"You have evaded my summons, only to come here by yourself?" He grinned.
"I don't come to make some sort of deal, only to tell you to back off."
The king frowned, "Hmm, well I'm afraid that I am the king of this country and you'll have to follow my orders. Loyally serve me or face treason."
"Don't think so, why are you so obsessed with me anyway?"
"A few days ago a giant blue sun appeared in the night sky, lighting up the night as if it were day. There has never been a spell known that is as powerful as that." The king pointed at me, "and you were the cause of that spell. That is why, because I want the most powerful caster that this nation has ever seen."
I paused, thinking through how to best reply. Ultimately I came up with no snarky remarks or ways to weave about his point.
"What would I get in return?" I asked instead.
"You would get all the best resources to cast spells, hunt monsters and the like." The king started to list off various commodities that would benefit a caster class adventurer, though none of it interested me.
"I'll just stop you there." I said, holding a hand out to the king. "All I want is to be left alone." The king opened his mouth to speak but I started before he could. "Nothing you can provide me will be useful accept information. But I can't provide you with anything that isn't material so you've got to shut up with this long term stuff and just think, what do I want, what does my kingdom want right now?" I stood, awaiting an answer. The king was taken aback by my bluntness, clearly he wasn't used to being spoken to this way, on an even footing. For a moment he stood, stunned, but then he righted himself and his kingly air returned.
"What can you provide?" He asked, strolling back to his throne, turning his back on me pointedly, to show that he didn't fear me.
"Anything." I said as he was turned away.
"If it's anythi-" his dialogue was cut short as he turned to take a seat on his throne, seeing that I had set up a throne the same as his but made from concentrated mana so it looked like a space nebula. "Anything." He sat and thought.
"You only have to provide me information in exchange." I reinforced my offer.
"Hmm, I would want." He paused. "A large treasury of mythril. It's weight equal to this throne and the steps leading up to it." He grinned.
"Sure, you'll have to provide me an example of the metal, I've never seen it before." I didn't like saying it but it had to be said. The king looked surprised but not too surprised.
"I had heard from Hulnerg that you were a fallen with amnesia but I hadn't believed it." He nodded. "If you want a sample you'll have to open the throne room up again."
"Sure." I dropped the barrier.
Immediately the doors flung open, a variable army of guards stormed in, coming to a halt as they saw my unearthly throne and the king holding his hand up leisurely.
"It's okay, this being means me no harm and you would only perish if you were to fight it. Bring in a lump of mythril for me." The king ordered, and immediately a squadron from the main force split off and marched back through the door. "The rest of you, go back to your duties. There is no need for alarm." The army saluted and marched back off.
"Good decision." I said, watching the army move away, I had realized when they came in that not one of them could've stood up to me. Somehow I had shot past all beings that I knew off to this god-like level of power.
"I have no desire to kill my guards because of an intruder that only wants information." The king nodded.
"What's this about Hulnerg? Who is that?" I asked.
"Not a who, a what. It's the town you fell on, the one you escaped without a sound, after being appraised to be a level one. Clearly you weren't."
"Yes, as you may have guessed."
"Rn'd and his friends gave me that copy of your appraisal from the witch. An ascended creature. Clearly you had influence over the appraisal process?"
"Yes." I lied. "I can control a great many other things as well." I pulled a coin from my storage and made it circle my ethereal hand.
"I see, so what is this information you wish to have?" The king asked, leaning forwards.
"What is the final ascension and what level is it achieved at?"
"I'm afraid that this information isn't readily available to me, I can call in my best scholars if you will allow it?" I realized that he actually thought himself inferior to me in that moment, he wouldn't step out of line or lie.
"Yes, bring them in."
--
"Mr Arcanum, we simply don't know what this final ascension you speak of is. No ascended in history has had any quests that refer to any ascension or a daily quest." The elven scholar grovelled before me. I had reverted back into my humanoid form, becoming a being of flesh. The king and his subjects were still greatly intimidated by me on my nebula like throne.
"It is alright, I have learnt things I didn't expect. King, we will still go through with the deal. Where is the mythril?" I asked.
"Bring the mythril in." The king announced.
A small elven woman came in bearing a lump of turquoise metal. I strode over to her, thanking her and retrieving the metal. I appraised it, learning the object's qualities. The metal was half as heavy as steel and was twice as strong, the king was smart to order it in weight. I placed a hand to the floor before the king's throne, black veins spread across the stone and in a split second, a pit deeper than the room was tall and twenty feet wide appeared in the floor. I then promptly filled it with mythril, it became a smooth surface of turquoise metal, like someone had designed this piece of floor out of it.
"There is your metal, thank you for doing business with me." I stood, looking at the awestruck king. I then used incandescent travel to move to the doorway of the dungeon that I had given as an option to Fulcrum. In a flash of light, the throne room became an open field with a mound of orange dirt in front of me, several large holes places on the mound the size of a three story building.
I checked my quest log for the dungeon quest.
DUNGEON QUEST - NEST OF THE KRINE
OBJECTIVES:
SLAY THE QUEEN KRINE - 0/1
SLAY 500 KRINE - 0/500
DESTROY THE EGGS - 0/750
REWARDS:
+250 ABILITY POINTS
+40 SKILL POINTS
+50 TO ALL STATS
DUNGEON SPECIFIC ARTIFACT
DUNGEON SPECIFIC ARTIFACT
LOOT BOX
"If they don't know when the final ascension is, then I'll find it myself." I said to myself as I strode into the dungeon, body enhanced by mana.
The Krine were no problem for my wildly powerful body as I ripped and tore through their ranks, the Krine were a race of large ants, the workers were just like ants except the size of small cars. The soldiers were larger, the size of a pickup truck and they stood on two legs, razor sharp claws wielded like swords. I tore through them too, as i made my way through the maze of a dungeon that this place was.
It took less than an hour to fill out the slaying of 500 Krine, the hoard was so large I didn't notice when it passed the number. After I did check it, I set my sights on finding the eggs. I unleashed the full power of the mana within me, time grinding to a halt with a wave of Krine in front of me, and I flew through the wall, crushing exoskeletons with the slightest nudge.
The nest area wasn't difficult to find, all I did was follow the trail of mana and it was along the way, I burnt the eggs using the lord flame, leveling it up to 20 which was a bonus. The eggs were like large, semi-see-through, cocoons, attached to the walls, ceilings and floors by thin layers of dark brown membrane. Once I was done burning the eggs, the surfaces of the tunnel were all dented in numerous areas where the eggs had popped.
"Now onto the Queen." I said to myself. I had long since left the swarm behind and couldn't even hear them behind me. I followed the flow of mana.
The queen was a massive version of the worker ant, except it's exoskeleton on its forehead was far larger and more ornate.