RSK 14

Hey Guys! I hope you’re all enjoying the weekend. Well, I normally split the chapter to where Oberon and Alessa have a POV each but Oberon’s part got too long. Lol. Anyway here you go!

Oberon POV~~~

I waved a group of five zombies forward. They were the weakest of the horde that I brought at only level fifty. They were barely able to keep pace with the horde. I wanted to test just how much the strength of the adventurers extends. If it curbed the horde of its weak then so be it. 

The five zombies stumbled over the sand dune and slowly towards the edge of light. I had chosen the weakest link. The guard for this stretch was quite obviously sleeping, but it a way that looked like he was awake to the others in his camp. I was going to laugh if the camp was breached by these five.

The zombies made it about half the way until another guard glanced towards the area. He shouted something and the man the zombies were shambling towards woke up. He yelled something in what appeared to be panic. I tilted my head. They were acting as if their boom is upon them. 

“Why are they acting like that?” I asked Alessa.

“Umm, undead are feared more than anything. Especially if they don’t have a priest or priestess of Yuin with them. Their the only ones that are really able to handle corpse poison,” Alessa answered. 

“Hmmm, this might not be as much fun as I’d hoped,” I sighed. 

I stood up and pulled Bringer out. If they were just going to freak out and panic, I wasn’t going to sit around and watch. I might as well gain some EXP. I looked back and waved, forty more undead, each more powerful than the next moved forward. The lowest was seventy-four, with the top being ninety-five. 

We marched over the dune just as the camp finally came around to dealing with the five, I sent before. They were doing their best to keep their distance. A mage was trying to use magic but was so frightened that she kept stuttering. A fireball flew towards the five from the center of the camp where a woman with a frown stood. 

“Must be the main party,” Alessa said from next to me. 

“Have the Revenant deal with them,” I said. 

By the time two of the five zombies had turned to ash we were coming up on the ring of light. The camp had organized itself and was dealing with the last three. From what I saw they were more than strong enough to deal with the undead, but their fear made it almost impossible without a strong leader. 

“Keep your distance! Use Spears! Don’t let them touch you,” a man inside the group was shouting. 

“No fucking kidding! We all know that!” the mage shouted. 

She was chanting a spell when a large arrow imbedded itself in her stomach, sending her flying a good two dozen meters. A stream of blood following her as the arrow dissipated. She had to be in a lot of pain right now. 

“Elizabeth! Erun, go help her!” 

I saw another woman run after the mage. I shook my head. You need to help the living to make it through a battle. 

We reached the camp’s defense line just as the last of the five was killed. The looks of horror on the adventurers’ faces was delightful. The horde collided with their defense like a wave on the shore. The zombies over powered and outnumber all the guards. Soon it turned into a brawl with every person for themselves. I watched on, not really needed. 

I walked forward keeping pace with the horde. Blood, bones, and organs were splattered all over the ground. The adventurers lasted for maybe two minutes before they broke and tried to run, the ones still alive at least. Alessa popped up next to me, she was covered in blood from head to toe. Though her mouth was clean, it looked like she licked every ounce she could reach. 

“Let me chase them,” Alessa said her eyes blazing red. 

“That’s fine. Take your Revenant with you, just to be safe,” I said. 

She nodded then was gone like smoke. I turned towards the center of the camp. The Revenant had pierced the main group through the stomach. They were all laying on the ground bleeding out. All except the priestess. His arrow had taken her head off. I guess I couldn’t blame him, even just her body was giving me annoying vibes. I formed a fireball over my palm and threw it at the body. 

The undead were standing behind me as if waiting for permission to devour the remaining three. I waved them off, as I needed them for questions, as well as to keep my new vampire family member feed. I pointed at three skeletons and ordered them to carry them back to the fortress. 

Glancing around the rest of the camp, I ordered the rest of the undead to pack it all up and take it back. Adventurer supplies would be a good way to see how the world has changed over the last thousand years. They were usually at the head of development since their very lives depended on it. 

I looked around the camp, feeling whole fully… unpleasant. Bringer in my hand sent a wave of hunger to me. I lifted the blade until the gem in the handle was eye level. An eye looked back, a demonic cat shaped pupil. 

“Me too,” I mumbled to it. 

Alessa reappeared a few minutes later. The blood that covered her was gritty with dirt and sand. She was licking the blood from her hands and fingers. Revenant walked behind her. She looked flushed from the hunt. 

“That was amazing!” she cried when she got near me. 

“Good thing the baths work,” I said glancing her over. 

“Oberon! Do you know water magic?” Alessa asked suddenly. 

“Of course, why?” I asked curiously.

“In the future, I want to be able to pull the blood without it spraying everywhere. Blood is just a different kind of water, right? It might take some changing, but I feel it should work,” she explained. 

“Sounds simple enough. Alright, when we get back, we’ll work on water magic.”

“Awesome!” Alessa punched the air, sending blood and gore everywhere. 

~~ 

An hour later we were back at the castle. While the fight was largely disappointing, I did learn that Undead were in a good place to make some damage to this world. If only Yuin was offering anti-undead spells, then something must be happening in the Realm of the gods. It would explain why Siateth was so brazen about taking Yuin’s temple. 

I put it to the side for now. I probably wouldn’t get any answers without directly asking a God or Goddess. That was a complicated, and not to mention, risky attempt to make. With nothing better to do while Alessa was taking a bath, I went through all the ‘menus’ as I was told they were called.

Name: Oberon DarkPhoenix

Age: N/A

Race: World Lich

Level: 42

[Necromancy Basic Magic Mastery: Adept] [Basic Magic Mastery: Partial Lock 65%] [Sword Mastery: Partial Lock 47%] [Rune Mastery: Partial Lock 80%] [Advanced Magic Mastery: Partial Lock 95.5%] [Contract Magic Mastery: Partial Lock 65%] [Space Magic Mastery: Partial Lock 83%]...

Followers: 356  

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

Curses: World’s Curse, Ancestral Curse, Undeath

Boons: Forgotten Knowledge

I had amassed a decent number of undead from the cave system. At least all my skills were a little more unlocked. I could feel access to some of the spells that I knew but couldn’t cast. It was funny. I knew how to cast the lightning storm spell, but I could direct mana to it when I started to chant the spell. From the outside, it would look like I was just saying random words. 

Rune magic was even worse. I knew all the runes. How they should go and what not, but when I finished the sentence, or inscription, the runes would shatter like I was a novice. This wouldn’t be so bad, but I didn’t have any indication what I could and couldn’t use at my level.

I was sure the Forgotten Knowledge boon was letting me use magic that was supposed to be normally locked at my level. Even still, I had a long road ahead of me, before I returned to my former strength. ‘At least I had world domination to occupy my time,’ I thought with a chuckle. On a serious note, I would have to build up my base a bit more before I could take the chance of dealing with neighboring countries. 

With that in mind I made my way to the fortress core. It had been gaining mana by the minute and, thanks to the Spector, was sitting on a good build up of mana. Some of that mana was going into repairing the castle, but it was more of a bleed off rather than a true drain. I looked over the list of buildings. The weird way it had already defined buildings to build still made this a strange experience. 

With the Crypt we had a active mana gain, but we needed a way to collect the corpses that get left out in the desert. A cemetery spawned a new monster after a set interval. I checked the mana cost and found it was reasonable. The monster spawned was from the ambient mana so it was a good passive way to create some labor. 

Cemetery: 5,000 Mana

Creates one undead every four hours. Higher level cemetery will result in stronger undead. 

I went ahead and created it around the Crypt. The screen popped up that showed the scene. The area around the Crypt grew darker as tombstones of all shapes and sights grew out of the ground. A zombie of what appeared to be an old man crawled out of the ground next to what would have been the keepers hut. In my little info panel, a timer appeared that was counting down from four hours. 

With that done I looked over the other options. I really wanted to get the mine as part of my territory. Before a core’s territory expanded gradually. Looking for the information, I found it, but wasn’t sure if I liked what I found. I could do it manually now, but the cost…

Territory Expansion: 10,000 Mana

Adds ten kilometers to control radius. 

I could do the expansion four times, IF the cost didn’t go up with each usage. I would need seven to be able to reach the mine. As an experiment I went ahead and used it once since I had the mana to spare. The screen showed a line that represented my control outside move a good distance outward. I breathed a sigh of relief when the cost didn’t go up. 

Leaving it at just the one for now, I looked at the other options available for construction. While looking at the list something occurred to me. Wanting an answer I called my trusty helper. 

“Zriq,” I called out. 

“Yes, Master,” he answered right next to me.

“Oh,” I laughed, I didn’t even realize he was there, “I have a question. I see these buildings in the list for building. I wanted to ask if I could build them the old fashion way.”

“Of course. The world changed to be fair, putting a whole caste of people out of their living wouldn’t be fair. The buildings the core builds for you include all the magic required to build them, like the Crypt. Normally would you have to bind a Spector to you then let it inhabit a building for such a building to work. The Core does all that for you,” Zriq explained. 

“Hmm~, alright. Ah, when do you want to bring your clan here?” I asked remembering that I still needed to do that. 

“Whenever is convenient, Master,” Zriq said with a bow. 

“Let’s do it at mid-day. How big is your clan?” 

“Normally, we only summon a few dozen, but given the circumstances I would like to bring them all,” Zriq replied. 

“And…”

“Three hundred twenty-five. Plus or minus a few dozen children,” Zriq gripped his hands nervously. 

“You going to be able to keep them all in line?” I asked critically. 

“Yes Master! I will make sure that everything runs like a well oiled machine,” Zriq puffed up his chest proudly. 

“Very good,” I leaned back in my throne. 

The castle was large but to house that many people, even at fairy size would be a challenge. I would prefer that they be comfortable. People that were comfortable were more likely to work well. I browsed the options of the core. Thanks to expanding, most of the old city was included in my territory. There were options for individual housing, group housing, hut, and other options that all had a different amount of mana needed. 

I found a district option that would allow me to change an entire stretch of buildings into partially walled off area. This would give them more protection and I could assign some of the undead to patrol the walls. The option also included a variety of choices for housing, I set them all to the basic but biggest options so that I could get more for my money. The rest the fairies could do for themselves. 

The total cost came to thirty five thousand mana. A good chunk, but one I felt was worth it. Zriq was already a tremendous help in bringing the castle to being presentable. Just the thought of several hundred of them zipping around made me excited. Plus, the bonus of being able to absorb all the mana from their curses. 

I heard someone approaching from the hallway and was sure it was Alessa. I created a small magic missile then launched it just as she entered. She tilted her head to the side and the missile flew past her by an inch. She yawned then opened her eyes, looking back where the missile had collided with the wall, seeming surprised at what just happened. 

“How was your bath?” I asked not looking up from the screen in front of me.