Undying Plague Lord

[Assimilating: Lich Lord Soulfire]

[+1000XP]

[Assimilating: Lich Lord Ivory]

[+1000XP]

[Assimilating: Ancestral Troll Essence]

[+1000XP]

[Infected: Undying Plague Lord]

[+10000XP]

[You have Blood Bound…]

A long list of notifications started appearing up the middle of my field of view paired with some new buffs and shifts in my body's makeup. The eyes of the previous lich lord alone brought various benefits, such as increasing my own regeneration rates similar to how they functioned for the lich himself. They also made my body a maintain an ever so slight gaseous state where my form was now '-3% solid' and reduces all physical damage by as much.

From the binding of my newest familiar I received a 'shared instant-movement experience' buff that made my Flash Step enchantment a new skill, allowing for two uses per every ninety seconds from the first flash The skill was only at the first level, though, and could only cover fifteen yards similar to my mid-level Quick Step skill I learned from enchanting. However, the 'evolved' lich lord I shared blood with had insanely high stats.

As well, all of his stats were permanent and equal to one another, causing a lesser form of sharing. All of his previous stats were between four and five hundred but were infected with most of my body in a Spore Shoal and raised to six hundred apiece. Because of this, Bygone Era's broken system only gave me six points in every stat for every hundred points, raising all of my stats by thirty-six.

Even though I could have gotten two stats at sixty apiece, the questionable synergy of balanced stats brought all of my own stats to over three hundred and returned the usual on tenth of my stats back. But, on tenth of all my stats. I basically raised his stats to six-thirty apiece and shorted him thirty-six points overall. What questionable mind designed all of this?

Aside from stats, the new Undying Lich Lord received a host of skills from my own abilities which included the dual wielding skill I learned in the sepulcher. I did not get any other skills besides the Flash Step but I received several titles that came with buffs as well. Surprisingly, Lich Lord Trollbone was only considered an epic grade boss.

Thankfully, this was still enough to upgrade my Elite Beast Mastery to Epic Beast Mastery. This came with eighteen familiar slots and fifteen-percent bonuses to parameters during combat. This was close to the effect of Imperial Order which already extended to some of my familiars. If I could manage to upgrade my mastery skill with legendary or maybe divine creatures, my familiars could become insanely powerful.

Sadly, because the plague lord had such high stats already, I was too scared to experiment with making it an Acolyte. Stat Mirror would basically ruin this work of art and I could not risk it. However, I could still make it a Captain in my honor guard army to further raise strengthen it. Thankfully, the evolution into a plague variation leveled him to one-twenty.

Once the process of plaguing, bonding, assimilating, and recruiting was over, the lich lord had truly become an entirely new creature.

Standing at an even fifteen feet, around four-and-a-half meters, tall, the once darkness enshrouded skeleton now had a ghoulishly thin and emaciated body of dark ashen gray flesh that made Ivana's dark elven hybrid look pale. In his eyes stilled burned his Soulfire but now it trailed out to the sides from the corners as if being perpetually blown in wind.

These were merely the exposed portions of his body. Now, his body was covered in a natural 'soul bone' armor of plates and scales about their torso, upper arms, upper legs, and head. As well, from the outer sides of his forearms grew two short blades apiece that curved both forward and with no space in between.

Born out of its hands were a pair of simple crystalline swords that were both longer than I was tall but still not even half of his body length. They just appeared in its grip as if actually born from its soul when it finished evolving from a skeleton. As well, after looking at his skills I could see that he could continue to produce them when lost or broken at a high cost of three thousand mana.

As far as his mana and health were concerned, the guy now had a health that was literally '100x its master' and mana that were '1000x its master'. If I turned it into an Acolyte and it lost those attributed somehow, I would consider resetting my character. Even though that was probably considered crippled by comparison to its previous health, that was absolutely insane compared to any other kind of familiar I could think of.

Even if that was a form of restriction for captured raid bosses or monsters of its grade and shared by all such creatures, I could fairly say that my health and mana were definitely above par by comparison to other players thanks to the update. Compared to a mass of players, he was stronger than a hundred tanks or a few hundred mages.

With his new defense ratings despite his slim skeletal framing, he could easily tank yet out maneuver large groups of people with his stats alone. Right now. The current level limit was two hundred and there were mentions on the forums of raising it to four in the next update.

From our brief time together at the end of the fight and after while resting and preparing, I could see that everybody else in the other clans were still in the lower seventies or entering the lower eighties thanks to the territory raid. At level eighty a classed character would have a total of four hundred spent or spending points plus their class 'training' stats and advanced training increases and then collective passives and free points.

At around fifty crafting points per stat but Luck, and around thirty in Agility and Endurance from flee training, that was half a hundred in five stats and eighty for two of them. If a serious player divided their points between three stats, it would be two hundred or even three hundred in Strength and one hundred or fifty added to Agility and Endurance or any combination thereof.

Go himself was two-fifty Agility and seventy-five added to Endurance and Willpower while relying solely on free points and perks for everything else. His stat spread was impressively well over a hundred in Strength and a little over in Intelligence but his base Luck was the starting fifty of the half-orc race that was lucky to be accepted in society.

That was actually in the race's description and why it had a higher Luck than the human race. If not for the class's slow speed and magic growth, it would have been the preferred choice of classless players. Many I had met on the forums still used such a class.

Someone like Stonewall, though, was a unique build who actually revealed his base stats on the forums. He spent three hundred on Agility and fifty on Endurance and Luck while leaving everything else to… well, Luck. However, all of his other stats were above one hundred and his Willpower was over two hundred and equal to Endurance by a mirror perk in his original class which helped him as an anti-magic tank.

Merch was purely divided between Agility and Magic while Ivana had divided her 'archer' with two hundred Agility and one hundred Endurance-Intelligence.

Then we piled on the eighteen-point bonuses of the accessories I made them make for themselves. After comparing with equipment from other clans, the 'upper average' of the upper clans were fifteen and ten-point bonuses with only a few pieces that augmented sixteen or eighteen points.

I could pop out pristine synthetic enchantments stronger than theirs and they were growing stronger all the time. The skill itself had increased several times before the final raid and was due for some growth or perks. I had not made any new accessories for a while and suspected I could produce stat enchantments over twenty with a true top-shelf mana crystal.

"What's the arrangement?" Little Thirteen asks from where he, Donna, Mistress, and their elites were enjoying a small banquet of shared supplies with my clan while the rest of the two giant clans made a giant camp and their own feast.

"We strike at dawn," I reply in all seriousness while still looking through my information while stretching my Appraisal skill for details.

"You have no idea what I'm even asking about," he states with a tired sigh, drinking from a short glass of small ice and large liquor.

I could only nod my head while closing out my windows and looking around the table. I was currently ripped with the stacks of various buffs from the 'gourmet' food at the banquet tables and wanted to know more about everything I had eaten and assimilated. Sadly, I could not produce whole foods but I could still acquire some perks such as greater effects and a free stat for new dish buffs.

"We're talking about the rabbit hole, who is going down and when and how," Papi informs me from around some large animal's rib that he was gorging on.

"Depends on the rules and limits," I say with a shrug while sipping my own fruit smoothie. "If it's only one big party or each clan gets a private party, my clan is the bottom and starting line. The other spaces will be divided as such and we'll be the first to go in. I suggest one large combined group while all other forced remain topside to hold the fort. Do you have supplies or reinforcements en route? Can you communicate to people outside the territory?"

"Yes, yes, and I checked," Donna says while drinking something akin to a daiquiri. "I could have sneaked down while the boss was busy with a party of fifty, but I thought better of it. Each of us can go down with a party of fifty and in one reality day our topside forces will be open to attack while the other clans who were in the territory get the chance to enter level two."

"I second Mr. Leo's motion of a single joint effort," Little Thirteen infers after Donna's reveals. "He has a small but overwhelming unit, we should monopolize on this by filling his empty spaces. Us and our elites could fit in the remaining thirty-plus while we can bring in a hundred units as overall fodder. My strongest units outside of my elites are my mages, I can find fifty five-tier Elementalists with sub-specialties in the other magic branches, half of them healing."

"My best units are my healers," Donna argues with a brief shake of her head. "We'll have to go old school, I'll bring fifty healers who sub the other branches and you'll bring fifty tanks. We will pair them up like it's leveling. If we're going in with Leo, what troops and supplies would we actually need?"

Seeing a good point to jump in on, I say, "A week's worth of food in every character inventory and an actual storage container containing a spare suit of armor and set of weapons. I don't know what we'll be getting into, but I am led to think it will be dictated by the lore of this place. There used to be like a town or city down there. That's our new job site."

I myself was going to take a long hard look at my character with my new Strength and Endurance perks. Strength reduced character weight again and stamina increased by unused character weight limit. How much more could I actually let myself carry in such conflicting conditions?

"That's the minimum, now we throw in individual medical needs." Thirteen moves on with his own thoughts. "For the joint party we can travel light ourselves but we can use the fodder as supply carriers. Why the need for storage containers?"

"We don't know what's down there," I reply solemnly despite the bright purple drink in my hand. Not just the mobs, but the state of affairs and obstacles and restrictions. We may not have player access and only character stuff. You guys do what you want, my armor and weapons can repair themselves and I can probably do it to my team's if I risked it but you guys aren't worth risking."

"What do we do?" Mistress asks suddenly, being a clan leader involved with the territory raid and present for the few assaults on the lich lord.

"You guys, uh… I don't know," I reply with a shrug. "You can go check the hole, you guys were at the boss fight, see if it gives your clan rights. If so, suit up, load up, and your present team can be our scouts securing the entry point."

"With empty slots?" Both Mr. Thirteen and Mistress ask at the same time, suddenly looking at each other.

Little Thirteen, who had the sharper and more meaningful look filled with his seniority, went on to say, "We can Fill her empty slots with an a mobile support team. The main groups can hold the fort while we work our magics throughout the city. If it's really a large-scale location and not just a lane or even maze BS, we'll probably need to be conquering multiple locations to complete tasks or farm loot. With an in-game week as the bases, we'll need to do it fast. Even faster because the other clans will be on our asses."

This guy completely overruled any authority she tried to muster up for filling her position.

The only authoritative thing left that she could do was have one of her units leave the party and investigate the pit. After that she just went back to eating and listening while giving Little Thirteen awkward and piteous glances.

*