Isabelle watched her five newly raised undead Cloud Reach guards and Ozian Sect warriors clamber to their bloodied and bruised feet. They each drew their weapons and readied themselves to charge toward the huge, swirling amalgamation of statue pieces and elemental blades that was their target.
[Mana 42%]
Hey, Isabelle still had a good deal of mana! Maybe she could reanimate a couple more of these corpses on the marble palace floor.
[324 damage dealt]
[222 damage dealt]
[452 damage dealt]
[401 damage dealt]
[446 damage dealt]
[321 damage dealt]
Woah. It was awesome to watch the guards charge forward and do all the fighting for her. Isabelle smiled at her party members. Tahsi was, unsurprisingly, stuffing his face with bread. Sir Jingles was talking to himself about whether he ought to change out of his mega puma form. Yes, Isabelle thought, her party was a little useless in fights. But at least she wasn’t. She looked back to see the moving mass of statue pieces thrashing its blades at the guards, but with so many moving targets it was difficult for the monster to keep up. Sure, a corpse would lose an arm there, or a head there, but they just kept swinging at the damn thing anyway.
[334 damage dealt]
[458 damage dealt]
[493 damage dealt]
[421 damage dealt]
[387 damage dealt]
[353 damage dealt]
[404 damage dealt]
[288 damage dealt]
[322 damage dealt]
[436 damage dealt]
[476 damage dealt]
[449 damage dealt]
Isabelle yawned. This was almost getting a little too easy! Could she really just sit back and watch the guards she’d worked so hard to kill take out this monstrous enemy for her, all the while taking all the damage without so much as a reaction to pain?
[Raise Dead Duration Remaining: 0:21]
[Raise Dead Duration Remaining: 0:38]
[Raise Dead Duration Remaining: 0:38]
[Raise Dead Duration Remaining: 0:38]
[Raise Dead Duration Remaining: 0:38]
[Raise Dead Duration Remaining: 0:38]
Okay, so at some point the corpses would run out of animation, sure. And Isabelle wasn’t certain she ought to spend the rest of her mana on another round, despite the amount of damage dealt, because she couldn’t tell if the zombie guards would be strong enough to fully take the beast down.
After a few more slashes dealt by the guards and by the statue beast, something had changed in the room. The swirling mass of statue pieces and elemental blades shook and quivered. It shot beams of poison, beams of flame, and beams of lightning out from its center. Each beam reamed through a corpse, exploding its body to bits.
[Raise Dead Spell Cancelled]
[Raise Dead Spell Cancelled]
[Raise Dead Spell Cancelled]
Fuck’s sake. So with enough damage even the corpses weren’t safe. Still, the statue beast seemed to be losing power. With each beam of energy it shot out of itself, more pieces of statue stopped swirling around and fell lifelessly to the floor.
[Mana 46%]
“Hey! You two!” Isabelle called to Sir Jingles and Tahsi. “Stop picking your noses and come fight this thing! It looks like it’s on its last leg!”
“I’m not picking my nose, I’m eating bread,” said Tahsi. “Also, I don’t really have a nose. It’s more like just two nostril holes on my face.”
“Yea,” said Sir Jingles. “And if I were to pick my nose, I’d probably stab myself with these huge puma claws.”
Before Isabelle could say anything more to express her frustration at her party, a beam of fire shot out and blasted over her.
[-4 hp]
[Fire damage resisted]
Isabelle was relieved to see that she could still somewhat resist the flames with her amulet of fire resist, though she knew that if she’d been wearing her young red dragon armor it would probably have done nothing at all.
[225 damage dealt]
[201 damage dealt]
[241 damage dealt]
[Mana 51%]
Isabelle was really happy with her corpses. The three that remained were falling to bits, yet were still swinging their swords at the statue. With each hit, they knocked a little bit of statue out of the monster’s swirling mass, and it got smaller and smaller.
[185 damage dealt]
[167 damage dealt]
[193 damage dealt]
Although, as Isabelle noted, the weaker the reanimated corpses got, the less damage they did.
[Raise Dead Duration Remaining: 0:00]
[Raise Dead Duration Remaining: 0:00]
[Raise Dead Duration Remaining: 0:00]
Shit. All three of the zombies dropped to the palace floor in ragdoll heaps. Isabelle wondered if she ought to reanimate some more corpses. She looked at the mass of statue bits. More and more pieces of statue were tumbling away from it. Maybe she could take it out with a couple of destroy spells. Isabelle raised her left hand and thought ‘Cast Ice Blast,’ since that was a spell she could use that had an element the beast didn’t have any resistance to.
[Mana 45%]
Shards of ice shot out of Isabelle’s hand like sharpened bullets and rained over the shrinking mass of statue pieces. Its poisoned blade clattered to the ground.
[Critical hit]
[845 damage dealt]
[223 frost damage dealt]
Nice. Isabelle readied to cast another spell, but, for whatever reason, Tahsi decided now was time to attack. He grabbed a mace off the ground and charged towards the statue beast, slamming and bashing it three times before it raised its flaming sword and smacked him away with it like a fly.
[Tahsi -15 hp]
[Tahsi -5 hp fire damage]
Tahsi rolled on his back and groaned in agony. So much for his amazingly high stats, Isabelle thought.
[Error: No command ‘So much for his amazingly high stats’ exists.]
Isabelle rolled her eyes. She focused on the statue beast, raised her left hand again, and thought ‘Cast Ice Blast,’ intending to use as much mana as she could.
[Mana 12%]
A huge, pulsing beam of ice sprayed out of Isabelle’s hand and blasted into the statue monster. Its amalgamated body boiled and bubbled as the ice penetrated its core.
[Critical hit]
The flaming blade clattered to the floor. Soon after fell the electrified blade. The shuddering form of the statue beast squelched and sputtered.
[1304 damage dealt]
[405 frost damage dealt]
With a deafening boom that shook the whole room the swirling mass split into little pieces. Small fragments of statue rained down on the party.
[‘Statue Monster’ is dead]
[Combat mode deactivated]
[Armed combat increased to level 10]
[Destroy increased to level 7]
[Summon increased to level 1]
[Summon increased to level 2]
[Transmute increased to level 1]
[Transmute increased to level 2]
[Confuse increased to level 1]
[Confuse increased to level 2]
[Achievement Unlocked: Command a group of undead]
[Achievement Unlocked: Use undead to attack an enemy]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
Isabelle was thrilled. She didn’t know what might happen next, though, so she went ahead and shrugged in order to start up the leveling process. There was no way in hell she was letting combat mode force her out of leveling up this time!
[Notice: You’ve reached level 18!]
[hp restored to 50]
[Mana restored to 100%]
[Notice: You have attribute and skill points to spend]
[Would you like to spend your points now?]
[Y/N]
Isabelle thought yes.
Attribute Points to Spend: 12
Hp:
50
H-Regen:
3/35sec
Mana:
44
M-Regen:
2/45sec
Stm:
39
S-Regen:
0.5/sec
Twelve points! Isabelle was really moving up in the world, she thought. It was nice to get so many attribute points to add to her sheet for leveling up. Isabelle added one point to mana, one point to stm, and ten points to her hp.
Skill Points to Spend: 12
Str:
28
Int:
30
Dx:
28
Wis:
27
Const:
27
Char:
24
Isabelle wanted more str for sure, so she decided to put five points towards it. That still left her with seven points to spend! Isabelle figured her dx could use a boost. A big boost. A boost to the tune of six points. With one point left to spend, Isabelle decided to put it to her const.
[Congratulations, you’ve finished leveling up!]
Character Status
Name:
Isabelle
Gender:
Female
Level:
18
Class:
Undefined
Race:
Human
Alignment:
Neutral-Neutral
Attributes
Hp:
60
H-Regen:
3/35sec
Mana:
45
M-Regen:
2/45sec
Stm:
40
S-Regen:
0.5/sec
Skill Points
Str:
33
Int:
30
Dx:
34
Wis:
27
Const:
28
Char:
24
Magic Ability Levels
Enchant:
0
Summon:
2
Heal:
0
Destroy:
7
Transmute:
2
Confuse:
1
Normal Ability Levels
Crafting:
7
Sneak:
6
Archery:
8
Lockpick:
0
Armed Combat:
10
Melee Combat:
4
Speechcraft:
7
Sleight Of Hand:
3
[Notice: You’ve reached level 19!]
[Notice: You have attribute and skill points to spend]
[Would you like to spend your points now?]
[Y/N]
Holy shit. There really was nothing more satisfying than getting to level up twice in a row. Isabelle smiled as she thought yes.
Attribute Points to Spend: 12
Hp:
60
H-Regen:
3/35sec
Mana:
45
M-Regen:
2/45sec
Stm:
40
S-Regen:
0.5/sec
Twelve more points to spend. So much for having her attribute points rounded and balanced out, Isabelle thought. Then again, she couldn’t really complain. More points would always be better than less points. Isabelle decided she’d use five of them to shorten her m-regen a little, five to shorten her h-regen. That left two points. Isabelle decided she’d bump her mana and stm both up by one.
Skill Points to Spend: 12
Str:
33
Int:
30
Dx:
34
Wis:
27
Const:
28
Char:
24
Well, here she was again. Isabelle went ahead and added two to her const, so that it would be in the 30s just like her dx and str were. Then, she looked at the other column. She could use some more wis, Isabelle figured, so she put seven to that. That still left her with three points to spend! Isabelle put them into her char, because she was concerned that otherwise she might become a little bit stilted as a player.
Character Status
Name:
Isabelle
Gender:
Female
Level:
19
Class:
Undefined
Race:
Human
Alignment:
Neutral-Neutral
Attributes
Hp:
60
H-Regen:
3/30sec
Mana:
46
M-Regen:
2/40sec
Stm:
41
S-Regen:
0.5/sec
Skill Points
Str:
33
Int:
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
30
Dx:
34
Wis:
34
Const:
30
Char:
27
Magic Ability Levels
Enchant:
0
Summon:
2
Heal:
0
Destroy:
7
Transmute:
2
Confuse:
1
Normal Ability Levels
Crafting:
7
Sneak:
6
Archery:
8
Lockpick:
0
Armed Combat:
10
Melee Combat:
4
Speechcraft:
7
Sleight Of Hand:
3
Wait a second! Five points to each of her regens only shortened them by five seconds? That didn’t seem right!
[Clarification: As regen time goes down, the amount of time spent points will shorten it also goes down. This is to prevent you from essentially having unlimited mana, hp, or stm, which goes against the principles the system has in place for a balanced playthrough.]
Isabelle rolled her eyes.
“Hey, Isabelle, look at all the snooty rich people!” said Tahsi. He pointed through the metal gate that kept them locked in the front room of the palace and just out of reach of the banquet hall. “Gee, that food sure does look scrumptious. Just smelling it makes me feel famished. And to think, I’ve already eaten so much bread!”
Isabelle sighed as she too looked at the Cloud Reach elites feasting. They looked generally unfazed at the fact that she had defeated the statue monster, and in fact were barely paying attention to her. The kobold Duke was sitting next to some similarly dressed kobolds and talking about finances and infrastructure. It actually seemed pretty banal.
“Hey!” said Isabelle to the rich people. “What the hell is wrong with you all? I slay a dragon, you invite us here to celebrate, and then you pull this shit? And now you ignore us? What is the fucking deal?!”
The Duke did not respond to her, nor did any of his companions. It was like Isabelle hadn’t said anything at all.
“Hello? Assholes! Over here! Got a question for you!” said Isabelle. Really, she had a couple of questions, but the sentiment was the same.
“Don’t mind them, Isabelle,” said Tahsi. “Also, would you mind leveling me up? I’ve been doing it on my own for a bit, but I feel like I could use a player’s touch, if you will.”
“Sure, why not,” said Isabelle. Maybe she could add to Tahsi’s int and then he’d help them get out of this mess instead of just stuffing his face with bread. Isabelle thought, ‘Open Tahsi character sheet.’
[Notice: Tahsi has reached level 22!]
[hp restored to 152]
Isabelle was disgusted, but she wasn’t surprised. Of course Tahsi’s fucking hp was even more obnoxiously high than last time. Of course it was. And of course he was fucking level fucking 22. What a fucking scam. He had probably asked her to level him up just to rub it in.
[Notice: You have attribute and skill points to spend]
[Would you like to spend your points now?]
[Y/N]
Isabelle begrudgingly thought yes.
Attribute Points to Spend: 14
Hp:
152
H-Regen:
0.2/sec
Mana:
79
M-Regen:
0.2/sec
Stm:
112
S-Regen:
0.5/sec
What was the point of even spending these points, Isabelle wondered. It wasn’t like Tahsi was much a help in a fight! She figured she might as well just tack all fourteen onto his hp, because why the hell not.
Skill Points to Spend: 14
Str:
56
Int:
51
Dx:
44
Wis:
88
Const:
52
Char:
70
So unfair. Tahsi’s stats were always so unfair, and Isabelle couldn’t get over the fact that he seemingly barely used them! Was she doomed to forever be far behind the stats of this lazy, bread-loving kobold?
Shit. Isabelle still needed to spend the points. She decided Tahsi ought to have more dx, so she gave him ten points to dx. The remaining four could go to his int. If only willingness to fight was a stat she could throw some points towards.
[Congratulations, you’ve finished leveling up Tahsi!]
Character Status
Name:
Tahsi
Gender:
Male
Level:
22
Class:
Baker
Race:
Kobold
Alignment:
Neutral-Good
Attributes
Hp:
166
H-Regen:
0.2/sec
Mana:
79
M-Regen:
0.2/sec
Stm:
112
S-Regen:
0.5/sec
Skill Points
Str:
56
Int:
55
Dx:
54
Wis:
88
Const:
52
Char:
70
Magic Ability Levels
Enchant:
0
Summon:
0
Heal:
0
Destroy:
0
Transmute:
0
Confuse:
0
Normal Ability Levels
Crafting:
15
Sneak:
1
Archery:
7
Lockpick:
0
Armed Combat:
9
Melee Combat:
18
Speechcraft:
17
Sleight Of Hand:
0
“Thanks for leveling me up, Isabelle,” said Tahsi. “You always do such a good job at that. You’re a born player.”
Isabelle wasn’t sure exactly what Tahsi meant, but she appreciated the complement. It didn’t keep her from feeling jealous towards him, but she still appreciated it.
“Hey, Isabelle, can you actually level me up, too?” asked Sir Jingles, who had transformed out of his mega puma form.
“Sure,” said Isabelle. “Why’d you transform out of your mega puma form, though? What if we have to fight again?”
“It’s no use, it ran out of duration,” said Sir Jingles.
“Ah, gotcha,” said Isabelle. She thought, ‘Open Sir Jingles character sheet.’
[Notice: Sir Jingles has reached level 20!]
[hp restored to 38]
Wait, wasn’t only 38 hp super low for a level 20? What had Jingles been doing every time he leveled up on his own?
[Notice: You have attribute and skill points to spend]
[Would you like to spend your points now?]
[Y/N]
Isabelle thought yes.
Attribute Points to Spend: 124
Hp:
38
H-Regen:
0.1/sec
Mana:
5
M-Regen:
2/min
Stm:
28
S-Regen:
0.5/sec
Jesus Christ. Had Sir Jingles even touched his character sheet since Isabelle had last leveled him up?
“Uh, Sir Jingles, do you want to explain why exactly you have a hundred and twenty four ability points to spend?”
“Oh, yea, that makes sense,” said Sir Jingles. “You know how every time you level up it asks if you want to spend your points now?”
“Yes,” said Isabelle.
“Well, I just always thought no, and then I didn’t spend them,” said Sir Jingles.
“But that’s so stupid! And irresponsible,” said Isabelle.
“Yea, that’s me!” said Sir Jingles.
Isabelle rolled her eyes and looked back at his attribute points. Isabelle figured Jingles needed more stm and hp than he did mana, seeing as he didn’t use any magic. Not feeling passionate about doing a lot more work to divide up his points, Isabelle decided to split them down the middle and give his stm and his hp 62 points each.
Skill Points to Spend: 124
Str:
4
Int:
4
Dx:
17
Wis:
11
Const:
15
Char:
8
No wonder Sir Jingles asked Isabelle to level him up. She was getting a headache just thinking of all the different ways she could level up all his skill points, it was ridiculous! Isabelle didn’t want to do a lot of work, so she just gave each skill twenty points, then put four more into char so that Sir Jingles was more sociable and less annoying to be around.
Character Status
Name:
Sir Jingles
Gender:
Male
Level:
20
Class:
Undefined
Race:
Cat
Alignment:
Chaotic-Neutral
Attributes
Hp:
100
H-Regen:
0.1/sec
Mana:
5
M-Regen:
2/min
Stm:
90
S-Regen:
0.5/sec
Skill Points
Str:
24
Int:
24
Dx:
37
Wis:
31
Const:
35
Char:
32
Magic Ability Levels
Enchant:
0
Summon:
0
Heal:
0
Destroy:
0
Transmute:
0
Confuse:
0
Normal Ability Levels
Crafting:
0
Sneak:
11
Archery:
6
Lockpick:
9
Armed Combat:
6
Melee Combat:
7
Speechcraft:
4
Sleight Of Hand:
12
Well, that was less awful than Isabelle had expected it to be. And now Sir Jingles was finally all sorted out, which was nice, and honestly a bit of a relief. Maybe now he’d be some help in a fight, too.
“Thanks, Isabelle,” said Sir Jingles.
“You’re absolutely fascinating, player,” said the kobold Duke. He was standing up on his force-field-protected balcony again with a martini and a cigarette.
“When did you get up there? I thought you were eating!” said Isabell. “Wait a second. Have you just been staring at me while I level everyone up?”
“Guilty as charged,” said the Duke. “I can’t help it. I find the idea of leveling up absolutely tantalizing, especially ever since the Overlord promised me membership in his party in exchange for, well, in exchange for this.”
The Duke rang his little silver bell. Rushing into the room from the shadows was a horde of bizarre warrior creatures seemingly made out of living metal.
“What the hell are these things?” asked Isabelle to her party.
“Warforged,” said Tahsi. “Lots of warforged.”
Isabelle shuddered. Most of them had swords or other weapons in place of hands. One of them was holding a staff.
[Combat mode activated]
The warforged holding a staff raised and pointed it as Tahsi and Sir Jingles. Before either of them could react, a plume of green light shot out of the staff and enveloped them.
[Party member Tahsi is paralyzed]
[Party member Sir Jingles is paralyzed]
Isabelle watched her party members fall to the floor like limp ragdolls.
“Now that your party’s out of the way, it’s time to take care of you, player,” said a deep, metallic voice. The warforged stepped forward, holding its dreadful staff and pointing it towards Isabelle.
Shit. What was she supposed to do, now?