The Land: Monsters

by Aleron Kong

Your Legendary incarnation of Chaos Lord has 9 ranks.

  You are currently at Rank 1, Weak. Spend 500 Chaos Points to advance to Rank 2, Low. Each Vassal you obtain will decrease this cost by 100 CPs per point of Chaotic alignment.

  At Rank 1:

  You have 2 Vassal Slots

  Each Vassal will generate Chaos Points for you at the rate of 1 CP per Chaotic alignment of the Vassal per week

  All Chaos Spells and Abilities increased by 25%

  You can access Level 1 of your Vassal Page

  Icon for Chaotic Liege page now available on your interface.

  Richter’s eyes unfocused in a practiced way, bring his interface into view. Indeed, there was a new icon in the corner of his vision. It was a crown composed of the ever-changing grey energy of Chaos. Curiosity pawed at him. He would love to open it and learn more. So far, all he really understood was that if he gained a chaotic vassal, that person would earn him a steady supply of Chaos Points! That was amazing, but there was still so much he didn’t understand.

  Basically, it looked like this evolution let him bind other chaos seeds to his service. That might have been a strange thought once, but he’d been a lord in truth for months now. His vassals would be an ongoing source of Chaos Points. It didn’t sound like too many, only one or two points a week, but then again, purchases from the first stratum of the Sea of Chaos cost less than ten CPs. They were far less powerful than purchases from the higher stratums, but they were still valuable. Even an extra point a week meant he could make a purchase every two to three months.

  Chaos Points were not easy to come by. The fact that his new evolution offered so many for each level was great, but the costs of purchases from the Sea of Chaos rose dramatically with each stratum. If the first stratum cost five to ten points, the third cost fifteen to thirty. Costs for the fourth were in the fifties to sixties. If the pattern held true, a hundred points might be used up with just one purchase from the fifth stratum.

  The point was, even as a Chaos Lord leveling would not be enough to give him as many Chaos Points as he wanted. Unfortunately, there were only two other ways to get them. The first was to find a concentration of chaos, either a chaotic shard or particle, which were not exactly just lying around. He’d only found one chaos shard and he’d had to fight a damn war to win it. The other way was to kill chaos seeds. In his heart of hearts, he knew he would take that option in the future. He wouldn’t just slaughter someone because they were from Earth, but he also knew his people. There were plenty who would try to kill him just for the power he offered. In those cases, he would respond in kind. The power that Chaos Points offered was too great a lure.

  On top of that, there was an almost sexual thrill of pleasure when you harvested Chaos Points from someone else. The one other human from Earth he’d met had been addicted to it. Of course, Richter was pretty sure Heman had been a sadistic sumbitch even back on Earth, but he was also sure the man would not be the last evil chaos seed he’d meet. Again, Richter knew the nature of humanity too well.

  The Point was, having another source of Chaos Points would be excellent. That made him want to choose the option that doubled the gains he got from vassals. On the other hand, he had to take the long view. As the years went by, he would need allies that could grow with him. Doubling the bonuses to his vassals would both make them stronger and make others more likely to pledge themselves to him.

  The other two options could also be helpful. One let him have more vassals and the other let him access higher levels of his Liege Page. Accessing higher stratums of the Sea of Chaos was extremely valuable. It was mostly likely the same case here. As the final seconds ticked down on his Choice, he gritted his teeth. There just wasn’t enough info to go on. Still, time and tide and all that. With a single second left, he chose.

  Congratulations! You have chosen the bonus: Double benefits to you from chaotic vassals.

  Base bonus for obtaining a Chaotic Vassal is increased from +1 to +2 Chaos Points per number of Chaotic alignment per week

  If he’d had more time, he might have made a different choice, but this was the only option that gave him a definitive bonus if he ever managed to obtain a chaotic vassal. The countdown timer of the choice window manifested a final line before disappearing.

  This is your 2nd Choice. For making a Choice in the allotted time you are awarded:7 Chaos points.

  Total Chaos Points: 648

  Richter’s eyes bulged out of his head. How the hell had he just gotten so many CPs? When he’d leveled up just now, he only had forty-one. The chaos lord’s gaze flashed to Xuetrix, still bound within the golden rings. The demon stared at him in silent fury, wordlessly promising to savage him mind, body and soul. Richter didn’t waste any energy responding. That particular situation would unfold soon enough, one way or another. He still had about half a minute before the battle restarted. He’d use that time to go through the rest of his ascension prompts, and hopefully find one more edge to use against the demon.

  33, 32, …

  He pulled up his minimized level prompt.

  Leveling block has been removed now that your Rite of Ascension is complete!

  TRING!

  You have reached level 45! Through hard work you have moved forward along your path. You are awarded the following points to distribute:

  Per Level

  Total

  Stat Points

  As a Chaos Lord, you gain 15 Stat Points to distribute to characteristics instead of the usual 4

  15

  Talent Points

  As a Chaos Seed, you receive 30 Talent Points instead of the usual 10.

  You receive an additional 15 Talent Points from your Profession and Specialty for having a 100% affinity in Enchanting

  235

  Chaos Points

  You receive 100 Chaos Points due to your Blessing by the Lords of Chaos

  648

  Skill % Points

  +75% to the skill of your choice

  +75%

  Goddamn! The extra points from being tier 2 added up quick! He now had another fifteen Attribute Points to distribute. As great as that was, time was running out and it didn’t seem like his primary attributes came into play during the battle of wills. He left it alone for now. Same for his Talent Points, though he’d be checking out his Enchanting tab as soon as he could. He would love to use some of these Chaos Points, but again, there wasn’t time for that.

  He still didn’t know where they had all come from. By his count, he there was a five hundred point windfall that had come from out of nowhere. Similarly, his Skill Points were something to be excited about, but could also wait. It might be enough to buy him another skill level in Enchanting.

  None of the points could help him with the battle of wills. There was one more line that did though. Now that Richter had claimed his level, the difference between him and Xuetrix had reduced.

  Level difference between the two combatants has been adjusted from 34 to 33.

  Xuetrix’s Power modifier will be reduced from +17% to +16.5%

  It wasn’t much, but Richter would take it.

  27, 26, 25, …

  He pulled up the notifications about his ascended form again and focused on the pages dealing with his ascendance, hoping for something, anything, that would help him beat Xuetrix like the winged rat he was.

  Greetings, Chaos Lord! You have ascended. Your body, mind and soul have now progressed to the state of being of a Tier 2 Human. There are no special benefits to this, but Tier 1 attacks are now 20% less effective against you. Your own actions will be 20% more effective against Tier 1 opponents.

  Richter didn’t quite get that, but he kept reading.

  As a Chaos Lord, you have been awarded a Quest that is Unique to your Evolution!

  You have been offered a Quest: Chaotic Flux

  As a Legendary evolution, your body, mind and soul will remain in flux for the next 25 days. If you nourish any of these three facets of your existence within that time, y
ou may be awarded a unique bonus that could greatly augment your power.

  Absorb 100 points of relevant energy to fulfill this quest.

  Success Conditions: Absorb 100 Points of energy, Tier 2 or greater

  Rewards: In addition to the benefits from augmenting your body, mind or soul, you will be offered another boon that is customized to you. This will greatly benefit you!

  Penalty for failure of Quest: None

  This Quest cannot be refused!

  Richter wasn’t exactly sure how to “nourish” his mind, body or soul. Actually, he had no earthly idea. And what the hell was “relevant” energy? The quest was about as vague as vague could be, something that really ratcheted up his annoyance meter. At least there wasn’t a penalty for failure. Also, if only people that managed to get a legendary evolution got these kinds of quests, then the rewards literally had to be better than epic.

  He’d have to figure out what the quest meant later. It was just one more item to add to the list of things he didn’t understand. A list that was regrettably as long as his johnson… which was long… unregrettably.

  Absorbing the info about his level up had burned a couple seconds, but hadn’t provided anything to help him win. To his delight, the next prompt dealt with his bloodline. He immediately pulled the prompts to him, educating himself about his new capabilities. The first line almost made him freeze in apprehension.

  In addition to the changes to mind, body and soul, you have been randomly awarded a Bloodline! You now possess the Epic Vile Bloodline: Petrifying Ghost Harvest

  The name did not bode well.

  This Bloodline arose during the 4th evolution of The Land after the 3rd Cataclysm. As such, it is part of a grouping of Bloodlines known as Vile.

  Know This! There are many bloodlines in The Land. The capabilities and powers of bloodlines are as varied as grains of sand.

  As an Epic Bloodline, Petrifying Ghost Harvest possesses 6 ranks. Increasing the rank of the bloodline will increase its powers.

  Richter had hoped there would be some explanation on how to strengthen the bloodline, but unfortunately there wasn’t. If he survived this contest with his soul intact, he’d have time to figure it out later. Still, the next lines explained the perks of his new bloodline, which would definitely come in handy.

  Know this! Bloodlines consume Bloodline Points (BPs) to unleash their power. In some cases, additional BPs may be spent to increase the effect or the duration. At rank 1, your Bloodline has the following powers:

  Harden: Increase your defense by +1 for 1 minute. Further BP expenditure can increase effect and/or duration proportionally. Cost: 1 BP

  Ghost: Increase your Concealment by +1 for 1 minute. Further BP expenditure can increase effect and/or duration proportionally. Cost: 1 BP

  Harvest: This is the special ability of the Petrifying Ghost Harvest Bloodline. You may use your bloodline on the dead remains of other creatures to isolate and claim the best components of their bodies. This can be used multiple times on the same set of remains, but each use will degrade the remains as a whole. Degraded, aged and/or altered remains have a significantly lower success rate of Harvest and will net a lesser yield.

  All three powers could come in handy. Harden was obviously beneficial in a fight. Extra defense was the difference between a small cut and a deadly wound. The base effect only lasted a minute, but there didn’t seem to be a cooldown. He could spend more BPs to extend the duration or increase the effect.

  Ghost was also great. Richter’s Stealth skill was at level fourteen, taking him to the second rank. Being able to hide was heavily dependent on a Secondary Attribute called Concealment. Each skill level increased his base Concealment by 2%. That was helpful, but not nearly as beneficial as advancing a rank in the skill. After becoming an initiate in Stealth, each skill rank increased his base Concealment value by +5.

  As a Secondary Attribute, Concealment couldn’t be increased by simple leveling like Intelligence or Charisma. Even a hundredth of a point in a Secondary Attribute could make a big difference. Richter’s current Concealment value was +7 while stealthed. It was much better than the average human’s base value of +1, good enough to turn him effectively invisible.

  The enemy of Concealment was the Secondary Attribute Perception. If two enemies were playing hide and seek, whoever had a higher value would beat the other, outside factors notwithstanding. While Richter’s +7 Concealment was much better than nothing, it would be useless if he were up against a perceptive enemy or monster. The fact that he could boost his Concealment now opened up a lot of possibilities. Whether he was trying to avoid a fight or to assassinate an enemy, his bloodline made him much more powerful.

  As cool as the first two were though, it appeared that Harvest was the real prize, at least from what he had understood so far. It sounded like something Hisako had mentioned during one of their talks. Richter had been asking about skills. Just like with Stealth, ranking up in a skill frequently provided a much better bonus than just improving its level. He’d wanted to know what to expect if he came across highly skilled opponents in battle.

  Rather than answer his question about combat skills, she had cautioned him to not disregard the power of noncombat skills. One of the most valued by the wood sprites was Zootomy. It was one of the few skills Richter had heard about but not yet achieved.

  While hunting, he’d cut apart plenty of beasts and monsters. Once, he’d even stood chest-deep inside the body of a slain mortal enemy, a rock giant. That apparently hadn’t been enough to earn him the Zootomy skill. Simply performing an action was not enough to learn a skill. Skill acquisition required three things: an affinity for the skill, a specific action to be performed or criteria to be met, and luck.

  Herb Lore, for instance, had required more than just picking a flower. He’d had to connect to the life force of the plant, first. He’d needed to understand its nature and then gather it in a manner that was consistent with its function. This had sounded dumb to Richter until he’d actually connected with the energy of a patch of dark cave moss, much to Sion’s surprise.

  Similarly, Zootomy had criteria that needed to be met before one could acquire it. Specifically, you had to have an advanced understanding of the anatomy of the creature that was being dissected. Just cutting a creature apart wasn’t enough. That was why the hack job Richter had performed on the rock giant hadn’t counted.

  The point, Hisako had told him, was that Zootomy experts were able to use a passive magic that increased both the quantity of meat that an animal would yield and the potency of harvested organs for crafting and potions, and which could even extend the length of time that collected animal parts would resist degradation. In sprite society, even lower-ranked individuals with the skill were highly valued.

  Once the skill’s practitioners reached the fifth rank of adept, the skill underwent a formative change. Adepts were able to magically conjure the best pieces of a carcass without even cutting into it. Becoming a master let them get rare drops from a beast’s remains that could be turned into some of the most powerful items imaginable. These were crafting components that could not be gained in any other way, at least not to the Hearth Mother’s extensive knowledge. A master of Zootomy was viewed as a strategic resource by kingdoms and empires alike.

  The item that had just saved Sion’s life, the Bracelet of Home’s Heart, had been created using a rare drop from a wyvern: the last drop of blood the dying monster’s heart had pumped, collected by a master of Zootomy. From what he was seeing, Harvest gave him the special ability of a master-ranked skill!

  The next prompt told him how many BPs he had to work with.

  Epic Bloodlines have a base 30 Bloodline Points to expend before they are exhausted. A Bloodline’s age can greatly increase its potential power. Vile Bloodlines arose after the 4th Cataclysm, and so are 75-150% more powerful than newly awakened Bloodlines.

  Petrifying Ghost Harvest is one of the strongest bloodlines of the Vile era. It sees a 139% bonus co
mpared to other Epic Bloodlines; accordingly, you will begin with 72 Bloodline Points.

  With a start, Richter realized there was a new status bar in the upper left corner of his vision. Since coming to The Land, there had only been three. The top bar was red, for health; the middle was green, for stamina; and the bottom was blue, for mana. Now a shorter bar had appeared beneath the first three; it was a malevolent purple-green in color. He knew without being told that this was his bloodline pool.

  It was easy for Richter to understand why having a bloodline was a game-changer. Used properly, a… Blooded creature could overcome even a battle Professional.

  A Mage could dominate several opponents at once. A Warrior’s skills could kill an enemy before they had time to react. Both were powerful, but they had easily identified limitations. If a Mage exhausted their spell repertoire, they were helpless until their cooldowns elapsed, even if they had a full mana pool. Warriors could keep fighting, but their special moves were similarly useless until their cooldowns finished.

  From what Richter could see, bloodlines didn’t seem to have these limitations. Their use was limited only by the number of Bloodline Points. He could keep spamming it until his pool ran dry. A Mage’s spell or a Warrior’s Thrust were both finite abilities. Outside of a small margin, they wouldn’t get stronger. A bloodline user, on the other hand, could expend all their points at once. That could make for a stronger effect than any Professional could match. If he maxed Harden, for instance, his skin would gain 72 points of defense. It would only last for a minute, but while it did, he would have a defense stronger than any armor he’d seen. In battle, a minute was a lifetime. Richter didn’t like the whole “vile” appellation, but there was nothing he could do about that. What mattered was that the bloodline would give him a better chance to survive.

  It was also clear that there were wide variations between the powers bestowed by bloodlines. The Unyielding Dragon Flame bloodline of the draike evolution would have made him significantly stronger and faster. Petrifying Ghost Harvest increased his defense and could make it possible for him to evade detection. As pleased as he was with his own new powers though, he immediately thought of how dangerous other enemies with bloodlines could be in a fight.