Alyssa inspected Ezekiel, walking around him, taking in the sight of her second summon.
She flipped over to another tab, deciding to look at Ezekiel's kit.
Classification: Carnage Paladin (Unique)
A paladin is often a sworn warrior of a cause, usually righteous and loving.
The carnage paladin is a sworn believer of chaos, of ruination, and indiscriminate slaughter.
They fight the best when the odds are stacked against them and meeting one on the battle field isn't advised.
..
Path skills: Paladin
(Mana circulation III) You will instinctively know of the movement of mana and have ability to move mana throughout your body at will. Improvements of this skill will boost the instinctive knowledge of (Mana circulation)
(Basic Spell casting I): You know rudimentary knowledge of Spell matrix's and you have the ability to cast them. Improvements of this skill will boost the instinctive knowledge of (Basic Spell casting)
Class skills: Carnage
(Harbinger of war): All allies within 400 meters will gain additional strength equal to half of their original STR stat while in combat.
(Rampaging Demon): Anytime a creature dies by your hand, add (+2 STR) and (+1 AGI) for 20 seconds. Kills within this 20 second window will cause this affect to stack, and refresh.
(Bloodied behemoth): Once per day, you may defy death.
Indra was strong, but goddamn, Ezekiel was a MONSTER. It was the perfect counter balance, he was a tank, support, and assault trooper all in one. A strength buff with such a large radius was power in itself, but HALF of the affected parties strength is added to it.
Effectively giving someone like Indra, who has around 50 str, something close to 75 str.
Rampaging demon was the first stacking affect she has seen, and it made fighting groups into a trivial stomp, where he can essentially hit way about his weight class if he stays in the fight for long enough. Combined with the affects of 'Incarnation of terror' Ezekiel could single handily handle ALOT of things.
Bloody Behemoth was simple, easy to understand and strong as hell. Alyssa hasn't read anywhere that her summons can re-spawn, so not having to worry about the big man going down the first time, (effectively gave him a second life) allowed her to throw him at almost anything.
Him, Indra and the domain itself would combo extremely well, but there was a more pressing matter at the moment.
Odd how they are both homoun-
WARNING, INVADERS PRESENT (8)
//
Jack slowly unsheathed his sword.
The blade was heavy, especially for someone as young as him, but he knew he might need it.
Ever since Keith and his associated party had disappeared, the rest of the kids had started to grow hungry. But it wasn't just hunger, it was a deep rooted sadness. Kieth wouldn't disappear like that, for any reason other then death, but no one had the gall to say it out-loud,
His bag was filled with dried meat and bread, only some of the stuff he had skimmed off the top from the nearby restaurant.Hopefully they wouldn't miss the basic food.
As he walked, he ate, trying to fill up as he searched the ground for clues.
He stood at a adequate 4 feet, just about right for a ten year old orphan.
Traced the path, looking down to try and find any footsteps in the grass and dirt.
Behind him was the crutch of leaves as another pair of feet followed behind him, but Jack didn't pay them any-mind.
Mind control magic was hard to pull off, especially without a proper spell matrix or teacher, but it was mostly the concept of funneling mana into a creature who had a lesser magic score, or mental resistance then you. It was easy to do because of his early stages of magic training he had started a while back. Hopefully he could reach up in the 11-13 range when he reached the ascension ceremony.
His magic score sat a measly 7, but that 3-4 more then any of the goblins had.
Jack disliked it, but since he was still only ten years old in this world, he needed to do it. Any fantasy adventure needed a group, because even a harem protagonist needed some help sometimes.
The trialing band of level 2 goblins stumbled and followed behind him.
He wanted to be a spell-sword dammit, Not a mind bending wizard or summoner.He wanted to weave spells in the air and coat his sword in magical runes, and do all that cool shit that video games and books did.
As annoyed as he was, he was glad his starting point wasn't that bad. Sure and orphanage wasn't the best, but it was better then being alone and having to ask strangers everything. And plus, having Keith there gave him a certain sense of safety in the slums they occupied.
Hence why he was here, trying to find Keith's remains, and hopefully enough money to get through another week. The kids needed to eat, and as the third oldest, Jack needed to do something about it.
He marched through the forest, unimpeded by monsters, until he found the craters.
Jack sniffed the air.
The smell of sulpher often meant that magic had been cast in heavy amounts recently. He crinkled his nose at the putrid smell, forget heavy amounts of magic, this shit smelled like a war between hundreds of mages transpired.
There was two craters of blacked ash, with indents in the ground that went about 2-3 feet down.
He walked around the holes, seeing the scraps of cloth and bits of blood in the center, being the only remains in the craters he could find.The only types of magic that left 0 remains was lightning magic going to tier 4, but there wasn't enough burns on the ground be lightning.
Some kind of fucked teleportation?
Could that even be used offensively?
At only 7 Magi, he didn't had enough mana to even start on skills like (Mana Sight)
Your magic score dictated how much mana you had, and how fast it would regenerate. The higher the score, the better, but too much Magi would kill a normal person if they didn't have the levels to deal with it.
The common occurrence was an elf who trained vigorously to receive a rare class, but overdid it and ended up with 20 mana before they hit level 10. which would cause your body to break down, and melt from the inside, since your body didn't have the natural vitality to handle that much mana.
The same could happen to STR and AGI, stuff like your bones shattering when you punched something or your body becoming like a puddle.
But often 10 magi was where the majority of beginner magic skills where locked behind.
He inspected each crater, the band of brain dead goblins wielding their makeshift weapons, mostly spears, bows and daggers. Jack had ambushed them in the dead of night, and since the only monsters near the city walls where those of low levels, due to regular level culling's being done by adventurers. It was easy to just, push mana into normal objects, but not other creatures.
He was only able to do it since he was level 4, and had a magi score higher then average.
WARNING. A newly formed domain (1 days old) is nearby.
The warning had been up in his face for the past 20 minutes, but he had ignored it for the sake of his current mission.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Big bro disappeared 3 days ago, and it took 2 for a dungeon domain to spawn.
You have to be fucking kidding.
Jack almost screamed into the empty sky. Of course this was how he went, a sacrifice to a new dungeon. Magic wasn't free, and it had a cost, regardless of who and why.
Jack had spent so much time at the library that he could recite every dangerous phenomenon to ever occur, and this one, a dungeon birth, was one of the ones that was hard to avoid.
It would eat passerby adventurers and travelers, like an unseen monster, in order to have the mana to spawn.
He knew, that was how Kieth died.
Kieth had zero combat abilities, mostly because the man was a docile occasional thief, who hated how daggers felt in his hands. He could have easily been an assassin, a rouge, anything, but he chose to work, and live instead of going to fight.
A coward, but not one without reason.
He remembered how Kieth would make their bowls of soup, bread somehow always being included next to it.
No one ever questioned where he got the bread, but Jack knew.
He ground the teeth inside his mouth, holding onto his indignant rage.
He needed levels, and some combat training
He looked at his mana compass, a tool he had to steal off a low level magician.It was often used to point out dungeon domains and areas of higher magic concentration. His most prized possession would be useful now, as he could barely contain his anger.
Since the domain was newly formed, more then likely the compass would be pointed at the domain.
8.7 miles west.
Every newly birthed domain had a 10 mile sacrificial radius, meaning that the groups who had been only a mile or so away from escaping danger, were sucked into its jaws and consumed for the mana inherit in most living and sentient creatures.
The starting strength of a dungeon was based almost entirely on how much mana the sacrifices had, and considering he knew that no actual mage classed individuals had gone missing, that meant the Assassin, Berserker, Fire Warrior, and Looter were the only ones to not arrive back in town, therefore the only sacrifices to have been feed to it. The dungeon should only have creatures in the level 1-5 range, but it would be dangerous if there where named or rare classed monsters that spawned.
Not exactly thinking with a clear head, Jack planned his next move. He could just rush the dungeon, and maybe get to level 8 or 9, so that way he can focus on getting his stats higher, and maybe get a good class at his level 10 ascension.
Even if he wasn't enraged by the prospect of the dungeon being the one responsible for his brothers death, then it was still logical to try and clear the 1 day old dungeon for the Xp. Having made up his mind, the Outworlder made sure he was going in the right direction.
The protagonist shrugged his backpack back on, sheathing his sword again, and started his march to find that xp farm, fuming,
//
The crouching cult dudes, who represented her upcoming summons, or something like that, disappeared, fading away as soon as the invader alert popped up.
Alyssa turned on her "See everything, everywhere, all at once" view, finding the sensation to be only somewhat disorientating this time around.
With her all seeing view of her domain, she could see...
Goblins?
Of course, this was fantasy land, it makes sense there would be goblins. Alyssa was hoping she could get to see stuff like ogres and trolls one day, mostly because she was unsure of the difference.
Little identifiers, appearing like ghostly letters over their heads, said stuff like: Level 2 goblin warrior, goblin archer, etc.
But what really caught her off guard was the kid who hid behind them.
He had a sword that too large for his body, he looked malnourished, with his sunken cheeks. His clothes looked as if they had started to fall apart, and where multiple sizes too large for him.The kid had his sleeves and pants rolled up in order to not have the excess cloth get in the way.
Even as destitute as he kid looked, his head was on a swivel, as he walked into her halls. His eyes had a certain determination to them.
Indra stood in a dark corner of the hallway, watching as the group marched on, as a summoned monster, she didn't need to breathe, so she didn't, choosing to simply wait for the command.
The castles layout was simple, with multiple hallways and rooms outside of it, that usually all lead to the same place, her throne. Alyssa opened up all the tabs she needed to view as she started to plan out the encounter.
The kid was slow, taking his time to wonder her halls, checking each pathway in by stopping just before her extremely obvious "Boss room" doors, and going down a separate path.
Indra kept in the corners, hiding behind the last turn before my little boss arena
I'm calling a boss arena now, since throne room sounds lame.
Above the child's head, the same magical words she read on top of every living creature so far appeared
Novice Mage warrior Level 4
In many of the dungeon stories she had read, often people used dungeons as a symbiotic relationship, where the dungeon gave stuff to the invaders and the invader didn't kill the dungeon immediately.
She was fairly certain that she could tell Indra to go wild and the issue would be solved.
But She wanted to try and handle this with a bit more....
Tact.
'Indra, don't kill anyone, same for you Ezekiel'
Alyssa learned on the spot that she could send mental command to her summons, which made the whole ordeal easier. It was like discovering you had a birth mark on your ass even though you could have sworn there wasn't one. It was so odd that certain information wasn't conveyed to her in the slightest.
Anyways, it was time to figure what to do with the little warrior.
If they killed any of the goblins surrounding the kid, his mental resistances would be shredded, and he might just end up inflicted with madness if they tried to just kill all the goblins.
The kid was smart, as seen by how his mind controlled goblins where used as shields when he entered rooms, and he made sure he was surrounded by them at all times. The goblins stared at everything vacantly, only moving when told to, like robots who did the bare minimum.
A brilliant plan for a solo adventurer, as the kid seemed to be. Surround yourself with disposable monsters in order to stay out of danger, and alos have extra hands for taking down enemies you couldn't hand by yourself.
Alyssa frowned.
She was unsure of what to do.
Killing kids wasn't exactly on her list of things she had expected, or wanted to do.
She was perfectly fine with slaughtering pesky heroes and adventurers, mostly because she didn't really have a choice, and because becoming an adventurer in any kind of fictional world meant you were willing to through your life away.
Hmmmm
Maybe she could scare him without using an affliction.
Or would be he fine if they killed one of the goblins first, and let him run away with just the base fear affliction.
She stood up for the second time today, her claws extending out again, ready for a fight.
She had things to test, and with double the strength score, a no longer thin corpse body, and an understanding of the situation, she decided that now was the time to figure out if this body could fight well.
//
Jack was startled to find not a single spawned monster in the entire dungeon. not one.
That wasn't something that happened, every dungeon master would start spawning swaths of the creatures, usually along certain themes and trends, like a cave filled with nothing but goblins, or a layer of nothing but dragons and reptiles.
Stuff like that.
The only other option scared him.
The only case in witch that wouldn't happen, would be with a Outworlder dungeon master.
He's read enough to know that you DON'T fuck with a Outworlder dungeon. He himself was also an Outworlder, but he was a common case of rebirth, not transmigration. A rebirth was a natural phenomenon, even though alot of people don't really talk about it. A transmigration on the other hand...
Well lets say it caused some distress when your uncle, who died yesterday, was walking around and didn't know who you are.
Outworlder dungeons were the most dangerous, since certain things would always be true.
They weren't just smart, they where smart by even the standards of other humans, they always, always, were the dreaded words:
Min-Maxer
A min-maxer in this world was looked at a bit differently in this world.
In this world a min maxer was the equivalent of a meth-head, doing their deranged and impossible training to reach certain levels of power and specialization. Being told your son was a min maxer was like saying he was going to get himself killed because he wanted to have the oddest and most specific build in existence.
Here, Optimization wasn't a bad thing per se, but you have to spread out some.
Every physical fighter used at least one or two elemental spell, if only to make their weapons be effective in higher levels.
Every mage knew at least two or three different weapons, and could at least keep pace with a beginner knight.
A min-maxer threw that common sense out of the window, any and all relevant skills to their play-style, ignoring even the common sense skills, like basic mana circulation, in exchange for making a build that no one could reach.
And every Outworlder Dungeon master was one.
Jack quivered a bit, as dread weighed him down, The dungeon was level 2, as shown by the display in his vision. meaning that it was unlikely that the dungeon master has had time to orient themselves yet, but it was possible he was going to open the door and die.
Newly made dungeon: Level 2
He breathed in, focusing, steeling himself,
Most Outworlder dungeon masters where disorganized, at least somewhat.
His rage had dissipated, and he replaced it with his resolve.
Slowly he opened the twin stone doors, with the assistance of his green companions
//
She told Ezekiel to back away and hide behind a pillar, hoping to be able to talk to the kid instead of cutting his head off with her summon.
Alyssa watch the party of one enter her halls.
They struggled with the over-sized door, but as soon as it was open enough to comfortable get through, a goblin was shoved forward through the gap and onto the ground.
That child was smart, Alyssa was convinced she was dealing with a little genius.
The goblin had thin and sickly limbs, supporting a tubby body and overly sized head, with not much clothing other then stained loin cloth. In its hands was a spear, crudely made and rickety.
Huh
Standard goblin design, but nothing else special.
Once the goblin got up, it stared at her, but didn't move or do anything else.
A second goblin entered.
She waited for her actual guest to make his appearance. With all the courage she could muster, she moved into the best pose she could think of.
Alyssa was gonna try some peace talks, and if that didn't work, try to see how much she could do with 20 strength and 19 agility, before calling on her summons to save her ass.
//
Jack kept his ear to the door, doing his best to try and stay out of harms way. The 2 goblins remanded alive and made no sounds other then the first one scratching his ass.
He sent the last 5 in a Congo line, doing his best to stay on a swivel and not fuck this up.
As he finally figured it was his time to go, he did a last look behind him, but he could see nothing odd in the halls. he shimmied though the doorway, holding his sword in front.
Only a couple steps away, Indra gripped her knife, ready to take out the assailant in a moments notice.
//
"Welcome, young warrior, to my domain", She said, thanking her one semester of acting classes on at least allowing her to sound cool. With her entry line, she gave a bow, exaggerated, but respectful.
After all, this is her first real contact with an human in this dimension.
//
Jack kept the group ahead of him, making sure to make a sort of wall out of their bodies.
"Welcome, young warrior, to my domain"
He was staring at the basic demon, its grayish skin, talons, and feet, being the main identifiers. He was NOT equipped to fight a demon, of any kind, especially not one being puppeteer-ed by an Outworlder soul.
The Dungeon master finished its bow, before flashing a menacing smile.
Alyssa, Incarnation of fear, Level 2
He gave his first mental command taking the initiative.
'Charge'
The goblins followed his order, rushing the singular entity, their weapons raised.
//
Alyssa smile disappeared as the goblins RAN at her.
Fuck, There goes diplomacy.