Everlast Online

Liz woke to find herself leaned against the wall of the former worm nest. The only one present besides herself was Gloria, but she could feel her other undead active in different parts of the underground: Her gravediggers were establishing pathways and safe areas where the miners would gather the magic iron that had been found while the scouts were looking for anything else they could find. The stone eaters had clearly marked this place as their territory as not a single monster had been spotted between the extermination and Liz logging out - pleasing her greatly as it made asserting herself down there much easier.

"Hey, everything good?" Liz asked, standing to her full height of a single metre.

"... Yes." Gloria was as blunt as usual, but Liz noticed her silence was heavier than she was used to - there was a clear tension in the air that hadn't been there before Liz left.

"Is everything okay?" Liz asked, not stretching as she had no muscles or bones or literally anything beyond stuffing and cloth, but still moving her body as if she were stretching.

"... Yes." Gloria responded and Liz knew she was not being truthful, but if Gloria didn't want to tell her then she wouldn't pry.

"... Fine. I want to head to the surface and check on the diggers flattening the place I'm planning on building." Liz said, a little more huffy than normal, but not with any anger. Gloria only nodded and the pair headed up the very neat staircase that had been built, presumably by the diggers. It was both incredibly deep and wide, so much so if they weren't undead it likely would have been tiring to climb, "We could make this place like a grain silo or something... After we clean up the blood."

Liz was just thinking out loud, but she still felt it was a decent idea - especially considering the safety it would offer. The amount of intelligent races that could make it down as far as they were was limited, mostly because Liz had not bothered installing any ventilation. Cleaning the blood and pus would be very important first though, especially considering it had already dried.

It took quite a while to reach the surface, but numerous secret shortcuts had been created that shortened the time. And by secret what was meant was new tunnels that were then filled in afterwards.

Upon reaching the surface Liz saw Luthor directing the gravediggers who seemed to have finished doing as instructed; as Luthor saw Liz approaching he offered a bow before speaking.

"It is good to see you, My Lady. I presume the extermination went well." He greeted.

"It went great. We destroyed the nest and I got a death knight out of it." Liz noticed Gloria tensing up at the mention of Demeter, but chose to ignore it for the time being.

"Oh, that's wonderful. Death knights are an integral part of any necromantic legion." Luthor congratulated before continuing on with an extra humble tone, "I hope I have not been too presumptuous, but I have taken to ordering the acquisition of stones for building a city wall. And I retrieved some of the skeletons who were fixing up the mansion to turn the monster meat from the dungeons into food for the people in the village. I figure it will build goodwill and get them used to the undead."

Liz nodded thankfully, having almost entirely forgotten about the people of her fief - this made her feel terrible, treating them as she had been, but rationalised her inaction by reminding herself it was simply a game.

"No, that's fine. Really it's what I made you for." Liz laughed and thankfully Luthor joined in with a chuckle.

"If I may, might I take some giants to carry the supplies for building." Luthor asked.

"Of course, but can I ask where you're getting the stones? I'd rather not take them from the surroundings since I'd like to do something with the land." Liz responded, looking around with some worry.

"Don't worry, My Lady. I have ordered it to be taken from the berk's dungeon." Luthor explained, offering even more knowledge that made Liz glad she had created him, "Dungeons regenerate not just their population, but their very foundations as well."

Liz was happy to hear they had an infinite set of resources and wondered why everyone didn't simply do it; before realising that not everyone had a private army that couldn't be disloyal or tired.

"Is there anything that I could do to help more?" Liz asked, feeling that she wasn't very needed at the moment.

"Truthfully? Beyond learning to summon more undead that could assist, there isn't." Luthor sighed, looking apologetic, "Though I would recommend looking for a skeleton crusher; they're essentially undead giants, but as skeletons and with slightly greater strength and speed as opposed to durability."

"It's a shame I can't just find them." Liz sighed, making a mental note to look for a skeleton crusher so she could summon one, they sounded cool.

Wait... Maybe I can... If [List of the Deceased] works based on sight, then maybe I can exploit that. Liz had an epiphany as she considered the usage of her skill; quickly opening her messages to start looking into her lead.

[Smokey: i need people looking for encyclopaedias on undead]

[Smokey: they need pictures]

Liz sent that to the very limited number of friends she had as there was no guild chat function as of yet - likely at a higher rank. The pictures were necessary as Liz had already been given the ingredients for a gravedigger with no added entry, but she believed it would be a different story if she could see an image of an undead - even if it was only a drawing.

Liz got some mocking for wanting pictures from Nina and Seb, but the message was spread through the guild, money was in the vault for usage; Liz simply needed to wait things out - and she did, but it didn't take long for a hit:

[Big book of monsters that should have stayed dead (F): A book about different undead races, including their appearance, places they may appear and how to properly combat them]

As Liz pulled it from the vault it clearly seemed to be a book for children, but nonetheless it had detailed pictures.

The first few pages were undead Liz already knew and had summoned; zombies, skeleton and ghosts or other similar low level mobs. Getting irritated, Liz flipped to a random page.

[The ectoplasm slime is a really nasty monster. Like a golem its only weakspot is its core, but to get to it adventurers have to get through layers of ectoplasm that may cause {Fear}, {Chills} or other debuffs that could cause them to lose... ]

The book went on in a similar way, but Liz turned back a page so she could see the illustration of the ectoplasm slime; and she felt something change with her skill.

Liz's excitement was through the roof as she almost stood up from the small chair a gravedigger had made for her and started dancing, but her excitement faded as she opened the page she had unlocked. Everything from the picture to the description was there, it was simply lacking one crucial bit of information:

[Ectoplasm Slime]

[Abilities: {Status Debuffs}, {Fluid Body}]

[General rank estimation: C-]

[Ectoplasm slimes are one of the stranger undead, in that they pass as an undead by a technicality. However, the intensity of their debuffs and the difficulty in killing a creature that can't be touched make them a fairly valuable asset; they would be ranked higher, but their incredibly high weakness to magic prevents this. As a necromancer, they make for excellent units when the resources allow, but not typically sought out]

[User has not yet seen an {Ectoplasm Slime}] [See an {Ectoplasm Slime} to discover the ingredients]

[User has not yet summoned an {Ectoplasm Slime}] [Summon an {Ectoplasm Slime} to discover the reduced ingredients]

The revelation that she couldn't cheat her way through her skill knocked some wind out of her, but there was a silver lining; one that came in the form of a random gravedigger that was walking by at the time.

"That thing's sure made of lotsa goo." It laughed deeply before sauntering off, not realising the innocuous joke it had made allowed Liz to realise something important: Even if she didn't know the ingredients right away, she might be able to guess at them based on the info given.

Liz's smile returned, widening further as she saw the increasing pile of books in her guild vault.

Liz flicked through page after page of books, not even bothering to register what was written; just glancing at the images like a child. Eventually Liz ran out of books, feeling she had enough she also called off the search. With a number of new pages in her [Book of Damned Souls] Liz opened it up with an incredibly wide smile.

There were many new types of undead recorded, all without their ingredients of course, but nonetheless it was exciting. The highlights came in various forms.

Liz loved the pages about different types of undead dragons, [Bone Dragon], [Ghost Dragon], [Zombie Dragon] and [Corpse Dragon], but the absolute highlight was the [Death Dragon]:

[Death Dragon]

[Abilities: {Draconic Body}, {Draconic Magic}, {Death Magic}, {Dark Magic}, {Dragon Heart}, ... ]

[General rank estimation: L+]

[Death dragons are one of the most feared and powerful beings, not just among dragons, but among all lifeforms. Their very existence brings plague and death so their power is enough to scare off almost anything. If it is ever possible to have a death dragon serving you; you must promise to thank every god in the sky for such great fortune]

[User has not yet seen a {Death Dragon}] [See a {Death Dragon} to discover the ingredients]

[User has not yet summoned a {Death Dragon}] [Summon a {Death Dragon} to discover the reduced ingredients]

Liz was honestly floored at the fact a real dragon was considered an undead she could summon and thanked every moment of luck for having chosen that black book from the vault. Luthor went on to explain that death dragons were only undead on a technicality, their connection with the death element transforming them into living undead like Gloria's race - having the attributes of both undead and dragons is partially what made them so powerful.

Other highlights in the book included the [Blight], an undead that was reminiscent of the zombies of old horror movies; being the kind that spread their unlife through bites. They were actually weaker than regular zombies and even children could kill them with a good hit to the head, but a single bite could transform literally into a [Lesser Blight] that could then turn others into [Lesser Blights], the only exceptions were other undead that couldn’t be infected, but besides them even dragons had to fear blights. However, what made them so despised - even by necromancers - was that just killing it wasn't enough. Anything the blight personally bit, had the possibility of becoming a real blight after patient zero’s death.

Even the book warned of summoning them as while the blight was under the necromancer's control, the lesser blights wouldn't be. Furthermore, if the blight was killed, the necromancer would not automatically take control of any new blights that spawned. The book said only to use them in cases where Liz desired to destroy an entire city and could prevent the blight from getting out in any way.

There were less tragic undead as well like the [Mummified Corpse] and the [Ancient Pharaoh] who were basic mummy undead, with the ancient pharaoh being able to summon more mummified corpses. They were an interesting pair, but not as interesting as the [Servant of Anubis] undead that seemed to be an even more powerful version of the ancient pharaoh; with stronger summoning abilities and powerful scythe skills.

There was also a page for the [Lich], but it was honestly boring compared to a lot of the other pages. It was [L-] grade, but otherwise described as a basic undead summoner. A far more interesting monster was the [Coffin Bearer], another summoning type undead that also had powerful melee attacks. Supposedly it could use the coffin it carried as a shield, but also open it to release many zombies like Liz's former [Raise Horde] skill.

Liz was so enthralled in the new pages and descriptions she had unlocked that she allowed the entire day to pass her by. It was only when a series of notifications rang in front of her that she chose to look beyond the pages of the book. Some good, some bad:

[SS: Piper and her friends are playing. Magnus added them to the guild]

[SS: He said they've gone to the guild house to see you]

This made Liz overjoyed as she was excited to see her sister.

This was less exciting for Liz, especially as she expanded on each of the new features and considered the ramifications of each:

This was less exciting, especially when the ramifications became right-now-ications:

"Fuck."