The sun's rays shined through the small openings of the covered blinds in my disheveled room. It was quite a while since I last cleaned it, not like I own many things anyway.
My room littered with clothes had a humble half-open wooden closet facing my trusty bed, beside it my most prized possession: my gaming computer which I sat in front for most of my life, helping me escape reality countless times as my sanity left me with every passing hour.
Now that I think about it.. when was the last time I talked to anyone? Days.. Weeks.. Months? Not like it matters much when I have nobody who would talk to me anyway, I never made many friends during my school or college days. None that would keep in contact with me for longer than a week.
I suppose this is a fitting end for a nobody such as me, I only wish I could go out with a bang from this boring world, It doesn't matter anymore though.
I remembered when I was a little kid, a time when my bright imagination and daydreaming could keep me occupied for hours on end as I thought of wondrous landscapes, mythical creatures and last but not least, powerful magic. It was only after I reached the start of my teenage years that I realized my dreams would never be accomplished but merely forgotten under the tide of responsibilities and studying only to end up in a pathetic corporate position, destined to pay taxes to the filthy government that limits our freedom in this miserable cycle of menial tasks until the day you take your last breath.
Complete madness, the definition of insanity.
I open the small container of sleeping pills held in my hand, pouring all of the pills into my mouth with a determined gaze as I approached my bed.
At least when all of this is over, I won't have to deal with this cycle anymore. I laid down on the bed, closing my eyes waiting for the pills to kick in until I finally fell asleep, seeing only the dark abyss of unconsciousness.
...
----------------------------------------
[Human Alder White has perished.]
[Calculating total karma..] [Calculation complete.]
[Commencing standard reincarnation process..]
I stared into nothing as I felt myself float through an endless void of black that unnerved me to my core. Is this what death feels like? Being left with only my own thoughts to fester in this unending darkness.
After an indeterminant amount of time spent in this void, a blue box appeared in the corner of my vision, evening itself out as I focused on it.
[Updating status.. please wait.]
What..? I'm not dreaming, am I? I could have sworn I already died after spending such a long time staring into nothing but the colorless void around me. Speaking of which, how much time has really passed? I don't remember counting beyond 40 minutes.
[Status update complete.]
[Would you like to open your Status?]
[Y/N]
I guess this is my brain's way of having fun one last time due to all the RPG's I've played. How I wish I could've played one more game. No use thinking about it now. Let's open the status.
[Alder White]
{Reincarnated One}
[LV: 001] Race: Skeleton
Class: N/A
Body Physique: [G Rank]
Thaumic Resonance: [G Rank] [Perks]
[Undead Physiology] (PASSIVE) – As an undead,
you do not need to eat, drink or sleep to sustain your life. You have an immunity to mental attacks. Automatically dulls strong emotions.
[Reincarnated One] (PASSIVE) – As a soul who has died prematurely, you have been reincarnated with the penalty of becoming an undead. Grants 2x EXP gain. Requirement for [???].
A much bigger blue box appears before my face. Wincing at the sudden brightness, I observe its contents.
What kind of sick joke is this? A damn skeleton? Reincarnated? What kind of sick irony is this? I thought I could spend my last moments having a happy RPG dream, I guess not.
I close the status with my mind and try to raise my head, suddenly bumping it into something hard.
Startled by the lack of pain and moreso of the smooth surface above me, I start frantically feeling around my surroundings with my arms and legs, quickly realizing how cramped the space I'm occupying is. What made things worse was the sound of rattling bones as I moved my limbs around. I slowly started feeling around myself, quickly noticing the lack of flesh and skin around my ribcage, legs, and head. Panic set in as I started violently thrashing around this cramped space.
Am.. Am I in a fucking coffin?! What kind of nightmare is this?! I never should have taken those pills!
A resounding ding noise filled my head as two small blue boxes displayed in front of me.
[Perk: [Undead Physiology] has been triggered.]
[You feel yourself calming down.]
My mind instantly calmed down as the message popped up, drowning out my panicked thoughts.
This.. is very much reality it seems. A normal dream would have already woken me up instead of me down completely.
I shut out any stray thoughts as I pondered my current situation, perhaps I should get out of this coffin before doing anything else. I shouldn't get distracted.
Think.. I remember watching a youtube video a couple months ago about how you can escape from being buried alive. If I remember correctly first you should calm down and conserve your breathing.
Now that I came to the realization that I am literally an undead, I can assume that taking my time won't be an issue as long as I don't bury myself in dirt. Second, you should push the lid of the coffin upwards from one side as your back is touching the sides. Sounds easy enough, here we go.
I shuffled myself to one side and started pushing the coffin upwards with all of my strength. Sadly, lacking muscles wouldn't help much in lifting a coffin piled by dirt 6 feet under the ground.
Fortunately, however, it seemed to be working. Soon after I started pushing, the coffin's lid started to move a bit, mounds of dirt started falling from the opening as I did so. The pressure lessened the more dirt fell in the coffin until it was almost completely full of dirt. I lifted my half-submerged in dirt bone head as I pushed the lid off.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
I really lucked out on this one, the dirt seemed to only pile up on the coffin for a couple of feet.
The first thing I saw through the opened coffin was the misty night sky above me, behind it a bright red moon. The moon's light shaded the ground a crimson red, giving the surrounding dark woods a hellish appearance.
Behind the coffin was a large crypt, the letters above it forming some kind of message made out of symbols I hadn't an inkling about. All around me were tombstones standing on the same ash gray dirt that fell inside of my coffin. The messages on them had the same symbols and letters as the crypt, sadly still as indiscernible as ever.
I crawled outside of my coffin, smacking off any dirt that got stuck in the crevices of my ribcage and skull and turn to face the crypt whose tall stone doors were cracked ajar.
Lovely, the last place I'd expect to be 'reincarnated' in is a haunted fucking cemetery as a literal skeleton. At least I wasn't reincarnated as something like a rodent.. or a fork.
Now that I've gotten outside this coffin I can comfortably get a good look over my status. Open Status.
[Alder White]
{Reincarnated One}
[LV: 001] Race: Skeleton
Class: N/A
Body Physique: [G Rank]
Thaumic Resonance: [G Rank] [Perks]
[Undead Physiology] (PASSIVE) – As an undead,
you do not need to eat, drink or sleep to sustain your life. You have an immunity to mental attacks. Automatically dulls strong emotions.
[Reincarnated One] (PASSIVE) – As a soul who has died prematurely, you have been reincarnated with the penalty of becoming an undead. Grants 2x EXP gain. Requirement for [???].
That is quite the amount of information to go through, guess I'll start with the title. Reincarnated One, huh? No shit, sherlock. I still cant quite wrap my head, or well.. skull around this. Why didn't I get reincarnated into something more normal?
Oh well, beggars can't be choosers and I'm sure as hell not going to pass up at a better chance of life especially in a fantasy world, assuming it is one. Next up is..!
..Body Physique. It's my overall fitness I'm assuming..? And Thaumic Resonance probably has something to do with magic.
Their rank though.. G is lower than F.. right? Fuck me...
Well, It's only fair that I get this much at level 1 especially so since I'm just a lowly skeleton. Wait a second, from all of the manga I read in my previous life hasn't there always been a cheat skill given to people who have reincarnated?
Where's my cheat skill?!
I try to sigh, forgetting that I have no lungs to expel air from. I hope being an undead is going to help me rather than hinder me. At least I have double the experience gain.
I will my status box away and take a look at my surroundings, noticing the worrying lack of anyone or anything. I suppose it's only natural a skeleton wakes up in a nightmare-fuel place like this but I still can't get used to it. If it were not for my undead physiology skill I would have probably stayed in my coffin until the end of time.
Enough dawdling around, It's time to explore this place and find out where the hell I've been reincarnated to. Judging by the strange words on these tombstones and that crypt over there I'm going to assume that I'm not on Earth anymore and that I haven't raised from the dead instead of reincarnating.
The first thing I should do is probably not get myself killed considering the place I'm currently residing in is not the friendliest of places. Going inside of this crypt is probably my best course of action, and since I am a skeleton I doubt I would be attacked by my fellow undead brethren. Hopefully.
My steps crunched under the rough grey dirt as I walked over to the stony crypt. Upon closer inspection, every surface of the crypt be it the walls, doors or steps were ridden with strange markings that gave off the feeling of age and decay.
Yup, this place is definitely demonic. I wouldn't be surprised if a necromancer lived here.
I placed my skeletal hands upon the slightly open stone doors, pushing them inwards. The loud grinding of stone against stone echoed through the night, being brought to an abrupt halt as I completely opened the doors.
The inside of the crypt was a dark hallway which seemed to have no end, dust was visible just as much on the ground and walls as it was in the air. I stepped inside cautiously exploring the hallway, leaving clear skeletal footprints on the dust-caked floor.
I walked for what seemed like 10 minutes before stumbling upon a mangled skeleton covered in dirty brown linen scraps on the ground. Its skull was caved in and it was missing its left arm and leg entirely, only holding a rusty old dagger in its right hand.
Well, aren't I lucky? The first thing I encounter in this god-forsaken crypt is a half-eaten corpse which I'm assuming belongs to a long-dead adventurer. At least it's carrying something even if It's a nigh-useless rusty weapon. A weapon's still a weapon after all.
I crouched down and pried the rusty dagger off of the corpse's fingers, raising it to my face to inspect it.
Before another thought formed in my head, the same annoying blue box appeared before me.
[You have acquired the perk [Appraisal]!]
[Appraising item..]
[Item: Rusty Iron Dagger (G Rank)]
That was.. kind of easy don't you think? I didn't expect to gain a skill so soon, especially one like [Appraisal], though considering I got it from literally lookin at things I can safely assume that It's not that rare. Lets check it out.
[[Appraisal] (G Rank) – A skill allowing the user to inspect the properties of living beings and inanimate objects. Current level of this skill is very limited in its effect.]
Fair enough, I wonder what the max rank of everything is. I don't need to worry about that right now though.
As I had no convenient inventory skill I held the dagger in my hand, continuing my trek into this crypt.
Surprisingly, I was met with two crimson doors soon after. The craftsmanship of the doors was exquisite, exhibiting the work of only a master craftsman. I hesitated for a moment before opening the doors.
I hope I don't meet any boss monsters in this place too early, these fancy doors are glowing red flags. I'm sure that I won't get attacked as I am an undead.. right?
I open the doors and I'm faced with a massive room spanning a hundred meters in length and a dozen in height. The interior was filled with dozens of sarcophagi, half-empty, and others closed. The lid of the sarcophagi were carved with skulls and what seemed like demonic pentagrams.
The walls of the room were lined with hundreds of unlit torches and in the back of the room was a large stone throne cracked and withered from the passage of time. Beside the throne was a doorless opening leading to a stairway downwards.
Oh shit, It's literally a mausoleum. Half of the sarcophagi are empty, so I guess I shouldn't be too worried?
I entered the room, walking by a few of the coffins before stopping in the center of it as a thought crossed my mind.
Maybe I can loot whatever these corpses were buried with..?
I approached one of the unopened coffins, but just as I was about to place my hand on it the sarcophagus started shaking along with all of the other ones.
I frantically backed up, readying myself for the worst as I slowly walked back to the doors, facing the sarcophagi. One by one, the lids of the sarcophagi slid off and fell to the ground with a loud thud, breaking into pieces onto the cold stone floor. Six skeletons rose from the open sarcophagi, each missing a limb or two and wielding a different rusted weapon.
Their eye sockets shone red as they stepped out of their sarcophagi, slowly turning their attention towards the intruder that so rudely disturbed their eternal slumber.
The skeletons widely opened their jaws as if to scream and pointed their rusted weapons towards me.
Oh boy.