The Heroic Villain 2

by Charles Dean

  “No, no . . .I don’t think I can do that either,” Lucas replied smugly. “But you’re not really sealed in a box. You just think you are.”

  “What are you talking about? Let me out, Human! Human! Let me free!”

  “Why do you keep shouting my race like it has anything to do with the reason you’re trapped? If I were friendly or allied to you, my race wouldn’t matter. If I was subservient, you wouldn’t care if I was your own kind, so try being polite. You know my name after all. It’s Baron Lucas--or, to you, it’s Master. Go ahead, try it on for size.”

  Blackmer didn’t back down. He didn’t open his mouth an inch to apologize, much less show subservience to Lucas. Instead, gave up on his attempts to break free and instead chose to wring the hilt of his rapier and eye Lucas maliciously.

  “No? Oh well. It’s not going to matter. Like I said before, you’re not in a box, and your real foe has just arrived.” Lucas turned and looked at Bonnie, Liu, Viola, and Katie. “So, what do you all think about painting this place something more festive? Red seems a bit clichéd. Maybe we could use some green? Some neon green, some purples, a little black, and some blues? I bet we could even create some optical illusions if we paint the floors too,” Lucas continued, ignoring the trapped bear behind him.

  “Hey! DON’T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME! I’M STILL HERE!” Blackmer yelled furiously. “I’m going to break out soon and kill you! They will run out of energy eventually!”

  Lucas sighed. “Sorry, there is something noisy. Eri, could you get to it already?” Lucas then turned once more so that he could watch what was about to happen.

  Then, on command, the now-lion-sized head of the Ant-Dragon burst through the boards beneath Blackmer and chomped down on the bear’s legs just above his knees. There was a loud crunch as her teeth snapped his bones, and Blackmer roared in pain as he was dragged down into the hole.

  “Got it on the first try?” Lucas laughed. “How lucky. I honestly expected her first and maybe second attack to miss, but it seems like Nick is rather good at directing these things.”

  “That is so cool,” the Dokkalfar gasped in awe as she leaned forward and looked through the hole to see Eri munching on the now-quiet Were-Bear.

  You have killed Blackmer. You have been awarded 6,000 EXP. A gold badge of House Ostreicher, the Point of Gentlemanly Argument rapier, and 150 gold have dropped upon death.

  NPC Blackmer will not respawn. A new NPC has been created in the lands of House Ostreicher.

  Effect: Reputation with all beast races has dropped by 5,000. Reputation with House Ostreicher has increased by 100. You have earned Ari Ostreicher’s respect.

  “What a way to go,” Lucas said, also peeping through the hole in the floor. “So . . . purple, green, some black? Maybe dark blue? What are you girls thinking? Not to be sexist--I say before saying something sexist--but I’ve always trusted women with this stuff.”

  “I like dark green and black,” the Dokkalfar quickly answered.

  “Yeah, I’m with her,” Bonnie said. “It would look really awesome and ominous.”

  “Blue seems heroic like our leader,” the peasant girl said. “Light blue with yellow and brown.”

  “Well, we’ve got a few hours to kill before the quest is done.” Lucas opened up his menu and began to look through Eri’s evolution options. He was excited to see what he could do with her now that she had farmed so many points. “Let’s take shifts and make sure that no one else makes it to the fifth floor. Keep thinking about those colors.”

  Chapter 12

  Character Name: Lucas

  Level: 34

  Hit Points: 5175

  Arcane Energy: 2600

  Stamina: 500

  Holy Energy: Class Locked

  Current Class: Enchanter

  Stats:

  Arcanum [increases Arcane Energy by 10 per point]: 250

  Holy [No Effect/Class Locked]: 0

  Athletics [increases Stamina by 10 per point]: 40

  Fortitude [increases Hit Points by 1% per point]: 350

  Charisma: 350

  Luck: 60

  Unspent: 0

  Current Elemental Attunement:

  Lightning Affinity: 1.5%

  Effects: +3% Lightning Element Damage

  +6% Lightning Element Channeling Speed

  -3% Non-Lightning Element Channeling Speed

  +0.75% Lightning Element Damage Resistance

  Arcane Resistance: 2%

  Combat Proficiencies:

  None

  Racial Quest Chain Progress:

  Vampire Quest: In progress.

  Lucas stared at the list of Eri’s possible evolutions, unable to make up his mind. He had already selected a few during the course of the last battle as she consumed enemies and grew, and they were all impressive. The first skill he had selected was Electrifying Halitosis, a skill that cost 30 Evolution Points and let Eri shoot Lightning out of her mouth. The three options that had opened up after that each cost 15 Evolution Points and decreased the cooldown on Electrifying Halitosis, increased its damage, or increased its range. As he had gone about selecting things, he realized this was the first time that he had seen a monster skill displayed in bold gold text, which likely symbolized Eri’s rare properties as a special monster.

  He had also spent 10 Evolution Points on Fast Food Lover, which gave Eri a larger and stronger jaw so that she could eat people more easily, an evolution feat that proved worthwhile when she killed Blackmer. Having picked that, there were now three additional options:

  [Grey] Order Extra Crunchy (10 Evolution Points): Further increases Eri’s jaw strength, allowing her to break through even the sturdiest of armors.

  [Grey] Flame Broiled (20 Evolution Points): The Lightning in her mouth crackles out when she is eating live enemies, electrocuting her foes with every bite so that the Lightning will sear and burn the flesh of her victims.

  [Grey] With a Pudding Cup (30 Evolution Points): Grants Eri a long retractable tongue that can snap out and latch onto foes, allowing her to attack enemies in hard-to-reach places or pull them to her so that she can more easily munch on them.

  All three of the options were good, and Lucas actually had some points to burn, but the one that stood out was the tongue-extending With a Pudding Cup. It looked especially useful since it meant that she would have a reliable grappling technique that could be used from a distance. He knew that every choice he made would likely open up three more abilities and that they would probably be great, but he took the time to read through the other options available to him once more.

  [Grey] Working Ants, Tunneling Dragons (100 Evolution Points): This ability allows Eri to grow a small brood of up to twenty worker Ant-Dragons. These Ant-Dragons will not be intelligent, skilled in combat, or capable of evolving, but each will be capable of assisting her in building traps and tunnels and performing other manual tasks. They may also be sacrificed as suicidal meat shields in the event of an emergency.

  [Grey] Still a Hoarder (25 Evolution Points): All enemies killed by Eri will drop 50% more items and currency.

  [Grey] Vegetable Courses (10 Evolution Points): Eri is capable of finding herbs and special roots underground. Consuming items she finds will grant Eri twice the normal effect, and the duration will last ten times longer.

  [Grey] Rock Crusher (30 Evolution Points): Eri’s scales harden, and her muscles grow stronger, allowing her to tunnel through denser, tougher soil and increasing tunneling speed through normal soil. This effect will also increase Eri’s speed, physical damage, and durability during combat.

  Lucas thought over the recent fights and tried to predict which skill was going to be the most useful in the immediate future. Based on Liu’s intel, he knew that he was going to have to deal with the headmistress at the academy, but he had absolutely no knowledge about her skill set, level, or how tough of a fight it was going to be. He didn’t even have a clue as to whether or not she was technically classified as a boss. For all he knew, she could be
a grand champion intended to be fought at the end of a forty-man raid.

  For this reason, he really wanted to grab skills like Vegetable Courses, Rock Crusher and With a Pudding Cup. All of them would likely be game-changers for the Ant-Dragon’s combat potential, and there was no telling what she might dig up or what herbs and ingredients she might come up with that could give him an advantage--not that he knew much about alchemy in this world. Unfortunately, there was only a small chance that he would ever be able to use Eri to help him launch offensives. She was designed to defend his dungeon, not go out into the world and kill things for him on command. Like Linnaeus, she might very well be restricted to acting in and around his territory. For that reason, Lucas sighed as he decided to shoot for Working Ants, Tunneling Dragons.

  “Eri,” Lucas said to the Ant-Dragon, “you need to go eat more people. I need you to eat at least forty more corpses right away, okay?”

  Eri nodded eagerly and immediately went to work gobbling up one of the four remaining Were-Bear corpses before moving on to other targets. Thankfully, the entire dungeon was still littered with bodies that hadn’t yet disappeared. It didn’t take long before Lucas had all the points needed for Eri’s evolution and picked the skill. Once Working Ants, Tunneling Dragons was selected, twenty pint-sized versions of Eri appeared around her. Each much more closely resembled an actual black ant than a dragon because their six legs were larger, longer and more evenly spread out. He immediately set the new brood to work hollowing out tunnels underneath his hotel and had them specifically focus on burrowing toward the academy while Eri worked on finishing off all the leftover corpses and any new victims that happened to show up. His dungeon was apparently a huge success, and while no one seemed eager to burst in again with the same huge numbers as before, there was a constant stream of players showing up in small groups of twos and threes hoping to get lucky and scale the tower. While he waited for Eri to finish gaining all the Evolution Points he needed to grab Rock Crusher, he made his way back to the throne room and sat down with the intention of looking through the list of things he could buy with his Blood Goddess Reputation Points.

  Before he ever had the opportunity to bring up the menu, however, a new notification flashed across his vision.

  Quest Completion: The Fated Son

  The goddess has watched as you have grown your ranks, murdered the enemies pounding at your gate, and thrived despite the hundreds that have assembled to kill you. Whether noble knights or common peasants, all have suffered trying to upend your existence, and their deaths have greatly pleased the goddess.

  Happy with your efforts, she has helped you complete the racial change.

  You have changed from Human to Vampire.

  This race has inherited a boon from the Goddess of Blood, increasing your abilities at her most holy hours--those when her servants first forsake their peaceful living for her.

  This race has also inherited a curse from the God of Light, whose city the goddess’s servants desecrated, and whose monuments, temples, and statues her servants destroyed.

  Vampire Racial Attributes:

  +25 Charisma

  +25% resistance to all non-Fire-based elemental damage.

  -25% resistance to Fire damage.

  +25% movement speed when not in direct sunlight.

  -25% movement speed when in direct sunlight.

  +10% physical strength and physical damage potential when not in direct sunlight.

  Your nature has been changed from Living to Unholy Immortal.

  Racial Abilities have been added:

  Bloodlust: Consuming or absorbing blood will rapidly regenerate lost health.

  Bloodmiser: Bleeding damage-over-time effects no longer apply.

  You have managed to survive the onslaught of enemies pounding at your gate. You do not just live in chaos, but thrive in it. Hundreds have fallen trying to capture your banner, and all were crushed beneath your feet.

  Bonus Condition: Over 250 people must die during this quest.

  Status: Achieved.

  Bonus Reward: Your race has been upgraded from Vampire to Vampire Lord.

  Vampire Lord Racial Attributes:

  +100 Charisma

  +35% resistance to all non-Fire-based elemental damage.

  -35% resistance to Fire damage.

  +35% movement speed when not in direct sunlight.

  -35% movement speed when in direct sunlight.

  +15% physical strength and physical damage potential when not in direct sunlight.

  Vampire Lord Racial Abilities:

  Blood Brotherhood: You may vampirize other individuals by exchanging blood with them. Individuals must consent to this process and reject all current relationships with the other deities.

  Hidden Bonus Condition: Over 500 people must die during this quest.

  Status: Achieved.

  Hidden Bonus Reward: A class upgrade choice has become available.

  The Blood Goddess finds your current class, Enchanter, to be too limiting after watching the full extent of your ability to both kill and manipulate. Based on your survival techniques, the Blood Goddess has two new classes to offer you. You must pick between the two. Your current class is no longer available to you.

  Choice 1: Lich (Class Rank: Legendary [Upgradable])

  Choice 2: Magus (Class Rank: Legendary [Upgradable])

  You must make your choice between one of these two classes within five minutes, or the choice will be made for you.

  Lucas took in a deep breath and read over the text once more. The only thing he had to go by was the classes’ names. On one hand, he knew from other games that liches often dealt with undead stuff, and he was apparently something close to undead now, so the choice was tempting. A magus, however, traditionally had control of multiple elements in most games. Lucas would have relished the opportunity to log off, check the Internet, and figure out what he wanted to do based on what others might have heard, but that just wasn’t possible. Not only was the logout process slow, but in-game time ran three times faster than that in the real world. There simply wasn’t enough time to get any help that way. In addition, there was also a possibility that no one would be willing to give up the information he wanted. He was almost certain at this point that he wasn’t the only player to have sided with the Imperium, for example, and that might very well be the case with the Blood Goddess and the Vampire race, but even if someone had made this exact same choice before, that didn’t mean they would have posted it anywhere for others to see. In the end, he had to make a gut decision based on the names alone.

  Well . . . there are a ton of really good elemental casters, he thought, remembering that many bosses were essentially just specialized mages. The one thing he hadn’t seen at all, however, was a Lich. In fact, it was the first time he had even heard of the class in this game. You know what? Screw it, Lucas thought as he made his choice.

  Congratulations on becoming a Lich! You have been awarded the class-based item Ring of Rivers.

  Channeling rate for all elemental spells is now 20% of total Arcane Energy per second.

  Channeling rate for all blood-based spells is now 30% of total Arcane Energy per second.

  Blood-based spells now only require 50% of their original health cost.

  The effect and duration of blood-based spells have increased by 50%.

  Blood-based spells may be channeled painlessly.

  Elemental Affinity has become locked at 0%. You may no longer increase or decrease your Elemental Affinity.

  The combination of your race and class has granted you access to the following unique skill:

  Endless Thirst: Allows the caster to absorb nearby blood directly into his body using Arcane Energy. For every 1% of the caster’s total Arcane Energy expended absorbing blood, the skill will restore 2% of his total health. The speed and rate of conversion are based upon nearby blood availability.

  Woah. Lucas looked at the list of changes and then at the staff he was holding. He liked the i
dea that the spells he would be casting would cost fewer Hit Points, and given how absolutely agonizing the spells were to channel, that second part about painless casting was the icing on the cake. He had only cast a handful of spells thus far with his new staff, but each time had felt worse than jumping off the high dive and doing a belly flop into poop covered in fire ants. He also noticed, however, that there wasn't any mention of his “hunger” after casting blood-based spells, so he could only assume that meant he was stuck with it.

  Notification: You have caused multiple players to fail the quest to kill you. Those who failed this quest will have a twenty-four in-game-hour curse, Disappointment of the Gods, placed upon them. This curse will lower all of their stats by 25%.

  Lucas smiled at this notification. Each and every person who had tried to kill him was going to be penalized even more for their failure. Not only did they die and lose experience and precious time, but now they were going to be totally useless for the next in-game day. Death penalties were one of the primary reasons people were reluctant to PvP at higher levels, and now something even harsher was being imposed on them, even at such a low level.

  Serves them right, Lucas thought, cackling to himself over their failure.

  Notification: Those who have switched sides to join you have had their titles, Ladies of Lucas or Knights of Lucas, upgraded. These upgrades will increase their Arcane Energy, Holy Energy, and Stamina by 15% when within 100 meters of a dungeon controlled by you. When fighting enemies with you, they will also receive a 10% increase to their total health pool.