"...him" I heard an old eerie voice

"What do you mean?" I heard another eerie voice

"I meant what I said Jack, not him" I heard the old eerie voice again so I opened my eyes and looked around

It was dark, I can't see a thing but I can definitely hear screams of agony and pain

"Alright, alright" I heard the eerie voice above me so I looked up and to my surprise, I saw a huge blazing jack-o-lantern

I looked at the ground and saw a huge glove holding me

"Oh? he's up" The Jack-o-lantern looked at me with its blazing eyes

"...Am I dead?" It was the first thing I wanted to confirm

"Yes" The Jack-o-lantern answered with a cheerful tone

"...No, Please I beg of you, let me go back, Ria, she's waiting for me" I begged and pleaded

I knelt down, at least I felt like I knelt down which was weird

"Listen, you can't, you're already dead" The Jack-o-lantern showed me a mirror

I looked and only saw a blue wisp floating off the ground

"...No... Please... I will give you everything..." After everything... this happens... no...

"Let him go Jack" I heard the old eerie voice so I looked above and saw a huge skull talking to the huge Jack-o-lantern

"Come on Grimm, why can't you let me have this one?" The Jack-o-lantern named Jack replied

"It's not his time yet" Grimm, the huge skull shot back

"Oh come on, he's going to die anyway" Jack seems to refuse

"Not today" Grimm slapped Jack with his boney hands

"Alright! alright! you don't have to get violent, jeez" Jack reluctantly lets go of me

"Listen here, you want to go back but this will have consequences," Grimm asked me

"...I am ready to suffer any consequences" I immediately agreed without a second thought

"Alright then" Grimm opened a portal where I was sucked in

I was sucked in the portal and saw the two figures disappear before my consciousness followed

"That's that, now don't do something this stupid again!" Grimm smacked the head of Jack

"Ack, I promise I won't do it again!" Jack quickly replied as he rubbed the small mound on his head

"You better, now don't disturb me, I'm off to warn Lyan about something" Grimm left

***

I opened my eyes but it was pitch black, did those two play a trick on me?

'No, I can feel my arms but not my legs...' I tried moving my legs but I can't feel anything, only my arms

I raised my hand by accident but I hit something, the sound... it's wood!

I started punching up until I felt my arms go through it but when I retracted my hand, soil quickly filled the place I was in.

Was I buried? That explains it. With both hands, I scraped, punched and dig until I made it out. I looked around and found myself... underneath a dead tree, there are no other graves in sight. It was also mid-day

'Where was I buried?' I asked myself as I started moving around

'It was weird I can't feel the ground' I thought before looking down and noticed that I had no feet, I was floating like a ghost

I looked at my hand and found out that it was only bones covered in a bluish aura

Oh no, oh no, oh no. How will I face Ria like this? she's a priestess for a reason, she hates the forces of the dark and that includes specters like me...

No, She won't destroy me on sight if I manage to convince her that it's me... but how? Oh! maybe the chicken dance I used to do when we were kids! it's embarrassing but its the only way.

We'll go with that plan and with that problem settled, I'm free to look around more... My Gravestone... I read it

'In loving memory of the hero Henz Rogue

He died protecting the world'

It seemed to have been carved with a sharp object because you can see mistakes here and there, this was definitely no professional work yet it was well kept and clean. There was also... wilted rose on top of my gravestone and more wilted rose behind it... was Ria placing these roses here? and with this sheer number... how long was I dead?

I climbed the wilted tree or more like floated to a branch and looked around, I was on top of a mountain. The trees around this area are full of life, only this tree is wilted.

I looked around for anything that might give a clue to where I am... wait that mountain, just behind that mountain is the demon king's castle! why the hell am I buried behind the demon king's castle?!..

I won't find any answers here so I started walking... floating towards the castle

I finally got around the mountain and saw the castle... it was totally destroyed, the dreary castle was now only a relic of the past. Nature found it's way in the castle as vines and other plant life wrapped itself around the destroyed mansion, I have no business here so I started floating towards Argon castle. Ria lives in Argon so she's probably still there, the only question is, how will I get inside without getting discovered...

Oh! I remember a secret passageway that leads to a hollow tree inside Argon city, we discovered this when the princess was kidnapped and was taken underneath the city. I can use that!

Then I realized something, if the one who killed me is still alive then Ria is in danger, I must get back to her immediately!

'Can I attack?' I asked myself because the journey to Argon city would take months and I don't even have simple equipment

I need to protect myself from monsters... and humans

As I walked through the forest I found nothing but scars of war which was slowly healed by nature, I finally found an old tent which was probably used as a base of operations. Maybe there is something inside I can use. I looked inside and saw an old chest, I opened it and saw an old steel sword, it was still usable, there was no rusts, cracks, or bends on the sword which made me happy.

I looked around some more and found a robe that reached up to the ground if I were to use it, this is just perfect, now I can walk around without arousing much suspicion. I wore the robe and the hood before hanging the sword on my back, I started going through the forest and encountered my first enemy since my revival

A wolf, a wolf usually hunts in packs so this wolf must be some kind of a scout, it will report back to its pack if I don't take care of it here.

I brandished my sword with both hands as the wolf growled at me and pounced, I killed it with a single swing.

In this world, strength is divided into titles,

Legend

Grand Warrior

Seasoned Warrior

Veteran Warrior

Mercenary

Gladiator

Seasoned Soldier

Veteran Soldier

Soldier

That is only in the warrior's class which is my class when I was alive, just like my class, the other classes also have 9 titles with Legend the highest and Soldier the lowest. I was a legend when I died.

There are four main classes which are Warrior, Archer, Mage, and Priests and within those main classes are many more sub-classes like Berserker which is under the Warrior class, this was Aurora's class

Class titles were only titles because it can be faked, the only difference between real and fake is strength and experience. There were many people who faked their titles but were taken in the Grand titles society which were a collection of many known Warriors, Archers, Mages, and Priests. They will test you in order to verify if you are really worthy of the title if you are not then you are sentenced to a punishment which goes higher depending on the title you faked

The wolf vanished like smoke and left a small yellowish stone, a monster core. We humans... the humans use this stone to enchant their weapons with elements corresponding to the color of the stone

Red = Fire

Transparent/ no color = Wind

Blue = Water

Yellow = Earth

Dark Blue = Lightning

Black = Darkness

White = Light

Green = Nature

Humans are weak so we devised this way to bolster our strength and it was effective, we can fight toe to toe with demons and monsters. These stones can also be sold, the price depends on which monster it came from, the rarer the monster, the higher the price.

The rarest I've seen is a monster core of a Dragon, it was as huge as an entire house, it took the ability of a master blacksmith to downsize it enough to fit the sword guard.

I took the small monster core and inserted it into a small hole on the sword guard, the sword started giving off a yellowish color

I sheathed it again and continued on my journey

I've been walking for an entire day and needed to rest so I built a simple campfire to ward off animals before closing my eyes.

I woke up the next day and noticed the fire extinguished itself, I stretched and continued my journey. Being unable to feel hunger is quite weird, not only that, it is believed that specters will die under the light of the sun but I fell strangely fine

I finally found a river, I may not feel hunger but I want to test if I still can eat.

I brought my head close to the river and saw my face... or my skull, my skull was burning in the same blue aura that wrapped around me. This is really weird, specters don't have burning skulls, if I'm not a specter then what am I?

I stopped thinking about it and just decided to drink, I just placed my mouth in the river and drank. I felt refreshed, yes, looks like I can still eat.

I stood up and went back to walking, walking back home... where Ria is... I wonder how she's been doing... is she well?

I fought a few more wolves before seeing a small village... finally, human civilization, I can finally get some answers to my questions.

I took out a cloth that the wolf dropped, yes, they do drop items that are useful. I wrapped my head in cloth before wearing my hood, thankfully the robe was long enough to cover my entire feet... oh wait, I don't have feet... let's just say it reaches to the ground