Eternal Dominion Book 12: Compulsion
Eternal Dominion Book 12
Compulsion
Bern Dean
Bern's Books LLC
Copyright © 2022 Bern's Books LLC
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Morning March 25, 2267 & ED Year 3 Day 25.
Evening March 25, 2267 & ED Year 3 Days 26-27.
Morning March 26 to Evening March 29, 2267 & ED Year 3 Days 28-39.
Morning March 30, 2267 & ED Year 3 Days 40-42.
Morning March 31, to Morning April 2, 2267 & ED Year 3 Days 43-49.
Evening April 2 to Evening April 4, 2267 & ED Year 3 Days 50-57.
Morning April 5 to Morning April 10, 2267 & ED Year 3 Days 58-73.
Evening April 5, 2267 & ED Year 3 Days 74-75.
Morning April 11 to Morning April 13, 2267 & ED Year 3 Days 76-82.
Evening April 13, 2267 & ED Year 3 Days 83-84.
Morning April 14, 2267 & ED Year 3 Day 85.
Thanks!
Preview
Afterword
Morning March 25, 2267 & ED Year 3 Day 25.
Alex was still recovering from the scene of Julie having her water break and being rushed out to the hospital, when he arrived next to Sam and Nicole, who were both still holding their bellies almost subconsciously. Though they both smiled as he took them by the hand and led them away from the area that Sofie was cleaning up. As the only one of the staff in the house, the cook was pulling extra duty as her husband Jacob drove the butler Gido and Gido’s wife Julie the maid, who would also be working as the nanny for Sam’s and Nicole’s babies to the hospital.
“Are you both alright?”
“Yah, it was kind of sudden,” responded Sam.
“Exactly. I mean, I remember when my mom’s water broke when she had Jhon, but that was so long ago, I forgot what it was like,” added Nicole.
“I don’t think that is something you really get used to.”
“Ha, I’ll remember that you said that when you’re on kid 20 and don’t even blink at it,” quipped Sam.
“Are we talking in reality, or Eternal Dominion?” asked Nicole in an amused tone.
“Reality. I don’t even know how giving birth would work in ED. I mean, I don’t know if they would include something so painful in a game after all,” responded Sam.
“From what I understand, it is entirely realistic except that you can turn off pain and you will have a cleric on hand to make sure that nothing goes wrong. Heck, if you turn off pain, they could give you a cesarean delivery and heal you up without issue. There probably wouldn’t even be a scar.”
“Alex, please, let’s not talk about that right now. You know that I am worried about having to deal with that,” commented Sam.
“Sam, you will be fine. Both you and Nicole will likely be induced at the end of June due to our lifestyle.”
Alex knew from his last life that most pro female ED players who had kids and didn’t shift their lifestyle, would end up having to be induced.
“You know if that happens, we’re totally scheduling them for the same time and forcing you to sit between us as we each destroy one of your hands, right?” quipped Sam nervously.
“Just leave them intact enough for me to hold my little girls when they arrive.”
“Fine, if we must.”
“Sam, if we do too much damage, how will we make him deal with diaper duty?”
Alex just smiled as Sam and Nicole continued to talk about what to expect once his two little girls arrived, and he couldn’t be happier to let them discuss the topic as a whole as they sat down for breakfast. They were joined by everyone else as topics centered around Julie’s baby dominated the chatter that filled the dining room. When Alex received the message from Jacob, saying that they were at the hospital and had been rushed straight into a delivery room and that Dr. Avery was only a few minutes out, he smiled. For Alex, this was like a test run of a sort, as he had paid to ensure that Julie would get the same level of treatment that Sam and Nicole would. With confirmation that everything was going well, Alex breathed a sigh of relief as he sent a message back and shared the news with everyone else.
Xeal awoke to the sight of all six of his brides on the bed with him, four of whom were pregnant themselves, though they were at most eight weeks along right now. As Aalin and Gale arrived and awoke, the rest of the bed followed as he found himself surrounded on all sides with love. Aalin and Gale were quick to bring up the events in reality as the four clerics of Eileithyia came in to do their morning checkups on the babies. As they heard the conversation about how childbirth would work here, they were quick to respond as the one who was in charge of caring for Enye and her baby spoke.
“For those of this house, Lady Deborah will determine when the time is correct and ensure that the process is quick and painless for both mother and child…”
The description that they shared went a bit too much in detail for Xeal’s liking, but from the sounds of it, they were confident in a safe delivery within 15 minutes of starting the process. Xeal knew that this was a luxury afforded only to the rich or influential, while others went through something closer to what Xeal would have expected of being cut open before being healed by a cleric. That method required a total of three spells and took ten minutes from start to finish, but was a far bloodier process and carried a higher chance of issues.
Still, today wasn’t about that as Xeal had sent out the notice for everyone to be ready to challenge The Voiceless Caverns. This was the level 100 to 104 hellish nightmare dungeon in Nium and would provide the first opportunity for players in Nium to obtain a void heart by defeating the final boss. As far as priorities went, this was at the top of the list of things needed currently, as he needed to build a teleportation hall in his new city for it to operate before the end of the current year like he hoped. Xeal really didn’t want to get too close to the deadline he had to work with of four months past the new year, to have his city functional. If they were successful today, it would mean that Xeal would secure two hearts, giving his architect players two tries to build what was one of the most difficult buildings to construct in all of ED and it was also the most necessary of all the ones a city needed to become successful. There was also a fundamental difference between the system a garrison portal used and the general use teleportation halls.
For garrison portals, they were set up such that a whole nation would only need a handful of void hearts for their whole network, as they could only be used for transport within that network. The advantage to this was that each void heart could be used for multiple gates, allowing for more locations to be reached. However, there was a limit in the number of open portals using each network before another heart needed to be added to sustain the network. The main issue with this method though, was the diminishing return as while the first heart could connect eight locations, the next six hearts after that could only add four more locations before dropping to two for every heart after that. With a teleportation hall, each extra heart would add possible range to its capability, while allowing a connection to every other gate that was in range which weren’t a closed network. If a player wanted to set up one that could reach anywhere in the world, like every capital in ED, a special gate would be needed and at least ten void hearts. Both also had to be maintained with MP crystals, though a teleportation hall had a much more efficient rate, though the longer the jump the more MP that was burned through. Fortunately, level 110 dungeons and up were a great source for this resource, with more of it dropping in higher-leveled areas.
Part of what had annoyed players so much when all the wars had started in Xeal’s last life, was the shutdown of all the teleportation halls due to security concerns. Only players who had access to a country’s garrison portals, or had established a hidden network of their own, could move about at will like they currently enjoyed. For most casual players, this had meant that they were stuck where they were, unless they wanted to take a caravan to another city. The other option was to pay an exorbitant fee, that most nations put in place for access to their garrison portal network, every time they wanted to go somewhere new. This had been one of the main reasons that Abysses End had set its sights on Nium in Xeal’s last life, as it was the only continent that no longer had wars breaking out on it every other year it seemed.
It was for this reason that if the first attempt to build the teleportation hall succeeded, he would be using the second heart to establish a network that would be used for direct access to each phoenix. Depending on a few tests, Xeal would be placing the portals either just outside the barriers where each phoenix could reach anyone who used it, or inside where the phoenixes would be perfect guardians. Xeal was hoping that the tests were successful, otherwise he would need to have another conversation with Daryu about balance.
As Xeal was thinking about this, the other 14 players that he would be running this dungeon with arrived, all of whom were at level 110 currently. This team consisted of Aalin, Gale, Ignis, Amet, Clara, Friva, Saima, Caleb, Vento, A
mser and four of Amser’s normal six-man team. This included the second tank, a warrior by the name of Orithin Goldfury, the mage Tinesi Crathyra, the ranger Warynor Phidan and her cleric, Paul Ward. Orithin Goldfury was the opposite of Amser in that he was covered in armor from head to toe, such that only his golden brown eyes were visible behind his visor, as he held a large shield in one hand and a sword in the other. He had also gone through the race change quest to become a dwarf while abroad with his party. Tinesi Crathyra wore dark blue robes with tiny sparkles covering most of her body, save for her face. Instead, that was covered by a golden full-face Venetian-style mask, with purple accents around the eyes and a single purple curly cue-like design around her left eye. Surrounding that was an elaborate hat that met with the robe’s hood, to hide everything but her green eyes. Warynor Phidan was dressed in a mix of leather and fur, to include the plague doctor-styled mask that hid even his eyes behind its tinted eye covers. Across his chest was a plethora of throwing weapons as two short swords hung at his waist with a bow and arrows were slung on his back. Then there was Paul Ward, dressed in a simple brown robe wielding a plain wooden staff, with bowl-cut brown hair and brown eyes. In front of the group, Amser stood with her purple twin tails and her ring blade slung on her shoulder.
“So, you finally found time to bring most of my team on one of your dungeon dives. You’re lucky I know just how good Saima is, or I would have insisted on Lushnish acting as our scout here. Now can you tell me why we are going into this dungeon almost blind when several of your team can’t afford a death penalty?”
“The scouting report said that there were void monsters that completely messed up their run even on normal mode and I am hoping that a first-time clear will allow us to get a void heart. That said, we are going to need to be ready for anything. They also said that they could barely hear anything either, so get ready for complete silence, or close to it. Tinesi, we are going to be counting on your void magic to detect any disturbances. Also, if anyone sees something, use the light wand that I and Aalin will be handing you all to point it out…”
Xeal went on to describe how a ball of light would shoot from the tip and it should allow them to notice something, even if The Voiceless Caverns blocked all sound like he knew it would. Though he was curious if his, Aalin’s, or Gale’s altered senses would be able to pick up something. Still, he knew that Tinesi was the key to any chance that they had on the hellish nightmare mode of the dungeon as he finished talking and after no questions came, Xeal led them into the dungeon while hoping for the best.
The first thing that any of them noticed was the absolute lack of sound, almost as if they had been transported to outer space and there was no air to vibrate and carry the soundwaves. Had this been all that players had to deal with, it could have been overcome with the messaging feature, at least partly, but they received a notification that the feature was unavailable as well. Xeal smiled as he took out a few notepads and handed them out, writing the starting orders on the one in his hand as they set out. With Saima moving forward as Xeal and the rest following behind, as they traversed the expansive cave system they found themselves in.
A full hour had gone by without coming across a single monster, as they worked to find a route to the boss in the maze that Xeal had only the vaguest of memories about. He had only completed this dungeon once in his last life, and it truly was a labyrinth known for forcing players to work together to move through. Many of these points would be over bottomless pits that there was no chance of revival from before the dungeon was cleared, or a full party wipe took effect. It was also at these points where the void monsters would attack, coming out of seemingly nowhere. So it was that as Saima lowered a rope down for them all to climb up a ledge she had just gotten to the top of, that Tinesi shot out a ball of light as a portal opened up a second later. The portal was just to the right of the rope and Saima was barely able to retract it in time, as they got their look at their first monster in this dungeon. With elongated arms and only three clawed fingers and toes on each hand and foot, the hunchback humanoid looked like it had never seen light sniffed the air. Xeal could tell that they had drawn poorly for their first fight, as it was a void stalker and they had to make sure that it didn’t grab hold of any of them as if it did, it would quickly vanish into a portal with them. This wouldn’t kill them, but instead, it would drop them somewhere else on the map, separating them from the rest of their group. The stalker would continue to stalk the party and attempt to abduct more of them until they were all separated. At which point it would try to kill any of them it found, if the other monsters didn’t get to them first.
Luckily, Tinesi knew what to do when Xeal gestured to his throat in a slashing motion and cast a spell that froze the space around them, blocking all other void magic for five minutes. She did so just in time as the stalker pounced on Ignis a moment later and wrapped his arms around him, before a look of confusion crossed its disfigured face that was stretched thin on its skull. This was followed by attacks from every direction as they forced it to release Ignis, who had taken a fair bit of damage in the barrage, but was still alive and after he received a few healing spells, would be no worse for wear. With its ambush ruined and stats that were at best a bit better than the average level 120 player, the void stalker had no chance and was dead within two minutes of appearing, as they pushed forward.
Xeal knew that on normal mode there would only be a single one of those stalkers, but due to the hellish nightmare mode being active, they could expect there to be one more before they reached the end. On the other hand, the loot that they had gotten was exceptional, with several MP crystals dropping and void stones, which could be used in crafting to allow gear to hold void-type enchantments better. Still, the highlight of the loot had to be the marbles that were used in teleportation devices, like the one Prince Victor had lent Xeal when he had to deal with the players for the major workshops attacking his weaker members. Each of the 30 that had dropped were worth a full ten gold and weren’t something that could be found on the market, as the crown would buy them all up before they were even put on sale. As far as escape tools went, there wasn’t a better item in all of ED that Xeal knew of when considering everything. The only issue now was getting an orichalcum-level accessory crafter to make the device itself for him. Xeal thought about seeing if King Victor would put in the order for him, as the NPC crafters who could make the device were the type to only finish an order in a timely manner if it was for royalty, for the most part.
As Xeal thought on this, they continued and like the starting gun had been fired with the void stalker’s arrival, the other void monsters started to make themselves known. Most of these were the weakest ones, called void watchers, that were just a giant eye with black tentacles growing around it. They would attempt to latch onto players and fire a magic attack from their eyes at point-blank range. If successful, players usually only lasted three or four attacks before dying. So, when a group of eight of them showed up at once, most parties could expect to lose at least a few players and if Saima weren’t all but invisible while alone, they would easily be enough to keep her from being able to scout. That said, they were also extremely easy to kill as ten rounds of double upward and downward slashes was enough to do the job for Xeal. They were very much the glass cannon of the void monsters of this dungeon. If they could work together with the void hounds, who had high speed and defense but low attack power, it would be a nightmare. Void hounds were the second-most common foe they came across and had a hard shell covering their backs, that was made out of a mithril-level material called void stone. If processed, each shell that dropped could be converted into a small amount of the orichalcum material void iron, which once more could be refined into the adamantine material void steel.
It was while they were dealing with a group of void hounds that the other void stalker made its move. It went straight for Paul and Xeal watched as the cleric simply shifted his staff, causing the stalker to face plant on the top of it and fail its grapple attempt, as Tinesi cast her spell to trap it as Amser engaged it directly. With Tinesi and Aalin acting as support while everyone else focused on the void hounds, it was a much closer fight than Xeal would have liked, so he fired a few dragon’s breaths to push things along on their end. In the end, they were able to take care of it with around 20 seconds to spare and they rejoined the rest in dealing with the remaining void hounds as they passed the seventh hour of silence. At this point, Xeal felt like they were getting close as they passed through one area after another that required them to crawl to reach the other end. Finally, they came out in a massive chamber and Xeal knew that it was the final room of the dungeon.