Tom walked behind Abaddon as they entered the museum. A small group of zombies shambled towards them, their rotting bodies doing a better job of keeping them away than any ability.
"Do you think the cops will manage ok?" Skippy asked
"Do you actually care?" Tom asked.
"I mean, not really. I just couldn't think about anything to talk about." Skippy admitted.
"Really, you can't think of anything to talk about?!" Tom asked, summoning a collection of glowing butterflies to his hands. That would heal the others.
"We've been talking about this shit for the last … how long has it been two days? I want to talk about something else, something normal." Skippy said as he stabbed a zombie in the skull.
"Okay, then I can get on with that. What's the best snack?" Alex asked, joining the conversation as she caught a cluster of undead in a grease spell. Then he ignited the grease, causing the undead to be roasted as they tried and failed to regain their footing in the grease fire.
"Potato chips, hands down," Tom said
"No way it's Jerky," Abaddon said. He punched a zombie's head, blasting the skull apart and sending bits of rotting brain matter across the room.
"Popcorn," Skippy said.
"I don't know. I think Candy might be the best." Alex said.
"Candy? That's not a proper snack; it's just a sugar rush," Abaddon said as he kicked an undead that was getting close, knocking it to the ground.
"Yeah, I've got to agree with Abaddon; for someone with a six-year-old sister, candy is not a good snack," Tom said.
"Alright, how about those granola bars then." Alex pivoted
"The chocolate-covered ones are so good." Skippy agreed as they moved deeper into the museum.
"And healthy and tasty." Tom agreed, " Chloe loves those ones. Also, those fruit bars are good, too."
"Granola bars are boring as hell." Abaddon said, "They're only good if you add chocolate to them. That's why jerky is better. It has protein. It lasts a long time. It tastes good, And it's meat."
"What about potato chips? We got a million flavors; they're crunchy, and they taste good."
"Chips are good as a side," Abaddon admitted.
"No, you don't want potato chips. If you eat potato chips, you'll just end up eating a million chips, and you'll end up fat," Skippy said. "What about nuts?"
"I think you're leaning too much into the whole squirrel thing a bit too hard," Tom said as they moved into the dinosaur exhibit.
Large plastic dinosaurs littered the ground of the exhibit.
"Do you think we'll find real dinosaurs one day?" Tom asked hopefully.
He never got any responses as gunfire echoed through the museum.
"I think the cops found the zombies," Skippy said.
That's when they heard it.
Boom Boom Boom
They felt the vibration more than they heard it as something big moved towards them. Luke quickly cast a barrier to refract the light, basically a group invisibility spell. As they readied for a fight. They watched as a massive Undead T-rex rounded the corner. Its eyes were bloodshot and weeping pus. The saliva dripping from its mouth was frothy, like it was rabid. Its skin was a sickly green color; chunks of skin and muscle looked like they had been torn out, allowing them to see its bones and still functioning organs on the inside of its ruined body.
Tom immediately used [Thirst for Knowledge], riding through the headache.
DING!!!
Name: P-Rex (Plague Rex)
Titles: Lair Boss Monster
Level: 20
Race Class: T-Rex 10, Plague Beast 10
Type: Avian / Undead
HP: 16,000 / 16,000
MP: 450
Stamina:
Immune: Mind, Disease, Poison, Critical hits, Physical
Resistances: Frost, Air
Weak: Lightning, Earth, Fire
Bane: Vitality, Bird Slayer, Undead Slayer
T-Rex Skills: Crunch, Top Heavy, Kings Constitution, Charge, Stomp, Tyranny
Plague Beast Skills: Undying Focus, Biohazard, Touch of Plague, Rotting Body, Scream of Horror, Armored Skin
A T-Rex has transformed into a terrifying creature of undeath and disease. This creature exists only to spread the disease and infect more people. It is permanently enraged and will try to kill anything it comes across.
"It's an undead bird?" Tom said.
"Well, at least we found the boss," Skippy whispered.
"Resist Disease," Tom whispered, casting it on everyone in their group as he passed the identification along to the rest of the group.
The P-Rex turned to look at their position, and they moved. Abaddon immediately leapt out from behind the barrier, charging the monster directly. He let out a [Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum] as he charged, buffing them all immediately and drawing aggro.
Skippy shot out just behind Abaddon, his swords drawn and glowing as he powered up a [Sundering Strike].
Tom and Alex took a simpler approach. Alex immediately cast a flame lance and then used multicast to fire off two more. Tom meanwhile cast Sunbeam. Before the P-rex even had time to register their appearance, it had three massive spears of flame impact its head before exploding. The P-Rex roared in outrage, not even noticing that Tom had burned a line through its flesh with his sunbeam spell. Abaddon leapt at the monster's head, punching it directly in its burning face.
"Charge!!" Skippy roared as he charged the P-Rex's feet, only to have to block as the thesaurus tail smacked him aside.
The P-rex roared in outrage, focusing on Abaddon as he punched it in the face. The undead dinosaur turned faster than anyone thought it could, snapping up Abaddon into its rotting jaws. Its putrid teeth sinking deeper and deeper into his friend's scaly hide.
"Abaddon!!" Tom called out, immediately switching from attacking to casting healing and purification spells on Abaddon.
Alex kept pouring on the fire spells while Skippy kept on hacking at the legs as the P-rex turned towards Tom and Alex. Despite being turned into a chew toy, Abaddon wasn't giving in. his muscles ballooned outwards as he pried the jaws open. He looked ridiculous, in Tom's opinion, like a cartoonish impression of a strong man with inflated muscles. But he was forcing the P-rex's mouth open until the jaws glowed black.
Before Tom could do anything, he opened his eyes wide in panic, and the Rex's jaw snapped shut with a crunch. It was only a second, but for Tom, it felt like an eternity as the Rex swallowed Abaddon's broken body before turning to stare at him hungrily.
"Oh fuck." Tom muttered as the P-rex unleashed a breath attack, carrying with it a disease that would rot their bones while they were alive.
Tom and Alex threw up a two-layered shield of Fire and Light. Tom really hoped the shields would burn out all of the pestilence. The P-rex stopped exhaling pestilence and instead charged them, each footstep echoing as it picked up speed.
Alex and Tom immediately did five things: they dropped the shields.
Alex immediately cast the biggest Pyro Trap spell she could. At the same time, Tom cast invisibility and illusionary copy on both of them. Then the two turned and ran in opposite directions as the P-Rex charged their body doubles. They didn't even need to speak.
<[Bright Arts] has Reached Level 26>
<[Bright Arts] has Reached Level 27>
"Well, no time like the present to improve," Tom breathed as the P-rex bit down on the illusions he had left behind.
Immediately, the trap spells detonated, unleashing three consecutive explosions of fire into the boss's neck. The P-rex roared in anger as it looked around for its missing prey. Its blacked neck cracked with every movement as it searched for them.
However, Tom didn't care anymore. He had finally gotten what he wanted. Pulling the scroll from his inventory, he immediately tried to manipulate the paper and the ink. It took him a moment to convert what he knew in the game into life, and he even got a few levels of earth and water magic for the failed attempts. But finally, he got the notifications.
<[Art of Earth] has Reached Level 5>
<[Art of Earth] has Reached Level 6>
<...>
<[Art of Earth] has Reached Level 11>
<[Art of Water] has Reached Level 8>
<[Art of Water] has Reached Level 9>
<...>
<[Art of Water] has Reached Level 11>
DING!!
Congratulations, you have unlocked the Magic Sub element Wood.
Wood is a sub element of earth and a bit of water magic. Wood Magic skill level is determined by combining your earth and water magic skill levels and then dividing by 2.
DING!!
Congratulations, you have unlocked the Magic Sub Sub element Paper.
Paper Magic is a subelement of Wood Magic. Paper Magic skill level is determined by Wood Magic skill level.
DING!!
Congratulations, you have unlocked the Magic Sub element Oil.
Oil is a sub element of Water and Earth magic. The Oil Magic skill level is determined by combining your earth and water magic skill levels and then dividing by 2.
DING!!
Congratulations, you have unlocked the Magic Sub Sub element Ink.
Ink Magic is a sub element of Oil Magic. Ink Magic skill level is determined by Oil Magic skill level.
The scroll Tom had just pulled from his inventory responded to his magic, floating up into the air at his command. The mana expenditure was barely noticeable. Tom then tried to alter the ink on the page, and he immediately ruined the scroll, causing a small pop as it exploded.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Shit,” Tom swore as the P-Rex turned to face him.
Alright, maybe he couldn’t alter the scrolls in combat, but he could still fling them around like ninja stars.
Summoning a dozen scrolls of fireball from his inventory, Tom sent the scrolls flying towards the P-rex as it charged him. The scrolls flew unerringly but painfully slowly towards the beast's head before the spell forms activated. A dozen fireballs roared into existence before exploding directly in the boss's face.
BOOOM
The P-Rex roared in outrage as its rotten eyes boiled and popped. The flesh on it had mostly been burned away, leaving the white bone exposed as it charged at him.
Tom leapt to the side as the P-rex barreled past him, its tail clipping him as it charged past him, sending him rolling across the floor.
One of the groups that Major Adams had brought with him showed up. Four of the officers immediately started to fire at the monster. At the same time, the fifth witch, Chester, raced over to his side and began to apply a low-level healing spell to his body.
"Don't worry, I've got you," Chester said.
"Get those morons away from the boss," Tom tried to get out. But it was too late.
The P-rex roared out in rage as it swung its tail at the officer. There was a sickening crack as all four officers were sent flying with bone-breaking force.
"You guys can't group up like that," Tom muttered.
Tom tossed Chester off of him as he pulled out another dozen scrolls ready when the P-rex suddenly vomited a deluge of blood and other sick. Tom watched as the P-rex's stomach started to expand, bulging and growing larger and larger as it bloated outwards disgustingly before exploding in a deluge of foul liquids and rot. Abaddon tore himself out of the boss monster's stomach, completely covered in bile and gore. He all but belly-flopped, and he dragged himself out of the boss's stomach, gasping and gagging for air.
Tom cast a splash of water into his friend's face to give him a breath of fresh air … water. Abaddon sputtered but was no longer gagging. The lizard man rose to his feet and then kept rising. Abaddon now stood over fifteen feet tall and was proportionally muscled instead of the ballon muscles he had been sporting earlier.
The P-rex roared in outrage. Completely ignoring the fact that its entire stomach had just exploded open, and it was now trailing its guts behind it as it circled Abaddon. Abaddon leapt at the undead dinosaur. Punching it in the head with a [Giga Impact]. The P-rex head snapped backwards. Before the P-rex could even regain its footing, Abaddon grabbed the head and its jaw and pulled. Since the jaw was barely holding onto the head at this point, it tore with a horrific ripping sound as Abaddon ripped the P-rex jaw straight off before he slammed the massive beast's head to the ground and began to repeatedly punch it in the face. They didn't waste any time as Tom, Skippy, and Alex all took the opportunity to pour on the damage as the P-rex struggled to get out of Abaddon's iron grip.
Eventually, even the P-rex's massive HP pool failed, as Abaddon turned its skull into a pool of disgusting slop.
DING!!!
You and your party have defeated the Plague Rex (Lair Boss).
Congratulations: Your Party has earned the Settlement Reward: Skeleton of the Ancients.
Skeleton of the Ancients: This Skeleton of a now-extinct creature brings a sense of wonder and adventure to anyone who sees it. It calls the power of the ancients back to life and may threaten to overwhelm anyone who does not respect that power.
"Well, that was a bit more exciting than we bargained for," Tom muttered.
"That fight was bullshit!!" Skippy protested. "None of my attacks worked against that thing."
"Do you want to be eaten next time?" Abaddon asked, trying and failing to get the muck of his body.
"Touche. I don't know about scales, but do you have any idea how hard it is to take care of wet fur? It's a pain in the ass. I'm siding with the cats, fuck baths."
Tom cast a wash spell to clean Abaddon as he shrunk back down to his semi-normal height of seven feet. All joking aside, Abaddon was the only person with proper disease resistance and full-on poison immunity. Along with regeneration, a high constitution, and high endurance, he was the only person who could have survived being eaten by the P-rex.
"What the fuck happened?" Major Bailey Adams asked, running up to them and finding his injured comrades, Tom's group looking fine and the massive putrefied corpse of the P-rex.
"Bad match up, immune to physical damage," Tom said with a shrug as he started to cast healing spells on the Majors' men. Friends? Co-workers?
Skippy would need to pick an ability to deal with that issue. The officers had it worse. Skippy already knew that he needed them, but guns, or more accurately the bullets the guns fired, were too far removed from the user for their skills to work. So they would need specially made guns or enchanted bullets to kill something like the P-rex.
"So what do we do now?" Bailey asked as the settlement core appeared above the P-Rex corpse.
"You can grab the core and give it to someone with a leadership class. Once they own the settlement, they can do what they want with it. My group will clean ourselves up and look around to see if there's any loot. In the meantime, burn any corpses. Once you feel ready, we can move on to the next place," Tom said
Tom pulled out his phone and uploaded the video of their attack on the lair.
“What are you doing?” The Major asked.
“Uploading a video of us beating the lair to YouTube. Figured it’s more efficient than giving speeches in the gym all day.” Tom said. "Skippy, make sure to grab all the loot."
"Oh really, I wouldn't have thought of that." Skippy drawled sarcastically.
Skippy, Abaddon, and Alex ransacked the museum grabbing anything with a system window attached to it, to the annoyed gaze of the officers. Fortunately, no one on Bailey's team was willing to pick a fight with them after seeing the P-rex. They scoured the museum for any other loot. They didn't find much; most of it was some native American-styled weapons, a proper T-rex skull; it didn't do anything; Tom just thought it was cool, and almost three dozen skill books for various crafting and weapon skills. That was the real prize, and it would help them jumpstart their guild into a proper fighting force.
When they finally returned to the entrance, they found Major Adams.
"Hey, Major!" Tom called out.
Major Adams nodded to him as he walked over. "I'm glad to see everyone walking away from this one alive," Adams said, nodding.
"Nothing too bad this time, just a disease-infested undead T-Rex," Skippy said sarcastically.
The Major pointedly ignored Skippy's comment. "Now, come on, I want you to meet with the new administrator for this settlement."
He led Tom and everyone else out of the entrance. First responders were already removing the bodies.
"Do you think these used to be people?" Adams asked. As they walked past a rotting corpse, it was so decomposed that he could see its skeleton.
"Maybe, but I don't think they're from Earth," Tom muttered as a rotund man walked up to them.
"I have to thank you again, Major Adams, for acquiring us a safe harbor so quickly," a fat man said as he waddled into the museum's ruins.
"I once again have to point out that we received this settlement from the Awoken Myths guild, sir." Major Adams pointed out.
"My boy, there is no need to be so modest." the fat ass said as he wandered around with the settlement core in his hand like he owned the place. Though he guessed that since he was literally holding the Settlements core in his hand, he actually owned the place.
Tom used [Thirst for Knowledge]
DING!!!
Name: Mr. Brindley (Lewis Brindley)
Titles: None
Level: 1
Class: Politician 1
Type: Humanoid
HP: 130
MP: 140
Stamina: 150
Immune: None
Resistances: None
Weak: None
Bane: Manslayer
Personal Skills: Pursuit Hunter, Storyteller
Politician Skills: Center of Attention
A career politician hoping that everything will return to normal soon.
"So this is the guy you want to put in charge of a settlement?" Tom asked Major Adams as people filed into the museum. "Are you sure about that?"
"He's a Legal counselor for the city of Surrey." Major Adams admitted.
"I see this is the child, yes?" Mr.Brindly cut into their conversation.
"I'm the guild leader for Awoken myths," Tom said bluntly as he stuck his chest out to try and make himself look big.
"Yes, I suppose so." Mr.Brindly said snidely.
Where the hell did this guy get off? He could flatten him with a thought, and this asshole was being passive-aggressive? Tom gave Mr.Brindley a week before someone thrashed him, a month till someone killed him.
"And what makes you think you can manage a settlement?" Tom asked curiously.
"I am a duly elected councilor of Surry. And I have been a civil servant for nearly thirty years." Mr.Brindly stated as if that meant something in their current situation.
"Uh-hu," Tom said. "Well, let's go over your settlement options, and we can talk about your optio---"
"Thank you, but I've already decided on those. I already have the Safe Zone at rank 10, and then I cleaned up the museum for another five points."
"You blew sixty points already?!" Tom asked in shock.
It might seem a bit hypocritical, considering how he spent settlement points like water. But he had built hundreds of settlements and had long since memorized all of the myriad options for purchase.
More importantly, he knew how to get more settlement points. He somehow doubted that Brindly knew any of this. Even if all the online information about the legend of Noralon hadn't been scrubbed, he suspected this guy wouldn't have even checked before he spent the points.
" I already told you guys not to focus on the Safe Zone. It's an imperfect defense." Tom protested. "Hell, it doesn't even do anything against other people."
"I already have a contingent of officers patrolling the building. Along with the zone. I think we should be more than safe." Mr.Brindly said, dismissing him as he turned his eyes to the rest of his friends.
Tom was about to argue, but he decided to ignore the idiot. He would wait until he died and then take all his stuff. It was that, or gouge out his eyes for staring at Alex's chest like a horney teenager. Was it hypocritical to complain about someone staring at his friend, who now looked very hot when he was doing the same things? Probably. Would he let that stop him from flattening someone who messed with his friends? Not in the least.
"We'll be outside when you and your people want to head to the next settlement," Tom said, wrapping his arm protectively around Alex as they all walked out of the building.
Alex leaned into him and smiled.
"Someone jealous?" she asked.
Tom blushed and almost let go before he stopped himself.
"Why are we leaving this settlement in that asshole's hands?" Skippy asked, breaking into Tom's thoughts before they could spiral when they left the building.
"We aren't," Tom said. "Most of the people Major Adams puts in charge will fuck it up, a monster horde and the blood moon will overwhelm their defences, or they'll make a mistake with the settlement interphase, or maybe they'll just become tyrants. And when they do, we can swoop in and add the settlement to our own faction. Once we get big enough, we can pressure the rest to join us." Tom said nonchalantly.
"That's pretty Machiavellian." Abaddon pointed out nervously.
"Hey, now I've offered to give them advice. They ignored it," Tom said as they wandered outside. "Alright, new question: What are your top three video games?"
"Does the legend of Noralon still count? I mean, the game is basically real life now, so …" Alex trailed off.
"Let's ignore Legend of Noralon. I'll go first. Number 1 is Minecraft," Tom said.
"Everyone loves Minecraft," Skippy said. "Hell, I downloaded the game on every computer in the school."
"Number 2 is Skyrim," Tom kept going. "Because it's Skyrim."
"Oh my god, that was a good game," Alex said. "You remember when we added that mod so we could all run around in the same game."
"That thing was buggy as all hell," Abaddon chuckled as they sat outside.
They sat there until Major Adams came out, just talking about video games until they moved on to the next settlement. As they were going, Skippy asked a question.
"Anyone know where Luke went?"
You may skip to the next chapter.
Name: Abaddon (Hector)
Race: Lizard Man
Type: Humanoid / Giant
LVL: 18
SubRace: Alligator
Age 18
Health: 2340
Stamina: 3650
Mana: 360
Health Regen: 21.6 per min
Stamina Regen: 36.0 per min
Mana Regen: 7.2 per min
Titles: Beta Tester, First, Awoken Myths
Immune
Poison
Resistances
Physical, Disease, Crit 42%
Weakness
Mind, Frost
Bane
Manslayer, Giant Slayer
Classes: Giantslayer 18
Total
STR: 118
AGIL: 54
DEX: 18
CON: 162
END: 144
PER: 72
INT: 18
WILL: 18
SPIRIT: 54
EGO: 18
CHA: 18
LCK: 18
Base
STR: 108 +10%
AGIL: 54
DEX: 18
CON: 162
END: 144
PER: 72
INT: 18
WILL: 18
SPIRIT: 54
EGO: 18
CHA: 18
LCK: 18
Personal: +4 END, +3 STR, +3 CON, +2 PER +2 SPIRIT
Racial: +3 END, +2 STR, +2 CON +1 PER
Bloodline: +3 CON
Giantslayer Skills: +2 AGIL
Level Bonus: +1 to all Stats
Bloodline:
[Bloodline of the Lesser Hydra] - Rare: The distilled essence of what makes a lesser hydra, a lesser hydra, regenerating from gruesome wounds, surviving having critical organs damaged, killing people just by bleeding on them, and being immune to and enjoying the consumption of poison.
- [Regeneration] - Level N/A
- [Redundant Organs] - Level 1 >> Level 42
- [Toxic Blood] - Level 1 >> Level 16
- [Poison Connoisseur] - Level 1 >> Level 29
- +3 CON per level
Skill Slots: 17/60: Skill Points: 1
Personal Skills
- [Natural Arms and Armour] - Level N/A
- [Aquatic Predator] - Level 2 >> Level 11
- [Storage] - Level 23 >> Level 29
- [Mapping] - Level 11 >> Level 26
- [System Wiki] - Level 10 >> Level 23
- [Siegebreaker] - Level 22 >> Level 25
- [Basic Alchemy] - Level 1 >> Level 7
Giantslayer 10/16
- [Immortal Fists] - Level 25 >> Level 33
- [Monster Lifeforce (Giant)] - N/A
- [Giant Slayer] - N/A
- [Second Stage] - Level 8 >> Level 9
- [Endless Brawler] - Level 17 >> Level 23
- Capstone: [Legendary Strength] - Level N/A
- [Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum] - Level 9 >> Level 21
- [Charge] - Level 5 >> Level 23
- [Giga Impact] - Level 3 >> Level 18
- [Enlarge] - Level 5