CHAPTER XXXXXV: FINAL BOSS
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IMPERIUM TIME: ???
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IMPERIUM PRIME
PATRIARCH JORDAN & NEVIAH NEVER-FORESHADOW
Neviah Never-Foreshadow was old; no one knew how old but her. She was around for the first time the Imperium crossed into another universe over a million years ago. She was around for the founding of Imperium Prime. She had used all kinds of elixirs and alchemic solutions to keep her life going, but a decade ago, her stats began to dip at a noticeable rate, a clear sign a player’s life was coming to an end.
Elves were already a long-lived race, and it was expected that the most powerful ones were guaranteed immortality; with the time an Elf had, they could take their time and build a strong foundation and even take the higher rank Classes, Professions, and Skills. But even for elves, Immortality wasn’t guaranteed.
Neviah, even with all her powers and resources, was one of those elves.
She knew at a very young age that her best path forward was her divination Skill-Tree, but her Sect were warriors, so she leveled her Class instead, and her Skill path fell to the side. But one day, her Skill triggered an alert to a massive invasion from a Human conglomerate, and her warning saved the council of ten, which brought her family into prominence. It helped that all the powerful and influential members had died sacrificing themselves to save the Imperium’s leadership.
Neviah could have saved them. Her skill showed her how, but it also showed her that by their dying, her family would rise, and like any elf in the Imperium, they were the worshipers of the Alpha Phoenix. So rise she did. After a bloody take over of her Sect she leveled her Skill up to Master, after getting to Bronze Rank in her cultivation and was able to create her own divination Core which help her divination Skill.
But even with all the resources of her Sect, which was probably the third or fourth richest Elven Sect, she was still not immortal. As a matter of fact, they had only produced one immortal in the last million years, her great-grandson and Sect Head of their Sect. As the Sect Master, Neviah had more power, but that was only in name. Because of her great-grandson’s potential life span, he was gaining more power over the Sect. It was a natural progression. But Neviah had just broken into Adept Tier in her Divination Skill, which gave her a million years of life pause, which put her in a prime position to push her Cultivation into the Saint Realm, which is the best chance at getting immortality if you get a Sage Name. She was looking forward to that.
But currently, she was sitting with the Patriarch of the Imperium, the Over Sage of Brutal blood, as he looked at a planet in some backwater universe that they had sent probes to. She had done this type of thing millions of times before, but now that she had made it to the Adept Tier, sharing the visions was much easier, and controlling what the viewer saw was child’s play. She didn’t alter this one, though, even though she felt fate changing and was now just a bystander in the world of possibilities.
Patriarch Jordan was the leader of the family with the most immortals in the Imperium. He had come to power by putting down a failed coup in the first era of the Imperium, and that had pushed him into Sagehood. The gnomes had brokered a peace that has been honored ever since. The Jordan Family were the leaders of most of the armies in the Imperium, they were exclusively fighters classes. Most of them then went on to gain the powerful Force Essence when they ascended, but now and then, there were a few disappointments.
The patriarch’s youngest son was thought to be one of those disappointments. He was impatient and didn’t want to wait for the right stat criteria for Force cultivation. Instead, he had survived a wyvern attack, something he shouldn’t have survived, and he got a Feat of Luck, which gave him twenty-five hundred points in Luck stats and the same in Free Stats Plus a multiplier to his Luck stat. He went all in on Water Cultivation after that, and was pretty good at it, not a genius, but good.
He was again very lucky to find a closed Dungeon set in a desert world. Everything was weak to his power, but it also cost triple the amount to use. With his storage filled with recovery potions and scrolls, he could fight for days. His techniques leveled at a ridiculous rate, and he even killed an immortal desert troll, giving him the immortal killer title, and that was when he became immortal himself.
Neviah never liked the boy, but she did respect his determination, and loyalty. Once he had returned victorious after seven years in the closed Dungeon, most of the Jordan family were still disappointed since he hadn’t advanced his Cultivation rank, but his techniques were all in the high copper range of power even when he was still low Iron, not unheard of, but that was reserved for the geniuses of the Imperium with rare techniques.
The water cultivator had been sent to any planet to be the progenitor of the Imperium players. He protected them long enough to help sabotage the mortal realm invasion. Then he left, win or lose. He won way more than he had lost by far. Unfortunately for him, he was forced not to rank up in cultivation because of how effective he had been, along with his immortality. He had been at the Peak for quite a while now. So when the Patriarch sent him to his newest conquest, he promised him that if he won, he would be allowed to choose his own path. That was the last order the Patriarch had given before going into seclusion.
Now Neviah observed as the Patriarch watched his favorite son, the one who did more to bring planets to the Imperium, the lucky water cultivator.
At first, she couldn’t get anything; the suppression was problematic, but being an Adept and having the resources of a Councilor, she pushed past her new limits and found the planet. It was in Invasion Protocol, which meant the boy's job was going to start soon, and that was when the suppression started to fail. That surprised both of them, suppression hunters were out there, and were a very real problem for them, but it was a little late to do it while the invasion was on. The hunters would have written it off this planet and headed to another world that could be saved. Looking at the space battle, anyone could see that the defenders were going to lose easily. But the two family leaders were not looking at the space battle, or the creeping darkness covering almost all of the solar system size Celestial body.
No, they were looking at the Patriarch’s son as he punched straight through a human of some variant she hadn’t seen. He had dark skin, and black short tight coiled hair, but most importantly he was missing his entire midsection, the look on the son’s face was one of failure, and rage not satisfaction and accomplishment. That changed in an instant when the mocha-skinned man placed his hand on his shoulder.
“How is he alive? What is his con-”
A flash of light hit the two in the vision, and when it was gone only the Patriarch’s son remained, not his whole son, his head was missing from the where that human had put his hands and up. A bird landed on his dead son's shoulder and began to eat the flesh raw. A group of mermaid variants she had also never seen before laughed and played with the bird before it returned to eating.
“Where is this planet?” The Patriarch asked quietly and calmly.
Neviah was about to answer, but she didn’t know. Her powers only let her look at people’s fates through visions in real-time; it does not tell her where that person is. It was good she had hesitated because the elf outside the room answered instead.
“We do not know, Patriarch, I will fin-”
The wall exploded outwards as a massive amount of force Essence was expelled in a punch from the patriarch. The elf behind the wall, the wall behind the elf, and the mountain behind the wall were utterly obliterated.
“Get me a more competent seneschal.” He said out loud, “and bring me that fools phylactery, he will get the true death. I will pay the true death fee to his family. That felt way too good to let him come back.” He looked at Neviah. “Your power still doesn’t tell us where the person is, correct?”
“No Patriarch.” Neviah didn’t hesitate this time.
“A new Seneschal is on her way, Patriarch.” An elf in a brown robe said from the hole in the mountain that the single punch caused. He then began to repair the wall with some type of earth essence Art.
“Good, mobilize the Armada. As soon as we have a sector, we leave.”
“Which squadron of the Armada would you like, Patriarch?” The brown robe elf asked, still repairing the wall. An ornate jar hovered into the room by psychokinesis and into the hands of the Patriarch. “That will be one million Space Essence.
Neviah almost hissed.
The Patriarch didn’t even bat an eye, he looked at his son being eaten by a fucking bird, and rage burned in his eyes. He crushed the phylactery, “The whole fleet, bring all of the Imperium’s Armada.”
***
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13:42 ZULU TIME 21ST PLATINUM 350,000ME
MORTAL REALM BATTLE GRACE PERIOD
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WANCHI
COLONEL
A flash of light slammed down at the city center of Wanchi, the city of waterfalls, the birthplace of the Nascent Mermaids, and the ascension location to godhood for their Progenitor. Clyde stood still, disoriented, for a few minutes to get his bearings.
“The Army was on high alert before, but most were still reeling from the suppression being lifted and all that entailed.” The Narrator spoke to the entire city nation. “Global prompts, obnoxious narrators, and -Will- lightning flashing everywhere, as peak Classer in the Mermaid and Gnomish armies specialize beyond the CAP for the first time in island history. Players who had waited for centuries finally had a path forward, and it isn’t like players stop accumulating EXP once they hit the Cap; on the contrary, they have just as much, if not more than enough, EXP saved up to level up their classes two or three specialization Tiers after all this time."
“So it was understandable that they were a little slow to react to the flash of light right at the center of the last remaining mermaid city on the planet.” The Narrator said, alerting the whole city.
Colonel chuckled, he hadn’t even made it this far into the city before he was dragged off to fight the elven third Army, he looked around and for the first time he saw the mermaid children. They rushed over to him with curiosity. They swam fast through the water in the Mana-rich environment, seemingly floating through the air.
Speaking of air, there wasn’t much. The water mana-rich environment was so thick that Colonel’s Presence was telling him he was in the equivalent of standing at the bottom of an Olympic-sized pool full of water.
“Colonel smiled and waved the head of the cultivator-” The narrator started.
Colonel quickly stored the head in his soul storage feeling dirty about it right away, but it couldn’t be helped, he was not about to traumatize his people’s children the first time he met them.
A few of the closer ones were a little confused and suspicious at first, but curiosity beat out caution at the next tick of the clock. Colonel opened his mouth to speak when a bunch of prompts shot to the front of his HUD
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< FEAT OF POWER >
{You have killed an immortal. The Progenitor of this Runic Planet Organization was immortal.
For the act of killing an immortal, no matter how weak they may be, the killer must be rewarded. But Progenitor Jordan was not a weak immortal; his immortality was bound to an Eternal Tier phylactery due to your Ascendant beast and your completely broken character build; you destroyed the phylactery, and before he could bind himself to another, you used his own power against him. Truly masterful, even if you were just lucky. It may be the last base stat, but it is definitely not the least.
For killing the immortal Progenitor Jordan, you are awarded:
+10,000 Luck, +2500 to all other stats, +100,000 Water Essence, +10,000 Pure Essence, Upgrade to Immortality Quest, and Title.}
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{QUEST UPGRADED}
{QUEST NAME: IMMORTALITY
QUEST TYPE: Unique
DESCRIPTION: Becoming an immortal is a dream of most sapient creatures, beings, and entities. Even the gods seek it. What most don’t know, however, is there are levels to immortality, and each of them will have little differences, making each immortal unique. Level up your immortal Title and find your true immortal form. You are currently at the Nigh perfect Respawn immortal range. You are now *[Empowered]* as long as you have at least one close ally alive any where in the multiverse, on top of your Nascent race, you will no longer age, and will grow in power at a Slight rate. The next levels of immortality are Regenerative immortal, Incorporeal immortal, and indestructible immortal.]
Requirements: Increase the level of your Immortality, both Title and your life.
Time limit: None, but Rewards vary based on time.
Rewards: Varies.
Failure: None while Nascent race is alive.}
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< STEEL PAN MELODY >
{TITLE UPGRADED}
{TITLE NAME: Immortal
TITLE LEVEL: UNIQUE/PLATINUM(UPGRADABLE)
DESCRIPTION: As the progenitor of the Nascent Mermaid race, you have been granted unlimited respawns as long as one of your racial members is alive. As long as any close ally lives, the Progenitor doesn’t age and grows in power Slightly passively. When your team reaches the five-player status, your teammates gain the effects and bonuses of this title. You are now [Empowered], And so will they.
Title EFFECT: Unlimited Respawns.
RARE BONUS: Breath control.
UNIQUE BONUS: Progenitor’s blessing.
PLATINUM BONUS: Death Rebound.
UNIQUE BONUS: Progenitor’s race change.}
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< TOOL TIP >
{TITLE NAME: IMMORTAL}
{TITLE EFFECT: Unlimited Respawns; The player will respawn from any type of death, even those that vaporize the player’s entire body. The more damage done to the player’s body, the longer the respawn time. The player must have at least one ally, a full team, or at least one member of the Nascent race alive for Title Respawns to activate and powers to passively level up.
Max time for respawns: 70 years.}
{RARE BONUS: Utility Bonus; Breath Control
Being the father of an entire race comes with many perks, and breathing in and out of water is one of them. The bonus allows for breathing in environments that are usually difficult for organic beings. For example, space.}
{UNIQUE BONUS: Progenitor’s blessing
Progenitor’s blessing passes his Title effect to his people. As long as a Nascent Mermaid is in a full five-player team, as long as one is alive, the others will respawn as long as they are in the range of each other. They still age but now at a much slower rate, and their Vitality will be adjusted accordingly.}
{PLATINUM BONUS: Defensive Bonus; Death Rebound
While you may be able to respawn, you can trigger a rebound on a would-be-fatal attacker, as long as the damage would have been fatal to either the player or the attacker. Even if it is blocked or dodged, it is reflexed back at the attacker with bonus damage.
Cost: 1000MP per Rebound.
Cool down: Uncommon Period.}
{UNIQUE BONUS: Progenitor’s Race change
Progenitor can offer race changes for any of their followers.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Available races: Nascent Mermaid or High Gaian Human.}
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“I seem to have a theme with me powers, rebound has been my life saver from the start of this trial.” Colonel thought out loud. Colonel looked up at the mermaid kids. They had gotten closer, but as soon as he looked at them, they all froze like red light, green light.
‘OKAY...’ Colonel thought. Then he saw another Feat prompt, excitedly opened it, and then frowned.
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< FEAT OF HORROR >
{You have committed GENOCIDE! By killing the Progenitor of the elves on this planet, you have doomed the last hope of the elven people to rise again on Fortuity. For being responsible for wiping out an entire younger sapient race, you have earned this Feat of Horror for Genocide.
{Feat of Horrors is not earnable a second time. Please do not do that again. Have mercy, and you can keep the earned Title that is upgradeable. Commit another atrocity and lose all benefits of this Feat and subsequent Title.}
+2500 Strength & Constitution, +1000 Free Stats, +1000 Perfect Diamond Mana Stones, +1000 Pure Essence, Elven Bane Title.}
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Colonel’s eyes bulged reading the prompt then for a second time. He shook his head and rubbed his week-long facial stubble. “I really should have seen that one coming to be honest.”
Peck Joy and Felicia had said that Runic planets usually had multiple sapient races running around the Mortal realm, Some races that have lost their planet can apply to newly formed Runic planets, by giving up their progression and starting over at Tier 1. So unless Elves were the main Sapient race of the Celestial body, they would have only been limited to this island.
“This is not a title anyone should ever want to get. I feel so nasty now, eww.” Colonel said, bringing up the description. “It can’t be very good, right?”
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< STEEL PAN MELODY >
{YOU HAVE EARNED A TITLE}
{TITLE NAME: Elven Bane
TITLE TIER: Unique/Diamond(UPGRADABLE)
DESCRIPTION: Every beast and monster has a bane. It is what balances them from players. While beasts and monsters level up in unique ways, they all have a weakness that can be exploited once a player learns it. For you, Banes are no longer exclusive to Beast and Monsters, for you are the bane of the entire sapient race of the Elves.
TITLE EFFECT: Mark gain; Elven bane Mark
Rare Bonus: Stat gain; +6 to Mental stats per level times T(Where T is Tier of the Player)
Platinum Bonus: EXP gain; 40% bonus EXP per tier from killing Elves.
Diamond Bonus: Demon upgrade; Since demons are closely related to Elves, the player does 50% more damage to the demon race by association.}
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“Colonel stood corrected. This is an outstanding title. He didn’t know how common Elves were in the multiverse, but he was pretty sure he would have to fight them. Knowing that his main enemy currently was a multiversal organization led by asshole elves, he felt like this title would get a ton of use.” The narrator stated.
Colonel agreed, “We have enemies beyond our Mortal realm. I have to get the rest of the world moving, or we will be in a worse boat than this planet.” He reviewed the Mark and was even more impressed.
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{Mark Name: Elven bane VI
Mark Type: Bane Mark
Effect 1: Do true damage to Elven beings and structures, bypassing any defensive powers.
Effect 2: All damage against Elven players is critical Damage. All damage against Demons is Greatly increased.
Effect 3: All damage taken from Elven powers is Significantly reduced.
Effect 4: Elven Presences can not be hidden from you and your Allies.
Effect 5: 50% chance for power miscast when used against you directly.
Effect 6: Any Elf caught in any of your AOE powers, may it be hostile power or not, will have their defensive powers, natural or otherwise, lowered Greatly.
{For being the first human to earn this mark, you have been gifted +1000 skill points.}
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‘Oh that is way to good, I can’t tell anyone about this. People would try and kill off an entire race every time they went to a new planet.’ Colonel thought, his Raid boss mark also upgraded.
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< MARK UPGRADED >
{Mark Name: Raid Boss IV
Mark Type: Party Buff
Effect 1: Boost the damage of allies in the Raid party.
Current damage. 20% to all, 200% to undead, 100% to living dead, 1000% to Elves and 90% to Demons.
Effect 2: Raid party size increased; Your Raid party base size is determined by how many people you can command the first time you form a raid party. The base size of your Raid party is 250. Current size: no limit
Effect 3: Bonus Defense of all allies, armor, and structures. 60% to allies(120% against Elves), 100% to armor(300% against Elves), 200% to structures(500% against Elves).
Effect 4: EXP and Skill progression increased Greatly. (Significantly for Elves)}
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A full platoon of level 80+ Mermaids appeared in front of Colonel, their capes settling down as they stopped moving at a ridiculous speed after recognizing him; they all then took a knee in unison and bowed their heads, and the heads of the kids near them to their Progenitor with respect, and honor.
“Progenitor Jacob, it seems that you have completed your objectives.” Councilor Marvin Manatee said with a smirk next to his daughter Maria. “Good job with the head of the usurper, by the way.”
Colonel avoided eye contact. But he still got an Analyze of the mermaid in his presence. “Please stand up.” He said a little flustered, he read the prompt while they decided to listen to him or continue to be difficult.
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< ANALYZE >
{PLAYER NAME: Marvin Manatee
LEVEL: 94
CASTE: Noble CLASS: Councilor/Elite Water Warlock RACE: Nascent Mermaid
POOLS:
HP 198,000/198,000 regen 24900HP per day
MP 10,000/10,500 regen 24595MP per hour
DR:275/275
AR:2400/2400
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‘Whoa, that was new.’ He had always had to look at an object to analyze it, apparently if something was in his Presence his could choose to analyze it now, without looking at it.
He checked out both updated Abilities and was pleasantly surprised at the update.
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< ABILITY UPDATED >
{Ability NAME: Active Presence(Active/Triggered/Passive)
Ability Level: MAX
Everything in the GREAT GAME has a Presence. From a rock to a wyvern, a Presence is a part of everything. The Presence is the magic within everything and how it all connects. A Presence grows denser as someone ages and grows in power. For all things in the multiverse the Presence is a constant, while there are skills and Abilities to read them, and hide them, they are just a constant representation of ones power. The higher a player’s power, the heavier their fully relaxed Presence is. Most have some control over the weight they can and would not exert on others and the world around them.
You are a different case, Prime Legacy. For creating a Nascent race, the first ever created in the GREAT GAME, you have complete control over your Presence. All information that enters your Presence helps you see the world around you without having to look directly at it. The player can manipulate their presence any way the player likes as long as the total size stays the same.
Active Cost: 100 mana per second per Tier.
Passive cost: 10 -WILL- a day
MAX EFFECTS:
*Extreme* control over your Presence.
*Major* chance of instantly gaining information from anything that enters his Presence(Limited based on power gap.).
Your Presence grows with Tier but is only as big and heavy as you allow.
*Any enemy killed in your Presence will give Extra EXP.*
* Any Elf in your Presence will have their willpower tested Passively; for a -Will- cost, you can increase the power of the test.*
*Any allied clothing in your presence self-cleans and self-repairs.*}
< GAME FIRST NOTE >
{Game First rewards are utterly broken, period. Find more ways to exploit them to make the game more fun for us all and LIVE WELL or don’t, and DIE FREE.}
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Colonel could seamlessly move his Presence around, expanding it in any direction, he made it shrink every where else around him. He could touch each individual mermaid and get info from them easily. It was pretty big he thought as he started to get overwhelmed with information.
Most players’ Presence was only a few inches off their skin, and while it grew with power and stats, a Classer, Professional, or mid to low tier Skill user wasn’t enough to expand their Presence more than a few feet, max a meter. Colonel’s was more like a hundred meters. He had it move out evenly further away from him, scanning all of the people around him, testing his limit, and to his shock, his Analyze Tier was up from the scanning.
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< ABILITY TIER UP >
+100 Free Stats
{ABILITY NAME: Analyze(Triggered)
ABILITY LEVEL: EXPERT 0
DESCRIPTION: The Legacy can see all of the basic information of anything they view at their level and below. And less information on anything as the level of what is being observed rises.
ABILITY EFFECT: Scan and identify everything you can see and what is in your Presence. (Information gleaned is based on the level of ability and character against the level of the target being analyzed.)
STUDENT EFFECT: Auto-share with team and party members.
NOVICE EFFECT: Shows current effects with weaknesses and Banes.
APPRENTICE EFFECT: Once a target is analyzed, it is marked. The marked target not only takes more damage from players and teammates but also does less damage to them and is affected by skills, bonuses, and abilities more.
JOURNEYMAN EFFECT: Targets that are scanned in your Presence have their senses reduced Greatly over time.
EXPERT EFFECT: When an analyzed Target is affected by a debuff, the duration will reset and stack itself for a slight energy cost. If an analyzed target is killed in your presence, EXP is mainly increased.}
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Colonel smiled at getting his first Expert Ability, he had an Expert Skill, but hadn’t been able to get any information on it because of it being locked in his trial. He hadn’t had a chance to see the Expert effects on his Bulwark Skill before he was whisked off to this trial, but he was about to go home, so he was pretty excited about getting a second power to Expert, even if it was a utility power because the utility of this power was amazing.
He didn’t even remember getting it to Journeyman to be honest, he hadn’t looked at his full Character Sheet since he leveled up to 30, mostly because everything was locked except for his Spells and abilities everything else was just his gear.
Speaking of gear, thank Gaia for self-clean and self-repair. The colonel had been in his legacy gear the entire time without a shower, and other than that swim, he hadn’t even gotten wet. It must be the dry season on the island. He was lucky that his Presence cleaned him and repaired them.
Colonel looked around at the water Mana flowing through the city of Wanchi. “It is very refreshing, isn’t it, Councilor Marvin, Princess Maria,” Colonel said with a respectful bow and smiled at them. “Your queen should have one hell of a story to tell.”
The Mermaids visibly relaxed at that statement. “We all got the prompt, but seeing you return here only means that your quest is complete, and it is time for you to go home. We were prepared for this and had come up with some gifts, but since the Global prompts say we have to get ready for an invasion, I am afraid we will need the natural treasures we were going to offer.”
“We will of course give them to you if you insist, just know it will take another seven hundred years to get another harvest,” Marvin added with slight trepidation.
“Don’t even show it to me, so I don’t have to lie to my sergeant major,” Colonel said seriously.
Marvin and Maria looked at each other, and Colonel could see the tension leave their shoulders.
‘Good lord, what the hell did I just turn down?’ Colonel thought. He shook his head, thinking he had to do more to help his people. He looked into his soul storage and was hit with an unorganized mess of grid squares full of assorted pieces of gear, potions, prizes, and materials. While it had auto-sorting property, there was just too much stuff in it. He focused on a magnifying glass option, and a search bar popped up. ‘That's pretty cool.’ He typed in what he wanted, and all the relevant options appeared at the top of his inventory. ‘This will help, but it will also hurt if I don’t find a way to organize this storage.’ He shrugged. ‘That is a problem for future Clyde.’ Colonel mused as he brought out an ornate and bejeweled chest.
The chest was the prize from the queen's Vault. Colonel wanted to open it but just knew if he did, he would want to keep it for his planet and the Gaians, but looking at his Trial exit timer and the sheer amount of problems his chosen people had just been thrust onto them after years of war was ridiculous. He was not about to leave them without providing any help.
Looking at his inventory breakdown, Colonel knew he could do a lot more good by giving his most valuable items away to the mermaids because his world was still way behind this one. Not to mention the dire position he would be leaving them in. He pulled out all of his perfect Mana Stones and put them in a high-tier storage ring almost the size of an industrial warehouse.
His thoughts were broken by a squad of power armor-clad gnomes not unlike the automatons who walked up behind the mermaid platoon and their leadership. Inside the biggest power armor, a gnome stood looking at Colonel with excitement through his cockpit window. A squad of gnomes marched up behind the first, all crafters or casters, and then, to Colonel’s surprise, they all took a knee.
Even the mermaids look shocked at the gnomes, just as confused.
“Progenitor Jacob, I am General Sprocket.” The gnome began with his head bowed.
‘A General bowing to me, damn it looks like I will have to final seek promotion I can’t have a General below me.’ Colonel thought.
“I would like to request citizenship for all gnomes in your nation.”
“Colonel looked at his timer and knew he didn’t have time for this guy.” The narrator started, causing the general to frown and look around before smiling for some odd reason. “The gnome looked important, like really important, but he only had thirty minutes or so to get all he needed to get done before he was transported back to his trial lobby and then hopefully back to Gaia. He just couldn’t waste time on a dog and pony show. Knowing what he knew now made leading humanity his new main mission, or was it always his mission, but now he actually had the power to do it. Either way, he was going to lead because the alternative was being sitting ducks to an eventual invasion force that has been doing this since the Pleistocene Epoch on Earth. That might be an exaggeration.”
The gnome nodded and continued to smile.
The legacy took out a magical tome, then he turned towards the city center immediately afterwards. With one more awkward look at the gnome, he turned back towards the city center and ran at a full sprint away from everyone.
“I guess he is shy.” The Noble gnome laughed.
***
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{2:18 DUNGEON TIME}
_
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LONG BEACH AIRPORT
COLONEL & SOTO
Colonel ripped the head off of a lich’s body. The rotten flesh started to repair itself. “Fuck... this... guy!” He kept punching it.
“Found it,” Soto said. “We had to kill his mini-bosses. Those Enhance grand ghouls were tough, but they dropped his phylactery.”
He walked into the top of the tower and handed it to Colonel. The Lich’s eyes widened, and they tried to fight back, but Colonel wasn’t having any of that rubbish. He crushed the glass jar in hand and then stabbed the Lich with it.
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< BATTLE LOG >
{Lesser Lich level 72 has died +19,046,850 EXP}
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“As I was saying, Sonali,” Colonel began... again. “All the secrets the family kept is why I haven’t seen you in three years. But I kind of understand now.”
“Believe me, Uncle Junior, I was vehemently opposed to the secrecy since I found out the fact that someone was posing as us for over five years while we were gone. But then Uncle Andre died, and we didn’t want to destroy the plan he started, even if that meant alienating you. Thank you for at least not taking it out of us kids, I know you and our parents generation were very combative.” Sonali explained.
“You may not have been innocent, but you weren’t the mastermind behind the deception. As I said, I kind of understand, and I am really not going to complain now that I am powerful. But you all were children thrown into an ever-changing world of magic and Dust. I can’t expect y’all to go against a dead man, especially one that was as Charismatic as Andre. I don’t hold any animosity towards anyone; I'm just disappointed and hurt. I thought I was trustworthy, but that was just selfish thinking in hindsight.”
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< ZONE EVENT >
< WILD DUNGEON ALERT >
{You and your party have entered the area of influence of this Wild Dungeon. While you are in the Dungeon, the expansion of the wild Dungeon has slowed significantly. Complete the Dungeon, and collect or destroy the Dungeon Core to stop the growth of the wild dungeon. Creature birth and spawn rates have risen significantly. The chances of creature evolution have risen significantly. Control an area for a time in order to bring out the area boss. Defeat the area boss in order to clear an area and fully control it.}
Objective: Control the South runway and Tower. (Complete)
Objective: Control the main runway. (Complete)
Objective: Control North Runway and Douglas Park. (Complete)
Objective: Control Airport Terminal(Dungeon Core room)
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After securing the north runway, the lesser Lich boss and its minions came, and they had been fighting them for the better half of an hour. Sonali had caught her Uncle Clyde up with their situation, and he had set up the towers with defensives. The lich, while powerful, never got a chance to do much damage because Colonel hadn’t held back since his brother-in-law and niece were in trouble. After the boss was killed, however, it kept respawns, and Colonel had to keep killing it. That was when Clyde realized it might have a phylactery like the elves. He felt stupid for not figuring it out sooner, but Soto, being the big gamer, was already on the hunt.
They all look at the next Scenario prompt.
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< Final Scenario begins. >
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< Objective Control Airport Terminal(Dungeon Core room) >
{Terminal Concourse defensive Tower 0/1.
0/1000 durability.
Baggage claim defensive Tower 0/1.
0/1000 durability.
Main Terminal Tower 1/1.
1000/1000 durability. (Enemy owned)
{Players in current Scenario: 16}
< WARNING TOWER DURABILITY IS DANGEROUSLY LOW! >
{Kill monsters to increase the durability of Towers.}
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< THE DUNGEON BOSS SPAWNS >
{The Final BOSS has already spawned. She must be killed in the Dungeon Core room to cause true death. Be wary. This boss travels around the entire wild dungeon and has a random chance of popping up in front of any player in the scenario.}
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“Shit.” Soto cursed.
[Sector scan, everyone, check in with your status now!] Colonel ordered dead serious through the party chat. Looking at everyone in the room and releasing his Presence freely away from him.
The replies came in rapid fire.
[Hunter 1, Tower 1 clear.] Corporal Smith responded, and her teammates followed.
[H2, T2 clear]
[H3, T3 clear]
[Killer 1, T4 clear] Jimmy answered, the killer team answering right after him.
[K2, T5 clear]
[K3, T6 clear]
[K4, T7 clear]
[K5, T8 clear]
[Monk 2, Roving team 1 Clear.] David said. He was on patrol with some of Jimmy’s pack.
[Monk 1, Roving team 2 Clear] A female voice said it was the female monk.
Molly, Jimmy’s team healer, had removed the monk's curse. She had to purchase the Cleanse spell from her skill store, and it had used up all of her skill points in one go, but she had already leveled it to Apprentice 1. Jumping through two tiers and into the third on just one patient would have been light speed, but that wasn’t the case for her. The spell she purchased was a holy one, and since she was a member of the stronghold and being so close to the actual god Colonel, she could use the Spell on the ghouls to cleanse them of their weakened undead curse in the sunlight, the only problem is it cost more to use offensively, and her being a NPC she had a very small Mana pool and low regeneration. After she was healed and cleansed, she completely devastated the remaining ghouls, causing the boss lesser lich to appear.
Colonel looked at Soto, who gave him a thumbs up. Then to Sonali, who nodded at her father sleeping peacefully. He still hadn’t woken up despite being fully healed and cleansed.
[Good copy stay frosty, we-]
[Contact! Not this bitch again.] Jimmy yelled, cutting Colonel off.
[K1 focus gives us some direction.] Soto was more accustomed to working with civilians than Colonel because of his gaming exploits.
[Sorry, my alpha is fighting her on the ground floor of my tower. The auto-cannon was just destroyed]
A breaking of glass was heard, and Soto looked up to see that Colonel had leaped through the tower window to the south.
[QRF in route; throw grenades down the stairwell if you need to buy time over]
Soto moved to the broken window and stood on the ledge looking at the sprinting Colonel. He took off his Yankee Fit and put it into his storage device. He then pulled up his ninja cowl, covering his face, and he also got serious. Their subordinate was in trouble, and they didn’t have time to waste at all. The levels of the bosses they had been fighting had the ability to one-shot any of them if caught off guard and could instantly kill all but Soto and Colonel and maybe the monks with a causal backhand.
Soto watched as Colonel crossed the into south runway blurring passed the main runway in a few seconds, the Legacy’s stats were insane even handicapped. He took his eyes off of Colonel when he saw a flash from Jimmy’s Tower followed by the sound of the explosion.
[My Alpha is down. I used all grenades and no-kill notifications. It’s the final boss of the Ghoul Dungeon, the beautiful Mexican girl; too bad she wants to kill me; I would ask him out; she is smoking hot.]
[The man is about to die, and he is cracking jokes. We have to save him, Colonel; he will fit right in with us.] Soto said in the Command chat.
He got no reply, just another flash and explosion moments later.
[That wasn’t me.] Jimmy said back, seriously.
[I told you, Jimmy,] Soto began, then jumped into a shadow warping across the entire airport in the short pause, emerging from Colonel’s shadow in front of Jimmy’s tower door.
[The QRF was en route, so have no fear; The Calvary is here.]
Soto took out his black bow and leveled it at the door. “I’ll cover you, Jake,”
“Oh, I am so glad it is you two.” The familiar female voice of the high Ghoul Lizette said. She stepped out of the Tower and winced slightly at the sunlight, but it didn’t seem to affect her much, other than the initial reaction. She looked healthy, like fresh off of a facial healthy, and not undead at all. “I am going to kill you and everything you have ever held dear. When I am done with you and your allies, I will gan-”
“Didn’t we blow her head up the last time we fought her?” Soto said, ignoring the rant as if he was playing a video game, and he couldn’t skip the dialogue. “That must have given her a splitting headache.” Colonel’s serious expression cracked a little at the statement. “You look like you had a good plastic surgeon, ma. They put that head back together. They're really good there, girl.” Soto turned back to the clearly pissed High Ghoul. ”We are in LA, that makes sense.” He rubbed his chin. ”Do we get a referral fee? Since we gave them so much work you know? I mean, god damn girl, we FUCKED you up, like you were dominated like the French were in every war ever since they killed Joan of Arc and exiled Napoleon.” Soto added, and
Colonel shook his head. "Always with the French."
“Doubtful,” The Sergeant Major continued ignoring Colonel. “As messed up as your face was, it must have taken a miracle to put that back together, sista... Jesus!” He pointed his blade at her and made a circle around her. He whistled. “She looks mad. Do you think she is mad? I think she is mad.” He looked at Colonel. "You got that little cape we can give her so she can be super mad." He said with a grin at his battle buddy.
Lizette had had enough. She rushed at Soto at a speed that could only be called teleporting, punching through his chest... or at least she tried to, but when she looked up at the face of the man she punched, that felt like she had punched a wall of muscle, instead of seeing a bloody mouth Latino man, she was confronted with dark skin, bright white grin, and black deep eyes with flecks of golden energy.
“Rally Here.”