A loud crashing sound could be heard as the larger part of a wall crushed the skeleton standing below it. Close by and out of reach of the wall stood Solus. An azure glow wrapped around him, while large amounts of barely visible lightning bolts diffused into his bones. Before he could stop himself, his body fell to the ground.
“Nooo!” An inaudible scream tore through Solus’ mind. Hitting the ground he felt the humerus of his left arm break. The snap sounded dry and he had his first experience of pain but it also raised the second biggest emotion in him so far. The first had happened the instant before he fell and it was fear. The second was now when he had heard his bone snap and realized his existence didn’t end.
Lying on the ground the emotions having already subsided due to his undead nature, Solus was looking around. Everything was still. Because he wasn't moving the world seemed... peaceful. Rolling on his back, using his good arm, he looked up. It was a very dark blue and he could see no clouds or anything else obstructing his view of the sky. It should become night within a few hours. Thinking he should look at his status, Solus forced himself to chant the word.
> Manafield large enough to hold baseline Inscription
> Only available option, type change to “stable”
> Effects:
> Slow reforming of broken bones. Can only reform bones that are complete. Missing
parts will not be reformed.
> Bone density increased resulting in higher effective intelligence, strength, dexterity and constitution score
> Permanently inscribe stable inscription?
YES / NO
Race
skeleton
Name
Os Solus
Type
unstable
Class
-
Age
unknown
Sex
male/-ERROR
Strength
1/8
Constitution
1/6
Dexterity
1/6
Endurance
*
Intelligence
1/- ERROR
Wisdom
0/1
Charisma
ERROR
Manafield
10/100
Inscriptions
1/2
Mana generation
1
Solus chanted ‘yes’. Large lines started appearing around him as if he were inside a sphere. The lines were glowing, almost the same as the blue lightning he saw when increasing the size of his manafield.
It was as if four hollow shapes, connected to one another, were projected on the inside of the sphere, creating large subdivisions on its surface. One of these subdivisions contained a cluster of spots, that appeared to be a pattern of small glyphs.
Then he heard a grating sound. Turning his gaze away from the intricate pattern, he looked at his arm and saw that it was reforming. The broken parts scratching together creating the noise. The speed was slow, and at this rate, it would take over a day to be whole again. After a few minutes, the glowing lines disappeared as abrupt as they had come.
“Warm...”
Lifting the arm that was still being reformed, Solus felt a warm sensation bubbling from inside his bones. It was a familiar feeling, similar to the first time he had increased his mana field, but much stronger. It also stayed and didn't ebb away like before. Looking back at the screen in front of him he noticed the new line that said mana generation. Although he couldn't be sure, he guessed the sensation he felt was the mana being generated. Apparently, this process took place inside his bones and not inside his manafield. He then looked at his status again and saw that multiple changes had occurred after he had agreed to the inscription.
Race
skeleton
Name
Os Solus
Type
stable
Class
-
Age
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
unknown
Sex
male/-ERROR
Strength
2/8
Constitution
3/6
Dexterity
2/6
Endurance
*
Intelligence
2/2
Wisdom
0/1
Charisma
ERROR
Manafield
10/100
Inscriptions
2/2
Mana generation
1
Unsure what to make of the increase in strength, dexterity and constitution he decided he would find out what those meant eventually. He was more interested in the fact that one of the error messages had cleared up. Apparently, his intelligence was now 2, and for some reason, he wasn't going to be able to increase it higher. However, the ERROR behind it was gone and he assumed that was a good thing.
Dropping his arm back to his side he wondered what he should do now. He had no interest in getting up right now. The sensation of finally not moving elicit a small split second emotion again and he determined he would stay put until he found a good reason to move.
Staying on his back looking at the night sky, Solus was completely motionless and enjoying this sensation for the first time in his short un-life. After the night sky started becoming brighter again, an interesting revelation came to him. Just because he wasn't moving, the rest of the world sure was. Red embers moved in the night sky, shuffling of other skeletons could be heard once in a while and even small dust particles moved along the almost absent wind.
CRASH
A loud sound startled him from his ponderings. Raising his head he looked around to see what had awoken him. At first, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, then he saw dust settle beside a large rock that had crashed into the ground. Raising his gaze upwards, he froze. Inside a hole in the wall of a building close by, right above the rock, a skeleton stood. Gazing straight at him. They both didn't move. After a long moment, the skeleton turned around in and disappeared into the building. Solus might have blinked if he had eyes. Using his good arm he scrambled up from the ground where he had been lying, absently noticing his movement had become much more fluently. Apparently, the increase in his attributes did something for his physical capabilities.
Any thoughts of laying around doing nothing until something happened had disappeared from his mind with the appearance of the other skeleton. Moving towards the building, he looked for an entrance. What should he do? Should he even enter any entrance if he did manage to find one? He stopped for a moment at the wall and looked along it to his right. He saw the building ended after only ten meters. There a pile of rubble, that looked like it constituted the remainder of all the floors higher than the second, blocked the rest of the road. The other buildings surrounding him where mostly in the same state, as if someone had swiped the street with a giant hand to cut it down to two stories high. Looking to the left he saw a broken down street corner, that seemed like it would allow him to move to the other side of the building. Moving forward, thinking he might find an entrance behind the corner, he heard a loud crashing sound behind him. Turning around abruptly, he saw a second cloud of dust rising from a piece of rubble that had fallen at the position he had been standing just a moment before. Snapping his gaze up, he could still make out a boney foot that withdrew back inside a hole in the wall.
“That almost ended me...”
Unsure if he should feel anger now, which he didn't, Solus walked towards the corner of the building as fast as he could. Looking around it, he saw an entrance that had partially survived. Heading there he thought of something. Slowing down he inspected the surrounding area. Finding what he was searching for he moved a few steps onto the street and bent over to pick up a large piece of broken rock that might have been part of a roadside edge. Standing back up, he made a hitting motion with the rock.
“Good, that should work.”
Looking back to the entrance he was stunned to see the skeleton exiting it at that exact same moment. The skeleton was still looking the other way so Solus moved as fast as he could towards it, readying his makeshift weapon. Before he got within striking distance, the other skeleton turned around. Seeing Solus moving towards him he took a stumbling step back, then noticing the rock in Solus’ hand, he tried moving back another step tripping over some rubble.
Solus moved forward, ready to use his weapon on the currently incapacitated skeleton. Before he could, though, the other skeleton raised his arms and started waving them. Intrigued at this blatant attempt at communication, he slowed down. Keeping his rock raised, ready for anything, he looked towards his downed adversary. The other skeleton lowered his waving hands to the ground as Solus didn't seem to move towards him. Wasting no second, the skeleton picked up a stone next to him and threw it towards Solus, who barely managed to lift his restored arm to block it. A crunching sound could be heard as the stone broke through part of his elbow, rending his lower arm useless. Raising the rock with his good hand, Solus took a step towards the skeleton that was struggling to stand up. A slight emotion was creeping through Solus’ mind.
“Did he just trick me?”
The other skeleton had managed to stand up by the time Solus reached him. Using the stone like a club Solus hit the skeleton on its skull caving in a large part of it, including an eye socket. But the skeleton was not done yet. Reaching towards Solus he attempted to knock the stone out of his hand. Losing the rock would most likely not bode well for Solus, so he struggled to keep a hold of it. Taking a step back, he lowered his shoulders and swung the rock at the leg of the other skeleton. Another bone breaking sound echoed through the street, as the upper leg bone of the skeleton couldn't handle the impact. The bone splintered into many pieces resulting in the skeleton crashing sideways into the ground. Not giving it another moment, Solus raised the rock again and aimed for the skull. Bashing it as hard as he could, he finally managed to break it into a pile of shattered bone. The other skeleton stopped moving, and a large greenish cloud of lightning and gas raised from the remaining bones. Without giving Solus any time to act, the cloud covered the small distance between them and surged into his bones. As if in reaction, another cloud, blue this time, started emerging from Solus’ bones, forming a sphere around him. The sphere started growing denser while the green cloud became smaller as if it was being absorbed by the blue cloud. The process lasted for only a few seconds before only the blue cloud remained. It had grown much denser and larger than it was moments before. Then, without any notice, the blue cloud disappeared back into Solus’ bones.
Looking at his hand, still holding the rock, Solus found he didn't feel anything after ending the other skeleton. He wondered if this shouldn't have raised some big emotion, seeing as this skeleton had had a conscious similar to his own. He stopped thinking about it when he noticed his twice-broken arm had almost completely repaired itself. Raising the hand in front of his face he waved it around a bit.
“Almost as good as new..” Solus thought.
Realizing something, he raised his head and look around. Last time, he had let himself get complacent and had almost paid for it with the end of his short existence. Seeing nothing moving about, he looked at the entrance the other skeleton had exited from and entered it. Inside the building, rubble was strewn everywhere. Heading into the room, Solus looked for a good place to hide, however, he found nothing but a staircase that had miraculously survived. Moving towards the staircase he attempted to climb it but that was more difficult than he had imagined. It took him a few tries to figure it out, but after a while, he reached the top. There, he saw a long hallway that ended in a gaping hole showing part of the town. At one side of the hall were doorways and he headed towards the first one. Arriving there he looked inside, to see a completely closed off room. Not even a small window graced the walls. Although he was unsure of the rooms original purpose, it would serve his goal well.
Entering the room, he stepped into the corner immediately next to the entrance. He had not been able to see this corner from the outside, so anything or anyone that would look inside the small room shouldn’t be able to see him either. Wondering what he would find, he chanted Status.
Race
skeleton
Name
Os Solus
Type
stable
Class
-
Age
unknown
Sex
male/-ERROR
Strength
2/8
Constitution
3/6
Dexterity
2/6
Endurance
*
Intelligence
2/2
Wisdom
0/1
Charisma
ERROR
Manafield
21/100
Inscriptions
2/2
Mana generation
1