NOVEL WEB 9. The Annoying Lich
After having discussed with Layla, about her Commission, I brought myself to ask the Skeleton.
”So, do you have anything to say or should I kick you out?”
I really don’t want him to talk.
”Well, my dear, I am the greatest Necromancer ever seen I….”
”Will leave this room in an instant and never come back?”
”How rude. At least let me introduce myself!”
Whatever.
”Just explain what you want, without over glorifying yourself.”
”Okay, i am Robert, the Lich and Dungeon Master of the Dungeon of Undead. And I need something to spice up my Horde of Undead.”
Short story Long. His Rooms with many many Undead are getting easier to beat.
He himself can create chimeric Undeads with his already gained Blueprints, or body’s or watch ever.
He’s Benefits are, that he gets from every Monster or Sapient wich dies inside his Dungeon, not only a normal, but also undead blueprints. That he can make Chimeric Undeads out of already existing Blueprints, and that masses of Undead are cheaper.
The cheaper the unit, the greater the Discount.
His Handicaps are, that he can only summon Undead. Needs a specific number of cannon fodder Undead Oper floor, number increasing with depth of floor, and Limiting in how many strong Undead he can have per floor and how strong they can be. The Limit gets higher with depth of the floor.
So he is all about number, with there and there some Heavy hitter.
But he can’t increase the strength of his cannon fodder.
It’s not like it forbidden or anything, but he is out of option to are them stronger, without them counting as a strong unit.
So he either increase the strength greatly, or not.
Both options are a problem, since his hordes get to easy, or rather, don’t very much in strength when you descend flor after a certain depth.
It seems that he is such an awesome Dungeon Master, wich got him nearly Blacklisted, that he got a privilege.
A Privileg, we’re Cannon fodder Undeads get a boost in strength when there are more cannon fodder Undeads, especially if they’re all different.
The other point why his Hordes struggle, is because the intruder know how to keep the distance.
With the Intruder being strong enough to get to certain floor, they have no problem running away while slowly dwindling the number down.
Just a tiny Window of Opportunity could change it.
Or at least I explained that to him.
I asked how the masses get defeated so easily. A horde is a horde, even when weak.
It seems like his idea was to brute force it with his privilege.
The privilege doesn’t even give that much of a buff.
He currently has 10 different Creature in a horde. Zombie, Skeletons, Wraith and Ghost, wich are different, and Wolf, Rabbit and Rat versions of Zombie and Skeleton. It seems Wraiths and Ghost are basic Creature he had as he got to be a dungeon Master.
He Could raise the Animals as Spectre, which is different again, but he needs a body to manually raise.
Some kind of loophole, he proudly explained.
But he didn’t gain any new fresh bodies from animals, and if he had raised them as he was new, he wouldn’t be allowed to pit them anywhere. Basic Dungeon restrictions and so on.
So he decided it would be a waste to do it now and missed his chance.
Wraith, Ghost and Spectre are all different.
Wraith is drain of Health and Mana, while being very Malicious and even attacks the Mind.
Ghost use Magic, some kind of debuffs. Not very potent one.
Spectre attack physical. They aren’t invulnerable to pure physical attacks, but very resilient to it.
Meaning, Spectre bodies can be shredded but they would still walk, bite, scratch and so on.
Wraith and Ghosts of Animal can’t be raised by him. Necromancer can only raise them from Species with a certain intelligence or complexity. But they can natural occur, even tough it’s not the Animals fault, most of the Time.
Hearing all that, I believe to get a good Grasp on the World and how it functions.
I don’t know if it’s because of Research, Intuition and Intuitive Comprehension, but it seems likely.
Intuition got to level six, the Comprehension to level seven, research to eight and Interview to three.
But I begun to feel mentally exhausted. There were Many Assumptions and much talk.
I feel that the skills are also mentally Taxing, since it seems they use my Brain to do their Thing.
Also something to think about, but that’s for later.
The Abacus begins to move again.
”6500 Gold as Prepayment or 2000 plus the Zombie Blueprint.”
”What? How can it be so expensive? And why such a Discount for the Blueprint?! As if I would give one away!”
”Well, Zombies are made with magic and solely kept alive with it. I don’t understand the Mechanismus very well, so it will be a lot of research. The Blueprint could make things easier, not only affecting the Prepayment, but also the whole Price you will have to pay in the End.”
”It’s just a Zombie. Give some human corpse some Dark Magic and they will run around!”
”Well, I don’t have dark magic.”
”So why would you be able to make one with a blueprint?”
”Thats just how I do it.”
”Blueprints are always kept close. No self respecting Dungeon Master will ask about them, especially not giving them away!”
”You asked about mine when we met.”
Layla interferes in our Conversation like that.
I see, Blueprints are Important, so they don’t give them away easily.
Did he also try to talk me down, knowing that I sell blueprints, which will be fairly expensive?
Or was it just some thoughtless acting? Who know.
And his Hypocrisy isn’t a Surprise.
”Guh,… I just wanted to be nice, you know. Giving tips and so on.”
”You are the youngest from all of us. I was one of the first and told others how to avoid Landmines, like how it happen with me. And Gustav over there with one of the oldest, but also not one of the youngest member. But your first action was to try to get others people blueprints, with a disgusting amount of self confidence.”
I see, he really is just an asshole. Should I Blacklist him?
“Weeeelll, anyway. 2000 Gold and a Blueprint, I can do it. See, I am so generous. Since I don’t any other business, o will take my leave.”
He said that all hastily and vanished through the door.
He currently should be in a waiting room. No one can come in will there is another Customer, and no one can leave alone when other came with him. That is, because people can make an agreement here.
Who covers who’s cost, who provides what Blueprint and so on. They can even share a blueprint, meaning that one person buys one, or multiple people dip in to buy, and everyone gets the Blueprint for the price of one.
Dungeon Masters can share Blueprints, maybe charge for that or gift them.
But if there is an Agreement that one person buys it and the other also receives it, it will happen here automatically.
No possibility of scams on so on.
When everyone is ready to leave, they will get and notification in what they will give and what they can get.
Layla sighs.
“I am sorry for him. Who gets to be your first Customer was decided by a Lottery. It was Robert’s idea to band together, that when one person wins, everyone of us goes. The Idea is good, but he isn’t trustworthy, so I and Gustav declined. But Gustav won. He is hotheaded and an Idiot, but tries to be nice to people close to him. As someone who extensively helped him, he invited me to come with him, and Robert invited himself. He is a trough Asshole. You don’t have to courteous with him.”
”I Understand. I Blacklist him after that Commission.”
”Eh, no no, you don’t have to do that.”
”O don’t do it for you, I don’t want to be visited by such an Asshole in the Future. And you don’t have any saying in that.”
”Eh, Okay, i understand?”