Another day of work done and another day closer to his mini vacation next week. He was excited to get back in the game, though he was still simmering after being killed by the same rabbit twice. He just kept dying at the end of every session and he planned to go out and finish the bunny hunting mission not long after he actually got set up in the game! He had spent the day thinking on the mission, to the point where his boss had to yell at him for his inattention oops, and thinking of how best to kill the rabbit.

Since the deity he followed was invested in knowledge he figured he would try to scan bunnies for their knowledge, before attempting to take down a fox to revive. The game mentioned showing it who was the boss and had a variable reward so surely making his mortal enemy hopping mad before sending a rabbit’s natural enemy at it would maximize that reward. Though he wasn’t exactly sure how well reviving a fox would go, or even if he could revive one. This was something he needed to find out.

He figured he might be able to ask his deity about it though, so Dan lifted his feet and left the spawn room and made his way to the temple. It seemed to be slightly more packed today for some reason so his progress was unreasonably slow as he moved through the crowd. He had to push several people as they just decided to stand in the middle of the road looking at shops nearby. Finally he made it to the beautifully made marble temple and headed inside. Heading over to his Deity’s shrine he touched it and was transported to his God’s realm.

“Ah, if it isn’t Dan! Welcome welcome! What can I do for you today? Though I can’t do much of anything until you start scanning creatures. I do understand you ended up dying before you could the day before yesterday though.” The god was in the middle of trying to set a marble fox on a broken pedestal when Dan entered and he couldn’t help but wonder what he did all day. Though one thing he said struck him as odd.

“The day before? What do you mean? I didn’t meet you until yesterday?” Dan opened up his quest menu and saw indeed that more than a day has passed on his rabbit killing quest.

Rabbit Hunter: The same rabbit has humiliated you not only once, but twice. Killing you at the height of your Bunny reviving power! Make this rabbit know who the true master of the woods is within 3 days! Reward: Variable. Failure: Title gained - Bunny Bumper (1 day remaining)

“Ah, I thought most of the Travelers had heard when they came through to this world. The time in the world passes twice as fast as it does in your own. While you don’t notice it right now, since your mind is able to process more in this realm without worrying as much about your other body.”

Dan was shocked at this news. That meant the deadline on any quest he had was halved. Wait a minute… that meant he only had three days left on his quest from the blacksmith! Pulling up the quest he saw indeed he was right. Almost panicking he decided he would do as much as he could tonight. As long as he didn’t die that left him with plenty more time in game then he thought he would have. “Ah, well God- uh, sir? Lord?”

Dan stumbled over the address as he had no idea what to call this deity. The God waved him off. “Just call me Cladicus, I have no need to inflate my ego. Now spit it out. I only have so long to talk with you with my limited power.”

“I was hoping to learn more about my necromancy powers and how they affect animals. I have a quest to show up a rabbit that has killed me twice so far and I figured the best way to do that was to kill it with its natural enemy, a fox.” Dan looked hopefully over to the hairy God as he scratched his chin thinking. His face was hard to read but he didn’t seem to be against the idea.

“That… is one way to finish the quest. I’m sure killing it is the easier way through it, though using a fox might be a way to gain more rewards... yes yes. While right now I have no way to help you if you were to scan three rabbits then I would be able to do something in that regard. Yes, now go. Finish this task and you will be rewarded.”

Dan felt himself almost pushed out of the shrine and landed on his bottom as he returned to the regular game world. Deciding not to take offense to the God that was helping him, he got up and began to walk towards the gate. Goal in mind he figured he could easily kill three rabbits. Since the crowd was so thick he had plenty of time to go through his notifications from last night on his way there.

Congratulations! You have raised your first animal as a Necromage and are well on your way to becoming a force to be reckoned with! Based on your current stats, skills, and titles your Necromantic Resurrection now costs half as much health to use!

That was something. Dan was thinking he’d have to either find a bunch of healing potions or bump his health up to ridiculous levels if he was going to be a tank for his group while also reviving things. It took a crazy amount of health to resurrect just a single rabbit.

Skill Increased: Shield Mastery (Novice II)

That was a nice bonus. It seemed the rabbits had four health based on the one he killed so despite the ridiculous damage he should be able to one shot them once he increased his skill again since it seemed he did one damage on top of his shield mastery score due to his strength,

Skill Gained: Mana Manipulation (Novice I). Where others are content to throw unseemly amounts of power into a spell-swiftly fueling their own destruction- you use a lighter touch. -30% mana and +1% spell efficiency per skill level. (Maximum 25% efficiency).

Dan stopped in the middle of the road, and someone swore as he walked right into the shield strapped onto his back, before trying to shove him. It seemed he had little strength so he just grunted as he couldn’t seem to move the large man and gave up as he just walked around Danny. Not noticing any of this Danny quickly checked his stats to see if this could possibly be right. There was no way he had just lost a third of his mana for doing something the game itself told him to do.

Name: Danny_The_Miller ‘Fools Frontline;

Class: Necromage

Profession: Locked

Level: 1 Exp: 0 Exp to next level: 1000

Hit Points: 130/130 (60 + 10 per point of Constitution)

Mana: 96.25 (125 + 12.5 per point of Intelligence)

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Mana regen: 3.75 (2.5 + .25 per point of Wisdom)

Stamina: 185 (50 + 5 per point of Strength + 5 per point of Constitution)

Characteristic: Raw Score (Modifier)

Strength: 14 (1.12)

Dexterity: 10 (1.00)

Constitution: 18 (1.17)

Intelligence: 11 (1.13)

Wisdom: 15 (1.15)

Charisma: 6 (0.04)

Perception: 17 (1.15)

Luck: 12 (1.12)

Karmic Luck: -3

Dan groaned. Even with the increased efficiency from his skills he couldn’t use his one spell right now. It cost 98.5 a whole 2.25 more than he had. It seemed his mana would increase to it’s normal amount, or perhaps even more at higher levels, but for now he was stuck with what he had. Not only that though, his experience was back at zero after dying again Finally he started moving yet again and was soon at the gates.

Walking past he saw the bunnies, and knowing he couldn’t even use his necromancy right now, he decided to just stay on the path and in view of others since he was going to focus on using his shield to kill the rabbits.

After moving up to the nearest one he moved behind it and slammed the spiked part of his shield into it. Not even bothering with aiming at it’s head. The Rabbit let out an indignant cry and jumped at him as he backed off. With a ping off his shield and a few health points down he moved forward and smashed his shield into the rabbit again, killing it this time. This felt… too easy.

He supposed these were starter area enemies and when he hadn’t prepared properly the first time he now had no trouble with these creatures since he knew what he was doing. It seemed they had very high damage in order to punish players who didn’t prepare themselves for the harshness of this world. They had very low health though in order to let you quickly move through them when you knew what you were doing.

Dan felt a bit better about it now that he understood the logic of this area, and bent to pick up the loot. A pelt appeared next to the rabbit, wasn’t that handy, and he cast ‘Scan’ on it. The corpse melted into the ground… though that wasn’t the best way to describe it. It’s as if the earth started to become one with the Rabbit and slowly dragged it down into it. A strange way to scan things but at least he didn’t have to do anything else. Before he could move on he got a notification.

Congratulations! You have scanned your first creature for your God. He has deigned to grant you a new skill to use as a reward.

Skill Gained: Necromantic Healing (Novice I). Using a nearby corpse you may heal either yourself or an ally depending on how much Mana is devoted to it. You may only use 10 mana per level of the creature used for healing. Health Gained 5n where n equals level of the creature. Cost: 10 mana per second, nearby corpse or corpse in your inventory. Consumes corpse on use.

Dan was a bit surprised this had nothing to do with killing the rabbit. Though he guessed it was a separate reward for doing… well what he was supposed to do for his Deity. Strangely he felt a little more knowledgeable about rabbits now. He guessed the knowledge went both ways for him and his Deity. Getting ready to move on Dan realized he didn’t have any kind of backpack or bag of holding or anything like that. He completely forgot to grab a pack. There was no way he was going to be able to carry ten pelts for his quest.

Reluctantly leaving the pelt on the ground he moved onto the next rabbit and killed it with the same amount of effort as the one before. Quickly scanning his body he moved onto the final one and saw it seemed a bit different. It seemed larger than the ones around it. Maybe it was higher level or something. If it was, likely he would gain more rewards or favor for scanning it.

Getting behind the rabbit he raised the spike and slammed it into the Rabbit’s head, only doing 1 damage this time. It seemed the Rabbit’s defenses were higher than the others. Not only that, but instead of stupidly jumping at the shield that just hit it, it jumped around where Dan was crouching and rammed the rough stump of a horn into his side dealing a whole ten points of damage. Grunting in pain Dan realized he could at least start to ignore it now. Instead of letting himself be pushed over again, he swung the shield around and used the side of his shield to slam it a few feet away. It may be tougher than the other rabbits but it was still light and he was a fair bit larger than it, so it was easy to throw it around.

Getting back up and charging at Dan he positioned the spike in the path of it and inflicted his third point of damage on it. Dan assumed this Rabbit likely had more health than the others so it was no surprise when it didn’t die on the fourth hit. It started hopping to one side of him again so Dan started to move his shield in time with it until it put on a burst of speed and hopped the other way slamming into his side and doing another twelve points of damage. Roaring with pain Dan tried to smack the bunny with the side of his shield again but it swiftly dodged out of the way of the expected attack and smacked him again from a different angle.

He was at a hundred two health, his health regen passive doing it’s job to slowly let him take a bit more punishment, so he wasn’t worried about dying, but the pain was starting to get to him and he was breathing hard as the cuts quickly scabbed over and vanished as if they weren’t there. The Rabbit getting cocky did a headlong charge and ended up impaled on the spike of his shield, taking a critical hit and dying to the two damage it inflicted on itself.

For surviving a tougher battle you have gained +1 intelligence due to keeping your cool and not letting yourself be overcome by the enemy.

Not much, but he’d take it. And that put him at 104.3 points of mana so now he could cast his resurrection spell.Perhaps he should keep this corpse as a way to potentially help him tame the rabbit ahead. He could kill a smaller rabbit and tame it. With a sigh, he picked up the rabbit corpse and slung it over his shoulder, wincing at the feeling. Ugh, some parts of Necromancy were a little gross. He really needed to pick up a backpack or something.

Quickly dispatching a weaker rabbit he was given yet another notification so he also checked the notification of skill points from his last couple battles while reading that one.

Your Deity is pleased with your work to restore knowledge to his pantheon. He has blessed you with yet another skill.

Skill Gained: Decomposing Mist (Novice 1) - Necromancers often use their spells to weaken their opponents over time. This mist is designed to wear down not only the armor but one’s skin, allowing for them to revive and animate just a skeleton, instead of the entire corpse. This has many uses such as allowing for more agility in their undead summons and making their summons more resistant to slashing damage. If used to decompose a corpse to the skeleton it will bind the bones together and reduce the cost of summoning the creature by 50% and increase the time it is revived by 25%. Damage dealt is 1n per second for 5n seconds where N is equal to the level of the spell. Cost 20 mana. Cast time: 1 second.

That is surprisingly useful. With this he should have no issues killing the regular rabbits! That is if his title didn’t reduce the damage lower than 1, though most games didn’t so he wasn’t too worried about that, although if magic was this strong maybe he should switch it up and become a an actual mage necromancer instead of a tank, he could use plenty of animals as a tank, surely. Shrugging it off and resolving to look into his build later, Dan looked about the forest realizing he had no idea where his mortal bunemy was hiding.

Opening the quest again he realized he could now sense the general direction the rabbit was in and set off. Figuring it would be closer to the edge of the fox territory with how much it must have leveled off of him. So he could kill himself a fox to be used on the way to the rabbit.

After half an hour of walking he finally spotted a fox, setting down the rabbit on his shoulder he started the spell and a few seconds later the rabbit sat back up and looked at him, with its lifeless beady black eyes. “Go attack that fox.” With not a second of hesitation it bounded at the fox and slammed the nub of it’s horn into the startled animals. With a howl of anger the fox whipped around and grabbed the rabbit between its jaws, shaking it like a doll. That was fine though since it allowed Dan to cast his new Decomposing mist spell.

A fine grey mist made up of small dust particles shot out from his fingertips covering not only the fox but also his rabbit, it seemed there was friendly fire in the game, that was important to keep in mind. While the fox shrieked in pain and let go of the fox Dan moved up next to it with his shield out. He could see the places where the dust landed causing the Fox’s skin to bubble, as disgusting as it was he could see the power in it, especially as the damage seemed to keep piling up. He’d need to test if he could stack the spell but he didn’t have the time for it right now while so close.

As the fox sensed him approaching from behind it, the creature twirled around and got a spike in the eye for its troubles. After all the damage from his revived rabbit and the mist that crit was enough to kill the fox. The mist continued to bubble for a few more seconds and while he could see some bones sticking through the skin he couldn’t see the entire skeleton. Sighing he cast the spell again… and a third and fourth time before all that was left was the skeleton of the fox. Grabbing the head he was surprised by how light it was, and realized that must have been what the game meant by making it more agile. Also as it said, all the bones stuck together so even if he shook it, the skeleton stuck together.

As he was slinging the skeleton over his shoulder he realized this was a lot less gross than dealing with rotting corpses, and something he’d need to make sure he did much more in the future for his summons. Opening the quest up and feeling a lot more confident he began to head back towards his mortal bunemey determined to show it who was the boss of the wild.