I looked at the map wall where Renfry was pointing. They’re coming up was a foe that I had some experience with. An ogre with a huge hammer was clearing the last rise. This one was clearly a zombie, as a huge gash ran from one side of its face to the other. Its hammer was over its shoulder like a ball bat, and it walked with an easy gait that worried me.

I muttered. “Zombies shouldn’t move like that.”

Dalonmut nodded. “I’ll agree with you on that. It must have taken a lot of work to make that one.”

I let my breath out slowly as I noticed a few steps behind the ogre was a small figure. It was hard to tell at the range we were at, but I had a feeling I was getting a glimpse of the boy necromancer.

I pointed at the wall. “Is that the boy you were talking about?”

Dalonmut and Evie both started to curse. I could understand what Evie was saying, but Dalonmut’s words were in a language that I didn’t know. Which shocked my brain slightly as I thought I could understand everyone. I didn’t know why I thought that, but I just guessed since I could talk with Lannah and Kasidy that everyone spoke the same.

Evie sat down on the ground with her head in her hands. Most of the rest of the people pulled little trinkets out of their robes. Some sat, and others knelt, but they all looked like they were in some form of prayer.

Dalonmut spat again. “Worthless gods the only ones that cared left long ago! They gave us steel and told us to fight! So I’ll fight.”

The dwarf triggered some skill, and his hammer, which he left on the other side of the room, flew into his hands. It didn’t look like the one that the ogre had. No, the ogre had an oversized sludge hammer. Dalonmut had a warhammer that was meant for a real fight. It couldn’t have been more than ten pounds. One side was a ping, and the other was a long, slightly curved spike.

I looked over at Irwin and asked. “Can you drop that ogre?”

He nodded. “I can still drop them all the problem is that Lich might just be able to raise them all back up.”

Evie looked up from the floor. “If he doesn’t just cast a shield.”

“So the Lich is the main problem?”

“Yes, no one knows what level he is but he is a thinker. He plans everything out so it is unlikely we could kill him right now.” She said.

Kasidy spoke up then. “The Boy Lich! Oh! I know of him. There is a song about how he was the son of a king and was betrayed by those who were sworn to protect him.”

As Kasidy was saying that, Renfry moaned said to me. “Not a king a Marquess. That’s Eric, and he is here for you.”

I reached out to Blink. “Blink, do you see what level the Lich is?”

She thought back. “Still not sure how you do that. He doesn’t feel that powerful though. Not higher than Renfry.”

I sent back. “Okay so around level 20 which seems super low for a lich. I thought they were all high level.”

“Okay so Blink says the Lich isn’t a higher level than Renfry.” I told everyone. “Which means we are going to try the lightning attack. If we can finish this here great. If not then we can still break out.”

Evie said. “If we don’t kill the lich it won’t matter he will just raise the zombies again and send them back at us. We don’t have a priest with us.”

I slowly smiled. “I can lay-to-rest. It will take a while but I should be able to put the ogre down for good and then work on the rest of them. Renfry anything else we can use here to fight the zombies?”

My lancer shook his head. “No my lord. Arrows are worthless and we don’t have any oil to use.”

Kasidy leaned over and whispered. “Umm, can you plant something or turn this into those other things? It use to be a lair.”

I nodded. “Good idea Kas. Let me go find out. We don’t have much time. Renfry, take Irwin to the roof. He needs a good view of the ogre without falling off. Can you keep him safe somehow and then you get below so that you don’t get hit?”

Renfry bowed and said. “Irwin come this way. You might get to show us your power yet.”

I turned to Dalonmut and asked the grump. “Can you form up your people who can fight through this room.”

Dalonmut glared at me. “I know my duty without needing you to remind me of it. I’m not like you surface dwellers forgetting your pledges.”

The dwarf turned and started to move through the rest of the people there, speaking lowly to each one. As I saw him moving off, I turned and headed up the stairs as well. While I would have liked to have cored the building in the secret room, I wasn’t sure I had time. I just didn’t want to waste time going through the hall. So I ran the stairs to the throne. It would be easier to core the throne as it was connected to the whole building.

I sat down on the throne and got a pop-up.

Combine lands?

Do you wish to combine your non-noble lands with your title?

As you are Lordless you can change your noble title rank by gaining enough land.

Your Landed VI ranking plus your Marquess land holdings combined would change your title from Marquess to Marquess III

Yes/No

I clicked yes

Marquess III of Westiral (hereditary noble 2)

You are a landed noble (Size of Landed X) of disputed territory. You rank just below that of a Barron. Ownership of Castle Westiral (occupied) Ownership of Outpost Kings highway. You may have a retinue of up to 15 +4 intermediation to all encounters with non-nobles (if they know) -3 social interactions with those who hold no land. (if they know) +3 Social interaction with nobles of equal or less land -1 Social Interaction with all landed who aren’t nobles Lordless You are a noble without a ruler. The land that you have is beyond the rule of others. +1 Social interaction with nobles You are not required to raise a levy for anyone You are not required to keep a retinue

I quickly checked and smiled. It didn’t matter at all for the fight, but I lost my Landed title, which also meant that I lost my stacking social interaction problems. Also, for some reason, my social interaction negatives with those without land went down.

I shook my and pulled out my knife. I went to carve a socket for a core when I remembered that it wasn’t one of my cores I needed to use but a dungeon seed. They were all in my room, so I might as well use them there. I got up from the throne and ran. As I did, I heard the first boom of the ogre’s hammer slamming on the door down below.

I jumped over the table and ran through the door to the hall. In just a moment, I was in my room. The room that the lich used to use back when he was a kid. My external frame pack was propped up next to my bed. I yanked one of the seeds out of it and triggered the system. Only to get a pop-up I hadn’t expected to see.

Warning!

Placing a dungeon seed in a movable object will fix the object to the current location.

Proceed?

Yes/No

I cussed, then slowed myself down a moment and thought through the issues. I can drop a seed in the tower right now, which would let the tower connect to the rest of my network and give me defenses inside. However, it would keep the tower from moving again.

Then I slowly smiled as I thought about my first dungeon. I had moved it, which meant that I had left a hole where it had been. So while this would fix the tower to its current location, it wouldn’t mean that I couldn’t later move the dungeon out of it and then move the tower. They just couldn’t move as one.

I heard a boom down below and was yanked out of my thoughts. I dropped the seed into a bag on my hip and grabbed my shield and standard. If I used the dungeon core now, everyone here would know I could. So it’s best that I don’t give that away unless we have to. Besides, these are just undead, zombies to boot, so I could cut them.

I went to the trap door and up the ladder; just poking my head through, I yelled. “Irwin! As soon as Renfry is down here, cast!”

I saw Renfry running in my direction, so I went back down and picked my standard back up. Then I sprinted down the steps. I needed to cast Lay-To-Rest on the bones of the ogre once Irwin fried them and before the little lich could do anything else.

When I got to the bottom room, I saw that Dalonmut had done his job. The guards all had their shields out, and they were ready to form a wall right at the doorway. The others had their best weapons out. I wished that I had found the armory as most of the people just had knives or broken chairs.

Each swing of the ogre’s hammer sounded in the room like a pillow hitting a wall. Yet it also moved the top corner of the door as well. Not much but just enough that each hit made me think they were about to bust through. We needed to end this guy, at least because he wouldn’t stop hitting until he was through. Zombies never got tired.

I thought about how my standard worked and quickly checked through its traits.

>Traits

Durable- This Defensive Standard is durable, it will not wear out from normal use durability will only decrease with targeted attacks. Mana reservoir- 240 mana unlinked 300 mana linked to traits. Recharges at a rate of 10 mana per hour can be forced charged. Stronger and lighter- This Standard is both stronger and lighter then one would think by looking at it. Stone Air- This takes 20 mana per minute to keep up plus 1 point of mana for every 10 points of physical damage inflicted on it, 1 point for every 2 points of magical damage. Healing Field- All those who are identified as belonging to the standard within 100 feet will having healing increased by 50% Illness ward- All those who were identified as belonging to the standard will have a passive illness ward granted to them. If this ward is needed it will cure or prevent illness at 1 point of mana for 10 points of illness HP to be purged up to 100 points of Mana per day. The ward will also passively prevent all level 1 and level 2 illnesses.

Then I called out. “Today you fight in my tower. Today no matter where your loyalty lies you belong to my standard for this battle. Your healing will be increased if you are close enough to me.”

As I said that, for the first time, I saw someone other than an enemy react to the standard as the healing field rolled out. The crowd behind the guards all murmured a little, and Dalonmut gave his first sign of respect a slight nod.

Then we heard a clap of thunder that turned into a roaring rolling boom. The thunder was coming so fast that it just increased in volume the longer it went. The tower shook as the thunder kept going. Not the stone but everything inside seemed to want to move.

Everyone seemed to be like me, in pain from the loudness of it. Kasidy fell to her knees first. Audio attacks seemed to affect her more than they did me. I felt myself turning deaf with how loud the thunder was then I got a debuff of reduced hearing with a 10-second counter.

The booming, while not as loud now that I had the debuff going, still rolled for a few more seconds. Then when it cut out, we all took a breath. Dalonmut motioned to his man, who stepped up and tapped the bar on the door. It swung up on its own, and the door opened slowly.

As it did, a wave of the nastiest air came in. It was from the burnt, and smoking hulk of decayed zombie ogre slumped at the door. The chain lightning had done its job, and I couldn’t pull up anything on the zombie as I tried to interface with it.

I tapped most of my mana for a quick cast of Lay-to-Rest on the body. Then I stepped through the door. For the most part, this was my fight now. I needed to remove the lich’s currently downed army before he had a chance to get it back up.

I scanned the field as I stepped around the pile of ogre. It was a mess. There were body parts that had been blown clean off the zombies. The ground was charred black, and there were holes everywhere. It wasn’t like artillery had landed as they weren’t craters, but each hole was about a foot across, and there were dozens of them. However, just outside of the field of destruction, I saw the lich running.

I thought out to Blink. “Can you get him?”

She shared her vision with me. She was currently fighting five zombie orcs and couldn’t break away.

She sent to me. “He knew I was hunting him and lead me through a trap. He is smarter than his level. He will be a good hunt.”

I turned back to the door and yelled. “Looks like the lich has fled for now. Help me get these bodies piled and I can lay them all to rest now.”

Renfry stepped out first and looked around. “My lord it is never wise to think a lich had fled the field of battle. They are a cowardly lot but they are also vindictive. So be ready.”

I glanced around for a moment. “Noted, please go check on Irwin. We need to make sure he recovers from this.”

Renfry bowed and pushed through the door as others were coming out. As he left, I grabbed an arm and tossed it onto a body. I then grabbed another body as I saw the caravan members leading out their horses.

Then I heard a song roll out from the door, and a slight wind started to move the stench away. I went to work dragging bodies. It took me just a few minutes to notice that I was the only one working. Everyone else had formed up, and the wagons were moving off.

The only bodies that they had moved were the ones blocking the wagon. Other than that, they left the mess to me. So much for them acting like they cared that I was a noble. I shook my head as Renfry came out the door.

He gave me a bow. “My lord it seems that they truly don’t care for their member who saved them as they left him as well.”

* * *