My Body and Me – Level 4

Skills Gained:

[[Passive - Intuitive Understanding]]

[[Cannibalistic Regeneration]]

[[Command Body - Stay/Follow]]

[[Toggle - From Death to Undeath]]

I don’t know how long I stood there. No matter how much time passed, I couldn’t process the idea that I murdered a man. I had never killed before…well unless you count the various bounties. But those were just bad guys, right? Yet here I was, staring down at a mangled corpse while my body feasted. Those lifeless eyes still locked with mine, a look of shock and betrayal even in death. A whirlwind of conflicting emotions raged within me, I just wanted to punch something. How could he have been so stupid? Why did my party have to lie to the adventurer's guild?

The guild! Oh no, the guild. If this scout didn’t return, a search party would be sent. That would be very bad. One measly scout was troubling, but having to take on a whole party as a lowly zombie…that was impossible. There had to be a way out of this predicament. I had to find a way out of the cave even if it meant possible death.

“One step at a time,” I whispered to myself.

Taking a deep breath, I calmed the storm of thoughts and followed the adventurer's handbook. Since leveling up, the most important step was accessing the new skills.

[[Passive - Intuitive Understanding]]

I focused on the connection between my body and me. Slowly, a warm sense of satisfaction helped calm my nerves. I guess a full zombie was a happy zombie. Testing the limits, I walked towards the cave's entrance. While the sensation diminished, I still felt a tinge of delight. Focusing on my own emotions, I pushed the feelings through the connection and watched my body react. For a brief moment he paused and glanced up. We connected and a mutual understanding was shared. I wasn’t sure how effective it would be, but it was a start to some teamwork.

As I processed my thoughts, I quickly discovered what [[Cannibalistic Regeneration]] did. Well, based on the name alone, it was pretty obvious. While my body consumed the corpse, the various wounds healed. Bones re-knitted, skin regained its lively color, and muscles regenerated to full strength. It was a grotesque transformation, and I'm glad I couldn’t feel it. Seeing bones, muscles, and more undulate and throb was a bit off-putting, yet after a few minutes, it was like I was just killed!

“Okay, next thing.”

[[Command - Follow]]

My body glanced up. A string of red sinew snapped back and smashed into its face. The limbs wobbled as it tried to resist, and I felt a strong sense of agitation through our bond. But a skill was a skill. Even with the deep hatred from the meal interruption it slowly stood up.

“Just work with me for a second,” I muttered and pushed on our bond

The anger subsided slightly, but it still wasn’t happy with the outcome. As it followed, I could feel it combating the skill. The taste of fresh meat was too much of a distraction. As the seconds passed, a sense of raw hunger slowly seeped through the bond. The pull of lifeblood eroding my control. At one point I had to stop moving and focus entirely on controlling my body, then the command shattered. A sense of pride and relief flooded my mind as the zombie turned and stumbled back to the chamber.

[[Command - Follow]]

Nothing happened…

“Ok. So, commands have some unknown recovery period.” I spoke aloud to lock it into memory.

I would need to do more testing later. If I broke it early or if the zombie agreed with my command would the cooldown shorten? Still, it was a good skill as it gave me some control in this relationship. But what was this last skill? How did it work? I sat down trying to recall other toggle skills I had heard about.

Things like [[Barkskin]], [[Mana Zone]], [[My Faith Shields Me]], and others landed in this category. They were a bit rarer than the normal and have a wide variety of effects. Not to mention they tended to grow alongside levels. Either their energy pool deepend or the effects intensified. Yet, even searching my deepest thoughts, nothing seemed to match this name. .

“Well might as well give it a shot”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

[[Toggle on - From Death to Undeath]]

A surge of power flooded my very essence. My ethereal limbs solidify into a more physical form. So this was a buff type skill, that was good. I’ve seen toggles as zones, curses, or more avantgarde abilities. Wanting to test the effects, I bent down and grabbed a pebble. Unlike before, the rock didn’t slowly drift through my palm. Turning to the side, I threw it across the cave and heard a slight ping as it bounced against the wall. That was surprising, previously I might be lucky to get 2-3 feet, but this time it went a solid 8! It still wasn’t that impressive, but it was progress. As my excitement faded, I tapped into the well of power and noticed it drained slightly.

So any action will use up the energy. For the next test I just kept it on. I wasn’t sure how many hours had passed, but upon checking I noticed some loss of power. Thankfully, it wasn’t too much and I could probably keep this on for a few days as long as I didn’t exert myself. Heading back towards the piles of bodies, I bent down and tried to lift a corpse. Unlike the pebble, my hands went straight through the flesh.

“Damn”

I guess it wouldn’t be that easy. Well these do grow with levels…it would be a bit overpowered if I instantly had super ghost strength. Actually, how was I lifting the pebble anyway? It wasn’t like I had any muscles or physical shape to hold it…was I missing something. Naw that is stupid, it’s just basic physics. Well maybe not living physics but spooky ghost physics. Actually, was I the first ghost? I have heard about skeletons, zombies, ghouls, liches…but no ghosts. It was generally known that necromancy and deathmagic didn’t return the soul. Only those of supreme power could even reanimate as a lich. Sure there were stories of spirits and psychopomps but they were pure fiction right? Just some spooky stories to scare the kids at night.

Wait, maybe those stories had some truth in it. I mean, I’m a ghost now. Ok so maybe there were a few ghosts in existence. It just had to be super rare. If I ever figure out how to fix this I’ll write a book or something. Maybe retire off the funds and live a normal life.

A sense of agitation interrupted my ramblings. I guess I was leaking a bit too much into the bond. Shaking my head, I focused on the task at hand—Getting out of the cave.

“Hmmm, it couldn’t hurt.” I slowly walked to the mouth of the cavern.

I stood at the exit and waited until the sun set. If I was going to test out the limitations of this new ability, I didn’t want to burn out if I was wrong. Slowly the woods quieted and the stars above flickered to life. It was time.

I carefully made my way to the edge of the death zone. That blackened ring slowly shrinking as the magics dissipated. My heart was racing as I stood on the edge, my toes just touching the last bits of grass. What if this didn’t work? Would I be trapped here forever. I mean there had to be a way to get out before the rescue party came. There was no doubt they would burn all the bodies after seeing the half eaten corpse of the scout.

“Focus, Focus” I pushed away the doubts and [[Toggle on - From Death to Undeath]]. A euphoric feeling overcame me once more. Taking a deep breath, I steadied the nerves.

“Here we go…”

One step over and…nothing. There was no pain, no loss of limbs, no feeling of doom, just…nothing. Well not entirely nothing, I could feel a very minor draining effect from the skill but overall I was fine. No burns, no intense pain, no fear of a second death. Wait–it worked. IT ACTUALLY WORKED! I was free, I could get out. This was huge, I didn’t have to live in that dinky cave anymore.

“FUCK YES!” I leaped in excitement and ran forward. I was free.

SNAP

I fell onto my ass, that tether of undeath preventing me from moving any further.

“DAMMIT,” I screamed out and pounded the forest floor.

Slowly getting up, I went back towards the cave. As I passed the entrance I glanced back. I could make this back, I was free. It didn’t take long to reach the center, I had navigated the cavern so much I could just walk through the various walls. Passing through the final barrier, I surveyed the corpse covered floor. The snapping of sinew, the cracking of bone, and the tearing of flesh echoed in the chamber. Walking past the half-rotten flesh, I approached my body and inspected the half-elf. Entrails were strong out along the ground and the bulk of the abdomen was gone. I didn’t even think the zombie-me could fit that much inside it.

“Wait” I toggled off the skill.

Instantly, a feeling of fullness pressed on our bond.

“Oh that’s how this works” I mumbled

The pool of energy was refilled from the life essence of another. A skill that transformed death into undeath. One source of energy into another. I know I should have figured it out by the name but I was a thief not a fucking wizard in a staircase. But knowing how it worked, I would need to test this a bit more before truly leaving.

[[Command - Follow]]

The command went much smoother the second time around. Now that my body had a full body of fresh flesh, it didn’t resist much. Crossing through the dank cavern, we returned to the entrance.

[[Command - Stay]]

The zombie just rocked back and forth but didn’t move. Once more I walked to the edge. Toggling on the skill, I stepped past the barrier. This time I decided to count in my head. Keeping a steady pace, I estimated about 10minutes. Heading back into the circle of safety, I turned off the skill and calculated the spent energy…it barely moved. Well that was good. As long as I didn’t interact with the physical space, I seemed to have a near limitless pool. Beckoning my corpse, the zombie easily crossed the threshold and stood beside me. A sense of pride was shared between the two of us. I didn’t realize until now that my body also had an urge to leave. Our reasons might be different; he wanted to murder and consume the blood of innocents while I just wanted to get help. We were both united in this singular goal.

After securing the perimeter, the first rays of morning light penetrated the canopy. The two of us quickly retreated back into the safety of the cave. A feeling of excitement tore at my brain. Tomorrow was the day, tomorrow all things would change, tomorrow I could finally find some help.