Eric lurched awake to a flood of messages waiting for him. Anxiety at time wasted turned to a sense of relief when he saw that only two hours had past.
Transcendent Abjuration is now Rank 6.
Gunnery is now Rank 11.
Gunnery is now Rank 12!
Flesh Sculptor is now Rank 28.
Spirit Mastery is now Rank 36.
Rituals of Summoning and Binding is now Rank 33!
Bloodfire Strike is now Rank 21!
2nd Tier Core Saturation is now at 72%.
Congratulations, you have earned 2 levels in your Profession!
You are now a Rank 38 Master Necromancer!
How do you wish to shape your class?
The sheer joy in seeing his skills continue to improve and the wondrous delight of his Master Necromancer class continuing to blossom and grow turned to a sudden jolt of awe when a completely unexpected perk flashed across his interface.
It had only been for a moment.
A singular impression.
But he knew what it meant.
What it MUST mean!
He took a shuddering breath, immediately discarding all his previous plans of doubling his Underlord Quota or enhancing his Crimson Orb one additional degree.
All his eyes had locked on to the most innocuous of perks.
Recall Familiar! - This perk allows you to recall any favored revenant, underlord, or familiar lost in the call of duty. Should your favored creation be transposed to another realm, planet, or region beyond your purview, you will recall a perfect duplicate instead! Do you wish to invest in this perk?
You have chosen: YES!
Eric’s heart was pounding. He could feel a cold sweat prickling his back as he took a shuddering breath, squeezing tight to his will in the heart of his Underlord’s protective dome, free of howling spirits and outside disturbances as Eric closed his eyes and called out to the memory of a tiny friend that he missed dearly.
For a heartbeat, he could sense her, happily cavorting and dancing upon their shared daughter’s shoulder. Eric felt a sudden bright surge of love for the girl that was his child, beyond relieved to see her surrounded by what looked like hundreds if not thousands of devoted troops, sensing an entire city under their control, and they, forever moving, forever beyond their foes’ abilities to catch, about to move on, fresh territory to claim and enemies to kill. And if the single casual flash of explosive crimson lightning obliterating a distant flying object was anything to go by, his daughter’s power had only grown as she dared to take on an entire world on behalf of her aunt, Eric’s sister.
Eric’s heart swelled with joy.
“I love you, Lilly.”
Much to his surprise and wonder, he sensed her reply.
“I love you too, Dad. Please be careful, okay? And yes, you can totally have a copy of mom! She can combine all her memories while she sleeps, living two lives at once, and keep me updated!”
Eric’s heart swelled with delight at hearing that, but before he could reply, he jolted awake with a gasp.
Realizing that another two hours had passed in the time it had taken him to evolve his class one more step… and reach his daughter for even a few seconds.
He prayed that she would be okay.
And that he wasn’t too late himself.
But before he could groan with dismay at time lost, his world was brightened by a cheerful chipper voice he knew so very well.
“Yay! I’m back and badder than ever! How are you, fearless leader? Father of our beautiful baby girl? I missed my favorite master!”
Eric chuckled at that, gently rubbing his purring bunny against his cheek. And if bunnies didn’t normally purr? He didn’t care.
Instead, he kissed her cute fluffy head and placed her on his shoulder where she belonged.
“Great to see you too, Bunbun. I missed you like anything,” he said as his World Eater uncoiled and he began racing full speed once more.
“Whee!” Screamed BunBun. “We are TOTALLY breaking the sound barrier! And the mustard yellow skies, crackling lightning, swirling sands and basalt flats… this is totally Desert Dune! Now can I have a Fragor?”
Eric laughed at that.
“FRAGOR!” He roared, and a distant basalt pillar exploded in an a shower of rubble, as did the skull of a distant raptor whose confused pact Eric raced for with a holler.
Crimson lightning and Bloodfire flashed in unison as he struck and killed before his hoard washed over the survivors and he belted the words that grew his hoard by another handful.
“Fucking awesome!” BunBun hooted. “You added something special and spicy, didn’t you? You don’t have our little one’s glorious multipliers. Not yet… but OOH! Essences and Higher Order manifestations of Wrath. AWESOME!
“So, are we finally at the ‘fuck’em all, we’re taking over the world’ stage of our story here? About fucking time! I can share SO MANY KEWEL hit-and-run tactics that Lilly, me, and Elonia’s elite Sylvan Commanders have been cooking up. So much sweetness! We have four cities under our control, and have absolutely obliterated Bloodtear’s Death Troops, at least in the territoryies we’ve claimed so far! Best of all, no more goblin carriers are bringing in fresh assholes! Not sure why, not gonna complain!”
Eric couldn’t help but laugh aloud at that pronouncement, glad that he had been able to unleash his favored spell just as they made contact. Because even now, just seconds later… he felt it.
The awful pressure on his back.
Not just observing, which should be impossible, according to Caliban… but glaring down at him.
Somehow.
Eric clenched his jaw and stroked his suddenly tense familiar’s back.
“You feel that?”
“Shit. Yes, I do. Any idea what it is?”
Eric snorted. “We’re in a newly ascended Black-tier territory undergoing a monster surge. All I know is that it should be impossible for anyone to sense anything, which makes using pretty much EVERY tool in our arsenal A-OK as far as local politics goes. But still. We’re keeping certain cards close to our vest.”
BunBun dipped her ears. “Understood, fearless leader. Are we sure they aren’t friendly eyes?”
“Seriously? Unseen strangers that actually have our best interest at heart? That aren’t hoping to shank us and grab every treasure we ever claimed for themselves at the worst possible moment?”
Eric and BunBun shared a look at that, before bursting into laughter.
“Yeah… talk about wishful thinking!” BunBun sighed. “Okay, what next?
Eric flashed a toothy grin.
“Ooh. Nice chompers!”
“I know, right?”
“Very, very… sharky?”
“Anyway... the plan is simple. We tear through this fucking territory and claim every last abomination, velociraptor, and Titan Wyrm we come across, and every other critter that blinks red and we do it in what will now be… fuck.”
BunBun’s whiskers quivered in distress at the sight of Eric’s furrowed brows.
“What’s wrong?”
Eric sighed. “We now have just 39 hours to clear out a hundred by hundred mile grid that’s still growing before goblin assholes and countless other enemy faction flunky pushes a motion to allow unlimited access to settlers with machine guns to slaughter both nasty boar and annoying natives in this brave new world to their hearts content. For the greater good, of course.”
“Ooh. Snarky metaphor. Well fuck! That does stack the odds in their favor just a little bit, does it? There’s no way in hell anyone can cover that much terrain in that amount of time.”
Eric flashed a cynical smile. “I think that was the point. The goblins don’t give a shit about the long term ramifications. Their original plan was to strip-mine the entire planet, happy to let it overheat and explode once they had managed to force desperate poverty and predatory debt traps on the entire fucking population before dragging all their slaves to soul-steel forges very much like the one YOU destroyed, my awesome and beloved BunBun.”
His familiar quivered with furious tension, crimson lightning crackling between her ears.
“We are NOT letting that shit happen here.”
“Damn right we aren’t Which is why we’re taking full advantage of my interface map, along with my Speed Racer II perk, where air resistance, easy terrain, and inertia are exactly what I want them to be.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
BunBun gave a thoughtful nod. “So that’s why we’ve left the sound barrier way behind and my ears weren’t torn off my adorably furry body?”
“Pretty much, yeah!” Eric grinned. “Equally important, my Dominion Interface Map lets me spot all the hot clusters, and my Mixed Unit Tactics and Undead Tactical Interface Map Access means that I can send out platoons of ten to thirty velocis or more, if needed, to hunt down small band and stragglers at all corners of the map while we blitzkrieg the most dangerous packs in the territory.”
“Ah. So that’s why we have just a little over 300 velocis by our side.”
“Yup! The other six hundred plus are cleaning up dozens of hot spots, splitting off in small packs to fly left and right while we tear down the center of the territory... and look at that. A fucking motherload cluster of sixty terror birds and a Brood Mother which looks more like a T-Rex than anything else!”
The pair exchanged fierce smiles when the massive beast suddenly towering before them roared and charged, crackling with deadly potency that sent Eric’s instincts screaming, Eric having no doubt that this Deep Bronze dinosaur could tear right through the Blue Palace like a cannonball, more than capable knocking over dozens of power armored Blue Corp knights a split second before tearing open their armor and eating their entrails like sardines.
Which was why he was perfectly happy to take the fight to them.
“Fearless Leader? Spells?”
In response Eric just laughed, abruptly darting a hard right. Dodging teeth snapping way too close to his skull, earning a scream from BunBun and a jolt of terror from Eric, realizing he probably should NOT be holding back, no matter who or what was measuring him… judging him.
It was in that terrifying moment with the stink of a massive theropod’s fetid breath washing over him that he realized that maybe THIS was his enemy’s angle. Getting him so self-conscious that he was an easy mark for the critters that would kill him without anyone else having to do anything but sip fancy drinks and laugh at his corpse.
Fuck that.
And fuck giving anything away either.
“Eric!”
Quickness check made! You have successfully DODGED Vorpal Deathblow!
Bloodfire Strike!
You have critically struck your prey!
“Eric, they’re swarming!”
Eric snarled, his pounding heart transforming fear to fury, REFUSING to be afraid, even as the swarm of velis swarmed around their mother, hissing and snapping and refusing to let Eric close with the now wounded sentinel spitting blood. But Eric demanded his legions hold back. This kill was his. These fuckers were HIS!
Crimson flame flashed as vorpal teeth snapped, BunBun wise enough to do absolutely nothing to interfere, well aware of her master’s designs even as he strained his reserves, expanding his fiery blade and cleaving through pairs and packs of terror birds, working his way and winnowing the swarm until a mother’s desperate roar forced the survivors back.
Eyes filled with terrifying sapience met Eric’s own.
It knew.
Even as it spurted blood from its left talon, glaring its hate as it gathered itself protectively in front of its pack, it knew that this was a fight to the death, that Eric was here to kill her without forbearance or mercy, and that the fate of her tribe was now in her talons alone.
So with a mother’s panicked fury, she roared and charged.
Snapping desperate teeth before a blinding crimson flare flashed so brightly that she was blinded.
Before crashing to the desert sands unable to move her massive body or even open her eyes.
Just fading to blackness as the desperate caws of her children turned to furious shrieks and dying wails... and then she was no more.
Congratulations! You have successfully slain a Mid-tier Bronze (Strength Based) Terror Bird Matron in singular combat without using Higher Order attacks!
Eve approves of this battle!
You continue to evolve and improve as a cultivator daring the Path of Peril!
You have achieved Rank 47 as Death’s Disciple!
“Eric... Eric!”
Eric took a deep breath of spice-laden air tasting of wild magics and deepest sorrow.
He swallowed an unexpected lump in his throat, shivering over the corpses of his foes. And the look he had seen in that mother’s eyes...
“Fuck, BunBun. I thought they were just mindless monsters.”
BunBun nodded. “I know.”
“But she was alive and aware and had woken up to actual sapience and was just taking care of her children. Knowing that they couldn’t live on the spicy sands gifts alone.”
BunBun nodded. “You’re right. There was an entire city full of juicy furless meat sacks just waiting to be devoured. We should TOTALLY have let her do that. She’d definitely have loved us then.”
Eric winced. “You just had to put it that way, didn’t you?”
BunBun gave him a hard look. “This is war, Eric. You’re only duty is to make sure that our people live. That our children survive to savor days filled peace, joy, and happiness. To one day raise children who might know a world so free of tragedy and conflict that they dare to judge those who had come before. Their ancestors who had done everything they could to secure them that paradise. So that you can give them a great grandfather’s smile and say, ‘shut the fuck up, junior. You have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about. Because if I hadn’t been a ruthless, genocidal motherfucker, your grandmother would have been screaming her last while orcs ripped her open and ate her alive, and you would never have even been born.’”
Eric swallowed the sudden lump in his throat, gently stroking his rabbit’s ears. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Be thorough! Look at that Veloci trying to get up with only its talons hacked off. Growing soft, Fearless leader. So FINISH IT! Then raise it for that second chance at life under OUR command that our foes would NEVER give us, and take heart that our future grandkids, Lilly’s children, might just get to enjoy a happy life free of psychotic orcs and other baddies that we never had.”
Eric took his familiar’s counsel and ended the suffering of those stragglers quick and clean.
And it was a comfort to know that when a general’s command was given, all 57 Velociraptors were happy to swear their eternal service.
Even their mother, happy to be reunited with her brood once more.
Then they were off once more, racing to the largest pack of all, where Eric sensed that the fate of the entire territory would be decided.
“Excellent news, fearless leader! Your Strategy worked! Our four score mini packs have taken out over 300 stragglers spread out all over the place! And those blobs of tendrils and eyeballs hiding in all the swampy ereas? Our World Eater LOVES eating those. Even if we can’t raise them, at least our second Wormy’s growing!”
Eric grinned. “Yup. It’s going pretty sweet. But don’t say anything! Because we don’t need any red flags waving.”
BunBun, at least as good, no, a far better gamer than he, dipped her head in complete agreement. “So, is there a reason why we’re not using spells or our delicious shouts or the higher order transcendent attacks I know we can use with utter impunity... because I checked the logs?”
Eric blinked. “You can do that?”
“Duh.”
He chuckled. “Okay, fair enough. For one thing, I only earned that cultivation level after half a dozen single combats against tough veloci variants.”
“Yup. I know. I was there for half the kills.”
“But I only got one rank! It’s like I’m getting bottlenecked! Even if my path means I should always be able to find a way forward, evolve a way forward. What the fuck’s going on, Lilly?”
His familiar snorted. “Reeally, Fearless Leader? With all the progression cultivation novels you’ve read, you don’t get it?”
“Um… no?”
His rabbit gave him a look.
“What?”
“Dude.”
“BunBun.”
“Duuude! What the fuck have you been doing all day? Two days now…”
“That’s easy. Dueling, killing a shit-ton of velocis and, at least with the main horde, growing their number back up to a thousand plus!”
“Exactly! And let’s not forge all those sweet, sweet power ups, since you’ve managed to warp your Contender Path to the point that you’re devouring Contenders like Territories! Because 7.5% stat claim when 5% is the absolute maximum and most Contenders only get 1-3% is absofuckinglutely absurd! And glorious. But mostly absurd.”
Eric blinked. “Wait. 1 to 3%?
“If even that. Anyway, the point is, just how FUCKING POLLUTED do you think your meridians are by now?”
Eric frowned. “But I feel fine. Fucking awesome, actually.”
“Of course you do! You’ve absorbed SO MUCH System Power. Contender Power, Necromantic Power! And that’s okay! Eve doesn’t care! You’re very path says: use what works! Trial of combat is it’s own reward, mother nature doesn’t care how you evolve, if it works… it works!”
“Exactly.”
BunBun snorted. “But you’re now so full of junk DNA that it’s not even funny. Similarly, your cultivation class can and will progress no matter what, but it will take more and more novel kills to make that happen. More and more pressure. But don’t worry. You’ll never stall. That’s pretty much Eve’s promise because evolution NEVER stalls! Especially when evolutionary pressure demands growth or death. BUT! And this is the big one, fearless leader... BUT you could be so much more fucking efficient if you actually had even a single mentor besides you-know-who, who really just wanted five minutes (quick-fire much?) to claim your bebe juices so that the Imperial Family can have some white-hot Gold-tier Phoenix Blood in it.”
Eric’s eyes bulged in alarm. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Nothing, stud muffin. The POINT IS, Eric, that you’re in desperate need of good mentors or at least a few body cultivation manuals to clean out some crud and pack on those yummy levels! Maybe even get some nice physical stat boosts for free. Since you’re totally a body-cultivation kind of guy. I mean, seriously. You somehow channeled almost a third of your spiritual energy directly into your body in a way that I think would have made any profound master cry, or assume your quick and violent death was pretty much a given. But you’re a System Favorite Contender on a Wildly ascending planet, and here and now, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING goes, so of course you made it work like a Fashion House special... and on you, it’s absolutely WINNING! And it looks fabulous. All the judges agree!
“But… um… for anyone else… yeah. Slamming almost 200 Spiritual Energy points into one’s body in the form of boosted resistances is kind of madness? Though I LOVE how you somehow made your own perception of your physical reality a buffer against Psionic attacks. So stubborn that you refuse to die. OR let your brain melt. I love it! Lilly thinks you’re insane, by the way. But she loves you too!”
And that was when Eric felt it. The sudden pressure wave of the boss that had hidden itself so well for so long, yet now had no choice but to come to the fore.
Quickness check made! Full use of perks in play!
Yet Eric was already racing away, at an upwards angle, feet leaving the ground far behind as the earth rumbled and shook and exploded with a titanic roar as a true behemoth finally revealed itself.
The most massive Titan Wyrm to yet manifest. Closer to half a mile in length than a quarter or a third. Well on its way to evolving into a genuine World Eater.
The air rang with its furious howls, so loud that it drowned out Eric’s ability to channel any runic spell at all, for once daring to make an exception. Yet it could do nothing to stop Eric’s silent commands as he prepared himself for the final battle he should have to face for the territory.
Not as a warrior.
But as a general.
His lips curled in a ruthless smile as he steadily backed away from the titanix maw, even as he clenched his fist, revealing two of his trump cards the instant his foe had leaped fully out of the basalt rock that flowed like ocean waves before its awesome might.
Stretching out at maximum extension.
Eric’s eyes widened as it continued to lunge through the air, trifold mouth open nearly as wide as a football field before it finally snapped shut, falling back to earth.
And what a magnificent and terrifying sight it was. The half-mile long body, fully extended, tumbling through the air to the ground below. Right before two more Titan Wyrms… his own... exploded from the basalt rock that had hidden their passage like submarines in the deep.
Only the deadly missiles they launched to tear into the hull of their enemy were their own open mouths, sinking deep into the suddenly roaring abomination. Drilling through their prey as the desert sand sprayed with a geyser’s worth of hot sticky blood that boiled on contact with the howling desert wind, all three sinking under the depths of the basalt flats, and all was deathly silent and still. The endless howling winds of a monster surge growing eerily quiet just as Eric and BunBun touched surface on a rocky ledge a short distance off.
Eric, eyes closed, savoring the furious battle happening in deep, dark, liquid rock.
A battle between titans that would decide the fate of this territory screaming with so much potency and power.
As if he was completely unaware of the vulture swooping in at that very moment, eager to claim the most glorious prize imaginable over Eric’s fallen corpse.