In an empty, dark and damp cave littered with skeletons of various sizes and various shades of white, as if suggestive of a graveyard, there was a very conspicuous event occurring, a skeleton slowly awoke with a flickering of its eyes, this seemingly undamaged skeleton suddenly made a loud *Clack*

'Ahhhhhhh, that crazy old moron. How many years was I stuck in that white hell and why did that golden door appear after so long?'

All sorts of questions crossed Somer's mind and suddenly as if realizing something the skeleton began touching every part of its body, or rather what constitutes the bony anatomy of one.

'Hmm, I am whole again.'

After a bit more touching of himself *Cough* in a manner that would put a break-dancer to shame, it made another *Clack*

'Ah, even my back has healed. Does the length of time I spend in that white hell depend on how severely my body is damaged? Do I go there even for the most trivial of injuries or amputations? Can't I be conscious throughout this process? Otherwise it would make me a very easy target, who knows I might even become the subject of some horrid experimentation if I ever get caught.' thought Somer.

'That old man didn't even bother explaining how I'm supposed to get stronger, or rather, did he not know it himself? I am a unique existence after all.' *Sigh/Clack* 'I'm on my own again'

Thinking this Somer started walking deeper into the caves hoping for an answer as only death awaited him if he ever left the caves.

The caves were of quite an intricate design and complex one at that with many branching pathways, but Somer never felt lost. It was as if the cave itself was guiding him inwards. How Somer knew this was the right path? Well the carnage left behind by the two marauders might have been a big clue to anyone willing to acknowledge it.

As Somer walked deeper and deeper he noticed how the walls became less irregular and jagged and more uniform and the path turned into a corridor of sorts.

The walls had some very curiosity provoking designs, hieroglyphs of some sort, a femur here, a pelvis there and some other bones put together made a weird design of sorts. Somer couldn't make head or tales of these designs but knew that these were the language of his brethren, also, the number of dismembered skeletons had reduced significantly and were not seen anymore.

'HALT!!!'

A thunderous roar could be heard in Somer's head which almost made him self-destruct and then a new pain began...

'Alpha Eye Analysis complete : Ability to make noises with spacial vibrations created, integrating with subject, kindly hold on'

'Ahhhhhhh.......'

After a few more moments of rough clacking sounds Somer managed to get a hold of himself and realized that there was some extra information in his head, one which would make communicating with others possible, the joy however was overcome with fear of how open he was to an attack, a fatal one.

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"You managed to survive that? Aren't you an interesting one?"

Somer looked at the direction of the sound and could make out a Skeleton much larger than himself with a complete set of fine black colored armor donned on him and standing behind some sort of a thin blue screen.

He spoke again, "It doesn't matter. You're a low ranked foot soldier who somehow managed to survive the earlier battle or cowardly hid somewhere right? You probably can't even reply no less understand what I'm saying. A real pity"

Somer realized that the Alpha eye had scrutinized the other skeleton's speech and added more information into his head regarding the language and the method of conveying thoughts through it, though this time it only gave him a mild headache and not the brain splitting one from earlier.

As Somer took his time digesting the new information and the implications it held he noticed that the guard like skeleton having gotten bored of him started moving back to where he came.

"What battle?" Somer used the magic to manipulate the air to create is first words he had truly spoken since coming here, sadly it wasn't eureka.

The guard skeleton shocked at the revelation that the lesser one could speak took a look at the skeleton again, a long hard one at that.

"Did you just speak?" he questioned.

"I suppose so, though I'm currently having a hard time figuring out what happened earlier. Everyone seems to have perished while I lay unconscious..... I'm not sure for how long. Can you please help me in that regard?"

*Pfffftt*"Hahahahahahahahahaha, so you got so beaten up you mutated huh? Hahahahahahaha, that's a first. Though I'm glad you're alive I can't let you in' you need to be stronger, to show your worth to join our 'Order'.

But yeah, two spoiled human brats came here a month ago hoping to get a good score and started killing the lesser ones, but unfortunately for them they ran into one of our Order guards and got beaten within the inch of their life.

Hmm, I think they were nobles or something because a whole brigade came here next and started a whole new massacre. We the guards were forced to take action and pushed them back for a while until their mage showed up *sigh*.

We had to finally hole up ourselves here and three of our mages had to sacrifice their lives to put up this shield that eventually saved us. We Beats of Oblivion live longer than these human, se we'll take our sweet time planning out our revenge, but for you I can't simply pull the shield down for you, you're on your own."

Somer realized that this was getting out of hand and immediately replied, "Wait, just tell me how can I get stronger? Being turned into bone paste by crazy genocidal brats isn't exactly a good experience"

"Ah, lesser one we 'The Beats Of Oblivion' get stronger by training or experiencing battle with our own kind or humans, if not then bathing in the blood of the human victims that fell to our hands and blades. The humans are like cockroaches everywhere so that might not be an issue, the latter one that is."

"Then be off lesser one, you could get killed by stronger beats if you loiter here for too long, you are after all near the core of Shrew Caves."

Somer however lost all interest in the guard skeleton after he had heard one month, 'So, it takes a month to heal from a miniscule part of myself and this Alpha eye is really too amazing....'

'Alpha Eye activated :

Shield too complicated to completely analyze at current level, however a simpler version is being created.

Skeleton breathing movements and sword capabilities scrutinized, appears complicated, simpler version created...'

All of a sudden Somer's eyes had a blue spark which seemed permanent and also his posture got more upright and his breathing got more controlled and uniform His bones exuded a little bit of dirt outside and got a shade fairer. Though his clumsy movements reduced they weren't entirely overcome.

Somer however was overjoyed, this gave him a fighting chance, a way to survive.

The guard had left long ago wondering if he wasted his time since he doubted that the lesser of his kind understood anything at all.

Somer silently made his way back towards his previous location preparing himself mentally for the things he had to do.

A new journey had indeed begun