Melvin had wronged the other lich. He used them to escape and they paid for it. For the life of him he couldn’t feel sympathy for them or any emotion besides rage.
He glanced over his grey hands. They were muscular, and his fingers were longer than normal. His fingertips ended in black nails. Melvin felt a strength in his hands that was never present in his mortal life.
The sounds of hooves pounding the ground pricked his ears and he turned to see a massive equine. A moose charged at him. Biting and stinging insects followed behind the massive animal.
His fist found its way through the moose’s skull, he used the new corpse as a club to crush the wolves coming from behind. Even with the constant xp the next level was too far away.
Blood and animal parts covered the forest floor. Birds aged and rotted to dust in the air. Black Rage extended killing everything around him. The trees soaked up nutrients rapidly grew then sagged with age.
His ears pricked from the twang of bow strings, he hit the deck. Arrows covered where he had been standing. A green fluid leaked from them turning the forest floor green. Vines and tree branches began to rapidly grow into a monstrosity.
“Awesome, I was getting bored killing everything sent at me. Hopefully, you guys will last a bit longer.” Melvin said. When more arrows slammed into the growing monster, he took a step back in preparation for a fight.
“Foolish abomination, we won’t let your evil spread any further. We have stopped your army now all that’s left is you. Give up and we will make your death quick.” The vines and roots spun into a large egg.
“No thanks. But do you expect me to sit and wait on this thing to hatch. Thanks for the xp.” Melvin said with a grin. He slammed his fist in the growing egg unleashing Devastation and Death Touch. The black mana invaded the construct of life mana for a moment before the green mana overwhelmed his own. The green mana infested his fingertips. A blistering pain filled his arm before black mana forced the green out. A smile lit his face.
“That is so cool. Is this like a combination of Land Creation and Raise Dead. So, what exactly does it do. I understand that its an egg but of what. Is there some sort of tree monster that’s about to pop out or is this how you have so many animals to throw at me?” Tendrils covered in thorns slashed at him driving him from touching the egg, again. “I wonder what the profile will say?”
Egg of Life lv?
A spell prepared with a long-range delivery system. A random creature that once lived in the forest is summoned with a +20 to its level. If more Elven Shaman devote mana to the spell the level boost can be greater.
Massive root stabbed into the earth and the trees around died. This egg was storing more and more power to bring about its purpose. Melvin laughed out loud.
“Oh, no don’t summon a powerful monster for me to destroy. If you summon something like this I might lose.”
“It is too late abomination. You will die on the claws and fangs of our beast. We may have needed to sacrifice our lives, but you will die, and we will gain a victory for our people. Future generations will sing of our victory over the death himself.”
Melvin began by casting territory creation. Tendrils of black mana changed into snakes and dove into the ground. Will and imagination had a lot to do with magic.
He didn’t have a weapon besides the branch in his hand he used against the panther. His best bet for survival was to take advantage of the time he had.
Green lightning began to shoot around the egg as it began to expand. All the forest around Melvin was dead and the egg grew ever larger. It was the size of a small house now. Whatever was inside was going to be a giant.
The elves collapsed finally revealing themselves to Melvin. It seemed the Egg wasn’t satisfied only draining the trees. Small parasitic vines grew off their bodies releasing green mana for the egg to absorb.
“What a greedy thing you are. Sucking your allies dry and still after all this time you keep getting bigger.” Melvin said. The egg had grown to the size of a two-story house. He honestly couldn’t wait to see what the inside.
A crack split the egg down the middle. “For thousands of years, I slumbered waiting for a spell to allow my return to this world. Yet my only challenger is a pathetic dead man.” Dark Heal had long since healed the scratch from the eggs thorny vine whips.
“Who are you supposed to be?” The egg fell away revealing a man-sized humanoid. This creature had butterfly wings and green skin. He had four solid purple eyes and antennae. With a flap of his wings a powder filled the air only to die and turn to dust when it neared him.
When it saw the effect, its head turned to the side.
“I see you aren’t one of the Elven. No, you are a creature not from this land. Let’s see how you swap hands.” The creature said.
Mobius The Enchanting Forest Moth lv150
Legendary Life Mage
A Legendary Shaman who attempted to challenge the gods and lost. He was chopped into pieces and made fertilizer for the forest. Warning if this monster escapes, he will gain levels at an incredible rate.
Melvin concentrated Black Rage around his skin to amp up the effectiveness of the skill. He multiplied the skill by 10 making use of his territory.
“Interesting a worm wishes to challenge me. Well it has been a long time since I got down and dirty. I hope you aren’t too fragile.” Mobius said.
Melvin kicked off the ground throwing up dirt and planted his fist in the bridge of Mobius’s nose. Mobius’s eyes widened, and he clutched his face. His face changed colors and he stepped back clutching his face.
“Dude, are you ok.” Melvin asked.
“Oh, god my nose why does this hurt so much. Your lv30 this shouldn’t hurt.” Mobius yelled between sobs.
“Man, I’m starting to feel bad. We can do this another time. You don’t really seem to be ready. We can do this again another time.” Melvin suggested. He let out a sigh realizing, he would lose all that sweet xp. If this guy wasn’t so pathetic, he would have finished him already.
“I got you.” Mobius blew a heavy fog of poison in Melvin’s face.
His eyes were full of poisonous dust and his lungs burned horrible. A heavy blow slammed into his chest and knocked him skidding across the ground.
“What the fuck?” Melvin yelled as he tried to get up. Dark Heal did nothing to clear his vision.
“Fooled you. You should have taken me more seriously. Now, I can finish you at my leisure.” Black Rage stacked 20 as he smashed the ground and dragged his body up. A blow knocked him away from his territory.
Sharp spikes ripped through his body, as a tree crushed him. Pain, the spikes began to grow roots through his body and began to drain his mana supply. He continued to rev up Black Rage as his pain and rage grew. The world began to rot and age around him as entropy damage increased.
Another blow hit him from behind, as he ripped the spikes form his body. Melvin spun around and grabbed ahold of Mobius. His hand moved gripping a wing and ripping it off. The sound of tearing flesh was music to his ears.
“You bastard, I’m,” Melvin smashed his fist repeatedly against Mobius’s body. It sounded like a child punching mud. It felt warm and wet bones shattered and Melvin felt mana filled organs ripping them out. He crushed them to pulp.
Melvin stabbed his fingers through Mobius’s eye sockets crushing them. He dropped the butterfly man and stomped Mobius repeatedly. There was no increase in xp and no matter how much damage he did, the monster wouldn’t die. Melvin crushed the creature’s skull and walked on.
As he moved through the woods towards the mountains bumped into trees constantly. He was forced to use his tree branch to find his path. He crushed the monsters in his way and walked on. Bird’s died from his Black Rage dropping like rain.
Level Up
Level Up
Wasps, hornets, and dragon flies, they attacked him in their hundreds of thousands. He continued his way to where he thought the mountains were. Melvin could have already been turned around, but it didn’t matter. He was growing stronger.
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Black mana turned into small humanoid dolls and leapt into some of the downed birds. With that Raise Undead was cast. He immediately cast Control Undead. Small strings of black mana leapt from his body and attached to the zombie birds.
With the connections, he regained sight through the birds. So, he continued towards the mountains in the distance.
Through his undead, he noticed something interesting. Melvin could gain xp from their kills. Any undead he controlled gave him a portion of their xp. He smashed a lv40 poisonous forest bear and cast Raise Undead.
The creature was resurrected, as a lv1 undead with all the same physical stats it had in life. When he cast control undead, he could see through the creature’s eyes if he wanted to and it followed his orders. He told it to kill everything living. It began attacking dire wolves and quickly leveling. He decided to name it Yogi.
Yogi was around 16hands high more than fit for riding in Melvin’s humble opinion. One thing about his time as a D&D paladin irked him. He wasn’t allowed to have any mount that wasn’t a horse. With a flex of his will Black rage formed into a deadly maw and swept through a bee hive. All the bees died. From there he raised the bees with multiple tiny shadow dolls. From there he attached strings of black mana to the bees.
Armed with thousands of bees and riding yogi an undead poisonous forest bear, he made his way towards the mountains. With every life, he painfully extinguished his mana recovered. When his MP was full the mana became xp. It seemed the more painful the death the more xp and MP he gained. To improve upon his grinding, he directed his bees to go for eyes and genitals.
He swept through killing trees and taking xp. Melvin killed painfully for his own benefit.
Raise Undead level up
A next of hornets were added to his growing zombie army. The xp and mana was rolling in, so long as he kept killing then he could crank the stack of Black Rage to 50.
Every level an undead gained cost another MP in upkeep of control. Though, he learned that his MP wasn’t limited to his own body. When one of his directly controlled undead leveled up, he could assign stat points. By increasing INT, he increased their MP capacity and by extension how much MP he could draw from.
A single Queen bee could have up to 50INT and by extension control 10,000 bees. It lowered the cost of his control undead and allowed him to direct his army more efficiently. The mountains were growing closer through the rain of bird cadavers.
The effect of his Black Rage had taken on the form of an angry black humanoid. Everything, caught by the dragon’s presence suffered. When in direct contact effects were far more impressive.
Level UP x5
Nightfall took his ability to see with the birds away. He needed to find an owl or something. Yogi was up to the challenge of navigating through the forest. His nose, ears, and eyes were well beyond human.
Melvin relaxed on Yogi’s back on their way to the base of the mountains. Wild mountain lions assaulted them with hit and run tactics. They never remained in his aura long enough to die, and always took one of his bears down in their assaults. He was down to five forest bears plus Yogi. The bees had long since blinded them, but they often managed to escape before he could bring them down. The elves or perhaps Mobius was behind the change in tactics.
A small elven girl wrapped in deer leathers approached him from the edge of the forest. He was almost out and in the base of the mountains. She glowed with green mana. Her pointed ears had several earrings in them and her hair was braided.
“I am Duluth traveler. My descendants are in peril from Mobius’ machinations. Already, he has taken advantage of the gaps in our forest’s growth. Like a cancer he has rooted himself in our forest and the more time he has to grow, the harder it will be to remove him.
A white and green aura circled around the child like spirit. The energies impacted Melvin’s aura and his rage wasn’t enough to hold back the tide. Life and a white aura slew everything in its path. Melvin had to condense his aura just to keep the white and green mana from poisoning him.
“The fuck, why does every bastard I run into try and hold me back.” He stuck the ground forcing territory creation to kill the newly growing plants increasing his mana output. She pulled a staff from her back.
“Interesting, you gather power from death, just as my people gain strength from growing new life. You are an incarnation of the opposing force to our magic, that is why the forest itself wishes to destroy you. Its possibly, why I was called as well. You may be able to destroy life, but death holds no power over faith.” Duluth said.
Duluth The Forest Sage lv7600
Ancient White/Green Mage
An ancient entity once a purely green mage, upon her death her descendants told stories of her great works of magic and creation of powerful creatures. Her descendants have fed her spirit worship for countless generations granting her the white element. She is most dangerous behind an army of summoned creatures.
He had to wonder why attack him by herself. Why not summon a vast amount of forest animals and buff them? The Mountain lions had already whittled down his ranks.
Melvin thrust his hand forward sending a swarm of wasps at her face. She swiped her hand creating a pillar of white/green mana granting the insects new life before the overabundance of life made their fragile bodies explode.
The white/green aura was creeping upon his territory. Moss, vines, and flowers poked up from the desolation the energy fought his own skill slowly gaining territory. No matter how many times he recast Territory Creation, he was losing ground.
He couldn’t compete with her in magic, she had more skill and possibly more MP. So, he had to go with physical attack. Black Rage was still stacked 50x. Devastation could slowly rise to the occasion, if he can just deal 10 blows and cause bleed damage, maybe he can win.
The second he stepped out of his own territory, he knew he had made a mistake. The pillar of white/green mana was an icon of her faith. It pulled upon her own stores and slammed them into the land. Outside of his own territory, he lost the cumulative effect of his undead. His territory was lost the second he stepped outside.
He slammed 25 points in STR.
New Perk
Dark Soul Reaper – With physical power surpassing the Lich of the past, you have gained the ability to extend your strength through black mana. 50% of STR is added to all constructs with your mana. When they die you gain .01% of their STR stat.
His Black Rage was currently at lv50 due to stacking the skill 50x and gaining 50x the normal experience. To be blunt one hour using the skill counted as over two days of training straight. He had used it for a day. In essence he had used Black Rage for 100days straight or 1,200hours. His skill with Black Rage was beyond initiate and apprentice, it was closing in on journeyman and adept. Though, to keep the stack going, he required 2,750MP/sec to burn. With thousands of undead so gather mana for him, it wasn’t an issue. Now, his mana would run dry in less than a second.
He didn’t bother with Devastation; the skill wouldn’t improve anything. His best bet for a victory was to deliver his attacks hard and fast before his mana went dry. His STR with Black Rage at 50x was ironically 2,750. When Troll Musculature entered the equation his STR went up to 27,500
In life it took him about two seconds to throw a punch. He estimated, if he started throwing them now, he could throw 275 before his mana depleted. With the distance it would take to get there he could take 50 of those punches away. That meant he had to inflict bleeding on her within 225punches. With a 10% chance of bleed inflicting 10%HP Dam/sec.
Nothing grew fast enough to stop his approach, that or she never considered. Melvin was crazy enough to throw hands with a being 7000lvs above him. He saw her eyes widen, when she realized it. She was too slow to react. A smile spread across his face when he felt his fist meet her face.
It felt like he was tearing himself apart. His body was moving at over 33,000MPH, or 9.1 miles per second. The shear power behind his first blow made her crater the ground and continue moving back at an incredible speed. He kicked off cratering the ground wailing on her with everything he had.
She must have had a hell of a lot of VIT because it felt like he was punching concrete. Even after smashing her through the ground, she looked healthy. Dirt covered her body, but she was still in one piece. His brow creased in frustration.
He couldn’t stop. Her hand glowed green with a spell. Duluth was able to move in slow motion. Melvin punched her continuously, as he watched the hand approach him like the slow rise of the guillotine.
Taking a step behind her, he began delivering jackhammer blows, to the back of her head. He pushed her hand into own chest and continued to attack her defenseless body. Melvin knew, if he let up for even a second to his time, he would die.
His mana ran dry. Duluth unleashed her spell. It was a blast of white/green mana through her own chest. It opened a massive hole. Nearby terrain grew up rapidly. The trees had white bark and gold leaves. Everything began to grow rapidly, in strange iconic ways.
Duluth opened her mouth and vomited a cascade of blood. Green mana covered her body to heal the damage, only for her to fall over. Black mana spread through her body it was poisonous to her. Melvin crawled to her failing body and punched her repeatedly, as she spasmed and gaged on her own blood.
He felt her pain as she stared at him accusingly. As each blow rained down on her, he could feel her bitter hate. When she finally died, he got up. A sigh exhaled from his undead lungs.
The ever-present mountains loomed over head. Behind them represented freedom from this valley and hope. If he could escape this place perhaps, he could put violence behind him. Melvin had enough in the last week to last a lifetime.
As black mana consumed Duluth, he could feel a flow of power like never before. His body filled past the breaking point with black mana and he could feel the life within Duluth die and enter his body.
Level Up x100 +(2STRxlv)
Level UP x200 +(2STRxlv)
Level Up x300 +(2STRxlv)
Melvin Hill lv535
Species: Undead
Race: Lich
Age: 19Years
Perks: Brutal Death 10/10, Bloody Wrath 10/10, Troll Musculature, Steel Spirit, Exceptional Control.
HP 50/37,500
MP 0/26,750
VIT 70
STR 1,100
DEX 50
END 10
INT 50
WIS 9
WIL 50
CHA 10
LUK 5
Stat Points 2,525
Skills
Black Rage lv56
Devastation lv20
Dark Heal lv10
Pain Resistance lv5
Raise Dead lv12
Control Dead lv10
Death Touch lv5
Territory Creation lv15
Bone Craft lv1