"I see."
"I'm not really sure about the deathlords but on the vampires' side, everyone obeys the Father. Even the vampires Grand Judges. But he understands the power balance better than most and when he orders the judges to pressure a decision, he is always sure they can get away with it. He is the most powerful vampire of all and not doing what he wants means death for a vampire and war for the deathlords."
"So, unless the deathlords are willing to start an all-out war over something, they would not face the Father directly. Don't they have someone equally powerful?"
Eternal shrugged. "I heard they had a woman, not as powerful as the Father, but capable of uniting the Deathlords in common goals. But she retired to a prison or something and the deathlords have been struggling ever since."
"I wonder who who she might be?" I said quickly. Eternal just looked at me confusedly. "Sorry. Go on."
"Under the Father, there are the clans. There were thirty-three originally but after thousands of years, only seventeen remain. Each has a Prince – like the Sophus clan – or a Princess who governs it with absolute power. Under him or her come the Vampire Lords, the nobility of pure-blooded vampires."
"Wait, what do you mean by pure-blood? Vampires are created by biting people, aren't they?"
"Not in Valia, I mean, not always. There are the pure-blooded vampires, the direct descendants of the thirty-three original clans, who are made the... Original way."
"Sex."
"Yes. But vampires are less fertile than humans, and as much as they enjoy warmongering, that's why they don't overflow the Underworld. The pure-blooded are the only ones who have any political power. A pure-blooded will either be a vampire lord or someone important in the military. Very few of them are put into slavery, that being the utmost offense to a vampire family. Except when they are Travelers, it seems." He touched his collar.
"Yeah, xenophobia is a big thing in the Underworld. But what about the First Lord?"
"I'm getting there. The Vampire Lords are powerful, but they are not in line to become a Prince. The Prince or Princess of each clan names both a First Lord and a First Lady. These two struggle for political power, seeking support among the Vampire Lords, and should the Prince or Princess die, the First Lord and the First Lady fight to the death for the position as the new head of the clan. Civil war is common in such cases."
"Wait, what? Wouldn't that weaken the clan?"
"Yes. That's also something that the First Lord wants to change. It's a waste of our people." I took note of the way he said 'our' people. "At least Princes and Princesses live for a very long time. Umbrus, the current Prince, has governed for almost three hundred years now and unless we get into a war that forces him to fight he's not likely to die anytime soon."
"I see." And I did. It seemed mister Big Heart had a lot more to win in an all-out war in Dakar then he let on, but I guessed Eternal wouldn't want to hear about it.
"And do you know anything about magic?"
His face brightened. "Sure! I'm a mage!"
"What, really? That's great! Me too!"
"I'm fire and water, what about you?"
"Darkness, death and fire."
"Three elements, isn't that a little too much? What about the spread penalty?"
"The what?"
"Spread penalty. You know, when you get more than two magic elements, you need ten intelligence points for each. Ten intelligence for three elements, twenty for four and so on. If you don't, you get- Wait a second, if you don't know about that, does it mean you have more than ten intelligence points?"
"I guess."
"Whoa. I have been training directly under the First Lord and I'm still on nine intelligence points. How did you even get that high?"
"Well, you know, a little of fighting here and there. Maybe the First Lord is holding out on you?" His face darkened and I decided to add a little flourish. "You know, because he doesn't want to let go of you." The dark mood on his face became a happy blush.
"No, he wouldn't do that. He is a First Lord and having stronger people, including slaves, is better for him."
Unless it isn't. Unless he is afraid you could wreck him if you got too strong, too quickly, without proper time to make it seem as if you owe him big time.
I stopped my line of thoughts. Politics, again. Better to change the topic.
"I see. Makes sense, I guess. So, where can a man get some monsters to kill around here?"
He shrugged. "I don't know."
"Wait, what? You never hunted monsters in the Valia?"
"I have!" He said too quickly. "Sometimes the First Lord brings me to the basement where he has a- A big mean monster waiting for me to kill."
The pause was not subtle. He was probably killing rats. "Great! Then come with us. Daggers and I are going to find ourselves some monster subjugation quest and have some fun."
"We are?" Daggers asked.
"Sure, you said you were coming with me. Don't tell me you are afraid?" I goaded.
"No." She said simply, but there was a little fire on her tone.
"Good." I turned to Eternal and he was visibly about to make up an excuse to not go. "If the girl is not afraid, it's our duty as powerful, honorable, bold, and manly men not to fall behind. Let's go!" I gulped the remaining wine in my cup and went to the door. They followed.
Quest: Help Production Cave 4
B rank
Gabats have been attacking livestock in Production Cave 4.
The guards can deal with the attacks, but the Prince has forbidden them to pursue investigation, claiming it might be a trick aimed at provoking the Sophus clan into war – something that should not be allowed over a few livestock, but would be inevitable over the lives of his valuable soldiers.
Gabats are known for having kings and, when a king is lost, it takes them some time before a new one arises.
You must find the king of the gabats and kill it.
Conditions:
» Kill the king of the gabats
» Bring proof of the deed
It took us half an hour to find a guard with a quest, but we finally did. He was a common guard coming from outside the city and told us he was just coming from the production cave. He was sure the First Lady, also known as the Captain of the Guard, would be happy if we took care of the gabats problem for her.
Even though it was B ranked, I was confident we could handle it. I had, after all, done a B- ranked quest by myself when I had killed the spider queen. What were the odds that I would find another boss who could summon a zombie army?
I mean, according to the guard, gabats were only giants bats. Which meant no silk spitting like the giant spider and easier times ahead.
We stopped by Eternal's room – a guest room just like mine and Daggers' –, for him to put his mage robe on, by our room so that Daggers could pack some food under her cloak – probably a concealed backpack –, and we went for it.
Eternal provided me with a Worn Sun-Crystal-Resistant Cloak, a light gray one, almost white, its purpose was to prevent the harmful effects the sun crystals had on undead. He showed surprise when I said I had walked by the crystals for half an hour without going unconscious and I called Marbareus names as I did so.
The crystal forest was much more beautiful when I wasn't in pain, but the big crystals made it difficult to see what lay ahead. Thankfully, Eternal knew the way to the cave and I was liking the gullible guy more and more. He led us through a kind of maze made by the larger crystals and after only ten minutes of walking we arrived at a chamber entrance protected by a group of five vampire guards and no less than fifty ghoul slaves.
The vampires were in full plate armor with the usual blue cloak and had both swords and crossbows. The ghouls had only leather armor on and were clearly suffering because of the crystals, making it clear that they were there only to be a flesh wall and provide distraction should an enemy appear.
"State your business," one of the vampires ordered, and it was weird when his hostility wa
s directed not towards me, but towards Daggers.
He can't see through my illusion, huh?
"We are here to investigate the gabats attacks," Eternal said.
The guard relaxed. "About time, not even these ghouls deserve to be sacrificed to the damn beasts. I heard they keep you alive for days so you can recover your blood enough for them to suck more of it out of you."
Said the humanitarian vampire.
The quest updated with the new information and I frowned. What sacrifice was he talking about? Better not to ask, since he could deny us entry and after almost dying at the hands of the recruit guard, I was pretty confident of my death should I attack five non-recruit ones.
It didn't take long for the answer to present itself, though. We passed through the entrance and found ourselves in a big chamber full of plantations and livestock. There were still big sun crystals here and there on the floor, providing a nice illumination together with the crystals on the walls and ceiling, but the smaller ones had been completely cleared. Metal structures – small houses, barns, and fences, mainly – were scattered through the place.
Beacows were the main livestock, followed by a species that looked like a mix of giraffe and elephant and some giant cats. The plantations had multiple vegetables, not all of them looked like stuff from Earth.
Ghoul slaves were everywhere, and so were vampires who managed the former using whips. In the middle of the cave, tied to high stakes and still alive, were ten ghouls.
"Holy shit, is it what the quest calls 'dealing with the attacks'?"
"They are surely criminals," Eternal said defensively.
"So what, they deserve to be tied and sacrificed to some big monster just because they didn't do what the very just and wise vampire slavers told them to do?"
He shrugged. "For all we know, they might be murderers and rapists."
"Great argument. Why don't we go and find out?" I started walking towards the center of the cave when a big shadow passed over us.
"Bats!" Multiple people yelled, and as one every worker in the cave threw themselves to the floor. Believing the wisdom of the natives, I did the same.
Gabats were not the slightly oversized bats I had expected. They were really giant – two to three meters long – and scary. They were black, hairy and instead of having arms and wings in a single structure, they had huge wings on their backs and four brawny arms. Instead of common bats heads, they had wolves ones.
There were five of them and they all wore black scaled armor and had four swords sheathed on their waists.
B ranked quest my ass, I doubt we can fight two of the damn things head on.
They didn't even look around, going directly to the stacks. Each of them bit a ghoul's head off, swallowed it in a gulp then put their big mouths on the neck stump, from where they drank all the blood from the ghouls' bodies like a straw.
Bat-wolves using neck straws. Valia could be weird at times.
The other ghouls in the stacks were screaming by then, but the big monsters just ignored them until they finished. Then, each one of them took a sword, cut the binding of the remaining ghouls, grabbed them and flew away.
Only the headless and bloodless corpses of the five ghouls remained to tell the story.
"Care to review your opinions?" I asked Eternal after the bewilderment left me.
"Better them than hard-working people," he said weakly.
As if the game was trying to prove him wrong – which it might well be for all I knew – one of the whip holding vampires nearby pointed to exactly ten ghouls saying. "Him, him, him..." They tried to run, but the other ghoul slaves took them by force. The targeted ones screamed and cried in despair.
"Better them than me, I guess," I whispered and this time Eternal didn't offer an excuse.
The path the gabats had taken was pretty straightforward, directly to a hole in the chamber wall, some ten meters above the ground.
"Let's go," I said. "Damn bats aren't going to kill themselves for us."
"Are you crazy?" Eternal protested. "Didn't you see them? They are huge! And armed!"
"So? You expected them to be tied and waiting for us to finish them?"
"No!" He said too quickly.
"Don't worry, bro, I'm not suicidal; I also don't think we can complete the quest. But we must at least try. We've never fought together, so maybe little Daggers here will prove herself a very badass fighter and make our lives easier," I said sarcastically.
"But... What if we die?"
"Relax, man. This is a Valia, so I'm pretty sure we will find a few of the beasts alone first so we can test our strength. Plus, you will be the one in the back, being a pure mage and all. If anything happens, you'll be the first out of the cave. Ok?"
He sighed. "Okay."
"Good. Let's go, Daggers."
"Are you sure?" Was all she asked.
"Yep. Trust me, I know what I'm doing!"
"Famous last words," Eternal mumbled to himself as he followed.
Jack Thorn
Unbound Deathlord
Legendary Spotter, Hedge Wizard, Pioneer, Dark Archmage
Level 10
Hit Points:249 / 275
Mana Points:535 / 620
Stamina:190 / 210
Attributes:
Strength:7
Agility:7
Dexterity:6
Constitution:8
Intelligence:14
Perception:6 + 10 [Items]
Willpower:9
Charisma:7
Traits:
Adept Mage:11 + 10 [Items]
Adept Controller:11
Energizer:3
Diviner:2
Gold Digger:2
Scavenger:2
Antimage:1
Athlete:1
Crafter:1
Healer:1
Meditator:1
Mind Seer:1
Negotiator:1
Nitpicker:1
Shadow:1
Warrior:1
15. Cat Theory
'Trust no one.'
- Mother
We bought a rope and a pickaxe from a vampire in the fields and got to the cave without problem.
Once there, Daggers climbed first after a quick check of our dexterity. We didn't go ahead and spill out exact numbers, but she claimed hers was higher than ten, which was almost double mine.
I took the time to rest and restore my HP and MP, then created two fireball morbs, a death one, and a darkness one; fireball morbs were 30 MP morbs intended to be used for level three fireballs. When we finally got to the cave entrance, we saw a tunnel, large enough for of us to go side by side if we so desired and at least three times my height.
"So, Daggers, who goes first? Are you any good defending yourself?"
"I am, but I am better focusing on attack."
"Okay. I go first and tank the enemies." Tanking enemies was RPG speak for the guy who took the enemies hits so other people with less HP or worse defense could attack without worry. "You go second and attack as soon as you get in position, and Eternal go-" I stopped mid-sentence when a strong light illuminated the cave much further and brighter than my fire morbs.
Eternal had cast Fire of Revelation, the spell which created a small flame for lighting purposes. I looked at him in disbelief. "You can't see in the dark?"
"No," he said ashamed.
"Okay, whatever. Just put the flame as far ahead of you as you can and try not to make yourself a target." He obeyed and the flame went two meters ahead of him. "You know what, I'm not going to be able to cast many spells since I'm the tank. Let me take care of the light, you just focus on attacking."
Fire of Revelation. One of my fire morbs became a floating flame and I put it a little above and ahead of me. Eternal dispelled his own spell and walked with two fire morbs and a water one; apparently, he could only have three.
Well, I could have four, so I created a fourth one again. Or at least tried to. The moment I focused on the pain of my bitten tongue to cr
eate the morb, a new message appeared on the bottom left log.
Active magic limit (4) reached
Crap. Having an active spell prevented me from creating a morb. It made sense to prevent abuses, but I didn't have to like it.
"Any of you knows how to create a party in this world?"
"No," they said in unison. "But I can do a quick travel out to check," Eternal completed.
"Good idea. We'll wait."
"Okay."
Instead of fading out, his body simply froze.
"Huh? Why isn't he fading out?" I asked Daggers.
"Safe zone."
"Care to elaborate?"
"Did you not get a popup message about it the first time you traveled out?"
"I'm on a Dreamer, I never travel out."
"Oh. That's sad."
"Huh?"
"No one cares enough about you to force you out of the game. I am sorry." Strange thing is, she did sound sorry.
She phrased that in a strange way. I mean, what about the fact that I didn't care enough about the real world to log out? I wasn't interested in that discussion, though.
"So, safe zones?"
"When you play with a VirBridge..." That's what the IR helmet was called. "...you get a status icon under the health bar telling you if it is a safe zone. They are mainly inns, bedrooms and so on."
After a few seconds waiting for her to go on, I understood she was done speaking. "You are not very good at explaining stuff, are you?"
"Not to people who do not know what to ask."
Great, another player with an attitude.
I sighed and pointed at Eternal. "This is what happens when people travel out outside of a safe zone? No workarounds?"
"In an unsafe zone you must stay out of combat for ten minutes before traveling out, or your body stays behind until the requirements are met." She seemed to have stopped explaining before adding information a few seconds later. "If there are enemies nearby, if you get attacked, or if you attack anyone, the waiting time resets." She gestured with her head to Eternal. "I would never trust you with my body that way." She meant 'character', but 'body' was a good substitute word.
Unbound Deathlord: Challenge Page 27