The vampire resisted for about five minutes to Duke’s enormous frustration but what finally broke it was when Duke took the bodies of the other vampires into his INVENTORY. Duke was surprised when the vampire’s struggles ended, and it spoke again. “What do you wish to know?”
Duke smiled and began his interrogation. It was hard, even with his enhanced Intuition and XENOGLOSSIA working overtime, Duke was not sure everything the vampire told him was factual. The few things he was nearly certain of were that the king’s necromancer, now Duke, was named Negron, had raised three generals for the army, and that the catacombs beneath the city were filled to overflowing with the undead made from the bodies of countless people and pets buried in graveyards over centuries. He also knew that the three generals were a ghoul lord, a spectre lord, and a vampire lord. He also learned that the vampire could speak the necromancer’s name but trying to speak the name of the vampire lord had outright killed the vampire. That last bit of information was disappointing in the most.
Duke placed the last vampire’s body in his INVENTORY and activated CLEANSE to clear all the vampire blood that had fallen. He wasn’t sure how vampirism worked but he wasn’t going to take the chance that some child would play in a puddle of vampire blood and turn into a monster that killed their family. Way too many zombie movies to even think about that.
Duke considered his options. He now knew a bit about the king’s undead army and just how large it was. From what he had gotten from the vampire, there were easily more than one hundred thousand undead below the city waiting to be released on whatever enemy Chopie had identified as his target. He also knew that the castle seemed to be guarded by professionals who were both alert and intelligent. Beyond that, he could see that the city was under siege from within. His PURPOSE was pushing him to act – it wasn’t an urgent push, but it was there, and it was consistent. He considered continuing his scouting mission but he knew that the smarter play would be to get back and brief the others. He TELEPORTED back to base.
Duke appeared right outside of the Lake Front Inn and immediately headed in. Calen the Innkeeper greeted him as he came in. “Welcome back, your Grace. Were your adventures fruitful?”
“Hello, Calen. I learned a few things so that is good. Is everyone else out and about or somewhere together?”
“All off on their separate tasks, Your Grace.”
Duke nodded thanks and went up to his room for a quick rest. The others needed to know what he found out, but it could wait for a few hours. His bed greeted him warmly and soon he was asleep. He awoke, of course, to system messages.
*** Another day and some more activity. That is good for entertainment’s sake. So, you killed the thugs that put you in prison – a bit disproportional, wouldn’t you say?
Hey, stop it! This is MY transmission! You have had enough of them!
There, sorry about that. Where were we? Oh yes, consider the moral impact of your actions bef-
Oh, enough of that! You killed some bad guys. Good on you. Then killed some vampires. Even more fun, especially how you made that last one all but explode. That was a…that was a blast!
You gain 400 experience for killing six thugs and five tier two vampires. Not an impressive amount, but neither were any of your foes when compared to you. You also increased some Skills.
Stealth increased to Initiate 27
Dodge increased to Practiced 38
Aerial Maneuvering increased to Initiate 11
Martial Arts Combat increased to Adept 16
Tonfa Mastery increased to Adept 9
You have increases to Abilities as well.
TELEPORTATION has increased to Adept 16
REGENERATION has increased to Adept 32
AURA CONCEALMENT has ranked up to Initiate 1
LASTING DISGUISE has ranked up to Novice 7
CLEANSE has increased to Initiate 16
RESTORE has increased to Master 20
IDENTIFY has increased to Initiate 11
INVENTORY has increased to Initiate 19
ARMOR SKIN has increased to Practiced 54
FLIGHT has increased to Initiate 28
COMBAT SENSE has increased to Novice 17
DUNGEON SENSE has increased to Adept 7
You are becoming worth watching again. We expect more entertainment so show us what you can do now. ***
Duke scratched his head at the odd mix of messages. It was not the first time that had happened to him, and he figured it wouldn’t be the last. He shrugged and focused on the experience he received. 400 experience points. That’s not going to move the needle at all. It would take more than 2,000 nights like that to get me a single level. I need to keep finding things that are much higher level to fight. But, for now, the priority is finding everyone and talking over our strategy.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Duke TELEPORTED into the vast common room of the Inn, no longer bothering with stairs. Thankfully, most of his team was seated at the command table eating. Aurelia was the only one missing and Duke found himself disappointed that she wasn’t there. He moved over to the table and grabbed a seat.
“Good morning everyone.” Duke smiled.
“Glad to see you made it back in one piece.” Grat responded.
“Indeed, I did. Where’s Aurelia?” Duke asked. Elaine glanced at Grat who silently handed her a coin. Duke tried to ignore the interaction but found it difficult.
“She’s already in the dungeon. She has been training with her officers like mad.” Baslin responded. “I think she feels like she either has something to prove or has some insane goal she is trying to reach.”
“Close, Baslin, but that’s not it.” Elaine responded.
“Oh? Enlighten us.” Duke prodded.
A broad, mischievous smile spread across Elaine’s face as she responded, “She’s trying to impress you, Duke.”
Duke stared at Elaine as he caught the rest of the table nod with agreement. He started to protest but gave up, knowing that they were probably right. Instead, he got down to business. “I would have liked to have her here for this briefing-“
Grat interrupted. “Oh, look, here she comes now.”
Aurelia strode into the room from the door of the Inn. She was wearing ornately carved golden armor with roses being the central theme but also animals including a bear. The armor was impractically form-fitting and even gave off a soft glow. She wore the sword Duke had given her in an equally ornate scabbard on her hip. As she entered, she took off her helm and shook her golden hair out behind her. Framed in the morning light coming through the door behind her, she was a sight to behold.
Duke forgot what he was saying and stared, as did Grat and Baslin. Elaine simply smiled knowingly and mouthed the word “perfect” not even allowing a whisper to escape fearing Duke’s ridiculous hearing would pick up on it and ruin the moment. As it was, she needn’t have worried – all eyes in the room were locked on Aurelia as she made her entrance. She slowly and deliberately walked across the room and sat in the empty chair opposite Duke, gracing them all with a warm smile. “Good morning everyone. Sorry I’m late. I had some early-morning energy to work off before coming.”
“That’s quite alright.” Baslin responded, first to break the “spell” of her arrival. Grat and Duke quickly agreed, setting themselves back into motion while releasing the breath they had not realized they were holding.
“Yes, I am very glad you are here. Duke added, not noticing the extra emphasis he unconsciously added to the word “very”. “I returned from the capital last night and things are probably worse than we had feared.”
“How so”? Baslin asked.
“The city is nearly locked down with fear.” Duke continued. “People are disappearing left and right, and it’s not just political enemies at this point, if it ever was really. I caught a group of vampires in full city guard uniforms that fit too well to have been anything other than tailored for them breaking into a family home to feed and possibly take them away. I don’t know the extent of what they were going to do was, but I didn’t give them the chance to go any further when they prepared the family for feeding.”
“That’s disturbing.” Elaine added.
“Yeah. I wasn’t letting that proceed. But there’s more. There is a massive army of undead in the catacombs underneath the city. We are talking at least one hundred thousand of them and their ranks seem to be growing. They have three undead generals at this point – a ghoul lord, a spectre lord, and a vampire lord. I couldn’t get names of the generals out of the vampire I interrogated. They had some sort of spell on them that killed them if they spoke about it. That’s some scary stuff. But the name I did discover was of the necromancer that is the one in charge of the whole army. His name is Duke Negron.”
Baslin paled at the mention of the name. “Negron the Nemesis?” He asked quietly.
Duke nodded. “I’m not sure if it’s him, but the names line up.”
Baslin’s face turned sharper, his eyes narrowing. “It does make sense now. The king’s pet mage always hid his face from me, hiding behind enchanted robes so I could never discern his true identity. I had never cared enough to try and penetrate the enchantment. It also explains how the twins were able to warp my vow into such a curse. With his guidance, it would have been easy. I owe this mage a great deal of pain.”
“Isn’t that the name of the mage that killed your friend?” Grat asked, completely tone-deaf to the emotion running through the room.
Baslin turned his fierce gaze upon Grat and responded, “Yes, my friend, he is the one who killed Dothalon. He is the one that ended our days of innocent magic. He is ultimately responsible for my lack of grand offensive spells. Sure, I’ve put together a bunch on my own, but far later in life than I should have. I should have learned them from Asalov. Negron has much to answer for and I will make sure the worm pays for it all.”
“The problem as I see it though is that we don’t know where he is and how to get to him. I tried to find him in the catacombs with my DUNGEON SENSE since I can see through walls with it, but there’s just too many undead shuffling around the catacombs to be able to pinpoint any single individual. It all just becomes a quivering blur to my senses. Maybe if I can rank it up, I will be able to locate him in that mess but for now, it’s nearly impossible.”
Aurelia spoke up. “Our army is growing more powerful by the day, but our average level is only in the thirties right now. Outnumbered at least three to one – I need them all to be at least tier two before we can even consider that fight. I would prefer to get them well into tier two for that.”
“How long would that take?” Duke asked.
“Weeks, maybe as long as a month. The dungeon affords us phenomenal growth and leveling speed far beyond what could be achieved anywhere else but even with that, we can’t level much faster without significantly increasing the risk of losing troops during training.”
Duke nodded, his gaze resting on Aurelia’s face longer than intended. His XENOGLOSSIA picked up on the hint of a smile forming on her lips before he spoke. “Then we have our timeline. Baslin, make sure the mage corps at least keep pace with the soldiers. I want to be able to hit the undead army so hard that they never have the chance to organize. Grat, how are our defenses looking? “
Grat smiled broadly. “We have strong natural walls with roots going far deeper than any sapper could dig. We have siege and lookout platforms set up throughout the area with some vicious siege engines already in place. And my raptor corps are working out exceptionally as aerial scouts.”
“Raptor corps?” Duke asked.
“Birds. Primarily hawks with a few eagles and falcons.” Grat responded.
Duke started to ask, but decided against it, simply saying, “Sounds great. Everyone keep training. I was hoping to get my TELEPORTATION to the next rank in the hopes I could get some sort of portal capability, but I still have over 100 levels in its current rank. We’ll need some other way to rapidly deploy the army when it’s time.”
Elaine interrupted, “Can’t you just use your Ability like you did in the dungeon and bring the undead back to life?”
Duke shook his head grimly, “Tried that. It doesn’t seem to work outside the dungeon. Must be some special circumstance that allowed it to work in the dungeon. Not sure what the deal is, but it’s not like the Ability came with a user manual.”
“So, we stick to the old-fashioned method of just killing them. Fine with me.” Aurelia responded. “And if you need any help with your…Abilities, I’m happy to help wherever I can.” Duke couldn’t help but pick up on the slightly downward glance she timed with the word “Abilities”. His heart skipped a beat and then raced to catch up.
“Yes, we stick with what works, but don’t be afraid to try new things and experiment. We need all the advantages and flexibility we can get our hands on.” Duke concluded before everyone broke to take care of their separate business. Aurelia made sure Duke could catch her swaying away as she headed out the door. He obliged her intention with a full-on stare.