Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler :

Voice tricked another group of people into signing a contract. He experimented with his suit, and had SparrowHawk sow common weed seeds. He also battled a group of ten people, with the assistance of some undead, and won. He then killed the group he signed a contract with by harming himself.

Also, let me know if anything is wrong with the chapter! Be sure to comment!

As my fairies made sure that the area was exactly the same as when we came, I decided what I should do with my stat points.

From killing the group of people, and from Elliot’s group ‘breaking’ the contract, I had gained a total of ten levels. I now had 70 points to spend on whatever I wanted.

I went over my stats.

Stats WindowNameVoice0fReasonClassMana EnchanterLevel 45Health: 100Mana: 2700Stamina: 350Current Title: SurgeonHealth Regen: 1/sMana Regen: 22.9(17.9)/sStamina Regen: 5.1/sStrength41Agility34Wisdom229Intelligence270Endurance51Dexterity44Luck0Vitality35Charisma35Compassion95Leadership66Logic22Piety89Unused Stat Points70Fame1535

In order to increase my Skill Enhancement sub-skill, I’d have to have at least another 21 points into wisdom, and do some sort of task. Other than that, I had to plan how to use them.

I went ahead and put the points into wisdom while I looked over my other choices. I had 49 points left over. Since I knew that the basic stats gave me bonus skills, I decided to upgrade some of my stats to 50.

I added 9 to str, and 6 to dex. After that I was left with 34 points. After adding 16 points to agility, I was left with only 18 points. I spent 15 of those increasing vitality.

Since it directly controlled the amount of stamina I had, I figured it would probably give me a skill as well. Even if it didn’t having 500 stamina was a good idea. The last three points went into intelligence. I could always use a bigger mana pool.

Power Surge

Current Level: Novice

This skill will rank up once every 50 strength, up to a maximum of 250 strength. At that point you must succeed in the ‘Strengthening Ritual’ to master this skill.

For every rank in this skill, you will deal 5% more melee damage.

This skill can stack up to 25% damage bonus.

Nimble Fingers

Current Level: Novice

This skill will rank up once every 50 dexterity, up to a maximum of 250 dexterity. At that point you must prove the level of your dexterity to master this skill.

For every rank in this skill, you will have an increased accuracy of 5%.

This skill can stack up to 25% accuracy bonus.

Dodging Expert

Current Level: Novice

This skill will rank up once every 50 agility, up to a maximum of 250 agility. At that point you must prove your agility to master this skill.

For every rank in this skill, you will have an increased chance to automatically dodge an attack of 5%.

This skill can stack up to 25% dodge bonus.

Energy Conservation

Current Level: Novice

This skill will rank up once every 50 vitality, up to a maximum of 250 vitality. At that point you must prove the level of your vitality to master this skill.

For every rank in this skill, you will use 5% less stamina.

This skill can stack up to 25% stamina reduction.

You have learned all of the required skills to obtain the Group Skill: Body Enhancement. Would you like to exchange relevant skills for the Group Skill: Body Enhancement? You can choose to fuse them at a later time. At that time say exchange relevant skills.

“Yes.”

You have exchanged all relevant skills for the Group Skill: Body Enhancement. All relevant skills have been taken from your skill list. The total accumulated experience has been added to the Group Skill: Body Enhancement. The total level requirements have all been added to the Group Skill: Learning.

As you level this skill all parts of it will level up. For instance if you rank up Nimble Fingers to two ranks above Body Enhancement, you will gain the benefits the other skills would have provided at one rank lower. This skill does not have levels.

You have fused other stat related skills to other group skills. They will be transferred to Body Enhancement. The previous group skills will maintain their ranks and levels.

Body Enhancement

Current Rank: Adept

This skill allows you to use the benefits from: Nimble Fingers, Power Surge, Dodging Expert, Energy Conservation, Tough Skin, Skill Enhancement, and Mana Affinity.

Your natural grasp of the body and mind is at a high level. You will be able to more easily train your body and mind. You now gain an additional amount of exp for training stats at or below the rank of Body Enhancement. You gain [Body Enhancement Rank * 25]% more exp while training stats at or below the rank of Body Enhancement.

Can currently be fused with Group Skill: Long Distance Inspection.

Obviously I fused the two.

Stat Inspection

Current Rank: Novice Level 1

This skill allows you to inspect the stats of other players. You will be able to see all stats of others, as long as you have already unlocked that stat.

Your ability to read other’s physical and mental capabilities is high. Every level in this skill allows you to read the stats of higher level people. For every level you can read the stats of {([Your level] * [Skill Level])/10}. IE if you are level 45, and this skill is level 100, you will be able to read the stats of people up to level 450.

You must have equal to or more, in a stat to see the exact stat of another. IE if you have 50 Str, and the opponent has 51, you will only see an x.

For every rank of this skill, you will be able to understand stats that are higher than yours. Every rank in this skill doubles the limit of stats you can read. Current Limit (Your stat * Rank of this skill).

Can currently be fused with Group Skill: Key To Self-Sustained Alchemy.

I was a little taken aback by the fact that I could fuse my new skill to another skill. I could also combine it into inspect, but I’d do that later.

By fusing it to my alchemy skill, I got:

Alchemic Diagnosis

Current Rank: Novice Level 1

This skill allows you to understand the exact components of any potion you look at.

Every level of this skill will increase the level of potency of the potion you can gain info from. Every rank of this skill will increase the accuracy with which you discover the components.

Can currently be fused to the Sub-skill: Herbology.

Surprises never ceased.

Property Diagnosis

Current Rank: Novice Level 1

This skill allows you to understand the exact properties of any plants you consume.

Every level of this skill will increase the level of potency of the plant you can gain info from. Every rank of this skill will increase the accuracy with which you discover the properties.

I was a little sad that I couldn’t fuse it with any more skills, but I had gotten far more than I first intended anyway. With all of my new skills, I’d have a lot better time at being solo in this place. Although, the eating plants one doesn’t really matter. I can already get all the info out of my compendium.

I combined the first skill with inspect. I could combine the last two skills with Alchemy, or inspect. I decided to go for alchemy since I hadn’t really used it for a while.

You have exchanged all relevant skills for the Group Skill: Key to Self-Sustained Alchemy. All relevant skills have been taken from your skill list. The total accumulated experience has been added to the Group Skill: Key to Self-Sustained Alchemy. The total level requirements have all been added to the Group Skill: Key to Self-Sustained Alchemy.

As you level this skill all parts of it will level up. For instance if you create enough potions to level up, you will gain the benefits the other skills would have provided at that level. This skill takes more exp to level up to level two than all of the skills that make it up would.

Key to Self-Sustained Alchemy

Current Level: Apprentice Level 40 Exp 00.00%

This upgraded group skill allows you to use the benefits from: Alchemy, Distillation, Fermentation, Alchemical Fusion, Gardening, Herbology, Plant Location, Planting Intuition, Alchemic Diagnosis, and Property Diagnosis.

The total percentage benefits per level are: 3% to Strength and duration of potions, 2% chance to gather bonus ingredients from plants, Long Distance Inspection is 1% stronger when used on plants.

To level this skill you must do an action that would be encompassed in one of the skills that were consumed to make this skill.

This group skill had gained at least 10 sub-skills. This skill has gained 15 levels. *Note One exp was awarded due to rounding errors.

What the fuck is rounding errors? You’re a fucking super computer. Well… It’s not like I got hurt by that.

The amount of skills I got just from upgrading all of my stats to at least 50 was insane. I would never tell anyone about that little tidbit.

The fairies finished up the cleaning, so I recalled them. I used didn’t have a good suit of clothes to make a disguise, so I traveled by flying. I loved flying. Feeling the wind beneath my pseudo-wings was exhilarating.

I figured out a small trick. My mana regen was at 25 points since I had recently eaten. Since the suit took that much mana, I could theoretically keep it up for as long as I had enough velocity to keep in the air.

The first flight after leaving the area lasted for about fifteen minutes. After shooting myself straight into the air, I had to save about ten percent of my total mana in order to navigate.

Although using any non-wind mana to create wind, doesn’t work very well. After flying for about half of an hour I had to land.

With almost no clear areas, I had to take a chance and land near a small group of trees. I angled myself perfectly, making sure nothing would go wrong.

I landed with a thin branch smacking me in the face. So what? It didn’t go perfectly, but I only took 50 damage.

It was ok since no one saw me though. I was feeling a bit upset about it though. That is until I suddenly saw my maximum mana increase by four hundred points.

Heh, wish I could have seen how that went down. Either the first group betrayed the contract by attacking the second group, or the second group totally killed the first group. Either way, at least the first group was dead now.

I took two more flights after that, keeping enough mana to make sure I had a bit of cushion to work with. About half way through the maximum flight time of my second flight, I saw a small wooden cabin.

I landed as close as possible, while leaving enough space to not be found out. I was planning on killing whoever lived in that cabin, and taking their home and possessions for myself.

I used the shoes the wind god gave me to actually walk just above the ground. No sound possible was the best way to sneak. As I approached I smelled something like apple pie cooking.

I stealthily peaked through one of the cabin’s windows. I immediately dropped the magic going to the shoes.

I threw the door open. “Susan! You’re just where you said you’d be!” I opened my arms and jovially hugged her. She seemed to respond better to shows of happiness and affection.

She was confused for a moment, then realized what was happening. “Voice! You got here a lot faster than I thought!”

She asked how I had been fairing, I told her about how three evil groups of people decided to invade my base after I sealed myself off from the senseless killings. How they destroyed the trees for no reason, and how one group even brought me many dead animals, just to torment me!

She bought every line. I almost felt bad about it. Not really though.

She showed me a lot of sympathy. While she was on her tear jerking kick, I sprung a question. “So do you have any clothes other than these? I really feel like getting into something more comfortable.”

Susan went to a crate I hadn’t noticed. She started rummaging around, and pulled out a few suits of clothing. “How much for a set?”

Susan looked at a screen. She pointed at the different suits of clothing, and listed their prices. They costed about 5 silver to 1 gold, so I bought them all. It opened up my possible disguises a bunch.

I bought a commoner’s outfit, a priest’s garb, a courtier outfit, a chef, and a gardener’s outfit. I went to the only separate room, the bedroom, and changed into the commoner’s outfit.

It was the closest thing to what Susan was wearing. I put all of my gear to the side, and started making a nice meal for Susan and myself.

She had a lot of ingredients, so I made a nice dinner of steak, and steak fat flavored potato chips. Since we had salt and potatoes, I just made the first thing that came to mind. I cut the pieces of the potato into thin slices.

I dipped the thin pieces into the boiling grease from the steaks. If it weren’t for my cooking ability, they probably would have tasted bad. As it was, they tasted ok. Not the best though.

While we ate, we discussed how she had been since I left Rand. Apparently Evan and Elizabeth had a booming business.

Susan would skirt the reason whenever I brought it up. That just made me want to know more, but I let it go. If I seemed pushy it might hurt how she thinks of me.

After talking for about an hour, I found out that only two other people have come here to trade with her. They came here multiple times, and bought all of her healing and defense supplies. Thankfully she didn’t have anymore materials to make potions with. She had to collect them, but was stuck here.

I introduced her to my fairies, and had them get to work. They were again planting the seeds in the area around the hut, but this time SparrowHawk was on lookout instead of planting duty.

With the help of Moro and Eli, we actually moved the trees further away from the small cottage. Moro made sure the life force of the trees stayed firm, while Eli pushed the earth that the roots were in, away.

It took an hour just to move one tree away, but it was worth it in the long run. After they had moved the dozen trees far enough, I began with the construction of defenses. I had Susan’s permission of course.

I expanded the entire area to allow for more planting, and made a small moat around Susan’s hut. The only way in was either to walk across the six feet of water, or go across the bridge.

I bought the rest of the bombs Susan had. After Moro was done moving the trees, I gave an order. “Alright Moro, I want you to help make the plants grow quickly again, but in the morning I want you to go out and make as many traps with these as possible. Ok?”

Moro excitedly nodded. Moro grinned a child-like smile, and went to work with renewed vigor. Susan approached me. “The group of two come every day at noon. If you are here at that time, they may try to kill you, since that’s the game. You might want to run.”

I smiled as I sadly shook my head. “You see Susan, I believe that everything can be resolved without ever actually fighting. Words and strategies are better than swords and armor. I don’t plan on attacking the two, but neither will I let myself get killed by them.”

I spoke as if criticizing Susan a bit, but ended on a note of optimism.

What I meant by ‘resolved without fighting’, is that I had Moro plant the bombs all across easily accessible routes to Susan’s cabin.

We talked while my fairies went about their work. After a full night of catching up, we went to sleep. The party of two was scheduled to arrive at noon the next day, so I’d take my fairies back sometime that night.

The less amount of people that know I have fairies the better. In the best case scenario, people would mistake me for a weak fighter character.

Before I dozed off, Kretchof asked me several questions about the contest I was doing. He also asked if he could make another Soul Binding Contract. Not really wanting to talk, I answered them before drifting off.

I awoke at dawn, and began my preparations. No alerts had come from Ancestor, so I was in the clear. I recalled my fairies, and asked Susan to keep quiet about them. I would have had Kretchof prepare bodies, but Susan was from the town of Rand.

People from Rand typically frowned upon necromancy for some reason.

At noon, just as predicted, two people arrived. They each came from a different direction.

From the north cam a wolf-man. He was lean, but had well defined muscles. He was tall, about six foot, and had short silver hair coating his body. His long mane was silver. His eyes were slit like a cat’s, and purple in color.

His legs seemed to bend at an odd angle, and he had clawed hands. All in all he looked like a hybrid between a kobold and a human. Maybe kobolds were a choosable race.

He wore medium weight armor, and had some sort of trident looking weapon called a ‘cross-spear’.

From the south came what could only be described as a lanky minstrel. He came complete with a lute and everything. What was weird was actually noted by Ancestor.

“Voice, be careful. That lute player seems to have a large aura of wind around him, and the other man seems to have some sort of minor control over the elements. If you stall them long enough I think I can get a better reading with the mana and aura sights.”

Well aren’t they the interesting group. Let’s see how this plays out.

Kretchof’s POV

The adventurer’s have beaten two out of the four sub bosses. I would have to increase their power at some point. The group was otherworlders, just like master. They would die like pigs though. Master had told me how he was doing a type of game. That only a select amount of other people from his world were playing it. He told me that many people from other countries were playing it at the exact same moment.

That must be who these interlopers are. It was the only thing that made sense. People from our world, unless they were monsters or demons, could not enter my master’s dungeon. The only explanation is that they were otherworlders. They definitely didn’t have the dark aura representing a demon or monster. They were in decent gear, but I could not see their levels as master could. Master is so amazing. I’d ask for his hand if I weren’t so far beneath him.

The people seemed to be easily able to defeat my minions. They were slicing through them faster than I could summon. I had to direct a few of the other dungeons’ monsters just to stall them. They made it to the boss door after only killing two of the sub bosses. I had my minions attack them several times as their spell caster deciphered the words on the door.

The look on her face when she was done was hilarious. She turned to them, aghast, and relayed the news. They had to fight two more sub bosses in order to obtain the items they had just to open the boss door. They had been in the dungeon for four and a half days now.

I only had to stall them for another few hours and then the entire dungeon would change. Meanwhile I had prayed to Davros, asking for the location of other dungeons. All he asked of me was to let him know which ones I connect to.

I agreed and had my undead moles and dwarves hard at work connecting the dungeon to my master’s. Since they were currently working on the tunnel, it technically wasn’t part of the dungeon. It wouldn’t change with the rest of the dungeon, until it was finally connected to the dungeon that they dug towards.

The dungeon was a large cavernous one, that was mostly filled with rats, bats, and the occasional vampire if Davros was to be believed. Having them as an addition to my master’s dungeon would be a good thing. The group made it to the third sub boss’ room after only an hour of traveling. I would have to make this dungeon more complex. They found it with too much ease.

The sub boss they fought was a large, undead lizardman. It’s quick reflexes and powerful arms aided it considerably. Adding to the fact that it did not tire, it was a formidable foe. They took over an hour to actually beat the sub boss.

They had been repelled several times, before finally agreeing on a plan that worked. They ended up diverting its attention to the warrior, while the mage debuffed it, and the archer took out chunks of its health.

I’d have to watch out for that. The best part of being the dungeon boss, aside from serving master of course, was that I could watch everything that happened in my master’s dungeon. It allowed me to gather a wealth of information about each of the individuals as the traversed it.

They had to wait for a while as they healed up. It was dumb of them not to bring a healer to an undead dungeon. That was one of the biggest weaknesses of undead. Master would never have made that mistake. They made it to the last boss room, despite getting lost a dozen times. Master would have just made a map. Stupid lackeys. No one is as smart as master.

Each sub boss room had a total of 13 different guardians blocking the door way. Except for the Boss room I was in. The thirteen were not extraordinarily powerful, but they did pose a large threat to the unwary. The last boss was an undead demon I took from the dark alter. I had experimented with it a bit, and turned it into a minor lich. It was well worth the effort.

Boss liches, and sub boss liches, had a very unique ability. They can summon any of their direct subordinates into battle at any time. The lich summoned the thirteen guardians the group had just killed. Unfortunately that was all he could handle summoning at one time. His mana was tied to his mana in life, unlike mine. My mana was directly tied to Master.

The group lost the archer in the fight. Even with the constant attacks and debuffs, the lich tactfully aimed for the archer. The archer had been the true damage dealer of the group. He died soon after though. He had to sacrifice four of his thirteen minions in order to get to the archer. He held his own though. I saw quite a few places where he could use improvements, but we’d discuss those later.

After they gained all of the four keys they opened the door of the boss room. Just as they made it to the door, the dungeon began to rumble. The door slammed shut, and an earthquake level of movement shook the entire dungeon. After the dungeon began to settle, they opened the door again. Only to be greeted by a completely unfamiliar terrain. Only the female mage, and male warrior were left.

The male warrior began to speak, but my abilities didn’t allow me to hear the words. The mage began to look animated. It was probably something like the warrior saying, ‘find us a way out’; followed by the mage stating why that’s impossible.

I began drawing all of my undead towards them. They were going to have to fight to get to me. Sometime the heaviest concentration would come from the correct direction, sometimes from a completely wrong one.

They seemed to follow the densest concentration every time. It was a good strategy, but I had complete control of the undead. I began to lead them through a long series of twists and turns, and ended up depositing them back at the fourth sub boss’ door.

Throughout the entire journey I had been sending my minions to attack whenever they seemed angry at each other. I also sent large hordes if they seemed to be getting too friendly. That was the best way I could think of to turn the two against each other.

The look of anger on the warrior’s face was refreshing. He even hit the mage with the pommel of his sword. It’s never a good idea to start fighting with a magic user, my master shows that all the time. I decided to help the mage when she struck back at the warrior. She cast a large fireball at him, quickly followed by two icicles. As the fire ball was deflected, the warrior ran at the mage.

Only to be stopped by a wall made of bones. The ice hit the warrior in the face, taking about ten percent of his total health. Suddenly skeletons sprung up around them, completely focusing on the warrior. The girl tried to fight back, but I had used about half of my dungeon mana to petrify her.

Oh, let me explain something. Dungeon mana is different than the types of mana my master uses. Master uses mana inside himself, as well as that created naturally or by other beings. Dungeon mana is created by the dungeons, but only usable by the dungeon boss. There is a limited amount of dungeon mana I can use for each party that enters. I had spent a large chunk just guiding my undead to them.

Dungeon mana could be used to control the inhabitants of the dungeon, or to make some more powerful, or to directly effect the party for a very short time. It could also be used to make temporary traps.

I chose to directly effect the mage. I petrified her for only twenty seconds, but I believed that would be enough. The skeletal warriors were shredded to pieces as they cut the warrior. Unfortunately for him, as he killed them they exploded with miasma bombs.

His stats were temporarily debuffed, and the skeletons kept coming. After the onslaught went on for about 16 seconds, the warrior finally fell. The constant barrage of debuffs and attacks proved too much for one person.

After that I sent the undead away, and waited for the girl to be able to move. When she was there was only one skeleton in front of her. She seemed confused about it. The skeleton was exaggeratedly waving for her to follow it. She attacked it once, but when it didn’t attack back she decided to cautiously follow it.

It brought her right to my door. She gaped as the skeleton took the four keys the warrior had been holding, and unlocked the door for her. On her way there I had summoned everything possible, to fill the room with throwaway undead. I floated a bit, and caused the noxious miasma to flow from my legs and feet.

“Welcome young mage. My master has taken a great interest in you. The farce of a battle between you and the warrior was solved thanks to me. He should not have taken his anger out on you, but I can provide a way to allow you to defend yourself.

Simply sign this contract, and I shall do the rest.”

I had one of the four sub bosses I summoned bring her the contract. She looked it over. “This is a Soul Binding Contract. Why would you want me to sign something so powerful?”

Damn! I should have known a mage would know about magical tools.

“Because my master wills it. He is the true controller of this dungeon, I am merely a humble servant, watching his home while he is gone. Should you choose to accept, my master will allow me to teach you anything within my knowledge of dark magic, which is considerable. Think carefully though, the rules of that contract are severe.”

She read the contract over twice. Basically if she violated the contract all of her levels would go to master, and all of her items, even those in her bank, would go to his dungeon storage. If I disobeyed the contract, then I would have to serve her anytime I was not acting as the dungeon boss.

Of course if it came to that I would just dawn the mantle of dungeon boss 100% of the time. She looked over it, and finally,

“What if I refuse to sign this contract? Would you kill me here and now?”

I shook my undead head. “No, master has made it abundantly clear that I was to let you leave unharmed if you choose not to sign the contract.” I gave a false shudder at the thought of what Master had ‘done’.

She spoke again. “Then I decline. I do not wish to ally myself to the undead.”

I shook my head sadly. She seemed to be holding something back. It was best to go along with the skit. “Alright, I’ll have the dungeon sub bosses escort you to the entrance. If you come back in again you will be a fresh target. I might have even forgotten about you. So long mage.”

The sub bosses began moving toward her. “WAIT! I change my mind. I needed to see if you were lying to me about something. I would like to learn what you have to teach me.”

She signed the contract, and bowed before me. I might have liked that, but I knew Master would not like a servant that had too much pride. Prideful servants were the ones that disobeyed. I would never disobey my master.

After she signed the contract, I outlined her duties as a necromancer under Master’s control.

Spoiler :

Stats WindowNameVoice0fReasonClassMana EnchanterLevel 45Health: 100Mana: 2700Stamina: 350Current Title: SurgeonHealth Regen: 1/sMana Regen: 22.9(17.9)/sStamina Regen: 5.1/sStrength50Agility50Wisdom250Intelligence270Endurance51Dexterity50Luck0Vitality50Charisma35Compassion95Leadership66Logic22Piety89Unused Stat Points0Fame1535

Skills WindowAutomated Novice Level 9 Exp 25.00%

Speed Reading Novice Level 9 Exp 00.00%

Auto Read Novice Level 20 Exp 50.00%Group Skill: Key to Self-Sustained Alchemy Novice Level 40 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Long Distance Inspection Expert Level 75 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Automatic Nursing Novice Level 12 Exp 50.00%

Group Skill: Con Artist Novice Level 20 Exp 23.05%

Group Skill: Magical Mastery Apprentice Level 50 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Skill Mastery Adept Level 50 Exp 21.23%

Group Skill: Tactical Survival Adept Level 50 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Tactical Combat Training Adept Level 50 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Breakdown Novice Level 12 Exp 46.64%

Group Skill: Harvesting Mastery Novice Level 3 Exp 11.11%

Group Skill: Crafting Mastery Novice Level 5 Exp 00%

Group Skill: Body Enhancement Adept

Affinities WindowLight70%Water75%Wind25%Nature75%Metal50%Earth45%Fire25%Darkness100%