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-Raise Dead
By channeling the will of Dark Goddess reanimate a corpse. Success dependent on disparity of power and age of corpse.
-Curse
Through you connection to the many gods of the goblins you have learned how to afflict living creatures with randomly chosen curses. The more creatures you curse the faster it wears off. Duration and severity dependent on disparity of power between caster and target.
-Drain
By concentrating on a living creatures with open wounds the caster may drain the target of their life force to regenerate their own health.
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I flop down on the soft grass and detritus that blankets the ground of the forest leaning back against a small tree the rough bark scraping against my bare back. I absently pick a stick out of my leather loin cloth as I read and re-read the results of my level up. I don't know if anyone else has a system status screen or if I am unique. So I have never shared this fact with anyone else. It hasn't ever really helped me before so this is all a bit of a shock to me.
I read it all again one more time before I take a deep slow breath.
"But what do I do? How the hell do I cast a spell?"
"Well that's easier than I expe...WHAT! You can understand me?!"
"How? How is this possible"
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I spent a couple hours sitting there against that tree learning what I can about the system and its restored functions, turns out there isn't much yet but that more functions will come as I gain what it calls levels. Apparently as I gain in experience in this life some of the energy that is created will be syphoned off by the system and used to open new options and new functions, but I have little to no control over what functions will be restored or when. I guess the creator of this thing didn't want just anyone to be able to tamper with it.
Looking around I realize how long I have been sitting here. The light of day is starting to fade away as the second sun follows the first over the horizon the worlds slipping into twilight as darkness settles in. The liveliness of the day fading away as the still of night robs the world and the inhabitants of the forest of the warm energy of life. Goblins are typically nocturnal by nature so I know that the time to run again will soon be on me. I can feel the whisper of the cool breeze and smell the stink of the clans warriors carried on it.
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I may have lost them for now, but like and old dog with a bone they will not stop hunting me until I am dead or the clan elders tell them to return. So getting to my feet I take a moment to kick some leaves around trying to hide that I was here. I seriously doubt it will work, it's not like I have a lot of training in how to be stealthy. I have always been more of a homebody but my father did take me out hunting a few times when I was young. I'm not to sure that any of it stuck.
I do my best to move through the forest quietly, watching my step to reduce the evidence of my passing even rubbing some leaves and berries on my clothes to try and mask my scent.
While slinking along I pick up the faint scent of decay, that sweet but somehow sour smell of a body decomposing. Turning this way and that sniffing at the air I move slowly around the area until I lock in on the source of the stench and make my way closer and closer until I reach a large bush. The smell is so thick it feels as if I am swimming in it. One could almost see the stink. When I look under the bush I finally discover what is making that god awful smell.
There in front of my lays the half eaten half rotted corpse of a kobold. Goblins and kobolds don't really get on too well but we have been known to group up with the rat like humanoids to fight off adventuring parties when it is advantageous to do so. Kobolds are slightly shorter than your average goblin coming in at just under a meter in height and weighing about as much as your average five year old human child. Covered in wiry fur ranging in color from rusty red to light brown with small beady eyes and elongated snouts they really do remind me of bipedal rats. This one seems to have been a little more on the red side and younger than the ones we would usually see, still too young to be a warrior I figure it must have been a hunter or gatherer. Poor bastard's bags are missing along with his clothing telling me that either he was robbed before being killed or after or that animals have taken his things over what I assume to been about three weeks since it was un-alived.
Here goes nothing. I reached out with a trembling hand and speak a single word... "Arise". Suddenly I feel a surge of darkness come over me, power filling my small frame, a tinge of green taints my vision. I imagine my eyes glowing in a sickly green as that dark power flows through me, surging down my arm and out through my outstretched fingers, I feel a connection form with the corpse. For a moment I almost feel like the corpse and I are one and then it fades leaving only a small thread behind.
The dead kobold starts to shake as a green glow envelopes it, the remaining flesh liquifying into a putrid goo and sloughs off the bones as the small skeleton stands up slowly, the bones rattling with every movement. I shudder and the sight staring into the green glowing empty eye sockets I can feel that connects. It wills me to give the dead creature a command, and so with a single thought I tell the creature to guard me. The skelly doesn't say anything or have any real thoughts but I just know without any doubt that it will follow me until it's destruction without fear, without feeling. It will do what I say to the best of it's ability or die trying. Even if I will it to simply die it will do so without complaint.
Turning away from the skeleton I once more begin to slink through the forest. The undergrowth barely impedes me as I slip through it with ease. into a clearing. A small stream of fresh clear water runs along one edge of the five meter by three meter space. The grass is soft against my bare feet, and the trees are packed tightly together blocking the view from the outside. There is a very slight breeze but it is not cold here. even in the dark of night this place feels right.
Taking a little time I circle the clearing familiarizing myself with the area when I find a hollowed out log laying in the stream. Stepping into the cold water I look into the log relieved to find that it is empty of anything that might try to eat me, sting me or bite me. However I realize there is a small problem. I am not strong enough to move it out of the water and up onto the dry grassy area. I try to roll it but I cant even get it to rock let alone roll it up the small bank. I spend time trying to work out how I am going to get this log clear of the water so that I might use it for shelter while telly skelly to quit moving, the rattling of his bones is distracting me from the task at hand.
They say that wisdom comes with age, I say we are all idiots waiting to happen. Slapping my face into my palm I realize how stupid I really am.
"Move this log to the dry area over there." I say while pointing towards the small flat looking space by the stream but out of the water. I am not to certain the single skeleton can even move it, seeing as how it isn't much bigger than myself but amazingly the skeleton gets behind it and with a single shove the log rolls out of the water. The mud that held it in place for all this time letting go with a sucking sputtering sound. In only a few moments the log is where I had indicated and the skeleton is standing next to it. Emotionless it waits for it's next command.
Relieved that I will be able to sleep in a warm space hidden from the world I crawl inside the log and just before passing out for the night I give the skeleton a single command. "Kill any living creature that enters this clearing." My eyes close and I drift off to sleep and the land of nightmares.