— Keira —
As the wash of power faded, Keir realized she was lying face up on a sandy surface. She lay still waiting for the echo of washing waves to fade. As the seconds turned to minutes the sound remained constant so she opened her eyes.
Even with the sound and sand, she was half expecting to see the ceiling of the village hall. Instead she found a night sky so full of stars that the dark between them was scarce. As she sat up, she saw the ground she was lying on was incredibly fine obsidian sand. The bright stars above reflected on the sand making it resemble a shard of the night sky. The sand only held her attention for a moment however as she looked up towards the horizon.
She was sitting in the exact center of a tiny triangular island. Judging from the distance to the edge, each side of the island was around five hundred yards. The island was entirely featureless aside from a trio of nearly identical structures located in the middle of each side of the island. The large stone gateways located at the high tide mark opened onto stone stairs leading into the sea, the liquid they passed through held at bay to form an open stairway.
As strange as the structures were, what really drew Keir’s focus was the liquids surrounding the tiny island. Lapping against each beach were the waves of a different sea, by a certain definition of sea, that blended together at the corners.
A sea stained crimson by blood was directly behind her when she stood. As she looked more closely she realized that while the vast majority of the water was crimson there were small but distinct currents of other colors of blood. She had spilled enough blood to recognize the source of the pale pink and the blue blood. She did wonder, however, what creature might have bled the violet purple or almost neon green she saw occasional streaks of. Visible within the sea were the outlines of all manner of sea creatures.
To her left was a sea of prismatic luminescent mist that acted like a liquid. As the mist swirled she would have sworn she saw the forms of fish and massive crustaceans form and dissolve back into the mist. As she stared she couldn’t quite decide if the forms were only a trick of the eye.
The sea on her right was, at first glance, the closest to a normal ocean. A second look revealed the seabed was covered in reefs made of the bones of all manner of sapient life from the mouse sized skulls of sprites to the tree trunk sized femurs of giants. The clearly undead sea life that swam amongst the coral like bones also made it clear it was no normal sea.
Unsure what she should be doing, Keir walked over and examined the gates more closely and saw each gate held carvings that identified the sea they led into. Her options were apparently Blood, Soul, and Corpse respectively. After thoroughly exploring the island and finding nothing new she decided to enter the blood sea gate.
If someone were there to ask her why she chose the blood sea, she would have said it was her burgeoning blood powers or the fact her artifact weapon gave a bonus to blood based attacks. Honestly that wouldn’t entirely be a lie. Those factors did play into her choice but so did a strange pull towards the deeps the gate seemed to lead to.
The gate and stairs were carved from blocks of sandstone formed of the crystal like black sand of the island and were lined with glyphs she could barely see. It wasn’t that they were faded, it was more that her mind simply slid over them when she tried to examine them and no details stuck in her memory.
After taking a deep breath that seemed even more pointless on that strange island than the normal world, Keir began walking down the stairs. Almost immediately she was plunged into dim light that soon faded to darkness. Her footsteps were almost entirely muffled by the sound of the swirling flowing bloody water around her. The cold still air of the tunnel seemed to press down around her and even though she wasn’t breathing she was inundated with the smells of the sea and fresh spilled blood in equal measures.
For what felt like hours, she traveled deeper into the sea with only her steady footsteps to mark the passage of time. Eventually the stairs ended and the cleared passage opened out to reveal the front of a temple of Mortis. The wall was ornately carved white marble that was stained and glistening with blood. Pristine iron doors stood open revealing a pale glow that reminded Keir of the star light that shone down on the island far above where she stood.
Beyond the door was a tall ceiling room about twenty feet on each side. In the center of the room was a statue of Mortis with a plinth in front of her. A ruby sitting on a rune etched silk square on top of the otherwise unadorned plinth. The only other features in the surprisingly unadorned room were three clearly sealed doors with no visible way to open them. More confidently than she felt, Keir approached the statue. Like most of the depictions of Mortis Keir had seen, the statue was garbed in an ornate funerary robe with the hood pulled up. Unlike those statues, instead of a skull or the face of an attractive woman of the most common sapient species in the region there was a veil that looked like a strip of the night sky. Barely visible through the veil was a nebulous shifting silhouette of a woman's face. The only clear and unchanging element of her face was her glowing silver eyes.
As Keir began to raise her hand to offer a prayer to the goddess she was interrupted by a voice. It was a tangled mess of every language ever spoken by someone who lived and died in the world and yet it was still clear like the chime of a vast bell carved from Ice. “Take up the blessing before you and truly take the first step on this Path. If you wish instead to walk one of the other offered paths, I will allow it only at this moment. Never again will I suffer you to turn back if you wish to see the paths end.”
After Mortis finished speaking Keir took a moment to think about the goddess’s words before saying “I thank you for your generosity, but I have no wish to start this journey with hesitation or doubt.” and picked up the egg sized ruby.
As the gem lifted from the silk Keir opened her eyes and found she was once again sitting before the model of Still-Leaf Village in the village hall with the sound of several notifications ringing in her head like the fading echo of Mortis’ voice. Floating in front of her was the system window
Thank You For Completing Village Tier Advancement
700 Advancement Points Awarded
Advancements may be purchased at any time
Multiple Structures damaged/destroyed (Expand for full list)
Village Leader Quest available: Repair and Rebuild (Expand for Details)
Once again she ignored the list of damaged and destroyed structures and focused on the Quest.
Repair and Rebuild: The village awarded to you was heavily damaged by the invasion and occupation it suffered. The responsibility to see that damage undone now falls to you. The method and extent of completion will affect the reward.
The repairs were necessary regardless so she immediately accepted it and shifted her focus to the Advancement Points.
She might have needed to sit down if she weren’t already when she saw they had received 700 points. The number of points were determined by the rarity of the Archetype chosen. A basic Archetype like forest would receive 100 and even a rare choice would only receive 400.
When she opened the option to purchase advancements the window displayed hundreds of options. Rather than try to go through them all she took advantage of what she’d been taught and refined her search parameters. With her focus on only Advancements to satisfy the unique needs of the undead she saw a much more manageable list
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Advancement
Cost
Type
Description
Hematic Grape Vine
25
Trade Good
This rare magically infused grape vine has a number of unknown uses. The grapes grown from them can be eaten or made into a wine to satisfy an undead’s need for sapient blood
Somatic Shroom
Spore
25
Trade Good
This rare magically infused fungus has a number of unknown uses. The mushrooms can be eaten raw or cooked to satisfy an undead’s need for sapient flesh
Quintessence Rice Seedling
25
Trade Good
This magically infused rice has a number of unknown uses. The rice can be cooked and eaten in a number of ways to satisfy an undead’s need for sapient souls
Osseous Oats
25
Trade Good
These magically infused oats have a number of unknown uses. The dried oats can be cooked and eaten to satisfy an undead’s need for sapient bones.
Veil Of Mortis
100
Blessing
The Veil of Mortis shields your village and its occupants. Within the borders of your village any friendly undead are immune to damaging effects of the sun and highly resistant to divine magic. Outside of the borders of your village undead citizens maintain one quarter of the effect of this blessing for up to a week.
There were a few more quality of life improvements as well as a few more food options for the undead available: some of which were more expensive. For the moment however those five Advancements were a good start.
Two hundred points was no small amount but they were essential so she didn’t regret the expenditure. She was admittedly a bit surprised by the cost of the food. Most basic trade goods like foods local to the area cost between 1 and 5 points to unlock. Especially since anyone who planned to take advantage of them being unlocked would still need to purchase or attempt to gather them in the surrounding area.
She wanted to spend some points to repair and possibly upgrade the quarry and lumber mill. Unfortunately, much like the fields further from the walls, both had degraded to the point they were no longer considered part of the village. The only way she could reclaim them was to go in person.
With that in mind she stored her makeshift fang longsword in what she assumed would be her office and left the village hall with her prized greatsword leaning on her shoulder. When she reached the lobby she decided to check her notifications before leaving.
“You have been granted the Title: Viper’s Bane.”
“You have been granted the Title: Death Knight.”
“You have reached the first step on the Path granted to you by Mortis.”
“You have received an Abyssal Blood Ruby, Please choose a passive skill.”
“Your class ‘Stygian Tide Carver’ has advanced to ‘Death Knight of the Sanguine Sea’.”
Keir almost ignored the change to her class for the moment and immediately set off for the quarry she’d located on the village interface.
She knew from what she’d been taught that the first step and class advancement that went with it barely had any change on the base class. At most it would shift the elemental effects of her initial class skills were already blood based. The main thing it did was allow advancement past the tier her class would otherwise be capped at. A new passive skill and the effects of her two titles were things she did need to investigate before heading out.
When she realized she had more to check than she had thought at first she set her sword on the reception desk and focused on her passive skill choices.
“Tide Pool: This skill allows access to a tide pool on the coast of the Sanguine Sea that refreshes with the turning of the tide that can be used by your other skills. Advancement along your path may lead to more and larger pools. Requirement for summoning/familiar skills”
“Nourishing Tide: You gain a degree of passive regeneration that fluctuates with the tide. This regeneration cannot be used to power offensive skills. Advancement along your Path may increase regeneration or reduce fluctuation. Requirement for advanced healing skills”
“Salt Flats: Starting with your skin your body begins to take on the crystalline properties of the Sanguine Sea salts. Advancement along your path may increase the amount of your body influenced or increase the durability of affected regions. Requirement for body altering skills”
As Keir studied her options she almost immediately disregarded “Salt Flats”. While increasing her durability had its potential benefits the potential downsides far outweighed them in her mind.
With that done she was left with a much more difficult choice. Looking at her choices logically “Nourishing Tide” seemed like the best option. Despite that she found herself drawn to “Tide Pool”. Allowing her to use skills more freely was useful but what really drew her focus was the skills her choice might unlock. Of the two the idea of summons or familiars was more appealing than healing. Especially as her class was likely to give her more methods to heal herself mid combat by using the blood of her foes.
As she made her choice she felt something in her soul shift as she turned her focus to her status.
Name: Keira
Race: Abyssal Wight (Elf)
Class: Death Knight of the Sanguine Sea
Title: Viper’s Bane (Quest Reward) Death Knight (Blessing of Mortis)
Level: 23 (+4)
Tier: 3
Affinity: Steel (innate) Death, Tide, Dark (Undead Race) Toxin (Viper’s Bane) Blood (Death Knight)
Skills: Class Skills (Warrior’s Path Lvl 10, Tide Carver’s Stance Lvl 4 (+1), Blood Thorns Lvl 3 (+1) Serrated Strike Lvl 2, Blood Surge Lvl 2 (+1), Aspect of Phlegethon Lvl 1 (+1), Crushing Current Strike Lvl 1 (+1), Abyssal Aura Lvl 1 (+1))
Passive Skills (Tide Pool Lvl 1 (+1))
General Skills (Bushcraft Lvl 5 (+1), Inspection Lvl 6, Survival Lvl 3, Tactics Lvl 9, Temperature Resistance Lvl 1, Toxin Immunity Lvl 1 (+1), Weaponsmith Lvl 2)
As Keir read over the changes she whistled softly to herself. She also made a note to ask Mesalin if she had specialized her Inspection skill towards people rather than items, as Keir had. If she had, she could allow Keir to see how her Stats had changed as well. Keir realized she was getting a bit off track and began inspecting her new and altered skills.
“Aspect of Phlegethon: Channel the burning waters of the Phlegethon through your blood and tide based skills for up to a minute. For the duration you take ongoing fire damage from the burning water flowing through your veins. Cooldown 1 hour”
Keir was briefly distracted from examining her other skills when she saw the side effects of her skill. She all but decided to ignore the skill as the effects didn’t seem worth the price of filling her blood with liquid fire. Then she realized while using it, the skill would level her temperature resistance skill which in turn could eventually entirely negate the damage.
“Crushing Current Strike: Your next strike projects a current from the depth of the Sanguine Sea five feet beyond the length of your blade for up to five seconds. Cooldown 24 seconds”
Once again Keir was distracted by an element of a skill she hadn’t expected. She quickly checked “Tide Carver’s Stance” and saw that it now said the waters it called were from the Sanguine Sea rather than the Ferin Ocean as it had previously.
“Abyssal Aura: Project an aura of the crushing pressure of the deep sea in a ten feet radius around you at will. While active the metaphysical pressure on the minds and spirits of those in the aura increases the cooldown of all skills including your own. You have a minor resistance to this effect.
“Toxin Immunity: You are completely immune to all mundane toxins and any magical toxin produced by tier one sources.”
With that done Keir retrieved her sword and left the village hall. Rather than head for the nearest gate she aimed for a long section of demolished wall closest to the quarry.