Roa The City of Criminals Part 02: Xaviin's Fortress!!

Slowly making their way toward Xaviin's fortress at the center of Roa, Connor started to pick a faint rot smell.

Oh good, this smells horrible!

{Notice: The smell is identified as rotten flesh, can't discern if the source is an animal or human.}

Should I cover my nose? is it okay to breathe this?

{Notice: Constant activation of [Detoxification Magic] can act as a protection by sterilizing the air you breathe!}

Won't this strain my mana pool?

{Notice: With how high your mp regeneration is you can afford activation on two targets!

The details:

Total MP regeneration: 125MP/min

Total MP consumption: 117MP/min

Total SP regeneration: 57SP/min

Total SP consumption: 45SP/min

[Enchanting Magic: Reinforced Body]: 39MP/min

[Martial Arts: Body Control]: 26SP/min

[Draconic senses: enchanted perception] 7SP/min + 8MP/min

[Draconic Physic: Draconic Vigor] 8SP/min+ 7MP/min

[Draconic Stomach: Iron Stomach] 5MP/min

[Pain Resistance: Lessened Pain] 3SP/min

[Combined Magic: Mana Regeneration] Return 45MP/min

[Combined Magic: Active Regeneration] 12MP/min

[Combined Magic: Monke's Stick] 12MP/min

[Ariel: Full assistance] 30 MP/min

Being Alive: 1SP/min

Mana Core: 4MP/min}

This is quite complicated for my monke brain, I consume stamina by just being alive?

{Notice: Your metabolism requires energy to function, you know heating your body, breathing, heartbeat, and your other organs! they need the energy to function!

Your mana core is an organ now, but instead of consuming stamina, it needs mana!}

Oh, I forgot about that! I guess I need to let you handle the complicated stuff. Activate the detoxification magic on me and Vanessa.

Connor sneaked a touch at Vanessa's shoulder, she realized but didn't ask why.

{Notice: That will be 6MP/min turning your balance into

Total MP regeneration: 125MP/min

Total MP consumption: 123MP/min

Balance +2MP/min}

Ok, you don't need to report this to me every time, tell me when it pushes the balance into the negative or when it stops my np regeneration! but isn't it low? just two MP per min?

{Notice: The regeneration rate double when you're asleep, this give you a total of 1920 MP per 8 hours of sleep! On top of that, you're not fighting all the time so you still regenerate, you can refill your MP in less than a day!}

"Hey, Vanessa how long does it usually takes you to regenerate your MP?" Connor asked.

Vanessa was puzzled by the question, it seemed out of the place.

"Why do you ask? is it related to why you touched me earlier? pervert!"

Connor made an 'I don't know what you're talking about ' face! two question marks on top of his head.

"No the air here smelled weird, like the scent of rotten flesh! So I used detoxification to clean the air we both are breathing!"

Vanessa was clearly concerned.

"You shouldn't do that, you need every bit of MP when we get in Xaviin's fortress!"

"That won't be a problem! My passive MP regeneration can offset it!"

The moment she heard that Vanessa stopped and pinched her forehead.

"hold up, It takes me two to three days to regenerate my MP pool! how long it takes you?"

Vanessa asked with anticipation.

"Less than a day with how much skills and Magic I have active! If I were to deactivate them it will take about half an hour!"

Putting her hand on Connor's shoulder Vanessa smiled.

"Don't tell anyone about this! Your MP regeneration is too fast, some might want to experiment on you, Xaviin included!"

Connor made a mental note of keeping his power a secret from now on, I don't want to be a lab monke.

As they approached the fortress, the smell of rotten flesh become stronger, The aura of death surrounded the place.

"Xaviin is a necromancer lich, its normal that his base is filled with undead and death!" Vanessa said.

Two Zombies were guarding the fortress gate, spears in hand.

As Connor and Vanessa approached they were stopped, with a rough shaking voice the zombie asked.

"Vanessa, declared dead, No pass?"

"Call a wight who can speak to us, I'm not dead and the mission succeeded!"

"No pass!" The zombie replied.

Vanessa sighed, taking a deep long breath.

"Stupid, dumb puppets!"

With one swift slash, Vanessa cut both Zombies down. Connor was surprised as he didn't expect that.

"What are you doing!?" Connor yelled in a quiet voice.

She replied.

"Zombies are lower tire undead who lacks intelligence, we wound get anywhere talking to them! this is the only way to get the attention of the wights inside!"

"Zombie can't be smart?"

"A zombie that is smart is called a wight! a regular zombie is like a stupid golem that only carries a simple order given to it by the necromancer!"

Just as they were talking a voice yelled at them from the top of the wall.

"Don't move or I will burn you! Lord Xaviin has prohibited you low life from entering the fortress!"

Looking upward, Vanessa replied to him.

"Did your eyes rot away? It's me, Vanessa, I finished the mission and I came to submit the body!"

The person on top of the wall was surprised, looking down at Vanessa.

"That figure and voice, it's true! But lord Xaviin said you died at the hero's hand!"

"To be precise his death knight died not me! we managed to take the hero down afterward but he has already cut communication with me!" Vanessa threw her Communication/appraisal orb at the man.

"This is definitely Vanessa's orb! Open the gate!!"

As he yelled, the enormous gate opened with a crackling sound, warm humid air washed over Connor and Vanessa.

The man intercepted them as they entered.

"The dark elf stays outside! Only Vanessa gets in!"

As he heard that Connor Approached the man, He could see him clearly from the start, rotten flesh that is no different from that of a zombie, this man is a weight.

Standing in his face, Connor's dark elf form us dwarfing the wight, a horrifying aura of shadows is emitting from Connor.

"Intimidation won't work on me! get out of the fortress alive or dead your choice!" The wight replied.

Vanessa had a bad feeling, if she don't do anything quick Connor will snap.

"Listen the two of us killed the hero after sacrificing a lot, this man's entire party was killed at least let him get in too! Xaviin would be interested in a man able to face the hero!"

After thinking for a moment, the wight turned a started walking.

"Understood, follow me! I don't want lord Xaviin to lose a potentially strong ally!"

The fortress was made of stone slabs, with almost no light if it wasn't for Connor's [Draconic senses] he wouldn't see anything!

They walked until they entered what seemed like a laboratory, Glass tubes filled with green water and corpses decorated the entire lab. It looked like the love child of a surgery room and a witch hut.

in the middle of the room is an orb similar to Vanessa's. The wight touched said orb and it started to glow, projecting the vision of a skeleton!

-" What is happening here, Why is Vanessa still alive?"-

"Lord Xaviin, It seems like she has completed her task!" The wight said.

Vanessa pushed the wight away.

"Get your ass back here, as fast as you can!" Vanessa yelled at Xaviin.

"How dare you talk to Lord Xaviin like that!" The wight tried to attack Vanessa but Connor swiftly caught him by the neck!

"I don't even care if you abandoned me the moment you death knight died, just get back here and finish the hero off!!!" Vanessa yelled again.

-" Care to explain what happened?"- Xaviin asked.

Vanessa quickly summarised what happened (The fake story of her and the dark elf killing the hero after the death knight died)

Vanessa dropped the hero corpse from her shadow pocket on the ground.

"Can you feel this? there is still some magic puling in his corpse, there is a great chance that he might resurrect at any moment! Come back here and finish him!" Vanessa said.

-" My order was to burn the corpse, why didn't you do that?"-

"We tried but we weren't able to do that, show him!" Vanessa signaled to Connor.

"[I call thee, a fire that burns everything, Fire Magic: Blaze]"

Connor used fire magic and tried to burn the hero's corpse but failed, of course, this was thanks to Ariel's tempering with the magic.

"See!? You are more knowledgeable about souls and death so I suggest you handle killing him completely! I don't know what are you doing now but it can't be more important than the best time to kill the hero!"

-" Very well, I shall be there as soon as I can, It will take me about two days so keep guarding the corpse until I arrive!"-

The call ended, The orb light faded.

"You heard him! Gather all the capable men you have in the fortress, underestimating the hero is what killed my comrades!" Connor said to the wight.

The wight noded, Xaviin has said to guard the hero and he will spare no expense doing so.

The wight exited the room quietly to bring all the fortress capable fighters, just a few minutes he returned with a bunch of wights and a single Ogre Zombie.

17 wights mages in total and an Ogre Zombie fighter.

As he looked at them Ariel started analyzing the situation.

Soon she gave her report.

{Notice: All the undead present are red, the ogre zombie is purple level.

Wights stats:

-----------------------------------------

Name: N/A

Race: Human wight(Undead) Age: N/A

Class: Mage

Health: 215

Mana: 458

Stamina: N/A

Skills

[Fire Magic: Level 18], [Wind Magic: 15], [Staff Arts: 7]

Weakness:

Fire Magic, Holy Magic, bludgeoning damage, phylactery(A small crystal-like object located in the wight's chest)

Resistance:

Necrotic Magic.

Immunity:

The wight uses Mana instead of stamina so they are immune to physical exhaustion.

Immune to these stat effects: Sleep, Deafened, Blinded, Paralyzed, Poisoned.

-------------------------------------------

The wights have almost the same stats except they have different skills

The skills are:

[Earth Magic], [Charm Magic], [Poison Magic], [Necrotic Magic], [Lightning Magic], [Fire Magic], [Wind Magic], [Acid Magic]

-------------------------------------------

Name: N/A

Race: Ogre wight(Undead) Age: N/A

Class: Fighter

Health: 478

Mana: 375

Stamina: N/A

Skills

[Grapler: Level 21], [Club Arts: 19], [Sword Arts: 17]

Weakness:

Fire Magic, Holy Magic, bludgeoning damage, phylactery(A small cristal like object located in the Wight's chest)

Resistance:

Necrotic Magic.

Immunity:

The wight uses Mana instead of stamina so they are immune to physical exhaustion.

Immune to these stat effects: Sleep, Deafened, Blinded, Paralyzed, Poisoned.

-----------------------------------------------

}

After Connor saw these stats he thought nothing of them, even if Ariel said they were red danger or purple, they still can be taken down with a surprise attack, especially with Connor's high damage spells.

Casually approaching the Zombie Ogre, Connor asked him a fairly weird question.

"You look well built, care to tell me your training regime?"

Being taken aback by Connor's question the ogre still replied.

"I don't train anymore since I become an undead but, I still have vague memories of the days I was Alive, so I don't know if I can answer your questions!"

Connor smiled, as he showed appreciation.

"Thank you, please tell me anything you remember, I'll even pay you!"

The ogre started telling what he remembers in life, hunting, swinging his sword, fighting in wars…

The Ogre who was careful slowly dropped his guard toward Connor as they happily chatted.

In a moment, Connor started complaining that no matter how he trained he can't seem to get enough strength in his chest muscles. It makes climbing hard he said.

The ogre was tempted to boast about his strength so he took his armor off, just to show Connor what kind of pectoralis muscles he has.

And not gonna lie, the Ogre was jacked.

Vanessa who was sitting alongside the wights started sweating as she heard Connor talk with the ogre. That ogre is dead she thought.

Slowly, Connor touched the ogre chest, admiring his muscles.

{Notice: Aiming at the phylactery, release at will!}

"I see, they are quite bui…} [Earth Magic: Earth spikes]

The defenseless ogre body was shredded into pieces as the spikes lunched from Connor's hand at point-blank.

The loud blast sound scared the sh*t out of the wight mages, what just happened? most of them were caught off guard.

[Claw Arts: Slash] With a simple and quick skill activation, Vanessa took down one of the Wight mages.

[Fire burn my enemies, Fire Magic: Firebolt] one of the wights aimed his magic at Vanessa, from less than three meters away, dodging is usually impossible with her speed… but!

[Shadow Magic: Shadow step] Vanessa's body dispersed into the darkness and she appeared behind the wight, [Claw Arts: Slash] killing him instantly.

Three wights rushed at Connor with their magic.

[From life to death, take his life, Necrotic Magic: Necrotic gase]

[Dissolve flesh and bone, Acid Magic: Acid splash]

[Weakend and kill my enemies, Poison Magic: Poison bolt]

With this magic approaching him, Connor didn't even have time to lift his hand.

But doesn't need to!!! Ariel is the one doing the calculation, he just needs to activate it.

Even Vanessa thought he needed to speak since he was yelling his spells name, he was just doing it for fun.

Connor has already given Ariel permission to use both wind and earth Magic!!

{Notice: All magic detected has liquid or gas form. blasting them away with the wind [Wind Magic: Shockwave]}

Connor opened his mouth and an enormous shock wave washed their magic.

"[Earth Magic: Stone spike]" Connor screamed his magic as he kicked the ground, three spikes appeared from it and pined the three wights to the wall.

"[Fire Magic: Blaze]" Burning them to ashes before they could counter.

Vanessa just slashed another wight, this leaves another twelves wight to deal with!

A wight tried to exit the room to bring reinforcement, just to see a huge stone wall blocking the door.

"What the hell!!!" He said before getting skewered by earth magic.

{Notice: I will let nobody leave!}

Nice! Good job Ariel!!

11 left.

Ariel used earth magic immediately to seal the communication orb in a stone so wights can't use it to call Xaviin.

From his inventory, Connor equipped his staff. ready for any melee fight!

[Fire burn them! Fire Magic: Fire rage]

[Melt away! Acid Magic: Acid gas]

[Roar strongly and slice! Wind Magic: Wind blade]

[Bring death! Necrotic Magic: Necrotic blast]

[I order you to stop! Charm Magic: Halt]

[Break their bones! Earth Magic: Stone bolt]

[Burn to ashes! Fire Magic: Flame wave]

…

…

The wight stimulatingly aimed their magic at Connor and Vanessa, in the hope to take them in one swipe.

[Teleportaion Magic: Mana step] Connor instantly teleported toward Vanessa. [Earth Magic: Earth shell] He covered himself and Vanessa with a sphere of solid stone.

The magic hit its mark causing a loud booming noise.

As the dust started to settle, the wights keet their sight at the stone sphere awaiting Connor and Vanessa to emerge at any moment. What they didn't know is that both Connor and Vanessa can use short-range teleportation.

[Teleportaion Magic: Mana step], [Fire Magic: Blast] Connor teleported into the middle of the wights and busted in flames, have of the wights were killed in the permit Meiexplosion, and some had good enough reflex to jump away.

[Shadow Magic: Shadow step]. [Claw Arts: Quadruple slash] Vanessa took the chance to finish four of the wights that dodged Connor's explosion.

Only two wights left.

"Vanessa!!! what is the meaning of this!?" one of the wights screamed!

A hand gently touched the wight back.

"You caused the death of someone dear to me!" [Fire Magic: Incinerate]

Connor erased the wight from existence.

The wight who was standing beside jumped away and Connor chased him, swinging his Quarterstaff Connor aimed at the wight torso.

"Dare challenge me to a staff fight!" [Staff Arts: Deflection], [Wind Magic: Shock absorbtion]

The last wight standing had some skills, no wonder he survived.

But! Connor Quarterstaff isn't normal, the massive weight behind it can't be stoped normally!

The wight staff broke into pieces at the moment of the impact, he was ready to block a staff that wight about 3 Kg but not 2000 Kg. his body was smashed into the wall!

The fight ended.

"We need to get out quick! The other should have heard the fight!" Vanessa said.

"No need to rush! I already sealed the room with sound and dark magic!" Connor declared

"I guess I should expect that from you!"

"Not at all, I did forgot and Ariel was the one to suggest doing it! now let destroy anything here that looks weird and takes the valuable items! Time to gather the loot!!"

"You know, you sounded like a thief just now!" Vanessa commented.

"What do you mean? This was a mid-boss fight! there better be some loot here!"

After a few minutes, Connor has filled his inventory with anything that Ariel deemed Valuable and he destroyed anything else.

"Let get out then!" Vanessa said.

"Wait a minute! Ariel has a nasty idea!"

Vanessa looked at Connor as he approached the most intact wight corpse.

He extended his hand.

"Ariel do your thing!"

Just a moment later the wight stood up, Vanessa draw her claws in response.

"Don't worry! Ariel controlling him! she used earth magic to fill the corpse with stones and used it to move, sound magic to mimic the wight voice, and light magic to add the faint glow in his eyes!"

Vanessa jaw dropped,

"Another abnormal magic!" she exclaimed.

"No, it's just a normal combined magic, Alas it needs precise control so I guess only Ariel can do it though!" Connor replied.

"Doesn't it looks weird?" Vanessa asked.

"Of course! I told controlling it is hard so a normal human can tell that something is off about it but…"

"A stupid zombie or a skeleton can't!!!" she realized.

"Bingo! this bad boy is going to order all the outside guards to never enter the room, and stand guard forever!"

They approached the door and Connor displed the sound and light-proofing magic.

"Guards! move away from the door!" Ariel ordered in the wight voice. so they can't see inside the room.

Connor could hear the steps of the zombies move away.

They slowly opened the door, and walked out followed by the wight, and closed the door.

"Guards! come here!" The zombies headed the order and approached the wight.

"As per lord Xaviin orders! I and the rest of the wight are going to stay inside this room until He returns! escort those two to the outside and then close the entire fortress and don't allow entry to anyone! After I enter this room everyone is forbidden from opening the door, only lord Xaviin can!" Ariel issued a lot of orders but the zombies nodded in approval.

As the Zombies started escorting Connor and Vanessa out, the wight entered the room and closed the door behind him, he then fell apart. Forever sealed, in a room that no one will open in a long time.

Now Xaviin has no way of contacting his fortress since all the intelligent undead were killed!

Connor and Vanessa walked back to the Shadow hand brothel.

The moment they entered, Alema jumped at them, this time she hugged Vanessa instead of Connor.

"You're too clingy! can you give me some space!" Vanessa growled.

"No way! how did your mission go? did you fail?" Alema asked while still stuck on Vanessa.

"Can you take her away from me?" Vanessa said and Connor dragged Alema away from her.

"Let get into the room, we can talk there!" As Vanessa said they returned to the office room, Connor proved the room and then told Alema what happened.

"Heee!? Seventeen wights and an ogre zombie! and you just massacred them all? with just the two of you! and on top of that you played that nasty prank on the whole fortress?!" Alema can't believe what she heard.

"Even I didn't believe we Could do it but Connor proved me wrong! And we didn't even take Mei with us!" Vanessa said.

"Ah!" Alema looked as if she remembered something important!

"While you away squirrel-chan fell asleep! we weren't able to wake her up!! she is sleeping there in the corner!" Alema said.

As Connor looked, he saw Mei sleeping in what looked like a child's bed.

Ariel, what is Mei's condition?

{Notice: She is about to evolve again!"

She gained a lot of experience from the hulking beetles and cockroaches, and now since she is your tamed monster she gained some experience from when you were fighting the wights!

-------------------------------

Name Mei. Level: 20

Social stats: hero pet.

Class: Holy beast. Race: brown squirrel

Titles: Servant of the hero, Nutcracker, Steel-willed one, Defender, Nature friend.

Health: 275/275.

Mana: 654/654.

Stamina: 256/256.

Strength: 6 , Dexterity: 28 , Speed: 30 , Magic: 28 , Luck: 12

Constitution: 18 , Wisdom: 25 , intelligence: 20 , charisma: 16 , Will: 30

Skills:

[Climbing: Level 19], [Nuts collector: Level 10], [Claws Arts: Level 9]

[Pain resistance: Level 11], [Druidic Magic: Level 8]

Condition:

Ready to evolve!

-------------------------------

}

Bruh! WTF are those stats? isn't she leveling too much and too fast?

{Notice: You gain increased experience, therefore those who share it with you also get more! This means Alice and Mei! she also is a Holy Beast! the same as the Holy maiden!

Now hurry and give her permission to Evolve!!!

}

I give Mei permission to evolve!

{Notice: Mei evolution started! it will take about three hours!}

"Alema, don't worry just Cover her! she will wake up soon!" Connor said.

"What is it? is she just tired?" Vanessa asked.

"No, she is evolving!" Connor said with a straight face.

Vanessa stood up and Alema dropped the blanket.

"You mean a monster evolving?" Alema asked.

"Yeah?" Connor replied.

"Listen, monsters evolve, this is something that everyone knows! but evolving isn't a simple this that happens all the time! an animal need to be subjected to a massive amount of mana, if they survive they turn into a monster. now when this monster kills and eats it starts to accumulate strength until it evolves again into a higher tire monster. A normal wolf evolves into a dire wolf, then to a horned wolf, elemental wolf, and so on until it reaches the final stage of evolution and becomes a Fenrir!} Vanessa explained.

"She means you need to be happier about it! this is a rare occasion!" Alema said.

"I was happy when she evolved the first time like two days ago! I just thought that she will keep evolving often!" They stared dumbfounded at Connor as he spoke.

"She evolved two days ago!?" They both screamed.

"Yeah!" Connor answered.

"Does she have anything special? like a skill or a class? even a title?" Vanessa asked.

"Her class is a Holy Beast!" Vanessa sat down as she heard this.

"let me tell you something, Beast people, are a race that worships a holy beast! sadly their holy beast died a few years ago and now they are awaiting the birth of the new holy beast!

That dog man that was with us, remember the one you killed as she was taking a sh*t? that was a beast-man and he was searching for the holy beast!"

"Oh! I guess it can't be helped! let keep this under wrap for now!" Alema said.

"Yeah! Also, Mei is his tamed monster, she can't leave him just to stay in a shrine for the rest of her life! even though they will pay an enormous amount of money just to get her!"

Another set of problem arises, but Connor still need to focus, Xaviin is Comming in two days and he will spare no effort to kill Connor.

"We will talk about this after we deal with Xaviin and get revenge for Lydia! Alema, you take care of selling the loot! I and Vanessa are gonna train for when Xaviin comes!"