Wandering around the crypt, I am now nothing but bones, with my bony feet clattering against the stone floor as I wander around. The corridor has feldgrau stone archways on the ceiling and upper walls and some bird statues resembling owls on each side of the walls along with bipedal jackal statues resting on pedestals. The floor is feldspar tiled stone and the polished walls feldspar rock, its architecture a little well preserved yet cracks and moss remain visibly evident on surface.

Before I went out, I panicked and cursed inwardly for some time, and even sat down near a stone wall hugging my knees for some time while I was still in the processing phase. After I grew sick and tired of the silence and boredom, I decided to explore my newfound surroundings. My vision…how I see is quite perplexing. I can see and hear quite well despite me not having eyes and ears, heck I can see and hear even better than before. There are no torches as far as I can tell, plus including the fact that I am underground and see no sources of light, I can still see as if I am under daylight on Earth. And I discovered when I focus my eyes and ears, I can hear even more subtle, distinct sounds, like the drop of water down the hallway or a fly buzzing around a moss-covered broken pillar.

And…I can see colors…blue colors of unknown meaning or origins all around me as far as I can tell once I focus my sight to a certain degree. But when I tried to call out to it at a whim, the color…distorted a little as I willed it to move. Unsure if it moved by coincidence, I waved my hand again to confirm my thoughts as flicked my hand willing the ‘color’ to move, and found out it did after I did it three times willing the color in my eyes left, right, and up.

I was quite alone as far as I can tell. I walked down the halls for…what seems like hours and I cannot determine any other walking skeletons like me, but there are other catacombs and…tombs, stone coffins like the one I was in to be exact with a heavy stone lidded sarcophagus. Many of them in rows, undisturbed which is strange, as I seem to be the only skeleton walking around. After wandering for some more ‘hours’, some characters (letters of unknown origins) caught my eye from the left, as I see what seems to be a metal sign plate of some sort hanging by chains from the ceiling, with writings etched into it. I do not recognize the letters, but for some reason, I can read them. Although the left half of the sign plate from my point of view is blurred out, the right half is still distinguishable and readable, with the words saying ‘Library’.

‘There’s a library here? Really? In a tomb? Did someone decide to bring a library with him or her to the grave or something?’ I thought commenting on the sight a little.

Turning left down the empty, dark flavescent stone corridor, I walked to see a door-sized entrance…and a broken wooden mahogany door…at least that is what I see excluding the moss and bugs, ranging from centipedes to beetles, crawling all over it…

Ignoring the ‘door’, I rose my head up, my eyes affixed to the door and then looking left and right, I see two other corridors, one on my left, and other on my right.

Deciding to explore them later, I walked into the entrance, and see…countless serried rows of shelves filled to the brim with countless books and more…and each book looks to have about…a thousand pages or so.

‘Really? Aye yae yae…’ I thought to myself in complaints from the rows and rows of books...so many books...each with about a thousand pages or so contained.

‘Must I really read these books...all of them? *Sigh*…Hopefully I will only read a few of them…I am a fan of light novels but…’ I thought to myself as I walked over to grab one of the books, the cover of the book I picked too worn out for me to read, and walked to one of the tables meant for reading, the ones that are not broken down from the ages of time, and sat down one of the rotten but still intact chairs as I placed the book on the table and opened the book, starting to read from page one.

And after what seems like forever and I read a few books…  

‘....AHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Seriously God?! What the hell am I supposed to do here?!’ I shouted to the God I met to the ceiling, but nothing came out of my fleshless mouth despite my attempts.

My brain is fried! Assuming I still have a brain! I read a few books regarding…What seems like magic spells, but…

‘What the hell am I supposed to do? Survive? I will be hunted down as an evil being or something…what am I supposed to do…’ I thought as I slumped down my chair.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

What I learned from the few books are the concept of mana, which is at a level I can understand at least, and…Alchemy. The level of Alchemy shown here is definitely not meant for beginners in general…so even though I read it to at least memorize the contents in case I decide to review it later on and/or forget its contents. How Alchemy works from the little information on the basics I obtained, I do not think I can use Alchemy unless I get more information on its concept. There are two types of Alchemy. Chemical Alchemy, and Alteration Alchemy.

Chemical Alchemy is the concoction of various raw materials mixed together using certain methods and formula arrays, including tools and devices, and Alteration Alchemy is the kind that changes and manipulates matter to one’s liking, although it is quite difficult and hard to master…and I have no idea how the formulas work as I am quite inexperienced and new to the concept.

As for the Mana book, I sort of understand. The blue color I see around me is Mana assuming what I read in the book is correct. The energy around seems to be the energy around us, capable to be utilized as fuel for spells and ignite certain phenomenon that can be considered as miracles in general. There are even applications of mana and how it is used in general, used for powering certain items and how it is used for spell by powering an array of runes.

Mages are more...selective in nature. Those who wish to learn magic must train hard to attain affinity with the mana around them and within, while there are those with talent born with a affixed affinity with mana which are rare and sought after by the majority to aid society as a whole with their skills.

Another one is…Necromancy…

‘I am a skeleton man so…Wow. This fits me...so damn well. Is this your doing God? What are the odds…Dammit.’ I cursed again, this time at myself.

Necromancy is a form of manipulation of essence, be it Soul Essence or Death Essence and etc, mostly involving corpses and such. There are other applications of necromancy besides raising corpses, like manipulation of certain parts of the body…and that Necromancy is a derivation of Darkness magic, which I don't know in general. Plus, there is a slght mention of Death Magic, but I do not have the book for it so I do not know the difference yet.

However, after reading all of them…a thought came to me on what to do in the future…which is something I rarely pondered on…and after I pictured myself going up there and see the world for the first time...a comical image of me being hunted down, surrounded by priests casting holy spells on me and destory my poor body came to mind. I am a skeleton...what kind of skeleton I do not know but I am a skeleton…how am I supposed to live my life like this?

Not only that, I realized that the books are in some of kind of ancient language or something. I don't even recognize the words yet I can read them very well...I don't know why I can read them, but I will just label it as a gift of God for now until I find the truth.

Sure I do not need food or water or air, but…I am a walking target of hatred and persecution of society...which is something I fear the most as it is definitely the most troublesome aspect of life. Worse…I have no manhood! I have dreams of making out with women and getting a girlfriend in general, but not having a living body destroys such dreams!

‘What to do, what to do, what to do~’ I thought frantically in my head…I am not used to such stress now that I think about it. And…surprisingly my emotions have calmed down somehow...as if all of my excess stress is being...killed.

‘What to do…….What to do…’ I am calming down…fast, no too fast. I don’t know why but…It must be because of my new body. I heard being a undead of some sort will kill one’s emotions and twist one’s personality but, this is the first time that I even experienced something like that.

‘Something is wrong…my heart...wait, I have no heart. I’m heartless...ha, skeleton pun. I make myself laugh…Well what would anyone do…I want myself a human body…or a living body in general. Male preferably…though if for some reason I am forced to have a female body, I will indefinitely get myself a manhood along with my female body. Anyways, what to do…’ I thought as I pondered on my course of action.

After a few more hours, at least that is what I felt like, I determined my own course of action.

‘These books…yes, I need to prepare myself…So many books though, but I need the knowledge and the amount of books shows how powerful this place is. I also need practice on controlling mana and spells as well. I don’t know how much time I have, but as long as I am here, I should prepare myself for the future...heh, this is something I never done before hahahaha. If only I have this much motivation in my previous life...and all it took is the thought that I will die a agonizing death to motivate me to work this hard.’ I mock myself as I thought of the situation I am in, as for the first time I am this motivated into doing something for once, for my own sake.

‘I need…a living body to have beside this fleshless corpse I am in. For this, I must find a way to be ‘alive’...or in this case as alive as I can be. I just need a functional body that just says…me. I want to live…now more literal than ever in a sense. For that, I must learn as much as I can here. I need to find out how to live…as for how long I should live however…should I raise the stakes to attain true immortality? Hmmm...undead does not equal immortality so…I think immortality will come second.’ I thought as I organized my goals in my mind.

Thinking this, the only way I can achieve that is through…knowledge. And since knowledge is power, I will need read all the books in this library, as it seems chock full of knowledge not meant for the public judging from the few books I read. I walked around the library, taking and carrying as many books with me to the table, as I seated myself hearing my bones clatter on the chair, starting my preparations for the future to come.