Notes from the Author:
Hello, this is ZeroProxy. I would like to thank all of those who are reading Insert Coin to Continue. I would like to say, the first 5-6 chapters will come out quick as I already have them done and I'm just adding light modifications to them before I submit them. After that my posts will considerably drop as I can not write a chapter a day. I do hope for constructive criticism as this is my first submitted story ever, and I would love to level up my writing skill to at least level 10.
Thank you once again, and I hope you have as much fun reading this story as I had writing it!
----------------------------------------
Feeling exhausted I sat there, my bones resting against a pile of bones that littered the ground, breathing out a sigh of relief. My first battle, though one sided had gone well. I knew what I had to focus on now, as I stared at the tendrils of mana weaving together like fibers. Trying to feel how they were created, doing my damnedest to recreate the feeling of when I attached the hand. Blue streams of light merged out of my body like weaving snakes creating complex patterns reinforcing the threads already there.
Ding!Mana Reinforcement (Level 1) skill gained!
“Explain this skill tutorial.” Another blue message popped up in my sight replacing the last one.
Mana ReinforcementThe ability to reinforce the structural integrity of your body, decreases the chance of the body breaking. Increased level, and mana spent increases durability.
“How much mana and health do I have?”
“Would you like to show health and mana in your sight? Be warned too many options listed in sight will hinder your vision.” Tutorial warned.
“Yes, I don’t have anything else up there at the moment anyway.” Soon two bars appeared in my vision.
Health: 5/5Mana: 100/100
Blinking at the reading my body shook a little, having five health seemed a bit suicidal to me. Gripping down on another rock, I slowly gathered mana in my hands the blue tendrils bending and twisting to my will as I fashioned it to a long straight bone.
A few more blue boxes came up, but I pushed them to the side for later, leveling held a higher priority than anything at the moment. “I have to get out of this danger zone, I feel like a mouse could probably kill me right now.” Finishing my small makeshift weapon I wrap the tendrils around the arm holding the weapon, attaching my hand to the weapon itself as well.
Tossing rocks to the two skeletons behind me, they grip them confused for a moment, “If you’re going to be with me, I can’t be the only one getting us stronger. Life comes at the price of death…” I stopped myself, maybe talking about life to a group of skeletons wasn’t the most effective.
Contrary to my beliefs though, they seemed to be pumped up, one of them even gathering up some dirt to create a dirty face mask that could be confused for war paint. The other went a bit far when it went to beat its chest though, a rib falling to the ground.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Fine then, if we’re set, then let up turn this boneyard into a graveyard.” The two skeletons took distance from me immediately, once again looking ashamed.
----------------------------------------
Two hours passed since we set out, my body covered in dirt and bits of bone was laced throughout it. I learned who not to offend in the boneyard, it seemed that the groups of Skeletons, like my own were the stronger ones, and slightly more intelligent. We only managed to scrape by against the first group we ran into due to the fact we had weapons, with little to no harm. Though it did take ten or so minutes to reattach one of the skeleton’s heads. We continued on until we all three got level up announcements before we took a break.
The skeletons of the boneyard seemed to actually be of three types humanoid, insectoid, and frankensteins. The frankensteins were the hardest to deal with, and from what I could gather were the oldest of the skeletons, switching out various pieces from their core bodies for something better. The insectoids had really high defenses, their bodies just one large shell that houses a core in the center. The humanoids were the most numerous though, and the weakest, their cores fully exposed to the world.
Flexing out the new arm, it was mismatched from the other as it had a layer of crystal along it which reinforced the arm further than my tendrils could. It didn't feel right having only one strong arm so I had taken both of his arms, I was just waiting for my other to break. Not being a masochist I couldn’t bring myself to actually snap off my own arm. Regeneration seemed to level up as I attached them as well so having backups, and pushing them to their brink seemed like a viable strategy. In front of me lay a pile of bones that were better according to my bone collecting, and I planned on switching out various bones that my bone collecting told me were better than my own. Included in my collection was a bone chest plate that obviously wasn't from a human skeleton to experiment.
Lifting up the chest piece I tried adding it to my ribcage, and a window popped up.
Level 3 Bone Chest Armor equip to ribcage? Yes/No
Quickly pressing yes, I saw a timer appear as a blue light wrapped the chest piece, it seemed like the bone armor would take some time to place on my body. This did make me question if I had to break off my arms, legs, and everything else, just to replace my body parts. The timer counted down from five minutes as I sat there thinking about the day. Skeletons seemed rather weak as a race, but their customization could lead to them being stronger than most, a rather good late game race. Though the race as a whole was too stupid to implement this, so it balanced itself out.
I looked to the two skeletons, they seemed to be going over the leftover bones, and trying them on. “Tutorial, can I increase their intelligence?”
“You are in a world of magic now Mr. Skeleton, once you kill something part of its magical essence leaks out strengthening the killer. Everything is enhanced eventually, even the weakest of stats. In short, yes.” I smiled at the explanation, throwing one of them a rather long stick that I had found, walking to the other to hand him a smooth stone hammer like mine.
They both looked at me, then saluted, a voice whispering, “negotiation leveled up.”
“How the fuck was that a negotiation?!” I asked frustrated.