It must've started raining, I could feel the droplets hitting the back of my head. My mouth tasted of Iron and dirt, you'd think that laying here faceplanted in a bloody alleyway at some unknown hour would be a little bit more unpleasant, besides the throbbing headache and the rain turning my skin to magma, made me wish I was also a skeleton, I was doing mostly ok, I'd busted my lip pretty badly. Minor injuries as far as I can tell. The only real problem was that I couldn't move.
Oh and for whatever reason these Infocards wouldn't let me dismiss them.
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WARNING!
Mana Exhaustion (Major)!
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Mana Exhaustion (Major)!
Duration Remaining: 2:24:54
Description
You've gone past 0 mana and into the negatives, luckily you haven't gone into fatal levels of negative mana. A toll has been enacted to save you from your stupidity, whatever the cost may be it'll last 3 hours.
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My limbs simply wouldn't work, but I'ma Necromancer, I don't need to move, I have friends for that. My skeleton picked me up and it was gonna just take me inside but then it paused. I had an Idea.
I could mostly cleanse myself of blood with the perfectly good water here, well I probably could, it had started to congeal into grey jelly on my clothes, and they were probably beyond saving, but if this method keeps my floor free of dirt and blood then I was gonna give it a go.
It's been less than a week since my new change in "lifestyle", and I'm already getting naked with skeletons. Some things are just destined, aren't they? A small price to pay.
Being undressed by a skeleton isn't the most pleasant thing that's been done to me, granted I'd had it just off my clothes because I'd decided that they can't be saved. I even got out of it with only a few cuts.
It deposited me on my nice clean hardwood floors. it'd have to stay out there though, too big to fit through the door, and now that I was busy not making supposedly poor choices, I could take in the sight of my creation through the open door.
I thought carving it wouldn't be too hard, it was tough, not as in hard to understand but literally tough.
I'd done a lot of reading on human anatomy so I fully understood what problems my mutations were causing, granted that was 5 years ago, but I still had it all. I thought that might make carving it up easier since it looked somewhat human. For the most part, it did. Its bones were somewhat human, the only real problem was the head.
I started at the arms. There was an elbow where you'd expect it and another halfway between its wrist and first elbow. As such it could bend in all sorts of weird ways. There Was no particular issue I had while carving the arms.
Next were the legs, the legs were truthfully very human. The only problem I'd had with them was the bones in the foot area were not human-shaped, so I'd had to do a little bit of removing layers rather than chunks to see what I was dealing with. But the bone structure was interesting so that made this part even a little fun
Afterward, I got to the torso, this was where it started to get difficult. Its chest had a sort of lattice of bone all around beside where the core was. This made the work here exceptionally difficult, but I did learn something no modern textbook ever spoke of. This thing lacked almost all organs, not even lungs. I guess this is what the mist does for them. Perhaps I now understood why no books ever spoke of this, the only thing anybody needed to know was pulling them out of the mist for longer than a few seconds would kill them. This was fairly useless knowledge, but it was neat.
Something I'd realized during all this carving was that the tissue was all the same, I guess the mist entirely animated them since no muscle meant they couldn't move, so such things as a nervous system or a heart would be useless. It certainly explained the unnatural speed at which they die when removed from the mist, it would literally be cutting the puppet's strings.
The neck possessed a double-laired theoretical lattice. This made carving it take an unholy amount of effort. oddly there was a little gap between both sides of the spine that was kind of my only way in, I just removed the spine for a bit and put it back when I was done. Thankfully it turned out that all the bones needed only be close because I was worried that since the spine was no longer connected I wouldn't be able to animate it.
The head was weird, after the neck was clear it was the last place to carve. the spine ran up towards its head where it stopped in the middle, from here a strip of bone ran further towards its slate-like face, and another 2 to the left and right. More strips of bone ran from the side strips back towards the spine. The front strip was easily the most interesting part of this thing. It was the same shape as the other but once more was a theoretical lattice, this time though it was made up of tons of tiny temporomandibular joints.
In a sense, the entire front slate part of it was just one giant mouth, if I grabbed the mandible and maxilla and pulled them forward the joints would slowly start to reach their limit at the back, and all would pass about 6 inches, this was probably why the jaw was in the central position on the face. And if I closed that perpetual sharp-toothed grin the joints that connected the mandible and the maxilla would have another joint driven into it and also lock up. If this thing bit you its mouth would of course close down and therefore lock up, and it wouldn't be able to unlock itself until it could smile again, which meant it would have to make it through whatever material it was biting, aka, this thing simply couldn't let go unless it got through, or it until it broke the joints in it's mouth.
At the top and bottom half of the slate Is where I found the one organ it still had, an eye in each respective place, rather large compared to a human and ovular in shape. But like I'd already mentioned it was all covered up, but there was still an orbital cavity. Which now burned with ghostly green fire rather than useless eyes.
In a way, this thing was nearly entirely unchanged, its flesh provided a moderate amount of protection that it now lacked, but it was practically already an animated construct. I guess it couldn't bleed anymore and it was a little easier to kill, kind of, it's bones from a very high lv creature, it's incredibly tough compared to most things. Maybe the eyes did serve a purpose and I was just missing it, the blood definitely did.
Your blood carries your mana, and since the magic animates this thing, it's the only requirement in its physiology as far as I can tell.
What was I gonna do with it, I can't just leave it there, seems like a great way to jumpscare an innocent passerby. I'm gonna have to plan better in the future, wait, what if I just, don't hide it? The only people who are aware of my new status are Eliza and probably the other awakened by now. I guess my lovely friend at the Green Wood office and the mayor as well.
Also, this thing is really big, even with all its flesh gone it's only dropped like 3 inches. So it should be able to carry me with theoretical comfort if it puts its hands together. It's still made of bone so it'll probably be incredibly uncomfortable, hence, theoretical. However, it will easily walk twice as fast as me, maybe more, after all, it's not cursed with a perpetual limp.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
How's that for a speed upgrade? the only problem is that Olga will be pissed. She's a real tough woman, but I guess everyone is nowadays, I mean extra tough. She won't want to have to hire a new accountant since she has the lovely perk of skimming off almost all my pay for the room, the lovely room, with functioning electricity, and there's no way she won't find out.
That's the only thing I could lose worth any true value. But at some point I'll have to tell her, cause it pretty much stops me from being able to leave to go to other inhabited areas with higher lv dungeons I'll need to delve. Assuming the Mayor even lets his Awakened leave at all.
I guess I'll do that in the morning, no point running from this problem.
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You've been awarded the title Idiot!
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This message popped up as soon as my Mana exhaustion timer was up.
"Hey maybe nearly dying in a dark alley isn't so bad after all." I spoke to no one in particular with a smirk, then opened my info card and used Inform on my Titles section.
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Name: Admatha Sullivan Marwood
Titles: Iron Will, Idiot
Race: Homo Sapiens (Mutation x2)
Overall condition: Endangered (fading)
lv 1, 0/100
Subclasses,
Locked (lv 15)
Locked (lv 25)
Locked (lv 35)
Main Class: Necromancer
Affinity: The Ancient
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stats
Body: 2.17, 2.17/30 x0%
Toughness: 6.03, 4.82/10 x20% (Mutation x2)
Endurance: 3.02, 3.02/10 x0%
Fortitude: 4, 4/10 x0%
Mind: 5, 5/10 x0%
Will: 8.57, 8.57/10 x0%
Tolerance: 2.1, 5.17/10 -60% (Mutation x2)
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Iron Will: You awoke with a base will higher than 8, you're 35% more resistant to mind-altering magics and have an easier time seeing through illusions.
Idiot: At the wonderful lv of 1 you inflicted yourself with an almost deadly level of Mana Exhaustion, as a result, you can no longer suffer death from Mana Exhaustion. Consider it a failsafe for your own ineptitude, Idiot.
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Yeah, I probably deserved that, Either way, it was now 2:18 a.m. And I, was, done.
Finally able to move again I climbed into bed, dry from the hours sitting on the floor, still in the nude, I went to sleep nearly instantly.
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When I woke up well into the day, after I spent the mandatory 5 minutes attempting to convince myself to get out of bed I put on some clean clothes and went to take a shower. Only a day away from Friday as well, a real shame.
I still kinda felt like a corpse, but the first thing I did was go talk to Olga.
I walked in through the backdoor and then through the door that connected my room to the rest of the orphanage.
Now if you went down the left hall you'd reach a room that connected to pretty much the entire Orphanage, a common room. to the right was Olga's room, she definitely wasn't there.
Breakfast was an hour ago so she'd probably be in the common room. From the commons, you could take a left to the bedrooms, forward you'd find the front office and the supply room, filled with pretty much everything, and to the right, the cafeteria and cold storage.
A few souls milled about, Dominic, Lily, Eliza, and that one gave me pause. I'd never thought about the other Eliza before, she just wasn't a woman I gave any thought to, but now I did, and now realized I apparently knew 2 of them.
Either way, Olga was in fact here, engaged in what was very clearly another checkers game with Dominic, and he was very clearly losing by a landslide. So I sat down nearby and waited.
There was a coffee table just ahead of me and beyond was another couch, easily my favorite place, mostly because you could lie down on either couch. Many things littered the room. In the right corner was a pair of full bookshelves and a bunch of pillows strewn about, supposedly there used to be these things called beanbag chairs that would've suited far better but the material needed to maintain them was incredibly hard to get nowadays, most clothing was made from linen and cloth now.
In the left corner was toy storage accompanied by a play area, they went mostly unused cause most of them were quite old and didn't interest them anymore. And here I am in the bottom right with a bunch of seating, a relaxation area if you would.
and in the bottom left was the most used area, tables with stools for board games, and their storage. Few survived the descent so people made new ones.
Either way, once more Dominic was bested and he headed over toward the reading corner. So I called out.
"Hey Olga! Care to come over here?"
She was 53 years old, she'd been through it all, one of the few examples of a person who lived life before and after.
She sat across me with her cold gaze
"Well?"
"Um, so, there's this thing that happened, and it's kind of important."
She heaved a heavy sigh.
"Did something else break!"
Her voice was a scratchy and harsh southern accent, and she exclaimed once more.
"By the grace of the 3 who did it this time!"
"No no nothing broke, it's more, a personal thing, so, what if I showed you?"
She calmed down significantly. You'd think for someone standing at 5'6 she wouldn't be that intimidating, but her voice and gaze reflected all she'd seen. No sweet loveable grandmaw was here like the stories speak of, she was a grizzled survivor.
"I think it's way easier if I just showed you."
I brought her to my room and paused in front of the backdoor.
"Ok so, so I need you to not be alarmed, don't panic."
I opened the backdoor and walked out facing her.
"You see, I've, recently had a little bit of a change in lifestyle, and you might need a new accountant:"
And I emphasized my point by bringing my friend to stand behind me.
Her eyes widened, and then, she smiled and let out a sultry whistle.
"Well, hey there big fella, lookin mighty fine today." She said with a chuckle
"quick question, uh, do I get to keep the room?"
She crossed her arms.
"You rolled the dice boy, 'cause that's no common. One condition, you're not gonna need everything you get, I'll take any good tools you don't need, and I expect at least 1 Uncommon every 6 months, or you can kiss your sorry behind goodbye."
"Deal."
And then we shook hands.
"Im'a go collect your books, oh and good luck."
Then she turned around headed back in and with one last chuckle closed the door.
Huh, I guess the businesswoman in her isn't always so bad. Although that new accountant, oh that poor person was gonna get put through the wringer, I wonder if she'll have Lily do it, she's always been good with numbers, but she's also got zero common sense.
So I walked out of the alley, a new friend in tow, and headed towards Isiah's. After all, I made a promise. Seemed as good a way to prepare for the upcoming raid as any.