by Lucas Dunn
“Troll blood can be used as substitutes for greater health potions. They heal up to 500 health and even though they taste like sewage, it’s better than dying. Disgusted at the thought of drinking the vile creatures blood, I motioned for her to spread them out among the group excluding me. I knew it was petty, but they were too gross for me to even consider drinking their blood as an option. Leaving the scene, we continued our hunt for other new mobs.
Following Elif this time, who’s tracking skill was much higher than my own, we followed deep paw marks. Not knowing what it was we cautiously followed the tracks until we came upon a scraping sound. Slowly looking at the huge tree in front of us we saw a ginormous hulking bear rubbing its back against the trees rough bark. The bears fur was not fur, but hard stone plates making it the perfect tank. Its hard plates sheared off the bark as it tried to scratch its back on the tree making the whole scene slightly ridiculous. Ignoring the bear, we left it in piece realizing it as a high risk and low reward. We traveled deeper into the forest passing most mobs because most seemed to very powerful, but at the same time offered only basic things we received from the plains. Elif collected specific plants along the way, explaining her plan to become an herbalist and eventually an alchemist. Our speed increased dramatically as we started to ignore most mobs. We weren’t looking for anything specific but we knew once we came upon what we wanted we would know.
Quickly we practically walked face first into something that interested us. As we stumbled into a large clearing a crude village spread out in front of us. Quickly retreating to the tree line, we were able to circle the village when Elif gasped. Looking at her she shook her head and let out an angry muttering ranting about the indecency of Ogres and how they should all be slaughtered. Confused by the sudden outburst, I soon remembered the hatred disposition both the races had against each other when choosing races in the beginning of the game. Ignoring her rambling, I continued to look into the village to see a count of numbers. Though the huts were of crude construct, the village was not small. I consisted of easily 800 Ogres and 200 orcs, each and every one made for the art of war. Their race was notoriously strong which made them natural warriors. On one hand I wanted to bring them in to my village, but on the other hand everyone in my group voted against it saying the ogres would only kill us and take anything we have. After discussing more with the group and seeing the volatility of the Ogres we eventually came to the decided decision they were a threat. As we made our way from the outer edge of the village, there was a blur of movement and the sound of a horn. Following the movement, I could make it out to be a scout for the Ogres known as an orc. Panicking about being spotted, we sprinted as fast as we could back to the village, but halfway through we were overtaken by a group of fifty orcs on top of hog looking beasts.
Though the orcs were level twenty at most, there purpose wasn’t to kill us or even harm us. Their purpose was to slow us down so that the Ogres and other Orcs that were unmounted could reach us. Seeing through their ploy, I released Gale multiple times completely knocking Orcs off their mounts and even flinging them yards at a time. By the time we made it out of the forest our pursuers had given up and we were completely exhausted. Wary of the forest I ordered all of my troops back to the fort for the rest of the day. We needed to work on infrastructure anyway. With multiple skeletons watching the wall I spent the day going over more village and town plans as Jake and Grimm worked on secondary skills like smithing and crafting.
As the daylight waned a faint thumping was heard in the distance sending goosebumps to assault my skin. One of my skeleton generals came running up speaking with rushed sentences as his jaws clicked together.
“My lord, an enemy is seen approaching the wall. The number roughly a 1,000 in numbers, but carry no siege equipment besides a ram and ladders.”
Concerned at the report, I knew it would not take much to get over the walls or bust down the roughly repaired gate. While the fort had tall black obsidian wall with a moat and black iron gate, the outer wall was stone, but it was a roughly repaired version like the gate making it patchy at best. Ordering my squad to me, I informed them of the situation as well as the rest of my troops of the procedure. The 200 skeletons were to man the walls with my two specialized generals. The 123 basic skeletons would be used as fodder when they breached the gate, followed by my 28 troops that were in specialized groups. My 40 guards would be used to bolster any weak points that appeared. On the wall I watched as the enemy troops approached, they were at least a mile away, but I wouldn’t let them reach the walls without a few surprises I thought maliciously. As the enemy got closer and closer, I looked to my skeleton NPC’s on the wall. All two hundred excluding my generals held bows that we had taken from the dungeon. Since they could easily form their appendages into weapons I had long ago made bows a priority and it looked like it was going to pay off.
Finally, in range, not of arrows, but me. I began casting my tornado spell and released it with fury. The rhythmic beating of the drums was quickly caught up in the howling wind as the tornado flew toward the troops in the front line. Surprised by the sudden attack the hit the lighter force of the Orcs doing a massive amount of damage and causing extreme disarray. As the tornado flew through the front lines it vanished into nothingness taking at least a hundred and fifty orcs with it. Grinning even wider I pulled from the castles mana and threw another tornado but was quickly brought down from my mighty pedestal. A wave of pure mana hit my tornado quickly dissipating it into errant strands of wind. Annoyed I recognized it from my mana manipulation book. It was a basic technique to stop a spell. Throw more mana than the spell was using at it and it would break, or use an opposite element to cancel a spell out. Even though I was a little pissed they countered my strategy, I couldn’t help but be impressed at how quickly they reformed their lines and even blocked my next attack. As they continued their march I ordered my archers to start firing. The Orc and Ogre mages could only protect so many and it became evident how important archers were as the first volley hit. At least twenty-five Orcs went down out of the 200 arrows and many were wounded. The enemy paused to shoot back, but quickly realized how pointless it was once my shield appeared allowing for only my arrows out and blocking theirs from coming in. By the time the enemy reached the walls all of their Orcs had been eliminated. This left the truly terrifying ogres who had in their eyes, only wasted weak Orcs to get to the walls.
Even with the enemy outnumbering us, I still wasn’t concerned. Larger forces had been held at bay with smaller forces. As long as I held the advantage of a wall, then we would be good. The Ogres were clearly new to the forest as they were mostly all level 25 to 30. While new they still out leveled most of my troops tremendously. The skeletons, excluding my generals, were level 16-20 and most of my other troops were 20 or above. With the fluctuation in levels it would make the outcome hard to determine. It quickly became evident the Ogres could not make it onto the walls as ladders were destroyed by me and my general’s magic, and arrows rained from above. Accepting that, an Ogre roared. Scanning the troops, I looked for the disturbance and saw an unusual looking ogre. It was dark green skinned and especially fierce looking. That wasn’t what caught the eye though. Above the Ogre’s head was a player tag! BoneCrusher. Staring intently, I watched as he clearly commanded a larger than usual Ogre to the gates while a second stood by BoneCrusher. There was no doubt he was the leader. How had he managed to gather so many troops! It was insane, clearly I wasn’t the only skilled player and I needed to become aware of that quickly. As the larger than normal Ogre reached the gates that had already received a steady pounding, it released a mighty roar. Its massive club glowed a light red and there was a massive BOOM! As the gates literally shattered into a thousand pieces. The Ogre collapsed clearly exhausted from using whatever special ability it had. While impressive, it wasn’t like the gates had much health anyway. Turning to the influx of Ogres, my skeletons were quickly being torn apart. Ordering one of my skeleton generals down from the
wall along with a hundred competent skeletons the ogres were quickly held at bay only able to come through in small numbers due to the bottleneck the gate created.
Once again I watched BoneCrusher roar and send his final large ogre into the gate. Smashing aside five skeletons in one sweep and tearing through my alligator skeleton, my skeleton general jumped from the wall and met him head on. Equal in size, the two squared off. While the Ogre was far stronger with better defense, by skeleton was quicker and had magic making it a less powerful version of me, almost. The Ogre raised its massive club and brought it down in one swift motion but was blocked by my skeletons two handed bone sword. The Ogre kicked my skeleton causing him to go off balance, but before the ogre could smash his skull, a spear of earth pierced its thigh. Cast by the skeleton general, he regained is balance and met the Ogre in another clash. Swinging its club to the side, the Ogre switched directions in a flash of yellow as it activated its ability. Sweeping my general off his feet the club then smashed into his chest, smashing his ribs and leaving his health bar almost depleted. The skeleton had abilities of his own though and with a sweep of his hand the Ogre was once again speared through his other thigh while bones flew from the ground to the skeleton general. With over two hundred bone skeletons littering the battlefield the skeleton tripled its original size and brought its health back to full exactly like when I had fought it. Except this time with even more bones it formed a set of spike armor making it even fiercer. With an even bigger bone sword the skeleton pounded the troll again and again into the ground. The Ogre’s last roar of defiance was cut off as its head was split in half.
The battlefield turned eerily quiet as everyone stared at the new sinister skeleton that stood over twenty-five feet tall. It was truly a giant of the battlefield. Ordering it forward with a grin, the flaming green eyed skeleton saluted me and started pushing the trolls that were flooding in completely back and as stalemate settled over the battlefield. A horn was blown sending the Ogres into retreat. The Ogres regrouped half a mile away from the wall and while we gathered all the bodies loot, I took every single bone I could and came up with another 350 skeletons, the only difference being that this were not NPC’s and were half my level. They were however Ogre and Orc skeletons making their bones much thicker and tougher overall. Preparing for the second charge, I sent all my skeletons into position and after thirty minutes I received a friend request.
BoneCrusher has sent a friend request. Accept?
Amused, I accepted and instantly received a message.
BoneCrusher: WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?? I thought no one figured out necromancy yet?!
Lucian: I guess I’m the first.
BoneCrusher: Either way you should surrender. I already took over two hundred skeletons. You might have taken more of my men, but those were weak stuff. Just make it easier for both of us.
Lucian: If you are so confident then come on in. The gates are open for you.
BoneCrusher: Dude, seriously? There is no way you are going to win this, don’t make me crush you.
Lucian: Try me.
BoneCrusher: I hope you like seeing your whole army wiped out on stream.
BoneCrusher has unfriended you.
Hmm. So he was a streamer, that meant most likely millions of player were watching his stream and now knew my location as well as my strength. That was not good. I would have to win this to show that I am not a push over. Looking over the top of the walls I could see the Ogre army preparing for another strike. It was not a good Idea to show one of my trump cards, but unless I did, every small faction would come to attack me and I would never be able to get anything done. Much less leave. Calling 40,000 mana, shadows whipped around me as a massive obsidian framed portal opened in front of the charging ogre army. Enemy mages sent mana dispersing burst into my portal taking away five thousand mana, but it was miniscule compared to the 40,000 mana. Finally, ten horsemen appeared through the portal. They sat upon black armored horses that stood 12 feet tall. The shadow men themselves were decked out in black armor and when standing could clearly match my skeleton. The gave off an aura of pure death. The whole Ogre army comically tried to skid to a stop but it was too late. The horsemen charged and in a flash crossed the distance running straight through the army like they weren’t even there. Lines of death appeared as the horsemen rode through the army. The Ogres flesh disintegrated, and bones rotted. In less than five minutes 700 Ogres were dead and the horsemen were gone back through the portal without my command, almost like they were annoyed at such a petty use of their power. And to be honest it was.
Stunned everyone stood in silence and I ignored the friend request from BoneCrusher. Suddenly a huge cheer went up and just then I looked at the massive amount of experience I had received from not only myself, but my army, and the horsemen. Since there was the feature that let me control the army I received 5% of everyone they killed, not only that but the bonus I got from the horsemen was a third of all the experience they earned like any charmed creatures. Overall I had leveled up five times! Talk about high risk high reward! Laughing and cheering with my troops We all went to the castle to celebrate and feast in the dining hall while I left the 350 non-NPC skeletons to guard the wall. It was a little lax, but I was more than willing because of the battle we just won. Looking over my new stats, I laughed even louder as I distributed the points
Name
Lucian(Lord of Shadow’s Edge. First Priest of The Dark One.)
Race
???
Class
Warrior God
Level
38(Percent towards next level: 43%)
Fame
1,830(Respect)
Health
720
Mana
2,580
Intelligence (1 point = 30 towards mana)
86
Constitution (1 point = 20 towards health)
36
Wisdom (1 point = +.5 mana per second)
50
Strength (1 point = x.1 physical damage.
125 [Damage modifier = (damage * 12.5)
Stamina
20
Dexterity
110
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)
Elemental Merge: Merge with the elements for five minutes increasing all stats by 100% (Cool down: 1 hour)
Mana Sacrifice: Trade health points for mana points.
Precision Strike: This skill allows you a single strike that will strike with one hundred percent accuracy if not stopped. (Cool down: 5 minutes.)
Skills
Mana Magic: 70% towards next level. 50% resistance [Level two]
Water Magic: 14% towards next level. 50% resistance. [Level two]
Earth Magic: 55% towards next level. 50% resistance. [Level four]
Fire Magic: 25% towards next level. 50% resistance. [Level three]
Air Magic: 20% towards next level. 50% resistance. [Level four]
Dark Magic: 100% resistance. [Max level]
--Necromancy—Skeleton: Level 3. Ghoul: Level 1. Zombie: level 1
Light Magic: 10% towards next level. 50% resistance. [Level three]
Lightning Magic: 86% towards next level. 50% resistance. [Level three]
Mana Manipulation: Process of efficiently using mana. 98% 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 f
ollow 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 all mobs. [Level two]
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]
Swordsmanship: Practitioner. You know which end to hold the sword by.
--Dual Wield—Initiate. Which end do I hold them by?
Mana creation: Create any object at the cost of mana. Can’t be magical [Level 1]
Quests
Summon a minor god
Figure out your race
I was still laughing as I exited my screen until I took my next step. My body lurched forward and slammed into the door in front of me. Trying to stand up quickly I then hit the wall next to me. Finally, I realized what was happening. The huge increase in strength and dexterity was causing me to fly all over the place! Standing up slowly, I frowned at the amused glances my squad was giving me. Taking a couple minutes to get used to my new stats, I then opened the door to the massive dining hall and the feast began!
In reality Jake, Grimm, and I could only stay for thirty minutes because our real world bodies were starving. Saying our goodbyes, we logged off. As soon as I was out of the capsule I ran to the kitchen making a bowl of cereal and two sandwiches. After scarfing them down I decided to get some fruit before heading to the bathroom for some bodily needs. Jake and Grimm had work tomorrow so they were going to take the rest of the night to get some real rest. I on the other hand had the whole week to myself and I was not going to let it go to waste.
Chapter 32
