Ascension

by J R Davis

  As if there were some unseen signal, the leader lunged at Ogma, aiming for the bear's neck. Ogma instinctively raised to his full height in an attempt to hinder the lead wolves attack. Ogma then tried to sweep the wolf with his massive claws, yet it was far too nimble to be caught off guard. Simultaneously, the scout and one of the larger wolves drew closer to Okane, testing the merchants metal. The larger of the two attempted to bypass Okane’s axe, going straight for his arm, only to be met by my own Dark Orb hitting it in its exposed face.

  You hit wolf hunter for 46 damage in a vulnerable area

  Damage increased.

  The wolf recoiled, moving back as Okane brought his axe down on it. The remaining scout, however, did not miss its opportunity to move, using the opening to bite down on Okane’s now exposed arm.

  Okane yelled in pain, the other wolf seized the opportunity and lunged at his exposed throat. Both wolves now upon him, wrestling for dominance. Okane could do little but struggle, mentally calling out for aid, Morrigan immediately responded.

  “Robin, take my spot against this wolf, it's on its last leg, don’t you dare die!” Morrigan said, then her form flickered once more and was upon the wolf at Okane’s throat, daggers blade deep into the wolves eyes. The wolf had no time to react only let out a whimper as it fell to the ground dead. Okane thought, the damage was done, the two wolves had dealt enough combined damage to kill him, his body going limp and falling to the ground. “Damn it” Morrigan cursed as she squared against the remaining scout, daggers drawn and bloodied. “How could you die right in the middle of a fight?!”

  The lead wolf and Ogma took turns, bobbing and weaving in between the other wolves attacks. It seemed as if, while the wolf was more nimble, its attacks were not very effective against the tank. In Ogma’s case the wolf could only chip away at his hp, but he could not catch it to do any real damage, he could only keep it tied up and hope one of us finishes our fight and in turn could join his. In my case, I had another issue to deal with, this wolf was far stronger than the damn rabbit I fought before. The wolf bore its fangs at me, drawing slowly closer as it sensed I was likely easy prey. At the same time, I was desperately trying to come up with a plan to fight back. I had my staff pointed at the wolf, a Dark Orb already charging. I waiting for skill activation to shoot, but if I missed it would likely be all over.

  It was in this moment that I noticed Okane’s body on the ground, it had a faint red glow to it. I thought to myself that for a necromancer, I should have some kind of familiar or spirit to not have to deal with this exact situation. The wolf suddenly deciding to lunge, the movement causing me to flinch and release my Dark Orb, hitting it just above the front left leg.

  You hit wolf hunter for 34 dark damage.

  The wolf, now in pain, used its momentum to carry it forward. It knocked me to the ground and notification elected it.

  You take 10 neutral damage, status gained, knocked down.

  You may not perform any skills until you have regained your footing.

  Well, isn't that just peachy, I thought to myself as the wolf attempted to bite my face off. I instinctively put my arm up for defense. It gladly takes the limb as a substitute.

  Wolf Hunter damages you for 30 bleeding damage, status gained, bleeding.

  You will lose 5 hp per second for the next 10 seconds.

  Agh! What the shit is this, I mentally yelled, trying to wriggle free. Thinking quickly, I used my staff as a bludgeon, slamming it on the wolves exposed noggin.

  You hit Wolf Hunter for 9 blunt damage, Wolf Hunter stunned.

  The wolf's jaws released my arm as it momentarily lost control. Quickly, I used the opportunity to roll to my feet, hand reaching out towards Okane. Oh please please PLEASE do something useful, I cried out, hand outstretched and flaring in pain. The system responded, would you like to use the “Raise Undead” skill? The notification window prompted me for a yes or a no. I speedily motioned for yes, the window quickly disappearing. Okane's body beginning to ominously leak smoke as the red glow grew in intensity. As it did, a skeleton rose from Okane’s corpse, as if his body were a portal.

  “Okane!”, I yelled, “Is that you?!”. The skeleton's bones then rattled, as if in amusement. It was then that an ethereal voice spoke in my mind with but a single word, “no.”

  I stared at the skeleton as it’s words registered in my mind. Motivating me to take a closer look at it. It stood a good 6 feet, which was a bit taller than Okane. The blue flames of its eyes bore into me, meeting my gaze unflinchingly. Clearly, this was a summon, not a resurrection. Before I had time to consider those implications, the wolf recovered from my blow and once more was upon me. As it lunged, the skeleton moved reflexively, it slammed its club right into the wolfs rib cage, staggering it.

  Skeleton Minion has hit Wolf Hunter for 32 blunt damage.

  It then proceeded to push into the wolf aggressively with an onslaught of blows. The wolf not yet having a chance to collect itself, could only stagger back, fangs bared.

  As the wolf moved back, I spared no time, channeling and firing my Dark Orbs in succession. Between the skeletons blows and my own spells, the wolf quickly succumbed to our combined efforts. Glancing over at Morrigan, I saw she was holding her own against her wolf, which looked significantly worse for wear than she did. It's cuts being clearly visible across its body. Ogma, on the other hand, was not looking as good. All those small chips of hp the lead wolf had been doing had taken a toll on him. His bear form's fur bloodied on the arms and torso. “Skeleton.. uhh.. guy I said hesitantly, could you go help Ogma?”.

  “Afterwords, I expect a name” it replied testily and moved to flank the lead wolf.

  As it did so, Ogma visibly jumped, yelling in our party chat, “What the hell is that?!”.

  “It's ok, it's one of my minions,” I assured him. “Just do what you can. I’m going to help Morrigan and then we can all put the leader down”.

  Having sent some aid to Ogma, I now focused my efforts on helping Morrigan, only to have her deal the finishing blow to the Wolf Scout as I approached.

  “You still breathing?” she asked me in a mockingly worried tone. She looked a bit ruffled, with some cuts here and there, but save for that, she appeared ok.

  “I’m fairing about as good as you” I responded, motioning us to move to aid Ogma. I mentally told the skeleton to move behind the wolf, effectively cutting off any escape route as Morrigan and I flanked it from each side. The lead wolf now surrounded, it's head darted around in search of its comrades only to find them all dispatched.

  The lead wolf was quickly taken down, lacking the aid of its comrades. As the battle came to its conclusion, Ogma took his human form. Turning to face us, Ogma took one glance at Okane and shook his head.

  “What exactly happened and what is that thing?” he asked pointedly, hand gesturing to the skeleton. As he did so, the skeleton nonchalantly smacked him upside the head, uttering in my mind that he was an ungrateful shit.

  Ogma stumbled forward slightly at the skeletons surprise blow, asking “What the hell was that?!”.

  “Apparently, you offended him” I responded, chuckling. Morrigan too was trying to hide barely audible giggles, covering her mouth with her hand.

  “Ok, Fine” Ogma stated, “well what is this and what do we call it? I remember you saying you were a necromancer so is this one of your skills?”.

  “I am pretty sure it is and the skeleton can mentally speak to me...to some degree,” I said. “Basically, when Okane died, his body glowed a low red and I figured I could interact with that somehow.” Usual video game logic and all that. Suddenly I got a prompt and there he was. “Now, as to what it is, you may have to give me a moment to read up.” Both Ogma and Morrigan nodded.

  “In the meantime, I will reach out to Okane and see how he is doing” Ogma stated. Okane’s body having long since disappeared.

  Reviewing my list of skills once more, I noticed that there was now a raise skeleton skill at level 1 as well as a
similarly ranked companion skill. I apparently had two skill tabs, one for learned skills and one for skills that I could learn through effort and application, odd, but it made sense. There were some interesting skills I had yet to try as well. Next time we get out there, I’d not mind trying a rooting ability called “Grasping Hands”.

  Moving forward, I went over my battle log, I saw that considering the skeleton was my only present “minion” it defaulted as a companion, which apparently could be leveled for increased stats. At the same time, that meant that I could potentially have more than one minion out at a time, with restrictions, of course. The game could hardly have me summoning an army of undead and swarming towns. What was interesting thought is considering my companion was humanoid, I could gift it equipment. Before I got too carried away reading though, I still needed to give it a name still. After careful deliberation, I decided to go with Charon and entered it under minion name in his status bar. That being the name of the ferryman who took souls across the Acheron river.

  Now that that business was behind me, I was able to address the blinking notifications in my vision from the battle as well. Our entire team fared quite well, dealing good damage and it seemed that Ogmas thick fur was as good as any armor. Also, apparently I leveled after I defeated the Wolf Hunter, having made significant progress towards lvl 3 as well. I had dismissed the notifications early on as they were distracting in battle and I needed to focus. Still, It allotted me 5 stat points to place where I like. Considering I am basically a mage, I decided to go with 3 in intelligence and 2 in agility, the agility to help me get around. The last thing I need is to get caught by wolves or some other creature with a penchant for mages. This brought my stats to Vit 10, Dex 9, Str 9 , Int 14, and Agi 11. Not too shabby for beginner stats, but we had a long way to go.

  Turning back to face my party, I began my explanation. “Judging by the size and voice I heard, I want to say the skeleton is a guy. That being the case, I went with Charon for the name. He is my summon, and companion, which means he will be staying. I can probably summon more skeletons and other things, but I can only designate one companion at a time. All others will be significantly weaker and have a set time limit that they can be out. Also, he can hear and understand what you guys say and has a mental link to me, similar to mind chat.”

  “Seems pretty convenient for a squishy like you to have something to take the hits for you,” Ogma mused, a shit-eating grin plastered on his face.

  “Well, it's not like we have any other good tanks to do that,” I replied, in mock distress.

  “Hey, hey, I’ll have you know, the only reason I couldn’t hold aggro was because of the damn leaders skill.” Ogma protested.

  “I’ll be sure to send that, with your condolences to Okane.” Morrigan jabbed.

  “Yeah…that was a bit rough, I did warn him to get a shield though,” Ogma said pointedly. His class has more utility than damage so the guy needs more defense.

  After discussing our plans to pressure Okane into purchasing a shield, we proceeded to loot the wolves. While the leader dropped some decent craft items such as fur and, bones, and meat, the remaining wolves dropped a little more than a few coins. After dividing that amongst ourselves and setting aside a portion for Okane, it was already late day so we decided to make out way back to town. Truth be told, I did want to see what the shops had to offer and to take some time to review all of my options as a necromancer. From what I got so far, I have decent damage output and a companion, as well as the ability to summon more from monsters and players if need be. The more skills I level up, the more I may also end up unlocking as well. The only question being, just how much utility I would have as a necromancer to offset my clear lack of defense. I’d rather not end up playing whack- a -mob with my staff again.

  Name: Robin Graves

  Lvl: 2 82% experience

  Spells: Dark Orb Lvl 1, Summon Undead lvl 1

  Grasping Hands: lvl not yet learned

  Casting time: Instant

  Cooldown: 3 minutes

  Effect: Call forth the Grasping Hands of the dead to root a single target, dealing 40 dark damage. Hitting the target will release the root.

  Chapter Three

  A Very Greedy Gnome

  The walk back to town was a bit slow although lively with Ogma constantly teasing Morrigan, whose rebuttals often involved smacking him upside the head. It definitely made for good entertainment. We greeted the guards on our return, who spared more than an occasional glance at Charon. He, in turn, made the “I’m watching you” gesture with his hand at them as we passed by. This visibly unsettled them as I rolled my eyes. I’m actually a bit surprised they even let him in. After which, we made our way to the busy city square. To that end, I had mentioned to the pair that I was on the lookout for some armor and perhaps a weapon. Something cheap I could buy between my beginner gold and the loot we got from combat. I was now nearly level 3 after we had finished off all the wolves and while it did not exactly make me a force to be reckoned with, I was starting to get an idea for exactly how my class handled.

  After meeting back up with Okane, who waited patiently in town, it was Morrigan this time who guided our bedraggled lot to a shop that she had figured would facilitate my needs. Our walk to this little hole in the wall shop took the better of 10 minutes. Morrigan having a grin plastered on her face the entire time. The scenery of crowded areas and large richly decorated shops gave way to narrow passageways, the once stone floor becoming dirt paths as we journeyed through.

  “I love this guy, his stuff is great quality, but he will try and rob you blind,” she said bemusedly.

  Great, I thought to myself, the thief is guiding us to another one. “Maybe you both can have a good chuckle about robbing us blind over a drink,” I responded sarcastically.

  As we approached the supposed shop, I noticed an old wooden sign hung above the archway of a well kept older building, reading “Zootwick’s Stocks The Very Best”. Morrigan ushered us through the doors, the smell of something tangy yet bitter assaulting my senses. The inside of the shop was rustic. One side of the shop was dedicated to many pieces of armor and weaponry, the other, an even larger assortment of potions and the like. In the middle of the large assortment of potions was a counter, manned by what I could only imagine was a gnome.

  Zootwick was clearly too small to pass as a dwarf and lacked the laid back demeanor of what I assume a hobbit would possess. The gnome himself was dressed in plain attire, a white button-up shirt with a brown vest, the rest hidden behind the counter. He was likely only about 3 feet tall with blonde hair and striking green eyes, sporting a full beard and eyebrows thick enough to shield his face from any storm. Zootwick nodded to our group, his discerning eyes passing over each of us until he landed on Morrigan.

  “Ah! My favorite customer, how have you been? Come to rob me blind?” he asked, a glint of amusement clearly visible in his eyes.

  “Not this time shorty” Morrigan responded, a wide grin splayed on her face. “We are here for our newbie, who apparently needs some equipment.”

  “Ahh, I see,” he said as his eyes passed over to me. “I presume the bag of bones is with you as well” he queried.

  “You would be correct,” I replied, “His name is Charon and I may be in the market for something for him as well.”

  Zootwick’s beard pulled back into a wide predatory smile, revealing two rows of sharp and pointy teeth, “very good, very good, let us see what we have in store”.

  The armor section sported a row of armored mannequins of varying design. Going up and down the mannequins, I glanced at the price tags for some of the more interesting models. In particular, I had my eyes on a light plate mail set for Charon, something to help him tank for me and quite frankly, to enhance his badassery score. This particular set being dark grey, the helmet concealing the entire face but the eyes, and adorned with two wings on the sides of it. The torso piece designed in a sleek yet effective pattern that shielded all vital spots from ext
ernal forces. Though, truth be told, it's not like Charon has any real vitals to hit, I mused to myself. Curiously, I glanced at the price tag, it read a whopping 4000 gold!

  “You see something you like?” Zootwick asked as he drew to my side. His voice sounding enticed by the possibility of profit.

  “Well, I would love this set for Charon, but between my beginners gold and what we got from the battles thus far, the amount of money I'm rocking is significantly less than what's listed here, and I’d still need some leftover for potions and supplies”.

  Zootick frowned, “hmmm,” he said, pausing for a moment. “How much of this money do you have?”. “We might be able to work something out,” he said, greed clearly audible in his voice. It was at this point where Morrigan spoke in the party chat.

  “DO NOT tell him how much you have, he will rob you blind”. “If you need stuff for Charon, try and get him a shield and a sword first, then see how much you have”.

  That was a very fair point, I thought to myself, glancing back to Zootwick. “For the time being, I think I’ll start with a basic sword and shield, something sturdy”.

  “A fine idea!” he exclaimed, leading me to another section which sported everything from swords to mage staffs. The weaponry section was about as small as the armor sets, which made sense considering this wasn’t a specialty store. Sporting about 5-6 swords, spears, staffs, and other items of interest. All ranging from low-quality wood to high steel. What caught my eye, however, was a spear and kite shield. The spear allowing him more range to attack and place the enemy even further away from myself.

  “How about this one,” I said as I motioned to a very plain looking spear. It does about 20-30 damage on impact, before the influence of stats, which was quite good, I had thought.

  “This is a good choice, my friend,” Zootwick said as he clasped his hands together. “For the low low price of 1400, she can be yours!”.