Chapter 22) City of the Dead. Or, Run for the Border.

Matt had his spear held up in one hand, tucked back and ready to thrust out from where he had it pointed out from behind his shield at Mr, Rude, who in turn was posed over my dead goblin body with the bloody stone still in his hand.

“Matt, I appreciate the thought, coming after me and all, but… Shoot.” Turning around I could see a blue colored portal just like the entry one back in my dungeon, but trying to poke my little green hand into just left me feeling a sense of resistance that pushed back just as hand.

Taking a few good wacks at it with the wooden club didn’t do much of anything either.

Rude spoke up, "Not going to happen, don't you think I would have done that already, and where did you come from? No one else has been here in three days, and now three of you? And two of them are goblins… who look and are dressed just like the starter monsters from the tutorial...”

Three days? Had it been that long?

Matt spoke up, “Don’t trust him… Stan. He was eating that other guy.”

Rude wiped some blood away from his mouth. “We’re going to get hungry by the end of the day, all I was doing was taste testing him. Besides, they aren't human so it isn’t cannibalism.”

He smiled, showing off his blood stained teeth.

Matt took in a slow breath, and sighed before he muttered. “Gamers...”

Mr. Rude was looking pretty… Unbalanced.

I stepped up beside Matt. "You had at least three days of food in your starter gear, what happened?"

The insane looking man gestured at himself. There was no sign of his armor, weapons, or gear. “When you get killed, you pop out of the starter portal with just the same clothes you had on when the babe in the toga was telling you that you had to choose a class.”

He gestured outside, “I got to my body and grabbed most of my stuff after I died the first time, but I haven’t been able to make it to where I died the second time. The Lurkers are hanging around it waiting for me.”

Matt leaned over toward me, “I got a notice filling me in, are you getting one?”

I nodded as I began to pay attention to the red words appearing before me, as soon as I did the [ Welcome to Tesero ] part faded away and more letters began to appear.

[ Ages ago the Chosen Hero Terrence was betrayed by the people he had saved from the Demon King and rose as an undead being to take vengeance as a vile Liche named Termerlane. ]

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[ Leading an army of the dead, he marched on the capital, slaying all who had betrayed him, and turning the city of Tesero into a city of the undead ]

[ Unable to clear the capital, the surviving forces of the kingdom built a wall around the capital it to keep the dead within. ]

[ While the city is filled with riches, the farther you go from the center, the stronger the undead become. ]

[ Each Adventurer must either fail to escape the city one hundred times in order to leave this starter zone, reach level ten, or make their way to the Holy Barricade to escape the city ]

Rude waited until he saw that we had finished reading. “It’s been three deaths for me so far. I’ve been beaten, stabbed, and even eaten.” He nodded at us, his eyes gleaming as he held his hands up at us.

“But now, we got three people. With three of us, I… We can make it out of here.”

I stared at him for a moment. “Matt?”

“Yes… Stan.”

...Right, why let Rude know who I am. I don’t think it matters, but I got it.

“I think you might be doomed.”

Matt nodded. “Yeah. I’m guessing at least a hundred times.”

Shoot.

Rude filled us in on a few things. Like his name. Drew Stubbins. And the fact we were in a temple dedicated to Biatona, a goddess of life which made the temple a safe zone that the dead didn’t come into.

At least during the day, at night, well… “The more powerful undead, the talkers, they can walk right in. They… like to play games.”

Well, don't that sound like all puppies and kittens.

I turned to look at Matt. “We got about four hours until I either get recalled back to my dungeon or we find out I’m stuck here until this body gets killed. That means we need to get you out of here, now.”

Matt nodded. Then tossed his spear held upright over to Drew. "Use the shaft for skeletons, the spearhead into the eyes of Zombies." Then he slipped the mace out of the loop on his belt.

Drew clutched the spear close to him, as he looked up with his eyes watering. "Thank you, it gets a lot more complicated than that. But walking skeletons, or walking dried up dead bodies pretty much covers it.”

Then in a softer, resigned tone. “At least during the day."

We headed out.

I went out the door first since, “If I get killed, I’ll be back in a skeleton body, it will be the one with the ax Matt didn’t take.” Really, it might be a good idea to do that now in case the dead don’t attack their own, but I didn’t want to hold up the two of them.

Outside... well the place looked like how ancient Rome looked in the movies, with lots of white stone, columns, fountains, stone roads, statues, and a good full flight of steps going up to the entrances of each building.

All busted up, with bits fallen over or broken away, the fountains dried up, and lots of dead plants.

It looked like things had gotten overgrown and left untended at first with a lot of buildings covered up with vines and weed sprung up between the stones on the roads and plazas. But all of it was half dead and withered.

There were also at least a dozen skeletons wearing tattered rags scattered around, most of them looking busted up, and all of them slowly turning their heads toward us as soon as my foot hit the top step outside of the temple.

And they all started heading our way.

Matt dashed down the steps, “You two get behind me, let me take the first hits on my shield. Drew keep them back with the blunt end of the spear, Tex use the club on their legs. Smash their knees so they tumble down the steps.”

I heard Drew ask “Tex?” from behind me, and I shouted “Skip.” at him as I waited for the first skeletons to come up the steps.

But they didn’t, they just stopped a few steps outside of a gap in a decorative looking low wall around the withered weed choked ground surrounding the large stone building.

Matt lowered his mace as we stood there on the steps, looking at the hollow eye sockets of the dead men looking back at us. He grunted. "Holy ground. Give me the spear Drew."

Drew clutched it closer to himself, only letting go after Matt tugged on it a second time. Then our leader headed out to just short of the gateway and reversed the spear before beginning to smash in the heads of the undead with wide swings of the reversed spear he held in one hand clutching onto the spear just above the metal head.

They just stood there and let him do it all seven of them that were in reach without stepping past the low wall that marked the end of the holy ground.

As the last one fell Matt turned around and grinned. “Common Skeletons. Ten experience each, I just need twenty more to get to second level Fighter.”

Then he frowned a little and looked over at me. “But nothing for Mage.”

Drew asked “Mage?” in a confused tone.