August pulls out her wand, and casts two Shadow spells on herself. Invisibility and muffle. With these on her, she is undetectable as long as she doesn't bump into anyone who lives. She moves inside the factory, where she is quickly met with the zombie hoard.
August looks around quickly, and decides to do a third Shadow spell. Shadow Walk. August enters a dark shadow on the wall, melting into it like it's black water. Then her silhouette moves along the walls until she gets past the zombie hoard and onto the factory floor behind the hoard.
She steps out of her shadow, and she has to restrain herself from gagging from the stench of the factory. If she didn't have muffle on, she'd hear the sounds of cracking bones and squished meat as well.
She looks around for the most likely area for a group of necromancers to be. She finds on a nearby set of stairs, a group of necromancers have gathered together in front of an office on the third floor, in the back of the factory. They also have small groups of zombies scattered on the walkways of the factory.
"So they didn't send out their whole force. Great." August thinks bitterly.
August goes up the nearest steel staircase she sees. She's hoping to find an alternate route back there.
Meanwhile, the hoard has poured out of the factory. The knight and the farmer are stabbing and slashing wildly against it. The knight hews them in half with ease, and for some reason, the farmer's deathblows turn the zombies into living sheep.
"I'm always confused by the rules for his fork's enchantment." Lucius says confusedly.
The strange woman sighs, and watches boredly as her Shadow magic absorbs the zombies easily into them. Then they turn almost immediately, and start pushing back against the crowd. However, they are still clearly outnumbered.
Back to August, she's entering a surprisingly clean break room where three necromancers are in a state of intense concentration. And August grins wickedly from her position.
She charges her hands up with thick, green, poisonous energy. She then cups her hands with a clear open hole, and blows into it. A green, poisonous cloud spews out and fills the room. August closes the door shut, and quickly casts a small Dome of Silence around the office. She becomes tense, and breathes heavily.
"If anyone casts Detect Magic, I'm discovered. I hate this necessary risk the most." August thinks nervously.
But it would only be half a minute before August would be almost certain they were dead. She is immune to her own poison, so she has no reason to not enter now. She stops her dome of silence, and slowly opens the door. She slips inside once a glance confirms that they are all dead.
She immediately begins searching the corpses for any information, or magical links to any spells. She finds a few hundred dollars that she ignores, voodoo dolls that she rips apart, causing nearby zombies to fall dead to the ground. And a single key. It says 1035. August assumes it's an office number, and pockets it.
In the corner of the break room is a hallway that goes into a small office area. Arguably an office hallway. August walks cautiously through these halls, until she hears something ridiculous. The sound of someone playing a videogame during this.
If August's face could be seen, you'd think she was planning murder. And well…
"I'm choking someone with a damn cord in a few seconds, I swear on the fates." August thinks furiously.
August walks slowly down, until she comes across two necromancers on some desk computers, playing some first person shooters. August doesn't pay attention to the game. She clasps her hands together, and they become enshrouded in a thick core of darkness. Then she spreads her hands out, and the darkness forms thin black blades around her fists.
She sneaks forward, and quickly stabs the first necromancer through the back of his chair, hitting him in the lungs.
"Oh shit bro! Just iced your ass! Get wrecked son!" Necromancer 2 exclaims happily.
August confidently strides towards him. Necromancer 2 doesn't look away from his game at all. It's too easy for August to stab him through the back as well. He collapses onto his keyboard with a loud clatter.
August takes a deep breath, and readies herself for more. She turns and walks to a door on the right. It has no label on it. She peeks through the door's window, and sees it goes out onto the walkway.
She strokes her chin, pondering an idea. After a few seconds, she smiles when she figures out a plan.
She creates an illusion of herself, enhanced with a poison spell and a scrying spell that allows her to see through its eyes. Then she opens the door and sends her illusion out there. Her illusory clone jabs her fingers into some necromancers, poisoning them. It felt like a jab of a pen, but was deadlier than a snake's bite. Then after some start shouting at her, firing their own spells, she runs down the walkways towards the front.
Necromancers begin chasing after the clone, at best ignoring their poisoned brethren who are falling to the ground in pain. But a few stop, and finish off their comrades quickly with a curved knife. Then they press their hands against their faces, and raise them once more as zombies.
August is impressed with their ruthlessness. It makes her want to learn necromancy.
It looks like there are five necromancers remaining, and ten zombies in a single group. August considers her odds.
Meanwhile, the illusory clone leads them on a chase. Through the office hallway, and halfway down the stairs before it hides itself in a small corner of a stairway. There she waits for the necromancers to arrive. The zombies walk by her since an illusion doesn't have a smell or anything to attract them to her.
But when a necromancer comes around, he spots her immediately. He pulls out a knife and attempts to stab her, but he hits only poisonous air. The illusory clone grins with smug malice, and explodes in a thick cloud of poisonous smoke. August is almost certain all the necromancers will be exposed to it.
August sighs anxiously.
"It appears I must fight a bit sooner than expected." August thinks nervously.
She casts haste on herself, increasing her speed by fifty percent. It'll help, but physically she's still human so it only gives a small boost overall. But, being able to run thirty miles per hour is nothing to scoff at. Then she drinks two mana potions back to back. And then she switches her rod to her left hand and pulls out her revolver. She loads two chambers with special bullets, and the rest with common bullets. She dispels her invisibility and muffle so she can conserve mana.
Then she opens the door slowly so as to not make a sound, and fires her first shot. The bullet was a Lv.3 Common Fireball spell. It hits the necromancers in front of the office door, and it explodes in a powerful, fifteen foot radius. Only three necromancers are caught in the explosion, and they are turned into chunks of charred meat.
She steps out and points her wand at the remaining two necromancers. She casts the spell Rays of Light Lv.5, and five thick, golden lasers shoot out her rod. One takes three to the face, and the others take a ray to the heart. The rays then turn sharply right, and burn through the zombies. They turn sharply again and again to hit the zombies once more. It creates a ugly, bright yellow scrawl of lines that melt the zombies like butter. And fills the air with a terrible stench.
She moves as if there's enemies all around her, even if she's sure that she could walk. She was taught to be like this by her parents at a young age.
"Don't waste time or be lazy. A second wasted is another second of preparation for the enemy." her mother says sternly.
She does want to prepare one thing though. Light spell Shield of Blind Faith. A level three spell that relies on blindly believing that you're in danger for some reason. It creates a translucent dome of golden light around her when this danger is near. In August's case, she feels it's guaranteed she'll be hit as soon as she opens the door.
She puts her hand on the doorknob and-
"Charge!" someone orders with a shout.
Suddenly the doors are pulled open, and August is face to face with a hoard of zombies in steel plate armor, armed with swords. August barely steps back before they start attacking her. Her shield blocks a blow, and it breaks apart into golden shards before dissipating. Then she turns and runs from the zombies, down the metal walkway on the opposite side of where she came from.
Once she's reached a corner, she stops, turns, and faces the hoard. She aims her rod at the zombies and casts Chains of Light Lvl 5. Thick chains of translucent light encircle the zombies, and tie them together into one group. Then the chains start to burn and decompose the bodies.
August covers her nose as she runs past the group and enters the head office. Inside, the office is a mess. What was once the proud office of some capitalist overlord is now the unkempt crypt of an undead lord. Piles upon piles of trash and rotted meat are scattered all over the floor, and on the furniture. The walls' paint is peeling off. And there's blood and scratches all over.
Sitting behind the large, wooden desk is the lord himself. Isaac Neuterberg. A renowned businessman known for his cheap, well made steel. He stands five foot three, with tanned skin, a receding hairline, and a thick black mustache. He wears a gray suit with a black tie, blue dress shirt, and a large black cloak. The cloak has golden skull shoulder pads with glowing red eyes.
August was honestly a bit surprised to find him there. They had met before through her parents at a gala or something before. They get weapons made for Fodder and Bronze rank adventurers from his company, Neuter Blades.
"I suppose now I know how your swords are. But do you really just have this one factory?" August jokes confidently.
"I'm honestly more offended you'd think that than by what you're doing." Isaac says angrily. "But I can forgive you considering our new circumstances. If you can prove to me you were doing this because you were given a quest. Then I'll compensate you for abandoning it." he explains with threatening confidence.
They stare at each other in silence for a few moments. August pulls up her quest, and looks at the punishment on it. All it has is a 5 beside it, so she must assume the punishment is quite a bit brutal.
"Do you know what the punishment for these quests are?" August asks calmly.
"If I did, you probably would too. Especially with your parents' spy network." Isaac says confidently.
… …
"I want at least one million dollars to back off." August says firmly.
Isaac laughs at that.
"You're a rude bitch." Isaac says amusedly. "It's time to die though. Then maybe I'll make zombies out of your guild." he says coldly.
At the same time, they both try to attack the other. But August still has her haste, so she fires a common bullet at him while at the same time firing a Radiant Beam, a thick golden beam with a diameter of one foot. The bullet headshots him, and causes the top of his head to be blown clean off. Then the beam leaves a thick hole in his chest.
Moments after Isaac's corpse falls out the chair, all the zombies in the area fall to the ground, becoming corpses once more. August can hear Lucius shouting "Fuck yeah!" in the distance. She shakes her head, amused.
After a few minutes, August returns to the front of the factory. Lucius stands there with a grin on his face. He holds his hand out for a fist bump.
"Ya did great. Glad that you were here, I wouldn't have been able to do this." Lucius says happily.
August smiles shyly, and gives him a half-hearted fist bump.
"Yeah, it was no problem." she says sheepishly.
Suddenly a small computer-esque window appears in front of her. It's a simple black and white box, with a skull wearing a gold crown in the bottom right corner. It reads the following:
Thanks and great honor are due to you, Miss Caeser, for doing this quest for myself. A minor quest, but one worth rewarding nonetheless. Hopefully you are able to put this to use.
Hades, Lord of Death, has given you a minor boon. The Item 'Philosophy of the Devourer'.
August squints an eye skeptically at this book.
"Please tell me he didn't just give me a book on how to eat more." August thinks with sarcastic fear.
She opens the description on the book. It reads the following:
A book that could essentially be considered a mix of a Manifesto and Spellbook of the Eldritch God Sou'Gouth, the Great Devourer. One's mind will be maddened as one exposes themself to this book. But great power is held within these pages…
August stares blankly at the window. But on the inside, she wanted to grin maniacally.
"Madness? I'm already mad from how deep I am into fate magic, just like my mother. I can handle some eldritch madness if it means I can get powers like that strange woman of Lucius's." August gloats in her thoughts maniacally. "But wait a minute. Wasn't I supposed to do this for free? Are they pleased with me for doing the quest so soon?" she thinks anxiously.
"Oh hey, Hades gave me a new wand. Check it out!" Lucius says happily.
He holds a literal mini skeleton The fingers are tightly clutching a purple gem that emanates a thick, black aura. It's difficult to see the gem, the aura is so thick.
"Huh. That's…interesting. What's it do?" August asks with mild disgust.
"It draws on the mana of Hades himself. Apparently he's gonna take twenty five percent of the cost for all my undead summons while I use this." Lucius says happily.
August instantly becomes overcome with jealousy, but puts on a nice smile instead.
"Good for you Lucius. Maybe now you can summon four of your ancestors." August says nicely.
"Ha! I can summon like ten, if I feel like it." Lucius brags happily.
"Then why didn't you?" August asks annoyedly.
"They take a while to summon. Plus I have to appease them all properly to make them all work together. Some of them don't get along well." Lucius lies with a serious tone.
"But you let your ancestor just force people into being zombies." August counters with a deadpan tone. "Just make your ancestors zombies for a bit, and appease them after the fact." August says calmly.
"That'd be incredibly rude. They're people too. Plus, if you must know, people willingly brought back to life to fight are stronger than if they're forced. Their spirits can hold back their unwilling bodies, possibly to the point they're useless if the necromancer is weak." Lucius explains annoyedly.
"Oh, so there is a point to appeasing the dead. The more ya know." August says nicely.
Lucius sighs and shakes his head.
"You're cold-blooded for a woman, ya know?" Lucius says nervously.
"Pfft. No, you're just soft for the dead." August says warmly.
"Yeah, that's definitely true. And it's a good thing." Lucius says firmly.
"Yes, I'm sure it is." August says nicely.