Everlast Online

Liz hummed as she made her way down the streets.

Everything was going as she intended, she was the proprietress of a major business, namely potions, and had enough power to protect herself from those she suspected were important. Everything was going smoothly.

She was walking through Barview, increasing the detail of her map by adding in the details of shops and important parts; if zoomed in enough she could even see street names. As it was [World Map] gave very little info without active use, only the name of the city and the general type of area she walked in. For example, had she been in the [Spooky Forest] it would have just appeared on her map as [Forest] while Barview would be [City: Barview] with its general size.

Liz was currently thinking over her ability, what she needed right now was to reach level 50, but more than that she wanted to evolve her skills.

Her summons especially needed attention, she didn't know the required level to increase them but assumed they would evolve at level 10, at least she hoped they would.

More than that she needed a means of decreasing the time taken to summon her undead; she now had 80 warriors and getting all of those battles ready took time. So, she turned to skills to solve this problem.

Her hands were already so useful, surely another multi-casting skill would be sure.

"Hey." Liz called out as the bell of the skill store rang, waking up the gloomy shop keeper, "You got any multicast skills, specifically for summoning would be best."

The man stared for a moment, contemplating, before sighing.

"Yeah, gimme a second." And like before he lazily pulled himself from his stool and went to get a skill scroll for Liz. She noticed he had not yet sold his grimoires yet, she quite wanted the [Bone Mage] one so considered buying it, but decided for the time being that bolstering her summoning ability came first.

"Here. These are all we've got." He finally came back and layed out 3 scrolls in front of Liz, she took the time to inspect them and see what best suited her.

[Speed-Cast (1) (C): Increases formation speed of the next 5 spells, increases spell cost. Speed scales with skill level] [1000 Gold]

Liz didn't think this is the one she wanted; firstly it was an active skill, meaning one would have to activate it every time they wanted to use it, meaning extra mana cost. Then she looked over the next one,

[Multicast (1) (B): Allows user to cast extra spell, increases spell cost for every extra spell] [10,000 Gold]

This one looked like it could be useful, but not really as a summoner. Had she been an attack type mage this would be perfect, and once she makes her summons impenetrable she may become one, but now it was not necessary. A good back up if the last skill was not of use.

[Multitasking (0%) (D+): Allows user to split their focus more easily] [1000 Gold]

Holy shit, isn't that perfect for me. Liz's mind ran with all the possibilities this skill presented, with her [Puppet Hand] skill she could be making potions and fighting all at once. Even the fact it had been brought here was even more proof it was useful, this skill did not specify spell casting and it was passive meaning she could use it for many applications and not have it cost anything.

"I'll take multitasking!" Liz said offering the 1000 gold without question, this was a steal!

Now controlling her hands would be even easier, they could function on autopilot, doing easy tasks but Liz giving them orders would produce the best results every time she used them. 

Liz's smile was much greater than before as she looked over her map of the [Swampy Jungle] deciding to hit up a higher level nest; the dungeons were pretty low level so they didn't provide much benefit for her to use.

"This one should be the best with my current ability." Liz decided to head towards a level 55 nest, the 3rd highest in the entire field.

“Maybe punching up will increase my level faster.” She muttered to herself.

Liz took the time to improve [Multitask] as well; it was simple things really. Patting her head while rubbing her stomach, trying to think 2 things at once and the skill responded by a gradual increase in level by the time she entered the swamp it was 4% already and Liz's practice felt that much easier to accomplish.

She could not think 2 things at once clearly, but she felt as though she was close, perhaps at 10%.

Liz made her way through the jungle and gradually summoned her now 111 units, though she chose to hold out on the golem for the time being as it was far too slow for efficiency. (A/N: 80 warriors, 30 hounds, 1 golem)

By the time Liz spied the level 55 nest all of her summons were lying in wait, ready for her orders to attack.

I really need some kind of telepathy skill now. Liz sighed as she gave the signal, a bone spear piercing through a lizard's chest. The skill even levelled up and the skeletons charged, surrounding the spear wielding lizards, the hounds acted as the attacking force while the skeletons prevented anything from escaping. Liz held out on sending in the golem.

I should focus on the warriors. Her first necromancer skill was close to level 10 and she wanted to focus on it to allow her to reach that point, in hopes it would evolve.

New orders came and the encirclement thinned slightly with a fair few of the warriors heading forward into battle, they were about even. The number of the skeletons allowed them to fight at lower levels and the lizards began being pushed back, soon the nest mother would emerge and then the nest would fall; same as usual.

What Liz didn't expect was a sword slashing at her throat. A skeleton crumbled as Liz was knocked back and saw a red lizardman wielding a shoddy steel sword. This one was larger than the other lizardmen that were being fought and covered in dark red scales that shone with a metallic light.

[Lizardman Fighter (53) (Monster)] (A/N: Monsters will be marked as such now, no longer NPCs. Makes more sense that way I think)

Shit... Liz hadn't seen this type of lizardman before so had been caught off guard, she was complacent and didn't even bother to protect herself with guards. Around her she heard a quiet splashing of the swampy water, There are more...

This was a troubling position to be in. She had no guards and here INT would likely be ineffective against the strength of their scales. Though... There was one move to play, a wicked grin spread over Liz's face as a summoning circle spread across the floor.

The lizardmen fighters attacked her and around 10 of her skeletons died before the lot of them were blasted away.

What stood protecting Liz now was a giant made from stone, and Liz gave her orders as she sneered at the force of 6 fighters that tried to oppose her.

"Kill anything that gets close." The golem took a defensive stance above its master as hands began approaching, "Ah! Except those hands!"

Liz worriedly shouted out as the golem raised its fists to swat away the approaching allies.

Now the lizardmen fighters could do nothing, if they approached they were squashed, but if they maintained distance, they were shot with barrages of spells. When only 2 of the improved variants survived they feld, attempting to help their lesser cousins. Of course Liz didn't want that either.

"Priority target! Red Lizards!" With that, all of the skeletons and even the golem turned away from the regular green lizardmen. A horrific sight caused the red lizardmen to freeze up as more than a hundred undead stared directly at them, that was the last thing they remember before old metal and bloodied bones ripped them to pieces.

The entire time Liz was focusing on upgrading [Multitask] as she tried to use her summoning spells and attack spells at the same time, replenishing and attacking at once. It didn't work but her proficiency did rise by 3%.

After the 6 red lizards were dead the usual series of events followed, when almost all the lizardmen were dead, the remaining few ran away and out came the lizardman nest mother, but again this one was different:

[Swamp Matriarch (60) (Field Boss)]

"Finally, something worth fighting!" Liz laughed as she saw a lizard much larger than any she had seen before this.

Its scales were red like the fighters but in a different sense, mainly that they closely resembled blood. From behind it sported 2 tails, tipped with sharp blades that could easily cut through steel. Despite being modelled after a gator it had rows of teeth like a shark that could easily rip apart 2100 century warships.

"Hold it down!" With her order the golem charged forward at a slow pace, but as a large target the boss immediately recognised it as the main threat; not even caring for the pitiful bones that had killed its slaves only moments ago.

The golem began grappling with the gator and the boss ripped into it with its teeth, meanwhile the skeletons tried desperately to rip off its scales as they suffered no damage under their attacks.

"Annoying." Liz muttered, making use of [Undead Enhance] and watching as one of the skeletons was dyed black. It grew in size and savagely grabbed at the scales, this set the matriarch off as one of her tails pierced right through the skeletons skull, returning it to the grave.

Liz chugged one of her potions and replaced her fallen soldier, before enhancing another, ordering it to target that exact same scale. Thankfully the lizard was a dumb beast and did not decide to attack her as the source of the skeletons.

Liz could see the golem was suffering under the bites, but so was the lizard as fists of rocks crashed down upon its head like a meteorite falling to Earth. It was worrying though as when the golem fell the matriarch could easily destroy the rest of her summons.

She clicked her tongue and made use of her [Puppet Hand] to enhance 3 of her warriors who all began ripping away at the scales. Gradually, a spot was opened up, the matriarch shrieking in pain as the tips of its tail shined in the light of skill usage.

It had used [Tail Mace] and the blades changed their very shape, becoming like spiked wrecking balls that slammed down upon the skeletons crushing almost all of them, leaving only those too far for its tails to reach. 

Liz quickly downed more potions in order to replace her army as she saw the scales recovering, losing her chance.

"Dammit! Golem, rip her jaw in half!" Liz yelled out, the golem did not oblige as it could not understand so Liz decided to be more specific, "Grab the top and bottom of its jaws and pull!"

This it could understand, as 2 stoney hands gripped around the maw of the matriarch who had wound up for a biting attack. It writhed and shrieked in pain as the golem tried to pull apart its face; more skeletons were lost but not from an attack but a desperate attempt to pull itself free.

Only when Liz heard a distinct cracking did the lizard once again use a skill. It was bathed in a red aura as the maces returned, only twice in size. The tails smashed the golem to pieces in a moment, and thrashed aimlessly around in order to kill the skeletons around it.

The golem had forcefully activated the Swamp Matriarch's skill: [Draconic Rage]. Of course the matriarch only had a slither of dragon's blood, but it was still enough to acquire this skill that improved all abilities it held in return the skill sapped its HP.

It would soon die, but if Liz did not get the last hit, she would get no XP as the monster killed itself. She did not know this, but still frantically sent summons to attack her. The golem was replaced 4 times as it tried to hold the rampaging monster down.

It was only the timely dinging of the system that allowed Liz the power she needed: [Summon: Golem (2) (E)]

With the combined effort of 2 stone titans the lizard's flailing was stopped and the empowered undead finished off the monster, ripping into it like savages, killing it with great cruelty.

Liz looked over her messages and saw she got another title:

[Congratulations you have met the requirements to acquire the title: ]

[Requirements: ]

[Swamp Matriarch: , ]

"More of a symbolic title then I guess." Liz said, "Wonder why I didn't get one from Nolan..."

This was because Nolan garnered a world announcement, an extra title was not necessary. 

"Why was the field boss here anyway?" Liz thought, there were higher level nests, surely it should have been elsewhere, "Whatever, what else did I get."

Liz saw that yet another of her skills was ready to evolve, her initial excitement dimmed slightly as she read it was [Heavy Slash]

[Congratulations. The skill: has reached its maximum level]

[ Is now eligible for (Evolution ↓)]

 

[Great Slash (D-): Massively Empower one physical attack using a sword, advanced form of . Power scales with STR and skill level. 10 Second cooldown]

[Conditions: ]

[Dark Slash (D-): Greatly empower one physical attack using a sword, imbue attack with dark magic in exchange for mana. Power scales with STR, INT and skill level. 15 Second cooldown

[Conditions: ,