As I pet Khan's main body, I inspect Rob and his progress. I inspect all my beasts. All their levels skyrocketed thanks to me, but Rob got new Body parts.
-Ribcage of the Mauler (+115 Might)]
-Lower Extremities of a Shadespirt Panther (+120 Agility)
-Horn of a Skeletal Grave Howler (+30 Might) (+20 Mind) (+15 Vigor)]
-Phalanges of a Golemancer (+56 Dexterity)
-Tail of a Spirit Fire Lion (+35 Spirit)]
His [Undead Chimerism is a nifty trait, but he's very picky about what he puts on his body. He has hundreds, thousands of different bones in his magic [Bone Bag] but kept these five attached to himself. Not every bone gives stats or nifty tricks.
He replaced the lower extremities of an arctic wolf, a humerus of a butcher, and a frost mephit's jaw.
Rob doesn't have a sternum anymore, as his rib cage moves like a vertical mouth, each rib acting as a tooth. He can open and close his ribcage at will to deliver a nasty 'bite.'
His legs are still digitigrade, meaning his knee seemingly bends the wrong way for a humanoid. The legs are mostly shadow, blending into his midnight cloak. Pairing that with the legs' naturally sound insulating steps gives the illusion that this tall skeleton floats around without anything below the waist.
His legs are still skeletal, just “camouflaged.”
His glassy jaw is replaced by a normal one, but now he has a horn originating from his forehead. It goes straight up, and it's not that big, meaning that when Rob dons his hood, it's naturally obscured by the hood's inherent structure.
Although the horn is seemingly girthy, it's mostly hollow, as there's a hole at the top that you can't see unless you are right above it. Apparently, this lets Rob 'howl' an ear-piercing wail.
Name / Nickname
Rob / Lord Rob
Species
Skeleton Gravelord B (Rare)
Level
300 (MAX)
Evolution Requirements
Not Met
~
Health Points
1650 / 1650 | 3,300 / 3,300 (+100%)
Mana Points
1755 / 1755
Armor Points
5 | 10 (+100%)
Might
770 (200 > 500 + 25% + 145)
Agility
745 (286 > 500 + 25% + 120)
Vigor
330 (100 + 25% + 180 + 15 +10)
Mind
351 (100 > 257 + 25% + 30)
Spirit
356 (100 > 257 + 25% + 35)
Dexterity
306 (200 > 400 + 25% + 56)
The +180 he gets in vigor is from my taming skill. The [Servitude to the Monarch]. On top of the 25% bonus to every stat, it gives a flat bonus equal to 10% of my highest stat to the same stat to each of my beasts. Crazy.
That's nearly 1k health for free... which doesn't seem much compared to my bloated health total. Damn.
Khan multiplied and ballooned to three hundred bodies. I'd be terrified of him if he wasn't so receptive to me. Khan alone could destroy massive populations. If not for his overpowered trait that turns him into an army, but because of a skill I'm worried about.
[Catastrophic Control] is an A-rank skill with a simple description. [The user can control and manipulate natural disasters.]
Ehh, he's a good boys.
Name / Nickname
Khan the Exile
Species
Calamity Man-eater B (Unique)
Level
300 (MAX)
Evolution Requirements
Not Met
~
Health Points
2840 / 2840
Mana Points
1905 / 1905
Armor Points
949 (568 + 381)
Might*
800 (364 > 640 + 25%)
Agility
388 (172 > 310 + 25%)
Vigor
568 (172 > 310 + 25% + 180)
Mind
381 (167 > 305 + 25%)
Spirit
381 (167> 305 + 25%)
Perception
381 (167 > 305 + 25%)
Khan doesn't train his skills unless I force him to. Flash Gordon is the exact same.
Name / Nickname
Flash Gordon
Species
Elemental Stone Elemental (Legendary)
Level
300 (MAX)
Evolution Requirements
Not Met
~
Health Points
10,225 / 10,225
Mana Points
470 / 470
Armor Points
750 (375 x 2)
Might
0
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Agility
0
Vigor
2,045 (705 > 1,480 + 25% + 15 + 180)
Mind
94 (75 + 25%)
Spirit
375 (145 > 300 + 25%)
Luck
13 (10 + 25%)
I guess we can continue to train his crystal-making skill, especially now that my regeneration is better... that reminds me of something.
But first, let me look at Duchess' stats. Might as well.
Name / Nickname
Duchess / Thisss one
Species
Couatl B (Legendary)
Level
300 (MAX)
Evolution Requirements
Not Met
~
Health Points
2150 / 2150
Mana Points
4695 / 4695
Armor Points
0
Might
250 (117 > 200 + 25%)
Agility
406 (167 > 325 + 25%)
Vigor
430 (167 > 200 + 25% + 180)
Mind
938 (394 > 750 + 25%)
Spirit
563 (197 > 450 + 25%)
Charisma
250 (117 > 200 + 25%)
Luck
13 (10 + 25%)
"So, Duchess. Did you finish with the whole bloodline thing? Swapping your bloodline for one of your own creation?"
[No.]
"Damn, how much longer will it take?"
[...you have no idea how complicated this is, do you?]
"Nope."
[Thisss one also had to pause things since thisss one wasn't comfortable doing such a delicate procedure outside the mansion.]
"That reminds me, how did you guys leave the mansion without me being there?"
[Your hub. The place you keep the fractures... at the time, only the graveyard. But that's all that was needed.]
"Explain."
[Thisss one required no permission to open the door. Your 'Crossroad' wasn't mightier than my 'Divine Right,' so I led the other tamed creatures into the miasma-filled graveyard. The place we exited differed from the original exit, so we escaped by leaving through one of the exits in the mausoleums.]
"Huh."
[We scared your guild employees. One fainted. Many cried. The bipedal feline lawyer fed and housed us using your guild and money.]
"Anything else I should know?"
[The fellow members of the court know of thisss one's sapience and voice. Against thisss one's preference, thisss one revealed thisss one while you were gone.]
I sit up out of my tub. The first thing I did after ditching the press was take a bath and reconnect with my beasts. Duchess uses her [Breathe Weapon] to engulf me in flames, drying me off.
I need a list of priorities. I should talk to Val and the others, then visit my parents and masters. Then what? I overshot the level cap for the initiation test to join the Firstborns. Baby steps. Let's deal with the FIB situation before handling that minefield.
~~~
I'm in my office overlooking the massive ravine we built our guild next to. No efforts were made to fix this scar left behind during the quakes.
Inside my office is a table with chairs surrounding them, a little in-house meeting spot. I sit at the head of the table and look at the people I called here.
My members of the [Court of Allegiance].
[Dylan Silvervein - Cultivated Tamer of The Cult of Ebony Death
Rain Wang - Alchemist and Artificer of the Wang Family.
Free Chains - Lawspeaker of the Master
Duchess - Tamed Beast of the Master
Charlie Greenback - Archon of Coinage
Val Caddel - Archer Representing Humanity.]
Except Dylan. That creep is working the bone mines or whatever his job in the [Endless Graveyard] is.
"Catch me up to speed."
Rain is the first one to speak.
"What happened to the arm I made you?"
"I fed it to my tamed beast."
"I'm going to strangle you."
"Okay. Anyone else?"
"Cool office. Why did we have to come in person? I still have classes."
"...Anything else you want to say, Val?"
"Dad finished physical therapy recently. He walks with a cane, but the doctors say it's more of a mental thing since his body is fully healed."
"I'll visit him after this meeting."
"Mom hasn't got any better."
"..."
Free Chains clears his throat and slides over a stack of paper.
"Sign these. Two months of guild duties. Do it during the meeting."
"Can't you just forge my signature?"
"Nope."
I pick up a pen and start signing away. I look up at the table to see who is speaking next.
"We've technically lost money during those two months since we bought more land surrounding the ravine with our guild funds. Also, we should create a proper team for the guild so we can join competitions."
"Thank you, Charlie. Did your family contact you while I was gone?"
"Yes. My family calls and texts every day and sends letters. They keep buying new numbers since I'm blocking them every day. Their options for retaliation or abducting me again are limited since the Goddess will punish them. They might strike me in other ways, so I've been making preparations on behalf of the guild."
"...Is the Greenback family going to target my guild?"
"I've been making preparations on behalf of the guild."
"Do you need to say anything, Rain?"
"I need more secret sauce, blood boy. I ran out. By the way, I'm pretty sure vampires have been trying to break into my workshop, so I moved my place onto your guild compound."
"Okay."
"Before we talk about the elephant in the room, Ellis, do you want to talk about your time during the fracture? Beyond what you said to the press?"
"I met and befriended a village of elves. They will support me for the next ten years. Including if I rise to the throne."
"..."
"I am level 500, the lowest level in the fracture I came from. The most common type of creature were dragons."
"..." "..."
"I killed something above level 700 to clear the way to the exit. The elves should be leaving the fracture in a week or so."
"..." "..." "..."
I reach into my belt bag and pull out the [Isle of Ancient Dragons] encased in a black cube.
"This is the fracture. Don't touch anything but the obsidian-looking thing, or you'll be sent into the fracture with nothing… fall from the stratosphere."
I slide the cube over the Free Chains.
"Tell me when the elves are out."
"..."
"...Ellis, I have so many questions."
"I lived and grew. I'm stronger."
"...okay..."
"How are we hitting the FIB?"
Free Chains shakes himself out of a stupor and answers my question. "We already have, for the most part. We are currently waiting on the FIB. We already set a precedent that we aren't afraid to talk, and it's their move to respond."
"So, we just wait?"
"A day. That's plenty of time for the Director of the FIB to make a statement or reach out to us to mend things. You already told the press how you fell into the fracture, so if the Director doesn't respond, a literal court case of the century is happening."
"I see."
"We will unveil all the corruption and scandals they suppress until they are forced to dissolve the organization... But the president wouldn't like that, so we will strike a deal with him. It depends on whether you want revenge or compensation."
"...Do I need to do anything?"
"We made a schedule for you. Lots of public appearances. Don't get rid of your scars. You start tomorrow, get some rest."
"...Are we just doing things the legal way?"
"What other way would we do things?"
"Never mind."
~~~
I abandoned the paperwork and left to see my foster father. He lives in the house I bought for our family. It's so reinforced that it could survive another earthquake of that magnitude.
As I knock, the door flies open, and my foster father is there to pull me into a hug. My foster father doesn't say anything, so I hug him back. We stay like that until he decides to stop.
I talked to Val before we left, and she told me that these past few months have been hard on our father. She didn't need to elaborate.
She also wanted to speak one-on-one, but after I talked to our father.
"I'm alright."
"I knew."
"Did you see me on TV?"
"That's not what I meant, but yes. I did."
We spoke for a few hours before I excused myself. Val was waiting outside with a car the guild apparently provided for her. She isn't even in my guild. Is this what embezzling is?
"Hello."
"I don't like it when you get hurt."
"It rarely hurts for long."
"That doesn't matter. No matter how tough you get, you are still human. And it hurts me seeing you so disheveled and... missing."
"Is this about the beard and arm?"
"Don't joke around."
"Sorry. Shouldn't you be in class or something?"
"I only said that at the 'meeting' because I didn't appreciate our first conversation since you came back from hell to be at a business meeting... At least you had the intelligence to do it in person."
"Didn't you say-"
"Be quiet. I'm not saying all this to get you to stop anything. We don't live in a passive world."
"..."
"Sometimes I wonder if you don't realize that people will miss you if you die."
"I don't believe I'll ever die."
"I'm not looking for consolation."
'I wasn't joking.'
"I have time before my Masters are expecting me. I can buy us food or something."
"No, keep staying out of the public eye. Plus, I'm on a specialty diet for my training... holy shit, that reminds me. Remember the whole elf land shit thing?"
"Yes."
"We would've left this month if it wasn't for the quake at the beginning of the year. It got pushed back. We are leaving in the next fiveish months for the elvish lands."
"Oh. I'll add that to my schedule."
"I'll get someone from the institute to text you the details if they haven't already. Anyways, see ya later."
'Fuck. I wanted to crown myself king before leaving for the elvish lands since I don't know how long I'll be there for... I should contact Percy and tell him I surpassed the level cap.
Hopefully, being stronger didn't fuck up my chances to become king, regardless of how ironic that is.