skirted the stagnant pond and the wisps of violet mist that seeped from its waters, sing the decayed trunks fns of undead. He did not have Mato’s attat to nature, but even he felt sick at the sight of the creeping miasma ah that hung over the rotting remains of the vibrant forest he had spent so much of his youth expl.

  Fug neancers. He gnced backward guiltily, catg sight of Seth bringing up the rear with his skeletons. I guess not all of them are bad, he quickly corrected himself. Alexander Gray, however… he deserved every bit of ’s ire. If they hadn’t already killed him, he would do it again just because of this devastation.

  He darted up the side of a low rise, weaving around the rot and decay, and paused as he reached the crest, studying the ndscape up ahead. Both Teagan and Aiden’s groups had jumped at the opportunity to join him and Mato on this hunt, so he was esc aire raid group of bronze-ranked advehrough the decrepit fallen boughs of the once beautiful forest to the south of Myrin’s Keep. ’t even call this a forest anymore. No. It’s a graveyard. A grave for trees.

  “Show me,” he said. His shadows, Willow and Devan, approached, demonstrating the results of their training with the guild – both moved across the soggy ground with respectable silend stealth. o himself. They were well on their way to being skilled scouts.

  “Here,” Willow said. “Cami smell them.”

  The Adventurers Guild had been tracted to deihe blight with a priority to focus on opening the South Road. This was the same road the Kel’darran sver caravan had takehey had captured Malika and him. Most of the trade with Southport and the southern half of the ti remained blocked and the town had had to tighten their collective belts to make ends meet. However, even the Guildmaster balked at the magnitude of the task before them.

  O at a time, he thought. As Ali always says.

  Cami s the dirt, wandering about in random circles for a while. Suddenly the imposing Timber Wolf stiffened, her hackles rising to expand her already impressive bulk, and then g Willow as if encio folloadded off down the hill in a direct line.

  “She found something,” Willow said, unnecessarily.

  examihe trail carefully. His Explorer skill quickly identified what Cami had found, traces of unnatural scrapes and prints. “That looks like the abomination,” he said.

  “Definitely,” Devan said. “Here, look at this.” Her sharp eyes had picked out some scrapes along the bole of a dead tree – marks that were anything but natural.

  nodded. His panions had ied well, their perception skills were excellent. He gnced up at the sight of a pair of zombies shambling along, following the tracks with unerring accuracy.

  “Abomination,” Seth said, quietly.

  And then, of course, there was Seth. The neancer could see uh through the eyes of his minions.

  With the trail finally found, they made quick progress, winding their way across hills, past ponds, and through valleys. Behind him, the occasional sounds of bat drifted across the dead ndscape as the remainder of the raid group tackled the wandering undead, but remained focused on his primary prey, his unease growing as they drew closer. The area they traveled through was already unnatural enough, filled with shambling undead, blighted trees, and even miasma seeping from the ground itself – but despite all that, something even more unnatural lurked nearby, just below the threshold of his ability to clearly identify what it might be.

  But then, as he passed a dense pile of deg wood where several trees had colpsed, he caught sight of the twitg, shambling mass of stitched and animated undead flesh, spewing clouds of dark gas into its surrounds. It shuffled about unhurriedly, multiple eyes swiveling bad forth indepely as if searg for something.

  ducked back behind a tree trunk, fading into the shadows. “There it is,” he whispered. “Devan, stealth. Seth, hide! Willow, go get the others.”

  They all leapt to follow his orders.

  Mato

  Mato had hoped that the outing to hunt undead with the bronze-ranked adventurers would be a nice ge of pace, but the lohey trekked through the desote blighted forest, the more depressed he grew. It wasn’t just that the dead forest had once been a lush and vibrant expanse, filled with life. Death art of the cycle of life, as Lira had been teag him. This was not part of the bance of nature. It was the cloyi of the unnatural miasma – the legacy of the neancer – that infused everything around him. Nothing lived. Everything that moved was the spawn of uh – he felt like an interloper here. An intruder for the crime of living.

  “Good armor,” Havok decred, rapping a grubby knuckle against one of the baes proteg his left hip and jolting him out of his dark funk. “Where get?”

  Mato gnced down at the enthusiastic Goblin and couldn’t help the smile that snuto his lips. “Thuli made it.” Havok had an abysmal and of the on nguage, but Mato had already seen enough during the skirmishes against the unending trickle of skeletons and zombies that he respected his instincts when it came to his role in the group.

  “What is… Thuli?” Havok asked, his Goblin lips struggling over the first sylble of the Dwarf’s came out more like a spitting noise.

  “He’s an excellent bcksmith,” Mato said, gng over Havok’s shabby leather armor and the shield that had seeer days. Is he still using the same bone sword Ali gave him? “Did nobody tell you about pte armor?”

  “Pte?”

  “Yes, heavy steel armor, like this,” Mato flicked a finger against the interlog se across his shoulder, making it ring. “If yoing to take tanking seriously, we o get you better armor. Where did you get your stuff?”

  “One-eye Gnome,” Havok decred, brushing a bit of dirt off his jerkin with the edge of his battered buckler.

  “Aah,” Mato said. Weldin was ve for the new adventurers in the guild, but his sele of tanking armor was limited at best. “Thuli also makes excellent shields.”

  “Oh! Havok like shield!”

  “Dude, yoing to love Thuli, then,” Mato grinned. At level sevehe Goblin should really be iing ier gear, but he couldn’t fault him – after all, Mato had been around twenty when he had got his first armor set made. Oher hand, they had already introduced Sabri to the smith. What the heck is the Guildmaster teag these guys? Prearing – particurly for the tanks – o be part of their education or preparation. Did he miss the memo because of his difficulties in uanding on? Or he just not afford better equipmeher way, allowing the tank to fall behind roblem for the entire group, not just the individual. Oeam, he regurly discussed his gear choices with , Malika, and Ali to make sure the team could afford the right resistances or defensive entments.

  “Hey, Aiden…” Mato called out, catg the eye of Havok’s team leader. But right then he caught the sounds of running footsteps and the distinctive loping rhythm of heavy e paws sptting against the mud of deg leaves.

  “We found it!” Willow shouted as she and Cami rouhe massive bole of a snapped oak. “Just up ahead.”

  Mato gru her, and then shuddered at the image of the horror Cami dumped into his mind with the surprisingly articute thought, “Hunt! Wrong… kill.”

  “Yes,” he answered, reassuring the wolf that they were going to hunt the evil monster – and then aloud, he added, “Take us there.”

  “This way,” Willow said, and spun about, darting back the way she had e. The entire raid group sprang into a followihe path meandered around the dead trees and blighted ground, all of which made the hair on the nape of his neck stand on end, but no more than ten mier, he spied the monster lurking in a small gully with a taiream of water flowing through it.

  Blighted Patchwork Horror – Undead Abomination – level 39

  He s the unnatural undead monster. Beside Willow, Cami’s hackles were raised, and a low rumbling growl came from deep within the upset wolf’s broad chest. Catg ’s st, Mato turned and asked, “What’s the pn?”

  “You just tank it, and everyone kills it,” answered, his form shimmering briefly as he appeared beside the tree trunk.

  “Hmm… yawn,” Mato said, gng down at the eager Goblin holding his buckler and bone sword at the ready. “They won’t get much experiehat way.”

  “What do you suggest?” asked as the two team leaders gathered up, both of their attention riveted on the abomination shuffling about below.

  “Why don’t we have Havok tank it?” Mato suggested. “I tree up and take care of the blight issue.” He left it unsaid that he would be able to look after Havok with his damage redire – would know to take that into at – especially seeing as a level thirty-nine abomination robably out of Havok’s league. But he had faced these before, and by far the most dangerous aspect of the fight would be the undead blight that seeped into everything, progressively weakening the living – and could turn people into zombies if they died.

  “ he hahat?” Aiden asked.

  “Mato help him,” said.

  “That miasma looks dangerous,” Teagan observed.

  “It is,” said. “But Mato’s tree form is our best antidote. I think it’s a good pn. Havok, tank it over there in that clear spot by the stream. Everyone else, wait a little until Havok has secured it, and then wipe it out. Don’t hold back, Havok’s holy damage will hold the undead like glue.”

  “Got it,” Teagan nodded.

  “Ok,” Aiden said. “My team, group up this side, get ready. Check your recall potions, just in case!”

  “Havok smash!” Havok decred, taking his spot up front.

  shifted awkwardly, clearly still unfortable with assuming the mantle of leadership so easily. It was something he would o get used to. Logically, he was the highest-level and most experienced adventurer in the group, besides himself, and Mato would be shapeshifted and uo speak with anyone besides the wolf.

  “Get ready, Havok,” Mato said. “My aura might piss it off.” As soon as the Goblin nodded, Mato picked a spot on the hilltop and shifted, pushing his roots deep into the blighted soil and thrusting his branches out across the bleak ndscape. His bark crawled at the sense of the miasma, blight, ah, but as his form took, his aura burst outward, to excmations of surprise from the adventurers, and the blight began to dissolve in an enormous radius around him.

  Down in the gully, the abomination froze, a half dozen eyes springing open from within mismatched dead flesh.

  “Havok, go!” anded.

  The valiant Goblin did not o be told twice. His shield fred with the brilliant light of holy magic. A simir entment infused his bone sword, and his pact green form blurred into motion, tearing across the rotting ground to shield-sm the abomination.

  Mato watched as he skillfully maneuvered the bigger monster across the terrain to the desiganking spot with deft strikes of both his glowing sword and shield. Not bad. The Goblin’s instincts for tanking were superb – eveer against the stronger foe than the rabble earlier. Then he dropped a ring of white flickering holy fire on the ground – a fire that seemed to annoy the moremendously, which made Mato a big fan.

  “Ok, kill it,” said, and the entire raid group engaged with determined shouts and a hail of magid arrows.

  Mato reached out through his aura, sensing everything within. He pulled half the damage of a powerful strike away from Havok, taking it upon himself. The Goblin struggled to block all the attacks from the various cws and appendages, but Mato could see the strikes and took the bulk of another, as a vicious cw bit into Havok’s leg from below the monster. It wouldn’t have killed him ht, but it was obvious that Havok was tanking way above his css level, and his weak gear was not helping much.

  You have been ied with Undead Blight.

  Mato ighe notification as the blight rapidly eroded uhe force of his aura, fading away.

  “What?” the shaman girl, Teagan, excimed. “He just got hit, but there’s nothing to heal!”

  “Damage redire,” said, his voice clipped and qui the heat of battle. “Heal the tree.” Mato felt Teagan’s eyes widening in surprise, but moments ter he felt the familiar sense of nature magic healing his wounds as a green beam shot out from her hand and ected to his trunk briefly.

  Something rustled and scrabbled in along the edge of his awareness, setting his bark to prig.

  “Cami, adds,” he said, reag out to the only mind that could hear him.

  As always, he chafed at the inability to unicate effitly. He searched down deep, below even the reach of the miasma, finding seeds and the remnants of roots, some still with life in them. Rampant Growth surged and briars and vines exploded forth from the ground, reag and grasping at the legs of skeletons and zombies as they were drawn in by the mana and the sounds of bat.

  “Adds,” Willow shouted, eg Mato’s warning to her panion.

  “Adds,” annou the same moment, notig the a of his roots instantly. “Kaitlyn and Willow, kite them to the ter.” The two archers responded promptly, firing arrows and sprinting into position. As he felt the undead focus on them, he released them o a time and watched as they shambled into the holy fire of Havok’s secrated ground, getting stuck there by the taunt, forced to fight the Goblin instead.

  More and more undead joihe fray, until Mato found himself struggling to pin one down.

  Another abomination.

  But shot that one dead ter, and quickly kited it to the growing horde of undead smag the tiny figure of the Goblin defending himself with his glowing holy shield. “Another abom – keep an eye on him, Mato!” shouted urgently, spinning in pce as he searched their surrounds.

  Got it, Mato thought, again uo firm that he had it covered. He allowed all the weaker uo strike Havok directly, taking only the most powerful of the abomination’s attacks, and relying on his aura to stantly se the miasma and blight from the entire group.

  “This regeion aura is fug dope,” Kaitlyn excimed, as she unleashed a hail of lightning-ented arrows into the crush of undead.

  “I’m healing non-stop, and I haven’t had to use a mana potio,” Teagan said, sounding awestruck.

  If he could have, he would have chuckled, instead, he just redirected the bulk of the steady stream of damage from Havok to himself while trolling his roots and brambles.

  “Ok, area damage spells, o a time,” announced, pig people out by o make an impromptu rotation.

  Mato focused his senses on the melee, knowing he would o pull damage from several more people now, but did not participate, and the damage was therefore reme.

  Notification chimes sounded in his mind like popping in a skillet as the lesser undead monsters fell in droves. Finally, the area damage faded as the whole group refocused owo remaining abominations, burning down both steadily, o a time.

  Yroup has defeated Blighted Patchwork Horror – Undead Abomination – level 39 x2Yroup has defeated Warrior – Zombie – level 1-4 x16Yroup has defeated Warrior – Skeleton – level 3-7 x8

  Mato left himself in Tree Form for a little while longer until stored the two Blighted Patchwork Horror corpses, and then he shifted back to his Beastkin form, happy to breathe the blight-free air that his aura had created.

  “Holy shit, that thing was level thirty-nine!” Aiden excimed in surprise.

  “Havok strong!” the intrepid Goblin announced, flexing his sword arm.

  “I leveled up!”

  “Me too!”

  The group gathered around, exg iement and w aloud if there might not be a few more Abominations lurking in the forest. didn’t have the heart to puncture their enthusiasm. Instead, he let himself pat a few backs and shoulders, and soaked in the enjoyment of the moment. This is proper training, a gains for these guys. We should do this more often.

  Seth

  Wow, so that’s what a raid is supposed to feel like, Seth thought, ign his notifications and the level he had just earned for the moment. and Mato were both much higher level than their groups, but he hadn’t realized just how much more effective they could be. In seds, they had adjusted the strategy to maximize the group’s experience, and had pivoted the entire group like a ductor when a sed dangerous abomination had joined in.

  We have much to learn. And he’s running strategy workshops at the guild, Seth recalled, gng over to find bent over by the corpses of the abomination with the dark miasma still billowing up around him. The putrid clouds subsided the momeored them.

  “Would it be possible to study those?” Seth asked, strolling over to join the high-level archer. He wasn’t certain his css would allow him to make something like them, or even if he wao, but studying the undead might give him some iing future unlocks or advas.

  “Sure, but let’s wait till we unload them in Ali’s dungeon,” answered.

  “Why there?”

  “They don’t stop emitting the miasma and iing things with the undead blight even long after they’re killed. Short of totally iing every shred of their bodies, Ali’s magic is the only thing we know of that effectively dispose of them.”

  “Oh, I guess I’ll need some potions to even study it then?” Seth asked. That seemed remarkably inve. Expeoo. The guild certainly wouldn’t fund potions for that, even though they were c the cost to deihe blighted forest.

  “That, or you ask Mato to borrow his tree for a while,” smiled.

  “Ok,” Seth answered, ly enced by the suggestion. It was nothing he could put his finger on, but it seemed that he made Mato unfortable. The huge Beastkin really disliked the undead.

  “Seth,” interrupted his thoughts. “While you’re here, do you have a moment to look at something for me?”

  “Me? Sure.” He followed as led him deeper into the dead forest, Willow and Devan following somewhere behind, dodging the skeletons he brought with him.

  “What you tell me about those tracks?” asked, pointing to something on the ground.

  There were some vague depressions, but Seth had no trag skills. That ’t be what he’s asking, which means…

  He summoned a Votile Wraith a to cirg the tracks while he spent its full fifteen seds of life studying the ground through its strangely dislocated spirit vision. What he saw sent a chill down his spihe tracks positively glowed with dense death mana that wafted up from the ground, slowly dissipating into the surroundings. It was hard to tell exactly what had made them, but it had to be some species of Greater Undead. That much was certain. Something far more ominous than anything they had faced so far in this blighted forest.

  “Greater undead,” Seth said, earning a gasp from Willow who had drawn closer to examihe tracks. “I’m not certain, but if I had to guess, I’d say it might be a Wight.”

  “I was afraid of that,” said, a deep frown furrowing his brow. “The tracks are a couple of days old, so it’s long gone now.”

  “What does this mean for the blight up job?” Willow asked.

  “Definitely nothing good,” said. “We o let the Guildmaster know immediately.”

  Despite ’s assurahat it wasn’t nearby, Seth gnced anxiously at the dark shadows lurking deeper in the forest, uo shake the sense wrongness.

  Aliandra

  “Here you go, Ryn,” Ali said, depositing the st inal book onto the top of the pile, taking care to not disturb Malika studying a martial arts book beside her. It was getting more difficult to tell the inals apart from her copies – as her skill levels and attributes grew, her ization offered progressively finer trol of every detail of her creations.

  “Perfect,” Ryn said, and then her eyes suddenly opened in a flicker of surprise.

  “Level?” Ali asked.

  “Yes!” Ryn grinned. “What are you pnning to do today?”

  Ali g Malika for a moment. Mato and were out helping the bronze-ranked guild members today, so she had a little free time. “I think I o up a little, and maybe do some maintenan the duoday.” There was a whole long list of things she had been putting off due to ck of time.

  “In that case, I think I’ll return this stad get a new batch,” Ryn said, pg a hand on top of the pile of books that was nearly as tall as Ali.

  “Ok. Do you want to e with me, Malika?” Ali asked. “Or stay here?”

  “I have a martial arts css for the new recruits in half an hour,” Malika said, looking up from her studies.

  “See you both ter then? Maybe around diime?” Ali asked.

  “Mhm,” Malika nodded.

  “Sure thing,” Ryn said with a wave. Then the pile of books under her hand vanished into her ste, and she vanished immediately after, presumably to the library.

  Ok, now where to start? Ali thought, heading out into the forest cavern.

  ***

  The first thing Ali did was to substantially expand her crop of Fme Lashers and Fire Grass. With the amount of time they were spending in the mihey were using them up at a phenomenal rate. Perhaps I should just try learning to make the elixirs…

  It was not the first time she had thought that, but each time she worried that she would be putting Morwynne or Eliyen out of business. Not that she nning on flooding the market or anything. More critical, though, was the fact that she had always struggled to find spa her Grimoire – in this case, being able to have them made from ingredients and pos she could create was simply a minor invenien time.

  She flew up to the grove ao the task of destrug the zombie and skeleton corpses her minions had piled up for her. Interspersed in the pile were the occasional assorted Kobold or Slime – either her own monsters killed in defense of her domain, or some interlopers that mao sneak in from somewhere. She quickly discarded the imprints for the undead, but she wasn’t quite satisfied until she grew a bunch of jasmine and pea to mask the odor of rotting flesh.

  Perhaps I should have them collect the corpses somewhere else? She flew across the cavern, heading toward the sewer, but on the way, she stopped to che on her wolf pack boss. It hadn’t beeed by the adventurers from the guild yet, but just by the undead corpses strewn about she could tell her boss was a resounding success. Enough that it took more thay mio up the mess.

  Leaving the steady trickle of skeleton incursions to her wolves, Ali headed on up, shifting her awarehrough her various moo survey her domain. Not mueeded fixing in the sewer level, except the enormous piles of trash collected at the bottom of some of the entraunnels. It seemed that it was not just her minions colleg trash now – some of the townsfolk must have decided her sewer was a det garbage disposal.

  Ali gazed up at the t pile, amazed at the sheer amount of junk her Kobolds had collected. It would take a while, but she hoped that buried in there somewhere was a gem of some kind that she might find useful. Malika was right all along. I’m being the town janitor. Emergency! There’s too much trash! Call for the er!

  She was about halfway through the giant stack when something ked and her eyes caught sight of a small leather pouch. A money pouch? Ali picked it up and carefully tried to uhe string, but the stitg had rotted, and the ehing crumbled, spilling a handful of tarnished copper and bronze s across the ground. But among the dull s, something gleamed brightly. She flew down to iigate and there, led on the moss, she found several small s with the stamped image of a regal Sun Elf on one side and Elvish writing oher. They gleamed with a shining silvery-yellow as they y on the palm of her hand.

  Elven Royal Quarter Mark. x5

  Is this electrum? Ali turhem over several times, studying the pretty gleaming s. They were not a denomination or mint she reized, but there were enough of them to learn, so she quickly itted the Elven Royal Quarters to her imprint. Where did they e from? she wondered. Elven currency – Elves in general – were not unheard of in Myrin’s Keep, but they were certainly not frequent visitors.

  Ali tinued her chore, boriously destrug her way through the entire pile, but nothing else seemed useful until she finally reached the bottom of the pile. The Kobolds had made a round past some of the smithies – several dozen ks of metal y on the ground, offcuts and discards from failed projects. Ali shrugged ahem to her destru skill.

  Imprint: Mild Steel pleted.

  She moved automatically to dismiss the imprint like so many other worthless ones she earned disposing of the erash piles, but then she paused. Her Grimoire had only wood and stohat she could use as materials with Domain Mastery, having discarded bone, water, and even fire silk as lower value or easily repceable.

  What about steel? If it worked like stone or wood, she would be able to use it with Sculpting and give her alternatives to her barrier magic for blog off passages or making walls in her domain. She could even see uses for it to repair railings, dders, and walkways in the Grand Library.

  I have a free chapter, she thought. She had been hoping to use it food monster imprint that might help out in the mines, but there had been little opportunity to find oly. I may as well use it for now, she decided.

  As soon as she itted the imprint to her remaining chapter, her Grimoire shoh brilliance. Pages flickered and shuffled around in a gigantic flurry, startling her with the suddenly eic rea. And then her notification chime went crazy. What was that? Quickly, she caught up oifications.

  Imprint: Mild Steel updated to Imprint: Metal.Variant: Copper added to Imprint: Metal.Variant: Brass added to Imprint: Metal.Variant: Bronze added to Imprint: Metal.Variant: Silver added to Imprint: Metal.Variant: Gold added to Imprint: Metal.Variarum added to Imprint: Metal.Variant: Darksteel added to Imprint: Metal.

  What the heck? Ali stared at her Grimoire, baffled at the dramatic activity. It was just a steel imprint? Something simir had happened when she had itted the wood imprint, but this time she didn’t have a whole bunetal trees to expin it. Wait… She looked a little closer, and suddenly the chapter ges made se’s like the Bamboo Crawler! Her crawler had ied itself into both the grass and the elemental imprints, but it didn’t take up ara pages – whenever she opened one of those chapters, her Grimoire simply moved the relevant pages for the Bamboo Crawler into the currently open chapter. The same thing seemed to be happening here, ks of pages were rearranged from her , ons, and armor variants, indig that her ization had found subsets of those that it could categorize as metals.

  Not every type, though, she realized, notig the spicuous absence of Eimuuran Steel and Thuli’s new Firefed Steel. She puzzled over that for a while, tentatively cluding that perhaps there was some special magical structure or teique that set those apart from the other more normal metals. It didn’t expin why Darksteel had been included, though. Argh, this thing makes no sense!

  Still, she now had access to a suddeh of metals she could use. Obviously, she tried it out immediately, summoning a k of Electrum and twisting it in her hands with Domain Mastery to form the shape of a small diadem. She ed it again, turning it into a small tree, finding the metal satisfyingly easy to work with and stunningly beautiful in sculpture. Theurhe brick walls irance shaft to gold before shifting them to a more practical granite. She did find a practical use for her imprint almost immediately, repg the rusted iron hoops stapled into the wall that served as a treacherous dder with a far safer set of steel steps.

  ***

  “So, what do you think?” Ali asked, pointing at the ke.

  “You want some better prote for the ke, but you want it to still be accessible to the guild?” asked. He hovered beside her on his slowly unduting, shimmery wings.

  “Yup,” Ali nodded. “The Timber Wolves are probably a stretch for the bronze-ranked adventurers, so I want something a little easier to ramp them up – but not too difficult that they ’t kill them – I still want them to be able to collect water for Morwynne and Eliyen.”

  “You don’t make it easy, do you?” chuckled.

  “Hey… I have more requirements than those uncultured dungeons. I have standards, you know?” Ali quipped.

  chuckled. “The bronze-ranks gained a couple of levels on our excursion, so they might not be that far off. What abilities haven’t you tested out yet? The Domain Skills.”

  “Well…” Ali said, sulting her notes and her skill descriptions. “I think Twin Binding sounds very cool.”

  “Do you have much that works ier?” asked.

  “Oozes – maybe the Scalding Slime? Or a Brine Ooze could be good,” Ali said, recalling her adventures in Naia’s dungeon. “I have the Stinging Jellies, but they’re a low-level swarm monster.”

  “What level are you thinking?”

  “Something close to twenty,” Ali said. This much she was certain of. At twenty-six, her Timber Wolves were likely to be a big challenge. One of the bronze-ranked adventurers unlocked their level twenty skill, it might be more accessible.

  “Ok, that seems doable – but Twin Binding requires another monster, right?” asked.

  “It does,” Ali answered, sharing the skill with him one more time.

  Twin BindingRequirements: Raid Enha. Two minions.Source: Twin WightsChoose a seinion as the twin target, binding both together with the bonds of magic. Each minion of the pair be assigned a single Domain Magic skill. When one of the pair dies, the other is restored to full health and gains the Domain Magic skill of its partnerSkill – Domain Magic

  “Another ooze?” said, frowning.

  “Wait, I know!” Ali excimed, “Shamans!” Her Storm Shamans’ lightning skills had worked surprisingly well uer, and she could split the boss between the nd and water.

  “That could work,” said. “You just o decide what to give each of them, sidering that the other will i the ability one dies.”

  “I was thinking e for the Shamans, that would make three of them,” Ali said.

  “Well, that sounds devious.”

  “Too dangerous?”

  “No, it will ence skillful pnning,” said, pursing his lips.

  “Ok, I just don’t know what to do for the water part. I like the Brine Ooze…” ’s assessment of difficulty was what Ali had he most – he was the one who worked with the guild team leaders on strategy and pnning, and so he had a far better handle on what they were capable of tag. On her own, Ali had gotten carried away a few times already and created bosses that might be far too difficult.

  “What about that Nova Strike you got from the Piercer Scorpion boss? The Brine Ooze could live ier and act as ranged area damage from there.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Ali said, w through the binations in her head. “Let me try it.” She pulled out her Grimoire and summowo monsters.

  Brine Ooze – Ooze – level 19 (Water)Storm Shaman – Goblin – level 19 (Lightning)

  Ali examined her Goblin’s armor critically, making a few minor adjustments until she was happy with what he was wearing. Theurhem both into a raid boss.

  Domain Respalied to Brine Ooze.Raid Domain Enha applied to Brine Ooze.

  Twin Binding applied to Brine Ooze.

  Storm Shamaed.Domain Respalied to Storm Shaman.Raid Domain Enha applied to Storm Shaman.

  Nova Strike (Waterbolt) applied to Brine Ooze.e applied to Storm Shaman.

  Domain Enha plete.

  Your reserved mana has increased by +225.

  Ali winced reflexively at the sudden notification of her reservation cost, but then she reminded herself that it was no longer an issue. What should have been a cost of over four hundred mana for this raid boss had been reduced by her Mana Efficy adva for Domain Mastery by a little more than half. In fact, the reason she had sidered making a new boss at all was the huge redu in reservation cost she had earned across all her defenders.

  “Cost?” asked.

  “Two hundred and twenty-five,” Ali said. “I could afford to make a few more.”

  “Not bad,” he said, eyeing the two monsters. Domain mana surged through them, and suddenly the shaman duplicated himself using the e skill. A few seds ter, they duplicated again, making three. The much rger Brine Ooze slithered into the water and vanished from sight.

  “So, three lightning bolt shamans, and a bonus surprise,” said, nodding his approval.

  “Show us your Waterbolt,” Ali instructed. Immediately, water-affinity mana surged from the ke and a ring of Waterbolts sluiced through the surface of the ke, firing in all dires. Another volley followed, and then another. “Ok, that’s good.”

  “That’s pretty awesome, Ali,” said. “If they kill the shamans first, then the Ooze gets e, right?”

  “Yup,” Ali said. “And if they kill the Ooze first, the Shama Nova Strike.”

  “So, lightning apocalypse,” said.

  “Yes, something like that.”

  “Wait, didn’t you say the Death Wight also transferred his affinity to the Bone Wight when we killed him?” asked.

  “Oh, yes,” Ali said. “Wait, shit, did I make this thing to again? What will happen if the ooze gets lightning?”

  “Uh, fuck,” groused, but he was grinning at the same time. “We’re going to have to test this…”

  It turned out it was not that difficult to test. When she and killed the Ooze, the Shamans gained water affinity and took to the ke in an instant, suddenly able to breathe uer, swim like fish, and perform minor feats of water manipution. After Ali forced the boss to respawn, they killed them in the opposite order, turning the ke into a trio of Brine Oozes simultaneously firing ring volleys of Waterbolts and ag like mobile Lightning Nova totems.

  “Well, that’s going to be a real challenge,” observed.

  “Nice for defending my domain,” Ali said.

  “Well, not much is going to get this far,” said. “Not with that Timber Wolf boss guarding the lower entrance.”

  “I have an idea for that,” Ali grinned. It was something she had thought of while reviewing her Runic Script, and it was high time she tried it out. Ign ’s raised eyebrow, she summoned a rge golden disk of barrier magic, supported by her domain. Then she spent several minutes inscribing her runic circle into the golden surface, tying it off and attag it to the domain mana also.

  Teleportation Locus – level 42 (Are)A magical locus that serves as an enhaeleport destination.Runic Circle

  “Teleportation locus,” she said, answering ’s increasingly curious stares.

  “What are you going…” he asked, but then trailed off as she waved the barrier disk up into the air till it was h right over the ter of the ke, and then flipped it upside down. “Oh… Ali, that’s evil.”

  “I know,” she grinned, “e on!”

  It didn’t take long for her to inscribe several domain-attached Static Teleport runic circles around the caverranear the path down to the ruins through whidead and kobolds still trespassed into her domain.

  A few mier, a slightly tougher zombie mao avoid her regur defenses and stumbled across one of her eleportatis. There was a brief fsh of are mana, synized with another off over the distahe zombie appeared right below her barrier disk and fell filing into the water. Distant lightning flickered, followed a few seds ter by the sound of thunder and Ali’s chime sounded.

  Your minions have defeated Warrior – Zombie – level 5.

  “Evil,” muttered, but there was a big grin on his face.

  ----------

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