Licking some melted chocolate off her finger, a depressed Bug lets out a tired sigh as she stares up at the ceiling of the second Boss Room, a half-eaten Chocho-Chocolate and Caramel Surprise cookie in her hand as she lies on her back.
It’s been about an hour since Hannah and the others have left, and Bug honestly hasn’t felt much of any motivation to do anything just yet…
It’s strange, she was sad to see her first and only friend leave – and the others as well she guesses, she did sort of like them after all – but this is a new feeling for her. This lethargy where it feels like something is missing and now, she can’t even bring out the energy to get up off the floor.
It sucks…
Bug is… She is lonely?
Is that what it is?
Yes, Bug had only knows Hannah and the others for all of two days, hardly any time at all for most people, but for Bug, who has only been alive for not even two weeks now, two days is arguably a large percentage of her life. Especially when comparing her memories of the last two days to those before when she was in the first layer. Her memories here are just happier, plain as that. Up top was nothing but killing and living in a boring old cave, eating moss and stabbing people. But down here in the second layer? Bug had made a friend. Bug got to share a cookie with her friend. Bug got to learn so much more about the outside world. And most of all, Bug was able to fully reaffirm her goals.
Now, leaving the Dungeon isn’t just a matter of achieving her freedom or her revenge, of seeing the world with her own eyes, of feeling the Sun’s light kiss her skin, nor is it now wholly a goal of finding more cookies and discovering other treats. Now, her goal is so much more. She has someone waiting for her up there on the surface. She has a friend to meet again and a promise to fulfill.
Part of Bug wants to get up right now and charge headfirst into the next layer. She has things to do, damn it, places to be! But yet, she just can’t quite pull up the energy needed to move yet…
Because she is sad and lonely… and Bug doesn’t really know how to process these emotions…
Before meeting Hannah, she never felt lonely. Bug can’t even recall ever thinking of wanting to be around other people. Well, unless of course being around them involved getting what she wanted, but that obviously doesn't count and all the other times she ended up around other people, that ended with her killing them…
But now? Now that Hannah has left?
This sucks… Not even eating a cookie is making me feel better, and this thing is delicious! How could I not be happy eating this!? I mean, this is my first time trying caramel, and it is amazing. But I just feel sad… This sucks… I hate this, why can’t I just be happy? It would be nice if I could just tell my brain to be happy, but I can’t afford any of the spells that does that. Weird that they are all categorized as curses though, what is up with that?
“Ehh…”
Bug just rolls over onto her side, her green eyes looking over the two boss monsters she’d killed and made her own. All that power, now being hers to command as she wills, far more power than any Gremlin could ever wish to wield, and they are hers! ALL HERS!
“Meh~”
Bug takes another bite of cookie and just disregards the giant things, disregarding the little forest of mushrooms that is already slowly spreading out from their feet in every direction. She just doesn’t care right now…
“Being alone sucks…” Is the natural conclusion that Bug comes to as she finishes off her cookie and licks the chocolate and caramel off her fingers.
Rolling over to her opposite shoulder like a log stuck in the mud, Bug switches her gaze to her gathered skeletons, their large frames still standing guard over her after the humans left. They haven’t moved an inch since then.
“Hey, can any of you talk?”
The skeletons naturally don’t respond, but they do all turn slightly to look at their master, as if waiting for an order to be given. That’s all they end up doing though. They don’t nod or shake their heads or shrug their shoulders. They just turn the bare minimum necessary to show that they are waiting and listening.
“Never mind…” Bug sighs as she flops back over onto her back.
Was a stupid question anyways. I know how Necromancy works. All the knowledge is already stuck in my head. I can’t expect normal Undead to develop sapience, they don’t even have a soul. They’re just a bunch of bones held together by a mana-construct shaped like a soul. I would have to be a literal god to make an actual person out these things…
Turning her head, her still dirty hair from the fight getting in her face in the process, Bug gives another look at her skeletons.
Hmm, there are those one spells that can make sapient Undead, but I have to capture a living person and perform a ritual in order to use those. I could buy one and make a Whight or a Banshee, or maybe something stronger, just have to capture a human and then… Ahh! What the hell is wrong with me!? It’s only been an hour and I’m already trying to build my own friend? What the fuck?!
“Uhhhhhh! I hate this! I just want to be free already!!!” Bug moans as she kicks her feet against the ground.
Bug rolls over again and again, this time onto her stomach.
I should have let Hannah hug me before she left…
Bug just lays there for a long while, not caring as time passes by, her face in the dirt and her heart in the muck. But eventually, she lets out a huff and forces herself to do something, anything. She knows that she can’t just keep laying around here when she has a job to do, just… She still doesn’t feel like getting up and moving just yet.
So, instead, she sits up and plops her butt on the ground so she can take a look at her changes and all the notifications from beating the Boss and the Cleaner, her Level-ups and everything else. If she doesn’t feel like moving yet, then she can at least do something productive with her time.
//Killed lvl 30 Bloody Queen of the Forgotten Stone Jungle – 10’000 exp gained!
//Congratulations! You have reached lvl 27! – Your stats have been increased!
//You have earned 4 Free Stat points!
//You have earned 2 Skill point
//Congratulations! You have reached lvl 28! – Your stats have been increased!
//You have earned 4 Free Stat points!
//You have earned 2 Skill point
//Congratulations! You leveled-up a Skill!
//Pain Tolerance Lvl 3 is now Lvl 4!
//Congratulations! You earned a Skill!
//Mana Control lvl1 unlocked!
//Congratulations! You earned a Skill!
//Soul Sight lvl1 unlocked!
//Congratulations! You earned a Skill!
//Death Resistance lvl1 unlocked!
//Congratulations! You earned a Spell!
//Winter’s Death Aura unlocked!
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
//Congratulations! You have upgraded a Spell!
//Turn Undead has become, Command Undead!
…
Mhh, skip this bit. Hello again Admin, or Redacted. Always nice to see you…
…
//Congratulation! You have upgraded your Race!
//Race: Gremlin, has been upgraded to Half-Undead Gremlin!
//Notice: All Undead Users [If applicable] receive a 1 Point discount on all Death infused magics in the Skill Store.
//Notice: Your Racial Resistances have been adjusted.
//Slashing Resistance has been adjusted to Base 60% from 10%
//Stabbing Resistance has been adjusted to Base 60% from 10%
//Impact Resistance has been adjusted to Base -40% from 0%
//Fire Resistance has been adjusted to Base -30% from 10%
//Water Resistance has been adjusted to Base 60% from 10%
//Ice Resistance has been adjusted to Base 60% from 10%
//Darkness Resistance has been adjusted to Base 70% from 20%
//Time Resistance has been adjusted to Base 30% from 0%
//Light Resistance has been adjusted to Base -60% from 0%
//Death Resistance has been adjusted to Base 80% from 0%
//Life Resistance has been adjusted to Base -60% from 0%
…
//Congratulations! A Skill has been ungraded due to Race Evolution!
//Deadly Poison Resistance Lvl1, has become Ailment Immunity!
//Congratulations! A Skill has been ungraded due to Race Evolution!
//Pain Resistance Lvl4, has become Pain Immunity!
//Congratulations! A Skill has been earned due to Race Evolution!
//Unaging unlocked!
…
//Warning! You have been inflicted with the Curse of Undeath! Any being that you kill will now have an 81.2% [Before factoring personal resistances.] chance of being raised as more Undead.
Completely ignoring the numerous kill notifications from all the little spiders, Bug honestly doesn’t know where to start with what she is seeing. Level-ups, skill unlocks, skill evolutions, apparently her race changed and all the things that came with that… She decides to focus on that for now since it seems to be the most important matter to deal with right now outside of everything else.
“How am I Half-Undead? How would that even work?”
A quick check reveals that Bug’s heart is still in fact beating… if it would just hurry up and beat for her…
…
Any moment now…
*Badump~
“Oh, thank goodness!”
Bug lets out a sigh of relief as her heart gives her one little beat before going still again for a worryingly long while, a whole minute passing by on her clock before it chooses to beat for her again.
“Ok… concerning, but that is proof that I am still, sort’a, alive…or I guess, Half-Undead? So weird, how does this even work? How would my heart be able to move my blood around my body if it isn’t beating properly? Is my blood even flowing properly anymore?”
Deciding to find out really quick, Bug pulls her dagger out of her inventory and slits her wrist on one of her lower arms. The blade struggles to cut through the fur covering her forearm, but she manages to get the blade in and cuts open her arm.
It doesn’t even hurt, her new Pain Immunity skill already proving it’s value as the blade parts from her skin with a fresh coat of red. Holding up her arm to watch, her blood is indeed still flowing if the blood pissing out of her artery is any indication…
Again, she doesn’t even feel any pain, nothing more than a silent reminder in the back of her head letting her know that her arm is bleeding quite a lot. With a push of will, Bug uses Become Weapon to heal her arm and stop the bleeding.
“Alright then, so I can still bleed and my heart is still beating, sort of… Is there anything else about me that has changed? I can still eat food, thank goodness, and… yes, my System is still showing that I have a hunger meter, so I do still need to eat. How about…?”
Bug pulls up her Build page on her HUD, the System displaying for her an image of her body and listing everything that she is wearing and their defensive values. She mostly just uses it as a mirror now for when she brushes her hair and not much else though. Maybe if Bug was actually searching the Dungeon for loot like armor and weapons, she would have more use for it and its intended features, but for right now… Mirror.
“Why is my skin so pale now, I’m almost pure white? Is this part of my Undead changes?”
With no one else besides her skeletal minions being nearby to see her, Bug goes ahead and unequips her shirt and leather chest guard, letting her get a better look at herself. Touching at her chest and face, the only parts of her body not covered in fur or scales, she is surprised at how cold her skin is now, her once tan colored skin having now become a pale white like a corpse. Curious she looks down at the blood that she had just shed on the ground. The red puddle is shockingly frozen over and she has to blink at it as she registers the sight before her…
“Huh… my blood is cold? I’m cold blooded now? Wait, I don’t think that mean literally cold though but more that my body just wouldn’t generate heat on its own, and I’m not a reptile… That doesn’t matter, why is it like this now?”
Realization hits her a moment later and Bug looks down, her hand going to her navel to feel at the Death Core residing inside of her.
She can’t feel the cold embrace of Death pushing against her living body anymore. The normally uncomfortable sensation that she had grown to eventually ignore is completely gone. No longer is there this ice-cold ball of Death in her stomach, slowly sapping away at her living warmth. Now, there is just her Core and her power.
Bug’s body has adapted to finally be able to properly house Death. It doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t feel unnatural anymore. It’s just, hers… Though it apparently required her to half-unalive herself to get this to happen…
Now, for why her blood is freezing? Yes, Death is cold, Ice is a usable secondary of Death for a good reason, just like Nature and its poisons, but why is her blood this cold? It’s not like she accidently turned herself into a Hoarfrost Undead like some of her minions are… Wait, could she do that now, use Enhance Undead on herself?
“Something to figure out later… Now, where is all this extra cold coming from, normal Undead don’t get this cold, just… normal corpse cold kind of cold… Skill list, let’s see…”
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Skills List
Skills:
Identify 1
Tracking 2
Assassination 2
Knife Fighting 2
Sword Fighting 2
Whip Fighting 1
Spear Fighting 1
Fist Fighting 3
Claw Fighting 2
Throwing Weapons 1
Knot Tying 1
Flexibility 2
Gymnastics 1
Climbing 1
Flying 1
Mana Control 1
Soul Sight 1
Death Resistance 1
Ailment Immunity
Pain Immunity
Unageing
Spells:
Inflict Pain
Make Deadly Poison
Grow Death Fungous
Become Weapon [Expand for all component Spells]
Grow Eyes
Raise Undead
Command Undead
Enhance Undead
Make Bone Weapons
Winter’s Death Aura (Passive) [Active 10%]
----------------------------------------
Bug doesn’t bother checking her learned Knowledges, her eyes only scanning over the growing list of Skills and Spells that she has accrued, until finally reaching a Spell marked as being active at the bottom of the list.
“Winter’s Death Aura? I didn’t buy this one. Did I earn it somehow?”
Bug goes back through her notifications and finds it. She got it while she was overloading her body with Death Mana to kill the Cleaner, her body basically becoming nothing more than a conduit as she funneled mana through her body faster than she could sustain it. She can remember how cold she was then as her body was slowly failing her, ice growing over her arms as the skin of her hands started to rot.
“I thought it was only Skills and Knowledge that could be earned though? Did I somehow end up using the Spell on accident and so the System gave it to me? Why isn’t this in the User Manual? Just how much information are they going to leave out and expect me to find on my own!? Are the Devs even doing their jobs!?!?” Bug curses as her wings angrily flap about and smack against the hard floor.
“Hah…”
Bug flops back down onto her back, letting her exasperation with the System out with a tired sigh, her limbs and wings splayed out in every direction.
“Doesn’t matter, I got a free spell, so I shouldn’t complain. Let’s see here…”
This is her first passive spell, so Bug starts by just figuring out how to turn it off and on. It ends up being rather intuitive luckily, much like many parts of the System after she enabled mental commands in the settings, and just requires her to will it into happening. Like flicking a switch in her brain, the spell turns off and her body slowly starts to warm back up again, a little bit of pink returning to her pale skin and her cheeks become rosy with some fresh warmth. It gets nowhere near normal body temperature, but her skin is no longer cold to the touch.
Flipping the spell back on again, Bug goes ahead and pumps it up to 100%, just to see what the spell can really do.
The first immediate thing she notices is the mana drain. At 10% it wasn’t even noticeable, the passive regeneration of her core being more than enough to cover the cost, but now that the spell is going at full blast, her reserves are slowly draining at about three mana a second or so.
If I keep increasing my Intelligence stat, I should be able to further reduce the drain…
The second is the fact that everything around Bug is now freezing over, a growing layer of ice quickly spreading out from her in every direction, with plenty of the ice growing on Bug’s body as well like a second layer of transparent scales. Any blood still left on her body or in stuck in her hair is quick to freeze over into clumps of red ice, her already messy hair quickly becoming a tangled and frozen over mess of dirty hair.
Frost radiating off her body, Bug curses and quickly turns it back down again.
“Ah, my fucking hair! Great! Now it’s going to be even more of a pain to clean, how long is this going to take to melt? Mrrmrm, I need a bath, I probably smell horrible…”
Bug looks around from her frozen spot on the ground, everything around her having become a frozen landscape for a couple meters, but the Boss Room has a distinct lack of baths available…
“Hah, screw it! I’m done moping around for now! Let’s just get moving already.”
She points up at the two Undead boss monsters as she summons her dirty clothes back onto her body.
“You two, head out there and spread death and destruction through the second layer! If its living, make it dead or Undead, and I want those mushrooms spread everywhere. Chop, chop, get to it! The rest of you, follow me. We’re conquering the third layer!”