Having Laytalya with him was like a breath of fresh air. The young woman had a seemingly endless optimism to her personality, and even more importantly to Alexander she was quite easy on the eyes. She dressed simply enough, much like his own outfit it gave off the vibe of a newbie warrior, but where his clothing was rather loose fitting, hers was skin tight as she was both gifted with a generous c-cup bosom and a rather plump posterior that just drew his gaze as she lead him through town, every step seemed to make those tight leather pants ride a little more up between those full cheeks that made him want to get an even closer look.
Despite his wandering eye Laytalya didn't seem to mind, even flirting with him a few times as she escorted him to the gate. Seemed her interest in him was equally personal as it may have been professional, which suited him fine as he was of a similar weal. Once beyond Colters walls she indicated the direction they had to go and let him take the lead, assuring him that as his big sis that she'd jump in if he needed her to. In truth she wanted him to get use to the weak monsters around town, he should be able to handle them without her assistance.
The first thing they found, much to his disgust was just basic, enhanced animals. From what Laytalya told him the nearby magical font in the city tended to affect nature. Alot of monsters were attracted to the city core and needed regular cleaning up. Typically it was the weak runts that stuck close to the city, they were neither smart, strong or had any sense of self preservation. In the truest sense they were berserkers attacking anything they could.
In this case it was a rabbit, only a rabbit the size of a great dane. The large rabbit lunged recklessly at Alexander a few times who had little trouble evading the wild leaps though the razor sharp incisors snapping at him did make him somewhat nervous. On one such pass he reached out, brushing a hand over the passing flank of the rabbit, marvelling at the soft fur even as he invoked [Rot]. The beast let out a shrill squeal and rather than turning to lunge again it spat out a copious amount of blackish blood before falling to its side and twitching.
He and Laytalya watched as for the next minute the beast rotted from the inside out, the soft fur drying out and flaking away as the meat and muscle very well liquified. Laytalya frowned looking at the skeleton of a rabbit surrounded by brackish sludge, "May want to use a different spell little bro, that one seems to ruin any of the materials we can get from it."
For the better part of an hour she let him hunt a bunch of monstrous beasts here around the city, suggesting ways to improve his gains while maximizing his mana preservation. On their final break before moving on Alexander opened his status, he ignored the Tress status as he found other than social information it really did nothing for him. The Dungeon Status was more detailed in every way...
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Name: Alexander Caven ; Alex Maybell
Title: Dungeon Lord Alexander, The Demon Caven
Path: Death
Physical: 6 Charm: 4
Mental: 8 Luck: 6
Mystical: 8 Talent: 5
Level: 5 Advancement: 0%
Path Abilities: Deaths Gaze (Basic), Reaper Tenacity (Basic), Death Magic (Initiate)
Spells: [Rot] - 50%, [Create Slime] - 5%, [Create Skeletal Horror] - 0%, [Dark Bolt] - 50%, [Blood Lance] - 60%, [Bone Cage] - 10%
Dungeon Abilities: Rallying Call (Basic), Leadership (Novice), Dungeon Recall (Basic)
Equipment: Fine Adventurer Gear, Light Leather Gloves, 500 gold rulers, 190 silver knights, patent of nobility (House Caven), Genealogy of House Caven, 3 silver whorls, 10 copper marks.
Allies: Jansea (Intermeadiate Succubus) - 50
Thersea (Novice Hero) - Dead*
Laytalya (Unknown) - 10
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Alexander smiled secretly to himself, while hunting he had expanded his spell selection by a few spells. Since [Rot] wasted materials that were on monsters he had been forced to visualize other spells. The first was [Dark Bolt], it was a low cost spell and generally killed a target with one or two castings. Cutting the beast open afterwards revealed the spell corrupted the heart or core of the monster. This left most materials untouched unless the heart or core itself was the goal.
It was this case that saw [Blood Lance] created. This one made Alexander frown as you needed to be a bit if a machoist to rely on it since the spell drained his own vitality to cast a spear of blood. It was high damage and typically a one shot kill spell, but as much as he practiced with it he found losing blood to kill something very risky. Thus he vowed to save it in case his situation was dire. As for the last spell, it was more an act of desperation than planning, having been jumped by what looked like a bear he had created a spell much like the [Create Skeletal Horror] only in this case it was called [Bone Cage]. It used any bones in the area to, as the name suggested, create a cage around a target.
Alexander's Necromancer level had raised once or twice and while it felt his pool of energy had risen it didn't seem to give him stats to allocate like dungeon Lord leveling did. This was somewhat disappointing but being able to cast more spells was enough of a boon thus far. Glancing to the side he watched Laytalya who was skinning the bear with a knife, she had offered after she failed to intercede when the bear appeared. She had taken a break off to the side a long pipe was produced from somewhere and a sickly sweet odor hung in the area. Alexander couldn't place the smell himself, it smelt like neither tobacco nor weed of his old world, yet the hint of it was as mentioned almost sickeningly sweet with a slight hypnotic allure which made him back off.
Redirecting his attention to where she worked he found another mesmerizing situation, bent at the waist those tightly strained leather pants she wore gave him a feast of a full moon to delight in. With every cut and tug at the hide her shapely derriere shifted temptingly. The fact she was bent at the waist didn't elude Alexander's notice, the fact she'd look over her shoulder and gave him a sultry wink and teasing smile proved she knew he was being given a generous bit of fan service that made his own trousers somewhat tight. Clenching his teeth and discreetly adjusting his discomfort he piped up, "So what next, onto the goblins?"
Stretching slowly Laytalya gave Alexander a chance to admire her full taut body before nodding simply, "Past these woods are some foot hills, the goblins tend to migrate into a ruined outpost nestled in the depths. Use to be one of Colters way stations years and years ago."
Alexander cocked his head slightly, "Why not anymore?"
Laytalya smiled setting off into the wood, waiting briefly for him to catch up before she continued, "Lord Tavik Osmond happened, he's the resident Mage Supreme of the city. Favors finger wiggling over martial pursuits. He decided that paying money to have guardsmen sit on their asses more often than not dead drunk, was wasteful. His mages could swiftly answer any issue in the area without need of these guard posts."
Alexander frowned walking alongside her, "But are the posts not good for early warning of trouble?"
Laytalya shook her head, "His lord high sparkly pants introduced a new system." Pointing towards a near by tree what looked like a crystalized bat hung from a branch, unlike a normal bat, this artificial one was quite awake and was staring at them both with a large sapphire that served as its singular eye, "His watch beasts, they're all over the territory, particularly on the outskirts of these old forts."
Alexander studied the bat as it studied him, "Are these why there was a blasted area outside of Colter?"
Laytalya nodded avoiding the gaze of the unnatural critter, "Yeah apparently something tried to rebuild a fort out that way, at first Mr Glitter Pants was fine with having another taxable neighbor but then after a bit he mobilized the High Guard and razed the place, never told anybody why, just dropped the wrath of the heavens on the place."
As they walked he peppered her with average questions most new comers were sure to ask and she happily filled him in on the local common gossip and need to know information, as the trees gave way to hills he was treated to the sight of another keep, this one tucked away in the hills. Even from this distance he could see some repair work being done, though unlike his dark dwarves, the occupants here filled exposed areas with hides giving the structure a primitive vibe.
As they got closer Laytalya suggested they split up to cover more ground, she'd be within ear shot if either he or herself needed help so a simple shout could reunite them. Alexander listened in thought before agreeing, suggesting they meet up before the ruins, she readily agreed before skipping off to the right leaving him to his own preparations. His eyes followed her briefly before turning to walk off, he did not get far before her voice lifted, "Don't forget their ears! We need ten each to complete the job, extra never hurts!"
Shaking his head with a wry smile Alexander chuckled to himself, chances were high she had shagged off primarily to indulge her vice. Much like the forest he well suspected she was absolute shit at fighting. Smiling to himself he walked on, not particularly trying to be stealthy. Any goblin patrols he encountered were faced with a rain of [Dark Bolt] spells before he walked over to slice off an ear. Before leaving the bodies though he was quick to touch the forehead of each dead goblin infusing his magic into the corpse.
You have learned the Death spell [Create Infectious Undead]!
[Create Infectious Undead] Proficiency 40%
Five Tier one Goblin Zombies have been created outside of your dungeon!
Nodding to himself when he saw the goblin zombies shambling off under his orders he smiled to himself, in his old world zombie apocalypse films had always been a thing, what better way to rapidly create his own personal army? While he was sure this sort of autonomous hunting wouldn't gain his Necromancer level any benefit nor would it raise his spells proficiency, he was more interested in finishing the job quickly and getting some time with Laytalya to himself.
As he walked on he frowned at the undead goblins who moved at a jerky shamble, compared to his skeletons and regulat goblins these zombies were so damn slow. The only time they seemed to move even slightly quick was when they found another patrol and the zombies rushed ahead like the hungering monstrosities they were. The patrol was first confused by the quick approach of their brethren, but that confusion turned to horror when the pristine first generation zombies fell upon them, clawing and biting.
Alexander had to smile to himself watching from the cover of a bush, his spells didn't leave gaping wounds on the first five zombies, rather [Dark Bolt] had quickly evolved to [Death Bolt], a spell that in essence 'popped' a targets vital internal organ with a critical strike. In short if he was real lucky, the spell could one shot a dragon by bursting its heart, or so Alexander figured. Against goblins, it had left no signs of death so they were quite pristine when animated... save for the ear cut off each one.
Glancing over Alexander frowned. The second generation would not be so easily disguised. Much like in the horror films the first generation zombies were tearing into the fresh bodies eating the fresh warm entrails of their freshly slain kin. Striding over, he was quick to collect another five ears before standing back to see if his plan would work. After a few minutes of gorging, his initial team of goblins shambled over, while they had sustained some wounds, the more telling was the rancid green goblin blood that coated their mouths, chests and clawed hands.
Like in the movies the living goblins, in their defensive strikes, had aimed at mortal wounds. Here and there his initial undead had a blade through the chest, one even had half its neck severed. But these wounds did not stop zombies. Glancing to the ravaged bodies, the second generation was slowly getting to its feet, missing limbs, holes in stomachs, hell one had even lost its angular lower jaw. Shaking his head Alexander could well see this second group losing a few of their number if used to lead an attack. No one would mistake these horrors as breathing, wounded companions.
Sighing he reached out with his power trying to take control of the children of his minions, smiling to himself when the small gang of undead stepped on masse behind him and he lead them on into the goblin territory...