Chapter 79 (Patreon)

Chapter 79

“Oh shoot, hold that thought!  I forgot I needed to check my status page after that fight with the dream creatures.  I got some notifications, but was busy experiencing that dao vision…”  Riven’s words trailed off while he was halfway down the ladder into the sewers, and his eyebrows rose in shock.

He’d killed goblins, men, and hundreds of dream creatures over the past two days.  He’d been thoroughly caught up in events - so much so that he’d simply failed to check his notifications concerning said level ups.  He hadn’t known what to expect since the last time he checked his page, but this… this was not it.  He’d grown by… a lot, and had jumped from level 18 to level 27.  He had a whopping amount of free stat points to use, and pre-applied improvements had already been placed.

[Riven Thane’s Status Page:

• Level 27
• Pillar Orientations:] Unholy Foundation, Blood Specialty, Infernal, Shadow
• Core of Original Sin - Gluttony:] (Under Construction)(???)
• Traits:] Race: Pureblooded Vampire (Extreme Darkness Regeneration)(Sunlight Decay)(Extreme Weakness to Silver weapons, Sun pillar, and Light pillar attacks), Class: Warlock Adept, Adrenaline Junky (Blood)(+15% to Agility)
• Abilities:] Blessing of the Crow (Unholy), Wretched Snare (Unholy), Bloody Razors (Blood), Crimson Ice (Blood), Blood Lance (Blood)(Tier 2), Hell’s Armor (Infernal)
• Stats:] 59 Strength, 116 Sturdiness, 224 Intelligence, 134 Agility, 1 Luck, -335 Charisma,              164 Vampiric Perception, 91 Willpower, 9 Faith
• Free Stat Points: 63
• Minions:] Athela, Level 23 Arshakai [36 Willpower Requirement].  Azmoth, Level 24 Hellscape Brutalisk [27 Willpower Requirement].
• Equipped Items:] Crude Cultist’s Robes (1 def), Black Redemption (74 shadow dmg, 68% mana regen, shadow dmg +27%, Black Lightning), Chalgathi Cultist Amulet (???), Leather Boots (1 def), Backpack of Supplies (Guild Hall: Stone Manor), Witch’s Ring of Grand Casting (+26 Intelligence), Cloak of the Tundra (22 def, +56 bonus def vs frost), Breath of Valgeshia (48 def, +13 dmg & +9% mana output dmg for blood dmg, 6% mana regen)]

“You’re just now looking?” Athela teased with a grin while hanging on the opposite ladder and waggling a finger his way.  “You need to be better about that after battles, you killed lots and lots of enemies.  Azmoth actually gained a fire breath ability from his level ups, courtesy of the system.  I didn’t get any new abilities but the power boosts were definitely nice.”

Riven blinked.  “Why do I not feel any different after all these stats were applied?”

“You underwent a dao vision, didn’t you?” Athela stated with a polite smile.  “Often dao visions and inspiration will mask changes to your body.  Or, better said, they sometimes come as a result of many gains and help your body and soul integrate the new stats.  That isn’t always the case, but it certainly was here.”

“I see.”  Riven slammed all 63 points into intelligence again, shuddering when he immediately got a killer headache - but he could literally feel his mana channels expanding and a new flux of power flood through his body as he went from 224 intelligence to 287 intelligence in an instant.

He shuddered slightly and squeezed the bridge of his nose.  It wasn’t anything unbearable, but it definitely hurt and Athela laughed before continuing down the ladder when he shook it off.

They dropped to the bottom soon after, landing on the sewer’s main pipeline floor with a set of squeaks from some nearby sewer rats.  “Man, that stat boost was a little rough.  Athela, were you able to memorize the layout of this place from Jake’s maps?”

“Somewhat.  I think we’ll be fine, and I’ll mark our path with webbing to keep ourselves on the right path when we come back.”

Riven’s feet hit tapped on the stone floor, and he turned – easily adjusting to the dark without any problem as what would have appeared black to normal people now appeared various shades of gray.  The tunnel ahead split at a crossroads further off, and the tunnel behind curved around to the left when looking that way.  It was a good thing he and Athela could see in dark places, because otherwise this would have been a real nightmare trip to take.

Riven watched as rats in the sewers ran ahead through the waste and trash that was scattered around the sewers.  Whichever way Riven and Athela looked – there wasn’t anything of real interest to them.

It also smelled rather terrible down in the tunnel, and Riven got a really good whiff of it when he walked ahead to a rail posted along the walkway he stood on.  In the middle of the sewer was a small river of vile liquid that stood stagnant, rotting garbage and human feces apparent in the mix of swirling gunk.  It likely had once been a moving, flowing river that carried the trash out before the sewer systems had been detached whenever the land had been rearranged with the three worlds merging – but Riven couldn’t be sure.  He just couldn’t see why anyone would let it all stay down here like that – it could cause a serious disease problem if they did.

Or he assumed so anyways.

Athela’s bare feet glided over the floor in silent grace, but she grimaced in disgust as the stench hit her nostrils full-force.  “By the hells, that’s disgusting!”

Riven nodded in agreement.  “Yes it certainly is.  Now let’s find a way out of here so we can start exploring the city ourselves without having to face any more of those dream beasts.  I’m all for leveling up, but who knows how many of those things are out there.”

“And so we can get the naysayers out of our lair!” Athela chimed in, extending one finger to produce a claw and tapping Riven on the head with it.

“Our lair?  No way.  We’re finding somewhere to set up that guild hall I got from Negrada.”

Wanting to make the most of their time, they went forward down the tunnel towards the crossroads.  Moving straight ahead instead of following the first rat as it took the path to the right, they continued in silence amidst the gloom of the dark underground.

And then without warning, a new set of prompts appeared for both Athela and Riven to see.

[You have been made a target by a regional quest: Crusade Against the Undead - Benjamin, otherwise known as ‘Prophet’ by many of his followers, has declared a holy war for the control of the city of Brightsville.  Enacting a holy ritual and with his request being backed by a minor god, all humans within Brightsville will receive additional Elysium Coins, XP towards leveling, and other undisclosed prizes based on performance when culling the undead in this area.

[You have been offered a guiding system quest from the administrator: Covens – Either find a coven to join, or grow your own coven to a minimum number of 5 vampires including yourself.  To create new vampires, you must inject vampiric essence into your target via your fangs.  Be wary of doing this too fast, as if you do not recharge your vampiric essence inbetween attempts to turn others - you will become sick and in a worst case scenario: die.  Rewards: 1 portal ticket for an attempt to acquire another piece of Valgeshia’s Item Set.]

[You have been offered a guiding system quest from the administrator: Acquire Cattle and Create a Thrall – As a newly born vampire, you will need to acquire cattle, or in other terms - people to regularly feed on.  It does not matter if you do this through persuasion or force.  Then after this select one of these cattle to create a thrall.  Thralls are mortals bent to a vampire’s will and are essentially more subservient and powerful ‘cattle’ as many vampires like to say.  Though they do retain their intelligence, personality, and to some extent their own free will - their desires are instinctively and heavily oriented to align with your own.  This places them in the minion category of your status page when acquired successfully.  Thralls also acquire some vampiric strengths, while they are able to retain their own pillars and abilities outside of the vampiric influence.  However: retained pillars and abilities will be corrupted - sometimes modifying them slightly for better or worse.  Lastly, thralls are able to provide greater amounts of nourishing blood than normal mortal cattle do; and their bloodlines may be modified over time to evolve to your liking.  To create a thrall, you must feed on them regularly for an extended period of time and they must in turn feed on your blood numerous times throughout their initial evolutionary cycle.  Reward upon acquiring thrall: 1 combat level, a stable food source, and a new avenue to acquire minions.]

[You have been offered a guiding system quest from the administrator: Kill the Dream Creatures – Kill the dream creatures building a nest over the hospital’s basement before they grow in power and become a larger threat to the surrounding area.  As the hive-mind dream creatures feed on souls, they will continue to grow in strength and numbers over time.  Time limit: 30 days.  Rewards: 1 Elysium Altar.]

“Huh?” Riven muttered, cocking his head to the side with his hands on his hips.  Not a moment later and he felt Athela repeatedly jab him in the side excitedly.

“Ooooh!!! OOOHHHH OOOOOOHHHHH!!!  Look at THESE!!!” Athela crowed, continuing to excitedly jab her master’s rib cage until he swat her along the back of her head.  Scowling up at him, she flipped him off.  “Jerk.”

“Is it normal to get system quests like this?”

“Early into integrations it is.  After that they’re harder to come by, when the world has been settled down and trials have been completed for failure or success.”

“So other people across the planet are also getting quests like these?”

“To greater or lesser extents, yes.  It’s usually all individualized.”

A bubble rose up out of the sewage, causing both of them to look over to their right with tensed muscles - but they relaxed when they saw it was just another rat making its way out of the disgusting mess that’d been left down here.

Athela waved a dismissive hand in front of them as they started to walk down the sewers again.  “Meh.  Let’s get a move on and worry about the quests later.  We need to find your sister, and being underground when the system pings her location again won’t be any help to us.”

Riven had to agree.  “Yeah, that’s true.  However I’m not exactly overly enthusiastic about these other quests either.  Creating a coven is one thing, but creating a thrall sounds rather awful.  Semi-evil, even.”

Athela let out a snickering laugh.  “Oh you’re so soft.  Look, it’s either create a thrall or two - or go around and hunt people down.  Even if you let them go after feeding, do you really think their families and friends or the communities you’re preying on won’t come for you?”

She gave him a wry smile.  “Let’s be realistic here.  Thralls are an evolution and adaptation that vampires perfected over countless millennia in order to keep and maintain willing participants that they feed on.  There is always the other option of actually slaving people, which is another common method many of the vampiric societies throughout the multiverse work with, but I don’t see you being that kind of person.”

“There’s a thin line between slavery and making thralls, or at least that’s how it appears to me.”

“True, but many people will willingly give themselves up to a vampire in order to acquire power.  Being a thrall isn’t all bad, as long as you have a good vampiric master.  Think of it like a demonic contract, only that the strict set of rules have been replaced with urges to further the agenda of whatever vampire created them.”

Riven blinked.  “Will thralls require Willpower stat points as well?”

“Yes. It even said that doing so is another avenue to creating minions, right?”

“Well you can add needing more willpower to the list of reasons why I won’t do it.  I’m already going to be investing in all of my demonic contracts and each demon will need more and more willpower with every evolution, too many minions will mean I’ll stifle my own growth.”

“Oh, just think about it.  Class upgrades will also increase the amount of willpower you get if you choose the right ones.  Your thrall’s bloodline evolutions will also upgrade with your personal Willpower, a lot like how my evolution required additional willpower.  However, when a thrall dies they’re dead-dead.  Not banished-to-the-nether-realms-dead.  That’s the big difference between us demons and a thrall when using them to fight.  Got it?”

“I get it, but I still don’t like it.  I’ll think about it though, and if there is a unique situation where someone actively wants to become my thrall I guess it wouldn’t be too bad.  But there won’t be any slavery or forcing them to do it against their will, I refuse to do that.  What I don’t get is the other quest concerning creating new vampires - it says I have to inject my vampiric essence into my target and not to do it too fast or I’ll die.”

“That one I can’t help you with, sorry.  I have no idea how to inject vampiric essence into anything.”

Riven pulled up his status sheet and then reviewed the quest log attached to his status page again.  “I guess it’ll have to wait then, I’ll figure it out.  The problem is finding people who we trust enough to create vampires out of… and honestly, I’m not even sure being a vampire is all that great.  It’s definitely a power boost, but at what cost?  Each additional vampire will also mean finding ways to feed them too, and we would all need to be sustained on the blood of mortals.”

Having a rather surreal feeling about being contacted by the administrator about this, Riven shook his head and continued ahead while motioning for Athela to follow.  He wondered how many other people had been contacted about such outrageous things.  How many billions of people were struggling to survive right now?  How many other unique scenarios or quests had been given out, like the Chalgathi trials?  What were the other people who escaped Chalgathi’s starter event doing now?  Why’d they been chosen to participate?  He still had so many questions and so few answers it made his head hurt.

They continued on another fifteen minutes and took another right coming to an immediate stop as both of them saw a blur of movement at the far end of the next passage.  Dim moonlight illuminated the far end of the tunnel through an open manhole – easily discernible to both Riven and Athela.

Athela nudged him with narrowed eyes, and all six of her arachnoid legs came out to stand poised for a strike.  She was still working on regaining her arachnid form via shapeshifting and likely would have transitioned here due to the small enclosure of the tunnels around them, but she’d been struggling with shapeshifting beyond what’d been expected and could only stay in her demonic humanoid form even with the tight corridor restrictions.

“Did you see that?

Riven silently stared into the dark from underneath his hood, crimson irises scanning the area intensely and gripping his black staff more firmly.  For the second time since coming down into the sewers, the filthy waters of trash and sewage in the middle of the tunnel wasn’t stagnant.  Ripples in the dark waters originating from further up passed them by.

“Yes, I did see that…”

He looked over the railing, not noting anything else or anything that was an obvious threat.  He pushed ahead a little bit more, again seeing nothing new, and overhead Athela began crawling up the tunnel’s wall and onto the ceiling in absolute silence to scout out the area.  He scratched the back of his neck, blood vapor blowing out of the holes in his runic mask, and was about to take another step forward when he began to hear the faint sounds of a heartbeat only a few feet from him.

Then the tunnel exploded into motion.