Life Reset: Conquest (New Era Online Book 5)

by Kuznits, Shemer

  She nodded. “Of course.”

  “How …” I hesitated. “How much can you spare?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I always have enough when I need to cast a spell.”

  “Let’s begin.” I opened the Runecraft Design Mode and drew the enchantment’s schema around the dark altar. Once the sigils were ready, I channeled my mana into it. “Alright, Lirian, channel your mana into the enchantment.”

  My daughter narrowed her eyes in concentration, and a tendril of mana soon poured out of her, absorbed by the glowing runes.

  I kept a close watch on her, checking for any signs of mana fatigue or that she was about to be drained, but she seemed as composed as always. At her current level of 36, had she been a pure mage, she should have had no more than 360 MP. But the young goblinette didn’t bat an eyelash as she poured in the remaining 500 MP, finalizing the enchantment.

  “Feeling any different?” I inquired as a shimmering rift opened in the air. “Tired, or spent?”

  “I am well, Father.”

  I shook my head. The mystery that was my daughter was as impenetrable as ever.

  “Here he is!” I heard Panda’s unmistakable rowdy voice as she entered the Dark Temple, dragging two new players in tow. “Told you he’d be here. Say hello to our mighty chief, Oren. Oren, these two are Jaelon and Nesteph.”

  The two players, both of them human, stared at me as if struck by lightning.

  “Yeah …” I rubbed the back of my neck. It looked like Whitebanner had players in their prison after all. “Yes, I’m a goblin. It’s a long story, but to sum it up, I’m trying to give all the players trapped in the game a safe environment. We’re moving to conquer lands and settlements, so we’ll eventually have a player safe zone. You’re welcome to join my clan, of course.”

  The two players glanced at each other, as if unsure how to answer. Something that looked weirdly like guilt flashed between them.

  “Um … “ Nesteph said, his eyes downcast. “We’ll be honored to join your clan … Oren.”

  His friend simply nodded.

  That was good enough for me. “Then I hereby accept you into the GreenPiece Clan.”

  Darkness spread from the floor over the players’ bodies, darkening their skin as it turned them into Shadow-Touched creatures.

  Panda slapped both of their shoulders with such strength that their knees nearly buckled. “You guys are too scrawny. We gotta help them put some meat on their bones, Chief.”

  She was right. The two had obviously been mistreated by the town’s NPCs and probably hadn’t eaten well in a long time. “Of course. The portal here will lead you to Goblin’s Gorge, our clan’s capital. It’s safe there. You can rest and recuperate. There’s plenty of food and drink, just tell Daimmen I said to take care of you.”

  “Thank you,” Nesteph said, for some reason still not meeting my eyes. Then the two disappeared into the shimmering portal.

  “They acted weird,” Lirian remarked after the two had disappeared.

  “I know.” I gazed at the open portal. “They looked vaguely familiar, though I can’t place them.” I looked back at the towering woman. “What about you and Ragnar?”

  “Ant boy and I are going to stick around for a while,” she said.

  I raised an eyebrow. Leaving the two of them together was a recipe for disaster. “What do you have in mind?”

  “See the sights, kill some people.” She smirked at me. “See ya later, Chief.” Then she turned and left.

  I watched her exit the temple. It was probably not wise to leave those two unsupervised, but they knew not to hurt my clan, so they only posed a risk to themselves. Hopefully. “Ready to go, Lirian?”

  The goblinette nodded, and we stepped toward the shimmering portal.

  Vic piped up.

  I ignored him and opened the first message.

  New Era Online [Internal messaging service]:

  From: Raystia

  Subject : All done!

  Hey Uncle Oren, it’s finally ready.

  You won’t believe what we had to go through … even after completing all the quests they asked of us, navigating the red tape was harrowing.

  Anyway, we’ve done what you asked for. Everance now boasts a brand-new chapter of The Cult of Nihilator.

  Drop by and visit us sometime – preferably soon :)

  -Penelope

  P.S. We spent all the money we found in your cache on this project, so bring something nice for the other party members. They’ve earned it.

  “It’s finally ready!” I felt a burst of exhilaration pass through me. I continued, reading through the next message, and my good mood faltered.

  New Era Online [Internal messaging service]:

  From: Sullivan Tucker

  Subject : We could use some help

  It’s a good thing Whitebanner didn’t send those reinforcements because Storg’s elites are proving to be more of a problem than we anticipated. The mage’s guildmaster is a High Magus summoner, and he keeps bringing in hordes of elementals to hold back our forces. We’re taking casualties with little progress to show for it.

  It’s time for our one-man special ops team –you – to make an appearance.

  Having you keep an eye on Whitebanner is now a secondary objective, so get your ass over here.

  Sullivan,

  Grand Army Strategist

  “Is something wrong?” Lirian asked when she saw me frowning.

  “The army’s having difficulties.” I quickly typed a response to Sullivan, telling him I’d be right over and that there was no need to worry about Whitebanner anymore. I pushed Raystia’s message to the back of my mind. I had other, more pressing, things to handle at the moment.

  Focusing on the shimmering portal, I connected it to the one back in Goblin’s Gorge.

  Lirian raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t we teleporting to join the army at Storg?”

  “We need to make a quick detour along the way,” I said, heading for the shimmering portal. “Let’s go.”

  ***

  I noticed something was off as soon as we exited the portal at Goblin’s Gorge’s cathedral. The altar and the floor around it were sticky with blood, and the atmosphere felt heavy.

  “ It has returned again,” Kuzai’s vile voice drawled, drawing my attention. The demented dwarf looked terrible, more so than usual; his eyes were bloodshot, and his skin hung loosely around his body as if he had lost 50 kilos overnight.

  “Looks like Nihilator didn’t take it easy on you,” I said and pointed at the altar. “What happened here?”

  “The master has commanded me to reap a hundred souls in recompense for my failure, but I shall deliver upon him a thousand.” His eyes glistened maniacally.

  “What the hell did you do? Where did all this blood come from?”

  The ex-dwarf let out a cackle. “Look outside, High Priest.”

  I stepped out of the cathedral’s giant double doors and instantly found the source of the blood. A pile of kobold corpses was at the bottom of the stairs – dozens of them.

  “What the hell did you do?” I asked again in a deadly tone, feeling rage bubble up inside me.

  “I was merely appeasing the master.” He gave me a dishonest smile. “Since they were your kobolds who gave him offense, I thought their hearts would be an appropriate gift.”

  I clenched my fists. “You’ve murdered dozens of our clan? You’ve gone too–”

  “They are nothing but fodder,” the other priest hissed, cutting me off. “Their lives amount to nothing, but their shriveled souls are like candy for him.”

  “You’ve gone too far,” I said with conviction. My anger had drained away with that declaration. There was no point in getting worked up. The priest had crossed a line and would have to pay for it.

  “And what shall it do about that?”
Kuzai taunted. “You cannot raise your hand against me without invoking the master’s ire.”

  “You are not worth my time,” I said and raised my voice. “Bek!”

  The small goblin adept hurried toward me. “Yes, Dire Totem?”

  “From now on, you’re in charge of the cathedral and Kuzai. Keep him in line; give him bathroom duty or something similar for the rest of his life. And keep him away from the shrine.”

  The small goblin’s eyes widened in fear, and he backed away shaking his head.

  “That insect cannot command me ,” Kuzai boasted. “I’m the master’s most faithful servant, the highest-ranked priest of his church.”

  “After me,” I corrected him.

  Kuzai simply sneered at me.

  “Well, that’s about to change,” I said. “As the High Priest, I’m ordering you to stand still and be quiet.”

  Turning my back to the fuming priest, I took a deep breath and opened the Settlement Interface.

  A chorus of fanfare sounded as the awaited notification popped open.

  Goblin’s Gorge has reached Level 5: City

  Your settlement may now support more bosses:

  ● Tier 4: max 1, current 0

  ● Tier 3: max 3, current 2

  ● Tier 2: max 8, current 4

  ● Tier 1, max 24, current 40

  As a Military-type capital, Goblin’s Gorge also gains the following bonuses:

  ● The bonuses for combat-oriented creatures summoned via the Breeder’s Den have improved to: +4 levels, +20 to one combat skill.

  ● Military-related production (weapons, armor, enchantments, potions) gains an additional +50% efficiency bonus.

  I rubbed my hands together. My clan had just become more powerful. Any soldiers I summoned would instantly gain 13 levels. Hobs would start at 17, Ogres at 23. But that wasn’t even the best part. My settlement was now large enough to support a tier 4 boss. I could finally increase my boss tier. But first, I needed to mete out some punishment.

  Bringing up the ‘Energy Menu’ of the interface, I navigated to ‘Boss Options’ and selected my target.

  Promote: Bek, Level 24, to: Boss [Tier 3], Cost: 26,000 EP. Yes/No

  Yes.

  The small goblin had deserved it for a long time.

  Please select boss type:

  Dire Totem – A magical faith-based unit, whose primary role is to support other combatants.

  Boss bonus skills: Nihilator’s Sanction, Damage Reflection, Faith-based spells

  Dark Friar – A magical faith-based unit who revels in blood and sacrifice to enhance their powers.

  Boss bonus skills: Circle of Doom, Reap Suffering

  I instantly crossed out the Dark Friar option. That boss type sounded suspiciously similar to Kuzai’s and one of him was more than enough. I chuckled as I selected Dire Totem. “Well, Bek, it looks like you’ll be getting my position.”

  Bek’s eyes bulged, and his limbs suffused with energy as he grew taller. When the process was complete, the smallish goblin was nearly as tall as me, and his pose conveyed confidence that wasn’t there before.

  “Okay,” I said. “Now you outrank Kuzai and can order him around.”

  Kuzai blanched. “No.”

  Bek bowed. “Yes, Dire Totem.”

  “It’s you who’s the Dire Totem, now.”

  Kuzai bristled. “I shall not follow this cretin’s commands. I am the master’s most faithful–”

  His speech cut off when Bek clapped his arms together and two opposing waves of darkness came crashing down on the demented priest. “You be quiet. High Priest gave you an order.”

  I nodded in approval at Bek’s chastisement.

  Kuzai’s body appeared from between the layers of dense darkness, his arms trembling as he summoned his mana to repel it.

  I was impressed. The last time I’d confronted Kuzai, our control of dark energy was closely matched despite him being a tier 2 boss. But Bek looked like he had no trouble overwhelming the other priest. Perhaps it was related to Kuzai’s current state of being out of favor.

  With a contemptuous snort, the new Dire Totem balled his fists, and the wave of darkness came crashing down on Kuzai again. “You will obey!”

  The wave parted to reveal a groaning Kuzai lying on the ground. “I … will obey,” he croaked, slowly rising.

  I clapped the not-so-small goblin on his back. “Nice work, Bek. Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for me to get an upgrade too.” I stepped out of the cathedral to give the two some space for their ‘play’ and opened the Settlement Interface.

  Time was pressing. I needed to hurry up and join Sullivan and the rest of the army, but I took a moment to check the upgrade requirements to reach the next city level.

  Settlement Level 6 – Large City

  Requirements:

  ● Conquered vassal settlements [level 3 – ‘village’ – or higher]: 6 (currently: 2)

  ● Conquered vassal settlements [level 5 – ‘city’ – or higher]: 2 (currently: 1)

  I narrowed my eyes in thought. That was going to be a problem. Other than Akzar, the closest settlement larger than a town was Everance, which – as a metropolis – was much larger than a city.

  But that was a concern for another time.

  Accessing the ‘Boss Options’ menu, I targeted myself. The ‘Tier Up’ button illuminated, indicating it was enabled. With an expectant grin, I pressed it.

  Promote: [yourself], Level 61, Tier 3, to: Tier 4 boss, Cost: 100,000 EP. Yes/No

  I whistled at the cost. Promoting a standard unit to the first boss tier cost 1,000 EP, 5,000 for tier 2, and 20,000 for tier 3. The jump to tier 4 cost the same as what was required by Nihilator to achieve the godlike tier 9. He was probably at the precipice of the next tier and only needed a little push to bring him over. If the higher tiers’ cost kept rising exponentially, it could take millions of EP to purchase that final boss tier directly.

  Vic said.

  I mentally kicked myself for not having thought of that, but it had been a while since my last boss tier upgrade. I let my mind roam over the information beyond the interface. Tier 5, the next one, was not cheap, but it was doable at 500,000 EP. I moved on to inspect the last tier and nearly choked as I gasped. “Two hundred million EP for boss tier 9?”

  My companion chuckled.

  At my current clan’s daily EP gain, it would take us over a decade to amass that much. Even if our campaign was a complete success and I amassed all the energy yield across the kingdom, it would still take years, and that wasn’t even counting the cost of the other tiers that had to be purchased to even reach the ninth one.

  For the moment, I was simply happy I could afford the sum of 100,000. I approved the prompt, leaving my clan with just over 300,000 energy points.

  Boss Tier 4 reached!

  Title: Shadow Lord

  Attributes: +7 Mental, +1 Physical, +1 Social

  Health : 15 → 20 per level

  Mana : 30 → 40 per level

  Mana regeneration rate: +25%

  Spell Resistance: 30% → 40%

  Armor: +40

  Bonus Trait: Noble

  I felt my body changing, becoming more powerful, thickening my skin and shifting my bones so I stood taller and prouder. The other tier-up bonuses were truly amazing; my health had soared, crossing the 2,000 mark, while my mana pool – already massive thanks to the 50 percent boost from Nihilator’s Gem of Darkness – jumped by roughly 2,000 additional points. My mana regeneration rate was almost 600 points per minute.

  I felt powerful , even more than what the dry statistics indicated. And there was only one parameter that could account for that.

  I clicked on the last item in the list.

  Noble [Boss trait]

  Having crossed over to the second echelon of bosshood (i.e. ‘r
aid boss’), you are now considered a noble, which confers several additional bonuses:

  Effect I: Cowering Presence: all individuals below your boss tier automatically cower before you.

  Effect II: You gain an aura that bolsters allies and hampers enemies.

  Effect III: Mana Multiplier X4: able to channel four times the base mana cost of a spell to triple its effect. Constraints: Triple casting time, can’t move while casting.

  I stared in awe at the information.

  I’d already witnessed the ‘cowering’ effect back in Akzar when I first encountered Broncar. Even the mayor, his own employer, looked somewhat afraid of the higher-tiered boss. The aura thing sounded promising. It was the sort of tool a ‘normal’ raid boss had in their arsenal, which made fighting them and their minions a real nightmare. The third effect, however, was the most drastic in terms of increasing my strength. Up until now, my Dark Mana skill allowed me to power a spell by channeling up the triple-the-base mana cost. The ability to cross that threshold was substantial. It meant putting my vast new pool of mana to good use. The limitations were a bit unfortunate, but I was sure that with a little planning I could work my way around them. It was just what I needed to battle a high-level NPC mage that could summon hordes of elementals.

  I felt drunk on power, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted more. And there was one more thing I could do to augment my strength. With my new boss tier increasing my Mental attribute to 76, the maximum spell skill cap had risen to 86.

  I brought up the Energy menu and targeted myself.