It took them two more trips to wipe the dungeon clean off the gorgheists' carcasses. As tiring as dragging heavy, stone-skinned gorgheist was, none of the draugrs uttered a word of complaint—not under Grimright’s leadership, at least. Some hauled the dangling corpses with glee; the new pieces of equipment and experience gains appeased their laborious tasks.
Frail found no need to micromanage the corpse extraction process. They knew what to do.
First. The orb.
His warden lifted the circular orb before the pedestal.
[Entity mastery orb—Rank 1]
[Use to obtain a mastery.]
Is this the elusive undead upgrade orb? Unlikely. If it was, it’d just say exactly that… but it didn’t.
Frail suckled the contents of the orbs into his core, relishing its satiating sensations. His focus returned once those pleasant feelings faded, replaced by a box riddled with texts.
And then… he felt a familiar cold snuggling his deepest core.
[You obtained a new mastery!]
[Myrkul wishes to speak with you.]
[You are aligned with the God of Death, Myrkul.]
“Entity. We speak once more.” Myrkul’s voice penetrated the darkness.
It had been a while since they last spoke.
“A new mastery?” He heard the God’s sonorous chuckles. “I see you’ve grown. Very well.”
He’d never been religious in his past life. Now… he no longer knew what to think.
“Ah… you’ve come into possession of that. This will serve you best.”
Mastery - Corpse reconstruction (Boss) | Level 2
Upon draining essences, you also gain the knowledge to reconstruct the corpse; it must belong to a Boss category. It shall lose any living traits and skills, and obtain the strength of bones in their stead.
You can reconstruct boss type creatures up to Tier 2.
A new selection will appear in your entity upgrade window, the Boss fabricator, detailing the cost and the rank of the studied corpse.
Frail’s head zoned onto the deceased Watcher. It said it’d lose all living qualities… the exact meaning of which he did not understand. But if he could just obtain its petrification effect and the lasers… his odds against the invasion should improve leaps and bounds.
“Serve me well, little one.” The god’s smile reverberated as Frail’s consciousness rushed to life.
He drifted in his domain once more.
[Drain essence.]
Dark, foggy tendrils sprouted through the pores of the still watcher, entering his core through fervent pulses filled with a malignant will. He’d never consumed anything as repugnant, but the replenishment gained upon absorbing its essences placated Frail’s worries.
[You gained 8000 essences.]
[You obtained a new mastery! Corpse learning (Boss) - Level 2]
A strange book flipped inside his mind; each a page depicting the watcher’s specifications, its size, skills, weaknesses, and strengths, and what it’d become after it entered Frail’s service. The final page, however, did not flip open.
Refused, to be precise.
Frails sensed life halting his progress... as if the dead watcher had just imposed one final stand. Its proud will resisted his call, attempting to break free. A small skirmish flared between two… a battle the poor watcher had no business winning over.
Its pride flourished when it rested within its domain… but not here.
The sight of his eldritch lieutenant, with throngs of skeletal army standing behind it, and the visage of the knight who ended its life… their combined lifeless faces eroded its pride and bit at its defiance.
Not here. Frail roared into the darkness. He wondered what voice the watcher heard; Frail had never spoken once after he arrived here.
Whatever voice it heard removed any lingering threads of pride.
With that, the final page finally flipped: revealing an accurate drawings of its undead form. Its body, once gelatinous and slimy had been stripped clean of its flesh, replaced by cartilage and hard bones. Every tentacles and limbs were connected with an ethereal, violet tissue, moving with pure energy instead of muscles. Dark spheres with a bright core replaced its eyes.
[You have found a new unique schema. The Risen Watcher.]
The Risen Watcher | Boss | Untiered
Construct Level: 20
Integrity: 100%
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Type: Undead
Attributes
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 20
Resilience: 30
Resistance: 55
Magic: 60
Traits / Skills
Skeletal Body
Undead Veil
Eradication beam
Lesser Eradication beam
Mana Barrier
Petrification stare
If Frail had a mouth, it’d be wide open by now. He never expected he’d encounter a beast with more attributes than his Eldritch lieutenant, even less so by this margin.
[Skill | Eradication beam | 1]
[Fires a beam of pure destructive energy, dealing 3x Magic + 40 damage. Cooldown: 30 seconds.]
No wonder this took two of his warriors right away. It broke past the grave guard’s and lich’s combined shields, too.
[Skill |Lesser eradication beam | 1]
[The watcher’s lesser eyes fire beams of destructive energy, dealing 0.4 x magic damage each. Each eye can target different foes. Cooldown: 3 seconds.]
[Skill | Mana Barrier | 1]
[The watcher coats itself with a barrier of mana, protecting it from all forms of damage. Shield health: 1.5 x Magic. The shield will naturally regenerate after 30 seconds outside of combat.]
[Skill | Petrification stare | 1]
[Any living creatures who looks into the watcher’s eyes will be inflicted with the petrification status effect. Base petrification rate: 0.1 x Magic/second. Petrification reduces Dexterity equal to the amount of petrification they have tallied. Once petrification has reached their Resistance, they will be petrified. This effect fades if they look any other way.]
Living creatures.
And also… any other way.
Foes without intelligence would struggle against it. But if they had a shred of thought… then it’d be simple to circumvent its petrification. It might not be as great a skill as he though.
The draugrs were technically undead, so why were they affected? Perhaps their status as drifters had altered their state of aliveness?
I can’t answer that question… and it’s not relevant right now.
In short; the watcher hosted a list of incredible skills; a balance of offense, defense, and debilitation, almost perfect against all battles against those with life. And, brains.
A construct he’d love to use right away… but essences were limited. A quick peek at his construct upgrade menu reminded him of his current lack of essences.
Unique Construct Fabricator
-Grants the ability to fabricate unique constructs, and allows upgrades for unique constructs. You can only control one of each unique construct at a given time.
This is a unique upgrade, unlocked by a mastery.
Unique constructs cannot be upgraded.
Costs 5000 essences. 2 Upgrade slots.
His vision flipped to the Gorgheists. These, he couldn’t reconstruct, he lacked the correct masteries to do so. But it didn’t matter; their essences more than compensated.
The no upgrades hurt, though.
It took another hour before the draugrs and his skeletal forces completed their delve. Close to thirty Gorgheists lay limp inside his domain. The draugrs, visibly out of breath, took refuge before the pedestal room.
“Exhaustion.” Grimright spoke, brushing his clumpy gray hair back, “It is… a chore. Do you feel tired? Ever?”
Frail had always been tired before he became… this.
His domain lord nodded—it had become the extension of Frail’s speech within his domain.
“It is good to hear that,” The draugr glanced at his skeletal army, hard at work. “To control such numbers without speech… Do you control them directly?”
Somewhere in between. How could he even begin to explain? His control over his army and his domain came naturally. It was as if Grimright had asked about how a human moved their limbs—he/she simply… did.
Once the corpses had been gathered, Frail began his extraction process. The draugrs took a few steps back and watched.
The Gorgheists were a step up in difficulty compared to the usual goblins, so these should net more essence. He counted; there were thirty-two of them in total.
[Drain Essence]
[You gained 600 essences.] x 32
[You gained 19,200 essences.]
[You now have 19,870 essences.]
Close to thirty thousand. Enough for the upgrade.
[Corpse extraction]
[You gain 13,600 essences.]
[You now have 33,470 essences.]
[Extraction summary]
[32x Gorgheists. Total essence: 9600]
[1x Boss-The watcher. Total essences: 4000]
Frail purchased the unique fabricator upgrade.
[You have purchased the upgrade: Unique Construct Fabricator.]
[You now have 28,470 essences.]
Unique construct unlocks | Tier - 1
- The Risen Watcher | Tier 1 - boss | Cost: 15 000 essences.
Fifteen thousand essences? The price would cost him half of what he’d earned today. A worthy price, definitely, but still…
From the lack of warning, it seemed that the unique constructs could step outside his home.
Frail purchased the Risen Watcher.
[You now have 13,470 essences.]
A massive blob formed from ethereal tendrils lashing out from his core. Frail felt his essence fading as the bubbling object grew in size before morphing into a shape resembling the watcher.
“Entity… is that…” Grimright watched the display with eyes agape. “The watcher…”
The draugrs caught on to what had transpired.
It’s bigger than I thought. Frail surmised as it floated amid his domain. A skeletal formation of his most recent adversary, one rife with powers beyond his usual means. The strength of pure destruction, the power that turned flesh to stone.
The bane of most living creatures.
Its size and movement options, however, meant it’d be a chore to move it around his domain. It’d also struggle outside where trees were abundant.
None of the draugrs uttered a word. Not even Grimright. Their eyes… he couldn’t decipher the look in their faces; Was it awe? Was it elation? Was it fear? Perhaps, a mix of the three?
Silence resumed in his domain once the risen watcher appeared. Only the hum of the watcher echoed, followed by a triumphant cackling of his skeletons as they raised their weapons.
The watcher looked exactly like the pages he’d seen when he absorbed its essence. A full body made of skeletal parts, tentacles resembling a man’s spine, with a dark crystal orb at the ends of each tendril. It was mostly white in appearance, closer to a mix of ivory and ash, with the dark, violet spheres contrasting its dominant color. The absence of flesh gave it the impression that it had shriveled, but it remained an imposing sight nonetheless.
“The watcher…” Grimright stated, keeping his voice in check. He then chuckled, “I suppose I should’ve seen it coming.”
It glided over the combined forces of his army, moving slowly to avoid crashing into the confines of his domain.
Next. What other upgrades would serve him best? Bolstering his elites came first in his mind—the goblins invaded with their best, and his stronger constructs would match them the best… but he couldn’t deny the value of his lesser units either.
Then there was the domain lord. He’d skimped on its valuable upgrades. The lancer dealt immense, damage, sure, but his domain lord would overwhelm its opponents without help.
He must have the answer soon.