The child drew on the ground with chalk, making a circle that had a four pronged star inside the center, like a compass rose. He pulled flowers from his pockets, lavender and roses, and set them alight before beginning a chant, the words seeming to physically form around him. A screen appeared in front of him, but he waved it off as he watched bones rise from the earth, piercing through the ground like an arrow through the palm of a man, and they gathered into the form of a human skeleton before armor began to follow, a breastplate, greaves, and boots rising from the ground. When it all came together, it cut a rather imposing figure, standing at two meters tall. A new screen appeared next to the child, and this time he took the time to read it.

Skeleton Knight raised!

Assig-assi-as-as-a-a

Error. Soul found.

The child frowned. He was barely starting to learn necromancy, but even he knew what it meant if a soul was found in a resurrected body. It was bound to the corpse or it was a malevolent spirit that was sealed away, but his suspicions seemed to be unfounded as the monster stayed in place, not even showing the barest signs of life.

The child dug through his bag, examining the diagram for the spell they just cast. “Did I do something wrong..?” He looked over the circle a few times. He looked at the flowers. He even looked at the soil he set up on. It was all perfect, and there was no reason for it to have failed. Tapping the skeleton on the chest made it wobble, but it almost always returned to the exact same standing position it was originally in.

Almost always. After about the fifth tap, it straightened, and balls of concentrated mana, resembling flame, appeared in the skeleton’s eyes, but the energy that made them was not his own. No, the child’s mana was a pale green, the color of a pistachio. The skeleton had amber colored mana in its eyes, not only unaligned with his mana, but most kinds known to the child.

He frowned. “That’s…probably not good. What is that, fire mana? No, it’s not a bright enough red. Maybe…maybe wild, but I thought the color was green, not orangish-yellow.” While the child wondered to himself, he began to pack his things. It was clear, in his eyes, that the monster wasn’t capable of movement, or even instinctual reaction, and wasn’t a threat to anyone. At worst, an adventurer would find it and destroy the thing, but there was no reason to spend anymore time on it when it was clear it wouldn’t do anything. He tossed the bag over his shoulder and wandered into the forest, hoping to find a monster corpse to raise. Then, at least, he’d have something to protect him from the church.

———

As the boy walked off, the skeleton stood there, the mana lights flickering every now and then. Occasionally, it would wobble a bit. This ended when a small animal, a wolf pup, walked up and gnawed at the things femur. Its eyes brightened, and it stumbled back, jaw opening as it attempted to shout, shaking the pup off. The animal, now realizing that this thing in the forest was in fact, not a snack, scurried off to find something else to do, perhaps another creature to bother.

The skeleton fell on the ground, barely sitting up as it looked around at its surroundings. “Where… What is this place?” The creature looked around, trying to gain its bearings, but none of the surrounding area looked familiar to it. The last it recalled, it… no, he was on the battlefield, fighting off a paladin when he felt something warm run down his chest and… and…

He’d died. He had no recollection of who he truly was, but he understood that he had died, so how was he back now? Only then did he look at his hands, the two skeletal appendages worn, but still functional, and he stopped. “Status,” he said worriedly, and a screen appeared in front of him.

Name: Unknown

Species: Undead(Skeleton)

Class: Knight

Subclass: Wandering Bard

Level: 38

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

He stared at the screen in shock, reaching out at the text, which confirmed what he had seen. He was dead, and someone made him a skeleton. More surprising than that was the level. A wizard had cast a mass spell on the world at some point, giving people these screens and the “system” to help them progress. A bog standard adventurer would be around level ten if they focused on improving, while the weakest paladin was around level twenty. To barely have any recollection of the past besides some general knowledge and still be this strong was… well it was good for him, if a bit surprising.

He rose to his feet, taking care to not fall, and he looked around once again, choosing to walk around this time, and after disturbing much of the wildlife, he found a path, leading to somewhere he didn’t know, but… honestly, any place was better than wandering through the wilderness. It twisted through the trees, sometimes winding backwards or just veering so far off that you’d wonder if you made a wrong turn somewhere, and if the skeleton didn’t know better, he’d think the trees were laughing at his confusion at the path. 

“This…” He stared at a stump, sure that he had seen it before. “Am I..,just stuck here now? Doomed to wander through the forest forever?” He idly performed a motion that was fairly similar to scratching one’s head, his bones brushing against a plant, causing him to recoil. It wasn't the plant or the contact that he hated though; it was the sensation that came along with the touch. Plants always had a weird texture as far as he could remember, but even the others that he’d felt in this state weren’t so…fuzzy. Fuzzy as in vague, unclear, lacking clarity. It didn’t feel right, it felt fake.

Wait. It felt…

“Well then.” He grabbed the plant, a vine-like structure that felt as though it was digging into his nonexistent skin, but he pulled at it until it snapped, leaving nothing in its place. The terrain shifted, and while the stump stayed next to him, the trees shifted, revealing a path that was right next to him the entire time. He felt more fortunate than anything else at having found the path, but…

“Why was it hidden?” He thought to himself as he walked the path. Part of him was practically shouting to stop walking in that direction if he didn’t want to die, but the less rational side said that there might be something valuable down that way. He opted for the chance at treasure, naturally. Additionally, even if it wasn’t his foremost thought, he could try to find information or items that linked to his past by some margin; he wouldn’t know it, sure, but he would get free things out of the ordeal and that was reason enough.

His mind ran wild with the possibilities of what he’d find, coming up with things ranging from a simple town and market, to structures that feel as though they’ve existed for millennia longer than anyone alive. Maybe an undead horde that could explain some things to him… he hoped. He wasn’t sure if his ability to consciously think made him the average or the outlier, as he had only died once to his knowledge. That combined with his mind turning up knowledge on undead being largely mindless was not encouraging in the least, but he would be fine as long as nothing attacked him, and that was largely unlikely.

And it still was, even as he walked into a branch headfirst with a thud,the sound hollow as the spot where his brain should be, along with any other organs and flesh in the head. He had gotten so distracted that he never even saw the branch, and the impact not only made him stumble but made him attempt to go on guard in defense. The key word there is attempt, as what really happened would have been featured in a slapstick comedy had they existed in his world.

Clutching his head and rubbing the point of impact, he staggered as he regained his bearings only to trip over a rock, and into a pit he had never noticed due to his distraction.

Thankfully, the fall was nonlethal to him as he discovered. Nonlethal however, does not mean harmless as he discovered. It was easily a twenty foot drop, and as a being held together by magic, the impact immediately caused him to break apart in a manner that would bring to mind a highly sophisticated, interlocking brick system if it existed in this world. It didn’t, so he unfortunately had nothing to compare the experience to as he painstakingly attempted to reconstruct himself, moving slower than a drop of honey down an 88 degree slope. When he finally finished, he stood up, looked at the spot he fell from, and resigned to his fate with a sigh.

“Well, no other option.”  He turned around to see a cave next to him, and he wandered through it for a while, finding it comfortable, if a bit odd with the strange uniformity of its walls. Caves were organic structures, and even when they weren’t, the walls were never so…smooth or flat. Running a boney finger along the walls as he strode through only confused him further, the stone still rough to his senses despite looking like it sat at the bottom of a river for years. Glancing around made it worse as he felt something similar to that vibe from earlier: the surrounding area felt artificial.

He didn’t really know where he was going, and yet…he did. He couldn’t explain it, but he felt as though something was leading him around, guiding him through the tunnels as he delved deeper, unaware of the distance he was traveling because he was very, very absent from his mind at the moment. There’s always a sensation that nearly everyone experiences, where a task feels simple enough that your brain turns off as you get lost in it, and the skeleton was no different.

He only started paying attention again when he actually noticed a weak flicker of light than stood out to him: despite him not registering the room as dark, the light caught his attention in the same manner a stove burner being left on is eye-catching when you walk in a kitchen, except without the panic over who the hell left the burner on. He stood in what he now noticed was a doorway that opened into a dome-like room, and in the center was a pedestal with a gemstone, glowing with an amber light. And he wanted to touch it, because of course he did. That’s what you do if you see something shiny, you walk up to it and grab it. Not even a god could resist the impulse to do such a thing, certainly not a skeleton who didn’t know his name.

He stepped forward, fascinated by the ball as he tapped it with the tips of his fingers. “Weird. It’s doing something at least,” he said as he noticed the flow of mana draining in and out of the ball. A word came up from the depths of his mind, one that seemed at least vaguely familiar: dungeon core. A crystal ball that most saw as a den of slaughter filled with treasures and riches that were beyond the imagination of the average citizen of even the wealthiest kingdom. He grabbed the sphere, pulling it out of the pedestal in a purely instinctual reaction. He wasn’t expecting the flood of information, or the energy that began to course through his body, and he was in no state to do anything at this point.