by Lucas Dunn
Splendid Gem: Used to contain the soul of a powerful creature.
“Oh shit! I knew I should’ve collected the bones” turning around, our whole group followed my eyes as we realized what the wave of purple was. A splendid level soul! A level 60 zombie called “Corrupt zombie mage” stood in the center of 49 revived undead. With purple flames in its eyes, it prepared to launch a massive ball of darkness straight at us! Thinking quickly, Raken used mana disperse causing the ball of darkness to be suppressed. Backing into the corners I gave directions for Raken and Elizabeth to keep pressure on the mage while Elizabeth and Blade took on the incoming zombies whose levels had luckily stayed the same. Building walls once more I told Jackson to cast as many offensive spells he knew at the incoming zombies and raised myself on a 12-foot pillar. All of my castles mana was depleted from making the daggers and the two walls I built leaving me with my personal mana pool. Mentally going over a plan, I wasn’t paying attention until I saw the huge dark ball heading my way. Without a chance to dodge it, I braced for impact but watched as it harmlessly hit me. Laughing I remember I had 100% dark resistance as the first priest. Shooting shock wave out, I was able to stun most of the zombies so Blade and Elizabeth could push back forward. Finally, I jumped straight into the middle of the horde and used tremor sending all of the zombies including the mage next to me to their knees. Striking down with heavy strike at the Mages head, huge cracks appeared in his shield but sadly I wasn’t able to break through. With a wave of pure mana, the Mage zombie sent me flying backward into the crowd of zombies that were getting to their feet. Rushing back to my group before the zombies could get up completely and surround me I got back on my pillar. Using the rest of my mana I cast flame gout and was happy to receive a x2 modifier to the undead as they caught on fire and burned. After regaining my stamina, I jumped off again, this time into a much lesser crowd of zombies. Casting soul steal that took no mana and using tremor again, I slammed both picks into the mages head with my heavy strike finally shattering his shield and turning his skill into slush. His soul flew into my gem, and I the rest of the zombies dropped without any mana controlling them.
Cheering at our win, we headed to the top ignoring the door that lead downward until tomorrow. Back at the keep I climbed the stairs to the bare room that was supposed to hold the “King” or leader. Inside held a plain bed and that was it, but it was more than enough to help me pass out from exhaustion.
Chapter 33
In the morning I ate a plain breakfast the cook provided which consisted of meat and water. Disappointed I realized all we did was farm the mobs outside the village. We had no crops or farm animals. Thinking on it, I decided to hire three farmers to start farming the plains since they were more than big enough. Leaving the dining hall, I went to the courtyard and found Jackson. Walking up to him I realized he had a title above his head. Second priest of the Dark One.
“What the hell? When did you become second priest!”
Looking at me sheepishly Jackson replied “Last night before I went to bed I visited the temple and the Dark One graced me with his presence. After a short “Cough cough” talk I guess. He made me second priest. I’ve gained a whole list of buffs, debuff’s, and spells. Not to mention my increase in power.”
Grinning at his good fortune which represented mine as well, I told him he could take the old wizards room in the Castle since he was now going to be our head wizard. Oddly enough a new title popped above his head called Head wizard of Shadow’s Edge. Thanking me profusely I left to find Gannon my smith.
Walking up to him I discussed a special project and told him to tell no one, hoping to surprise a certain someone. Walking away from Gannon who now held the title Head smith of Shadow’s Edge I smiled at the scene of all my troops training and the town being rebuilt.
Remembering the Ogres grave, I met the troops guarding it and sent them back to the fort. Inside the grave, I found a set of plate armor with the quality being Great. Not only that but the whole thing had earth essence stones enchanted into it increasing the defense even more. The weapon he carried was a massive war hammer the was also of great quality but sadly had no enchantments. Saving the armor for Elizabeth, our tank, I continued looting. Scanning the Grid, I found more coin equaling 50 platina making be realize how he had gained so many men. He must have gotten super rich somehow. I continued looting the grave finding stamina, mana, and health potions along with other various loot, I put it all into my bag greedily overjoyed when I found two rings he had been wearing. One was a health ring that boosted my Constitution by five and the other boosted my strength by six! Walking happily back to my fort I decided to keep the money instead of buying recruits since I would be traveling soon. After two hours past I collected my request from Gannon and sent messages to my squad to meet in the courtyard.
Once everyone arrived I gifted Elizabeth with the set of armor and war hammer, which sadly she couldn’t yet yield with one hand and as a tank she needed her shield. Taking it gladly and promising to level up to meet the one handed requirement I then turned to blade and pulled out two short swords I had Gannon make. They held a red glow and gave off slight waves of heat. Giving the to Blade he was stunned when he read the stats. Each blade was both at great quality and held a flame essence gem I had collected from the Lava beast I had faced giving them extra fire damage. They were just as powerful if not more powerful than my weapons. Grinning maliciously, he took a couple practice swings and we marveled at the grace the two swords showed. Telling everyone to prepare to go to the next floor of the mine in an hour, I set up all the bones I had gathered from the previous day using the hour to raise a tremendous 600 level 20 basic undead which in turn, gave me a wonderful prompt.
Congratulations! You have reached level 4 in skeleton necromancy. You can now infuse skeletons with materials such as ore to give them specials attributes!
With plenty of ore but not enough time I decided to try it later, when we returned from the dungeon. Giving plans to my attendant I sent him off to tell the generals. I had too few soul gems, so I was going to send my mages to kill the Ghouls and collect more in the dungeon. While they did that, my other men and NPC skeletons would head the dungeon and collect countless amounts of bones so I could create permanent army of NPC skeletons instead of the mostly basic one I had now. After thinking through my plan once more, I headed to Raken’s village to meet up with everyone else while my 600 skeletons tagged along behind me. It took all of my fort’s and temple’s mana pool to make them so I might as well put them to use down on the next floors. Not to mention we most likely wouldn’t be able to continue without them.
Reaching the mine, the others nodded approvingly at my decision and we continued onward. The next floor we came to was oddly similar to the first two. Instead of human zombies and skeletons, they were the skeletons and zombies of various animals, some of which I’d never seen. Not only that but their level was all 50 or above making them quite formidable. As we progressed through the floor I started to get a sense of foreboding. From the pattern so far, the undead all got stronger from the basic starting level. It seemed like a necromancer had been practicing among these floors and leveling up which was not good. There was no telling how many undead there were before we reached whatever it was that caused all of the undead.
Taking breaks every so often, my skeletons had dropped by 200 making me slightly nervous to continue on. We had only cleared three groups of 5 mobs. Due to their level and skills they retained they were able to make quick work of my level 20 skeletons despite their number advantage. We continued our grueling pace but this time my squad fought instead of my skeleton army. It was slower, but at least I was able to keep my troops in reserve. After a couple more groups I got a welcomed prompt promoting me to level 40. Placing 3 points into stamina and 4 into dexterity we continued on.
Along the way I was able to level up various skills from repeated use such as Mana Creation which now allowed me to create organic matter such as fruits and nuts m
eaning I’d be safe from going hungry but I wouldn’t get any five start meals. Another thing I was able to level up was water magic and fire magic, bringing water to level three and fire to level four. I used two different water spells which worked quite well together. First I would conjure water and send it at an opponent, then I would freeze the water trapping the mob or at least slowing it down.
Finally, we reached the final room that turned out to be a decent sized cavern with mutilated looking zombies. It looked like someone had taken different body parts of multiple beasts and stuck them together. Tentacles and horns stuck out of a lion looking beast, another beast seemed to be a mix of a bird and a hippo making it turn out hideously disfigured. While there was an over a hundred undead all at level sixty, I was confident we could take them out. Even though it was a waste, I flooded the room with my skeletons trying to get the disgusting situation over with as quick as possible. I wasn’t too worried about them dying because I could always get more bones and I had collected a good amount of bones from this floor.
Flooding into the room I watched my experience slowly rise from my skeletons as we destroyed the other horde. This was perfect practice for our squad and slowly but surely we were able to demolish all of the zombies. This time I looted all of the zombies bones before Going up to a similar box as the last floor. Hoping for another gem, I checked inside but it was completely empty! Smashing the box in anger, no hidden compartments appeared or anything. Annoyed, I took my remaining 200 skeletons and we headed to the next floor.
Walking through the tunnel a screech sounded and something flew directly into me swiping at me. A ghoul started its flurry of attacks, but after a moment it realized something was very wrong. Every time it tried to rake its dark claws through me it did no damage due to my 100% darkness resistance. Laughing at its misfortune, I quickly shattered a level 60 ghoul to pieces and received and flawless filled soul gem for it. Jackson blessed our weapons with a spell he got from the dark one making my freezing pick a lot more effective, and we continued. We swept through the floor like we were a warm knife and the mobs were butter. By the time we had reached the small underground house I was level 41 and I had received 52 flawless soul gems.
The house in front of us showed signs of movement inside but nothing else appeared to be moving or amiss. Cautiously stepping into the yard with my squad, I left the skeletons in the tunnel and out of view. As soon as I touched the yard, the front door opened and a skeleton with chunks of flesh stepped onto the porch.
“Hehehe! How precious! It’s been a while since I’ve had visitors, and the last ones were very rude! They wouldn’t let me add them to my family but you dears would love to become part of my family wouldn’t you?”
Gagging at the sight of the rotting old lady I hardly listened to her as I launched a massive fireball at her with my recently upgraded fire magic level. Sadly, it impacted an invisible barrier around the lady doing no damage whatsoever to her. Appraising her, I grimaced.
Level 87 corrupted dark mage. Corrupt mages are created due to excess mana in the area causing mages who settle in the area to gain extreme power, but also lose their minds.
This was not looking good. Suddenly the cavern was filled with countless level 44 skeletons rising from underneath the ground.
“You should’ve played nice dearie, now grandma is going to make you a permanent part of the family.”
Ordering my skeletons in it turned into a battle of 200 level now 22 level skeleton verse 300 level 44 skeletons. Calling blade to me, I told everyone else to focus of the skeletons while Blade and I took care of the old lady. Forming a line, my skeletons and squad prepared to hold off the other skeletons and Blade went on the flank. As the lady started to cast a spell she let out a screech when my mana dispersal spell struck her own causing it to disappear. Ignoring the fact, I just got rid of her spell so easily she started again so I tried shot mana dispersal once more, but a new shield appeared two feet in front of her blocking my mana dispersal spell. Cursing I shot forward using heavy strike but sadly her shield only showed a small crack. Finishing her spell, a sickening stench filled the cavern and Jackson shout for everyone not to breathe. Too late for me, I breathed in the spores that appeared and received a prompt.
You have been cursed with corpse rot. For the next hour all stats have been decreased by 50%
Cursing the old lady, I heard Jackson muttering something but ignore it. Until I realized what he did with the next prompt.
Jackson has blessed you and removed your curse. All stats have been returned to 100%
Shouting my thanks, I saw him slump to the ground his mana exhausted. Looking around I saw my squad being overwhelmed and most of my skeletons already downed. With a last ditch effort, I merged with the elements and charged the old lady once again, but this time all my stats were increased by 50%. With her attention on Blade I activated heavy strike and saw larger cracks appear once more in her shield, activating it again along with speed attack, I kept the two up until I had smashed through her shield. With no stamina left I slumped to the ground at her feet. Sending a dark ball at my face, she hissed as it didn’t finish me off but before she could cast something else, two swords appeared around either side of her neck as Blade cut her head off.
Letting out a sigh of relief I drank one of the stamina potions I received from BoneCrusher’s grave. Getting up from my slumped position we entered the stone building and instantly felt waves of mana pressing against us. Almost forced to our knees, I was able to stay on my feet as I traveled to the source with my legs trembling. On top of a crudely built pedestal sat an invaluable item that I had been looking for.
God Core. Pure crystalized mana from the heart of a god. Can be used to summon a god or for special items.
Gasping at its power, I could hardly place the round clear crystal into my bag. Once in by bag the aura disappeared causing us all to sigh in relief. We looked around the hut and Elif was able to find some rare herbs, while everything else seemed to just be rotten flesh or bones. Leaving the disgusting place, we checked the cavern and confirmed there were no other levels to the mine before gathering the 25 skeletons that were left and heading to the top to summon a god!
I entered the temple with Jackson only since he was also priest of the Dark One. Bringing the core out of my bag and onto the altar, a list of gods showed up making it seeming just as eager as us. I went through the list and read many of the description and names of the gods. From what I could see there were thousands of them. Gods from not just my old world but also this one! After reading through the long lists of gods I determined on the category of war since we would soon be battling for our lives, not that we already weren’t. The Greek god Ares seemed like a good idea at first but slowly my attention shifted to the roman god Mars. While both were gods of battle, Mars started off being the god of agriculture but changed. Not only that but Mars was much more revered in his religion than Ares since he was the second most important next to Jupiter. Steeling myself I mentally clicked on Mars and waited…and waited. Finally, after thirty minutes a huge shockwave of heat knocked Jackson and I backwards. Groaning we stood up and stared at the God in front of us. 12 feet tall with blood read armor and armed with a massive spear and shield, he stared warmly at us. Noticing the altar, I could see a red and black flame side by side. Noting it, I spoke to the god.
“Welcome back to the world of men. I will not mince words, I summoned you with the intention of your help in the upcoming war.” Trying not to sound too much like I was using him I changed my tone to as humble as possible a continued to speak. “We could use your peerless wisdom in the hard times to come.” With a bow I finished my speech and the god let out a warm laugh.
“Though your words are meant to persuade me I can also since sincerity in your voice. The gods have watched your struggle and you were smart not to pick Ares. Had you have summoned him you would’ve been killed on the spot. Bloodshed and war is all the younger generation of gods know. You will of course receive my
support in the war to come, I always was one for the underdog. With that being said, I go to meet the Dark One, but not before I give my first boon.”
With a wave of his hand a prompt appeared on my screen and he disappeared in a flourish of fire.
You have brought Mars, the god of war into this world. You can now choose to follow him. Be aware, you may only choose to follow one major and four minor gods at a time. Would you like to follow Mars?
Thinking yes, more beautiful prompts filled my screen.
Mars has recognized your battle prowess and given you the title Tribune of Mars.
Note! Mars has no priests and goes strictly by military code. You have been deemed worthy of the highest title, Tribune!
You have raised to advance in dual wielding and swordsmanship.
You have raised to basic in all forms of combat previously unknown.
You have been given the ability Mar’s Aura: Create an aura that spreads across the battle field raising friendly stats by 5% and lowering enemy stats by 5%. This cannot be countered by spells. (Cooldown: 1 week)
Quest Complete: Summon a god. Reward: Tittle - Tribune of Mars
“Woohoo!” I exclaimed after I received the prompts. Looking at Jackson, I could tell he received something similar. Since his main magic was magic that affected troops on the battlefield it was safe to say it was most likely better than mine. Walking up to the altar, I touched the red flame and saw another skill path with bonus’s. Instead of affecting everyone, these bonuses would apply to just my army. Things like increased movement speed in certain terrain and guerrilla warfare were but a couple thing out of the many options I had. Sadly, I had only gained a couple hundred religion points and the cost for upgrading these attributes were insane. After the exciting day I was completely worn out and passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Waking up early I was eating breakfast when Elif came in caring a small pack.
