Whispers of a Dead Empire

I set my pen down and shot a glance towards the boss. I looked at the boss as I looked over its public profile.

Name: Alessia Veers. The Champion of the Empress

The name was composed of violet-colored text. I wonder what the colors meant. Was there a legend or something for this? I looked through my menus for a little while, following link after link. Eventually, I came across a danger rating guide. m

Guide to Danger Rating for mobs in Domains:

Typical Mobs

White: A typical run-of-the-mill mob.

Green: A mob that is slightly stronger than the average level of mobs in the domain

Blue: A mob that has crossed a strength threshold and is considered an elite.

Boss Mob Ratings:

Red: Usually denotes a miniboss or an equal in strength.

Violet: Denotes a typical boss

Orange: Denotes a boss that far exceeds the strength of the collected party

Silver: Denotes a boss that requires a full raid group to take down.

Rainbow: Denotes a boss that far exceeds the power of multiple raiding groups.

Brown: Denotes a boss that stands above all and would take a full military detachment to bring down.

Black: Nothing will save you

Flag ratings:

Flag bosses are unique in that they are widely different then most bosses that exist within domains. Only four are allowed to exist at any one time. They have no set route or path and are not bound by any rules. They can roam wherever they please, and aggression is not dropped if the party leaves the domain. Each boss is designated by the flag that is carried upon their back. Each flag rating denotes exponential growth, with four flags denoting a world-class threat. Please use this boss class wisely.

There was so much, but at least it could be determined at a glance. I shifted my gaze from my menus over to her, filing away the newly acquired information. Now, what was her lore going to be? I wanted something more profound than just a champion. I brought the pen up to my lips and began to chew on it as I thought over her lore a bit and wrote down a few key points.

-Champion to the empress.

-Formally a peasant who climbed their way up the military ladder, eventually becoming my right hand.

-Former knight of the Order of the Blue Rose.

-Loved by the citizens of the empire.

-Leader of the royal guard.

-was betrayed near the end of the empire's life and cut down defending the palace.

I looked it over and nodded my head. It was a good start. However, I had no intention to craft out a detailed back story for her entirely. It would take a whole lot of time and patience that I didn't have. I just needed a few of the basics, and then from there, I can write more and feed her the information. I gently pulled the sheet from the notebook, placed it on top, and motioned for her to walk over to the desk. Once she was in position, I took a deep breath. Alright, All I had to do was transmute this information to her. I tugged on that feeling that I felt in my chest when I interacted with that room upstairs. At first, it resisted before it caved and started to pulse. I pointed my finger at the paper on the desk, and the power rushed from my fingertips. However, this time, it was a grey filament of energy.

It touched the paper and quickly began to dissolve it. I really hope this works; I would hate to run out of notebook paper, I thought to myself as I let the energy consume the words on the paper. Once it was done I pointed my finger at Alessia, with the focused intent of passing the knowledge onto her. The energy began to slither across the air. It wrapped its self around her head, and a prompt appeared in my vision.

You are attempting to override 'Alessia Veers' previous memory.

Current memory:

32% Corrupted

18% Erased

50% Normal

Percent chance to override: 50%

So, the higher the lost memory, the higher the chance to override it. The question was, could I only do that with the boss or with all the mobs? Would I even want to do it for every mob? Would it even be worth it was the next question? Maybe this was something I should leave to all the vital characters and the ones that become sapient. That way I could save on resources. Once I made my choice, a hollow well filled my chest. Here I was attempting to erase someone's memories. Did that make me a bad person? Taking away something as precious as memories. I bit my lip I confirmed my choice before my mind could stop me. Whoever you were in a past life, I hope you could find it in your heart to forgive me. The tendril of energy squeezed its way into her head, and for a brief few moments, I could feel my heart beating roughly in my chest as a wave of anticipation and guilt. I was conflicted on if I actually wanted this to work or not. So I stared on for a few more agonizing moments before the prompt reappeared.

Override successful. Since this is a created memory, you are free to alter it as you please. However, each change will cost essence points.

My mood fell slightly as I read the prompt. Goodbye, whoever you were, Ill keep whatever I knew of you in my mind. I took a moment to look over Alessia and see if I could spot any change in her demeanor. Her eyes still stared ahead, yet; they seemed to have a certain edge to them. Nothing I would quite say as intelligent, though. I tore my gaze from her and grabbed my notebook yet again.

She was a unique boss, and I wanted to keep her by my side. I had no idea how domain gods were treated in this world, and I needed to keep myself safe until I could protect myself. I sat back in my chair after a few moments and rubbed my eyes. This was a lot more work than I thought it would be, and I still had two more bosses to go, and that's not counting Kharons lore. With my first boss completed, for the most part, I decided to take a break. I want to bump up the next two to at least a t2 mob before pushing them into being a boss. That way, they can pose a challenge to those who enter the dungeon. However, that will be soon, and I want to focus on other things for the time being.

With a gesture, I opened up my domain screen and looked through it. I wanted to expand the size a bit and create a more significant entrance area. With that in mind, I selected the expansion tool and moved the bar to the outside of the edges of the domain. The screen flickered and asked me how much land I wanted to create. After thinking it over I, I decided to expand it by another four kilometers to the total radius. I winced as I saw that alone would cost me eight thousand essence total. God, this was draining my wallet. I confirmed the choice, and the ground shook violently for a few moments. I clenched the edge of the desk, terrified that my room was going to collapse in on itself. Small hand fulls of dirt rained from the cealing and into my desk as the ground trembled. Once it finished, I glanced at the map and pulled up the entrance tab in the menu, and designated two kilometers of the entire outer ring as the entrance. Let me see what I can do with the entrance before I dive headfirst into it.

The domain entrance sets the theme to the entire domain. This part of the domain takes precedence over all else, and its position will never change. Anything goes as long as the following rules are met.

Adventurers are not barred from entering If the entrance is turned into a trap, there is a way to cross it and survive.

I mean, that was fair. I gazed at the customization screen and thought over what I wanted. This was supposed to be an undead kingdom, so did I want the entrance to be something like the entrance to the outpost, or do I want something unique and exquisite, like an arch or massive statues? I also had to consider that the zombies may or may not wander outside of the domain. So I had to devise a plan to keep them in a while still allowing the adventures to get inside.

While I was thinking it over, it hit me. Why don't I make a river that encircles the entire domain? It could be like the river Styx from Greek mythology. Plus, it would be kind of cool and fitting—a ferryman who keeps the dead in and escorts the living across the river. I am a genius! I glanced at the customization screen and fiddled with it for a bit to get the hang of it. I had dozens of tools here that I had to check out before I could start.

Once I was comfortable with them, I selected the sculpting tool and dug out twenty-five meters of the ground all around the entrance. Once that was finished, I filled it to the brim with water. With this, hopefully, those zombies can't get out. Otherwise, that would be quite deadly for all parties involved in the matter.

Now I have to lay this river with magical enhancements and traps. I scrolled through the list until I found magical enhancements. I clicked on it and began to read through the massive list.

The illusion of Despair: Exposes the user to their deepest fears, and pulls out the worst emotions possible.

The illusion of Avarice: Plays with the greed that is embedded within the heart of the viewer.

The illusion of memories: Shows the viewer their fondest memories and pulls them into a false sense of security.

Singular point: No matter where the domain is entered, all will be lead to the designated spot. If the spot is crowded, then they will cycle through the path until a spot opens.

Drowning Tides: The water acts with a mind of its own and attempts to drag the victim to its depths. This magical enhancement will only occur if physical contact occurs with the water.

Haunted depths: An extended version of the Drowning Tides magical enhancement. Whoever dies within the designated area will become soul bound to it. The newly bound soul will attempt to pull others to join in their fate. This magical enhancement will only occur if physical contact occurs with the water.

*Due to the presence of multiple illusions, they will not occur on the same target at once. Each will have a percentage chance to proc.

I liked these choices. It made the river deadly to cross by themselves and would force the adventures to take a path I wanted them to. Not to mention it would keep the zombies in check. Now, all that would be left is to create a few simple docks so that adventures can be ferried over to the shore. What should I name this river, though? I couldn't go with Styx cause that was a little too on the nose for my taste. I wanted something quiet and down to earth. I stared at the screen for a while and couldn't think of a good name, so I went with something bland. 'The River of Lost Souls' at least it was to the point. Now all that was left was setting up the ferry system and figuring out how to make the named areas appear to the adventures. Yay, it was time for me to go through these never-ending menus to figure out how to do it.

Hours later, I finally found it. It was tucked away in some hidden menus, and funny enough, it was just a simple setting that turned the current location public and allowed me to rename selected areas. I swear these menus were sometimes the most unintuitive thing I have ever had to deal with in my life. But on the other hand, I could also do anything I pleased here. I had the power to make adventures lives living hell, but here I am instead making a story that maybe only a handful would enjoy. The cost of art has no limits, apparently.

I typed in the name of the area and set the limits of its size. I went through and started to work on the coastlines, making sure they were nice and pretty before they too were labeled. I confirmed my choice and saved the entrance. Now let's finish the sky sphere, so I can finally get to the remaining bosses.

I pulled the menu up and went back to the sky sphere; I worked on the light a bit more until I got it exactly where I wanted it and saved it. I sat back and cracked my fingers, and rolled my neck. Aware of the ache that was starting to build up in between my shoulder blades and neck. I dismissed the screen and glanced over at the cot. I know that I don't need to sleep. However, that won't stop me from doing it anyways.

I stood up and threw myself onto the cot, and rolled over to my back. I stared at the cement ceiling as thoughts began to tease my tired mind. This was my life now, a woman surrounded by a small horde of undead, trying to create a story. I crossed my hands behind my head and chuckled at my situation. Never would I have ever imagined I would be living a life like this. I rolled over to my side and thought about the various menus that I looked through today.

They were so convoluted to look through. I would have to talk to Kharon and see what I could do to minimize them cause if I have to look through everyone to find stuff, it will take me forever to do what I need to do, and I only have a few months to get it all done. So much to do, such little time.