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Chapter 014 - Cultivating an Escape Plan

  As the fighting continued outside, Millie checked her status pane. She needed to know precisely what she was working with regarding her criminal flag if people were right outside.

  #######

  NAME: MILDRED COREIA

  CLASS: DEATH MAGE (RARE)

  LEVEL: 5

  —XP: 1,500/3,000

  —HP: 340

  —MP: 180

  —STR: 10

  —DEX: 12

  —CON: 34

  —INT: 22

  —WIS: 10

  —UNAPPLIED POINTS: 4

  [ABILITIES, SKILLS, SPELLS]

  —DEATH MAGIC: Skelemation, Gravebolt, Death's Favor

  [EFFECTS]

  — +15 MP Regeneration

  — Criminal - Murder (No Witnesses, 1 week remaining)

  #######

  Well, the good news was that it seemed like because there were no witnesses to her crime, she wasn't penalized with an extra-long timer. The bad news was that, of course, the System knew and would almost certainly place obstacles in her way while it counted down.

  The worse news was that she had no idea what would happen if any of Tom's friends came into the room and saw him splayed out on the floor. Or if anyone else came in—such as those fighters beyond the boss chamber's door—and realized Tom's body wasn't just another monster Millie had blasted.

  This would have been so much easier if it hadn't been a public dungeon. Gods, why had she chosen public? Not only would Tom still be alive, she wouldn't be flagged a murderer—or be a murderer—and she would have a portal that took her outside the dungeon because the boss was dead.

  Her parents had warned her about this. While it wasn't so much Tom or her griefing the other, it still caused a lot of grief for everyone involved.

  The fight outside the door was quick, and the people triumphed over the kobold guards without much trouble.

  Then came the moment she'd been dreading. The party pushed on the door to the boss chamber.

  And it didn't open. At least a small amount of tension left Millie's body.

  Her kobold barring the door did its job well, and from Millie's perspective, it wasn't straining to keep it shut. That was good. That hopefully meant she had some time to figure things out.

  Afterward, Millie listened as best she could to the party's discussion. The voices on the other side of the door were muffled, but they weren't angry. From what Millie could tell, the voices belonged to three women, and they didn't seem to be aggressively trying to force their way in.

  "So do you think we missed something to get in there?" one voice said.

  "I don't think so," came another, slightly deeper one. "We killed the guards. Shouldn't that be enough?"

  "You'd think," said the third. Her accent was a bit twangier than the others. Must not be from Cragfall. "We didn't see no levers or buttons, we checked, and the quest from the guild made it sound like this was just a smash-and-grab."

  Millie paced quickly around the room. What was she going to do? If they came and saw she was flagged a murderer, then they'd attack her automatically.

  At least, that was the most likely scenario. When the System flagged someone as a criminal, their status went from green (friendly) to criminal (grey). Murderers went one step further, with their outlines turning red, which meant they were aggressive or an enemy.

  Most parties in a dungeon wouldn't hesitate to start blasting a red outline, even if it were another person. Because they knew what it meant. If they got in before Millie could figure something out, she hoped these women weren't like "most parties."

  She also didn't know if she was ready for a 3-on-1 fight. Well, 3-on-2, since she had one minion. But they had taken care of the living ones outside pretty handily, so Millie didn't know if her single skeleton would be as much of a help.

  Julie the owlbear was still on cooldown, and [Skelemation] had failed on the boss. Her attention kept being drawn back to Tom's corpse. It might not be a bad idea to try to bring him back. The [Death Mage] part of her strongly influenced her instincts that was the right thing to do.

  Well, maybe not right, but at least correct for the circumstances. Unfortunately, Millie's MP wasn't back to where she could cast the spell again. With the new robe and extra regen, hopefully it wouldn't be too long.

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  What she wished was that her WIS was a bit higher. That would increase the speed of her MP recovery. Even a little would make a big difference right now. With a base 10, Millie was about as slow as she could get.

  She did have four free points, though. She'd leveled up twice since she'd killed the boss. And Tom. While she hated to spend two whole levels' worth of stat points to raise a score she didn't intend to focus on, it might be the best option she had right now.

  Before she could talk herself out of it, Millie dropped 4 points into WIS, bringing her to a total of 14. Immediately, she felt herself open up to the magic around her. In the same way her pulse quickened when she was excited, the magic flowing into her sped up.

  Having never tried to actively regain MP, Millie wondered if it was possible. The women outside the door were still trying to push their way in, and when all three shoved against it at the same time, it seemed like they were making a little headway. The door wasn't opening, but it was creaking. They might just knock it down, so she needed to hurry.

  Giving active MP regen a shot, Millie dropped to the ground and crossed her legs. She lay her staff across her lap, her hands wrapped around its center.

  In her mind, she pictured the MP she used to cast some of her spells as a reservoir in the center of her body. She imagined the magic itself as motes in the air around her, swirls of energy that looked like the flickers of black-white fire her spells manifested as. She imagined breathing in the fire, visualized it entering her nostrils, filling her lungs with an invigorating cold burn, and then finally circulating into the reservoir that made up her MP total.

  ******

  [ACHIEVEMENT EARNED: CULTIVATION UNLOCKED]

  Congratulations on taking the first step on your journey toward ascension. The System rewards those who seek enlightenment. Continue along this path, and you will become part of a world beyond your understanding and gain power beyond your comprehension.

  [REWARD]

  — You learn the [Cultivation (Novice) ] skill. You will now passively absorb the essence of the world around you and convert it to usable energy. Activating and channeling this skill will increase the speed of cultivation.

  [ADVANCED CLASS]

  — As a Cultivator with the advanced class [Death Mage], your resource pool has changed for enhanced synergy. MP has been replaced by [Soul Residue] for all spells and abilities. You will recover spent 100% faster when within 10 feet of a lifeless body (this effect stacks based on the number of bodies).

  ******

  [NEW QUEST: CULTIVATION NEOPHYTE]

  Even though you know something, you know nothing. Continue toward ascension.

  [REWARD]

  — [Cultivation (Neophyte) ]

  ******

  Everything Millie had known about pain was forgotten as whatever happened to her ripped her apart. Her body was on fire. Freezing. Tearing, ripping, shredding. Her mind was blank, but she couldn't stop thoughts from moving quickly out of reach. Pressure built outside her, crunching and pushing into her.

  It felt like she was being condensed. Energy throbbed around her, and the only thing she saw or felt was everything.

  As suddenly as it started, it stopped. Her body felt off. She hurt even though there was no pain. It was almost like the absence of the overwhelming sensations was even more pain than she'd endured.

  As the moment passed, Millie saw that her MP had indeed been replaced by the Soul Residue. And while the number in her status pane was increasing steadily, she could somehow sense the well of power inside her filling up. It was already well past where it needed to be for her to cast [Skelemation].

  As Millie turned her body toward the boss and Tom's bodies, Millie could almost see the black-white motes of soul residue rising from them and rushing into her.

  Knowing it was going to work this time and hurried by the repeated slams against the metal door, Millie placed her hand on Tom's forehead and said, "I'm really sorry about this," as she started to cast the spell.

  Flesh ripped and tore. Blood rushed out from Tom's body as his skeleton fought to free itself from the tendons, muscle, and skin that imprisoned it. Instead of rising from its meaty prison like all of her other undead had, Tom's skeleton fought upward as it seemingly ate its way from the inside out. The bones were moving, making it happen, becoming infused with the soul residue that Millie had cultivated moments before.

  Watching it felt like seeing the skin and hair slough off more than the skeleton emerging, but as viscera splattered and squished and was pushed outward, there was no mistaking that it was the skeleton gaining freedom, not being granted it.

  Finally, the skeleton stood before its new master. It rose to its feet, fully clothed and equipped with Tom's armor. It had torn its way free from the useless dead flesh, but it retained the armaments it had known and used in life with no need to reequip or redress at all.

  ******

  [ACHIEVEMENT EARNED: THE CYCLE CONTINUES]

  Not only did you kill someone flagged friendly, but you then reanimated the corpse and took control of it. That's just brutal. Here's hoping it doesn't hold a grudge.

  [REWARD]

  — XP: 1,000

  ******

  Millie was definitely suffering from information overload. She was having a hard time thinking and focusing. A lot had just happened.

  Taking Tom's skeleton in, she saw that he was outlined in purple to her, which meant the System looked at him as a party member just like any other minion. Good.

  [STATUS: SKELEMATED THOMAS BEEFTALLOW]

  CREATURE TYPE: Undead, Human

  LEVEL: 5

  —HP: 150

  —MP: 130

  —STR: 18

  —DEX: 20

  —CON: 15

  —INT: 13

  —WIS: 10

  [SKILLS]

  — Power Slash, Quick Strike, Cleave

  ******

  Despite the dire circumstances, Millie burst out laughing. His name was Thomas Beeftallow?! What kind of name is that? Maybe his parents were [Candlemakers] or something along those lines. She cackled despite herself. Thomas Beeftallow. She was one hundred percent calling this skeleton Tommy Beefs. As she looked at the status pane, she wondered if there was a way to actually rename the minion to show that.

  She'd deal with that later. If she made it out of this. There weren't any Death Mage Enhancements showing up on his sheet, so that meant they had to be applied to Tommy Beefs' abilities.

  There wasn't time to check on what they were, though, as just when she finished looking over his base stats, the winged kobold blocking the door let out a horrific screech.

  The door started to push open from the hinged side. The party outside obviously realized where the most resistance was and attacked the stone and hinges that didn't have extra support.

  A flash of magic penetrated the frame around the door. The metal almost folded inward from the force. The winged kobold skeleton was thrown to the side, and its jammed weapons fell to the ground.

  Millie took a deep breath. She urged her minions to her side. Both quickly made their way and planted themselves, ready to defend their master and creator. Millie held ZuZu's staff defensively, hoping to block whatever attack came her way.

  The three adventurers stepped into the room, and after a quick glance around, they very much noticed the undead guards around their master.

  The first to enter the room raised their weapon, ready to attack. Another began casting what had to be an elemental barrage. And the third held up a staff that glowed with arcane sigils.

  Millie's eyes widened. A [Runecrafter] was the only class she knew of that could use sigils like that. She lowered her own staff and sent a mental command for her skeletons to stand down. "Lorey?"

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