by Aleron Kong
5) Movement Speed III (forest): +30% Movement Speed in forest
6) Skilled Positions:
Tank II: +20% to aggro, +10% Defense, +5% Defense to any ally within ten yards
Scout II: +20% to Concealment, can “assign” enemies and entire party will see their level and position
Healer II: +20% to healing spells, first aid and other healing efforts. -5% cost to healing
7) Lead by Example: War Leader can adopt the bonuses of any Skilled Position up to rank II
8) Favored Enemy I (goblin): When fighting goblins:
+20% Melee and Ranged Attack and Defense
+12% Magical Strength (all Basic Elements)
+8% Magical Defense (all Basic Elements)
9) Power Level I: 10% of war party’s total experience may be funneled to one member
10)Sphere of Influence I: +100% range of Sphere of Influence
Seeing his progression as a War Leader made his choice easy. The main difference between Promotions and Badges were that promotions had to be earned in battle. They reflected the actions and deeds of a war party. He had gained Overwhelming Odds, for instance, when his warband had fought off an enemy twenty times their number. Badges, on the other hand, were purchased with War Points earned in battle. The higher his rank in the War Leader skill, the more badges were available to be bought. The perks were high enough that anyone in his warband would have a serious edge in battle. Because of that, he wouldn’t risk anyone else in the dungeon.
“Caulder, arrange everyone not in the warband to guard this position. If we have to make a speedy retreat, I want to make sure that we’re not running into new enemies as we flee the old ones. Then I want our party down that hole. Remind everyone that the mist lights show where there are pits. It’s time to get to work.”
“Sir,” was Caulder’s simple reply. He clapped a fist to his heart and started giving orders. Two minutes later, the warband entered the lair.
CHAPTER 64 – Day 144 – Kuborn 34, 0 AoC
The plan was simple. They would use the crypt mistress potion to draw the skeletons away from the doorway and into the first corridor. Then they would spring a trap. Ideally, they could take the skeletons down with a minimum of noise. The last thing Richter wanted was fifty more undead spilling in from the next room. It was enough to make him nostalgic for the days of playing simple MMORPGs.
Back then you could draw aggro on a few monsters at a time. You could even rely on mobs stupidly following you while you kited them around a room. Unfortunately, real life was far less convenient. Here, if his warband made too much noise then the undead in the next room could hear and they could notify the entire nest. It was that fear of noise that made him forbid the meidon sprites from imbuing their arrows. If they had any hope of keeping this first battle quiet, they had to avoid the booms that accompanied the sprites’ racial skill.
Alma flew forward to spy upon the bodaks again. Thankfully they were in the same place. Then he started dual casting. The first spell was Summon Weak Saproling. A five-foot-tall green disc appeared, bringing with it the faint scent of evergreens. It added to the luminescence of the hall, but Richter was casting directly by the entrance. A quick check of what Alma could see showed the skeletons weren’t reacting. Once the forest elemental was standing next to him, he cast Akaton Evolution.
For the next four seconds, grey light surrounded his hands. The feeling of oneness and contentment that came the last time he used Chaos magic filled him again. He knew in his very soul that this was the Power he had been meant for! A beam of swirling Chaotic energy poured into the saproling and it began to change. The deer-shaped creature reared back on its hind legs and began to shrink. In a few seconds, it had lost half of its mass and was now a solid wood creature with a humanoid form. Thorns studded its body in various places and it had a wreath of small green leaves on top of its head, giving the appearance of shaggy hair.
Know This! Your spell Akaton Evolution has evolved your Saproling into a Thorn Elemental, 1 of 3 possible evolutions. Attack increased by +3. Defense decreased by 3. Your new creature is a magic caster. Known Spells: Entangle, Poison Thorn, and Sleep Pollen. Special Abilities: Fire Thorns.
The little creature stood at the ready. It was only three feet tall, but its mana pool had expanded up to four hundred and eighty-three points. It had less health and stamina than the saproling, but its magical abilities made up for that. Unfortunately, the last two, Poison Thorn and Sleep Pollen, were unlikely to work against the undead. Entangle could come in handy though. Richter made eye contact with it to form a weak psychic bond then cast his next spell.
Green light surrounded his hands again as he dual cast the summoning of his chokespore arachnid. The spider came through a portal and stood in place awaiting instructions. The holes in its abdomen could release hundreds of thousands of spores that would incapacitate anything that breathed them in. Again, not super-useful against skeletons, but he was hoping he could evolve it into something better. A few seconds later, it was suffused with Chaotic energy. It swelled to twice its original size!
Know This! Your spell Akaton Evolution has evolved your Chokespore Arachnid into a Solvent Spider Queen, 1 of 4 possible evolutions. Attack +5. Defense +4. Speed -30%. Special Abilities: Acidic Spit, Birth
The spider was a great deal less mobile, but was undeniably more powerful. Its acid abilities were cool, but the birth ability apparently let it summon tiny versions of itself all with their own acid abilities. Richter was more than pleased.
Everyone else had started coating their weapons with the Sun Lotus Poison. It might have been overkill, but one mistake Richter didn’t plan on making was underestimating his enemy. His summoned spider climbed the wall then crossed over onto the ceiling, hanging suspended upside down in the middle of the tunnel. Everyone else hugged the shadows. With his preparations complete and all possible buffs cast, Richter took out the Allure Potion of the Crypt Mistress. He unstoppered the vial and had to fight the urge to immediately vomit. The potion might have been catnip to undead creatures, but to him it smelled like prison sex in June when the AC was out.
Richter walked to the end of the hall and poured it out right before the next corridor began. The smell intensified tenfold and he ran away from it covering his nose and mouth with the edge of his cloak. Alma complained in his mind about the stench, which was saying something. He’d literally seen her eat the ass out of a rat before. Their discomfort didn’t matter though. All that mattered was what happened to the bodaks.
The skeletons almost immediately oriented on the end of the hallway they were in. Their teeth started clacking together in excitement. It wasn’t a language. If it was, Richter’s Gift of Tongues ability would have activated, but he’d be damned if it didn’t look like they were talking to each other. First one, then the other two started walking towards the scent. They walked normally at first, but then their weapons started sagging lower as they sped up. Richter didn’t even know how a skeleton could smell, not having a nose, a brain, or any other flesh, but then, how the hell could a bunch of bones even walk around?
Richter watched them through Alma’s eyes until they turned the corner. One of the bodak’s weapons was actually dragging on the ground behind it. They were all focused on reaching the epicenter of the demoness’ musk. Once they did, the two melee skeletons dropped to their hands and knees to be even closer to where the potion had fallen onto the rocky ground. Only the Warrior resisted the powerful lure and still looked around for danger, but it was clearly distracted.
It didn’t matter, it was too late. Richter gave three mental commands in quick succession. Each was obeyed without question. Alma aimed her primary attack, Psi Blast, at the three skeletons. She narrowed the beam to its strongest intensity and fired. The undead were less susceptible than the living to Thought attacks, skeletons especially so, but most still required mental energy to function. The bodaks’ enchanted mentation worked against them, giving her attack even more fertile ground. All three s
keletons suffered from Stun, one was afflicted with Disorientation, and all three took direct health damage.
The spider struck next. Without even detaching from the ceiling, it released its brood. Hundreds of quarter-sized spiders emerged from the holes in its abdomen. The pure-white spiderlings fell like deadly snow. They festooned the three stunned skeletons and began biting. The damage from their tiny mouths didn’t even take away a whole point of health, but the acidic magical damage was another matter entirely. A small green glow came from the bite of every spider. Every moment their mouths were attached, more of the bones dissolved. The skeletons stood there taking hits from dozens of spiders each, the fractions of individual damage adding up to six to seven damage per second.
The thorn elemental executed the third attack even as the spiderlings were falling. At Richter’s order, it cast Entangle. Roots broke through the rocky ground and wound their way up to the waists of each bodak. All the attacks took five seconds to complete, which was all the time the Warrior skeleton needed to shake off the Stun effect. It had barely lost twenty health from the spiderlings and it immediately oriented on Richter’s party. Its teeth clacked together as it began to raise its bow.
It didn’t get the chance. Richter cast two spells in rapid succession. Two balls of light shot from his hands and affixed themselves to the bodak. It both gave his people a clear view of the undead at the end of the darkened hallway, and signaled his command to attack!
All four meidon sprites released simultaneously. Their shots weren’t imbued, but their arrows were coated with the Sun Lotus Poison. Entangled as the skeletons were, there was no chance for the sprites to miss. Two arrows struck the Warrior and one struck both of the lower level undead.
The damage from the shots was not something to be shrugged off. The sprite bows weren’t quite as powerful as Richter’s larger version, but each sprite’s Archery skill was considerably higher. Each skill level added another 2% to the base damage. The bodaks lost twenty to thirty health from each shot and were rocked back, but that was nothing compared to the poison. At the site of each impact, waves of golden light started spreading through their bony bodies, wreaking more damage every second. One of the melee fighters added to the pandemonium by attacking his fellow. Alma’s Disorient caused the skeleton to attack one of the only two targets he could reach while ensnared by the thorn elemental’s spell.
As great as the poison was, the Warrior bodak was barely fazed. It had lost 30% of its health and was losing more every second from the poison, but the health loss was being resisted. The skeletons were losing twenty-five to thirty-five points of health per second rather than the forty to sixty that Richter had been hoping for. It was just another example of how many factors came into play during battle. Tabia’s poison was potent, but the bodaks evidently had some limited resistance to either Life magic or poison in general.
Given enough time, the poison would most likely cause at least the two melee bodaks to succumb, but Richter wasn’t about to let the Warrior use a Talent that would screw all of them. The chaos seed ordered, “Attack!” and the third phase of the trap was triggered. Richter and the other melee fighters rushed forward to engage the three skeletons.
The archer was raising its bow again. Without breaking stride, Richter reached up and drew his elementum short sword. His arm whipped forward and threw the green blade at the Warrior. The elementum blade flew through the air and struck the entrapped skeleton. The blade bit through one of its rib bones and rattled around inside of its chest. The hilt got caught on another of its bones and the blade remained hanging inside of the undead at an angle.
The throw caused another forty-two points of slashing and sonic damage, but that wasn’t the real point. It also disrupted the skeleton’s attempt to fire. The arrow it had pulled from its quiver fell to the ground. The skeleton turned its head to glare at Richter, which was just fine by the chaos seed. Thanks to his high stats, Richter was almost a blur while he sprinted towards the Warrior.
With both hands on the hilt of his second weapon, he brought it down with crushing force onto the skeleton’s head. It was not his moonstone short sword he swung, powerful though the weapon was. No, this was a weapon suggested by Krom when the dwarf heard that Richter would most likely be fighting skeletons soon. According to Krom, “The bony bastards have a naturally high resistance to slashing weapons, but they drop to their knees like a grateful wife if ye just smash them!”
That was why they had enchanted the white metal mace he was holding.
Richter strikes Bodak Warrior with Mace for 178 points of varied damage: [(+25 Crushing Damage from Shadow Life Moonstone Mace) x (10% susceptible to Crushing Damage + 6% for level 2 Mace Wielding + 66% for 33 points of Strength) – (8 Armor x 0.87 Ignore Armor) + (+3 Life Damage x 2 vs Death)] x 4 critical strike to head.
The Warrior’s skull fractured and one of its mandibular joints snapped. Its head whipped away from the force of the blow, but then it snapped back, looking right into Richter’s face with its cold, emotionless sockets. Before he could recover, it activated a Warrior Talent from its previous life. While most of its Professional attacks required the use of its bow, Stun Punch did not.
It consumed thirty points of the skeleton’s stamina, but that meant almost nothing. The undead burn almost no stamina through their normal exertions. A bony fist struck Richter in the chest just below the clavicle and he lost control of his body. He began to fall, but could still see the skeleton rearing back to hit him again. Then a black-and-grey streak swooped down and attached herself to the skeleton’s head. Richter’s internal cursing turned to laughter as he continued to fall. His two summoned creatures attacked the skeleton as well.
You mess with me you mess with my whole crew, he thought as loudly as he could.
CHAPTER 65 – Day 144 – Kuborn 34, 0 AoC
The three bodaks succumbed quickly after that. Richter was only stunned for a few seconds, his high Constitution and Endurance counteracting the debuff. Once the skeletons were destroyed, Caulder quickly formed another skirmish line facing the doorway the three had been guarding. Thankfully, no other undead came through. The ambush had gone swimmingly. Richter was actually the only injury, and the damage he received was minor. A quick healing spell from his familiar was all he needed to be back to full capacity.
Richter quickly absorbed the knowledge from the post-battle prompts.
You have been awarded 14,762 experience (base 337,418 x 0.07 x 1.25 x 0.5) from Brain Drain against Level 22 Bodak Warrior.
XP deficit remaining: -82,989
For slaying 2 Bodaks, you have been awarded 8 War Points
For slaying 1 Bodak Warrior, you have been awarded 20 War Points (War Points multiplied by 5 for slaying a Professional)
Total War Points: 99
You have captured:
Soul of a Bodak x 3
Durability: 20/20
Item Class: Common
Stone Level: Common
Soul Level: Common
Status: Filled
Weight: 0.3 kg
Richter had a faint smile on his face, and not just because using Brain Drain on the Warrior had given a much-needed XP infusion. Creating the Soul Trap arrows was really paying off. There was no way the warband would have had enough time to soul trap all three of the monsters during the ambush without them. The sprites were even able to collect some of their enchanted arrows to use again. The skeletons didn’t have any loot besides their weapons and armor which was all low durability and quality. He left it where it was because they couldn’t waste time removing it from the bones. Once the dungeon was cleared, they could always grab it on the way back.
Richter hadn’t seen any traps when he’d peeked around the corner before but he wanted to check again now that the coast was clear. While Alma flew through the doorway at the end of the hall to scout, he summoned more mist lights, leaving them hanging in the air. Now that it was better lit, he dismissed his night vision and started scanning the room in earne
st.
While he searched, he thought back over the battle. Tabia definitely deserved a fruit basket. Her new potions were awesome! The allure potion made from the crypt mistress’s ichor was amazing. Not only had it attracted the undead, but they had been so enthralled that their guard had dropped. The Sun Lotus Poison had also performed as expected. Reviewing the combat logs, he saw that the melee bodaks had been able to resist about 20% of the poison’s damage and the Warrior about 30%. Still, the poison did as much damage as any of the other attacks. As far as experiments went, the battle had been a resounding success.
While he searched the room, Richter also kept part of his attention on what Alma was seeing. After the doorway, she’d come upon a hallway made of loose-fitting blocks of grey stone. Plants were growing through the cracks in certain places. The only light came from the doorway she had entered through, and it was meager. Thankfully her darkvision let her see easily. The corridor reached a five-way intersection after only eighty feet. She asked Richter what he wanted her to do. All he could say was to keep searching, so she picked the leftmost fork and kept flying.
With her body already a blackish grey, coupled with her Chameleon enhancement it should have been easy to avoid detection. Unfortunately, skeletons without eyes obviously did not rely on traditional methods of sight. That became clear when she turned a corner and a bolt of ice struck her small body.
Alma fell with a cry. Her body struck the ground with a small thump, but to Richter it felt like the world itself reverberated. Skeletons started rushing towards her and the caster began another spell. The dragonling had no resistance to Water magic, but her Psi Bond served almost the same role. At level six her bond with Richter increased her Wisdom by 75%, giving her a value of eighty-six. With her attribute that high, she had a strong innate magical resistance. Though she lost some life from both the magic attack and the fall, Alma was no weak creature. She landed on her feet and as soon as she hit the floor she bounded off again.