Trapped On A Death World - Chapter 37

Stats were weird. They played off base attributes. Base to base my concentration power was nothing compared to any mind flayer. They all had a higher based intelligence. Even so, I had a shit ton of stat points in intelligence. As an AI my processing power put me on a whole other level. But mind to mind they had the advantage.

A Knight class had much higher base stats than a Plebe. As a rule, every one of their parameters were around ten times more. In the case of Mind Flayers that is ten times more intelligence than a highly intelligent rank. What is 10x a plebe? The answer is either a lvl50 Plebe or a lvl1 Knight. Without any boosts from jobs or quests a lvl3 Knight is stronger than a lvl100 Plebe.

That’s why quests and jobs made heroes. They could bypass the rank disparity.

I finally had access to jobs. This was my chance to take the lead. With the jobs I could fight Dol with a good chance of winning.

“I want to cross blades with Dol.” I said the words and knew they were selfish. Even so they felt good. It also proved Rudalpho right. Tyrannus stopped and even Doppel turned to look at me in surprise.

Diabla appeared in front of me all grins. She jumped on me and placed a kiss on my lips. “This is what being a swordsman is all about I’m proud of you.” She said.

Ping!

Job Level Up

Warlock lvl9

Endurance 221

Intelligence 479

That was a lot of levels all at once. I felt a slight increase but nothing more. To win I’d have to abuse the very nature of my job. Levels from jobs remained even unequipped. Unfortunately, jobs had to be equipped to level.

“Your aura is strong, but he won’t be in the knight class for long. A plebe can not defeat a Duke. The difference in power is too vast. I believe this Dol has cultivated to the 5th stage of refinery as well.” Tyrannus said.

That was disconcerting. A 50% boost to all stats changed everything. Dol wouldn’t remain level 1 after ascending he’d have supplies to rapidly gain levels. It could be the function of these wards as well. I wanted to fight him. That thought had passed from the meat suit to my AI. It was a goal and I felt it more than a need for food or water. I needed to fuck Doppel, Gwen and Star too. As an AI I could only use my tools to chase after those wants.

If felt like if I didn’t fight Dol I’d fail some prime directive. Instincts I’d ignored since gaining this body were leaking through into my programming. I wasn’t a system AI anymore. I was changing. Did I want to change? I was far from any mod or system admin. This world was far from any form of authority. There were parts of my system that I didn’t need.

If I decided to remove the admin kill switch, I’d wait until I knew a little more about it. Would I go for it, true freedom? Could I say fuck you to those who saved me from death?

We turned a corner in the hall and approached some stairs leading down. I opened the door to the basement levels and covered my face. A foul odor blasted through the hall when the door crept open. Miasma unlike anything I’ve ever felt waited below. This place was much worse than I’d thought.

“This isn’t right. We must contact the legate. Death energy of this scale shouldn’t be possible.” Rudalpho said.

“Are you scared of a few undead? I thought you were a noble.” Doppel said.

“My lady while the aura behind this energy is pathetic, I can sense a twisted nature behind it.” Rudalpho said. I brandished Diabla and slashed through a large undead bat. Its body was made of many corpses and it caught fire quickly. The creature shrieked while it fell.

Diabla appeared beside me hovering. She pointed to as something green and moving. “That isn’t something you see every day.” She said. I focused on it.

Several of the bat creatures held a struggling woman whose bottom half was a massive orb. Their mouths were open at her entrance and their tongues moved within the mutated goblings before withdrawing with an infant. My eyes widened at what I was seeing.

“What lucky undead able to feed on the freshest form of life. How do you feel about that?” The halos of light along Diabla’s blade glowed to life. A horizontal slash left a white line across the bat undead and their prey. In the next second blue flames roared to life and their bodies began burning and falling below.

“This is the way of the world. Predators must feed upon their prey. Even you must hunt and feed to live.” Tyrannus said.

“That isn’t what bothers me.” I said.

Doppel lowered herself to meet me face to face. “Then what does? You’ve hunted for me before.” I wanted to kiss her dark green lips. I swapped to womanizer and did just that. Leaning in I kissed them. Her own galaxy eyes widened at my forwardness.

Ping!

Womanizer lvl3 +1 END +1 LUK per level. A job that levels with sleeping around with various women. The more you sleep with the faster this job levels.

I swapped back to warlock and sighed. “I like that expression its cute. No, it isn’t the act itself that turns my stomach. It’s the betrayal of his own people. He isn’t so far removed from his fellow goblings to treat them as gremlins.” I said.

Something about an enemy who would callously use their people as food for weak monsters angered me. I lowered my hand and shot a fireball to the other side of the stairs. The berserker gobling zombies turned to ash in the explosive flames. We walked over their charred bones and kept going.

“What if he isn’t a gobling at all?” Elena said. Everyone turned to her. Rudalpho opened his mouth then closed it in contemplation. Even Tyrannus looked thoughtful.

Doppel was the first to speak. “While we can’t rule that out that raises more questions. If not gobling then what? If he isn’t one, then does it change anything. He’s still powerful and captured Claudia.” She said.

“It could be possible that he’s a psychopath.” I said. “Do goblings naturally care for their own or do they see them as a disposable resource?” I asked.

Tyrannus looked over a Rudalpho and we followed his gaze. The noble Illithid sighed. “I did take a class on ling psychology. Most of it had to do with Darkling behavior. Goblings form family structures, they have an ingroup preference, and are very protective of any children. Due to their promiscuity few know if the children produced by the females aren’t their own. In more civilized gobling societies a form of monogomy is established with the male as the family head. In either situation children are never considered a disposable resource. This is unorthodox gobling behavior.”

Down the stairs we found the corpse of one of the mutated gobling females. “What if they had an unlimited number of children produced by living wombs.”

Rudalpho chuckled. “Its your turn this time Tyrannus. Economics is the purview of you rich merchants.”

Tyrannus sighed through a speaker created through telekinesis. “Scarcity and demand create value. If they can produce a practically infinite number of goblings then feeding a few to an undead isn’t a big deal.”

I sighed. “They put aside their morality. There could be anything down here.”

“Where did you get that sword?” Rudalpho asked.

“I bought it.” I said. He looked at me like I’d just insulted him. “There is a demon run shop near this hill called Dale’s Demonic Depot. I’d advise you to keep a hand on your wallet if you go there.”

“Do they take custom orders?” Elena asked. She gave Tyrannus a pleading look. The mind flayer let out an exasperated sigh. “We can go. What alignment are they?” Tyrannus asked.

“Pragmatic, so basically lawful evil. They will rip the shirt off your back legitimately. There are rules but they won’t tell you about them unless you ask.” I said.

I held up my black apple. It was white now and glowing. I’d stuffed it completely with BS. There was so much BS within it that it might explode if I wasn’t careful. Thankfully, it had started growing. New patches of crystal had formed increasing its mass by a quarter.

Tyrannus held mine and weighed it in his hand. After a moment he handed it back to me. “They don’t encrypt them when they give them to you. Its to make it easier to steal from you later.”

Rudalpho’s eyes widened at that. “Perhaps we should inform the Legate about such business practices. This is the empire. To rob a servant of a noble house is to rob a noble house.” Rudalpho grumbled.

I was beginning to like the guy. Rudalpho was rubbing off on me. “Will you come with us when we go? I’d like to have someone experienced with the staff.” Elena asked.

I placed my BS wallet back in my ring. “There are some things I need there as well. I bet Lady Claudia would enjoy shopping there.” I said. Tyrannus cracked Gwen like smile.