“How come I haven’t read about this dungeon on the forums?” Athos asked.

  “I think it was probably locked,” I answered. “It has storyline importance. Maybe we are the ones to open it to the public?”

  It was a fair assumption. I haven’t heard about players clearing dungeons in Tidemark so far. There were a few posts from some of the different counties across Silverwing, but Tidemark was not one of them.

  “That means a first clear bonus, right?” Kara asked.

  “It better.” Lothras added.

  We continued our journey towards the absolute darkness, litting torches one by one whenever one ran out.

  “Hey, Lothras,” I said. “Did you kill the elite trolls in the Dryhollow mines a couple days ago?”

  He looked at me with a mix of disdain and disinterest, his armor gleaming slightly under the light of my torch. “Maybe.”

  “I thought the previous little encounter would make you feel a bit of camaraderie, but I guess not,” Athos chimed in.

  “Look.” The Paladin stopped. “I’m going to do everything in my power to complete this quest. I will be a team player with you, even.” The last part he said as if it was a curse phrase.

  “I sense a but coming,” Kara said nonchalantly.

  “But,” Lothras continued. “It doesn’t mean I have to act friendly with you. Especially not you, ranger.”

  “I don’t care what the reason is,” I started. “But trust me, it would be easier without all the animosity.”

  He shuddered. “You’re on my guild’s black list,” he explained simply.

  Don’t tell me…

  “You’re with Crimson Court?” I asked.

  “It’s the most obvious choice for someone who wants to achieve anything in this game,” he stated simply. “And they don’t require me to party up with them most of the time, which serves my needs as well.”

  I couldn’t say anything to that.

  With that I turned to Kara.

  “You were really sharp back there,” I stated. “Saved our lives. Who knows what happens to the quest if we can’t clear it on the first try.”

  “Could mean it fails, yeah,” she said. “It is a very big story quest after all, I’m guessing there’s not much chance for retries.”

  I nodded.

  “Why Bard?”

  “Music is my life,” she raised her shoulders. “Always was.”

  “Weren’t you worried about its fighting capabilities?

  “Trust me, handsome,” she smiled. “I handle myself just fine. I’m not just a pretty face with a nice voice.”

  I had absolutely no doubt in my mind about that.

  The passage descended at a steady angle, the carved stone changing back into rougher tunnels.

  We fought through scattered groups of gravekeepers, their movements becoming more coordinated the deeper we went.

  Some wielded rusty swords now instead of tools, their combat patterns more aggressive.

  "These aren't workers anymore," Athos said after cutting down one that had almost pulled off a successful parry against him. "These were soldiers."

  It was highly likely. They wore something akin to a tarnished chainmail and a tabard so rotten I could barely make out the emblem. House Trynd's sigil, probably. These were the actual people buried here.

  A group of four rushed us from a side chamber. Two with swords and shields, one with a bow, one with a spear.

  Lothras intercepted the spear thrust with his shield, then pivoted to block the first sword strike. "Multiple weapon types," he called out. "Watch for archers."

  The skeletal archer nocked an arrow, its movements jagged, like you’d expect someone without actual tendons to be.

  I was faster. My Piercing Shot punched through its ribcage before it could loose, and the force of the attack shattered its spine against the wall behind it.

  Kara played a rising chord. “Lullaby of Dismay!”

  The skill washed over the remaining skeletons, and I saw their movements slow, their attacks becoming sluggish. The debuff was subtle but noticeable.

  Athos took advantage immediately, his Blade Rush carrying him between the two sword-wielders. He cut the first one down with a Horizontal Slash, then spun into a Piercing Stab that shattered the second's pelvis. Both collapsed in heaps of bone and rust.

  Lothras finished the spear-wielder with Purging Flame, the holy fire consuming the skeleton completely.

  "That was not bad," Kara observed.

  We pressed on. The tunnels widened, opening into larger chambers connected by short passages. Each one held more skeletons.

  Sometimes it was just Gravekeepers, sometimes armed warriors, occasionally Scavengers that came howling from the darkness.

  The attribute redistribution worked out really well. I could shoot way faster, and I needed less time to aim as well.

  I was at a point where my avatar was probably becoming better than my real life self. Of course, without the IRL skills I would be way worse inside the game, still.

  Movement felt different too. When a Scavenger lunged at me, I sidestepped without thinking, my body reacting faster than my mind. The dog sailed past, and I put two arrows in its skull before it hit the ground.

  "You're moving better," Athos said during a brief rest. “You were doing a strength build when we fought, weren’t you?”

  "Yeah. Gave me good damage but my Agility was subpar."

  "Your draw speed is better now," he added. "I could barely track that last volley. And you’re faster, too. This patch really buffed you.”

  Lothras said nothing, but I caught him watching me with something that might have been a sign of uncertainty about me. Or maybe he was planning how to kill me later.

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  It was hard to tell.

  The passage opened into a chamber that made me stop cold.

  It was massive, easily fifty meters across, the ceiling lost in shadows beyond our torchlight.

  And it was full of skeletons.

  There were at least a hundred of them. They stood in a loose circle, wandering around aimlessly, weapons ready, eyeless sockets staring at nothing.

  Some wore armor, others simple burial shrouds.

  "This might be a problem," Athos said quietly.

  "We could try to pull them in small groups," I suggested.

  Kara shook her head. "Look at how they're positioned. They're all connected. We aggro one, we aggro them all."

  "Then we fight them all," Lothras said, already moving forward.

  "Wait–" Athos started.

  Too late. Lothras strode into the chamber, and every skeleton turned toward him simultaneously. Nameplates flashed into existence above each one.

  The entire army surged forward.

  "Stay close to me!" Lothras roared, planting himself at the chamber's entrance. "I’ll trap them!"

  We didn’t really know what he meant by that, but at that point we didn’t have much of a choice, either.

  Lothras activated Oath of Steel, his armor flaring with golden light. His defense visibly increased, and each of the hits glanced off his shield.

  The first skeletons crashed against him. Swords clanged, spears thrust, axes swung. Lothras weathered it all, and I had to acknowledge that his shield work was impeccable.

  He’s on the level of Stone, at least.

  He caught a sword on the rim, deflected a spear with a twist of his wrist and blocked an overhead axe strike without even looking right after.

  Then he activated something I'd never seen before.

  "Light Curtain!"

  Walls of pure golden light erupted from the ground, forming a circle around Lothras and us that extended ten meters into the chamber. The skeletons outside the barrier slammed against it, weapons bouncing off harmlessly.

  Those inside were trapped with him.

  "Golden Dawn!"

  The skill Rafael used against me in the tournament.

  Light exploded from Lothras in a devastating wave, each pulse dealing massive damage to undead caught in its radius. The trapped skeletons began to burn, holy fire consuming their bones.

  At the same time, I felt warmth wash over me. My health bar, which had taken a few hits from stray arrows, filled completely.

  "Now!" Lothras shouted. "While they're contained!"

  I didn't hesitate.

  Fan of Arrows sent eight shots into the trapped group, each one finding a target. Three skeletons collapsed immediately.

  I followed up with a rapid succession of basic shots, my new attack speed letting me fire almost continuously.

  Athos became a whirlwind.

  He used Blade Rush to enter the fray, his sword flashing as he cut through skeleton after skeleton.

  When a cluster formed, he triggered Saltstone Edge: his weapon glowing with blue-white energy as he slashed in a devastating arc. The AoE attack caught six skeletons, shattering them into fragments.

  Kara's lute rang out with a different melody now, aggressive and discordant.

  “Thunderous Accord!”

  The skill sent a visible shockwave through the chamber, the sound itself becoming a weapon. Skeletons inside the Light Curtain staggered, and several near the back simply exploded from the sonic assault.

  I activated Nature's Howl.

  The familiar surge of power flooded through me, attack speed and power increasing even further. I fired into the mass of undead, each arrow that struck healing me slightly as it dealt damage.

  The combination was devastating.

  Lothras held the line, his Light Curtain trapping enemies into a kill zone where Athos and I could destroy them systematically.

  Kara alternated between Sonet of Valor to boost our damage and Echo Strike when skeletons got too close.

  The Light Curtain faded after twenty seconds, but by then we'd thinned the horde significantly. Lothras immediately threw up another Oath of Steel, his defense spiking again.

  Skeletons came crashing like an undead tide.

  I switched to Burning Arrow, the fire spreading between tightly packed enemies. Athos used Vertical Strike to smash through a shield-bearer, then followed with a Horizontal Slash that hit multiple targets in a deadly arc.

  A skeletal archer targeted me from across the chamber. I saw it draw, calculated the angle, and fired a Piercing Shot. My arrow met theirs mid-air, shattering the enemy projectile before continuing on to destroy the archer's skull. That was cool.

  "Behind you!" Kara called.

  I spun. Three skeletons had broken through, weapons raised. I used Quick Step, blurring to the side. Kara's Echo Strike rang out, the harmonic resonance shattering one skeleton's ribcage.

  I put arrows through the other two before they could recover.

  Lothras was a fortress. He didn't dodge or evade, he simply stood there, shield raised, absorbing punishment that would have killed me ten times over.

  When skeletons clustered too close, he used Smite, his sword blazing with holy light as it cleaved through bone.

  Athos fought like he was dancing. Every movement flowed into the next. His blade was an extension of his body. He parried a sword strike, stepped inside a spear thrust, ducked an axe swing, and killed all three attackers with a single Blade Rush.

  The horde thinned. Fifty became thirty. Thirty became fifteen. Fifteen became scattered stragglers that we picked off methodically.

  The last skeleton fell to one of my basic shots, its skull splitting cleanly.

  Silence filled the chamber, broken only by our heavy breathing.

  "Everyone good?" Athos asked, checking his health.

  "Fine," Kara said.

  "Intact," Lothras confirmed.

  I nodded, scanning the room. Bones covered the floor, hundreds of skeletal remains scattered across the stone.

  Experience was great, and the skeletons kept dropping silver coins, but nothing else.

  Then I heard it. A grinding sound, deep and resonant.

  At the chamber's far end, a section of floor began to rise. A platform, lifting from below.

  On it was a single massive coffin, easily twice the size of the others we'd seen earlier. It was carved from black stone, just like the volcanic rocks outside Twinfire.

  The coffin lid slid open.

  A hand emerged first: skeletal, but larger than any we'd fought.

  The bones were thick and they gleamed with an unnatural glow.

  Another hand followed, gripping the coffin's edge.

  The creature pulled itself upright.

  It stood three meters tall, closer to a giant than to an ordinary man.

  Two curved sabres hung from its belt.

  It was wearing leather armor and a marine iron helmet, and its empty eye sockets burned with blue-white fire.

  The skeleton drew both sabres in slow motion.

  The blades gave a chilling sound as they cleared their scabbards, echoing through the chamber like the wail of a ghost.

  A Level 20 Dungeon Boss. This is going to be interesting.

  Lothras readied his shield.

  Athos shifted into a combat stance.

  Kara's fingers found her lute strings.

  I nocked an arrow.

  The Admiral stepped off the platform, and the real fight began.