Have you ever heard a song that moved through your very soul?
The beats, the lyrics flowing through, and touching parts of yourself you didn’t even know were there?
Would it surprise you to learn there are millions of songs just like it, not the sound or the lyrics themselves, even if that too is technically true.
What I mean, is there are that many songs out there which can slide beneath your skin, and resonate with who you are.
Millions of songs you would absolutely treasure, but what’s more interesting, than all of the music you probably will never have the chance to stumble upon, are the billions of songs, which will never even be created.
The songs of those who have a gift or even just a one hit wonder, yet their sound, their words will never see the light of day, simply because they never tried.
Words, feelings, that will never reach someone, simply because a pen was never taken to a piece of paper, and the world itself is left a darker, a less inspiring place.
A tragedy the system actually changed, even if only for the most talented, but some progress is always better than none, and now, one’s greatest potential isn’t some hidden thing.
If one is meant to be something, an artist, a writer, or some kind of rockstar.
The system will tell them, and they will be able to shine to the heights of the brightest stars, or at least however high one’s potential will take them, but… our choices have also become so much more limited.
The world quickly turning into a place where dreams are crushed by classes.
Do you want to be an artist?
Oh, what a shame the system determined your best class is that of a carpenter.
At what point is living more important than doing what we are best at?
When is happiness, freedom, and choice more important even if it will result in us being a failure or a shadow of who we could be?
And sure, hobbies are a thing, hobbies though can rarely pay the bills, and when ones class, the thing they’re best at is something like soldier, labour, or account… what becomes of dreams?
Does life simply become an endless grind where we are forced to claw out whatever happiness we can, in the few hours we have to ourselves every day?
What’s worse, chasing a dream knowing that you’ll most likely be a failure or doing something you hate, while your life slowly slips away, and… what if the system is just wrong, about who you truly are?
The words of some insignificant soul on Super Planet Delta 3
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Aurisa stares at the elf, she is glowing as steam radiates off her body, and her hair is a spiky mess.
Well, until a wave of mana envelopes her body, smoothing out her hair, and removing any dirt or grime in a cleansing wave.
“Back so soon? Don’t tell me the elemental managed to run you off.”
Sarah snorts, before one of her bags glows, and a purple crystal the size of her head forms in the palm of one of her hands.
“I’ve got it right here.” Sarah says, before tossing it to Aurisa, the crystal crashes into her chest, and knocks her to the floor.
Both of Aurisa’s hands try to support its weight, but it’s too much so instead she shifts it to the ground, and stands with a huff.
“So it seems.”
Primordial Core – Existence is a strange thing, a sequence of events, which logically makes no sense, after all, everything has to come from something, and if there was some big bang where exactly did that energy come from?
Hmm, 0_o either way, this core isn’t related to the beginning, but rather the consequences of the development of universes based off physics or how planets don’t really have a way to naturally grow after they’ve formed, unless well you consider a galaxy basically being recycled growth, regardless this is where Primordials come in.
They are the builders of planets, typically used to expand world’s, but at the higher tiers entirely capable of building entirely new ones, and their cores?
Well, they can be consumed by world cores for a burst of planetary growth or used for other extremely mana intensive goals, making them highly desired across the cosmos.
“With that out of the way, just send me a message when you want my help with that battle, and make sure to shut down the portals.” Aurisa nods along “And the weapons, I remember our agreement.” Sarah shrugs, before tossing her a ring, before vanishing in a burst of green mana, and Aurisa slowly begins to examine the core.
“Now, what’s the best way to use you?”
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One day, that’s all it takes to clean up the graveyard, well, to gather the miles of ash blown apart by the bombs.
Revealing clear crystal floors, and more materials then even a couple of thousand necromancers could burn through anytime soon.
Miles of buildings, people, trees, and everything else, reduced to their most base components.
Mostly a whole lot of carbon, which turns out to be an excellent building block for bones, and can even be used to produce other materials like blood or flesh at a reduced cost, but there are a lot of more random elements mixed in too.
Ones, we don’t really have a clear use for yet, and are currently setting aside for experimentation.
Who would have guessed that just burning everything down would result in so many materials, tier one materials at that, and just a single step away from being turned into hundreds, thousands of undead.
If only, there was enough mana to go around, but for some reason there’s never enough.
Which, naturally lead to Veronica, and her chief architect Bradley plan to rebuild or rather create a city made of arcane crystal.
Mainly, because it naturally produces mana, potentially allowing us to reach a point where the city will produce more mana than the undead consume, or even begin infusing the area with mana.
A plan that will hopefully prevent a repeat of the whole mana desaturation thing, and then there’s the second reason… Arcane is naturally resistant to well mana bombs, with enchantments, shields, and engraving it should even be possible to prevent any future bombings, at least to a certain tier.
It’s slow going, but progress is definitely being made.
The entire city’s framework has already been laid out, starting at the original blast point of the bombs, before stretching outward.
Critical resources, infrastructure being set in the center, mostly, things like necromancers, key materializers, and workshops, after all it’s not like the dead need much, but there is one other notable thing, being built with my help.
A fairly massive ritual circle, in the middle of it all, granted I didn’t actually build this circle.
My role was mostly just helping the engravers we raised with the basic design, before they expanded on it, and turned a ritual that was maybe a few feet into this monstrosity.
A perfect circle a hundred feet in circumference, filled with odd sigils, engraved onto the arcane crystal, and pulsing with black flames.
While in the center of the circle there’s a pit that’s about twenty feet wide, fairly deep, and covered in the same sigils.
With a black flame constantly burning in the middle of it all, consuming any material thrown into it, and spitting out pure mana into channels connected to the surrounding infrastructure.
Currently at a loss, a rather significant one at that, like seventy percent of the mana cost we would need to materialize those materials currently just being lost to the void, but using the materials for something is always going to be better than just having them sit around, or at least that’s what Veronica said to a manager who looked like they were on the brink of exploding.
The rest of the city is being built around a rather simple idea, every two miles there is a wall, which separates the other four sections.
Resulting in a grand total of five sections the core, shops, residential, more residential along with some warehouses, and then the prison along with any martial training.
A solid ten miles of city growing from the ground already completely designed, and inching from the ground with every pulse of mana.
One section though, well more like half a section is completely built, the walls of the prison, and the outside walls with little help from the humans, who despite numbering in the hundreds have barely paid a couple of thousand mana.
Most of their mana either not being used in an act of defiance or more likely used to make their prison more comfortable, given the zone quickly filled with ramshackle stone shacks, and other buildings.
Their mana isn’t needed though, particularly with Vie having a bit of a change of heart.
She alone raised thousands of undead, almost entirely arcane mages, given she hasn’t gone completely selfless, and wouldn’t really have a use for that many necromancers, but will always have a use for mages when she builds her tower.
The location of which is still pending, and will depend entirely on how effective the arcane crystal ends up being.
Tides, along with the legion of necromancers meanwhile are mostly focused on replacing what was lost, all of the crafters, builders, those with random classes, and every combat focused undead expect for the ghosts, along with a few of the higher leveled undead who had skills, which allowed them to survive.
I on the other hand am torn, my mana could be used to help raise more undead, fuel the walls, or refine materials, but it’s starting to feel like I’m stuck in place.
I have gone from one situation, after another where my life has been held in the palms of others, and something needs to change.
I need to progress! but so many of my abilities are nowhere close to reaching their milestones, and I don’t even have a profession yet.
The question just is what abilities do I care about maxing, and if there’s perhaps a profession, which can help push me along my path?
Notifications
Experience Earned
Class: Ah, surviving your first bombing, something so many necromancers fail to do, so distracted with the idea of building an unstoppable horde or an impenetrable fortress that they forget one of the most basic truths in existence… when someone wants you dead there isn’t much they won’t do, but maybe this experience will manage to teach you something you’ll never forget.
Combat: Things are heating up, some might even call them explosive, you get it?
Because of the whole you know… Well someone’s a sour puss, regardless your?
Horde has been an unstoppable force destroying all those who dared stand in their way.
At least, until they met a more powerful force, which blasted most of them away.
Hey man if you can’t laugh at yourself, what can you laugh at?
Level up +5
Health Restored
Mana Restored
Stamina Restored
Attributes Increased
Intelligence +1
Wisdom +5 (Level ups)
Spells Leveled Up
Raise The Dead +5
Mana Manipulation +3
Skill Gained
Engraving
Skills Leveled Up
Anatomy of The Risen +2
Analyze +2
Commander +10
Engraving +2
Forbidden Knowledge +2
Meditation +2
Pain Resistance +1
Milestones
Anatomy of The Risen – Construction
Commander – Minion
Engraving – As many builders of furniture have discovered, simply having instructions doesn’t actually allow one to build something, even if the instructions are quite clear, and come with helpfully little diagrams.
Somehow, so many manage to mess that up, and that’s for furniture, engraving on the other hand is more akin to art!
One that directs pure power into doing things that that it otherwise wouldn’t, a slightly more explosive activity.
Milestone Reached
Anatomy of The Risen has unlocked the level ten construction pathway choice (Warning! Pathways impact all branches of their related abilities, and this choice will be the first step in determining how all construction pathway abilities grow, after all, pathways are a lifestyle, and not an arbitrary choice!)
I See You – Everything you see tells a story, the way a tree rises or sways with the wind revealing details of what makes them who or what they are, and this milestone will help you connect the dots.
You will now gain insight from everything you see or study, but how much can one understand, without seeing what’s hidden away or gain from studying something, which is broken?
(Class Exclusive)
Know, What You Kill – Any foe you or your minions slay you’ll now be able to recreate, a blue print, an understanding of their anatomy entering your mind.
So kill a god?
Congratulations, you know now how to make one, but slaying perfection can be such a daunting task, yet surely easier than creating it.
(Class Exclusive)
Evolve For Me – Perfection surely is a goal, but why exactly should it be your job to drag your constructs to this finish line, when everything you create is capable of gaining a will of their own.
This milestone puts the ball in their court, making it more likely for them to mutate, and becoming something different than what you set out to create.
Only one choice can be made, what shall it be?
(Note the only way you can currently change this decision is by resetting or changing your class)
Milestone Capstone Reached!
Legion – Understanding, and empowering these are the two core traits you have chosen for your skill, giving rise to something more.
A force connecting all those who fall under you banner, an energy, which won’t allow any of your minions to permanently fall if they stand within a hundred feet of you.
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Finally a powerful ability, level fifty really seems to have an impact, even if they or at least commander will no longer level.
Still undying minions will certainly be interesting, but in practice how exactly is it going to work, and as for the other milestone?
This is a tough one, I see you, seeming to be a natural progression of my ability to learn, by allowing it to grow through observation, while the other two are powerful in their own rights like being able to kill something, and then perfectly recreate it is interesting potentially even allowing me leap frog my abilities, while randomness, could lead me to creating things I wouldn’t even have imagined… but what to choose?
“Ughh” Then again, with earth still being so new to the system, what are the odds that I’d even be able to find anything truly unique here?
And with my attributes growing over time, hopefully increasing my ability to observe, one option makes it possible for me to always learn from things, even if I’m unable to kill them, making it inherently better.
Well, assuming I don’t manage to accidentally kill something unimaginable anytime soon.
I see you is chosen, before with disappointment I’m scrolling through the rest of my abilities, with so many still so lacking, even if some of them are making progress.
“Is there any profession that could tie all of these together?” Like, maybe producing materials, which I’ll have to do anyway, in order to tier up, but is that what my profession should be, for my class to be, simply something that produces beings who are sort of aligned with my interest, but ultimately don’t need me…
Necromancer – The masters of dark magic, of the undead, and of most, if not all of the things that go bump in the night!
This class, to the surprise of no one, isn’t filled with sunshine or rainbows, but what may be a bit unexpected, is that even among the dark, necromancers are highly frowned upon.
A result of well, you know, how they typically go around desecrating the dead, raising armies made up of people’s loved ones, and just generally thirst for power!
Although, like any power or class, what one chooses to do, determines who they are, but even in stories necromancers are rarely anything close to heroic or even halfway decent, and reality is far darker than fiction could ever be…
Of course, my class still paints me as some power hungry villain, then again in some ways I’m responsible for all of this death, and destruction.
“Ughh, focus.” crafting, enchanting, producing materials or how about something related to souls?
The very thing that makes my class what it is, yet only like two of my spells related are really to it.
“Hmm, I could go for something like soul shaper, but” It once again circles back to how can my class empower myself?
Leaving truly endless options, but given, the ability to manipulate souls is already tied to my class, what if my profession deepened that connection?
After all, why simply raise random souls, when I could instead craft with them or potentially even allow me to extend myself.
Much like how a lich can create a phylactery, which is something that will also be possible with soul shaping, but why don’t I shape parts of myself to fulfill my need for minions, given, one can’t really take advantage of themselves.
(P) Soul Smith – To be a craftsman, is to give life to something raw, and shape it into a new refined form, but what can the very essence of life become?
I guess you’re going to find out, if this is truly the profession you desire Confirm/Reject (Professions can only be chosen once, and reset every fifty years)
New Spell
Soul Shape – This was a choice, then again at like a million credit bounty already, what more do you have to lose?
Well, just to be clear, if the gods didn’t already want you dead, now they would, but since they did, now they really, really want you dead 🙂 Creating, fusing, and shaping souls is purely in the domain of Gods.
Well, along with a few foolish mortals who really don’t seem to value their own lives.
I wonder exactly how long you’ll manage to survive, before they end you, and just what you might be able to uncover before then.
“Hmm, no bounty increase? That’s a surprise even if the rest isn’t.”
Soul Shape
Light bursts into existence around me, and the undead become shining beacons of pale white light.
Then my gaze falls on the piles of materials, well more a mountain of gray ash gathered together in massive wreaking sized balls, but the interesting thing is that each of them is glowing.
The light is faint, but filled with swirling specks of dust, each one a small light drifting around the balls, and slowly growing brighter.
“I guess that’s how materials come to life.” Some of the undead turn at me once again talking to myself, but quickly ignore me once I’m closer to the materials.
Soul Shape naturally seems related to soul drain, but what can I do with it?
My mana pulls on the light, and it slowly pools into my hand, becoming a pulsing glowing orb, but leaving a faint black mist surrounding the piles.
A mist that’s slowly being filled by new specks of light, but now more looking like an empty void that’s slowly being filled.
Raw Soul Essence – Unrefined, and lacking direction this essence is a long way from forming into a soul, but it has begun the journey.
“Not exactly telling me a whole lot here.” My eyes then begin to follow the undead, who are glowing bonfires of light, but can feel them narrowing their fiery eyes at me, and remember the screams of pain a ghost made the last time I used soul drain.
“Well… at the very least this will probably be a very direct method to raise my pain resistance.” I mutter to myself, before reaching for my own soul, and tearing off a piece of light.
Pain, throbbing pain, it feels like someone has smashed my head in with a sludge hammer, my vision is shaking, my ears are ringing, and I even stumble off my feet.
Soul Drain
The raw essence sinks into my body, taking the worst of the pain with it, but still leaving me with a migraine, and a grape sized black orb floating in my hand.
Soul Essence of Morthes – A slice of the soul of a tier one necromancer, who is a soul smith, and among other things, is wanted dead by a number of gods.
Huh, summed up in basically three things, my class, profession, and angry gods… that seems a bit I don’t know lackluster.
My life is so much more than just these past couple of weeks, then again it is just a slice of my soul, and maybe these are the most shallow things about me?
More importantly, what to do with you?
Raise The Dead, Ghost Morthes (EC 75)
Mana pools into the orb, before it explodes in a spray of black mist, and when it condenses, it’s like I’m staring into a mirror.
A transparent one, made of a light black mist, but it’s me, and there is a black line connecting its core to mine.
Tier One Shade of Morthes – Shadows, extensions, common names for shades who are pieces of some greater whole.
In this case Thomas Desmond, at the lowest level they’re merely parts of a greater whole, but at their full potential they can become shells or something the conscious mind can switch into at will.
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31
The light of the shade is just as full as all of the skeletons, but mine is looking a whole lot like the pile of materials.
A bite mark, a gap in the light slowly being filled by motes, and I’m missing a chunk out of all my resources.
Ending up in what I suspect to be my new minion, who tilts their head at me, before moving over to the pile of materials.
Black mana pours out of its body, quickly materializing into grains of bone dust, before they begin meditating.
“Hmm” I then move over to more of the piles using soul drain, causing the pain to once again diminish, and I once again tear at my soul.
Mana 180/540
Another thirty disappears across the board, while I once again fall over in pain, lost in a wave of nauseousness, and the whole world spins.
Meanwhile, my newest twin completely ignores me, while proceeding to summon red crystalized blood, before joining its twin in meditation.
I lay on the ground, watching the dust slowly stream into me, dust mostly swirling from the air around me, but two slow, constant streams are constantly flowing into my body, and after around a half an hour passes by, a bright light looms over me.
“Having fun with your new friends?” Veronica says while examining my shades “Ugh.” “What even are they?” She then begins poking me with her shoe, the black boot feeling like ice being pressed directly against my skin, and I glare up at her.
“They’re me, shades made from soul magic!” She then looks at the piles of materials they’re materializing.
“Interesting, that’s certainly one way to multitask, do your abilities go up from whatever actions they take?”
Notifications
Experience Earned
Class: Soul magic, now that’s some dangerous stuff, and the true heart of your class, even if, for some reason people seem to associate it with death.
Profession: Splitting your soul to make more of yourself, conceited much?
Then again you’re also chopping up your own soul like some kind of masochist, and then making stuff out of the bits, which is certainly a rather unique crating method.
Spells Leveled Up
Bone Manipulation +1
Blood Manipulation +1
Soul Drain +1
Soul Shape +1
Skills Leveled Up
Pain Resistance +1
“Looks like it, but making them isn’t anything close to what one would call pleasant.” She hmms, before turning “Bradley, weren’t you just saying how you wish there was some way for you to be at more places than once?” A draugr, thumps into view, and words endlessly flow out of his mouth in a high pitched masculine tone.
“What did he mean by isn’t anything close to a good time? Does it hurt? I am really not a fan of pain, and while it would be nice to be in more places than one I’m really not sure-” I can practically feel Veronica’s eyes growing heavier with every word, and each word feels like he’s driving a pick directly into my brain.
Veronica finally interrupts him “Why don’t you just give it a try, isn’t potentially building two buildings at once worth a little risk?” Bradley pauses for a moment “Yes, but you see there is only so much I-” You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Soul Shape
He freezes, his eyes locking on a status screen, before muttering “I consent.” and then his eyes bulge.
His hands turn into fists, the black veins pulsing beneath his skin, as he releases a gut wrenching moan, and he falls to his knees.
His eyes roll to the back of his head, before he passes out, and completely collapses to the floor.
We both stare at him, before she turns to me with an expected look, and embarrassment rushes through my body.
“Oh yeah, that’s right… I have pain resistance.” A silver orb floats to me, and Veronica looks at it with tribulation.
“I think I’ll gain pain resistance, before personally giving it a go, but let’s see if it was worth it.” Raise The Dead, Ghost Bradley (EC 75)
The silver orb liquifies as the mana swirls inside of it, before into a mist that quickly condenses into Bradley, just a ghostly version of the draugr.
The ghost looks at the three of us, before making a judgemental huh sound, before stopping off towards the walls.
Veronica waves at one of the skeletons who stops whatever they were doing, and picks up Bradley.
“I’m going to see how effective the new Bradley is, but we really should talk about the prison when you have a chance.” “Yeah, just let me make a couple of more shades, but really you could do whatever you want.” She nods, “Maybe, but perspective is never a bad thing, and so many want nothing more than the death of every single last one of them.” To which, I don’t really have a whole lot to say to, and she wanders off as I begin meditating.
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The new Bradley is interesting, focused, intense, not endlessly talking her ear off… possibly even an improvement or at least that’s what Veronica thought, until they got to the build site of their new core keep.
A building specifically designed to deflect rather than absorb, and filled with sharp angles that’ll make it difficult to even determine how many rooms it has, more importantly it also currently has a bunch of undead standing around it not doing a whole lot, and that’s when Bradly explodes.
“AND WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE ALL DOING GET TO WORK YOU LAZY SACK OF BONES. I SWEAR IF IT WAS UP TO ME I’D THROW SOME OF YOU INTO THE FOUNDATION TO TEACH YOU LOT WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE WHO LAZE AROUND!”
He keeps shouting for a solid ten minutes, without taking a breath or hesitating a moment, giving Veronica who frankly stayed just to see how long they would keep going, a massive head ache, but once the workers had the life scared out of them, and are working their little hearts out.
The shade once again goes completely silent, forcing her to consider once again if this shade is actually better than Bradley, and making her wonder how exactly her own shade would act?
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Vie, watches her army, her fierce tier one draugr army of more than a thousand mages!
All sitting on the ground meditating… not exactly the fiercest image, particularly given most of them are pretty much naked, but hey Rome wasn’t built in a day, and clothes cost mana!
“Bone certainly is a very distinct material, but there is no need to rush to a choice, given we aren’t building the tower any time soon, and there are so many different options you can choose from.” Vie’s eyes narrow at her architect (why exactly did I make you again) “Bone, the outer shell of the tower is to be made of bone, and the core is to be made of arcane crystal!” The ghost’s eyes cringe together as if they’re in pain.
“Certainly a respectful choice, they are grand materials, even if… there are alternatives, which could provide more benefits with less of a mana investment.”
A glowing blue spike of mana begins to form in Vie’s palm, and sweat starts to drip down the ghost’s forehead.
“But I of course will begin working on models of your tower right away.” Vie rolls her eyes, before launching the spike into the sky, where it bursts like a little fire work, when there is a flash of light, and a confused Sarah appears.
“Looks like you all have been doing some remodeling?” Vie stares at Sarah, before snorting “Remodeling? The prancing little elf runs off to god know where, and when she comes back? She thinks we have been remodeling! Can’t you see the death in the air!” The last word comes out as a hiss, and in an instant Vie is a inch away from one of Sarah’s eyes staring directly into it.
Sarah squints at Vie, as a wave of mana pushes Vie out of the way causing her to windmill in the air.
She then looks around the area, noticing the crystal floors, the perfect circle, and a frown grows across her face.
“You were bombed, that shouldn’t have happened…” Vie buzzes in the air a few feet away from Sarah “Well it did!” Sarah shifts uncomfortably, unease sinking through her body for a moment.
“But, you survived, and this shouldn’t happen again, although” She then takes a closer look at the one completed wall currently being engraved.
“With the precautions you’re taking it shouldn’t even be an issue if it did.”
Vie scoffs “And no thanks to you, and where were you oh grand protector, when I almost died!” “I was ensuring that no weapons like this could be purchased, but it looks like my efforts were a little too late.” Annoyance grows across Sarah’s face, before she sighs “And it looks like my bar didn’t make it.” She then turns to Vie who instantly scoffs at her “I’m sure there’s a necromancer around here who has a bit of mana to spare.”
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Tides is in a chamber filled with materials, water, stone, blood, bone, flesh, bits of metal, and anything else he could get his hands on.
He’s crafting the undead, mixing flesh with stone, creating elementals, undead like the world has NEVER seen, and never would naturally be created, but when has nature ever gotten anything right?
When!
A dark shadow engulfs him whole.
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Tier Zero Water – The starting point of life for many species, yet something which not only has taken countless lives, is also literally a poison to many species across the multiverse.
Never forget the very thing that could save you, could also be the very one to take your or someone else’s life.
“Five, there are five mages left capable of summoning water or ice.” The circle mutters “Well the mages are some of the first they targeted, and as for food?
We don’t really have a way to gather any, and even if we scrap together every bit of crystal on the ground it won’t be enough to feed all of us for very long.
Maybe, months with extreme rationing, but there’s no way for us to last the years it would take for everyone to generate the required mana.” “So we fight then?
I mean there really aren’t any other options, are there?” Carter grimaces, before speaking to the gathered crowd “Realistically that’s also not an option, we are trapped in a box, almost all of our possessions were stripped from us, and now weapons have even disappeared from the system store…”
Countless people check the store, before people once again start shouting “We have to find some way to escape!” “There has to be something we can do!” We need help!” Carter waves the crowd down “We certainly will do everything possible to get a message out for help, but unless all of you want to starve… we might need to pool all of our credits.” Shouting, and just pure noise fill the chamber, until a woman, Olivia tilts her head, before her voice is amplified “We’ll probably have to work out a deal with the undead, probably something like for every hundred mana we receive a pound of food.”
Carter’s face starts to turn red, but before he responds, someone else in the crowd does.
“That’s ridiculous, we’re prisoners, it’s their responsibility to feed us, particularly if they ever want to get any mana out of us.
I say, if they won’t feed us we will break parts of their wall off, and use it to buy food!” Someone else laughs, before mockingly shouting “Oh yeah just start breaking pieces off of the wall they built around us, there’s no way that will end badly.” “Shut up, it’s not like we really have a choice!”
The two keep going, back and fourth, at this point seeming to argue for the sake of arguing, until Carter shouts “Enough! We have enough food, and water for a couple of days, but in the meantime we will try to get in contact with anyone who can help us, and for the love of God don’t waste any credits that any of you do have, does everyone agree with that?” The crowd mummers, before wandering off into separate groups, as new factions begin to form within the prison.
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Five shades, blood, bone, mana, flesh, and soul that cost me a grand total of one fifty points across my attributes.
A number that seems small, if only each shade didn’t potentially permanently strip away my resources, leaving me drained with only sixty stamina, but five spells constantly leveling.
Allowing me to constantly produce materials, but in the case of souls, for whatever reason it’s not able to be converted into mana directly, merely manipulated by it.
So instead I instruct that shade to wander around the city, and talk to whoever they can, while gathering raw soul from the piles of materials, and surprisingly enough from the walls themselves.
An instruction, which had an interesting result, first my shade glared at me, but then the damn thing actually spoke, it said “Fine!” in a clearly unhappy tone, and sent my heart into my throat.
Shades, certainly are a bit more than I expected, and maybe starting with just one or two of them would have been a better idea, but hey, the more of them there are the faster I’ll find out things.
Like, if my shades are also capable of raising my attributes, or if they’ll try to murder, and replace me… Either way, at least one of them is needed to wander around, and gather soul dust, because I sure as hell wouldn’t be doing it.
Not when there are still so many other ways to spend my time, like normalizing all of my ability levels, and then there’s all the working out I’ve been doing…
Sixty stamina isn’t exactly a lot, in fact it’s around less than half of what I had before the system showed up, and the only way to change that is by grinding the attributes.
Something, I’m not quite in a rush to do with my constitution, but with my health pretty much being cut in half too, it’s going to have to join the list.
I’m sure there’s some way to do it that won’t involve too much pain, although that skill really needs to level too.
“Ugh”
One benefit?
Though, of my stamina being so low, is how it only takes like twenty pushups, before I’m out of breath, and back to meditating, at least until my stamina or mana is full.
The cycle endlessly repeats itself as the sky slowly fades from the sky, and leaves the forming city glowing in an otherwise pitch black night.
____________________________________________
“Unhand me you fiend!
I’ve already made you five necromancers who will make whatever you want, and there is work to be done!
Materials to research!” Sarah stares into Tide’s eyes, before dropping him on the ground “So many of you are so lippy, it’s refreshing in a way, but not something all of you should get used to.
If those bombs taught you anything it should be that your entire world can come crumbling down in an instant.” He pulls himself to his feet “Why do you think I want to get back to work?
Not all of us are filled with power or” He narrows his eyes at Sarah “Or belong to some faction?
Who exactly are you again, oh wait.
I don’t care!” He then nods to the necromancers a couple of skeletons, he raised “Do as she asks” before grumbling “Hopefully you lot will be enough to keep her out of my way.”
He then stumbles outside a fancy looking house?
One, which doesn’t radiate a single ounce of mana, but for some reason also doesn’t feel like mundane materials.
Odd, but that pretty much sums Sarah up in a word, regardless Tides is rapidly looking around trying to figure out where the hell he is because for some odd reason plain glowing crystal walls aren’t actually the best inductors for direction.
Eventually he just picks a path, and begins to walk with it, only taking about an hour to find his way back to the material piles he was abducted from.
____________________________________________
Sarah stares at her new minions, a couple of necromancers that will do anything she tells them to.
The only question being what does she want, well other than to not be here, but as much as it pains her to admit… maybe this bit of responsibility will actually be good for her.
When it’s only been a couple of days yet, already the dungeon core has almost died on a bloody tier three world of all places?!?!
A dungeon, which not only has a dungeon fairy, but is starting off at tier one with spatial items, its potential is massive, and all she has to do is guard it.
Why is that such an impossible task?
Why can’t she just sit still, particularly when, if she failed… “I can’t even imagine what they would have made me do to make up for it!” Hell’s, they might have made me keep making dungeon cores, until either I made enough credits to buy a comparable dungeon, or got lucky enough to make my own fairy, and then probably forced me to give up my own bag.
“And there’s no way that I’m going to become a mana battery for years.”
Somehow it’s even made all so much worse by the fact that she doesn’t even have anyone breathing down my neck.
Success, and failure hanging by my own neck.
“Which means I have to make sure the core is safe no matter what.” Sarah stretches on her coach, before once again staring at her undead “What I want is for you five to make me a new bartender, and then… I want you to raise a mythic grade spatial mage, in this circle.” Sarah points to a chamber that well rather looks like a prison cell “And…” an annoyed expression grows across Sarah’s face “You’ll actually manage to accomplish this task, by drawing mana from my house. Whenever you run out of mana, touch this panel, and then keep going.”
The two necromancers nod, before in moments a draugr in a suit, and tie is materialized into Sarah’s lounge.
They stand there motionless for a moment, before sliding behind the bar, and raising their eye brow at Sarah.
She simply nods at a bottle, this time actually the good stuff, and not just because it actually affects her.
A bit of pouring later, a glass finds its way into Sarah’s hands, and it tastes like perfection, the perfect day in glass, and it makes all of her worries seem oh so far away, but they’re still there hanging off on the edges of her mind.
Sarah then pulls up the log for her house, and it already shows thousands of mana being taken by the undead.”They’ll probably be finished tomorrow, and then I’ll go around, and grab any concentrations of mana that look like they could be a threat, but everything should be fine.” With those words a bit of peace actually manages to worm its way into Sarah’s mind, and she begins to drift away into the sweet bliss of meditation, as the bartender calmly begins to polish the glasses. https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0ntD!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe0f052d9-8883-4448-96e0-a045c86badde_681x788.jpeghttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-rKy!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faf5f91f6-b86d-4f1a-a458-8565b50ff798_679x562.jpeghttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BHIv!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7a9b017f-ccd7-4216-aa2a-b70584e83281_699x140.jpeghttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!aVQf!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F26793c28-3b46-4977-9cde-4a03f71a78ca_690x996.jpeghttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-S9q!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F56d382b4-451d-4cdb-bc32-38efad0ee13d_696x323.jpeg
Due to formating issues this story doesn’t quite look the way it’s supposed to 0_o and you can read an updated version on Kobo, or other platforms. https://litrpgandpolitics.wordpress.com The story is also at around chapter 60 with around 400,000 words, and will posted once per day, until it’s caught up.
Then it will either be weekly, or twice a week, with that being said, I still welcome any feedback, after all I’m still editing everything 0_0 and different perspectives can so often help one see the things we take for granted.
Thanks for reading, and I hope that you have a great day!