had killed before he answered in a low tone. “Yeah.”

Matt took a step over to where he could see out the front door while keeping an eye on Drew at the same time.

Gripping the club in both hands and twisting at the wood, Drew began to slowly speak.

“The ones who came for me on the third night. They told me that this Terrance guy was summoned here to kill the Demon King Shalac or something like that. Terrance was brought here by the goddess of life.” He pointed over to what was left of a shattered statue that had been on a pedestal at the rear of the temple.

“The only problem was, he became so powerful while he was preparing to kill the boss monster, that after he did it, the King here accused him of plotting to take over the world in the Big Bad’s place. The king got his daughter who had been promised to the guy to back her father’s story up, which was easy since she wanted to hook up with one of the guys who was on Terrance’s backup team along with her.”

Drew nodded out toward the entrance to the ruined temple. “The whole city bought it and turned against the guy while the king put on a sham trial, and then they threw things at him as he was paraded through the streets before they cheered his execution. The Goddess of Life destroyed her own temple in protest over how the people had treated her champion and abandoned the town to its fate."

He took a walk over to the entrance of the place and looked out. “It turns out that Terrance made an arrangement with the Demon King's kid to come back as an undead creature in case he lost to the Demon King so he could take another shot at it.”

“And with the Goddess of Life gone…”

Drew gave us a grim look. “After he rose, he decided to take out his revenge over the betrayal not only on those who betrayed him but also on everyone in the city who had cheered while he was carted out to be killed.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Hmm… “So… If the goddess abandoned this place, is it still holy ground? And if it isn’t, then why aren't there any undead coming in here?”

Drew laughed, suddenly and loudly before abruptly going silent. We looked over at him to see a crazed look in his eyes.

“The Liche commanded the lesser ones not to come in here, out of respect. But the talkers, he didn’t make them, they came here on their own. Once they noticed me trying to hole up here during the day, they came and took everything I had gathered up on the third day, then…" Drew began breathing hard and rubbed at his neck.

"They talked it over and decided they would take turns. Then they drew cards to see who got to kill me last night. Like I was some kind of prize."

Drew’s eyes were darting from side to side as he moved back away from the entrance.”

“The Dark Lady, she made it quick. The others mocked her for making it quick, she… she…”

I walked over and hugged the shaking man. “It’s okay, it won’t happen again. I’ll stop them.”

He stared down at me in shock, then anger. “How?”

I let him go as I took a step back, “Did you get a level here yet? And more importantly, did you lose it when you got killed?”

The traumatized man slowly shook his head as Matt called out. “I needed a hundred Life Points, which I guess must be what they use for experience points, to make a level. I’m at seventy now, so I’m close.”

Drew hesitated then spoke up. “You get ten each for killing the walking skeletons outside, and a reward for killing ten of them that gives you a boost when fighting any undead creatures. I unlocked [ Running ] when I tried to escape the Lurkers, and that gave me another ten for unlocking a Basic Skill.”

Ah... "Well, I guess I've been cheating people out of free points by having them unlock basic skills in the tutorial unless you guys got some of those ‘Life Points” in my Dungeon and didn’t bother mentioning it?”

I bobbed up and down as I drifted over toward Matt. He shook his head. "No, but I bet I can unlock ten more skills before I even leave the room." He wiggled his spear at Drew. "Did you get anything for making second level?"

Drew shrugged. “Something called Battle Cry, but I didn’t get any information on how it works or how to use it.”

Matt nodded, then jumped up on top of a chunk of fallen stone before standing on it with one foot, after a moment he hopped off of it, stacked another block on top of the first, then stepped up to balance on it again.

“I got a timer counting down from ten… and I unlocked [ Balance ]. Nine more to go.”

Guess it's brainstorming time. "You didn't bother with [ Singing ] or [ Dancing ] back in the dungeon. Those were pretty easy.”

Matt surprised me with a rendition of a song about, well, asking permission for sodomy under various circumstances such as a honeymoon or a night in jail, while Drew outright shocked me with a professional sounding rendition of Ave Maria that really showed off the acoustics of the place from where he stood in front of the broken altar.

Maybe being that loud wasn’t the brightest thing to do in a city full of undead out to kill us, but still, very well done.

Matt and I clapped afterwards while Drew seemed to brighten up a bit at the appreciation. “Four years in church choir. With a one year interruption while my voice changed.”

Then the two of them boogied down while I clapped to give them a beat to dance to.

Matt gave us a fist pump after they finished. “[ Dancing ] and level two. I need another two hundred now.”

Then they both unlocked [ Calligraphy ] with Matt’s notebook, [ Sewing ] with a kit Matt had packed which they used to sew some of the dead Goblin’s rags together, and [ Wood Carving ] on the two clubs we had.

Matt was pondering while Drew while balancing on two stacked up stones. “I would like to keep going, but we can’t spend all day here looking for more low hanging fruit.”

He side glanced at me. “And I definitely don’t want to be here at night. Not just for my sake, I don’t want to find out what another death at the hands of the ‘Talkers’ would do to Skippy.”

Right, so… “Maybe just some quick ones? How about… Whistling?”

It worked.

So did [ Sketching ], with ten quick little doodles each done in the notebook, with a countdown popping up in their line of vision as they finished the various stick figures and one penis drawing each.

“Real mature guys.”

[ Sketching ] was one Matt came up with. Drew came up with [ Grooming ] using the comb from Matt’s grooming kit for ten strokes, And then [ Knot Tying ] with the rope which was mine.

It took ten knots to do it, which ate up more time than we could spare, but fortunately, I was used to teaching knots to people with limited attention spans. The Scouts have seven standard ones every kid had to learn, and I had picked up several more because some of the boys got a kick out of learning things, or at least bragging when they knew more than the other guys.

After they finished, I knew we had to get a move on, but...“I wonder how many levels you can knock out just with skills. I’ll make sure you two get the credit back in the dungeon for the ones you two came up with. Even if I’m going to keep people from unlocking them in until they go through the exit gate.”

For instance, I could teach nine knots, then show them how to do a square knot without actually having them do it, so they could save it to unlock once they went through the gate.

As Matt finished his last Knot, he got a curious look on his face.

“You know, I didn’t get [ Battle Cry ] for second level. Instead, I got [ Charge ].”

He shook his head, “I would like to know more about how this works, but it’s past time to get moving, this was fun and informative, but I'm thinking killing things is going to level up is going to be faster, and get us closer to getting out of here.”