Overpowered Wizard

“Fed?” Hannah asked, not batting an eye at the horror Zarian and Para had become when hunting and feasting. She cut off the music and placed the sound devices in her satchel now that the fight was over.

“Yes,” Zarian and Para answered together. They paused and unraveled their consciousnesses from each other.

Zarian took over more of himself and turned toward the rest of the arena. “Naomi?”

“I checked with her. She won.” Gilbert remained sitting on Slip, his shield folded into his arm, his axe resting on his armored shoulder.

His beard had grown longer and more wild. He hadn’t trimmed it in a while. That didn’t seem to matter to him as he pumped Zarian’s body up with Healing Force +2.

“I deactivated the traps,” Hannah informed.

Zarian nodded as he shifted back to being human again.

Para shifted into being a kilt as dozens of spectral spiders crawled up Zarian’s body and laid an intricate web of arcane magic on his back. Swirls of darkness wrapped around Zarian’s arms. From there, he hand-signed and chanted, activating his cultivation technique, keeping his Overwhelming Darkness busy.

“Do we still have a few more days?” he asked.

Zarian saw it through their expressions and felt it through the spider network. He felt it in himself, too.

They were all dog tired.

Some more than others. Hannah was the worst off, while Naomi could probably go another few weeks. Gilbert and Bianca could still manage. Zarian felt like he was on the edge, especially after a big meal.

They hadn’t slept ever since Operation Save The Cook began. They’d kept going and going, only letting themselves sit and relax to recover stamina before moving onward some more.

Gilbert’s Healing Force +2 kept overcharging their vitality and bleeding some extra energy into their vital stamina. But it couldn’t quite stop them from needing sleep entirely.

“We need an alchemist who can make quality stamina potions,” Hannah muttered. “Ah, but wait, we sent that boy off to our village. Maybe he’ll become a decent enough alchemist.”

“WALLEN,” Bianca roared, stooping over them.

“The kid would’ve died from breathing the air of this place,” Zarian said. “And he stopped having the POV once he left with Ruvaria.”

“Do I have it?” Hannah asked.

“No.”

Gilbert pointed at himself.

“No.”

Bianca raised three hands.

“No.” Zarian shook his head. “It’s still with me.”

Slip let out a whinny sound, the eight-legged steed giving Zarian a stank eye. He wanted to see Loner again, but a fight from two days ago had nearly destroyed the Runic Enforcer Expert.

Zarian wouldn’t be able to take out the goblin skeleton again until they finished their main quest.

A message from across the spider network reached them. Naomi: “Yo, come over here. I think we’re finally close to where we need to be.”

Zarian, Hannah, and Gilbert shared a look.

It was still Early Summer. They were getting closer to Mid Summer, which would mark a full year from the day they’d arrived via the portal. The past two weeks had been some of the hardest Zarian and his friends had faced.

The promise of something new got their hopes up.

They raced over. Bianca’s giant talons struck with a sharp clack along the floor behind them.

They found Naomi standing over the freshly charred remains of a truly immense orc that once stood ten feet tall. There was a spot where the rust and ruins of their big war drum remained, too.

Zarian thought of them as hell orc rockers.

Despite being the musicians of the hell orcs, the hell orc rockers could fight like ten hell orcs combined. Naomi enjoyed taking them on solo, so Zarian left them to her.

She had a bright smile on her face. She was brimming with life. But this differed from the battle crazed smile she would normally have.

She had something genuinely great to show them.

It was at her feet.

A corpse.

Zarian felt a wave of shivers crawl up his body. He felt another wave the moment after the last past.

They hadn’t come across any worthwhile corpses in what felt like forever. It didn’t take long for most of the others, especially Hannah, to catch on to what this meant.

“IT’S DEAD!” Bianca pointed out.

“That’s the point,” Hannah said breathlessly.

“I found it like this next to the big orc boy,” Naomi said.

“Time for some ungodly acts against hell spawns,” Gilbert said, thrilled.

“Time for necromancy.” Zarian gave Naomi a tight hug, which she returned stiffly.

When he broke away, he felt her fingers tracing over his torso. Her touch lingered a little before letting go fully, leaving him to crouch over the corpse.

Zarian recognized the stubby horns on its head. He noticed how it was as tall as a corrupted goblin, about five feet. It also wore a mix of leather armor and rags.

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There was a big dent in its chest cavity where a finger or two from a hell orc must’ve plowed through.

Para spoke from the kilt. “This is curious. The hell orcs seem at odds with the true denizens from Hidden Hell. I sense there are factions within this place.”

“I sense there is a more civilized population we can raid,” Hannah said.

“Yup, ungodly stuff, but I really don’t care right now. Go on and do your black magic thing,” Gilbert encouraged. “All for the greater good and whatnot.”

Zarian chuckled as used his epic necromancy spell, Deploy Expert Skeletons. The impish hell denizen jerked upward as a dark green flash covered its body.

Its decayed flesh sloughed off.

Its leather armor and rags fell off as well.

The imp skeleton rose to its bony feet, and advanced even further, gaining a class.

Unfortunately, Zarian couldn’t use Identify on the skeleton because of Hidden Hell blocking the trait. But he could tell it had achieved its first advancement on its own.

It wasn’t, however, a skeleton expert like Loner, though. But it would do as Zarian watched the imp skeleton light its hands with orange and black hell flames.

“Nice.” Zarian reached over and patted its skull between its impish horns.

The imp skeleton lowered its head, as if embarrassed. The hellfire magic disappeared.

Zarian chuckled some more. He waited for the imp skeleton to recompose itself, which was taking a while. The guy was skittish.

Zarian turned and waved off the others, who were crowding around intensely. Bianca was the biggest offender, scaring the poor little guy with her size and beaming free goodness.

“I’M NICE!” Bianca bellowed down.

The imp skeleton rattled with more fear.

Zarian sighed before giving the poor guy a few pats to his bony head to calm him down. Once they waited long enough for the skeleton to grow more comfortable, Zarian asked what the Floridians wanted to know.

“Is there a camp where there’s more of you?”

The imp skeleton nodded.

“Are they an invading force that wants to do a Hell Break?”

More affirming nods.

“Do they know we’re here?”

The answer was yes.

“Are you working with the Grimrock Warlock?”

The answer was yes again.

“Are you working with Shadowfell?”

The imp skeleton shook its head.

That surprised Zarian a little. He turned to the others. He saw the intense focus on Hannah’s face as she came forward.

“Are the hell orcs working with Shadowfell?” Hannah pointed at the charred remains of the hell orc rocker.

The imp skeleton hesitated and looked at Zarian. He encouraged the little guy to answer with a wave of his hand. So when the imp skeleton nodded his bony head, Hannah looked up and tapped her finger on her chin.

“The hell orcs are corrupted,” Hannah said. “They are not the same type of corrupted creatures we’ve seen regularly. In fact, they are more like Foodie or Amabel. They are strong enough to take in the corruption while being monsters of the Grimrock Hell Gate. We’ve been fighting the forces of Shadowfell this whole time.”

“Okay, so exactly what does that mean?” Gilbert asked.

“We’ve killed the only things that kept the imps from conducting a Hell Break.” Hannah waved her hand across the battle atrium. “This area held the most amount of hell orcs we’ve fought at once. Before that, we’ve only fought forty at most, and in waves. I think this was the last of them.”

Gilbert turned away and cussed up a storm.

The imp skeleton shivered and rattled with nervousness.

Bianca tried to reach down with one long finger to give the little guy head pats, but the imp skeleton dove away and hid behind his necromancer.

Once Gilbert calmed down, he turned his angry blue eyes on Zarian. “Well? What the hell do you think of this?”

“Shadowfell made us stronger.” Zarian shrugged. “Don’t forget that she plays both sides. She’s as much a friend as she is an enemy. Maybe more so a friend, since she’s a Darkrun, even if she’s married into it.”

“Yeah, that’s what she’s got going for her,” Naomi said. “Gotta admit. I’ve gotten sharper and better because of all these damn hell orcs. The experience might come out shitty, but there’s no better grind than this. Once we become Master Rankers, I bet we’ll be the best of the best at our level.”

“Yes, I agree,” Hannah said. “Shadowfell … is not someone we can trust. But this journey has been worthwhile enough.”

Through the spider network, Bianca gave the impression that she wanted to see Foodie, to sleep, and to eat lots of yummy food as her reward. She didn’t care about Shadowfell very much. She was tired, and she wanted to be human again.

In that regard, they could all agree.

“No more hell orcs past this?” Gilbert asked the imp skeleton.

The little guy kept shivering and rattling while nodding his head fast.

“Is there more corrupted stuff?” Zarian asked.

The skeleton answered yes.

“Aberrations?” Zarian asked.

Again, another yes.

Hannah hummed. “Shadowfell seems to harvest the imps for herself here. Interesting. Even if they know we’re here, they are still occupied by Shadowfell. She really is both a boon and a curse for everyone.”

Gilbert huffed. “Alright, I guess there’s only a few things left worth asking.”

“Yeah.” Zarian turned fully to the skeleton. “Will we find the Grimrock Warlock at the camp?”

The skeleton answered yes.

“Will we find Jack Masters there?”

The answer was yes.

Zarian hesitated a split second before asking, “What about a little goblin girl who can cook really well? Her name’s Foodie.”

The skeleton answered yes once again.

The Floridians set off with their new skeleton friend. They crossed the rest of the atrium and entered another tunnel.

Zarian took some time to consolidate his thoughts and deal with his feelings. A year nearly passed before Zarian could return and fulfill his promise to Foodie. He hadn’t seen or talked to her ever since the day he got the Supreme Crystal Ball.

Would she be okay?

Would she be broken?

Would she be used as a weapon against him and his friends?

Did he have enough power and control to contain her and defeat the Grimrock Warlock?

Would the others be able to handle Jack Masters on their own?

Should he deal with that directly?

He was glad he was doing some light cultivation, which took some of the edge off even if it dimmed his abilities. It was a little dangerous to make himself more vulnerable, but it didn’t feel right not to cultivate now that they had a groove going in this hell crawl.

There was nothing to see but twisted tunnels, jagged rocks, hellish haze, and the red and orange hell veins streaking all over the place.

Sometimes, the wild tunnels would change into more civilized corridors or structures with frayed rugs and old gore painting the walls.

They found more imp corpses. Some were fresh enough for Para to pick up and store into the pocket dimension for later consumption.

Others were too rotten and old for eating, so Zarian raised them as skeletons that quickly advanced to having a class and revealing their impish hell magic.

Looking to his side, Zarian saw Hannah’s eyes darting about. The corner of her mouth twitched up with every victory she had over an enchanted hell trap.

It was a week ago when she’d finally deciphered the infernal runes for traps, able to find them regardless of their obscuring magic and turn them to her own uses. Better yet, a lot of hell traps entwined hell magic with destruction magic.

Hell magic wasn’t very usable for Hannah, but the new ways to spell out destruction magic with a few infernal runes gave Hannah’s destruction prowess a boost in effectiveness. That was the main reason they could center some of their attacks around her and destroy hell orcs so fast.

It took us a while, Para thought, but we are quite capable. Maybe we can make the rescue of our dear friend a simple one.

Maybe, Zarian thought in return.

A day later, Zarian and his fellow Floridians found the edge of the imp encampment, drawing close while under Bianca’s invisibility cloaking. They found Jack Masters from a distance. There was no mistaking that hateful starlight at the bottommost floor of the Grimrock Hell Gate.

Unfortunately, Jack found them in return. Or, specifically, Jack sensed the arrival of the person he hated most: Zarian Darkrun.

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