» Max collateral burn damage: 40% (159)
Deathball
Skill is now level 3!
» Cost: 45
» Damage: 152 (90 + 18 [Adept Mage] + 9 [Deathlord] + 35 [Intelligence])
Darkvision
Skill is now level 4!
» Visibility level: clouded day
Darkball
Skill is now level 3!
» Cost: 30 MP
» Damage: 89 (45 + 9 [Adept Mage] + 35 [Intelligence])
Cosmo Connection
Skill is now level 2!
» Self-Damage: 2
» Interval: 55 seconds
Gravity Attunement
Skill is now level 2!
» Knockdown defense: 25%
New skill unlocked in the Universe's Pull skill-tree:
Gravityball (level 1)
Gravity, the Universe's Pull. A force much more mysterious and powerful than you first imagined.
After attuning yourself to it, you can now amass a morb full of the gravity element. Using it as a skill will pull things towards you.
» Active Spell
» Element: Gravity
» Pull speed: 1 meter per second
» Max range: 5 meters
» Target's max weight: 0.9x caster weight
This all made me want to rend the lich into tiny pieces and watch a horde of monsters fight over the scraps. If it wasn't for him, would I have received these skills earlier? Based on my improvement before meeting Manhart, it seemed so. If that was the case, conquering the castle could have been so much easier!
He had sent me on an impossible mission, while intentionally limiting my power. It was nothing short of trying to kill me!
My max damage with firebomb, counting the burn damage, had shot up from three hundred ninety to four hundred sixty damage, an increase of seventy damage, or almost twenty percent! My deathballs were also better at healing now, which would have been great during that fight where I was reduced to playing healer outside of the lever room.
Granted, the mana cost of the skills also increased, so the second-tier spells, fireball and deathball hadn't improved in overall efficiency to the extent the third-tiered firebomb had. Even so my hands were shaking with rage.
After reading through all the leveled-up skills and going through my skill list to check them all again, I realized that one skill was conspicuously missing from level-up window: Kill to Survive.
Kill to Survive was a powerful skill that healed me for a percentage of dealt damage after I had killed an enemy. But now, I remembered that I hadn't seen it trigger for a very long time.
It didn't take a genius to understand why: the Cosmo Connection skill, the one applying a tiny bit of life damage to me every minute, was directly interfering with the Death-element of Kill to Survive. And Manhart had suggested I keep it activated at all times.
I could feel my blood boil, and I was a cold-blooded undead! I immediately turned the Cosmo Connection skill off.
The most important thing about all this, though, was that the fat drow had just shown himself to be much more powerful than I expected, since he had removed all the hidden seals Manhart had placed on me.
I suddenly had a foreboding feeling.
"Sam, release him," I said, stepping back a few paces, and bowed slightly. "Sorry for my rudeness just now."
He had been glaring at me, but then his glare turned into a frown, and then into a look of resignation. "What gave me away?" He asked, his voice now full of power and authority.
"The removal of the seals," I replied while Sam moved to stand beside me. "Manhart said that in the area, only the Ruined Mage Kings are stronger mages than him. Yet, you easily undid his work."
"I thought as much. Manhart linked the seals together to strengthen them, but that made it impossible to remove just one." He looked me straight in the eyes. "Why are you here, Jack Thorn?"
I felt my skin crawl. Those were the eyes of a hunter regarding prey. I didn't doubt for a single second that he would kill us if I gave the wrong answer.
I couldn't even guess at why he was hiding his strength before, or why he had allowed me to attack him. Without knowing those things, how could I guess at what the right answer was?
So, I told him the truth. "I'm going to kill the Devourer."
The hunger in his eyes slowly turned into curiosity, then amusement, as if I had just said the most absurd thing in the world. "Will you?"
"Yes."
He laughed. "What if you fail?"
"Then, I'll release him."
He laughed louder. "You'll release him from chains made of lightsteel and enchanted with divine power, so strong that not even the Devourer himself could break free?"
"Yes." I said firmly. I was confident I could do at least that much. His laughter continued for a solid minute before it finally died away. "Who or what are you, really?" I asked.
There was no answer to my question, instead he responded with one of his own. "Why did you release me? Why not continue with the act and get new spells?"
That was a simple answer: "I had no guarantee you wouldn't place new seals after you were done giving me new spells; better to quit while I was ahead. Spells can be obtained in other ways, even if it's difficult. But I bet releasing the hidden seals is much harder."
"Indeed, indeed," his smile hadn't died. "For your intelligence, I'll let you both leave alive and without the seals."
As much as I wanted to ask for new spells, I still didn't trust him. I sighed, bowed again, and turned to leave. When I got to the door, I heard his voice again as if from a great distance. "Next time you see Manhart, tell him you killed me.” I looked back, but saw only the bare stone walls of the empty store. We left in silence as the implied 'Or else!' hung in the air.
Outside, the world was in chaos. Drow wearing the plain white robes that all the civilians wore had left the buildings and were fighting against the Catacombs' army. I saw the group of armored assholes who had tried to kill me battling a large mob of drow.
This wasn't the counter attack I had been expecting.
The drow were merely dying. They had weapons, mostly low-quality looking swords, but no armor at all. Whatever the reason they were fighting, it clearly wasn't because they thought they could win.
I was tempted to kill the White Tree idiots again, but I had more important business to attend to.
Sword and shield in hand, I moved towards my destination. Sam surprised me by taking the lead with her hood up. Her intention was apparent: make it look like we were on their side.
I rolled my eyes.
She took a long time to reply.
I raised an eyebrow. This was one of the few situations where even if I asked her out of game it wouldn't help. I needed her to directly tell me she had a map so I could share map information with her.
An annoying, but clever little restriction to prevent players from skirting the potential consequences of using maps in the Underworld.
I sighed.
I had decided to turn myself in, and while that would definitely make it harder to play, I was already formulating plans to make sure I could finish destroying the game f
rom the inside. However, my plans might require some adjustment, operating from the Underworld was becoming increasingly difficult, and now I knew Manhart was directly opposing me!
The only reason I hadn't already created a new character was because of the perks I'd already accumulated on this one, like the Dark Archmage title. However, if my current plans failed, I would be in a bad enough position that it wouldn't be worth continuing in the Underworld. I would create a Surface character and take advantage of how much easier it was there.
If all else failed, I would fallback on simple brutality.
Ideally, I would carry out my original plans in regards to the imprisoned V-Soft employees: assault their minds, crush their egos and destroy their pride by destroying Valia.
But if needed, paying off some thugs to beat the shit out the prisoners was still a valid, if less refined, way to make them suffer.
Of course, whatever might happen after turning myself in, Alice wouldn't be interested in playing with me anymore. But I didn't need to tell her that.
Anyway, I hadn't lied to her, I would need to create a new character if I failed today. Whether or not I would be able to, well that was another story.
Sam said.
I smiled at that. I really had found a good friend in her, one that was ready to create a new character with me if needed.
The knowledge of the incoming separation made my heart tighten.
Focusing on the map I had gotten from the vampire Manhart, which also contained information about Ter'nodril, I drew a route to our destination and willed it to be shared with Sam. She accepted and started moving that way.
Whether because of her presence or just that the drow were already busy with the other invaders, we weren't attacked a single time.
In about fifteen minutes, we were in front of the weapon store where I had sold Shai's Greatsword on my last visit to Ter'nodril. The door was wide open but there was absolutely nothing in there.
I entered it anyway. "Tharnya?" I yelled. "You here?"
There was no answer and after looking around I found no one. It annoyed me; she owed me money.
Twenty or so specters stood in a protective circle around a headless horseman who pointed at me.
One of the tanks advanced towards me then nodded in greeting. "The Mage King of Fire summons you."
I raised an eyebrow. "Because...?"
"I don't know. But we were told to bring you and no specter would ever dare defy one of the Kings. If you resist, we'll take you by force." He looked at the horseman. "To be honest, I don't think you stand a chance."
I smiled. "Wanna bet?"
"No. But think about it: even if you win, more soldiers will be sent after you. You can't destroy an entire army by yourself."
My smile grew wider. "Wanna bet?"
He shook his head. "I do not. I just want to bring you. Peacefully."
The specter nodded and I followed him into the circle. Sam remained invisible, following along behind the rear of the formation as we began to move.
By now, the streets were mostly calm; and impressively gory. The corpses of countless drow littered the roads and only a few corpses of other species lay among them. Blood was everywhere, the smell of it inescapable. It was a sobering sight.
We moved to the center of the city, past multiple metal barricades which had been manned by drow which were now dead. Beyond the last row of them stood the Dark Temple. To be as succinct as possible, it looked like a black wedding cake.
It was comprised of three tiers of black metal, each four stories high, and each half the diameter of the one below it. The uppermost tier was just shy of touching the whirling Devourer, and thousands of large smoky spheres left wispy dark trails in the air as they floated around the temple like ghosts.
The Catacombs' army was arrayed around the temple, and the siege engines were already sending ghost heads at it, where they struck a new golden barrier just like the one around the city.
This barrier though, was already full of cracks and would clearly not last long.
Behind the barrier, tens of thousands of drow waited, Blackguards and priests alike. The Temple doors were open and even more drow awaited inside. In front of the doors, a creature was floating.
Its body was humanoid and completely black. Completely. Its mouth, teeth, tongue, eyes, all completely black. It was naked and devoid of anything that would have marked it as a mammal. Hair, nipples, navel and even genitalia were all absent, but it made up for those deficiencies with the hundreds of darkness morbs that floated above its head.
In its hands were two amazing-looking daggers. They were made of something that looked like obsidian, the hilts were carved to resemble a pair of coiled dragons with their heads creating the guards and liquid darkness rippled across the blades.
I looked at him with interest. That was the strongest Blackguard and the head of the drow, who answered only to the Devourer himself. I didn't want to get in his way.
The specters led us to the Ruined Kings, who were all floating there, having a staring contest with the High Assassin.
The red-crowned King looked at me as we approached. "Jack Thorn," he said in his creepy whisper. "You disobeyed orders."
I frowned. "Sorry?"
"You were commanded to proceed to the Dark Temple as soon as the barrier around the town fell," he said. "But you had an agenda."
"Oh, that," I smiled. "Didn't I tell you that I came on Manhart's orders?" I phrased it as a question to avoid the truthseer seeing through what would have been a blatant lie. "Although helping you is a necessity, I also had some minor errands to run."
After having practiced against the High Assassin, the Fire King now seemed intent on getting into a staring contest with me. Unfortunately for him, I was an expert and returned his stare impassively.
"Do not leave this area," the Fire King finally ordered and waved his hands dismissively.
His head snapped to the side to regard me. His gaze felt like a knife biting into my mind.
"Jack Thorn," he addressed me in a grim, rumbling voice. His eyes shifted to where Sam stood. "Samantha Hidden Daggers. Your orders were to capture, not join him."
She didn't answer that.
His eyes locked with mine again and he shook his head. "You're less than a worm. You have no right to challenge me." With that, he returned to trying to kill the Ruined Kings with a dirty look.
I shrugged. "What a shame. Well, I tried." I started moving to the side.
It was impossible to hold back my laughter.
<
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When we were 20 meters away from the High Assassin, we stopped and looked at the golden barrier. It was completely covered in cracks by now, clearly hanging on by a thread.
We watched as each ghostly head hit the barrier. Every time I was certain it would be the last blow it could take, but it held.
Five minutes later, a threshold must have been reached because a beam of black energy shot from the black sun, covering the High Assassin, who then spoke in the Devourer's voice.
"Specters!" He yelled furiously. "You dare disregard the Ways?!"
The Mage Kings' only response was to begin amassing morbs. At the same instant, dark tendrils protruded from the Devourer and lashed out at the Kings. All the Ruined Mages other than the Dark King attacked the black sun as one.
Unbound Deathlord: Obliteration (The Unbound Deathlord Series Book 2) Page 46