Mature Content Warning: Light foul language

Author’s Notes: So, here we go. I might actually post up the short next segment tonight as I am in a writing mood. Also, that next section is eventful for different reasons than this one and it is real world oriented so no complaints after it is written!

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Chapter 9.1: Mahorela Abaivonin

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A flash of light gleamed off of a blade as it crashed downward to split the skull of a wayward zombie. They rarely popped up, but from time to time one would make its presence known. Since the tomb had been raided and Blackthorne had become landed gentry of darkness, the dynamic duo had gone back to town to eat breakfast and sell off the equipment stored at the inn. He pulled in a nice bit of Jerin from the items.

Afterward they returned to the tomb to work on the crap items left behind after they had looted the corpses. There was no point in taking all of it back to town after all.

Blackthorne was particularly interested in the items that he had in his hands at the moment. Much like the onions and their vita stones, the unquiet dead had dropped items known as death essences and ectoplasm.

A quick glance had shown him that the ectoplasm was something that he wanted to hold onto. It was an alchemy ingredient! The death essence stones were jet black rocks that drew the heat from his hands. They had a natural vitality absorption effect that was minor, but could be felt.

He had combined the essence stones into three death orbs, their literal name, and then placed them into his bag. Holding one of them caused him to lose a point of vitality every few minutes.

The reason that he was excited about those orbs was that they had been mentioned in his conjuration book. He could use them in various ways.

“That’s the last of the good chain mail links.” said Sonja.

“Thanks, I appreciate your efforts. Let’s see if this works again.” said Blackthorne. There had been another large pile of armor and weapons, a bit more than the previous haul, to sort through. However, he had discovered something quite amazing and useful when he had tried to combine the left over tattered junk chainmail after the good rings were removed.

“Sure, let me bring them to you.” Sonja gathered up the fifteen or so heaps of scrap rings and brought them over a few at the time until Blackthorne had a pile of crap next to him.

He smiled at her and said thanks once more, and she returned a tentative smile of her own before scurrying away. She started to link rings together to make chainmail bracelets, but occasionally looked up at him briefly then looked down again.

Blackthorne sighed then picked up to picked over mail coats. They had no redeeming qualities at all at this point. Well, none save for one possibility that he had discovered on a whim earlier. He began to combine the tattered scrap armor, the actual name of the items now, he ended up with a badly corroded bar of iron. He repeated the process with other tattered scrap armor items and when he had reduced everything to bars of iron, he replenished his vitality by eating apples and two sandwiches.

“Right, let’s try it.” He said.

He combined the iron rods after that. Two rods became one rusted iron ingot. He continued to add the rods to the original iron ingot until the rusted part disappeared and it was shown as a pristine high-grade iron ingot. They counted as ten units of iron. That had taken all but one iron bar, so he put it and the ingot aside. He had two of them now. “Hey, another five hundred ninety-eight of them and I’ll be able to keep my agreement with the armorer... not that I really need to do that anymore.”

Blackthorne honestly questioned the necessity of dragging six thousand units of iron to the armorer’s place when the wire was not that big of a deal now. The tools would prove immensely useful, though. It might still be worth the effort, but he had to consider his time and efficiency.

Time passed and the happy little production item grinders continued to work their magic. Eventually, Blackthorne had done all he could until he rested and ate lunch. He was afraid to eat more apples and sandwiches do to how that might cause his body to react.

Sonja carried three sacks of random armor crap, and Blackthorne stuffed as many of the swords and weapons into his bag as he could. He was forced to carry three sacks of loot himself, so they were under quite the burden.

It took a few hours to return to town, and they had to rush to the room in order to drop everything off. They barely managed to make it before lunch ended. Refreshed, Blackthorne and Sonja headed back to their room in order to finish the tedious portion of adventuring, getting the loot prepped for sale.

***

Sonja snored softly on the bed while Blackthorne finished up his work. They had been at it for a few hours, but he was just about to combine the last item when something exciting occurred. He received a sweet whisper in his ear. “Your synergy skill level has increased.”

“Finally!” he said in an excited whisper, so as not to awaken Sonja. As a tertiary skill, it took several times more effort to increase it as it would if it had been a primary skill. He had lost count of how many items he had combined recently.

He combined the last item and received something that he had wanted for a while. Blackthorne’s eyes widened and he grinned.

<<< Item >>>

Bronze Helm

A simple bronze helmet created by a synergist of little skill. It has a thin inner lining and lacks both defense and durability.

Defense: +12

Durability: 20/20

Quality: Low-Quality

Value: 1150

>>

He smiled then tried it on. It fit in well with his bronze cuirass, studded leather battle skirt, and iron scale bracers. “Ha ha, who’s slowly developing into a badass?” He pointed at himself with both thumbs. “This guy, baby.”

He ate two sandwiches then pulled out his best current sword. He had combined almost all of the swords so that he would have pristine weapons without any damage. It would not be good for higher-tier equipment, but right now it was good for easily maintaining a supply of cheap disposable swords. He had to renew the enchantment on the sword.

Blackthorne started to do that but then had an idea. He took out one of the death essence orbs and held it up next to his steel broadsword. He started the combining process to see if there was a good interaction. Surprisingly, there was! The end result might even prove to be quite useful, if he intended to keep the blade long term.

<<< item >>>

Death’s Steel Broadsword [Rare]

A sword created by a synergist of little skill. The black is invigorated with the essence of death and has an unholy aura that devours the energy of the living.

Attack: +40

Defense: +5

Durability: 30/30

Value: 5678

Special

Life Devouring: Devours the vital essence of the foe in order to restore durability

Vitality Drain 1-4

>>

“Holy shit!” he said a little more loudly than he would have liked. Not only could that stone be used for magic and rituals, it could be used for permanently enchanting items. The vita stones and spheres had not reacted to his copper sword like that, so he had dismissed the idea. Maybe he had only needed a better item!

His eyes widened once more when he received a softly giggled whisper in his ear. “You’ve been quite the busy boy... Your enchanting skill level has improved, and your power has increased as well.”

“No way...” he said. Blackthorne checked his status and saw that he had gained a level. He had thought that he was close after the battle with the zombies, but he did not realize that he was that close to level seven.

<<< Status >>>

Name: Blackthorne Title: Gentleman of Darkness

Level: 7 Skill Points: 4

Vitality: 49[49]

Weapon Attack: 21[21]

Durability: 25[25]

Speed: 19[19]

Spirit: 89[89]

>>

<<< Skills >>>

Primary

Dark Magic Level 3

Conjuration Level 1

Mana Sense Level 8

Secondary

Heavy Armor Usage Level 1

Sword Mastery Level 2

Ring Mastery Level 1

Tertiary

Synergy Level 3

Jewelry Crafting Level 5

Enchanting Level 2

Alchemy Level 1

>>

“So, it took me a real world week, but I’m finally equal to a coma patient.” said Blackthorne. He laughed a little then nodded. Things were going well. He would have to wake up soon, sadly, but for now he liked his advancements. As soon as he could draw mana properly, he would work that skill like a dog.

He looked around the room at the small selection of finalized items then smiled. A normal person would have had a fairly bad haul from that place. He could see why adventurer’s generally avoided the place. However, with a lot of prep he had created items that were worth several thousand Jerin on the market. Traveling expenses, at least for helping Sonja return home, had been taken care of after completing that exploratory mission.

It was too bad that the zombies and unquiet dead would take months to respawn properly. He could make a nice living wage just collecting death essence stones and converting them into cheaply made, but decently lucrative weapons sales.

Of course, he wanted more than to just make a living. He wanted to make a fortune.

He thought of the events for the day, and then considered the one thing that he had been avoiding. He could choose to become a different race. There was no time limit, but it was a permanent change. He had no interest in changing right that moment, but he should at least look at his options.

Blackthorne called up his status information then scrolled down to the point where he could see a list of choices. A whisper tickled in his ear, “I have taken the liberty of granting you the possibility of choosing one of five races. The rest are not worthy of a dark lord.”

The voice seemed like one of those voicemail message style updates from before. The goddess must have had it pre-recorded or something. Blackthorne figured that there was some sort of race restriction and that only those five members of the night race were suited to his current station in life.

<<< Races of Night >>>

Please note: All five of these races are considered dark noble races and are known to be among the strongest of the races available. Your life will be altered significantly if you choose to become any of these races.

Your level will be reset to one and you will have your stats adjusted accordingly. It is best to do this soon if you wish to change your race. New skills will arise, though you will keep your old skills as well in most cases.

Sanguinariim - Noble blood, high-profile vampires descended from the gods of darkness. A true master race, these vampires are known for their extreme power, pride, and vanity.

Nephilim - Dark angels of destruction and chaos banished from the heavens. They revel in chaos and sing songs of madness and death. They are known for their wickedness and guile. They are not mindless in their wickedness, however. Many members of this race spend their time tormenting evil mortals and are often the basis for people who claim they have had dealings with demons. As a species they seem to be drawn to innocence and grow calm in the presence of those who have a gentle heart. However, they will indiscriminately slaughter anyone who harms those innocents.

Lunariim - Ancient beings who revered the moon and all its many faces. They are kin to the beasts of darkness and have the power of the wolf. They are a proud and fierce people ruled by the moon and by a sense of honor. They are fiercely protective of their people, but tend to be xenophobic and distrustful of anyone outside of their race.

Gol-Umbraiim - The shadow people, creatures of darkness who’s very bodies are incapable of being pierced by the light. They hate the light and seek the darkness in the hearts of men in order to foster wickedness and deceit. They can use their natural ability to influence the minds and hearts of others to appear human, but they cannot take on a true human form.

Mahorela Abaivonin - Dragons of the Dark Heavens. Known as the terror of midnight, dark celestial dragons, or the shadows of death, these dragons have incredible powers and an overwhelming drive to exact justice upon the wicked. They are often called the shadow of death and spoken of in legends as a nigh-unstoppable divine race of avengers who appear in times of need to set the wrong things right. They walk the mortal lands while taking on the form of man and wait for a chance to bring down bandits and evil kings with extreme violence.

>>

“Seriously? What’s with these races? I get the vain vampire lord, werewolf moon shaman people, and the angel of death...” said Blackthorne He liked four of them. They were cool ideas, especially the Nephilim. They sound like epic trolls who fight evil or something.

What he did not understand was the fourth race. They sounded like they were created to be purely evil assholes.

The last race, the oddly named dragon race, was just so dark. Something about it called out to him. Maybe it was because he had always had a thing for dragons. Maybe it was because he liked the part about being a race of avengers who take down assholes. It helped that they seemed like some sort of dragon anti-hero race. They were dark, but far from evil.

His biggest issue was that he would have his level reset if he chose any of them. It was an incredible opportunity, but either he had to accept a race change soon or not at all. Levels were too hard to acquire and he doubted changing his race would change that too much. It might even take longer to level!

Blackthorne eyed the races once more then bit his lower lip. He did not have any major attachment to his humanity, though he did want to be able to keep that sort of form. He was used to being human, after all.

“Who am I kidding? I already know what race I would choose to be... But do I choose it?” he asked aloud.

He glanced at his sleeping temporary-slave then nodded. Blackthorne raised his finger up then clicked on the entry for Mahorela Abaivonin. A little more information presented itself then he nodded. Yes, he could definitely make that work.

Blackthorne thought of all of the pain and suffering that he had suffered in his life. He thought of how the strong picked on the weak. He let memories of his past and the horrors of the world enter his mind. He was given one chance to become something, someone, who could do something about that. Would he take it? Was he up for that amount of change in his life?

His eyes snapped open, “Damn right I am...” He hit accept and then his entire life changed. Well, he thought that it would. However, nothing noticeable happened to him.

He frowned then checked the screen. His eyebrow rose up then he grinned. He had to exit the world and re-enter for his changes to take effect. He could hardly wait to see what happened!

***