Revenge of the Sorcerer King 2 - 21

Happy Thursday everyone! Hope the week is treating everyone well. 

Chapter 21

Alessa

I awoke and nearly put a hole in the wall as I slammed my hand against. Looking around, I realized I was in my room near the throne room. Sitting up, the blanket fell off and I realized I was naked. Not that I minded as much nowadays. My body was a literal work of art if you asked some of the girls.

I grabbed the shirt from the side table and got up. The last thing I remembered was getting angrier than I had in my life. Sighing I looked around for some trousers but only found a dress. One of the fairies likely brought it trying to get me to dress like a lady.

With another sigh, I donned my underwear then channeled some mana to form my blood armor. With a bit of control, the density changed to be darker. My head hurt like someone had beat it with a Warhammer, but some blood made it fade a bit. I really wanted some fresh blood and considered making a trip down to the cells.

Pushing the door to the room open, I found some fairies standing guard in the hall. Walking out, I looked for Vaunn before I remembered that she was guarding the dark elf. With a third sigh, I let the door close behind me and made my way to the throne room. Khaar might know where to find Helena.

The golem was sitting like usual in front of the throne. “Khaar. Do you know how long I was out?” I glanced behind me at the four fairies that were following me. “And why I am apparently under guard?”

“Lady Alessa. I am pleased to see you are well. They are a precaution incase you are unable to control yourself from transforming. Lady Helena suggested we place them just to make you mindful of the area around you.”

“I see. I suppose that would make me less likely to blow the joint up,” I mumbled before turning a tense smile towards Khaar. “Where would Lady Helena be?”

“She does not allow this one to track her location. If you want to find her, you will have to rely on yourself. I apologize for my short-comings,” Khaar said then bowed his head. 

“Its fine. I expected as much.” I waved him off then turned to leave the throne room. I closed my eyes and thought about Helena before I attempted to send my thoughts to her. I would find out if she heard me once she appeared. 

I made it about ten steps before a globe of shadow appeared and Helena walked out. “You rang?”

“Yeah. I was hoping we could talk about… how long was I out?” I forgot to get the answer from Khaar before I walked out. 

“Three days. Longest I’ve seen a vampire get knocked out, hibernation notwithstanding.”

Three days! Oberon still hasn’t returned from the dungeon? I figured even with a trap it would only hold him up for a day or two at most. Though the dungeon did claim to be max level. If that was the case, there was no telling what he was dealing with. 

“Did I miss anything?”

“All was quiet in the desert. I got a message from Oberon. The moron got himself stuck at the bottom level of the dungeon. The level difference is blocking their progression at the moment.”

“Does he know how long he’s going to be down there?”

“He gave me a week to several months. They haven’t seen the boss yet.”

I threw my hands up and moved to sit on the window seal of the hallway. “Great!”

We lapsed into silence as I twirled my thumbs. I remembered she was going to tell me about her history, but I didn’t know how to break the ice. I peeked at her a few times but couldn’t muster any words. She must have saw through me though, as she sighed and grabbed my hand before she led me to my room.

The others waited out in the hall as we took a seat on my bed. I gripped my hands but waited patiently. This was the first real thing I would be learning about her since she joined us. I only knew that she served Siateth and nothing else.

With an exasperated breath of air, she rubbed the back of her neck. “Where to start? I suppose to really make sense I need to start at the beginning.” Helena walked over to the window of my room and peered outside. “Just over five hundred years ago.”

Oberon

It has been close to a week since we arrived on this floor. As I expected the living armors only grew stronger the closer to the throne room we went. We were forced to work on the edges of the castle to try to gain strength as we dealt with the armors. They reset quickly if we left the armors and weapons alone allowing for some semblance of level grinding. 

Fortunately, the goblins searching the floor found sources of both water and food. We were rationing it among the members of the party that needed to eat, but it should last more than long enough. We could create water with magic, but it was nearly worthless on a nutritional level for the body. It would relieve thirst for a while at most but would quickly change back to mana.

I was looking forward to today. I should be reaching level one hundred and while I wasn’t sure on what basis I was basing this on, I felt something was going to happen. I suppose my deduction mainly came from the goblins. When they reached level one hundred, some of them became hobgoblins. Gobluke, for example, grew nearly a meter taller and was now the largest member of the party. 

“Is everyone ready to move?” I enquired before we set out and confirmation from everyone. I nodded and turned to head into the castle. 

We were still sticking to the main party as they were about the only ones that could survive a strike from one of the armors, but we had started including a few of the goblins in the party. I had trained a decent-sized mage force among the goblins. They didn’t have the best-sized mana pool to be solely a mage, but their pools were large enough to lend support, but in the future, they would be quite lethal battlemages. 

We moved for the left-wing. We’d managed to get through three hallways by this point and this side had the least number of mages. I had to thank Siateth that the armors didn’t learn or if they did, there was little they could do about it. I opened today’s battle with a Lightning Storm aimed at the one mage in the first group of armors.

The melee armors attempted to take the blow, but the lightning jumped from one to the next until it hit my target. Much like the first time, the mage armor exploded taking three other armors with it and putting a decent-sized hole in the passage. From there, it had turned into busywork. 

I was using my Destruction Ray to put down as many of the armors as I could, while the others used their various methods to weaken the armor. Irgire had his poison, Ted had adapted his necromancy and lightning into a sort of desecration spell. The armors had a harder time dealing with the mixed aspect nature of the spell.

The goblins did their part as well. Mainly with spells that slowed and hindered the approaching armors. Ice quite literally coated every surface after a few minutes of their spells flying down the hall. They would then throw a fireball after and the rapid heating of the frozen armor caused some damage as they burst. 

We were just finishing up with the first hall when I got a sending. I waved for everyone to pause while keeping an eye out. It wouldn’t be funny to be in the middle of a sending and be stabbed in the back with one of those swords. They were quite painful to me which I found after doing some tests back in camp.

I cleared my mind and allowed the person to connect to me. “Helena. What is it?”

“Just wanted to update you on the situation. Alessa has awoken. I’ve managed to keep her calm.” I sensed there was something she didn’t want me to know there but ignored it.

“Understood. I think it will still be a while for us down here.” I sent back a bit begrudgingly.

“I figured as much. About the other issue, I found her location. What do you want me to do?”

I slammed my fist in the wall causing a small crater to form from my anger. “Keep an eye on her for now. I still haven’t decided if I consider this a betrayal.”

There was silence for a moment before Helena replied. “Take it from me. Just because they carry your blood doesn’t mean they should get off easy.”

“You might be right. Still, I’m not sure it would do to order a hit on Alessa’s mother. At least right now. If the girl says something along those lines then do it, but I want it to be her own decision.”

“Yes, yes. Go back to your diving. The world isn’t going to burn on its own.”

I laughed before I broke the link. A bit of distance from the vampire has made want to rip her head off just a bit less. I would need to thank her for helping Alessa through her trying time. I had worried that something like this would happen, but alas my hope for the living was too high. I wouldn’t make the same mistake again with the rest of the family.

Shaking my head, I turned back to the party. “I’m finished. Let’s move.”

Eight hours, and two halls and a dining room later, I finally hit level one hundred, but I was still the lowest level among the party. At first, I thought nothing was going to happen when I suddenly felt like I had worms in my bones like when my body changed the first time. 

“Master?” Gobluke asked as I bent over.

I waved him back. “Protect the area. My body is changing.”

I wasn’t sure how long the process took, but I was aware that the party had to fight off some living armors. Whether it was some sort of patrol or just the room resetting, I couldn’t be sure. When the strange sensation finally faded, I was able to stand up. 

“Well, you certainly don’t look undead anymore,” Irgire said as I took a deep breath.

I created a water mirror and took a look. My face had returned to close to what it looked like as a mortal, only I still had no eyes. Green necromantic energy leaked from the sockets like before. I had gotten my hair back, but it was white and went down to the middle of my back. Necromantic energy allowed me to see my bones through my skin still, but I was almost back to a mortal norm.

I flexed my hand and could feel the strength flowing through me. I grinned at the overall improvement that level one hundred brought me. I felt more myself than I had since I’d returned from the dead. However, the change made me wonder if I was going to return to real life if I leveled up high enough and I honestly could say I didn’t want that.

“Let’s fall back for today. I want to test a few things before we continue.”

“On it!” Irgire turned to the wall and unleashed a poison breath. The wall quickly melted until a person could fit through it.

“I wish we could do that from the other side,” I commented as I stepped on the melted brick.

Irgire shrugged. “Take it up with the dungeon.”

He took flight and shoot out through the hole as I descended down the wall. It was considerably easy to climb the wall as the surface consisted of ill-aligned bricks that made for great handholds. I was maybe fifteen meters from the ground when I released my hold and fell the rest of the distance. Bending my knees, I landed with a small thud. I barely felt it.

The others joined me in their own fashion. Ted had the most trouble, but the goblins were helping him out. Physical activity wasn’t really his thing. I felt under normal circumstances, Ted would have made a great magic researcher where he would have stayed in a lab all day.

Once back in the camp, I separated from the others. I wanted to test this changed body and it would be better if the others around. Mainly for my own peace and quiet. Being around mortals for long periods of time caused the undead in me to… react and this was the best way to keep it under control.

The first thing I did was pull up my status. 

Name: Oberon Dark Phoenix

Age: N/A

Race: World Lich

Level: 100

[Necromancy Basic Magic Mastery: Expert] [Basic Magic Mastery] [Sword Mastery] [Rune Mastery: Partial Lock 37%] [Advanced Magic Mastery: Partial Lock 57%] [Contract Magic Mastery: Partial Lock 16%] [Space Magic Mastery: Partial Lock 23%] [State Craft: Master] [Tactics: Master] [Aura of Fear: Master] [Aura of Awe: Master] [Cartography: Expert] [Scroll Crafting: Master]

Followers: 10610

Sin: Error! World’s Curse! EXP gain reduced by 66.6%!

Curses: World’s Curse, Ancestral Curse, Undeath

Boons: Forgotten Knowledge

Enhancement: [Body + 1] [Mind + 1]

I had to whistle when I saw all my updated skill list. I rubbed my chin as I thought. Was there some sort of limit on the number of skills that a person could have a time? I had wondered why I hadn’t possessed some of these skills before. Like State Craft. I was a king of my own nation for near a decade even if I hadn’t united the world under my banner.

There wasn’t much I could do to find out. None of the people with me besides maybe Ted would know the answer and even if he did, it wouldn’t help me much. I chuckled at the absurdity of it though. How did one measure a person’s ability at states-craft? Did the country have to flourish?

Deciding to ignore it for now, I looked into the distance. “Flash.” I closed my eyes and reopened them, and I was standing where I had been looking a moment ago. Nearly two hundred meters away. I looked over to the cliff we had entered from. “Flash.”

Again, I found myself where I had been looking. Nodding at the success of the spell, I thought about the throne room and closed my eyes. “Teleport!” I felt my mana start to weave around me, but at the last moment chains from the ‘system’ caused the spell to fail. I groaned in annoyance before I kicked a loose rock. It shot across the cavern and collided with the wall gouging out a decent-sized hole. 

“Soon.” I used Flash to get back to camp and continued to test out a few more spells to make sure they worked correctly.