Upon opening the box a line of vials greeted Hal's eyes.
'Fcking, God of all that is beautiful!'
Cursing Hal knew what these vials were as soon as he looked at them. They were potions. Potions for healing and probably mana because there were two different colors. One vial type was red and the other was blue.
'No bets that the blue is mana and red is health!'
Dropping the lid so that it banged on the ground Hal picked up a red vial and tore out the plug with his teeth.
'Here goes nothing!'
And he drank it down immediately and then pulled up his stat screen.
[Name: Hal Genisfelt
Level: 0
Class: None
Title: None
Health points: 3/100
Stamina points: 87/100
Mana points: -2/10
Will points: 1/2
Physical: 1
Mental: 1
Soul: 1
Will: .4
Talent: None
Ability: Bone Realm
Magic: None
Skills: None
Pets: None
]
His health points were at three! And even more confusing his mana was at zero.
'Looks like I need to take a mana potion as well! But doesn't mana regenerate on its own? At least that is how it works in the novels and it has probably been at least 45 minutes since the last time I used [Bone Realm]. Hmmm, good thing there are some mana potions here!'
Smiling to himself he downed a mana potion as well. Immediately his mana ticked up to one and then to two and within a few moments he was actually over his limit.
[Mana: 18/10]
But then in the next moment it ticked down.
[Mana: 17/10]
'Wait a minute, is my arm taking mana to sustain?'
[Yes, [Bone Realm] requires mana to sustain your arm and even more mana when you do something with it like try to climb a tree.]
Concern crested Hal's brow.
'This isn't good. My mana regeneration rate isn't enough to sustain even my arm?'
Shaking his head, Hal focused back on his health points. Sure enough he saw a gain.
[Health points: 5/100]
Taking another red vial he gulped it down. This time as he waited he saw that the number rose faster than before.
[Health points: 10/100]
He was actually starting to feel much better and went to drink another health potion, but stopped himself after considering. There were only four health potions left. At this point these potions were probably life savers that he or someone in his fief could use to save their lives. He had to be careful. If he could survive he probably should let the rest of his health points replenish naturally.
But then against his better judgement he drained another red vial like it was the water of life. Sure he could probably survive, but who knew what dangers he would face. Already he had almost died so many times it was ridiculous.
Fortunately there were nineteen mana potions in the box. Evidently the goblin didn't have much cause to use mana potions.
Checking his stats he saw that his health points had risen to 30 and then stopped.
[Health points: 30/100]
'These potions are probably cooked to only give twenty points of regeneration.'
So think Hal loaded himself up with the food, tools, and the box of potions turning around he went back to the hole in the floor of the blind. Intending to leave, instead he once again fainted dead away.
____
This time Ankou didn't come to wake him back up and there was no distractions so when he woke up again it was dark outside. In the first moments in this unfamiliar place he panicked a little and couldn't figure out where he was, but then it all came rushing back to him. Especially the part about losing his arm and then regaining a skeletal arm instead.
'They will be wondering where I am, back at the lake.'
Hal's mind told him he should get up and go back to his people. But then he thought about it again.
'Maybe this is good. I am going to die anyway. They shouldn't get too attached. It is better if I just wonder off and die. They already showed me they are better at organizing everyone, anyways!'
Instead of getting up to leave he got up to crawl onto the goblin's bed.
____
In the morning he woke up feeling drained and exhausted. Even though he had slept for the entire night and even part of the day yesterday.
It had to be his arm, it was probably draining his mana still.
'Flo, how do I fix this mana problem? Can I increase my mana regeneration rate?'
He asked a little desperate. Hal didn't want to feel this way for the rest of his life.
[The easiest way to increase your mana regeneration rate is to find a treasure that will increase it. While the hardest way to increase your regeneration rate is to practice with you mana. The more you use it the better it becomes.]
Flo sent a pop up message for him to ponder over.
'Is that it? Can't I gain some levels or something?'
Confused at how hard it was sounding Hal asked again.
[Yes, between these two extremes there are a few ways to proceed. You can gain a few levels or for example you can drink some more mana potions.]
'What? Oh, right, I can just drink another mana potion! Wait why didn't you say that was the easiest option?'
[Ha! Because there are treasures hidden all throughout the beginner area. You just have to find one of the mana regeneration tokens and you will be good to go!]
Flo was happy that she could help Hal out in some way. In fact there was a mana regeneration token right there in that very room. The treasure was hidden here by the gods so that the goblin could protect it.
'Oh, well, can you tell me where it is then, please?'
Cheerfully, Hal asked.
[... Hal, this is also part of the rules. I can't just tell you where it is. You have to figure it out on your own.]
'Oh, fck. Fine. I will figure it out on my own.'
Then he found the box of vials that had slipped out of his grasp when he fell asleep last night and drank a blue bottle. Then he scrambled down out of the blind.
At this point Flo was hopeful that he would find the mana regeneration treasure, it was right there disguised half-heartedly as a hand hold.
Instead Hal made his way back to the scene of his fight with the goblin.
[Hal, what are you doing?]
Flo asked tentatively.
'I am doing like you said. I am figuring this out on my own.'
So saying Hal sat back in the shit in the exact same position as he had been sitting the day before and went back to trying to get back into the trance again.
[Wait, what? Why are you sitting out here in the open with your eyes closed?]
'I told you. I am figuring this out on my own. I am going to put my skeletons back together. My people need protectors. And those skeletons were the best I could give them.'
After explaining this to Flo, Hal closed his eyes again and went back to trying to get into his trance.
Several text boxes popped up. At one point twenty of them popped up right in front of Hal's face as if some one was really frustrated with him. If he had been looking the first text box would have read.
[I can see that you think you are figuring this out by practicing your magic. But why choose the hardest option, when literally all the easier options are right in front of you!]
Ignoring Flo it took Hal about an hour to get back into his trance. For Hal this was a no brainer, it was just a matter of time before he would be able to accomplish it. He didn't realize that what he was doing was something that others would pay in gold to achieve.
In the trance state Hal worked for most of the day. At the end of which he had six complete skeletons lined up beneath the tree where the blind was. He had found it easier to move the bones over here than to continue to mess around in the blood, vomit, and even excrement. It turns out that the goblin voided his bowels after dying.
The sixth skeleton was the goblin and of the six skeletons it was the most complete. The other original five skeletons had been much more fragile and their bones have been scattered over a much large area. Some of the bones had probably been powdered others might have been scavenged during the night by who knows what animals.
That being the case there should have been missing pieces, but instead every skeleton was complete. Hal found that he could reshape the bones to some extent. Allowing for some creativity he had taken out back and rib bones to make up for the missing pieces. This left the original skeletons with fewer total ribs and back bones. Also they were more fragile having been stretched and molded. Now they looked more like animated characters than real skeletons.
Regardless it was done. All the bones were there.
The problem was that no matter how deep in the trance Hal went he couldn't get [Bone Realm] to connect different bones together. It seemed like [Bone Realm] was only good for manipulating bone. There was something missing. Some extra ingredient that would allow the bones to become a cohesive whole once more.
Of course Hal was not ignorant of the role of the soul. He had long surmised that the reason his own arm had come alive was because it had been attached to a living breathing body which also happened to have a soul.
It was Hal's soul that was feeding the power and ability to control his left arm.
'But where am I going to get a soul to power my skeletons?'
Looking around Hal was getting desperate. He had wasted so much time and energy working on these skeletons. He had already used five more mana potions. There were only twelve left now.
Going into his trance was not going to help him. [Bone Realm] was either not able to deal in souls or he was just doing something wrong. The other possibilities that Hal had thought of was that he was just too weak or talentless to use [Bone Realm] to its fullest. Flo had told him that [Bone Realm] was normally a summoning spell. So to Hal that meant that he should be able to summon a soul.
'Wouldn't summoning a soul be easier than summoning a skeleton?'
But no matter how hard Hal tried while in the trance state he could not call forth a soul from [Bone Realm]
"There must be souls around here somewhere!"
Whispering Hal looked around, slowly doing a full circle as he looked out into the woods and across the clearing trying to gain some kind of inspiration.
As he looked and looked he again came up short with nothing to show for his efforts.
Forgetting that his left arm was bone he put his palm up to touch the bark of the tree again.
Flo became a little excited because his bone hand landed right on the mana regeneration treasure. Much to her consternation Hal didn't realize what had happened and the system did not recognize the bone hand so no system prompt came up.
[F_ing god of creation! Why did you make this so hard to simpletons like Hal!]
This text box came up, but Flo intentionally hid the pop behind Hal so that he wouldn't see it.
Instead Hal became bewitched by his own hand.
'Wait! Is that the answer? Maybe it wasn't so bad to loose an arm!'
Thinking another weird thought Hal immediately walked over to the nearest skeleton and putting his hand down on its skull he dropped into a trance. Having not eaten all day he was in a pretty fragile mental state which actually made it easier to enter a trance.
Slowly, ever so slowly the blue light of mana creeped out over the skeleton. Sweat pored down from Hal's forehead as he fought and wished for his soul to extend out and take over this skeleton.
Finally a light flashed and Hal stepped back.
The skeleton stayed absolutely still.
'Did it work?'
[This is the stupidest idea! Hal!! Take back your soul piece right now!]
However, Hal was in the middle of a discovery. Excited he gave the skeleton a command.
'Rise.'
And the skeleton picked itself up off the ground.
'I did it! I did it!'
Rejoicing Hal lost the trance, but he didn't mind. He had succeeded.
'This is going to be good! No I can have an ever replenishing source of skeletons! Maybe I can protect my people!'
Then Hal calmed himself.
'I am still to weak. Maybe I can protect them a bit until a Lord comes along. Surely anyone would be better than me!'
Having calmed himself, Hal waited for fifteen minutes in complete silence for his mind to reset after flooding it with too many positive emotions. Then he resolutely extended his soul out to each of the other four original skeletons. It was just as hard to extend his soul for each of them if not harder.
'It looks like five skeletons is my limit right now. I should try one more, I have the goblin skeleton anyway!'
Carefully Hal knelt on one knee behind the goblin skeleton's skull and placing his left had down upon it he started the process of extending his soul.
After an indeterminate amount of time Hal was exhausted and only able to engulf part of the skull.
'Looks like five really is my limit.'
Yet as he gave it one more try for effort a red greasy looking substance eeked out of the skull as if being forced out.
"Ahhhhhh!"
A face, a very familiar face formed in the red glowy gaseous form and screamed at him. It was the goblin come to haunt him from the grave.