Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power

After Lunch, Lucan And Silent said goodbye to his aunt and uncle.  Bo wanted to meet with a few people about selling a few units of his skyscraper while Marie said she wanted to set up her own business on one of the lower floors.

Lucan was thankful that his aunt didn't want to tag along again.  He found it impossible to say no to her, and he was afraid that her luck would dumbfound him again.

They boarded the flying carpet and made their way back towards New Avalon to check out the aftermath of the fight in daylight.

On the way, Lucan familiarized himself with the two new thief abilities he unlocked last night.  He had gained seven levels in the fight against the field boss and picked up abilities at level 135 and 140.

At level 135 he unlocked the 'Silver tongue' ability. It increased his charisma while speaking and made it easier to talk himself out of trouble or he could talk his way into places.

At level 140 he unlocked the enhanced stealth ability. While in stealth he could take damage a single time and it wouldn't take him out of stealth as long as the damage was less than 10% of his health.  He considered both the be good abilities.  They were nothing crazy, but we both tremendously helpful to a thief.

Approaching New Avalon, they could see that construction had started on a stone wall that was a five-hundred meters from the edge of the dark forest.  He found it perfectly reasonable that the people here would prioritize defenses after what happened last night.  It looked like half the construction teams that had been creating houses and buildings had shifted over to building defenses.

It the distance he could see the trail of the Dark Destroyer.  It had cleared everything in its path and its huge feet had flattened everything in the process.

A large number of players and NPCs were cutting down trees in the forest to finish connecting the path to the city.  The dark forest was hard enough to travel through, but the destruction caused by the behemoth was a great opportunity to create a road going through it.

Lucan had found out that Mayor Faylen had issues a few quests in this regard.  One to cut down the trees, another to trace the beast's path back to its origin to find where the Dark destroyer had come from.  There were even places who were building outpost every few miles along the path.

It appeared that Faylen intended to not let this path be reclaimed by the forest.  And the players were more than eager to help.  If it was successful, they would gain a passage for their mounts and carriages that led deep into the heart of the dark forest.  Traveling would be much quicker.

Seeing that there wasn't much to do other than grunt work, Lucan and Silent planned to go exploring in the dark forest to see if they could find anything interesting, like resources or a dungeon.

Lucan's plans were altered when he received a message form Commander Gear.

'Lord Quilldrake, we have a new development in the mission you gave me.'

'What, you couldn't possibly have tunneled all the way to the source already right?'

'My men are good, but I don't think even dwarves are that fast.'

'Then what is going on?'

'As we were digging, the pit bottomed out.  A few of my men fell through.  No one was seriously hurt but they fell into an old passage under the fortress. This passage appears to head downwards.'

'Alright.  I will be there shortly.'

Lucan spoke to Silent and let her know about his conversation.

"What are we waiting for?  Let's go check it out."  She said, urging Lucan to return to the fortress.

They both rushed back.  Lucan instructed Oar to retrieve the demon's arm from his castles vault.  When they stepped through the teleporter, his steward passed the limb over.

Lucan instructed Oar to return to his duties and head to the dungeon with Silent.

When the entered the dungeon cell that had been excavated, they found a large pit going down twenty feet with a rope ladder hanging on the side.

"After we found the passageway, I instructed my men to return.  I didn't want them to go explore and cause a mess."  Commander Gear said when he saw Lucan.

"Good work.  Silent and I are going to take a look.  I will contact you if I need anything."

Commander Gear bowed before Lucan started to descend down the ladder.

As he went further down, he could see more and more mana coming from the depths and infusing into the arm.

They both dropped down into a stone tunnel.  One side went uphill while the other went down.  Not wanting to be ambushed and trapped below, Lucan decided to go uphill first.

The tunnel twisted and turned as it snaked under the fortress.  After twenty minutes the tunnel leveled out and headed in a straight line.

Up ahead, Lucan could see a set of stairs leading to a trap door.  Lucan and Silent went up the stairs and heaved with all their might, in order to open the trap door.

*Squeak*

The door on the ceiling finally moved.  With a loud grunt, they pushed it open the rest of the way.

*Bang*

Trap door rotated on its hinges and slammed on the ground.  Lucan and Silent poked their heads through.

"Don't move or we will blast you!"  Shouted and alarmed voice.

Shocked by the sudden light of day, Lucan and Silent took a moment to adjust before taking in their surrounding.  They were surrounded by two priests and a cleric and a paladin.

"Ah, Lord Quilldrake, I didn't mean to threaten you.  Your sudden appearance startled us."

Lucan thought the room looked familiar, but he didn't know where he was.

"Where are we?"

"You are in the holy prayer room of the eastern church."  Answered the cleric.

Lucan looked around again and realized that this was the building where they had battled the Plague Barons warlock when they were first taking over this fortress.

"Ah, I see."  Lucan took note that the people surrounding him were all NPCs and there were no players present.  He gave them each a hundred gold and spoke.  "Keep quite about this or I will have Commander gear come find you guys to have a…'chat'."

"Yes, yes, of course.  Lord Quilldrake.  We know how curious those other travelers can be, we certainly don't want anyone coming and disrupting our private prayer room."

"Good, good.  I will remember you all.  Keep up the good work.  Umm… Do you mind?"  He said motioning to the heavy trap door before he and Silent dropped back down.

"No problem."

"Right away."

The cleric and paladin grunted as the lifted the trap door and pushed it closed.  With a bang, it slammed shut.  Group of religious believers looked at the floor and couldn't even tell that there was a trap door.

Lucan and Silent headed the other direction and began to venture down the tunnel.  After passing the whole where they dropped through, the tunnel began to spiral downwards as it descended deeper and deeper.

But eventually the tunnel came to and end.  A large set of double doors blocked their path.  Lucan and Silent looked at each other excitedly.  They knew what these types of doors represented.

A dungeon.