Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power

Lucan contacted Alasan and soon enough a group of people were sent over to work at the building in Destol that housed the dungeon. He spent the next hour instructing these five people on what their duties were. He carefully explained about the purpose of the dungeon and informed them that they would be targeting the players to try and get them interested in.

Until the dungeon gained more popularity, he decided to only charge 10 gold to participate. With five people on each team, that was only a single gold piece per person. The price was very affordable.

He left the building and watched from near by as the staff tried to get the players interested in it. It didn't take long for a group of people to enter. Lucan nodded with a satisfied expression.

He left Destol and headed back to his fortress. Inside the control room, everyone weas working as hard as they could and there was twice as many people present as normal. It made for a chaotic scene as people rushed back and forth to carry out their tasks.

Lucan walked up to the raised platform and looked at the large map that was constantly being updated.

Not long after, Super enter the control room.

"Hey boss."

"Have you had any luck tracking down that person I asked you to look into?" Lucan asked.

"Not yet, I was able to find where he was a month ago, but as for his current whereabouts, we don't know. But don't worry, it is only a matter of time till we find him." Super replied.

Lucan wasn't too worried. He had asked Super to look for the person that Gilbuzz wanted to be sent to hell. Sending him there wouldn't be that hard, the only challenge was in finding the person. It appeared that they were trying very hard to not be found by the horned devil.

"I heard from Alasan that you wanted me to look into a player named Brightboy." Super said.

"Yeah, did you hear about what happened in Avalon this morning?"

"Yes I did. But you shouldn't be too concerned. Brightboy has bought a lot of information from me in the past."

"What do you know about him?"

"Him and his people are vultures, in the sense that they move from scene to scene looking for whatever scraps they can find. From what I know, his guild is transient. They don't real have a base to call home. They go around looking for work, usually construction. If an earthquake happens, he will usually show up the next day to try and get hired. Ultimately, it is your call, but I do not think you need to worry about him. I have no doubt that he intentionally blocked the tunnel to get your attention, but what he wants is to make money off of construction."

"Have you ever heard about him conducting any shady business?"

"No, I can't say that I have. He usually does his work and then moves on. Since you are building a city, he is probably taking commission from the people at the Dragon Spine Hills and earning a good bit. He may go a bit far to get work, but his character is pretty good. If somebody doesn't have the money to pay, he will still make them a home for them to take shelter in, it just won't be grand and decedent. Instead it will be simple and efficient."

"Alright, that is good to hear. I will still keep an eye on him."

After speaking to Super Lucan headed down to his vaults and took a look around. Money was moving out at an incredible speed.

Last week he was thinking that he may need to expand since he was running out of room to store things, but now, with the current events, he was spending an incredible amount of money. On top of that, raw materials were being moved underground and towards the Dragon Spine Hills in large amounts.

There were several villages surrounding the fortress that would collect raw materials and sell them to his people daily. Once their stock built up enough they would return to the fortress to deposit their goods. The supply of raw materials wasn't enough to build two cities, but it definitely helped.

Lucan wasn't to worried about all the gold that was flowing out either. The Queen of shadows was still paying back her debt for the large quantity of mana crystals that Lucan had sold her. Every month he would receive hundreds of thousands pieces of gold from her.

Leaving the vault, he retrieved his flying carpet and started to head towards the Dragon Spine Hills. He wanted to see the situation for himself.

***

"MOVE, MOVE! BREACH THE WALLS!" Sturdy shouted as the Windy Willow Organization charged towards the fortress walls.

As they neared the front gate, the elementals on the large wall noticed them. Fire and earth was conjured above their heads before it was thrown at the players below.

A gold dome appeared and blocked the elementals attacks from hitting the players. The golden dome was strong but it wouldn't be able to block the attacks for long. Sturdy wasn't concerned though, because they already had a plan in motion.

Twenty rouges stepped out of stealth behind the elements that were bombarding their teammates below. Their knives and swords flashed as they buried into the back of the elementals in a coordinated surprise attack.

Anyone that wasn't able to be killed in two or three quick attacks was pushed off the wall and into the large group of players below. They didn't hesitate to rip the elementals apart.

The elementals on the wall and in the surroundings were only grunts compared to what they would face inside the fortress. The ones they were fighting now only had access to basic elemental abilities. They usually only had three or four ways to attack or defend with their elementals powers.

As long as the willow players were able to either overcome their defense, or resist their attack, it was easy to deal with these elementals.

The twenty rouges had cleared a large section of the wall. Two of them, tied off ropes and tossed them down towards the others.

The people Lucan hired this time, were a tier above those who he worked with to capture his first fortress. The B team was much more powerful and had the abilities to back themselves up.

The players grabbed the ropes and began running up the wall. In a short minute, there was now over a hundred people on top of the wall with more still coming. They spilt into two groups and went separate directions on the wall.

They cut through the elementals and blasted them apart, leaving no enemy to stab them in the back later.

On the top of the walls, the majority of the enemies were the normal grunts that were being slaughtered in mass, but there were a few more powerful individuals. Sturdy took notes of these elementals. He wasn't worried about fighting them, but they made him concerned about the enemies that were waiting inside.

If the grunts were able to control a single element, then these more advance warrior they encountered were able to control two elements. He lost two players the first time they came across one of these advanced warriors. Their opponents control both earth and wind. The combination resulted in their enemy being able to control sand.

Sturdy Willow wiped the sweat from his forehead. The first warrior r wasn't easy to kill. While a sand storm blocked their view of him, he launched earthen spears at incredible speed with the help of the wind. Every time the spears were blocked, they would crumble into sand, bypass the payers defense and then reform into spears.

The Willow players were now on the lookout for these advanced warriors since they already lost a few people. Fortunately, the first thing built for the city at the Dragon Spine Hills was a cemetery. It would only take their comrades a few hours to respawn and make the trip back to the fight. It wasn't like when Sturdy took the first fortress with Lucan and the graveyard was several days away.

The players were now more cautious as they worked they way around the walls, killing everyone in front of them and below.

They encountered more advanced warriors and happened to lose a few people but the situation never got out of control. At least it didn't before. But now sturdy and his group were fighting an advanced warrior who had already killed ten of his people.

This elemental had the power of both earth and fire combined. Their union gave him the power of magma. Molten hot chunks of earth flew towards the Willow players. The impact of the large chunks of earth caused enough damage already, then adding on the insane temperatures from the red hot magma that splashed from impact caused the players to take significant damage. In the elementals first attack, three people died, and it wasn't over.

This elemental seemed to have a good bit of intelligence. That frightened Sturdy. If they were this hard to deal with outside, what would the enemies inside be like.

The advanced warrior grabbed a earthen elemental grunt next to him. The grunts entire body was made from rock and stone. With the help of the warrior, the grunt was injected with magma and then thrown towards the players.

When the players attack the fallen grunt, magma splashed out towards them. Killing the grunt caused them to sacrifice yet another player. Sturdy knew this couldn't go on. In a span of five minutes he had already lost fifteen players, and they could see another advanced warrior in the distance coming to support the magma warrior they were still trying to deal with.