Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO ON KINDLE SEPT. 2)

Roman stood on the balcony, looking out over the city. In the wake of his campaign of conquest, which had swept through seven city-states over the past year, Easton had changed so much as to be almost unrecognizable. There was nothing left of its humble origins. No more hastily-constructed buildings. No eyesore of a wall made of random debris. And no more rebels.

No - the city was a metropolis that blended both old and new, with a loyal population that knew precisely how lucky they really were. There were a few pockets of dissidence, but they were rare. More importantly, Roman’s people knew exactly where to find them. If they progressed past a few muttered complaints, he wouldn’t hesitate to use them as fuel for his army’s progression.

In any case, Roman wasn’t concerned with that. The system currently ran like a well-oiled machine, churning through those malcontents to push his loyal soldiers to new heights of power. Of course, there were limits. Killing prisoners, no matter how strong they were, wouldn’t help any of them progress past level thirty-five. Fighting the undead minions of the Necromancer was a little better in that slaughtering those abominations came with no arbitrary limitations. Yet, even that wasn’t a perfect situation. Each kill only gave a whisper of experience, which meant that thousands needed to be slaughtered for every potential level. Most of the time, it would be more trouble than it was worth, but there were two reasons the program continued.

First, the situation down there had gotten a little out of control. Unless they continuously culled the creatures, there was a chance that the Necromancer’s minions would break free and overrun the city. They’d even stopped throwing bodies down there for a while, but the man simply reanimated the slain creatures that were already down there. Roman had considered sending his people in to kill the vile former gravedigger, but the tunnels were far too dangerous for that. It would require thousands of men, and even that could prove insufficient.

So, in the end, he’d chosen to forego that strategy.

The second reason he hadn’t stopped the program was that it still provided a steady trickle of experience that he hoped, over time, would set his people apart. It wasn’t the backbone of his training program, but it provided his people with experience – and not the kind that came from killing monsters – which was invaluable. After all, if they could stand up to an undead horde, they wouldn’t flinch before living soldiers.

Still, he had plans in place to deal with the Necromancer if he ever escaped his lair. Most of it hinged on the authority that he hoped would come with his ascension into Lordship. He’d had one of the Scholars do some research for him, so he knew that it would come with what it referred to as a limited Sphere of Authority. At the lowest level of Lordship, it would only give him the ability to enforce his will in his capitol city, and even that was limited based on the relative power – if someone was stronger than him, then it wouldn’t be nearly as effective – as well as time. The latter was there because the system seemed uninterested in letting a weakling with a title bully a truly powerful person.

Still, the nature of the title was such that it would help even against some of the monsters at the top of the power ladder. Plus, by the time Roman actually acquired the title, he would be strong enough to stand among them. After all, the quest required it.