Duncan slowly entered the room and saw that there was not one as he expected but two Wraiths left.
“Either Petris doesn’t know how to count to nine or the new Wraith was hidden somewhere,” Duncan thought to himself.
Duncan still used the old tactic to get the closest one's attention by slowly moving closer and running back to the corridor. The Wraith followed and got quickie dealt with by the pointy end of a copper-coated sword channeling electricity.
Duncan picked up the drops and checked his [ LOG ].
[Killed Wraith - Level 40 ]
“Meh, No level up,” Duncan thought a bit disappointed after the flood of levels he gained recently.
He went back into the room and walked closer to the last one with confidence. It was floating by the exit of the room with quite a bit of space between where the latest Duncan’s victim was before. As he got closer it suddenly moved much sooner than the rest of the Wraiths. Its detection radius was a lot longer.
Duncan was just about to turn and skedaddle when he saw a dark sphere form in front of the Wraith. Duncan’s eyes bulged as he saw a black fireball fly towards him and he jumped to the right side, falling and rolling on the floor.
The ball of darkness missed him completely but the eerie feeling it brought with it as it passed him unsettled Duncan. He quickly picked himself up from the ground and saw the ball crashing into the curved wall of the corridor.
“Petris be careful,” Duncan yelled as he looked at the Wraith again which was already launching another ball of darkness.
Duncan jumped sideways again as the ball crashed into the wall. He decided to make a direct run toward it. It needed a couple of seconds to generate the balls and launch them and they only flew in a straight line. They were pretty easy to dodge and as he looked at the wall he could discern no damage on it.
Duncan for sure didn’t want to try and take the ball head as he was pretty sure he would fare far worse than the wall if he were hit by it. As he got closer the Wraith launched another ball that flew at his current position. He ran in a parabola around the ball and was pretty close to the Wraith when it finished creating another one.
He started cursing and stacking bleeps as he ran in an arc looking from the Wraiths position toward the back wall of the room. The Wraith once again missed him and Duncan ran straight ahead toward it as soon as the ball of darkness passed him.
The Wraith was a one-trick pony and already started to prepare another ball as Duncan plunged the fully charged copper sword into its torso. The wailing started and lasted a lot longer than before making Duncan a bit dizzy and he bit his tongue to keep himself from fainting. The ball of darkness dissipated together with Duncan’s electricity but the Wraith was still there.
It raised its claws towards Duncan who had to jump back and let himself fall to avoid being grabbed. The parkour knowledge helped him to jump back to his feet by doing a back roll. The Wraith was already making another ball of darkness as Duncan summoned his rock from the inventory. It fell with a heavy thud on the floor in front of him and Duncan watched from the side as the Wraith launched the ball of darkness at him.
He did not trust the rock completely so he dodged it anyway but the rock managed to stop the dark ball from penetrating it. Duncan jumped back behind the center of the rock starting to charge up his bleep generator. His voluntary Tourette’s syndrome was on overdrive as the stupid wraith launched ball after ball at the rock. The instinctual knowledge that something alive was behind the rock that needs destroying didn’t do so well with the lack of brains.
Duncan waited, gritting his teeth from the pain the electricity dealt to his body until the last ball of darkness was launched before he jumped out and plunged his sword inside the Wraith before it could start making another one. This time the wailing was interrupted by flames as the Wraith exploded into moths of light. He sat on his behind and started breathing heavily as reality set in. He was close to death once again.
Duncan shook his head to get rid of the depressing thoughts and checked his [ LOG ].
[Killed Spectre - Level 52 ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[ You have leveled up ]
“So this was not a Wraith?” Duncan muttered as items and coins started raining next to him.
“Are you alright?” Petris asked from behind him, startling Duncan.
“Don’t do that,” Duncan said as he noticed who it was.
“Sorry,” Petris replied, looking around the room.
Duncan shook his head, “Yeah. I am sure you are.”
“At least he is not stealing the drops,” Duncan thought as he put the giant rock back into his inventory.
Petris looked at him with wonder as the rock disappeared.
“You have such a big inventory?” he asked.
Duncan nodded and started picking up the loot from the floor without touching it. Who knows what kind of evil curse it could contain?
There were three wooden doors on each side of the room and one made of stone at the back which used the familiar mechanism. They were all closed and Duncan needed a rest. The action before the Spectre and the dodging took a toll on his Endurance.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Go fetch the others. I will rest here,” Duncan told Petris who was nervously pacing around and mankind Duncan nervous.
Soon the rest of the crew came into the room.
“I leveled four times,” Rosen told Duncan as soon as he came close enough.
Duncan looked at him through his eyebrows and replied, “Good for you.”
Fenris was looking around the room and talked to Petris before he came to Duncan’s side.
“Great job Duncan. How bad was the last one?” Fenris asked.
“It was a level 52 something called Spectre and used some kind of dark matter projectile. It was easy to dodge because he was alone but I would not want to meet two or more of them at once,” Duncan replied.
Fenris nodded looking at the exhausted Duncan, before asking, “Do we return now?”
Duncan shook his head, “Let us at least check the side rooms out after I recover a bit.”
Fenris nodded and turned to his subordinates. “You heard him. Take a break.”
Rosen put down his ax with a sad expression and sat down. Tenris sat down next to him and Petris stood by Fenris.
Duncan looked up at the ceiling as he breathed out. He finally noticed a detail he missed before. There were spheres of light embedded in the ceiling.
“What are those?” Duncan asked the guards pointing at the ceiling.
Fenris looked toward where Duncan was pointing and his eyes lit up, “They must be mana lights. Mana crystals must power them. I only heard of their existence and never saw them before.”
Duncan kept looking at them as he asked, “How do they work?”
“You should ask an enchanter. These have been here so long they probably have a light and mana-gathering enchantment in them. When we are done here maybe we can take them back home,” Fenris replied as he was also intrigued by them.
Duncan nodded and stood up. His heart rate was back to normal and the pain from spasms caused by the electricity faded. He wiggled his shoulders and did a few stretching exercises before turning to the guards.
He met Fenris’ eyes looking at him intently as he said, “Let us continue with it. Where do we start?”
“Let’s start with the doors closest to the entrance and move up. Is that alright with you?” Fenris replied with a noticeable change in his behavior.
Duncan noticed the deference to him right away and nodded in reply.
“Somehow I earned Fenris’ respect,” Duncan thought.
“Petris you and me on the flank by the door. Rosen, you try opening it. Duncan, you stay behind Rosen. If there is another Wraith inside we will count on you to deal with it,” Fenris commanded.
They soon executed the commands and Rosen tried the first door. It was locked. He looked at Fenris and got the response he wanted.
“Use the ax,” Fenris commanded.
Rosen’s face lit up as he smashed the door with his big ax. He cleaved in half with two blows and one half fell inside while the other hung by the hinges. The room to their disappointment was very small. It was the size of a jail cell. It only held two beds that rotted long ago with a skeleton laying on top of one or what was left of it.
“Petris, check for anything valuable,” Fenris said as he peeked inside. Duncan and Tenris didn’t even bother to go inside as they saw the state of it.
Petris was not happy judging by the expression on his face but he did as he was told.
“I found a ring. The rest is rotten beyond salvage,” Petris replied after a while as he came out with a ring on the blade of his dagger.
“Do the next one,” Fenris commanded.
After they destroyed all the doors they found nine corpses. Most of them had some kind of jewelry on them. They also found two daggers and a pair of boots.
The guards decided Duncan should store everything and check it out with Elland. They by now knew he was not greedy so there was no dispute. There were no books or potions in the rooms since they probably stored them in their inventories. Even if they were present they would have rotted away like the beds the corpses lay in.
Fenris breathed out heavily after they finished the last room and came before Duncan. He looked at Duncan admiring the lights in the ceiling once again and asked, “Do we return or do you want to continue?”
Duncan shook his head from the revelry and replied, “Let’s continue. You can take the guys out of the room in case there are Spectres or Wraiths in the next room.”
“Alright. What’s your plan?” Fenris asked.
“I will use the Stealth ring and open the door and move back. Then pull whatever is inside there into this room and deal with it one by one. If it’s the same as here I will deal with them alone. If there are Ghouls I run to you guys for help,” Duncan explained what he was thinking.
“Sounds reasonable to me,” Fenris said, then turned to the rest of the guards and ordered, “You heard him. Move out behind the entrance.”
“Be careful,” Tenris said as he started walking.
“Leave some for me,” was Rosen’s reply to the order.
Petris just nodded as Fenris patted Duncan on his shoulder.
Soon the guards were outside the room and Duncan made his way to the stone door. He used his Stealth skill with the ring equipped. He pressed the Ruby covering the switch and light came from the crack. The door slowly raised itself and revealed a big room illuminated like the last one with four columns of Skeleton Guardians and too many rows for Duncan to count from where he was standing.
He was looking at the Skeleton Guardians’ backs and thought he was out of danger as the closest one turned, starting a domino effect that spread across the room. The sight was impressive but not enough to keep Duncan there to admire it.
He quickly pressed the mechanism button again to close the door and nothing happened as the closest Guardian Skeleton already started walking toward him. Duncan quickly considered his choices and he turned around and ran.
The footsteps of walking and turning skeletons started echoing behind him as he crossed the first few meters of the room he was in. The small army of Skeleton Guardians found a bottleneck at the door. Only a few managed to get out before there was heard the clanking of bones, shields, and armor rubbing at each other.
Luckily the Guardian Skeletons had a glaring weakness which was their speed. They moved like an arthritis-ridden elderly person except when they swung their weapons. Duncan was at the other end of the room before the skeletons even crossed the first few meters.
The guards saw him run towards them and Fenris asked, “You need help?”
“No. We run,” Duncan replied as he frantically pressed the Ruby covering the switch to close the door.
“-BLEEP-, ah -BLEEP-” Duncan said as he momentarily forgot about his restriction. He shook his head from the pain and yelled, “Run! There are at least forty Skeleton Guardians behind me, probably more than that.
Fenris looked inside and saw them through the dim lights. His eyes bulged as he reiterated Duncan’s order, “Run!”
They crossed the corridor and tried another switch with the same success. The noise of the Skeleton’s footsteps was coming nearer as they started walking up the stairway.
“What shall we do? We can’t lead them to the village,” Fenris said as they reached the top.
Duncan was quiet as Fenris looked at him intently for an answer. Finally, he could not stand it anymore and Fenris ordered, “Petris make a trap on the stairs.”
“No. Wait! I have a plan,” Duncan said with a smile.