Battleforged
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Chapter 403 - Treasure Hunt V
🕑 Added 2024-03-11 04:00:03 +0000 UTCWARNING! You are attempting to Raise A Half-Step Silver Titan! - Level 99+ Bronze – Possessing Rank 2 Essence of Impermeability!
Even as the message flashed across his interface, Eric felt himself get sucked into a massive howling whirlpool of spiritual doom. Only in that moment could he truly appreciate just how titanic his foe’s spiritual pressure was, compared to every other revenant he had claimed so easily, so effortlessly, in comparison.
In a flash, he saw himself in a realm of perfect twilight lit up by a handful of torches, on his knees before a massive god-like titan wyrm of soul-stone and fury as countless millions of souls shrieked and whirled about them both.
“Yield, mortal!” Hissed the crushing spiritual weight of the wyrm’s spirit, even now attempting to do exactly what Eric wished to accomplish. To bind Eric in chains of servitude, and make him its eternal puppet.
Eric howled even as his knees crashed to the ice cold flagstones, eyes widening with furious dismay to find his very back being bent over, crushed by the spiritual weight of the Pristine Bronze just a sliver away from a shockingly powerful ascension that would have made the entire world tremble.
It was only by trickery, luck, and a mad confluence of strengths and hidden transcendent attacks that he should never have a been allowed access to, hiding his treachery in the very bowels of his foe. A single desperate lucky hit, blowing apart the brain when a strike to any other part of the titanic wyrm might have injured it, but not before it had crashed down and crushed and ground Eric to an absolute pulp.
By luck and fortuitous circumstances alone was this mosquito with a poison stinger still permitted to exist, when ninety nine times out of a hundred the master would have smacked it to oblivion. And he now had the gall to think he could master the titan before him?
Crushing doubt had Eric leaking tears of blood.
Just how much of a headstrong fool was he? His mind filled bitter scorn.
He choked out a sob as the soul he had thought to best grew large and terrible, thick as blackest night that trembled and shook with merciless laughter, a million stars tearing open to reveal countless bleeding eyes glaring down at him.
You have been critically struck by Deep Bronze Tier Ego Whip!
95 Mental Resistance Mitigates Blow.
You have suffered 1 Critical Wound!
Your body is no longer entirely your own!
“Bullshit!”
Eric screamed under the sudden awful pressure, as his very bones began to writhe and crack, a desperate scream ripping free of his lips as the air filled with chortling laughter.
“You are MINE now, Necromancer! MY vessel with which I shall inflict MY WILL upon the fiery cauldron that will be this worlds ascension. MY ASCENSION!
NOW YIELD, MORTAL!”
Eric screamed his defiance. His fury.
Heart pounding with furious despair. Knowing he needed to run. DESPERATE to run.
Even now in the endless darkness filled with the crimson eyes of so many predators, he must flee like the cowardly little mouse he was.
“FUCK NO!”
Yet even as his tiny rodent legs tensed, ready to spring free of the body wracked with such hideous pain, flee to the deep safe bosom of the spirit realm where he could only hope to hide from the soul crushing FEAR that he felt… some mad insane part of him REFUSED to flee.
Yet even as his inner mouse squealed with desperation, the larger part of his soul glared down at the bones crackling free of his broken flesh, snarled up at the massive half-step Silver Titan dominating him so utterly, swallowed down the terror that he was an utter fool who should RUN While he had a chance, and snarled his defiance.
“Surge Centuria!”
His mind screamed with white-hot fury as he dared to think that four levels of essence would actually allow him to defy a creature once worshipped as a god.
You have been struck by Deep Bronze Tier Soul Crusher!
95 Mental Resistance mitigates blow.
You have suffered 1 additional critical wound.
You have saved versus SOUL RUPTURE.
But it wasn’t enough.
For all that he sensed the strain being suffered by the massive alter of an ancient god of destruction, a creature once feared as a World Eater as dark religions and nightmare terrors brought to hideous life a thing that should have been left in dream’s eternal waters… it was nothing compared to the strain he himself felt, like a naked broken supplicant placed before an alter by massive shadowy sentinels determined to sacrifice him for their dark god.
A brutal example to fill the hearts and minds of their enemies with fear.
Even now he could sense the shadowy smiles of those black specters of fear and despair clasping tight, gripping his bones as they cracked and twisted, EAGER to cleave his heart free of his chest.
Yet they couldn’t stop one final bellow from slipping free of Eric’s lips.
A howl of fury and defiance.
For that which refused to yield to Dominion alone he would strike with the essence of his Wrath.
Lips curled in a bloodthirsty grin, recalling so well the lessons of stone and steel as taught by the construction companies that had once helped build his mother an empire. For as much as stone resisted compressive forces with unparalleled resilience, they were reinforced with steel. Always. Because the one thing stone could not handle were shockwaves of tension.
So when Eric howled his final words of defiance, he did it with a bloody smile on his lips, knowing that if the wrong people sensed it… he no longer cared.
“FRAGOR!” He screamed, mentally gripping himself against the backlash of awful pain from an attack that shuddered through his mind. Yet it was nothing compared to the cracks in the titan before him.
You have dared a Higher Order Psionic attack!
You have suffered 42 Damage that cannot be healed without System intervention!
Internal Supports MITIGATE Catastrophic Damage!
Essence of Wrath has struck your target for 1 Serious Wound!
“YOU DARE TO DAMAGE MY FORM, MORTAL? PAY IN BLOOD!”
The awful thrum of bones cracking and twisting became Eric’s world as he drowned in seas of fiery pain, sensing every organ within him twist a shriek in agony, knowing he was only moments away from being torn free of his own shell, his spirit becoming just one more doomed ghost howling in etherial winds.
Fingers desperately gripped the hull of his doomed ship as stormy arctic winds howled through the ruins of his soul. He felt like a little boy about to fly off a train, hanging on with a tiny hand just seconds from flying off to the shrieks of his terrified family and the echoes of his own cracking body and wailing soul.
Yet even as terror sought to consume him, a single flash of golden light from somewhere, nowhere… jolted a single memory free. Understanding all too well the hideous struts, supports, and beams that were making that stone statue all but indestructible. And just how vulnerable those struts truly were.
With a bloody smile to his lips, Eric choked out the words that needed to be said, even as he bid the howling storm of spirits to flee for all they were worth, lest it doom them… or free them. Which he didn’t know.
Nor did it matter.
All that mattered was whispering the words that would set so many trapped souls free.
Free of the clutches of the would-be god before him.
Free of the blackened soul deep in that effigy of impossible stone.
“Yield before me, mortal. Like the worthless trash you are!”
Eric only answer as his eyes burst once more was to whisper the word his foe should fear above all others.
“REPUDIO!”
Even as countless thousands of souls that hadn’t fled fast enough slipped into the hereafter beyond even Eric’s ability to recall, the air rang with a thousand gunshots of shattered steel. Cracks that raced across the entire titanic wyrm, as wide as his mother’s grandest apartment building, as long as half a dozen football fields strung together. And then, just because it fit, Eric uttered two words that of course now had absolutely no power at all.
“Be Free.”
He could hear the crack of countless tons of stone breaking free of the screaming titan that was now pummeling his mind with Ego Whips, Spirit Strikes, and Soul Rupturing attacks. Yet even as he sensed his health pool plumming at an absolutely catastrophic rate, Eric’s lips still stretched in a bloody grin.
“DIE, SCUM!”
“Not quite yet, worm. Now that your steel support’s all crumbled to the next life, let’s try that again, shall we?”
And much to Eric’s surprise, even through his shocking wounds and hideous agony, he actually thought he sensed a twinge of fear from the titan before him.
“NO, WAIT! WE CAN MAKE A—”
“FRAGOR, MOTHERFUCKER!”
The air rang with a stream of rapid fire explosions as stone erupted from the massive statue now covered in hairline fractures, the once whole and intact being of titanic will and hate now fragmented to a thousand shrieking pieces of desperation and fury.
It was all Eric could do to regain his feet, DEMANDING that his spirit take the form of an Eric whole and uninjured, even if his health pool refused to believe the conceit. The killing pressure bearing down upon him was so great as the fragmented soul of his foe shrieked its fury in a thousand echoing wails that the flagstone crumbled to powder under his feet. Yet it failed to force Eric’s compliance, any more than it did to stop his palm from smacking against the soul stone before him, belting out the final words to the chant his opponent was doing all it could to tear from his lips.
“Imperator Imperat Tibi!”
The spiritual purgatory he was trapped in was suddenly filled with a desperate storm of shrieking souls as the monstrous titan roared.
Stone cracking.
Even shattered in a thousand pieces, the Titan wyrm still refused to be bound to Eric’s will.
Eric snarled against the surge of anxious dread. Suppressing as best he could the panic he felt as his potency was claimed and his life-force began to plummet once more.
Now it wasn’t him resisting the Wyrm’s furious attempts to bind him. It was he attempting to exert control. Just like the first time he had pushed himself too far. Almost killing him. And what he was facing now was far more horrific even than that ancient lich.
In desperation, he belted out the words that needed to be said in a furious scream.
Words that echoed with the essence of Dominion itself as he sacrificed both an unclaimed perk and a portion of his own soul in his quest to make this titan his own.
“Surge Centuria!”
You are attempting to FORCE mastery over a Greater Underlord!
All stored potency has been expended! Necromantic Orb Depleted!
Life force depletion mitigated 99.4% by ABUNDANCE of lost souls sympathetic to your cause!
You have lost 374 days of your life!
Eric howled as the words continued to flow from his lips, his pink frothy lifeblood pouring free of his dessicating flesh.
You have suffered and additional 2754 damage!
WARNING! Your health is now less than 20% of maximum!
You have saved versus Soul Rupture!
“Imperator Imperat Tibi!”
Eric crashed to his knees, wheezing for air that just wouldn’t come as the cracks in the edifice before him began to bleed.
Blood filled with the howling fury of an eldritch lord eager for sacrifice, to consume the fool who would dare bind it to chains of servitude.
“I will destroy you utterly, you insignificant mortal wretch!”
Eric flashed a bitter smile before the massive maelstrom of blood forming the shape of a massive maw eager to consume him. For his fragmented foe was now trying to claim his soul.
The hive mind was trying to consume him directly.
“Give it your best shot, asswipe.”
The torrent of blood washed over Eric as he opened his own lips wide.
Yet when the dark blood thought to overwhelm, it found only a fearsome, monstrous hunger.
Where it thought to terrorize, it met only laughter as the object of its hate, such a tiny insignificant teenager, grew a mouth as vast and wide as the heavens, as twisted as the fractal geometries of an abyssal rift without warping his beautiful smile.
The creature shivered in sudden fear.
Yet before the torrent of spite-filled blood could flee, it was already falling endless over the precipice of its doom, not drowning a mortal boy so much as being consumed by an endless maw of desperate hunger so EAGER to feed and CONSUME the howling shrieking titan, devouring every last crimson drop to wash down its gullet until absolutely nothing was left, and the horrific wounds pockmarking Eric’s tormented soul began to heal.
The eldritch being’s furious snarls became the desperate wails of the dead as it was consumed for all time.
Yet the titanic shell of its body remained. The shell, along with the memories and potency it contained, was slowly being filled up with the swirling potency of countless souls EAGER to embrace life once more. Transforming itself into a ten thousand soul gestalt of an ancient Eldritch Underlord, now swearing itself to Eric’s service for all time.
A combined 8 Essences of Dominion and Flame and Rank 33 Blood Mastery have successfully countered and consumed Tainted Eldritch blood!
That which sought to consume you has been consumed in turn!
You have successfully Healed 5864 Damage!
All Spiritual wounds have faded!
CONGRATULATIONS! You have successfully FORGED your first Underlord!
Master Necromancer is now Level 34!
Blood Mastery is now Rank 34!
Spirit Mastery is now Rank 34!
Transcendent Abjuration is now Rank 5!
Deferred Master Necromancer Perk invested in Underlord Tree!
Warning! You have not met the prerequisite perks!
Trial of Combat (including potency and life-force paid) trumps all prerequisites!
Rank 1 Underlord: Rank 1 of this Perk tree allows you to select powerful Bronze tier opponents to serve as the generals, advisors, flotillas, and champions of your armies! These Underlords serve as the defining cornerstones of your legions and may be elevated to a fully autonomous state, able to strategize and act upon their own initiative in carrying out your orders, whatever they may be! These Underlords may also directly manage and rule over your holdings and territories as you see fit!
Cost to Claim Underlord = Standard Potency and/or Life force costs + Permanent Soul Reserves = to Bronze tier level divided by total number of enhanced class perks and perk ranks derived from Necromancer Class & Necromancer Affinities & Skills. - Master Necromancer Perk total = 18. Perks derived from Necromancer Skills = 15. Deep Bronze Sand Wyrm level = 99.
Total Permanent Soul Point reduction = 99/(14+18) = 3.09375 = 4 Soul Points.
Your Sand Wyrm Underlord maintains ALL abilities enjoyed while alive, including Rank 2 Essence of Impermeability!
Underlord Perk tree is the ONLY way (as a White-tier necromancer) that you may claim Bronze tier Revenants and their powers! (All other Bronze Tier revenants raised will achieve only White Tier status with normal level cap penalties. (This level may exceed 100 but revenants will remain White-tier).
NOTE! You may only claim 1 Underlord at present! This number increases by number granted with all previous ranks per Underlord Rank. (F-Sequence Progression)
Eric opened his eyes, howling with unbridled joy as he shuddered with a fierce sense of rapture and triumph unlike any other. He sensed another spell evolution on the tip of his tongue as he gazed up in awe and wonder at the impossibly massive Titan Wyrm, just a heartbeat away from evolving into a Silver-tier World Eater now gazing down upon him with what amounted to a perfect mirror of Eric’s own Unified Perception as it arched up hundreds of feet and opened its triple mawed mouth before giving a pleased hiss that was a roar that shook the world.
A roar that Eric mirrored, savoring that moment of pristine triumph even as his Dominion Interface Message Box filled with countless administerial messages radiating censure and malice that he casually flushed away to oblivion, furious protest contingencies washed away by Dominion’s essence, effortless to expunge after the ordeal he had just survived.
And the title he had earned made the boon all the sweeter, even as his companion’s desperate cries echoed through his skull.
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE THE FIRST NECROMANCER TO RAISE A PRISTINE BRONZE REVENANT UPON THIS WORLD! YOU ARE THE FIRST NECROMANCER TO FORGE AN UNDERLORD!
THIS IS A BRONZE TIER FEAT – TERRA ITSELF RECOGNIZES YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENT!
YOU HAVE EARNED A 5% BONUS TO ALL ATTRIBUTES!
YOU WILL ADDITIONALLY RECEIVE A PERMANENT 5% MULTIPLIER TO ALL FUTURE ATTRIBUTE GAINS ON OR OFF OF TERRA!
* ANOMALY DETECTED *
BRONZE TIER FEAT EARNED AS WHITE-TIER CONTENDER.
ALL BOONS HAVE BEEN DOUBLED!
NOTE!! - MULTIPLE BRONZE TRUMP CARDS HAVE BEEN PUT INTO PLAY!
* YOUR BOONS ARE NOW IN DISPUTE! *
Transcendent Heritage Detected.
Golden Heritage Detected.
You have dared to ascend an outlawed branch of arcana!
Gold-tier Ascendants are FORBIDDEN from engaging in games of ascension!
MULTIPLE Bronze Trump holders request immediate extermination of Rogue Player.
MULTIPLE Bronze Trump holders request immediate extermination of Forbidden Class!
Eric clenched his jaw and braced himself for the absolute worst. He could only assume that somehow some very, very powerful galactic players had their fingers on the strings of the cosmos, on the lookout for any wildcards that might threaten the established order, or simply fuck with their own descendant’s chances of reigning supreme on a newly ascended planet, so were more than eager to snuff out the competition any way they could.
They might not even have any way to communicating with one other. They only knew that there was no way in hell they would permit a blossoming necromancer to live, explaining the play of multiple cards which Eric could only guess either manipulated the System, or Fate, or perhaps both. Which itself told Eric just how profoundly deadly his Master Necromancer class could be in shaping a world’s destiny, so long as no one was allowed to snuff out his wick before he could truly set the world ablaze.
Yet before twisted chains of spite could be snapped into place, the System intervened once again.
VIP STATUS DETECTED.
TALISMAN STATUS DETECTED.
NATIVE HERITAGE ARTS ARE SYSTEM-SANCTIONED WITHIN HOME WORLDS WITHOUT RESTRICTION.
ALL WRITS OF EXTERMINATION ARE RENDERED NUL AND VOID.
BRONZE TIER BOONS HAVE BEEN STANDARDIZED.
Congratulations! You are the first Necromancer to raise a Pristine Bronze Revenant and Forge an Underlord upon this World!
This is a Bronze-tier feat! - Terra itself recognizes your accomplishment!
You have earned a 5% bonus to all attributes!
You will additionally receive a 5% bonus to all future attribute gains on or off Terra!
You have earned the title: Lord of The Dead II!
You may now raise DOUBLE the number of Underlords and Revenants that you otherwise would be able to!
Countless Liches and Vampire Lords are now gnashing their teeth at the prized boon you have stolen!
Congratulations! You are now equally reviled in outerworld courts and underworld crypts alike!
Eric’s mind and body shuddered under the onslaught of transformative power now shivering through his soul.
As if existence itself had frozen as reality rang like a bone tuning fork, Eric finding himself warping in ways that screamed of glorious forbidden power, thews thrumming with monstrous potency and strength beyond compare, even as he sensed his pristine cultivation base straining ever more to find harmonic grace. Yet the glorious beauty of evolution was that life always found a way. Death or transcendence, one generation at a time. One battle at a time. One life or death struggle at a time.
He spared only a heartbeat for regrets beyond his control, instead choosing to revel in how easily and utterly necromantic energies now caressed his spirit and elevated his soul, his mind fizzing with rapid-fire streams of consciousness that might be transcendent genius, or perhaps simply the mania of too many cups of coffee after pushing oneself way too far.
Either way, his growth and triumph had been beyond profound. Yet he spared only a quick look at the foremost page of the character sheet of his soul, finding a split-second’s solace in just how profound a change had been wrought, even as manic glee turned to desperate panic, finally free of the nearly fatal struggle that had lasted mere seconds, and desperate to reach his friends before all hope was lost.
_______________________________________________________
Eric Silver Level 49 GOLDEN PHOENIX (Adventurer)
(2nd Tier Core Saturation at 66%!)
Rank 44 DEATH’S DISCIPLE (Four Seasons)
Level 34 Master Necromancer
Physical Characteristics
Strength – 595 (You can shatter tanks with your fists.)
Vitality – 648 (Your Vitality is beyond monstrous.)
Finesse – 511 (You’re nearly as deadly as a Bronze-tier sniper. Even without all their perks!)
Quickness – 875 (You’re well over 40 times as fast as an Olympic Fencer. ABSURD!)
Appearance – 32 (If this were pre-apocalypse, you would star in all your mother’s movies!)
Mental Characteristics
Scholarship – 30 (You’re still yourself, but your thoughts are clear and your memory is sharp!)
Perception – 499 (A deadly marksman who always spots his prey. No one’s sneaking up on you!)
Willpower – 109 (You were forged in fire, and it shows!)
Charisma – 17
Potency Pools
Arcane Potential – 471 (An Archmage would be proud to apprentice you.)
(Mana Pool = 5658)
Spiritual Energy – 494 (An elder sage would be pleased to have you as his disciple!)
(Qi Pool = 5929)
Psionic Potency – 138 (You’re almost worthy of a Psion Knight’s regard.)
(Psion Pool = 1657)
Soul Reserves – 423 (You could be a Master Necromancer... You ARE a Master Necromancer!)
Stamina – 6481 Points
Health – 8007 Points
Resistances & Recovery
Physical Resistance – 126
Physical Regeneration – 64 health per second
Elemental Resistance – 91
Qi Resistance – 95
Mental Resistance – 100
Psionic Resistance – 0
Class & Cultivation Synergism
Essence Ability Cost 67%
Essence Damage Multiplier 149%
Unarmed Combat Rank 28
Damage Bonus to all Essence Melee attacks: 256%
______________________________________
Chapter 404 - Treasure Hunt VI
Comments
James Rountree
I have gotten so numb to this endless repeat I just skip the massive fights just to get on to the next situation hoping against hope he gets an actual win that he doesn't have to give up everything he gains
M J
You said it brother! It would also uncomplicate a lot of this snarled mess of a world…
Antony Haynes
Please let Eric start conquering territories. The story is stronger when he's conquering territories (or even liberating territories). The constant lawfare weakens the story. Just let Freetown be "safe" from further goblin shenanigans, so Eric can focus on conquest. Also, it would be nice if the path of consumption were somehow modified to allow some (limited) rulership. If Eric is trying to eliminate the anti-Sylvan factions (orcs, goblins, kobolds, ogres, etc.), then he needs a lot of help. He can't do it by himself. There's got to be other heroes and sub-leaders, at the Bronze level, to maintain and defend his territories.
Goldfish2
Dam enemies and alwyas lessoning our favorite mc rewards. Kill em brutally.
