Chapter 11 -

Part 3

I stood, no, for I was no longer alone; we stood against the wall of this poorly lit dungeon room we called home. I was nestled comfortably, well, as comfortably as a skeleton head can be in the arms of another skeleton, and I took in the view of the dungeon. In the center stood the mysterious chest whose content was still a mystery to me, making me wonder what was inside it. Treasure? Weapons? or perhaps something more sinister and valuable. But I paid no more thought to it, for I had other, more pressing problems to attend to. Even though there was no door to the dungeon, that didn’t mean that it was sealed. No, in fact, it was the opposite; the dungeon was accessible to players, and what I used to be.

I looked at my little army of skeletons, there were four of them. Now what? I asked myself,

Now that I had gained control over them, what was my next move?

Survival seemed like the most obvious goal at the moment. I could use them as genuine pigs to the slaughter and just hide as they all get killed repeatedly by players that come into the dungeon, mindless cannon fodder for my survival. Not that I cared what happened to my mindless minions, but waiting for players to come and use us as nothing more than level grinding NPC was not something I was looking forward too. Not that it matter how many times they got killed, for they will get replaced by the game system.

If a new batch of skeletons came, could I keep controlling the new batch of skeletons and improve my skill? That was a thought, but I decided against it, for it would take too long, and besides, I didn’t know how long it will take for players to access this dungeon room. So far, I hadn't seen any players enter it. I still had time, time to learn about this skill of mine, Bone Whisperer.

How far could I push their obedience? Could they handle more complex tasks? I let out a grin as I found myself in this poorly lit dungeon with my little army of bones, no longer just a headless corpse but a commander, a leader of the undead, and just as those thoughts filled my head, a game-like noise chimed throughout the dungeon room, and in front of me led out a new journey for myself.

“New Quest added: Becoming the prime undead, commander of all that was once.”

I looked at the glowing transparent window in front of me, as it showed me the next chapter in my story as a skeleton monster.

“Prime undead, commander of all that was once.”

That has a nice ring to it, I thought, which meant my next move would be to gain more control over these skeletons. Or perhaps there were more undead monster than just the ones in these four walls of this dungeon. After all, I had been outside as a player before i had been stuck as some mindless skeleton by the game.

The prime undead...

Could I be able to extend my control beyond this dungeon? The possibility of such a thing made me grin like some villain in a story, not that I thought of myself as a villain, after all, I was a player in this game once. But now I was an NPC to the players, some monster they have to kill? My role had changed from when I started this game.

Carl? I wonder what he’s up to, and her, Amanda, as well. If they were to see me now, would they recognize me? Would I even recognize them as well? After all, I didn’t know just how much time had passed since I had, well, my human character anyway, died in that dungeon where Carl and I found ourselves, and the last time i had been human.

I wondered if they were doing ok, I thought, yet the possibility of leaving this little room filled me with more excitement and anticipation than the thought of crossing paths with them once more, that my thoughts about them began to drift away from my mind.

I need to focus on myself and my new quest the game system has laid in front of me.

Becoming the prime undead, now game how do you want me to achieve that? I asked myself.

“Open,” I said instinctively, and the floating transparent box changed into a bigger one. And in front of me laid out the requirements for the quest.

.

1. Demonstrate control over the undead...

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Must pass the requirement to proceed.

I looked over the skeletons that were under my control. I guess I would have to control more than just skeletons; after all, there were other undead monsters if my memory served me right in this game, is that what that first requirement wanted of me?

2. Solidify leadership among the undead and earn their unwavering loyalty...

Must pass the previous requirement to proceed.

Now how was I going to do that, I thought. Clearly, it was more than just taking control of the undead; I also needed to earn their loyalty. But the part that was the most interesting to me was the last part.

3. Defeat the current prime undead within the dungeon.

Must pass the previous requirement to proceed.

The stage was set, and the first boss had been laid out for me to go after.

The giant slime and the minotaur echoed in my mind; they were the first bosses I had come across in this game, and yet one of them had proved to be my demise. But I wasn’t scared; it was the opposite, I was eager to find this new boss this quest was telling me to defeat in order for me to get my prize.

But I still had questions; after all, a seasoned MMORPG player has to know about the raid boss he’s going to challenge. Would they be a monstrous creature lurking in the shadows, or perhaps a cunning necromancer wielder of magic?

Regardless, one thing was clear, I needed to be prepared. But before I could jump right into the boss, I needed to start at the first requirement for there was a small box next to each one with small red letters on the bottom that read: Must pass the previous requirement to proceed. So before I even thought about boss battles, I needed to think about the first one, which was to demonstrate control over the undead. Thankfully, I knew just how much so-called demonstration I needed, for there was a small bar underneath the first requirement. No doubt showing me how much of that so called control I needed to advance to the second requirement in this quest. And so my next move had been set by the game and now all I needed was to work toward it, and work I would. For I needed to escape this dungeon room, for my own sake.