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.

“Say cheese!” Nick unloaded three charges of Chain Lightning on the surprised guard, lighting up his skeleton like a cartoonish X-ray before the body turned to ash. “Ha!” Nick laughed as the body hit the ground. “That was picture-perfect.”

“Your ability to make getting easy EXP uncomfortable is shocking,” Bonnie snickered.

“Whatever. This place is uncomfortable already. It’s so eerie. At least I am having some fun with it,” Nick said.

He wasn’t wrong. The hallways’ walls were a dark forest green, and the only lighting came from either Bonnie’s torch or the occasional wall-mounted fixture, which rarely ever held anything except a short, stubbly candle that she would have to spend half a minute trying to light. Even worse, every step was punctuated by a creaking in the floorboards that would have given them away to any nearby enemies if there were actually guards around.

“Yeah, it’s like the clichéd haunted house at the end of the street in every 90s kids’ movie,” Bonnie said as she lit another one of the candles mounted to the wall.

“Except, unlike the movies, there really are giant spiders that will eat you and a mad man that will probably try to kill us,” Lucas commented wryly. He glanced down at the head that Nick was still holding onto. “Maybe you should pass that to me.”

“What are you even going to do with this?” Nick asked curiously.