Chapter 11

Subject to change*

I set my pen down and read over my handy work. Everything looked to be in good order.  I looked at the boss that stood behind me and looked over its public profile.

Complete Name: Alessia Veers (The Champion of the Empress)

The name was composed of violet-colored text. 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 for my mobs.

Guide to Danger Rating in Domains:

Ratings a variable from adventurer to adventure and scale accordingly for each unique individual, unless the mob in question is a boss.

Typical Mobs

White: A common 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

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

Boss Mob Ratings:

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 world or zone boss in power level.

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. They roam wherever they please, and aggression is only dropped if the party leaves the domain. Each is designated by the flag that is carried upon their back.  Each flag rating denotes exponential growth. With four requiring a full raid group to bring down. Please use this boss class wisely.

There was so much, and everything was oddly specific. But at least it could be determined at a glance. Now, what was the rest of her lore going to be? Something deeper than what I just wrote down. She is a champion, sworn to defend the empire and her empress with her life. But I should take my time crafting her, after all, she shouldn’t be encountered before the capital city is created. Maybe have her appear at a distance, and spook the adventures while I work on her for the time being.

I sat back in my chair 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 that I have yet to write.

Well 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 I push them into the boss territory. That way they can pose a challenge to those who enter the dungeon. With a gesture, I opened up my domain screen and looked through it. I wanted to expand the size a bit, and create a bigger entrance area, I selected the expansion tool. The screen flickered and asked me how much land I wanted to claim. I decided to expand it by another four kilometers. 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. Once it finished I glanced at the map and saw that four more kilometers were added in. I opened the entrance tab in the menu and designated the entire portion of the outer ring as the entrance. Now I had to figure out what my entrance was going to look like.

The full circle sat on a customization screen and I stared at it for a moment. Let me see what the entrance does real quick.

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.

1. Adventurers are not barred from entering
2. 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 an undead kingdom, so did I want the entrance to be something like the entrance to the outpost, or do I want something special. I also had to consider the fact that the zombies may or may not wander outside of the domain. I had to devise a plan to keep them in, while still allowing a way for the adventures to get inside.

Then like a truck 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 for the story I am writing. A ferryman 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 a hang of it. I had dozens of tools in here that I had to read about to get a hang of everything.

I sculpted out twenty-five meters of the ground all around the domain and decided to just consume it for the essence points to try and get back some of what I spent on making Alessia. Once that was finished I cashed in some of that to fill 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 just need to figure out if I can lay this river with magical enhancements, and traps. Let's see I started at the top of the tool section and looked carefully at everything. There was a tool for honestly everything in here, and it made finding things a pain sometimes if I was going, to be honest. Domain gods had it easy with these options though. I am kinda thankful that I didn’t start as a dungeon core. I scrolled through the list until I found magical enhancements, now let's scroll through this list until I found something I could use.

I scrolled through this ungodly list in its entirety and found a few good enhancements I could lace this water with.

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 down 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, and will attempt to pull others to join in their fate. This magical enhancement will only occur if physical contact occurs with the water.

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 and would keep the zombies in check. Now, all that would be left is to create a few simple docks, so adventures can be ferried over to the shore. Now, what should I name this river? I couldn't go with Styx cause that was a little too on the nose for my taste. I wanted something that was quiet, and more of an inside joke, mostly for myself more than others. 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 just setting up the ferry system, and figuring out how to make the named areas appear to the adventures. Yay for me, it was time 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 very hidden menus and it was funny enough it was a setting that turned the current location visible for a predetermined amount of time. I swear these menus were sometimes the most unintuitive thing I have ever had to deal with in my life. But the annoyance was quickly fixed by the realization that I had the power to make adventures life living hell. But instead, here I am instead making a story that maybe only a handful would enjoy. But it's how I decided I would run this domain.

I typed in the name of the area and confirmed the entrance. Now let's finish the sky sphere, and I can finally focus on finishing off creating these bosses so I can start decorating this starting zone.

I pulled the menu up and went back to tinkering with the sky sphere for a little bit. 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 there. 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 walked over to the cot and laid there and stared at the cement ceiling. This was my life now. A woman surrounded by a small horde of undead, trying to create a story for adventures who visit this place. 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 every single one of them, it's going to take me forever to do what I need to do, and I only have a few months to do this all.  So much to do, such little time.