Chapter 12
Part 2
Becoming the Prime Undead
I watched as my skeleton minions fought against one another, each waiting for their turn to be called upon by me.
“Stop!” I ordered just before the final hit. I couldn’t lose any of them yet, and they were still valuable to me.
“Skill Point Level Up!”
The game voice said, as one of my skeleton minions under my control gained another skill level, and with this, they were now all equal in skill level points.
“Line up next to one another,” I said, and they obeyed, moving side by side. I stared at them, to the naked eye they looked nothing more than walking corpses, devoid of any sort of value besides being disposable NPC characters for this dungeon we were trapped in to spit out. But to me, they were more than just cannon fodder to be used by characters in this game in their quest to level up.
I stared at them for a minute, their expressions devoid of emotions, their stares leaving nothing to mystery, just common disposable NPCs to be used and discarded at will. Nothing more than trash mobs, so in a twisted way, they were still that for me, a tool that I needed to use to escape this dungeon room.
“Skeleton Insight!” I said, and my view was populated by blue transparent boxes floating on top of their heads.
“Skeleton,” It read, that was their name. Just skeleton which was no different than the name of a common object.
“Stat window!” I said again, and another window appeared in front of me, listing the various stats.
“Level 1
HP: 8
MP: 0
Strength: 2
Vitality: 2
Endurance: 2
Agility: 2
Skill points: 15”
I looked at the other two skeletons. Their stats were identical. They were mere carbon copies of one another, but did it have to be that way?
“Could I change that? ” I asked myself.
In every RPG game, every character had certain attributes that they excelled at which allowed them to fill a specific role within the game. Could I really have the ability to create such a thing for these mindless skeletons, and give them a new meaning to their disposable selves?
“Dominion over the undead.”
Stolen novel; please report.
Those words filled my mind. What better show of dominion than controlling their destiny, wouldn’t you say?
“Congrats my simple mindless skeleton minions,” I said sarcastically, as I grinned at them.
“For today is the day of your rebirth.”
Those words left my bony mouth like the first cold wind of winter signaling a change in seasons.
I looked at the four walls of this dungeon, so far everything had been quiet, and no magical doors had appeared that brought with it pesky players.
“But for how long,” I asked myself, so far I had been battling one skeleton with another. But that didn’t mean I could take my time either, I needed to act quickly, or else I could risk my progress. Making me long for the special ability to save your progress in games. If only I could do that here.
“Now’s not the time to think about that,” I told myself, I had work to do.
Looking at the stats of my minions, their level was still at one but their skill points had improved, which was good. That meant I didn’t need to level them up to gain skill points. The most important feature of my plan. Which if I thought about it, was kind of over power. They were at level 1 but soon their stats would not be that of a level 1 skeleton.
“Is time to begin,” I said, grinning.
I looked at their skill points. , 15 points to distribute among their stats.
“Time to decide which role you’re going to fulfill,” I said, as I looked at the three skeletons that were in front of me. This was perfect since in most RPG games the most basic of roles when starting were the tank, the healer, and the damage class, the pinnacle of MMORPG games. Not a lot of choices but that was ok, this was only the beginning.
“Shall we start with you,” I said looking at the first skeleton in line.
“Or should I say skeleton 1, since that’s going to be your new name from now on. “
Not super creative but it did the job.
“Stat window open!”
“Level 1
HP: 8
MP: 0
Strength: 2
Vitality: 2
Endurance: 2
Agility: 2
Skill points: 15”
The tank class always had a plethora of health and endurance to be able to tank any attacks if I remember correctly, so I knew just what two stats I was going to raise in Skeleton 1.
"Health points increase by 5,” I said and watched as its health stat number changed from 8 to 13.
“Endurance increase by 10!”
Endurance 2 + 10
Endurance 12
You’re going to be my tank class skeleton 1.
Level 1
HP: 13
MP: 0
Strength: 2
Vitality: 2
Endurance: 12
Agility: 2
Skill points: 0”
I turned to the other skeleton next to skeleton 1 and did the same process raising the two stats that were going to be useful for the damage class, turning skeleton 2 as my fighter. He needed to be fast and strong. A glass cannon as most damage classes were called.
“Strength increased by 10 and agility by 5. “
“Level 1
HP: 8
MP: 0
Strength: 12
Vitality: 2
Endurance: 2
Agility: 7
Skill points: 0”
Finally, it was the last skeletons turned.
“You’re going to be my healer,” I said,
“Wait, Can a skeleton even be a healer?”
I wondered, I did not know the answer but I was going to find out.
“MP stat increase by 10,” I said, and as my words left my bony mouth, they were met with big red floating letters in front of me.
“ERROR !”
“Action cannot be taken due to class missing !”
It made sense as I looked at those red letters in front of me. Skeletons couldn’t use mana unless they were an undead class like a necromancer or a lich king.
I still need the third role, after all, no RPG game was complete without the trifecta, but how was I going to turn this skeleton into that class?
Usually in RPG games, if you wanted to change the classes of a character, you either spec into it or got an item or weapon that gave you that class but looking around there was nothing but that giant wooded treasure box sitting in the middle of the dungeon. Minus a few skeleton bones lying around. There was no staff weapon that I could use for my healer skeleton.
“Skeleton 3 pick me up,” I said, and the skeleton obeyed walking toward me and grabbing me from the small rock that my bony head was lying upon.
I looked around the treasure chest and the only thing that was around it was the small floating box telling me its name.
“Treasure chest: Content unknown”
There was nothing of value to me which was ironic considering there was a giant treasure chest sitting in the middle waiting to be opened.
“Nothing but bones,” I said, no doubt left by other skeleton mobs that had been killed by players.
Is not like I could use a piece of bone and pretend it was a staff, I thought as I let out a faint laugh, remembering how as kids we would use wooden sticks to pretend they were more than just ordinary pieces of wood.
“Or could I ?’ I wondered.