RSK 10

Hey Guys! Hows the weekend going for everyone!? lots of storms here. Here you go!

Alessa POV~~~~~

When the sun started to set Oberon had his skeletons go get some burnable things for a campfire, which meant he burnt monster parts. It was both terrifying and memorizing at the same time. Some of the monster parts actually smelled good as they burned. Gobluke brought me the leg of one of the monsters that wasn’t charred and only crispy. I smiled as I thanked him. 

Oberon’s minions have been pulling undead up from the mines all afternoon. There were nearly two or three hundred of them now. Each time they returned the undead accompanying them were just a tad more powerful. This only got more pronounced once the sun went down and they were no longer affected by the sun. 

Oberon had me tame at least one from each group pulled up. So, I commanded a force of ten now. They were so much higher level than me, I wondered if I took them out if they would just revert back to unclaimed undead and try and eat me. Oberon assured me this was very unlikely to happen as the undead had to accept the spell willingly right now so they couldn’t break it easily. I could only trust him. 

“Alessa, how is your newest addition performing?” Oberon called over to me suddenly.

“The most powerful of the group,” I replied. I looked over to the Revenant. He held an ancient looking bow, that despite its age appeared to possess tremendous magic. There was a yellow flame around his head and the remains of leather armor. While I tried to tame it, the thing managed to kill ten of Oberon’s new undead and the warrior undead he made yesterday. When that happened Oberon nearly destroyed it, but the spell finally took effect and I laid claim on him. 

Even after I tamed it, the bow in its hand refused to be removed. We had tried to force it, but it acted like it would rather crumble into a thousand pieces than be removed from the revenant. It made me wonder about the history about the man and how he came to be in this place. 

He was currently hunting monsters around us. The bow using mana to create arrows. If this weapon made it back to civilization, there would be people that would kill to claim it. I would have to be careful if I ever had to travel in the future. Though, thanks to him my level was quite literally flying upwards. 

Name: Alessa Darkfeather

Age: 14

Race: Human

Level: 41

[Basic Sneak: Adept] [Basic Magic: Adept] [Magic Resistance: Minor] [Necromancy Magic: Adept]

Sin: [Pride: 10%] [Greed: 20%] [Lust: 3%] [Envy:40%] [Gluttony:19%] [Wrath:36%] [Sloth: 3%]

Curses: Ancestral Curse

Boons:

My sin levels were changing at a pace that made it hard for me to keep track of what was causing it. At least claiming ownership of the undead raised my necromancy level to Adept. Some of the knowledge I was lacking had automatically flowed into my head when I claimed the Revenant. I understood roughly half of the spell Oberon created now and I was much surer of myself. 

“When will the next group make it up here?” I asked, slightly bored.

“Soon, I found a map on one of the undead and there are ten floors to the mine currently. Though from what I’ve managed to gather they hit a crypt or something, so there might be more that is unmarked,” Oberon answered absentmindedly. 

“Can I try two this time?” I asked.

“Sure, my level in necromancy stopped moving after the last group so I need to figure something new to do to increase it,” Oberon said with a bony smile as he looked at me. 

“Oberon. What level are you now?” I asked curious.

“Hmm? I just hit level 30. Claiming the undead was giving me EXP, but it also stopped. Your new friend has also killed most of the monsters near us.”

“Sorry, I just hit level 41… 42,” I said then changed it as I saw it jump as Revenant killed something. 

“You might want to call him back. Gaining strength is good and all, but if you don’t adjust to it gradually you might kill yourself when you try to smack a bug from your neck,” Oberon cautioned with a smirk. 

“You’re right… It happened before,” I said remembering a time when a mage got level through a guild he joined. He tried to use a spell he used daily to lite a fire and it exploded, killing him and his entire party due to his increased power. I sent a mental message to the Revenant to return. It cost a bit of mana but so far I hadn’t felt any limits on distance yet.

“I figured as much, this is such a broken system,” Oberon said looking into the sky. 

“I heard the hero asked a God to create it, wouldn’t they have taken all this into account?” I asked.

“I’ve met Gods and Goddesses before, besides possessing tremendous powers on the scale of a planet, they are rather much just like you and me. Some are smart, some want to see the world burn,” Oberon said waving his hand. 

“What was it like? Meeting a God?” I requested with a little awe leaking into my voice. 

“I would tell you, but I only remember that I meet a few of them and vaguely what it was about. The rest is a fog,” Oberon said tapping his white skull with and equally white bony finger. 

“I can’t imagine what it must be like to wake up nearly a thousand years after your time. Everyone you knew dead.” 

“You would think that, but I have a feeling quite a few of the people I knew back then are still very much alive and well. I aim to fix that,” Oberon said with a chuckle.

“Lucifer and Lilith,” I said remembering the story of my ancestor. 

“Indeed, the bastard knew I wasn’t to be messed with. Its time he remembered who even gave him the chance to succeed in the first place,” Oberon said with a nod. The aura around him grew denser before it faded back. 

“Can I add some targets on to that list?” I asked as more of a joke.

“Sure, I have to figure out how to get to Hell anyways, and I don’t think many people would be too happy about an army of undead going through their borders. Frankly, I don’t give a shit and feel that the world can burn for what it did to me. I wanted to unite the races so that war would be a thing of the past, lets see how they feel when I unite the races in death,” Oberon said, staring into the sky. His green flamed filled eye sockets blazing. 

I thought about what that meant for me. I was never welcomed in this world. Everywhere I went I was hunted because I was from the Curse Family, but that wasn’t Oberon fault. In fact, I had never thought it was and was only ever proud of the fact that I was descended from one of the most powerful men in history. It was the others that forced my family into a life of secrecy. It was the nobles that bought us as trophies. It was the common people that turned us in for the gold like we were common criminals. 

“I want to help! The world needs to burn and be remade!” I said jumping to my feet and rushing over to Oberon.

“Oh? I like it! Let’s remake this world,” Oberon said with a sinister smile.

Just then we heard the sound of another group of undead emerging from the mine. There were only twenty new undead, but they were more powerful than the others by two or three times. Oberon channeled a spell then four dozen blades made from mana appeared around him. The new undead looked around curiously, their gaze would linger on me for a few extra seconds but quickly moved past. 

“Hello! I’m Oberon and I would like to be your new Master, refusal will be met with lethal force,” Oberon called over in a joyous sounding voice. 

A few of the undead rested their hands on their weapons but glanced around again and seemed to decide it was better to just go along with it. These undead were clearly every intelligent to be able to judge the situation so accurately. Most went ahead and kneeled while a few remained standing where they were. 

“I would like to be the Master of two of you, any volunteers?” I called to the group. 

The undead all turned towards me, then glanced at each other as if to say there was something wrong with this girl. Oberon pointed at the floating blades and finally the few standing undead gathered into a group before moving towards me a ways and kneeling. There were a total of six of them and they all had the same patch of their tattered armor. I could only guess they were likely an adventurer party that died while delving into the mine’s secrets. 

I looked at Oberon to make sure it was alright. He looked the party over before he said, “yeah, go ahead.”

I only had access to enough mana to do two binds in a row so the others would have to wait for an hour before I would recover enough to use it again. Luckily, Oberon seemed to have unlimited amounts of mana and could quickly claim the rest of the undead. He could use them to guard the ones I couldn’t claim right now. 

Concentrating on the spell, I focused on the first undead. It was a zombie of a man that would have been a mountain when he was alive. He easily made me look like a dwarf if I stood next to him. The spell construct appeared over him and the green and pink chains emerged as they always did. Each time earning me a chuckle from Oberon, over how I got them to turn pink. 

The chains quickly took hold and the undead only resisted for a moment. It looked more like it was seeing if he could resist rather then he wanted to resist. Once the spell ran its course, the undead got up and moved over to the side. The Revenant appeared just as the spell was done and moved towards us. When the other undead saw the Revenant, they grew irritated as they started to hiss and growl at him. 

“There is clearly a story here,” Oberon said when he noticed it. 

“I agree, to bad they can’t talk,” I replied. 

“You would think as an undead I would be able to understand them,” Oberon said almost sadly. 

“Maybe if you level up some more?” I offered.

“Maybe… You five behave!” Oberon said moving several of the blades to point directly at their foreheads. 

Oberon POV~~~~~

After the latest batch of undead were brought up I inspected each to see if I could learn any clues about the event that happened to cause this. The first half of the groups mainly consisted of miners, but after that it started to be mixes of miners and adventurers. It was hard to notice but there were small clues if you knew what to look for on the or in the undead. The bones and average power level of adventurer undead were thick and higher. While many of the miners wore armor, the adventurers’ armor was of much greater quality. Some you might even be able to salvage. 

The revenant was a great find. They existed even in my time when I was still alive and were known to be powerful enough to require a church inquisitor to deal with. The fact that one was here meant something ever powerful that could draw the undead was down at the bottom of this mine. One of the miners had a diary that was still in relatively readable condition and mentioned finding a vault of some type before the rest of the diary was covered in blood making it illegible. 

It was just before dawn when Alessa finally tamed the last of the undead. Once they were under her control they appeared to calm down around the Revenant, but it would be something to watch out for in the future. The last group also contained some decently powerful undead, so my level budged just enough to push me to the next level. 

Name: Oberon DarkPhoenix

Age: N/A

Race: World Lich

Level: 31

[Necromancy Basic Magic Mastery: Adept] [Basic Magic Mastery: Partial Lock 70%] [Sword Mastery: Partial Lock 49%] [Rune Mastery: Partial Lock 83%] [Advanced Magic Mastery: Partial Lock 96%] [Contract Magic Mastery: Partial Lock 70%] [Space Magic Mastery: Partial Lock 86%]...

Sin: Error! World’s Curse detected! EXP gain reduced by 66.6%!

Curses: World’s Curse, Ancestral Curse, Undeath

Boons: Forgotten Knowledge

The locked status of my abilities were doing down as I leveled so it was only a matter of leveling as fast as possible. It looked like most of skills would be unlocked completely by level 150, but I wasn’t sure if there was going to be requirements later to unlock something. Necromancy was also gaining experience from all the undead I claimed here at the mine. It really was a boon for me that this place existed here. 

Sam approached from the cave, no new undead with him. When he reached me, he bowed before he said, “Master. We reached the bottom of the mine, there is a breach in the wall that leads into a large structure. The aura of death is strong from it and I’m not sure the other undead will be able to handle it without frenzying.”

“What did it look like?” I asked curiously. It could be a crypt for a dead king, a dwarf treasure vault, or any number of options. 

“The walls were of smooth construction, much like your palace back in the city. Suits of armor lined the walls,” Sam answered. I could tell he didn’t possess the necessary knowledge to accurately describe what it was down there. 

“Very well! Alessa, time to actually do some work,” I called to the girl that appeared to be scolding the undead she recently brought under her control. I thought about it then said, “Just bring one of them. It sounds like it will be hard to control the undead down there and I don’t want to tax you.” 

“Yes, Sir!” She called over then looked over her undead. She chose the Revenant then told the rest to stand in the shadow of the rock formation. I felt she was trying to be nice to them by getting them out of the sun. When she was ready, we made our way into the cave. I cast a simple mage light spell so that Alessa could see, even though I didn’t need it. This was going to be interesting; I could feel it in my bones.