“You got it to agree. Can we get out of here yet?” Bonnie asked, looking over at the wall they had cast Earth Spike on last time to build a ladder. “I mean, if you need to stay, that’s fine, but magic me up a ladder so I don’t have to, please,” she requested. She added the nicety at the end of her statement as if it were an afterthought.

“Yeah,” Lucas said, “we can go. It’s probably best anyway. We’re on a timer now to take care of Kegan.” He felt a new determination to be this villain that he hadn’t had before. He didn’t know how long the process to transfer ownership of a territory might take, but he knew he wanted it done as soon as possible. He had died hundreds of times to reach negative Level 71, and if the game reset his total skill points to zero and put him back to Level 1, he’d lose the advantage his failures had provided. He’d be nothing more than a regular player all over again, and he didn’t want that. Not when I’ve come this far already.

“What about this?” Nick asked, holding up Jason’s decapitated head. While Lucas had been negotiating with Saba'a and reading the quest details after the fact, Nick had been busy wrapping Jason’s neck with bandages after letting the blood drain a bit so that it would stop dripping everywhere.

“Just keep it on you,” Lucas instructed. “We’re going to need it later.”

Chapter 5

Character Name: Lucas

Level: -63

Hit Points: 180

Arcane Energy: 200

Stamina: 100

Holy Energy: Class Locked

Current Class: Mage

Stats:

Arcanum [increases Arcane Energy by 10 per point]: 10

Holy [No Effect/Class Locked]: 0

Athletics [increases Stamina by 10 per point]: 0

Fortitude [increases Hit Points by 1% per point]: 0

Charisma: 30

Luck: 0

Unspent: 40

Current Elemental Attunement:

None

Combat Proficiencies:

None

Lucas, Bonnie, and Nick were able to sneak through the manor without being detected rather easily. The guards were all either outside or in the barracks, and the walls were so covered in dust that it was evident that neither a maid nor a butler had been employed in the manor for weeks. Lucas didn’t know how a mostly vacant, untidy house fit into things, but he just accepted it as a blessing.

As they walked through the halls, trying to be stealthy, one of the doors in front of them opened. There was a fully armored guard, holding a massive plate stacked to the brim with sandwiches, cheese, and crackers. He stared, confused at the group of intruders.

When he opened his mouth, as if trying to talk, a small bolus of cheese that he had been chewing on fell out of his mouth back onto the stack of Havarti cubes.

“Uhh . . .” the guard began trying to form words as Lucas, Nick, and Bonnie stared at him.