altho you can change the setting for the loading screen, I just left it black.
logging in...
00:00
And like that the pure blackness fades and gives way for an eerie kind of darkness.
'Kill the light' are my instincts screaming at me the moment the blue loading screen window vanishes.
It is not some kind of voice in my head or anything of the likes. It is just a very basic feeling deep inside me that drives me.
Like how some people fear spiders, when they get too close to them it is almost like there is an invisible wall that hinders them from getting any closer or when you see a huge cleavage between twin mountains in front of you, there is no way to avert your gaze.
It is simply like breathing, you just do it.
To not destroy light would mean to not breath, something that doesn't need a reason nor purpose.
My vision is still black-white with a 360° angle and I can see a lot of wolfs in weird directions.
I must have fallen to the ground when I didn't log back in immediately.
So I get up, surprisingly easy, considering I am a skeleton for the first time.
Since I can't see, I try to feel my body. My left leg, right leg, arms, spinal column, chest bones, sternum, skull.
The way my skeleton is formed resembles a lot my former helf body. Small and thin, even the bones are only about half as thick as normal human bones. That's probably why they broke so often.
Now that I think about it, didn't I repair them at an inhuman speed? Have to test that out later, but first I have to do something about this blurry vision.
I can just barely figure out where the head is located on these wolf-lights, but in a fight I would get confused really fast.
So I should try to improve it, not that I know that this is possible, but it doesn't hurt to try. Only by trial and error can one improve. Altho I'm not so sure about the improve part so far...
Anyway, since the only thing I can see is light and light seems to be life, I guess I just have to concentrate on detecting life signals from these wolf... just that I don't know how to do tho.
If I was a mc in a fantasy novel, I would probably know how to do this... 'sight'
so how about I try to think like a mc...
'give me face, or I exterminate your entire clan including dogs and chicken', nah that wouldn't help.
'let there be light, and there was light' hmm... doesn't work either.
Guess imitating someone else isn't really the way to go. Have to think for my self once in a while, which isn't easy, humans are born copy cats after all.
But how do I do this?
I see light, but that light is not very distinct. I can mostly see general structures, but when it comes to details, there are none.
I try to concentrate as much as I can, but the feeling 'Kill the light' is really annoying. It's like when you really have to pee, but you can't at the moment, because you have to first finish that level.
It is an extremely uneasy feeling and the more I try to hold it back, the more it builds up, the more I have to concentrate to resist the urge to destroy.
But concentrating simultaneously on controlling my desires and on the light doesn’t really work out well, and my vision starts to get even worse. Soon only balls of light are within my field of vision and the more distant ones are growing weaker in intensity.
This really doesn't work at all... but I continue anyway, only that I can't think about the light now and have to fully concentrate on my desire, in order to not go berserk again like last time.
Normally when I try to suppress some kind of urge I think of it as boring and useless.
For example coughing, in most cases, before you caught there is a really strong sense of itching somewhere in your nose or throat.
I take that itchy feeling and think of it as something that isn't interesting. As long as it is still in its initiate state, suppressing a cough is actually really easy.
Really helped when I was ill once and cough every other minute, but when I paid attention to the itchy feeling before, I stopped coughing.
So I just try to think of 'Kill the light' as a boring feeling, something that is so useless it shouldn't even exist in the first place.
However, coughing happens in a really short amount of time and you are normally good for the next minute at least, but with this feeling its completely different. It is constantly tugging at my will, trying to force me to spring into action and destroy light.
Resisting something like this is beyond my willpower. Right now I can still hang on, but the rate it gets worse is fast and in a few more minutes I would have to give into this feeling.
As the minutes pass by the amount of light I can see gets slowly less and less, my vision is reaching a point where I can see almost nothing...
wait, isn't that what I originally wanted, a world without light? Where only darkness reigns supreme? Then if I can make my vision even worse, to the point where I can see nothing, wouldn't I reach the state I tried to achieve?
Heh, this is so much easier than destroying all light, just don't see the light, only see yourself, ignore everything else, but one self.
What is the difference between a world where there is no light and a world where you don't see any?
There is none!
So instead of killing everything I should try to blind it out.
Altho I am currently approaching my limit, with new motivation found I try to make the darkness the supreme ruler of my realm, the realm that only belongs to me, because I am the center of that realm and its only entity.
This is my realm, where I am god!
And as the god of this realm I will all light to vanish.
Even that last wolf that is only a few meters away from me, but only has the appearance of a dim little ball.
Dim, and it gets dimmer by the second, I can see almost nothing, only this last speck of light is remaining.
I will reach fulfillment in a second, even tho my willpower is basically at its limit this one last second shouldn't be a problem.
But just as I think the light should disappear from my vision, it gets closer.
Arghhh! Curse you RNG, why did the wolf have to move the moment he would have left my realm.
Concentrate, the action of destroying light is a useless one, for there will always be light where there is darkness and thus I can't rely on the darkness of the world.
I have to create my own darkness, the darkness created by my will alone is the one and true darkness. Only then will I have fulfilled my wish, my dream of a perfect world!
However, the light before me, it shines dazzling.
Light, is what I see.
It contains a living being, a being I have to destroy.
Life, is what I seek.
The feeling inside me, it crushes my soul and devours my will.
Agony, is what I feel.
I have to kill the light, only by killing it all, will I be released from this curse.
Death, is what I need.
If suppressing nor ignoring work, then the only other option is to accept.
I have to accept, that the feeling of 'Kill the light' is a part of me, it is a natural desire, that doesn't allow room for questions or suspicion.
Only trust can bring me to my goal, I have to trust in me, that the things I desire are what I really want.
And the things that you trust, won't you allow them to control your actions?
Just like how people trust there GPS system when they drive there car in unknown territory.
I will let my desire by my guide, who shows me the rout I have to take, only that I still want to be the driver, for I was never a fan of autonomous cars.
I have to open my eyes to reality, a reality soiled by light. Light that is the target of my mission, for destruction is my tool.
Death, is what I need.
Agony, is what I feel.
Life, is what I seek.
Light, is what I see.
As I open my eyes, I look at the wolf I front of me, a wolf with 4 legs, tail, body and a head with ears, eyes, mouth and a nose. I can even see the hair on his body. This wolf is all that I see.
I from a fist with my right hand and smash at his skull. Having hit a hard bone with bone my hand shatters, but the light gets dimmer.
I still can't see my hand, nor the rest of my body, after all I am undead, something that isn't dead, but isn't alive either.
I take a look around, more wolfs enter my field of vision. There structures are as clear as the sky and I can see all details in an even clearer form it would be possible for my old form as a helf or human.
They belong to my realm, the realm of destruction and annihilation, where I am the supreme ruler, it is only natural that I can see anything within my own realm, like I know the back of my hand.
But first, I wait for my hand to regrow, then dash forward, striking against the nearest wolf.
I am the hunter, they are the prey.
…
Smurf POV:
“hey smef, you sure this is a good idea? I mean last time we got rekt pretty bad”
“hmpf, why should I care what happened last time, I mean last time is already in the past and I couldn't care less for insignificant things like that”
“there goes his logic”
“it always amazes me how he can be so positive”
“besides, this time we aren't alone, altho I would have preferred a smaller group, our fame seem to attract adventurers like light attracts mots”
“i think most of them want to see smef dieing in a funny way”
“we don't even know that skeletons level”
“sure, but I always follow my instincts and they tell me that we got just enough people to do this, as I always say, if there is something you can't do alone, then you do it with two people, if there...”
''''not one of his lengthy explanations again... at least he can't spout other nonsense in these situations''''
...
“...and if 74 aren't enough, then 75 surly are”
“he actually counted to 75... when did he become so good”
Dungeon: hungry wolf, Difficulty: F, spawn rate: slow, spawn groups: 1-3
oh, we are already here, just when I finished counting.
Looks like that skeleton did a lot of work in there.
Dungeons can change there spawn rate when there are a lot of kills.
Its like there is a reserve, when you kill something, then from that reserve a new mob will spawn and the reserve slowly regenerates, but when you kill things too fast, then the reserve empties and the dungeon will get 'cleared'.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
There are different types of dungeon, some can even get 'cleared' for a long time, while in others you can kill as much as you like, but the spawn rate doesn't change.
Anyway, with our big group, or rather raid we should have a decent chance to bring down that irregular mob.
We got a few tanks, few melee dps, a few ranged dps and a lot of supporters. When you have a big group like ours against a small single target, then you can't have too many dps people, you would just stand in each others way and there don't have to be many tanks, but they have to be the best.
We don't have many mages either, this isn't a game where you can just cast huge spells in the middle of a crowd and only enemies get damaged. There is friendly fire, so archers are normally better in this kind of situation.
Most important are priests with heals and buffs. No one would want his tanks to die.
As we advance in the dungeon we can hear fighting from up ahead and we get into formation, tanks in the front, then archers and mages specialized in single target damage, then supporter for the heals and buffs, and the few warrior are mostly for cleaning up wolfs that come too close to our formation when we fight later, we don't know how long it will take after all.
Most people would probably think that 75 people is overkill. Last time we fought with only 5 and we didn't do too bad, but my instincts are telling me, that it wont be that easy this time.
Hehe, there he is.
“is that it? The skeleton smurf was talking about?”
“that thing, it is fighting wolfs and there blood just splatters all over him”
“a lonely warrior dyed red in the blood of his enemies, how romantic”
“oi,oi, this is not the time to be impressed! That thing looks dangerous, I never expected smurfs information to be true, looks like even 75 people will have a hard time against that thing”
“standing alone, only by himself he fought the enemies of his realm until the end, even in death he struggled to defend what was precious to him. Defeating all his foes until he was alone again, for everyone around him was the enemy and the enemy he killed.
The bloody warrior bringing doom to all, the crimson reaper”
“where did we pick up this weirdo?”
Radi POV:
some strange lights enter my range of perception. Humans...
accurately guessing long range distances like this is impossible, similar to having one eye closed, but if I had to guess my max range should be about 200m. If an archer could shoot that far I would be completely helpless...
they increase in number slowly until there are about 50 or more in my range.
Unlike last time where only the general structure was human like, now I can see them fairly detailed inside the endless darkness, slowly approaching my position, while clearing the last few wolfs left between us.
However, I still can't see there armor and weapon. Not that they appear naked to my eye, well in a different sense they are, but its far too indistinct to get distracted.
Altho I am fairly indifferent when it comes to how humans look without clothes, my youthful heart isn't at a level, where I can just ignore worldly affection.
I mean you shouldn't really care about that stuff when you are in a life and death situation to begin with... not that I care about something trifling like life...
But enough of this, they are already getting close.
There are 5 big guys in the front, who shine especially bright, they should be there tanks.
Apparently these 50+ people look like they are well organized.
Is this what a raid looks like when you are on the monster side? Heh, interesting.
I just hope that these players can put up a good fight, now that I have my actions somewhat under control I wont just mindlessly run into the tanks, but even if I say that I can't help but feel drawn to them.
It's like having some delicious dessert right in front of you and something health, witch means it tastes bad, somewhere in the back. You know that you should go for the healthy food, but a human doesn't have sufficient willpower to resist such strong temptation.
Just like how I couldn't reach fulfillment a few hours ago and gave in to my instincts, if I were to fight them now, it wouldn't do me any good, so I have in fact no other choice but to fight the tanks...
I mean seriously there light is shining so bright, it is like they want to invite me to a banquet, not that a primitive life form like light would know what a banquet is...
anyway, it would be rude for the host to ignore his quests, who even went to the length of bringing gifts with them.
How long has it been since I last had a good fight I wonder?
Well, this should be the time where I think up a water proof strategy and declare victory before the game has even begun.
You know something like:
'First I attack the tanks like any normal skeleton would do and make them think I am your average brainless undead.
When they throw a big move at me, probably a joint attack of the mages I evade at the last moment and break out of the tanks encirclement. This will be the most crucial point, since I have to defend against a strong attack without getting immobilized and I have to resist my instincts for a short time, witch will impact my performance greatly.
The problem will be how to detect such a strong attack, since I can only see life and not attacks I will have to keep a close eye on the rangers to detect any unusual movement and predict there attack.
...That doesn't sound like an easy thing to do, I have no experience with any of these things and the chances that I do something right the first time I try are rather low, at least when the difficulty is at such a high level.
So if I fail and cannot avoid the attack I should use the smokescreen that such a big attack surely produces to take out one of the tanks, my biggest advantage will be my stamina, with one less tank there will be more pressure for the two remaining and I can take advantage of that later.
Ah, wait there would be four other... how did I get that wrong?'
Plan one: failure!
'I will use magic to blow them all up at once.
Oh, right I don't have mana... no magic'
Plan two: failure!
That wasn't even a Plan!
I always knew that something like strategic planing that is actually successful is something that happens only in anime.
Witch is an excuse on my side to make it sound like I tried my best to come up with a plan, but am actually to lazy to do so, so I just do whatever I think is best at the moment and I was never wrong with following my intuition.
I was never good at planing ahead, whether it is life or just what I would do the next day. I am a very spontaneous person, someone who has no grand plan in his head and just does whatever feels right at the moment.
And right now the right thing is to kill these lights. It is not that I want to be the bad guy and kill other players, it is because they are players like me that we are destined to fight like this.
In a fantasy world, where the highest form of power is violence there is in fact no other choice, but to fight. To fight for your ambition, your freedom and most importantly, for fun.
Altho dieing at the hands of a player skeleton might not be fun for them, it is there misfortune to meet with me in such a place, after all playing this game means leaving your mothers tits(don't try to imagine, can have negative side effects), where you have to fight on your own without anyone to rely on, that is what it means to be free, the right to forge your own path, that is what man strive for, independence.
Ah, darn I lost myself in thoughts again... I told you that thinking is far from good, it is the evil of this world. And this light in front of me, life, is the foundation of thoughts and has to be eliminated alongside the world as a whole.
'clang'
hehe, thank you kind warrior for interrupting my thoughts and letting this chapter progress towards the more interesting parts, where players fight players, undead the living, a lonely sane man against a group of madman, a hero of justice against evil...
is what a fantasy game would normally be about I guess, but these kind of things are fun.
What I want is not enjoyment, but something interesting.
'bang'
And like a so I take the second hit without being ready.
'oi, you bastards, I wasn't ready yet.' Not that a live and death struggle needs the concept of being ready, but a gentleman should always wait for his opponent to be at this best, otherwise it would be difficult to justify, when one loses anyway.
Unless you look at anime. Waiting for your opponent to recover from injuries helps making the fight longer and reduces the production costs, witch is also the reason goku takes so long to power up, if it wasn't for the pressure of the industry, he could have defeated boo on his own...
ah, wait that's not whats important right now.
'crunch'
ohw, &%$§ now my left arm is already broken...
more importantly, goku would never lose to su...
'scatter'
No! my right leg!
...
Smurf POV:
…
“ oi, smef! care to explain what is going on?”
“well, we won, right? So where is the next bar? Hahahaha” 'ouch'
Skeleton: 'ah, I guess being a skeleton just wasn't interesting enough for the author...'
and thus a new legend was born, the legend of smurf who defeated the evil skeleton all by himself without letting one of his friend die. The tale of a true hero.
Smurf: 'Hehehe, all the loot is mine!'
A/N:
abrupt/anti-climatic ending, banzai! This wont be a story, where every dungeon adventure magically ends in a happy ending you know. Actually, at first I had a big fight in mind, but it just didn't feel right at the moment and I spontaneously decided to go with the flow... (flow? More like laziness :P)
And thus the 4 th wall fell... (watching too much gintama lately where the 4 th wall is almost none existent...), hope it doesn't become a habit.
Edit: if u read next chapter right after this... O.o
that wasn't planned, believe me, plz! (I don't have a plan...)
random:
sry, I couldn't stop laughing when I wrote: 'let there be light, and there was light'
calling the bible a fantasy novel. That made my day. idk why tho, its not even funny actually...