Revenge of the Sorcerer King 18

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Chapter 18

Oberon POV

“So? Where is Mercy?” I asked, the flames of my eyes flaring.

“In the Wandering Dungeon,” Siateth answered with a shrug. 

“That thing is still alive?” I asked with a chuckle.

“Alive. Well. Its been a thousand years since you last delved into it. It is much stronger now,” he said with a dead pan voice. 

“I thought dungeons could only get to a certain level before they are culled by the gods?” I asked tilting my head. That was one of the facts of life. No dungeon was allowed to become too powerful. They were devourers of realms after all. 

Siateth stared at me for a long moment, no doubt wondering whether or not he should tell me what happened. I guess his long-term goal won out because he sighed and started to explain. 

“He ate one of the gods sent to cull him.”

“He ate… a god!?” I asked jerking forward in my throne. 

“Goddess, actually. Aethera was the one sent in,” Saiteth said. 

“So is she trapped in the dungeon or…” I said letting the sentence hang in the air. 

Siateth shook his head. “She is dead. Absorbed into the dungeon. It is now one of the most dangerous places on the continent,” he said. 

“That doesn’t really help your case you know,” I said with a sigh. 

“A God should be honest with his people,” Siateth said with a wave of his hand. 

“Do you know where the Wandering Dungeon is then?” I asked. 

Siateth held up a finger. I noticed that the golden flecks receeding from the green flames that made up Sam’s eyes. “You know the deal Master Oberon,” Siateth said his voice fading but the hint of humor still very much present. 

Finally, the gold vanished completely, and the flames went out from Sam’s skull. He collapsed forward landing in a pile on the ground. Alessa rushed over to check him but given that he was an undead skeleton she really didn’t know how to help in any way. 

“He’ll be fine. He was host to a god for a rather long period of time. The magic holding him together will just need some time to correct itself,” I said to reassure Alessa. 

“What do we do?” she asked moving over to me though she still threw glances at Sam.

“The overall goal hasn’t changed. First on the list to liberate your mother from that Lord. The thought that one of my family is being held against their will annoys me. You said that the lands of this lord are close to here?” I asked standing from the throne and heading towards the Fortress core. 

One of the functions of the core was to project a map of the area for the controller to use to manage their territory. The bonus was that it recorded everywhere any inhabitants of the core went or have gone before. I hoped that it would show everywhere the undead went even before their untimely demise but even if it was just as undead it would be a good chunk of the undead. 

“I’m not completely sure. I never really had a chance to look at a map,” Alessa said with a sigh. 

“No worries child. If need be we can just burn each kingdom until we find the right one.” 

“Is it me or are you getting more bloodthirsty?” Alessa asked in a small voice. 

I paused mid-step and looked at her. I considered what she said for several moments before I started walking again. If I thought about it logically then I was more bloodthirsty than I was when I was human. Of course, I factored in the fact I was an undead and had a hated for the living, but I found that I didn’t actually care about that. Maybe it was the fact that after my ‘death’ the world fell so far. I know I wanted revenge against Lucifer and the ones that followed him but most of those people aren’t even alive anymore. A big part of it was the treatment my family received after my death. 

“Well… there are various reasons,” I said finally. 

“Alright.” 

Once we got to the core room, I pulled up the map of the area. While large areas were grey towards the outer edges, there was a significant amount shown. I was surprised when a large area to the east was shown. Then I remembered one person I was writing off. 

“You traveled quite a bit while you were on the run,” I commented looking at her. 

Alessa jumped when I spoke then nodded. “Yes. No place was really safe. Rather than build bonds I moved once I started to get comfortable in an area. It was a close friend of my mother’s that betrayed her,” Alessa said staring at her hands. 

“Really… That is unfortunate,” I said turning back to the map. “Where is your mother located then?” 

Gesturing I was able to focus the map over the areas that Alessa came from. I was impressed with how friendly the system was to its users. I could even leave markers for places that interested me. If the Lords were able to use their city and fortress cores like this then I could see wars being very dangerous. It would also explain why Adventurers were no longer allowed t crush borders as easily. 

Alessa moved over to the map and studied it for a while. I let her take her time as I would rather her have a good understanding before her giving me the location. After maybe twenty minutes she pointed to a large section of land that border the greyed-out parts. 

“I pretty sure its this area. It belongs to Lord Frinz. He calls himself a… collector,” Alessa growled. 

I considered the map. Frinz’s territory bordered the desert, and it looked like there were a few towns between us and his city. It would be difficult to attack such a location right away, but the thought of leaving one of my own to the clutches of such as person made my nonexistent blood boil. 

If we moved during night fall we could make it without much trouble. A small force led by myself and Alessa could penetrate deep into a foreign land. My only concern was if I used the undead if we got near a village, it would take a lot to force the undead to resist the urge to kill the living. 

“Alessa. How about we go make some more pets,” I said turning a bony grin to her. 

Alessa POV~~~

I tilted my head at the statement then understood where Oberon was going with the idea. It was easy to tell that undead would be hard to smuggle into areas where large number of living people were. But if we used the ghouls, I had total control over them, and they didn’t hunger for human flesh. It was a brilliant idea. 

“I would love to. I was just getting hungry anyways,” I said with a wicked grin that exposed my fangs. 

“We have a small force, now we just need to figure out a way to hide out true nature. You’ll be easy enough, but me,” Oberon said with a gesture to himself. 

“How about a suit of armor? Even if we don’t have one here I could go into town and buy one while you waited outside,” I suggested. 

Oberon tapped his chin before his eye flames flickered. “We do have a suit of armor. Three of them actually,” he said with humor in his voice.

“The golems?” I asked surprised. 

“Indeed. You can use Vaunn, she will not only protect you but keep the regular rift raft off you. I’m not sure if you’ve seen yourself recently, but you are quite the beauty and I’m sure plenty would want to capture you for that reason alone,” Oberon said waving the screens away. 

We made our way out of the core room heading back to the throne. “Will you be alright? You haven’t been around a lot of living other than the fairies,” I asked concerned something might happen. 

“It will be fine, and if not… The burning will just start a little early,” Oberon said waving it off. “This is good. We can take those idiots back to the town they hailed from and have them fabricate a story about the city. We need something dangerous to explain the deaths, but not something worth taking or killing like a dungeon,” Oberon said. We reached the throne room and he took his normal seat in the throne. 

A monster that was dangerous enough to wipe an entire C- Rank expedition but not wroth sending higher level adventurers after. There were several monsters I could think of for the forest and mountian areas, but the desert was rather bare on monsters that weren’t sought after for one reason or another. Glancing at Oberon, an idea struck me. 

“A death knight,” I suggested.

“I would think those would be hunted for safety reasons?” Oberon asked. 

“Normally, but it would be in the middle of the desert. The only usable thing off a death knight is his armor, and even then, it’s a fifty-fifty chance of only getting slightly cursed armor,” I said remembering the stories I heard from passing adventurers. 

“Alright! Sounds good enough to me. Even if some idiots come out here, there will only be an army of undead waiting for them,” Oberon said chuckling then breaking into laughter. I couldn’t help but join in at the thought of people walking into their deaths. 

“When should we leave? The sooner the better,” I asked looking at the rising sun. It had been an eventful night. Its not every day you get to talk to a good and plan a raid on a Lord’s home city. I wasn’t sure if I should be worried that I was excited. I wasn’t sure about the future, but Lord Frinz is one person I refuse to let live longer than I had to. 

“Tomorrow night. As you said, the sooner the better. Let’s call Vaunn and Grodo in here to make sure they fit,” Oberon said his flaming eyes withering madly.