"Okay, breath in and out, in and out…"
Wait, I don't feel any different.
Oh yeah, no lungs, this will take some getting used to.
Okay, let's see here… I need to get an idea of what I am now, I guess.
First up, lets check my status… Well, shit.
[ Name – Seth
Race – Undead [Skeleton (Human)]
Level – 1
Health – 100% Mana – 100%
Current Status - Normal
Titles: None
Stats:
Strength – 10 Perception - 5
Intelligence – 10 Vitality - 10
Agility – 5 Stamina - 20
Dexterity – 5 Mana – 50 ]
Looks like I'm a new-born again, and yeah if my appearance wasn't enough this confirms what I've become – undead.
I'm guessing since I technically died I lost everything I built up with my old body though I can't say I'm an expert on how this world works, from what I know of 'undead' they're born through a combination of events, the main things are resentment after death which considering I'd do anything to shove a knife in the chest of the bastard that killed me, I would say I have, secondly the mana saturation in the area must be large enough to influence the remains and re-bind the soul.
One thing that strikes me as odd is how I'm perfectly sane, undead are consumed by their resentment thus they have no sanity and are treated as monsters without a will, but thinking about it a bit more I guess I can chalk it up to my [Stubborn Will] blessing, this one really is a gift that keeps on giving, I'll excuse its rude name for how good it is.
Hm, seems this area is some mana rich place; I have no idea where I am let's check... map open!
[Current Area – Ravine Abyss (Lower Layer)]
Ravine Abyss huh? Yeah, no fricking clue, as far as I know there wasn't such an area anywhere near the capital though I guess I may have been moved when I was unconscious, but now that I think about it, I'm a skeleton without a lick of flesh in an area I have never seen before, how did my body get here and how long has it been?
I really wish my interface had a clock and calendar, but I guess that's the difference between the system of this world and computers of mine – it's not built on convenience, the only reason I perceive it as a game like interface is because that's how my soul decided I would perceive it the best, other people have something similar whilst others have it very differently, though in the end the affect is the same for everyone.
Anyway, let's have a refresher shall we, different stats have different effects as follows:
Strength – The universal standard of how hard I can punch and how much I can lift.
Intelligence – Contrary to popular belief this has no effect on spells or such, it's the equivalent of how well-oiled your mind is, a higher intelligence means I will be faster to comprehend things or put two and two together, particularly useful overall.
Agility – How fast your physical reflexes are and how flexible your body is, which in turn will also affect movement speed and such of course.
Dexterity – How precise you can be with your movements and doing fine detailed work, a lot of people that work as artisans focus this, in combat it can be useful for striking hard to hit weak points.
Perception – The mental version of Agility in a way, affects the five senses in a positive way.
Vitality – How much punishment you can take before dropping dead, also improves your rate of recovery.
Stamina – How long you can go before running out of steam, usually goes hand-in-hand with Vitality
Mana – The magic stat, or so I'd say but a lot of abilities you can learn use mana as well, however this stat doesn't represent the mana pool but rather the quality of your mana, better quality mana achieves the same affect with less mana used, or vice-versa, better affect with the same mana used.
Okay that should be it right? By the way health and mana (The visual bar, the pool whatever) aren't numerical values that increase with stats, they're very vague and only exist in percentages from 1-100 so you need to do the good old method of trial and error to really get a sense of your position.
Now for the moment of truth, let's check what abilities I have:
[Abilities:
Stubborn Will [Blessing]
Smooth Sailing [Blessing]
Mana Vision
Life Sense
Reinforcement
Lesser Reconstruction
Core Overclock]
Not too many eh, thankfully I still have my two blessings, let's take a look at what the others do –
[Mana Vision – Creates a magical oculus granting vision to the user, clarity in various situations depends on quality of mana]
Well, that explains how I can see, my body probably casts it passively giving me two blue glowing dots in my eyes, I wonder if I can use it for scouting and such?
[Life Sense – Grants innate ability to sense life force of others within the surroundings]
Makes sense why an undead would have this, grudge against the living and all, definitely useful for unseen enemies.
[Reinforcement – Uses mana to reinforce the body increasing durability and in turn, strength]
This one is fairly standard for any half-baked adventurer; human bodies are always at a disadvantage against beasts that have mana running through them so anyone with even a lick of sense learns this.
[Lesser Reconstruction – Consumes mana to rebuild one's body]
Reconstruction not Regeneration? I guess because I'm all bones this makes sense.
[Core Overclock – Stresses the mana core to achieve a higher quality of mana for a short duration before being unable to use mana for a period after]
Okay, what the hell, am I a computer now? High risk high reward I guess, higher quality mana would improve all my abilities but after that I'd be no different from a sack of bones reinforced with duct tape.
"Haah… That's it I guess, cards laid out now I just need to figure out what to do"
I just need to sit down for a second… really… just let this fully sink in…
"So, I died again and now I'm a skeleton with absolutely no sense of where I am or how long I've been dead"
I can't help but cover my face with my hands in lament.
"A skeleton… a fucking skeleton?! Is this a joke?! This is well beyond being funny!"
"Even if I somehow find my way back to civilization I'd just get chased away or killed on the spot, let alone if I went to see my family"
I get chills from the events in my imagination
"What am I supposed to just stroll up to my old village as a walking corpse and say, 'Oh yeah, I made an oopsie so now I'm a living anatomy diagram' ?!"
Just… fucking hell couldn't I have been reincarnated again at least then I'd be able to live without skulking in the shadows.
…
I can't just sit here, ruminating in depression will get me nowhere, look on the bright side I'm as free as a bird now I'm not a human I can do whatever I want!
First things first, I must get out of this place, if I remember my UI said I was in the lower layer, I have no idea how many layers there are, but the only way is up!
Considering the name sounds so damn dreadful I'll assume this is a form of dungeon, which means monsters will be abundant, thus I need a weapon, luckily all my stats are around that of a normal adult male and not that of a new-born baby or I'd kick the bucket even if I had a weapon.
Let's see here, I did take a quick look before but there really isn't much here, I'm in some off-to-the-side cavern that leads into the main ravine, maybe some monster nest or such? There's a bunch of stones and a pile of bones in the corner maybe from some thing's mealtime, if I had a knife, I could use the bones to create some sort of makeshift spear but if I had a knife, I wouldn't be looking for a weapon in the first place.
Guess my only choice is picking the biggest bone as a bludgeoning weapon and relying on my body with reinforcement.
"Hmm~ hmmm~ hmmmm~ O' treasure box of mine, what do you have for me today~?"
Scouring through the large pile I managed to find a decently large what seems to be a leg bone or something similar a little more than a meter in length with a thick clump at the end.
"Yup, this is a gooden', should do me juuuuuust fine till' I find something better"
I stand there for a few seconds admiring my new trusty partner before I suddenly pick up a few sounds on through my non-existent ears, how does that work anyway?
*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*
The sounds got increasingly closer as I prepare for battle, not long after I see a silhouette cross the corner of the cavern entrance before its body came in to view bounding with large strides, a glorious snout and giant stature.
What...
"The fuck is that?!"