Evolution: A Warlock's Rise To Power

The spell book the Lich had dropped was a spell that any caster was capable of learning. Lucan didn't hesitate to open the book and claim it as his own.

[Soulfire]

[User unleashes a beam of soulfire towards a single target within 50 feet doing continues damage and slowing the targets movement by 50%. If the target moves more than 50 feet away, the spell will stop. If the user's chanting is interrupted, the spell will stop. If the user, no longer has a direct line of sight towards the target, the spell will stop. Once the spell stops the user will be able to launch a soulfire bomb up to 50 feet away that does 10% of the damage done during the channeling process.]

Even though the spell would require pure mana, and he would have to feed it the whole time he was channeling, it was a welcome addition, no matter how inefficient it was compared to his other spells. The thing Lucan lacked the most right now was spells that did damage.

"What spell did you learn?" Frosty asked, intrigued by the new magic.

"I learned the spell that Furry got caught in when we first arrived."

Silent gave him a thumbs up while the others offered an approving nod.

As they were heading to the dungeon exit and deciding what to do next, SuperSleuth got in contact with Lucan. After a brief conversation, the warlock changed the groups plans.

"I need to head back to the fortress. Our bags are half full, so we can empty them and restock before we see what lays beyond the Nether Forest."

"Sounds good." Resilient said. "Besides, we earned plenty of banked experience. If we sell it back to the organization, we can get some good stuff."

"Does what I sell not interest you?" Lucan asked with a playful grin.

"Ha, ha, that's not it." Frosty said. "You have a few spells I really want, but Sturdy and the others from the A team are paying a lot if we transfer it to Frantic so he can give it to the higher level members."

Lucan nodded. He didn't really care because it would all eventually be spent, and he would claim his 20%. Why did it matter to him if they pooled it all together for a large purchase instead of making a bunch of little transactions, all of it ended up in the same place. In his and Raze's pocket.

The party of five activated their return scrolls and appeared in their coven's village.

'We should really give this place a name.' Lucan thought to himself.

Just as he was about to head back to Vertshadow, Lisel and her trusted followers, Cheese and Will, walked through the door.

"Lucan, you are leaving so soon?" She asked.

"I will be back. I need to set up the formation for my fortress and then I will return. It should only take a few days."

"Alright, come find me when you return."

Lucan nodded before walking through the door to Raze's palace.

They met with the old man and sold off their trash items for experience. Lucan split it between the five of them even though he didn't have too. The Willow members had performed up to his expectations and the amount of experience he received from Razes wasn't much compared to what their organization brought in for him.

Before he left, Lucan informed Raze that he could use his decorators to furnish his castle. He didn't have the time, nor was he interested in searching for a designer of his own to take care of it.

With a flash, they all stepped out of the teleporter in the fortress.

SuperSleuth was waiting for Lucan in the command room.

"I was able to locate all the materials you asked for, your guards have taken them to the vault."

"Okay, thanks for your help."

"No problem, but the gold you sent over wasn't enough. You owe me another 20,000. Or actually, you owe Hellfire 20,000 gold. He let me take a few things on credit."

"Alright, I will deal with it. And like I promised, since you are an info broker and not a merchant, I will make it up to you. You are your people can take one of the smaller east towers if you want."

Super smiled. "Thanks, that's what I was waiting for."

Lucan was happy to part with the towers in his fortress. It was the people that were based here who would be defending the place if something ever happened. Plus, Super had always done his job well. He had a solid network of ever-growing informants and he brought in a lot of experience points from his sales. If he wanted to stop paying rent in Avalon and move his headquarters here, that meant the business would be even more profitable and Lucan's 15% of the company would be worth more.

"Need some help?" Silent asked as they headed down to the vault.

"I still have a lot of prep work to do, but I could use your help when it comes to actually setting the formation up."

"Okay, I am going to go check on Bud. Call me if you need anything." She said, giving him a kiss on the cheek before leaving.

Five chests sat in one of the side vaults. Lucan pulled each item out, one by one, to make sure their quality was up to his expectations.

Satisfied, he pulled out the plans he had worked on for this formation and began to carve symbols. Most would find it to be boring and monotonous work, but for Lucan who could see the magic in the air, it was intriguing.

As he carved the symbols, he could see the effects they had on the items without activating them. With the nonstop practice he was becoming more proficient and engraving quicker than before. After getting through three chests there was a noticeable difference in the room that even someone without Lucan's abilities would be able to observe.

The room felt warm and the mana gathering symbols on a few objects were altering the atmosphere of the vault. It was cozy and hazy as the mana in the air was growing thicker. If any other spell caster was present, they would definitely find this place to be a magical haven.

It wasn't until Silent came and sat beside Lucan did, he realize that he had almost worked through the whole night. Once he stopped, he realized how tired he was. Without caring where he was, he laid down for a quick nap.

***

"Mmm, so comfy." Lucan said as he buried his head into his pillow, not wanting to wake up and get back to work.

He suddenly felt a pinch in his side.

He rolled over and opened his eyes. Silent's face was directly above his and giving him a playful glare. Lucan realized he had been sleeping on her thighs and when he woke up he buried his face into her stomach until she started pinching him.

"Get back to work you hooligan." She said as Lucan sat up.

Before he could say anything, she had ran out of the vault.

"He, he, look at me getting the best kind of treats." He said to Little brown and Adrestia who were watching him from the corner of the room. "Having a girlfriend is the best."

"I told you to get back to work!" Came a shout from outside of the vault.

Lucan smiled and did as Silent said.

By lunch time he had finished with the symbol work and called Silent to help him place the objects that would be the base of his formation.

Instead of using formation flags, this formation was built upon different objects that had their own magical essence and would be much harder to destroy. But it sure was expensive.

Silent loaded up her bag and left with Adrestia as she went to the southern wall of the fortress and started to place the items based on Lucan's instructions.

The warlock went north and begun his part. The first item he placed was an iron-shell branch. It was a branch from an extremely sturdy tree. Over 200 of these branches would be evenly placed around the inside of the fortress wall. They would link together and form the base of the formation's defensive barrier. Once the preliminary formation was activated the branches would grow roots and begin to grow into trees, allowing the barrier to grow stronger as they grew.

Buried in the ground at strategic points around the inner fortress, Lucan and Silent placed the calcified hearts of mana worms into the ground. Mana worms were large creatures, almost 10 feet long that ate and lived on mana. With the help of the symbols, these hearts would draw mana in from the surroundings so the formation didn't have to really purely on mana crystals, that would be way too expensive to maintain.

Around various locations in the fortress the beast cores of the drakes, and wingless drakes were placed. They were buried or well-hidden and would materialize their namesake only when the formation was fully active. Normally they would just lie dormant.

There were also several shadow and mental magic treasures that were placed to enhances the spells Lucan would add as well as help support the magic that flowed through the formation.

With almost all of the formation objects placed, Lucan and Silent met back up since it was time to log off. The warlock would perform the finishing touches when he logged back in.