Trolls aren’t foes I ever wanted to fight. They are beings that devoted all their stats to physical strength. When I stepped out on the 11th floor, I realized that I couldn’t fight them head on. The 11th floor was a disaster zone. There was a radiation warning blaring on my stat screen. Radiation resistance wasn’t in my skill set.
The whole floor was a mountainous area. Massive birds flew from peak to peak. Bears the size of elephants roamed the forests they had humanoid builds and could fight competently on their back legs. Their large meat hook claws cut deeply into rock surfaces.
They were the mobs of the dungeon. From the mana signature they were the only mobs here. There were Elk and mountain lions, they too were quite large. Though when something died here only the mana was collected. The bodies were left alone for the giant birds to pick up and devour.
The mobs ranged from the youngest of mountain lion kitten at lv50 to the largest bears lv160. They were not my main concern. No, my main concern were the trolls. They were men and women who stood 8 to 9 feet tall. They were muscled to incredible levels. Some expelled radiation naturally from their bodies. The fact that not even the smallest of children seemed bothered by the rads was a statement of the troll’s resistances. The truth of matter was, I knew very little about the trolls.
I moved through the places picking up the radiation resistance and increasing my stealth skills as I went. This was a chance to observe Troll society. The once humans and elves were not as dumb as my companions made them sound. They had a hierarchy.
The top of the hierarchy was the chief. A massive troll that normally stood 9ft tall and often expelled rads like there was no tomorrow. A chieftain was armed with a massive war hammer or axe and had the finest armor in the tribe. The chief as the alpha had the pick of the women and often handled disputes of the tribe. Women once claimed by one of the males remained with the male. If the male died in a hunting accident. The nearest male relative took the woman and children in.
Below the chief was the hunting parties. The trolls who joined in them chose the women after the chief. Next were the shaman. Trolls that were weaker than most trolls, but they had the ability to emit healing energy. They had the third pick.
The lowest were the infirm. Those trolls that had disabilities had the last pick. Often the female trolls would simply kill them to get a better mate.
There were hundreds of tribes on the floor. As I moved through the floor, I counted them out. Fights between tribes happened rather often. Though this land was very fertile, the tribes all had massive birth rates. I was able to witness all out war between tribes.
In a tree house, I watched the show. One of the hunting parties snuck on a neighboring tribe’s land to acquire more game. The tribe’s warriors hid behind trees, waiting to ambush the invading tribe. Heavy axes were employed, and the tribe slew the hunting party in quick succession. They never went for body blows. Every kill was decapitation or a blow to the head. It was brutal and quick. If the hunting party had a chance to retaliate the fight would turn into a battle of attrition.
After the death of the hunting party the tribe’s warriors followed the hunting party’s tracks back to the village. A raid ensued. The strongest warriors battered down the walls of the tribe. They slaughtered the warriors standing guard and began capturing women and slaying male children. The women hardly fought back, they seemed to get off on mating over the corpses of their children and men.
I used my mana fibers to take the bodies of the slain men and children. While the raiders and women were busy rutting they didn’t seem to notice my activity. I placed the bodies in my inventory and left for my base in the cave of one of the nearby mountains.
Once back at my camp, I grew the trees outside to hide the entrance. I had over 100 cat hair, a 1000 different mana stones, and more mana than ever before. So, I began to make sphinxes. Every one of them had beautiful faces. Their lion bodies and human heads were quite the combination. They danced around playing, while some fought within the cave. They were all below lv50. No stronger than a newborn mountain lion cub. Well they were all newborns themselves. I took from my inventory the bodies of the trolls. Even their bodies still produced enough radiation to kill a few of my sphinxes. I quickly returned them to my inventory. I took my strongest war hammer and began to pound at the flesh and bone to soften up the meal for my sphinxes.
My mobs licked their lips at the promise of fresh meat. They were of every element I had. Only 60 survived the radiation. They devoured the ones that died. Mobs were cannibalistic by design.
Once I had worked up a sweat breaking bones and tenderizing muscles the sphinxes dug in. In a direct fight I knew the Trolls would turn me to paste. Most of my attacks were flashy and caused a lot of noise. Neighboring tribes might hear me, and all converge on me. I might kill most them but, one could get lucky.
With every bite my sphinxes increased in level and gained stats from the bodies. An ability that most monsters shared. These sphinxes were probably gaining more points in constitution, endurance and strength than they would ever naturally gain.
They all changed when they reached 100. Their bodies hardened their muscles grew stronger and hide changed. Those with the light element acquired halos over their heads. Some inherited my unique skill and acquired black flames. One evolved into a more humanoid form.
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Nekomata lv150
A rare evolution of the sphinx and other cat like mobs. This form grants the mob a humanoid appearance and martial capabilities. Their fur color often determines how powerful a Nekomata’s type. This one had white fur and the hair atop her head was red and black.
I looked her stat page over and gave her the name Emily. She had the light element and my unique skill. She would be a huge damage dealer in the future. She also gained radiation aura from the trolls she devoured.
With my mobs ready we made our way out of the cave and towards the nearest tribe. I only had one thing to do first. At lv180, I had plenty of points to spend. I needed to make myself closer in power to a troll. I could feel my body weakening with ever level. If I didn’t do something, I might become a brain.
I put all my tree points into skill points that brought my skill points up to 1,800. Now, how could I place them to help me the most. Doing the calculations, I could increase my strength by 120k if I fed 1200 skill points into war mage. But that wouldn’t help my body. No only constitution and endurance helped with that.
Berserker was the only real choice. I placed every point in the tree. A sign flashed in my face Berserker VII. My body locked up and I grew taller. My body was soon 8 and a half feet tall. A perk appeared.
New Perk
Berserker’s Power – The power of rage courses through your veins. No matter what challenges you face nothing keeps you down. Every kill increases Strength by 1.
New Perk
Monstrous Thoughts – Your mind is no longer draining more energy than your body can produce. Legends speak of your ability to take morality out of every situation and focus on what benefits you. Now your very thoughts cause your foes pain. X10 Mag Dam
New Perk
Olympian Channels – Your mana no longer destroys your body. The channels in your body that store and leach mana from your aura are on par with a demigod. x10 MP
Every cell in my body felt like a nuclear reactor. There was so much energy in my body it felt like I would explode. My body had grown in density with every step it felt like, I would crumble the rock underneath. I might be able to survive a blow from a Troll now.
I needed a trap if I was to lure the trolls into an ambush. We snagged one of the elk that like to graze on the mountain. I tied a mana fiber around its neck and snapped one of its legs with my war hammer. We dropped the creature near one of the hunting parties of the neighboring troll tribes and I pulled it as the trolls followed.
Once the trolls were in the ambush zone the sphinxes attacked. They were strong enough to deal a killing blow from behind. So long as the brain was destroyed the troll would die. I hit one with a barrage of fireballs to little affect. If it didn’t kill them outright, they would quickly gain skills to defend against the attack. A hammer blow to the head was still fatal.
With the hunting party dead, I made my way to the next. This time I used one of my sphinxes. A group of four laid into the party. After a short exchange they ran away pretending to be wounded. The trolls seeing their prey escaping charged into an ambush. I used the tactics of the Mongols from old earth. They worked well in this situation.
I made more sphinxes and had them devour the corpses. My level quickly reached 200.
New unique skill
Modifier 0/25 – Use your knowledge of monsters and men to craft unique creatures. You now have a minion page to keep track of all your mobs and what they need to achieve certain evolutions. +5Wis.
Things were working out. The trolls weren’t united under a single banner. They were a mass of independent tribes. Perhaps, other adventurers would have tried to attack the tribes head on or simply bypassed them with stealth. This was easier.
Four of the twelve tribes that hunted around the mountains were no more. Well they still had their women and children, but the men were dead besides the chieftains. My army number 328 sphinxes and 5 Nekomata. The other four I named Nia, Vicky, Yuffie, and Karin. So, a mix of anime and fairly odd parents, names in there, but they seemed to have something of those personalities.
Emily was thus far the oldest and most powerful of them. She often went in for seconds on the Troll population. The trolls were not bound to this dungeon. I needed loyal forces who were strong enough and smart enough to fight opponents like the golems.
I wouldn’t be the first man in history to do something horrible for the greater good. I could have tried diplomacy. With a bit of effort, I could have martialed all the tribes and created a force for myself. That is true, I will leave my future children to take the rest of the tribes and unite them under my banner.
When it came time to take the tribe for myself, I walked in the village by myself. The guards fell to my hammer and mana burst. The small increase in strength was nice. If I killed millions, then I would become truly formidable. Fortunately, the bonus applied to my mobs as well.
The chief stepped off his throne to face me. His armor was covered with the skulls of his challengers. They jingled as he made his way to me. There were no words said between us. What would be the point?
Mana charge filled my body with as much strength as it could hold, and I swung my hammer at his head. He stepped aside the blow and brought the spike of his axe’s head at my eye. With a twist, I stepped away and twisted to smash his temple with my hammer. The but of his axe caught behind my hammer and he yanked it from my hands.
My aura exploded with its full force. He was too close, and his eyes melted out of his skull. In the time it took him to step back his eyes were nearly fully regenerated. Fire tendrils leapt from my back and speared through his shoulders. For a moment, he was unable to raise his arms. I took advantage and stabbed my thumbs through his eye sockets.
Just puncturing his brain wasn’t enough so, I turned up the heat. Black and red flames ate at the body until nothing remained. All the xp was awarded to me. I threw the body down my flames continued to devour the body.
My small army rushed in and the nekomata closed the gates. The sounds of screaming and death rang out and I could smell them women getting off on it. As they say when in Rome do as the romans. When in a troll tribe do as a troll conqueror.