Unbound Deathlord: Obliteration (The Unbound Deathlord Series Book 2)

by Edward Castle

  » +1 willpower

  Stamina: 520 (+5)

  Level up!

  Current level: 34

  HP, MP and stamina restored

  It sucked that I didn't get intelligence points, but at least my HP had increased, which made me realize a few things.

  First, my firebomb spell was better than I had thought. I could kill myself in about seven hits if I didn't consider my defenses, and since I could have eleven morbs ready to attack, it made me quite powerful.

  Second, it showed me how frail I was.

  Third, it also showed me how important defensive items and tactics were. Manhart hadn't given me any defensive spell other than the dubious Lifelock. Since I knew he had chosen what to teach me, I could infer that he wanted me as easy to kill as possible, even though he also wanted me to complete quests for him.

  I didn't believe for a second that the next quest would be safer than the first, so there was only one possible explanation:

  Manhart planned to kill me, and relatively soon.

  If he wanted to kill me in the distant future, it didn't matter if he gave me good defensive third-tier spells now for me to complete his quests better. So, he planned to kill me before I had the chance to learn more spells, probably after I finished his next assignment.

  Which, for some reason, reminded me of my Destiny Spirit.

  I called.

  His childish voice replied in my mind. He was clearly hesitating.

 

  Fear had entered his voice.

  I sent happily.

  He replied excitedly.

  That was bullshit. The game probably had strict limitations over everything the Destiny Spirits could do and how they calculated the rewards for quests.

  I said despite my beliefs. I had plans for him that required him to like me.

  he said with an annoying tone.

  I gritted my teeth.

  His words, coupled with his childish voice, made me want to strangle him.

  "If you're done contemplating your rewards," Manhart said, "it's time we talk about your next mission."

  "Just a quick question first," I replied. "What the hell was Robert? I mean, his species."

  "A bluran."

  "Blue-who?"

  "Bluran. They live in the Underwater. I don't have time for this," he said firmly. "If you want to know more, I suggest you buy an exemplar from 'Species of Valia.' Not everything in there is entirely correct but it's still the best guide in the world." He lowered his voice as if talking to himself. "I still can't understand why his clan would Enkarr him."

  "En-what?" I asked.

  He ignored my question and looked at the map in his hands. "I assume you already recorded the location indicated in the map?"

  This made me alert. "Who, me? That would mean I have a map of my own and everybody knows how maps are forbidden in the Underworld."

  "That must be your special way of saying yes," he spoke as if I was a 'special' kid. "The map leads to a hidden castle. I want it."

  "Hidden castle? Are you sure that's the word? Hidden? Is this a toy castle or something?"

  I felt a 'damn newbie' vibe coming from Manhart and he began to read his papers while talking to me, as if I had just lost the right to be looked at.

  "In this world there are places protected by magic that can only be found if you have the right traits and skills, or if you have a map. You can't even imagine how hard it is to find a powerful Tracker; they tend to die very quickly."

  From what I understood he was telling me the game had developed ways to create hidden locations so players would feel a sense of accomplishment when they discovered them.

  "I see," I said. "Why do you want Robert's castle?"

  "The castle was never his. He had the map but he didn't have the power to conquer it by himself."

  I squinted my eyes. "Conquer? Like, fight for it?"

  "Obviously. The castle has been overrun by monsters and must be conquered before being utilized."

  That was funny: a walking skeleton talking about monsters.

  "Why didn't he, I don't know, call some people to conquer it with him?" I asked.

  "He could, but he was greedy and didn't want to share the spoils, preferring to train himself until he was strong enough to conquer the castle alone. The fate of such people is being robbed without enjoying even a portion of the rewards."

  "Now you're calling me the hand of fate. You flatter me." He ignored me. "Wouldn't the destiny of greedy people be an extra reason for you to hire plenty of people and create a kind of Army to accomplish the task, instead of sending only me?" I asked ironically.

  "You aren't going alone. You can bring along anyone you've recruited."

  "Oh, that's great! Fifty people sieging a castle!" And that was ignoring the fact that only ten of the fifty would come with me, since I wouldn't waste the goodwill of the others on quests for Manhart while I had so many plans myself.

  "You were never ordered to siege it, only conquer it." Anger was entering his voice.

  "Now that's much easier. I clearly just have to ask politely and the monsters in charge of the castle will just give it to me."

  He finally looked up at me. "Thorn, you were hired because you do things that should be impossible. If I wanted to conquer the castle myself I'd think about how to do it, but this is your job, not mine. Since you think so lowly of yourself, I'll let you know that I need this castle and that if you fail to give it to me in one month, I'll lead the Army there. But you won't get any reward if I have to do it myself."

  One month. I didn't have one month. Before I could complain again, bloodlust filled the air. It was so powerful and so dense that it almost choked me, and as an undead I didn't even need to breath.

  "You will do as you're told, General," he said. "That's your only choice."

  I looked angrily at him. There was an air of finality in him that made me realize the talk had ended. There was no changing his mind; I could do as told or be hunted and killed.

  Taking a deep breath, I completely suppressed my anger. "What about the spoils?" If a guy was greedy enough to not want to share, the stuff in the castle should be good.

  Manhart had just said that he was allowing me to keep Robert's stuff, as if it wasn't the natural way of things, so I better make sure I had things clear beforehand this time.

  "You can have whatever you can carry with you, no matter how many spatial containers you use. The same goes for anyone in your assault group. After that, the castle and everything in it will belong to me."

  That was interesting. Whatever he wanted couldn't be taken away from the castle. It could be the castle itself, but if it was, I'm sure he could just get another castle in some easier way. I would do my best to find out what he wanted when I got there, and take it away from him.

  As soon as I internally accepted doing it for him, an exclamation point button appeared.

  Quest: Conquer the Castle

  A rank

  Manhart ordered you to conquer the castle marked in your map for him.

  Condition:

  » Will automatically fail in 29 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds

  Robbing the map from Robert had been an A minus rank quest. From what I was coming to understand from the ranking system, A minus meant a kind of elite quest that I couldn't complete by myself, but it was possible with a small to medium group.

  An A rank quest was, in game terms, a raid. Ther
e would be a boss monster that was ridiculously difficult to kill, with defense patterns that had to be perfectly countered. People said raids in Valia required at least five parties, or twenty-five people.

  I was curious about how the game system managed to do that, since the quests difficulties were ranked relative to the player's current strength. What if I had been level one-hundred? Would this quest still be A ranked? Could it be that the monsters' strength in Valia adapted to circumstances to give each player the difficulty the game wanted the players to experience? Perhaps, the game system was reading into people's thoughts to know what they expected and to balance the player's encounters accordingly?

  No matter how the system might work, I was now in a rather difficult position. I could try to do a raid with the fourteen of us, about half the suggested number of people, but that would be... Unwise. Calling more zombies for this quest wasn't my preferred solution but I might simply not have a choice. Well, I'd go there and take a look first, and decide later.

  "What about another hundred gold for me to hire more people?" I asked.

  "Not even I can be so free with my money," Manhart said. "You'll receive your monthly wage and more funds for recruitment next month. You're dismissed."

  He went back to reading but this time I felt as if I was just part of the furniture. He had completely forgotten me already.

  Even so, I asked something. "Do you even want to meet some of the people I recruited? They're right outside."

  Before entering the cave, Manhart had contacted me using his Communication Crystal and told me to enter alone. The zombies were quite disappointed, since the lich was a powerful NPC and could give them some good quests.

  He didn't even answer me. I sighed and left the cave.

  I said to the anxious zombies. It was a lie but after I gave Manhart a castle he better do me a favor by meeting them or I'd get real pissed.

  Melkier asked.

  I rolled my eyes.

  They decided I was likely an honest person and stayed outside.

  Bear asked.

  Two attribute points?

  the Destiny Spirit answered in my mind. Then, he added quickly.

  Zenhit's relationship with me of pride and fear was quite weird.

  I asked.

  Zenhit explained.

  I didn't like that I got less than I could've but I still liked the system. If quest ownership was a thing, it meant that quests were even more valuable than I anticipated, especially in the Underworld where they were less common than on the Surface. This, added to the reward sharing system, meant that finding and accepting quests was imperative, since it not only provided me with the most rewards, it also ensured the presence of my followers.

  Which, in turn, meant that I could be a little more liberal with my words against the zombies' stupidity!

  I said to Bear.

  He snorted.

  I chuckled.

  He looked at me with interest.

  I paused dramatically. Everybody became visibly excited at that and even the usually stoic Daggers stood taller.

  A random zombie — I cared little enough about them that I didn't even know their names — asked.

 

  12. Spectral Return

  It didn't surprise me when Daggers was the one to ask the obvious question.

 

  Melkier said.

  I nodded at them, showing my approval.

  Melkier frowned, which was weird without his eyebrows.

  I said.

  We started sorting things out. Midway through the process I remembered that I had asked the zombies to get the wooden furniture from Robert's house. Random Zombie Number Two then reluctantly gave up on the chairs. Asshole.

  The content of Robert's ring was surprisingly worthless, considering how much money it had, and the fact that it was an expensive item itself.

  Not counting the chairs, the spear, and Robert's leather armor, the ring had a total of forty-eight occupied slots. Exactly half was filled with food and drinks. Fifteen of the remaining twenty-four had high-quality but not exceptional weapons, like some daggers, a few swords, and the like.

  Of the remaining nine, one was a big reinforced glass tube and the other eight were... Salted water. Robert had brought a piece of his Underwater home with him and it sucked for us.

  We checked the internet and did some math, and selling all this trash should get us around thirty gold pieces.

  Thank goodness I had thought about getting the chairs. We had six in total and they were worth two-hundred gold each. While not sounding like much, since everyone had told me how wood was so valuable in the Underworld, two hundred gold coins for a simple chair was simply ridiculous. And that was because we were selling the chairs to a reseller. He would probably get at least three hundred gold coins for each of them.

  Unfortunately, none of us trusted each other with the chairs to try to find better offers, and I couldn't waste time traveling with the zombies to find a good buyer, so we would have to do without the full value. Not unlike how things worked on Earth, really.

  The result was a total of around ninety-four gold coins for each of us. When we added the gold in the ring, it became a hundred and eleven gold coins. Not bad for a mini-boss like Robert.

  Except there was the issue of the ring.

  They all wanted to sell it. I was obviously against it.

  We checked online and the best we could get for the ring was around three-hundred and fifty coins. I offered them four hundred for the ring if I could pay in installments, starting with my share of the gold from this time.

  Not everyone accepted it but they ended agreeing when they saw it was either that, or trying to take it away from me and effectively killing their golden goose.

  When we were all set on that, a new issue arose: we couldn't sell the items anywhere.

  The closest city to us was the Catacombs but none of us were specters, therefore we wouldn't be let in. We also couldn't get to Margs Market, where we were wanted for murder — we checked online —, or to Ter'nodril, because of the war. The next choice was Sorina, where I had last seen Marbareus, but it was
two days away even if we ran all the way. And it wasn't on the way to the castle.

  But Sorina would have to do. We all wanted to get the money as soon as possible, and maybe buy some new equipment. Half an hour of running later, Bear said the magic words:

 

  I said. I was happy on the outside, but inside my emotions were a maelstrom.

  Ted was coming back. I had blackmailed her father by threatening her life. I wouldn't have done anything to her — I wasn't that messed up — but it didn't change the fact that I had said I would.

  A question came to my mind: would I do that again if I had the chance?

  Yes. Yes, I would. Over and over again.

  Not for the world. Not for the good of all. For my selfish revenge.

  While I felt some remorse, it wasn't enough to change my mind. They had killed my parents. There was no greater sin, except maybe killing my children. Since I had none, they had done the worst thing they could do to me, and I had made them pay for it, David included.

  And he was still alive, wasn't he? I had been merciful to him. Incredibly so, since I had hidden all the proof I had about him and even emailed grandfather asking him to do the same.

  Even if the cops had still gotten him when they temporarily imprisoned all V-Soft's employees and investigated them, things could've been much worse if we had released some of our data about him.

  I had no idea why grandfather had agreed, even after all I had done, but he would undoubtedly use it as a bargaining chip against me when we finally had 'the talk.'

  For now, I was confident that I had done the right thing for David and Ted. We were even!

  Why, then, did I feel so weird about her coming back?

  Bear asked.

  I said.

 

  I followed them. For once, we didn't kill anyone on the way and we weren't attacked.