《A Lich's Guide to Dungeon Mastery》 Chapter 1: Skin & Bones My vision was purple. I tried to blink it away, but then realized that I couldn¡¯t blink. I glanced around, but saw very little in my surroundings. For some reason, when I turned my¨C oh, I didn¡¯t have a head. Hmm, odd, I could¡¯ve sworn it had been attached to my neck just last night. Oh, I didn¡¯t have a neck either. Makes sense. In any case, my vision fragmented when I looked in certain directions, almost as though I¡­ Wait, nope, I was inside a crystal. Or, maybe, I was the crystal? I¡¯d read Dungeon Core novels before. Is that what was going on here? Was I some kind of terraforming, monster breeding, item manufacturing¡­ thingy? I tried to push my consciousness outside of my gem- my core, I supposed, trying to spread my "influence," but the moment I did, my viewpoint was flung across the cave with a clatter. What? If I were a Dungeon Core, then I''d just be an immaterial consciousness. What''s with this clatter malarkey? I looked around¡­ and realized I had a head again. In fact I had a whole¡­ Well, actually, not a whole body. In fact, it seemed that I was missing just about every organ in my body. Including my skin. And my muscles. Probably my brain too. I most certainly didn''t have nerves, as I couldn''t really feel anything other than slight tingles below my boney feet. I was no overpowered rock. I was a skeleton of some sort. In fact¡­ I looked back over at the gem I''d come from. It was an icosahedron¨C a d20. Well, it didn''t have numbers on it, but y''know, same difference. It appeared to be¡­ hmm, let me think¡­ ah yes, a dragon''s breath opal, which technically wasn¡¯t an opal at all, but rather a combination of metal dust and glass. I totally didn''t just know that because gazing into it gave me instinctive knowledge of what it was. Anyways, it was far more than any old gem. The fact that it was hovering notwithstanding, it appeared that I was no ordinary skeleton. Seif Ambrose Unspecialized Lich 0 Phylactery 1 Necrosis Manipulation 1 Domain of Undeath 1 That''s right, baby. I was a lich. The #1 soul-eating, life-hating undead. My favorite monster to throw at my players to TPK them. This time, it wasn''t just roleplay. It was real, I was a lich. Quick sidebar, I have no clue why my reaction to all of this is so positive. Normally, I''d probably be screaming my head off right about now. Perhaps it was because I''d always dreamed of winding up in another world, but I''m guessing it probably has more to do with the fact that I don''t have a brain, or hormones, or really any body functions to tell me that something was wrong. In fact, my emotions were very single-minded. Whatever I thought about at the time was the only thing that impacted the way I felt. Perhaps it was some limitations of my Phylactery¨C that is, after all, what the gem was. It was the storage space for my soul, my true "body." I was currently just a piece of software uploaded to this body. When this skeleton failed me, I would return to my Phylactery. This wasn''t just my game knowledge, accrued over many years of acting as the Dungeon Master in tabletop roleplaying games. This was instinct. Also, the fact that this rpg status screen was visible in it kinda tipped me off that it really was the container of my soul. As I stared at the gem, the underlined text flashed at me, and I frowned. Wait, no, I don''t have muscles, I can''t frown. Anyways, I tried to frown, then focused on the first highlighted bit. Unspecialized Lich. I wondered what it wanted me to do. Perhaps, maybe, it wanted me to¡­ specialize? Wow, big shocker. Anyways, it pulled up a rather long list of options. Please select a Class Specialization. Archlich (Death+) Shade Lich (Dark, Death) Arcane Lich (Arcanem, Death) Pyro Lich (Fire, Death) Hydro Lich (Water, Death) Aero Lich (Wind, Death) Geo Lich (Earth, Death) Venge Lich (Ire, Death) (Special!) Heart Lich (Love, Death) (Special!) Karmic Lich (Karma, Death) (Special!) Lethean Lich (Lethe, Death) (Special!) Verdant Lich (Life, Death) (Special!) Hallow Lich (Light, Death) (Special!) Spatial Lich (Space, Death) (Special!) Chronal Lich (Time, Death) (Special!) Some of those options sounded pretty stupid. Verdant Lich? How could a lich have life magic? Wouldn''t it just hurt them? I supposed that was why it was marked as special. Maybe I was only shown these options because of my method of arrival? I doubt that Life or Karma much appreciate normal liches, who, if the same rules apply here as they did in games back on Earth, likely sacrificed thousands of innocents to fuel their transformation. A few of the first options certainly sounded cool. Archlich? Sounds really strong, but it''s just adding death magic to death magic. Less diversity than the other options. For similar reasons, I was hesitant on Shade Lich, and Arcane Lich fell in the same boat too. The arcane is usually magic and "magic" magic is one of two things. Either it directly manipulates magic, which would be interesting, if possibly niche, or it boosts other spells, of which I have¡­ 2? 2 kinda specific spells that might not even play well with arcane magic? Bit of a risk. Venge and Heart Liches were interesting, but they sounded mental, and I had no one to use them on. Also, Heart Lich? Really? Not only do most liches not have a capacity for love, but they¨Cwe!¨Calso don''t have hearts. The elemental specialties all sounded great, and I thought that they all, especially Pyro, would have some great offensive abilities. Looking around, I found myself surrounded by stone, and Geo Lich went right to the top of my list, with Pyro a close, but reluctant, second. Karma is either about giving and getting equally, or following the nature of my being. Neither sound very appealing as a lich. Lethe is a river in the Underworld of Greek mythology. If I remember correctly, it makes people forget things and lose their identities. No, but thank you anyways. I''m wary of the Hallow Lich, since I doubt that light and dark magics will play well with each other. The final two on the list were Spatial and Chronal, and oh boy were these ones interesting to me. Controlling space and time? And in real¡­ Well, unlife? Sign me up! Sadly, I could only pick one. I''d known from the start that I would probably pick one of these. Sure, both disciplines were often very difficult to get into, and had very high mana costs, or whatever this world''s equivalent was. Space magic. Get from point a to point b with ease. Teleportation, flight, bags of holding¡­ Those were all spatial abilities. Time magic. This one was more esoteric. Would I be able to turn back time? Slow it down? Speed it up? Those were all intriguing, but¡­ Spatial magic went to the top of my shortlist. Before I picked it, though, I looked over the "Boons" I''d been offered. The first choice was between Hostile Possession and Reconstitution. Once more, my instincts kicked in, and I felt a feeling pass through me for each of the boons. Hostile Possession, much like it sounded, would allow me to take control over a living creature and use them as my flesh mech, rather than a corpse or an undead under my control, as my current abilities would allow. Reconstitution, though¡­ I took it immediately. I only had one human skeleton, and I didn''t know when I''d be able to get more. Reconstitution would allow me to create a body for myself out of pure energy. It took some time, and was a large energy investment, but the resulting body was stronger, and would be able to channel my magic better. Better yet, it wouldn''t decay, and would have many of the same functions as a normal human body. At least, sorta. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. A Reconstituted body would look however I wanted, but its flesh would effectively be made of magic. It wouldn''t have a brain, or many of the organs typically required for life. In fact, on the inside, the body would effectively be a lump of magic. Still, it would be a complete body. I wasn''t eager to test out if I had enough energy for it now, though. There would be a time and a season for that, I was sure. Necrosis Manipulation was basically the death magic skill. The boon it started with would let me see death energy, or Necrosis, as well as concentrations of life. Inflict Necrosis would make the skill lean towards attacks and violence, curses and such, but Animate Necrosis was, obviously, for making and controlling undead. I took it right away, knowing that I''d want minions. I mean, what kind of lich doesn''t have zombies? Giving up on attack spells for now kinda sucked, but I''d live with it. The last skill was Domain of Undeath. At base, it marginally improved the efficiency of death magic and improved the durability of creatures based on it. Its innate boon would let me spread the domain by focusing on an area that was already touching it, where it naturally emanated from my Phylactery. On one hand, that meant that I would always have at least a small area of control, but my Phylactery would always have to be connected to it. Hmm. Maybe I''m somewhat similar to a dungeon core after all? The two boons for the domain skill were Mold Terrain and Reinforce Death. The former would give me terraforming capabilities, a sensation of pure control, while the latter would further strengthen undead and death magic in the area, a feeling of strength clinging to my bones. I got the feeling that there would be a lot of boons that did something similar. I took a brief wander around the cave I was in, and found that it was more of a pocket in the earth. There was no exit. That made me feel confident in taking Mold Terrain. Generally, I''d want to make minions do the mining and shaping of the terrain, but I didn''t currently have any corpses on hand, other than the one I was piloting. I didn''t have tools either, or a guarantee that my undead would be tough enough to mine stone without significant wear and tear. With all of that done, I reevaluated my list. Geo Lich was gone, since I could do what I wanted with Mold Terrain anyways. Pyro Lich was still tempting, just to get attack magic right away, but burning the corpses I wanted to raise didn''t sound like a perfect solution. Chronal or Spatial. Chronal still lost. Why would I change the past or look into the future when I could just change the present? And maybe the specialization wouldn''t even allow me to do that. Maybe I''d only be able to speed up my own perception of time, letting me wait more easily. That would be dumb. I would learn patience. After all, I had forever now. Why waste my long term potential simply to avoid boredom? Class Specialization selected. You are now a Spatial Lich. You have gained a Skill: Spatium Manipulation. You have gained a Skill: Call. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 0 Phylactery 1 Necrosis Manipulation 1 Domain of Undeath 1 Spatial Manipulation 0 Calling 0 It seemed that the Skills gained from my specialization started at level 0, where the skills from my inherent lichdom had all started at level 1. Looking at the new Skills, I got an immediate sense for what they would do. Spatium Manipulation was the space magic ability, much like how Necrosis Manipulation was the death magic skill. Its boon, Delinear Sight, would let me¡­ see¡­ space? No clue what that means. Call, on the other hand, was a summoning Skill, but it wouldn''t summon just anything. It needed a guide. That''s why it came with Taglock, which would allow me to summon anything I had the genetic material of. Creatures with more magic or stronger wills would be able to resist the pull of Call, and the Skill would grow weaker the further away from the original genetic line I went. For example, if I used a raccoon pelt as a taglock for Calling, the greatest efficiency I could get would be to directly summon the creature the pelt came from, but it would be dead, so I¡¯d just be summoning a bunch of rotten meat. Instead, I could summon a creature with a similar genetic code. Now, I could call upon that raccoon¡¯s entire extended family. In other words, with sufficient willpower and magic, I could pull basically anything from any taglock, but the efficiency would be awful. It was much better to stay within the genus, and best to stay within the family. Now, I didn¡¯t have anything to taglock other than myself, but where there were bones¡­ there had to be some clothes or equipment nearby. Maybe there were some leather boots? I activated my Deadsight, as well as my Delinear Sight. I felt a small pull on my mental energy, but it was negligible. Deadsight immediately lit the surroundings in shades of color that previously were not there. I could sense the small concentrations of life in the air, and could tell that I wasn¡¯t far from the surface, due to the worms wriggling around it. I could sense all living and dead material in the area¨C including a small collection of items nearby. Delinear Sight was weird. Very weird. I could innately tell that the items I¡¯d sensed were 4 meters away from my current position, and that there was an average of 12 millimeters between each of them. I could tell precise distances, and could sense where everything was in relation to myself. Additionally, I had amazing object permanence, to the point where it felt as though I could see behind my back. Of course, I knew that it wouldn¡¯t account for changes made to whatever I wasn¡¯t looking at, but it was still quite interesting. I took a step forward, and realized another function of Delinear Sight. I could precisely measure the velocity of an object with just a glance. Even as I moved forward, I felt numbers popping into my head, telling me where I was and how fast I was moving, the size of whatever I was looking at, the distance between my starting point, my current position, and my end goal. It was all quite overwhelming. I deactivated Delinear Sight. While I couldn¡¯t get headaches, as I didn¡¯t have a brain, I could sense an uncomfortable strain on my consciousness. I doubted it could actually hurt me in any tangible way, but it was a lot to get used to, and I¡¯d work on it later. I started moving again, and soon knelt down to pick up a small bag. Sadly, it was made of some fabric, and not leather, but there were a few things inside of it that gave a distinct impression of death. Somewhat excitedly, I upended the bag, dropping the contents into my¨C nope, they fell through my skeletal fingers. Well, I picked them up, and found that they were a collection of small claws, large teeth, and a couple antlers. Perhaps the individual who had died to provide me with a body had been a hunter of some sort? Hopefully, these were just from some sort of small wolf, and a similarly small buck? Maybe a wolverine and a roe deer? That was possible. Maybe. I concentrated on the antlers with Calling, and sighed when an image popped into my head. It seemed that all of the bits came from the same kind of creature: a jackalope. Jackalopes were myths back on Earth, but apparently they were a real thing here. I pulled on Calling with a cord of mental energy, and summoned the beast the antlers had come from. A pile of dust and rotten bones plonked onto the floor roughly, and I blinked. Rather, I tried to, but that¡¯s pretty hard to do without eyelids. Right, I can¡¯t just pull the original through because the original is probably dead. Let¡¯s focus on getting a living one¡­ The next use of Calling was much more difficult. It felt as though I were fishing and needed to reel the jackalope in, but it was thrashing against the pull. After a moment, a shape coalesced, and a quivering antlered rabbit sat before me, staring into my dead eyes with fear. That casting had completely drained my mental energy, and I felt bone-tired. Heh. I retreated to the comforting presence of my Phylactery, and felt myself being slowly rejuvenated and empowered. With a thought, I pulled away a bit of my Domain of Undeath, and spread it a bit further into the cave. The cost on my mental energy was minimal, though it gradually increased the further away I pushed it. Still, I felt that this was a good thing to spend my time doing, as it would strengthen me and any undead I summoned, and would also allow me to shape this cave in my own image. I spent the next while doing that. I knew that there was a jackalope running around, but I could handle that when I had completely filled the cave with influence and recovered my strength. Eventually, after what I guessed was a few hours of relaxing, I stood and walked around the area, noting that it seemed I¡¯d managed to get all of my surroundings in the Domain. Then I frowned as I gazed off at a specific point around a bend of the cave. There was a concentration of Necrosis, and it felt fresh. I approached it¡­ and found a corpse. Specifically, the corpse of the jackalope I¡¯d Called. I guess I¡¯d been at it for more than a few hours. How long did it take for rabbits to die of dehydration, again? Well, I guess it doesn¡¯t matter. I guided my energy through the body of the small animal, using Animate Necrosis to guide my Necrosis Manipulation. As the spell completed, I felt something snap into place, and a new globule of intellect attached to my consciousness. It wasn¡¯t like it was me, nor was it its own thing. It was as if I had some sort of unintelligent pseudo-mind attached to my own. I sent a command to the mind, telling it to jump, and the zombie jackalope in front of me made an awkward attempt at hopping. It tried to do it again, but I canceled the command. So, basically, these zombies had next to no intelligence, and would just do whatever I told them again and again until I stopped them. It was too bad, but there wasn¡¯t anything to be done for it. I assumed that they¡¯d automatically attack the living, which meant that I¡¯d simply have stupid minions for a while. It¡¯s not like I currently had too much use for them, though I was certain they¡¯d become important later. I focused and, with a sigh, reactivated Delinear Sight. Combined with my Deadsight, it allowed me to see the distances between living and dead things. Looking towards one wall, I found that it was near a large amount of life, only a few meters away, and pushed the influence of my Domain of Undeath into it, directing the stone with its Mold Terrain feature, compacting it into itself to form a rough corridor. It seemed that it was oddly fresh and weak. Perhaps some sort of landslide had formed this side of the wall? That would explain how my bone donor got inside. Still, the rocks had been in place long enough to have compacted somewhat into a solid metamorphic stone. Eventually, I carved out an opening to the outside world. Gazing out, I found myself on the slope of a small mountain. There was a valley below me, with a river running through it and a small town sprawled across it. Hmm. Decision time. Do I go out and attempt to slaughter all humans in proper lich fashion, or do I stay here, learn about my abilities, consolidate my power, and build a dungeon? Chapter 2: Heartless, But Moral I closed the entrance to the cave. Now, I wouldn¡¯t say that my decision was at all influenced by my previous humanity or any sort of aversion to murder. I think that those parts of me didn¡¯t manage to follow me into this body, which was probably for the best. No, I think it had more to do with my own idea of rules and fairness. A Dungeon Master can¡¯t simply throw a CR 21 undead at a level 1 adventuring party. At least, not unless they really deserve a TPK. Instead, it was best to slowly allow them to increase their strength through moderately dangerous encounters, let them get confident and familiar with their capabilities, and then throw the truly deadly stuff at them. Now, I doubted that a level 1 Spatial Lich was equivalent to a Lich from TTRPGs, but hey, I was certain that I was much stronger than your average Joe, especially if I could spread my influence across the town. Still, I wouldn¡¯t do that. Instead, I¡¯d stay here, build up some defenses, and then perhaps I¡¯d release a couple of weak undead to harass the town and draw some attention to me. Not too much, though. I needed this dungeon to be considered safe enough that people would be willing to explore it in order to strengthen themselves, using my animated corpses as whetstones. Now, it sounds stupid to want people to explore my lair and kill my minions, but there was a good reason. I needed knowledge. Furthermore, I needed equipment, and a solid enough understanding of the magic of this world to make my own advances. I had goals, you see, plans. I wanted to make a megadungeon. A spire. You may have heard of the type before, a spiraling tower with a seemingly limitless number of floors and endless monsters. The higher you went, the more powerful the enemies, until, at the very top, you encountered the king of the tower. What other lair would be safer than such a skyscraper? I mean, this was assuming that there were no huge flying creatures that could knock down my tower with contemptuous ease, but I¡¯d address that issue when the foundations were laid. My means would have expanded by then, I was sure of it. In the meantime¡­ Time to design a dungeon. This place would be my test site. I¡¯d make a couple rooms, fill them with undead, and place one big undead at the end. I¡¯d throw some loot around. How I¡¯d obtain it, I didn¡¯t know, but I was sure I could figure something out soonish. Still, that was a problem for future Seif. In the meantime, I needed a lot of corpses, and I currently only had one source of them. At least the jackalope I¡¯d summoned would likely have a higher relation to other jackalopes, so it would be easier to obtain more. I commanded my zombie jackalope to kill all the living ones I summoned, and got to work summoning more of them. For every one that I summoned, another joined the horde, and the next fell more swiftly. After some time and a few breaks to recharge my energy, I had about 50 Animated jackalopes. Hopefully these things weren¡¯t endangered or anything. Or¡­ would a lich want to extinct a species? That sounds correct. But if they went extinct, I wouldn¡¯t be able to summon more. Whatever, that doesn¡¯t matter. Eventually, I¡¯d Called a large number of jackalopes, and I felt something shudder in my soul. It was a previously unnoticed tendril of energy that connected myself and my Phylactery. I approached the stone, and saw that a small change had been made to it. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 0 Phylactery 1 Necrosis Manipulation 1 Domain of Undeath 1 Spatium Manipulation 0 Calling 1 I looked over my Calling Skill. Firstly, it seemed that I had leveled the Taglock Boon as well as the Calling Skill itself. Perhaps they had some correlation? Based on my other Skills, it was clearly not additive. Perhaps it had something to do with minimums or averages, but I didn¡¯t have enough information to make an educated guess at the moment. Next, there were the new Boon options. Mass Call was immediately tempting. Currently, I needed to summon the beasts one at a time, which was rather tedious, but Mass Call would make that process much faster. I could sense that the Skill would become harder to use while the Boon was active, as I¡¯d be pulling through multiple creatures at once, but I would soon become much stronger and more adept at the Skill, hopefully enabling me to use it the way I desired. Nomantic Call was interesting. Currently, I could only summon jackalopes, but this Boon would fix that. I could summon anything that I could both picture and name. Of course, that had some limitations. First of all, the strength of the spell would drop precipitously if the name I had was incomplete or fake, potentially allowing the Called being to wrest control over the cast from me. That would be very bad, effectively allowing them to either violently end the spell, or step through under their own power. Bringing a creature over was the goal, of course, but if it was strong enough to control the Calling spell, then it would probably be strong enough to kill me. I debated the two options. Mass Call was immediately helpful, and would likely stay helpful for some time. Nomantic Call, on the other hand, wasn¡¯t all that good now, but had the potential to be amazing later on. I also had to consider my other Skills, and what sort of Boons they could offer me. For example, perhaps Domain of Undeath would allow me to summon skeletons straight from the floor, removing the effectiveness of Mass Call. There were a couple of other ways that I could gain the ability to create or gather more skeletons, including from the town below me. On the other hand I could see Spatium Manipulation maybe giving me the ability to teleport things I was familiar with to my location, but Nomantic Call was otherwise unique. It wouldn¡¯t do anything for me just yet, which sucked as I still had very few options and only a small amount of power, at least from my perspective, but it at least wouldn¡¯t become completely redundant later on. Perhaps I could even name some of my creatures later down the line, and then gain the ability to summon them to my side at a moment¡¯s notice? I made my choice, locking in Nomantic Call as my choice. I didn¡¯t expect it to work, but I still tried to summon a dragon with the Boon, simply projecting ¡°Dragon¡± in my mind as I pictured one of the huge scaly beasts. The spell immediately fizzled out, not having a target to latch onto. Oh well. I turned my attention back to my work, continuing the systematic slaughter. The process had grown faster, likely due to the leveling of the Skill and Boon combo I was using to do it. Eventually I felt another buzz, and found another set of options, this time for Necrosis Manipulation. Necrosis Manipulation 2 I looked over the entry with a slow, boney nod. It seemed that it was, indeed, based on averages, though it appeared to be rounded down, since my other Skills with a 1.5 average had yet to level. Anyways, the options themselves were also interesting. Bind Spirit was a bit¡­ finicky, though. Focusing on the Boon sent a shiver down my spine, which was a very interesting experience, since I didn¡¯t have normal flesh or nerves, and couldn¡¯t regularly feel much of anything. Come to think of it, why hadn¡¯t that been more concerning to me? Right, lich instinct stuff. I digress. Bind Spirit would allow me to attach souls to certain valuable items, much like my own Phylactery. I would be in control of them, though they would have a will of their own and be a bit more intelligent than the average undead I created. Two main issues there. I didn¡¯t have anything valuable to attach a soul to. I felt that gems would do best, and high quality tools were also a good fit, but I didn¡¯t have any tools and the only gem I had was my Phylactery, but there was no way I was letting some measly spirit squat in there. That was my place. The other issue was that the spirits would have an innate rebellious streak until the memories of their past life had been completely cleansed by Lethe. They would work against me whenever they had an opportunity to do so. That sounded awful. I already knew I didn¡¯t want Bind Spirit, but I looked over Shape Necrosis just to make sure it wasn¡¯t any worse. This Boon was actually quite cool. I didn¡¯t like how many jackalopes I had to summon, and how little mob variety this dungeon would have. This Boon would fix that for me. Shape Necrosis, somewhat obviously, would allow me to alter and control anything that contained high concentrations of Necrosis. This ranged from raw energy to magic materials, but most importantly, flesh and bone. I accepted the Boon and grinned at my poor little summons. One of them stepped forward, and I reached towards it with a skeletal palm that seemed to drip with dark power. The zombified jackalope¡¯s body started to twist, its bones cracked, and then¡­ I was left with a twitching pile of flesh. Hmm. I dismissed the animation of that creature, and the flesh returned to a completely dead state. I looked down to my hand, trying to figure out what happened. I¡¯d felt some resistance from the spell, but I assumed that was just natural, since the creature had once been alive. I tried to shape the pile of flesh again, and found that it was far more malleable. Perhaps the Animate Necrosis and Shape Necrosis Boons had some conflict between them? Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. My hand was coated in that energy once more, and yet another lagomorph¡¯s body twisted unnaturally. This time, my Deadsight and Delinear Sight were both cranked up to 11, and I spotted the issue. It wasn¡¯t a conflict between the spells, it was simply that they were both using the same energy. Animate Necrosis was using the death energy in the creature to allow it to move, but Shape Necrosis needed to use it to alter its flesh. Both Boons were drawing from the same source, attempting to do different things with the same limited energy supply. I tried again, but this time, I focused intensely on my Necrosis Manipulation Skill and, for the first time, tried to use it freeform. I drew Necrosis from the surroundings into this next zombie, and saw that some of it was slowly siphoned away from the two fleshy masses in the vicinity, but most of it came directly from my Domain of Undeath. For the first time, I got to really see what it did, other than allow me to Mold Terrain with my Boon. When I gave the Shape Necrosis another shot on this new infused jackalope, the spell went off without a hitch, and soon the beast was standing on two feet, somewhat resembling a modern depiction of a wendigo, though only if you also made it a rabbit in addition to being part deer and part undead horror. Also, much smaller. Though¡­ I started to infuse two more jackalopes with a roughly similar amount of energy, and then used Shape Necrosis on all. This massively increased the drain on my mental energy, and I felt a feeling of strain coming from the bones of my fingers. Still, I pressed on, too enamored by the sight before me. The first step I¡¯d taken was to strip the flesh from the beasts so I¡¯d be able to get a good picture of their skeletal structure. That way, even if this didn¡¯t work, I¡¯d have a better picture of their anatomy for future attempts. Currently, the flesh oozed and undulated beneath the still-standing skeleton of the first jackalope I¡¯d shoved additional Necrosis into, and the bones of the others floated in that semisolid muck. I pulled the bones of the jackalope I was working on apart, and pulled the bones of the others towards them, standing them next to each other and willing them to fuse into one. At first, the hard structures resisted liquifying into the mold of my mental image, but eventually they caved. At first, it seemed that the bones had been welded together, but as I applied pressure, they became more and more like putty, until the bones had all grown larger. They now had approximately the same size ratios, but with triple the mass. Now, I drew the flesh back on to the beast. This was¡­ somewhat successful? The muscles were attached to the bones all wrong, and most were visible. I hadn¡¯t thought to separate the hide from the flesh, and so it had mixed in as chunks of skin and fur, some of which stuck through the skin. I also hadn¡¯t accounted for the skull, and now the beast¡¯s head wore its skull like a helmet. In fact, a couple of the beast¡¯s ribs stuck through its chest as well. If the thing had looked like a wendigo before, it was now a mix between one of those monstrosities and a gibbering mouther. There were also a couple of organs that didn¡¯t mix quite right. There were three eyes shoved into each of its eye sockets, it had tongues sticking out from the bottom of its jaw, and I hadn¡¯t actually managed to merge the antlers, since they were more resistant to the rudimentary energy infusion I¡¯d created with raw Necrosis Manipulation. I supposed it had something to do with them not technically being dead, since they were never really alive in the first place? Anyways, the additional pairs stuck out from random spots on its skull, from where the skulls had melted into each other. Even stranger, even though the bodies were one, the mental spaces of each of them were still individual. If I told them to kill something, they would all leap onto the task immediately. There might be some infighting if they found different ways to do it, but that was unlikely. If I told them to do different things, though? This beast would tear itself apart. I¡¯m sure if this thing were alive, it would be in quite a bit of pain. I¡¯m also sure that if I were alive, I would find it horrifying and disgusting. Luckily, neither of us were shackled by the struggles of mortal life. ¡°I think I¡¯ll name you my Caerbalope,¡± my voice reverberated through my skull. I flinched. I hadn¡¯t heard myself speak in this form yet, and it sounded quite different from my normal voice, but that wasn¡¯t what made me react in such a way. That was caused by the buzzing that resonated through my bones when I named the creature. I trudged back to my Phylactery, looking for answers. I found one. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 0 Phylactery 1 Necrosis Manipulation 2 Domain of Undeath 1 Spatium Manipulation 0 Calling 1 Named Belongings: Caerbalope I focused on the new entry, and an image of my Caerbalope filled my mind. I knew roughly how powerful it was, its entire anatomy, and how it was made. Finally, I knew its rough location, which was improved by my Delinear Sight. In fact, both of my vision enhancing abilities did wonders for this. My Delinear Sight helped me examine the anatomy of the creature, knowing the exact scale of it, and my Deadsight showed me the varying concentrations of its Necrosis, how there was more in the flesh than the bones, and more in the bones than in the antlers. Strangely, it seemed that the major internal organs that had managed to mostly survive the dissolution of flesh¨Cthose being the hearts, lungs, and eyes¨Chad a much higher concentration of energy than any other parts. I¡¯d have to experiment with that later, on another creature. I also got the feeling that I¡¯d be able to use my Nomantic Calling on Caerbalopes with extreme efficiency now, seeing as I¡¯d provided them with a true name. This Named Belongings thing was extremely convenient. I¡¯m sure that this would typically be used by crafters to gauge their work, or perhaps by common individuals to mark items with sentimental value to them. I felt that I wouldn¡¯t be able to name anything else until I increased my Spatial Lich level, unless I wanted to strip the name of the Caerbalope from my soul, which would effectively delete all knowledge of it from my mind. I didn¡¯t particularly feel like doing that, so I instead turned my attention back to the other jackalopes in the room. I didn¡¯t love the idea of having an entirely homogeneous dungeon, nor did I want it to be full of regular old jackalopes. I decided right then and there that I, in fact, wouldn¡¯t have any jackalopes. Caerbalopes it is, then. I examined the entire anatomy of the creature, and my Delinear Sight Boon seemed to copy it into my mind as I went. When I looked back at one of the regular jackalope zombies, an image of a Caerbalope overlaid it like a hologram. With a smile, I started melting corpses together like a madman. By the time I was done, there wasn¡¯t a single regular jackalope left in the room. Instead, they¡¯d all been mashed together into Caerbalopes of varying sizes and shapes. As I¡¯d created more with different numbers of, they¡¯d been added to the Caerbalope Named Belongings profile, making it into a folder of sorts. Now, I¡¯d gone a bit overboard mixing three the first time. I¡¯d tried making another immediately after, but had found myself too drained, and needed to take a moment to recover halfway through the formation of the second Caerbalope. After that, I¡¯d stuck to making amalgamations that combined just two of the jackalopes into a single Caerbalope, but broke up the monotony by throwing in a few triples, and at the end, I got bored and jumped to make a few quadruple Caerbalopes. Necrosis Manipulation 2 Shape Necrosis had quickly risen in levels, first from the creation of the original Caerbalope and then from their repeated creation. Deadsight wasn¡¯t far behind it. If my theory of it being averaged and then rounded down was correct, a single level in any of my Boons would level Necrosis Manipulation. My specialization, on the other hand, was a different story entirely. If it were averaged, then by now I would have increased in level, even if it were rounded down. The only scenarios I could see now was that either the average level of my Skills needed to surpass one above my level, which I thought to be unlikely and somewhat random, or it was based on my lowest Skill, which was currently Spatium Manipulation. I¡¯d been using Delinear Sight quite a bit for the past while, and felt that I was approaching a threshold, but there was still something holding me back. I couldn¡¯t quite put my index phalanges on it, though. In any case, now that I had mobs, I needed a dungeon to put them in. First, I cataloged how many undead monstrosities I had. Overall, I counted 23 dual Caerbalopes, 9 triple Caerbalopes, and 4 quadruple Caerbalopes. There were the trash mobs, the common soldiers, and then the elites. I¡¯d also need a boss, but I had something of an idea for that and would save it until the end. For this trial run of a dungeon setup, I was thinking I¡¯d set up three basic fighting rooms and a boss room. I¡¯d also like to make a trap room, but didn¡¯t know quite how I¡¯d manage that. I assumed that living presences would interfere with my Domain of Undeath, which would prevent me from directly altering the room while they were inside of it. I didn¡¯t know enough about technology to figure out a setup to move doors back and forth, and would eventually need to figure out a way to do it magically. In any case, Delinear Sight helped me sketch out what I wanted the rooms to look like, and then I pushed on Mold Terrain to make my ideas into reality. The process seemed much smoother with the Skill than it had been without, as though Mold Terrain was drawing its instructions from Delinear Sight, rather than myself. Once the process was finally done, I felt another buzz, twice as strong as the ones before, signaling a double Skill increase. Then, there was a third buzz, accompanied by a tug. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 1 Phylactery 1 Necrosis Manipulation 2 Domain of Undeath 2 Spatium Manipulation 1 Calling 1 Available Enhancement (Reinforcement, Willpower) Named Belongings: Caerbalope Okay, three things to think over. First off, the easy one. Domain of Undeath was offering me either Transmute, which would let me turn one thing into another, with some limitations, or Solid Death, which would allow me to create objects made of condensed death energy. While the latter sounded useful, and might even be able to make magic items, the first was more immediately helpful. Currently, all I had to work with was stone, and that just wasn¡¯t enough. Not to mention, I could Transmute some stone into gold and use that as a reward for dungeoneers. Transmute couldn¡¯t increase or decrease an object¡¯s mass, meaning that the weight of the object you transmuted would remain the same. It could, however, change the size of something, either increasing density to match a heavier material, or decreasing it to bridge the gap to a lighter one. Next up¡­ the one that didn¡¯t give me a headache from simply considering it. The Enhancement. Reinforcement or Willpower. Both affected the soul, but Reinforcement focused on bodily empowerment, while Willpower improved the fortitude of the mind. I picked Willpower. A stronger mind had a larger capacity of mental energy, which could be converted into other types of energy, i.e., Necrosis and Spatium. It would also provide a greater ability to comprehend new subjects, and that would prove critical in the next selection I made. I couldn¡¯t afford to trade away the potential for increased comprehension at this juncture. My gaze flicked to the Spatium Manipulation Boons, and a headache slowly built inside me. Again, I didn¡¯t have a brain, so this was less of a mental thing and more of my soul struggling to contain the information before me. Images flickered across my mind, and it began to burn as the simplest possible explanation of these Boons manifested in my mind. The skeleton frame I inhabited quaked from the strain, and my Phylactery shuddered. Stitching. Stitching was a lot of things. It is an alteration in the crossover between the weave and the weft. Stitching can fix tears, move or remove material, and completely alter the overall design of something. An experienced tailor can completely reshape, redesign, or replace any part of the fabric they choose to devote their attention to. An experienced spatial stitcher could do the same with reality itself. Next was Banding. Rubber was a simple thing. If you were to take a rubber band and pull it apart, its size would not change, yet it would be longer. An individual who walked across a large strip of rubber could find it stretched and pulled in many different directions, altering their course and the distance they traveled, without really changing anything at all. Banding was the twisting of reality, plain and simple. Those who practiced the art of spatial banding, the world is simply a strip of putty to be pulled apart, squished together, and molded into something entirely different. My bones smoked, and my soul fled from them as my Phylactery rocked violently, losing its ability to hover in place and falling. I lost consciousness long before it hit the ground. Chapter 3: Unlimited Power I groaned. "There¡¯s no way it¡¯s 6:00 already¡­" Then I noticed that my vision was a fragmented purple, and remembered that I wasn''t rolling out of bed. I was waking up in my Phylactery. I tried to look around and hop back into the skeleton I''d been piloting before, but it didn''t work, and I soon realized why. The corpse has been turned to ash from the strain on my spirit. As a lich, I possessed bodies, but they weren''t strictly my own body. Instead, they were reinforced by my mental energy and death magic shenanigans. That meant that, when my mental energy had been completely drained, all that was left was uncontrolled death magic energy, and large amounts of it, too. While death magic, or Necrosis, or whatever you want to call it, strengthened the undead, it was still a destructive energy that sought to rot and destroy all things, until all that was left was death. When I lost control of the energy in the corpse, that power had taken over and, finding no living things to destroy, targeted the nearest thing: the skeleton. In other words, I no longer had a body to control. At least, unless I wanted to use one of the Caerbalopes, but I''d really rather not try that out. Luckily, I''d been prepared for this situation, and pushed energy into my Boon, Reconstitution. Immediately, I was prompted with a simple question. What did I want to look like? I thought about it for a long moment. I could try to reform my body from my life on Earth. It would be sustained by Necrosis, and I still wouldn''t need food, water, or air. Eventually, with an internal sigh, I pushed the image of a bare skeleton into the Boon. The simple truth was that I wasn''t human anymore. Trying to look like one would only invite terrible confusion. Not to mention, I''d gotten used to the lack of major nerves and sensations not directly related to the energies of life and death, and was concerned that suddenly regaining my nervous system would send my new fleshy body into shock, or that it would hurt. Furthermore, I wasn¡¯t exactly living in opulence right now. Sitting in a cave all day was already boring, but with an actual body, it would start to be physically painful. Best to just stick with the skeleton aesthetic for now. I''d make it closer to my original height, though. As I pushed energy into the Boon, it pulled me in to watch it happen from an isometric view, and had me allocate the spent energy. I started with the bones in the feet, and realized that the Boon wanted me to decide how much energy to put in each bone. I decided to be generous, and my entire supply of Necrosis was drained by the time I''d gotten to the knees, and my mental energy was gradually converted into Necrosis to refill it. I forced more through, my newly improved Willpower giving me greater force and more effort with that power source. Eventually that gave me a migraine, and I had to slow down on the conversion or risk damaging my mind. The rest of the body formed more slowly, to the point where even I, with the patience of the undying, grew bored. It was like watching grass grow. Sure, I would live forever and my perspective had changed somewhat to match that, but this was just¡­ boring. I was effectively doing nothing for days, maybe even weeks. The worst part was that I had to stay focused on the process the whole time, or I would lose control of the design. If I thought about Caerbalopes for too long, then flesh would start to form around the bone I was working on, forcing me to mentally lop it off with Shape Necrosis and start on that part again. Eventually, after way too long, a complete skeleton stood before me. The thing had taken way too long to make, but it seemed that the energy hadn''t gone to waste. The skeleton had a slight blue tint to it, which I assumed related to the fact that it was made almost entirely of Necrosis. The moment the skeleton was complete, and I''d gotten a good look at it, my consciousness was sucked across the bond made by Reconstitution. A moment later and I was staring into the reflection of my black, deathless eyes in the red and blue of my Phylactery. Then my status popped back up, reminding me that I still had a choice to make. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 1 Phylactery 1 Necrosis Manipulation 2 Domain of Undeath 2 Spatium Manipulation 1 Calling 1 Enhancements: Willpower Named Belongings: Caerbalope I still needed to pick between the two Spatium Boons. I looked away so the images and whispers wouldn¡¯t enter my head again, but still got a flash of pain when I looked at the words. It was less than before, more of a minor ache, but I would still rather avoid it. I went over the vague descriptions of the two Boons in my mind. Stitching would let me transplant space, but Banding would let me bend it. That was hard to wrap my head around. It basically meant nothing to me. With that said¡­ Stitching felt like the stronger of the two. The images I¡¯d seen had shown areas that seemed to overlap, mix with other locations, and so on. Banding was also very powerful, though. It showed the space between two points collapsing, bringing two things together, and stone bending like putty. As much as I didn¡¯t fully grasp what the situation was¡­ I felt that Stitching was more likely to bring unique tools into my arsenal. I took it without looking at the prompt, and felt something sear itself into my mind, or rather, my soul. Then, I knew. Why had it eluded me so before? I turned up my Delinear Sight, which seemed to have evolved from my selection of Stitching, and looked at the space around me, then converted mental energy into Spatium, using it to fuel Stitching. I tugged at the weft and warp of reality, pulling its threads into itself. A hole in reality appeared before me, a place where there was simply¡­ nothing. It wasn¡¯t a vacuum. A vacuum required space to exist. No, it was a place where nothing could exist. In fact, not even light could pass through, and my regular sight simply stopped in front of it, showing nothing. No color, not even blackness, simply nothing. My Delinear Sight alone allowed me to see the place where the threads of reality had been cut. It defied physics. It was a place where all things bent in on themselves. The space there was simply detached. I bent my mind to the task of weaving the threads I¡¯d pulled apart back in on themselves, trying to form them into loops, but I felt a migraine coming on, and the clarity was slowly fading. Reluctantly, I released the threads of space, allowing reality to return to its natural state. I glanced down at my boney hands, and noticed that they were shaking. I clenched them, then looked back at my Phylactery. Spatium Manipulation 1 Clearly, my display of omnipotent power wasn¡¯t enough to be worthy of an increase in my Stitching Boon. That probably made sense though. It was extremely powerful; the issue was with my ability to use it. What I had done with it was overboard. With my current capabilities, using Stitching to cut was foolish. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. I waited for a while, but then I reactivated my Delinear Sight and Stitching, once more viewing the universe as interlaced strings. Instead of cutting them, I put a firm mental grasp on a handful of them. I felt a slight pull from that area, and stretched a hand towards it. It was gravity. An increase of the density of space in a given area. I released my grip, having burned through mental energy and Spatium to accomplish even that much. It would take a long time to get better at Stitching, but well¡­ I had plenty of that. Anyways, back to what I was doing before all of these. I''d just finished shaping all of the rooms with Mold Terrain, and now it was time to populate them. Now, I had 36 Caerbalopes. 23 were made from two zombies, 9 were made from three, and the last 4 were made from four jackalope corpses each. That¡­ might not be enough. You see, I wanted to have spares, just in case, and I still didn''t have a boss. I could solve the final problem another time, but for now¡­ It seemed that I would need to summon more jackalopes. Bleh. This time the process moved much more quickly, my new experience with Spatium aiding in my lagomorph abduction spree. However, I did have to stop the Caerbalopes from eating the jackalopes. It seemed that they had the capability to absorb the jackalopes'' flesh to increase their own size, and perhaps to heal themselves as well, though I had yet to test that. In any case, I quickly accumulated a supply of mostly-intact jackalope zombies. Then I started the process of imbuing them with more Necrosis, but I was interrupted by a buzzing sensation. I turned to check out my Phylactery. Necrosis Manipulation 3 Dang, these Skills were leveling quickly. Or, perhaps my perception of time has been screwed with, since I don''t have any bodily functions to remind me of its passing? Also possible. The first Boon was very good. It would allow me to construct corpses for animation in the same way that I built myself up with Reconstitution. It did have a limitation, in that it couldn''t construct anything I hadn''t raised before, but it would mean that I wouldn''t need to summon endless amounts of jackalopes to make undead. I could tell that it would be able to easily create my Named undead. Additionally, the bodies would be made straight from Necrosis, making them sturdier and stronger. Imbue Flesh was actually the same thing I was doing freeform with my Necrosis Manipulation. It saturated a body with Necrosis, enabling certain skills to work with greater efficiency. Sadly for it, I would rather add a completely new synergy to my arsenal than improve the efficiency of something I already did. I would improve in that area as I leveled Necrosis Manipulation. I picked up Create Undead, and set down the zombie I was using as a Taglock. Finally free, it leapt away¡­ only for me to Shape it into the body of a nearby Caerbalope. I finished up the set of combinations I was working on, then focused on the biology of a Dualjack Caerbalope¨CI''d decided to refer to them as Dualjack, Trijacks, and Quadjacks for now¨Cand pushed the image into Create Undead, pushing Necrosis and mental energy into the shape. Slowly, my smallest type of abomination began to form, created from pure energy. It shared the blue tinge of my own artificial body. Eventually, a corpse¨Ccould it be called a corpse when it was never alive?¨Cslumped to the floor, and I targeted it with Animate Necrosis. I suddenly sensed that I had a choice; I could animate it with a single mind, or keep it true to its original self, with multiple distinct driving forces. I ultimately chose to keep it true to the original design, deciding that the split personality was a unique and integral quirk of the creature.The creature rose under its own power, multiple minds working together to drive the action. It was much more whole than the others¨Ca result of it having been initially formed as a single entity, I was sure. The monstrosity felt stronger than the others, as though I had already used my rudimentary Imbue Flesh on it, and it must have weighed at least half again what the normal Caerbalopes did. Very nice. I turned my attention to the remainder of the Caerbalopes, and tssked in consternation. The color of the Created Caerbalope was different from the ones I''d made by hand. I thought over what I would do with them, but then realized that I was thinking in the wrong direction. I turned to the Created Caerbalope and smiled, readying my Boon to spawn another. Time to make a boss, I guess. I created another nine Dualjack Caerbalopes, making a total of ten, far and away the most I had ever used to make a creature. I then used Shape Necrosis to alter their forms, and their flesh changed into something like a gas, flitting around to obey my will. Slowly, a shape started to form, and I smiled a cruel smile. Before, I had thought that the Caerbalopes had seemed like wendigos, but the truth was that I hadn''t even gotten close. This thing though? The beast before me stood on two feet, with two massive antlers sticking through its outer skull, which functioned as a helmet for the head inside. The remainder of its form was skeletally thin, its flesh tight around its bones. It had long, sharp claws, and a hunched, slightly deer- or antelope-like form. Its muscles were tight and lean, having inherited the twitch power of its lagomorph ancestors but improved upon by Necrosis. It was denser and heavier for it, and where the Caerbalopes combined may have originally totaled somewhere between 200 and 300 lbs, this thing was well over that. It seemed that the Necrosis I¡¯d infused it with had managed to materialize into additional matter in the same way that Created flesh did. I''d also managed to compress its muscles further than they normally would have been, hence how its frame appeared slim when compared to its height. I named it an Antigo, a mix between antelope and wendigo. The name was accepted by my soul, and I knew that it would do well as the boss of this dungeon. Sadly, it took most of my mental energy just to create a single Antigo, and I needed to take a while to recharge after that, but that honestly just made sense for a boss monster. It should be the strongest thing I could create at the time. Now, it was time to distribute the mobs, and do some decoration. I made more rooms to the sides of each of the main dungeon rooms, as well as hidden entrances for the Caerbalope burrows. I directed the Caerbalopes to disperse in ratios. I planned for the first battle room to contain 6 Dualjack Caerbalopes and 2 Trijacks. The next room would have a ratio of 8 Dualjacks, 4 Trijacks, and a single Quadjack. The final battle room would have 10 Dualjacks, 6 Trijacks, and 4 Quadjacks. Finally, there would be my Antigo, who would hopefully prove powerful enough to challenge any who reached that far in the dungeon. Now it was decoration time. I sketched some designs on the walls of the entry hall. They were just squiggles, and had no real meaning, but I embossed them all across the three encounter rooms, having them become more sharp and chaotic the further in they went, until, in the final room, I planned for them to be entirely scratched off and broken. Realizing that I probably should have done this first, I shaped the floor into flat stone bricks, once more becoming more and more cracked and broken in each successive room. The walls were also flattened and smoothed out, and I decided to make the roof into an open dome, curving upwards into a flat bit at the center of each of the rooms. After I smoothed out the walls, I needed to make a replacement exit for the mobs. Eventually, I worked out how to make a rudimentary trapdoor with the help of Transmute, which reminded me to Transmute all the stone in the "dungeon" into the limestone, smoothing out its colors and adding a bit of strength in some areas that lacked consistency. Behind the room for the Antigo, I Molded a secret door, in which to hide both myself and my Phylactery. Then I grabbed my Phylactery from the air, and started walking. Immediately, a massive drain on my mental energy made itself known, and I realized that there would be some cost to moving myself around. Not only that, but the Phylactery moved incredibly slowly. I planned to leave and start over again somewhere else in the future, but maybe I''d have to push that dream back a few decades to find a way to move the Phylactery more quickly. After some time, I managed to get my Phylactery into the safe room. Then I spread some Domain of Undeath influence into the surroundings and started carving out an area around the dungeon rooms. I wanted to be able to watch the fights so I could direct the mobs, but I didn''t need eye holes because of my Deadsight. Once I finished up with the additional side halls, I felt yet another buzz, and returned to the safe room to check my Phylactery. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 1 Phylactery 1 Necrosis Manipulation 3 Domain of Undeath 3 Spatium Manipulation 1 Calling 1 Enhancements: Willpower Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo Miasma was a Boon to infuse matter in my dungeon, including the air, with Necrosis. It was somewhat similar to both Imbue Flesh and Reinforce Death, Boons that I¡¯d previously rejected. For reasons similar to those, Miasma felt illogical. I could already put extra Necrosis into the dungeon by thickening the amount of influence in it, and I didn¡¯t particularly want my influence to be immediately toxic to the living. I wanted to incentivize them to explore, to risk themselves for their greed. Then, if and when they died, they would inevitably fuel my own desires. Omnipresence suited my wants much better. It would allow me to see from any point within the dungeon, and sling spells without being in the room. This would enable me to quickly restock the dungeon with monsters once it was cleared, and my command of the mobs would be greatly improved. I took the boon, then looked at the tunnels I¡¯d just formed. Tunnels that were now entirely useless to me. I guess it technically wasn¡¯t a waste of time, since it¡¯s what got me the Boon? Yeah. Right. That makes me feel a little bit better about the wasted time. With a raspy sigh, I shrank all the tunnels I¡¯d spent my time building so that only a Dualjack Caerbalope could squeeze through. Luckily, undoing my work was much quicker than doing it in the first place. Right. Now what to do? Chapter 4: Finishing Touches In order, I had designed and decorated the layout of my dungeon, I had populated it with mobs, and I had obtained a way to control those mobs. What next? Wait, no, this is an obvious one. Loot. I didn¡¯t know if humans had a system similar to the one that my Phylactery contained, but I couldn¡¯t bet on there being an experience system even if they did, since I didn¡¯t seem to have one. If, like with me, their leveling cared more about their Skills and Boons than slaughter, the dungeon might only provide a small boost to their learning speed. XP systems had always proven inferior to milestone leveling anyways. No, to entice adventurers, I would need loot. Now, I couldn¡¯t have monsters drop loot, at least, not unless I wanted to put the loot inside of them and dissolve their bodies after they were killed, but that sounded tedious. No, no, I would need treasure chests. At the entrance to each room, I placed a small treasure chest, just off to the right a bit. It took a minute to figure out the hinges, but once I had, it wasn¡¯t too hard to replicate the design, as I simply needed to pull a slab of stone from the ground, Mold it into a rough shape, Transmute it, and Mold it a bit more. I didn¡¯t currently have much to offer in terms of magic items or legitimate loot, but that was fine. Perhaps I¡¯d find a way to get those created en masse later. In the meantime, I had a transmutation skill that could literally turn lead into gold. Gold was valuable no matter where you went. The Gold Standard was used internationally for 50 years because it was generally considered a good thing to base currency off of. It was rare, tough, and pretty, to the point where rich people in the 1800¡¯s had used it for interior design. Now, that makes it seem very much not rare, but those people were incomparably wealthy and had little to no compunctions of careful spending, so using such a rare material for building was simply an expensive way to flex their industrial power or heritage. Anyways, I was filling the treasure chests with gold coins. I¡¯d put just a single coin in the first, three in the second, and six in the third. The last room, the one with the Antigo, would have two chests at the end of the room, each holding five gold coins. They were small, but the value of them should be good enough to make up for that. Yes, I like triangular numbers, get over it. Hopefully, this system would encourage people to push beyond their means in an attempt to gain greater rewards. I know it sounds cruel to say that I wanted people to die for my gain, but it wasn¡¯t like I, myself, would be killing them. No, in most scenarios I could imagine, the people who came in here would know that they were in a dangerous location, and would be accepting that risk in order to gain wealth and, potentially, power. Was this the logic of a psychopath? Perhaps, but did it really matter? As long as it worked, it worked. The gold coins weren¡¯t hard to make, though it did take a bit of time. I had to coalesce and merge stone into the shape I wanted with Mold Terrain¨Cwhich, by the way, absolutely worked on more than just terrain¨Cand then use Transmute to turn it into gold before fixing up some rough edges with more Mold Terrain. The coins of gold would be the same weight as the stone that they were formed from, which meant that they¡¯d shrink significantly, but I used Delinear Sight to ensure that they were all about 30 grams. For funsies, I even etched a marking on the top of the coins: a forward-facing rendition of the Antigo¡¯s head, horns and all. Personally, I thought it looked rather impressive, though I was sure that anyone who managed to get their hands on it would be more focused on the gold itself. Time for the stupid part. It would have been easy to simply make the gold coins inside the chests with Omnipresence, and I would most likely end up doing that in the long run, but I thought that it would be a fun idea to try Stitching the coins into the space of the chests. I thought that I¡¯d improved in my energy efficiency enough to at least give it another attempt, even if it hadn¡¯t really been all that long since I first messed with my Stitching Boon. I turned on Delinear Sight and Omnipresence, simultaneously viewing the space around the gold coin that laid before me and the open space. I clamped down on my mind, focusing completely on those two spaces. I cut out the space surrounding the coin and a bit inside the chest as well. I felt my mental energy take a huge hit from making the cuts, more than just the constant drain that enabled its conversion to Spatium, and I immediately knew that I was doing something wrong, but I pushed away those thoughts. I couldn¡¯t get distracted now. Luckily, the threads of space didn¡¯t seem to obey any laws of physics once severed from the physical plane, and their transportation was instant, though that caused another flash of energy drain. I started to feel shivers once again, a sign that my energy reserves were growing low, but I felt a steady influx of Necrosis trying to stabilize me. It seemed that the nature of a Reconstituted body allowed the energy from my influence to flow to me more directly. I shook the thoughts off again, having wasted even more mental energy due to the distraction. Luckily, the next part was simple, as the threads of space were already looking for a way to be mended. All it took was a small push, and the gold coin appeared inside the chest. It hadn¡¯t been too difficult, only costing me most of my energies and a huge amount of exertion. I looked to my Phylactery to see if I¡¯d missed any buzzes while I¡¯d been focused. Spatium Manipulation 1 Alas, it seemed that it would be a bit longer until I could obtain another Boon in Spatium Manipulation. I hoped that the next choices would provide me something that could make the process less energy intensive, or perhaps streamline it at the least. Too bad. Well, at least I knew that teleporting stuff around the dungeon was off the table for now. Now, I had rooms, mobs, and loot. What else was there? Puzzles were off the table, since I didn¡¯t know enough about magic to make them properly. How about tra¨Cwait, no, I need doors first. I quickly went through a few renditions of hinges and door types but eventually settled on steel double doors. I couldn¡¯t get wood, and I didn¡¯t want the doors to be too heavy or lacking in durability, so I felt that a slim steel door, reinforced by what little Necrosis I could push into it, worked the best. Now, what was I about to say? Oh, right, traps and environmental hazards. I¡¯d have to decide on a style first, though. I thought through a few things that I could make traps out of, and eventually settled on stone bookcases. The Caerbalopes would be able to hide inside them, and they were detached from the floor, allowing the Caerbalopes to¨Cwith some direction from myself and perhaps a bit of teamwork¨Cknock them onto pesky adventurers¡¯ heads. They were stacked closely enough that a single collision could cause them all to fall over like dominoes, which would obviously be quite dangerous for all the creatures in the room, including the Caerbalopes, but they didn¡¯t particularly fear for their own lives. Now, bookshelves on their own were boring, so I decided that I needed books. The issue there was that the Transmute Boon had its own limits and rules. The most notable one in this case was that living matter couldn¡¯t be Transmuted, and no matter could be Transmuted into organic materials. However, I had a Boon from another Skill that was specifically designed to produce dead organic material. Create Undead was an interestingly flexible Boon. Y¡¯see, it didn¡¯t actually create undead creatures, what it really did was spawn corpses that were perfect for creating undead. The distinction was small, but it did exist, and because of that, I could use the Boon to coalesce Necrosis into almost anything I wanted. For example, books. Step one was something that I had become quite familiar with at this point. I Called a jackalope. Once the connection was established, rather than wait for the Skill to pull the creature through itself, I reinforced the bond with Spatium and bodily yanked it through space with my fleshless hands. The poor thing let out a terrified squeak, and for a moment I felt bad for it. Then I snapped its neck, ending its suffering. Shape Necrosis was the next step, and I took the time to carefully pull apart each individual resource in the body, roughly discarding those I wouldn¡¯t need. At the end, I was left with three globs of material, one for hide, one for tendons, and one for cartilage. There was a certain type of ¡°paper¡± called vellum, and vellum was made from animal hide that underwent a long, complex process. Tanned hide could also be used to make book covers, and I hoped that I could use cartilage to make hardcover books and tendons to bind pages. I summoned a few more jackalopes, knowing that I¡¯d need quite a bit more material for this. I¡¯d have used Create Undead, but I suppose my knowledge of the biology of a jackalope was insufficient to do so. Instead, I had to make do with this, which was honestly fine. I didn¡¯t mind working on leveling my Calling Skill, as I felt that it would be one of the main factors holding back my leveling if I couldn¡¯t get my hands on the names of some creatures pretty soon. Anyways, once I¡¯d completed the gruesome task of separating corpses into material with Shape Necrosis, I split the jackalope furs into two groups, where I¡¯d tan and shape one into a rough book cover, and I¡¯d turn the other into vellum pages. For both piles, I dehaired and tanned them, a process that was much faster with Shape Necrosis than it would have been otherwise. Changing the content of the cells was more difficult, but with a bit of focus, I could convince the cells to replicate the effects of tanning. I further strengthened them with Necrosis, and knew that they wouldn¡¯t rot away. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! I kept the hides meant for the cover mostly thicker, but drew some cartilage over, formed it into three flat plates, one thinner than the others, bound them together with tendons, and stretched the hides around it, then compacted the material a bit, keeping it tough while making the book easier to hold. I then turned my attention to the hides meant for vellum, and focused for a minute, eventually convincing the dead cells to spit out their melanin. I then stretched the hides out and sheared them until they were the right size and shape, ending up with some rectangular vellum sheets. It still had Necrosis in it, so I could still control it. I pulled at some of the tendons I¡¯d split from the body, and bound thin strands of musculature to the vellum, then attached them to the rough book cover I¡¯d made. I looked down at the fleshy book. I couldn¡¯t deny that it looked like a necronomicon. Just for funsies, I sent a pulse through it with Animate Necrosis, then commanded the ¡°book¡± to move around. It flapped its cover and ruffled its pages, but ultimately was incapable of movement. At least, it was until I fashioned some loose bones into eight distinct legs. Then it crawled around just fine. It still couldn¡¯t see though, so I moved some stuff around and thickened the cover until I could affix some eyes in it. I went with eight, just to fit the spider theme. Really, it looked more like a crab, but explorers who came in here would probably be too scared to tell the difference. The creepy little bugger¨CI decided to call it an Arachnomicon¨Cmoved carefully and ponderously, its weight slightly unbalanced. Still, when I instructed it to attack a jackalope that I¡¯d Called to act as a test dummy for it, it picked up speed fast, and the deer-rabbit¡¯s body was soon being carved into with the wicked bone spikes I¡¯d given the beast as legs. I decided that I¡¯d mostly summon the normal flesh books, but the rooms would also have a few of these Arachnomicons in the mix. Now that I''d made an Arachnomicon, I would be able to use Create Undead to make more, though the efficiency would be lower than it was with my Caerbalopes and the Antigo since it wasn''t technically Named. I spent a few hours constructing the bookshelves to house my new books, but stopped when I realized that it was a bit lame for the books to not contain any information at all. Perhaps I should fill them? But with what? I had a basic education, and could probably explain some novel math or writing theories, but¡­ I didn¡¯t really want to? Maybe I¡¯d find books to copy later. In the meantime, I¡¯d have to live with blank pages. The bookshelves were constructed out of pumice. Yes, pumice. Its visual appeal was negligible, but pumice was light and would be easy for my Caerbalopes to knock onto people. The damage would be reduced by the lightweight nature of the rock, but I felt that having the traps be actually harmful was less important than using them to, well, trap people. If they could keep people in one place, then that would provide opportunities for my Caerbalopes and Arachnomicons to gang up on them. In the boss room, just to keep the design consistent, I threw in a couple more bookshelves, only on one wall, and then smashed them by carving out boulders from the ceiling and dropping them onto it. I also etched some fake claw marks in them, just to make it look like the Antigo was the thing that destroyed it all. I imagined that this final boss room would be something like an office, and so I made a desk to one side of the room. This was also broken by yours truly, split into two pieces, as if some huge fight had occurred. Moving the boulders out of the way was a bit of a pain, but I finally got a chance to test out the Antigo''s strength. Its muscles easily lifted the large rocks, though there was some issue with its claws getting in the way. Still, it was plenty strong, and the stones were soon reintegrated with the stone and the ceiling was restored. Once everything was cleaned up, the rooms were decorated and filled with books and "books," and the mobs were in place, I revisited my list and realized it was time. I used Mold Terrain to once more compact the earth and create a tunnel that led out of the mountain. The dungeon was open for business. ¡­Actually, give me a minute to work on this entrance. I spread my influence outside the cave, and created a tiled path that led just a slight bit down the path. I then Transmuted the earth around the entrance into the same limestone I''d used for the interior, making the tiles line up just right. After that, I decided that I needed some sort of light source to make the dungeon entrance more visible. It was currently night, so the townspeople probably couldn''t even see the dungeon right now. I thought about it for a moment, but then used Create Undead to form an Antigo just outside the cave. The thing stood up and roared in a display of might, but then its head, along with one of its arms, fell off as I used Shape Necrosis through my Omnipresence. I allowed the remainder of the corpse to dissolve into Necrosis, marginally increasing the density of energy by the entrance, but forced the arm to grab the head. I planted a bit over half of it in the ground, with the head sitting on top. I thought for a moment, then sundered its tight flesh from its body, making it appear more skeletal in nature. I condensed the creature''s flesh inside its skull, then stuffed it with more and more Necrosis. My hope was that I could get it to form a light source if there was enough energy in there. I felt something wriggle inside the Antigo''s flesh, and dragged some more mental energy into stabilizing the mass of energy and meat. I could feel a sense of hunger growing in the ball of muscle, and could tell that the Necrosis energy was looking for something to eat. The flesh around it, however, was made of Necrosis, so it had no choice but to do something else with itself. A soft teal glow emerged from the external skull, and I slowly released my vice grip on the energy. It was barely noticeable without my ability to sense the energy of death, but it was glowing. Based on the slow energy leak, I could tell that I''d need to refill it later, but for now, I was feeling a bit drained. I pulled myself away from the viewpoint of Omnipresence and took a good look at my Phylactery. I''d set my body a bit away from it, but now I moved forward and set a hand on it before looking in. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 1 Phylactery 1 Necrosis Manipulation 3 Domain of Undeath 3 Spatium Manipulation 1 Calling 1 Enhancements: Willpower Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo Currently, my Necrosis Manipulation and Domain of Undeath Skills were doing excellently, but everything else was a bit of a holdup. Calling and Spatium Manipulation were actually both close to leveling, which was great, but they were also probably the two most difficult skills for me to increase the level of. My Phylactery Skill had also had difficulty increasing in level, probably because I''d only been inside it twice. I had some ideas for that, but I''d prefer to fix the other two holdouts first. Deciding to start with Calling, as it would likely be the easiest to level, I pictured what I wanted to summon, and muttered, "Dualjack Caerbalope." A tether in my mind that I hadn''t noticed before tightened, and a moment later, a fleshy abomination appeared in front of me. No buzz, though. I explored where the tether had formed, and found many other previously unnoticed tethers of similar shape, each extending from a single point in my soul and reaching outwards. I manually tugged on one of them, and another Dualjack Caerbalope popped into my hands. I think I''d finally figured out how the Calling spell really worked. It wasn''t like Stitching or Banding, as it didn''t work by transplanting space. You''d think that would be how it worked, but it seemed that Calling was an entirely different discipline of magic. It didn''t work by finding a creature, making a portal, and pulling them in. Instead, it felt out for the links of different things. Taglock didn''t just hunt for DNA, it found what had a close link to the provided material. Nomantic worked based on the power that a name held over a creature, how that name described a creature in a single word and was the ultimate and most direct way to draw their attention. It would create a small probe that searched along the links that trembled as that name was called, and it would find the creature that most accurately resembled the provided image. When I''d originally gained the Boon, I''d asked for a dragon. The issue wasn''t that there wasn''t a tether, it was simply that the tether wasn''t strong enough for the probe to be sent out. The universe knew what a dragon was, sure, but it knew each name individually, and that designation was far more powerful. On Earth, if you walked into a room and started yelling "Human" over and over again, you''d get some weird looks and someone might ask you to stop, but you were unlikely to get anyone to actually approach you, unless you really annoyed them. On the other hand, if you shouted someone''s name? You''d instantly have their full attention. Calling worked based on the same principles. It almost felt closer to a sort of sympathetic magic, but that was only what was done for the targeting. The actual summoning was performed by grabbing those links and shortening them in a mix between Stitching and Banding. I wonder what Banding would have looked like to my Delinear Sight. Stitching allowed me to see the detailed weaving of the world, but what would Banding have done? Would it have had more to do with specific objects, or something? I guess I''d never know. I felt a buzz in my head, and knew that I''d leveled Calling not once, but twice. It hadn''t been done through repetition, but rather understanding, and the change in levels reflected that. Calling 2 I''d gained three Boon levels at once. It truly seemed that understanding was the way to go with this magic, which made sense. After all, practice without understanding would prevent you from improving, since you didn''t know what you were actually doing, and understanding without practice meant that you would know a lot, but lack the ability to do any of it well. I almost wanted to give the rest of my Skills and Boons another look to see if there was anything I''d missed, but first I needed to decide what this level would do. Bondsight was like my Deadsight and Delinear Sight, which was interesting since this Skill was provided by the Spatial Lich specialization, but gave a different sight Boon than Spatium Manipulation. It was starting to feel like this Skill had more than just Spatium driving it. Anyways, Bondsight would let me see the bonds between other things, like between people or objects. That included things like gravitational or magnetic bonds, which was interesting, if only tangentially useful. Locus Call would let me think of a specific place in my mind, and Call anything that was there. The cost was larger if your image of the location was inaccurate, but if you could directly see the location, then the cost would be even lower than using a different Calling Boon. Overall, it was pretty good, and would be especially useful once my influence was larger, with my Omnipresence allowing me to see whatever was within my Domain. I knew how Calling worked now, and might be able to replicate the effects of Locus Call with some elbow grease, freeform casting, and Spatium Manipulation, especially with the aid of my Domain of Undeath and this new Bondsight. The Boon clicked into place, and I was already poking at the bonds I saw. When I imbued some Spatium into myself, I could feel the bonds quiver a bit, but I felt no real reaction. I''d have to find some way to use this, but for now, it would just have to be used to assist Calling. Next on the chopping block was Sp¨C wait, what was that? I sent my Omnipresent viewpoint out to check out the release of energy, and found a group of people cutting down motionless Caerbalopes. It seemed that my dungeon was being raided for the very first time. Chapter 5: Invaded Crap! My first adventuring party, and my distraction was already costing me. I ordered the mobs to attack, and the two unarmored people in the back of the group flinched as the entire husk of Caerbalopes screamed at them and charged. The soldiers in the front seemed more accustomed to this sort of thing, though, and reacted with grace, losing only a few inches of ground as they cut down my subjectively somewhat adorable abominations. I looked over the party, and saw a familiar spread of people. In the front, a basic fighter, what looked like a barbarian, and what could be a rogue or an especially edgy ranger. The rogue''s life force looked a little weird, but I assumed it was a quirk of their class. In the back, there was a mage, who seemed to hold fire itself, lighting the room, and a cleric, bearing a staff that emanated a repulsive energy. That was bad news. In games, clerics had almost always had abilities that were extra powerful against the undead. I moved my attention to the boss room, but¡­ the Antigo wasn''t there. In fact, he was in the chamber with my body and Phylactery. I hurriedly rushed him out, Molding the Terrain to open up the hidden passage. He stomped his way out, and I swiftly Molded the stone door shut again. The adventurers were moving very quickly, and it seemed that the cleric in their midst was blessing their weapons to cut through the undead, like butter, as they shone with a radiant light that burned away all traces of filth the corpses might have left behind. Something about that light filled me with disgust, and part of me wanted nothing more than to continuously summon Antigos until the cleric succumbed to the pressure, but the rest of me knew that was a foolish idea. Chances were that I was already in danger just from his presence, but killing him would likely result in even more clerics being sent to "cleanse the area." Even if this one couldn''t sense me, that didn''t mean that stronger clerics wouldn''t be able to. The first room was cleared quickly, with the weaker Caerbalopes not able to mount a solid defense, and no Arachnomicons getting within range of a sneak attack. The group got excited when they saw the treasure chest, nudging each other and grinning, but the fighter, who I presumed was the leader, hushed them. He quietly approached the storage container, drew a hammer from a bag that looked much too small to hold it¨Cbags of holding! Eep!¨Cand attacked the chest with a downward swing. The stone cracked under his might, and dust blew out, causing a wave of coughs to spread through the party as the mage glared at the fighter. Then, the mage''s eyes caught on a glimmer from the chest, and he rushed forward, the greed emanating from him nearly physical. He dug the gold out of the rubble, shared a hushed word with his group in a language I didn''t understand, then held out the coin for them all to inspect. They seemed very excited, which was good. Greed is good. Greed gets people killed, and that means that I get more resources and study materials. The party confidently marched into the next room¡­ and was met by a falling bookcase. This time I''d been prepared, and mentally commanded one of the Caerbalopes to get into position to smash the party with a bookcase upon entry. The barbarian reacted quickly, though, and¡­ cut the falling bookcase in two with his greataxe? Ruh roh, this group might be even stronger than I''d expected. The mage raised a hand and chanted momentarily. I felt magic energy flow through his body, and though I was unfamiliar with its type, I felt I could safely assume that it was fire magic, both from the glowing orb he held above his other hand to light the room and from the spicy flavor I sensed while looking it over with my Omnipresence. The magic wafted into the surroundings, and suddenly all flammable objects and creatures¨Cin other words, empty books, Arachnomicons, and Caerbalopes¨Cin the room caught fire. The party has avoided the blast, with the cleric having erected a shield of that accursed light around them. A couple of the party members glared at the mage, who had clearly just done the equivalent of casting a Fireball in an enclosed space, but he didn''t seem to notice as he skipped over to the little singed stone chest and cracked it open to yank out the three warm gold coins. He was definitely chaotic neutral. I''d originally pegged him as a wizard-type, but this behavior reminded me a little bit more of a sorcerer. Could be either. The spellslinger pocketed the prize and rubbed his hands together as he stepped towards the next room. The leader of the group scoffed, but waved for his party to follow. I knew that the next room wouldn''t be able to stand up to this party, so I commanded all of the creatures in it to focus on a single task: stealing. If I couldn''t kill this group, I''d have to rob them instead. I told them to especially focus on a book at the mage''s side¨Cwizard?¨Cand the bag of holding I''d seen the fighter use. The party stepped into the third combat room and was met by dead silence. Literally. Heh. They morphed back into formation, their alertness greater than it had been in any previous room. Luckily, they hadn''t seen any Arachnomicons yet, and one was able to slowly reach out from its shelf, put a leg in the bag on the fighter''s pouch, and¡­ get a sword through its cover as the fighter noticed the pull on his waist. He called something out, and the party started looking at the bookcases with suspicion. Drat. It looked like they''d be paying attention to the Arachnomicons now. But they wouldn''t be expecting¡­ A Quadjack Caerbalope leapt from the top of a bookshelf and landed on the wizard, who let out an "Oof!" The avaricious man had simply melted the Quadjacks in the previous room, so the party had yet to see a Caerbalope this huge. It had the element of surprise, and the wizard looked up at it in terror, the flame he¡¯d previously held flickering and growing dim, likely from his loss of concentration. The Caerbalope snatched the spellbook off his body and ran off with it. A few daggers were sent its way by the rogue, they missed, and the beast made a clean break. The wizard looked off to the side where his aggressor had run off in shock, and I cackled at his despair. Then he laughed. Laughed! Loudly and vibrantly, for a full minute! When the party leader made some noises, presumably asking why he was laughing, the man had to fight to hold back a chuckle as he responded. Then, the entire party laughed! Infuriated, I had one of the Dualjacks take the book off the Quadjack and rush it to me through the passageways. As soon as I opened the book, I understood why the man was laughing. This book was not magic. It was a children''s picture dictionary. I''d just assumed from the intricate symbols on the front and the size of the volume that it was a spellbook! That greasy man had been pretending the whole time! I calmed the growing sense of rage at this ridiculous party as I realized that this was probably even more useful to me than a spellbook anyways. The sorcerer had probably picked a dictionary because of its size and the infuriation that his enemies would feel once they got a hold of it. However, it contained knowledge that I literally did not know. So, yeah, this was still a net positive for me. I still felt a bit miffed though, so I nudged all of the Quadjacks to focus on him. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. The look of fear on the man''s face as the golden-retriever-sized abominations charged at him cheered me up immediately. This was the same pleasure I''d felt when punishing one of my more troubling players with overwhelming amounts of attacks. It''s not my fault you annoyed the lich. Well, technically, this time it was, but whatever. The party had a little bit more difficulty defending against the Quadjacks, but honestly that just meant that the barbarian got a few scratches on him that were immediately healed by the cleric and the fighter got a few scratches on his shield. After that, they cleaved through the room with the same brutal efficiency they''d had in the first one. The party wanted to move on quickly after that, but the rogue stopped to take a closer look at some of the Caerbalopes and the Arachnomicons. She poked one with her dagger, then muttered something to herself and moved along. Just like all the times before, the greedy sorcerer pocketed the gold the moment the chest popped open. The party stopped in front of the door when they saw the engraving I¡¯d placed upon it, the same as the one I¡¯d put on the gold bars the party had pocketed. I¡¯d felt it a good idea to warn people that they were going into a boss fight. While it was an obvious marker that things were about to get real dangerous, it also usually meant that the rewards were much higher. Looking at the party, it seemed that they understood this as well. The sorcerer looked like he was about to drool, but the party leader motioned for them all to stop. Reluctantly, the sorcerer waited, and they all started to speak to one another. Based on the hand motions and some of my own personal experience with running D&D, they were likely discussing battle tactics and formations. Eventually, they¡¯d discussed all they could, and the cleric made a pass through the party, healing some minor scratches and applying buffs all around. The party leader stood in front of the door, shield raised, as the barbarian and the rogue pulled the door open, seeing only darkness. The influence of my Domain of Undeath was stronger here, so close to my Phylactery, and it proved powerful enough to interfere with the sorcerer¡¯s fire magic, weakening its light and causing it to flicker in and out. Seeing this, the mage sent even more energy into the spell. The influenced Necrosis in the air tried to fight back, but most of the fire got through, allowing a dim light to spread throughout the chamber ahead. The fighter stumbled back as a huge claw snapped towards him, though he still managed to block with his shield. A dim red light lit my seven-foot tall Antigo as it crept closer. I was still holding it back just a little, but it seemed to have an innate bloodlust that I couldn¡¯t explain. Perhaps the combination of so many undead minds had actually given it a personality? Still, it wasn¡¯t like that was a negative thing. In fact, it would allow me to allow the Antigo to mostly control himself, at least partly. The leader of the party looked shocked, and the faces of the rest of the party members had turned grim. It seemed that they hadn¡¯t expected to find such a strong creature, not after the swarms of weak mobs they¡¯d easily handled before. They didn¡¯t seem to be afraid, and I could sense why. Even with as strong as the Antigo was, their party would still be able to take it down with some teamwork and grit. Their overall power was actually higher than my monster¡¯s. The rogue entered stealth, the barbarian readied his axe, and I let out a rattling sigh. I¡¯d really wanted those dimensional bags, but I suppose it¡¯s for the best. After all, what rumors would be spread around if a well-prepared and powerful adventuring party had waltzed into a brand new dungeon and been massacred? I was certain that I wouldn¡¯t be getting any fodder in here if that happened. In fact, it was more likely that I¡¯d be sanctioned or destroyed right away. Did this world have a protocol for dungeons? In fact, did they even have dungeons, other than me? I¡¯d have to find out somehow. With the party properly intimidated, I let the Antigo run wild. Immediately, its body hunched down to their level, and it lunged at the downed fighter, trying to bite his head off. I winced when the barbarian landed a solid slice on my monster¡¯s chest with his greataxe, though luckily the Antigo¡¯s rib bones were extremely well-reinforced, and the oddly-angled swing didn¡¯t manage to break them. I latched onto the Antigo¡¯s mind once more, and began giving it instructions. Though it may have the innate bloodlust I wanted, it seemed that it wasn¡¯t a very clever fighter. The Antigo lurched forward again, its claws clattering against the floor as it used all four limbs to crawl forward. I hadn¡¯t directly commanded it to do that, but I had told it to make itself a smaller target and move forward to prepare an attack, so I supposed that its actions made sense. The cleric looked frigging terrified, and I cackled again. That¡¯s right, you disgusting light-wielder! Get outta here! Better yet, DIE! My bloodlust and intent leaked into my bond with the Antigo, and it skittered forward with incredible speed, trying to get past the fighter and slice the cleric in two. Its attack failed as a barrier of light appeared before the cleric, halting the Antigo¡¯s momentum as it shattered, and a smiting blade landed on its back as the fighter took an attack of opportunity against it. It clattered away on all fours, a smoking hole cut along its back. Luckily, beings that were puppeteered by my Necrosis didn¡¯t particularly care about their nervous systems, and my monster rose to its feet a moment later, its gaze flicking between the fighter and the cleric. The barbarian decided that was a good time to launch himself at the Antigo, his greataxe coming down in a downwards swing that seemed to hold an unstoppable power within it. The Antigo blurred backwards with a speed that it had yet to display, dodging the attack and swiping a claw at the barbarian. In previous encounters, the barbarian¡¯s flesh had been too tough for all but the strongest Caerbalopes to penetrate. The Antigo was much much stronger than even the Quadjacks, and its claws used the momentum of the savage¡¯s body to impale themselves in his side. The barbarian lost control of his speed and crashed into the wall, thumping to the floor with a pained choking sound. Real tough, very manly. I inspected the wound more closely and found that it had not only penetrated his large intestine, but had also left a festering Necrosis in the wound that was attacking everything, trying to convert it all into dead matter. Even I winced when I saw how quickly it was traveling, carving up blood vessels and traveling all around. His liver was handling it well, and the man seemed to be dealing with the internal bleeding somehow, but the Necrosis energy had already passed through the liver and into the urea that his blood was transporting to his kidneys. They didn¡¯t fare nearly so well, and the man moaned as they were destroyed. Again, the blood seemed to keep going where it was needed, but with the liver damaged and the kidneys destroyed, his blood was carrying toxins¨Cincluding the Antigo¡¯s Necrosis¨Cand spreading them all throughout his body. Satisfied that he wouldn¡¯t last much longer, I turned my attention back to the fight. The Antigo was currently probing the fighter¡¯s defense, but the man was relentlessly guarding against the beast¡¯s attacks, retaliating with strikes that burned their way into its flesh. The cleric was enhancing the fighter¡¯s shield and sword, strengthening them against the undead, and the sorcerer had realized that all AoE did against it was slightly singe its fur, and was firing bolts of flame at the monster, forcing it to dodge out of the way. It was a stalemate, but I could sense that my monster was going to lose this encounter. The party was constantly expending energy to keep the Antigo on defense, but it was slowly racking up wounds. At the same time, its attacks weren¡¯t able to make it past the fighter, and it would eventually lose. I obviously didn¡¯t want to lose, but interfering any more would make the fight unbalanced, which wasn¡¯t what I wanted. The thought of that cleric surviving might make my Phylactery quiver in rage, but I had rules I needed to play by. I wasn¡¯t going to make the fight impossible just to win. At least, I hadn¡¯t planned to. It seemed that the last member of the party had other plans. The rogue exited her stealth right next to the cleric and plunged a shortsword into his neck. Somehow, even with my Omnipresence, I hadn¡¯t noticed her there. Not only that, but the strike had been completely silent, some Skill of hers likely deadening the noise of not just her attack, but of the cleric¡¯s body falling to the floor. She¡¯d managed to perfectly blend in with the energy and influence in the air, almost as if¡­ As I gazed at her with my Deadsight, I found that there was no longer any trace of life energy in her. The feeling I¡¯d gotten from her earlier had felt fake, but I¡¯d just assumed it was a rogue thing. I¡¯d been wrong. This rogue was undead, and she¡¯d just switched sides. Chapter 6: Traitor The rogue who¡¯d suddenly revealed her true necrotic nature to the world crossed her shortswords in an X-pattern and they were imbued with twin powers, one with Necrosis, and the other with what I¡¯m certain was the energy of darkness. That was when the fighter¡¯s empowerment buff from the cleric ran out. He was thrown backwards by the Antigo¡¯s next attack, and landed next to the corpse of his religiously-inclined party member. He stared into his friend¡¯s dead eyes, but then pushed himself away, remembering where he was. I was just watching with a mix between amusement and surprise. The big reveal had indeed been unexpected, and I¡¯d also not been expecting to win this battle. For all that I¡¯d justified it to myself, I still hadn¡¯t managed to really accept the loss. Normally, I would probably be mad at the rogue, since one of my biggest pet peeves in D&D was players suddenly stabbing the party in the back, and it sorta felt like cheating, but, well¡­ She was undead. In my experience as a DM, undead didn¡¯t team up with the living unless they somehow shared a common enemy, or still considered themselves members of the living. Considering she¡¯d been hiding her true identity and had just backstabbed the party, I thought it likely that she¡¯d been using them, but no longer had a use for them. Perhaps she¡¯d come to the realization that the dungeon was controlled by me, a lich, and wanted to team up for some reason? I didn¡¯t exactly know what was going on, but so far, I was liking it. Her actions had garnered me plenty of tools for me to look over, knowledge to be gained, and bags of holding. I¡¯d hear her out at the very least. Well, hand-sign her out? I had no idea what language she was speaking. I was mostly full of energy, so I quickly used Create Undead in the first room, summoning and animating an Antigo, just as¡­ insurance. Those items were mine. Oop, the original Antigo just took the fighter''s head off, I probably should''ve been watching for that. The Antigo eyed the remaining rogue. It seemed to have realized the same thing as I did. This lady was not alive. It didn''t seem to want to attack her, but I had my hand on the trigger, just waiting for her to twitch wrong. She slowly stepped around the Antigo, keeping an eye on it as she made her way to the treasure chests. She looked down at the chests for a moment, then called out some gibberish into the open air. Her eyes darted around the room, but then she let out a frustrated huff and started digging around in the party leader''s stuff. I was half tempted to strike her down there and then for the sin of messing with my loot, but I was curious so I let her rummage. Eventually, she pulled out a roll of paper and chucked it at the back wall. She then gestured to the scroll and slowly brought her fist to her face. I understood the gesture, and directed the Antigo to stand between her and the wall, then Molded a small hole into it and sent a basic jackalope to fetch it for me. Once I''d obtained the scroll, I looked down at it. I couldn''t understand its purpose, but I felt no hostile magic in it. I pressed the scroll to my head, and¡­ nothing happened. Right. My mind wasn''t stored in my skull. I let out a rasping chuckle and placed the scroll on my Phylactery instead. I felt something happen, and saw a bond form between the gem and the scroll with my Bondsight. The paper crumbles turned to dust, but I was more interested in watching with Bondsight. The scroll had been made of pure magic, and its dissolution had been a result of that magic being pulled away from the scroll and into a ball at the end of the bond. I couldn''t sense the ball with anything other than my Bondsight, but it was definitely there. Not for long, though. The ball began to suck in the energy of the bond as well, and for a moment I feared for my Phylactery, but then I saw that it was actually just pulling itself towards the Phylactery. I still couldn''t sense any danger from the magic in the air or the bond, so I let it proceed. Soon, the ball of energy impacted my Phylactery, and I felt a sudden shift, though I couldn''t tell where it happened or what it meant. I did have an idea, though. I pulled out the picture book I''d stolen from the now-deceased sorcerer, and found that I could understand the symbols on it. Now, that isn''t to say I was an expert in the language, but I understood the words. Putting sentences together was a bit more difficult, but I had an understanding of it at minimum. I turned my attention back to the strange undead, and this time understood as she said, "Do you understand now? Please tell me you''re not just some mindless undead that managed to luck into a Domain Skill." I had my Antigo wave at her and give her a thumbs up as a response. She cussed under her breath, the word meaning something like "Unintelligent Pig." At least, those were the symbols that made up the word. The language was weird. There were basic words to describe things, mostly concepts, but they didn''t use letters. Instead, they used a sort of runic word system, with most words having symbols attached to them. There were also words that were just a rough combination of two others. For example, books weren''t a unique word, but instead a mix of symbols: "Knowledge-Given." Bookcases had that as a prefix, then "Belonging" as a suffix, and librarians were just bookcase people. Single-symbol words were mostly reserved for body parts, states of being, and descriptors like color and emotion. Magic was also its own word, as were all its types and derivatives. Necrosis, for example, was a series of lines in a rough skull shape, and Spatium was a swirl. The things most closely related to those magic types had squares around them. Death was Necrosis in a box, as was the idea of space, of a place in which things can exist, simply Spatium encapsulated by a square. Again, the language was weird, but relatively simplistic in design, so long as you knew all the symbols, their derivatives, and correct combinations. It also allowed for new words to be made very quickly and easily, though it was a bit brutish and some of the words came out sounding harsh. In any case, the lady immediately started making demands. "We need to get far away from here, and quickly!" I looked at her through my Domain''s Omnipresence, and she looked back at me. Creepy. In my body, I looked at the Phylactery I was bound to. The Antigo slowly shook its head, and she let out a frustrated growl. This girl was just a big ''ol bundle of rage, wasn''t she? "They know what you are!" Wat? "Did you seriously not expect people to use Soothen magic to figure out what created a large, underground lair full of monsters?" Uh oh. Did these people have divination spells? I looked through the dictionary and reviewed my knowledge. Crap. They had divination magic. More specifically, Soothen, which allowed people to do stuff similar to what I did with my Omnipresence. Basically, strong enough Soothsayers could basically look wherever they wanted and see whatever they wanted. If I''d thought to surround my dungeon in lead, I would have probably been safe. I didn''t, though, and now¡­ I unsealed the entrance to my safe room and had the Antigo escort her inside. I would choose to trust her. For now. If she made moves on my Phylactery, then I''d slice her to ribbons with the Antigo. She stared into the room, mesmerized by the gem. She took a step forwards, and I had the Antigo lean in to stare with her, placing its hand on her shoulder. Her body froze in place and she looked at the beast. Alone, she stood no chance against my boss monster, and she knew it. "Now, I hope you understand why I cannot simply leave. I am bound to this place," I explained, causing her to look in my direction. "My body could leave, but I would be leaving my very soul vulnerable." "Pig-Filth. You''re a lich." She facepalmed when she saw the state I was in. "You wouldn''t happen to have the Incorporate Phylactery Boon, would you?" I shook my skull. "What do you have?" "Undead Possession and Reconstitution. That''s about it." "Reconstitution, hmm. Would I be correct in assuming that is the reason why your body is made entirely of Necrosis?" She continued to query. "To my knowledge, the Boon that allows masters of the undead to create zombies and such without having corpses on hand is incompatible with Undead Possession." This time she was graced with an affirmative nod of my head. She turned contemplative after that. "I''m not fully aware of the Phylactery Boon tree¨C" the word wasn''t exactly tree, more like Many-Way, but I chose to interpret it that way, "¨Cbut that sounds like it would be on the right path to obtaining Drain Phylactery. Again, I''m not too knowledgeable about your Boon trees, since much of that knowledge is hidden for the safety of those who have them, but I''ve heard of the Drain Phylactery Boon in stories before. You need to get that so we can get out of here!" I shrugged, then had the Antigo escort her out of the room. She briefly protested, but I stopped wasting my attention on her. Instead, I focused on my Phylactery. I needed to level this thing up quickly. I''d had an idea before, but had wanted to hold off until my Spatium Manipulation had leveled again, and for good reason. I drew on my Reconstitution Boon, but quickly realized that it wasn''t going to work. The Boon was meant to form a body to house my consciousness, and it was cast through my Phylactery. My Phylactery needed to have an imprint of me. I could possess normal undead, though I''d never tried it since I thought it would be uncomfortable to share a body with something else, but that was because they already had a space for the consciousness. There would be an adjustment period, as your own consciousness would need to wear down that space like a new shoe, but it could happen. Pure Necrosis wouldn''t naturally form that space, and I didn''t know how to do it manually, so my soul needed to be in my Phylactery. In other words, I needed to die first. With extreme trepidation, I dissolved my body into my influence, returning my mind to my soul. The dense Necrosis came apart, and I quickly reasserted my dominance over it, not letting it spread away. I also drew my Domain in, packing it tighter and tighter until it filled only this room. This was a bit dangerous, as I would no longer be capable of fighting back against invaders, but it was important to ensure that the new body I would make for myself was as strong as possible. For this body, I wanted to use every ability at my disposal. I would build it with Necrosis, strengthen it with my Domain, and¡­ Yes, I would infuse it with Spatium. Hopefully this didn''t break my mind. The energy economy of magic was pretty interesting. I assumed that it was based on a mix between my race, Lich, and my specialization, Spatial Lich. When I converted my "mental energy," which was also known as Mentum to the people of this world, into Necrosis, there was perfect efficiency. For every "point" of Mentum I put in, I''d get one Necrosis out. Spatium was much worse though, with perhaps a 5:1 ratio. About 4/5ths of the energy was just lost in conversion. While in my Phylactery, though, it was perhaps closer to 2:1. I''d theorized that it was due to resistance caused by a lack of that mana type in my body. My Phylactery, on the other hand, was extremely pure to my senses, mostly carrying pure Mentum inside it. If I could increase the density of magic in my body, then my efficiency should go up, and if I managed to infuse some Spatium into it, then it should also become much easier to use that magic as well. For now, it was still just a theory, but I was almost completely certain that building such a body would at least increase the level of Reconstitution. If it wasn''t enough, then I would have to sit around and grind for a time. I hoped it wouldn''t come to that. The undead rogue¨CI should get her name later¨Cseemed to be in a rush. I wasn''t completely sure that I trusted her yet, but I figured that there was no harm in trying to level my Phylactery. The ability to move around more easily was something I would have wanted anyways. If this "Incorporate Phylactery" Boon didn''t show up in the next level¡­ well, I''d cross that bridge if and when I got to it. In any case, I wanted to pour all of the Mentum I had into this new body. I wanted an even distribution between Spatium and Necrosis, in hopes of giving myself a way to create them both at maximum efficiency. To do that, I''d need to slowly split my Mentum into both of those groups. Since one point of Mentum made one Necrosis but only half that in Spatium, that meant I''d need to pour 2/3rds of my power into making Spatium, but the remainder could become Necrosis. I spent a moment visualizing my Mentum capacity. It wasn''t an exact science, but I could generally feel how much I had at a time, and I just had to imagine a pool of water that was about the same size. I then split the pool into thirds, reserving how much I needed for each task. I was going to move slowly, using my passive Mentum regeneration to control the power. After waiting a while for my Mentum to fully recover, I started forming a new body, but then came to a halt for precisely three reasons. First, the energy wasn''t mixing right. Necrosis wanted to kill everything, converting it into more Necrosis, and Spatium just wanted to impact and alter reality. The Necrosis was fighting the impassive Spatium as it tried to deepen the impact the body I was making had on the world. I needed to spend an additional amount of Mentum to bond them together properly, and needed to add that to my variables. I was already going to be moving at a pretty slow pace, but I didn''t want this process to take days. Second, I was trying to compact the influence of my Domain into the body. It was working pretty well, and I could feel my control increasing, even without needing to expend Mentum due to the nature of my influence, though it was steadily increasing the amount of Necrosis stored in the body I was making, creating an imbalance and further destabilizing the Spatium as the Necrosis tried to eat it. Yet another thing to add to the variables. The last reason I stopped was because I realized that I would soon be walking among mortals. Sure, some people would probably be able to tell what I was pretty quickly no matter what I did, but I could at least try to look human from a distance. Maybe the lady outside had a way to disguise my energy like she''d done with her own? Anyways, I changed the template I was using, replacing the skeleton with my old body. I hadn''t understood it perfectly before, but I didn''t really need to. I wouldn''t have organs, mostly just bones and flesh. I also removed some of the¡­ vulnerabilities of the male form. Not like I was going to need them. The framework was colorless, and I tried to influence that slightly, but knew that whatever I put in would be altered by the energies I was using. Necrosis wasn''t exactly vibrant, closer to gray and sometimes blue if you got enough of it together, and Spatium didn''t exactly have a color, meaning it would probably come out as black. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. That was fine. My ego wasn''t dependent on my appearance, in spite of how handsome of a skeleton I''d made. As for the new ratios, I had to measure how much Mentum it took to stabilize the energy, drag in my influence, and how much Necrosis energy there was in my Domain. It turned out that I needed an equal amount of energy to both control and fuse the energies I was using, so the ratios of Mentum, Necrosis, and Spatium in the new body would need to be equal. Additionally, it turned out that my influence contained close to double my total Mentum capacity as Necrosis. I wouldn''t be using all of that, not even close, but that was fine. I could completely take Necrosis out of my internal ratios; there was already more than enough in the Domain. In other words, I didn''t actually need to shift my ratios by too much. I actually just had to completely replace my Necrosis with Mentum. To make sure that I wouldn''t mess anything up, I discarded all the influence of my Domain of Undeath that I wouldn''t be using for this task. It felt wrong to get rid of so much of my progress, but if Ms. Not-Really-An-Adventurer was right, then I probably wouldn''t be able to take it with me anyways. I got to work filling out the framework of my body. Before, I''d gone from the bottom up, but that had led to some slight, almost unnoticeable inconsistencies. This time, I wanted to remove any possibility of that happening. I needed this body to be perfect. For that purpose, I filled in the entire body at once. My Delinear Sight actually came in clutch here, helping to impose limits on my mind as to where the energy was allowed to go, preventing leakages that may have otherwise been caused by this method. It was like using the paint bucket tool on a drawing app. I already had everything lined up, and now I just needed to actually use the tool. Still, I pushed away all other distractions, fully focused on the task at hand. After some time, the image clicked into place, my energy pool and influence completely drained. My old body looked pretty good. I hadn''t seen the old boy in a while, but it seemed he''d aged quite a bit, what with the ashen hair, graying skin, purple eyes¡­ My consciousness was dragged along towards the body, and I was soon inhabiting a new body. A buzz drew my attention back to the Phylactery, but first took a moment to inspect myself. I once more had touch, taste, smell. I sniffed at the air. The smell was pleasant. Who didn''t just love the scent of rotting corpses and coagulating blood in the morning? Oh, right, humans, I forgot about those guys. Now, time for the more important stuff. I said a silent prayer to wherever god was watching as I looked over my status. Wait, actually, do liches worship gods? Sounds unlikely. Devils? Demon lords? Hmm. Themselves? That''s better. I said a silent prayer to myself as I looked over my status. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 2 Phylactery 2 Necrosis Manipulation 3 Domain of Undeath 4 Spatium Manipulation 2 Calling 2 Enhancements: Willpower, Available Enhancement (Reinforcement, Willpower) Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo Suddenly finding myself able to do so, I breathed out an actual sigh. It seemed that everything that I''d used to actually create this new body¨Cwith the exception of Necrosis Manipulation, having few relevant boons¨Chad leveled, though I hadn''t noticed through my hyperfocus. First thing''s first, I added my Arachnomicons to my Named Belongings. I''d be leaving this test dungeon behind soon, and I didn''t want to forget how to make them. The Battle Form Boon was definitely a cool one. It leaned into actually fighting enemies with your own power, both magical and physical, rather than using minions and traps to deal with them from afar. I needed Incorporate Phylactery, though. I took the Boon, but held off on actually using it until I''d finished leveling my Skills and specialization. Omnipotence and Omniscience were two different buffs to the Omnipresence Skill, two sides of the same coin. Omnipotence would give me an almighty pressure within my Domain, crushing all opposition to its Boons and allowing them to work much faster, even through the natural resistance creatures had to them. It was very powerful, and I''m sure that most liches in my position would have taken it, but I took Omniscience. This Boon would give me the same innate knowledge I had with my Skills and Boons over anything within my Domain. It was effectively an ultimate information-gathering option, and that was something I was very interested in. Much like the rest of my Domain, it would be restrained by the presence of other creatures, but it would work on magic tools and even some spells. The last Boon choice was between Folding and Contraction, but just like last time I''d picked something up from this Skill, I nabbed an additional Willpower Enhancement first. Only then did I delve into what each option would provide. Just like last time, I felt some strain on my mind, but it was much less than last time. I got the feeling that Stitching and Banding were more like disciplines, and these were simply options within Stitching. In other words, they were things I already would have been able to do if I''d put enough effort into it. Contraction was the simplest. It would tug the threads of reality inwards, making reality more present in a certain location. It was actually somewhat similar to Banding, in that it would be able to shrink and compact space. I''d tried doing this once before, but I hadn''t been able to, since I''d have been pulling on all of reality at once. I did wonder how this Boon got around that, but turned my attention to the other one. Folding was the trippier of the two choices. It took the threads of reality and bent them on top of each other. I had no idea how it worked. When I used my Delinear Sight with the upgrade Stitching had given it, I saw lines going in every direction, forming a 3d net over all of reality, but this Boon showed just one layer. It isolated the lines of reality and pulled them together, turning two spaces into one. In essence? It made wormholes. With Contraction, I could at least guess at how it worked, but I had no clue about Folding, other than its result. Now, that might make it sound riskier, but the last time I''d picked a Boon from Spatium Manipulation, I''d felt a flood of inspiration, where every bit of knowledge and understanding about Stitching that had previously eluded me had inundated my mind with its secrets. The universe had suddenly made sense. Eventually, that state had worn off, as my mind simply couldn''t contain all that power, but I''d kept at least some of it. If that same thing happened here, then Folding would teach me about cosmic secrets I could never have grasped otherwise, while Contraction would give me the final bit of info on how to do something I was already somewhat close to. The choice was obvious from there, and Folding appeared beneath Stitching. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 2 Phylactery 2 Necrosis Manipulation 3 Domain of Undeath 4 Spatium Manipulation 2 Calling 2 Enhancements: Willpower x2 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon As I''d expected, understanding flooded my mind upon picking up Folding, and suddenly everything just felt so easy. So simple. Reality would be whatever I wanted it to be. I had limited the power of Delinear Sight all along, underestimated it. I''d thought that its power must be low, due to it being the first of my Spatium Manipulation Boons. Not so. I transformed Mentum into Spatium, the efficiency of doing so massively increased due to the presence of it within my body. I pushed the Spatium Energy into a place within my mind¨Cwithin my soul. As I did so, I felt my control over Delinear Sight increase massively, and I waved a hand. All but two vertical, parallel layers of strands vanished, and I was left with two dimensional planes. I pushed even more Spatium into Folding, feeling my soul buckle momentarily before my doubly-increased Willpower kicked in, increasing its integrity. The weft and warp of space was tugged on, Spatium extending the strands, taking their place as they reached for the other plane of reality, which had done the same with their warp strands. The strain of my actions had started to build, but I relied on my Willpower and continued forward. The Spatium formed an intangible bridge between the two planes, and attached one to another. One place became another. Reality stabilized, and I fell to my knees, a liquified mix of my matter¨Cformed from Spatium and Necrosis¨Cbleeding from my eyes. Had I been mortal, I realized, that would have been my gray matter. I looked up at my accomplishment, still feeling some connection to it. It looked hazy, as though I were looking at a reflection on glass, two locations showing themselves to me at once. I reached a hand into the small panel of altered space, and felt something in my mind as it passed cleanly through to the other. It was true. Folding created wormholes. My state of clarity began to fade, but I''d already gained all I needed from it. With a smile, I removed the Spatium from the strands I''d affected, and they were sucked back into their original places. Reality was made whole once again. I closed my eyes, allowing myself a moment to recover from what I''d just experienced. Once I felt that my Mentum had fully recovered, I stood and looked at my Phylactery. I placed a fleshy hand on it, and pulled with Incorporate Phylactery. The icosahedron shattered, and I panicked for a moment, but then the shards were pulled into my body, becoming energy as they passed through my skin. I felt them wander around inside me until they found a good place to settle: my bones. Better not break any of those. As my Phylactery became a part of my body, I felt power enter my body. My influence had been compacted into this form, and my Phylactery was the source and controller of that Domain. I knew myself more intimately, could control my body better, and could feel every portion of my flesh with more clarity than ever before, even in life. Then I recalled why I was doing this, and walked up to the cave wall, pressing a palm against it and stretching some influence out into it. I could extend it without creating more, since there was already so much stored within my body, though it weakened me slightly. With the tendril of influence I''d extended, I compacted the stone around it, forming a hole. It moved more easily than ever, not only due to the density of the Domain but also due to the Spatium power mixed within it. Spatium naturally altered space and reality, and it wanted nothing more than to help Mold Terrain. With that done, I stepped into the chamber, looking over my Antigo with a new perspective. Something about standing near it as a fleshy being made it look¡­ extra cute. The rogue ahead looked at me, then looked away. Still not looking at me, she shuffled over to the sorcerer''s corpse, fishing a spatial bag out of a pocket before tossing it at me. "He should have some clothes that fit you. Please warn me before you walk around in the nude." Her tone was somewhere between annoyed and embarrassed. I looked down at my own body. I supposed that it would normally be pretty weird to walk around like this, but she was undead. Why did she care? Not to mention, those parts were all stripped from my final design, as they only created additional vulnerabilities and weaknesses. Still, I accepted the bag. Reaching a hand inside it, I felt something similar to my own Domain of Undeath, but with Spatium instead of Necrosis. Was this Banding? I felt that I could probably manage it with some free casting, and resolved to try it out later. With my hand in the bag, I immediately learned of the contents of the bag. This wasn''t my Omniscience, but rather a function of the bag. The man''s clothes were fine, and I threw some on immediately, but I felt that it was somehow lacking. However, his capes and accessories were all gaudy and bright; definitely not my style. Instead, I Created an Antigo. My new Willpower Enhancement allowed me to do so far more quickly and with a lower percentage of my energy than before, and I was soon Shaping the creature into a set of robes for myself. "What are you doing?" An exasperated voice echoed through the chamber, but I ignored her and kept working, causing her to give an annoyed huff. I ignored that too and kept working on the robe, though I eventually decided to make it look more like a cloak. I dehaired and tanned it, as I''d done with the Arachnomicons, but kept it flexible so that it wouldn''t constantly get in my way. I debated putting the skull of the Antigo on the hood, but ultimately decided against it. I wanted to at least try to blend in. I did make an Antigo skull helmet though, and put it in the bag I''d been handed. You never know when you need to scare someone, so it''s best to always be prepared, like a Boy Scout, except with much less care for life and nature and society¡­ okay, not like a Boy Scout at all, fine. I actually pushed some Spatium into the cloak, which had two primary effects. First, it turned the cloak purple, which was definitely my color. Second, it made the cloak more real. That''s pretty hard to put into regular terms, but basically, because it was more real than the things around it, it would break and fall apart more slowly. That was why magic was generally considered brittle and weak when compared to metal unless you got a lot of it in one place. It didn''t have any spatial presence. The second reason was absolutely the reason why I''d put Spatium into the cloak, and definitely not just a cool excuse I''d thought of in the last moment. I was not being sarcastic. "Are you done admiring yourself yet?" Ms. Ma''am was still being annoying, but I realized that she wasn''t going to stop acting like that until I paid attention to her. Ugh. Why can''t real people just act like mobs and sit still and quiet until I tell them to kill something? "Never. In any case, what should I call you, where do you plan to take me, and why should I trust you?" "You can call me¡­ Azrael. We''ll be heading away from here, and you can trust me because you don''t have a choice," she stated haughtily. Hold up, Azrael? That was the archangel of death. She was undead¡­ that was definitely a fake name, though I''m uncertain of how she knew that name. "Alright¡­ Azrael," I said before pausing to make it clear that I didn''t believe her, "I''m Sei¨C actually, call me Ambrose." Right, names had some power here. Also, I felt like Ambrose was a better name for a lich than Seif. There was just something about it that felt, well, lichy. "Mhm. Ambrose." She stared into my eyes before rolling her own and looking away. "Well, we should get going. Moonlight''s burning and we won''t have long before someone realizes something is amiss and sends someone after us. The further away we can get from here before then, the better." I frowned at her. "Why are you doing this?" I mean, I appreciated the help¨Cat least, if she was being genuine¨Cbut it was suspicious. She could have just stayed out of this, not gotten into trouble. Why put yourself at risk to help a random person? I mean, sure, some undead have a horde mentality, but she was smart and would have been able to realize that it was a bad idea to do¡­ this. She sighed¨Can act that was entirely unnecessary for her, since she was dead as nails. "Do you know how rare intelligent undead are? Most of us are batty from the moment they come into being until the day they die. I''ve had to live among the living¨Cbleh!¨Cjust to have people to talk to. When I heard that there was a lair, I got a bit hopeful. I have a reputation for hunting undead, so nobody questioned it when I signed up. When I saw libraries, though? I knew that you were like me." "Like you?" "Correct me if I''m wrong, but your memories survived the translation, correct? You became an undead while remembering your life as a human?" She looked hopeful, and got excited when I nodded. "I knew it!" She actually danced a little bit, which was just way too funny. I laughed, and she stopped dancing, seeming to remember I was there. "Sorry about that, it''s just been¡­ a long time since I''ve seen anyone dance." I smiled at her. "This will be fun, I think." She smiled too, and we shared a moment. Then she got back on task. "Right. We need to get far, far away from here. No time for screwing around. Let''s go!" She started marching¡­ but I had a better idea. "Walking is for nerds." With that hypocritical statement, I cast Create Undead, making yet another Antigo. I now had three in total, and called the other Created one to my location. I used Shape Necrosis on both of the Created Antigos, and grinned a wicked grin¨Chey, I could smile again! As I''d mentioned, walking was for nerds. Azrael and I would be riding in style. Chapter 7: Riding in Style The grasslands flew by beneath us, and Azrael squealed and gripped me tighter as the Windilope leapt into the air. Honestly, I didn''t know why she was so scared. Like she could get any more dead, hah! She''d wanted to just walk, but I managed to convince her that this was faster by reminding her that she was the one who said "the further the better." She''d also told me that the people who came after us would probably investigate the cave first, and that they''d immediately get suspicious when they saw that there was no domain there. I''d left the Antigo to explain the corpses and hopefully damage the ones who came to hunt us, but there was no chance that they''d assume that Azrael just happened to survive, the adventurer''s stuff had just happened to vanish, and the domain had just happened to go away. No, our best chance was to try to get out of the range of their Soothsayers before they realized what had happened. They''d immediately come after the rogue, and when they did that, they''d find me too. I''d told Azrael a bit more about my situation, specifically that I didn''t actually know much about magic and how things worked here, though I''d glossed over the other world business for now. Maybe later, when we weren''t in such a hurry. She''d explained that there were many magic types, but also that there really were only a few and others were just combinations of the others, though that wouldn''t show up until my second specialization at level 5, since they all required three types of magic. She was a level 4 wraith, an undead that actually started with a dual affinity for dark and death, Nyx and Necrosis. She''d specialized as a Lethean Wraith, which gave her the ability to mess with people''s minds. She used this in tandem with her Nyx magic to create illusions. True illusion magic, or Illunyx, required Nyx, Lux, and Lethe. She did want that, but a Lux affinity was hard to get as an undead, which explained why it had been marked as special for me. Soothen was another one of these rare combo magics. It required Karma, Spatium, and Chronum. That was why Soothsayers were so strong. They were all at least level 10. Their abilities all transformed to be based solely on information-gathering, which was another thing that was new to me. Apparently Skills could evolve or sometimes combine, which would also affect all the Boons inside those Skills. Evolved Skills would be set back to level 0, with just a single Boon, though they would be much stronger. You''d likely climb back up the level ladder quickly though, with your knowledge of the base Skill or Skills that formed the new one. She apologetically informed me that she didn''t know too much about how to get the other magic types, as she''d only researched the ones that were immediately relevant to her. That was fine, though. I would find information later. She also warned me about the Skill level cap. Apparently, once they hit level 5, you wouldn''t be able to level your Skills anymore until you also hit level 5. The same happened at level 10, 15, 20, and so on. I also learned that Azrael was not used to riding animals. To be fair, even if she had been, the Windilope moved way too fast for it to matter. I was only unfazed because I was in complete control of the beast. She, on the other hand, was closing her eyes and gripping me in a way that probably would''ve made me feel awesome back when I''d been alive. Now, though, I just thought that her cold, dead fingers felt nice pressed against my skin. We were probably moving somewhere close to 60 miles an hour, which was obviously an utterly ridiculous speed, especially for a creature that literally could not get tired. The Wildilope had been a spur-of-the-moment design, but it had turned out quite well. Apparently, we were running from a division of the local adventurer''s guild equivalent, the Watchers. They specialized in warding against unseen threats, and the higher up the chain you went, the more secretive you were supposed to be. There were only rumors, but apparently the strongest members of the organization had saved entire cities from annihilation without anyone even noticing. Illusionists were important to the Watchers, so they''d accepted Azrael without question. In her previous life, she''d been a "normal girl," and she wouldn''t say anything else about it, not to me or the recruiters, who hadn''t even known that she was undead, just an aspiring illusionist. They''d known about her affinity for Lethe, but had attributed the rest of her abilities to a Rogue specialization that humans could get. She''d been doing quite well for herself, but had been lonely. As an undead, it was hard to look at regular people and feel anything other than disgust or hunger. That was why she started hunting undead. It sounded like she was just murdering her own kind, but really, mindless undead are basically just animals. You might feel bad for shooting a deer, but it wasn''t really a person. Then she''d heard of an undead with a domain forming a lair in the area, and had signed up immediately. Creatures with Domain Skills had a higher chance of being intelligent than normal monsters. Though she may not have sounded that way, she had been overjoyed to find me. Realizing that the inevitable had happened and she had to run away, though, was a bit of a blow to that happiness, hence why she''d been so snappy before. We were currently headed North, towards an area she called the "Dead Belt," a line that separated the upper half of the continent from the lower half. When she''d told me that, I''d assumed that meant it was along the equator. I''d also assumed that meant it was hot. When I phrased this as a question, she''d given me a weird look and told me that, no, it was apparently one of the coolest places around. I assumed that had something to do with the dense Necrosis in the area. Apparently, it was so thick that natural undead would awaken there. Few living dared to travel there, making it a haven of eternal undeath. Azrael had wanted to go there, but doubted her ability to make the journey on her own. Apparently, the Watchers had a clause that she hadn''t known about, one where they''d hunt down any of their own who ran away. It was supposedly a precaution, so that any forbidden knowledge they held couldn''t be spread, but she knew what it really was: control. Not only that, but there were threats such as monsters, wandering Exorcists, and so on. She couldn''t handle all of those threats on her own, and so she''d bided her time. Clearly, she hadn''t been banking on being able to move this fast. We''d arrive at the Dead Belt within a couple days, and we had no petty, mortal reasons to stop. As we traveled, she did her best to share some general information with me. The northern part of the continent was known as Kerenth, whereas the southern was known as Yalten. They were considered separate continents by the people, but they weren''t in terms of land mass. A long time ago, they''d both been ruled by two kingdoms, hence the names, and they''d even formed trade routes across the Dead Belt which, at the time, had been much weaker. However, all good things eventually came to an end. The kingdoms had attempted to merge into a single, greater whole, but the crown princess of Yalten had refused to wed the crown prince of Kerenth, calling him an "old, brutish man-whore." To be entirely fair, she hadn''t been wrong. She was in her late teens, barely considered a woman, and he was a middle aged man who had sired a dozen bastards that historians knew of. Even if she''d been entirely justified in her refusal, it had sparked a rage in Julysias Kerenth''s heart, and he sent assassins after the girl the moment he ascended the throne a bare handful of years later. It was theorized that he''d poisoned his father to accelerate his plans. Cylia Yalten survived, but had been left with terrible scars. The assassins had used acid, of all things. The girl had yet to specialize, but had done so that very night, gaining a never-before-seen Princess of Wrath specialization. Her father had been outraged by the actions of the new ruler of Kerenth, and war had been declared before the sun broke the horizon. Some believed that the princess had influenced her father somehow with her new powers, but there was no evidence of such happening. Julysias Kerenth''s specialization tree hadn''t been recorded, other than a note that it was an unimpressive Leader path that used Lust magic, combining Lethe, Heart, and Life magic into something twisted and disgusting. Cylia''s path, though, had been watched with great interest. After becoming a Princess of Wrath, she obtained Heart magic, becoming a Loving Princess of Wrath, and then gained a Karma affinity and became a Princess of Passion. She''d excelled in gathering the support of her people, understanding their desires, and importantly, sending them to war with passion in their hearts. The war had lasted decades, but the true winner has been the Dead Belt. Empowered by the massive amount of Necrosis generated by the war fought across it, the Dead Belt evolved from a minor inconvenience to a nigh-uncrossable obstacle. Before, all it would do was make people feel sick and bring the dying closer to death, but now, it could outright kill weaker people, and those who died within it would rise again. Thousands of well-armed zombie soldiers had been animated by the wild energies, and an entirely new war had started. Eventually, the humans lost. The undead never venture far from the Dead Belt, but so many resources had been poured into the war that the first zombie waves had caused the capital cities to collapse. The rulers went into hiding, never to be seen again. The humans had to flee from the Dead Belt, retreating to the freezing edges of the continent, at the mercy of the hoarfrost giants, white dragons, and harsh conditions. Eventually, humanity made a comeback. Part of it was due to finding a reliable source of obtaining light affinity: the goddess Shamsum. Yet another familiar name. Shamsum quickly became the chief deity in both Kerenth and Yalten, and her followers were blessed by Lux affinity, with the unique property of melting the undead like a hot knife through butter. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The other reason was simple attrition. The undead that spread into the continents were the minority, and many were picked off by monsters, dragons, and so on. Eventually, the humans were able to reclaim Kerenth and Yalten, but the Dead Belt remained impassable. The only trade that passed between the two lands was done by ship, and even that held some risks. The further into the depths you went, the more abominations the waters held. It was called the Kraken Phenomenon, since the monsters in the depths were generally just referred to as krakens. Apparently, none had ever been killed or found dead by humans, and almost no one ever survived them, so there was no classification system for them. Also, yes, kraken is one of those words that is actually a combination word. It actually means Sea-Entity, but the context and meaning are close enough to kraken that I decided it would be cooler to mentally translate it that way. Get used to it; this language is trippy and I''m going to use every excuse I can find to fix it for myself. Heck, if at all possible, I''ll try to find a way to teach Azrael English. That would be so much simpler. Anyways, gods in this world were different from gods back home. They were actually present, for all to see. Many were actually titanic beings of unimaginable power, though they were bound by certain rules and laws. For example, Shamsum couldn''t go further from a handful of miles away from the North or South poles of the world, though she could teleport between them. God and goddess were actually the same word as well, I''d simply assumed based on the names I''d heard. Turns out, gods in this world are often so monstrous that sex either isn''t a thing for them or is completely incomprehensible. Still, some chose to assign gender to them based on their voices. Shamsum''s voice was light and airy, so it was typically assigned feminine grammatical terms when not directly using the "God" sigil/word. I''d asked if Azrael was a god too, and she''d reluctantly admitted that yes, she was. She. That one was different from my expectations, but I supposed that could only be expected. Azrael was a god that people knew of, but no one directly knew. Mostly, people just knew the name and that they were a goddess linked to Necrosis. Outside of that, there were just rumors. People still interacted with some of the gods, like Shamsum. All you needed to do to meet her was travel far enough North or South. Many gods had been lost to time, though, as any records of the requirements to commune with them had been destroyed and forgotten. The ancient war between Kerenth and Yalten was to blame for much of this. Apparently, the requirements of where and how to meet the gods had been stored in sacred libraries, and almost every god that had been discovered at the time had a place in the societies of either Kerenth or Yalten. After the kingdoms had been destroyed, and everyone had become obsessed with Shamsum, the knowledge had been lost. Some gods hadn''t been called upon since, and others had only been seen a handful of times. That was one of the restrictions that was put on every deity. They couldn''t share the requirements to interact with themselves or even other gods. The only way to find out the way to call on them was to do everything, but nobody wanted to devote their entire lives to sciencing out something that might never work. In any case, the Dead Belt was a place of death, which meant it would be perfect for the two of us to hide out and get stronger. Even if the Soothsayer managed to find us, they''d never dare enter the Dead Zone. The Watchers were a powerful organization, capable of taking down even some of the strongest beasts around, but the Dead Belt was an ancient force. Some superstitions even said that it was a living thing, a manmade god. Even those who didn''t believe knew of its power. All those fools who dared enter were never seen again. Even if you could handle the undead, Necrosis was toxic to living creatures, and the death there was so thick that literal rivers of it had formed over the centuries. Sounded like a fun vacation spot for a couple of undead on their honeymoon, huh? I mean, Azrael and I weren''t exactly married, but give it time. I couldn''t currently feel that sort of stuff, but maybe if one of us took a Heart affinity we''d be able to manage it? It was a fun idea. Anyways, my first goal was to build a tower. A very, very tall tower. Now, I wasn''t certain if I wanted to commit to making this my Spire of Doom, but I still wanted a tower. That was a bit of an issue. Y''see, building into a cave was easy; the stone was already there. Building up, though? Not so much. My Mold Terrain Boon would lose loads of efficiency, and forcing undead to build my tower would not only result in my tower being poorly made, but it would also take forever. Luckily, I had a better idea. I was going to destroy a mountain. I had already checked with Azrael and it turned out that the Dead Belt was generally pretty mountainous. That was somewhat surprising to me, considering that it was in the equator and most places of such high heat are either desert or jungle, but the Necrosis kept it somewhat cool. Still, it probably should have been sandy, what with the lack of plants holding down the vegetation, but apparently that was a non-issue as well. There were plants with Necrosis affinities. I mean, it wasn''t too surprising, considering that I, a lich, had been offered a Life affinity, but at the same time, it was fascinating. The plants were apparently influenced by the energy as well, and tended to take more deadly shapes. Thorns grew in flowers, trees lashed out with strangling vines, and toxins dripped from fruits. All in all, it sounded like a pretty cool place. More importantly, the plants in the environment kept the dirt compacted, and prevented it from flying off. Additionally, they tended to be somewhat carnivorous, and preferred fresh death essence over natural minerals. This meant that the dirt was probably the most fertile and moist in this entire world. This meant that sand had not formed. It was also a place of great tectonic activity, meaning that many mountains had formed. I was planning on spreading my influence over an entire mountain. After that I would gradually use my Mold Terrain to compact it into a single, solid cylinder. I would then carve into that object to form a home for myself, Azrael, and my creatures. It was a flawless plan "That''s a stupid plan." Azrael broke my non-existent heart in four words. "Azzy, please, just hear me out¨C" My whining was rudely cut off by accursed logic. "No, I will not hear you out. We need shelter and protection. You need a place to put your Phylactery, and I don''t want to sit out in the cold rain for months on end while you work on your little passion project. You''re making a cave. You can build your little tower later." Her voice was cold as the grave. Heh. I gave her my best rendition of puppy dog eyes, but she only shoved me forward, reminding me to keep moving. We''d gotten off the Windilope once we''d gotten to the Dead Belt, now satisfied with our distance and more than happy to take our time. We were walking towards a mountain off in the distance, and would be there in just a handful of hours, but I''d wanted a bit more time to think, and Azrael had wanted to soak in some of the dense Necrosis before we needed to focus again. It was nice, just walking around. My old cave had been pretty stuffy. At the time I didn''t mind, just seeing it as cozy, but moving around was a pleasure, especially with a complete body. "We should go on more walks in the future," I voiced my thoughts to Azrael. She gave me a weird look. "You say that as if we had the opportunity to go on long walks like this in the past. We literally met, what, two days ago? And I was on a task force put together to kill you. You''re a really weird guy, you know that?" I just shrugged at her. "I''ve read a lot of books, and enemies-to-friends is a common enough trope. Though, enemies-to-lovers is even more common." I''d muttered the last half of that, though she''d clearly heard it since she turned away from me. Was that a reaction to blushing? Actually yeah, that made sense. She hadn''t yet fully grown accustomed to undeath, and had to internalize the fact that her blood didn''t circulate, thus making it impossible for her to blush. It was still¡­ wait, was I about to say it was cute? I stopped in my tracks to do some introspection, ignoring Azrael''s squawk of confusion. I dug deeper into where I''d felt the emotion come from, scouring my soul, but I found nothing. I would have to keep an eye on that in the future. Regaining some of my human emotions would be fine, but if I got all of them back? Would I even still be a lich? "Ambrose, are you okay?" Azrael looked down at where I''d bent over. I hadn''t actually noticed myself doing so, but I''d bent my knees and hunched my back, staring at my hands. I looked up at her and felt¡­ nothing. Yes, that was good, no emotions, keep it professional. The marriage thoughts from earlier were entirely academic and not at all influenced by emotional thinking. "I''m fine, just thought of something. Don''t stress about it." I smiled up at her, unfolding myself. "Let''s keep going. I''d like to get there before dark." She nodded back at me, smiling as well. "Let''s." The mountain grew larger and larger over the next few hours, and eventually we''d reached its base. The sun was starting to set, but we weren''t in any particular rush, so we stopped to watch it on the horizon. We found ourselves sitting on the West side of the mountain, and soon, through a momentary war of celestial flame and glory, night overtook the day. In the darkness, I used my Domain of Undeath''s initial Boon, Spread Undeath, and sunk it as far as I could in a horizontal line. Once I''d reached as far as I could, I turned on my Delinear Sight, pushed some Spatium into my Domain, and used Mold Terrain. With the addition of space magic, the land was shaped and pushed around like it was made of sand, compacting and forming a perfect tunnel. Azrael and I stepped deeper into the land, and I extended my Domain further and further in, until my Delinear Sight let me know that I was directly under the highest peak of the mountain. I then carved a spiral staircase into the rock, pulling Azrael along with me as I pushed it further and further up, creating cylindrical floors at regular intervals as I went. If Azzy wanted a cave, she''d get a cave, but I would be building my wizard tower. Eventually, I saw that I''d gone 3/4ths up the mountain, and stopped. For this final floor, I compacted as much influence as I could. Only once the Necrosis was forming nigh-physical swirls in the air did I stop. Standing with the staircase just behind me, I raised a hand, and pushed on my currently active Boon. I felt a liquid power flow out of me, growing physical as it left me, and looked on in wonder as my Phylactery left my body and reformed itself in its unique icosahedron shape. I heard a quiet gasp of awe come from behind me, and knew that Azzy was enjoying the sight just as much as I was. As the energy of my soul fully solidified itself, a shudder echoed through what would soon become the foundation of my spire. My soul was stored within the Phylactery, and the Phylactery¡¯s Domain was an extension of that. It spread my mind¡¯s influence across its dominion, bringing it under my banner and making it a part of myself. In other words, I now had complete control over this section of the mountain, and now just had to spread my influence over the rest of the mountain before I could build my tower. After that? Well, there was a whole world out there. Someday, it would all be mine. Chapter 8: Concentration "I''m bored, Ambrose." I sighed and pulled my attention away from Spread Undeath. "I still don''t know what to do about that, Az. To me, this is fun." She scowled at me from her cross-legged position on the floor. "How is sitting in a dark room and staring into a shiny rock fun? I''ll admit, it looked pretty at first, but now it''s just¡­ dull." "Maybe you should go on a walk? Maybe hunt a bit?" I proposed. "I could always use more genetic material." "But, just¨C blegh," she said in her huffy tone. Then her eyes turned pleading. "Come with me?" "I''m a little bit busy here." Spreading my influence over this entire mountain was a critical part of my plans. Hard to Mold a mountain into a tower if you didn''t own the mountain, right? "Please? C''mon, you''ve been working on that for days. I''m bored of watching and you need a break." She gave me another look, then continued, "Also, if you don''t start paying attention to me, I''m going to start nagging." Wasn''t she already nagging? Or is this only a mere glimpse into the depths of her nagjutsu? "Fine, fine, I''ll come with you, but after this I need to focus, alright?" Azrael clapped her hands together and hopped to her feet. I expected her to say something, but she just grabbed me and started running up the stairs. Unlike liches, wraiths were a sort of hybrid between rogues and casters, so Azzy, as a level four Lethean Wraith, had split her Enhancements evenly between Reinforcement and Willpower. Theoretically, she would be my match in terms of Willpower, but liches were a bit slanted in that regard. Our true form was actually that of a crystal; we simply inhabited bodies. Because of that, we had no innate Reinforcement, and were instead blessed with boatloads of Willpower. That didn''t stop Azrael from throwing me around like a sack of potatoes, though. Reinforcement apparently had just as big of an impact as Willpower, just on the body rather than the mind. In terms of raw physicality, she was only a bit below one of my Antigos. It was a good thing she''d been on my side, back in that cave. If she hadn''t been, I might not have survived. Eventually, she set me down, and I immediately set about Creating some Undead. I didn¡¯t get far though before she shoved me over, breaking my concentration. ¡°What was that for?¡± The unexpected movement had actually caused me to lose all the Necrosis and Mentum invested in the magic, which was extra annoying since I was so far away from my Phylactery. Distance reduced my regeneration, after all, and I doubted that Azrael would want to return to the mountain over and over again to let me recharge. ¡°What¡¯s the point in going hunting if you¡¯re just going to hire someone else to do it for you?¡± She whipped out a knife. ¡°You can use this, if you want.¡± I frowned at her. ¡°You know, you could have told me that before we left the cave. I would¡¯ve made some kind of weapon.¡± With a shrug, she pushed the knife into my hands and walked away. ¡°I know you don¡¯t have much experience with this, but fighting and killing does increase the speed at which your Boons level, you know. Perhaps you noticed that after killing the group I was with back in that¡­ cave?¡± In fact, I had noticed that, though at the time I¡¯d just assumed it was due to my unique use of my Reconstitution Boon. ¡°Alright, so what am I even supposed to do? I haven¡¯t really done this before.¡± She smirked at me. ¡°We¡¯ll get you used to it first, then move on to the bigger stuff. We¡¯ll just be fighting undead, so we¡¯ll have the drop on them almost every time. Most of them just leave other undead alone, except for the really big ones. Those types don¡¯t really care what they¡¯re eating. We¡¯ll try to avoid them, though.¡± I followed her through the forest. The plants here were twisted by a lack of life energy, and instead sought fresh Necrosis to sustain themselves. A couple of them attacked, but for the most part, we were left alone. Many of the plants that we moved past had already secured snacks, their roots and flowers sprouting through corpses that still twitched in unlife. Eventually, Azrael raised a hand in a universal sign for ¡°stop.¡± She pointed forwards at an undead of some particular power. It was currently carving through a small horde of zombies, taking down dozens in a handful of seconds with its sharp claws. The monstrosity¡¯s flesh was pink, like its skin had turned transparent. Otherwise, it was still mostly humanoid, with the largest differences being its lack of eyes, pronounced jaw, and the three talon-like claws that replaced its fingers. ¡°Fateeater,¡± Azrael explained, ¡°They¡¯re a type of undead that eats others. I didn¡¯t expect to see one, especially not one this small. They get big pretty fast, especially here. Luckily, undead that care more about consuming flesh than destroying life mutate out of control pretty quickly, meaning they¡¯re not very mobile once fully grown. Still, the big ones always have ways to attack and pull in prey at range, so we should stay away from them for now. This one, though¡­¡± She pulled a shortsword from its sheath, and its form began to shift. It was soon unclear where exactly it was, and it seemed as though its actual blade could be almost anywhere in a small radius. I readied my own dagger, though I didn¡¯t send any energy into it. I hadn¡¯t tested my abilities on actual metal yet, and didn¡¯t want to corrode or shred my borrowed blade. Instead, I cranked on Delinear Sight, shunting energy into it to shift the way that I perceived the threads of space. Putting all of my focus into the effort, I locked onto the threads that specifically constituted the Fateeater¡¯s body. Typically, these threads would move and shift, trembling as a creature moved. Matter was not locked to a specific grouping of threads, but did cause it to shift and compress in its presence. I was trying to fix that. With all my concentration, I sent Spatium into the threads that the undead¡¯s form currently sat upon and bound them to the creature. The efficiency was awful, but it got the job done. A headache was already building, but I pushed through and moved on to the next step of my plan. Now, I created a Fold between the beast¡¯s skin and a space immediately in front of me. Azrael had already engaged the Fateeater, which was causing my own Mentum to drain away at a prodigious rate, But that was fine as long as I could finish this. I pulled and pushed on the threads of reality simultaneously, bringing part of reality closer while another part of reality went away. This process felt like it took quite a bit of time, but in reality, it happened almost instantaneously, Spatium bridging the gap between one spot in reality and another with a snap. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. With that done, I repeatedly stabbed at the bit of its body that was now before me. It wailed as my dagger punched into it again and again, looking down at its own body and finding a hole. It clawed at it, and I felt my connection tremble as the space I¡¯d translated was forcibly expanded by matter, but I reinforced the connection with another hefty burst of energy, and the Fateeater¡¯s claws fell off as they passed through a razor-sharp tear in space. Its screams only grew louder, and it reached for the hole again. This time was different, though, and I felt Necrosis flood through the Spatium I¡¯d used for the Folding and the makeshift binding that held one portion of space to the beast¡¯s body. The hostile Necrosis rampaged and consumed, and I had to cancel the Spatium Manipulation for fear that it would find a way to connect to me. While my body was partly made of Necrosis and I had no reason to actually fear for my physical health, my Mentum was still pure, at least until I transformed it into Necrosis or Spatium. I didn¡¯t want to know what would happen if that got messed with. The Fateeater now had a gorey hole carved in it, and Azzy flashed me a thumbs-up when it stumbled back from one of her attacks. She was a much more elegant fighter than I, and she danced back and forth, in and out of the undead¡¯s reach, dealing damage while not receiving any in return. She managed to target the weak spot I¡¯d made again and again, bypassing its tough hide to reach its insides. With the few remaining zombies still harassing and distracting the monster, she made quick work of it. ¡°Alright, that was a good warm up. You ready to head out now?¡± Azrael was cheery, and I glared at her. ¡°That took about half of my mental energy, and I can hardly regenerate any at all this far away from my Phylactery.¡± ¡°Alright, well why don¡¯t you just use it smarter? Don¡¯t get huffy with me.¡± She crossed her arms. ¡°If you can make portals like that, then why not just stab its brains out through one? You could¡¯ve targeted a much better area for that.¡± I was about to respond, but then stopped. Why hadn¡¯t I tried that? I mean, its brains specifically were a no-no: I¡¯d realized that creating portals inside solid or energy-rich matter was almost impossible, since it was considered more real than less thin matter. The amount of Spatium required to tell reality that my portal was more real than an actual solid object was just untenable for my current self. That was why I¡¯d needed to spend additional energy to stop the undead from tearing my portal apart with its bare hands, in fact. Just that single expenditure, which had only mattered for a bare instant, had been the cause of half my loss in Mentum. It was much more efficient to stick the portal right on top of the undead¡¯s skin. Still, even with that, there were better ways to use this power. I¡¯d just targeted a random patch of flesh on its torso. What if I¡¯d targeted the heart, or managed to stick a portal in its lungs? Those things might not matter for the undead, since all you really needed to do for one was bleed enough Necrosis from it that its body stopped working, but for an actual living creature? It was something to consider. As for creatures like the Fateeater, the neck would have been a great target. If I¡¯d managed to cut out enough of the beast¡¯s throat that Azrael could have finished the job and removed its head, then the threat would be over. The head would still be alive, but all we¡¯d need to do then would be subject it to enough energy that its Necrosis burned itself out trying to devour it. Instead of trying to argue with her, I gave Azzy a contemplative nod. Maybe I was going too far on my old DMing mindset? Was I limiting myself for balance purposes? Oh goodness¡­ That was it, wasn¡¯t it? No, no, no. To the Nine Hells with balance! I¡¯m gonna do the DM equivalent of using poorly designed homebrew monsters on level 1 noobs. My enemies would stand no chance! I looked up from my internal monologue and realized that I¡¯d been unconsciously following Azrael as she walked. She¡¯d actually started moving up the mountain, which I actually rather appreciated. Spreading my influence around other creatures was more difficult, at least, unless they willingly accepted it like Azrael had. Well, she ¡°willingly¡± accepted it. I¡¯d had to explain every little detail of what it would allow me to do to her. I¡¯d left out the fact that I could directly perceive anything within the area from any angle, instead saying that I could attach my viewpoint to the walls. Even then, she¡¯d given me a look, and said that she wanted me to set up a place for her to bathe outside. If I¡¯d given her the full story, I just know that she¡¯d have had rude words to say about it. Anyways, back to the present. Killing the monsters that lived on the mountain was critical, and I could actually feel my influence growing closer and closer as we walked upwards. ¡°Is your Mentum refilling yet?¡± Azrael turned to look at me. I nodded, feeling it out. It was a slow trickle, but I¡¯d be back to full before too long. My abilities were honestly rather overpowered, but my sustain was awful. Close proximity to my Phylactery fixed some of that, but I knew that I wouldn¡¯t always be able to stand right next to it. Sometimes, like now, I¡¯d need to leave. That meant that my efficiency needed to improve drastically. I needed to incorporate tactics like the ones Azzy had gotten me thinking of into my fighting. Hopefully I¡¯d never need to use them in a serious situation, but I couldn¡¯t bet on that. My monsters were strong enough. Now I needed to improve my own power. A side benefit of being on the mountain was that I was able to continue spreading my influence as we traveled. It wasn¡¯t too big of a deal, but it helped me calm myself, and gave me something to do to take my mind off being outside of my tower-in-the-making. Being outside my dungeon was very stressful, since I knew that I wasn¡¯t right next to my Phylactery and wouldn¡¯t be able to protect it if something bad happened. I didn¡¯t have any minions in there either, and I made a note to myself to fix that as quickly as possible. Before long, Azrael and I reached the top of the snow-capped mountains. Snow, as an undead, was very interesting. It was still cold and moist, but you had no body heat, so it didn¡¯t melt. You also didn¡¯t have any homeostasis for your nerves, so you didn¡¯t get that numb feeling that cold stuff normally gave you as a mortal. Azrael, once again, was seeming to have some issues. The snow made her uncomfortable, and she was shivering. She, like me, was undead, and so I knew it wasn¡¯t from the cold itself, but more likely because her body and mind didn¡¯t fully realize that they didn¡¯t need to do so. I suppose that¡¯s just a problem that comes with having the same body that you did when you were alive, rather than swapping bodies out every once in a while like I did. My influence was just beneath us, so I dragged a bit of it up to the surface and used a bit of my Mentum to shunt the snow above us to the side. ¡°So, what¡¯s the plan now?¡± I asked, still not aware of why we were on the mountain. She shrugged and plopped to the ground. ¡°Relax a bit.¡± I sat beside her. ¡°I thought you wanted to go hunting, though?¡± Had she changed her mind so quickly? ¡°I mostly just wanted out of that cave, but I could tell that you weren¡¯t loving it so far away. This is something of a compromise,¡± she said with a sideways glance. ¡°Oh. You don¡¯t have to stop having fun just because of me. I could handle it.¡± She waved a hand, responding, ¡°I really don¡¯t mind. There¡¯s no need to hunt. We don¡¯t need food, or water, or warmth, or even clean air, and there aren¡¯t any factors causing us to need to rush to grow stronger. It¡¯s just boring in the cave, that''s all. Just sitting out here is enough for me. It just feels nice to have fresh air, you know? To feel all those little mortal things again?¡± I paused, but then nodded. Before, as a fleshless skeleton, I¡¯d not had much in the way of senses, and that was fine at the time, but being able to feel things again had been pretty nice. I could have never enjoyed the chill up here if I¡¯d stayed as I had been before. We sat for a while longer, but then I felt something else, and a chill ran down my spine. Azrael noticed, and concern found its way into her expression ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± In lieu of an answer, I carved a hole into the mountain, tearing my way down into the top floor of my tower dungeon, right next to my Phylactery. I sent a surge of Necrosis into my Domain, and shifted blocks to contain the threat that had just found its way into my depths. With Omnipresence and Omniscience, I looked in on the small beast that had somehow locked on to the scent of my influence and charged in here. It seemed that Azrael and I had a visitor. Chapter 9: Automation ¡°It¡¯s too cute,¡± Azrael said with a hard look, ¡°It needs to die.¡± I, on the other hand, inspected the disgusting creature with hesitant interest. The small green orb bounced back and forth in an approximation of fear. The life energy it gave off disrupted the Domain around it, but its small power was not enough to completely displace my might. ¡°I don¡¯t fully disagree,¡± I admitted, ¡°But I think I can make use of it.¡± Azzy gave me a weird look. ¡°You think you can use it? How? It has Vitasis in it, Ambrose.¡± She pointed an accusing finger at the little fairy. ¡°I know, I know¡­¡± I looked the Spriggan over once again. ¡°I just think I can, well, corrupt it.¡± ¡°Fine, fine, do your weird experiments,¡± she huffed, ¡°Just leave me out of it and get that thing out of here when you¡¯re done, alright?¡± I smiled. ¡°Alright.¡± She walked up the rough stairs I¡¯d formed from the top of the mountain so she could come down and take a look, and I closed them off behind her. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll grow on her,¡± I said to the little wisp, gently reaching a hand out towards it. ¡°At least, you will once I do¡­ this!¡± I condensed a huge amount of my Domain of Undeath¡¯s influence into my palm, and sent it flying at the Spriggan, which had already engaged in evasive maneuvers. Sadly for it, it was within my dungeon, where I was the Dungeon Master, the final say on all matters. The ball smashed against the floating life orb¡¯s frame and formed a small crack. The crack immediately started releasing Vitasis, the energy of life itself, but I directed my influence to flow into the Spriggan, sealing the gap behind it. A war was waged between the powers of life and death, of Vitasis and Necrosis. Surprisingly, the Vitasis actually started winning, but I sent even more Necrosis into the now-still Spriggan, and quickly won the war within it. I sent a surge of Animate Necrosis through it, and it began to hover through the air again, but it was no longer intelligent. That was a bit sad, but it was most likely fine. The reason I¡¯d been so interested in this little creature was due to the effect it had on its environment. As the Spriggan moved, it had left small seeds of Vitasis in the air. Those seeds had fallen down and burrowed into the earth, causing plants to burst straight through the rock. Those plants had died right away, of course, not only because of my Domain but also just due to the location. It was pretty hard for any living thing to survive the Dead Belt, let alone a small seedling. Even so, I¡¯d been curious about the possibility of inverting this creature¡¯s effect. I bunched together a stream of Necrosis energy near the undead Spriggan and used Create Undead. Soon, the body of a Dualjack Caerbalope rested to the side, unanimated. With a mental command, I sent the hovering ball of animated Necrosis towards it, commanding it to drop some of its energy onto the corpse. It did so, and I watched as the power streamed into the undead. Sadly, it had not been animated by the act, merely strengthened. I sighed and sent the Spriggan off to one side of the room, deciding to come up with a purpose for it later. In the meantime, it was time to rectify the lacking defenses of my tower. I sent my consciousness through my Domain, taking a moment to check on Azrael, who seemed to be pretending to take a nap on the surface. Wait, no, that¡¯s meditation. I didn¡¯t know she did that. Moving along, I focused on the first floor of my dungeon. Right now, I needed defenders, but I didn¡¯t currently care too much about balance. I Created an Antigo on the first floor. It sounds pretty excessive, but it¡¯s honestly not really all that bad. After all, I Created two on the second floor. I slowly went through my tower and increased the number of Antigos by one for each floor. You might be wondering how many Antigos that actually ends up being. Well, this mountain was about 4000 feet tall, which wasn¡¯t honestly all that tall for a mountain, all things considered. When I was originally designing this place, I¡¯d slightly increased the height of each floor by a foot as I went up, starting at 15 feet. My Delinear Sight had helped me work out the calculations on the fly. I only stopped making floors when the top floor, the one that stored my Phylactery, was 78 feet tall. In other words, there were 64 floors. I didn¡¯t have any Antigos on the top floor with me, but that still meant that I was Creating 2016 Antigos. Now that¡¯s a lot of Antigos. Obviously, I didn¡¯t do all that instantly. It took quite some time to do, since Antigos were currently my most expensive creation, with the exception of the Windilope that I¡¯d made only a single time and that was only really worth its expense for travel. In between summoning Antigos, I mostly Spread Undeath, chatted with Azrael, and got to work redesigning my floors. First off, I didn¡¯t love the staircases. They were just in the middle of the rooms and you could bypass a floor if you just moved quickly enough. To fix that, I completely removed the staircase¨Cmuch to Azzy¡¯s temporary dismay¨Cand the central column, then replaced them with the same type of stairs but bound to the outside of the dungeon, rather than the inside. To reach the stairs heading to the next floor, you would have to get to the other side of the room first, meaning you¡¯d either need to be incredibly fast or kill all the monsters on the current floor. When I started going up against human enemies, that alone would prove insufficient, but for now I considered it good enough. Outside of that, I finally finished Spreading Undeath across the mountain, and started compressing it. I considered trying to do the whole thing at once, slowly compressing the mountain by decimals of an inch at a time, but I wanted to feel like I was actually getting something done, so I started at the top. Soon, the top of the mountain shrank, then flattened into the top of my tower. That was the fastest part, simply because I was taking one shape and flattening it into another. The rest of the tower took a lot more effort and focus, as it was encircling what I wanted to press it into. Flat surfaces were easy to do, but curves took time. After only a bit of nagging from Azrael, I created a staircase to the top of the tower, where I also placed some crenulations. I was concerned that something might be able to fly in here, but I decided that I could just close it up when she wasn¡¯t up there. Maybe I could also figure out a way to make an undead ballista? That sounds fun. Siege weaponry was often underutilized in games back on Earth. A couple other creatures wandered into my depths, but they were all undead. Once the Antigo on the first floor had dealt with them, I had their bodies tossed off to the side of the floor just below the Phylactery room. A couple of them were humanoid, and I probably wouldn¡¯t try to use Call on them, just because it would be so much more difficult to fight a sentient¡¯s Willpower and I¡¯d gain so little from it, but the others had potential. For example, I think there was an undead wolf in there and some sort of big lizard. As I filled up the dungeon with its temporary Antigo defense force, my Create Undead and Animate Necrosis Boons had leveled many times, eventually netting me a level. My Domain of Undeath Boons also leveled wildly, and I¡¯d actually managed to hit the cap for both Skills. I glanced over the options at first, but when I realized that I had multiple levels in those Skills waiting for me, I decided to put it off until I finished Creating Antigos. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. When I was finally done, I dug into the prompts. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 2 Phylactery 2 Necrosis Manipulation 5 (Max) Domain of Undeath 5 (Max) Spatium Manipulation 2 Calling 2 Enhancements: Willpower x2 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon Right. Now that I¡¯d managed to max out both of those Skills, I would need to focus on my lower ones in order to continue leveling up. Once I hit level 5, I¡¯d be able to actually increase their levels again, but for now I needed to focus on what I was lacking. As for the Boons themselves, I basically took Necrotic Restoration right away. It was simple in that it would allow me to heal my creatures, which I could already kinda do, but it weakened them a bit since it was just a clever application of Shape Necrosis, rearranging their bodies to draw flesh back to the damaged portion. This Boon would allow me to cheaply restore them to peak condition without requiring me to make completely new ones. Dead Matter would have allowed me to make basically whatever materials I wanted out of Necrosis, a little bit like the Solid Death Boon from Domain of Undead that I¡¯d rejected a while back. While it might be nice, I already had Transmute and Mold Terrain. The Necrosis density of the materials that came from them would be lower, but that didn¡¯t really matter all that much to me. Construct Consciousness was about what it sounded like. It would allow me to make my undead into more than just mindless husks that followed my orders. They would be able to think and reason for themselves, though they would be completely loyal to me and my interests and would still follow my mental commands. I actually got the feeling that it would work on things other than undead so long as they had sufficient amounts of Necrosis in them, but it was clearly intended for use with animated creatures. Bent Life was more of an offensive ability, and I wondered if these level 5 Boon choices were capstones and were the same regardless of what I¡¯d chosen in the past, since I¡¯d not picked any offensive Boons. Bent Life would effectively allow me to suffuse a living target with so much Necrosis that they lost much of their resistance to Skills that worked off of it. In my case, I would be able to use Shape Necrosis on living creatures. It was very useful, even for someone like me who hadn¡¯t taken any attack Boons in the Necrosis Manipulation Skill. Still, Construct Consciousness was much more useful for my situation, and I already had some ideas for it, so I picked that instead. A burst of knowledge filled my head, and I immediately realized that the Boon was even stronger than I¡¯d expected. Still, I directed my attention down to the next option. The Domain of Undeath Boons further supported my hypothesis that these capstone Boons had nothing to do with my previous ones. Empowered Control would let me, well, control my Domain better. All of my Boons would be faster and easier to use. Transfiguring Domain, though, would passively strengthen and even animate corpses within my influence, which was very tempting. With that said, I wanted to try my idea with Construct Consciousness first. The undead Spriggan from earlier made its way towards me, and I focused on my new Boon. A nascent intelligence began to form within it, and I found myself shaping its desires, wants, and needs. Most importantly I needed to give it a purpose, and that purpose could be almost anything I wanted. It would be sorta like a child of mine, in a way. I mean, not really, but it would be a semi-sentient creature of my creation, and I could teach it whatever I wanted. Whatever I wanted¡­ I turned a small portion of my attention back to my Phylactery. Specifically, a certain Boon of mine. After a tenuous moment of processing, I felt the forming Consciousness accept the purpose and knowledge I was pushing towards it, and a nearly-invisible rune formed within its core. I snickered as I used Create Undead to summon a Dualjack on the floor nearby. Straight away, my brand new creation floated over to the body and Necrosis flowed out of it and into the body, binding the two together. Soon, the Dualjack stood up, now under my new creation¡¯s Animate Necrosis, and my snicker turned into a full cackle. I had just automated the animation of undead. Focusing on the Wisp¨Cwhich was what I decided to call the undead Spriggans¨Cwith my Omniscience, I used Create Undead. A large amount of Necrosis flowed out of me, which made sense considering it was a being of pure energy, but at the end I had yet another Wisp. This one didn¡¯t have the same Consciousness, which was sort of good and sort of bad at the same time. Obviously, that meant that I would have to manually Construct each individual Consciousness, but on the other hand¡­ This time, when I focused on the purpose of this Wisp, I focused on an entirely different Boon, one from a completely different Skill. Still, it was accepted, and a completely different rune formed inside it. I didn¡¯t use Create Undead, instead nudging an Antigo to bring up the body of the once-undead wolf. I activated my Bondsight and pushed with Calling, and soon a living wolf stood trembling before me. The Antigo quickly cut it down, and I healed the corpse with Shape Necrosis. As soon as the process was complete, I gave the new Wisp the go-ahead, and it shot into the corpse of the creature, making use of my Undead Possession Boon. I spent quite a while with my new distraction, tinkering with which Skills could be used with the Construct Consciousness Boon, both with my Wisps and the Antigos. Mold Terrain let my creatures effectively earthbend, Create Undead would let them make new bodies for the Animate Necrosis Wisps to utilize, and Shape Necrosis made them into shapeshifters. Once I figured out what they did, I immediately Created as many Spread Undeath Wisps as possible, and my influence started passively expanding. The issues with this method were twofold. Firstly, I couldn¡¯t imbue more than a single Boon into a Consciousness at a time, since any more than that was simply too much for their limited mental capacity. Secondly, the creatures didn¡¯t actually generate their own Necrosis or Mentum, meaning that I needed to refill them with my own occasionally. As for why I wasn''t using any of my Spatium Skills, I had thought about it, but initially dismissed it because my creatures were made of Necrosis, not Spatium. Then I¡¯d realized that, like with my own body, it was possible to combine the two. I messed around with that for a while, but even when I managed to blend Necrosis and Spatium into a single Wisp through a careful use of Create Undead, I wasn¡¯t able to push any of my Spatium Manipulation Boons into the Consciousness. They were simply too complex. I moved on to Calling, but the issue there was a bit more fundamental. Boons were always a different way of using the original Skill, but in the case of Calling, the Skill itself was completely separate. Taglock was simply a way to lock onto a target, and then the Skill portion would kick in. If I¡¯d gone with Mass Summon, that issue would be resolved, but then I would have had a different issue entirely, in that I wouldn¡¯t have had any way to lock onto the target. Eventually, I had to admit defeat and concede that I wasn¡¯t currently capable of getting my creatures to wield the powers of reality. To be fair, that probably would have been quite overpowered if I had managed it. I¡¯d still gotten something out of my experiments with Spatium, though. One of Spatium¡¯s most immediately obvious effects was that it increased the mass and power of an object, so I¡¯d gotten a very powerful top-floor Antigo guardian out of the deal. Eventually, though, my testing came to a close, and my new mobs filtered their way through the dungeon. That was when I turned my attention back to my Phylactery and snatched the Empowered Control Boon. Don¡¯t get me wrong, Transfiguring Domain was cool and all, but I¡¯d just figured out a way to automate every single one of my Necrosis-based Boons, which made it almost completely redundant. The only reason I would have taken it would be because of its passive Necrosis imbuement effect, which would even last outside my Domain, but I had no intention of sending my creatures outside the dungeon for offensive purposes and had turned down similar Boons from this Skill in the past. With my newly-Empowered Control, I turned my attention back to compacting the mountain around me, and found that it moved much more quickly. My issues with the circular shape of the tower had been completely resolved, and a smile returned to my face. It wouldn¡¯t be too much longer until my tower was complete, and then all there was to do was find a way to get people to throw themselves to their deaths. Chapter 10: Blessed Be The Ties Eventually, my tower was finished. It felt like it went by pretty fast, but from the annoyed expression that Azrael kept giving me, I assume it was at least a few weeks. The Antigo guardians were still present on each floor, but I was working on getting Wisps to handle setting up my defenses. Since I had 64 floors, I figured that it would be best to have a boss floor on every 8th, except that there would be a final boss on the 63rd right before myself. I¡¯d need to figure out what to do for those, and I wanted some more unique layouts and mobs for the floors past my first boss, so in the meantime, I just had a small squadron of Transmute Wisps and Mold Terrain Wisps working on making the first 7 floors look more unique. It was quite interesting to watch them grow and develop. I¡¯d told them to decide on a singular theme and make everything look similar, but still different, and that had originally led to some confusion. Eventually, though, I let them go outside and they¡¯d collectively decided to make the rooms into something more¡­ ¡°natural.¡± The ground was dirt, though much more bumpy and rocky, and there were bumps and ridges to the sides of the rooms, as though they were part of the bases of hills or mountains. They¡¯d actually started to make stone trees, which was just fascinating. The detail was impeccable, and they looked as though they¡¯d sprouted from the ground. When I¡¯d been thinking of how to place loot in the area without making it look out of place, I¡¯d noticed one of the Wisps experimenting with growing fruit on the trees, and an amazing idea popped into my head: apples. Golden apples, emerald apples, and ruby apples! They would not only fit well into the petrified nature theme of the original floors, but they would also look utterly beautiful. I¡¯d instructed the Wisps to find a couple trees and place some of the opulent apples here and there. Most were gold, some were emerald, and a bare few were ruby, with more showing up on the later floors than the earlier ones. With the new style of these floors, though, I had some concerns. Eventually, I would want to repopulate the dungeon with something to fit the different themes they¡¯d end up having, which led me to the issue of what to do with the current defenses once I¡¯d started work on that. Making all of those Antigos and then just doing nothing with them would be pretty wasteful, so I had a plan for when I was done with them. Of course, for now, I still needed the simplistic power that they provided, but at some point in the future they would become redundant and out of place. Once I no longer needed two thousand Antigo guards, I¡¯d use Construct Consciousness on them to give them the ability to Spread my Influence, then just tell them to travel as far away from here as they could. The Wisps I¡¯d sent out earlier had already proved this strategy to be effective. I now controlled much of the aerospace surrounding my tower, which would prove useful if any of the creatures out there ever decided that it needed to fall. I¡¯d even started to incorporate a bit of the nearby mountains. I didn¡¯t do anything with them for the time being, but at a later date I might flatten them or incorporate them into my tower to make it even bigger. Now that I¡¯d finished building and making basic protections for myself, and had even managed to automate the construction and repopulation of my floors, it was time to work on empowering myself. Currently, the biggest holdups in my Skills were Calling and Spatium Manipulation. I decided to work on the former first, since it would be the easiest of the two. I instructed one of the Antigos to bring up the corpses of the two undead who had entered my dungeon a while ago. Contrary to my expectations, the bodies were actually in pristine condition. Was my Domain so toxic to life that not even fungi or bacteria dared enter it? That was an interesting thought. In any case, I cranked on my Bondsight and targeted the lizard body with my Taglock Boon. My Omniscience told me that it was a Gila Hulk, an extra chonky version of the regular gila monster from Earth. I activated Calling, and one of the bonds that I saw pulling away from the corpse with Bondsight lit up and started quivering. I sent a bit of Spatium into my fingers and tugged on the bond a bit, speeding up the process. Soon, a scaled beast landed on the floor before me. Pushing Necrosis into my hand, I grasped the lizard¡¯s neck. It didn¡¯t take long before the beast died in my deathly grip, its life energy having been devoured by the all-consuming Necrosis. With that done, I considered what to do with the body. Eventually, I just decided that it was best to simply reanimate it without any bells or whistles. The thing was already quite large and had a terrifyingly strong bite, with powerful venom to boot. With that pain-inducing venom that now carried Necrosis, nothing else was truly needed to make it an incredibly powerful beast. I experimented with the mob a bit more, having it fight a Quadjack Caerbalope just to see how it fared. It did quite well. The undead Gila Hulk¡¯s scales were quite tough, though it was rather slow. Its venom performed about as expected, inducing incredible pain upon the Quadjack, though the abomination¡¯s performance was unaffected due to its undead nature. I could also tell that the Necrosis carried by the Hulk¡¯s venom was trying to inflict damage, but the hostile energy was gobbled up by the Caerbalope¡¯s own Necrosis. I immediately decided that this would make for a good mob on the first 7 floors, and I might even make a boss based on it later on. That wasn¡¯t the aim of this use of Calling, though, so I got back on task. Sadly, in my haste to kill the Gila Hulk, I¡¯d weakened its bonds to the point where any use of my Bondsight would prove inefficient at best. I Called another Gila Hulk, and it popped into existence before me after a few moments. Like with the original, it was confused and terrified, but this time I didn¡¯t end its suffering quickly. Instead, I had a nearby Antigo hold it in place and focused on it with my Bondsight. Golden lines started to reach away from it, and I was able to identify some of them straight away. Some of them felt intrinsically linked with Bondsight, telling me that they were the creature¡¯s blood relatives. There were actually many, many of those strands, but most were faint, some even nearly impossible to see. Instinctively, I knew that I wouldn¡¯t be able to use any of those fainter strands for any reason. Instead, I chose to latch onto one of the strands that wasn¡¯t linked to my Taglock Boon, and followed it. I used all of my senses as best as I possibly could, and tried to see what the bond was leading me to. Spatium and Mentum drained from me rapidly, and the image was blurry and very limited, but I got what I wanted. It turned out that this little bugger was a fighter, and I¡¯d Called on it at just the right time to royally confuse a random farmer, who was currently writhing in pain on the sand of some desert, sporting a large bite mark on his arm. Curiously, the bond that I¡¯d followed had actually been leading me to the Gila Hulk¡¯s venom. I looked at the new Gila Hulk with appreciation. He was already a warrior at heart, and those tendencies would only improve once I rescued him from the plights and toil of life. I had some experiments I wanted to try out on him, but first, I needed to work on my Calling. I explored many of the loose strands that tied to the Gila Hulk with Bondsight, and found that many of the strongest bonds that linked to Taglock were actually just loose bits of skin. I¡¯d never had to deal with that before, since I¡¯d always been focused on getting creatures out of my Calling Skill, but it did seem that Taglock most effectively linked to bits of the creature itself. Outside of that, there were some older Hulks and some progeny, but I decided to leave the beast¡¯s immediate family alone, instead choosing to extend my senses to distant relatives. While it may have been in character for a lich to murder someone¡¯s family in front of them, I didn¡¯t want that to interfere with my upcoming experimentation. Yes, yes, it was silly to think that a Gila Hulk would see any difference between me murdering its family and murdering others of its species, but I didn¡¯t have a degree in lizard psychology and didn¡¯t want to take any risks. For all I knew, these sorts of lizards lived in tightly-knit family units and the Hulk would have fostered negative emotions towards me if I¡¯d killed its family in front of it. Anyways, with that in mind, I found some of the more faint strands that linked to living Hulks and started Calling them en masse. Soon, I was left with a pile of corpses, a quivering and terrified Gila Hulk, and a buzzing sensation. Looking at my Phylactery, I knew I¡¯d accomplished my goal. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 2 Phylactery 2 Necrosis Manipulation 5 (Max) Domain of Undeath 5 (Max) Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Spatium Manipulation 2 Calling 3 Enhancements: Willpower x2 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon With my Calling leveled up, my only holdouts were Phylactery and Spatium Manipulation, both of which I basically just needed to practice to improve. My next specialization level was just across the horizon. The Boons were actually very different from what I¡¯d expected. It seemed that Bondsight had taken me a bit away from the normal path that Calling might have taken. These options were less focused on directly summoning creatures or objects, and more about manipulating those bonds that seemed to tie everything together. Divine Bond was the simpler of the two, and actually just did what I¡¯d done by spying on that random farmer from before. It would let you latch onto a bond and follow it to its destination, then look around, not only at the subject of the bond but also the area it was in. It actually would have worked quite well with Locus Call, and I wondered if the fact that these Boon paths were ¡°branching¡± meant that people who took Locus Call would also be offered this Divine Bond. Alter Bond was the more esoteric of the pair, and I could immediately tell that its uses were far more niche and that it would level slowly. That alone made me want to take Divine Bond so that I could level up more quickly, but I then recalled something Azrael had told me and took another look at Alter Bond. Azrael had told me that the Boons I took would help determine how my Skills would upgrade once I took my second specialization. For example, if I specced further into Death by taking some sort of Spatial Archlich specialization, then my Necrosis Manipulation Skill, which was already leaning heavily towards the creation and use of minions, would most likely change into a Skill that almost only aided in those tasks. I would still have all the knowledge from the previous Skill, just not the aids or guidelines that it provided to ease its use. For example, in some cases, people upgraded their Manipulation Skills and lost the sight Boons that came with the originals. Most of those people completely lost the ability to see their magic. While that wasn¡¯t too bad for some, since they had an innate feel and sense for that brand of energy, for some it was devastating. It also turned out that most people¡¯s ability to sense magic was based on their affinity to that magic. In my case, I was a lich, and my Phylactery was completely stuffed with Mentum, Necrosis, and Spatium, so I could only imagine that meant it would take on whatever energies I was personally specialized in. With those, I could form a special body that made use of all of them, effectively making my affinity to them incredibly high. In the sight example from before, not everyone lost their ability to see their magic once they lost the Boon. It seemed that people who focused more on learning the why of their Skills, rather than just blindly throwing energy into the forms it helped you make, tended to retain the knowledge of how to use the abilities they¡¯d been granted even after the Boons were gone. In any case, this was why I took Alter Bond. The Boon was more complex and would be harder to level, sure, but its effect was much more unique. It would teach me to manipulate the bonds that I saw, which included things like strengthening and weakening a bond, creating new bonds, and even removing bonds that were already there. Aside from the obvious effects that this would have against someone who had a Skill like my own Calling or some form of Soothen Skill, this would also reduce the efficacy of Ire and Heart magics, since they used bonds to tug on the mind and its vulnerable parts. In a similar vein, it could completely halt certain types of Karma magic, which focused on creating bonds with everything, and using those bonds to make the world act in tune with your will and vice versa. The moment I gained the Boon, I targeted myself with Bondsight and started trimming away all of the random bonds I¡¯d formed. I didn¡¯t fully know if it was lucky or unlucky, but I didn¡¯t have any bonds from before this life. This was good because my origins wouldn¡¯t ever become a weakness for the aforementioned types of magic users to exploit, but it also meant that I had no connection to that world, and would never be able to return there, nor would I be able to Call anything or anyone from there. Anyways, I had quite a few bonds that I didn¡¯t care for anymore. I obviously kept my bonds to my current Domain, Azrael, and all of my minions, but there were quite a few that had been randomly dropped on the ground. Most of the bonds were weak, especially the ones from when Azzy and I had been traveling here, but there were also a lot from my previous attempt at a dungeon. My Domain was basically a bond-generator, and even after I¡¯d left the area, the dungeon still held many traces that would lead back to me. The people who¡¯d died to my Antigo back there had also left a couple bonds, and these ones felt as though they were full of vitriol and wrath. I cut them off before they could cause any trouble. It took quite a bit of effort and an absolute motherload of Spatium, but I eventually managed to cut off all the bonds that I didn¡¯t care to hold on to. Soon, there was only one that led outside the Dead Belt. I inspected the bond, but found myself entirely incapable of viewing the other side. That was very concerning. The most likely reason for this bond was that a Soothen-user was tracking me, which was something that I could most certainly not allow. I pumped Spatium and Mentum into this rogue bond, commanding it to break. It took much more energy than the previous bonds, and far more time as well, but eventually, it was convinced, and snapped with a spiritual twang! The next time Azrael got back from one of her walkabouts, I informed her of the experience I¡¯d had. She looked concerned, but told me that it was probably nothing to worry about. Soothsayers were powerful tools of the Watchers, but very few of them had anything invested into Reinforcement, and they wouldn¡¯t send one out to die in the Dead Belt, nor would they risk the lives of their people to kill something that wasn¡¯t causing any problems. With her permission, I also looked over a few of her more recent bonds. She didn¡¯t want me digging into the ones she¡¯d held before she¡¯d died, but luckily, those ones were easily identifiable, since they seemed a bit more gray and were often weaker than the rest. Soon, she was free of all the bonds that she¡¯d accrued by working with the Watchers and their Soothsayers. She, too, had one of those odd, unidentifiable bonds, but I managed to break it with a not-insignificant amount of effort. Once I was confident that there weren¡¯t any trackers on us, I asked about Azrael¡¯s latest adventure. ¡°I¡¯ve mostly been scouting out the area and looking for threats lately,¡± she explained, clearly happy to have someone to talk to. ¡°For the most part, there hasn¡¯t really been anything out there, but I think I might have found signs of some sort of Domain Skill.¡± ¡°Oh, really?¡± I leaned in, my curiosity roused. Domain Skills were rare, and if there were another creature with one out there, then I would either end up in conflict with it, or, hopefully, find a way to work with it. ¡°Yup!¡± She nodded rapidly, then elaborated, ¡°It seems that their Domain is less, well, magical than yours, though. There are fleshy growths all over the place, kinda like a root system but, well, clearly undead.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± I scratched my chin. ¡°That sounds pretty dangerous. Would you mind taking some Antigos out with you next time you go out?¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Azrael adopted an expression that I couldn¡¯t place. ¡°Yeah, I can do that. Thank you.¡± I waved a hand. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. If you end up getting your hands on some of its flesh, or you find the undead itself, I would greatly appreciate it if you brought it to me. I might be able to examine it and find out what it''s doing or what type of undead it is.¡± She nodded, smirked, then mockingly curtsied. ¡°Yes, dark lord. Whatever you say, dark lord.¡± I rolled my eyes at her. ¡°Hey, I asked!¡± Irregardless of my protestations, she continued in her exaggeratedly subservient tone, ¡°And your wish shall be my command, oh Lord Ambrose of the Dark Spire!¡± ¡°Hey¡­¡± I was complaining, but that was actually a pretty good title. Maybe, if I ever took on human subjects, I¡¯d force them to call me that? They¡¯d have to recite the full title every time, of course, or they¡¯d be lashed thrice for their insolence. Seeing my smirk, Azzy rose from her curtsy and pouted. ¡°I just gave you ideas, didn¡¯t I? I swear, if you try to make me call you that, I¡¯m gonna punch your Phylactery.¡± I winced, looking at the crystal. If getting punched in the genetics-storage-device hurts, what would getting punched in the soul-storage-device feel like? ¡°Ideas? Hah,¡± I chuckled anxiously, ¡°what are those? I don¡¯t get those. Do you get those? They sound like something that might be bad for your health, you should get that checked out.¡± Azrael¡¯s eyes narrowed further, but she relaxed and started walking up the stairs to the roof. ¡°I¡¯ll be going out again in three days. I¡¯d just hate it if you didn¡¯t come say goodbye and I had to go out without your Antigos.¡± I watched her make her way upstairs with confusion. Why did I feel like I was sweating? I couldn¡¯t sweat, right? I turned my attention back to what I¡¯d been doing before the distraction, presented with a choice. Did I keep grinding my Calling Skill so that I wouldn¡¯t need to worry about it later, or did I accept the immediate gratification of leveling up my specialization right away? Chapter 11: Calling I decided to go with the delayed gratification and powerlevel Calling. Would increasing my Willpower right away have helped with increasing the level of my Boons? Probably, but not by too much. That¡¯s why I was going to practice my Spatium Manipulation last. It would also just feel nice to level up a bunch, all at once, and then get my next specialization. I didn¡¯t really need a win quite yet, so I could save the levels for when I did, or when I was done with all the work and would be able to enjoy watching the numbers go up, knowing that I was just about at the finish line. Either way would be better than getting a dopamine rush when I didn¡¯t need it. Actually, I don¡¯t have dopamine, do I? A happy-energy rush? Did it matter? Not really. In any case, I was back to working on my Calling. I''d eventually gotten bored of repeatedly summoning lizards and hated seeing it stagnate, so this time I was mostly working on Nomantic Call. I only had a couple of things to use Nomantic Call on. It worked on my Named mobs, sure, but that was incredibly easy and I sincerely doubted that it would net me the sort of levels I needed quickly. Instead, I¡¯d had to resort to somewhat more unpleasant means. ¡°I hate this,¡± Azrael said, looking a bit queasy. ¡°I just want you to know that if I still ate food, I would be vomiting all over you right now.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a very pleasant comment, Azrael.¡± As I said the last word, I reactivated my Skill/Boon combo, and she reappeared in front of my hand, stumbling and glaring at me. ¡°I hate this,¡± she restated with even more vitriol. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s take a break. I know that Azrael isn¡¯t your given name, so why is this working?¡± To my knowledge, it had to be the name the universe knew you by, so the fake name that I knew her by shouldn¡¯t have been working so well. She paused at my comment, then glanced off to the side. ¡°Well, it¡¯s probably for the same reason that my legend calls me Azrael.¡± I raised my eyebrows. The words that were used here for a map¡¯s legend and a person¡¯s status screen were the same, so I¡¯d just decided to get used to it and stop trying to split the translations in my head. Still¡­ ¡°Wait, the name on your legend changed?¡± ¡°Yeah, it happened around when you split all those bonds from me,¡± she said, nodding. I cranked on my Bondsight to check my suspicion, and nodded when I saw that her strongest bond was to me. Her bonds from her life were all dull and gray, since she was, well, dead, and I¡¯d cut all the others to keep us safe from the Watchers. I knew her as Azrael¡­ "Do you consider Azrael to be your real name? Is that how you think of yourself now?" "Hmm," she considered. "I guess I do? I hadn''t thought about it until now. I mean, my old name is still my name too, but it feels a bit strange since it''s from when I was alive." I nodded to myself and mumbled, "That makes sense¡­" "What''s that?" "Oh, my bad. I was just thinking about how if we both accept that you''re Azrael, and your bonds with everyone else are too weak to be taken into consideration, then perhaps the universe simply decided that you were the name that was most strongly tied to you." She blinked at me. "So, the name that''s used to refer to me the most, by the people that matter to me the most, is my name?" I waved my hand back and forth. "Not exactly, but that''s pretty much correct. If you could use my Bondsight, it would be a lot easier to explain it. If your old name were written down somewhere recently and I hadn''t removed those bonds, then that might have a bit of sway over your name, but I do think that people matter the most to it. "Now, are you ready to continue?" "Go slowly so I can ease into the teleport," she grumbled, "The moment you level up from this, I''m done." "It''s not really a teleport," I answered her mutterings unbidden, "It''s more like I''m pulling you towards myself, just not through a physical means. If it were true teleportation, it would be instant. Instead, I think it stores your body in an extradimensional pocket that''s bound to your soul, and then yanks on our bond. Once your soul is here, it takes your body out of storage and reformed it around you." I stopped, but then explained, "Of course, this is just speculation based on what I''m seeing with Delinear Sight. It still barely makes any sense at all to me, Azrael." She appeared in front of me with a glare. "Yeah, we''re definitely only doing this until you get to level 5 in that Boon." Luckily for her, it didn''t take too much longer for me to get to there. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 2 Phylactery 2 Necrosis Manipulation 5 (Max) Domain of Undeath 5 (Max) Spatium Manipulation 2 Calling 4 Enhancements: Willpower x2 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon Bond Leash was cool, and in its base state would allow me to prevent my Called creatures from running away. The way it did it, though, had a bit of potential. It would use my bond to a creature to flood it with my Spatium energy, and would then effectively puppeteer it. Sadly, it felt too redundant, what with my Animate Necrosis which could create and manipulate creatures on its own without any need for summoning magic. Sympathetic Bonding, though, leaned more into the spatial aspect of the Skill. It was centered around the connections between things that were similar in nature, as well as the tiny, weak bonds that held all matter together as though it were a solid whole. It used those tiny bonds between all things to exert some control over reality, linking things together in a much more physical way. It would obviously be hard to level, but¡­ it looked strong. Trying it out, I realized that I was right: this Boon would be nearly impossible to level up. Or, rather, it would level, but I just knew that if I didn''t level it by focusing on learning its principles, I would never truly grow in this aspect. It was just going to be very difficult to observe in action. The Boon, while active, would consider two things as intrinsically connected. They would be, in a way, the same object. For that reason, the skill would be stronger the more similar the objects were, with maximum efficiency only being possible if they were truly copies. However, if that efficiency was reached, then the objects would effectively be overlayed on top of one another in the eyes of the universe, becoming one thing, but in two different locations. Any changes that happened in one would also take place in the other, and said changes would become much harder to make. Stolen story; please report. I looked around my tower, feeling slightly annoyed by the ideas that Sympathetic Bonding was giving me. I was going to have to duplicate my tower once it was done, wasn''t I? I started working on the new Boon right away. I could just level up my other stuff first, but I wanted to have a good grasp over this new ability first. I used my Mold Terrain to form two stones that, to all of my senses, were previously the same. Even my Delinear Sight agreed that they had the same weight, circumferences, average radii, and maximum deviation from that radii. Once I''d carefully gone over the rocks to make sure that they were exactly the same, I slathered some Spatium on them and turned on Sympathetic Bonding. It guided me through the motions of strengthening the bonds between each and every bit of the rocks, then lengthening the bond and pulling it into a knot, then putting even more energy into that knot and peeling away the casings between the places the tether touched itself. Eventually, the knot would form into more of an orb, and the energies that flowed into it would be reshaped and distributed. Anything that was sent across the bond would be sent in both directions equally. Without the knot, there wouldn''t be enough room for the bond to send across the force that was applied to the original creature, since it would all be full of Spatium. Sadly, it didn''t look like there was a way to make sacrificial dummies, since the bond was always going to be equal, no matter what. That, more than anything, was set in stone. The bond just wasn''t large or strong enough to accept 100% of the forces applied to one body. Imagine getting punched. This way put a wide plate on the attacker''s fist, spreading out the supplied forces. Sending all of the energy across would be like eating the fist. It just wasn''t feasible. Finally, I would focus on pulling the bond into the physical world, rather than simply tying it to the idea of the objects I was working on. I would then encapsulate the creation in that bond, and then it would be done. I ran out of energy multiple times during the process, but I eventually finished testing the new Boon. My creation was certainly not perfect. First of all, I''d taken the easy route and made a basic square knot, rather than any of the other, more complex shoes I could have made to increase and strengthen the bond further. Using Spatium Manipulation, I cut a thread of reality. This was pretty stupid, since it cost a lot of energy to keep it split, but I didn''t intend to keep this tear in reality open for long. I looked directly at the other stone and found that it seemed to be warping in the same way that the original was, just without the influence of Stitching. Interesting. It was also taking far more energy to keep the strand of reality detached than it should. I let it go so my energy levels wouldn''t get too low, and then Created two Dualjacks on the floor. I could bind two objects together, but would that connection work for animated creatures? After a bit of experimentation, I got my answer. It turned out that I could attach the bond to corpses just fine, but the Necrosis would devour the Spatium that was keeping the bond in place. At first, that had seemed like a dead end, but then I looked down at my own hands and realized that I could mix Necrosis and Spatium. With that in mind, I tried again, this time infusing the bond with my Spatium-Necrosis mix. It took a lot more energy, and I''d needed to convince the mixture not to eat the Spatium casing of the bond, but it was mostly docile now so it wasn''t too hard. When I tried to reanimate the corpses this time, I mixed the Necrosis into the mix that was already present, and it accepted the soupification, adding its own intent into the mix. After a few moments, I had two intrinsically linked Caerbalopes. I had one of the Antigos stab one, and sensed that its flesh was much tougher than it should have been, and the damage was split between the two abominations. It looked like I''d be able to use this method to create monsters with linked "health bars," which was cool since that was a common theme in games. I used the ability on a few of the Gila Hulks I was making, and decided to call them Twinscales. I also found that I could use Create Consciousness on the knot in their Sympathetic Bond, which would give them a singular hivemind that controlled them both. I also used the process to make a pair of Antigos, but gave them both their own Consciousnesses. They were both given my Spread Undeath Boon. After some more tinkering with my new ability¨Cmostly smashing rocks and having linked creatures fight one another to figure out how exactly the Sympathy worked¨CI sensed that Azrael was heading down the stairs. I dismissed my projects and called the new Antigos forward. "You''re heading out?" She nodded. "Are these the ones you''re going to send with me?" "Yup," I responded. "Sorry, gimme just a second¡­" Hey, you two, I mentally communicated to the beasts, causing them to look at me. Great, keep this lady safe, and follow any of her orders if you can understand them. Their heads twitched, and I knew they understood my command. "They''re ready. They can''t speak and don''t know¡­ wait, what''s this language called?" How did I not know this one? "Depends. If you want to use the full, proper name, then it''s Kerenth-Yalten Glyphic," she explained, "but most governments I know of like to ignore the fact that there''s anything above the Dead Belt, so they call it Yalten. Most people just call it Glyphic, though. I don''t know if that holds up in Kerenth, though." "Thank you, wellspring of knowledge," I praised. "Anyways, yeah, they don''t know Glyphic, so they won''t know what you''re saying, but they might be able to interpret if you think you''re good at charades." Azrael''s head tilted. "What''s Chawr-Aids?" Whoops. I guess I''d said that in English? Was there really no translation for that? "Don''t worry about it, just uh, have fun out there!" "I think I will," she said with a smile. "Sorry if I''ve been too pushy lately. I just don''t know how you manage to stay in here constantly, I would have gone crazy by now." "Who knows, maybe I went crazy all the way back in that first dungeon and you''re just a figment of my imagination?" I chuckled at her concerned expression. "Don''t worry, I''m pretty sure it''s just a lich thing." "I see. Anyways, I''m gonna get out of this boring stone tower. See you later!" I waved her goodbye and got back to my experiments. In the end, I tried a lot of different things. Even to me, it felt like I was spending a lot of time on this specific Boon. I took breaks to check on Azrael with my Omnipresence, but there was never anything she needed and no opportunities to Call her back arose, so I''d just ended up working on creating tons of Twinscales. My Necrosis Manipulation didn''t need it, but it was helpful for my new Sympathetic Bonding Boon and populated the dungeon. Right now my Wisps couldn''t automatically make these things, since they would need at least three of my Boons to manage it. In other words, I definitely wasn''t wasting my time just to reduce the boredom involved with this process. It. Took. Days. I eventually ran out of room on the first seven floors and had to start chucking Dualjacks outside the dungeon to use my Sympathetic Bonding on. I actually started making the two corpses on opposite sides of the tower when I realized that it was harder to do that way, just to make it feel a little more interesting. Eventually, after what I''m sure was days of progress, I felt the buzz. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 2 Phylactery 2 Necrosis Manipulation 5 (Max) Domain of Undeath 5 (Max) Spatium Manipulation 2 Calling 5 (Max) Enhancements: Willpower x2 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon Humm. New options. Furthermore, these were actually both variants on the Calling Skill itself, it seemed. Call Through Space was actually a simpler version of the Skill. Instead of doing all the fancy stuff with dragging someone''s soul, it latched onto their body and bodily yanked them towards you. It would basically let me fish without a fishing rod. This Boon would actually be a pretty cool ability to have as the final boss of a dungeon. Pulling people into crowds of mobs or attacks¡­ it would be good. Call Through Fate went the other direction. It actually relied more on the Karma aspects of the Skill, and would gently influence the target''s mind, making them think of me or area I called, and cause them to find an excuse to go there. Call Through Space could be used to troll people or fight in a fun way. Call Through Fate was minor mind control that I''d only really have a use for on Azzy. I took Call Through Space. Next up was my Phylactery Skill, but honestly? I was tired. Kinda bored, too. I laid back on the hard stone floor and turned on Omnipresence. Gonna spy on Azrael for a bit. Then I''ll get back to work. Azrael 1: The Madness of Living Death Azrael stalked through the forest of flesh, her guardians following with the same silence that her own steps carried. The Domain that she''d found before had created quite a horrific sight, having entirely consumed the area with fleshy bits. The sense it gave off was distinctly undead, and yet it was somehow tainted by life magic, which explained how it was growing in such a plant-like way. It was like the entirety of the forest had been consumed and replaced by a single, massive entity, yet Azrael knew it was merely a Domain Skill. She felt the familiar energies that were present in Ambrose¡¯s dungeon, though while Ambrose¡¯s Domain felt like the passive embrace of death and a chill in the bones, this one was far more hostile. It lusted for blood, destruction, and chaos, and it didn¡¯t particularly care about how it reached those goals. Even for her, this was disturbing. The other undead likely felt the same, as they seemed to avoid the area as though it was full of holy water. No creatures wandered through this place, with the exception of herself and the Antigos. If there had been any, she was sure that they''d already been devoured by the fleshy tendrils all over the ground. She avoided those as best she could, making sure not to touch anything. This creature might not be able to see everything in the area like Ambrose could, but she was certain that the tentacles had at least some sort of sensory organs. Carefully, slowly, she approached, suppressing the energy fluctuations in her body with the Woolen Wolf Boon from her Dark Prowl Skill. The Boon¡¯s effect was heightened by her Lethean magic, but even so, she couldn''t do anything about the Antigos, and would just have to hope that they could take care of themselves. Luckily, it seemed that they were limber and cautious enough to mostly avoid the arms of this Domain. A few tentacles twitched at their presence, but they were mostly ignored. After hours of walking further and further into the Domain, they were now almost completely surrounded by fleshy vines and trees. Reluctantly, Azrael left the Antigos behind and continued forward, activating the Ignorance Boon of her Lethean Manipulation Skills to force the creature to ignore her movements. This technique wouldn''t work if her impact on the creature were large enough or if its senses were exceptionally powerful, but she felt that it would be safe to do this much. She began gently pushing the bits of flesh out of her way, still avoiding direct contact whenever possible. Eventually, she saw it. It was at least nine feet tall, and was mostly humanoid, except that it looked almost like a plant itself, with meaty roots growing out of its legs and ropes of shredded skin draped over it like vines. Blood perpetually leaked from its exposed yet bark-like muscles. Azrael immediately halted upon seeing it, worried that it might notice her. Luckily, though, it seemed that it lacked vision, as branches grew out of its eye sockets. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. This is why life and death don''t mix. Creatures that were both were also neither, becoming monstrosities that were repulsive to all organics. The dead were never meant to return to life, except as undead. This beast was clearly one of the cases of individuals who had stayed in the Dead Belt for far too long, but were too strong to simply die, and were instead changed. It was basically the same as becoming an undead, with a bit more intelligence and a lot more madness. However, these types are also more likely to obtain Vitasis affinities, resulting in horrors like the one before¨Cwell, around her. She slowly crept closer to the creature. Perhaps she could land a killing blow if she moved in stealthily enough? It twitched, and she halted, pushing even more of her Lethe into Ignorance. A moment passed, and the monster ahead of her relaxed. She slowly, cautiously backed away, and made her way back to the Antigos. The group began to swiftly move away from the eye of this Domain, and the tendrils of Influence around them shivered and trembled. Even with her Ignorance running at maximum capacity, Azrael wouldn¡¯t be able to shield the group for much longer. Quickly, she sliced one of the thicker tentacles off the larger mass of the creature, and a wail echoed throughout the consumed forest, and the call was taken up by the fleshy bits all around them, which grew vicious mouths and began lashing out at the surroundings. She quickly stowed the flesh in her bag, and started to run. Her Nyx Manipulation was activated, and Speed of Darkness pushed her forward. She could no longer bother to hide her presence from the monstrosity¡¯s Domain, and instead focused everything on speed. It took hours to reach the center of the forest, but mere minutes for Azrael to leave. Having to watch her step and move carefully on the way in had slowed her down significantly, but speed was one of her specialties, even if she was nowhere near as fast as that Windilope Ambrose had made. The tentacles had found and attacked her multiple times, but her Fade Away Skill had proved its usefulness, allowing her to avoid the incoming attacks by simply allowing them to pass through her. She looked back at the forest once she was confident that none of the attacks would be able to reach her. It had grown quiet again, but there was no sign of the Antigos. Ambrose won¡¯t be too mad that I got his creations killed, will he? She thought, then shook her head. Of course not. I even managed to get him that gift he asked for. With that, Azrael started to make her way back home with a tentative smile on her face. Chapter 12: Cadavrrhizae I looked over the still-writhing bit of flesh with interest. My senses told me that it was somehow both dead and alive. My Omniscience told me it was something called a ¡°Cadavrrhizae Limb,¡± and it seemed almost fungal in nature. ¡°You said that these things were covering an entire forest, right?¡± I asked Azrael, my mind going to Humongous Fungus, a mushroom that had been growing for thousands of years by the time it was found and was considered the largest single organism on Earth. ¡°Yeah, that thing was massive.¡± She shuddered. ¡°Sorry for getting your monsters killed, by the way.¡± I waved a hand as if to brush off her concern. ¡°I know for a fact that you¡¯ve been downstairs. Don¡¯t worry about it, I have thousands of them.¡± Azrael¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Thousands? I thought there were hundreds at the most. I guess I just got so bored looking at the same thing over and over again that I just started ignoring them,¡± she considered. ¡°By the way, those bottom floors look amazing. I thought you were busy leveling your Skills, pushing to level 5?¡± ¡°Oh yeah, do you remember that Spriggan we found a while back?¡± I asked with a bit of pride. ¡°I guess I never directly showed you, and they¡¯re at work in the walls and floor most of the time, but¡­¡± I called one of the Wisps out. Azrael stared at the new monster type with wonder. ¡°You changed it from Vitasis to Necrosis? I didn¡¯t even know that was possible.¡± I took a moment to preen under the implied compliment, but my desire to explain the mob¡¯s capabilities was too strong to go ignored for long. ¡°I call it a Wisp. When I hit level 5 in my Necrosis Manipulation Skill, I got a Skill that lets me give my monsters the ability to think for themselves. I can decide what sort of things they know, and that actually includes the ability to use my Boons. Sadly, it doesn¡¯t look like I can give them more than one at a time, but they can work together really well, and these Wisps are especially good at using my Domain of Undeath Boons, since I actually infused a bunch of my influence into them while I was converting the original into what they are now.¡± She continued to stare at the Wisp, fully entranced, but managed to ask, ¡°Isn¡¯t giving them intelligence a bit scary? Especially when you give them such strong abilities?¡± I waved a hand in front of her face, and she flinched with an ¡°eep!¡± ¡°They¡¯re still completely loyal to me, just like the mindless undead. Honestly, the Antigos already had so much raw mass that I think they were already starting to get smarter from it, though I don¡¯t exactly know how. Anyways, they made the new floor by using my Mold Terrain Boon. They could have also used my Create Undead and Animate Necrosis Boons to populate the floor, but I had a new idea for a mob.¡± ¡°You keep using that word. What¡¯s a mahb?¡± Azrael queried, making me realize that I kept accidentally using English words when there were no precise Glyphic translations. ¡°Ah, sorry, it just refers to monsters that are made for adventurers to fight,¡± I explained sheepishly. ¡°Anyways, you wanna see the new monster?¡± She nodded with great interest, and I decided to make one on the spot. I didn¡¯t have any up here, and having one walk all the way up the stairs would take too long. Furthermore, doing things this way should get me extra style points. Azrael was looking confused by the time the second body had fully formed, but I raised a hand to keep her quiet while targeting the Created corpses with Sympathetic Bonding. It took a few moments of intense concentration and knot-tying, but the misshapen bond took form between and around the bodies, intrinsically linking them. I Animated the two perfect clones, and then used my Construct Consciousness Boon to give them a single driving thought-construct. ¡°Introducing,¡± I suddenly announced, ¡°the Twinscale.¡± Azrael stared at the beasts for a long minute, then turned to me and asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t those just two lizards?¡± I winced, realizing that she couldn¡¯t see any of what I was doing and I¡¯d just made a complete fool of myself. Oh well. ¡°Just go fight them and see what happens.¡± She shrugged, pulling a dagger out of a hidden pocket and zipping forward with great speed. The Twinscale had no time to react at all, and its right body was stabbed on the forehead. Sadly for Azrael, these things were tough. When she pulled back, a small smear of necrotic blood pooled at the top of both of the Twinscale¡¯s heads, but she hadn¡¯t received the instakill she¡¯d been after. Instead, two angry lizard bodies launched themselves at her in lockstep, forcing her to defend from two angles simultaneously. For each stab or slash one received, small wounds appeared on both, but these beasts worked together perfectly, and I had to stop one of the things from biting her each time she managed to block the other. Of course, I knew that Azrael wasn¡¯t going all out, since they were just my undead creations and she knew I wasn¡¯t going to kill her, but it still impressed upon her how strong these things were. ¡°Are you sure normal people will be able to handle these things? I know you said that you wanted people to feel like they at least had a chance in here.¡± She looked concernedly at the Twinscale¡¯s bodies, which I¡¯d forced to stop attacking. I shrugged. ¡°Their biggest advantages are their toughness, venom, teamwork, and lack of fear towards death. I expect that sufficiently powerful, well-organized teams should be able to handle them.¡± My words caused her to think for a minute, but then she nodded, agreeing with my assessment. We chatted for a little while longer about what had gone down in the Cadavrhizae¡¯s forest, and then she went back up to the tower¡¯s roof while I started trying to recreate the limb that she¡¯d brought for me. Sadly, it looked like I wouldn¡¯t be able to manage it, since it had a good amount of Vitasis in it, and not just pure Necrosis. I could try to corrupt it, but I got the feeling that it would simply crumble to dust if I did so, since it was held together by a mix, rather than just one or the other. There was something else to do about the monster nearby, though. It was clearly a threat, not just to Azrael but also to me. What would happen if that thing decided to spread its Domain out and started fighting me? That just wouldn¡¯t do. I had a huge excess of Antigos, that was just the simple truth. It would be a waste to just tell them to leave, though, so I¡¯d thought up a couple ways to handle it. My original idea was to slap them all with Spread Undeath Boons and tell them to walk in straight lines away from me until they couldn¡¯t anymore. That would take a lot of time, though, and I¡¯d just found a more immediate use for some of my troops. I directed about half my Antigos to gather around the base of my tower, and they began flooding down the stairs in a stream. Soon, a massive army had gathered, and I had a perfect use for them. Slowly, I began to equip them all with basic, rudimentary Consciousnesses, allowing them to think for themselves and have greater performance. I upgraded a handful with Spread Undeath, making them into my generals. Then, I told them all to march. Just a couple moments later, Azrael came storming down the stairs. ¡°What are you doing? Where are the Antigos going?¡± She sounded worried, like I was doing something foolish. ¡°Are you leaving us undefended?!¡± If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I frowned at her, and my response came out a bit terse. ¡°No, I¡¯m not stupid. That¡¯s only about half of my army, and they¡¯re going to handle the threat that you just brought to my attention.¡± Azrael blinked. ¡°Oh¡­ I didn¡¯t realize you could do that. For some reason I didn¡¯t think that you could send so many of your undead outside at once.¡± ¡°Just because I haven¡¯t until now doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t,¡± I said with a chuckle. ¡°With enough time, I could probably form an army large enough to recreate the aftermath of that war you told me about.¡± I was, of course, referring to the war between the old kingdoms of Yalten and Kerenth that had increased the size and power of the Dead Belt so much that humanity had been relegated to the freezing poles of the world. In that time, the dead had ruled the continent, consuming the world in their infinite hunger, touching the hearts of men with darkness and terror. Sadly, a mixture between divine intervention and attrition had slowly beat back the walking dead, who were incapable of increasing their numbers without bringing corpses within the areas of the Dead Belt that had denser concentrations of Necrosis, which became harder once the living started to cremate their dead. For some reason, Azrael seemed a bit uncomfortable with that, but she brushed it off. ¡°Can I go watch?¡± I shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not. You should be plenty safe. I sincerely doubt that Cadavrrhizae thing will be able to handle a swarm of over a thousand Antigos, especially with me fighting its Domain.¡± She considered it for a moment, then asked for a Windilope. I took a moment to form one for her, then instructed it to keep her within a couple miles of the army and bring her back if things got bad. After that, I just formed a stone chair out of the floor and sat back to watch the fight through my Omnipresence. It took a few hours for the Antigos to arrive at the Cadavrrhizae¡¯s forest, but once they did, howls echoed through the mountains and the army broke, dashing forward to create carnage. I didn¡¯t bother stopping them. This was the way they fought best, and trying to force them into formation would only hurt the situation, not to mention that my only experience with battle strategy was limited to tabletop roleplaying games. The Antigos were brutal killing machines, and moved faster than the fleshy bits in the forest could react. Tentacles were chopped off and purple blood splashed across the ground as the army advanced, slashing every living or semi-living thing in the area to bits. Trees were shredded to bits, shrubs were uprooted, and soon only barren land remained, littered with the remains of plant life and still-writhing Cadavrrhizae limbs. I guess this is what happens when you tell an undead army to kill a forest? Perhaps I should have been more specific, but this was likely for the best. I had no clue what means the beast inside would have, and it could very well have some ability to manipulate the plant life. In fact¡­ I started Transmuting the plants into dust as soon as they were considered dead enough for me to do so. Best to take no chances with something that controls both life and death. The army advanced forwards, taking only minor damage from the hostile terrain. The Antigos were incredibly tough, having very dense muscles and bones, and I made sure to get some practice with my yet-unused Necrotic Restoration Boon. My army was unstoppable, my warriors immortal representations of my might directly guided by my will. Nothing would stop them, they would¨C oh, one of them just died. I inspected the fallen soldier with my Omniscience, and found that it had been infected with some sort of Vitasis-venom that originated from a thorn. It hadn¡¯t instantly killed my creation, but I hadn¡¯t been able to notice it in time, since I was more focused on the Antigos that had sustained substantial damage. I examined it for a moment longer, trying to come up with a solution. One eventually popped into my head, and I started making Wisps inside the forest, giving them my Necrotic Restoration Boon with Construct Consciousness. I couldn¡¯t focus everywhere at once, so instead I¡¯d make dozens of little helpers to do it for me. Once I had about a hundred Restoration Wisps, I returned my attention to my Influence, finding that the Cadavrrhizae was trying to retake the land that my Antigos had vacated. I let out a soft chuckle, then pushed back with as much force as I could, my Empowered Control reinforcing my power over my own Domain. Instantly, the forest stopped trying to encroach upon my land, and I decided to install a few more Wisps with my Spread Undeath Boon to ensure that I would remain in control of this battleground. It took quite a long time, since my Antigos were chopping their way through the entire forest, but eventually the target of this crusade came into view. The Cadavrrhizae was just past a few more trees, and it gazed in our direction. I could sense the malevolence and voracity in its gaze, as the sensation penetrated even through my Domain. Luckily, my Antigos didn¡¯t particularly care about the killing intent of their target, happy to die for me as they were. They pushed forward into the enemy undead¡¯s clearing, and soon the real battle commenced. Spikes erupted from the ground, and several of my Antigos were instantly slain by twisting red spikes, each seeming to be partway between living and inanimate. The Wisps tried to help, but they were already too late to do anything, as the spiraling spikes had sucked the deathly energies straight out of my creatures, which were now slowly turning to dust. The Antigos were enraged by this sudden attack, and started throwing themselves at the spikes, breaking them apart as they pressed forward. More spikes came, and more Antigos fell, but it wasn¡¯t even close to enough. For every foot that they advanced, one of my creations would become fertilizer, but there were hundreds of them. Before long, the Cadavrrhizae had to directly intervene, its flesh warping as it ascended into the sky, hanging upside down as its legs seemed to grow into a huge, drooping flower, with the monstrosity itself as its fruit. The odd plant continued to grow as the Cadavrrhizae was pulled forward, and it split in half to reposition itself further ahead, at which point it would continue to pull the undead along until the other plant would need to be moved. It continued to walk forward in this unnatural yet organic way until it hung over the front line of my troops. The Cadavrrhizae screamed in anguish and rage, dragging its plant-like fingers across its eyes so hard that it created gouges in its own flesh, out of which a clear fluid poured. So much came out that it was like a faucet had been turned on, and I called my creations back, sensing that something was wrong. Sadly, not all of the Antigos reacted quickly enough, and the liquid splashed across a few dozen of my troops. Strange growths bubbled across my undeads¡¯ bodies before violently bursting open in gorey explosions, revealing flowers that had grown beneath the skin of the vanguards of my army. On closer inspection, I found that these plants were formed out of the bodies of my creations, their flesh having twisted into the shape they were currently in. The buds of these flowers snapped open, and revealed vicious grins that had been formed out of the bones of my units, ribs coming together to form long, sharp teeth. These plants snapped forward like a cross between piranhas and venus flytraps, snapping around the torsos of my Antigos as they tried to escape. Watching them chew on my units was disgusting, even for me, especially when I saw the plants grow larger and larger from the consumption of their flesh. With a not-insubstantial amount of anger in my heart, I decided that this had gone far enough, and commanded my Antigos to fight back against these plants. Luckily, it seemed that the Cadavrrhizae itself had run out of that strange clear fluid, as it had stopped releasing it from the cuts in its face, instead moving itself out of the way to allow its plants to defend it while it prepared¡­ something. Green and purple light streamed out of its body into an orb in front of it, but I wasn¡¯t planning on letting it show off its ult. I commanded my Antigos to charge the plants and slash them to bits. They recklessly charged forward, and a battle ensued. For every corpse the plants consumed, they became a bit stronger, but the sheer number of Antigos that attacked them all at once was simply overwhelming, and most fell within mere moments. A few took quite a bit longer than that, but I instructed my troops to simply move around them and get at the big guy. The Cadavrrhizae was close to finishing the formation of its creation, and I saw that the green and purple light had completely stabilized. Now it was pouring so much raw Mentum into the orb that it was having a tangible effect on the air between its hands, causing it to shudder and quake at the amount of power that it was producing. Nonetheless, it remained defenseless for the moment, and my creatures rushed forward, hacking the ¡°legs¡± of the creature to ribbons in an instant. A moment later, the Cadavrrhizae landed on the floor and the Antigos launched themselves at it like starving wolves. Moments later, the forest seemed to die around us, and the tendrils of flesh that had made up the Cadavrrhizae¡¯s Domain turned to dust and blew away in the wind. The stream of Mentum was halted, and a small object fell out of the orb the enemy undead had been working on. I inspected it with my Omniscience and a mixture between confusion and concern brewed within my heart. Not trusting my Antigos with the delicate object, I Transmuted the ground around it into stone and had Azrael¡¯s Windilope bring her forward to see it. Azzy looked around, confused, but I had one of the Antigos point towards the dead body of the Cadavrrhizae, and she soon spotted the small seed. She dismounted and put it in her pocket, then hopped back on the Windilope, ready to come home. Shutting off my Omnipresence and leaning back in my stone throne, I rubbed at my forehead in consternation. If that little seed was anything like I was expecting, then things around here were about to get weird. Chapter 13: Phylactery I examined the small kernel, considering what to do with it. The seed that the Cadvrrhizae had left behind was stuffed full of energy, both of life and of death. Considering where it had come from, I had initially considered destroying it, yet¡­ This could be a great tool. I could sense the dense energy within it, and found that it held no hostility towards me. No, all it wanted was energy, fuel to accelerate its growth. Considering its nature, and how I didn¡¯t have the requisite affinities to truly develop or control it, I wasn¡¯t going to let it grow just yet. Still, it was something to consider in the future, in case I ever found a way to generate Vitasis, or maybe if I enslaved someone or something else that could. Maybe I could also find a way to replace its Vitasis energy with my Spatium, which would likely result in a much less chaotic creation. I didn¡¯t exactly know how a seed of all things could be considered dead and alive at the same time, but then again, the Cadavrrhizae had managed it, so why couldn¡¯t this thing? As for what it would grow into, I got the distinct sense that it would be based on the energies used. I¡¯m pretty sure that the Cadavrrhizae was actually trying to make a clone of itself, and it might have even been trying to infuse its own soul into the seed, but it had clearly been unsuccessful, considering the seed didn¡¯t appear to have any intelligence of its own yet. Shoving the seed into a pocket, I looked over my status on my Phylactery. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 2 Phylactery 2 Necrosis Manipulation 5 (Max) Domain of Undeath 5 (Max) Spatium Manipulation 2 Calling 5 (Max) Enhancements: Willpower x2 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon I¡¯d not yet gotten a chance to practice my Call Through Space, since it seemed to be more of a combat Skill, but otherwise everything was leveling nicely. Well, with the exceptions of my Phylactery and Spatium Manipulation Skills. I was going to fix that now, though. First, I dismissed my body. It had served me well, but I needed to practice this Skill, and I wouldn¡¯t be able to do so while still inhabiting a regular body. I watched my cloak flutter to the ground with my Omnipresence, then dismissed the image from my mind. The first thing I wanted to work on was Undead Possession. It hadn¡¯t leveled ever, and it was one of the Boons I¡¯d started this life with. It had started at level 1 and then never gone up, because I¡¯d only ever used it once and that was on a regular old skeleton. I had better things to use it on now. First of all, I used Create Undead to form an Antigo on the floor and sent my mind into the body. I immediately felt a bit of dissonance, though, and I knew that this was the effect of sending my mind into something that wasn¡¯t exactly prepared for it. It had been fine with the original body I¡¯d used, since my mind had been weaker, but I was too powerful for it now. My soul was simply too large and my mind was too fast to not have immediate reactions and a good storage space. I dismissed it right away and returned to my Phylactery. I hadn¡¯t exactly wanted to do this, since it seemed a bit weird to inhabit the same body as one of my Animated creatures, but I suppose that it was inevitable, in the end. Animate Necrosis was cast on the Created corpse and it rose almost instantly. I sent my mind into it yet again, and felt power surge through me. I¡¯d created powerful bodies for myself in the past, but they were more geared towards the use of magic. I got the sense that my ability to do so would be much more limited in this body, and yet¡­ The sheer power in my muscles, the nimbleness, the flexibility¡­ Was this how my Antigos always felt? Then I tried to step forward and almost tripped. I was much taller than I was accustomed to, and my reactions were faster, too. It was an almost imperceptible difference, and yet it threw me off so thoroughly that I could barely stay standing. Furthermore, my vision was almost entirely in black and white, with the exception of a mass of purple splotches I could see below me and a single grouping of energy in front of me that was both green and purple, mixing together and dancing. A surge of rage flooded through me when I saw the green, but I calmed myself. It seemed that I¡¯d also inherited the Antigo¡¯s hatred for life, which was even more powerful than my own. I explored this new body for a while. I didn¡¯t intend to keep it for long, but I did need to level up this Boon, and didn¡¯t know if it had more to do with possessing the body or remaining in it. I was going to stay in here until I felt like I¡¯d learned how to control it properly. My eyes drifted back to my Phylactery, where I could luckily still see my status. I pressed a hand against the gem and used Incorporate Phylactery, then took off down the stairs, walking carefully at first, but then growing a bit more reckless and running at top speed. The best way to learn how to do something was at threat of pain, and falling off these stairs would most certainly hurt. My Antigos themselves were mostly immune to pain, but with my Phylactery Incorporated into this body, it would probably hurt pretty badly to break a bone. I did trip a couple times, but after an indeterminate yet extremely long and boring amount of time, I managed to make it to the bottom of my tower. Walking all the way up here like this really gave me a new appreciation for the spire¡¯s length. I¡¯d traveled the stairs once until now, but Azrael had to make the trek every time she wanted to leave. Maybe I should make an elevator? Brushing off the random thoughts, I looked back up the stairs, sighed, and started running back up. If this wasn¡¯t enough to get me a couple levels in Undead Possession, then I would have confirmed that the amount of time I spent in a body didn¡¯t matter to the Boon. After another long hike, I shunted my Phylactery out of my body and glared into the icosahedron. Phylactery 3 I sighed when I realized that it had, in fact, worked. It looked like I¡¯d have to spend a whole bunch of time piloting each of the different types of undead I could control. I was not excited to spend a day or more as a Caerbalope, and especially not as an Arachnomicon. Wait, would I even be able to possess a Twinscale? I hope not. Soulform was almost like a direct upgrade to Incorporate Phylactery, allowing me to just flat-out make a body out of it. I wouldn¡¯t need to do any Reconstitution at all, my Phylactery would just undergo a magical girl transformation sequence and I¡¯d have a body. This body would have perfect efficiency for my magic, my Mentum regen would be enhanced, and I¡¯d be able to use any of my Phylactery Boons within it. Not only that, but I would be much tougher than usual. However, if I died while in that form, I would just be dead. I wasn¡¯t very interested in that one. One of my greatest strengths as a lich was that death wouldn¡¯t be the end for me, no matter how brutal or scarring it was. I would be able to return to life as long as my Phylactery were intact. With that in mind, my eyes flicked over to the next Boon. It was almost the opposite of Soulform. Mental Shield would form a disruptive Mentum barrier between my Phylactery and the outside world, though it would drain an amount of my Mentum to do so. Still, it would become very difficult for hostile magics to influence or damage the Phylactery, and that would apply to my entire body when I was using Incorporate Phylactery. I was once more faced with a difficult situation: There was one option that would be very easy to level but would have a limited impact on my general capabilities, and another that would be hard to level but would have a good long-term effect that could prove very useful. In this case, if anyone ever reached my top floor and tried to destroy my Phylactery, they would find their magic entirely ineffectual. It might not stop truly dedicated people for very long, but it would at least provide me with time to muster up a countermeasure. The choice was obvious, even if it was difficult for me to delay my growth even further. I would have no way to increase the level of this Boon on my own, since I really didn¡¯t want to intentionally damage my soul to progress a little faster. Instead, I would simply have to level the rest of my Boons at an increased pace. Bleh. With a sigh, I started to form a Dualjack Caerbalope with Create Undead. I planned to go through all the different variations of Caerbalope, but I figured that Dualjacks would probably be the least immediately jarring for me. Once I¡¯d Animated it and began the process of Possessing it, though, I found that it was still plenty shocking. I had four eyes. Not only that, but I had two hearts, two sets of lungs, and so on. Sure, they weren¡¯t currently in use, but I could feel them, the open cavities on the inside of my body. It was incredibly strange, especially coming from the Antigo, which didn¡¯t have any of that organ nonsense going on at all. My vision felt splintered, and I probably would have had a headache if I were still a normal, fleshy being. Instead, I just felt extremely dazed. Like with the Antigo, I could only see in black and white, except with splashes of color similar to those that Deadsight showed me. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. I tried to right myself and step forward, but fell over instantly as my body tried to twist unnaturally into the visage of a bipedal cartoon rabbit. Instead, I had to slowly learn how to control my new body, crawling across the floor. Eventually, I grew confident enough in my abilities to reIncorporate my Phylactery and start making my way down the stairs, but was shocked when I saw how large the steps were. Right. I¡¯m smaller now, which means that, by comparison, everything else is bigger. This¡­ this was going to take a while. I would have to estimate that the trek with the Antigo body probably took about three hours both ways. This time it took double that, if not more. I spent at least half a day carefully traversing those steps. By the time I got back up, I was annoyed to say the least. I separated my Phylactery from this stupid little body and exited it the moment I could. I couldn¡¯t check my status from here, but that was fine. Reconstitution was cranked on, and I immediately started reforming my body, the same I¡¯d had before all of this dumb experimentation. Even through my irritation, I took the process slowly, making sure that all ratios were balanced and that I squeezed every drop of power I could into the body. I must have spent at least an hour working on it, and when my body got shunted into it, I could sense that it was stronger than ever. I had the temptation to experiment with my new efficiency ratios, but I looked at my Phylactery first. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 2 Phylactery 4 Necrosis Manipulation 5 (Max) Domain of Undeath 5 (Max) Spatium Manipulation 2 Calling 5 (Max) Enhancements: Willpower x2 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon Oh thank goodness. If I hadn¡¯t managed to get a full level from all that time spent in that utter hell, I probably would have pushed that Dualjack off the tower. Sadly, I would probably have to do all of that again, especially considering what I was currently being offered. Durable Phylactery would basically make my Phylactery much tougher, working with Mental Shield to make me incredibly hard to kill. It would also cost Mentum to defend myself, but it would give me even more time to react to sudden threats to the core of my being. This option was very tempting, but so was Mentum Generator, which would provide me with a proportional increase to the amount of mental energy my soul would regenerate, one which would increase the lower my supplies of Mentum grew. It also worked well with Mental Shield, since it provided more of the energy that the aforementioned Boon required to function. Furthermore, it was good for daily life and development of the dungeon. While I wasn¡¯t necessarily bottlenecked by my limited supply of Mentum, I would definitely be able to work towards my goals at an accelerated pace, and Mentum Generator would definitely be the most generally useful Boon. Just like my normal Mentum recovery, it would lose effectiveness with distance from my Phylactery, but that was fine. At least it would work without the Phylactery literally being inside my body 24/7. I mentally selected Mentum Generator, reasoning that it would be useful no matter what happened in the future, and glared down at my Boons, each of them representing options of what I could choose to work on next. Eventually, I just decided to use Incorporate Phylactery and start trying to level up the new Boon. It worked better at low levels of energy, so spending it all really quickly would be the best way to powerlevel it. After some consideration, I decided to just try to push my influence as far out as possible. I didn¡¯t really do it all that much these days, but I did have increased speed and efficiency with my Empowered Control Boon. I couldn¡¯t grant my Wisps that Boon, since they could only have a single one at a time and Empowered Control just increased the strength of my other Boons, but it was very powerful, and I had yet to test its limits. With my Omnipresence, I surveyed the patchwork of influence that surrounded the area that I¡¯d converted myself. The Wisps hadn¡¯t been very thorough, since I¡¯d basically just told them to wander around and cover as much area as possible. That was fine though, and the moment I started filling in the gaps, I could tell that it was actually helping out my own efficiency to do so. With as much force as I could, I slammed my conscience into the edges of my Domain of Undeath. Doing everything at once like this would be far more draining than simply going area by area, but that was perfectly fine with me since draining my energy was actually the primary goal here. Once I¡¯d covered a few square miles of territory, I started to feel some drain on my spirit, and could sense that I was running out of energy and should probably stop. Just as I was about to slow down for safety¡¯s sake, though, I felt something in my head click on, and a stream of energy started flowing into my pool of Mentum, signifying that my new Boon had just increased its output. This allowed me to push even harder, draining myself more. The stream, however, didn¡¯t seem too appreciative of my efforts, and it grew and grew, fighting against me until I found myself doing things in the least efficient way possible, just trying to tear the energy out of my soul as quickly as I could. Eventually, I could feel myself about to hit rock bottom once again, but the stream didn¡¯t increase in size anymore. By this point, my Domain had completely caught up with the wandering Wisps I¡¯d sent out all those weeks ago, and they each seemed to brighten and dance around, as if happy to return home after all the time they¡¯d been out on their own. I sent each of them an extra burst of energy to express my appreciation for them, then took a look at my Phylactery while I waited for my Mentum to recover. Phylactery 4 I groaned, lamenting my decision to take Mental Shield. At least I hadn¡¯t also taken Durable Phylactery. If I¡¯d made that mistake, I would have needed to resort to beating up my own soul to level up. There were five more levels to go until I maxed out this Skill. What to do now? I could go back to trying to pilot one of my creations, I could try to figure out a better way to use my Reconstitution, or I could sit around and focus on spending as much Mentum as possible. Or, I could do all of those. With yet another irritated groan, I discarded my current body, which quickly discorporated into the energies I¡¯d used to form it. A small book started to form on the ground beside me, and a moment later, I found myself much, much closer to the ground. My body felt stretched and bloated, and my legs could barely hold my weight, as disproportionate as it was. My vision was even more distorted than it had been as a Caerbalope, and I cursed at my previous self with great vitriol for this decision. I was currently an Arachnomicon. This was going to suck. I quickly hopped up to Incorporate my Phylactery, then started learning how to walk in this body. Slowly, slowly, I started to make my way towards the stairs. It wasn¡¯t that I was going slowly to get used to the body, no, it was because this thing was so hard to maneuver that I felt like I was about to topple over every time I moved at anything greater than a snail¡¯s pace. Even if I didn¡¯t manage to get another Skill level out of this, at least I would have gained a new appreciation for my smaller creatures. This was awful. Once I reached the stairs, I positioned myself along the wall, ensuring that I would be able to feel my location without access to my other senses. After that, I sent my consciousness outwards, aiming south and starting to bore a hole in the empty world with my Spread Undeath Boon. Once I was just barely used to that, I started to slowly scuttle forward. I felt myself reach a ledge hopped down, still focused on spreading my influence down towards Yalten. I landed on the floor roughly, but nothing broke or bent, so I decided to keep moving forwards. In this way, I drained my energy away and learnt to manipulate the body of one of my creations yet again. This time, though, I got the distinct impression that this wouldn¡¯t take just a couple of hours. No, I¡¯d eat my cover if this didn¡¯t take days. Bored out of my mind but still immortal and timeless, I continued in this way until I eventually scuttled forward and felt the wall to my side suddenly vanish, indicating that I had not only reached the bottom floor of my tower, but I¡¯d also circled the entire room. Instead of celebrating, though, I only felt dread as I canceled my Omnipresence and looked to my side at the towering staircase. Time to go back up, I guess. I turned the corner and placed my front legs on the staircase, and instantly knew that I wouldn¡¯t be able to afford to split my focus for this. With all the might contained in this stupid little body, I pulled myself upwards one step after another. Each floor became progressively more and more hellish, and I knew that this alone would take at least a full day, proving my prior hypothesis correct. I gritted my pages and endured, though, and was rewarded when I finally reached the top and Possessed a nearby Antigo. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 2 Phylactery 5 (Max) Necrosis Manipulation 5 (Max) Domain of Undeath 5 (Max) Spatium Manipulation 2 Calling 5 (Max) Enhancements: Willpower x2 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon Thank Azrael¨Cthe god, I mean¨CI could finally be done. Chapter 14: DrachmaUban The first thing to do, obviously, was look over the Boon options. Both of these looked like spells from popular games, and on close inspection, they were about what I''d expected. Soul Jar would let me reroute my soul through another object, the more magical the better, and then possess people through it. If I managed to take over another person''s body, their soul would get shunted into the Jar. To me, the best part of this Boon was that the soul would be trapped, allowing me to question them or find some other way to leverage their body. One of the differences between this and some other interpretations of the spell was that if I got the body killed, we wouldn''t just trade places, leaving them dead. I''d get dragged back to my Phylactery, while the person would be stuck in the Soul Jar. It was a strong ability, even if it was very different from what I''d been doing so far. It would certainly allow me to find out more true names, and even create items that would function with Nomantic Call. The next option was one I was very excited for, though. In D&D, Clone was one of the most ridiculous spells out there, basically letting you give yourself video game lives if you had the cash and flesh to spare. The lich version didn''t disappoint, even if it was a bit different. Clone as a Boon was a bit more limited. First of all, every Clone I had would reduce the maximum amount of Mentum my soul could store, since a bit of my consciousness would need to be stored in each of them to prevent them from degrading. Additionally, I won''t be able to animate them since, again, my consciousness would be stored inside, meaning they''d technically already be animated, even if they weren''t active. The third limitation was obvious, but important nonetheless. Every Clone I made would require the same energy investment as the body I was currently using. That meant that stronger bodies required more of my maximum Mentum to hold them together. In the case of simple Antigo bodies like this one, I wouldn¡¯t need very much, since these were basically just large corpses with an abnormally high Necrosis content. For the fleshy body I¡¯d been using before, though, I would need a lot more. Not only was the energy density much higher than that of a normal body, but there were multiple energy types that needed to be held together in harmony. They were mostly tamed by the Mentum used in the creation of the body, but there would need to be some upkeep. I grabbed Clone and started experimenting right away. First, I left the Antigo body that I¡¯d been piloting to get a look at my Phylactery, and then I started work on Reconstituting myself a body. I was somewhat familiar with the process by now, and Delinear Sight let me basically treat it like a paint-by-number game, so it didn¡¯t take too long for the undead form of my old body to stand before me. I was sucked into it right away, which I now knew wasn¡¯t just a weird quirk of the Boon, but was rather the body pulling my consciousness into it so that it wouldn¡¯t ¡°dustify¡± like it did when I returned to my Phylactery. Before moving on, I waited for my energy to refill, noting how much faster it was with Mentum Generator. Next, I started working with the new Clone Boon, and felt a bit of my being flow forwards, coalescing into a rough shape inside the Delinear Sight schematic of myself. Finally, a body started to form around it, impeccably replicating my own. I repeated the process once more, then felt around at my Mentum pool, feeling that it was, indeed, a noticeable amount smaller than before. Luckily, it seemed that my Mentum Generator included those lopped-off bits of my soul as a part of my energy total, since it was working a little bit faster than before. The next thing I wanted to try out was my Sympathetic Bonding. Forming a new bond between them, I found that the Spatium-Necrosis mix that the Clones held was fighting me. With a bit of Mentum expenditure, I was able to convince the energy to accept the bond and meld it into themselves. The bond that was forming was thicker than before, and the knot that I had to make was awfully chunky, but it got the job done. Once my work was complete, I dissolved my current body and zipped into one of the Clones. I could immediately sense that the bond was slightly weaker than the ones that the Twinscales had, but I also felt stronger, tougher, and just overall better. It even felt like my energy density had increased, but I knew that wasn¡¯t true. It was more like there were two of me overlaid in one spot. It might have felt like there was more energy, but my energy efficiency wouldn¡¯t go up, since there was also more matter. Binding my Clones together like this was an interesting concept, and would certainly make me powerful, but I would need to make sure that not all of them were bound together. While having the toughness of 5 of myself would be awesome, if I faced something that could kill me anyways, I¡¯d want to return to a body as quickly as possible. With this in mind, I created an extra Clone for good measure and turned my attention to the next thing on my list. I was finally going to work on Spatium Manipulation, and I wouldn¡¯t stop until I¡¯d reached its peak and ascended to level 5. Well, I wouldn¡¯t unless I was in danger or Azrael needed me to do something for her. Or if I thought of a good theme for floors 9 to 16, or a good boss monster for floor 8. Ooh, I also had that one Gila Hulk¨C oh, nevermind, he¡¯s dead. Just gonna clean that up real quick... Well, I still had that wolf corpse. Ugh, I¡¯m getting sidetracked. Should I work on all of this stuff first, to get it off my mind, or try to focus just on grinding? Actually, better idea, I¡¯ll compromise. I¡¯ll let myself work on another project every time I level the Skill. That¡¯ll let me get over the mental fatigue from using the Skill. Speaking of¡­ Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 3 Phylactery 5 (Max) Necrosis Manipulation 5 (Max) Domain of Undeath 5 (Max) Spatium Manipulation 3 Calling 5 (Max) Enhancements: Willpower x2, Available Enhancement (Reinforcement, Willpower) Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon Honestly? It had kinda been a long time coming. Stitching and Folding were way behind in terms of levels, of course, but I used Delinear Sight constantly. It had become a part of my daily life, looking around and knowing the exact weights and sizes of everything in my surroundings, even seeing the threads of reality within them if I looked close enough. Knowing that I''d leveled up myself as well, I snatched up an additional Willpower Enhancement, but held off on adding any named creatures to my list, since I''d most likely want to use that for a boss in the future. In terms of the actual Boons on offer, they were once again some of the most complex and hard to understand things I¡¯d seen out of any of my Skills. By now, I had a bit more experience with the way this Skill worked, so I could understand things that fell under Stitching a little bit better. It seemed that all of the Boons that this Skill offered were things that I could probably do on my own with a lot of hard work and creativity, but it cut out all the dangerous trial and error I¡¯d need to get a working ability out of the process. Notions would pretty much allow me to make my own threads of reality. I already kinda did something like that when I used Folding to make wormholes, but these ones would be much more real, able to interact and carry mass like normal strands. I would be able to increase the density of reality in an area in a manner other than simply strengthening the threads that were already in place with Mentum, which meant that I''d actually be able to, in a way, create mass. Splitting was also cool. It would let me take an object and put it in two places at the same time. For example, I could decide that a rock was not just in the place that it was at the time, but also five feet away. When I canceled the ability, I would be able to decide which reality was true, thus teleporting the object. The main drawback of the Boon, other than the high energy cost, was that the object would be extremely vulnerable while split, like the opposite of my Sympathetic Bonding, since it would be a single object exposed to force from two locations. And no, I would not be able to bond the object to itself, since it was still one thing. Stolen novel; please report. Splitting would be immediately cool, but I could already teleport things, even if it would take a bit longer and be less combat-friendly. Notions, on the other hand, would be a completely new addition to my abilities. I took that one and immediately tried it out, making use of the information-high that always came with picking up new Boons from this Skill. This one was actually pretty obvious to use, even without the clarity from the Boon. All I needed to do was mentally stitch a thread of Spatium between the weft and warp that Delinear Sight clearly showed to me, then reinforce it with a stable coating of Mentum. In a way, it was like the inverse of creating bonds, where I would create it primarily with mental energy and reinforce it with Spatium. I continued to thread the strand I was creating through the ones that were already present, folding it over itself again and again. When I''d layered it so thick and tight that it looked almost like a square, I stopped to look at it. As expected, it was stable, and I reached to tap it with my hand. There was some very, very slight resistance, but I hadn''t managed to make an actual physical object. Doing so would require much more Spatium than this attempt, and I would also need to apply an "identity" to my Mentum, which would also prove difficult, since much of my focus was focused on the threading itself. Anyways, since I''d gotten a level increase, I could do something else, right? Abusing my own rules is so fun, I can see why my players always loved it so much. Maybe I should have given them better items and thrown tarrasques at them a little less. ¡­Naaah, they deserved it. The thing that was most immediately bothering me was the lack of a boss on the 8th floor. I did have a couple of ideas, but I didn''t know which one would work the best. 2 Twinscales in a trenchcoat was probably out, but what about a giant man-lizard? Ooh, I could give him super regeneration and a cool backstory. Maybe he''s a mad scientist who lost his arm in the war and¨C wait, nope, that''s The Lizard from Spiderman. Super regeneration was a pretty good idea, though. Maybe I could give him my Necrotic Restoration Boon? I could also try to make a land dragon. It would make sense with the landscape, especially if I could incorporate stone, gold, and gems into its body. Ohh, that was a good idea. Then, the final reward for the floor could be its hoard, and I could hide the exit to the next floor at the end of its den. The idea was good enough for me, so I Created a bunch of Twinscales bodies, though they weren''t really Twinscales since they were unlinked. I then tore their bodies apart, making sure the scales and bones were separated based on the locations they''d come from. After that, I started constructing a rough design with my Delinear Sight, making sure that the dragon I was imagining would look brutal and deadly. It needed to be large enough to fit my entire body in its maw, of course, and to crush me flat in a single stomp. In the end, my schematic was over 16 feet tall, a good height for a boss monster such as this. The first step to making my schematic into reality was to bleach the scales and "melt" the bones into the sizes and shapes I was after. Once that was done, I started arranging them together like puzzle pieces, inserting tendons in the required locations. Necrosis would help make up for some of my mistakes, but the more efficient I could make the initial design, the stronger the final creature would be. Luckily, I only need to place bones, muscles, and skin. If I''d had to worry about organs, I probably would have failed at this completely. Eventually, the skeleton was complete, and I started folding muscles into its frame until I felt that it looked tough, muscular, and proud enough. Its head was somewhere between cobra and lion, and its upper body was heavily muscled, making it look like a professional bodybuilder. Its legs were closer to those of a big cat, though, and its tail was ellipsoid to the point where it was nearly flat, like it had been caught in a hydraulic press. In other words, it was pretty close to dragon-shaped. Time to see if that holds up once I''ve put the scales on. I pulled out sheet upon sheet of the translucent-white scales, wrapping them around the body of my new beast, then layering more until I ran out and the creation looked like a mummy. I took a moment to smooth out the creases and more evenly distribute the scales, then looked it over again. It was missing something, I just knew it. Ahhh, right, eyeballs. Ooh, actually, spines first. I drew over more bone and attached plates to the land dragon''s spine, each one at least the size of my torso. Alright, now eyes, then I could decorate to make it fit in better with the floor. I didn''t want to use normal eyes, but I also didn''t want this boss to have the weird compound eyes that the Caerbalopes had. My first idea was to just leave the eyes empty, but when I gouged out an Antigo''s eyes to see if that would work it completely lost its vision. My next idea was much more successful. My Wisps were basically just balls of energy but could see anyways, so maybe I could get them to act as eyeballs? With that idea in mind, I formed a pair of Wisps but didn¡¯t Animate them, so they remained inert. I slotted them into the eye sockets of my current creation, hoping that would be enough. Even if it didn¡¯t, and my creature was completely blind, it would still look epic as schnizz. The next step I took was to Transmute the spines across my dragon¡¯s back into gold. Transmute didn¡¯t work on living creatures, sure, but this thing wasn¡¯t alive and never had been. Currently, it was matter constructed out of pure energy, and it was sorta organic, but not enough for anything other than a slight resistance from the Boon. I also Transmuted just the edges of its scales into stone, just enough to give them a gray hue and increase their durability somewhat, but not to make them inflexible. I admired my creature for a moment, but then paused. It was still missing something. I hadn¡¯t incorporated rubies or emeralds into the design, and it didn¡¯t have any horns, either, which I felt was a must. I pulled a bit of stone towards myself with Mold Terrain, shaping it into a sphere of the correct size and then Transmuting it into ruby. The gem that formed was impeccably pure, and I slotted it into the right eye socket of my beast before repeating the process with the left one. The inert Wisps were easily coaxed into the gems, pure energy as they were, and soon my creation seemed to be glaring down at me with its solid red eyes. Still, no horns though. Then I recalled that my Antigos had some pretty gnarly antlers, and called several up to this top floor before canceling their Animation. I Shaped the parts I was after out of their heads, then combined them all into one, the bone-like structures acting like putty in my metaphorical hands. Soon, I had some antlers with accurate proportions for my land dragon. A few more things were missing, though. First of all, I wanted my boss monster to have some boss-monstery powers. Since it was a land-bound dragon that lived in the mountains, I felt that it would just be proper for it to have Mold Terrain and Transmute, and Delinear Sight too, just to help it use those abilities even better. I also knew that I wanted it to have Necrotic Restoration, or at least have some Wisps attached to it to heal it continually. The biggest issue there was that I didn¡¯t know how to give a creature more than one Boon through Construct Consciousness. None of my creations thus far had managed it, nor had they been all that intelligent. I needed to fix that for this guy. He needed to be able to use all of those different abilities, fight with intelligence rather than simple primal savagery, and speak too, if I could manage it. The reason I couldn¡¯t use Construct Consciousness to make actually sapient creatures was that they were just too simple. I couldn¡¯t cram enough information into the rudimentary soul I was crafting to manage it. The size of this creature might help, but what else made up a good soul? I suppose I could categorize it as depth and energy. Depth seemed to come with age in most creatures, and it was something like experience and knowledge. Energy was obvious, but I knew that I wouldn¡¯t just be able to cram power into this problem. If I didn¡¯t have one, I couldn¡¯t have the other. If no energy was produced or expended, then I couldn¡¯t teach the soul anything, but if I wasn¡¯t teaching it enough, then it would simply lose the energy. It was a bit of a conundrum, especially considering that my control over the consciousness decreased as it grew, and once I stopped actively forming the conscience, my power over it was effectively limited to basic communication and control. If depth was the issue, and I wasn¡¯t happy to just wait a hundred years, then I¡¯d have to teach the Consciousness everything I knew, while ensuring that enough energy was passed through to continue developing the soul. With that logic, I could simply bind myself to him for an extended period of time and slowly feed him all the information I needed. I got cozy in my throne, getting ready for the long haul. Then, instead of simply Animating the creature itself, I created and Animated a new Wisp, then began the process of Constructing its Consciousness. For hours, perhaps even days, a constant stream of information flowed between myself and my new creation, and it slowly grew brighter and brighter, its light becoming less ethereal and fake, and instead more like fire. I taught it everything I thought it would need to know, primarily focusing on Undead Possession, Glyphic, Necrotic Restoration, Mold Terrain, Transmute, Mental Shield, and Delinear Sight. It felt less like a direct transfer of energy and more like a conversation, though. The more it learned, the more it responded, making new connections as its intelligence grew by leaps and bounds. It understood that I was its creator, its purpose, and its location. It had questions, so many questions, like a child that had just realized that something outside of itself existed, but I knew that our time was limited, so I focused on what it would need to know straight away. Eventually, the energy was abruptly cut off, and I was made aware that I¡¯d managed to power through my Mentum Generator. I got a killer headache, but managed to stay within my body this time around, likely due to a mix between the reinforcement provided by my Sympathetic Bond with the other Clone and Mentum Generator still putting up a valiant effort to restore my energy. With my head still pounding, I watched as the confused Wisp, which was no longer quite so little, drifted aimlessly for a moment, then zipped towards the body it had been made to inhabit. Blue and purple light seemed to flicker beneath the skin of the dragon, and its ruby eyes and emerald antlers began to glow brighter and brighter, but then it faded as the body grew still. Concerned, I checked the body and Wisp within over, snorting when I found that they were both somehow asleep. I guess learning that much all at once was too much for a little guy like him. I got to thinking while waiting for my energy to recover and casting Necrotic Restoration on myself to heal any damage my prior drain might have caused. ¡°Hmm,¡± I muttered aloud, ¡°A name. He¡¯s an undead land dragon that lives close to the Earth, with metal along his back, rubies for eyes, and emerald antlers. He¡¯s also basically got earthbending. Hmm, undead, like skeletons, except bones from the earth would be fossils. Fossils are¡­ Me¡¯uban. That alone isn¡¯t quite right though. He¡¯s a dragon, and there¡¯s gold¡­ Dragon in other languages¡­ Drakon, Ormr, Long¡­ Drache? Drachme¡¯Uban? Oh, and drachma is ancient Greek currency, which makes sense as long as nobody knows its silver, and I should be the only person in this world who has even heard the word until now. I shall henceforth refer to you as Drachma¡¯Uban, or Uban for short.¡± Chapter 15: The Underpinnings of Reality The name was accepted by my Phylactery, so I left Uban to his slumber. I figured that I could just make a new body for him downstairs and have him move into it when he was done napping. My break from grinding was over, so now I had to figure out this Notions thing. The first thing I wanted to learn more about with the Boon was its ability to create more matter, and have that matter be locked in place. With that in mind, I sent out a long stream of Spatium into the air in front of me, looping it into position between the other strands and then locking it into place with Mentum. I focused as hard as I could on making limestone, and concentrated on everything I knew about it. What was limestone? My Omniscience could answer that question right away. It was a compound primarily made of calcite and dolomite, and contained a strong affinity for earth magic. Calcite on its own would be considered a limestone, though, and that was what I was after here. Each compound particle would be comprised of one element of calcium, one of carbon, and three elements of oxygen, meaning that its denotation on Earth would have been CaCO?. It had a density of 2.71 grams per cubic centimeter, and a melting point of 1,517¡æ. Even after dumping all of the knowledge from Omniscience into the thread, I could tell that it wouldn¡¯t be enough. It was quickly losing its identity, and would soon fade into nothing. Instead of taking a purely scientific approach, I tried something else, and started sending thoughts of strength, roughness, and solidity, of something ancient, from before the time of men, durable enough to stand as a living testament to the changes that had been wrought on the world around it. I sent images of erosion marks, showing how even the ravages of time struggled to harm this limestone. This time, my thoughts were accepted, and I felt something click into place. When I opened my eyes, there was a solid panel of limestone hovering before me. Curious, I pressed against, and found that it was firm. Yet, when I pressed harder, it cracked and shattered, then dissolved into energy once more. That attempt had been a good start, but this time I was sure to make a cube rather than a square. It took a lot longer, and cost exponentially more energy, since I wasn¡¯t just weaving in one direction, but rather needed to loop back around on myself again and again. I was about halfway through my energy pool by the time I was done, which was shocking considering my shiny new Mentum Generator Boon was constantly at work refueling me. I probably wouldn¡¯t have even gotten close to completing this project before leveling into it, especially considering that was a full specialization level ago. Still, when I was done and had confirmed the identity of my threads, a solid, immovable cube of limestone was hovering nearby. Well, immovable was a bit of an exaggeration. It was more springy than motionless. Pulling it away from its location would pull on the original threads of reality it was bound to, which would then want to return to their original location, bringing the block of stone with them. Putting enough force on the cube would tear the threads it was made of, hence the destruction of the previous square. This would be very useful for making floating objects to put into my next floors, but I needed to focus on learning how to actually use the Boon first. I spread some influence from my Domain of Undeath over it, trying to reshape it. I''d only watched this carefully with my Delinear Sight a couple of times, but this time the result was far more plain to me than ever before. Altering matter with my Delinear Sight actually reshaped space, and I saw as some parts of the stone shrunk while others grew. That was apparently the limit of what I could do, though, as my attempt to split the stone into two parts was met by its destruction. I pondered over why that happened, and eventually decided that it had to be because the object was directly bound to a certain part of space, the same reason it hovered in the first place. Typically, matter was another layer on top of space, with both affecting each other but not being each other, but with Notions I made matter within space. The matter was, in a way, a part of space itself, and space was much more static than typical matter. It would tighten in the presence of matter, creating gravitational pull, but it wouldn''t hold onto the matter, allowing it to freely pass by. My Notions could not do that. They were inextricably bound to the spot they were made in, but in return, they were half again as spatially dense as a normal version of themselves, since they had an extra string through them. The normal warp and weft didn''t particularly care about the Notions, but they did tighten around them, since the stone had a physical presence in addition to its spatial one. Next up was a more difficult question: How would I use this? The most obvious answer would be to incorporate it into my next floors, but I didn¡¯t know how I could do that without making things ridiculously complicated for my Wisps to work on and for my mobs to travel. It could be good for traps? Actually, that was a good one. I spent some time replacing bits of the floor with flat Notion plates, just beneath the dirt. For increased deadliness, I also put spikes in hollows beneath them, turning them into hidden spike traps. Clever people with the right kinds of magic senses might be able to spot them, but anyone who stepped directly on one might find themselves falling into a pit of spikes. Since I had my mind on it, I also told my Wisps to start building a den for Uban on the 8th floor, making sure they knew that it would be the centerpoint of the entire floor. That actually gave me another idea of what to do with the Notions. I didn¡¯t love having incredibly long stairways on every floor. They would always be in predictable locations, and I could never move them. Furthermore, it would give adventurers who came in here a break, thus allowing them to recover their supplies, Mentum, and awareness. We couldn¡¯t have that, now could we? Empowering Omnipresence with my Delinear Sight to view the space that made up two flat planes on my first and second floors, I slowly cut squares out of the threads of reality, bringing them together with Spatium. It was actually kinda like creating bonds, except I was only lengthening something that was already there, and there were far more of them than most creatures would normally have. As the two planes of threads I¡¯d pulled away from each other snapped together, I bound them in place with my Notions Boon, but the identity I sent was simply one of my intentions: I wanted these Notions to hold these two planes together until I dismissed them. Slowly, the strands began to form, and the Folded reality was held in place¡­ for a couple seconds. Then, the Notions broke, and reality snapped back into place, and I was left with a feeling of disappointment. Well, at least the buzzing sensation from my Phylactery helped ameliorate that condition. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 4 Phylactery 5 (Max) Necrosis Manipulation 5 (Max) Domain of Undeath 5 (Max) Spatium Manipulation 4 Calling 5 (Max) Enhancements: Willpower x3, Available Enhancement (Reinforcement, Willpower) Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma''Uban Just¡­ wow. I guess using multiple Boons at once was just the best way to level Stitching? Folding hadn¡¯t leveled in ages, mostly due to my underutilization of it, but Notions was brand new. Maybe it was just a fairly simple Boon, and there wasn¡¯t much to learn about with it? That actually made sense to me. It seemed like an ability that had more to do with creativity than knowledge. I could be a master at forming the threads, but it had more to do with what I used them for than anything else. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The Willpower Enhancement was the obvious choice for me. As a ForeverDM, I didn¡¯t get the chance to participate in many games as an actual player, but when I did, it was minmax all the way. Diversification works well in parties that have fewer people, but it¡¯s best to have one person of each type, all of whom are really good at what they do. At that point, all you need to do is ensure that they¡¯re all constantly available for whatever you need them to do. For example, everyone should carry healing potions just in case the party healer goes down. I might grab some Reinforcement someday, but to be honest, Willpower was already increasing the strength of the bodies I made. In terms of the available Boons, Notching was like putting a pin in space, and Zipper was like creating a resealable rift in it. At first, I felt a bit underwhelmed by Notching, since it seemed so similar to Notions, but then I realized that it had other implications. Notions created an object that was mostly static, but Notching would pin an already existing object in space. In addition, it was useful for exactly what I¡¯d just been trying to do. It could pin more than just objects; it could pin any construct with sufficient Spatium in place, including the strands I used for Folding and Notions. In addition, the things I pinned in place with Notching wouldn¡¯t have the springiness of my Notions, and wouldn¡¯t break the moment they were overpowered. Instead, they would simply be freed. Zipper was just about what it sounded like. It would make a seam in space, one where you held control. While its initial construction would take a lot of energy, it would remain in place and you would only need to spend energy on it again when you closed it. The Zipper would be a location in space that was more malleable to your touch. More specifically, you could make the reality inside of it stop existing. It was an advanced application of spatial magic, one where you would mask the threads through a mixture of intent and something like a pseudo-domain. Anything inside the Zipper would just stop existing, making it a powerful weapon. My Spatium Manipulation wasn''t exactly geared towards fighting, but I could fix that with this one Boon. Laying a bunch of Zippers around this top floor would make it into a death trap for any attackers, which was great since I was currently lacking direct offensive options. Zipper was amazing, but I had another thought just before I locked it in. I currently had no idea how I was going to get idiots to come to my tower, but portals could be a good way to handle it. My portals wouldn''t be able to last without something holding them in place, and Notions wasn''t going to cut it. Furthermore, Notching was less rigid than Zipper. While Zipper would provide me with awesome traps, they wouldn''t do much else. Notchings, on the other hand, seemed to be as versatile as I could think of. It was a mix between an Immovable Object spell and a Permanency spell, both of which could be incredibly powerful in the right hands. It was close, but I took Notching instead. It might have been the wrong call, but I didn''t think so. In the end, this would prove to be a more versatile choice, and I felt that its effects would prove even more useful to me later on. In the meantime, it was time to make some portals. I used Folding to once again bring together two roughly-rectangular planes of reality, forming a portal between the two spots between my first floor and second floor. I latched a Notch to one corner of the portal and watched in fascination as it formed. It was actually kinda similar to the Notions, but these Notches were points rather than strands. Furthermore, it seemed that they were entirely disconnected from the typical weave that Stitching influenced my Delinear Sight to show me. As I connected the portal to the Notches, it too became slightly disconnected from standard reality, and moved separately from other threads. Releasing my hold on the magic, I was excited to see that it stayed in place, and quickly went about removing all of my stairs and placing portals that would take people from the most dangerous section of one floor to the easiest section of the next. Well, theoretically. I wasn¡¯t going to warn my mobs to specifically avoid the area, but I did tell the more intelligent to ignore the disturbance, just in case any of them got curious. This process actually took quite a bit of time, considering I needed to wait for my energy to reach full again each time I created a portal, since it took so much of my power to do so. Most of the portals ended up hidden deep in the stone forests or inside caves, at least on the first few floors. In the case of Drachma¡¯Uban¡¯s floor, I put it at the very back of his lair. Anyone who wanted to reach the next floor would have to beat him, no way around it. They could try to sneak, but just like all other undead, he had Deadsight, and I¡¯d also given him Delinear Sight which further improved that. Rogues who got cocky and thought that they were invisible would be in for a surprise. Speaking of Uban¡­ I slapped the lazy dragon on the nose. ¡°Get up already, you¡¯ve been sleeping for at least a full day.¡± His body flinched backwards as though my slap had actually done some significant damage, and his maw gaped open with a choking sound. There was a loud swallowing sound, and then some coughing, and finally, Uban was in working order again. ¡°Ah, Father, my apologies. Was I snoring?¡± I rolled my eyes at him. ¡°You don¡¯t snore, Uban, and I was just waking you up so you¡¯d go guard the 8th floor and stop lazing about here. If you want to nap, you can at least pretend to be a centuries-old dragon who¡¯s slumbering atop his hoard.¡± Uban looked at his own body, then at the stairs, then back at me. ¡±How am I meant to fit down there?¡± I facepalmed. ¡°Uban, you¡¯re piloting that body. You aren¡¯t actually the body.¡± His mouth hung open once again, and I decided to just spare myself the awkwardness and started opening a portal. It was the largest I¡¯d ever tried to make, but I managed to handle it with the help of Mentum Generator. I then pointed at it and made a shooing gesture, and he reluctantly stepped through the portal, which I let close behind him. I¡¯d talk with him later, but to me it felt like I¡¯d just had a conversation that lasted for multiple days, during which I''d needed to teach him every single thing about speaking, the topics of the conversation, and so on. I¡¯d basically raised a child in a couple days, and I was kinda tired of it. He would need a little while to get used to knowing things and having a body anyways. I fed a little trickle of Necrosis into him to make sure he knew I wasn¡¯t angry or anything, then got back to replacing all of the stairs with portals. I got a buzz at about the 55th floor, but I ignored it until I reached the top. Azrael had been sitting on top of the tower for a really long time, just staring off into nothing and kicking her feet out, and my best guess was that she was really deep in thought, perhaps about her old life. I decided not to bother forming that portal yet, so as not to spook her. In fact, I might actually just not put one up there at all, since I only really kept the passageway up there open when Azrael was getting some air. Anyways, I gazed into my Phylactery to check on the upgrade I¡¯d gotten. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 5 (Max, Specialization Available) Phylactery 5 (Max) Necrosis Manipulation 5 (Max) Domain of Undeath 5 (Max) Spatium Manipulation 5 (Max) Calling 5 (Max) Enhancements: Willpower x4, Available Enhancement (Reinforcement, Willpower) Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma''Uban It sorta felt like this upgrade had come much quicker than the ones before it, but that was probably just because I¡¯d done fewer things between them. Notchings had been pretty simple to figure out once I¡¯d gotten the hang of it, and my Folding Boon had always been underleveled and underutilized. Once it had gotten some love, it shot up in levels. The same was true for my Stitching Boon, which was basically just a conglomeration of all the different ways I could use the threads of space that it showed to me. Seaming and Moulding were both capstones, the peaks of their tiers. From that alone, it was pretty obvious which one I was going to take, but I looked at Moulding anyways. This Boon was from a completely different discipline of spatial magic, one that I had no experience with, so my mind actually shivered a bit from the influx of information. Moulding was pretty similar to Mold Terrain, which made sense. The part about it that was different was that it worked on space as a whole, rather than just ground, and it didn¡¯t particularly care about the conservation of matter. The world would extend and contract according to the will of the caster, in the same way that had been advertised by the original Banding Boon. Nothing would be outside my control, and I would be able to manipulate space like clay, hence the name of the Boon. Still, after just a single glance, I immediately took Seaming. In stitching terms, to seam is merely to sew two things together. In other words, it''s basic sewing. In Stitching terms, Seaming is the opposite of basic. In fact, it''s the pinnacle. The cloth of reality was all one solid thing, so how could you seam another thing onto it? Well, to be honest, it was kinda simple. You¡¯d tie another reality to it. Chapter 16: Occams Roulette First thing¡¯s first, I grabbed the Willpower Enhancement. Once again, it just made more sense than Reinforcement, even if it did feel like I was minmaxing. After that, I started surveying my floors. Of course, the first 8 were the only ones that had been finished so far, but the others would be important for this as well. I should explain a little better. Seaming was basically just a Demiplane spell, where you''d tie another, smaller reality of your own creation to another location. Well, in the case of Demiplane, it was linked to you specifically, and you could open it anywhere, but here it was mostly static. However, I could extend it as much as I liked, meaning that it could theoretically become its own full reality. Of course, I wouldn''t be able to do that quite yet. Instead, I started using the Boon on my 63rd floor to get an idea of how it was used, and my energy was rapidly drained as the Seam started to form. I quickly put a Notch in it to save my progress, then cut off the energy flow just before I ran out. Inspecting my work, I found that a new set of identical strings were overlaying reality around the portal in the center of the room, where I''d started the Seaming. They were in the same place, yet¡­ different. Was this what looking at things that were fourth dimensional would look like? I was looking at two things that shared their X, Y, and Z coordinates, but were separated on an axis that I simply couldn''t see. Since it was my power that had created it, I had an innate link to the Seaming, and I looked in on it through that. It didn''t take long to realize what had gone wrong. The layer of reality that I''d been crafting had been exactly copying what I formed it over, and that included the portal. I¡¯d basically been trying to simultaneously form a ton of strings in a similar way as how I did with Notions and form a portal, but I hadn¡¯t been tying the other side of the portal in, and it literally couldn¡¯t be formed since there was already a portal there, so tons of Spatium had been drained to try and force the issue. In other words, I¡¯d need to be pretty careful about what I copied into a Seam. I could only imagine what would happen if I accidentally started to copy hundreds of creatures. Would it drain Necrosis out of me until I made up for the deficit? Anyways, the portal had closed on its own when I stopped feeding it energy, since it hadn¡¯t been able to complete and I hadn¡¯t attached any Notches directly to it. The rest of the Seam was still around, though, so I started again after letting my energy recover a bit. I focused on extending the plane as far as I could, and Spatium was drawn away from me to stretch the Seam, eventually surpassing the rather significant size of the room. Next, I extended it upwards and downwards. I called for all of my mobs to step out for a little while, then finished off the last couple floors. I left my top floor uncopied, since I didn¡¯t want to have to move my Phylactery and also didn¡¯t really see much of a reason. With Stitching, I tugged a bit on the threads of standard reality, and grinned when I saw that the Seam¡¯s cords moved separately. With just a slight bit of effort, I formed portals on each of my floors that would lead to the other side. It was ridiculously easy, since the places I was connecting were literally on top of each other. I directed all of my mobs to enter the rifts, then let the spells collapse behind them. Suddenly, hundreds of my mobs were inside my spatial domain, separated from base reality. I felt a bit of strain coming from the threads, so I added in some more Notches for additional stability. To make absolutely sure that it wasn¡¯t going to break, I took the time to slowly thread some immaterial Notions to the place. They would simply act as additional threads, taking on a bit of the strain of the others and holding everything together. Calling up the details of the new Boon once more, I tested a theory I had, and utter glee filled me when I saw that I could put more than one Seam in the same spot. I could make multiple realities that stacked on top of each other. In other words, I¡¯d just made my dungeon instanced. Just as I started stretching that new Seam, however, Azrael charged down the stairs at top speed. ¡°Ambrosethey¡¯recomingweneedtogetready,¡± she said, her body¨Cincluding her mouth¨Cstill moving at top speed. I stopped, taking a moment to process what she¡¯d actually said. ¡°Who? Wait¨C¡± ¡°Humans! An army of them!¡± She cut me off. ¡°The Watchers found us!¡± Looking over my floors, I found that they were not prepared. While the Antigos might be able to ward off most threats, that felt so¡­ underwhelming. It wasn¡¯t artistic enough for me. I wanted the mortals to be willing to come back here. I had some of that in the form of the treasure apples and a unique theme for the first 8 floors, but if everything after the 8th floor was just blank stone filled with a single enemy type, nobody would ever go past that point unless they wanted to kill me. ¡°What are they doing?¡± I asked slowly, trying to grasp at loose thoughts to pull them into a single solution. ¡°Or, rather, what would they normally do in a situation like this?¡± Azrael thought for a moment, then responded, ¡°They¡¯ll probably set up a camp and throw a particularly strong group at us. If that fails, they¡¯ll try to send a bunch of people in to look for a way to counter you.¡± I nodded. ¡°That works for me.¡± Then I turned my attention back to my floors, deciding to put off the additional Seam for now. Maybe I could¨C ¡°Ambrose!¡± Azrael cried out, ¡°What are we going to do? Should we close everything off, tear down the stairs so they can¡¯t get up here?¡± My raised hand didn¡¯t seem to placate her much, so I sighed and let her in on my plans. ¡°I already removed the stairs. They¡¯ll have to go through portals to get to the top.¡± Her eyes widened as she saw the portal in the room, having apparently not noticed yet. ¡°As for completely closing everything down, I doubt that would stop them. This way, we have Occam¡¯s Razor on our side. ¡°They¡¯ll most likely attempt to go through the dungeon to reach us. That, or they¡¯ll try to knock us over with magic. I¡¯m going to make sure they can¡¯t do that, and then I¡¯m going to make sure that we¡¯re as safe and defended as possible. Could you please go keep an eye on them? Let me know if they change what they¡¯re doing, okay?¡± She hesitated, but then nodded swiftly, running back up the stairs. I alerted Drachma¡¯Uban to the fact that he might need to devour some foes sooner than we¡¯d previously expected, and he seemed a bit nervous, but there was something else, too. Excitement, maybe? Did he perhaps want to test himself against some worthy opponents? Or was I just making things up because I wanted to imagine my dragon as a noble beast from legend? It was probably that last one. Anyways, I managed to get him into a portal to the copy of his lair. I also finally finished Stitching up that area of the Seam. I¡¯d needed to apply a ton of Notches around it since the lazy guy hadn¡¯t moved in the slightest, just lazing about on the floor. I quickly removed all the portals that led from floor to floor, replacing them all with portals that would lead into the Seam. From there, I made more portals that would lead from one Seam to the next room in the actual dungeon, and eventually managed to make a twisty sort of stairway in paths. Connecting one place to its copy in the Seam was easy as pie, but going much further than that was actually rather difficult. Still, I managed to tie everything together nicely. After that, I completely wiped the first eight floors clean, resetting them back to blank stone. Then I started hunting through my Domain, looking at every sort of material within it, paying attention to only one thing: durability. Eventually, I found something with the properties I wanted and immediately started Transmuting the outer layer of my tower into it, plating it in the solid metal. The energy strain was almost shocking for just Transmuting something like this, and I investigated the material while slowing down somewhat. This appeared to be a sort of metal that was originally something called wolframite, but had been infused with a ridiculous amount of Necrosis, almost as if thousands of creatures had died on top of it. Oh, wait, that¡¯s probably exactly what happened, what with how the Dead Belt had gained its notoriety. Anyways, it was called Conflict Tungsten, and the Necrosis inside of it was incredibly hostile, even to me, hence the rapid energy loss. That was perfect for my purposes, though, since volatile Necrosis like this tended to consume other magics. I was less scared of physical attacks than I was of magic, since I understood it much less. Luckily, this would work against both. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. As I explained earlier to Azrael, in terms I now knew she probably hadn¡¯t understood, the mortals would likely take the most direct route to killing us, and I just would just have to accept that bet. There was no way I¡¯d be able to mount a significant enough defense in such a short amount of time without weakening my defenses and without spooking the humans. They were sure to have books, items, and materials, and I wanted all of it. Forcing them to retreat would mean losing out. I had to make sure that the simplest way to kill me was by going through the dungeon, and not sending meteors or some other nasty siege spells down on top of it. With that in mind, I also formed a sloped roof on top of my tower, made entirely of Conflict Tungsten. Sure, it was unlikely that they had the exact spell I¡¯d randomly thought up, but better safe than sorry. I Molded the stone beneath my feet to bring me upwards, creating a hole in what had previously been the roof of the dungeon. On arrival, I turned to Azrael. ¡°What do you see?¡± I demanded. Honestly, I had no idea how she was seeing further out than my Domain had spread, but she had, and thank goodness for that. Azrael squinted out of the embrasures of the roof¡¯s battlements, and shook her head. ¡°They slowed down. I think they¡¯re coming up on your Domain, though. They¡¯ll probably stop just outside of it and set up camp, then send in a raid party to try to destroy this place in one go.¡± Schnitzel. ¡°Alright, keep me updated. Come and find me when they¡¯ve set up camp, or when you see someone approaching.¡± She nodded, and I dropped back through the floor. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s see what I can do.¡± I turned my attention to my Phylactery, pulling up the singular unresolved prompt, trying to find some path to salvation. Please select a Specialization Advancement. Spatial Archlich (Death+, Space) Archlich of Space (Space+, Death) Ancient Seeker (Forbidden Knowledge) Death¡¯s Custodian (Phantom) Caretaker of Slumber (Burial) Debt Collector (Death Pact) Bearer of Nothingness (Abyss) Witness of Azathoth (Eldritch) Ergh. I just didn¡¯t know enough right now! My Skills would all get reset to 0 if I advanced, and I would lose so many of my abilities and important Boons. I couldn¡¯t right now. Pulling myself away from the options, I turned back to my tower. Currently, it was made up of a bunch of different types of stone, some stronger and some weaker. I needed to fix that, else it might become a liability. I got to work replacing the entire thing with quartz, which was one of the stronger types of stone I had available to me. It also looked really good, but that was just a side-benefit. I additionally reinforced it with beams of that Conflict Tungsten, embedding them solidly inside it. As I was about to move on to trying to rapidly design a second floor type, Azrael rushed down the stairs with news. ¡°They¡¯re setting up camp just outside where your influence spreads. At least, I think so, I don¡¯t know exactly how far it goes, and¨C ¡± ¡°Which direction?¡± I asked, cutting her off. The humans might not be making hostile movements yet, but I doubted that would hold true for long. She pointed at one of the walls, and I sent my Omnipresence out to the edge of my Domain. Sure enough, not even a half mile out there was a camp of humans. They were scurrying around like mad, calling out orders. One man in particular stood out, mostly because he was staring straight at me. Weird. The creep raised a hand, throwing out an orb of energy in my direction. It felt familiar, and I cut out the connection to that location when it was clear it was targeting me. That had been the same type of energy that the tracking bindings had been made of. In other words, it was most likely some Soothen Skill. If he¡¯d gotten me with that, what would it have been able to do? Probably more than just track me a little better. It was a good thing he hadn¡¯t. I got back to replacing my walls and floors with tougher materials, then looked at floors 9 through 16, or rather, the equivalent floors of my Seam, where the monsters were actually held. The real floors of my tower were more like rest stops at this point. I needed to build some stuff up to make a second area, and fast, but I didn¡¯t know how much time I had or what theme I would even use. Eventually, I just pulled a ton of stone into the area and threw some Mold Terrain Wisps at the task, turning my own attention to the only untouched corpse within my dungeon. Calling activated, and soon another wolf corpse joined the first. I kept culling more and more, then pulled them together, trying to make an alternative version of a creature I¡¯d seen in a movie once. Teeth flew and extended, flesh warped, organs melted, and energy streamed, all in an attempt to make a new kind of monster. The scientist in me had been turned mad by the stressors that had basically parked themselves right outside my front door, and he was completely ignoring all the typical, orderly practices that I would normally force myself to use. Typically, I¡¯d lay all of the materials I¡¯d be using out, and make sure I was careful with all of it to create the best creature I could. This time, I didn¡¯t care. I needed a new monster, and I needed it yesterday. Eventually, my Nailwolf was complete, and I stepped away to admire it amongst the gore that was flung across the room when it shook like a¡­ Well, like a dog. It didn¡¯t have fur, nor did it show any skin. Instead, this beast was covered in sharp, elongated claws. Its own paws looked like they held a set of knives, and its teeth had been shaped into something much more needle-like. As for its size, it was only about twice the size of a normal wolf, with the exception of the head, where I¡¯d only made it about half again its normal size. This made it look exceedingly disproportionate, which was simultaneously comical and terrifying, as it made it look like an especially feral dog that had hit the gym every day of its life. Of course, it was also covered in needles, so that was fun. I considered adding it to my list of Named Creatures, but decided against it, since I wanted to keep those slots mostly for bosses and shock troops from now on. The Arachnomicons and Caerbalopes on there went a bit against that, though, and I briefly considered just removing them, but I didn¡¯t want to remove the knowledge of how to make them from my brain quite yet. Sure, it wouldn¡¯t be too hard to just remake them, but I just didn¡¯t have the time yet. Right then, Azrael came rushing down the stairs. Snickerdoodles. ¡°Some people just left the camp, Ambrose,¡± she warned, ¡°One of them has golden wings.¡± I stared at her. ¡°Is that meant to be impressive?¡± Honestly, I could probably make myself wings if I wanted, but it was pointless and inefficient when I could just move the floor below me with Mold Terrain and literally carry myself wherever I wanted to go. I mean, I¡¯d still have contact with the ground, but it was probably faster than normal flight. She sighed and kneaded her forehead with her palms. ¡°Ambrose, Clerics that only have their first specialization don¡¯t get flight Skills.¡± ¡°Ah, got it. But wasn¡¯t it pretty obvious that we were going to be solidly outclassed from the very start?¡± I¡¯d sorta expected that they¡¯d throw people above our own personal strength level at us. I mean, how else were they going to get past my mighty Drachma¡¯Uban? ¡­He¡¯s sleeping again. Wake up, you lazy dragon! ¡°Ambrose, I¡¯m not sure you fully understand. You know how we both have 5 Skills each?¡± When I nodded, she continued, ¡°Well, humans are a little different. They get actual Classes, whereas we just get Class Specializations. Our races are already considered Classes in and of themselves. ¡°Humans don¡¯t start with all the Skills that we have, meaning that they¡¯re weaker at the start, but level more quickly. However, they get a Skill every single level, regardless of how many they already have. That means that they slow down in levels faster, but the ones who are strong¡­¡± She looked at the wall, and I knew she was imagining how powerful those people might be. I just waved a hand at her, as if to brush away her concerns. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, they¡¯re just puny mortals. Uban¡¯s been pretty bored anyways.¡± Azrael squinted at me, then jabbed a finger in my face. ¡°Okay, first of all, you shouldn¡¯t underestimate them. They¡¯ve wiped some huge threats off the face of the continent, and you are weaker than the lowest-level person in that party. Second, who¡¯s Uban?¡± Oh, right. They¡¯d never been introduced. I sent a mental nudge to Uban, then Folded open reality, creating a rift to his location. ¡°Meet Drachma¡¯Uban. As you can tell, he¡¯s a pretty chonky boi.¡± She stumbled back in shock, falling on her rump. Uban, on the other hand, poked his snoot into the portal, letting out a low grumble that scared Azrael even more. ¡°Hello, friend of Father¡¯s. It is good to meet you, though I must admit that Father¡¯s memories were sufficient for me to understand who you are. I apologize for putting you at a disadvantage.¡± Azrael was still completely shocked, but I squinted at the land dragon. He was talking much more eloquently than when he¡¯d first woken up, almost like he was trying to impress her¡­ Hmm. ¡°Alright Azrael, this is Uban, he¡¯s the only monster on the 8th floor, though I¡¯m sure you can understand why that is,¡± I explained, happy to explain boss monsters to her for the first time. ¡°I¡¯ll put something extra scary on every 8th floor like that. You understand my confidence now, right?¡± She nodded slowly, still in awe. ¡°Yeah¡­ yeah.¡± She looked up at me. ¡°Is he¡­ a dragon?¡± I nodded proudly. ¡°He sure is! I mean, maybe he can¡¯t fly, and doesn¡¯t have a breath weapon, but I think he¡¯s tanky enough to make up for it. Those scales of his have stone in them, and his muscles are hard enough that trying to cut him would probably just create sparks.¡± ¡°He¡¯s, ah,¡± she stammered, ¡°Very impressive, but not quite right.¡± I frowned at her. I mean, sure, he didn¡¯t look exactly like a dragon from popular games and movies, but how would she know that? ¡°What, are you some kind of dragon expert now?¡± She shook her head. ¡°No, no, it¡¯s just¡­ Pretty hard to forget what one looks like when you¡¯ve seen it in person.¡± Huh. Azrael had encountered a dragon? Interesting. Too bad we didn¡¯t have time to talk about it, what with the people walking into my dungeon. Well, one was flying, but tomayto tomahto, y¡¯know? ¡°Whelp, action time, people!¡± I closed the portal to Uban just as he retracted his snout. ¡°First dungeon run, take two!¡± Esheth 1: The Sage and The Fool The mental apparition faded into the darkness, and Esheth clicked his tongue in disappointment. He¡¯d hoped to bind it to the spot and call in some Mentum and Karma experts to shred its mind into bits and pieces, claiming all of the answers he sought for himself. Alas, it seemed that he would have to continue working with the country bumpkins who ran this¡­ work camp. He should have never signed up for this venture, but the rewards had been oh-so-tempting. Phylactery shards? Not only that, but fresh ones? His experiments would jump forward by leaps and bounds, and he may even discover the secrets to his own immortality. Who could pass up a deal like that? Still, working with these idiots was tedious. They kept on insisting that they set up closer to that ominous spire in the distance. Fools. Just because there was a structure in the area, that didn¡¯t automatically mean that this area¡¯s threats were confined within it. No, it was far more likely that the dark tower was merely a distraction, a way to pull them away from the task at hand. Yet, frustratingly, his magic was simply devoured by the death energies of the monster¡¯s Domain Skill, preventing him from getting a lock on the true nature of this place. A messenger sprinted up to him, panting and holding out a letter. ¡°Venerable Mage, hahh¡­¡± The man took a deep breath before composing himself and finishing his sentence, ¡°Commander Galias demands your presence in the war room.¡± Esheth took the note with no small amount of disdain, scoffing at what he read. ¡°War room? What war room? I only see tents.¡± Furthermore, this brutish lout thought he could order him, nay, command him, Esheth the Wise, Seer of the Aeons, to do anything? And for what? Because he¡¯d been born as the scion of a noble house? Because he was blessed by Shamsum with a powerful affinity for the Light? He was a boy, and not only that, he was a weak, powerless boy who had been handed all the power he held on a silver platter, never taught how to actually use it. With every new generation that passed him by, Esheth realized fewer and fewer people understood the true meaning of power. It came in many shapes and forms, money, connections, personal might, yes, yes, but a bare minority grasped that those who flaunted it brought just as much danger upon their own heads as those they aimed it at. Power was a thing many would¨Cand had¨Cdied for. Money could be stolen. Political rivals could be assassinated or outmaneuvered. Even personal might, the purest and simplest form of power, could be harvested, as the Base Mentum of a creature¡¯s experiences would be siphoned away from them and into their environment¨Cand their killer¨Cupon death. Nonetheless, Esheth would have to abide the minor slights the ignoramus and his band of hooligans carelessly tossed his way, at least for the time being. His revenge could come some other time, when the potential of his own immortality wasn¡¯t on the line. Esheth¡¯s spark of life faded by the day, and his progression had stalled. He valued his life over his pride, and this was the only way forward for him. He could simply ruin the remainder of the boy¡¯s life when he was done here. Following a strand of Soothen, Esheth soon pushed his way into a tent, glaring around at the rowdy scene within. The lordling and his gang were drinking an amber fluid¨Crum, from the smell of it¨Cand laughing raucously at some joke or tale one of them had told, likely boasting of one of their conquests; whether woman or beast, the Soothsayer didn¡¯t care to find out. ¡°You wished to speak with me?¡± He ground out, suppressing his pride. ¡°Hah, oh Eshh¨C¡± the noble scion belched, and the seer barely managed to prevent a sneer from crossing his face¨C¡°Esheth, yo-you¡¯re¨Chic!¨Che-here! Care for a dr-drink?¡± The young man waved a mug in the air, nearly dropping it. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°No, Young Master,¡± Esheth said in a tone that very nearly failed to hide the scorn filling his heart. Well, this idiot probably wouldn¡¯t have noticed it in his current state, but it was better to be safe than sorry. ¡°I am here to discuss tactics, as per your letter.¡± ¡°Ooh!¡± The spoiled brat¡¯s eyes lit up with sudden recollection. ¡°The boys and I are going into the tow¨C duh¨C tar¡­¡± His eyes glazed over again, too far into his stupor to finish his sentence. Had it been anyone else acting like this, Esheth would have assumed that they¡¯d been poisoned, but in the case of young Astaliar Galias III, such was relegated to flights of whimsy. Not only was the youth¡¯s body so heavily Reinforced that typical poisons would barely affect him at all, but he was also a powerful Paladin of the Light, capable of cleansing his entire body in a bare instant. The only reason the alcohol was affecting Astaliar at all was that it had been brewed by top alchemists using the best techniques and ingredients, keeping his specific constitution in mind. In other words, the worth of the materials and effort used to create the liquid in his mug alone would be enough for a common family to live comfortably for a decade. Instead, it was being used to get a spoiled brat more drunk than anyone should ever be. ¡°My liege,¡± Esheth ground out through gritted teeth, ¡°I believe I advised directly against this course of action. We require more information, sire, and should hardly be sending¨C¡± the handle of the Galias¡¯ heir¡¯s mug shattered in his hand, cutting the Soothsayer¡¯s words off. ¡°Listen, oldie.¡± Astaliar grew noticeably more sober, waving what was left of his mug at the scholar. ¡°I think that you¨C¡± He cut himself to take a pull of the magical alcohol-substitute. He belched, wiped at his mouth, stared blankly at Esheth¡¯s chest for a moment, then remembered what he was saying, anger sparking in his gaze. ¡°You don¡¯t know¨Chic¨Cwho I am! I am in ch-charge here, not you! My friends and I are going to go have some fun, and then we all get what we want and can go home.¡± He burped again, ruining the clarity of his final sentence. I¡¯m going to kill you if that Lich can¡¯t, I swear on it. ¡°Yes, sire.¡± I am going to keep you alive for as long as possible so you can watch me send each of your organs to different dimensions. ¡°You¡¯re sure you don¡¯t want a drink?¡± The young man¡¯s red face twisted into a grin that was somewhere between goofy and contemptuous. ¡°Yes, I am indeed.¡± Esheth excused himself from the tent. As he was walking away, he heard Astaliar¡¯s voice one last time, calling for his attendant just outside the tent. ¡°Send in one of the girls, Cassius!¡± Esheth turned and saw one of the frightened ¡°auxiliary units¡± being forced into the tent, and cursed the Galias¡¯ blood for producing a reprobate such as this one. Astaliar had insisted on the presence of these girls, and while their families had been given decent compensation, they also hadn¡¯t been given a choice. Furthermore, the young women had been treated less like people and more like animals, forced into carts that looked more like jail cells than transportation devices and fed only the bare minimum. On more than one occasion, Esheth had heard screams coming from that tent, and he¡¯d witnessed many of the girls who exited get rushed straight to the infirmary, which was already greatly understaffed, since Astaliar had insisted that they wouldn¡¯t be needed. This was why he chose to restrict his own powers. Locking his wrath deep within his heart, Esheth began planning. He had many titles, earned over a long, long life of politics, warcraft, and research. The most common were, of course, the most recent, as society had a short memory. Esheth the Wise, for his efforts in modern academic studies. Centuries¡¯ Sage, a reference to his long life and wealth of knowledge concerning magic. However, there were quite a few that the common people had forgotten. He, however, would never forget his own sins. He was no longer Eskrav the Bloodsayer, but there would always be a part of him that recalled the violence of his youth. A part that craved it. A long-forgotten, long-suppressed cruelty had awoken within his heart, now, and the Flame-Warden once more became the Flame-Warrior. Astaliar Galias would fall. Chapter 17: Take Two The party that had entered my dungeon consisted of five people, an absolutely ripped archer in leathers with a wicked scar across his face, a swordsman of some kind who wore full plate armor, one who looked to be either a mage or a healer, one who was definitely a mage, and the winged guy, who was apparently named Astaliar. He was also the leader of the group, and everyone treated him with deference. He led them into the first portal with a smirk on his face, utterly confident even when entering hostile territory. I¡¯d have to teach this idiot a lesson. The first time they encountered a Twinscale, they¡¯d thought they were separate creatures. The swordsman rushed in and tried to finish it in one solid blow to the back, but he¡¯d been expecting it to have the durability of a normal beast. My mob was much tougher than that. It barely took any damage at all from that first attack. Both bodies of the Twinscale had pounced as one. One used its immense bite force to shred through one of his greaves and yank him to the floor, injecting poison, while the other started to bite at his helmet, which was apparently made of much sterner stuff. An arrow, enhanced with some sort of karma magic, pierced through the skull of the body that was failing to get at the swordsman¡¯s head, and my Twinscale went down. That did mean that there wasn¡¯t a huge lizard chewing on the swordsman, but it didn¡¯t help with the poison coursing through his veins. As the man screamed in rage and pain, Astaliar pointed at him¡­ and laughed! The others joined in, though halfheartedly, and even the swordsman was trying to force a grin through what must have been sheer agony. Were they seriously sucking up to this piece of meatloaf? Was this guy some big shot out there? If so, does that mean he¡¯d have more loot? Well now I¡¯ve definitely gotta kill him! Not just for the stuff, I swear! It¡¯s, uh, because he¡¯s an awful person, yeah! The healer rushed to the swordsman¡¯s side the first moment he could, and the energies of Light and Life flowed between them, purifying and healing the warrior back to fighting shape. I glared at the healer¨CDamon, according to the grateful swordsman, who was referred to in turn as Chetz. It looked like healers were broken here, just like in games. I¡¯d need to get rid of him. Sadly, the party grew more careful after that first encounter. The only opportunity I got to try and off that healer was when he stepped into a spike trap and I¡¯d been able to get three Twinscales to attack. Four bodies went after the remaining fighters, while two attacked the healer. What followed was a heated battle, and I started to feel a bit of hope spark within me, but eventually the lazy leader pulled out his own sword, which began to blaze with holy fire. Unsurprisingly, it was a combination of Lux and Ignix, Light and Fire. My undead melted like butter from the mere proximity of that power; his blade didn¡¯t even touch the Twinscale¡¯s flesh before it had destabilized back into energy. Suffice it to say, that attack failed pretty quickly. After that, the party leader had scolded the ranger, who was named Keshet, and they''d gotten callouts for the rest of the traps, easily avoiding them from that point forward. Within just a half hour, they¡¯d found their way to the portal to the next floor, and immediately entered the next portal. I started to panic just a bit. Before, I¡¯d been confident that Uban would be able to handle anything thrown at him, but by this point, my concerns were growing. My flightless dragon had yet to be tested in battle, and while he was much tougher than the Twinscales, I didn¡¯t know how he¡¯d hold up to that lightsaber of an ability. Still keeping the majority of my attention on the adventurers, I started summoning Nailwolves on the 9th floor, not even bothering to look over the place the Wisps had set up for them. It just didn¡¯t matter right now. Each wolf was taking more time and energy than I would have liked, but I could only pray that it would be worthwhile. Sure, there were the Antigos, and I¡¯d previously only been worried about using them because I didn¡¯t want to be seen by those who traversed my depths as uncreative or unfair. Now, I just wanted them dead. Still, while they were fast and tough, I knew they wouldn¡¯t be able to stand up to that sun blade either. With the exception of Uban, my Twinscales had been the toughest creatures at my disposal. However, with the unique property I¡¯d decided to give to the Nailwolves at the last minute, they might be able to even the playing field at least a little. I would simply have to hope. The party reached the next floor, and seemed to barely slow down at all. They continued slashing, shooting, and blasting things to death like clockwork. I¡¯d come to realize that every member of the party had the Lux element, not just Astaliar and Damon. They didn¡¯t use it in all of their attacks, but as they started to face larger groups of mobs, they also started taking more damage. This forced them to pull out the big guns. ¡°No, nono, dodge that!¡± I shook my head in annoyance. The mage in the party, Esanan, used both Light and Wind energies, and he kept throwing out what looked like steam, something that would normally hardly affect the undead, but was melting them like butter. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Azrael questioned with a creased brow, brought to worry by my stressed tone. I shook my head at her. ¡°It¡¯s just¡­ I didn¡¯t expect them to throw a full party of Light users in here! How¡¯s that meant to be fair?!¡± Her expression softened. ¡°Oh, Ambrose, you poor, innocent dummy.¡± She patted me on the shoulder with a strained smile. ¡°It¡¯s not.¡± ¡°What?¡± Confusion overtook me, then realization dawned on me. These people didn¡¯t care about having balanced or fun character builds. They were minmaxers and metagamers, one and all. They were awful players. I glared down at the party with my Omnipresence once more. As a Dungeon Master, I had learned how to balance encounters. It really wasn¡¯t that hard. If the players were making things hard for me, then I would just make things so hard for them that the party could barely survive. Of course, those people had all been my friends, so I¡¯d always pulled my punches at the last minute. These people were not my friends. They were my enemies. They were here to slaughter my creations, conquer my tower, kill me, and crush my Phylactery into bits. And who knew what they¡¯d do to Azrael? I could only imagine that they¡¯d torture or experiment on her, that is, if they didn¡¯t just kill her right away. Since these mortals weren¡¯t going to play fair, neither would I. Portals started to open in the air of my second floor, and all of my creatures flooded the place as one.
¡°C¡¯mon boys!¡± Astaliar cackled, carving his glowing blade through yet another of the huge lizards. ¡°To fame and glory!¡± Just then, something changed. The room seemed to darken, even with their shared ability to see through the normal occlusion that a lack of light would create. The beasts they were fighting backed off as one, in even greater lockstep than their normal creepily twinned motions. The sweat under Chetz¡¯s armor seemed to freeze, and his breath grew halting. He could feel it; death was approaching. He raised his sword defensively, looking all around himself and preparing to mount a defense. He didn¡¯t notice the shadow forming above him until it was too late.
¡°Ch-Chetz?¡± Esanan stumbled backwards in shock. It had happened so fast. One moment, his friend was standing steadfast, prepared to defend the backline. Then there was a screeching of metal, and his friend was gone. A presence slowly formed in front of Esanan, and the raw amount of energy he felt flowing off of the beast was the first sign that he was well and truly screwed unless Astaliar came to his rescue. Then he realized that there wasn¡¯t only one of these creatures; there were at least a dozen of them in the area. At that moment, he accepted his fate. He looked at where Damon, his brother in all but blood, had stood only moments before, and found that he was nowhere in sight. In all his wildest fantasies, Esanan had never expected to feel so happy to be betrayed by his best friend. Tears filled his eyes, and a trembling smile replaced his fearful expression. ¡°Good luck, brother.¡± His body was shredded to pieces.
Damon ran, his shame dripping down his cheeks. He wanted to return, to help his friend, to push back the threats, but everything in him told him to run. And so, like the coward he was, he fled. As distracted by his fear as he was, he tripped and got his foot stuck in one of those collapsing-ground-spike traps. It pierced his foot, and he cried out. Tenderly, he pulled it out with a squelching sound, then knelt to heal it. It seemed that fate was on his side today. Just as he bent over to tend to his injury, a tall, emaciated, humanoid creature with antlers and huge claws leapt through the space above him, crashing instead into one of the stone trees. He quickly healed his foot and kept running, this time being much more careful with his footing. Somehow, miraculously, he made it all the way back to the place they¡¯d entered from, and looked about in dismay. The portal was simply gone, replaced by a stone outcropping. Panting, he leaned against the rock, pressing against it in the hopes that he¡¯d find a way through. The stone was rough, and seemed to follow some consistent yet ever-changing pattern, as though it was a form of living art. It almost felt organic, like it had been petrified rather than carved. He heard a smashing sound come from behind, and turned in horror, thinking the beasts had caught up with him. Yet, instead of those lupine monstrosities, he saw that a square plate of scrap metal had somehow fallen to the floor. He looked for the source of the object, thinking that a monster had perhaps managed to catch up with him, but he found nothing. He didn¡¯t even notice the huge maw that consumed him until its many, many teeth had broken his back and shredded his skin to bits. Oh, he thought to himself, a strange amount of clarity pulsing through him even through the immense pain. That wasn¡¯t a statue, was it? This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Astaliar stood with Keshet to his back, the remainder of their party having died or fled within seconds of the swarm arriving. What had gone wrong? It had all seemed so easy. Too easy. Perhaps¡­ had that old man been right? The scion of House Galias gritted his teeth, refusing to admit defeat. He stood valiant, slashing his opponents to bits while Keshet shot down any that approached from his end. They would make it through this, and tales would be told of their valor! At least, that was what he thought before he felt it. Danger was approaching, he could sense it. This wasn¡¯t simple fear; no, this was the dread of a man who was about to die. He gripped the pendant around his neck, looking at Keshet for one last time. ¡°Should you make it out of here, I shall hold the greatest banquet in decades to celebrate your return.¡± The shocked look on the archer¡¯s face was priceless as he crushed the amulet. Spatial magic suffused his body, and he felt himself being whisked away. Then Keshet¡¯s body crumpled, as though he had been crushed by the hand of an invisible giant, or perhaps a wrathful god. Something in the Spatium of the air shifted, and Astaliar screamed in agony as the force barely grazed his right side. In the next moment, he was gone.
I swallowed. Hard. I didn¡¯t mind the killing itself, but something in the way it happened had felt¡­ twisted. They¡¯d had no chance. No way out. Well, other than that Astaliar figure, but I somewhat doubted he would be a member of the living for very long, and even if was, he wouldn¡¯t be a functional member for a long, long time. My Nailwolves¡¯ upgrades had proved effective, it seemed. Even since the creation of Uban, I¡¯d had an untested theory with my Construct Consciousness Boon. So far, I¡¯d only ever put full Boons into them, but what if I just put a part of one in there? Would I be able to give them more information in a shorter period of time? Perhaps even a part of the base Skills that were required to use some of the Boons? The answer seemed to be yes. On their own, the Nailwolves¡¯ minor Spatium Manipulation was weak, but when there were many of them together, they could manage things that not even Seif himself was able to replicate. For example, they could apparently crush a person like a soda can. The process of making them this way had really been pretty simple, in the grand scheme of things. All he¡¯d needed to do was slowly teach them how to use the most basic aspects of his Skill, and they¡¯d figured out how to use it as a weapon all on their own. His personal favorite wasn¡¯t actually the crushing attack, though that was extremely powerful, but rather that one stabbing attack a few of them had targeted the mage with. It sorta fit them, and he resolved to teach future Nailwolves that specific ability, rather than a small discipline of the magic, in order to cut down on their creation time and costs. Recalling that I wasn¡¯t the only one whose life had depended on the results of this fight, I turned to Azrael with a thin smile. ¡°It¡¯s done,¡± I said simply. She looked at me, but for some reason, she didn¡¯t seem any less worried.
Astaliar crashed face-down into his cot, crushing it flat in an instant. The thing had been made of high-quality materials, enchanted to feel as soft and supportive as a normal bed. It would be difficult¨Cand expensive¨Cto replace, and he would have to spend the remainder of this trip without the amenity. He didn¡¯t care about any of that right now, though. The pain was simply too great. His screams echoed through the camp, and healers rushed to him, bursting into his tent and trying to help him up. He shoved them away, even throwing one of them through the side of his tent. The fabric tore, but the sound was drowned out by the young man¡¯s anguish. Eventually, a sufficiently powerful healer got their hands on him, and soothed his pain, gradually healing what they could. Still panting from the horrific experience, Astaliar slowly sat up from his position on the ground. The crowd collectively gasped, and the noble scion glared at them, his body trembling uncontrollably. ¡°Why are you looking at me like that?¡± His gaze cut through them, and not a one dared return it. ¡°What is it?!¡± Only one man dared step out of the crowd. It was Esheth. Part of Astaliar wanted to curse him. The other part wanted to beg his forgiveness. Esheth, the compassionate soul he was, outstretched an arm towards Astaliar. The boy had always seen Esheth¡¯s empathy a weakness, but now he understood. In this moment, where none dared to do so much as look at him, Esheth was there to help him¨Cto save him. And the noble had never needed help so desperately as he did in this moment. Esheth showed him a kind smile. ¡°It looks like you could use a hand, young master.¡± Astaliar reached out to accept his aid, then looked down at his arm and screamed.
¡°Are you sure you¡¯re okay, Ambrose?¡± Azzy looked at me with concern. I shrugged, trying to make my smile look more genuine. ¡°Of course, Az. We¡¯re safe, and that¡¯s all that really matters, right?¡± She kept staring me down, and I looked away, unable to face her intense gaze. Her hand brushed my shoulder. ¡°You know what I really admire about you, Ambrose?¡± I didn¡¯t respond. ¡°You keep going on and on about all these things you want to do. I know we don¡¯t really talk too much, and you act like it¡¯s all for your own gain, but I can tell that you¡¯re making this place for more than just yourself. More than just me, too.¡± She sighed with a slight smirk. ¡°You care. You want this place to be cool and fun and interesting, not only for you and me but for people, human people you¡¯ve never even met. You want it to be completely unique¨Cunlike anything else. Most of all, you want it to be fair.¡± Hearing the word like that made me feel like something inside me was twisting. For some stupid reason, even though I didn¡¯t care that the men had died, just thinking of how hopeless their situation was felt like a suckerpunch to the gut. I should be feeling happy, proud of how my legions had crushed the powerful foes in barely a minute. Instead, I felt divided. Part of me was angry that I¡¯d broken my own rules. Part of me was angry at them for forcing my hand. Part of me felt like they would hate me, which was just so nonsensical. They were dead, for heaven¡¯s sake! Then again, dying had never stopped players from yelling at me, so maybe it was just natural that I felt this way? ¡°So, that¡¯s how I know that you don¡¯t feel too great right now. Also, your face is very easy to read.¡± I just nodded, acknowledging that she was right. She just stayed there, and I eventually realized that she wasn¡¯t going to leave until I started talking. ¡°Uh, yeah, you¡¯re right,¡± I said awkwardly. Her eyebrows raised. ¡°That¡¯s all? You don¡¯t want to talk about it?¡± I cringed. How was I meant to tell her that I felt like I¡¯d just made a bunch of dead people mad at me by being unfair, when I was really just protecting myself? How could I explain that I¡¯d been in situations like this before, except instead of killing people, I¡¯d lost friends, and now this was just bringing back bad memories. Since becoming a lich, everything had felt a little more numb, but I supposed that didn¡¯t apply retroactively. All those little memories of people walking out on me because I¡¯d done something wrong, because I hadn¡¯t been perfectly fair, they all felt just the same. Well, no. Sometimes it was because I had been fair. Too fair. I calmed a bit at this thought. It wasn¡¯t my fault that all that stuff had happened. All I could do was move on and make sure it would never happen again. My eyes locked on the Phylactery at the center of the room, and a thought formulated in my mind. ¡°Hey, Azrael, do you know if the levels of my Boons matter when I upgrade my specialization?¡± Her eyes widened, having been caught off guard by the surprisingly normal question. ¡°Uhm, uhhh,¡± she stammered, ¡°I don¡¯t exactly know, sorry, but I¡¯ve heard that people, even with the same specializations, sometimes end up with completely different Skills. I was never able to confirm anything, but I thought it had something to do with the Boons they used the most. I¡¯m sorry I don¡¯t know more.¡± I gently punched her shoulder, and she frowned at me, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± I clarified, ¡°It¡¯s alright. I¡¯m going to get all of my abilities on par with where I think they should be, and then I¡¯m going to specialize.¡± She stared blankly for a moment, then gaped. ¡°You¡¯re already level 5?!¡± I shrugged in response. ¡°I basically spend all of my time using and experimenting with my Skills. What did you think I did in here all day?¡± ¡°I guess that makes sense,¡± she admitted, ¡°You¡¯ve been constantly training up your Boons, simply by making this place. So, what do you think you¡¯re going to pick?¡± Considering, I pulled up my status, then all of my options. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 5 (Max, Specialization Available) Phylactery 5 (Max) Necrosis Manipulation 5 (Max) Domain of Undeath 5 (Max) Spatium Manipulation 5 (Max) Calling 5 (Max) Enhancements: Willpower x5 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma¡¯Uban Please select a Specialization Advancement. Spatial Archlich (Death+, Space) Archlich of Space (Space+, Death) Ancient Seeker (Forbidden Knowledge) Death¡¯s Custodian (Phantom) Caretaker of Slumber (Burial) Debt Collector (Death Pact) Bearer of Nothingness (Abyss) Witness of Azathoth (Eldritch) ¡°Well,¡± I considered aloud, ¡°I¡¯m pretty confident that I¡¯ll be upgrading to one of the combinations, rather than focusing more on something I¡¯m already doing. Most of them seem pretty good, but I think the ones that would help me least are Phantom, Death Pact, and Abyss. Forbidden Knowledge sounds fun, Burial might be handy, and Eldritch could probably provide me with new options for making creatures.¡± ¡°So, one of those three?¡± ¡°Most likely, but I don¡¯t actually know what they all do¡­ wait.¡± I stopped, looking down at my second floor. It was still swarming with mobs, so I mentally ordered them all to make their way back to their original spots, but more importantly, there were bodies. The corpses weren¡¯t exactly in good shape. One had been shredded to bits by minute spatial tears, another stomped flat by a falling Nailwolf that had been flooding its own body with enough Spatium to treat almost everything else like it simply didn¡¯t exist. Uban had also eaten one of them, and the last was the person I¡¯d been comparing to a soda can before. Still, as I looked closer, I found that they all had spatial storage bags. Surely they had to have some books in there, right? Chapter 18: The Importance of Immortality Yes, there were, indeed, books. Sadly, most of them were ¡°picture books¡± depicting things that were entirely useless to me and I shall speak no more of, and the others were journals. Having read said journals with Omniscience, I concluded that this party didn¡¯t have much in the way of brain cells. Alas, it appeared that I would have to come up with my own solution to figuring out each of the advanced magics, though it was quite interesting to read through that tough archer¡¯s poetry. I¡¯d expected it to be raunchy, but instead he was very¡­ floral. I was going to put that off for now, though. Instead, I was going to grind my Boons again. ¡°Gyah!¡± Uban squealed in a voice that was far too high for him, stumbling forward. ¡°I can see why Lady Azrael declined to submit herself to this degradation.¡± I tugged on my bond to him again, and he fell flat with an Oof! ¡°I think you¡¯re both just big babies. It can¡¯t be that bad.¡± The drake picked himself back up from the ground and glared at me. "While I may have been born a mere few weeks ago, I am not a baby." Once more, the big dragon was brought to the floor by my Call Through Space Boon, and snarled at me. "Were you not my creator, I would bisect you!" "I should hope so. After all, what sort of guard dragon would you be if you just let people waltz in through the front door?¡± He flared his nostrils in frustration. ¡°I must insist that you find another creature to subject to this torment! You have hundreds, so why me?!¡± Hmm. He made a good point, I suppose. I looked down at my earlier floors, targeting a Twinscale pair and using my new Boon on them instead. Their decreased mass and energy density made them much more vulnerable to my tugging. I laughed when I saw the confused lizards ¡°jump¡± into the air. I tried it on the Nailwolves too, but they moved even less than Uban. Their spatial density simply refused to budge, and even if I pulled with all of my might, they would simply block my Spatium from connecting with them through the bond. I¡¯d never experienced anything like it before, but found it quite interesting. I could have commanded them to stop, but they¡¯d taught me something interesting so I decided to leave them alone. The Antigos, though, were fair game. The Boon also worked on physical objects. That made sense, since the base Calling Skill did as well, but I¡¯d just never had Boons to let me use their connections. Well, actually, now that I knew how the mechanics of the Skill actually worked, I could probably Call just about anything I wanted to me as long as I had an adequate bond. Still, it was fun to watch things fly around the room as if thrown by poltergeists. Something else that was interesting about the Boon is that it didn¡¯t particularly care about who was being pulled where, only that the distance the bond had to stretch was shortened. Targeting objects with greater spatial density than myself would cause me to be the one who was sent flying. I was a little like Spider Man, except I was dead, couldn¡¯t cling to walls, didn¡¯t have super strength, didn¡¯t have webs, and was using magic. Okay, so nothing like Spider Man, really. It was still cool, though. Eventually, my Phylactery showed that I¡¯d hit level 5 with the Boon, and I decided to move on. It wasn¡¯t a hard ability to use, but I could definitely see why it was a capstone. Most creatures and objects that aren¡¯t the size of buildings would have significantly less spatial density than I, considering that I used Spatium in the creation of my bodies. Speaking of, I needed to level Mental Shield¨Cthough I felt I could wait on that one for now¨CClone, Necrotic Restoration, Notions, Seaming and Sympathetic Bonding. Now, what one method could use as many of those as possible at once? Eventually, I came up with an answer, and dismissed both my clones and my current body. For the shape of this next one, I chose to stick with the design of a bare skeleton. It was a bit nostalgic, considering that I hadn¡¯t taken such a form since leaving the cave I¡¯d originally been¡­ Summoned to? Spawned in? Whatever. It had been a while, and it felt like I was returning to my roots. Using Seaming, I created another layer of reality, but instead of covering the whole tower with it, I focused on just this top floor. Eventually, it was finished, and I got to work on the second part of my plan. First, I tried to slowly, painstakingly move my Phylactery through a portal and into that Seam, but I found that my Domain started to weaken the moment that it passed through, so I quickly brought it back and strengthened my foundations. Even then, however, a bit of influence close to the camp of mortals was lost, as they seemed to have some Domain of their own. I inspected it, and was outraged to find that this aura was not only preventing my Spread Undeath Boon from functioning properly, but it was also weakening the natural Death in the air, meaning that they could have normal people in the Dead Belt. With every day that passed, my urge to slaughter these people grew stronger, but I withheld myself. Fairness was important to me, and the last dungeon raid had already proven that going against that value of mine would suck. Even if I was undead, I had once been a mortal, and I suppose that there¡¯s some sort of phantom pain thing going on, except with morality instead. Maybe this is why all those rituals to make people into liches in games were so awful? Sacrificing 100 infants for your own immortality would most certainly kill off any virtue left inside of you. That did say something about me, though, since I was completely fine with just killing people. Then again, perhaps that was simply because I was an undead now? Azrael felt like a person to me, and I didn¡¯t want her to die, but humans? Meh. Anyways, back to my evil plan to net me dozens of Boon levels in a single go. Not being able to get my Phylactery into the Seam did suck a little, but it was fine. I¡¯d already come up with another idea to mix that Boon into what I was about to do. First off, I needed a body. I concentrated on my energies, and started to form a skeleton at a pace I knew my Mentum Generator could keep up with. Once Necrosis, Spatium, and Mentum had all been blended together properly and compacted, I was shunted out of my Phylactery and into the body. Immediately, I started using Clone, and a copy of this body started to take shape. As it was going, though, I started to make a Notion all across it. Ever since I¡¯d gotten Seam, I¡¯d become aware that I didn¡¯t have access to all of the dimensions used for Space magic, and this was my first attempt at putting something on a different axis of reality while still having it in this one. Basically, I was taking what Seaming did and going halfsies on it, putting the threads just far enough from this plane that they wouldn¡¯t be locked into place, but close enough that they could still affect it. Surprisingly, it worked, and I managed to make the body rest on a Notion that spread over it completely, one that was similar to a Seam in that it was separated by some invisible 4th dimension, but dissimilar in that it was also close enough to be attached to the skeleton I was making in this world. It took an extra-long time to form this Clone, since I had to use another Boon at the same time and make sure I didn¡¯t lose control of either, but it was eventually finished. At that point, I locked onto the Notion I had used to give the spare body some size in the fourth dimension, forming a Seam on top of it, making sure that it didn¡¯t replicate the skeleton, but instead formed an empty space. It worked. With a grin on my face, I started the process again, except this time I formed the body inside the Seam of the previous one. Once it was finished, I tried to mimic what the Nailwolves had displayed previously, condensing Spatium into a tiny point in the air and launching it at the Clone. A hole appeared in its body, and the fraction of consciousness that I''d infused into it lost control of the energy, allowing it to disperse. That, in turn, caused a chain reaction of events. The Notion broke, causing the Seam attached to it to unfold. Luckily, it seemed that Seams breaking apart didn¡¯t simply force the objects within to vanish. Instead, the clone that had been stored inside the other Clone popped out, completely fine. I grinned, realizing what this would look like for people. Imagine landing the killing blow on a lich, turning them to dust, but right before you can go hunt down their Phylactery, they simply pop back into existence. They would seem to be immortal, would they not? At least, more immortal than a lich already was. Indestructible? That¡¯s better. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Using the clone in front of me as a base for the next experiment, I made two Seams instead of just one. I then formed a Clone in each, with the same Notion method as before. With one, I created two more Seams, but for the other, I opened a small portal on the ribcage of both of the Clones, just large enough to see a tiny bit of the bone, Notching it to each of the skeletons. Mental energy and Spatium flowed out of me as I used Sympathetic Bonding to link the two Clones. The knot was formed, the casing stripped, and soon, the two would be subject to the same forces. I took out my Notches and closed the portal, and found that the bond remained in place. When I made a minute nick on the Clone that was in this reality, though, the other did not replicate it. After a moment of consideration, I decided that this was because the energies couldn¡¯t pass through to the other side without a portal allowing it to happen. My solution for this was, of course, more experimentation. I had made Folds that allowed physical objects and energy to pass through, but what if I wanted to restrict that, only allowing one of the two? Sadly, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn¡¯t separate the two. It seemed that Earth physics won this one; no matter how hard I tried, I could not separate energy and matter. Energy required matter to exist, and matter required energy to move. With this knowledge, I submitted to my fate and simply opened another tiny Fold inside the ribcages of the two Clones and used a bit of Necrotic Restoration to ensure that they were both in matching conditions. Their connection was reestablished, and I pondered over how I could improve this system even further. Currently, I was extra durable, and if I were somehow destroyed in a single hit, I would simply pop into the same place as my Clone was tossed out of the breaking Seam. What about passive regeneration? Sure, I had a Boon for it, but did I really want to be focusing on healing myself in a combat situation? With that in mind, I created a Wisp with the knowledge of how to use Necrotic Restoration, instructing it to use its semi-intangibility to enter the Clone¡¯s space and heal it whenever it was damaged. It did so, and this new Clone now had double the durability, the ability to rise from its own ashes like a phoenix, and healing-over-time. It was a tank that could ignore small damage that would be quickly healed and it was also immune to one-shots. Actually, I guess it was more accurate to say that I would be. This was actually a great justification for me to act as something of a final boss. I still wanted to play fair, as long as people didn¡¯t come with the intention to actually kill me using unfair means, of course, and this was a good step towards that. I could make minor modifications to the different Clones and set it up as a multi-phase boss fight. Hmm. That sounds pretty fun, but for now I¡¯ll just make myself an unkillable god. I kept stacking more layers onto the Clone chain I had going on. The original Clone had two Seams, each holding one Clone. The first would be bound to the Clone with Sympathetic Bonding and would have a Restoration Wisp alongside it, reinforcing and healing the original Clone. The second would have another Clone with the same specs as the first, two Seams, one attached with Bonding and holding a Restoration Wisp and the other with two Seams. After five links of this chain, I felt my control over the Clones I was making grow tenuous, and the amount of my soul I¡¯d lost was becoming pretty noticeable. I stopped trying to make myself into an invincible killing machine and looked over my Phylactery to check on what improvements I¡¯d made. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 5 (Max, Specialization Available) Phylactery 5 (Max) Necrosis Manipulation 5 (Max) Domain of Undeath 5 (Max) Spatium Manipulation 5 (Max) Calling 5 (Max) Enhancements: Willpower x5 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma¡¯Uban That''s pretty good, but I should check on the situation with the humans before I get completely sucked into my work. I looked out at the human camp with Omnipresence and found that it had gone mostly quiet. In fact, I could only see one person. In an unfortunate turn of events, he could see me, too. "I presume that you are the lich liege of this land?" His voice was old and tired, but firm, as though his words were made of solid steel, unbreakable. When I saw that he was the Soothen user I''d encountered before, I''d intended to leave straight away, but I was intrigued by his words, so I stuck around. "I see that your mental avatar is incapable of speech. That will be fine. I will speak plainly." He took a deep breath before continuing. "You have my thanks for handling the issue of the man-pup. His pride has been thoroughly crushed, and the work required to destroy the remainder of his confidence has significantly diminished. Our caravan will be retreating soon. Regarding this, I have two statements. "First, I will be liberating certain individuals. You may consider them slaves. I would like to request that you keep them safe, but death is preferable to the scion''s current plans for them." His expression was stone-cold as he continued, "Second, I will be returning. I am nearing the end of my life, and I require something you have: Immortality. I am not done with this realm just yet. I tell you this as a warning: Prepare yourself. I believe that everyone should be given a chance to prove that their path in Fate''s grand design is higher than my own. This is yours. "I will give you but a single year. At that time, I will siege your tower." A ball of energy appeared in each of his hands. The first was the same Soothen power as before, whereas the other seemed to burn the magic in the air itself, warping space, air¡­ everything, its influence turning even the threads of reality into smoke. Then, my Omnipresence was forcefully closed, and I was forced to stare at the wall, coming to the horrifying realization that he''d been using two combination energies at the same time. A man who was at least level 25 was right at my doorstep, and would be coming for my head in a year''s time. Is this how Sir Gawain felt when the Green Knight suddenly picked up his head and walked away? I''d felt pretty motivated to work on my own level before, but now there was an actual deadline on my self-empowerment. I had to beat¡­ that, or he''d do¡­ well something to me. I can only assume that his implication of stealing my immortality meant that he intended to kill me. I checked on the spot again with my Omnipresence once I felt I could again, but the man was gone. "Least he could''ve done was leave his name," I grumbled. I went upstairs, where Azrael had returned once it was clear that we were safe. "Hey, you need something?" She greeted me with a smile. "And what''s with the new look?" I shook my head regretfully. "I''m sorry, but could you keep an eye out for when the humans leave? I need to do something once they''re gone." "Huh? How do you know they''re leaving? I haven''t seen a thing." "I checked on their camp a minute ago," I explained, "A¡­ mage, he saw me and, well, he told me some things." One of her eyebrows curved upward. "He saw you? What did he say?" "Well, apparently that guy who teleported out of here was some kind of noble. I guess we scared him off, and now they''re leaving." I scratched my head, then remembered that I''d just shed my regular skin again, and was just clawing at bones that were made of pure energy. "He¨Cthe mage, I mean¨Cis going to be freeing some¡­ well, I think they''re slaves. That''s what he made it sound like, at least." Azrael frowned at me. "And why is that our problem?" "Originally, I thought the same, but look at it this way: if we could set up a town here and make sure that they were indebted to us and frequently fought against the monsters in the tower, we could reduce the chances that any armies that come here would want to kill us. Who''s going to destroy a tower that''s protecting and supplying a weak, feeble populous, right?" "The Church of Shamsum," she started blandly. "Fair point," I admitted, "But it can''t hurt our chances, right?" Azzy thought it over, then acquiesced. "I''ll let you know, then." Chapter 19: Gifts I headed back downstairs and started making another Seam over the entire dungeon, telling it to copy the one that I''d made previously. It did so, and soon I had a second instance to fill with mobs. I left only a single instance for the boss floors, though, since I didn''t want to have two Ubans running around at the same time. Now, the way that this worked was very particular. It wasn''t actually creating matter, and it needed an example to copy. If any of the rocks or trees or whatever left the dungeon, they''d immediately vanish, since they were simply condensed strings that had taken on a certain identity. Actually, gimme a second¡­ I pulled some stone from the nearby mountains and reformed the emerald, ruby, and golden apples that hung from the stone trees as a reward, replacing the fake ones that hung there currently. Anyways, I also needed something to copy, unless I wanted to spend hours forming each little pebble. It was easier to copy an imprint that already existed, because if I had to carefully draw, tighten, and Notch every thread while also applying an identity to it, I''d probably be completely drained of my Mentum before I finished a single floor. By the time the second instance Seam was complete, I was satisfied that my Boon had reached the maximum level, but decided to keep pushing. Eventually, I had five instances, each with a portal of their own on each floor. Well, except every eighth floor, since those all led to just one boss room. At that point, I decided it was good enough, and positioned the portals on the sides and/or middle of the floor, creating hexagonal shapes before and after each boss room, but decagons on all the others. I also made a bunch of exit portals that would dump people outside the tower, deciding to put one after each boss. They were all sealed in by tons of quarts and Conflict Tungsten for now, since I didn''t have anyone coming in here and most of my bosses didn''t exist yet. Once that was done, I cut off my arm. It didn''t hurt, really, and it got better. Necrotic Restoration finally got its 5th level. The last thing to do was¡­ Azrael rushed down the stairs. "It''s just like you said. The camp packed up and left, and now there are a bunch of girls just sitting out there. They look pretty beat up, and I''m not sure how long it''ll be until Necrosis starts eating them up. What are you going to do?" ¡°Wait, what? Girls?¡± ¡°Yup, all women.¡± She turned to squint at me. ¡°Why might that be?¡± I shrugged my skeletal shoulders. ¡°No clue. I¡¯ll start working on defending them now.¡± My Spread Undeath Boon easily overpowered the shivering young womens¡¯ auras, and they became even more frightened. It only grew worse when I started forming walls around them out of quartz, reinforcing it with Conflict Tungsten on the outside. They were so terrified that they didn¡¯t even realize that the Necrosis in the air was thinning to safe levels. Bleh. Ungrateful mortals. ¡°I¡¯m going to go talk to them. Want to come with?¡± I offered Azrael a bony hand, which she took gladly. I took a step towards the edge, then stopped. ¡°Actually, I¡¯m gonna go clean up my appearance. I¡¯ll be right back.¡± She made a surprised squawking sound as my body dissolved into motes of energy and I returned to my Phylactery, resisting the pull of my Clones and recalling my more humanoid design. It would be best to make a good impression on my new subjects. Fear would work, but they would be terrified of me even if I looked more ¡°normal.¡± This way, they¡¯d see me as at least a little more similar to them, making it easier for them to trust me. My body formed quickly due simply to my experience forming it, and soon, I was standing next to Azrael again. ¡°You ready?¡± She nodded vigorously, and I pulled her off the tower with me. I know she could¡¯ve resisted if she¡¯d wanted to, but she didn¡¯t, which displayed a high level of faith in me. Falling was something I hadn¡¯t really experienced in some time. Interestingly, I could probably get in a lot of skydiving now, considering my immortality and easy access to a high ledge, but I didn¡¯t really have time for that anymore, what with the deadline. Also, I didn¡¯t seem to have much of a fear of death anymore, though that could just be the complete lack of adrenaline in my body. Right as we were about to go splat against the ground, I Molded some stone to catch us, moving it in a downwards angle at first. It was rough, but some Necrotic Restoration was able to patch both of us up. I kept shaping the stone beneath us to push us forward, like a magic carpet, except touching the ground. ¡­Alright, fine, it¡¯s nothing at all like a magic carpet. We reached the walls I¡¯d set up around the twenty-odd young women pretty quickly, much to their collective terror. I felt pretty weird at that moment. Part of me wanted to cackle, laugh, and rain destruction down on them, but as I looked down, the more human part of me told me that they needed help and protection. Eventually, the human part won the argument, stating firmly that we¡¯d kill plenty of people anyways. The lich conceded, so long as we terrified them. With a sigh, I started speaking, projecting as loud as I could and stilling the wind with Mold Terrain to ensure that they''d be able to hear me. ¡°Hello, puny mortals!¡± My cheerful announcement caused the quiet whimpers and cries to halt. ¡°I am not here to eat you! In fact, I am here specifically to stop things from eating you. You may have noticed that it¡¯s much easier to breathe? That would be my doing.¡± I bowed sardonically. They were still quivering in fear, and I felt a distinct uptick of the organic waste in my Domain, but I ignored it for now. ¡°In exchange, you must stay here, in my Domain, until I consider you strong enough.¡± As I spoke, I was working on constructing basic huts and a wall encompassing my tower. ¡°You will be provided with living spaces and opportunities to improve your own power. I will¡­¡± I looked at Azrael, then whispered, ¡°Wait, how do we feed them?¡± She just shrugged. ¡°This is your mess; you deal with it.¡± I frowned. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll work out a way to feed you,¡± I finished my statement, then pulled the metal and quartz of one of the walls back into the surrounding earth with Mold Terrain. ¡°If you want to survive the night, I would recommend getting a move on. I will tolerate no straggling.¡± Slowly, and with a bit of coercing in the form of Antigos walking behind them in lockstep, the women started to move toward the city I¡¯d made. One of them tried to break off from the group; an Antigo suddenly appeared behind her and knocked her out cold. The rest were much more amenable to my commands after that. It took about an hour of marching, since the ladies were so slow, but they eventually managed to reach my makeshift city. The entire place, just like my tower, was built out of quartz and reinforced with Conflict Tungsten. I¡¯d stripped the Necrosis out of the air, here, and pulled it all directly into my tower. More was generated, but it was slow and I would just need to pull it back in occasionally. I looked around with my Omnipresence for something that the humans could eat, and right at the edge of my Domain, I found two items: A book, and beneath it, a large crate. I could tell right away that the crate was full of food, enough to keep the girls fed for a few weeks. There was also a note stuck to the top of the book. This supply box is enchanted, and the food within it will be preserved for as long as the magic within is sustained. Take this guide as thanks for taking these young women in. Esheth the Wise. I stared at the note, realizing who it must have been from. How did that jerk know that I¡¯d do what he asked? Oh, right, Soothen. Does he know the future or something? Well, whatever. I wasn¡¯t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I controlled the landscape to pull the items along in the same way I had with myself. The food arrived a few minutes later, and I had it set down right beside my tower, where I snatched the book and the letter off right away before pulling open the crate and gesturing for the ladies to eat. The book was titled A Detailed Guide to the Elements and Specialization Advancement. Right away, I knew that this was a treasure more valuable than any I currently possessed. Instead of reading it, I focused my Omniscience on the novel to extract the information as quickly as possible. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. With Mold Terrain, I pushed Azrael and I up to the top floor of the tower, stepping off and rushing down towards my Phylactery with a gleeful expression. ¡°Ambrose? Are you okay?¡± I waved Azrael¡¯s concern off as I went down the stairs. ¡°Just excited!¡± I skidded to a stop right in front of my gem, staring into the options it had for me. Please select a Specialization Advancement. Spatial Archlich (Death+, Space) Archlich of Space (Space+, Death) Ancient Seeker (Forbidden Knowledge) Death¡¯s Custodian (Phantom) Caretaker of Slumber (Burial) Debt Collector (Death Pact) Bearer of Nothingness (Abyss) Witness of Azathoth (Eldritch) The first two were immediately dismissed. They improved what I could do currently, sure, but I would still have to restart in leveling my Skills anyways. Furthermore, compound elements were, according to everything I¡¯d heard, seen, and now read, utterly overpowered. Ancient Seeker. Forbidden Knowledge, or Forbodum, was a sort of summoning and ritual magic energy. Dark sacrifices, portals to other planes, and many more things were under its purview. The new affinity it drew from was Arcane. All of that was definitely appealing, but I needed to check out the other options first. Death¡¯s Custodian was a Phantom magic specialization. Phantom, or Phantax, was focused on incorporeal creatures and objects. It was an energy that could hold some properties of physical reality, while also ignoring it. I could definitely see the Spatium influence there. As for its composition, it would combine what I currently had with Dark energy, Nyx, which was probably also linked to the lack of care for physical reality. Darkness was a lack of light, and the inside of objects usually didn¡¯t reflect light very well. Caretaker of Slumber would give me Burial magic. It was pretty obvious, but it had Earth affinity in it. The book speculated that Burial was the same type of energy that had formed the Dead Belt, and I was rather inclined to agree. Burial, or Cryptum, would taint areas with undeath. Anything that died within the area would rise and the environment would become toxic to life. The book also mentioned that Burial could form some sort of golems, but the author had only heard rumors of walking graveyards. Death Pact was Necrosis, Spatium, and Karma all rolled into one. It was pretty harshly specialized. Similarly to how my Sympathetic Bond worked, it would link two things together, though this one was one-directional. When the first of them took damage, though, rather than the other also taking that damage immediately via energy transfer, the Nemesis would alter that individual¡¯s immediate fate, causing them to also receive that. It didn¡¯t only apply to health detriments. Any negative thing that the first target experienced would also happen to the other with a similar intensity. It could also handle many more things related to the energies it was formed out of, but it was mostly focused on this idea of forming bonds of revenge, negative feedback loops, and so on. The Bearer of Nothingness'' Abyss added Lethe to my elemental portfolio before combining it all into one. It was just¡­ nothing. It had no physical substance or energy, but was instead the lack of it. Throwing a mortal into the Abyss, for example, would likely instantly kill them. They would lack air, food, water, heat, and everything else. Eventually, they too would become nothing. The Abyss was a place, and using it would be like bringing a bit of that realm into this one. Witness of Azathoth would give me the Eldritch affinity. The book explained how all these advanced magic types were represented by alternate dimensions, places where the energies could be sourced as they were in such high abundance there, and Eldritch was one of the most ancient of these. Eldritch power was sourced from a plane where everything was organic. Dark gods and nigh-omnipotent beings ruled this place, and Eldritch users usually either pulled creatures from there to here, turned things here into the sorts of creatures that lived there, or they made pacts with the deities of that world, gaining insane amounts of power at some sort of cost. They were all good options, but ultimately, I wasn¡¯t focused on my own personal power, but rather the power of my creations. Bearer of Nothingness didn¡¯t do much for my minions, nor did Debt Collector. Maybe there were some creative uses in there, but it wasn¡¯t guaranteed. Caretaker of Slumber would help me make environments like the Dead Belt, but, well, I was already in the Dead Belt. I didn¡¯t see much of a point to that, and honestly, wanton slaughter in a far off place didn¡¯t appeal to me either, so Burial wasn¡¯t for me either. In the end, the two best options for me were Ancient Seeker¡¯s Forbidden Knowledge, making me into a jack of all trades with a focus on ¡°evil¡± magic, and Witness of Azathoth¡¯s Eldritch magic, which would make my minions stronger, but also had the unfortunate consequence of having the potential of forcing me to interact with incomprehensible beings, and could very well be even more evil than Forbidden Knowledge. As for which one I¡¯d actually pick¡­ Well, I was going to finish getting all of my Boons to level 5 before finalizing any decisions. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 5 (Max, Specialization Available) Phylactery 5 (Max) Necrosis Manipulation 5 (Max) Domain of Undeath 5 (Max) Spatium Manipulation 5 (Max) Calling 5 (Max) Enhancements: Willpower x5 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma¡¯Uban The last Boon to level was Mental Shield. To level this one, I would need to be affected by energy attacks. Pretty simple, right? Or, maybe you¡¯re thinking that I have no way to do this, since none of my minions use attacks like that? In the latter case, you¡¯d be forgetting about Azrael. Well, and the Nailwolves, but there was no way I was letting that sort of power near my Phylactery. Azrael¡¯s Lethean effects had to count as energetic influences on my Phylactery. I went upstairs to fetch her. She was gazing down at the little town I¡¯d made for our guests, but noticed me immediately. ¡°Do you need something?¡± Her voice came out a little terse, but I decided to ignore that for now. ¡°Yes, actually. I have a Boon that I need your help leveling. Would you mind?¡± I gestured towards the stairs. She glowered at me momentarily, but led the way downstairs after just a moment. ¡°Alright, what do you need me to do? This had better not have anything to do with that stupid Calling Skill of yours.¡± ¡°No, no, nothing to do with that. Actually, having mentioned that, this might be somewhat therapeutic for you.¡± Her right eyebrow quirked, asking the question for her. ¡°I need you to try and use some sort of energy attack or Skill on me.¡± She looked off to the side, and I could tell that she was considering the Skills and Boons on her legend. ¡°What sort of abilities should I use?¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯d prefer something that doesn¡¯t hurt, if I¡¯m being honest.¡± My qualifier made her smile and nod. ¡°Are you ready?¡± ¡°As much as I¡¯ll ever be,¡± I grumbled. She just smiled again, and I felt something shift. Then she was gone. Frick. I focused on my Mental Shield, empowering it with my Mentum. For a long moment, nothing happened, then I realized what I was doing wrong and concentrated on my Phylactery. The Boon would do nothing on my own body, since this wasn¡¯t actually where my mind was housed. Still, I didn¡¯t see anything for a long moment. Then I saw what looked like a brown smear in the air coming towards my face. I tried to move out of the way, but instead got roundhouse kicked in the face. The force behind her kick was enough to knock me flat and shove me a few feet to the side. As an undead, my sense of pain was very dulled, but I was currently regretting switching back into a fleshy form. I was only able to see her grinning face for a bare instant before she vanished again. This time, I was able to see a blur a few seconds before she hit me, but hit me she did. A few more attempts, and I was getting better, but was nowhere near good enough. Bruises and scrapes started to form all over my body, and I didn¡¯t have the time to use Necrotic Regeneration before Azrael descended and sent me across the room again, sometimes with a kick, sometimes with a punch, or sometimes just with an especially hard smack. My guess from earlier seemed to be correct. This was apparently helping her relax quite a bit. Who knew she could be such a sadist? I couldn¡¯t even stop her, since I needed the levels so badly. This was going to hurt. Chapter 20: Crazy or Crazy, Pick Your Poison In the middle of beating me up for absolutely no justifiable reason, Azrael¡¯s nigh-invisibility flickered and cut out. She had an ugly expression, and it was pretty obvious that she was getting a headache from lack of Mentum. I took the opportunity to check my Phylactery, and silently rejoiced when I found that I no longer needed to allow Azzy to kick my butt all around the tower. Seif Ambrose Spatial Lich 5 (Max, Specialization Available) Phylactery 5 (Max) Necrosis Manipulation 5 (Max) Domain of Undeath 5 (Max) Spatium Manipulation 5 (Max) Calling 5 (Max) Enhancements: Willpower x5 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma¡¯Uban I¡¯d managed to get to the point where I could pretty reliably get past her Skill if I focused for a few seconds. Sadly, she¡¯d realized this, and started moving faster to compensate. That also meant that her strikes generally hurt more, but I guess it probably helped with my Boon growth? ¡°Alright, that¡¯s all I needed help with. I¡¯d thank you, but I¡¯m pretty sure you got more out of this than I did.¡± ¡°Awh.¡± She pouted. ¡°Are you sure I can¡¯t get just a few more hits in?¡± I glared at her. ¡°Yes. I¡¯m sure.¡± Azrael walked back upstairs with a huff, and I refocused on my Phylactery, healing myself up a bit as I did so. I wanted to go over my Boons and make sure that I understood all of them pretty well before I picked a specialization. That way, I¡¯d be able to replicate their effects even after I lost them. I was confident that I could already do this with a few of my Boons, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Undead Possession was simple. An application of Mentum and Necrosis, similar to what I would do when Animating a corpse but slightly different, and then I¡¯d will my consciousness towards it. The Phylactery itself would handle the rest. Alternatively, if there was already an undead under my control, I¡¯d just need to carve out a small metaphysical imprint for my soul and then send myself into it. Reconstitution was the first Boon I¡¯d gotten that allowed me to create matter out of energy. I basically just needed to mix in the right amounts of energy, pack it in tightly, and then instruct it to stay compact. Once my consciousness was inside of it, it would be held together subconsciously. Incorporate Phylactery was a weird one. I had to use it a couple times to figure out exactly how it worked, but eventually realized that the Boon had actually just changed the way my Phylactery worked, so it wasn¡¯t something I¡¯d need to worry about. Mental Shield was similar in that my Phylactery naturally handled it, but I¡¯d be able to replicate that effect by pulsing out Mentum with the intent to block and destroy hostile energies. Mentum Generator was yet another fundamental, subconscious change to myself, but this one could also be replicated. I spawned a few Nailwolves to drain out a bit of my energy, then focused on my pool of Mentum. At base, my Mentum was something like a landlocked lake, and it would fill over time from rainwater. In other words, energies from the surroundings would soak in and become purified, then trickle into the pool. What Mentum Generator did was make a stream running into the lake. The lower the lake got, the harder the stream would work to fill it back up. To put it in more real terms, Mentum Generator passively shoved all of my energy to one side of the pool, creating a vacuum on the opposite side of a small hole it would create. Energy would rush in to fill the gap, then be purified as it passed into the pool. I could replicate this by simply focusing on manipulating my Mentum inside of the pool to do the same, which was easier than manipulating it on the outside. Clone was basically the same as Reconstitution. It would mimic whatever body I was using at the time and put a small bit of my consciousness into it to maintain the energies. It was honestly pretty simple, once I realized that it was the same sort of Mentum pool manipulation as Mentum Generator, except I would instead cut off a tiny portion of the pool itself and stuff it into the metaphysical space that my consciousness itself would normally rest in. Deadsight could be copied by just sending a small bit of Necrosis towards my eyes, and my undead nature would make that even easier than it already was. Animate Necrosis was practically second nature to me at this point. Shape Necrosis was just intent-based energy manipulation, telling the Necrosis to hold onto the flesh it was inside of. Create Undead was basically just the same as Reconstitution, except I didn¡¯t have to worry about making a place for my own soul and there was a bit less hand-waviness in terms of musculature and such, so I needed a template. While I was piloting my own body, it was basically just a hunk of ballistic gel that I subconsciously forced to move with Necrosis. My creatures couldn¡¯t really do the same, at least not as effectively. Necrotic Restoration, in turn, was pretty much the same, but instead allowed the soul of the target to provide the template. Construct Consciousness was a type of bond, which was something I was very familiar with at this point. This bond was focused on allowing information to pass on, and for my soul to imprint on the body of the other creature, which formed a nascent soul that would grow larger and larger the longer I held onto the bond, which in turn needed to be maintained by that information as well as a supply of energy so that the incipient soul could grow. The soul could continue to grow after that, but it would have to happen in a way similar to how ¡°normal people¡± did. Spread Undeath was simple. Just put Mentum and whatever other energies I felt like using into the air and bind it all to my Phylactery. Mold Terrain was just the same as Shape Necrosis, but I did it mostly with matter and Mentum instead. Transmute was a little weirder. It went deep, rearranging things on an atomic level to create the effects I desired. I honestly didn¡¯t know if I would be able to understand this one well enough to replicate it once all was said and done, but I focused on it for a while to at least try. My Omniscience was very critical in this, and I was able to watch things alter themselves slowly. I still wasn¡¯t completely sure if this ability would be able to stick around, but I¡¯d at least given it a shot. Omnipresence was kinda similar to my Phylactery abilities in that I just had to send out a portion of my consciousness, but it would be latched onto my Domain itself. It should be pretty simple to replicate. I¡¯d never really looked into the mechanics of Omniscience before, but it looked like it latched a bond between the targeted object and my Phylactery, and then some sort of information transfer occurred, like with Construct Consciousness. I had absolutely no clue how to replicate that, so I¡¯d just have to hope that my new specialization would give me some abilities to replace it. Empowered Control¡­ I mean, to be honest, it gave me a little bit of everything. The Skill and associated Boons were enhanced by this one, so rather than me needing to make sure it would carry over, it would instead help me internalize the others. Delinear Sight was basically the same as Deadsight, just sending energy into my eyes, except that more perspective was required. For example, Stitching was one of my first Boons in the tree, but it didn¡¯t actually do very much on its own. All it did was provide me with some of the theory behind space magic. That, in turn, provided me with a new way to utilize my Delinear Sight and acted as the base for all of my other Boons in the Skill''s tree. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Folding was pretty simple. Just create snips in the fabric of reality and make a certain shape on a 2D plane that I picture with my Delinear Sight. Then, reattach it with a bit of Spatium, repeat the process elsewhere, and then bring the two cut-out planes together. Tada! You have a portal. Notions was even easier. I basically just made some strings out of Spatium and Mentum, then used the Mentum to give it an identity. Or not. Depends on what I was trying to do. Even Notching, one of my greatest abilities, was pretty simple. To use it, I needed to be able to see whatever I''d created, which meant using Stitching, but then make a simple structure that wasn''t bound to those strings of reality but rather the location itself. Seaming¡­ could theoretically be used without Stitching, but it would be harder, I think. Instead of picturing new stitches appearing in the same place as the old ones, I would have to basically pour Spatium into the air and try to send it into the fourth dimension. I wasn''t completely certain it would even work, but maybe I''d have to try it sometime, if things didn''t go according to plan with the upcoming specialization. Taglock and Nomantic Call both let me use bonds based on certain things, specifically genetics and names. As for how to replicate their effects, I just needed to find those bonds and then Call with them. Bondsight was another visual application of magic, though this one had more Mentum in it than Spatium, and I needed to focus on seeing those bonds. Alter Bond was just using a touch of Spatium to control the bonds I saw. Sympathetic Bonding created a bond with Spatium and Mentum, then put a knot in it to reroute the energy and removed a bit of the casing inside the knot to let it move in both directions. The bond also needed to encompass the entirety of both target creatures, almost putting them inside the bond, rather than connecting them with it. Call Through Space used Spatium to tug on a bond and force it to shrink, thus closing the physical distance between two things. That was all there was. I''d internalized as much of the magic as I could. Now¡­ Please select a Specialization Advancement. Spatial Archlich (Death+, Space) Archlich of Space (Space+, Death) Ancient Seeker (Forbidden Knowledge) Death¡¯s Custodian (Phantom) Caretaker of Slumber (Burial) Debt Collector (Death Pact) Bearer of Nothingness (Abyss) Witness of Azathoth (Eldritch) I pulled out the book that the crazy old geezer had left behind for me, consulting the descriptions of my two favorite options: Forbidden Knowledge and Eldritch. I''d only read the summaries of the options before, but now it was time to delve a bit deeper. Forbidden Knowledge was first. The biggest question in my mind was what exactly that encompassed, and it turned out that it could access many of the dimensions that were adjacent to it, including the Abyss and the Far Realm, which was the name of the Eldritch plane. That''s not an exact translation, but I''m calling it that for my own sake. Forbidden Knowledge focused on multiple things, from contacting dark gods and ancient entities and calling on their power, to summoning creatures and objects from other realms. It sounded super cool, but there was a catch. Even the most basic of uses of Forbidden Knowledge required you to directly interface with another realm, one where you had no authority. The dimension of Forbidden Knowledge was actually just a subsection of a greater plane called the Greater Aethenium, with the Forbidden Knowledge section being known as the Kelemnion. The Aethenium was effectively just a massive library, containing all information that had ever been known by any creature from any universe. Each section of the Aethenium had its own quirks. The Light section, Alephdria, had books where the ink was replaced by pure light. Kelemnion¡¯s books whispered dark secrets to you, things that had driven people mad, information that had been lost in holy crusades against its use, knowledge that had been sealed away for the eternities. If you could maintain your sanity within Kelemnion, you could learn every dark art that had ever been known to man. That, however, was the issue. Who could keep their mind intact when inundated with the whisperings of mad sages, unfathomable deities, and dark eidolons? Eldritch had similar problems. You could make Vitasis and Necrosis into one, denying the natural cycle of nature while simultaneously rebuking the opposing nature of undeath. You could contact a plane where time had no meaning, where titanic gods ruled, and where everything would bend to your will. You could infect our world with that same power. Yet, witnessing the Far Realm was purportedly an endeavor that few survived. Stumbling across the wrong entity at the wrong time could just mean death, or eternal torment. With that said, at least with Eldritch I could mostly choose to stay in this world, though I got the feeling that I¡¯d need to spend a bit of time in the Far Realm to progress to my next specialization. With Forbidden Knowledge, going to Kelemnion or drawing on some of the knowledge stored there was practically required. What to choose? I went over the options once again, specifically the realms that the two energies were found most prevalently in. Specializing in one of them didn''t guarantee that I would have access to one of the planes, but it was a good example of what they could do. Alright, pros and cons. Forbidden Knowledge would help me gain information about things in this world, which was something I lacked. It would likely improve my versatility and help me experiment with my own magic. Cons, like all other Jack Of All Trades archetypes, I¡¯d be stretched a bit thin if I tried to be good at everything all at once. Also, it might slowly drive me insane. Eldritch would probably provide me with an immediate boost to my powers, though it might be a bit hard to grasp or handle all at once. It would reduce my current obvious weakness to Light and Life magic. Furthermore, it might put me into contact with beings that could eliminate Esheth before he became a true threat. Cons, it might put me into contact with beings that could eliminate Esheth before he became a true threat. Also, it might quickly drive me crazy. Part of me hovered over the options for a moment, but after taking a moment to steel my nerves, I accepted my new specialization. Class Specialization selected. You are now an Ancient Seeker. Skill: Phylactery has been transformed into Skill: Repository. Skill: Necrosis Manipulation and Skill: Spatium Manipulation have been combined into Skill: Forbodum Manipulation. Skill: Domain of Undeath has been transformed into Skill: Occult Sovereignty. Skill: Calling has been transformed into Skill: Kelemnion¡¯s Gate. You have gained a Skill: Dark Whispers. Seif Ambrose Ancient Seeker 5 Repository 0 Forbodum Manipulation 0 Occult Sovereignty 0 Kelemnion¡¯s Gate 0 Dark Whispers 0 Enhancements: Willpower x5 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma¡¯Uban I stared at my new Skills with some longing. Once, I¡¯d had beeg numbers. Now, all but two were zeros. At least the decision was made, and I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about it anymore. It had been a bit of a weight on my shoulders, and now that it was done, I got the feeling that I¡¯d really be able to let loose again, figuring out all of these new Skills and mastering this new Forbodum energy. Each of my new Skills and Boons were carefully turned over in my mind, and soon I was nodding, happy about my decision to take this class. First of all, Repository was something of a straight upgrade to my old Phylactery. Instead of potentially risking my soul by sending it out every single time, it would stay within my Repository at all times, connected only by a stream of energy. That¡¯s what Infomorph was, actually. It would bind me and whatever I targeted, meaning we¡¯d be treated as the same entity until one, preferably the puppet, was destroyed. Meanwhile, I¡¯d share in the senses of my body, even though my mind would be elsewhere. Forbodum Manipulation itself was both similar and unique to my old Manipulation Skills. First of all, I got the distinct sense that it would be able to do everything my old affinities could do, which was pretty much what I¡¯d expected, having read something similar in the books. In fact, the perfect mesh between the energies led to them working together to strengthen whatever they were used in. If I wanted to raise a corpse, then the Forbodum would take the role of Necrosis, animating it, but it would simultaneously fulfill the normal roles of Spatium and Arcanum, using the former to smooth out the physical portions of the animation and the latter to do the same with any magical barriers or detriments. I would have never been able to get my elements to work together this well before. They¡¯d ultimately had different desires and needs, so the most I could do was stop them from going to war. Forbodum, though, had a singular goal and purpose, meaning that all aspects of it were one in that. To be more specific, that goal was gathering knowledge. The more obscure, dark, and hidden. the better. With this at the heart of the magic, it treated anything it was thrown at as a scientist might treat their thesis project; that is, with extreme care and obsessive levels of detail. Next up was the upgrade for Domain of Undeath, labeled Occult Sovereignty. While the biggest part of these Domain Skills was their Boons, which taught you how to directly interact with it, I immediately realized that the Skill itself reminded me of one of my own Boons. This new Domain would be like Omniscience on crack, with flavor text from thousands of long-forgotten masters of the dark arts. That was relieving, since I honestly had no idea how to replicate that Boon now that I¡¯d lost it. The rest weren¡¯t that hard, but I just couldn¡¯t wrap my head around that one. Kelemnion¡¯s Gate was pretty much what it sounded like. It would let me send myself to the plane of Forbidden Knowledge. I did wonder how that one might upgrade, but I wasn¡¯t ready to experiment quite yet. The last Skill was pretty much what the book had warned me of, though a bit more tame for now. Whenever I was working on something, there was a chance that the ghost of something that had experience with the matter would whisper the answer to my problem into my ear. This sounded pretty great, until you realized that this knowledge would come exclusively from those who were powerful and wicked enough to leave permanent imprints in Kelemnion¡¯s records. The knowledge they gave me could be a blessing, for sure, but it could also be a curse. While I wasn¡¯t human anymore, I didn¡¯t exactly want to hear a demon detail how to use the death energy from a thousand children¡¯s fresh corpses to fuel rituals. Overall, this Skill left me feeling a bit conflicted, and I knew that I¡¯d have to make wise choices when picking out its Boons, else it might drive me completely crazy. Without waiting any longer, I dove right into tinkering with my new abilities. Chapter 21: A Rubber Room With Rats Obviously, figuring out how my new Repository worked was at the top of my list. It was my brain, after all, and would also dictate how I¡¯d control my body. Well, bodies. I returned my mind to its natural resting place and felt a shift in my gem. I let the change take place, then looked out into my influence, finding that my body hadn''t disintegrated like it usually did. It was instead bound to me by a small thread of Mentum, reinforced by Forbodum. When I concentrated on the body, the stream became more active, and I was suddenly piloting it again. It was an instant transition, and I knew that my consciousness hadn¡¯t moved at all. Exiting the body was similarly immediate. I also practiced this with the bodies that I¡¯d layered on top of each other previously, and found that it worked just as well there. With that said, something about the bodies felt lacking. I had access to a higher tier of energy now, and these forms were just less than I was capable of. To rectify this, I started to form a new body for myself right away. The Forbodum flowed in to fund my experiment, and it rapidly took shape in front of me. I¡¯d gone for another basic skeleton form, but even so, the body felt like it was somehow¡­ more. This was the power of advanced energies. They were categorically stronger, with each individual concept that they contained enhancing the others rather than working against them. Soon, my new body had taken form, and I felt that it responded nigh-instantaneously to my commands. Like in my example before, Death piloted the corpse, Space enhanced its physical movements, and Arcane allowed energy to travel through it rapidly. Of course, I wasn¡¯t talking about the energies themselves, since I didn¡¯t actually have those affinities. I meant that this one energy, Forbodum, was applying different aspects of itself to accomplish this goal. I used Infomorph on the body, locking onto it and gaining control over it. It was actually a much smoother and cleaner process than simply possessing things had been, likely because the energy that both made and connected me to the puppet was so good at transferring knowledge and information. It wasn¡¯t just that, though. The body was much stronger than it had been before¨Cexponentially so. Combination energies were wild. I got the buzzing sensation that told me I¡¯d obtained a Skill level, and realized that I could now pull up my status without needing to look at my Repository. Instead, the information would transfer directly to me, taking whatever form I was comfortable with. In this case, a visual effect. With that said, I ignored it for now. It would be best to get at least somewhat of a grip on my capabilities before upgrading anything. Forbodum Manipulation was the next on my list, and I turned on the new sense it had provided for me. Esoteric Sight showed that there was a distinct lack of Forbodum in my surroundings, though there was quite a bit of it in and around my Repository, and there was also a bit in the Conflict Tungsten I¡¯d found a while back. That made sense, considering that Forbodum was an energy centered on dark magic and knowledge, and so Conflict Tungsten¨Ca tough metal that was infused with quite a bit of Death energy and was probably an unknown to the majority of the world¨Cwould give off at least a little bit of it. My Repository also gave off energy, though it wasn¡¯t drawn from my Mentum. Rather, I believe it¡¯s because it was absolutely a dark art that the common man would never have an opportunity to learn about. As for actually Manipulating the stuff, it turned out to be much harder than I¡¯d expected. Forbodum was a strictly conceptual energy, and that meant that understanding the things that brought the energy into the world was needed to control it. I understood the Conflict Tungsten pretty well¨Cit was a metal that had become infused with a massive quantity of Death energy, the result of a series of wars that had been waged here, in the Dead Belt. The intent of those who had fallen to produce that Death energy had seeped into the metal, causing it to be even more violent than normal Necrosis. It would destroy any other energies that came close. Well, clearly that wasn¡¯t the case with Forbodum, but in all other cases that I¡¯d observed, it held true. To move and control that idea, I needed to keep it within my mind. If the intent that held it together and in that state faltered, then the Death energy would return to being simple Necrosis, and the Forbodum would be destroyed. I also realized during this time that my recreated Conflict Tungsten was far less powerful than the natural one. I¡¯d only managed to copy a small amount of its intent, meaning that this stuff was far less anti-magical than it should have been. As for controlling the Forbodum that my Repository spat out, that wasn¡¯t nearly as hard once I thought of what it did and what it was, locking that into my mind. I probably had a naturally greater understanding of it, since it was basically what made up my soul¡¯s house. After screwing around with that for a little bit, I tested out my Occult Sovereignty. Encompassing Knowledge was the Spread Undeath equivalent for this Skill, except it also had some information gathering capabilities, like a built-in Omniscience. Anything that this influence passed over would instantly be easier for me to understand. Of course, I wouldn¡¯t know everything about it instantly, but I¡¯d learn much faster than I would without the Boon. I began the arduous process of converting my old influence into this new one, but eventually got bored and made a Wisp to do it for me. Doing so brought my attention to the annoying fact that Create Undead, like all the rest of my old Boons, was harder for me to use. Still, when the Wisp eventually popped out, it was just¡­ better. Its comprehension, speed, and energy retention capabilities were all much higher than any of the ones I¡¯d made in the past. It started rapidly doing my job for me, and I turned my attention to the next thing I could do. Library Pass, huh? I¡¯m going to wait a minute on that one. I get the feeling that traveling to another dimension might not be the best idea right now. Dark Whispers¡­ yeah, that was definitely a passive effect. I suppose that it must have been installed into my brain when I got access to Forbodum. In fact, the Forbodum energy itself was probably the source of them, and this Skill was just a representation of that. It also would give me some ability to control its progression and hopefully keep myself from going insane. Seif Ambrose Ancient Seeker 5 Repository 1 Forbodum Manipulation 1 Occult Sovereignty 1 Kelemnion¡¯s Gate 0 Dark Whispers 0 Enhancements: Willpower x5 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma¡¯Uban Oooh, exciting. It hadn¡¯t been all that long since I¡¯d last gotten Boon options, but it felt like it¡¯d been an eternity. My previous Skills had capped out some time ago, and so it was nice to finally see some real progression again. The Boons on offer were just¡­ amazing. It really showed the difference between normal elements and these higher affinities. Mental Plurality would literally allow me to think of two things at a time, whereas Loci Server would back up my mind and allow me to seek refuge in my Repository, gaining effective immunity to all mental effects and making my memory perfect. It was like one of those mind palace things from the movies, almost a physical space for me to escape into and control. Anything inside was completely under my control. Dark Psionics was a Boon that would let me use Forbodum to affect basically anything, even things that I normally wouldn''t be able to control or manipulate without dedicated Skills. Conceptual Control, though, focused on what I was unsuccessfully trying to do before with the Conflict Tungsten, allowing me to move specific magical intents from one place to another, though it would be different when stored in Forebodum. Abstractive Influence was also based on concepts, except this one expelled them into my influence, having minor effects on everything in the target areas. Corrupt Mind was somewhat similar, but it would just drive people in my influence insane, which didn''t appeal as much. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. I saw something of a build forming, and decided to go with my instincts, taking Loci Server, Conceptual Control, and Abstractive Influence. The latter two just felt like they''d work well together, whereas the former would likely help me hold off the madness that was bound to encroach on my own mind. Furthermore, I didn''t really need to think about multiple things at a time. It was strong, sure, but I wasn''t planning on being much of a fighter, so I didn''t need quick reactions, and it wasn''t like it would increase my Mentum capacity or anything. I''d be limited to the same amount of energy while having multiple brains drawing from it. I could also foresee myself having issues with¡­ myself. Plus, I''d had a little idea while looking at this combination of Boons. First, I used Abstractive Influence. This slowly, slowly gathered and altered intent, applying it to an area. This could have a few effects, but that''s not exactly what I was thinking of while picking up this combo. The way it worked was actually pretty easy: it took whatever intent I pushed into it and applied it to the magic in the area. I didn''t use any specific one here, though, and instead just pushed blank intent into the area. It sounds pretty contradictory to call any amount of intent "blank," but that''s just what it was. It was like throwing Mentum at something. The blank intent was absorbed by the magic in the area I was concentrating on. Once a small amount of concept had gathered¨Cit was Death intent, but that should be obvious when you consider where this was taking place¨CI used my Conceptual Control to strip it from the magic which held it. Now that I had the Boon, it was much simpler to maintain a hold over the ethereal power. When I used regular magic, I was able to simply direct energies, but that wasn¡¯t working so I''d switched over to using a vice grip. That had forced me to focus far more than I wanted. Instead, the correct way to control this concept stuff was to let it be mostly free and only occasionally push it back together. Then I could just form mental boundaries to prevent it from spreading in the wrong direction. With this method, the concept/intent energy¨CI still wasn''t sure which was which¨Cwould gradually pool out and then recondense closer to your goal post. I took a moment to check out my new Loci Server and chuckled gleefully when I found that it would work how I wanted. Slowly, the Death concept stuff¨C"Conceptium."¨Cwas shoved towards the center of the room. Wait, what? Conceptium? Where had that come from? A buzz came a second later and I got my answer. I didn''t stop working on what I was currently doing after that brief interruption, but silently cursed my new Skill. It was certainly useful, but entirely unpredictable. I''d lost a bit of Death Conceptium from the distraction, but there was still plenty so long as I kept ahold of the rest. Soon, the mysterious power touched my Repository and vanished. I followed it into the space, and looked around at the small space in my soul. Currently, it was blank and empty, save for myself and a ball of smoke that was sitting there, stationary except for the black tendrils that came off of it. That was obviously the Conceptium I''d gathered. The room, though, gave me an uncomfortable feeling. It wasn''t because of any size constraints¨Cin fact, there didn''t seem to be any¨Cand it didn''t have anything in particular that was causing the feeling, it was just that¡­ Well, there was nothing. At all. The Boon had let me know that I would be able to control this space with even greater ease than I had when controlling my domain. In that case¡­ A cube the size of a warehouse rapidly formed around me.. As soon as it was done, I chuckled to myself and covered the walls with rubber panels. I laughed harder when I realized that I could shape the Death concept, and transformed it into a rat. If I was going to be going crazy, then for goodness¡¯ sake, it would be in a rubber room with rats. After taking another few moments to explore and admire this new mental space, I stepped out of it and got back to tinkering with my other Skills. Seif Ambrose Ancient Seeker 5 Repository 1 Forbodum Manipulation 1 Occult Sovereignty 1 Kelemnion¡¯s Gate 0 Dark Whispers 1 Enhancements: Willpower x5 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma¡¯Uban Schnitzel. Both of these sucked. Obsession would assign the memories of a few creatures to each task. For example, if I were experimenting with making new undead, I would always get whatever advice I received from the same spirit, making it more predictable and contiguous. However, it would also make me hear the voices much more often, which wasn¡¯t something I really wanted. Inspiration was¡­ good and bad. Instead of voices, I¡¯d also see images, visions of the finished product of the advice I was receiving. While it might lead to some horrific images popping into my head now and then, I still felt it was better than Obsession. Hearing different voices would provide me with a more diverse portfolio of knowledge, and this way, I¡¯d get more out of fewer interactions with these spirits. I felt that was for the best. Inspiration soon joined the other entries on my list, and I returned my gaze to the final, unexplored Skill. With a sigh, I reached out for the knowledge it sought to provide me with, and started using the ability. A pool of black ink spread across the floor. After a few moments, it stabilized, and I stepped onto it. My body slowly started sinking into the gate, and after a moment of pure darkness and a lack of all sensation, my senses returned to me all at once. Kelemnion was, simply put, an infinite library. Well, okay, infinite was a bit of a stretch, but as I looked out into the hall of bookshelves I¡¯d been dropped in, I found it hard to believe that it wasn¡¯t. The shelves stretched so far into the distance that it looked downright non-Euclidian. I looked over the thousands of books, and quickly realized that I had no idea what sort of system they used here. Perhaps I could find a librarian? Sadly, no such caretaker showed up, and eventually I just opened up a random book. I read the first few lines, then slowly closed it. Sure, a bestiary of Abyssal creatures would be quite an interesting read, but it wasn¡¯t currently applicable to my situation. In lieu of a better solution, I turned on my Esoteric Sight. Instantly, the books started glowing with Forbodum, some more than others, but each with a different, unique flavor. It took me a moment to grasp what it all meant, but soon I was navigating my way through the library. Currently, I was in a section dedicated to listing and describing different monsters, nightmares, and abominations. My senses told me that what I was looking for was elsewhere, and I started following them. Rapidly, the books around me started to shift, and soon I was in a completely different section of the library. When I looked back, I found completely unfamiliar titles. Had I been teleported here, or had the distance just shrunk? Or, maybe, did the books themselves move? I hadn¡¯t been paying enough attention, so I had no clue. Another thing to experiment with later. I reached out to one of the books, and found that it was a simple guide. How to Get Started, to be specific. There was no author listed. The book was about starting off on your journey with Forbodum, though that was obvious considering what plane this was and the title of the book. The manual didn¡¯t take that long to skim through, and it helped reinforce some of my fears towards this energy, but also reinforced how powerful it could be in the right hands. Forbodum could do a lot of things, but that had its ups and downs. Here in Kelemnion, I had a sort of authority, hence why space had naturally bent to accommodate my desires. I had the Forbodum Manipulation Skill, and there was so much that even subconscious desires could be quickly fulfilled by it without the user even knowing what they wanted, themselves. For wielders of other elements, the same would hold true in their own realms. There might be some more powerful beings, but they would be acknowledged and respected by the creatures and energies there, for the most part. One of Forbodum¡¯s main features, outside of its ability to manipulate concepts and things that would normally be outside of its own purview, was the fact that it could open gates to other realms. One of the most repeated statements in this guide was some or another variation on ¡°Don¡¯t bite off more than you can chew.¡± Examples were given of powerful warlocks¨Ca title given to skilled users of Forbodum¨Cwho met their ends trying to extract deals or favors from creatures that belonged to other dimensions. If you can¡¯t kill it, don¡¯t contact it. Don¡¯t directly enter other planes. The lists went on, words of warning spilling from the pages. There were also some brief suggestions. First off, it quickly clarified something that I¡¯d been rather confused about. I¡¯d been led to believe that Forbodum was some kind of ritual magic, and it turned out that was a somewhat debatable topic. Its ability to manipulate Conceptium allowed it to act something like alchemy, using each different concept to produce a reaction, then moving on to the next bit. It could also create magic items, which I was very interested in. Imbuing items with concepts was supposed to be a difficult and time-consuming task, but the book said that many chose to go down this path. I spent a little while focusing on the vibe from the parts of the book that were talking about rituals and item crafting, then looked around for that same frequency of Forbodum. I took a couple steps forward and this time I managed to catch my surroundings shifting. Still, the books in front of me perfectly matched what I wanted, and I pulled the nearest few out of their places on the shelves. As I was looking over the first of them¨Ca thicker book entitled Inscriptions For Dummies¨CI felt a shiver run down my spine, and slowly turned. My eyes landed on a specific book on the shelves that radiated such a massive quantity of energy that it called to me. I felt something familiar shift in my brain, and knew that the voices had just made an appearance. However, no instructions were given, and no temptations were whispered. Instead, a feeling of limitless power echoed through my mind, and an image seared itself into my brain. Then, a single word. Ordinance. The pain was so great that everything momentarily went dark. Then, I was in a room. A rubber room. A rubber room with rats. Chapter 22: Inscriptions I pulled myself out of the Loci Server, and was glad to see that I hadn¡¯t simply discorporated, and was still in the megalibrary. I suppose my bodies falling apart wasn¡¯t really a thingI had to worry about anymore, since the bodies I connected to weren¡¯t actually storing my consciousness, but rather acted as a conduit for it. I thought over the image I¡¯d been shown and the knowledge that had been installed into my brain. It was an inscription, which was sorta like a rune. Inscriptions were like words in the language of magic, and they had the ability to passively use energy in ways that corresponded to their meanings. The process of finding inscriptions was supposed to be pretty rough, but Kelemnion was stuffed full of information about obscure stuff like that. With that said, I was most certainly not ready for whatever that had been. Nope, I¡¯m just gonna go over here and mess around with this dinky little introductory guide, thank you very much. The first book didn¡¯t take too long to read through, its knowledge seeming to flow into my mind as I held it. I quickly gained a more detailed perspective on what I¡¯d just experienced. Honestly, this book was more of a warning against using inscriptions than anything else. It described them as inefficient and wasteful. Once an inscription was given an intent, a touch of Conceptium, it would start replicating and using it when it was supplied with energy. Whatever "word" it was would determine how it would manifest. They tended to work like Auras or Domains, and would slowly alter the world to suit their purposes. Exploring my knowledge of Ordinance, I found that it represented law and order. It would impose a set of rules upon the world, and the stronger the initially supplied intent, the more strict they would be. At the same time, the more energy that I poured into it, the more powerful the compulsion would be, both for the energies of the world and other creatures. There was a lot more I wanted to learn here in Kelemnion before I went off to go test this stuff out. For example, I needed a way to grant my creatures greater resistance against Light-based attacks, as well as a way to counter whatever magic that Esheth guy was using. Hopefully the answer to one would lead me to the other. I focused on giving the undead resistance to Light-based magics, and soon found myself in a somewhat more ornate part of the library. Perhaps this place was closer to Alephdria than I¡¯d been before? Come to think of it, the area just before this one had seemed a bit¡­ simpler. Maybe it was reaching the boundaries of what knowledge could be considered ¡°forbidden?¡± That was an interesting theory. If I ever needed to know something that was just common knowledge, would Kelemnion even be able to help me find an answer? Anyways, looking into the books around myself, I found that they were somewhat sparse, but extremely varied nonetheless. Did Kelemnion reorganize the shelves to slide everything I was searching for into the same space? Yet another interesting quirk about this place. The first book that caught my attention whispered into my mind as I stepped closer. It was hard to grasp exactly what it was saying, but I got the sense that it had the answers I was looking for. Then again, that might just be the book talking. I pulled it from the shelves and started leafing through. Like before, the book¡¯s knowledge seemed to leech from the pages and into my brain. This book, entitled Jackel''s Affinities, detailed a method of forcing open the affinities of a creature to grant it resistances and magic of its own, and perhaps even specializations. As for the reason this was considered forbidden knowledge¡­ The creator of this book seemed to care very little for life other than his own, and had vivisected multiple people, some who had specializations and some who didn¡¯t. For context, humans typically gain access to their legends and specialize when they¡¯re 12. So, basically, he tortured small children to death. I think the stigma against him was justified. Furthermore, he''d experimented on live creatures, some of which had then been set loose into populated areas. In other words, he wasn¡¯t a very cool dude. Still, the information he¡¯d left behind was perfectly usable, though I¡¯d need to find a way to dunk my monsters in Lux without melting them. The book itself recommended using items that granted elemental resistance, but I didn''t have any of those. Perhaps I could figure out how to make some? With that thought on my mind, I refocused and took a few steps, suddenly appearing much closer to the neutral zone of the Aethenium. The closest, thickest book in the area immediately started whispering into my mind, so I just picked it up to get it over with. Just like with the Ordinance inscription that I''d accidently found, this one was just¡­ so many things. It was a bit less vague, so the effects were slightly less varied, but they''re was still a whole lot packed into this rune. Defense. This inscription was simple, in theory. One might assume that to defend was simply to provide protection, maybe make automatic shields or provide resistance, like what I was after. In reality, defense was much more than that. Automatic traps. Weaponry. With the right intent and energy derivative, an inscription could take on nearly any attributes. An army reduced to ash by black fire. Pillars of stone rising to engulf a massive wolf, immobilizing it before it could attack a town. A warrior¡¯s skull exploding as they tried to slash down at a robed figure. I could feel my mind buckling from the images, but managed to hold on this time. That was, apparently, a mistake. An urge swept over me, then faded to a slight tickle. It was, predictably, telling me to use and embody this Defense inscription. I tried to push it away, but found that I couldn''t. Instead, I drew into my Loci Server, that semi-physical space within my Repository that stored the pure state of my soul. Rapidly, the tingling sensation at the back of my brain vanished, and I felt a burden leave my body. Perhaps this place had affected me more than I''d been able to notice? I would have to be more careful with what I chose to read here in the future. Now, I could try to cross reference the information I''ve gained with the other books here, but I think I''d rather just go test this stuff out. An inky pool spread out before my feet as I activated Library Pass for the second time, stepping forward and sinking into it for a moment. Then I stood before my Repository, in my tower once again. As soon as I stepped through, I felt a strong buzz, so I checked on my legend to see the change. Seif Ambrose Ancient Seeker 5 Repository 2 Forbodum Manipulation 1 Occult Sovereignty 1 Kelemnion¡¯s Gate 1 Stolen novel; please report. Dark Whispers 1 Enhancements: Willpower x5 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma¡¯Uban Ooh, two options at once. Then again, these Skills are very low-leveled, especially when you consider that I won¡¯t be able to level up again until they¡¯re all at least level 6. They were more powerful, and were based on a more esoteric energy, but they were still currently weak, especially for someone with five Willpower Enhancements. Anyways, the options. Mind Drones would allow me to create small splinters of my consciousness which would carry out specific tasks. I had Wisps that could do the same, so it didn¡¯t appeal all that much, though they would have more of my abilities, considering that they would basically be autonomous extensions of myself. Still, I could replicate the effect by stuffing a ton of knowledge and energy into a Wisp, so it wouldn¡¯t be unique. Firewall would strengthen the barrier between my Loci Server and any potential threats by creating a filter throughout the bonds between itself and the real world, specifically between my bodies and physical Repository. Firewall was also somewhat redundant, considering that I knew how to replicate the Mental Shield from my previous evolution, but in this case it would also function as a more passive defense, whereas I actually needed to waste a bit of focus to get Mental Shield working. Another interesting thing about Firewall was that it would also block hostile Conceptium from entering my Loci Server, so any that entered my space would be completely under my control. I looked over the Gate options before confirming my selection, just to make sure that I wouldn¡¯t regret my decision. Librarian¡¯s Favor would give me more power and authority within Kelemnion, which was something I was already greatly enjoying. I would be able to reorganize bookshelves at a glance and control exactly where I went and exactly what books I saw. For example, if I wasn¡¯t looking for anything in particular, I would just be able to wander around and maybe find my way to the border of Kelemnion, wherever it intersected with another affinity, and then search around to see what sort of things were there. Book Borrowing was exactly what it sounded like. I would be able to take a single book out of Kelemnion without incurring any penalties or facing repercussions. What those penalties and repercussions would be, I had no clue, but in any case I would be glad to avoid them. Still, Librarian¡¯s Favor felt better to me. I had a pretty good memory, even if I sometimes forgot or overlooked details here and there, and I sorta doubted that I¡¯d be able to find anything fun for Azrael to read. The poor girl was going loopy from the boredom, and even her occasional hunts had stopped cheering her up. I really couldn¡¯t do much since I was so busy handling my own progression to prepare for that Esheth guy¡¯s return. I was hoping that her upcoming specialization upgrade would help, but she needed a Light affinity. Hopefully my work here will help with that. Having concluded my deliberations, I discarded Mind Drones and Book Borrowing, then created an Arachnomicon in front of me, having chosen it because of its flat shape and relative inexpensiveness. The creation and animation process was a bit¡­ odd, though. Much like the creation of my own body and the Wisp from earlier, it was completely different, but in a good way. Once I completed the process by animating it, I inspected it for a long moment. A couple basic commands were followed by more complex ones, and I slowly nodded my head. Forbodum was a knowledge-based energy, and so it seemed that creations using it were just more intelligent. Had my intelligence increased as well, since it had altered my Phylactery into a Repository? An interesting question, but I hadn¡¯t noticed any shift, so there probably wasn¡¯t any difference. On my other side, I formed a bone dagger. I was skilled enough with creating undead flesh that I could freehand stuff like that, and I needed it for the inscriptions I¡¯d be making. The books I¡¯d studied¨C read: downloaded into my head¨C had informed me in no uncertain terms that inscriptions had to be done by hand. It had something to do with energy flow and Conceptium that was slowly formed and fed into the material as you carved. Eventually, I would probably get a specialized Antigo/Wisp task force to work on this, but for now I would have to do it myself. I grabbed the monstrosity by its cover and commanded it to stay still as I began to carve. Being a creation of pure Forbodum, the energies within it rapidly began to shift to accommodate the rune that was forming. This process was actually quite interesting, and had been briefly covered by the instructional books. The more compatible a surface you were working with, the faster the process would go by. Opposing elements would resist the transformation. Using a pure form of one energy for both the creation and activation of an inscription, though, was considered a bad idea for reasons that will become obvious when I use this one. The defensive rune rapidly took shape on the Arachnomicon¡¯s cover, and I was soon glaring down at a somehow-familiar group of scratches. It didn''t really look like anything, but it felt like it did. With the physical portion of the work finished, I started searching around for an intent to shove into the rune, but came up mostly blank. I had the Death Conceptium stored in my Repository, but I felt that it would be unwise to use Death in a Defense inscription, especially if I was going to power it with Forbidden Knowledge. Instead, I started focusing on gathering Conceptium with my Abstractive Influence, concentrating on the idea of making a wall. Pretty basic, I know, but I felt that it would be effective as an initial experiment. Once I¡¯d gathered enough, I siphoned off a bit of this ¡°Barrier¡± Conceptium to make another rat in my Repository, chuckling as it took shape. The rest of the energy was slowly inserted into the inscription I¡¯d made. A ¡°normal¡± crafter would have to focus completely on their intent and purpose for the rune while making it and just spew energy into it the whole time. If their concentration faltered or they ran out of energy before the inscription was finished and completely suffused with Conceptium, then the project would need to be scrapped. Forbodum was letting me skip that step and guarantee a 100% success rate, so long as I knew what I was doing and didn¡¯t mess up the inscription itself. When I¡¯d stuffed enough Barrier intent into the Defense inscription, it started to glow. This was the sign that it was complete, so I stuffed the remaining energy into the rat in my head, making it grow even larger. It was now about the same height as an infant, but I only took a moment to appreciate the giant glowing rat stuck in the rubber room that was my mind. I slowly pushed a bit of Forbodum out into the inscription, and it was latched onto. The color of the inscription¡¯s glow shifted to a dark purple, with small bits of black floating around. Quickly, I grabbed the Arachnomicon and pointed it at the wall before shunting even more energy into it. My creation started to quiver and shriek, and then the inscription activated. A huge plane of symbols formed in front of me even as the living book crumbled to dust. I stepped towards the wall of force, and felt a slight shift, like I was back in Kelemnion and approaching a particularly powerful book. I threw a rock at it, and it was repelled with the same power that it struck the barrier with. As for why my book turned to dust, that was actually a pretty easy question. When an inscription was created on and powered with the same type of energy, it was called a talisman. Talismans had limited uses, but were stronger than the other, more lasting type, which were called enchantments. A talisman would basically cannibalize itself to make an effect, whereas an enchantment would provide a weaker, constant effect whenever you provided it with energy. Anyways, I didn''t yet have all the parts to put the plan of immunizing my creatures to the Light into action, but I did have some new ideas for how they could function. I ran some quick tests and found that I could still recreate all of my creatures, even Uban and the Nailwolves. In fact, the Nailwolves¡¯ magic was much stronger now, which made sense since they were using my new affinity. I could also still access and create Seams, and all the rest of my ¡°Spatium¡± abilities were stronger than ever. I inspected the second set of floors. I¡¯d never actually gotten a good look at what my Wisps had styled them after, but when I got a good look at it, I was actually quite surprised. It was a karst, with stone pillars and sinkholes littering the terrain. The Nailwolves sat up on elevated peaks, hidden from the view of their prey. From this position, they¡¯d be able to ambush adventurers easily, which would let them utilize their devastating attacks more effectively. The Nailwolves were mostly solitary, since they were just so powerful, but I decided to organize a couple into packs throughout this second section of my tower. They¡¯d be something like the elites of the floor, anyone unlucky enough to find them would have a high likelihood of simply dying. That might be a little unfair, but that¡¯s just how chance works. If they take the risk and roll snake eyes, that¡¯s on them. Having done all of that inspection, I created three Nailwolves and a single Arachnomicon on the 16th floor. It was boss time, and this was going to be cool. Chapter 23: Fenrir, the Lord of Nails I quickly stripped my creations for parts, laying all the different pieces I¡¯d be needing out separately. The Arachnomicon bits were left separate, since I¡¯d need to refashion that much later. For now, I started manipulating the bones of the Nailwolves. My other creations had taught me that it was best to make a rough bone structure and only then coat it in muscle, like I was giving the skeleton a flesh mech. Following that same principle here, I fused the bones together but tried to keep most of their rough shape. I had to split them up in a few places to make sure that everything would fit together right. My hopes were that this creation would be as magically efficient as possible, which meant that I¡¯d need to make it as anatomically correct as possible. Wolf bones slowly took a more human form, and eventually I had a 7 foot tall werewolf skeleton to work with. I was slotting cartilage between the joints when an image suddenly popped into my head. A skinned corpse sat on a table in front of me, half its body carved open to reveal its skeleton. The other half was staring into the sky with a fearful expression forever locked onto its face. That face, more than anything, revealed the truth: it wasn¡¯t a human. Not even close. Lycaos, I heard something whisper. It seemed that werewolves¨C or, perhaps, wolfmen?¨C already existed in this world. The vision flickered out, and I immediately spotted some now-obvious flaws in my design. I fixed them up, and then did my best to improve the design. First of all, my creation wasn¡¯t going to have organs, so some bone density could be shifted around. For a mortal, losing a leg was a big deal, but not instantly fatal. Getting stabbed in the heart was. Because of that, we¡¯d evolved to have stronger ribs than would be needed for a creature without that vulnerability. It was preferable that this boss broke a rib, rather than a leg. After that, there were a whole bunch of bones that I could just get rid of. The Lycaos had more than a human did, certainly, but the wolf bodies had over three hundred bones. Some of them could be reshaped or adjusted into other needed structures, but most of them ended up being melded into the rest of the body, further strengthening it. Cartilage and ligaments were added, and the skeletal system was complete. Next came the muscles. I¡¯d gotten a pretty good look at how the ones on the Lycaos had been shaped, so I only needed to make a few minor adjustments to account for the lack of internal organs in this creation. Stretching skin and "fur¡± onto the new boss monster wasn¡¯t too difficult, but I had to make some adjustments to make sure that the claws that made up the fur all went in the right direction. I also chose to lengthen and add density to many of those claws, making them into a decent imitation of scale mail. Eventually, a more dungeon-appropriate version of the Lycaos was formed, and I inspected it for a moment, knowing that something was missing. Oh wait, eyes, duh. I took a set of Nailwolf eyes, increasing their size and altering their pigmentation just a bit to make them seem more human. Well, making the sclera red probably didn¡¯t help with that, but whatever. They were then slotted into this new boss monster¡­ who I had yet to name. I¡¯ll work on that later. Since he would be a humanoid, it felt weird leaving him unclothed, so I fashioned a cloak out of Twinscale hide, manipulated to a black coloration. Once I¡¯d gotten that finished and covered him with it, he was starting to look like Death. Straight up. I decided that he needed a staff. My plan was to make him into a summoner/caster, hence the Arachnomicon, and it just felt right. I didn¡¯t have any wood, though, so I had to make do with some well-shaped and colored bone. The main body was, for the most part, complete. Now I just needed to equip him with magic and make a Wisp to actually be him. I reopened the Gate to Kelemnion, diving into it and setting off as soon as my boney feet touched the floor. Before I knew it, I was looking at a huge, glowing book. Images flashed into my head, each having one thing in common: death and chaos. My hand touched the book, and a new inscription appeared in my mind. Infliction. I spent a brief moment refreshing my mind with my Repository, then took off once again. With Infliction, Defense, and Ordinance, I felt that I had enough versatility in terms of inscriptions. Now I just needed to come up with some unique intents. Intent was a strange thing. You could name it, and call it something, but it wasn¡¯t really accurate. What Conceptium really did was passively shape energy into a predetermined configuration. The longer it was in existence without being used, the less accurate it would become, and the more it would forget. It would eventually be reduced down into a basic concept, like the Death that I¡¯d stored away. Calling the Conceptium I¡¯d gathered earlier ¡°Barrier¡± intent was like pointing at burgundy and calling it red. Was it technically correct? Sure, but it wasn¡¯t exact. Over time, though, some of its ¡°color¡± would bleed out, leaving me with a more abstract Barrier intent, one with a more vague meaning. Using less specific and definite Conceptium would allow for more variance. The Defense inscription I¡¯d created before would always create a wall of force, but if I used a more aged Barrier intent, then it would be able to adapt more to different situations. That also meant that it would lose an amount of predictability, though. In some situations, it would be worth it, and in others it wouldn¡¯t. For the more passive effects, I¡¯d probably want them to be more flexible, but talismans would often need more exact directions. Of course, it was possible to make a vague intent without letting the power drain from it, but sometimes it was better to start with something specific and then let it ¡°mature.¡± This method would allow me to more carefully control how exact the effects of your inscription could be. If you took an Infliction talisman and filled it with the intent to shoot a projectile, it would do that and only that. If you let it age a bit, though, it might develop some other effects, allowing the inscription to affect it more. For example, the aforementioned projectile might lose some efficiency, but become homing, or leave behind a DoT effect. I kinda wanted to give my new boss access to multiple elements, but I decided against it for now. I was sure that there was a method, but I felt that I should stick to using Forbodum for now, since I¡¯d just gotten access to it and wanted to increase my familiarity with it. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. With that in mind, I exited the plane of knowledge and returned to my tower. Slowly, painstakingly, I started thinking up designs for spells. Bolts of deathly energy, phantom armor, waves of chilling force¡­ the works. For these first ones, I made sure to think up everything that I wanted the inscriptions to do, the bolts of death rotting flesh, the phantom armor only stopping things that moved too quickly, and the force settling into the bones of afflicted creatures. For the next ones, though, I decided to be a bit more vague, thinking only in vague, general ideas. This was much easier to do, since the formed Conceptium was far less complex than one that was basically an entire spell in and of itself. That actually got me thinking about what the whole System thing really was. Was it just an interpretation of my soul, or was there something more behind it? When I used my Skills and Boons, I didn¡¯t struggle nearly as much at forming the intent. Maybe it was getting pulled from somewhere else, or processed somehow? I didn¡¯t know, which was a bit frustrating, but it was another topic to explore when I next visited Kelemnion. Once I¡¯d gathered a large enough variety of Conceptium to make a few of each inscription I¡¯d come up with, I started slowly carving and pushing my energy into the talisman pages. Boring. Tedious. Dull. Monotonous. Repetitive. Soulless. Eventually, I gave up. Sure, I was a lich, but constant strenuous mental activity could get tiresome, especially if it¡¯s just the same thing over and over again. Instead, I animated some smaller copies of the boss I was working on¨C calling them Scholars, just for fun¨C designed some energy-conductive spikes, and had them work on it instead. I shoved Wisps into the quills to let the energy and Conceptium come directly from me. It was more draining this way, but also a lot less boring, which was a plus in my books. I turned my attention back to the boss himself. He was a giant wolfman wizard with a magic book and a black cloak. What was he missing? Nothing? Great, time to wake this dude up. Another Wisp was formed, and this time I took the time and formed a consciousness for it. I had to cancel out all of the other large drains on my energy, specifically the new Scholars, but this time I had more power to throw at the problem that was giving life to a nascent mind. It still took a while, but I didn¡¯t pass out, so that was a plus. I decided to hand over all of my memories about science, math, history, mythology and most of my knowledge about energy, including the stuff from back on Earth. Right now, I had to form all of the Conceptium, but I wanted this guy to do it himself later on, which meant that it would be optimal for him to understand how the world worked, as well as know the scientific method. While I didn¡¯t pass out or get thrown into my Repository, my creation was sleepy, so I wasn¡¯t able to see how it had gone. Instead, I looked back over my Scholars and restarted the flow of energy between myself and the quill spikes. Then it was just a waiting game. Actually, screw that. I started carving out a huge basement beneath my tower, compressing all of the spare matter into pillars and up against the ceiling, making everything as stable as I could. Then I started spawning Scholars. My goal was for this basement to be where all of the automation required for making my dungeon spire function took place. Wisps were formed with all sorts of knowledge, from how to terraform, to spreading my influence, to making my other creations. I had to spend some time with those last ones to make sure that they got everything that was required for doing so, since my mob list had gotten pretty long and some of them needed actual intelligence to work well. After that, I took another look at the surrounding area to find something to do, examining every nook and cranny. Then I found something, and remembered. I still had that Cadavrrhizae¡¯s seed, didn¡¯t I? My Forbodum could probably usurp control over its current affinities¡­ Just as I was about to mess around with the seed, my attention was dragged back to my new boss as it woke up gasping for air¨C air that it didn¡¯t particularly need. I had shoved the Wisp into the body it was to possess before I¡¯d gotten distracted, but it was still an undead. Maybe that was just my old memories influencing it? ¡°Hello there,¡± I projected to it through my skull. The wolfman-zombie-boss shook for a moment, then looked at me with confusion. ¡°Creator?¡± Its voice was rough, like someone with a sore throat. ¡°Yeah. You know what your job is, right?¡± The boss just nodded in reply, so I continued, ¡°I haven¡¯t been able to think of a name for you yet. What do you think?¡± With Uban, I¡¯d just kinda fiddled around with stuff, but I wanted to give this guy a choice, since he had more of my knowledge and culture than the land dragon had. He took a moment to consider, then nodded to himself and responded, ¡°Fenrir, sire. I believe that name will suit me well.¡± ¡°The one from Nordic mythology?¡± I considered it, then gave him a boney thumbs-up in approval. ¡°I like it. Do you want to go supervise the Scholars or would you prefer to get comfy in your new domain?¡± ¡°I¡¯d prefer to go tame the Nails, if you don¡¯t mind.¡± His voice grew slightly more violent, and I gave him a strange look. ¡°You know I can just tell them to do what you want, right?¡± He just shrugged. ¡°I¡¯d prefer it if you didn¡¯t do that, sire. I would like to prove my superiority over them.¡± I frowned. ¡°Will they even fight you? I¡¯ve never seen my creatures fight one another.¡± ¡°If I challenge them openly, their residual wolf instincts should take over. When left on their own, they will follow those instincts, and fight for the position of alpha. I intend to win that battle. Currently, you¡¯ve instilled cooperation into the packs, but I have not been included in that.¡± Fenrir smiled viciously. ¡°I will prove myself and win their loyalty, master.¡± I wagged a finger at him. ¡°You don¡¯t have your book yet, and I¡¯m pretty sure I didn¡¯t give you any magic.¡± ¡°Just because you intended for me to be a mage does not mean I am weak in other areas. Furthermore¡­¡± He drew a finger through the air, and a black line formed in the air. Slowly, it shaped itself into a rune. Specifically, Ordinance. Fenrir moved slowly and methodically, but I was in awe. I hadn¡¯t even tried to form inscriptions in the air yet, and he was just¡­ doing it?? I didn¡¯t interrupt, though, since he wasn¡¯t done quite yet. The Ordinance inscription seemed to solidify, then get a bit¡­ wet? He pressed his palm into it, and it sunk into his fur like a tattoo. ¡°How did you do that?¡± I finally asked, shocked that he¡¯d managed to teach me something immediately after being born. Seriously, he was at most a half hour old and he was already ahead of me in crafting inscriptions. Fenrir just shrugged. ¡°You taught me all I know, master. Perhaps you simply had yet to consider it from this angle? After all, you are far more spread out than I, whereas this is my purpose. You created me expressly for this, so all of my knowledge has built up this aspect of myself exclusively. You knew that magical energy could take on solid and liquid form. You also know how to alter and manipulate dead flesh, and how inscriptions work. You could have done this if you¡¯d spent enough time on it, I¡¯m certain.¡± I frowned, then waved open a portal to the sixteenth floor. ¡°Have fun, I guess?¡± He leapt through the rift and nodded. I spied for a moment with a sensor¨C my old Omnipresence ability. Sure enough, with a few growls and a bit of teeth-gnashing, the biggest of the Nailwolves were fighting with Fenrir. I settled in to watch the proceedings, wishing I could get¨C or even eat¨C some popcorn. Fenrir 1: Overlooked If the beast was being perfectly honest, he didn¡¯t really need the silly spellbook his sire was crafting for him. He would use it, of course, if just to please his lord, but¡­ Fenrir punched forward at the lunging Nailwolf and a bolt of black lightning erupted from his inscription. Said inscription seared itself into his flesh slightly, but he reinforced the area with Mentum to prevent it from doing what a standard talisman would¨C that is, devouring him to empower the cast. With a controlled flow of Forbodum, he could feed the rune exactly the amount he intended to. With his Mentum, he could cut off its pull from his body before it started trying to kill him. It was technically a risky, more focus-intensive way of using a simple enchantment, but it was much more powerful, and well¡­ the results spoke for themselves. The world froze wherever the lightning passed, and the wolf was simply stuck in the air as part of its body had been pinned there. Using a carefully-crafted intent and the more space-related aspects of Forbodum, Fenrir had managed to create a semi-offensive Ordinance, one that demanded that its affected objects freeze in place. On the wolf, it was simply a debuff of sorts, but against a living being? A properly-aimed blast could stop a mortal¡¯s heart. The Nailwolf flailed in the air, but the effect dropped off after a few seconds, allowing it to flop to the ground. It once more went on the offensive, but another, more powerful blast of stasis convinced it to concede. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Some howls of acknowledgement reached into the heavens¨C or rather, the corners of the Seam in reality. His pack followed him as he moved on to the next group of Nailwolves. It took but a few short hours for him to conquer his floors. A handful of wolves attempted to slice him to bits with their magic, but it mattered not, for his flesh was simply too energetic for their matching energies to seriously harm, and he outranged them. Exploring his new body in this way was rather effective, as he was able to explore his limits quickly and had the time to gather his thoughts and fully realize the concept of existence. His wolven instincts¨C held by the body he inhabited, rather than his own Wisp mind¨C and ramshod Stasis enchantment did most of the combat on his behalf, which just allowed him to think even more. First of all, he realized that his creator had some things he needed to be doing. A mental tug was all Fenrir needed to call over his master''s attention. ¡°Do you need something?¡± The voice reverberated through the lycan¡¯s mind, and the Nailwolves in his surroundings were immediately cowed by the commanding feeling of their master''s magic. ¡°Yes, sire,¡± he voiced aloud, ¡°I believe that you have yet to examine the memories you gained from absorbing the Ordinance rune in depth?¡± A chilly feeling swept over the area. ¡°No, I have not. I''ll rectify that now.¡± ¡°Ah, no! Master, I can explain the situation.¡± The lich-lord¡¯s attention remained in the area, so Fenrir continued, ¡°Ordinance inscriptions have two primary effects. ¡°The first, as I''m sure you''re aware, is to add temporary rules to an area when you give it mana, such as making air toxic, stopping water from freezing or fire from burning, halting the wind, or allowing grass to grow through stone. ¡°The other is the same, but ever so slightly different. You see, the way that the Ordinance rune works is as part of an If/Then statement. When given an input, it creates an effect. It''s coding, master.¡± Chapter 24: Coding and Getting Scolded ¡°I believe that you have yet to examine the memories you gained from absorbing the Ordinance rune in depth?¡± My mind froze in place. Schnitzel. I hadn¡¯t done that, had I? ¡°No, I have not. I''ll rectify that right now.¡± ¡°Ah, no! Master, I can explain the situation. Ordinance inscriptions have two primary effects. The first, as I''m sure you''re aware, is to add rules to the area, such as making air toxic, stopping water from freezing or fire from burning, halting the wind, or allowing grass to grow through stone. ¡°The other is the same, but different. You see, the way that the Ordinance rune works is as an If/Then statement. ¡°It''s coding, master.¡± It¡¯s coding. I felt a nudge from Fenrir as he pushed some thoughts at me, and I saw a series of linked inscriptions, all feeding into one another as a massive ritual. I saw a man stepping on a magical landmine. An image flashed by of a huge stone door, opening up on its own as a man stepped in front of it. Honestly, making Fenrir might¡¯ve been the greatest decision I¡¯d made to date. Right away, I tore open the gate to Kelemnion, dropping through the inky blackness and onto a hard floor. I immediately started seeking out inscriptions that could pair with Ordinance and started reading.
Ordinance: A command, order, or decree, often from a person of significant authority in the area. Defense: To defend against or otherwise prevent attack. Infliction: To cause unpleasantness or pain to be inflicted upon another. Observe: The action of watching or noticing something, especially if it is of significance. Process: A strategy that involves using a number of actions to reach a certain goal. Reference: To mention, comment on, or cite something. By the end of the third consecutive book, I was having a bit of a soulache, so I popped back into the base world to get to work trying to understand the new inscription runes. I had learned a lot this time, and I quickly sent Fenrir my new findings through our link so he could do some tinkering of his own. I also formed him one of the quills I¡¯d given to the Scholars earlier, so he wouldn¡¯t have to do that energy-intensive air-rune thing. Now fully alone with my own thoughts, I needed to take a moment to review for myself. First of all, the majority of inscriptions had more than one rune. The runes could do stuff on their own, but they were often the most successful when they had support. When an inscription went from simply having support to having multiple functions or undergoing multiple steps, it was called a ritual. Rituals were considered separate from talismans and enchantments, though there was some intersection at times. The main way to differentiate is that enchantments were usually constantly fed power, talismans burned through their material to fuel themselves, and rituals drained small amounts of power for upkeep, and then used larger bursts to create actual effects. In other words, they were more efficient enchantments. One example of a relatively simple ritual would be linking an Ordinance with a Process and an Observe rune. If I made the Observe detect the presence of life, then I could have the Process rune connect that input to the Ordinance and activate it, potentially cranking down the temperature to inhospitable levels. The main advantage to this method was that it saved energy, was less predictable, and could react to different situations. Instead of having the Ordinance rune run constantly, it could instead activate in short bursts, meaning that less power would be consumed and it might be able to catch people off guard. Imagine walking into a room and being blasted by bolts of lightning from all sides, that sort of thing. I also now had a way to make stone doors. Up until this point, I¡¯d not had a way to really do that, since I wasn¡¯t a doorsmith back on Earth. Now, I could set an Observe rune to look for a specific item-key and only open if that was brought to it. In fact, I immediately had a great way to test my new knowledge. ¡°Hey, Uban?¡± I nudged the land-dragon through our bond, but he was snoring like an avalanche, so I left him to his slumber. Slowly, I formed the idea of what I wanted to happen in my mind, using my Abstractive Influence to bring it into the real world and then siphoning it into my Repository with Conceptual Control. Once I felt that I had plenty of all four of the types I needed, I formed a portal in the floor and dropped straight onto the ground in front of the exit of Uban¡¯s cave. I used one of my quill-spikes on the right wall, simultaneously manipulating the matter to force it to fold into a flat rune. As I carved, I pushed my manufactured Intent into the Observe rune, telling it what I needed it to do. Specifically, it was to keep track of the energies in Uban¡¯s body and trigger the system once they reached critical lows. Once the land dragon is defeated, trigger. Then, I turned back to the open portal. My mind was sent into the surrounding area, and I pulled some Conflict Tungsten into a tall rectangular shape in front of the tear in reality, embedding it into the rock with a rod that pierced into the top of the wall on either side. It was at a slight angle, maybe 5 degrees or so. For funsies, I cut a large black skull into the center of the door. Usually, those come before boss rooms, but whatever. Next, I started carving the first of the two Ordinance runes. This small ritual I was crafting was to have a single function: I wanted the door to swing open when Uban died. Sadly, metal is heavy, and I don¡¯t have grease to make a door work, but luckily I could screw with the laws of nature a little bit here and there with these Ordinances. The first of the Ordinances would affect the rod that I¡¯d stuck through the stone. The metal and rock would lose their friction with each other, effectively acting as a perfect grease. This ritual¡¯s second Ordinance was a bit more costly, but I had experience with screwing around with space magic so it was a little easier on me. This one would shift almost all of the door¡¯s weight up to the top, into the rod. When I say ¡°almost all of,¡± I mean something like 99.9%, if not more. I just had the Intent affect it until everything except the very top was lighter than air. Basically, this rune would make the bottom of the door swing up. Maybe if I got really lucky, I could catch some idiot off guard and break their jaw? Unlikely, but possible. I also carved a Reference rune into the wall. The intent was easy enough to form: it was a locus-based photo concept, a type of intent that was primarily used for illusions and, well, References. It was an image and idea of the wall that I¡¯d carved the rune into. Later, I¡¯d be able to link the Reference rune with another by using the same intent, allowing it to work as a sort of copy-paste function. I could even replace the intent I¡¯d used, simply needing to include that alteration as part of the Reference¡¯s intent. The books said that Reference runes were crazy hard to pull off, and I¡¯m sure that¡¯s true if you¡¯re needing to do it off memory and don¡¯t have access to the original work, but I could produce large quantities of Conceptium at a time and store it for later, so that really wasn¡¯t a problem for me. In fact, I could probably go make these doors on every floor. That sounded time-consuming and off-theme, though, so I wouldn¡¯t. Maybe later on I¡¯d introduce a quest system to certain floors and make players¨C err, people collect certain items before moving on. I did take a few moments to teleport down and add a front door to the dungeon, though, and set it to open up whenever someone was standing on either side of it. I felt a buzz as I completed, and decided to check up on the new level after some maintenance. Some of the girls in the small town that I totally hadn¡¯t forgotten about spotted me and stared in fear. I took a moment to inspect them, and found their health to be adequate. The box of food left by Esheth was starting to run dry, and I¡¯d need to find an alternative food source soon, but there was still about a week before they started starving. Plenty of time to procrastinate. Or¡­ maybe I shouldn¡¯t? They¡¯d probably get upset. Ugh, fine. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. My mind searched around for a leader, then screeched to a halt. A small amount of panic welled up in my soul as I turned and spotted Azrael, standing directly behind me with a blank expression. ¡°Uh, hi th¨C¡± She vanished from my senses, and my skull disconnected from my spine. I let out a raspy sigh, directing my body to put my head back on and healing up my broken neck. Azrael seemed to be in the exact same spot, but now she wore a pout and her foot tapped impatiently. ¡°Apologize.¡± Her voice was firm and unforgiving. It seemed she wouldn¡¯t let me get away with this one. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for leaving you alone for weeks without telling you what I was doing or where I¡¯d be.¡± Look, I¡¯d been aware, I had just gotten caught up with all my new stuff. She maintained her hard expression for a moment longer, then seemed to slump. ¡°Don¡¯t disappear without telling me,¡± she said tiredly, ¡°I won¡¯t be so forgiving next time. Also, get over here.¡± I did as she asked, too afraid of upsetting her anymore not to. Apparently though, she just wanted to break my ribs. With a hug, I mean. The microfractures were easy to fix, so I didn¡¯t begrudge her the damage. ¡°Notice anything different about me?¡± She asked, still sounded a bit upset but also slightly coy. My Esoteric Sight and Abstractive Knowledge swept over her, and a brief moment of shock overtook me. She¡¯d gotten a combination affinity while I was gone! But then again, she had been pretty close to level 5 when I¡¯d become an Ancient Seeker. With that said¡­ ¡°How did you get a Light affinity? Didn¡¯t you say that was necessary for the magic type you wanted?¡± She shook her head, releasing me from her deathgrip. ¡°I looked through your book and found something else I liked.¡± ¡°Oh? Wanna explain?¡± She grinned excitedly. ¡°Sure! So, you remember how I already had Lethe, Nyx, and a minor affinity for Necrosis?¡± I nodded. Azrael¡¯s race, Wraith, started with an affinity for Nyx, or Darkness, but a lesser affinity in Necrosis, Death. She¡¯d chosen Lethe as her element, but since she only had a minor affinity she wouldn¡¯t have been able to combine them into a higher-tiered element. ¡°My original plan was to just leave Necrosis out of the mix, but the book you gave me, as well as my own legend, showed me that there was an affinity for it.¡± Suddenly, the space around her¡­ well, it stopped existing. At least, that¡¯s what my domain told me. ¡°This energy is called Absiete. It represents the lack of something where it once was present. For example, Life¡¯s opposite is Death, but Death is really what you call it when something goes from being alive to dead. The same case is true for Light and Darkness, heat and cold, matter and space, and so much more.¡± Azrael looked real proud of herself, and I was fascinated by her element, immediately wondering what we could use it for. Perhaps it would be good to use for offensive inscriptions? Or maybe I could even redo the door runes I just made and make them more efficient? An energy that could become the absence of weight with the right intent would probably do better than just slathering a ton of my jack-of-all-trades Forbodum onto the metal. Then she pouted again. ¡°And you weren¡¯t even there to celebrate with me! I¡¯ve been working towards this for years, Ambrose!¡± I winced¨C but not really, since I didn¡¯t have skin. ¡°I apologized!¡± ¡°Mhm,¡± she hummed with a glare. Then she smirked a little. ¡°I guess I can forgive you.¡± I breathed a sigh of release. ¡°If you make me a new set of gear as a token of your undying devotion to me.¡± I gaped at her bemused expression. I think the face was particularly humorous on me because of the fact that I pretty much looked like a purple Skeletor. ¡°I used to prefer lighter armor, but my new kit lets me ignore a lot of the issues that I previously had with it, so I¡¯d like something tough, okay?¡± She requested, completely ignoring my confusion. ¡°I still like to use two weapons, so some shortswords would be greatly appreciated, though they can be longer for the same reasons as me wanting heavier armor.¡± She raised an eyebrow, and I nodded quickly, agreeing to her terms. If it gets her to forgive me, then it¡¯ll be fine. It¡¯s also probably going to be fun, so no reason not to, right? Not to mention, if I can find a way to make her safer against the oncoming threat, then that¡¯s for the best. ¡°How many days has it been?¡± I ask Azrael seriously. ¡°About fourty.¡± More than I¡¯d hoped, but fewer than I¡¯d feared. That left me with something liked 324 days to mount defenses, finish the tower, and level up. ¡°I¡¯ll go work on that armor, okay? Also, I finished the boss for the sixteenth floor, feel free to pop in and say hi. I think he turned out pretty well.¡± Azrael nodded at me with a smile. ¡°Remember to take breaks and come say hi. If you¡¯re leaving, tell me first.¡± I gave her my assent and tore open a portal to the top floor of my tower. The first step of crafting a set of armor was to gather the metal. I could, of course, use Conflict Tungsten, but that would affect her ability to use magic, which would just be stupid. It would most likely fight the ability that she would be relying on to move properly in the armor. Instead, I searched for something else. My preferred material would be steel, but all I really knew about it was that it was iron with carbon in it. Actually, wait. I pulled out some of the gear that the team I¡¯d nearly TPK¡¯d had dropped and inspected it with my domain. Their blades were made of steel, so I inspected it and found that the average was about 2%, and there were trace amounts of other metals mixed in. It was all inconsistent, though, so I looked deeper. Eventually, I was able to query my influence about the precise molecular structure of the metal, and had something of an epiphany. Using an utterly immense amount of Mentum to control my power, I slowly shifted the molecules that made up the sword I was working on. Immediately, it all went to crap, and I messed it up, but I knew what I had just done. I¡¯d just used my old transmutation Boon on the metal. Actually, speaking of Boons¡­ Seif Ambrose Ancient Seeker 5 Repository 2 Forbodum Manipulation 2 Occult Sovereignty 1 Kelemnion¡¯s Gate 1 Dark Whispers 1 Enhancements: Willpower x5 Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma¡¯Uban, Fenrir I¡¯d managed to level up my Forbodum Manipulation at some point while I was making the doors, so now I had a choice to make. I reached for the Boons and felt them out. Both Boons expanded on what I could do with Conceptium. Energetic Intent would teach me how to use it as a standalone power, uninfluenced by my magic. It would be like using Mentum, except it would be automated. An inscription powered by this would directly manipulate other magic to accomplish its goals, meaning that it wouldn¡¯t have the same affinity-based weaknesses that a normal energy type might produce. It wouldn¡¯t have the same strengths either, though. Dao Pool, though. Dao? Like that Xianxia stuff? Inspecting this Boon showed that it was based on the utilization of Conceptium inside my Mentum pool. This would allow it to influence everything I did with my power passively, meaning that I wouldn¡¯t need to expend any additional effort to create it or pull it from elsewhere. Instead, I would simply need to spend some time converting my Dao Pool to the intent I desired. Then it would be produced alongside my Mentum, binding itself to it in the process. That sounded pretty good¡­ for a regular mage. My Repository could already store Conceptium. Heck, I¡¯d formed rats out of the stored intents! That did mean that I had to produce it myself, but Abstractive Influence helped with that, and what¡¯s a Dungeon Master without a little set-up? Also, Dao Pool sounded like it could replicate the effects of Energetic Intent, but my senses told me that was wrong. After all, I hadn¡¯t been able to use Mentum as the energy in a rune, and while Mentum was required for basically everything I did, it could never be used alone. I grabbed Energetic Intent, and new knowledge blossomed within my thick, dead skull. I reached out to some of my stored Death Conceptium, pulling it out into my hands. Normally, the power would simply dissipate into the air, and I¡¯d need to corral it and separate it from the matter it was attached to, but now I knew how to fix that. A thin stream of Mentum exited my mind and wrapped around the loose intent, stripping it away from the matter. Now I understood why Dao Pool wouldn¡¯t have managed to do this. I hadn¡¯t combined the power, I¡¯d just used my Mentum as a barrier between it and the physical world. The next step was to crunch it down, increasing its density more and more until it went from the equivalent of magical gas to magical water. Eventually, I held pure Death in my hands. Not the energy type, but there were some similarities. Necrosis, I realized, came with a subtle Concept of Death, but it wasn¡¯t very strong. Instead, the reason it was so lethal was its means. It was decay in its basest form, the antithesis of Vitasis. Anything it touched died, and because it had a very slight bias against living things¡­ they died. Were that bias to be stripped away, Necrosis would effectively become inert, and the same was true with basically any other element. Any other element¡­ Argh! I so wish I could go experiment with the effects this had on Light right now! I can¡¯t, though, because I need to make this stuff for Azzy. Curse my ADHD! In any case, this might at least be able to help with the gear. Back to what I was doing before picking the new Boon. ¡­What was that? Oh, right, transmutation! I had just figured out how to use the Boon I¡¯d had before specializing that allowed me to transmute one material into another. The reason it had been so expensive for Mentum back then was that I¡¯d had no clue what I was doing, and I hadn¡¯t been able to keep the ability for the same reason. Now, though, I had a way to look closely enough at the molecular makeup of an object to realize how to replicate the effect. Now I just needed some practice, and surely I¡¯d be able to tinker with the alloy and find a perfect ratio between carbon, iron, and maybe even some other things? It would take some time, but surely not too long, right? Chapter 25: Magic Smithing Days. It had taken days to figure out how to reliably transmute objects. Apparently I¡¯m way too distractible for this sort of garbage. It had taken another day to figure out what to use. Eventually, though, I¡¯d had a sort of realization when looking for metals to use in the design. I¡¯d found aluminum, and realized that it actually had a greater tensile strength for its weight, and I could always just bind multiple copies of the gear together and have them build on each other. In the end, I¡¯d given up on the whole alloyed steel thing and just transmuted a ton of stone into aluminum. Somewhere during the process, Azrael had come to check in on me, so I¡¯d been able to show off my progress. It was at that point that we tested her strength, the effect of her new powers, and I¡¯d gotten her measurements with my Encompassing Knowledge¨C with her permission, of course. I¡¯m not a creep, no matter what my search history might imply. Now it was time to actually form the armor. I¡¯d gotten an idea of what the inside of the gear should look like to let her feel comfortable while still covering her entire body, as she¡¯d allowed me to form gear directly around her and told me what to do to make it feel better. It¡¯s good that she trusts me so much. Now that she was gone, though, I needed to take that huge chunk of aluminum and crunch it. Honestly, it wasn¡¯t all that hard. A bit of Mentum pressed into my influence and it was done. I went over the shape for a bit, and confirmed that it was exactly what Azrael and I had agreed upon. Then, I created a Seam bound to the space of the armor, and made another. And another, and another. Azzy was 5¡¯4¡± and some change, and her weight was in the 120 pound range. With two Reinforcements, she was a lot stronger than a regular person. Back on Earth, steel plate armor was usually somewhere around 40 to 50 pounds. This would be closer to 20. Azrael could lift over 200 lbs without all that much strain¨C a bit under 300 if she put some real effort in¨C and that was before her magic kicked in. With it, she could act like most of it didn¡¯t even exist. In fact, we¡¯d measured, and it seemed that things weighed half of what they normally would, or at least she could lift twice as much. And that was only using a small amount of energy! Enough for her to sustain for days. With those numbers, we could have her armor weigh something like 100 lbs before it started to affect her much. Now, the reason that all of this mattered was that when I connected two things with my old Sympathetic Bonding, any forces that were applied to one object were spread to the others, and the effectiveness was based on proximity. That meant that the most effective way was to link them together via a portal, and the most efficiently I could do that was by overlaying them with a Seam. The reason all of this mattered was that the armor was a static object, but I¡¯d be linking a bunch of sets together and overlaying them. The linking wouldn¡¯t increase the weight, but Azzy would have to carry the seams as well, thus increasing the weight of the gear. Eventually, I overlapped five sets of armor, and sent a pulse of some power I¡¯d gathered with Enegetic Intent¨C Protection Conceptium, specifically, targeted at the idea of Azrael¨C in the hopes that it would help out a little bit. I didn¡¯t know if it would actually do anything, and couldn¡¯t observe any changes, but I knew that it wanted to. At the bare minimum, it might influence any magic that came into contact with her to help instead of hurt. Next up was the inscriptions. Because I was working on an object that was already tough for its weight and was then five times as strong as it should be, the only reason it was possible for me to carve them all in one go like this was the power that my domain held over the objects. The first enchantment I''d come up with was a simple force deflection inscription, using a simple Observe rune designed to detect objects moving at speeds that could harm Azrael. I left the exact interpretation of what could hurt her up to the runes, hoping they''d know what she could handle. Said rune was connected via Process rune to a Defense rune that was given extra vague instructions to defend Azrael. The intent used had pretty much just been shown images of walls, shields, and counterprojectiles, then allowed to disperse a bit in a controlled environment. Hopefully, that would be enough to allow it to be at least a little creative in how it tackled the problems thrown at it. Azrael¡¯s new Absiete should help in that regard. A few References to those inscriptions were layered across her different armor pieces, making sure that she''d be protected from just about anything that came her way. I also set up some similarly formatted Ordinance enchantments to increase the durability of her armor while she wore it and make it slowly repair itself when damaged. That second one had been extra tricky, since it wasn''t something fully natural but instead required me to tell it to gather anything¨C even particles¨C that broke or scraped off, and then smooth those bits back into the normal shape of the armor. It still might need my attention at times, but it should be much more corrosion-resistant and last longer in a fight. It was at this point in the work that I realized that I''d made a stupid mistake. None of the ritual or enchantment inscriptions I''d made so far had a passive power source. A brief review of my memories was enough to show me what to do. I needed a source of crystalized energy, specifically of the type that I was trying to use in the rune circuit. Now, there were a few ways to get crystalized energy. First, it could be found in areas where there was a high density of power. Indeed, I did see a few Necrosis gems scattered about my influence. I¡¯d previously neglected to inspect them, dismissing them simply as large concentrations of death, like where battles had been fought in the days of yore. I couldn¡¯t very well check every single thing in my domain, else I would have to drop all other activities to intake all of the knowledge that entered my domain as the wisps floated away. The next way was to manufacture them forcibly. You basically needed to find something that could contain the given energy type without destroying it and apply a ton of pressure for a long period of time. The process was meant to be long and tiring, sometimes taking entire days to form larger gems. Luckily for me, I didn¡¯t have to do it on my own. Wisp labor is neat, isn¡¯t it? I created four Wisps with knowledge of basic energy manipulation to do all the heavy lifting for me, then gave them some pure Mentum to work with. They would draw some out and leave it there, then use more Mentum with the intent to crush the original amount into a crystal. The Mentum would be able to be converted into another type, as it was basically just the purest magical energy, with no direct purpose or means of its own other than to follow the will of the one controlling it. It couldn¡¯t even interact with anything other than energy. In any case, it was time for me to work on some more of the inscriptions. I wasn¡¯t actually making them directly on the armor, but rather on plates of aluminum that I intended to hide away in seams attached to the armor. The actual runes on the armor were References to the plates, meaning that once I finished a plate it was much simpler to spread the enchantments across the entire piece. The next few ideas I had needed some testing, so I spent some time working on them before installing them. By then, the first few pure Mentum runes were completed by my Wisps, and I directly converted the first by carefully packing in Forbodum. The next was inserted with Energized Intent centered on the defense of Azrael, and the other was given the same energy, except focused on destroying whatever it was aimed at. Keeping the Mentum separate from the Conceptium inside the crystal was a little more difficult than actually forming the power, but it just took some concentration and then it was over. The last of the first four gems was brought to Azrael, who then insisted I take a break and watch the setting sun with her. I conceded, then popped right back to my workshop with her crystal in hand a few minutes after it got dark. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. The crystals were installed in strategic places across her armor, with the Absiete gems going on the inside of the chest and one of the Forbodum sources ending up at the waist, with the other being put in the armor¡¯s helmet. The next step hadn¡¯t been directly explained in any of the books, so¨C Red light spread out from the bloody gem, and the mage hardened his concentration, delving into the world of magic. A thread of his purest power extended from his fingertips, stroking the gem. The brief contact was enough to excite the wicked might, and his white Mentum carefully wrapped itself into careful spirals, linking it to his mad scrawlings on the wall. The power was pulled through into the runes, and crimson sparks erupted from them. A mad laugh escaped him as the portal opened. I sighed at the disturbing interruption and buzz in my mind, but shook it off and did my best to absorb the knowledge. Basically, I had to make a tube of Mentum connecting the inscriptions and the gems, and the runes would pull it in. I carefully linked the attack-repelling inscriptions to the Absiete gems, and the armor-mending and durability enchantments to my Forbodum. Absiete, representing things that weren¡¯t there and opposites, should be good at destroying attacks, whereas my own energy type was meant to be centered around two things: gathering knowledge and being a jack-of-all-trades. That should have made it better for that task than Absiete would have been. A quick test¨C chucking a rock at the chestplate¨C showed that I¡¯d been right, as the rock simply vanished into thin air. Dropping the chestplate on the ground showed that the durability-enhancement was also active, as a lattice of purple energy spread across the affected area and stabilized it. Carefully inspecting the area that hit the ground with my domain, I found that small particles of aluminum were being dragged back into the gear. Even better, it seemed that the extra layers of armor inside the seams were also being affected by the restoration, as the loose particles contained within them were also being dragged back into place. I spent a moment molding the pieces, making sure that the loose pieces were fully reconnected and that there were no blemishes or impurities. The next step was to make sure that each piece of the armor could connect together. Currently, it was in a bunch of pieces, but I wanted to link them together, as if with magnets. Getting all the pieces to articulate had been difficult even with the references in the gear that had been left behind by the adventurers, but when I¡¯d seen the way they connected it all I¡¯d decided I could do better with runes. It was definitely functional, just not something I wanted to figure out, and I felt that Azrael would appreciate being able to get into and out of her armor without my direct intervention. I started working on a prototype inscription¡­ and then Azrael jumped through the floor. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± She met my confused eyes. ¡°Oh, yeah, I can move through solid objects now. Takes more Absiete if it¡¯s got more mass or is magical, but I can do it.¡± I brought a gauntlet over to her and held it out. ¡°Try it with this?¡± Her hand went straight through the thing. She shrugged. ¡°Yeah, it takes more than it looks like it should but it¡¯s definitely doable. It¡¯s one of my cheaper abilities. Anyways, how¡¯s the gear going?¡± I guess I could just merge everything with tough joints and then she could just walk through it when she was done? That was handy. ¡°Your timing is impeccable. I was just working on something that I¡¯ve now realized I can just ignore. Anyways, the basic enchantments are done and I was about to work on some of the more complex stuff.¡± I explained the basic functions of her gear and some of the stuff I wanted. The laser beam eyes were rejected, sadly, but she was open to most of what I¡¯d thought of adding. ¡°How are you even going to do all of that?¡± She asked quizzically. She¡¯d never known much about runes or inscriptions. In her life, she¡¯d been a village girl, and she could barely remember that time. After that, she was a guild grunt, and that position was like being a bottom-tier unskilled worker. Your bosses rarely told you anything, you just kinda did stuff. ¡°Well¨C¡± I pulled one of the aluminum plates towards myself by molding the stone beneath it¨C ¡°This is an Ordinance rune. Their role is effectively to change the laws of reality within their area. They can drain a lot of power, though, so the goal for me is usually to affect a small area, and as little as possible. ¡°I also have what amounts to an attack rune and a defend rune, which can be edited to perform their functions in a different way. The more vague of an input I give them, the better they can carry out their role. On your armor, I gave the Defense runes pretty obscure instructions, so they should try to handle problems creatively and at lower costs. I also installed systems to help keep your armor intact for longer, so don¡¯t worry about getting tossed around too much, at least in terms of the armor. It should be pretty tough, better than steel would be for the same weight. ¡°As for these extra utility bits, most should just be a matter of adding in some clever triggers paired with the right effect runes. I¡¯ll figure it all out, don¡¯t worry,¡± I explained. We chatted for a while longer about more specific details and how her time alone had been spent. She¡¯d managed to get the girls down below to accept her as their leader with less intimidation than either of us had been expecting, and everything¨C save for the dwindling food¨C was going smoothly. She made me promise to fix the food crisis during my next break, and I agreed. I should theoretically be able to get some normalish plant life to grow around my tower, if I controlled my influence well enough, put the right minerals in, and got some seeds over. I¡¯d need to make sure to get some plants that weren¡¯t carnivorous, though¨C they seemed to be in the majority around here. In fact, I spent a moment right then cleaning up the surrounding area to make it more hospitable for plant growth. It wasn¡¯t very difficult, though it was a little tedious, manually pulling the majority of the top-layer earthen minerals in my domain towards my tower and spreading them evenly across about a mile-radius of myself. I¡¯d still need to get some plants, and probably figure out a way to both make them edible and have them grow faster, but I was certain that some inscriptions could manage it. Anyways, time for those extra bits. The first thing I wanted to add was¡­ double jump. Or more accurately, an air walk. Basically, I wanted to make a way for her to form a platform of Forbodum beneath her feet, allowing her to walk or jump in mid-air. Now, the first thing needed, as with other rituals, was a way to detect when it was needed. Obviously, I could just put it for when she was falling at a certain speed, but what if she wanted to fall? No, I needed something that she could use on command. My plan for this enchantment¨C as well as many others¨C was to hook the input up to her hands, specifically her left gauntlet. Then, she could activate them on command with the right gesture, and it would be more difficult for her to accidentally trigger them than it otherwise might be. The air walk runes themselves weren¡¯t hard to work out: I used a simple Observe on her gauntlet, set to detect whenever she made the ¡°hang loose¡± sign with her hand. I thought it was pretty funny. That was followed by a Process rune on her bracer, linking it to a Defense rune on the bottom of the boot. I thought that a Defense rune might work to ¡°protect her¡± from her own velocity, but I made sure to program it with a very specific image¨C a purple shield forming beneath the boot, and remaining locationally locked to the environment and not her foot. The inscription was finally linked up to the Forbodum energy cell in the armor¡¯s waist, and it was complete. Part of the issue with these specific runes is that because they¡¯re so heavily based on their location¨C watch the hand, place a shield under the foot¨C I couldn¡¯t just make a Reference, hide it in a seam, and call it a day. I had to lay them out individually. This method made them a bit more vulnerable to attack, as they took up more space and would be much easier to notice, but hopefully my self-repair function would work to combat that. The next rune I was thinking of adding was basically just telekinesis. My idea for it was mostly based on my own ability to manipulate stuff within my influence, and the Ordinance rune I¡¯d used on the palm was programmed to suffuse whatever it was pointed at with energy and lock it into the object, then manipulate said energy to keep it locked to the same relative position, dragging the object along with it. The Observe rune was told to look for her to press her fingers together. There was also another Observe rune looking at the object she was aiming at. If she was making the ¡°OK¡± symbol and was aiming at something that weighed less than a hundred pounds and was within a hundred feet, it would lock in. It also wouldn¡¯t trigger if it was pointing at an object that was already being affected by the enchantment. Hopefully, at least. I hadn¡¯t tested any of this myself, so much of it was just guesswork. I finalized the armor there. There was more I wanted to add, but I thought it best to have the current design tested first. Next up, sword time. For the creation of the sword, I basically just mimicked what I did for the armor, layering aluminum on top of itself multiple times and using bone for the handle. I used the same enchantments to increase the blade¡¯s durability and make it self-repair, putting the Forbodum gem in the blade¡¯s pommel and an Absiete one in the crossguard. As had been requested, the blade was pretty chonky by the end, looking something more like a longsword than anything else. The aluminum had made it weigh very little, but it ended up with more mass than it would have with steel anyways due to the way I¡¯d put multiple swords in the same space. Then came the fun bit. I had two ideas for what to do for offensive enchantments. The first was pretty simple: I put an Observe rune together with a Process and Infliction rune. I could probably achieve the effect I wanted with an Ordinance rune, but using a more specialized rune was generally better in most situations. An Ordinance rune was fancy, and was the equivalent of running a game on Super-High Performance Mode when all it did was make your game lag more and look a little better. It could be really cool at times, sure, but it was inefficient as schnizz. I could have most likely created platforms in the air for Azrael to walk on with Ordinances. Honestly, they might have even been better. They¡¯d drain a ton of energy, though. No thank you. In this case, I was using an Infliction rune to form a sheath of Absiete around the blade once it got moving at a high enough speed. All an Infliction rune really wanted to do was destroy stuff, and I gave it free reign to go crazy on anything in the path of the sword. The next ritual enchantment used my own Forbodum energy. Once the sword was past a creature¡¯s defenses and into the squishy bits, it would release a blast of the energy of Forbidden Knowledge. I gave this Infliction rune a very basic and simple command¨C disable the opponent. I figured that a stationary target wouldn¡¯t be able to give Azrael much trouble, considering her magic and the other enchantment on the blade, so I felt it was appropriate. Now, she wanted two swords, but I¡¯m just gonna give her this one first to make sure she likes it. It would suck to have to make edits to two prototypes at the same time. Hopefully she doesn''t hate the gear. Chapter 26: Test Drive ¡°Wow, I¨C¡± Azrael clenched her gauntleted hand contemplatively¨C ¡°really hate it.¡± My jaw dropped. Literally. I had to pick it up off the floor. Azrael burst out laughing from my display of shock, and barely managed to restrain herself enough to get out, ¡°I¨C I was kidding, Ambrose!¡± She took another moment to get all of the giggles out, then continued, ¡°It''s very impressive. I have no clue how you managed to do this. Thank you.¡± Her hand reached towards a boulder I''d molded out of the wall for this express purpose. Azrael''s fingers pinched, and a ray of power linked her hand to the boulder, a lattice of energy¨C not dissimilar to the one that had covered the armor when I''d dropped it¨C spreading through it. Suddenly, Azrael''s hand flicked up, and the rock quickly followed behind it, smashing into the ceiling above. Dust and pebbles trained from overhead, and I winced, but it was fine. I''d installed what amounted to Conflict Tungsten rebar into my tower¨C this bad boy wouldn''t be falling to some rocks. Now, a note about the telekinesis enchantment: while I''d placed a mass limiter on what it would target, there was no speed limit. This meant that the inscription would try to perfectly match her wrist¡¯s change in angle, which meant that far-off objects could gain a lot of angular momentum when targeted by her Honestly, the effects were making me consider carving some inscriptions into my next body, just for some added power. ¡°Ambrose!¡± Azrael yelled into my face, waving a hand in front of it. ¡°Oh, sorry, I got distracted. What is it?¡± ¡°We''re going to go get some food for the girls. Has your influence extended past the Dead Belt yet?¡± A moment of consideration revealed that yes, yes it had. I relayed this information to Azrael and was soon forming a portal for us. Sacrificing a good chunk of my power with a soft sigh, I manipulated space across a huge area. The only reasons I could even manage the task was that the space was contained within my influence¨C and thus more pliable to my whims¨C and the fact that I was using a higher tier of energy than simple Spatium. A shred appeared in the fabric of reality and we stepped through, arriving in a grassy, living plain. ¡°Wow,¡± breathed Azrael. ¡°As much as it disgusts some part of me, I must admit that life is beautiful.¡± I had to agree. After so long in a tower, surrounded by nothing but dead mountains¡­ Well, the view was nice. Seeing it in person was much better than just understanding it with my domain. Unexpectedly, Azrael linked arms with me and started pulling me forwards. ¡°C''mon slowpoke! We''ve got a meal to catch!¡± A few hours in, it had become clear that I was an active detriment to Azzy¡¯s ability to sneak up on prey, so she''d sent me back to go look for some plants to grow. Surprisingly, I actually found a good number of edible foods. From trueberries to kane apples, there was plenty of delicious food here, and a lot of it was even mostly similar to the stuff found back on Earth. I was carefully pulling the seeds of a phoenixfruit into a seam that I''d linked to my right metacarpals¨C I didn''t want to accidentally damage them, either through force or the intense magic of my body¨C when I spotted Azrael lugging back a huge¡­ stag? It was furry, and had claws, but otherwise resembled a male deer. The thing would have been at least ten feet tall while alive. ¡°You think this will be enough?¡± Azrael grinned at me, and I just shook my head. ¡°Yeah, yeah, you''re the hero of the village. I think I''ve gathered most of the local edible plants that I think I''ll be able to grow back up home. Want to head back now?¡± Azrael''s arm clasped mine again, her grin only growing wider. ¡°Sure thing, handsome.¡± I tried to distract her from my non-existent blush with a roll of my non-existent eyes. I swear, the more time I spend as a Lich, the less Lichy I feel. Maybe all the Willpower upgrades made me emotionally closer to a human then I''d originally been? It was an interesting thought. I reached a hand out to initiate the opening of a fold, then hesitated. ¡°Is everything alright?¡± Azrael worriedly commented on the distinct lack of portal. I shook my head. ¡°There''s actually some potentially problematic locations I want to check out with you before heading back, if that''s okay? There might be some monsters there, though, so I can drop you off back if you¨C¡± ¡°I''ll come with,¡± she interjected. ¡°Mind taking me somewhere to put this body so it doesn''t rot?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll just do this.¡± I shoved the corpse into a seam and closed it off, then started searching through my influence for one of the ¡°problem areas.¡± My domain was getting pretty huge, with the passive Wisp expansion, and I''d encountered a couple other domains that needed my personal attention. I hadn''t really made any efforts to crush this opposition yet¨C it was entirely possible that I could simply overwhelm and crush this opposition with a thought, but I just hadn''t really cared to at the time. Now, though, these holdouts could serve as test subjects for Azrael''s new might. The first disruption I teleported us to turned out to be a bit of a dud, though I did find something that might be fun later. We teleported into the area¨C a rocky outcropping back in the Dead Belt¨C and found a small horde of zombies. One of them, leading their ponderous, seemingly random march, was slightly taller and had a Necrosis gem stuffed into its rotting skull. It looked like some kind of blow to the head had cut the human¡¯s life short, and then the gem had¡­ grown out of it? I''d have to do some research later. I pointed out the particular undead to Azrael, and she''d dropped into her new stealth mode, which basically just made her completely vanish to all senses¨C my influence-related ones included. The only reason I could pinpoint her location was by recognizing the faint flux of my own magical signature in her armor. Absiete was more complex than simply taking things away. It replaced. Light was replaced by dark, life with death, for example. It was the absence of a thing, and included what would take its place. In this case, Azrael was able to move around without affecting anything by convincing the world that she didn''t exist, replacing herself with the air that was already in position. If I could barely tell where Azyy was within my influence, even with all my knowledge and familiarity with her powers, then this braindead zombie stood no chance. As I''d expected, the Wraith walked straight up to the domain-controlling zombie, pulled out her sword, and cut its head off. The undead¡¯s body slumped to the floor, but Azrael grabbed the head before disappearing once more and moving back to my side. The zombie horde looked confused, but not overly aggressive. It was likely that the domain-controller had been controlling them somehow, and now they were free. My influence swept over the outcropping, pressing over the undead and terrain with its omnipotent power. I could squash the zombies with an offhand thought now, but refrained. After all, that would be like slaughtering an entire pack of deer. Bloodthirsty, life-hating corpses they may be, but they''re still basically animals. No need to be cruel. Azrael and I hopped around between a few more of the disruptions, slaying a few undead who had been lucky enough to get their hands on both specializations and domain abilities. For the most part, they were pretty weak, though there had been one that concerned me. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. The opposing monster had been somewhat insect-like, compressed of a few bodies that had putrefied together enough to rise as a single unit. Much of its body was covered in a sleek, black chitin, formed primarily of viscera, rot, and Necrosis. Azrael''s blade cut through the horror with a single blow, just like all of the others. Honestly, I''d been waiting for us to run into an opposing Lich, but there hasn''t been any. Even once I started prodding at the other pockets of influence within the Dead Belt, I didn''t find anything, which was rather concerning considering that my domain covered most of the Dead Belt. Was I the only Lich alive? What had happened to the others? Something to research later, surely. Eventually, Azrael and I were satisfied with the test results, so I swept all the gore and dirt off of her body and gear, then formed a portal back to the first floor of my dungeon. A Twin scale was startled by our sudden entrance, and scuttled off quickly. ¡°So,¡± I said, ¡°definitely fix the sword so it stops pointlessly blasting undead with Necrosis?¡± Azzy nodded. ¡°I also want a higher weight tolerance for the telekinesis, and a way to control the distance it maintains.¡± I agreed and quickly detached the gauntlet from the rest of her armor, taking the sword as well. ¡°Where do you want the, uh¡­¡± I examined the corpse she''d given me before and examined it with Encompassing Knowledge. ¡°Bayloun?¡± ¡°I''d appreciate it if you could just drop it off at my place.¡± I looked at her in confusion. ¡°Your place?¡± Azrael rolled her eyes beneath her helmet. ¡°Yes, look for the door with the black skull on it.¡± I quickly found her place in my influence and folded the bayloun body into it. I also stored the gear I''d gotten from her into a small seam and opened the one with the seeds, stepping out into the small city with Azrael. She looked on with a small amount of wonder as I used my magic to spread the seeds I''d collected around my tower. They spread out in mid-air, and the earth tore itself open to accept them. ¡°Whelp, I¡¯m gonna make some inscriptions, see you later!¡± I waved her off, and she left to skin her catch. I spent a moment considering just how I should handle making these puppies grow, but it only made sense to start with the basics. For some reason, the Necrosis in the Dead Belt seemed to fight against the sun, so I formed a rune to gather ambient light and reflect it towards the plants. I was actually able to use a Defense rune, telling it to protect everywhere except where the plants would grow from light, reflecting it with a mostly invisible and intangible pane of Forbodum. The next was a ritual: an Observe rune would look for soil that wasn¡¯t damp and a Process rune would send that location to an Ordinance, which would concentrate ambient moisture at the location at a slow, steady pace. Basically, it would make it rain. I Referenced the runes and placed them all around the base of my tower before hooking them up to hidden energy cells. The moment both sets of runes were active and hooked up to a Forbodum gem, the area immediately around my tower brightened and rain started falling from small, faint clouds that were a couple dozen feet off the ground. The effect was actually pretty cool, as the upper parts of my tower darkened, and fog seemed to form around it. Once it stopped raining, I got to work on the next rune. Currently, it would take a pretty long time for the plants to grow, but I was pretty sure that I could speed that up. I remembered that plant growth was regulated by a hormone, gibber-something. If I could speed up the production of that¡­ I carved an Ordinance rune into the base of my tower, instructing it to increase nearby hormone production within plants. It was a good thing that I had a decent grasp on plant cells and inner workings from my biology class back in high school. Without it, I might not have been able to do this, which made me wonder how a normal inscriptionist would handle this problem. Actually, Vitasis would probably do all of this stuff automatically, I just had to do it this way because of my Forbidden Knowledge affinity. Oh well, nothing for it. I examined the plants carefully and saw that the ones within the rune¡¯s radius were growing noticeably faster than those without, so I copied it all around the tower and set up some more power cells for the energy-hungry enchantment. I¡¯d need to remember to refuel everything every couple days, but that was perfectly fine with me. With my massive quantity of Willpower, and the increased efficacy of Forbodum when compared with Spatium and Necrosis, I wasn¡¯t very concerned about energy problems these days. When I was low on power, it regenerated faster, so there was very little chance of me running out unless I were in an extremely tense situation where I had to throw everything at the wall at once. With the plants sorted, I moved on to trying to fix up the errors made in Azrael¡¯s gear. A normal inscriptionist would have to toss whatever they made if there were any mistakes, but I was able to contain the explosive force of magic getting expelled from a rune within a seam, reinforce the metal itself, and simultaneously reshape everything with my influence. With all that combined, I was able to keep the piece itself¨C as well as most of my work¨C while editing the faulty rune. Because of this, I was able to keep Azrael¡¯s sword intact while changing the inscription to make the runework check for being contained within living flesh, rather than just flesh in general. After all, wasting power on enemies that it wouldn¡¯t affect or that were already dead was just stupid. The next thing to do was to allow Azrael to alter the distance between herself and the objects she was manipulating with her enchantments. As for how to do that¡­ well, it would take some thought. I needed to have it work around the current gesture system, but also have variations to it. Eventually, I found a good solution. Instead of trying to do everything with a single new inscription, I kept the original, changing it only slightly to detect when the middle finger and thumb were pressed together in a circle, rather than the index finger and thumb. Then, I added two new inscriptions. They were basically the same thing as before, with one checking for the original ¡°OK¡± symbol, and the other looking for the ring finger and thumb to do the same. When the index trigger went off, the tethered object would slowly be pulled inwards, with the inverse being true for the ring finger. With these two enchantments combined, Azrael would be able to manipulate objects with extreme precision. She wouldn¡¯t be able to control the speed at which they moved in or out, but it was much better than what she¡¯d had before. I checked in on Azrael, but she was busy skinning the bayloun so I just teleported the gauntlet and sword into a nearby space. She was surprised at first, then grunted a thanks into mid-air, knowing I¡¯d hear it. With that done and dusted, I felt it was time to check in on my Scholars, as well as Fenrir himself. He¡¯d mostly been left to his own devices, and he¡¯d seemed to be doing well the last time I checked in on him, but I felt that it would be best to actually ask instead of assuming that he was alright with his circumstances. Fenrir may have been ¡°born¡± just a few days ago, but that didn¡¯t mean he was stupid and had no needs or wants. He¡¯d been infused with a respectable amount of my own memories, and that meant that he was pretty dang smart. If he needed something, he would surely be capable of voicing that. A quick glance at the Scholars told me that they had finished the work I¡¯d asked, having written up many dozens of talismans on Arachnomicon pages, then circled back on themselves and created copies. Sadly, some part of the process of scribing was intrinsically magical, and I wasn¡¯t able to imbue runework with intent when I was creating it, so it all had to be done manually. Luckily, I had slaves to do that for me. Wait, that sounds wrong. I had my loyal, unpaid spawn who didn''t require food, drink, sleep, or breaks. ¡­That¡¯s still pretty awful, huh? Whatever. Anyways, I took a look at each of the talismans in turn, then decided that they were of passable quality and drew them into the body of a pageless Arachnomicon, making them part of the unliving book. Of course, the fact that the book was alive would do little other than make it seem a bit extra creepy and allow it to self-destruct by activating all of its talismans at once if it was ever separated from Fenrir. With a thought, I opened a tear in reality, manipulating the book into my skeletal hand, and then another, stepping through it to see Fenrir staring at a stone wall and slowly, carefully cutting into it with his right index claw. Thinking he was working on some intricate inscription, I moved silently around him¨C stealth is pretty easy when everything, from the floor you walk on to the air around you, is entirely subject to your whims. Honestly, it¡¯s a wonder I don¡¯t have more of a god complex by now. When I inspected his work, I almost dropped my mandible for the second time in a day. Fenrir wasn¡¯t doing runework. He was making propaganda! ¡°Fenrir, what in the Far Realm is that?¡± The huge wolfman startled, looking back at me with an oddly sheepish expression. ¡°Uh, it¡¯s¡­ scripture? I was hoping you¡¯d help me work out the details.¡± I quickly read over the work. His Desecration¡¯s great work had come to fruition, and the scourge was smote by the wrath of the Nails¡­ And so, the Great Lord of Death brought the lowly mortals into his divine realm¡­ The power and strength of Twice Gifted was spread across the land¡­ This time, I couldn¡¯t help myself. My jaw dropped. ¡°I mean, you weren¡¯t keeping a journal, and I thought it would be a good idea to instill some respect into the sentients who come around here, so¡­¡± He rubbed the back of his neck. For a moment, I thought of stopping him. Of putting an end to this madness, before it could go too far. Then¡­ I remembered something my mom told me, oh-so-long ago. She¡¯d been helping me with a Lego set, and I could tell that she hadn¡¯t really known what she was doing. When I¡¯d asked her why she was helping me, I¡¯d gotten a rather simple answer. ¡°When you care about someone, you¡¯ll want to spend time with them and share interests, even if that means doing things you¡¯re not good at or might otherwise not be interested in.¡± This¡­ was definitely a case of that. ¡°Alright Fen, let¡¯s do it. Tell me what you¡¯ve got in mind, and I¡¯ll help you work things out. Let¡¯s write some lore.¡± Chapter 27: Space Magic is A-MAZE-ing After helping Fenrir out with his new hobby, I turned my attention to the next set of floors above him. With new knowledge about my runic capabilities, I was curious of what exactly I could accomplish. New trap ideas flooded through my mind, and I had the perfect way to test them all out. A labyrinth. For most of my previous floors, I¡¯d just shunted the work off to my Wisps and had minimal influence on what things actually looked like. It would be very different this time. Even when doing things myself and working in a space that was even larger than the width of my tower would suggest¨C since my seams could basically contain whatever I wanted them to¨C I worked fast, and eight sets of increasingly complex mazes filled my seventeenth through twenty fourth floors. Coming up with designs that would actually be difficult to solve took up most of my time, as I could just form whatever I wanted within moments after I¡¯d decided what should actually be there. I had made some labyrinth dungeons for tabletop games before, though, so I had some experience. This might be a lot more real than deciding the placement and size of various rooms on a board, but it actually carried over a lot more than I would have expected. On these dungeon floors, an individual would start off finding themselves at the center of a maze with wide, branching hallways. Only one route would lead to the exit portal, so a single mistake would mean that a party could get completely lost. To ensure the sanctity of the mazes, I not only triple-reinforced the walls, but also placed portals within them. Anyone trying to smash their way through the place would find themselves walking into the same hallway they were trying to leave. The first floor was left completely trapless, and many of the hallways only had one or two possible exits. Dead ends were spotted after just a single bend. The laws of Euclidean math were followed to the letter¨C except the inside of the walls, of course. The second floor was somewhat similar. Dead ends took up to three bends to spot¨C some hallways would only branch off again after the second corner. A couple hallways were given three branches, but not many. I introduced my first trap, as well, though only one. If some idiot was somehow unlucky enough to be walking down this particular dead end, and was extremely close to the left wall, they¡¯d get absolutely blasted by flames made of Absiete. The rune on that wall was completely obvious; I didn¡¯t even try to hide it. If someone got hit by that thing, they deserved it. The next floor was where I started introducing spatial anomalies, but none that were overly complex. There was a disconnect between the start of the maze and the exit, and you could only reach that last portion of it by doing something that looked completely illogical. There was, within this maze, a hallway that had three exits. Two were on the right side of the hallway, and the other was on the left, towards the middle. If you entered the closest door and took a left turn, you would find that it was a dead end. A cursory glance would be enough to tell you that the hall stretched far enough to stop the other hallway from being anything other than a dead end. Going back, the hall to which he left was an immediate dead end, with no bends¨C a unique occurrence in the floors so far. It was that exit on the far right that was the right answer: it appeared as though it intersected with the space of the other hallway¨C the one that had been explored first¨C and then took a right turn, into the space of the main hall that connected all three of these others. It then kept going, reaching the exact point that the left hall would have ended at, and then having a clear portal open to the exit. This was accomplished by pinning a portal into place at the end of that furthest hallway: really, it was just an immediate dead end, but the portal¨C flawlessly integrated into the wall as it was¨C made it look like it was somehow breaking reality and taking up the same space as the other. In reality, the portal just led to a completely separate portion of maze, one that was entirely disconnected from the rest and only accessible by going that exact route. So far, these first three labyrinth floors were pretty easy to make it through, and so I was considering it the ¡°easy¡± portion. Next up was the medium difficulty, where spatial distortions became a lot more common and dead ends became rarer. From rituals that made one-directional portals to make it so that you could walk the same route over and over again, to acid traps, to walls that would close in on you, things ramped up. By the sixth floor in this set, dead ends were extremely rare to find, and it was much more likely that you¡¯d just end up walking through a portal to a completely different section of the maze. All this wasn¡¯t even taking into account the changes in the monsters that I¡¯d be using¨C I currently didn¡¯t really have any ideas for them, but I knew that I wanted them to be fast, and I¡¯d be granting them all full knowledge over the mazes that they were in to allow them to act a bit like minotaurs did in D&D. Now, the seventh and eighth floors were set up to be extremely deadly. There were no dead ends, and every hallway was trapped in some way or another. Maybe the floor would erupt into spikes if you stepped in the wrong place, or an array of death bolts would erupt from the ceiling at certain intervals and you needed to time your movements right. In other words, it was trapped to the Abyss and back, and navigating it would be an arduous task. And again, that¡¯s before the mobs were added in. For the ninth and final floor, I had a very different idea. So far, all of my bosses were mostly pretty stationary, and you had to kill them to pass on to the next floor. This time, what if the boss was something you had to escape from? There were no traps on this floor, and although there were still a ton of spatial effects, they were all pretty obvious. There was only one way to escape, as with all the other mazes, but here there were no dead ends. If you ran out through one corridor, you¡¯d come out on the other side of the labyrinth, no closer to the exit than you¡¯d been at the start. In essence, this maze in particular was effectively endless, unless you had the luck to run into the exit. Hmm. Actually, that sounded a bit unfair. Maybe I¡¯d have to create some kind of key or map in an earlier part of the dungeon? I would think about it. Now that this set of floors was done, all I had to do was create a mob type to populate it, as well as a boss. As for what that mob would be¡­ Well, I still had those Caerbalopes on my status sheet, and I was wondering if I could replace them with something more¡­ refined. Creating one out of energy and inspecting it, I was immediately disgusted. Not by its appearance, of course, but by the lack of mastery with which it had been created. I dismissed the creation, reducing it back into Forbodum, before creating a basic undead jackalope. Its fur was gray, and its eyes were black. Its short antlers stuck out a bit like a weapon. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Even with all of that, though, it was basically a bunny, and that was just way too cute for my dungeon. Actually, wait. Is it? Images of adventurers getting mauled to death by angry rabbits filled my head, and I let out a dark chuckle. Death by floof it was. I took off the jackalope¡¯s antlers and extended its fur, bypassing what I¡¯d done in the past with merging corpses by instead just creating more matter where I wanted it. At the same time as I made it floofier, I saturated its body with Forbodum and packed muscles into its form. All that chonk would be hidden by the huge coat of fur I¡¯d given the rabbit, but it would be no less powerful for it. Once the formation of the Caerbalope MK2¡¯s body was done, I created an intellect to match it with, filling its brain with maps of my labyrinth floors, except for the boss floor. I finalized the design by Naming it a Caerbalope, and an angry buzz filtered through my spirit. I checked on my status and got an angry red notification. The Name Caerbalope is already in use in your Legend. Replace Caerbalope? On replacing the Caerbalope, you will lose all knowledge of its effects and creation, as well as all other benefits granted to you by Naming it. Y/N Yup. Seif Ambrose Ancient Seeker 5 Repository 2 Forbodum Manipulation 2 Occult Sovereignty 2 Kelemnion¡¯s Gate 1 Dark Whispers 2 Enhancements: Willpower x5 Named Belongings: Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma¡¯Uban, Fenrir, Caerbalope Well, first of all, Caerbalope had moved positions, and I had indeed forgotten how I¡¯d made the original, so¡­ I guess it worked? As for the available Boons¡­ was I really that distractible? I guess it made sense for Dark Whispers, since it basically flooded my mind with those Inspirations, but Abstractive Influence? I mean, it was definitely due for an upgrade, but I should¡¯ve noticed. I must¡¯ve just been so deep in my work that I hadn¡¯t processed my sheet updating? I went over the Occult Sovereignty options first, not because it was higher on the list but because I knew I would hate whatever Dark Whispers offered me. These two options were really just two sides of the same coin. Abstractive Influence created Conceptium in an area and attached it to the magic there, meaning that everything therein would be passively influenced by that idea over time. Abstractive Influence already affected both matter and mind through magic, but Physical Influence and Mental Influence gave it a specialization, making it more impactful in one way or the other. This was a more difficult choice than I¡¯d anticipated. On one hand, Mental Influence would be great for making people feel the emotions I intended while within the dungeon, but Physical Influence would allow me to create materials like the Conflict Tungsten that was so critical to the way my tower had been constructed. In the end, I took Physical Influence. I could create ambiance with structures, monsters, environments, and lighting. ¡­Lighting? Oh. I haven¡¯t lit a single room yet, have I? Should I fix that? Probably, yeah. Luckily, this problem wasn¡¯t too hard to fix: I put some Scholars up on platforms in the floors of each seam, as well as the original dungeon floors where nothing was going on, and had them carve runes that would simulate what I wanted: a bright day in the first eight, a dark night sky in the second set of eight, and flickering torchlight in the mazes. The first floors were something of an introduction to the idea of my dungeon, so the ambiance was bright, the Twinscales were easy to spot, and it didn¡¯t seem too hostile. The Nailwolf territory was different, though. Colder, harder. You were being hunted. The maze was similar to that vibe, but instead of just being hunted, you were in an unfamiliar territory where something deadly could be just around the corner. After watching the Scholars to make sure that they were doing everything right, I turned most of my attention away, only flickering back occasionally to hook up the Ordinance inscriptions they were making up to power sources. Anyways, back to the Boon. Physical Influence was actually pretty simple: I just had to plug Conceptium into the molecular bonds of the targeted matter. Then the matter would take on properties associated with that intent. Theoretically, this would be really good for making magical items, because I could give the material itself properties that would boost the effects of my intended enchantments. For example, if I told the matter that it was a blade, and that it wanted to cut, then it would become much more receptive to enchantments that would increase its sharpness, and would also be much easier to shape into a weapon, though that didn¡¯t particularly matter for me since I could just force that issue. I took a couple minutes to experiment with this new ability, but eventually set aside the sword that I¡¯d told to be a hammer and looked back at my status. Alright, Tutoring first. This ability would basically let the ghosts that spoke to me manifest and give me lessons in the present day, which sounded pretty good¡­ but what if I ended up talking to a raving lunatic? I didn¡¯t trust the previous users of Forbodum not to find a way to affect me through that ability. Sure, they were just harmless ghosts, but devils with millennia of experience had to be masters of social hacking. Kinetic Learning, though, would let me not only hear the thoughts and see the perspectives of the whisperers, but also feel their actions. ¡­Tutoring it is, then. I don¡¯t want to feel myself slaughtering innocents, especially children, or dying with an actual fleshy body. It would be even worse if I could also feel the emotions of the person the memories were coming from, and there were no guarantees that wouldn¡¯t happen, so far as I could tell. An icky feeling passed through me as I accepted the Tutoring Boon, and I felt a twinge in the back of my mind, but I pushed through it and got myself back on task. I¡¯d been working on the labyrinth mobs before getting distracted by all of this Skill stuff, and I currently had a small, fluffy rabbit hopping around. That wasn¡¯t enough. First order of business: make a version that could fill an entire corridor. I quickly created another Caerbalope MK2 and started stretching it, increasing its bones until they formed a rough framework for the size of rabbit I wanted. Then I healed up all of the skin, added a ton more fur, and pumped it full of muscles. I¡¯d decided to make this one a bit shorter for its width and length, but it was, indeed, currently filling up an entire hallway in the maze. With that done, I started trying to think up other designs for mobs, but was soon stumped. Short, humanoid rabbits would be kinda weird, and I already had the Antigos, which were kinda similar to that. Oh, actually, I could add some Antigos into the maze. Perfect! Three mobs with a similar theme was probably good enough. Now it was probably time to make a boss. The question was, what? I tinkered with a few ideas, but things just weren¡¯t working. I mean, I could just recreate a D&D monster, but that felt a little lazy when everything else I made had been so unique. It¡¯s just¡­ What other creature types were there to use for rabbits? There was only so much I could warp them. I¡¯d already made a dragon, so it felt wrong to make another, and the Antigos were humanoid, so putting another on the same floor would be weird. Unless¡­ I mean, it was pretty funny to have a bunch of bunnies slaughtering people in a maze, right? So, what if I just took that to another level? One murder Easter Bunny coming right up. Chapter 28: The Feaster Bunny First of all, I pushed away all thoughts of making something horrific. That could come later. My first focus was to make a humanoid rabbit that was still super cute and would catch people off-guard. I used what I¡¯d done with Fenrir as a base, making similar alterations, though a few were very different for obvious reasons. The bones needed a significant amount of strengthening, especially once I increased the density of muscle to make the boss look like he lifted consistently. Rabbit muscles were already pretty powerful, but with this alteration, he was absolutely incredible in terms of strength and power. That was before I started weaving magic into his body. Obviously, I stuffed him chock-full of Forbodum, but that wasn¡¯t where it ended. Since the body I¡¯d made wasn¡¯t really alive yet, and had no consciousness to fight the magic, I was able to pack Power- and Speed-related Conceptium into the matter that made up this boss monster, boosting him to even greater levels. By the end, I had a human-height rabbit that retained all of his rabbity looks while still having internals that resembled those of a human, granting him the ability to speak, wear armor, and use weapons. To make him match up with the Caerbalope namesake a bit better, I also bleached his fur white and turned his eyes a bright, vibrant red. Since my newest creation was already an absolute unit under all of his fluff, I just had to make him a suitable weapon, and it was just too easy. What do rabbits like? Well, carrots of course. So why not just give him a massive carrot? I chuckled madly to myself as I constructed a person-sized, carrot-shaped bludgeoning weapon out of pure diamond. Now, you¡¯re probably thinking that making it out of diamonds is weird when I could¡¯ve picked a metal that would¡¯ve been more resistant to shattering, but you¡¯re missing the point. The weapon weighed almost 500 pounds, also known as 1,094,400 carats. I could also most likely use some inscriptions and Absiete to give him the ability to decrease his carrot¡¯s weight while he was moving and winding up his swings, but all of that would have to wait until I finalized his mind and I found out how many layers I could stack into his weapon. Actually, in regards to getting him up and moving, it would probably be a good idea to animate him and shove a consciousness in there so I wouldn¡¯t be left waiting around for him. I spent a long moment searching my own memories for what I should give him on top of all of the memories pertaining to his location and the intricacies of the maze floors, but eventually just decided to give him memories of all the fighting movies I¡¯d watched over the years, as well as some of the cooler attack descriptions I¡¯d heard from my years of D&D. Hopefully, with all of my fighting knowledge, he¡¯d be able to at least have some idea of what to do, in spite of my own lacking experience in the area. I created a Wisp, simultaneously forming a link between myself and the ball of energy, sending over the Mentum and memories needed to keep the bond steady and grant him some starting intelligence. Eventually, I¡¯d passed over everything I thought he¡¯d need and closed off our connection. Then I got to work on his armor. Fenrir hadn¡¯t needed any magical gear other than his book, partly because he was meant to be a spellcaster and partly because he could just enchant stuff himself if he wanted to, but this rabbit was a different case entirely. As a melee fighter, this creature would need to be powerful and heavily armed, which meant that a bunch of magical equipment was needed to maximize his efficacy. What¡¯s more than that is that, unlike other bosses, he wasn¡¯t actually meant to die. Sure, it was possible, but I wanted people to need to escape him. That meant that he needed to not only be utterly devastating in close-quarters, but also very hard to kill. I chose to make the armor out of graphene. Now, I had no clue how to actually make carbon fiber, but I knew roughly what it was, so a bit of experimentation and intensive studying with my Encompassing Knowledge helped me figure it out. Honestly, it wasn¡¯t all that difficult. A single sheet of carbon atoms was Mentum-intensive to form and observe, but outside of draining all of my energy as a consequence of working with it, I could manage it just fine. Now, from what I remembered, graphene was only really strong when you layered it up right. In fact, that was what made it into carbon fiber. It was incredibly resistant to tearing apart, but that was just in one direction. If you just put a bunch of layers down that faced in the same direction, it would be weaker to damage that came from its side. In other words, I had to weave the layers of carbon together. Luckily, I had some experience with this from the stitching philosophy of spatial magic, though that didn¡¯t reduce the intensive drain from affecting change on such a small scale. What was even more annoying was that I knew I¡¯d need to remake Azrael¡¯s armor out of the stuff as well. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, though. Once the first layer of graphene was made, the rest became easier to form, and once the first set of armor was created, I had it down to a science. I only made this beastie a half-set, foregoing a few pieces for aesthetic. Bunny boy ended up with a chestplate, obviously, as well as pauldrons, bracers, cuisses, and greaves, protecting the shoulders, forearms, upper legs, and lower legs, respectively. To pair with it, I formed a layer of blue-tinted hide for him to wear under the armor, though it was effectively just jeans and a t-shirt¨C a lot of his body would be exposed, but I felt I could count on him to dodge attacks or just be strong enough to shrug them off. Side note: I thought aluminum was really light, but apparently not. The entire set of graphene armor weighed about eight pounds, and I knew that this rabbit would be at least as strong as Azrael, though I probably wouldn¡¯t be giving it runescript to mimic her weight-reduction ability. Even still, I¡¯d be able to layer this material¨C oft heralded as the strongest on Earth¨C on top of itself at least ten times before it got to be too unwieldy for him. Luckily, I didn''t have to wait too long to find out, as he woke up shortly after I finished the armor. The rabbit-man¡¯s nose twitched rapidly and his eyes darted open. Before I even got the chance to say anything, he¡¯d hopped into the air from a lying position, done a backflip, and landed in a kneel before me. ¡°Creator,¡± he spoke in a hissing but respectful voice. I nodded in appreciation of the scene. It appears that giving him so much knowledge of super hero moves had given him a sense for dramatics. That should make him pretty fun to watch fight. I waved him closer with a boney hand. ¡°Come here, I need to have you test this armor. I haven¡¯t come up with a name for you yet, so you¡¯ll have to spend some time considering that for yourself.¡± His rabbit head twitched up and down, ears flopping slightly. It was¡­ kinda cute? From an objective standpoint, of course. I spent a few minutes strapping him into his gear and showing him how to take it off, in case he ever got tired of wearing it. As an undead creation that was maintained by my magic, it wasn¡¯t like he¡¯d ever sweat, chafe, or rot inside his armor, but there was always the chance that he wanted to take a day off and it would get in the way of that. I wasn¡¯t a taskmaster. Uban took naps all the time, and Fenrir had his little¡­ hobby. They were intelligent, just like me or Azrael, and so they deserved an amount of respect and consideration. They were sorta like my kids, too, if children were formed from magic as adults and with way too much respect for you. Anyways, once the gear was stacked on, I started forming more layers of it within spatial folds, linking them together in the same way that I¡¯d done with Azrael¡¯s armor. I told the rabbit-man to just let me know when things got too heavy for him to move around comfortably, and at eighteen stacks of armor, he looked at me and said, ¡°That feels about right.¡± He then stomped a foot into the floor and leapt ten feet into the air from a complete standstill. It didn¡¯t even look like he¡¯d been trying. In case you forgot, a single stack of his armor weighed about eight pounds, which was extremely light for armor, but was still an amount that could, theoretically, weigh someone down a bit. Eighteen stacks of that would mean that the rabbit-man¡¯s armor currently weighed one hundred and forty-four pounds. The old me probably couldn¡¯t have jumped at all while carrying that much weight. He couldn¡¯t jump nearly that much while carrying his weapon, though, so I suppose he did have some limits after all. In fact, while he could still somewhat use his weapon, it was slow and cumbersome, which was something I¡¯d need to fix. The next step was enchantments, and for that I wanted to focus on his weapon first, both to fix the weight issue and for another reason. His armor was obviously already very powerful, and I did have some ideas for it, but I felt that I should keep it rather generic. The weapon, on the other hand, was something that I felt should invoke fear in the hearts of onlookers, and currently, it wasn¡¯t really doing that. Now, that might be because it¡¯s just a massive diamond carrot, but¡­ whatever. Too late to change that. Surprisingly, my newest creation was actually full of ideas on what to do with the weapon. Then again¡­ I was probably really underestimating the utility of having a creature whose entire foundation of knowledge and thought process revolved around a certain aspect of myself. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. While I was normally all over the place, overlooked details, and had trouble focusing on any one thing at a time, having a creature who knew one subject and only that one subject was a very interesting thing. If I were to give a wisp all of my mathematical knowledge, and nothing else then all that wisp would think of is math. They¡¯d be able to rapidly come up with theories that I¡¯d never imagine on my own, and would be able to do equations much faster than myself, since it¡¯s all they¡¯d ever think of. On a similar note, if I made wisps with all my knowledge of decoration, dungeon building, and design¨C and especially game design¨C they would probably be able to map out floors much more efficiently and with greater detail than myself. It was a thing to consider when making the rest of my floors. Perhaps there was a better way to do it? In any case, the majority of the boss¡¯ ideas were centered around horror themes, as he apparently understood his role on the 24th floor. The first thing the rabbit wanted to add was rather¡­ gorey. Normally, a person¡¯s innate magic would prevent direct manipulation of their body. You could, of course, overwhelm them with your own power, but that was¡­ well, difficult, intrusive, and in my opinion, not very fair. When a person died, and their magic was released into the world as death energy¨C not to be confused with Necrosis, which was Death energy with a capital D¨C their body would no longer have that protection. That meant their bodies would be completely vulnerable to just about any effect we could come up with. My rabbit¡¯s idea was this: When someone in the maze dies, their death energy and flesh should be drawn towards his weapon. Now, the practical effect of this would be rather limited, but that¡¯s why I was going to add in some extra Ordinances to give it some more potency. Even without all of that, though, this was a potent psychological weapon. Imagine, you¡¯re running through a maze, attempting to escape the Leporid avatar of death that was my new monster. Your friend loses his traction, tripping and falling prone. He¡¯s too slow to get up, and his body¨C armor and all¨C crumples beneath the might of the boss monster. Instead of simply dying, your friend becomes another part of the monstrosity¡¯s club, his body contorting around it, flesh leaking through the cracks of his armor to join with it. That also gave me the idea to recolor the diamond used to form said club. Instead of having it be clear with frosted lines all across it, I turned it red. Now, by this point I had quite the selection of materials contained inside my influence, including a large variety of diamonds. A few of those diamonds¨C just a few, mind you, as it seemed they were very rare¨C were red. Now, this wasn¡¯t actually any sort of chemical difference from normal diamonds. Red diamonds were also just carbon, but they had a structural ¡°deformity¡± on their surfaces that made them refract red light better. Or something like that. I didn¡¯t spend too much time looking into it, just copied the phenomenon and moved on with my life. The plan of having my new boss use carnage as a resource also inspired his name¨C Carnic. It wasn¡¯t super original, since he¡¯d basically just torn a word in half and slapped ¡°-ic¡± at the end, but at least he¡¯d taken it from the English language, so it sounded unique in Glyphic. Eventually, Carnic and I finished working on the plans for his gear and aesthetic and I teleported him down into the maze where he¡¯d be spending the majority of his time from now on. I observed momentarily, and found that he was taking to it like a fish to water, hopping around and exploring his new territory with gusto. Satisfied that my new boss would enjoy his domain for the time being, I turned my attention to the gear that I¡¯d had him leave with me. The first thing to work on was the diamond club. A quick teleport to Azrael¡¯s location and an attempt at puppy eyesockets was all it took to get her to agree to fork over a portion of her magic for the creation of an Absiete energy crystal, which I turned into a sort of pommel for the massive club. A simple Ordinance rune, linked to an Observe rune that would detect when the club was being lifted into the air by a Process rune, and the club would shed 80% of its weight, going from 500 pounds to a ¡°mere¡± 100. It was costly, though, and I¡¯d need to find a way to generate Absiete without Azrael¡¯s help, otherwise she¡¯d be needing to recharge the gem all the time. That was a problem for future Seif, though. I also put a number of Forbodum gems inside the club, linking them to Ordinance runes that would increase the durability of the weapon, and I also spent some time working on the internals. Natural diamonds were formed with cleavage planes¨C points that could cause them to shatter¨C and by simply copying the designs of diamonds I¡¯d held in my domain, I¡¯d replicated that. I was able to fix it by reinforcing those planes and bringing them up to the level of the surrounding diamond. Essentially, I removed the weapon¡¯s biggest weaknesses, those being its weight and potential to shatter. Once that was done, I spent some time considering how to work on the plans Carnic had come up with, where the weapon would absorb dead flesh and energy. That was¡­ harder. Of course, I could simply put an Ordinance rune on there and tell it to wrap loose flesh around the club, but that was¡­ too simple. All that would really do is increase the mass of the already-huge club by a bit. Again, it was good for the shock factor alone, but there was more potential here. The first effect I thought of was to necrotize the flesh that it was wrapped in, but that wouldn¡¯t actually matter because the only way that would actually hurt someone is if their skin broke and the weapon hit them without them dying. Carnic was meant to be overpowered, so if someone got hit and wasn¡¯t already dead or dying, it was a problem. The second thing I thought of wasn¡¯t really an offensive function, but more of a utility one. Carnic was meant to be very powerful and difficult to kill, yes, but there was always the off chance that someone managed to get a good hit in. If that happened, it would slightly mess up the apparent invulnerability of the rabbit, so I came up with a way for Carnic to heal himself. It was a lifesteal mechanic that would convert some of the mashed flesh and blood into Necrotic energy. It was sorta similar to an inverted Create Undead, but only in function. In actual design, the way that this would work was by using Necrosis¡¯ ability to decay and rot organic matter away, producing more of itself, except this process would be greatly accelerated by an Inscription function I¡¯d created. One issue with the concept of using Necrosis in this way was that I didn¡¯t actually have Necrosis. I had Forbodum, and the magic of Forbidden Knowledge was a bit less death-centric. Instead, I had to use an Ordinance rune to apply a specific Intent to it¨C that is, it would tell the Forbodum to consume flesh and convert it into itself. The energy was surprisingly happy to do this, which had me a bit stumped at first. I¡¯d initially believed that the process would be wasteful and probably consume more than it was worth, but it was actually pretty efficient. After some thought, I came to the conclusion that the energy of Forbidden Knowledge¨C an affinity that had driven many mad in the pursuit of research¨C would have no conceptual issue with sacrificing the flesh of man to create more of itself. It really just makes sense. Creatures that used Forbidden Knowledge were often killed trying to create more Forbidden Knowledge, sacrificing themselves for their cause. This inscription encouraged people to kill creatures using Forbidden Knowledge energy to convert them into more Forbidden Knowledge energy. There was definitely some overlap somewhere in there. Anyways, after the energy was converted, it just kinda¡­ sat there. That wasn¡¯t really what I wanted, so I drew up a quick Reference inscription to pair to all the different pieces of armor. Each of the pieces started with an Observe rune that would watch over nearby Forbodum creations¨C including Carnic, his armor, and his weapon¨C and if they were damaged, the Observe rune would activate the attached Process rune until they were put back into their proper order. That actually brought up an interesting subject. The Observe rune itself was somewhat useless. All it did was watch. Seriously, that was it. What the intent I provided it with actually did was tell it where to look or what to look for. Of course, that was a useful function, but I¡¯d previously assumed that it would then output into the Process rune, which would just convert into a useable form for whatever effect rune I was using. That was wrong. Apparently, the way that I was using the runes was just¡­ wrong. My Process runes were underengineered and my Observe runes were overengineered. The Process rune was currently just trying to tell if the Observe rune was seeing anything at all, but it could just be looking for something specific within the Observe rune. I¡¯d been using the Observe runes to look for something specific, but it would have been cheaper to just have them keep an eye on everything within a small area and use the Process rune to find things within the images sent over. It had been working out alright for me thus far, but it was only a matter of time until something broke, and beyond that, it was just wasteful. While the Observe runes cost basically nothing to keep running, it was still more efficient to use them with less specific instructions, and my Process runes were expending additional energy trying to figure out what the frick they were meant to do before they eventually got some bleedover Conceptium from the energy bleed off of the other runes. Most inscription magic was stupid, just doing whatever it was told to do, but it turned out that Process runes were rather intelligent, like little clumps of brain cells. They could interpret large sets of data with better efficiency than even some of my living creations, and could dig deeper into the intent they were given, finding things like the caster¡¯s motivations, understanding, ideals¡­ it was pretty intense. I hadn¡¯t realized that those things carried through my intent, and it was a bit concerning. I wonder if there are mind readers out there, who can somehow get intent out of people and use it to read them? Nope. Not gonna follow that train of thought. Refocus. What was I just doing? Right. I was explaining why I went back and improved all of my previous inscriptions. That sounds time consuming, but it was actually pretty quick since I mostly used Reference runes and attached them to metal plates contained within extradimensional spaces. All I had to do was replace the metal plates. I didn¡¯t touch Azrael¡¯s armor, though. I was already thinking of going back and making a 2.0 with carbon fiber, so messing with it now would just be a waste of time. So, to get back to the original topic of the inscription I was making that would enable Carnic to have lifesteal, the Observe rune didn¡¯t actually activate the Process rune¨C instead, the Process rune took the input from the Observe rune, parsed it, and decided whether or not the following Ordinance rune should be on or off. First off, someone would get splattered. Then, their viscera would be converted into Forbodum, which would be siphoned into two Forbodum power sources contained within the weaponized carrot. The energy from one of them would be used to fuel the runes that healed Carnic, as well as the reinforcement and mending enchantments I left on his armor. The transformation itself would be fueled by the second Forbodum gem, which would do literally nothing else. My thoughts were that Carnic should be a boss that ramped up in difficulty the more damage he dealt. I mean, obviously he was already designed to be escaped, rather than fought, but he should become even more unkillable and deadly when he was allowed to cause significant amounts of harm. If you let him splatter a member of your party with his massive diamond greatclub, he¡¯d go from tough to invincible, and you¡¯d just have to run, hide, and wait for the energy to burn itself out. I wasn¡¯t concerned that my new boss would get killed. Rather, I was worried that he¡¯d kill too many people. I had hopes that, someday, I would be free from my current pressures and could gather up enough people to be a real dungeon, rather than a Tower of Death. Killing everyone would be no fun. With that in mind, I completely ripped all of the Forbodum out of the main gem. Carnic would have to put in a bit of work to get power for that. I mentally indicated to my new boss that his gear was ready for pickup. With that done, I tore open a portal to Azrael, internally wincing at the realization that it had been way too long since I¡¯d checked up on her. Azrael 2: Just Chatting Ambrose suddenly stepped through a portal in front of her, and she gave him a look. The Lich rubbed the back of his skull sheepishly. ¡°My bad? I was designing floors and a boss, and got distracted.¡± A moment passed, and then Azrael gave him a nod. ¡°You can do your own thing, I just want you to check in every once-in-a-while so I can make sure you haven¡¯t gone insane, alright Mr. ¡®I Use Forbidden Knowledge That Drives People Mad?¡¯¡± Ambrose quickly agreed, getting a smile out of his Wraith companion. ¡°Mind if we have a quick chat?¡± She asked, wanting to know what he¡¯d been up to. ¡°Sure thing.¡± With a wave of his hand, Ambrose pulled a pair of stone chairs from beneath their feet. ¡°What did you want to talk about?¡± Taking her seat, Azrael thought out her answer for a moment. ¡°Well, it¡¯s been a while since we actually talked. Last time you just popped in and had me give you some energy. Would you mind telling me a bit about the floors and boss you were working on?¡± ¡°Oh, sure thing,¡± Azrael could hear the smile in his voice, even if he didn¡¯t have the lips to express it. ¡°I made a maze with a bunch of portals and filled it with rabbits.¡± She raised an eyebrow at that, so he quickly continued, ¡°The rabbits are partly there for comedic effect, but they are dangerous. They have the layout of their floors installed into their brains, so it¡¯s not easy to lose them, and some of the big ones can block off entire passageways. They¡¯re less meant to hurt people directly than to push them into traps. I was originally also going to add Antigos, but I¡¯m starting to rethink that. They¡¯re a bit too horrifying for my cute fluffy murder maze. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°The space magic and portals make it so that it¡¯s pretty difficult to cheat with magic¨C just trying to detect the portal to the next floor with someone¡¯s own Spatium¨C or Soothen¨C won¡¯t really work because you won¡¯t know which portals link where or which one is the exit portal.¡± ¡°Ooh, that¡¯s clever,¡± Azrael commented, leaning forward. She liked it when he got passionate about this kind of stuff; she just wished there were some way she could help more accurately. She felt pretty useless just managing a bunch of grown women who didn¡¯t need babysitting and keeping track of the days. ¡°Thanks!¡± Ambrose chuckled a little bit. ¡°The boss is named Carnic, and he¡¯s a humanoid rabbit. Think Fenrir, but replace the wolf with bunny. I can¡¯t tell if it¡¯s cute or unnerving, but it definitely works for what I want from him. ¡°I was able to pack a lot of energy into his body, and since he was already based on a creature with very powerful muscles, he¡¯s super strong. I was able to give him a weapon that weighs a crazy amount because of it, and mixed that with your Absiete and some runework to make it lighten up a bit while he¡¯s moving it around. It¡¯s basically a huge diamond club. I picked diamonds, specifically, because of a joke that nobody else in this world will ever understand, but I still think it¡¯s funny,¡± he explained, delving into the details of everything he¡¯d been doing. Azrael patiently listened to him. Hearing about all of these cool things he¡¯d been up to was always the highlight of her day¡­ or, more often, her week. ¡°Oh, right,¡± Ambrose snapped out of his speech and refocused on her. ¡°I want to remake your armor. Also, how long do I have until the year Esheth gave us is up?¡± Azrael nodded. ¡°Feel free to do whatever you need with my gear. I¡¯ll always be fine with testing out your experiments. As for the time¡­¡± She pulled a journal out of her pocket¨C probably looted from the adventurer group that I¡¯d wiped. Azrael¡¯s finger danced across the book, counting them off one by one. She muttered quietly to herself, ¡°Thirty, sixty, seventy, eighty¡­¡± She looked up at Ambrose and confidently said, ¡°It¡¯s been 87 days. That means you¡¯ve got another 278 to go.¡± Chapter 29: The Secrets of Inscriptions. My shoulders slumped a bit in relief. I had plenty of time left to go. It had started to feel like I wasn¡¯t making much progress, but I knew that was just in my head. The new floors should help keep anyone who wants to kill me from just charging their way through. Of course, I still had a huge number of Antigo troops at my disposal, but real floors were more helpful. I made a quick checklist in my head. My top priority should be making sure that Esheth can¡¯t just fly his way up to my tower. Hopefully I could find a rune that could do that for me, but if not I¡¯d have to settle for Infliction- or Ordinance-based ones. I also needed to build up my tower. It was currently my best method of defending myself, as it had tons of energy poured into it. Increasing that amount would be in my best interest. As part of that, I also needed to make the walls of my tower as impenetrable as possible. Getting knocked over would just be¡­ so stupid. Before that, though, I needed to find more ways to boost the potency of each floor. If I could find a way to access other realms to use energy gathered from them, that would be ideal, and it was possible that they¡¯d also have some creatures and materials that I could use for inspiration and resources. The next task on the list was increasing my personal attack power. I could always tell Azrael to run away if I felt that I wouldn¡¯t be able to defeat the opposing mage, but I wouldn¡¯t be able to leave. For me, it was do or die. I could make myself incredibly hard to kill in terms of my physical body, but eventually he would have to notice that I was just not dying. Then, he¡¯d go straight for my Repository. That couldn¡¯t be allowed to happen, so he would have to die before he noticed my clone-seam trick. In the past few months, I had already put a lot of work into my dungeon, so spending some time on one of the other tasks would be for the best. It shouldn¡¯t take long to hunt down some sort of magic to lock people to the ground, so I¡¯d be handling that first, but after that? Well, it would be time to learn how to blow stuff up.
My footsteps sounded loud in the quiet halls of Kelemnion. Of course, there was that nagging sensation in the back of my head that would turn into a whisper if I allowed it to grow, but for now the books were quiet. At the moment, I was just walking aimlessly, trying to clear my head so I could think. I needed a rune to deny people access to the sky. What would that be, though? Would I need to search for something that would specifically target the sky, or would there already be something intended for area denial? My head suddenly snapped sideways. The world had started to shift in accordance with my thoughts, and Kelemnion had presented a book to answer my unasked questions. This one burned to my Esoteric Sight¨C more than any I¡¯d actually read before¨C and a series of unintelligible whispers started prodding at my mind. I shoved the foreign thoughts out of my mind and refocused on the purple cover of this novel. I reached out, pulled it from its shelf, and opened it up. The whispers grew stronger, so I released my mental grip on them, allowing the information to wash over my mind. This book did not contain information about a rune or a type of inscription. Instead, this novel spoke about all of inscription-craft. I saw images flash across my vision, I felt whispered words tickle my ears, and I sat there, absorbing the knowledge. But I did not allow it to consume me. Eventually, the flood abated¨C my mind had withstood this trial. In the past, I¡¯d been a fool and thought that having all the information from these books crammed into my head all at once would mean that I understood everything it covered. Fenrir had shown me the error of my ways, though, so this time I sat down and silently thought over everything I¡¯d learned. The process was basically just like actually reading the book, only a little bit faster since I already had all the words stored in whatever part of my Repository held my memories. Reading, but without the reading. The basic premise of this novel was simple: it talked about the why behind runes. Of course, most of it was theory, but as I read I realized that I actually had the capacity to test some of these things. My original plan had been to find a rune that would work for my plans to keep Esheth out of the skies, but now I¡¯d found something much more interesting than that. I quickly summoned my portal back home, sinking into the inky abyss and suddenly reappearing beside my Repository. I created a sheet of vellum and a quill out of energy, then got to work inscribing a basic Infliction rune into it. I channeled some natural Death Conceptium out of my Repository to give the Forbodum I was infusing the rune with some direction, and carefully observed the process through my Occult Sovereignty domain. I was shocked to find the theory I read to be true. I couldn¡¯t create inscriptions out of pure energy because the magic did something to the paper as I worked with it. Until now, I¡¯d just thought of it as magical crap, but now that I watched more closely¡­ tiny, almost-imperceptible changes were taking place within the vellum. As I carved the Infliction rune¡¯s pattern into the paper, my magic was editing it. To a casual observer, it looked random, like the parchment was somehow being damaged, but to me¡­ The magic was carving its own little patterns into the paper. I quickly pulled myself back from the image and finished the inscription, then got started on another with the exact same energy, pressure, and intent. Sure enough, I saw the exact same pattern take place within the vellum. Finishing that work, I used a different intent, and found that a different pattern was being created. I changed to a different type of energy¨C pulling some Absiete out of a stored gem with a bit of effort¨C but used the same Death intent as my first tests, and found that the pattern was the same. In other words, the intent that I provided the rune with altered the rune to make it more correct. That proved the book author¡¯s theory. The runes we used were only a small fraction of what existed¨C theoretically, there were an infinite number of runes and inscriptions out there, but humans could never find them because they couldn¡¯t look close enough. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Just to test my theory, I carefully created an exact replica of the talisman I¡¯d just created, making sure to include the tiny swirls and cracks that had been created by the injection of intent. I sent some Forbodum into the runescript and it immediately lit up, sending a streak of green light at my wall. I cackled in glee as I realized what this meant. Why would I go looking for runes when I could just make my own?? My Abstractive Influence surged with power as I commanded my surroundings to be filled with the concept of Gravity¨C or, rather, the idea of an unseen force pulling you downwards¨C and I began to capture the resulting Conceptium with my Mentum, crunching it down into a denser state, until it was more solid and could stand on its own temporarily. I then pulled it into my Repository, where it was preserved and kept separate from other influences. Over the course of an indeterminate amount of time, I slowly grew a Gravity Rat within my crazy rubber room. It was pure, solidified Conceptium, so it grew more slowly than it would have if I¡¯d kept it in its normal state, but that was fine. Eventually, it dwarfed the size of the others, and I was forced to cut of the flow of Mentum as my pool grew too small to sustain the work. I manipulated the inside of my Mentum pool to suck in more energy, and soon I had a reasonable amount to work with. Then, I created a large plate of gold. I¡¯d chosen gold for this process because it was generally considered a pretty soft metal, but it was still overall pretty tough when compared to something like my faux-vellum sheets. As soon as the plate was fully formed, I brought a huge stream of Energetic Gravity Intent and forced it down on top of the gold, putting a good amount of pressure on it. I waited for a while. No noticeable changes took place on the surface of the gold. I spent a while considering the nature of intent and inscriptions, and suddenly realized that Conceptium on its own could do very little. Energized Intent¡¯s purpose was to create a type of magical energy that could alter other energy in its surroundings more forcefully and consistently than standard intent could. It was stronger, denser, and more resistant to change, so it could do a lot more than the intent that would normally be held within a spell. It could forcefully apply a different intent to magic that already had one. In other words, it wasn¡¯t doing anything because it didn¡¯t have any energy to work with, so I added a drop of Forbodum and let it get to work. I waited, frequently checking the surface of the gold to see if it was inscribing a rune on top of it. It wasn¡¯t, so I waited some more. And then some more. I started to get a bit frustrated when no noticeable changes happened, but then I checked inside the plate and found the changes I¡¯d been looking for. Of course, I wouldn¡¯t just be able to hold Conceptium up to a material and have it carve a rune for me. That would be silly. My Energetic Intent did, however, make minute changes to materials I infused with it. Cracks had formed across the plate in the form of small tendrils that seemed to all be making the same patterns. Some were reaching deeper than others, and some were more complex. I sat back for a while, giving the Conceptium time to finish its work. Hopefully, this would produce some results.
I think I must¡¯ve waited a few days to check on the gold plate again. I spent most of the time just packing more energy into the walls of my tower to toughen them up, but also tinkered with some ideas for extra mobs to put on my floors. Right now, they were mostly homogenous in terms of creature types: Twinscales on the first set of floors, Nailwolves on the second set of floors, and a variety of rabbits on the third set. I felt that the rabbits were fine the way they were, since they weren¡¯t all exactly the same, but the Nailwolves could use some prey animals of different types to really sell the image¨C they¡¯d all need to have the same sort of fur that the Nailwolves had, though, to fit in with the theme. Maybe I could also make a lion miniboss? As for the first floor, it really looked like there should be an ecosystem there. I could maybe make hordes of squirrels that were linked together in the same way that the Twinscales were, but in much greater numbers? Could be fun to watch. Anyways, I eventually checked back on the gold plate and was elated to see that the carvings had extended much deeper into the plate, grown in density in certain places, and gotten much thicker. In fact, as I looked at it, I realized that the spots that had undergone more change than the others seemed to be following a pattern reminiscent of both what the small cracks had been trying to do and also the structure of my other runes. Hurriedly, I formed a sheet of vellum and started carving the rune into it with the same Gravity intent as before, pouring my Forbodum into it through my quill. I made sure that the lines I was tracing into the paper-substitute followed the exact pathway of the thickest carvings in the gold plate. Eventually, it was done. I was a bit worried about whether or not it worked, since no cracks had formed as I was carving out the pathways, but I imbued some Forbodum into the inscription and felt a thin layer of the energy spread across the room, even as the talisman dissolved in my hand. For a moment, nothing happened, but then a spike of downwards force came down on everything the energy from the talisman had touched. Quickly, I formed another copy of the rune, this time infusing it with a Barrier intent¨C this one geared towards making a shield against physical attacks. This time, the cracks formed like normal, making it clear to me that the reason there had been none the first time was that I was using the exact intent that the rune had been formed with. I activated the intent, and another line of powder-like energy was formed, but this one just hung in the air as a pane in front of me. I carved a rock out of the ceiling and dropped it into my hand, then tossed it into the Gravity Barrier. The moment the rock came in contact with the energy, all of the energy that was above it funneled in its direction, pushing it downward, where more energy would gather above it. By the time the small stone hit the ground, the downwards force was enough to cause it to shatter and shoot off splinters. I marveled at the scene. I had actually created a rune. Immediately, my brain got distracted by the potential of this new tool. I would never have to use imperfect runes again. Ordinance schmordinance! The efficiency of my work was about to skyrocket, and I¡¯d be able to simplify some previously-complex runescript. Hopefully, at least. The way that the rune had carved itself into the plate had given me concerns about a potential complexity limit for the process. If I tried to give something an intent that would replace a ritual, whatever came out the other side might be completely unusable. It was already pretty tough to create detailed intents, as it took way more Mentum to create complex intents. Really, Conceptium was only meant to carry a single idea or function¨C packing more into it could make things screwy. For example, if I were to try to condense a bunch of Forbodum into my palm as a bolt and just told it that I wanted it to stay together, it would do that extremely well. If I said I wanted it to speed up in the direction I threw it, that was fine too. However, if I told it to explode on contact with something? That was a bit more of a stretch, especially since Forbodum wasn¡¯t really explodey in nature. It would take a little more energy and focus to get it to work right, but I could do it with barely any effort at all. If I told the same projectile that I wanted it to not only explode, but also shoot other exploding bolts out in random directions? Again, still within my capabilities, but it was much more efficient to just create a few of the exploding bolts, rather than packing it all into one casting. Eventually, if you stacked enough layers of complexity and functions into one intent, there was a point where it not only took more concentration than it was probably worth, but it also spread out the power of the spell too much. If you wanted any one function to actually do its job well, then you¡¯d need to pour a ton of power into it. The same thing was true with runes. Having more specific, efficient runes would allow me to bypass one layer of complexity. My new Gravity rune, for example, pressed things to the floor. It was pretty simple, but doing it this way meant that I wouldn¡¯t need to use an Ordinance rune to do the same thing. Instead of telling a rune with a vague function to do something specific, I could tell a specific rune to do something vague and have it perform just as well and with a much higher efficiency. I crafted another Gravity rune¨C this time onto a plate of steel that I¡¯d pulled from the wall as stone and transmuted into metal¨C and carefully guided some Absiete into it. For the intent, I gave it a sort of Antigravity intent, wanting it to negate and then reverse the effect gravity had on the plate I¡¯d carved it into. Just as I¡¯d expected, the piece of metal easily rose up into the air. I pumped my fist, excited that I had so many cool things to test out. Now, the most obvious thing to do will these cool new inscription possibilities was to make Azrael some more powerful gear, but¡­ There were still a few more things I needed to figure out to make it as powerful as I possibly could. Chapter 30: Taking Offense I¡¯d returned to Kelemnion, this time to look for some way for me to actually attack. I skipped past all the books about demons, eldritch entities, and other stuff that would probably kill me before it managed to do anything to my enemies. There were two kinds of ¡°Forbidden¡± offensive magic. The first was the kind that was forbidden because it was morally questionable or extremely dangerous, and the second was stuff that was so powerful that people couldn¡¯t stand it being common knowledge. On Earth, hydrogen bombs were something that a few countries had, but wouldn¡¯t use because they not only killed a large number of people immediately, but also effectively salted the earth with fallout, leaving the land unusable for decades. That was a sort of firepower that I would be okay with using¨C at least, if I could make sure that I wasn¡¯t randomly slaughtering civilians, but I felt that living in the Dead Belt reduced the likelihood that I¡¯d need to use large amounts of firepower in civilian areas. On the other hand, biological weapons were brutal. Certain kinds could spread endlessly and perpetuate themselves indefinitely, causing pain and death for a long time. The Black Plague was estimated to have killed 25 million people in just four years. If I somehow gave someone the Black Plague, I would no longer have control over that illness. It would literally walk out the door and then spread on its own. It was an effective weapon, sure, but I couldn¡¯t guarantee that only the people I wanted dead would die, and that was a big no-no. Instead, I¡¯d be looking for the equivalent of hydrogen bombs or nuclear weapons¨C instant, wide-scale destruction that could leave an area wasted if I wanted it to. Preferably, though, I would be able to avoid giving people cancer. That just sucked. Rendering terrain unusable was something I felt I wouldn¡¯t have trouble doing¨C the Dead Belt was full of Necrosis that I could manipulate and use to force weaker mortals to stay away¨C but I was lacking somewhat in the instant annihilation. Eventually, I stopped walking, sensing that Kelemnion had curated a selection of books for my desires. I casually ran a finger over some of the novels, getting an idea of what they contained. There were a lot of options, from condensed energy bombs to lasers, but the first that caught my eye was a design for an interesting runic weapon. I pulled that particular book from the shelf, figuring that I already had some experience with inscriptions so this would probably be a good fit. As information flowed through the connection between my physical body and my Repository, I examined it. This idea was something I¡¯d thought of before, but hadn¡¯t actually done anything with because I didn¡¯t know if it was feasible or not. It was basically just runic cannonballs. Well, okay, the book also covered the idea of turning them into kinetic fireballs, so there was some complexity to it. The most interesting part of the information contained in the book, though, was that it contained some ideas for runes I hadn¡¯t thought of yet. Obviously, if I needed runes I could just make my own now, and they would probably be better than whatever I found in the library because they would be tailor-made for me and the situation I used them in, but it was still good to find pre-existing runes. Just because I could make runes for whatever intent I had didn¡¯t mean that I¡¯d considered every possible option out there. As an example, this book contained two runes I hadn¡¯t yet found: Emit and Discharge. Emit was a rune that was designed to steadily give off an effect as it was infused with power. If you put more in at once, then the rune would also boost the output. Discharge was a rune that basically did the opposite: it was best used to store large amounts of energy and shoot it off all at once, as a large effect. Interestingly, one design of these weapons had an Ordinance rune that was meant to convert kinetic energy into power for the Discharge rune, but it had been scrapped because it just wasn¡¯t efficient enough. I¡¯d done something similar with Carnic¡¯s club, but it had worked out a bit better because I was using an energy type that was naturally compatible with the process and I was sacrificing a magically energy-dense matter for a different kind of magical energy, not kinetic energy for a magical energy. I could probably get this idea to work, if I created up a rune dedicated to it. In fact¡­ I wonder if I could create a version of this that¡¯s efficient enough to be fueled by the Dead Belt¡¯s ambient Necrosis? These ¡°Enchanted Orbs¡± were an interesting idea, but I wanted something more on top of that. They were a method of attack, especially if I set up versions with offensive effects on them like the book suggested, but they weren¡¯t really the direct spellcasting damage I was looking for. I kept looking through the shelves until I came across a book with a title that I just couldn¡¯t resist. Nyarleth¡¯s Writhing Earth. It totally sounded like a D&D spell! I opened the book and slowly processed its knowledge, and was happy to see that it had been about what I¡¯d expected. The spell itself was designed for people who had Nyx-related affinities, but there was no reason that other magic types couldn¡¯t use it. The book actually contained some diagrams for what using the magic was supposed to look like, but I noticed that there were some differences in the way that the creator¡¯s affinity behaved in comparison to my own Forbodum, so I mostly ignored those, focusing instead on the theory and function of the spell. In essence, the caster was meant to condense cords of their own energy a beneath the ground between themselves and their target. Once the spell was completed, the user would be able to sense the vibrations of earth with their magic¨C that part didn¡¯t really matter to me¨C and use the tendrils to tear up the earth and lash out at their foes. The only real issue that my Occult Sovereignty had is that I couldn¡¯t manipulate things very well in another person¡¯s area. Subtle magic, like domains, could get ruptured or disturbed by another person¡¯s presence, especially if that other individual had their own magic to muddle and fight with it. In fact, that was the whole reason that strong people could enter the Dead Belt while weaker ones would slowly turn into zombies. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. The Dead Belt wasn¡¯t exactly like a domain, but it definitely had some similarities. It provided a passive effect in a large area by spreading a relatively small amount of energy across it. If taken as a whole, the Dead Belt contained a truly massive amount of energy, but a Level 5 person was probably strong enough to endure it for weeks without any risk. At least, so long as that individual didn¡¯t run into any undead. I could manipulate my domain pretty easily, but it would take a ton of effort to manipulate it in the immediate vicinity of someone at my own level. I probably wouldn¡¯t be able to do schnizz to effect my landscape in the presence of Esheth. This ability got around those limitations in a few ways. First off, the Writhing Earth began under the ground, where a person¡¯s natural aura usually had a bit more trouble penetrating. The tendrils of energy also were meant to start at your position, giving them a direct connection to you, their source of power, and they were also quite dense. All these factors combined to make this spell an effective tool for bypassing the disruption that a person would normally give off simply by existing within other spells. It could also be used for surprise attacks, and was pretty strong on its own. One image within the book showed the creator summoning huge tentacles from underneath a small army to toss them into the air and bury a number of them beneath displaced dirt and stone. As shown in another image, those that escaped the initial wave of violence were quickly caught and strangled to death, or simply beaten into the ground by the larger tentacles. The spell had a lot of versatility, too. A person could lay the tentacles horizontally and really capitalize on the ambush aspect. It could be used to form barriers, or be used in multiple directions at once. You didn¡¯t have to put it beneath the earth, either¨C you could just let the cords come straight from your body. Even if you did decide to hide it, it didn¡¯t need to be beneath the floor. Ceilings and walls were available, too. In the end, I was pretty satisfied with what I¡¯d gotten out of this trip, so I portaled back to my tower and immediately got to experimenting. Honestly, the Writhing Earth spell was pretty simple, to the point where just about anyone would be able to figure it out. The most likely reason for it to be forbidden is that it was used by a powerful mage to suddenly crush large numbers of foes quickly, leaving no survivors. Actually, I found it likely that most mages probably wouldn¡¯t be able to cast this spell. I had a lot of things going for me in the Mentum department, from my pool being increased by my natural lichdom and Repository, to having five WIllpower enhancements, to even doing my own internal manipulation to keep my supplies filled up. Even with all of that, casting the spell at the level performed by Nyarleth would be resource-intensive. It was mostly a one-and-done spell, though¨C once I set it up, I¡¯d only need to spend a bit of Mentum to keep manipulating it, unless I needed to increase the size for some reason. As an initial test, I shaped some Forbodum into ropes coming out of my hand and brought them into the physical world by increasing their density. Just as I¡¯d seen in the book, the tendrils moved according to my will. I was, after all, still in contact with the magic, so it wasn¡¯t like I was trying to redirect a projectile made of Forbodum that had no connection to me whatsoever. Of course, I could still probably do that, because everything in my domain was touched by my magic, but that connection was a bit weaker. Anyways, with that tested out, I could focus on the other weapon I¡¯d found. Enchanted Orbs. The name didn¡¯t really fit my intentions for them, so I¡¯d have to come up with something else. I formed a ball out of Tungsten¨C not Conflict Tungsten, just the normal stuff¨C and tapped the bone quill I¡¯d been using to make inscriptions. The original Enchanted Balls had one big flaw: there was no firing mechanism included. The author of the book had suggested that one use actual cannons to fire them off, or create smaller versions and hand them to warriors strong enough to chuck them, effectively turning them into grenades, but that just wasn¡¯t elegant enough for me. Instead of getting to work on the ball of Tungsten, I started forming Conceptium. I would need a few different kinds to create all the different runes I wanted to use, but first off was the control: a Mental Link rune. The name was a bit of a misnomer, though. The intent I gathered was actually more like a transfer of information, allowing me to send intent into one rune and communicate it to another, but I decided to call it that because I thought it was cooler. My current plan for my Enchanted Orbs 2.0 was that they¡¯d be able to accept my mental commands and fire themselves at something I told them to kill. When they hit that something, they¡¯d explode. Easy as pie. Except for the fact that I would need this Mental Link rune, some sort of movement rune, a dedicated Explosion rune¨C like Discharge, but more specialized¨C and then I¡¯d also want to make another connection rune that would allow energy to pass remotely from one to another. Eventually, I managed to make enough Energetic Mental Connection Intent to put over a plate of gold and allow to do its work. At that point, I started working on some Motion intent. I wasn¡¯t exactly sure how I wanted this movement to work, so I just tried to make it vague and imagine something moving quickly and with great precision. It worked as an intent, so I harvested some of it and began the process of using it to make another rune. The Explosion rune was pretty simple. All I had to do was picture all the different kinds of explosions I¡¯d ever seen¨C either personally or on video¨C and turn it into some Energetic Intent. Once that was put onto a plate, all I had left to do was replicate the whole process, but this time with an Intent that would send magical energy from one place to another. I had previously used carefully-designed cords of Mentum to pass energy between energy cells and runes, so I knew how to link things together. That was something I¡¯d been able to include in my Intent for the runes, though I had merely presented that as one way to transfer energy between two locations, which would allow me to be a bit more flexible with how I used this rune. While I could design a brand-new rune every single time I needed one, I felt like that was a wasteful use of my time when I only had a bit over two hundred and fifty days left before someone categorically stronger than myself would be coming to end me. Wasting time only increased the likelihood that I would fail to defend myself when the time ran out. I would lose. I would die. And dying¡­ Well, dying is for losers.
Speaking of unproductive uses of my time, I took a break while waiting for the Energetic Intent to do its work on those sheets of gold and spent some time with Azrael. She was acting pretty weird though. ¡°Are you alright?¡± I asked after she suddenly jerked her head to the right for the thirteenth time since we¡¯d started talking. ¡°Hmm?¡± She hummed as she turned back to me. ¡°Yup. Everything¡¯s perfect. I¡¯m definitely not going crazy.¡± I stared at her. ¡°If you say so¡­¡± I checked her over with all of my senses and couldn¡¯t find anything wrong with her, inside or out, so I had no real reason to keep digging. ¡°Anyways, keep telling me about your time in the Watchers.¡± She smiled and got back to telling me her story about a time when she got so frustrated with one of her companions that she¡¯d used her full suite of stealth abilities to steal all of his clothes and dump them in the river. Chapter 31: Remote Control Magic When I got back to the top of my tower, the Energized Intent had carved away enough metal that I could make out the shapes of the runes I wanted to use for my project. I spent a moment inspecting the shapes that had been carved into the plates and concluded that the little cuts that the intent carved into them were actually tiny segments of the rune they were trying to form. Then, I guess the little squiggles converged and focused on the ones that were in position to actually form the rune on the plate? It was pretty odd. The runes were done, though, so now I just had to test them. I picked up the tungsten orb I¡¯d made before and considered it. I could carve the runes into it right away, of course, but¡­ I wanted to test them first. With that in mind, I set it down and formed some more golden plates out of the stone of my tower, simultaneously refilling the space I¡¯d disturbed with some of the land that made up a mountain a few miles away. Domains were pretty fun. I portalled my quill into my hand from its position on the floor a few yards away, formed a table to work on, and started replicating the pattern that my Energized Intent had tried to make. The first rune I was testing out was the Mental connection one, which meant I needed two copies, and the intent of the second had to include the first. This connection would be one-way, because only the rune that knew about the other could send information across: the first rune I made would have no idea where anything I gave it was meant to go. I quickly finished both runes and powered them up. These runes passed information from one place to another, but they gave other runes no way to parse it. That meant that, to allow this rune to actually function properly, I needed to add a Process rune to the receiving end of the Link. Basically every complex inscription needed one, though, so I already had quite a bit of practice making them. To actually test whether or not the Mental Link rune would do what I wanted, I hooked an Infliction rune into the Process, making sure that my intent was clear in that it should shoot a basic projectile in whatever direction its Process rune told it to. Holding onto the input plate, I carefully directed some of my Mentum there, connecting to the plate and sending a small amount of Conceptium through, picturing the plate, and a line on it that stretched out towards its furthest corner at a 45 degree angle. When I powered the receiving plate with Forbodum, a small bolt of energy shot in the exact direction I¡¯d pictured. I pumped my skeletal fist, then quickly carved Energy Link runes onto both plates. As soon as I¡¯d finished carving the second one, a line of energy¨C invisible except to my Esoteric Sight¨C lit up between the two plates, and the extra complexity on the latter one made sure that the energy was properly connected with all the runes I was trying to have it go to. Using both the Energy Link and Mental Link at the same time, I wirelessly sent a projectile into my ceiling. I was happy with the results, but there was one more thing to test with these. I¡¯d figured out the reason that it had been ¡°impossible¡± for me to recreate runes with only my domain, so now I figured that I probably could do it, so long as I had an intent perfectly matched to the rune I was trying to craft. I currently had enough of all the intents involved in making the wireless projectile inscription to duplicate the process. Slowly and carefully, I formed another two gold plates, exactly the same size as the originals. Then, I made an exact replica of the inscription, leaving out only the Energy Link rune. It took a long time, constantly cross-referencing the shape of the rune down to a molecular level, copying all of the extra detailing that the creation process of the Infliction and Process runes had involved. By the time I was done, I felt like wiping nonexistent sweat off my boney brow. I warily injected the needed intents into the inscription, and watched carefully from a few feet away. Luckily, it didn¡¯t explode. I ran a small amount of Forbodum into it, and while it didn¡¯t do anything, it did at least accept the energy. I grabbed the second golden plate and started carving into it. I was confident that I wouldn¡¯t be able to duplicate the rune for this one, because it had involved creating an intent directly related to the original remote inscription. If I¡¯d simply copy/pasted the input rune, it would just send energy to the first receiver. While that could be useful in some scenarios, that wasn¡¯t what I was currently after. Instead, I had to do things manually. Eventually, though, I finished the input rune and sent Mentum into it in the same way that I had with the first one I¡¯d made. I grinned¨C or, rather, tried to grin¨C when a bullet of Forbidden energy shot out of the Infliction rune. I shot it a few more times at different angles, just to be absolutely sure it worked, and was glad to see that it really did work how I wanted it to. I was curious about the difference between the two Mental Link inputs I¡¯d made, so I set them down side-by-side and carefully started examining them together. For a long moment, I thought that they were the exact same rune, but then I saw it¨C there was a difference. A small difference, for sure, but there was a difference nonetheless. In the original, there was a tiny crack-like line at the innermost part of the rune. In the original, it was perfectly straight, but in the second rendition, the end had a tiny offset where it was slightly thinner in one area. I didn¡¯t fully understand it, but my guess was that the offset was some sort of indicator¨C the universe¡¯s way of indicating the difference between one rune and another that otherwise did the exact same thing. Or, perhaps it was to differentiate the two receiver inscriptions? The easiest way to find out was to just make another, so I did. Using the exact same intent as the most recent input rune, I carved out yet another, targeting the same plate. I tested it out, and it worked, so I was satisfied in using it for my testing. Laying the new plate next to the other two, I checked the crack that I¡¯d figured had been an indicator, and found that it, too, had the same offset as the other one targeting the same plate, convincing me that it was an indicator for the target, rather than the rune itself. WIth all of that done, I rubbed my metacarpal bones together. It was time to test out the actual effect runes. I decided that I should keep the best for last, so I started with the Movement rune. The first thing I did was construct a steel cube. On one side¨C the one that I thought of as the front¨C I slowly carved a Movement rune, with an intent to move in whatever direction it received an input for. On the right side of the cube, I pasted a blank Energy Link rune, and on the left I did the same with a Mental Link one. The back was used for a Process rune. I was using this as a rudimentary test for some of the ideas I¡¯d had with my Movement rune. I was mostly trying to tell if the basic form of the rune could handle upwards movement well, or if I¡¯d need to find another way to make that happen. Of course, I could always make a more complicated intent for that rune, but I felt that keeping it vague and open was for the best. Why force it to use a certain, limited perspective of what motion could be, when it could instead just be open to whatever it wanted to do? As for why I used an Energy Link rune and didn¡¯t just manually form the bond, I¡¯d found that the bonds I made myself were a lot more fragile and didn¡¯t have very good range. The Energy Link rune perfectly and constantly maintained the bond without me having to think of it, which was good because I never thought of anything. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Seriously, I¡¯d intended to regularly upkeep the energy gems throughout my tower, but most of the doors didn¡¯t even work right now. Hopefully I¡¯d be able to come up with a solution to that soon, though. Soon, I had formed a simple control panel for the cube, and was sending it off in different directions to test the energy consumption. As expected, fighting the pull of gravity was more expensive than I would have liked, so I¡¯d need to find other ways to have my orbs hover if I wanted that. Also, moving faster was less efficient than moving slowly¨C also an anticipated result. When everything worked exactly as I¡¯d expected, I shrugged and attached another Process rune on the top of the cube, hooking up to an Explosion rune on the bottom and giving it a relatively concise intent: on command, create an explosion as large as desired. When I was sure that everything was integrated properly, I picked up the cube and tossed it, simultaneously directing it to move away from me as fast as it could and then create a fist-sized explosion. The cube accelerated up to sixty miles per hour as I fed it a modest stream of energy, then hit the wall and shattered as the Explosion rune used a chunk of energy that I¡¯d shunted towards it last-minute to detonate into a purple cloud. As desired, the explosion was small, but the power it contained was enough to rend my steel cube to slivers of metal and chip my ultra-reinforced, magic-resistant wall. I nodded in appreciation. Obviously, self-destructing wasn¡¯t exactly what I wanted from my future weapons, but that would be fixed by simply using better materials. Furthermore, the firepower was decent, even before I added any of the bits and bobs I¡¯d thought up. All-in-all, it was a good initial test, so it was probably time to make the first prototype. Before that, though, I wanted to get some more runes cooking. First off, I wanted to make a dedicated Energy Conversion rune, and I also felt that it was probably a good idea to create specific versions of the runes I used most commonly while making gear. Once I¡¯d set some Energy Conversion, Mass Manipulation, and Material Reinforcement Conceptium atop some more gold plates, though, it was time to actually get to work. Once more, I picked up the tungsten orb. I rolled it around in my hands, checking for any imperfections in its sphericality. Finding none¨C and knowing that I might be holding the most round object in existence¨C I shrugged and dragged my finger through its center, splitting the matter around it so the sphere was cut perfectly down the middle. The sphere was about a foot in diameter, and with it cut in half, I had access to its center. That wasn¡¯t quite enough for me, though, so I took the two sides and cut those in half, too, perpendicularly to the original cut. Now with eight surfaces to work with, I designated each one for a different purpose. On one corner, I pasted in basic Energy and Mental Link runes that I¡¯d use as references later. I decided to make the next corner into my control module and carefully carved in two Process runes. As for the last two quarters, I simply carved the runes that linked to those two Process runes¨C an Explosion rune and a Movement rune. I left the last two sides on each of those segments blank, though. I had plans for them. When I¡¯d finished carving out all of the runes, I fused the orb back together around them, fusing everything around them into a single, solid piece, but leaving the runes themselves untouched. Next, I created a remote for the piece by putting an Energy Link and a Mental Link on a thick metal rectangle I¡¯d made, and telling them with my intent to attach to the Links inside the ball. I sent some energy into the prototype weapon via my remote, activating it. Then, a bit of Mentum went towards my remote¡¯s Mental Link, and it started to move. The cube from before had just ground its bottom against the ground, soI was glad that the Process rune dedicated to movement understood this time that I wanted the ball to roll. I guess rolling a ball is probably a lot more natural than rolling a cube? Or perhaps I just hadn¡¯t pictured it well enough. Anyways, the sphere slowly rolled around on the ground, reminding me somewhat of a bowling ball. Chuckling at the mental imagery that invoked, I pulled some small, oddly-shaped stone pillars out of the ground and sent the ball rocketing towards them. The fake bowling pins took the hits hard. Some were smashed hard enough to break in half, while others were just scattered across the room with chips taken out of them. I nodded in happiness at the damage that alone had done, and reformed the pins elsewhere in the room. I sent the ball forward once again, but this time I activated the Explosion rune as the ball impacted the first pin. While forming the intent for this rune in particular, I had just told it to shape its charge to start an inch away from its surface. Eventually, I wanted to make this part of the enchantment more complex, but for now it would have to stay like this. I¡¯d sent a good amount of power towards the ball for the explosion, so the power was enough to shoot all of the pins out with enough force to actually deal a small amount of damage to my walls. That made me try to flex my smile muscles, but I didn¡¯t have any of those right now, so instead I settled for calling the ball back to my side and picking it up. ¡°You may be small and weak for now, little weapon,¡± I told it softly, ¡°but you have potential. I can see it.¡± I let out a wicked cackle and tore it in half. That is, I opened up the runic components. I¡¯m not that insane. I opened up the ball all the way and considered my next move. The runes that I¡¯d left to settle had completed by now, so I was thinking of ways to work them in. My current plan involved a lot of changes and increases in complexity, which would force me to cut the orb against another axis, giving me access to 24 places to put runes. I knew it was kinda stupid, but part of me wanted to fill every single one of those with runes. And that part¡­ was winning. I needed an Absiete gem for part of the plan, so I hopped down to have a chat with her while she made it. She seemed happy that I¡¯d come to see her twice in the same week, even if one of the times was because I needed something from her. I couldn¡¯t tell if it was a good thing or a bad thing. ¡­Probably bad, right? It¡¯s not really a good thing for you to only see the people you care about once a week and they¡¯re excited to get more than that. Anyways, we had a brief chat about the food supply¨C the agriculture business was booming, apparently¨C and then it was back to work. Splitting an orb across three axes would give me eight pieces with three inner sides each, giving me a total of twenty-four spots to put runes. Of course, I could just make some smaller and some bigger, but that was kinda lame, wasn¡¯t it? Twenty-four runes it is. Actually, sixteen. One of the spots on each slice should be used for a Material Reinforcement rune, just to be safe. I didn¡¯t want to accidentally shatter one of my balls while making it explode. The Energy and Mental Links brought me down to fourteen slots, Explosion and Movement made that twelve, and the two Process runes meant I had a total of ten spaces for runes. That was a lot. Most likely more than I needed. That said, I¡¯m a magical lich, so why not be over the top? The reason I¡¯d needed the Absiete gem from Azrael was to power a Gravity and Mass Manipulation rune. I was hoping that I could use it to negate gravity and reduce the overall weight of the orb, allowing the Movement rune to have vertical movement. Another Gravity and Mass Manipulation rune would be needed to do the opposite, increasing the ball¡¯s downwards momentum, for when I really needed to crush something. That brought me down to six runes. One thing that I eventually decided on was to try out that one thing the mage who¡¯d written the Enchanted Orbs book had suggested, but hadn¡¯t been able to get working because he was using an Ordinance rune. If I could get my new Energy Conversion rune to somehow convert the kinetic energy of the orb into power for the Explosion rune, that would increase my overall efficiency by quite a bit. I¡¯d still need a Process rune, though, so that I could turn it on and off. I didn¡¯t want to accidentally drop my orb on something and have it explode. Five slots left. If I was already changing how my Explosion rune worked, then why didn¡¯t I just go for a rework of how large of an area it was meant to cover? Automating that would be quite useful. That meant I¡¯d need another two Processes and an Observe rune. The Observe rune would look a few inches outside the orb, and the Process rune would check to see if the orb was touching anything. If it was, the Energy Conversion rune would be activated and the information would be passed along to the second Process, which would check how durable the surrounding material was¨C not just whatever it was touching, but also anything behind that, meaning something like clothes wouldn¡¯t be able to fool the weapon. If the material was weak, then the explosion would be sent out in a wide area around the, but the tougher it was, the smaller and tighter the explosion would get. For example, if the orb hit Carnic¡¯s armor at full speed, the explosion would probably be sent only at the spot it hit, which would be pretty devastating¨C maybe not enough to actually seriously damage the gear, but it¡¯d get sent flying like a football, and the person inside would get sent flying with it. Hitting a soft pillow, on the other hand, would result in the energy being sent in a huge area. Two runes left. I decided that I needed another Gravity rune, and a Process rune to feed into it. The Process would take from my Mental Link to find out which direction I wanted the orb to move in and how fast, and if I was trying to get the orb to accelerate it would feed that into the Gravity rune. The Gravity rune was tuned to treat whichever direction it got from the Process rune as ¡°down,¡± and would apply even more force. I formed a human head out of Forbodum and had it smile for me. Now all I had to do was make these things. Chapter 32: Playing With Balls I internally grinned at the orb hovering in front of me, then at the wand in my hand. Well, okay, less ¡°wand,¡± more control stick for my new weapons, but it was more fun to think of it as a magic stick. I¡¯d decided to call them Runic Detonators because, well, they exploded, and they used runes. Pretty simple. Not all that different from Enchanted Orbs, but more specific and cooler. I was currently outside my tower, standing on a hill a few miles away from my tower and throwing my Detonators at stuff. So far, they¡¯d proved themselves to be very effective at destruction. I¡¯d hooked them up to a large cache of energy gems back home, so I wasn¡¯t concerned about them running out of power. I just waved my stick around and broke stuff. The wand was actually a number of small, stubby cylinders stacked on top of each other and fused together. This allowed me to direct my intent to them all together, rather than needing to control a bunch of individual Runic Detonators. That did mean that I needed to add a bit of vagueness to my instructions so they didn¡¯t hit each other trying to hit the same exact spot on something, but that was fine. Pointing my wand at a small patch of trees, I directed my Detonators to destroy it. From a spot a few hundred feet above me a half-dozen spheres suddenly dropped, moving forward and downward at a high enough velocity to turn the tungsten orbs a bright red coloration from the sheer heat. Like meteors falling from the heavens, the Runic Detonators came down on the small forests, crashing into the trees. It would be completely imperceptible to anyone else, but as the Detonators came into contact with the trees, I knew that multiple calculations were ran through it to determine what the damage would look like. In that split second¨C so fast that not even I could really process it¨C the orbs decided on their course of action. A wide semicircle of explosive purple energy erupted out of each of them, flattening the trees I¡¯d pointed them at. The number of angles that they¡¯d been sent from ensured that the destruction wasn¡¯t secluded to a small patch of trees, but instead covered all of them, reducing them to a bunch of splinters. I tried to grin¨C really, at this point I should just give myself some skin¨C as I watched the show of force. ¡°Yeah, I think these bad boys are about finished,¡± I muttered to myself, ¡°I should really make some more of them, though.¡± As good as the amount of force displayed was, I wanted my Runic Detonators to be able to handle entire armies with little more than a wave of my wand. ¡°Maybe I should also hook them up to Observe runes that would let them function on their own?¡± Currently, their only real weakness was me. If I wasn¡¯t able to see what I wanted them to hit, they¡¯d be blind too. If I could somehow set up observer orbs and somehow make a supercomputer out of a number of process runes, that could do¡­ something. For now, though, I had a wand and a bunch of Minute Meteors to chuck around. I directed the Runic Detonators to gather up just above my head, and they zipped towards me, ignoring the existence of gravity to slowly hover around me. Now¡­ time to see if Azrael wanted to go fight some monsters with me.
Unsurprisingly, Azrael was ecstatic that I actually wanted to go do something fun for once. She¡¯d asked me to teleport us to the biggest, strongest thing in my domain, and I obliged, bringing us to a mountain-sized monstrosity that my Occult Sovereignty informed me was a ¡°Bonehemoth.¡± Honestly, the name fit. It was like a thousand people had died in the same place and been stripped of all their flesh. Seriously, the thing was just a giant pile of bones. As Azrael and I stepped out of the portal and onto a rocky outcropping on the side of a mountain, facing a small valley, a dozens of skulls turned to gaze at us, and a sound halfway between sandpaper against wood and a pained scream echoed through the mountains around us. Azrael gaped at me. ¡°There was something like this in your domain?? Why haven¡¯t you already dealt with it?!¡± I shrugged. ¡°Look at him. You can¡¯t honestly tell me you think that chonker can walk, do you?¡± She frowned, but was unable to argue with my impeccable logic. Honestly, I hadn¡¯t really bothered to deal with any of the undead in my Occult Sovereignty unless they had domains of their own. Most of them couldn¡¯t even put up a decent fight. I chose not to tell Azrael that my domain currently covered almost all of the Dead Belt. I also chose not to tell her that this guy was just the largest Bonehemoth¨C the runner-up was more of a hill than a mountain. Suddenly, there was movement from the pile of skeletons, and a chain of hands grabbing other hands swung out wildly, capped by a group of five arms that were placed together in the shape of yet another hand. The massive arm swept towards us, and its makeshift hand reached out. Azrael suddenly ceased to exist, and I was left to handle the attack alone. Reaching out and pointing my wand at the Bonehemoth¡¯s arm, I directed my Runic Detonators to pulverize it. Shooting forward, my orbs moved with unerring accuracy towards different spots along the somewhat whip-like appendage. The monstrosity roared out in a higher-pitched tone than it had used before as my Detonators suddenly converted their momentum into explosive force on contact with it. The bones that had been used to form the limb¨C at least, the ones that weren¡¯t reduced to rubble¨C flew off into the distance behind me, and I smiled. ¡°Didn¡¯t like that, did you?¡± I frowned when I saw that the bones I hadn¡¯t managed to reduce to powder were slowly shifting closer to the Bonehemoth. I mean, it made sense, but seriously? Something that large gets to have regeneration? I swear, it¡¯s almost like undead are overpowered or something. There was me, who was capable of crazy amounts of magic; Azrael was a magic super-assassin who could unironically one-punch me; the Cadavrrhizae had been a forest-wide abomination; and now there were Bonehemoths, which were titanic bone-constructs that could regenerate. Inspecting the Bonehemoth¡¯s body, I found that at the center and bottom of its form there was a single skull that was more magically dense than the rest of them¨C extremely magically dense. Not on my level, of course, since it didn¡¯t seem to have an advanced energy type like I did, but for being a creature that lacked that? I wouldn¡¯t have been shocked if the level 1 version of this thing had started out with an even greater innate buff to its strength than I, a lich, had. I suppose the tradeoff was that its real body was literally just a skull, and that it probably couldn¡¯t move around at all. Even if it could move, it would be slower than I would be if I just picked up my Repository and walked away from it. Honestly, it was a wonder how this thing had gotten so large. It would be easy to spot it from miles away, with its size, and I doubted it had the reach to kill stuff and obtain bones for itself. The only two possibilities I saw were that it had created the bones itself out of magic, or that it had come into being at a site where there were already a lot of corpses. The bones didn¡¯t seem to bear the marks of matter constructed out of energy¨C too many flaws and too much inconsistency¨C so that meant that this place had probably been a battlefield where a lot of people had died during the Kerenth-Yalten war that had caused the Dead Belt to expand so much. In fact, examining the surroundings, I wouldn¡¯t have been shocked to find out that this location was an important strategic point, one that had been fought over a lot. Then, if an undead had formed and blocked off the passage¡­ Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. This thing had probably slaughtered entire armies to reach its current size. I refocused on the fight, realizing that Azrael was currently trying to solo this boss monster. She was also muttering to herself. ¡°I swear, you take a lady out for some fun and you don¡¯t even offer to help. Jerkface¡­¡± I snickered to myself, then pointed my wand at the top of the mountain of bones. My Runic Detonators rose into the clouds above it, then one dropped. With the help of two Gravity runes and a Movement rune, the Detonator slammed into the top of the monster, releasing a wave of explosive force that turned a large chunk of bones to dust. The Bonehemoth screamed again, loud enough to damage the ears of a mortal, and swiped a makeshift hand at the heavens, but it was too late to stop what was coming. Another Detonator dropped. Then another. Then another. Slowly, my weapons took turns, one after another, smashing their way through the titanic undead with explosive force. The Bonehemoth writhed and shot bones at high speeds all around itself, but it wasn¡¯t enough. The strikes of my orbs pounded into it one after another. Soon, one of my Detonators reached the bottom¨C it reached the Bonehemoth¡¯s true body. The thing shattered instantly. The bones that had made up the body of the undead scattered into the surroundings like a liquid, stopped only when they reached the edges of the nearby mountains and forming a lake of bones. Azrael joined me on the outcropping I¡¯d initially teleported us to. She squinted at me. ¡°I feel like you did something gross but I can¡¯t tell why.¡± Yeeaaah, definitely not going to explain that one to her. ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯s nothing. Let¡¯s get back home?¡± She frowned, but took my offered hand anyways. I formed a portal back to the entrance of my tower and ushered her through it. As soon as we were back inside, I told Azrael that I needed to get back to work, so she gave me a quick hug and let me get going. I rapidly portalled right to the top floor of my tower, next to my Repository, and pulled some stone out of the floor to transmute into Tungsten. Previously, I¡¯d wanted a dozen of these Runic Detonators, but now that I¡¯d seen what they could do? I was thinking I might want a hundred.
Ninety-four Runic Detonators later, I was working on the concept for an observational Enchanted Orb to automate the Runic Detonators¨C now named Runic Deployers. It wouldn¡¯t be all that difficult to wire them into the Runic Detonators¨C a single rune would do the trick. The issue was creating IFF¨C Identity Friend or Foe. There were a few ways I could go about making it, but none seemed satisfactory. First off, I could stuff a Process rune full of information about all the people I didn¡¯t want it to kill¨C Azrael, the girls in the town, and my own mobs¨C and then tell them to kill everything else that moved, but that was¡­ messy. The issue was that they would actively go around killing everything. Any undead they spotted would be a target. While having undead other than Azrael and myself around was a negative thing because we were taking care of a bunch of juicy, tasty fleshbags who probably didn¡¯t know how to properly defend themselves, that didn¡¯t mean that they should murder literally everything. That would be incredibly wasteful. Secondly, I wouldn¡¯t be able to update that Process rune. If I saw someone I didn¡¯t want my Runic Detonators to kill, then I¡¯d have to cut the power to all of them before the Runic Deployers sent them after that person. The other way was to create a sort of database rune, with the intent to create an updateable package of knowledge, and use that to determine who I wanted them to kill. I was hoping that it would work, since I wasn¡¯t actually completely certain that runes could change in any way after they were created, but the pseudo-intelligence of the Process runes gave me hope. I thought that plan was a bit better, so I created an Energized Intent out of that Conceptium, condensed it, and set it to cook over a gold plate. This idea meant that I had to put the information into that Database myself, though, and that just brought me back to the original issue of needing to see and be near my target. Eventually, though, I came up with a solution, and I almost slapped myself in the forehead when I realized how obvious it was. First off, why would I only use one Database? I could have two: the first would be full of the people that I liked, and the second would be filled with the people I didn¡¯t like. The list of people that I didn¡¯t like would be two-way, though. I¡¯d set it so that a Process rune would check for things harming the people on the Nice list. It would give them three strikes, which would be held in another Database rune, and then it would put them on the Naughty list. Dismemberment or another serious injury would give someone two strikes, and an outright kill¨C or attacking me or Azrael¨C would be an instant death sentence. Azrael and I would also be exempt from the Naughty list: we could do whatever we wanted and never be touched. Anyone who was on the Naughty list would get blasted on sight. Anyone on the Nice list would be protected. Pretty simple. For the Observation portion of the Runic Deployers, I¡¯d let them access my domain to sense things. The Process runes would be able to handle it, and it would increase the efficiency and range of the Observe runes by leaps and bounds. I pulled another tungsten orb¨C this one half the diameter of the others¨C out of my floor, and tossed it back and forth in my hands for a moment. I walked myself back through the process that I¡¯d need to inscribe into the observation orbs. Step 1: An Observe rune would sense things in my domain. Step 2: A Process rune would detect if any of those things were living, undead or otherwise moving, and pass the information along if so. Step 3A: A Mental Link rune would send the information of a target to its pair, which would then pass it along. Step 4A: Another Process rune would decode the information and run it through the Naughty Database, which would be individual to each Deployer. Step 5A: A Process rune would follow the Naughty Database, and if the target is on the list, it would inform the next Process rune in the chain of the location of the Naughty target. Step 6A: A Process rune would constantly check for input. If there was none, it would instruct the Runic Detonators to follow their assigned Runic Deployer. Else, it would send them the location of the target. All of those things would be individual to each Deployer. At the same time as that happened, another Process rune would follow Step 2: Step 3B: A Process rune would decode the information and check to see if there were two or more targets in the image. If so, it would run them through the Nice Database, which would be shared by all Deployers. Step 4B: If a target is in the Nice Database, the information would be passed along to another Process rune, which would then check to see if any of the targets were harming the Nice target, excluding any that had the chemical makeup of a human child. If there were any such targets, it would pass their information along to the next Process. Step 5B: This Process rune would take in the information and check to see if any of the targets had a profile in the Strike Database, which would be shared by all Deployers. If there wasn¡¯t one, it would create one. If there was one, it would check to see if the target had gained a Strike within the last five seconds. If so, it would do nothing, but if not, it would add one Strike to the target. Step 6B: A final Process rune would constantly check everyone¡¯s status on the Strike Database. If an individual reached three Strikes, it would remove their profile in the Strike Database and add them to the Naughty List. I rubbed the bones in my hands together in excitement. My Database rune was done! Now I just had to draw out all of the computational runes somewhere in my room, make the Deployers, and test it!
I stood next to Azrael, almost bouncing on my feet with excitement. ¡°Why is this a big deal, again?¡± Azrael was thoroughly nonplussed. Apparently, she thought an automated defense system was useless against everything except Esheth, since the town already had her. I huffed in annoyance. ¡°It¡¯s a big deal because it¡¯s a huge step forward in my capabilities! You probably don¡¯t realize the significance because you lack the background to really understand what I¡¯m saying, but I built a magic computer!¡± There was no word in Kerenth-Yalten Glyphic for computer, so I¡¯d tried to explain it as a Metal-Object-Brain, but that had just confused her so I¡¯d just gone back to using the English term. Azrael gave me a weird look, like she¡¯d done every time I¡¯d tried to speak English to her, then responded, ¡°If it¡¯s so cool, then show me.¡± I pulled out my wand and pointed it up at the top of my tower, triggering the Mental Link rune that I¡¯d added into my runes to activate and deactivate the movement of the Deployers. My Runic Deployers hadn¡¯t actually had an independent form of movement, so I¡¯d needed to design one. Their range didn¡¯t actually go as far as my entire domain¨C because that would¡¯ve been crazy expensive¨C instead only going about five miles out. It hadn¡¯t been too hard to design runes to tell them where to go, knowing that. Process runes would take each Deployer¡¯s flight paths and record the terrain in a communal Map Database, so that the main computer would always know where each one was. A Process rune would then reference whichever parts of the Map Database were most recently updated, and delegate instructions to the orbs to update whichever terrain data within a twenty-five mile radius was least recently refreshed, thus finding the X and Y coordinates for each orb to head to. Another Process rune would check on each orb and determine how far it was from nearby solid objects, and if that distance was less than fifty feet it would instruct it to move up. With those two instructions combined, each Observe rune would have a constant input of directions. All I would need to do was power them, and everything in the vicinity of my tower would be obliterated. I would need to eventually find ways to power things with energy that doesn¡¯t require work from myself or Azrael. Currently, the only things like that were the Energy Conversion rune in the Runic Detonators¨C which only made it so that the Detonators didn¡¯t require extra energy for the explosion and was still overall a loss in energy when you considered how much was put into moving the Detonators¨C and the Ordinance rune on Carnic¡¯s club¨C which required the sacrifice of living flesh. I was hoping to find a way to hook things up to Kelemnion and have energy pour into my devices directly from there. Ignoring the strain that they put on my resources, though¡­ My Runic Orbs were done. At least, for now. They would be potent weapons against those who sought to harm me and those who relied on me, and that was worth even more than what they had cost me in time and energy. After all, the best defense is an unstoppable offense. Chapter 33: Redesigns There had been a lot of improvements in the way I did things over the months that I¡¯d been working on my tower, and now there were a lot of things that were outdated. One thing in particular that had been on my mind a lot lately was the homogeneity of species on my floors. The third set was fine, in my mind, because it was kinda meant to just be a bunch of bunny rabbits, but for the other two I wanted to make some extra mobs. I¡¯d already thought up some ideas, so it wasn¡¯t too hard to implement some of them. First off, I sporadically added metal beehives into the stone forests, and filled them with little bee-ish insects that I created with my magic. For each hive, I tied all the bees together with linking magic before giving them any consciousness, effectively allowing them to share a mind and split any physical damage they received between themselves. I was thinking that a bunch of insects would probably be a lot more terrifying if they could strategize and were very difficult to kill, allowing them all to attack as one even while far away from the hive and survive a few hits. I¡¯d have to wait and see how it turned out, though. For now, I chose to call them Telebeethics¨C bees that could communicate telepathically, rather than through hormones. It was an awful name, but I liked it. I also tossed an Antigo into the middle of the fourth floor, deep in the forest. I was thinking that minibosses should be a common theme in my tower, since they would be a good way to add some spice every once-in-a-while. Currently, Antigos were only used as my shock troops, and the defenses that I had stuffed into the floors of my dungeon that had yet to be filled. They were a bit too potent to be a regular mob, but too weak to be a boss in my current setup. Therefore¡­ miniboss. I wanted to add something more to my first floors, but couldn¡¯t think of anything, so I looked out within my influence to see if I could find any examples. My domain currently stretched out well past the Dead Belt and bordered the ocean on either end, so if something was inside, I could find it. Eventually, I came across a deer-like creature that had wandered into the Dead Belt and gotten corrupted. It was only deer-like because instead of hooves, it had clawed paws, and instead of the normal, flat teeth that would be found on a natural deer, it had pointed ones. Its tail was also slightly longer than I felt it should be. My Encompassing Knowledge labeled it an Undead Coursing Svykin. It was particularly interesting because it clearly had some natural magic I hadn¡¯t seen before going on. Its antlers were glowing with green energy. At first, I was confused, because part of me conflated green with Vitasis, and this thing¡¯s body was far too natural to be an abomination of that type, but when I inspected the creature¡¯s horns more deeply, I realized that it was actually a small aura of Necrosis that had a specific Rot intent. To be more specific, the intent was geared towards a more natural decay than what Necrosis would normally look for, slowing the process of a creature¡¯s death but producing actually living creatures out of it¨C all the different kinds of things that you would normally expect to crawl out of a coffin that had been left to sit for a few decades. While curious, that didn¡¯t interest me nearly as much as the actual production of the aura itself. After some careful inspection of its body, I determined that I wouldn¡¯t be able to figure out what was going on without rekilling the Svykin to get a closer look at its insides, so I flooded the area with my power and cast a modified variation of Writhing Earth. With this casting, I used my domain to create the weaponized strands, rather than having them originate from me. As I¡¯d expected, this was weaker and far more energy-intensive than casting the spell the normal way. Luckily, the deer wasn¡¯t all that strong, so its innate magic didn¡¯t project far enough to disrupt my casting significantly. It did almost escape, having sensed the disturbance in the ambient energy. It wasn¡¯t quite fast enough to avoid being speared by one of my tendrils of power, though, so it all turned out alright in the end. Inspecting the now dead-looking antlers, I found that they were actually filled with slowly decaying Conceptium that matched what the deer had been using earlier, as well as a ton of Necrosis. I spent a while inspecting the antlers further, and when I looked deeper, I found that they had tiny little fractures inside of them¨C very similar to what I¡¯d seen when creating or carving runes. After spending some time examining and considering, I decided to run a little experiment. Using the Svykin¡¯s body as a reference, I formed a copy on my first floor, one with the tiny cracks and grooves in the antlers, and the others without any horns at all. I repeated this process a few times, creating multiple ¡°herds¡± of them, though for all the others that had antlers I filled in the little gaps. I bound the herds¡¯ minds together with my magic, but only their minds this time. The way I normally linked stuff together was by pulling their entire bodies into a bond and then targeting that and creating a weak consciousness for it, but I could make them all effectively share a mind by instead creating a bunch of small, faint consciousnesses that barely did anything at all, binding those together, and then creating a stronger one to arc over them. I actually did something slightly different, though, in that I bound all the antlerless Svykin minds together in their herd, and then tied those to the antlered one, making that one the controlling mind. This would, hopefully, make it so that the antlered Svykin would be something of a puppeteer and the others would have a massive drop in intelligence if it died, making it seem like they went mad. Because of this, I decided to call the ones I¡¯d formed without the antlers Puppet Svykin and the antlered ones Prime Svykin. I instructed all of the Prime Svykin minds to slowly channel intent and energy towards their antlers, even the ones that didn¡¯t have the slight alterations in them. My theory was that the semi-runic structures had formed within the antlers of the original as a result of a small but constant and consistent influx of intent and energy¨C likely as a result of being so close to its mind¨C and that had slowly created the structures, giving the power an actual function. I had all of the Prime Svykin without pre-existing structures decide for themselves what sort of intent they wanted to focus on¨C I¡¯d given them just enough intelligence to think in concepts like that. Hopefully, at some point, I¡¯d be able to create copies of their antlers and turn them into something. As for the one that had a perfect copy of the original one¡¯s rack, I created as close of a replica to the intent that the Undead Coursing Svykin had been using and tested it out in the horns through the minion, slowly tinkering with it to get it closer and closer to what I thought had been used. Eventually, I saw a slight purple flicker of energy, and paused. I saved a tiny amount of that variation of the intent within my Repository, then worked from there. A few hours later, I got purple green energy that was flowing out of the structures to mimic the strength of what I¡¯d seen in the green energy of the creature I¡¯d copied them from¨C though there were obviously some differences since I was using a higher tier of energy, such as the output being purple¨C and handed that off to the minion itself, instructing it to recreate it. I spent a while observing the created undead, eventually concluding that the process was working just fine. As an experiment, I instructed it to cut off the intent, but keep up the energy influx. Interestingly, the purple aura cut out, which was something that wouldn¡¯t have happened with a proper rune. Other than my Database runes, I¡¯d never encountered a rune that required an influx of intent to function after creation¨C and even then the Databases worked, they just wouldn¡¯t get updated without input in the form of intent or a Process rune. I had the creature restart the process of feeding the semirune structures, and looked closer, inside the antlers this time. With a normal rune that was being powered by an energy type that was also being used as the structure it was held on top of, it would rapidly consume and degrade that material to add extra strength. Even if you put a rune on something that wasn¡¯t conjured, it would slowly degrade that thing. I could somewhat get around this drawback of runes by reinforcing materials with material compression, stacking, and other runes to increase durability, and also occasionally refreshing things with more material. I rarely though of it for the most part, though, because it was just such a slow process unless the materials were actually formed out of the energy type that was used to power the runes used on top of them. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The interesting part of these semistructures, though, was that they didn¡¯t cause this degradation. I¡¯d have to come up with some way to use them more practically, and also to create them without having to spend a super long time slowly channeling power into whatever I wanted to use them on. That would have to be a future Seif thing, though. Right now I was busy fixing outdated work. With the Svykins put into place, I figured that the first eight floors had enough diversity, so I moved on to the next set. For these floors, I figured that setting the Nailwolves up as the top of the food chain¨C excluding the miniboss, of course¨C would be for the best, so I was mostly looking to add in some prey animals. I did want to stick with the nail theme, though. Replacing the fur of the Nailwolves with long, skinny claws had made them look pretty cool, and they also matched the gray of the stoney environment I¡¯d created for them. I spent a moment looking around in the parts of my domain that reached past the Dead Zone, trying to find some good prey. The first thing that caught my eye was, of all things, a moose. Literally just a normal moose. Of course, the moose would be a strong, sturdy foe for adventurers, even if it was technically a prey animal, as an herbivore. My Nailwolves wouldn¡¯t actually be hunting them and throwing themselves to their deaths, so I figured that it would be fine. I slowly formed the first moose in my tower, on the third floor. I figured that having them as rarer enemies would make senses, since they weren¡¯t the primary enemy of the sector but were still pretty tough to fight. As with the Nailwolves, I replaced the moose¡¯s fur with gray claws. I didn¡¯t bother giving it any innate magic, but I did heavily reinforce its body with my magic. It would be a unique experience in the sector: it couldn¡¯t tear you apart or throw you around with space magic, but it could trample you to death if you let it. The look was pretty different from the normal moose, especially in coloration. With the wolves, it hadn¡¯t been quite so different because wolves could be gray, but I¡¯d never seen a gray moose before. Therefore¡­ Graymoose. I know. I¡¯m so creative. I scattered a few between the floors after the third, increasing the density of moose as I climbed. Eventually, I got to a point that I figured was good enough and moved on to another kind of beast to add in. Goats. Mountain goats, specifically. They could live in a stoney environment like the one the second sector presented, and they seemed to fit in with the Greymoose and could work as prey for the Nailwolves. Skimming quickly through my domain, I soon found a goat to work with as a base, and created a replica. Looking around my territory like this made me realize just how huge it was. I¡¯d not really thought about it before, but¡­ I¡¯d probably expanded across at least a quarter of the continent by now. I¡¯d probably run into some human settlements pretty soon. Like with the Graymoose and Nailwolves, I replaced all of their hair with claw-based structures, though for theirs, I made them thinner, longer, and a bit curly, to make them look more goaty. Because I¡¯m a psycho, I named them Pogoats, because it¡¯s not like anyone else is going to understand the name, right? In fact, the only people who would even hear it were me, Azrael, and maybe some of my intelligent minions. With that done, I moved onto the miniboss that I¡¯d be putting on the 12th floor. I¡¯d already partly thought up its design, so I just got to work putting that idea into reality. Soon, I had a lion-shaped beast standing before me, though its fur and hair had all been replaced by claws that were reshaped to match the look of the lions in my memories. Similarly to the Graymoose, I¡¯d given this beast significant physical enhancement, and I also made its natural weapons sharper and deadlier than an organic creature would have. On top of that, I formed its consciousness around the utilization of Arcane magic, similarly to how my wolves used the Spatial portions of my Forbodum. I didn¡¯t actually know all that much about normal Arcane magic, as it was a type I¡¯d never used¨C it had been the last affinity that had been required for my advancement to Forbodum, after all. I did know a couple things, though. Arcanum primarily interacted with other kinds of magic and was closely associated with knowledge and intent. In a way, Fenrir was more like an Arcanum user than one of any other base affinity, including my own original Necrosis and Spatium. Come to think of it, I used a whole lot of Arcane-type magic as well. You¡¯d think that would make it easy to think of some sort of magic to give to the lion, but for a long while I just¡­ blanked. Eventually, though, I chose to pack a bunch of extra energy into him and show him a basic technique that I¡¯d read a bit about in Kelemnion, as well as the knowledge of how to channel energy into its eyes to see energy. The technique was pretty simplistic, and mostly just involved shunting a large amount of energy at an enemy in a wave while they were casting or maintaining a spell and hoping that their control wavered enough to cause spell failure¨C where your intent lost control of the energy and it dissipated into the surroundings or did something completely different than you¡¯d expected. Spell failure was typically pretty rare for experienced mages, and almost completely unheard of for natural magic casters like myself or Azrael, whose magic was bound into their very existence. The standard ways for it to come about were either through an injection of a much more powerful intent into the energy you were trying to control, a much more powerful energy breaking your connection to your energy, or a caster getting so distracted that their intent was unclear and the spell fell apart. Arcane energy was better at interacting with other magical energies, so it was the go-to ¡°dispelling¡± energy type. My thought was that the innate hostility of Necrosis, the heavy presence in reality that Spatium held, and Arcane¡¯s predisposition to the ability would all make Forbodum an even better energy for dispulsion, but I had yet to try it myself. Better to just have a minion do the testing for me, right? As a test, I had the newly-minted Arclion square off against a Nailwolf, and every time the Spatium-wielding beast tried to cast a spell, the Arclion shot a wave of overwhelming power at it, strong enough to shatter the Nailwolf¡¯s control every time. The Arclion ran out of steam pretty quickly, but that was only after I threw a few packs of Nailwolves at it as a team. Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the new design, so I left the Arclion to his own devices and started looking around for some more stuff to work on. I¡¯d already given some quick redesigns to my doors and some of the other functional runes in and around my tower, but I took some more time to plug everything into a singular location with my Energy Links, one where I gathered up all of the energy crystals that I had. Now I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about a bunch of different batteries, and could instead just worry about the one big one. This did mean that if someone managed to get ahold of one of my Energy Links and just pulled power through it, that would be something of an issue, but they were completely unique runes so part of me doubted that someone would be able to figure out what they did. Even if someone managed it, I would just destroy the Energy Link on this end, canceling the connection before they could deal any truly significant damage. I did leave Carnic¡¯s energy crystals inside his gear, but l redid some of the runework¨C which meant that I basically had to rewrite everything. Replacing the old, inefficient work with my new Energy Link and Energy Conversion rune was worth it to me, though. Reworking Azrael¡¯s gear felt good. I ended up having to make a new rune named Physical Link for the left gauntlet, which would be used to enable Azrael¡¯s bootleg telekinesis with much greater efficiency and power, but that was something I probably would¡¯ve eventually wanted to do anyways. The larger, more important upgrade, though, was changing out the old aluminum plate for some sleek carbon fiber. Since the carbon fiber weighed almost half what aluminum had, I was able to stack twice as many layers of armor on top of one another. SInce carbon fiber was so tough, that meant that Azrael would be an absolute unit on the battlefield. I also formed her sword entirely out of carbon fiber, and this time I inscribed a Detonate rune on it to allow her to charge up power within it gradually and let it all loose in a single instant, allowing her to create some potentially devastating attacks without even needing to freecast. That would allow her to focus more on actually fighting, rather than casting offensive spells, since doing a lot of things all at once like that could increase the risk to her. Once her gear was inscribed with a ton of Reinforcement runes and some Physical Link runes to bind it together while she was using it, I passed it over. All the runes on her gear that used Forbodum instead of Absiete¨C which was, honestly, most of them¨C had Energy Links binding them to crystals which were further bound back to my tower. I didn¡¯t want to take any risks with her gear not being able to power itself, so her Forbodum gems would be constantly refilled and she¡¯d have a backup in case, for any reason, my Links weren¡¯t able to reach her. I felt her gear was pretty foolproof, so I handed it off to her. She excitedly ran off to do some testing with it and I was left with my own thoughts again. Deciding that the town around my tower was far too undefended, I took some time to reinforce it with Conflict Tungsten rebar, which would make it much harder to topple, especially when it came to magical attacks. I also used Energy Links and Material Reinforcement runes to further improve that durability. Eventually, I was satisfied with that, too, so I started looking around for more things to update and check on, but couldn¡¯t find anything immediately. In search of problems and inspiration, I sent my consciousness across my domain, checking on all of the Wisps I had assigned to the task of spreading my influence on my behalf. I took the time to create a few more to compensate for the much larger distance that they had to cover, and filled in some of the gaps that were left in my domain from their semi-random trajectories. That was how I noticed them. A party of adventurers, warily entering the Dead Belt. Actually¡­ no, that wasn¡¯t quite right. They hadn¡¯t entered the Dead Belt itself yet, only my domain. They had to be aware of that fact, right? If so, then why did they seem so¡­ jumpy? Interestingly, they were coming from the North¨C from Kerenth. So far, I¡¯d only ever interacted with people from Yalten. I moved my full attention to the party of adventurers, inspecting them with curiosity and chuckling as I considered the pranks I could pull on them. Yes, this would be fun. Azrael 3: Pulled Azrael stared into the distance with a look of concern on her face. It felt like she¡¯d forgotten something and needed to go find it, but she knew she hadn¡¯t. She¡¯d already checked twice, but that nagging feeling just wouldn¡¯t¨C The beast she was fighting bellowed in rage and charged her, pulling her out of her thoughts yet again. Its body was stocky, wide, and gray, with a single horn on its head. It seemed mostly mundane, aside from the fact that it was undead and Azrael had never seen another creature like it. A perfect low-risk enemy but physically powerful foe to test herself against. With a sigh, she charged up the enchantment Ambrose had placed on her new shortsword and swung downwards at the beast¡¯s head. It was an incredibly tough beast, and its skull had been heavily reinforced to allow it to use its horn effectively. None of that particularly mattered to the wave of Absiete as it passed through it. Where there once had been matter, there now¡­ wasn¡¯t. The remaining portions of the creature sloughed to the ground. After a moment, the dissipated portion of creature popped pack into existence Usually, Azrael¡¯s abilities were less effective on living creatures, but the inscription on her shortsword allowed her to pack a lot more power into a single swing than she would normally be able to manage. It was such a powerful ability that she could even forgive him for forgetting to make a second sword. Of course, the improvements to her gauntlet¡¯s abilities helped too. Ranged manipulation of objects without even needing to use her own energy was powerful. She really didn¡¯t know how Ambrose was able to utilize so much power at a time. Her best theories involved his domain, his full Willpower build, a lot of practice, or just simply his being a lich, but she figured that the best answer was a mix of all those factors. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Pulling herself out of her thoughts, she clicked her tongue at the realization that she was staring off into the distance. That nagging sensation was starting to get annoying. Hopefully some more murder would help.
Murder did not help Azrael¡¯s issue. In fact, as the time had passed, the sensation evolved from a nag to a pull, then to an intense desire, and finally into an incessant need to head in that direction. Logically, she knew that this was probably some sort of Soothen magic, manipulating her fate and trying to force her to play along, but it was in the wrong direction. Why would a Soothsayer want her to head East of all places? The only reason she could think of was to execute an ambush on Seif, but his domain was large enough that he could just teleport her back before he was put into any real danger. Looking left, then right, she considered her current state. She was fully geared, so she wouldn¡¯t put herself in danger by just choosing a direction and walking. Her magic was a bit drained from using her Absiete on her armor to increase her mobility, but it would recover over the course of an hour or two, so that wasn¡¯t a serious limiting factor. She had no need for food, water, or rest, so any other supplies were unneeded. With one last glance towards Ambrose¡¯s tower, she started walking. She didn¡¯t know where she was going, nor did she know why she was being called there. But she did know one thing. Now that she¡¯d committed to following the path laid before her, there would be no turning back. Esheth 2: A Slight Trembling The sage gently stirred the potent concoction within the specially-made device. He poured himself a cup and gingerly sipped at the still-hot liquid. While many others he knew had moved past the art of tea brewing for the convenience of coffee, he was old enough to remember its significance. Once, it had been considered a magical liquid and was used sparingly, and mostly as a part of special ceremonies, such as a young man¡¯s coming of age. It had later been concluded that the tea itself contained little to no magical energy, and so its use had become much more common. Eventually, all the once-sacred recipes had circulated across the country, and it was consumed daily by many individuals. Some of the special ingredients were, of course, extremely rare and expensive, but what was the point of living hundreds¨C no, thousands of years if one couldn¡¯t enjoy the simple pleasures of life? He¡¯d tried coffee once¨C never again. No, Esheth was a tea-drinker through and through. The old mage looked down at his old, frail hands. His body, as a whole, was much younger and more capable than it should have been, but some parts of him had deteriorated in a way that the healers couldn¡¯t seem to fix. When his hands had first started quivering, he¡¯d merely thought he¡¯d been cold, but later more trouble had arisen, causing him to drop things more often and greatly reducing his dexterity. Then, even more problems had arisen. His body had grown stiff and slow. Moving had become painful. His first concern was that it had been a curse, but he had no way to tell if that truly was the case. The doctor¡¯s prognosis had been grim. At the time, Esheth had been a mere level 15, and he¡¯d been informed that, as he got older, his memory would deteriorate in the same way his hands had. The healers didn¡¯t have a way to precisely examine him or tell him how long he had, but they¡¯d told him that other patients that had a similar list of symptoms tended to develop another condition¨C dementia. He would start to lose his memories. He would forget who he once was¨C all the history he¡¯d lived through would be lost. Even then, Esheth had been considered a relic of the past. A piece of living history¨C one of the oldest and most powerful humans South of the Dead Belt. Above all else, Esheth prized his memory. His many Willpower enhancements had kept it intact over the years, but hearing that he would start to lose that, even with all that added mental strength? He¡¯d begun to increase his level in earnest. Ten Willpower enhancements later, he¡¯d hit a wall. Like with every class upgrade, all of his Skills had been set back to 0. To level again, he would need to gain twenty-five levels in twenty-five brand-new skills. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Twenty levels in twenty skills had been possible, and each level after that had been comparatively easy, since he¡¯d only needed to improve a little bit in many aspects, and a lot in a new one. The difference between four hundred levels of progress and six hundred and twenty-five levels was much larger than it sounded. Even with as much as he¡¯d worked to progress, he could slowly feel himself aging. He grew slower, stiffer, and his hands shook more and more each day. The only time his hands didn¡¯t shake was when he was holding his morning cup of tea. It was an oddly calming and spiritual moment for him, and whatever this awful condition was seemed to acknowledge that. Or, perhaps it was merely a subconscious force of will. Esheth couldn¡¯t tell for sure. Perhaps that was why the slight trembling that knocked the cup out of his hand felt so significant. The Soothsayer clutched at his chest, where a slight shock had run through him only moments before. He felt the connection between himself and Fate, the realm of Soothen, strengthen. For a moment, his body was suspended halfway between the real world and one of paradox¨C a place where all things were certain, yet all actions could result in numerous outcomes. Esheth had gained access to Soothen somewhat recently when compared to his original advanced affinity, Annihaen. Even so, he was deeply connected to it. He¡¯d always been a firm believer in the idea of fate, to the point where it had heavily impacted the way he chose to judge his opponents, hence why he had chosen to give that young lich a chance to prove that the path of his fate lay higher than Esheth¡¯s own. This methodology had earned him one of his many titles: Bloodsayer. Some viewed his methods as cruel¨C apparently, living for a year with the knowledge that you would die at the end of it was enough to drive weaker men mad. He¡¯d even arrived at their locations to find them already dead, with suicides and heart attacks being the most common causes. Esheth had always been tied deeply to Fate, even before he could see it. Now, he was its favorite child¨C its champion. That meant he got certain¡­ privileges. Images of potential futures flickered across his vision, each making him frown more than the last. Fate was an odd thing. The future was an uncertain thing, but there were specific outcomes that were set in stone, moments where all possible futures converged into one moment. Thousands of possibilities: he saw an undead horde rising against his kingdom and devouring it, converting his homeland into a land of death¨C an extension of the Dead Belt. He saw cities rise into the heavens and conquer the skies, backed by unparalleled magical and physical technologies. He saw his world engulfed by fire and water, light and dark, life and death. He saw blue lightning crackle across the heavens, scorching all that crossed its path. Finally, he saw the crux: an unstoppable, immutable moment in time. An unfamiliar man with a youthful face sitting atop a throne of light, emanating pure power, untainted by the affinities or natural laws. Suddenly, Esheth¡¯s body was shunted fully into the real world, and his vision ended. He lay prone for a long moment, his tea staining the floor and leftover Soothen coursing painfully through his body. ¡°That,¡± he grunted, wrestling the residual energy in him into a calmer state. ¡°Was so,¡± he continued, picking fragments of his favorite teacup off the floor. ¡°Unhelpful,¡± he snarled. Astaliar 1: The Brotherhood of Mana Astaliar itched at his right arm¨C at least, the withered husk that once was a right arm arm. When he first saw it, the young man thought that he would have to lose his arm. He was relieved when the healers told him that he could keep it. Then they¡¯d elaborated, and the color had drained from his face. The invasion of foreign, hostile space magic that carried a hint of Necrosis with it had rendered his arm completely unhealable. Even the most talented space mages they could find hadn¡¯t been able¨C or, in some cases, willing¨C to perform the procedure. Astaliar silently seethed at the memories. Useless commoners! Who cares about your Mentum pool getting tainted by the trace amounts of Necrosis?? You should be honored to die for me! Sadly, his family had found no good way to have the work done, and that was before the hearing. His scowl transformed into a grimace as he recalled the king¡¯s harsh words. Apparently, his loss of supplies and servants had been ¡°unfitting of his status as a noble.¡± Who cares about a few dozen commoner women? They served their purpose. He¡¯d been officially stripped of his right to his family¡¯s estates upon their death. Instead, if they failed to producee a suitable heir, their possessions would be returned to the king himself. After that night, his family¨C as well as all of his old friends, since the hearing had been made into a public event where even the common folk could attend¨C had refused to interact with him. Astaliar had been cast into the streets by his family¡¯s own guard, and since then he¡¯d been living off the small amount he¡¯d had on him at the time. He¡¯d already been forced to sell his favorite coat just to afford another night at a decent inn. If things kept up at this rate, he might be forced to move to an inn that lacked runic accommodations, such as heating, showers, and light control. That, or turn to the Watchers for work. He shivered at the thought of being forced to pursue either one of those paths. I¡¯ll kill every last one of those pigs who helped to put me in this wretched state. Astaliar was pulled from his thoughts by his arrival at his destination. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. The Brotherhood of Mana, he thought with a scoff. I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m doing this. In spite of his doubts, he knocked on the hard wooden door. He¡¯d heard rumors that these people could help with his arm, and the thought of that alone was enough to keep his skepticism at bay. Within moments of knocking on the door, it swung open, revealing a large man whose body was completely obscured by a dark blue robe with decorative white runes painted onto it. ¡°Ah, Astaliar,¡± the¡­ man? Woman? Rasped out, beckoning Astaliar to enter the building. ¡°We¡¯ve been expecting you, young one.¡± ¡°That¡¯s Astaliar Galias to you,¡± he replied harshly, brushing past the odd person. The being within the robe cocked its head. ¡°Is it, now? How curious.¡± Astaliar snarled and nearly lost his cool, but the thought of regaining the function of his arm was more than enough incentive to look past the slight. ¡°I was informed you could help with my arm,¡± he responded, pushing away all thoughts of burning this crude filth away with a scorching beam of light. ¡°Yes, yes¡­¡± it hummed with a voice that sounded almost like birdsong, ¡°we can make that happen. For a price.¡± The once-noble grimaced and pulled out his pouch of coins. ¡°Would this be sufficient?¡± The creature shook his head, and Astaliar was about to burst out in frustration when it explained. ¡°The Brotherhood does not exchange mortal currency for its services, Sir Galias.¡± Astaliar¡¯s face fell a bit and he put the moneypurse away. ¡°Then, what do you need?¡± The hood of the robe shook slowly. ¡°It is not us that requires anything, young master. Rather, it is you. To obtain that which you desire, you must make a sacrifice.¡± Before Astaliar even managed to spit out a comment about the vagueness of the hooded individual¡¯s statement, a prompt suddenly populated before his eyes. Permanently revoke all Skills, Boons, Levels, Affinities, Class Specializations, and Attribute Enhancements to gain unique class, ¡°Child of Mana?¡± N/A Warning! This choice is irreversible, so be sure to choose wisely. He grimaced and clutched at his arm, looking up at the creature in front of him. ¡°That¡¯s a high price, even to get my arm back.¡± The being smirked¨C finally showing a small amount of its body in the form of its multiple rows of teeth. ¡°Trust me, young one. The benefits greatly outweigh the downsides. Astaliar spent a long time considering. He poured over every aspect of his current Legend, considering his fighting style, and wondering what ¡°Mana¡± was. Eventually, he felt that he¡¯d considered it long enough, and knew the answer. ¡°I accept.¡± He reached out to shake the hand of the individual he¡¯d spoken to just a moment before, but it turned into smoke the instant he accepted the prompt. Then, Astaliar looked down. He looked at his hand. The one he¡¯d lost. He almost cried from the joy of finally having his arm back in one piece. A wicked grin crossed his face. Someday soon, his foes would rue the day they crossed Astaliar Galias. End of Book 1 Chapter 34: The Negotiator I ran my hands down over the custom-made suit, feeling the soft, lightly-magical material it was made out of it. After noticing a group of humans from Kerenth entering my territory, I¡¯d appeared before them with a cheesy monologue, going all-out on the dark, scary Lich BBEG persona. The adventuring party had been scared out of their minds, not just at my appearance and words but also at my magical presence¨C after all, my power blended in perfectly with the surroundings, so it must have appeared as though I was even stronger than I really am. They¡¯d actually gone so far as to grovel and beg for their lives. It was pretty funny, but I started feeling kind of bad for them when one mentioned that he had a wife and kids. Yeah, yeah, I know that line never gets a real villain, but in real life it¡¯s just¡­ depressing. I pretended to act all gracious, like I was doing a favor by sparing their lives, and asked that they introduce me to someone in their local leadership so I could prevent any more misunderstandings. I got to use the whole ¡°take me to your leader¡± quote without it seeming cheesy, which was a win in my books.. Apparently, they¡¯d gotten confused and thought I was asking to speak to their queen, so I¡¯d been forced to form a fleshier body and get outfitted according to Kerenthian standards. I¡¯d been expecting the clothes to be uncomfortable, but that assumption had been incorrect; it was actually super soft. I guess magic really does impact every part of life in this world, even simple things like clothing and food. Speaking of food, that was also offered to me, but after the first couple refusals I guess they realized where they went wrong. Part of me was concerned that they¡¯d start sacrificing humans to me in the hopes of appeasing me, but I suppose not even rich people are crazy enough to do that unprompted. Eventually, I was brought to a waiting room and made to wait. My mind immediately went to all the stuff I¡¯d read and watched where people would be made to wait for absurd amounts of time as a power play, but luckily it only took a few minutes. I was brought into a large courtroom, with a high, painted ceiling that was supported on either side by ornate columns. A few guards and councilors waited beside the throne warily. Sitting on the throne was a short woman with the worst case of bedhead I¡¯d ever seen. A quick inspection told me that it was extremely early in the morning¨C the sun hadn¡¯t even fully risen yet. Part of me felt bad for obviously making this lady¨C on closer inspection, this kid¨C wake up early, and possibly without warning, to a stressful situation. My guides both dropped to one knee, but I just stared at her with an eyebrow raised. I felt a bit of magic swirl around her and towards me. Reading its intent, though, I could tell that it wasn¡¯t anything hostile, but instead some sort of Skill or Boon centered around reading emotions and increasing the user¡¯s sympathy towards the other party. A small bond formed between the two of us, but again, it didn¡¯t hurt me in any way, so I allowed it. The girl let out a long sigh and slouched a bit in her chair¨C not a calculated move, but rather one of relief. Clearly, she¡¯d been pretty worried. Her next words confirmed my own thoughts. ¡°You know, when my subordinates sent an urgent message that there was a powerful undead in one of the border cities, I was expecting some sort of attack. I also hadn¡¯t expected them to bring you to the capital to see me without communicating that fact whatsoever.¡± She glared down at the men beside me. I grinned. ¡°Don¡¯t be too angry. I was the one who blocked their communication.¡± She squinted at me, and then I felt another probe come from her link to me. Another long sigh stretched out. ¡°You think this is all a joke, don¡¯t you?¡± My smile grew even wider. ¡°Yup. You can call me Ambrose, by the way.¡± ¡°Ambrose, then. My name is Queen Nadiya Sharjiil the Seventh, but my full title is boring to hear every five minutes so just pick one of those and use that,¡± she explained, ¡°Now, can I ask why you¡¯re here, other than for kicks and giggles?¡± I raised an eyebrow at the Earthen phrase but shrugged it off. ¡°Well, I just expanded my domain past the Dead Belt and a bit into your territory. I spotted some humans investigating so I figured it would be a good idea to come here and make sure there aren¡¯t going to be any issues. Yalten has already launched an attack me once, and I could probably handle another one, but it¡¯s honestly just annoying. ¡°Furthermore, I was thinking that we might be able to arrange some sort of trade deal. I would be willing to open up a path for your people, both to the heart of my dominion and to the other side of the continent, though they¡¯d have to agree to follow my rules while within the Dead Belt.¡± Nadiya nodded slowly. ¡°We¡¯ve been cut off from our Southern neighbors for far too long. Only a mere handful of people have ever made the trip across the Belt. Might I ask what you would desire in terms of trade, and what rules there would be to follow?¡± I spent a moment considering what I most desired, and eventually came to a rather easy answer. ¡°Energy types, especially those of higher tiers.¡± Seeing her wince, I elaborated, ¡°I can help provide the means to condense the energy into crystals, either by providing the labor or teaching the technique, but that is currently the most valuable thing you could offer me.¡± ¡°And your rules?¡± She inquired with a slight grimace still on her face. ¡°Those are pretty simple. No stealing and no harming others, and no intentional property damage. I hope more will not be necessary, but I expect you to reinforce those rules into the minds of any who visit or pass through the city I have constructed. If they refuse to follow them, they forfeit their lives.¡± ¡°Those are rather simple. I don¡¯t believe we will have any issues on that front,¡± she said with a relieved smile. I nodded as well. ¡°I can also offer advanced runic technology and potentially some of my knowledge as well. I am not aware of what you have managed to develop on your own, but I¡¯m sure there are some different perspectives in our work that could and should be explored.¡± The small queen brandished a small smile. ¡°I agree. I¡¯m very glad that you came with peaceful intentions, Ambrose. We will get to work on establishing infrastructure to support these things. Could you work on that path through the Dead Belt you mentioned?¡± She had an excited look on her face as she spoke, clearly envisioning it¨C she¡¯d be the first ruler since the formation of the Dead Belt who would be able to claim that she was able to establish a connection with the other half of the continent, after all. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Sure,¡± I said, focusing on the edge of the Dead Belt and the space just to my side, letting my stitching perspective of space take over as I mended the two segments of spatial cloth together with a ridiculous amount of Forbodum. I went to pin the portal in place, but found that the distance was too great for my already-strained reserves. Turns out, making a portal outside of my influence was way harder than just zipping around my own domain. The more space the threads had to travel without the stabilizing force of my Occult Sovereignty, the more difficult they were to sustain. That¡­ made sense. Trying not to let the strain show, I gestured at the newly-formed portal. ¡°Shall we?¡± After the initial shock died down and a sacrificial lamb had been sent through to test the creation, the whole room filtered through the wormhole I¡¯d formed, allowing me to remove the. The queen¡¯s teeth chattered as she shivered from the artificial cold that resulted from the proximity to the Dead Belt. ¡°H-how far did you say it went? The records never really s-specified.¡± I did a quick measurement in my head. ¡°About a hundred and forty miles. My domain stretches a few dozen past that.¡± A thought crossed my mind, and I corrected, ¡°Excuse me, that¡¯s about 548 and 47 flights.¡± This world¡¯s measurement system¨C which I would not be using for my own designs¨C was based on the average distance an arrow fired by a Level 5 Archer could travel. It was, of course, an absolutely awful and imprecise system, as it would differ based on who fired the arrow, what angle they fired at, the particular arrow used, the wind, the geography, and which Skills and Boons the Archer had. It was the best they had, though, at least for now. ¡°No wonder our surveyors never came back,¡± she commented thoughtfully, ¡°Without horses, they would have to travel for over a week in that filth, and with all those monsters¡­¡± I shrugged. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t exactly call it filth. It¡¯s more like we¡¯re trees and you¡¯re animals¨C what we breathe is toxic to you in large amounts, but it¡¯s all part of a process that¡¯s better for the both of us. Without life, there can be no death, and without death, there could never be any new life. Everything would stagnate and grind to a halt.¡± Nadiya and her companions gave me a strange look. ¡°I don¡¯t¡­ no, that¡¯s not important right now, can you make a path for us? I need to see it with my own eyes.¡± I obliged her, raising a hand and infusing the energy in the surrounding air with my own will and Intent, pushing it back away from the group. The young woman¡¯s eyes widened fractionally as the energy that chilled her to the bone gradually receded. Before she could get anything else out, I had to make a clarifying statement: ¡°This isn¡¯t the exact process I would use to create a path for you. It would just be too inefficient and focus-intensive to do this constantly. The runescript I need to work on will take a while to finish, but I¡¯ll deploy the devices as soon as they¡¯re finished. I can¡¯t say exactly how long it¡¯ll be, but I do tend to tune the rest of the world while working on a project, so it might be a while.¡± She gave a slight nod in acknowledgement, then turned to one of her councilors and started chatting with him animatedly, stepping away from me to focus on the new conversation. Obviously, I could still hear her, but I tuned her out and went to one of my assigned guides, letting him know that I¡¯d be heading off to work on the method I had planned for ¡®Moses¡¯ing the Dead Belt, and would be back with a prototype at some point in the near future. He didn¡¯t get the reference, obviously, but knew what I meant, so he agreed to pass along the message. My plan was pretty simple. Splitting the entire Dead Belt in two would be possible, but time consuming and bothersome. I would have to pull a titanic amount of Necrosis out of the land, and then prevent more from bleeding back into it. Instead of doing that, I planned to create a system through which a new type of Enchanted Orb would harvest energy from the Dead Belt, using it to keep itself in the air and sending any spare power into a storage space that it could use to keep itself aloft when the energy got too thin. Entirely new runes and systems would have to be designed for it, but I felt that it would be worth the effort. An easier thing to do was simply fix up a road. Transmuting materials en masse was a bit bothersome, but possibly, so a large strip of dirt leading between Kerenth and Yalten was slowly compacted and reformed into stone. In order to keep it straight and consistent, I had to pace over a few mountains, which was a time-consuming task, but very much possible for me. The process didn''t take all that much focus after I got accustomed to it, so I was able to simultaneously form Safety-based Conceptium around and within my new road, reinforcing the surroundings with the idea that living beings should be safe. The ambient Necrosis fought a bit, but eventually conceded to my will. Everything seemed to be going well until I felt a sudden yet slight resistance to my influence where I was trying to reshape the land. Sensing the problematic area, I found a familiar sensation. It was another domain. A weak one, to be certain, but it was there nonetheless. I could overpower it easily, if I felt like it, but I was curious. A quick portal brought me to the new location, right alongside a mountain, where I started pushing my own domain gently into the weaker, Necrosis-based one, following along with its progress. The most curious part about this domain was how unintrusive it felt. I hadn''t even noticed it before I tried interfacing with the area it covered. I ended up finding a small cave carved into the face of this mountain¨C the domain Skill seemed to be emanating from there. I crept forward slowly, making sure to cause as little damage to the environment as possible, including the influence that was already held within the air. The deeper I delved into the cave, the darker it got. Without my innate senses as a lich, I would have been quickly rendered blind by the lack of ambient lighting. Eventually, I found the source of the changes in the terrain. A small blue gem hovered in the air. It appeared somewhat similar to the gems that I used to store magical energy, but somehow more potent, more real. I felt a powerful wave of energy approach me, but instead of actually hurting me it simply passed over me with a small, warm tingle. I approached the mystical rock and spread some influence over it, focusing on it with my Encompassing Knowledge¨C my Boon from Occult Sovereignty that let me examine objects with extreme detail. Instead of receiving the information I was seeking, I felt a surge of Forbodum in my Repository, and my body locked up. A being made of purple shadows¨C one that I instinctively knew didn¡¯t exist outside of my own senses¨C appeared before me, wrapped their hand around the crystal, and squeezed. For a moment, purple lines spread out across my vision, as though reality itself had fractured. The visual distortions faded, but the creature turned its shadowed face to look me in the eyes, and I heard a voice within my mind, as clearly as though someone had whispered it into my ear. Destroy the Fragment. I stumbled forward as I was freed from the Dark Whisper¡¯s brief grasp. For a moment, the desires of the shade persisted within my mind, and my hand subconsciously clamped down around the blue gem. I felt more energy pass violently, desperately between my phalanges. This time, I paid more attention to the energy itself, and realized why it had felt so familiar and unintrusive: it was my own energy. Somehow, this shiny rock was exerting force over my own domain. That felt¡­ dirty, somehow, but more importantly was the question of how? There wasn¡¯t any clear indication of Conceptium being carried with it. My Encompassing Knowledge dug into the details of the thing before me, all while it continued to thrash and fight against me. All I got for my efforts was the name of the object, which the Whisper had already told me¨C it was a Fragment. But, what was it a fragment of? How was it manipulating my energy so freely? Should I truly destroy it? The voices said yes, and they probably knew what it was, but I didn¡¯t, and I wanted to know what the consequences of doing so would be. I resolved to study this odd gem, and search for it in Kelemnion during my next trip there. I¡¯d also have to gather information on advanced mana types and what I could do with them. Chapter 35: A Foray Into The Forbidden Kelemnion was, as always, full of information. Useful, sometimes, and confusing in others. I felt certain that just learning about at least one of the numerous energy types would have driven someone without my Firewall insane. I managed to get my hands on some catalogs, though most seemed to be rather limited in scope, simply covering energy types linked to a specific pairing of elements. Some of the most interesting ones that I¡¯d found covered the elements that I could¡¯ve had if I¡¯d just swapped out one of my affinities for another. The Space and Arcana elements all seemed to lead to different sections of the Greater Aethenium, so those were all relatively similar to what I could currently do, but swapping out my Space element led to some interesting results. By mixing Earth, Death, and Arcane, I could have created Archaix, an element that seemed like an archeologist¡¯s wet dream. It could help a person find things that were long-forgotten by the living, and even resurrect fossils. Jurassic Park, anyone? The Key was an element that seemed reminiscent of Eldritch, but replaced the latter¡¯s Space with Arcane. Instead of representing abominable creatures that existed outside the scale of life and death, it was focused on pure knowledge, as was the case with many other elements with Arcane aspects. The difference between the elements of the Aethenium and The Key, also known as Ysothis, was that each element of the Aethenium focused on a specific kind of knowledge and presented it in a controlled way. Even my own Forbodum, which was known and feared for driving its users mad, merely gave you the option of delving into its Forbidden Knowledge. The Key was different. As Space wasn¡¯t involved in its formation, the wielders of The Key weren¡¯t expected to enter its dimension, but The Key specifically interacted with The Gate, its linked dimension. The book that covered this specific element explained that time was a bit of a suggestion in certain planes, including both the Far Realm and The Gate. In the Far Realm, time seemed to flow nonlinearly, speeding up and slowing down at random intervals, and even moving backwards. Creatures with powerful magic seemed to become increasingly immune to this effect, but because of the way that time worked, it was completely variable when a creature would become strong enough for this to occur. For example, the weakest beings in the Far Realm would be completely unaware of the time warping, but as their Eldritch affinity increased, their minds would become inured to the effect, allowing them to think at natural speeds when small adjustments to the speed of time occurred. Eventually, the creatures would be able to retain flashes of memory when time reversed, and even be able to watch as time shifted backwards. The most powerful creatures in the Far Realm, the Servitors, could even bolster their physical bodies with their Eldritch powers to allow them to become entirely impervious to the detrimental effects of the chronal distortions, granting them immeasurable power within the realm. After all, in a world where time itself moved unpredictably, these creatures would be able to stand outside of the changes. If they were ever attacked, they would simply be able to walk away, and it would be as though they were never there. The Gate, too, had an odd flow of time, but instead of simply flowing in a way disconnected from the rest of the multiverse, it was instead ahead. The Gate somehow existed in a time after the end of all things¨C a time when all possible knowledge had already been accrued. It acted as a library for all of that knowledge, except instead of cataloging it like other realms of knowledge, it stored that knowledge in every atom of the plane. Interacting with one of these endless packets of information would impart a single thought or concept upon an individual. I had to look for a pair of books about biology and physics to do some quick math, but came to the conclusion that the average surface area of the human body in atoms was approximately one¡­ followed by 18 zeros. Thinking back to my background with tech, and a random tangent one of my teachers had gone on about how good of a computer the human brain was, I knew that the brain was thought to be able to process at about an exaFLOP per second, which was a billion-billion calculations¨C another 18 zeros. It could also store about 2.5 petabytes of data. Most computers tried to aim for 1 byte per flop. The human brain was probably better than that, but I didn¡¯t know the exact numbers, so I just used that for the basic multiplication to show that a single second in The Gate would probably overload someone¡¯s brain with an undecillion bytes of data, which was more than the mere 2.5 quadrillion the brain could handle by a factor of 400 quintillion. Suffice it to say, The Gate drove people mad. As an extension of that, The Key¡¯s primary purpose was to melt brains with information overload. Its victims often were rendered outright braindead. Luckily for me, most users of The Key died pretty quickly, as touching their own magic without protections in place could outright kill them. Eventually, I turned my attention away from the study of other advanced elements. While they were interesting and the knowledge would likely prove useful to me soon, that knowledge wasn¡¯t the focus of my current venture into Kelemnion. As soon as I turned my focus back to the odd crystal I¡¯d found, the halls of Kelemnion seemed to darken a bit, and a rumble echoed out. Without even taking a step forwards, the library surrounding me shifted, bringing the relevant to the forefront. A dark mist surrounded me, and maddened mutterings battered against my Firewall¨C this was the most Forbidden energy I¡¯d ever seen in one place before. Slowly, I allowed some of the knowledge enter my mind, and felt a spark of energy in the air. An energy that wasn¡¯t Forbodum. Sparks of pure white electricity formed in the air around me, and a notification forced itself into my vision. You have incurred the wrath of the Heavens. Tribulation incoming. That was all I saw before my vision was engulfed in white.
For the first time ever, I had ¡°died¡± to something other than my own experiments. It could be argued that I¡¯d technically died to an outside attack when I¡¯d been temporarily pushed back into my Repository by information overload the first time I¡¯d entered Kelemnion, but that thought didn¡¯t really cross my mind as my physical form melted and popped back into existence over and over again. I was really starting to regret linking my spare bodies together with dimensional seams. Eventually, the last of my clones had been reduced to a puddle on the floor, and I thought for a moment that the danger had passed. Then there was a rumble of thunder around my Repository, and the lightning resumed. The attack was all-encompassing and generalized, and while that meant that my mind, soul, and gem each experienced the fury of a thousand suns all at once, it also meant that my defenses overlapped. With the combined force of my mental shielding, Firewall, and the general sturdiness of my Repository, I weathered the storm of power that bore down upon me. As my Mentum reserves fell, my power generation picked up to sustain them. Even so, I could feel my strength slowly draining. My Firewall was weakening, my Repository was quivering from the force it was subjected to, and even with my accelerated regeneration, I was running out of Mentum. Facing the first real threat to my unlife since I¡¯d met Azrael, I was panicked, but even so I pulled together every last dreg of my willpower, doing my utmost to keep myself together. Eventually, after what felt like years of torment, the storm passed. All at once, my defenses dropped. My Firewall had taken all it could, my Mentum reserves were dry, and my Repository was damaged, but I was alive. Seif Ambrose Ancient Seeker 5 Repository 3 Forbodum Manipulation 3 Occult Sovereignty 3 Kelemnion¡¯s Gate 2 Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Dark Whispers 2 Enhancements: Willpower x6, Reinforcement x1, Purity x1 Named Belongings: Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma¡¯Uban, Fenrir, Caerbalope, Carnic I stared at the long-forgotten list in confusion. First off, what was Purity? And how had I gained an extra Enhancement across the board? Possibly even more importantly, how the heck had I forgotten about my status? I was practically living in a video game world¨C any nerd¡¯s dream, and I¡¯d just been forgetting about the main way in which I was meant to be getting more powerful! My other projects were fun, sure, but this was just too far. Before I unpacked anything, though, I knew that I had to go over the information that I¡¯d gained during my last minutes in Kelemnion. With the hope that it had been worth getting smote, I delved into my memories. The first thing of note that I found was the nature of the gem. It was known as a Fragment of Divinity, and used a pure form of energy called ¡°Mana.¡± I found it odd how that translated into English, though. Every other form of magic thus far had merely been a brand of ¡°energy,¡± but no matter how I tried to consider it or what words I attempted to compare it with, the word Mana just kept popping back into my head. Anyways, the feeling I got from the books was weirdly scathing, like the authors had just hated it for some odd reason, but I supposed that lined up with the Whispers wanting me to destroy the thing. The books had also covered a number of questions, some of which I hadn¡¯t even had when I¡¯d set off to Kelemnion. The Purity entry in my Enhancements, for example, was a rather well-documented phenomena. It seemed to be caused by intense Mana exposure, like Tribulations. It cleaned out any energy that might be stored within you as a byproduct of leveling or other external sources, then replaced it with pure Mana, which was. For example, someone who got hit by a fireball might have a miniscule amount of the residual intent from that attack stored within their soul, or even some of the Pyrix if the attack was strong enough. In my case, I was constantly surrounded by the energy of the Dead Belt. For an undead like me, that wasn¡¯t really a huge problem, but the energy and intent from the area was slowly being stored within my spirit, as though I were constantly within the bounds of an AoE spell. This would create a small amount of resistance to spiritual change, such as what happened when I accepted a new Boon or Enhancement. It would also create small inconsistencies in my intent, meaning just about every part of me would become more potent as a result of obtaining this Purity Enhancement. That wasn¡¯t what caused the Willpower and Reinforcement Enhancements, though. Those were also byproducts of the Tribulation. Mana was a pure energy, and in the face of that, no impurity could survive for long. My soul was cleansed, yes, but so were my Repository¡¯s physical and mental components. All those impurities would be replaced by trace amounts of Mana, which would slowly be integrated into every part of you and claimed, acting as a small but noticeable force multiplier. Fighters would find themselves more resistant to outside changes, and their bodies would react more to the spells they cast. Mages would find their energies reacting more fluidly to their intent. In every case, Mana hugely extended one¡¯s natural lifespan. The Tribulation sucked, yes, but overall? It was a pretty worthwhile endeavor. 10/10, would do again. Though, they would apparently get worse and worse every time, as the Mana would burn away deeper and deeper impurities, ones that were progressively more intrinsic to you, so¡­ maybe I wouldn¡¯t just yet. I had more things to review, and then I would probably go mess with that Fragment of Divinity. Apparently, it was something like an energy crystal, but for Mana. Perhaps I could use it to power something, or give myself endless Enhancements? Looking over my Skills was the next thing on the chopping block. I decided to go over my options from top to bottom, then make my decisions at the end. My Repository could gain either Multithreading or Functional Thoughts. The former would allow me to perform an activity, then shift gears and think of something else without losing focus on the former activity. It sounded pretty simple, and at first I almost dismissed it as something I could replicate with Wisps, but there was actually a pretty strong synergy with it and a few of my other abilities. For example, I would be able to hold up a mental shield around my Repository, consciously manipulate my Mentum pool to increase my regeneration, and focus on other projects all at once. Functional Thoughts was pretty similar, but instead of allowing me to set up repetitive or otherwise consistent thought processes, I would instead be capable of creating sequences of thought that could be carried out with a simple trigger. One example would be the formation of runes. Currently, the fastest I could create a rune was with my domain abilities. If I¡¯d carved a rune before, I could just copy it over, so long as I paid attention to all of the molecular coding that was normally handled by the intent of the carver. Still, it took some time and focus. With Functional Thoughts, I could program a script that could run in the background and do all of that independently from me. I could snap a finger and have a rune write itself in front of me. While Functional Thoughts was certainly useful, my current favorite was Multithreading. Still, I didn¡¯t lock in my pick quite yet. Concept Mimicry was a Boon that would teach me how to perfectly copy a foreign intent, so long as I could find trace amounts of it. Pretty much, if I were able to come into contact with a rune or spell, I would be able to reproduce it and learn how it worked. Pretty fun. Intentional Magic would give me more control over my own spells. I wasn¡¯t exactly sure how that one worked, but it was based on Energetic Intent. I didn¡¯t really feel like I needed it, honestly. With my Occult Sovereignty, I was technically always in contact with my magic, which meant that I could manipulate it perfectly. Normal mages who cast a fireball wouldn¡¯t be able to do much to it after it left their hands, but I would still have perfect control over it. Speaking of Occult Sovereignty, I was starting to see something of a trend in the names of my Boons. Forceful Influence would give my Physical Influence a bit more power, whereas Intelligent Influence would allow it to work more, well, intelligently. The former would be pretty good in many situations. For example, if I decided to fill an area with Conceptium that focused on slowing things down, my Physical Influence would make people move a bit slower, attack a bit slower, and so on. Forceful Influence would increase the potency of that effect by up to double what it normally might be. Intelligent Influence, on the other hand, would use devious means to achieve similar results. In the same situation, people might find themselves tripping, or dirt beneath their feet might turn to mud. The former was always good, but the latter had the chance to be amazing. If I made adventurers cross a rickety bridge and filled the area with the idea of people falling to their deaths, Forceful Influence would just make people fall harder, whereas Intelligent Influence might push the bridge to break down in certain critical locations, increasing the likelihood of them dying. Work harder, or work smarter? Now for Omnipotent vs. Omniscient. The former was directly linked to Librarian¡¯s Favor, and would actually give me domain-like effects while within Kelemnion. I¡¯d be able to control the ground, books, and even bookshelves in the same way that I could with anything that my Occult Sovereignty had seeped into. Omniscient Reader would let me create a catalog of books that I could reference at any time, and would let me tell with a glance how relevant a book¡¯s information was to my situation. Both options felt awesome, but simultaneously lackluster. My memory was perfect, and even if my ability to delve into it wasn¡¯t, I could just replicate what I¡¯d done with Fenrir and create an instant expert on whatever subject I needed help in. At the same time, it wasn¡¯t like I was getting into any fights in Kelemnion, so the former option was also sorta unneeded, so really it was just about which option felt more cool. I picked up all my favorite options and reviewed my legend once more. Seif Ambrose Ancient Seeker 5 Repository 3 Forbodum Manipulation 3 Occult Sovereignty 3 Kelemnion¡¯s Gate 2 Dark Whispers 2 Enhancements: Willpower x6, Reinforcement x1, Purity x1 Named Belongings: Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma¡¯Uban, Fenrir, Caerbalope, Carnic I turned away from the list and sighed, remembering that I currently lacked a body, and that all my fancy new clothes had gotten wrecked. Deciding to go with a simple skeletal design, I began the arduous process of replacing my body, as well as stacking a few dozen spares onto it with spatial seams. Chapter 36: Highway to Hell I didn¡¯t get the chance to go investigate the Fragment of Divinity before I was reminded that I needed to set up a highway between Kerenth and Yalten by somebody poking their head into my domain. They only stayed for a handful of seconds, so I couldn''t tell who it was without investigating, but I honestly didn''t care. I knew why they were there, so I was going to deliver on my promise. I¡¯d failed to continue the process of constructing a highway since I¡¯d been distracted by the Fragment, so I restarted that, devoting a portion of my attention to it and using my new Multithreading Boon. The new Boon functioned by simply creating a metaphysical ¡°section¡± of my Repository, which would then continue on with whatever instruction it was last given. Essentially, I was splitting up my brain, but not my consciousness, and it would act like some sort of looping program, repeating the same sequence over and over until it was stopped. I could sense that this ability would use more space to carry out more complex tasks, meaning that there was a hard limit to how many things I could do at once, but I felt no direct reduction in my intelligence, only a bit of a drain on my Mentum and a slight weakening of my overall Willpower, but that had more to do with the task than the Multithreading Boon. With that handled, I started to design a new type of Enchanted Orb. First off, I needed to make a rough schematic and plan so that I¡¯d know which runes to use, or if there were any preexisting ones that I could use. Obviously, I¡¯d be using the informational and energy transferring runes that I¡¯d used in previous designs, my Energy Link and Mental Link. I¡¯d also use my previous Movement rune. Aside from those, I¡¯d need a new rune to part the hostile energies of the Dead Belt. I saw two possible design options here. One would be more energy-efficient, but the other would be much more comfortable for the mortals who would be traveling my road. I started turning the choices over in my head, then facepalmed as I realized that I could just use both at the same time. The first design would draw in the energy of the Dead Zone, depleting the area to help sustain itself, solving the issue with minimal energy loss. The issue with this method is that it would have a chance of pulling energy through a caravan. In theory, this wouldn¡¯t be too big of a deal, but it would be extremely uncomfortable and would putrefy any organic exports. The alternative to this method would be to use an Enchanted Orb that would instead push away Necrosis. This would be a much more costly method, though, so I was a bit less keen on it. I wasn¡¯t truly having energy issues, since everything I made was powered by my own enhanced energy, which was reinforced by Willpower increases, my advanced Forbodum energy, and my status as a lich, a creature that was already incredibly magically inclined. Still, I knew that I needed to start being more efficient with my energy consumption. I was already having to refill my power storage far more often than I¡¯d like, and adding more inefficiencies would worsen that problem. I¡¯d likely need to create some sort of magical generator, but that was a task for future Ambrose. My new plan for the ferry orbs was to have a single push orb in the center of a formation of pull orbs. Hopefully, that energy draw would be sufficient to power the entire setup. I went through the process of forming a rough template for a new Enchanted Orb design, slicing it open. Instead of carving actual runes into the inside of this sphere, though, I instead left small marks. These marks were representative of where each individual rune would need to go. In all honesty, the process was effectively the same as when I made the Runic Detonators, except I just had to replace all the more violent runescript with ones that would drain and pull in energy. I chose to create a new rune to control the pushing and pulling effects that my Orbs would need, and chose to keep it pretty simple, imbuing the Energized Intent with thoughts of mental energy being pushed and pulled in a slow, ambient manner¨C no faster than energy would normally travel, but redirecting it towards a certain location. After forming and storing a portion of it, I left that Energy Locus Conceptium cooking on a large block of gold, and started work on a new brand of Runic Deployer. While much less processing would be required for this formation of Enchanted Orbs, I felt that it would still be wise to use a Deployer to keep all of the orbs in their places and make sure that they didn¡¯t depart from travelers or force them to try to keep up.. Redesigning the orbs was rather simple¨C only a handful of runes needed to be changed at all to remove their offensive capabilities. I was even able to hook it into the same system for judging creatures within their view, just without the targeting feature that the original Deployers used to direct Detonators to attack. Even that rune, though, could be worked into ensuring that the Runic Ferries would stay in formation¨C with the Pull Ferries at a safe distance from the travelers and the Push Ferry remaining relatively centered. All in all, it wasn¡¯t that huge of a conversion from my previous works. Eventually, my new rune finished and I was able to get to work on the Runic Ferries, hooking them up to their Runic Deployer as I went. I decided to link six Pull Ferries for each Push Ferry and Runic Deployer pair. If that didn¡¯t provide enough coverage, then I could up the number, but I felt that it would be sufficient for the test I had in mind. I started looking for Azrael¨C as the leader of the small Amazonian city that had formed around my tower, I figured that she¡¯d be able to help me convince some of the residents to test my new creations. I checked her residence. She wasn¡¯t there. I checked the rest of the city. She wasn¡¯t there. I checked the area immediately around the city, figuring that she¡¯d gone hunting. She wasn¡¯t there. Concerned, I used the Spatial aspects of my Forbodum to pull on the bond between us, dragging my mind to her position and creating a portal there. Stepping through the portal, I found a surprised Azrael staring at me as though she¡¯d forgotten I existed. ¡°What are you doing?¡± I gave her a sharp look. If she was going to give me a hard time about not checking up with her while I was working on projects in my tower, then there was no way that her walking halfway across my domain in a straight line without saying a single thing in advance was acceptable. ¡°Uhh¡­¡± Her face was completely blank for a moment, then contorted into a sheepish grin. ¡°I¡¯m walking?¡± What. ¡°Where are you going?¡± If she¡¯d just traveled a quarter of a continent¡¯s width for fun, I¡¯d be having some serious concerns. She shrugged. ¡°I dunno, I just feel like there¡¯s somewhere I need to be.¡± I examined Azzy with all of my senses, and found that there weren¡¯t any new bonds on her, at least that I could detect, so it was probably not some sort of mind manipulation. Still, though¡­ ¡°Is there any way I could convince you to come back home?¡± She looked down at the ground, then shook her head. ¡°No, I feel like I really need to do this.¡± ¡°Well, if you¡¯re sure¡­¡± She was a grown undead, and I wasn¡¯t her mother. ¡°Is there anything I can do for you? Maybe I could make a portal to help you get where you¡¯re going faster?¡± Again, Azrael shook her head. ¡°No thank you. I need to do this on my own.¡± I mentally frowned at her words, but again, I wasn¡¯t in charge of her. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°Come back home safe, alright?¡± She smiled brightly beneath her helmet and gave me a confident thumbs-up.
Back in my tower, I was beating my reinforced skull against a wall, flanked by my floor bosses, each of whom was responding to my self-deprecation in their own way. ¡°I¡¯m such an idiot.¡± Uban snorted. ¡°How did you just forget that you could make portals?¡± The jerk had started talking to Azrael, who had explained how much of a nerd I was to him. Since then, he¡¯d lost any semblance of respect for me. Carnic just stared at me with an unreadable expression. Fenrir shot the land dragon a glare and tried to comfort me, ¡°I¡¯ve found that sometimes having a huge number of options at your disposal is a bad thing, Father. There were many ways you could have gone about solving this problem, and you picked one that is perhaps less efficient than it could have been. Still, it¡¯s not all bad.¡± I lifted my head off the wall, hoping for some way to salvage the situation. ¡°Explain.¡± ¡°Well, portals are wonderful and all that, but their own downsides,¡± he elaborated, ¡°They¡¯re a mode of transportation that is entirely inconvenient for anyone who isn¡¯t extremely skilled in the Spatial arts. The people of Kerenth are unlikely to expect you to be able to keep a portal open indefinitely, and playing into their expectations is critical. If we show them all of our cards at once, they may become concerned or untrusting of our intentions. ¡°Furthermore,¡± he continued, ¡±We don¡¯t know if there¡¯s some way that a portal could be hijacked by a hostile Spatium wielder. It is unlikely, considering that it would lie within your Sovereignty, but if it were to happen, that could be extremely dangerous for us. This method allows you an opportunity to observe those who approach us and ensure that their aims are pure, at least regarding us.¡± By the end, I was nodding at my creation¡¯s explanation, and I gave him a pat on the shoulder, causing him to straighten his back with pride. ¡°Thanks, Fen. I needed that.¡± I rubbed my hands together and teleported all of my lieutenants back to their lairs. Now I just needed to pitch my idea to Queen Nadiya. I¡¯d never been much of a socialite, but becoming an undead had eliminated a lot of my self-doubt. Still, I needed to take a moment to think about what I was going to say and psych myself up. Nadiya seemed pretty understanding, but this was sort of a big deal. This was how I could get my hands on new magic types to tinker with and use in my runes. Eventually I felt sufficiently prepared, and gathered up the orbs, quickly teleporting to the edge of my domain and navigating my way towards the castle in which the young queen lived. Luckily for me, the castle was built rather close to the Dead Belt. It made sense, honestly, since it was a natural barrier that could prevent weaker armies from passing through and would cause weakness and a loss of morale in those strong enough to make their way through it. Anyways, I reached the castle quickly enough, teleported past the guards, and eventually made my way into the main hall. I was greeted by a sword in the skull, thrust out by one of the queen¡¯s guards rapidly enough that I hardly had time to process what was happening. My body died to some sort of energy that had been infused into the strike, and another popped into existence immediately after. I shoved a wall of force at my attacker, using pure Forbodum Manipulation to pin him against a wall. Across the room, Nadiya sat in a throne with a startled expression, another guard positioned to defend her. I positioned my arms to my sides and gave the most exaggerated shrug I could. ¡°Nadiya, I have come to bargain.¡± I let the queen¡¯s guard whom I¡¯d restrained drop to the floor, and felt the queen use her sympathetic magic on me to sense my emotions. ¡°You could have knocked, you know.¡± I grinned. ¡°Where¡¯s the fun in that?¡± She slouched, tiredly asking, ¡°What have you come to talk about? I¡¯m in court, you know.¡± Sure enough, there was a pair of individuals kneeling on the ground beside me, staring up at me with horror in their eyes. I waved at them with a shooing motion, and they both skedaddled out of the grand hall as quickly as their legs would allow. My gaze returned to meet Nadiya¡¯s exhausted one. ¡°I can guarantee that this is more important than whatever that was.¡± The young queen let out a long-suffering sigh. ¡°At least you got me out of that. Every few years, some noble family will rise to power in the kingdom and think that, for some ungodly reason, I¡¯d be interested in marrying their youngest son. Half the time they¡¯ve only just been born, and the other half it¡¯s just a middle-aged man. I have half a mind to lock them up, but the other houses would rise against me and call it an abuse of my power.¡± I grimaced internally. ¡°That sounds awful. I¡¯m sorry you have to go through that.¡± ¡°I¡¯m used to it by now. Someday I¡¯ll be expected to marry and continue the bloodline, and then maybe I¡¯ll appreciate having so many options,¡± she stated dryly, ¡°But that¡¯s not why you''re here. What have you brought for me?¡± I levitated one of my Runic Ferries over to the young queen. ¡°These are called Enchanted Orbs. They can be used for many different things, but these ones are specifically designed to create a habitable zone in the Dead Belt for caravans. It needs a bit of testing, but it should work just fine.¡± Nadiya examined the sphere with great interest, running a finger over its smooth surface. ¡°I don¡¯t see any runes on it. How is it enchanted?¡± I nodded at the astute question. ¡°The runes are inside the orb. With my abilities, I am able to slice the orb into many pieces, carve the needed runes into each, and then mend it back together.¡± ¡°Fascinating,¡± the queen tapped the metal ball contemplatively, then called out, ¡°Shomar, please fetch Maskyle.¡± The guard who had attacked me earlier bowed to his queen, then exited the room. ¡°Who¡¯s that?¡± I inquired. The queen finally stopped staring at the ball and looked at me again. ¡°Maskyle is an expert in runecrafting. He¡¯s also my magic tutor.¡± ¡°Mind if I bring in my own expert?¡± Queen Sharjiil raised an eyebrow at me but nodded her assent, so I formed a portal. The end destination of this portal was within my influence, so the strain was somewhat reduced, but I still rushed to grab Fenrir by the scruff and yank him through. The Lord of Nails made an odd yelping sound that was completely out of character for him and rapidly examined his new location. Once he¡¯d gotten a moment to process, he fell into a deep bow. ¡°Your Majesty, my Father has spoken kindly of you. This one is Fenrir, second son of Father Ambrose,¡± the Lord of Nails intoned reverently. I snorted at him, giving his head a good scratch between the ears, causing his tail to swish slowly. ¡°C¡¯mon bro, it¡¯s not that deep.¡± Fenrir shoved my hand off his head, then rose back to his feet and straightened his robes, giving me a dirty look. The young queen stared at the huge wolfman mage covered head-to-toe in ¡°nails¡± with shock in her eyes, but eventually got over her surprise and asked me, ¡°This is¡­ your son?¡± We locked eyes for a moment, and I tried to hold it in, but eventually burst out laughing. ¡°That¡¯s what got you?! Oh my goodness, whew¡­¡± I spent a good few moments breathing to regain my composure, then replied, ¡°Yes, in a way. I formed his body from scratch with my magic, created his soul, taught him everything he knows, and sustain him with my energy. It could, indeed, be said that I¡¯m his father. How did you think that worked?¡± Nadiya¡¯s face turned slightly pink, ¡°Well, I thought¡­ I don¡¯t know, you¡¯re both undead and you¡¯re clearly human so I was really confused.¡± I nodded in response. ¡°Well, I create my own bodies as well. I try to base my physical form on what I looked like in life, but it¡¯s still all just energy. But yes, I am Fenrir¡¯s father.¡± Footsteps echoed from where Shomar, the guard, had left to fetch the queen¡¯s expert in runes, and soon both entered the hall. To his credit, Maskyle was only slightly phased by the sight of a lich and a werewolf. He walked with a carefully controlled pace and stepped beside me, turning to his queen and kneeling. ¡°What do you require of me, your Majesty?¡± ¡°Work with these guys to figure out how to use this device they made for us. They know a lot of stuff about runes, and I¡¯m sure it would go way over my head if they tried to explain it to me.¡± The queen tossed my Enchanted Orb back over to me, which I manipulated midair to make it look like I¡¯d perfectly caught it. What¡¯s the point of magic if you¡¯re not going to use it to look cool, after all? ¡°Yes, Ma¡¯am,¡± the kneeling man said respectfully, rising again to extend a handshake to me, ¡°May I get your names?¡± Returning his handshake, I grinned internally, wishing I had a head nearby to make smile. ¡°You may call me Ambrose. I made the Enchanted Orb.¡± ¡°Fenrir,¡± my companion said as he, too, returned the handshake. ¡°I am Maskyle, Kerenth¡¯s foremost expert on inscriptions,¡± the man said, frowning at his hand which had been scratched by Fenrir¡¯s nails. ¡°I have a laboratory that we can work in, if you¡¯d please?¡± I nodded my assent and followed him through a few long hallways to a sterile room and a few implements that I recognized from the books in Kelemnion that had taught me runes. Maskyle brought some blank sheets of metal and a magical inscriber over to a table. He took one of the sheets and set it down, then started the process of inscribing the rune. ¡°This is how we make runes here,¡± he explained while slowly carving out the rune, ¡°Unlike most other places, we do our best to make it less of an art form and more of a scientific procedure.¡± He went silent for a moment, then continued, ¡°All of my Classes and Skills have been centered around runes, making me the most consistent and quick runecrafter in the kingdom.¡± Another few seconds passed, and I felt a bit of awe as he pulled away from the completed rune. Sure, I could copy and paste runes to mass produce magical items, but this man had just made a rune from scratch in maybe a minute flat? It was impressive, especially for a human. Maskyle handed the metal sheet to me so I could inspect it. I infused a bit of power into it, and an orb of purple energy formed above the rune, shedding its light around the room. ¡°Well, Maskyle, I suppose there¡¯s only one question left before we continue.¡± The researcher¡¯s eyebrows flattened concernedly. ¡°What might that be?¡± ¡°Mind if I call you Kyle?¡± Azrael 4: Unfathomable She was certain her feet would be aching by now if she were still a mortal, regardless of how many Reinforcements she had. The pull on her spirit has grown since she''d first began her traveling, and she could sense that she was getting closer to her target. There was only one problem. She''d run out of land to walk on. Worse still, she couldn''t swim. Also, her senses were warning her of some BIG creatures out in the sea, and she knew that she''d have some difficulty fighting and learning to swim at the same time. Staring into the shores of the water, the blademage let a bit of her personal energy of Absence spark into her blade, then closed her eyes and stepped into the ocean. Azrael¡¯s armored form slowly trudged its way through the wet sand, rocks, and seaweed, unbothered by the sharp chill of the waters that were slowly engulfing her, step by step. Her boot landed on a particular red weed, and it quickly snapped around her leg and squeezed with enough force to easily shatter a weaker mortal¡¯s leg. Azrael¡¯s armor held firm, and she ripped the murderous plant in half with a tug of her leg. It seemed that the effects of the Dead Belt stretched even this far out, corrupting plants and killing animals, twisting them into undead and otherwise unnatural forms. Not allowing for any further delays, Azrael marched into the depths, the weight of her armor helping keep her pressed against the sand. Her legs were consumed by the water, then her torso, and finally her head was completely encompassed. Heedless of her situation, Azrael continued to press on, keeping an eye on the creatures her natural senses as an undead had highlighted for her. Slowly, the pressure began to mount, and she began to strain against it. Her armor, durable though it was, did nothing to fight back against the weight of an entire ocean, and her speed slowed, then halted entirely. Azrael enveloped herself in a thin layer of Absiete, commanding the pressure to cease. While it wasn¡¯t exactly in line with what her element wanted to do, it was close enough, and the massive weight on her shoulders vanished, consuming a bit of her mental energy every second. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Extremely aware of the time limit she was working on, Azrael squeezed every ounce of speed she could get out of her body, rocketing forward like a charging bull. After all, if she couldn¡¯t get to land before her Mentum ran out, there was a real chance that she¡¯d never get there. Running like there was an inquisition chasing her, the undead hardly even noticed the portal she passed through, only sensing that the distance between herself and her target had been cut down significantly. Something hard and sharp pinged off Azrael¡¯s armor, and she rapidly turned to face an odd beast that she¡¯d never seen before. Its head appeared to be made out of a large, semi-transparent sack, with a single massive eye and a number of tendrils that she almost instantly gave up on counting sticking out of where a human¡¯s neck would be. Azrael leapt backwards, resisted slightly but otherwise unhindered by the mountain of water surrounding her. The creature shot out with one of its tendrils, and she dodged out of the way of its barbed hook, responding by dashing forward to close the distance. Another pair of tendrils swished towards her, and Azrael was forced to dodge one and parry the other with her blade, following up by chopping at the tentacles and managing to fully remove the one she¡¯d managed to avoid, causing a cloud of black blood to spray from the bisected protuberance. She knew the armor was tough¨C Ambrose had made it, after all¨C but she¡¯d rather avoid testing how far that durability went if at all possible. Yet another one of the odd limbs aimed for her, but this time she empowered her blade with a small trickle of Absiete, applying her Detonate rune at the last second to delete the attack before it could reach her. The ability was less effective against this creature, showing that its body was somewhat reinforced by magic, but the dangerous part of the appendage was removed nonetheless. The odd bag monster swept away from her to recover, but she chased after and pressured it, swinging at its feelers whenever she got within range. Her attacks all seemed to miss just barely, causing Azrael no small amount of frustration, but she kept up the pressure and channeled some power into her blade once more. The beast pulled all of its tendrils to its sides, and the undead readied herself for another attack. Each of the tentacles shot forward on each side of her, seeming to miss Azrael completely. Just as she was beginning to relax, however, the limbs snaked around her torso and began to squeeze. Sadly for the bag monster, it wasn¡¯t quite strong enough to destroy plate armor made of magically-empowered and layered carbon fiber. Azrael tried to snort, but instead just inhaled a lungful of water. The Detonate rune on her blade went off, and pieces of the appendages that had tried to wrap themselves around it all briefly vanished, reappearing a second later as nothing more than chunks of meat in the water. The tendrils withdrew, and the bag monster began to float up. With no way of chasing it, Azrael returned to her sprint through the depths. Chapter 37: Empyrix Kyle hadn¡¯t been very impressed with my nickname for him. He was, on the other hand, impressed with my ability to copy and paste runes. ¡°I¡¯m not sure you understand how revolutionary this is,¡± He rambled for the dozenth time, ¡°With this, we can form completely new chains of runes for actually intelligent inscriptions, without needing to spend ages on getting them to work and testing them!¡± ¡°How did you think the Enchanted Orbs worked?¡± I scoffed, ¡°I am fully aware of how useful this ability is, I use it constantly.¡± Seriously, this guy needed to take a chill pill. Kyle¡¯s excitement was understandable when I considered that this was a completely new discovery for his field, one that was far older than both Kerenth and Yalten. Still, if he didn¡¯t calm down, I wouldn¡¯t be able to show him anything else, and that would just be a waste of our time. The rune expert took some long, calming breaths, and his excitement faded a bit. It was still there, but his professional demeanor overtook it. ¡°Alright,¡± he said, ¡°What else was there? These runes are completely unique¨C how did you come across them?¡± I lifted a hand and used my Abstractive Intent, Conceptual Control, and Energetic Intent in unison to create and condense a stream of liquid Conceptium. The unique material wasn¡¯t exactly visible, but Kyle gasped nonetheless¨C either he was extremely in-tune with the intents around him, or he had some Boon that let him sense it. Either would make sense, considering his profession. ¡°What is that?¡± The scientist leaned in and stuck a finger into the Conceptium, causing the invisible liquid to shudder in a manner reminiscent of something living. His finger was completely fine, since the intent I¡¯d used was simply one of Pacifism and it had next to no power to use for the purpose of hurting him¨C after all, intent was simply what commanded other energy types. It had little to no power of its own, merely manipulating what was around it to carry out its tasks. In other words, it was like a lazy manager. ¡°This is Energized Intent,¡± I explained, ¡°I create it by using a few of my Skills in unison. You asked how I find such unique runes? Watch.¡± I grabbed one of Kyle¡¯s templates off the table and pressed the concentrated Conceptium to its surface, splitting off a piece of my Repository with Multithreading to continue the process without taking from my mental processing. We waited for a few moments, but there weren¡¯t any immediate changes to the blank, so I waved Kyle off. ¡°This takes some time, so let¡¯s move on for now.¡± The researcher reluctantly agreed, and we moved into dissecting my Runic Ferries. ¡°This is amazing,¡± he said with wide eyes, ¡°The sort of things we could do with this precise control.¡± I puffed up a bit out of pride. I knew my inscriptions were good, but it felt nice to have that confirmed by someone who was considered an expert in the field. ¡°You mentioned that you used this rune here, the one you call Mental Transfer, to communicate with a sort of ¡®brain?¡¯¡± He asked, pointing to the rune in question. ¡°Would you mind showing me what that looks like?¡± Instead of responding, I took another blank template off the stack and started scrawling out each rune used to code the brain of my runes, each of the different statements and the intents used to form them. ¡°Interesting, do you mind if I ask where you learned all of this? It¡¯s a very unique methodology, and some might consider it overly complex but I think that there¡¯s quite a bit of potential here.¡± I smirked, though my lack of skin made it difficult to convey my amusement. At this point, I¡¯d need to start cackling at everything I thought was even slightly funny. At least that would help sell the evil undead necromancer vibes. ¡°I learned runes from the Aethenium. My specialization gives me a connection to the place.¡± Seeing Kyle¡¯s nod of understanding, I continued, ¡°As for the programming, I learned that somewhere very far away, and that¡¯s all I¡¯ll say about it.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± Kyle accepted my elusive answer, and we moved on. Fenrir displayed some of his own, unique methods, such as forming runes out of pure energy. While I hadn¡¯t actually done so before, I thought I understood the theory, and both Kyle and I tried it out and got a lesson on using inscriptions in that way. We used a relatively simple Infliction rune, and he had us imbue an intent into it to just shoot a bolt of energy forwards, then release it. At first, I was confused by the method, since it seemed to lack the fine details that normal runes would have, but on closer inspection I found that the energy of the runes dug tiny protuberances into the mental barriers Fenrir used, allowing them to be programmed like normal. My second boss was truly a master of his craft, and both Kyle and I got a good look at his ¡°runic tattoos,¡± and he explained both how he was doing it, and how difficult it truly was. ¡°The rune is formed with my own energies,¡± he explained through his intense concentration, ¡°And that means that I have an amount of control over it. As my body is formed with that same power, it turns my body into a talisman. By carefully applying Mentum directly around the inscription, I am able to control the rate at which it consumes energy. If left unchecked, it would simply devour my entire body, but when I do it like this, I am given a potent tool which can utilize not only my magical power, but also the potency that resides within my body. It is better to lose an arm than to be killed outright, after all.¡± I applauded Fenrir¡¯s abilities, and Kyle marveled at them, carefully trying the method for himself. Unfortunately, as Kyle wasn¡¯t completely made of energy, the method was a bit less effective on him, but if he focused enough and continually fed the runic tattoos, he could still create enchantments on his own body. I didn¡¯t try the method myself, since I had some ideas of my own that I intended to try out later. Soon after, I let the others know that the rune I was working on had finished baking. I was pretty certain it had happened much faster this time than it had the others, but whether the material was better or if I¡¯d simply checked up on it more often I didn¡¯t know. ¡°As the liquid intent gathers energy, it gives them a bit of its own direction. Since it doesn¡¯t really have anything else to do, said energies stick around the intent, and I believe that this causes them to interface with the object the Conceptium rests on. Erosion normally takes a long time to occur, but magical energy decays objects at a much faster rate. Therefore, if you supply an extremely concentrated supply of intent that will constantly interact with the target object, certain patterns begin to form,¡± I said, deepening certain spots in the seemingly chaotic mess that was the top of the metal sheet. Kyle watched on with interest as I grabbed yet another sheet and precisely pasted out the rune that had been revealed to us, utilizing a copy of the intent used for the rune¡¯s creation that was stored in the shape of a rat within my Repository. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. A slight aura emanated out of the new rune, and I poured a significant amount of Forbodum into the rune, turning and throwing a slow punch at Kyle. As expected, the rune interfered and the air itself seemed to resist my attack. Intrigued, Kyle threw a punch as well, which was also slowed, then stopped. ¡°Just like that?¡± He asked. ¡°Yup, just like that. Feel free to study that rune, by the way. I figure you might want to install it around this building.¡± Kyle nodded, thanking us for our guidance and promising to experiment with what we¡¯d taught him. ¡°By the way, the queen should have your reward prepared by now. Convincing someone to donate advanced energy wasn¡¯t easy for her to do without throwing her rank around and upsetting the nobility, but I can certainly see why she felt it was worth the investment.¡± Fenrir and I made our way back to the grand hall, where an awkward queen and irritated man stood. The black-haired, mustached man tapped his foot impatiently, and the queen¡¯s guards glared at him, seemingly ready for him to make a move. I wasn¡¯t sure what the situation was, so I just walked forward and waited. The man stopped tapping his foot and stared at me with horror evident in his eyes, taking a step back like he was about to run away. ¡°Charles, stop it,¡± An irritated queen commanded, ¡°If you want that tax break you¡¯ll stay right where you are.¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t tell me he was a monster!¡± The man, presumably Charles, hissed at her under his breath. ¡°Well that¡¯s just rude,¡± I called out from across the room. ¡°Sorry, Lord Ambrose,¡± Nadiya apologized on Charles¡¯ behalf, but I waved it off. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I was just kidding. I understand completely. Is this the man who¡¯s going to donate some energy for me?¡± The queen nodded in response, but clarified, ¡°We¡¯re not certain how to make those energy crystals you mentioned. We know what they are, and we have some, but none are made from advanced affinities.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that, I can condense them myself and leave behind some creatures that can perform the task for you in the future.¡± Charles gave me a nervous look, then eyed the queen for confirmation before expelling some unfamiliar energy which I pulled away with some careful manipulation of Mentum and intent. I motioned for him to continue, and after a moment of hesitation and silent communication with Queen Sharjiil, he did. He continued for a few minutes before eventually shaking his head and saying, ¡°That¡¯s all I can do for now.¡± As soon as he was finished, Charles turned and walked out the door as quickly as he could without outright running. I imagined a tail between his legs and chuckled at the mental image. ¡°Sorry about that, Ambrose, Charles has always been a bit of a coward. He¡¯s only managed to reach the heights of power that he has due to the efforts of his family. He inherited the entire estate after his parents died, but has made some poor investments and lost a decent chunk of influence and wealth because of it,¡± the young queen explained, ¡°He¡¯s not stupid, but he lacks his father¡¯s firm and brutal management style.¡± ¡°Seriously, don¡¯t worry about it,¡± I attempted to assuage her concerns while compressing the loose power into a more solid state. Eventually, the power became visible as a faint cloud in the air, and then I crunched it down one last time and using a Multithread to keep up the pressure. The energy crystal slowly coalesced into a physical form, but I knew that it look longer for it to stabilize. ¡°Interesting,¡± the queen examined the gem, ¡°And I assume that it functions in the same way as the natural ones?¡± I gave her a thumbs-up. ¡°You need to keep up the pressure for a while, but all it really requires is a strong willpower and a few days of effort. Now, would you mind explaining what this energy does?¡± I had an impression based on its innate intent and composition, but I felt it would be better to hear from someone who actually knew what they were talking about before making assumptions. ¡°Ah, yes,¡± she replied, ¡°That¡¯s a mixture of Wind, Karma, and Light energy. I¡¯m sorry, I know that Lux doesn¡¯t interact well with the undead, but Charles was the only person I knew I could get here quickly enough to donate his energy.¡± ¡°Yeah, I felt that it was trying to fight me.¡± I inspected the forming gem. ¡°What¡¯s it called?¡± ¡°Its name is Empyrix. Charles describes it as ¡°the energy of heaven¡±¨C again, I¡¯m sorry that it¡¯s probably going to be detrimental to you.¡± I shook my head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much, I was actually wanting to get my hands on something like this. I¡¯ve been researching ways to increase my creations¡¯ resistance to Lux, but I didn¡¯t have any steady sources of it. This is good. Thank you.¡± The queen gave me a relieved smile. ¡°I suppose you¡¯ll be wanting more of these crystals in exchange for your devices? You explained how it works, but I¡¯m afraid I¡¯m still not clear on how to do it.¡± I waved off her concerns and concentrated on a space just in front of me, creating a trio of Wisps and granting them the knowledge of how to compress energy into crystals. ¡°Just put some magical energy in front of these guys and they¡¯ll do the work. Give them a few days, though, and don¡¯t just take the gems from them. Let them set whatever they¡¯re working on down, or you might end up destabilizing the construct before it¡¯s ready,¡± I instructed. The queen nodded along, saying, ¡°We¡¯ll send over some of these with our first caravan. How many of your orbs were you planning to make?¡± I considered for a second, but it was obvious. ¡°I¡¯ll make as many as I need to get my hands on every advanced energy type in your kingdom.¡± I chuckled at the surprise on the queen¡¯s face, then continued, ¡°And if you get to the point where you don¡¯t need any more, I¡¯ll just make something else. My abilities lean heavily into crafting, and I¡¯ve made some equipment that I¡¯d consider Legendary.¡± We exchanged a few more pleasantries and I retracted the small amount of influence that I¡¯d left around the palace before Fenrir and I teleported back to our homes. I quickly teleported Fenrir back to his floor and then inspected my new energy crystal, and knowing that it would take a bit longer to fully solidify, I quickly got to work on making more Runic Ferry arrays. For the most part, I could just create exact replicas, but there were a few of the runes that needed to be made individually, otherwise they¡¯d get crosswired and mess things up. A few dozen Ferries later, my Empyreal gem was finished, and I quickly dragged a pedestal up from the floor beneath my feet and set the energy crystal down on it, then tore open a portal to Kelemnion. I knew for a fact that I could access dimensions other than my own from the book that Esheth figure had given me¨C heck, I¡¯d even seen someone open up a portal with an energy crystal in an Inspiration once¨C but I wasn¡¯t exactly clear on the process. Nonetheless, I was sure that the knowledge would be contained somewhere within the literal realm of Forbidden Knowledge. I was not disappointed. My Library Pass and Omnipotent Reader Boons helped me quickly find my way to the information I sought, and I supped on the knowledge whispered from the dusty tomes. Eventually, I felt that I¡¯d found something that met my desires better than the other books, and took it off the shelf, absorbing the knowledge rapidly as I flipped through the pages and allowed my mind to be battered by the magic of that which was Forbidden. I picked a few other books off the shelves as well, then set them back where they belonged and moved onto my next topic of inquiry. I¡¯d already looked into how to artificially give creatures resistances and affinities to different elements¨C the best method was to simply submerge them in high concentrations of the element. This time, though, I looked for ways to keep my undead alive during the process The results didn¡¯t look very good. A lot of the books that covered the topic centered around people giving themselves different affinities, and most were human, meaning that they were focused on the opposite side of the problem. You¡¯d think that necromancers would want to figure out how to give their minions Lux resistance like I did, but no, apparently they were only interested in their own safety and well-being, and considered it a waste of energy to perform the process on their ¡°trash mobs.¡± The only journals I found from creatures who didn¡¯t exactly fall into the ¡°living¡± category were either second-hand, night-incomprehensible, or described how their innate constitution was all they needed to survive the process. In other words, I¡¯d only be able to perform this process on my boss mobs, unless I wanted to invest lakes of energy into temporarily reinforcing trash mobs. I also tried to find some way to perform the process on myself. I could, of course, do it to my individual bodies, but while they were the physical expression of my consciousness, they weren¡¯t really me. When it came down to it, I was my Repository and my Repository was me. Exposing the physical manifestation of my soul directly to something antithetical to it seemed like a bad idea. With some more study, I found a method that seemed much more obvious, but understandably more difficult to do. If you could control the stream of energy, one which you almost definitely didn¡¯t have an affinity or manipulation Skill for, then you could take it like a dose, allowing your body and soul to slowly become accustomed to it. This method took much longer and consumed more energy overall, but allowed for a much safer and gentler shift towards the element. In other words, if I wanted to give myself an artificial affinity for this Empyreal element, I¡¯d need to slowly torture myself with it. It would be easier for elements that didn¡¯t have any Lux in them, and once the first was out of the way I¡¯d be more resistant to Light overall. Before I did any of that, though, I needed a steady source of Empyrix. And I had just the way to find one. It was time to take a jaunt through the multiverse. Chapter 38: Mine Making an interdimensional portal was harder than it sounded. Well, actually, it was probably easier than it sounded for most people, but much harder than I¡¯d expected. I¡¯d expected the Spatial aspects of my magic and my expertise to come into play. I¡¯d only been half right. Part of making a portal was brute force, and the other part was finesse. I needed to tear open a hole in reality, as though I was going to open up a portal leading from one place to another, then attach the Empyrix to those threads and continue weaving them. Making threads with it was the finesse part, and I felt confident that I¡¯d be able to manage this part. The hard part was forcing a non-Spatial magic type to enter the ¡°realm¡± through which I affected space. This was where the brute force came into play. I had to force the energy into accepting the perception I used for Spatial magic. This was done by taking my Forbodum, molding a ton of Mentum into it, and smashing it into the Empyrix. The Empyreal energy didn¡¯t want to affect space. It wanted to do Empyreal things¨C mainly floating up into the clouds, glowing, and looking pretty. That wasn¡¯t my goal for it, though, and even when I replaced its innate intent, it still had trouble interfacing with Space. It fought me every step of the way, but then, finally, it accepted defeat. Quickly, I forced the Empyrix to form strands and bound my Forbodum strands into them, merging them. As though it realized what was happening, the hostile energy fled from the altered space I had shunted it into¨C but not into my material plane. Tearing its way into the ¡°false,¡± four-dimensional space that I worked in when I created seams, the Lux-aligned energy attempted to pull itself away from my Forbodum, but I held tight on the bonds between the energies, not allowing them to detach from one another. Slowly, the strands began to stretch like a rubber band, and in the physical world, the space before me began to become foggy, like a bathroom mirror after a hot shower. Another realm gradually took shape through the portal, and I quickly pinned both my Forbodum and the struggling Empyrix in three places to prevent them from snapping the connection between the base plane and the one behind the portal. I let out a mad cackle as power began to flow into the new basement floor of my tower. I hadn¡¯t wanted to put this portal directly in my Repository room, since the chances of something making its way through the portal and gaining access to my greatest weakness was simply too high. Instead, I had dug further into the foundations of my tower to create a reinforced chamber in which to experiment with this portal. Fenrir stood to my right, and I was flanked by both Carnic and Drachma-Uban. While they weren¡¯t here to venture into the portal¨C they were far too important to me to be risked like that¨C I felt that they might want to bear witness to my entry into another plane. Fenrir was taking a scholarly approach, trying to examine every inch of what we could see on the other side¨C mostly a chain of floating islands that stretched into the distant sky, with nothing that could be considered ¡°ground¡± anywhere in sight. Uban seemed like he wanted to go back to bed, and not for the first time I regretted providing him with knowledge of how dragons acted in fantasy settings. Carnic simply stood with us in solidarity. I¡¯d tried to communicate with him a few times, but he didn¡¯t seem to be one for conversation and preferred to just exist. I was hoping that getting some people to run his floor would give him something to do. On each side of the portal, a half-dozen Wisps hovered and pulled in the energy that was slowly leaking from it, condensing it into gems. The process was slow-going, but it was happening, and that¡¯s what mattered. ¡°Father, I believe it¡¯s time to send in some test subjects,¡± Fenrir reminded me. With a silent nod, I raised my hand and created a Caerbalope out of raw Forbodum energy. The little rabbit sniffed the floor curiously, and then I commanded it to jump through the portal. It was instantly reduced to ash. ¡°As expected,¡± Fenrir said with a bit of disappointment. Continuing on with our tests, I created an Antigo and had it step through. This time, my creation lasted a bit longer, even managing to screech in pain for a few brief seconds. Sadly, it too was eventually scorched into a pile of rapidly-disintegrating dust. This time, Fenrir just clicked his tongue. These tests continued for a while until we decided that most of the mobs in my dungeon weren¡¯t going to be enough to survive in this new dimension. That meant the next step¡­ ¡­Was to go in myself. ¡°Are you sure you want to do this?¡± Fenrir queried, concern and a bit of fear evident in both his voice and our mental connection. ¡°I¡¯ll be fine,¡± I simply stated, ¡°If going in there somehow snaps my connection to my Repository, I¡¯ll just be pulled back with it. I¡¯m really in no danger, Fen.¡± With that, I pulled off my robes¨C they wouldn¡¯t last for more than a few seconds anyways, so there was no reason to bring them in with me¨C and took a step into a hostile world. Instantly, a burning heat crept its way into my body, but I maintained a firm grip over my physical form, channeling power through it to heal any dark spots and willing myself to stay whole. Once I was sure that I¡¯d be able to maintain myself and survive in the Empyreal plane, I pulled on my influence. A titanic battle of energies took place¨C the entire force of my domain against this world¡¯s ambient magic. Unluckily for this plane, my Occult Sovereignty was directed and empowered by myself, whereas the ambient energies, advanced though they may have been, were simply there. Slowly, I managed to gain ground and press into this world, forcing the power to submit. Once within my influence, the Empyrix was affected by the effects of my Influence Boons rather than its innate intent. The power was still dangerous for the undead, but it no longer coordinated with itself to attack. Additionally, once it was a part of my domain, it became a part of my power. Though I had less control over it than my own Forbodum, it still worked with my domain, rather than against it. As my power grew, the strength of the dimension weakened, and I cackled at my inevitable success. A beam of golden light blew through my skull, unraveling the first layer of my clone seams and turning my cackle into an internal scowl. I turned my eye sockets in the direction the attack had come from, and found a flying, dreidel-shaped creature made of white stone and swirling golden energy. Summoning my might, I cast a modified variation of Nyarleth¡¯s Writhing Earth, causing tendrils of black and purple energy to spear towards the golem-like construct from the ground. The monster obliterated one of my energy constructs with a shear of the same golden energy from its beam attack, but the others landed and gripped the stone parts of the golem, yanking it back towards me. Towards my domain. The golem fought against my spell, but was unable to free itself before it was fully inside my domain. From there, it was easy. A tidal wave of energy crashed into the golem, dimming the golden light that powered it, and I caused one of my tendrils to wrap around the center of its body and squeeze. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. That segment of the golem¡¯s stone body cracked in half, falling away to show a spinning orb of energy, evidently the source of its power. My influence flooded into the core, devouring the Empyrix within it just as it had done to the energy surrounding my portal. The core slowed more and more until it was completely still, and I sent a final burst of Forbodum into it. Instantly, the golem core began to spin again, but this time fueled by the Forbidden. Another golden beam blasted through my influence, missing me by a couple feet. Peering into the distance, I found an armada of these Empyreal golems. I let out a quiet chuckle, then began pushing my influence once more, raising walls of white stone from beneath the dirt and reinforcing them with my might. Around me, Nailwolves began to slowly form. While the nature of the Empyrix was harmful to them, without the hostility that it previously had I felt that I would be capable of sustaining them, and some mid-range combatants would be worth the expenditure. ¡°Fenrir,¡± I casually called out through the portal, ¡°Fetch the Runic Snipers for me, would you?¡± With a thought, I redirected some of the Wisps that I had coalescing Empyrix crystals to instead channel that energy into a single location: a power input for a new set of Enchanted Orbs that I¡¯d built explicitly for use in this plane of reality. Once my Snipers had entered the Empyreal plane, I took manual control over all six of them and started charging their attacks. I¡¯d known going into this world that Empyrix was hostile to all things Necrotic, including my Forbodum energy. Anything that I used that was powered by Forbodum would naturally be attacked by the magic of this dimension, therefore powering things with the realm¡¯s own energy would be much more efficient. I was fully aware that attacks against Empyreal creatures with their own element would be less than effective though, so I still hooked up the weapon of this design to my main power source of Forbodum gems. Directing the Runic Snipers to charge their attacks, I directed each to fire at a different target, allowing the aiming software that was installed back in my tower to take the reins from there. Once they were locked on and fully charged, the Runic Snipers released their payloads, each firing a bolt that traveled at the speed of Knowledge, with all the power of the Forbidden. Though it was prohibitively expensive to use these weapons in this world, I¡¯d taken the time to stock up on a veritable ocean of Forbodem energy, stuffing it all into the ¡°battery¡± I used to power all of my devices. Each of the Snipers¡¯ projectiles hit true, detonating with the power to obliterate the golems they hit and do a small amount of collateral damage. Each slain golem¡¯s energy was invaded by a mist of Forbodum, the fallout of the explosions, and transformed into a generator of corrupted power. My weapons aimed and fired once more, and I felt a sense of pride well up in me. A manic cackle escaped me, and I commanded, ¡°Keep pushing! Take everything!¡± With newfound vigor, my domain bulldozed into the ambient Empyrix, ignoring the golem¡¯s paltry attempts to reinforce it and overtaking them, allowing my Nailwolves to close in and utilize their deadly Spatial magic to smash the stone comprising the majority of their bodies into bits, and penetrate their defenses to claw straight into their cores. With the introduction of my Nailwolves, the Empyreal golems were easily held back. But that wasn¡¯t enough. No, we needed to overtake them. This place¨C this entire realm¨C would be mine. ¡°Carnic,¡± I ordered, causing my leporine boss to step through the portal seamlessly. Though he didn¡¯t exactly seem like it, Carnic was easily the toughest of my bosses, and it showed in his lack of reaction to the burning that all of my creations were suffering due to the Lux aspect of Empyrix. Instead of saying any more, I simply raised a finger, pointing to the oncoming horde of constructs. With all the speed of the creature he was based on, Carnic bounded forward, leaping into the enemy troops with reckless abandon and smashing downwards with his mace. Originally, my most recently created boss¡¯ weapon would tightly wrap blood and viscera around itself, gathering it from slain creatures and using it to increase its mass. That matter could then be fed to another rune and burned like coal to make Forbodum energy, which could be channeled into Carnic¡¯s armor and used to heal him. Of course, I knew that the creatures in this realm would most likely function differently from those on the standard material plane. With my Runic Snipers, I¡¯d used a small amount of Empyrix to create runes that used the stuff as an energy source. For Carnic, I¡¯d done the exact same. His huge club shattered the first golem it struck, causing rubble to shotgun away from the point of impact. The light that once powered the construct seemed to fight against the draw of the weapon¡¯s runes, but were inexorably pulled towards it, powered by ambient Empyrix that had already met the same fate. One of the golems sent a wall of energy rocketing towards the rabbit, who was pushed away but otherwise left unharmed. The Empyrix of the golem¡¯s attack was grabbed out of the air and channeled through Carnic¡¯s weapon, converted into Forbodum at an utterly abysmal efficiency rate, and used to heal the small amount of damage the boss had sustained within its armor. Normally, I¡¯d never even consider converting Empyrix into Forbodum, as their lacking compatibility dropped the efficiency of the act to less than a single percentage point. However, I knew that there would be Empyrix aplenty within this realm, so choosing not to do this would be like a man drowning in an ocean, knowing he could have brought a water filter with him. Carnic continued to go on the offensive, his incredible speed and strength allowing him to plow through the enemy ranks, using the energy of his foes¡¯ own attacks to heal himself. With the Snipers, Nailwolves, and Carnic working together to crush the opposition, the tide of golems was beaten back, and I pressed my influence even further. Slowly, my side gained ground, as evidenced by my influence spreading further and further into the enemy ranks. Things continued like this for a time, and I gained a solid foothold in the area. It didn¡¯t take long, however, for things to get a bit more complicated. A screeching sound came from my right, and I turned to face the new threat. Flying above an endless abyss, hidden in the clouds, something was approaching. I shot a spear of influence in that direction, trying to locate the new creature so I could crush it, but it evaded my attempts to locate it. Just as I was starting to get frustrated, a bird-like creature shot towards me, forcing me to dodge out of the way. The beast crash landed, and a odd thrumming sounded out, followed by a flapping. Seeing that the creature was no longer moving¨C beyond flapping its wings wildly¨C I stepped forward to inspect the new threat. My guess about it being a bird had been partially correct. It was like someone had taken the blade and body of a swordfish as well as the wings, legs, and feathers of a vulture, smashed them together, and called it good. The odd sword vulture had taken a dive at me, but missed and instead embedded its blade into the ground. Now it was stuck trying to get it out, but progress was slow. I gripped the sword vulture¡¯s face and guided the corruptive influence of Forbodum into its brain, causing it to thrash momentarily before stilling forever. I looked back over my shoulder to where the sword vulture had come from. ¡°Schnitzel.¡± It appeared that these fish flew in schools. ¡°Uban, get in here you lazy dragon!¡± A loud yawn came from the portal, followed by the thundering of footsteps and a tired voice, asking, ¡°What is it? This better be important.¡± I pointed to the cloud of flying monsters. ¡°Go fish.¡± Drachma¡¯Uban stretched out before leaping at the sword vultures¨C right above an abyss of sky that I couldn¡¯t see the end of. I wasn¡¯t worried, though. Uban was a land dragon no longer. Stretching out titanic metal wings, the dragon soared through the heavens, his flight empowered by the very Empyrix that sought to destroy him. The dragon opened his gaping maw and, rather than spraying out a breath attack, simply snapped his mouth down around huge swaths of the creatures. I chuckled at Uban¡¯s antics, then looked back at Fenrir who was awkwardly standing behind the portal on his own. Rolling my metaphorical eyes, I waved him in. ¡°You might as well get in here as well.¡± Sustaining all of my creations and fortifying them against the damage that the realm sought to inflict upon them took quite a bit of my power, but it was perfectly fine so long as I didn¡¯t need to personally act against any monsters. Watching the native scum get beaten back and subjugated made me feel all tingly and warm inside. Wait¡­ nope, that was just the Empyrix trying to reduce me to cinders. Anyways, I kept up my expansion and observed my creatures battling with the enemy, occasionally respawning some Nailwolves to restock the army. Carnic¡¯s durability and regeneration meant that he was fine. Uban was having the time of his undeath. Fenrir had started building fortifications with rituals. Everything was going great. Then a hand gripped the back of my spine and squeezed until it snapped. Instantly, I was resummoned into the same position and tried to move away from the threat, only to be kicked from behind so hard that I skidded forward against the grass and cracked my head open against a boulder. Righting myself, I looked back on my attacker, finding what looked like an angel, with a crown made of burning fire in place of a halo. The man glared at me, speaking a single word, ¡°Leave.¡± The word was said with so much power and force that I almost complied, but something about the way he said it felt overly imperious and self-assured. That made me decide to become a thorn in this guy¡¯s backside, if just to bring him down a peg. ¡°Nah, how about you go test how far down the ground is for me instead?¡± I retorted. The man snorted. ¡°I am Icarios. Kelemnion brags about you far too often for my liking¨C killing you will bring him down a peg.¡± Before I had a chance to process what he¡¯d said, a wave of Empyrix bore down on me from above, and all I knew was pain. Chapter 39: The Limits of a God Body after body was reduced into motes of energy as an unending tide of power bore down on me. The only time I¡¯d experienced more pain than this was when I¡¯d endured a Tribulation¨C a rebuke from the heavens which scoured not just the body, but also the mind and soul. Luckily, the only thing this man¡¯s attack could do was torch my body over and over again. If he could, I was pretty sure he¡¯d have tortured every aspect of my being for as long as possible. It seemed like time had stopped. Every moment was stretched into hours as the agony of being repeatedly obliterated and reconstituted attempted to break my mind. But, as General Chesty Puller once said, ¡°Pain is weakness leaving the body.¡± Of course, my mind and soul were also repeatedly leaving my body as it was transmuted into ash, thus negating any benefits I could possibly gain from it becoming stronger, but oh well. I found myself wishing that I¡¯d taken things slower, been less greedy, and tried to build up a resistance to Empyrix before diving headfirst into its realm, but hindsight was 20/20. All I could do now was wait and hope that Icarios ran out of energy before I ran out of bodies. Losing all of my intelligent creatures¡¯ personalities, as well as all my fancy new toys, would really suck, but if this man could outlast the many, many layers of bodies I had? I¡¯d need to close the portal just to keep myself alive. After what felt like months of pain, it suddenly puttered out and came to a halt. I rapidly examined my surroundings. The first thing that I noted was that all of my creatures seemed to have retreated across the portal. I was initially confused by it, but it wasn¡¯t too hard to imagine what had happened. Most likely, Icarios had simply ignored any and all attacks launched at him, or just obliterated whatever tried to attack him, so one of my intelligent monsters, probably Fenrir, had issued an order to the others that it was time to retreat. Some jerks would probably see that as a betrayal, but I thought that was dumb. If Icarios was as powerful as I suspected, even going so far as to launch my entire tower at him wouldn¡¯t be enough to take him down. The man in question, though, was glaring at a light blue chain that had snaked its way up the arm he¡¯d been using to blast me. The chain¨C clearly made of Mana, when I looked more closely¨C had gripped onto his throat and seemed to slither around him. The light of Empyrix lit up Icarios¡¯ other fist, but the chain simply extended from his neck to wrap around his shoulder as well, tightening in a way that looked extremely painful. Not as painful as being exposed to the antithesis of my being for what felt like it could have been an eternity, but painful nonetheless. ¡°Curse you,¡± Icarios muttered, his voice coming out strained. His words caused the chains to tighten yet again, and this time the godlike being turned back to me. ¡°This is your fault,¡± he spat out. I shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t see how. You¡¯re the one with the chains on you¨C I had nothing to do with them.¡± Icarios seethed at me for a moment, then rushed at me. He wasn¡¯t nearly as strong as he¡¯d been before, likely due to whatever restrictions had been placed on him, but he was still a bit stronger than me¨C impressive, considering how much energy was packed into every single one of my bodies. Still, I had some tricks up my sleeves. The ground beneath Icarios collapsed, causing him to trip and fall on his face. The idiot hadn¡¯t even bothered to clear my influence from the area. I was almost certain that he was capable of doing so and just didn¡¯t. He was so focused on blasting me that he hadn¡¯t even considered that I might get back up and cause problems for him. The angelic jerk pushed himself back up with a sharp glare at me, then brandished his fists. His wings flapped and he rose off the ground, angled towards me, and once again started charging me. I only had a couple of seconds, so I started sprinting towards the portal. Normally, that would be an idiotic plan¨C that was where I kept all my stuff, after all, including my Repository. I thought I had an idea about what this guy was, though, which meant that there was at least a small chance of my plan working. ¡°No!¡± Icarios shouted, doubling his speed to try and reach me again, no matter what sort of restrictions might be put on him for¡­ well, whatever he was doing. I was closing in on the portal, but not quite close enough, so I enacted the second half of my plan¨C I tripped him again. Not by moving the ground out from under his feet or making him fall over on a rock, though. That would be too predictable. I spent a monumental amount of energy to build a wall in less than a second. The 45th President of the United States would be proud. Powerful though he was, Icarios had taken a human form, and that came with certain limitations. One of those was reaction speed. Energy could only travel so fast, after all. The god smashed into the wall at blinding speeds, sending rubble in every direction and losing a bit of stability. More than buying a bit of time, my gambit was meant to throw him off balance¨C he was a hand-to-hand fighter, and I wanted him to use an age-old tactic that, in the modern day, only really saw use in drunken bar fights and American football. I needed Icarios to tackle me. I had nearly reached the portal when I felt through my domain that Icarios was just behind me. Checking briefly, I found that he falling right into my master plan. I, however, was not quite close enough to the portal for it to work. I tried to trip him again, but failed. Icarios slammed into me at full speed, knocking me flat on the ground, before pummeling me relentlessly. With the restrictions he was under, I wasn¡¯t dying with every punch anymore, but it didn¡¯t really matter if it took one, or two, or even three. Body after body collapsed in on itself. But then it took four hits to kill me. Five. Once it even took six, giving me just long enough to see that the chains were slowly tightening around his body. One of the first things Azrael had ever told me about gods came to mind: they had rules and limits. They were beings of immense power, but they rarely interfered unless it was absolutely necessary. This was a god. I hadn¡¯t known that the higher energies had gods, but clearly they did. Icarios was a god, and he had overextended. A few bodies later, I was given enough time to grip the fist before it had a chance to beat my skull in. The other continued onwards, but I was gaining ground. Gaining ground over a god. Eventually, I¡¯d gotten a grip on both wrists and was able to hold on. Icarios just started headbutting me repeatedly. After that point, though, it didn¡¯t take long for me to push him off of me. He still grabbed at my ankles as I tried to escape, but I managed to kick him off, forcing him to rise himself and chase after me. This time, my plan worked, and a scene that looked like it was right out of a cheesy action movie took place. Icarios tackled me and we both sailed into the portal¡­ Only for his body to turn into blue sparks as it passed through. The portal quivered, and the sun that hung above the realm¨C which was also named Icarios, if my guess was correct¨C turned blood red for an instant, but nothing else happened. The god didn¡¯t reform, and I wasn¡¯t blasted by holy lightning. Hesitantly, I took a single step into Icarios. Still, nothing happened. I called my troops back through the portal and started expanding once again. What seemed like every creature in the realm beelined for our position, but they were repelled by my minions. Still, nothing else happened. It appeared as though I had slain a god. At least, for a time. I didn¡¯t expect it to last. Now, then, was time to make sure that never happened again. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Bathing my Repository in Empyrix was sorta like taking an ice bath. Did it suck? Yup. Could you feel yourself making any tangible growth? No, not really. But did you get better at resisting the cold over time? Yes, yes you did. Inuring my soul to the effects of magic that countered me, I felt, was the first step towards becoming truly unstoppable. I¡¯d killed a god, sorta, but only because I got lucky and he was utterly incompetent. If he hadn¡¯t expended so much of his ¡°interference allowance¡± so quickly, I would have lost. Honestly, he probably could¡¯ve just chucked me off the edge of the sky island we were on. I could sorta fly, sure, but by the time I managed it he surely would¡¯ve found the time to close my portal. That wasn¡¯t what had happened, though. I had won, somehow, and now I was going to celebrate by making sure Icarios could never hurt me again. At least, that was the hope. My line of thinking was that gaining an artificial affinity would also affect my magic, thus making it more resistant to magic of that affinity as well. That would save me a ton of time, as I wouldn¡¯t have to reinforce all of my boss minion¡¯s bodies every single time their physical forms died. I slightly increased the density of Empyrix that was rubbing against my Repository. I couldn¡¯t tell if I was just getting used to the pain or if I was genuinely becoming more resistant to it, but every time that the pain went down I cranked it back up. Eventually, I ran out of Empyrix, by which I mean that the Wisps which were channeling it through a portal to me couldn¡¯t send it over quickly enough to increase the difficulty any more. My Repository had gained a couple golden flecks inside of its icosahedron shape, which I took to mean that my exposure therapy had worked. I quickly returned to my tower¡¯s basement, popping through the portal to Icarios to find Fenrir sitting in the grass. Seeing that I¡¯d returned, my creation popped up to his feet and greeted me, ¡°Father, the attacks ceased a few hours ago, and the others went to scout out and hunt down any leftovers. Otherwise, we¡¯ve just been waiting for you to come back and continue pressing your rule over this land.¡± I gave him a nod of approval and did exactly what he¡¯d been expecting. It seemed that with the embodiment of the realm dissipated, the ambient energies fought my influence much less. I swiftly took all the land in sight, expanding up and down as far as I could. After a while, all I was finding was air, but I continued onwards for some hours to make sure I wasn¡¯t missing anything. Eventually I just shrugged. ¡°Small world. Literally. There were only a few chains of islands, and I couldn¡¯t find anything else. If there¡¯s more, it¡¯s too far out to be worth the effort.¡± I waved my hand and formed a small army of Wisps, mentally instructing them to go fetch the cores of the golems my force had slain and bring them through the portal. Before this point I¡¯d been concerned that these creatures would be popped like balloons by the Empyrix, but with what may well be the entire plane under my command? I wasn¡¯t worried. ¡°Well then, I suppose all that¡¯s left is to strip this world of all its resources and do some experiments, right Fenrir?¡± My creation nodded. ¡°Those golem things seemed interesting. I wonder how they work? And having a new energy type to work with in my runes is exciting.¡± Fenrir was somewhere between an overly obedient son and a nerdy brother to me. Luckily for him, I was nerdy too. ¡°I know, did you see them get corrupted by Forbodum? I wonder if we could use them to create our own golems.¡±
It took less than a week to harvest the entirety of Icarios. From apples made out of solid gold to rainbow water that magically teleported back to the largest mass of itself whenever it got too far away, the world was full of weird stuff¨C very much not for undead. The humans, on the other hand, went absolutely nuts for the stuff. For mortals, the golden apples apparently gave them a slight, permanent boost to their physical capabilities, which was multiplicative with system Reinforcements, as tested by Kyle. It wasn¡¯t too noticeable on weaker humans, but for individuals who threw everything into their physical strength? It was enough to get a good measure of the effects. The water tasted good, apparently, but was otherwise unremarkable. Its unique properties even activated once it passed through the throat, teleporting it away as though it had never been drank. In other words, it did absolutely nothing to satiate the consumer¡¯s thirst. As for the golem cores, careful study with the help of Kyle helped us find out that they were carefully crafted runic formations that sent instructions into the golem¡¯s bodies. It was remarkably complex, but equally delicate. They¡¯d been designed with the assumption that the only energy entering the core would be Empyrix, so introducing alternative powers instantly started decaying the rune structures and made the cores highly unstable. It was disappointing that we wouldn¡¯t be able to just change the power source to get our own golems, but we still learnt a lot. New runes entered our catalogs, and one of Kyle¡¯s Skills along with my own Concept Mimicry helped us figure out the intents that they used. With that, we were able to completely reverse engineer the process. While I didn¡¯t exactly need to make golems, I still thought they were cool, and Fenrir shared my interest as a fellow nerd. Kyle, though, was ecstatic, and kicked us out of his workshop within a few minutes of completing our dissection, excited to try and make his own golem from scratch. I understood the feeling. Creating your own minions and monsters was pretty fun. We found a few other things in Icarios, but they were mostly slight alterations of otherwise mundane things, such as the white stone that the golems were made of. While it was slightly better at channeling Lux-aligned energy, and especially Empyrix, it was otherwise unremarkable and we didn¡¯t have many uses for it. We ended up with bulk quantities of slightly magical stone, wood, and ores to sell off to the caraveneers once they started swinging by the dungeon town. As for the golden apples and the magical water, the former went to the townswomen. I tried to convince myself that it was an apology for being neglectful and forcing them to live off the land so much, but the truth was that I still wanted to cultivate a society of buff, Amazonian, warrior women. It wasn¡¯t really for any purpose as much as it was for my own amusement. The rainbow liquid was all set aside to be gifted to Queen Nadiya directly. I stored it all in a specially-crafted spatial ring with an inscription that would allow her to effectively open a faucet from which to pour the stuff. The dimensional separation severed the connection between the main body of water and what was poured out, so I figured it would be used as an interesting gimmick at parties. Not that I cared what she used it for, mind you, that¡¯s just what I thought of when I decided to give it to her. Finally, we kept about half of the golem cores and donated the rest to the kingdom¡¯s researcher for study, making sure that Kyle was clear that they were to be distributed to other crafters to make sure that he didn¡¯t just hoard them all like a greedy dragon. He was a bit disappointed by that, but nodded nonetheless. Overall, conquering Icarios was worth the time I¡¯d invested into it, but perhaps not as much as I¡¯d hoped. Kelemnion, and the Aethenium as a whole, seemed to be much grander than Icarios had been. Similarly, everything I¡¯d read about the Far Realm described it as a pretty big place. Maybe there was some sort of ranking between the different planes, with some being stronger than others? It was an interesting train of thought, but I had no way of testing it. Something I did have a way of testing, though, was something the avatar of Icarios mentioned. Kelemnion brags about you. If the Empyreal realm had an avatar, then there was no reason that the plane of Forbidden Knowledge wouldn¡¯t. Before I used Kelemnion¡¯s Gate, though, I had some things to look over. Seif Ambrose Ancient Seeker 5 Repository 4 Forbodum Manipulation 4 Occult Sovereignty 3 Kelemnion¡¯s Gate 3 Dark Whispers 2 Enhancements: Willpower x6, Reinforcement x1, Purity x1 Named Belongings: Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma¡¯Uban, Fenrir, Caerbalope, Carnic It wasn¡¯t the first time I¡¯d been offered another brain, and I still wasn¡¯t interested. I liked Multithreading because it specifically didn¡¯t think. I didn¡¯t want to have to deal with another version of myself. I did like Mental Rapidity, though. It promised to help me carry out certain processes that I had experience with faster, such as converting terrain. It didn¡¯t increase potency, only my ability to transfer from one thought to another¨C in the time that I could currently transmute a rock into gold, I¡¯d be able to transmute two rocks into gold, going from one to the other more quickly. It reminded me of how I¡¯d rushed the process of raising that wall to throw Icarios off, but without the massively reduced efficiency that came with rushing the process. Also, Mental Rapidity paired with Multithreading pretty well. Overall, it was the correct decision, so I picked it up without a second thought, processing the abilities it granted me for later review before moving along. The next pair of Boons on offer were better, but the second one was a bit similar to Mental Rapidity. Intent Isolation was a Boon version of how I could split the intent from a spell. It was clearly meant to be used with Concept Mimicry to help study different Conceptium. I could already sort of do what this Boon was offering, but it wasn¡¯t perfect, so I was still somewhat interested. Enhanced Focus was like Mental Rapidity, but replaced the speed for raw power. It would make everything I did carry more power, and not just my normal spells either. In essence, anything I did that involved anything magical¨C which was everything, since I was literally made of energy¨C would be more potent. Taking a bit of a gamble, I went with Intent Isolation. The ability to strip intent from magic was incredibly useful, and using it offensively would be incredibly useful. The last set of abilities were from Kelemnion¡¯s Gate. Forbidden Potency was, coincidentally, pretty similar to the Boon I¡¯d just passed on. It would make my magic stronger, but only while within Kelemnion. Instead, I was more interested in Command Whispers. This ability would let me accurately control the strange flows of information that Forbodum sometimes gave off. My hopes for this Boon were twofold: Firstly, it was pretty obvious that it would help me pull information from the books in Kelemnion without needing to physically interact with them and without being crushed under a storm of whispers. This was good partly because it would help me work faster, but also because I now knew that some of the knowledge was actively harmful. I was not mentally prepared to face another Tribulation. Secondly, I was hoping that it would let me control and level my last Skill, Dark Whispers. It was falling behind all my other Skills and was also the most dangerous of them, so getting a bit more control over it would be welcome. With my new Boons picked out, I breathed deeply and used my Library Pass to drop into a portal of black ink. It was time to talk to Kelemnion. Chapter 40: Kelemnion For some reason I¡¯d expected my entry to be resisted, but the plane of Forbidden Knowledge was as open to me as always. In fact, there was already someone waiting there for me. ¡°You weren¡¯t meant to progress this quickly, you know,¡± the gray-cloaked figure said with a smooth, conversational tone, ¡°Not that it¡¯s a bad thing. You¡¯ve done well. But the expectations for you are higher, and the stakes have been raised.¡± ¡°Are you¡­¡± I trailed off. ¡°Yes,¡± the god replied simply, ¡°Icarios has been whining ever since you destroyed his avatar, but I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen anyone get quite as upset as he was when you started dismantling his islands.¡± ¡°Hey, if he wanted them to be left alone he should¡¯ve made them larger, or given them better protectors.¡± Kelemnion shook his head, turning to me slowly. Beneath the long cloak which obscured most of his form, there was a mass of solid smoke taking a humanoid shape. ¡°That¡¯s not how it works, Ambrose,¡± the divine explained, summoning a book into his right hand and extending it towards me. As I touched it, its knowledge was transferred into my mind. Suddenly, I understood everything about the hierarchy of the Planar Gods. ¡°I was wondering if there was some sort of ranking system,¡± I said ponderously, ¡°That makes sense. I thought it might be based on how many users of your element there have ever been, but I suppose that the amount that it¡¯s influenced the base world makes more sense. So then, where do you fall in?¡± I was expecting Kelemnion to be at the lower end of the pack, just based on the nature of Forbodum, but at the same time, the sheer amount of Forbidden Knowledge there was hidden away within the depths of the dimension contrasted that. ¡°I¡¯m not the strongest, but I¡¯m certainly above average,¡± the god simply replied, ¡°With every bit of Forbidden Knowledge created, I gain a bit of power. While the mortals may crusade against those who grow my power, that¡¯s simply a part of the impact the Forbidden has on the world, and Knowledge is never truly forgotten. Many people have turned to me in times of desperation, seeking to lash out against their oppressors or to defy the heavens. ¡°Not to mention,¡± Kelemnion said, a grin forming diagonally across where his face would have been as a human, ¡°The amount of Forbodum you¡¯ve pumped into the world recently has done wonders for my growth, and conquering another plane doesn¡¯t hurt. Now, whenever Empyrix is used in the base plane, it carries an echo of your domain¨C the energy¡¯s effects can change based on the state of the realm linked to it. You altered the very meaning of Empyreal with what you did.¡± ¡°That makes sense, then.¡± I pondered what questions I had for the god of my element, then just shrugged and asked, ¡°What should I be doing next?¡± Kelemnion got serious. ¡°You¡¯re easily my favorite wielder right now, so I¡¯ll bend the rules a bit, but you already know that we gods have some strict rules. Plausibility¨C¡± like this were some sort of fantasy story, ¡°¨Cprevents us from influencing the outcome of mortal¡¯s activities. It also stops us from leaving our planes, as I¡¯m sure you¡¯re already aware. I can only tell you so much before I need some time to recover. ¡°The first thing you need to know is that you¡¯re an idiot who should have kept track of time better. There are enemies closing in on you¨C and I don¡¯t just mean the one you¡¯re aware of, who will be arriving in three months. I can guarantee that you¡¯re not ready for him yet.¡± I frowned internally. I¡¯d expected the preparations I¡¯d already made to be sufficient. ¡°What am I to do, then? If this isn¡¯t enough, then what is?¡± ¡°Reinforce your weaknesses, and focus on the aspects of your abilities that are yours alone¨C not granted by an affinity or a Skill,¡± the god said cryptically, ¡°Other than that all I can really say is that you should level up more. Your new Boon works exactly as you expected, so that won''t be an issue anymore. The Skill you use to get here won¡¯t be a problem either. Just try to push your limits and focus on your Conceptual Control. I guarantee that you cannot outmuscle your foes with raw magical might¨C you have a lot, but they have more.¡± ¡°What is Esheth¡¯s second affinity?¡± A faint blue chain had already formed around Kelemnion¡¯s neck, but this was a critical piece of information that I lacked. The god frowned, but ¡°Can¡¯t say, but I can tell you that nothing you have can stand up to it. Some of your creatures will perform well against him, but they won¡¯t be able to handle him on their own.¡± ¡°Can you say which ones?¡± A small, sad chuckle precluded his answer, ¡°No. I¡¯ve already been too specific. If I go that far it¡¯ll take too long to recover for me to be of use to you again. Just focus on pushing your Skills to level five, then think over what I said before.¡± With that, my feet started sinking into a portal out of the plane of Forbidden Knowledge, and its avatar turned away from me. ¡°Wait, is there anything more you can tell me?¡± Advice from a god was hard to come by, and any scraps I could get would be worth everything to me. ¡°Keep up the good work,¡± was all I heard before I was fully submerged in ink and teleported back to the mortal realm.
Ambrose Ancient Seeker 5 Repository 4 Forbodum Manipulation 4 Occult Sovereignty 3 Kelemnion¡¯s Gate 4 Dark Whispers 2 Enhancements: Willpower x6, Reinforcement x1, Purity x1 Named Belongings: Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma¡¯Uban, Fenrir, Caerbalope, Carnic I looked over my abilities with a critical eye. The easiest way to level up was to focus on each individual Boon until it was at the level I was trying to reach. That would, in turn, level my Skills and let me get more Boons. I thought it was funny how Kelemnion had leveled up my Librarian¡¯s Favor, implying that he was the librarian. It made sense, in a way, but it was also a funny way to think about such a powerful being. I wondered if 10 was the cap, but intuitively knew that it wasn¡¯t. Kelemnion had granted me the levels he had either because he felt I didn¡¯t need any more, or he had some sort of limit to how much he could give me. The latter made a lot of sense considering the plausibility laws he¡¯d mentioned. The Boon selection was honestly pretty difficult. Both seemed to build off my Command Whispers in different ways, with one causing my Forbodum energy to shed more whispers for me to use and making them more hostile to other creatures, while the other promised to make them bend to my will more easily and convey the thoughts I wanted rather than the normal chaotic knowledge that they¡¯d spew. I ended up going with Maddening Knowledge. Kelemnion had claimed that Command Whispers worked ¡°exactly as I expected¡± and would help level my Dark Whispers Skill. Having more to control would probably make that process faster. With that selected, I regarded the first of my Skills with an internal frown. Powerleveling all of my Skills within only a few months would be difficult, but if I took my time and tried to understand each individual Boon before moving on, I¡¯d level much faster than I would if I rushed. First, I¡¯d just try to get all of my Boons to level 5. From there, I could go down the list one Boon at a time and get all of them to 10. With that in mind, the first Boon to look at was my Loci Server. I hadn¡¯t really done much with my Loci Server since turning it into a rubber room and shoving some rat-shaped intent into it, which meant that it hadn¡¯t really seen much development. Obviously, just using it to store intent wasn¡¯t quite what it was meant for, so I¡¯d need to figure out some other stuff to do with it. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. The Loci Server was meant to be used as a place for my spirit to flee to when my bodies were destroyed. It could also store memories, which I did do, but they were sort of littered around the place haphazardly. Entering the mental space within my Repository, I glanced around at my current creations. While the idea was funny, and I wanted it to be included in the final design of my Server, it just wasn¡¯t¡­ grand enough. I wanted something more fitting of a lich who ruled over an entire dimension, small though it may be. The first change I made was to put a door on one end of my rubber room, then step outside of it into a blank, unused space. The original room was dropped down and covered by a layer of dead earth, forming a room of the basement in what I was building. I buried everything in skulls¨C for the aesthetic. Nobody else would ever see this place, but if they did, they¡¯d probably be horrified by the sheer number of death present, no matter how fake it was. On top of it, I constructed a palace, somewhat reminiscent of Queen Nadiya¡¯s but with a far more gothic style. The walls were formed out of bleached bone and trimmed with silver and gold. The floor was covered by the rugs of creatures out of my imagination, and in the throne room of the castle I built a seat made of solid gold. It was all incredibly ostentatious, but the basement was where things were really going on. I formed a set of stairs where Kyle¡¯s workshop would have been in the Kerenth palace, connecting it to a long hallway which ran down the entire length of the building upstairs. On the left side of this hallway, I split my rubber room into many, extending it on all sides and putting bars over the doors to make it look like it was truly meant for criminals and madmen. On the right, I constructed a single door that led to a huge server room¨C literally the purpose of the Loci Server Boon, if I wasn¡¯t mistaken. On these servers, I carefully flipped through every tiny portion of my memories, storing them all into files that could be sorted chronologically or by category at will. This took a good bit of time, but it was good to dig through my history. I got to cringe at the awkward moments and smile at all of my victories. Seeing my family was a weird one. This new world was much better for the kind of person I was, and I¡¯d found success here, but losing two decades of relationships sucked. Before now, I hadn¡¯t really taken a moment to process it¨C my undead nature had deadened my emotions enough that it had never been a priority. It felt good to unpack those feelings, though. Refreshed, I decided to set up a little computer in the center of the room, not because I needed it but because it was nostalgic and reminded me of my past. With that in mind, I created a Minesweeper app. I¡¯d never play it, but it was funny to me anyway. With my server room finished up, I returned to my rubber rooms. Currently, only one of them had any intent stored in it at all, so I quickly decided on a method of sorting them: offensive magic on the left, defensive magic on the right, and utility at the back. From there, things would be sorted based on whether their nature was physical or ephemeral in nature. I left it at that for now, figuring that I could always make more rooms. The final, finishing touch that I wanted to make was to have the Conceptium rats move around. To do this, I tried to maintain the compression on the energy to keep it in roughly the same shape, but loosen it slightly wherever I felt like it needed to bend a bit. I ended up needing to split the rats into several pieces to figure out how to make joints and movement work, but I did eventually figure it out. For the most part, I just needed to keep the parts independent, but also connected. Since I was literally in my own head, it honestly wasn¡¯t that hard to make work. In the outside world, getting Conceptium to move like a rat would be difficult, but here¡­ Each rat had a slightly different personality, based on the kind of intent used to create it. The offensive rats were playful, chasing one another around and wrestling, whereas the defensive rats were pretty chill and the utility ones kept crawling on top of eachother for some reason. With all that done, I considered my Loci Server to be good enough for now. Ambrose Ancient Seeker 5 Repository 4 Forbodum Manipulation 4 Occult Sovereignty 3 Kelemnion¡¯s Gate 4 Dark Whispers 2 Enhancements: Willpower x6, Reinforcement x1, Purity x1 Named Belongings: Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma¡¯Uban, Fenrir, Caerbalope, Carnic Back in my skeletal form, I let out a tired sigh. This was going to take a while. To speed up my training time, I decided that it would be best to use them together. The next few Boons I needed to level were Multithreading, Mental Rapidity, Concept Mimicry, and Intent Isolation. Multithreading was relatively simple, and I figured I could just force that to create a flow of Forbodum with intent, then strip the intent from it with Intent Isolation. The split intent would then be copied by the original thread and mixed into the same spell. The trouble with this method was that I had generated both the spell and its intent, so it was all mine. Trying to get a thread to fight against me didn¡¯t work since it lacked the finesse and force that I could apply, so I didn¡¯t end up gaining much. There was also just something about the intent being familiar with me that made manipulating it much easier. I almost went to Fenrir and asked for his help, but all of his energy originated from me as well. All of my intelligent creations had gained their own energy pools at some point, but they were identical to my own in every way except in scale, and some of their energy was still drawn from me when they started running low. Eventually, I decided that I needed an outside source to train against, so I teleported my way to Kerenth and arrived a few dozen feet away from the royal guards with my hands raised. Luckily, they seemed to recognize me, or at least understand that there was an undead who spontaneously showed up at the palace to talk to the queen. Soon, I was before Nadiya. Since she¡¯d actually been given time to prepare this time, she looked far less disheveled than the other times we¡¯d spoken. ¡°I¡¯m surprised, Ambrose, I didn¡¯t think you had the capacity for manners,¡± the queen commented with a pleased smirk. ¡°Well I¡¯ve gotta keep you on your toes, don¡¯t I?¡± I smirked at her, tossing the rainbow water ring to her. ¡°I¡¯m sure Kyle explained to you how this stuff works. Use it as you see fit.¡± The queen put the ring on and tried it out, surprised as a small amount of water sprayed her in the face. I cackled in amusement as she spluttered, glaring at me before watching in amazement as her face and dress rapidly dried, and the liquid regathered itself into a wet spot on the carpet. I decided to give her a bit of help. ¡°If you hold the ring upwards and manage to pour a tiny bit of the stuff back into the portal, the rest will reconnect and follow suit.¡± Taking my advice, the queen rose from her throne and dropped into a kneeling position, dabbing her index finger into the rainbow water before rapidly shoving it into the portal. As promised, the liquid all teleported out of the carpet, leaving it perfectly dry. ¡°It¡¯s perfectly sterile and fit for consumption, by the way. Only the water teleports¨C all the dirt and sickness is left behind,¡± I elaborated. ¡°Thank you,¡± Nadiya acknowledged, rising back and seating herself in the too-large throne once more. ¡°But surely that¡¯s not the only reason you¡¯re here?¡± ¡°No.¡± I shook my head. ¡°No, it¡¯s not. I was hoping you could help me with something, actually.¡± The queen raised an eyebrow. ¡°And what might that be?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry overly much; I just need someone to throw some spells at me.¡± The other eyebrow raised as well, so I continued, ¡°One of my Skills only works on other people¡¯s magic. It shouldn¡¯t physically hurt them, but it might feel weird and possibly cause their spells to destabilize, so they should be someone who has a strong mental fortitude and experience with their spells collapsing.¡± Queen Sharjiil gave me an understanding nod. ¡°I understand why you came to me for this. Kyle is an incredible magical researcher, and he knows more about magic than almost anyone in the kingdom¨C and certainly anyone who falls into our traditional hierarchy. With that said, his combat abilities are lacking unless he¡¯s prepared with rune magic.¡± The queen turned to the same guard who had fetched Kyle for her when I¡¯d initially met him. ¡°Shomar, would you please bring in Bomira?¡± The man in question gave her a respectful nod, then made a beeline for the front door. Nadiya turned back to me and explained, ¡°Bomira is our elemental magic specialist. She prefers the use of Fire magic, but uses Elementix.¡± I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Elementix was the only advanced energy type that used four affinities, involving each of the natural elements¨C Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. While mortal levels and monster levels weren¡¯t quite the same, a mortal wielding Elementix would need to be at least level 15, which was certainly nothing to scoff at, even for me. If this Bomira had poured all of her Enhancements into Willpower, then she¡¯d probably have an even stronger mental grip over her magic than I did. That was good. It meant I would grow faster to meet the challenge. A few long moments of waiting passed by, and I was eventually brought into a sideroom so that Nadiya could return to hearing from and dealing with the local nobility. After perhaps an hour or so¨C I¡¯m not sure, since I don¡¯t really pay all that much attention to the passing of time¨C a woman, presumably Bomira, was let into the room with me. The overly fit mage was dressed more like a martial artist than a spellcaster, but I could sense that she was powerful so I figured that she probably wouldn¡¯t try to throw me around. There was a little tickle in the back of my brain, and I was reminded of the main characters of numerous films¨C mostly bad sequels, if I was being honest. I pushed that thought aside, though, and greeted her. ¡°Bomira, I presume? I am Ambrose, and¨C¡± ¡°Courtyard,¡± she cut me off with a slight, unfamiliar accent, turning and speedwalking away from me. Confused and slightly offended, I followed the woman out of the building and onto what reminded me of an extra large basketball court. As soon as Bomira had reached the opposite end of the platform, she turned on her heels and pointed a finger at me. ¡°Three seconds,¡± she announced, holding up her fingers. ¡°Huh?¡± Seriously, if she¡¯d just take a moment to¨C ¡°Two.¡± I rushed to align myself with her position in the arena. ¡°Good,¡± Bomira smirked, holding up one last finger before firing a jet of flame at my face. Chapter 41: Powerleveling (Again) I reached into the flames and tried to push aside the intent that was already there, but Bomira noticed my attempt and solidified her focus, shaking my mind¡¯s influence from her spell. My body, packed with magic as it was, handled the flame alright. I could tell that I was going to burn through some bodies, but that was alright so long as I got the progress I was looking for. Before taking my new Intent Isolation Boon, I could take control of spells after they left the caster¡¯s body so long as they were in my domain and weren¡¯t too powerful. This was mostly because of a power disparity between myself and the caster: within my Occult Sovereignty, I had complete control. The same was not true outside of it, but Intent Isolation wasn¡¯t a domain Boon. Instead, this ability had shown me how to separate intent and spell without its assistance. Creating threads of Mentum, I wrapped them around the stream of intent that was flying towards me, interlocking them around it to create a net-like structure that held up better against Bomira¡¯s attempts to shatter it. With my threads of Mentum surrounding the Conceptium within Bomira¡¯s Elementix, I started to squeeze, pushing a new intent into the flames that the energy had taken the form of. At first, it didn¡¯t work, and my body slowly melted into the energy it was made of. It took a couple of deaths for me to get the Boon to work on the very tip of Bomira¡¯s flamethrower, replacing some of the flame that slammed against me with steam. Over time, I gained more and more ground, and soon I only felt hot steam against my body. I kept pushing, and the fire turned into droplets of water further and further away from my body. Soon, all I felt was a couple of droplets hitting my face from time to time and some warm wind, like a hot day at the beach. ¡°Like water, do ya?¡± Bomira called out, and suddenly her flamethrower transformed into a pressure washer, cutting a hole straight through my chest and shattering the bindings I had placed around her spell. Sensing the new variation out, I could tell that the energy of this spell, and thus its intent, was much less chaotic than the fire from before. However, it moved much faster, rubbing up against my Mentum ropes and straining them, forcing me to figure out how to handle this element¡¯s unique properties.. With a bit more experience now, I managed to recreate my bindings with only a single death, but this time she changed tactics as soon as her attacks were no longer hurting me, instead flash freezing into snowflakes before they reached me. The water transformed all at once, causing a pillar of stone to smash into me, followed by a stream of rubble. The intent for this variant of the spell was shakier and harder to grasp with my Mentum, forcing me to push more energy into the task and sharpen all of my willpower into a fine point, centered on the spell pummeling into me. When that spell started turning to puffs of air, Bomira swapped to that element as well, and I was faced with yet another stream of pressure. My experience with water helped, but I was faced with a problem that the other elements hadn¡¯t presented. Just like with the others, the intent of this spell demanded that it was Air, and air couldn¡¯t be grasped or held. Fire was too focused on destruction to present this demand, and both Water and Earth were too physical to do it, but this Air abjectly refused to allow my Mentum to touch it. Faced with an issue I didn¡¯t know how to face, I turned to old reliable: brute force. I flooded my Mentum threads with Conceptium, insisting that the air was, in fact, dirt. The spell, and Bomira¡¯s willpower behind it, vehemently fought against that idea, but I refused to accept the Air for what it was, and it slowly, reluctantly turned into a cloud of dust. For the first time since we¡¯d started, Bomira cut off the constant stream of energy to acknowledge me. ¡°Good. We should train together again some time. I¡¯m leaving now.¡± I gaped at the blunt mage, looked around for someone to talk to or something to do, then shrugged and portalled away. Reappearing in my Repository room, I checked on my legend. Ambrose Ancient Seeker 5 Repository 4 Forbodum Manipulation 5 Occult Sovereignty 3 Kelemnion¡¯s Gate 4 Dark Whispers 2 Enhancements: Willpower x6, Reinforcement x1, Purity x1 Named Belongings: Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma¡¯Uban, Fenrir, Caerbalope, Carnic Like with the level 5 Boons I¡¯d been offered before ascending to the specialization of Ancient Seeker, these ones were unusually potent and archetypal. The first ability was All Manipulation. As it promised, it would teach me to manipulate anything using anything. Forbodum could be used to directly control Light, if I wanted. The issue with All Manipulation was that I¡¯d gone into understanding and controlling Conceptium that I could pretty much already do this. I mean, sure, it wasn¡¯t the same as using raw Forbodum to make a river bend in the wrong direction, but I could still get a good amount of control by channeling some Mentum and intent into the problem. Conceptium Dominion was much more attractive. It promised to do¡­ everything. I¡¯d create stronger Conceptium, have greater control over it, drain less mental energy by making it, and be able to stuff more of it into my magic. The choice was easy. With Intent Isolation at level 4, I figured that the last level would come on its own, so I decided it was time to get back to my original plan of leveling multiple Boons at once. The complete lack of communication with Bomira had prevented that, but I¡¯d gotten some great defensive training in return, so I figured it had still been a good call. The first thing I did was set up a few Multithreads. The first would push my domain as far into Yalten as possible¨C those jerks would suffer for attacking me¨C and the second would start to spread Conceptium around with Abstractive Influence, using both my Physical and Intelligent Influence abilities to fill my domain with a single idea: subservience. Specifically to me. My goal for this was to gain even greater control over my realm. While it could already be considered absolute, my energy efficiency could always improve. If everything in my domain bent to my will more quickly, then my life would accordingly get easier. Leaving my threads to their work, I started trying to work on Concept Mimicry. Like with Intent Isolation, recreating my own Conceptium was always less efficient, especially since I already knew what it did and a portion of it was likely scurrying around a rubber room in my Loci Server. Interestingly, the Boon also allowed me to exactly recreate the intents that I had stored in said server, meaning that I could store a single intent for every variation of rune I made or spell I cast, then replicate that and make some slight modifications based on the specific situation. Really this Boon was more useful than expected. Trying to think of some productive way to use and level my abilities, I thought of creating a new set of floors for my dungeon. I would need tons of intent for that, and maybe I¡¯d also get to use an entry in my legend that, for the most part, went completely unused. It was time to build a library.
I didn¡¯t want to fill multiple libraries with empty books, so I took a trip through Kelemnion, committing the texts of interesting books to memory. I ended up just slowly strolling through the place for a long time, using Multithreads to copy down every book around, thinking about how I¡¯d set up the floors. As libraries, the 25th through 32nd floors would be a place of learning and knowledge, somewhere physical might alone wouldn¡¯t thrive. Honestly, it was a pretty similar idea to the set before it, with the maze, though that had more to to with remembering where you came from and realizing that the space was noneuclidean than actually thinking. That meant making a series of puzzle floors, each based on a different theme. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. My thought was that for each floor you went up, the library would get larger, and you¡¯d need to find a number of books that correlated to that. Each floor would have a certain theme, and the books you were looking for would all be completely unrelated to the theme. You¡¯d have to take these misplaced books with you for the librarian to let you through. Of course, you could just fight the librarian on the first floor, then stroll through the rest of the floors unbothered, but that was why the last floor would have books relating to the boss¡¯ weaknesses and how to defeat it. Of course, that information would need to change every time someone entered the floors, otherwise nobody would need to go through the puzzles. That meant that the boss would have to be able to be equipped with special gear or otherwise have its elemental weaknesses switched around. Designing a creature that was specifically intended to be weaker towards something felt weird, but I also felt that this was the best possible way to reward actually doing the puzzles. Another thing to consider was loot. My first floors had fruit made of precious things like gold and gems hanging from stone trees, and some of Uban¡¯s body parts were made of those things as well. Most of Fenrir¡¯s floors were barren, but the boss had a tome full of inscriptions, as well as a pretty fancy robe. ¡­Okay, maybe that wasn¡¯t quite enough. I¡¯d have to go back and add more to those floors, as well. I wasn¡¯t really sure what to do for the maze floors, since they were kind of meant to be barren. Currently, the only reason to go there was if you really wanted rabbit pelts for some reason. I wanted to maintain the feeling of liminal space that it had, and emptiness had a lot to do with that. The two options I saw were to either put something in the Caerbalopes or the air. Stuffing a Forbodum crystal into the skulls of the rabbits was an easy solution which I quickly implemented. Later, I¡¯d be able to stuff other advanced energy crystals into my rabbits as well, but for now this would do. Once crafters discovered the value of the crystals, I was sure that they¡¯d be chomping at the bit to get more. My first thought for the Nailwolf floors was to put some sort of ore in the walls, but I felt like that just wasn¡¯t enough to reward fighters for coming into my tower, since they¡¯d either have to mine it themselves or bring a miner, which was easier said than done. Eventually, I decided to make a few designs for enchanted pickaxes and leave them with some miner¡¯s supplies¨C unburnt torches, crates, wheelbarrows and other stuff¨C trying to make it look like a miner had set up camp there before fleeing. The enchanted pickaxes had basic Movement runes on them that would make them pick up rotational speed more quickly, but I also gave a few on the top floors a more complex series of runes that would project a line of energy in front of the pickaxe. Overall, it was nothing too complex, since all the logic was stuff I¡¯d used in making my Enchanted Orbs. For the ores, I decided that it would be a good opportunity to make some new magical ones. I¡¯d learned how to do it with Conflict Tungsten, which was resistant to magic, but I figured having more options was never a bad thing. For the first ore, I just put a large vein of iron in it and mixed it with an intent to burn. The Conceptium was roughly based on the fire spells I¡¯d seen, especially Bomira¡¯s flamethrower. For the first floor, I only laced my iron pyrite knockoff into its stone, but as I went up I started putting more and more complex materials. Titanium with a protection intent, extra shiny platinum that did its best to look valuable, and so on. On the top floor, I even mixed in a single vein of diamonds that would be far more durable than it had any right to be, just as a reminder of a video game I played a lot as a kid. With that done, I figured that I was pretty much done with providing loot. What was on offer now was good enough, especially when I had no current challengers. That left the floors I¡¯d be working on next. Of course, knowledge was its own reward, but some people were silly and didn¡¯t think that was a good enough reward. To entice mages, I would scatter some journals that detailed how to cast a variety of spells. With my access to Kelemnion, learning new spells wasn¡¯t a hard thing to do, I just didn¡¯t do it very often since I was plenty smart enough to come up with stuff on my own. My experimentation had borne much fruit, and I¡¯d reached a point where I could somewhat accurately predict the results of my actions. At the end of the day, spells were just energy and intent, and I was good at handling both of those things. Still though, some people needed step-by-step instructions on how to handle magic. These people weren¡¯t stupid, just less used to my unorthodox methodology. They needed structure, and there was nothing wrong with that, at least until you started trying to make your own spells. Then you needed to break out of the mold a bit. Spell tomes wouldn¡¯t be all that useful to more physically-aligned fighters, especially people who fell into the brute category¨C no think, just smash. For those types of people, I decided that the final boss would hand out a small bag of valuables¨C at least, it would look like that. In reality, it would be a spatial bag containing piles of gems and minerals from the previous floors. This would provide an extra incentive to wait to kill the final boss: if it only had one bag that it handed out at the end of every floor, then greedy people would need to go through the floors one by one to collect every possible item. With my plans in place, I created a seam for each of the eight floors. Entering into the extradimensional space, I waved my hand and pushed the alternative reality into obeying my will, creating wide floors and cylindrical walls out of perfectly even stone. Within this space, I started making bookshelves. I opted to make the shelves out of wood, giving it a darker hue to fit the ambiance I intended for the floors of this section of the dungeon to have. Having created a place for them to go, I started making books en masse, pasting huge quantities of information from my Loci Server directly into their pages. Once the books were made, I sorted them by topic, and then alphabetically within those topics. For the first floor of the dungeon, I decided that the theme of the books would have to be broad in scope, so I filled them with every ¡°Introduction¡± or ¡°Beginner¡¯s¡± book that I could pull from my Repository. It would be just enough to get people interested in the library¨C there was knowledge on everything from fighting styles and spellcraft to inscriptions and history. Having been copied into nonmagical books, the Forbidden Knowledge that I¡¯d pulled from Kelemnion no longer gave off whispers. For the most part, that was a good thing, but I felt that just a little bit would help with ambiance, so I decided to imbue a bit extra Forbodum into all of them and use my Command Whispers Boon to coax some madness out of them. Not enough to actually hurt anyone, but enough to unnerve people. To further push that idea, I spread Conceptium into the air, empowering it with both my Physical and Intelligent Influence, commanding the air to weaken all perceptive abilities used in the space and invoke a feeling of gloom. Instantly, the room darkened slightly, and a blur of energy formed in front of my eyes, creating a magical fog effect. With that, people¡¯s darkvision abilities would be screwed up, meaning that any darkness I allowed would be true darkness. On other floors, they could use magical senses to find their way around, but this completely stopped that. Speaking of, I should probably light up those other floors. Pasting thousands of generic, inexpensive Light runes¨C the one that Kyle had shown off¨C I created a sort of skybox in my dungeon¡¯s seams. In the Nailwolf floors I kept things dimmed just a bit, but there was light on every floor now. At least, everywhere except for here. For this floor I wanted to do something a little bit different. Along the walls, I placed a long series of torches, and placed candles on stands that lines where people would be walking through. Lighting the torches and candles was a little bit weird, since I didn¡¯t want them to burn out or get unlit by a random adventurer whenever I stopped paying attention, so I set some Wisps to the task of keeping the burnable objects going, resetting them and lighting them. Forbodum wasn¡¯t exactly suited to the task of creating fire, but if I looked at how fires were started: heat, oxygen, and fuel. The torches and candles would be the fuel, and heat was a pretty simple thing to create. With that information¨C something that I doubt many people ever considered since the existence of oxygen seemed to be high-level knowledge, based on certain books I¡¯d read from Kelemnion, meaning that the Fire Triangle could be considered the silliest piece of Forbidden Knowledge in the world¨C my Forbodum reluctantly agreed to create fire. Once I¡¯d taught my Wisps to do that, and created a few more to put the books back into their places if they were knocked away and no unfamiliar creatures were present, I called the basic setup of the room good. The next step was to create a number of ¡°topic¡± books. Each set of topics would need to contain eight books, and I wanted to make it so that there were enough that a party could run the dungeon over and over again but almost never get the same combination, so I decided to create eight different sets for each floor. These different sets would be completely unrelated to the other books in the dungeon, and would rotate through the first seven floors before being randomly picked, which was a task that a Wisp could easily handle for me. Each book would have its own specific location that would be the same every time, but on the first floor that meant that you had a 1 in 448 chance of needing to go to the same place twice in a row. That chance increased by a very slight amount with each floor, since there were more books, but even at the seventh floor it was pretty low. For the last floor, that was where the books on the boss¡¯ weaknesses would be. I hadn¡¯t made the boss yet, nor had I worked out exactly how I¡¯d be giving it particular weaknesses, so I couldn¡¯t work on those books yet. Still, I could work on the other seven floors for now. I set up the remainder of the floors in a similar way to what I had for the first one, but adding more sections of bookshelves. After the second floor, where I put one section on each side, I decided that I¡¯d place them in polygons, quickly working my way up to an octagon on the eighth floor. A librarian¡¯s desk was needed for each floor. On the first, I set it just in front of the exit, behind the first shelves. They were spaced out enough that you could easily see and walk between them, so the desk was visible from the room¡¯s entrance. The desk was set similarly on the second floor, but this time it was in a corridor formed between the two large groups of shelves. For the remainder of the floors, the desk was just put directly in the center of the polygons. The next step I took was to assign each floor a different subject. As previously mentioned, the first floor would be for all the ¡°For Dummies¡± books, full of books that were primed for the uninitiated of their subjects. As a natural progression of that, the second floor would contain mid-level books, and the third would contain higher-level ones. The fourth floor would break the pattern, instead being a catalog of elements and their effects. Some of the books on the basic affinities belonged on the first floor, but the more complex and in-depth knowledge about the advanced ones would need to be earned. For similar reasons, a catalog of spells and runes would be held on the fifth floor. Part of me wanted to separate spells and runes, putting the latter on the sixth floor instead, but that was only due to their rarity. I didn¡¯t feel like keeping rare, life-altering information that should be used more commonly away from the people who could use it. On the sixth floor, I¡¯d store books relating to in-depth magical theory and secrets of the arcane crafts. This would provide an avenue to mastery that was unavailable to most, since the only ways to learn it were to find and convince a master to teach you, or find the knowledge elsewhere, like in a kingdom¡¯s vaults or on another plane. While it still wouldn¡¯t necessarily be easy to get the book, it wouldn¡¯t require them to be a royal, an exceptional talent favored by a grandmaster, or have one of a select number of advanced elements. The seventh floor was where I decided to spice things up a bit. On this floor, I put all of the books I could find about forgotten traditions, other realms, and powerful beings. Included in this was a list of all the gods I could find any text about, knowledge of ancient sacrifices and rituals, and even a little journal¨C just a couple of pages¨C about myself. After all, if you were talking about powerful beings, at this point I was starting to view spreading my influence over the entire world as a side quest. The eighth floor took away the plate of food and poured hot sauce on the table. All of the most potent books that I¡¯d found in Kelemnion¨C as judged by the quantity of Forbodum and hostility of its whispers¨C were stored here. Within the final floor of this segment of my dungeon, there would be journals of demons and necromancers, studies written by the most psychopathic creatures to ever live, and incomprehensible novels written by the beings of other realms. With that managed, I moved on to the next phase of creating these floors, which was simply to make some books that didn¡¯t fit with the rest. I put some skin on and teleported to Kerenth, gaining access to the royal library at my request. Just as I¡¯d expected, there was plenty of fantasy, romance, and, interestingly, ¡°sci-fi.¡± In this world, sci-fi had a lot less to do with technological advancement than progress in runecraft, which I felt was kind of funny. On Earth, comparing this world to the world that its sci-fi authors imagined would just be like comparing two different fantasy novels. I ended up copying a lot of these sorts of books into my Loci Server, dividing them into categories by the subgenre. These would be the quest books that people had to look for. After installing those and crossing that task off my mental checklist, I considered what else there was to do. Chapter 42: English 101 I needed traps, of course, but I decided to wait for a bit on those. First, I wanted to implement a few systems. People would want to take books from the library, but I didn¡¯t want it to be completely without consequence. If people wanted to take books from the library, they¡¯d need to get a library card to check the books out. If they took too long to return them, the librarian would kick them out of the library any time they entered until they came back with the book. Library cards would have ¡°Access Levels¡± based on how far that a party had delved into my dungeon. Anyone who reached the library floors by legitimately clearing the dungeon would have a level 3 access card, and anyone who cleared them by defeating the librarian would be upgraded to a level 4 card. That meant that an individual would need to climb all the way up the tower and meet me if they wanted to check out books from the eighth floor. The purpose of this was twofold: first off, if would punish people who cheated their way through the tower. ¡°Cheating,¡± specifically, meant bypassing the clear conditions of the boss floors. Uban and Fenrir were supposed to be defeated, for example, so if someone managed to get past them they wouldn¡¯t be able to get an appropriate access card, even if they did all the others legitimately. In a similar vein, anyone who managed to overpower my defenses and smash their way through Carnic¡¯s floor would be forced to redo the dungeon and either kill him or escape him legitimately. The other reason for the library cards was that it pushed people to go even further into the dungeon to get higher levels of access. Some people wouldn¡¯t care, but I was betting that certain mages and scholars would be willing to fight their way up the tower to be able to check out certain books, or they¡¯d at least pay someone to do so on their behalf. Honestly, at this point I didn¡¯t really care about killing the people who went into my dungeon. Creating it was a good way to train up my Skills, and watching people delve into it would be a good source of entertainment, but I didn¡¯t need to kill people. However, I was a firm believer in the principle of risk and reward. If there was no chance of failure, then there could be no growth. The dungeon would not only reward people with riches and knowledge, it would also hone their Skills just as it had done to my own. I¡¯d give the boss for these floors a stack of library cards, but in order to do that there¡¯d need to be a boss in the first place. Still, that was skipping ahead. First, I needed a way to stop people from stealing books, and maybe find a way to punish people who held onto them for too long. The librarian would eventually act as a deterrent to those who wanted to take books without checking them out, but what about once a group had killed him? And what if they just snuck in and then ran off faster than the librarian could catch them? Initially, my design for the entrances and exits of these floors was to just put the portal in at one end, and then have a portal out open up when the floor was complete¨C either by a party completing the quest or killing the boss. I felt that the exit plan was still good, but I moved the portal back into the wall a bit, making an actual entryway and putting a gate in front of it. By default, the gate would stay up, but when the players were in possession of a book that hadn¡¯t been checked out the gate would close. The gate would have to be crafted and reinforced in a way similar to how I¡¯d handled making Azrael¡¯s gear, hopefully making it so that nobody could smash through it. I¡¯d also need to set up a new program for logging which books were checked out, but I had some experience with that and already had a Database rune to process the information. Before setting that up, though, I got to work on a few traps. My Arachnomicons were one of the first things I¡¯d made, but I¡¯d not gotten many chances to use them. Applying my new methodologies to the old design, I polished things up and made the book spiders more efficient and powerful. The Name Arachnomicon is already in use in your Legend. Replace Arachnomicon? By replacing the Arachnomicon, you will lose all knowledge of its effects and creation, as well as all other benefits granted to you by Naming it. Y/N I accepted the alteration and relished in the much-needed update of an old design. With this floor¡¯s mobs made, I scattered them around the bookshelves on all eight floors. The plan was for the creatures to act as ambush mobs; whenever someone walked nearby, they¡¯d jump on them and try to claw their faces out. Half mob and half trap, these guys would be the primary danger to anyone on these floors aside from the librarian. The other threat was books with inscriptions in them that made them detonate when opened up. I took a look around at the library while thinking of how exactly to implement the exploding books, and realized that I hadn¡¯t put either the titles or the names of the authors on the books. To rectify that, I dug through all of them to find a name to attribute the book to and some sort of title. For some of the books, I just had to make a title up, and for some others I couldn¡¯t even find a hint of who¡¯d written it, so I just had to leave it blank. I also took a look at how I¡¯d organized and realized that I¡¯d first sorted by the subject, then the title. That just wouldn¡¯t do. I kept the subjects sorted the same way, but then took the author names and sorted them alphabetically. After that, I sorted by title. Then I realized my mistake. I¡¯d been naturally sounding things out and converting them into English in my head¨C not to mention, the same thing happened automatically when I took knowledge out of Kelemnion. The books that I¡¯d copied were all in English. ¡­Instead of fixing my folly by translating everything back to Kerenth-Yalten Glyphic, I sought out the only method I knew of to rapidly teach people different languages. When I¡¯d first met her, Azrael had given me a magic scroll that taught me the language of the land. I¡­ couldn¡¯t remember what it really was, or even what she¡¯d called it. Had I even asked? Reviewing the memories in my Loci Server found no results, but it was entirely possible that it was in there and I was just having trouble finding it. It didn¡¯t really matter though. I had a researcher I could bother with my questions. A few portals later, I was in Kyle¡¯s lab. He was hunched over a project, focusing intensely on it. As quietly as possible with absolutely no flesh to pad my steps, I made my way behind him, peering over his shoulder at what he was doing. Luckily, it seemed that he was concentrating too hard to notice my presence. Kyle was currently carving an inscription. He was going through the process slowly, so it was likely that he was either working on an extremely potent rune that took more power and could explode if it went wrong, or one that he didn¡¯t have much experience with. A quick examination showed that it was a Process rune¨C one of the ones I¡¯d shown him recently. So, in other words, both answers were true. As hilarious as interrupting him would be, that would be rude to do to a friend, and dangerous too. ¡­Oh, who am I kidding? I don¡¯t have nearly that much self control. ¡°A bit to the right,¡± I said loudly, right into his ear. Kyle jumped so hard that he impacted weakly against my skeleton and carved a huge gash through the metal plate he was experimenting on. The rune he¡¯d been working on was destroyed, and the energy inside it got confused, no longer restrained and trying to do something. The plate detonated, but I used the second the energy used to figure out what was going on to reinforce Kyle¡¯s desk and contain the sheet with a barrier of Forbodum. Kyle¡¯s energy impacted against my shield and I raised an eyebrow as I sensed its makeup. While I¡¯d seen Kyle work before, I¡¯d never taken a good look at his energy out of respect, but I now found that its makeup was actually rather similar to mine¨C similarly linked to the Aethenium. The only difference in makeup was that he¡¯d taken Love instead of Necrosis. I filed the information away in my head, knowing that it might be a pretty fun thing to tease him about. Honestly, I¡¯d half expected him to have Soothen energy¨C also pretty similar, only having Karma instead of his Love. I supposed that a link to the Aethenium was more useful, though¨C the only two elements that didn¡¯t link to it were Karma and Lethe, with the former obviously making Soothen and the latter making a sort of advanced form of what Lethe already was called Ignerum. I still felt like it was really weird how Soothen¡¯s name was so different from those of all the other energies, but I supposed that it did have a special place in society. I was pulled out of my thoughts by an angry voice, saying, ¡°Why would you interrupt me like that? You could have blown up my entire shop!¡± I waved a hand. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m here, so nothing bad will happen. If I¡¯m somehow wrong, then I¡¯ll just fix whatever issue arises.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t work like that! What if I¡¯d died?!¡± He was getting really upset by this, huh? I¡¯d have to pull out the big guns. ¡°Then I¡¯d fix that too,¡± I said with a hard look, causing his eyes to widen. ¡°I vastly prefer lichdom to true life, and I haven¡¯t seen a single creature dislike their undeath, at least not permanently. I can do it so that you¡¯d retain your personality too, at least I believe so. You¡¯d eventually get over your own death, and be more powerful.¡± Kyle looked horrified, so I gave him a slap on the shoulder and comforted, ¡°If I¡¯m strong enough to conquer an entire plane of reality, then I¡¯m strong enough to keep a squishy inscriber like you alive. Don¡¯t worry.¡± My friend still looked a little disturbed, but I figured he¡¯d get over it soon enough. Once he got a chance to consider the costs and benefits of undeath from an objective point of view, he¡¯d realize I wasn¡¯t an awful person for saying I¡¯d resurrect him if he died in my presence. I mean, seriously? Sure, he¡¯d become an undead, but that¡¯s just trading Life energy for Death¨C or, better yet, Life for Forbidden Knowledge. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°Anyways, I need something.¡± Kyle let out a long sigh. ¡°Of course you do.¡± ¡°Oh, don¡¯t be like that. I just need to know how those scrolls that teach people Glyphic work.¡± The researcher paused, thinking with a frown. Then, in a moment of remembrance, he exclaimed, ¡°You mean the language transfer scrolls, right. Haven¡¯t thought about those in a long time. Those are pretty rare, I¡¯m surprised you know about them.¡± He paused for a moment to consider, then queried, ¡°Were you once a human who did the ritual to become a lich, or are you a natural undead? I always figured you were originally a human, hence your self-control around mortals, but if you know about the scrolls then¡­¡± I waved a hand at the question. ¡°It¡¯s complicated. I guess I¡¯m somewhere in between? I was originally a human, and then this just sorta¡­ happened.¡± Kyle raised an eyebrow, commenting dryly, ¡°You becoming a lich just sorta happened. Got it. Well, anyways, I suppose I should answer your question. Language transfer scrolls are basically rich people¡¯s way around having to teach their children to read and speak. They¡¯re not perfect, since they only build off the user¡¯s existing knowledge and fill in words when they learn more. For example, if a child were to use one, they¡¯d probably know how to say mom and dad, but not how to say sword, at least if they¡¯d never seen one before. It also doesn¡¯t make up for their underdeveloped throats and mouths, so it¡¯ll still come out garbled. ¡°The scrolls are an item usually reserved to lazy nobles, hence why I¡¯m surprised you know about them. I suppose they could be useful if you ever met an intelligent creature from another plane, or if you were to meet an undead who weren¡¯t utterly insane¨C¡± which was probably exactly why Azrael had been carrying one¨C ¡°but other than that they¡¯re pretty limited. Why did you want to know? Just curious, or did one of those scenarios actually happen?¡± ¡°I need to make a massive quantity of them for my hobby, which also happens to be my primary defensive measure. I¡¯m basically building a giant death trap with tons of goodies in it for anyone crazy enough to go inside.¡± Kyle just nodded. ¡°Ah yes, it¡¯s common knowledge that liches tend to make overly intricate defenses for their phylacteries. I¡¯d call it paranoia, but I¡¯d probably do the same thing. Still, that doesn¡¯t really explain it, and you owe me for earlier.¡± I rubbed the back of my skull. That was probably fair, and he might think it was fun. I took some time to explain my dungeon tower and the floors that I already had. He nodded along, agreeing that it was pretty cool, if a bit morbid. His interest really picked up when he heard that I was making a library, though. ¡°You¡¯re just stuffing it full of books about¡­ everything? How do you have that much information? I don¡¯t get nearly that much, mostly just a ton about psychology and just¡­ way too many¡­ fictional novels,¡± the scholar said with a scowl. I shrugged it off. ¡°I¡¯m sure there¡¯s more in there than smut and romance novels.¡± Kyle¡¯s face went red, but I continued before he got the chance to explain himself, ¡°In some way or another, most information falls under the category of Forbidden. I¡¯m sure that when magic was discovered, it was considered taboo. Even now, there are certain aspects of everything that¡¯s not supposed to be available to the public. In a way, by spreading this Forbidden Knowledge it¡¯s becoming less Forbidden. Still, instructional books from a time long, long ago, when certain kinds of magic were considered evil? They¡¯re still in Kelemnion. ¡°I¡¯m absolutely certain that your realm contains much more than you think. Any book that someone has poured their heart and soul into, every journal and guide written for a child or beloved apprentice, and perhaps just any book that anyone has just genuinely loved,¡± I explained. If there was no good information in a literal plane of knowledge, I¡¯d be pretty dang surprised. Kyle grimaced. ¡°I mean, maybe. My first experience with the place was¡­ Not great. And I haven¡¯t really used the place since, just went back and forth to get the Boon levels.¡± ¡°Take another look when you get the chance,¡± I encouraged, ¡°Now, how can I get thousands of blank language transfer scrolls? To be clear, I need to teach people a new language that literally nobody else would know.¡± The researcher made a tight expression. ¡°Showing your age, much? Well, whatever. They¡¯re not that tough to make, but you need a specially treated kind of paper. I don¡¯t actually know how it¡¯s made, but if you go ask Queen Sharjiil to find someone who does, then you might be able to come to an arrangement. They¡¯re very tight-lipped about the knowledge, but your ugly face might be enough to convince them to part with it.¡± I dropped my jaw. ¡°I¡¯ll have you know that my facial bones are perfectly aligned with male beauty standards, I just don¡¯t like walking around in a suit of meat unless I have to.¡± Kyle made a disgusted face, then waved me off. ¡°Go bug someone else.¡± So that¡¯s exactly what I did. ¡°Ohh queenie!¡± I shouted into the hall as I entered, startling her guards and a pair of peasants kneeling before their ruler, holding a little baby out to her. ¡°Oh, bad time?¡± The queen leveled a glare at me. ¡°What do you need,¡± Nadiya spat out venomously. ¡°Someone who knows how to make language transfer scrolls, I¡¯ll go wait, also hi there people! Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m harmless, no muscles, see? Couldn¡¯t hurt a fly if I wanted to,¡± I joked before disconnecting the energy holding my joints together and falling into a pile of bones, nudging my robe and skull to fall upright on top of them. ¡°Bleh. I¡¯m dead.¡± The parents went from terrified to scared and confused, but the baby thought it was hilarious and started giggling. I dropped my pile of bones through a portal into the waiting room I¡¯d been brought to before meeting Bomira¨C I still thought she was super weird¨C and dismissed my collapsed body, allowing a new one to take its place from my storage. After that, I waited. And waited some more. I got bored and spread some influence around the room, pasting some reinforcement runes into the walls and powering them for fun. After quite a while had passed, the queen herself led a short, bearded man into the room with me. ¡°If you don¡¯t knock next time, I¡¯m not going to help you,¡± she said with a pointed look. ¡°Fine, fine, now who is this?¡± I clacked my hands together in anticipation. She sighed and muttered something under her breath, but I didn¡¯t pay attention to it. ¡°This is Ishur Goldseal. He owns the Goldseal company, which has a number of branches all dedicated to mass-producing magical items. He might want compensation for sharing information with you but I¡¯m sure you can handle that. I¡¯m going back to my actual job which, I hope I don¡¯t have to remind you, is not fetching people for you.¡± With that rebuke, she stormed out of the room, leaving the sweaty man behind with me. The business owner looked oddly like a dwarf from fantasy, with his red face, wide but short stature, and bushy beard. Even the last name felt dwarven. Part of me wanted to ask if he was certain that he was a human, but I decided that was a bit too rude, even for me. Ishur¡¯s heart was beating like crazy, but he put on some false bluster and a veneer of confidence, instantly trying to raise the price tag on what he¡¯d come to bring me. ¡°First we¡¯ll need to discuss the matter of payment. This is a valuable family secret, one that helped my family grow to prominence. Of course, we¡¯ll require a large up-front payment, and a commission from any sales you¨C¡± ¡°I won¡¯t be selling anything I get from you here today,¡± I cut him off. ¡°Show me what you¡¯ve got and I¡¯ll decide what it¡¯s worth. I¡¯m a pretty generous lich, so don¡¯t worry about not getting enough.¡± Ishur swallowed imperceptibly¨C at least, it would have been if his entire body weren¡¯t wrapped in my influence. He continued with his act of bravado, retorting, ¡°Now now, that¡¯s not how this works at all. You will pay us, and then we will graciously consider allowing you to learn our secret techniques. This isn¡¯t a small thing¨C even the most talented of apprentices take years to learn.¡± I patiently waited for him to finish trying to get me to do it his way, then poured intent into the area and commanded the air in the room to chill. Instantly, the temperature dropped by a couple degrees, and the sweat along the short man¡¯s brow chilled. ¡°I don¡¯t know who your normal clientele is, but I have done my best to allow you to maintain your petty notions of self-importance and value. Let me be clear: I can take whatever I want, whenever I want,¡± I proclaimed coldly. ¡°In spite of my nature, I am not a creature of unrepentant evil, but I am not a pushover either. If you were negotiating with any other being of a similar caliber and alignment, you would likely be dead right now. Now, I¡¯d like the information I came for. Please present an example and explain your methods.¡± The man¡¯s body was quivering, and he¡¯d given up any pretense of strength or having the upper hand. ¡°Y-yes, my lord.¡± He pulled a bag off his back and removed from it a piece of parchment. ¡°First, we prepare the parchment by sending our magic into it to strengthen it¡­¡± Ishur trailed off, looking at me as though for permission to continue. ¡°Yes, I know how to do that, please continue.¡± Seriously, what part of being an evil lich demigod wasn¡¯t getting across to this guy? Maybe it was because I¡¯d acted so casual with the queen? Probably that. Maybe I should pick an image and stick to it? Alternatively, I could keep doing whatever felt the most fun in the moment. Yeah, that second one sounded good. ¡°Without this step, the next will completely destroy the parchment.¡± The short businessman looked back at me again hesitantly, then pulled another item out of his bag. It was an Arcane energy crystal. ¡°This is¨C¡± ¡°Yes, yes, I know what it is. Continue your demonstration.¡± He nodded slowly, then pressed the gem against the parchment. ¡°Now, I focus on what I want to be in the paper¨C Glyphic, mostly, but we also sell math sometimes. I push that thought through the gem, and into the paper.¡± Ishur continued the process, slowly rubbing the gem against the parchment. I was momentarily befuddled. I knew how to transfer energy from gems, but I¡¯d never thought to do this. It looked like the man was using the nature of Arcane energy to transfer knowledge into the page. Of course, I wasn¡¯t a stranger to storing intent in matter, but the curious part was how to get it back out. Once he¡¯d covered every inch of the paper with intent, Ishur squeezed down on the crystal. To my surprise, it instantly turned to dust in his grip, and he sprinkled it over the parchment. A bit of the crafter¡¯s pride returned, and he explained, ¡°The dust acts as a conduit between the language in the paper and the user.¡± ¡°Thank you for your time,¡± I said with a grateful nod. He¡¯d truly given a good demonstration, but I had a few questions before I paid him. ¡°Now, what¡¯s with the writing on the versions I¡¯ve seen before? I see none of that here.¡± Ishur looked at the blank example he¡¯d made. ¡°It¡¯s mostly a cosmetic thing, and it helps the items sell better. Nobles like to think they¡¯re smart, so letting them think the magic is in the scribbles is just good practice. They convince themselves they know how it works¨C they assume it¡¯s an inscription, but no one could make a ritual with that sort of complexity. It also confuses anyone trying to mimic us.¡± It was smart. Ishur had gained a bit of my respect, in spite of how poorly our conversation had started. ¡°Why use paper, and not some other material?¡± I had my guesses, but I wanted to know what he thought. ¡°Part of it is the same as the ink¨C it¡¯s image. Storing rituals on scrolls is a difficult process, but one that¡¯s well-documented. Again, our target audience will both pay and buy more if they think they know what¡¯s going on behind the scenes. ¡°The other part is that paper is a weak material¨C it makes it harder to imbue, but also means that it¡¯s destroyed on use, as the energy reinforcing it is consumed when the knowledge is pulled out. This accomplishes similar effects to putting ink on the page. Better feel for the customers, and increased difficulty for our competitors,¡± Ishur explained. ¡°Have you ever tried to use different energy gems?¡± He looked at me like I was stupid. ¡°We¡¯re not going to try to use Fire to send stuff into the brain, that¡¯d be lethal.¡± ¡°Not what I meant. You should experiment with using your techniques to accomplish something other than interacting with the mind. Intent is a very powerful thing, and if you¡¯re careful enough you might be able to come up with something entirely new.¡± My words made the businessman frown in contemplation. ¡°Anyways, that¡¯s all I came here for. Here¡¯s your reward. I might meet back up with you in a while and see if you¡¯ve made any progress. Make sure you thank the queen for me on your way out.¡± With that, I dropped through a portal, leaving one to one replicas of Drachma¡¯Uban¡¯s horns and eyes. They were made out of pure emerald and ruby. Queen 1: Turbulent Times The young queen rubbed her head, within which a sharp ache was rebounding against her skull. Intellectually, she knew that things in Kerenth were good. Similarly, she also knew that recent developments, especially in regards to the eccentric lich from the south, were good for both her and her country. That didn¡¯t help her headache at all. Meeting a friendly archmage was always a good thing, but Ambrose¡¯s undead nature was causing trouble. Half of her nobles were up in arms against the idea, demanding that they start a holy crusade against him, whereas the rest had been so consumed by greed that she¡¯d had to order some of them to not head into the Dead Belt immediately, without Ambrose¡¯s Runic Ferries. Honestly, one moment they were brain dead idiots and the next scheming villains. If she could, she¡¯d have stripped them all of their positions long ago. Sadly, without the support of the nobles the crown¡¯s own weight grew more heavy. Without their aid, she would have far less influence and many more duties. The issue was that they knew that she needed them, so they overstepped their bounds time and time again in the hopes that their titles would protect them, all the while waiting for each other to slip up so that they could pounce like starving wolves to an injured rabbit. To sum her life up, politics sucked, and Ambrose was a huge question mark. She never knew what stunt he was going to pull next, and while his antics might normally be a welcome relief from her standard duties, his power and status as a member of the dead were causing trouble. She couldn¡¯t exactly risk offending the lich, but simultaneously needed him to respect her rule and duties. His acts today had traumatized a common family who had come to seek her blessing, and who knew what rumors would come of that? That would give the crusade faction of her nobility extra ammo, and there was absolutely no way that she was going to give into their requests. On the other hand, the lich had paid Ishur Goldseal an absolute king¡¯s ransom in exchange for a few minutes of work. The perfectly-crafted gems had been auctioned off to one of the noble houses for an amount far less than they were worth, but even then the Presal family had spent years of savings to ensure that they collected every item. It felt like a waste to the queen, but it was in character for that particular house, so she didn¡¯t question them about it. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Queen Nadiya Sharjiil caught herself biting her nails for the third time in an hour. Her image was important, and showing the common folk that she was stressed would cause them to panic as well. The worst part of all of this was that she knew her parents would be able to handle this¨C they always had been. During their rule, the nobles had stayed in line, the peasantry had led good, meaningful lives, and the kingdom had prospered. Then, they¡¯d gotten sick and died. The nobles had been clawing their way into her good graces, getting her expensive clothing, holding banquets and balls in her name, and bending to every whim that she¡¯d had. At least, they had until Maskyle had stepped in. As an old friend of her parents, Nadiya knew she could trust Maskyle, so when he¡¯d told her that they were just trying to get her to choose one of their families to act as regent for the throne and make decisions on her behalf¨C ones that her parents never would have¨C she¡¯d believed him. That faith had been confirmed when they¡¯d started making demands, disguised as friendly requests. Since they¡¯d done so much for her, after all¨C she¡¯d be an awful friend if she did nothing in return. With Maskyle¡¯s warning, she¡¯d been able to see through the lies¨C lies that would have likely worked on any other eight year-old girl. Not knowing what to do, the princess had begged Maskyle to take the throne as her regent, but he¡¯d refused. He was a researcher, not a leader, and he only knew a bit about politics from his short time as the court wizard, and from when her father had used him as an outside opinion to ensure that his judgment wasn¡¯t clouded by emotion. With no one else to turn to, Nadiya Sharjiil the Seventh had gone through her coronation with no regent to make decisions for her. Instantly, all the friendly faces had turned hostile, and she¡¯d found herself swimming in a sea of sharks. The princess had learned to be a queen, but even now she felt like she was tarnishing her parents¡¯ legacy. Nadiya sighed, pushing the memories back to where they belonged¨C the past. Reminiscing wouldn¡¯t get her out of her precarious situation. What would they have done? The question racked her mind, but she could find no answer. The nobles were at war with one another, and she was caught in the middle with no way out. Caught in the middle. An idea, nascent and undeveloped, popped into her mind. It was rough, and would stress some of her relationships, but it would, in theory, solve her problems. ¡°Shomar,¡± She commanded, ¡°Go tell the scribes to send some letters out: I will be holding court for the nobility. Any houses who fail to send a representative forfeit their titles¨C no exceptions. Additionally, personally instruct the Betza family to come and meet me directly. Tell them that it¡¯s regarding their request to be given access to the Runic Ferries.¡± Her loyal guard and runner nodded and sprinted off, wordlessly and unflinchingly following her orders, as always. Queen Nadiya closed her eyes and rested her head against her arm, letting out a long, satisfied sigh. If the houses were so concerned with Lord Ambrose, they could meet him themselves. Chapter 43: Creation and Destruction Figuring out how to make the knowledge transfer scrolls was childsplay, and I was able to skip the whole process of slowly channeling intent through an Arcane gem by using Forbodum in its place, and then just crushing a gem of that type over it. I kept finding new ways to utilize my magic, and every time I was always surprised that there was something more. It was exciting to do something new, that wasn¡¯t given to me by a Boon or a slightly altered application of something I could already do. In a way, I already had a method of transferring knowledge, but that was just to my minions. I used intent for many, many things, but never with the thought of giving it to another person. That was, after all, how it worked. I stored a complex idea in a scroll, and someone else pulled it right back out, gaining that idea for themselves. Limiting the use of these scrolls to just language was a complete waste¨C I intended to teach English, math, the Imperial system, and the Dewey decimal system all at once. That was, admittedly, a lot of information to cram into the brain at once, but the people coming to this floor were meant to be intellectuals. This would fix any gaps in their learning, give them an actually useful way to measure things, and provide them with a method to complete their book quests. I ended up making a Wisp with all the knowledge needed to produce the scrolls and left it to create them, instructing it to keep the number at ten. They¡¯d be left on the desk of the librarian on the first floor, so it wasn¡¯t like people could miss them. Plus, I kept the design consistent with what was sold by the Goldseals, so even if a party that came in didn¡¯t know what it was, they¡¯d be able to get it appraised and come back again later. With the scrolls set up, it was time to get back to the floor¡¯s real defenses. I¡¯d already placed in the Arachnomicons, but I also wanted to set some rune traps around. With a start, I remembered my Scholars¨C smaller, less intelligent copies of Fenrir that I¡¯d set to mass produce runes. I no longer needed them, so I portaled into the basement floor where I¡¯d stowed them away and cleared everything out, wiping the floor clean except for a large number of finished products¨C page after page of runes that would fit nicely into my trap plans. I copied all of the intents the Scholars had created over time, sorting them and stowing them away in my Loci Server in the shape of rats. After that, I teleported all of the inscriptions into the seam where I was designing the first floor of my new set, before binding them all into books. On its own, a single inscription probably wouldn¡¯t be enough to seriously damage the sort of fighter who climbed their way to this floor, but an entire novel of them? Passable. To make sure they¡¯d actually go off when I needed them to, I created a Detect rune on their front covers, feeding that into a Process rune. Together, they¡¯d sense when something living touched the book, and the Process rune would then feed an input into all of the inscriptions stuffed into the tome. Now, the book had an amount of energy in it from being made of my Forbodum, but that wasn¡¯t anywhere near sufficient for my plans, so I crammed some Forbodum gems into the front and back covers. This would give the inscriptions enough oomph to function as traps, randomized though they were. Since there were going to be so many effects going off at once, and I hadn¡¯t bothered to separate any of them from the offensive ones, anyone who triggered one of these traps would face a number of random inscriptions going off in their face. Shields, Forbodum-based healing, buffing effects, debuffing effects, and any number of offensive magics would happen at once. In theory they¡¯d mostly negate one another, but I was betting that things would be much more interesting. With the traps finished, the books made, and pretty much everything set up, now I just needed to make a boss monster. Now, there were a few ways that the boss for this floor could function. The first option was to make a big old monster with massive attacks and a physical focus, but while that was definitely simpler, I was much more interested in the prospect of making a literal bookworm. A vision slowly took shape in my mind, and I started creating it in the real world with my power. The creature would be slightly above human height, with slim arms and hands to let it grasp things. That was where the similarities to a human ended, though. Its skin would be pale, ghoulishly so, and its body would trail a good dozen feet behind it, tapering like the tail of a snake. With its massive weight and because its body was unsuited for it, the creature would need a form of locomotion other than the slithering, so I chose to strengthen its arms, allowing it to pull itself across the ground. A neck-like structure formed roughly where the shoulders would be on a human, but much thicker, to the point where there was almost no difference between it and the rest of the body aside from the ability to arch forward much more. In place of a normal head or face, I crowned the top of the creature¡¯s neck with a set of circular jaws¨C basically, I gave it the stereotypical massive worm mouth. Around where its teeth were, I set dozens of small yellow eyes. The rough shape of the bookworm¡¯s body was finished, so I moved onto its apparel. I wanted its body to be completely covered until the final fight, where the adventurers would have to face the librarian in combat. It would be a sort of big reveal, sort of. They¡¯d know that it wasn¡¯t fully humanoid, but seeing that it didn¡¯t even have a face should still be somewhat surprising. With that in mind, I created a purple cloak scaled for its body, with extra size to keep the bookworm¡¯s body obscured. I briefly considered giving it a weapon, but then figured it already had its mouth, and possibly some magic as well. I hadn¡¯t yet built in a way for me to create type-specific weaknesses in the beast, but I figured that could wait until everything else was sorted out. That meant that the last thing to do before animating the thing was to consider what sort of personality and knowledge it should have. Obviously, it needed to have a love for books and a dislike of loud noises. It should act mostly like a stereotypical librarian, except crossed with the monster of a horror movie. I imagined it moving slowly and carefully, but capable of speed when it needed it. Magic¡­ I wasn¡¯t exactly certain what sort it should have. Obviously, it would need my Esoteric Sight, but other than that I didn¡¯t really know what to give it. Deciding that I¡¯d see how things turned out with the design first, I started making a Wisp, but instead of just pumping some information into it, I gave it the sapient undead special. Energy and knowledge was slowly pushed into my creation, and it started to develop a personality. Instead of just shoving things into it, the forming spirit became inquisitive. I cut off a number of currently unneeded drains on my power, commanding my creations to stop pulling on our connection for more energy. For a moment, the dungeon came to a halt, and the only things that were present in my mind were myself and the personality taking shape before me. I taught my creation of its duty, of the importance of the knowledge it watched over, of the unlimited power contained in books. I taught it emotions, and it grasped onto some while setting others to the side. It learned to want, instead of just seeking out that which it needed. It learned that the world was more than just black and white. It learned to be a person, rather than just a mindlessly obedient undead. The Wisp, destined to become the keeper of my grand library, learned what it meant to be more. Mentally drained, I closed the connection. In spite of my experience with the process and my superior Willpower, creating such advanced Wisps was draining. Carnic had been much more simple, since I¡¯d mostly just stuffed him with moves from martial arts and superhero movies. As I wasn¡¯t exactly a melee fighter, that mostly meant that Carnic would try to do a bunch of fancy, extravagant moves that would hopefully intimidate those who arrived on his floor. This Wisp had to intimately understand each and every book in my library. Without that, it would still be a good boss and warden of my library, but not a perfect librarian. One of the most important things that I taught the Wisp was the significance of its duty. I hadn¡¯t intended to get all philosophical about it, but the role of a librarian was a critically important one in the development of Earth, my old home. In a world without the internet, books were the easiest way to store and communicate large quantities of information. Without books, most information would have died with its finder. Books were fragile things, too. A single spark, a slight flood, or even a careless child could destroy one. It was The Librarian¡¯s role to protect books: to protect the education and wisdom of those who came before so that those who came after could learn from them¨C so that their descendents could walk the path of creation, rather than descent into chaos and savagery. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. The Wisp resonated with my thoughts, understanding its role and beginning to grow in that direction on its own. Not wanting to overly influence it and its individuality, I backed away from that and instead began teaching it bits and pieces of spellwork. Having already granted it so much knowledge, I was straining the limits of what I could do, but it soaked up all of what I gave it and I felt things click into place. Taking that as my sign to finish up, I quickly left some knowledge about its own body and backed out of the mental tether between myself and the Wisp. I felt a wave of weariness, but knew it was nothing compared to whatever the small soul I¡¯d created was feeling. With that task finished up, I turned back to my surroundings and began giving the new floors some more polish, lighting tweaks, and so on. When I couldn¡¯t find any more changes to make there, I started thinking up how I wanted to give my new monster vulnerabilities. The most obvious answer was the clothing. Perhaps I could create a rune that would empower certain types of energy in its surroundings? I quickly formed a bit of Energetic Intent with that idea and pressed onto a gold plate. I was guessing that the final result would be a bit expensive, and might even draw from The Librarian¡¯s own pool of Mentum to work, but that would just add to the potency of the weakness. Playing smart was meant to be rewarded by the library. The Library¡­ I almost facepalmed at the realization that I hadn¡¯t even named my floors yet. Luckily, it was a quick fix to attach some plaques to the resting rooms that came before each floor. Soon, I had each floor labeled and numbered from one to seven, with each boss floor having a skull engraved where the number would be. Now people would easily be able to tell that they were heading into the Stone Forest, the Feral Plateau, the Endless Maze, and the Black Library. These incredibly creative and unique names had been come up with in just seconds as I didn¡¯t think anyone would particularly care and they sounded cool enough anyways. My Librarian had started to slowly rouse to wakefulness as I¡¯d worked, so I sped things up a bit and returned my attention to it, gently guiding it into its new body. After a moment, I sensed it twitching, exploring its shape and movement with curiosity, so I teleported onto the library¡¯s first floor. It soon rose fully, and I looked at its horrifying maw with a smile. Hello, little one, I communicated mentally. Father, it whispered back across our connection in a meek, gentle tone that didn¡¯t quite meet its looks, Books? I internally smiled, raising an arm to gesture out at the shelves. As if just noticing them, my Librarian shrieked in excitement, leaning forward onto its spindly arms and crashing forwards, halting just before the shelves so as not to damage anything. It carefully traced a finger across a number of books before settling on one of them. I thought the display was somewhat amusing, since it already knew the contents of all the books and their locations, but I wasn¡¯t going to say anything. If the kid wanted to read, he could read. I was going to give him a little break and then introduce the idea of splitting his consciousness across a number of bodies to let him operate across a number of seamed floors at a time, and if he wanted to spend that time reading then he was free to do so. I¡¯ll check back soon, I informed it, Have fun reading. It let out a screech of assent, both real and mental, and I portaled back to my Repository. I checked up on my legend, reading my stats. Ambrose Ancient Seeker 5 Repository 5 Forbodum Manipulation 5 Occult Sovereignty 4 Kelemnion¡¯s Gate 4 Dark Whispers 2 Enhancements: Willpower x6, Reinforcement x1, Purity x1 Named Belongings: Antigo, Drachma¡¯Uban, Fenrir, Caerbalope, Carnic, Arachnomicon I frowned, realizing that I didn¡¯t have any space in my Named Belongings for my Librarian and that I¡¯d need to level up to get a new slot. More importantly, though¡­ That was some fast leveling. Was it because of my Purity? In that case I¡¯d need to look into experimenting with that Fragment of Divinity and seeing if there was a way I could get more with it. My mood was further raised by the new Boons on offer. Saving the best for last, I focused first on the Available Boons from Occult Sovereignty. I took a moment to parse the feelings and intent that each Boon gave off. Wild Concept was strong. It gave my intent and spells a mind of their own, allowing them to act outside of my directions. They would still, of course, focus on what I wanted the spell to originally do and would benefit from my other Boons, meaning that they¡¯d have greater potency on physical objects and would work smarter, rather than harder, but they¡¯d be able to act in the spirit of what I wanted, rather than by what I actually told it to do. It was a very interesting ability, since it would effectively allow the Conceptium I produced to know more than what I told it, enabling it to act in my favor without prompting or further influence. Since it would be smarter, I guessed that it would be almost like each spell I utilized would be controlled by a Wisp. Clear Intentions was equally powerful, granting me additional potency over Conceptium of all kinds. It would work with my ability to counterspell, further enhancing the skill that Bomira had helped me develop. That said, Wild Concept would be better for my dungeon, since any Conceptium I produced would, hopefully, understand the idea that the dungeon was meant to be fair, difficult, but possible as long as you didn¡¯t overestimate yourself. I picked Clear Intentions. I loved the idea of Wild Concept, but I was already so invested in indirect combat that I was personally weak. While that was fine as long as enough of my prepared forces stood in place, I needed a way to defend myself until they could act. Spontaneously dying to a blow that was outside my ability to protect myself from wasn¡¯t how I wanted to go out. The other set of Boons instantly sent a chill down my Repository. Images of these powers in use flickered through my mind and I felt Whispers attest to their power, trying to pull me one way or the other. Manic Divide was the first Boon. Many creatures, humans included, had segmented brains and nervous systems, with each part having a different function. Typically, one¡¯s Soul, the intent of their very being, was spread across these different parts, governing each to a different degree. However, just as a surgical knife could sever the bonds between nerves, so too could one split a being¡¯s very Soul. Manic Divide was the first Boon I¡¯d ever gotten that truly exposed the wiring of this world¡¯s Boon system. The Manic Divide wasn¡¯t some new channel for my power, or something I could pour Mentum into and expect a result. It was a Concept, one so far beyond me that I could never hope to replicate its effects without it. The sheer power and complexity contained within this Boon was unbelievable. I almost took Manic Divide on the spot, but forced myself to turn my focus on Devour Mind. This Boon was just as overwhelming. Half defense, half attack, this Boon encompassed any Soul that came in contact with my own and pulled it in, manipulating and controlling my own Mentum to wrap around its own and devouring it. This would be represented by them arriving in my Loci Server and being forced to battle against me at the height of my power, in a place where no outside powers or influences mattered. It would be my mind versus theirs. I stepped back from the Repository and forced my brain to reboot, considering each route for my power individually. Both scaled entirely with the quantity of my Mentum and the potency of my intent, both of which were vast due to my heavy investment in Willpower and the fact that I was a lich. Both had pros and cons. Manic Divide was an all-out, single-target attack, and would temporarily incapacitate practically anything it came into contact with. It would instantly end almost any fight I got into by nature of the enemy simply being unable to fight back. Devour Mind was both attack and defense, but came with its own risks. First off, both myself and whatever I targeted would be left nearly incapacitated in the real world. With my allies, that was actually a pretty good deal for me, but the other downside was incredibly risky: if my opponent managed to overtake me while within my Loci Server, it would be given free rein over the place. It could access and edit my memories, drain my power, or even outright kill me. However, there was a hidden detail that I saw in one of these that the other simply lacked. I locked in Devour Mind. Chapter 44: Tampering with Divinity I stood before the quivering Fragment and knelt before it, Fenric knelt beside me and carving away at the floor. I kept my silence, not wanting to disturb him from his work. He was, after all, doing his best to keep me alive in spite of my poor decision-making skills. Instead, I stared into the Fragment, trying to cow it into submission with my gaze. On Earth, I would¡¯ve just looked constipated, but here? I was a lich who could be considered nigh-omnipotent within his own domain. That added some weight to my actions. The fact that I didn¡¯t currently have skin or eyes also probably helped. I¡¯d built up a few hundred extra, improved bodies for what I was doing now. My standard design just had a ton of energy packed into the shape of a skeleton, but that had some limits. The more Forbodum I packed into a small space, the less potent it all seemed, eventually capping off like there was some sort of asymptote¨C a value that it would always approach, but never quite reach. I could just pack tons and tons of power into a skeleton, and it would work, but it was more efficient to create a twelve-foot hunk of muscle and focus on increasing its durability as much as possible. What I¡¯d read in Kelemnion said that Tribulations got progressively worse each time you brought one upon yourself. It also cleansed impurities. I didn¡¯t think my bodies had any of those, so my best guess was that it had simply directed the Mana to the location of my consciousness, and then it had used the channel between my body and my Repository to fulfill its task there, causing incidental damage as it rushed through. In other words, my suspicion was that having a body might slow down the Mana as it tried to get at my Repository, allowing me time to adjust and preventing me from instantly shattering and dying. Fenrir soon finished his work and gave me a slight nod, so I tore open a portal for him to get back to his floor. He¡¯d asked if he could stay, but I¡¯d refused. He, Uban, and Carnic were all independent enough to survive my death, and I felt that there was at least a chance that the Librarian, who I had yet to grant an actual name, might outlast my death as well. If they got exposed to Mana, though, then there was no doubt in my mind that they¡¯d die instantly. I had to do this alone. I took a moment to admire my immaculate and utterly unearned musculature, then reached out and grabbed the Fragment of Divinity. It let out a shriek made of energy rather than sound, and I got a message. You have incurred the wrath of the Heavens. Tribulation+ incoming. As soon as I finished reading the message, I felt a zap from the Fragment, forcing my hand to release its grip. Immediately after, a dual-impact came from above, the first annihilating Fenric¡¯s shield and the second slamming through with enough force to knock me a foot into the stone floor beneath me. The cave around me was crumbling, with the ceiling having been completely vaporized by the first attack. Immediately following it, however, was the true fear: a channel of pure Mana entering my body from above. This new body lasted for a couple seconds, which was an incredible improvement over my prior design, but not enough. My Repository quaked at the immense amount of power that was streaming into it, and that was before I even ran out of bodies. Even through the pain, though, I knew that things were going to get much worse unless I did something right now. Pouring out Mentum as rapidly as I could, I generated influence for my Occult Sovereignty around my Repository, simultaneously sucking in almost all of what I¡¯d already made. While it severely weakened my control over my tower, it was a temporary change and was needed to help me survive the onslaught of power raining down on me. With my Sovereignty, I reinforced my Repository and packed on Conceptium, instructing it to keep me alive. I ran out of bodies far too quickly. I knew that, in reality, it had been at least a few minutes since the Tribulation had begun, but it had felt like mere seconds through the pain and panic. When all of my bodies had been torn through, I found myself back in my Repository, bracing for even more pain. As expected, the bolts of Mana found me, acting like my ceiling didn¡¯t exist and rushing straight for my core. There was a brief moment of resistance as the Mana met Conceptium, but the power was simply overwhelming, and all my intent could do was slightly divert the Mana, siphoning off a tiny amount of it to aid in my defense. Even the small fraction of Mana that I¡¯d stolen was felt as a noticeable reduction in pain as it worked to help counter the rest of the heavenly energy flooding into me. Too soon, however, the Conceptium ran dry, and the pain gradually returned. I felt like I was going crazy. Every second started to expand more and more, the pain simply too much to fully process in a single instant. My mind reached for something, anything, but there was nothing. There was no clever solution to be found, nothing to stop the power that was chipping away at my Repository, tearing away chunk after chunk of my being. I was out of options. At that realization, I felt my mind sharpen, and a warmth encompassed the very center of my being. There were only two ways this Tribulation would end: either I would die, losing everything and abandoning all I¡¯d created and called mine, or I would survive, rise above this challenge, and gain the power to protect everything I loved. What little Mentum I had flowed directly into my Repository, and it solidified. I poured every ounce of my Willpower into myself, and utilized all of my command to send out a single message: I WILL LIVE. Reality warped and bent as an amount of the Mana in my surroundings seemed to lose its identity, falling into me as though I were a black hole. My core started to reconstitute itself on a molecular level, building and building. It wasn¡¯t enough to outpace the damage that was accruing across my form, but it was something. Each bolt of Tribulation felt like a world-ending attack, reducing my being more and more, but the tiny cracks in me were restoring themselves, preventing my core from shattering, something I knew would have immediately split my core from whatever particles remained. After what felt like centuries of agony, one last strike found my Repository, fracturing what was left of me, and then everything became nothing. It was dark and quiet for a long, long moment. Then there was a small, almost imperceptible fooshh sound, only audible because of the oppressive silence. I turned to look at the sound, finding a familiar figure sitting behind me in a pool of inky darkness, leg swishing back and forth. I felt myself approach and sit beside him, looking him over like a reflection. He returned my gaze with a slight smile, one that I¡¯d seen in the mirror oh so many times. It was me. The old me, the me that I¡¯d been back on Earth. That weak, impotent shadow who¡¯d never managed to amount to anything, and never could have. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°You know,¡± he said in a slow, considerate tone, turning back to look at his own reflection, ¡°It was never a matter of opportunity.¡± I nodded, looking at my own reflection and seeing the same face that the being beside me wore, but with gray, purplish skin and eyes the color of the abyss. ¡°We were just weak,¡± I agreed, ¡°Too weak to reach out and take what we wanted.¡± My old self¡¯s smile turned sad. ¡°It¡¯s just me now, though. Hiding away, deep inside you.¡± He turned his eyes to me reluctantly. ¡°You know what has to happen now, right?¡± I smiled back. ¡°I do.¡± His eyes turned back to the black water and he breathed deeply, fearfully, closing his eyes and rapidly shaking his head. His voice trembled, ¡°I¡¯m ready.¡± My gaze landed on him once more, and I remembered quiet dinners with my parents, playing video games with my friends, curling up in bed with a good book, and what it felt like to ace a hard test. I remembered sitting at a table, narrating a story that my friends and I had carefully woven together over the course of months. More than any of that, though, I remembered my weakness. I remembered the sting of rejection that I¡¯d felt the first time I¡¯d asked a girl out, and the fear that had gripped my heart every other time I¡¯d been around someone I¡¯d liked. I recalled the pain of being rejected from every job I¡¯d applied to because they ¡°couldn¡¯t find a place¡± for me. My old life had been good in a lot of ways, but it had all been underscored by fear. The fear of rejection. The fear of pain. The fear of what other people thought. But I wasn¡¯t that man anymore. I hadn¡¯t been for a while. Seif had always been a coward. Ambrose would be a legend. I reached out and gripped the coward by the back of the head, forcing him beneath the water and stepping in beside him. He fought for leverage, but it was to no avail. He was weak. I was strong. I held him beneath the water for what felt like hours, watching the life slowly drain out of him. The flailing and thrashing died down, then completely stopped. His body started slowly melting into ink, and I held him gently until I no longer could. ¡°Thank you,¡± I whispered softly. There was no sickness without health, no light without darkness. Seif had been weak so that Ambrose could know strength. The ink began to rise around me, slowly consuming me, but unlike my old self, I felt no fear. I closed my eyes and allowed the darkness to overcome me, and when I opened my eyes I was back on the top floor of my tower, staring down at a tiny chunk of crystal. I reached down and pulled the fragment of my Repository into my body, looking around at the destruction that had been caused by the Tribulation. The top floor of my tower had been utterly obliterated, with nothing left of it other than rubble. In addition, a large chunk of my influence was just gone, having been pulled in by my attempts to survive and obliterated by the ongoing Mana strikes. I pushed out power to replace what had been taken and checked my legend. Ambrose Ancient Seeker 5 Repository 6 Forbodum Manipulation 6 Occult Sovereignty 5 Kelemnion¡¯s Gate 4 Dark Whispers 3 Enhancements: Willpower x7, Reinforcement x2, Purity x2 Named Belongings: Antigo, Drachma¡¯Uban, Fenrir, Caerbalope, Carnic, Arachnomicon I ignored my Available Boons for a moment, focusing instead on fixing up my surroundings. New walls formed to replace the ones that had been broken down, and a ceiling soon grew out of them to protect me. Once I felt safe, I pulled the remains of my Repository back out of my body through my hand, pouring Mentum into it to slowly, slowly heal it. Only then did I look through my options. The first thing I did was take Mentorship, since Experience would have effectively acted like a longer Inspiration and forced me to live through entire segments of crazy people¡¯s lives, whereas Mentoring let me intentionally get some Whispers to help me out, and even gave me an amount of control over which ones I heard from. From there, I went up the list, looking over the ¡°capstone¡± ability I got from Occult Sovereignty hitting level five. The first option was Domain Expansion, which was both a bit funny and confusing. I¡¯d figured out by now that the names for my abilities were most likely created by my subconscious, using words that only I knew to match the way I understood the world, hence Boon names like Firewall, Library Pass, and so on. It was a bit weird, though, since I could already expand my domain by just touching stuff with my Encompassing Knowledge. After reviewing it more closely, I grinned a little bit. It was kinda similar to Devour Mind in that it used the appearance of my Loci Server as a base, but where Devour Mind created a mental space, Domain Expansion created a physical one. The ability would effectively displace me and anything within a controllable radius from reality, forming a space that would look similar to my mind palace. Since the world Domain Expansion created would be formed entirely out of my Occult Sovereignty, my influence would be literally integral to it. The laws of reality would be entirely mine to control and decide upon. I¡¯d practically be a god. Immortal Concept, the alternative, would let me subtly infuse a Concept into a creature¡¯s Soul, slightly altering the way it thought. Permanently. That felt¡­ distasteful, so Domain Expansion was the correct answer for me. Simplicity was centered on helping me mass produce Conceptium, but that wasn¡¯t really something I struggled with. Between Concept Mimicry, the rats running around in my brain, and Abstractive Influence, I was in no way struggling to get a lot of similar intent. The main benefit Simplicity had was that all the intent produced would be exactly the same, untouched by the user¡¯s mental state or environmental conditions, but I had pretty decent control over all of that stuff. Agnostic Manipulation would basically ignore whatever passive desires magic had, and would supposedly provide a bonus to overriding Conceptium that was already present within energy. Seeing that it would mesh well with Clear Intentions and my plans to become immune to hostile spells, I slotted it in. The last was between Inner Clone and Soul Flood. The former promised to let me have an amount of control over myself whenever I used Devour Mind, whereas the latter was another way to directly attack a person¡¯s Soul, simply using Mentum as a battering ram to shake them and briefly shatter their control over their own Mentum and body. It was sorta like the Manic Divide that had previously been offered to me, but a lot less potent, only lasting a second or two before the target started to recover. I felt that Inner Clone was a lot better for me, since it actually required precision instead of just being a rough bludgeoning instrument. Of course, I had the energy and Willpower to bash someone else¡¯s Mentum around, but efficiency was the name of the game for me. With all my new Boons locked in, I slowly rose to my feet, sighing and examining my domain with a critical eye. Luckily, it seemed like nothing and no one had died from the Mana Tribulation, but everyone was hiding indoors. I didn¡¯t particularly feel like trying to force them out, though, so I just left them to calm down on their own. Azrael might have handled it better, but I just wasn¡¯t her. I also spotted a caravan a ways off that had come to a complete stop, but after inspecting I found that they were carrying a bunch of stuff to set up camp and possibly trade with the people of my small town. One young man poked his head out of his carriage with curiosity and wonder in his eyes, but an older woman, likely his mother, yanked him back inside and started scolding him. I chuckled a bit at that, but moved my eyes along to where the Fragment of Divinity had been. I was slightly shocked to find that it was still there, considering what had gone down, but I decided that I¡¯d leave it alone for the time being. If a Tribulation+ had almost completely obliterated me and forced me to face the demons of my old self like that, I didn¡¯t want to know what a Tribulation++ would do. After confirming that there was no other damage that I needed to worry about, I allowed myself to fall back onto the floor and ignore everything except the steady flow of Mentum that I was using to slowly heal my Repository. Kelemnion 1: The Choosing ¡°He¡¯s ready.¡± A great clamor arose in the massive hall, some entities cheering their assent and others announcing their displeasure. Each being had their own designs, but their shared goal was more important than those. Still, some forgot themselves and sought to increase their own individual power at the expense of risking failure against the Enemy. ¡°Cease your bickering,¡± commanded Kelemnion, ¡°I present unto you my Chosen, and you squabble like children. Do you forget that I stand to lose the most of all of us, should this go wrong?¡± One particular Realmheart Avatar was exceedingly vocal about his displeasure, but Kelemnion silenced him with a wave. ¡°I, for one, agree with you,¡± proclaimed Annihilum from the audience, ¡°He is the best option available. But that does not mean all of us are happy with it. He¡¯s taken many worrying actions. What are we to do if he invades our realms, for example?¡± The God of Forbidden Knowledge shook his head. ¡°It is not a concern any of us need to have. If things go right, our individual realm strength will mean nothing, especially if it can help him increase his own power.¡± Intimicion, a fellow member of the Aethenium, appeared beside him on the stand and put a hand on his shoulder. She whispered softly, seeming for all the multiverse like a mother speaking to her child, ¡°Kelemnion, they know the truth of your words, but it is hard to accept. We¡¯ve all worked on and built up our realms for millenia¨C accepting that we have to give that up isn¡¯t easy.¡± This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. He patted her hand back. ¡°I know,¡± he quietly responded with a smile. He turned back to the audience as she faded into pink mist, proclaiming, ¡°I understand that this is not easy, but we swore a pact! I ask you, my brothers and sisters, to remember when we rose to bring down Azathoth, and before that, Ysothis! How many of us fell to those Great Ones? How many stand here today, filling the shoes of the elders, such as myself? And those beasts did not even die! ¡°For the first time, we have a chance to reclaim the heavens! We have a champion with the potential to rival our overseer, with a narrow chance to take back a throne that is rightfully ours! To this day, we fear Azathoth¡¯s awakening, and none dare venture into the realm we banished Ysothis into, but now we have a way to retake our multiverse from the curse of Mana!¡± Kelemnion stretched his arms out to either side, reminding them, ¡°I alone have borne the weight of the heavens for too long. You have had your chance to grow and accrue power. Now it is your turn! Are you ready??¡± Shouts of approval and war cries thundered from all around him, and the dark one smiled. It always took a bit extra effort to get the Light-aspected Realmhearts to agree with him, but they were potent and loyal allies if you knew how to manage them. Each and every Avatar in the room was sick and tired of being crushed under Mana¡¯s boot, especially after many of them had been the ones to put him up on his pedestal in the first place. Kelemnion looked down at his Chosen One busily reconstructing his little tower, completely unaware of the changes that were taking place within his soul. More importantly, though, he looked at his heart. This time, things will be different¡­ Sakran 1: New Horizons

Sakran 1: New Horizons

The young adventurer gazed out at the slowly-reforming tower with awe. He¡¯d been told to expect some crazy stuff, but wasn¡¯t this a bit early to be seeing something like this? A tug on his tunic yanked him back into the carriage, and his maid started cursing at him. ¡°It¡¯s dangerous out there! You can¡¯t just stick your head out of the carriage in the middle of a freak storm like this!¡± Sakran Betza rolled his eyes. ¡°Yes, mom.¡± Shekima, the woman who had raised him, scowled at him. ¡°I will spank you.¡± He swallowed. ¡°So, what do you think is going on out there?¡± Shekima smiled softly for a second, then shook her head at him. ¡°I don¡¯t know, and that¡¯s why you shouldn¡¯t be so careless about it. It seems like that lightning was hitting the same place over and over again, which makes me think that it was a spell of some kind, and whatever caster can do that isn¡¯t the sort that we should draw the attention of.¡± Just then, the caravan leader hollered out some command that Sakran couldn¡¯t quite make out, and their carriage started rolling again. ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯s nothing to worry about,¡± he disagreed. ¡°Didn¡¯t the messenger say that the guy who owns the tower is¡­ eccentric? Maybe this was his doing.¡± Shekima frowned. ¡°That wasn¡¯t any normal lightning, and this isn¡¯t any normal Necrosis. Whoever owns this land at minimum has to have an advanced, Death-aligned affinity. Are you supposing that he has two? That would make him, what, level twenty-five? That¡¯s higher than anyone in the kingdom. No, it¡¯s more likely that the lightning was someone else¡¯s doing.¡± Sakran shrugged. It didn¡¯t really matter to him, as long as none of that power was turned on him. He was here for the dungeon¨C or so they were calling the big tower with monsters in it. He was also here to deliver a letter, but that shouldn''t be very difficult. Shekima and Sakran chatted for a bit longer, speculating about the lightning and what the town would be like. Nobody had ever considered that there might be a settlement in the middle of the Dead Belt, and when the news had gotten out, people had gone crazy with the conspiracy theories. Some people were saying that they had to be well-disguised undead, while others claimed they were aliens from another realm. There was even some guy claiming that the small city was full of beautiful young women, which was obviously just wishful thinking, but amusing nonetheless. The cart rolled painfully slowly, but eventually Sakran could make out a gate in the city¡¯s wall, and it was only perhaps another hour or so before they were setting up camp just outside the city. Once his tent was pitched and dinner was cooking, the caravan head, Kharl left to negotiate with the natives, and everyone else started setting up magical wards and simple quality-of-life things, like campfires to help protect against the cold and posts to tie up their horses. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. It wasn¡¯t too long before everyone was settled in, and the caravan head came back with a bewildered look on his face. His assistant gathered everyone up over the next few minutes, and then he made a small announcement. ¡°Apparently, these¡­ folks didn¡¯t know we were coming until just now. They say that the owner of the settlement is a bit of a ditz and the person who helped facilitate communication between them and him spontaneously up and left.¡± There was some muttering at that, but Kharl silenced everyone with a shout. ¡°Hey! We¡¯ve dealt with stuff like this before, and we¡¯ve been to plenty of locations that didn¡¯t have anything prepared for us. It just means we might end up spending a few more nights without proper accommodation than expected. That¡¯s not the real issue here. ¡°The real trouble is that they don¡¯t really have anything to trade with.¡± This caused some shouts of alarm, and even Sakran was frowning now. Had they really come all the way out here for basically nothing? ¡°Don¡¯t worry!¡± Kharl announced with a smile, ¡°They say they¡¯ll be willing to enter the tower with our adventurers and guide them through. They say they haven¡¯t ventured inside, but have been warned of some of the threats within. That¡¯s better than going in without any knowledge at all, in my opinion.¡± ¡°What do they expect from us in return? If they¡¯re wanting my stuff in exchange for someone else getting something, that doesn¡¯t really sound like a fair trade,¡± one of the older merchants grumped. Kharl shot him a look. ¡°I was just getting to that. With their help, we¡¯ll be able to gather plenty of riches to go around. We give the locals some food, clothing, and tools, they give our fighters information, and the fighters give us loot. Everyone gets something, win-win-win.¡± There was some grumbling, but eventually everyone agreed to it. ¡°Now, one last thing,¡± Kharl shouted out, adjusting his collar in a way that seemed a bit anxious, ¡°Y¡¯all remember that one stupid rumor about the town being full of women?¡± No way. Sakran¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Yeah, that was right. But don¡¯t you boys lay a finger on any of them!¡± He scolded the group. ¡°I have it on good authority that anyone who misbehaves here will die. Not just get in trouble, not get sent to court, just die. I¡¯m not bringing a dead human body back with the caravan, so if you get killed in here I¡¯m just gonna leave you out in the Belt and let you turn into a monster. Understood?¡± There were some half-hearted agreements and shady eyes, and Sakran just knew that someone was probably going to lose a finger before everyone else got the point. Most of the men here were rich enough to get whatever they wanted. The Betza house was considered one of the more respected noble branches, but that didn¡¯t mean there wasn¡¯t any internal conflict. At least some of the merchants present today had most likely, at some point or another, gotten away with harassment by simply paying off everyone involved. At least none of them were stupid enough to go past that point, though. Rape was taken very seriously by the queen, and offenders were typically executed. It was generally viewed as a very extreme punishment, but it was effective. Even the richest nobles strayed away from that path¨C or at least kept it so far in the dark that nobody knew about it. With that matter settled, the group disbanded, each person going to continue setting up their own supplies and preparing their own wares. Sakran, though, approached Kharl personally. ¡°Do you have any news on where I can deliver the letter?¡± The caravan driver winced. ¡°Ahh, yeah, about that¡­¡± A finger was slowly pointed towards the top floor of the dungeon tower, and Sakran¡¯s heart sank. Chapter 45: A Real Attempt Recovering was slow. Normally, I bounced all over the place and my attention was constantly consumed by one interesting task or another, but just doing nothing? It sucked. I couldn¡¯t even split up my attention with Multithreading to free myself from the boredom, since my Repository was so seriously damaged. It was a bit of a wakeup call. If that Mana had been a little bit stronger, I would have died. In a way, part of me had died. All I could do at the moment was review my legend and come to fully accept the change that I¡¯d mostly ignored until now. Ambrose Ancient Seeker 5 All I needed to look at was the first line. My name had changed. Seif was nowhere to be found. A long time ago, Azrael and I had a discussion about how the system determined our names, and I recalled something about her telling me that it had a bit to do with how others knew us, and a bit to do with how we knew ourselves. Everyone in this world knew me as Ambrose. That was, obviously, part of the name change. But could it really have happened if I hadn¡¯t changed? My vision was right, and my legend was right. Seif was dead, and he wouldn¡¯t be coming back. I couldn¡¯t carry his spirit along with me anymore. Ever since I¡¯d come to this world, my morality had been twisted, but part of me had fought it. I hadn¡¯t sent out hordes of undead to conquer the living, I¡¯d let those who slighted me live, and most of all, I¡¯d allowed others to treat me as something less than I was¨C in fact, I¡¯d insisted on it. Seif had been too kind. He¡¯d been a mortal from Earth, and he¡¯d lived in a world where the only cruelty and suffering that there was to endure came from his own flaws. I¡¯d tried to keep him alive in my heart, to carry on with his ideals so that I could lie and tell myself that I was still him. I wasn¡¯t Seif, though. I was Ambrose, an Ancient Seeker and a lich¨C a ruthless creature with a hatred for all things living. I could maintain my relationship with the kingdom of Kerenth, since they¡¯d proven themselves useful to me, and I¡¯d grown attached to Azrael and, by extension, the small town that I¡¯d created and she¡¯d looked after. Everyone else, though? I was undead. They were living. We were anathema to one another. It would have to be me against them. Ambrose would settle for nothing less than total victory, leaving his enemies in ruin with no chance of ever rising against him again. Yalten, I supposed, would be a good place to start. I returned my thoughts to my healing Repository, all of my power pouring into it to bring me back to complete health. It was a fragile thing, in spite of all the effort I¡¯d put into protecting it. In this moment, if an unexpected threat approached, they could destroy my soul with an almost insignificant effort. I hated that thought. In that moment, I swore to myself that I¡¯d never again be so vulnerable. The question was, how would I rid myself of a weakness that was so integral to my existence? I cast my gaze about, idly considering the thought, when my gaze locked on the seed that Cadavrrhizae had left behind when it died. I considered the odd, fleshy thing, and felt a slight whisper in the back of my head¨C a nudge, rather than the harsh shoves I was used to. My Encompassing Knowledge told me that this thing was an incomplete, malleable creation¨C seconds away from completion, yet incapable of ever reaching its full potential. This seed was full of the energies of Life and Death, but lacked a binding agent¨C the intent of the Cadavrrhizae, most likely, seeing how the energy within it felt. Without that, it would never amount to anything on its own. However, I happened to specialize in the subversion and manipulation of Conceptium. I couldn¡¯t do anything so intensive until my Repository had finished healing, though, so I took a quick moment to glance around my tower, finding that the caravan I¡¯d spotted a while back had made its way into town. They seemed to be behaving themselves, so far, and none of them had any crimes registered by my Runic Orbs, so I decided to leave the girls to handle them. Hopefully, one of them would try their luck and I¡¯d get a good taste of some new advanced energies¨C energies that I could use to force open portals and draw even more power out of them. I was also rather interested in seeing what that did to an affinity¡¯s wielder¨C would their magic lose potency, or be subverted somehow and take on traits resembling my own powers? Could I create my own flavor of magic? Not that it would affect me too much, but it would certainly be a fun experiment. Yet more ideas that I wanted to test but couldn¡¯t act upon until I¡¯d fully recovered. This is taking forever. I wish I could take a nap. Sadly, there was nothing for it. I was undead, and I wasn¡¯t about to try and figure out how to magically induce sleep. Maybe I could go visit Kyle? But then I¡¯d be leaving my core undefended, and I¡¯d have to waste a bunch of energy getting there¡­ not worth it. ¡°I¡¯m bored.¡± Nothing responded. Then¡­ something entered my dungeon. I diverted my focus to that, reducing my speed of recovery but finally giving me something to do. It was¡­ a boy. A single young man had entered my tower and decided to¡­ solo it? He looked nervous, but determined. I tried to examine him, and he stiffened as some of my power passed through him. Is that¡­ Yes, I think that¡¯s Karma. Not too strong, either, but¡­ he might be able to handle this floor. I made a stone couch and splayed myself across it, imagining I was watching a movie. I really need to figure out how to make popcorn. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Sakran gritted his teeth as the pair of lizards charged at him synchronously. The first darted to his right, where it was met by his shortsword, but the other nearly bit into his unprotected flesh, only dodged at the last moment. He Pulled himself backwards, raising his shortsword and dagger in front of him in a defensive stance. Strangely, both of the lizards were sporting cuts across their left shoulders. He was pretty sure neither of them had been noticeably hurt before they¡¯d attacked, but it had been a rush so he could be wrong. Both of the lizards approached again, impossibly well-coordinated, as though the fight had been choreographed ahead of time. They were durable, fast, and outnumbered him 2 to 1, which was only further exacerbated by their ability to work together like nothing he¡¯d ever seen. Even more than that, he got a sense that if they managed to sink their teeth into him, he¡¯d be torn to bits. He had two options remaining: flee like a coward, or fight, risking death for his advancement. I need to survive and get stronger. To deliver this letter, and to become something more than I already am. There was a path to accomplish both goals, and as long as there was a way, he would find it. His Karmic Sight flared, and he felt his mental energy draining into the Boon. He braced himself for the arrival of the monsters, and then he saw it. A thread of something almost like Karma between the two monsters. Without thinking, he struck out with his sword and wasted the remainder of his Mentum on his lowest-level Skill. Sever. Karmic Sight ended, and Sakran stumbled, raising his blades to his sides blindly to defend himself. But no attack came. When he lowered his guard, Sakran witnessed both of the lizards lying prone in the grass. He still sensed Karma in the area leading to them, so he knew that they weren¡¯t dead, but¡­ they were immobile. Not knowing if this was a temporary condition or a permanent disability, the young warrior rushed to plunge his blades into the skulls of the lizards, finishing them off. Embracing the flow of Karma, Sakran checked on his Legend. Sakran Betza Karmic Blade 3 Karma Manipulation 3 Entangled Bladework 3 Sever 2 Enhancements: Willpower x2, Reinforcement x1
I looked down in interest at the Skill the boy had used, finding that the connection between the two Twinscales had been completely severed. Since they had been, in all ways except physically, a single creature, the breaking of that binding had rendered the bodies braindead. I clapped for the kid. He probably would have lost if not for that sudden display of magical prowess. Sadly, the kid decided to throw in the towel after that. While it was irritating that my entertainment had left, he didn¡¯t have an advanced mana type that I could harvest, meaning that his death wouldn¡¯t benefit me much, and he¡¯d been pretty exhausted. Since I wasn¡¯t counting those soldiers who had wanted to kill me, this kid was my first real dungeon runner. Hopefully I hadn¡¯t scared him off. I watched him run off for a while, but he just ended up going back to a residence that had been lent to him. I also did another quick scan of his body to see if there were any anomalies that I hadn¡¯t noticed the first time around. While there was nothing too interesting about the boy himself, he was carrying a letter on his person, one addressed to me. I quickly speedread the note. Dear Lord Ambrose, yadda yadda yadda, appearance in court, blah blah, sincerely, Queen Nadiya Sharjiil of Kerenth. Basically, she wanted me to show up to a meeting. I quickly looked around my influence for a calendar, eventually locating one that the merchants had brought with them, and I counted out two weeks¨C thirteen days, really¨C until the specified date. It was also supposed to be right at midnight, which was a rather interesting choice, and she made some other specific requests regarding how I presented myself to her council. With that in mind, I refocused on my Repository. It was going to take a while to heal up, and I wanted as much time as I could to prepare the things she¡¯d requested. While I didn¡¯t really like being around most mortals, the queen had implied that the interaction would be¡­ entertaining. Now I had something to look forward to while I slowly nursed my soul back to full health. Hopefully that meant the time would pass by faster, rather than slower.
After a bit over a week of patient recovery, I was ready to get back to work. The most urgent thing to do was to prepare for my meeting with the queen and her council. First, I needed to edit my appearance. This was initially a bit wonky, since I normally made clones for use after my current copy had been destroyed, but it didn¡¯t take much more focus to force my construct to maintain its shape while I abandoned it to imprint my soul on the new one. As for the design, I made it a bit taller than I normally would have, and artificially blackened the bones to add a bit of menace. I furthermore draped scraps of flesh over certain bones and thickened others, even going so far as to lengthen and sharpen the points of my distal phalanges to appear like claws. My next action was to carve tiny Light runes into my empty eye sockets to create the illusion that I saw through small, purplish flames. The runes had to be very small, otherwise they would force me to manually control their power consumption to prevent them from using my new body as a talisman, but I managed to get them to a good size that created the visual effect I wanted without reducing me to motes of colored light. The final cosmetic change I made was to create a brand-new cloak for myself, carefully inscribing sigils into it to produce swirling fog when provided with energy. I left certain parts of the intent vague to allow my Forbodum to fill in the gaps with its own intent, hopefully allowing it to be more chaotic and mysterious. In spite of my nature, I¡¯d never truly leaned into the intimidation factor of being a terrifying undead overlord, and this would be my first real chance to do so. I wanted to go all-out, and hopefully make some noble jerks soil themselves. I, at least, wouldn¡¯t have to deal with the smell. Queen Nadiya had asked me to create a display of force and might, and my two most obviously dangerous weapons at the moment were my Sovereignty and ability to conjure an army. I had yet to incorporate any of the kingdom into my domain, but this would be a fantastic excuse to do so. For that reason, I built up large amounts of influence along the border and held it from spilling over. Some patrols near the edge of where I¡¯d expanded might have felt a chill run down their spine or something, but that was of little concern. As for the army, I folded a pocket dimension and tied it to my being, the same as I¡¯d done with my many clones. Here, though, I expanded. Rather than just enough space to fit a single body, I made a wide, blank space, one without air or heat or anything substantial, and set down a large, marble floor. Here, I considered my options. I had many different sorts of creations that I could use, and deciding on any one brand of minion was always difficult. However, I¡¯d only ever used one minion for battle outside of my own tower, and it felt appropriate to return to my roots. I pulled up my old design for the Antigo and started working on a new variant. The original creatures were heavily focused on speed and power, but to be true shock troops, fit for both intimidation and war, they also needed to be tough. Luckily for me, covering the beasts in plates of reinforced bone seemed effective enough, and also gave the impression that they were wearing plate armor. After a bit of testing them against the original design, I concluded that my War Antigos¡¯ sacrifice in speed was worthwhile when in large numbers. In single combat, the original, more rapid Antigo design was more effective, but in the chaos of battle it was difficult to stick to attacking a single target. Once I¡¯d designed the new mob variant, I was able to spam my new pocket-space full of them. It was a bit straining to do so, since mobile seams were more difficult to sustain than stationary ones, but my recent increases to Willpower helped carry me through. My power generation was utterly monstrous at this point, what with my innate nature as a lich, my domain helping to funnel half a continent of power to me, and seven System-granted Willpower enhancements, which seemed to me like less of a flat boost and more multiplicative. I was ready to turn Kerenth¡¯s castle into an inescapable haunted house, and it seemed that the time for action was approaching. Now I just had to wait for the signal. Queen 2: A Cordial Meeting Noting that the representatives of each noble house had arrived at the table, Queen Nadiya Sharjiil the Seventh gestured to a servant, who quickly rushed out of the room and closed the heavy steel door with a slam. As he did so, a room-wide inscription lit up with white and pink light, showing clearly that the silence barrier was actively being maintained by Maskyle, her head magical researcher and inscriptionist. Alone with only her court and her guards, the young Queen broke the room¡¯s silence, initiating the meeting and announcing its purpose. ¡°We are here to speak on the matter of our undead neighbor, who many of you have expressed a large variety of concerns about.¡± She eyed one man in particular, a young one dressed in all white, before continuing, ¡°I will warn you here and now that any blatantly violent gestures towards myself or your fellow representatives will be met with immediate punitive measures, ranging from demotion to execution based on the severity.¡± There was silence for another moment as the men and women of the court each considered their own positions and what they¡¯d like to say, until a sneer crossed the face of the man Nadiya had directed her warning at. He slammed his fist against the table and rose to his feet. ¡°This is foolishness. This entire affair has but one righteous conclusion, and we all know it!¡± the noble demanded, casting a glare out to his audience as though challenging someone to debate him. Most seemed bothered by his display, some even appearing to be swayed by his proclamation. ¡°Sir Elhi,¡± the queen warned, ¡°This court is a place of calm discussion, not one of prideful valor. Be seated and state your argument in a rational way.¡± The young representative from the Elhi family rounded on her with a sneer. ¡°You openly discuss trade deals with a monster, queenling. My father always knew allowing you to take the throne was foolish, and now we all see your true character. You¡¯ve done nothing but hinder our houses¡¯ influence, and now you consort with what can only be considered true evil. In the name of house Elhi, I name you traitor.¡± There were gasps and murmurings across the table, and Nadiya frowned. While the man¡¯s bravado was unlikely to do anything other than lower the others¡¯ estimation of him, it was possible that the houses could revolt and replace her. It had happened before, many many generations back, which was how her own family had been elevated to their position. With her youth as an excuse, there was a small chance that the Elhi would be able to garner enough support to do so now. She wasn¡¯t worried, though. She was more concerned with how she¡¯d punish the idiot later. After all, her backup was right on time. A swirling, inky black fog slowly seeped into the room from the door, and gasps filled the room. Chairs screeched backwards, men and women rising to their feet in alarm. The fog quickly grew thicker and taller, until it rose above Nadiya¡¯s knees. Then the reinforced steel door cracked right down the center and slammed to the floor in two pieces. The fog continued to rise, but a slow clicking sound could be heard from beyond the door frame. Two dots of light slowly came into view, burning a malevolent purple, more reminiscent of curses and wickedness than the nobility it was typically associated with. The clicking grew louder and louder, until a robed figure slowly came into view, its form seeming to coalesce out of the fog itself, a shadow stepping out of darkness, highlighted only by its grand, gold-trimmed robe and the fury burning within its otherwise empty eyes. Power surged in the room, tangible even to her untrained senses as a bitter cold, and the sound of bone grinding against stone was heard throughout the room as armored monstrosities, just as dark and malignant as their creator, clawed their way up from the darkness. Queen Nadiya forced her quivering legs and hands to come to a halt beneath the table. For this to work properly, she had to show that Ambrose was powerful, but able to be reasoned with. She had to be calm in the face of this walking calamity. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. She just hadn¡¯t expected him to go quite so far on his end of this tactic. Taking a deep, chilly breath, Queen Nadiya Sharjiil brought her new guest into the discussion. ¡°Lord Ambrose, thank you for coming. We were just discussing the next steps to take in regards to you and your domain.¡± The lich didn¡¯t turn to face me. Instead, his gaze was locked on Mitgah Elhi. ¡°If you ever say anything that stupid again, I¡¯ll eat you.¡± The calm, matter-of-fact way that the sentence was intoned was reminiscent of the way someone might comment on the weather. Elhi dropped to his knees instantly, as though something had shoved him to the floor. He didn¡¯t speak. He didn¡¯t need to. Everyone in the chamber knew what the poor man on the floor was thinking. It¡¯s what was on all of their minds. This being could kill all of us and we wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything about it. Even the strongest man in the room, Rotzhek Presal, a Level 14 Gilded Knight, could do nothing but cower in the face of the lich Ambrose. It wasn¡¯t just his overwhelming display of force. It wasn¡¯t the horrors he¡¯d summoned from thin air. It wasn¡¯t even the power that seemed to flow from him like an unending tide of madness. It was the air. Or, rather, the quiet power that it seemed to hold. Right now it was passive, but the most perceptive among them could see how it seemed to flow around the lich, bending around his every movement, as though passively reacting to his will. What would happen if he used it actively? They¡¯d been dropped in an ocean, and Ambrose was a leviathan. The lich¡¯s face slowly turned to meet Nadiya¡¯s gaze. ¡°I have some demands.¡± She blinked, not having expected that. That wasn¡¯t the deal, Ambrose! He was supposed to show up, scare the court into submission, and then show how amicable and easy to be around he was once you got over his appearance. ¡°Wh-what do you need from us?¡± Her voice trembled slightly, but she did her best to mask it with a confidence she didn¡¯t feel. A single skeletal finger was raised heavenward. ¡°Energy. As many different kinds as you can find.¡± His tone brooked no argument, but she winced anyways. ¡°There¡¯s a rumor that something happened to Charles¡¯ magic after what happened. It¡¯s been¡­ difficult to convince people that it¡¯s worth the risk.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care.¡± The coldness in his voice shocked the young queen. Had something happened to Ambrose since she¡¯d last seen him? What happened to the man who¡¯d delighted in breaking decorum to make a baby giggle, to the lich who¡¯d pulled dumb pranks and geeked out over magic with Maskyle? The sudden change deeply unsettled her. Perhaps this meeting hadn¡¯t been such a good idea after all. Another finger went up. ¡°I am going to destroy Yalten.¡± There were gasps at this announcement, but the undead wizard cast a glare about the room. ¡°There will be no response from your kingdom either to aid them or to deliver punishment upon me.¡± ¡°But, what about the people??¡± Nadiya was appalled. How could he do such a thing? He met her eyes. ¡°They will be reborn. They will find new purpose in a higher state of being.¡± She stared up at him, expressionless. Yet another dreadful finger was raised. ¡°I am going to create a replica of my dungeon nearer to your lands. This dungeon is to be accessible to anyone who wishes to delve into it. If I see any interference in this, I will freely dispense my wrath upon the offending party.¡± A fourth finger. ¡°Finally, I am going to spread my Domain across your lands. Lightly, for now. This will be before I construct a dungeon in your territory and after I annihilate Yalten. ¡°If you have any complaints, now would be the time to voice them.¡± His burning glare was met by a room filled with the ear-shattering echoes of fearful silence. ¡°Good. And remember what I said about stupid comments¨C I am always listening.¡± The beasts Ambrose had summoned dropped into the floor, and his chaotically curling fog drew towards him, obscuring him more and more, until the purple flames of his eyes blinked out, and the fog collapsed. Nadiya breathed a deep sigh of relief and slumped against the table. Around her, her court shivered in fear, with even those who tried to appear tough visibly shaken. ¡°My Queen¡­ what shall we do?¡± The voice was quiet and timid, and Nadiya turned to see Maskyle standing in the doorframe, having clearly seen the whole thing. A bitter chuckle left her lips. ¡°What we can.¡± She looked up at her court, steel entering her eyes as she set her mind firmly on a course that she knew scholars of the future would either praise or mock. ¡°Each of you¨C I command that you gather as many rare and unique magical energies as you can possibly find. I will compensate you for your efforts, but know that your reward is simply your life. There is no doubt in my mind that the lord¡¯s final comment was true¨C watch your tongues, plan your deeds, and school your very thoughts. If we do this right, our kingdom may enter into a new golden age, one that will have our descendent bards singing our praises for centuries.¡± She didn¡¯t mention what would happen if they failed. They already knew the answer to that one. ¡°This meeting is dismissed.¡± Update So, as you guys know, I''m currently struggling with writing Lich''s Guide. I''m not saying it''s really anyone''s fault, but the feedback on last chapter was a bit... unfaithful? There was a lot of negative feedback and clearly you guys don''t think I know what I''m doing.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. What I have to say about that is that you need to trust the process. The ending of Lich''s Guide will be satisfying, at least in my opinion. Every plot hook will be fulfilled. In an attempt to regain some motivation for this story, I''m doing a bit for the Magazine Challenge. A bit of attention on it would help. It''ll be in the post-chapter note. sorry lol one more thing Hi again, sorry for the dual updates, I write interlude for this tomorrow as an apology, anyways it''s my birthday and the best present could give me is to go take a peek at that thing again, it''s currently at 12k, four chapters (I decided against holding content back for now since I''m writing multiple chapters a day anyways), and I personally think it''s pretty well written and if even like half of you went and read what''s on it we''d immediately see massive growth, since stories that are gaining a lot of traction tend to gain even more traction. I want this to do well and I''m currently spending most of my free time making it work. I''m enjoying it a lot-- which hasn''t happened with writing in a bit-- and that means you guys probably will too. The magic isn''t quite as interesting as it is with Lich''s Guide, but there''s actually interesting interplay between some of the characters. My writing has gotten a lot better since I started writing LGDM, which means I can lay a much more solid foundation and hold myself to a better standard.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. I''ve wanted to write an apocalypse story for a while now and this is it. Please take a look. Last time only a few of you actually did. I''m not fully coming back to Lich''s Guide until writing it feels satisfying again. Even when I do write it, it might be a little bit before I drop what I''ve written on RR. Heck, I might even be a complete jerkface and keep it on Patreon until I''m at a point where I think everyone will be happy with where the story is (which may well be the end of book 2) just so that I can contain the amount of feedback I''m getting and feel validated by the numbers. For the moment, this is what I''m doing. Wait if you want, but my recommendation is to at least give this new thing a chance. It''s pretty cool and it''s only getting cooler.