<h4>Chapter 73: Loot And Summons And More</h4>


    Aldrich witnessed the viins start the fight against Vntis the Bone Tyrant and watched only for a brief few minutes before his invisible Grave Ward was destroyed by coteral damage from Vntis''s area of effect bone attacks.


    That Vntis would appear here was a massive surprise. He was a level 40 boss character and the weakest among five Deathguard that formed the inner circle of powerful troops that served the Death Lord.


    But even then, he usually guarded the 30th floor of the Necropolis, so to see him so early down in the 15th meant that the Death Lord fully intended on not allowing Aldrich to pass the 15th floor.


    At the same time, Vntis only needed the viins to reduce him to half health and from an initial survey of his moves, it did not seem like he was using the full extent of his move set. This way, the encounter was ''bnced'' enough that Aldrich could handle it provided he was around level 30.


    Of course, Aldrich was not even close to level 30. He had gotten around that level requirement by abusing the party system to its maximum extent.


    Aldrich estimated that Seth Sr by himself could take down Vntis to half health if Vntis continued to handicap himself, at which point, this quest would just end.


    Vntis might have been nted in the 15th floor to limit how much experience and loot Aldrich could obtain to just what he could scour from the first 14 floors, but even that was enough to boost Aldrich up massively.


    Aldrich did not know exactly how much experience he had umted because he did not receive it until the end of the quest, and all the items he picked up - mostly suits of armor and weapons - did not go into his inventory but a separate space where like his experience, he would be granted everything at the end of this quest.


    So far, the best pieces of loot that Aldrich had found were several grades of Reinforcement Shards that were necessary to upgrade or merge equipment into higher ranks. He also found a [Tome of Skeletal Mastery] and [Tome of Necrotic Carnage] specialized in bone-based spells and high damage necromancy spells respectively.


    These tomes were too high level for Aldrich to use right now, but after this quest, they were all fair game. Even with conservative estimates, Aldrich figured he could reach level 30.


    The only thing that disappointed Aldrich was that all the equipment here was for knights and warrior types, not spellcasters like him. He would have to find better necromancer sets from the trial quests he could unlock from gaining levels here and use reinforcing shards to upgrade hisntern to a higher rank as trial quest weapons did not get that much better than thentern until past level 50 or 60.


    Aldrich spawned another Grave Ward and sent it ahead of himself as he entered the tenth floor.


    In his first attempt, this had been the furthest he could go with his own power before it became too difficult to continue. This floor was essentially a mini boss floor with its legion of death knights and its captain vampire knight.


    But the viins had cleared it quite reliably with Seth Sr easily smashing his way through it. Here, Aldrich witnessed the carnage that Seth Sr had wrought. Countless burnt ck craters on the ground stacked with the melted corpses of death knights all spoke of Seth Sr''s overwhelming might.


    Among these corpses was one that interested Aldrich. Evan Harker''s corpse.


    One of Aldrich''s tormentors now reduced to a lifeless body lying still in a pile of blood pooling from several deep gashes in his stomach.


    Aldrich put a finger on the back of Evan''s head, and a green sigil formed on it. This marked Evan to be raised forter.


    The Death Lord had promised that any units that Aldrich wanted to raise here, he could keep. His current units controlled limit was maxed out, but for this quest only, he could mark corpses to be raised forter.


    After this quest when he gained more levels and attunement points to increase his unit count, he could sort through the list of units he marked forter and keep those best for himself.


    Aldrich marked as many death knight corpses as he could for himself, and this totaled up to 15 knights. He also marked the Crimson Knight captain''s headless corpse.


    With that done, Aldrich moved on.


    The eleventh floor consisted of puzzles that the viins had already solved or brute forced their way through. Any traps they did not deal with, Aldrich was smart enough to solve anyway. Here, the undead were not that strong, it was the traps that made this floor difficult.


    Any A ss ckwater student corpses that Aldrich saw, however, he marked to raise.


    The twelfth floor was also a mini boss room of sorts,prising solely of a fight against a zombie giant. Here, the zombie giant had been felled by aser beam to his head thatpletely bore through his brain.


    Aldrich marked the zombie for raising. He also marked ckwater students that died for raising as well. This included Alexis, the storm generator, and Simon Wells, another of Seth Sr''s gang.


    Aldrich repeated this process throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth floors, marking most of the ckwater A ss to raise for himself. The only ones he could not raise were those that had been utterly destroyed or their bodies lost to traps.


    This raising spree also included the strongest monsters on the thirteenth and fourteenth floors.


    The thirteenth floor consisted of tunnels where Bonewheels, masses of skeletons attached in wheel like configurations, rolled around at high speeds. Here, Aldrich raised a Deathwheel, thergest and strongest of them.


    The fourteenth floor was a small forest of vampiric nts, and this ce had been thoroughly burned down by Seth Sr''s sr beams. Through the mes, Aldrich could not raise anything, but he did manage to salvage several seeds of vampiric nt monsters.


    Past the fourteenth floor, Aldrich entered the hallway that connected to Vntis''s boss room. Here, he sent the Grave Ward ahead to check how Seth Sr and the rest of the viins were doing. He saw Vntis still fighting, though his health was halfway down to the 50% threshold.


    From there, Aldrich continued to watch the fight, recing the Grave Ward several times when it got destroyed by area of effect abilities. At one point, he witnessed a development that made his mind race with possibility.


    Vntis stated that so long as the Necromancer himself, in this case Aldrich, did not enter the boss room, the trial would not be counted.


    That is, unless the viins actually managed to kill Vntis.


    At which point, Seth Sr decided to use the Boost that Aldrich had intentionally let him bring in an all out battle to kill Vntis and end the trial.


    That made Aldrich wonder about this fight. In all likelihood, with Boost powering him, Seth Sr could actually defeat Vntis, even if Vntis went into his full strength as he had already allowed the viins to reduce him nearly to half health.


    This was perfect.


    Aldrich had been mildly disappointed so far that the only items he had found were armor and weapons for warriors.


    But if Seth Sr managed to kill Vntis, then would Aldrich not have ess to perhaps one of the best armor sets in the entire game? The armor set that could be crafted from Vntis''s dropped boss soul was immensely useful and perhaps the absolute best for a Necromancer that valued survivability and durability.


    Yet beyond this, Aldrich could now raise the Living Armor Demon for unlike in the game, he had the ability to raise boss level monsters.


    In the game, the yer character could wear Vntis''s armor set simply as just that, a piece of armor. Vntis himself was dead and could not cast any of his Shattered Bone necromancy spells.


    What about now, though? If Aldrich raised Vntis fully, then did that not mean he could wear the living armor in its fullest power? With Vntis alive and casting his own abilities? Effectively doubling Aldrich''s strength?


    Vntis might even have the possibility to level up as by the end of the game, when the yer character and a massive party of fellow heroes assaulted the Necropolis, Vntis had raised himself from level 40 in the first mid game encounter to level 80 as a mini end game boss fight prior to reaching the Death Lord.


    The possibility of all this powering to Aldrich rested, however, squarely on Seth Sr''s shoulders. Would he defeat Vntis? Especially before the little surprise that Aldrich had put into Seth''s Boost kicked in?


    It was difficult to tell.


    All Aldrich could do was wait and hope.


    And observe.


    He did not just observe Seth Sr''s fight, he also kept a keen eye on his controlled units status tab.


    He could not link his sight to anyone from the real world from a different realm, but what he could do was keep track of his list of current undead, seeing their health, mana, and status and noting whether their health went down or up or their skills went on cooldown or so on and so forth.


    Like this, he tried to stay on top of how the battle in the real world was going -