Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2019 21:40:24 +0000 From: wayne unknown Subject: Vainglorious chapter 6 Day 8 Ren returned from his secret outing & I ask him what happened as he looks disheveled & reeks of sweat & cum. "I visited Damon & Thad, they're the supervisors for the boundary & they weren't pleased that I turned a Champion without permission. So they roughed me up a bit." I looked him over & his shirt was ripped as were his leather pants. "Couldn't you fight back?" He shook his head wearily "You don't understand, they've been here nearly a year, they regularly drain the manticores & lizardmen." That made it more complicated, the lizardmen were level 90 monsters with their leader being level 100 while the manticores start at level 100 with their boss being 110. The lizardmen were located in a swamp toward the eastern side of the kingdom where few adventurers traveled due to the terrain being terrible for movement & the abundance of poisonous & dangerous predators. The manticores were located near the border between the kingdom & a larger nation. They had superior speed & strength & high intelligence for monsters. They had the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion & a face of a demon. The manticore boss was similar except it had large bat wings & could fly short range. The manticores were the favored prey of the paladins & priests of Helios due to their demonic background which made them vulnerable to holy attacks. "Are you okay?" "Yeah I'll be fine. I have the list of areas we can farm for the week." Ren went on to explain that Damon & Thad coordinated the handful of vampires in the Vampire Cave to farm certain areas for blood draining & to collect captives for the blood bank. Damon & Thad coordinated with Ratede the hidden vampire city to arrange deliveries of supplies & personnel. If a vampire could survive a year on the edge they were considered a vampire warrior. If not, they either returned to Ratede to become a normal citizen or died protecting the hidden city from potential threats. I asked "So tell me more about Damon & Thad. What level are they? What class are they? How high are their stats exactly?" Ren replied with "I don't want you trying to defend my honor, you'll get killed. Damon's a warrior & Thad's a mage. They're level 120 & their stats hover around the ten thousand mark." "Shit." Ren saw straight through my plan to attack the stupid bastards. I'd just have to bide my time & fuck them up when I'm stronger or when I got more information about them. I had a history of taking down monsters with higher stats than me by making use of unconventional tactics but I didn't know where they lived or what they looked like so I had to wait for now. "I'll introduce you next week." "Great I'm looking forward to it." "No need to be sarcastic." Despite our telepathic bond, Ren & I weren't always in sync. The telepathic bond was weird, it'd allow us to share skill knowledge easier & know when the other was in danger but it was very haphazard when it came to emotions. I changed the topic "So what are we hunting tonight?" "Ogres." "Great. We can try for a clear this time around, presuming both of the twins show up. " Night 8 After checking the party stats (a privilege accorded to me as the party leader) I discovered that Angus had gained 3 strength, Barta gained 3, a nice side effect of the [Blood Pact]. Tom & Tim gained 2 strength each, 1 strength from the [Blood Pact] & 1 from strength elixirs. We set off to kill some Ogres, due to our previous experience, we progressed smoothly for the first couple of hundred Ogres without too much trouble. Either Ren or I would use our superior strength to hold the Ogre in place for draining while using [Bleed] & [Concentrate] to speed up blood flow & reduce blood volume. I gained 400 strength & 200 vitality, while Ren's stats rose by 800 strength, 400 vitality & 100 stamina. However after we had drained the first couple hundred Ogres things took a turn down a strange path. Ren turned more aggressive on the Ogres once we didn't need to hide our blood drinking from any potential witnesses (which considering it was night time under a blood red moon was unlikely anyway). Ren sliced a wound on his palm with his borrowed sword & used [Blood Missile] ten times on a single Ogre. It suffered poison damage after every hit, it's health dropping more and more after every hit. It died without landing a single blow but it cost Ren 259 vitality, just to kill a single Ogre. I didn't really understand the point when a single strike with the sword would have killed the Ogre as Ren's strength was five times higher than the Ogre & with the extra damage from the force multiplication from the sword, it would have been a simple kill. The next time Ren used [Blood Missile] on a lone Ogre it inflicted physical & poison damage. The damage had risen a lot from the initial [Blood missile] which caused 310 damage & 31 damage for 2 seconds. Ren's level 2 [Blood Missile] cost 1% of the two strongest stats, in Ren's case, strength & vitality & did 20% of stats as damage. It caused 580 poison damage on the initial hit & 58 damage for 4 more seconds, it also inflicted 411 physical damage. It cost him 29 vitality & 28 strength to use a single [Blood missile] though. A second [Blood Missile] finished off the Ogre's 2000 health. (All monsters were considered warriors & had ten times their vitality as base health) Ren discarded this attack method shortly after & started using more aggressive earth magic than he normally did. I assumed he was venting his frustration on the Ogres since he couldn't beat up Damon or Thad. He used [Stone Prison] more often to isolate Ogres for a moment before they'd break through the stone walls. I gained [Stone Prison] but due to my lack of earth mage specialization I didn't have enough mana to make use of it more than once at a time. He used a more intense version of [Stone prison], instead of simply creating 4 walls around a target to isolate it from the fight he created a stone ceiling as well & used [Rock Break] on all 6 sides pulverizing the pitiful ogres. After using this method of elimination on over a dozen Ogres, Ren & I gained [Tomb] & [Tomb Break] as well as [Earth mastery] [Tomb level 1: Creates a tomb consisting of 4 walls and a stone ceiling around a target, temporarily entombing it.] [Tomb Break level 1: Violently destroys a tomb, allowing no escape as six sides are infused with mana and bombard the target with mana enhanced rocks.] [Earth Mastery level 1: Minor control of the earth, effectiveness of earth spells receive minor boost (10%)] Tom inspired by Ren's new aggressiveness in combat, gained a new spell as well. He kept using [Wind Blade] in rapid succession on every Ogre he saw quickly burning through his mana reserves. After hitting level 5 for [Wind Blade] he gained [Tempest Blade], a spell that created two blades of wind to strike the target at higher velocity for more damage. Angus & Barta were quite useful, alternating [Alpha's Roar] to increase damage for the party. They also pinned down stragglers & ripped out their throats using [Gigantism] to boost their damage. Tim comparatively was the calmest of the party, sniping Ogres & keeping his [Hawk's eye] engaged for watching out for Ogres or competition. We progressed all the way through the Ogre forest draining and or killing every Ogre we saw until we found the Ogre Chieftain. As a boss monster of the Ogre forest, he had more than double the stats of a level 60 Ogre and at level 70 he had another ability [Smite] [Smite: A successful hit will cause the target to be stunned for a couple of seconds] Level 70 Ogre chieftain Strength: 880 Dexterity: 80 Agility: 100 Intelligence: 100 Stamina: 120 Charisma: 40 Vitality: 440 He was also surrounded with a group of 9 elite Ogres ranging from level 61 to 65. After our party killed our way through the Elite Ogres, Ren said "I want to capture the Ogre Chieftain alive." I didn't know why he wanted to do so but I directed the party to spread out after Angus & Barta gave us the attack buff. After Ren hit it with a couple of [Blood Missiles] & Tim bombarded it with [Poison Arrow] & Tom used [Tempest Blade] to drop it's health to critical level, I tackled it to the ground & pinned it down. Ren grabbed it's arms while I grabbed its feet and we carried its unwilling & struggling body back home to Ren's cave. [You've cleared the Ogre Forest of Ogres, the God of War, The God of Death & the God of Order grant you a premium Ogre Mana Stone as a reward.] The announcement was a bit surprising since we didn't kill all the Ogres in the forest but I guess physically dragging the last Ogre survivor out of it's assigned area counted. I gave the mana stone to Tom so he could improve his equipment. If he gave it to a Master blacksmith with mana crafting skills, he could imbue an armor with physical resistance. Always useful for a squishy mage to have better defensive equipment. At least until they reached level 100 & gained [Mana Shield] Ren entombed the Ogre chieftain in his own private stone room to be drained later. My stats had grown to Strength:1845 Dexterity: 510 Agility: 510 Intelligence: 203 Stamina: 360 Charisma: 10 Vitality: 1466 Ren's Stats were Strength: 2700 Dexterity: 800 Agility: 800 Intelligence: 500 Stamina: 1000 Charisma: 200 Vitality: 2800 Day 9 Mandatory Log out for 12 hours. Night 9 Ren drank from the Ogre Chieftain & gained [Smite]. [Smite has been gained] He gained 16 strength, 2 agility, 2 intelligence, 2 stamina, 8 vitality. We raided the Doom Wolves and I gained 100 strength, 200 Agility, 100 stamina, 200 Dexterity, 100 Intelligence & 100 vitality. Strength: 1945 Dexterity: 710 Agility: 710 Intelligence: 303 Stamina: 460 Charisma: 10 Vitality: 1566 Ren gained 200 strength, 400 Agility, 200 stamina, 400 Dexterity, 200 Intelligence, 100 charisma & 200 vitality. He developed a new earth spell to deal with the Doom Wolves [Labyrinth] [Labyrinth level 1: trap your enemies in a maze of earth temporarily] Ren's stats Strength: 2900 Dexterity: 1200 Agility: 1200 Intelligence: 700 Stamina: 1000 Charisma: 300 Vitality: 3000 Night 10 I used [Blood Pact] for the first time since it had leveled up. Ren had told me it was not a good idea to use [Blood Pact] constantly on the Doom Wolves as it would set a bad habit & they could become difficult to control if they grew reliant on the power ups. Ren used [Blood Pact] on Tim & Barta, Barta gained 261 strength & 270 vitality, Tim gained 237 strength & 245 vitality. Ren's strength dropped to 2402 & his vitality dropped to 2485. I used [Blood Pact] on Tom & Angus, Angus gained 175 strength & 140 vitality while Tom gained 159 strength & 128 vitality. My strength dropped to 1611 & my vitality dropped to 1298 We hunted Trolls together & it went a lot easier than it did last time as the levels of the party had increased significantly & the teamwork between the Alpha Doom Wolves & the rest of the team's attacks had become smoother with practice. We only hunted the Wild Trolls as their intelligence & team work was far inferior to their counterparts in Troll Town. The 'civilised' Trolls in Troll Town lived within a wooden pallisade (a hill fort with tree log stakes as a fence/wall). The 'wild' & 'civilised' Trolls engaged in a routine spawn slaughter every 8 hours where the two Troll Kings would clash brutally along with their armies. I'd seen a video clip of it before in the forums it was a slug fest. Humanoid monsters were considered the most dangerous of monsters regardless of stats as they tended to have higher levels of tactics & weaponry than the other monsters. Trolls, Orcs & Lizardmen even had what could be considered fledgling civilisations, stuck at the tribal stage as the humans would never let them build up for long without an elimination squad being gathered to purge them. The levels of the party members grew much closer together after draining & killing a couple of hundred Trolls together. My level had grown to level 72, Ren's was level 69, Tim & Tom were level 68 & Barta was level 66, while Angus was level 65. After every level up of our 'Blood Thralls' Ren would drain them using a knife to open an artery & [Bleed] & [Concentrate] to make it faster & [Earthern Construction] to create stone jars to store the blood in, Ren would give me the stone jars to store as an 'emergency supply' in my dimensional storage. After doing this a dozen Ren gained [Stone Jar] & due to the paramour's synergy I gained it too. [Stone Jar: Control the earth to create a simple stone jar of basic durability.] I gained 3 jars of Tim & Tom's blood, 6 jars of Barta's blood & 5 jars of Angus's blood. Ren explained that it would be better to use later when our blood digestion had risen to level 3 as it would be more useful as we'd gain more stats & skills than if we were to drink it immediately. After draining the Trolls of their blood I gained 600 vitality, 300 Strength & 100 stamina. Ren gained 1200 vitality, 600 strength & 200 stamina. After draining the 100th Troll I heard the announcement that [Blood Digestion] had risen to level 2. Blood Digestion level 2: 2% of a target's stats will be absorbed, limit of 100 monsters a day, slight chance of learned skills will be acquired. I asked Ren what that meant & Ren explained that it was only ever really useful on human prisoners or blood thralls. It allowed a master vampire to gain skills such as blacksmithing or swordsmanship without ever having to pick up a hammer or sword previously. It was an exciting discovery if not immediately useful. With [Blood Digestion level 2], I'd gain the same amount of stats as Ren did from draining targets. Ren told me that it'd take another 100 days of draining 100 targets to progress to blood digestion 3. Damon & Thad both had level 3 blood digestion, which was worrisome. I had also been making use of the day time in between sexual encounters to hone my skills with using [Transformation] and [Blockade]. I used [Transformation] to essentially harden my body to lower damage similar to [Blockade]. Then I would use [Blockade] to reinforce my body again so that I took minimal damage from physical attacks. Ren continued to teach me how to hone my skills with the earth magic [Rock Break] and [Earthern Construction]. With my increased intelligence, it was much more effective and easier to control the earth and my mana wasn't drained so quickly. 1911 strength 710 dexterity 710 agility 303 intelligence 460 stamina 10 charisma 1898 vitality Ren's stats Strength: 3002 Dexterity: 1200 Agility: 1200 Intelligence: 700 Stamina: 1200 Charisma: 300 Vitality: 3685 After less than a fortnight, my stats had been multiplied by 4 to 5 times their original amounts and [Blood Pact] and [Blood Digestion] had both leveled up to level 2. The sunlight penalty had dropped to 70%. Unfortunately my other vampiric skills had remained static. **************************************** Author's Note If you enjoy the story let me know via the email waynewriteswords@outlook.com .Feedback allows me to know what is working & what isn't. If you enjoy the stories available on nifty & you have spare cash think about donating to keep the services running.