Chapter 286 Tiny Problems
"No, not really, what's a Grave Lord?" Dave asked.
"Alright listen carefully. A Grave Lord is a forbidden Undead. We don't nurture them for the dangers it entails in raising them. A Grave Lord is a forever starving parasite."
"Parasite? How is that going to help in raiding the Pharaoh's Crypt?" Dave wondered.
"It encroaches on undead and gains strength from felled enemies. It can grow infinitely strong, but the stronger it becomes the harder it is to control it. If you find yourself in a situation where you can't manage your Grave Lord. Call me or Dagla and we will take care of it for you," Samael said
"Alright, so how can I obtain this unit?" Dave asked.
"I brought one with me," Samael said. He pulled out a small wooden box from inside his sleeve and handed it to Dave.
Dave took the box and opened it. There was a small black slime inside it. It wriggled when it was exposed to the light of the broken moon hanging over the underworld.
Dave inspected the slime.
***
Grave Lord embryo.
Level: 1
Tier: Mythical
Base damage: 1
Danger Level: None
HP:1
PD:1
MD:1
Skills:
[Soul Bound] binds itself to an undead and grows to match the bounded undead's level.
[Assimilate] Consumes the corpses of fallen enemies to generate its own body.
The body of the Grave Lord changes depending on the monsters consumed. Gaining HP, PD, MD depending on the number of consumed monsters.
The Grave Lord Level cannot exceed the Bound Undead to it.
[Death Collector] Skill Info will be unlocked when the Grave Lord reaches level 300.
Lore:
A Grave Lord is an entity that even the Undead need to think twice before conscripting it to their army. They can grow infinitely strong, but their power comes with a price that the undead wish not to pay. It can consume its own allies in its hunger and will not recognize friend from foes.
***
"This little thing doesn't look that scary," Dave said.
"You will have to see for yourself then. Bind it to your will. That will make it submit to your orders and follow them. But be careful to not feed it a lot. It will turn on you whenever it can." Samael warned Dave.
"How do you bind it?" Dave asked.
"Just will it."
Dave closed his eyes and focused on the little slime. A notification prompet appeared in front of him. Reading through, Dave saw the following.
***
Grave Lord Embryo has been bounded to your player character.
You have obtained a new Familiar!
Your familiar can grow stronger and help you in battle.
Familiars are permanently bound to your character and can never die.
Please give a name to your new familiar.
***
"Oh, a familiar this is neat. Hmm, a name. How about, Tiny?" Dave mumbled
A notification prompt appeared in front of Dave.
***
Do you wish to name Grave Lord Embryo: Tiny?
Yes/ No.
***
"Yeah, Tiny sounds about right," Dave said. A notification appeared again confirming the name of the small slime.
The blob hopped and sat on Dave's shoulder, wiggling it came closer to his neck. It seemed that the slime liked the name.
"Huh, looks like it grew fondness to you. Kis'Shtiengbrah," Samael sounded surprised. Grave Lords apparenetly never acted this way.
"Yeah, guess Tiny liked his name. So, I'll have to go soon."
"It's a long way to the Pharaoh's Crypt. How are you going to get there," Samael was smirking at Dave.
Dave was about to tell Samael that he was going to take the Red Fortress teleportation gate then he remembered that the Undead legion was still fighting to retake it from the demons.
"I guess I'll have to take the Undead Frontier's teleportation gate and go from there."
"That will take you three days to reach the Pharaoh's Crypt. Here," Samael handed Dave a teleportation scroll. Only this scroll wasn't brown like the ones he used before. But was pitch black and had a pentagonal star painted in red in it.
"What's this?" Dave asked.
"This is a mass teleportation scroll. Dagla had already set up a temporary teleportation portal in an area near the Pharaoh's Crypt. You can take all of your undead there at once." Samael said.
"Thank you Samael," Dave nodded.
"Best of luck, Kis'Shtiengbrah," Samael said and disappeared in a swirl of shadow.
Dave turned to his army and shouted. "Boyz! Let's go!"
Dave tore the teleportation scroll. All of the undead behind him disappeared at once.
A desert of black sands extended all the way to the horizon. The duns looked like crawling mountains as they slowly moved due to the wind that was blowing across the entirety of the area.
A blast of black magic spread across the desert blowing sand up in the sky. Twelve hundred undead appeared in the black desert.
Dave's eyes itched for a second. His vision turned black and white for a few moments revealing corpses under the sand.
***
Lich hidden ability has activated [Death Vision]
You can see corpses of fallen warriors that can be revived using [Rise Undead]
The ability can be toggled on and off.
***
White-colored corpses of painted tri-headed dogs were displayed in Dave's vision. There were many of them under the sand.
But Dave wasn't interested in reviving these corpses. They were too low level for him to be of any use. But the slime above Dave's shoulder had other intentions.
It hopped from over Dave's shoulder and bore through the ground like water pouring on the sand.
"Tiny! Come back," Dave shouted. But the small slime didn't adhere to his calls.
Dave was at a loss; he didn't know what to do. Soon after, in his vision, he noticed that the corpses under the sand were…moving.
The corpses broke and shattered and moved to gather under Dave's basilisk. More of the painted dog's corpses were assembled into one growing mass of corpses shaped into an enormous ball.
The sand under Grumpy shook. "Grumps, go back," Dave said.
Grumpy retreated back from where he stood. Suddenly, the sand parted away revealing a bony hand that was as large as a tree trunk.
The hand-pulled itself up revealing an enormous creature made of rotten flesh, bones, and skin. A helmet the shape of a stag's skull covered the creature's face. Its chest was a mix of painted dog hide and bones, the hides were strapped over each other puffing the creature's torso like a ball. Two of its hands were large and big enough it reached its knees. The creature was as large as the Gashadokuro that Dave rescued from the Storm Labyrinth.
"Tiny? Is that you?" Dave said to the enormous creature.
Receiving no response Dave inspected the creature.
***
Grave Lord embryo.
Level: 250
Tier: Mythical
Base damage: 20,000-30,000
Danger Level: None
HP: 250,000
PD: 50,000
MD:0
Skills:
[Soul Bound] binds itself to an undead and grows to match the bounder undead's level.
[Assimilate] Consumes the corpses of fallen enemies to generate its own body.
The body of the Grave Lord changes depending on the monsters consumed. Gaining HP, PD, MD depending on the number of consumed monsters.
The Grave Lord Level cannot exceed the Bound Undead to it.
[Death Collector] Skill Info will be unlocked when the Grave Lord reaches level 300.
Lore:
A Grave Lord is an entity that even the Undead need to think twice before conscripting it to their army. They can grow infinitely strong, but their power comes with a price that the undead wish not to pay. It can consume its own allies in its hunger and will not recognize friend from foes.
***
"Damn, that's Tiny alright. Doesn't look tiny anymore."
Dave analyzed the new undead under his command. It was created from the corpses of hundreds of painted dogs, but its level was the same as them. 250. With the exception of the HP it now has, the rest of the stats were the same as a demonic painted dog.
Dave understood that when Tiny consumed a type of creature it will take some of their attributes, probably if it assimilates stronger prey, it might have its level increased to match the creature's level and also have more defensive and offensive stats. So far Tiny was strong, but it was clear that it could become stronger the more it assimilated. The only worry was what Samael told him. This thing, the stronger it becomes the hungrier it gets. He still hoped that Tiny wouldn't think that undead under Dave's command were snacks any time soon.
The giant Tiny pointed to the north.
"I want More… Food, more power."
"Calm down Tiny," Dave said. "We need to get to the Pharao's Crypt."
Tiny looked at Dave and growled "NO! I want food!" Tiny began stomping the sand.
Dave's brows twitched, Tiny was like a toddler in a tantrum.
Dog led his basilisk forward and whipped the air with his bone flail. The weapon turned to a barbed bone whip that snapped through the air, creating a supersonic blast.
Tiny instantly stopped his tantrum. Though undead, it must have been fear that gripped at Tiny's heart when he was looking at the small but scary dullahan.
"Thanks, Dog. Listen up, Tiny. I'm not gonna take shit from you. I have a mission to do. If you help me complete it, then I will let you have a snack. If you don't. Then I'll put you back in the box. Do you want to go back into the box?!" Dave shouted.
"No, box, small. No box. Will, listen. Me will help." Tiny said in mutters.
"Good boy, now follow along," Dave said.
He led his troops toward the east where the Pharaoh's Crypt marker was. They were encountered by a few demonic painted dogs, but when these creatures saw the giant made of the flesh and corpses of their brethren, they spread out and ran away from the monster.
"Food, running away," Tiny said.
"Didn't I tell you that you will get your food later? Keep moving!" Dave said. Dog added more credibility to Dave's words by whipping the air with his weapon again.
The undead army kept moving toward the Pharaoh's Crypt. Suddenly, a sand dun burst apart, revealing a creature as tall as Tiny and several times wider.
The creature was a mix of a monitor and a scorpion. Its fur was black, and the scorpion membranes on it were reinforced with thick scaly carapaces. A vicious stinger swayed left and right threatening to attack at any moment.
"The fuck is up with these creatures, why the hell are all of them this big!"
Dave inspected the monster
***
Manticore (Cursed)
Level: 450
Tier: Epic
Base damage: 60,000-80,000
Danger Level: ☠☠☠
HP: 2,500,000
PD: 60,000
MD:80,000
Skills:
[Wrath of The titans] Whenever the Manticore loses 10% of its total HP, its next attack will deal five (5) times its base damage.
[Flesh Corroding Poison] Cursed Manticore's poison melts flesh and deals 6,000 poison damage per second for 5 seconds.
[Poisonous Shot] the manticore can repeatedly shoot the stinger from its tail like a bolt toward a target. Dealing 20,000 damage and applying [Flesh Corroding Poison]
[Rampage] The Cursed Manticore enters a berserker stat for 20 seconds, where his attack speed and base damage are doubled. After the [Rampage] is over the Cursed Manticore enters and [Exhausted] state for 10 seconds.
Lore:
Manticores are hunters of men, they feast on creatures leaving nothing behind. They are extremely brutal and vicious that rare were those that reported the sight.
(Cursed)
Cursed creatures leave no loot behind. When a cursed creature dies, they will cause the killer to fall under the debuff [Curse of the old ones]
Cursed user will have their Max HP reduced by 20% for 24 hours in-game.
***
"Yeah, fucking great. Try to run, and it will chase you to the end of the world. Kill it and it'll curse you. Fanfuckingtastic!" Dave groaned as he watched the monster approaching rapidly toward them.