Invasion Trial: The Jack Brothers completed!
A special Jack Evolution has been gained!
{Mark of Frost} has been gained!
{Mark of Fire} has been gained!
{Mark of Blood} has been gained!
{Mark of Sea} has been gained!
{Mark of Bones} has been gained!
Special Loot gained!
The Marks are special skills that influence other skills and evolutions towards their elements.
You may only give each skill to one minion until said minion either loses, erases or evolves the skill.
So all of my main fighting minions evolved, all at level 25. The shield users evolved into “Osseous”.
Osseous
A type of reinforced skeleton, these beings have entire bodies made of powerful bone.
Indeed, this is probably because of the changes I’ve made to them, looking at it I can see that this osseous evolution is better than what I did, everything is much more harmonious in a way.
I notice that they all seem a bit thinner, but that is only because the bone has fused and layered itself, they may seem smaller but they are also a lot more dense.
Osseous Thorn Soldier
{Osseous Thorn Shield}
Creates a layer of bone thorns on the shield.
{Wall of Thorns}
Creates bone thorns on allied shields nearby.
{Thorn Piercer}
Pierces with thorns
{Osseous Entangle}
Creates pale white vines that hold opponents, the vines strength depends on the user's body.
{Sturdy}
This skeleton is strongly built.
{Aura Of Thorns}
The closer the enemies get the sharper the all thorns abilities become.
Rose Dawn Cult Initiate
{Bloodthorn}
Creates blood roots, stems and thorns and controls them.
{Rose Blood}
Can create blood roses on blood abilities giving them energy sapping abilities, the more they absorb the more they change.
Red Squire
{Strengthen Blood}
Make all blood abilities stronger.
{Create Red Ties}
Create blood bonds with others.
Osseous Shield Guardian
{Solid Osseous Guard}
All defensive bone abilities are stronger.
{Defensive Stance}
{Sturdy}
{Lesser Blast Absorbing Shield}
User shield’s absorb blasts and impacts better.
{Guardian}
When an ally is in need user can dash faster to intercept and give aid
Rose Dawn Cult Initiate
{Bloodthorn}
Creates blood roots, stems and thorns and controls them.
Red Squire
{Strengthen Blood}
{Red Shield}
User can exchange vitality to strengthen their defense and shield.
Osseous Assault Shield
{Rib Cage Shield Advance}
Increases strength when attacking from multiple directions with allies.
{Sturdy}
{Swift Shield}
Increases speed while defending with a shield.
{Revenge Parry}
Parry an attack and reflect most of the damage.
Rose Dawn Cult Initiate
{Bloodthorn}
Red Squire
{Strengthen Blood}
{Red Charge}
User can exchange vitality to strengthen their speed and charge.
Osseous Shield Bearer
{Turtle Stance}
{Enhance Bone}
{Regrow Bone}
Ossified Mummy Cultist
{Bone Regeneration}
{Increase Bone Growth}
Shield Bearer
{Shield Charge}
Rose Dawn Cult
Cult of Battle the sun and sky.
Not a lot of information there.
Red Squire
Squires focused on union and kinship.
Ossified Mummy Cult
A cult focused on ossifying and strengthening their bodies.
These are the two hammers, and also.
Zealot consolidation unlocked!
By combining Squire and Cult Initiate, classes you may gain a new one, doing this erases one class slot from the minion.
Depending on the consolidated classes the zealot class may undergo changes.
{Osseous Executioner}
{Bonebreaker}
{Hammerfall}
{Lesser Necrotic Core}
There is a small gem-like core of necrotic energies inside this minion.
Zealot
{Not My First, Not My Last}
Resistance to dying, necrotic and soul manipulation.
Improvements to revival and healing effects.
{Osseous Bulwark}
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
{Second Wind}
Greatly increases all Regeneration.
{Stomp}
Shake the earth with a mighty stomp.
{Body Smash}
Charge forward and hit your enemy.
{Lesser Necrotic Core}
There is a small gem-like core of necrotic energies inside this minion.
Zealot
{Undying Legion}
Allies nearby cannot die while the user is alive.
{Bone Scream}
Bellow a powerful necrotic scream that taunts enemies and strengthens allies.
Rotten Hog Devil
{Gorging Fire}
{Flaming Teeth, Claws and Horns}
Can cause teeth, claws and horns to burn.
{Stomping Charge}
{Fire Sucking} to {Gorging Fire}
Squire to Savage
{Enhanced Natural Weapons}
All body parts used as weapons are strengthened.
Rotten Hog Devil
An undead who has eaten demonic flesh and is now part demonic, they have resistance to fire and a minor resistance to magic, as all denizens of hell.
Devil
A title for a high ranking demon, this is purely bureaucracy, most Devil simply have friends in high places.
I can think of one “friend” of Gorger who might be in what I assume is hell, though that was a demon and not a devil? Gorger does look demonic, his horns did grow, now looking like goat horns. They also have some black in them, not fully yellow like before. Plus his mouth has two large and thick tusks, like a hog’s, ALL of his mouths have them, his hands almost look like they have two extra bony digits!
Gorger is not the only one who didn’t change much, Merlin looks pretty much identical, the only difference is that his bones now seem… blurry?
Black Shade Skeleton
{Shade Mantle}
A mandle of shadows surrounds this minion’s bones, this mantle weakens light and holy magic.
When an opponent is killed the shade mantle may imprint on them, gaining their abilities
{Shade Mantle : Jack o’ frost}
Invoke a shade mantle and gain all abilities of Jack o’ Frost.
I need to experiment a bit with that mantle, I already have some ideas.
Pale death Cult Initiate
{Reave}
Create necrotic claws capable of ripping the enemies mana and life energy out.
{Necrotic Shadow}
Imbue necrotic energy into shadow.
Spell Aid
{Ghostly Flame}
Create a ghost flame, a flame capable of hurting spirits and eating mana.
Of all my little boney minions, and one Gorger, the most change was to Thrower. First of all, he gained some armor. It's your classic plate, but dark purple, the most striking part is that helmet.
The helmet has a large visor, the visor is big enough to cover the entire face, yet instead of simple breathing holes or the eye slit it has sharp eyes and a smile, just like the jack o’ lantern’s face. His head is also burning, making the whole sight of his face quite menacing.
Jack o’ Skull
{Iron Brow} and {Bonebark Brow} and {Skull of Steel} to {Steelbark Skull}
{Explode Bone}
{Lesser Life Seeking Skulls}
Skulls thrown by this skeleton lean towards living targets and briefly accelerates when close.
{Duplicate Skull}
Duplicates a skull, the skull disappears shortly after.
{Frost Skull}
{Crossbones}
Creates and throws a crossbones that separates and regenerates as it ricochets
{Lesser Life Seeking Skulls}
Skulls thrown by this skeleton lean towards living targets and briefly accelerates when close.
Detritus Plunderer Cult Initiate
{Detritus Storm}
Creates a storm of detritus.
{Vandal Shot}
Your projectiles are better at breaking objects.
Dullahan
{Ghostflame Body}
This minion has a body made of ghost flame.
{Dullahan Armor}
While the dullahan is wearing a suit of armor, said armor is strengthened, gaining resistance and regenerating from heat, fire and necrotic energies.
{Dullahan Head Throw}
{Return Head}
The dullahan’s head flies back to its body as fast as it was thrown.
{See Through Skulls}
Allows to see through recently touched skulls.
{Fire Skull}
Can be created of Ghostly Fire, though it is costly
{Salt Skull}
The skull reconstructs itself and floats back.
{Open Vein}
All cuts made by the user bleed more as if the cut was over a vein.
Jack creates a skull made out of frost in his hand, he lifts his other hand and watches as a second skull shoots out from the first, right into his hand. He throws the skulls and I watch as they hit the walls and they explode into white mist and ice shards. He creates another one of fire, a great explosion of flames.
He creates a skull of… salt, not your table salt but rock salt it seems and throws it against the wall. The skull cracks and that’s it, no great salt explosions. The skull reforms and floats back, after a few seconds it falls, it does not disappear, which means I now have a salt machine, I guess. I am pretty sure the water in the greenhouse is not salt water, maybe I can poison the crabs by raising the salinity of the river? I kind of doubt that, they are magical creatures at the end of the day.
I see Jack stare at his palm, the flaming effect on his face is really cool, it is contained by the helmet but the flame light coming out of his smile and eyes gives him an intimidating stare.
His head pops off, together with his visor, right into his hands.
Oh, I see another skull still standing on his helmet,he used {Duplicate Skull}, but what about— The visor crumples and fuses with the duplicated skull, coating most of its face in metal. We are left with a metal coated flaming skull.
I see the visor on Jack’s face regenerate. He throws his skull against the wall again, but this time the skull cracks the stone and creates a hole in it large enough for it to be lodged inside. The skull explodes in a hail of pale flame and a mixture of bone and metal fragments.
I can see that the fire inside Jack has dimmed, it seems this is not something he can throw around willy nilly. A skull pops out of his face again, another duplicate, this time without the fire.
The fact that he was able to make a hole on the walls like that is pretty impressive, these are mana rich stones, way stronger than normal. The only reason the skulldwavers can mine it is because their steel is topnotch, plus all their skill too. If a normal human came down here with a normal steel pickaxe I think he would need a second one just to make a hole big enough to put his hand into.
Right, speaking of enchanted shit, not only do I have the bodies, well most of them, Salty Jack got completely destroyed, Rippers actually turned into a pool of blood that was absorbed by his bandages, Jack o’ Bone actually turned to bone dust and Icy boy not only shattered but also melted after dying. So really I actually only have Jack o’ Lantern, the only one who had the decency to leave a body for me. Well, head, his body seems to have been made of shadow stuff, so only his pumpkin head, which Gorger ended up eating. Thankfully the quest actually gave me some stuff.
Fire Resistant Cloak
This cloak is resistant to fire and heat.
Interestingly only the cloak is resistant to fire, meaning it doesn't grant the effect to the wearer.
I also got the lantern
Ignes Fatui Lantern
This lantern uses mana to create ghost flame, it can also be used to create will o’ wisps.
Will o’ Wisp
Will o’ Wisp are undead fairies, most are mindless simply flying directly into any life or flame it sees, should they be properly nurtured they can grow into proper fairies.
Hey! Another item that I can use to summon monsters. I tell Merlin to release a few and see that they take quite a bit of mana to create.
Soon there are three little wisps walking around, they look like little balls of light, though on close inspection it is possible to see a white hot core of ghostly flame. In the next minutes I try different ways of filling them with necromantic energy, to no avail, they always die. In fact they even die when exposed to too much ghost flame, either from the lantern or from Jack’s body.
I will look into it later.
Spooky Blue Eyes
These blue gem eyes can see valuables at a long distance, they can also cause fear to the greedy.
Next is a pretty nice backpack, made of leather and a black fabric with a skull and crossbones embroidery.
Skeleton Pirate's Booty
This backpack is larger on the inside, its weight always stays the same, it can hold roughly 500 kilos of stuff. This bag can hold bones better than any other material, being capable of holding one ton of bones.
One ton is a lot of bones, I mean most skeletons weigh about 10 kilos or so, not my special armored ones though, still that can be pretty useful. The blue eyes explain how Salty was able to find Ripper so easily, it could probably see its items. Speaking of Ripper, the hook and knife were just common steel weapons, its coat though.
Blood Shadow Overcoat
This overcoat is able to control blood and transform it into weapons and armor, the intricacy of the items depends on the ability of the wearer. The coat is wreathed in shadow making it stronger against physical attacks.
Blood Bath Bandages
These bandages can hold a large amount of blood inside them,the blood can bleed out of the bandages when the user desires.
When there is too much blood they get swollen and start freely bleeding the excess out.
Both of these were worn by Jack, and are now in the possession of the thorn skeleton, actually let’s handle that. All of these skeletons need names now, Jack already got his. Now let’s quickly think of four names
So, Thorn skeleton is the chief of a unit of soldiers. Let’s go with Melinoe, Meli for short. Next is shield man skeleton, the osseous shield guardian. He shall be Gordon, the assault shield will be named Alexander, the shielder, and old skullsquire shall be Armando.
Now the zealots, The executioner shall be Alric, the Bulwark shall be Elric, these two are obviously bros.
The bandages and the overcoat are with Meli, and I am going to let her have them, Now onto the other stuff.
Heart of Frost
A heart of pure magical ice, able to create frost and ice mana.
I can already see Merlin playing with it, using his {Mana Manipulation} to create things, this is going to him of course, many types of mana behave in different ways and training with them can be very good for his control, with this and the lantern he should have his hands full of training for a while.
The helmet and gloves of Jack o’ Bones go to Jack o’ Skull, well only the gloves, he doesn’t seem to be keen on the helmet.
Throwing Horn Helmet
This helmet regrows its horns.
Gloves of Missile Catching
These gloves help the user grab missiles.
Weirdly enough they were not the only ones who got something. Indeed Bob and Kaiman have become kidnappers, or kittynappers more accurately.
Leopard Cat LV 15
Gecko Eater LV 16
Leopard LV21
Snake Eater LV15
They come into my core room, Bob with a screeching leopard cat in his arms, holding it actually pretty tenderly and carefully so as not to hurt the little thing. Kaiman has an actual dead leopard in his arm. The lizard dungeon was invaded by a large army of cats of all sizes. Bob, for some reason, decided that he likes this little kitty and after kidnapping it and showing it to Kaiman got a bigger kitty for him. Kaiman accidentally killed it, which is not a problem.
Both of them want changes to their cats, in fact Bob came here because of something I asked when he became a Strigoi.
He stares at the kitty, who is still trying to free itself and still hissing and meowing like crazy.
In a particularly long hiss Bob spits blood in its mouth.
{The Crimson Gift}
The cat starts to trash and yowl in his grip and starts to change. All of its fur drops out of its tiny body, followed by its claws and teeth. I can see blood pouring out of all its orifices.
The cat yowls louder as its teeth start regrowing, larger and stronger than before, its bones produce popping sounds as its body grows in size. Its eyes slide out of their sockets and new ones start growing, along with fur and new claws.
Thin Blood Stalker Cat
A cat with a small amount of vampiric blood.
{Vampire Fangs}
{Lesser Vampirism}
{Vampire Senses}
I find it pretty interesting that the little thing actually got better senses than Bob, though it does make sense I guess it probably had better senses than he had. I can tell that Bob seems…weakened, the crimson gift seems to take a toll on his body. The cat stops making a ruckus and seems to be checking its new body. Bob uses a spell, entomb, and goes under the stone floor and soon enters a deep sleep, one of his abilities, coffin rest lets him regenerate under the ground, the coffin not actually needed.
The cat seems quite big now, funnily enough about the size of a leopard.
Now then for the next one, the dead leopard, Kaiman wants to make a special little monster with my help, I rot off all of its flesh, something that I’ve some practice with. The crab bodies can actually turn into Living Armors if I completely rot the inside flesh, though their power does leave a bit to be desired.
I take some quartz and layer it on the skeleton of the beast, and then Kaiman’s body starts shifting, he is using his own bones to create a better body for the beast. I help him in some parts, he even uses some of the barghest’s bones. Encasing the original’s quartz layer with stronger bone and creating special barghest black claws.
The creature ends up with almost 2 meters of shoulder height and passes 3 meters long from head to tail. It almost looks like a bull, especially with its two forward pointing horns.
I then tell Kaiman to breathe some of his energy into it, Kaiman instead creates his bone syringe, opening his mouth the syringe leaves it and into the bonebeast’ mouth, it’s almost like a bird feeding its babies. I direct and hold the energy as it enters, helping it spread deep in the bones, Kaiman is learning but he is not quite that good at controlling his energy yet.
Bonebeast
Boneshaper Cult Initiate LV11
Boneshaper Cult Initiate to Boneshaper Cultist
Gained {Grow Bones}
He became a cultist!
Perhaps creating a special undead yourself was a type of entrance ritual?
The beast gets up, they have kept their hunting classes, and I cannot seem to give them new ones either. I wonder how exactly that works, class slots, the dwarf miners were able to take a third one. From my tests the crabs are also only able to have two. Now that Kaiman has become a cultist I shall have him help me with a few things. I am pretty sure the boneshaper class can grow and level up better when constructing undead, just like the miner’s class grows better when mining.