Fortress Assault, part 1

After dealing with the problem of the Baron's men, I walked for ten or fifteen minutes outside of town, summoned the soul eater Blue Death, and rode for three hours to the fortress. The first thing I did was pick the herbs I was officially sent to collect, then I attacked the fortress... Or I was going to, but I saw the Baron practically waltzing into it nonchalantly and decided to follow as sneakily as I could. That was a good idea, as I heard and saw something interesting when the both of us reached the top floor, floor five.

"Report. Why have you returned early?" (Janis?)

"A powerful Saint has appeared out of nowhere, and he is on a quest to eliminate you, oh great master. He is strong enough to heal broken bones and regenerate flesh burned through by lava, and has the fighting skills to ward off several of my men at once. He is an A rank, and knows the Dark Mending skill. I suspect he is hiding more secrets, and so I am fulfilling your command to report dangerous existences immediately" (Baron)

"You have done well, Chompy. Perform such as this in the future, and I may give you the opportunity to evolve into a lich yourself soon" (Janis)

"You honor me, master. I am but a humble skeletal mage, grafted to the living body of a foul human. I know that I have no hopes of becoming a lich" (Baron?)

Huh? What... what is he saying? Regardless, I left to find his lieutenants, the death knights and liches, so I could bolster my currently lacking forces. I went to the outskirts of the second floor, and quickly found a trio of death knights.

"Tame Undead. Tame Undead. Tame Undead" (Hope)

[Tame Undead has succeeded, Death Knight has become a follower. EXP gained]

[Hope has leveled up to level 65]

[Hope's Saint class has leveled up to level 60]

[Hope has evolved into a Lesser Ancient Light Lich]

[Hope's Saint class has reached max level]

'Class Change to Saint of the Dead' (Hope)

[Class changed to Saint of the Dead]

[Unlocked new skills: Create Holy Undead; Shadows of Judgement. Upgraded skills: Dark Mending; Shadow Light (Failed); Tame Undead; Undead Fervor; Convert Undead; Control Undead; Recover; Mass Healing; Light of Judgement; Divine Cure]

[Unlocked new class options: None]

[Race changed to Lesser Ancient Light Lich]

[Rank increased to A-]

[Unlocked new skills: HP Drain (S); MP Drain (M); Skeletal Possession. Upgraded skills: Dark Mending (Failed); Shadow Light (Failed II); Banish Undead (Failed); Touch of Undeath; Tame Undead; Control Undead; Create Undead; Undead Fervor; Convert Undead; Drain Touch; Create Holy Undead]

[Rank increase has leveled up Dungeon Management to level 5]

[Unlocked new class options: Dungeon Master]

That was some great luck, I normally would have had about a 1/5 chance at taming any given one of them, or a 1/125 chance at all three. Now, I think I have a 1/3 chance at taming any given one of them, but... the liches will be a problem. I feel like those will be a 1/10 chance, or 1/25 for the elder liches. Getting the class of Dungeon Master is also a blessing I wasn't expecting. Now, onward to more converts! Wait, Skeletal Possession? That sounds like what the Baron was describing in regards to himself... Maybe...

I walked around the second and third floors for several minutes, maybe as long as an hour, and tamed two more death knights and a greater lich. Then, I went up to the fourth floor, and was met by both elder liches and a sea of death knights, with a massive death knight-like figure in purple standing at the back.

"Shit! Tame Undead. Tame Undead" (Hope)

[Tame Undead has failed]

[Tame Undead has succeeded, Elder Lich has become a follower. EXP gained]

As soon as I tried taming both of the liches, I hightailed it out of there, taking the one I'd succeeded at taming with me. I couldn't be so bold as to try to tame that many death knights at once, so I'll have to destroy several with hit and run tactics first. But still, were the numbers wrong? That looked like 20 death knights, not the 10 that he should have had left. Maybe I should try something... or two things, actually.

Thinking such, I summoned the elder lich I'd tamed, and then used Bless Undead on it. It simply... vanished. No, just kidding, it was enveloped in the light peculiar to a blessing, and when the light faded, it didn't have the blessed glow, it just... glowed, a bit.

'View Status: Seen Undead' (Hope)

[Name - None]

[Race - Elder Holy Lich]

[Race History - Elder Lich]

[Rank - B]

[Level - 1/60]

[EXP - 0/10]

[Class - Unholy Light Sage]

[Class Level - 1/50]

[Class EXP - 0/10]

[Class History - None]

[Affinities - Fire, Wind, Lightning, Ice, Holy, Death, Dark]

[...]

[Class/Race Skills - Wide Shadow Healing, Shadow Light (2), Banish Undead, Sacred Fireball, Bright Lightning, Blessed Wind Blade, Consecrated Icicles, Create Holy Undead (2)]

[Class/Race Passives - HPR Boost (2L), CDR Boost (M), Undead Fervor, Convert Undead]

[Previous Class/Race Passives: (...) Control Undead (4)]

Huh. Guess this one had an affinity for the Holy attribute, and that affected its evolution or something? It looks about the same, but its white bones with flecks and streaks of black turned into silvery bones with gold flecks and streaks, and its seemingly prismatic cloak was a bit lighter in all of its colors, and quite a bit less ragged. The fires burning in its eye sockets are like a golden yellow flame instead of a blood red flame too. By the way, most monsters, myself not included, don't have MP or an MP pool, instead, all spells have an additional cooldown based on their normal MP cost.

'What's the difference between a Holy Lich and a Light Lich?' (Hope)

[Answer: A Holy Lich is an inferior version of a Light Lich. It still takes some damage from Holy attacks, and its absorption of Dark attack damage has been removed. However, it is healed by both Healing and Death magic]

I see... Well, time to try out the other thing, maybe that might have a good effect

"Create Holy Undead: Skeletal Priest" (Hope)

A skeletal mage appeared, with the same silvery bones flecked with gold, and wearing a white robe, not the standard red, green, blue, or orange robe denoting it being a Fire, Wind, Water, or Earth mage, respectively. Light blue, yellow, dark grey, and black robes signify Ice, Lightning, Death, and Dark mages, but those are higher ranked, and even I only now am able to make them with my level 6 Create Undead... I guess white robe reflects it being able to use Holy magic? Would light grey mean Healing? Neither one has been seen before, so far as I know... anyways... let's make some more! Oh, first, I need to free up some space in my lich's control slots. I had the lich transfer control of most of its skeletal mages to me, save for the Fire ones, and I sent five of those into the horde of death knights, holding the bones from the others that I'd dismissed and broken apart, then used Bone Explosion on the bones. Undead suicide bombers, if you will. I don't know how well that went, I lost my connection with them as soon as the bones exploded.

What's the priest's status like?

[Name - None]

[Race - Skeletal Priest]

[Rank - C]

[Level - 1/30]

[EXP - 0/10]

[Class - Shadow Priest]

[Class Level - 1/30]

[Class EXP - 0/10]

[Class History - None]

[Affinities - Healing, Holy, Death, Dark]

[Skills - 1]

[Passives - 5]

[Class/Race Skills - Shadow Bind]

[Class/Race Passives - HPR Boost (M), CD Boost (S+M)]

[Previous Class/Race Skills - Shadow Light (2), Dark Mending (2)]

Shadow Priest, eh? I was going to go with that next, after Dungeon Master, but it's not that impressive, though Shadow Bind might be useful. Anyways, I quickly transitioned into making a lot of skeletal priests, and then, after making seven more, remembered that I could make other kinds of holy undead too.

"Create Holy Undead: Skeletal Sacred Fire Magician" (Hope)

A silver-boned undead wearing a red cloak appeared, and I checked its status page.

[Name - None]

[Race - Holy Skeletal Mage]

[Rank - C]

[Level - 1/30]

[EXP - 0/10]

[Class - Sacred Fire Magician]

[Class Level - 1/30]

[Class EXP - 0/10]

[Class History - None]

[Affinities - Fire, Holy, Death, Dark]

[Skills - 2]

[Passives - 2]

[Class/Race Skills - Sacred Fireball, Hellflame Orb]

[Class/Race Passives - HPR Boost (M), CD Boost (S)]

Since many undead are weak to fire, I made a Holy Fire mage. That's the same reason why I had my elder lich keep its Fire mages, though I'm going to have it replace those with the Holy version too. The only drawback I can see is that the Holy ones take more levels to evolve or change classes, and that they have about half of the HP at the same level. That second problem can be remedied by having a bunch of skeletal priests healing them from the backlines, and the first one means little in the face of this huge load of EXP in front of them in the form of death knights, squire zombies, and normal zombies. Well, I'd be the one taking out the death knights, especially the big one in back. What is that thing, anyways?

[Request for information received. The undead in command of the 15 death knights in the room above is known as a crypt king, an A rank undead on its own. Its racial skill, Undead King, allows it to prevent its undead, direct subordinates or not, from being tamed by others with a lower rank than it, and increases their combat abilities and HPR, however, those effects only show on zombie-type undead under its control]

Well... crap. Time for me to convert the other elder lich and scram. If this thing was able to be created by Janis, he must have evolved beyond a lesser ancient lich. No, I'm going to go with plan A, which is to make the mage bombardment corps, the healer corps, and the tanks... Oh, those could be nice...

"Create Holy Undead: Astral Paladin" (Hope)

A floating humanoid shape appeared, gradually becoming more defined. After a minute, it had finished turning into a translucent man equipped with an equally translucent sword, shield, and suit of armor, and then it quickly saluted me. I decided to check its status page, and was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.

[Name - None]

[Race - Astral Paladin]

[Rank - C+]

[Level - 1/35]

[EXP - 0/10]

[Class - Vengeful Paladin]

[Class Level - 1/35]

[Class EXP - 0/10]

[Class History - None]

[Affinities - Holy, Death, Dark]

[Skills - 6]

[Passives - 3]

[Class/Race Skills - Sacred Guard (2), Draw Attack, Magic Parry, Holy Sword Aura, Slash, Aura Blade]

[Class/Race Passives - HPR Boost (L), Subordination Boost (M), Physical Attack Resistance (L)]

Perfect. Let's make more.

Half an hour later, I sauntered back into that room on the fourth floor, summoned the liches and paladins, and the liches summoned their undead too. I spammed convert undead on the elder lich under the control of Janis, and the EXP, both from the bombardment corps killing a death knight every few minutes, and from constantly annihilating the zombies and squire zombies as soon as they were remade, rolled in, replenishing my mana with each level up. Half an hour later, I succeeded at converting the second elder lich, and tried to warp out of there and into my dungeon.

[Error. Could not use Dungeon Transfer due to being inside of another dungeon]

What?

[Error. Could not use-]

'I heard what you'd said before' (Hope)

What does that mean? How is this a dungeon? How long has it been a dungeon? What all is the dungeon?

[The dungeon currently known as Fortress of the Dead has been under the control of the greater ancient lich Janis for 93 years, 7 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 20 hours, 19 minutes, and 47 seconds, with a total territory of-]

'I get it, I get it... I didn't need you to answer' (Hope)

Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit... My method of retreat has been sealed, and he's now a greater ancient lich! Of course he could make a crypt king now... Also, no wonder the miasma can't be purified, it's not that it's so thick that it regenerates too quickly, but that it's a feature of the dungeon, and thus cannot be permanently removed by normal means. How did people not learn this before?

[Request for information received. Information is available to Hope due to Hope being a dungeon master]

Well, that makes some sense... wait, this isn't the time to be thinking about this, I need to get out of here!

[Hope has leveled up to level 70]

[Hope's Saint of the Dead class has leveled up to level 70]

[Hope has evolved into an Ancient Light Lich]

[Hope's Saint of the Dead class has reached max level]

'Class Change to Dungeon Master' (Hope)

[Class changed to Dungeon Master]

[Unlocked new skills: Secondary Dungeon Creation; Dungeon Expansion; Dungeon Shift. Upgraded skills: Create Holy Undead; Create Undead; Undead Fervor; Control Undead; Dungeon Management]

[Unlocked new class options: None]

[Race changed to Ancient Light Lich]

[Rank increased to A]

[Unlocked new skills: MPR Boost (M); MPE Boost (M). Upgraded skills: Dark Mending (Failed II); Shadow Light (Failed III); Banish Undead (Failed II); Touch of Undeath; Tame Undead (Failed I); Control Undead (Failed I); Create Undead; Undead Fervor; Convert Undead; Drain Touch; Bless Undead; Corpse Explosion; Bone Explosion, Recover]

[Rank increase has leveled up Dungeon Management to level 7]

Well, my rank is the same as Janis's now, but... he has all the troops in the dungeon at his disposal, and can make plenty more with ease, while I have to work with a very limited supply. If I had an endless supply of holy undead, I could kill all of those death knights, as they die slightly faster than the crypt king can make them. However, they tend to take a mage or two down for every half a dozen of them I eliminate. As such, I'm going to run out first. I can't run, Janis can teleport them to block my path if he so wished, and I can't defeat them all... how do I do it? What can I do? Think, numbskull, think! Open a path to the crypt king, and engage him in solo combat? No, he'd backstab me with his death knights. Open a path and run past them all on my own, unsummon and resummon my undead afterwards? Maybe... but what good would that do me? Janis can probably make more crypt kings, so he might have a dozen protecting himself, and I would be farther from the exit. Eh, it's not like I have any other options, and waiting sure won't do me any good, so it's time to... wait for two death knights to fall at once... wait... NOW! LET'S MAKE A RUN FOR IT!

I ran. I used Create Boner Wall to block the death knights coming at me, as I dodged swords that came down at me, the wind signifying that they were all way too close for comfort. I ran some more. Death knights fell like flies when spells rained down on their unprotected backsides, as they'd turned around to attack me. I kept running.

"YOU. SHALL. NOT. PASS. THIS. POINT. HUMAN" (Crypt King)

The crypt king blocked my path, a few dozen meters ahead of me. I pulled out a spear made from the spine of a terror stallion, reinforced by the armor of a knight mare. It was two and a half meters long, with a blunted tip on one end, and a standard blade on the other. I threw it, the blade aimed at the crypt king's neck, as I released a glorious yell.

"YEET!" (Hope) (Author's Note: I may or may not be drunk right now)

Sadly, I missed. It went about a meter to the left, and impaled a death knight instead. There goes that plan. Next up, plan number... uh... I've lost count... what was that one again? Oh, right. I kept running at the crypt king, then tried to slide between its legs, but... it just dropped down and sat on me.

"AHHRGGH... Wait, why didn't that hurt? Oh, right. I'm an undead. I can't be killed by something like my back being crushed! Next plan... while his massive frame is covering most of my body... Corpse Explosion! Corpse Explosion! Corpse Explosion! Burn in hell, bastard! Wait... MY EYES! MY ARM! Why does that hurt?" (Hope)

That backfired. I tried to damage him somewhat by blowing up the pile of death knight corpses that surrounded us, but I was watching from... not far enough away. I'm half blind now, and missing a hand that got snapped off by a skull that had been sent flying by an explosion. Eh, it'll grow back with some help from Dark Mending. Speaking of... How long until it reaches Max? No, what I want to have reach Max first would definitely be Control Undead, then Shadow Light, then Tame Undead, then... probably a few other things. I never ue Dark Mending. Now, back to the fight, because I forgot I'm not like those stereotypical light novel characters who can think about one entirely unrelated thing while fighting and thinking about how to fight for the next fifteen minutes of the thirty second fight they're in.

Fortunately, nothing much happened while my brain went off on a tangent after that series of explosions. The crypt king was blinded too, and seemed to be a bit shellshocked somehow, while the other undead got as far away from the explosions, and thus, me, as they could. Either that, or they became more corpses to have explode. Well, I have just one option left... three, actually. Tame Undead, Convert Undead, and Purge.

"Tame Undead" (Hope)

[Tame Undead has failed]

"Figures. Worth a shot though. Convert Undead" (Hope)

[Convert Undead has failed. Your rank is too low to attempt Conversion of Crypt King]

"Of course it is. Purge" (Hope)

[Purge has failed]

"Purge again! Purge! Purge! Purge, I say!" (Hope)

[Purge has failed]

[Crypt King has been purged. EXP gained]

Damn, that gave enough EXP to make me jump from level 7 to the very top of level 53, almost 54. That's an A rank for you. Killing one gives WAY more than taming one, it seems. Sadly, even its bones and equipment were purged from existence, so I can't even use those in my own equipment or sell them, nor do I have any proof I killed one. Whatever. The remaining death knights were easy to clean up now that they'd lost the effects of Undead King and the leadership of the crypt king, but Tame Undead failed on all of them through some stroke of ill fortune. I took a moment to heal my forces and Bless all of the commanders, and something interesting happened with one of the death knights.

[Name - None]

[Race - Samsara Knight]

[Race History - Death Knight]

[Rank - B]

[Level - 1/60]

[EXP - 0/10]

[Class - Life and Death Knight]

[Class Level - 1/50]

[Class EXP - 0/10]

[Class History - None]

[Affinities - Holy, Death, Dark]

[...]

[Class/Race Skills - Create Holy Undead (4), Unholy Smite, Holy Smite, Create Bone Wall]

[Class/Race Passives - HPR Boost (2L), CDR Boost (M), Undead Fervor (2), Undead Leader]

[Previous Class/Race Passives: (...) Control Undead (3)]

Its summoned undead, the squire zombies (C- rank) and regular zombies (E+) were also changed with it, becoming zombie paladins (C+) and radiant zombies (D+), respectively. The paladins also gained a boost to Control Undead, and got Undead Fervor, Unholy and Holy Smite, and Create Bone Wall. Well, also HPR Boost (L), but that's almost standard for anything undead above D+ rank. Speaking of D+ ranks, the radiant zombies got HPR Boost (M) on top of their base (S) version, but with the boost from three Undead Fervors, one of them at level 9, one at level 2, and one at level 1, as well as the boost from Undead Leader, they had an HPR of 225%... that's actually higher than mine...

Chapter 6: Fortress Assault, part 1

CREATORS' THOUGHTS
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Chapter 6: Fortress Assault, part 1

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