Chapter 6. Preparing the Assault
“Oh, God. Just strike me dead.” I moaned as I attempted to push myself up from the sand. That act sent the world spinning nauseatingly and for a moment I thought I would vomit. It was enough to make me realize that moving right then seemed like a horrible idea. I stopped trying to move and just lay flat on the ground covering my face with my arm to shelter my eyes from the growing brightness of the sun. My head already felt like it was about to split in two. It didn't need any help from the uncaring beacon in the sky.
Since I couldn’t yet get up without suffering I just lay there as the world spun around me. It took a while, but the worst of the pain and sickness began to fade. Giving me enough relief that I was able to start mentally piecing together the events of the night before. Everything seemed a blur but the improvements in my attributes were paying dividends as events reorganized themselves in my mind.
Everything had quickly spun out of control the previous night once I had given in to my rage. Once I began howling, three more level 4 of the cursed Threlnistari appeared and just as Hythriem had, offered their fealty to me. Their names were Veipos, Railnia, and Werxiun. It was then explained to me that the four were high-level generals in the tribe’s army when the curse struck. That allowed them to maintain enough of their strength when the curse ripped them from their bodies to gain the advantage in levels over the other damned.
Most nights the howling damned drifted all along the beach seeking out targets as their cries blanketed the night. Occasionally they lost a few of their numbers but never in abundance. All of the remaining Threlnistari spirits were the strongest of their kin. When the curse struck the non-combat civilians of the tribe took the worst of it. The children and infants died outright, sparing them the agony of this eternal existence. But the civilians formed weak spirits. As time passed they were either slain or grew strong.
The generals revealed that the stronger the howling damned the more of their senses they regained which is what allowed them to direct the others. The level two’s were near mindless while the level threes while not as put together as the generals had enough of a mind to act as troop leaders.
I had spent most of the night howling in rage, using my new skill to summon at first dozens and then hundreds of the cursed beings. In the process, three more of the level 4 Threlnistari spirits had offered their allegiance to me allowing me to tame them. It turns out the other three were Hythriems closest allies and fellow generals of the tribe's armies. They had been the strongest of their people in life, which allowed them to be more powerful when their lives were ripped from them. The thought of so many innocents suffering at the hands of religious zealots pained my heart, influenced by my mental connection with the generals and together we sat crying into the night. Releasing howls of rage and agony.
The wailing continued throughout the night until it was time for the Threlnistari to return to the darkness of the ocean depths where they would be safe from the harsh radiance of the daylight. As they returned to the waves I finally allowed myself to pass back out. Until the sun had shone brightly enough to make sleep impossible. As I finished piecing together my memories I took a deep breath and stopped covering my face with my arm and slowly opened my eyes, blinking rapidly until they adjusted to the light.
I sighed in relief as I slowly sat up. Unlike the last time, I made the attempt, my body didn’t violently reject the action. Taking in my surroundings I was grateful to see that the walls I had built were still intact. Not that I needed them anymore, but I had spent hours on them and I didn’t want to feel like my efforts were wasted. That was when I noticed something in the corner of my vision. I tried turning my head, but whatever was in the periphery remained there. A thought occurred to me and with a mental command the hazy smudge slid before me and expanded.
“Worst fucking hangover, ever,” I grumbled as I saw a red screen pop up. The message had been a warning indicating that I had used over 90% of my mana and further use could cause mana depletion sickness until my body was able to fully replenish its stores of magic. Note to self, never run empty on mana ever again, I thought ruefully. The other notifications were more pleasant. The first informed me that the act of taming the generals had brought me up to level two. The others revealed that not only had I completed one quest, but I had discovered another. With excitement, I read through those notifications.
New Quest: Bring an end to the dangers lurking in Shangrior. Bonus Objective: Learn the truth of the fall of the kingdom. Secret Objective. Discover the hidden truths that led to the fate of the kingdom. Quest Reward: Inheritance
I had no idea what inheritance was, or what it would mean for me, but I was thrilled at discovering another quest. That meant I was one step closer to getting off this beach. Which was a feeling I honestly never thought I would have. On Earth, the beach and the water was my favorite place to be. But what fun would it be to come to a new world and not explore? With a smile I pulled up the last message and my smile widened as I did.
Quest Complete: Survive a night against the Howling Damned. Bonus Objective Complete: Build or Secure a fortification to help stave off the assault. Quest Reward: Abyssal Cloak of the Elemental Tempest
As the text faded I felt a sensation that forced me to open up my inventory, and sure enough, a new item had appeared in it. With a sense of wonder, I pulled out my new cloak. I was still wearing just my now tattered clothes that I had arrived in, so having something more substantial to wear was welcomed. But looking at my cloak I raised an eyebrow.
Item: Abyssal Cloak of the Elemental Tempest
Item Rank: SSS
Item Description: Increases resistance to elemental damage by 50% Resistance to piercing attacks by 50% Adds elemental damage to spells and attacks, dealing 50% increased elemental damage. Maintains body temperature, at the user's will for maximum comfort. Auto-repairs damage over time. Can increase movement speed by 10% at the cost of 1% mana per minute. Can wrap yourself in a powerful storm at the cost of 2% mana per second.
“I don’t want to be an evil dark lord, and you can’t make me!” I shouted up at the sky, but if the system was actually listening to me there was no sign. Still, I appreciated the aesthetic. It looked like a hooded black leather trench coat which seemed to emit a small dark haze of shadows, which I quickly realized were miniature storm clouds as lightning crackled through the haze. along the seams green and purple fire danced threateningly and it was lined with some sort of bone plating that was grieved for flexibility.
My new item looked cumbersome, but the cloak was surprisingly light in my hands. I put it on to see how it felt and fell in love. It was like wearing air. I could sense the weight of the garment, but there was no resistance to any of my movements. I tried doing a few martial arts while wearing it and was impressed that even though it billowed behind me at times it never seemed to be in the way of where I wanted to go. I didn’t bother removing the cloak as I sat back down and turned my attention to my status screen. I wanted to see how my attributes changed from leveling up.
Upon reaching level 2 all my stats climbed significantly as each one gained between 4 and 6 points from the various classes. On top of that, I had 18 free attribute points to invest. I also received an additional 26 skill points to use bringing my total to 91. Eyeballing the sky I wondered how overpowered the system was trying to make me. Even with diminishing returns this felt like cheating. Then I remembered I had to fight an army of douchebag priests today and decided being overpowered was acceptable.
After a brief overview, I made the decision on how to increase my attributes. I put 5 points into luck, and 4 points into Intelligence before putting 2 points each in strength, vitality, perception, and wisdom. Lastly, I put 1 point in charisma to round everything out. Unlike the first time I had done it the power that surged through me from increasing my attributes washed through me without overwhelming me. With approval, I read and admired my new values.
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Free Attribute Points: 0
Attributes
Strength: 18
Vitality: 18
Agility: 18
Perception: 16
Intelligence: 20
Charisma: 15
Wisdom: 20
Luck: 20
With my attributes out of the way, I knew it was time to focus my attention on my skills. I had already put it off for far too long. Opening my skill screen was like being led blindfolded to a mountain. As the screen appeared I was immediately overwhelmed and realized that the amount of skill points I had would barely make a dent in the bucket. I currently had four classes, and with the exception of Dark Monarch’s skill tree still being locked for some reason, I still had three classes worth of skills to look at.
Each class had ten tiers of skills broken up into five skills per tier. Though each tier was level locked. I wouldn’t be able to unlock the second tier until I was level 5. On top of that, each skill could be increased in rank from F to SSS depending on how many points you invested into them. I needed to waste some time anyway. Even though it would take several hours to get to the capital where the rest of the priests were, I didn't want to get there too early. While part of me was feeling confident and cocky with all of the potent items and classes the system had provided me, I would feel much more secure if I could have the howling damned at my back. I spent over an hour reading through my options in order to make the right choices.
Skill: Vital Exchange (Renegade)
Rank: E
Investment: 10 / 45
Skill Description: Passive Effect; When inflicting damage, heal for a portion of the damage done. Current healing gained. 40% of damage dealt. Active Effect; Vital Exchange can be used to heal the wounds of a targeted living entity. In exchange, you drain energy from your target proportionate to the healing done. Current energy drained. 40% of healing given. Active Effect: You can use this to heal yourself of wounds and various negative effects such as poison, disease, etc… This can be done by draining the life force of something around you, or using your own life force. Used life force can be replenished with rest or siphoning it from a target. Current effective healing. 40%
Rank Up Effect: Increase total of the exchange value by another 20%
Skill: Impending Gravity (Renegade)
Rank: E
Investment: 10 / 45
Skill Description: When attacking a targeted point, increase the effective weight of that target by 20% per attack up to the maximum allowed per rank. Rank F, increase the effective weight up to 100% of the original value. Rank E. increases the effective weight up to 300% of the original value.
Rank Up Effect: Increase the effective weight up to 600% of the original value.
Skill: Flesh Wound Retribution (Renegade)
Rank: E
Investment: 10 / 45
Skill Description: For every 1% of damage taken increase damage dealt by 2%
Rank Up Effect: Increases damage dealt by an additional 1%
Skill: Fate-Breaking Plague (Revenant)
Rank: E
Investment: 10/ 45
Skill Description: Passive Effect. Your blight now causes a necrotic plague eating away at your target, growing in potency as it spreads throughout the body. Passive Effect: Your blight can now spread to other targets through prolonged contact or proximity. Active Effect. Increases the current speed of decay and rate of spread by 40%
Rank Up Effect. Increase the speed of Decay and spread rate by 20%%
Skill: Corpse Worm’s Blight of Devouring (Revenant)
Rank: E
Investment: 10 / 45
Skill Description: Create a blight of spectral worms to spread and consume specific targets. Unlike your normal Blight, your worms can focus on specific organs, or organisms at will without spreading beyond intention. Rate of spread and consumption, 200%
Rank Up Effect: Increase rate of spread and consumption by an additional 100%
Skill: Frostborn Terror
Rank: E
Investment: 10 / 45
Skill Description: For every 5% terror instilled into your targets your attacks increase in frost power by 10% growing colder and dealing more damage,
Rank Up Effect: Increases frost power by an additional 5%
Skill: Puppetmaster’s Decree (Regulator)
Rank: Rank E
Investment: 10 / 45
Skill Description: Use Mana to empower your voice allowing you to have an influence on everything capable of hearing you, without the will to resist your commands. Effect of Will resistance reduced by 100%
Rank Up Effect: Effect of Will resistance reduced by 50%
Skill: Bond of the Deathsworn (Regulator)
Rank: E
Investment: 10 / 45
Skill Description: You now share a telepathic bond with your deathsworn army. You can mentally communicate with them or at the cost of mana, you can experience anything they experience, even using them as an avatar of your will. The greater the distance the more difficult it will be to communicate with them, and the more mana cost it will take to inhabit them. Your Army will now absorb 40% of the damage and healing you receive. Effectiveness will diminish over longer distances.
Rank Up Effect: Increase the damage and healing shared with your army by 20%
Skill: An Overlord’s Judgment (Regulator)
Rank: E
Investment: 10 / 45
Skill Description: Create an aura around you of twenty yards. Within that aura, you can share 20% of any bonus effects with any target of your choice. Alternatively, you can reduce the capabilities of any target within that aura by 20%
Rank up Effect: Increase the aura by 10 yards, and the effectiveness of your aura by 10%
Satisfied with my new skills I stood to my feet and decided to finish my final preparations before making my way to deal with the priests. Not only would I be relying on the cursed Threlnistari once the sunset, but I had one more trick up my sleeve to deal with the numbers set against me. I was both grateful and slightly disconcerted at how natural it felt to use my skills and class perks. As if the knowledge of how to utilize what I needed had always been there.
That made me uneasy about how effectively the system could infiltrate my mind, but it also made doing what I needed to do much easier. Holding my hands out before me I closed my eyes and allowed my instincts to guide me as I began to summon undead minions. It was time to build myself an army. One by one I slowly pictured what I needed and wanted until I had six loyal servants all lined up before me.
“Welcome to the team!” I shouted as I began pacing in front of my minions appraising each one in turn. “Now you all might be wondering by now, why I called you here, today. Well, ladies and gentlemen. The answer is simple. Justice. You see, up that stretch of beach is a group of assholes who have performed unspeakable acts of evil. They have slaughtered an entire group of people. Men, women, the elderly, and children. It was pure genocide. With your help, we are going to storm their city and put an end to their wickedness once and for all!” I thought my speech was pretty inspiring, but my undead horde just stared blankly at me.
“Yes, yes, I know. You are concerned. Their numbers are indeterminate. From the intelligence I gathered from taking a bite out of them, I know they have at least twenty, but no more than 40. That’s a lot of them and only a few of us. But don’t worry. We will have reinforcements when the sun comes down. I know a few of you might not survive the battle. That’s tragic. But your sacrifice will not be in vain.” I continued. Not that I was overly concerned about my minions being destroyed. I could always summon them back. Again my little army just stared at me with expressionless faces.
Although the lack of expression had more to do with the fact that they were undead and not one of them had any flesh to speak of. Every one of them was nothing more than bone and cartilage held in place by a ghostly outline of what they would have looked like if they still had their muscle and flesh. Their eyes all burned with a pale blue fire. They were quite haunting to look at, but I was starting to get used to that.
The other reason they didn’t have expressions probably had to do with the fact that none of them were human. I wanted an army that could navigate and scout the city, and do a lot of damage. Without weapons to arm my soldiers, I had decided my best bet was to summon creatures that could scout out the enemy territory and even hunt them down without any help from me.
“For the sake of the mission, I will now give you all code names. You will respond to these names, as I direct your efforts.” I declared before moving to stand in front of the first one in line. “You will be called Talon.” This time I was gratified with a response as the spectral golden eagle released a haunting cry and flapped once. Nodding I moved to stand in front of my next minion. “You will be called… Tan.” I declared. The ghostly orangutan patted the ground in acceptance. In order I named the rest of them. I had Nuts the squirrel, Bandit the raccoon, Mane the lion, and Wuzzy the bear.
After naming them there was nothing left to do but make our way to the city. Fortunately, I didn’t have to walk. Hopping on Wuzzy’s back I laid down and closed my eyes. After all, why bother summoning an undead bear if you aren’t going to ride it into battle?