Chapter 11

I awoke, no that’s not the right word, more like I regained consciousness and the first thing I saw was a floating box over my head.

"Skill Unlocked: Skeleton Will: As long as a fragment of your body remains, so will your will."

"As long as a fragment of my body remains?" I thought about those words,

"What could it mean?" I asked myself but before I could ponder on it, I found my answer.

Not that I was searching for it hard but it was hard to ignore the feet of the walking skeletons that were circling past me, as the only thing I could see at eye level was their bony white feet circling me like sharks around their prey.

I tried to move my body but it was useless, for I had no body only a head. I tried to move my head but it was quite difficult especially when you didn't have any experience as a skeleton head without a body attached to it. But somehow, I managed to move toward the feet of one of the skeletons.

"Hey pick me up," I said, humorlessly, wondering if it would even work, and to my surprise, it did for my skeleton brethren picked my head.

"Skill activated: Bone Whisperer!"

I saw a text box appear before me.

"This is a very nice skill to have," I thought, wanting to laugh at my predicament, a bodiless skeleton and his ignorant minion.

"Oh well, what can you do," I said, but at least not everything was looking grim, excuse my pun of the situation. Whatever that sorcerer Evira had done, her attack, which had completely pulverized me, it had done more than just awoke a new skill in me, a skill that was almost overpowered if I do say so myself.

She had made me regain my memories.

My name was Max Reinfield and I was an adventurer who had bought the game, Magic and Swords: Trial of Laments.

My past character was a level 17 knight and for some reason, the game had bugged on us and transported me and my companion, Carl, an ice mage to an instance where I had pretty much lost my character. Perma death, those words send a chill down my spine or should I say head. Yet, I wondered if it truly was perma death, for I still had my character, well, a character anyway, for I wasn't quite sure if this character was even that character, to begin with.

" I wonder what happened to Carl? I hope he got out safe?" I wondered, hoping he hadn't lost his character too and turned into a skeleton like me, which made me curious. Did every character that died in the game become a monster? And if so, was it a bug or a feature? I had quite a few questions still in my mind about this situation, but at least I was happy I had regained my memories.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Amanda," I thought remembering her face,

"I'm never going to see her again."

Which was a bummer because she was very pretty. Not that it mattered what I thought of her since nothing would come out of it, but it was a bummer not the less for me.

"Enough about that, I need to figure out how to amend this situation," I said, trying to figure out how to fix my body if I could even fix it, to begin with. What if I was stuck as a bodiless skeleton monster, another bug in the game? Just my luck.

I had just gotten the game and was enjoying my time playing with it as my knight character, I did not want to continue playing it as some low-level skeleton minion since I couldn't even log out to begin with.

"This game sure is filled with bugs?" I laughed, wondering if other players were also having similar issues as me.

But before I can even begin to think about such a question, I need to figure out how to fix this situation if it even is fixable.

"Stat window!" I said, and to my surprise, the stat window appeared before me, but yet I couldn’t do anything since I didn't have fingers to scroll through it.

Great another issue to deal with.

"Is not like I can control it with my mind," I said, letting out a sigh.

"Unless…"

"I do have such a high intelligence stat, maybe I can use it like telepathy?

That's a thing in comics and even in games too.

I began to concentrate hard trying to imagine myself flicking the screen to the side, that if some adventurer walked in, he would have sure gotten a good laugh at the situation that was happening in this little beginner dungeon before slaughtering us.

That was another issue I needed to deal with as well. I didn’t know how long until another one of those pesky adventurers made their way here, just thinking about it made my head rattle for a minute.

I needed to think of something fast, but luckily I had that skill that seemed to be overpowered if you asked me.

"Skeleton Will."

So as long as a bone in my body remained so did I.

I didn't know just how powerful that skill was but I didn't want to find out either.

But as long as a part of my body remains I guess I couldn't die, right?

What if the next adventurer decides to appear before us and obliterate us, and leaving nothing behind.

"Fear?" I thought, feeling an emotion in me as I thought about that possibility.

"Is that even possible?"

But then again, anything was possible in this game.

"Come one work, Damn it!" I said as I tried to concentrate extra hard, trying to envision myself moving the stat window with my mind, but it was no use, it didn't budge even for a minute.

"Guess we're stuck as a talking head for now," I let out a sigh. It wasn't all doom and gloom, I still had my other skill.

"Bone Whisperer"

Which allows me to control the skeletons in this small dungeon.

"I wonder if I can control more?" I thought as I looked at the other three skeletons that were circling the treasure chest that sat in the middle of the dungeon.