Dark Knight Rising

With my new clothes, I put my hood up just so nobody from that group that I'd killed earlier would recognize me. I was surprised I didn't have a red name-tag or something similar, as far as I could tell there were no repercussions for killing that party in the way that I had done.

If someone were to ask if I thought what I'd done was spiteful. Then yes. I was spiteful. Was I wrong? I took an attitude of 'the strong decide' in VR games. If I was the one who won, I was in the right. If the opposition won, they were in the right. For instances like yesterday, where no one was left standing, it was a gray area and I

felt bad for the gunner and mechanic in that party. If I had the opportunity I'd make I up to those two.

I rounded a graffiti-covered wall, tags covering tags, where you couldn't see the original colour of the wall anymore. This low down in the city, on ground floor, the skyscrapers bottom was made of this black material, indestructible in nature. People had still managed to make buildings as, incredibly the black sections of these towers were actually hollow. Everybody here had indestructible houses but their doors weren't so Criminals could still break them down.

As I rounded the corner I saw the building I was looking for, it had been built on the corner of one of these black buildings, with no patching up of the walls. The only thing that seemed to break these wall down was time. The building was being propped up by a thin column of black material which had remained. In the space which was open to the air was a forge, and within were several young men and women, Mechanics and Enchanters alike.

This whole area was sort of a treaty zone, where no one fought. They made weapons here, between grade 1 and 3 and an occasional grade 4 one. If anyone tried to start a fight here or worse, try to steal a weapon, not only would they be permanently banned from shopping here, nearby gangs would swarm them, pulverizing them immediately and with prejudice. All this to gain favor with the head Enchanter here, a Grade 5 Mage.

He was over a hundred and fifty years old, but still kicking and kept a Forge here, at the bottom of the city. He taught apprentices here but didn't produce weapons himself. Still weapons for level 5s or more importantly the people that produced weapons for level 5s were in high demand, and as one of only 11 such people in the whole city, the head enchanter of this Forge was offered great respect by most gangs in the City.

And so, because of this, when I approached the Forge with the intention of buying a weapon, a level one Criminal approached me, with his Mask perched on top of his head.

"What can I do for you today sir?" It was unnerving seeing someone with an emblem carved into his face (some gangs had elaborate entry requirements, ranging from murder to pickpocketing and in some extreme cases like the one before me, disfigurement).

"I'd like to buy a weapon."

"Class?"

"Mage." He held up his hand and tapped a couple things into a glowing tablet held in his other hand.

"Uh huh….Uh huh. Okay! And What department do you belong to sir?"

"Anti-life." I looked at his perplexed face before elaborating.

"They changed their name from Necromancy apparently and-" The Criminal cut me off with a wave of his hand.

"That's fine, we don't get many Necromancers, so we hadn't been notified of the change in naming yet. It's all the bloody bureaucrat's fault." His speech, in contrast to his disfigured appearance, was dignified and fine.

He looked at me and read out where I needed to go. I followed his directions and entered the Forge, passing people grunting over anvils, hammers in hand, a rite of passage for all Mechanics. I was directed to a female level 2 Enchanter, like a Mechanic, and with many of the same skills but with different focuses one in applying Intent which affected the surrounding mana and one which focused on improving a weapons core materials and the way it functioned physically.

She got straight down to business and skipped pleasantries.

"I have several options, choose one or leave." She had briefly turned away from her work to talk to me and returned back to it after finishing. I didn't blame her, I was just a level one after all. She seemed to be working on her Masterpiece. In order to level up, Mechanics and Enchanters had to make a piece above their level and it was the main reason why there had never been a Mechanic or Enchanter higher than level 5.

I browsed the options she'd thrown over to me on a holo-pad, while sitting down on a spare anvil, surrounded by burning, strong smells, persistent clanging and people arguing loudly with each other over tiny pieces of metal. There were only the options, each one being a different type of weapon for Necromancers, giving different styles of playing within my class.

Black Wand - Level 1

A piece of black wood harvested from a place with a large number of deaths occurring regularly, before being shaped and polished.

20% reduction in mana cost for offensive anti-life spells.

500 c

Black Staff - Level 1

A piece of black wood harvested from a place with a large number of deaths occurring regularly, before being shaped and polished. Topped with a black crystal from the core of a golem.

20% reduction in mana cost for raising undead.

1000 c

Black Glove - Level 1

Hair from corpses of fallen warriors, knitted into a glove.

20% reduction in mana cost for Raising Dark Knights.

500 c

I wanted to choose the staff, as it would make my life so much easier right now, allowing me to raise an army faster. However, I'd already decided to focus on Death Knights after seeing how effective they were in combat. Once Alek regained his former Stats, learned to use his new Skills better, and I got him some better equipment, he would be a force to be reckoned with. I was sure of that.

In order to get him some better equipment, I needed to level up the Dark Knight Skill, and in order to do that, I needed for Alek to be present in the Mortal Plane. It was going to be much easier to do that once I knew that summoning him was much cheaper. Currently, it cost me 300 mana to summon him, and he'd only been effective before because I'd had the Mechanic guarding me.

I chose the black glove, and without turning around, the Enchanter threw a small black bag at me before waving me away. I exited the shop without a word of thanks, it would only piss her off and if she made a mistake now, it would be more than I could afford if she blamed me.

I pulled open the string binding it together before shaking its contents open in my hand. It was a black wool glove, quite coarse in nature. I followed the blinking notification in my hud and branded it with my soul seal like I'd done with Alek.

If I could summon Alek as I was walking around, to level up the skill, I would, but I was afraid that people would see him and think I was starting something.

Instead, with only 1500 c left in my account, I left the city, with only one person trying to follow me the whole distance there. I didn't wear the glove until I got outside the city as it displayed my soul seal on its exterior lit up with a pale white flame, clearly labeling me as a Necromancer. I entered the stage one hunting grounds again, this time the one above ground, summoning Alek as I walked.

The above ground stage one hunting ground was constantly being attacked by soldiers. There was an inexhaustible supply of monsters however they were being overfarmed in this area. I took a step, leaving the black, mushy ground that surrounded the city and placing my feet firmly on the rocky ground which showed the border of the stage one hunting ground. Walking forward, I peered down through the cracks in the ground, looking at the pale blue liquid which lay far underground. Ahead of me the liquid bubbled up, squeezing out of the ground before the ground contracted, closing the crack.

The blue liquid sat there for a couple of seconds, before rapidly expanding to a blue blob, called a Slime with a single eye which rapidly focused on me. That eye was black, pearl looking with a shine that caught your eye. All monsters, including humans, had one, a Core. It allowed us to use Mana and it also powered the city and everything in it, and it was why they paid so much for them.

Without warning, the core turned and spun around rapidly turning the slime into a thin pillar which was my height. Alek rushed past me, a blur as his smoky form obscured his details, I could tell he was going all out, anxious to prove himself, and that he was worth all this effort.

Alek

Alek leaped into the air, bringing his arm (Master had left his blade behind) down on the creature. He could tell Master had spent money on him, from the aura that was radiating from the glove on his hand. He hated and loved that fact because his negative emotions towards his Master were being replaced by the soul seal and he found he could only think positively of him.

His fist hit the Slime, sinking in with no resistance. His non-existent eyebrows rose. Behind him, his Master called out.

"Slimes are highly resistant to physical damage and it doesn't have bones. You're on your own."

Alek clenched his fist inside the Slime, feeling its Core bounce off of his wrist, slamming into him in an attempt to dislodge his wrist. It didn't hurt, nothing did anymore, not since he'd gained this new body. He tried grabbing at it, wanting to smash it and destroy this creature but hesitated. His Master had an aim for coming out here, he probably wanted to capture this Core and sell it, like he had wanted to do when he came out hunting. Alek chose a different solution.

His Dark Slash was actually composed of his body, it just left a trail when he focused his Intent. Alek focused his mind, something he'd never been good at in the Institute, so he chose the life of a Warrior, but it was different now he was a Dark Knight. The energy he was moving wasn't the ambient mana in the air, but the energy in his body, which he'd already grown used to by training Dark Slash in the Underworld, Levelling it up to Level 3 so it had a wider reach and used half the energy it had used before.

The energy in his fist, no the energy which was his fist, he ordered to burst. It worked well, a little too well as up to his shoulder disappeared as its black smoke was sucked in towards the slime. Unflustered Alek used his still working arm and picked up the shrivelled up black slime, now barely the size of his fist as before it was the size of his chest, and slammed it repeatedly on the ground, until the slime seemed to give up and relinquish its hold on its core, blue liquid dripping off the black marble in his fist as it hid underground once more. I presented the core to Master on one knee, holding it aloft proudly. Master responded with words of kindness.

"Well done Alek, you managed to kill a Slime, possibly the weakest monster in the game."

'Dark Knight has gained the Skill - Dark Burst'

'Dark Knight Skill Leveled up to Level 2 '