Nope

"See?" Madi asked as she led you through the woods surrounding the cave that burrowed down to your home. "I told you nothing would happen."

"There is no such thing as being too cautious, Madi," you chastise, though there's no real heat in your tone. "So long as there are those that can undo all the progress we've made, we have to be vigilant."

Madi wilts slightly, her slim shoulders hunching as she scuffs her boot in the dirt. "I guess you're right. I'm just sick of always having to look over my shoulder all the time! I wanna explore the world! Go on epic quests! Instead I might as well be another NPC for all the good I can do!"

"Madi," you say, grabbing her shoulder with one hand and lifting her chin with another, delighting in the way she quivers as you make her look you in the eye while activating your Aura. The constant collection of Shadow Essences dropped by players who harvesting the wisps outside your chambers has allowed you to upgrade your Aura of the Dark One ability to work in tandem with your Seeds of Corruption. "You have explored more of the Hollow Roots than probably anyone else in your situation would be capable of and are helping me gain freedom, is that not enough?"

"N-no," Madi whimpers. "I-I mean yes! Yes, Yomel! I'm sorry."

You wish you had a mouth with which to properly smile as you reach up and stroke Madi's hair. "Don't worry, Little One," you say soothingly, pumping mana into your Aura to ensure your words latch onto her mind as her eyes turn foggy and the seed's roots spread further. "When I have ascended, you will bow to none but me."

Madi is downright panting as you release her and turn to examine the thick woods surrounding you. The two of you have have been skirting the short mountain in which your cave is burrowed away from Livenvale so as to keep from attracting the attention of anyone who would be coming from that direction. Focusing on the shadows beneath the thick trees, you poor your mana into your Call of the Dark and watch, satisfied as the shadows rise up and slice through the base of the nearest tree, wrapping around the trunk before it falls and carving it into little blocks that are then funnelled into Madi's strange, limitless bag. It takes a couple minutes longer than simply ripping off or destroying the door to your chambers, but it is more than worth it as you have gathered more than five times the wood from that single tree. Wanting to get as much out of this trip as you can, you and Madi prepare to spend the rest of the night harvesting trees, and have been doing so for nearly an hour and half already - chopping down more than twenty trees by now - when you are interrupted by a scream.

"Help! Someone, please!" The voice is faint, coming from far away and carried on the wind, but that doesn't stop Madi from abandoning caution and sprinting towards it.

"Come on, we have to help!"

You're not sure you do, but the opportunity to potentially double the number of players in your thrall is too tempting to ignore. You easily catch up to Madi and follow the sound of screaming which quickly turns into those of combat as you approach. The battlefield, it turns out, is a small kobold village that a group of players were clearly trying to pillage, only to swiftly find themselves in over their heads. You're sure there were probably more of them when they started, but the raiders have been reduced to a slim catkin cowering on the ground behind a human in leather armor who has failed to stop one of the diminutive lizard folk from leaping through the air and sinking its needle-like teeth into his neck, snarling even as he seizes up and vanishes in a flash of light, dead.

Knowing what probably happened here, you're more than willing to leave the remaining player to their fate, but Madi is already rushing forward to help. She takes up a defensive postion in front of the cowering catkin, but it's quickly apparent that all but the weakest of them easily outclass Madi, and there are too many of them even if her feeble prayer-based spells had as much of an effect as they did on unholy enemies.

With no other option, you pump all of your remaining magic power into your Call of the Dark ability and, similar to how you dealt with that first mage to fall into your pit trap, you summon countless spears of darkness that crisscross the entire village creating a lethal web between the shadows cast by the scattered torches around the village. Dozens of kobolds drop dead, eviscerated in your last attack, and you release a sigh of relief from your non-existent lungs as it seems that their slaughter provided you with enough experience to level up, restoring your stamina just as the largest Kobold you've ever seen comes charging out of a den at the far end of the cavern.

Where most kobolds are between two-and-a-half and three feet in height, this one is nearly as tall as you. It wields a thin, glowing blade that looks almost comical between its meaty talons, and is dressed in various animal pelts, underneath of which you notice its scales are smooth and undamaged, unlike its scarred and pockmarked underlings.

Higna, The Unchallenged

Level: 28

Class: (Uncommon Boss) Kobold Chieftain

If you could sweat nervously, you would. Even with the level up from killing the small fries, Higna's level is nearly half again higher than yours. You turn to grab Madi and run, that catkin will just respawn anyway, but Higna doesn't give you a chance, bellowing loudly and leaping at her, his glowing sword erupting into flames as he prepares to cut her down. You dash through the shadows and push her away with only enough time to make your body corporeal before the flaming blade sinks through your back and bursts out of your chest, chasing away the surrounding shadows with its light and leaving you grateful you don't actually have any internal organs. Pain, worse than anything you've ever felt courses through you as Higna snarls and twists the blade before yanking it out.

Critical Hit!

The notification rings in your mind's eye, and you notice that you have already lost nearly half of your health from that one attack. Your vision blurs as you sink to your knees, Madi and the catkin moving in and out of focus when, suddenly, a burst of power fills your entire being and you throw yourself to the side just as Higna's blade comes crashing down. The massive lizard snarls, and you continue to dodge, leading him away from the players as he swings the flaming sword like a club. Without Madi to worry about, you start to think clearly and analyze the situation. Higna's blade is clearly magical, but the way he's snarling and waving it around doesn't display any skill, let alone Intelligence. If his scales have managed to remain pristine, then his physical defenses are probably pretty high as well. Even with Call of the Dark relying on your magical attack strength, you're not sure you can do much damage to him given his much higher level.