The Wolf King party ran down the already explored crypt passages until they made it to the trifurcation.
“Let’s take a short pause here before we take the right passage. Everyone ready your weapons,” Fenris commanded.
Duncan looked at the middle one and asked, “Could we check out the middle one again?”
Fenris looked at him with a surprised expression, before asking, “Why? What do you hope to gain there?”
“I want to check if it’s the same door as the entrance to the mine. I have information that the Mayor ordered two doors from Bolgar. We didn’t thoroughly check it the last time we were there,” Duncan explained.
Fenris frowned and nodded. “Let’s do that. It won’t take long and it could confirm some suspicions.”
They quickly went down the middle corridor and entered the formerly Zombie-infested room and checked the door.
“It looks the same now that I took a closer look,” Petris stated.
“That’s because it is the same as the one covering the mine. We just never take a good look at it when we are exiting,” Fenris replied and sighed after.
“What are you thinking about?” Duncan asked.
“I am thinking the Mayor caused the incident of the undead running through our village and killing people,” Fenris replied.
“How many were killed?” Duncan asked.
“Seven people died that day. All of them from being attacked by Ghouls and poisoned by the venom. I wish we had you then or at least the antidote,” Fenris replied with a sigh.
“I thought only Marykah’s sister and her husband were attacked,” Duncan replied.
“Her sister was the only survivor of the poison and even then, she was lucky. We managed to block them from hurting more people by luring them to a barricaded dead end. The Ghouls were killed off by the light in a few days. After that Elland somehow managed to come up with a lesser version of the antidote by using their remains.
After spending nearly all the stock of our healing potions, she was the only one who lasted that long. She had the smallest wounds from the Ghoul’s attacks too since her husband defended her. The others were not so lucky. Well, the word luck should maybe not be used for it. She was alive but just barely. She spent the next 150 years in her bed sleeping,” Fenris replied as he shook his head.
“She is better now,” Duncan replied.
“Really? How?” Fenris asked.
“Elland managed to perfect the antidote using the purified Wraith essence as the main ingredient,” Duncan explained.
“You mean the same as the ones that you gave us the last time?” Fenris asked.
Duncan nodded.
“Good,” Fenris replied and gestured for them to go back.
“We can’t open this door from the inside using our key,” Fenris explained as Duncan looked at him.
The left and middle passages were already explored in the former expeditions. All that was left for them was to go deeper into the crypt following the right passage.
“Petris, go Stealth and tell us what’s down there. Everyone else gets ready. Rosen takes the right. Tenris left. Duncan is behind me. Be ready to switch with me if we get a Wraith,” Fenris commanded as Petris left.
As they waited, Rosen was not able to hold his mouth and asked, “What do you think he will find?”
“Probably your girlfriend,” Tenris replied with a laugh.
“At least I have one,” Rosen replied with anger in his voice.
“Shut up. This is not the time for your antics,” Fenris chastised them.
Duncan smiled before he asked, “Are they always like this?”
Fenris nodded and replied, “Unfortunately.”
The next five minutes were spent in silence when suddenly Petris popped up, scaring all of them.
“What did I tell you?” Duncan asked.
“Oh. Sorry. Did I scare you all?” Petris pretended to be innocent.
Fenris shook his head, before asking, “What did you find?”
“Other than some traps I dismantled nothing really. After the staircase, there is a door and a long curved corridor that had some traps. At the end is another door which I didn’t open and came to get you guys,” Petris explained.
Fenris sighed, before commanding, “Alright. Everyone, move to the first door at the bottom of the stairwell.”
The stairwell was surprisingly long. Duncan expected maybe a floor or two floors worth of stairs but it felt like at least ten.
“No wonder Petris took so long,” Duncan said as they finally made it to the bottom. An open door greeted them with a familiar five jewels as the door switch on the right of it.
“Alright. Petris, go Stealth and open the door on the other end. Report back what you find. We make our stand here and move back if necessary. We keep the higher ground,” Fenris commanded.
Petris acknowledged the order with a nod and rushed away. As he came back and dismissed Stealth they could see he was frightened. He was shaking and looking back at the end of the corridor.
“What’s there?” Fenris asked.
“Wraiths. Lots of them. I counted eight before I returned,” Petris replied.
“Why are you shaking?” Rosen asked.
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“Last time I found one he could see through my Stealth and they are fast. I thought I was a goner when I saw them. Luckily the ring Duncan gave me works like a charm,” Petris replied.
“Loaned,” Duncan corrected him.
“Loaned,” Petris replied with a frown.
“Ahh. Damn it,” Fenris said.
Rosen looked at him and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Wraiths and Shades are the last things I wanted to see here. Only Duncan can handle them and not that many at once,” Fenris explained.
“Are they all bunched together? We could try pulling them here one by one?” Duncan asked Petris.
“They are in groups of two. Some are solo,” Petris replied.
“Hmm. Give me the ring. The door is still open?” Duncan asked.
“Yes. The door is open. What do you want to do?” Petris said as he offered the ring.
“I am going to try pulling one inside the corridor and bring it further inside the corridor,” Duncan replied.
“Is that wise? You know we can’t help you with Wraiths, our weapons just go through them,” Fenris asked.
“Try using your torches, if it comes to that,” Duncan instructed, before asking, “Can I use Stealth when I am being attacked?”
“Yes. But there is some kind of penalty,” Petris replied.
Duncan frowned since the penalty could be critical for him who had a lot fewer levels in the Stealth skill than Petris, but he still asked, “Is the one closest to the door alone?”
“Yes. I think so if they didn’t move,” Petris replied while nodding.
“Alright. I am off. Wish me luck!” Duncan said and walked down the corridor.
Fenris shook his head, “This is stupid.”
Tenris looked at him, “Why didn’t you stop him then?”
Fenris looked at him before answering, “He might have been following my orders so far but I am not his commander. The moment I start acting like one I suspect our friendship ends then and there. I can only express my concern and he has shown that he understands all the risks.”
“So, you consider him a friend?” Petris asked.
“Well, he did return the jewelry,” Tenris replied before Fenris could.
Duncan was walking down the corridor with Stealth activated looking into the distance with excitement, expectation, and terror. There were torches lit up every few paces until he could finally see the door. It was the same size as the one at the end of the stairwell. As he came closer he could see a lone Wraith inside the room.
He moved back and deactivated Stealth. Slowly with small steps, Duncan closed in on the door again until the Wraith finally moved. Duncan then turned around and started running.
“-BLEEP-, -BLEEP-, -BLEEP-,” Duncan started to repeat his lightning summoning mantra.
He turned around and saw that the Wraith was alone. With a ready copper sword tingling with electricity he awaited the skinny arms of the apparition as they stretched towards him with their pointy ethereal claws. They found no purchase as his sword and arm had longer reach as he plunged it into the Wraith's torso.
What Duncan did not expect was the power of the new improved sword. Copper was at least six times more conductive for electricity than steel so almost no heat was generated. The lesser resistance of copper transmitted the power with minimal loss, as the current passed through Duncan inside the Wraith hitting it with lightning sparks that were a lot more powerful than before.
The whole thing would be funny to Duncan if it were not a matter of life and death. He just pushed the sword inside the Wraith and it instantly wailed and exploded into sparks a second later. The wail and the explosion were loud and Duncan worried it would bring more of them so he used Stealth right away.
A bunch of items dropped from the dead Wraith as Duncan looked at the corridor with anticipation.
“We are safe,” a voice said suddenly after a while. Duncan quickly turned around and saw Petris standing behind him also in Stealth mode.
“I guess they have no ears to hear the explosions and wailing,” Duncan replied as he looked at the loot. There was a helmet, a few books, and a ring on the ground beside the essence.
“Ahh. I should have asked Elland for the curse-detecting potion,” Duncan said as he stored the drops.
He moved forward after that until he saw another Wraith. Duncan backtracked and deactivated the Stealth skill and slowly walked forward again. The Wraith took the bait and rushed toward him as Duncan ran away.
Duncan once again used his bleeping power to turn it into sparks without any issues. As he was collecting the drops again Petris just shook his head.
“This is too easy,” Petris said as he looked at the loot.
“Are you complaining? Do you want to go ahead?” Duncan asked.
“No. No. By all means, do your stuff. I will get the others to come here,” Petris replied and went down the corridor.
Duncan checked his [ LOG ] for level-ups.
[Killed Wraith - Level 39 ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[Killed Wraith - Level 38 ]
[ You have leveled up ]
“Four levels. Not bad,” Duncan muttered and looked at his stats trying to find where to add them. He decided on Vitality bringing it up to 26.1. All the other stats were above 30. Although Endurance was above it with adding the bonus from his gear.
Duncan didn’t bother with Stealth and slowly moved forward until another Wraith noticed him and once again ran back cursing. The process seemed now more like harvesting than a fight.
The Wraith would offer itself to Duncan’s sword and explode and he would pick up the loot and levels. Soon the cheering squad came just as he killed the third one and started picking up loot.
He checked his [ LOG ].
[Killed Wraith - Level 41 ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[ You have leveled up ]
He once again decided on Vitality bringing it up to 28.1.
“I see you have no problems disposing of them,” Fenris stated the obvious.
Duncan nodded before saying, “You better stay behind. I have been lucky and only brought one by one so far.”
“Do your thing,” Fenris said as he nodded.
Rosen and Tenris were unhappy at how useless they were in this situation and they just shrugged their shoulders at each other.
Duncan repeated the process three more times without issues before he pulled two Wraiths to him. The reason was that he already had to go inside the room to pull them and they were at an almost equal distance on opposite sides.
As he killed the first one, the second one flanked him and got his claws on his shoulder. Sadly for the Wraith, Duncan was a living dynamo and all it brought was a shock. Fenris tried to use a torch on it to help Duncan and it did have the effect of pushing the Wraith back. As the first Wraith exploded, Duncan impaled the other one and bleeped it to eternal rest.
“Are you alright?” Fenris asked as Duncan finished sparkling like a Vampire from a movie that shall not be named.
Duncan nodded, “Yeah. I guess I am immune to Wraiths of this level. The amount of poison it could inflict before pulling back was destroyed immediately by lightning.”
“Alright. Don’t get complacent though. Do the last one with the same caution as the others. Do you know the saying ‘It’s always the last monster you encounter that kills you’?” Fenris advised before he pulled back.
Duncan picked up the loot and nodded he understood.
[Killed Wraith - Level 43 ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[Killed Wraith - Level 38 ]
[Killed Wraith - Level 37 ]
[Killed Wraith - Level 39 ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[Killed Wraith - Level 38 ]
Duncan reached level 40 and put one point in Vitality, Endurance, and Agility from the level-ups before he walked towards the room again.