Chapter 66: Ghosts Alone Were Easier

POV Eliza

The next floor we turned to contained wights. Wights were similar to humans, only undead. The weaponry of the wights we encountered on this level was correspondingly diverse. These included swords, sabers, maces and spears. The only armor they wore was quilt or light leather. As expected, they weren't challenging for our levels and were much easier than the ghosts. As a result, we gained a lot of EXP that day.

On floor 7 the level of difficulty increased significantly. Here we met wights again, but this time accompanied by ghosts. For me they don't pose a major problem because after a while ghost magic no longer had any effect on me. That was my personal advantage, having to go ahead and be permanently enchanted by the ghosts. For the others, however, things looked completely different. They had greater problems fighting them.

My sense skill had also improved to the point that I could tell the two types of undead apart, so I tried, if possible, to only attract ghosts without wights on my own. Because wights caused painful damage with their attacks as long as we suffered from the fear status. It was not an easy matter, as the wights and the ghosts had almost the same speed and therefore could not be separated by it. After Ansgar took a lot of punishment in the first encounter with the combination of both undead, as he was quickly enchanted and then the wight hit him before we could react, he unusually held back afterwards. We made good progress as Cornelius asignes us two wizards to the ghosts and the warriors took care of the wights. That's why it took us two whole days to find the exit on this floor though.

Floor 8 was not a new challenge for our group composition. The mummies were slow and their attacks were easy to parry, but their attacks did tremendous damage if they hit. This made them comparable to the Treants from the nature dungeon. They were also sensitive to fire, which meant their fire resistance was actually in the negative range and fire spells did more damage than usual. Cornelius' shield had the most problems. Because he parried the attacks with his shield, the shield suffered increased damage and had to be replaced after just one day. But once we got used to it, we managed this level in 2 days. We could have been faster, but we took the easy EXP with us.

The next floor was floor 9 and the undead that appeared were liches. They presented us with bigger problems. Liches were elemental wizards with surprisingly high defense, which probably came from the earth spell Stoneskin. They also had high elemental resistances and were therefore less susceptible to damage from spells. This meant that Javier and I were of little use and we had to rely on Eleonore's light bolts and the two melee fighters.

The real problem manifested the first cave we reached. Apparently the liches' perception extended enough to attack us as soon as we entered the cave. We immediately retreated and waited, but the Liches did not follow us. Apparently there was a different attack pattern here than in the other areas of the floor. For us that meant either we bypassed the cave or we stormed it. Cornelius decided that we should look for another way. The risk was too great.

We explored the rest of the floor, as long as we didn't have to enter a cave. Unfortunately, we quickly reached the point where we couldn't go any further. I looked for the smallest cave with supposedly the fewest liches and Cornelius gave the order to attack. I went to the left flank and Eleonore to the right flank so that we could illuminate as much as possible at the same time. We encountered 6 Liches and immediately had to take some spells. Luckily they were just basic spells, so the damage was limited. I was then ordered to engage in close combat as well, so I placed the lantern on the ground and grabbed my spear. Thanks to my Sense Magic skill, I noticed not only the auras of the Undeads but also the spells as soon as they were cast. Unfortunate it doesn't helped me much at this point.

I turned to the first lich and engaged him in melee combat. Since Liches and Wights were human-like, my spear against them had no damage penalty. I received several spells during my duel, including from liches other than the one in front of me. But I was experienced enough to be able to defeat him fairly quickly. Then when I looked around I saw that both Cornelius and Ansgar were fighting a Lich each and another one was standing off to the side. I rushed towards the Lich and thus distracted myself. While I was still fighting with him, Ansgar came to my aid. Apparently he had defeated his Lich quickly. When we defeated him, he patted me on the shoulder and gave me a thumbs up. I received rare praise. It felt good.

Afterwards I looked around, but there was no undead aura to be felt anymore. Then I quickly appraised myself to see how much damage I had taken. I experienced a surprise that left me speechless. Unfortunately, I didn't get a single elemental resistance. I basically already knew that because only monsters had them, but I was still hoping to get them when I was more exposed to elemental attacks. But in return I received another one.

Light resistance

Since when did I have light resistance? Where did I get those? The Liches couldn't do light magic, could they? And why did I receive this? I was still puzzling when Ansgar spoke to me.

“Liss, what is it? You're so thoughtful. That was a good fight.” <Ansgar>

“Hmm, oh sorry, I was in thought. The damage the Liches did surprised me. I’m okay otherwise.” <Eliza>

“Okay, then it’s good.” <Ansgar>

I nodded and cast the water healing spell on myself. I repeated it again as a precaution. That's when I noticed an unpleasant tingling sensation as my Sense Danger skill kicked in. I looked around but didn't notice anything at first. Nevertheless, my skill was clearly active and in the direction it showed me there were only Cornelius and Eleonore. The latter gave me another look and then turned away. Then the feeling of danger also disappeared. Was it Eleanor? But why? Then I remembered the new light resistance. Was she jealous? She has always been extremely jealous and has given me evil looks on several occasions. I was careful to stay away from Cornelius. But that didn't seem to be enough. Apparently she had attacked me with light magic. That explained my sudden resistance to light.

Testing her loyalty, I approached her.

“The Liches have hit me several times. Please heal me.” <Eliza>

Eleonore glared at me, but since the others were watching, she had no choice but to heal me. But I could see on her face that she was reluctant.

"Thanks. Shall we continue?” <Eliza>

Cornelius nodded and gave the order to move on. From now on I had to keep a closer eye on Eleonore. Next we fought the Liches again in the corridors behind their newly emptied cave without entering another one. For the rest of the day we didn't manage to clean all the new corridors. The next two days were almost identical to the previous day. We fought our way through the corridors of the floor until all we had left were caves. We then prepared for the cave that took us furthest along the plain. During the fight in the cave, I paid particular attention to whether I was being attacked from behind and I did occasionally receive a light arrow from Eleonore. But I didn't let on that I had noticed it. Aside from the fact that my regeneration allowed me to quickly heal the damage, I took the opportunity to increase my light resistance. Her deviousness had to be of use for something. I probably won't have the opportunity to do that otherwise, even if it hurts. Then we were about to go to the next floor.