Nero was no stranger to carnage. He had murdered dozens of people. In his defense, he really thought they deserved it. But he wasn't too queasy to leave a battlefield full of high-leveled corpses behind. He knew that in the morning the deserters from Coriander would be back now that the flashy combat was over. He was quick, taking the bandoliers and Arbitrii only. The contents of some dimensional pouches spilled over, showering the area in debris and furniture. Most people kept adequate sleeping material and valuables in their pouches. Nero swiped his hand and shoved everything inside, finding that his Accolades increased his capacity by leaps and bounds. He made sure to get Mayleefa's tracking device.
He still had to check how much he gained from this carnage. He dreaded the thought. Having people die next to him increased the odds of an accolade by something between four and eight times as compared to a monster's death. And as he suspected, having high-leveled things die next to him did increase the odds of an Accolade by another fair amount.
One hour later, he was almost done with the salvaging when he sensed movement. He dropped into stealth and watched. Some soldiers dressed with Coriander's colors returned. They too went around the battlefield, picking up weapons that wouldn't work for them past their raw material properties, armor, and other trinkets. Nero felt the need to put some distance and fled the battlefield. Instead of going to the castle, he went off into the mountains.
The sun was braking the reign of the night when he stopped to rest. Nero opened a portal to Rodther's temporary and empty shelter, unwilling to see any of his guests in the other pocket dimensions. He laid on the grass and slept.
Nero woke up at night, the cycles of the illusionary ceiling synchronized with the outer world. He drank from the stream, ate some food. He was feeling well, too well for his tastes. After fiddling with his Arbitrium, he used a diagnosis card to get his Attribute changes on the last day.
> Strength +9
>
> Vigor +4
>
> Endurance +11
>
> Agility +24
>
> Dexterity +15
>
> Reason +6
>
> Willpower +4
>
> Perception +35
>
> Charisma +7
>
> Failed attempts at leveling up: 16
One hundred and fifteen points. Nero felt sick. So much death. Not to mention the Accolades that went into leveling up because his Attributes weren't strained enough. Hundreds of people dead and he was the one that gained the most profit from that. He had no doubt the bards would sing of this battle for decades to come. And Tyre died with a sword on his back.
Speaking of the prince, Nero thought about collecting the reward for his head, but then shrugged that. It was a ticket to the head axed by the King. He thought he should go and retrieve the body, at least. Nero opened a portal to the savanna and walked through.
There was no corpse where it should. Blood, yes, even some fur. But no corpse. Which meant Tyre was still alive.
"Prince Tyre! It is me, Nero! Where are you?" Nero shouted.
He looked around and walked around the tents. All empty now. Some personal belongings, books, spare weapons. Then he heard a woman scream. Nero froze. Why there would be women in the shelter? Because the stupid prince didn't evacuate the harlots, that's why! He dropped into stealth and walked around the tall grass surrounding the back of the tent city. He heard sounds of combat as he approached the tent, women whimpering and men grunting.
He also heard people having sex. Nero walked around and entered the tent. Prince Tyre was fighting three soldiers from Coriander, and he was losing.
"We're going to be rich!" One of the soldiers shouted. "Not only we found this place full of women and riches, but we also have the bastard prince in our hands!"
It was the first time he entered the prince's private tent. Nero noticed that Tyre's tent blocked most of the sound. He could hear clearly that there were people having sex in the other room. Tyre screamed and attacked the soldiers, but he couldn't exercise his full mobility with the grievous and supposedly deadly wounds he suffered from. The soldiers didn't commit fully to the offense, afraid they would die to the sixth-tier agility warrior.
That was a shitshow. Nero felt the urge to kill everyone and save the women. He needed to know the abilities of the soldiers, though. He remembered the second-tier wolf-kin he sniped and how he was able to preempt his surprise attack. These guys also entered the shelter during the combat and Nero didn't notice. He had to be careful with those stowaways.
Tyre used a glowing golden potion. His wounds closed and he recovered some strength. The prince then fought savagely, taking many wounds but defeating the soldiers. He walked into the tent and the slaughter continued. Men and women alike screamed their death throes. An insane prince Tyre killed them all. Nero even pinged [Detect Presence] to make sure. Only the prince was alive once he was done.
Nero felt his stomach churn. He opened a portal and fled.
"Fucking bastard. Fuck, fuck, fuck," Nero cursed and held his knees as he rocked himself on the grass. "You're dead."
Nero could only think of rule three. He knew exactly what he had to do to kill Tyre. With his mind at the brink of breaking, Nero focused. Crystal's fear of men. Mental domination. The slaughter of the women that dedicated their days and nights to please him. Nero knew why Tyre killed them although he couldn't agree. Tyre would never share a woman. Those that were raped betrayed him, in the prince's mind deranged by pride.
He knew exactly what to do. Nero opened a portal to the nereid shelter, and from there reached the portal that led to the Dire Warg's Dungeon. He didn't see the dwarf quartermaster during his brief visit and he was thankful for that. The forest fire was long gone, leaving a bleak and burnt landscape. Nero scanned around and entered the Dungeon.
> Entering "Dire Warg's Forest of Rot" - Rank -III Dungeon
Now he couldn't connect to the shelters willy-nilly. Anyone either without an Arbitrium or with a level above forty would die from Essence poisoning or Essence starvation. And that was exactly what he wanted to do to Tyre. He could get Rodther and the nereids but not the quartermaster. No, he would do it alone.
And to do that, he would need to clear the Dungeon. Nero knew Tyre wouldn't die immediately from Essence poisoning and he couldn't leave a monster alive. The risk that the prince would obtain a [Egress] card and escape was too high. The Dungeon was still gray-grade, nobody visited it since Nero left two days ago. The monsters were a joke to him and in less than two hours he'd killed all of them. Nero tossed [Fireball] after [Fireball], coughing as he inhaled smoke but he didn't care.
The portal leading to the castle from the savanna couldn't be used to either escape or enter the Dungeon as Nero tried this loophole before. He set the stage for murder. The whole Dungeon was deserted. Nero created a password-keyed portal under the lake of the savanna shelter, paying six thousand Essence and closing it immediately after. He dug a cave underneath the clearing and buried himself for fear he could've missed a monster somewhere or that someone would enter the Dungeon before midnight, closing the entrance but leaving holes for air. He then switched to the [Rogue] build he used in Rafflesia to keep monsters from spawning nearby. With his improved Attributes, nearby meant the whole quarter-mile wide Dungeon.
Now he only had to wait as Tyre choked to death in the Essence-infused shelter.
Nero remained quiet. He couldn't move more than ten yards from the spot where he used the Skill and he didn't want to turn on a lantern and read. He was killing a prince and he had no mind to do anything but wait for a few hours. He had nothing better to do.
He slept. Several hours later, Nero woke up feeling something was odd. The Essence levels of the Dungeon were rising fast now that it had no venue to vent the energy in the form of respawns. It was rising too fast. He couldn't change Classes to use [Essence Analysis] but his goggles told him Essence was seeping in from the ventilation holes he made.
Too much Essence. Something was wrong.
He dug out and looked around. The Dungeon was deserted. He followed the trails of Essence and found out it was leaking... from the very spot where the portal to the savanna would open. His mind reminded him of when Amaryllis broke into the shelter. The portal left an opening, a hole in the dimensions even when inactive. What to say of one that was merely dormant? Fortunately there was no way Tyre would ever guess the password. "Prince Tyre is a piece of Shameful Scum and a Rapist Bastard" was something that would never grace the leonal prince's lips.
Nero sat next to the portal and watched as Essence seeped from the portal and infused the Dungeon for hours, The dimensional prison for monsters greedily drank it and improved its grade. Nero had no way of checking but the ambient Essence went from thin to abundant. What in tarnation was causing that?
He thought about it. The shelter didn't generate Essence and Tyre was the only one in there. What could the prince be doing? Whatever it was, it hadn't ended as the Essence still flowed. So it was either something that didn't require input, had a lot of fuel, and could inf...
"He doesn't have a portable Essence Infuser, does he?" Nero tittered.
Tyre knew about Holmes' death. He knew Nero had used a low-powered infuser to cripple the high-level professor and win the duel.
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"And if I were a haughty prince dealing with a guy whose sister I raped, would I take measures to protect myself from his sure-fire way to capitalize on my strength?"
Of course he would.
That settled it. Tyre had an Essence Infuser, he wasn't dead, and Nero was screwed. His only hope was that the prince couldn't find or open the portal. Even if he found it, it would be hard to speak the password - assuming he guessed right. It was hard to speak underwater, after all.
Nero sat next to the portal and watched. Two long days of watching Essence seep later, the flow slowed down. He felt a pressure pounding at the edge of his mind but had no idea what was happening. The Dungeon was brimming with energy and Nero could only worry about what would happen when monsters respawned. Would it become so crowded monsters would spill into the...
"FUCKING PSYCHIC FAIRY!" Nero screamed. "PLEASE EXPLAIN THINGS CLEARLY!"
Amaryllis predicted he would cause a Dungeon flood, didn't she? And that was exactly what was about to happen if the Dungeon was allowed to respawn things. A fucking bleeding Dungeon flood with diseased and rotten animals. Just great. She mentioned his absorption rate. That's why. You pump millions of Essence into a Dungeon with nobody to suck it in, then it blows up. So damn fucking easy. Why people don't do that more often?
"Because it costs a fortune AND the idiots that do that die in the flood. GREAT!" Nero cursed.
He felt the pressure again. Nero fell unconscious.
----------------------------------------
> Author's Note: Anti-Cliffhanger measures engaged. Please remain calm and seated as we finish the arc.
----------------------------------------
Nero woke up and quickly checked his timepiece. He was out for a whole day. He was still alive and alone in the Dungeon, so yay? The next thing he did was to check the ambient Essence. It was flooded with red wisps of energy and some still seeped from the shelter, but not as much as before. He remembered that infusers ate Essence at vertiginous rates. How many millions did Tyre have?
He waited for another day. Nero was trapped in a small bubble ten yards across. Should he move out of it, a Dungeon flood was poised to happen. One day became a week and the flow of Essence from the shelter ended. Tyre ran out of funds for his infuser. Huzzah! Now all the minnid needed to do was to summon the guts to open the damn portal again - it had expired - and check to make sure the prince was dead.
He didn't. Nero was afraid. Scared. Tyre would slice him into minced meat. So he sat and waited for another week.
It was boring as hell. Nero re-read his books, even made some Essence-powered gadgets with the white-grade materials he gained from the professors. Lamps, stoves, fans. A heater and a cooler. A stupid contraption that arced lightning from one metallic spike to another and numbed your hand if you reached too close.
And Nero was bored enough to put his hand in the lightning, that's why he knew it caused numbness.
He felt the pressure again. This time it was bearable. He felt a friendly presence. What was that? Curious, Nero felt around until he sensed where this presence was coming from. The shelters. Why? it was coming strongly from the savanna shelter.
Curiosity won over caution, and Nero opened a portal. The savanna was quiet and well lit from sunlight. It even seeped out into the bleak Dungeon. He didn't go inside for fear of breaking the respawn-blocking Skill. Watching the Essence flows, it was now being sucked into the shelter. It couldn't be bad so he left the portal open for some time.
"You bastard," Tyre's ragged voice came from the grass. "Wretched traitor! Is this how you repay my kindness?"
He sounded weak as hell. Nero looked around, ready to close the portal should the prince do anything. He reopened the portal at the roof of the shelter and looked down. The whole tent city was thrashed. Tyre rampaged and destroyed everything. Then Nero saw the bodies. Or what was left of it. As ready as he was, Tyre thought it was beneath him to carry food. There were some refreshments and snacks in the shelter but everyone went outside to eat in the castle's mess hall or brought food into the shelter from the kitchen. Soldiers also wouldn't have food cards, the precious resource rationed by the army.
Tyre's massive body required lots of food. Where did he get enough to sustain him for two weeks? Nero found out. Tyre committed his last sin. He ate people. Nero felt some guilt at the thought. He was the one to trap the prince in there.
Nero found Tyre laying on the tarp of the big tent. The prince looked up and found Nero through the portal. "Bastard," Tyre shouted. He seemed too weak to move or attack, but Nero wouldn't take a chance. Four hundred feet above him seemed safe enough.
"Have some shame, Tyre, seventh prince of Bast," Nero spat back. "Rapist, traitor, murderer, cannibal. Your debauchery and lifestyle ruined too many lives. Shame on you."
> "̶̢̜̼́̇S̸̡̗̈H̸̨̲̪̐Ã̷̰͙̗͗͘M̸̭͆͐̋͝Ẽ̴̞̫̣̋̊"̴͈̟̐͛̎͐
A voice rang. "Shame on you," It spoke again, clearly this time. Nero felt it was the friendly presence he sensed. The voice came from... the shelter?
"You deserve a fate worse than death!" Nero screamed into the portal, venting all his anger. "You used mind control on me. Asshole. I have a rule. Assholes in a Dungeon die. You die. No. You deserve a fate worse than death, bastard! You monster!"
He shouted more expletives. He denounced all of Tyre's crimes, according to his mind. The prince screamed back, but Nero didn't make sense of what he was saying. His throat was sore when he finished.
"I should leave you trapped in there for all eternity. A thousand deaths upon you, prince of shame!"
> "̴̖̿͠Š̵͖̫H̶̜͂A̴͖̽M̴̙̜̑͗E̶͙͕͝"̵̫̇
The shelter screamed. It was unsettling but Nero was beyond caring. All he wanted to see was Tyre suffering.
"Wallow in your shame, monster," the minnid screamed into the portal. "Great leonal prince you are! Have shame!"
> "Shame!" The voice of the shelter shouted. "The Leonal's Prince Shame!"
The world broke. A strong gust of wind sent Nero tumbling into the portal. He fell but never hit the ground. Instead, a cacophony of glass breaking, stones grinding, monsters barking and screaming rang around him. The images of the savanna shelter broke into a kaleidoscopic fractal In the middle of it, Nero saw prince Tyre.
He was bound by chains of black metal, so black it looked like a void. Sprawled and suspended, a chain from each limb into the chaotic infinity.
The words came to Nero's mouth easily. "Leonal Prince's Shame."
A flash of red and white coalesced in front of him. Entranced, Nero raised his hand and caught it. A card. He felt a familiar feeling from it. A card of untold power, untold potential, he felt. Something the world hadn't seen in centuries. He didn't flip it. Instead, his gaze shifted from the back of the card to the prince's eyes.
> "Leonal's Prince's Shame, I shall be!" The shelter spoke. "Help me, my creator. I'll be the jail, you'll be the jailor!"
Nero felt it was right. He also knew that [Autonomous Spell] carried that warning.
> "Not recommended for long-lasting spells. Risk of sentience. Proceed with caution. Do not use with combat magic."
After a massive infusion of Essence, the shelter awoke.
Tyre looked at him and understood what was happening. The prince was a bon vivant but Bast would be damned if they let the education of their royal scions falter.
"Nero, no! I'll do anything! Anything you want!" The prince discarded his pride and pleaded.
"All I want is my sister's dignity back. Her life! Can you do that?" Nero shouted. "You discarded and used everything around you. Leonal's Prince Shame, that shall be engraved upon your soul for eternity, Tyre. Your name will be forgotten. I will make sure to tell the tale of your fall from grace. Of how pride destroyed you and everyone around you.
"For her. I'll be the hand of Serena, no. Crystal's vengeance. She shall sleep comfortably today, knowing her tormentor was sentenced to eternal imprisonment."
Nero flipped the card. The print was exactly as he imagined. A picture of Tyre chained and bound graced the card. Its borders as black as the chains. He read the card.
> [Dungeon Keeper: Leonal's Prince Shame] - black/unique Class. Bound to Nero. Requires Willpower +101.
>
> Requirement: Imprison a creature of great evil.
>
> +5 All Attributes.
>
> "Wallow in your shame, monster! Great leonal prince you are! Have shame!"
>
> Special: This Class has no tier.
>
> Special: This Class has only two Skill slots.
>
> Special: All your Attributes are doubled inside the Dungeon: Leonal Prince's Shame.
>
> Special: Spend 100 points of mana. Set the entrance portal to the kept Dungeon. This can be done only once.
>
> Special: Spend 100 points of mana: Teleport into the kept Dungeon from anywhere. Upon [Egress], return to the same spot. This ability can only be used once every hundred days. This cooldown cannot be reduced by any means.
"I accept the task. I'll be the jailor," Nero said to the shelter and activated the card. The fractals shattered until reality was no more.
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Nero found himself in the savanna shelter, but something felt odd. He could tell his shelters, and it wasn't that. He wasn't in the shelter! Nero checked his Arbitrium, already knowing what he would find.
> Entering Dungeon "Leonal Prince's Shame" - Rank X Dungeon.
He gasped. Rank X? Monster levels around fifty? Then he looked at his Attributes.
> Nero [Jester/Dungeon Keeper - 0/0]
>
> Strength +162
> Vigor +210
> Endurance +194 (Stamina: 219)
> Agility +184
> Dexterity +238
> Reason +220
> Willpower +234 (Mana: 800)
> Perception +234
> Charisma +148
Nero was in a Dungeon. He noticed he had two open Skill slots and thought about what he should use. He felt the indecision that plagued everyone else. That choice of Skill would be permanent. Whatever he chose, it should be something he would use all the time, something that would be useful with all builds. He could use two "Of the Meek" Skills. Maybe. Nero pushed the decision aside for a moment. It wasn't time to gawk at his three-digit row of Attributes. It was time to hunt monsters. It was time to hunt. He switched Classes to [Archer] and his Agility rose by thirty points, as the Class's Attribute bonus also doubled. The [Dungeon Keeper] Class didn't come out. It was now next to [Jester] in his Status.
Nero looked around. The tall grass ruffled and if he knew the shelter would become a Dungeon, he'd have made it easier to hunt. The monsters were hiding in the grass and he had no vantage point to use [Fireball]. He couldn't play around either. He loaded the gun and aimed at the moving grass. With a few flicks of his goggles, he saw the Essence flowing through the monster, some kind of big cat. What could be expected? Nero used ten instances of [Empower Attack], charged [Piercing Shot] because the monster was giving him time to do so, and shot.
A lioness jumped out of the grass and took the shot in the belly. She twisted around to avoid and failed, but still didn't die. She landed on the clearing with Nero and growled. He scanned around for other threats but it seemed she was alone. Nero turned his bayonet on and shouted a challenge. The lioness snarled and pounced.
Too fast, Nero cursed as he wasn't ready to fight back. He jumped out of the way but she clawed his leg, drawing bloody furrows across his thigh. He let the rifle hang from the strap and quaffed a healing potion. He felt he hadn't used all of his improved Agility, reacting as if he was not with doubled Attributes. Nero forced his mind to focus and stood up. The lioness was on him again.
Nero dodged but left the revving bayonet in her path. Without anything to support her weight, she pressed her front paws on the blade to save her head. The bayonet shredded through the limbs and the lioness fell down on her side, panting and twitching from the lightning discharge.
Nero brought the bayonet down on her neck and ended her suffering. She dropped a card and a glowing red crystal. Nero whistled, checked the crystal's Essence content, and let his jaw drop. The crystal held a whooping thirty-two and a half thousand Essence. He inverted the formula and found out the lioness' level. Fifty-seven. For a rank X Dungeon, it should be at least blue. The card was a second-tier Class. Yellow borders.
> [Ki Cultivator] - yellow Class. requires level 55. Strength, Endurance, Agility, Dexterity, and Reason +55
>
> +10 Strength
>
> +10 Endurance
>
> +10 Agility
>
> +10 Dexterity
>
> "Focus on your inner self and find truth within."
>
> Passive: You no longer have mana. Instead, you have a Ki pool. Skills that use mana now use Ki. You regain Ki half as fast as you recover stamina by meditating, not by sleeping. Your Ki pool is the average of your Endurance, Dexterity, and Willpower.
>
> Special: Add half your Agility to your Ki pool.
>
> Special: Every Skill that uses stamina can be enhanced by using Ki. You can spend as many points of Ki as you used of stamina to enhance the Skills' effects by 50%.
>
> Special: Add half your Willpower to your stamina pool.
The injustice of higher tiers showed its ugly head. Instead of five per grade, the second tier raised the values by sixty percent. A yellow Class had only twenty-five Attribute points. And it only gets worse as the tiers go up.
Nero pocketed the card and kept hunting lions. He was afraid he would have to hunt Tyre to earn his [Egress] card.