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I distributed the characteristic points based on the fight results. Every spare point had to go into Intellect. You could never have too much mana. I also maxed out Life Absorption. I definitely lacked kill speed, which could be quite dangerous as the slug had just shown me. I frisked the corpses. Twenty maggots gave me three handfuls of gold, a dozen vials of craft slime and eight low-level Soul Stones. I hoped the floor wasn't going to be all like that. My inner greedy pig got restless, seeing top Soul Stones slipping through his grabby fingers.

I spoke too soon. Four hours later, I was sitting near the floor boss enjoying a well-deserved rest and a snack. I still hadn't farmed a single decent stone, but at least my bag was bulging with five pounds of magic dust. The slugs had been a pain. I'd finished the floor by long dangerous bouts of fighting interspersed with even longer butt-hurting episodes of mana regen. Slugs kept
 
siphoning
 
my mana,
 
so by the end of every fight it hovered dangerously close to zero.

Then I saw the Slug Queen spread all across the hall right in front of me. An enormous belly bulged out of its weak little frame topped by a tiny head. I didn't like any of it. Including the monster's name.

Never mind. Fortune favors the brave. Come to Daddy, you slimy bitch. Hummungus—attack!

Grrhhrw! Bang!

His first bite ripped the Slug Queen's ripe belly apart, letting out a crawling mass of maggots. Jeez, how many of them were there? Forty at least.

I targeted one and recoiled in dismay. Level 40? That was the end of it. Were those game developers completely bonkers or something? This was way too much even for a fully equipped group.

I didn't give up, though. Mechanically, I tried to do crowd control, backing as I immobilized the mobs. Thank God their speed wasn't up to much but neither was mine: this was a closed space after all and not a battlefield. Consulting the map so as not to let them corner me, I kept backing up, controlling those who tried to stick their necks out. My two pets were still busy in the first hall.

A message popped up reporting experience received. One maggot less. As if that would change anything. I switched my attention to their new leader trying to slow him down. Excuse me? Why was he 39 now? I clicked on a few others, but all the maggots seemed to have lost a level. Another experience message—it had to be Teddy, he must have wasted his opponent. All the maggots became 38. I got it! The more of them there were, the stronger they became. If we killed another dozen, we'd make mincemeat out of the rest. Come on, Teddy. Come on, everyone!

Hopeful and encouraged, I decided to fight my way back to join the pets. They were sure to need my help and guidance. The maggots lined up along the corridors, each of them trying to kick or even poison me as I ran past them.

I met my pets halfway. The panther was doing her best—probably, due to her Vampire ability. Teddy wasn't faring so well. By the time I called him off, his life was flashing in the red zone. I shielded him from the mobs, gave myself a heal as I finished off another maggot, then healed the bear. Crowd control. Experience. And some more. Come on, Ted. Your turn to help the panther.

The dungeon shuddered. The torches flared up. Holy cow, we'd done it. Plus, all three of us had done another level in the last thirty minutes. I didn't even mention my 49, not when the panther had managed to skip to 52. If the results of this melee were to be believed, we'd even grown stronger. I invested some more into the Bone Shield which could now absorb 260 damage. It looked like I was going to love it.

The maggots weren't that poor. Each dropped a gold piece. I stuffed the forty gold into my bag and walked over to the
 
Queen who had died at the death of her last offspring. Any loot? A vial, glowing bright through the piles of slime.

Mystic Skill Essence

Item class: Epic

Contains a random skill. In order to learn the skill, drink the contents of the vial.

Oh, cool. Never heard about anything like that. I sat down for a regen and opened the auction panel. They didn't have anything of the kind listed. I checked their sales history. A couple weeks earlier, a similar vial had been sold for twenty-six grand. Admittedly, it had dropped from a hundred-plus monster and had all the necessary screenshots and paperwork. I wondered how much mine would cost without either? Would anyone believe my word? Should I sell it or should I try it myself? Jesus. Hell's Temptation, part two.

By the staircase down to the third and last (hopefully) floor, I saw a modest pedestal. On it lay a black fragment. I picked it up.

Small Fragment of the Dark Altar

Item class: Rare

Can be used to make a Minor Travel Altar

Requires level 50

Effect 1: 20% bonus to all Dark spells (Blood, Death, Hatred, Shamanism, etc.)

Effect
 
2: 20% resistance to all spells of Light

Yess! I could use that. Only how was I supposed to make the altar? And where could I buy the recipe? Questions and more questions. In any case, an interesting little stone. It definitely had potential, so in the bag it went.

The next floor was hard. All the monsters there were level 55—the limit. On top of that, they were all different. Hell hounds, desolators, demons, destroyers, abyss creatures... you name it. Every time I had to brace myself, preparing for new surprises. The mobs' skills were unknown and their tactics, unpredictable.

I was sitting on the floor, completely run down, leaning against the panther's icy side and staring at the familiar archway leading to the floor boss. I'd almost finished in there. But how could I fight on without Teddy? Yes, you heard it right. Hummungus had heroically thrown in the towel. My (admittedly short-sighted) leveling him for strength had finally backfired. For one brief moment he'd pulled the aggro to himself, and that was enough for the Lord of the Abyss. Now Ted was out of circulation for the next twenty-four hours. Awful timing.

Anyway! Time to close this circus show. It had been nine hours chopping monsters non-stop. I renewed all the buffs, activated the shields and boosted up mana.

Fragments of broken stone crunched underfoot. Trying to step noiselessly, I walked to the passageway and peeked in. And there they were. Aquilum, the Dark Guild magister, and his entire Masters' Circle. All present and correct, guarding two more pedestals—or rather, the fragments resting on them. Aquilum the High Lich and eight Master Liches.

I slumped against the wall. That was it. That was the end. Apparently, the surge of necro energy was too powerful for those Dark guys to die their own death. Magic had summoned them as its servants. Or could it be the obligatory end of the game for the likes of myself? I really didn't know. I didn't want to try.

The choice of the undead for the final battle had to be an unpleasant surprise for anyone about to finish the dungeon. To spend all day fighting beasts of inferno only to end up facing a totally unknown and unexpected enemy.

Three Master Liches defended the first Altar fragment. The second one was about sixty feet
 
deeper down the corridor, past six more Liches and the High One. The Masters were level 55. Aquilum, in disrespect for the dungeon rules, was 60. What was I supposed to do with them all?

I couldn't get to the second picket without fighting through the first one. And I had nothing to do it with, even if Teddy had still been here with me. With my level 52, there was no way I could fix three 55 mobs. Freakin' zombies. Wait a sec. Had I said zombies? I pulled the crown off my head and reread its properties.

Renders all the undead such as skeletons, zombies, spirits, etc. neutral and unable to attack first. Halves their aggro radius in case of the wearer's attack.

Still not quite knowing what I was doing, I somehow sensed this was the only possible way, no other options available. I slammed the crown back onto my head and stubbornly walked toward the first block. The Liches' gazes followed me. The creatures didn't move, though. I gave them the widest berth possible as I walked behind their backs and stealthily reached for the stone. Even if they were going to smoke me, I'd have the stone first.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I clenched it, quite logically expecting a hit. Shoulders hunched, I waited for about half a minute. Then I stood up and breathed out.

I examined my booty.

Fragment of the Dark Altar

Item class: Rare

You can use this item to restore the destroyed Dark Temple Altar.

Requires level 50

A message popped up.

Quest completion alert: Knowledge Breeds Sadness II. Quest completed!

Reward: access to unique quest Knowledge Breeds Sadness III: Temple Restoration

Another one:

New quest alert! Unique quest available: Knowledge Breeds Sadness III: Temple Restoration

It's been many hundreds of years that the Lands of Light had no Dark Temples left. All of them, including the First Temple, had been desecrated and destroyed. Use this fragment to restore any one of the deserted Temples!

Reward: secret

Accept.
 
No question about it. I still had that Hell Hound quest to take care of. But why would they need the second stone, then? Why seven liches guarding it?

I gingerly squeezed into the guarded circle and walked over to the pedestal to read the fine script.

Large Fragment of the Dark Altar

Item class: Epic

You will need this stone to restore the destroyed First Temple Altar!

Requires level 50

New quest alert! Secret unique quest available: Knowledge Breeds Sadness IV: The First Temple Restoration

For years, the Large Fragment of the Dark Altar has been soaking in necro emanations. Use it to restore the mythical First Temple, destroyed by the Alliance of Light some five hundred years ago.

Reward: secret

Aha. Curiouser and curiouser.
 
Accept
, definitely.

I reached out and picked up the fragment.

Warning! You already possess a Dark Altar fragment! Dark energy concentration is approaching critical levels! If you pick up another fragment, the possibility of ripping the world apart approaches 100%, resulting in a new outbreak of the Darkness! Leave one of the stones on its pedestal!

Yes, yes, I got it. As if I didn't know about the A-bomb and stuff. Plutonium 239 had a critical mass of twenty pounds or something. Here it probably was something along the same lines. I tiptoed to the first pedestal and gingerly placed the first fragment onto it. Then I came back and packed
 
the Big Fragment into my bag. I looked around to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything. I hadn't. Time to teleport.

A hand touched my shoulder. I froze and squinted at a Lich's mummified fingers. Slowly, I turned around. Empty eye sockets glared at me. The sockets of the Aquilum the High Lich.

"You must destroy it."

The voice was wispy but somehow it tore through your brain. I winced with pain. "Destroy what?"

The Lich's withered skull turned toward the first fragment I'd left on the pedestal.

"The stone. Its magic won't let us go. There's enough of it here to last another several thousand years. If you remove at least some of it, we'll be able to retire to the afterlife.

"How do you expect me to do that? I wouldn't know where to start. You need that second-floor slug up there for that sort of job."

"I'll show you."

"We'll show you," The Liches repeated in unison, circling me.

Aquilum laid his bony hand on my head.

Congratulations! You've learned the out-of-class spell: Astral Mana Dispersal.

Cast time: random

Mana expenditure: 100 points per sec

Every five seconds, the spell absorbs target's mana. The amount of absorbed mana doubles with every tick. The first tick absorbs 1 mana pt., the second, 2, the third, 4, etc.

Warning! If you receive damage or run out of mana, the spell will be broken off. This is a High Circle spell: even your Concentration skill won't be able to help you.

Warning! All High Circle spells have the highest aggro generation. Your chosen opponent will select you as a target.

Holy cow. I shook my head, disbelieving. I wasn't quite sure how I could use this wonder freakin' waffle, but thanks anyway. Still, I had a problem.

"Thank you, Magister," I said. "But I'm afraid, I only have enough mana left for the first twenty seconds of the spell. That's four ticks. Minus the stone's twenty mana—provided the magic works on it."

"Don't worry. Just start. We'll give you all the mana you need. The stone is protected against us. We can't harm it, anyway."

I shrugged. No harm in trying. I moved the shimmering icon to the control panel and activated the spell.

The earth shattered. The walls shook, sending rivulets of stone fragments from the ceiling. A black twister began to form before me. The targeted stone covered with a fine web of black lightning. Impressive. It did give the caster away, though. No way anyone could miss a display so spectacular.

The Liches closed in with a singsong whine. My mana bar stopped dropping and began creeping back. The fragment was now visibly shrinking. One of the Liches collapsed, emptied. But the undead was still alive, if you'll excuse the pun. Another minute. The stone had shrunk to half its original size. But now only two of us remained standing—myself and Aquilum. Tick. Tick. Tick.

The mana flow stopped. I held the spell for another twenty seconds and collapsed, pinned to the ground by an invisible load. My head span.