He consumed it in half a heartbeat.
New Active Skill: Rime Blink
Instantaneously moves to your target in a fractal of tainted ice
Skill Level: 0, 0%
Skill Tier: 0
Mana Cost: 500
Effect: Blinks to your target and does 1-5 cold and dark damage to surrounding targets. 0% reduced mana cost.
Tier Effect: Maximum distance of 30 meters. 10 second cooldown.
Thank fucking Draesear.
A mini orgasm of Ice-Dark mana spasmed through Rowan as the knowledge implanted itself in his head. He breathed cool lung-fulls and spun on the spot, testing the skill, too eager. An intricate fractal of black ice flashed across his vision and a cold crack jolted up his spine. He was suddenly standing in front of a—
An eight-foot-tall scarecrow, voodoo-doll hybrid stared down at him and Gabrielle with glowing, blue eyes. It was a thing out of a horror cartoon. Through a wide, grinning maw, it said in a rumbling, low voice, “Ready to serve, dork lady.”
“Heeeey… you said dork lady,” Gabrielle whined.
“Yes, dork lady.” It rumbled a chuckle.
Rowan huffed and slapped it on its patch-work back. “You’re right. It is cute but creepy looking, my dork Gabrielle.”
That earned him another head-pummeling. Much more playful this time.
Chapter 31
Gabby's Wet Dream
Gabrielle whipped her growing Worker Doll union through their mental leashes and firmly but kindly asked them to begin construction on the next Demonic Trebuchet.
Construction Recipe: Demonic Trebuchet
A trebuchet specialized for firing Fire-Dark mortars. Can be used by demonic minions. Optional: Can be fitted with a small shielding crystal of any type.
Recipe Tier: 0 (1 with shielding crystal)
Materials needed: 10t wood (dark mana compatible), 5t stone (dark mana compatible), 5t metal (dark mana compatible), 1kg dark rubies, 1kg of any gem (optional)
Build time: 2hrs base
Health: 45,000-60,000 (depends on materials)
Shields (With a shielding crystal): 67,000-75,000
Armor: Medium
Resistances: Medium
Maximum Movement Speed (packed): 30 miles/hour
Attack Rate: 2 per minute
Projectile Speed: Slow
Mana required per shot: 15,000 Fire-Dark
Damage: 125,000 fire and dark damage.
The first doll had graciously taught her how to consume those delicious recipes. Though still, it’d been torn down and re-crafted after it refused to address her with a proper title. That example set them straight. Rowan too.
Twelve worker dolls flexed their patch-work bodies and held our straw-ended arms like they were warming themselves up at a campfire. Their sitch-work mouths stretched as they chanted in the dark language. Water, earth, and dark mana radiated off their bodies, guiding and shaping stone, wood, metal, and gems into a Demonic Trebuchet. She definitely wasn’t going to do any manual labor with these cuties around, magical or not.
Gabrielle watched in pure giddiness, her tummy tingling like never before. This was the start of her dark continent. This was the start of her reign. This was the end of all those dumb animals, replaced by her glorious, superior dark human. All starting with these adorable little worker dolls.
With twelve dolls on the job, the build speed quickened by only 8X, roughly. Which made sense. Too many Worker Dolls in the kitchen ruins the trebuchet stew… Or whatever the expression is. The recipe certainly didn't mention that little tidbit. The description popup and knowledge-dump left out a lot of details.
Crafting Recipe: Worker Doll
Craft a sentient Tier 0 worker from fabric and mana. Worker dolls may be upgraded.
Materials needed: 0.2t fabric (dark mana compatible), 0.1kg of any dark gem
Craft time: 1-minute base
Mana required: 5,250
Health: 1000-1250
Armor: Low
Resistances: Low
Maximum Movement Speed: 10 miles/hour
Two dark gems held its consciousness and mana reserves, one at its chest and the other at its heart. Basically, its heart and brain that gave life to the fabric through a constant mana circulation. Mana was more or less this game’s universal putty that could be shaped into anything under the right circumstance. Kinda like quantum-energy in real-life.
Tier 0 Worker Dolls possessed the tier 0 Assemble skill, allowing them to construct recipes at the base speed. They could carry up to 1 tonne of any material at a time and their mana source needed to be recharged every 24 hours. Fairly balanced—better than manual labor speed with mid to high levels of strength and dexterity.
Tutting in satisfaction, Gabrielle waltzed down the chamber and inspected the construction teams. Four teams of twelve. That was all her control stats allowed for. One worker per control point. She’d need some kind of minion mastery passive skill or control-boosting gear soon—else her dark continent would take years to build. Ione should’ve generated some Occult-Engineer gear by now.
A circular, gate-like structure of metal and stone completed in a flash of earth and dark mana. “Work complete, dark lady,” a Doll said as Gabrielle approached. Terrific. No more dork lady.
“Nicely done! Keep working!” she chirped and spun around to look for the demon boy. Only he had the right mana type to activate these—according to the recipe.
Construction Recipe: Tiny Demonic Portal Frame
So you want to summon cheap demons… Have some imps. Optional: can be slotted into a movable platform
Recipe Tier: 0
Materials needed: 3t stone (dark mana compatible), 1t metal (dark mana compatible), 0.3kg dark rubies, 1t wood (optional)
Build time: 30 minutes base
Health: 3,500-4500
Armor: Low
Resistances: Low
Mana Required to activate: 2500 Fire-Dark
Summonable minions: Clawed Fire Imp, Fire Imp Mage, Stealthed Scout Imp
Yup, it needed to be Fire-Dark mana. Time to find Rowan and Zaine a few hundred meters down the chamber. They sparred so Rowan could level up his skill tiers, mainly his icy blink skill. A high-tier movement skill was paramount to a caster’s survivability. This game emphasized dodging for squishy characters rather than face-tanking death bolts like Paladins could. So unfair.
Gabrielle puffed down the line of packed trebuchets and neared the familiar thundering lights of battle mana. Zaine moved with unbelievable speed, faster than anything Gabrielle had seen, faster than the T8 pirate lord or bandit king—and they were as fast as her. It had to be that demigod blessing buff. No details had been revealed when she examined it.
Rowan couldn’t keep up, as expected, but that wasn’t the point. He just needed to spam that blink to dodge and gain some skill tier levels like a good boy. A good boy who didn’t forget super highly important things like dark scrolls lounging in his inventory. Yes, that was her Rowan. The clever but forgetful boy who didn’t run away from her beautiful ways—but refused sex at every corner. Such a peculiar possession he was.
“Heya,” she said.
Zaine paused and regarded her with a repressed glare. Masked—though still there. What a brat. “Problems with the construction efforts?”
“Nope.” She flashed a toothy grin. “Trebuchets are mostly done! First imp portal frame just went up.”
“What about the larger frames?”
“Ah… They’re higher tier recipes. Not sure how to level up Assemble’s skill tier.” The Dolls had constructed close to thirty trebuchets and none had gained a tier level. Gabrielle assisted with a few her skill tier didn’t increase either.
“Assemble?” Zaine frowned, then shook his head. “Nevermind. The skill must’ve changed.”
“Probably. Maybe—”
Rowan blinked to her side in a pretty icy pattern, spraying her with black mist and the familiar cool touch of his mana. “Hey,” he breathed and p
anted as sweat dripped from his chin. “Something wrong?” His eyes flicked to Zaine for a bit, untrusting.
“Just Occult-Engineer stuff… Can’t seem to level up Assemble’s tier.” Gabrielle shrugged.
His head inclined by a couple of degrees. “Maybe one of Ambiguous’ lore tomes has the answer?”
“Unlikely,” Zaine said, “The Occult-Engineers from my time were highly secretive. Such as with the Dark Temples which you say still stand to this day. No one knows how they made them so durable or weaved in the pocket dimensions. The knowledge was lost with them.”
Huh. So that was the story behind the temples. Gabrielle always assumed they’d been generated without backstories. None had been mentioned in Ambiguous’ tomes.
“Interesting,” Rowan mumbled, “Maybe there’s still some alive out there in hiding.”
“Maybe in pocket dimensions,” Zaine said.
Possible. Like Ambiguous’.
“I haven’t come across any in over a decade,” Gabrielle said and tapped her chin, “Neither has Ambiguous.”
And speaking of her, she’d logged back in twenty seconds ago and was in need of a resurrection potion. “And I gotta go resurrect Ambiguous. Be back in a bit.” She reached into her pouch for her broom.
Zaine stepped close and her muscles tensed before he said, “I can do it.”
“What? Really?” A tank with a resurrection ability. Now that was something overpowered.
“Of course.” He smirked. “ I’m not as evil as you Dracos claim. I would resurrect a dark class human on my side any day.”
Ambiguous could be used as a tool to manipulate the kid with, in that case. Gabrielle scribbled a note on her social interface.
Rowan huffed. “You know we are just using Draconian bodies as avatars in this dimension, right? We’re not actually Draconians outside of this world.”
“That must be the adventurer madness talking. One of the few things I am thankful for, not bearing that mind-curse.” Zaine blinked away in a fiery swirl.
Gabrielle let a laugh bubbled up her chest as Rowan deadpanned at the scripted reaction. No matter how much you tried to convince an NPC of the real world, they’d never believe it unless you opened a portal and showed it to them. Not just disappearing in a buzz of light into the so-called Divine Realm through the log-out function.
“Damn,” Rowan said and stretched his back, “That reaction has to be hard-coded.”
More than likely—else the game would have serious scope issues. “Yup.”
Ambiguous Pain: Zaine offered me a resurrection at my corpse. Should I accept?
Gabrielle bit her lip and pulled up her notes on the contract. There were over a hundred clauses. It had started off with just the jewelry set but ballooned when Rowan blabbered about their plan to take over the continent. Luckily, his carelessness worked in her favor.
Gabby LeMort: Yup! You were included in the non-aggression alliance.
Ambiguous Pain: Excellent. That library will be ours in no time.
Oh right, she wanted scrolls.
Gabby LeMort: Btw, there’s a really good defensive dark skill scroll for ya in the basement. Onyx Skin. Rowan was carrying it this whole freaking time with six others! Fallen-Angel is apparently a class. Light-Dark.
Ambiguous Pain: Wow. How do you forget about something like that?
Gabby LeMort: Ikr.
That dummy…
Rowan’s fingers waved in front of her eyes. “Want to spar?”
A globule of mana popped in her tummy.
Spar. With Rowan. She thought he’d never ask because he was too afraid! A smile pulled at her cheeks. “Of course!” She snatched up her wand and scanned her memories for the method on how to lower one’s skill power. Plus a tug on her Worker Dolls ordering them to continue construction. “Get ready, my forgetful Rowan!”
“Tch.” He blinked away as she tossed a low-tier laceration curse at his feet.
* * *
It turned out Gabrielle was an excellent instructor when it came to dodging and positioning oneself during battle. Short range dueling, long range bombardments, chasing, fleeing… The whole lot. It was clear how she had been able to take on a Colossus Enforcer by herself and even duel Zaine for over ten seconds. His beautiful Gabrielle was a grandmaster at dueling.
Not as impressive when it came to tactics and strategy. She’d revealed to Rowan that she hadn’t played many strategy-focused games in her life. This was her first major game apart from a few simple mobile games. For her to be one of the top players was an extraordinarily impressive feat. She was of genius intellect through and through.
Her silky blond hair fluttered in his face as she chased down his Rime Blink.
Suddenly, he was pinned to the ground for the thirtieth time, dull pain cracking through his back.
“Gotcha!” she said with a giggle.
Her musky, pineapple scent filled his lungs. The familiar texture of her cool mana twined with his. He breathed deep, covertly enjoying her essence, gazing into those big, swirling eyes. The effect she had on him at this distance was intoxicating.
“So,” she said and thrust her hips against his once—like every time she pinned him. Then hopped off him. “What tier's your blink at?”
“I’d say at least five or six,” Ambiguous said, flashing to their side, “Blink skills are easy to level in tiers, especially when you narrowly dodge attacks with it.”
“Yup! That’s why we’re doing this. So what's your blink's tier it at?”
“Let me check,” Rowan said, voice weak. All that agile movement cost a hell of a lot of stamina.
New Active Skill: Rime Blink
Instantaneously move to your target in a fractal of tainted ice
Skill Level: 97, 40%
Skill Tier: 6
Mana Cost: 200
Effect: Blinks to your target and does 97-102 cold and dark damage to surrounding targets.
Tier Effect: Maximum distance of 36 meters. 4 second cooldown. 60% reduced mana cost
Nice. It had gone up another tier in fifteen minutes. “Tier six.”
“Knew it,” Ambiguous said, “Five-second cooldown and 50% reduced mana, am I right?”
“Four and sixty.” His pulse descended to a steady beat, his sweat drying in the cold of his amulet.
“Whaaat?” Gabrielle said, “At tier ten it would be a zero with no cost.”
“Yeah,” Ambiguous said and offered a hand. Rowan took it. “Imagine a zero second blink… you’d be able to zip right across the continent in minutes. Are you sure you read it right?”
He wobbled to his feet, stamina at 10%, and nodded thrice. The skill description window was still up. 4 seconds at tier 6. One second reduced per level. “It’s what it says.”
“Nyaaa,” Gabrielle whined, “Unfair!”
“The tier 9 to 10 scaling has to be different for your ice blink.” Ambiguous jerked her chin in his direction. “Or you’d be ridiculously broken.”
Ridiculously broken. “Like being a player world boss?” He chuckled.
Her gray eyes hardened. “What did you say?”
Oh shit. He assumed Gabrielle had told her about her own world boss ascension.
“Uh oh.” Gabrielle whistled two notes and stepped away from the Chaos-Mystic. “Doggy’s out of the kennel now.”
“You’re a world boss?” Ambiguous’ brows furrowed, examining. Her eyes lit up with neon-blue. “No, you aren’t. What are you two talking about?” She scowled.
Swallowing, Rowan flicked Gabrielle a private message without looking at her.
Rowan Black (To Gabby LeMort): Should I tell her?
Gabby LeMort: Maybe.
So helpful.
Rowan Black: Does she know about the plan?
Gabby LeMort: No. But she knows Uncle Vincent.
It seemed like everyone knew Uncle Vincent these days. Draesear, Gabrielle, Ambiguous. Zaine too?
“Well?” Ambiguous eyed him and Gabrielle back and forth. “What do you
mean player world boss? You can’t be serious. Do you know what kind of bonuses world bosses get at the higher tiers? Look at Zaine over there!”
Damn. She was really, really pushing it.
But there wasn't a way to explain this without mentioning Roth's special directive and the two special quests he received at the start… plus that black mark on his palm.
The black mark!
Ambiguous face grew agitated. What a nosy one she was. “You two! What is happen—”
“When Gabrielle and I first entered the Necromancer’s alter, there was some kind of idol on the sacrificing table.” He held up his palm, presenting the undulating black mark. “I touched it like a dumbass and it exploded with this goo. It rushed into my nose and mouth and when I woke, I was a word boss. The status is hidden until tier 6 on my character sheet.”
Aeon Chronicles Online_Book 1_Devil's Deal Page 37