Enigmatic Crusade

Valen woke up in pain yet again. Lately it felt like everytime he got into a fight it was some life or death struggle. His head pounding he cast Heal on himself, but it only lessened the pain. Grabbing at his pack behind him he pulled out his leather skin of water and drank from it in small gulps. 

As water filled his stomach he looked down to see the kobold chief underneath him. Only two of the guards near them he guessed the others ran away. He began to look at his notifications as his last ditch effort fight with the kobold chief replayed in his mind. Apparently there were quite a few notifications he hadn’t had time to look through. 

 

Class Quest Complete:

Kill Shadow Faculty Monsters.

10/10

You will now have the option for shadow faculty

Skills to be awoken at level up.

 

He had finished his class quest at some point. After receiving the quest when he killed the first black ooze he thought it would be some time before he finished. At some point between getting the disease from the kobold and now he must have killed the tenth and final one. 

 

Happy to have the option now he was disappointed he hadn’t gained any levels for killing the chief, but he did get some nice upgrades. 

 

Congratulations

You have killed the Kobold Chief.

Rewards:

Kobold Caverns

30 Aurous Chips

 

Valen whistled loudly, happy with the reward. He had never received so much from a monster before. Boss monsters really were on a whole other level. He kept bringing up the notifications. 

 

Warning!

The Kobold Den Mother is still alive.

Kill her within the time limit to ensure the kobolds

don't rise up to reclaim their lands.

Time Limit: 00:00

 

Valen frowned. He guessed he slept through this quest or whatever it was. Unsure if he really wanted them all dead he kept going. 

 

Congratulations

The Kobolds have been driven from the Kobold

Caverns.

Be careful, they may try to reclaim their land some day.

 

“Whatever,” he mumbled. They were annoying, but only the chief was a higher level than them. Unless they started training, he would surpass them long before they became a problem. 

 

Congratulations!

Your Domain is now level 3

Rewards:

Free Stat Points +4

 

Congratulations!

Your Domain is now level 4

Rewards:

Free Stat Points +4

 

Congratulations!

Your Domain is now level 5

Rewards:

Free Stat Points +4

Stage Increase

 

Valen brought up his Domain screen. After manipulating the new stats he noticed that he no longer lived in a Hovel, but he was upgraded to an estate. 

 

Domain Screen
Level	5
Stage	Estate
Holdings	Valiance, Kobold Caverns
Population	1
Funds	3 plates 32 chip 1 scraps
Stats
Leadership	8
Integrity	7
Forethought	8
Peace	8
Awareness	8
Resilience	8
Hope	8
Free Points	0
War Targets:	Ezballen Forest Goblins

 

His Funds for the city were still high, and he was still the only citizen, but bit by bit he was raising the level of his holdings. Pleased with the outcome he opened up the Town Management Screen. To his surprise it actually worked. The screen didn’t work outside of his town, but he guessed since the caves were now his, it was considered his town. 

The map of the town now showed a thin line between Valiance and the caverns, connecting them. The area for the Kobold Caverns was huge. Far dwarfing the small town he started in. He had noticed that one of the upgrades for the town was a Value Scanning tool, but it was far out of his price range. For now he would just assume there were some worthwhile assets in the caverns. About to get up Valen noticed just one more notification. 

 

Eat or be Eaten:

You defeated a boss on your own.

The God of Predators has decided you are worth investing in.

Reward:

Blessing of the Predator

Fate +1

Strength +1

Endurance +1

Agility +1

 

“No fucking way,” Valen mumbled. As he read the blessing over and over something finally clicked into place. “Is that why…?” He mumbled, but couldn’t say the words. Why Hank the Tank had pushed him off the platform after helping with the spider boss. 

Valen hadn’t known of this Blessing, hadn’t known much about blessings at all in fact. But if he could receive a blessing from soloing such a weak boss, it made sense why Hank had been so upset Valen helped with a really strong boss. If the Blessing could be upgraded after soloing stronger bosses, no wonder he was so pissed. Pissed enough to kill a nobody like Valen. 

“Holy shit,” he said. Strength, Endurance, and Agility were huge for any tank. If he received one for each stat for this low level boss, how much would it have been for the beast of a spider boss he had seen Hank fight?

As he thought about it Valen decided to push the thought away. “Fuck that guy, he tried to kill me,” he mumbled. Upset that someone would throw his life away for something as simple as a blessing. He did retain that information for now though. If he could repeat the same achievement, with stronger and stronger bosses, then he could maybe optimize the blessing. Hank’s actions implied that it could have been upgraded. 

 

Happy with his gains and new knowledge Valen turned to the kobold chief. It’s form frozen and bloody he threw the whole corpse back into his bag. With any luck there will have been a quest for the chief back in town. As he looked through the other kobolds for gear he was about to head back to the last cavern to dig through for bounty materials when he got a new notification. 

 

Congratulations:

Your Domain has reached level 5

A Domain is only as strong as the

professions that keep it running.

Please see the Town Hall Quest

Board for new Profession

Quests.

 

“What the hell?” He mumbled, reading the alert. He had received a similar notification when he inadvertently declared war on the goblins. Unsure what to expect, Valen decided he needed to get back to town sooner rather than later. His body mostly healed, his core was slowly filling up with essence as he began looking through the corpses for anything valuable. 

 

After finishing with the most recent kills Valen headed out the way that the kobold Chief had come from. There were a few minor traps, but he noticed them this time. Eventually he came to a much larger cavern. Everything in shambles he guessed this was the main kobold camp. A few blankets, some shiny stones, ores, and other items strewn across the area in the kobolds rush to get out, he collected what he could and followed the tracks outside. 

It wasn’t terribly long that Valen finally found sunlight again. Far off in the tunnel he was in he noticed the yellow glow ahead, but instead of coming out of thin crack between rocks, he came out of an actual cave. This one brought him out to an actual beach. 

“Woah,” Valen mumbled as his eyes adjusted to the sun. Straight ahead was a massive lake Valen hadn’t seen before. The cave he had just come from was a one of a half-dozen dark tunnels coming from a cliff face. Around him were boulders and sea shells that slowly gave way to a sandy beach. 

“Holy…” He mumbled as he walked toward the beach. The tracks of the kobolds shot out in all directions, but none were toward the sand and water. Valen’s eyes widened as he took in the view of the water. 

“Is this an ocean?” He couldn’t help but ask. As far as the eye could see straight ahead was water. To the left and right there was land, but they tapered off as the horizon became all water. The sun setting to his left he knew he was looking North, but had never heard of such a body of water near New Rapids.

“Am I by the coast?” He asked. New Rapids had been in America once, a place called the Mid-West. Nowhere near the ocean he hadn’t heard of such an expanse of water, but maybe the exit from the spider dungeon had spat him out far away. 

 

“Who cares,” he said. Getting rid of the few scraps of clothes that had survived his fights with oozes he walked into the cold water and relaxed for the first time in what felt like ages. The water was exactly what Valen needed. Washing away the blood and gunk from his body he felt like a human being again. No training, no worries, the sun over head, it was all he had dreamed of. 

“And it’s mine,” He mumbled. He had taken the kobold caverns into his domain. Now yet another place he had to manage and protect Valen didn’t feel too worried about it. He had been surviving so far in this world. The only world he knew. It was unforgiving, unknown, but all his, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. 

 

—

 

After his swim Valen spent the day searching around the other tunnels of the kobolds. There were a few more traps, but none that took the rock floor out from under him. He found some gold and silver ore, as well as some shiny ones. Filling up his spacial bag all the way he slept and didn’t wake up with a kobold knife in his throat. 

The next day he headed back to town only to find there really was no good path back the way he came. He couldn’t take the tunnels since he could have easily gotten lost in them. The paths the kobolds left implied they practically ran up the cliff face where their cave entrance had been. So Valen did what he could to follow them. Thanks to his map he knew he had to go south to get back to town, but that meant over the cliff. 

It took time, but thanks to his strength and endurance stats he really did climb the cliff. Large rocky hills behind the kobold caverns he began to walk over them slowly as he headed home. His mind all over the place, dreaming up what kind of rewards he could get from the quest board, or trying to guess at the worth of the bright ores he found he was left alone for once. 

 

No monsters attacking him he walked through his new lands unimpeded. Jumping from boulder to boulder he almost slipped down the rocky hills over the kobold caverns a few times, but always caught his balance. 

As the hours of walking past, Valen was about to start running to speed things along when he noticed something odd. There was very little Essence in the area. 

Having gotten used to the Essence in the tunnels underneath him he had found that everywhere had some essence. The power of the world leaking upward from the core of the earth somewhere, he didn’t understand why there was none in the rocky hills. Curious, Valen began to climb one of the hills, noticing that the essence disappeared completely. 

Focused he tried to figure out what was going on. Trying to use his Sense skill to his max range he could find miniscule amounts of essence here and there, but then they would disappear. His mind trying to lock into the motes of power he slowly got a feel for the air and noticed all the essence was being pulled in one direction. 

Slowly following the direction he became more sure as his eyes opened and he jumped from rock to rock. His inner eye locking onto the path the essence followed he ran faster, worried his land was corrupted for some reason. Fearful that there were maybe giant dragons or other monsters on his new land he hoped he hadn’t made a mistake of taking on the Domain as his investigation revealed a large cave entrance. 

It was about ten feet tall and wide. Not a natural entrance, it was obviously constructed somehow. Made into the side of one of the many rock hills a part of him hoped it was a kobold outpost, but he sort of doubted it. With a gulp of air and swallowing the spit in his mouth Valen walked over to the arched entrance. Large flat boulders were set up on the sides to make the cave opening, almost begging someone to notice them. 

“Hello?” Valen asked. His voice echoing in the cave entrance he hefted the new mace he got from the Kobold Chief. The handle was about three feet long and the mace head was basically a block of steel. More damaging than his last mace it felt good in his hands as he walked into the dark cave. 

 

Pushing essence out of his body, his hands began to glow with white energy as he walked inside. The floor was a black and fine loose gravel. Overtop and around him it looked like the tunnel had been made by a giant drill. Beginning to believe that maybe some humans had made their homes there Valen walked more cautiously. Focused as he scanned for traps he didn’t notice anything too out of place.

Then instantly he was blinded by a white light. As if the lights in the cavern were turned on he couldn’t feel any Essence through Sense. Unsure what was going on he forced his eyes open wide to see that the dark tunnel had turned into a grassy expanse. Eyes wide, he scanned the area as quickly as possible. The grass was cut short, some trees around him, there were fields of flowers all around him. Red, purples, yellow, Valen saw more flowers in this wide open area than he ever had in the city. Scanning upward he noticed that the sky wasn’t blue, but was the gray stone of the hill he had walked into. 

 

Almost lost Valen caught sight of movement in the flowers. A small deer-like monster appeared. It was only about three feet tall. Brown fur all over it’s body it ran across his path on two hooves. No antlers on it’s head the deer humanoid’s ears perked up as it stopped in it’s tracks. Large black eyes staring at him, Valen gulped as the deer bleated and ran off. He used Identify before it was out of range. 

 

Wendiga

Level 10

 

“What…the…fuck,” he said slowly. Scanning all around him he gripped the mace in his hand more tightly. About to go kill himself a wendiga he stepped into the field of flowers but was stopped as white light shot toward him. 

Valen cursed and stepped back, his hands moving in front of his face. But instead of getting hit by the white ball of energy he heard laughter. Still freaked out Valen slowly dropped his hands to see the white glowing sphere was actually a tiny person with wings. 

“Hello, human,” the voice said in a high pitched tone. Valen gulped, his mouth dry as he tried to make out the features of the small humanoid. She looked like a butterfly, but had arms and legs. Pitch black skin, with purple butterfly wings on her back she hovered as she exuded essence right in front of him. “You must be the new lord of this Domain.” Her voice practically squeaked as she giggled. “Come, come,” she said. “I will introduce you to the others.” 

The glowing sphere zipped off over the flowers faster than Valen could react. Another wendiga, or maybe the same as before ran past. Valen cursed, gripping his mace harder as he followed in the glowing wake of the small butterfly person. His eyes scanning everywhere, the area was a lot more thick with essence, but what really drew his eyes was a tall tree at the center of the cavern. 

It was about twenty feet tall, and emitted light. White rays of light peaked out from under the bark, showering everything in the magnificent light. Valen’s mouth was open as he dumbly stared at the tree while drawing closer. He had never heard of anything like this before, during all the years in New Rapids. This was new, or maybe a lucky find, he wasn’t sure, either way he was on guard as four balls of light zipped from within the branches of the tree toward him. 

Instead of flinching this time he raised his hand, ready to strike, but again the glowing orbs stopped a couple of feet away. Valen’s eyes adjusted to the light they emitted and he saw that they were all butterfly humanoids. Pitch black skin, no hair, the wings lazily moved to keep them in the air. 

“Hello, human,” an old voice said from the center. Valen studied this one. It was an older male with a beard. The other three lights looked more feminine, but this one took charge as it spoke. “We welcome you to our home. I received a notification only a short while ago that the area has been passed down to a new owner. I assume that is you?” 

Valen gulped and nodded. Trying to look at everything around him. There was a small stream of water bubbling up from the tree and moving toward the flower fields, giving the area life. “I think so,” he rasped. 

“Perfect. Long have we waited for the appearance of a sentient ruler,” the voice said. “I am Eshkarek. I would like to extend to you an offer of…cohabitation.” With the offer a screen popped up.

 

The Fairy representatives would like free

access to your lands.

Yes/No

 

“Fai-” He said, but stopped himself as his heart rate increased. He locked eyes with the small being and used identify. 

 

Fairy

Level 12

 

“You-are you fairy’s?” Valen couldn’t help but ask. He took an involuntary step backward as he used Identify on all of them. Fear gripped his heart. He hadn’t heard of these monsters from any adventurer he knew, but he had heard of fairies from one of the older boys at the orphanage. 

 

Entertainment was rare where he came from. Back when Valen was a kid he would beg the older boys and girls for stories of the old world. One of them relented once. He spoke of a super hero that was from Hell. One of the many foes he fought were fairies. The older boy told Valen that the little winged monsters would eat people’s bones. Especially their teeth. Chewing the bones right out of a person’s body.

Valen had nightmares for months after hearing about them. The older boy had told him that to appease the fairies Valen had to give up his teeth that fell out or they would take them. It was a traumatic experience, and one of the many times he wished he hadn’t bothered the older kids. Valen had an extreme fear of these monsters. Since goblins, kobolds, and most everything was from some lore of the old world, Valen had prayed these weren’t real.

But as his eyes scanned the small humanoids he could see that they had sharp teeth. Sharp enough to bite into anything.

“We of course will gift you-” The older fairy said but Valen cut him off. 

“Not interested,” Valen said as he tightened his grip on the mace. “Get out of my land.” These were the first talking monsters he found so he hoped that would work. Instead of outright killing them, he wanted an out. For all he knew there were hundreds of these things somewhere. 

 

“What?” The elder asked, taken aback for a moment. 

“Get-off-of-my-land,” Valen repeated, staring at each fairy. “I don’t want you here. You don’t get free reign or nothing.” He hoped they were like vampires that he also heard about and would need permission to be there. 

“But-the Hearthtree,” a feminine voice said, pointing at the tree behind her. 

“I don’t care. Get off my land, or I will kick you off,” Valen said. He wasn’t scared of many things, but these fairies had caused a deep rooted fear in him at a young age. They were pretty close to his home as well. He didn’t think he could sleep very soundly if they lived nearby. Besides, the tree or whatever they were doing was stealing all the essence in the area. 

“We-we can’t do that,” the old man’s voice whined. 

Valen’s grip on the mace tightened. He had been afraid of that, but he was willing to do whatever it took to keep his new home safe. Especially from fairies.