I jerked awake as if I woke up from a zombie dream. Like a leg being asleep, my whole body tingled. My head hurt, my bones hurt, my joints hurt… you get it. I rolled over groaned, prompting a dizzy spell. Then the memories hit me.
‘What the fuck.’ I was no longer dead. Now that I had a body, the delayed panic hit me like a truck. I screamed at the top of my lungs as my entire being shook with pain.
All around me I heard barking and dragging. As my senses calmed down I looked around to see bodies and gear being picked through by wolves.
It seems when a dead body comes back to life and starts screaming; wolves who were previously happy eating their meal, freak the fuck out. There were four wolves who ran back and two more who lowered their heads and growled.
As a former dog lover, and avid nature channel aficionado… I had no idea what to do. I slowly stood up and looked around. I was encircled by confused and hungry wolves. Well, judging by the bodies around me, they didn’t seem that hungry anymore. There were several busted wagons and crates were spilled about. Some bodies had armor and were filled with arrows, others simply dressed in typical “commoner” garb.
So it seems the wolves didn’t kill everyone here, they were just scavenging. Do wolves scavenge like that? Maybe I didn’t watch enough nature channel. As I didn’t seem to be hostile, the wolves slowly started to drag bodies to the woods away from the road.
A road! I’m on a cleared road with packed dirt. That means civilization. And dead bodies, especially dead bodies with arrows in them, mean people. As we all know, wherever there are people, there is someone else nearby trying to ruin their day. While these thoughts ran through my head, I kept an eye on the two wolves watching me, standing vigil while their brethren dragged away their meal. Leaving them to their dinner, I slowly made my way toward a carriage with the doors open.
I really hoped this wasn’t a horrid sight with a princess that I was going to have to avenge. Dead bodies of people killed in a war I could handle, but some things I’m just not ready for.
Peeking inside I see one male in fancy clothes lying down in the middle and two fancy dressed women with what looked liked sword-type stab wounds on their chests. OK good… well not good…. But not as bad as it could have been. ‘Yeah, that’s what I figured dead bodies smelled like.’
I dragged the bodies out of the carriage as the wolves eyed me from about 10 feet away. It was creepy how they just stared at me, ready to respond to any hostile act. I know dogs are smart, but that’s just unnecessary. Once the bodies were out of the cabin, I got in and closed the door as best I could. Looking out through the window, it seemed that did the trick. The remaining wolves backed away. It annoyed me how they seemed to strut. ‘From now on, wolves are on my shit list.’
‘Now let’s review.’ I died falling out of my shower because I was too lazy to put a bath mat down. Then I went through what seems like some kind of reincarnation cycle, which I fucked up. Picked a door that looked interesting. Ignored the soul cleaning circle of “whatever”. Then got burned by a big ass bug zapper. Woke up here, in what appeared to be a recently dead body.
‘Crap, this body was dead.’ I looked down and tried to take stock of my condition. There are some bloody holes in my crappy commoner shirt (which smells like shit by the way). It seems that the wounds scabbed over, so I’m not bleeding. ‘Do I feel OK?’
Name
Unclaimed
Level
1
Race
Human
Growth
2%
Tier
1
Condition
87%
Age
14
Center
100%
Body
0
Mind
0
Soul
0
Confluence
10
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
‘Huh!?!’
I guess I was right about this being a leveling world. No name, level 1, tier 1, and I’m now a kid again. Growth, Condition, and maybe Tier 1; I could make guesses about those. A bunch of stats, some of which I recognize. ‘What the hell is Confluence?’ Regardless, this means that I took some kid's dead body, but at least I’m alive. Let’s be honest, he wasn’t using it anymore anyway. ‘Have I always been this blase about death? I guess going to the other side solidified my belief in the after life, and my long held belief that bodies are just window dressing like the good Buddhists believe. Or was it the Daoists? Oh my god, now that I don’t have the internet, I will never know.’
It’s weird that until just now it hadn’t hit me that I was really in another world. In another body. Because I DIED. And how crappy a death it was.
Spending a few minutes with my eyes closed and focusing on my breathing, I got myself back into a head space where I could start figuring this out again.
‘So if I’m in a world with a stat menu, then I should have a skills menu too right?’
Skills
Active Listening
0.8
Adaptability
1.5
Administration
0.3
Advocacy
0.4
Analysis
2.1
Assertiveness
1
Attention to Detail
2
Etc….
Okay, so apparently it lists every damn type of skill a person could have. I looked through pages and pages of skills, all of which were below 10. ‘I’m surprisingly good at charades… huh.’ There needs to be some way to narrow this down to special skills or something.
Oh, that was easy.
Skills
None
N/A
‘Yeah that’s about right.’ As I stared at the empty skill menu, I thought about how simple my life used to be. Apparently, there didn’t seem to be anything special about managing a cell phone store in a strip mall. Although, my focus probably shouldn’t be on my skills, but on why I’m not at 100% condition.
I guess I’m a little sore. Also a little hungry, and I could use a shower. ‘Wait…. Showers better exist here.’ I should take a look around and see what I can scavenge for myself. Maybe I can figure out what the hell happened here. It’s been a few minutes, the wolves are probably eating or at least not around any more. ‘If the great saint Murphy is here in this world I’m gonna be pissed.’
Stepping out of the carriage, I almost stepped on the bodies I had pulled out earlier. Watching my feet as I stepped over them, I held in the cringe of disgust at the brutality. Looking around there was a long line of carts and wagons, maybe 15 or 20. Some were broken, all of them had some damage. Arrows were lodged sporadically. There were ripped coverings, and blood was splattered across the sides. Each and every one of them seemed to be looted. I could see footprints and drag marks leading off into the forest. Also, the bodies were all facing up.
Once I realized that, I froze. They must have all been searched for valuables. Upwards of 100 people, all dead and systematically cleared of valuables. I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around the absolutely clinical barbarity. The bodies weren’t disfigured or cruelly treated. All of the horror seemed methodical.
I walked through the massacre, but couldn’t bring myself to really check for loot or anything. Somewhat in a daze, I stopped to look up into the cloudy sky and took some breaths to try to get myself into a clearer head space.
Perhaps I would have handled it better if I was in the army, or saw some tragedy in my life up until now. Unfortunately, my brain seemed to be treating this like it was one of those fantasy shows I used to stream. The bodies smelled, but they hadn't been there for long, so they weren’t rotting. ‘This is starting to catch up to me.’
I spent a few minutes building up to a panic attack. Then, another feeling started to slowly rise from my gut. I was annoyed, and a little ashamed. This was like the first time I got a flat tire. At first I felt terrified, but then my stubbornness fought back against the emotional interruption.
‘Fuck it! This is MY world now. Don’t overthink. Live in the moment and take things as they come. I didn’t let fear take control in my old life, I’m not starting my new life as a little bitch.’ I thought to myself. ‘Breathe in… Breathe out.’
As I mastered myself, like I did back in high school when I played football (don’t be impressed, I was resoundingly unimpressive), I heard the clatter of horses in the distance. Looking toward the front of the caravan I saw a group of riders in what looked like medieval steel plate with bright blue tabards. ‘Blue is good, the good guys always wear blue. Now I just need a justifiable reason for being alive and surrounded by dead bodies while I have a shirt covered in holes and blood, but suspiciously without wounds. No problem, good guys are always trusting.’