by Lucas Dunn
Sneak: You are able to slightly conceal your presence and noise. 10% reduction to noise and noticeability. -45% reduction to speed. [Level two]
Tracking: You are able to follow game by their tracks. [Level One]
Pain Constitution: You are able to ignore 1% of pain. [Level one]
Appraise: You are able to see name and level of most mobs. [Level one]
Quests
Summon a minor god
Array a force of at least 100 strong
Figure out your race
Chapter 17
I woke up to my alarm clock buzzing away. It had been a while since I slept in my bed and it felt good to be fully rested that way. I ran through my morning routine and was off to work. I wouldn’t have time today to browse through the web forums. So while I was at the office hopefully my NPC’s were working away in the plains grinding for experience. I expected everyone to at least be level fifteen by the time I was able to log on. I arrived at work and tried to shift The Savant Lands out of my mind. It was hard to ignore my co-workers excited chat throughout the day but most of them were at level ten or twelve so it was mostly boring chatter.
When I was on lunch break, I received a text from Jake explaining how he almost died a couple times already since he ditched the guys. He said he wouldn’t be able to make without me meeting him halfway. This got me thinking. I couldn’t even make it through my own forest so I don’t know how I expected him to do it now that he was angling for the fort. I sat munching on my sandwich thinking of the problem. I was going to have to wait a couple days to meet him in order to train. I wanted to be at least on par with those wolves in case we met up with them again. By the time I reached level thirty my units should have also, seeing as they can work about a third more that I can. Haden should be done with my clothes today, and I can get him to make a couple sets of leather armor for me and one other. Gannon my smith will be working on re-smithing the weapons hopefully to a common level. I will have him make a kite shield for the Elizabeth and give the tank my one handed axe. Blade’s swords were fine, but I wanted a short sword to replace the one I gave him. I also wanted him to have two knives so he would be plenty safe if he was disarmed or a sword broke. Overall we should all reach our class and be geared out enough to meet Jake.
Jake and I continued to shoot texts back and forth about where to meet. We ended up deciding to go to a village that was a little over halfway for him. Satisfied with my plan I returned focus back to work.
Chapter 18
At home and with a full belly I prepared for a busy night. I planned to get my people to advance as quickly as they could. That would mean I would probably be facing some wolves or rhino’s. Logging in, my village came into view. In the distance I could see four people walking towards the gates. Most likely Elizabeth, Jackson, Elif, and Blade. Making my way up to the fort I saw Haden working on the hides. As I walked up to him he acknowledged my presence with a nod.
“My lord, I have made you a set of decent clothes from the what the others were able to collect from the plain.” He said handing me a set of dark grey wolf pelts. “I have started on leather armor, but it will take at half day more to finish them along with some boots.”
Nodding my head in consent I spoke “I would like for you to make another set of leather armor for Elizabeth. We will be traveling soon and she will need the protection.”
Agreeing with me, I left the tanner and headed to Gannon. He was hammering away when I came up to him. He had a spear and two daggers already forged.
“What can this humble dwarf do for ye my lord.” Gannon said looking up and pausing his swinging.
“Well, some of us are going on a journey in a bit and I am going to be needing a couple things. The first being a kite shield and the second being a short sword to replace my lost one. Do you think you could do that?”
“Well me lord. The sword is no problem, but the kite shield will take me a while due to my lack of experience. Right now I am forging at common quality weapons, but the kite shield wouldn’t be a guarantee. I can make you an iron banded wooden one my lord, but without at least three or so days I won’t have enough time to bring a full iron shield up to common quality.”
Nodding my head in consent I told the dwarf to just make the iron banded round shield. Grabbing the spear and two daggers that were already forged, I headed down to meet my units. The old sheaths the kobolds used would do just fine. Upon reaching the gate I saw them all around a fire eating. Appraising them I whistled as I saw their level. Elizabeth was level 17, Blade 18, Jackson 14, and Elif 20. Elif had clearly taken to being there commanding officer as I watched her congratulating the other three and asking what could have been done better. Proud of them I walked up.
“I bring gifts!!” I handed the spear and axe to Elizabeth while she smiled appreciatively and practically threw the longsword at me saying all she needed now was a shield. “You’ll get that soon enough” I said laughing. Turning toward blade, I handed him the two daggers. He was now a very deadly walking arsenal. After handing out the weapons I asked how the training went. I could tell from the absurd amount of Lin cat, and bunny pelts it had gone extremely well but I still wanted to hear it from them.
Elif was the one who spoke up “It went very well my lord. We were all able to level up our main levels as well as some of our side skills. We had no problem with the wolves coming out of the forest, and nothing in the plains presents a threat to us except for the rhinos. The only thing I have to note is about the wolves, many of us seemed to feel a presence from the forest. We believe it to be them my lord. I think it would be wise to hunt them down before they hunt us down.”
Accepting her response, I replied slowly. “I can see your point about getting the wolves before they get us, but we are not ready. They are much higher levels than us and have abilities we have yet to match. We must wait a couple more days. Once we all reach level thirty we will go into the forest to hunt them. Not only that but we are going to be taking a trip to a small village in the forest to pick up a friend of mine. Until then we must get as strong as possible. From what we know of the forest. The wolves could be the easiest beasts there.”
Accepting my response, I turned to address the whole group. Rest up tonight, I will be by myself on the plains tonight which will help me grow a little faster. In two nights’ time, we will be hunting our hunters. Not waiting for a reply I exited through the gate. The rabbits avoided me like the plague which I found a little relieving. I hated games where mobs came at you even if they were level one and you were level one million. It just seemed impractical, besides the rabbits wouldn’t be much experience anyway. Still, any little bit of experience would help level up my magic which I used exclusively now.
After taking out big cats and hunting any rabbit that came into my for about thirty minutes, I finally leveled up. I immediately placed two points into intelligence to get my ability, and the rest into wisdom.
Congratulations! After reaching 50 in intelligence you have gained a new skill. Skills are given as gifts from the universe or hard work. You have been granted Mana creation: You can create physical objects through mana. Cannot make magical items. Not everyone receives the same skill or ability so use it wisely.
Congratulations! After reaching level 20 you may now pick a profession!
Wow, that was a pretty cool ability. I’m sure the mana cost was absurd, but I did have 40,000 mana available to me due to being a land owner. While I’m sure the skill will come in handy for the future, I didn’t have much of a use now. All of my troops were equipped and the dwarf had already started on the sword. I didn’t have a shield yet but we would have to wait until the dwarf made that anyway. The option to choose a profession completely caught by surprise but since I didn’t have any interest in smithing, being a merchant or any of the other many option I decided to hold off for a bit. At least until I chose a class at level 30.
I wanted to now face the rhinos, but I don’t think I had any spells capable of taking them down. My light
ning spell wouldn’t even make it twitch and I doubt my earth spell could pierce their tough hide. I would have to grind one of my magic’s, until I got another level up. Earth seemed the most plausible to stop them, so the next three hours was spent leveling it exclusively. Leveling up two more times in the process and dumping my points into wisdom and intelligence, before I got the glorious prompt.
Congratulations! You are now level 4 in earth magic. This magic can now be pulled from the outside environment to power your spells. Certain requirements may be required for some spells.
That was definitely interesting. I’m assuming that related to large effect spells like causing a tidal wave. You couldn’t just make a tidal wave appear out of nowhere to wipe out an army, but if you were near a body of water it would more plausible. Excited with the prospects I tried to create a powerful spell for earth that would stop an enemies charge. A muddy sinkhole came to mind and I quickly tried it.
Combining Magic’s requires skills to be level five in both. Raise earth and water magic to level five.
This left me disappointed because it meant I had just spent the last two hours leveling earth magic for an effect I couldn’t think how to use. The only thing I got was another upgrade to my spells damage which was impressive, and not near as costly depending on the amount of the sources magic was around. It made sense to be able to cast larger spells in the game you couldn’t keep just adding mana criteria, but you would also have to make a system that lessened the strain at some point. Sighing I decided to use my remaining seven hours or so to level up my air and dark magic.
Receiving the prompt for dark magic long ago bringing it to level three, I finally got the one for air magic. I stopped and decided to test out the limits of the new level up. The reason I chose air was its practicality. It wasn’t useful for damage, but it was extremely useful when it came to disorganizing larger groups and fucking things up in general. I had a special plan and spent the next five minutes working on my next wind spell.
Spell created. Small tornado: This force of nature is uncontrollable and must be released once cast. Mana cost: 1,500. Time needed: 5 seconds
Grinning maliciously, I made sure I was at least half a mile away before I turned towards the open plains. I started pouring mana into the spell at a steady rate. A small cyclone form on the palm of my hand and picked up speed insanely quick and before I knew it five seconds had passed. Unable to control the fury that was the tornado any longer I sent it forward. To say it tore through the plains would be an understatement. I watched as unlucky animals were ripped away from the ground and into the tornado only to be flung out an instant later. The tornado must have been traveling at least at 40 miles an hour tearing clods of dirt out of the ground. The winds finally started to die down after it reached a half mile into its journey disappearing like it was never there. The only thing in its wake was the deep groove it left in the earth and bare landscape that it had traveled through.
Laughing maniacally, I stopped myself and turned it into a cough concerned I was turning into the stereotypical bad guy. The tornado was effective now, but I couldn’t even imagine its power once it reached medium or large.
As I returned to the gates every NPC waited for me asking what happened and asking if that was an attack. Pointing out first of all it was going the wrong way and second of all no one was on the plain but me. I then casually explained it was a new spell I had, and walked to the fort acting like nothing amazing had happened. As I was reaching the fort, Henry the mason called me from behind.
“My lord, I was wondering if you might be able to give me more workers. The ones assigned have already disappeared and I need them to build the dwarf a full forge instead of the temporary one he has set up.”
“Of course Henry, let me head to the command center and I’ll get some from there”. As soon as I said that Henry got a puzzled look.
“Anything else you need” I said noticing the look.
“No my lord, It’s just that you always go to the command center to access your resources. It seems like a waste of time if you would excuse my choice of words because I’m sure you have a reason.”
I definitely didn’t have a reason. Embarrassed I mentally thought of my forts command center like I did my stats and it popped up. Using mana to hire the workers and an extra one from the altar I realized what I had read a while ago. I’m able to use the forts mana up to two miles outside the radius of the walls. Groaning, I hit myself in the head and earned a weird look from Henry. Ignoring him and walking into the fort I contemplated a whole new strategy against the kobolds and every other living thing within my domain.
Chapter 19
Arriving at work I quickly went through another grey day, excited to return to the game and start my new plan. Jake would be arriving at the village soon and I needed to head his way. The problem still stood that the forest was dangerous to us. My NPC’s should all be level twenty or above by the time I got home tonight, which meant the creatures in the forest at the very least had a ten level lead. I had thought all day for a solution to that problem and I had come to the conclusion I needed more units. I had been giving off the vibe of a military leader and I intended to show my force tonight.
After getting home from work and making due with some light instant noodles for dinner, I hopped into the capsule. The familiar blackness surrounded me and quickly changed to the main hall of the fort. I quickly strolled out of the castle shouting for all of my warriors and buffer to get ready at the gate.
“Today we are going to clear out a dungeon. Listen closely because I am only going to say the plan once.” I said in a voice that left no room for questions.
As we walked to the door, I flung a fireball at the two scouts. The fireball struck directly between the two, slamming into the door, just as planned. The two kobolds yelped in surprise and quickly ran through the door. Continuing the walk with my unit, we appeared five minutes later to a kobold army of roughly 100 not including the “Master” in the front. Striding forward into the silence and onto the first step that overlooked the cavern. I was only fifty feet away from their army but I stood on the high ground due to the steps. As my group followed behind me looking unsure, the Kobold “Master” spoke.
“Why do you harass us stranger. We have done you no harm, but yet you have invaded our home and killed our people”. It spoke with a slight hiss but overall made a reasonable query.
Prepared for this I responded in the like. “Why, it is not I who have invaded your home, but you have invaded mine. I come into my own mines to find creatures of another’s creation attacking me. I was merely defending my land and its people. Should you have greeted me in these lands these mistakes may not have happened.”
“You must be mistaken” it hissed. “The last master of these lands was killed hundreds of years ago and no one has been able to rule over these lands. None are left to meet its requirements. You speak falsely and have no right to claim these things. Speak quickly” Glaring it formed a ball of darkness in its hand that was clearly drawing in the darkness around it.
Noticing the dark ball, I realized it must be level four at the very least which meant it could do some serious danger. I finally looked over the Master and tried to use appraise but a prompt showed up explaining my lackluster appraise level wasn’t high enough. Needing to defuse the situation quickly I decided to show my power of earth magic. I cast my spell from the castles mana creating a ten-foot thick solid stone barrier that shot upward thirty feet completely Isolating the Kobold from his army, leaving only his two guards on either side.
Turning back from looking at the impressive display of magic. The kobold spoke again a little uncertain but still with strength I admired. “What is it want from us. What reason do you have for this?”
Choosing my next words carefully, I spoke trying to enact the final stage of my plan. “Like I said before, you are in my lands. Now you have called me a liar and have threatened me. I have merely shown attacking is pointless and that I would
prefer to be diplomatic.” As I said it I went into my settings and turned on my Lord of Shadows edge title, as well as my name.
If a Kobold could drop its jaw, then the two guards surrounding their leader definitely came as close as possible. The “Master” kobold however guarded his emotions carefully only showing a look of surprise. “The rumors are true then? The dark one has returned?” It spoke as it let its dark ball dissipate into the surroundings. Sighing heavily the kobold continue to speak lowering its eyes “I am truly sorry, I did not believe it was true. You have shown me proof of your power and of your title.” Looking into my eyes it asked a question with a serious undertone “Now that the Dark one as returned, that means The Light One and The Dark One are preparing for battle. You have shown you are able to meet the demands to rule the castle but there are others who can meet that demand. Prove whose side have you chosen for we only serve one”
Confused about there being others able to meet the “Demands” of the castle, which clearly meant race. I quickly deducted he wanted me to prove I had chosen either The Dark One or Light One. Grinning wolfishly, I replied with “Very well” and released my last title. First Priest of The Dark One.
The atmosphere instantly changed. All three kobold dropped to their knees with their rat like snouts practically touching the floor. The two guards quivered while the main kobold spoke. “I am sorry for such insolence. We would never wish to disrespect someone with such prestige to the Dark one. We will accept any punishment in order to regain that what we once had.”
Your relationship with The Stone Kobold clan and every kobold has changed to loyal ally.
Relishing in the power, I grinned but slowly the grin withdrew. I grew concerned for a second as this was the second time in a short while I noticed myself becoming lost in my own power. Quickly grabbing ahold of my thoughts I decided to get my head in the game. No pun intended. If I was going to get an army it would not be done by standing around with my dick in my hands. I had to get real and this is where it started.