Aurora
I found out in a sad way that my vision was also suffering from whatever state my body was in. I had been watching the demons work, now up to seven when I realized that I had a notification in the corner of my eye. I tapped it wondering what needed my attention. Nothing of note had happened in the last few hours after all.
I read the message stating that I had leveled up. I apologized to the dead demon again then continued reading. It was telling me to choose a specialization. A list popped up when I clicked on it.
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Demon Lord’s Dungeon
Necromancer’s Dungeon
Warden’s Dungeon
Hellfire Dungeon
Night Lord’s Dungeon
--
The list was short and sweet. When I focused on Demon Lord option, I immediately wrote it off. It made summoning demons dirt cheap, cheaper then dirt even, but it sent out a signal to anyone and everyone that needed to hunt me down and kill me. I didn’t care for the necromancer since I didn’t like dead things too much.
Warden and Hellfire were interesting. I got them from my elemental alignments. Basically I would be able to focus more on fire and earth elementals. Sort of a tangent given that I was a vampire. That left the last option. Night Lord.
The Night Lord option was given because I was a vampire over three hundred years old. I ignored the game calling me old and focused on the pros and cons. I would get access to vampire summoning at the start. My mana would go up a good amount as well. The con was that I would become antagonistic with all the other Night Lords out there. Between everyone and just the night lords, I decided that this option was best.
Tapping the specialization, I felt an energy surge through my body and then through the dungeon. There was a tingling sensation on my back. I tilted my head carefully to see that I had gained four wings. Sadly, the were just as dehydrated as the rest of my body.
The knowledge of how to move them flashed into my head. It was like I had always had them. Another set of knowledge popped into my head while I was playing with the wings. Two minor spells from the Death branch of magic. I knew all that instantly.
The first spell was simply called Death. It would kill anything instantly if it was lower level than me. The degree of injury decreased the greater their level above mine. Next was Death Absorption. I could pull the life force from a creature to give myself more mana or life force.
“Master?” Losa asked aware that something had changed.
‘I just became a Night Lord.’ I sent with a half shrug.
“Very good, ma’am! You have increased your power already!” I smiled and nodded. I pulled up my status to see if anything other than my appearance had changed.
--
Name: Aurora Nightingale
Level: 2
Race: Vampire,
Sub: Dungeon Master – Night Lord
Sub: Dungeon Core
Total Mana: 50/300
Abilities:
Blood Sucking
Blood Magic
Elemental Magic – Fire, Earth, Death
Basic Sneak
Dungeon Menu
--
[Dungeon Core: Vampire – Night Lord. Owner: Aurora Nightingale]
Total Mana: 7/1000
Absorb.
Create.
Destroy.
Summon.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
--
I had gained a large mana pool as did the dungeon. I had also acquired a new magic as I suspected. I sighed as I wondered if I would even need this power. I really hoped that when I found an NPC from before the error that I would be able to contact someone to help me. I leaned back in the chair that Dersoa had finished an hour ago.
The room was looking pretty awesome at that. The black bricks and enclaves really seemed to scream a vampire’s room. The white stone coffin at the center of the room served nicely as a centerpiece. Once I managed to get better use of my hands and some materials, I planned to add several paintings to really bring the room to life. Not that anyone would see it.
Someone must have been listening to me, as not a moment had I thought that was there a loud roar that morphed into a growl. It came from the tunnel my demons were working on digging. The sound of fighting soon followed. I sent an order for the demons to fall back to the dungeon’s aura. Otherwise, I couldn’t help.
The heavy footsteps of the frogs came shortly after that. Short green creatures were stuffed into their mouths, and they had one in each hand. In total, I counted about eight of the creatures. Three of the demons were defending the passage to make sure none of the creatures got into the dungeon. “Goblins,” Losa said after he got a good look of the things.
‘Are any of them alive?’ I asked having Losa check for me.
“This one, master,” he said after checking all the bodies.
I ordered the demons to finish the ones in their mouths. They didn’t hesitate and bit down causing blood to spray everywhere. Unlike in the case of the demon from earlier. When the blood splattered over the walls and floors, I couldn’t take my eyes from it. Some sort of force was compelling me to consume the blood.
Only the fact that my body simply couldn’t move, stopped me from lunging at one of the goblin bodies. I still ordered it brought over to me. With it being dead, the heart was no longer pumping but that didn’t matter to me. I grimaced but still bit down on the neck of the corpse. It tasted like sewage, but a dying man didn’t complain about the water he found in the desert.
When I released the goblin’s head, a shriveled mummy fell away before turning into dust. I held my hand out for another corpse and the demons compiled. Soon, only the living goblin remained. I wiped my mouth with a strip of the rotted cloth of my dress. Looking at my hand, I was thrilled to see that it looked flushed and filled out. Moving my hands, I realized that I could move almost like normal.
I reached up and felt my face. I smiled when I felt a smooth and soft cheek. “Ah? Losa?” I said pleased to hear the almost silk like tone of my voice.
“Master. It truly is a pleasure to hear your voice,” the imp said hopping around excitedly. I reveled in the moment then went ahead and tried the call command with all the NPCs in the room. I even made sure the goblin was conscious. There was no change to the situation. Something wasn’t right. It would be one thing for my summons, but this goblin looked like he’d been around for a while. He was surely around before the error.
Anger started to well up inside me. Why me?! I wanted to scream but feared to wreck my vocal cords again. I still wasn’t at one hundred percent. I reached out and grabbed the goblin by the neck surprised at how light the nearly adult human sized creature felt. I also realized that I was much taller than the thing.
“How many more of you are there?” I growled. Rage was filling me. Not just from being stuck in this game but from before. The long hours for little recognition. The stupid criminal charges. The damn lawyer that acted like it was my fault. Everything was welling up at once.
“Many! Lots! Horde! King!” The creature either couldn’t speak English well or was using all the words he knew. I growled again before I thought of the new magic I just learned. I created the sigil, a black magic circle that appeared on the back of my hand. In fact, it almost appeared to be sucking what little light there was into it. The goblin started squealing, he was higher level than I was. It wasn’t instant death.
Finally, the creature went silent, his neck a blackened mess. I tossed him to one of the frog demons. As soon as he bit down, I felt a surge similar but unlike when I leveled up. I glanced at everything quickly. With a grin, I found the dungeon had leveled up this time. The dungeon’s mana was so at nearly seven hundred. Death was profitable. With that sinister thought, I summoned some more demons.
I ordered the demons to head back down the tunnel and followed after them. They had been digging for nearly a day and had only managed to cover a hundred meters or so. That was fine though. With the dungeon level up, I could make it all the way to the breach into the natural cave system that we’d found.
The demons widened the opening and made their way into the new section. I peeked my head through and saw that the tunnel went in both directions. It was flat thus really giving me a good idea of which way led to the surface. I stepped back and used the last of my dungeon mana to summon four Worgs. The massive beasts appeared with a loud snarl, but the whimpered like puppies when I turned my glare on them. I really wasn’t in the mood.
I held out a piece of cloth that was hanging from one of the frog’s mouth. The Worgs sniffed then barked. “Spilt up. Find me some goblins!” The frogs and the Worgs rushed down either tunnel bloodthirst rolling off them. Since there wasn’t an immediate response, they must be a distance away.
Turning to look at the rough tunnel we had just passed through I shook my head not pleased with the state of things. Now that I could move like a normal person, I could get some real work done. I started where I was and created a large room using the bricks that I had absorbed from Dersoa. It made the project a negative gain, but it wasn’t too bad.
The room shook a little as the sound of rushing feet soon reached me. I turned to find the party I sent down the left tunnel returning with a horde of goblins on their trail. A quick count put the number at thirty or forty. Once they got back into the aura of the dungeon, they skid to a stop and turned to face the on comers.
I hadn’t seen the fight before, but I was able to witness it this time. The frogs didn’t just have face like the amphibians. They opened their mouths and massive tongues shot out to wrap around a goblin. When it was pulled back, there was a loud crunch. After this happened eight times, I opened my summoning menu and created my first vampire.
There was a red magic summoning circle before a tall man stood in front of me. He seemed to lack reason though as his face was twisted and red eyes glowed ferociously. He didn’t hesitate to jump into the fight when I pointed at the skirmish happening. His claws were deadly. Each thrust was directed with pinpoint accuracy to a heart or other vital organ.
When I had enough mana, I summoned another one. This time it was a woman, but she was also in much the same state. I directed her to join the fight. I wasn’t sure when but as the fight raged, I began to giggle with enjoyment. Everything had been taken from me, it was my turn to take everything for once!