Necromancers, Demons & Kings Read online

  “I’m just wondering about the rest of our abilities. What are we going to do with them?”

  “Dunno. Guess we just have to log in and see.”

  “See what?” Alana asked, taking up a seat beside Jimmy. He leaned over and kissed her cheek and Bishop frowned. He turned away from their cute, new couple moment.

  The other night, he asked Dennis if he could call his ex-wife, just to check in and let her know he was working to turn things around. She had answered, but refused to speak to him, handing the phone to their son instead.

  Willy was thrilled to hear from him and Harrison spent a solid twenty minutes telling his son about what he was up to and the game he was playing in. His son loved the white wolf and that his daddy named it after him, if only so he could be with him in the game. Harrison teared up at that and asked him to put his mother back on the phone. She told him she couldn’t be with him anymore, that it would not work, but she didn’t leave him without hope. She promised if he was truly working on turning his life around, they would work out some sort of joint custody so he could see his son. She wasn’t that ruthless to not let him see Willy ever again.

  The pain of knowing he would probably never have his wife back cut deep. If he wasn’t in a facility that stopped him from having easy access to booze, he would probably have been trashed by now. However, he had a job to do still, and if she was willing to give him a chance to see his son, he was not going to mess it up.

  “Hey man, you alright?” Jimmy asked, nudging his arm.

  “Huh? Yeah, no I’m good. Just thinking about my kid. I got to talk to him last night,” he said, smiling. “Miss that little tyke.”

  “You going to get to see him again?” Alana asked.

  “Juliet promised we would work something out as long as I don’t mess up again.” After the incident with Paris, he told everyone all about his life, including his ex-wife and his son. “It’s over with her, though. She said she will always love me, but she can’t be with me again. I mean I get it, I do. Just hard.”

  Alana squeezed his arm in comfort. “Could be a lot worse.”

  “Yes it could be. Thanks, though, I’m alright.”

  “Well you better be because we’re getting close to the next dungeon. You think by tomorrow?”

  He nodded in agreement with Alana. “I have a feeling we’re going to spend most of today getting our new abilities in order and figuring out who’s going to do what now. I think planning on tomorrow is a good idea. And the wards. We still have to get those from the priests so we can hopefully get through the dungeon without anyone going gooey eyed on us.”

  The rest of their guild joined them for breakfast. They ate at record speed and were the first ones out the door of the cafeteria, wanting to get to the lab. Dennis was there to greet them and Harrison noticed his eyes dart down to his neck.

  “Good morning, Harrison. I see your neck has improved.”

  Harrison noticed it too. Yesterday after logging out, the redness on his neck was almost completely gone. Then this morning, it was as if it never happened at all. “Yeah, I think you might have been right about the whole mental thing.”

  “I am glad to hear it. You and your guild are close to choosing your talents, yes?”

  “I think so. Care to give me any insight on it before I log in?”

  Dennis smiled. “I’m afraid that is all up to you, but I trust you will find it quite satisfactory to what you are looking for. Good luck today, Harrison.”

  “Oh, did you get my notes yesterday, about the mine glitch?”

  “I did and we spent most of last night fixing it. I believe the portal will close now if you and your friends wish to try the quest again. It should give you that last little boost of XP to level.” He winked and strolled away, humming as he did so.

  “Hear that, Jimmy? We get to go back to the mines.”

  Jimmy groaned as Tyler and Harrison laughed at him. They geared up and lay back on their tables before Tyler tilted them. He saluted them and everyone logged back into the world of Samar.

  ***

  “Thank you for clearing out the mines for us,” the NPC Mayor said as Bishop turned in the quest.

  “Of course. You should have no problems with the gremlins or the imps anymore.” He held out his hand and, the moment he shook the Mayor’s, a dinging rang in his ears and he grinned as his level hit twenty. Several prompts appeared and he stepped back to let the others turn in the mine quest as he sifted through the messages.

  You have reached Level 20. Please see your Trainer to explore your new spec tree and Talent Tree.

  You have received Level 20 accomplishment. A crate has been added to your bags.

  You are now eligible for Dead Man’s Bay Instance, Dead Man’s Bay Dungeon: Doom of Helenex, and Fall of the Sirens Instance. You can also now use the Instance Finder. Bring up your quest tracker and select the top left tab.

  Bishop bounced with excitement and opened his bags to see the crate. He selected it and several items appeared in his bags as well as the prompts for what he got.

  You have received: 5 Demon Shards.

  You have received: Level 20 House Banner.

  You have received: Mount Appearance Green Skeleton.

  You have received: 5 Hope Tokens.

  You have received: 10 Demon Oils for items Level 20-30.

  “Sweet,” he murmured and tucked everything away in his bags. He would have to apply that appearance to his mount when he had a chance, but now all he wanted to do was get to the trainer here in Hillside.

  He watched as everyone else in his guild and the LongBeards leveled up to 20. The trainers for this town were near the monastery, so they hurried in that direction as a group. They talked briefly that morning about which route everyone was going to take with their abilities. Jimmy was switching to full DPS, Maverick was staying as a tank, and Bishop was staying BowMaster. Giles considered switching to BeastMaster, but decided to stick with Trapper. Benji wavered between following Jimmy’s path, or staying a healer just in case they weren’t paired up with the LongBeards at all times. It wasn’t a bad call, but Bishop left it up to him. They could always recruit another healer if need be. Arthur was also keeping his spec as Righteous Protector, while Sorgon was going to also change to full DPS since Maverick and Arthur were their go-to tanks. Shamus considered a full stealth build to make use of all his assassin attacks.

  “Everyone know what they’re going to do?” Bishop asked as they reached the Trainer Hall.

  “I think we’re good. See you all on the other side,” Jimmy said, saluting them as he, Benji and the other healers, made their way to their trainer. Maverick went off with the other warriors, and Bishop led the hunters towards their trainer near the back of the hall. The rest went to their various trainers. Bishop stepped up to the NPC and waited.

  “Welcome, Bishop. I see you have reached your next level of training. The time has come to explore your abilities. Please, meet me on the other side of this door,” the elf hunter said, motioning to the door behind him.

  Bishop winked at the others and stepped through the door into a room of total darkness.

  “Huh, hello?”

  He jumped when the far side of the room was illuminated by trails of lights, the first blue, the second yellow, and the third green. Each had a name at the top of the tree, but only one was clear for Bishop to see as he slowly moved towards it. BowMaster.

  “Neat,” he whispered, realizing he stared at a very large version of his spec tree. It showed the basic skills to the right, but the tree focused only on those skills he picked up since hitting level 10. He stared at each ability and the icon that represented it on his skill bar. There were numbers beside it; right now it read 0/0. Above each skill were two more branches, but they were not lit up, not yet.

  “Bishop,” the trainer said as he appeared beside the tree making Bishop flinch again. “This is your skill tree and the room dedicated to all things to do with your abilities.”

  “So I
can visit this anytime I want?” he asked.

  “Yes. From this moment forward, your basic skills will increase with your level. The ones from your spec, however, you can choose to up their Tier and morph them into something greater,” he explained. “To do so requires demon shards.”

  “I have five so far,” he mumbled, looking into his bag.

  “You will need fifty shards to fill each second tier and one hundred to fill each third tier.”

  “Oh, well then,” Bishop said laughing. “Don’t think I have that many. How do I get more demon shards?”

  “The Demon players you kill will drop them as well as from the dungeons and other instances you take part in,” the trainer told him. “You will now also be able to switch your spec, though to do so will take five hundred demon shards. If you wish to wait until level fifty, you will be able to choose a second spec, but remember, you can only ever have two specs. You will be able to switch between them after level fifty.”

  “Damn.” That sounded like a lot, but he was only level 20; so he had plenty of time to gather more shards and he sensed he would hit level 50 faster than he anticipated. “Can I see what each tier is right now so I can get an idea of what I want to do?”

  The hunter nodded and waved his hand towards the spec tree. “Simply select an ability and it will show you what it does. Moving forward, you will be able to have ten active skills instead of six. This does not include your Tracking, Trapping, Stances, Eagle Eye, or Fast Travel.”

  “That’ll help. Anything else I need to know?”

  “Yes, starting at level twenty, you will also be able to select a chosen talent. For every twenty levels gained, new talents will become available to you, but choose them wisely. These cannot be changed once selected, unless you change your spec. Then they will reset, but it will take extra demon shards to do so.”

  “Couldn’t make this easy, could you Dennis?” he sighed.

  “Dennis said you would say something along those lines and asked me to remind you that no good game ever made it easy.”

  Bishop blinked a few times then burst out laughing. “Of course he did. Is that all I need to know?”

  “You will find your talent tree here,” the trainer said and motioned to the left. Another large-scale version of a talent tree appeared, glowing in the dark room. “When you are ready to leave, please exit this room using the doorway behind you.”

  “Doorway?” Bishop glanced over his shoulder and found the glowing doorway that would lead him back to the Trainer Hall. “I think I’ve got everything covered.”

  “Very well. If you have need of my assistance, simply call for me and I will appear.”

  Bishop opened his mouth to thank the trainer, but he was already gone. “Thanks, I guess. Alright then, let’s start with the tiers and at least check what we got going on.” He stepped up to the tree and it shrunk down so he could reach up to the highest branch of abilities. “Now, what do we have at the bottom?”

  He used Fiery Arrow quite a lot and was curious to see what the Tier 2 and Tier 3 abilities would change. He touched the morph for Tier 2 and found two different options, each equally interesting. Tier 2 could change the Fiery Arrow to either one with increased shot range by ten yards, which would be good if he wanted to keep his distance in a fight. Or, he could choose to decrease the range and up the damage done by 200 hit points. That could be good, but that meant being closer to targets that he could then be in range of. If he wanted to keep his long range, he would have to go with the first option. He hovered his finger over the Tier 3 options and skimmed them. The first turned Fiery Arrow to an AOE that hit anything within a ten-yard radius, but the other option had a smaller range of damage and did bursts of damage instead, as long as it remained lit. Both took huge amounts of mana though.

  “Well, at least I have a while before I have to worry about that,” he mused. “Moving on then.”

  The Stealth Shot was one he didn’t particularly find appealing. He still wanted to read the Tier choices though and selected the Tier 2. The first would let him increase the range of the shot, much like with Fiery Arrow, or he could up his stealth time from twenty seconds to twenty-five. Neither was a bad option, but it was the Tier 3 choices that made him start to waver towards adding that skill to his arsenal of active abilities. He selected it and mouthed over the descriptions:

  Tier 3 Stealth Shot: Remain in stealth mode long enough to fire a second attack without detection, OR, player may choose to have target turn against next closest foe for five seconds.

  “Huh, that would come in handy. Wonder if it works on a boss.” He scratched his chin as he put those choices away for now and moved on to the next and currently favorite attack.

  Tier 2 Assassin’s Tear: Cooldown timer reduced to 1 minute, OR, reduce mana cost by 40%.

  Tier 3 Assassin’s Tear: Increase range to 20 yards, OR, if targets killed instantly, gives back 10% mana cost to player for each target destroyed.

  “Well damn, that’s OP as hell,” he murmured. In its present form, that shot cost nearly all the mana he had. But if he used those Tier options, he would definitely be able to use it more often without it depleting his mana and leaving him vulnerable. “Moving on.”

  The next was his Silent Arrow, which he found himself using more and more now that they were in the land of sirens and necromancers. He selected the Tier 2 options and read through them. The first would let him deal extra magic damage to the target, or he could choose to steal health. The Tier 3 options were a bit more interesting. He could choose to have mind control of the target, but he would lose the ability to control himself for 5 seconds. Or, he could choose to instill fear in the target and send them running away from him for five seconds. The mind control was certainly an intriguing choice; he considered challenging Jimmy to a duel just so he could see it in action and drive his friend a little nuts.

  The last two were shots he did not use too often but, since Stealth Shot had Tiers that made it much better, he was not going to pass up looking at what Stunning Blow or Penetrating Shot could turn into with enough demon shards.

  Tier 2 Stunning Blow: Increase stun time from 3 seconds to 5, OR, Increase shot range.

  Tier 3 Stunning Blow: Does 10% damage to target for 3 seconds, OR, AOE stun with no damage done to targets and lasts for 3 seconds.

  “Alright, maybe not so interesting,” Bishop said, though an AOE stun wouldn’t be a bad thing to have around just in case those gremlins or imps ever became a problem again. Not to mention the sirens. A Silent Arrow plus a Stunning Blow could be a deadly combination in that type of situation.

  The last attack, the Penetrating Shot, was a bit more appealing. The hit already reduced his target’s armor by 10%. The Tier 2 ability gave the shot the chance to either reduce the armor for double that amount, or place a drain on the armor, sort of like a bleed on the target’s health. If he managed to stack the shot, it would eventually render the armor useless. That would come in handy for attacking Demon players. The Tier 3 only had one option and it was a hefty one. The shot would reduce armor by 40%, but if the shot failed or was deflected, there was a blow back to Bishop’s armor in turn.

  “Ouch, I’m not sure I want to go with that one,” he said to himself. He looked down the tree again and found an option beside it to save those he wanted to remember for when the time came to add shards and morph his skills. To start with, he chose the Tier 2 for Fiery Arrow and the Tier 2 for Stealth Shot. Both would increase his firing range and they would be a good start when the time came. He needed forty-five more shards for the first one and hoped the next dungeon would be enough to start morphing and growing his abilities.

  He switched gears and turned to the rows of talents laid out before him. He could read them all, but only the level 20 options were lit up for him to choose from.

  These he would have to be a bit more careful with. The level 20 options dealt with his half-demon heritage, something none of his other abilities focused on yet. There were a few rac
ial skills that gave him increased speed and another that let him track demons better than his current tracking ability as a hunter, but that was it. These ranged from Demon Speed, to Demon Howl, and Demon Sight. He selected the last one and read about what it would do for him if chosen.

  Demon Sight: Increases range for non-spec abilities as well as giving a boost to the Eagle Eye ability. Lasts for ten seconds longer and goes for another twenty yards away from player.

  Bishop hadn’t used Eagle Eye since the beginning of the game, but if he took on this ability, having that one back might not be a bad thing. They were getting into extremely dangerous territory and being able to see what lay ahead could help them immensely. He moved down to the following two, just to see what they offered before he made his decisions.

  Demon Howl: Unleash a mighty roar that bolsters morale of you and your party by 30% of damage taken so far. Cooldown 1 minute.

  Demon Speed: Increased Movement speed by 40% when fleeing an enemy.

  “Well, I think the obvious choice is the first one,” he said to himself and selected Demon Sight again.

  He hit the option to the right to select this Talent and a prompt appeared asking if he was sure. He clicked yes and the ability appeared in his arsenal, replacing Eagle Eye. He didn’t want to look too far ahead, but while he was here, he figured he might as well get a feel for where he would like to take his hunter as far as damage in the future. Level 40 was a long way off, but then again, there were times it seemed levels flew by and he was already at the next stage in the game.

  The level 40 abilities focused on increasing the intensity of three of his shots. Fiery Arrow turned into Explosive Fiery Arrow and, if he added that to the morphing of said shot, that would increase damage. Certainly, that could become his new favorite arrow to use. Silent Fall increased the range of his Silent Arrow, interrupting multiple targets, also not a bad option, but Bishop leaned towards the Fiery Explosive Arrow. Last for the level 40 was the chance to have Stunning Fist to have a wide spectrum of hitting targets with a stun and doing damage at the same time. He bounced on his feet, rubbing his hands together with excitement. If he went with the first option, he would be heavy on fire damage. He knew, from glimpsing ahead at recipes for crafting higher level bows, several of them came with a buff that would increase damage of his fire abilities—if he ever managed to craft something above green level wich, so far, he had not. Now he couldn’t wait to reach level 40 so he could boost his skills immensely.