Everlast Online

With the ability to increase her SOU stat now available, Liz immediately began testing.

Upon killing a berk with her own skills, she watched (using [Soul Sight]) as the ethereal and massless object floated into her settling just below her own soul. It condensed greatly, going from the size of a basketball to something closer to a pea. 

Liz could feel the power coming from it, but it was entirely separate from her own power - isolated and swirling as if to clean it before it could join with her own soul. The pea of soul gradually increased in size as more souls were collected and processed, until eventually it was pulled straight into Liz's own soul; increasing her SOU back to 100 and resetting the new [Soul] section in her status:

====

Name: [Smokey]

Race: [Abandoned Doll] (Attributes)↓

Class: [Necromancer (100)]

Title: {Defy The Odds} {Bandit Killer} {Lizardman Slayer} {...}

[Reputation: 219,100] [Gold: 1.9 million]

Stats: [STR: 105 (+2)] [END: 138 (+2)] [AGI: 175(+8)] [INT: 230] [SOU: 100]

Race Skills: [Voodooist (S)] [Lonely Toy (7) (C-)]

Class Skills: [Soul String (30%) (S+)] [Naming (S+)] [Book of the Damned (L)] [...]

Soul-Bound: {Gloria (89)}, {Eren (48)}

Souls: {0}

Other Skills: [Swordsmanship (53%) (F)] [Shieldmanship (44%) (F)] [Archery (31%) (F)] [...]

[Inventory]↓ [Equipment Menu]↓

[Player Auction]↓ [Currency Conversion]↓

====

Liz also decided to use up the stat points she had been gathering. With 42 points gathered through levelling it was easy for her to place her stats; her skill synergy available, splitting her points between END and INT was the obvious choice. So, Liz placed 31 points into her INT and 11 into her END.

Liz was honestly surprised at how quickly her stats had increased, especially since most of the increase was through titles and not levels. In ELO, titles and skills were what made the real difference between individuals; as a mage like Liz now likely had a higher STR than a few warrior builds.

With how much she was using it against the berks, Liz was not surprised at how quickly [Lonely Toy] had increased in level - she had honestly expected it to be higher.

Liz closed her status page and continued testing her [Soul Catcher] skill. 

What she found was that the wording was not entirely accurate. As it turned out, any kill from one of her undead counted as her own and increased the soul count; on the other hand any kill made by Eren or Gloria didn't count - likely due to having souls themselves, distinguishing themselves from the other incomplete undead Liz had been creating. 

The final test came from Dill, the dullahan Liz had created thanks to the massive influx of corpses available as they headed further down into the berk's cavern. She had named him, using up a soul point - that quickly returned due to the sheer number of berks in the dungeon - and increasing his ability as she had expected. 

Despite still not being a complete being, his new status prevented him from collecting souls for Liz; meaning only the undead without names could assist her.

With the information settled, Dill was mostly forgotten by Liz; she sent him to command the lesser undead as they descended deeper into the cavern.

Maybe I should leave him here to continue culling the berk's numbers. Liz thought as she sat, carving wood a few floors above the undead that were heading down. Liz had better things to do than clear out a dungeon personally - what's more she technically still was thanks to having sent down a number of her dolls, controlled through [Soul String]. If I continue like this I'll stop being a necromancer and get the [Introvert] class or something.

Every now and then Liz's level would increase or her soul container would fill up and push her SOU to the next level.

Liz sat and worked without a care for the berks that continued to spawn on the floor she remained since she had summoned more than enough undead to protect herself from the odd stray escaping from the massacre below, or a berk that manifested from the excess mana from a dungeon that had not been cleared in far too long.

So, Liz continued to work, occasionally sending her more of her mind into one of the dolls she had sent with Eren and Gloria. Everything was going well, especially since the puppets could still use the Book of Damned Souls through the [Book of the Damned] skill, each manifesting the book; in some cases simultaneously. It seemed the book was bound to Liz's soul through her skill and since her puppets were being controlled by simply injecting her own soul into them, they could use any of her skills.

Truthfully, her puppets were no less her than Liz herself was. It was simply herself in another body.

Over the week preparing for the coup, Liz had found great pleasure in making the puppets. She found great pleasure in relaxing to create each of the puppets she had for her skill - compared to creating potions, Liz felt tranquil.

That was why she couldn't help but smile and hum to a song as she finally took the opportunity to make a doll that was not a simple mannequin with working joins. In her hands was a doll much smaller than the dolls she had made for the coup, but it was clearly of a superior quality. 

Thanks to her increase in [Soul String]'s proficiency and access to the [Split Mind] skill, Liz could have more of her soul spread out into her dolls and made good use of that. Back at the manor was a puppet constantly pumping out potions that were either stored for Liz's use or sold to other players to increase Liz's money; there were also a number of puppets marching deeper into the berk's home with Gloria and Eren. The final group was of 5 puppets; all spread out through her territory to collect materials that could be useful to her.

[Split Mind] was growing rapidly in proficiency as Liz pushed it to its limits to improve the scope of her actions. Now, the only real weakness of the [Soul String] skill was that her puppets became harder to control when further away; and in some cases fully unresponsive beyond doing menial tasks already set beforehand.

The doll Liz was currently working on was one she had started on the last 2 days before the coup; ironically she found she could use her basic puppets to make more of them. The beautiful doll was close to finishing as Liz began to paint it as she had already made clothes and hair for the doll - making it look like the perfect toy for a young aristocratic girl. Once the paint was applied, Liz felt the creation was done; looking down with uncontrollable joy at what she had made.

(A/N: [Doll Maker] helps with all things related to doll making, including making its hair, painting it and making the doll clothes. For a craftsmanship skill it covers quite a lot of areas)

The doll was similar in size to the middle section of Liz's puppet body with a large red dress and a pure white face. Its face was not entirely smooth, a mouth and eyes carved into her to give the doll depth. The eyes were painted a wonderful, emerald green and Liz had given the doll small, but exaggeratedly red lips to match the large red spots painted onto her cheeks; with cascading blonde hair falling as if to frame the face.

It was truly the greatest and most beautiful doll Liz had ever seen, having never had the money to have such an item in her entire life.

Liz could not help but smile, a warmth spreading throughout her body as she continued to stare - her silence only interrupted by a set of system messages:

As Liz looked over the options made available to her she wondered which would be best, she truly enjoyed creating dolls so [Doll Artist] seemed to speak to her. It was so much more relaxing to sit down and carve wood into the shape she desired than mixing plants to create potions.

But at the same time she recognised the potential of both [Magic Doll] and [Toy Maker]. The first was likely to increase the power of her [Book of the Damned] skill with a new type of undead to summon, on the other hand Liz quite distinctly remembered an old horror movie where the monster made use of evil toys to steal away children; Krampus, she believed it was called. While [Magic Doll] was immediately powerful, [Toy Maker] seemed to hold the most potential - but [Doll Artist] almost called out to her, Liz having found great pleasure in the act of making the little wooden dolls.

Putting the evolution of [Doll Maker] to the back of her mind for a moment she looked at the second system window that had appeared in front of her:

The requirements of the skill were truly inspiring for Liz. She did not doubt the system for a moment, understanding the basis for how her headset worked.

The sound waves given off by the headset tricked her brain into lucid dreaming, her thoughts in the game then sending electrical signals to a registered game character in ELO's server that then changed the data of her character in Galdrash.

Because of this, most people knew that ELO was more than capable of looking at a player's mental state and memories.

So, to be told that she had found peace with her abandonment brought an amazing sense of relief to Liz; even though she had known it for a long time.

There was something about this system message that felt calming to Liz, clearing her mind and guiding the choice of her evolution for [Doll Maker].

Not everything is about battle. Liz thought, the tranquillity she felt comforting her. I've found something I'm passionate about - there is no harm in taking my time to enjoy it.

Liz's decision was made, evolving [Doll Maker] into [Doll Artist]. In an instant Liz's head was flooded with more and more ideas about how she could create new dolls; not just for aesthetic, but also purpose. The knowledge of battle-dolls was a great surprise to Liz, even if she was not at a level where she could make use of them.

It seems I can follow my passion while also boosting my fighting ability. Liz laughed internally, before getting a notice from one of her puppets. Using [Split Mind], more of Liz's focus was sent into the puppet in question; with that she gave the signal to Gloria who was looking at her.

"We have arrived at the boss room, master." Gloria spoke after realising that Liz was listening - even if the connection was fuzzy due to how deep the cavern was. Liz gave an indication she would be there soon and stood from where she was sitting.

Liz did not connect herself to her new doll, placing it into her inventory to protect it; the item being categorised as:

[Finely Crafted Doll (E+): A well-made doll crafted with much love, but lacking any magical properties]

Liz was not a fan of how low her creation was rated, but did not care as she headed deeper - opening her status to see how much her SOU and level had increased over what had apparently been 3 hours of work.

Liz smiled at seeing her SOU having reached more than 300 points, but was slightly disappointed that her level had only increased to 107 because of the XP penalty from using her puppets.

Still, the afk farming is probably faster than most people. Liz chuckled as she headed deeper into the cavern to face off against the boss.

---

"So this is where you've been hiding, Zeb." A voice came from behind a man sitting on a strange looking black throne.

The man on the throne clicked 3 of his tongues at the familiar sound. The man in the throne would be hard for anyone to describe as there was simply too much that changed too fast.

It seemed as though his body was made from thousands of different races; thousands of different races that would be replaced by a thousand new ones seconds later. One moment he would have the scales of a dragon, next a single behemoth's horn would grow and disappear - perhaps even a goblin's eye would appear every now and then. But there was one thing that didn't change, his overwhelming aura of power that never wavered.

"Lucifer." The man greeted bluntly, only for the familiar voice to sigh and for another man to step out from behind the throne - emerging from its shadows despite nothing having been there moments before.

"Zeb, we've known each other for what? 18 trillion years? We're basically siblings, you can call me Luci." On the surface Lucifer seemed irritated, but in reality he was taking much pleasure in mocking the shifting man on the throne.

Hundreds of eyes turned to Lucifer before turning away again, Lucifer not even flinching as the weight of the man's aura tried to crush him.

"You really should give up trying that Zeb, ya' know it'll never work." Lucifer mocked, a cruel fire burning within his eyes that caused Zeb to sweat ever so slightly.

"What do you want, Lucifer?" Zeb asked, already annoyed at his friend's antics.

"Nothing much." Lucifer responded flippantly, falling backwards but not hitting the ground; gravity simply not having the power to even touch him, "I just wanted to know why you were keeping such an interesting mortal from us?"

Lucifer's laugh and laid-back attitude did nothing to make Zeb comfortable, but he knew there was nothing he could do except tell the truth.

"No one likes sharing their toys." He responded, causing a moment of silence between the pair in the room. Only for the silence to be broken by the raucous laughter of Lucifer as he floated around; his laughter came to an end after a while and Zeb felt safe to ask a question, "Who else knows?"

Lucifer looked at him, his smile never faltering as his perfect white teeth were on full display.

"Well... The other 5 kings know, obviously. Expect a house call from Levi, you know how she gets." Lucifer explained, flicking through 5 of his fingers like a child. Zeb sighed internally as he knew exactly what Leviathan was like and how she reacted to the other kings taking an interest in mortals, "Other than them, there's also Gaia who seemed to have been checking in on her for a while now. And where there's one titan, 15 more will follow."

Lucifer laughed at his own stupid joke before continuing, growing more fingers on his hand to accommodate his counting.

"When the titans care, the Olympians have to take notice too. And if the Olympians care then the Aesir can’t sit idly by. But because the Aesir have taken an interest in it, the Jotun probably took notice too.”

“Essentially, Zebby, the stupid power struggle between the pantheons has brought a lot of attention onto the mortal. I don’t think any great gods care though.” Lucifer explained, acting as though the conflict between the groups he listed was nothing more than a petty fight between children. His snickering face soured moments later as he remembered the final group that seemed to have noticed Zeb’s mortal.

"Then there's Michael. He probably saw I was interested and decided to look for himself." Lucifer continued, sounding more annoyed at the mention of Michael's name, "I'd assume there are a couple more of his lot if Michael's decided to take a look. Other than that I'm not sure. Oh! There are a few mythics too, but they hardly matter."

Zeb nodded his head, feeling it start to hurt slightly despite that being responsible. From there, Lucifer continued chattering on as Zeb ignored him until he got bored and dissolved into shadows to disappear once again.

Zeb, Beelzebub, really hated Lucifer, but there was nothing he could do. Despite being the youngest of the 7 kings of sin, and not even truly being a devil, Lucifer and his [King of Pride] skill was far stronger than the other 6 king of sin skills.

Beelzebub remembered the day Lucifer had become a devil. He had previously been an angel, one of the most powerful as well: The [King of Ambition], until his skill became tainted and he sought to destroy his realm to claim the powers of the 7 kings of virtue.

He lost the battle and was exiled, falling into Beelzebub's dimension. Many devils had approached with the intention of stealing his soul - however, he was not as weak as they had expected. The devils knew an angelic king would not be weak, but Lucifer had been exiled after losing a war; they thought they would be able to take him - but as his white wings dyed black from his new devilish influence the fight ended with Lucifer's victory. And from there the balance of Hell shattered, a new hierarchy built upon its ruins with Lucifer at the very top.

Since then, the other 6 kings had hated him, but lacked the power to do anything as they were not strong enough.

With Lucifer gone, Beelzebub continued to sit in silence on his throne - occasionally peeking at the mortal who had defeated a fragment of Ouroboros - waiting for another few eternities to pass him by.