Awaken Online: Catharsis

by Travis Bagwell

  Once Jason had his remaining minions in position, and the manor locked down, he surveyed his prompts to see how well he had fared in the level and skill department.

  x3 Skill Rank Up: Summoning Mastery

  Skill Level: Beginner Level 9

  Effect: 13% increased stats for summoned undead and 13% increase to effective Willpower for purposes of determining Control Limit.

  x2 Skill Rank Up: Mana Mastery

  Skill Level: Beginner Level 4

  Effect: -2.5% to mana cost.

  x2 Skill Rank Up: Tactician

  Skill Level: Beginner Level 3

  Effect: 7% increased damage multiplier for a successful ambush or strategy (Currently, Damage x 1.07).

  x1 Spell Rank Up: Curse of Weakness

  Skill Level: Beginner Level 2

  Effect: Increased effect of slow and reduction to strength, dexterity, and vitality.

  x2 Spell Rank Up: Corpse Explosion

  Skill Level: Beginner Level 5

  Effect: Increased damage and radius (Currently 1.04 x Health).

  Jason had reached level 39, and he put the new stat points into Willpower again. This was really his most useful stat. This brought him to 213 Willpower, or approximately 241 with his Summoning Mastery. He could now control 24 zombies at once and their max level was level 87.

  His character was progressing nicely because of how he was stacking Willpower and the availability of high level corpses. In terms of levels, he was already catching up with the front runners among the new players. A few more estates, and his character would be truly fearsome.

  Cities are fantastic leveling grounds for a Necromancer. There is no way I could have leveled this quickly killing animals with the other beginners.

  The downside was that his infamy had increased by another 200 due to murdering another house full of NPCs. It was also becoming harder to manage his undead since there were so many of them now and their number continued to grow as he leveled. Jason had won the last few battles with careful orders and tactical thinking. He knew that if he had just bum-rushed this last estate, he would likely have lost to the fire mage. That meteor shower spell alone could have taken out all of his minions if not for his careful planning.

  What he really needed was some type of lieutenant or an easier way to control his zombies. Maybe once Summoning Mastery reached the next rank it would become easier. He was so close. Hadn't Morgan said that he could eventually give orders telepathically?

  He had his minions search the room for loot as he raised his new troops. He was rewarded with significant skill increases because of the large number of zombies he summoned. The process was time consuming, but he had a much larger mana pool to work with now.

  x3 Skill Rank Up: Specialized Zombie

  Skill Level: Beginner Level 5

  Effect: Increased skill proficiency retained by zombies. Skill cap Beginner Level 5.

  He was disappointed that there were many more corpses in the building than he could raise based on his current Control Limit. However, most were deceased nobles and servants that weren't much use to him due to their low levels. Not knowing what else to do, he decided to leave the bodies where they were.

  Maybe I can circle back if I need them.

  Jason's minions soon came back with their haul of loot. He recovered a bunch of mediocre gear and a reasonable amount of silver and gold. He was now rich enough to afford some better bags, but he hadn't found anything spectacular in the manor that he could sell on Rogue-Net. He piled what he could into his bags and handed any remaining gear to his guards to carry.

  Many of the nobles didn’t seem to be high level or own powerful magic equipment. After Jason thought about it, that actually made sense. Many of the aristocrats likely spent their time throwing dinner parties, not slaying dragons.

  He then personally searched the mage and discovered two decent items:

  Fire Mage's Staff

  This weapon was created by a proficient enchanter. It is designed to increase the magic damage caused by the person wielding it.

  Quality: C

  Damage: 10-25 (Blunt)

  Durability: 63/75

  +10% Fire Damage

  Amulet of Willpower

  A necklace created by a proficient enchanter. It is designed in such a way to increase the Willpower of the person wielding it.

  Quality: C

  Durability: 20/20

  +5 Willpower

  As he stared at the staff, his gaze shifted to the mage’s corpse. His body was still cooling and was largely intact. A thought occurred to Jason and his mouth dropped open.

  Could that really work?

  He quickly cast Specialized Zombie on the mage and inspected him. An evil laugh erupted from his mouth, jubilant and carrying a hint of madness. Onyx looked at Jason like he might be insane and took a slow, exaggerated step back.

  Jason was now the proud owner of a zombie fire mage! A level 87 fire mage at that! It looked like the mage knew Fireball, Fan of Flames, and Fire Wall. Likely the original mage had known more complicated spells, such as the meteor shower-type spell, but Jason’s Specialized Zombie skill wasn’t high enough for those spells to carry over. He had the mage cast a few test Fireballs and smiled proudly. This was beginning to get entertaining.

  He decided to equip the amulet since it increased his Willpower. After all he needed to equip himself too, didn't he?

  Jason then decided to review his Character Status and his skill list to see where he now stood.

  I'm starting to look less worthless.

  While his zombies scoured the remainder of the manor, Jason glanced at the in-game clock. He could see that it was now approaching midnight in-game, and he needed to make his way to the next house. He needed to cause as much damage as possible before morning.

  The staff in the other houses and their lords and ladies had probably made their way to bed already. He might only have to deal with one more big showdown depending on whether late-night parties were still being held at the nearby estates.

  Jason surveyed his new army. He grinned and his eyes shown with unnatural darkness in the still smoldering flames of the banquet hall. It was going to be a long night.

  Chapter 20 - Recurring

  “Sir.” A tech motioned for Robert. “You asked me to keep an eye on that first-time user. You remember? The one that seemed to be leveling abnormally fast.”

  Robert waved a hand at the man while he stared at the screen in front of him. “Yeah, yeah. Did something else happen?”

  “He has risen another nine levels in the last thirty minutes, and he seems to be continuing to level quickly. I really can't explain it. I managed to pinpoint his location in-game and he seems to be standing in the middle of Lux!”

  Robert looked up with a frown. “Really? Let me see.” He stood up and walked over to the tech's terminal to confirm what he was saying. He could see that the player was indeed standing in the middle of the city.

  “How could he be leveling that quickly? There's nothing to kill there,” the tech said in an exasperated tone.

  Robert rubbed his chin for a moment as he observed the information on the screen. “He's killing NPCs,” he murmured.

  The tech looked at him in shock, “What? A large number of the NPCs on that side of the city are nearly level 100, especially the guards. In fact, some NPCs in that area are well over level 100. How could he be killing them?”

  Robert turned to the tech with a grin. “I have no idea, but I wish I could see what he's doing. Why don't you figure out a way to tap into his player camera? He probably doesn't have it enabled, but it's worth a shot. If it's off, I'll give you a raise if you can find a way to turn it on remotely!”

  Claire had been paying attention to their conversation from the other side of the room. She called over, “Robert you know we aren't allowed to access a player's camera unless we have reason to believe that he is violating the terms of service.”

  He looked back at her, and his grin widened. �
��Well, we aren’t certain that he isn’t violating the terms, are we?” Turning back to the tech he said in a serious voice, “Find a way to access that player's camera. If you can't get access to his camera, then find me the camera of someone in Lux who can show us what’s going on.”

  Robert started heading for the door to the control room. Claire watched his back, a frown plastered on her face. “Where do you think you're going, Robert?”

  “I'm going to go make some popcorn,” Robert replied with a smile. “I expect that whatever is happening in Lux is going to be extremely entertaining.”

  * * *

  Several hours later, Jason was sitting in the last manor he had conquered. The room around him was one of the slightly less resplendent banquet halls he had seen that evening. Onyx was curled in his lap sleeping. Jason drummed his fingers on the table as he watched his zombies go through the familiar motions of piling corpses and equipment.

  It had been a long evening.

  He had launched attacks on all of the major manors on the north-side. Jason had even taken out two guard patrols that had caught him transitioning from one house to the next.

  He had discovered throughout the evening that the nobles did not own many useful items for players. Most were relatively low level, and they apparently spent most of their money on luxuries like furniture and jewelry. He still hadn't found any loot like the sword he had taken off the knight in the first house, but he had found a few mediocre items (taken mainly from the guards). There was so much stuff that he had long since filled his bags, and a considerable number of his guard zombies were just carrying piles of loot.

  He figured that if he sold the items cheap (to get rid of them quickly), he would probably rake in about $5,000-6,000. This estimate included the sword, but didn’t account for the nearly forty gold of in-game currency he had found. He figured the sale of the items should give him a couple of months of living expenses. He wasn’t certain what he was going to do after that, but at least he wouldn't be desperate in the short-term.

  The experience and skill progression had slowed throughout the night. Jason had gained another 12 levels from wiping out the other manors, bringing him to level 51. He had hesitated for a moment in deciding how to spend his points and then decided to assign all of the points to Willpower. That meant his Willpower was now at 278.

  I just hope I'm not making a terrible decision, he thought with a sigh.

  His skills had also risen modestly during the night. Most notably, Summoning Mastery had finally hit Intermediate Level 1. He had received a notification when the skill advanced:

  The advancement had unlocked the ability to communicate mentally with his summons, and Jason expected that it would increase the bonuses from the ability each level. However, the advancement rate of the skill had slowed dramatically.

  The telepathy was fantastic. It made it easier to coordinate his troops in the middle of a fight and removed the need to provide them with lengthy instructions as long as they were within sight of Jason. It also seemed to have an incredibly long range.

  However, the telepathy didn't solve his management issues when he had to split the groups. He still had to give complicated commands to any group that he sent off on its own to guard doors or scout ahead since he wasn't around to order the zombies individually or see what was going on. He was hoping that Morgan would have some solution for this.

  He reviewed his Summon Information window:

  The level cap had become less important as the night progressed, and his Willpower skyrocketed. Most enemies he had fought were below level 100, and so his zombies now retained the level of the former NPCs.

  Jason only had five thieves now, each around level 50. Some were a little scratched up and worse for wear. He still had his fire mage and had actually found an ice mage in one of the houses. He grimaced as he recalled that particular fight.

  God that was awful.

  By the end of the battle, the mage had coated almost the entire room in ice. Zombies and guards had been sliding all over the place. Even the mage had trouble standing up by the end of the fight. The only saving grace was that Jason actually got a chance to throw some knives while lying on his back.

  I’ll have to remember to thank Jerry for that one, he thought dryly.

  His gaze moved back over to the two mages. They were both sitting at approximately level 100. The remaining twenty-four zombies were common guards or lords that seemed to have useful combat skills and their average level was around 100.

  The only thing he was really missing was some kind of archer contingent. This hadn't been a big issue in the close quarters of the manors, but he could imagine that in a more open battle, additional ranged minions would be useful.

  Oh well. Nothing I can could do about that right now.

  It was currently 3:13am in the game world. Jason figured he had a few more hours of real world time to play before he was ejected. He could even stay in game for an extra hour and deal with the forced logout if it came to it.

  What the hell am I going to do now though?

  He had basically killed all of the nobles in the city at this point and was leading a small army of high level zombies. Most of his minions were covered in blood and many had obvious gaping wounds. The wounds didn't really mean that the zombies were injured of course. Most of the injuries had been caused in the process of killing the original the NPCs.

  The issue was that any sane person would notice that most of the zombies really shouldn't be alive, much less standing and walking around. As soon as his zombies started marching around in public, people would likely begin screaming and alert the guards.

  There was also the issue of the inevitable reaction when the guards discovered what happened to the noble houses later that day. They would be out for murder. Jason would have trouble smuggling his zombies out of the city and back in. More than likely, the city would just devolve into a riot when the NPCs discovered that the king and all of the nobles were dead.

  I really didn't think this through.

  He supposed he could abandon his zombies here, but for some reason he just couldn't make himself do it. He glanced over at a zombie dressed as a city guard, and a thought tickled his mind.

  I could just attack the city guards.

  He expected that most or all of them were probably complicit in the plot with the nobles anyway. There was no way that the nobles would have been able to cover up the death of the regent unless some or all of the guards were in on it. That was likely why Rex had been discharged.

  At the thought of the guards being included in the plot, the chill in his spine intensified. The long night of killing nobles had partially sated his desire for revenge, but he wasn’t ready to stop yet. A grin of anticipation spread across his face as he decided on his next target.

  Attacking the guards was a ballsy move. Jason had seen the longhouses on the eastern part of the city and knew there were close to two hundred men stationed in those buildings. He didn't like his odds if it came to a straight battle with the guardsmen. If he was going to take them on, he would need more zombies.

  As it grew later, the nobles and their staff had gone to sleep. This made for much easier fights. Naked, unconscious NPCS put up little resistance. He had lost some troops along the way, but he had left scores of bodies in the houses that he couldn't add to his army since he had long ago hit his Control Limit. There were a couple hundred bodies that were just being left to rot in the manors right now.

  Jason continued to sit there, chin in his hand as his fingers drummed the table.

  What should I do?

  He heard a thump and glanced over at a zombie who had run straight into a wall. When he didn't give them orders, the zombies sometimes acted like morons. He ordered the zombie to go stand in a corner. Maybe it would learn its lesson if he put it in time out!

  Wait. Are zombies really that stupid naturally? Maybe it’s a product of them being under my control.

  Jason had been ordering them around all e
vening and had come to think of them as tools instead of having their own native intelligence. If the controlled zombies were really that dumb, what would happen if he summoned a feral one?

  He stood up, dislodging Onyx from his lap-bed. The cat glared at him briefly and then stretched irritably before padding along behind him.

  Jason ordered his zombies to drag one of the extra bodies into a small room off a nearby corridor. He posted a guard on either side of the door and then cast Specialized Zombie on the corpse in the room. He was at his Control Limit, so this zombie should be feral. He telepathically ordered the guards to quickly close the door.

  Then he waited.

  Jason couldn't hear any noise from inside the room and was starting to wonder if he had actually raised the zombie. He stepped back from the door and ordered one of the guard zombies to open it. As soon as the door opened, Jason saw that the guard in the room had indeed been raised as a zombie. However, he was standing in the room facing the wrong direction.

  This is strange.

  “Stomp your foot,” he whispered to the guard zombie at the door.

  The guard zombie complied with the order. Once the feral zombie heard the noise, he turned and his milky white eyes focused on the guard. After a moment of hesitation, the feral zombie leaped forwarded at a sprint. Its arms clawed at the air, and it released a rasping roar. Jason flinched involuntarily as the feral zombie ferociously ripped at his guard. The feral creature tore at his guard’s flesh with its teeth and nails.

  What the fuck!

  “Kill it! Kill it!” he yelled at his guards, as he backpedaled away from the door.