Author (God)
Apparently I missed one last chapter on my google docs, it was half way done so I tried my best to finish it before the day ended. Hope you all enjoy! If you have any questions, or suggestions for the chapters in the future feel free to drop me a message! If not me, then I'll have tutorial answer your questions.
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We traveled for a day past the boneyard, which ended abruptly into a dense forest area, with a sea of green lush trees in front of us we entered. Listening to the two of them talk behind me as we weaved through the forest, I noticed that there was various woodland creatures were the same, as in my world. Squirrels slipped in and out of view, deer prancing around without any worry, sort of ignoring us. Maybe it was due to the fact that we didn’t eat flesh, but I assumed we could still drain the mana from their bodies, though it didn’t look like a very filling meal. After a while I paused, cutting down a deer just to be sure, watching my XP which barely ticked up at all.
Grabbing the meat, bones, and fur, I tried my best to tan them from memory but it seemed like I ruined most of the material handing one of the skeletons a partial shirt to cover the collar, and shoulder bones so less of him was exposed. From their talk between each other while I did this, both of them were calling me a skeleton lord. After they make a bunch of assumptions on my tastes on other skeletons, I yelled at them to keep quiet, they both seemed generally shocked that I could now understand them.
It didn’t take long to see the light at the end of the tunnel, or in this case at the end of the forest, it was nearing the end of the first day when I saw something in the distance moving, using the forest’s edge as a guide we came into sight of them quickly. It seemed to be a small grouping of people around two sturdy horses, making their way along a dirt road. Needing directions, I quickened my pace moving outside of the cover of the forest to greet them, closer I could tell that the two horses were covered in supplies without a saddle so it seemed like a guarded small caravan. It made me hopeful that a city may be near, due to the limited supplies that they had, shouting out I hung my hopes on their hospitality, “Hello, I seem to be lost, where is the nearest town?”
One of the men from the back came forward, yelling out to me, “It is just to the North, we’re on our way to the town if you’d like to join us. We could use three more hands to guard our stuff.”
I looked over the group with a keen eye, it seemed like everyone had swords, I felt severely under equipped compared to them. Strapping my shield to my arm, and hooking my stone hammer to my side I walked forward, but soon stopped around twenty feet away at the sound of a sword being drawn. My first thought was that I had been tricked, I pulled my hammer, swinging my shield in front of myself moving back quickly.
“Dave… I’ve never heard of a talking skeleton.” The man’s sword was drawn to the side, as he looked at the man named Dave. It was then that I took count of the people, there was six of them, all of them seemed to be some sort of mercenary as on their breasts held a silver dagger. Looking to my left, I motioned the two skeletons to back up as I took a few steps back drawing more distance between myself and them.
“If they come at us, both of you run.” Weaving tendrils into the shield, I made my grip on the shield tighter, more secure. Twisting my tendrils upon the shield I poured mana into the shield making it harder to break.
“We’re here to help you lord, we wish to be useful as your subjects.” I clicked my tongue in annoyance as I shook my head.
“You’ll be in the way if you stay here, you should know I’m stronger than both of you combined.” The two in front of me couldn’t understand what we were saying as it sounded like a bunch of clicks to mortal ears. My skeleton allies quickly turned and booked it, leaving me alone with the group of six like planned.
“Two of them are getting away, quickly catch up to them, skeletons are slow and frail once you hit them just avoid their attacks.” One of the smaller of the group rushed forward stepping slightly out of my range to get by me. With a quick twist of my body the hammer lands against the man’s neck letting out a snapping sound as his body goes limp, looks of shock covering the other mercenaries’ eyes. Using their shock I fling my hammer, a loud wet crack could be heard from the man’s leg, cursing that I missed, my aim was his head but a hammer is hard to throw.
The mercenaries came to their senses, rushing forwards, bringing down their swords quickly, forcing me to dodge as my shield went up clashing against one of the blades to parry it away. “Are you sure that it’s a skeleton?” Backing up one of the mercenaries looked to Dave dumbfounded. Using the opportunity I backed away a bit, another swing coming in from my side, not having enough time to move my shield in the way my arm was used as a sacrifice nearly coming off from one clean swing. Now lacking any way to fight back, my shield moved forward with force mana exploding out behind me cracking the ground as I push, before a snap was heard behind me. Crashing down the shield’s edge against the other man’s leg making an indent in it as I moved away starting to run, one last sword strike coming in make a crunching sound against my jaw as teeth fell out of the helm that I had on.
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They followed behind, now down to two actively approaching people I quickly made my way into the forest trying to lose them, the sky started to pale quickly as we went deeper in before they stopped. The sun was setting in the sky, and they knew that they’d be at a disadvantage against the monsters of the forest if they stayed longer.
Gauntlet is lying to my side, tied together with a small amount of mana weaving that was my replacement for muscles, my helm was dented in, destroying my jaw and leaving me unable to talk. My other arm held a shield, gripping it tightly though my arm was twisted in a weird way that if I was human I doubt my arm would be any use. My shoulderblades were both cracked from the force that my shield went through, apparently they weren’t as durable as the shield itself. The sun had set, and that was the only thing that had saved me as I sucked from the mana in the air, revitalizing my body, the twisting tendrils reinforcing themselves as I lay there.
Tipping my bag to its side, I pulled out a replacement for my arms, and shoulder blades, as well as another skull, the latter of the three would be rather awkward to replace but if I wanted to be able to talk again I’d need to get rid of my broken face. Pulling at the bones with my mana, I slowly replaced them in the darkness, my back pressed against a large tree. “Ha, I guess I don’t look that much like a human after all.” After replacing the bones, I gripped down on a smooth stone breaking up some of the bones I had collected, after I placed them on a rough flat stone pressing down with the smooth one to grind it up into a powder. Taking the bone dust, I add some refined mana into it still grinding the powder turning it into a bluish paste that radiated mana. It was an idea that I had while running to heal my broken bones next time.
“How did they find out that I was a skeleton?” I mummered to myself as I heard a ding, two blue boxes coming up confirming my accomplishments.
Ding!Magic Crafting (Level 1) skill gained!
Ding!Magic Bone Paste created!
Disregarding the two messages, I started to use the paste on the bone armor under my chain armor that provided little to no protection against their swords. It seemed like the bone armor was what had saved my ribcage from being forcefully broken apart instead.
“Your necrotic aura isn’t being hidden, they knew you were some sort of undead, and made a guess from your skinny body that it was probably a skeleton.” Tutorial spoke up as I pasted together the cracks.
“Any ideas on how to prevent my aura from spreading out?” Thinking a bit I grabbed one of the short swords from my inventory, placing it down and adding the bone paste to the outside of it before using a stone to sharpen the edges as best I could.
Ding!Short Sword (Rusty) modified into Magic Bone Sword (Dull) +5 durability, +10 damage.
As I looked over the sword satisfied with the results, Tutorial spoke again, “I am not here to help you think of solutions to your problems, just explain things that you should know about the world should you have lived here.”
“Fine then, can you explain to me what the star is next to my race?”
“That indicates you are a unique monster, someone with more strength, and intellect than the average of that race. Usually the mana cores inside of them sell for a lot more, though it can be dangerous to leave some cores in tact, like a skeleton’s for example.”
Nodding at her words, I pressed on, “Can one evolve further into something else?”
“Races are usually static unless one absorbs enough mana cores from other creatures, then a unique being can be created. Something along the lines of what you called a Frankenstein is made after enough skeletal cores are consumed. Usually there is a rejection of bones from other species, it seems like your system bypasses that calling it equipment rather than a piece of yourself.”
Ding!Shield (Rusty) modified into Magic Bone Shield +5 durability, +10 damage.
I stop grinding the bones as I didn’t have very many left, and I needed them for replacement parts, I had three small bags full of the paste and two items now covered in it. Feeling like a full blown necromancer, minus the raising dead part, I headed out to find my two companions so I’d fit the role of a necromancer.
Title Unlocked:Wannabe Necromancer