Last names were great here. The first name was your designation and the last was your address it must have made taxation and the collection of levies much easier.
As the strongest member of this new race of Lich, it was his duty to establish the pecking order and gather enough meat shields to cover him, while he makes his escape. Perhaps, he was getting duty and privilege mixed up.
A shark like grin stretched over his face. He had a ton of stat points to spend. Perhaps, Charisma wasn’t the worst stat to put his faith in. Melvin turned his attention to Jezebel. She was one of the few members of his new race to wear a dress. It looked ridiculous on her bald and muscular form.
He like making comparisons between himself and the rest of the Lich in the room. Melvin was the same height as the others, though his chest was at least four times theirs with arms and legs like tree trunks.
Standing up to full height, he walked to the center of the room pushing all the nobody’s out of his way. They gave him an ornery looked and a few dozen tried to push back, only to fall on their backs. Melvin shook his head at the plebs.
“My name is Melvin Hill and I am the strongest of our kind. I have made the decision to escape this place before the necromancers decide to break us down for parts. Those who join me will have a chance for freedom. Who’s with me?” Melvin said, and was welcomed by silence.
“The nobles won’t allow us to be killed so easily. If we keep praying to them and giving our mana onto them, then soon they will surely save us.” He glared at Melvin with conviction. “This man is unknown to us. He speaks with an unknown accent. Don’t fall for his lies.” The man was dressed the most extravagant out of anyone.
“You can all die, for all I care. I’m giving you a chance to save yourselves. I don’t expect all of you to take it. No, I’m sure most of you will happily go like sheep to the slaughter. Have fun with that.” Melvin said.
He scanned the room. Some looked uncertain while most glared at him. “My flock won’t be swayed so easily heretic.” The man in question stood a head taller than Melvin at lv12. Melvin looked at the man’s profile.
Jenson of Timber town lv12
Species Undead
Race Lich
A Grizzled old preacher who worshipped the nobles and the holy government that rules over the people of Great Albania. He has experience swaying the fearful and won’t let you lead his flock astray. He is a great political enemy.
“Jenson if you don’t bow down and yield these people to me, I will rip your head from your shoulders and smash it against a wall. You have three seconds to comply.” Melvin said. He wasn’t playing anymore. This was a life or death situation and religious nonsense had no place here. “Anyone who bows down to the necromancers and lets them have their way with us is an enemy.”
“You are their tool. Don’t you see by breaking our faith in nobles, you give them power over us.” Jenson said. Melvin took a step. “Die heretic.” Melvin stepped to the side as a black bolt of energy shot past him and slammed into one of their fellows. The lich’s body rotted rapidly before it aged to dust.
Melvin’s hands found their way around the priest’s head. The lich in his way were knocked away by his bulk. He twisted snapping the spine and pulled while using devastation. Bones, muscle, and sinew popped and snapped. The Jenson’s face was had a look of shock, as Melvin sent it hurdling towards a wall.
Jenson defeated
Reward:
Xp 102k
+5CHA
Melvin looked over to see the head splattered against the wall. Bloody chunks and brain matter oozed down slowly. The crowd stared at him with panic and hate.
“You seem to have confused me with some other powerful undead. Allow me to correct any misconceptions. I will kill anyone who prays to the nobles. We have gained Lichdom the epitome of the dark. The light doesn’t care for your fate, they would just assume destroy you.” He looked up there were several halls one was devoted to living quarters, one was built for the spell craft, and another was combat. “Those who want to survive in this new world follow me to spell practice. The rest I don’t care, stay out of the way.” Melvin said.
Fear was a good motivator. Melvin didn’t like taking the lead. These people moved sluggishly. Anyone from his world would jump at the opertunity to learn magic. Why couldn’t Phil, Marcus, James, or even Rick come here with him. It would make things so much simpler.
Who was he kidding. These noobs would die if they fought the skeletons. He survived mostly through luck and getting pissed off.
The spell craft area was a massive spanning library. There were books on various subjects, though there were limits. They could only learn initiate level texts.
Spells were put into place to encrypt high level texts. Over 90 lich were in the library. Under his gaze they picked up books and began to read. He looked over the titles. Control lesser skeletons, minor death touch, and bone craft for beginners. Melvin picked up all three and began to slowly make his way through them. It taught the worlds of the spell the the proper amount of mana needed to activate the initial stages of the spells. The spells needed to be tried in battle to gain the skills.
Jezebel walked up to him. “What you did wasn’t right?” Melvin rolled his eyes.
“Results are all that matters. The priest would have questioned my every decision if I let him live. So, I didn’t.” Melvin said.
“How can anyone be so cold? Were you ever human?” Melvin rolled his eyes. His mother was a better manipulator than this sad woman.
“Are you going to be a problem Jezebel, should I make an example out of you?” He could see the fear in her eyes. “I didn’t think so. I’m doing this because it’s the fastest way to make you all effective. I’m the strongest at level thirty. I saw an apprentice in the 200s. The difference in power is too great to treat you all softly.” Where were the skeletons when you needed to weed out the weak?
He had to supervise now that he learned what he wanted from the spell books. The further in they went the more like a historical text the became. He didn’t care who discovered the skill and when they died. Melvin wanted the flashy deadly abilities.
It felt like he was a teacher in study hall looking over students shoulders to make sure they weren’t reading porn. Shaking his head at the thought, he counted out ten who learned long range skills. Over twenty-five were learning how to turn the battle field into an undead wellspring of mana. He made a mental note to learn the ritual spells. They would be his engineering core. It would be their job to fortify their position. He went through the stacks and found a few books on defensive wards and placed them on his engineering team’s desks.
“Everyone who pulled territory creation you are now battle field engineers. Your job is to alter territory to assist everyone on the field. Read the books on defensive wards, I placed on your desks.” The last fifty-five were all over the place. Some had minor death touch, weapon enchantment, and dark heal. He took a book labeled dark heal and placed them on every desk that didn’t have a copy.
Hours later and more conditioning, he made his way to the training hall. There were a few dials, and levers attached to a contraption that determined enemy lv, type, and quantity. He had ninety here, so he clicked lv10, skeletons, and 200.
His 25 engineers quickly began chanting their spells and went through the process of going through pop up windows. The barren land at their feet quickly became saturated with black mana. Their mana pools quickly began to increase by 25MP/sec. The effect of a multitude of liches casting a single spell. They immediately swapped to the Kinetic ward. In less than two seconds they had their full mana supply back and began casting the next ward.
The army of skeletons weren’t like the ones he faced before. They were newly formed and barely armored. Their tactics included running across the field and shooting arrows randomly. There were no skeletal mages or mounted Calvary. The 55 infantry liches prepared their death touch, while the 10 artillery liches began to chant their long-range spells.
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Massive ice spikes shot up in an arc landing in the skeleton army shattering and freezing the skeletons. Several of the artillery leveled up. Melvin decided to invest a few points while he had time. He added 25 to INT and VIT. Both his MP and HP increased to 950. He looked down at his hands to see them grow calloused and his skin became healthier. He dropped 45 in DEX.
New Perk
Exceptional Control – You have body control that only comes around in 1 in 10. Every movement is exactly as planned. Martial skills will lv 50% faster.
He dumped another 45 in WIL. Something happened it felt like his hold over his body increased by a massive degree.
New Perk
Steel Spirit – Through hardship your spirit has been tested and your will has always won out. +50% resistance to mental control by those 100lvs above you. If your enemy is below your level negate control. If the enemy is over 100lvs above, you then this perk has no effect.
He tossed the last ten points in STR, it was better to have a little more strength then to save the points. Melvin felt his muscles bulge out.
The skeletons smashed into the infantry. Death touch had negligible effect on the skeletons. It took a group of four to slay a single skeleton with the spell. Skeleton swordsmen stabbed and sliced at his soldiers only for their fellows to cast dark heal on them.
Those that survived the battle would be more than capable of taking on hordes like these in the future. It was shocking the disparity between the levels. Melvin could easily destroy this army a thousand times over and not lv up.
After the tenth of his army fell, he decided to weigh in on the battle. He activated devastation and leapt into battle. He swiped his arm through several skeletons their bones shattered at his touch. Weapons nicked and cut at his arms, so he cast dark heal. He ran into the battle.
Melvin had no armor or weapons. He had only his bod and his ever-growing might. Grabbing skeletons, he threw them into the crowd and stomped poorly armored feet. His every motion was a brutal display of power. None of his enemies had over a 100 health. A single blow was enough to destroy them.
When the last of the skeletons were dead he walked back to his soldiers. “What are we going to do about our dead?” One of them asked. Melvin turned to him.
“We burry them here and deny the necromancers more materials. Search the battle field for any armor or weapons you can find. Tomorrow we will fight them at a higher level. Engineering team, collect the bones from the battle field and organize them for later use. We may need to turn them into weapons and armor.” They followed Melvin’s orders and went to work. The infantry began to dig graves for the dead and continued to cast territory on their side of the field.
Days pass and the first week ended. In that time Melvin let the liches level up and collect what skills they could.
Melvin walked along the walls of the area they could maintain. The walls were solid bone. Several runes were carved into the walls. He rubbed the rough surface of the and nothing happened. He reared back his fist and smashed it into the wall.
A shield appeared around the wall and blocked out his attack. He brought his Black Rage skill up to 20 in preparation to break through the wall.
Melvin had his Lich lined up, his four captains stood behind him. Jezebel of Artillery, Wesker of Infantry, Robert of Engineering, and Ebenezer of accounting. In a week, these four showed leadership skills, so he promoted them above the others.
“Report,” He told the four of them. Ebenezer spoke up first.
“Every man has leather armor, a shield, and a sword. One in three have a bow and quiver and one in ten have a two-handed weapon. Every soldier is on average lv20. The summons has reached the lv cap at 15 and gains have decreased significantly. We are 70 strong and ready.” Ebenezer said. Melvin nodded.
“Banging dog, sunglasses go.” The man did not have a pair of sunglasses, but he went anyway.
“Martial skills have been tested and formations have been drilled. I want to raise concerns, there is no way to determine what’s on the other side.” The man said in a monotone voice. Melvin rolled his eyes at the guy. These meat shields were becoming more trouble than they were worth.
“Jezebel, I choose you.” Melvin said. This was becoming fun. He had put her in charge of Artillery because, there was little she could screw up.
“Artillery have increased their ice shard spells to lv35. They are the strongest in the army.” Jezebel said.
“Bob, are my engineers ready to step out in the unknown?” Melvin asked.
“No, they think it would be better to remain here and fortify the area. They will follow, but there is a lot of protest.” Robert said.
“That’s good,” He turned his head to see the rows of lich ready to follow beyond the wall. He pulled back his fist and activated Black Rage x10.
All his stats doubled, and his fist contacted the wall. The shield took form, and nothing happened. Devastation x10 if not for the territory creation skill he couldn’t use a 10-stack devastation. The kinetic field shattered, and the wall exploded. Melvin and the others leapt through the opening.
The second he saw the sun, he had to dodge bone spikes as they rained from the sky. A spike ripped through an infantry man behind him rapidly aging the lich to dust. Melvin picked up the speed and activated Black Rage to max.
Towers with artillery batteries turned on their fleeing army and fired just as the wall began to close behind him. Melvin took his mace from his belt. He smashed a bone spike away from himself and watched as the head of his mace rusted until dust.
Just beyond the towers was a massive forest. It would protect them from the spikes, if he just got a little closer. Branches slapped his back, as he made it to the forest. He hid behind a tree and listened for the thud of bone missiles to stop.
Some of his army made it to the forest. They made it through and continued. He ran with them a mile from the edge of the forest. Just as they were starting to calm down and count their numbers. A lv32 bear rushed their camp.
Melvin slammed into the beast and began to box it. More bears attacked the camp and began to rip his fellow lich apart with claws and teeth. “Fuck you, Winnie the Pooh.” Melvin yelled, and smashed it with entropy and devastation.
New enemy slain
Forest Bear lv32 Slain
Reward
Xp 170k
+2VIT
That was such a shitty reward. Three of his infantry died from that ambush alone. Melvin felt his skin grow a little tougher. He drove his fist in the side of the nearest bear and watched its brain scramble from the blow.
Melvin pointed his hand at the nearest dead bear. “Engineer team begin casting raise lesser undead on the bears we kill. We need to fortify our numbers.” Wesker seemed to have lost one of his shields and Robert was busy carrying out his orders. Jezebel was too terrified of the bears to order the Artillery team and the infantry Ebenezer was busy trying to kill a bear with a war hammer.
The bears weren’t the only creatures that had went out of their way to target them. Birds of all kind were dive bombing them trying to make a nuisance of themselves. Melvin smashed them away and continued dealing death blows to the bears.
It seemed like nothing here was worth anything compared to the skeletons during his first battle. Every other blow from Melvin dealt a terrible bleeding disorder that often finished the bears off in minutes. Once the last bear was killed, they began to use territory creation and cast defensive wards. The new zombie bears rose from the grave and Melvin gave them orders to defend the camp.
Nothing was going right. Bird’s dive bombed their camp or shat overhead. The kinetic barrier held enough but eventually something had to give.
“Sir we are down to 30 men 5 artillery, 15 infantries, and 10 engineers. If this keeps up, we won’t survive much longer. Wolves are being spotted. It seems all we can do is fortify the area and build our undead army.” Ebenezer said. “Some of the men want to mutiny against you.”
Melvin looked over the sorry state of his men. They were shaken by the destruction caused by the necromancer’s artillery and now nature itself attacked them. If they remained, they would surely be overrun. The only way was to blitz over the mountains hopefully that would put them out of range of the command of the necromancers. Though, he still had no idea where their phylacteries were.
“Tell the men to prepare themselves to move out. We will continue on to the mountains.” Just as Melvin turned his head the weight of Ebenezer’s war hammer smashed him in the face. The attack cost him 400HP. His vision was obscured, and he tripped over a log and fell out of the circle of protections.
His four commanders walked up to the edge of the camp. The rest of his men prepared for a fight. All five of the artillery prepared to bombard him with ice shards.
“We are no longer your men. If you want to continue with this fool’s campaign, then go ahead. We aren’t going to follow you.” Jezebel said. All four of them and what remained of his army stood united against him.
“Perhaps, I should have invested in Charisma. I don’t think many of you will survive. Good bye, you were useful tools.” Melvin said and started marching towards the mountain. Something leapt out at him from the shadows.
He snatched a limb from a nearby tree and stabbed it through the eye. It was a massive panther. Melvin ripped the limp out of the panther’s eye socket.
The mountains were just ahead, he needed to escape the valley.
Melvin Hill Lv30 next lv 53.687b
Xp 26.843b
Species: Undead
Race: Lich
Age: 19Years
Perks: Brutal Death 10/10, Bloody Wrath 10/10, Troll Musculature, Steel Spirit, Exceptional Control.
HP 950/950
MP 950/950
VIT 52
DEX 50
STR 75
END 5
INT 50
WIS 5
WIL 50
CHA 10
LUK 5
Skills
Black Rage lv25
Devastation lv20
Dark Heal lv10
Pain Resistance lv5
Raise Dead lv1
Control Dead lv1
Death Touch lv1
Territory Creation lv1