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*Chapter 68 - Piggy
🕑 Added 2021-08-30 21:40:50 +0000 UTCChapter 68 - Piggy
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Many Numen play the part of god with the mortal races, they even run off the same basic principle of prayer fueling a portion of their power. But none of them compare to the power of what real gods possess. Simply put, many of the old gods often do not have time nor the will to interact with such lower lifeforms and are engaged in their own practices. But many pantheons of the old gods exist… they are very, very real. The Infernal Crowns, The Fae Mothers, The Holy Trinity, The Alminost, The Buddhas, The Eternal Spirits, and The Forgotten are all different pantheons of gods reigning over different areas of creation. There are also others, called The Outcast, who belong to no pantheon at all. The newest of these outcasts is none other than The All Spirit, and its vast power beyond many of the other gods makes us question whether or not it is actually the fabled reincarnation of The Creator. For who else could have such influence over our lives in direct defiance of the others?
- Excerpt from the book ‘Theory of Divinity,’ found in the Oralmius Heaven’s Empire capital library.
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Many days had passed.
The pitter patter of the rain drops on the jungle greenery was a welcome sight, though it made for a very wet and uncomfortable trudge through the forest. Regardless, they needed the fresh water and collected as much as they could while it lasted. They didn’t dare drink from the resting pools or lakes of water inland as they would just be asking to contract the plague that way, and even the running bodies of water like streams or rivers were iffy. They’d brought a good amount of water with them along with plague remedy, but they didn’t want to chance things.
Fortunately they’ d found a heavily wooded outcropping of land hanging over one of the lakes, and with Gorthomal’s imps positioned as lookouts further into the forest the rest of them set up tents to shelter them from the rain. They hadn’t had any more incidents with hostile creatures since the first attack, but they were still wary and traveling had been slow. The dense underbrush of the jungle had grown thicker and thicker the further inland they went, and they hadn’t even made it to the first of the mountains yet.
Trey moved his queen to check Napoleon’s king on the chess board. His eyes flickered between the pieces and his imp’s scheming features, noting the confidence etched there as his minion silently mocked him.
Gorthomal was observing the game as they talked, and Rivia was slowly massaging Trey’s shoulders, but otherwise they were alone. The others had taken to other tents to sleep off their exhaustion or eat.
“You won’t be able to concentrate that hard in battle, you need to be able to multitask when giving mental orders to your servants.” Gorthomal folded his arms. “Be faster. Play the game and simultaneously order her to change her activity every five seconds.”
Napoleon took a rook in exchange for Trey taking a bishop in quick succession as Trey tried to focus on Rivia’s orders. Almost immediately: Rivia got up and walked across the tent to face against the wall. Trey and Napoleon exchanged another three turns and Rivia came back with another mental command to kiss him.
The next two moves were done under immense distraction as his slave’s breasts pushed up against him and he promptly lost his queen to Napoleon’s maniacal cackles.
Trey facepalmed and brushed Rivia aside. “Fuck.”
“Stupid stupid master!” The imp did a happy dance and waved Trey’s wooden queen in front of his face while squealing with delight.
Gorthomal shook his head with disappointment, his three-way parting jaws curling their lips before speaking. “You have much to practice, but it is a start. I was the same way in the beginning, easily distracted and taking a lot of effort for even the smallest mental commands. Before long it will become like second nature, trust me.”
Trey huffed and knocked his king over to symbolize his defeat. Napoleon’s cackles grew louder and he leapt up from the floor to scramble out of the tent, no doubt to go brag about his victory to Ashe and Atharost again.
“What a little shit…” Trey leaned back and rested his head on Rivia’s lap to close his eyes. “Alright Gorthomal, we’re all here now. What’s this artifact you’re looking for? Tell me more about what our journey is going to look like.”
The pitter patter of the rain was turning into a downpour. Claps of thunder sounded over the treetops and lightning flashed across the darkened sky.
Gorthomal peered out of the tent’s flap and wrapped his cloak around him further. “Ah these tropical storms… I was hoping we wouldn’t run into this kind of weather, but I’m not surprised considering how frequent they are.”
An entire minute passed. Trey thought the old man had completely ignored him and was going to pose the question again when Gorthomal finally decided to answer.
“You’ll eventually get to see it yourself, so I don’t see why you shouldn’t know. I’m looking for an amulet.” Gorthomal stuck an old wrinkled hand inside his robes, rummaged around and eventually pulled out an ancient looking gray book. The pages were yellowed with age and tiny tears along the edges were frequent. He flipped it open until he’d passed by a third of the pages and then turned it around to show Trey what he was talking about.
There was a picture and a brief description, both of which Trey looked over thoroughly.
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Lord Rathamak’s Amulet: This item is an artifact of the third great war between Lilith and Satan in their struggles to gain dominance over the 5th Circle of Hell. Lord Rathamak was one of Lilith’s commanders, an incubus demon lord of significant power before he was struck down by Satan himself on the fields of battle. Lord Rathamak, having achieved permanence before his death, could only be killed temporarily… so Satan fused pieces of Rathamak’s soul to the pieces of equipment Rathamak wore and gave it all to one of Satan’s own officers in order to prevent Rathamak’s return. Hundreds of millennia later: the one who possessed Rathamak’s set lost it and Lord Rathamak’s Amulet was found here in Nagochus. How it got here or why is unknown to us. Holding onto it will grant the wearer great power, but at the cost of one’s sanity. Lord Rathamak’s Amulet is one piece of three set pieces, and wearing all three pieces will result in gaining access to Rathamak’s memories as well as some of his abilities and a large power boost. Wearing just one of these pieces will also allow the wearer to identify where the other pieces are as the soul yearns to be put back together, so wear this amulet at your own peril… your competition might just come kill you for it. Fortunately in the short time our order possessed this amulet we were able to glean just what it did via our identifier… with one exception. The information regarding this amulet is written down here for future generations to see in case they ever happen to find it again. Good luck to those who seek it:
Lord Rathamak’s Amulet
Item Tier: (15) Transcendent
Bonuses: +1000 HP, +1000 MP, +1000 SP, +2% Insanity, +8% damage vamp
Requirements: Dark Attribute, Level 160
Durability: 9000/9000
Specials:
- The Culling: All cooldowns are reset by 2 seconds each time you make a kill.
- Lord Rathamak’s Set Piece: 1 of 3 collected. When all 3 pieces are worn by the same individual, they will experience the following bonuses:
- Access to Rathamak’s memories and soul
- Aspect of Hell: ???
- Additional Bonuses: +125 Speed, +125 Strength
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If the description was to be believed, this game world’s version of Satan had done a fine job in crafting the item. The picture displayed was an intricate carving of a devil’s face set on an obsidian backdrop of metal surrounded by chains inlaid with red power stones. There were horns protruding forward off the face and a sinister grin quite similar to what Trey looked like in his own aspect of the devil’s mask.
Trey’s eyebrows raised and he handed the book back to Gorthomal with an approving nod. “I can see why you want it… and you’re level 194 right? You're at a high enough level to use it.”
The old man’s four eyes narrowed as he grinned. “Yes… I am. I’ve been looking for this piece for quite a long time now… I had heard it may be here in the ruins of Ornthas, but now that I have a good idea where to look... I’m rather excited.”
Trey let out an groan as Rivia’s hands continued to massage his tensed neck. “I still don’t understand why you didn’t choose someone else to help.”
Gorthomal let out a quick laugh dripping with disgust at the idea. “Our kind is cannibalistic, that’s something I’m sure you’ll come to figure out for yourself. We all strive for greater powers and choose the low path to do it… to find true allies in our midst when there is something to gain in betraying the other is a very rare thing indeed.”
“And I seemed different than the others?”
“You did. I even feel comfortable enough to show you this book… something I’ve kept hidden for years from the others.”
The old man snorted as the wind whipped the tent about in a particularly strong gust of wind. The tarp on the ground held most of the water out, but even despite this there was still a small amount of rain coming through the entrance whenever stronger wind gusts pulled the tethered flaps apart.
“I have something to tell you boy.”
Trey’s eyes had been drifting shut under Rivia’s soothing touch, but they promptly opened upon the old man’s words. “Go right ahead and tell me then.”
There was a pause before Gorthomal spoke again. He seemed hesitant. “...I still think it was a stupid idea to buy the high elf. She’s useless in a fight and we could have done with another fighting unit… but now that you have her, I might as well tell you about how cooks can improve their talents.”
Now Gorthomal had Trey’s full attention. Trey’d been wanting to explore non-combat classes for a while now and had been planning on minionizing a couple of them if the chance presented itself. Gorthomal’s brow furrowed and he handed Trey a small piece of folded parchment. Trey opened it up a second later and read it in the candlelight of the tent, squinting to get a better look at Gorthomal’s poor handwriting.
The old summoner gave Trey a wink with just one of his four eyes. “I wrote it down so I didn’t have to repeat myself. Go ahead and re-read it a couple times just so you get it.”
Trey didn’t have to be told twice, and he did exactly that.
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Almost every base class has the potential to upgrade itself. Even our own class of the infernal summoner has the ability to eventually expand. Let’s use the example of the warrior… Warriors can advance their knowledge to become paladins or go another route to become berserkers. Warriors can also forgo both of these other base class options and turn into knights instead. Knights can then become blessed knights or warlords. Another example would be a simple archer. Archer classes can become rogues, assassins or snipers. Assassins can become death dealers. Mages can become arcanists or elementalists… Scouts can become planeswalkers. The list goes on, many of which entail hidden classes far past the base classes into the third or even fourth evolutions up. What’s important to you right now though… is that the ‘Cook’ class can evolve as well.
I don’t know very much about this class but it’s very apparent I know more than you do, being Earthborn you likely know very little so I thought I’d enlighten you with the minimal amount of knowledge I do have. There are three major things relevant to how a cook can progress through their class. Eventually if they become good enough, they may even turn the page from cook to chef or some other variety of the craft.
The first is the ascended cooking they can use. You’ve mentioned that Astala already has this, as was expected as it’s the very first thing a cook class gets in reference to their specialty. However I don’t believe Astala has acquired either of the other two important factors making the cook class relevant.
The second item of interest is The Divine Recipes List. Cooks have the ability to use ingredient combinations with their class to achieve recipes unattainable by people without the class who are using those same ingredient combinations. These are different from ascended cooking because they have individually unique effects and abilities that can be accessed in a similar way that miracles work… instead of just adding more basic effects using Aluna. One such recipe I once saw was named ‘Oracle’s Gift’, it was a fruit pie that required rare ingredients like fruit from the heavens and unicorn dust. It gave the one who ate it a single vision of the future. Creating one of these divine recipes will add the name of the creation, the requirements for the creation, and the level of the recipe. These recipes have a chance to fail, and the lower the level the higher the chance of failing. Levels are gained by cooking… obviously. The higher the level the less chance the recipe will fail and the more effective the recipe will be.
The third item of interest is Cooking Ideals. A cook can only have one ideal, and once they acquire that ideal they’re never able to lose it. Ideals only present themselves to cooks who have an extreme connection to one of the said ideals. Examples of ideals include Kindness, Hate, Pleasure, Charity, Forgiveness, Power, Greed, Logic, and many more I am not aware of. I know there are dozens of these ideals, but there’s one in particular I know very well. I came across it after discussing the strange finding with another one of the cult who had the same equally stupid idea as you: to force a cook into minionhood despite their worthlessness as fighters. He was particularly self absorbed that one, and he felt like he needed a personal chef to feed him while he ruled from his ruined castle on the hill of his domain. However what he found was disturbingly interesting, almost insultingly so. After months of breaking his minion’s will, regularly beating his minion and treating the minion like an animal he owned, his minion eventually developed the ‘Summoner’s Pet’ Ideal. An ideal unlocks a new list of unique recipes in the divine recipes list and can only be used by those with that specific ideal, some of them even auto-populate upon unlocking the ideal.
From what I gathered in talking to this other occultist turned food-connoisseur, there are a number of useful divine recipes that you could utilize now that you’ve so foolishly chosen a cook as a minion. This will be the final time I say it, but I think you made a mistake by choosing her and should probably outright kill her to make room for another more useful fighter. If you insist on keeping her then I highly suggest you begin breaking her in. Demoralize her, beat her, break her self worth and make her WANT to worship you to avoid punishment. Let her know her place as more of an animal than a person, one that relies solely upon you and your contract to keep her living. Treat her as your actual pet. This man I speak of was having his own cook create pastries that he’d eat for XP or level gains, meats that would immortalize him and only him for an entire day at a time, wines that could turn an unaware guest into a thrall if they drank enough of it… these recipes in the Summoner’s Pet Ideal are all focused on improving the master they serve. I’m not sure how far that rabbit hole goes, but I suggest you try it out and get back to me so that I can determine whether or not the man was full of dog shit or if he was telling me the truth. I dare not experiment with it myself and need every slot I have, but I’d like to think of us as friends. Please indulge me in my request to pursue this further to satiate my own curiosity.
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Trey found himself sitting completely upright and rereading it for the third time. To have a way to level up by merely eating food his minion NPC made and not endangering himself? That sounded incredible. That’s something he could truly use. The thing was, he liked Astala… even though he didn’t know her very well. He wasn’t sure if he’d treat Astala poorly like Gorthomal was telling him to do, but if all he needed to do was get her to want to worship him? That he could work on. Especially with her perverted aptitude for degrading acts of debauchery. She even liked being beaten during sex so perhaps her masochism would make this all the easier.
“Holy shit! Is this legitimate?”
Gorthomal merely shrugged. “I can’t say for certain, but it would be worth pursuing since you already have her and intend on keeping her. I don’t wish to waste the time, energy and resources finding out… especially when I have a lowly plebian like you to do that for me!”
Gorthomal gave Trey a creepy wink with one eye and chuckled at Trey’s quick reaction to flip him off. Trey’d explained to the old man not even a day ago what it meant after Gorthomal had seen Ashe give Trey the finger in turn of an inappropriate joke, so Gorthomal knew very well what it meant.
“I’ll have you know that-”
Trey’s speech was interrupted by the sound of a chime. His brows furrowed in confusion as a message from the All Spirit popped up into his HUD.
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Analysis complete. Your minion Karus is now ready to take on his first infernal trait as a thrall. Please choose wisely amongst the following options.
1 - Hellborn: Your thrall gains the dark attribute, horns, and gray skin with minor resistances to physical, dark, and fire attacks.
2 - Heavily Armed: Your thrall grows another pair of arms for a total of four arms. +100 strength.
3 - Demonic Bulk: Your thrall grows in size, HP and strength. +100% size, +200 Vitality, +200 Strength.
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Trey’s jaw dropped and he touched the screen, willing it to be shown to the other summoner as he sent it Gorthomal’s way. “Is this what you were talking about when you said thralls could change?”
Gorthomal eyed the notification in his own hud and gave Trey a grin. “Absolutely. I’m surprised it was so fast… maybe that fight from earlier this week sped up his experience needed for evolution. Usually the first evolution takes a while longer than this.”
Trey’s eyes shifted back to the screen. “Question, Gorthomal… if you were to choose vitality versus HP boosts, which would you choose and why? Are they essentially the same thing? Sorry for the newbie questions I still don’t really understand a lot of these mechanics.”
Gorthomal leaned back and chuckled as another thunderous clap echoed over the dark sky above their tent. “You really are new here. Vitality would be a better choice than purely HP. It takes 2 points of vitality for 1 HP, this is true, but vitality also gives bonuses to your general defense rating. It would be like adding armor to your skin. A person with 300 HP and somehow no vitality versus another person with 200 HP and 200 vitality… the 200 HP and 200 vitality statistics would likely be better. I’m not sure how much better, but definitely better.”
Trey gave him a quick nod and looked to Rivia. The beautiful sadistic demoness had been kneeling beside him when he’d shot up in surprise at the new notification. “Rivia, go fetch Ashe and Izumi… leave Jason where he is if you can help it.”
Immediately the purple-skinned demon priestess nodded and stood up. Walking over to the flaps she unlatched one of them and disappeared into the rain to fetch them from their tents. Trey didn’t waste any time trying to use his mental means of communication to summon Karus the dwarf and Astala the high elf to his tent next.
Gorthomal gave a little input upon realizing what Trey was doing. “Eventually you’ll be able to communicate entire conversations with your minions instead of just sending out thoughts of what you want.”
“Really?” Trey rubbed his hands together thoughtfully and remained cross legged on the tent floor. “That’ll be quite useful.”
A minute passed. It didn’t take long for Karus to show up. The dwarf had gotten the notification too and was very curious as well as concerned with what it said. Next came Astala who stood by anxiously until Trey commanded her to prostrate herself before him - the beginnings of Trey’s attempts to acquire her ideal of ‘Summoner’s Pet’. Then his two Earthborn friends Ashe and Izumi were led inside by Rivia.
All of them were thoroughly soaked from the rain, and another crack of thunder echoed high above the jungle.
The tent was barely big enough for all of them to fit comfortably, and Trey didn’t lose any time telling them about what had happened. He told them in English so that his minions couldn’t hear what he was saying, in particular he didn’t want Astala to realize what he was trying to do. He filled them in on the cooking class, the ideal that he wanted Astala to obtain, and talked to them about the advancements Karus could acquire as well.
[English Dialect] “So, what do you two think?” Trey asked with excitement and curiosity humming on the edge of his voice. “I’m conflicted. I don’t want to outright abuse her, I even like her… but she’s just an NPC, and it yields amazing benefits.”
He internally cringed when he said ‘NPC.’ He really wasn’t buying that these people were ‘Non Player Characters,’ but the mere possibility that they were just code made him feel a little bit better - even if he didn’t actually think of them that way.
Ashe and Izumi exchanged looks before the blonde sat down with a sigh to respond, still holding that grimoire he’d given her to learn from in both hands. [English Dialect] “You want our opinion? Why?”
Trey slowly shrugged with a small smile to both of them. [English Dialect] “Because normally it would be morally wrong… but it’s a game world. One where we can actually die for good. I feel like I need clarification that I’m not turning evil by choosing to do something like this.”
The women exchanged a glance again. Ashe bit her lip as she remained deep in thought, but surprisingly it was Izumi who spoke up to clarify the situation.
“I don’t think it’s wrong. She even likes that kind of treatment right?”
Ashe and Trey both looked over to Izumi with a good deal of curiosity. Of the two, Trey’d thought Izumi would either be somewhat offended by the idea or would have remained quiet. This time though she was taking the initiative.
Izumi clapped her hands together and rubbed them thoughtfully. “I… have been through a lot since getting here. I’ve been killed and raped many times by the guards back in that prison cell you found us in… and I’ve had to run for my life. I’ve had to fight for it too, many times after the OFF cycle began and when I could die forever instead of being brought back to life like the times in prison.”
The Japanese woman looked between her two friends and gave them each a sad smile of acceptance. Pulling her hands through her long black hair and sighing loudly, she just shook her head at the memories of what she'd undergone. “After all I’ve been through… after the All Spirit’s updates… ‘patch notes’ I think is what it called them? I’ve come to realize that I don’t care if this place is like Earth or not. I don’t care if it’s all code or not. I’m not sure if I’m even real anymore or if I’m just a piece of code, but no matter what: I’m a believer when the All Spirit says this is a death game. It’s meant for someone’s sick entertainment, maybe even meant for entertaining the All Spirit itself. We don’t have easy lives anymore and I’m trying to find my place in all of this… I don’t know where I fit. I’m useless, although I’m trying to make the most of myself with the crafting class of blacksmith I just obtained… but I can’t protect myself. If I’ve learned anything since getting here, it’s that I need you Trey.”
Izumi’s eyes began to fill with tears and her voice began to waver. Brushing them off with her fingers and laughing softly to herself she shook her head when Ashe began to cry too. “Stop it Ashe. I’m not trying to get pity here. We’re all equally screwed over right now, and if it means you have to resort to poor morals when dealing with NPCs or whatever the heck you want to call them… then fine. Do it. If it makes you stronger and gives us all a better chance of living, then freaking do it Trey. I support you.”
Ashe gave Izumi a bear hug, and the two friends remained embraced for over a minute as Izumi cried. Eventually though they let each other go, and it was Ashe’s turn to speak.
“I can see why you didn’t invite Jason…”
The other two simultaneously laughed as Ashe collected her thoughts. “I’ve come to the conclusion that even if it is real… my life, our lives are more important than our morals. I’m going to do whatever it takes to survive. I’ve been hunted down and have been treated like scum by most of the NPCs I’ve met. Back when I was in the Earthborn guild called ‘The Undying’, it was my first real taste of sanctuary. Then they betrayed me, and in turn you saved me. Trey, I’ll support any decision you make, and I can honestly say I think I’d do it if I were you. Having food that you can eat to do those things you spoke about would be absolutely insane! It would almost be like cheating!”
Ashe held two thumbs up and laughed. “You may be a sick pervert, but you’re OUR sick pervert! And Astala is a sick pervert too! So what’s the dilemma? You said she liked being beaten so why are you second guessing this? I’m glad you asked us though because it means you care about what we think. So do what you have to do to get stronger… because I’m worried about what’s to come with the new All Spirit updates.”
Trey cocked his head to one side in obvious curiosity. “What do you mean?”
“Did you not see the part about tournaments?” Ashe gave him a look as if to say ‘you were friggin part of one!’ They still hadn’t told Izumi or Jason about Trey’s brief abduction into the spider-infested swamplands yet, and really didn’t want to freak Izumi out now - so Ashe pretended like it’d never happened and had told Izumi she’d gotten the grimoire she was reading from the cult they’d visited. Anyways, after seeing that Trey got the message - she shook her head aggressively and crossed her arms. “The All Spirit is going to set up death matches dude. DEATH - MATCHES. If you didn’t catch it, the last update talked about guild instances, competition zones, tournaments, guild rankings, and incentives for killing OTHER EARTHBORN. It’s going to pit us against other groups, and I don’t know about you guys - but I don’t have much faith in the human race in general. Humans are all bastards, it’d be better if we lived with dogs. Humans don’t deserve dogs… dogs are kind and fluffy and cute. Humans are just cruel. There’s no doubt in my mind that if we don’t get stronger, level up and learn new skills or train ourselves in how to fight, we’ll eventually become targets by some asshole guild like the one I used to be in.”
Trey looked like he’d been struck across the face.
“Don’t act so surprised!” Ashe laughed at the other two as Izumi had an equally stunned look on her to match Trey’s own, though for different reasons.
A loud annoyed clearing of Gorthomal’s throat turned all heads his way. The old summoner lay tapping his fingers against the ground with each of his eyes looking at Karus, Ashe, Izumi and Trey in different directions. It was very weird to see all four eyes in different lines of sight but it also looked a little bit ridiculous.
[Human Dialect] “Mind explaining what you’re all talking about?”
Trey gave Gorthomal an apologetic look. [Human Dialect] “Sorry. It’s about the sensitive information we discussed earlier…”
Trey pointed to Astala who lay prostrated towards him with her face against the floor. His eyes were held by her curves for a short time and thinking of the fun times he’d had with her already - he began to turn himself on.
Biting his tongue and thinking of something gross, he fought his halfway-formed erection off with self-inflicted physical pain and a head full of images of green beans… his most hated food. “Ahem. Anyways I wanted Ashe and Izumi here to watch Karus’ transformation.”
The dwarf, who’d been only listening up until now, became a little rigid. He slowly raised his hand to speak. “Do I get a say in this laddie?”
Trey thought for a moment, then took another look at Astala. Giving the milf a quick mental order he stood up and waited for her to position herself on all fours right behind him with her back as straight as she could. She did so with a poorly hidden upwards curl to the edges of her mouth. Without thinking twice about it he sat down, using her as a chair and folding his hands together as he stared Karus down. The elf underneath him let out a feminine grunt as he put his full weight onto her back and her elbows locked, but she didn’t say a word otherwise and even became a little red in the face. He didn’t ask, but was relatively sure she was enjoying this treatment… something that Ashe certainly picked up on and began to snicker about in the background.
“Alright Karus, do you have a preference?”
The stocky dwarf’s eyes filtered over his own notification again and he grumbled to himself thoughtfully. Then he folded his arms. “I’d like the Demonic Bulk if that’s alright, I’ve been wanton ta be taller since I was a lad and the human kids made fun a mah height!”
Everyone in the tent except for Astala laughed at this, as she was too busy enjoying her degradation. Even Rivia laughed, and the dwarf’s cheeks blushed a bright red in embarrassment but he still managed to smile good heartedly despite his seriousness.
It was the same one Trey would have chosen anyways, and was the obviously better choice of the three. Trey was happy that they’d agreed on it. “Alright, we can do that. Do you-”
A void of dark light burst into bloom and shadows materialized in the center of the tent as Talsh’Noc’Un came forth from Trey’s shadowform. The giant sword hissed upon its materialization and slowly rotated to where its crimson rune faced towards the dwarf. “I… can help you… proceed further…”
Without warning Trey’s HUD was filled with yet another message, this time from his sword.
6 - Infernal Transcendance- Talsh’Noc’Un is able to select infernal creatures and evolve them into something slightly greater. Target’s soul must be ready to undertake transition, otherwise death may occur. High cooldown.
It was one of the categories off Talsh’Noc’Un’s status page. Immediately Trey understood what was happening as crackles of chaos energy pulsed over the blade, startling the dwarf as well as Gorthomal into backing up.
“Your sword speaks!?” Gorthomal exclaimed with both worry and curiosity evident upon his features. He had his hands out at the ready as if to defend himself but he slowly lowered them after the sword didn’t move to attack.
Instead, Talsh’Noc’Un floated a little closer to Karus with the blade down to the floor. “Do not… be afraid… I am merely improving your improvements…”
Wisps of black and crimson mana shot out of the blade and latched onto the dwarf, piercing his flesh through the chinks in his armor and causing Karus to yell out.
Before the dwarf could budge, Trey gave him a mental command to stay still and be quiet. The dwarf’s jaws closed down and his scream ceased, though the look on his face continued to be one of terror as the mana wisps tore holes all across his body and flowed into him like a river of power.
The transformation was a little different from Napoleon’s when the imp had been transformed from oblivion imp into primal imp, but in the end it didn’t really matter and the observation was lost from thought. Mana rippled all across Karus’ body and his skin began to mold with the armor the dwarf wore. Bones cracked and blood spurted from Karus’ nose as his body was reformed. He grew taller and bigger, until he had grown from 4 and ½ feet to 8 feet tall. The squat body typical of dwarves changed into one having the shape of a human bodybuilder. The armor he’d been wearing - now completely blended into his body, molding into his very skin, with iron plates covering various patches of the external surfaces of his building muscles like a tank. Softer areas of more-normal grey skin were still in abundance inbetween the fused metal plates that protruded a bit, but it still had a metallic sheen to these areas. His muscles had grown tremendously all along his body, swelling to many times the original size. Black horns a couple inches in length sprouted out from his forehead over two glowing crimson eyes not all that different than Trey’s, and the brown hair characteristic of the dwarf turned a dark black along his head and his beard. Lastly, the pentagram on his forehead that all thralls had - was slightly larger.
By the end of it, many minutes later, Karus had finally managed to calm down. His breathing stopped coming in rapid pained bursts, and he flexed his hands… then his arms next. He stood there, 8 feet tall, naked, with huge rippling muscles overladen with metal plates across various parts of his grey-skinned body. When he was finally given the opportunity to speak with permission from Trey, he let out a long pained gasp.
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Analysis complete. Options have been altered by Talsh’Noc’Un, Sword of Ruin via the Infernal Transcendence ability. Your minion Karus has now evolved with both of the following modifications:
1 - Hell’s Iron: Your thrall gains the dark attribute, horns, and metal-infused gray skin as well as major resistances to physical, dark, and fire attacks. Acquires night vision.
3 - Demonic Bulk: Your thrall grows in size, HP and strength. +100% size, +500 Vitality, +200 Strength.
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Trey grinned deviously and gave Talsh’Noc’Un a thumbs up, showing everyone else in the tent the new notification. Karus had not just gotten one, but two of the options. Not only that, but Talsh’Noc’Un had also modified both of these original options to make them better. Trey was seriously impressed… he’d have to ask Talshy if the sword could do this every time a thrall evolved. If it could… he’d be improving his minions twice as fast as other summoners could improve their thralls. That was a very, very big win.
The only problem now was that Karus was absolutely naked. Having absorbed all of his clothes, along with his armor, Karus was showing off a very large appendage for all to see.
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Simplified Status Page
Name: Karus
Race: Dwarf Thrall
Class: Warrior
Level: 34
HP: 614/614
MP: 80/80
SP: 216/216
DP: 1/1
Skills: Axes^^^ (lvl. 36), Shields^^^ (lvl. 30), Heavy Armor^^^ (lvl. 29),
Shield Bash^^ (Sacred Art)(lvl. 25),
Warrior’s Challenge: Battle Stance^^ (Sacred Art)(lvl. 21),
Goring Slash^^ (Sacred Art)(lvl. 20), Blunt Weapons^ (lvl. 11),
Battle Shout^ (Sacred Art)(lvl. 10), Hand to Hand Combat (lvl. 8)
Traits: Hell’s Iron, Demonic Bulk, Sturdy, Trey Bon’s Minion
Magical Attributes: Dark
Opinion of you: Liked
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Trey walked up to the much larger bulkier dwarf who’d been shorter than him not even a minute ago and pat him on the shoulder a few times. “We’re going to have to find you some new clothes… and a bigger weapon.”
Karus looked at Trey, then looked down at himself. His jaw dropped and he stood in stunned silence. He looked like a hellish version of Hercules who’d been put on an additional regimen of steroids, but Karus quickly made it known that he had mixed feelings about this new transformation.
A single tear trickled down the dwarf’s face, though Trey wasn’t sure if he should even be called a dwarf anymore based on his size. Karus finally broke the silence with a low monotone whisper. “I’m… I’m so ugly…”
Again the room burst into laughter, though Trey wasn’t one to follow their lead and sat there in silence with a frown alongside Karus. The dwarf was obviously upset, and Trey wasn’t about to make fun of him for it.
He poked Karus in the chest between two of his armored plates on either pectoral. “Honestly man I think you look like a badass. You really don’t like it?”
Karus slowly rose his gaze to meet Trey’s and his expression grew grim. “For fighting… it is perfect. You, laddie, have made me a machine of war… what dwarf woman would wana touch a monster like me eh? I’ll be a born-again virgin with this ugly mug.”
Trey’s face let on a smile. “Oh. Is that really all you’re upset about?”
The dwarf paused, considered Trey’s words then nodded.
This only made Trey laugh. He swat Karus on the arm one more time and curled his fingers towards Rivia, motioning for her to come over. “Rivia, escort Karus over to Eeme’s tent-”
“Not Eeme.” Ashe interrupted and shook her head vigorously. Her fox tail was twitching ever so slightly and her golden ears were high up to either side. “Nope. He’d break Eeme and you know Eeme’s my favorite. Let him have Juila, she’s sturdier. Or maybe Tarline, just not Eeme.”
Ashe was obviously very fond of Eeme and Trey wasn’t about to argue with the girl who’d become one of his best friends since arriving in Nagochus.
Trey gave Karus another up-down and admitted to himself that the petite blonde slave of theirs probably wouldn’t last long. “Alright then. Escort him to Juila and tell her she has a job to do.”
Rivia nodded promptly and began to walk out before Karus stopped her.
“You’re giving me the amazonian woman?” Karus seemed perplexed. “I… I am not sure-”
Trey snapped his fingers, stopping Karus mid-sentence. “Just try not to hurt her, you can have fun with her for the night. If you’re so worried about not getting laid then let me guarantee it here and now, you do a good job for me, if you survive for me and keep me safe, you’ll have much more than just a one night stand with Juila.”
Trey felt more like a mob boss or a pimp rather than a summoner in instances like these. Just like his father had been…
The giant of a dwarf looked conflicted, towering over his master and keeping his gaze locked with Trey’s. Then he slowly nodded, turned around, and followed Rivia out into the rain.
Despite the internal struggles Karus was dealing with, Trey was happy to note that his efforts had been appreciated.
“Your minion Karus has increased its opinion of you from ‘Wary’ to ‘Liked.’ Your minion now gains a 15% experience increase due to its opinion changing to the positive category.”
Ashe snickered as the huge man left. “Karus is an absolute beast now in more ways than one.”
Trey rolled his eyes as he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. To his left, Gorthomal was standing beside him and gawking at the floating blade in the center of the room. The old man’s hands quivered as they interlocked, violently even, and it appeared he could not stop them from doing so.
“You have the Sword of Ruin? This is really Talsh’Noc’Un?”
Gorthomal looked down to the notification with all four eyes as wide as they could go. He was in apparent shock and disbelief. “All this time… I was traveling beside such a weapon? Why did you not tell me you had it?”
“For the same reason you didn’t tell me about the amulet.” Trey smiled, slapped Astala’s rear as hard as he could and got up off the elf’s back. The loud crack of sound against Astala’s ass cheek startled Izumi who’d been speaking in low tones to Ashe, and the girls both gave him a scowl.
He ignored them and walked over to the hovering weapon, picked it up and maneuvered it to make it lay horizontally in his hands. It was as light as a feather and he walked over with it to show it to his fellow infernal summoner. “Would you like to hold it?”
Gorthomal gaped at it. Now that he realized what it was, the old man was at a loss for words. Gingerly he placed a finger on the weapon and watched as power trickled up his hand into his arms, shocking him and causing him to flinch away. Then he grinned. “It appears the blade does not want me touching it. Thank you for offering though, I am amazed to be in the presence of such a magnificent weapon.”
With a final glance Astala’s way, Trey knelt down in front of her and pulled her chin upwards for the woman to look at him. He let on a sadistic grin and brushed his hands through her long brunette hair, slowly kissing her before pulling away. Then, loud enough for everyone to hear it, he began to give her a new set of instructions to live by.
“Astala… that’s the name of who you once were. Now you’re someone, no… someTHING else. You’re my piggy Astala. These are commandments: from now on whenever you eat, you’ll eat like a pig from a bowl or something similar on the ground. You won’t use utensils from now on. Every night you’ll come worship me by praying to me and telling me about how wonderful of a master I am. You’ll work very hard on improving your cooking skill throughout the hours of your free time if we have extra food to spare, but you should always ask to make sure it’s not being reserved. When you get to a point that I deem acceptable and can provide me with useful foods other than those just to sustain us, I will consider letting you get more time for your own personal pleasures. Whenever we have sex you’ll oink and squeal as loudly as you can, just like a pig, and you won’t respond to the name Astala anymore. You don’t deserve that name because you’re no longer a person… you’re an animal.”
The elf’s features were frozen in place, her breathing was excited and ragged. Carefully she brought her green eyes up to meet his. “Then… what would you like me to respond to, master?”
Trey’s grin was wider than ever. “Your name will be Piggy, and when we get back to civilization I’m going to walk you around on a leash. Maybe even build you your own pen. How does that sound?”
The attractive elf’s green eyes faltered, and her face flushed. Nodding curtly while still on all fours, she let out her reply as a whisper. “Yes master. I am Piggy, thank you for giving me such a fine name. I look forward to the new living arrangements you’re providing me.”
The mechanical voice of the All Spirit was quick to follow. “Your minion Astala has had her name changed to ‘Piggy.’ Your minion Piggy has increased its opinion of you from Liked and Lusting’ to ‘Infatuated.’ Your minion still gains a 15% experience increase due to it remaining in the positive category. Please see your minion’s status page for further information.”
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Simplified Status Page
Name: Piggy
Race: High Elf Thrall
Class: Cook
Level: 1
HP: 90/90
MP: 100/100
SP: 90/90
DP: 1/1
Learned Ascended Cooking Options
- Amplify Smell
- Amplify Flavor
- Ward Off Poison
- Ward Off Disease
- Increased Sustenance
- Increased Health Regen
- Increased Mana Regen
- Amplify Toxin
Skills: Cooking^^^^ (lvl. 44)
Traits: Trey Bon’s Minion
Magical Attributes: None
Opinion of you: Infatuated
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