by Charles Dean
And that is handy . . . especially with everything that still needs to be done. I wonder if that means 100 meters of a dungeon via passable terrain, or if it’s actually a bubble that extends through walls directly and creates a radius of effect. The ambiguity was incredibly frustrating to Lucas, and it was something he would need to explore when he had time. The other thing that needed investigating was the health regeneration granted to him by his class change. Since he was about to go into a big fight, he wanted to make sure he had a firm handle on exactly how the blood absorption worked and exactly how fast it healed him.
Unfortunately, Eri had been extremely effective in cleaning up the throne room, and that included all the blood that had been sloshing around. He glanced outside, remembering that the melee earlier had left behind a scene of carnage and spied what he was looking for. The pools there hadn’t faded away in the least, and he was beginning to wonder if they would at all. To make things even more interesting, there were a few groups of angry-looking players milling about outside the entrance.
I guess it’s time to clean up the doorstep and make sure that our castle is looking nice, Lucas thought as he gripped his staff tightly and made his way toward the lower levels. On the way, he stopped by the kitchen to task Hanna with rounding up his followers for his planned assault on the academy, but didn’t spare more than a few words on the logistics, hurrying on to the awaiting blood and his foremost concern at the moment. He was excited at the prospect of clearing away the enemies and testing out his new abilities, but by the time he arrived at the front entrance, his followers had already killed off all the stragglers.
“What’s going on, boss?” Bonnie asked as she worked on cleaning her blade after her most recent kill. “Thought you were waiting for . . . Oh, wow.”
“What?” Lucas asked.
“Your eyes, they’re . . . They’ve changed, boss,” she said.
“They have!” Viola chimed in, staring up at him in wonder.
With that, Nick, who was chatting with a girl, and all the others outside began crowding around him and peering up at his eyes.
“Woah, bro, your eyes are solid red now,” Nick gasped.
“Yeah, it’s a new racial thing,” Lucas said. “I’ve forsaken my Humanity for the Blood Goddess. I’m a Vampire, and I owe it to all your help.”
“Vampire?!” Several of the players exclaimed, looking incredibly excited. “Wait, how do we become one too?! What’s the . . . uhh . . .”
“If you wish to forsake your Humanity and whatever scrap of racial purity you might have left and join me as an Unholy Immortal, then the path is easy . . .” Lucas took out a knife and dragged the blade across his arm. According to the wording of the skill Blood Brotherhood, conferring his racial status on another only required him to pass his blood to the individual that wished to join his ranks. This wasn’t just an opportunity to begin converting people to his new race, however. He also needed to hurt himself a bit in order to measure the rate that the Lich’s class skill, Endless Thirst, would heal him. “Mix this blood with your blood, and you will become like me.”
Bonnie produced a bowl from her bag of endless usefulness and started capturing the blood as it dripped from Lucas’s arm.
Lucas watched his health drop from full to 90%, then 80%, and then 70% as he created bowl after bowl of blood for everyone. He finally stopped when he reached 68% of his total health and then dropped the knife into the last bowl. “When my blood becomes your blood, you will be like me,” he said, hoping they would take him up on the offer.
Since he was about to raid the academy, and it was night, the advantages they’d get from their race and upgraded titles would be enough to make most people incredibly envious.
There were small gasps of shock and pain as the girls began cutting themselves as he had, and then hands shot out and fingers dabbed in the bowls of blood as they began mixing his blood into their open wounds. Within seconds, he was able to watch their transformations take place. Their skin turned pale, and all traces of exposure to the sun faded away until they were lily-white, and their brightly colored eyes, whether green or blue or brown, turned completely red, just like his own, before returning to their original color.
“I trust I’m allowed to take some as well,” a voice said as a young woman appeared from the doorway. “Or would you like to keep me as is?”
Lucas turned slightly to see Hanna. She was sporting an annoyed look as she took in everything.
“We guards and servants who have been with you longest would also like the opportunity,” she insisted when he didn’t immediately answer.
“Everyone can,” Lucas replied, grabbing one of the bowls and handing it to her. “Especially some of my favorite people.”
“Of course. Your favorites,” she said with a smirk. “Here I’d thought you’d completely forgotten me.”
“Never,” Lucas answered assuringly.
“Right. Who would prepare the hors d’oeuvres for you and your people after you go on your little killing sprees? Shall I assume that every lady here is coming for the post-battle party after you attack the academy?”
Lucas looked out over everyone. “Yeah, just make enough for them all.”
“Lucas,” Linnaeus began seriously, “I can only carry a few of you at a time, but are you ready to begin your assault and kill that woman?”
“Wait, why are you so bent on her first? What about Edmund?” Liu asked.
“Edmund is going to take a while,” Lucas answered. “He’s well-guarded, probably by a league of incredibly powerful knights that we won’t be able to kill without a decent advantage, but there are actually a few reasons we’re going to kill her next and why she must die tonight. First, she is in charge of educating and training new soldiers. If we take her position, the academy will not only be added to our dungeon, but we’ll also get our hands on a multitude of potential new recruits. If we attack anyone else, we’re just losing people. We don't gain anything in the long term.”
“That makes sense,” Viola agreed sagely. “Hearts and minds. Start with the homes and classrooms first.”
“Right. The next factor is the amount of space the academy has. Remember how many large manors and mansions were set up there?” Lucas waved his hands, gesturing at everyone present. “These people will need somewhere to sleep. He probably has the most land of anyone in the city, but I’m sure Edmund has a manor, and that’s it. I don’t think we’d have enough space for everyone here to get a room if that’s the case, and my death-trap hotel . . . Well, the extra rooms are all being used for something at the moment.”
“Wait, so we’re really getting our own places?! BEST QUEST CHAIN EV--” one of the girls squeed, only to have another one throw a hand over her mouth.
“Shh! Don’t interrupt him. We might get more,” the other one said quickly.
“Lastly, and this is the most important reason,” Lucas continued, much more angrily, looking over at Viola and Bonnie rather pointedly. “The wench organized the breach of security that let my people get kidnapped. It was her compound and her guards, and thus it is her head that must roll.”
“Oh,” Bonnie and Viola gasped at the same time, each exchanging a glance with the other while looking surprised.
“What?” Lucas looked at them like they should have known that would be his answer. “You two are important to me. You’re more than just my people, and the fact that someone threatened you or made you go through such an awful experience . . . It hurts me to even think about it. I will kill her for what she did to you. I’ll kill everyone involved, and that is the retribution they deserve.”
“Thanks,” Viola said, giving him a big ear-to-ear smile and edging a little closer to him.
“Uhh . . .” Bonnie looked at him with a confused expression like she wasn’t sure how to respond, and her cheeks flushed a little red.
“Bonnie, I will avenge what happened to you, and I will make sure you’re protected in the future,” Lucas promised. “With me,
you will be safe. I’ll do my best to make sure of it.” He normally wouldn’t talk like this, but all of the discussions with Lilith about his people made him want to make sure they understood exactly what his take on their relationship was. He couldn’t control how they thought about him, but he could at least communicate how he thought of them.
“Thanks . . .” she replied at last. Her gaze dipped toward the ground, but her cheeks maintained the same red color.
“Don’t mention it. You’re one of us,” Lucas said. He then turned away and gazed out at all the remaining spilled blood. He wasn’t exactly sure he wanted to absorb it, but he needed to. This was the same blood that had been afflicted by his spell and turned into a noxious carrier for the disease, and that didn’t just turn his stomach: it made him more than a little uneasy. The spell description stated that the disease would spread to “non-Vampiric or living characters” if they interacted with the vacated fluids via an open wound or ingestion, but be that as it may, he needed to know if absorbing the diseased blood would cause him any issues or if it would successfully heal him.
As he thought about the skill, the knowledge of how to use it suddenly came to him. Unlike the staff, which required him to funnel his Arcane Energy through control mechanisms to cast, this required him to control his heart in a very specific way. Since the Arcane Energy didn't have to extend outside of his body, loop through several circuits, or run through any form of resistance, the process of casting the spell was instant. He did as he was instructed, and the blood all around him began pulling toward him like it was being drawn to him by some form of irresistible magnetism.
It only took a few seconds, most of which was the time required for the blood to be pulled through the air and actually reach him before he was fully healed. When his health reached its max, the blood stopped where it was and then fell in place with a loud splash. It was like the magnetism that drew it toward him had been turned off and then somehow arrested the blood’s momentum with it. By his calculations, every 2% of his total health was restored for every 1% of his mana consumed, just as the notification had stated.
Handy, Lucas thought. Although, I do have to admit that I still feel a little queasy. He wasn’t sure if it was the fact he had just absorbed blood or the fact that the disease within it actually had an impact on him, but either way, he knew that he was going to have to test the skill out again in the future to get a firm handle on what was happening. For all he knew, his discomfort was simply due to a psychological factor making him feel nauseous, but not something wrong physically.
“Alright,” Lucas said. “We’ve had our fun, but the celebration can wait until after the next fight. I’m going to need you all to help me out, too. I can’t do this without you.”
“What are we going to do?” Liu asked. “Do you already have a plan?”
“Yeah. I do, and it’s going to be one more tough fight. If you don’t want to come, I understand. Honestly. Just thinking that I have to ask you all to risk your lives yet again is hard. But this is a must. We must defeat her. So, if you’re on board, follow me. Or rather her.” Lucas pointed at Eri who, despite supposedly being a dragon, barked excitedly before showing the group where to go.
Lucas wasn’t surprised when every single person present volunteered. He also wasn’t surprised that Hanna looked incredibly annoyed when Lucas suggested that she stay with the guards, who had all respawned after the event, and cover their rear. With Linnaeus helping her, he had full faith that Hanna would be able to easily manage the dungeon without him--especially since he still had traps everywhere like an amateur strategy-game player overbuilding static defenses instead of considering how to attack or be aggressive. The difference was that he didn’t have to worry about being sieged, doubly so now that he was positive everyone who might be a potential threat while he was away was currently afflicted with a debilitating curse.
After a little over half an hour of walking through awkwardly dug tunnels lit only by torches that one of the girls produced and passed around, the small group finally reached its destination. One of the really great things about the dungeon map was that it let Lucas build tunnels with absolute precision and ease. All he had to do was make sure that the tunnel was designed with sufficient ventilation and methods to make sure that water would drain away and have somewhere to go before flooding, and then the game handled all of that for him via Eri’s twenty worker Ant-Dragons, which acted with incredible efficiency.
The final part of the tunnel opened up in two areas. The first was right in front of the headmistress’s building, where he had first met her, and the second was right behind it. The exits weren’t very strategic or hidden, and they were functionally nothing more than giant holes which let him and his people come out immediately, but they worked, and Lucas’s people didn’t hold back.
Lucas had all of the women attack the front of the building while he spent his Blood Goddess Reputation Points on four Blood Guards, which he then upgraded three times each, and on one Blood Mage. He had more than enough Reputation Points thanks to all the deaths within his building and around it during the event, but he was still worried that he might have been overdoing it a little and that he should have saved some of the points. But, just like before, he didn’t want to take any chances. Since he could call the summons anytime he wanted if things went south, he ordered the five to defend the back entrance for the time being. Just as he had left Hanna and Linnaeus behind to guard the entrance at the dungeon, he didn’t want to worry about being flanked while engaged in battle. They were close enough that they could be used offensively if needed, but they would serve another purpose in the meantime.
There were at least two guard stations in the academy that he knew of, and he was positive that, the moment the fight began, the place would come alive with enemies. He appointed Liu in charge of making sure that the Ladies of Lucas and the one Knight of Lucas, Nick, would be able to stop anyone from interfering with his fight, and then he grabbed Viola and began hunting down the headmistress. While he was certain that a larger group would have a greater chance of success, he needed to make sure he actually found the headmistress before the guards could rally around her. Bringing just Viola meant that he’d have a source of heals and be able to move quickly without being detected as easily as a large group.
The division of labor seemed solid, and his plan seemed perfect. He was very happy with the way everything was set up, and that’s why, as he opened the door to the large three-story building, he felt nervous. Things seemed too perfect. Am I underestimating her? he wondered as he walked down the university-like, clean-cut halls. Is she so strong that she doesn’t need more guards? Is that why they weren’t already swarming as soon as my people began to unload on both sides of her building? He looked over at Viola beside him and wondered if it would be okay to talk about his concerns with her. No, if I discuss my fears, I’ll just come off as weak. At this point, I’m already committed. Being seen as weak and nervous won’t accomplish anything. I’ve already put my chips on the table. Time to see where the cards fall. He hated the fact that he felt nervous, especially when the whole world going against him before hadn’t even made him bat an eye, but that was just how things were.
“It’s wild, isn’t it?” Viola asked, breaking the silence.
“The race change?” Lucas looked over at her, unsure of what she meant.
“No, this. The dungeon. The story. It feels like . . . like you’ve gone from being the humble princess-nabbing big-fish-in-a-small-pond to being the leader of some rebellion, every person blindly following you into the same hole for their own reasons. We’re caught somewhere between being both the good guys and the worst guys in history.”
“I wouldn’t say the worst guys,” Lucas laughed. “I mean, the worst guys might be all for the same amount of bloodshed, but they wouldn’t offer cheese and wine to their own people.”
“Those small things aren’t what will show up in the history books--if one is ever written about this game.
When usurping rebellions are successful and take power, most people only note how many people were killed, why they were killed, and how the leaders of the winning side treated the survivors of the losing one. Your beautiful story won’t be about a man trying to survive a harsh political climate. It won’t mention the way you took care of your own, and it won’t humanize you with your struggles, pains, and motivations. It’ll just paint you as Lucas, the murderer of men, slaughterer of common folk, and butcher of academic figureheads. The man who took no prisoners as he killed his way to power. Or it’ll talk about the hero who finally stopped you. That’s how bloody changes in power are talked about.”
“I don’t think that’s how every revolution is remembered,” Lucas said, thinking back to the American one.
“Those were proper revolutions, though, and you’re just a usurper,” Viola said, sticking her tongue out at him.
“Ah, right. I need to not forget that fact,” he laughed. “I’m not trying to give power to the masses; I’m trying to keep it for myself.”
“Right. And the best way to start that type of venture is by going into a school and trying to stop people from learning. I can just see it now! ‘Lucas began his venture into evil by seizing control of the educational facilities so that he could suppress the nobility by controlling what they learned.’ It’ll be glorious!” She giggled at her own imagined headlines and then added, “I can’t wait to see how it’s written.”
“Are you glad you’re a part of it?” Lucas asked. His earlier conversation with Lilith crept back into his mind, and he was suddenly glad that he had put her with Liu. He didn’t need that extra distraction.
Viola shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. They say hindsight is 20-20, but I feel like they should add something about how the present is blind--or at least it feels that way most of the time.”
