Chapter 15 – Diplomacy
Day 42 1am
After hours of talking with the Lizard King, my diplomacy rose to level 2 and I managed to arrange a small trade agreement for Devil Weed & a warrior exchange program. Two hundred Trolls for two hundred Lizard Men, he's even given me a handful of Lizard Women Earth Mages. Honestly I didn't even know they had females, however once I paid attention to the differences, the lizard women could be distinguished by their dull brown scales, while the men had scales tinged bright green in places.
I headed back to Troll Town with 600 Trolls & 200 Lizard men/women/people? Whatever the fuck the politically correct term to describe 195 lizard dudes & 5 lizard females. Fuck I hate diplomacy, as my father would say, diplomacy is all about eating shit with a smile & hiding daggers within gifts. I'd imagine in this gift, the Lizard King planned to spy on me & my troops in case of potential attacks, potentially with plans to sabotage or betray. I found the prospect kind of exciting for some reason. Espionage was always more interesting than diplomacy, though diplomats were often engaged in one form of espionage or another. After all diplomatic immunity was awfully convenient for that sort of thing.
I left 4 of the lowest ranked Named Trolls Q to T to look after 49 Trolls each, they'd learn about spearmanship & Javelin throwing. They were tasked to observe the Lizard People culture & defenses & level up through being meat shields on Hippopus & Devil Snake hunts. I'd imagine some of the Trolls would die before I visited in a day's time. Other than the Named Trolls the rest were expendable.
I had big plans to farm the Lizardmen & Trolls & wreak havoc on the world but first I was in desperate need of gold. Now that I was level 100 and had an empty sub class, I had to decide what would be more profitable, using the subclass to become an apprentice blacksmith or a magic scholar.
If I chose blacksmith I'd be able to better equip my army with actual weapons made with metal, bringing them firmly into the actual medieval era in line with the rest of this world. Magic Scholar would grant me the possibility to improve the effects of spells by learning about magical theory. The inherent bonuses would stack well at later levels, allowing me to pump out magic scrolls & spell books.
Hmmm both would help in the short term, and had long term value but after some thought, I decided to pick Blacksmith. Blacksmith was really the best option for my current situation. Magic scholar would have to wait, maybe I could pick it up from draining someone's blood but I doubted it would be that easy.
3 am
I returned to Troll town, to find it occupied by a different batch of Trolls, not surprising, based on my rough calculations, the army would have killed a batch of Trolls at 9 am, then another batch should have been spawned around 5 pm that would have taken over Troll Town shortly after. Then at 1am they would have faced a wave of 'Wild Trolls' & either fended off the attack, fell to the attackers or merged forces to some degree.
I burned down the wooden gate & sent in my Trolls, who easily dominated over their lesser brethren, with their superior levels & tactics. The Lizard Men were somewhat useful, though there was some 'friendly fire' resulting in the death of my lower leveled Trolls. I wondered how a Troll would look wearing a football jersey, with a number on it. It would help better differentiate Trolls on my side & those not. Should add that to my growing to do list.
I'd probably have to visit Erand and put in an order, which would cost more gold. UGH. Who knew having an army was so expensive.
I reclaimed Troll Town quite quickly and gained five hundred new Trolls, after accounting for casualties. The newest Trolls got drained of blood, before I started started the rebuilding process. I didn't bother with buying Alert again, wasn't sure whether I'd stick around or not.
This time around, it was quite quick & easy to rebuild the stone walls behind the wooden walls & rebuild all the stone buildings. I had the Named Trolls organize Demon bunny hunts for food, Gathering trips for collecting tree trunks & sparring sessions for the new members. I wanted to build up the new Trolls' [Rapid Regeneration] levels & the quickest way was to get them to punch each other a lot.
I used [Tunneling] from Troll Town to Vampire Cave, then raced towards Ratede through the proper tunnels & visited the apothecary sold off Lizard Men bodies, Lizardmen blood & Troll blood & gained quite a bit of gold (220k Gold). I finally had enough gold to buy at least one of the medium level privileges as well as reinstating Alert.
Next I visited Elandra and asked if I could apprentice with her for blacksmithing. She said I could.
She sold me a whetstone & showed me to how to use it & I gained Blacksmith as a subclass and gained the level 1 Blacksmith ability [Sharpen].
[Sharpen: Using a whetstone, you can sharpen weapons to give an unnaturally sharp edge.]
Due to Champions' time commitments, learning crafting was about 30 times faster than it would be for a normal Native and yet there were very few who made use of that advantage. Being a Crafter usually meant you were stuck crafting for an entire guild or faction with very little excitement. Excluding the rare Hammersmiths of course who made use of the Blacksmiths bonuses to strength, stamina & dexterity for occasional monster hunts.
11 am
I returned to Troll Town and noticed even more new additions to the team. I had gained yet another five hundred Trolls for the team. Unfortunately none of my Named Trolls could talk to me about the attack. I needed to figure out a way to get the Trolls to talk. Was there a spell? A potion? A divine gift? Having minions I couldn't communicate with was a hassle.
I was forced to rely on the Lizardmen, who gave me a basic overview of the situation, Trolls attacked, Trolls died, Trolls were captured & were added to the group. A very simplistic report but it would have to suffice.
I added more stone houses this time with two floors, so that more Trolls could live within them. The place was getting more crowded, I needed a city planner or more room to breathe. UGH. TOO HARD.
I took out some of my frustrations by fucking Zombie Ren, half a Ren was better than no Ren, Zombie Ren still had a nice tight butt & a big hard dick and the mindless animalistic sex took my mind off my problems for a little while.
I pumped him up prior with some spare Troll Blood, that the newest additions had so helpfully provided. I had prioritised health & strength to better keep him alive in case of future troubles. Also it helped him survive the rough stuff better.
12:30 pm
I received a visit from a confused Bone Zone & a half dozen high leveled Necromancers, including the leader of Necropolis, Steve, ranging from level 100 to 150. All dressed similarly in magician robes with skull motifs designating their affiliation. They were followed by nearly a hundred undead of various types, including skeletons, zombies and a handful of Lesser Liches & Death Knights. It was like watching a small army advancing ... Funny that.
I asked Bone Zone the reason for bringing such interesting guests along, referring to the other Necromancers and their undead summons. I had a bad feeling about their presence.
Bone Zone explained that he had tried to spawn in Troll Town and ended up in Necropolis. He had thought that I had either screwed him over or had lost Troll Town to the army's purge.
Or at least that's what he said.
I was curious as to whether the Army had come around due to a tip from him or from others who'd noticed the unusual Troll movements or as a result of Henry. Either way I didn't care, I had devious plans & Steve, the necromancers of Necropolis & Bone Zone would feature heavily in them, whether they wanted to cooperate or not. Muahaha (Evil laughter ensues in my mind).
I talked to Steve, he bragged that he had already captured the Hobgoblin village & the Orc's village. He had planned to take Troll Town if it was unmanned but since I was here he'd hold off.
That seemed like a veiled threat, on the other hand I didn't even know there was a hobgoblin village, I found that news very interesting. Maybe all humanoids had some form of settlement hidden or exposed. Perhaps it was supposed to be a hidden easter eggs for dedicated players or a potential exploit. I'd have to figure out how he took control of them, I doubted he was also a demon king candidate. He probably found some kind of work around involving necromancy.
"That's nice, I just took over the Lizard men town."
Not exactly true, but diplomacy is all about deception.
He turned to Bone Zone & said "Thought you said he was level 90 when you last saw him?"
I answered for Bone Zone "I was but I killed a paladin & a Templar yesterday & I gained some levels from it."
My explanation was a barely veiled threat as it demonstrated that I could take down a level 150 Templar if necessary. Steve was obviously a professional at diplomacy, barely blinking at what could be considered reckless or suicidal behavior depending on your point of view.
"Aren't you concerned that they'll come after you?"
"They're probably more concerned with the hundred thousand vampires they've pissed off by killing their vampire prince."
The best lies are those with sprinklings of truth.
Steve ignored that to continue with a different line of questioning. "Bone Zone told me that you gained abilities by drinking your party member's blood & gained a couple of classes & massive stat boosts. How did you acquire the dhampir class?"
I had to admire his audacity, he was obviously pumping me for information to gain an advantage and he wasn't even trying to be subtle about it. I kind of appreciated the sledgehammer approach. Night of long knives are so cliche after all, though I wouldn't imagine he would be above stabbing me in the back or in the front, the moment I outlived my usefulness but I was already planning ahead for that. I'm all too happy to return such a sentiment.
"I was turned by my boyfriend, the vampire prince, who died, so the Church is on my hit list among others." I said keeping my tone dry & acidic.
"So I guess that option isn't available any more."
I shrugged. "There's always the option of becoming a vampire, the benefits are better but the downsides are also more severe."
Steve was shrewd "What's the price?"
"To becoming a vampire? Or for an introduction the Vampire that runs the vampire city?
"Both."
"The costs of being a vampire, is that death becomes more significant, you'll have to pay for resurrections like a Native, holy damage is a threat & sunlight becomes dangerous. The upside of course is that you gain stats, skills & spells by drinking blood. As for the cost of the introduction, I want Bone Zone to work for me exclusively & I'll borrow these other necromancers of yours to help me defend this town for a few more days."
Thanks to recent developments, I had gained a force of roughly 1600 Trolls & 200 Lizardmen but Necromancers could be quite useful to shore up my extreme lack of magic defenses & add some variety to my defence force.
"I'll have to discuss this with my people first & I'll get back to you."
"You do that, I'm going to rework the defenses in the meantime."
I figured if I could demonstrate enough power I could lure the necromancers into the battle, boosting Ratede's defenses & distracting the Church as well with a new enemy. Ten thousand vampire necromancers would be very useful for my long term goals of destroying Sharn and Helios & Kratos (the kingdom I was in).
I used [Stone Wall] with way more mana than normal, raising stone walls twenty feet high, then a secondary wall 8 feet back, then I used [Raise Earth] in between to make a walkway for archers & scouts. Next I used [Rock Crumble] in specific sections of the outer wall to make crenels & merlons, the typical tooth shaped defenses on most castle parapets. The crenels were the gaps that allowed defenders to fire at attackers, while the merlons offered defense for defenders from ranged attacks.
Then I used Raise Earth to lift the entirety of Troll Town to raise it above the ground by about 3 feet. That one hurt a lot, but I'm getting much better at dealing with magical backlash without grimacing. At least the pain was worth it, I now had some amateur style Ramparts.
It was a shame I lacked any water magic to create a moat but fuck it. I could use fissure to create the trenches & then I'd just get the Trolls to gather water from the nearby lake (well more of a pond with delusions with grandeur).
I was officially out of mana. However I made a sufficient impression on my audience, Trolls, Lizard Men & Necromancers alike. I was like a god shaping the world to my whims with an abundance of mana.
Steve readily agreed to my proposal. We exchanged contact details. Bone Zone and 5 other Necromancers were left behind. I pulled Bone Zone aside and pumped him for information about how Necropolis worked & got some more information about Death Priests & necromancy spells.
Since I had spent basically all my mana on creating a fuck you fort, I bought Environmental Control & Alert which nearly bankrupted me. However Environmental control would allow me to stop my manipulations of earth being overwritten the next time the environment was reset. It also had a few sub options for soil conditions, air quality & reproductive rates of livestock and crops which might be useful later on.
Now to see if I could convince Lord Ratede of the value of a partnership with necromancers.
I returned to Ratede to have a conversation with Lord Ratede.
When I arrived in the vampire city, there was an unusual amount of activity for what was the equivalent of the dead of night for vampires. There were Dhampir Guards roaming around in larger numbers & huddles of vampires hanging about whispering & murmuring to each other about something.
I visited Lord Ratede & found out the reason for the unusual activities.
There had been a much larger force sent into Vampire Cave, led by the recently resurrected Henry, Arthur & John Paul. They had brought a couple of hundred men with them, mostly holy knights, with a handful of paladins and priests.
They had managed to kill some of the Vampires in the cave before being buried alive by Thad, the Champions escaped after ten minutes. The rest either died or were captured by the force that Damon had brought back with him after he alerted Ratede of the problem.
I asked him something I had been curious about for a while. "How can the dhampir guards arrest vampires that are so much stronger than themselves?"
Lord Ratede smiled "They work in groups & most of them are equipped with holy weapons or have light magic, courtesy of Helios."
"Wait, what? How can they work for Helios, isn't he the enemy of your God?"
"In a way yes but what better way to keep misbehaving vampires in line than with the tools of our enemies."
"I get that but don't you have to sign up with the Church to be able to do holy magic?"
"Well that's the usual way and quite a few of the Dhampirs who wish to become Guards end up joining the church for a time in order to better learn the ways of their people & gain more power."
"Aren't you afraid they won't come back?"
He shrugged and spread his hands. "Some don't but most are given to us as soon as they are born and they are wary of being found to be part demon and the chances of that increases the longer they engage in battle above ground."
"Can't the Priests tell immediately?"
"Most Dhampirs are sent out into the world before they are awakened, so they only have a trace of latent demonic bloodline within them, they may be a little stronger than the average mortal but nothing too obvious. Helios doesn't care who his followers are as long as they bring him more followers & increase his domain further. "
"So how are Dhampirs awakened?"
"They must consume a certain amount of blood, that or bathe in it."
"That's interesting..."
Lord Ratede gave me a condescending smile. I changed the topic to Steve & the possibility that the Necromancers could be of great use in the escalating conflict. I highlighted the fact that the majority of Necropolis were Champions, Immortals who would die and die again and think little of it if they could gain power faster through blood pacts & conversions. They could greatly bolster the forces of Ratede with undead and they'd be more than happy to take on Helios with them.
Lord Ratede only looked mildly interested, of course it could just be a really good poker face. He struck me as someone who was good at keeping his cards close to his proverbial chest. "I'll meet Steve at midnight in Ren's cave."
I left quickly after that, I was still thinking about how Dhampirs bathed in blood, the idea grossed me out which considering how I regularly drink blood lately may sound hypocritical but blood is only good when it's warm & fresh, hence why spatial inventory is so useful, keeping the blood fresh indefinitely in a pocket dimension. That said being caked in clotting, cooling blood is just gross. Ren wanted to mess about with blood sports during sex and I thought why not? Turns out I dislike it as much as I dislike scat & water sports. I prefer my fun to be mess free. Luckily neither of those were a thing here due to that noone pissed or shit in this world, all food was burned up for mana & or stamina production. So glad I don't have to create a sewage system for Trolls & Lizards.
Vampire society was so weird but the conversation with L.R gave me an idea.
I went to visit the prison, where the surviving members of the Church incursion force were being held. According to the prison guards, they were being held until they were ritually sacrificed to Sharn. Apparently Abyss wasn't the only Dark God who liked the Church members to die.
The strongest members of their force had already been sacrificed as part of reducing the potential for them escaping and causing trouble. Only the weakest members remained, mostly holy knights between the level of 50 to 99. All Paladins and priests had been murdered already.
I went down into one of the cells. I had a chat with the cutest Holy Knight I could find. Yes I'm shallow, but if you're going to live out a prison fantasy, got to find the tastiest meat around. He had dark black hair, a generally pleasing if average face, with an aquiline nose & hazel eyes. He had a muscular build & was practically naked except for his braie (a medieval underwear similar to baggy shorts).
After a bit of back and forth, he tells me that the priests had ordered a Crusade to exterminate me, as Ren was only the reason the world would end rather than the method. Apparently Helios had spoken to one of the priests to clarify the situation with more details after Ren had died.
I really needed to level up my Priest class so I could have a chat with Terminus & find out why he was holding my boyfriend's soul hostage.
According to Helios, if I wasn't killed soon, I would end the world.
I asked him if they had any details as to how I was supposed to end the world.
He didn't know but he did say they would just keep coming until the Church ran out of soldiers or I was dead.
I thanked him for his cooperation.
He looked surprised "You're thanking me? I just told you they were planning on killing you."
"That's not your fault is it? How about we make a deal?"
"What kind of deal?" He asked warily, suspicion narrowing his eyes.
I liked his response, it showed that he had enough brains to be suspicious while being flexible enough to consider an opportunity for freedom. He could have been one of those annoying zealots who refused to be cooperative till the end like a lot of his colleagues who ended up doing nothing but ending up as sacrifices to Sharn.
It was only a matter of time before Champions would swarm the Vampire Cave on the hunt for Ratede & the danger would escalate dramatically. Champions would consider it a special event, with no real downsides, death would only slow them down, they'd just use human wave tactics to destroy Ratede and everyone there.
No wonder L.R agreed to meet Steve so easily. He would need all the help he could get to stop waves of Champions from destroying his home.
The options for leveling up after level 100 were very limited as it required exponentially more experience per level. The monsters over level 100 were much stronger & more dangerous than their lower leveled counterparts, with more skills and evolutions behind them. Unless you had a large party, high level equipment or very high stats, every monster over level 100 was a threat.
The options for leveling up varied in difficulty and reward.
Option 1 was to grind for experience on lower level monsters that were easy to kill but that was a tedious option for most players and time consuming too.
Option 2 was to skill grind, mostly used by crafters who could mass produce items for class experience. It was also available for combat classes but it tended to be super boring swinging a sword for 10000 swings just for a measly amount of experience with not much to show for it. At least crafters accumulated stuff they could sell in that time. Warriors only got sore bodies.
Option 3 was to complete quests, however these were limited in supply & could only be granted by Acolytes of order, usually people in positions of power & influence that you had to suck up to. Some like Ydris collection quests were easy & provided other more material benefits but were time consuming and gave little xp & benefits for higher leveled players.
Option 4 was the most popular after level 100 where Champions fled their 'starter kingdoms' to move to a larger kingdom with Dungeons. The downside of this was that a certain amount of loot would be automatically confiscated by that kingdom's officials however it was the easiest way to level up. The nearest kingdom Olympia, apparently had nastily high taxes on dungeon entrants.
This would be a new option that would be irresistible to higher ranked players without all the uncertainty of a different kingdom with dangerous monsters they've never fought against. Of course the vampires would be hard to defeat and Ratede was only a town, with the Vampire Capitol having over a million vampires connected to other towns in other regions. In a way it was the secret connection between the kingdoms.
Despite being a Dhampir, I still hadn't earned the right to even visit the Vampire Capitol as its population and migration was strictly regulated by the Vampire High Council. Usually you had to be at level 200 to visit and have displayed some kind of achievement to live there.
That said there were 20 million users of the game and there would be millions of players that had levels ranging from level 100 – 200. Which didn't even include all the potentially hostile Natives who wanted to gain some levels within the kingdom who had a spare life to gamble with.
I needed to gather as many allies as I could to counter the flow of battle for as long as possible. There were several methods to increase the resistance of Ratede against a possible incursion but the first step was to try and convert the knight to my side.
"Simple, I will let you go in exchange for the information you've provided." He looked understandably worried by the way I phrased that, as he should. "However your Church may consider you a traitor for the mere act of surviving when those above you died. Which of course leaves you with a few options, you can return to the Church and take your chances, perhaps they might not think you're a traitor when you return alone."
"And the other options?"
I smiled, churches were seldom kind to apostates, heretics or failures. "Another option is to stay here indefinitely feeding the vampires until they grow bored of feeding you or you die. The best option is to join me and I will devote myself to raising you to level 100."
"Why would you do that? I'm nobody important."
I moved closer running a finger down his naked torso. I leaned in close my mouth mere millimeters from his ear, "You're smart enough to cooperate and I'd rather have you on my side than dead and we'd both benefit from a partnership."
"Why should I trust you?"
"You don't need to, all I need is a week and if you're unhappy serving under me, you can return to the church or go to the capitol or wherever and I won't try and stop you."
"So a week of service and I can be free?"
"That's the deal" I bit my finger "If you take this blood, I'll take it as you accepting our arrangement, it will also increase your strength for a couple of days." I pushed my bloody finger closer to his mouth. "Better decide quickly, if the wound closes up, the offer expires."
He leaned forwards and sucked on my bloody finger. It kind of turned me on, him being helpless and sucking on me. A perverted part of me wanted to indulge in some horny fun while he was chained to a wall in only his underwear but I had stuff to do and it'd be more fun when I had more time to play with him. Might have to build a dungeon in Troll Town to detain deviants & trouble makers.
Ideally I'd like to keep Henry in chains but Champions were exempt from being detained for more than ten minutes before they were automatically logged out due to concerns about psychological health. Damn health concerns preventing my diabolic vengeance. I guess I'd just have to take it out on some other Native Holy knights instead.
I ripped the chains off the wall and led him out of the prison cell. The guards objected at first but I told them that it was part of Lord Ratede's plan. It wasn't, but the whispers that I was the legendary Dhampir that would free them from a life underground had already spread, at least to those who knew why the Helios church wanted me dead. One man's salvation was another man's damnation.
If the vampires rose, humanity would fall. If humanity stayed ascendant, vampires would suffer in darkness and humiliation. Either way someone was going to be the one to bend over and take it like a bitch.
I didn't really care about either side. I only wanted to kill Henry over and over again for killing Ren. In order to do so, I would need to gather more support, in order to counter the Church NPCs and the players he might recruit from his guild. If a couple of Gods ended up dead in the process, I had no objections to it.
"What's your name anyway? "
"Gregor."
I took Gregor to the Prison Guard Captain and told him to bring me the weapons and armor Gregor was wearing when he was captured.
He looked conflicted but he eventually gestured to one of the guards who went to fetch them.
The armor was heavily damaged and the holy sword was cracked, even looking at the holy sword hurt my eyes a little.
"You're giving me back my weapon?"
"You're going to need it to level up."
He looked more worried with a holy sword in his hand than he had without one.
He looked between me and the several vampires watching him warily and he laughed awkwardly "I couldn't really do anything with it anyway" and sheathed it. "I can't wear the armor."
"Can you get him something to wear?"
After a few minutes of searching through their inventory of items, they found an old leather armor that was in his size.
"Thanks. I'll send some Troll blood your way soon as a little thank you."
"Yes sir." Hmm that could get irritating. Oh well, it's useful for now.
"Let's go get your armor fixed."
"Won't the vampires attack me as soon as we go outside?"
I smiled. "You're not the only human here, there are other humans here who serve vampires in one way or another." I looked him up and down speculatively but shook my head, work now, games later. "First of all we're going to see about getting your armor repaired and maybe a different sword."
"Okay." Greg answered submissively.
[You've gained an enemy knight as a semi loyal Blood Thrall, his loyalty is 50, you have a week to fully convert him to your side.] [You've gained 5 dark power, 5 charisma, 5 intelligence from converting an enemy into a conditional ally.]
[You've gained the Title Smooth Talker] [Effect: Charisma has greater effect on convincing others of your objectives. Applies only to Natives]
I smiled. This was going well. Now all I had to do was find, capture and extort a hundred more of the Holy knights to my side and my army would be greatly enhanced by an army of armored heal bots.
However Gregor would have to suffice for now, running off with Gregor was already risking my relationship with Lord Ratede but I was just hoping he'd more interested in me gaining a new ally to defend his son with than losing one sacrifice to his stupid God.
Now that I think about it, I've probably shit the bed on this one but fuck it. If you can't irritate your father in law, what the hell is the point of all the mind blowing sex?
Um. I feel like my mind & life has gone off the rails lately. I wonder if I should see a psychiatrist again. Hmmm Fuck it. TOO MANY THINGS TO DO. UGH.
I visited Elandra the blacksmith/merchant/jeweler/shop owner and she looked at Greg and said "Who's this? He's awfully pretty for a man. Replacing Ren or adding another to the fun?"
Gregor or Greg for short actually blushed. I guess I wasn't too surprised that he was straight & flattered by Elandra's attention. After all she was an attractive woman in a very snug fitting leather armor with large breasts & a pleasant face if you're into all that softness and femininity.
I ignored Gregor's response and explained to her the situation, the upcoming conflict, my occupation of the Troll Town and my desire to recruit anyone that might be useful to my side. I asked her if she was willing to join me in Troll Town to help supply the Trolls with weapons as the Town's blacksmith.
She declined. She said she admired my efforts but if there was a war she would be busier than ever with orders from the Dhampir Guards and Ratede's Vampire Soldiers.
"Thanks anyway."
"I can fix the armor easily enough but working with a holy sword would take longer. Be about an hour."
I shrugged and asked her for a vampire sword and a couple rings and a [Telepathy] spell book.
I left her with my order while I took Greg to visit Lord Ratede, I told him that I was taking Greg with me. He didn't really seem to care at all. Which was strangely worrying.
I told him that there might be more invaders than he expected coming. He didn't consider it much of a problem.
Vampires had a major flaw, they were arrogant with all their stats & skills stolen from others.
I shrugged helplessly and asked for the corpses of the dead Church members, the player corpses disappeared shortly after death, NPCs remained after death.
He had just dumped them in a pile in a hastily dug mass grave, indicating their complete contempt for their enemies. I collected 40 corpses & stashed them for later.
In exchange for the bodies of the dead I offered him some live Trolls for the Arena.
The Arena was used by Vampires to practice their skills against live opponents & gain levels. It was also used as a form of entertainment as various monsters competed against each other in games testing combat & luck. Trolls were a useful gladiator as their high vitality and rapid health regeneration made them good punching bags & tanks.
I sent Bone Zone a whisper that I would be grateful if he brought some more necromancers to Troll Town to make use of some dead holy knights.
He was ecstatic, dead Holy knights was the best material to raise a Death Knight, a class skill that was available to all level 50 necromancers. It was hard for a squishy Necromancer to kill a NPC knight with their high defense and attack power, let alone find a holy knight alone in Kratos.
A Holy Knight made for the best death knights as when they were resurrected their divine power was converted into dark power and made them much more powerful than a normal death knight. As such they were a valuable commodity to necromancers.
One of the reasons why the war between the Holy Empire & the Undead Empire was taking forever was due to the fact that both sides numbers kept growing despite all the deaths on both sides.
The Holy Empire gained more Holy warriors who quickly progressed into Holy Knights thanks to a mix of proseltyzing and an abundance of undead to kill.
The Undead Empire made use of it's army of necromancers to create endless undead from monster respawns. They made use of the deaths of the new and inexperienced Holy Knights to raise Death Knights to further increase the power of their armies.
I of course kept the best corpses for myself, keeping a few level 100+ Priests & Paladins for later when I had the ability to make Death Knights & Lesser Liches.
I left Lord Ratede and returned to Elandra who provided a repaired plate mail armor, a couple of rings and the spell book for Telepathy.
Greg looked at me with deep distrust after seeing the spell book and [Noble insight] told me that his loyalty dropped to 40. Telepathy was the basis of many mind altering & mind control spells.
I explained, "I'm planning on using it on the Trolls to speed up their development, you're going to help train them in swordsmanship and how to maintain a sword. It should boost their intelligence and skills explosively."
He looked at me for a long time and shrugged, I handed him the spell book as a gesture of good will & used [Noble Insight] which said his loyalty had risen to 45. Still a net loss but he was a work in progress. I planned to use him as a test case for converting & exploiting other captured Holy Knights.
I returned to Troll Town and took him to meet my Trolls and had him introduce himself to the Named Trolls. I told Greg I would expect him to help teach the Trolls the basics of combat.
I let Steve know of the meet up, I told him to come alone & meet me at Troll Town.
He arrived after an hour & I escorted Steve to Ren's cave & told him that he'd be meeting the Vampire King so he should be on his best behavior unless he wanted to become a bloodless husk.
I left him there & went to pick up Greg for a little field trip for power leveling & profit.
Authors Note:
This chapter ended up more of an inbetween chapter than I would have liked, but there's often a calm before a storm. Or something. Next chapter should be more dramatic or possibly psychotic. I'm not sure yet which one more accurately applies at this point.
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