Brighter Futures

The King sat back down in his throne and thought upon the visions he was showed.

"Is this true Grand Wizard Tython" the Kings voice was noble, but all in the room could hear the smallest amount of fear in his voice. Granted no one else was able to speak from the fear of the future.

"Yes your majesty. It appears the End Times are upon us. Though I do not know when. It could be a year from now or it can be several hundred years from now. I unfortunately am in able to tell you when it will happen exactly."

The King placed a fist against his chin to think.

"And is it true that the person at the end with that grey army was a Vampire? The one that saved my daughter?"

"Yes your majesty. It was."

Some members in the room gasps while other murmured about this. Even the Princess was taken about. She felt appalled by that. A Vampire?! Saves her?! She's been training with both magic and weapons since she was a child. She was a level 50 Spellblade!

"Do you believe that this Vampire, is some how good?"

"That. I'm unsure of your majesty. As you know Vampires are naturally evil beings that want power and destruction of all living beings. I have no idea why a Vampire would give up such an ambition to coexist with mortals. It goes against their very nature."

The King turned to his steward.

"Vithron. Please prepare a larger stock pile of food and other goods the kingdom will need under a siege. And inform my generals to meet in the war room in an hour."

He turned back to face his subjects.

"You have all heard the Grand Wizard. We must prepare for the worst. Do not let the people know about this. It will only cause unneeded panic and riots. We will leave todays discussion for another day. Dismissed."

All the Nobles left in a hurry. The a war looming over they must prepare their own lands and armies to defend their boarders.

The only ones left in the Throne room were the Royal family, the Grand Wizard, the guards and someone else that showed themselves after the Nobles left. Finlas, an elf in black clothing and armor. He was another advisor to the King, but also the Spymaster of the kingdom.

"Tython" The King was speaking to the Grand Wizard informally. Showing they were good friends.

"Is it possible to find this Vampire? Learn who they are."

"I believe so Aegnor. It will be difficult but possible. With Finlas skills we should find him."

"We will your highness" Finlas spoke with a cold emotionless voice. "There are only 6 Vampire Lord last recorded. The Vanhiems rule over their lands to the north. They hunt some of the deadliest monsters to turn into their undead servants. Though the Ironchipped Mountains that block them from the rest of the Mortal Empires are protected by the Headhunter Dwarves. They enjoy the fight of tough opponents. Then there's Lord Drakof. He and his Blood Knight are waging a war on the Riders of Rodan, lead by King Rodan the Ninth. Then there is Lord Yarmi and Lord Jarmi. Two undead pirate lords scouring the ocean depths for abominations and other undead to wield their gunpowdered weapon. In the Hissing Wastes lives Lord Baloryx. He has an undead dragon at his command and even has a cult of necromancers. Though many haven't heard from him I'm nearly 200 years. And the last known Vampire Lord is Lord Karik. A powerful spellcaster who made his home in the heart of the Human alliance. Roughly 600 years ago, when you took the throne, the Human Alliance was known as the Golden Empire. Following the teachings of their God Picus. They created an inquisition, before the civil war, to slay Lord Karik. I believe they were successful as his Castle Morn hasn't had any activity in since."

The King thought for a moment before turning to Tython.

"Do you have an recommendations on where to start? Non of these Vampire Lords sound like they would help any mortals."

"We could reach out to the other nations and ask if they have noticed any monsters acting strangely. Or I can privately ask the other Grand Wizards if they can use divination magic to find any clues. The Grand Mage Tournament is going to start a few months from now and we will all meet there."

"Yes do that. I don't want other nations to find this Vampire and kill them. If they truly will save us we need them alive and under our control. Finlas. I want you to send spies you trust to investigate all the Vampire Lord. Even if they are presumed dead. Scout their lands. Leave no stone unturned."

"Yes your majesty" Finlas said with a bow. As he rose he turned into a puff of smoke vanishing to start his majesties orders.

__________

Back at the castle the sun was just started to set. Most of the goblins were going to sleep besides Toma, Gega and Kipi. These three decided to take intermediate naps to stay awake more often. They would take 3 hour naps every 6 hours, unless they needed to stay up longer.

Lovo was just wake up as well. He technically didn't need to sleep but after all the fighting, crafting and summoning he did he was mentally exhausted. He checked on lord Karik, but he still seemed to be in his mental thought coma. He originally wanted to ask him questions about the world, but that went out the window. So he figured he would help build a better relationship with the goblins.

He left the interior of the castle and found the 3 pillars of the goblin tribe sitting around a camp fire eating breakfast. It was mainly grilled veggies and Wolfaconda meat.

"Lord Lovo!" The three jumped up and bowed before him.

Lovo started to turn red from embarrassment.

"Please please don't have to do that. We are friends here."

The three awkwardly went back to eating their food.

"Is there anything we can help you with Lord Lovo" Gega asked?

"Acutely yes there is. I need to train a skill I have and was going to offer to make you three weapons and possibly armor and even for your hunters as well."

Kipi jumped up with excitement.

"Are you serious Lord Lovo! I would very much like a sword you have! That looked dangerous and amazing to wield!"

Lovo smiled "Of course! I'll reshape mine and give it to Toma and then reshape Julkis to give to you." He turned to face Gega "and would you like a spear?"

She just smiled and nodded.

"Follow me" Lovo said with a wave of his hand as he turned around.

The theee goblins followed him into his castle. None of the Forest Goblins entered the castle. Both as a sign of respect and out of fear that would offend Lord Lovo.

They were amazed at the size of the castle. Even for as run down as it was it was obviously well built. Though the three started to get a little worried when they noticed where they were heading. The dungeon. Only Kipi and Gega had weapons and they held them tightly. Their knuckles almost turned from green to white. As they entered they saw that the dungeon was just littered with bones!

Did we fall for a trap? Has he been 'saving' monsters only to bring them back here to kill easier? They let their mind wonder. Horror of what Lord Lovo, the Vampire, would do to them.

Lovo chuckled "sorry about the mess. These are the bones from the beast and before I was here."

"I'll use these bones to make weapons for you. Toma I'll start with yours."

Lovo took out his sword he had strapped to his hip and began to work. He also mentally ordered Julki to come down with the rest of his skeletons weapons. He planned to reforge them all.

The three goblins watched in amazement as Lovo just took his hand and like magic reshaped the bones into weapons. Well it was magic, just necrotic magic. With his Bone Manipulation Craft skill a higher level he began to see the impurities of bones.

[ Serrated Bone Sword: 30% impurities]

'Huh. This is new. Wonder if it's based off the age of the bone and what creatures bone I'm using.'

He picked up a Wolfaconda's bone and examined it.

[Wolfaconda Bone: 20% impurities]

Then he picked up the Alphas bone.

[Wolfaconda Alpha Bone: 15% impurities]

Lovo began examining every bone he had. He noticed all the beast bones had between a 20-40% impurities, the Alpha bones had between 15-25% impurities and the human bones had an average of 70-90% impurities.

He figured that the impurities change based on the monster bones he is using, the strength of the monster and the age. If these bones have been sitting here for centuries Lovo was surprised they weren't turned to dust yet.

"I have an idea" he said with a toothy grin.