by Aleron Kong
*I’m fine, master. I have already healed myself. The extra armor you made me saved my life.*
Richter heaved a sigh of relief, *Good.* He had felt pure panic when the Mage had targeted her. It if wasn’t for her high magical resistance, she might have been Slowed, or worse, Frozen. If either of those two things had happened, the bodaks would have torn her apart before he could have saved her. They still needed to search the tunnels, but he wouldn’t risk her again.
*I will start searching again, and I will be more careful this time.*
“No!” he exclaimed. The warband looked at him in surprise and fear, thinking they were being attacked again. Richter was so against the idea of putting her in danger again that he forgot to keep his thoughts silent. “I won’t-”
*I am here to serve, master!* she interrupted. *I made a mistake and went too fast. That is why this happened. You cannot always protect me. It is my job to protect you! I will be more careful, but I will not let you enter dangerous territory first! You are my master and you will do as I say!*
Her tone was so stern that Richter blinked in surprise. He was used to her being snarky, but she was rarely firm with him. Her last statement was so crazy that it brought the ghost of a smile to his lips. If that wasn’t the perfect example of ‘angry woman logic,’ he didn’t know what was. Her speech had the desired effect though. It shook him out of his impulse to blindly protect her and made him consider her words.
The fact of the matter was, she was right. Mostly, at least. There was no one better suited for scouting than his familiar. He also knew in his heart that there were even greater trials coming for them both. These monsters weren’t something for them to hide from in fear. In his heart, he knew they were practice. Something much worse was coming. Looking at her fierce draconian face, he thought, *You do realize that as the master, you are supposed to obey me, right?*
She leaned forward until she was right in front of his face. Then she licked his cheek, *That is so cute that you think that, master.* Saying nothing more, she launched herself from his arms and flew back into the doorway.
*What happened to the sorrowful dragonling that apologized a minute ago?* he thought after her.
*Temporary insanity,* she sent back with the psychic equivalent of a smirk.
Richter kept a visual feed of what she was seeing firmly in his head while he dealt with the battle prompts.
You have been awarded 15,785 experience (base 360,795 x 0.07 x 1.25 x 0.5) from Brain Drain against Level 23 Bodak Warrior
You have been awarded 6,702 experience (base 153,182 x 0.07 x 1.25 x 0.5) from Brain Drain against Level 16 Bodak
XP deficit remaining: -58,116
For slaying 19 Bodaks, you have been awarded 76 War Points
For slaying 5 Bodak Warriors, you have been awarded 100 War Points (War Points multiplied by 5 for slaying a Professional)
For slaying 1 Rime Bodak Mage, you have been awarded 25 War Points (War Points multiplied by 5 for slaying a Professional)
Total War Points: 322
The fact that the mage was a stronger version of the bodaks made sense. It hadn’t stopped moving until he had completely crushed its skull. The other skeletons were resilient, but nowhere near as tough as the caster had been. As a mage, it should have been easier to kill. Now that he knew it was a stronger species than the other undead they had met so far, it all added up. The thought made Richter stop a moment, and consider if “species” was the right word though. His Akaton Evolution spell showed that monsters could evolve into stronger forms. Maybe Rime bodaks were just an evolutionary leap forward from bodaks. The question was just academic, but Richter stored it in the back of his mind. For now, he was just happy that they had managed to capture its soul along with several others.
You have captured:
Soul of a Rime Bodak
Durability: 25/25
Item Class: Uncommon
Stone Level: Luminous
Soul Level: Luminous
Status: Filled
Weight: 0.4 kg
You have captured:
Soul of a Bodak x 14
Durability: 20/20
Item Class: Common
Stone Level: Common
Soul Level: Common
Status: Filled
Weight: 0.3 kg
Most of the bodaks had rusted weaponry of either poor quality or low durability, which was another thing that had allowed his people to live. The bodaks were level fifteen to twenty-five for the most part, and there had been plenty of Professionals. The rime bodak had been level twenty-seven. His people had been outclassed as far as levels went, but their gear was specifically enchanted to protect against and kill undead. Coupled with the high-quality work and strong metals that the village smiths used, it put their armaments several classes above the skeletons they’d been fighting.
Richter found one good piece of loot. The rime bodak was wearing a scarce class ring.
You have found:
Glimmer Ring
Durability: 20/20
Item Class: Scarce
Item Quality: Superb
Weight: 0.02 kg
Traits: +12 to Perception of hidden enemies within 25 yards. Concealed enemies will sparkle in your eyesight. Extremely effective in dark areas.
Richter shook his head. It explained why the Mage had been able to target Alma as soon as she had poked her head around the corner. He’d been worried about that. On the one hand, it meant she might be able to hide from the other enemies in the dungeon. It was unlikely there were more enchanted rings of this rarity with the other monsters, though it was technically possible. On the other hand, it just reminded him that as powerful as he grew, there were always enemies with capabilities to match his own. He couldn’t assume, no matter how far he advanced, that he or any of his people were ever safe. There was no safety in The Land.
He physically shook himself to ward off such morbid thoughts. Safe or not, this ring was clutch. Another twelve points to Perception was like advancing twenty skill levels, two full ranks, in Pierce the Veil, even if it was only for hidden enemies and not traps or concealed stashes. Richter looked at his other rings.
Ring of Hidden Dangers
Durability: 15/15
Item Class: Uncommon
Item Quality: Superb
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: +16% to trap detection
Ring of Flowing Thought
Durability: 25/25
Item Class: Rare
Item Quality: Superb
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: +20% mana regeneration
Ring of Spell Storage
Durability: 10/10
Item Class: Uncommon
Item Quality: Well Crafted
Weight: 0.01 kg
Traits: Holds one spell that can be cast upon activating the ring. This Ring can hold one Novice Level Spell. Spell will only last one day before degrading. Spell equipped: None
Minor Ring of Healing
Durability: 8/8
Item Class: Uncommon
Item Quality: Well Crafted
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: Will heal 34 Health on Wearer. Can be used twice per day
Ring of Health
Durability: 16/16
Item Class: Uncommon
Item Quality: Superb
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: +43 Health
Ring of Enchantment Resistance
Durability: 10/10
Item Class: Scarce
Quality: Exquisite
Weight: 0.01 kg
Traits: +32% Resistance to enchantment-type spells
Ring of Health
Durability: 21/23
Item Class: Unusual
Item Quality: Superb
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: +72 Health
Summoner’s Ring
Durability: 22/116
Item Class: Rare
Item Quality: Masterwork
Weight: 0.01 kg
Traits: Increase level of summoned creatures by +5
Richter considered which ring to replace. The rare and scarce rings were out of the question. In this dungeon, his Ring of Hidden Dangers was also a must. He chided himself for not loading his Ring of Spell Storage earlier, but he certainly intended to now. Focusing his will, golden light surrounded his hand and the clear gem on the ring took on the same color. Minor Slow Heal was locked and loaded. Richter was pretty sure he’d need it again before they cleared the dungeon.
It came down to his weaker Ring of Health and his Ring of Healing. The Ring of Healing was one of the first items he’d gotten when coming to The Land. Despite that, and despite the fact that it only restored thirty-four health, the instantaneous nature of the healing had made him hold onto it. He weighed his options, but decided to stick with the Ring of Health. He’d already used one of the two charges on the healing ring, and his Ring of Spell Storage effectively served the same capacity now that he had stored Minor Slow Heal. Richter slipped the Glimmer Ring onto his hand.
“Hey, Tank!” Richter called out. Caulder looked up and the chaos seed tossed him the Ring of Healing. A grin popped up on the sergeant’s face. He took his gauntlet off and slipped the ring on his hand. Richter earned himself a new prompt.
Your continued generosity is appreciated by Caulder. You have gained +233 Relationship Points. Total Relationship Points: +5,601
Alma was still moving along inside the dungeon. She had backtracked her way to the same corridor where she’d been attacked. After being abundantly careful peeking around the corner, she saw that the hallway dead-ended soon after. To Richter’s delight there was a chest present. An honest-to-god wooden chest banded with metal, sitting on a large stone block. The chaos seed’s adventuring heart started beating stronger in his chest. While many things made him happy, he could admit that treasure was near the top of the list. He dealt with life and death every day, but the gamer in him was still alive and well. Loot was awesome! Still, there was time for that later. Now he had to prepare for the next battle.
Richter took out one of his dart traps and prepared to use the new rank bonus from his Traps skill for the first time. Focusing on his Weak Fireball spell he tried to attach it to the dart trap. Nothing happened. He wasn’t daunted. New skills and capabilities usually required some experimentation. Richter tried several different approaches with no success, until he summoned his magic as if he was about to cast the spell. The process was the same for when he loaded his Ring of Spell Holding. He was finally rewarded with a prompt.
The Dart Trap is missing at least one necessary component to add a spell to the mechanism.
Why can’t things ever just be easy, Richter bemoaned. With his new Unconventional Materials subskill, he was itching to tinker with the mechanism. Hopefully he could try and find out what component was missing, but now was definitely not the time. He put the trap back into his bag. Without the ability to add spells, none of his traps would be more than an annoyance to the high-level monsters in the dungeon. He could poison them of course, but best-case scenario, one monster might be hurt. It wouldn’t do anything against another large party of bodaks. They would have to clear out the nest the old-fashioned way.
Caulder walked up with the remaining war party behind him. One biomage, two meidon archers, the sergeant and two other guards. “We are ready, my lord.” Richter nodded and moved forward, his men right behind him.
Alma was still scouting ahead. Several of the tunnels had turned out to be empty. The bodaks that had been in those locations had most likely already run out during the last attack, attracted by the sound of the undead chasing the dragonling. She had found a nest of five down one corridor though. Richter decided it was time to take the fight to the undead.
Richter looked at his fighting men and women. Taking point, he raised his mace, “For the Mist.”
Six sets of eyes looked back with intense loyalty. As one they responded, “For the Mist.”
CHAPTER 67 – Day 144 – Kuborn 34, 0 AoC
It took hours, but they were finally in front of what Richter suspected was the final room. They had no idea of the layout because it was sealed by a large stone door carved with figures. They had cleared the rest of the dungeon. There had been fourteen more pockets of undead, all bodak skeletons. Each collection had had a rime bodak as well, sometimes two. By attacking the groups one at a time, Richter’s war party had been able to clear them out without too much more trouble.
Each battle began with Richter checking the room for traps while using Stealth. While he had found and disabled several traps in the corridors leading to the rooms the bodaks waited in, there hadn’t been any traps in the rooms themselves. After making sure the coast was clear, he would send a summoned and evolved creature into the rooms the skeletons were in. Then, the meidon sprites and Richter would fire imbued arrows with maximum charge into the ensuing fight.
That opening salvo always took off a good deal of health from both the summoned creature and the skeletons, and tagged them with debuffs. In two cases the spider Richter had summoned had actually slipped his control and attacked the warband in response, but it had been put down quickly. That never seemed to happen when he used a saproling as bait. In the end, he wound up just using his Death rats. A simple order made the rats enter the rooms together and then scatter. It gave the bodaks multiple targets to chase and kept them occupied until the attack could begin.
After that opening volley, Richter would usually shoot a fireball into the room and then Alma would finish the rout by firing her Psi Blast. With the enemies well and truly thrown off, the melee fighters would charge into the room, targeting the rime bodaks first. The warband had to recover after each battle, restoring health, stamina and mana, but they were able to clear the dungeon systematically. The Sun Lotus Poison along with their Life enchantments were a serious force multiplier for the warband.
By the time they had found the final grouping of monsters, every member of Richter’s warband had leveled at least once. Once again, the Potions of Clarity proved their worth. Even better, the technique had let the chaos seed gather psi crystals that collectively were worth just shy of three hundred Psi Points. Alma wanted them all immediately, of course, but he kept them in reserve, having ideas of his own. Richter had also gotten his own series of prompts.
Congratulations! You have reached skill levels 18 and 19 in Enhanced Imbue Arrow. +95% magical damage. +190% speed of mana flow.
Congratulations! You have reached skill levels 18 and 19 in Archery. +38% bonus to aim. +38% bonus to damage.
Congratulations! You have reached subskill levels 7 and 8 in Focus. Max zoom increased to 180%.
Congratulations! You have reached skill levels 3, 4, … 8 in Mace Wielding. +24% damage when using maces or clubs. Ignore up to 4% of an enemy’s armor.
Congratulations! You have reached skills level 13 and 14 in Small Blades. +28% attack speed while using small blades. +28% bonus to damage while using small blades.
His Dual Wielding skill had also climbed quickly. Using a normal-sized weapon like the mace along with his short sword took more focus than just two small-sized weapons, but it also made his skill advance faster.
Congratulations! You have reached skill levels 11 and 12 in Dual Wield. Base accuracy penalty in primary hand reduced to -13% and in off hand by -38%. Dual attack speed increased by +12%.
Congratulations! You have reached skill level 17 in Light Armor. +34% to defense of all Light Armor.
Congratulations! You have reached subskill levels 15, 16 and 17 in Grace in Combat. Dodge increased by +27% while wearing all Light Armor.
The dungeon had given him too much practice in dodging attacks. The undead were tough bastards, and they didn’t go down easily. His ability to lead also advanced dramatically. Fighting sapient monsters of high levels required coordination and tactics that were just not necessary while hunting monsters in the wild.
Congratulations! You have reached skill levels 16 a
nd 17 in War Leader. Sphere of Influence +17% larger. +17% attack and defense for all allies within your Sphere of Influence.
Congratulations! You have reached subskill levels 12, 13, and 14 in Beacon. +140 to the Fighting Spirit of war party.
Congratulations! You have reached subskill level 9 in Inspiring Leadership. +9% to chance of war party members earning Field Advancements. +9% to the power of Field Advancements of any party members under your command or the command of your subordinates.
The battles also gave a great infusion of War Points.
Total War Points: 752
His martial skills weren’t the only ones that progressed through the day of battle.
Congratulations! You have reached skill levels 4, 5, 6 and 7 in Death Magic. New spells are now available.
Advancing to level five in Death magic finally qualified him to learn two more of Beyan’s copied spellbooks.
Congratulations! You have learned the spell: Laughing Skull. Fires a chattering skull made of Death energy at a target. Damage 10-20. Chance that target will be afflicted with Fear debuff. This is a spell of Death Magic, level 5. Cost: 39 mana. Duration: Instant. Range: 50 feet. Cast Time: 2 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes.
The new attack spell was great, but the real coup was the other magic.
Congratulations! You have learned the spell: Summon Weak Zombie. Summons a Death Spirit to inhabit the remains of a recently deceased creature. The summoned creature’s level will be 3 +10% of the target’s total experience. Max level of 10. No abilities or skills will be carried through to this new summoned creature, but inherent racial abilities may still be maintained. This is a spell of Death Magic, level 5. Cost: 63 mana. Duration: 1 hour. Range: Touch. Cast Time: 4 seconds. Cooldown: 10 minutes.
The zombie spell had some serious drawbacks. The fact that you had to actually touch the creature, and limitations in regard to level, skills and abilities, seriously curtailed the power of the summoned Death creatures. There were great perks as well, however.