Panting, Jean switched to the greatsword as four effects coursed through her body to imbue the weapon. With one slash, she amputated his head, leaving her face to face with Zath. Jean stared at the bows in their hands while pointing the weapon at them.
“Relax! We aren't going to attack you, Daughter of Nimireth!!”, Erish managed to say.
“Don't come near me or touch any of the corpses!”
After watching dumbfounded as the corpses disappeared one after another, Zath pulled the arrow away from the bow. “Calm down! We wouldn't dare to take your prey, not even for all the gold in the world.”
Jean devoured another corpse. “Don't misunderstand me, you false bandit! It's not out of greed! Perhaps you haven't seen it, but I carry a deadly corruption that I've surely passed on to corpses already.”
Zath took a step back looking askance at Bear's body a few steps away from him. “Now there's nothing stopping you from taking your friend upstairs. Although... Avoid getting out through the city sewers. The guards aren't very nice to trespassers.”
“Thank you! ... Wait! Before you go! What is this place? I'm not quite sure how I got here.”
The young man raised an eyebrow and gave Erish a sidelong glance. They both shrugged their shoulders. “The short version. You're in the elven ruins beneath the city of White Chapel. Bear decided to explore them a few days ago, but all the commotion in town has slowed things down. As for the two of us... it's a long story. Maybe another time! I don't want any of Bear's lackeys to see us talking to their boss's killer.”
“Wait! You're seriously not going to tell me why you betrayed him?”
Zath made his way up the stairs. “I'm sorry, Daughter of Nimireth.”
Jean let him go and opened the map. Wanting to know Ilya's exact location, the whispers created another mission and another arrow on the map. This one marked a location near the doors at the intersection.
“Has someone broken the seals?”
Jean devoured all the remaining corpses. When it was finally Bear's turn, the whispers soon came with the wonderful news.
“Really? Level 16? ... Dammit! I don't have the time now.”
[Twelve accessories have been added to the ?Bargains? section of the bazaar. You have also received extra experience.]
Jean took off Kahor's cursed set. She couldn't believe that Bear alone provided her with so much experience as to raise two levels. Surely the quality of his items had played a big part.
[You have learned God Fist — Basic Rank.
Attack that creates a devastating power accumulation in your fist. The impact area is up to one meter at maximum power. It consumes stamina and no effects can be added to it.]
[You have learned Onslaught — Basic Rank.
Temporarily increases +10 Strength and +20 Toughness while charging, imbuing your body with the power of a battering ram. It consumes stamina and no effects can be added to it.
[Nimireth’s Rage has increased to Advanced Rank.
Consume moderate amounts of mana to temporarily increase one attribute by +10. (It will depend on the effect added.) Multiple attributes can be increased by applying more effects, but the consumption will increase drastically. With at least three active effects, it also increases your pain resistance.]
[Crippling Shot has increased to Advanced Rank.
A projectile shot that excels in potency rather than offensive power. The area of numbing impact is now larger. It consumes stamina and no effects can be added to it.]
[Blade Dance has increased to Advanced Rank.
Swirling attack that creates three energy blades of the same size as the wielded weapon. The loss of power as they move away is lower. It consumes stamina and no effects can be added to it.]
[Hand-to-Hand Weapon Mastery has increased to Expert Rank.
Now you are able to efficiently chain punches and kicks while moving; perform sweeps, sidekicks, knees and elbows strikes without losing your balance; and finally, add Expert effects to this weapon mastery.]
Jean retraced her steps down the long corridor in search of Ilya. However, before she reached the magically sealed doors, she heard something move in the distance.
At first impulse, Jean ran, thinking it might be Ilya. Then, she realized it was the skeleton crawling, or at least what was left of him. Under the creature's filthy clothes, he barely had half of his ribcage and one arm intact.
Jean tried to jump over him, but the skeleton managed to catch one of her legs.
“Don't run away, bitch!”
Jean instantly kicked him directly in the skull. “Get off! And… you're confusing me with your mother!”
The skeleton laughed out loud. “Bark all you want! You won't make it in time!”
Jean ran until the whispers warned her that the target of her mission was behind her. Puzzled, she looked at the map and realized the arrow pointed to the skeleton. “What the hell?!”
Jean checked the magically sealed doors. Both shrouded in the strange purple glow. They were still closed, or perhaps they had been closed again after a lapse. That didn't matter. She couldn't get through.
Furious, she returned to the skeleton. It was no longer crawling. It was just laughing, lying face down.
“What's the matter, woman? You can’t find a broom to feel comfortable outside a kitchen?”
Jean smiled. “I'm just looking for a stick to shove up your ass and put you in a cornfield. Maybe then you'll be worth something!”
They both gave a fake laugh. She didn't understand why the skeleton seemed to care so little about his situation. Was he just buying time for others to flee with Ilya?
“How do I open the doors?!”
The skeleton raised the central one of his three remaining fingers. “Ride here!”
Jean avoided smashing his head in by a miracle. She wasn't going to get anything out of him, especially not with violence. If he didn't want to cooperate, she would have to resort to them.
“You said that in this world there are three phases after death or something like that, right? Tell me a little bit about them.”
Whispers explained that the strongest was when a Player's body became a zombie. The most resistant to damage and most versatile was when it became a skeleton. Time when a player had to gather power for his last form. The spectral.
“I get it! Is this bastard ready to possess me or something? And... will I be able to resist it to lead me to Ilya?”
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Whispers objected to the idea. Hours, days or even months could pass in a lethargy without the slightest control. Corruption would kill her during that time.
“Then why are you pointing out that he is the way to get Ilya back?”
The whispers didn’t answer. She was tired of that. She squatted close to the skeleton and took what was left of his hand.
“I'm sorry, gorgeous! We can't hold hands with that one anymore!”
She tried to store the broken bones in the inventory. She wasn't surprised she couldn't. It was surely because the skeleton wasn't defeated.
“If you don't tell me how to open the doors, I will devour your soul!”
“Ha, ha, ha! How? By licking it? You don't scare me!”
Jean rose and tossed his hand to the side. When she lifted her arms with the newly equipped two-handed sledgehammer, the skeleton pointed to his own shattered skull.
“Here! Will you be able to hit it right this time, you good for nothing?”
Jean hit his skull 5 times in a row. As I guessed, the skeleton didn't fight back despite the beating. He simply waited for his soul to disengage from his body, giving way to his final form.
The whispers warned her that even if she kept his remains in inventory immediately after, he would retain his soul and could still attempt to possess her. They also warned that she had no skills to defeat him. The news came at a bad time, but that didn't stop her until his skull popped.
Slowly, a vaporous and ill-defined figure rose without taking his eye off Jean. It was a ghost with very blurry legs.
?Wraith?
Level 14
Name: Lethann
Skills: [Possession]
Marks: [Bandit], [Thief], [Killer], [Torturer].
Highest Attribute (Willpower): 36
“You're not going to run away?”
Jean smiled from ear to ear after casting Nimireth’s Rage to raise her Resistance. She also equipped Khaor’s set and Yusthor’s accessories. “Run away? From you? Don't make me laugh!”
Lethann pounced on her as if nothing else mattered. He grabbed her head and tried to force his way inside Jean's body. He tried three times without success. It was as if he was banging his head against a wall. However, the most frustrating thing for him was that she was simply ignoring him as she stored his skeletal remains in the inventory.
“Bitch, BITCH!!”
Lethann kept trying again and again. He even tried to hit her with those strange vaporous fists. Surprisingly, that was painful for Jean in an unexpected way. Like a headache. Mild and annoying. Her response was a hard slap that deformed his face and arms. He cringed, though he didn't scream. Yet somehow, she realized that hurt a lot.
“So even though you're not physical, me having the Yusthor set makes you vulnerable to my interactions... Or maybe my Resistance also plays a part.”
Very slowly, Lethann began to concentrate a faint light blue glow in his hands. Jean disregarded it and opened the inventory to devour the skeleton. She couldn't. She had no choice but to search patiently for the reason.
?Human Bone?
Details: Magical material modified by a Dark Pact. You need Identify (Grandmaster Rank) to learn more.
Jean sighed. “That asshole wasn't lying! I’m missing out on a lot of things because I don't have Identify and Linguist maxed out!”
“What's this Dark Pact thing all about?”
Whispers mentioned to her that it had possibly been the work of a spirit.
“Someone like Nimireth?”
After accumulating enough power to shine, Lethann attacked with extreme violence. However, the ray of ghostly energy that was intended to reach her head, was considerably diminished after hitting a barrier she had prepared beforehand. So much effort now only seemed like a bad joke.
“That's it, Lethann?! Weakling!”, she blurted out. She opened her hands and spread her fingers. With swift, violent movements, she hit the vaporous wraith form until it blurred greatly.
“You like it?!” She continued despite his cries of pain. “No?! Then open the door!!”
For several seconds, the wraith seemingly vanished. Although she knew that it wouldn't take too long for him to regain his form. Wasting no time, Jean examined what remained of the skeleton. Specifically what Identify recognized as a cursed ring. Made of bone it was almost imperceptible on what remained of the skeleton's hand.
?Key of the Dead?
Details: Ring that curses with “Death” to whoever equips it. Allows interaction with certain spells. You need Identify (Grandmaster Rank) to learn more.
“This is not what I was hoping for! Will it really kill me if I wear it?”
The whispers assured her that the curse of Death was something more complex than that, and even worse than corruption. She didn't need an even bigger problem to deal with. It was better not to remove it from his hand.
“And if I leave it in his hand and bring it close to the doors?”
Jean didn't wait for an answer. She left the wraith recomposing and moved his hand closer to one of the doors. Both objects seemed to light up slightly, but nothing more happened.
Jean summoned the healing to counter the HP that Khaor's curse had taken from her and waited for Lethann to approach.
“Open it!”
“Fuck you!”
“Open it or I’ll find a way to devour your soul!”
“Y-you can do that!”
“Go check out the idiots who attacked me and see if you can find their corpses!”
“I don’t believe you!”
It seemed that in his undead form he didn't have Identify. She stored his hand and tried to hold him. Now that she had direct contact with his vaporous soul, she desired to store him. However, the whispers explained to her that she couldn't. She needed a skill that would allow her to lock the soul inside a magic vessel.
“I guess it's true that I can't defeat him!”
“Shit! Why did you make me come here then! Ilya is dying!”
“That's her name?! No matter what you try, you won’t be able to do anything when Master turns her into his new toy!”
Jean raised an eyebrow. “And how many do you think have managed to escape when this Daughter of Nimireth has set out to end them?”
“What!?” The wraith tried to escape from her grasp with all his might. “No, no, no...”
Jean squeezed him in her arms until she broke him in half and then whacked his vaporous form again and again. She didn't care about his cries of pleading, she just kept going until his form was only mist and Nimireth's Fury deactivated because of her low mana.
She crossed her arms as she looked at him as if he was nothing more than an insect to her. She needed to conceal the fact that she was casting Clear Mind. “Open the damn door!”
At the wraith's silence, Jean repeated the cycle once more. She waited just long enough for him to recompose and then resumed the attack.
“Open… the damn… door!!”
The wraith was slow to relent, but the third time he recomposed, he finally uttered. “Uchrath!”
Jean deciphered with Linguist that its meaning was something similar to “Interrupt seal” in the language of the dead. It didn't take her a second to reach out the door with his bony hand to pronounce it. The purple glow immediately dissipated and the door easily gave way at Jean's push.
Black stairs spiraled down before her. Jean descended them without worrying about the noise of her hurried footsteps; the open map was all she needed. After descending what seemed like two floors in a row, a corridor descended to her left to meet a section of stairs similar to the previous one. After traversing it, another section on the same side followed.
For more than 200 steps, that was the tonic. She descended relentlessly until she reached another door. A bigger one. She brought Lethann's hand close and murmured. “Uchrath!” The purple light soon faded, but it didn't open it. She was not alone anymore.
She stored the hand and summoned Nímireth's Fury to increase her Perception by 10 points along with the cursed set. After closing her eyes, she suddenly felt like she was living in another world. Distant smells, sounds through objects and even slight vibrations in the air were now a reality possible to perceive. The most noticeable one, the insignificant breeze bringing unintelligible conversations from several floors above.
Jean leaned her ear against the door. There was something behind the door. Something that knew she was there. If it was a skeleton, she'd be in trouble. If it was something else, well… she would know soon enough. She waited patiently for her mana to be replenished with Clear Mind. Just after healing herself several times from Khaor's curse, she prepared God Fist.
