Elgar answered, “It should be okay during the day. We still have a few hours before nightfall.”

  “You know I’m down for it. Even a chance at slaying some undead or filthy necromancers is the sworn duty of every paladin.” The way Robert spoke in character sometimes was interesting. One minute he was talking about his favorite slushy drink and the next about his duties to his god. I had known many players like that who would roleplay their characters. Some were downright religious about it, others, like Robert, would shift in and out. It was just odd, since it was my life.

  As we trekked further into the zone, there were more signs of decay. It wasn’t like the area where the beetles lived. That was just rocky and barren. This was more like things had died. The soil looked corroded in spots. Then there were other sections where new growth appeared. Maybe this was the reason for the lock down. The system was reclaiming this part of the zone from whatever had caused the breach.

  Maybe I should stop us from going in here, but that thought came too late. We had already been found. This time it wasn’t skeletons but large hounds which were barely more than skeletons with black skin pulled taut over their bones. As I looked more closely, I realized they weren’t hounds. They were bears. Something had sucked all the fluid out of them, but they were still moving.

  Rather, they were charging at us. Behind them came the largest skeleton I had ever seen. A quick Assess answered some of my questions.

  Ghoul Bear Level: 21

  HP: 860 Weak to Fire, Radiant

  Immune: Poison, Disease, Necrotic

  Hill Giant Skeleton Level: 30

  HP: 1,290

  With three bears and the skeleton, we were in over our heads. I began with a Root on the lead bear. Even though the skeleton was higher level, the ghouls were more freakish. Besides, this strategy had worked before. The second two ghouls stumbled over their rooted comrade. They even paused long enough to take some nasty bites out of the trapped one.

  Robert yelled out, “Holy Might” and his sword took on a golden aura before he closed with the giant skeleton. I barely had time to get a Walking Sleep off on the skeleton, only to find out that it was immune. Not good, but we needed to deal with what we had.

  I started casting Regeneration on Robert as he traded blow for blow with the skeleton. His undead slaying power boost must be insane because despite the 10 level difference he was holding his own. He took plenty of damage, but healing was keeping up.

  Elgar must have come to the same conclusion, because he ignored the skeleton and blasted a fireball into their midst. I hadn’t seen this spell yet, so it must have become available to him at level 20. The concussive force blasted the unrooted ghouls to the side while scorching them. The trapped one was burned up as the roots my spell conjured not only held it but also caught on fire, causing more damage to it.

  Tauri jumped on one of the remaining ghouls and started cutting it to pieces. She made good use of the enhanced movement rate from Wolf Spirit to dance around the ghoul. Rather than committing to any one attack, she was satisfied to chip away at its HP. All the while, it never landed a malformed paw on her.

  Convinced she was okay, I looked at the other ghoul which was now charging at Elgar. He had no heavy armor and the lowest HP in our party, but if I stopped focusing on Robert, I was afraid he would be killed by the skeleton. Fortunately, Elgar had already gotten his own defender ready. A translucent blade floated in the air right in front of him. It was a physical manifestation of the concept of force.

  Since I had played a caster before, I knew that force was one of the hardest aspects of magic to master. Very few in the game had even tried during the closed beta. The basic elements were much easier to master. Even hybrids like lightning mages which combined air and water were well marked out. The fact that Elgar chose this path said that either he was an experienced player from other games with the expertise to make this work or that he was a hopelessly optimistic noob. Based on the day so far, I was betting on the former.

  The blade of force struck a blow before the ghoul even realized it was a threat. The monster’s attention had been so focused on its intended target it didn’t even react and ended up losing a front leg to the blade. I split my attention between watching Robert’s HP bar and keeping an eye on Elgar. Then the most fascinating thing happened. His blade hit a second time and triggered Arctic Blast. Never would have guessed that could happen, but apparently that animated force blade counts as an extension of its caster.

  Robert also didn’t need any more of my help. Between the extra strength and the radiant damage his blade was now dealing, the skeleton was done faster than I thought possible. He managed to kill it even faster than Tauri finished off the ghoul she was fighting.

  Then the 125 XP hit us, and the battle seemed worthwhile. We had handled ourselves very well for having four monsters to fight at once. It spoke to the synergy of our skills.

  Tauri and Elgar handled the looting as always. I hadn’t asked for a cut or anything yet. I figured how they handled that when we finished fighting would be a good test of how they would treat me in the future. For now, I just wanted XP while at the same time trying to cultivate some relationships. I was a little worried about what I should do about Kittikork, but kept pushing that to the back of my mind.

  Robert was ready to charge in and fight more undead. His buff apparently would only last about twenty-five more minutes and then had a cool down, so he wanted to put it to use. I couldn’t argue with him. But as we moved forward, Elgar and I walked side by side with Tauri out scouting and the paladin in front of us.

  “Did you see my sword?” the wizard asked.

  “Yeah pretty cool, I didn’t know it could trigger the effect.”

  “I guess that is what it means when the spell description says that this sword is forged with a sliver of my soul as a force mage.”

  That wording had me on edge, given my own experience with integration. “I’d be careful about any deals that involve your soul.”

  Elgar winked and said, “Don’t worry, I’ve got my fiddle with me.”

  Our conversation ended as we found the undead were not entirely in hiding during the day. There were a few of the lesser skeletons I was accustomed to fighting, but most of the undead we encountered were ghouls or hill giants. We fought non-stop for as long as Robert’s sword was glowing.

  Whenever his buff faded, we retreated often by a narrow margin, but no one complained. If they were feeling anything like me, this was what it was to be alive. I fought, strove, and tried for more. It bothered me I could enjoy this so much and at other times be so worried about how I ended up here. Yet, this was the life I had now, and I felt good at this moment.

  The cool down on his ability was thirty minutes, and by the end of our third break we had racked up another 1,723 XP. I gained skill ups in Piercing Weapons, Dodge, Frostburn and Levitation. I also maxed out Root and Walking Sleep. The latter only worked on a few stray mobs, but I still tried it on most of the undead, just to be sure it was truly a universal immunity. I figured this was because the spell was disease based.

  Elgar had caught up to me at level twenty-two, while Robert was level twenty-one and Tauri wasn’t that far from it. Tauri hadn’t selected her specialization yet because we were fighting undead, who were immune to her specialization. She hated fighting this type of monster as much as Robert enjoyed it. It said a great deal about their teamwork, though, that she only made a few passing comments about it.

  The one part she did like was whenever any of the necromancer apprentices appeared. She would sneak behind them and kill them, often disrupting the undead that they controlled. She liked that they were vulnerable to her sneak attacks, unlike the undead themselves.

  “If we are going to continue, I will need to reapply Talisman. It is going to fade in less than a minute. But this will be the last time I can cast it until sunrise. So, I leave it to you if you would rather go back to the cave. We still need to talk about what to do with Kittikork,” I said.

  “Ah, it’s still light outside. We should do one more run at the undead and then leave. It should be enough to get me to level twenty-two,” Robert said.

  I waited for the others to weigh in, but the incredible gains, by their standards, were too good to pass up. If it kept them happy, I was willing to go along with it. I chuckled to myself as I thought I really was performing the task given to me by the system. All my defiance hadn’t changed anything.

  Chapter 32- A Face Behind the Face

  As we got ready to move out one last time for the day, I began clearing my notifications. I had taken to ignoring them since they were mostly XP notifications and I was banking all my XP. A quick check showed that it was up to 5,550 XP. Not quite as many levels as I had lost, but still a good chunk.

  I got one pleasant notification, followed by a pair of even more interesting ones.

  You have completed: If you can’t beat them… I

  Join a player party and complete at last 3 hours of play with them, without

  any of them intentionally killing you.

  Rewards: Player party interface (pre-emptively awarded)

  +200 faction with Players (general)

  +350 XP

  Player party interface made permanent.

  Faction with player now at: +2,200

  New Quest: If you can’t beat them… II

  Develop a sub-faction of players to support the formation of an ogre nation to war against the human, elven, and dwarven nations.

  Must recruit at least 10 players to this faction.

  Rewards: +1,000 faction with Pro-Ogre Players

  +525 XP

  1 enchanted or higher quality item.

  New Quest: Legend of the Oni I

  This is your chance to obtain a rare racial evolution. Oni are the revered forbearers of ogres. Blessed of the gods, oni are just as strong as ogres but also have minds as sharp as any human.

  Requirements:

  1) Reach Level 50

  2) Obtain an evolution crystal (Completed)

  3) Lead an ogre town with at least 1,000 ogres

  Rewards: +10 MIND, +10 AGI

  +50 to one resistance of your choice

  1st oni racial ability

  3rd class affinity

  I wasn’t paying much attention as we began our first battle. My mind was dancing over the various possibilities. The system seemed intent on moving forward with using me to create more drama for players.

  For now, I had to put it out of my mind. It was time to focus on the business at hand. And I had even more reason to level up than before. That was the kind of motivation that had me leaping into the fray. I wanted to take down these ghouls and skeletons faster than before. Faster kills meant more XP.

  So far, I had only used melee on a very limited basis. Part of that was to keep it in reserve as a hidden ace in case the players turned on me. The other part had been so as not to intimidate them. I could put out close to as much damage as Elgar with spells, if I channeled extra mana into Frostburn. And I was every bit as physically powerful as Robert, in fact, more so. Even though he was more skilled than I was.

  When the last ghoul of this first batch fell, Elgar asked, “Where’d that come from?”

  I shrugged. “Figured you all had accepted me. No more reason to hold back.”

  Robert said, “Let’s not complain that we can kill stuff faster.”

  “Yeah, I wanna level up again,” Tauri said.

  It was then that things started to go bad. I felt a threat at the last second and rolled out of the way. Overhead, there was a drake diving for us. A level thirty-one monster would have been worrisome on my own or with this party before, but now that they were all level twenty or higher, I felt much more confident about our odds.

  It pulled up from its dive, having missed me. I shouted out, “I can’t root aerial creatures. We need to take it out on the go.”

  I cast Walking Sleep on it, but the beast resisted the spell entirely. That was always a risk with this much of a level difference. Tauri had pulled out a crossbow, and I saw a green aura shimmer around the bolt. She must have decided that now was a good time to test out her Poisoner specialization. The bolt flew and caught the drake in its wing.

  I would call it a lucky shot, but a day of fighting with the rogue had taught me she had a keen eye. My spell needed to be just as accurate. Elgar had already fired off a lightning bolt. This was actually going far better than I would have hoped for. The drake was coming around again, but its life was down by a third and the poison seemed to make its one wing sluggish, so its flight pattern became erratic.

  Robert yelled out with his Taunt ability and the drake was instantly focused on him. Its awkward turn from me towards him left its side to me. I landed a Frostburn on its wing and pumped extra mana into it. With one wing starting to freeze and the other poisoned, the beast made a crash landing.

  The paladin produced yet another in the endless stream of weapons he had. The blessed sword wouldn’t do any bonus damage against the drake, but a large two-handed axe seemed perfect for chopping away at its wing. Both Tauri and I rushed in as Elgar’s missiles of force flew past us to pelt the drake’s head.

  The rogue jumped up on its back. She seemed to like to sneak up behind. The only difference here was that the back of the drake was rather rough, with bony spikes sticking up. She navigated the treacherous terrain with ease and I saw her shove her short sword in-between two scales. The drake spasmed as she did so.

  Not that it had long to suffer. Robert had ruined the rest of its ability to fly, and I drove my spear into its throat. Even drake scales weren’t strong enough to resist my might. The spear lodged in deep and I actually had to put my foot against the creature to yank it free.

  The spear didn’t come on its own, but took a few scales and a chunk of flesh with it. Green blood rushed out in great spurts and sizzled on the ground. Seeing that it was dead now and fearful of more drakes, I didn’t wait, but just auto looted it. Three feathers from its neck, and half dozen scales and some drake meat were my rewards.

  Before any of them could chastise me for losing out on more potentially valuable parts, a dark aura filled the air. It was invisible, but not seeing it didn’t make it any less real. An almost tangible weight settled over all of us. The 164 XP those last fights had just won us, leveled Robert up to 22 and Tauri to 21, but neither was celebrating.

  Elgar gasped out as though he were suffocating from the aura, “What is that?”

  “I don’t know, but it must be an evil, most vile,” Robert replied through pursed lips.

  Tauri was glancing around for any sign of what was causing this. Meanwhile, I was the only one who had felt something like this. It was similar to the feeling I had gotten from the breach. Especially when that hand had been sticking through. Now, instead of a distant echo, this was more like someone shouting in my ear.

  I said, “I don’t know if it is evil, but it feels malevolent.”

  “Isn’t that the same thing?” Robert asked.

  Shrugging, I answered, “I just get the sense that it is alien to us and wishes us harm. That may count as evil in your book, but just because I want to kill a monster doesn’t make me evil. I will agree though that this doesn’t feel right.”

  Tauri managed a weak laugh, but her eyes were still darting all about.

  Elgar said, “Just our luck. We teamed up with the only ogre philosopher in all of Selmia.”

  I could only snicker at that, as all my attention was focused on finding the threat. We didn’t have to wait long. A moment later a black robed necromancer walked out from a mist which had risen along with the sense of danger. He was guarded on both sides by two humanoid ghouls. That would have been bad enough, but the fact that they were level 34 each was intimidating.

  It confused me when I Assessed the necromancer and learned that he was only level 25. The results just didn’t make sense, so I double checked them.

  Necromancer Level: 25

  HP: 219/310

  Dread Ghoul Level: 34

  HP: 1870

  As I watched, I saw the necromancer’s HP actually tick down once more. Something was affecting him, but I couldn’t tell what. Then I noticed something I hadn’t seen before. There was a bird or a bat or something small and black perched upon his shoulder. It faded into the background, almost as though my eyes tried to skip over it.

  I tried assessing it but all I got back was a very confusing

  Error: ????

  Once again, there was something outside the system. I called out to the team, “Watch out for that thing on his shoulder.”

  Elgar started to ask, “What thi…”

  But a hollow sound came out of the necromancer’s mouth. Then words came out in that same alien tone. “One of these things is not like the others.”