“Status.”
Status
Attributes
Name: Bones
Race: Undead Skeleton lvl 10
Class: Bonemancer lvl 11
Profession: ???
Hp - 230
Mp - 340
Sta - ∞
STR: 14
AGI: 5
END: 5
VIT: 23
INT: 34
WIS: 5
Free points:
I noticed the class requires less experience per level than the race, but the gap is quite apparent.
“Your ID, sir?” The guard at the gate requested.
“Hm? Yes, of course.” Bones dismissed the status screen and handed his ID for inspection.
“Alright, go on in.”
Bones entered the town around midnight. He still had a bit of time before the meeting, so he pulled down the hood over his mask and strolled the empty streets. The meeting was taking place in a small pub in the western district. Bones remembered the pub and its rough location from when he was touring the district, looking for his type of nightly activities the day before. Who could forget the pub with a name like "PUBlo's Delights"? Bones felt like killing the guy for making a terrible pun. Not today, though!
He entered the pub, looked around, and spotted his target sitting at a table at the far end of the pub. He first approached the bar and ordered two drinks. With drinks in his hands, he walked over to the table and sat across from the person he had come to meet.
“Good evening, Norris,” he greeted, handing Norris one of the drinks.
Norris, the scout and the sole male member of the adventuring party Bones entered the town with, looked up, his expression stiffening. After a moment of silence, he gathered his thoughts and replied.
“Evening, Mr. Jones. What happened to my cousin, Thomas?”
Bones shook his head in silence, the message conveyed unmistakably.
“Your actions have consequences, Mr. Jones. You can't just start robbing and killing people expecting no one would take notice,” Norris justified himself.
“Oh, I expected someone would take notice, maybe not as fast, but eventually. What I didn't expect was you, Norris. Adventurer by day, a thug at night? Care to tell me who it was?”
“Spare me the judgment, Jones! What about you? You're not some country bumpkin whose village was raided by bandits, are you? Is Jones even your real name? I can't even Identify anything about you?! Who are you? What. Are. You?" Norris raised his voice.
“Calm down, lad. You're making a scene! - No, I am not from some faraway village, and my real name is - was Jones, Muriel Jones. Now, why don't you tell me who ordered a hit on me? I know you're not the brains of that little operation.”
“Or what? You're going to kill me? Here, in my district?” Norris spat out in derision.
“Yes, Norris. I will,” Bones replied calmly.
Norris didn't sound as amused anymore. He didn't know much about Jones, but if he could’ve killed the three sent after him, he had no chance whatsoever.
“The western district is split into three zones, with each having a boss overseeing a zone,” Norris started. "Alleys belong to my boss Vol, the brothels to Trevak, and the warehouse district to the big boss, Guntar. Vol is a bronze ranker, Jones! He’s the one who gave the orders! He’s the one you'll be dealing with!"
Bones didn’t respond immediately. For a moment, amid the rising tension, a silence permeated the area. “I see. Drink up, Norris.”
Norris looked down, picked up a glass, and downed the shot in one gulp. He knew what was coming.
“Don't tell the girls. We were only in a group together for a month, but I liked adventuring with them and - make it quick, please?”
Bones nodded. “I already did. You won't feel a thing.”
Norris looked at the mask covering Bones' face, at the slits where Bones' eyes should've been, and felt like he was looking into the abyss. Within the abyss, he saw the flickering of fiery blue that sent chills down his spine. He started feeling drowsy, and his body went numb. His head slumped down, and his breathing stopped.
Bones stood up, went over to his side, and leaned his head against the wall, making it look like he was asleep. He then took the empty glass, stored it, and left the pub.
"The poison worked better than I thought it would. Could prove to be useful in combat if I could find a way to administer a lot of it at once. Airborne, maybe?"
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
He heard a distant scream coming from the inside of the pub he just left. The waitress came to check up on Norris and found him dead, not passed out.
For the first time since coming to town, Bones sought out a place to stay. He found an inn close to the central square and rented a room for a week. While he hadn't felt the need for sleep, mental fatigue had built up. He spent the rest of the night in meditation, clearing his mind and reviewing all the skill level-ups he had gained in recent days.
Although his race hadn't leveled much, his class and skills had. Mana Vision, sense, and manipulation had leveled up to thirteen. Bones recognized that his leveling speed might seem absurd to anyone else, but he wasn't a novice mage just learning the basics. He had been using both Mana Sense and Mana Manipulation for well over a hundred years when he was still alive. Mana Vision was a new addition, but being undead made its use constant and effortless.
Bone Spear and Bone Manipulation, frequently used in synergy, had both leveled to twelve. Identify had reached level three, progressing at a slower rate compared to other skills. The Mend spell, used only situationally, stagnated at level six. Overall, he had made significant progress in a short amount of time, surpassing what others would achieve in a month, if not longer.
Early in the morning, Bones left the inn and headed toward the Guild to report the completion of quests and visit the library. He had a book to buy and questions that needed answering.
The guild was as bustling as usual, and Bones patiently waited in a queue at the reception desk. When it was finally his turn, he handed over his ID card. The clerk behind the desk scanned his card against a crystal template, and information about the quests was displayed for the clerk to review.
Observing Bones' body language, the clerk assumed it was his first time seeing the data displayed on the crystal screen. With a friendly smile, the clerk provided Bones with a brief overview of the crystal's functions before handing over the rewards for completing the quests.
Out of the three gold and twenty silver Bones received for the subjugation of the goblin tribe, the goblin chief's head earned him an additional gold coin, and he received ten silver for each goblin killed. Adding the five gold he earned for ten boar tusks, Bones now had enough to purchase the coveted "Monster Compendium."
His next destination was the library, and upon reaching it, he peeked inside, but the old man wasn't at his desk.
“Looking for more books? Perhaps, 'Chronicles of the Skeleton King' might interest you?” The librarian suggested with a mischievous grin, startling Bones out of his wits. He hadn't sensed the old man approaching from behind.
“My good man, are you trying to scare me to death?”
“That's funny! What can I do for you, Mr. Bones?”
“I came for 'The Monster Compendium,'” Bones replied after collecting his thoughts.
“Ah yes, the book. Would that be all?”
“No, how about a coffee? I know a place, my treat!” Bones proposed. He had a feeling the old man wasn't a simple librarian.
“Asking me out so suddenly - Sure, but I can't leave the library unattended. We could have a drink right here,” the old man said, indicating with a nod toward a small secluded area with a set of chairs and a small coffee table next to two large windows.
The two walked over and took a seat at the table. Bones took out two glasses, a bottle, and gave the old man a stare.
“You know what I am?” he asked, getting straight to the point.
“I do, but surprisingly not more than that,” the librarian replied, greatly intrigued by the figure sitting across from him.
“Knowing what I am wasn’t enough? No one noticed anything until now.”
“My dear boy, I'd be ashamed to call myself a former gold ranker if I couldn't do at least that much. You don't realize what an oddity you are, do you?”
Bones frowned. “I'm not following.”
“To block a skill like Identify, you would need a skill, an item, or a soul powerful enough to negate the skill from the one using it. Now, such skills are rare, and items expensive, and you don't look rich enough to have neither, which leaves us the third option. In normal circumstances, I wouldn't find it possible for a low level like yourself to possess such a powerful soul, but I also wouldn't find it possible for an undead skeleton to waltz into the Adventurer's Guild and ask to sign a contract!” The old man explained with a hearty chuckle.
“Alright, alright, so you know about me. What about you? You're a gold ranker?”
“A former gold ranker. As for who I am, you will find out eventually,” he replied elusively.
Bones felt like he drew the short end of a stick in the exchange they had, but there was nothing he could do if the old man didn't want to reveal anything about himself. Instead, he focused on the questions he wanted to ask.
“Alright then, let me ask you another question. I don't feel like myself lately. My actions as of late, which I'd rather not divulge, were disgraceful and impulsive, and would normally give rise to remorse, guilt, and shame - even trouble the mind but - why do I find myself so detached? The lack of my emotions disturbs me at times.”
The librarian listened attentively and, after giving some thought to what Bones shared, replied.
“Hmm - probably because of what you are.”
“Pardon? You mean, an undead skeleton?”
“Correct. Undead skeletons, like most undead creatures, are by nature extremely aggressive toward the living. But now I'm thinking to myself, why would an undead skeleton ask me something as simple as that? Here I thought I'm conversing with a sentient skeleton, but there appears to be more to you than meets the eye!”
The old man had a dangerous gleam in his eyes, and a look of deep thought showed on his face with something Bones felt familiar with—an expression of great interest in something new and a need to explore its secrets! He took a glass and downed it in a gulp.
Eugh
“What is this?” The old man asked with a grimace.
“Hm? A drink, something alcoholic - I don't remember what it's called,” Bones replied, wondering if it's really as bad.
“Have you tried it? Do you normally drink this stuff?”
“Yes. I don't feel anything - mana dissolves most of it away,” he replied matter-of-factly.
The old man looked at Bones in surprise, momentarily lost for words. Then a thought occurred to him. He got up, said he would be right back, and left. A minute later, he returned with two drinks. He handed one to Bones and told him to give it a try while sporting a stupid grin.
Bones eyed the drink, observing a blue-colored liquid swirling in a glass, then took a sip. It was refreshing. He could feel the liquid meshing with the mana within him.
“Is this - a mana potion?”
“Yes! Why the surprise? You've never drunk a mana potion before?”
“No, I never needed one so far.”
“From my experience, mana potions of higher rarity might be the only substitute for an actual drink for an undead like you. And if you keep drinking mana potions when at full mana, it would lead to mana burn, which usually has a negative effect. For an undead like you, mana burn shouldn’t have negative effects, but it should still give you the edge you’re looking for.”
Bones thanked the librarian for the advice but also confirmed his suspicions that the old man wasn't a simple librarian.
“You seem to have a lot of experience with the undead like me?” Bones probed but didn't receive a reply, so he continued. “Now that I think about it - it’s quite strange for a person like you to work as a mere librarian, in the branch office of the Adventurer's Guild no less! It almost seems like you're in hiding. Pretty suspicious if you ask me!”
The old man continued the silent treatment but found Bones' reasoning amusing. He took a sip from his glass and continued grinning.
“You know, I saw something suspicious about a week ago too, not far from here. There was this mage, initiating a ritual of sorts and summoning hundreds of undead skeletons - a whole army of them!”
That sparked a reaction from the old man. “Oh? Sounds very ominous. What happened then?”
“Well, nothing happened. We all went our separate ways. It’s just funny that a week later, here I am drinking with a librarian that knows exactly what I am, and is giving me advice on what to drink. Why, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say there could be a connection between that mage and you.”
"Now I remember! I've received word about a defective minion among the other summons! An undead skeleton that didn't respond to the commands of the necromancer! This is too good to be true! Could that be you?" The old man burst into laughter.
"We will undoubtedly cross paths again, Mr. Bones. Allow me to offer a piece of advice. Avoid lingering too much around the Guild. The guild leader, like me, is a gold ranker and might detect you if you cross paths. On the other hand, Westbrook and its training grounds are excellent for grinding experience and skill levels. However, I'd recommend moving out of town within a week or two if I were you."
Bones stayed in the library for some time after the talk with the librarian, finishing his drink. He had to admit, the mana burn hit the spot just right! The librarian left and didn't plan to come back anytime soon. On his way out, he told Bones if he was to ever visit the capital, he should visit an inn called “Horned Dog''. Apparently, there’s a private club, and he’s been invited to join.