Everything was dark.
What was I doing again? I can't remember. Hell, what was my name? Do I have amnesia? Wait, where am I? What's going on?
My vision came back all at once. No noise, no sound of rushing back to consciousness like I expected.
Just a hallway, without any light whatsoever. I could go right, or I could go left. They both looked exactly the same. Just a bunch of rock in the shape of a large square, going both ways. I heard the quiet sound of bones clicking together as I looked down the right side of the hallway. Tensing up, I stayed still for a few moments.
Was that the sound of bones? Don't tell me I got kidnapped by some serial killer.
I looked down at myself to see if I had any wounds. The sight of my ribcage, legs, and arms horrified me. Just bones. Nothing more than that.
Slowly, I put my hands up to my face, feeling around for anything normal. I just heard a small scraping sound as my skeletal hands traced along the sides of my own skull.
Christ, this is weird. I should be long dead if I'm just a skeleton. How the hell am I even moving? What the hell is going on?
Taking what amounted to deep breaths, I barely kept myself from having a panic attack. I needed to figure out my general situation.
Okay, first things first. Location, I'm in a hallway. I'm a skeleton, and I'm able to move. How both of those things work, I don't know. Possibly magic? If that's the case, I'm guessing some sort of fantasy setting. I'm either in a cave, dungeon, or something similar. Next, a few tests. Can I speak? Can I remove and re-attach limbs, if I need to defend myself?
My mind was beginning to whirl with various questions. I first attempted to speak, but my jawbones simply clacked together. Speaking wasn't going to happen, and I wasn't going to take the risk to remove my own limbs, in case I couldn't put them back on.
Forcing myself to stand, as my bones creaked. I looked down both sides of the hall. I shrugged, turned right, and began walking. No way was I going to wait around for something or someone to come along, whatever their intentions might be.
My feet made weird clicking sounds on the stone, and in the silence, it all sounded extremely loud. I slowed down, attempting to make my steps much quieter than before.
Stealth skill acquired! Lvl. 1!
The second I saw a blue sign appear in front of me, announcing the acquisition of a skill, I immediately fell backwards, my head almost smacking against the stone floor. I finally managed to calm myself, and looked at the message. It was familiar.
Is that... A system message? Seriously?
My initial surprise faded into annoyance.
Are you kidding me? Am I in a game? Story book? Where the hell am I? Who in the hell dragged me here, I'll kick their ass!
If it was going to be like that, I wanted to know just where I landed on the food chain.
Overview.
Nothing happened.
Menu.
Again, nothing happened. I was beginning to feel a bit of frustration.
Fine, then. Status.
Name: N/A 3:07 AM Race: Undead Sub-race: Skeleton Class: N/A Sub-class: N/A Level: 1
Hp: 20/20
Mp: 5/5
Stamina: N/A
Head: Healthy
Torso: Healthy
Left Arm: Healthy
Right Arm: Healthy
Left Leg: Healthy
Right Leg: Healthy
Buffs:
Debuffs:
I looked over the menu that popped up. It seemed fairly standard, if a little crude. On the bright side, it did have a clock.
What about... Skills?
Skills:
Stealth, Lvl. 1 "The ability to move quietly, and hide when necessary."
Language Translation, Lvl. 1 "The ability to understand spoken words and to be understood wherever you may be."
I was a bit surprised, seeing more than just stealth. Although now I knew for certain that I wasn't anywhere I'd know of. Figuring it would be a mental trigger to close the system messages, I willed them to close, and I was plunged back into darkness.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
After a few minutes of walking I came across an intersection. It was the only place I'd seen that had a torch, as the other three passages faded into more darkness. I just kept walking, ignoring the torch, as I didn't want to stand out, and I didn't have any way to extinguish it without potentially harming myself.
After another seventeen minutes, I heard the sounds of bones walking along the stone, which weren't my own. Moving toward them slowly, I discovered a small group of three other skeletons, wandering in my direction. One of them noticed me, and I immediately felt multiple voices in my head. For a moment, I wondered if I'd acquired schizophrenia.
"Hey, look! Another one of us!"
I looked around, wondering if there was anyone else around, before realizing there had to be some way of communicating between monsters down here.
"He looks a bit weak."
"The more the merrier."
The first one sounded jubilant and enthusiastic, which made me think of an overconfident novice. The second was quiet, and solemn. I didn't know what to make of them. The third seemed to have just given up, from how he sounded.
Seeing me just staring at them, the one in the middle stepped forward, speaking in that same enthusiastic voice. "You're probably new. To use our language, all you have to do is think about it! Pretty easy, right?"
If I could've blinked in annoyance at the tone of his voice, I would have. Helpful, but still annoying. I mentally willed my thoughts to be heard.
Skill acquired! Monster Telepathy Lvl. 1!
"Well, I can speak, at least." I grumbled. All this system nonsense, and monotony was getting to me. I didn't even have any clothes!
"There you go! You can follow us! We're going hunting for adventurers!" The skeleton in the lead bumped his bony fist against his ribcage.
I looked the three of them over. None of them had any sort of weapon, or armor of any kind.
"Like that?" I looked straight at the one in the middle.
"Like what?" He returned my gaze, seeming confused.
"No weapons, no armor, no tactics. You're dead the first adventurer that sees you. At least grab a rock or something to throw at them."
The lead skeleton looked at the two behind him. I decided to think of him as Moron, since he had so much confidence, for one so ill-prepared. "Look, buddy. I've been alive down here for two days already, so I think that means I have just a bit more experience than you. How long have you been alive without a group? An hour?"
I stopped listening when he walked a bit closer, and immediately smashed my fist into his face, surprising him, and causing him to stumble. I then grabbed one of his ribs, pulling him toward my free hand, punching him in the face again before he could react. Finally, I shoved him back, and he fell to the ground, bones clacking against the stone.
"What the hell, man?" He slowly started to get up.
"If I had a hammer, or a sword, or any kind of heavy object, you'd be dead." I looked around the hallway, not taking my eyes off him.
"You know what, screw this! If you're going to just get in the way, you can just die!" He lunged at me, bony hands extended.
Backpedaling, I turned and ran, knowing a weapon was waiting for me, and if I was lucky, there wouldn't be anyone around to see what was about to happen. I heard more footsteps behind me, and thought about the other two, who were either following to watch, or also aggressively giving chase.
Luckily, our speeds were all the same, so they couldn't catch up to me even though they were trying desperately to do so.
Soon, I spotted the familiar glow of the torch. I definitely got lucky, as there weren't any adventurers standing near it. Running past it, I grabbed it with my left hand, tore it from the sconce on the wall, and spun around, cracking the burning end into Moron's face. He hit the wall, his momentum carrying him past me, and onto the ground. Before the other two, which I had dubbed Quiet, and Dead Weight, could get to me, I stomped down on Moron's head, smashing it. It was surprisingly easy to do so, and he stopped moving. Dead Weight stopped in his tracks, while Quiet surged forward, looking just like Moron had a moment ago.
Swinging hard, the torch almost hit Quiet in the head, but he ducked a bit lower than I'd anticipated, and slammed into me, knocking me to the ground, next to Moron's corpse. Still gripping the torch with my left hand, I wrenched Quiet's head back just as he was starting to throw punches at me. I was no professional fighter by any means, and it showed, as Quiet slammed his fist into my face on the second try. Strangely, it didn't hurt all that bad. I jammed the still burning torch into his eye, before grabbing his ribcage, ripping parts of it out with sickening cracks, as the bones were torn away.
Using one of the rib bones, I jammed it up into his mouth, forcing his head back, further and further, until finally, a crunch was heard, and he fell still. In that time, he'd managed to land another three blows on me, and I felt a bit dizzy, but decided to push through it. There was still one more.
Pushing Quiet's body off me, I stood, holding my torch with my left hand, and a rib bone with my right. Dead Weight was still standing there, staring. I couldn't tell if he was afraid or not, considering there was no flesh to move.
"You want to be next?" I took a single step toward him, gripping the torch tighter. He turned and ran, which made me glad, because I wasn't sure if I could actually take someone else on at the moment.
Status.
Name: N/A 3:32 AM Race: Undead Sub-race: Skeleton Class: N/A Sub-class: N/A Level: 1
Hp: 8/20
Mp: 5/5
Stamina: N/A
Head: Injured
Torso: Healthy
Left Arm: Healthy
Right Arm: Healthy
Left Leg: Healthy
Right Leg: Healthy
Buffs Debuffs:
My health was below half, and my head was injured. I had no idea how to heal, and I hadn't even gained any skills or experience from the fight, while all I had done was criticize their battle strategy. Hitting them first was probably a bad idea, though.
On the bright side...
I looked down at their corpses, and mentally smiled. I could get weapons and armor from these two.