Revenge of the Sorcerer King 2-4

Hey Guys! been a crazy morning! I almost forgot to upload this morning. 

Chapter 4

Oberon

I was impressed. I don’t know how the little fellow managed it, but he’d turned this entire frontier town into an undead haunt. I knew they were mine as I could feel a link to them once we got closer. When I claimed them, I got bursts of exp that they’d accumulated since their change. It was a boon all around if you asked me.

I took a deep breath of the now tainted air. Looking around, I decided to leave the undead here. That would keep any adventurers or armies off my back for a few weeks. I was sure if the commander of the force was smart, they would search for the cause, but from what I gathered while we made our way through the Lordships. Undead were something that was often dealt with using a ten-foot pole.

After dealing with that we finished our journey. The desert was much the same. Monster still attacked, but I noticed there was a general upward trend to their levels. I guess when a strong force enters the environment, the local wild and monster life will have to adapt to the situation. It worked in my favor as I actually gained experience from these monsters.

A giant sand crab attempted to attack the caravan but was quickly overwhelmed by Alessa. She was becoming quite deadly with her frontal assault. She took off three of its legs in only a few seconds. The crab attempted to get away but she slammed her foot down on its shell and it stopped moving.

“Oberon. I think we should let some of the women deal some damage. That way they gain some levels.” She called over to me.

“I don’t care, just don’t do it too often. They won’t be able to control their new strength.”

Alessa turned to the wagons then pointed at a few of the women. I wasn’t sure if she did it at random or had a reason. Only one of them cried out, but she was quickly pushed by the others. That was a good move, as I nearly ended her life when she started to refuse.

The four women grabbed some of the spears that we’d gotten from the bandits. The crab attempted to struggle, but Alessa pressed down with her foot cracking its shell even more. It was already foaming at the mouth. One of the pincers shot out to strike a woman that had moved too close to the extremity. Alessa said a word and three magic missiles slammed into the pincer, pulazering it.

The woman looked to Alessa with thankful eyes before she charged spear point leading. The crude weapon sank into the crab’s head but didn’t kill it. She fell back as it started thrashing. With a flurry of sand, she scrambled backward. One after another, the women proceeded to stab the creature until it finally stopped moving. In total it took nearly two minutes. I felt bad for the creature by the end of it.

“Let’s get going,” I said turning to keep walking. “Grodo, unequip.” The living armor removed itself in mid-step then fell into stride next to me. “Head back ahead of us and tell your brother we’ll be back sometime tomorrow.” The armor nodded then took off at a much brisker pace. 

~~~

I decided to push the caravan through the night. I wanted to get back to the castle so I could really reassess my situation. The mortals were tired when we got back and dropped in the entrance way of the castle. I ordered Grodo and Vaunn to haul them off to rooms. With the baggae dealt with I headed to the throne room.

“Master! It is a pleasure to have you back!” Zriq said with a big grin on his face. Walking to the throne room, there were several fairies flying around taking care of various tasks.

“It is good to be back. I don’t plan on leaving for a few months if I can manage it,” I replied with a chuckle. I paused before I left the entrance, remembering something. “Amiere. I need to borrow some of your time later.”

“Of course. Just send for me.”

I nodded then turned to leave. In the throne room, Zhaar sat on the ground in front of the throne in a cross-legged position. A few of the magic screens were open around him. They closed as we entered the room.

“Welcome back, Master,” Zhaar said with a bow.

“Zhaar. You haven’t been sitting there the whole time we were gone have you? I said you could use the throne.”

“No. Sitting isn’t necessary. I didn’t feel I should use the master’s throne.”

“You’re overthinking it,” I said moving up the steps to the chair. When I sat, truly felt back in control, something I felt I was severely lacking on this trip. I took a deep breath then exhaled, miasma leaking from my mouth. “Now, tell me what’s happened while we were gone.”

~~~

“I see. We’ll have Alessa deal with the new mortals. She could use some fresh blood.”

“Understood. As for buildings. The barracks, warehouse, stable, armory, and smithy has been built. I took it upon myself to only use the bare minimum mana needed to create the structures. The mines have been producing a good amount of resources, which have been stockpiled in the warehouse. The core is sitting at fifteen percent mana.”

“Well done. The barracks. Are those usable?” I asked pulling up the map of the city to check where the buildings had been placed. They were in roughly the same place they were when the city was originally here. I couldn’t fault Khaar for doing as such.

Haven was in a multi-tiered walled line. There was the castle with about kilometer worth of land, the next wall got increasingly larger. The original city had ten layers that an army would have to fight through. Everything had been placed in the first wall near the castle. Only the smithy was placed in the third wall.

“The undead are able to train in them. If it is a low level undead starting from scratch, it can be heavily influenced in its growth. A level three skeleton that went in there right after it was created is currently level twenty with four skills.”

“Festinating. I’ll need to check it out later. Anything else to report?”

“Those two goblins brought back their clan. They are currently taking up the outer most southern district. I have made sure to get them to swear allegiance to you, Master, but… they are goblins.”

“I’ll deal with them in the morning. Are the undead and fairies getting along?”

“Yes. The undead do not mind the fairies and vice versa. The fairies appear unaffected by the miasma generated by the undead.”

“Yeah. Fairies are basically immune to all magic of that type. Anything ambient is just a smell to them.”

“Then that is the end of my report, Master.”

“Very good. I am pleased with how well you managed the castle while I was away. I’ll feel confident to do so again in the future.”

“Thank you. Master,” Khaar said with a bow.

“I don’t know if you can but enjoy some time off.”

“I will do so.” Khaar turned then walked out of the room. Finally alone, Zriq was off attending to something with his clan, I just enjoyed a moment of quiet without the thrumming that was at the back of my mind almost the entire trip. It was the urge to kill the living that were traveling with us. I didn’t realize how… strong the urge had gotten until I was finally away from them.

Rubbing the bridge of my nose, not that it helped, I pulled up the interface of the Fortress core. The core was at fifteen percent mana as Khaar had stated. Looking over the options that allowed me access to I wasn’t sure what I wanted to go through with. I could build three or four of the large buildings. I was sure Siateth would love if I constructed a temple to him in the city.

There were several zone options that I could take advantage of, such as housing and business. They didn’t have a set amount of mana that was required. When I tried to use the housing zone, the map moved to locations I could select. Going with the flow, I selected a section of the land. It gave me options and designs that I could use to build. I canceled the option and it closed.

Moving on in the menu, I found a list of spells I could perform over the territory claimed by the core. I saw several I could do on my own, but there some interesting ones I’d never thought to try. A territory healing spell that refreshed everyone declared an ally. With some thought I knew the core was certainly capable of covering that amount of land, but an individual trying to use magic on that scale would burn themselves out.

I pulled a book from my barely large than a meter space magic spell. I would need to send some time to go through all this information and make my decision. I’d rather not waste mana on something that won’t help me at the moment.