Heather the Necromancer

Frank bit down on the neck of the guardian but was quickly wrapped in vines and hurled down. Quinny held on a little longer using her sword to cut through the tendrils. She managed to land a vicious stab but as hammered by a ball of vines. She staggered back from the blow as a second hammer took her off her feet.

Frank tore free and went to resume the attack when he saw the smaller plant creatures running at them with barbed spears in hand.

“Quinny, look behind you!” he cried to alert her as he turned to slash one of them.

A spear went through his side as another attacked from behind a moment later. He turned to face it and saw two more about to join. Quinny also cried out as a spear caught her in the leg, forcing her to one knee.

As the creatures closed in, they heard a musical chant. Golden lights appeared around the plantlings heads, and they turned to look back. Frank and Quinny looked up to see Heather chanting as she held her hands out.

“What are you doing?” Frank cried.

Heather smiled. “It’s called charm plants. Now get up, I don’t know how long I can hold them!”

Frank looked at Quinny and nodded. They both tore free of the spears and ran back in wounded as Heather picked up her scythe.

“You fools will pay for defiling nature!” the guardian roared. It flailed with tendrils of vines and struggled to get out of Heather's circle of grave blight.

Heather turned to the charmed creatures and was about to cut them down one by one when she heard Frank call out.

“Keep it in the circle!” Frank yelled to Quinny as they pressed the attack.

Heather looked up to regard the sickly yellow cloud that formed a large circle around the guardian. If she ordered the planlings into it, they would undoubtedly die. However, the spell said the moment they took damage; the spell would end. She wasn't sure if they would die fast enough, or have time to stab her friends.

Frank grabbed hold of one of the tendril arms of the warden and tried to drag it to the center of the circle. Quinny picked up her sword and with a limp, tried to hack her way back in. The warden screeched as it continued to be affected by the grave blight and struck out with her free arm.

Frank absorbed the hit but staggered as she reached out to strike him again.

“Charm the warden!” Quinny cried as she struggled with a fresh batch of vines that rapidly grew around her legs.

“I can't,' Heather yelled back. “It's too high a level. I can't charm intelligent plants until level ten.”

Quinny broke free as Heather's grave blight withered the vines and jumped into the fray. For a few moments, they looked like they were tipping the odds, then it all went wrong.

The warden let out a terrible scream, and vines shot out of the ground burning in the blight even as they joined with her body. Two additional limbs grew from its side, forming into two more arms that ended in woody talons. It immediately raked Frank with a talon and cut gouges across his skin. He fell away and stumbled to the ground as Quinny batted a hand away limping to get out of range.

“We have to keep it trapped in the ring,” Frank groaned.

Heather watched as the warder got bigger and bigger and had a though. She swiped for her panel and read her first level spells. She had [Charm Plants], [Plant Growth], and [Pass plants] She tapped this last spell and read the description.

“Causes plants to part, allowing the caster to pass through easily. Only works on groups of plants or plants with dense branches.” She looked up at the warden and chewed on a lip. “It’s made from groups of plants.”

With nothing to lose, she read the spells command words. With a breath, she put her hands together like she was praying and pointed her fingertips at the warden.

“Natralis divios!” she cried as she separated her hands.

The warden twitched and looked at her with bulging eyes. Its body began to swell, and Heather could hear a tearing sound. Suddenly the mass of its body ruptured, throwing half of it to one side and half to the other. The head mostly went with the left side as it flailed and fell to the ground. Frank jumped on it and pulled it back into the ring as it clawed at the ground to get away. Quinny arrived to put her sword through its head. The body twitched for a few moments and started to rot away rapidly.

“Did we win?” Quinny asked.

Heather watched Frank stand up and wobble to the side. He fell to his knees at the edge of the cloud.

“Barely,” he gasped.

Heather ran to him and quickly fell into her healing spell, restoring Franks's strength.

“Thanks,” he said as he looked up with those horrid pure yellow eyes.

“Can you change those eyes?” she asked as she looked away from him.

“Nope,” he replied. “Besides, I like them. I made them bigger to intimidate people.”

“Well, it works,” she said as she turned to find Quinny hobbling over.

“Oh, your poor leg,” Heather said as she saw the torn flesh. She put her hands to Quinny and cast the healing spell mending the wound.

“Oh, your skin is so cold!” Heather cried as she pulled her hands away.

“The undead don’t have body heat,” Quinny replied. “Creatures that can see heat have trouble spotting us.”

“More benefits of the undead,” Heather said. “It’s a wonder people don’t play them more.”

“Speaking of benefits,” Frank interrupted. “How did you charm those plants?”

Heather reflexively looked at her wrist and sighed. “I picked my third class.”

“You did?” Quinny asked excitedly. “What did you pick?”

Heather rubbed her tattoo, and her panel flared to life floating above her arm. She tapped with her right hand to bring up her third class.

“You picked the flower singer?” Frank said as she scratched his head.

“Don’t say it like that,” Heather said. “It gave me the powers I needed to stop the plant creatures.”

Frank looked around at the charmed forms with spears. “I suppose it did, but what happens when your spell wears off?”

Heather looked at the closest plantling and shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“How long does your grave blight last?” Quinny asked

Heather tapped through her panel and looked up the spell.

“It says it lasts ten full minutes, or until I release it,” she said.

“I bet you can release the charm then, too,” Frank said.

Heather looked back at the creatures and shrugged as she thought of a better idea.

“All of you, go stand in the yellow cloud!” she ordered.

The plants suddenly lurched forward and walked into the cloud. One by one, they entered it shook as they were injured and then collapsed into a ball of withering vines.

“That was one way to deal with them,” Quinny laughed.

“I suppose it was,” Frank said.

“Yeah, I...”

Ding!- [ Necromancer Level 5: Recluse Level 4: Flower singer level 2]

“Hate that ding!” Heather snarled as she jumped.

“I just leveled to three!” Quinny said excitedly.

Heather took a moment to settle herself, nodded. “I just leveled in every class.”

“So did I,” Frank said. “I guess this wasn’t a wasted trip after all.”

“So, what do we do now?” Quinn asked.

Frank looked at Heather, and she shook her head.

“Let’s go home. I have had enough of adventuring today,” she said.

“Let’s get the book and bring it back then,” he suggested and walked off to the tower doors to get it.

They made their way out of the ruined gates on the wall to discover there was a broad stairway down the other side of the hill. It ended in a small clearing in the forest. Here they found skeletons in abundance scattered about the ground.

Frank suggested the man in the tower must have sent his skeletons to fight the invaders before they got inside the gates.

They searched some of the moss-covered bones, and Quinny found a small number of coins on one of them. She happily chirped that this was a good adventure and carried them away.

The forest beyond was a thick tangle that Frank began plowing his way through. Heather stopped him and used her pass plants spell again. She caused the undergrowth to bend away, allowing safe passage.

“So, what else can you do as a flower singer?” Quinny asked as they walked.

“Make flowers grow mostly,” Heather said. “I can control plants of all kinds in minor ways, and I can pass over them without getting hurt.”

“It’s a good thing you and Quinny are friends,” Frank mused.

“Why is that?” Heather asked.

“Otherwise, it would be your plants versus her zombies,” he laughed.

Heather raised a brow at him as Quinny started to laugh.

“I don’t get it,” Heather said.

“Wow,” Quinny remarked. “You really aren’t a gamer.”

“I was more into movies,” Heather admitted.

“You didn’t even play games on your phone?” Quinny asked.

“I was more of a social media girl. I saw people talk about games plenty of times, but I never looked into them.”

Quinny looked at Frank with a lost expression.

“Why did they want a person with no game experience?”

Frank shook his head as he carried the awkwardly large book.

“I have no idea. But there is obviously something special about Heather they wanted. Whatever it is, it isn’t related to gaming.”

“Maybe its the way she looks at things,” Quinny suggested. “She doesn’t solve a lot of problems like a gamer would.”

“I think they made a mistake,” Heather said. “I don’t see what good I am going to do in a world based on games I never played.”

“Maybe that’s the point,” Frank said. “Maybe they wanted somebody who wasn’t going to tear the world apart like a gamer would.”

“Tear it apart?”

He nodded and shifted the book on his shoulder.

“Players are always looking for a way to exploit the games. They struggle to form communities when the easiest route to power is to backstab other players.”

“That or they form guilds to raid one another,” Quinny said.

“Why do people play these games?” Heather asked.

Frank sighed. “Not all games are like this. Some don’t allow players to fight at all. That’s when they go crazy looking for an exploit to give them some advantage.”

“Usually, they find a way to replicate gold or items,” Quinny said. “Then hey ruin the game's economy by flooding it with replicated stuff.”

“I ask again, why do people play these games?”

“Because for many of us, the knowledge that we could build a community drives us to try. The problem is in a game world; it only takes a tiny handful to ruin the game for a huge number of people.”

“But we never stop trying,” Quinny added. “Sometimes, we do manage to build a fun community. I played on a digcraft server I really loved. The community there was great. The admins wouldn't let griefers ruin it for the others.”

Frank shifted the book again and continued.

“People like Margus and Eribold are good players who would build a community, but too many of them are like Moon. All they want is a quick way to get ahead and don't care who they hurt to get there.”

“So you could build a community here if people like Moon didn't ruin it,” Heather said.

“Yeah,” Quinny laughed. “Just think of how high we would all be if they would play in our dungeons and let us level as well. They would go up levels, we would go up levels, and everything would build up.”

“But, they never let you level?” Heather asked.

Frank sighed. “It's the competitive nature of some people. They like to be the ones at the top, and nobody else is allowed to be there. Some of them are hyper-competitive and have to feel like they beat you by resetting you.”

“I wonder what the visitors think of us?” Heather said.

“I don’t know that they care. This is all meant to help them learn how to speak to us,” he said.

Heather laughed. “Yeah, and we're telling them they should attack us and keep knocking us down.”

Frank and Quinny were silent a moment as they considered it.

“I hope that’s not what they are learning,” Quinny said.

Heather pondered that thought as they walked out of the forest and looked across the landscape for her distant tower. They spotted it and began the trek across the grasslands as the sun moved to its twilight position. A few hours later and they reached the stream separating the graveyard.

“That towers not too far away,” Heather pointed out.

“Three hours walk isn’t exactly close,” Frank said.

“If this world is as big as you say it is, then it’s practically next door,” she argued.

He shrugged as they entered Quinny's forest along the edge of the graveyard. They followed the fence and arrived at the gate to a pleasant surprise. A human, a bird person, and a race that resembled a frog were dead in the graveyard with five skeletons standing over them.

“It looks like your not done getting experience,” Heather laughed.

“Can I have the frogs sword,” Quinny asked as she looked as the slender blade.

“I want the food,” Heather added.

Frank shook his head and set the heavy book down.

“Why don’t we put this in your tower and then you can help me bury them,” he said.

Heather smiled and batted her eyes. “Can you put that in the room outside my bedroom?”

“That’s on the top floor!” he grumbled.

“But it’s so heavy!” Heather said.

“Your skeletons are respawned around the tower, get them to carry it.”

“I would have to get two of them to work together,” she argued. “Do you have any idea how hard that is?”

He folded his arms and stared into her eyes.

“Are you going to help me bury the bodies?”

“You can dig super fast with your claws,” Heather pouted.

“And you can drag them over there while I dig,” he argued.

“Fine,” Heather said. “I will get the bodies over to the pit if you get the book up the stairs.”

Frank glared at her and lifted the heavy book to carry it up the stairs. He trudged off into her tower and disappeared up the stairs.

Heather smiled and turned to the bodies removing food and gold before telling the skeletons to drag them to the burial pit.

Quinny laughed as Heather had the others carry her stuff to the tower.

“So, what are you going to do with your third class?” Quinny asked.

Heather thought about it a moment as they walked to the tower.

“I know one thing I want to do right away,” she said with a smile as she looked up at her tower. With a few magic words, she blew into her hands, scattering a cloud of golden seeds a the base of her tower. She sat back and smiled as the spell took hold.

“Wow!” Quinny said. “Can you do that in my forest?”

“I sure can,” Heather replied. “You did leave some sunny spots, didn’t you?”

Quinny nodded as Frank came out the door.

“What are you two staring at?” he asked as he stepped outside.

Heather and Quinny exchanged grins and started to laugh.

“Now, what's so funny?”

Quinny raised a hand and pointed behind him to Heather’s tower.

He turned around and looked at the tower as his eyes went wide.

“Heather!”