Whatever spell that had been cast on him, stopped, although it took a moment for him to realize that was the case. The spell had blinded him, covering his entire sight in darkness, yet even now when it was gone, his entire sight was still black. It was the chill, wet air, and the smell of old stone which made him realise he’d arrived somewhere. He scrunched his eyes and let them grow accustomed to the darkness.

The space was dark, not pitch black, but dark enough that he needed to make an effort to see anything. The first thing he noticed were the white, silky cobwebs filling the corners on the ceiling. He saw a black shape lying against one, eight legs stretching out, sixteen red eyes glittering. He didn’t know this, but the spider was staring back at him, wondering if it would allow him into its home.

Suddenly, it twitched and sprinted back into the safety of the webs, having decided it would grant him a temporary stay. Alexander noticed that there were many large containers around him, all made out of stone with big heavy covers laying on top. The covers laid at a slant, and some where laying on the floor, as if the containers had been opened recently. The realisation struck him. He was in a crypt, and all of a sudden the sensation of being watched became much more unbearable. Could it be that skull?

“Bahahaha,” the skull laughed, teeth clacking into teeth. “A cripple! Ohh this is hilarious. You can’t make this up.”

“Last time I checked you couldn’t walk either, Icarus.” The figure shrouded in darkness had appeared behind Alexander without making any noise. Alexander jerked his head around to look at him but amidst the darkness couldn’t see him. Had I been staring at him all along?

“Gee. I wonder whose fault that is.”

“Uhh, why are we in a crypt?”Alexander asked.

“It fills me with nostalgia,” the shrouded figure said. “The stench of the dead, the chittering spiders, and the silence. Like the good old days.”

“Listen, I’m not sure if I still want to do this. You seem like a cool guy so why don’t you just-”

“You don’t have a choice in the matter. It’s either you do this or you die.”

“Then I’ll die.”

The shrouded figure snickered and turned around. His hand shot out of the darkness. “Fine.”

Black lightning carrying a darkness deeper than the shadows of the room shocked Alexander for three seconds until he dropped dead, steam floating off his body.

“Tell me when two minutes pass, Icarus.”

“Tsk, my 3900 iq is being used to keep time.”

“Just do it.”

Morticous walked over to one of the sarcophagus. He willed the cover to float up and a few seconds later a skeleton sat up. Its bones were pristine. Not a single speck of dust or filth rested on them. It looked like something that belonged in a lab, despite resting in a filthy coffin.

Morticous's hand shot out and clenched around the top of the figure’s skull. He jerked his hands upwards, blue sparks shot everywhere, the skull came off, expressionless despite shallowly feeling betrayed.

A red skull found itself in the spot that the skull had been. Morticous fingers twisted and danced up and down and all of a sudden black flames erupted from the eye sockets of the skull. Normally when something gained life it would look around, but the red skull stared right at Morticous.

“Tell me. What do you think of Alexander.”

“Disgusting, pathetic, crippled.”

“It was obvious there would be self hatred. The question is how much is there. Skeleton, would you be better off with or without Alexander.”

The skeleton took a second to think over that, then it answered. “I want to help him. I want him to use me, but he bottles me up and represses me.”

“What will you do to help him?”

“Make sure he’s treated with the damn respect he deserves.”

“Very well.”

“Your dutiful clock alerts you that ten seconds are left. Right now,” Icarus said. “Oops there goes seven.”

Morticous snapped his fingers and the skeleton lost all the life within it, falling down into the stone coffin. He walked towards Alexander, who seemed unconscious in his wheelchair. The steam which had left him, slowly seeped back into his body.

Suddenly, Alexander shot up gasping. His face jerked from space to space, growing deathly pale.

“What was that?”

“That was death. Now, are you still sure you want to die?”

“No-no please never again. Did you revive me?”

“Great, and no I didn’t revive you. I gave you temporary death. Now follow me,” the shrouded figure said and started moving with purpose. Alexander pushed on his wheels to follow behind him as quickly as possible, still frightened out of his mind. The wheelchair bumped up and down against the uneven floor. “My name’s Morticous by the way. Feel free to call me Mort.”

“Thanks Mort,” Icarus said.

“Not you,” Morticous spat out.

“I’m A-”

“Alexander yes child, I already know that.”

“How?”

“Spells.”

Morticious threw a heavy stone chair beside a table littered with dust, to the other side of the crypt. He did it with ease, as if the chair weighed nothing more than a feather. A loud bang sounded throughout the crypt when the chair hit the ground. Morticous then walked to the other side of the table and sat down. There was an ancient chess board on the table, and Alexander rolled up on the other side.

“What are we going to do?”

“Well, on this one day we get to train you up into something… decent. A day when surely almost everybody else is getting taught skills and spells and whipped into shape, magically and physically. Giving their stats a whole makeover. On this day, yes this day, you and I are going to play chess and chat.”

“That sounds pretty stupid.”

“Cripple… You’re going to be a necromancer. The number one thing you need to understand is how to strategise, and that means critical thought and knowledge, hence, chess and chat.”

“Can’t you teach me how to raise the dead or cast life leech or something like that?”

“If you beat me, I’ll teach you that spell. Sounds fair?”

“Two spells.”

Morticious grabbed one of the pieces littered with dust and moved it forward two steps. “Pawn to e4.”

“That’s boring.”

“And solid. That’s what I want of you. Become boring and solid as long as you can manage. Think about reading. Ten pages each day is going to amount to more than a hundred pages once every two weeks. Same thing applies to the tower.”

“Pawn to e5.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Now the game’s started and there’s no leaving. There’s a catch to this particular chess board. It’s cursed, and the loser will be jolted with pain upon being put in checkmate. If there is a draw, of any kind, both players will get jolted.”

Alexander took a deep breath. “I’m getting more and more confused about the tower. What am I supposed to do? And for what?”

“There are one hundred challenges, at the end of which lies a grand reward. The first one there gets it. If anybody else reaches it, they get released, yet almost always nobody wins. The different powers all compete with their own units. And then there’s you, the cripple, and me. Pawn to f4.”

“I like it! Fight. Kill. Murder.” Icarus shouted out.

“Wait, didn’t you say that you wanted boring but solid moves? Now you offer me a gambit? I’ll accept it, sure, pawn takes f4. What I can’t quite understand is why the powers that be don’t enter the tower themselves.”

“They have, and they’re the winners. There are lots of towers that pop up naturally. Nobody seems to understand how. There’s actual management to them too. It’s all very strange, if you win them you get immense power, but you’re also barred from other towers, hence forcing you into using pawns. Bishop to c4.”

“Queen to h4. Check. Why don’t they empower their units? You know, before they send them to enter a tower.”

“It’s expensive and ineffective. Many try that still. Don’t worry about them though, they’ll bulldoze through the lower floors as quickly as they can. There’s always a couple of them. King to f1.”

“Pawn to b5. Why would they do that though?”

“Because there’s loot laying around the tower. The faster you climb up the tower, the higher the odds that you’ll find rare loot. But you’re not going to do that. Bishop takes b5.”

“And the momentum is mine again. Isn’t it good to get loot though? Shouldn’t I go quicker so that I can get more and better loot? Knight to f6.”

“You said that you haven’t played a lot of chess. I find that hard to believe. And no, it’s not good. You’re going to grind yourself into more power. As the denizens of the tower are creatures made out of magic, killing them adds magic into you. The towers are the most effective place to gain strength. Knight to f3.”

“So aren’t other’s going to do the same? Queen to h6.”

“Of course they are!” Icarus shouted at them.

“Yes. Others are going to be doing the same thing. And you’ll be killing them. Pawn to d3.”

“Kill humans? I can’t do that. Knight to h5.”

“Horrible move. You’ve tunell focused on one particular tactic and forgotten the rest of the game. Do not do this in a fight. It’ll lead to your death. Also, you won’t be killing them per se, your skeletons will be. Knight to h4.”

“Brilliant move, yet that argument’s kind of trash. If a gun fires it’s the person who fires the gun who bears the responsibility, not the gun. Same thing goes for my skeletons.”

“Make your move.”

“Right. Queen to g5.”

“Knight to f5.”

“Pawn to c6.”

“Pawn to g4. Listen. They’re going to be gunning for you. Nobody likes necromancers. I think the tower itself is also going to be against you, and killing the other units is the best way to gain strength. At the end of the day, it’s a dog eat dog world.”

“Knight to f6. The tower’s going to be against me? What does that even mean.”

“Your spawn location is going to be horrible. When items drop from bosses they’ll be holy, a class of items you can’t use without burning yourself. Other units are quickly going to start hunting you down. Rook to g1.”

“Why? Pawn takes bishop on b5. You’re not too good at this.”

Morticious scoffed. “Because once necromancers get rolling, very little can stop them. You’re going to have a whole goddamn army beneath you. It won’t be a matter of survival anymore for you. It’ll be a matter of strategy. But we aren’t there yet. And also kid, refrain from insulting your opponents until they’re dead. You’re still a cripple. Pawn to h4.”

“What an annoying move. Tell me more about what’s going to happen in the tower Queen to g6.”

“The first floor is going to be something easy. It’s probably going to be skeletons or goblins. You’ll have to kill them, then the boss is going to be a fiercer version of them, maybe an orc, and the entrance to the next floor will be there. You are going to be doing that, but you are also going to bring corpses back to me. Pawn to h5.”

“So we can create an army? Queen to g5.”

“No, you don’t have the mana to sustain that. We’ll mesh the units together to create one strong unit. Quality over quantity. Always. Necromancer’s who focus on quantity only have one move, swarm. We’ll build you a team with a lot of utility. Queen to f3.”

“Do you mean I can get more than just skeletons and zombies? Knight to g8.”

“Good move. Of course you can get more than skeletons and zombies. We can give them unique perks, teach them spells, morph them into shapes more suitable for the floor.”

“That sounds OP.”

“You won’t be saying that when you see what the other players are getting, and the challenges ahead of you. Bishop takes on f4.”

“Queen to f6.”

“Knight to c3.”

“Bishop to c5. When you say that I will be getting stronger, what do you mean?”

“Knight to d5. I’ll teach you spells. Once those spells have been taught at a basic level the tower takes over and creates some sort of template for them, then you just have to repeat it and knowledge over the spell will come to you naturally. A lot of creatures enter for that reason. They don’t get out. Sometimes they’ll get spots like mine around the tower.”

“Argh what an annoying move. You’re really choking me out. Was that what happened to you? Queen takes on b2.”

“No. I’m not actually supposed to be here. Most of the power’s don’t know of my existence. The tower does though. How did you think I knew that no other person hasn’t been selected?”

“You’re telling me you’ve been waiting for a chance to get your own player into the game?”

“Exactly. Bishop to d6.”

“Wait what! How the hell? That’s such a disgusting move. Christ. Bishop takes on g1.”

“What do you know of Christ? Also you’ve got to understand something about strategy, kid. Always. Always. Attack. E5.”

“He’s the symbol of one of the largest religions on Earth. Why? What if you need to defend? Queen takes on a1.”

“He’s also one of the biggest shareholders on Earth. He also hates necromancers. Now kid, have you heard of offense…”

“Is the best defense. Yes yes. I’ve heard it a million times before”

“But do you understand it?”

“Of course. If you kill me before I can kill you, you win.”

“No. If you’re dead. You don’t get to play the game anymore. It’s not about killing. It’s about death. This isn’t a game kid. King to e2.”

“Killing, death, same thing. I see what you’re trying to do by the way, but it won’t work. Knight to a6.”

“Hihihi, I don’t know how a cripple like you has an ego, but once that’s taken care of, we can move on to other tasks. Knight takes on g7.”

“I saw that. King to d8.”

“Kid. Is there a difference between taking somebody's brain or taking their heart?”

“No, both lead to death.”

“How about draining somebody's blood or ripping out their lungs.”

“They die.”

“It’s the death that matters, kid. That’s it. That’s the goal. Don’t forget that.”

“I haven’t.”

“Really? Queen to f6. Check.”

“Bah! Oh my god. How did I miss that? Knight takes on f6.”

“You didn’t. You just weren’t looking for it. You thought the queen was too useful to be used as a simple diversion. You weren’t thinking about death. You were thinking about the fight, and that’s why you lost. Bishop to e7. Checkmate.”

The chessboard suddenly grew a mouth in the middle of the board, filled with many sharp and long teeth. It somehow managed to leap towards Alexander’s face, catching him off guard, and then it started mauling him. He shrieked and tried to get it off, but he couldn’t.

He was powerless as the chess board’s teeth ripped into his skin, tearing it apart and revealing his white skull. Some teeth smashed into him, some teared and ripped at him. He felt his blood stream out of him and straight into the chess board.

When he died, the whole world shattered to show him another world. It was a world where he was laying on a dusty table, beside a chess board, with a sore throat. The whole thing had been an illusion.

“Help me put back the pieces. We’re going again.”

“Please no. Can I just get to learn a spell?”

“Beat me.”

***

Twenty seven times he had his head eaten off him. No draws. No wins. That was the score for Alexander. Even when he was just one move away from a victory, Morticous would check him multiple times in a row and change the game entirely. By the twenty seventh loss Alexander lost all hope, and that was why Morticous decided to finally start teaching Alexander more practical things.

The chess board in front of him morphed. He saw a corridor form, two parallel walls but no ceiling. The floor was ragged and uneven. Five pieces formed. On the side of Alexander a kid with a wheelchair and two skeletons stood, and on the side of Morticous, two goblins stood.

Wait a second, Alexander thought. That’s supposed to be me.

“I’ve given you control over the two skeletons. You haven’t gotten enough strength to modify them yet so they’ll be basic skeletons. This is a scenario you’re going to encounter many times in the dungeon. I want you to kill both goblins without any casualties on your side.”

“Finally.”

“Right then. Time for you to go into your body.”

“Wait, what!?”

It was too late. Alexander found himself standing in the corridor. Above him he saw a large, gigantic figure looming over him. In front of him there were two goblins, now not nearly as harmless.