《Whispers of A Dead Empire》Chapter 80
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I selected Poltergeist and spent a staggering three hundred and seventy essence, and the familiar rune appeared once more. This time, though, instead of the baleful red hue that saturated my office, in its place was a soft gray light that filled every nook and cranny. Then, just as quick as it appeared, it vanished. I looked around the room and didn't really see anything, which made my hair stand on end. I could feel a set of eyes staring at me, but it originated from the ceiling. "Show yourself."
The faint outline of a child-like shape appeared hanging from the ceiling, followed by a quiet giggle of a little boy. I shivered slightly as I realized just how creepy this was going to be. "Show me what you can do."
The little boy vanished from the ceiling, a few of the chairs shook, and some blades I had sitting in the office rose from their racks. The sheathes were violently torn away, and the blades flew as if they were caught in a tornado. Ah yes, this reminded me of a few horror films that I watched growing up. It's funny that you never really give much thought to that stuff growing up. But then, when it's staring you in the face, it makes you question everything. Regardless, I'm just happy that I'm not on the receiving end of it. Though I felt terrible for whatever poor people had to deal with this.
I motioned for the Poltergeist to join the dark wraith, and I looked at my next option. Skeletal Abominations, huh. Let's see what this bad boy is. I selected it, and dozens of minor runes appeared in my office, and bones of all sorts formed from the air. But as the runes vanished, the bones all quivered and shook before they were drawn to a single skull that sat just across from my desk. They all clattered as they scraped against my floor. The bones quickly flooded over one another. They clicked and clacked as they slammed into place. But the result was something that I wasn't ready for.
Dozens of extended hands reached out and groped the ground. Femurs formed the various spider-like legs, and a single skull sat on top of the pile of mismatched bones. Dozens of fingers clacked into the ground as the monster crawled across the floor like some sort of insect. It took everything I had to repress the desire to vomit at the sight of the monster. Truly, this thing was an abomination, especially at the cost of three hundred and seventy-five essence points. I quickly gestured for the skeleton to get out of my sight as I tried to process what it was I just saw.
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I tried my best to suppress the sight as I summoned the last undead I unlocked.
A single rune appeared on the ground. This time, it was the color of ice and radiated a chilling air that seemed to permeate every fiber of my being. The air chilled even more as a head filled with white hair rose from the ground. A set of blue eyes that followed next seemed to be filled with predatory intelligence. Its flesh was a far cry from the decaying zombies. Instead, it was grey and pulled taut, revealing a wiry frame of muscle. Its long, talon-like fingers twitched as it breathed heavily, and it looked around the room. It took a deep breath and broke into a feral grin, revealing a set of long blood-stained canines.
This being was monstrous, far more so than even the others that I had spawned in. The way it carried itself was with pure and unabated confidence, and yet, I knew the wight was quickly the most powerful thing in the room. I glanced at its total essence cost and saw that it cost almost five hundred.
Spawning these four cost me so much essence. Unless I'm creative about it, trying to populate the second zone with these mobs will be painful. I glanced over my menus and saw that I now had access to three more boss slots, so I would have to think hard and long about what I wanted to do when it came to them.
I sat back and looked at my map to see if Rikard had finished what I asked him to do. It took me a bit to find them, but I saw they were in the expansion I started when I did. A dozen of them were standing in a square formation, with their weapons at parade rest. Something that I for sure didn't teach them. I glanced at the clock and then at the time I sent the message, and I immediately felt terrible. There was no telling how long they had been sitting there waiting for me to arrive.
I quickly stood up, grabbed one of my swords, strapped it to my back, and made sure that my cloak was cleaned and my mask was on. Once I was satisfied, I checked over my essence points and made sure that I filled the domain with troops and I didn't have to refill anything. Once I was happy with it, I did the math for how much more I could expand the domain and still have enough left over to pull out resources from storage. At most, I would expand the domain by four kilometers and bring out all the stones that I was sitting on, along with metal and wood. But as I was finishing up, I realized that I still had those four mobs I spawned behind me. I'll take them along with me, I suppose, and get them acquainted with the next zone. I grabbed my bag and notebooks and did a massive teleport, eager to start expanding. This time, I will do it by myself.
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Error, the Poltergeist failed to teleport.
As I read, I groaned. No, this can't be happening. I refuse to have another child hanging around me. Nyx was a handful as it was. Once I finish, I will figure out how to get the Poltergeist out. With a wave of my hand, I told the four mobs that they had to stay there and quickly apologized to the leader of the veterans for taking so long.
I brought up my menus, selected the expansion option, and chose the four-kilometer option. However, I only got hit with three thousand and eight hundred essence instead of the four thousand essence tag. It wasn't much in the way of savings, but at this point, I'll take anything I could get. I confirmed my choice and dismissed the screen.
The ground trembled violently as the edge of the domain shifted and stretched back. Motes of earth-brown light fell from the sky in a torrential downpour, drowning out the violet light that radiated from the barrier. I caught my footing as I stepped to the side and quickly shifted through my menus. Now, all I had to do was spawn in all the materials that I needed. Which sadly meant emptying my total stone reserve and a lot of the wood as well.
I found a suitable spot far away from everyone and organized the pile of stone into something that could be accessed easily. Though that was pretty difficult, based on the amount of stone, I had at my disposal. Maybe I won't dump it all at once. Instead, I dropped a quarter of it down and organized it in small stacks that should be easy to move around. As for the wood, it was placed much like firewood.
As I waited for that stuff to be created, I made a large table so I could place down my backpack, along with the design plan. Granted, four kilometers wasn't massive in the grand scale of things. I still wanted to be prepared. Mostly since I decided that instead of just letting them slave away at this, I would be out here helping them. Though I will say, since becoming a level two domain, things seem to be created much faster than they have been before.
The large planning table was ready in moments, and I threw my bag across its surface and quickly brought out all the paperwork. "Warrant officer!" I called out behind me while I opened up the large, folded map that held the contents of the next zone.
The zombie shuffled in behind me and gave me a rough semblance of a bow. I nodded at him and pointed to where we were standing. "So, from now on, you are in charge of everyone here. Every order that you issue will be as if it came from me. With that being said, we will be working on the outskirts of the town." I pointed toward the part of the map that we were standing on. "So, from here, to here." I pointed to a spot that was mapped out to be four kilometers away. "We will make a road. So, we need to level the pathway here and lay out the stone. I will stay behind and tamper with our supply so it can be used."
While I didn't know how to make concrete, I still had a few ideas to test out to see if I could turn the stone into something I would find on earth. Maybe stretch the rock out, see if I can harden it a bit, and then use my settings to see if I could keep the ground locked in a state where it wouldn't erode or break.
I reached out to my notebook and grabbed another sheet of paper with a four-lane road drawn on it. "This will be the road. It will branch off in the spots, which will lead to various points, like houses, stores, and farms." I pointed at all the intersections as I spoke, trying not to overwhelm the poor zombie.
The warrant officer quickly bobbed his head in agreement, and I stepped away from the table. "Good, good. Let me spawn in the carts and tools we will need, and let's get to work!"
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The Wolf Saga, Wolf that Devours Empires
The Empire of Human is about to enter a turbulent era. A World Power has fallen. But mere hours after dying, he is reborn as a half-human, half-elf boy named Wolf. The story follows this odd boy as he grows up, his relationship with his father and those around him, his lack of common sense from being raised in the wilderness, and his desire for revenge. Witness Wolf's journey as he aspires to climb to the peak of the world to unravel its mysteries, and as he tries to figure out why it’s wrong to decapitate a street thug when the man tries to mug you. “I mean, the man literally said ‘Money or life,’ so what’s the big deal?” Releases Mon/Wen/Fri. (GMT-ish) Trigger warning. The Wolf Saga may not be suited for you if any of the following disturbs you: - The story will have fighting and killing. The gore will not be explicit, but there will be descriptions such as "head burst like a melon", "instantly turned to cinders", "blood splashed/fountained" etc. Most of the violence will be performed by the protagonist, some of it before he reaches his teens. If such scenes bother you, you should probably give Wolf a pass. - The story will have sexual content. It's there for a reason. Once again, these scenes will not be explicit. Genitals will be mentioned sometimes, but never described in detail. Nude bodies will be described in passing, without too many specific details. If you're afraid of nipples, you should probably give Wolf a pass. - The story will have a decent amount of cursing. If you haven't given up by now, this is unlikely to bother you. Still, I believe I should forewarn you that a number of curse words will be making appearance from time to time. - The story will have no small amount of loss for the main character. If you enjoy novels in which everything is fine, the protagonist makes it at the last moment and saves the day... This is not such a story. Life happens. As a reader, I'm annoyed with heroes making it in the nick of time, so for the sake of fairness I used dice on a number of occasions, making do with the result. Sometimes it was anticlimactic, sometimes it was tragic and it led to the story you see before you. Dedication: This story is written for Tired Mom and Wolf, whose arrival the rest of the pack is eagerly awaiting. Thanks: I would like to thank Tired Mom for her proofreading and encouragement over the years. I would like to thank you, Dear Reader, for taking the time to read this big pile of words.
8 241The Nine Stars
In a world where gods laugh at mortals, slayers will arise. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are a kind soul give me a vote on top web fiction! Link: http://topwebfiction.com/vote.php?for=the-nine-stars Sidenote: Also I'm in need of an editor Pm me, Comment here, or on my fiction page I'll read them all. Link to my forum post if you have questions or like to ask me something. http://forum.royalroadl.com/showthread.php?tid=97104 [ Link to cover page: http://i.imgur.com/B4k86iY.jpg ] [ Artist Link who did the cover: drezoregalia.com ] [ Oracle125's thread who did Nena and Concepts of Vince and Rune: http://forum.royalroadl.com/showthread.php?tid=96758 ] [ Nena: http://i.imgur.com/7bmadGP.png ] [ Concept Art of Vince and Rune: http://imgur.com/Loy8fCo ] [ Concept Art of Vince, Rune, and Len: Link ]
8 246Unkillable Will
The start of the end, a now man who wakes up to find he has been sleep for many years is thrown into a world he had only a glimpse of before, now it is his story to tell us how humanity is brought down to it's knees.And the tragic tale of what humanity will do to survive extinction, because we are no longer alone, and our enemies are more than we had predicted.
8 85To Spite a God
Gurz'ga'nal was the young god of an even younger people. A god of little to no power. The God of Greed, with an even greedier set of followers. A god of broken promises, of betrayal, of lies and deceit. Something that the Goblins knew all to well. 2-3 updates a week.
8 95Gods & Monsters (The Reaper Chronicles, #1)
Ever since the last battle against Primordial—Earth's immortal alien foe—Ava has been living in a constant nightmare. She will never forget how heavy the sword feels in her palm, how her abilities take over. She will never forget the moment she kills her best friend, the moment before she lost control. Attempting to fix herself, Ava ventures off into the demon-infested world in search of her missing birth record. She will do whatever it takes to find it, even if that means breaking the laws and committing treasonous acts. But once Ava is caught, she quickly finds out it will take more than thievery and violence to stitch herself back together. It will require dark magic, a pair of alien princes, a pompous man whose hair is as white as snow, a blue god's threat, and the perfect stage set for secrets to unfold. Science Fantasy || Action || Romance
8 221Love, Napalm & Homicidal Fairies
When Nasilain started traveling between worlds, she hadn’t expected to get caught by a police officer. Nasilain: Traveling between worlds always filled Nasilain with dread. All those men with their friendly smiles and hundreds of questions. What was the last movie she watched? What music did she like? What country was she from? If Nasilain could use magic in this world, she would’ve blocked the flow of calcium ions in their jaw muscles just to shut them up. The scientific knowledge she could find on the internet using the free Wi-Fi in one of the local coffee shops forced her to tolerate the occasional interrogation. But even hipsters were better than Seth, the beefy police officer that caught her teleporting. Apparently, she wasn’t allowed to lie to him, which was fine as long as he didn’t ask about the clone. Seth: Seth had seen his share of bad luck. On normal days, it manifested as a shoulder injury that got him discharged from his SEAL team or wounding a civilian while on the police force. But landing in a parallel dimension with elves in neon green pants, a cute mad scientist with magical abilities, and swarms of carnivorous fairies? That was a first. At least Nasilain promised not to use her magic to split atoms. Content warning: This book DOES NOT contain zombie fairies. Everything else is fair game though.
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