This ti around, I couldn't beget offspring even if I wanted. No womb and no way of getting an egg fertilized. The path for childbirth was blocked. But I wanted Aquilonia to last the trial of ti. For that, I needed to create sothing that could select a worthy successor.
Fortunately, I had just the right inspiration. On this inhospitable land, filled with savages, barbarians, and dangerous beasts, the Ruler of Aquilonia must be soone forged in adversity, their ttle tried and tested, with unparallel prowess in both body, mind, and spirit.
For that, I needed divine help. I gathered the priests of Yznera, Galbarar, Bit, and Queltphion. I explained to them my grand plan. How the prospective sovereigns would need to make offerings for the deities before having their worth asured. Yznera wasn't interested and her priest withdrew. The other three decided to grant their help, in exchange for a future favor to each one of them.
The Gods were self-serving. They entered no bargains that were disadvantageous to them without fierce coercion. In this case, they would gain faith with the increasing reputation of the trials and the sacrifices made by the contestants. But I didn't mind lending them a favor each.
The first monuntal task was to enchant the whole Royal Palace. The throne room, the throne itself, and the inner palace would only recognize either in any life present or future or soone chosen by the deities themselves, with a blessing from each one of them. I burned my health over and over, sacrificing gallons of blood and millions of HP to create the enchantnts and spells. Each wall, door, window, roof shingle, crenelation, even the gardens and underground vaults and dungeons of the palace were ticulously enchanted.
That made my proficiency soar.
Enchanter [310]
Structural Enchantnt: Allows you to enchant affixed structures with stronger enchantnts and at a reduced cost.Soul-binding: You can bind enchantnts to a specific soul or to souls matching specific criteria. Increase the difficulty to break the bond or bind to another target by (Proficiency/5).Increased Capacity: Your enchanted items get (Proficiency/10)% more points.Ignore Penalties: You ignore up to (Proficiency/10) points of penalties when attempting harder enchantnts.
This endeavor took three years and an Emperor's ransom worth of powdered materials. The gold dust and crushed gems required for the enchantnts were embedded in the very stones that ford the palace.
During this ti, Winter and Autumn beca ministers, helping rule the city. Stephano and Talysius made several expeditions to contact centaur herds and invite them to live in Cyria. Marlowe assisted and had the position of court mage.
Enantinos and Spring had their first children. A half-elf, half-centaur. The mix of their fairy blood and a naive and misguided System gave birth to a faun. The upper body of an elf and the hindquarters and legs of a horse. Not a goat. A horse. Both parents gained a Perk for bringing about a new species. After that royal birth, several other unions between elf and centaur brought about more faun children both in Aquilonia and Laconia. All of them were male.
I didn't work only on the palace. With the elves' help, we raised sturdy walls around the city and created a massive aqueduct to bring pure water from upriver into the city. I expected the river that flowed next to the city to beco polluted with sewage in a few decades.
I also went around the world, bringing people and experts to help the twin kingdoms. From Windere, Rainbow Lamias, beastkin, and dwarves. From Atlantis, rmaids took residence in the lake next to Cyria. The abyssal chasm where Arista made her Anglerfish farm was without a tender. The rmaids still fed the monstrous fish living in the depths, but they didn't harvest them. I dove there and harvested dozens of glowing organs. I also culled their population, allowing the survivor's space to thrive.
That allowed to finally do sothing I was holding back for a long ti. Leveling up my four other paths. I selected [Ultra-Rare] Paths of the martial persuasion. I wanted to keep my berserker Perks, so they were just stepping stones for the inevitable 5-path fusion that would allow to retain those Class Perks in my next life.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not ant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I didn't have enough Exp to complete the fusion and didn't want to. Fusing the five paths would dump all the Attribute bonuses from my Class into the main value, and [Surpasser] would devour those. I just grabbed the bonus Attribute points up to level sixty on each Path, 264 of them. Not enough to push the global cap, just as I liked.
I carefully spent them, ensuring I would get several Pinnacle Perks.
Pinnacle Of Dexterity: You never miss a step or fumble with your hands. Add half your dexterity to the Attribute damage bonus for your weapon attacks.Pinnacle of Endurance: You have 99% resistance against normal diseases and poisons, although you can still get drunk if you want. This resistance drops to 75% for magical poisons and diseases. You take twice as long to beco fatigued. You recover from exhaustion and regenerate HP 50% fasterPinnacle of Mind (very rare): Your thought process is twice as fast and precise. You recognize illusions for what they are. You recover Energy 50% faster.Pinnacle of Magic (very rare) All Energy costs are halved. No external effects can damage or drain your Energy.
Now the only Attribute whose Pinnacle was unknown to was Strength. Since I had now more rage ti than hours in the day, The numbers now considered it. I was always angry, never green.
Level 134
Strength: 50 119 (169) / 86 - Dexterity*: 70 74 (144) / 86 - Endurance*: 80 96 (176) / 86
Mind*: 70 46 (116) / 86 - Willpower: 50 60 (110) / 86 - Charisma: 80 18 (98) / 86
Magic*: 70 33 (103) / 86
Ego*: 80 32 (112) / 86 - Luck: 50 22 (72) / 86 - Soul: 50 22 (72) / 86
HP 206.271.375 (2.026.141 HP/s)
Energy 68.318.483 (79.493 E/min)
Two million HP per second. I could only laugh. I could go from almost dead to fully healthy in less than two minutes. I had the System add a little asterisk to the Attributes that reached the Pinnacle already. That would help know where to put my future points better.
Once the palace was completed, it was a relic in itself. It emulated my {Mana Wellspring} Perk, blanketing the city with an aura that enhanced MP and SP regeneration for our citizens. Unfortunately, it didn't double them, only granting a fifty-percent bonus. The excess regeneration was absorbed by the palace to empower itself. Gigantic crystals buried deep in the foundations, protected from digging creatures and Etheric travelers likewise could store dozens of millions of Energy. No siege spell would ever damage the palace. No rot or poison could take root in the food and beverages stored within.
A hidden garden in the basent illuminated by a [Sunrod] contained a fairy ring. Only I knew of its existence and it was too small to spawn fairies. Should I ever need, I could co into the palace in secret.
The city's population grew. A tribe of gnolls and a clan of orcs joined us. Though the route was long, so rchants dared cross the vast plains in search of my coin. I rewarded them greatly. A road connecting Cyria to the Abode of War was planned. A bridge connecting Cyria to the peninsula on the other side of the river too.
Our engineers and stone mages started on the road and I planned to create the greatest bridge this world had ever seen. I needed to enchant it, to protect it from the ravages of ti, monsters, and raiders.
Another two years went by. Cyria's population reached twenty thousand souls. With the bridge and anti-siege enchantnts in place along the walls, it was ti to work on the succession. I recalled the priests helping .
I explained my ideas to them.
"What I need is a Dungeon Core. It is an entity that helps control and regulate the monster spawns and the distribution of treasure in its territory, usually so underground catacombs."
"Hum," the half-goblin, half-harpy priest nodded. "Bit told that there are blue... tracks? Prints? for such a device in the System. It is expensive to create, however."
"Galbarar said the sa. A great sacrifice would be necessary to empower the Dungeon Core, along with a sentient soul to manage it."
"Any soul?" I asked.
"One with great willpower and ego in their lives. Only such a soul would be able to withstand the change from a sentient being to a sentient crystal," the ogre priest of Queltphion inford.
"Does any of the souls stored in Pandora fit the description?"
"No. They were already purified and stripped of their achievents in life. It must be the soul of soone before purification."
I thought about hunting down the lich and using him. But I didn't want an evil individual. "Do they have to keep their mories?"
"It's better not," the feathered greenskin inford. "My lord Bit is quite intrigued by these Dungeon Cores. He is willing to front the expense if you find a worthy soul."
Lich it is.
"I know the soul we're going to use. I must hunt him down first. Kel'Caldor, you are a threat to my kingdom and are on my hit list now."
Reviews
All reviews (0)