Chereads / Steel Soul Online / Chapter 2 - Corpse party

Chapter 2 - Corpse party

[You have successfully possessed the body of Haakon Völundrsson!]

[Your stats updated!]

In his chest, a blue flame started burning, and blue light seeped through every crack in his skin. A weak ember floated above his severed neck. David got up and patted his ragged clothes and stretched, he heard some popping sounds as the ice started to melt and his muscles were warming up, then he threw a few punches to the air until feeling satisfied.

-The feelings are similar to other games, this feels a little more realistic, but that's not an issue-

-Stats!-

[Name: Haakon Völundrsson (???)]

[Level: 1 (83 XP left to lv2)]

[Race: Zombie (Ghost)]

[Life points: 20 (∞)]

[Mana points: 20 (10)]

[Attack: 10 (N/A)]

[Defense: 10 (∞)]

[Dextery: 14 (N/A)]

[Agility: 5 (N/A)]

[Inteligence: 11 (N/A)]

[Spiritual Force: 20]

[Abilities](^)

- Possession (Lv 2)

- Soul devour (Lv 1)

- Weak mind blade (Lv 1)

- Weak Telepathy (Lv 1)

- Appreciation (Lv 1)

- Frozen Blacksmithing (Lv 5) ☆

- Ax throw (Lv 2) ☆

[Affinities] (^)

- Soul Magic affinity

- Mechanical engineering affinity

- Frozen blacksmithing affinity ☆

"---" he still couldn't talk, so he went to grab the head that was a couple of meters away, but it turned towards him and bit his hand, bitting out his right thumb. -Oh, you'll regret that you little-before he could finish his thought the same pulling that used the wolf came from the head, it was trying to eat his soul!.

-Not this time!-

-Soul Devour!-

The flame above his neck started to spinning until forming a little spiral, reaching a stalemate.

-Mind blade!-

A blue slash similar to the wolf's formed from the spiral and shot towards the head. It screamed and tried to do the same, but David evaded it with ease. After a couple of seconds, a blue fire emerged from it, and David absorbed it.

[Ghost consumed.]

[+25 XP]

[spiritual force]: 20 (+2)

-Huff...that was unexpectedly hard- he was going to wipe the sweat off his forehead, but he had neither of those, so it was just an awkward move that he hoped no one saw.

-At least it paid off- he grabbed the head and put it on his neck, the flame covered it and 'new tissue' fused it with the rest of the body, then, he spat the finger that was in his mouth.

"dO RE mi FaaAAaA" His voice was deep, and he couldn't properly speak, he cleared his throat and started again. "HAAaaaaaaAAaaAAAAAM...HAM, HAM, HAAAMMM...hmmm...well, it's more comfortable this way, i hadn't tried the mind bridge to compare, but at least talking is more familiar to me".

He rattled his neck, and some pieces of ice fell from his curly black hair, at least he now had a human body and had some stats that could help him more directly.

"I have Ax throw, frozen blacksmithing, and its affinity...i guess the star represents this body's skills and maybe I'll lose them when i end my possession, it's not a bad arrangement, i just have to keep this body in one piece". He picked up the finger that was cut off and returned it to its rightful place before leaving.

Not too far away, he found two other small ghosts that tried to eat his soul and were swiftly eaten by him. His overall experience in the game was repetitive and boring. He wanted something a little more challenging, yet he knew that if something like that indeed appeared, he would die again.

"Well, this place is pretty safe even with all these bodies, maybe something is keeping the stronger ghosts away? Or something ate all the powerful ones before i respawned. Well, speculating is not going to give me an answer." in the middle of his speech, he saw something moving a couple of meters away and thought it was another low-level ghost that possessed a small critter or an incomplete body.

"Soul Devour!"

He tried to eat the soul but instead was greeted by a blade that hit him directly in the chest, lowering his spiritual force to 18.

"Damn it!" he dodged to his right, barely avoiding another blade. He ducked and rolled again when a new attack tried to reach him.

-Mind blade!-

He responded with the same spell. The figure easily evaded it rolling away from that spot and counterattacked, another chunk of David's spiritual force disappeared with it.

David threw some bricks and rubble he found in the vicinity, even a hand, but it was avoiding all his "attacks" and counterattacking with more mind blades, David checked his stats quickly and found that his mana was nearing 0, he had to thought fast, or that thing would eat him.

"It's too cunning to be a low-level ghost and too weak to be a high-level one...this is another player!" He mumbled to himself behind a collapsed wall, just before another mind blade came from a tricky angle lowering his "life points" to 2.

"Let's try some persuasion, then."

-Telepathy!-

A mind bridge formed between him and the figure, it appeared confused but still alert, and David sighed with relief when he saw through the bridge that it wasn't planning to attack him for the moment.

-Easy there, buddy, let's not fight Ok?- David said through the bridge, and the figure was shocked by a second before regaining its composure. -I'm just trying to eat some low-level mobs and didn't expect you were here too-

-That's a first. What are you?- the figure was cautious, so it didn't show itself.

-I'm a player! look, i don't know what's going on, but i don't want to die again, let just stop fighting ok?- he was getting more nervous, his mana was lowering slowly, and he'll be defenseless then.

-Don't do anything suspicious, i can kill you!- the figure poked out its head. It was a rotten rat without a tail, and a big part of its torso was missing.

-Just calm down, dude.- He left the security of the wall with his hands in the air -see? I mean no harm, even if i do i don't have mana- He sighed with relief when the rat seemed to lower its guard, it would be nice to have some friends in the same situation.

"Can you talk?" he asked as the mind bridge collapsed, his mana reached 0, and a strange void sensation came from his chest.

"yeah, but it's very awkward" its voice was very high pitched and it was clear that it didn't enjoy hearing it, it stood on two legs and seemed to look for something "ah, my name is Kevin, nice to meet you."

"I'm David." He bowed slightly in a sign of respect, and the rat did the same.

"Do you know where i can find a body complete like that? the ones i found so far are too rotten or have missing parts."

"I don't know. I guess it was a miracle that i found this one, I even almost died when i found it." He frowned and tried to think of something to help "I don't know if everyone can do it, but I could attach other bodyparts to this body, maybe we can try that."

"I think i would be more comfortable in a rat than in a Frankenstein monster, thank you." Kevin was interested in his proposal but creeped out when thinking of the possibilities. "Honestly, when the advertisement said that this game had mechas, mystical powers, and crap like that i was very excited."

"But here we are, in the ruins of a city looking for dead bodies" both of them sighed out loud, since coming here that was something that he did a lot "I'm tired of this, honestly..."

"Me too...i died three times before i knew what's going on, and i haven't found something remotely similar to a novice village." Kevin neared him and pulled his pants a bit "can i sit on your shoulder? i don't want to crawl on the snow anymore. It's not a nice feeling."

"Sure, man, just don't bite my ear or something," he said jokingly, and Kevin just rolled his blue eyes.

"If you piss me off. I'll eat your brains directly!" He stood on David's right shoulder and grabbed his ear to keep his balance.

"Woah, calm down! I was just joking." He looked for both sides of the road and started walking.

"Yeah yeah, whatever" the rat ignored him and looked at the piles of snow with him in silence.

A couple of minutes later, they found a mound larger than the others, David tried to dig out, but it was just a dead dog. It was a big husky with a massive cut in his abdomen. They could see its internal organs frozen solid in a 'pool' of frozen blood. "Do you want this one? at least is better than a rat."

"Yeah, it doesn't matter" the rat jumped off his shoulder and landed on the dog, on a closer view, he noticed that an eye and an ear were missing.

Kevin possessed it and stood up, tearing the organs and intestines still attached to its body in the process. This body nearly reached David's chest, and both of them were a little surprised by this fact. Kevin shook like a dog, pieces of blood and ice fell off his fur, then, it warmed up as David did with Haakon's body until he was more comfortable.

"Hey, should we make a party?" Kevin offered, David didn't seem to be a bad guy, even with his aggressive attitude, and it would be better than being alone in this place.

"Sure." David shrugged, "let me check the menu real quick, and I'll invite you."

-Menu-

[Stats (^)

Skills (^)

Path: N/A

Options (^)

Social (^)]

He tapped the 'social' icon, and a list appeared before him

[Friends: 0

Blacklist: 0

Party members: 0

Note: To add someone, please use a vocal command]

hmmm...he looked at Kevin and narrowed his eyes a little.

"Invite to the party."

[Do you wish to invite "Belinda" (???) to your party?]

He tried so had that that it was evident that he was struggling, Kevin crooked his head and didn't understand at first what happened, he looked at his status screen, and his expression turned grave.

"No comments," he said flatly.

"Yeah, I'll not comment about it, Belinda" Kevin bit his leg, but he didn't feel pain, so he just let it slide.

"Yes, invite her" Kevin started to apply more force and was legitimately trying to tear his leg off, but David was just laughing at this, worst case scenario he just had to reattach that missing leg.

[Belinda (???) has joined your party]

[Belinda (???)]

[Lv: 3]

[Spiritual force: 52]

[Path: N/A]

With that, the human and the dog left, their legend just began.