Everlast Online

The fight with the cyclops went mostly how Liz had expected it would.

There were of course elements she could not predict, but ultimately she had cleared the dungeon with an acceptable number of losses. There had only been one loss that she had not expected, that being one of her named undead having been killed when the champion had altered the terrain of the final arena.

There was nothing Liz could have done to prevent that, but it was not the loss that caused discomfort in Liz, but the lack of grief.

That undead, a bone slayer whose name she couldn't even remember, had been an individual with a real personality; one who had served Liz until her death. And yet Liz simply couldn't find a part of herself that seemed to grieve for them.

When did I start to become so awful? Liz wondered as she claimed her prizes, both levels and items.

She had long realised that her attitude had begun to change. The way she treated Luthor was awful, she treated him just as those above had treated her when she worked in service - like what he did for her was simply a matter of course, something she was entitled to. Liz didn't know why, but she couldn't help but begin to act that way; act as though she were above all of her undead.

Perhaps it was the money she had acquired or the fact they were simply characters in a game, but deep down she still felt it was wrong.

Liz had left that dungeon with a heavy heart.

She had increased her level quite well, surpassing [130] and reaching [138] which allowed her to gain a new skill:

[Necrotic Whip (1) (A): Expend vitality to summon and control a whip of necrotic energy. All attacks using {Necrotic Whip} hold a 50% chance of inflicting the {Necrosis} status effect. Power of spell scales with INT and skill level]

She had finally gained a necrotic-type skill and a rather powerful one at that. Most skills of that branch of magic require the user to sacrifice a percentage of their HP, which meant it could only be used a set number of times regardless of level; however, for [Necrotic Whip] that drained HP she could simply keep it active and utilise [Vampiric Thirst] to offset the drainage.

Of course defeating the dungeon came with other rewards - rewards Liz was more than happy to accept:

[Earth Hand (0%) (B+): Manipulate the ground to transform it into a hand that can then be controlled by the caster. Speed of construct formation scales with INT and proficiency]

The skill was a watered down version of the boss's ultimate skill, but Liz was severely lacking in magic skills despite being a magic class. Of course she recognised she specialised in summoning, but with [Vampiric Thirst] regularly replenishing her HP and MP it was quite a waste to not make use of spells at the same time as supporting her undead through summoning.

All in all, the raid of the [Cyclops Canyons] was not without its losses, but ultimately worth the effort for Liz to clear. 

It'll be hard to turn it into a farm though. Liz thought, disappointed that the odds of regularly acquiring giant corpses was low. Killing giants without an excess of even more giants would always be a struggle and [Undead Giants] were not easy units to command even when Liz was present due to their lower intelligence and dangerous size; there was no saying what would happen if they had to be commanded through puppets and at a distance.

In the end Liz had decided to put creating a giant farm on the backburner and prepared to head to another dungeon.

Like that, days passed; Liz and other members of Walpurgis increased their levels, farmed items and increased the power of their skills.

Piper and her friends had come back from a dungeon called the [Unlucky Carnival] with Piper at level [41], Jess at level [39], Bailey at level [38] and having claimed an item called the [Fool's Crown (A-)] that while looking like a regular crown was actually a cursed item that increased STR proportional to the [Insanity] debuff it added; after that they too returned to increasing their levels.

The day before the guild war arrived faster than Liz had expected it and she was still no closer to solving the problem of lacking a suitable candidate for the duel.

She had risen to level [151], gaining two new skills in the process: [Forced Resurrection (1) (C)] and [Summon - Wight (1) (B)]. The summoning skill was obviously absorbed into [Book of the Damned] and allowed Liz to summon wights, those being a higher class of Skeleton mages who could use both magic and summoning skills. 

Despite being the skill gained at [140], [Forced Resurrection] was the skill that Liz actually preferred. The skill could forcefully reanimate any of her undead that had been destroyed and temporarily allow them to keep fighting regardless of damage to their bodies - granting them a sort of immortality.

Undead who had been destroyed became enshrouded in sickly, green energy and any missing or damaged parts were replaced with that same energy. The undead raised with the skill became a fusion of physical and spiritual, it was both terrifying and amazing to watch.

However, just as the skill was immensely powerful, it had more restrictions than almost any skills Liz had seen:

1. Only undead who had been destroyed within ten minutes of skill activation could be affected by the skill (That scaled with level)
2. The skill only lasted thirty seconds (That scaled with level)
3. The skill only worked on undead with a real physical body
4. The skill had both a ridiculously large mana cast and an hour long cooldown
5. Liz could not use any active skills besides [Book of the Damned] while the skill was active - and [Book of the Damned] could only activate because it was L-Rank
6. The skill could not do anything about undead destroyed through holy means

And yet, despite all of the restrictions on the skill Liz couldn't help but love it. It was simply amazing and could literally turn the tides of any battle.

Of course Liz was not the only one to have increased their ability over the course of the week. Gloria, Eren, Liz's named undead (like her death knights), Piper and her friends even Magnus, Seb and a number of other gang members had massively improved.

Gloria and Eren had reached the levels [130] and [112] respectively with both gaining two skills each.

Gloria had acquired [War Cry (1) (D+)] and [Berserk (1) (C)]. The first destabilised enemies while buffing both herself and allies while [Berserker] massively increased STR and AGI in return of applying the [Insanity Debuff]; both were unremarkable, but highly useful skills that perfectly fit Gloria's fighting style.

Eren gained [Final Act of Defiance (1) (S)] and [Failed Prayers (1) (D)]. [Failed Prayers] was acquired at [110] and was not all that impressive - it was a simple unholy buffing skill that improved the abilities of the undead while harming regular creatures; however, [Final Act of Defiance] was exactly the skill Liz had been looking for:

[Final Act of Defiance (1) (S): Swap the weakness of unholy beings for 30 seconds. Skill will drain all of the user's unholy energy and reduce energy recovery speed by 50% for 1 hour. Time of weakness swap scales with level]

It was exactly the kind of skill Liz needed, even with the rather irritating conditions it was the perfect skill. It quite literally eliminated the weakness of her army, considering how she had been completely demolished by holy magic the skill was perfect for fixing that.

Piper, Jess and Bailey had all surpassed level fifty ([52], [51] and [52] respectively) with them also gaining two skills each..

However, despite all of this Liz was still struggling to find a third candidate. 

"What do we do?" Grant asked, "We need at least one event we can be certain we will win."

"They probably know our guild members are weak." Liz explained, "They want to take advantage of that."

"That doesn't explain why they chose equaliser though." Enzo said, but the others simply ignored him as they had already talked at length about the topic - coming to the conclusion that pointlessly worrying about it would be a waste of time.

"Are you sure this Nina

"She said she's busy." Liz said with a shake of her head.

Liz knew she was at a massive disadvantage with the guild war, it was entirely unlikely that their guild would win the [Equaliser] match because while Magnus was certainly a good fighter Wolf Fang wouldn't have chosen the event unless they were equally confident in victory; the problem with [Collapsing Castles] was that no one knew what it was yet, Liz hoped it would be siege warfare, but doubted it would be so simple.

What mattered was winning the [Duels]. [Collapsing Castles] was anyone's guess, but each of the selected events had to be decided by those who were certain they would win and yet without a third fighter Liz was not certain of her victory.

They talked for a while longer and came to the decision they would simply have to hope Liz and Gloria both won their matches. [Duels] like the entirety of the guild was a best of three match and so, as long as they both won the battle would be decided.

Liz was entirely confident in her victory since for a summoning type class as powerful as her own fighting in duals was essentially cheating. She felt similarly about Gloria, her experience and raw power made her a fighter who could take on any enemy - and yet in contrast to Liz's own fight, she could not say with certainty she would win.

Gloria was a berserker by nature and if they leveraged the weaknesses of berserker classes - that being the after effects of their abilities - Gloria could lose.

It was as the meeting was just about to convene that a zombie maid entered the room, she curtsied before speaking.

"There is a guest for you, My Lady." She said, her voice as monotonous as all of Luthor's maids.

"Please bring them in." Liz said with a smile. She was confused, but considering the formal nature of the visit -  indicated by following a certain level of noble protocol - it was likely an NPC of some kind, one that was perhaps important.

The maid curtsied once again before walking out and returning a moment later with a rather beautiful man. He had golden hair and emerald eyes, but most noticeably elongated ears: An elf.

Based on his incredibly high quality clothes he was either of high class or, the more likely option, he was the servant of someone high class.

"Greetings, Viscountess Silver." He said, his bow slightly too shallow compared to what would be expected when visiting foreign nobility, "I have come to deliver something on behalf of my lord."

Liz did not take offence to the blunt manner of talking or the elf’s lack of respect; she had expected it from the moment she had seen the elf enter the room. Many demi-human races do not worship divine entities, the elves being among those races.

Instead elves tend to believe that nature holds the greatest power of all. To elves the natural world is perfect and must be protected at all costs; throughout history many nations of elves have waged wars when other races attempt to deforest areas and have a long standing feud with races like gnomes and dwarves who defile nature with their arrogant creations despite also occasionally using such creations themselves.

But there was no species they hated more than the undead, their very existence standing in opposition to nature and to elves they would always be abhorrent beings.

The elf pulled something from his pouch as he walked over to Liz, the executive members of the guild watching him the entire time. He placed an ornate mirror in Liz's hands, one made from twisted branches of an incredibly smooth tree, all curved around a silver mirror that failed to reflect anything and yet still made Liz (and everyone else present) presume it was a mirror.

[Spirit Viewing Mirror (A+): A mirror created through the magic of a water spirit. Allows the user to connect to other mirror's connected with the user's mirror]

As if on cue, ripples appeared. They moved across the surface of the mirror and Liz had no idea what she was supposed to do, looking up the elf seemed slightly upset to see Liz holding the item, but eventually explained what she needed to do.

"Just put some of your mana in." He said and Liz followed along, causing the rippling to stop and the picture to clear up - revealing a figure even Liz could recognise: Annie.

"Hello Smokey." She said with a smile, her appearance just as amazing as all of her streams.

"And to what do I owe the pleasure?" Lis responded, genuinely smiling, but her frightful face made it seem more threatening.

"I've heard you're in a slight bit of danger thanks to the guild war." She said, "How would you like an alliance?"