by Lucas Dunn
Taking a look around at the hall I couldn’t see anything due to the lack of light streaming in from the windows so I activated my “Dark Sight” ability and was not disappointed. I could see everything like it was perfectly sunny, the only difference was the slight green hue added to the environment. I decided to explore some more, because going outside wasn’t a safe option, and headed to the room with all the other doors. There were four ways I hadn’t been so I took the one on the far left which lead to what seemed to be the servant quarters. I walked down a little more but all that was there was the washroom and a lot of cubby rooms that were covered in cobwebs. Going back to the main room I took the one to the right of the dining hall. This was a lot more interesting but at the same time couldn’t be used for a while. The hallway led to a huge vault encased in grey metal but the vault door was bent and deformed on the floor. Walking into the vault it was a massive 100-foot room that was completely empty besides a plain stone altar in the middle. I carefully walked up to the alter before a prompt popped up in front of me.
Command Center for Shadow’s Edge
Leader
None
Hit Points
???
Mana
???/???
Population
???
Alignment
???
Treasury
???
Level
???
Would you like to take command of Shadows edge? Yes/No. Race requirement: ???
Well I could definitely see this going in my favor. Having the suspicion that my ??? race was going to come into play I chose yes and watched as prompts popped up.
You have gained the title “Lord of Shadow’s Edge”
Discovered original name of “Black Fort”. Known to a few as “Shadows edge”. (+50 Fame)
You Now have access to the forts interface.
You have taken control a fort (+100 Fame)
Things were definitely getting interesting. I clicked on the fort interface and watched as the question marks were unblocked.
Lord
Lucian
Hit Points
0/0
Mana
10,000/10,000
Population
1
Alignment
Neutral
Treasury
0
Level
1
Well at least it unblocked it I thought as I saw the petty numbers. There was now a tab attached that said “Fort options. Clicking that, a flood of tabs came up. Interested in the “Hire mana workers” tab I entered that and saw all my options. There were hundreds of options but only a few were not greyed out. “Hire basic maintenance staff” (Cost 1,000 Mana). “Hire basic guard” (Cost 5,000 Mana). “Hire basic Laborer” (Cost 2,000 Mana). Deciding this place could definitely use a clean-up I hired 3 maintenance staff and my Cities mana pool dropped to 7,000. I hired a basic guard and a basic laborer for my next plans dropping my cities mana pool to exactly zero.
Hired three “Basic Maintenance staff” (This basic unit will only follow the simplest instruction and last only a day. Cannot give/receive physical damage.)-3,000 Mana
Hired one “Basic guard” (This basic unit will only follow the simplest instruction and last only a day. -10% physical damage. Base damage 10. Base health 50.)-5,000 Mana
Hired one “Basic Laborer” (This basic unit will only follow the simplest instruction and last only a day. Cannot give/receive physical damage)-2,000 Mana
The maintenance staff popped up first as a figure completely made out of what appeared to be solid shadow. Followed by the guard, and the laborer. All made out of shadows the only difference was that the guard stood about my height while the others only came to my shoulders. Looking at the maintenance staff first I decided to try and give them a verbal order “Clean this room”. Though vague, they started moving instantly and I watched amused as their arms and legs turned into brooms and duster appendages in order to remove the dust and cobwebs. I followed that order by telling them to start on the dining hall after that and precede to the mage room and staff quarters. While they cleaned in the background I told my Laborer and guard to follow behind me as I explored the rest of the fort. Going to the main hall I chose the hall to the right of what I had just been down and came upon a military barrack style set of rooms with a door leading to a room that appeared to be an old armory. I entered into the armory looking around at the empty racks when I saw a glint of silver. Walking over to the rack I saw a rusted dagger on the floor with and stooped to pick it up. I examined it and saw there were large nicks and extreme rust on the blade.
Found Item: trash Iron Dagger (Though it may look like junk, you could probably kill a level three bunny with it.) Damage: 2-3
Well that was uncalled for I thought thinking back to the painful memory I had with a certain level three bunny. Though the dagger was better than nothing, it was still weaker than what I assumed to be most starting weapons. I tried to think of a way to fix this when I decided to try a new spell. “Weapon”, “Restore”. I decided on two runes to keep it simple.
Not enough mana. Mana cost: 1,000
I guess you can’t win them all I thought. The cost for the mana seemed a little absurd but then again I had been getting quite a few freebies lately and it was a weapon. I checked the room once more and finding nothing I proceeded to the last a final room. At the end of the hall I came upon two sleek black obsidian doors. Rather than throwing caution to the wind like I did with the mage room doors I commanded my laborer to open the doors. Expecting him to burst into flames I was surprised when he continued standing there untouched after opening the doors. I strolled into the room and took in everything. It was a massive room as big as two football fields with crumbled obsidian benches lining the floor and a raised obsidian platform that was cracked with an altar on top made completely from what appeared to be condensed shadows like my workers. The difference was the pew seemed to be sucking the shadows in to an infinite darkness much darker that my basic workers. Proceeding forward until I reached the altar, I was greeted by a prompt that caused me to pause.
Congratulations!! You have found the First Temple of Darkness. Re-establish destroyed and forgotten religion? Yes/No?
Despite the cheery “Congratulations!!” I definitely caught a serious undertone. This is what I was here for though wasn’t it. This was why I had been started here. It seemed too easy though, almost like all of this was just the start of something much bigger. What would happen after I did this? Since when was the dark religion a good thing? As these thoughts popped through my head I remembered a line from the description of the game I’d seen on the tv “Play for the light or darkness, good or bad, because who’s to say the light is always pure and the dark is always malevolent.” As this came to mind, I made my decision.
[[[ATTENTION!!! ALL PLAYERS! THE ANCIENT DARK RELIGION HAS BEEN RE-ESTABLISHED. PICK SIDES NOW AS THE GODS OF OLD WILL NOW CLASH AGAIN. REMEMBER!!! THE GODS OF THIS WORLD SHOW NO MERCY TO THOSE WHO OPPOSE THEM SO CHOOSE WISELY!]]]
“Oh, you done screwed the pooch on this one” I whispered before being assaulted by prompts.
Congratulations! You have completed the quest “Restore the lost religion” +1000 Fame, +Experience
You have proven yourself to the Dark One. Race completely changed to ???
Congratulations! You are now level three!
Congratulations! You are now level four!
Congratulations! You are now level five!
…
Congratulations! You are now level ten!
“Wow…this feels like cheating” Is what I started to think, before I heard my name called from behind me. I spun around, seeing a man who appeared to be about 30 sitting in the now flawless obsidian room. Looking around I notices translucent torches lined the black walls giving the room plenty of light. The obsidian platform was no longer cracked and there was not a speck of dust anywhere. I took a moment to then study the man. D
efinitely around thirty he had dark tanned skin with shining black hair and eye’s that showed endless solar systems and cosmos in them. He was at least 6’2 and very heavily muscled covered in black scale armor. He radiated a sense of command and archaic energy that seemed to vibrate the atoms that I was made of and a heavy weight crashed upon my shoulders. I could only feel a sense of awe and devotion in his presence. As I started to bow, He spoke in a deep but pleasant voice “You need not bow to me first one.” As he said this the weight upon my shoulders was lifted and his energy was toned down but still present.
[Ability acquired] Divine Fortitude: Resist attempts from the mightiest gods to influence your mind(Passive)
Pleased with the gift, I knew this was the voice I had heard earlier in my trials. I waited for about a minute before I had gathered my thoughts. If I had learned anything from reading about these types of situations is was to not displease or look stupid in front of such a higher power. He spoke again this time standing up with haste and beckoning me to follow him. As I followed him I noticed the whole fort had been repaired and there wasn’t one thing out of place. Translucent torches now line the hallways and rotten doors were repaired. As I was following him I called my redundant maintenance workers to me and told them to fall in line behind the soldier and laborer. We made it to the courtyard when he finally stopped. It was midnight out and as I looked around I gasped as I saw the fort in all its glory. From its previous broken down state, it now boasted high smooth matte black walls with dangerous looking turrets at the end of each wall and the main structure showed dark runes sucking in light to provide some kind of mystical feel. I turned to the God of Darkness as he spoke “As you can see, I have given you many boons for bringing me back into this world even though I am still weak. I will continue to help you should you choose to continue. We have much to do but before we get started I must know if I have your absolute finality in your decision to join me.”
When he asked the question I didn’t hesitate to respond with an affirmative nod and “Yes, of course. I will do whatever is necessary”
He continued quickly after “As you have figured out. This religion and me are not something that evolves around demons and sacrifices. Darkness can be cruel and unforgiving but it is also caring and comforting to those who embrace it. Dark is necessary just as Light is. One does not stand for death and destruction while the other goodness and holiness. That is exactly what has been bred into the minds of the people on this world and yours. The Light has too long herded their sheep and coveted the power for themselves through claims of righteousness, and it must be stopped before they end up in control of this world. The light one has his priests poisoning the minds of the masses to believe his word is the only one, while those priests covet power for themselves. It is this injustice in the universe that allowed me the power to bring you here. The path that we now must tread is very real and very dangerous. While I work in the cosmos I must have your support from below. While the universe is displeased at the light one, it will start to notice if I favor you too much and continue to help you so blatantly. I have given you much and I shall depart one more gift before I leave, but first I must tell you what is needed. The Light One has many people under his influence and large armies that could sweep this fort from the land once more. We must not let this happen. You must array an opposing force either large or skilled enough to defend again his armies. The Light One also holds many minor gods under him as his heroes plunder divine dungeons and find the hearts of the gods to bring back to life. We must also acquire these, but those will come with time. Finally, the lands surrounding you are filled with some of the most dangerous beasts and dungeons in the land. While this may be seen a shield from others, it is also very dangerous as you’ve seen from before. You must array a force to stand against the Light One. I must leave, but I’ll leave you with this last gift and word of advice. “Look into the previous inhabitants of this fort and find your true race.” With those last words he disappeared in a quick implosion of shadow.
Title gained: First priest of The Dark One. As first priest you now have access to the Dark Ones altar. (Fame +500)
I took a took a moment to analyze what had happened. From what I could tell there seemed to be more to the story but he only had time to tell me the basics. I needed to come up with a plan of action and execute flawlessly. I looked over the town that was still in disrepair. Now that the fort was completely clean I was going to need to start on the town somehow. Shaking my head, I started towards the Dark Ones altar to see what could now be done. I walked up to the altar accessing an interface similar to the forts.
Religion
Dark One
Level
1
Religion points (Used to buy bonuses for Worshipers)
5
Mana (Can be used for fort, self, or religious spells)
15,000
Worshippers
1
Minor Gods
None
Bonuses
None
I opened up the tabs for religion and accessed “Religion points” to see what they were used for. A massive skill web popped up with three starting options. “Intelligence boost, Constitution boost, and Strength boost” each one added 1 point to the chosen attribute but cost five points. I quickly chose intelligence thinking you can never have enough mana before backing out to the other tabs. I clicked on the “Religious Spells” tab to see all but two options greyed out. “Destruction” and “Restoration” were the only two, and at least one seemed to be exactly what I wanted. Selecting my dagger and holding the altar I selected restoration and watched as the rust on the blade flaked off until it came to a dull and finally polished sign.
Item acquired: Common Iron Dagger (Damage: 6-7)
At least I didn’t get a sarcastic message this time I thought, as I headed to the fort’s interface to see what had changed. On my way their I decided I needed a plan of action and a character goal after I looked over the interface because I did not want to choose my stat points unwisely from here on out. When I got to the command center I checked the new stats.
Leader
Lucian
Level
3
Mana
30,000/30,000 (Able to use up to 2 miles out of city walls)
Population
1
Alignment
Dark
Treasury
0
Hit Points
Fort: 15,000,000/15,000,000
Alright! That was a lot of mana at my disposal I thought. I quickly started to formulate a plan. First things first I needed to secure the Town and rebuild the walls defense. To do this I was going to need a lot more workers, I opened up the Hire menu and saw the new tabs that popped up basically allowing for specialized workers which was exactly what I needed. I hired 9 Basic laborers bringing me to ten total, I then hired a specialized carpentry worker and basic guard bring me to 1,000 because the specialized worker cost me 6 large ones. As I backed out I saw something that completely changed the game. “Hire NPC’s” was a new tab that had opened up. I quickly jumped into the tab only to find myself slightly disappointed. The NPC’s cost money in this world and that was something I was painfully short of. A new item on my budding list was to now explore the land for valuables. I set my two guards to either side of me and ordered the ten laborers and to the forest the start cutting down trees so the carpenter could repair the front gate. This way I wouldn’t have any more wolf problems. As they left I decided it was time to start choosing my character build. I knew in the future I was going to be in many big battles, so crowd control was going to be very important. This meant a ton of mana, at the same time I am going to be by myself for most of my time so fighting one against many is also going to be big especially in the dungeons. Not to mention from what I’ve seen in other games and books, if I was going to lead, then I was going to be targeted by the highest level players on the battle field taking my focus away from crowd control.
Making my decision, I decided it would be best as a leader to be able to control large parts of the battle as a mage and at the same time be able to focus more targeted spells with my ability to create any spell. This meant getting people I could trust and building a strong force a top priority. I had 40 points to spend so I decided to compliment the mage route as much as possible. I put 20 Points into intelligence, 10 into wisdom, 9 into Constitution, and because I’m a little superstitious, one went into luck. This made my stats look pretty impressive.
Name/Title
Lucian(Lord of Shadow’s Edge. First Priest of The Dark One.)
Race
???
Class
None
Level
10(Percent towards next level: 0%)
Fame
1,850(Respect)
Health
240
Mana
900
Intelligence (1 point = 30 towards mana)
30
Constitution (1 point = 20 towards health)
12
Wisdom (1 point = +.5 mana per second)
15
Strength (1 point = x.1 physical damage.
3 [Damage modifier = (damage * .3)
Stamina
4
Dexterity
3