A Lich's Guide to Dungeon Mastery

My vision was purple. I tried to blink it away, but then realized that I couldn’t blink. I glanced around, but saw very little in my surroundings. For some reason, when I turned my– oh, I didn’t have a head. Hmm, odd, I could’ve sworn it had been attached to my neck just last night. Oh, I didn’t have a neck either. Makes sense. In any case, my vision fragmented when I looked in certain directions, almost as though I… Wait, nope, I was inside a crystal. Or, maybe, I was the crystal? I’d read Dungeon Core novels before. Is that what was going on here?

Was I some kind of terraforming, monster breeding, item manufacturing… thingy?

I tried to push my consciousness outside of my gem- my core, I supposed, trying to spread my "influence," but the moment I did, my viewpoint was flung across the cave with a clatter.

What? If I were a Dungeon Core, then I'd just be an immaterial consciousness. What's with this clatter malarkey?

I looked around… and realized I had a head again. In fact I had a whole… Well, actually, not a whole body. In fact, it seemed that I was missing just about every organ in my body. Including my skin. And my muscles. Probably my brain too. I most certainly didn't have nerves, as I couldn't really feel anything other than slight tingles below my boney feet.

I was no overpowered rock. I was a skeleton of some sort. In fact…

I looked back over at the gem I'd come from. It was an icosahedron– a d20. Well, it didn't have numbers on it, but y'know, same difference. It appeared to be… hmm, let me think… ah yes, a dragon's breath opal, which technically wasn’t an opal at all, but rather a combination of metal dust and glass. I totally didn't just know that because gazing into it gave me instinctive knowledge of what it was.

Anyways, it was far more than any old gem. The fact that it was hovering notwithstanding, it appeared that I was no ordinary skeleton.

Seif Ambrose

Unspecialized Lich 0

Phylactery 1

Undead Possession 1

Available Boon (Hostile Possession, Reconstitution)

Necrosis Manipulation 1

Deadsight 1

Available Boon (Animate Necrosis, Inflict Necrosis)

Domain of Undeath 1

Spread Undeath 1

Available Boon (Mold Terrain, Reinforce Death)

That's right, baby. I was a lich. The #1 soul-eating, life-hating undead. My favorite monster to throw at my players to TPK them. This time, it wasn't just roleplay. It was real, I was a lich.

Quick sidebar, I have no clue why my reaction to all of this is so positive. Normally, I'd probably be screaming my head off right about now. Perhaps it was because I'd always dreamed of winding up in another world, but I'm guessing it probably has more to do with the fact that I don't have a brain, or hormones, or really any body functions to tell me that something was wrong. In fact, my emotions were very single-minded. Whatever I thought about at the time was the only thing that impacted the way I felt. Perhaps it was some limitations of my Phylactery– that is, after all, what the gem was. It was the storage space for my soul, my true "body." I was currently just a piece of software uploaded to this body. When this skeleton failed me, I would return to my Phylactery.

This wasn't just my game knowledge, accrued over many years of acting as the Dungeon Master in tabletop roleplaying games. This was instinct. Also, the fact that this rpg status screen was visible in it kinda tipped me off that it really was the container of my soul.

As I stared at the gem, the underlined text flashed at me, and I frowned. Wait, no, I don't have muscles, I can't frown. Anyways, I tried to frown, then focused on the first highlighted bit. Unspecialized Lich. I wondered what it wanted me to do. Perhaps, maybe, it wanted me to… specialize? Wow, big shocker.

Anyways, it pulled up a rather long list of options.

Please select a Class Specialization.

Archlich (Death+)

Shade Lich (Dark, Death)

Arcane Lich (Arcanem, Death)

Pyro Lich (Fire, Death)

Hydro Lich (Water, Death)

Aero Lich (Wind, Death)

Geo Lich (Earth, Death)

Venge Lich (Ire, Death) (Special!)

Heart Lich (Love, Death) (Special!)

Karmic Lich (Karma, Death) (Special!)

Lethean Lich (Lethe, Death) (Special!)

Verdant Lich (Life, Death) (Special!)

Hallow Lich (Light, Death) (Special!)

Spatial Lich (Space, Death) (Special!)

Chronal Lich (Time, Death) (Special!)

Some of those options sounded pretty stupid. Verdant Lich? How could a lich have life magic? Wouldn't it just hurt them? I supposed that was why it was marked as special. Maybe I was only shown these options because of my method of arrival? I doubt that Life or Karma much appreciate normal liches, who, if the same rules apply here as they did in games back on Earth, likely sacrificed thousands of innocents to fuel their transformation.

A few of the first options certainly sounded cool. Archlich? Sounds really strong, but it's just adding death magic to death magic. Less diversity than the other options. For similar reasons, I was hesitant on Shade Lich, and Arcane Lich fell in the same boat too. The arcane is usually magic and "magic" magic is one of two things. Either it directly manipulates magic, which would be interesting, if possibly niche, or it boosts other spells, of which I have… 2? 2 kinda specific spells that might not even play well with arcane magic? Bit of a risk.

Venge and Heart Liches were interesting, but they sounded mental, and I had no one to use them on. Also, Heart Lich? Really? Not only do most liches not have a capacity for love, but they–we!–also don't have hearts.

The elemental specialties all sounded great, and I thought that they all, especially Pyro, would have some great offensive abilities. Looking around, I found myself surrounded by stone, and Geo Lich went right to the top of my list, with Pyro a close, but reluctant, second.

Karma is either about giving and getting equally, or following the nature of my being. Neither sound very appealing as a lich. Lethe is a river in the Underworld of Greek mythology. If I remember correctly, it makes people forget things and lose their identities. No, but thank you anyways.

I'm wary of the Hallow Lich, since I doubt that light and dark magics will play well with each other.

The final two on the list were Spatial and Chronal, and oh boy were these ones interesting to me. Controlling space and time? And in real… Well, unlife? Sign me up! Sadly, I could only pick one. I'd known from the start that I would probably pick one of these. Sure, both disciplines were often very difficult to get into, and had very high mana costs, or whatever this world's equivalent was.

Space magic. Get from point a to point b with ease. Teleportation, flight, bags of holding… Those were all spatial abilities.

Time magic. This one was more esoteric. Would I be able to turn back time? Slow it down? Speed it up? Those were all intriguing, but… Spatial magic went to the top of my shortlist.

Before I picked it, though, I looked over the "Boons" I'd been offered.

The first choice was between Hostile Possession and Reconstitution. Once more, my instincts kicked in, and I felt a feeling pass through me for each of the boons. Hostile Possession, much like it sounded, would allow me to take control over a living creature and use them as my flesh mech, rather than a corpse or an undead under my control, as my current abilities would allow. Reconstitution, though… I took it immediately. I only had one human skeleton, and I didn't know when I'd be able to get more. Reconstitution would allow me to create a body for myself out of pure energy. It took some time, and was a large energy investment, but the resulting body was stronger, and would be able to channel my magic better. Better yet, it wouldn't decay, and would have many of the same functions as a normal human body. At least, sorta.

A Reconstituted body would look however I wanted, but its flesh would effectively be made of magic. It wouldn't have a brain, or many of the organs typically required for life. In fact, on the inside, the body would effectively be a lump of magic. Still, it would be a complete body. I wasn't eager to test out if I had enough energy for it now, though. There would be a time and a season for that, I was sure.

Necrosis Manipulation was basically the death magic skill. The boon it started with would let me see death energy, or Necrosis, as well as concentrations of life. Inflict Necrosis would make the skill lean towards attacks and violence, curses and such, but Animate Necrosis was, obviously, for making and controlling undead. I took it right away, knowing that I'd want minions. I mean, what kind of lich doesn't have zombies? Giving up on attack spells for now kinda sucked, but I'd live with it.

The last skill was Domain of Undeath. At base, it marginally improved the efficiency of death magic and improved the durability of creatures based on it. Its innate boon would let me spread the domain by focusing on an area that was already touching it, where it naturally emanated from my Phylactery. On one hand, that meant that I would always have at least a small area of control, but my Phylactery would always have to be connected to it. Hmm. Maybe I'm somewhat similar to a dungeon core after all?

The two boons for the domain skill were Mold Terrain and Reinforce Death. The former would give me terraforming capabilities, a sensation of pure control, while the latter would further strengthen undead and death magic in the area, a feeling of strength clinging to my bones. I got the feeling that there would be a lot of boons that did something similar.

I took a brief wander around the cave I was in, and found that it was more of a pocket in the earth. There was no exit.

That made me feel confident in taking Mold Terrain. Generally, I'd want to make minions do the mining and shaping of the terrain, but I didn't currently have any corpses on hand, other than the one I was piloting. I didn't have tools either, or a guarantee that my undead would be tough enough to mine stone without significant wear and tear.

With all of that done, I reevaluated my list. Geo Lich was gone, since I could do what I wanted with Mold Terrain anyways. Pyro Lich was still tempting, just to get attack magic right away, but burning the corpses I wanted to raise didn't sound like a perfect solution. Chronal or Spatial.

Chronal still lost. Why would I change the past or look into the future when I could just change the present? And maybe the specialization wouldn't even allow me to do that. Maybe I'd only be able to speed up my own perception of time, letting me wait more easily. That would be dumb. I would learn patience.

After all, I had forever now. Why waste my long term potential simply to avoid boredom?

Class Specialization selected.

You are now a Spatial Lich.

You have gained a Skill: Spatium Manipulation.

You have gained a Skill: Call.

Seif Ambrose

Spatial Lich 0

Phylactery 1

Undead Possession 1

Reconstitution 0

Necrosis Manipulation 1

Deadsight 1

Animate Necrosis 0

Domain of Undeath 1

Spread Undeath 1

Mold Terrain 0

Spatial Manipulation 0

Delinear Sight 0

Calling 0

Taglock 0

It seemed that the Skills gained from my specialization started at level 0, where the skills from my inherent lichdom had all started at level 1.

Looking at the new Skills, I got an immediate sense for what they would do. Spatium Manipulation was the space magic ability, much like how Necrosis Manipulation was the death magic skill. Its boon, Delinear Sight, would let me… see… space? No clue what that means.

Call, on the other hand, was a summoning Skill, but it wouldn't summon just anything. It needed a guide. That's why it came with Taglock, which would allow me to summon anything I had the genetic material of. Creatures with more magic or stronger wills would be able to resist the pull of Call, and the Skill would grow weaker the further away from the original genetic line I went. For example, if I used a raccoon pelt as a taglock for Calling, the greatest efficiency I could get would be to directly summon the creature the pelt came from, but it would be dead, so I’d just be summoning a bunch of rotten meat. Instead, I could summon a creature with a similar genetic code.

Now, I could call upon that raccoon’s entire extended family. In other words, with sufficient willpower and magic, I could pull basically anything from any taglock, but the efficiency would be awful. It was much better to stay within the genus, and best to stay within the family.

Now, I didn’t have anything to taglock other than myself, but where there were bones… there had to be some clothes or equipment nearby. Maybe there were some leather boots?

I activated my Deadsight, as well as my Delinear Sight. I felt a small pull on my mental energy, but it was negligible.

Deadsight immediately lit the surroundings in shades of color that previously were not there. I could sense the small concentrations of life in the air, and could tell that I wasn’t far from the surface, due to the worms wriggling around it. I could sense all living and dead material in the area– including a small collection of items nearby.

Delinear Sight was weird. Very weird. I could innately tell that the items I’d sensed were 4 meters away from my current position, and that there was an average of 12 millimeters between each of them. I could tell precise distances, and could sense where everything was in relation to myself. Additionally, I had amazing object permanence, to the point where it felt as though I could see behind my back. Of course, I knew that it wouldn’t account for changes made to whatever I wasn’t looking at, but it was still quite interesting.

I took a step forward, and realized another function of Delinear Sight. I could precisely measure the velocity of an object with just a glance. Even as I moved forward, I felt numbers popping into my head, telling me where I was and how fast I was moving, the size of whatever I was looking at, the distance between my starting point, my current position, and my end goal. It was all quite overwhelming.

I deactivated Delinear Sight. While I couldn’t get headaches, as I didn’t have a brain, I could sense an uncomfortable strain on my consciousness. I doubted it could actually hurt me in any tangible way, but it was a lot to get used to, and I’d work on it later.

I started moving again, and soon knelt down to pick up a small bag. Sadly, it was made of some fabric, and not leather, but there were a few things inside of it that gave a distinct impression of death.

Somewhat excitedly, I upended the bag, dropping the contents into my– nope, they fell through my skeletal fingers. Well, I picked them up, and found that they were a collection of small claws, large teeth, and a couple antlers.

Perhaps the individual who had died to provide me with a body had been a hunter of some sort? Hopefully, these were just from some sort of small wolf, and a similarly small buck? Maybe a wolverine and a roe deer? That was possible. Maybe.

I concentrated on the antlers with Calling, and sighed when an image popped into my head. It seemed that all of the bits came from the same kind of creature: a jackalope.

Jackalopes were myths back on Earth, but apparently they were a real thing here. I pulled on Calling with a cord of mental energy, and summoned the beast the antlers had come from.

A pile of dust and rotten bones plonked onto the floor roughly, and I blinked. Rather, I tried to, but that’s pretty hard to do without eyelids. Right, I can’t just pull the original through because the original is probably dead. Let’s focus on getting a living one…

The next use of Calling was much more difficult. It felt as though I were fishing and needed to reel the jackalope in, but it was thrashing against the pull. After a moment, a shape coalesced, and a quivering antlered rabbit sat before me, staring into my dead eyes with fear.

That casting had completely drained my mental energy, and I felt bone-tired. Heh.

I retreated to the comforting presence of my Phylactery, and felt myself being slowly rejuvenated and empowered. With a thought, I pulled away a bit of my Domain of Undeath, and spread it a bit further into the cave. The cost on my mental energy was minimal, though it gradually increased the further away I pushed it. Still, I felt that this was a good thing to spend my time doing, as it would strengthen me and any undead I summoned, and would also allow me to shape this cave in my own image.

I spent the next while doing that. I knew that there was a jackalope running around, but I could handle that when I had completely filled the cave with influence and recovered my strength.

Eventually, after what I guessed was a few hours of relaxing, I stood and walked around the area, noting that it seemed I’d managed to get all of my surroundings in the Domain. Then I frowned as I gazed off at a specific point around a bend of the cave.

There was a concentration of Necrosis, and it felt fresh.

I approached it… and found a corpse. Specifically, the corpse of the jackalope I’d Called.

I guess I’d been at it for more than a few hours. How long did it take for rabbits to die of dehydration, again?

Well, I guess it doesn’t matter.

I guided my energy through the body of the small animal, using Animate Necrosis to guide my Necrosis Manipulation. As the spell completed, I felt something snap into place, and a new globule of intellect attached to my consciousness. It wasn’t like it was me, nor was it its own thing. It was as if I had some sort of unintelligent pseudo-mind attached to my own.

I sent a command to the mind, telling it to jump, and the zombie jackalope in front of me made an awkward attempt at hopping. It tried to do it again, but I canceled the command.

So, basically, these zombies had next to no intelligence, and would just do whatever I told them again and again until I stopped them. It was too bad, but there wasn’t anything to be done for it. I assumed that they’d automatically attack the living, which meant that I’d simply have stupid minions for a while. It’s not like I currently had too much use for them, though I was certain they’d become important later.

I focused and, with a sigh, reactivated Delinear Sight. Combined with my Deadsight, it allowed me to see the distances between living and dead things. Looking towards one wall, I found that it was near a large amount of life, only a few meters away, and pushed the influence of my Domain of Undeath into it, directing the stone with its Mold Terrain feature, compacting it into itself to form a rough corridor. It seemed that it was oddly fresh and weak. Perhaps some sort of landslide had formed this side of the wall? That would explain how my bone donor got inside. Still, the rocks had been in place long enough to have compacted somewhat into a solid metamorphic stone.

Eventually, I carved out an opening to the outside world. Gazing out, I found myself on the slope of a small mountain. There was a valley below me, with a river running through it and a small town sprawled across it.

Hmm. Decision time.

Do I go out and attempt to slaughter all humans in proper lich fashion, or do I stay here, learn about my abilities, consolidate my power, and build a dungeon?