CHAPTER 2 – UMBRA MORTEM

Outside the City Ruins somewhere on Erebus

***

As soon as the City Stone hit his hand a notification had popped. He felt the nerves and anticipation as a palpable wave radiating from everyone around him. Within a few seconds, Dori’s voice shattered the intensity.

“Everyone back up!!! Give Lord Gideon some space!!!”

He silently thanked the stubborn Shador woman. He threw a nod back, her eyes a steely gaze till she broke it with a smile. Her knuckles were wrapped around her Father’s spear. He still needed to get her a tower shield and actual heavy armor so she could bring out the full strength of her Class. They would need her fully unleashed with so many of the Shador low-leveled without Slotted abilities.

Get to the magic Giddy. A Princess needs a palace you know.

He turned his head towards Ari who threw him a wink and saw she was one half of a duo about to have heart palpitations with the offing of loot adjacent shit about to roll out. He strained against the urge to play it out and make them wait. He was a hundred that a L’Sana punch would be coming if he did and the woman hit hard. He pulled the notification.

Congratulations Citizen, you have been gifted a City Stone and stand in the vicinity of an acceptable structure. Would you like to use the City Stone? Y/N

He took a deep breath then mentally hit yes. The stone flew out of his hand and then abruptly stopped a few feet away, another notification hitting his vision. He pulled it up.

An Upgrade Stone is detected in the Citizen’s possession. Would you like to use the Upgrade Stone in conjunction with the City Stone? Y/N

In for a dime, in for a dollar. He swiped yes. The small black stone shot out of his hand and flew into the larger stone, a flash of dark streams of energy thundering off the collision then before he knew what was happening, a dozen strings of the same energy struck him, lifting him off the ground. Screams shattered the area, torn from his throat as his mind shut down in a piercing shot of agony thrumming through his everything.[Pain Resistance] did nothing.

***

He woke to Ari’s face an inch from his own. Gideon had an inkling she was trying to scare him. His eyes took in her disappointed look but then she patted him on his nose or whatever his nose was now.

“You okay Giddy? L’Sana went to check out the new digs and said you’d be fine. She seems to think you collapsing on your back unconscious was just another day but I was worried Giddy. You screamed so so loud, like really loud, like deathbed volume, like you were two steps from the big easy, the last step, the great divide, like a little tiny girl crying for her Mommie...”

Ugh, seriously. He pushed Ari off him who started giggling as she took to the air and zipped through the gates, disappearing. Gideon didn’t feel any lingering pain but he had no clue what the hell all that was. He stood up and saw only Dori, leaning on her spear, who attempted to hide a small smile, but his eyes only stayed for a moment before they were jerked to what was behind her.

The three-story manufacturing plant with the broken walls was now something that looked like it had come out of a Vincent Price movie. The walls were still there but not only fixed but now made of an ebony stone that had to be thirty feet high with a walkway on top and as he entered through two open dark steel gates, followed by Dori, he found stairs on the inside of the walls leading up to said walkway, stairs placed every twenty feet. The walls had also been extended to the sides of the building and the back of the building by a good thousand feet to make room for a much much larger whatever the manufacturing plant was now.

The only thing he could think of to call it was some middle-aged fortress mixed with a cyberpunk new-age vibe. It was covered in a mix of black metal and the same stone as the walls that ended in edges and spikes. He activated his [Rune Forging – Umbral]and began to thread it through his eyes when everything went tipsy turvy.

The power of it was a hundredfold compared to what it had been before, from a trickle to a rushing river. Pain spiked into his head in a heavy hammer staccato. He quickly shut it down and the pain receded. Alright, notifications. He seriously needed to see what all the changes were before he blew himself up or something.

Just in case he focused, one breath, two, three. A conviction settled around him, calm, clarity. Dori stood behind him. He turned towards her.

“You can go be with your family Dori. I need some alone time.”

She looked hesitant but nodded and strolled inside the fortress. Time to test out some of these boosts before he dug into the details. He looked at the wall of the fortress. Three distinctive levels, each level with two balconies spread across their face. Good places to place turrets if the System allowed such technology or archers if it did not.

The Forge Foundational Pillar with the Engineering and Armaments Soul Pillars made it seem like technology was a possibility. It might just be native tech that stopped working and it had something to do with needing System fuckery to work.

His Insight flared hard with the train of thoughts giving him a good idea that truth saddled the road. With a flex of Will, his spitting of time wasted, went the way of the Dodo and disappeared.

Without thought he took a running start and leapt, clearing a good fifteen feet, his hands, claws, grabbing a protruding spike on the wall and in one fluid motion leapt again, fingers gripping the ledge of one of the balconies of the second level. Without stopping, he leapt again, one foot slapping off the dark metal, legs flexing to spin two more consecutive leaps, momentum taking him to the final level’s balcony on the right side of this level, pulling himself up and over.

His mind was attempting to encompass what he did. He’d climbed a three-story building in about ten seconds, clearing ten to fifteen feet with each leap. He checked his Stamina and saw it was only in Middle Green. Something strange was rolling in the Kentucky Hills and it wasn’t cousins kissing.

He scanned the balcony he was now on. It covered a good forty feet of the front of the building. There were two of them. Which meant the width of the building was close to two hundred feet. What had been a rectangular building he was getting the sense, pressing his Perception, had become more of a square, and probably three times the size of the original. He hadn’t seen the interior yet but he imagined it would probably be even more impressive than the outside.

It seems they had skipped quite a few steps in the growing the city process. His understanding was one would usually start with a small village-size creation, a Town Hall, and then have to build from there. The Upgrade Stone seemed to have packed some high-intensity System Fuckery.

This all felt strange in the sense of stopping for a moment, having the space to take a breath without anything attempting to kill him or people, at least those he knew about, not on the edge of death. He knew it was only a moment and the System would be pulling the murder hobo routine within a hot step but at least for a single tick of sand through glass, his mind and spirit, were able to rest.

Thoughts spun quickly to L’Sana. He’d told her he loved her. No way to get around that fact or the repercussions of it. That was a heavy and heady step for Gideon.

Not once in his 29 years had he ever told a woman he loved her, besides his Mother. A part of him wondered whether it was the intense passions of his Class influencing everything or the residual after-effects of that Primal Stone or if it was genuinely him?

He’d done it before but he pushed his mind to imagine this new world without L’Sana and Ari by his side and no matter from which angle he tried to picture it, an emptiness sunk into his spirit at the attempt.

Was it love? He wasn’t quite sure for he had nothing to compare it against but he did know, those two at his side, a part of his life, were an essential cog to being the best Gideon Sho he could be. He felt the truth of it. And another truth fell on top of its lapels. He would slaughter Gods, Primordials, and anything above or beneath if they threatened either one of them.

Chest deep sigh. Enough prevarication, time to see what there was to see. His hand slid to his scalp. The first thing his search found was no hair, anywhere. Bald with scales seemed to be the road he was stepping on going forward. The scales were hard but smooth, each scale so small they formed a solidity like a snake or lizard. He could immediately tell the protection they would provide, much tougher than a human’s flesh.

His fingers continued exploration above where his eyebrows used to be and were now some kind of ridge. His fingers brushed against, was that? They were. Horns. He now had fucking horns. How the hell had no one mentioned he had horns on top of his fucking head. They were small, maybe three to four inches long, curving back, high on his forehead. He then let his fingers slide across his face.

He felt what seemed like his normal nose, well, a scaled, edgy version of it but mostly the same shape. His ears on the other hand were now shaped like L’Sana’s, pointed like an elf or Spock. Everything though was scaled and even if his features were mostly the same, scales instead of flesh changed the entire dynamic. It didn’t matter. Looks or attracting someone had never even been close to a priority. His only issue was the possibility of interactions with other humans but just another hurdle to skim his way through. He’d figure it out.

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He could go through the endless notifications, currently waving like a girl in the red light district, or do what he’d done before, go straight to the source. He pulled up his [System Template].

Name – Gideon Sho

Title – Fate-Breaker, Apex Predator, Forerunner, City Lord

Age – 29

Race/Bloodline – Nocturne – A+

Rank – Copper

Level – 8

Foundational Pillar – Profane

Soul Pillar – Umbral (100% Affinity)

Main Class – Umbral Savage (Epic) (Martial/Spiritual)

Sub-Class – (Chosen at Level 25)

Path – None

Multi-Versal Coins – (Copper) – 11,215

Attributes

Martial

Strength – 28 (35) * ** ***

Agility – 51 (62) * ** ***

Body – 39 (47) * ** ***

Intellectual

Intelligence – 14 (17) ** ***

Perception – 42 (48) ** ***

Potency – 16 (19) ** ***

Spiritual

Will – 42 (48) ** ***

Insight – 35 (41) ** ***

Faith – 25 (30) ** ***

Base Abilities

Universal Language – N/A

Identify – Common I (Ability Base – Primitive)

Night Vision – Uncommon I (Ability Base – Common)

Racial Ability Slot

Inherent – Rune Forging – Umbral (Ancient) – Concept – Level 8 (Copper)

Class Ability Slots

Offense (Empty)

Offense (Empty)

Movement – Nocturnal Embrace of the Shade (Epic) – Concept – Level 5 (Copper)

Utility (Empty)

Aura – Night of the Ecliptic Horror (Epic) – Concept – Level 5 (Copper)

Sub-Class Ability Slots

Class Skills

Small Blades – Rare I (Skill Base – Uncommon)

Light Armor – Common V

Combat Awareness – Uncommon V

Combat Acrobatics – Uncommon II (Skill Base – Common)

Tracking – Primitive IV

Dual Wielding – Uncommon I (Skill Base – Common)

Pain Resistance – Rare I (Skill Base – Uncommon)

General Skills

Stealth – Uncommon II (Skill Base – Common)

Thrown Weapons – Blades – Common II

Spear Wielding – Common V

* Infernal Steel Ring of Ascension

** Title – Apex Predator

*** Race – Nocturne

The Attributes, they’d, was he seeing things? Two new Titles and his new Race/Bloodline. Now he knew why his Stamina had barely dipped earlier. He pulled up what he knew to be the culprit.

Nocturne – A+ -- Inherent Racial Benefits - + 10% to all Attributes +2 Body, Perception, Spirit, Will, and Faith every other Level in Main Class. Hardened Scales -- -10% to all Physical and Magical Damage. Immune to Fear. Highly Resistant vs all Mental Manipulation. -20% Resource Cost to all Abilities, including Racial, within the Umbral Soul Pillar. +20% Increased Effectiveness of all Abilities within the Umbral Soul Pillar.

He was floored. This is what an elevated race/bloodline did? Granted, it was A+ which he assumed was near the top if not the top but still, this level of power. Granted he’d been told most did not receive a bloodline until Gold Rank which probably made it not quite as earth-shattering.

He remembered Iona and Orin having their race called Shador – Heroic – C. He would have to ask them what they got from that and compare the two. L’Sana’s new race, knowing her, had to be better than C. She was going to have a fit if it wasn’t higher than his own.

Now that he thought about it he might need to keep that to himself unless he wanted to deal with the ensuing tantrum she would throw. He pulled up the description of the race.

The Nocturne were of the Prime Generation, one of the first Races of the Multi-Verse who ceased to exist in the Primordial War. They were thought to be extinct before you that is.

They were known for their genius-level manipulation of the Umbral Realm and were feared across the Multi-Verse. They were the direct descendants of the Wanderer, who in turn was the first and only True Child of the Umbral and Gloom Primordials.

They also held a reputation for holding to a peaceful predisposition that would fall to vicious aggression when aroused to battle. They were Apex Predators and Masters of the Umbral. They were also known to be very spiritual and very loyal to their Faith in their Progenitor.

It seemed like that was a bit different than the System had originally shown, the part at the end of being spiritual. The boost in Faith when it was a main Resource to his Abilities he wasn’t going to bitch about. The boost in effectiveness and the reduction in resource cost was going to be the biggest blessing though the Attributes themselves were a hard second. It seemed to have retroed the Attributes for all his previous levels which was, well, beyond the pale.

It all seemed somewhat broken and uber. He could now see why people would massacre planets to get their hands on a Soul Stone. He was curious whether the other five Elite Tutorials for the various Foundational Pillars all had it as the prize.

He was starting to get a good idea of why this Integration was creating so much hype. His Insight flared harder than usual and now with an effective 41 in the Attribute, it was proving the value he had seen since the start. The sheer volume of Elites was not normal by any metric he’d been told about previous Integrations. And that said nothing about how many Elites there actually were. Only the highest of each Soul Pillar were invited to the Elite Tutorial. That didn’t say there wasn’t a shit ton more at or above 80% Affinity.

He was at a 100% Affinity in Umbral but there could be who knows how many others with his own Pillar that would have been classified as Elites and in any other Integration would have easily been invited.

Two new titles stood out to his eyes as he scanned his Template. He mentally tapped them.

Forerunner – You have completed the Elite Tutorial and grabbed the prize. You slaughtered far less than was deemed acceptable but the mercy of the Multi-Versal System is boundless. In addition, your existence by itself will incite endless slaughter in the attempt to take what is yours. This is a fair trade to your continued existence. +20% Experience Growth in both Levels, Abilities, and Skills.

City Lord -- You are the first Citizen to raise their Settlement to Fortress Status, skipping three levels of Settlement growth. +30% Settlement Growth. All Upgrades at a 30% Discount. City growth is determined by the Levels of its population so go out and murder all that you see.

Pushing aside the asshole addendums by the System all these boons, though somewhat OP broken, just might give them the edge to actually survive. They had less than three days before the first Monster Wave and at the very least, L’Sana, Ari, and he had to up the grind and levels. Scouting became a priority. Hopefully, there will be some crafting types in the Shador, it would be essential to everything moving forward.

A top priority was to buy that thingy Freddie had said to. Hopefully, they had whatever resources to do so.

He stood, took a breath, a second, another, and his spear dropped into his hand. He could use a few hours of sleep but now wasn’t the time for anyone. He entered the interior of his new Fortress but before he took a step a notification forced its way into his vision.

You must name your Settlement. You must assign an Administrator. Full ownership and the facilities of the Settlement can not be accessed until those two things are completed.

He’d completely forgotten the assigning of roles. His mind was still all over the place. He quickly assigned Unra, Verasa, Iona, Orin, and Dori to all the roles the Old Woman had asked of him. The name thing was different. At first, he thought he should name it something that would be a light and the feelings of a safe haven for those that needed it, like the Shador but then the reality of what would be coming after them, especially as he continued to do what he planned. No, it needed something else, something to make all his enemies think twice before wanting to fuck with him and those he cared about.

He’d read a book a long time ago when he’d first entered the Army and had been walking in a dark space. It wasn’t the best book but still, certain things still resonated with him. He made his choice.

Congratulations Citizen. You are now the Founder and Owner of Currently the strongest settlement on Erebus. May the Settlement of Umbra Mortem birth the most powerful killers the Multi-Versal System has ever seen. Carnage and blood lead to power and power under the system is survival, and if you fall, you fall and deserve nothing.

Umbra, Darkness and Shadow, Mortem, Death. It fit. Now it was time to find L’Sana and Ari and move out to scout the ruins and gain some levels. They needed to be a lot stronger for what was coming. He had faith that Virasa with Dori and Iona’s help would train as many Shador as they could in the small window they had. He would also throw a priority to getting the device that would bring Freddie into the game.