Steven sat in the library smoking. He had finally finished dealing with everyone. There was an ordeal with the chained humans, as he had completely forgotten to get the key to unlock the enchanted chains. Nev said she could break the chain in half, but she would likely kill a few of the humans in the process. And that would only split them into two groups. All twelve of them were all crammed into a single room upstairs. He suggested they stay outside of the tree, but they feared Sorin would return. He should have just told them Sorin was dead. But then how would he had explained not having the key?

  Kat said he could expand a room but he would have to spend essence. That’s apparently what powered domains. However, Silvia wasn’t having any of that. She said they had too many things to deal with at the moment. Not to mention he needed to be as powerful as possible to find a way to heal Eve. Steven just left the chained women to Fidah.

  Nev had her drone’s make them some clothes as they were all half naked. None of them complained. If anything, they were happy they were out of Sorin’s hands. Fidah also seemed happy to help them. From what Silvia told him, she was just happy to make herself useful. She was afraid that Steven would want to replace her. And the only way to replace a vassal was if they died. He needed to have a talk with the elf, but he could deal with that later.

  Steven took another hit from his water pipe. When he gained the Domain of Undeath, he thought he could somehow help Eve. But that didn’t seem to be the case. He was still trying to understand domains exactly. Before Kat left, she explained that he could have three domains. Each domain had a specialty. The domain he got from Blank was a sanctuary domain. Revolving around safety. It was insanely useful, as he apparently could take it with him, tree and all. Though he could only place it on Ley-lines of power. Still, just the ability to take not only a house but a sizable chunk of land with him was incredible. Though he had no idea how it was going to work.

  When he gained the Domain of Undeath from Sorin, his barrier expanded, which included a bunch of disgusting swamp water. To his surprise, all the water inside the barrier cleared up. Steven still had no intentions of getting in it. For all he knew, it was just an illusion.

  Steven was unsure how it worked when he absorbed the tree house domain or what happened when he placed it back down. Other than it used essence. The domain its self had a small storage of essence, though he really didn’t understand how that worked.

  Before Kat left, she told him how to absorb the domain. Which only consisted of her telling him to click the yes button to absorb it. He really didn’t see why she stuck around for something like that. She also explained how to place the barrier, well all she did was tell him to will it out the domain on a Ley-line of power and select yes. As for the Domain of Undeath, well, he had no idea how that worked. Other than somehow knowing how to create an undead. Which cost essence to do. It was well suited for a dungeon, but Steven had no intentions of just sitting in a dungeon and being some Dungeon Lord.

  Steven had been curious to try out the ability to create undead, but Silvia told him to wait and try it out when they went back into the dungeon to check on the Naga. After that he was to take Fidah’s clan the cure.

  Thinking of the cure reminded him of Eve, which brought his mood down. The alchemy room was something Steven had been excited to show Eve. The barrier had fell, but he hadn’t even entered there since he returned.

  He had asked Kat about Eve, but she said there was nothing she could do. And that Eve would wake up.

  Steven took another hit from his water pipe. He had several things to do, but he wasn’t exactly sure where to start. Getting the cure to Fidah’s clan that was important, he knew, but his largest concern was fixing Eve. He nearly called in Silvia to ask what he should do next when he had a better idea.

  The wisp’s primary concern was his safety and power level. Which was definitely important, but he had other pressing matters to deal with first. He wanted multiple people’s opinion. Steven took a long hit from the water pipe. He wanted his pipe back. It was much more convenient.

  “The round table.” Steven mumbled.

  He could just bring together Silvia, Nev and Fidah and discuss what matters he should deal with next. Although Fidah would just agree with whatever he said. Maybe Sirus? No, however, he could ask their opinion. Surely they would want to help Eve. After another hit from the pipe, he mentally called out for Silvia.

  “Hey Silvia, I want to form a round table.”

  There was an exhausted sigh before Silvia spoke. “A round table?”

  “Yea, you know. A place we can all sit and discuss what to do next.”

  There was a long pause before the wisp responded. “I’m not sure what nonsense you’re talking about, but I have already got everything figured out. Starting with leaving to talk with the Half Naga, then heading to Fidah’s clan as soon as Herald returns.”

  “What who is Herald? And where are you? I prefer to talk face to face, or face to light, I suppose.”

  There was another brief pause before Silvia spoke. “I’m busy working with the wisps. I’ll come and talk to you about it later. And Herald is the vampire butler.”

  “Okay, well now I know his name, but where did you send him?”

  “Hold on Gelformly is about to transcend. I promise Ill speak to you about it later.” Silvia said.

  Steven felt the mental link break. “Gelformly.” Steven said in confusion. Sighing, he stood up. Leo was lying on another chair reading. He should include him on the round table as well. Sphinxes were suppose to be intelligent after all.

  Steven then headed upstairs. He had enough essence that he could spend some to make one of the rooms into a meeting room with a round table. Reaching the split in the stairs, he stopped as both Spider-kin saluted him.

  “You guys are doing a great job.”

  “Thank you, my King!” Both Spider-kin said at nearly the same time.

  Steven just nodded and took the stairs to the right. He had asked the Spider-kin to watch the stairs and not let anyone go up there. He was surprised at how professionally the drones performed the task.

  Walking into the hallway of doors as he called it, he made his way to the furthest room. He sent the bed, dresser and table to inventory. Kat said all he needed to do was think about what he wanted and will that to happen. A prompt would appear, telling him how much essence it would cost, then he could accept or decline.

  Steven imagined a round table. And willed it to be.

  Due to the Domain changing owners, Blank’s Sanctuary must be absorbed before you can access this feature of the Domain.

  Closing the prompt, Steven sighed. “Silvia, I need your assistance.”

  “Sorry, unless it’s life threatening, I can’t help. I’m busy at the moment. I’ll come see you shortly.” Silvia said.

  The mental connection closed. Steven rolled his eyes. Part of him thought about just going out and absorbing the domain, then just replacing it, but he wasn’t sure what would happen to everyone inside. He wasn’t really paying a lot of attention when Kat was talking, knowing Silvia was there.

  He would just have to wait. Steven then headed to Eve’s room, which was right next to his room. Walking in, he greeted the two Spider-kin watching over her. Their task was to inform him immediately if there were any changes with Eve. After nodding to them, he walked over next to Eve. Her condition was the same, black veins ran all over her pale green skin. The veins were no longer pulsing, but they were still there. “I’ll make you better, I promise. Then we will travel around together like we talked about.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  It felt like such a long time ago, but he would never forget how excited Eve was about traveling with him. However, Shirem was back. Part of him thought about not telling Eve that he returned. However, he didn’t want to lie to her like that.

  Thinking of Shirem had him sigh, and he left the room. He briefly wondered if Sirus had figured out why he tried to kill him. No sooner than he closed the door to Eve’s room Fidah opened her door and looked at him in surprise. “Master Odling,” Fidah said as she bowed, “I was just fixing to come look for you. There was something I was hoping I could talk to you about.”

  “Oh, and what’s that?” Fidah went to speak, but Steven held up a hand. “Hold that thought. And follow me.”

  Steven walked over to his door and went in. Fidah following right behind. Walking over to the table, he pulled out his water pipe and took a hit. Then motioned for Fidah to do the same. After she did, he pulled out a chair from his inventory. “Go on, sit and tell me what’s going on.”

  Fidah sat down. “Master, I wanted to talk to you about my clansman.”

  Steven’s eyes widened just a bit. He couldn’t remember where her clansman was or if he was even alive.

  “I know you had him stay in the dungeon with the Half Naga.” Fidah continued while looking down. “I just worry he will try to do something stupid to escape, and I was hoping we could go get him and bring him back to my clan.”

  “Uh, yea sure, we can do that.” Steven said.

  Fidah looked up as if she was surprised at his answer. Steven couldn’t help but wonder if he came off as some sort of dick.

  “Thank you, Master Odling!” Fidah said as she jumped out of her chair and hugged him. She then looked embarrassed and sat back in the chair as if he was fixing to scorn her.

  “Its fine, you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s not like we haven’t slept in the same bed together. Also, you are welcome. We will leave in a few days.”

  “Thank you so much. May I be excused?”

  “Uh, yeah. You can leave.”

  After she left, Steven couldn’t help but wonder what had gotten into her. The elf was acting as if he had been abusing her or something.

  “Nev.” Steven said while shaking his head. He was going to have to have a talk with her when she returned. She was likely still upset with the elf for sleeping in the bed with him.

  Nev had left a few hours ago to make some more drones, saying she needed to keep their numbers up for their upcoming travels. He then remembered that she had prisoners he was supposed to deal with.

  “Ugh, so many things to do.” Taking another hit, he lay back on his bed. Now that he was thinking about the upcoming trip, he remembered Silvia telling him he needed to finish making it to level forty and choose a shard.

  After getting the two from Edgar, he now had three. Opening up his inventory, he opened the shard tab.

  -Shard of Natures Blight

  -Shard of Vampiric Might

  -Shard of Pestilence

  He didn’t know why he even looked at them again. He had already decided it would be the blight shard. However the vampiric might shard seemed interesting. As for the pestilence shard, he had no intentions of ever absorbing that. He would sell that one when he made it to a city. Closing that screen, he opened up his shard abilities and read over his new portal shard for what seemed like the hundredth time.

  {Stats} {Equipment} {Shards*} {Inventory}

  Shards:

  ~ 1 of 7

  Angelic Death- Shard level 2

  Ability effect~ Expands the distance up to 25 feet between two distinct targets, while dilating time for both targets at the cost of 100 mana per second.

  (Note: Ability will trigger automatically to maximum distance when user is about to take a lethal attack. Can be turned off at any time.)

  ~ 2 of 7

  Royalty of the Chaotic Arachnid

  Ability effect~ Transform into a true Spider King at the cost of 1,000 mana per minute. All attributes get a 333% increase while in this form. You lose all equipment slots and shard abilities while in this form.

  (Note: This ability will automatically trigger if health goes below 25%. If hit points would be reduced to 0 or less while in this form, those hit points become 1, all effects are removed and the shard user will revert to original form.)

  ~3 of 7

  Shard of the Chaotic Portal

  Ability effect~ At the cost of 550 mana, create a single portal that will take you to a random location within a one-mile radius of your chosen destination. Must have visited chosen destination.

  (Note: Entering portal will consume more mana. The amount of mana consumed is determined by the distance traveled.)

  ~ 4 of 7

  Roots of the Dark Forest

  Ability effect~ Create and control two dark root clusters at the cost of 380 mana per minute. Roots have the ability to drain mana from opponents on contact. Mana drain is determined by the spirit attribute.

  (Note: Mana can not exceed the maximum mana limit. Strength and speed of roots are determined by wielders attributes.)

  Steven had been under the impression his portal ability was terrible but, Silvia told him it was actually quite good and would only get better as he grew stronger. Well, that was after she freaked out about him losing his shard ability and Jabriel.

  She told him, any ability to portal was rare, especially one with no restrictions other than mana.

  This reminded Steven of the boots that he had found. He was getting stronger now and would be able to use them. Being able to jump off air could definitely be useful. However, he needed to get the durability fixed first.

  “Dwarves.” Steven mumbled. He was excited to go see them, though at the same time he was sad that Eve wouldn’t be able to go with him.

  “Silvia. Im ready to go. We have things to do!”

  There was a slurping pop sound, and Silvia appeared behind him. “I thought you were enjoying relaxing?”

  “I am. Or I was, but I need to get going. I feel anxious. I need to find a way to help Eve. Then there is the matter of Fidah’s clan.”

  “Herald is looking into the matter as we speak, and we don’t need to move the domain until he returns.”

  “What do you mean, he is looking into it?”

  “I mean, he has traveled to the wasteland to find out what he can about Eve’s condition.”

  “Wasteland?” Steven asked.

  “It is what most call the continent that the undead inhabit.”

  Steven blinked a few times. “Wasteland, okay, got it, but can we trust him? Ive barely spoken to him. I really don’t feel…”

  “It’s fine don’t worry Harald is a professional, and vampires are considered royalty in undead society. Besides, he can’t break the oath less he dies. Herald is one of the good guys. And his ability to travel is exceptional.”

  “Okay, well, hopefully he can find something. So I was thinking, can’t we just send some drones to deliver the cure to Fidah’s people? It would save a lot of time and then we could head towards a city with a church.”

  ”The drones would likely be killed on sight. Fidah needs to be present with her people when the cure is presented to them. That’s part of the deal.”

  “Okay, it’s fine. I’m just worried about Eve. So how much longer before Herald is back?”

  “It shouldn’t be much longer, a day or two.” Silvia said.

  “Okay, well, I think I’m going to go back to the dungeon and talk to Goskia about Eve’s condition. Not to mention Nev said there were some half Naga being held prisoner in their old village. I was thinking I could help them with that.”

  “Okay, that works. I’ll stay here with the domain while you go. Make sure Nev is with you before you leave. Maybe take Fidah too. She is getting better with the bow.”

  “What about the chained females?”

  “They will be fine till you get back. They will just have to stay chained until we get to the dwarves and they can break those enchanted locks.”

  “Good, then we can set them free somewhere.”

  “Okay, though I’m not so sure they will want to go. But you can always force them away.”

  Steven groaned, “And why would they not want to leave? Wait, you know what? I don’t care, I’ll deal with that later.” Steven then took a drag from his water pipe. “I’m going to go see if Goskia still has my pipe. If not, I’m going to see if I can’t have the drones find or make me one.”

  “Okay, but make sure the spider is with you.” With a pop, Silvia vanished.

  “Silvia.”

  Within a few seconds, the wisp appeared back in front of him. “Yes?”

  “How are you able to teleport around?”

  “It’s because this is your domain.”

  “Hmm, okay, I guess that makes sense.”

  Silvia then vanished again.

  Walking down to the lobby, Steven seen Mrs. Chen arguing with one of the floating rags. Well, it was more of her yelling at one of the floating rags while trying to hit it with her shoe. The old lady seemed to take being in another world just fine. However, her son, Mr. Chen, was not doing so well. He was standing in the back, watching his mom with wide eyes. He Glanced at Steven but quickly looked away. Steven was almost out of the front door when he heard her call out to him.

  “Boss man. I need words.”

  Steven turned to see her walking towards him, shoe still in hand. “You need do something about flying rags. They keep taking all dishes and we nearly out. What I put food on then?”

  “I’ll figure it out. Don’t worry.”

  The old woman nodded, then put her shoe on and walked back towards her son. Steven needed to talk to Mr. Chen. The guy looked completely freaked out.

  Steven then walked outside. “Hey Silvia, can you figure out what’s going on with the rags, and where they are putting the dishes?”

  “I’ll take care of it.” Silvia thought back.

  “Thanks.”

  Putting that from his mind for now, he walked over to one of the several Spider-kin guards that now patrolled his domain.

  “Can one of you inform Nev I’m in need of her assistance?”

  “At once, my King.” Steven was glad that Nev had all the mimic drones were off somewhere. He really hated mimics.

  While he waited for Nev, Steven looked up at the rain bouncing off the barrier. It made an odd sound as it hit the barrier. It somewhat reminded him of being at his grandpa’s barn as the rain hit the tin roof. Though it was more muffled here and he had to concentrate to even hear it. He wondered if his improved attributes let him hear better. Steven then lay down and just looked up at the barrier while enjoying the peaceful sound of rain falling.