Evolution: A Warlock's Rise To Power

Lucan stood at the edge of death. He had just killed the three snake men that had come from the underground lake. His health was almost empty and immobilizing poisons flowed through his veins, greatly hindering his movement.

He saw the pieces of seatrite on the ground in front of him but he didn't have the energy to pick it up. All of his attention was undivided and focused on the lake. He could see bubbles and ripples in the water as something moved towards the bank and headed his direction.

Slithering out of the water came another man with the lower body of a snake. This man was different though. He was twice as big as the previous creatures to leave the lake, and that's not all.

On the head of this snake man sat a crown made entirely of seatrite. Along with the crown, the creature also had a trident that was twice the size of the weapons previously used by the snake men.

When this creature exited the water, it came alone. Its eyes and furry were fully focused on the warlock in front of it. This was the snake man king.

The snake man king cursed the warlock and strode forward, intending to impale the human who enter his cave and punish him for killing his descendants.

Lucan didn't dodge, the trident pierced through his gut. Even if he had wanted to dodge, under the effects of the poison running through his body, he was barely able to move.

The snake man king raised the end of his weapon, lifting Lucan into the air. The creature's human like jaw began to unhinge as he brought the dying warlock closer. The snake man creature felt as if something was wrong. Just when he was about to take a bit out of Lucan, the warlock smirked.

*BOOM*

A massive explosion shook the cavern. Lucan had self destructed. The move had been getting stronger and stronger. Since its damage was multiplied from the power of his magic, it was become more and more deadly.

The snake man king was blown backwards and went tumbling into the water.

When he righted himself and poked his head out of the water, he was Lucan standing there, but there were a few things that were different about him. His face was covered with pale green tribal symbols and Menta's eye had been revealed.

"Ifpd pokma afdfoiwe!" The snake shouted something Lucan didn't understand. More than half of its health had been taken away in the explosion. It swam toward the edge of the water, and went into full attack mode.

Lucan who had just revived, had half his health and half his mana. Since he had died and revived, his body was now free from the poison that previously plagued him. From the moment he was revived, he had started to cast spells.

The snake man king was furious. He trough his trident forward with all his might and grinned when he realized the warlock would have time to move out of the way. The warlock could only helplessly continue to chant his spell until the trident impaled him.

Unfortunately, things didn't go how the snake man king imagined.

Lucan staid unmoving and the trident passed straight through him.

The snake man charged forward, not sure what was happening, but fully intending to wrap his hands around Lucan's throat until he stopped moving.

Reaching out, the snake man's hands grabbed nothing. The Lucan in front of him was only an illusion. The king roared and quickly looked around.

Turning his back on the illusion was a mistake. The phantom finished chanting and raised his wand. A beam of soulfire leapt out and connected with the king.

The creature quickly tried to turn around but something caught his eye on the edge of his vision.

Two more Lucan's rose from the ground, both were chanting and pointed their wands at him. Under the effects of the soulfire beam, he wouldn't be able to reach either of them before they finished casting. And he couldn't tell which was the real on.

In his moment of uncertainty, the two new Lucan's finished their spell.

Three green beams of fire sapped his health and shackled his movement. The snake man king's long tail raised and slammed into the ground as he tried to thrash about. But under the effects of reduced speed, the slow motion tail slams only seemed comical and not frightening.

Stepping out of the shadows at the edge of the cavern, Lucan revealed his true self. Things were dangerous right now, but he was not afraid. He had already used his soul stone and if he died again he would be taking a mandatory trip to the nine hells, but he was confident in defeating the creature before him.

The three beams of soulfire stopped, above the three phantoms, soulfire bombs were quickly formed.

Now free from his restraints, the snake man king slithered straight towards the Lucan who had just appeared.

The warlock remained calm. With a wave of his scepter, the nearby shadow began to congeal together and transform. Black chains made of shadow stretched out and bound the limbs of the snake man, not letting him move forward.

The phantoms finished there preparations and threw the soulfire bombs.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

The explosions echoed across the cavern walls. When the dust settled there was only a pile of seatrite remaining.

[Resource dungeon has been conquered]

[Lamia Seatrite resource dungeon now belongs to you]

[Enter the dungeon master windows will allow you to alter and modify this dungeon]

"Ha, ha." Lucan laughed to himself as he excitedly read the notification.

This dungeon now belonged to him. He quickly opened his dungeon master tab to see what he could do.

He was instantly overwhelmed. He had known that taking over a dungeon was more restrictive than creating a new one, but the degree of freedom that he was allowed to control was still massive. He was allowed to change so many different things.

He wasn't able to change the overall shape and size of the dungeon area and was restricted to the underground cave-like terrain but was given the ability to control almost everything else.

Lucan quickly red through his menus trying his best to understand how things worked.

He found that dungeon masters used a different currency called Dungeon Points or DP. DP was generated in bulk by the deaths of players inside the dungeon, but he also earned DP slowly overtime as long as players were inside the dungeon. The more people inside, the faster it would collect over time.

If he wanted to alter the terrain inside the dungeon, that would cost DP. If he wanted different types of monsters to show up, that would cost DP. Even the rewards and drops that the creatures left behind we all bought and paid for by using DP. If Lucan only knew one thing about being a dungeon master, it would be that DP is important and he needed as much as possible.

When Lucan took over the dungeon, he was given 10,000 DP. He was extremely hesitant to use any of it right now. He wanted to read through all the menus first and find everything that he could spend the points on. He wanted to be aware of all his options before he started spending. Lucan didn't want to put any of the DP to waste.

Taking a look around the place again, Lucan was satisfied.

The entire dungeon was one large cavern with a small lake in the center. If he placed the bases at either end of the cavern and got rid of the lake, and then narrowed down some passage instead of leaving it open as free space, then this would able an acceptable place to host his game.

With a frown on his face, Lucan consider what to do. It cost a lot of DP to reshape the terrain. With a bit of quick math, he didn't think he had enough points to reshape it in the way he wanted.

Lucan was amazed to find a wide variety of creatures and monsters he could use for his dungeon. Upon taking a closer look at the prices he became shocked.

Only the prices of the aquatic and cave creatures were reasonable. The prices for the rest of the monsters and creatures were absolutely insane. Wasn't entirely sure on how he was going to reform this dungeon, but he knew for sure that he would be using aquatic or cave creatures. Buying any other type of creature would waste all of his DP.

Continuing to look through the menus found it possible to buy structures and objects and add them to the dungeon.

The drops from the monsters were able to be determined. If he wanted the monster to drop something new you would have to pay out a good price. However if he provided the object it would become much cheaper for the dungeon to replicate it. However there were limitations the dungeon couldn't duplicate anything with the rarity epic or above. And of course if an object was unique it couldn't be replicated.

Continuing to look further, he found a page on the dungeon core. glanced at the options that he was able to alter but then pay it too much attention. The reason was simple, this was a resource core and he would be swapping it out with the two verses cores he possessed.

Lucan had wanted to start on the dungeon right away but the sheer number of options he was allowed to control halted his progress. He didn't want to rush through this and decided to read through everything before he started his modifications.