Thane dashed from stalagmite to stalagmite, his fingers gripping his wand a little too loosely. Out of arrogance, out of greed, he forewent his Mana Lamp in hope to naturally learn a Night Vision passive. But he suspected Vampires came with innate Night Vision, a weaker variant. Fifty yards in, he could barely see his own arms.

At eighty yards, cave walls diverged into a small hollow twice the size of his tiny apartment. He walked along the edge and looped all the way around. Dead end. There was no pale yellow glow that he had seen earlier. No furry Kobolds or their scaly cousins. But their coconut scents were in the air, in a current of air blowing from within this hollow.

Then wood creaked under his foot.

Grudgingly, Thane summoned his Lamp. Maroon candlelight flickered on a loose square board lacking nails. He flipped it and leaped back five yards. And when nothing happening for a full minute, he slowly approached the hole in a low crouch, sniffing.

Their scents climbed uneven, rugged steps carved into the limestone. The stairwell was steep, wide enough for two Kobolds, and just tall enough for an adult Human of average height. Thane’s Lamp shone brighter at his will. He counted two dozen steps before a spiked wall of horizontal crooked planks. He examined it.

[Structure] Wooden Barricade

Quality: 71 (Poor)

Health: 371

Armor: 21

Magic Resistance: 3

Damage calculations involving armor and resistance were simple subtraction; however, elemental reactions (fire, poison, lighting, and such) and material physics complicated the equation to the extent that Synaptic Entertainment had decided to not include this information and encouraged players to use common sense. Fire was super effective against dry wood. Simple, right? The only small caveat was some types of wood were inherently rich in fire elemental magic.

In this case, it was indeed simple. Mana Bolt was pure magic; the Wooden Barricade would be splinters in seven or eight shots.

And he was standing on the high ground. He placed his Lamp on the top step and held his Flask in his left hand. He charged up a maximum power shot, eating up a third of his mana pool. The broadhead struck with a dim flash. Spikes broke. Two planks snapped off, yellow light leaking.

A Kobold squeaked.

Mana Bolt’s two second cooldown lapsed. Thane fired. Two planks snapped. His mana bar was at 13/109. He chugged down a mouthful of blood, then fired a last shot. The Barricade fell apart, and he ran down the steps, downing the remainder of his Flask. He peeked.

He nearly dropped his wand, his eyes wide.

Their cavern was massive, over a five hundred yards in diameter and over a hundred yards high. This mountain was hollow. Not just hollow but also abundant in crystals. On the cavern ceiling, in between large stalactites, glowed pale blue shards like stars. The yellow light was from Crystal Lamps at their settlement.

Their tiny settlement, near a Gold Mine and a Spring, consisted of a giant mushroom crop, four sad Hovels constructed from mud bricks, and a happier wooden Homestead Hall featuring round, domed architecture that Kobolds were known for. And a Graveyard for their World Elite? Still in construction.

A snout and eyes appeared in a Hovel’s doorway for a second. Thane got off an Examine.

Kobold Worker (Level 1)

Sentience: 16 (Very Low)

Health: 29

Stamina: 15

Mana: 9

That made number three, which left the fourth Hovel, obviously, to their World Elite. Thane waited for more than a hundred seconds for it to show, strangely. Even low-level Kobold Elites weren’t this cowardly. He was considering if a lion had eaten it when a taller Kobold walked out of the Gold Mine. Crude leather armor protected its back while its lean-muscled armed dragged a sack to the Hall. Pieces of yellowish rock were on the trodden path.

[Elite 1] Kobold Ranger (level 2)

Sentience: 72 (Below Average)

Health: 111

Stamina: 34

Mana: 102

Easy. Easy kill.

Thane was sprinting, adrenaline surging through his veins. A layer of soil thickened toward the Spring. His right foot splashed on a puddle.

Flinching, the Kobold Ranger twisted around. Those beady black eyes narrowed, and a longbow appeared in its grasp. It nocked an arrow, the stone tip glowing beige.

Thane shot a medium-power Mana Bolt.

The Kobold Ranger hopped left. The Bolt sparked against the Gold Mine, shattered, leaving not even a scuff mark. The Kobold cackled and pulled the bow to full draw. Two clawed fingers unfurled, and the arrow flew straight with an echoing crack, faster than sound.

Thane had preemptively sidestepped. With an angered grunt, he flicked his wand hand.

Again, the Kobold Ranger hopped, nocked an arrow, but as the bowstring was pulled to quarter draw, Thane’s second—not third—Mana Bolt pierced its chest. Blood sprayed. A scream rang throughout the cavern with the shrill of a thousand blades scraping glass. The Kobold’s health was at 68. 65. 62. It still had fight left, picked up its longbow.

Crack. Thane’s fist dislodged its jaw. He stabbed a Bolt into its stomach. More delicious blood sprayed Thane’s face. He ripped away the longbow, pinned the stupid beast to the ground with a knee on its broken ribs. “Kobold,” he hissed, “you have one chance to pledge loyalty to me.”

“No,” it wheezed.

“Pledge to me or you die!”

“No. No pledge to monster Human. Kill me.” It coughed blood. “Kill me. Kill me. Kill me.”

Damn. Thane had thought being an NPC would change things. Apparently not. With a murderous glare, he shot a Bolt through the thin strip of bone between the Kobold’s eyes. Its health bar vanished, and Thane’s experience bar filled from 298/1000 to 587/1000 EXP.

Abruptly multiple game interface boxes popped in front of his nose.

Quest Complete: Things that Squeak in the Night

You have raided this Kobold Homestead to the point that it can no longer recover.

Reward: 500 EXP, 25 Gold

Congratulations! You are now level 2. You have 5 unallocated stat points. 87/2000 EXP to level 3.

Congratulations! You have ascended to World Elite tier 1 through the First Rite of Combat. To ascend to World Elite tier 2, you must complete the Second Rite of Combat and another First Rite.

Tier 1 Bonus: 10 free attribute points, Pick one: Tiny Homestead Hall, Tiny Graveyard, Tiny Vampiric Altar

The third box was new to Thane. Only NPCs could become World Elites, so he hadn’t memorized what the Rites exactly entailed. He focused on those words, but the overworld AI didn’t divulge anything further. This was, without doubt, Cade’s ad hoc coding at work. Thane opened his friend list and found the one entry grayed out—offline. He shook his head, glanced over the three choices.

Tiny Homestead Hall

Places a full-sized Homestead Hall at a target location with the following attributes.

Building materials: Normal-Quality Wooden Planks, Normal-Quality Stone Blocks

Style: Haunted

Minimum Area: 10X10

Recommended Area: 50X50

Item Storage: 100 slots

Stored Gold Ore is smelted into Gold at 50% efficiency

Tiny Graveyard

Places a Graveyard at a target location with the following attributes.

Building materials: Normal-Quality Stone Blocks

Style: Haunted

Minimum Area: 5X5

Recommended Area: 100X100

Spawnpoint

Tiny Vampiric Altar

Places a Vampiric Altar at a target location with the following attributes.

Building materials: Normal-Quality Stone Blocks

Style: Haunted

Minimum Area: 3X3

Recommended Area: 15X15

Recruits Vampires: Fiend Worker, Vampire Fighter, Vampire Elite

Thane focused on each recruitable Vampire.

Recruit Fiend Worker

Mutates any humanoid corpse into a Vampiric worker with a basic profession of your choice.

Average Sentience: 50

Average Base Attributes: 40 Health, 25 Stamina, 15 Mana

Requires: Homestead Hall, unoccupied dwelling

Cost: 85 Gold, 10 Blood, 1 humanoid Corpse,

Recruit Vampire Fighter

Mutates a corpse of specific race into a Vampire with a base class of your choice.

Average Sentience: 75

Average Base Attributes: 100 Health, 100 Stamina, 100 Mana

Requires: Barracks, unoccupied dwelling

Cost: 320 Gold, 10 Blood, 1 Vampire Venom, 1 Human Corpse

Recruit Vampire Elite

Mutates an Elite corpse of specific race into a Vampire Elite with a base class of your choice.

Average Sentience: 100

Average Base Attributes: 100 Health, 100 Stamina, 100 Mana

Requires: Barracks, Graveyard, unoccupied Elite dwelling

Cost: 2500 Gold, 100 Silver, 125 Blood, 1 Vampire Venom, 1 Human Elite Corpse

There was only one viable choice—Tiny Vampiric Altar. By capturing that Homestead Hall and those Hovels, he could recruit two Fiend Workers with Builder and Stonecutter professions. As for a Miner, the profession wasn’t too difficult to naturally learn with an Iron Pickaxe. Thane nodded, confirmed the choice, and the Altar was placed in his inventory. He summoned it to his palm.

Inside a glassy orb of mana hovered the miniaturized building. Between three obelisks, ancient runes pulsed blood red like a beating heart on a five-sided stone tablet. The longer Thane stared at the runes, the more he was transfixed. He swore he heard whispers as though demons were trying to commune with him. Knowing this world, that wasn’t far off.

He threw the orb.

It shattered, air rippling. Cylindrical slate blocks faded into existence and began stacking into rods. Builder magic was the cement, fusing stone together seamlessly. Progress: 0/65 Over fifty seconds, nine square yards of soil were cleared and piled to the side. Narrow holes drilled into the cave floor, yards deep into bedrock, the rods snugly fitting—foundations. One point was added to the progress bar. Thane had seen this a thousand times. He left it to build and approached that last Kobold Worker’s Hovel. He had been keeping an eye on the doorway and the Kobold hadn’t made a run for the stairs, still cowering within. At 16 sentience, it was barely on par with a deer, but animal comparisons weren’t accurate. With 16 sentience, it could still follow basic orders.

Thane poked his head inside. “Hey, little guy.”

Curled in the corner, it squeaked.

“Can you understand me?”

Squeak, squeak.

“Does two squeaks mean yes? Nod if you understand.”

Its head shook in defiance.

Chuckling, Thane pointed with his wand, shot a low-power Bolt. Blood splattered on the wall. He picked up the corpse, carried it like a sack of flour, and placed it by the Kobold Ranger, sadly glancing at the pool of wasted blood. He refilled his Flask and couldn’t resist drinking an ounce and two.

Delicious. Mindbogglingly delicious.

It took the will of a seasoned, old actor to stop drinking and get back to work. Teeth clenched, he marched to their Homestead Hall, liquid warmth in his stomach spreading out into the rest of his body. Splinters pricked his fingers when he placed a palm on the double doors with specific intention to not loot it.

Claiming this Abandoned Homestead Hall will destroy stored items. Do you wish to proceed?

Yes, he thought.

Crystal Lamps hanging from the gutters changed color from yellow to crimson, and a box decorated with sawdust appeared.

New Quest: Humble Beginnings

You are well on your way toward a glorious Homestead settlement

Requirements: Homestead Hall (complete), Vampiric Altar, Barracks, Graveyard, Dining Hall, Blood Distillery, 10 dwellings, 10 population

Reward: 500 Gold, Tiny Watchtower

These were your run-of-the-mill tutorial quests to guide new players down a right path. Right but not always 100% optimal. Rushing to build a Dining Hall and Kitchen (Blood Distillery in this case) was arguably less crucial for Vampires. Unless Fiend Workers needed blood to survive, mass food production could wait. The greedy play here was to spam Quarries and empty the Gold Mine.

He looked over his shoulder, eying that small hill of impervious white boulders. The entrance was wide enough for a single Miner—bad sign. He was reluctant to examine it.

Gold Mine

Ore Remaining: 16,431

He winced. This was going to be very, very tight. Taking a deep, chilly breath, he grabbed his Pickaxe and got to work.