Joshua looked at the status screen for just long enough to see how amazing the armor was before charging into battle. The other players were finally able to see him through the fading aura cloud, and he made for quite a sight. He had walked into the Virulence Aura moments before looking like a dark knight, and now appeared downright vicious. His armor, once knight-like, was now covered in ornate patterns and markings. It emitted a constant bright-green aura around itself as if radiating the user’s power. Its helmet was completely closed off, giving no room for Joshua to see out of it, but the Pestilence Vision bonus meant that wasn’t necessary.
Joshua’s sword didn’t change much, other than feeling lighter and sharper in his hand. His Greatshield was now covered in the same ornate patterns as his armor and gave much higher defense than it had before. The raid group saw him charging the boss threw in their own support, joining the fight. The monk dropped his barrier before the Virulence Aura had fully dissipated, but what remained didn’t slow the group down.
The Harbinger had monetarily forgotten about Joshua after knocking him away, no longer considering him a threat. It reconsidered that quickly when Joshua’s new sword went through its foot, pinning the Dungeon Boss to the floor. It attempted to leap away, but large tentacles formed out of the ornate patterns on Joshua’s shield, keeping it in place. Joshua was just barely strong enough to hold the Dungeon Boss still, unable to deal more damage but locking it down. That was all he needed to do.
The other raid members crashed into the Harbinger like a tidal wave. Khymer and the other ranged classes peppered the flickering monstrosity with ranged attacks while Mane and the melee classes tore into the parts Joshua wasn’t holding down. Despite their efforts, the Harbinger was not going to go down easy.
Its free arm struck, casually ripping a player in half and throwing his torso across the room, right into one of the gunners in the back. The gunner was sent flying out through a window, his HP bar in the group menu immediately emptying shortly after. It took over a minute of constant attacks to whittle the Harbingers massive HP pool down, and in that time, it managed to kill nearly half of the raid group in a similar manner. No one other than Joshua had the necessary armor to survive more than a single hit. Losing an arm as a Wight was painful, losing one as a human was fatal.
Nevertheless, the Harbinger eventually reached the last dregs of its HP. Just as Mane was about to deliver the final blow, Joshua saw something in the corner of his eye. The size of the raid group in the group menu was shrinking. Glancing around the room, he saw the cause: Khymer was kicking the dead members before the boss fell. They wouldn’t get a share of the bosses EXP, nor would they get the quest completion.
Joshua wanted to stop him, but he couldn’t. The Harbinger may be almost dead, but if he let go to attack Khymer, it would break free and kill everybody. He had no choice but to sit and watch as Khymer kicked everyone but the surviving members. Mane delivered the killing strike, finishing off the Harbinger just as Mane kicked the final member.
The Dungeon Boss has died!
10,000 EXP awarded to all group members!
Blessing of Growth detected
Zandrius gains 50,000 EXP
In the end, they didn’t even have to split the EXP. The reward was shared out evenly to all raid members. The Blessing of Growth, Joshua now knew, gave him a quintuple EXP multiplier, but he didn’t care about that right now. He didn’t even care that his share of the EXP had catapulted him up to level 17, just a hair away from 18. All Joshua cared about right now was the massive treasure chest sitting in the middle of the room, and the man currently opening it.
Khymer was already there, opening the chest to loot the spoils. Most of the ranged group was there too, moving quickly when they saw it spawn. Just as Khymer raised the chest’s lid to see what was inside, Joshua stabbed his sword through the Lambent Soldier’s back. The blade pierced clean through the player’s chest, coming out the other side, but it wasn’t enough to kill him outright. Before Khymer or anyone else had a chance to react to the surprise attack, Joshua pulled out the Endemic Magnum and unloaded it into the back of Khymer’s head. Khymer died after just two shots.
Joshua waved his sword, causing the corpse to slide off of it and away from the treasure chest. None of the ranged group tried to stop him, as most of them had been planning to attempt something similar, though Mane did look saddened by the event. He had been hoping that this could end without anyone trying to backstab the group, and instead the dungeon had ended with that happening both figuratively and literally.
No one tried to argue as Joshua grabbed Khymer’s gun and walked away. A portal had appeared in the corner of the room to teleport them back to the first floor, and Joshua headed towards it. He had glanced inside the treasure chest and seen that the reward was a suit of armor, something he already had. It might be valuable to sell, but Mane or another melee class could probably make better use of it.
The trip back to Grace was short. The portal had dropped Joshua off just outside the range of the now-respawned door guards, and the path back was clear now that there weren’t a raid group’s worth of enemies spawning to delay him. When he got back to town, the guards took a second to recognize him before letting him in. The new armor had thrown them for a bit of a loop, but they recognized Joshua quickly enough.
If Khymer had respawned, there was no sign of him. Realistically Joshua knew that killing the raid group leader wouldn’t do much. The man was a whale and was probably planning to upgrade his equipment soon enough anyway. That didn’t mean that killing him didn’t feel good though. When Joshua got to the quest board, he was flooded with notifications.
Quests Completed!
Clear the first level of the dungeon (Irradiated Skyscraper)
Clear the second level of the dungeon (Irradiated Skyscraper)
Kill the Dungeon Boss (Irradiated Skyscraper)
Total Reward: 60,000 EXP
Blessing of Growth detected
Reward changed to: 300,000 EXP
Joshua spent the EXP, hands shaking with excitement. The reward was even greater than he had first hoped, and would push him not just into Tier 4, but with extra EXP to spare. As he leveling up one last time to 25, another notification appeared.
You have reached the level cap for your current class. Would you like to spend 27,000 EXP to evolve?
Joshua said yes. A list of classes appeared, smaller than last but with no less variety. It was clear now that he had a theme going as an undead magic knight, and he saw no reason to stop now. He selected the class with the same name as his new class set, the Scourge Blackguard.
Scourge Blackguard
-A Pestilence-based undead that has split its attention between both physical combat and Pestilence abilities. Scourge Blackguard can often be found wearing heavy plate armor, wielding razor-sharp swords and holding impenetrable shields. They do not specialize in any single area but have no crippling weaknesses either.
Joshua saw his HP shoot up by nearly three times as much as it normally would, now giving him 1500HP per level. The Pestilence cap was also removed, but he wouldn’t be able to take advantage of that until later. Joshua felt like he could take on the world with this new power. Something that was proven wrong in the following minutes, as a notification appeared for every player on Sanctum.
Congratulations to Zandrius for being the first player on Sanctum to reach tier 4!
Dozens of heads turned towards him as this notification came in. Some shot him dirty glares for being so far ahead, while others called out to congratulate him.
Due to Sanctum’s lack of off-world traveling capabilities, a Paradigm Shift has been triggered.
The Saints Who Cleanse and the Demons Who Corrupt have arrived.
There was a long series of popping noises as countless spaceships filled the sky. Roughly half of the ships were painted pure white, while the rest were an amalgamation of brown and red and black. The white ships took less than a second to open fire with lasers a
nd energy weapons, and the other ships were more than happy to respond with missiles and kinetic weaponry. The sky filled with explosions.
Ships began to descend all over the planet. The white ships landed in the human communities, including one in Grace, while the other ships seemed to land out in the inhospitable wastes and zombie-filled dungeons. The ship that landed in grace was small, slightly larger than one of the houses, while the sky was filled with battleships bigger than the Irradiated Skyscraper had been.
The ships hull doors opened, revealing an old priest in a pristine gold and white robe. On each side of him stood what Joshua assumed to be his acolytes, wearing less fancy robes and hoods. The priest took one glance around and began speaking.
“Fear not, citizens of Sanctum. The Saints Who Cleanse have come to purge this world of the filth that inhabits it. Those who wish to aid in the cleansing efforts are welcome to join us at our recruitment station, which we will set up here shortly. Before that though, this town must also be cleansed of its filth.”
The old priest turned towards Joshua and raised his hand, shooting a beam of light out of it. Joshua had just enough time to look at the priest’s status screen before the beam hit.
Jakobus, Priest of the Saints Who Cleanse
Tier: 9
Level: ??
HP: ??,???,???/??,???,???
Critical Hit! Total Bodily Disintegration!
You Died!
Epilogue
The same two robed figures were in the same featureless room, in the same positions, with the standing figure preparing to give his report.
“Sir, the newest reports are in. Servers are holding steady despite our user count being above expectations.”
“And the people of interest?”
“Awaiting your final word before we move forward, just as before.”
“Give me the rundown once again. I need to know what’s changed before I make any decisions.”
The standing figure tapped his fingers in the air a few times, typing on a keyboard that only he could see.
“Of the 101 high priority targets, 98 of them are proceeding as scheduled. Sullivan, the crafter, has been successfully recruited to our cause.”
“What about the others? The mage and the puppet girl?”
“Egerius the mage is still holding his 2nd place spot on the leaderboards. He has currently learned eight different branches of magic, and we have postponed recruitment efforts on your request until he has learned at least ten.”
“Hmm…” The sitting figure leaned back in his chair, thinking. “Let’s delay that a little more. So long as he continues improving at this rate, there is no need to risk stunting him.”
“I’ll pass the word along to recruitment. Laureline, the puppet girl, has fallen behind in the leaderboards. Even though she has fallen down to the triple digits, she still has a high-level tier 4 class and has amassed an army of over 200 puppets.”
“If she has 200 already, then her growth is probably exponential. Check and see if she has over 1000 by this time tomorrow, and if she does recruit her. If not, give it a few more days.”
“Very good, sir. That just leaves the oddball from last time. Zandrius, currently in 1177th place –”
“1177th?! Isn’t that a lot higher than just a few hours ago?”
“Yes sir, he has been climbing the ranks steadily. It appears that he took just enough of Filth’s blessings to get a large EXP multiplier, while never actually pledging service to him. Based on our observations, it appears that Filth has lost interest and moved on to other causes.”
“Wait…wait, you think Filth has moved on?” The sitting figure’s face was covered in shadow, but his voice showed a clear sense of doubt.
“Yes sir, he does not appear to be interacting with Zandrius anymore.”
“This is bad, this is very bad. Filth does not lose interest in things, he just changes his plans.”
“Would you like us to recruit him? We could protect him from Filth’s influence until he is strong enough to stand on his own.”
“No, not yet. Before we do anything else, we need to know more about the situation. Gather a research team, we are going to visit the Omnithaneum.”
Character Sheet
Name: Joshua
Rank: 1177th place
Character Name: Zandrius
Race: Wight
Class: Scourge Blackguard
Tier: 4
Level: 2 EXP: 42,000/60,000
HP: 16500/16500 +1500/level Regen: 500/min while Pestilence capped
Pestilence: 20,000/20,000 Regen: 2000/min
Blessings:
-Blessing of Growth
Skills:
Plague Eye
-infection variant: 4P+
-explosive variant: 30P+
Pestilence Sacrifice: HP Regen, 4P/1HP
Virulent Aura: 25P/min
Journeyman Item Synthesis: Pestilence
Equipment List:
Pestilence Knife
Soul-Bound Weapon
Damage Potential: 100 Blunt/500 Sharp
Pestilence Towards Next Upgrade: 0/1000
Endemic Magnum
Soul-Bound Weapon
Damage Potential: 200 Blunt/5000 Piercing/1500 Infection (DOT) 100P/shot
Pestilence Towards Next Upgrade: 0/1,0000
Plague-Ridden Obsidian Longsword
Soul-Bound Weapon
Damage Potential: 1000 Blunt/10,000 Sharp/5000 Infection
Plague-Ridden Obsidian Greatshield
Soul-Bound Shield
Damage Potential: 2000 Blunt
Mitigation Potential: 5000
Special Ability: Envelope
The obsidian making up this shield has absorbed the Pestilence that once surrounded it. Tendrils of Pestilence lash out, digging into the flesh of attackers and holding them in place.
Scourge Blackguard
Soul-Bound Class Set
Mitigation Potential: 1500
Pestilence Towards Next Upgrade: 50,000
Set Bonus: Pestilence Vision, Instant Equip, Empowered Weapons
The Scourge Blackguard set is made from the very essence of its wielder. As such, the wielder can sense the environment through it.
The Scourge Blackguard 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 Scourge Blackguard 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.
Lesser Spatial Storage Pouch
Sanctum Page 21
