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The Netherborne: Harbinger of Destruction [An OP Isekai LitRPG]

XKARNATION

50. Harbinger of Destruction

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Things were progressing smoothly down in the Grand Dungeons depths. A month or so had passed since Garry the pirate arrived at Necron, and Victor and his merry band were making significant progress. As Victor had suspected, the main threat of the arctic floors was the immense distance it took to traverse and the extreme climate. 'I suspect the dungeon didn't spawn any monsters on those floors on purpose, so delvers had no way to acquire food.' Unfortunately for the dungeon, there was a limit on how strong monsters could become, so sometimes, mother nature was the only way to defeat something.

Victor realized that if the dragons hadn't been chasing them, there was a high chance Genus would have died from starvation. Luckily, Alice would have survived the arctic either way since she became a mana body, and Victor could probably survive in space, let alone some frozen wasteland. 'But if I didn't have millions of stat points saved up from the previous floors, I could have died too...' That was a disturbing thought, so Victor vowed to save as many points as possible.

In the distance was a spire of ice that dominated the flat landscape like an overlord's throne. Unfortunately, Victor had no idea what the next floor had in store as they were traveling way faster than Wiggles, so he couldn't send him on ahead to scout like he had on the other floors.

"Wake up," Victor spoke for the first time in days as the flying platform drew near the ice spire. "We have arrived."

Genus opened an eye, raised his neck, and let out an impressive yawn that lasted a full minute. Then, after licking his lips, Genus spotted the ice spire and grinned.

Out of the three, Genus had suffered the most. He had resorted to cannibalism and had to constantly cycle his mana to survive the constant sub-zero temperates since he is a cold-blooded creature.

The door to the hut creaked open, and Alice emerged. She stretched. A habit that likely remained from when she was human and looked around sleepily. "Oh." Was all she said as the platform began its descent to the tower's entrance.

"How long did I sleep?" Alice asked as the platform touched down on the ice.

"Weeks? Maybe months? No idea." Victor had stopped keeping track long ago. His perception of time had changed ever since he acquired his new form. Without the sweet embrace of sleep to help pass the time, his brain operated on a completely different scale.

"Huh." Alice fixed her messy hair, "Now that I think about it... time has no meaning to me anymore."

Genus hummed. "It must be difficult to come to terms with becoming an immortal... assuming your race is?"

Alice honestly had no clue. Records and legends that she doubted more and more every day suggested that high humans had very long but not infinite life spans. 'But am I a high human? My race doesn't say that. All it says are question marks and lists my body type as a Darkness Mana Body. The system also said my life span had drastically increased...' So Alice pondered to herself as the group got ready to finally step foot on the 61st floor.

The zombie dragons landed, snuck their wings under the wooden platform, and carried it on their backs as they walked into the tower's inviting entrance. Unfortunately, due to the tower's weird pressure that stopped flying, they couldn't simply fly inside, so everyone, even Victor, was reduced to walking. Although netherborne were incapable of walking and instead floated a foot off the ground.

They descended the same mystical steps for a few hours through an encapsulated void. Few words were exchanged as they all enjoyed the rhythmic drum of the zombie dragon's feet. In moments like these, Victor was grateful the undead he created had far higher intelligence than the undead he knew of in other novels or video games. Remembering his homeland, Victor wondered, 'How is Terry doing on Earth. Maybe he could send me some entertainment through our link somehow? I would be willing to shell out a few million stat points for an internet connection.'

However, now was not the time to contact Terry. When Victor reached the bottom of the dungeon and completed whatever trial awaited him, only then would he waste so many points on useless things like Terry and a phone connection. Other than soothing his bordem, knowing the affairs of Earth were of no concern to him at the moment.

Victor was distracted from his thoughts as the exit came into view. As always, Wiggles, slithering in front of them, went first, as Victor had designated him as the party's scout. After a few minutes, Victor had confirmed through a conversation with the titanic earthworm what the floor entailed, and it was both good and bad news.

"Good news, this floor should be effortless for me to deal with," Victor said.

Genus let out a long sigh. "And the bad news?"

"It's insects for dinner..."

Genus spat to the side in disgust, and Alice threw up her hands and walked back to her hut. "If anyone needs me, I will be sleeping. No way I'm dealing with that."

"Hold on. Your Hellfire will be very useful here and net you an unfathomable amount of experience points. At least fight for a few hours a day." Victor wanted to ensure Alice gained as many levels as possible during their descent. Sure, his [Annihilating Aura] would be insanely effective here, but he wouldn't manage to kill every single insect, especially those too high level for his aura spell to deal with.

"You just want to focus on your project on the surface and have me do all the work." Alice refuted. She knew that Victor had been busy dealing with things on the surface, and he couldn't attend to Necron if he was busy keeping swarms of insects from the floating platform.

Victor hated to admit it, but she was partially correct. The surface affairs had picked up steam recently with people from the Empire and Eshnar discovering the toll roads. Victor was still unsure if they had been officially allowed or disclosed to the public, but traffic had picked up the pace, and the money was rolling in.

Who knew owning a town was so much fun, especially when you didn't have to do anything, and it was all handled by his subordinates. 'It's an elaborate video game for me to pass the time with.' With both Genus and Alice sleeping the months away, Victor was left alone with his own thoughts for twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and that was insane, so managing the town helped keep his mind off thoughts such as 'What if I am still alive on earth?'

Unfortunately, that thought remained dormant at the back of his mind like a ticking time bomb. Yet, he knew he would eventually discover the truth through Terry or another source.

"Alright, sure, maybe I want to work on Necron, but-" Victor was cut off as Wiggles sent him a wave of distress. Victor quickly focused on his favorite pet and found he was completely swarmed. Without waiting, Victor floated through the tower's exit and examined the new floor.

It was a mixture of black mud, bodies of stagnant brown water, and small islands of plants connected by natural decaying wooden bridges. Victor obviously couldn't smell, but he had visited a similar-looking biome back on Earth for a school geography project and had struggled to keep down his lunch due to the stench.

The stagnant pools of murky water with swarms of fist-sized flies mating above them rippled as the ground shook. The awful sound of wet sludge slapping together was followed by an eruption as Wiggles's titanic head emerged in the far distance with hundreds of earthworms latched onto his scales like leeches. They wiggled like brown tentacles as they gnawed on his armored plates. Wiggles violently twisted his body and slammed back down in an attempt to crush the vermin, but the vibrations seemed to attract more earthworms to latch on and replace their comrades.

"The ground is alive," Genus noted as he gazed at the land with his rainbow eyes. "Anything that tries to cross this floor by land won't make it very far..."

Alice pointed to the sky. "The air is no better. Look at those things; the sky is practically black due to how many there are."

Sure enough, the sky was blanketed by a raging storm of flies varying in size from a fist to the size of a large dog. Wiggles erupted from the ground again, but this time, his neon green flesh glowed and secreted a sludge that coated his skin like a wax that seemed to burn the mouths of the earthworms.

"Seems Wiggles is fine as always," Victor remarked. That undead pet of his was by far his best investment so far. Not even the dragons he had in his employ could compare. "Right, let's get a move on. Hopefully, this floor is smaller than the others."

Victor still needed more data to be sure, but he suspected the dungeon had a limited budget of mana to expend per floor. The more extreme the conditions, the more mana is required. Same with the number of monsters. Fewer monsters, less mana. More monsters, less severe conditions. It was a trade-off, as with anything in this world. 'But as we get closer to the lowest floor, the amount of mana the dungeon has available to invest in each floor seems to be increasing. From first glance, this floor has repeated the harsh environment tactic with only insects for food and stagnant water that is undrinkable without magic.'

Sadly for the dungeon, swarm tactics are the least optimal way to deal with a Netherborne. With every kill, Victor will only grow in power and increases his army. Which was precisely his game plan. 'None of the other floors allowed me to amass a large amount of usable undead. The graveyard floor had weak skeletons, the desert had slugs, the ocean floor had creatures useless out of the water, the caves had some strong creatures, but I used them to distract the dragons chasing us, and finally, the Fleshtree floor had... trees. They can't exactly move.'

Metaphorically cracking his knuckles, it was time to get to work. Victor mentally directed the undead dragons to resume flying operations. Since Wiggles couldn't go on ahead to scout out the tower, Victor had to guess where the next tower would be... or did he? 'It seems the dungeon uses the towers to move mana from one floor to another, so following the flow of mana will guide me.'

With the flying platform in the air, Victor floated in front of it and watched as the withering mass of dog-sized flies spotted fresh meat in the form of Alice standing defiantly with her arms crossed below her chest and her mana shield coating her in black armor.

As the swarm loomed, the buzzing became deafening, and like a living tsunami, the wave of flies overwhelmed the sky and encircled them on all sides. As the ring of flies rapidly condensed around the unamused Alice, Victor toggled on his kill switch.

[Annihilating Aura] pulsed like a tide of extinction. The flies that hit the invisible wave of death mana had their bodies eradicated from the inside out as they rapidly decayed and tumbled from the sky.

Like hail, flies rain on the mud land below, and Victor watched in slight disgust as the ground wiggled with python-sized earthworms that eagerly awaited their falling meal.

But before the flies touched down... Victor cast the most extensive [Raise Undead] spell ever. His domain over life and death took over the world, and the flies had a breath of life reignited in them as the spell fought to rebuild every single one.

Some eagerly awaiting earthworms detected a shift in their prey's behavior and retreated under the mud. But the less observant ones found themselves being grabbed by claws the size of human hands and dragged into the sky to be devoured by a swarm of flesh-hungry undead.

The consumed earthworms were then reconstructed as another [Raise Undead] spell pulsed out. Like a harbinger of destruction, Victor commanded his swarm like a composer. He could hardly contain himself as he cast [Consume] and his life force almost doubled as a sea of souls swirled up to provide life to the void creature.

As Victor thought he had dealt with them all, another swarm appeared on the horizon. But this time, Alice had both her hands ready. She hovered into the sky as a purplish ball of hellfire rapidly expanded before her. Once the swarm was close enough, Alice spread out her hands, and the ball exploded into a blaze that cascaded across the sky and engulfed the swarm.

The chorus of exploding flies like popcorn and the sickening smell of burnt insects wafted over, but Alice had a grin as she inspected a screen only she could see. It seemed this floor would be incredibly beneficial to both of them... And they were only just getting started.

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51. Meeting the Guild Master

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It's my birthday! I can feel the back pain already setting in...

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Victor was bored again—which felt even worse since it was self-inflicted. 'I chose to become an undead since it would make my life as easy as possible... who would have thought having an easy life could be so dull?' Luckily the swarm of flies under his control was intelligent enough to obey a simple command: Kill everything.

"Bleh." Genus spat on the floor and flicked the half-eaten worm dripping in his saliva off the side of the floating platform. Genus looked awful, clearly having lost some of the weight he had regained from consuming his kin. Victor hadn't put much thought into it, as Genus was a side character in his life, but the dragon had shown remarkable willpower to continue following him this far.

"Just a few more months, and you will finally obtain what you desire," Victor said, and Genus perked up slightly. Some newfound desire to continue sparking in his crystal eyes. Genus grumbled and rested his head back on his crossed paws. "I sure hope so. This journey has been nothing but torture."

Victor had to agree, although in his case, the torture had been the mind-numbing boredom during the most recent floors rather than physical. 'Once you take away the time needed to sleep, eat, and use the bathroom, you are left with a concerning amount of free time to spend on self-reflection and contemplating life.'

Luckily for everyone involved, they were currently on the 70th floor, so only a few hours of travel separated them from the next biome. Unfortunately, the initial joy from the floor's abundant experience points had somewhat dulled after weeks of black mud, disgusting earthworms, and the constant drone of the millions of undead flies encircling them. Nevertheless, Victor was curious about how Alice was doing, so he decided to pull up the party screen.

[Name: Alice]

[Race: ???]

[Body: Darkness Mana Body]

[Level: 317] (level up! x217)

[STR: 335(+217), DEX: 347(+217), CON: 354(+217), INT: 682(+434), WIS: 674(+434)]

(Dulled Emotions)

[Name: Victor]

[Race: Netherborne]

[Level: 827] (level up! x327)

[Stat Points: 800+ Million]

(Life Force Unstable - 926 Days) (Extreme Mana Sickness[-10 stats per second])

[Name: Terry]

[ERROR: CONNECTION LOST]

As expected, the gains on these ten floors had been tremendous. Alice had tripled her level to an impressive 317. She had taken full advantage of this floor's abundant and easy-to-kill prey. Even now, she was a few miles outside Victor's [Annihilating Aura] spell radius, bringing destruction to the land like a wrathful god. Purple fire danced along the horizon, and plumes of thick smoke rose as the dead wood and the few plants native to the land burned.

However, Alice's gains had been impressive but nothing compared to Victor's. Although his system was a sham and provided few benefits as he leveled, his number has still increased an astonishing 327 times, and the millions of undead swarming around him were a testament to that virtual increase. 'Even more hilarious is how my system screen stopped listing my stats and simply says eight hundred million, and even the life force counter has switched to days from hours.'

Victor calculated how many years of life force he had, and it worked out to 25 years on the surface but only 2.5 years down here... 'No wonder Netherbonre go extinct, all of this slaughter for a quarter of a century worth of life.' It was weird to think he went to such lengths to become an immortal creature and escape the ultimate weakness of humans—death—just to have an estimated life span lower than anywhere back on Earth.

Before Victor could debate his decisions for the thousandth time, a voice spoke in his head: "Master." It was Andrew's voice, one that Victor had become greatly accustomed to and enjoyed hearing, as whenever Andrew contacted him, it was something interesting. "Sorry to bother you, but I believe the people we have been waiting for have finally shown up."

This was the best news Victor had heard all week. Finally, the officials from the guild were at Necron. "What's happening? Tell me the details."

"Ahem." Andrew cleared his throat and continued, "They arrived only moments ago and have already demanded an immediate audience with the mayor and necromancer. I gave my subordinates the go-ahead, so they are on their way here now."

"Excellent. I will be right over." Victor made sure everything was fine around him before anchoring his body to the floating platform and casting [Shadow Magic] to create his avatar. As usual, he used Andrew as a proxy for his magic. Otherwise, it would be like hurling his spell through thousands of miles worth of rock... assuming he could even get through the dungeon's mana-shielded walls. Luckily the black ocean allowed Victor to ignore distance and obstacles, for the most part, so long as one of his undead was there.

Victor utilized Andrew's senses, picked a location nearby, and recreated his avatar. Deciding to maintain consistency, Victor recreated the avatar he used to speak with Eve over a month ago.

For some reason, Victor was getting a little nervous, like his first job interview back on Earth. Deciding he wanted to give off a powerful first impression, he funneled a million stat points to make the avatar as detailed as possible while maintaining its featureless face, other than teardrop eyes that glowed blue.

Once he was done, his shadowy man bearing a comically large top hat and a well-tailored suit of darkness, strolled out of a crack in space and dusted itself off.

Somewhere during the process, the doors to Andrew's throne room had swung open, and the delegation from the guild had arrived. Everyone present, except Eve, was alert and had their weapons drawn. Everyone's eyes were glued to the shadowy man that had appeared.

A few tense moments followed until Eve stepped forward and gestured towards the shadowy man that looked at them with his smiling eyes. "Guild Master, this is the necromancer you wished to meet. Or at least an illusion of him. As I said in my report, there was a large pressure, followed by the appearance of a man claiming to be the necromancer we had been looking for—"

"Stop it."

Eve instantly stopped at her guild master's words and awkwardly stood there.

Through Andrew, Victor gazed upon the guild master, who seemed to feel his presence. Victor wasn't sure what he expected from an elusive character such as the guild master, but an overly lofty human-sized, bright orange-furred sloth standing on its hind legs while adjusting golden-rimmed glasses carefully balanced on its snout was the last thing he expected.

The orange-furred sloth remained within his encirclement of guards, each with adamantite plates hanging from their necks. He elongated his neck over a guard's shoulder as if trying to get even the faintest bit of understanding of what he was looking at.

His glasses gleamed with a flash of blue, and the sloth jerked back. Then, deciding to break the silence, the sloth spoke in a very polite and posh accent: "Ahem. My name is Plutus, and I run the merchants guild back in the Empire. Many advised me not to come here, and I hope my decision to ignore their well-grounded advice won't come to bite me in my furry backside..." Plutus chuckled to himself, and his guards tensed up further. "I'm only a beginner mage and an even more pathetic warrior, but what I do have is connections and the knack for business. And what I see here is an opportunity that can benefit all parties!"

Silence.

Plutus laughed nervously and adjusted his glasses as Andrew lazily stared at him, and Victor's avatar just glared at the sloth.

"B-basically, the Emperor has heard the news of this place, and he wishes to... capture it. But Eve here convinced me that doing so would incur a significant loss to the Empire—both in the death of our armies and loss of potential economic growth.

Silence graced the room once again, and Andrew chose this moment to retrieve a snack. As Victor watched the tiny creature in Andrew's stubby arms being crushed to death and chucked into his open mouth, he noticed that Andrew had grown in size... by a lot. The throne had been expanded already as it was no longer symmetrical with the room, yet the lower third of Andrew's titanic body flopped off the end.

Andrew returned his sights to the orange sloth and burped. Victor allowed Andrew to deal with most affairs involving the surface, which included this negotiation, but he would obviously step in when he felt necessary. Victor believed it was a quality of a ruler to allow one's subordinates to handle small matters.

Feeling silly just standing there, Victor used [Shadow Magic] to construct himself a throne, far more magnificent and foreboding than Andrew's crude one. Then, as he took his seat and leaned his featureless face in his palm, Victor gestured for Andrew to lead discussions.

"Thank you, my lord." Andrew nodded and looked back at the orange sloth, "Guild Master Plutus, my name is Andrew, the mayor of this fine town. We have a lot to offer and would be delighted to enter trade relations with the Empire and Eshnar...."

"That's great!" Plutus said and clasped his hands together. "I will leave all my documents regarding our relationship for you to review, and we can catch up tomorrow. How does that sound?"

Victor was suspicious of this sloth. Usually, a businessman would pressure the other party into accepting a deal, and there was no better time to do so than while they had the initiative. But, had his appearance shaken Plutus so greatly that he had changed his game plan? Victor decided to find out.

"Plutus," Victor spoke through his avatar, and his ancient voice filled the room. "Did the Emperor send you here?"

"N-no... your excellency. I came here on my own accord."

"Hmmm." Victor's shadowy avatar crossed its legs and leaned back on the throne. "Then we have nothing to discuss."

"-What..." Plutus's mouth opened and closed a few times in shock.

Eventually, the orange sloth relaxed, took off his glasses and changed his demeanor. Despite claiming to be a beginner mage, even Andrew raised a brow at the pressure that suddenly filled the room.

"It seems the gentle approach to negotiations has fallen through. A pity, really, but wars aren't started over something as fickle as beliefs but rather over whose pockets need stuffing. Would you happen to agree with me on that point, mayor Andrew and sir necromancer?"

Andrew heartily laughed, and he stroked his goatee. "War is indeed a costly endeavor. Some even claim it could disrupt the balance of power within a nation... depending on which nobles choose to fight."

"Exactly," Plutus replied. "Do we have something of interest to discuss now?"

Victor's avatar stared at Plutus with glowing eyes. However, the orange sloth didn't yield under his gaze this time. 'A shrewd businessman indeed...' Victor liked him; conversing with someone who got straight to the point was always enjoyable.

"Indeed we do," Victor replied. "Please proceed, Guild Master."

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With mutual interest established. Plutus took center stage after dismissing his guards, except for two wearing black cloaks on either side of him.

"I will be frank, Necron lies on disputed territory, not only between the various noble factions within the Empire but between all forces on the continent." Plutus, the ever-serious orange sloth, brought out a document from his spatial ring and cleared his throat. "Ahem. Currently, ten noble houses petitioned in court to send their armies to conquer the cursed forest and Necron in honor of the Emperor."

Plutus cast some wind magic, and the parchment floated peacefully into Andrew's waiting hands. The enormous ooze that looked like a grey slug caressed his goatee as he carefully examined each name. While he did so, Plutus continued. However, this time he focused on Victor's shadowy avatar that lazily sat on a throne of darkness.

"Your excellency...."

"Vox," Victor replied. "You may refer to me as Vox, for I am the voice of his excellency."

"Ah! So you are a champion of the necromancer?"

Vox shrugged, and his teardrop eyes gleamed. "Something like that." Victor had decided to use this avatar more and more, but he wanted it to be something separate from himself... a representative of sought, and the last name he gave—Voice— was far too awkward to use in casual conversations. Vox, the word for voice in Latin, was a far better name.

"Right..." Plutus straightened his back, "Well, I hope to meet your master one day."

Plutus received no answer from the necromancer's champion, so he continued his debriefing. "So, as previously mentioned, this is heavily disputed territory. You will be invaded by us, Eshnar, the Frostlands, or hell... even the Mystical Realm may be interested. So before I even bother to offer you our solutions... can you protect yourself? Or at least this part of the forest?"

There was a moment of silence until Vox's haunted laughter suffocated the room. After that, even Andrew jiggled with laughter for a while.

"Hilarious! Did you not see the hundreds of ice sculptures containing some of the most feared monsters to ever roam these lands sitting outside for my viewing pleasure?" Vox rose from his throne, and immense pressure descended on the room as if a sleeping deity had been rudely awoken from a timeless sleep.

Reality cracked for a brief moment, and Plutus, alongside his guards, got a glimpse of Victor's true form through the veil of smoke that clouded their mortal sight.

And then it faded as if the pressure that threatened to snap their bones and boil their blood and the view of the unknown creature from a plane of nothingness was all just a twisted nightmare, an illusion of a sick mind.

The two cloaked figures fell to a knee, but Plutus stood tall. Defiance painted on his orange-furred face and something else... admiration with a sprinkle of opportunity.

"Excellent." Plutus clapped his paws and readjusted his gold-rimmed glasses that sat precariously on his snout with his long claw. "It seems you have defense well under control. Ahem, so I hope you won't mind if we send some less desirable nobles your way? Just a little cleanup is all."

Vox seemed to smile, despite his featureless face. "Oh, I see what that crafty bastard is doing—the Emperor is playing this surprisingly smart— Test our defenses while simultaneously eliminating some undesirable and power-hungry nobles that set their sights way too high. Am I correct, Guild Master? Are you sending ditzy power-hungry nobles to my doorstep for slaughter?"

Plutus had a savage grin showing his needle-like teeth as Vox spoke. Gone was the nervous sloth, and now before Vox stood the most dangerous type of man... one who profits from the death of others.

"Send them my way. But be warned, all who come bearing arms in the name of the Emperor will face death. No exceptions." Vox made his final declaration before turning his back on Plutus. "My master summons me. If you need anything else, speak to Andrew here."

Before Plutus could reply, Vox snapped his fingers.

"Farewell."

A clap of mana reverberated throughout the room. Then, before Plutus could even blink—the shadowy throne that dominated half the space with its looming presence and the necromancer's champion was gone.

"Shall we go and see the various merchandise on offer?" Andrew asked the spaced-out sloth with a chuckle.

"Yes." Plutus agreed and gestured for his guards to get off the marble floor. "I would like that. I am inquisitive about these ice sculptures Sir Vox mentioned moments ago."

Andrew mentally commanded a legion of goblins to enter the room. The black-clocked guards flanking Plutus tensed, and mana funneled to their hands, but to their surprise, the cloaked goblins strode right past them and surrounded Andrew's titanic throne—and lifted it clean off the ground in a heroic display of strength.

From atop his raised throne, Andrew dominated the room and overlooked Plutus. "Guild Master. Follow me."

Plutus shook his head as he looked at the departing back of Andrew. "What a crazy day."

***

"Yes, yes, I'm back. Why did you call for me?" Victor muttered as he returned his senses to his main body. Alice was beside him with stars in her eyes and a giddy excitement expected from a child on Christmas morning.

Confused, Victor decided to take a look around. Hours had passed since he had last checked in on the progress of his crew down in the Grand Dungeon, so they should have reached the next floor by now...

Surrounding him was a completely new scenery—everywhere he looked, gems of every color imaginable decorated the landscape. It was so sparkly... as if a god had spilled a jar of glitter across an entire continent.

Stalagmites of amethyst rose to the sky as rivers of rubies meandered through rolling hills of emeralds adorned with flowers sprouting petals of gold. In the distance—mountains of ore with beautiful waterfalls of sparkling lapis lazuli dominated the horizon. Even from the floating platform, Victor could spot movement below as hulking gem golems, some the size of multistory homes, trudged aimlessly to their next destination. With every step, the ground quivered, and the gems were pulverized underneath and churned underfoot, becoming the land's soil.

"What in all things holy is this!" Victor couldn't hold back his pure shock. All the previous floors had been wastelands with nothing but sand, ice, water, and mud. Although he was now a void creature—that human greed and desire for all things shiny still remained. A part of him wanted to divebomb and scoop up even a little of that soil that was likely worth more than its weight in gold...

"Wow, look at that big one!" Alice remarked as she pointed to a gigantic golem directly below them that was munching on an amethyst stalagmite. The purple gem shattered like glass between the monstrous golem's jaws like a snapping turtle. Victor then watched in amazement as the spikes of amethyst on the golem's back shone a pale pink before expanding slightly in size.

"These golems look similar to Rock but also a little different." Victor focused on the golem and watched its slow movements, carefree attitude, and lack of observation or care for its environment.

"Who is Rock?" Alice asked.

"Oh, yea. You never met that team of Delvers..." Victor waved her off, "Not really important right now, but Rock is a golem chef at Nercon."

Victor returned his attention to the golem that was busy munching away. "If I had to put it simply, these golems seem less intelligent than Rock by a large margin. Everything about them screams robotic and thoughtless to me. As if it merely acts on a set few instincts in an eternal cycle and cannot divert its thinking. Whereas Rock is capable of some level of thought, he can even cook!"

That may have been an overly harsh and rash judgment, but watching the golem mindlessly munch on its food and not even looking up at the floating platform grated his nerves. Why? He wasn't sure. But something about that dumb, carefree look made him mad. 'I just want to go down there, shake its shoulders, and slap it. Maybe then it will wake up...'

Victor paused at that thought. He was a Netherborne. A creature from the void that ended nations and eradicated continents. If he wanted to do something, he could darn well do it. So, without hesitation, Victor hovered down to the ground and came face to face with the golem. He didn't even have his stealth activated and was in direct sight of the thing, yet it didn't even react... just munching away.

Victor charged up a [Doom Ray]. Purple lightning crackled between his claws— the golem ignored him. 'Is it confidence or stupidity?' Maybe Victor's opinions of golems and their level of intelligence had been warped by Rock and his ability to strategize, cook and even talk.

As the spell charged up, Victor debated if destroying this thing was worth it. It was like using a bazooka to obliterate a random farmer's tractor. In the end, the only loser in this situation was him and the stat points wasted. 'But I wonder if my [Raise Undead] skill works on golems?' The fact that Victor did not have an answer to such a question made this decision easy.

He had to do it; in the name of science. So Victor raised his claw and unleashed a semi-charged [Doom Ray] at the unaware golem. A flash of purple lightning followed by a thunderclap that created a shock wave so powerful the golem rocked on its feet. Like a hedgehog, the amethyst spikes covering its back burst with purple light as a mana shield rippled into existence— a dense purple hue coated the golem and spread out the impact of the lightning.

When everything cleared... the golem was on its side with a burning hole in its left flank. But overall, it was fine—the sound of glass shattering, followed by all of the amethyst spikes disintegrating into dust and blowing away with the westerly winds, caught Victor off guard. The golem was now bare, with its white marble body exposed.

"Got worried for a second there." Victor sneered and raised his hand again. Then, bringing his claws together to simulate a railgun, he didn't even charge the spell and unleashed a much weaker but concentrated [Doom Ray]. The golem lay motionless and accepted its annihilation as the purple lightning burrowed through the partially made hole and superheated the golem from the inside, causing it to explode a moment later in a superheated cloud of rubble.

Victor cast [Raise Undead] with a wave of his hand, yet nothing happened. Floating closer and concentrating on the rubble, he cast [Raise Undead] a second time, but nothing happened. Finally, on the off chance it worked, Victor cast [Consume], but the result was as expected. A dumb pile of rocks never had any life force to begin with.

Deciding this whole thing was a waste of time, Victor turned to head back up to the floating platform, but something odd was caught in the corner of his perception.

Everything was so shiny on this floor, so something so dull, like a castle wall nestled inside a cave entrance, was bound to stand out...

"Are there people living down here?" Victor asked himself. 'Well, there's only one way to find out...'

A NOTE FROM XKARNATION

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A NOTE FROM XKARNATION

Godclads

Cool novel on Rising Stars with a ghoul MC in a cyberpunk world

Alice floated beside Victor with raven mana flowing across the surface of her skin—it almost looked like a bucket of black tar had been poured over her as whisps of purple flame wrapped her fingers, ready to be unleashed at a moment's notice. Her face was concealed, leaving no point of weakness as they faced an unknown threat.

The dull castle wall, nestled a few meters inside a cave, was merely a front to something else—a home. A mana signature so dense it could belong to Hyveth Arcspace emanated from beyond the castle walls.

Was it a beast of unknown origins? Or maybe mana left behind from an ancient relic? Victor couldn't answer these questions without an investigation—but was disturbing something with such a presence a good idea?

"Should we?" Victor asked his traveling companions. Entering the home of something that powerful unannounced was a likely death sentence. Nevertheless, curiosity was hard to suppress, especially after a slew of mind-numbing weeks.

Genus slowly crawled back like a terrified cat. "Absolutely not. Whatever lurks in there is far more powerful than any of us. We would be at its mercy, and if it decided to kill us, that would be the end of our story."

Alice hummed in agreement. "Mhm. What Genus said is correct. Sometimes it's best to accept there are bigger fish and leave them in their ponds. No need to disturb something like that..."

Victor tried to think back to the many novels he had read. His significant advantage is knowing what others did and how best to replicate the successes and avoid the failures. But, as he sifted through his memories, a common theme emerged. Plot armor.

In situations where the protagonist was presented with an unprecedented opportunity, it only ever went well. The question was if he was willing to bet his life on a concept so... abstract. It reminded Victor of Russian roulette, except the gun is empty of bullets. No matter how much someone tried to convince him, the chamber was empty. The cold steel of an empty weapon pressed against his head would make him nervous as if something could go horribly wrong, and maybe they left a bullet in.

Victor stared at the castle wall giving off an ominous vibe and ran through the pros and cons. The likelihood of there being a powerful creature that would kill them on sight or a sleeping demi-god that was hell-bent on annihilating all undead was relatively high—but on the other hand, if it was some inheritance or relic from a forgotten era, then it could change everything...

'What if it can solve my falling stats?'

That was the big question. If whatever was past those walls could solve Victor's biggest life problem and he simply floated onto the final floor, he would regret it. Possibly forever.

The mood had turned grim as Genus and Alice awaited Victor's verdict on the situation. 'The mana flowing from those walls is insanely high, but I should be stronger than whatever is waiting within.' Victor's curiosity was far too great, and his willingness to bet on plot armor drove him to a final decision.

"I don't see an obvious entrance, and the mana is far too dense for me to use [Spirit Movement] to bypass the wall."

"Stop." Genus bared his teeth and raised his neck. The house-sized golden dragon glared at Victor with his rainbow eyes. "Do not. Please."

Victor looked at Alice—she decided to remain deathly silent.

'She has faith in me...' Victor faltered—this decision concerned himself and the lives of his travel companions. He had to be absolutely sure this was the right move.

"Get ready to run." Victor just couldn't shake off his curiosity. Why was a castle wall clearly built by a sentient creature on the 71st floor? They had seen no evidence of any Delvers throughout their descent, and this was by far the oddest thing they had encountered. To turn away and pretend like they saw nothing was ridiculous and would eat away at his mind like an unscratchable itch.

Genus didn't even wait for Victor to finish his instructions. He had already spread his wings and, with a mighty flap, vaulted into the sky, leaving a cloud of gems and a crater in his wake.

Alice didn't speak, but she gave him a nod.

Victor consumed five million stat points and began charging up a [Doom Ray]. Mana swirled around his fingers, boiling his intangible shadowy flesh.

Alice also silently raised her hand, a javelin of black ice forming from her outstretched palm like an arrow waiting to be released.

Purple lightning crackled between Victor's claws as he prepared his attack. 'Still no movement....' Victor had a slight suspicion that whatever resided within those walls was either asleep or dead. They should have detected their presence when they arrived, and now with two high-tier spells being cast on their doorstep, to still not show themselves was suspicious.

Deciding the chance of survival outweighed the likelihood of death, Victor aimed his hand like a particle cannon—gestured for Alice to fire her spell first— and then unleashed the most powerful [Doom Ray]'s he had ever mustered. The world turned rainbow as the explosive light expanded and reflected off all the millions of gems lining the landscape. Like being inside a prism, Victor's senses were overloaded with color, and then with a snap of his claw, the spell ceased, and an ear-shattering explosion followed the tremours of the land.

Superheated rock was buried under a landslide as half the mountain tumbled. The various natural ores making up the mountain melted into a soup that surged with the landslide like a tsunami.

Victor floated back to a safe distance and waited. He watched alongside Alice from the air as the metal soup rapidly cooled and mixed with all the gems creating a dazzling piece of art.

Time passed—nothing emerged from the cave.

Victor mentally commanded Wiggles to tunnel through the molten rock to where the castle wall had been. The ground trembled again, and gem's cascaded off the titanic earthworm's back as he surfaced. His teeth became coated in neon saliva that melted the metal as he chomped his way through. The process was slow, but Wiggles had penetrated a few miles through the landslide after an hour and encountered the wall.

Deciding to take no chances, Victor told Wiggles to retreat and decided to send Henry in. Compared to Wiggles, the Apocalypse Horseman was far more expendable, cheaper to replace, and could convey more detailed information over their connection. Sadly, due to Henry's ground-based abilities—and Victor opting for air travel—the poor undead had little to do these last few floors and was likely more bored than Victor.

Henry was happy to accept the order, and after being dropped off on the ground by his dragon mount, he dashed through the spacious tunnel left behind by Wiggles. His hooves echoed through the metal tube as he made quick progress and, before long, arrived at the desired location.

Through Henry's eyes, Victor saw the castle walls. Surprisingly the only part of the damaged wall was the part Alice's void mana spell had impacted. All Victor's spell had done was widen the hole from a few inches to a few meters.

Receiving the go-ahead, Henry slowly trotted his way through the hole. His spear was pointed forward, and his breathing slowed. Other than the occasional popping from air being superheated by the smoldering rock, the space past the castle wall was deathly silent.

The castle wall was a few meters thick, and Victor noted through the connection that the wall was either an illusion or fake. The inside casing of the wall was a dull green metal—certainly not grey stone. Henry made his way through the hole and onto the other side...

"What the hell is that doing here?" Victor exclaimed, and Alice tensed beside him. Her mana shield had relaxed slightly and now showed her anxious face. "What is it?" She pressed. Victor rarely freaked out like that, so it must have been something shocking.

"It's... a computer. An old one likely made long ago. Still has the box monitor surrounded by aged plastic."

"A what? Computer?" Alice tried to remember if such a thing had ever gone through the auction house, but she had never heard of such a thing. Maybe it was a relic from the void?

Through the connection, Victor checked out the rest of the room. It was a rather massive space, surrounded by dull green metal on all sides. Victor found it impressive that the room was structurally supporting an entire mountain above it and not showing any signs of struggling.

Apart from the old computer that sat on a simple wooden table, there was nothing else.

"Approach it," Victor commanded, and Henry obeyed. The Horseman cautiously approached the foreign object. It radiated off an immense amount of mana in waves as if supplying the entire floor itself. The screen was on, showing a single line of blue text on an otherwise black screen in a text that Henry didn't recognize, but Victor did.

[Login]

"Step back. Don't touch it." Victor rushed towards the tunnel, and Alice quickly followed. There was no way Victor would allow Henry to inherit or gain anything. He needed it for himself.

Henry obliged and waited for his master to arrive, but he never lowered his spear and maintained his surroundings—no matter how devoid of life they were.

Minutes later, Victor shot through the hole and surprisingly fit in the space without issues. He checked his status, and a new debuff appeared: (Fatal Mana Sickness[-100 stat points a second]). Silently cursing, Victor reached out a claw and carefully moved the mouse. The yellowy-tinted plastic mouse scraped across the surface, and a white arrow appeared—the screen brightened up as if it had been on power saving mode.

Victor hovered over the only option presented to him, and with a silent prayer, he clicked [Login], and a new popup appeared.

A NOTE FROM XKARNATION

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A NOTE FROM XKARNATION

And (N)one Shall Remain [An Isekai LitRPG Lovecraftian Deconstructive Dark Progression Fantasy]

Cool novel, check it out!

The dim room lit up with an azure blue as an expansive runic formation engraved into the dull green metal floor sprung to life—the old computer blue-screened, and a green laser scanned the entire room like something out of a sci-fi movie.

[Error: Dungeon entity not found]

[Login failed]

There was a flash of mana, and everyone found themselves back outside. Surrounded by endless emerald-rolling hills littered with golden petals and wandering golems.

"Okay, what the hell was that," Alice said, and Victor also wanted to know the answer. Shaking his head, he replied, "Not sure. I have encountered those things before, but they could never do that... But a computer casting spells doesn't seem so impossible."

"What is a computer, though? Some kind of artifact?"

"Similar," Victor responded. "It's a tool to automate tasks too repetitive or complex for humans... but they are often rather limited in their ability to affect the real world. But if a computer could use magic—that changes everything."

Victor had been pursuing a computer science degree back on Earth and was an avid user of them for entertainment and work purposes. Although he felt like a caveman discovering fire for the first time after seeing an actual working computer.

Computers in this world made him question everything around him—especially the system. Was the Goddess that gifted him this life real? Was what he saw an actual cosmic entity or merely a computer program? 'Wait, don't be silly. The fact there are computers in a world doesn't make it a simulation or mean people or things don't exist. They are merely a tool, one of many.'

"Automate tasks?" Alice rubbed her chin, "Don't we have golems for that? Isn't a computer just a golem that can use magic?"

Victor hummed as he mulled over her words. In a way, the golems were somewhat similar. Or at least the ones on this floor were. 'Would Rock be artificial intelligence, then? It seems smart enough. Wait... what gave Rock his intelligence? The system? Doesn't that make Rock a way for the system to directly interact with the world?'

The sound of rubble moving made Victor look over to the collapsed mountain. Even from here, he could see waves of mana dancing across the surface of the rubble, and soon enough, boulders began rolling up the landslide and fusing in place. The trembling and noise were like a volcano going off as the entire mountain slowly pieced itself together.

It was another impossible sight that reminded Victor of the true power magic held over the world. Genus seemed to fly back down from the floating platform and join them to witness the spectacle.

Victor didn't blame Genus for running away and therefore didn't press the matter. It was a display of insubordination, but Victor made a rash decision that could have cost all three of them their lives. Ultimately, Genus couldn't contribute much to the wall's destruction or kill whatever came out. 'But if he starts defying my orders when I put him on the dragon throne, then I will end him. Immediately. No questions asked.'

An hour passed, and finally, the very last rock rolled up the steep mountain edge and perched itself on the top. A golem trod in the distance, this one far larger than the one Victor had slain. It seemed unfazed by the mountain that had just reconstructed itself and took one look at the dull grey castle wall without a single blemish or hole—ignored it and decided to chew on an amethyst stalagmite nearby instead.

"So that's why such a dull color was chosen." Victor was happy that one of the many mysteries around the place had been solved. Whether the golems were color-blind or programmed to ignore grey things, the designer of the computer's container clearly knew what they were doing.

Alice frowned as she watched the scene. "I don't feel any mana anymore."

Victor realized that was true. He had only noticed the room initially due to how it stood out compared to the sparkling scenery. However, with the mountain fixed, the dense mana that had suffocated the area had dissipated, and from this distance, Victor couldn't tell there would be anything unusual past the wall.

Floating closer... it wasn't until he had crossed a mile of emerald hills and stood around twenty meters from the wall did he feel the sudden suffocating mana leaking through the wall. 'The computer said I wasn't a dungeon entity and teleported me outside, meaning it has powers over teleportation. What if that computer is how a dungeon entity moves between floors?'

Victor hadn't seen any evidence of a dungeon master or something managing the dungeon. Maybe they moved and pulled strings from the shadows? 'Is there a way for me to become a dungeon entity?' Victor didn't know, but one thing was sure, he needed to find out.

Directing the zombie dragon that had been Henry's mount with his mind, Victor commanded the black dragon to soar down through the sky and land in front of the castle wall, just outside its mana range. "The dragon will guard this place and help me keep track of where it is."

"Do you think we passed rooms like these without knowing it?" Genus asked, and that was an exciting thought. If there was one on this floor, maybe there was one on every floor?

Victor entered the black ocean within his mind and saw a sparkling night sky. The number of undead under his command had reached an astronomical amount, although most were flies, earthworms, and a floor of weak skeletons. Victor hadn't bothered to bring the flies to this floor. They were weak and annoying to regularly manage. Also, the constant beat of their wings produced a tremendous amount of noise that made Victor feel deaf. 'But they are perfect for the job. Scouting is their specialty.'

With an order that consumed a disturbing amount of mana, Victor saw the flecks of light in his black ocean begin to spread out across the black sky. The order was simple: find areas of high mana concentration. Some false positives were inevitable, but even those areas could have a treasure or lead to a secret zone.

"I have sent my undead to investigate. The flies and worms will work their way up, and the skeletons will check the first ten floors." Victor said before flying back to the floating platform. "Whatever the result, it does not change our objective. Let's keep moving down."

***

A few days later, Victor and his crew made it to the 72nd floor, and a skeleton on the 2nd floor had found something. The first floor of the dungeon was the meadow with the dragon eggs, and then the next nine floors were the graveyard.

Victor hadn't put much thought into it, but it was rather odd that the first couple of floors were just thousands of undead human skeletons, some even wearing or wielding human weapons such as chipped swords or dented helmets. 'From what I've seen so far, the dungeon doesn't have the ability to create items like that... all it can do is distort nature. So where did all those undead-wielding human items come from...'

"Alice."

The girl was lying peacefully on the platform, her legs dangling off the edge. Unfortunately, the golems were relatively rare and seemed to net no experience while being incredibly hard to kill unless she utilized void mana, so she was left with nothing to do. She tilted her head to Victor's call with a smile. "Yea?"

"You know the graveyard floors? Is there a story behind it?"

Alice returned to staring at the slowly passing fake sky. "Well... there used to be a city surrounding the Grand Dungeon. But when the dragons arrived, people retreated into the dungeon for shelter. But with the city destroyed, the people tried to live down here...

"Ah. I assume that didn't last long."

Alice stifled a laugh. "According to the records, they lasted a few weeks until the dragons chased them down here. Most perished, but some managed to delve deeper and deeper. Why do you ask?"

"Well..." Victor concentrated on the skeleton that had alerted him to a high mana concentration and described to Alice the situation. The poor thing had tumbled down a ravine and smashed itself into pieces. But as it lay in the stream, a few meters from it, embedded into a cave, was the front of a crumbling building. It looked like some monastery Victor would see in pictures from ancient china. Complete with pillars and a grand-looking entrance overrun with weeds. But the mana emanating from it was similar to the green metal room on the 71st floor.

Alice hummed to herself as she thought over the possibilities. "The records are inconclusive as nobody managed to escape to write the records, and nobody has been here since the dragons took charge, but the evidence of a building like that suggests humans may have hidden underground for a while..."

"No way they are the ones managing this place, right?" Victor refused to believe that Delvers, from an age long ago, had such power.

"Unlikely. The Grand Dungeon has operated since human records began. But the chance of humans building a teleportation network throughout the dungeon? Certainly plausible. We have similar ways of transportation between cities on the surface, but they are used exclusively by the nobles due to the high cost."

Victor nodded and directed more skeletons on that floor to investigate the building and the rest of the ravine. He honestly should have done this sooner with how much free time he had back then... but the thought of exploring every inch of these continent-sized floors escaped him. 'I need to be more vigilant. I have resources at my disposal, and I should use them fully. What kind of overlord doesn't have complete control over his territory?'

It was time to get to work.

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Victor had already confirmed during his Grand Dungeon adventure that the more extreme the environment, the more mana required by the dungeon to create it. So perhaps unsurprisingly, floors 70 to 80, made entirely out of gems of every type, were tiny compared to the arctic floors, with each floor only taking a few days to traverse. Nevertheless, it took Victor only a month to get to the 80th floor, where a spire of encrusted gems shimmered like a rainbow beacon and dominated the land.

Without delay, the group touched down and made their way down the all-too-familiar crystal steps. Victor cast a quick look at Genus, and the dragon looked terrible. Mostly skin and bones. Luckily the floors had only taken a month... another week or two, and Genus would have starved to death.

Similar to the arctic floors, a land made of gems and golems didn't provide much in the way of edible food for fleshy creatures such as dragons. Luckily Genus could hibernate somewhat to alleviate his hunger pains and reduce the body's consumption of his stored fat and muscle. He could also gain some nutrients from the ambient mana, but it was only a temporary solution.

As the group made their way down the crystal stairs, Victor checked up on the various groups of undead that had discovered areas of highly dense mana. 'I have found three so far. One on the first graveyard floor, another on the first ocean floor, and finally, the one on the gem floor. I could have uncovered more if the dragons didn't keep interfering.'

The dragons had given up chasing Victor; with over twenty of their kin slaughtered and the arctic floors nearly impossible to cross without much preparation, they had changed tactics and focused on eliminating his undead on sight. 'Doesn't help that dragons are extremely mana sensitive, and my undead leak a lot of death affinity mana everywhere they go.'

It took weeks for the skeletons to traverse down the ravine to the point that one could actually walk up to the building's door to inspect it with their legs intact. Victor had debated consuming an ungodly amount of stat points to blast the door open, but he eventually decided against it. 'I have no idea what the next few floors entail, and exposing the location of the building to the dragons that are very active on the upper floors is a terrible idea.'

There was something similar to a sunken submarine on the ocean floor, but again he had no way to open it without expending around a hundred times more stat points than he did to the castle wall... 'And will it even work without Alice's void mana to make a small hole first? All my five million stat points did was make the hole wider.'

Victor discarded these thoughts as the group arrived at the base of the crystal staircase. For Genus's sake, Victor hoped this floor had some food, even if it was slugs.

Without delay, they passed the door and marveled at the sight. The ground was slightly rocky, covered in purple weeds and patches of black grass. A few yellow-leaved trees littered the land, but the weirdest part was the horizon.

A few hundred meters away, the land simply ended. Only an empty void lay between them and distant land. Surrounding their little island were hundreds, if not thousands, of other floating islands littering the horizon. Some had beautiful waterfalls cascading down their sides, and others had molten rock being hurled out into the abyss by active volcanos.

Some of the islands were massive, and others were tiny, like the one they stood on. Bridges of mana connected the various islands in a dazzling network across the void.

"Well... I did not expect this." Victor was stunned. It was like something out of a Chinese cultivator novel, the place all those lofty immortals cultivated so hard to reach. A realm of floating pavilions with servants awaiting their every beck and call. But for now, they were all monster-infested islands.

Genus sniffed the air before opening his eyes from a long sleep and saw a creature on the edge of their island. It was like an armadillo but larger and with scales. With a flap of his wings, Genus launched himself at the poor thing and, in one fell swoop, grabbed the creature in his jaws, and with a sickening crunch, the armadillo cracked in half like an egg and tumbled down the dragon's gullet. Genus turned to Victor with blood dripping from his teeth and a giant grin on his face. "Now, this is perfect."

"How so?" Victor said. Of course, the food was a welcome change, but what made this perfect?

"I can feel it even from here," Genus picked a piece of bloody scale from between his teeth with an ivory claw. "Every one of these islands has a different type of mana and monsters for me to eat. I could stay here forever..."

Alice nodded to the side in agreement. "Mhm, it feels like an all-you-can-eat buffet down here."

Victor still hadn't seen any of the major cities in this world, so he was still in the dark, but the mention of something familiar such as an all-you-can-eat buffet, made him think the world might be a little more advanced than the medieval era?

"Well, let's go explore, shall we? Unfortunately, with such dense mana of conflicting types, it's hard for me to pinpoint the direction of the tower to the next floor..." Victor said as he stroked his chin. His tried and tested method of heading toward the area with the densest mana and letting Wiggles take the lead would be impossible here.

"Can we go there first?" Alice pointed toward a floating island in the far distance. Victor had to admit it looked breathtaking, with its mountains shrouded in a cloud of fog and waterfalls cascading off its sides into the endless void below.

"Sure."

***

Toby enjoyed the summer breeze on his enormous body as he sprawled beside a lake near Necron. The birds had returned, so the symphony of summer blessed his ears. A small snow-white squirrel-like creature hopped on his body and ran across his chest. Likely thinking his grey skin was a rock feature rather than belonging to the most fearsome monster in the cursed forest... Toby chuckled deeply at that thought. "Andrew likely holds that title amongst the merchants that try to set up shop here."

Seeing the sun, flanked by fluffy white clouds, had claimed the highest point in the sky, Toby realized it was lunchtime. Although his body had no need for food, he had regained his sense of taste with his evolution, and what was the point of being the boss of a city if he couldn't enjoy its luxuries for himself?

Rising to his full height, Toby towered over the crystal clear lake and grinned at his distorted reflection. He had always enjoyed his intimidating nature, which had helped a lot in his line of work. But to become something so fierce by simply existing... now that was perfect. He reached up and caressed the black horn jutting out of his forehead. His equally black claws scratched the glossy surface and failed to leave a mark.

Chuckling to himself, Toby took one last look around with his single golden eye before turning around and trekking up an embankment. Once over, he walked down a well-trodden dirt path that took him back to Necron's Eshnar-facing gate. The toll road that was now extremely busy was in the far distance, but Toby stayed away from it. The merchants had expressed their displeasure at his presence, especially around the horses, as they would try to run away when they saw him.

Of course, Toby could ignore their complaints, but it was bad for business. Even though they were the only road through the cursed forest, new ones that took a longer route around Necrons territory had begun construction, but they kept getting interrupted and destroyed in the night by the undead.

His undead.

Toby strolled down the path and passed by some open-air mines. Goblins wearing poorly made cloaks that concealed their true nature slaved away under the sun. Toby could see death attribute mana swirling through the air and producing an invisible shield against the suns burning rays, protecting the undead from disintegration. Toby had never heard of undead that could move under sunlight before, even with the help of clothing. 'Master continues to surprise me...'

Although a tiny voice in the back of his head compelled him to obey his new master, it was not intrusive but rather a gentle but constant reminder that he was only alive due to the master's kindness. That would be true, but the master had also been the one to skewer him, so kindness was the wrong word. 'However, this new form and purpose I have? Now that is definitely kindness. What other evil overlord allows his minions so much free reign?'

It certainly helped with his motivation. Obviously, they hadn't signed a contract, and the eldritch being may take everything from him at a moment's notice, with or without fault on his part. But that was also okay. He was undead in his service. So it only made sense their relationship wasn't built on mutual ground.

"But five months have passed, and all he has done is provide help and intervene when necessary. Apart from that, he has been mostly radio silent, letting me and Andrew build Necron in our image." Toby mumbled as he passed the mine and came upon a training field.

The sound of weapons colliding rang through the summer air as a group of goblins sparred with a girl. Seeing one of his new apprentices was hard at work, Toby decided to walk over.

"Lora!" Toby thundered as he walked over with heavy steps that made everyone freeze.

"H-hi!" The skinny girl responded sheepishly. She was one of the slaves brought with the vampires as food. Her features were unremarkable. Simple brown hair in a bun, blue eyes, and a standard figure. Her unusual ability to handle weapons and the two tiny horns on her forehead was the only interesting thing about her appearance. She claimed to not have any combat classes, but she fought with a certain instinct that one was either born with or gained through high-level skills.

The other slaves brought with the vampires had been set to work in the various inns or restaurants. One boy was even being used as a stable boy. Toby had offered to let them return to the Mystical Realm, but they had all refused.

"How's progress?" Toby asked his apprentice.

Lora grinned, twirled a crude wooden spear overhead, and alongside the whistling wind, she struck out like a viper and obliterated a goblin's skull with a well-aimed and quick strike. Then, as the headless goblin fell forward with a thump, she twirled the spear again, returned it to a resting position in her hand, and gave a slight bow.

Toby clapped his enormous hands and chuckled. "Excellent." He had no idea if it was excellent or not, as he had never used a spear, but he liked to pretend he was an expert.

"Thank you—" Lora was interrupted by a bell going off in Necron that echoed throughout the land.

Toby didn't hesitate and broke into a sprint—Necron needed him.

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56. The Flames of Regret

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A NOTE FROM XKARNATION

Return of Magic [Progression, Litrpg]

Sci-fi novel from a fellow author that you might enjoy :)

Clouds of dense black smoke bellowed over the center of Necron. The constant ringing of bells masked people's hysterical screams and shouts—Toby increased his pace and charged down the Eshnar toll road, which had come to a standstill. Some merchants prepared to return and escape the chaos, while others tried to push to the front of the long queue.

As Toby thundered past like an escaped rhino, horses tried to jolt back, causing their owners to shout with rage as they attempted to relax their skittish stallions. Toby didn't care for the merchant's displeasure—something terrible had happened in Necron.

Approaching the gate, a single goblin stood on a raised platform and yelled for the merchants to stay back. Unfortunately, the usual ogres under Toby's control were nowhere to be found to assist the goblin in holding back the restless merchants. So Toby used the undead mental network to locate his men. They were around three streets away... near the fire.

The ground trembled as the One-Eyed Demon King barreled down the congested roads, taking two steps at a time. Terrified people flung themselves aside to avoid being squashed by the giant who didn't stop for anything. One, two, and finally, three streets flew by. Toby skidded around a street corner and caught sight of the scene. Pinned to the ground by two ogres was a man. He was dressed in standard merchant robes, but if one looked closely, he seemed a little too muscular and well-shaven to be a mere merchant...

Turning his enormous head, Toby appraised the damage with his one eye darting left and right. A large warehouse, situated behind three large wooden inns, was ablaze, and he could feel the heat. The inns had also started catching fire, with their back walls cracking as they burned. Thick smoke bellowed out as the thatched roof finally caught fire, sealing the fate of the three inns.

"Shit. That warehouse holds half of our food supply!" Toby started panicking. Necron had grown tremendously over the last month and had about five thousand people staying in the many inns every day and another three hundred permanent residents that worked in the inns and shops.

Since food had to be imported, other than rice and wheat, the rest of the food, like fruits and vegetables, went off too quickly, so they only kept a few days' supplies at any given time.

But that was no longer a concern. The majority of buildings in Necron were constructed out of wood. So how could he stop the fire before it spread any further? In other cities like Eshnar and the Empire, they had trained mages blessed by the goddess of oceans and even some fire mages trained to handle situations like this...

"But we only have undead," Toby muttered as he desperately looked around for a solution. He could obliterate anything with his eye laser, smash castle walls, and tank anything. But to put out a city fire? Impossible. It was out of his skill set. Over the link, Toby quickly ordered the goblins in the mine he had passed earlier to somehow bring water from the lake to Necron. 'They have buckets filled with mined stone, but are weaved of wood and have holes... not to mention the lake is a ten to thirty-minute walk away.'

Another solution was the wells. Toby had memorized most of Necron, so he quickly dashed down a street and found a well in the middle of a small garden. His enormous hands struggled to spin the wheel to bring the bucket up. After thirty seconds, Toby stared at the tiny wooden bucket in the palm of his hand that was no bigger than the tip of his thumb.

Toby took the bucket anyway and returned to the fire. It had spread, and now all three inns were burning alongside the massive warehouse. Feeling stupid holding the tiny bucket of water while standing before the blaze, Toby threw the water at the fire and then turned to the still pinned-down man.

"You did this?" Toby leaned in with a snarl. "Why?"

The man had a bloody grin and a smashed-up nose, but he laughed manically. "Corrupted bastards deserve nothing." The man spat to the side, and a bloodied tooth rolled on the floor.

Before Toby could open his mouth, another explosion went off, this time in the east of the city, close to the Empire-facing gate. Toby's face hardened—this was no one-off accident. It was an attack. Then another explosion, this time closer to Andrew's palace.

"The Empire will conquer this place." The man that was still pinned to the floor shouted. "Everything belongs to us!" Toby strolled over and placed his foot over the man, who suddenly shut up and stared at his impending doom with wide eyes. "No... please..."

Toby didn't waste a second and brought his foot down. Blood splashed outwards around his lowered foot, and he felt something stuck between his toes. But that wasn't important right now. He needed to get Nercron under control.

***

After traversing hundreds of islands, Victor noticed something.

"They are going up." Which was an odd concept because he was sure they were heading down.

Genus looked behind them and noted that the island they had just left was slightly lower than the one they currently stood on. He then looked forward and pointed out that the next island in the distant void seemed on par with theirs, just like all the others. "Mhm... it seems space is relative here."

That was a crazy thought, but it checked out. All the islands behind them seemed lower and lower like a staircase, whereas all the following islands appeared on the same plane of existence as them.

"So..." Alice looked around the molten wasteland of an island they found themselves on, "Are we going up or down?"

Honestly, Victor had no clue. He had slaughtered every monster they had come across and turned them into more undead. He then directed them to explore other islands to expand his reach and influence. 'Since going towards the area with the greatest mana isn't feasible, if I visit every single island in this void, I will find something eventually.' There was a certain air of mystery and finality to this floor. It did not behave like the other floors, and for how diverse and extreme some of the many biomes they had passed were, this floor was way past its mana limit.

'Unless each island is an individual floor? Or perhaps each layer of islands?' It was a brain ache to think about, and Victor was out of options. All he could do was soldier on and hope his undead either stumbled upon something, or he would find it. Find what? He wasn't quite sure... the previous floors had towers that led down, but was there even a down when all that lay below them was the endless void?

"Master..." A voice sounded in the back of Victor's head. It was loud and held a certain gravity—a startling change because Victor usually heard Andrew through the network.

"Toby?" Victor replied. "Is that you? What's the problem?"

Toby was head of security for Necron and had little input on daily affairs. So if Toby was contacting him, something terrible must have happened.

"Necron's on fire. We have no way to put it out." Toby's anxious tone made Victor immediately stop what he was doing and peer through his subordinate's eyes. Sure enough, as Toby had said, there were clouds of smoke blocking out the sky and many burning buildings.

"Quick. Approach each building. I can stop the fires." Victor watched as Toby lumbered closer to the fire. "Raise your hand. I will use an ice spell." Victor had no water or fire spells, but he did have [Freezing Cone], which would help suffocate the fires.

Toby did as instructed, and ice shot out his hands like a flamethrower. As a result, the burning buildings were flash-frozen, and the fires were snuffed out. With the fire stopped, Toby began to run towards the next source of smoke.

"There's more?" Victor felt pain wasting many stat points to save a few cheap buildings. If not for the fact that fire can spread quickly and destroy the entire town, there's no way he would bother with such a thing.

"Yes," Toby said as he practically parkoured around stranded merchant convoys as their horses had run off in the chaos or were refusing to move. "There are three so far. I believe the people who started the fires to be working for the Empire."

Victor knew some nobles planned to send an army sometime soon... but he never expected a terrorist attack from them. 'Smart... very smart. I should have seen this coming.' Victor had complete confidence in Toby's ability to face an army alone, but what was the point if the town was destroyed in the process? Unfortunately, it seemed the nobles had figured that out as well. Toby was known as the Demon King of Necron, few had seen him fight, but his presence alone gave him such a title.

For some reason, Victor had expected the nobles to turn up outside Necron's gate on horseback, send a runner to declare war, and from then on, they would have a fair battle. Does this world have no honor? Due to Victor assuming this way of war would be the case, he neglected to keep tight security in Necron, such as searching bags or caravans for dangerous items or stationing more guards in the streets.

'I was no city planner or tactician back on Earth.' Victor thought as he saw the destruction through Toby's eyes. 'This is a good lesson, if nothing else.' Necron was more a personal project than his end goal and therefore lacked his attention. Especially after seeing ten floors worth of gems, the importance on obtaining wealth through Necron had greatly diminished.

'Should I even bother saving it...' Victor thought as Toby reached the second fire near Andrew's palace. Toby saw Andrew peeking through a window with wide eyes at the flames surrounding his white stone palace. His beautiful garden, which Toby knew Andrew had invested much time and money into, was now a barren wasteland of ash.

'Maybe I should save it.' Victor hated seeing his subordinate's hard work go up in flames. But, on the other hand, even if Necron was ultimately pointless in the grand scheme of things, he had hundreds of millions of life force to spare, so spending a million on saving Necron due to his ignorance seemed fair enough.

As Toby ran around putting out the fires, a thought crossed the void creature's mind 'Has the attack from the nobles already begun?'

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03.12.2022, 02:52

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