by Aleron Kong
Base Loyalty: +1575 x +25% Undefeated x +12% Administrator x +10% Health
Total Loyalty Points: +2315
The original quest had been to find three locations of the lowest rank, notable. By finding three interesting locales of the next rank, he had fulfilled the qualifications of the next stage of the quest chain. Even better, he got access to the next ring.
Congratulations! You have unlocked a Settlement Quest: Know Your Backyard III
The locations you have found have focused mostly on the undead, but many other dangers can exist. Be ever vigilant. Discover both wonders and dangers in your domain. Never forget the importance of exploration.
Success Conditions: Examine three sites that are at least Significant Locations within your domain and determine their importance
Reward: Unknown
Penalty for Failure or Refusal: Unknown
Do you accept? Yes or No?
He chose “Yes” again, securing the third link in the quest chain. The rewards of fulfilling the second link had been modest. Truth be told, the Loyalty increases were more valuable to him than the XP. If he could gain another thousand Loyalty Points, the Productivity of his village would get another 20% boost. It seemed like a far-off goal, but every little bit helped. There was one other benefit to finishing settlement quests: a boost to his Administration skill.
Congratulations! You have reached skill levels 10 and 11 in Administration. +11% to Morale, Loyalty, and Production for your village.
Congratulations! You have advanced from Novice to Initiate in: Administration. A new Job has been discovered: Town Administrator. Assigning someone to this position allows the settlement to benefit from your Administration skill and all of its subskills even if you are not present, in addition to the settlement bonus for this position. If the person assigned has a higher Administration skill level, your settlement will benefit from it as long as that person is within your domain.
You have received 2,500 (base 2,000 x 1.25) bonus experience for reaching level 10 in the skill: Administration.
Richter already knew exactly who would fit that position. With his prompts finally exhausted, he turned his gaze back towards the ghast’s body. Both the head and the body had fallen back down to the floor after the power of the Heart Crystal had been siphoned. A gross greyish-yellow fluid was flowing out of the body. It was giving off a foul smell, but Richter ignored that and collected some in a vial. If the Death Knight’s blood could make his Dungeon stronger, then it was worth the inconvenience. He also collected a few vials for Tabia to experiment on. Once that was done, he began to take off the knight’s armor. As soon as he touched the plate mail though, he began to have a queasy feeling and a warning notification appeared.
You have come into contact with a toxic material. You are now afflicted with Necromium Poisoning. -1 HP every 5 seconds for the next 25 seconds.
Richter snatched his hand back. There didn’t seem to be any further negative effects. He waited a full minute, but after the twenty-five seconds had elapsed, he didn’t lose anything more than the five HP the prompt had warned him of. Looking at the armor, Richter gritted his teeth and grabbed it again. As the metal poisoned him once more, the nausea came back. There was also a small amount of pain that he easily endured. The worst part about touching the black armor was that it made him feel… unclean.
Distasteful or not, he removed the entire set of armor.
You have found:
Necromium Barbut of Balance
Defense: +34
Durability: 113/128
Item Class: Uncommon
Armor Type: Head, Heavy
Quality: Superb
Weight: 8.8 kg
Traits: +7 to Balance
You have found:
Necromium Breastplate of Death Power
Defense: +29 (Max: 38)
Durability: 124/182
Item Class: Unusual
Armor Type: Chest, Heavy
Quality: Superb
Weight: 23.5 kg
Traits: +8 to Death Magic skill
You have found:
Necromium Spiked Plate Vambraces of Death Strike
Defense: +32
Durability: 151/163
Item Class: Unusual
Armor Type: Arms, Heavy
Quality: Superb
Weight: 9.4 kg
Traits: +4 Death Damage to any melee strike
You have found:
Rune-Etched Necromium Gauntlets of Swift Strike
Defense: +38
Durability: 125/139
Item Class: Scarce
Armor Type: Hands, Heavy
Quality: Exquisite
Weight: 7.8 kg
Traits:
+31% to melee attack speed
Inscribed with the Rune Mata-Sefuni: 5 mana stolen from enemies with each strike
You have found:
Necromium Greaves of Shadow Pull
Defense: +21 (Max: 33)
Durability: 85/134
Item Class: Unusual
Armor Type: Legs, Heavy
Quality: Superb
Weight: 8.3 kg
Traits: Wearer can draw on shadows and darkness to increase Stamina regeneration by 340% for 1 minute.
Charges: 168/168
You have found:
Necromium Boots of Fire Repulsion
Defense: +30
Durability: 122/131
Item Class: Uncommon
Armor Type: Feet, Heavy
Quality: Superb
Weight: 6.1 kg
Traits: +6% Resistance to Fire magic
You have found a
Complete Armor Set:
Necromium Plate Armor (Fitted to Nien the Reaver)
Armor Class: Unusual
Armor Set Bonus: Defense given by each piece increased by 25%
Fitted Bonus: +10% Defense when worn by Nien the Reaver. -10% Defense when worn by anyone else.
Special Bonus:
+10% Life Resistance
+5% Death Power
Necromium armor will slowly poison any non-Death creature that comes into contact with it
The entire set of armor had some awesome enchantments! He couldn’t wear any of it because it was made of Necromium, but the Forge of Heavens would destroy it anyway. Even better, one of the items was runed! He was sure the village researchers would enjoy getting their hands on it… as long as they wore gloves.
The Death Knight’s weapons and shield were also impressive.
You have found:
Savaging Necromium Estoc
Attack: 29-38
Durability: 153/164
Item Class: Unusual
Weapon Type: One-handed Longblade, Melee
Quality: Superb
Weight: 5.5 kg
Traits:
+4% chance to score critical hits
+156% damage on critical hit
Necromium Kite Shield of Distraction
Defense: 19
Durability: 101/112
Item Class: Uncommon
Armor Type: Shield, Heavy
Quality: Superb
Weight: 4.9 kg
Traits: Looking too long at this shield can cause Distract, decreasing the concentration of the afflicted by 14%
You have found:
Necromium Dirk of Piercing
Attack: 12-15
Durability: 84/90
Item Class: Scarce
Weapon Type: Short Blade, Melee
Quality: Well Crafted
Weight: 1.8 kg
Traits: +7% to Stabbing Damage
Richter couldn’t help but shake his head. There was no way he could have survived a stand-up fight with this creature. Not only had Nien’s stats been crazy high, but the undead had been outfitted for bear! Every single piece of gear not only had an insanely high defense, but they were also enchanted to make the creature a killing machine. Heavy armor was no joke.
The fact that the undead had been a literal death machine
didn’t bother Richter though. All he could see now were new enchantments for him to learn. His smile stretched from ear to ear. Every one of the enchantments was new to him. Richter was pretty sure that he could sell armor like this for hundreds or thousands of gold, even with the fact that it could only be worn by undead. The real value wasn’t gold though, it was the power the enchantments would give him and his people. Richter finally understood why he had been so drawn to the Profession of Enchanting. As his enemies grew weaker, he could use their former strength to grow stronger. That was an idea that had always been his gaming style: build up his strength and then attack with devastating force. They would never see him coming!
The item that really caught his attention was the gauntlets. Now that he was looking closer, he could see the rune that had been etched into the palm of both pieces of armor. Richter knew almost nothing about runes. He had actually only been able to identify a few of them, and those were symbols of the Basic Elements that had been revealed by his first Lore book. Hardly secret knowledge. Being able to identify those few runes was one thing, but being able to recreate them was something else. The tech required to have a basic understanding of runes required a great deal of Research Points and there were several prereqs in front of him. He was pretty sure it would be worth it though. From what he had seen, runes could create wondrous magic that could last centuries. Runes might offer his work true immortality.
Every piece of armor went into his bag. He’d lost several hundred health while taking it off the Death Knight’s body. Unfortunately, the toxic effects seemed cumulative. After five minutes he was losing more than one HP per second. Luckily, a Life Master didn’t need to worry too much about that. Casting Weak Slow Heal and Minor Slow Heal in succession brought him back to full health.
Richter moved onto the items the undead had been wearing.
Ring of Shadow Shift
Durability: 25/25
Item Class: Scarce
Item Quality: Superb
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: Allows the wearer to shift to the Shadow Dimension for five seconds real time
Ring of Health
Durability: 19/19
Item Class: Scarce
Item Quality: Exquisite
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: +82 Health
Ring of Stamina
Durability: 14/14
Item Class: Uncommon
Item Quality: Well Crafted
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: +37 Stamina
Ring of Stamina
Durability: 13/13
Item Class: Uncommon
Item Quality: Well Crafted
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: +38 Stamina
Ring of Mana
Durability: 16/16
Item Class: Uncommon
Item Quality: Superb
Weight: 0.1 kg
Traits: +43 Mana
The Ring of Shadow Shift immediately caught his attention. The others were great boosts as well and Richter would definitely be using some of them as upgrades, but he didn’t want to wait on this one. After shaking the ring to remove a bit of the undead’s decayed flesh, he took off his weaker Ring of Health. His max HPs dropped by forty-three, but it let him slip the new unusual ring on.
At first there was no discernible change, but then Richter focused on the ring. Suddenly, the darkened corners of the room seemed to come alive. It was like turning the contrast up to the max on photoshop... They even seemed to reach towards him slightly. Richter walked over to the closest shadow and slowly extended a hand. As his fingers came into contact with the undulating blackness, something startling happened.
Everything in his vision switched color values. He hated admitting his previous love for photography, even to himself, but it looked exactly like when he would push the “desaturate” function on a camera. He could still see everything easily, but it became a contrast of light and dark. An icon of a man’s silhouette appeared in the corner of his vision with a “5” next to it. Richter kept his attention on it, and several seconds later it ticked down to four.
His brows furrowed. What was the significance? He was about to talk to Alma about it, but when he looked at her, he got a surprise. She was in the same spot, still flapping her wings to hover in midair. It was something he’d seen her do thousands of times, but this time it looked like she was moving through honey. Richter walked over and watched bemusedly as her wings beat slowly up and down. When he reached out to touch her, his hand passed through her body with only a slight resistance. The counter next to his silhouette ticked down to “3.”
Already used to the idea of time dilation from his mindscape, he immediately picked up on what was happening. Time moved more slowly here too! Richter recalled the prompt associated with the ring, “Allows the wearer to shift to the Shadow Dimension for five seconds real time.”
Alma also didn’t seem to be able to see him, even though he waved his hand in front of her face. This ring was amazing!
That was when the shadow bat attacked.
The aerial monster swooped down from behind him, silent as death. It latched onto his neck, its teeth sharp like knives but also freezing, like icicles in deep winter. Richter’s health began to plummet. Even as he screamed, his attention flew to his HPs, which were dropping like the milliseconds on a countdown clock.
His shoulders hunched up instinctively, and he reached back to grab the creature attacking him. Richter’s fingers passed partly through its body, but he was still able to grab hold. He yanked once to no avail, but then pulled harder and it came free. He felt its fangs tear his flesh and he gained a Bleeding status. The bat writhed in his fist and he quickly used Analyze to know what he was dealing with.
Name: Shadow BatDisposition: Blind Rage
Shadow Bats are common denizens of the Shadow Realm and are much more likely to be found underground. Where one appears, another is soon to follow. Their bite will not only drain a victim of blood, but also their very life force. The trait almost all monsters of the Shadow Realm share is an all-consuming hatred for creatures of other planes.
Special Attack: Life Drain – Once latched on in a bite, the shadow bat will drain the very life from a body; its bite will otherwise leave victims weakened for a short time.
Level: 2
Health: 58Mana: 12Stamina: 70
Strength: 3
Agility: 12
Dexterity: 14
Constitution: 5
Endurance: 7
Intelligence: 1
Wisdom: 2
Charisma: 3
Luck: 8
Level two? A level two creature had taken away more than forty points of his health in three seconds! It continued to writhe in his grip, one wing free. Richter stared at it in anger and revulsion. Its face was three circular mouths filled with sharp black teeth, and nothing else. It lacked eyes, a nose or ears. The mouths opened and closed spasmodically as the bat struggled to get free. Richter easily kept it contained in his grasp despite his new debuff.
You have been afflicted with two strains of Shadow Sickness! -5% resistance to Dark and Shadow creatures. -5% resistance to Dark and Shadow magic! These are diseases. You will feel nauseous until this debuff is removed.
“Ugh!” Richter huffed. He stared at the bat with renewed enmity, and callously took hold of the one wing that was flapping free. Casting about to make sure there weren’t any other shadow bats about to attack, he wrenched his hand down. The delicate bones in the bat’s wing broke as easily as an old toothpick. It made noise for the first time, all three of its mouths squealing.
Richter dropped it and watched it flap for a moment in his accelerated shadow time. Then his hand contorted into a familiar position and he spoke a word of Power, “Igni!” That was when he got his greatest shock of the day.
Nothing happened.
That wasn’t exactly true, because a notification did appear.
Know This! Fire magic does not work in the Shadow Realm.<
br />
Richter had never had his magic inhibited before. While the Ring of Shadow Shift had obvious advantages, it was not without danger. It seemed it opened him to attack by an entirely new form of monster. His Fire magic was also a no-go while he was here. That immediately made him wonder what else didn’t work. Blood was still flowing down his neck because hurting the bat had been more important to him than healing himself. Did Life magic work here?
If it didn’t, that seriously increased his danger while being in the Shadow Realm. He had come to rely upon his ability to heal almost any injury in seconds. It gave him a faint sense of invulnerability. Richter had just begun to cast a healing spell when his time elapsed.
It was time to scream again.
“Aaaaggghhh!” he cried out as his knees buckled. Pain shot through his mind, unexpected and sudden. He managed to keep his feet, but that was only because he’d suffered worse agonies in recent months. Still, as pain went, this was way up there. Another bright red prompt appeared in his vision.
You have exited the Shadow Realm without usage of a shadow. You have lost 100 HP and now suffer from the debuff Shadow Shocked. The resultant headache causes -75% to Concentration for the next 1 hour.
“Damn it!” Richter shouted. “Damn it!”
Between the pain in his head and the pain in his neck, he was truly pissed off. And he’d gotten two debuffs in less than a minute. Richter tried to summon a healing spellform in his mind but even that made him feel like the room had flipped end-over-end. He did fall to his knees this time, and vomit spewed from his mouth and out over the floor.
Thankfully, Alma cast both Weak Slow Heal and Minor Slow Heal in succession. She also cast Weak Cure Disease, which removed the Shadow Sickness debuff. The pain in his head still sucked, but at least the wound in his neck began to heal and the worst of the agony was blunted. Why the fuck didn’t these magic rings come with a manual? Something simple like, “Make sure you’re in a shadow when time runs out, or your entire body will feel like a rectum after taco hell!”