The next few days went by quickly. Nev went and reclaimed the Naga’s land. From what she told Steven, all she had to do was tell them that this was now her land, and she was taking all the Half Naga as her slaves. However, Steven was concerned when Nev told him that she had an appointment to go to a human city to talk further on the matter. Silvia didn’t seem bothered by this in the slightest and told Nev she also needed to talk to the Assassin’s Guild about what to do with Necros.

  Once the humans and elves left this part of the swamp, the Half Naga began to move back into their old homes.

  Meanwhile, Steven had been killing the undead in his inventory. He did it outside the domain as Silvia told him it would trigger the domain’s defenses and would drain the domain’s stored essence. If the storage of essence ran out, then it would drain his personal essence.

  Steven’s plan was to kill everything aside from the dragons, sentient undead creatures and Sorin’s skeletal knights. He wasn’t even sure if the knights could be killed, according to Silvia. Then he would level up to forty and absorb a new shard before leaving out to go to Fidah’s clan. He also planned to gather a hoard of undead from his dungeon before he left. The undead had proven very useful and now that he had the ability to suggest who they attacked; he felt like he was really becoming powerful. Although beings like Nev, the general and Elder Demon kept him from getting a big head. He was nowhere near their power level.

  Steven eventually got around to talking to Silvia about the dungeon name, but she just told him she had no control over what his domain was called. Steven then tried to talk to Gideon about it, but couldn’t get the angel to respond. It seemed he would have to wait and talk to him when he absorbed a new shard, which wouldn’t be much longer. Steven continued to kill the undead. His Spear didn’t take any durability damage what so ever and Steven could just pull out the undead as many times as he needed. He could only kill one abomination before he got low on mana form pulling it and placing it into inventory. The spear would also proc off from time to time and drain a seemingly random amount of mana.

  Steven also tried out the blighted staff and was pleasantly surprised the root snare ability looked a lot like his root ability. Except the roots were smaller and there were so many of them he couldn’t even begin to count them. He used it on one of the abominations and it eventually died. Which was something he did not expect. It took a few hours, but the spell never fizzled out and eventually the blight damage just killed the creature. Steven was starting to understand why he could only cast it twice a day. He wished he could have used it in the dungeon, but he didn’t have the mana at the time. The staff would definitely be one of his main weapons. He pulled up the description to make sure he wasn’t missing anything.

  Staff of Nature’s Blight

  Rarity- Unique

  ~ Effect]- Cast a blighted root snare that entangles all enemies in a 20 foot radius dealing blight damage to all enemies in area of effect.

  ~ Requirement]- Death shard.

  ~ Cost]- 420 mana per cast. Cast per day 2.

  (Note- This staff has been corrupted by undeath. It was once wielded by a Dryad and sole guardian of the forest of Gia before she became corrupted by undeath and turned all that she guarded into a swamp land spanning hundreds of miles in every direction.)

  The staff was powerful, however it was just a twice a day use. Meaning his spear would still be his weapon of choice. Well, that and his spider form. Closing the description, he got back to killing the undead. He still had several to deal with and it would likely take him a couple more days to kill them all. The abominations were a pain, but he needed the essence now more than ever. Especially now that he had two domains that used essence as a resource. Though Silvia told him the domains would pull in essence from the surrounding area. It was just slow, and he didn’t need to waste it. Steven had the drones make him a round table and drag it into the room. He would make a better one after he absorbed the domain. He didn’t tell Silvia; she was off with the wisps, anyway. It’s all she seemed to do now. He could only imagine how much essence Blank had to used to create everything in the tree house. Taking a long drag from a pipe the drones had gotten for him, he put the thought from his mind. He needed to get stronger he had to help Eve.

  Hours passed as Steven pulled out undead and stabbed them. His mind wondered to his aunt and what Kat meant when she said everything in his home world would change. If he had enough mana, could he travel between worlds with his portal ability? Appearing a mile from his house wouldn’t be a big deal when traveling between worlds. Steven pushed the thought away no sooner than it came. It would be a long while before he had enough mana to even attempt something like that.

  +1093

  Glancing at his mana, he decided it was too low to even bother with killing another abomination this evening. He was getting tired and hungry, anyway. Though he needed to talk to Mrs. Chen. He was getting sick of the repetitive flavor of the orange chicken. He didn’t even understand where they kept getting the supplies to cook it. Steven assumed they would run out soon and would change up the food they cooked. Kat must have had given them a bag of holding or something. Was this her way of torturing him? Just continuously feed him the same food every day. He was about to start eating the food in the cabinets again, but he wanted to save that for when Kat came to get the Chens. Though he had Eve and she made some fantastic baked fish.

  Once Steven returned to the tree house, Fidah greeted him. She asked him how his grinding was going and told him how the chained girls were doing. She didn’t need to tell him, as he could see they weren’t enjoying being chained up. But none of them complained, and they always bowed towards him with respect when they saw him. This only showed him how fucked up Sorin had been. It wasn’t just Sorin; it was this whole damn world as someone had sold him the slaves. Silvia had told him slaves were common. This annoyed Steven, but he was too weak to make any difference and besides, the entire Elder clan was technically his slaves. This was the only way the humans and elves would accept Nev taking control. At least thats what Silvia and Nev said. Steven hated politics. He was still concerned about Nev’s meeting that was coming up. But both Silvia and Nev said the humans wouldn’t try anything. If they killed her, Spider-kin would overrun their entire city. Not to mention the princesses rampaging trying to get her body. Steven found that disturbing, but it was just the spider way. Eat their old to gain their ancestral memories.

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  Nev was off creating more Spider-kin and dealing with a few goblins. The Drones had brought him a dead one to look at. It looked just like what he thought a goblin would look like: a little green man with pointed ears and sharp teeth. Its frame was of a scrawny teenage boy. Steven pushed the thought from his mind. He still felt as they could be reasoned with, but both Nev and Silvia told him they couldn’t be, so he didn’t question it any further.

  Steven headed up the stairs to his room to take a well-deserved nap. As he passed by the library, Leo looked up and nodded to him in respect before looking down and continuing to read a book.

  He and Leo had a heart to heart the other day. Well, it was more Steven got the sphinx stoned, and they talked about nonsense. He needed to have another day like that. But Steven had a wisp that wouldn’t allow him to rest till he reached level forty and absorbed another shard. Though Steven knew it wouldn’t stop there, she would then want him to reach level fifty. Leveling was getting hard. The essence required was getting ridiculous. But he was nearly at level forty. Once in his room, Silvia appeared.

  “Go on. Open up your stat page.”

  Steven groaned inwardly, but did as the wisp asked.

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

  Level- 39

  Available Attribute ~5

  Essence- 32,751

  Essence required for next level 44,076

  HP ~ 471

  Stamina ~ 101

  Mana ~ 998

  Poise ~ 0 +35

  Vitality ~ 20

  Endurance ~ 16

  Strength ~ 16

  Dexterity ~ 23

  Resistance ~ 17 +50

  Spirit ~ 45

  Talent-

  Basic Stealth -

  15% less likely to be noticed while in stealth.

  15% noise reduction while in stealth.

  20% more damage when attacking in stealth.

  “Alright looks like you have made some good progress today. Tomorrow you might actually reach level forty.”

  “If I have enough undead, that is. I’m nearly out of abominations and only have a few knights left. Well, aside from Sorin’s undying knights.”

  “Those are now your Skeletal Knights. You have the domain and they will take orders from you. He stunted his growth and spent several levels of essence creating those knights.”

  “I still don’t understand how they take orders from me when none of the others will take orders?”

  “Like I told you before, these knights were created from Sorin’s own essence through the domain, and not from the dungeon’s essence.”

  “Okay then, so why won’t you let me create undead from my essence?”

  “It’s a waste of essence, when you are stronger than you can. For now, you have access to a dungeon, so use that.”

  Steven sighed. “Anyway, have you heard anything from Herald?”

  “No, I will inform you immediately when he comes into my range. Don’t worry, he will find information on Eve’s condition. Goskia came by again today and tried a few different potions on Miss Evesakia. He thinks he is making progress in figuring out what is happening to her body. He just needs time. From what he has told me, it seems she is still in the middle of transitioning from living into undead.”

  “Is it going to negatively affect her by staying in that form?”

  Silvia’s light dimmed. “I’m sorry, I don’t have the answer to that. I know she is important to you. And I promise I will do everything in my power to help her. Now I need to get back to the wisps. I’ll send Fidah up with some food.”

  Silvia then vanished with a pop. Steven just sat there on the edge of his bed. He had been considering pulling out one of the sentient undead to ask them, but Silvia said that wasnt a good idea. That those warriors were well equipped and may have something to let the undead empire know of their location. The last thing they needed was the undead coming after them.

  It wasn’t long before Fidah came up with some food. “Master, are you okay?”

  “Yes, I’m fine. It’s just Eve. Im worried about her. I feel as though I let her down.”

  Fidah looked down. “I’m sorry too. It’s my fault since I didn’t do anything when she was taken.”

  “I’m sorry I blamed you. There was nothing you could have done. That general was ridiculously strong he would had likely just turned you as well.”

  Steven pulled out his new wooden pipe. When he was done, he offered it to Fidah. She hesitatingly took it. “Do I just...”

  “Yes, just suck on it. You see this hole in the side here?” Steven was surprised at how foreign the simple wooden pipe was to everyone around here. Surely it’s not a new invention. No sooner than Fidah handed him the pipe back, his door swung open.

  “Master! Ive learned…” Nev stopped talking and glared at Fidah till she eventually got up and left.

  “Thanks for the food, Fidah. I appreciate you.”

  “Yes, of course. It is my pleasure, Master Odling.” Fidah called back.

  Nev closed the door. “Go on, lite that thing up.”

  Steven did so and passed it to the Spider Queen. “I have news that you will want to hear.”

  “Well, go on then.” Steven said.

  “Kiss me first.” Nev said with a wide smile.

  “Really?”

  “Yes, you have been all gloomy lately and haven’t flirted with me in a while.”

  Steven rolled his eyes. “Sorry, I’ve just had a lot on my mind. Ive also been worried about your upcoming meeting with the humans and elves.”

  Nev just patiently waited. Steven kissed her on the cheek. Nev said nothing and just continued to wait.

  “Fine.” Steven said as he kissed her on the lips.

  As soon as he did, Nev’s face lit up. “Take that wisp!”

  “Wait what?” Steven asked.

  “Nothing, Master, don’t worry about it. Also, there is no reason to worry about my meeting with the pesky humans and elves. What I wanted to tell you about was I’ve found out some information about Eve.”

  Steven’s eyes widened, and he sat up straighter. “Well, go on, tell me!”

  “So one of my drones was watching Eve as she was being held hostage, and he told me some interesting things.”

  “What sort of things?”

  “Well, it turned out the undead were...”

  Silvia appeared right between Steven and the Spider Queen with a slurping pop.

  “Really! You just had to kiss the spider.”

  Steven moved to look around the wisp. “Not right now! What were the undead doing to Eve?”

  “By kissing her first, you have consented to her!” Silvia said as she flew back into Steven’s view.

  Steven blinked a few times. “Wait. What? Ugh, never mind that at the moment. Nev has information on Eve.”

  Silvia’s light flickered, and she turned to Nev, who had a smug look on her face.

  “Looks like I’ve won the bet.” Nev said.

  “Hey! I don’t really give a shit about what game you two are playing.” Steven said before glaring at Nev. “Nev, as your Master, I order you to tell me what you know about Eve!”

  Nev stiffened as if controlled by some unseen force. Then began explaining what the drone had seen. It turned out the Undead was force feeding Eve some sort of black orb. When Nev was done speaking, she visibly relaxed.

  Steven was surprised that his order to Nev was so powerful. He hadn’t realized he could force her to do things. “Nev. I’m sorry, okay, I didn’t realize I could even order you around like that.”

  “It is fine Master. I could have refused. However, the consequences would have been bad.”

  “I’m also sorry I didn’t realize that you had information on Evesakia.” Silvia said, light dimming. “I do not know what that orb was. Did the drone say anything else? Was there a ritual or anything? Or did Miss Evesakia just simply eat these orbs?”

  “She just ate them, nothing more.”

  After discussing this further, Steven sighed and pulled out his pipe and loaded it. “At least we now have a lead. Thank you Nev.”

  “Yes Master, I also want to help Eve. You haven’t been the same since you lost her.”

  “Now may not be the best time, but I thought it best to tell you that the Shirem Naga has been outside the barrier asking to see Eve.” Silvia said.

  Steven shot up before just leaning back against the headboard. Taking a couple of puffs from his pipe, he spoke. “I don’t want him anywhere near Eve at the moment. He did try to kill me and I haven’t heard from Sirus as to why yet. Now leave me. I’m going to get some sleep. Don’t bother me less it’s concerning Eve, or life threating.”