Dark Lord: Rise to Power

Arin was lost in processing all the information he had collected so far. The screams and cries for mercy were not distracting; rather, they actually helped him focus, as he was used to such sounds in his past life. Human life did not mean much to him anyway.

He made a mental note of every unique or noteworthy thing he had discovered about this new world so far:

1. He was in a world where magic existed.

2. Gods were present and seemed to be highly active.

3. This world appeared to have a game-like system and progression. The detailed functionality and rules were yet to be understood by him.

4. He could access his system window with mental commands, but spell casting required vocal commands. It was not just a simple utterance but a more complex process.

5. Every enemy kill awarded him +10 Exp, and a bonus +5 Exp if the enemy was of a higher level.

However, he couldn't understand how he could so easily kill an enemy of a higher level than himself. The only plausible explanation he could come up with was that his stats were higher than his enemy's. However, this did not make complete sense unless his special permanent status as 'Champion' or his profession as 'Champion of Nerthazir' was giving him a significant stat boost over others. He realized he needed to find out more about these two statuses. He tried to access information about them with mental commands, but each attempt resulted in failure, as if something was preventing him from accessing the data.

He also did not know whether there were other humanoid fantasy creatures besides humans. The revenants, in their rage and great hatred, had mutilated the five necromancers beyond recognition. Arin was unsure whether this viciousness was natural for revenants, was channeled into them from him—the one who had raised them from death to undeath—or was the result of their deeply buried hatred retained at the moment of their death.

Arin's chain of thought got broken with appearance of new status windows-

[You have killed five enemies. You have been awarded +50 exp]

[You have killed five enemies of level higher than you. You have been awarded bonus +25exp]

[You have killed four Humans. Kill forty-six more to unlock title ??????????]

[You have killed two Half-Elves. Kill forty-eight more to unlock title ??????????]

[You have killed six Necromancers. Kill forty-four more to unlock title ??????????]

[You have killed five enemies with your minions. Kill forty-five more to unlock title ??????????]

"What? There were two half-elves among them? So there are non-human intelligent species as well?" Arin exclaimed. "And what are these Titles? Why are they not visible? Maybe, only after achieving these milestones will I be able to see those titles," he wondered. He also realized his 'Champion' status or 'Champion of Nerthazir' profession was not being displayed for similar reasons. He must have to unlock some secret traits to learn about them. He felt excited.

He stood up and saw the revenants standing still, looking at him as if awaiting further command. He noticed that the gore splattered on their naked bodies was being absorbed into their skin.

"Can you speak?" Arin asked them.

"Gwah... gwa... gg..." one tried to reply. Arin could not decide whether they were actually trying to speak but could not, or if they were not intelligent enough to make an articulate reply. They all looked relatively alike, with just slight differences in height. Arin had seen many corpses in his past life, but these walking corpses were a bit unsettling for him. But then he remembered his own status—he himself was undead, one among them. It would be hypocritical for him to judge them by their looks. There seemed to be two males and two females. Arin was not sure whether they were related or not, as there was no way to determine that right now.

"Enough loitering," Arin told himself and decided to move out of the mausoleum. Before leaving, he considered raising the six necromancers he had killed. But the corpses appeared so mutilated that he dropped the idea, afraid of raising something too grotesque or mangled to keep around. However, he felt like there was something strange about those bodies. Something was with them that he could not observe, yet he could not shake the feeling either.

Suddenly, a notification window appeared:

[Congratulations on unlocking new skill 'Scrying'. Level 'Novice'.]

['Scrying' skill progression 3/50]

"What type of skill is this?" Arin wondered. To his amazement, he could now see faint bluish glowing balls of light hovering over the six dead bodies. He tried to look more carefully, but no more notification windows popped up this time. Arin realized whatever those were, his 'scrying' skill was not advanced enough to recognize them. Out of curiosity, he tried touching a ball of light, but nothing happened.

Unconsciously, he said, "Rise," and to his surprise, he saw the spheres suddenly bend in shape, flicker, and then return to their original spherical form. Arin concocted a theory—that these balls had reacted to his command, but the command wasn't effective enough. He recalled his past intentional and unintentional attempts to cast spells. After a bit of pondering, he felt that he had made a breakthrough. Following up on it, he issued the command "RISE" to the hovering bluish spheres, but this time he put more emotion and a commanding attitude behind it. To his surprise, he witnessed the six balls of light taking the shapes of six incorporeal skeletal figures.

[ You have successfully raised six Specters ]

['Raise Dead' skill progression 18/150]

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| Specter |

| Race: Undead |

|Tier-III |

| Level: 1 |

| Owner: Arin Drez |

=============================

| Strength: 12 | 

|Agility: 30 |

|Magicka: 48 |

|Wisdom: 30 |

|HP: 120 |

|MP: 108 |

=============================

| Resistance: |

| Blade 99% | Blunt 99% | Piercing 99% |

| Fire 0% | Water 50% | Earth 90% |

| Light -95% | Dark 90% | Mental 85% |

=============================

| Status: |

| Undead (Permanent) |

| Incorporeal (Permanent) |

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| Ability: |

| Life Drain – physical attack drains a portion of vitality from the target |

| Incorporeal – provides invisibility, ability to pass through physical objects |

=============================

Arin was elated with joy and excitement. However, he realized there was something of grave concern. The God of Death had dispatched him to a mystical land full of mystery, magic, and unknown dangers. But the problem was, although he had been blessed with some exceptional powers, he knew little to nothing about his powers or skills. He was afraid that this 'trial and error' way of learning was going to be a very slow process, and this slow pace would put him at a huge disadvantage sooner or later, especially when he encountered enemies who were real experts. But there was no way for him other than to keep trying his skills to hone them, learn more about them, and be ready to seize every opportunity to grow.

He looked at the specters. He did not sense any sign of hostility from them, despite the fact that he had killed them just a while ago.

"Follow me," he commanded his minions and decided to explore the whole building before venturing outside. With his entourage of four revenants and six specters, he started exploring the building. At first, Arin had assumed that it was a mausoleum. However, he soon found out that it was more than a simple mausoleum. The room he was resurrected in was very spacious, making Arin believe that this room was the main or central area of the building. However, after stepping outside, he realized that in reality, it was rather a small room. They walked through an alley with various rooms on both sides. Some of the rooms were closed. Some rooms no longer had any doors. Some had their floors caved in. Arin wanted to search each of the rooms, but before that, he wanted to find a way out of the building.

After exploring for a while, they came across a big hall. To his surprise and excitement, Arin discovered that its architecture resembled that of a royal court. He concluded that he was now standing in the ruins of an old castle or palace. Arin felt that he had hit the jackpot. He had found a base of operations from which he could start his activities. But he first needed to survey the entire castle and get a complete idea of its structure. Also, since humans had infiltrated the castle's inner chamber and performed a ritual while carrying five corpses, it meant that this castle was not completely cut off from civilization.

Arin decided on his immediate objective: surveying the entire castle before claiming it for himself, discovering any clues or objects that could empower him, helping him get a better idea of his own power, and gaining an understanding of the world he was now part of. He decided that his main focus had to be finding books, tomes, or better yet, an entire library. He commanded the specters, "Search the castle and find a library. As soon as you find one, come to me and guide me there." Giving this command, he started surveying the castle by himself, accompanied by the four revenants.