It took over three weeks, but then, when the sky started to turn dark again, Solus heard the sound he had been waiting for.
“Ding”
“FINALLY!” Solus yelled in his mind.
Over the last few weeks, he had noticed he was getting increasing bouts of emotions. Although they only lasted a few seconds or less, they now came as often as a dozen times every day.
Taking a quick look at his status he saw he had increased his dexterity to six. And only just in time. Looking at his manafield it was now at 98 and with the current generation, his manafield should increase to 99 today. As far as he was able to calculate, that left him with less than two days before he would gain the last point he needed towards evolving. It had been a rewarding few weeks though. He looked at this wisdom. It had finally increased by one.
He had needed to find the right way to increase his dexterity and that had taken him a long time and different attempts, never knowing for sure if what he was doing worked. In the end, his dexterity had increased and he had decided to keep doing the actions he had been doing.
At night he would throw stones using the illumination of his manafield to see. With one hand he would throw a stone high with a slow curve and then try to hit it with another one. Then during the day, he ran across town, jumping obstacles, climbing buildings, anything he could think off. He was only two days into this set of exercises when his dexterity had increased. Although he still wasn't sure if they were both required, and if not, which of the two was actually increasing his dexterity, but with an unlimited amount of endurance he could do both and not care too much as long as it worked. Right when he had decided this, his wisdom had increased by one.
Sitting back down on his slab, he looked at the pile of stones next to him. He wouldn’t need them anymore. A happy emotion came for a second, and Solus enjoyed it for as long as he could. After the feeling had come and gone he glanced to his other side where the sphere was lying. He had removed it from the center building during one of his dexterity training sessions. It was lying on the worm plates he had not used on himself. Currently, he had two on each leg, one on his chest and two on each arm. He had tried many different positions but after realizing it didn't hamper his movement no matter what he chose, he had left it as it was.
--
While Solus was pondering his actions, outside of town, a few miles into the desolate wasteland, two shadows were moving side by side in the almost pitch black night.
“You are sure… a hundred percent sure, that there should be another town this way?” Snarled the tallest with an irritated voice.
“Always you ask this question... Every hour dozens of times. Why? Did the evolution that gave you that brain break your mind? Are you incapable of remembering what I tell you?” The second one replied with a deadpan voice. It seemed to echo from all around the pair, impossible to tell the exact origin.
“There is nothing wrong with me, but you know it's hard to handle the emotions! I get so bored and insecure all the time!” The voice rumbled, sounding aggravated and hurt.
“No. I don't know… nor do I care or want to talk about it… again.” The other voice replied without any emotion. “But to humor you, we should arrive there within a few hours. The trail the wyrm mother left was spotted here before it got blown away by some airflow those that has the liches stomped. ” A white hand slapped the taller figure. “But no more talking!”
The taller figure, more massive by far, snorted. “Fine, but keep your sticks to yourself or I'll rip them off and use them to scratch my back.”
--
Morning arrived and a skeleton was stumbling around at the edge of town. Without any consciousness, it kept going, passing through a wide street that would lead it towards the wasteland. The sun was shining down on it and the skeleton was completely unaware that it was being observed.
“Seriously, we have been standing here for an hour now. When do we go in?” An annoyed voice came from a tall monstrosity. It stood at the entrance of the town and resembled a tall, bulky man. Its dried and rotten flesh was colored in tints of brown and ripped open at some places, revealing green flesh underneath.
“Remember what I told you... We still don't know if the younger wyrms have fed enough on the ambient energy to hunt, or are still sleeping. That's why we are checking to see how many wandering skeletons are still around. If we can see more than a few, they should still be asleep and we can hunt them.” A skeleton, covered in white plates, with an orange glow burning in its eye sockets replied.
“Do you think we will find any awoken ones?” The big one asked after a while.
The orange-eyed skeleton looked at the town for a while before replying.
“It's possible, but you know how low the odds are. And even if we find one, it might not be able to even communicate. ”
“But it would be great! Argghlkb ..” The monstrous one spoke, before making a horrible retching sound and spitting out a small piece of flesh.
“Let us focus on those wyrms first, because I have just spotted another two wanderers. This makes three, and if the wyrms had awoken, there wouldn’t have been that many left in one spot. Let us go wyrm hunting. If we find a full nest, we won’t have to enter these unpopulated wastelands again for a long time.” The orange-eyed skeleton said as he started moving forward on the road.
--
Sitting on his slab, Solus saw small rays of light creeping through the cracks in the walls. He only needed one more manafield increase and he would be ready to evolve. He wondered what choices he would get, and if there was one that would give him what he wanted. Feelings, emotions… He had found out after having experienced them that there was little meaning to his un-life without them. Standing up he headed for the exit. Almost there, he froze as he heard noise coming from outside.
“What was that...”
He hadn’t recognized the sound like anything he had heard before. It was a slow thumping sound, like a walking skeleton but then heavy and even slower. Then he heard it… something that he hadn’t heard in weeks.
“Aaahhhhhh I'm done with this! How long will it take before we find these bloody wyrms!!!” An angry, loud voice bellowed, piercing through the abandoned town.
Solus froze. Someone capable of speech like the sphere was outside, close to his building. Emotions raged for but a moment, joy, fear, curiosity, should he go outside? Reveal himself? Or would the other one hunt him?
“Would you keep it down. If there are others capable of thought out here you will scare them. Or worse, they might try and attack us, and you know we need more of us, not less.” An emotionless, soft voice said.
Solus stood still, making no noise or movement. He heard the steps fade away in the distance, heading towards the town center. He waited until he could only barely hear the footsteps, before heading towards the stairs. Going up the roof, he looked in the direction the others had gone to. Off in the distance, against the bright light of the dawning sun, he could make out two figures, walking away from him. One of them was big and dark, lumbering forward with a heavy gait.
As he shifted his focus to the smaller figure, he could barely notice that it was a skeleton. He was shocked to see that it was almost completely covered with the white, bony plates of the wyrms. The only visible part of this skeleton was the skull and part of the spine. It walked with a steady, light step.
“I need to speak with them...” solus thought. He was curious, and the emotion lasted for almost three seconds, longer than any before.
Rushing down the stairs he leaped out of the broken window, smashing his frame into the opposite wall. Then he ran through the street, heading for the city center. When he could see the two figures again he slowed down. Should he really show himself? Only because the other one looked like him, didn't mean he would be kind. He remembered the other skeleton, that had tried squashing him on multiple occasions. Hiding behind some rubble, he followed the two figures, undecided on what to do.
A few minutes later, the two figures, unaware they were being followed, arrived at the square.
“Look! They could be in that one in the middle!” The bigger one shouted, pointing at the center building. Without wasting a moment, he lumbered over.
“Come now, you know very well they won't be there. They need to be close to the mother wyrm trail. Or is this that curiosity again you keep harping about?”
“Bah! What would you know, you should just evolve into something with emotions instead of being afraid. O, no wait, you can't be afraid! You can't be anything!” The larger one started making an unpleasant hacking sound after his shouting.
“Well if anything was in this city, they are either looking at us now, or they ran away. ” The skeleton commented, not seeming the least bit offended.
But the bigger one couldn't hear it, he had entered the building and was out of view. Making loud noises inside.
Still hiding, Solus wondered if they would notice the missing sphere. Would they even know what the altar like object in the building was? He would find out soon, he guessed, as he saw the bigger figure emerge from the building.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Well, find anything?” The skeleton asked.
“Nah, another one of those pedestals, this one was empty though. I guess someone mistook it for something they could barter with. “ It was obvious the taller one found it hilarious because he had a hard time holding in his manic laughter. Which was what the hacking sound was, Solus thought. He had found in his memories that, when some beings were very happy they would make this sound.
“He has emotions!” Solus almost stood up in shock.
Then his own emotions abated and he relaxed again, he wondered what the two were searching for. After a minute he recalled they had been yelling something earlier, they were searching for something… Wyrms?... It took a moment before Solus connected the dots.
“Worm.. they are hunting worms!” It made sense he thought, looking at the other skeleton wearing the plates. Slowly a plan began taking shape, what if he used it as a bargaining chip? If he showed them the worms… wyrms... Well, then he could ask them to bring him along. He didn't want to say here alone! Gathering his wits, he thought about the problem for a few more seconds. He should be faster than these two right? They had never been here, if needed he could hide in the wyrm building.
“Right let's go! We can head for the wyrm trail and scout all the buildings. Fun times! ” The bigger one said, turning around.
The armored skeleton followed him, seeming not inclined to even answer the obvious remark.
A stone hit the ground a few meters next to them, and a great change occurred. The smaller figure turned in the direction of the noise with incredible speed, bending over a bit holding his hands a bit further from his body. Long nails grew from the finger bones. The big figure turned as well, although less swift, still with more speed than Solus had guessed he should have, as green goo emerged from his mouth.
“They are fast.” Solus thought, while he felt fear as he was standing there, out in the open, while two unknown beings gazed at him. One with sharp green eyes without any white, and the other with orange glowing eye sockets. Raising his arm, Solus waved it around a bit. It was what he had in his memories, apparently, it was a way to greet someone at a distance.
“KEEP YOUR HAND STILL!” the large one bellowed, making Solus freeze in his movement. The armored skeleton moved towards Solus.
“Can you speak?” It asked raising its posture a bit, out of the half-crouch it had been in.
“No,” Solus thought as loud as he could, hoping the other would hear him as the sphere had. Belatedly remembering something, he shook his skull.
“It's a young one, look at him! He doesn't even know what to do, can't speak. Do you hear that faint humming and resonating? Is he trying to speak with his mind? Hahaha”. The larger one stood straight and started laughing even louder than the first time.
“Quiet, it could be a trick.” The skeleton said, looking at Solus.
“Lower your hands, and come this way. If you make any sudden moves I will rip your skull off.”
Solus lowered his hands as fast as he could, he looked around but there was no way out, so he walked towards the open square. He hoped he had not made another stupid choice.
The big figure looked at him and stood in a completely relaxed posture seemingly looking at the other skeleton. As Solus walked towards them he noticed that for all the laughter and words, the big one had sharp eyes and was watching his every move. It made Solus regret leaving his building after he noticed it. When he got within two meters of them, he stopped.
“Hello, can you hear me, I don't want to fight.” He thought as loud as he could.
“HAH! See it told you! He is new, doesn't even know how to project his voice out with his mana field.” The large one seemed genuinely more relaxed this time, as he hit the smaller one on the shoulder. Looking at Solus for a second longer, with his orange eye sockets, the other skeleton stood up straight, no longer looking like it would charge at any second.
“Oke, we can you hear you now, our mana fields are overlapping so we can hear you if you shout loud enough in your mind. But it's not very comfortable to listen to. You can vibrate your manafield with your mind. Try and form the vibrations like your thoughts first, we won't understand at first but when we can hear it, we can teach you how it works. It's hard to explain, but try it and keep the vibrations close to your skull at first. ”
Solus kept still for a minute, trying hard to get to grips with the current situation. Looking at the two figures in front of him, he shoved the other thoughts to the back of his mind and started concentrating. Vibrating his manafield? All of it? He tried feeling out the manafield as they had said. It took a moment but he managed to sense the field like a bubble surrounding him. Concentrating on a part close to him, he tried moving it. It didn't work, but he did feel some resistance. He imagined hitting it a little bit like he hit buildings with his hands.
BOOOOOOMMMMM
An incredibly loud bell-like sound could be heard in every part of the town. The two figures jumped and looked around, the bigger one looking startled. After a second it looked at Solus.
“Did you do that? Don’t hit the thing you fool! Use your mind to make it vibrate, it's like your thinking on top of it. Move your mind close, then think your thoughts.”
Solus concentrated again, this time trying to move his mind, his attention and focus towards the same part of his manafield he had hit.
“Hello?” he thought as loud as he could.
“HEEEELLOOOO” Bellowed a voice, similar but a bit deeper to the other skeletons voice.
“What is wrong with you? Think, don’t shout, are you TRYING to wake up the wyrms?” The larger one shouted back at Solus, who was actually feeling pleased with himself for one instant.
Keeping his mind close to the same spot, Solus tried again.
“Hello, is this better?” A slow deep voice whispered from a position slightly in front of Solus’ skull.
“Yes, this is very good. It is actually pretty impressive how fast you picked this up, no matter what that idiot over there says. ” The other skeleton said.
“Now, tell us, did you wake up here? Do you have any idea how long ago that was?”.
“I.. don't know. I remember being, but then everything changed. It should be, more than thirty days ago.” Solus said, having decided to not speak about the sphere for now.
“Yes, it is like that for some. Most get awoken by another thought, but it takes a special evolution and skill to do that. I reckon you don't have a name yet?” The skeleton asked Solus.
Solus’ mind stilled, what should he do? If he said he had one they, would want to know how. If he said he had none they would give him one, but he liked his current name. Then he had an idea, remembering the spheres claim that one cannot name oneself.
“I don't… but... You can call me Solus” he said, hoping they would accept his lie.
“Wahahahah that's a great name, I’m Norg and that one over there is called Silt.” the large one said, laughing loudly. It seemed there was no problem with naming yourself, which actually seemed weird to Solus, although he couldn't say exactly why.
Not waiting for more questions, Solus quickly asked one of his own.
“I heard you shout. You are looking for… wyrms? Are those the things we got our plates from?” Raising his arm a bit, Solus shook it.
“Yes. As you probably don't know any of this, let me explain. The plates aren't worth a lot, except as armor for skeletons like you and me, but the mana orbs inside can be used to stay in the gathering. You will also need them to increase your manafield's power. You know where they are.” Silt said, the last part definitely not a question.
“Yes, I got these there. They are... Strong.” Solus said, hesitating a bit because he was unsure if Norg and Silt would agree.
“Yes they are, and dangerous. I'm actually very impressed that you managed to kill one without any knowledge. ” Silt said, with his emotionless and dry voice, making it sound like he wasn't impressed at all.
“How about this! You show us where they are, and help us to slay them for there core’s and we will give you a part of those core’s and take you to the gathering with us. GURHKDHLAAA ” Norg said making a horrible sound and spitting out a small piece of flesh from the inside of his mouth again.
Looking at the piece of flesh lying on the street for a moment, Solus raised his skull and looked at the two in front of him. He felt it was a good idea, but he wondered. He had some memories of lies and deceptions. What if Silt and Norg were not telling him the truth? Thinking it over a bit he came to the conclusion that even if they were lying, he couldn't stay here.
“Ok, do you want to go there now?” Solus said, looking at Silt.
“Yes, it's pointless waiting. I want to head back to the gathering as fast as possible so I can increase my power. I'm not interested in being sent out, exploring and then ending as wyrm food.”
Turning around, Solus headed towards the building the wyrms were sleeping in. The emotions, that had been active while he was talking with the other two, had stopped again. Anxiety, he had found, was not an emotion he wanted to feel too much. Well, not too much anyway.
Half a day later Solus was standing in front of the town, at its edge, he had the sphere in his arms. It was surprisingly light for its size, but very hard to hold because of its slippery round surface. A bit further out on the road Silt and Norg where waiting for him. They were both carrying large crates made from wyrm plates. They had a trick to bind them together with their manafield. Both crates were filled to the brim with mana orbs. Solus had found out they didn't use the names he had learned from his status. It seemed they didn't have a status at all, although he hadn’t actually asked. Looking out towards the unknown beyond the town he summoned his status.
“I want to ask my last question,” he thought towards the helper function, and a line appeared in his vision.
“Please ask your question.” The line replied.
Solus waited for a second. He had to make sure, no matter what Silt and Norg had assured him of.
“Skeletons that walk out of the town, fall over and stop moving, how can I prevent this from happening to me?” Solus had thought a while on the question, he had started with a few why questions, then realized he had only one question and with why he wouldn't learn how to prevent it.
“Skeletons without manafields can only exist where there is enough undead energy. If a skeleton without a manafield would leave into an area without enough undead energy, they would be destroyed. This, however, does not apply to you so this question cannot be answered. Please ask another question. ”
Feeling elated Solus raised his one free hand in the air. A second later the feelings left and he wondered why he had them in the first place… A light bulb went off in his head and he blurted a question.
“Why can I feel emotions?”
“You are a skeleton, and some skeletons are capable of emotions. Not all skeletons are formed equally. Sometimes more, or purer, soul pieces are attracted and used to create the consciousness. These higher level skeletons have the ability to form their own personality which is the requirement for emotions. The emotions will start out simple but will increase in strength with the increase in strength of the skeleton. However, there is a limit to these emotions. Only by evolving into a higher level undead will these emotions grow past this limit. How far this can go is unknown, but even skeletons without emotions will gain emotions if they evolve. Although not as many or as strong.”
“This is the end of your free help trial! If you are interested in a subscription please head for our nearest office. Have a good day.” The line disappeared with a final flash, and Solus knew he would need to get his knowledge from another place from now on.
Silt had said it would take more than a week to reach the gathering, which was apparently a town constructed by a large group of skeletons and other evolved undead. He wondered what he should do when he was ready to evolve, and if he could wait with his choice until they arrived at their destination.
Looking out at the endless waste beyond the town Solus used both arms to hold the sphere towards the direction where his two new companions were waiting. A single emotion filled his mind for a moment and he took a quick peek over his shoulder, then he sped up, heading towards an unknown future.