My sense of time had disappeared in the creature’s stomach, but the timer showed that I’d killed the dalezma in less than half a minute. Unable even to stand up, I just lay there and stared into the sky with my empty eye sockets. Triumphant cries rang out from afar, but with my arms and legs dissolved, all I could do was lie and await my recovery.
Devourer of Flesh, Giant Dalezma, dead.
Experience: +116.3 bil
Experience at current level (579): 281.69 bil I 733.46 bil
You got Dalezma Egg.
Dalezma Egg.
Legendary fi’ee pet.
The dalezma are a species of solitoids that are immune to magic. Even the most dangerous monsters of Terrastera fear their extreme toxicity and acid flesh.
Attention! This type of pet belongs to the fi’ee category: it must be bound to a specific area.
To hatching: 0/1,000,000 experience.
Next I looked at the achievement reward and felt a little disappointed. We’d gotten Depths Teleportation for killing Murkiss in the sandbox (not without the Sleepers’ help, I think), but here…
Unlocked achievement First Kill: Devourer of Flesh, Giant Dalezma!
You are the first in the world to kill the local boss Devourer of Flesh, Giant Dalezma! The Devourer of Flesh is an ancient dalezma of the solitoid genus. For centuries, it has grown in power, and with time it might have become the ruler of Terrastera, if not for you.
Reward: Solitoid Terror perk (you deal 10% more damage to solitoids).
Awoken clan level increased: +2! Current level: 6.
Rewards:
— Gold Flow (when any member of the clan picks up money from a corpse, an extra one percent of it is created and goes to the clan treasury).
— Experience Stream (increases experience gained for killing monsters and completing quests by 10%).
The chat exploded with screams of excitement while I waited for my legs and arms to regrow. Aid of the Sleepers helped with my regeneration, but my limbs still didn’t grow back instantly. I even had time to get bored. By the time a barakata approached me, I was glad of the company. Shame it killed itself quick, trying to gnaw on my blackened bones.
The cockroach helped me finish off Path of Equanimity, and Resilience hit rank four! I didn’t hesitate to choose my next path:
Path of Sacrifice
At the start of each battle, you absorb the total health of all your group members, plus a bonus 1% of that total, in order to take all the damage dealt to any ally throughout the battle. However, if you die, the entire group dies.
The one-percent bonus would be multiplied by a hundred when I finished the rank-four path. The important thing was that now I didn’t have to worry about my friends as long as I was still alive. In addition, synchronizing Sleeping Invulnerability and Path of Sacrifice could be promising. I didn’t know how the mechanic would behave.
When I returned to the group, Yemi came out to meet me, congratulated me on my victory over the boss.
“Initial, none have any doubt that the egg belongs to you. It is only fair.”
I looked across them all, smiled, pulled out the loot.
“A temple to the Sleeping Gods will one day be built here. It’s going to need a defender, and I suggest we hatch this pet right here. But I won’t be the one to do it…” I offered the trophy to Infect. “Take it, Malik. You’ll be the first player with a pet from Terrastera!”
The others shouted encouragement and the bard took the pet shyly.
“We’ll just take out a barakata and it’ll hatch,” I said, activating Sleeping Vindication to aggro some mobs.
Yemi, Babangida, Francesca, Crawler, Infect and Bomber passed level four hundred and sixty. Gyula was approaching four hundred. Irita, fresh from the sandbox, and Patrick, were both above three hundred. The top seven players of Disgardium were now on Terrastera. It was a shame I didn’t quite reach six hundred, but there was still time left before Mogwai revived. I might make it.
But I didn’t. We put down a small pack of cockroaches and hatches the dalezma—which started a little smaller than a kitten—and stopped farming. Nega contacted me through the comm amulet.
“We got trouble, boss. Crash is dead.”
“On my way!”
Friends and allies surrounded me, listening tensely to the conversation. Yemi showed Kusalarix’s coin.
“I’ve declared a clan-wide assembly. Yoruba and the ores of the Broken Axe will be assembled within half an hour.
“Bomber and I will drop these guys off at their castle and then head straight to Kharinza,” Crawler said. “Can you give us a portal coin? I’ll pick up the troggs and cultists.”
“I can’t just stand aside and watch!” Patrick declared. “I’m going with you to the desert, boy.”
“Me too! Tomorrow is a day off, I can play all night!” Irita exclaimed, skipping.
I shook my head. “You can’t be seen with me. We’re relying on you for our trade operations, and that means…”
“I’ll use a Transformation Potion!” the girl insisted stubbornly. “May the Sleepers never wake!”
“And may their sleep be eternal,” the others chanted back, with Gyula adding:
“I’ll fight too!”
“Those who aren’t undead may not survive,” I said doubtfully. “Infect, take Patrick and Irita to Kharinza. Gyula, with me. I’ll check what’s going on and report back. That’s all. See you at the temple!”
* * *
Tiamat kept her promise—the whole area for half a mile around transformed into a flourishing oasis. The desert turned green. Grass broke through the suddenly fertile soil, and streams ran in all directions. Clouds darkened the sky above the temple and a rainbow shimmered in the drizzling rain.
I wrote to the clan chat that anyone living could go there, and drove the gold baton-beacon for Great Portals into the earth. A few long minutes later, a portal opened and the workers from Kharinza who turned undead began to emerge. Manny was one of the first. He walked over, greeted me.
Tens of thousands of players surrounded the temple beyond the edge of the oasis. Raid buffs flashed constantly, but the brightest, most blinding and most constant light shone from a faraway dune opposite the temple entrance. Columns of light beat down from the sky on that point—I’d seen something like it from the High Priest of Nergal when Harnathea attacked. Tiamat stood next to me, placed a hand on my head and frowned.
Soon all our people were gathered, including the guardians, Crawler and Bomber. According to the mage, Yemi had decided to open a portal in Broken Axe territory, and now the whole clan was flying there. Under the command of Movarak and Dekotra, the troggs and cultists advanced to their positions from the portal.
Irita stuck by me, disguised as the elf girl Iriel. Patrick spoke to Flaygray about something.
“Shining Tiamat!” I said. “We are ready to live again.”
“May it be so,” she answered.
The Sleeper disappeared, and an instant later came the roar of a huge red dragon from the sky. The invisible strings connecting us to the Destroying Plague stretched, then broke—everyone’s legs went out from under them, but something kept us from falling. Our health bars rushed down to zero, stopped, hovered a moment, then returned to full health.
My nameplate blinked, and ’undead’ changed to ‘human.’ I stared at my hands, unable to tear my eyes away as the rotting flesh was replaced with healthy pink skin. We were alive again. We looked at each other and smiled. Somewhere in the distance, armor clanked and weapons rattled, but I felt no fear, feeling only Irita’s warmth as she pressed herself against me.
When I saw the logs, I sighed with relief.
Destroying Plague quest More Workers! failed!
You are no longer’ a member of the Desti’oging Plague!
You have lost your rank of Legate of the Destroying Plague!
The crown clanked as it fell from my bag, dissolving and flowing into the ground.
Your Legate’s Crown h
as been removed from your inventory and returned to the Nucleus of the Destroying Plague.
Your reputation with the Nucleus of the Destroying Plague has reduced: -50,000.
Current reputation: hatred.
Skill lost: Destroying Plague Immortality!
Skill lost: Desti’oying Plague Immunity!
Skill lost: Subjugate Mind!
Skill lost: Plague Reanimation!
Skill lost: Plague Fury!
Skill lost: Plague Pestilence!
Skill lost: Plague Boost!
Less than half an hour remained until the legates of the Destroying Plague revived. I smiled a wicked grin as I imagined Mogwai’s face when he failed to summon me.
Unnoticed, Tiamat appeared next to me again. Irita unwillingly moved away under the goddess’s piercing gaze.
The workers, now human again, bowed to the Sleeper, wished me luck and rushed back through the portal.
Manny clapped me on the shoulder before he left.
“Show those dro who’s boss!”
Although, for the noncitizens, I was ‘dro’ too…
The guardians fell prostrate before the goddess, muttered words of thanks, but it didn’t last long—the allure of new life and sensation was too great. Anf chittered happily, almost embracing Iggy. My summoned Montosaurus trampled awkwardly next to Ripta, who quietly squawked, trying to convey his feelings to the reptile.
Flaygray crawled at Tiamat’s feet, got a friendly pat from the goddess and left, uncorking a bottle of wine with his teeth as he went. He took a long drink, closed his eyes, sighed. His oasis in the desert.
Nega couldn’t stop repeating herself.
“Alive again, feeling again, once again I can…” She listed everything she could do, making even Gyula redden at the ears. “Come on, big boy, cop a feel!’”
“Sony, Nega, I’m married!” The builder spread his hands and staggered back from the succubus.
The massive arch of the Great Portal continued to spit out new soldiers. The mercenary leaders and centurions looked around professionally and walked over to me: humans, ores, elves, trolls, ogres, dwarves… They reported their arrival, barked out: “May the Sleeping Gods never wake! And may their sleep be eternal!”
The mercenary commander couldn’t keep his eyes off the goddess, but somehow found the strength to turn and shout.
“Shining Tiamat is with us!”
Discipline and training took the reins. A living goddess? So what? They’d seen stranger. The mercenaries and gladiators turned, went to review the situation with Bomber. I glanced at the numbers of adepts—nothing had changed. The mercenaries weren’t even followers of the Sleeping Gods!
Tiamat watched them go, then turned to me.
“Unfinished business remains, Initial. The nightmare of the Lakharian Desert, the great Sharkon, lost his connection to you and is fading away.” The Sleeping Goddess pointed to the foot of the temple, where the giant underground terror’s body languished, dying. “I can return him, too, back to life, but he will still die.”
“At least he’ll die alive, and not turn into plague dust, Tiamat,” I said, swallowing.
“Very well, Initial,” the goddess answered. “But there is something that holds Sharkon’s returned soul in his body, and I feel it coming from your friend, the mage Crawler. I don’t know what it is. I feel it…”
“Yes, goddess, I’m here!” The gnome had been listening closely to the goddess and now he approached and started rooting through his inventory. “This? This? Or maybe…”
“Yes, this is it,” Tiamat said when Crawler pulled out his Essence of Neratakon. “The essence of a disincarnate Old God who cannot be returned.”
Tiamat said nothing more, didn’t so much as bat an eyelid, but the flask of divine essence disappeared from Crawlers hand. Sharkon’s skeleton began to stir from the bottom, growing over with flesh.
Sharkon, level 783 Underground Terror, has become your battle pet.
“There is another thread leading from you to a non-sentient creature,” Tiamat said. “Your fates are linked. Even alive, you have remained marked by the Nucleus, but now that you are disconnected from the Destroying Plague, the creature has lost its supply of energy and the spark within is going out. The creature is not as powerful as Sharkon, and its revival will require nothing but your wish. Do you want to return this being to life and summon it here?
Already guessing who she meant, I nodded.
“Do you wish to return his former name?”
Another nod.
A monstrous wolf, ribs piercing through rotten flesh and fur sloughing off, appeared before us. He was dying, but when Tiamat poured life energy into him, he rose, staggered over to me and licked my hand.
Crusher, level 30 Fierce Wolf‘has become your battle pet.
Ores from the Broken Axe clan and Yoruba soldiers began to emerge from the portal two by two. As soon as he appeared, Yemi found me with his eyes and I nodded—he would be in command of the ores. The mage and Sarronos directed the warriors to the front lines.
The troggs and cultists were already taking up battle formations in front of the temple’s northern side. The ores, Yoruba and the mercenaries and gladiators from the Green League would cover the other three sides. I knew they were headed for a massacre, but without them, I had no chance against Nergal’s army of so many thousands.
Before creating a raid group and taking command of my guardians and pets, I glanced at my profile. There was no time left to use Grain of Transformation, otherwise I would have redistributed thousands of points of charisma, which would be completely useless in the coming battle, into endurance.
Scyth, level 579 human (hidden)
Ranks: Dungeon Hero, Mightiest Punisher, Most Magnificent Avenger, Pioneer, Beast God Conqueror, Junior Gladiator (all hidden).
Clan: Awoken (hidden).
Real name: Alex Sheppard (hidden).
Real age: 16 years (hidden).
Class: Herald (hidden).
Primary characteristics
Strength: 222g (+2798).
Perception: 2162 (+1158).
Endurance: 2243 (+1318).
Charisma: 4069 (+2289).
Intellect: 1408 (+1158).
Agility: 1562 (+1440).
Luck: 4204 (+2018).
Secondary characteristics
Health points: 7,012,964.
Mana points: 2,201,126.
Vindication points: 2,197,000.
Serendipity: 846,774/1,000,000.
Restoration rate: 189,819 health per minute.
Base damage: 13,486.
Bonus to ranged damage: +649%.
Bonus to critical damage: 1,820%.
Bonus to magic power: 855%.
Bonus to movement speed: 296%.
Bonus to chance to stun enemy: +5%.
Bonus to chance to get upgraded loot: +30% (maximum value-reached).
Bonus to chance to get a unique quest: +30% (maximum value reached).
Bonus to dodge chance: +1,856%.
Carrying capacity: 41,317 lbs.
Accuracy: 10,830%.
Merchant discounts: 50% (maximum value reached).
Chance of critical damage: +100%.
Fame: 10,455.
Skills
Archery rank 1:1.
Cartography (no rank): 12.
Bashing Weapons (no rank): 48.
Daggers (no rank): 66.
Night Vision (no rank): 83.
One-handed Swords (no rank): 57.
Persuasion rank I: 4.
Resilience rank IV (Paths of Justice, Reflection, Equanimity and Sacrifice): 1.
Riding (no rank): 27.
Spears (no rank): 27.
Stealth rank 1:1.
Swimming (no rank): 6g.
Two-handed Swords (no rank): 36.
Unarmed Combat rank I (Path of Justice): 100. Trades and professions Cooking: Expert (488/500).
Inscription: Master (76/250).
Special skills and abilitie
s Depths Teleportation: 16.
Flight.
Ghastly Howl: 30.
Spirit Shackles Perks
Beast God Conqueror.
Drinker of the Ambrosia of the Sleepers. Dungeon Hero.
Fortune’s Gifts.
Junior Gladiator.
Magnetism.
Mightiest Punisher.
Pioneer.
Polar Explorer.
Second Life.
Snow Wanderer.
Solitoid Terror.
Strong Back.
Class skills Cloak Essence: 18.
Divine Revelation (spontaneous).
Imitation: 15.
Lethargy: 8.
Liberation: 33.
Divine abilities Aid of the Sleepers: 2.
Sleeping Invulnerability: 2.
Sleeping Justice: 2.
Sleeping Vindication: 2.
Touch of the Sleeping Gods.
Unity.
Auras
Most Magnificent Avenger.
Achievements Beast God Conqueror.
Fearless Explorer.
First Completion: Treasury of the First Mage. First Ever: Just A Perfect Day To Die!
First Ever: Level 400!
First Ever: Level 500!
First Ever: Mightiest Punisher.
First Ever: Most Magnificent Avenger.
First Kill: Bonechewer.
First Kill: Chuff, Queen of the Swamp Needlers. First Kill: Crusher.
First Kill: Devourer of Flesh, Giant Dalezma. First Kill: Kar’sanmai Queen.
First Kill: MokRhyssa, Rock Queen.
First Kill: Murkiss.
First Kill: Neratakon the Sand Golem.
First Kill: Sharkon, Underground Terror.
First Kill: Shograssar, God oftheSarantapods. I Came, I Saw, I Conquered—Forever!
I Survived Distival-2075!
“I’m on Fire! I am the Fire!
Just A Perfect Day To Die!
Mightiest Punisher.
Morituri te salutant!
Most Magnificent Avenger.
Pioneer.
That Doesn’t Happen!
The Lich is Dead! Long Live the New Lich…
Treasury of the First Mage: Path of Courage.
Divine emblems
Shog’rassar’s Protection (+50% damage resistance against insectoids; +100% poison resistance).
Pets, battle avatars and mounts
Iggy, level 564 Swamp Needier.
Sharkon, level 783 Underground Terror.
Holy War Page 35