Chapter 6

A skeleton rumble

I began to put one of my newly acquire stat points that I had taken back through respecting and put it in wisdom, and as the stat when from zero to one, my bones began to emit a slight glow for a second.

“MP has been increase to 7!”

My stat window read.

"What the?" I said, taken back by the revelation.

"Hmmm...It does make sense if you think about it. In many RPG games a wizard uses wisdom to increase their spell usage, why didn't I think about that."

I felt sort of silly to think something as obvious as that escaped me, but nevertheless, I continue with what I had to do.

I put the remaining two skill points into presence.

I didn’t know if my plan was going to work, but I had nothing else to try. I was putting all my chips on this plan so to speak.

I walked over to the highest level skeleton that was walking around the chest and stopped in front of him, making him stop.

If I was going to try and influence one of the skeletons, it might as well be the highest level one, though I wasn’t sure if it was going to work.

“Character info open,” I said, making a window open in front of me.

‘Lvl: 5

HP: 17

MP: 0.”

His hollow eyes sockets looked straight ahead, as if he was looking through me. "Well, is now or never."

I took a deep sigh, I wasn’t sure what I was going to say, but the first thing I needed to know was if my voice could even reach my fellow skeleton friend.

“Um..." I was nervous, which was silly, but despite him being a skeleton, a monster, non human, I still had some of my human like quirks still in me.

"B-Bow your head down,” I said, not knowing if my empty words would reach him.

A window and a bell sound appeared in front of me.

“Congratulations! You have unlocked a new window: Skill Window.

" Bone whisperer skill learned!”

“Bone whisperer allows you to bend and break the dead to your will. Must have high Intelligence, Wisdom and Presence for effect to work.”

It had worked, somehow, I had been successful.

“ Skill window close.”

The Lvl 5 skeleton had moved his head down, and stood there, waiting for my next command.

“Move your head up,” I said, and the skeleton obeyed, moving his head up. I looked at the other skeletons that were walking around the room. I spotted my second victim of this experiment, a level one skeleton.

“Walk to that skeleton and strike him with your sword,” I said, pointing to the lvl 1 skeleton.

I watched as the Lvl 5 skeleton moved toward the Lv 1 skeleton and proceeded to obey my command, striking the lower level skeleton with his sword. The lvl 1 skeleton recoiled from the hit. I looked above his head and saw the HP of the lower skeleton go down by three points.

“Lvl 1 Skeleton

HP: 7 – 3:

4 .”

The lower level skeleton looked at the skeleton that hit him and just stared at him with his hollow eye sockets. I was surprise, for I would had expected a counter attack. I looked at the other skeletons but they continue with whatever they were doing, not paying the other two skeletons any mind. I walked over to my servant,

“Strike him again,” I said, and he obeyed, I repeated my command until the lower level skeleton was at 1 HP. I didn’t’ want the Lv 5 skeleton to take my experience, for I had earned it, not him.

‘Step aside,” I said, and the skeleton did just that, stepping aside to let me through. I looked at the level 1 skeleton, his HP bar reading 1. He stood in front of me with his vacant expression. They were really mindless drones.

“Sorry, little buddy,” I said, grinning,

“But I need the exp.”

I grabbed my sword and brought it up toward the air, and with all my strength, swung it down, striking him.

“HP :0”

His bar read, and to my surprise, his body collapse like a house of cards, his bones scattering all over the floor.

“You gained 1 exp!”

“You gained 1 Bone!”

A window appeared in front of me,

‘Would you like to put it in your Inventory? YES / NO.”

“Yes,” I said, and the window of my inventory opened, and inside it was a little box with a bone icon on it, next to the sword and shield icons.

“You gained 1 bone, Would you like to put it in your inventory? YES /NO.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

A few text boxes appeared in front of me, telling me of the stuff I had gained, and as I said yes to all of them, the bones on the floor began to disappear one by one, until nothing was on the floor except for the skeleton’s sword and shield. I reached for them and a text box appeared in front of me,

“Would you like to pick 1 simple sword and 1 simple shield? YES / No,”

“Yes” I said, and his weapons disappeared into my inventory slot. I had gained not only experience but also materials that no doubt were going to be useful later on. There were two other skeletons I still had to kill, one was a lvl 3 and the other a lvl 4. I pointed toward the Lvl 3 one,

“Strike him until his HP reaches one,” I said, but to my surprise, a text box appeared in front of me.

“Error, command cannot be process, Bone whisperer skill is not high enough,” it read. I guess the command was too complex, I guess I could only give them simple commands for now.

“Strike him with your sword,” I said, and the skeleton moved to the LV 3 skeleton and hit him with his sword, and stopped.

“Strike him again,” I said, over and over until the LV 3 skeleton was at 1 HP. And just like the previous one, I also hit him, taking the exp for myself.

“You gained 2 exp “

“You gained 1 bone, Would you like to put 1 bone in your inventory? YES / NO.”

After I was done with him, I, along with my servant, moved to the level 4 skeleton. He took more hits that the others, which was to be expected since he was at a higher level. And as I was done killing the final skeleton, I stood in front of the skeleton that had helped me killed our brethren and began to strike him down, ones and twos began to appear above him as my parry of attacks did damage, chipping away at his health.

“Congratulations you have level up to level 3 !”

My character screen appeared in front me, my stats had risen by one, and I had gained 2 stat points. I spec the stat point into wisdom and presence, and waited for another group of skeletons to arrive.

I looked at my character screen, I had level up to level 3. My stats had improve by one point again, which wasn’t enough, I still needed more levels if I was to survive this room.

I put the extra stat points I had gotten, which were two only, into presence and wisdom, the two stats that where going to help me accomplish my first mission. I swiped over to my inventory screen, I had gained 4 basic swords and shields, and 12 bone materials, which I had no idea what I was going to use them in, but I kept them anyway. If there was crafting in this world I found myself in, then they would come in handy, but for now they were going to be tucked away in my inventory.

“Skill Window open,” I said, a window appeared in front of me, replacing my inventory window screen.

My skill, Bone Whisperer, had also gained a level.

I could see the number two flashing above its box shape icon. If I continued to use this skill, how powerful will it get? Perhaps I could even make every skeleton, no , every monster in this dungeon my slaves.

I got up from the corner I found myself in, and walked toward the stone wall, the room looked completely sealed with no way to escape, which I knew wasn’t the case. There were magical doorways that appeared, I just didn’t know how they work, but they were there. I placed my bony hand on the walls, I couldn’t feel its stone surface, but it didn’t matter. I wonder what was on the other side of this stone walls, what other rooms awaited me, wondering just what kind of monsters those other rooms had, for I was sure skeletons weren’t the only monsters in this dungeon, after all, I had already seen other monsters besides them.

The giant knight flashing before me, if this skill of mine continue to level up, will I be able to control a monster as powerful as him? Just what kind of destruction could I create with such a being, I could feel my face tightening around my cheeks for some reason, it was almost as if my cheeks were grinning, which was silly. But yet, imagining the kind of power I could get was awakening something in me, which I didn’t know what….

I only knew I was liking it.

I spend most of my time, as I was waiting for more skeletons, sitting in the corner of the room, looking at the wooden chest in the middle of the room , its body made of wood with metal edges running around its body. The metal on its wooden body made it shine from the light off the torchlights that were in the wall. I wanted to get up and touch it, to run my bony hands through its thick, wooden body, wanting to see what was inside of it.

I got up from the corner of the room and walked toward it. Its body was quite big now that I had gotten a closer look at it, it's height reached toward my waist, no doubt hiding some treasure, but how good of a treasure could it be, after all, this was only the first floor.

“Chest open,” I said, not sure what I was expecting, but I figure I try it anyway, and to my surprise, my words triggered a text box to appear in front of me.

‘Has not met the requirements for that action,” the text box read, I walked back to my little corner and sat down.

“Survive the first room,” those were the words of my first mission, perhaps this treasure chest was a reward for completing this mission or perhaps whatever was inside the treasure box was not meant for me but for them.

A cold feeling ran through my bones as I though about them. It was as if my body was telling me to stay away from them, from those adventurers. I still didn’t know if they were other players or NPCs like the skeletons. I mean, they had to be other players, if I was trapped in this RPG game, that meant they were other players too.

I wonder if they were also trapped in here like me, or was I the only …..

I brushed those thoughts aside, right now I needed to focus on the mission in front of me. I just needed to take one thing at a time, for my own sanity.

The room laid silently empty around me, it almost felt like I was in some horror movie. Just one skeleton waiting in the darkness of this stone room, waiting for some prey to approach me. I was getting bore just waiting like this. I got up from the floor and walked toward one of the walls where the disappearing archway entrances appeared, wondering just how long it was going to be until more skeletons would appear.

I wanted to level up fast, no, I needed to level up fast or else. And just when I was getting impatient , a cold chill ran down my bones, and if I had a living, breathing body, my heart would have dropped along with it.

I turned my head slowly toward the wall that laid across from me, where the other archway entrance had appeared before. And I saw my greatest fear appear before me, the dark body of the archway entrance laid in full visibility across from me. I tried to move my body, tried to get my sword and shield, yet my body didn’t obey, it was as if I was frozen in fear. And if I had payed attention, I would have saw the faint text box in front of me,

“Effect activated, Freeze foe, This effect renders the user frozen for a few seconds, caster unknow.”

The text box disappeared, and the only thing that was left behind was the effect. Yet, there was also something else in me, there was fear.

She had dark violet hair with a face that any men would have die for. She was wearing a black wizard robe that looked more like a dress that could barely cover the curves that made her body.

She had a dark brown almost rotten color staff on her left hand, which had a dark gem on top of it.

But despite being a woman of extreme beauty , she had an aura about her that spelled death.

“ I hate having to start at the lowest floors, such a drag,” she said, her words ran through my body, as if they were embracing me, and for the first time, a female voice had captivated me.

If I had met her when I was flesh and muscle instead of bones, she would have saw my attraction toward her right away. But thankfully I didn’t, for that realization helped me bring me back to reality. And as I was ready to move my body to reach for my sword that laid on the corner of the room, and commit the greatest sin of them all, killing a being of such beauty, her blue eyes locked on to the hollow sockets I called eyes. And with it , bringing the cruel realization that I was invisible for a brief second, for she had not even acknowledged my presence, for it was insignificant.

“Eww! it’s just some trash skeleton ,” she said, her cruel words hitting me harder that any attack she could throw at me. And it’s not that I was a stranger to a woman’s rejection, but coming out of the mouth of such a beauty, hit differently. Her eyes, no her face, had a certain boredom to them, as if I was nothing more than an ant to her. As I ran toward her, I saw the text box floating above her head,

“Sorceress Eviras LV : ????”

“I don’t have time to deal with trash,” she said, as she brought her staff outward, and pointed at me. And the last thing I saw with my hollow eyes was a light coming my way, destroying every bone in this body, along with my consciousness as well.