The Land: Monsters

by Aleron Kong

  Congratulations! You have reached subskill levels 18 and 19 in Grace in Combat. Dodge increased by +29% while wearing all Light Armor.

  Richter thought about the last prompt and his battle with the ichorpedes. He realized that fight had been the first time in a long time that he’d fought without armor. Thinking about it now, it occurred to him that even though he hadn’t been wearing his gear, he’d actually felt “heavier” than when he was wearing his kit. It just went to show you that though skills were powerful, some of them were completely dependent on certain conditions being met. Case in point: without his light armor, he lost the bonus from Grace in Combat. That meant it was a lot harder for him to dodge attacks. It was just one more reminder of how much more vulnerable he was without his items. For a moment he thought about all the times Bruce Wayne had still been a badass even without his suit and utility belt. At least the comics had made it seem that way.

  Richter was calling bullshit.

  Sighing heavily, he kept going. The advancements to his magic skills were next.

  Congratulations! You have reached skill level 20 in Blood Magic. New spells are now available.

  His prolonged mastery over the mauler had increased his skill level in the Deeper Magic of Blood. It was only by one level, but it was something. That was especially true as it took significantly longer to progress in Deeper Magic than in the Basic Elements. It was also potentially dangerous. There were spells he couldn’t use because his skill level in Blood Magic was too low, but he’d never forgotten that there were powerful forces monitoring its use. He didn’t know what a blood coven was, but he was pretty sure he didn’t want one to find him.

  Even better and more importantly, his Beast Bonding skill had improved.

  Congratulations! You have reached skill levels 26, 27 and 28 in Beast Bonding. +28% effectiveness to Tame. +28% attack and defense of bonded creatures.

  Three levels might not seem like a game changer, but there was more to this skill than the prompt told. His probability of successfully using Tame was based on his skill level in Beast Bonding compared to the personal level of the monster he was trying to control. His chances of controlling higher level monsters had just increased and, if he did conquer their will, they’d be stronger for it afterward. Tame was a demanding and exacting spell, but it just might be the very thing that kept him alive down here.

  None of his other magical skills had increased. Even though Richter had called on powerful magics in his fight with Singh, most of that had come from using high level items. He supposed you could say that where steel had failed him, gold had saved him. Those items had been incredibly powerful, but it was basically like fighting a monster by throwing sports cars at it. Of course, he’d happily burn more gold right now if it would get him a useful item. Then again, if frogs had wings, they wouldn’t bump their asses when they jumped.

  The next prompt showed an unexpected increase. Richter was somewhat surprised to see that his Traps skill had improved by a level.

  Congratulations! You have reached skill level 27 in Traps. All traps +54% more effective. +54% less likely to be found.

  This had to be because of the massive trap floor on the roof of the Mausoleum. The entire thing had been like a jigsaw puzzle of death. Hundreds, if not thousands, of snares were built into the roof. He hadn’t been able to disarm any of them, but even identifying traps helped his skill. That had been enough to give him another few precious percentage points of progression in the skill.

  The next advance was an even bigger surprise.

  Congratulations! You have reached skill levels 10, 11, …, and 15 in Diplomacy. +15% to negotiating power. +15% more likely that representatives from other settlements will take both threats and offers more seriously.

  Congratulations! You have advanced from Novice to Initiate in: Diplomacy. Your strength as a leader is not only based on strength of arms, but also strength of voice. The diplomatic actions you take now have farther-reaching consequences.

  Diplomacy Initiate Bonus: +20% Diplomatic Points generated from meaningful actions between settlements. This is cumulative with successive ranks.

  Of everything he had done at the Mausoleum, one of the most important events was his negotiation with the vampire brothers, Mikaal and Lucasz. The perk from his Symbiosis Boon, Deadly Charisma, had greased the wheels, but it had still taken serious forethought and convincing to get the master magicians to betray their lich lord. His high Charisma and Fame had almost definitely played a serious role as well. That negotiation had been key to defeating Singh. The more he thought about it, the more he understood why his Diplomacy skill had advanced so far so fast.

  It had also earned him more experience.

  You have received 2,500 (base 2,000 x 1.25) bonus experience for reaching level 10 in the skill: Diplomacy.

  The last skill he’d advanced was no surprise. He gained nine skill levels in War Leader and even more in its subskills.

  Congratulations! You have reached skill levels 18, 19, …, and 26 in War Leader. Sphere of Influence +26% larger. +26% attack and defense for all allies within your Sphere of Influence.

  Congratulations! You have reached subskill levels 15, 16, …, and 26 in Beacon. +260 to the Fighting Spirit of war party.

  Congratulations! You have reached subskill levels 10, 11, …, 14 in Inspiring Leadership. +14% to chance of war party members earning Field Advancements. +14% to the power of Field Advancements of any party members under your command or the command of your subordinates.

  Richter had led the allied armies to victory. That had earned him so many skill levels. Thinking about that reminded him of the casualties. Too many had been lost. His chest tightened again, but he pushed past the feeling. Trapped beneath the ground with a demon breathing down his neck wasn’t the time to backpedal. The point was, despite the high costs, they had prevailed. Not only had the lich been defeated, ending centuries of evil, but the Mausoleum had been destroyed as well. A bulwark of the undead had been eradicated. All that together had advanced not only War Leader, but two of its three subskills.

  Beacon must have improved when he was at the forefront of the battle. He was literally a beacon to his troops, increasing their Fighting Spirit. The higher the FS, the more damage they caused. His presence had increased the hurt his entire army could bring. Inspiring Leadership advanced when he accomplished something truly amazing in a battle. Destroying a high-level Core building had certainly qualified.

  He got two more notifications telling him about the seventy-five hundred XP he’d gained for reaching skill level twenty in War Leader and its subskills. What was more important was that reaching skill level twenty-five had advanced him to an entirely new rank!

  Congratulations! You have advanced from Initiate to Apprentice in: War Leader.

  Rank

  Initiate

  Apprentice

  Title

  Battle Sergeant

  Battle Captain

  Max Party Size

  10

  50

  Subordinate Officers

  2 Strike Leaders

  2 Battle Sergeants

  4 Strike Leaders

  Sphere of Influence

  100 yards

  250 yards

  Fighting Spirit Bonus

  +200

  +500

  New Badges are available for purchase. New skilled positions are available.

  All of that was basically just an advance of what had come before, but there were three additional bonuses to being a Battle Captain that changed everything.

  All combat-related skills will increase 25% faster for members of your party. Cumulative with successive ranks.

  Not many things could help skills level faster. The Potion of Clarity increased the experience they gained by 25%. That affected personal levels though, not skills. The vials of sparkling solution could sell for about three gold per dose. While higher levels and more Attribute Points were always a good thing, you needed skills to succeed in The
Land. With this perk, he could train an elite army in a much shorter period of time. The second bonus was even better.

  You may now issue a Captain’s Clarion Call. When used, this special ability will increase the Damage and Attack Speed of every ally inside your Sphere of Influence by 250% for 5 minutes.

  Richter had to read it twice because he didn’t believe it at first. He’d just found a berserk power! In a key moment, he could massively increase the damage of every ally within two hundred and fifty yards. That could be hundreds of soldiers who could wreak havoc on an enemy all at once. It wasn’t just enough to turn the tide of a battle. Clarion Call would be enough to end it.

  While the first two were great, the third really changed the game.

  You shall now be awarded bonus XP based on 5% of the total XP gained from the members of your war party. This is cumulative with successive ranks.

  Richter had wondered about something for a while. War leaders were amazing in battle. They could increase the power of an entire army. That very fact made them vulnerable, however. If the enemy were able to take them out, the entire opposing force would weaken. It was all very well and good for brave kings in old stories to always ride at the front of their armies, but in reality, that was a great way to lose leaders quickly. Richter had learned that lesson himself too many times. He was not invulnerable and too many good men and women had died saving him in the past.

  While he would never shrink from battle, he had also matured enough to realize that he was a precious resource to his troops. He couldn’t always be in the thick of it. Sometimes he would have to lead from behind. Militaries had learned this fact on Earth millennia before his own birth. The question then was: if he wasn’t involved in battles directly, how was he supposed to keep his own level from stagnating? While Richter had multiple options to gain XP thanks to his Legendary Limitless ability, most others would not. The perk from transitioning from a Battle Sergeant to a Battle Captain was the answer.

  Now he could focus on leading his people, and still gain 5% of all the XP they gained in battle. While 5% might not seem like much, he could now field fifty soldiers under his command. When he added in the two Battle Sergeants and four Strike Leaders, that number increased to ninety. With a full contingent, it was like having another four or five people funneling their experience to him in every battle. The XP he could gain in even a single battle was potentially massive!

  Richter couldn’t wait to experience true power leveling. He would have to though. For now, he wasn’t leading but two things, Jack and Shit. Sitting in a black tunnel, miles under the earth, it was clear that Jack had left town. At least until he got bored. Quelling his excitement, he turned his attention to his next prompts. He’d upgraded some of his War Leader promotions!

  Congratulations! Your war party dug out an entrenched enemy and slaughtered every member of the enemy force. For destroying an enemy that was 50 times your number, your Promotion Sapper I has advanced to Sapper IV. +20% to attack against an entrenched enemy.

  Congratulations! Your war party destroyed an enemy in an underground battle. For destroying an enemy that was 50 times your number, your Promotion Subterranean I has advanced to Subterranean IV. +20% to defense when fighting underground.

  It certainly hadn’t been easy to advance the two promotions to the fourth rank, but the rewards were amazing! Raiding entrenched encampments would improve the attack of his people by 20%. Subterranean IV might even be better. If the promotion had increased this far during the raid against the lich, it might have saved lives. Both could turn the tide of war in the future. Even better, these were not the only promotions that were upgraded.

  Richter had hoped that there would be an increase to Overwhelming Odds. The promotion increased the fighting spirit of his warband, increasing the damage they caused in every scenario. But then he’d only gained the promotion after being attacked. Technically, his allied forces had invaded the Mausoleum, so it hadn’t been affected. There had apparently been enemy war parties, however, because Battle Lord advanced.

  Congratulations! Your war party destroyed enemy war parties. For destroying 10 opposing War Parties, your Promotion Battle Lord I has advanced to Battle Lord III. Champions in your War Party enjoy +5 to all Base Characteristics when battling against an enemy war party.

  The original bonus was +1. That was good, but the extra five points meant another fifty points of health, mana and stamina. A higher Constitution and Wisdom also meant an increased stamina and mana regen. It would allow the Champions he led to deal more damage and last longer in battle. It did not affect him personally, unfortunately, but the promotion would definitely be helpful later.

  He’d also gained a specific and, he had to imagine, rare promotion.

  Congratulations! Your war party destroyed a level 4 Core building. For destroying such a powerful building, your War Party has gained a Core Token that can be used at the discretion of the War Leader. The number of levels the building possessed determines the max bonus from the Token.

  For destroying a level 1 Core building: Free Promotion of any non-Core settlement building which your settlement already possesses. This promotion can exceed the level cap imposed by the settlement’s central building (ie Townhall)

  For destroying a level 2 Core building: Increase the bonuses of any non-Core settlement building by 25%.

  For destroying a level 3 Core building: Free creation of any building that your settlement possesses the blueprint to create. The level of this building will be your settlement’s central building +2

  For destroying a level 4 Core building: Free Promotion of any Core settlement building which your settlement already possesses. This promotion can exceed the level cap imposed by the settlement’s central building (ie Townhall)

  This token can be summoned at any time by the War Leader. Once conjured, however, it must be used within 1 day. Only one of the above Token bonuses can be used.

  CHAPTER 6 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC

  Richter couldn’t believe what he had just read. It turned out that if a War Party destroyed a Core building, they would get a huge bonus to their own Settlement. He could see how this particular piece of information would be mostly unknown. The Land was a place of untold secrets. He had to imagine this was one of the biggest.

  Destroying a Core building was insanely hard. They had a durability about a hundred times stronger than a normal building. Their defense was sky-high as well. They actively regenerated any damage that they suffered. Destroying even a level one Core building would take a team of roided-out giants armed with mithril hammers. The only reason the Mausoleum had been destroyed was because an Exile, one of the all-powerful beings imprisoned by The Land itself, had exerted his power. Even then, those beams of devastation had barely been enough. When you looked at all of that, he couldn’t imagine how many people had ever destroyed a Core building. He also couldn’t imagine too many people that would want to do so. A Magic Core could turn a simple village into a powerful force.

  The chaos seed read all of the bonuses again but, truth be told, his eyes only had room for the fourth option. He could upgrade one of his Core buildings! Since coming to The Land he’d overcome many dangers and gained some truly awesome advantages. Even with those, his village was still outmatched in many ways compared to the forces that wanted to destroy it.

  Of all the advantages he’d gained, the Core buildings were perhaps the most valuable. Even though they were only at level one, the Forge of Heavens and the Dragon’s Cauldron had helped his small village beat armies. He couldn’t even imagine what could happen if they were upgraded to level two. Richter smiled for a few seconds before he realized one pivotal point.

  To use the token, he had to get home first. To be more specific, he had to survive down here for at least a week. He needed that long for Singh’s curse to disappear. If he didn’t make it seven days, he wouldn’t just be reborn as himself. He didn’t even know if he had another life to spare, but if the curse took hold, it wou
ldn’t matter.

  He wouldn’t be himself anymore. Singh’s dirty eldritch magic would steal his mind. All that would be left would be a malevolent undead thing. Looking around the cold, dark tunnel, doing his best not to make eye contact with the irritated imp, he realized that surviving a week wasn’t something he could just assume would happen. It certainly didn’t help that a nest of giant bugs had almost eaten him not twenty minutes ago.

  With that splash of cold reality, his joy shriveled like a raisin in the sun. He turned his attention back to his next prompt. The numbers he saw shocked him out of his melancholy. It was a rundown of the War Points he’d gained. Apparently, the system credited him with every death that had come from the destruction of the Mausoleum. It couldn’t even list the individual kills, just categories. According to this, he was responsible for tens of thousands of deaths!

  For slaying 5,816 Skeletons, you have been awarded 11,632 War Points.

  For slaying 4,755 Zombies, you have been awarded 9,510 War Points.

  For slaying 162 Professional Skeletons, you have been awarded 1,620 War Points. (War Points multiplied by 5 for slaying a Professional)

  …

  …

  …

  The list kept unspooling. Skeletons, zombies, draugh, and other creatures he didn’t even recognize the names of. They weren’t just common enemies either. Thousands of Professionals and Specialists had been slain as well. Singh had amassed a truly massive army. Even keeping the eldritch lord’s evil magic out of the equation, the legions of undead would have been enough to turn his village into dust. And not just his village; they could have swept through the entire Forest of Nadria. The lich’s threat of invasion hadn’t just been smoke. Richter wasn’t sure exactly what had happened when the undead army had spilled through the portal into his Dungeon, but he was so very thankful his people had ultimately beaten back the horde. If even 1% had made it out of the Dungeon, every man, woman and child in the Mist Village would have suffered a horrible death.