Chapter Two: Undeath

Chapter Two: Undeath

I awoke, to my surprise, without any pain. Without any sensation whatsoever.

“Is this death?” I thought to myself.

I didn’t expect a response so I was surprised when out of the darkness came green text:

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Welcome to world BCT-175

Local designation: Cosmo-Osto

Enter Name . . . . . . . .

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I didn’t even have time to reply before more of the strange text appeared.

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Welcome to world BCT-175

Local designation: Cosmo-Osto

Enter Name . . . . . . . .

Information detected, loading…

Name: Osseus

Title: Archmagus

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ERROR: Title invalid. User Osseus does not possess the required class Mage, Wizard, Sorcerer or Warlock.

Resolution: New Title Created designation Archmagus(ish).

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Honestly I felt rather insulted at the last.

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Name: Osseus

Title: Archmagus(ish)

Race: Human - ERROR - Zombie - ERROR - Skeleton.

Class: N/A - ERROR must have class - Class assigned, Lich.

System initialising please hold…

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Completely baffled, I was only able to stare as the last line repeated.

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System initialization complete. Race skills and class spells have been assigned.

Have a nice day.

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With the last message the world went white and a rushing noise surrounded me.

☠

I awoke, for the third time in as many hours, to the clanging of metal on stone. Knowing where this was going I shot to my feet to find myself yet again in a room I didn’t recognise. I looked around, nothing I was alone and locked up.

My feet clacked across the floor as I paced. The room I was in was some kind of cell with rusted metal fittings and a rotted wooden door.

“What in the name of the three laws of magic was happening?” I thought desperately. Nothing was making any sense.

First I had been assassinated, me an Archmagus who’s spent most of his life researching new magical methods and hadn’t involved myself in politics. Hell I hadn’t even seen another living being in over a hundred years before I went to the capital, sometimes I would get carried away in my work.

Then I had resurrected as a natural lich, an occurrence so rare that the last recorded case happened before I was born, over one thousand years ago. I clattered to the ground in the corner of the barren room, My fingers massaging my temples.

After that I had entered an unstable portal, a dangerous proposition to be sure but normally the spell would protect one from entering other realms, such as the abyss. I should have just been spat out in a random location.

“What went wrong?” I wondered, staring up at the damp and mouldy stone ceiling.

“Of course,” I thought as it struck me, “ bark of an everlasting oak, It was meant to protect anything life, by that point I was already dead. If anything the addition of such a material nearly guaranteed an unsafe journey. I sat up straighter, at least able to solve one of the many pressing mysteries.

Next I had somehow survived being dissolved within the abyss, a realm notorious for destroying anything it came in contact with. Looking down at my body, or lack thereof, I learned why.

Years earlier I had learned that most failed spell creations ended with an explosion and that broken bones take far longer to heal. Even with magical intervention. Even though my wards could protect me from direct harm, they could not stop the kinetic force completely so I have spent twenty years slowly reinforcing and inscribing my bones with layer upon layer of magical protection. The ingredients I had used alone would be enough to buy a small country but if it saved me even a second between failed experiments it was worth it.

Still despite that what remained of my skeleton was yellow and beginning to chip, with only the black lines of runes breaking up the shape.

I was beyond surprise at this point so I just decided to go with it.

Frankly I was rather impressed with myself for managing to create anything that could hold up to the abyss, although none of my special rings or other artefacts survived.

Looking at the aforementioned runes another question struck me, “How can I see?” I had no eyes. I could still feel the hot white fluid dripping out of my sockets and down my cheek.

Come to think of it, the green text had said my race was skeleton, I had of course come across many undead skeletons in my life although I had never had the opportunity to study their means of sight.

“Was it some sort of innate Skill of the undead?” I wondered aloud.

At the word skill a blue translucent window appeared before me.

Skills: SP - 0

I Active Skills:

I I Racial Skills:

I I

I I I Life Sense: Lv.1

I I I The undead have a natural hatred for all life, without being able to sense the

I I I living, how might their hunger be sated? At higher level Undead can leverage

I I I their increasing intelligence to perceive life even in the smallest of organisms

I I I creating a facsimile of sight. Leveling up this skill increases the range and

I I I resolution of life sense.

I I

I I I Bone Claws: Lv.1

I I I Skeletons lack the muscles of a zombie making their attacks weaker but their

I I I bodies are far faster making slashing and piercing weapons an ideal choice.

I I I A skeleton's digits grow sharper and longer at will and do bonus damage to

I I I living flesh. Leveling up this skill grants the ability to grow longer, sharper,

I I I and stronger claws.

I I

I I I Bone Articulation: Lv.1

I I I A skeleton’s bones are held together with magic but worry not as

I I I this natural skill allows a skeleton's bones to reform if they are ever scattered,

I I I so long as the head is not shattered. Leveling up this skill increases the

I I I strength of the bond between bones and decreases the time taken to

I I I rearticulate.

I I

I Passive skills:

I I Magically reinforced bones:

I I Through a variety of ritual magic spells, magical imbuement, enchantment,

I I and baptised in the abyss your bones have been strengthened to the point that

I I only the highest level of physical or magical attack stands a chance of

I I damaging them. Be warned this does not increases the strength of you bones

I I connections.

I I

I Learn new skills through practice or by spending SP. Practice or SP can also be I used to increase skill levels.

“Huh.” Was all I could think of as I pressed my distal phalanx straight through the illusion with no resistance. I turned my head from side to side and the window remained directly in front of me.

What was this thing? I had never heard of the like, some sort of diagnostic spell combined with an illusion perhaps? But no, I could sense no magic emanating from it, fascinating. More metal clanged outside my door, looking up I saw nothing so I returned to the window. Except it had vanished without a trace. Thinking quickly I spoke again. “Skills.” and to my delight it reappeared.

Studying the skills written I had some testing to do to confirm this manifestation's veracity.

If my new found sight worked as described I should be able to see the life in the moss living in the cracked walls. Closing my non-existent eyes to focus, which somehow still blinded me, I looked only at the moss. Sure enough if I blurb my eyes, however that worked, the resolution dropped and I could see only a glowing gold mass wherever the moss grew, not only that more on a wall the other side of my door. Letting out a bone chilling breath out of habit I released the sight. It was strangely difficult to reduce my sight to such a quality but it did grant me a further range of sight ever seeing through walls.

Wanting to test the skill further I stared closely at a bare patch of stone and to my delight there were indeed tiny specimens of living matter gathered closser around the damper areas. When I got closer the colour I had seen as grey from a distance changed to golden species but when I retreated the larger picture still appeared grey. The effect was rather enthralling and I spent the next few minutes moving forward and back trying to understand how it worked. Eventually I was forced to admit that I wouldn’t be able to understand this phenomena at this moment. Instead I tried another of the skills, Bone claws. With but a thought the Phalanges of my right hand lengthened and sharpened ending in wicked points.

Another effect that used no magic to my eye, I was fascinated. The sharpness combined with my bone’s innate hardness allowed me to easily scratch the stone work although I lacked the strength to penetrate very far.

Returning to my pacing I postulated aloud, “Although the appearance is completely different perhaps this has some connection to the system I saw before.” As I secretly hoped, something new appeared at my words.

Name: Osseus

Title: Archmagus(ish)

Race: Skeleton

Class: Lich (Lv.1)

Age: 1208

Profession(s): None

Skills: 3 Active, 1 Passive.

Spells: 1

Attributes:

• Strength: 3

• Agility: 6

• Charisma: -10 (undead)

• Perception: 8

• Willpower: 50

• Intelligence: 99

• Wisdom: 20

“One spell?” I questioned, indignantly. At my words that section expanded.

Spells:

I Class Spells:

I I Necrotising bolt: Lv.1

I I

I I Folding your mana over itself, spinning it into a vortex and focusing it into a

I I point one can create a projectile of necrotizing energy that rapidly decays

I I whatever it hits. The strength and range of this spell is increased with

I I level and with use.

I I

I New spells can be learned through education, spell tombs, or trial and error.

My indignation only deepened at this. Everyone knew that any spell required material components, it was one of the three laws of magic for arcane’s sake. I had tried contorting my manna in any number of ways, the method above included but never to any effect. Not without spell components.

Before I could rant to myself about such a ludicrous idea the door to my cell was kicked in. A brute of a zombie dragging a massive hammer saw me and screeched in an ungodly voice before charging.

“Shit.”