Bones lay strewn throughout the chamber. The sizable pile now mixed with a variety of rocks and dirt. A heavy silence hung in the walls, contrasting the chaos during the tremors. A dim, gloomy light lit the room in a way that could only be called eerie. Suddenly, there was a noise. The bones on one side of the room shook. A muffled curse pierced the silence as a head shot out from within, taking deep breaths.
Luca’s face was mired in disgust and anxiety as he awoke. A bleeding and bruising gash sat on the top of his head. The blood, combining with the dust and dirt, had fully dried and stuck to his face like a crust, matting his hair. The rest of his body, slightly submerged in bones and rocks, felt wet and sticky—as if he had been laying in a pool of blood.
A groan escaped his lips. “Wh- What the fuck... What happened?”
Pain was the first thing he noticed as he sat up. It felt like his whole body was protesting the motion but the worst pain emanated from his head. It felt like someone had taken a hammer to his skull and left the sharp nail jammed inside. At the same time, a wave of dizziness and confusion followed as he tried to remember how he ended up like this.
Clutching his face with his right hand, he tried to support his body with his left. His hand reached out with a sickening rip as the thick liquid all over his back and sides made his clothes stick to his body.
‘The hell!’ He quickly pulled his hand away.
He cringed at the sudden movement but also at what he’d just felt. The floor next to him was covered in the same liquid that covered him. Actually… this one had clumps in it, rather squishy too…
“The thing—the catacombs. The earthquake!... Hunter…”
He slowly turned to look to his left. At his hand, his shirt, his hair, and then finally at the body on the floor. A feeling of static attempted to override his thoughts. A hollowness, the numbing of emotion, filled him. Hunter’s corpse was buried beside him, his head barely visible among bones. It was barely recognizable, half of it crushed into a bloody pulp. Chunks of gray matter lay haphazardly around it and the gaping hole in his skull leaked coagulating blood. Every so often a small fragment of what used to be his skull, now unevenly concave, flowed out of the weeping wound.
The emotions washed over him and he almost didn’t flinch. His heart thumping rapidly in his chest as that static now seemed to encroach the edges of his vision. A trembling hand reached towards his face and a self deprecating laugh left him.
His voice shook as he whispered into his hand, “This is what a panic attack feels like?”
He laughed harder as tears began to flow out of his eyes. Breathing became harder and harder. Full on hyperventilating as the shock began running its course. A flood of adrenaline filled his body as he sat there for a few minutes.
“Fuck. FUCK!”
Looking around, he tried to understand where he was. Possibly find a way out. It was an overly hopeful thought however. The likelihood that the route he was following would still exist was slim. That he would even know which direction he should go even slimmer in the pitch-black tunnels…
‘Wait, I- I can see. Why can I see?’
He didn’t have his flashlight and this didn’t seem like a solid beam of light. It… flickered… His head slowly turned towards the center of the room. A nearly 200 year old pedestal, bereft of any source of fuel, burned a dim blue and silver as a ghostly flame sat in the bowl of its brazier. It flickered silently, the natural crackle and pop of a fire nowhere to be heard as it swayed in the cool breeze.
“...What?”
He doubted his eyes for a second and so he looked around the room a second time. His eyes, even while blurred with tears, only unveiled more unexplainable phenomena. The pit of bones he now lay in was shallower than before. The only reason he thought of was that the unfinished walls that now had some bones stacked against them again. Each stack framed 4 separate entry ways, 2 of which didn’t exist before. During the tour, the floor was also slightly slanted, ‘The ground settled after construction.’, the tour guide had said. Now, it was perfectly flat.
‘And the ceiling…’
The ceiling that had killed Hunter and nearly killed him was now perfectly repaired. As if the earthquake wasn’t real. The stones on the floor being the only evidence of the event actually happening.
‘Other than Hunter’s corpse…’ He winced as the thought came unbidden.
Looking back up he couldn’t help but mutter, “It actually reminds me of some kind of christian mausoleum.”
Rattle
His neck popped as his head whipped to the side. His eyes wide as it honed in on a skull that sat near the stone pedestal. He waited with bated breath. Expecting the bones around him to jump to life and kill him at any moment…
He let out a deep sigh of relief when, after multiple minutes of staring, nothing happened.
“Thank g-”
Clunk
…
It shook. Just once. Then twice…
A dim blue light began to form in the eyes of the skull and he suddenly felt as though fate truly had it out for him. Bones around him slowly began to shake and shiver. The ones closest to the skull began to slide towards it as though it was a planet with its own gravity, and a purple haze began to spread across the ground.
“Shit.”
Searching the floor around him, he grabbed what he could. With slight guilt and disgust he peeled off Hunter’s backpack. At the same time he grabbed the closest flashlight he could find. Finally, he tried to find a weapon even as he scrambled to leave the death trap of a room. Stumbling as he rose, he looked closely at the rubble on the sides of the room. He hoped that something useful fell during the earthquake.
It took a second but he found it—a steel spike ending in a ring with a small gap where it would connect to the base. Attached to what was previously an electric lamp that hung in the center of the room, an eye hook that had been embedded into the ceiling. He sprinted, snatching it up in one hand as he passed the reconstructing skeleton. He ran from doorway to doorway, trying to spot a hall with little to no bones and possible undead, but had no such luck.
Ding!
‘Now what?!’
image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1238728537494523984/1238730052330455060/image.png?ex=66410182&is=663fb002&hm=c91dd5105de817d9d09395e14489380b5294ede4c32c8f90dba1682510a55d97&]
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Luca’s jaw dropped and he once again doubted reality as he found himself dumbfoundedly staring at the dark blue screen that had popped into view. It was unobtrusive in size yet close enough that it almost felt like a HUD from a video game as it followed his gaze. On top of that, the screen was transparent, allowing him to see through it.
“Uhhhhh. AHG!”
A painful pressure wrapped it itself around his leg. Reminding him that the screen wasn’t the most pressing issue.
‘How the HELL did I forget about literal undead!’
The beginnings of a skeleton had crawled up behind him as it formed. Its one bony arm wrapped around his leg as it gnawed on his calf with cracked and rotting teeth. His jeans were the only thing preventing it from breaking skin.
Glad he risked grabbing the steel spike, he gripped it with both hands, thick metal loop on top, and brought it down in a textbook hammer swing. However, even as he drove what he thought to be his full strength into the attack, it only cracked the skeleton's skull. It was barely even enough for the skeleton's clamp on his legs to weaken.
‘200 plus year old bones can tank steel. Makes sense.’
Stepping back and swiping the skeleton off his feet with another swing, he bolted down the closest hallway. Yet, even as he dodged past the rather excitable corpses, his gaze turned back to the screen in the center of his vision. He wasn’t stupid… or rather he wasn’t uncultured. Exist long enough on the internet and play as many RPGs as he did and you'll at least know what a system is. Some grand thing that turns the world into a video game of some sort. Deducting from recent events, he can then assume that it has already happened. Now, this window seemed to be his only hope for survival.
Although, ‘I wish I could at least see my stats before I decide my class…’
Ding!
image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1238728537494523984/1238731841813483530/image.png?ex=6641032d&is=663fb1ad&hm=9b20d87fb20ef8858d25b1cca00de9571504f1bda18344c1b233b33eff9f0916&]
As he rounded a corner he stood face to face with another skeleton. This one however was different from any he’d passed so far. Only a little shorter than him, at around 5 foot 6 inches, it stood on uneven legs, near fully formed. Its burning blue irises flaring up as it spotted him. A hand raised and an unearthly shriek emanated from its mouth. It stumbled forward and, in its rush, nearly collapsed. The uncoordinated movements did not detract from its fearsome appearance, but rather heighted the horror as it clawed the ground for purchase and threw itself at him with jerky movements.
It quickly closed the small gap between them, and even though he wanted to run, what was behind him was so much worse. With a step forward, Luca attempted to block its initial swing with one of his own, but staggered back as the spike was nearly torn from his grasp. Easily overpowering him, the skeleton’s strength was wildly unbefitting of its form.
“Ah!”
It slammed into him at full speed, throwing him onto his back, as it crashed in a heap to his side. His heart pounded in his chest as the aches across his body became worse and the breath was driven out of his lungs. Standing on shaky feet, he attempted to escape while it was down, but a bony hand gripped his ankle. A new skeleton had begun forming during the encounter, latching onto him with its only limb and pulling him back down to the floor. Lashing out with his foot, Luca kicked at the monster but only found himself wasting stamina as it locked on. Heaving in labored gasps, he was barely able to roll to the side as the original skeleton tried to tackle him. It slammed into the stone floor with an audible crunch. Desperate, he began stabbing at it in an attempt to keep it away. However, every so often, a limb would sneak past his guard and beat into his sides or cut his arms.
Panicking, he brought the window to the forefront as he tried to read over his choices, though it was rather obvious what class he was going to choose. Or at least what he had to choose.
He scanned through the list in a second, barely reading the skills, and Mage instantly caught his eye. It was the only thing with an instant boost in combat prowess—magic.
‘Undead are generally weak to fire… my only choice is Mage!’
Decision made, the window simply blinked out of existence as a wave of knowledge hit his mind. He screamed in pain as something began to change his body, and in that short window of time, he felt the skeleton bite into his thigh. A clash of cool blue and bright golden yellow permeated from his heart and filled his body. It was the basics of spell casting that stood out, however, and with gritted teeth he brought his hand close to the monster's skull as he yelled, “[FLAME BOLT]!”
He felt the mana leave his body in a gasp as blue glimmering lights formed around the tips of fingers and coalesced in his palm. Slowly the motes of blue light changed as a red glow overtook them and they began to burn. Then, with a force of will, he shaped those few embers into a semi-solid globule of flame and let go. The skeleton instantly rocked back as the force of the spell slammed into its skull. A small conflagration burst out of any openings in its cracked skull and a hole burned through the back of its head.
image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1238728537494523984/1238737119413927936/image.png?ex=66410817&is=663fb697&hm=a57f575970c04ce0a4e479a5d43c5ab54f5fc2ef6877270c1331d524aed397ab&]
Taking a second to aim at the weaker monster on his leg he let out another, “[FLAME BOLT]!” The words ripping from his throat with anger as he blasted the skeleton with fury. This time the skull of the exploded. Fragments of bone were sent flying and nearly blinded him as it showered the room with burning dust.
image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1238728537494523984/1238737119413927936/image.png?ex=66410817&is=663fb697&hm=a57f575970c04ce0a4e479a5d43c5ab54f5fc2ef6877270c1331d524aed397ab&]
image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1238728537494523984/1238736724998230137/image.png?ex=664107b9&is=663fb639&hm=ad95843ef4ca2208906e5772c0a52c75680c1f2fd6ea2444f98f729e76db4d05&]
Taking a second to breathe, he lay there. Blood dripped down his thigh where the skeleton had bitten him but after a tentative few touches, and some small movements, he nodded, ‘I should be able to run on it still.’ I need to leave before another skeleton finds me though.
“Wait… why weren't there two death messages?”
Springing to his feet, even as a shock of pain ran through his thigh from the sudden movement, he narrowly dodged another lunge. Even with a cracked skull and a dimming flame, the monster held nothing back, pulverizing its own hand into the stone. His back hit the wall as the narrow hall trapped him. Its next lunge was only thwarted by a quick swipe to the face with his spike, followed up with what could only be called a golfer's swing straight to the dome.
image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1238728537494523984/1238742396410269727/image.png?ex=66410d02&is=663fbb82&hm=d47b55c096a81e077f0ea4032ebb7f878973dd37e987f100d5362bb39623e218&]
The undead’s body ragdolled from the 2 hits. Its uncoordinated body was unable to balance as its head was thrown around like a golf ball. This wasn’t helped as a burning flame slammed into its sternum.
“[FLAME BOLT]!”
image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1238728537494523984/1238739255380148307/image.png?ex=66410a15&is=663fb895&hm=3e24979d8a081fd7a38a0ac49d2ef0775964b30be2dd31768cb0815a2c76f4e2&]
Another, now aimed with ease at the skull of its prone form.
“[FLAME BOLT]!”
image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1238728537494523984/1238737119413927936/image.png?ex=66410817&is=663fb697&hm=a57f575970c04ce0a4e479a5d43c5ab54f5fc2ef6877270c1331d524aed397ab&]
Luca heaved for every breath he required. Each cast ripped a small piece away from the dim blue that flowed through his body. Yet, in such a state, he couldn’t help himself but cast one more time.
“Just, DIE ALREADY! [FLAME BOLT]!”
image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1238728537494523984/1238737119413927936/image.png?ex=66410817&is=663fb697&hm=a57f575970c04ce0a4e479a5d43c5ab54f5fc2ef6877270c1331d524aed397ab&]
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image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1238728537494523984/1238740096014880848/image.png?ex=66410add&is=663fb95d&hm=cfb8214eebaf607d20ed434419f53fe09691992e92c3c233f5575a47829be9ee&]