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[NB] 78. Arrival in Eden
🕑 Added 2023-02-23 21:20:51 +0000 UTCTHIS IS NOT A DEMONIC TREE CHAPTER
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Time was of the essence.
Victor watched Toby charging off to the east to defend against the Empire World Core, which left 3 cardinal directions undefended. All with World Cores, armies, and delvers likely anxious to invade and slaughter Necron's citizens and his own army for those sweet contribution points.
Victor planned to send a basic undead army manufactured on the top floors of his Grand Dungeon for the South and West borders. Switching his view to his Demon Core, Victor could see everything occurring in his dungeon.
On the top floor, around the ivory tower that had bore witness to the slaughtering of unborn dragons, a dense cloud of mana blanketed the land and swirled around.
He could command this mana to form undead from thin air, but that would be horrifically mana inefficient. Instead, using the thousands of corpses buried under the lush meadow was far more cost-effective. How they had got there, Victor had no idea, but some kind of great war had undoubtedly occurred in the distant past.
Under his direction, the mana sunk into the ground—causing it to tremble. The soil cracked as white fingers poked through, promptly followed by entire limbs and torsos.
Thousands of humans climbed from their graves, and so did hundreds of dog-sized dragons. He wasn't sure whether these dragons were the ones he killed or simply random baby dragons that died long ago.
His functions as a dungeon core and his Netherborne's affinity for the undead combined in a beautiful display as thousands of undead stood at attention, blue flames sprouting to life in their empty eye sockets. Black mana then coated their bones, giving them armor of shadows and empowering the weapons a few held.
The black ocean network once again buzzed with activity as thousands of new nodes were designated. Victor randomly assigned commanders, usually those with the most equipment and, of course, the baby dragons, and very quickly, he had a functional army of the dead on his hands.
It wasn't perfect. The thousands of shadow-clad skeletons looked menacing at first glance, but they lacked equipment such as swords, bows, or armor. They also had little way to deal with long-range spells. Luckily the baby dragons could fly with wings of shadows, so there was so hope against aerial-based opponents.
'It's fine.' Victor thought to himself as he made the thousands of undead form into grids with their commanders standing at the front. 'This army is temporary anyway and should be strong enough to hold the line for a few days.'
Victor held no delusions that such an army wouldn't be enough to keep Eshnar and the Mystical Realm at bay for more than a week, but he remained hopeful.
With the army ready for Hyveth to teleport, Victor returned his vision to Necron. His shadowy body was still sitting on a throne of shadows with an irritated Hyveth standing at his side.
"It's time to go." Vox—Victor's shadowy avatar—announced, and Hyveth perked up—her inhuman crystal eyes glancing his way.
"Can I finally teleport his place and leave?" Hyveth asked.
"Mhm, no." Vox replied, "After teleporting Necron to the lowest floor of the Grand Dungeon, I need you to teleport two armies out to the south and west flanks of the cursed forest."
"Why." Hyveth tilted her head, "Can't you just march them out?"
"The other dragons may be abiding by your request of not entering the Grand Dungeon for now." Vox said, "But I doubt they would appreciate thousands of undead marching across their land on the surface, and if one particularly angry dragon decided to decimate my army after seeing it contained undead baby dragons, I would have nothing on hand to defend two entire flanks."
"Right. At first sight of undead children, the other dragons would obliterate your army..." Hyveth sighed, "Fine. I will teleport your armies, but then I'm done."
Vox shrugged his shadowy shoulders. "Sure, I have no need for your services after that for a while at least. You can go and speak with the dragons some more and reach a better agreement. I am sure we can collaborate eventually."
Hyveth laughed slightly, "You dream far too much. It's a miracle that they agreed to not storm inside the Grand Dungeon and mess with you. That alone is good enough for now." She then glanced around the room, which was still full of humans gathered in groups and excitedly discussing their recently acquired citizenship that came with interesting effects.
"Is this all of them?" Hyveth asked.
Vox's teardrop eyes seemed to smile upwards, "Oh? Worried about the pathetic fleshy humans?" Vox laughed as he stood from his throne of shadows.
Before Hyveth could retort, Vox addressed the people in the room. "Citizens of Necron! For your own safety, I have enlisted the help of an ancient dragon to transport Necron to a new land—deep in the depths of the world and safe from all threats."
Murmurs of excitement filled the room, but Vox continued unperturbed, "As discussed before, once Necron has arrived in its new home, nobody is required to work. Lush farmland nearby will be attended to by an undead workforce, and the dense ambient mana alone will keep you all healthy."
"However!" Vox summoned a blue card from his storage, "If you wish to climb the noble ladder of Necron, you are free to apply for jobs with Andrew. These will include more advanced skills like blacksmithing, carpentry, and swordsmanship."
Hundreds of glowing green eyes from Necrons newest green card citizens all looked at the floating blue card with awe.
Victor didn't care for mundane professions like farming or hunting. Food could be produced en masse with his dungeon skills, and he could create genetically modified animals that provide the maximum amount of meat when killed that cannot move or fight back.
He couldn't replicate highly skilled labor, or at least not for now. Eventually, with his black ocean network sharing knowledge, every undead, including the undead citizens and his goblins, could somewhat replicate skilled labor.
But Victor had noticed that while his black ocean network shared knowledge, this world worked off of classes. A person with a [Carpenter] class would have abilities granted by a World Core which cannot be replicated with simple knowledge.
'Didn't the system tell me that those under my control would have restricted access to the system? Is my Demon Core picking up the slack?'
Victor suddenly had an idea. If he could make his own undead species and even create artifacts that granted abilities, wasn't he just one step away from creating his own classes?
He had overtaken the World Core and obtained all of its functions. However, he wasn't familiar with them all yet, and his situation made sitting down and experimenting with his new powers difficult. 'Darn, time crunch. Why can't the other World Cores just chill for a moment and give me time to think?!'
Storing the thought of making his own classes away in the back of his mind. Vox made the blue card vanish and continued his speech.
"Is there anyone left that has not been given citizenship? Those green cards provide you with [Mana Resistance], which is crucial to surviving down in the depths of the dungeon. Anyone still in Necron and without the card will die within minutes."
It was like going out into space without a spacesuit, just slightly less extreme. Without [Mana Resistance], the ambient mana of the lowest floor will feel burning hot and kill these low-level humans.
The large group of humans broke into a discussion, but after a few minutes, they all concluded that nobody was missing. Unfortunately, not everyone could fit in the room, so a lot waited outside.
Victor switched to his Netherborne body floating above Necron and visually checked that everyone was inside Necron's borders and that some random child or undead hadn't wandered out of the town.
From above the town, Victor could see the hundreds of undead goblins gathered in a cluster and a few humans that seemed to have skipped out on the announcement. 'Well, I hope they came and collected their green cards otherwise they are going to have a terrible time in a minute.'
Sadly, Victor didn't have enough time or energy to deal with people who didn't listen to instructions.
Feeling someone talking to his shadowy avatar, Victor switched back to Vox and heard Hyveth ask, "Ready to go? You control the entire dungeon, right? I need you to open a path through the dungeon's wall to the bottom floor."
"Huh? Why?" Vox asked with his distorted voice. "You could teleport yourself around just fine."
Hyveth scowled. "I can teleport myself to the edge of the multiverse if I so wished, but your Demon Core, as you call it, and the floating island you want me to put Necron on resides inside a pocket dimension. How can I access an alternate dimension and accurately place a town of people onto a moving island inside a void I have never seen before without guidance?"
Alright, that was fair enough. Victor had just assumed when it came to spatial magic, Hyveth was unmatched and would get angry if he suggested anything.
With a snap of his fingers for dramatic effect, Vox's teardrop eyes glowed with power, "Consider your request done. But be quick. If you can teleport through the gap, so can others."
It felt like briefly lowering his shields just for an enemy to sneak in. But knowing his pocket dimension was so secure that even Hyveth would struggle to get inside was good.
"It's already done," Hyveth replied with a sneer.
Vox blinked in confusion but then realized what she was referring to, "We are already here?"
"Yes. Now, where was that army you wanted me to teleport." Hyveth replied with impatience dripping from every word.
"Hold on." Vox needed to confirm whether Necron was where he wanted it to be. His shadowy avatar had no perception of mana change, and nobody else in the room had reacted all that differently.
Switching to his Demon Core, he instantly confirmed that Necron had indeed arrived in Eden. A continent he had created inside his pocket dimension. Seeing such a tiny town as the only bastion of civilization on a floating continent in the void felt weird.
The only other intelligent lifeform in this entire realm was Genus Arcgold—a golden chrome dragon residing on a floating island above Eden, near a volcanic region not far from Necron.
The dragon awoke from his slumber and seemed to notice the sudden presence of humans. His wings spread out, and he lept off his island and dived toward Necron.
Victor didn't want Genus and Hyveth to interact again, so he switched to Vox and said, "My undead armies reside on the first floor. Teleport half to the border with the Mystic Lands and the other half to Eshnar's border."
"And you can control them from this far away?" Hyveth asked skeptically. Clearly, she wasn't a fan of the idea that thousands of undead might be running around unsupervised.
"I can control anything within the cursed forest. It is all under my domain." Vox replied, "Now go. Once you have completed that for me, you can go."
"Very well," Hyverth said before vanishing—right as Genus arrived in the town square outside Andrew's white stone palace.
Comments
Toby Lechtenbeger
I haven't even started that story yet
Putrescent Ego
Read it
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter!
XKARNATION
You are subbed to my highest tier so you will get pinged for everything I post, not much I can do about it.
Wanderer
You are here, because the great Tree says: This story good!
Toby Lechtenbeger
Why is this pinging for tree? Why's someone have my name. What's going on I've never read netherborn. Why am I here?!?
