The Omnithaneum

by Matthew Powell

  Sigmund, Captain of the Guard has died!

  Zandrius gains 10,000 (50,000) EXP

  All the guards in Sigmund’s Guardhouse have been killed!

  Bounty increased to 100,000g

  Guards will respawn in 20 minutes; other guardhouses have been alerted.

  Well, that wasn’t good. Joshua started making his way to the door when a glowing light appeared floating over Sigmund’s body. Creating the light was a letter, closed with a wax skull seal. Joshua grabbed it and ran, slipping it into the Plague Dimension. The Pestilence sludge and swords returned to him along the way, bringing with them the accumulated Pestilence of the guardsmen. All 22 guards along with Sigmund had only been worth 5000 Pestilence. They gave less of everything, it seemed, not just EXP. That was still enough to bring Joshua’s total up to 40,000.

  Once outside, it was clear that the civilians had noticed the disturbance. The rotting wood and corroding stone from his overuse of Virulence Aura might have helped. Most of them were running away in fear, while a few others could be seen leading more guards towards him. Joshua used Pestilence Manipulation to create a series of crude footholds resembling a staircase and used it to escape onto the rooftops, quickly absorbing it behind him.

  Now that he had a good view, Joshua could see that the city was truly massive. It stretched farther than he could see, both to the sides along the wall and away from it. The seemingly wealthier places that appeared farther down were themselves just a single section, immediately followed by more houses and stores. He had severely underestimated the sheer size of the city.

  He quickly lost the guards, using Pestilence to create floating platforms and escaping across the rooftops. A city this large was bound to have somewhere with abandoned buildings, or areas riddled with crime. Places where he could hide when not slaughtering the guardsmen for EXP. The previous fight had pushed him up to level 8, and Joshua saw no reason to stop there.

  While running, Joshua pulled the letter out of the Plague Dimension. He could tell the special item storage had affected the letter by the brown spots and slightly sagging edges. Thankfully the contents of the letter turned out to be irrelevant, as they appeared in a quest notification after breaking the seal.

  Quest Started: Invitation to The Necromancer’s Guild

  If you have found this letter, then you have committed an act worthy enough of being admitted to our secret society. Interrogate the city’s homeless and criminal populations, and you will eventually find your way to us.

  Reward: Access to the Necromancer’s Guild, safe passage in and out of WestDrift

  The quests generic wording made Joshua think there were likely other guilds like this. He had gotten the drop for the Necromancer’s Guild because he was undead, but others might get an invitation to an Assassin’s Guild or a Thieves’ Guild. WestDrift must have been the cities name. As fun as carving a bloody path through the guard each time he wanted to leave and return sounded, having safe passage would be useful. He continued his trek across the rooftops, searching for the poorer areas of town or a warehouse district. Warehouse districts always had some kind of shady activities going on in them.

  The warehouse district, when he found it, turned out to be a bust. As one of the only cities in the area, things like food and material storage areas were carefully monitored to make sure nothing was misplaced or stolen. There were easily more guards in this district than there were on the wall. The slums, however, proved more fruitful.

  Chapter 6

  We had no idea how to handle guardsmen at first. Most of the NPCs in Macrocosm don’t respawn when they die but are instead quickly replaced by the game’s overseer AI. Having to do this with every single guardsman would be a massive drain on the overseer’s resources. Heck, on the first day alone, players managed to slaughter over three million guards. Instead, most guardsmen never had a story or life to begin with, existing for the sole purpose of defending a town. They even respawn, a feature normally reserved for players and monsters. Like some powerful monsters, some of the guards can remember their previous lives. I added that feature personally. Can you imagine the look on a player’s face when they realize that the NPC they killed is back, and with a grudge? Priceless. – on Guardsmen, from The Chronicles of The Founder

  It didn’t take long for Joshua to find the slums. It stood in stark contrast to the rest of the city, filled with old and abandoned buildings. There wasn’t homeless lining the street as he had expected, but there were plenty of empty buildings around for them to squat in. From his spot on the rooftops at the edge of the district, Joshua could already see his first targets.

  A group of thugs, all dressed in torn and ragged clothing, was returning from the direction of a residential district. They looked like any other homeless person, except for the rusty weapons and large sacks full of things they were carrying. It was possible that the sacks were just full of their own perfectly legal possessions, but Joshua was willing to take that chance.

  Joshua took up a perch along the path they were taking and waited. Pestilence Manipulation had made traversing the rooftops much easier than it should have been given he was wearing full plate armor. He had even gotten a skill for it.

  Skill Learned: Airborne Pandemic

  -Allows the user to move through the air using Pestilence. This can take the form of floating platforms, flying armor, and more. Flight constantly drains Pestilence, with the amount increasing exponentially relative to the height above the nearest surface.

  Joshua quickly found that things like floating platforms didn’t cost Pestilence at all, as they were simply reabsorbed. He was able to float a few feet over the rooftops without much effort, but the moment he moved over a gap between houses or the street, the cost increased to several thousand per second. It would be a useful trick in combat, but he would need several million Pestilence before it became an efficient form of travel. The platforms would do for now, but he was already dreaming about flying through Macrocosm’s skies.

  Back to the presumed criminals below, Joshua dropped down on them from the roofs the moment they passed nearby. There were four of them, but the first died instantly when Joshua’s sword went right through his back. He hadn’t noticed, but the criminals were only tier 2. One tried to stab him, pulling a dagger from his ragged clothes, but barely had a chance to move before several Pestilence spikes shot out of the ground and impaled him.

  The surviving two tried to run away, just to find the road blocked by a writhing green wall. Joshua had made the wall with much less Pestilence before, causing it to lose its blackened color, but it was more than enough to keep these criminals from escaping. Joshua walked up to the two thugs slowly.

  “Now…one of you is going to tell me where the Necromancer’s Guild is. The first one to speak up lives.”

  “I know where it is, I can show you!” One of them shouted. “I’ve done deliveries there before.”

  Spikes shot out of the wall, impaling the one that remained silent. The last survivor stared, eyes wide with fear as Joshua motioned with his hand.

  “Well? Get moving. I don’t have all day.”

  “Alright, f-follow me.” The criminal’s voice broke as he tried not to run away. He led Joshua through the backroads for a few minutes before coming to a stop in front of an abandoned house, just like any other. Those minutes had allowed the criminal to gather himself, but he was still clearly afraid of the Blackguard.

  “One of the entrances is in the basement here. You can’t get in without an invitation, but you probably already know that if you’re looking for ‘em.”

  “Good. You can go, I’ll keep my word and let you live.”

  The criminal didn’t waste another second before running off. Joshua was tempted to pull a fast one and kill the man but decided it wasn’t worth it. Who knows, maybe he would prove useful later?

  Making his way inside the building, Joshua quickly noticed something was wrong. For one, an abandoned house shouldn’t have lit oil lights or cleaned floors
. The basement door made of bones that was visible from the entrance may have also played a part. There was a mail slot on the door, so he slipped the letter inside.

  The door opened a moment later. On the other side was a carved stone staircase going down into the ground, with neither the letter nor anyone who could have taken it in sight. Joshua made his way down the stairs, finding that they led into an underground hallway lit by torches with green fire. Following that a short distance showed Joshua that it was much more than just a hallway.

  There were dozens of hallways, tunnels, and caves underneath the city. An entire labyrinth that must have covered the entire city and then some. When he reached the first crossroads, Joshua almost wanted to slap himself at what he saw. There were signs on the wall with directions on them.

  Left – Thieves’ Guild, Assassin’s Guild

  Right – Necromancer’s Guild

  Forward - Warlock’s Guild, AntiPaladin’s Church

  This tunnel network wasn’t just for the Necromancer’s Guild, it was used by every less-than-legal organization in the entire city. Joshua took the right path and kept walking. The tunnels were full of open spaces, crossroads with more directions, and long hallways. Joshua even passed a few homeless communes in the larger areas, which helped explain the lacking homeless population on the surface. All these sights made him wonder: why did he need an invitation to come here? It didn’t exactly seem like a private club.

  After a bit of walking, he eventually reached a dead-end. Blocking his way was another bone door, but this one was much larger and fancier than the last. There wasn’t a letter slot, which was good because Joshua didn’t have the letter anymore, but there was a large bone knocking ring. He grabbed the ring and knocked it against the door a few times.

  The door opened smoothly a few seconds later. Unlike last time, there was someone there to open it. A skeleton minion, barely tier 3, was working as the doorman. It couldn’t speak but did point inside. It seemed like someone was expecting him.

  The area behind the door was much more comfortable than the tunnels. There were wooden floors, hanging ceiling lamps, and actual wooden doors. Going forward, Joshua expected to find cauldrons, skeleton pits, and other typical necromancer things. Instead, he walked into what could only be described as a lounge, a few hundred feet in diameter. The open area was filled with bookshelves, couches, tables, and dozens of robed necromancers and armored undead filing in and out from several entrances. Some of them even seemed to be players. Was every illegal guild in the city like this?

  Safe Zone Unlocked: WestDrift Necromancer’s Guild

  In the middle of the room was a large circular desk manned by over a dozen skeleton receptionists. Unlike the one at the door, these were talking with anyone that came up. At the back of the room was a large quest board, much bigger than the one back in Grace. One of the skeletons that wasn’t helping someone waved Joshua down.

  “You are Zandrius, correct?” Joshua had almost forgotten that his character had a different name. The skeleton continued speaking in a surprisingly high voice, “one of the masters will be here to greet you shortly. If you have any questions, now is the time to ask them.”

  “Alright then…why did I need an invitation? It's clear that there are more entrances to the underground than just the one I took.”

  “Oh, that’s an easy question. All the guilds have their own special entrance with a powerful identification spell. If you had entered the underground from a different entrance without using the letter, then the door at the guild entrance wouldn’t have opened to you.”

  Joshua hadn’t sensed any magic when he opened the door to the underground, but he didn’t exactly know how to. He had a few more questions to ask before the ‘master’ arrived.

  “Alright…how many people are down here? And how could so many organizations this size stay hidden?” The sheer number of people he had seen in the underground had grabbed Joshua’s curiosity. Given how easy it was to find, there was no way the guard was unaware of it.

  “We have an agreement with the WestDrift ruling council. We keep crime at a minimum and direct official quests towards people that otherwise couldn’t accept them, and the city guard keeps out of the underground. The city gets a few thousand people fighting monsters outside the walls, and they don’t kill us just for existing!” The skeleton let out a laugh after that, as if it was the funniest joke it had ever heard.

  “That’s enough, Quill. No need to give away all of our secrets.” A man in a business suit said while walking up to the desk. Joshua hadn’t even seen him walk up, but a quick glance at his status showed more than enough.

  Welekai, Elder Necromancer

  Tier: 6

  Level: 67

  HP: 4.2M/4.2M

  Joshua had scanned the statuses of a few other people, and Welekai was undoubtedly the strongest person in the lounge right now. He had expected a powerful lich, or at least fancy robes, but not a suit and tie. Welekai laughed at his confusion but didn’t bother to address it.

  “Good to meet you, Zandrius. You’ve caused quite a stir in the city, or so I’ve heard. Slaughtering an entire building full of guardsmen? Definitely not the best first impressions.” Welekai’s voice was smooth, and Joshua caught himself falling into a sense of peace when he spoke. It was hard to tell if he was using magic or just charismatic, but Joshua was willing to bet the former.

  “They didn’t give me much choice, but I learned a few things in the process. I’ll probably head back up and take on a few more of them eventually.”

  “If that’s your plan, you might want to pick up a quest for it. The guard likes to abuse their immortality, and regularly gives us requests to try and kill them so they can train. First, though, I would like to have a word with you. In private, preferably.”

  Welekai motioned towards one of the lounge’s exits, and Joshua followed him out of the room. It led to a series of rooms that made up the offices for the guild’s leadership. Much like Welekai himself, the offices weren’t very necromance-y. There were wooden desks and stacks of papers and quills where he had expected sacrificial pits and undead abominations. The only thing that stood out was the skeleton workers, but they were just running errands.

  Welekai stopped at an office near the back of the hallway. At the end of the hallway was the first stereotypically evil thing Joshua had seen since arriving: a door made entirely of human skulls, with a sign on the wall next to it clearly reading ‘Guildmaster’. Welekai wasn’t the Guildmaster, but his office was right next door, indicating he was high up in the guild. The skeleton did refer to him as master, after all. Once inside, Welekai took a seat behind a wooden desk while Joshua remained standing.

  “Alright, now that you’re here, I just need to know a few things. It’s standard procedure when a new non-bound undead arrives to record their basic information, so as to separate them from the normal minions. First off, what kind of undead are you? Magic, Unholy, Demonic, or something else?”

  “Um…Disease, I think. I can control Pestilence if that helps.” Joshua was surprised by just how orderly this all seemed to be. He had half-expected another ambush after what happened with Sigmund and the guard.

  “Pestilence, you said? That’s rare in these parts. Do you have any allegiance to a god or demonic entity?” Welekai scribbled some notes on a piece of parchment he had pulled from his desk.

  “I have a blessing from Filth, and he helped me learn to control my Pestilence at first, but I don’t serve him.”

  “I see…” Welekai scribbled something else, apparently unhappy with Joshua’s response. “We have gone to great lengths to keep the more evil gods restricted to the AntiPaladin’s Church. If you ever decide to take more from Filth than you already have, we will likely kick you out and refer you to them. Last up is your generic abilities. I understand the specifics of your powers are likely too personal to share, but if you can provide an overview of what you’re capable of it would be appreciated.”

  “That sh
ould be fine. I suppose I could be considered a form of Spell-Sword if you have that classification. My most powerful abilities are all Pestilence-related, but I can hold my own in a fight if I need to.”

  Welekai finished his writing a few seconds after Joshua finished, pleased with his answers. He stood up from behind his desk and made for the door, motioning Joshua to follow once again.

  “Normally we would have a combat test to gauge your power but killing Sigmund and his guards should more than suffice. I’ll give these papers to one of the receptionists and then you can start taking requests immediately.”

  Welekai led Joshua back to the lounge room and walked off, leaving Joshua alone. He did a little tour of the room, looking into each exit to get an idea of the guild’s layout. Most of the exits led back into the tunnels outside the guild, but plenty led elsewhere. There was an arena, a training ground, an item shop, and even a massive graveyard for raising minions. Outside of the graveyard was a sign that read ‘Take one, leave one.’

  Once he had explored a bit, Joshua headed towards the quest board. The number of quests being given was massive compared to back in Grace. There were dozens of quests for monster extermination, over ten different dungeons with unique quests, and even corpse collection to keep the graveyard stocked. Joshua narrowed his search for quests that involved fighting the guard, and sure enough, there were several of them. The number of guards he would need to kill varied for each quest, from ten to a thousand, so he just picked the biggest one.