Chapter 77
The storm of magic faded and deposited what had once been the pale elf on the ground. Around the form stood the four greater zombies, having been part of the spell. Id used the material left over from my defeated zombies, a large portion of my own death energy, and all of my mana.
The greater zombies also contributed energy from their death cores, but that hadnt been part of the main spell, that had been for its own purpose. My part of the ritual had finished several minutes ago and I was already recovering while the pale elf screamed, getting picked up by the magic before being smothered in a ball of bone and flesh, and huge amounts of death energy and death magic.
I didnt feel any guilt. Was the spell cruel, yes, but this elf had made a living out of turning people into what amounted to living zombies. At least when I created the zombies, their minds were gone. The people werent imprisoned inside their own mind, screaming.
The elfs fate was closer to what hed done to others, and even then it wasnt nearly as cruel. I essentially forcibly changed his race, broke his will, then upgraded him, and given him power. He wasnt trapped in his own mind, but he was no more able to defy me than any of my other creations currently with me.
As you know, there are, generally speaking, two types of undead: the living dead and the mindless dead. The living dead are created if a body is raised to life immediately after death and the kernel that represents the true soul is still present. That was the first step of what Id done. The inner part of the ritual essentially killed him then raised him to life. From my understanding, its a relatively painless way to go. I mean, his arms and legs are still broken and he was still in a lot of pain, but if youre going to become a living dead, do a ritual, dont have someone kill you and then raise you.
The second part of the spell was where most of my magic had gone. Even at my relatively low level, using a ritual to create a living dead isnt too difficult. However, the breaking of ones will to bind them into servitude was much more difficult, and something I normally avoided. But with the help of my four greater zombies adding their own unexpected will, helped the process. One did not have to enter the Mindscape to do this. It wasnt as thorough, but being bound in this way was also less intrusive. No one deserved to have their Mindscape pillaged and destroyed. We more suppressed it from the outside.
The third part of the spell was where all of the excess material had been rendered down and condensed. The living dead body transitioned into being a damned, the physical progression for living dead, and from there it continued to grow in power. I didnt know all of the different progression options for the undead, but unlike normal living creatures, undead creatures advanced and grew in different ways. Theoretically I believe its possible for a living dead to eventually become a Lich without having to go through the process I did.
Either way, now that his will was under my control, I let him shape the direction of his growth to a certain extent. It was unconscious effort on his part, I doubt he even fully realized what he was doing. The death energy and death magic purged his ability to wield blood magic and replaced it with powerful necrotic magic. His affinity for necrotic energy was powerful indeed, as is often the case when you inversed the magical attunement of the person. Turns out, blood magic was more or less in opposition to necrotic magic, which I will clarify is different than death magic, though they are closely related.
The process of building his magic had been completed at the same time his body was reformed. The cloud of energy and material surrounding him had obscured the process. But when he reemerged, there was nothing left of his original form. He was still humanoid, and like my greater zombies, his muscles and bones were condensed. The excess material was left to fall back to the ground.
No longer did the zombie have the pale, almost albino skin, now it was gray, like that of the stone of the cavern. He stood, and I got a very close look at my new minion. His body was powerful, thick muscles bulged under the gray skin, and ridges of black bone protruded along his forearms. He smiled, and pitch-black, needlelike teeth filled his mouth. The irises of his eyes were magenta and the sclera pitch-black. I wondered if the color had been affected by the merging of purple and red. There was no hair on his head, it was perfectly smooth, and his ears were still long and pointed.
His will pushed up against my own, and though Id increased his power quite a bit, for now I was his better, and he knew it.
He was new to his body and magic. Had he mastery over them and that mightve be a different conversation. My intrinsic connection over him allowed me to easily pull up a description. I was a little surprised, it was something Id only seen rarely before, and that was saying something.
Talkak
Level: 63
Living Dead: The Forsaken
The forsaken are powerful undead and rarely seen. They are also lethal melee fighters and powerful magic casters. The resentment and anger they harbor toward the one who created them is what allowed them to shape the form of their body and power. The hatred they hold toward their creator and master is unending. They can be powerful minions, but they should never be trusted by their master. They will always seek to break free and extract their vengeance.
If I couldve paled I wouldve. When I met Talkaks eye, I could see the seething hatred. I looked at my greater zombies and swore. They were also staring at me. The secondary process of the spell bound the greater zombies to Talkak. My intent had been for him to be a general to command them. Already his will poked at the edges, testing to see my response.
Maxwell and Raven strode overMaxwell had a huge smile on his face. Zeke, guess what I found!
It doesnt matter, we need to leave, we need to leave right now. I was already backing toward the stairs.
While I might be up to beating this creature, that wouldve defeated the whole purpose of me creating him. My whole plan was to leave him down here in the first place, only that plan was more expedited due to the strength of their combined wills pushing against my will.
Maxwell picked up on my urgency and looked between me and Talkak. From the brief, glazed-over look he got, he mustve gotten a prompt. Suddenly he was jogging over with me, pulling Raven along behind.
As soon as we were out of sight, the three of us sprinted up the stairs. It didnt take long for us to enter back into the bottom of the warehouse. This had not been an overly large complex. As distance had grown, the contest between my will and Talkak had lessened. I could still kind of feel him, but it was distant. I was pretty certain if I got much farther away, I wouldnt even know if he broke my control, but that was okay. Once I was no longer within his sight, some of his rage boiled down. He still hated me, but without a constant reminder of my existence staring him in the face it was easier for him to ignore it.
Okay, we can pause, I said. Whatd you find?
Maxwells smile returned, so I knew it must be something good. I also had a small bag of rings and amulets Id taken from the casters, but no one in their right mind willy-nilly equips gear they just looted from people they were fighting. Thats a good way to get cursed items.
Well, a bunch of gold we wont tell Jones about; he might feel the need not to pay us, Maxwell chuckled. But so you know, this is way more gold than he was going to pay us, Im pretty sure its all of the income they made from selling those things. And thats not the best part. He held out two items. I found a treasure mapdont know why he had itand! His smile was practically splitting his face as he held out a black bag with a silver drawstring. A bag of holding.
My smile matched his. Spatial storage devices were very valuable, and while it seemed like most players always manage to get one at some point, they could be incredibly hard to come across. There were all kinds of variations on a spatial holding, and as Maxwell gave me the bag, a brief description of it popped up.
Mana Attuned Bag of Holding
This item is bigger on the inside. This bag was made from the flayed skin of a creature from deep within Tehomal. The creatures power has shaped the nature of the bag. Having fed off mana in life the bag is now attuned to the magical capacity of its owner and its internal size is based off the mana pool of the holder at a rate of one cubic meter per 100 mana points in their mana pool.
Furthermore, the dominant magic of the owner affects the properties of the bag. For you, death and dark magic would affect the properties of the bag. The death magic would cause a stasis, and the dark magic would make it nearly impossible to steal from.
Holy crap, I whispered. A scalable bag of holding? Thats insane. We can never tell anyone we have this.
I know. You should keep it, you have way more mana than I do. Maxwell tilted his head. Out of curiosity, what does your death magic do to it? I have the kind of harmonics magic that would allow me to store sound, kind of weird.
Thats the best part. The death magic gives a stasis effect, so we can store food for you and Raven indefinitely. And the dark magic means Raven cant steal from it.
Do you really need that part? Raven demanded.
Youre a cat, Maxwell said. Youre going to steal food, its just what you do.
I laughed as I opened my character sheet to see how much storage we would have. To my surprise, Id gained two more levels. I put the points into spirit since that increased my mana the most. Absorbing those death cores boosted many of my stats without me actually having to gain levels. The power of being a Lich was truly awesome, even if the boosts were small, they added up over time.
Character Soul Level: 55
Name: Ezekiel Verniac
Race: Human Lich
Unspent Stat Points: 0
Spent Stat Point: 275
5 Stat Points per level
Health: 1153(1729.5)
Health Regeneration: 32.625(48.93)/sec
Death Energy: 1332(1998)
Death Energy Regeneration: 27.515(33.93.7)/sec
Mana: 535
Mana Regeneration: 18.03/sec
Carrying lbs.: 1299.2(1741.125)
Stats:
Intelligence: 65 [multiplier: 1.311]
Spirit: 49 [multiplier: 1.23]
Vitality: 98 [multiplier: 1.15]
Resilience: 52 [multiplier: 1.15]
Death Core: 125
Agility: 66 [multiplier: 1.1]
Dexterity: 42 [multiplier: 1.21]
Experience: 864.3 of 40789.1
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