The miasma finally dispersed, rolling up back to me and vanishing into my body leaving the results of its work on its knees. Gone was the black steel lusterless armor, the screamer helmet, and the shadowy black mane.
In its place was a being so vile I restrained myself from shuddering at the vulgarity of it.
Gone was the Knight Commander. In its place knelt a shadowed being, a cloak of thick miasma shrouding it, its hands covered by the same metal gloves. I watched it till it looked up. Inside the cloak was a skull-like face with blue fire tendrils oozing from it. While the rest of its body was hidden by the miasma cloak I knew already what it was even before the runes appeared.
[Spirit Reaper
Name - N/A
Species - Pawn Spirit (Horserider)
Rank - Mythical S
Tier - Fallen I
Class - Soul Hunter.]
[Title - Border Spirit of the Deadlands, Adventurer's Bane]
[Miasma - 5,500
Ozes - 9,000]
[First spirit lifeform of Nameless. A spirit reforged from the bones of the wronged dead. A will given purpose and fed strength by Nameless. A true bane to life.
PASSIVE INHERITED - DEADS WRATH - Casts a terror of the death realm onto the living.
-We're all glad you can make spirits as well. -]
[Border Spirit of the Deadlands - Riding without stop through the boundaries of the Deadlands it hunts all who trespass into its detection. x2 to reflexes during hunts.]
[Adventurer's Bane - The first true hidden dungeon boss. A consistent danger to all trespassers.
x2 to strength.]
-Would you like to name your first undead -
- Names hold power -
For some reason, the runes I could see for this one were more. First was the race, then its species, and finally its class.
I quickly thought of one name I liked. 'Orion' Like with Octos the spirit flinched but otherwise made no reaction to my naming.
Finally, the pawn spirit rose from its position and then without a glance at me walked right to its fallen broadsword and picked it up. Instantly the blade shimmered the metal engulfed suddenly in an incandescent blue fire that melted the iron and reforged the weapon into a longsword.
Even after the forging the sword kept burning.
"Show off". Muttering I watched it walk over to the horse standing where it had been left. . At first, it neighed in defiance glaring down at the spirit. Yet it was unable to halt the spirit from gripping its reins.
The next moment was instant, the blue fire sweeping over the horse as it neighed in either pain or exhilaration. Then the fire was absorbed into its body only its eyes and nostrils streaming tendrils of the flame. Even the bits of torn-off flesh on the horse were closed up with flickering blue skin in its place and a new horn, blue in color or was it the flame rising from the center of its forehead like a unicorn.
The show was cool reminding me of a particular scene from a previous life, fire, and a horse, or was it a bike? Ah. This cursed fragmented memory of mine.
"I'm sure it's strong enough to cross over the moat in one jump. Must be to have go..." I paused for a moment.
'Wait a minute. How'd you get over the moat.' Taking a glance around me I coughed. 'Oh'. It seemed I had been so focused on finding the perfect bodies I had crossed out of the castle grounds a while ago and was already in the city part.
Turning I looked to Octos who somehow had a gleaming look of burning wrongfulness in his flaming eyes.
'He must have had to go through the moat hurling those bodies along.' I reasoned. ', I feel your pain bro'.
I turned just as the spirit mounted his horse and then cast a gaze on me. At that moment I felt like I knew what he wanted to do. 'So it's like that eh'.
Mental connection.
It would be useful.
At the same time, I noticed some scenes in my head that were clearly from him.
It seems I had found the very reason why most adventurers had died in the Deadlands. The Adventurer's Bane was this former knight now turned spirit.
"That explains the title and the hundred souls I would have gotten if I used Glutton". I commented while nodding my head. Looking up to realize that it hadn't moved I nodded. This meant that it now listened to me even if it acted prideful.
With a mental confirmation aimed at him, I watched as he guided the horse to turn, steering the new spirit stallion to race for the edge of the Deadlands. His job as the watcher of the boundaries not yet done.
"I'll need more of those. If I can get more all over the boundaries then i can calmly focus on doing stuff in here." With that aside, I turned to focus on the Octos.
" Where were we" I dashed back to stand before the new seven. All were Hellwalkers just like Octo with no difference except their lack of armor and well the golden shine that came from an archangel bone.
"Go find something suitable to adorn yourselves with for now. " I commanded letting the Octos walk off while I scanned their runes. Their runes all melded into one surprising me as I watched.
[Undead
Name - Octos
Species - Hellwalker
Rank - Mythical S-
Tier - N/A]
[Title - Royal Guards of Lord Nameless.
Boon - Cohorts Passive - Stronger as one]
When I focused I managed to keep their runes from melding and saw their individual runes as such.
[Undead
Name - Octos
Species - Hellwalker
Rank - Legendary A+
Tier - Fallen]
[Title - Royal Guard of Lord Nameless]
[Miasma - 4,000
Ozes - 4,000]
Compared to Octo the main they were weak. Octo's rune showed something new though as I scanned it again to note the difference.
[Undead
Name - Octo the First,
Species - Hellwalker
Rank - Mythical S+
Tier - Fallen]
[Title - High Royal Guard of Lord Nameless]
[Miasma - 10,000
Ozes - 10,000]
"Hmmh. So they need to level up their tiers to increase their ranks then. And there's the title and naming. Why Octo the first? Must be because he got made and named first." I nodded in understanding before I focused on the titles.
[High Royal Guard of Lord Nameless.
Grants x2 to miasma and strength when defending the Lord
x2 to Strength and Ozes when in war situations]
[Royal Guard of Lord Nameless.
Grants x3 to miasma and strength when defending the Lord
x3 to Strength and Ozes when in war situations.
Grants 2% of the Lord's strength when health falls below 20%]
"I think I'm going to enjoy this Lord thing.".
With the Octos spread out harvesting armor I turned my attention to another matter.
The moon had left the center of the sky slowly descending to the edge of the world. A new Sola was here.
I pulled up my runes eager to see how far I had progressed.
- New Skill - Bone Weave - Learned
- Bone Weave -
The first time is a charm second just means you might not be as dumb as assumed.
Innovations are smiled upon. Bone skeletons and warriors are boring. Craft something enigmatic. Scary. Only the best for a lord of your standing.
- New skill - Bone Weave detected as similar to Undead rise spell -
- Skill and Spell merged -
- New Spell - Undead Ascension - forged -
- Mass Undead Rise upgraded to Undead Mass Ascension -
-UNDEAD ASCENSION -
-TIER - DEVIL -
Raise the fallen whether righteous or evil to do battle for your cause. Their flesh remains strong, their bones grow sturdier, and full with powers once held by their frail husks the results are even more gruesome than before.
Cost - 100 mana per corpse.
-UNDEAD MASS ASCENSION -
-TIER- DEMON -
Raise the dead to guard your foes. Torment the living with your unholiness.
Cost - 10,000 mana/50 meters.
That meant I could not no matter how it was raise a weak skeleton soldier. They would always be stronger than normal undead though I was yet to find out how strong compared to the light factions or humans
For now, I found the next runes.
New Skill - Miasma Manipulation -
You already will the miasma within you. Now you show yourself the path to take, the shape you wish of it. You begin to see that it is not just a smog of black smoke to look powerful with.
- New Skill - Miasma Wave -
Spread a wave of miasma in any direction dealing unholy damage to any light-affiliated individual within it and healing all undead or dark-affiliated within it too.
Max range - 50 miles.
- New Skill - Undead Suppression -
Lord of the Deadlands. All must bow under your rule. Show them your might.
- New Skill - Undead Judgement -
Be the last say in all things. Judge unrighteously.
Glutton - Disassembles the selected undead with all energy within it, bones, skills, and essence. Can be devoured to increase strength.
- +100 str, +100Ern, +100 Souls
- Can also be used to upgrade any undead of choice -
- Kaizen - Forcefully infuse your miasma and Ozes into undead. Making it loyal and also enhancing or mutating it.
- IRA - Obliterate the undead from existence returning it to dust.
-Old Skill - Dodge - used -
- Old skill unbefitting -
-Old skill reforged -
- New skill - Untouched - learned -
- New skill - Untouched -
Swift on your feet despite your hulking mass. Evade sensed strikes with a 20% chance of delivering a counterstrike with a lethal blow.
-Due to the constant degrading of your abilities to match your opponent as a show of strength you have gained the ability - Nerf -
- NERF - for a set duration completely seal a decided amount of your capabilities.
- Warning - Unsealing the capabilities before the time allotted would lead to gruesome internal injuries and a temporary loss of 2% to all stats.
- Can be used on any dark affiliated individuals as long as your authority or might has been accepted or undeniable by the individual -
- Chances of success with light-affiliated individuals are low -
"That doesn't say it can't work. The chances are just low". I hummed with a smile. So far it felt like my skills and spells were working to help me control things.
The perfect ruler repertoire. Not yet complete but almost there.
My eyes flashed as I scanned my runes as a whole. Things were going well. For now, even though I was hardly tired mentally I wanted to rest. A thousand years inside a dark space might feel like rest but wasn't.
I flew back into the city finding my way to the Black Castle and into its mahogany doors. Ignoring the Bone throne I walked through the hallway and into the circular room where everything had started.
There I sat back to the wall wings stretched out to fold in front of me. My eyes drooped shut as I slept. My body resting finally.
******
Far to the distant west as the moon approached the edge riders adorned in gold armor and white capes with a carriage between them tore through a valley. Their numbers were nothing to compare to their hunters.
The sole carriage rumbled and shook as it justled on the bad path between the black mountains.
"For the thousandth time Kareem, yes. It is the only way. " The knight his golden armor dirtied with flecks of dirt and dried-up blood on them and all over his attire ducked down as a bolt sailed over his head.
"The tales are but that, tales. Meant to frighten babes and wayward children like you". The other man grumbled at being called wayward but kept silent.
" But the Black Castle, the Adventurer's Bane, the..."
" All lies to keep foolhardy ones from seeing the insides". the knight argued.
"But keep them from seeing what?" another soldier yelled out his body bouncing up as the steed galloped alongside its mates.
The knight was visibly silent before shrugging.
"Whatever it is. We cut it down as we always have." His eyes went to the carriage rumbling between their forces. A sigh of sadness escaped him. His eyes once dimmed earned a ferocious glare as he locked onto the chasers.
"We have no choice. They won't dare follow into the Deadlands," he announced.
"And if the..." the next man's words were cut off as the knight continued.
"And if they do. Then we give them a death befitting of their despicable kind". His words said he looked ahead to the edge of the path where a curve awaited. Once past the curve they would be within the first stretch of the Deadlands.
"Aiederen aid us" the knight whispered a fervent prayer that he doubted any one god would even hear. If the did, why even aid them.