Unbound Deathlord_Obliteration

by Edward Castle

  Was it a coup? Had the Armed Forces taken control of the country? That didn't sound right but I didn't doubt the possibility. Or was it the Congress itself who was making a coup against the judicial and executive branches?

  There was still no news about investigations on the murders on V-Soft, and my PI still hadn't called back about the hooker.

  After taking care of my backup plan, I went to sleep. It was a troubled night, full of nightmares and devoid of rest, even though I was worn out from playing Valia for two days straight.

  The next day, I ate little and logged back in without taking any time to myself. Although the country in chaos was bad for everyone else, it made things harder for the cops who were after me.

  With order looming, the clock was ticking much faster.

  * * *

  When I logged in, Daggers was already there. It was weird; she usually kept a strict schedule, it was too soon for her to be online.

  She and some other zombies were mining the walls, but while they were doing it somewhat lazily, she was attacking the rocks as if they were her worst enemy.

  I said.

  She turned suddenly and pointed the pickaxe at me.

 

  With another turn, she was back to hitting the wall.

  It was almost a legit question.

 

  Unification, the annexation of Mexico and Canada to the North American Commonwealth. I raised my eyebrow at her comment. I let out a whistle; that was a rare sight. The brainwashing in the Armed Forces had been very thorough and only a few thought that the Unification hadn't been a glorious day for our country.

  Her voice was full of venom as she answered.

  I asked.

 

  That got me interested.

 

  I said lazily.

  She looked back at me and under her dark hood I could see two glowing eyes. One was gold, the other was green. And they looked menacing as hell.

  her tone implied I was the worst scum on Earth.

  I sighed. Here I went again, tending the feelings of my temporary friends. Why couldn't Congress destroy the country a little more subtly to save me the trouble?

  I said with a soft voice, using her in-game first name.

  She was still upset but there was also curiosity in her voice this time. And her glowing eyes were fading into the darkness of the hood.

 

  She claimed.

  I rolled my eyes.

  She said matter-of-factly.

 

  She didn't reply and I answered for her.

  Again, I was met with silence.

  She interrupted me.

 

  She crossed her arms.

 

  Silence enveloped us until she finally turned back and hit the wall with the pickaxe again. This time, she used the piercing skill and the tool just stood there.

  She asked in a near whisper, as if she didn't really want to hear the answer.

  I replied sincerely. I did believe in some of it, and that had been her question.

  Her voice was back to normal. Sometimes I felt as if Daggers only knew extreme emotions; if there was no more rage to be had, she wouldn't slip into melancholy over how things were; she would suck it up and move on.

  I grabbed a pickaxe from the wall and pulled, ripping out a chunk of stone with it.
  19. Mining Operations

  Bear and most of the zombies joined us eventually. Ted, however, was still offline. It was quite curious, but I didn't care enough to ask Bear about it. Nope, zero interest. I did ask him about it just because the ghost was still following Bear around even though she had logged out and it could become a problem.

  Bear explained.

  David was Ted's father name. His middle name was William. It was weird to me that he called him that, but he called me Ugly-face even though I was, in all honesty, not bad. So, it wasn't out of character for him.

  Against my expectations, the rest of the mining happened without issues. It made me wonder: was this why Manhart wanted this castle? He claimed to have an Army, after all, even though I had never seen it. Simply mining these walls could be quite useful to increase an Army's power.

  When one of the pickaxes Bear pried out of the wall revealed an opening on the other side, my strength and constitution had increased by three points each. The strength points were back to before my death and the constitution had even surpassed my previous level.

  Surprisingl
y, my dexterity also went up by one, and together with the natural level up of my Strategist core trait, I was only two points from level thirty-two.

  Not only that, Daggers leveled up to twenty-three, and Bear to twenty-two. Most importantly, with my Strategist trait in effect to his constitution attribute, the zombie now had a staggering thirty-eight hundred HP.

  These walls were nothing short of miraculous! I wouldn't be surprised if the Battalion decided to set up a church to worship them.

  I said.

  With a few more solid blows from the pickaxe, we finished creating an opening out of the tunnel.

  On the other side, we found a corridor. I didn't even have to say anything; Daggers immediately became translucent and went scouting.

  The zombies had now stopped mining and I deemed it the right time for a speech to draw them further under my power.

  He did so.

  There was no cheering, but they did look much more interested in what I had to say than before. I continued.

  That didn't make them happy, but contrary to popular opinion, loyalty isn't about happiness, it's about believing that the expectations you have of your leader are going to be met, and that they work towards your best interests.

  I concluded.

  Their reaction was mixed, but interest was clear in their eyes and I counted it as a win.

  He did so.

  That was her only answer. She wasn't feeling terrifically verbose it seemed.

  We waited in silence, feeling tense.

  After considering things for awhile, I decided to keep up eight fire morbs intended for firebombs, a death morb intended for a deathball, and a life morb intended for a lifeball. Eighty percent attack, twenty percent emergency healing.

  Daggers took about fifteen minutes to come back, enough for the tension to slump into boredom.

  she reported.

  I said.

  He smiled.

  I said.

  Her voice was confused.

  I checked the minimap and I realized she was right.

  Holy shit!

  Focusing hard on the air in front of myself, I managed to see a kind of faint shadow on the middle of the corridor.

  I asked. I was supposed to have a high-enough perception attribute to be able to see her.

 

  I wasn't sure about that. Could a single trait level make such a large difference? Well, to be fair, it must've leveled twice since I met her again, after the Challenge. Still, two trait levels weren't that much unless they hit a new boundary, and she was still an Adept, not a Skilled, in her Shadow trait.

  But Valia's attributes, traits, and skills worked in a mysterious way; there was nothing I could do about it.

  I followed her to the equipment room first. There were hundreds of weapons, and armor of all kinds in there, including full plate armor. Forget first pick, the entire place was a gold mine!

  he said.

 

  I wasn't lying; if the zombies saw this place, infighting would inevitably ensue and it would be a pain to stop them. Even worse, it could attract the attention of whoever was above us.

  However it's not as if that was the reason I was taking everything myself. I did intend to give the zombies their share, but it wouldn't be an equal share to my own. I mean, they had tried to rebel against me and I had already provided them valuable attribute points. It was only right that they paid me some extra taxes.

  Also, there was too much stuff to browse in the limited time I believed we had, so it was better to just take everything quickly and check the items out when I could.

  With Daggers' help, we managed to loot everything. Then, just to make sure I wasn't leaving money on the table, I checked the metals and stones storerooms.

  Sure enough, on the many metal shelves in there, I saw some ores that resembled lightsteel and grabbed them. Nothing else caught my eye, and even though it made me wonder if I was overlooking something, there wasn't enough space in the ring for everything.

  Sighing, I told Bear to come and let them take the ore, while Daggers and I proceeded to the stairs.

  There was something very wrong with the stairs though. They went down, not up. It seriously confused me

 

  That made sense. The metal wall at the end of the stair — which I bet was a door of some kind — also contributed to the likelihood of that theory being correct. Even the torture chamber made sense; some prisoners may be even more important than gold, and locking them in a secondary vault made sense.

  At the same time, I was quite confident that this place was only secondary. As safe as it was, there was no gold or silver in here. It made me even more interested in finding the castle's true treasures.

  The doors before us were made of lightsteel and there was no visible lock on them, which meant they were either operated by magic, or could only be opened from the other side. Or both. Neither possibility thrilled me.

  There was an easy way to find out if they were enchanted though. I moved near them, without touching, and closed my eyes. A gray circle appeared in my mind with me in the center, except I was naked, skinless, fleshless, and made of dark gray and pulsating light gray lights battling each other instead. The battling lights were life and death magic, and they proved I was undead.

  Even though what I was seeing inside the grey circle was my surroundings, here there were no walls, floor, ceiling, or any structure at all. Only living beings were visible in my mind's eye.

  Daggers was there, at the edge of the circle. She was completely made of pulsating light gray light... Or should have been. She was a living being, but somehow she also had some streak of black light flashing here and there, like dark lighting.

  That was weird. As far as I knew, I could only see living beings within my mind's eye, without actively looking for other types of magic. Why could I see dark magic inside of Daggers? Was it something all Blackguard had, something to do with the Devourer?

  More interesting though, for the first time I wondered... Why could I see living beings at all? I mean, what I saw was actually magic, not life. Did all life in Valia run on magic? That was an intriguing line of thought. I should look into it sometime.

  For now though, I had work to do. I focused my will on a single point the size of my fist, where I believed the door would be. Just as expected, it flashed with color. Purple. Gravity magic.

  I said as I opened my eyes. The walls around the door were made of stone, so I could hope that whoever designed this place had been foolish enough to overlook the need to reinfo
rce the walls beside the door.

  More excavation ensued. One hour later, we concluded that the designer of the castle had been worthy of his paycheck.

  Bear asked. I was beginning to see a pattern, he usually asked that when he thought there was no hope in going forward.

  Asshole! When I put my spider ring on, I'll show you!

  Now, that was a random thought. The ring just couldn't shut the hell up.

  I was almost disappointed. The ring could certainly do better than that, couldn't it?

  I answered Bear and, without waiting, I hit the door with my pickaxe.

  A loud sound reverberated, filling the entire corridor. Bear's eyes widened and even Daggers body language seemed to suggest she thought I was stupid.

 

  I winked at him, but I hit the door again.

  He insisted.

 

  Bear said.

 

  Bear crossed his arms.

 

  I wasn't sure how thieves would go through the wall, or the maze beyond after they stole everything, but they surely would have a way.

  Bear said presumptively.

  I replied.