The Omnithaneum

by Matthew Powell

  Given the sheer number of people currently playing Macrocosm, Joshua found it unlikely that all of the necromancer sets were set to bid-only on purpose. This led to the second possibility: that every single set put up for buyout was being instantly purchased, either by someone who needed it, or someone who wanted to resell it for a higher price. If this was the case, then the Blighted Necromancer set could be worth more than he had previously thought.

  Joshua nearly drooled when he saw the prices that some of the bids were reaching. One set he saw was going for nearly 15,000 credits, despite being worse than the Blighted Necromancer set. Only one set truly stood out, the Lesser Death Godling set, currently bidding at over 50,000 credits and climbing. The Blighted Necromancer set wouldn’t fetch nearly that much, but it gave Joshua an idea of the things he could make in the future.

  Before he could put the set up for sale, he needed to break the binding on it. Not every game had the ability to break the binds of a Soul-Bound item, and those that did often made it very expensive, but he held out hope that it would be easy. Closing his eyes to meditate once more, Joshua felt for any connection he had to the robe and staff.

  He could feel two connections, each made up of several separate threads. One led to his currently equipped Scourge Blackguard set, and the connection was strong. The other led to the Blighted Necromancer set and felt much weaker. A simple thought broke the connection without any effort.

  You have broken the Soul-Binding on the Blighted Necromancer set!

  Due to the unique nature of this set, its power will slowly fade away until someone else with a disease-related energy source chooses to rebind it.

  This breaking is only possible due to you not having worn the set yourself. The longer a class set is worn and the stronger the set is, the more difficult it is to break the binding. Bound sets and items can still be sold to Item Shop vendors for local currency.

  Joshua put the class set up for sale with a starting bid of 10,000 credits and a time limit of half an hour. He didn’t want to give it too long of a time limit if possible. Sure, it could lead to a higher price as more people were able to bid, but these items were worth less and less with every passing minute. Within the next six hours, prices for these items would be a fraction of what they currently were, and that wasn’t even counting the fading power. Better to cash out now and move on to better items.

  The robe and staff vanished from Joshua’s lap, taken by Macrocosm’s system. All that was left to do now was wait for the auction to finish and hope that the reward was worth the time spent. Now that he Soul-Binding was breakable, it opened up the world of plans he had been dreaming of. In the meantime, the Demons Who Corrupt had set up shop right next door in the zombie mall dungeon, and there wouldn’t be a better opportunity to introduce himself.

  Chapter 2

  To date, every single discovered world has had a single entrance to the Omnithaneum. Even artificial, biological and fictional worlds have an entrance somewhere. The entrance could be practically anything: a door, an archway, a staircase, a cave, and at least one recorded mouth. The door can be destroyed from the outside, or killed if applicable, but another will form elsewhere. Trying to destroy the door from inside the Omnithaneum…doesn’t end well. – on The Omnithaneum, from The Chronicles of The Founder

  Walking out of the item shop, Joshua was met with an empty parking lot. All the abandoned cars and tier 1 zombies that used to roam around were gone, vanished without a trace. Whether they were wiped out by the Demons Who Corrupt or removed as part of the Paradigm Shift was unknown, but also unimportant.

  Looking down towards the end of the strip mall, Joshua saw his first sign of life. Parked directly outside of the dungeon entrance was a red and black spaceship surrounded by people. The ship was drastically different than the one that had arrived in Grace. Whereas the Saints ship was sleek and pristine, this one was crude and jagged. It was adorned with metal edges and spikes and covered in burn marks that spoke of close calls with the Saints laser weaponry.

  The people weren’t much different. Roughly half of the twenty-ish people around the spaceship were clearly members of the Demons Who Corrupt. Where the priest and his followers had been wearing white and gold robes, the Demons were wearing heavy plate armor, several inches thick. Even the shortest one looked to be several inches taller than Joshua. They were less soldiers and more walking tanks. A quick glance at their status’ showed that most of them were tier 6, with a single exception.

  Centus, Rector of the Demons Who Corrupt

  Tier: 8

  Level: ??

  HP: ?,???,???/?,???,???

  Of the roughly ten Demon soldiers, Centus was the only one not wearing heavy armor. He was wearing robes, but of a different sort than the pristine white priest robes that Jakobus had been wearing. No, what Centus wore would be more aptly described as an evil sorcerer’s robe. It was a dark purple, with massive spiked epaulets and a helmet that covered everything but a glow where the eyes should be.

  With his evil sorcerer getup and his HP in the millions, it was clear to Joshua that Centus was the one leading this group. The strength and presence of the Demons Who Corrupt were not surprising, but the dozen players milling about with them was. None of them were above tier 2, and most of them were regular humans, probably a large group from Grace trying their luck at a dungeon quest. Two of them, however, were other zombie players.

  Joshua knew that it had always been a matter of time before others figured out the secret power of the zombie starting race but seeing two of them here so soon was surprising. He was a little jealous that they would be able to work together where he had struggled alone, but that was a consequence of being a solo player.

  A few of the Demons pointed their guns at him as he approached, but they never shot. Once Joshua was close enough to inspect the guns, he was very thankful for that. He had never actually tried to inspect someone else’s gear while they had it equipped, but it worked when he tried.

  Ordnance Bombard

  Automatic Heavy Firearm

  Damage Potential: 10,000 Blunt/40,000 Crushing/ 30,000 Piercing

  The rifle was big and bulky, painted the same red and black as their armor. A single shot would have torn through his shield, armor set, and entire HP pool several times over, and the weapon was fully automatic. Never mind him, the Drudge Bear would be lucky to survive a shot. Every single one of the Demon soldiers had one of these rifles, in addition to each one having a unique and equally terrifying melee weapon. When Joshua got close, one of them called out to him, his voice heavy and distorted by his helmet.

  “If you are here to join the new recruits, get over there with the rest of them. If not, leave before one of us gets bored and shoots you.”

  Well, at least they were direct. It was clear the Demons were different than the Saints in more than just appearance and weaponry. The Saints had seemed organized, wanting to set up a recruitment center and offering people a chance to grow stronger. The Demons just took whoever wandered too close. If they noticed how much stronger Joshua was compared to the other recruits, they didn’t care. Tier 2 or tier 4, both died to a single bullet from those massive guns.

  Joshua did as ordered, unwilling to anger the soldier. None of the other potential ‘recruits’ recognized him, and most seemed to have no clue what was going on. He caught a few of them from the large human group whispering.

  “This isn’t what was supposed to happen.” A scrawny kid whispered, practically shaking. “We were going to get an easy start on a zombie world, and then some asshole had to screw everything up by triggering the Paradigm Shift!”

  “Just calm down, we’re going to be fine. If we follow orders, we should find a way to escape eventually. Even if we wind up dying, we can just respawn back in Grace and join the Saints instead.”

  “Hey, isn’t that the guy?” One of them pointed to Joshua, finally noticing him. “Yeah, he’s tier 4! That’s the guy who made all this happen!”

  The group
wasn’t exactly thrilled when they had this realization. They had just been planning a completely normal dungeon run, the kind that Joshua had been a part of thousands of times in other games when this happened. The two zombie players, on the other hand, seemed much happier about this turn of events. They had been expecting to spend several hours slogging their way through weak enemies before getting to reach their exponential growth, but the Demons Who Corrupt potentially gave them a chance to skip all that.

  The humans looked like they were ready to jump him but were stopped by his higher stats and intimidating appearance. The threat of being instantly killed by one of the Demon soldiers probably had something to do with it as well. A few minutes after Joshua arrived, one of the Demon soldiers began to address the recruits.

  “Alright, so this is how it’s going to happen. We didn’t exactly prepare room on the ship for recruits, this was just supposed to be a scouting mission, so we’ve only got three open seats. Whichever three of you survive get to join.”

  The group of recruits just stood there, waiting for more information. Survive what? Were they supposed to go in the dungeon? Joshua was starting to realize what the soldier wanted when he began to speak again.

  “Well, what are you waiting for? If there are more than three people in front of me in five minutes, I’m killing everyone.”

  One of the human players was first to react, pulling out a dagger and stabbing one of his ex-party members. Things started to devolve quickly from there, as more bladed weapons were pulled out and guns were fired. Joshua and the two zombie players were standing off to the side, watching the madness. Joshua himself felt no need to interfere, content to let the competition thin itself, while the zombie players were too weak. He remembered when he had been tier 2, just barely able to move properly. It felt like just yesterday.

  Two minutes later, little progress had been made. Three human players were dead, and most others injured, but they were growing more cautious as the fight continued. They were starting to prioritize survival over killing, even if the result was them all being wiped out.

  “Hey, you two.” Joshua turned towards the two zombie players standing near him. It was better to end this quickly, and maybe help some fellow zombies out along the way. “You’re lucky, getting to join the Demons like this.”

  They looked confused at his words, but their eyes widened in realization as Joshua’s Virulent Aura began to spread towards the fighting group. The aura, powered by Joshua’s 2000/minute Pestilence generation, resembled a massive brown cloud. It quickly covered the ongoing brawl, and within seconds everyone inside was dead. When the cloud dispersed, all that was left of the group were shriveled up corpses.

  Joshua, to his dismay, didn’t receive any EXP or kill notifications. Thinking back, he hadn’t gotten one when he had killed Khymer either. It seemed that other players just didn’t give EXP, but they did give plenty of loot. None of the weapons on the ground were worth his time to pick up, but the two zombies took their chance to search the corpses for weapons and armor. With the fighting settled, the Demon soldier grabbed their attention.

  “Not how these recruitments normally go, but we’ve had stranger. At least you didn’t kill everybody and steal the dropship like one guy did. We’ll be heading out in about ten minutes, the three get the seats at the far end of the dropship.”

  With that, the soldier went back to ignoring them. Joshua took the opportunity to further examine Centus, who was performing some sort of ritual. He couldn’t tell what the ritual was, but it involved mumbling something that caused a few hundred points of damage to anyone listening in, as Joshua quickly found out.

  Joshua stood around talking with the other zombie players until the ten minutes were up. They had been in the exact situation he had predicted: struggling to level up and thankful for the Demons arrival. When the soldier had said they would only be taking the three survivors, the zombie players given up hope of joining. They were much weaker than the players who started as humans and were lucky that they weren’t picked off right at the start. Joshua’s interference had saved them a lot of time and effort, for which they were thankful.

  When the ten minutes were up, Centus finished his chant and the ritual with it. Joshua watched as the entire dungeon began glowing red, changing according to the ritual. The dungeon looked largely the same when the glowing stopped, but a new notification told a different story.

  Dungeon: Zombie Mall has been tampered with as a result of a Paradigm Shift!

  A sorcerer’s dark magic has tainted the mall, greatly empowering the zombies that reside within.

  New Difficulty Level: Tier 5

  Recommended Group Size: 5+

  Joshua had thought the ritual had something to do with scouting, but clearly, it was more than that. To jump up three tiers in difficulty in just a few minutes…Joshua started to think he was in over his head.

  “Hey, you!” Centus called out. Joshua thought the sorcerer was talking to him, but a soldier responded instead.

  “Yes, sir?”

  “Report back to base, tell them we’ve found a suitable training ground for recruits. Throw anyone tier 3 or under inside, don’t let them out until they are at least tier 4. I’ve set it to forcibly change their respawn point but keep an eye on the Item Shop just in case.”

  “Understood, sir.”

  The soldier lumbered back onto the dropship to access the communications equipment while Joshua considered Centus’ words. He had thought that the newly upgraded mall might be the next place he would train at, but apparently, he was wrong. They were planning to throw tier 2s and 3s down there? They’d be torn to shreds!

  Maybe that was the point, Joshua realized. The Demons were taking full advantage of their ability to respawn and were planning to abuse that until the strongest players emerged from the chaff. How on earth Centus was able to change their respawn point, or why that was even allowed, were questions for later.

  Another soldier, before they had a chance to react, grabbed the two zombie players and threw them through the doors into the dungeon. They tried to scramble back out, but the gun pointed at them made them rethink that. Joshua saw them slink away inside, their plans ruined as they took cover in the same shopping cart alcove he had used.

  “Well, looks like you’re the lucky one,” the soldier said, talking to Joshua. “You actually get to come with us. Guess you didn’t need to kill all those recruits after all!”

  The soldier seemed unusually upbeat about losing potential recruits, but Joshua didn’t spend much time thinking on it. It was clear that the Demons Who Corrupt weren’t exactly strict or caring when it came to these sorts of things.

  The soldiers climbed onto the dropship and Joshua followed them. The ship was much roomier on the inside than it appeared and was likely affected by some kind of spatial magic. Every soldier had their own private room that they retreated to. One of them pointed out a room near the back of the ship for Joshua to stay in.

  “This is where you get to stay.” The soldier said while standing outside of the room. “I’d show you where the food is, but I’m pretty sure zombie variants don’t need to eat. Fair warning, there’s a good chance someone will accidentally and/or purposefully kill you, but your room counts as a safe zone and you can respawn there.”

  Having the room be a safe zone was a weight off his shoulders. These soldiers were the first NPCs that seemed to know about the system. He would have to ask some questions about that later, but for now, the soldier was still talking.

  “You’re free to walk around the ship, but the hallways are tight, and we aren’t always that considerate. If you are in the way, someone is more likely to step on you than let you move aside. If you see a door marked with a magical script, just walk away. That’s Centus’ room, and the script can drive you mad. Feel free to ask if you need anything but know that doing so increases the odds of accidentally annoying someone. We are going to stop at a few more locations along the way, so it will be a few hours before w
e get back to base and put you through the recruitment process.”

  The soldier went through his speech as if he had done it thousands of times before, and it was likely that he had. The soldier walked off, his armor clanking in the hallways as he disappeared into his own room. Joshua had been given the room at the farthest end of the ship. True to the Demon’s words, there were only two other rooms that didn’t have an occupant. At least the massacre outside had a purpose, even if it proved to be unnecessary.

  Joshua’s room was surprisingly comfortable. The bed was large, there was a built-in bathroom, and a large tube-like device that must have been for equipping and removing the Demon’s massive sets of armor. Joshua lied down on the bed and started digging through the menu’s that he had largely been ignoring up until now. He had a few hours to kill, and there wasn’t much else to do.

  Turned out, the auction house wasn’t the only thing he had originally missed. There was a bestiary that collected information on slain opponents, a lore index for the things he discovered on his travels, a compendium of items he had proven capable of crafting, and more. There was one feature he had spotted earlier while crafting, and he was grateful for it.

  The inventory system. It didn’t provide any storage of its own, instead listing the capacity and content of any equipped storage items or abilities he possessed. Right now it was empty, but that would change soon enough. Of course, any non-Soul-Bound items in the inventory would drop on death, but that just meant he had to get strong enough to survive.