The Skull, Lord Karik, floated inside the altar speechless. It's been alone the last 600 years and the first living being it meets is itself?! Maybe he has lost his mind he thinks. Being alone for that time does that.
"How is this possible! How do you look like me?! Or is that my old body?! It should have crumbled centuries ago!"
Mark examined his body struggling to figure out what to say.
The skeletons behind Mark followed and stood within sight of Lord Karik.
"AND A BLOOD SKELETON! JUST WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"
Mark thought for a moment.
'Should I just tell him the truth? Would he even believe me? I guess if I took over his body and he should know. Plus he seems well informed about this world.'
"Fine but I don't think you will believe me when I say this."
"I've been a live for a millennia. Nothing could surprise me!"
"Well. You said it."
Mark began telling Lord Karik how he living in a world without magic but with technology. How he thinks he died there and his soul traveled through the void searching for a new body. How he saw scenes of what he believed was this world and how he woke up in this body. Mentioning his skills, level and how he raised the first skeleton in the room he woke up in. He even brought up what his goal is after witnessing what Mark called The End Times.
After his explanation Lord Karik started to laugh. If he had a body Mark assumed he would be having a great belly laugh.
"AHAHAHHAHAHA! And they called me a fool! ME! THE GREAT LORD KARIK!"
Mark looked at his skeletons and shrugged.
"So do you not believe me?"
Lord Karik seemed to be lost in his thoughts. He just stood and listen to the skull ramble.
"Those fucking fools! They all laughed and said I was wrong. I was right all along and now have proof! Granted my experiment failed but now I have this new tool!" Lord Karik started to laugh manically again.
"Hey!" Mark cried out. "I am no one's tool!"
The skull slightly turned back to facing Mark. Lord Karik seemed to have snapped back to reality.
"Ah yes you. Mark Lovo was it? You have to change your name. Mark isnt…a good vampire name. Lord Lovo can work but you must drop the Mark. Just go by lovo."
Mark was slightly taken aback by this. Person he just met started say his name was dumb. Granted he agreed Mark wasn't a good vampire name. But that's besides the point!
"Listen here. Lord Karik! You better explain things to me or I'm walking out that door and sealing it up for no one to ever come down!"
Lord Karik stoped speaking and gathered his thoughts.
"I apologize."
Mark could tell he was scared that he would be left down here till the end of days.
"I have not spoken to anyone in over 600 years. I forgot myself some time. I will summarize. I had a theory that there is a multiverse. I've done countless experiments through the millennia and came to the conclusion that to travel between universes one can not have anything tying them down. Only souls can pass through. When I had a physical body my assistant and I made a plan to turn me into a Lich. Granting me the power to at least see into different realities. As you can see it failed. As we prepared the experiment we were laid siege by mortals. Unable to stop we proceeded and see what happened. My soul was flung out of my body but it seems my back up plan actually caused me to fail. I created this skull to house my soul so I may become a Lich and finally see my different realities. Im not entirely sure where I failed by I'm not a Lich but a Demilich. A shell of what I became. But with you here! You can help me! You are yet powerful enough to recreate my spell but I can guide you."
Mark tilted his head coming to a realization.
"Karik. Do you realize that if you didn't create a skull you would have succeeded in traveling to a different universe? You made an anchor to this reality. By doing that you went against your theory and trapped your self here."
Lord Karik was silent.
"Are you kidding me" Mark cried out! "For someone who claims to be powerful how could you AND your assistant fail in realizing that?!"
Lord Karik was still silent.
Mark facepalmed and shook his head.
"I can't believe I actually need your help. Look. Karik I need your help learning about this world and how to get stronger. You help me and I help you.
Lord Karik collected himself from the bombshell of a realization Mark dropped on him.
"Fine. Seeing as my experiment failed because of me. I will help you and you will help me. Although your goal is weird. I will help."
"I do want to know what your goal is Karik. Why are you trying to travel between universes?"
"To learn! To learn everything!"
'Huh. Not the thought I was thinking of.'
"To learn everything? Is that even possible?"
"OF COURSE NOT! But without an un achievable goal what's life! Striving towards something unattainable. It's thrilling!"
"Well that's good to know that you don't want to conquer and rule over everything."
"Why would I want that?! I want to see and learn everything. Ruling is terrible. Been there done that. All it is is back stabbing and making people happy. Lord Karik does what he wants and cares for no one."
"So you don't mind if I try to make a peaceful world?"
"Of course not! Well as long as you don't include me on this. I will teach you and make you strong, but it's up to you to protect yourself."
"Fine. I'll listen and plan accordingly. I'll now go as Lord Lovo. Can you explain why you freaked out over the Blood Skeleton. And why the other other skeletons I summoned are normal and not blood ones?"
"Ah yes. It seems like once you took over my old body you awakened my ancient Royal blood. As only Royal Vampires can raise other vampires as undead thralls. The Blood Skeleton that you have standing next to you was my assistant. While the normal white skeletons were the humans we kept to feed on. Granted you don't need human blood to be fed any blood would do. Animals, elves, dwarves, and even Suras. Human blood just tastes better."
"Ohhh okay. Well that makes sense. I was thinking of making the Blood Skeleton my right hand man. Although I don't know what to make it."
"His name was Julki. He was a faithful assistant. Thankfully he staked my through the heart and tricked the humans into thinking he killed me. It's a shame they killed him. If his body was left there they must have used holy magic."
"Julki huh? I think I'll call him that as well. Is there any basics of necromancy or magic or vampire magic I should know of?"
"Ahahaha Vampire magic? No no no. I see you have zero knowledge of magic. You are lucky to have the great Lord Karik here to guide you! For a being such as your self to inhabit my old body you should know the very basics. We will not focus on magic till you have at least 500 mana. Till then you should focus on preparing. Thankfully I can give you a head start compared to others that have spent decades if not longer only to realize their mistake. The system won't tell you this till you reach the point but I can show you to prepare. How you order your skeletons will dictate what subclass they can become. Example: if you have a skeleton wield a two handed weapon, they can become a barbarian. As it grows it would gain more strength then anything. Also you can learn skills yourself. Using your Mana and necrotic energy to reshape bones into weapons and armor. Be mindful that you can not start off with complicated weapons. You must work hard to get there. Other then that it is up to you to experiment and train. I allow you to use any books here to learn as well."
Lord Lovo's eyes nearly popped out his head. This is exactly like Aldarra! Players had to train skills to improve them while leveling up gave players attribute points to spend on their core stats and a skill level point that would only work on class given skills.
"Can you give me any details about my class? Do I evolve every 10 levels and every 20 I get to specialize?"
"H-how did you know?!"
Lord Lovo had a shit eating grin.
"I've seen this before but in my world it was a game. But seeing as this is real now. I should plan my first evolution. What are my options?"
"Hahaha! If anyone has my old body I'm glad it is someone smart and able to accept a new reality! Good good!"
Lovo felt like he was back in college. A wise teacher guiding him through life. Ah those were the days.
"Your evolution will be based off of what you do and study. So I can't say anything! Hahaha."