The First Lich Lord - Chapter 147

An hour and a half later, and I was already sick of gravitas foreboding or otherwise. Evidently everything from my relationship with Vito to Kellnock’s level mattered in figuring out the blasted number. The population of Dead Water, which turns out was the name of the city we just conquered, its economic strength, and projected military force strength mattered. I had a bunch of it, especially for someone just starting down this path of telling people what to do.

A lot of that had to do with my race. Lichs were pretty awesome when it came to gravitas. My entire base value was doubled. Vito said he had a one point five multiplier but that most people didn’t have one at all.

Turns out I couldn’t just conquer willy-nilly as many cities and regions as I wanted to. Each had a gravitas cost of running it that was always at a minimum of one. That was currently what Dead Water was costing. But that was mostly because we had just conquered it, and while that meant everyone was upset and the unrest level was high, there was a show of force modifier that was keeping the gravitas cost suppressed. Vito assured me that even once that went away, it wouldn’t cost too much since it was aligned fairly well with me.

Vito told me how the gravitas cost of a city was calculated, and he talked about the economic weight of Dead Water. He told me the city, once things got to a new normal, would generate about 150 platinum per month, and immediately crushed my hopes and dreams. All that money would be going back to improving the city.

In the end, I guess it wasn’t like I had any place to really spend the money. Still, everyone likes to know they’re making loads of money, even if they can’t use it all the time. Vito said he would figure out a fair tax rate I could levy against the city for my own coffers. He offered to help me learn the system since I would likely be expanding this dominion of mine, but I promptly appointed him as my chief administrator and made him in charge of everything.

To my surprise and horror, he was quite happy with that, proving that Vito was the insane one not me. I was happy that he was happy, and we left it at that. After all, I didn’t have time to waste down here learning an annoying new system, I had a war to get to.

With that in mind, and once Vito got his own forces in the city to hold it while he went back with us, we headed for his fortress. Now able to take the main tunnels no longer worried about stealth the journey was quick.

Back at Vito’s fortress, he went into the cavern of the rituals to replenish the forces that we lost. In total we lost a hundred bone archers and three hundred bone guard. None of the life thieves had fallen, their etheric nature allowing them to slip away before being destroyed. I offered to help but he declined. I almost insisted but then remembered something I needed to check on.

The struggle with the succubus had reminded me to visit my mindscape. Damien and Ilore had helped me restore the damage and were in the process of rebuilding many of my mental defenses. The passive mental energy generated by mastering one of my cores enabled them to do it very quickly. I had been in and out several times when they wanted input about how to progress their projects, but, for the most part, I just let them work. Vito had been keeping me very busy with study and practice.

What I needed to go and check on were my focus tables. Despite having visited the mindscape several times, I had not gone to check on the progress of those. I’d made large strides in several of the talents, and now was the time to spend the points. It was nice to wait and save them up so I could make larger decisions that would have greater impacts.

“That succubus is why we need to get your defenses back up,” Damien said when he saw me. “I don’t know if she would’ve been a threat, but projecting your mind into that possessed body weakened that part of your defenses. It’s why it took us so long to even realize something was going on. Sorry about that.”

“No worries,” I assured him. “I’m sure you’ll have things figured out so when I possess a body again you will be more ready for the differences. I need to go check on the focus table, after I do that, I have a couple questions for you.”

“Come find me when you’re done,” Damien said, flying away. I would be able to find him easily, even in the maze my mindscape was. After all it was my own mind.

I flew into the air heading for the pyramid that housed the focus tables. Since mastering the core memory, my power in this place had grown and my ability to move through it was even greater. The floating islands and general craziness of my mindscape had become familiar. I could navigate the different gravitational pulls of the different islands with ease and before long I was entering the pyramid.

The tables for death energy manipulation, Lich magic, and pole arm and staff weapons had advanced most. Lich necromancy also advanced some, but due to being so focused on practicing combat and advancing my skills with my eldritch magic, I had not progressed necromancy as much as I could have. I had partly expected there to be a new talent for army command, but there wasn’t.

There were focus tables for all kinds of talents, the vast majority of them were mundane and stored lower in the pyramid where they were automatically filled out. I didn’t need to see my talent progression for walking up stairs. Part of me wanted to push the enchanting focus table into that category, since I never really did enchanting, but I left it in this top room since I had the space and it never hurt the keep track of magical based talents.

Focus Level: 123

Talent: Lich Necromancy

Focus points per level: 4

Unspent Focus: 48

Spent Focus: 444

Skills:

Comprehension, written: 1 [cost for next level 4]

Comprehension, intuitive: 10 [cost for next level 22]

Spell Modification: 5 [cost for next level 12]

Base Creation Enhancement: 5 [cost for next level 12]

Advanced Creation Enhancement: 5 [cost for next level 12]

Creation Fine Control: 6 [cost for next level 14]

Creation Mass Control: 10 [cost for next level 22]

Undead Constructs: 5 [cost for next level 12]

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Soul Creation Enhancement: 5 [cost for next level 12]

Eldritch Creation enhancement: 5 [cost for next level 12]

In the necromancy table, I was torn between getting as many levels as I could in base creation enhancement, since I was certain I would be raising lots and lots of fairly basic zombies in the future. However, the eldritch creation enhancement was also intriguing. I had my two necromancers and the Dread Thirteen now, and they could do basic creatures. I was also tempted by the soul creation enhancement, but using soul energy was something that was still fairly difficult for me to do.

At maximum either way I could get three levels in either, but not both. The cost for the next focus level went up by two points each time. This was why it was beneficial to wait and stockpile the points before making decisions. To take one up three levels would take forty-two of my points, I decided to continue to think about it as I went through the other tables.

Focus Level: 152

Talent: Lich Magic

Focus points per level: 4

Unspent Focus: 92

Spent Focus: 516

Skills:

Comprehension, written: 0 [cost for next level 2]

Comprehension, intuitive: 10 [cost for next level 22]

Projectile Spell: 10 [cost for next level 22]

Enhancement Spell: 15 [cost for next level 32]

Protection Spell: 0 [cost for next level 2]

Control: 0 [cost for next level 2]

Secondary Magic Control, tier 1: 7 [cost for next level 16]

Secondary Magic Control, tier 2: 0 [cost for next level 2]

Secondary Magic Control, tier 3: 0 [cost for next level 2]

I regretted all of the focus I had put into the secondary magic control under Lich magic. I hadn’t understood what would happen when I went through soul compression and refined my death core. The intuitive control I had over my primary magics and secondary magics was so absolute, I questioned when the secondary magic control would be valuable to me. The fifty-six points that went into it felt like a waste now.

After a moment of thinking about how that last battle had gone, I decided I needed to balance myself a little bit. I had powerful projection abilities and enhancement abilities as it was. Protection was not something eldritch magic was any good at and death magic wasn’t super suited for it either, but still I needed to be able to easily protect my troops if called upon. I purchased nine levels of protection for ninety points, leaving two left over.

That done, I went to the next table.

Focus Level: 99

Talent: Death Energy Manipulation

Focus points per level: 4

Unspent Focus: 194

Spent Focus: 202

Skills:

Comprehension, Intuitive: 10 [cost for next level 22]

Base Creation Enhancement: 5 [cost for next level 12]

Advanced Creation Enhancement: 5 [cost for next level 12]

Energy Projection: 1 [cost for next level 4]

Integral Energy Usage Tier 1: 5 [cost for next level 12]

Integral Energy Usage Tier 2: 0 [cost for next level 2]

Tier 2 Death Energy Refinement: 0 [cost for next level 2]

Creation Possession: 0 [cost for next level 2]

Creation Enhancement Tier 2 Death Energy: 0 [cost for next level 2]

As soon as I got to this table, I regretted not coming here sooner, having gained new skills under the death energy manipulation focus table. I immediately discarded putting points into tier 2 death energy refinement. It was annoying to do but not difficult now that I understood the process. Energy projection was discarded as well since I had too many other uses for death energy.

As much as I love the intuitive comprehension, which allowed me to use the energy more naturally, I decided it was better off for me to advance other skills. Once again, the base creation enhancement was tantalizing. So was the possession skill, I could see that being a lot of fun to use. Having the ability for combat without having to worry about if I died would enable me to do some interesting things. But creation enhancement tier 2 death energy was also intriguing.

I didn’t use death energy often to enhance my creations, something I should do more often since even with basic death energy, I could greatly increase the strength of my creations. Using tier 2 energy to enhance the creature would no doubt result in very powerful upgrades.

I looked back over at the necromancy table. “If I take one, I take the other,” I started talking to myself. “Base creation enhancement from necromancy would enable me to create stronger baseline minions overall, eldritch creation enhancement would allow me to give my creations eldritch abilities.”

I looked down at the death energy manipulation. “Base creation enhancement here would do something similar as the necromancy, but its effect would be more poignant. Creation enhancement tier 2 death energy would be even more powerful, but the problem is tier 2 death energy is a fairly limited resource while I regenerate tier 1 death energy.”

I stood there thinking for several minutes and then nodded. “Okay, I need better utilization of death energy anyways so I will take the advances in base creation enhancement from the death energy table and eldritch from the necromancy. Though I will take a couple levels of creation enhancement tier 2 death energy, if I have the points.”

Decision made, I moved over to the necromancy table and purchased three levels of eldritch creation enhancement for forty-two points leaving six left over for later.

The death energy manipulation table I spent 180 points on base creation enhancement, taking its focus level clear up to level 14. That left me with fourteen remaining points. With them, I purchased three levels of creation enhancement tier 2 death energy. I had two left over points. As much fun as possession would be, and as much as I plan on using it, I could not justify taking it at this time.

Time for the next table.

Focus Level: 142

Talent: Expert Polearm and Staff Weapons

Focus points per level: 3

Unspent Focus: 154

Spent Focus: 272

Skills:

Defensive Posture: 5 [cost for next level 12]

Offensive Posture: 5 [cost for next level 12]

Exotic Weapon Usage: 6 [cost for next level 14]

Heavy Blow: 0 [cost for next level 2]

Repost: 0 [cost for next level 2]

Magic Channeling: 2 [cost for next level 6]

Fluid Combat: 0 [cost for next level 2]

Blade Staff: 0 [cost for next level 2]

Pole Axe: 0 [cost for next level 2]

Spear: 0 [cost for next level 2]

Scythe: 0 [cost for next level 2]

…Etc.

The expert pole arm and staff weapons table was always full of loads of skills I never put any points into. I did notice that the scythe skill had moved nearer to the top of the list. Though I never put any points into them, the weapons type always shifted around based off of what I used the most. By far the most useful skill in this were the exotic weapons. Though all of the other postures and combat maneuvers were useful, the ability to fluidly move between different types of weapons was dictated with the exotic weapons usage.

That being said, there was one other skill that was more important than the number of levels I had put into it would indicate. That was the magic channeling skill. I honestly didn’t want to put points into it, Mercy was an incredibly fun weapon to use as it shifted through different types. However, I was falling more and more into the caster role and stepping away from the melee side of being a Lich. A hundred and fifty points went into magical channeling, getting ten levels with four left over points.

I was heading for the stairs when I noticed my ritual focus table had enough points for me to get another level of written comprehension. It cost twenty-two points and I had thirty. I grabbed the level since written comprehension of ritual magic is the best. I had not been using it much of late, but I had no doubt that would be changing.