“You seem relaxed, Duke. This is good to see.”
“Should I be running around panicked? Afraid of what is coming my way next?”
“You are handling the situation like an Entity. This is a long game, and we have been losing for most of it. But not anymore. You helped me…no, us. You helped us take the first step to victory. I can’t thank you enough for that.”
“Strangely, it was my pleasure. Releasing all that pressure clawing at my mind was an experience I cannot describe. What my Ability did to those people was horrific to watch, to be a part of, but I cannot bring myself to feel any empathy for them.”
“It’s not in your nature to feel empathy for the oppressors. You should have realized that by now. But you should also know that they will be coming for you with their most powerful forces now. They will be coming here, to Teldin, to kill you and destroy this world.”
“Not much of a pep talk.”
“I don’t do pep talks. What I do do, however, is push for greater. And for you to be greater, you are going to have to take those final steps to get to Tier Eleven.”
“I only just made it to Tier Nine. How do you expect me to make it to Tier Eleven before the Syndicate comes for me?”
“By going after them, of course. Attack their shipyards, their staging areas. This is now a war and you have to attack their ability to make war. Make it so costly that they have to give up.”
“You happen to have a map of these places?”
“I do, of course, but there are still some rules even I must follow. If I get that directly involved, it opens the door for other Entities to get involved and that would not end well for you. You already have a pair of Entities that you have…I’ll say thwarted. You took their piece right off the board in the Contest. They still have countless pawns, but I do not think they are really interested in playing anymore. I believe they are still far too entertained watching your exploits to really do anything about it.”
“So, I’m on my own again?”
“You have allies. Friends. Do you not?”
“I do, but I don’t want to throw them into the fire with such high stakes.”
“Maybe, just maybe, you should talk to them about it. But what do I know, I’m just a dungeon core that got too big for his britches, right?”
“Yeah, that must be it. So, there’s really nothing you can do to help me in this?”
“Well, I didn’t say that.” The Overmind’s avatar chuckled. It handed Duke a small core.
“What’s this?”
“Absorb this core into your own. It contains information on every core-harvesting ship the Syndicate has or has contracted with. If you destroy those ships with all hands, they will lose their capability to fuel their empire.”
Duke held the core in his hand. It was warm to the touch, and he could see how easy it would be to absorb but he hesitated. “Why are you able to give me this information but not information on their shipyards and ports and all that?”
“Because these ships are responsible for the death of countless dungeons. That is a long series of attacks on my very Domain. I can give my Champion information to stop these attacks. There’s a fine line but this is well on the permissible side. One more thing before I go.”
Duke looked up from the core to take in the avatar as it spoke, “If you really are going to go this route alone, why haven’t you taken the DUNGEON AURA Ability? You have a slot open, don’t you?”
“I do have a slot open but if I take that Ability, it would pretty much close the door to other people. It’s just too dangerous to have that aura around others. Having dungeon monsters spawn around me in my sleep would not be great for anyone I’m traveling with.”
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
“What if it was an active Ability and not a passive one?”
“I’m listening.”
“Turn it on when you want it, but otherwise, it’s dormant. Wouldn’t that work better?”
“Yes, it would, but that wasn’t an option in the Ability description.”
“Check again.”
“You changed it, didn’t you?”
The Overmind didn’t respond, instead waving as its avatar faded from sight. Duke read the description of the Ability and saw the change in the text indicating that it was now an Ability he could call upon as desired and could keep active for as long as he wanted. So I can keep it running when I am running solo to wreak havoc around me without having to even think about it. It will take time to figure it out but it would open up even more options.
*** You have selected DUNGEON AURA as your Tier Nine Ability. This Ability allows you to project a field around yourself that acts as the dimensional space of a dungeon with you as the dungeon core. Within this aura, you can perform any actions you would normally be able to within a dungeon through the use of any of your dungeon-related Abilities. The rank of your Ability determines the radius of the aura. The level of the Ability has a minor influence over the effects. You gain the Ability at Practiced 1. ***
Duke read over the description, satisfied that he could learn how to control the Ability in time. Sitting at the bar in a dungeon, turning on the aura didn’t have much additional effect. He could feel it, but since he was already in a dungeon environment, there was no sense that he could do anything different with it than he could do already. He nodded to himself, realizing that he didn’t expect much else.
I have a few things to get going but first, allocate some more points. This is going to hurt, but it’s time to peanut butter a bit. 1,000 into each characteristic shouldn’t be too bad.
Duke suffered through the pain of such a massive allocation but, as he expected, it was not nearly as bad as some of his earliest stat allocations. Even if it was a significant percentage increase, it wasn’t the doubling or tripling that had floored him in the past. He smiled to himself as the pain faded and did it again. He still had over six thousand stats to allocate even after spending twelve thousand. He considered putting them all into Psyche to continue to boost his magic but decided to hold off for a bit and think about it.
After watching the new Legionnaires for a bit, Duke activated an OVERCHANNELED CLEANSE and RESTORE combo, putting a million Mana into each. It was a drop in his considerable bucket of Mana at this point, refilled in under a second. Having an effective Psyche of close to one hundred seventy thousand was pushing all his magic to the extreme but he was sure he would need it and more when things really turned ugly.
The response to the Abilities from the Legionnaires was one of wonder as armor and weapons repaired themselves, clothing re-stitched itself together and everything was suddenly clean. There were a few who complained but they were quickly browbeat into quieting down. The biggest, and most immediate reaction, however, was Sam appearing next to Duke.
“Damn, Duke. That was sweet. I haven’t gotten a hit of Mana like that in a while.”
“Good to see you again Sam. How are things going?”
“They couldn’t be better. Havenreach continues to grow, I have Legionnaires training in the training dungeon nearly all the time, and I’m almost up to Tier Nine. Tier Nine, Duke! Can you believe it? I may even make it to Tier Ten.”
“Why stop there?”
“Let’s not be cute, Duke. It’s not like any of the Entities would allow us to create a divine dungeon. Immortal dungeon core. Yeah, like that could ever happen.”
“There are no Tier Eleven dungeons?”
“No, anyone who tries to get bast Tier Ten is either destroyed or convinced to stop. Violently.”
“Why doesn’t the Overmind step in?”
“The Overmind could, but it’s not worth the price.”
“Go on.”
“The Overmind can easily handle just about any other Entity one-on-one, but fifty-to-one is just too much even for the Overmind to handle. So, we are warned once it looks like we are on the path to progression to stop at Ten.”
“Well, that’s bullshit.”
“That’s what happens when you have few allies.”
“And I’m about to go make some more enemies. Great.”
“Attacking the Syndicate core harvesters will not bring any new enemies into the mix. They are our enemies already.”
“Well, if I singlehandedly cut off the supply of Magic Cores for ships, I don’t expect that to make us any new friends.”
“No, I guess not. Unless you replace the supply at a cheaper rate somehow.”
“Yeah, not interested in becoming a factory myself.”
“That does not sound fun. Is that why they wipe the souls from the cores they kidnap?”
“That would be part of it, I guess. No soul means no resistance, right?”
Sam looked at Duke with pain in his eyes, “It’s necromancy. They are killing the soul and stealing the body to use over and over.”
Duke’s eyes narrowed as he realized that Sam was right in his depiction. Anger started to boil in his heart. Always the damned necromancers. But I know what to do about them. I hunt them down and…what about Negron? That man has gotten away for so long I forgot about him. I have to go talk to Baslin.
“Sam, I have to go find Baslin. Is he in his workshop here?”
“No, I believe he is in the castle workshop right now. I haven’t seen him in a while, since before the last crisis. He really should come and visit me more. Tell him that when you catch up to him, will you?”
“I will. And thank you for putting things into perspective for me. I’m off now.”
“Goodbye Duke. And good luck!”
“I’ll make my own luck,” Duke winked and took the first few steps on his inexorable journey to first find Baslin and then start to rid the Cosmos of this different type of necromancer.