Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power

After collecting the gear and coins dropped by the bandits Lucan walked over to their formation. He launched a single shadow bolt at a small shrub.

*Clink*

The shrub disappeared to reveal a broken formation flag. The concealment formation started to falter, flickering on and off before shutting down for good.

Inside the formation was a table, a couple of tents and several crates filled with supplies and weapons.

"Ah, our stolen goods." Heaven said excitedly.

"I can sell them back to you at 70% of face value." Lucan said.

"You cheapskate!"

"He is just joking; it is a gift to put the past behind us. Right Lucan?"

"Oh, umm, yeah, that's what I meant to say." Lucan replied before going into a tent to see if there was anything worth taking with him.

Heaven rolled her eyes while Silent smiled happily. She was pleased that Lucan didn't insist on being paid, but she wasn't sure if he was doing it for her or because he seemed more well off now. Lucan had told her he had a big success selling mana crystals, but they never talked actual numbers. She chose to believe he gave in for her.

Within an hour, guild members of Could Saint had showed up with a wagon and were loading up what was stolen from them.

"Alright, let's get out of here." Silent said to Lucan.

Lucan and Silent snuck away while Heaven and her guild were busy. They walked through the woods back to the transfer point in Cloud Saint city.

Lucan purchased a 5-piece leather warlock set from the Assassin's guild and updated his other gear. Silent Night replace her gear with level 100 equipment.

Silent joined Lucan in the Eldritch Battleground for a week and helped him to get to level 90. His thief abilities had started to become more numerous. He had gained, Concussive Blow, a move that used stamina to stun a target for 3 seconds. Evasion, he could trigger it once every 5 minutes and it would double agility while dodging for 2 seconds. Escape, he would enter stealth, remove all movement limiting effects and become invulnerable for 3 seconds. Enhanced climbing was a passive that doubled his normal climbing speed. The latest ability he received was Feign Death, It was a rouge move that made others think he wasn't a target by playing dead.

Silent Night had just logged off and Lucan was about to as well when he had a thought and decided to contact Raze.

'Silent told me how there was a dungeon ran by the rouges organization to help her prepare for the class advancement. She used it to get the last levels she need to reach 100, do you have anything like that for warlocks?"

"Yes and no. There is no position higher than my Hand, how can there be a dungeon to prepare you for what's above? Of course, there is the Eldritch Battleground, but your standing in it and I also have dungeons for lower level warlocks, but since you are my Hand you won't receive much from them."

"Damn, I guess I will keep leveling here."

"If you want to make a rush to 100 I could make a suggestion."

"Really?!! What's the catch?"

"Don't be like that, it will be good for you. My suggestion would be to incorporate your territory. Officially fall under my banner. If you can get a raid together you could have a good chance at conquering one of the level 100 fortresses near your village. If you conquer it I will send some soldiers to help hold it. Think about it, it already has a transfer point if you can conquer it, your people could move to different hunting grounds with ease."

"Hmm, tell me more about being incorporated."

Lucan and Raze talked for over 20 minutes about citizens' rights, tax break downs and trade laws among other things.

"Alright, let me do some research then I will get back to you."

"Just let me know." Raze finished before cutting the link.

Lucan logged out and Brax climbed out of his Oasis capsule. He immediately started to research fortress. Large guilds in the material planes usually held a fortress or three. The guilds were constantly battling over them. The marketplace held high value to real-world sponsors that would set up shops in the fortress.

Just like how you can shop online instead of going to a store, you could shop in game and have real world items delivered to your home. Brax knew that if he captured a fortress in the shadow realm it wouldn't be an endless waterfall of money like it was for the guilds in the material plane. The shadow realm didn't have the same player density so it wasn't possible. There were still many advantages to be had though.

The more he read the more he like the idea of finishing his climb to 100.

Brax did some light exercise at home but spent most the day on the internet doing research and crafti