The Omnithaneum

by Matthew Powell

  You have chosen the Blight Lord Paramount Class!

  Blight Lord

  -An extremely powerful undead warrior that has mastered the use of Pestilence. Blight Lords serve as a powerful force on any battlefield, weakening their opponents simply with their presence. They can summon an undead mount to ride and upgrade it with the corpses of slain enemies. Blight Lords and other Lord classes have the unique ability to absorb their armor into themselves, granting them all of the defensive bonuses while also allowing them to equip a second armor.

  As he pressed accept on the screen, Joshua could feel his character change once again. Not only did his body grow much denser, but his Pestilence also changed. Joshua couldn’t tell what had changed, and it reacted the same, but something about it was fundamentally different. In addition, he also learned three new skills.

  Afflicted Steed

  -Once a horse, now a construct of Pestilence. The Afflicted Steed can be summoned at will, though it will drain the user’s energy. It can absorb the body parts of slain monsters and integrate them, becoming more powerful as its rider conquers.

  Intimidating Aura

  -A Blight Lord’s every movement is imbued with unholy and evil power. This power intimidates everything nearby, causing enemies to deal less damage and be more likely to miss attacks or flee. Allies will suffer the opposite effect, so terrified of what the Blight Lord may do to them that they will fight even harder to win. Aura costs no energy and is always active. Aura will affect players with a stat buff/debuff while affecting NPCs more noticeably.

  Adornment

  -A Blight Lord is known as much for their heavy armor as their magical abilities. Grants the user a pocket dimension inside of themselves that stores a single full suit of armor. Armor stored here will grant set bonuses as if equipped and will still synergize will class set weaponry. All of the armor’s unique abilities are still usable. The stored armor’s damage mitigation will be added to whatever armor is equipped normally.

  Joshua took a moment to admire his new upgrades. His body moved noticeably easier, and his Pestilence flowed faster than ever before. Even his sensor web, something he barely thought above, was covering more than double its previous area. He was tempted to immediately absorb the Pestilence of the goblin horde for a quick boost, but the bodies were already disappearing. To make up for this disappointment, the daily attack rewards came to greet him.

  Daily Monster Attack completed!

  Top contributor is Zandrius!

  Bounty has been erased

  1,000,000g has been awarded

  Getting rid of the bounty was a weight off Joshua’s back, though he was tempted to earn it again in order to test his new powers. Just when he started walking back towards the city walls, one last message appeared.

  As a special reward for placing 1st in the daily attack, WestDrift has granted you access to their Omnithaneum Entrance.

  Interlude

  In a busy hallway, made entirely of a light grey material, researchers wearing lab coats were running around wildly. Doors opened in the seemingly solid walls, leading to rooms filled with more researchers and the occasional person garbed in grey and black robes. One of the robe-wearing researchers left his room into the hallway, immediately entering another room on the other side.

  Inside the room was a single black-robed figure, leaning back while sitting on a floating chair that bobbed up and down. The figure’s head snapped up when the robed researcher entered but settled back down a moment later.

  “What is it, Sinik?” The sitting figure spoke. “If you have a report, make it fast. I was in the middle of something.”

  “We do, sir.” The standing figure, Sinik, replied. “Everything has been proceeding mostly as planned. The fastest players are just starting to receive their Paramount Classes, and we will start recruiting from the general public within the next few days. Almost all of the fastest 1000 have already accepted our offer. Project Macrocosm has proven to be an unparalleled success.”

  “Good…that’s good. But I can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t right. Have there been any abnormalities recently?”

  “No sir,” Sinik responded, “other than your recent killing of the player Zandrius, there hasn’t been anything out of the ordinary.”

  “Hmm…” The sitting figure cupped his chin. “What about him, then? You were planning on recruiting him too, if I remember correctly.”

  “That’s right, sir. He is among the first to receive a Paramount class and is currently holding the 1710th place on the leveling leaderboards. We have marked him as a prime target once general recruitment begins. Following his death, he respawned on the planet of Grazurus, and has made his way to the city of WestDrift.”

  The sitting figure froze. The room seemed to drop several degrees at Sinik’s last words. Even the chair stopped bobbing, sitting completely still in the air.

  “Did you say WestDrift?”

  “Yessir. Is that a problem?”

  “WestDrift has Grazurus’ Omnithaneum entrance, doesn’t it?”

  “It does, but it only goes to the closed-off section. Our recent expedition showed no leakage, it is completely sealed. Only an elder-god class entity could breach into the wider Omnithaneum.”

  “…sound the alarm.”

  “Excuse me, sir?” Sinik was stunned by the sudden turn of events. They hadn’t needed to sound the alarm once since the project began.

  “I said to sound the alarm damn it! Filth is about to breach the Omnithaneum!”

  Chapter 10

  Paramount Classes! An endless source of growth for any and all players that aspire to reach them. Every tier, instead of picking a new class, Macrocosm’s AI will analyze your playstyle and award you a new class title based on it. This title comes with additional bonuses of course, in order to keep each new tier exciting. The permanent 100 level cap was something we argued over but decided it was for the best. 100 is an approachable number, it sounds realistic. Level 10,000 does not, even if the EXP requirement is the same, and that kind of level cap would quickly put off players later into the game. – on Paramount Classes, from The Chronicles of The Founder

  Before anything else, Joshua rushed back to the Necromancer’s Guild. The rewards from both the daily monster attack and from earning his Paramount Class had been above his wildest dreams, but it also meant there was still work left to do. The first thing he did after entering the underground was summoning and testing his new mount.

  A wholly unimpressive zombie steed formed in front of Joshua in a cloud of Pestilence. It resembled a shorter-than-normal horse, but skinny and rotting. It looked like it could barely stand, let alone be ridden. Joshua dismissed it for now, but it would come in handy later once he was able to get it some new parts.

  The Intimidating Aura wasn’t something that he was able to see, so he just had to trust it had taken effect. Last and most exciting of Joshua’s new powers was Adornment. His Scourge Blackguard set needed an upgrade anyway now that he was a Blight Lord and creating a new armor set to increase his defenses wouldn’t take very long.

  Joshua returned to the Necromancer’s Guild to find it mostly empty. He had seen a number of skeleton minions and black magic from the walls, along with assassins and other dark classes, so most of the underground population had left to help with the daily attack. He wasn’t the first to arrive, as Welekai was sitting in a lounge chair doing paperwork, but he was among the first.

  Joshua made his way to an empty corner of the room and sat down cross-legged. He had an important decision to make: what kind of armor to use with Adornment. Creating another heavy plate set would increase his pure damage mitigation by a lot, but that wasn’t necessarily the best choice. He had seen the powerful bonuses that caster armor could give, and it was very tempting.

  There was also the option to make a suit of lighter leather armor, which wouldn’t give him much damage mitigation but might offer other bonuses. He had seen numerous rogues wearing leather armor and hoods
, so it must offer something useful. Running out of ideas, and with time to spare after earning so many levels so quickly, Joshua decided to just make one of each. The two he didn’t choose could always be sold at auction.

  Before doing that, however, he needed to upgrade his Blackguard set. The armor required a massive 250,000 Pestilence to upgrade, but with Joshua’s current Pestilence generation, that didn’t even take half an hour.

  Blight Lord’s Bulwark

  Soul-Bound Class Set

  Mitigation Potential: 6000

  Pestilence Towards Next Upgrade: 0/1,000,000

  Stored Pestilence: 0/500,000

  Set Bonus: Pestilence Vision, Instant Equip, Empowered Weapons, Plague Battery

  The Blight Lord set is made from the very essence of its wielder. As such, the wielder can sense the environment through it.

  The Blight Lord set is made from the very essence of its wielder. As such, it can be instantly conjured and dispelled, and automatically summons itself if its wielder is ambushed.

  The Blight Lord set is not only composed of armor, but sword and shield as well. The sword and shield are automatically upgraded to the same level as the armor for free.

  A Blight Lord’s true power is derived from the Pestilence he controls. The Blight Lord class set can store Pestilence, which the Blight Lord can call upon later. Stored Pestilence does not count towards the next upgrade. Stored Pestilence may not be re-stored and is lost upon use.

  Joshua could feel as the armor changed around him, becoming thicker and heavier. It didn’t actually weigh more or impede his movements, but he could feel the difference in power. The armor took on a much darker color, becoming dark brown with large patches of black. The armor became much sharper, with most edges and curves becoming jagged. The plated gauntlets were now tipped with spikes, as were his boots.

  Both the Plague-Ridden Obsidian Longsword and Greatshield underwent a similar transformation. The sword extended, reaching almost the same width and length of a two-handed sword, but without growing any heavier in Joshua’s hands. Whether the lack of weight was part of the upgrade or his own new strength, he didn’t know. Both the shield’s damage mitigation and the sword’s damage potential more than doubled as a result, but neither received any new bonuses.

  Next came the creation of the three new armor sets. Joshua resolved not to make them class sets as he had the Blighted Necromancer set. He wouldn’t be able to use the weapons that made class sets function properly, so having it as an armor set was more than enough.

  Before even starting, Joshua dismissed creating another plate set. It would undoubtedly offer the greatest protection, but he had plenty of that already. Most fights now ended without him even needing to get personally involved. It would be better to focus on a caster or light armor set that would potentially give him more damage bonuses.

  The first set that Joshua created turned into the Undead Assassin’s Vestments. It offered little protection, but gave bonuses to stealth and sneak attacks, both things that he was terrible at. On the upside, it offered equivalent bonuses for a rogue that the Blight Lord set offered to him, so it would still be worth a few thousand credits.

  The second set was the one that Joshua decided to put in the Adornment pocket dimension. It had taken nearly an hour to create, but the time had been well spent. The long creation time came from a spark of inspiration that Joshua had gotten when he remembered creating the Blighted Necromancer set’s staff. The gemstone, the hardest part of both the staff and the set to create, had taken a long time to form but granted massive bonuses. So, what if he just slapped a whole bunch of them onto the caster set?

  Gem-Encrusted Blight Mage’s Robes

  Soul-Bound Armor Set

  Mitigation Potential: 1000

  Barrier Strength: 25,000

  Pestilence Towards Next Upgrade: 1,000,000

  Stored Pestilence: 0/250,000

  Set Bonus: Instant Equip, Plague Battery, Gem-Adorned

  This set is made from the very essence of its wielder. As such, the wielder can sense the environment through it.

  The large number of Pestilence-made gems that make up a large part of these robes have given them special powers. The gems are capable of storing Pestilence, which the user can call upon at will to substitute his own. Stored Pestilence cannot be re-stored upon use.

  The large number of Pestilence-made gems that make up a large part of these robes have given them special powers. All Pestilence abilities are empowered based on the amount of Pestilence stored in the gems, increasing their effectiveness by up to 50% when maxed out. This bonus applies to all Pestilence abilities, including aura, minions, and Pestilence-made weapons and armor.

  Joshua didn’t even look at the finished product, already knowing it to be hideous thanks to the gemstones. He read the robe’s stat screen and willed Adornment to absorb it, causing the robe to vanish out of his hands. There was a bit of static in the air surrounding him as the robe’s barrier came into effect, but that faded once it settled in place.

  Joshua immediately started funneling his excess Pestilence towards filling the robes Plague Battery. 50% extra effect on all of his abilities? Other players would kill for that kind of power. Although, given how relatively easy the set was to make, others would likely have similar items soon enough anyway. The assassin’s armor was quickly thrown up onto the auction house for an hour with a starting bid of 1000 credits.

  With the armor sorted out, Joshua took to examining his rewards from the daily monster attack. The million gold was immediately sold for 10,000 credits, bringing his account balance up to a hefty 35,600 credits. Getting rid of his bounty was also nice since it meant that other players wouldn’t be hunting him anymore. Killing them had proven fruitful, but it was time to move towards more fertile, higher-level ground if he wanted to keep improving.

  That line of thought brought Joshua to his final reward. The city of WestDrift was home to this planet’s Omnithaneum entrance, the strange and mystical place that the Demons Who Corrupt had tried sending him to before Foundation showed up. If he could contact the Demons inside, it was possible they might still take him in.

  Joshua’s face soured when that thought came into his mind. The Demons hadn’t exactly treated him kindly in the short time he had known them. Even without them, the Omnithaneum still presented a wealth of opportunity. Every other world in the game could be accessed through it if the Demon soldier was to be believed.

  The only problem would be finding the entrance. While he didn’t have a bounty anymore, Joshua doubted that the guardsmen would suddenly be friendly towards him. He had massacred hundreds of them, after all, even if they did all come back. Welekai, the Necromancer that had helped Joshua get started in the guild, was more than happy to tell him the location when asked.

  The entire city of WestDrift was built around the Omnithaneum’s entrance. The city was a giant circle, surrounded by a single massive wall stretching all the way around it, with the entrance kept within a giant cathedral at the very center. The underground tunnels proved their worth once more, converging directly under the cathedral.

  Joshua emerged from the ground a short distance away. There were large crowds here, both praying to a deity he wasn’t aware of and just sightseeing. No one tried to stop him as he walked up the cathedral’s main stairs and into the building itself. The guards on the outside and just inside the entrance gave him weird looks but recognized him quickly enough. They let him pass without issue.

  The entrance to the Omnithaneum was plainly visible in the middle of the cathedral. It was simply wooden doorframe, set on top of a stone pedestal with a staircase leading up to it. The door wasn’t connected to any wall and shouldn’t have had anything on the other side, but that wasn’t what Joshua saw. Instead, Joshua looked through the disconnected doorway to see an immense library, stretching so far back he could see it curve and so high there were clouds above.

  He could see other doors, some wide open like his and other closed.
There were hundreds of other people, some of them clearly players, along with hunched-over figures wearing bright blue robes. Joshua walked up the staircase and stood in front of the doorway, staring in. Filled with anticipation, he took a single step forward through the entrance.

  “No, stop!” A voice called out behind him. Joshua turned around just in time to see the entire cathedral behind him torn apart, ripped to pieces and scattered by the magic of a familiar man wearing purple robes. Seeing Foundation behind him, Joshua turned back and jumped through the portal into the Omnithaneum.

  When he landed on the other side, the world froze. Not literally as it had last time, but it felt that way. All of the blue-robed figures, the Omnithaneum’s librarians, turned to look at him. Foundation stared from behind with anger in his eyes. Joshua’s body emitted a thin brown mist resembling his Pestilence, but this was different. The smoke coalesced into flies, while a cruel and familiar laughing voice rang out with two words.