After Marbas died, four items dropped. There were two books, a key and a letter. The letter was a quest item that probably activated a quest relating to the demon race so I didn’t activate the quest because I already had enough on my plate as it was. I needed to go to Spiriton to meet Manna. Afterwards I needed to meet my dad and I still wanted to create a guild. If I had to revive a whole race on top of it all I would start to lose sleep.

The key was to Marbas’s house. The thought of selling it and building the guild crossed my mind but I liked the house. It had a good atmosphere and I felt at peace inside it. There were other ways in which I could gain money and there was no rush.

The two books were named “Demons: Powers, Weaknesses and Abilities” and “Death’s Door”. The first book told the tales of a holy knight that fought different types of demons on his journey through Tartarus after the holy war. It had detailed analysis of each demon and how to kill them. It was useful but very detailed, especially the parts that included blood, gore and ways to torture a demon. It was a book that gave me the chills.

The second book was written by Marbas. “Death’s Door” included ways to cure and kill as well as many different spells and curses that Marbas discovered. It was equally bloody but it didn’t target me specifically so it was easier to read. It explained a few things about my profession which made me curious about my new skills.

“Skill window!”

Identification (Active, Beginner level 8)

Diagnosis (Passive, Subskill, Beginner level 6)

Iron Stomach (Passive, Special, Intermediate level 1)

Brewing (Active, Beginner level 6)

First Aid Treatment (Passive, Beginner level 2)

Manipulation (Passive, Beginner level 1)

Blade Mastery (Passive, Beginner level 1)

Medical Knowledge (Passive, Beginner level 1)

Dark Surgery (Active, Beginner level 1)

Soul Conversion (Active, Beginner level 1)

Demonic Pact (Passive, Race Skill, Max level)

Contract Bound (Passive, Max level)

Soul Gathering (Passive, Max level)

Mana Affinity (Passive, Race Skill, Max level)

Night Vision (Passive, Race Skill, Max level)

Flight (Active, Race Skill, Beginner level 1)

PM to Fallen: “Meet me at the doctor Nemo’s house as soon as possible. Buy a cloak from a shop. I’ll pay you back when you get here.”

PM from Fallen: “Are you in some kind of trouble?”

PM to Fallen: “I’ll tell you about it when you get here.”

With a way to hide his appearance, Frost relaxed a bit and tried a few skills. The first skill he tried was obviously Flight. Differently from what he expected, his feet barely lifted from the floor and it consumed 10 Stamina/s. After about 10 seconds of “flying” he dropped on the floor hard, barely able to stand up. Flight sounded like a good skill to have but at such a low level, it was useless and consumed way to much stamina.

Blade Mastery was the same as Sword Mastery in a way. It increased attack power and attack speed but unlike Sword Mastery, you could use any weapon that had a blade and it gave a permanent buff. It increased the choices for weapon so it was extremely useful.

Medical Knowledge didn’t do much except increase the effects of his medical related skills and Dark Surgery had a 100% chance to give a status effect of my choosing if used with a specific weapon. The status effects I could grant at level 1 were: Bleeding, Blinding and Silence. Bleeding costed 25 mana, but the effect small. It drained 10 health per second for 10 seconds. Blinding and Silence did the same thing as their name implied for 1 minute.

The skills Soul Gathering and Soul Conversion just like Demonic Pact and Contract Bound were connected. Thanks to the Soul Gathering skill, after killing a monster, he could take its soul and with Soul Conversion turn it into Health, Mana or Stamina. How much it converted into depended on the level of the monster and the level of the skill. Demonic Pact was, as the name implies, a skill that let him create contracts with other players. I could ask for anything in exchange for doing a favor for the player, be it money, weapons and even their souls. The last skill forced both parties to respect the terms of the deal. The skill description didn’t say what would happen if the contract was broken but it did say ‘Dire consequences will befall those who break a demonic pact’ without specifying what those consequences were. I’m not sure if these skills are related to my profession or my race but they’re good skills to have.

Mana Affinity made it possible to learn any spell but without a magic profession but unlike a magic profession it was hard to raise proficiency just like most skills that do not belong to your profession.

These were good skills but what I didn’t understand however was why I only had seven skills that were given by my profession. ‘Death’s Door’ talked about many skills that Marbas used in different combinations to achieve his level of infamy. The fact that I had to learn or find each skill book to complete my profession skill set made me incredibly nervous. Learning all the skills related to your profession gave you a title and allowed you to learn a new profession if you wanted to, but you gained proficiency half as fast. It was called a double profession and it was just as good, if not better than a unique profession. If I didn’t gain any new skills, never mind getting a new profession, I would easily get killed by someone lower level then me. The fact that people could kill me without repercussions even though I didn’t have any infamy didn’t escape my mind either. The more I thought about it the more I got the feeling I got the short end of the stick.

PM from Fallen: “I’m in front of the house.”

PM to Fallen: “Come inside then. The door is open.”

PM from Fallen: “Won’t the doctor mind?”

PM to Fallen: “Just come inside. I’ll explain everything later.”

Entering the house, Fallen was mesmerized by the beauty of the artwork. The color of the walls and furniture were in tune with each other and made the sculptures and paintings even more stunning. He felt as if he was in a museum more than someone’s house and had some second thought about entering without an invitation.

“Frost, are you in here?”

“I’m in the living room.”

When he entered the living room and saw Frost in his demon form for the first time he took out his bow lightning fast and readied an arrow while aiming at his head.

“Wow, it’s me. Put the bow down.”

Although Frost said that Fallen lowered the bow only for a second and then raised it again. It wasn’t like Frost didn’t understand what he was thinking. He had horns on his head, wings on his back, a tail, pointy ears and slitted eyes. If someone said ‘I’m your brother’ while looking like that, you had the right to be skeptic.

“What’s your name?”

“It’s me, Frost.”

“What’s your other name?”

“For god’s sake, it’s me, John.”

Fallen finally lowered his weapon after he heard that but kept looking at the horns on his head. The stare was so intense that it annoying. He opened his mouth a few times as if wanting to say something but immediately closed it without uttering any words.

“Did you get my cloak?”

With these words, Fallen finally came back to reality and handed him the cloak without a single word. Frost quickly put it on and although he didn’t look completely normal he could pass off as being an eccentric human.

“Why do you look like that?” asked Fallen.

“I changed my race to that of a demon.”

“That explains a lot of things, but why are you wearing a cloak?”

“Demons aren’t too loved in this city or any other city for that matter. I don’t want to die hence the cloak.”

“Which brings me back to my first question: Why do you look like that?”

“The short story is that the doctor promised me a unique profession if I passed his trials. I passed his trials and then gained that said profession but the doctor was a Demon Lord and decided to change my race to that of Demon Lord as well so now I look like this and have to clean a big mess a whole race created. Does this make any sense to you?”

“Vaguely. What do you want to do now?”

“Remember those killings I tried to investigate? All those people were demons. I think it’s best to leave the city as soon as possible.”

“I’m all set to go. I wanted to go hunting with you before we left but let’s just go meet Manna in Spiriton. We can go meet mom and dad after that.”

“I actually needed a few things before we leave but I might as well buy them in Spiriton.”

Walking through the city wearing a cloak gathered a lot of attention especially when what was in the cloak had a weird shape but nobody stopped him although some of the players gave him some strange looks. It only took a few minutes to arrive at the town portal but Frost was already mentally exhausted and a bit embarrassed.

The town portal was unused. Because there were no more restrictions, most people were out hunting and most players didn’t have enough money to use it any way.

“Greetings travelers. Where do you wish to go?” said a young woman as they approached the gate.

“Good day Gatekeeper. Can you send us to Spiriton in Mnemosinia?” said Frost.

“That won’t be a problem. That would be 25 gold per person.”

Frost paid for the both of them and the Gatekeeper opened the portal. A rainbow colored swirl formed in the center of the gate and grew bigger until it encompassed the gate fully. This attracted the attention of the few players that were loitering around.

“See you on the other side.”

With that said Fallen already jumped through the portal and disappeared in flash of white light. Frost on the other hand just walked slowly, turned around once more to look at the city and then followed Fallen through the gate.

You cannot use the Town Portal. Relations between your race and the human race needs to be at least neutral.

If someone looked at Frost’s face at that moment he could clearly see the very definition of a blank expression. He stood at the other side of the gate, unmoving, his brain still trying to process what happened.

“You must be from a different race. I’m sorry but at the moment no race other than humans can use the gate. I’ll give you your money back. It may take longer but I think you can find a caravan to take you to your destination if you wait a few days.”

Frost took the money and randomly walked around the city. In his mind he wanted cursed Marbas along with the game developers for his situation. When he arrived in front of the General Goods store he got a message from Fallen.

PM from Fallen: “Where are you? It’s been more than 10 minutes.”

PM to Fallen: “Apparently other races can’t use the gate right now.”

It took a few minutes before Fallen replied again.

PM from Fallen: “I’ll meet Manna and tell her what happened. What do you want to do?”

PM to Fallen: “I’ll get to Spiriton even if I have to walk all the way there.”

PM from Fallen: “Do you want me to come back?”

PM to Fallen: “No. Stay there and wait for me. It may take a while but I’ll definitely get there.”

With a plan formulated in his head he entered the General Goods store and brought the things he needed. If he couldn’t leave the city he might as well grind some levels until a caravan showed up. When he left the city gate a guard approached him.

“Hey you, I want to ask you a few questions.”

“I’m sorry. I’m busy at the moment. Could you ask me some another time?”

The guard tried to stop him and grabbed his cloak and revealed his head that had two horns and pointy ears. The guard was shocked upon discovery. He took a few steps back and drew his weapon.

“Stop demon! In the name of the gods of light, you are under arrest. Surrender and you will have a fair trial.”

The commotion caused by the guard drew the attention of the players that were fighting rabbits and foxes in the vicinity.

“Hey, is that a monster?”

“The guards are attacking it so it must be.”

“Maybe it’s some kind of event?”

“If we help kill it maybe we’ll get a reword.”

“Maybe it will drop a good item as well.”

The situation escalated fast. Frost took a few steps and tried to equip the Black Bone Sword.

You do not meet the requirements to use this weapon.

Although he was level 10, he forgot to use his unused stat points because he didn’t know to which stat to distribute them. In a panic he started running while distributing points to Strength, Vitality and Agility. He didn’t get too far away before he was surrounded by a dozen players that looked at him like hungry wolves would look at a fat rabbit with a broken leg. Because they were beginners they didn’t attack immediately and that gave Frost enough time to distribute his stats and equip the Black Bone Sword and Nightshade Knife.

“Check out his weapons. I hope he drops the sword after death.”

“The knife looks good as well.”

“Mages prepare your spells, Healers stay in the back, and the rest of us will attack at the same time.”

Before Frost could utter a word half a dozen players started attacking him with swords and spears. The good news was that they were unorganized and their attacks were straight forward and easy to dodge. He had a lot of experience from the beta testing and all the fighting he did with Manna, and after distributing his points he had 60 points in Agility which made it a piece a cake to avoid the attacks.

“Stop. You’re making a mistake. I don’t want to fight you. I’m not a…”

Before he could finish his sentence the mages finished their spells and although he avoided most of them a fireball hit him straight in the head which created an opening and he was stabbed by a sword. Although his health only went down by a quarter the players didn’t continue to attack because he started acting strangely.

You have gained a new stat.

Killing Intent +10.

Killing Intent

You can stop or slow down weaker opponents only with your blood lust. You are prohibited from distributing stat points to this stat and it rises spontaneously depending on the user’s actions and mental state. Weaker monsters may faint if they are subjected to a powerful Killing Intent

Frost was already in a fowl mode since earlier. He wanted to peacefully resolve the whole situation but since the negotiations failed, or to be more precise never even started, he threw away any pretense of solving this amiably. He unequipped the cloak that didn’t do anything anymore except impede his movement and roared while extending his bat like wings.

“I’m going to kill you all.”

Thanks to his killing intent and the shock the players got when he displayed his true form in all its glory, he went past the melee fighters and went straight for the healers. Since healers didn’t usually have much health, they died after only three hits each.

- You have gained a soul.

- You have gained 100 infamy.

- You have gained a soul.

- You have gained 100 infamy.

“He killed our healers. All tanks protect the mages. Everybody else, coordinate your attacks.”

Frost looked at the guy that was giving instructions. He was clearly the leader of the group.

“Diagnose.”

With the effect of Medical Knowledge, not only did the health bar but also the mana bar, stamina bar and even the level was displayed over every person’s head along with any buffs or status effect they had.

The highest level player was level 9 and it was the same guy that was the party leader. Everybody else had a level between level 4 and level 7. They were all obviously much weaker than him but they were well organized and had numbers on their side.

‘What the hell do I do now?’

Being surrounded from all sides by people with swords and spears while the mages in the back started to cast their spells, Frost became nervous. If he took damage from a spell, his health would drop to 0 incredibly fast and if he tried to rush past these people and run for it, he would get stabbed a few times too many. Just when he was about to panic, a thought came to mind. With a smile on his face that couldn’t be called anything other than devilish, he started speaking while raising his sword in the air.

“O spirits of the night, I, your master, summon thee to vanquish my enemy. Cast your rage upon these mortals that dare to oppose a true master of the night. Release your fury! ”

“He’s casting a spell. Mages to the front, use Mana Shield to block it.”

Frost obviously didn’t know any spells but players didn’t know that. They thought he was some kind of boss character that appeared for some kind of event so why wouldn’t he act like one. As soon as the mages were in view he made his move.

“Dark Surgery: Bleeding.”

His knife and sword started emitting a dark red smoke. Frost couldn’t kill all the mages at the same time but he could give them some nasty status effects to keep them busy. The mages noticing that their health started to dwindle fast, started to panic and run around like headless chickens.

- Your proficiency in Manipulation has increased.

- Deception +10

- Killing Intent +5

“Don’t panic! Tanks, go aggro him. Mages, drink your health potions.”

Their leader was trying to calm them down but in the confusion Frost slipped past their encirclement and already killed 3 low level people in the group. It was a gruesome scene. Four people were running around, splashing blood everywhere while people were being killed incredibly fast in the background. Never mind aggroing, the tanks had a hard time keeping an eye on Frost.

“Soul Conversion: Health; Soul Conversion: Mana.”

While he was hacking people away, he decided to restore all his Health and Mana back. There was only one more thing he had to do to make his escape, and that was to kill their leader. He was the only person who actually knew what to do and didn’t panic even when something unexpected happened. If he decided to continue hunting him, his escape wouldn’t be guaranteed. Because of all the commotion, the leader didn’t realize when Frost got near him.

“Dark Surgery: Silence.”

He barely avoided the sword but he still got cut by it. It was a small cut but it was enough to activate the skill. When he got the message that the skill activated, Frost sprinted for the woods, killing the four mages that barely had any health left, while passing. It wasn’t impossible to have a complete victory and kill the whole party but the guard that stopped him at the gate returned with a whole group of reinforcements.

He reached the woods just in time to hear the sound of several arrows and spell hitting the trees behind him. Even barely being brushed by a spell took more than half his health. If he was directly hit, he would have been pulverized. Out of curiosity he turned his head around to see what level the guards had. At the average level of 70, never mind the whole group, even the weakest member was enough to kill him in one shot.

“Sir, shall we continue the pursuit?”

“Don’t! That was a demon lord. The knights that came from San Kavar warned us about him. In the last holy war he apparently decimated a whole battalion all by himself. We’ll wait until the knights come back to town and decide what to do then.”

“He didn’t seem that strong. Won’t he escape by then?”

“They already have the whole forest surrounded. If he wants to leave this region he’ll have to fight through a whole battalion of knights. I almost pity him.”

I ran as fast as I could and fortunately the soldiers never came after me. I was running low on stamina and health so I hid in a bush and waited for them to replenish but no matter how long I waited, I didn’t gain any health or stamina.

“Status Window!”

Stat Window[quart=Character name,Title]Frost,N/A[/quart][quart=Race,Affiliation]Demon Lord ,Demon Race[/quart][quart=Profession,Level]Surgeon of Death,11[/quart][quart=Fame,Infamy]0,600[/quart][quart=Affinity,Satiety]Poison,18%[/quart] [quart=Health,Mana]110(260),110(110)[/quart][quart=Stamina,Vitality]0(130),25-2[/quart][quart=Wisdom,Endurance]10-1,14-1[/quart][quart=Strength,Intelligence]30-3,12-1[/quart][quart=Agility,Luck]60-6,0[/quart][quart=Deception,Killing Intent] 20,20[/quart][quart=Attack,Defense] 49/36,15[/quart] Equipment bonus:

Novice Pants : Defense +1

Novice Shirt : Defense +1

Novice Boots: Defense +1

Novice set: Defense +1

Nightshade Knife: Agility +10, Strength +5

Black Bone Sword: Agility +20

Unused points: 5

Racial traits:

-10% stats during the day

+20% stats during the night

My satiety was below 25% so now I had no mana, health or stamina regeneration. While searching my bag I realized that I forgot to buy any food while I was in town. I expected to be in Spiriton by now so the though never crossed my mind. While I wanted to scream and hit myself for my own incompetence I got a new message from Fallen.

PM from Fallen: “I just met Manna. She said to tell you that she misses you and that she wants to go to Nightwood to meet you.”

PM to Fallen: “Tell her I miss her too and that she shouldn’t come. The town villagers have gathered with torches and pitchforks. They already drove me off into the forest.”

PM from Fallen: “She says she’ll just have to kill them all.”

PM to Fallen: “It’s sweet of her to say that but the guards are way too high level. I’ll think of something and get to Spiriton.”

PM from Fallen: “About that. When you arrive here, you’ll have to go meet dad in Demetoria and since you can’t use the town portal we’ll have to walk all the way there so instead of coming here, go to Golstrum in Demetoria. When you arrive there, PM us and we’ll use the town portal.”

PM to Fallen: “Okay. The distance is about the same. We’ll meet there.”

PM from Fallen: “Great. We’re going hunting now. I’ll talk to you soon.”

‘This day keeps getting worse and worse. I was turned into a demon, chased out of the city, attacked by anyone who even looked at me, I can’t travel to other cities by gate and I’m also staving. Can it get any worse?’

As I was thinking that, as if right on cue, I hear a growl from behind me. It was an ugly creature about 1,50 m tall with yellow eyes and pale skin. In his arm was a wooden mace, raised and ready to strike.

‘Marbas wasn’t kidding when he said the gods hated demons. How bad can this day turn?’

The creature was called a goblin. It was a kind of creature that I used to kill quite often when I played in the beta testing because it was so widespread. The only difference is that now, I’m level 11 and this goblin in front of me is level 27.

“You want a piece of me too you ugly bastard?”

Killing Intent +5

The goblin was at least twice as fast as the beginners I faced not too long ago and the attacks weren’t so straight forward. He would pretend to try to hit my leg and punch me from my blind side or step on my foot so that I couldn’t avoid his attack. He played dirty and was steadily chipping away at my health. Fortunately I didn’t take any direct hits but blocking a mace, even a wooden one, with a sword and dagger still made me to take damage. I had only 20% of my heath left while the goblin had almost full health. Between defending and dodging I took about 10% of his health.

When the goblin saw that I was on the verge of death, he relaxed and lowered his guard and that was when I used my skill.

“Soul Conversion: Health. Soul Conversion: Stamina”

Using that moment to my advantage, I relentlessly attacked him before he realized what happened. Under the furious attacks his health steadily went down to about 70% before I once again ran out of stamina and my speed dropped.

Angry because of the sudden attack, the goblin unleashed his skill. His mace started glowing and when it hit me I flew 3 meters in the air and hit the ground with a thud and I was right back from where I started. I used the last 2 souls to recover my health and stamina and that’s when I realized that my weapons weren’t looking so great.

“Item window: Black Bone Sword, Nightshade Knife.”

Nightshade Knife Type:Short SwordDurability:4 / 52Quality:UncommonA good Short Sword made by a skilled blacksmith. It has a black blade that becomes undistinguishable in the darkness of the night.

Requirement:

Strength 20+

Agility 30+

Equipped:

+10 Agility

+5 Strength

Attack: 49

Black Bone Sword Type:SwordDurability:6 / 70Quality:UncommonA good Sword made by a skilled blacksmith. The material is light but durable. It is unknown what kind of bone was used in the crafting of this blade.

Requirement:

Strength 25+

Vitality 10+

Equipped:

+20 Agility

Attack: 36

It was the second beginner mistake I made today. I forgot to repair my weapons while I was in town. This was unforgiveable. If this goblin killed me right now I didn’t have anyone to blame other than me. I reluctantly put my weapons away and took out the ones I brought in town. They didn’t give half as much damage as the ones I got from the thieves and now I even lost the benefits it gave me so my speed and attack speed dropped to half.

I was stubborn until now but the more the fight dragged on the more I thought that it was better to run but it didn’t seem like the goblin was going to let me.

I started running but my speed was now slower than that of the goblin. When he was about to reach me, I reversed direction and stabbed him in both eyes with my knife and sword.

“Dark Surgery: Blinding.”

- Critical hit!

- You have done 103 damage.

- The effect of Blinding is doubled.

- Deception +5.

The goblin started to randomly swinging his mace trying to hit me and I, against my better judgment, continued to attack him. His health continued to decrease with each attack. When the blindness finally wore off, our situations were finally reversed. He only had 10% of his health while I was fully healthy. I prepared for what I assumed was going to be the final attack but then, the goblin used a skill that it shouldn’t have. It was called ‘Warrior’s Pride’ and in the beta, only Orcs and Lycanthropes could use it. It was annoying because it unequipped our weapons and made us fight barehanded.

I was well aware of the fact that, even without his mace, this little goblin had enough strength to beat me to a pulp but even the goblin wasn’t looking too good either. He was full of cuts and bruises. A few good punches and he would probably die.

Our exchange was pretty much one sided. Because I was taller and had a longer reach, the goblin took damage without being able to land even one punch. As I was happy it was finally going to be over I, yet again, got bad news.

- You are Starving.

- Your Health will decrease by 3% every minute until your Satiety rises.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

At that moment the goblin tackled me and was holding me on the ground. I expected a few punches but none came. When I looked up I saw the bastard laughing. He knew I was starving and was patiently holding me until I would eventually die.

- Killing Intent +10

“Go to hell!”

I used the horns on my head to head-butt him and when he let go of me for a moment, I bit his neck. It was a move of desperation but when I felt the blood in my mouth, because I was starving, I started drinking it like there was no tomorrow. The goblin started to violently shake before finally going limp and disappearing in a gray light.

- You have gained a level x 4

- You have gained a new skill

Blood Drain (Active, Beginner level 1)

A skill preferred by undead creatures to recover their health by feeding on the living.

You are able to steal 2 health points every second from the target.

Mana Consumption: 1 mana/sec.

- You have gained a soul

With the battle finally over I collapsed on the ground. Because of all the blood that I drank, my satiety rose to 31% and my Mana, Health and Stamina started to regenerate which made me laugh. The goblin dropped a flint when he died which made me happy because it seemed I would have to sleep in the woods tonight and sad because I fought to the death with a creature more than 10 levels higher than me for a flint.

When the final raise of light disappeared, the day finally ended. I gathered wood and made a campfire and fell asleep without a care for any monster or player that might come. I was too tired to care.

http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=5315