Everlast Online

Liz dismissed all the absent undead and brought them back to her, deciding it was less of a waste of resources than waiting for them to walk all the way back.

The [Swampy Jungle] was an incredibly large hunting field meaning it was hard for people to traverse, but now Liz had a map, a map that marked the spawn locations of the monsters within.

Since she was not present she could not determine the level of these nests, but believed the higher level nests existed within the centre of the jungle.

"Let's get going then." Liz said, mounting her broom and heading towards the closest nest. It wasn't all that far but with the skeletons, moving there wasn't that easy.

They arrived and Liz chose to first observe the Lizardmen.

[Lizardman (28) (NPC)]

Okay, thankfully this is a lower level nest. Liz thought as she inspected the monsters, It's weird they are counted as NPCs.

They were large, being at minimum 6 ft tall with very wide shoulders. Their entire bodies were covered in green scales and claws extended from their hands and feet. They looked exactly how you would expect a lizard man to look, tail and all. The problem Liz faced was how incredibly powerful they looked, with their scales and muscles they would surely be a difficult enemy to defeat.

"No time like the present." Liz muttered, turning to the 5 hounds who's skill was about to evolve, "Rush up to them and attack with your claws."

As soon as she ordered, the hounds exploded out from the bushes and leaped at the closest lizardman. The lizardmen, who hadn't seen the hounds coming due to lacking a heat signature, stumbled back as the hounds jumped up and slashed at them with their claws. Light gathered around them as the claw slashed and blood flew from behind their scales, Liz was thankful that the [Sharp Claw] skill worked as intended.

"Good. All of you, destroy the nest!" Liz called out, having the rest of her undead charge forward and meet the slowly regrouping lizardmen. It occurred quickly as the 2 groups clashed; since the battle occurred at the nest, the lizards had the obvious numerical advantage, but the skeletons still pushed them back with ease.

Their greatest asset was their ability to see heat signatures, so now they are suffering under creatures without them and cannot properly target the attackers, even if they can see them. The situation only worsened for the lizards as more hounds came from the bushes, reinforcing the already powerful wave of skeletons.

Liz could now summon 10 hounds, increasing her force significantly as the hound's raw combat potential was much higher than the warriors, especially against low intelligence monsters who could not properly form strategies.

With the extra hounds now entering the battlefield Liz floated into the clearing, with 2 warriors flanking her sides as protection, she felt like a real military commander and it was exhilarating.

I should study military tactics. Liz chuckled to herself, It's a shame I can't access the internet from ELO, I really have nothing to do while my skeletons fight, besides occasionally reviving them.

As she thought that another skeleton was revived and joined the fight against the lizards. She thought back to her time in school where they had learnt about wars and what she remembered about them, searching through her memories for the strategies used in those combat scenarios. 

"Warriors, move to surround the nest!" Liz called out, remembering an incredibly basic battle formation. The skeletons began altering their positioning while the hounds kept up the intensity of the attack, though the lizards did begin to gain ground while fighting them.

Lz clicked her tongue as she ordered the hounds to not attack recklessly. From the map she had, the nest had only one entrance meaning so long as none could slip past her line of warriors she could systematically kill every last lizard; but now different lizards were coming from the nest. These ones had crude stone weapons, it didn't amount to much against the skeleton's bone but it did show a certain level of intelligence.

"Close in on the opening!" Liz gave another order as soon as the skeletons were in formation. It was quite shoddy as some of the warriors had left gaps, thankfully the hounds were able to keep the gaps safe, though not all as Liz had to use her hands to shoot any lizards who made their way over to her. 

But now things were looking to be working, Liz's skeletons were gradually approaching and with their superiority they were culling each of the lizards easily; any skeletons that died being revived by Liz. Liz had risen to level 25 and the [Summon: Skeleton Warrior] was about to reach the next level, seeming to have increased its experience gain as Liz began using a simple strategic manoeuvre.

There were very few Lizard men left when those that were let out a scream and ran back into the nest, Liz didn't want to lose this opportunity and ordered the skeletons to attack; though her naivety ended up costing her.

Many skeletons were smashed and launched backwards as a roar erupted from the nest, followed by a much larger lizardman exiting from it.

[Lizardman Nest Mother (32) (NPC)]

The nest mother was much taller than the other lizardmen, but chose to crawl on all fours. Her scales were a much deeper shade of green and she had spikes jutting along the back of her tail, she looked much more like a crocodile or alligator than the others who looked like typical lizards with smooth scales.

"Looks like the boss is here." Liz muttred, using both herself and her [Puppet Hand] skill in order to replenish the skeletons who were destroyed as the boss appeared. Her skeletons continued to ram into the beast, not acting with any proper thought, not that they could. Thankfully, the lizard was not smart enough to know Liz was summoning them, but Liz did not have an infinite number of potions, even if she did have a lot of the poor ones; she needed to come up with a plan.

The only thing she could come up with was something the skeletons likely weren't smart enough to accomplish, but she chose to give the orders anyway.

"Surround it!" She yelled and the skeletons jumped into action, they were familiar with this command and managed it quite easily, despite losing a few skeletons in the process, "Only attack it when it isn't looking at you!"

The next command caused the skeletons to stall a little, 4 died that way, but soon they began jumping into action. Whenever the lizard turned to attack, it would be hammered with [Heavy Slash] and [Sharp Claw] attacks from behind, due to its lower intelligence it would then turn to attack those who damaged it, at which point it would be attacked again from behind. 

This resulted in a cycle where the monster with lower intelligence simply responded to the pain and soon Liz was no longer losing skeletons at all. As the Lizard fell to the floor, Liz rose to level 28 and [Summon: Skeleton Warriors] became level 4. Liz cheered and decided to place her points: 12 into INT and 6 into AGI, again disregarding END and STR as not important.

Her [Voodooist] skill allowed her to ignore a major skill that most players were forced to use, even if only slightly, and further improve her class abilities.

"Two more levels and I get a class skill." Liz said, beginning the next part of the hunting process: Looting.

For obvious reasons the hounds couldn't use [Dismantle] but the warriors could so different groups were given different tasks. The hands returned to gathering herbs while the skeletons were told to use dismantle on every lizardman then gather all the items in one place. The hounds were tasked with guarding Liz as she floated into the nest.

Soon, this place would be full of lizardmen as it just was, but that would take hours meaning she had plenty of time to check for any loot.

She did find a few lizardmen who were promptly killed, the 4 who had run away. Liz had the hounds drag them to the rest of the dead and continued her search. She hadn't expected much but was glad she checked as sitting neatly upon a rock, bathing in light was a single treasure chest.

"Go open it." Liz commanded, the hound walked towards the chest and fumbled with the lid for a while before it flung itself open, no trap.

Liz walked over and was happy to see 1000 gold coins within the chest, all of which quickly entered her inventory and increased her funds. There was also another item in the chest that Liz inspected.

[Serpent Ring (E)]

[Green metal ring, crafted in the image of a serpent. Grants +2 END. +3% Poison Resistance]

"Weird. I got a snake themed item from a lizard den." Liz chuckled, putting on the ring and heading back outside to see what the lizards gave when [Dismantle] was used on them.

Outside, there was a decent pile of items stacked together. Mainly scales and teeth, but also the occasional claw and bone that hold a little less use. The grandest of the items is from the Lizardman Nest Mother: 

[Lizard Heart (E)]

[Heart of a Lizardman Nest Mother. The blood can be used in alchemy and the meat itself is incredibly delicious and is therefore sought after by alchemists and noble gourmets]

The last item would surely grant Liz a fine amount of money if sold, and the blood was something she could use herself as an ingredient in the [Regeneration Potion] recipe, though it only says 'monster blood', not really specifying which kind. 

All the items became stacked within her inventory as Liz looked over the area. She needed more potions, but she also needed to get to level 50; sure she had been levelling fast now, and she always would be thanks to her undead, but after a certain point levels begin to slow down. The amount of XP needed to reach the next level becomes increasingly higher than before.

"Okay." Liz said, deciding on her course of action, "I keep taking down lizard dens until either I need more potions or my levelling slows down too much."

With her thoughts organised the level increasing went by. Liz visited different dens and killed every single lizard present, and then the nest mother after that, gathering materials and levels as she went. While she did find some gold in chests, Liz did not find any more treasures like the [Serpent Ring]

This went on for around a week in game, with Liz occasionally logging out of the game to eat with Piper and occasionally sleep; during that time she would also study military strategy used in the past in order to better organise her skeletons. Not that they were all that much use against a mob of unintelligent lizards.

She had massively improved in many aspects and gained too many materials that she could no longer carry them all and so was making her way into town, her current status looked as such:

====

Name: [Smokey]

Race: [Abandoned Doll] (Attributes)↓

Class: [Necromancer (36)]

Title: <Defy The Odds> <Bandit Killer> <Lizardman Killer>

[Reputation: 2100] [Gold: 56,000]

Stats: [STR: 8] [END: 15 (+2)] [AGI: 45 (+3)] [INT: 87 (+25)]

Race Skills: [Voodooist (S)] [Puppet Hand (4) (C)]

Class Skills: [Summon: Skeleton Warrior (5) (F)] [Bone Spear (3) (F)] [Summon: Skeleton Hound (3) (F)] [Undead Enhance (1) (F)]

Other Skills: [Mana Bolt (4) (F)] [Dismantle (15) (F+)] [Traveller (0%) (E)] [Sharp Claw (3) (E)] [Heavy Slash (5) (E)] [Mapping (9) (D)] [Apothecary (19%) (C)]

[Inventory]↓ [Equipment Menu]↓

[Player Auction]↓ [Currency Conversion]↓

====

She had gotten the [Lizardman Killer] title when she had killed her 100th lizardman, granting her a +5 boost in END and a bonus against lizardmen, which made killing them quite easy. Most of her skills levelled as well, allowing Liz to summon a total of 50 skeleton warriors and 15 skeleton hounds; due to use, through her summons, the [Heavy Slash], [Sharp Claw], [Mapping] and [Dismantle] skills all received major improvements.

While Liz spent a week levelling a few world announcements occurred, telling her of new areas she didn't really care about being opened up to the player-base. Her progress was growing at a good rate, allowing her time to practise alchemy and be able to consistently produce both MP and HP potions to a standard degree; she was now selling them consistently at a rapid pace, the flow of the money coming in was like music to Liz's ears as she would soon be able to actually help her sister.

Recently though the money has been slowing down for her on the player market as others begin selling potions, as well as other players selling certain things, Liz had single-handedly jump-started the potion industry in ELO. But Liz wasn't worried, she had an entire inventory full of monster parts she could sell to a hunting guild within Barview, just from the excessive amounts she was certain to make an incredible amount of money.

Though the most exciting part of her improvements was her newest skill: [Undead Enhance]. A fairly simple enhancement skill that improves the overall abilities of her summons. By expending mana she could increase the power of individual summons, Liz didn't really appreciate this as the mana cost for enhancing the amount of summons she has is extortionate, but then she saw the skill in action.

"Guess I'll try the new skill." Liz had said when facing a particularly smart Nest Mother; as she did the warrior she chose almost doubled in size, their bones turning pitch black and the eye sockets glowing a deep red colour. From there the skeleton single-handedly took down the nest mother, just a single enhancement was a real game changer as the monster was taken down very quickly despite the short duration.

Liz had also taken the opportunity to test the skill on the hounds and something similar occurred. The hound's bones and eyes were dyed black and red and it grew to a new size, but more changes occurred as well. The teeth and claws became much sharper and serrated to inflict more damage, along its back, black bone spines extended as it charged into the wave of lizardmen. It was a carnage.

Liz was excited about how quickly she was growing, but more about the potential it posed for increasing her money flow.

Right now she had 2 objectives: Sell her monster materials and find more recipes to sell more potions as other players were beginning to encroach on her business.

"Look who we have here." In her day dreaming of making money Liz had failed to notice the gang of players who had surrounded her.

"More golden radiance assholes..." Liz sighed feeling annoyed that there was more of this, recently people had been getting to a level where they could hunt in the swamp so she had already met with other people, including golden radiance.

"Can't you guys just piss off." Liz grumbled.

"You better watch your fuckin' mouth kid." One player yelled, being annoyed he was being disrespected.

"If you hand over everything in your inventory, we might let you off with only losing 10 levels." A girl with red hair said, the others with her laughed.

"You already know I'm not going to do that." Liz said, "Let's just get this over with and fight already."

"You'll regret making enemies with Wolf Fang. Get her!" The red haired woman was upset and ordered the people to attack Liz.

They aren't even golden radiance. Liz was even more annoyed that more people were picking fights with her.

In this open field full of people, no other players chose to help and now Liz would have to reveal her abilities.

Liz let out a deep sigh and began the summoning. This was going to be annoying.

Meanwhile, Piper was preparing dinner for the sisters. It would be ready soon, she was using better ingredients than she usually used thanks to Liz making large amounts of money from ELO.

I wonder how she is making this much. Piper thought as she stirred a pot of curry, she stopped for a moment and became slightly worried, She's not doing something dangerous is she.

Piper was concerned, but figured that her sister was smart enough not to do something dumb.

"Haha. Maybe she's one of those potion sellers." Piper joked, Bailey and Jess had talked about how potions had become a serious source of cash for ELO players, but Piper knew Liz lacked the knowhow in order to make potions so she only laughed it off.

I hope she finishes up quickly. Dinner’s almost ready.