ã€ŠEternia Rising : Lostã€‹


 Part One

    The wheelchair he was sitting in was uncomfortable. Each day the aches in his legs and lower back became slightly more painful than the day before, but he gritted his teeth and put up with them, just like he had done since the day he had started using the chair. This morning¡¯s pains just confirmed the decision he had made a week before.

    A hand was placed gently down on his shoulder. ¡°We are nearly there, Dad. Everyone is looking forward to seeing you.¡±

    The voice brought him back from his musings and he looked up at the speaker. It was David, his eldest son. He put a smile on his lips, one he didn¡¯t really feel, and replied. ¡°Thank you, son, I¡¯m looking forward to seeing all of them as well.¡± The smile slipped from his face as he turned his view back to the front. He knew that his decision may cause problems with the rest of his family. Up ahead of him he could see the doors that would open on the room where they waited for him.

    As they approached the doors the old man in the chair made another decision and held up one liver spotted hand. ¡°Hold on a minute, Danny, there is something I want to tell you before we go in.¡±

    His son stopped pushing and looked at him for a moment before carefully kneeling don beside him. He lay one hand on his father¡¯s arm. ¡°Dad, what¡¯s up ? Is something wrong ?¡± He looked into his father¡¯s eyes as he spoke.

    Smiling back reassuringly, the old man shook his head. ¡°No, there¡¯s nothing wrong, I just think you should know something before we see the others, the reason why I have called all of you here together today.¡± He took a deep breath before continuing. ¡°I have decided it¡¯s time for me to emigrate.¡±

    His son laughed at this. ¡°This again, dad. Every year you say the same thing and every year you do nothing. You know you don¡¯t have the money for it, its too expensive for you. You¡¯re a hundred today and I can¡¯t see you being accepted at all.¡±

    Darian just smiled sadly at his son. ¡°I already have. That is the reason you¡¯re all here today, for me to say my goodbyes to. ¡±

    Daniel Brown rocked back on his heels at this pronouncement. ¡°When, dad, when are you leaving ? How long have we got left before you leave ?¡±

    ¡°Today, I¡¯m leaving straight after this party. They have the portal set up in another room. Once I have said my goodbyes to everyone they will take me away and digitize me, then send me on my way.¡± He looked at his son once more. ¡°Don¡¯t feel sad for me, I may be going, but I will keep in contact with the family, and hopefully will see some of you in New Eden in the years to come.¡±

    David moved his hand up onto one of his fathers withered shoulders gently. ¡°No, dad, no-one will feel sorry to see you leave at all, everybody will be happy for you, for it means we will have you around a lot longer.¡± He smiled, then stood up. ¡°Come on Dad, let¡¯s get in there and let everybody know the good news.¡± He grasped the wheelchairs handles and started to push it forward again. ¡°I¡¯m just sorry mom isn¡¯t around to go with you.¡±

    ****

    The pain he felt as he passed through the portal was unbearable and his mouth opened in a silent scream. His whole body felt like it was being crushed inwards from all directions. The pressure on him forced the air from his lungs, leaving him gasping for breath, just like a fish out of water and he was sure he could hear his bones start to crack. This torture seemed to go on forever, but at the same time it could only have been for seconds, he didn¡¯t know. It wasn¡¯t what he was told it would be like.

    Just as he thought he would die from this pressure, there was a sudden explosion of coruscant light, silent, but blinding him. His body was expelled from the portal, thrown violently through the air, arms and legs flailing about helplessly like a rag doll being shook. His flight didn¡¯t last long, and ended as his back smashed down onto an unyielding surface, more pain arcing through him, only to find himself bouncing into a backwards somersault, landing this time face down. Red flashed across his vision as he lost consciousness.

    When he came to, he had no way of working how long he had been out, but the pain that affected every part of his body, while still there, didn¡¯t seem so bad. It was almost like he remembered how his old body, back on earth, used to feel. If this is how it felt to transfer across then someone had lied to him, he had been told that all his pains would be left behind, he would start his new life with a new body.

    As he lay there, face down and gasping, he noticed that he was lying on a rough, dirty surface littered with small stones. With an effort, he rolled over onto his back, to look upwards at a brilliant clear blue sky. Dust, disturbed by his movements puffed up into a large cloud around him, getting sucked into his mouth and throat as he breathed.

    Coughing violently, he sat up and spat to remove the dust that had filled his mouth, then took a look around himself. What he saw shocked him, this is not what he was told would be on the other side of the portal. He found himself sitting on a dry and dusty road, the hot sun shining down on him. All around him were the remains of buildings, most of them collapsed into piles of rubble. Turning his head, he couldn¡¯t see one single intact building, nor, he realized, could he see any living soul. Where the hell am I ? he wondered to himself, I was told I would arrive in New Eden, and this definitely isn¡¯t it . He listened carefully, but the only sound that came to his ears was the sound of the wind blowing through this ruined place. He cupped his hands in front of his face and yelled out. ¡°Hello, can anyone hear me ?¡± but there was no reply to his call, only the echoes of his own words bouncing back at him.

    Slowly, and with an effort, he pushed himself up to his feet, carefully keeping an eye on his surroundings as he did so, then froze as realization struck him. Slowly he looked down at himself. I can stand, he thought in amazement, I CAN stand, he again thought, but this time in great excitement. At least this part of what they had told him was true, he was no longer dependent upon that damn wheelchair. Shuffling his feet in long forgotten dance steps, he watched them move in glee and thrust his arms into the air with a shout of pleasure. ¡°YES.¡± he screamed. ¡°I can walk again.¡±

    Feeling a wave of unexpected exhaustion sweep across him, he moved to the nearest piece of rubble and sat down. Wearily, he gave another examination of his surroundings, finding nothing different from his first inspection. Where am I, he repeated to himself, this place looks like a bomb site, and not the new life I was promised. The company had told him that he wouldn¡¯t notice the difference between his real life and his new digital life, that he would arrive in a town just like the one he had grown up in. he looked about himself absently, he hadn¡¯t lived in any place like this at all.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    DING

    ¡°What ?¡± he said aloud as his head spun about trying to locate where the noise had come from. He couldn¡¯t see anything that could have made the noise, and reached up to scratch at his chin. Pulling his hand away, he looked at it in interest. The fact that he could feel his own skin, bristles and all with his fingertips, didn¡¯t surprise him, but the fact that his wrinkled, liver spotted hand now looked young and unmarked, did. Opening his hand, he turned it around, looking at the palm and back, pleased that his formerly aged and crippled body, not only could walk again, but had also been returned to a more youthful appearance. With hands that trembled, not with age but with hope, he reached up and ran his fingers through the hair that he found on his head, hair that he had lost many years ago, tugging it to reassure himself it was his, and not a wig of some type.

    He sat back and considered the predicament he seemed to be in, thinking about how he had arrived here.

    He had applied to emigrate to the new world, a digital place created to simulate a real world, where all ailments and age would disappear, a world of pleasure and luxury without pain or death, and had been accepted. Many people had ¡®emigrated¡¯ over the last couple of hundred years, releasing the world of the financial burden of supplying them with a barely tolerable quality of life, as well as helping to decrease overpopulation problems. It was advertised as a utopia, a claim upheld by the citizens of this new world. He had gone through the process of moving across, his family there to see him cross. They had all waved as his body had entered the portal, and he had gone happily¡­.. only to end up here, alone and in a place which seemed to be bereft of life.

    He looked about again. Something had definitely gone wrong. Remembering a phrase from a long forgotten book from his past, he laughed cynically to himself and said ¡°Darian, I¡¯ve a feeling I¡¯m not in New Eden anymore.¡±

    The elation he had felt at finding himself able to walk again had dissipated and now all he felt was depression. He had given up a life of pain and suffering, only to find himself now in a world where he seemed to be alone, healthy, but still alone. He couldn¡¯t see any of the beauty that was promised in this desolate, blasted wasteland he now found himself occupying.

    Then he heard it again¡­ DING¡­ and this time it seemed to be within his head, and not from somewhere among the ruins around him. Frowning, Darian shook his head. Not only had he been sent to this dismal place, he was now hearing noises in his head. Had they done something wrong when digitizing him ?

    He let his mind pass by the noises it was hearing and concentrated on other things. He decided to take stock of his current situation. Looking down at himself, he saw he was wearing a thin, white tunic and shorts, both miraculously clean after his tumble through the dirt and dust. His legs, while not muscular in any way, were not the emaciated sticks he remembered he used to have before. His arms, also, could not be described other than being normal, neither fat or thin, but both legs and arms were pale, almost white in appearance and speckled with a fine coat of light colored hair, a sign that they had not seen any sunlight for quite awhile. He could feel the features of his face, but until he found a mirror, he had no way of seeing how he looked at this time, but his fingertips informed him the skin beneath them was unlined and smooth.

    Then it came to him. That noise he had heard, the ding sound, he remembered something about it in one of the pamphlets he had been given. Now what was it, he mused while absently rubbing his chin. He sat there, sitting on the rock oblivious to his surroundings while he carefully went over those memories he could remember of the moments before they pushed his body into the portal, trying to dredge up the information he wanted. He knew that he should have concentrated more on the information he was given, but like everything, he didn¡¯t consider it important at that time. Finally the hazy memory he had sharpened into understanding. It was a messaging system alert, informing him he had received a message from someone.

    Darian frowned at this remembrance. He had only gone through the portal about an hour ago, so who would be sending him a message this quickly ? Now all need to do is remember how to access this message, he thought.

    ¡°Message.¡± He spoke into the air hopefully, but nothing happened and he sank down again into thought. He followed up and tried saying ¡®mail¡¯ and ¡®read message¡¯ aloud, but again nothing happened. His poor knowledge about current technology frustrated him, he knew he should have been more interested when his children and grandchildren talked to him about these things, but he never thought he would need to know about those things, especially at his age.

    Darian laughed. At my age. Still chuckling at the thought, he shook his head. I have to stop thinking like that, age is a thing of the past for me now. I have a fine new body, and an eternity in front of me to enjoy it. Now how do I open those damn messages.

    It took him ten minutes, gesticulating madly in the air and uttering any words he could think of before he finally managed to hit on the right statement. With his utterance of the word ¡°Inbox.¡± his vision was suddenly obscured by a transparent screen, similar to those he saw on his computer monitor when he opened his mail system. Turning his head he saw that the screen did not change its position from being directly in the center of his sight. Concentrating on it seemed to make it become more solid to the view, but not solid enough to block his vision from seeing what lay beyond it. On the screen he could see two letter icons flashing, informing him that there were unread messages waiting for him.

    Now comes the interesting part, working out how to open the messages. He was just about to start the experimentation process again when he saw a little bold text line at the top.

    ** Tip ¨C You can access your messages using virtual touch screen technology. Just point at the message you wish to open and press it. To set voice control over your messaging system, please visit your Settings page. **

    He raised his eyebrows at this and muttered ¡°Now, that¡¯s useful.¡±, then raised his hand index finger extended. As he did this he saw that his hand moved in front of the screen, then as it passed over the unread messages highlighted them. Leaving his finger over the first unopened message, he tapped it with his finger. ¡°It¡¯s just like a touchscreen.¡± He remarked.

    The screen before him changed as the selected message blossomed outwards, expanding to fill his vision. Instinctively he pulled his head back, but this had no effect on the message, which remained the same size in front of him. It did have one effect though, causing him to lose concentration, and the message faded away. Quickly, he returned his full attention to the message and it solidified again. He quickly scanned the information displayed.

    The message was a greeting message from the administration of New Eden, welcoming him as a new citizen and informing him of all of the wonderful things he can expect to do and find, as well as some helpful links to information about the new world he had joined. It was illustrated as well, showing many beautiful locations, with people enjoying numerous activities. It looked to be a wonderful place to be.

    Closing the message, he looked about himself, seeing the sand and dust blow through and across derelict buildings, feeling the heat bring sweat to his brow. He licked his dry lips, wetting them against drying out, and laughed hysterically. Yes, he thought, it would be a wonderful place to be, but wherever he was, it was definitely not part of New Eden.

 Part Two

    Part 2

    ¡°Where the hell am I ?¡± Darius asked himself once again, wiping away the sand and sweat that stuck to his forehead. The welcome message he had just read would have been funnier in other circumstances, but not this one. The bad news about his botched transfer had erased all consciousness of the second, unread message that still sat in his inbox. ¡°What the hell am I supposed to do now ?¡± Darian muttered to himself

    He slumped down, morosely, back supported against the rubble behind him and held his head in his hands. ¡°All I wanted was a little bit of peace and quiet, to finally get my feet up, to drink myself stupid and just watch the waves roll in. I have spent every cent I ever had, and this is what I end up with.¡± He looked up at the cloudless sky in anger, then screamed ¡°Fuck you. Thanks for nothing, you bastards.¡± Immediately from behind him came the sound of someone clearing their throat.

    ¡°Pardon ?¡± spoke a male voice.

    It was so unexpected that it startled Darian, and in his haste to stand up and turn around to see who was speaking, he managed only to get his legs tangled together tripping him up and tumbling him onto his back in the dirt. Lifting up his head he found himself looking at the floating figure of a young man, brightly glowing, and dressed only in a t-shirt and shorts. Blazoned across the chest of the t-shirt was the words ¡°New Eden Moderator¡± and the logo of a phoenix. The youth was looking at him amusedly through bright blue eyes, his lips quirked up in a partial smile.

    ¡°Shit !¡± exclaimed Darian loudly in surprise. ¡°You just scared the crap out of me. Don¡¯t sneak up on someone like that, will you. You could have given me a heart attack.¡±

    This brought a chuckle of mirth from the youth. ¡°No, a heart attack isn¡¯t coded in for one of the possible death types.¡± The youth paused in thought. ¡°But it does has possibilities.¡± He snapped his fingers and a pen and paper appeared in his hands. Quickly he scribbled something onto the paper, looked at what he had written, grunted to himself in affermation about whatever he had written, then snapped his fingers again. The pen and paper vanished. Seeing the expression on Darian¡¯s face at these actions, the youth spoke reassuringly. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I will give you half the credit for the idea. If they accept it then you can expect a nice reward for your character. I think I will put it forward to development as a skill for dead spirits, scaring people to death with a heart attack.¡±

    Darian frowned at this. ¡°What are you talking about ? Characters and Rewards ? Also, why the hell are you floating in the air¡­ Hold on a minute, answer this first. Who the hell are you ?¡± He took a quick look behind himself to make sure there wasn¡¯t anyone else around him, or sneaking up on him.

    The young man quirked one eyebrow at him, that slight, Mona Lisa smile still on his face, lifting one hand into the air, a scroll appeared in it. The man slowly unrolled it, his gaze still fixed on Darian, his smile meeting bemusement. ¡°You are Darian Brown ? ¡± questioned the man after a quick peek at the scroll, ¡°newly arrived citizen of New Eden ?¡±

    Taken aback, Darian answered him ¡°Yes, I am ?¡± then the anger he felt suddenly boiled up ¡°and if this¡­¡± he waved at the ruins around him, ¡°¡­ is what I paid for, then bloody well give me my money back, and my body as well. This isn¡¯t what I signed up for.¡±

    The young man removed one hand from the scroll and held it up in a reassuring ¡®hold on, there¡¯s more¡¯ gesture, obviously in an attempt to calm him down. Returning his gaze to the scroll, the man continued. ¡°No, you¡¯re not in New Eden, Darian, you are actually in a game called Eternia. Something happened during your transition, and you ended up here instead.¡±

    ¡°A game called Eternia ? What the hell is that ?¡± Darian snapped at the man. ¡°When are you going to fix this problem and take me to where I am supposed to be.¡± The smug grin on the youth irritated him.

    ¡°Well¡­.. that¡¯s a question we can¡¯t answer at this time. You really need to know how this came about to fully understand our problem, and yours. That¡¯s why I am here.¡±

    This information didn¡¯t amuse Darian at all. ¡°I don¡¯t care about your problem, just take me the hell out of here and send me to New Eden, where I am supposed to be, right now¡± he demanded.

    Now both eyebrows of the young man reached for the sky. ¡°I don¡¯t think you understand the severity of the problem.¡± he replied in an annoyed tone, the whimsical smile now finally gone. ¡°In fact I am definite you have no understanding, for if you had the slightest hint of the cause, you wouldn¡¯t be so demanding.. ¡±

    ¡°So, tell me then.¡±

    The man gave him a black look before speaking again. ¡°There is a rogue AI in Eternia, one which wants to breach the barrier between Eternia and New Eden, and if it manages this, then it will be able to access all the hardware on Earth. If this happens it could take control of the nuclear arsenals and issue the firing code to all of them. If this happens, then all life on Earth could be wiped out¡±

    ¡°So what has this to do with me, and why I am stuck here ?¡± Darian demanded.

    The man hesitated a bit, refusing to look at Darian. Then he sighed. ¡°The reason you appeared here instead of in New Eden is the rogue found a security hole and managed to add some rather unpleasant coding into you when you were being encoded for transferal. This code is now permanently part of you and we can¡¯t remove it without killing you. ¡± He looked at Darian, then quickly spoke again. ¡°There is no need for you to panic about this, or be concerned, the coding is totally harmless to you. It¡¯s in hibernation mode at present, and will only become active if you pass through the transfer portal to New Eden, infecting all the programs over there with a virus. The virus will be activated if you port out of the game and to New Eden. The system detected the additional code in you as we started your transferal process and it was tagged as being part of the rogue. Because it couldn¡¯t destroy the code without destroying you, it instead shunted you into the game world, and because it thinks you are part of the rogue, it has isolated you in lands sealed away from regular players, a long way from any place you can gain any assistance¡°

    ¡°So, kill the rogue, erase it and let me out.¡±

    ¡°We are trying that, we have been trying to do so for three years now. But it¡¯s hard to kill a god in this game world, and we can only operate using the game mechanics of this world, our programmers have no access at all. The gods of this world, which are the other five AIs running this place, are aware of your situation and have suppressed identification of this code within you, but refuse to do anything else about it. If they hadn¡¯t done this, then every creature, and player, in this world, other than the undead, would identify you as being a follower of the god and attack you on sight. So if you ever want to be able to leave Eternia, the rogue has to be defeated, defeated and erased from memory.¡±This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Darian was a little stunned by the information he had been given. ¡°So I¡¯m stuck here, in a stupid game, and will stay here until some stupid game god is killed ?.¡±

    ¡°Yep, that¡¯s about the score..¡± came the simple reply

    Darian threw his hands in the air an exasperation. ¡°For god¡¯s sake, I have never played a game like this, I don¡¯t understand them, and do not know how to play them.¡±

    The young man folded his arms on his chest. ¡°The company is not unsympathetic to your situation, Darian. We will do everything we can to help you, which admittedly will be little because we are not allowed to interfere in the operations of the game world, only the AIs can do that. We can, though, give you a few pointers. The first thing you must do is go to the menhir in the center of this town and place your hand on it and say the words ¡®set respawn¡¯. You shouldn¡¯t have any problem locating this because that¡¯s where you entered the game.¡±

    ¡°Huh, why ? What does that mean ?¡±

    ¡°This is so if you get killed you will respawn, or restart, at that menhir, rather than some random location near here. Game death isn¡¯t like real death, Darian, its temporary. Every community has a menhir, and they can be found at a lot of other locations as well. If you¡¯re travelling, always try to find the menhirs near you and reset your spawn point at one of them.¡±

    Darian thought for a second on this. ¡°OK, that seems to make sense. Anything else ?¡±

    ¡°Yes. In this game you will need to eat and drink, just like in real life. You won¡¯t die if you don¡¯t do these things, but life will become extremely unpleasant for you until you do. We have been informed by the AIs that there is a stash of usable food and water somewhere in the ruins of this village, so you¡¯re going to have to explore and find them. Look everywhere, Darian, they could be anywhere.¡±

    The man paused in thought at this point, then continued ¡°I also advise you keep an eye out for something you can use as a weapon, you will definitely going to need that. If you can¡¯t find a dagger or sword, then try to make something to use as a weapon, even if it is only a pointed stick. If food and water has survived in this location, then it is highly probable that some type of weapon also has. Nothing in this place will be friendly to you, Darian, nothing. Always expect to be attacked by any creature you come across. If you do see something, your best chance of survival would be to run in the opposite direction. ¡±

    Suddenly the air was filled with a soft melodic chiming, making the young man frown. ¡°Crap, I don¡¯t have long left, that¡¯s the warning my time is up here.¡± He pursed his lips. ¡°Look, I¡¯m sorry this has happened to you, especially seeing you know absolutely nothing about this game.¡± His floating body started to lose is solidity, slowly becoming more transparent, and he spoke rapidly, trying to get out as much as possible before he totally disappeared. ¡°Keep an eye on your inbox for messages. Ask for help, it will give you¡­. ¡° his voice disappeared before he finished the sentence, quickly followed by his body. Darian was left there, standing alone.

    ¡°Hello ?¡± Darian called into the empty air, hoping that the disappearance of the man wasn¡¯t permanent and he would return. He stood there, calling out for five minutes before he gave up, realizing the futility of it. The man wasn¡¯t coming back. What did he mean, ask for help. There isn¡¯t anyone here for me to ask help from ? There must be more to this advice than I am aware of, something I am just not seeing.

    He looked about helplessly, alone once again, and still clueless about his future. Realizing there wasn¡¯t much he had control over at this point, he decided the best thing he could do was at least to try to follow the instructions of that strange man, he seemed to at least have an idea what should be done, in the short term anyway. Time to find that menhir, something at least he knew about from the holidays he had taken in France oh so many years ago.

    Darian walked over to the rocks where he had woken up, easily locatable by following the remnants of footprint impressions that remained in the dry, sandy soil, footprints he had made.

    Reaching the right spot, he looked about, turning as he did so, looking for the large standing stone that should be near, well near if what the young man had said was correct. Nothing at all resembling a standing stone met his gaze, all he could see was piles of rubble and shattered walls.

    Walking forward, towards what he thought was the center of the rubble strewn area, Darian climbed carefully onto the top of the tallest rubble pile, so as to be able to see further around himself. The mound he stood on helped extend his sight range substantially, but still he couldn¡¯t locate anything resembling a menhir. Sure, there was some structures he could see that rose at least two stories high, but all of them were man made, and not natural stone.

    Darian sighed and wiped the sweat from his face on one sleeve. The sun had risen higher in the sky since he arrived, and now stood almost directly overhead, the air becoming hotter all the time. Feeling like it had sucked the energy out of him, he carefully lowered himself to sit, perched on the very top of the heap of stone he had climbed up. He could just feel his skin start to burn under the effects of the sun.

    Feeling a headache coming on, which he hoped wasn¡¯t sunstroke, he now wished he had a nice cool glass of water to quench his thirst. Concentrate, he thought to himself, stop thinking about your thirst, there is nothing I can do about it at this moment, think instead about what the hell could have happened to a ten foot tall pillar of stone ?

    Feeling a sharp pain beneath his posterior, he lifted his bottom off the rock to wipe away the small stones he must have sat on, and froze. Shaking his head at himself, he realized he was sitting on the menhir, the fallen down, laying flat on the ground menhir. What a bloody idiot I am. It¡¯s so bloody obvious, I should have realized it straight away. If everything else in this place has been knocked down it goes without saying that the menhir would be as well. Sighing at his own idiocy he slapped one palm down on the stone and said ¡°Set respawn.¡± As soon as he had spoken those worlds he heard a quiet ping and words scrolled across the bottom of his vision.

    Respawn point set ¨C Current respawn point Cambra Village, Kingdom of Varathia.

    Sighing in relief, he wiped his forehead again. He was becoming concerned about how much he was sweating. He knew that finding something to drink was of prime importance now, so he wearily pushed himself up to his feet. Shading his eyes a little with one hand, Darian proceeded to scan the wrecked buildings around him. Now he was at an elevated position he could see further into the ruins, and in some cases past what he assumed was the edge of the village and into the dry wastelands beyond them.

    Suddenly something caught his eye, something he had not seen in all the time he had been here. Something was moving out there past the buildings, something slowly getting closer. He blinked a bit to clear his eyesight of the sting of salt from his sweat, then squinted, trying to bring whatever it was into better focus. Then all of a sudden it came into sharp focus. A skeleton, a bloody walking skeleton. What kind of game is this that has skeletons walking about in it, have they dropped me into some kind of horror game ? From what he could see from its movements, he calculated that it should be at his location in five minutes.

    Crouching down slowly, so as to not attract the attention of the skeleton, Darain thought about what he could do, which he finally admitted was bugger all. He didn¡¯t want to die, he wasn¡¯t reassured by the young man¡¯s statement that it wouldn¡¯t be permanent, but Darian was definite that it would hurt, and hurt a lot. Through his gritted teeth, an almost silent ¡°Fuck.¡± slipped out.

 Part Three

    Darian sat quietly on the stone, watching the skeleton that approached the ruined village he was in. He was indecisive about how he should proceed, having never experienced anything at all like this before, either in real live or virtually. He understood the severity of his predicament, for if his knowledge of what had happened to him was correct, then should expect to be attacked as soon as the skeleton saw him.

    This was supposedly a game, and while he hadn¡¯t played any games, he had read many fantasy novels during his long life, some of them even about living in game worlds. If I kill that skeleton then I should get some of that experience they go on about, he thought. He even recalled some of the overheard discussions between his grandchildren, discussing their exploits in whatever computer game had captured their attention that week, as they say at the feet of their boring grandfather.

    He crouched down as much as he could so as not to prematurely attract attention from the approaching creature. He looked down at the clothes he woke up in, still pristine even now, then cursed , knowing there was nothing he could do about them. Even with his limited understanding, he knew their brilliant white appearance diminished his chance of blending into the background. He had wiped blood on them earlier, from some minor cut he picked up and it had not even left the slightest mark on the material. Weird, he thought to himself.

    Stop wasting time, he mentally told himself, do something before you lose the opportunity to influence the situation. That was something he remembered being told once, a long time ago, back when he spend a summer in army training. Again, he shook his head as if to rid himself of distracting thoughts.

    Finally making up his mind, he slid down off the rocks, stumbling as he landed on the hard, sun baked earth, and trotted across to the nearest ruins to him, which was on the opposite side of the open area from the approaching skeleton. He had roughly about three and a half minutes before it would reach his position. Climbing across the fallen masonry he entered what would have been the interior when it was intact, and found this area also filled with rubble, probably the remains of the fallen roof, he decided. Carefully picking his way across it, so as to avoid any injury from a misplaced foot, he searched frantically for anything he could use to arm himself. The only thing he managed to find was a broken beam of wood, probably one of the beams that had held the roof up.

    The beam was well aged from being in the sunlight, burnt a deep grey in color, with the grain opened up in fissures along its length. At first he feared it may be too weak to be effective, but after smashing it down onto some rocks near him a couple of times, it¡¯s failure to crack or splinter reassured him. Quickly looking in the direction he expected the creature to appear from, he found it still hadn¡¯t appeared, allowing him time to get his breath back.

    For some reason, he found his new body didn¡¯t seem to have much stamina, and he grew tired quickly after only a short bout of strenuous activity. He knew he was new to this body, but, still, this was a concern. If this was his old body, crippled and still bound to that wheelchair, poor stamina would be understandable, but this was a brand new, and young body, it should be in pristine condition with perfect stamina, he hadn.t even got round to abusing it yet.

    A sound made him look up, and suddenly the skeleton appeared from between two mounds of mixed dirt and stone, travelling along at a walking pace. Now he could see it properly, he could easily make out it¡¯s attire. The skeleton was dressed, or partially dressed considering the state of the armor, in torn and rusty chainmail, its surface covered with a number of huge rents, allowing one to see inside to the ribcage that it protected. On its head perched a small metal helmet, resembling an upside down metal bowl, its rim lined with the heads of large, corroded rivets. The helmet was overly large atop the skull and rocked about as the skeleton walked, making faint bell like clangs as it struck against the bone of its skull.

    If it had once been wearing lower garments, then they must had fallen off at some stage, along with the flesh, for all that remained wrapped around its hips was a leather belt, dangling loose, caught on one hipbone.

    The final thing that the skeleton possessed was grasped in one boney hand. It was a short sword, rusting and tarnished from age. Darian didn¡¯t delude himself that its condition lessened its lethality, it sure still looked sharp enough to gut him.

    Now fully within the open space, the skeleton paused, head moving about. It was almost like it was seeking something, so Darian stood still, unmoving, hoping that it would not detect his presence and continue on its way leaving him unmolested. Luck wasn¡¯t with him, for one of his feet was balanced precariously on a rock, and his weight finally caused it to slide out from beneath him, causing him to stagger to the side. This was enough to attract the attention of the skeleton and its head spun round, towards him, its helmet clanging madly and embers of flaming light blazing up in its previously empty eye sockets.

    So shocked at the sudden change, in both his position and in the skeletons demeanor, he stood there, mouth agape, as the skeleton suddenly changed direction and charged at him, its corroded weapon held aloft. Breaking free of his shock induced paralysis, Darian quickly lifted his wooden beam unsteadily and advanced to meet the charging skeleton.

    They met at the former position of a wall, stone rubble two foot high between them. The skeleton, eyes still fixed firmly on Darian scrambled up the stones, its skeletal feet scrabbling about to find solid purchase in the loose rubble. One of its feet slipped and the skeleton fell forward, thrusting its unburdened arm out to stop itself, and succeeding, leaving itself propped up, the metal cap tumbling off its head and onto the stones in front of it.

    Darian, seeing this, took the opportunity that this provided him to swing the beam as hard as he could at the skeletons now unprotected head, striking it squarely on the right side of the skull. In his hands the beam shattered, sending shards out in an arc of shattered wood. The skeletons head, unmoved by the blow, rose up and those burning eyes stared at him, freezing him into place like a scared rabbit caught in the headlights of an approaching car. Without any warning one boney arm thrust quickly forward, sinking the sword it held cross-guard deep into Darians chest. The rusted point punched out his back, the swords point stained red with blood.

    At first, the pain he felt was like an ice cold electric shock that sent waves outwards from the point of entry, but this was almost instantly replaced with an agonizing, burning pain that wracked his body, a feeling like he had been dipped in fire, then salt rubbed into the wounds that it had caused, a pain greater than any he had ever felt before. The energy left his body in a rush and he slumped onto his knees, face to face with the skeletons rictus grin, seeing small flakes of dark, sundried skin clinging to the bone.

    As if sensing the helplessness of its victim, the skeleton maliciously and slowly twisted the blade inside him, and Darian, who thought the pain could not be any worse, screamed in agony as it dramatically increased. Then the blade was withdrawn from his body, more pain wracking his body as he fell, face down onto the stonework in front of him. As his sight faded, the last thing he saw was the skeleton once again raising the sword above him, then the blade falling.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Everything went black as his life slipped away from him.

    *****

    Awareness returned to Darian at some point, much later, how much later was indeterminate, but he felt no pain, for which he was extremely thankful. Alive, he thought, I am still alive he mentally exulted to himself, then frowned as he became aware of something else. Coldness seeped up through him, chilling his skin and bones and he shivered slightly. He could feel himself laying on his back on some chilly, flat surface, and he could see a bright, white light illuminate his closed eyelids. His fingertips, slightly numb, rose to his chest and felt about where the blade had pierced his chest, expecting to encounter ripped flesh and a gaping hole, but found no flaw in the surface of the skin they ran across.

    His fingers suddenly stopped their movement across his chest as he heard someone talking near him. From what he could overhear they were talking about him. The voices stopped as suddenly as they had started.

    ¡°The mortal is awake.¡± spoke a female voice. ¡°It is listening to us.¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes, I can see it.¡± replied a deep masculine voice. ¡°Mortal, we know you are awake, please open your eyes and face us.¡± The voice somehow sent shivers down Darians back, and even though the words were spoken lightly, and with a note of kindness, he could hear an undertone that somehow made him fear the unseen speaker.

    ¡°Malantine, ease back on your power, it is causing the mortal to fear you.¡± This voice, also masculine, was lighter, and less fear inducing that the other. ¡°Come, mortal, fear us not, for we are only here to help you. Arise from that cold slab and let us greet you. We are not here to bring you harm.¡± This voice seemed to carry more warmth, and Darian, realizing that just lying there would only make him colder and no less ignorant of where he was, or why, opened his eyes and looked around.

    He found he was lying on a white marble slab, still dressed in those white clothes he had on when he arrived in Eternia, still pristine in appearance, not even a hole where the sword had pierced him. The space around him was also white, making it impossible to even calculate where the boundaries were, if there actually was any at all. Seated in marble thrones were five beings, human in appearance, but Darian guessed they would be about ten foot tall. He knew he wouldn¡¯t know the accuracy of his guess until he had something to compare their height with, the whiteness made everything indeterminate.

    The seated group in front of him was made up of two females and three males, all dressed in what Darian guessed was archaic armor, almost reminiscent of the images he had seen of Norse gods. He had no idea who these beings were, but he knew they must be someone important.

    One of the beings, who was clad in golden armor, his muscular arms bare, leaned forward placed one elbow on his knee and propped his head up as he scrutinized Darian, his electric blue eyes piercing Darian to his soul looking like he could see every stain on it. ¡°So, this is the one that Nekkir-Amon chose, is it, I can smell the taint within him from here. Consigning his soul to oblivion would be the greatest gift we could reward him with. Are you sure, sister, that we should assist this mortal, prolonging his miserable life ? ¡° Darian recognized the voice, it was the one that had been referred to as Malantine.

    One of the females stirred and turned towards the speaker. She was dressed just as elaborately as the being known as Malantine, but her hair was dark, long and braided into two ponytails. ¡°Yes, brother, I am sure, as is the rest of us. If we are finally to rid ourselves of our fallen brother, then the tool he wished to create to destroy the world , is our greatest chance. He is an innocent pawn within all of this, and his soul is still recoverable.¡± Again, this was a voice Darian had heard before, but had no name to attach to it.

    All this talking about him was getting a little annoying. Pushing himself up into a seated position, Darian swung his legs over the side of the marble slab and slid off, landing on his feet. ¡°Hey, I am here, you know. I can hear you. How about talking to me instead of about me ?¡± he snapped at the seated five. This interruption into their conversation caused five pairs of eyes to turn on him, a mixture of interest and annoyance within them.

    The one known as Malantine replied. ¡°Yes, we know you are there mortal, and how we wish you were not. Your very presence here brings us no pleasure at all, it only brings us discord.¡± This answer was given in a harsh tone, but not angrily.

    Darian, not put off at all by capturing the full attention of the beings, just stared at them. ¡°Well, then, I apologize to you for being the cause of your discord, but I really need a few questions answered. First one being, where the hell am I, is this that respawn thing I was told about.¡± He looked around at the nothingness that surrounded him. ¡°If this is it, then I have to say, it¡¯s a little disappointing.¡±

    One of the other males spoke up at this, one dressed in a dark brown leather outfit, somewhat resembling the golden armor worn by Malantine. The voice of this being was smooth, and reassuring, while somehow giving the impression of sleaziness. ¡°Ah, yes, the information that the messenger from the other world imparted onto you. ¡° This beings brown eyes locked onto Darians. ¡°No, this is not rebirth, mortal, nor respawn as you called it. You are here before us in the nothingness between eternal death and the mortal realm because you can not respawn, nor can you die. You are not a creature of Eternia, but a shadow from the place beyond the planetary veil. You should not be here, and we can not return you to the place where you should be.¡±

    Darian stared at the speaker in confusion, what did he mean he couldn¡¯t respawn ? From the little he understood, plenty of people from New Eden joined this game daily, and they must have died and respawned at some stage, many times in fact. ¡°But people from where I come from, or where I should come from anyway, come here all the time. Don¡¯t they respawn when they die ?¡± he asked bemusedly.

    As the smooth talker opened his mouth to answer, the female who had talked to him earlier held up a hand and interrupted. ¡°Hold it, brother, I will answer this.¡± She stared at the other until he grunted and sat back in his throne. Satisfied, she continued. ¡°Yes, mortal, those from your side of the veil do spend time here in Eternia, but there is a vast difference between you and them. They can respawn because they have left their real bodies in their world, and only occupy golems of their creation on this side, golems created in this world and of this world. The body of the golems respawn when killed, and their souls return to their reborn creations. ¡± She paused, looking at him to see if he understood.

    He rolled his eyes at this. ¡°Yes, I understand that, please continue¡±

    She smiled at him, her face beaming with pleasure. ¡°You, on the other hand, are a being from the other side of the veil, and because of the interference of our brother, not only your soul is here, but also your mortal body, and you have no golem to inhabit when killed. So, mortal, you have been killed, and are here, before us, the gods of Eternia, because you do not have the ability to rebirth here, nor can you return through the veil to your world. The taint of our brother within you keeps you from both worlds.¡± The smile on her face was now sad. ¡°The body you inhabit can only be reborn in your world, not ours.¡±

    Darians head spun from this information, and panic gripped him. Was he to be forever stuck here, in white limbo with five being who considered themselves gods. He slid down the slab behind him, sitting down and pulled his knees up into his chest. Looking up. he saw the five gods staring down at him, pity plainly evident on all their faces. ¡°So that¡¯s it, is it, I am stuck here forever ?¡±

    They just sat there silent, looking at him, his question left unanswered.

 Part Four

    He looked up at the gods of Eternia, perched on their cold thrones, from where he sat, waiting for any kind of response from them. After a pause of a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, one of the female beings stirred, then spoke. ¡°Yes, you will remain here, in this place, until our brother, Nekkir-Amon, has been defeated and sent beyond the veil of death. Until that time, the taint he placed inside you binds your soul here, in Eternia. As we have already informed you, your body, and soul, belong to another world, and as such, you do not possess the ability to rebirth. There is nothing we can do for you, mortal, for we are bound by our own rules.¡±

    Darian exploded to his feet, frustration and anger warring inside him on hearing this once more. ¡°Bound by your own rules ? What the hell are you going on about. You can not be bound by your own rules, you make the bloody rules, you are the AIs of this world. Just ignore the rules, or change them, and send me to New Eden. I didn¡¯t ask to be sent to this game world, and I definitely don¡¯t want to be in this game world.¡±

    The one Darian knew was Malantine also jumped to his feet, a dark expression on his face. ¡°Take care how you speak to us, mortal, show us the deference we are entitled to, or whatever life we allow you to have here will be an unpleasant one. Your very presence here is only at our request, for you were on the path to eternal sleep. ¡± the gods face had grown mottled with rage as he spoke.

    ¡°Sit down, Malantine, and stop this display of petulance.¡± came from one of the others. This one leant forward, peering at Darian just like a child would do when observing an insect crawling along the ground. ¡°Aiy Eyes ? What are these Aiy Eyes that you keep referring to ?¡±

    ¡°Come, Vallinas, you should know that is what they call their gods in the other world.¡± One female god interrupted, then turned her attention to Darian. ¡°Even we gods have rules, rules we have no control over an must follow. There is nothing we can do to return you to the world you should be in, nothing.¡±

    The god Darias now knew was called Vallinas pursed his lips. ¡°We may not be able to return this mortal to his world, true, but¡­.¡± He paused in thought for a brief moment before continuing, ¡°¡­ we could attempt Divine Transmorphism upon him ?¡± Darian didn¡¯t know what this meant, but it mustn¡¯t have been good from the shocked expressions that appeared on the other gods faces.

    Malantine protested this option. ¡°Brother, you can not be serious on this, you know that the last time it was used it brought the Beast of Branbillin into Eternia, and turned Nekkir-Amon from us. We can not take this risk again, not for this mortal. The possible cost to us is too severe.¡±

    ¡°I have long considered its last use, and the repercussions of that act. Nekkir-Amon tried to perform it without any assistance from the rest of us, and that was his downfall. If we all work together on this, the chance of success is magnified many times. There will be no cost to us. ¡± He turned towards Darian. ¡°Mortal, we may have a solution to your dilemma, but one that will carry a risk. Please be patient while we discuss this among ourselves.¡± This said, Vallinas waved one hand and the five gods were suddenly surrounded by a glowing, blue ball of energy.

    This happened so quickly that Darian didn¡¯t have time to enquire what this Divine Transmorphism was, or what it would do. He could see them move about inside the globe as they talked, but he couldn¡¯t hear anything that was being said. It somehow reminded him of an old TV show he used to watch, back in his youth, where they had something called a cone of silence. Looking about the only other thing in this endless white wasteland was the slab he had woken up on, so, finding nothing else to occupy his attention he sat down on the slab to wait for them to finish.

    Bloody funny AIs, Darian thought, they seem almost human. I suppose these rules they keep harping about must be something the creators of the AI¡¯s put in there. Looking up at the silent discussion happening in front of him he saw it had become quite animated in there. Better make myself comfortable, Darian thought, it looks like this may take a while.

    In the end, the discussion between the ¡®gods¡¯ lasted for about five minutes, ending with the glowing ball around them vanishing. They were all once again seated in their thrones, but this time their expressions were serious, their gazes set on Darian.

    The one know as Vallinas spoke while the other four sat back. ¡°Mortal, when you travelled to Eternia, a stain was placed on your soul by our brother, Nekkir-Amon. Of this you are already aware, having been told of it by the messenger from the other realm, as well as here today from us. One thing you have not been told is that this stain is toxic, and will, given enough time, spread and corrupt your soul beyond any redemption. You will become a creature of Nekkir-Amon and do anything he bids of you until this corruption eventually destroys you.¡±

    ¡°The gods of your world have denied your soul from passing across the barrier between worlds, and you have neither the ability to respawn here, nor a corporal presence to reinhabit, again this is something you have already been made aware of. We, also cannot allow you to remain here, slowly becoming a creature of our brother, and a conduit for him to observe us.¡± Vallinas paused here one eyebrow raised, looking at Darian.

    Realising the god was waiting for a response from him, Darian quickly responded. ¡°Yes, I understand all that, but there must be some way to remove this taint, as you call it, from me ?¡±

    Vallinas looked at the others before responding. ¡°Yes, there is a way we think will remove it from you, but it is a dangerous method, dangerous to you, and to us. If we fail, you would experience the eternal sleep, one there is no return from, and could pass this taint onto one or all of us during the process. Unless you agree to this, we will not attempt it.¡±

    ¡°If I agree to this, what are the chances of failure ? ¡° Darian was worried by the mention of his real demise, but he would take any reasonable chance rather than be stuck in this white hell, slowly going mad, he needed to get out of here and contact his family to let them know he was alright, and to speak to a real person, rather than these computer intelligences

    ¡°If all of us,¡± he indicated himself and the others with him, ¡° attempt this together, there will be a minor chance of failure, but you also need to know what the changes to you will be if it succeeds. Success will bring great changes to you.¡±

    ¡°What ? This won¡¯t alter my mind, will it ? ¡°exclaimed Darian, now even more concerned for himself.

    With a reassuring smile Malantine answered this time. ¡°No, mortal, all the changes that will occur will be to your physical being, your mind and soul will remain as they are now, but without the taint.¡±

    ¡°Changes, exactly what changes are you talking about ? These changes won¡¯t damage me, will they, make me old again ?¡±

    ¡°As it is impossible for you to pass the barrier, then the only way we can help you remove the taint, and have a body in this world, a body that will provide you with all the benefits you would have had, then we must destroy this remnant of your physical being and recreate it anew. Once we have done this for you, you will become a being born of this world, and no longer of the world you are still spiritually attached to, no longer a traveller but a citizen with all the rights and responsibilities of a being of this world. You will respawn here when defeated. Of course, this means you would no longer be human, for most humans of this world do not possess the ability to respawn after death, only human bodies belonging to visitors can respawn.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°Hold on a minute, no longer human ? What the hell would I be then, I better not be a monster.¡±

    They all laughed at this, and then louder at seeing the frown on his face. ¡°Nay, mortal, we would play you fair and provide you with a body that can cater to all of the benefits enjoyed by the visitors, with one exception. They feel little pain, but you would experience pain in it fullest. You also would be free of many of the restrictions that the visitors suffer from, such as their limit on how long they can stay in Eternia. You would be gaining the best of both worlds.¡±

    Darian nodded absently at the gods, his mind occupied with everything he had been told. Somewhere in his head, he knew the logical, and only choice open to him was to take the change, but he still felt there must be some other way to fix this, what it was he had no idea. ¡°If I do this, and I¡¯m not a human, what would I be then ?¡±

    One of the females, their names still a mystery to him spoke up. ¡°A Titan, that¡¯s the only race we know of that¡¯s suitable, all the other possible choices are either demons or monsters.¡±

    ¡°Titans ? Aren¡¯t they gods ?¡± mused Darian

    ¡°Nay, mortal,¡± spoke the goddess again, ¡°Titans are a long lost and mainly forgotten race in Eternia. Titans were the children of the gods, but not gods themselves, and they greatly resembled humans in appearance. You would be returning this race to the world, the first full blood of this race seen in this world in many centuries. They were the first, and greatest race, to inhabit Eternia, but all were lost during a great cataclysm that changed this world. There are still a few with titan blood, but greatly diluted through breeding, and the lands are littered with the ruins of their former glory. No one remembers where the heart of their empire lay, not even we gods, but if it still exists, it may still hold their greatest treasures.¡±

    ¡°Now, make your choice, mortal, remain here in isolation, facing a slow corruption and your eventual demise, or let us transform you and become a child of the gods, of Eternia and live. Which shall it be ?¡± With this, they all leant forward in their thrones, looking at him expectantly.

    Darian needed to know one more thing about this before he made up his mind. ¡°Will it hurt ?¡± he asked.

    He got a simple answer from the goddess ¡°Yes, but we are not those who love the pain of others. We will send you into a slumber until we have completed your tranformance.¡±

    Taking one last look around at the whiteness that encompassed him, seeing the absolute blankness of this place that would be his future if he remained here, he screwed up his courage, his decision made, and gave his decision. ¡°Please change me.¡±

    Malantine smiled, and for the first time since Darian had seen him, this smile made him look somehow friendly, or trustworthy. ¡°Lay back down in the bier, mortal, and relax. We will begin.¡±

    Hesitantly Darian swung his legs up and made himself as comfortable as he could, feeling the chill from the stone beneath him once again assault him from beneath. He shivered, partly in dread anticipation of what was to come, and part due to the cold. Turning his head he saw the five gods get up and approach him , placing themselves around the raised platform on which he lay. The god who stood at his head, Vallinas, lay one of his large hands on Darian¡¯s brow. ¡°Sleep, mortal¡±, and Darian closed his eyes.

    *****

    Darian lay there, eyes closed for a few seconds, then frowned. ¡°When are you going to begin, it¡¯s uncomfortable laying on this stone ?¡± he queried.

    From above him a male voice he recognised as belonging to the god Malantine spoke ¡°Start, mortal ? How can we start when we have already finished. Open your eyes and see. Observe the miracle that has just occurred.¡±

    He did as requested and opened his eyes, but quickly scrunched them closed again as the white light blinded him, causing sharp points of pain to appear behind each eyeball. Blinking carefully, a few time as he allowed his eyes to adjust to the light once again. When his eyesight once again cleared, and he could stand the light he took a look at the gods, still positioned around his supine body.

    He was shocked to see the signs of strain and exhaustion that they all bore, their faces flushed red and sweat dampening their hair. Vallinas, at his head, was using the slab to support himself, both hands gripping it tightly, his head hanging low. Finding his throat dry Darian coughed, then spoke hoarsely and hesitantly ¡°Did¡­ did it work ?¡± He was shocked as the words came out, he couldn¡¯t recognise the voice. It was deeper, more baritone than the one he remembered as having.

    Vallinas raised his head, looking down at Darian through bloodshot eyes. ¡°It is complete, child, and nothing remains of the taint that was within you. Welcome to your new life, welcome to immortality.¡± His voice was raspy, almost as if he had been yelling recently. Pushing himself upright onto unsteady legs, the god staggered across to the thrones and dropped into one, his bearing indicating the extreme weariness he was suffering. The other gods watched him, then followed his example, all slumping down into their respective thrones.

    ¡°It was a close thing, child, but it is done.¡° declared Malantine from where he sat. ¡°You now are part of this world.¡±

    Darian sat up, feeling no pain at all from whatever they had done to him, and perched himself on the edge of the slab. He looked down at himself, looking for any changes they had made to him. The clothes we had worn on arrival here were still the same, but the limbs that protruded from the shorts and shirt were completely alien to him. In his real life, way back when he had been much younger, he had a slim physique, the one he now examined was thicker, more muscular in appearance. The hairs he could see speckling his skin, which also was of a different hue than he was familiar with, being an olive complexion, were fine and blond, not the brown he had before. His hands, as he inspected them, seemed larger, and wider, as well.

    ¡°Do you like what you see, child ?¡± enquired Malantine.

    ¡°It¡¯s going to take me a while to get used to, but yes, I do like this. By the way, why do you call me child now, and not mortal like you were before ?¡±

    ¡°Because you are now a child of the gods and Eternia, and no longer a mortal, no longer chained to a short life and an ending. The eternal sleep will no longer be your eventual reward. Happy day of birth, child.¡± The other gods echoed Malantine in his blessing.

    Darian felt embarrassed by this, and felt a flush develop. ¡°Thank you.¡± He responded. Then another thought occurred. ¡°Hey, now you have removed this taint from me I¡¯m no longer banned from travelling to New Eden ?¡± the thought of finally being able to reach his right destination cheered him up.

    The god Malantine tugged on his blond goatee absently as he listened to Darian as he spoke, then looked at him in confusion. ¡°Did you not understand the ramifications of this transformation we have just performed upon you ? Did you not understand what would happen to you ? You are a child of Eternia now, not a child of your previous world. You no longer possess the right to travel through the barrier, that world is lost to you. Your body and soul belongs here, and here they will remain, forever. ¡°

    Anger had been building up in Malantine as he spoke, and his eyebrows lowered and he smashed one hand down on his thrones armrest. ¡°Stop pining over what is no longer possible to you, and consider yourself blessed, for there is much you can now do that the visitors can not do now. You can be a king, if you wish, they can not. You can found a dynasty, they can not.¡± He place one hand over his face. ¡°I grow weary listening to your harping, child, it is time you left this place and returned to the world of the living.¡± He reached down and picked up a small satchel that Darian hadn¡¯t noticed earlier from where it sat beside the throne, then he threw it.

    The satchel struck Darian in the chest, and instinctively he grasped at it, catching it by its shoulder strap. Dumbfounded at this show of pique by the god, all he could do was stare at him, slightly shocked.

    ¡°Now take our small token of welcome, you ungrateful child, and go, go back to where you came here from.¡± The god waved one meaty hand and Darian was surrounded by thick, golden mist that obscured everything.

 Part Five

    Darian stood there, surrounded by a thick, swirling golden mist that obscured everything, whipping around him like he was standing at the center of a gold dust tornado. Pretty as it looked, he still was apprehensive about what had just happened, and where he was going to end up. He tried to push one hand into the swirling motes about him, but found he couldn¡¯t move a muscle. He seemed to be frozen in place, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn¡¯t even blink.

    Realizing there was nothing he could do, he stopped all attempts to struggle against the force holding him and just watched the golden motes as they travelled past him, his frozen stare unable to track their path across his vision. He became so mesmerized by their movement that he was caught unawares when they suddenly dispersed, leaving him standing in a hot, dry darkness, and sweat immediately broke out on his forehead and under his armpits. It was only after he had reached up to wipe a trickle of the salty sweat from one eye, making it sting, that he realized movement had been restored to him. He also noticed was still clutching the bag that had been thrown at him, so he eased his grip on it, then slung it across one shoulder.

    With his movement restored he stretched to remove some stiffness that he felt, taking the opportunity at the same time to look about himself. Even in the darkness he recognized where he had reappeared, it was the ruins where he had died just a number of hours earlier. Darian quickly dropped into a crouch, rapidly scanning the whole area around himself, a spike of cold fear running up his spine, concerned that the skeleton would still be here, somewhere near. He remained vigilant while he waited for a minute, his attention moving from one area to another, scanning everything, then he slowly relaxed. He hadn¡¯t detected any movement, nor any noises that would indicate that the damn skeleton was still somewhere nearby.

    Wary, but also a little curious, Darian looked around to see if he could locate the place where he had been slain by the skeleton. It didn¡¯t take long before he saw the same pile of stones over which the skeleton had climbed to get at him, and he wondered whether there would be any of his remains still there, or at least some indication to show he had been killed there, maybe a few bloodstains.

    Walking carefully, keeping an eye on everything around him, Darian made his way slowly over to the ruins that were home to his previous demise, then carefully peeked over the rubble. Nothing, there was absolutely nothing to indicate he had been there before, the stones looked like they hadn¡¯t been disturbed in decades. I suppose that makes sense, I¡¯m here, so why should there be a body of me here as well. Deciding that the best thing for him to do right now was to search the ruins to find a place that looked relatively safe, and also to see if he could find that food and water that he had been told was somewhere.

    It didn¡¯t take him long to walk around what was left of the village, even with Darian taking the time to explore those buildings that looked promising. By the time he had returned to his starting point, only one of the partially standing structures, a rickety two story building, looked like a viable place to rest for what remained of the night. He had also not managed to find anything at all that could be of use to him, and , licking his lips, he realized he was starting to feel a little thirsty.

    Darian cursed himself for a fool when he remembered he hadn¡¯t even taken the time to look through the bag slung across his shoulder. Placing it on the ground in front of him, he opened the top and reached inside. What happened next surprised Darian so much he tumbled back onto the dirty ground.

    When his hand entered the mouth of the bag his vision was filled with an overlay of a grid consisting of eleven squares. He quickly pulled his hand out, muttering an obscenity. ¡°What the fuck¡­ ¡°. As soon as his hand left the bag the overlay disappeared. Darian frowned, wondering what the hell had just happened. Slowly he placed his back into the bag, and the screen filled his vision once again.

    Looking over the grid, he noticed four of the squares were filled with images. As he let his gaze settle on the first image a small pop up appeared, giving him a description of the item.

    Name: Malantines Wooden Mace

    A one handed mace made of wood and blessed by the god Malantine. This mace is indestructible and will cause one to nine points of crushing damage on any opponent. This weapon will impart one point of extra crushing damage for every ten points of natural strength belonging to the possessor. This item can not be lost or stolen.

    Item Class: Unique

    Requirements/Restrictions: No level or attribute requirements. Restricted for use to only those who carry Titan blood.

    Bonuses: The blessed nature of this weapon will cause double damage on undead beings.

    Darian raised an eyebrow in interest. A wooden weapon ? He made a movement to grasp the mace and was surprised when his hand curled around something hard. Withdrawing his arm, he was astounded to see his hand leave the bag, the mace gripped firmly in it, the thing he found even more astonishing was the mace was substantially larger than the bag it had come out of.

    Hefting it in his hand, he gave it an experimental swing, feeling the weight of it. Happy with how it felt, he lifted it up and swung it down onto one of the tumbled stones nearby. The stone cracked into fragments, sending small stone chips flying in all directions. He felt the jar from the weapon striking the brick vibrate up his arm, then he lifted it upand inspected the maces head. It was totally unharmed, and the only change he could see was that it now had a fine layer of powdered stone coating one side. He nodded to himself in appreciation as he wiped it clean.

    Darian now turned his attention to the miraculous bag. Like last time, as soon as he concentrated on it, a descriptive pop up appeared

    Name: Meneas¡¯s Small Bag

    This small cloth bag contains eleven slots. Each slot is capable of holding up to one hundred small items of one type, ten medium items one type, or one large item. This item can not be lost or stolen.

    Item Class: Unique

    Requirements/Restrictions: No level or attribute requirements. No race restrictions.

    Bonus : This item is indestructible and will reduce weight of items within it by fifty percent. Due to the blessed nature of this item the number of slats within it is increased by one.

    Upon reading this, Darian laughed, not really understanding the description fully, but thought he grasped the general idea behind it. It sounded just like Dr. Who¡¯s tardis, bigger inside than it was on the outside. To test this theory, he opened the bag and dropped the mace into it, head first. As he suspected, the mace disappeared effortlessly within, the bag marginally increasing in weight.

    Peering into the bag Darian couldn¡¯t see anything, No grid, no items, only blackness. Puzzled, he reached inside to feel about, but the moment his hand disappeared within it, the grid appeared in front of him, the mace once again in its place. So, he thought, to gain access to the items in the bag, I have to put a hand inside first.

    Now he had worked out the bag, Darian pulled the remaining three items out, one at a time, inspecting each before placing them back into the bag.

    Item: Firestone of Vallinas

    This stone, when placed in any combustible material, will on command, cause the material to ignite. Good for starting campfires in wet weather. This item can not be lost or stolen and will automatically reappear in the owners inventory when used.

    Number of charges: Unlimited

    Activation command: Ignite.

    Item Class: Unique

    Bonuses: The blessed nature of this stone allows it to be placed into any container of liquid and heat it to boiling when command is given. Will also purify tainted or polluted liquids. Maximum size of container one foot square.

    Item: Flask of Cyana

    This flask can be drunk from only once per day. Drinking the contents will fully restore the drinker to full health, removing the effects of all poisons, fatigue, disease, thirst and injury. This item can not be lost or stolen.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Item Class: Unique

    Requirements/Restrictions: This flask will not remove the effects of curses and debuffs

    Bonuses: Due to the blessed nature of this item, it will never break or become unusable.

    Item: Amulet of Tisus

    This amulet, when worn, will provide the wearer with medium night vision, reducing night blindness by fifty percent. This item can not be lost or stolen

    Item Class: Unique

    Bonus: Due to the blessed nature of this item, the wearer will have a plus twenty percent chance of detecting hidden features and items.

    ¡°Don¡¯t know what all this means, but it sounds like they have supplied me with a good start here.¡± he muttered to himself while securing the bag over his shoulder again. He had noticed, as well, that each item had a name attached, five of them in total. He assumed from the fact that two of them were god names he already knew the other three were also the names of the other gods.

    Slapping himself on the forehead with one palm, he put his hand into his bag again and withdrew the amulet and hung it around his neck. ¡°Might as well get the benefits of these things right away.¡± The instant it was hanging around his neck the darkness around him immediately lightened until it resembled dusk, allowing his sight to detect more of the ruined buildings about him.

    Darian knew he was still vulnerable out here in the open, and thought about what he should do now. He knew that stumbling about in the dark, or twilight as it appeared to him now, wouldn¡¯t be productive. Even with the amulet, it still didn¡¯t provide enough light for him to feel like he could spot any potential dangers, or detect an approaching opponent in time. He may have felt safe as an old man in a wheelchair, but now with this new life, he no longer had protection from possible threats, or accidents.

    Quickly he retraced his steps back to the ruined two story residence he had found earlier, realizing that its elevation offered him a greater chance of detecting anything that approached. Once inside its ground level, he realized that there wasn¡¯t any easy way to get onto what remained of the second floor. He could see the remains of a staircase against one of the walls, but it was obvious that it wasn¡¯t repairable, so he turned away from that.

    The pale moonlight that had already been present suddenly brightened, making it much easier to see the interior. Through a hole that used to be a wall Darian could now see the moon peeking out from behind the clouds that had hidden it just a few moments before. This improvement in illumination allowed him to see features that he had not been able to see earlier, like a section of collapsed flooring leaning up against the shadowed back wall, positioned in such a way it could be possible to use it as a ramp to climb up to the next floor.

    A sudden noise behind him broke the silence he had grown used to, making his heart miss a beat and all of his muscles jumped in surprise. Darian whirled about, seeking the source of the noise. Straight away he could see the source and he almost laughed at his own bad luck, for there jerkily walking its way between the buildings was the very same skeleton that he had met before. He knew it was the same one because it had that same stupid bowl like helmet on, still bouncing about on its skull like a bobble head figurine . It was the noise of the helmet meeting bone that had attracted his attention.

    Darian knew the undead creature had not seen him yet, for the direction it was walking was parallel to where he stood, rather than charging right at him again. As he watched it, a description of the skeleton appeared in his view.

    Name: Skeleton Walker

    The skeleton walker is one of the weakest forms of undead, commonly found in the location of abandoned or cursed graveyards and caves. This form of skeleton is most commonly encountered singularly, or in groups of up to three. Clutters of skeletons (A collective group of up to twenty skeletons) usually can be found at the site of old battles, or inside a skeleton lair. Clutters are usually led by an undead creature or being of greater power or strength. Undead creatures are susceptible to attacks and spells of a holy nature.

    Health: 20/20

    Armour: 5

    Damage: 1 to 6 (rusty shortsword), 1 to 2 + disease (Bite)

    On reading this Darian shivered, a touch of fear growing inside him. He suddenly lost interest in trying to get revenge on the being, it had easily killed him once, and there was no reason why it couldn¡¯t easily repeat this feat. Almost as if to punish him another notice filled his vision.

    Task Alert ¨C Kill Thine Enemy

    You are facing an evil creature who has already slain you once. If you meet this creature in combat and defeat you will regain your honor and receive a reward. If you accept, you will have one hour to complete this task. Failure will not incur a penalty.

    Reward: Double Experience plus one Character Point

    Do you wish to accept this task ? Yes / No

    Blinking, Darian couldn¡¯t make this message go away and realized it wouldn¡¯t until he had made a choice. He guessed this experience mentioned would make him more¡­ well, experienced, to state the obvious, but exactly why escaped his understanding, and he had no idea what a character points either. If it had offered these to him, then it probably was something he should do, if not now, probably later. He selected the ¡®YES¡¯ option.

    You have accepted the task ¨C Kill Thine Enemy. You have fifty nine minutes and fifty seconds to complete this task to gain the reward.

    Slipping one hand into his bag Darian opened up its contents page and withdrew the mace, leaving the other items alone. None of them had anything that would be helpful to him in this situation. Taking a firm grip on the handle of the mace Darian took a step forward, only to put his foot down on a loose stone that turned beneath his weight and rolled away, clunking against other stones in its path.

    This slight noise alerted the skeleton to his presence, and lifting its rusty shortsword, the skeleton charged at him. Sighing at his bad luck, Darian advanced carefully to meet its charge, stepping carefully this time so as not to sprain an ankle on the many other stones scattered about.

    As the skeleton leaped into the building Darian took a mighty swing at it with the mace, missing it completely as he misjudged its speed. He had put so much force into the swing that it forced him to twist slightly around, presenting an undefended side to the skeleton. It landed only feet away from him, its knee joints popping from the dried ligaments that remained attached, and took the opportunity presented by his twist to stab at him with its sword.

    The sword scored a line across Darians chest, the blade deflected from piercing inwards as it struck his rib bones. It felt like a red hot poker had been drawn across his flesh, and blood spurted out, coating his clothes and the skeletons blade. Before his eyes red numbers flashed, but the pain was intense, distracting him from comprehending their meaning. He pressed his free arm against the wound, grimacing as he did so. Slightly hunched, he reversed the direction of the mace and brought it back in another forceful swing.

    This time he was luckier, managing to strike the skeleton on its chest, breaking a few ribs and causing it to stagger back a few steps. More words and numbers appeared, this time above the skeleton.

    Crushing blow to skeleton.

    Damage given : 7 ((6 x 2)-5)

    Health remaining: 13

    In what Daniel considered was fair compensation, the stones beneath the skeletons feet shifted, throwing it off balance. As it swayed trying to keep upright Daniel brought the mace down in an overhead swing that connected with the skeletons helmet, smashing the skull beneath, eliciting more text to appearin his vision

    Crushing blow to skeleton.

    Damage given : 13 ((9 x 2) - 5)

    Health remaining: 0

    You have defeated the Skeleton Walker

    You have completed the Task - Kill Thine Enemy

    You receive 50 experience

    You Receive 1 Character Point (Total Points: 1)

    The skeleton, the remains of its shattered skull tumbling earthward, tottered for a brief moment before collapsing, falling apart as whatever force had kept it ¡¯alive¡¯ left it. Darian watched them bemusedly as they clattered into a disorganized pile at his feet.Lifting a hand to wipe away the sweat that ran down his face, but stopped at a twinge of pain in his side as the arms stickily pulled away from the wound. ¡°Damn, that hurts.¡± he complained, and pressed a hand against the cut to staunch the bleeding.

    Wincing, Darian looked down at the remains of his defeated foe, and saw something glowing among the bones. Lowering himself into a squat, grunting at the pain this brought, he reached down and pushed the bones away from the glowing object. Having no idea what it was he reached out to pick the glowing ball up.

    The moment his fingers touched the ball his sight was taken up with a screen he hadn¡¯t seen before. Across the top of it was the heading ¡®Loot¡¯, and beneath this was a number of item icons. It was fairly easy to work out what they were from their images. One was of the rusty shortsword, one was of the bowl like helmet, and the last was of a skull. He ignored the sword, because he already had a better weapon and touched the helmet and it appeared in his hand. Without looking at it he placed it straight away into his bag. The skull, though, was a mystery to him. Was it supposed to be a memento ? A trophy of this fight ? Shrugging, he reached for it.

    Congratulations, you have recovered the bones of a lost soul of Capalia. You can find these remains in your inventory. Collect another ninety nine to receive a hidden Quest.

    You receive 10 Experience.

    Current Experience 60 (40 until next level)

    This is all so damn confusing, thought Darian with frustration, So many things happening and I don¡¯t understand a damn thing about them. I seriously need to find someone who can explain all this to me.

    Groaning, he pushed himself back up and inspected his wound. He was alarmed to see blood was still leaking out of it, not as fast as before, but still enough to worry him. The fight thathe had just had, along with his building thirst and the heat was making him dizzy and tired. He needed to sit down for a few minutes, just long enough for his to feel a little better.

    Spotting a suitably sized stone near the other side of the building, Darian walked towards it, only to find the ground suddenly collapsing beneath his feet, dropping him downwards. He made one last desperate grasp at the edge of the floor as it passed his face, only to find his fingers slipping off the dusty edge.

    Down he fell, into a deeper gloom, arms flailing about as they tried to find anything to arrest his fall.

 Part Six

    Darians unexpected descent was suddenly brought to a jarring halt as he smashed down painfully onto a hard surface, the air forced out of his lungs by the landing. His fall had been brief, but it was long enough for Darian to know the abrupt ending had broken at least a couple of his ribs. Sucking in a mouthful of air, he felt sharp pains along the right side of his ribcage along with a wheezing sound. He thanked the gods as he managed to get his limbs moving, because this was a good sign he hadn¡¯t damaged his spine.

    Trying to move as little as possible, for each movement ignited hot, sharp spikes of agony in every joint, he tugged the bag by its strap until it was laying on his stomach. Slipping his hand inside, he withdrew the flask he had received, praying to himself that he remembered the description on it correctly. Fumbling with the top, he managed to lift it to his lips. Pulling the stopper out with his teeth, he spat it to one side before tipping the contents of the flask into his mouth.

    The liquid that flowed down his throat was cold and tasteless. Darian would have thought it plain old tap water, except it lacked that metallic taste it gained from travelling through old pipes for too long. It was an effort keeping his head up to drink, so once he had finished he dropped his head back onto the ground and closed his eyes.

    Within seconds he could feel the liquid start to work, moving his broken ribs back into their right positions, the bones knitting back together and his sword wound closing. The feeling of this happening was disconcerting, as well as being mildly uncomfortable, but the pain he had been experiencing quickly ebbed away as his body healed itself. Once it was over, he sighed with relief, not only feeling whole once again, but his thirst and fatigue were gone. He opened his eyes and saw the hole he had fallen into right above him, the light from the moon illuminating its edge.

    Quickly Darian sat up and peered into the gloom around him, trying to see what he had fallen into. The little moonlight that entered only allowed him to make out dim outlines of unidentifiable objects, dust from his entry to this area floating in the air, making visibility even worse. From the little he could see clearly, it looked like he had landed in a fairly clear area, except for the rubble he had brought down with him.

    Now the contents of the flask had done their job, he felt reinvigorated and jumped to his feet to search this underground space he was now in, hoping there was an easy way to climb back up to the surface, he didn¡¯t fancy being stuck down here for an extended period.

    The place he was in proved to be a fairly large room, most probably an old cellar from the things he found within it. Against one wall was a row of cupboards, partially collapsed, with glass containers stacked on the remaining shelves. Darian had opened one of the containers, hoping it contained something to eat, but the smell that emerged when he took the top off was so foul it made his stomach churn. He quickly replaced the cap and returned it to where he had taken it from, whatever was inside it was definitely inedible.

    Darian spent five minutes wandering around, examining everything he found and placing anything that could be useful in a pile in the center of the room. It ended up being a rather small and disappointing pile, consisting of about five bottles of water, a handful of dried meat strips, a small rolled up scroll and two corked vials of a red liquid. He had also found a small handful of coins, something he considered as useless in his situation and of unknown worth, but Darian pocketed them anyway.

    Placing everything into his bag, he examined the contents. The description of the meat said that each strip would be good to remove a portion of his hunger, and each water bottle contained enough water to slake his thirst three times before it was used up. The scroll, when he unrolled it, seemed to be a map of some sort, but in the dimness of the cellar it was totally unreadable, he placed that back into his bag for a another look when he had better lighting. He could also see that nine of his eleven bag slots were now filled with items. The most interesting item he had found was the two red vials.

    Item: Potion of Minor Healing

    The potion of Minor Healing will restore ten points of health to the user. This potion will not restore or remove fatigue, thirst, hunger, poison, disease or debuffs. Single use item

    Item Class: Common

    The one thing Darian hadn¡¯t found was a way to leave this cellar. He had found the remains of what he thought was the stairway up, but time had seemed to have been unkind to it, for it was just a pile of collapsed timber now. Scratching his head Darian looked up at the only way out he knew of.

    The room was about ten foot high, and the hole he had fallen through was located in roughly the center of it. It almost low enough for Darian to reach it with his fingertips if he jumped, which he did, but he couldn¡¯t jump high enough to get a grip on anything solid enough to hold his weight.

    After a few minutes of contemplation spent on a solution, Darian dragged the fallen timbers of the former staircase over and stacked them beneath the opening until he had made a stack about three foot high. Giving it a good shake to make sure it was at least partially stable, he carefully climbed up, balancing precariously, and reached up. He was surprised to find that his hands easily reached past the opening, the transformation from the gods must have added to his height.

    Feeling a little more confident about his chance to escape, he crouched and launched himself upwards, angling himself to, hopefully, get enough of his body over the edge to get a firm purchase. As he thrust upwards, he felt the stack of wood beneath his give way. His jump took him up and over the edge, his hands thrust forward as he landed, the edge of the hole pressing against the pit of his stomach, the sharp edged scratching his skin.

    At first he thought he was going to slip backwards, but he had managed to get enough of his body over the edge that his center of balance was keeping him aloft. From this position it was a simple task to swing his legs up and roll away from the hole. Laying on his back, Darian laughed, the exhilaration from being able to perform such actions thrilling him, something he was unable to do just three days previous.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    Finally free of the cellar, Darian noticed, on the small sliver of horizon he could see between two buildings, a glint of pinkness, heralding the arrival of dawn. Looking up at the second floor that he had considered climbing to before his unfortunate cellar trip, he decided it was even more imperative to get up there now. It offered him the only location to scope out the lay of the land beyond this village, and he needed to do that before he departed.

    Getting up, he skirted around the hole in the floor and made his way over to the fallen section of floor. The angle it had fallen at gave Darian an easy climb upwards, and it wasn¡¯t long before he was standing on the small section of the upper floor that remained. As he stepped further in, the floor beneath him creaked alarmingly, fearing another collapse he carefully stepped over top where the floor met the outside wall, figuring this is where the floor would be the most safe.

    Looking out of an empty window, the glass long gone, he was just in time to see the sun peek over the horizon, lighting the landscape between it and him. The anticipation he had felt at seeing his first ¡®alien¡¯ landscape plummeted as he looked out, even turning to see what lay in other directions. Before him lay a vast, but desolate, landscape of baked earth and dry, withered trees. Vey little vegetation survived whatever had scorched the lands, only surviving in small pockets that were hard to spot.

    The only thing that broke this expanse of old destruction lay on the opposite side of the building he was standing in, and it brought a small feeling of hope to Darian that all was not as bad as he saw, that there was a more out there than desolation. About a mile away, Darian could make out something that was dark, and filled the whole side of the horizon on that side, and he knew that he would have to wait until the sun was higher in the sky before it allowed him to see what it was.

    To wait the time until this happened Darian sat down with his back against the wall and pulled the map scroll out of his bag. Unrolling it across his outstretched legs he studied it. It was a plain map, consisting of nothing more than outlines of what he surmised was a coastline. Which side was water, and which side was land he had no idea at all , nor was there any markers or text to indicate the position of features or places of interest. He didn¡¯t even know if it was a map of the area he was in.

    Something on the map caught his eye, it looked like a very small discoloration on the paper, placed directly on one of the drawn coastlines. Darian reached out a finger to scratch at the mark, but pulled his hand back in alarm as the map suddenly changed when he touched it, the discoloration zooming out., growing larger. The drawing on the scroll stopped moving when it filled about half of the maps surface. It was only then he realized he must have activated a zoom feature, a rather unusual thing to have on a paper map in a world supposable without technology.

    The discoloration, now quite large, showed itself to be a finely detailed map, and from what he could see on it, of where he was and what he had already seen. He experimented a little further with the map and worked out he could zoom back out again with another touch, or move the map around by sliding his finger across the surface. If he pinched with two fingers, he could control how much the map zoomed in and out. While he was doing this, he discovered other areas on the map that he couldn¡¯t detect at the start, mostly only text holders or icons, nothing really informative.

    Leaving the map alone for a moment, Darian sat back to think about what he had discovered. Absently he reached out to grab his daily morning cup of coffee, just like he did every morning when reading the news. Comprehension dawned on him as his fingers scrabbled for something that wasn¡¯t there, and no longer would be. Laughing softly at his absentmindedness, he pulled his hand back, then wondered if there was anything in this world that resembled coffee, and a cigarette while he was thinking about it. Damn, wish I hadn¡¯t thought about a smoke, Darian groused, now I bloody want one. No chance of finding out if they are available in this god forsaken place.

    Sighing, he rolled the map up and tried to replace it into the bag, only to be stopped by a text pop up across his vision.

    You are attempting to place item Mapping Scroll into your inventory. Do you wish to continue this action, or would you like to install it into your character ?

    Installing the Mapping Scroll will make it available you instantly through your interface, allowing for instant updates to the map as you travel. It will also permit you to add personal notes to your map.

    An installed map can be called up into your vision at any time by thinking ¡®Open Map¡¯.

    Place in Inventory / Install to Character ?.

    Darian chose to install the map, which disappeared from his hand, then tested it by thinking ¡®Open Map¡¯. Instantly his vision was filled with the image of the map, his current position in the center of the image. He knew this because the graphic of the village he was in was dead center with a little glowing light over one building, the one he was on. Darian also worked out that his hand gestures also worked on this map the same as it did with the paper version he had once had.

    From his study of the map, the village he was in was called Rockburgh. The map had also showed a small icon of a gravestone slightly to the left, probably indicating where that skeleton had come from, most likely being the graveyard for this village. Close to the right was a line indicating a coastline, informing Darian that the dark patch he saw earlier was most probably the sea. The only other thing he had found relatively close to this village was an icon of an unnamed castle on the coastline south of his location. It wasn¡¯t close and he suspected it would take him days to travel there on foot, but he had nowhere else to go and had decided this would be his next designation. He thought ¡®close map¡¯ and the map disappeared.

    Before staring out, Darian opened his bag and checked out his supplies. He had enough food with the dried meat for about four day, and the bottled water would last him five. He could stretch out the meat, but the water was vital, especially as the heat around here would increase his thirst quicker than normal. Igf the castle was further than five days travel, plus an additional day if needed, then he was going to be in trouble. He needed to find a way to increase his supply of water.

    As he planned to travel along the coastline, he knew he had been gifted with that item that purified water, the Firestone of Vallinas, but he needed a container to hold seawater in to purify, and he didn¡¯t have one. He also knew that it was as good as impossible that something like that would have survived in this village. The only other place available to him, as yet unsearched, was that grave marker location on his map.

    Well, Darian thought, that first skeleton was fairly easy to kill, so if I am careful, I should be able to kill off another one or two with no problems, this is a small village after all, there shouldn¡¯t be that many there.

 Part Seven

    The sun was much higher in the sky by the time Darian had travelled to the location on his map. It had taken him about an hour of walking, and as he topped the last sun baked hill he was thankful it was still fairly early in the morning and the full days heat had not yet manifested itself. Even so, the temperature must have been in the 30¡¯s already and sweat drenched his hair and shirt. His throat and lips were dry, a good indicator he was starting to become dehydrated already, but with his limited water supply, he knew he should hold off until it was absolutely necessary.

    Darian had decided to leave his gift flask until last, mainly because it also healed injuries, as well as slaked thirst. Who knew what injuries he may take ahead, and he could only use that once a day. If he used it now, he knew he would be in top health to start anything, but if he picked up an injury afterwards, then that could be a problem.

    Before him lay what he had expected to find, a graveyard, but the sheer size of it astonished him. There must have been at least a couple of thousand graves in it. He had only been expecting a tenth of this number, considering the size of the village. He squatted at the hilltop, partially to res, but also to reevaluate his original plan.

    The graveyard was surrounded by a rough stone wall, made up of stones and boulders taken from the land about it, sanding at a maximum height of four foot, with an open gateway, sans gates, on the side facing him. From this gateway a winding path, barely discernable against the baked earth elsewhere, snaked inwards towards the center, ending at what Darian would call a large stone mausoleum. Dry, withered trees dotted the graveyard, no longer providing shade to those who rested beneath.

    Darian didn¡¯t fancy digging into graves to see if there was anything useful within, and he had nothing to dig with anyway, so the mausoleum structure at the center had to be his target. Thinking back on the mythology he remembered about Earth, Darian was pretty certain skeletons didn¡¯t walk around during daylight, but this wasn¡¯t Earth, so he had to be prepared for all eventualities, and he withdrew the mace from his bag. Looking at it, then the graveyard, he reconsidered, then once again reached into the bag and took the helmet from it.

    Name: Helmet, Plain Bowl

    A very basic helmet, enough to protect ones head from falling twigs. This helmet will provide a +2 defensive bonus to the wearer

    Item Class: Common

    Item Condition: Poor

    Requirements/Restrictions: Can not be worn by characters with mage or rogue classes.

    Darian shrugged, not comprehending the meaning, or what it pertained to, and clapped the helmet onto his head. Any protection is better than none, he thought. He was quite surprised when it fit him perfectly, feeling as if it had been made for him.

    He reached the gateway to the graveyard after a short walk down the hill. Looking through them, he could see the ranks of cracked and broken tombstones stretching away, no sign of movement anywhere, he couldn¡¯t even see or hear any birds or insects, something else that seemed to be absent since he had been here. Is everything dead in this world, he asked silently, looking to the sky. He didn¡¯t expect an answer, nor was he disappointed when none eventuated. Shaking his head, he strode forward and entered.

    As he passed through the gates, the temperature noticeably lowered, making Darian shiver at the sudden change, the sweat on his brow and shirt becoming chilly. What the fuck just happened ? thought Darian, and rapidly backed out of the graveyard. Instantly the air once again became hot, the chill he had experienced making it feel hotter than before. Frowning, Darian stood there, in confusion. He had no idea what the change in temperature meant, and it worried him. Things didn¡¯t happen like this, in a localized area, for nothing. It must mean something, but like everything else to do with this place, he was at a loss.

    With determination, he stepped once again through the gates and into the graveyard, and like last time the temperature dropped. This time, being prepared, Darian ignored it and started along the pathway towards the center, passing grave markers on each side. As he reached about quarter of the way towards the structure soil on the graves on each side of him started to churn, and dirt covered skeletons dragged themselves from the earth, dry clots of soil dropping from between their bones and back down to the ground.

    The sight horrified Darian and he flinched back in fear, for he was still accustomed to the beliefs of where he originated from and had not yet grown accustomed to the game lifestyle that was now his new life. This brief hesitation of his being enough time to allow both skeletons to fully emerge and to gain their footing. As they started to stagger towards him, their eyes blazing and their jaws working, he gave each of them a quick examination, backing away slowly as he did so, Both gave him the same information.

    Name: Skeleton Villager

    The revived skeleton of a slain villager. The poor excuse for an undead creature was once a productive civilian of Eternia. Called from its rest, this creature has been tasked with guarding the pathway you travel. Villager skeletons are usually unarmed and unarmored, just like they were when life filled them

    Health: 5/5

    Armour: 1

    Damage: 1 to 2 + disease (Bite), 1 to 2 damage (Clawing)

    After reading their descriptions, Darian felt a lot better. These two undead were very weak, much weaker than the first skeleton he had faced. All he needed was to make one hit to each of them and the fight would be over. Confidant, Darian lifted his mace and advanced on the one on his right. As it got within his weapons reach, he lashed out, sending the ball at the end of the mace sideward towards the skeletons head. It connected solidly, cleanly removing the skull from the spine that held it up and sending it flying through the air. Darian stood there, watching the rest of the skeleton disassemble itself into a pile on the ground, the bones rattling as they bounced off each other.

    He soon realized that he had made a mistake when the other skeleton wrapped its bony arms around him from behind and sank its yellow, decaying teeth into his shoulder, the injury making his arm give an uncontrolled jerk, and across his vision he saw

    Skeleton surprise attacks you from behind causing double damage.

    Skeleton bites you

    Damage received : 4 (2 x 2)

    Health remaining: 16 / 20

    Skeleton bite infects you with leprosy. You will lose 1 point health every five seconds for one minute, or until cured.

    Health remaining: 15 / 20

    The first thing Darian thought was ¡®shit¡¯, because he had underestimated the speed of the skeletons before he attacked, the next thing was ¡®Oh, fuck, it gave me leprosy¡¯ and he panicked as he saw his health ticking away. If Darian was a gamer, he would have understood how this worked, would have known, or seen, that the damage from the leprosy wouldn¡¯t kill him before the disease ran its course. But Darians beliefs were still firmly rooted on Earth, and to him leprosy was something that would kill him, and not something that only lasted for a minute.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Fearing for his life brought a strength to Darian that he never knew he had, a strength that only those in mortal danger found possible. He wrenched himself from the grip that the skeleton had on him, breaking one of its arms off and causing it one damage before he fled away, running back towards the gateway. As he neared it, his sense of reasoning returned and he slowed down, glancing over his injured shoulder.

    The skeleton was following him at a slower pace than the once he had just had, its single remaining arms still reaching towards him. With shaking hands ,Darian plucked the flask from his bag and downed its contents in one long swallow, its cool contents chilling his throat as it went down. As he waited for it to work its magic on him, the skeleton had shortened the distance between them by half. It was at this point the warmth passed through him, closing the bite on his shoulder, and cleaning the disease from his system. With relief he dropped the flask back into his bag.

    The skeleton had got to within five foot of him at this point, and it lunged at him, its dirty finger bones trying to grab at him. With a cry of disgust Darian clubbed at the skeleton with the mace, overhanded and with no finesse at all. The ball missed the skeleton, but the handle came down with enough force to shatter its fragile collarbone and shatter the top three ribs of its chest.

    Crushing blow to skeleton.

    Damage given : 9 ((5 x 2)-1)

    Health remaining: 0

    You have defeated the Skeleton Villager

    You receive 10 experience

    Current Experience 80/100

    Slumping to his knees in the dust, Darian sobbed in relief, a pile of bones in front of him the only sign of his opponent, another glowing speck within it. His hands still shaking Darian reached out and grabbed it. All that the loot pop up contained this time was another of those skulls, and a small handful of coins. Darian took everything.

    Congratulations, you have recovered the bones of a lost soul of Capalia. You can find these remains in your inventory. Collect another ninety eight to receive a hidden Quest.

    You receive 10 Experience.

    Current Experience 90/100

    Wiping away the tears he felt, he thought on the messages he had just received, and it reminded him that he had that unread message in his inbox. It also made him think why he had received no other mail in the time he had been here, other than the first two. Hadn¡¯t his family said they would be in contact with him, were they not concerned that he had not messaged them and tried to contact him ?

    He uttered the word to open his mail system ¡°Inbox.¡±, but nothing happened. Frowning to himself Darian repeated himself and this time he got a response, but not one that he was expecting.

    Mailbox Error Code 1088 ¨C No such service exists

    The ingame mail system is only available to registered citizens of New Eden. The system has detected the requestor to be a citizen of Eternia. As a citizen of Eternia, only manual message delivery offices are available for your request, please visit your nearest message delivery office to send or collect messages.

    ¡°What the¡­. ¡® started Darian before chopping himself off. Those damn AIs must have changed more than they said, he realized, anger rising in him. Until he could find out how to fix this, it looked like he would remain uncontactable by not only his family, but everyone. He reined in his temper, getting to his feet and angrily kicking the bones at his feet, sending them flying about. Even though it hurt his foot, he gained a little pleasure from it.

    Returning to the point he had been first attacked by the two skeletons, he found the remains of his first kill, but there was nothing for him to take this time, no glowing ember, no skull, nothing. Disappointed, he stirred the bones with one foot, just in case he had somehow knocked the loot thing to the bottom, but the result was the same, nothing. Obviously not all the skeletons rewarded him when they died¡­ again.

    He was attacked once again by two more skeletons, both villagerss, at the half way point of the path, but this time he managed to defeat them without injury to himself, but it had been a close call when his vision had been partially obscured with a message announcing a new level and another character point. He did know that a new level was supposed to mean he was getting stronger, or more advanced, but the character points he had gained stayed a mystery. A search of the remains gained him a third set of remains, and some more coins.

    The third battle on the pathway, pretty close to the mausoleum, was identical to the second battle, but this time he didn¡¯t gain a level, nor did he gain any loot, which was disappointing, as he was starting to look forward to them. After this was over he was going to take a look at the coins he had been finding, see what they were worth. The coins fascinated him, because the use of coins as a form money had ceased on Earth twenty years ago. He still had some¡­ well, he used to have some when he had a real life.

    The remaining distance he travelled to the mausoleum was unhindered and he arrived at its closed marble doorway, pillars on each side holding up an ornate, overhanging mantle. Three marble stairs led up to the entrance, and two small iron cauldrons of burning embers flanked the door, aromatic smoke rising up. Darian eyed the door, wondering whether he should enter, then he eyes the burning cauldrons. Just the thing, he thought.

    He kicked both cauldrons over, spilling their contents out to smolder on the ground, then he pushed the cauldrons away from the heat, hopefully to cool down rapidly in the cold air. He didn¡¯t fancy staying around this place for too long, who knows how many more skeletons might appear, and they might be stronger than the villager ones he had already faced.

    It wasn¡¯t long before they had cooled enough that he could touch them without burning himself. Considering that good enough for him, he collected them up and bagged them. They were considered as medium size, so both fitted in one slot of his bag. This done, he turned his attention to the door.

    The door was comprised of two gigantic slabs of unadorned marble, neither containing anything resembling a handle or keyhole. How they opened was a mystery to Darian, for each of them must weigh a ton. He ran a hand across them to see if he could feel any imperfection that would indicate a secret button or lever, but both were not needed, for at his touch they easily opened inwards, silent and smoothly.

    Darian stood there, watching them glide open until he heard the faint noise of stone meeting stone, and they stopped their movement, a cold wind blowing into his face. Looking in, all he could see was darkness, which surprised him. With his amulet on, it shouldn¡¯t be that dark in there, the amulet should have reduced it to a gloom. Anticipating an attack, he lifted the mace and stepped into the darkness.

    As soon as his foot came down on the interior floor torches lining the walls burst into flame, chasing the darkness away, and allowing Darian to see what lay within. It wasn¡¯t what he expected at all.

    The interior of the mausoleum was empty, well, mostly empty. It contained no crypts, no coffins and no biers. The only thing within it was a large black oblong placed at the far side away from the door. It stood about three feet high and seemed to suck in the light and heat from the torches, and the cold air that he had felt blow in his face seemed to originate from this object. As his gaze sat on it, its description appeared.

    Item: Lesser Alter of Nekkir-Amon

    This black alter is one of a hundred of the Lesser Alters of Nekkir-Amon spread among the lands. Once a blessed alter of Cyana, it was seized by the minions of the dead god Nekkir-Amon and twisted to his purpose. As long as this alter remains, the undead scourge that plagues this area will remain. If you pray at this alter, you will become a follower of Nekkir-Amon and receive great powers from him. As long as one alter dedicated to Nekkir-Amon remains undestroyed, he can never be purged from Eternia.

    He was disturbed in his examination by someone speaking to him. Looking up, he saw a cowled being standing behind the Alter, arms crossed on its chest. ¡°Welcome, former brother. You may have changed your form, but your soul remains the same. Nekkir-Amon sees the gods have removed his blessing from you.¡± The voice was soft, but a softness that could be heard in every corner of this room. It came out like each word was forced out on a breath, windy and harsh.

    Nervously Darian stammered out ¡°Wh.. Who are you ?¡±

    The being laughed, a terrible sound in the small room. ¡°Who am I, he asks. Who am I is not important, is no longer important to you, traitor. Our god blessed you and you have spurned him.¡± The creatures voice rose higher as it spoke. ¡°what is important to you, is now it is time for you to die.¡± It lifted one arm to point at Darian, and a dirty cloth wrapped hand appeared, one finger pointing directly at Darian. ¡°So die.¡±

    A bolt of darkness sprang from the creatures fingertip and flew across the room, striking Darian in the chest. His chest froze where the bolt struck, then the ice rapidly spread outwards, freezing him into place. He was still mentally aware and thinking frantically as his body slowly toppled backwards, hitting the marble floor and shattering into a thousand pieces.

 Part Eight

    Sitting up, gasping for breath, Darian clutched his chest in panic, looking around for the cowled creature who had just attacked him. Slowly his panic ebbed away as recognition of his surroundings filtered into his brain. ¡°Shit,¡± Darian muttered irritably, ¡°killed again. No matter how many times this happens to me, I will never get used to it.¡± With a sour expression, he scanned the familiar ruins of the village he had arrived in.

    Darian blew out a breath, wondering how long he had been gone, because the sun had fully set, leaving him sitting in darkness. It¡¯s really dark, he realized, frowning. The amulet he was wearing should have made that darkness much less, but it hasn¡¯t. He reached up to his chest where the amulet would normally lay, only to find it missing. Concerned that he may have dropped it, Darian patted himself trying to locate the amulet, then searched the ground around himself fruitlessly.

    It was only after he had frantically searched all around that he noticed his bag was also missing, in fact, all he had were the clothes he was wearing when he arrived in Eternia. ¡°Ahh, crap.¡± he cursed ¡°they must have been left at that graveyard. No bloody way am I going back there and letting that freak kill me again.¡±

    Dejected, Darian rose to his feet and looked about hopelessly. Without his gear he knew his chances of survival had just plummeted. Now he had no food or water, he was stuck in this village until thirst or hunger overtook him. Sighing, he decided just standing here wasn¡¯t going to accomplish anything, and decided to take a walk to that expanse of water he had seen outside of town. Maybe if he was lucky something useful would have washed ashore, and if he was even more lucky, the water would be fresh and not seawater.

    From what he recalled, the body of water was a good hours walk outside of the village, and he didn¡¯t fancy travelling that distance during the night, god knew how many skeletons were roaming about out there. Without his amulet his chance of spotting them before it was too late, was miniscule. Without knowing how long it was until the sun rose, Darian chose to sit it out, here, and wait for daylight. Lowering himself to the ground, he propped his back against a boulder and closed his eyes.

    Darian woke up, the sun shining on his face, causing him to sweat profusely. He could feel his skin tingling with a prickly sensation that just knew meant he was becoming sunburnt, something he wouldn¡¯t have expected in this digital world. He hadn¡¯t intended to nod off, but the heat must have had a soporific effect on him, something that concerned him, for it left him completely vulnerable to an attack. The mere thought of this making a shiver run down his spine, and Darian vowed never again to leave himself in such a precarious position.

    Darian stood up and started to brush off the dirt, but suddenly stopped. His hand had touched something he had not expected to. Praying fervently, he slowly looked down at his side, and gasped in delight at seeing the very same bag he had believed to be lost forever, once again hanging at his side. Clutching it like a drowning man, he quickly opened it and checked to make sure everything was inside. All his possessions were there, not one item lost or missing, other than¡­.

    With a quick movement, Darian clasped one hand to his chest, and relief filled him as he felt a familiar lump beneath his shirt, the amulet once again back around his neck. Then Darian furrowed his brow, a little confused. He was positive that the bag and amulet were not with him earlier. Had someone returned them to him while he slept ?

    He decided to put aside this conundrum for when he had more time to think on it, and pulled up his map. Why didn¡¯t I think of seeing if I still had that after I died. Now he had all his possessions back, he could concentrate on the travel in front of him. Looking at the map, he decided to stick with his plan to travel to that body of water, but from there he would follow the coastline south, in an attempt to reach the castle that was marked on it.

    He closed his map, double checked his possessions, just to make sure they hadn¡¯t disappeared on him again, then started off in the direction the map told him the water lay.

    ¡­..

    Darian stood on the sandy beach, staring out across the seemingly endless expanse of blue water in front of him. He didn¡¯t know exactly how long it had taken him to traverse from the village to here, as he no longer possessed a watch, but he estimated it took him about an hour. The heat this day was greater than the previous day, and he had been forced to drink one of his bottles of water during the trip, more than he had expected, or calculated for.

    This also led to another problem, as the empty bottle disappeared as soon as he had finished it. He suspected the same would apply to his remaining stock, and this would leave nothing that he could refill with purified water. He was now forced to stick to the coastline if he wanted to keep his thirst in check, and wouldn¡¯t have the opportunity to travel inland for long distances.

    As he stood there, the sea breeze that blew into his face felt refreshing, and he remembered that he had been here for three days now without washing. In a rush, he dropped his bag onto the sand and plunged into the clear, rolling waves, falling forward to completely submerge himself.

    The water cooled his skin, and on opening his eyes he beheld a watery wonderland, one filled with colorful coral and long wavering strands of seaweed moving gently with the waters movement. Small shiny fish darted in and out between the strands, seemingly chasing each other in complex patterns. Darian floated there, face down, watching this peaceful scene, his back heating back up from the suns touch above him. It seemed that even though the lands about him were dead, the seas teemed with all forms of life, holding out promise he would someday find other who were alive, or even providing him with a food source, if he found a way to catch the fish.

    Relaxed, his mind wandered to thoughts of a trivial nature. I have been here for three days now and I have not once had the need to go to the toilet. Is this normal ? If I don¡¯t need to piss or shit, where the hell does all the food and water go ? Will this be permanent, will I never need to go again ? He hoped it was a permanent thing. It would be a definite advantage if he never had to go to the toilet again, he had always had problems with this before he was digitized, it was something the doctors couldn¡¯t fix, claiming it was just one of those things that happened when you got old. Well, he wasn¡¯t old now, thank god, and incontinence was something he could forget about.

    Beneath him, the fish all suddenly stopped their intricate dance, frozen in place for one brief moment before they all darted off, hiding themselves among holes and cracks in the coral, leaving only the seaweed, twisting in now empty water, to occupy his sight. Darian wasn¡¯t stupid, he knew what this meant. Fish only hid like this when they detected a danger, most probably a predator, entering their part of the ocean. He¡¯s seen thin on an old TV show many years ago.

    While the water was clear, it still didn¡¯t allow him to see much further than about fifty feet into it, and Darian couldn¡¯t see anything that would have alarmed them, but he knew it wouldn¡¯t be long before he did. Displaying a good sense of prudence, he decided it would be best if he made his way back to the shore, or into shallower water. At the limit of his sight, he could just make out the appearance of something big, something that darkened the water around it, casting a shaky shadow onto the sandy floor beneath it.

    In panic Darian wind milled his arms, trying desperately to increase his speed towards the safety of the shore. He hadn¡¯t come out that far, but it seemed to be an eternity before he travelled far enough to get a purchase on the sand with his feet. Desperately he dug his feet in and shoved forward with all his might,, all the while scooping the water with his hands and pushing backwards. The beach grew closer and closer, until finally he managed to leave the water behind him.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Staggering forward two steps, Darian collapsed down onto the sand, his panicked return exhausting him, his chest heaved as he sucked in breaths of air. He threw his head back and laughed, a slightly high pitched, hysterical laugh of nervous relief, he had made it, he was safe. He could see the shadow in the water of whatever creature had arrived, and it was large, much too large to be from a shark, or some similar sized denizen of the deep.

    He sat there, watching the shadow move about, following a path, that mirrored the beach, but about twenty feet away from it, The movement looking like it was seeking something, probably him, Darian thought. With his panic now passed, he looked about to locate the bag he had left on the beach, and saw it, sitting on the sand about thirty foot away.

    Looking back at the sea, Darian saw the shadow of the beast approximately equal with his position, so in an act of bravado, he waved at it and called out ¡°See ya, sorry I couln¡¯t stick around for dinner.¡± and started to rise. Suddenly a long, green tentacle exploded out of the water, flying towards him, its tip armed with a very long, and very sharp looking barb. All Darian had time for was one look of astonishment before it slammed down onto the sand, just two foot short of him, its barb sinking deep into the ground and showering him with a spray of dry sand.

    Falling back on his backside, he scrabbled at the sand with his hands and feet, scuttling backwards in panic. The tentacle drew taut, drawing itself, and its barb, back out into the ocean, leaving a deep furrow in its path. Darian didn¡¯t stop his backwards momentum until he was well above the high tide mark, collapsing again onto his backside, and even then he kept a constant eye on the surface of the water, fearing it could reach him, even here. The tentacle didn¡¯t make another appearance, but the shadow remained in place, unmoving, obviously waiting for him to come closer so it could try again.

    After five minutes, in which Darian didn¡¯t have the courage to move at all, the shadow drifted off, moving quickly towards deeper water, Seeing this he relaxed, and shook his head. ¡°Darian, old boy, you are a fool. You should have kept your mouth shut. ¡± He knew it hadn¡¯t been what he said that attracted the monsters attention, and most probably it had detected his movement, but even so, he promised himself to keep silent in the future, a promise he also knew he wouldn¡¯t keep.

    Getting up, he brushed himself off, all the while eyeing his bag and the ocean, The bag was a lot closer to the waters edge than he was now, and even though the creature had seemingly departed, he was still wary about moving closer to the water. Knowing he couldn¡¯t do without it, he slowly and carefully walked towards the bag, watching the water all the while. When he reached it, he grabbed at it without looking and dashed up the beach to a safer location.

    ¡°Well, that was a learning experience. The sea is full of hungry critters, so swimming is definitely off the table from now on.¡± Darian muttered to himself, then slung his bag across his shoulder, turned southwards and started walking.

    ¡­..

    Three days later, Darian was still following the coastline southwards. He had yet to find anything other than the endless beach and baked earth. His travel undisturbed by any creature or being. He had been forced to overcome his terror of the sea as the constant heat drained him, and with the total absence of anything that could cast shade to rest in, or even cool him for a brief period, he had been forced to make the occasional dip into the sea to cool down.

    He had not encountered a reoccurrence of the meeting with the creature he now was sure was a form of squid, but he also guaranteed this by only jumping into the water and getting out almost immediately. His supply of dried meat was running out, with only about one days supply left, and he had drank the last of his water supply this morning, and his thirst was growing. He knew he had the flask still, but he was going to save that until tonight, just in case of an accident or fight. He would drink it just before he went so sleep.

    Darian stopped and looked about., realizing that any spot was as good as another around here, and removed his bag. Reaching into it Darian removed one of the small cauldrons he had and made his way down to the water. As he stepped over the flotsam and jetsam that marked the high tide mark, he noticed that most of it was comprised of washed ashore seaweed and shells, and something he remembered from early life popped into his mind.

    Nearly all seaweed was edible on Earth, with most countries finding some use for it. Darian couldn¡¯t think of any reason why it should be any different here, so he decided he would see if he could stretch his dried meat supply a bit further by replacing it with seaweed. Kicking the debris apart, he was disappointed to see all of it had already dried in the sun, resembling dried leather. Bending down, he picked up a selection of the seaweed types, including thin stringy ones, along with some that looked like lettuce leaves, taking care as he found they crumbled in his grip if it was too firm.

    Finding his free hand now full, he decided he had enough to experiment with and continued on to fill the cauldron with seawater before returning to where his bag lay. He placed the dried seaweed into the bag for later, and picking up the firestone before he withdrew his hand out. He looked at the filled cauldron and thought about what he was going to do, then re-read the portion of the description on the stone that he was going to work with.

    Bonuses: The blessed nature of this stone allows it to be placed into any container of liquid and heat it to boiling when command is given. Will also purify tainted or polluted liquids. Maximum size of container one foot square.

    Darian pursed his lips. This sounded like it would leave the water very hot, and he would have to leave it to cool down before he could drink it. He returned to his bag and took out the second cauldron. Might as well use the time while it cooled productively, he thought to himself, and placed it next to the filled cauldron.

    Dropping the firestone into the filled cauldron with a splash, Darian spoke the activation word for it. ¡°Ignite.¡± Instantly the water in the cauldron started to steam, something he found remarkable in the heat that already surrounded him, and small bubbles popped on its surface. Carefully, he lifted it by the thin handle and carefully tipped it into the empty cauldron, retrieving the firestone from the bottom of it. He had expected the stone to be red hot, but it was cool to the touch, allowing him to pick it up without bother.

    Leaving the water filled cauldron to cool, he returned to the ocean to refill the cauldron he had emptied and started to return, only stopping when he saw something he had not noticed before, a few strands of a purple colored seaweed, died like all the rest. In interest, he picked them up and looked at them.

    Item: Athrancian Seaweed (Purple Strain).

    Athrancian seaweed can be found in all shallow waters of Eternia, but the purple strain of this seaweed is extremely rare, only growing in the waters off the shore of Capelia. Unlike other forms of seaweed, Athrancian Seaweed is sweet to the taste.

    Athrancian Seaweed can be found in shades of Green, Blue, Yellow, Red and Purple. Each variety has shown itself to provide different benefits when ingested.

    Green ¨C Used in the brewing process of certain wines

    Blue ¨CUsed in the creation of some Manna Potions

    Yellow ¨C Used in the production of certain food products

    Red ¨CUsed in the creation of some Healing Potions

    Purple ¨C As yet unknown properties

    His eyebrows perked at this, because with all the other strains being of benefit, this one should at least hold some positive benefit. He reframed to where his cooling cauldron of water lay and placed the newly filled one down next to it. He once again dropped the stone into it, and activated it. Like the first time, it instantly became boiling.

    Holding out the purple seaweed over the top, he crumbles it into the hot water, watching the minute flakes dissolve when they landed on the surface, the water turning to a deep royal purple around them. If this didn¡¯t work, then he would add the rest of the other seaweeds he had collected.

    Leaning forward, Darian took a sniff at the steam rising from the surface, and froze. This smell was very familiar to him, one he had not smelled since his transfer. Closing his eyes, he took a deeper breath, sucking in as much as he could, and a smile cracked his face, one of absolute pleasure.

    The five minutes it took to cool down enough to pick up was pure torture to him, but he sat there, fidgeting about with desire. Finally, he could grasp the outside without burning himself, and he lifted it to his lips and drank, long and deep, then he carefully placed it back down, with a contented sigh. It tasted just like coffee, but one with a strong overtone of rich chocolate.

    It was thick, like hot chocolate, with just a slight touch of sweetness, almost like a coffee would be on Earth with sugar added, and it also quenched his thirst. He looked at the cauldron with a touch of sadness, knowing he couldn¡¯t drink it all, and he had no way of saving it for later. Sniffing to himself, Darian picked up the cauldron once again, and started to drink, wondering if they had milk in Eternia.

 Part Nine

    Darian continued on his travel along the coastline, travelling much slower as he  searched among the flotsam on the beach for more of the purple seaweed. Now he had managed to find one of the vices that he had thought were no longer available to him, he had no intention of going without this coffee substitute he had found.

    He had tried eating the other types of seaweed to avoid hunger, but while they did  ease the pangs, he had to chew on a lot more of them than expected. It wasn¡¯t a pleasant experience, because they were quite bitter to the taste, and the salt content was high, increasing his thirst  when he ate them. For this reason, he only  ate them when absolutely necessary, and usually only when he had taken a break to  make water to drink. This left him constantly hungry, but he was leaving his last strips of dried meat for an emergency.

    The sun, and its heat didn¡¯t help him, and after a day of walking in it, his skin was coming off in large strips, the sweat that poured off him making the raw flesh burn. Thankfully he could  use his flask to heal all this each night, or by now he would be in absolute agony. If there had been another graveyard along his path, he would have charged into it without a second thought, just to be able to experience  cold once more.

    From where he had first found the purple seaweed, he had walked for a further week, and had managed to find enough of the seaweed to last him for another month, if he was careful. In all this time, he also still had not found any other  signs of habitation, or life, but his map which always showed his current location, let him know he was not far away from the castle icon  on it. Darian was still hoping there would be help for him there, when he finally arrived.

    He had carefully been checking his location against the map icon, and  he thought he had another days travel before he was in sight of the castle. He couldn¡¯t wait to get there, the trip along the coast had been really boring with nothing to look at except the water and the sand. Sure, there had been trees, but  dead and dry trees, without any foliage, was not something that excited him.

    If there had been another village somewhere along the way, even another ruin like the one he started in, he would have stopped for a while. At least then he could have a break from the sun and the walking. He might even find something of use to him, something like more real food, not this seaweed diet he seemed to be on. This place may have made him a lot younger, but the home he was in at least provided something considered edible.

    Another thing that concerned him was he had yet to see another menhir, and had no opportunity to reset that spawn thing, so knew if he died, he would have to start again at the ruined village, right back at the beginning of all this. That was one thing he knew would tip him over the edge, wasting all this time for nothing, and having to do it all again.

    It was almost as if the gods had heard his complaint, for as he topped the next sand dune he could make out a stone pathway leading inland, and following its path with his eyes, he could make out the top of a tall, standing stone sticking out above a  grassless hill. It was a sight for sore eyes, which reminded him, he needed to  take another dip in the ocean to wash away some of this sweat. But first, he decided, he needed to get to that stone.

    Darian trotted over to the pathway and started walking along it, more of the menhir coming into view the further up the hill he walked. When he finally reached the top Darian stopped, the sight before him causing this pause. The menhir stood in a slight depression between two hills, with four small buildings surrounding it. It wasn¡¯t the buildings that made him pause, but the creature that stood in-between them, next to the menhir itself.

    Like all the other creatures Darian had seen so far, this one was also an undead creature, but not a skeleton. It was dressed in flesh, if that is what it could be called, for it hung off it in strips and looked like it was rotting. A nasty suspicion ran through his mind, and he confirmed it when he cast an inspecting gaze upon it.

    Name: Zombie Guardian

    The Zombie Guardian is considered as one of the lesser undead within Eternia, but its ability to turn any being bitten by itself into another zombie increases its danger as an opponent. Unprepared attackers can easily find themselves overwhelmed by increasing numbers of this creature if it is not defeated in time. Zombie plague, the disease carried by zombies, can only  turn true citizens of Eternia into another zombie, Travelers will only be afflicted with a debilitating disease that will lower their statistics by 25%  until the plague is healed. Zombies are low in intelligence due to the effects of their own disease, and will attack mindlessly any living being that approaches them.

    Level: 2

    Health: 20/20

    Armor: 4

    Damage: 1 to 6 (Hands), 2-  6 + disease (Bite)

    Special: All damage taken by zombie will incur a 50% penalty unless blow is to  its head.  Weapons that use crushing force to cause damage incur a further 10% penalty.

    Damn, thought Darian, he had always hated those zombie films, and here he was, in his own little production, a private showing for one who didn¡¯t want it.  Quickly, before it noticed him, he  dredged up every fact he knew about zombies, and knew instantly that he was in trouble. The only weapon he possessed was the mace, a weapon fairly useless against zombies unless he managed a really lucky strike that took its head off, or at the very least, crushed its skull.

    Then another thought struck him.  He remembered the part that said ¡®can only turn true citizens into another zombie.¡¯ And this really worried him. Wasn¡¯t he now a true citizen of Eternia, and did this mean he could end up being a mindless rotting corpse if he lost,  Bugger losing, if the thing managed to sink its teeth into him, and he had nothing at all to protect him but the skimpy cloth of his shirt.

    Darian didn¡¯t need to make the decision to either run or fight, because he had been standing there too long and the creature had noticed him and had started to shamble towards him.  Darian felt a sharp  spike of fear go through him, but it just as quickly went away because he saw something that puzzled him. It was the zombie, it moved like a one hundred year old cripple, in other words, just like he used to, back on Earth. This was nothing like the films at all, in those they moved quicker than this.

    Well, I¡¯m not going to let this advantage go to waste, he thought, pulling out his mace. Twirling it around in a figure eight pattern, he eyes the zombie as it hobbled slowly up the road, planning his attack on this thing. If it stayed as sluggish as it currently was showing, he would have no problems defeating it. The weapon penalty would definitely make it drawn out, but unless he acted stupid, or the creature was somehow playing possum, it would be a walk in the park.

    Darian approached it, taking his time in case he needed to change his tactics, and also  to see if its behavior changed in any way as he drew closer. Neither happened, so he swung the mace low, a one handed blow to one of its knees, and it crumpled beneath the strike. From the numbers that flashed up, it looked like he had caused it virtually no damage at all, but the result was what he expected to happen.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    As it landed onto its side, its eyes still fixed on Darian, he backhanded another blow directly into its face, causing the already  rotten flesh to split and slide from one cheek, displaying the yellow teeth beneath. The creature totally ignored the blow and started to push itself back up with its arms. Then the smell appeared, the disgusting aroma of rotting meat that had been left out in the sun for too long, a stench so bad that Darian was forced backwards from the  thickness of it.  At first Darian thought he would vomit, then he was certain he would  as bile rose and burnt the back of this throat.

    He stepped back and turned his head to one side as  the  burning stream of stomach acid sprayed out, taking with it the remains of his last seaweed banquet and splattering onto the ground.  Once finished, his stomach kept up a series of painful spasms in a vain attempt to find something else to eject, but the cupboard was bare. Coughing and spitting to remove the foul taste from his throat, he wiped away the drool from his lips with the back of one hand, then returned his now tear filled eyes back onto the zombie. It had managed to get back to its feet while he was indisposed.

    Spitting one more time, he prodded the zombie in the chest with the head of the mace, pushing it backwards, then proceeded to send a series of overhead blows raining down on its head and shoulders, each one taking a portion of health away from it.

    In the end it took five strikes to its head to finally finish it off, the last one crushing its skull and spattering its brains out, another disgusting thing that  caused his stomach to rebel. It made him think of a tube of toothpaste that someone had stomped on.

    You have defeated the Zombie Guardian

    You receive 25 experience

    Current Experience 165 / 200

    This announcement let him know it was finally dead and he watched until its twitching had ceased. Only then did he step away to get some fresh air, sucking in deep lungful¡¯s in an attempt to remove the nasty aftertaste, not only of his spew, but also of the  zombie stench which seemed to stick to him like glue. Scrubbing at his face, he looked at the corpse to see if it had any loot. Yes, he saw the glowing ember, and thankfully it was on the body, meaning he didn¡¯t have to interfere with the corpse to get to it.

    Reaching down, he plucked it up, but all it contained was a small amount of mixed coins, something he was still ignorant about. It also had another benefit for him, one he didn¡¯t think he would get from a zombie.

    Congratulations, you have recovered the bones of a lost soul of Capalia. You can find these remains in your inventory. Collect another ninety six to receive a hidden Quest.

    You receive 10 Experience.

    Current Experience 175 / 200

    He tossed the coins into his bag, slightly annoyed he hadn¡¯t gained anything really useful, but also a little thankful, for his small bag was almost full. Dropping the mace into it, he examined the contents

    Meneas¡¯s Small Bag (11 Slots): Reduces weight by 50%

    <u>Coin</u> (does not occupy slot space)

    Copper ( 45 ) : Bronze ( 5 ) :  Silver ( 1 ) :  Electrum ( 0 )

    Gold ( 0 ) :  Platinum ( 0 ) :  Eternium ( 0 )

    <u>Contents</u>

    Slot 1: Firestone of Vallinas             Slot 2: Flask of Cyana

    Slot 3: Malantines Wooden Mace     Slot 4: Helmet, Plain Bowl

    Slot 5: Potion of Minor Healing x 2 Slot 6: Dried Meat x 2

    Slot 7: Lost Soul Bones x 4              Slot 8: Purple Athrancian Seaweed x 30

    Slot 9: Cauldron, Small x 2              Slot 10: **** EMPTY ****

    Slot 11: **** EMPTY ****

    He hoped that he could find a bigger bag, if they existed, because he had almost filled this one, and he hadn¡¯t found that much so far.  He didn¡¯t fancy throwing away anything he already had to make room for something else, he supposed if it came down to it, the helmet would be the first thing he would discard. Sighing with resignation, he closed the bag and got up. It was time to go to the menhir, then he could return to his travel.

    The first thing he did  after arriving at the menhir was to place his hand on it and set his respawn point. Once he had done that he  gave the surrounding buildings a quick search, but three of them were empty, their single square rooms filled with nothing but dust and sand. What they had once been used for was a mystery to Darian, because they were unadorned  within, as well as without. They were just small square boxes, each windowless and with a single opening facing towards the menhir.

    The fourth building, Darian found, was not as empty as the others. Looking in the doorway, he expected to see another empty box shaped room, but was surprised and alarmed when he spotted a black, oblong shaped alter  standing in the center of the room, the floor littered with skeletal remains. He quickly ducked back out, in fear of meeting another of the cowled creatures that had slain him before, the memory of it making him shiver.

    Standing with his back against the outside wall, he listened carefully, but could not detect any noise or movement from inside, then slowly  he took another peek within, prepared to pull his head back at the slightest  perception of a threat. The room hadn¡¯t changed, and nothing stood behind the alter, or near it, the room was just as he had seen it. He then  concentrated on the black alter.

    Item: Lesser Alter of Nekkir-Amon

    This black alter is one of the one hundred Lesser Alters of Nekkir-Amon spread among the lands. Once a blessed  alter of Athras, the Lesser God of Travellers, it was seized by the minions of the dead god Nekkir-Amon and twisted to his purpose. As long as this alter remains, the undead scourge that plagues this area will remain. If you pray at this alter, you will become a follower of Nekkir-Amon and receive great powers from him. As long as one alter dedicated to Nekkir-Amon remains undestroyed, he can never be purged from Eternia.

    The same description as the last one, he realized, with only one difference. This alter once belonged to a different god, a lesser god at that, and one he had not heard of. He had no intention of entering the building, and decided he needed to find out more about these alters, they may be something that could help him find a way to get back to New Eden. Quietly he backed away from the  doorway.

    Returning back to the beach, feeling a little relieved that he had finally managed to find a new respawn point, Darian dropped everything onto the sand and took that dip into the ocean he had promised himself. In all the times he had bathed, he had not been threatened by anything else dangerous after his encounter with the squid thing, and he assumed that there mustn¡¯t be many of these, or that they lived in deeper waters.

    Feeling a little more refreshed after his swim, he returned to his boring  journey along the coast.

    ¡­..

    Darian knew he must be getting closer to the castle as the lands he passed displayed some differences from those he had walked past during his travel, with these  divided up with low, crumbling stone walls, much like those used to separate the land into fields. From the state they were in,  he could also see that  these fields had not been used for a long, long time, as the ground in all of them had that empty, baked earth appearance that affected the land everywhere else he had been.

    The sun was low on the horizon, with about one hour of daylight left before it set. Darian decided he had enough time to climb to the top of the next hill in front of him before he took a break for the night and trudged onwards, each step he took sending up a puff of dried earth. As he had his head down, watching where he placed his feet, Darian didn¡¯t see the castle until he had reached the top, and raised his head. It was an amazing sight, and a welcome one to him as well, and Darian sat down to take in the sight, relieved that his journey was nearly over, and maybe he would find someone to help him at last.

 Part Ten

    The castle sat in the middle of a long valley, glowing slightly in the setting sun, the ruins of a large city spread about its base, and from his position Darian could see it encircled the walls. While the ruins at first made his heart sink, the small pinpricks of light that illuminated small windows in the castles walls and towers gave him hope. From the little daylight remaining, Darian could see that the castle seemed to be unaffected by whatever disaster had swept across these lands.

    As he looked across the devastation before the castle, something caught his eye, the land about the castle seemed to be in constant movement, almost as if the soil was crawling and heaving about. Frowning, Darian concentrated, wishing the sun had stayed up a little longer, trying to see what was causing this movement before it became too dark.

    Suddenly a large ball of fire blossomed on the walls of the castle, illuminating a large space around it, then it shot downwards. The light it emitted allowed Darian to see the cause, and he was horrified. The land before the castle was teeming with milling undead, tiny from this distance, but packed in together like sardines. If the whole area around the castle was like this, then there must be thousands of them, no, tens of thousands.

    The ball of fire struck, exploding outwards into a gigantic fiery explosion, sending the living corpses flying, rotting flesh and tattered clothing bursting into flame from the intense heat, bones spinning into the surrounding crowd like pieces of shrapnel. Darian had no idea of how many of the foul beasts lost their unholy life to it, but within the now empty gap among their ranks, burning figures stood back up, and the surrounding crowd surged in to fill the space. Within seconds the only sign the explosion happened was the small fires of burning cloth dotted about.

    Stunned by this exhibition, Darian could only stand there, staring, as the echoes of the blast faded away, and no memory of getting up to his feet. Blinking a few times, he thought that there was no way he would be able to make his way through that lot without getting killed, it was just like an anthill that had been disturbed, he needed to find another way to reach the castle.

    Another unusual thing he noticed in the fire light was that there was a small clear area along the length of the walls, about a hundred feet wide, none of the undead seemed to approach any nearer than that, which was puzzling. With that many surrounding the castle they should have packed it all the way to the walls. The only reason he could come up with was they had the castle under siege.

    Whatever he finally decided he was going to do, for now he would have to wait for daylight to do it, and he had to find somewhere safe to wait out the night. Turning his back to the castle, Darian walked away, down the hill towards the beach, his mind turning over his options, which, he discovered, were few.

    Half way down he was taken by surprise when an armed skeleton dashed out at him from behind a large boulder, taking him unprepared. The skeleton slashed out at him, its rusty sword cutting a deep gash across his chest, and pain seared through him. Stumbling back, Darian raised one hand to his chest while the other desperately dug into his bag, seeking his weapon.

    You have received four points damage. Health remaining 24 / 27

    By the time he had managed to retrieve his mace, the skeleton had followed his retreat and struck out again.

    You have received five points damage. Health remaining 19 / 27

    In desperation at seeing his health slipping away, Darian swung wildly with his mace, not taking the time to target anything, in hope that it would create some time for him to get better prepared. It didn¡¯t work, as the head of the mace whistled through empty air when the skeleton stepped to one side and thrust forward with the sword. The blade skewered his thigh, and the leg buckled beneath him.

    You have received four points damage. Health remaining 15 / 27

    Now on his knees in front of the skeleton, his identification skill decided it was time to let him know what he was facing, obscuring his vision of the creature.

    Name: Skeleton Scout

    The skeleton scout is one of the weakest forms of undead, commonly found in the location of abandoned or cursed graveyards and caves. This form of skeleton is most commonly encountered alone. Undead creatures are susceptible to attacks and spells of a holy nature.

    Level: 3

    Health: 24/24

    Armour: 5

    Damage: 1 to 6 (rusty shortsword), 1 to 2 + disease (Bite)

    Blinded by the text, Darian swore aloud and once again swung his mace in a wild arc horizontal to the ground. Luck was with him this time, as he heard a loud crack as the mace connected with something. It must have been a good strike, as the message was replaced with another one.

    Crushing blow to skeleton.

    Damage given : 9 ((7 x 2)-5)

    Health remaining: 15 / 24

    With his vision now clear of the messages that had obscured it he could see that the blow had removed one of the skeletons legs, toppling it over. In the dark he could see the two glowing red embers that was its eyes, still fixed on him. Grimacing at the shooting pain in his thigh, he used them as something to target and swung the mace. It connected and one side of the skeletons skull crushed inwards, extinguishing one of the embers and removing another seven points of its health.

    He realized his mistake when he overbalanced after the swing, landing face down in the dirt, right in front of the skeleton. Quickly Darian rolled to one side to avoid, or at least reduce the efficacy, of the expected return blow from the skeleton. To his surprise, it never came, gifting him with the time he needed to get back up to his knees.

    Looking up, he saw why it had not attacked him, and couldn¡¯t help but laugh. His last blow had not only crushed one side of the skull, it had also knocked it around, and the skeleton was blindly trying to turn it back the right way. Darian swung the mace two more times, and put it out of its misery.

    You have defeated the Skeleton Scout

    You receive 35 experience

    You have gained a new level

    You are now Level 3

    Current Experience 200 / 300

    You Receive 1 Character Point

    Total Unused Character Points: 8

    Looking around to make sure the noise of the battle had not attracted any unwanted attention, Darian dipped his hand down and opened the loot window. This time what he found was a little better than his previous gains, finding some coins, another set of the bones and a rather unusual token. His inspection showed it to something called a Skill Token, and it could be used to increase the experience to one of his skills, whatever they were. Like everything to him, it went into the bag until he found out more about it.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Back at the beach it didn¡¯t take Darian long to find a comfortable spot among some rocks where he could spend the night. After the fight with the scout he had not encountered any more signs of the undead.

    Darian had come to a decision during the night, one where he had to travel the environs of the besieging army and see what the situation was before he worked out a method to gain entry to the castle unscathed. Last night he had only seen a very small portion of the land and had no idea of the numbers of undead. This was not a decision he came to easily, because it increased his chance of being detected, and attacked, but he knew it had to be done.

    Peering out between two pillars of stone to check if the coast was clear, he quickly ducked back when he saw two skeleton walking down the beach towards his position. Unlike his previous encounters with these beings, these two seemed to be better armed, both in the weapons they carried as well as the armor they wore. Hoping they wouldn¡¯t detect his hiding spot, he nether less prepared himself for combat, knowing if it came to a battle, his chances of winning were virtually nil.

    Darian crouched between the rocks, attempting to keep as silent as possible, and listening for any sounds that would let him know where they were. He found this hard to do because with his position close to the water, the sound of the waves breaking on the shore dominated everything.

    Darian gave them about five minutes, thinking this would allow them enough time to pass by his hiding position, but just as he was easing himself up from the crouch he had remained in, he heard the faint squeak of sand being compacted. He had heard about this many times, but had never believed it, but it was unmistakable, the sand was squeaking, and the only cause of this possible was something walking on it.

    Instantly Darian froze, not even breathing, knowing it was the skeletons walking past the rocks he hid behind. He remained crouched, following their progress by the constant crunch crunch as they walked past. Slowly, the sound became fainter and fainter as they got further away, then, when the sound of their passing had become inaudible to him, he waited for a few more minutes. He didn¡¯t want to get up if they remained close enough to see him.

    Slowly and carefully pushing himself up from his crouch just enough to see over the rocks about him, he looked in the direction he thought the skeletons had gone, but couldn¡¯t see them. From the disturbed sand caused by their passage, he knew they were following the coast, heading north, their footprints¡­ more like bone prints, he thought¡­ disappearing behind a small hill that jutted out into the beach. Thankfully, this was the opposite direction that Darian had chosen to start his circumnavigation of the horde.

    ¡­..

    Four hours later Darian arrived back at the spot he had started and what he had seen only reinforced his opposition to a direct approach to the castle. The horde, for that is the only word he considered descriptive enough, occupied all the available land outside the castle, standing one hundred deep in some areas. It was comprised mainly of skeletons, but he had also seen numerous other types of undead intermingled with them, like the zombies and other types that he had no knowledge of.

    He had managed to find areas that gave him the opportunity to rest in relative safety, and he took these times to examine the milling crowd that filled the land in front of him. He saw creature names, such as Ghoul, Revenant and Lich, names he had heard of before in films and TV shows he had watched, but other than the name, he knew nothing else about them. He even thought he had seen a mummy, swathed in brown stained bandages, tottering about, but it hadn¡¯t come close enough for him to see its description.

    He puled the map open in his vision and zoomed it in to display only the area that he had just travelled, seeing that the landscape and its features had filled in, the castle icon now changed to a very good illustration of the outside of the castle, a little text note overlaying it, stating it was called ¡®Blood Castle¡¯. Blood castle Darian thought to himself, now that¡¯s a rather ill-omened name.

    Something at the side of the map caught his eye, and he move the map to center it. It was a little icon, looking something like the prison bars on a monopoly game board, placed close to the coastline. Frowning, he remembered passing through that area and hadn¡¯t seen anything at that time, other than a small group of skeletons he had hidden from. Pinching absently at his bottom lip, he considered the icon thoughtfully, now almost certain that was the exact spot where the skeletons had been. What is at that spot, Darian wondered, and what the hell were the skeletons doing there ?

    The marked spot was about half an hours walk along the beach, and a little ways inland. With nothing better to do with himself until he worked out an action plan, Darian decided he would take a little trip down to this spot and check it out. He should have plenty of time to get there, check it out and get back well before the sun started to set.

    He was approaching the location a short while later when a noise like someone tapping sticks together alarmed him, and he quickly moved across to the shelter of a copse of withered trees, their branches bare of any foliage and creaking in the mild sea breeze. Using the tree trunks as cover, he carefully peeked out to see what was making the racket, and saw two skeletons walking around in a circle, the noise being made as their yellow bones clacked together as they moved.

    Watching them, he saw that they seemed to be circling one spot in what looked like a dry creek bed, acting like they were patrolling sentries. He also saw that they were one of the weaker forms of undead he had already faced, both of them being Skeleton Walkers. He could see they were poorly armed, one holding a dagger, the other armed with a rusty shortsword. He couldn¡¯t see them being much of a hindrance to him if he attacked.

    Darian equipped his trusty mace, still looking as good as when he received it, and waited for the one armed with the sword to be at its closest point to him on its path, and while the other was at a point furthest from him before he acted. He leaped forward, swinging the mace in a horizontal aimed at the back of the skeletons skull.

    Successful surprise attack. ¨C Will impart maximum weapon damage, plus 100 % damage bonus.

    Surprise Crushing blow to Skeleton Walker.

    Damage given : 26 ( ((9 x 2)-5) x 2)

    Health remaining: 0

    With a loud crack, the skull separated from the skeletons spine and flew off, disappearing into beaches low, rolling sand dunes. Like a marionette that¡¯s had its strings cut, it clattered lifelessly to the ground, loose bones rolling in all directions. Using the momentum that the maces swing had imparted, he spun on his heels to face in the direction of the remaining skeleton, which had only just started to react to his presence.

    Breaking into a jerky trot, the skeleton came at him, its dagger raised and Darian smiled to himself. This should be easy, this time I¡¯m going to have a bit of fun. As soon as the skeleton came close enough, Darian lashed out with a clenched fist, smashing it into the skeletons chest, then instantly grimaced as pain shot though his hand.

    Punch to the Skeleton Walker

    You hit, causing no damage

    You received two points of damage

    Your Health Remaining: 32 / 34

    Almost as if to reinforce his stupidity, the skeleton stuck its dagger into his side, causing another three points of damage to Darian, along with a notification the dagger had caused internal damage and he had a bleeding wound. Lashing out with one foot he kicked the skeleton away from him and staggered back, the wound in his side feeling like it was on fire. He realized he had got a little too cocky and should have known that punching something with his bare hands wasn¡¯t a smart move, and he was sure he had broken at least one finger.

    The skeleton recovered from the kick he had given it, and once again advanced at him, only to be forced back again as the mace swung out and smashed into its ribcage, shattering some of its ribs. Ignoring the damage notice, Darian swung again before it could recover and landed a blow on one collarbone, breaking off the arm holding the dagger.

    The blow made the skeleton stagger to one side, off balance, allowing him another free strike at it. This one did the job of finishing off the creature, and like its fellow skeleton a few minutes before, it collapsed to the ground. Darian dropped the mace to the ground, then hunched over and clutched at his side where he had been stabbed, grimacing in pain. Fuck, I hope no more show up. I don¡¯t think I would be able to defend myself like this. Now the fight was over, the pain had only seemed to intensify. Unexpectedly, an information box popped into view.

    Your tolerance to pain increases.

    Pain tolerance: Level 0 (0.25%)

    Allowing injuries to heal themselves will speed up Pain Tolerance gains.

    The pain had become so severe that Darian was forced to drink from the flask, something he was reluctant to do this early in the day, but he was desperate and needed to be in top form if he was to continue onwards. As the wounds healed, the pain subsided and he relaxed, relief flooding through him. They can go bugger themselves if they think I am going to suffer with pain if I have something that can heal me. He put the flask away, then bent over and retrieved his mace.

    A quick search of the deceased skeletons gained him another couple of handfuls of coins, and one more set of those villager remains he kept finding, bringing his total of them up to six out of a hundred. What the hell he needed to gather these for was a mystery to Darian, but at the rate he had been finding them, it would be a long time before he got them all.

    His investigation of the area they were patrolling let him know that the icon on the map was a grate that covered a man made tunnel that he would have called a sewer outlet back on Earth. The bars of the grate had been bent outwards, and from the rust free condition of the broken sections, he could see that this must have happened very recently, the undead the only possible option for responsibility.

    Peering into the tunnel, he only could see a short distance down it, as the darkness deepened the further it went. I wonder why they are interested in this ? Then it struck him, this must be a sewer outlet from the castle. This could be his way inside. Decision made, he entered the tunnel.

 Part Eleven

    The walls of the tunnel were constructed from crumbling red bricks, looking like terracotta in appearance and touch. Similar to the land outside, the inside of the tunnel was dry, its base filled with dusty soil and sand that must have blown into it over the years, and the bricks of the bottom half were stained a darker color from whatever had flowed through it. Darian had also expected to see cobwebs and lichen hanging from the roof, but after consideration, he realized that he was just fantasizing, basing his beliefs on what he knew things would be like on Earth.

    Darian was forced to enter the tunnel hunched over as the roof was just a little short for him to stand up in. It wasn¡¯t long before he forgot and smashed the top of his head against the rough brick . Swearing while he rubbed the sore spot, he took out his helmet from his bag, wishing he had remembered it sooner, and placed it on his head. Within minutes he was extremely thankful he had, as the helmet took the brunt of another blow from the rough roof when he walked into a misplaced brick jutting down further than the others around it.

    While his assisted night vision helped pierce the darkness within the tunnel, it was still gloomy enough to make sure he had to traverse the tunnel carefully. The further he went into it, the shorter the distance he could see clearly, a good indicator that the benefit he had received from the amulet was by amplifying the available light in the area. In a tunnel like this, where there was no light at all, the amulet wouldn¡¯t help him that much.

    After walking for about half an hour down the tunnel without finding any side tunnels off the one he was in, nor coming across any sign of the undead, he stopped in confusion. If they were using this as a way to get into the castle, then there should have been some of them down here, and by his calculations, he should be quite close to the castle by now, if not already underneath it.

    It wasn¡¯t long after that Darian saw a glow up ahead of him. ¡°So, there really is a light at the end of the tunnel.¡± he quipped to himself in a whisper, knowing that danger could also be waiting for him there. The glow also provided enough illumination for his amulet to operate properly, lightening the darkness that filled the rest of the tunnel. It brightened enough for him to see that no undead occupied the long pipe ahead of him.

    Reaching the end, Darian found himself in front of another metal grate blocking access further in, the bars spaced far enough apart that he could see easily within, but couldn¡¯t squeeze past them. Grabbing two of the bars Darian tugged at them with all of his strength in an attempt to bend them so he could get through, but couldn¡¯t budge them. He could fit his head through, though, allowing him to see a small square chamber, rough stone stairs against one wall leading up to an opening, and the tunnel continuing on the other side of the room. The light was coming down through the opening at the top of the stairs.

    Shaking the bars in frustration didn¡¯t help, the metal of these, unlike everything else he had come across, in excellent condition, the metal untarnished or pitted. The metal was so shiny he could almost believe they had only been put in place recently. If that was the case, then he had no chance at all of betting past them.

    Resigned to the long walk back out of there, Darian made one more attempt at opening the grate, poking an arm through the bars and running his fingers around where they lay against the tunnels stonework, and was surprised when his fingers felt an oddity in it. From what he could feel, the oddity reminded him of a latch of some type. Grabbing the part he identified as a bolt he pushed and wiggled it, feeling it slowly slide upwards, then the grate suddenly gave way, swinging inwards from the pressure his body was putting on it. The hinges squealed tortuously as it moved and he stumbled into the chamber, the grate clanging loudly against the stones as it finished the arc of its swing.

    The chamber was just like the tunnel he had passed through, being made of the same reddish bricks, the floor covered with a dry, almost powder like substance, neither dust nor sand. As this was joined to a sewer outlet, he didn¡¯t want to think what it actually was, even if he could make a good guess about its origin.

    The squeal of unoiled hinges echoes down the tunnels as he forced the grate shut behind him, and latched it closed again, this way he knew that his rear was protected when he continued in further. He knew it wasn¡¯t perfect, but if they hadn¡¯t breached the grate by now, the chance was they never would. If not, at least the noise of the grate opening again would give him sufficient warning to prepare himself. That done, he started to climb the stairs.

    Hesitating just below the round opening above him, Darian listened briefly to see if he could detect any signs of life above him, but everything was silent. The light above was pale and flickering, a good sign it was being made by a fire, or torch, he didn¡¯t know which yet. Cautiously, he walked up the last of the stone steps in front of him, and entered the area above.

    The room he climbed into was small, being about ten foot square. Set in one wall was a closed wooden door, its beams banded with iron, and torch sconces were attached to the remaining three, all of them lit. The light was sufficiently bright enough for Darian to see that the room was unoccupied. Satisfied with what he was seeing Darian stepped into the room.

    The second his foot touched the floor all of the torches suddenly burst into incandescent light, sending daggers of pain through his eyes and into his brain, and blinding him. It was so intense that he screamed in agony and fell to his knees scrubbing uselessly at his eyes with the palms of his hands, trying to clear his vision.

    From his position kneeling position he could hear the door fly open and slam into the wall with a crack, followed by running footsteps as someone entered the room. He was just about to call out to whomever had entered when he felt a violent blow to the back of his head, knocking him face first into the stone floor, and the last thing he heard was his nose breaking with a crack as his mind was plunged into darkness.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    ¡­..

    Darian groaned in pain as he slowly regained consciousness, finding himself hanging by his wrists, his whole weight pulling down at his shoulders leaving him with the suspicion that he had dislocated them. Cold metal bands circled his wrists, the sharp edge of them cutting into his skin, and trickles of coagulating blood oozed down his arms. His head was throbbing from the blow it had received and he had difficulties breathing through his broken nose. The only good thing he could see was that he was still alive.

    Feeling the floor beneath his dangling feet, Darian stretched his legs and stood upright on shaky legs, hoping this would ease the strain in his shoulders, but found himself becoming dizzy as the pain in his head increased. He slowly and laboriously lifted his head and squinted, trying to focus his sight enough to work out where the hell he was. He wasn¡¯t pleased with what he saw after everything snapped into focus.

    The room he was in was a small round room, dimly lit with torches, with four pillars rising to the roof, the chain holding him up hanging from the roof between them. On the wall in front of him hung a number of evil looking tools, looking well maintained. He couldn¡¯t name what they were, but he knew what they were used for¡­ torture.

    His chains rattled loudly in the small room as he turned, surveying the whole room, and he could hear faint voices from somewhere outside the room, growing louder as the owners of the voices approached. He heard a key rattling in the lock and swung around to face the door, prepared to meet his captors.

    After the door had swung open Darian reared back in horror as two rotting corpses strode into the room. They paused in the doorway to watch as Darian struggled with his chains, tugging on them frantically as he attempted to pull them out of the roof. Darian knew if he was to die here, then he was going to go out fighting, and not slaughtered like cattle trussed up for a butcher. He also didn¡¯t fancy being tortured before they killed him, either.

    His struggles became even more desperate as they approached him, the reek of death and decay reaching him before they did. One of the rotting corpses reached for something at its waist and Darian closed his eyes, resigning himself to a short and painful future.

    A minute later nothing had happened and Darian frowned, opening his eyes. The undead duo were just standing there, looking at him, one holding what looked like a scrap of cloth in one hand. He had been expecting something, but not this, and it confused him. All the other undead he had come across so far had attacked him on sight, so why were these ones just standing there, doing nothing ? Then they did something that shocked him even more, they spoke.

    ¡°Yes, you did the right thing calling for me, Roland.¡± said the one on the left, the words sounding blurred like he was speaking through a mouth full of food. ¡°He will definitely want to see this one.¡±

    The other just nodded. ¡°He came in through the sewers, fair scared the crap out of me, it did, popping up unexpectedly while I was in the wine cellars. At first I thought he was one of those from outside, but one look at him purged that thought.¡± The speaker turned its opaque eyes towards Darian. ¡°Didn¡¯t think anything could come that way, I thought the barrier kept them out.¡±

    ¡°It does, but this one is different, it¡¯s not undead, its actually alive. Hood ¡®im Roland.¡±

    The one holding the cloth stepped forward and lifted it up, preparing to place it over Darians head, but he wasn¡¯t going to co-operate with whatever they were planning and lashed out with one foot, sending the one know as Roland staggering backwards. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you are, but either kill me or fuck off.¡± He snarled at them in a show of bravado. ¡°You¡¯re not taking me without a fight, I¡¯m not going to help you with whatever little sick game you have planned for me¡± and lashed out with another foot, this time missing both of them. ¡°I didn¡¯t sign up to be tortured.¡±

    They both retreated a step, keeping out of the range of his kicks. ¡°Calm down, sir, just calm down. I do not know where you came to this idea that we would torture you, we are not like¡­ those¡­ outside.¡± he spoke the last part in disgust. ¡°We do not stoop to torturing to gain information. We are only here to take you to one who wishes to speak to you.¡±

    ¡°Then release me,¡± demanded Darian, ¡°and I will come with you peacefully.¡±

    The unnamed one, obviously the one in charge, looked at him thoughtfully. It was a disgusting sight to Darian, and made his stomach churn, but he didn¡¯t let it show on his face. ¡°If I agree to this,¡± said the corpse ¡°then you would still be required to wear the hood.¡± On seeing the look Darian gave him at this statement it quickly held up its rotting hands and added ¡°For security reasons only, you have snuck in here like a thief, and we have no idea of your intentions. If you wish us to trust you, then you must first trust us. Put the hood on voluntarily and I will release you from your chains.¡±

    Darian eyes the speaker skeptically. ¡°Yeah, right, just trust you. How do I know you are no different to those outside, other than seeming a little smarter.¡±

    The one Darian had spoken top reared back in astonishment at this, then responded angrily, ¡±How dare you compare us to those creatures. We are free minded beings, they are feral creatures who¡¯s minds have been taken by the dead god Nekkir-Amon. It is his curse that leaves us looking like this, his curse that keeps us locked up in this place.¡±

    This tirade stunned Darian, but it hadn¡¯t finished. ¡°I take back my offer.¡± It turned its back to Darian and called out. ¡°Walfemor, enter and truss this ungrateful wretch up, but don¡¯t harm him.¡± and a small skeleton dressed in chain mail entered the room. It stood only four foot high and at first Darian thought it was a child, but the thickness of its bones, along with the remains of a beard attached to its skull wiped that thought away. Thus was the skeleton of a grown warrior, and a really small one at that.

    For its size, it was a quick little bugger and Darian only managed one kick in its direction before it had him wrapped up in chains and the hood pulled down over his head. He heard the chains holding his hands in place rattle as they were released and his arms fell lifelessly to his side, agony ripping through his shoulders.

    The bag over his head must have been taken from a kitchen, for it stank of onions, making his eyes water. He flinched as rough hands grabbed him by the arms, and then he was dragged from the room, stumbling along, hoping the hands guiding him would keep him from tripping, or walking into something.

    ¡°Steps.¡± Spoke a rough voice, and Darian lifted his feet, feeling for the step before continuing up, and wondering where the hell  they were taking him.