"He conceded!" the speaker spouted.
Arlo walked out of the ring with a new tricky plan.
There was no time to participate in this shit. He would just steal the reward and escape with other things he could find.
He followed the path around the arena to find a small shack which had some other guards.
"You fought well…" one said.
"Oi! Why did you back out?" asked another.
Arlo showed them aside and entered the shack.
A twisted and small voice came out of his mouth
"Where?"
The men laughed "where what?"
Arlos eyes located a small glass lid that had a magnetic looking rock.
As soon as he located it he straight up knocked out the guard who was questioning him.
"Oİ!" Yelled another one after seeing two of his comrades fighting each other.
Arlo's consciousness worked as fast as it could in that state. A plan was forged out of the ashes of a lost mind. İt seemed easy but effective to Arlo.
İt went like this.
steal items
Gain power.
Very effective right?
As the second guard came in to attack. Arlo smashed his sword holder onto his face. Making him fall down.
The last thing the second gıard saw was an armored boot crashing into his helmet before falling into a long sleep.
Arlo charged to the glass lid and broke a thin layer to grab the stone.
The connection between the metal gauntlet and the mysterious stone made a small shock effect on Arlo, even though something was about to be revealed in his consciousness he couldn't help but feel in danger after stealing an artifact.
The decision to shove the stone into his eye socket was quick and effective. He ran out of the shack for his next step.
He needed to find some valuable loot that could be useful in his adventure.
He looked around to locate a general store-like building. Besides that there were stables.
Before he could approach the store bells started to ring! His mischief was spotted.
Arlo starts to run back to the forest for some cover.
While running he felt his eye socket getting hotter with the stone in there.
İn a flash a dark blue spark came out of Arlo's eye.
Arlo was in a white area… He could tell that he was still running through the forest, but it was nowhere to be seen.
"Where?" His voice can be used freely there. Surprised by this, he checked the stone.
The stone managed to fuse itself onto his skull. The eye socket was still here but instead of bone there was the stone located near it.
"What did this shit do to me?" It's been too long since he heard his own voice this clear.
Another spark appeared before him, it resembled him as a skeleton, an armored carcass was visible before it. The spark skeleton walked near it and a fog came out of the carcass.
The thing Arlo saw was two options. One was to store the fog in it. Another was to send the fog back into the carcass which made it move and bow before the spark skeleton.
"Can I also do that?" his voice started to get blurry as his skeleton state.
"Why Would i store it?" he tried to ask the spark skeleton.
İn an instant the carcass died again and the fog once again started to come out.
The spark skeleton took the fog but did not return it to the carcass. İnstead he put it into another corpse.
"İs it the life force?" he asked once again.
The spark skeleton took the fog off again then made it go around itself. The fog became engulfed in flames and got absorbed into the spark skeleton.
İt now made the same movements as the armored carcass once did.
"So. the fog is the life of that person equipped with its life experience and abilities…" He wanted to say that but his mouth only made the regular skeleton groans.
'so it is time to leave' his thoughts also become the standard limited state.
He found himself lying beside a large birch tree in the forest. Shallowtown was no longer visible.
'Maybe this is a mana core that Aldis yielded from birth?' small thoughts crossed his mind.
The name of his brother hurted him like he was experiencing his death once again.
'Maybe i lost that organ when I died? and this is a replica? it was for mages right? So can this make me more powerful?' he guessed before sensing a faint smell.
İt smelled like fog. Arlo followed it to find a stag corpse that was half eaten lying on the ground under a stumb.
He unleashed the fog of one of the hunters he came across once. İt was a mystery how he commanded or made the fog come out. it all felt natural.
The fog got absorbed by the stag. İts half visible bones creaked as the majestic yet terrifying looking creature stood up.
İt looked at Arlo and touched his helmet with its cold nose.
Was that supposed to be a thanks?
The stag bowed down to let Arlo sit onto its back.
İts horns were quite beautiful as Arlo thought. Now riding the stag Arlo had a new objective; to become as powerful as possible in a small time.
Maybe the bone lord could help? maybe there were more like him that could givi Arlo their blessings…
With those thoughts The dead stag and the Armored skeleton rode away in the forest.