At the beginning of a circular stairwell deep inside a necromancer crypt four people were staring at the fifth one expectantly waiting for him to share his plan. As Duncan didn’t immediately get why they were staring at him, Fenris had to ask, “What’s the plan?”
“Oh. Petris goes down three turns or so and waits until he can see them. Then he runs back up and when he is behind me, we push a giant rock down the stairwell,” Duncan explained.
Fenris shook his head in disbelief before he asked, “Where would we get a giant rock?”
“I have it in my inventory,” Duncan replied.
“Why? I mean, how big is this rock?” Fenris asked.
“Listen. We don’t have time for this,” Duncan said as the footsteps echoed down below.
Petris started to move and yelled back, “It’s big.”
“What’s big?” Fenris asked.
“The giant rock! It’s big!” Petris yelled as he disappeared behind the central pillar.
“How big is your bloody inventory if you are lugging a giant rock around?” Fenris raised his voice in frustration, looking intently at Duncan.
“It’s bigger than the rock,” Duncan raised his voice back before advising after a brief silence, ”Get ready to push and stop panicking!”
All three guards put their weapons on the ground for easy access if the rocky plan failed and waited for Petris in anticipation.
“Can’t you summon the rock now?” Fenris asked.
“I don’t think Petris will be able to squeeze through if I summon it now,” Duncan explained.
Fenris was wide eyed as the new information reached his ears.
“Have you just been putting all your stats into Intelligence or how come your inventory is so big?” Fenris once again raised his voice.
“Incoming,” Petris yelled as he climbed back up the stairwell.
“No. I haven’t and get ready to push,” Duncan yelled at Fenris as Petris came into view.
Once Petris made it past Duncan’s outstretched hand a giant rock materialized from Duncan’s inventory and dropped with a thud on the stairs. Some stairs broke but the stairwell didn’t collapse. The rock however got stuck in the debris from the damaged stairs and didn’t roll down as Duncan imagined.
The three guards could not believe the size of it and exchanged looks between Duncan and the rock in stupor. .
“Quickly. Pick it up and drop it again. I think the stairwell will collapse,” Fenris suddenly yelled.
“No. Push it,” Duncan said and rammed his shoulder at the rock.
Tenris and Rosen followed Duncan in pushing the rock right after. Fenris, seeing no one was supporting his plan, rammed his shoulder at the empty place on the rock a second later. The four men pushing it, nudged it enough that it slid a few centimeters before they managed to roll it down the intact stairs.
The rock started bouncing and rolling on its own once it gained speed. The time between thumps on the stairs, walls and ceiling became ever longer as the rock was practically flying down the stairwell. The poor Guardian Skeletons did not know what hit them as they were decimated and pushed back by an overwhelming force of potential energy converted into kinetic energy that crushed their bones and bent their armor and weapons.
Duncan looked at it rolling behind the corner, before he opened up his [ LOG ].
[Killed Guardian Skeleton - Level 44 ]
[Killed Guardian Skeleton - Level 41 ]
[Killed Guardian Skeleton - Level 47 ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[ You have leveled up ]
…
[Killed Guardian Skeleton - Level 44 ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[Killed Guardian Skeleton Captain - Level 54 ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[ You have leveled up ]
The deaths kept on coming but it was not enough to cover the number of skeletons Duncan saw. He counted 19 dead Skeleton Guards together with a Captain. Duncan started walking down.
“Where are you going?” Fenris asked as he grabbed him by the shoulder.
“I am going to check where the giant rock landed,” Duncan replied and shook him off.
He activated Stealth just in case and walked down. After a few turns he could see smashed bits of bone on the steps. As he passed them he looked with his eyes forward for any movement. Soon he found spears and swords on the ground. Some were intact, some bent.
There were squashed armors with shattered bones inside.
There was nothing moving until he came to the end of the stairwell. There was his giant rock parked on a giant pile of bones and many other incomplete skeletons were dragging their torsos and the armors on the ground towards him.
“I guess we got them all, after all,” Petris said as he suddenly appeared next to Duncan.
“Stop doing that!” Duncan yelled.
“Doing what?” Petris asked with an expression which said ‘I have no idea what you are talking about’.
“One day I am going to skewer you and it will be your fault,” Duncan replied and shook his head at the ceiling.
Petris smiled before gently saying, “The Captain and the other two are right behind me. I think he is embarrassed.”
“What for?” Duncan asked.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“For his obvious lack of contribution to this whole endeavor, of course,” Petris softly replied and turned around waiting for Fenris to appear around the corner.
“Let’s smash up the survivors and then we will have a talk,” Duncan said to Fenris as he saw his face come around the corner.
Fenris nodded and together with Rosen and Tenris charged forward to bash the incomplete Skeleton Guardians. They posed little threat to them and were mercilessly bashed until their [ LOG ] flashed.
As they broke the broken ones Duncan leveled once again. He didn’t participate in the destruction this time and was biding his time considering where he should stick the new stat points.
He had many points to distribute, eleven to be exact. As he was so exhausted after the room filled with Wraiths he had forgotten to do it then.
Duncan added four points to Agility, four to Vitality and three to Endurance, bringing every one of these stats near 34 stat points.
He looked at the giant rock and the bones that still moved beneath it.
“Guys get ready. I think there are some that will crawl from beneath the rock,” Duncan said as the guards finished with the rest.
Fenris looked at him with a complicated expression. Duncan took back the rock to his inventory and jumped back as the arms started flailing in his direction. After a few head bashings the last remnants of the Skeleton Guardian army was officially done for.
“Another level,” Duncan said with a sad face. This time he ignored the rational thoughts and invested one stat into Charisma bringing it finally over 10 stat points.
Fenris and the others quickly gathered the salvageable spoils of victory and put them together in separate piles for each category. Duncan stretched his hand towards each pile and sucked them up like a hoover. Fenris shook his head as he saw that.
“How big is your Intelligence stat?” Fenris asked Duncan.
Duncan frowned at the unexpected question but still replied, “It’s almost 47 now and I have almost 47 cubic meters of space in my inventory.”
“How is that possible?” Fenris asked, frustrated.
“I don’t know. Ask your gods,” Duncan replied, becoming increasingly irritated by Fenris doubting him.
Fenris shook his head and then patted Duncan’s shoulder, “I am sorry. Things today have been a bit too much for me. You are growing too fast for me to accept. I was out of line.”
Duncan nodded before he replied, “It’s alright. Let’s get out of here. I have had enough of this place for today.”
Fenris nodded and they started walking up the stairwell with the others following behind.
The guards were all in a pretty good mood since they gained plenty of levels from little danger. The only thing that bothered them was that they were being more like a burden to Duncan than actual help. Duncan knew that if the opponents were the Ghouls the situation would take a 180 degree turn and he would be the burden so he did not mind them gaining levels for almost no work.
“I can’t remember the last time I gained five levels in a day,” Rosen said.
Tenris smiled at him, “Me neither. How about you Petris?”
“I only gained four but I was at a higher starting level than you guys,” Petris replied.
Fenris was quiet the whole long walk back. The feeling of being useless and things going out of his control were bothering him.
Duncan suddenly remembered he forgot to remove the jewels from the door switches but he was in no hurry and no one else dared to go down in the crypt anyway.
The path back was getting longer each time they went down but since there was no danger they made good time and came out from the dusty mine while the black hole sun was still shining on the village.
“Will you go with us to the barracks?” Fenris asked, expecting Duncan to follow up on his declaration of a talk.
Duncan shook his head, “I will come by tomorrow. I will visit Elland first and he can check the gear we collected until tomorrow.”
The amount of gear they collected was staggering. It almost filled the entirety of Duncan’s inventory space. Sadly most of the weapons and armor from the Skeleton Guardian’s got damaged as the giant rock plowed them down.
“Maybe Bolgar can fix them,” Duncan thought as he passed the smithy.
Duncan soon passed the bar and found himself in front of Elland’s shop where he gently opened the door. The chimes gently rang and Elland came from the workshop.
“You are back ealy. Problems?” Elland asked, as he saw Duncan by the entrance.
“Maybe. I brought you a lot of work,” Duncan replied.
Elland raised an eyebrow before he asked, “Books?”
Duncan nodded, before replying, “Books, potions, weapons, jewelry and some items I don’t even know what they are.”
“Alright. Put them on the counter,” Elland said with excitement.
Duncan shook his head, “Let’s find a big empty room.”
Elland looked at him with obvious shock, as he asked, “How many things do you have? Will they fit in the preparatory room?”
Duncan thought about it and nodded, “I think they will but barely.”
Elland shook his head as he led the way into the workshop and toward the prep room.
Duncan went to the corner of the prep room and started dumping weapons first. Then he started dumping armor. Then jewelry, clothing and miscellaneous items. He left the books and potions as the last items he dumped as he almost completely filled the room.
Elland’s expression went from excitement to a frown to excitement again. At last he just shook his head.
“Make sure to check everything for curses. I can probably remove the curses on weapons and armor with lightning but we will have to think of something for the rest. I don’t want to damage the books if they are cursed,” Duncan said as he finished.
“This will take me a week to go through,” Elland said as he looked at the pile of stuff now occupying his prep room.
“There is… Well, I might be bringing more soon before the week is done,” Duncan replied and shook his head.
“What’s wrong?” Elland asked.
“I did not think there would be so much stuff. I told the guards I will bring the loot around tomorrow. I guess they will have to accept the delay,” Duncan replied.
Elland rubbed his eyes and the top of his nose as if getting a migraine as he asked, “Did you kill an army or found an armory?”
“We killed eight Wraiths and a Spectre and we followed that up by killing forty one Guardian Skeletons,” Duncan replied.
“What? Are you joking? What level are you now?” Elland asked with his voice raised high.
“I am not joking. I am level 52 now. Do you have a book that would help me read these books directly?” Duncan explained before he asked.
“I hope you didn’t have any casualties. You didn’t or?” Elland asked, taking glances at the loot.
“No one got hurt,” Duncan replied.
“Except their pride,” Duncan thought as he remembered the way Fenris acted.
Elland shook his head once again before he replied, “I don’t know what’s more shocking, you claiming to have killed all those undead or that no one had even got hurt doing so. Anyway, it’s good no one got hurt.”
Duncan nodded.
“About the book that would help you read this. I only have my notes which I made when I translated the previous ones. The script is similar to Elven and most words are the same. The others I had to decipher,” Elland answered Duncan’s question.
Duncan frowned, “Can I have them? I will read them right away and return it to you?”
Elland stretched out his hand and offered a notebook.
“Thank you!” Duncan said as he took it
“Maybe Wazsh can help you,” Elland said suddenly.
“What do you mean?” Duncan asked.
“He helped me decipher some of the harder words I have been working on at the bar. He knows a lot more than he is letting on. It is just so damn hard to pry any knowledge from him,” Elland replied.
Duncan frowned as he thought about it, “Maybe the bastard has a language pack for this. I will have to grill him once I see him. I wonder how bad the village would look if he were to run it.”
“Alright. I will ask him about it. I will study your notes first in the shop,” Duncan replied and left the prep room.
Elland turned to all the piles of stuff and sighed, before he took out the curse detecting potion and started sprinkling it on the items.