How should I answer to the statement "My house wasn't home", I wonder.
Elementary. With the bleeding truth. "I was leveling up. My house is with me. Can I spend my Exp now?"
"Where?" The guild master asked with suspicion.
I shake my head, "Nice try. We still need to go to the ramparts for the defense, don't we? Should the guildmaster be invading other people's plots of land uninvited? Why come and get me, anyway?"
"Are you really blind?"
"Are you making faces at me?"
"Maybe."
We stay in silence for a while.
"I need to go back. You're coming with me," She said in a way that harbored no argument.
I shrugged, "Could you at least carry me to the ramparts while I fiddle with my System?"
She picks me up and I get a good glimpse at her body. Damn, she was tall. Like almost two meters tall. Her body was sculpted like... Let's put it that way. If she was green and a lawyer, her name would be Jennifer. That level of sculpted.
> Manaborne Sorceress - A mistress of many forms of magic, the Manaborne Sorceress has a bottomless wellspring of magic at her beck and call.
> Your Class ranked up into a Manaborne Sorceress (ultra-rare). You gain
>
> 1 Attribute point per level.
>
> 1 Magic every odd level
>
> 1 Soul every odd level.
>
> 1 Charisma, Willpower, Mind, Ego, and Luck, alternating every level.
>
> 1 Endurance every five levels.
>
> 2 HP per level.
>
> 10 (+2) MP per level
>
> 10 (+2) HP per level
>
> 6 (+3) Skill Points per level.
>
> 1 perk every even level.
I applied my Experience.
> You reached Manaborne Sorceress level 12
>
> You reached Ghostsight Eleon level 11
>
> You reached Spirit Jeweller level 10
>
> You reached Fae Enchanter level 10
>
> You gained 6 perks.
>
> You gained 131 Skill Points.
I also changed the display of my level to sixty-three. I was faking my real level if that made any sense. As for my Skills, I took the non-elemental spellcasting Skills I had and tossed them in Wyxnos' blender.
> Evoker (ultra-rare): You are proficient with all kinds of non-elemental magic. Increase damage, effectiveness, and reduce MP cost of non-elemental spells.
>
> Your skill level is Journeyman 47
I sensed a lot of people moving out of the gates as we passed near the east one. At this time of the day, must be an evacuation. It is too late to go outside for work. I selected my perks.
> Manaborne Reservoir (very rare): You can accumulate MP above your normal maximum. Your MP generation is divided by two once you go above the maximum. This divisor increases by 1 for every 25% above the maximum you reach.
>
> Mana Wellspring (very rare): Increase the MP regeneration of all creatures (except you) in Soul meters around you by 50%.
>
> Improved Mana Wellspring (ultra-rare): Increase the MP regeneration of all creatures (except you) in Soul meters around you by 100%.
>
> Extended Mana Welspring (ultra-rare): Double the range of your Mana Welspring.
>
> Mana Siphon (ultra-rare): You harmlessly siphon the excess MP of creatures affected by your Mana Wellspring that are at their maximum MP.
>
> Magic Gourmet (ultra-rare): Apply the Magic Eater modifier right after all the multipliers. Absorb 2% of the damage prevented by Magic Eater as MP.
That was a 240 meters sphere around me. Most people don't use their MP all the time but when you multiply it by a few hundred, Mana Siphon started to be worth it. My MP was recovering at an alarming rate.
"Is this spike in my MP recovery because of your ability?" The Guild Master asked.
"Maybe? Does it stack with increased regeneration from other sources?"
"It is additive if that's what you asked. But this can change the game. Most of the physical types don't bother with MP regeneration. Now they'll be able to use their abilities more frequently. And it is better if you pretend it is also affecting you. Otherwise, people will just lock you in a dungeon and use that aura."
I whispered with a Cheshire grin, "I wanna see them try."
----------------------------------------
While we waited for the monsters to make up their mind and climb the last hundred meters, I learned all the blind halfling jokes there was to learn.
> "A blind halfling walks into a bar. Then the chair. But not into a table. He just passes underneath."
>
> Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
>
> "Shh. Don't tell blind halfling jokes. Not only they can't see the point, but it is also so low it's beneath them."
>
> "I once dated a blind halfling woman. It was nice but my back hurt and it took me a lot of training to imitate her husband's voice."
>
> "I fucked a blind halfling girl, she said, 'by Zacheia, your dick is so thick! Too bad it was my thumb."
>
> "I admire blind halfling whores. They really rise to the challenge, you know? You gotta hand it to them."
>
> "Do you know why blind halfling chicks don't laugh at our jokes? It's because we set the bar too high and she thinks it is all dark humor."
>
> "Do you know why the blind halfling killed herself? She had nothing to either reach after or to look for."
And so on. Let me tell you one simple truth. Blind people hear better, and that's before my {Elven Senses} Perk increases it by five times. Finally, the torment was over when the monsters reached the gates a few hours after I arrived.
I stood up and dusted my dress. Then I pointed at the entrance and spoke. "Spiked Brazen Bull."
Reminiscent of the torture instrument where a person was locked inside a brass bull statue whose belly was under an open flame, my mix of force, wind, and fire magic lined the last hundred meters of the tunnel with force spikes one meter thick and overheated the whole inside of the tube as the wind kept the hot air trapped inside and circulating toward the exit between the spikes near the wall and pushing the monsters back inside the Dungeon in the middle. Then I sat back at my spot on the wall.
The throng of monsters, smelling the surface, rushed into the tunnel and impaled the first row as they were pushed onto the spikes to slowly roast. Then the second row climbed over the first, pushing them deeper into the spikes, and impaling themselves on the invisible ones a bit further. And so on, so on. But those that had to navigate over the entire tunnel would get good and uniform cooking.
Each monster struggling against the force spikes drained my MP. But I was leeching the MP recovery of all the adventurers, guards, and townsfolk in a few blocks around the Dungeon. Most of them were capped.
Deaths started to happen inside the tunnel as the weaker ones couldn't cross and the stronger were slowed down long enough to lose huge chunks of their HP. But there were too many.
The smell of roasted fat and meat hit everyone. I heard more than a few stomachs grumbling. My air trap wasn't perfect, the heat was too strong to be contained but at least it wasn't leaking entirely outside the area.
My MP was steadily draining. As the first monsters reached the end and the people fired their empowered attacks, it plummeted. I was losing around three hundred thousand MP per minute. I had twenty minutes or half an hour in the tank, depending on how my MP regeneration would play with my SP expenditure.
The monsters that came out quickly died. I was getting between forty and seventy percent participation on these kills. But my detection skills told me there was a massive conga line of monsters coming up the tunnel. At the rate they were dying, my magic would end before half of the stampede reached the start of my trap.
I stood up and sought the guild master. My detection range of twenty meters quickly picked up her soul signature. I jumped on her shoulder to get her attention.
"Miss Truecoin. What is it? I'm rather busy here."
I clicked my tongue, "Yeah, no. You are not. This is merely a warmup. I can sense the stampede underground. My spell will end in twenty minutes more or less, and then they will pour out of the tunnel-like a broken dam."
"So it is you that's sponsoring the skewer barbecue," she remarked.
"Maybe. Anyway, that's all I had to say. I'm going back to watch the tunnel."
"Are you really blind, Truecoin?" She asked with suspicion.
"I can't see light. So, there's that..." I paused as I felt a surge of energy. "The moons are rising. Maybe there's hope."
The moons in the sky, all three of them, meant my killing trap had just become sixty percent stronger and thirty percent cheaper.
The monsters stopped coming out. A lull in the battle let the attackers cap their MP, which led to more siphoning for me.
"They stopped coming out," the guild master commented. "Is that your doing?"
"I'm doing nothing but talk to you."
She picked me up and released me near the ground, "Suit yourself. Go back to your station."
"Aye, captain!"
----------------------------------------
One hour and over half the stampede killed, the monsters stopped entering my trap. They were grouping outside the mouth of the force-spike tunnel, waiting. I jumped off the wall and ran inside. People shouted, some tried to catch me but once I'd neared the furnace, they stopped. I could endure that level of heat indefinitely. It was actually healing me, without the overcharge. I lifted a darkness spell and started storing my corpses. My kills, my loot. There were magic cores between the spikes, so I wouldn't leave them for that bunch of low lives.
They shouldn't have told so many blind halfling woman jokes.
I sensed something different mingled with the throng the monsters. Sentients. People that probably caused this stampede and were controlling the rampaging monsters. I stealthed after the last twenty meters of the tunnel and moved slowly. Ten meters in and I stopped looting. The ones that died this early in the tunnel were weaklings without anything worth scavenging in their bodies beside the meat.
They were speaking in something which I quickly picked up after a while.
"I can't dispel this magic, Karaxnoss," a male voice said. "Whoever cast this is a powerful mage. Maybe even the royal archmage."
"Dammit," another male cursed. "He wasn't supposed to be in the capital!"
I moved closer. Once I was within twenty meters of them, I put a contract on both.
"Brother. I sense an {Assassin's Contract} on us," the first one said. "I also can't remove it. The SP cost is more than I can pay."
"What? Not only do they have a strong mage but also an [Assassin] stronger than you?"
"We should retreat, brother. The stampede thinned too much. We won't overrun the city with these few monsters. And if there's an [Assassin] this strong who knows us and put the contract, we are exposed here."
The leader laughed, "They can't cross their own magic."
I shifted into hybrid form as my clothes went to storage.
The leader, Karaxnoss, said, "I sense something inhuman. A halfbreed? A were-kin maybe."
While a were-kin wasn't a monster, they were close enough to register on some senses. This [Monster Tamer] guy might be able to control weak-minded were-kin. More reason to murder the shit out of his haughty ass.
"Brother. Let's go,"
"No. If I can get a strong were-kin, losing this many tame monsters might not be in vain. {Beastly Call}! {Enrage}!"
As Karaxnoss used his abilities, the whole throng of monsters became agitated. I felt the spells wash over me but I was stronger. I hoped he didn't notice that. I was two bodies behind the guy now.
"Rabhorktaar's mercy," the first one prayed. "An [Assassin] who's also a were-kin. There's one legend about her."
I pounced on Karaxnoss and bit his neck.
> Assassination Completed. Contract Fulfilled.
>
> You killed Karaxnoss, level 75 [Monster Tamer]. You gained 103,893,750 Exp ( 56,250 base x 1847 multipliers).
I immediately captured his soul. He was an elf. Damn. But his soul was different. They also used another elvish language I hadn't heard even during my time as Queen. The other one started to vanish.
The monsters, without their controller, were reverting to their nature. I threw another "Spiked Brazen Bull" spell down the tunnel and started to bring them together. At the same time, I jumped to dodge the monsters and clung to the roof.
"Elf [Assassin]," I spoke in his language. "If you want to live, come here and hold onto me. There's no escape otherwise."
He removed his stealth, dodged a charging monster, and jumped to hug me. "I accept your mercy, Your Deathly Highness."
The guy quickly found footholds in the irregular ceiling where he could support part of his weight. I could do that easily but I appreciated the gesture.
The monsters died to either trap. They were too stupid and were panicking too much to decide to stay still near me. I left ten meters of room between the spells and waited. When the last ping vanished, I dropped the bottom spell and also dropped us to the floor. I ran to loot while I commanded the first spell to return to the tunnel's mouth and shrink its length by half.
That cut the strain on my MP and the expenditure slowed to something I could maintain for an hour with my current reserves. My MP was low, less than a million but I still had my SP.
After I was done looting, I turned to my newest acquaintance. "Who are you and what should I do with you?"
He knelt. "Death Princess, I'm Kazuyran, a lowly [Assassin]. My life is yours to do as you see fit."
"What species are you? You seem like an elf but not one I know."
"We are the Deep People, milady. We gave up on the sunlight and our lighter-skinned brethren when the world was still young."
As far as I know, there's no bias against dark elves. Elves in the Auvanini continent were rare.
"Pledge fealty to me as your liege and {Princess}," I said while adjusting my title to match. "You shall live when I say so, you shall die when I say so. You shall kill only when I allow. I'll take care of you and ensure food, shelter, and clothing."
"I'm at your command, my {Princess} of death. I hereby pledge before all the gods."
I felt he was my subject now. {Royal Geas} was using the lower cost when I thought of bringing the ability to the fore. Of course, he could serve two masters, but he was level fifty-seven.
"How did you know about me?"
"Long ago, I was apprenticed to an ancient order of [Assassins] in the Scorched Continent. One you were part of. The veterans told me tales of you. And the bards still sang Lady Hazel's songs during my time there. The [Assassins] told me of the deadly lady that by day was a {Heroine} slaying demons and at night walked as a cat, assassinating the wicked."
Hazel was one of Apricot's nieces, daughter of Almond. Or the [Dread Pirate] Ninefingers. That tugged my heart and it ached as if I'd been stabbed again.
"My niece," I mumbled.
"Indeed, my lady."