I opened my eyes, a pool of blood wrapping around me. I slowly got up, my head spinning and took a look around the room I was in. A small, arch-window peered over what seemed to be the grounds of a keep, a dull gray sky hanging overhead. Past the stonebrick walls lay empty farm fields, smoke billowing from the small township.
The room was cobble, assumedly inside the keep of the castle. A bloodied porcelain bath lay beside me and my own body was covered in the same red liquid. Laying right beside me was a sword of a pristine sheen, and a bloodied candleholder, probably the weapon used to hit my head. I got up and looked at myself in the mirror. It was a boy, surprisingly, he was tall and handsome with blonde hair and golden eyes. Was this a part of God’s gift?
It seems I was reborn in the body of a noble’s child who had just died. Just as I was about to leave, a blue screen appeared in front of me.
Greetings new user! This is the main interface for all of your stats and skills. To open this screen again, please think of the word "Interface" with the intent of opening this box again.
Welcome to the tutorial Aculus Lament!
You are the only child of a baron in the Avarian Empire. Your family's estate exists right on the border with demon territory and for many generations, your family has valiantly defended the land from the demon scourge.
Unfortuantely, demon attacks have been growing less and less common, and just as your barony had started to recover, neighbouring nobles invaded your land when your use had worn out. Now, you are the only Lament alive.
Here is your Quest!
As the last Lament, you must bring return the barony of Lament to its previous glory. This may be a little hard though, considering that the demons will start attacking again soon! Will you be able to revive the ruined barony?
Rewards: Unlock your first power. Failure: Death
I understand the situation now. The name of this body... no, my name is Aculus Lament, the lasting surviving member of the Lament family. I peered out the window of the bloody bathroom and listened to the screams of the people below. I thought the Interface said the nobles were looking to split the territory, why does it seem like they are raiding it?
Unless...
My suspicions were confirmed as a classic imp flew right up to the window I was looking out of and grinned at me. How soon the Interface mean!? It's two purple horns reached down atop a bulbous head being carried by a spindly body. Red, bat wings hung low in the room and dangerous claws extended from either side of its decrepit appearance.
Looking at my suprise, its smile widened and without warning, it leapt at me. My body however, seemed well trained and instinctively dodged the attack, the imp crashing into the wall behind me. Quickly, I scrambled to pick of the lusturous sword on the ground and as the imp turned back, I beheaded it with one clean swoop.
You got 100 XP!
I was breathing heavily and my heart was pounding but there was still something I needed to confirm. I thought to myself, with intent; 'Interface'.
| Name: Aculus Lament | Class: Jobless | Alignment: NE | Health: 12/12 | EXP: 100/100 (LVLup Available!) |
| Str: 14 (+2) | Agi: 15 (+2) | Con: 14 (+2) | Int: 20 (+5) | Wis: 5 (-3) | Cha: 13 (+1) |
Abilities:
- Exponential Growth (SKILL: MAX): 100% Bonus XP
- Identify (SKILL: MAX): Passively understand the capabilities of objects and people.
Exponential Growth? This must be a gift from God. No longer risking to look outside the window, I left the washroom to scout out the rest keep. Human corpses litered the floor with very few demon corpses showing up. It seems that the demons attacked almost right after the nobles had finished off my family. Were they waiting for this or were they just lucky?
Blood covered the grey walls. Seeing the amount of corpses that surrounded me, it wasn't suprising to think that in a few days, this place would look and smell like hell. Eventually, I found my way out of the castle, but by the time I reached the township outside the walls, it seemed to have been too late. The corpses were pilled up in the middle, set aflame and the I could see the demons small shadowy figures flying back to the twisted lands from whence they came.
This surely wasn't a very easy start from God that's for sure.
Choose your familiar!
Grand Lich Ufalius | Avelion the Celestial Knight | Demos the Great
Despite the terrible loss of life in front of me, the blue screen decided to pop up. I understand that I wouldn't be able to properly grieve as much as the owner of this body but the ability to pray for the departed too much to ask? Well, in honesty, I was more interested in the choices in front of me.
A Lich, a Celestial and a creature whose alignment and affiliation that was too risky to guess. Was there a way to gain more information about these choices or would I be stuck with just their names?
I wasted 10 minutes trying to figure out a way to gain additional information but nothing worked. Without extra information, I wouldn't dare risk choosing Demos, a creature whose power I couldn't understand. That left me with two options. The Lich Ufalius and Avelion the Knight. I briefly remeber God saying that whichever familiar I chose, my abilities would follow.
I thought about it for a brief moment and then I nodded my head, making a decision.
I think I'll choose the Lich.
---
The blue box disappeared after I made my selection, and the ground in front of me caved inward, revealing a endless dark hole. Black magics started to pour out, followed by a putried green mist. Finally, a boney hand clasped the ground outside the hole and a figure cloaked in a black robe flew out. His body slowly floated back down and the hole to the underworld slowly closed. The black robe had various runes and incantations scribbled on it but when I looked inside its hood, only darkness stared back at me. It made me question where those bone-arms had come from.
Then, I heard a snap. "Ah shit. My back." The lich turned his head, scanning the surroundings, rubbing his back with his skeletal hand. "Did you summon me? Yeesh, this place is a mess. Wait... before you answer that." Ufalius stretched, arching his back. I heard more bones snap. "Ahhh, much better. Being confined in an alternate dimension for 10 000 years really gets ya don't it?" I shook my head in disappointment. This was honestly not what I expected from a Grand Lich.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Ufalius: "Hey! That's rude! Just because I'm a littlre more perky than your average Lich doesn't mean I'm any less. I've destroyed the world at least two times now! Well..., maybe. The second time I was defeated I didn't see how far my undead legion had gone." I stopped him there. "Ufalius, can you bring these people back to life?" He laughed. "Oh easily! But I think you wanted me to bring them back as mindless soldiers right?" I glared at him. "Can you read my mind?"
Ufalius: "Nope, I can just vaguely understand what you mean and stuff. I don't really know the details of whatever's going on here, all I know is that as long as your alive, I'm alive and that I can't disobey any of your commands. Huh, it's weird to be on the recieving end. One time, I..."
Aculus: "Bring them back Ufalius." Ufalius pouted. "Wow, you're less fun than a Lich. I want you to think about that as I bring these things back to life." I watched as he floated over to the burning pile of corpses. The arcane runes on his robes started to glow and an unfriendly chill filled the area, the fire extinguished. Suddenly, Ufalius raised his hands, and like the stars, the souls of the undead burned in the skulls of the undead, their bodies slowly shambling out of the pile and standing attention before Ufalius. He bowed towards me. "Can they follow my commands?"
Ufalius nodded. "Undead slaves, through and through. Skeletons are my bread-and-butter. I know them in and out and through the chain of command, they're yours too." I looked over the legion of skeletons. A quick estamate showed maybe 300 of them here, all of them humanoid. Looking towards them, I shouted at the top of my lungs "CLEAN UP THE VILLAGE< PUT OUT THE FIRES AND REPAIR THE HOMES. BRING ANY BODIES YOU FIND TO UFALIUS." The skeletons ran off, responding immediately to my commands. Ufalius on the other hand started to burst out laughing. "PWAHAHA, you don't need to shout! HAAHAAHA!"
He clutched himself laughing as he floated in the air. "Get back to work Ufalius." He looked at me disappointed. "Wow, no embarressment, anger or fear? Are you somehow less human than I am?" I looked out in the distance. Less human? No... I just lost my definition of humanity when I met God and right now, I'm just looking for it.
Ufalius: "Jeez, what are you some type of philosopher?" I looked back at him. "Are you sure you can't read my mind?" He put up his hands. "I swear! Just intent. just intent..."
---
Ufalius had resummoned all the nearby bodies in the town and castle. Overall, it seemed we had around 500 of these things working. Interestingly, Ufalius was also able to bring back the demons. When I asked him about it he shrugged and said he did the same for the undead. "Yeah, I just kinda shove a soul back into them. Demons weren't kinda around when I was so I didn't know if it would work or not... but hey! They still have a skeleton so it shouldn't be that hard to bring them back. The dark energy around them is pretty strange though. Its like a primordial form of evil, but unlike you or me, its mixed with elemental magic. Are these guys evil elementals?"
Ufalius was poking the demon's skeletons as they uselessly floated in the air. "How do they float Ufalius?" He turned back to me. "Oh sorry, I just stretched part of their soul over their wing ligaments, or, well, where their ligaments would have been. Seems to work fine I think..." Ufalius paused for a moment. "Oh right, what are we doing again? Taking over the world? Enslaving all life? What's the goal boss?"
I shook my head. "I have to rebuild the estate." Ufalius gave me a blank look even without a face. "What." I nodded. "It's not my will, but then again, I don't have much else purpose in my life. All I can remember is the life Iived and how it was pointless. I understand God told me to find my own way but I just don-"
Ufalius: "Jeeez, okay chill out man, I don't need a life story here." I glared at him angrily. "Oh hey! Found your anger... heh..." We stood silently for a few moments before Ufalius spoke. "Yeah, I think I'm going to go do that repair the castle now chief! I uh... I'll see ya later!" His shadowy figure floated out of my bedroom window. I layed back on the bed looking around the ruined room. What was my purpose now..? I didn't live that long of a life before, and neither did this body. I don't think I can go back and Aculus has no family left... What am I supposed to do..?
Quest Log
- The Last Lament: As the last Lament, you must bring return the barony of Lament to its previous glory. This may be a little hard though, considering that the demons will start attacking again soon! Will you be able to revive the ruined barony?
I stared at the blue box. Sighing, I got up. Alright. I understand what this world wants of me for now. I left the castle to oversee some of the progress being done to the estate, and to tell Ufalius not to decorate the walls with blood and gore.
---
A few days had past. Through a combination of awfully cooked meals using game and food from the forest, and tireless, uneeding labour force working away through day and night, the entire castle was cleaned. The blood swashed, the rooms fixed, the furniture repaired and the walls rebuilt. Walking along the battlements where my skeletal soldiers stood on lookout, I looked over the land below, outside the walls. The town that was there had been repaired, but I realized that it was useless if nobody was living there. I didn't want to see a ghost town so I ordered it destroyed.
Afterwards, I asked Ufalius if the skeletons could be trusted with weapons. He looked almost ecstatic as I said that and started to drone on and on about the wonders of an undead legion marching against a town and how the mortals would scream in fear as they realized each of their fallen comrades would become another enemy in which they would have to cut down. Using the scattered abadoned weapons and the remaining arms inside the armoury, we established a small guard for the walls using a 1/5th of the original force. It felt satisfying to see the soldiers stack the walls and seeing the skeletons below carry supplies. Even if I had no goal, following these quests did seem to bring some fulfillment to me.
Ufalius floated up to the wall I was standing on, nodding in agreement. "Yes, the wonders of an undead army. I tried zombies one time you know, didn't work out too well. They're real stupid and I'd only ever use them against a bunch of towns I was too busy to clean up. Say, why'd you pick me?" I looked at him in surpise. "You knew about the selection?" He nodded. "Yeah, one time, you were mumbling about how you shouldn't have chosen me in your sleep. That really hurt me feelings y'know!" Black ooze started to poor from the shadowy hood he wore. It bore through the walls like a strong acid. "Whoops."
Aculus: "I choose you because my quest told me that I would need to repair the barony. I was considering the Celestial but their title was a knight, the process would have taken much longer. At least, that's what I could assume." I paused. "That and the b-"
Ufalius: "Yeah, tons of bodies to work with, I get ya now. You're a pratical guy arent ya?" I suppose, it truly was practicallity, and I didn't hold any attachment towards these people. "Oh yeah boss, if you want to repair the barony, don't you need people? Like living people?" I paused. "Why?" Ufalius looked at me confused. "Sometimes I wonder who the Grand Lich is here... Boss! A Baron is a dude who rules over some land where people live and a Barony is the land of the Baron! If you don't rule over anyone doesn't that make you not a baron?"
I stood stunned. Ufalius was probably right. I was thinking the reason why the quest hadn't completed was because I had to reclaim the lands lost from the other nobles, but it makes sense now. I didn't know much about medeival societal architecture, perhaps it is good to have Ufalius around. "Awww, Boss, you tease me!"
Aculus: "Alright Ufalius! We have a new mission!" Ufalius saluted me. "Yes sir!". I looked over the castle walls. "We must revive this land and make it one full of people and prosperity!" Ufalius nodded in agreement! "Yesssir! Can we kill them after sir?" I pondered for a moment. "I quite like the idea of ruling over people. Perhaps we play the game of nobles after? Ufalius nodded in understanding. "Everyone has their own version of evils to enjoy, I totally understand. Alright sir, where do we start?"
I looked at him in confusion. "I thought you would know. You're from this world after all..." Ufalius looked at me just as confused. "Sir... I'm a fucking Grand Lich. What the fuck do you mean?" I stopped myself. Yes, what the fuck did I mean? "Ufalius, I think it's time to look for outside help then." Ufalius nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I don't think either of our skillsets are suitable for this boss. But where do we go? How will we find someone suitable to help us?"
I looked to Ufalius. "I think it's time to leave the barony." Ufalius gasped, putting his hand over his mouth and then sarcastically said, "No. Sir, that is mind-boggling." I looked at him annoyed. He smiled. "Ahhhh, there it is! I found it!" He started to poke my shoulder. "Alright sir, jokes aside, I'll summon a lich to manage things while we're gone. In the mean time, I'll go prepare our disguises. You sir can do that creepy thing where you just stare over the wall for hours, I'll be right back!" Ufalius flew off at a blinding speed as I turned back to look over the wall, watching the sun set. We'll leave tomorrow to find someone who can help us repair the barony.
Yes. That sounds... fun.