Shoutout to Anthony Walker for becoming a new Patron! Thanks mate!
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Eden walked through the receding flames, glancing at the charred remains of the Players, and the three survivors.
Strengthened Fireball dealt 95 fire damage. The Necronomicon increased that by 35%. The defence of Tier 0 beings, so all except one, was lowered by 25%.
The only ones who managed to survive were Lady Esmeralda, Drakon and Osmond. Even then, the first two were in pretty rough shapes.
Osmond, who fared the best, turned to look at Eden, his eyes holding a terrible rage as he roared, bringing his warhammer up as he rushed to attack Eden.
He only made a step before a Dark Bolt struck him squarely in the chest.
A large chunk of the HP he had left disappeared, and he was forced to a knee as his warhammer dropped. Still, he held on furiously, looking up at Eden with gnashed teeth.
"You'll make a good Evil Spirit."
"I cast Evil Possession."
"I cast Demon Claw."
The team leader of the Freedom Alliance finally died with a grudge as the beastly claw tore his throat apart, and his spirit was corrupted by darkness, attaching itself to Eden.
[Would you like to change your Evil Servant from 'Guardian of the Underworld' to 'Osmond'?]
Eden accepted readily, and as he did, felt his previous connection to Guardian vanish. Their time together had been brief, but he had been a good undead. He had been turned useless by now, unfortunately.
As nearly half of Eden's total MP vanished, a new connection formed itself as Osmond rose from the ground, much to the horror of those left.
Then, Eden turned to the last two survivors, Lady Esmeralda Maria Consuela Anna de Sevilla and Drakon.
The latter was looking at him with a resigned look, his body charred from the earlier fireball. Eden was sure he still had some fight in him, but was wise enough to understand he would not close the distance between them fast enough, or dodge a Dark Bolt as he was laying on the ground. Adding Osmond to that made any resistance futile.
As for Lady Esmeralda, she did not fare any better than Drakon and looked at him with venomous eyes as she cursed in Spanish, "Just you wait, you vile necromancer! Every pirate now knows you are behind the Rogue Pirates! Even if you kill me, you won't live much longer?"
Eden cocked an eyebrow, shifting his gaze to Drakon as he asked, "Is that right?"
Seeing his carefree attitude, Drakon felt a smidgen of hope rise in his chest as he shrugged painfully, his burns sending jolts of pain through his body as he said, "The French and Spanish are coming for you. I think the guilds are using you as a scapegoat to make the pirates work together."
Eden nodded, feeling the guess made sense. If the French and Spanish Royal Navies really sent fleets to attack, the pirates would not survive if they had internal fighting. After all, the Rogue Pirates were still pirates in the end, and they would better blend in with the other pirates than allow the navies to be the cicada.
Knowing he was running on a tight schedule, Eden approached Lady Esmeralda, retrieving the Necronomicon Copy as he chopped the side of her neck, knocking her out.
This was one of the skills he had learned through the Specialized Training Hall, knowing the ability to incapacitate someone without killing them could come in useful. It did, today.
Next to him, Drakon did not dare to move as Osmond looked down at him with empty eyes, but having seen Guardian before, he knew that the faintest trace of aggression would end painfully for him.
Silently ordering Osmond to pick her up, Eden addressed the elephant in the room, "I'm not going to kill you, if you were wondering."
Drakon slowly and carefully rose against the wall, taking out a health potion as he asked, "Out of the goodness of your heart, I presume?"
This made Eden laugh, though he did not waste any time to correct, "I need you to do something for me. Try to spread the information as best as possible, tell them I am on the western side of the city. But I want you to secretly tell Don Rafael of my real location. Tell him that if he does not come alone, Esmeralda gets it."
Drakon looked perplexed as he queried, "You are just trusting me to do as you say? To betray my guild to help you? What stops me from simply telling everyone where you are?"
It might sound like a foolish question that could only lend him in trouble, and honestly, were he to be dealing with a fool, Drakon would not have asked this question. He doubted Eden truly had not taken that into account though, so he let his curiosity get the best of him.
Eden smiled, taking out a chair he had stolen in his time in the Bowels, and started tying Esmeralda to it as he explained, "You could do that, and get absolutely no reward, along with Don Rafael's enmity for causing his granddaughter's death. Or, you could follow my words, and get a chance to fish in the troubled waters."
Drakon frowned, clearly weighing his options, and Eden added lightheartedly, "Well, I also spared your life, so we could say you are simply returning the favor."
Eden could see Drakon was careful around him, often treating him like a bomb ready to set off at any time, or a coiled snake waiting for the opportunity to strike.
Thus, this carefree attitude translated to confidence for Drakon, which would lead him to overthink.
This was the thing about cautious and smart people. To them, everything had to make sense, and no action could be random. Every word, every gesture had a meaning, and to an extent, Eden also suffered from it.
The difference was that he was aware of it, allowing him to make use of it as Drakon started speculating that he had a way to survive if he really did reveal to everyone Eden's location.
After a moment, Drakon wordlessly left, leaving Eden alone with the tied up Lady Esmeralda, so he took out the Skull, engulfing their surroundings in necrotic energy. It was nearly invisible in the dim environment of the bowels, and would debuff anyone entering. More importantly, it allowed Eden to rapidly recover his MP.
"I cast Evil Possession."
Taking out a dagger, Eden placed the few Evil Spirits he had accumulated in the past few days into it, before placing it into Lady Esmeralda's hands. She was unconscious, so Eden tied the dagger firmly to her hands, giving her arms just the right amount of freedom to stab with it. The blade was pointed at her chest.
With that done, Eden sat down, and quickly started meditating, to recover his severely lacking MP.
It would take a few minutes for Drakon to find Don Rafael in the city, and for the Pirate Lord to arrive, so that gave him time. Of course, there was also the possibility that Drakon would warn other parties of his presence here, and they would arrive sooner, but if he really did that, Eden had little chances of survival anyway.
It had been hard enough to avoid the search of Don Rafael's men for the past two days, so if every pirate and Player present in Shipwreck City searched for him, he would not last a day before being found.
Fortunately, it seemed he won his bet as Eden managed to recover his full MP. Although his mana pool had increased in size, the speed at which he recovered it had also increased, as they seemed tied together.
With his MP back to full, and Don Rafael having still not arrived, Eden kept the Skull in his hand, allowing the necrotic miasma to thicken in the room, while he opened the Player Caches of the few he had killed just now.
Their weapons and armors had unfortunately been partially melted by his fireball, thus rendered useless. They mostly had Common to Uncommon equipment, which did not fare well against Eden's full powered Strengthened Fireball.
Their Inventories had interesting items, though.
First off, Eden got 3247 Dream Points from them, the majority coming from Osmond, which brought his total to 11792. This was enough to buy some of the cheapest Rare items.
Even better though were the potions, as Eden got 11 Minor Health Potions, which was a godsend considering he had used his last one a couple of day ago when he got shot by that sniper, as well as one Lesser Health Potion.
It was a higher grade of healing potion that healed 90 HP instead of 25. It came from Osmond.
Finally, there was the warhammer Osmond had dropped.
It looked quite out of its time, with a futuristic feel to it. It was red, made completely out of metal, and its head was an intricately forged piece of steel. It was very heavy, so much so that Eden struggled to even pick it up to put it in his Inventory.
[Sasquatch's Hammer]
[Rank: Rare]
[Attack: +100]
[Strength: +6]
[Agility: -1]
[Kinetic Assault: All strikes dealt with this weapon ignore 10% armor.]
[Sasquatch Fury: All strikes with this weapon will knock-back the target.]
It was a powerful weapon, one that would be especially deadly in the hands of someone strong. It was also the first time Eden saw an equipment that reduced an attribute.
Fighting someone in melee with this hammer must be a nightmare, especially if used by someone strong enough to wield it appropriately. Someone like Osmond. Adding to that the Uncommon armor he was wearing, though damaged, Osmond could give a fight to basically anyone in this world.
Unfortunately for him, strength was not everything, as Don Rafael would soon learn.
Eden kept the hammer in his Inventory, ordering Osmond to pick one of the damaged Uncommon weapons instead, when he saw Don Rafael trying to discreetly approach.
Eden still had his Dark Vision, which lasted for an hour, activated, so he easily saw him, and said, "Sneaky little mouse."
Don Rafael froze, before fully revealing himself, his voice carrying a not so well hidden fury, "Where is Esmeralda, vile necromancer!"
Eden put the Skull back in his inventory, picking up one of the damaged swords, as they were still better than Common weapons, and said, "Right here, let me wake her up."
With a precise move, Eden stabbed Esmeralda in the shoulder, severing the tendons as she woke up with a throaty scream of pain.
"Esmeralda!"
Throwing caution to the wind, Don Rafael rushed into the darkness, aiming an attack at Eden, but Osmond put himself in his way, forcing him to stop and parry the incoming blow.
With Esmeralda awake, Eden focused and cast, "I cast Mists of the Underworld."
A three-layered concentric magical circle appeared in front of Eden as he cast his spell, covering the whole room and some more into complete darkness.
[Mists of the Underworld (3rd Circle): Conjure a cloud of darkness with a radius of 5 (10) meters that heavily obscures vision and lowers all attributes by 3 (8) for those standing in it. Lasts for 1 (5) minute. Cost: 350 (90) MP.]
3rd Circle spells were distinctly harder to master than 1st and 2nd Circle ones, there was an obvious jump between Tier 0 and Tier I territory.
Despite having been in Shipwreck City for two days, he had just mastered it to perfection. As expected, the cost had been drastically lowered from before, and its effects were overwhelming.
Don Rafael noticeably slowed down as the spell took effect, and he could not help himself from coughing as he engaged Osmond, who was unaffected due his undead nature. He was animated by necrotic energy, so this spell had no effect on him.
Both Don Rafael and Osmond were blinded, while Eden could barely figure out their silhouettes. It was enough to fight.