Now that Vaeda was back and I had gained a new skill it was time to head deeper into the mausoleum. A quick status check first.
“Status”
Name: Gregory Sol Age: 21 Sex: Male Race: Human Level: 15 Class: Necromancer Buffs: None Debuffs: Starving Health: 45/45 (-5) Mana: 125/300 (175 in use) Health Regen: 0 Health Per Hour Mana Regen: 15 Mana Per Hour STR 5 INT 60 WIS 15 PERC 3 VIT 9 (-1) END 2 AGI 2 DEX 2 WILL 32 CTRL 80 (65 in use)
I had put four points into vitality nearly doubling my health so I could take a couple more hits. I then put four points into intelligence and the final two into control all to help out my new skill. Speaking of which I should probably give my skill list a look.
“Skill list”
Gregory Sol's Skills: Soul Chamber Unique Passive Beginner 3 Host absorbs the souls of enemies after defeating them in combat. The host then stores the soul in a soul chamber within their own soul. Souls can be used for a variety of purposes host may unlock as they level up the skill. Summon Familiar Exotic Active Intermediate 2
The host can summon a familiar to aid them in exchange for a portion of the host’s mana pool. Cost: 50 Mana.
Control Undead Exotic Active Intermediate 3 (+2)
It allows the host to control all forms of undead. Each undead host controls takes a portion of the host’s mana. The number of the undead host can control is based on the control stat. Every undead type will require a different amount of control and mana.
Manipulate Shadow Uncommon Active Intermediate 5 It allows the host to manipulate shadows. Cost: Varies Cloak Of Shadows Unique Active Beginner 1
The host creates a cloak of shadows to surround their body making them harder to spot. Makes host appear blurry and like a shadow. Cost: 30 Mana
Duration: 30 minutes/Cooldown: 30 minutes
Create Golem Core (New) Rare Active Beginner 1
The host can create a golem core out of their mana. Golem’s strength is dependent on how much mana host uses to create the core.
I had chosen Create Golem Core. I know I needed an attacking skill but with Cloak of Shadows, I figured I would be doing more sneaking around and finishing off enemies rather than taking on armies of undead single-handedly. I was a group fighter and I needed to start rounding out my group. I had a scout in the form of Vaeda, I could be like a sneaky hit and runner, I had the Alpha as our guy to rush in and fuck some stuff up, and the goons were just more damage dealers. All I really needed was a ranged attacker, a healer, and a tank. I was hoping my new skill would grant me the tank I desperately needed.
“Create Golem Core”
Mana begins to leave my core and a small glass ball begins to form in my hands. I wanted to always keep at least thirty mana on me at all times in case I needed to use Cloak of Shadows. I then let the non-alpha rusher and skeletal grunt out from my control and killed it. This earned me a little bit of experience and two minor souls. That ended up giving me 150 mana to use to create this core. So I poured as much as I could into this tiny marble until it was about the size of one of my eyes. I looked at my status.
“Status”
Congratulations to Host for creating: Golem Core (Common)
“Hey Vaeda, now what do I do with this?” I asked him.
“Just place it into a pile of some materials and it will create its own body”
Alrighty then. I looked around the room and all we really had was some broken wood planks laying around and I didn’t think a wooden golem would be all that helpful. The only other material we had a lot of was well organic. I walked over to the corner where we had put the four zombie rusher corpses and I placed the golem core on top of the small pile of bodies and stood back. The corpses begin to spin around faster and faster ripping apart until it was a tornado of blood, bone, and flesh with the golem core at the center. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The tornado began to slowly compress into a ball about 4 feet in diameter. It floated onto the ground and four limbs started protruding out of the ball. Two large arms with three blocky fingers formed this golem’s hands and it had legs like an elephant minus any toes or claws. Its legs were just like tree trunks without any feet. It was a mismatched mess of flesh and bones. Some parts of it had bones sticking out of it and other parts were just bloody muscles without any skin covering it. Even though it was a bipedal creature it didn’t look even remotely human. It didn’t have a head and you could see the core which I assumed was a safety thing for it. It wasn’t as big as I thought it would end up being but I couldn’t complain. It was roughly the size of an NFL quarterback, so much bigger than me but only about half a head taller than my Alpha and more muscular looking.
“Hey, buddy how you doing?” I asked the golem.
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It just continued to stand there unmoving. I told it to follow me unsure if it could even hear considering it didn’t have any ears.
“I’ma call you big guy. That cool with you?” I said.
“You are aware it can’t talk right?” Vaeda remarked.
“Shut up Vaeda. Don’t ruin my moment with the new guy.” I fired back.
We both started laughing and then we decided to head out and explore the rest of the mausoleum today. I found a short sword and put that in my hoodie pocket and left behind the scabbard and sword I had been using. I wanted to try being sneakier and more stealthy. Eventually, we reached the spot where I had fought the alpha yesterday. Everything past this point would be new territory. I ordered the big guy to the front of our formation then me with Vaeda perched on my shoulders and then the Alpha Zombie Rusher holding up the back. I wasn’t worried about being attacked from behind but better safe than sorry and the Alpha was fast enough to be able to quickly get to the front of our party formation if needed.
Our party continued down the long hallway until we arrived at a huge set of stone double doors. Vaeda warned me that we might see combat on the other side and to be careful. I activated Cloak of Shadows and told the big guy to open the door. The golem pushed it open and what greeted my eyes was another dimly lit storeroom but double the size of the starting room. There were zombies everywhere moving crates and carrying things while three Alpha Zombie Rushers oversaw them all. There were about 20 total zombies in the room. When the door opened up they all stopped moving and stared at my party. Then they went right back to work. I walked into the room as Vaeda tried whispering to me asking what I was doing.
“Relax dude I’m just checking something,” I whispered to Vaeda. He got off my shoulder and landed on the Alpha’s head.
I stuck to the walls hugging them as I made my way over to a zombie. I got within 10 feet of it and it still hadn’t noticed me. How effective was my Cloak of Shadows? I knew that it made me look blurry but this was ridiculous. Once I got close enough to start smelling the zombie it turned around and it seemed like it was looking through me. It started sniffing the air. Could the undead sense life or something? I stopped in my tracks and held my breath. It slowly limped over to me and when it got within 5 feet of me it finally realized there was indeed something right in front of it even if it couldn’t see it. Once it was right in front of me it started groaning and I knew I had to do something. I walked around it, pulled out my short sword and stabbed it in the head.
The host has defeated an enemy in combat (x1)
Experience awarded.
Minor Soul absorbed (x1)
It dropped to the ground with a thud and the Alpha Rushers all turned towards the sound. I think they finally noticed me. I swiftly started shuffling my way back to my party and only let out my breath when I made it back to them safely. We turned around and marched back down the hallway to the first room. We had a plan to craft.
“Hey, Vaeda is there any way to prevent the blue boxes from popping up while I’m in combat?”
“Yeah just set your system notifications to OFF during combat,” he said.
“It can’t be that simple” I mumbled to myself.
I then brought up my system preferences and disabled notifications during combat so it would wait until I was safely out of combat before they would start appearing. About an hour later Vaeda and I had crafted up a plan, it wasn’t a great one but it was the best we could come up with. We reached the big room again and the zombies were still moving stuff around. I activated Cloak of Shadows and started sneaking around the room towards where the three alphas were stationed. I snuck up behind them and hid while I waited for Vaeda to do his thing. He flies into the room and begins flying around making a ton of noise and alerting all the zombies. They drop what they’re doing and one of the Alphas lets out a roar signaling the rest of the zombies to attack.
As soon as Vaeda alerted them all I leaped into action charging at the nearest Alpha. It couldn’t hear me over Vaeda yelling so I lunged forward and plunged my short sword into its head instantly killing it. I went to assassinate the next Alpha but it turned around and stared right at me, not through me. Fuck I think I’ve been found. It goes to grab me and I dodge out of the way and begin racing across the room towards my minions.
“Attack!”
My Alpha roars and charges into the room and begins just brutally ripping at the flesh of the other zombies. Then the big guy comes in and he gets swarmed by 15 zombies. They surround him and for a moment I’m worried how he’ll do in his role as a tank. A zombie latches on to his arm and tries biting into it. He casually flicks his arm sending the zombie into a wall and all that’s left of it is a crumpled up bloody mess. I guess my fear was baseless it’s not just holding its own it’s destroying the rushers at an unbelievable rate. I run over to my Alpha and tell it to make us a path through the zombie encirclement. It dashes forward and shoulder checks a regular rusher out of the way.
We finally break through and Vaeda flies over and hovers around us. Now me, Vaeda, the Alpha and the big guy are all back to back Avengers style surrounded by 12 zombie rushers and 2 Alpha rushers. This is going to be a tough fight.
The zombies seem to be waiting for us to attack first so I figure might as well give them what they want.
“KILL THEM ALL” I yell as I slash towards the zombie closest to me.
It runs at me and I use its own momentum to shove it past me. It collides head first into the big guy’s chest. And without moving an inch he reaches his giant three-pronged hand down and squishes the zombie’s head. Wow, that was cool. My Alpha is engaged with three zombies so I run over to it to support it. One of the zombies is reaching its claws towards my Alpha so I slash down with my short sword and manage to sever its hand from its wrist and follow it up with stab between the eyes killing it. Then I watch as my Alpha uses its claws to slash the other two zombies necks and their heads come clean off.
As this is happening Vaeda swoops in and uses his talons to rip a zombie's eyes out of its sockets. The zombie slumps down and I order the Alpha to finish it off. I look to see how the big guy is faring and I see him swinging a rusher around like a baseball bat creating destruction in his wake. Ten minutes go by and the only zombie left is the Alpha. I order big guy to hold him down and have my Alpha rip it to shreds. As it lets out a final defiant roar I realize it's over.
I look over at the crew and boy do we look like we’ve seen better days. Vaeda is missing chunks of feathers and is covered in crusted over blood. Does the Alpha Rusher Zombie look the same? It was already a rotting corpse so I don’t think it can really get worse. My armor is in lying around me all the buckles and straps had snapped. My jeans are more like shorts at this point with how many holes are in it. My hoodie is in worse shape. It has a huge tear on the front of it. I take off my hoodie and notice that my shirt is also torn and I have a huge scratch across my chest that is bleeding. I don’t even remember getting hit though. I wipe some brain matter off my face and run my fingers through my hair picking out pieces of flesh and bone. My hair feels greasy and is drenched in blood and sweat. I’m glad my nose stopped working a while ago I can’t even imagine what I smell like.
I glance around the room at the carnage. There are limbs strewn about everywhere with zombie corpses missing whole parts of them. Blood and chunks of flesh litter the floor. This room looks like a massacre happened here. And amongst it all is the big guy pushing the corpses into a pile. He is missing huge parts of himself and even missing his left arm. Those zombies did a number on him but he fulfilled his role as a tank.
“Vaeda what the hell is he doing?”
“If I had to guess I imagine it's getting ready to repair itself. Also, you are aware golems don’t have genders right?”
“Repair itself? It can do that? Also yes I am aware golems don’t have genders. I don’t know man he just seems like well he.” I reply.
“Okay, Greg whatever you say.”
A blue box appears right in front of me.
The host has defeated an enemy in combat (x2)
Experience awarded.
Minor soul absorbed (x2)
Host’s minion has defeated an enemy in combat (x17)
Experience awarded.
Minor soul absorbed (x17)
LVL UP
LVL UP
LVL UP
9 Stat points available.
I feel the golden warmth go over me as my chest wound knit itself shut. I needed to invest my stat points, but first I was going to take a nap right where I was sitting.