Magic Shop System

The group of skeletons was roaming in the distance. The leader seemed to be high rank 2 lich. Other skeletons were rank 1, or low rank 2. Furthermore, these skeletons looked intelligent beings, not like the one they had killed while traveling to this place.

"I think the creatures we encountered all this while were adventurers, due to the strange environment, they turned into lich after dying—while these liches are natives of this place. There are lots of secrets about Death Valley. I'm not sure if my theory is correct."

"No," Kadyn said. "I think that's most likely the case. Or maybe these liches are also an adventure but have gone through some kind of evolution, gaining their intelligence once again."

"That's a very thought-provoking theory," Cecelia's eyes shone in surprise.

"There are lots of books inside the library, whether they are vampire, lich, elf or any other race, you can find about them. There aren't any specific books about Death Valley in the library, but there are many of them about undead creatures."

"Oh, I have also seen those books," Cecelia said, "but I didn't have many energy points so I didn't bother to read them." Then she thought about something and asked, "Are there any books about the Bl—"

"Alright," Kadyn interrupted her. "We can talk about these things after going back, but for now, let's focus on our mission." 

Cecelia nodded and crawled towards the guarding lich together with everyone while hiding behind the boulders and trees all the while. Suddenly the lich started to look all around, sniffing and screeching. They seemed to be talking in some incomprehensible language. Kadyn assumed.

"They have sniffed us," Kadyn informed his companions. "They can smell living people. So we can't hide anymore. Let's attack."

The group nodded and rushed towards the liches from behind the boulder. The liches' hollow eye sockets glittered with red light and they roared and then rushed towards Kadyn's group, with their lance dancing in the air.

"Crush these bastards!" shouted Dion. His hatred for liches ran deep. Furthermore, he was a wood elemental mage. A form of life energy, while the lich were undead, so his attacks were very effective against them. Kadyn used his claw to crush the skull of those creatures, collecting the gem inside his ring. In just a few breaths, they had finished all of them.

"Let's go," Kadyn said. "The disturbance would alert other liches."

Everyone followed Kadyn closely. Hayla who was feeling apprehensive all this time started to feel a kind of thrill from this adventure. Her fear fading slowly. Those creatures weren't as deadly as she had thought. She rushed behind them.

"Let's go. Let's go," Khrom shouted, encouraging others. He was a wind mage so his speed was naturally faster than others. Though everyone had Speed Boots, they didn't want to use them until they had to. After all, the Speed Boots had a cool-down period of 15 minutes. They could not be used for fifteen minutes after every use.

As the group rushed towards the Lich Mountain. The herbs started to appear. "They are just elementary rank herbs," Kadyn said. "Don't bother with them. We can find them in any other less dangerous location."

No one stopped.

"Screech!!"

A weird shriek sounded about a hundred meters ahead of them. "It's a peak rank 2 lich," Kadyn warned. "Barret, Hot Rod. You two deal with it."

The duo nodded and rushed towards the undead. Intercepting it while others continued to rush deeper. 

"Let me use a fire spell," Hot Rod said. "They fear light and life related magic the most."

Barret Duncan nodded. He was an earth elemental mage. So his magic wasn't as effective against the undead creatures as Hot Rod's.

"Just hold it for a moment," Hot Rod said.

Barret nodded and built a wall in front of the lich. The creature used its sphere and smashed the wall into bits and pieces. "Just a bit more!" Hot Rod shouted.

Barret knew that Hot Rod wanted to use his strongest spell to finish the battle as soon as possible, but he needed some time to carve the Spell Glyph. He again cast the same spell and once more a wall blocked the lich. The lich again destroyed the wall. Just when Barret again wanted to block its path, the lich sprang and arrived in front of him. Barret was about to use his Speed Boots when Hot Rod shouted, "Step aside!"

Barret jumped at the side. Lich grasped its lance and lunged towards Barret when a burning lava burst from the ground it was standing on. The lich tried to struggle, but soon, it lost any resistance. The spell vanished, leaving only lich-gem. "We will divide the energy points fifty-fifty from this gem." Hot Rod said.

Barret nodded and the group rushed towards their companions who had already encountered another enemy, and this time there were more than one.

"I will take care of that rank 3 lich," Kadyn said. "You guys deal with others."

Everyone nodded. Hayla also joined the flurry. She was also rank 3 mage, and fire elemental at that. So her spells were quite effective against the undead. 

It took about five minutes to deal with twenty liches. Kadyn looked around and found that there were quite a few rank 2 herbs growing here. 

"Grab them!" he shouted and others complied. Though the herbs looked dead, they were special. They were filled with sinister air and negative emotions. Kadyn could use them to concoct very terrifying poisons. Not only that he could use them to concoct the potions that could increase the willpower.

Though the Magic Shop had a chamber where they could temper their willpower, Kadyn didn't allow customers to use the chamber as it could bring a lot of trouble for him. So the customers would love these potions, as it wasn't easy to temper willpower. Furthemore, there was no side-effect.

After collecting the rank 2 herbs they went even deeper. "We are about to reach the place!" Kadyn shouted. "Be careful. The real battle is about to start!"

"Howwww!"

As he warned his companions a powerful howl made them halt.. Kadyn gazed in the distance and his eyes narrowed. 'It's here!'