Darian stepped out of his post-wake-up shower and towelled himself off loosely, excitement writ large on his features. He’d only slept perhaps four hours out of the eight he’d planned. Still, the four before that had been spent hungrily digging into every iota of information he could about Eternus Online—from its Archetype system to the World Map function, and even Homestones and how they functioned.

  As a result, he was much better armed for his return and imminent progression.

  Not having a class mechanic was just the tip of the iceberg, so he’d learned.

  Eternus Online had an ‘Archetype’ system, but it was based on roles and specialization rather than locked-in classes. Adventurers would form parties up to five strong and undertake Dungeon Delves like in other games, but it was far more fluid and natural than any other VRMMO or game that had come before. Archetypes were assigned and changed based on both the Adventurer’s desire and the System’s judgment.

  He would unlock it at Expert Tier, and he couldn’t wait.

  His footsteps carried him quickly toward the pod in his room, and Darian rubbed his hands together with glee.

  “I’m heading back into Eternus, Alfred. If anyone calls, tell them I’ll get back to them later,” he said definitively while stepping into the pod and settling himself inside it. “Please ensure I’m not disturbed unless there’s an emergency.”

  “As you wish, Young Master. Would you like me to sync to the device so I can send you messages?”

  Darian paused at the question and glanced upward, toward the vague direction of Alfred’s multitudinous cameras. “You can do that?”

  “I can now, sir, yes. I was able to once the device was fully activated, but you were already Transmigrated, and it requires your express permission to form the link.”

  “Oh!” he said with a grin. “Perfect. Do that, please, Alfred. That’ll make things way easier.”

  “Of course, Young Master. Happy Travels, once again!”

  Darian gave another enthusiastic two-thumbs-up to his AI butler.

  “Thanks, Alfred. See you when I’m back!”

  “I shall be here, sir, as always.”

  Darian smiled at the comfort it brought him, as it always did, and reached up to pull the neural band onto his forehead. Then, he eagerly put on his mask and fully settled into the pod. The lid hissed closed as before, shutting him inside while he tried to control his eagerness.

  A System prompt appeared moments later.

  Darian tapped ‘YES’ without hesitation, and the System screen vanished, only to be replaced almost immediately by another.

  Darian closed his eyes when the familiar scent of oxygen and other filled his nostrils, and he took a steady breath. Consciousness faded almost as rapidly as last time, and he remained aware just long enough to feel the lukewarm liquid splashing across his body. That, of course, was the proprietary compound Alfred had discussed—something that helped him remain under for long periods without complications for his body.

  If all the information were to be believed, it also provided energy for his body to burn, which was pretty cool. Darian felt his consciousness fading quickly after that thought and let himself smile into the darkness that embraced him…

  …and open his eyes on the throne within the Necropolis, as Romulus once more.

  His eyes, far sharper than those of his body on Earth, scanned the room's interior and pierced the near-total darkness with startling clarity. Upon finding it empty, he smiled to himself and patted Lightsbane, which sent him a pulse of enthusiastic greeting in response.

  “Hey to you too, Bane,” he said warmly, and then looked around for Mortarius.

  Upon finding no sign of the imperious specter, he grinned and spoke to the air.

  “Open Social Menu.”

  The System complied immediately.

  “Huh. No notifications, either,” he said while glancing through his HUD. “Maybe she couldn’t add me while I disconnected. Let’s see.”

  Romulus tapped ‘YES’, and a new window popped up when the old one closed.

  Romulus read the text and then spoke very clearly.

  “Katherine Dragomirov.”

  The System screen vanished, and was replaced by a new one instantly once more.

  Romulus dismissed the screen with a snort of amusement and then glanced around at the throne room once more.

  Upon finding it empty still, he cleared his throat and spoke in a louder voice.

  “Mortarius?”

  “I am here,” the specter said, appearing from next to the throne with a languid few steps. “Welcome back, Romulus.”

  “Thanks,” he said in turn and gestured vaguely. “What happened?”

  “You completed the attunement about thirty minutes ago,” Mortarius said without wasting time. “Would you like to view the alert? As your soulbound companion, I am able to interact with the System on your behalf to a limited degree, including pulling up prior notifications.”

  Huh. He’s like a personal version of Clippy!

  “Yes, please,” Romulus said with a grateful nod.

  Romulus read over the alert and, without even a second of hesitation, selected ‘YES’.

  The System screen vanished, and a new one took its place, widening Romulus’ eyes and drawing him forward in his chair eagerly to read the array of options and information presented within the interface. He had expected something like this, but nothing to the extent that now lay before him.

  General Purchase Options

  Dark Autarch Purchase Options

  “Jesus…” he said quietly while staring at the options. “What am I looking at here, Mortarius?”

  “The standard fare for a Mana Nexus, really,” the specter said calmly. “Your general purchase options list ways to create accessibility or greater defensability for the city linked to the Nexus—in this case, what these fools call Blackstone. Summoning and Banishing is a simple matter of using mana expenditure to pull or displace an individual to or from the Anchorpoint of the Nexus, which would be the throne room in this case.”

  That immediately piqued Romulus’ interest, but he shelved it for now. After he checked in with Kate he’d look at that option. She might already be in Blackstone, for all he knew.

  “A Warp Nexus,” Mortarius continued, unaware of his ruminations, “is a local teleportation network that can be used by permitted individuals within the city.”

  “What the fuck? That’s awesome! I want that,” Romulus said immediately.

  “It is usually a costly and time-consuming process,” Mortarius said wryly. “Though with how long this Nexus has been stockpiling, the idea of ‘cost’ is rather abstract. You are welcome for that, by the way.”

  “Yeah, you’re awesome,” Romulus said honestly. “I’m definitely doing that, though, but first run me through the rest.”

  “Very well,” Mortarius said with a hint of genuine amusement. “The Guardian, Tower, and Shield functions all work to formulate constructs which can better defend the anchorpoint. Towers are automated defenses that act with semi-intelligent targeting protocols to sear enemies with beams of concentrated mana—Dark Mana, in this case, and thereby the most destructive type. They are potent, but they are also quite costly to use, and each shot drains 25 mana from your reserves.”

  “We have an insane stockpile thanks to you, Mortarius,” Romulus pointed out.

  “Correct, though your stockpile is deceptive. There are uses for it that you must take advantage of, and they will drain your reserves considerably. The towers would become a liability by the end.”

  Romulus grimaced at that, but conceded with a nod and gestured to continue.

  Mortarius rolled his eyes subtly and then continued speaking.

  “The Guardians are more of a beneficial investment, though they lack speed and are best used to choke an enemy’s advance. Guardians are lumbering behemoths, and are excellent at holding doors against sieges or funnelling foes—but they are easily evaded by swift or nimble enemies, and are ineffective in small confines. They are best used in large and pitched battles, not tight spaces.”

  “Which makes them mostly useless across most parts of the Necropolis,” Romulus guessed.

  “Correct. That is why I never bothered with them,” Mortarius said with a hint of regret, “though before the end, they may have proved more valuable than I gave them credit for.”

  “Something to put in the maybe column, then. What about the shield?”

  “The shield is rather straightforward,” Mortarius said with a nod. “It creates a barrier that protects the Necropolis against all forms of damage, and can be expanded to defend and seal the entire city—though its downfall is that each piece of damage blocked drains a relative amount of mana, based on how much power is behind the assault.”

  “That’s as inefficient as the towers,” Romulus said with a surge of frustration. “Why are these things so cool but so useless?”

  “The daily regeneration of the Nexus is severely hampered by a lack of contribution,” Mortarius said in an unruffled tone. “A Nexus of this size in an established nation would have an entire cadre of Sorcerers whose only duty would be to continuously stock its reserves. Towers and Shields are not efficient, but if it comes to winning a close battle, activating them at the right moment can turn a potential defeat into a devastating victory.”

  “Ah,” Romulus said with a grimace. “That makes more sense. Okay… well, a problem for the future, then,” he said while gesturing at the menu. “What about the Autarch options?”

  Mortarius eyed him with an unreadable expression, and then spoke once more.

  “Those are simpler. Benediction allows you to bless a follower, assuming they consent, with Dark Mana attunement and accelerate their growth. It won’t work on Vampires, Wights, Liches, and other powerful creatures of the Dark—but if you had a favored guard or soldier that showed great promise, you could either override their existing mana attunement or grant them access to Dark Mana.”

  “What if I used it on someone who didn’t consent, or rather, lied about it?”

  “Depending on their strength, they would either suffer greatly and potentially die, or it would have no effect.”

  “I see,” Romulus said thoughtfully and nodded once. “Okay. Thanks. The rest?”

  “Consecrate Bastion allows you to designate the Anchorpoint and its surrounds—in this case, Blackstone—as a holy site for whichever Divinarch controls the mana the Nexus is attuned to. In this case, that would be She of the End. Once enacted, the Consecration will transform the entire city into a true holy bastion. The process would take what I already created and build upon it to correct any perceived weaknesses.”

  “The Nexus does that?” Romulus asked with surprise.

  “No, the Divinarch does it through the System,” Mortarius clarified. “The mana is just the fuel for the process.”

  “So why the hell don’t I do that now?”

  “Because if you do not control the city when you initiate the Consecration, you will have to defeat whomever does and claim the city, or else it will fail,” Mortarius said with a stony glance. “And in the process, you would reveal the existence of the Nexus to all of your enemies.”

  “Oh,” Romulus said in embarrassment and scratched his cheek. “Yeah, okay, that makes sense.”

  “Indeed,” Mortarius said imperiously and then, blessedly, moved on. “For the rest, Dark Sacrifice allows you to kill an enemy and use them as fuel for the Nexus. It is primarily used when conducting mass executions to fuel the Dark Rebirth or Reanimate Dead functions. The former allows you to turn the willing dead into loyal warriors of the Dark Lady, attuned to Her power but lacking in the magical potency a Benediction would offer. The latter allows you to raise the unwilling dead into simplistic soldiers animated by Dark Mana.”

  “Like the Skeletons I fought earlier?”

  “No, those were ancient dead I raised with the last vestiges of my own power, which is why they grew stronger as more of the mana concentrated when you killed them—a trick I used to make up for my fading potency. These would be creatures that remembered their skills from life, but had neither will nor consciousness of their own. Pure muscle memory and inexorable resilience.”

  “I see. Okay,” Romulus said while mentally deciding to firmly shelf that idea. “Good to know. What about the last two?”

  Mortarius smiled knowingly at him, but said nothing and instead continued on.

  “Reanimate Shade and Reanimate Revenant allow you to either bring to life Shades, which are loyal followers of the Dark Lady that fell in Her service and may return once more to serve Her Autarch in glory, or to create a Revenant. The former are free-thinking creatures, but will readily give you their allegiance as Autarch. The latter can either be free-thinking or mentally dominated. They are not Revenants like you, nor like I was before my degeneration—they are limited in scope to becoming Wights and Liches.”

  “But they’d be under my complete control?”

  “Yes,” Mortarius confirmed. “The Reanimation is costly, but it is also irrevocably binding. Their will would be subsumed by your own, and they would not only serve willingly, they would serve with complete devotion,” the former Autarch said with a faint frown.

  “You don’t seem to like that much,” Romulus said when he noticed the expression.

  “Among all the powers of the Nexus, this was always my least favorite,” Mortarius admitted with a nod. “It is a fittingly harsh punishment for truly hated foes, but it carries within it an undeniable level of pure evil—and it violates the natural path of Death. As Autarch, you have the authority to postpone that natural process by the Dark Lady’s implicit agreement, but it should not be used lightly.”

  “How is this different from Reanimate Dead, though?”

  “Because unlike Reanimate Dead, which only animates the body without the soul, Reanimate Revenant binds the target's soul and shackles it to your will. You are not simply taking their cultivation and skills for your use; you are denying their soul its return to the cycle.”

  “And as Autarch, my purpose is ultimately to defend and oversee the natural cycle of Death, among other duties.”

  “Yes,” Mortarius said quite firmly. “It creates a very, very dangerous precedent and harms your image as the arbiter of the cycle. I am not saying to never do it. Dark Lady knows I did it several times across the centuries of my time as Autarch, with my own power as well as with that of a Nexus—but ensure that your targets are truly deserving of it,” the dead man said while looking at him intently.

  Romulus listened without interrupting, and Mortarius frowned before he continued.

  “It is a powerful threat and warning to your enemies, Romulus, but done too excessively, it will cause great unrest among those that are truly Faithful to the Dark Lady.”

  “Did that happen to you?” he asked when Mortarius was done.

  “It did, though I was already significantly more powerful than you are by the time it became a genuine problem. You do not have that level of capability yet, nor will you for some time.”

  Romulus nodded in understanding of Mortarius’ words, not bothering to argue the blatantly valid point, and dismissed the Mana Nexus menu to instead run a hand through his hair self-assuringly. “Okay, now for the important stuff: we mentioned Hunting and whatnot before I untethered. How do we go about that?”

  “You are wise to ask that,” Mortarius said almost immediately. “Your story is yours, Romulus, but you aren’t going to go very far if you don’t learn to sustain yourself, or grow your power. There are plenty of very good targets here, in Blackstone, that can suffice as adequate training for your new powers. Your Sanguine Thirst will begin to affect you soon, and you will need to sate it before it grows out of hand and debilitates you.”

  “Yeah, that’s why I want to learn.”

  “Good. Then I will give you a small gift, on the Dark Lady’s behalf.”

  Romulus read over the quest in silence, and when he arrived at the last target, he let out a low and resigned sigh. Of course, it was Isolde. He shouldn’t have expected anything less. His eyes raked over the text again carefully, and he paused when he read over the final paragraph again. The quest text said nothing about killing, only that they were removed as hostile elements. That was interesting.

  Very interesting.

  “I take it this is how you intend me to learn to Hunt?” he asked Mortarius aloud.

  “Yes. It is a perfect scenario for you to hone your talents and take first blood in the coming war.”

  “Fine,” Romulus said agreeably. “But let’s wait for nightfall. In the meantime, I—”

  His words cut off abruptly when a System alert populated his vision.

  Romulus’ lips spread in a wide, fanged grin, and he looked past the alert toward Mortarius, who was already eyeing him with preemptive exasperation.

  “I am going to have another willful Traveler to educate shortly, I take it?”

  “Oh Morty,” Romulus said with a loud and happy laugh, “you have no idea.”