by Lucas Dunn
We would be travelling through the forest for a little bit longer which kind of sucked, but it did allow me to plan for the upcoming days. Jake had showed me a couple of features that would really help in future battles. The first was what was called a commander. It allowed for me to put my army into one group under my control. We were able to see each other through the trees in the forest and I could communicate through a chat feature that issued commands that amplified my voice. The second feature was called squad leader that allowed me to choose five other people to be in a group with me. These features could be upgraded through skill trees, but I didn’t have time to play with them before I had to log off sadly. Right now they offered no bonus’s, but as I got into more and more battles they would level up also. Jake also gave me the two books he had talked about but I had yet to look at them due to time.
Overall, I had deemed the trip a huge success. This got me interested in visiting the other dark races, but I was definitely going to need to reach level thirty. I wanted to be strong enough to travel through my own lands without the threat of dying. Not to mention the huge bonus I’d get when I reached my class choice.
The rest of the work day went pretty smoothly. I spent most of my time working, but a few minutes were spent wondering what insight the books would have.
Chapter 23
I was walking along the path when I finished reading Mana Magic. I did not expect to learn a lot because Jake had told me it was a book they gave to all of the starting mages, but it had blown my mind. Mana could be used in a ton of different ways. One of which was a mana shield. The shield would deflect physical or magical damage at the cost of mana. There was a static shield that was just set once and the mage could ignore it, or there was a continuous one that the mage constantly poured mana into. This was common knowledge and I had no clue about it. This just showed how out of the loop I was since I didn’t start in a normal village.
After messing around with the mana shield I found it to be very expensive but at the same time it would definitely save my life in dire situations. Setting a static shield with as much mana as I did was also nothing to sneeze at. After growing tired of trying to level up Mana Magic, I moved on to the elemental summoning book that showed a very complex system. I wasn’t even close to the requirements which required me to be at a level seven magic. Though it was kind of disheartening to see, I did plan on leveling up my magic as quickly as possible. The power of the elementals was described in levels that clearly outmatched my tornado. There were also golems that seemed like a lesser version of elementals but even then the level requirement was the same. All of this meant there was extreme battle potential for them, which in turn made it one of my main priorities.
We continued through the forest. Me constantly taming animals, and the others chatting among themselves. I could have sworn I saw Grimm flirting with Elif, but I decided to ignore it because I honestly couldn’t care less.
Chapter 24
I had gone through morning process of eating breakfast and cleaning up. We would be arriving at the fort today and I had many things to get done. I had a week and four days to reach all the other races and get ready for war.
Logging on I found Jake and Grimm already in game. Nodding at them it was a silent five miles as everyone anxiously waited to arrive at the fort, putting in double speed to get there.
Finally emerging from the tree line, I heard Jake gasp and for once Grimm was speechless.
“Th…This is yours?!” Jake stuttered.
Looking up at my fort. I really looked at it from a newcomer’s perspective for the first time. From this distance, the fort seemed to suck in the light and leave only darkness. It was spiked in multiple areas giving it an almost gothic appearance, and the mountain it was built into seemed to only encourage the deadly feeling it gave off. The only sight I winced at was the broken village spread out before it. I was definitely going to need more people.
Upon arriving at the gate, I sent the Kobolds to their home to rest and with orders to begin mining as much as possible. My NPC’s looked exhausted so I also ordered them to rest which left my two companions and me. Binding their spawn points to the village gates we went to grind some levels. I was going separately because I needed to level up my magic as much as possible, and I trusted Grimm and Jake to handle the hellish Easter bunnies well enough. That left the armored rhinos to me.
As I looked across the field and spotted my armored opponents. The charcoal armor that spiked out around there joints was formidable but it was the horn that made me shudder as I remembered being impaled. I was about a 20 meters away from the first rhino when it started to charge. Unconcerned I tried my earth spikes to no effect. The rhinos tough armor reflected any attempt and it smashed through them. At ten meters I raised myself twenty feet on a huge earthen pillar and used appraise.
Level 25 Armored Rhino. Hit Point 5,000/5,000
Wow. Cursing at the rhino’s health, I quickly cast my newest earth spell, “Pit”. It wasn’t my first choice but I didn’t have enough runes to create a spell that would completely entomb an enemy yet. The Rhino was already committed to its charge, snorted in surprise as it fell in my pit. Feeling almost bad I worked its health down by shooting dark spells at it. It felt a little like cheating but there was no way I could take this thing on in a straight up fight. The hide it dropped was exactly what I was hoping for. Just like its armor, it was charcoal black and extremely tough. It was just slightly heavier than the leather armor that Haden had made for me which made it extremely useful to me. I planned on outfitting all of my people and this was perfect for future battles.
This same process went on three more times until I literally could not carry any more rhino hide. Not much time had passed but I was still able to level up twice in that time since the rhinos gave so much experience. Not only that but earth had risen a good bit to level six and dark magic had hit level five. I carried the Hide all the way to Gannon and he promised it would be more than enough to outfit my squad. His permanent forge was about a third complete and his only request was higher quality ore from the kobolds. While I promised to start on the next levels as soon as possible, I didn’t want to rush into anything. It felt like it’d be best if my group leveled up before trying to take on the next floors which would most likely be on par with the forest.
I spent the rest of the time training my tame and charm skill as well as learning how each of them worked. As I leveled up charm I would be able to increase the amount of creatures I could charm as well as the duration. Tame on the other hand would only work on creatures five or below. The advantages to taming is that it would be in control until I released them and I was also able to form communicate mentally with any creature that I had tamed.
I spent until midnight leveling each skill as much as possible when I heard the familiar howl of the dire wolves. Seeing Jake and Grimm frozen from the dire wolves call I ran over to them and told them to run to the fort. I had been thinking of ways to deal with the wolves for the whole evening and I finally got an idea once I hit level twenty-five. Seeing the wolves emerge from the edge of the woods I sprinted out into the plains using magic to hide my scent.
I was crouched down in the grass when my scent spell wore off and the nearest wolf howled and started sprinting in my direction quickly followed by his two friends. I tried using earth spear but the wolf nimbly dodged away. Seeing its prey so close the wolf quickened its pace lunging at my throat from twenty feet away. As it sailed through the ear with its claws outstretched, a huge horn burst through its side as my charmed rhino slammed into the wolf. Flinging the wolf off of it horn the other two living wolves pounced onto the rhino clawing at its thick armor trying and failing to break through. With the wolves distracted, they weren’t able to detect the rumbling of my second rhino as it again used its wicked horn to pierce through the dire wolfs hide. Without much of a choice the final wolf hopped off the rhinos back and took off to the woods. Unable to match its speed I eventually ordered my rhinos
back.
I felt a small victory as I saw the wolf retreat. I might not have beat all of them but at least I showed the wolves I wasn’t someone to mess with. Another bonus was that I got a third of the experience my charmed rhino did for killing the wolves.
Eventually I did have to release the rhinos because of the time limit but as soon as I did I made sure they were a long distance away. Jake and Grimm were back at the fort waiting for me when I returned.
“So when are you going to give us the tour of your place?” Jake asked as I walked up.
“We can go now, I got a couple tasks to do later if you wouldn’t mind.” I said thinking of exploring my lands to find the more permanent dungeon.
“Of course”
I walked him through the fort showing him all the places I had been and even discovering a couple of extra room throughout the castle that looked like guest rooms and a couple storage closets. They didn’t hold anything but it was still nice to know. As we came to the barracks I saw my soldiers getting up. Following us I led all of my people to the temple. There was a collective gasp as we entered. Forgetting I had never showed anyone else I let them observe before I heard Jake talk.
“How do we pledge to the Dark One?”
Confused I sheepishly responded. “I don’t really know how other people do it. Give me a second.”
I ran through the altar interface until I saw a “Worshippers” tab mentally clicking I saw it pretty simple.
“All you have to do is step up and touch the altar or a priest and say I pledge my absolute service in the name of the Dark One.”
Nodding, Jake and everyone went up to the altar stepped up and repeated the phrase while Grim commented on the small stat boost. After Jake pledged in the name of the Dark One I was too busy reading my prompts to pay attention to them.
You have finally brought worshippers into your temple officially creating your order. With its first worshippers the Dark Ones influence has finally taken roots in this world. +1 religion point for each worshipper every day. Each worshipper gets 30% darkness resistance.
As first priest of The Dark One you have been given max affinity in Dark Magic. 100% resistance to Dark Magic and now Dark Magic is now 50% less costly.
Dark Magic has been raised to max level. Spell creation no longer affects Dark magic.
I stared at the prompts dumfounded before I noticed that Jake was trying to talk to me. Holding up my hand I stopped him. I had noticed something else. There was a feeling of pressure in my head. It wasn’t unpleasant but it was still noticeably drawing my attention to something. Looking around I saw Grimm in the shadow leaning against the wall. Curious I waved him out of the way and he moved. The feeling in my head changed and I realized what I was experiencing. I was sensing the shadows. It was like any other of my five senses. It was constantly there but I could tell when something changed right away. Laughing at how my perspective on shadows change I saw them shift while I laughed. Once again curious, I thought of the shadow in front of me moving toward me and sure enough it darted towards my body. Pulling all the shadows from the room to my body I saw a minimal shift in my mana and realized how cool this was. I didn’t have to make spells with dark magic anymore! It was all pure thought!
Cloak of Darkness. -75% noticeability -25% physical damage received.
Finally coming back to my none “Darkness” senses I saw Jake and Grimm staring at me and The NPC’s looking at me like I was mad. I dispersed the shadows from me and stared back until Jake finally spoke up.
“You mind telling us what just happened? How did you control the shadows like that and why does the bonus we get suck so much? I mean it’s no wonder no one follows your religion. It provides no bonuses for us besides a small stat boost.”
Coughing I quickly responded so the Dark One wouldn’t come down and smite Jake. “Well I have to assign bonuses so give me a second, and it’s a new religion so we won’t be able to give super good bonuses unless we get more people. About the shadows, I just reached max level in Dark Magic.”
As soon as I said that the NPC’s gasped. Turning my head, I inquired to their reaction and only got silence. Asking the question again Elif finally responded.
“There are only a handful of mages who have reached max level in a magic my lord.” Before she could say anything else Jake interrupted.
“What! That is such bullcrap, Jake you are way too lucky at this game its unfair! You better get started on some bonuses for us worshippers soon or I will make sure to talk to The Dark One myself!”
Laughing it off, I just shook my head and said there wasn’t much I could do. I did however go through the altar bonuses and use my current worshipper points to buy a +1 Constitution bonus for everybody which would barely appease Jake for now. As we walked out of the fort I gave Jake Grimm and my NPC unit the task of finding the dungeon which immediately got everybody interested. Power leveling was something that everybody liked and with a dungeon near us we could definitely get pretty powerful.
As they went off to do their thing I decided it was time to check out my stats and keep up on anything I wasn’t taking advantage of.
Name
Lucian(Lord of Shadow’s Edge. First Priest of The Dark One.)
Race
???
Class
None
Level
26(Percent towards next level: 3%)
Fame
1,850(Respect)
Health
420
Mana
2,160
Intelligence (1 point = 30 towards mana)
72
Constitution (1 point = 20 towards health)
21
Wisdom (1 point = +.5 mana per second)
45
Strength (1 point = x.1 physical damage.
20 [Damage modifier = (damage * 2.1)
Stamina
20
Dexterity
26
Luck
5(+10 from Ring)
Abilities
Dark Sight: See with 100% proficiency in darkness. (Non-Passive)
Dark Shroud: Unable to be heard or detected by the followers of light through divine or mundane magic. (Passive)
Divine Fortitude: Resist the strongest attempts to influence your mind(Passive)
Skills
Mana Magic: 15% towards next level. 5% resistance [Level two]
Water Magic: 0% towards next level. 0% resistance. [Level one]
Earth Magic: 45% towards next level. 15% resistance. [Level four]
Fire Magic: 3% towards next level. 10% resistance. [Level three]
Air Magic: 13% towards next level. 15% resistance. [Level four]
Dark Magic: 100% resistance. [Max level]
Light Magic: 5% towards next level. 10% resistance. [Level three]
Lightning Magic: 56% towards next level. 10% resistance. [Level three]
Mana Manipulation: Process of efficiently using mana. 67% towards next level. Cast speed, damage, success rate. +12% effective. [Level five]
Spell Creation: You have the ability to create your own spell. Current limit of four runes. 12% towards next level. (Non-Passive) [Level Four]
Sneak: You are able to slightly conceal your presence and noise. 10% reduction to noise and noticeability. -45% reduction to speed. [Level two]
Tracking: You are able to follow game by their tracks. [Level One]
Pain Constitution: You are able to ignore 1% of pain. [Level one]
Appraise: You are able to see name and level of most mobs. [Level one]
Tame: You are able to tame creatures level five or under. [Level three]
Charm: Convince any mob of equal level and lower fortitude to listen to you. Limit: 2. Length: 2 hours. [Level 4]
Mana creation: Create any object at the cost of mana. Can’t be magical [Level 1]
Quests
Summon a minor god
Array a force of at least 100 strong
Figure out your race
&nb
sp; I was definitely getting pretty powerful. I was a little worried about my health, but with my mana shield in place I could take an extra thousand points of damage before any mob got to me which was nothing to sneeze at. I also got interested in my wisdom because I was close to my next ability in that which made me think of my mana creation ability. Drawing mana from my Fort I tried to make a pistol but got a disappointing but yet relieving prompt.
Unable to create items that have not been created yet or that your character has not come into contact with.
In one hand I was glad no one would be able to bring new age warfare to the world, but at the same time I noticed that I would have to come into contact with any item I wanted to create which definitely limited the ability. Losing interest, I headed towards my mines to clear some floors. I should be more than capable with my new levels and skills.
Chapter 25
When I got to the mines, Raken offered to send a small group of men with me but I politely declined. Not because I was cocky or didn’t want the help but because I didn’t want to share and experience or loot I might get. I might have a fort and my own army but I was still extremely poor. I continued till I got to the iron banded door. The two guards on the outside quickly opened the door for me to step through and before I could tell them to close it, it slammed shut. Muttering I looked back at the door and saw blood staining the wood in certain areas. Well that is a little ominous I said with a chuckle. One thing I immediately noticed was the labyrinth I had just stepped into. There were a ton of tunnels that led in just about every direction. I thought pulled the darkness from around me and formed a spear pure shadows focusing on hardening the shadow I got a prompt.
