The ship was, to Duke’s complete amusement, disc shaped. A flying saucer. I’d love it if they weren’t here to kill me. He counted a total of 216 identical red-skinned lizardmen performing various tasks. Most of whom had no idea what they were doing, but there were some that were easy to identify such as the cooks and pilots. He also thought he spotted a medical facility where there were several monitoring beds and a row of vertical tanks that Duke had suspicions about but wasn’t sure.
He gathered his thoughts and used his senses to listen to what was being said on the ship. The common theme was that they were frantically searching for him on the planet. He overheard several conversations that absolutely amused him as they were arguing about him being stronger than what the contract said he would be. The amusement made him take a deeper look at his stats. His first section gave an overall picture of how much his Health and Mana had grown.
Name
Adam "Duke" Ellington
Race
Dungeon Born
Class
Dungeon Emperor
Level
104
Tier
5
Max Health
22,307,250
Current Health
22,307,250
Max Mana
42,210,780
Current Mana
42,210,780
Experience
5,554,675
EXP Needed
9,325
The second section of his stats gave a deeper look into his Characteristics and just how much his Core Strength Title was modifying them.
Characteristic
Value
Modified Value
EQ Bonus
Title Mod
Multiplier
Agility
1,000
1,000
100%
196
Strength
1,000
11,000
1100%
2,196
Endurance
1,000
11,000
1100%
2,196
Reason
901
901
100%
176
Intuition
1,000
1,000
100%
196
Psyche
3,054
33,594
1100%
6,714
When he finally perused his entire Ability list, he had to chuckle. Some of these I haven’t used more than a few times. It feels like I’m just collecting them and forget that I even have them. When was the last time I used MANA DRAIN? Don’t know, but it’s been quite a while. And that’s something that I got as a special reward. Intentional. I need to be more intentional in growing some of these Abilities. He scrolled through his Abilities, identifying which ones he wanted to target.
Ability
Rank
Level
Xenoglossia
Unranked
N/A
Teleportation
Master
38
Regeneration
Adept
136
Dungeon Manipulation
Initiate
38
Aura Concealment
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Initiate
14
Lasting Disguise
Initiate
9
Lightning
Adept
23
Overchannel
Adept
69
Mental Fortitude
Adept
31
Mage's Mark
Untrained
2
Force
Initiate
31
Flame
Initiate
29
Poison
Initiate
14
Acid
Novice
13
Wind
Novice
9
Ice
Initiate
31
Earth
Initiate
8
Light
Initiate
31
Umbral Reaper
Adept
62
Spell Resistance
Initiate
29
Simulcasting
Practiced
11
Cleanse
Practiced
36
Restore
Master
63
Identify
Practiced
13
Sense Magic
Initiate
8
Remote Casting
Initiate
7
Inventory
Practiced
39
Armor Skin
Adept
45
Mana Drain
Novice
11
Flight
Practiced
66
Clairvoyance
Initiate
38
Silence
Novice
18
Mana Transfer
Initiate
5
Combat Sense
Practiced
14
Dungeon Sense
Master
23
Hold Undead
Initiate
7
Aura of Prosperity
Initiate
20
Soulfire
Untrained
5
Dungeon Core Creation
Practiced
22
The first on his list was SOULFIRE. It wasn’t a neglected Ability, but one that had so much room to grow and felt so powerful, Duke could not ignore it. The next was SILENCE. Stopping his foes from communicating easily would be a great help, especially since technology seemed to be coming back into the picture for him. In the back of his mind, he had always wondered if magic meant the exclusion of technology, now he had definitive proof that it did not.
Duke smiled, wondering what it would take to get a ship of his own that he could fly like a fighter. There were too many unanswered questions, but he was about to get some answered in short order. He put aside his thoughts and turned to the ship around him and its crew. With his DUNGEON SENSE he could see that they were still scrambling to find him and were heavily scanning the planet.
When he heard the debate about preparing and launching another drop ship, he knew he had to act. He did not want any more of them to get armored up and go tearing around the planet. With his full concentration, he focused on all 216 lizardmen on the ship and tried to get a sense of the weight of their presence. Do I have enough power to TELEPORT them all at once? They are unsuspecting, so no active defenses should be in place, but I don’t know if there are passive defenses built into this thing. Better to be surgical and methodical.
He focused on the command crew that were on the bridge of the ship. They were his first targets, and he had just the destination for them all. With a whispered, “Seeya Fuckers!” He TELEPORTED the bridge crew to Ackmethus, the brighter of the two stars that dominated Teldin’s sky. The slew of experience notifications made it clear that his plan had worked and he targeted the engineering crew next. No defenses were raised, no alarm was sounded, and Duke was alone on the ship a mere thirty-two seconds after beginning his attack. He smiled as he read his experience summary.
*** You have killed 216 members of the Ocktuul Clone Army of varying levels and Tiers. You receive 599,100 experience. You are now level 110 and have 108 Characteristic Points to spend. ***
Duke’s grin grew. “Hot Damn! Now I have a ship to take over and figure out. Let’s get to it!” Grinning like an idiot, he made his way through the ship towards the bridge. He found all the ship’s bulkheads to be open and unlocked as if there was no concern of any unauthorized entry or intruders. The further he went, the more uneasy Duke felt. When he finally made it to the bridge, he discovered what was causing the uneasy feeling.
The moment he fully stepped int the hallway leading to the bridge, the doors slammed shut and a voice announced. “Intruder contained. Stardrive engaging.” Duke instantly felt queasy in a way that was familiar to him. It was the exact same feeling he had around Baslin’s portal array before things went sideways for him. He didn’t wait for another second, TELEPORTING back to the surface of Teldin.
At least, he tried to. His first attempt failed, giving him the sense that his destination was outside of his range which sent a chill down his spine. He knew his range had grown to ridiculous levels, in excess of ten million kilometers. Without hesitation, he poured all his Mana into the Ability and was relieved to arrive back on Teldin. He was greeted with a notification that he had not expected at all.
*** By TELEPORTING from a ship with its star drive fully engaged, you caused catastrophic and fatal damage to the ship. You receive 10,000 experience for the destruction of the ship. You TELEPORTED over 200 light years in the process, significantly exceeding the previously known limits of such Abilities whether they be magical or technological. For pushing beyond the limits of a vanishingly rare Ability, you may choose either 10,000,000 experience, or a rank upgrade in the Ability. ***
Duke sat down on his throne and laughed. I need to blow up some more ships, it seems. He considered the experience award briefly as it would propel him far along the path to the next Tier, but moving an Ability beyond Master rank? There really was no choice. He accepted the rank upgrade. Immediately, he opened up his Ability sheet and looked at the changes in his Ability.
He could now TELEPORT over 600 million kilometers for his standard amount of Mana. If he pushed his limits, the distance was an insane 9,413 light years. The amount of matter he could take with him had also increased to a level that he had trouble perceiving things that had that amount of mass. Without OVERCHANNELING the Ability, he could now move an entire castle without straining himself. Pushing his limits…he wasn’t sure what that would look like, but it would be several orders of magnitude larger. Maybe as much as one of Teldin’s moons.
It's going to take some time to get used to what I can do with this now. That, and knowing that technology is a thing here… His mind was whirling, thinking of the possibilities when he heard someone approaching the door to his Throne Room. He hopped off the throne and headed over to the doors, pulling them wide open.
“Well, hello there, Madrigal.”
“King Duke, you’re back!” He exclaimed, a broad smile spreading across his face. “We have so many things to discuss but that can wait until a bit later. Tell me of your grand adventures away from the capitol.”
Duke smiled, his mood elevating yet again. “I’d be happy to talk about my adventures with you. Especially since some of them may affect the kingdom in days to come.”
Madrigal went from interested to concerned in the span of that single sentence. “Tell me what I need to know.”
“The biggest thing you need to know is that assassins are coming from other worlds to try and kill me.”
Madrigal stared at Duke blankly, trying to process what he was saying. “From other worlds?”
“Yes, from all over the cosmos apparently. The first of them have already arrived and have been dealt with. They were fast, but underprepared. I don’t expect the next ones to be so underprepared. With this level of threat, it might be wise for me to stay outside of the kingdom, or at least outside of population centers like Cloudspire. I don’t want to endanger my people when I am the actual target.”
“Surely you would want your Royal Guard at your side for this.”
“Against a terrestrial threat, sure. They would be great to have, but against what is likely coming, they would be unnecessary casualties. So, let’s get to the business of the kingdom before I head out to an unpopulated area to await the idiots who think they can kill me.”
The next several hours were spent discussing the state of the kingdom. One of the most interesting pieces Madrigal related to Duke was the tax revenue coming from Havenreach. It seemed like a wildly excessive amount and Madrigal didn’t know what to do with that level of funding.
“Build roads for commerce. Build schools, trade halls, crafting centers, really anything that will improve the lot in life of the citizenry. Hire or train work crews to go to each and every outlying village to build infrastructure. Improve housing, beautify everything. Recruit and train more troops. In short, spend every copper to make this kingdom the best place to live in all of Teldin and make it equally defended. Invest in our people and they will make us all even more prosperous.”
Duke paused for a moment, a thought forming. He continued. “Establish the Royal Bank of Stormstride. Offer a secure place for citizens to store their wealth. And, most importantly, lend out money to citizens that want to start a business or expand a business, or do anything like that. Make the terms very favorable for them. We expect them to pay the bank back, but will pursue these loans with compassion and reasonableness. The purpose of the bank is not to make more money, but to put the kingdom’s money to use by the citizens.”
“That is not how banks have worked in the past, Your Majesty.”
“Different goals. I want to elevate our people, not profit off of them. I want to encourage them to pursue ideas and new ventures. In fact, if our revenue from Havenreach is so extreme, suspend taxes for the rest of the kingdom for a year. Or make it contingent upon proving that they have done something to improve their area.”
“That is awful bold and would not be sustainable without the income from Havenreach.”
“But that’s the thing. Havenreach is only going to increase its output over time so let’s use that to make this kingdom into a shining gem for all of Teldin to admire. All the while, increase our number of troops. Train them well. Equip them with the best enchanted gear we can. The wealth and prosperity we are about to build is going to make a lot of people jealous. Being able to defend it is going to be critically important.”
“On that last point, I wholeheartedly agree. I will set things in motion for you.”
“I knew I could count on you. Don’t try to do everything yourself. Hire people to administer things and hire people to check on them to make sure they are doing the right things. And then hire people to check on the checkers. We absolutely cannot allow any small bit of corruption to gain a foothold. Again, be compassionate. Give second chances for small things but do not let a greedy heart into the administration. If needed, make some public examples of people who have been given second chances but failed in their duty to the citizens of Stormstride. Make sure that everything is set up as supporting the citizens, not the kingdom. It is our people that will make the difference.”
Madrigal was smiling even more broadly as the two separated. “It will be as you wish, King Duke.” He gave a deep and heartfelt bow, energized by the possibilities before him and the kingdom.