INTERLUDE: A VAMPIRE’S LIFE
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02:29 1ST JANUARY LOCAL TIME 1ME
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DUNGEON CORE ROOM
VAMPIRE LORD
The Vampire Lord was enjoying himself as everything in his Dungeon was going well. All of these people were sent in almost immediately after he created it, and he could not complain about all of the fodder. He chewed on a hunk of a human leg. He didn't even know this skin tone existed.
He always liked to keep his Dungeon core room as bland as possible so that he wouldn’t be distracted in the heat of the battle, by some golden chandelier reflexing light back at a perfect time, when he needed to see something crucial. It happened more than you would think. Luck is a fickle thing not just a stat, it only takes a small lapse in judgment and BOOM you’re a loot globe.
Because of this practice, he was able to see the microscopic details in every fight on screen. That was why when a level two player all of sudden disappeared from the Dungeon, he knew something was really, really wrong.
“What the fuck was that? Was that some type of spatial disturbance?” The Vampire Lord asked his voice cracking.
“I believe so sir.” Aldo flatly said.
It was always good that Lore was passed down to his subordinates through his blood. The more eyes you have on something the better. These two new ones were... well they were simply the best ones he had ever had at their level. They were ruthless, calculated, and powerful even for their tier. Making Ghouls usually was a pain, so having a High Ghoul this early in the world told him that all the rumors about Breakings were true. He smiled, Ghouls usually had to rank up to get to this level. To start with one was a dream of any vampire everywhere. The fact that she had magic in her prior to the Breaking gave her even more utility. But it was the Thrall that was really impressive, he had an unhealthy desire to learn everything in life, so naturally that manifested as the most diligent seeker of knowledge he had ever heard of in his very long life.
This isn’t the first time the vampire Lord had been awake, he and his pantheon had formed when they had all been hunted to near extinction in the old world. After bribes, deception, formation of organizations, they made their way to the new world, where they were less likely to be caught.
They made a pack together, captured and created a few Dungeon Cores by giving up much of their powers. All of them lost multiple realms in their cultivation. Rogue gods, they call them, sometimes demon spawns. They had no affiliation with Gaia either as monsters or players. They grew through killing Players and monsters and Gaia doesn’t get any of her Mana back from those kills instead it is absorbed by their Rogue Cores and powered their immortality.
As such Rogue gods were always hunted by other "natural" pantheons. Wiping a Rogue pantheon out would lead to a massive influx of power for Gaia and the titles for the natural pantheon. But you still have to go into their Dungeons and many gods don’t like to take that chance unless they have overwhelming power. Dying in a rogue Dungeon means that the god is dead forever they are taken out of the cycle of rebirth, and their strength is given to the Core to prolong their lives, and even level up the Rogue gods maybe even making them Demons. Even LAWs were weary of Rogue Dungeons because even Gaia couldn’t tell what level the gods inside were, and that is why they were eliminated as quickly as they were found.
So the Vampire Lord was not surprised that hundreds of players were teleported into his Dungeon on the first day of the Breaking. The old natural gods would have to wake up and fulfill their obligations to their Clergy before they could start to hunt, and clear Rogue Dungeons. So why not let the players clear a few to keep us weak? Little did Gaia know she was dealing with a Vampire Lord, or maybe she did and thought because it was the first day of magic being back he would be much weaker. But his subordinates were exceptional.
This was why he was sad he had to leave them. His first priority was to his Pantheon and if a spatial disturbance had just occurred, more powerful eyes would be on them sooner than he liked. He had a few backup sights that he had set up in the past, crude and wild ones, but safe. Plus the power he had gathered so far was... prodigious.
“Okay, I will be leaving an avatar here." He cleared his throat, I will be moving to a backup Dungeon post haste.” He said in a slight panic.
“Of course my lord I will start packing,” Aldo said already moving.
“NO!” He yelled before taking down his voice and looking around frenzied. “No, I will be going solo, hold down the Dungeon, I will call for you in a few months.” He looked at his High Ghoul. “And Lisette.”
“Yes, Lord?” She said still looking at the screens diligently.
“Kill them all. Use everything you can, and send all of the extra out into the world as often as the Mana allows. That is an order.”
He needed a distraction to cover his movements, every ghoul that killed anything would still give him power just not as much as the ones in the Dungeon, but there should be many more targets out in the real world.
“Already implemented my lord.” She answered confidently.
He smiled, if they survived this, they would be his best duo ever, and may even help him, and his pantheon actually break through to the Heavenly realm threshold, which affects all rogue gods in the first place. The dream of them all was to become a true god or devil, which then would allow them some collateral to negotiate with Gaia or any other Celestials. Gold-rank Cultivators were not something Celestial threw away, they were too useful for the invasions.
“Excellent. See you once I have revived the rest of my pantheon. Oh and Aldo.”
“Yes, my Lord?” He gave his full attention to his Vampire Lord.
The Vampire smiled. “Remove the floor restrictions once I am gone. Let us see how they handle it. Once I leave, time will be a little weird, but don’t worry, just keep fighting.” That should kill off the last of them and make entering from the outside more difficult.
“It shall be done, my lord.”
“Excellent.”
***
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10:39 13TH APRIL 1ME
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LONG BEACH
VAMPIRE LORD
Four months had passed since he had left the Dungeon in a rush. The Vampire Lord knew that leaving a Dungeon with players still in it would make him lose some time, but he had not anticipated this much of a time-lapse. The sad part was he was in a time loop still, and couldn’t leave.
He watched as his ghouls started to decimate the city at night, and how Mana winds wreaked havoc on the old industrial cityscape. Buildings began to crumble over the first few weeks, and nature started to reclaim the streets, and parking lots. He was at first amazed, then disappointed in the new world architecture, which broke down faster than the old world creations for sure. The only good news about being stuck in a time loop was he was invisible to the world around him. This was why when the time loop started to slow down to close to normal speed a few days ago, he started getting excited. Maybe a week before he was free on this damn loop.
When he first stepped out of the Dungeon the time loop moved so fast that if he wasn’t a Vampire and a Bronze-rank cultivator, he wouldn’t have been able to comprehend what he was seeing. Even then he couldn’t do anything about it anyway. Time loops couldn’t be messed with, you have to let them run their course, or you end up stuck there forever. Contrary to popular belief vampires aren’t immortal. While some can live for hundreds of years, they require a power source to live beyond that. For example a Dungeon Core. Not being in the Dungeon still offers them EXP and Essence, but not the longevity associated with their kind.
So he was pleased to be finally getting to the end of the trap he was in.
***
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23:44 7TH MAY 1ME
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LONG BEACH
ATHEN BENEDICT
Needless to say, the Vampire lord was wrong. At this point, he hoped he was out of this damn time loop by the end of the year, hopefully before the Platinum horde started. Time was almost back to normal speed, but it had been that way for over a week now. There had been some interesting development in that time though, so the Vampire Lord was not bored. As a matter of fact, he was very excited.
First, he remembered his name, he was Athen Benedict the Fourteenth. Yes, there were thirteen more people with his name, but thanks to him there were none after him. His family was rich, beyond so, but his namesakes were not long-lived. The oldest before him was his great-grandfather who lived to the ripe old age of forty-nine. In that time frame, he had amassed wealth beyond anyone’s dream. Through savvy, cunning, and criminal enterprises, his family thrived.
He never met his grandfather since he was killed twelve years after his father was born, and his father who was a powerful mage during one of the last failed magical ages, went into a Dungeon and never came back. In the seven hundred years of that era, his whole family line was created and erased. He was determined to outlive them all, combined if he could. That was why it was a vampire’s life for him.
Vampires have been around for millions of years, they were an easy path to power and longevity. But like most curses, it was also a limited path to power. There were many types of vampires, but two stand out; Bloodmancer vampires the most abundant, and necromantic vampires the least. All vampires must drink blood, the amount varies with age. They can all make thralls, mostly human protectors that can travel away from the vampire’s lair to collect food. But Bloodmancer vampires cannot make ghouls, they can only make other vampires, while necromantic vampires can’t make other vampires, they can only make ghouls.
Athen was a necromantic vampire, and even though his family members were powerful in their own right. The GREAT GAME was not kind to those without conviction. Athen had conviction in spades, he knew that the magic age was not going to be a long one, humans were not reproducing fast enough and the monsters were winning even before the Epic monster hordes started. Epic monsters were terrifyingly strong, but the world was very large so while they devastated the major cities that they were drawn to, the Benedict family ran, they were great runners, and all of his namesakes wanted to do was survive. Funny they never did. Only he wanted to thrive.
That was when he met a dying vampire. The monster offered him an oath if he saved him he would offer him power to live forever. In retrospect, he should have never trusted a Vampire, but all he saw was someone powerful owing him a favor. On a quickly dying planet, it was a chance for Athen to live on.
Athen needed no more convincing, oaths required truthfulness, or at least the beings' knowledge of the truth. He gathered slaves, homeless, and sick people for months to feed his new "friend", he even sacrificed a few of his family members. Only after a year was the vampire strong enough to change Athen, and when he was born again he was very different from his Bloodmancer primogenitor. Over ninety-five percent of vampires were Bloodmancers of some type with the ability to empower their bodies above their tier and use blood as a weapon. So even his primogenitor was both surprised and pleased to finally have a necromantic vampire in his bloodline. He had lived through three magic eras at this point and had made countless progeny, none had been a necromantic one.
He introduced him to his newly formed pantheon, which partially fulfilled the oath. He still needed to be a Bronze cultivator to join. So they proceeded to level Athen, it was much easier since his ghouls did most of the work and his pantheon members just had to protect him. He was basically free EXP for them so it was a win-win. He blasted through Bronze rank and became a Silver ranker just as the seven-hundred-year mark hit for the magic age. That was when the Legendary hordes would start to come.
By then his pantheon had learned they weren’t strong enough to fight more than one Epic-level monster at a time and that usually decimated his undead horde. Which took time to rise again. But they had found enough cores to make a Demon Dungeon and become a true Rouge pantheon. They went into hiding until the next magic era.
But when the next magic age came they were hunted losing members due to inquisitions, and Clergy paladins being their bane with holy magic. His primogenitor and leader of the pantheon chose to stay in hiding for a few more ages while he waited for a chance for the world to forget.
But magic doesn’t forget.
At the start of every magic age, the world was much smaller. So at the beginning of the last magic age what this world knew as the Viking age, his pantheon left the old world for the new.
That took Athen three weeks to work through. His musings were cut off by the second thing of importance that happened while he was in the time loop. A scout of some sort had found his dungeon entrance. He was strong for this early in an era, yet he was just a scout for someone else. The local lord must be powerful. This was good, his Dungeon needed strong individuals to grow. Maybe even create a Lich. He loved Liches they were havoc makers, and made conquering dungeons damn near impossible. Better yet all of their EXP went to him Lich’s are born at a max level.
But he was getting distracted, it had been a few days since the scout had left, and he had been back again today. With other powerful-looking classers. Athen couldn’t identify them yet, but he guessed they were still under level fifty. Fifty was a major threshold for classers, it was when they broke into tier 5. Tier 5 was when you really start playing the game for real, at least in his time.
The ghouls coming out of the Dungeons were no longer lesser ghouls, now greater ghouls were ravaging the city, and soon Grand ghouls will be upon them. So they were lucky that they found it so quickly.
Necromantic Dungeons hid themselves well, for multiple reasons. Top of that list was because they needed to hide from other gods, their holy power made them too difficult to fight against, and they also took longer to level because they didn’t cap at lower levels like other Dungeons. They are also so very, obviously, evil. There was nothing an undead wanted more than to kill the living. So any smart lord would keep it clear because if a player dies to an undead they rise again as an undead in, or out of a Dungeon, period.
Athen had seen it many times in his time loop since the mid-level scout wasn’t the only person who had stumbled upon his Dungeon entrance. A few hundred parties had done so, but they were too low of a level to handle the Lesser, and Greater Ghouls guarding the entrance at night, and who would ever think a big church would be an entrance to an undead Rouge Dungeon? The last time the scout left Athen smiled, the stupid mortals didn’t know what they were bringing their raid party back to. The Grand Ghouls were going to be here any day now. Unlike the previous Ghouls, Grand Ghouls were all mages they were still tough like greater Ghouls, but they were ice and darkness caster.
Once Necromantic Dungeons started to make Grand Ghouls, it meant that Classers under fifty in raid groups had no chance. This process usually took decades, but this was a Breaking and had been a wealth of power and magic for Athen. The sheer amount of Mana that was in the world pushed growth faster than normal eras. He of course knew about Breakings, they were legendary in the Magic world, especially among the Rogue gods.
Celestial bodies have a lot less control over their surface during Breakings, the Mana infused was too much to control and convert easily. So they concentrate on making sure the non-sentient creatures don’t out-level the sentient population. This isn’t a kindness Athen knew, Celestials know that powerful non-sentients aren’t easily controlled, nor are they very good interstellar fighters. The best way to win the RUNIC scenario was spreading out to other planets and solar systems, which is why sapients have the best chance of winning, Celestials were very selfish by nature.
Humans were the easiest of sapients to control, they were easily manipulated, and they put themselves into groups just so they could feel superior to one another. Gangs, Guilds, Governments. Groups even the Nobility and Clergy thought they were better than other ones. The ones at the top of these groups manipulated their members so that they could keep their powers, and when that power was challenged by anyone, they used the other groups as to distraction from their own inadequacies.
The funny part was most members of the group knew they were being manipulated, but they rather preserve the illusion of something fake, than feel stupid about their past decisions, or not change their thinking hoping their group lived up to their ideals.
Tyrants thrive, not because of their actions, but of the inaction of others.
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22:27 LOCAL TIME 13TH MAY 1ME
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LONG BEACH
ATHEN BENEDICT
“My lord it is good to have you free.” A humanoid being said to Athen when he was finally freed from the time loop. He stumbled to the ground as he was released. He looked up at the young man who looked almost human. His clothes were worn, but not torn like the other ghouls in the Dungeon. This was a Grand Ghoul his magical power was evident to the Vampire lord, and the mana leaking from him lit up his senses.
“What is your name?” Another thing Grand Ghouls had were names. In the GREAT GAME, names were powerful, and monsters with names were always more powerful than non-named monsters or creatures.
“Carlos, my lord.” He answered right away with no hesitation, then he bowed.
Athen smiled, the fact that the Ghoul answered so quickly, meant he had full control over the denizens of his abandoned Dungeon. It was a real worry of his, and all rogue gods. The chance of losing control while you were away was high, especially with his high-intelligence creations. But it seemed that he didn’t have to worry. A creature would never tell their former owner their name, only if they were loyal.
“Good, it seems that you are still under my compulsion. What has been happening? I wasn’t able to see everything going on at times.” Athen asked
Carlos looked a little sheepish. “Well, we did try to eat you when you first started to appear, to release us from that compulsion.”
Athen’s eyebrow twitched. ‘I guess it’s good I am a few tiers higher than them.’ He thought, then something he said clicked with him. “Wait, you said we?”
“Yes Lord the three of us.” Carlos pointed behind the Vampire lord.
Athen spun around slowly and looked at two kneeling figures. His identify ability brought up their information.
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{Name: Greg
Class:Grand Ghoul(Undead)(ELITE)(Mini-boss)
Level:49
HP:94,000
MP:250
DR:80
Description: Ghouls come in many varieties but the one constant between them all is the insatiable appetite for living flesh. Undead Ghouls' appetite is seconded by their strength and constitution. For their level, they will always be stronger and tougher than their frame suggests. Grand ghouls are first casters of the undead, as they level they also gain dark and ice spells. Grand Ghoul elites have a permanent boost to HP (times 15) and damage(times 3). Mini-Bosses have a boost to intelligence.
EFFECTS: Hunger. Undead dexterity, undead Regeneration, viral bite. Undead absorption}
{Name: Mei
Class:Grand Ghoul(Undead)(ELITE)(Mini-boss)
Level:47
HP:81,400
MP:250
DR:80
Description: Ghouls come in many varieties but the one constant between them all is the insatiable appetite for living flesh. Undead Ghouls' appetite is seconded by their strength and constitution. For their level, they will always be stronger and tougher than their frame suggests. Grand ghouls are first casters of the undead, as they level they also gain dark and ice spells. Grand Ghoul elites have a permanent boost to HP (times 15) and damage(times 3). Mini-Bosses have a boost to intelligence.
EFFECTS: Hunger. Undead dexterity, undead Regeneration, viral bite. Undead absorption}
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Without his Dungeon’s scan, his identity skill gave limited information. Even without it though his age, and knowledge filled in most of the blanks. Unlike Carlos who was a normal-looking man of southern European descent, and could probably pass for humans, Greg and Mei could only pass for humans if you were blind. The first was a man of African descent, and the latter was a woman of Asian descent. But they weren’t normal grand ghouls they were different variants. They were shadow grand ghouls.
Shadow Grand Ghouls were ghouls that only used dark abilities and spells. They also were more affected by sunlight, but in the dark, which it was at the time, they blended into their environment so well that Athen’s Essence perception Technique Art didn’t pick them up, even when they were several tiers below him, and his death Core was a mixture of dark and water. He grimaced, no cultivator wanted to be weaker than their subordinates, even if it was in something they were not proficient at.
Athen wasn’t very good at stealth, he preferred to overwhelm his enemies with numbers. But a Classer should not be able to sneak up on him. Now that he had seen them they would always ping his perception, but it made him feel vulnerable.
“Rise.” But he didn’t show it to them, a cultivator was prideful if nothing else. “Prepare for a raid party they should be arriving any day now.”
“That is correct my lord!” A new voice said that almost, and it was an almost... made Athen jump in surprise. He turned to the newcomer. She was a much shorter than average woman just under four feet tall, but he knew better to judge a being by face value. He identified her as well.
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{Name: Heidi
Class:Revenant(Undead)(ELITE)(Mini-boss)
Level:51
HP:175,000
MP:150
DR:150
Description: Revenants are masters of stealth in the undead world. They can become incorporeal at will making them difficult to kill with physical attacks. They are great scouts who can strike from the shadows with devastating attacks. Elites have a permanent boost to HP (times 20) and damage(times 4). Mini-Bosses have a boost to intelligence.
EFFECTS: Hunger. Undead dexterity, undead Regeneration, viral bite. Undead absorption}
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Now this was a very pleasant surprise to Athen. Revenants were tier 6 beings. They were master hunters and they were assassins of the undead race. In all of his iterations, he had never made one. He of course had heard about them, but it was rare to make them. This was shaping up to be a very good night. First, he was free of that Gaia-blasted time loop, and now he had a Revenant on his side. He may be weaker than he used to be, but his minions were stronger than ever. He turned to look away from Heidi in an attempt to look superior. She was pretty but still unassuming. But they were masters of disguise and deception.
“Report Heidi.” He ordered.
“I followed the scout we saw a few times back to his stronghold.” She started without acknowledging the fact that Athen knew her name, which made him smirk. “I couldn’t get close because of the wards around the walls, the professionals are weak, but they are many, and they covered up their weakness with sheer numbers of wards, traps, and sentries.”
Revenants’ weaknesses aren’t many, but they don’t fight in large-scale battles. They burn through mana quickly with their powers, and they lack any defensive abilities for their survivability. He understood that of course, but Vampire Lords couldn’t let them be too independent.
Concentric circles appear in Athen’s eyes, three of them each circle representing a rank of his cultivation. The Revenant felt the change in her lord’s demeanor, but she didn’t react knowing that would make her punishment worse. The power swirled around him, as he prepared a technique. Being a necromantic vampire he didn’t have many offensive skills or techniques, but the ones he did have were devastating to his enemies.
“Leech.” A black and purple tendril of energy latched onto Heidi draining her mana and causing her to scream. “You should never assume I am okay with failure Revenant. Do you understand me? I have to go to a backup Dungeon, so I will let you live, but know this, you have failed me once, and you will not be allowed to fail me a third time. Am I understood?” Athen said with a sneer.
Heidi nodded her assent through her pain. Athen smiled and drained her for a few more seconds. In truth he needed the Mana, he was starving, and any tier 5 or above being had mana to spare. He turned and looked at the Grand Ghouls, and three more lines reached out to them. They begin to scream as well.
The night went quiet other than their screams, as the real maestro of the dark arts asserted his dominance for the first time in centuries... and did it ever feel good. He sniffed the air, ‘what is this smell of blood?’ He looked behind the shadow of Grand Ghouls. There was a pile of bodies, some were even fresh. ‘How did I miss that before?’ He thought looking to the Ghouls. ‘They must have prepared them for me. Maybe I should go easy on them.’ The Vampire Lord thought looking at the buffet they set up for him.
‘Nah!’ Vampires were not merciful beings, and the Ghouls had admitted to trying to eat him. The only reason they would do that was to free themselves from his control. “You are mine!” He said to the Grand ghouls over their screams. “The next time you think you can escape that fact, remember these next...” He looked at the Revenant. “How much time do we have until the raid party gets here in your estimate? Be wary if your answer is wrong that will be your second and final failure.”
Heidi may only be one month old, but the knowledge of a monster isn’t measured by time, but by level, and she was more than likely one of the highest-level monsters in the local area. “I would estimate at least six hours if they don’t run into any events on the way here my lord.” She said gritting her teeth.
Athen smiled “Good, good, now where was I?” He rubbed his chin. “Right, the next time you think you can escape the fact that you are mine, remember these next five hours.” He continued to drain them. Athen knew he was being petty, and they may not have the mana to fight a large raid group, but he was confident that he could kill them all as long as they weren’t over level fifty yet. Tier five classers -Will- pool made them surprisingly difficult to handle even for a cultivator of his level. But their can’t be many of them since the resources were limited by his horde, while his Essence wasn’t nearly as limited, especially after draining these four.”
He stopped his technique for a second so he could reposition himself at the fresh bodies. He picked one up and started to drink its blood, reactivating his Leech technique with a thought in the process. ‘What a great night.’ He thought with a smile.
***
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03:27 14TH MAY 1ME
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LONG BEACH
ATHEN BENEDICT
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Athen was full, his belly and his Cores. He could break into his next level if he wanted to, but he wanted to make sure he had the Essence for the fight that was coming. That was the balance that a Cultivator had to keep. Store Essence for advancement, or Use it to get more EXP to convert into more Essence. He didn’t age though, so it wasn’t much of a choice to him. He had time, so advancing just for longevity was useless for his kind.
His minions didn’t look so good, but they were recovering because he allowed them to eat some of the older corpses. He had planned to let them handle the raid party, as long as the Revenant survived, he would be happy, more grand Ghouls would come, but he wasn’t sure about the Revenant variant. He smiled at her. She was going to be a great asset moving forward.
“Heidi darling,” He started sweetly like he didn’t just punish her for the last five hours. “Go find our prey and ambush them from behind while they are engaging us okay.” He said with a smile.
Heidi stood and quickly wiped her mouth and left immediately. He nodded his approval. He didn’t have a telepathic link to any of them since they weren’t connected to the Dungeon, but he could sense their fear and obedience, that was enough. Then a few minutes later a surprise hit him. He heard Heidi’s voice over the winds.
“My lord they are almost within range of the entrance. Their makeup is three teams of five and one team of three. The highest member seems to be a very talkative noble, he is the one with two heavily armored Knights around him, I would guess high or peak thirties.”
Nobles were tricky dual classes meant that they could be a combined level sixty and you will never know. Still if one of their classes wasn’t over fifty they shouldn’t be a problem for his grand ghouls. “Heidi, what skill is this?”
“It is a ranger ability I upgraded that allows me to send a message over the wind, it is called wind speak, there are many limitations line of sight is usually needed and if anything gets in the way it hears what I say as well, but got a perk to off set them mostly.” She answered.
“Ah I like it, keep me updated,” Athen replied.
“Yes lord, oh...”
“Wait a minute, how can you hear me?”
“The second part allows one response just has to be a short one. They seem to have gotten an event they all have stopped and are reading it over now.”
“Excellent, we will come to you.” Athen smiled.
***
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03:27 14TH MAY 1ME
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LONG BEACH
GOVERNER RON
Governor Ron went to Yale. He was at the top of his class in everything he had ever done in his entire life. He always knew he was meant for greatness, and he embraced that immutable fact. He joined the Navy right out of Yale and spent the next twenty years serving his great nation. He even made it to the rank of Admiral in just under eighteen years with waivers, a feat not accomplished by many in modern times.
After his service, Ron had gone right into politics. Lisa, his wife had worked as a doctor in California, then went on to be an advisor to medical television shows in Hollywood, which gave them many connections for fundraising. So when Ron retired from the Navy, he used his military background, his Spanish-speaking history since his parents were Jewish immigrants from Argentina, and his wife’s influential connections to win the vacated Los Angeles mayor seat in a landslide.
He was tall, with a well-built body from an active life, charming, with a short crop military style haircut. He and his wife had a pro bono emergency care in many of the less affluent communities in the greater Los Angeles area. His ability to bring the rich, and the poor together for the greater good of the city was legendary.
After his two terms as Los Angeles mayor he had transformed the city into a bastion of art, love, and commence. The renewable energy initiatives help the city make it through some of the worst droughts in the state. His ambitious stances of eliminating homelessness fell short, but with a forty-five percent reduction in the homeless population, even his adversaries were astonished.
Ron’s three biggest footprint in his eight years as mayor was the reduction of gang violence and more near and dear to his heart, and the increase in access to healthcare and higher education.
That was why it was almost a foregone conclusion that he was going to be the next Governor. The only thing stopping him was awful timing. The Governor race wasn’t for another three years after he had hit his term limit as the city mayor. Instead, he ran for senator of the state of California.
While the race was very close he won and moved to Washington DC with his wife, and two now teenage daughters after his son went off to Annapolis for naval officer training following in his father’s footsteps. His biggest move in DC was actually getting term limits on a congressional bill passed, as well as the elimination of for-profit lobbying bill passed, which was vetoed by the then lame-duck president despite the country’s citizens overwhelmingly being for the bill. Then he was only able to get sixty-five percent of the Senate to vote to override allowing the bill to die a sad political death.
This was his first major loss in any of his careers, and he thought it was time to run for president. His wife however convinced him it was time to go home, the state had been hit hard by the start of the Dust pandemic. So instead he ran for Governor of California winning in another landslide.
The prodigal son had returned, and after his first term California had thrived. Again his renewable energy initiatives were implemented across the state, and the medical clinics were now funded by the state providing universal healthcare for all residents, and affordable healthcare for others. Illegal immigration was down mostly due to the pandemic, but his allies seemed to give him credit for it, so he took it.
Unfortunately, it was not doing anything to stop the deaths by overdoses from Dust. That was until he authorized voluntary human testing of the vaccines the JTF had started to work on. He was the first Governor to allow the JTF to set up in his state. A move that his political adversaries used against him to gain support. A few months before his reelection he was actually behind in the polls, but the boosters were a massive success with MG Corp and the JTF leading the way. His opponents had no foot to stand on since they had based their entire campaign on his failure with the Dust pandemic, and once people stopped dying because of the booster shots, he had won practically unopposed.
That was only nine months ago when it all started. Now, two months after the election, he was in his home city of Los Angeles celebrating the coming of a new year, and planning for the post-pandemic world, when another world-changing event happened.
The GREAT GAME started.
Being the Governor he got a Noble Caste, and so did his family fortunately his entire family was home for the holidays and they were trained in many different skills for survival.
His wife was given a Fighter/healer class, his twin girls were given a ranger class, one short-range, damage over time, and the other, long-range burst damage. Ron was an avid Dungeons and Dragons player with his old military buddies, so he passed that on to his kids. His son however was the one who had gained the Champion class which was the main fighter for any noble family. Considering he was a Seal team officer, it was perfect for him.
Ron had gotten a very powerful warrior/healer class, similar to his wife, but leaned more toward damage dealing than his wife’s defensive one did. It was why he was the highest-level member of the Stronghold. Not many things had given him pause since the world had changed, that was why he had to reread the prompt his raid party had just received.
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< ALERT >
{ZONE EVENT
EVENT NAME: Survive
DESCRIPTION: You have found a high-level Dungeon entrance like many Dungeons in the GREAT GAME it is protected by who knows what? They will not be easy. Survive what is to come, and gain great rewards.
Objective: Make it to the Dungeon entrance and enter.
Rewards: +1 million EXP, +5000 free attributes +100 skill points.
_____________________________________________________________
Ron looked to the scout, the man was assigned to one team with the healers, protecting them was important for the survival of any Raid party. They were going to stay on the back line to make sure they weren’t in danger. Ron and his knights were the vanguard. “Did you get this event before Corporal?” His commanding voice asked.
The shorter man in a full black hooded outfit made by the highest-level professional leather worker frowned. “No, your grace.” The honorifics were normal now, at first, most had an issue with it, but when the nobles gain EXP from their people and the people in turn gain EXP from the nobles a few words weren’t going to get in the way. Levels were everything now, and surviving longer was what everyone wanted to do.
“So something has changed.” Ron thought out loud.
“He has never been here at night my lord.” A knight Terrence, in full plate armor that glowed with colorful bird-like light enchantments, said. His face plate was up showing the handsome face with his clean-shaven African features. He used to be the chief of police when Ron was the mayor. Now he was the head of Ron’s knights, a level thirty-nine Knight class. Only officers to noble houses, or army members can have knight classes.
“Fair point. Stay frosty men, I didn’t think this would be easy, but that is a ton of EXP, free attributes, and skill points, just to survive.”
“Ah, fuc...!” One of the healers said as he tripped, he looked at the Governor with a wince.
“Language.” Ron admonished, he was a bit old school.
His head knight looked at the healer. “That is two extra hours at the hospital when we get back Henski.”
“But sir.” He whined.
“That wasn’t a request Doc, this is your second warning on this trip alone. Want to go for six hours.” The head knight added.
“No sir.”
“Good.”
Ron smiled at the exchange it wasn’t about the cursing to him, it was more about the discipline. “That won't be necessary Knight Terrence, he gets it now, right Doc?” Ron played good cop really well.
The Doc nodded quickly. “Yes, your grace.” He blurted out hurriedly.
“As you wish it my liege,” Terrence said with a dark smirk.
“It's probably for the best, I doubt he would have been able to fulfill the hours anyway.” A new voice said startling everyone in the Raid party. The knights step in front of the Governor, the scout, and another archer step in front of the healers, with one maneuvering behind the healers. The other full team had two melee knights and one range knight guarding the two noble-appointed mages.
The mages watched eyes wide as the four beings walked to them. Mages were rare for humans in the GREAT GAME, but outside of some professionals. Mages were the only class that automatically got an identification ability once they specialized, and the two were frozen by what they saw.
Ron on the other hand didn’t have a way to judge the level of his opponents, so he was going off of the mages' information. They were supposed to tell him right away if the enemy was stronger than him and his knights so that they could make a tactical retreat.
Ron was wrongly going off of their lack of a report that the people they faced were weaker though, he did feel a slight pressure coming off of them though. Ron smiled. “Are you the defenders of the Dungeon entrance?”
“We are,” A black-haired hair pale-skinned, and purple-eyed man said as he continued to stroll calmly towards the raid party.
“I am Governor Ron, the highest-ranking noble in this area, and...”
“I like what you have done to the place Governor.” The speaker interrupts Ron.
“What?”
“The area, I like what you have done with it.” The speaker stopped and pointed out the darkness. All Ron could see was wondering ghouls, but then he pointed back at them and he felt like food.
Ron looked at him confused. “Well, we are here to clean it up, so don’t get too attached.” Ron tried to get back on track.
“Oh no, no your not.”
Ron sputtered again. “W-what?”
“The cleaning part, you won't be cleaning up anything. It would be more accurate to say the cleaning will be done by us.” The speaker gestured to his Grand Ghouls.
“We are a Raid party buddy, meant to take on a Dungeon, you really think you four can stop us?” Ron asked incredulously, not understanding the conversation.
“Yes, with no problem at all,” Athen said matter of factly.
Ron was still confused, He wasn’t sure what was going on here, but they had the advantage, so he could get more information. “We have you outnumbered, we have knights in armor, range mundane, martial, and magical, and we have healers, you don’t stand a chance,” Ron said hoping that got the attackers to see the errors of their ways, even if they won a battle with them, they would have to use resources. Using potions, and crystals was limited, so if they could avoid a fight they would.
The speaker smiled, just as three heads hit the ground in front of Ron. Doc’s face rolled to a stop looking back at Ron with a look of confusion and fear. “What healers?” He asked darkly.
Ron turned around in time to see the healers' headless bodies hitting the ground next to the equally headless archers guarding them, and a being in dark robes blending into her environment standing over them with a smile, and blood dripping off of her hands.
“Assassin!” The mage team archer reacted first nocking and firing an arrow with such speed that even Ron couldn’t follow, he must have used a spell.
Heidi easily caught the arrow, much to the horror of the remaining Raid party members.
“Everyone knows that when fighting a group,” The speaker started, “You always kill the healers first.” He smiled maliciously.
Ron’s mind was racing, and his heart was beating out of his chest, he had lost a full team in an instant, he hadn’t even noticed their greyed-out icons on his Raid party tab. But the loot globes rising up from their bodies shook him. He wasn’t paying too much attention to the speaker keeping an eye on the assassin.
“The next group you go after is of course the mages,” Athen said as power built next to him.
The shadow grand ghouls were chanting a high-level spell. A glow of black energy built above their heads as the normal Grand Ghoul stood in front and raised a magical shield.
The same archer seeing that his shot was ineffective against the assassin tried a shot at the casters. But the arrow bounced off of the shield not even making it flicker.
Ron unfroze. “Shield wall!” He ordered
His knights' Tower shield came together and locked in with Ron’s. They all jump back just as the other two knights link their shields, and move around the Mages and Archer. The shields expanded with every new link encircling the range members easily.
“Impressive,” the speaker said. “But...”
“Fire Ball!” One of the mages yelled as he hurled a ball of fire at the grand ghoul that had the shield up. The shield cracked from the impact.
The speaker frowned, “That was rude.”
“Blinding light!” Another Mage yelled.
A flash of light that was also amplified by the shield wall enchantments lance out in all directions. Even Heidi couldn’t avoid it, it is pretty hard to dodge light. It didn’t do much damage since it wasn’t an attack per se, but light was their weakness so it did do much more than normal damage. The shield shattered, and the two shadow ghouls fired prematurely.
One fired over the head of the shield wall, the other glanced off the side with a massive clang.
“Blinding light!”
“Fire ball.”
The mages cast the other spell while the first was on cool down. It was why they were chosen for this raid party, competence and skill set.
The fireball hit the ground in front of the ghouls and exploded shooting fire at all four. And since they were blinded they were all hit.
Ron didn’t want to see what was going to happen, so he ordered a full retreat. No one argued. The Raid party drank an enhancement potion that temporally boosted all stats up past the next threshold. In all of the commotion, they moved away fast from the threat. “Fuck!” Ron cursed.
The head Knight smirked, but also ran faster. “What level were they?” He asked the mages. He hadn’t expected to use their trump cards so early. Without the healer buffs, they were not going to be able to do that very often.
“All in their fifties sir.” The mage said with a shiver running up his spine. He was dressed in caster robes over leather armor for extra protection.
Ron was glad he had just acted, his instincts were going crazy. He wasn’t a man that feared much, so he depended on his instincts, and experience to assess most situations properly. This situation was pretty much distract and run. They had taken down level fifties before of course, a good team of combatants can take down boss mobs a tier or two higher. But those were solitary beasts, not humanoid monsters who were clearly sapient beings.
And five of them, that was asking for a party wipe... and to be fair, they did have a team wipe. But if the whole raid party was wiped, not only would it be bad because Ron was a part of it, but the Stronghold would suffer since he had taken the strongest of his noble guards and healers...
“All five?” His head knight asked taking Ron out of his musings.
“We could only identify four of them, the talking one was unidentifiable.” The same mage said.
That wasn’t unheard of, especially after the first two months of the new world. Many creatures had the ability to block basic scans, but Ron brought these mages and healers because of their advanced identification abilities, it was already in the Peak Apprentice tier. That just meant the talking being was much, much higher level than them. Which meant they would have been screwed if they stayed. But if that thing came after them, it also meant they were still screwed. He ran faster than he ever had before.
Levels were hard to beat in the game. The sheer amount of stats a being gained and the increase in DR pool per tier meant that the higher your level, the harder you were to kill. Plus the less damage you take from lower tiers.
“How did they get so strong? We have been constantly fighting and training.” One of the knights tasked with guarding the mages asked as they all ran at a speed that would have made Olympic sprinters blanch.
“They weren’t human, at least the minions weren’t humans.” The second mage said she wiped the sweat from her brow.
“What?” The knight asked.
“That makes sense,” Terrence said.
“What were they?” Ron asked he couldn't tell by the foreign pressure they were giving off. After the healers died he had just needed to escape.
“Three grand ghouls and the assassin was a revenant.” The mage answered.
The head knight looked at him and shook his head subtly. Ron knew he meant well, but he had always been a transparent leader.
“That isn’t very good, we have to assume that the Revenant will catch up to us easily.” Dexterity-based monsters were fast, and having two tiers on the party it was inevitable. Ron looked around for landmarks.
“My lord a word before...” The head knight started.
“Fallback point is in sight.” The ranger class knight said when they crossed a stream cutting through a ton of dilapidated buildings.
“Lead the way, knight.” The head knight said looking at Ron.
Ron sighed again as the whole party started to angle towards a more or less intact building. There was a fire burning on the inside. He was glad he had left his last two knights to set up a fallback Camp. They both had building professions and were supposed to secure the building making it a forward operating base.
It wasn’t much of a FOB, yet because they had only left them a few hours ago. But it was already better than before they left.
“Marco!” The raid party archer yelled.
“Polo!” The response came back from the FOB, then the two knights ran out. A bow user and a spearman.
“Where is the healer team?” The archer asked right away noticing their missing team.
Ron winced, he had just ordered a retreat without trying to get their bodies or loot globes. The game world does absorb the bodies of humans quickly, but all they needed was their loot globes to get their dog tags.
“Dead, full team wipe,” Terrence said stoically. “Your grace a minute please.” He walked up to Ron making it clear he wasn’t going to allow him a chance to escape.
The spear user recovered from the news first. “The commander's office is complete head knight.” He pointed to the back of the building they all had stopped in front of.
Ron seriously wanted to NOT talk to his head knight because the conversation was not going to be pleasant. But Ron didn’t become who he was by avoiding conflict. “Yes, let us have that talk.” He looked back at everyone. “Save your mana potions, lock down this place tight, and turn out that light, we are hiding. Drink the night vision potions, they should last until morning, or close enough.” He ordered and followed the head knight into the back room.
Calling it a room, would be as accurate as a can of crushed fruit technically still being a fruit. The room was a ten by ten cube, or it used to be, the roof was sunken in the middle and looked like it was going to collapse any second now. Both leaders used their MANA SIGHT ability to look at the room.
The mana in the walls showed that they were going to hold and the knights were probably only a few more sessions from repairing it completely.
“Sir may I speak freely.” The head knight politely inquired.
“Of course Terrance I value your...”
“What the actual fuck was up with you sir?” He interrupted Ron.
“Uhh, what do you...”
“Sir you talked to the enemy without a plan, and you then proceeded to tell the enemy our raid party capabilities, you were overconfident, and under-prepared, which cost us the lives of the Stronghold's highest-level healers other than the Mayor.” The dark skin man was furious, and frustrated as much at himself as he was his leader. He sighed losing steam. He ripped his helmet off and was about to toss it, but Ron grabbed his arm.
“You’re going to need that knight.” He said seriously concerned for his friend.
“Ron, I know what your thinking, I know you better than anyone even the countess.”
“Lisa would disagree.”
“Really, because she is probably thinking you would do everything in your power to get home.”
“I am, I will.”
“The hell you will. You are only thinking of a way to protect the Stronghold. And if that means we die here so that the enemy doesn’t follow us back, then so be it.”
Ron hated that Terrance could read him so easily. He was fifty, fifty on going back when he thought they were normal ghouls or even humans, but after learning that they were elite sapient monsters, and more than likely the talker was something they hadn’t seen before, there was no way he was going to chance his family and the Stronghold.
“Look Ron, this is unprecedented. I understand the caution. But we can’t beat them here, maybe if we had more professionals here to make this place a vault, we could make it to daylight. But if they get here they will run through us like curry crab rand dumplings ran through you in Tobago a few years ago.” He smirked at his boss.
Ron grimaced, that wasn’t his finest moment. “What do you recommend?”
“We run hard, get back to the stronghold, and prepare to defend against them. A zone event has to form with creatures that powerful. The EXP will be more than enough to take the guards to our tier of power if not higher. Also, the blade dancer and herbalist should be helpful.”
“We do need that. But they could kill off a lot of us before we defeat them.”
“Yes, but if we all die here, they won’t even know about this enemy. Many more will die in that case. They may even think they are human and let them in. If that happens.” Terrance shook his head.
“They will wipe out the entire Stronghold.” Ron easily deduced. While defending the inside of the stronghold was every combatant's responsibility, that was primarily for monster hordes. The true strength of a stronghold was the size of the force on the walls.
“No doubt about it. That information alone is worth going back.” He put back on his helmet. “Your death will alert the whole Stronghold and the morale drop will...”
“BLINDING LIGHT!” A mage yelled outside of the officer's room.
“Ah, My eyes!” Another voice said.
“Toggle off the night vision before...” The telltale sound of flesh being severed, cut off whatever the knight was going to say.”
“Shit a caster.” The room lit up with purple light under the door.
A high-pitched scream and bodies fall over thudding to the ground.
“You bastard.” A knight yelled as his heavy footsteps moved away from the door. A sword clanked to the ground, then a gurgling sound, and then an eerie quiet after a soft thud.”
Terrence looked at Ron wide-eyed.
Ron equipped his helmet. They were both stunned by the sounds. But the quiet was even more unnatural.
“We are missing two aren’t we?” A female voice said.
“Are you sure? Pretty sure there was eight, and I count, one, two...eight at least if we put them back together, I guess.” A male voice said like they were talking about where to place a table in a dining room.
“Well if you had let me identify them before you killed them so quickly we would know.” The first female voice said her voice annoyed.
“I don’t hear you complaining about the heads that you chopped off.”
“He was running at me like an idiot and needed a reality check.”
“That was really idiotic, I agree.”
“Enough!” The leader’s voice said. “Can’t a vampire drink in peace?”
“Sorry, my lord.” Both of the voices say.
Ron looked at Terrance with his finger over his lips to shh his guard captain, Terrance gave Ron a look that said ‘No shit Sherlock.’
“Besides the Mages were the idiots. But changing them will only take a minute, and then I’ll raise the rest. If there are any left they will hunt them down for us. We need to make it to the backup Wild Dungeon before sunrise anyway. And the world has grown much faster than I have anticipated, wait a minute.” The leader's voice paused. “Five months? Oh no, that is not good, the Rare Horde will start in less than two months. Yeah, we should get back to safety, and build our defenses up. We will stop at the Wild Dungeon and then move on when the sun sets again.
Ron and Terrance's eyes go wide at the vampire's revelations.
[The creator of all of the ghouls is that vampire? And there will be another Horde Event] Ron texts in their team chat
Terrance almost fell over when the pop-up startled him. He glared at Ron.
[HOW WOULD I KNOW? I JUST FOUND OUT VAMPIRES WERE A THING. Hell, I thought the ghouls were just beefed-up zombies. But it makes sense with the Curse prompt.] He said angrily.
Ron winced at the tone in the text, knowing maybe he should have warned his head knight it was coming. They were in a very tense situation.
[Sorry about that. We have to get that information back to the Stronghold, another Horde is very problematic.] Ron added
Terrance nodded back at him
[Agreed, we missed part of what they are saying, let's listen, talking monsters are already problematic, and coordinated, talking monsters that are going to make, or be in another local Dungeon are going to be very problematic.]
“Heidi, go on ahead we will follow after I finish up here.” The leader’s voice ordered.
Terrance wrote down the name in his HUD notes.
“Yes my lord, right away,” Heidi responded.
“And Heidi,” the Leader called after her.
“Yes, my lord?”
“Don’t kill any humans on the way, maim them so I can feed on them while they are alive. Is that understood?” The leader said with a darkness in his voice.
“Yes, of course, my lord, as you wish.”
Ron and Terrance's heartbeat increased.
“Carlos lead the other grand Ghouls out and head behind her, collect the bodies she leaves behind, and bring them back. Recruit other ghouls to do the carrying if you like.” The leader ordered.
“Yes, my lord.” The first male voice replied.
Three sets of footsteps retreat from the building. The room was silent for a few seconds. Then the shuffling of ghoul feet broke that silence after a few minutes.
“Good, very good.” The leader said. “I need one of you in here at a time. The rest can go out and hunt, but this will be where you come back during the day, so don’t wander too far my pets.”
Ron looked to Terrance who shrugged back at him.
“I’m leaving now. You are very lucky knights, you get to serve me in death, there is no greater honor. You get to serve a Rogue god, or what your people used to call a devil or demon, you should be proud. When I awaken my Pantheon this entire city will be mine. Well ours, but I will come back for you then. You should grow strong in this environment”
Quiet. Nothing, no sound after that. Then a bang at the door of the office. The whole door shook. Another bang and the door shook again. A third time, a fourth. The two occupants were not about to open the door.
“Hmm, looks like I have to be invited into this room. That is a well-made structure.” The leader's voice said. “I don’t have time for your door. See you when I come back for my enhanced ghouls. May have to wait for the Platinum Horde because...” More retreating footsteps were heard as the monster walked away.
After a few seconds, there was only one set of footsteps shuffling around in the room behind the door.
[Should we cut and run?] Ron asked.
Terrence shook his head.
[We don’t know if that was all for show or not. We can wait until sunrise.]
[But if it isn’t then all of the enhanced ghouls will be back] Ron rebutted.
The head knight sat in a chair quietly and wrote more in his HUD notes
[Then we wait until the next shift change, and get the fuck out of here.]
[Then what?]
[We beat feet back to the stronghold after taking down the one that is left behind. But we should prepare for more.]
[Agreed, what if there is more or even the vampire?] Ron asked knowing they needed a plan.
[Either way, we should wait a day or two because if the vampire is out there, we will be killed instantly, and I don’t know about you, but I doubt we could have taken the eight of them before they were changed into whatever an enhanced Ghoul is, do you?]
[Doubtful, we will go with your plan. You have the rations for the team right?] Ron sat in the other chair next to his head knight
[Yeah, enough for two months for the whole team it could last us much longer.] Terrance said.
[If we hear more movement during the day for the next three days, we will assume we could go at night on the fourth. How do you feel about that?] Ron asked.
[Sounds good, I recommend a week if this room is that secure, we should take advantage of it. I’m going to take a nap, and will use my Trade skill to get some more stats while we wait.] Terrance said then closed his eyes and was out like a light.
Ron shook his head at how quickly troops could pass out in a dangerous situation. He took out a small bottle-shaped device, and placed it on the desk then activated it by pushing an indentation on the top. A pressure passed over him, and a semi-opaque cloud of energy moved over the room stopping just before the door.
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{BUFF NAME: Dome of Silence
BUFF TYPE: Stealth
BUFF DURATION: until out of mana
BUFF COST: 1 mana per minute for one room
DESCRIPTION: The item uses the uses Mana to power a dome of silence. The dome prevents sound from going out but also limits sound from coming in. Spells can’t be used inside of the dome other than the activator.}
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“The mana draw is minimal, I can keep this up all day.” Ron mused as Terrance started to snore, loudly. He shook his head. 'This game."
***
A FEW MINUTES EARLIER
ATHEN
After the debacle of an ambush they had had against the Raid party, Athen was a little pissed. He put the fire out on his clothing, he looked at the grand ghouls as they rolled on the ground putting themselves out. He dryly laughed at himself. “I guess I am still a little rusty from my long sleep.” His eyes unfocused looking at his map, he grimaced. “Shit, the world has grown quite a bit in the last few months. The main backup dungeon is at least six days' travel away. but there are a few Wild Dungeons we can hop to from time to time.”
He looked up at the night sky. The stars were shining bright on a moonless night. There was a sprinkling of clouds but not a lot. “Hmm, no skyways that can’t be right, what are the gods in this zone thinking?”
“I noticed that as well my lord,” Heidi said looking up at the sky.
Athen looked at the Revenant incredulously. “Aren’t you supposed to be tracking that raid party Revenant?” His voice clipped.
Heidi flinched and looked at him. “Yes my lord, I have marked the mages, they can’t escape us now, and I doubt they would leave them, mages are too rare in this world to do that.”
Athen smiled and nodded. “Lead the way. We don’t have a lot of time without a Skyway we will have to run the whole way. I won’t waste my Essence flying just in case I have to defend myself.”
“Yes my lord,” She jogged off in the direction of the Raid party.
Athen thought about the Skyways again, there was no way that the gods should have let a major city like this, with this many powerful people go unguarded. Skyways were magic-powered roadways through the skies. They make traveling the long distances across the growing world bearable. Any tier 5 player could use it, but the cost was prodigious. They were made for cultivators since Essence was used to make them and maintain them, any Essence type was compatible energy though they could be powered with mana and other energy sources.
There were only a few reasons for there not to be any skyways, and they all benefit Athen. The gods were too busy fighting to build them. A Heavenly realm Cultivator has to make them though, they could be maintained by any Cultivator. But what could be strong enough to distract a Gold-rank Cultivator? Athen shuttered.
Another reason was the world had outgrown the current Pantheon’s ability to keep up. That was perfect for him because that gives him, and his own Pantheon time to grow even stronger.
The least likely reason was the gods wanted to keep the players weak. That can’t be right though this a Breaking, unless the gods were vindictive monsters, that served no one. Well outside of him and people like him.
All of the scenarios benefited him outside the fact he was on a time limit. He needed to be inside, or in a backup Dungeon before sunrise on the rare period. So he didn’t have time to hunt down this group for too long at least.
“There,” Heidi whispered. She pointed at a building that was definitely professionally enhanced.
It glowed dully in his Essence sight. All of the other buildings were falling apart around it. The mana winds were breaking down anything not enhanced by a professional Infuse Ability. “Who are these idiots?” He said more to himself than anyone else.
“They are the strongest members of the local Stronghold,” Heidi answered.
“They are really stupid.” Carlos the head Grand Ghoul started. “A hideout isn’t very good if it is the only Mana-infused building in the area.”
Athen had to agree. There was no way they should be this stupid. Unless...
“You think it's a trap, my lord?” Heidi asked.
“No, I think the gods have neglected them, and they don't know any better yet it has only been first,” Athen said with a smile. “Let's go kill them, we can leave some presents for the next group.” He looked up to the sky again. This is a great time to be alive, living dead, or undead. If the gods had let such a promising group get in this much trouble, then he had no doubt he and his Pantheon would thrive.
“Scout out and wind speak back to me.” He said to Heidi “Carlos we are going in fast this time no half measures, is that understood? Keep some bodies intact, I will drink and change them.”
“Yes, my lord.” They both reply
Heidi blended into a shadow and disappeared. A few minutes later “Eight individuals my lord.” Heidi said with wind speak.
“Good, we have them all,” Athen replied.
“Not sure my lord I cannot scan them inside of the building.”
“It is fine, once we are done with the eight whoever shows up they will have to deal with my minions.” Athen said “Mei head around the back side just in case we are missing something. Kill whoever escapes, I don’t want any information getting back to that Stronghold. I want to come down on them like the plague of locusts. In a few months. We will crush them, and make a wild Dungeon out of this area.”
“Yes, my lord.” Mei the shadow Ghoul said.
“Greg you are the decoy. Draw out their mages' attacks, I will hit them while their attacks are on cool down. Carlos and Heidi break them all.” Athen ordered.
Greg walked nonchalantly to the front of the building his shadow body making him hard to see. The archer knight scanned the area with another melee knight behind him. The archer looked left, then back to his right stopping on a moving shadow. His eyes widen.
“Shit, look...” Whatever he was going to say was cut off as the shadows came to life stabbing him through the neck. The sound alerted everyone to the presence of an enemy, which was kind of the point.
Greg smiled as he looked at the melee knight who pissed himself.
“BLINDING LIGHT!” One of the mages yelled as she was the first to react. But that was a bad idea since they all had night vision buffs on.
“My eyes!” The second mage who was preparing the fireball screamed, and her fireball rebounded into her hand and she burnt.
“Toggle off the night vision before...” Heidi cleaved through the face of a helmet-less knight, cutting off whatever the knight was going to say. Not a lot of talking this time around.
“Leech.” Athen chanted as he entered the room—purple power built around him.
“Shit a caster.” The last archer said before he went rigid when the line of purple energy hit him.
Everyone in the room screamed, and their bodies fell over thudding to the ground.
“You bastard.” A knight with some defensive skill active ran at Athen sword drawn. A shadow lanced out and chopped his hand off, the sword clanked to the ground, and then another shadow stabbed him through the neck causing a gurgling sound as he fell over, no longer a member of the living.
“We are missing two aren’t we?” Heidi asked looking at the bodies.
“Are you sure? Pretty sure there was eight, and I count, one, two...eight at least if we put them back together.” Greg said pointing at a few body parts.
“Well if you had let me identify them before you killed them so quickly we would know.” Heidi complained stepping over said body parts.
“I didn’t hear you complaining about the heads that you chopped off.” Greg snapped back.
“He was running at me like an idiot and needed a reality check.”
“That was really idiotic. I agree.” Greg acquiesced
“Enough!” Athen yelled as he drained the others with his Leech spell. “Can’t a vampire drink in peace?”
“Sorry, my lord.” They both say sheepishly.
“Besides the Mages were the morons. But changing them will only take a minute, and then I’ll raise the rest. If there are any left they will hunt them down for us. We need to make it to the shelter before sunrise anyway. And the world has grown much faster than I have anticipated, wait a minute.” Athen paused. “Five months? Oh no, that is not good. The Rare Horde will start in about two months or so. Yeah, we should get to safety, and build our defenses up, we won’t have much time with the distance we have to travel.” Athen continued. “Heidi, go on ahead we will follow after I finish up here,” Athen ordered moving on to the archer with the hole in his neck.
His hands move in a hand sign that anyone who saw, quickly forgot, only the magic knew the meaning of the hand signs, all players were the conduit for that magic. Each individual did their signs differently because every skill was unique to the person casting it. This is why vampires were good casters even the body-enhancing ones. They can contort their bodies into any hand sign without permanently damaging themselves. At high tiers, some hand signs were so intricate that the caster needed more Dexterity to cast them. Athen smiled as he used several different hand signs on different base classes and levels.
“Yes my lord, right away,” Heidi responded she got up and was about to leave.
“And Heidi,” Athen said coldly.
“Yes, lord?” She looked over her shoulder.
“Don’t kill any humans on the way, maim them, so I can feed on them alive. Is that understood?” Athen said with a darkness in his voice.
“Yes, my lord.” She smirked, she was excited about the screams of pain, she would get to listen to while she left the helpless creatures behind as she moved on. Music to her ears.
“Carlos leads the other grand Ghouls out, and behind her, collect the bodies she leaves behind, and bring them back to me as we travel, I will be along shortly. Recruit other ghouls to do the carrying if you like.” Athen ordered.
“Yes, my lord,” Carlos replied.
The three leave to carry out their mission. Athen finished up the rest a few seconds later. The newly enhanced Ghouls stood up and started shuffling around.
“Good, very good.” He said. “I need one of you in here at a time. The rest can go out and hunt, but this will be where you come back to during the day, so don’t wander too far my pets.” He smiled, his plan was going really well, and now he was going to make even more EXP. These ghouls would be even more dangerous than their normal compatriots, they were more likely to create wild Dungeons which would link up to any other Dungeon he created eventually. That would allow his high-tier ghouls to move back and forth. It was a great way to power up all of his Pantheon’s Dungeons with very little work on his part. This would be impossible if the gods were around to stop it but even for them it would take a long time to raise an army to stop him, and all that time he would just be growing.
“I’m leaving now. You are very lucky knights, you get to serve me in death," He said to the now purple glowing-eyed knights. "There is no greater honor. You get to serve a Rogue god, you should be proud. When I awaken my Pantheon this entire city will be mine. Well ours, I will come back for you then.”
Athen looked to the back door of the building, then walked over to it. He heard nothing, and the mana was strongest there. He tried to open the door, but couldn’t. The one thing he hated about being a vampire was needing to be invited into a sapient’s home, or safe place. He banged on the door, and it shook. He banged harder, and again. A third time, a fourth. If someone was in there they would still have to deal with his new pets so he wasn’t too worried.
“Hmm, looks like I have to be invited into this room. That is a well-made structure.” He shrugged. “I don’t have time for your door. See you when I come back for my enhanced ghouls.” A good base of operation was hard to find. He walked out with seven of the Enhanced Ghouls following him. He felt great, being a vampire had many more pros than cons.