Status.

Status

Attributes

Name: Bones

Race: Undead Skeleton lvl 10

Class: Bonemancer lvl 11

Profession: ???

Hp - 230

Mp - 340

Sta - ∞

STR: 14

AGI: 5

END: 5

VIT: 23

INT: 34

WIS: 5

Free points:

I read that the class required less experience per level than race, but the gap is quite noticeable.

“Your ID sir?”

“Hm? Yes, of course.”

“Alright, go on in.”

Bones entered the town around midnight. He still had a bit of time before the meeting so he pulled down the hood over the mask, making it so his mask wasn’t as visible, and took a walk. The meeting was taking place in a small pub in the western district. Bones remembered the pub and its rough location as he was…touring the district the night before. Who could forget the pub with the name like "PUBlo's Delight". He wanted to kill the guy for making a terrible pun. Not today though.

He entered the pub, looked around and spotted his target sitting at the table at a far end of the pub. He approached the bar and ordered two drinks.

With drinks in his hands, he approached the table and sat across from the person he was here to meet. He greeted him and handed him the drink.

“Good evening Norris.”

Norris, the scout from the adventuring party Bones entered the town with, looked up and his face went stiff. After a moment of silence he replied.

“Evening Mr. Jones. Others? My cousin, Thomas?”

Bones shook his head.

“Your actions have consequences Mr. Jones. You can't just start robbing and killing people expecting no one would notice.”

“Oh, I expected someone would take notice, maybe not as fast. What I didn't expect was you, Norris. Adventurer by day, a thug at night? Care to tell me who noticed?”

“Spare me the judgment Jones! What about you? You're not some country bumpkin whose village was raided by bandits, are you? Is Jones even your real name? I can't even Identify anything about you?! Who are you? WHAT ARE YOU?”

“Calm down lad. You're making a scene. No I am not from some far away village and my real name IS Jones, Muriel Jones. Now, why don't you tell me who ordered a hit on me? I know you're not the brains of that little operation.”

“Or what? You're going to kill me? Here, in MY district?”

“Yes Norris. I will.”

Norris didn't sound as amused anymore. He didn't know much about Jones, but if he could’ve killed the three sent after him, he had no chance whatsoever.

“Western district is split into three zones, each zone having a boss.” Norris started talking. Alleys belong to my boss Vol, brothels to Trevak, and warehouse district to the Big Boss Guntar. Vol is a bronze ranker! He’s the one who gave the orders! He’s the one you'll be dealing with!!”

Bones didn’t respond immediately. For a moment, amid rising tension, a silence permitted the area. “I see. Drink up, Norris.”

Norris looked down, picked up a glass and downed the shot in one gulp. He knew what was coming.

“Don't tell the girls. We were only in a group for a month, but I liked adventuring with them. Make it quick, please?”

Bones nodded. “I already did. You won't feel a thing.”

Norris was looking at the mask, at the slits where Bones eyes should've been and felt like he was looking at the void, an abyss. Within the abyss he saw the flickering of fiery blue. He felt the chills, then started to feel drowsy, his body going numb. His head slumped down and his breathing stopped.

Bones stood up, went over to his side and leaned his head against the wall, making it look like he was asleep. He took the empty glass, stored it and left the pub.

The poison worked better than I thought it would. Would be useful in combat if I could find a way to administer a lot of it at once. Airborne maybe?

He heard a distant scream from the inside of a pub. The waitress came to check up on Norris and found him dead, not asleep.

For the first time since coming to town, Bones was searching for a place to stay. He rented the room for a week at the inn, close to the central square. While he hadn't had a need for sleep, fatigue built up. He spent the rest of the night in meditation, clearing his mind and overlooking all the skill level ups he had gotten in recent days. While his race hadn't leveled much, his class did, and so did his skills. Mana vision, sense and manipulation were at level 13. He supposed, his leveling speed would seem absurd to anyone else, but not to him. He wasn't a novice mage that recently learned the skills. He was using both mana sense and manipulation for well over a hundred years. Mana vision was new, but it was a perk of being an undead so it was used constantly. Bone Spear was at level 12 and a skill he used often in synergy with bone manipulation, a skill also at level 12. Identify was at level 3, leveling the slowest, compared to his other skills. His mending spell wasn't used as much, only when necessary so it stagnated at level 6. Overall, he made a lot of progress in a short amount of time. Others would take a month, if not longer, to get to where he was now. Early in the morning he planned to complete his quests at the guild and visit the librarian. He had a book to buy and the questions he needed answered.

The guild was busy as usual and Bones was waiting in a queue as usual. Once he reached the reception desk, he handed his ID card. The clerk behind the desk scanned his card against a crystal template of sorts and information about his quests was displayed for the clerk to see. Seeing Bones looking in the direction of the crystal, the clerk smiled and asked if it was his first time seeing it? After a brief explanation about the crystal, Bones received his rewards for the quests and headed for the library.

Subjugation of a goblin tribe netted him 3 gold and 20 silver, a gold for the chief's head and 10 silver per goblin. Adding 5 gold he was given for x10 tusks, he had enough to buy the "Monster Compendium".

Reaching the library, he peeked inside but the old man wasn't at his desk.

“Looking for more books? Perhaps, "Chronicles of the Skeleton King"?”

Bones froze. He hadn't sensed him at all.

“Holy shit, are you trying to scare me to death?”.

“Funny…What can I do for you Mr. Bones?”

Collecting his thoughts, Bones answered. “I came for the book, "The Monster Compendium".”

“Ah yes, the book. Would that be all?”

“No, how about coffee? I know the place, my treat?”

“Asking me out? Sure, but I can't leave the library unattended. We could have a drink right here.” Old man said, nodding at the small secluded area behind his desk, with a set of chairs and a small coffee table.

They sat at the table and Bones took out two glasses and a drink from his inventory. He looked up towards the old man but saw no reaction.

“You know what I am?” He asked, straight to the point.

“I do, but not more than that.”

“That wasn’t enough? No one noticed anything until now.”

“My dear boy, I'd be ashamed to call myself a former gold ranker if I couldn't do at least that much. You don't realize what an oddity you are?”

Bones frowned. “Explain?”

“To block a skill Identify, you would need a skill, an item or soul powerful enough to negate the one observing you. Now, such skills are rare and items are expensive and you don't look rich enough to have neither, which leaves the 3rd option. I wouldn't find it possible for a low level like yourself to possess such a powerful soul, but I also wouldn't find it possible for an undead skeleton to waltz into the adventurers guild and ask to sign a contract!”

At this point, the old man was laughing, the echo of the hall magnifying the sound even more so.

“Alright, alright, so you know about me. What about you? You're a gold ranker?”

“A former gold ranker. As for who I am, you will find out eventually.” He avoided answering the question with a grin.

*sigh* “Alright then, let me ask you, why do I not feel…any remorse, guilt or shame? I find my lack of emotions disturbing at times.”

“Hmm, well, it's probably because of what you are.”

“Pardon? You mean, a skeleton?”

“Correct. Skeletons, like most undead creatures, have an extremely high level of hatred towards the living. Now, why would a skeleton ask me that? Here I thought I'm conversing with a sentient skeleton, but you appeared to be much more!”

Old man was livid, a look of deep thought was showing on his face with something else. Something Bones didn't recognize but felt familiar. He took a glass and downed it down in a gulp.

*Eugh*

“What is this?” He asked with a grimace.

“Hm? A drink? Something alcoholic, I don't know what it's called.”

“Have you tried it? Do you normally drink this?” He asked bewildered.

“Yes? I don't feel anything, mana dissolves most of it.” Bones answered as a matter-of-fact.

Old man looked at Bones in surprise, then a thought occurred to him. He got up, said he would be right back and left. A minute later he got back with two drinks. He handed one to Bones and told him to try it, while sporting his stupid grin.

Bones eyed a drink. Picked it up, observed the blue color that swirled in a glass and took a sip. It was refreshing. He could feel the liquid melting with the mana within him.

“Is this…a mana potion?”

“Yes! You've never drank a mana potion before?”

“No, I never needed one so far.”

*sigh* “From my experience, mana potions of higher rarity are the only substitute to an actual drink for an undead like you. If you kept drinking mana potions when you’re at full mana, it would start to affect you negatively. Mana burn shouldn’t have a negative effect on an undead like you, but it should still give you the edge you’re looking for.”

Bones was watching him suspiciously but nodded anyway.

“You seem to have a lot of experience with undead like me?”

He didn't respond, just smiled back.

“Now that I think about it, it’s strange for a person like you to work as a librarian in the adventurers guild. It almost seems like you're hiding something. Hmm, pretty suspicious if you ask me!”

Old man didn’t respond. He took a sip from his glass and continued grinning at Bones.

“You know, I saw something suspicious about a week ago too, not far from here. There was this mage, initiating a ritual of sorts and summoning hundreds of undead skeletons, an army of them.”

That sparked a reaction. “Oh? Sounds very ominous. What happened then?”

“Well, nothing happened. We all went our separate way. It’s just funny, that a week after, here I am, drinking with a librarian that knows exactly what I am, and is giving me advice on what to drink. Why, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say there could be a connection between a mage and you.”

*Scoffs* “Now I remember. I’ve received a word about you! You were considered a defect! A skeleton that didn’t respond to the commands of the necromancer. HAHAA this is too good!”

“We will definitely meet again Mr. Bones.”

“Let me give you a word of advice. Don’t linger too much around adventurers guild. Like me, the guild leader is a gold ranker and could probably detect you if you were to cross paths. Also, this is a good place to grind experience and skill levels, but I’d move out of the town within a week or two if I were you.”

Bones stayed in the library, finishing his drink, He had to say, mana burn hit the spot just right! The librarian left and from what he said, won’t be coming back to the guild. As he was leaving he told him if he was to ever visit the capitol, he should visit an inn called “Horned Dog ''. Apparently there’s a private club and he’s been invited.