The status screen held a plethora of intriguing information. I noticed that each of the exalted living dead were identical, and the only thing that was different was their names: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, De’Barak, Gideon, Abimelech, Tola, Jair, Jephthen, Izban, E’lon, Abdon, and Samson.
I pulled up my character sheet, a suspicion about why their level was what it was. I had grown a lot over these months, though that rate had slowed recently. Vito had explained creatures that were appropriately leveled were becoming harder to come by, and he was limited in what he could create himself.
Character Soul Level: 121
Name: Ezekiel Verniac
Race: Human lich
Unspent Stat Points:
Spent Stat Point: 605
5 Stat Points per level
Health: 1643
Health Regeneration: 61/sec
Death Energy Tier 1: 3120
Death Energy Regeneration Tier 1: 75/sec
Death Energy Tier 2 Storage Capacity: 23/25
Mana: 2486
Mana Regeneration: 67/sec
Carrying lbs.: 2699
Stats:
Intelligence: 243 [multiplier: 1.311] [40 from gear]
Spirit: 189 [multiplier: 1.23]
Vitality: 119 [multiplier: 1.15]
Resilience: 121 [multiplier: 1.15]
Death Core Tier 1: 251
Death Core Tier 2: 25 [multiplier: 1.21]
Agility: 121 [multiplier: 1.1]
Dexterity: 95 [multiplier: 1.21]
Experience: 51,236 of 133,100
With a bit of quick math, I realized the level of the exalted living dead was ten percent below mine, if you rounded down. For now, that was fine. In the long run, that might become more problematic depending on how far I could go.
The born to serve trait had a warning attached, indicating it was possible to forcibly remove that trait, which implied there was a way to do it without forcing it. But considering doing it was out of the question for now. The lack of power they had being ten percent lower level than me I suspected was more than compensated for by the different buffs they got when they were fighting both with me and with each other.
Along with those benefits, they had multiple enhancements to the rate at which they learned skills. I doubted they would be as fast as Kellnock could learn a skill, but the combination of the buff from their basic description, the elder bones trait, and enhancement to learning combat-oriented skills would mean they could probably pick up a sword and be near an expert within a week.
The final trait was truly interesting, but I didn’t know what it was. Divine Legacy sure sounded powerful, and once-a-day abilities were often almost overpowered.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“Damien,” I looked over at the now dim crystal skeleton. “You used to be a god, what is divine energy?”
“It’s kind of like dungeon energy, not quite nature energy, but closer than most things.” Damien said. “Why do you ask?” He looked at the thirteen. “Oh, I see. I guess that makes a degree of sense. What you need to know is that single point of divine energy will allow them to do a lot of interesting things. Everything from a smite to a resurrection. Or equivalent for the living dead.”
“Seems useful,” I said turning my attention back to examine the thirteen. They were all a head taller than I was with powerful bodies that were fully intact, not rotting or decaying.
“Useful doesn’t even begin to describe it,” Damien seemed unimpressed by my comment. “Getting access to even one point of divine energy when you’re not religious is very useful. It can be used in most actions to add a certain extra potency.”
“I shall have to do some experimenting then,” I agreed. “Also, Damien, why are some of them female? Or why do they have those parts in general?” I gestured at one of the males.
“Well, Zeke,” Damien began in a patronizing tone. “When a mommy and daddy living dead love each other very much...”
“That is not what I meant.” I glared at him. That being said, I had given little thought to that process outside of what I have observed in the marsh biome.
Vito chuckled along with Damien. “It’s simple, some bones belonged to female Nephelium, it was simpler just to let them revert to their natural form over trying to change it.”
“They sure look intimidating,” Maxwell agreed. He had been at the far edge of the platform, not needing to be close for his music to have its effect. “We just need to get them equipped now I guess.”
“And trained,” Vito agreed. “But I would advise letting them find their own path. Though they are all technically identical, they will still favor different ways of fighting.”
I nodded in agreement. Noise drew my attention, and I looked up to the top balcony where I saw Aaron and his team looking down. Raven stood next to them. “They arrived right after Kellnock finished his part,” Damien explained. “They’ve been watching ever since.”
“Aaron,” I yelled at him. “You should pull together a larger group, two in fact, one with thirteen members, and one with sixteen. I will have a fight for you in a week, it will give you time to prepare.”
“Rewards?” Aaron asked.
I was about to respond saying I would front the reward when Kellnock answered. “If you manage to best the group of thirteen, I will make each participant a weapon. I’ll make armor sets for all participants if you beat the group of sixteen. If you are willing to risk your gear in the fight, whoever chooses to will have their reward upgraded if you win.”
“You have a deal,” Aaron called back, not even taking a moment to think about it.
Kellnock waved his hand sending them what I knew was a prompt similar to our quest. It just had a term of service saying they wouldn’t cheat or try and bring in unfair advantages. It wasn’t binding but if they broke any of the contract Kellnock would have leeway to act and still appear as fair.
Once Aaron and his group left, Maxwell stepped up. “Sixteen participants is counting The Thirteen, us, but not any of my orchestra members that we’re supposed to be creating, or the ones I have.”
“You will be fine without them,” Vito assured him. “Take a look at the description.”
Maxwell looked at the thirteen and got a distant look in his eyes. A moment later he said, “Wow, yeah, we’ll be fine.”
“Besides, it gives you more opportunities to practice on your solo stuff. You’ve been using groups a little too much, you don’t want to lose those solo skills,” Vito chided Maxwell in his instructor voice. “Now, let us take a look at what Kellnock has prepared below so we can make plans accordingly, I have many resources down in Tehomal that we can bring to bear as needed.”
Though I was tired from the process of creating the thirteen, we took Vito below and showed him what Kellnock had created. Damien ran out of energy and Vito stored the crystalline skeleton. Now that we had it, this was something we could use later assuming we were willing to pay the cost in resources.
“These are perfect, Kellnock,” Vito said. “Though I will need to get more undead to fill out the ranks. If you can continue to produce these, I shall provide the cannon fodder. Knowing what Zeke’s plans were, I have been building my own force to send with him, but your officers are far better than my own.”
“Really?” Maxwell asked. “Aren’t you technically stronger than Kellnock?” He glanced at the elder living dead in apology, realizing what he said.
“Yes, I am,” Vito agreed. “But quite frankly, Kellnock is more skilled at creating than I am. Though I can create something of similar complexity, I can only do it by making it more powerful. He has made powerful and sophisticated lower level undead officer types, which is very hard to do.”
“Maxwell, the controllers you’ve seen me make and these is like the difference between a calculator and a computer. Both can do calculations, but one can do a whole lot more than just calculations,” I explained.
“Can you make these?” Maxwell asked.
I laughed. “Not even at the height of my power could I have made these. Kellnock is a true master. Speaking to Vito’s idea…” I addressed Kellnock. “Would officers be able to lead a contingent of undead to me on their own?”
Kellnock thought about it then shook his head. “No. They are like I was and the thirteen are right now. Not capable of complete thought yet.” He shook his head. “It’s hard to explain.”
“I actually understand what you mean.” What he was looking for was the word awake, he just didn’t understand that terminology yet.
“I’ll see what I can do from my end to work on that,” Vito said, then he smiled coldly. “Actually, bring the thirteen down in about a week after your arena fight. You’re strong enough now to at least venture into the part of Tehomal I’ve spent the last months hunting. I have something that we could use them for, and it would be good training. It should still fall within your timeframe for when you want to mobilize.” He looked at Kellnock. “You should send these down with me, I will build to integrate them with what I have without Ezekiel there.”
Kellnock nodded his acknowledgment.