Chương 3: GB - Chapter 3: Wielding Corpses And A Sword

Luke felt the mana flow out from him. It was warm, and felt like a caress, like a hug from a loved one. He also felt tired, as if he had started into a workout and was hitting a high point. He didn't have a hammering heart beating quickly in his chest, but a visual display that popped into the top-right corner of his vision told him exactly what was happening.

[Health: 100 / 100] [Mana: 23 / 84] [Stamina: 56 / 86] He watched with a grim curiosity and odd delight as he saw threads of a deep, dark silver shoot out from his fingertips, and attach to the corpse before him along key points—shoulders, hips, hands, feet, and forehead. The rest of the corpses in the area ceased their wiggling, and quiet fell across the whole chamber.

Luke didn't see any purple glow of the Necromancer's failed ritual permeating the space, so he assumed his theory was correct—his Corpse Retainer had sucked up the nearby energy. The body before him shuddered, and Luke could almost feel a twitch along the strings of silver connecting him and it.

"So how do I do this?" Luke muttered. He began pulling with his right hand—moving it over to his strings and tugging them. But, nothing happened. He lowered his hand, and watched the threads fade.

"Did it fail?" he wondered aloud. The eyes of the corpse shot open, and the irises were a deep, icy blue while the whites had gone black. It lay there, not moving, just blinking.

"Uhm, hi?" Luke said. It didn't respond. Right, he thought, Mindless Undead. He cleared his throat.

"Stand up, please?" Then he thought, Why did I say please? It can't care, it's an animated corpse… but still I… no, they're not people, not anymore. Still, the fact that he had reflexively added 'please' was a little spark of light in the darkness of his thoughts—he was still able to act like a person, even though he might not be considered one anymore by people he might come across. That was important: because he knew he was still, at his core, him—he respected others enough to give them proper courtesy.

The corpse pushed itself upright, and stood there. Luke felt a bit awkward at the moment, as he was never really a people person, and he was now looking at a once-dead person… now not-person.

"Get armor?" he said cautiously, pointing to the pile. The corpse walked over, and Luke saw a chunk of meat slide off of one leg. I should probably do something about that, Luke thought. He summoned up the Pale Flame Bolt and held the white-tinged-blue fire in his palm. Pointing his right hand at the Undead, the bolt zipped forward, splashed against its skin, and instead of igniting the clothing, the fire sucked into it. Flesh re-knit, and Luke let a little smile slip across his face. Got it.

I can heal Undead under my control. [Title: Raise What Remains.] [Quest Completed!] ["It is flesh and bone. What use do the dead have for it?"] [Reward Granted!] [I speak, and you may ask. Three times.] I have limited questions, he thought as a grin spread across his face. I need to make these count. But, this is the best person to ask for information I could've imagined. An actual deity. He cleared his throat, took a breath, and asked, "Who exactly are you?" [The Last Warden, the core of Death.] Luke's analytical brain took in all the information from earlier, added it to this new information, and he thought, the Necromancer mentioned someone called The Grave Tyrant. If this is the core identity, then the naming schema implies secondary or tertiary identities. Interpretations of the same god? Like how some people interpreted the teachings of deities back on Earth in different ways. It's my best guess right now, and I don't want to burn a question on something I can reason out.

The Undead Creature Luke had raised had finished dressing out in armor—a simple gambeson with chain mail, and then stood, staring at the wall. Luke said, "Get a weapon." The Undead reached out and grabbed a pole-axe. Luke put a hand to his chin, and could barely feel it there, despite the metal, articulated joints surely having to be cold.

"Next question: how many of these can I control?" [Command Display. One remains. Time grows short.] The best question he could come up with at the moment was, "Where am I?" [Artesthrak, the never-ending.]"Is that the name of the world? The region?" Silence answered.

"Fine then," Luke said as he looked at the Undead Creature. He raised his fingers and snapped them, and the gauntlets he was wearing made a loud clack at the motion.

"Hey, you, over here." The Undead Creature didn't move. More simple commands then, Luke thought.

"OK," he said, "Come." The Undead turned around and walked over to stand at attention in front of Luke. Good, Luke thought. Alright. Well, I have rewards I should be receiving. VITAE, can I get those— [Reward granted!] [Name: Black Guard 1.] [Power Type: Martial.] [Duration: Committed.] [Mana: 10.] [Stamina: 5.] [Effect: The user summons a shield, which can vary in size from buckler to tower. While active, reduce incoming damage by 1%.] [Rank Increase: Enduring Soul 2 - Reduce time to regenerate soul by 10 hours {990 hours}.] [Black Guard 2 - While active, reduce all damage taken by 2%.] [Corpse Retainer 2 - Increase Command Limit by +1] [You have leveled up!] [Levels 2, 3, and 4: Gain +2 Tenacity, +2 Essence, +1 Vigor, +1 Acuity, +3 Free Points.] [Please allocate your Free Points now...] Luke thought as he looked at the numbers flickering across his vision.

Well, based on that spread, Tenacity is really important, with Vigor, Essence, and Acuity right behind it. Given this body's propensity for martial combat and violence, I should probably go into those. I wonder what my current stat spread is pre-level up process? [That cannot be revealed.] The fact that the deity could read his thoughts didn't come as a surprise, but wasn't fully welcome, either. Still, Luke had no choice in the matter: he doubted he could shut out a literal deity.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Well then, I'll put two into Acuity, and one into Vigor. Hopefully, that's the right call: but I bet these four stats are some of my core ones. I just hope that I don't have a giant array to balance. I'm at a disadvantage, not knowing what each does. [Confirmed. Would you like to see your full status screen?]"Yes," Luke said aloud.

"Also, can you tell me what each stat does?"

Name: Luke Rivers. Class: Gravebound Knight 4 (Tier 0). Vigor: 16 - Measures physical force, melee damage, lifting and carry capacity, and overall physique. Instinct: 8 - Dictates the user's reflexes, speed, ability to evade strikes, and how rapidly they respond to danger. Tenacity: 18 - Shows how healthy an individual is, and relates to stamina, pain tolerance, endurance, and overall bodily resilience.

Acuity: 16 - The user's capacity to perceive, analyze input from external sources, aim with ranged weapons, and control of Arts. Essence: 16 - Encompasses mana, and the measure of a soul's power, including the pressure it may exude.

Health: 100 - Shows the user the amount of wounds present on their person. Mana: 96 - A source of energy for performing Arts with a magical inclination. Stamina: 96 - A source of energy for performing Arts with a physical inclination. Initiative: 24 - Oversees the user's reaction speed and response to dangerous encounters beginning. Focus: 32 - Manages the user's control over Mana-based Arts. Burden: 25 - Determines how much the user can carry.

Command: 33 - Dictates how many Undead the user can control without them running rampant.

Command Limit: 5 / 33 {Mindless Undead x1} Luke read all of the information and took it in over seconds. He wanted to understand the underlying formulas behind the numbers, and his mind crunched the numbers as he stared and calculated. As far as he could tell, Health was Tenacity-based, Mana was Essence-based, Stamina was some mix of Tenacity and Vigor, and Command was related to both Essence and Acuity, plus the Art increasing in rank.

But, his maths were interrupted as he heard a loud thud on the closed door in the hallway behind him.

The words of the god of death came back to his ears, and his message flickered across Luke's vision. [Title: Learn the Weight of Command.] [Trigger: Successfully raised a Mindless Undead with Corpse Retainer.] [Objective: Test basic undead commands, and destroy the untamed Undead.] [Reward: Level 5, Mindless Command efficiency improvement.] Luke glanced at his new silent companion and then shrugged. He pointed at the door being beaten.

"Open." His—for lack of a better, more polite term—minion, went over to the door, and used their weapon to hack away at the barricade. The axe side chopped into wood easily, and they broke through. The moment they did, a ghastly figure came through the door and attacked it. It was not flesh and sinew, but rather a bloody, red skeleton, with glowing, purple orbs where the eye sockets were, and still had bits and pieces of meat along its body that hung like strips of leather.

Luke's minion just stood there, as the skeleton's sharpened fingers that were more like claws raked across its armor.

"Do something!" Luke shouted. But his minion stood there.

"Attack!" That seemed to prompt action, as his minion brought the hammer side of the pole axe down in a vicious, crushing strike that caused the skeleton to buckle. Yes! OK, simple commands work for now, and I bet it has to do with what they used to do beforehand. This guy was a soldier of some type, so fighting is easy for it. The Necromancer mentioned something about intent earlier, when I held my head and he touched his temples. Maybe later on, these undead under my control will respond to my intent also.

Luke drew the sword on his hip and walked forward as the two Undead Creatures kept exchanging blows—the skeleton could not break through the armor, and the few strikes that did find flesh tore the chunks out, and thick blood flowed down over the body. Luke got up right behind his minion and said, "Fall back." It took a few steps back, still keeping its poleaxe engaged as it deflected a claw swipe, and Luke got enough space that he was able to swing the sword he held in two hands.

The strike was clumsy, unfocused, and he accidentally struck more of the wall than the skeleton. Still, the hit found its target, and his eyes went wide with shock as he crushed the shoulder and sent the skeleton sprawling to the ground. Holy fuck, he thought, I'm really strong. I wonder what average Vigor looks like in comparison to mine? Then, he saw more movement in the next room. It was rectangular and shallow, but had several corpses.

These ones were partially rotten, or fully skeletal, or still had bits of flesh like the skeleton that clawed at his greaves ineffectually. Instruments were strewn about that looked like they were meant to peel meat from bone. He pointed to the doorway, and said, "Guard." His minion moved forward and stood in the gap, swinging its poleaxe back and forth, and stymying whatever threats might be coming.

Luke brought his sword down onto the prone skeleton, trying to be more controlled, and shattered the other shoulder, leaving his downed assailant nothing but a torso and legs. Crouching down, he watched with grim fascination as it tried to bite him. What's making you work? He thought. Did my Art only deal with the Death energy in this room? Maybe the ritual leaked to the nearby chamber? He didn't know, but he had to know more about what tied the skeleton's body together, to understand the powers at play.

He could see faint threads of brackish-purple light connecting the bones at the joints, and understood. The Art, or mana, fuels it and binds them. Got it. He stabbed down through the skull, and the skeleton stopped moving. Looking up at his minion, he saw it was being attacked by several skeletons. The ten-foot-wide doorway was being held just fine, though, as his minion's heavy armor took the blows without issue. But, he was just sweeping his weapon side to side—not actually focusing on fighting.

"Fight!" Luke shouted. That changed it, as the former-holy-warrior began striking the skeletons. Actually, Luke thought, these aren't really threats. I should use this chance to test myself, the Arts I can use, and see how dangerous this world really is. I can self-heal if I get too injured. He took his left hand off of the sword hilt, and looked down at it.

So, how do I activate this Black Guard — The moment he thought of it, he felt the warmth in his chest again, but this time it flowed down to his arm, and instead of turning a silvery hue, it was a deep, pitch black that let no light escape. Then, he felt its heft, and holding his forearm up, saw it solidify into a heater-style shield design. Perfect, so I can do thought-activated Arts. I don't have to shout out what I'm doing. Handy. [Health: 100 / 100] [Mana: 18 / 86 {96}] [Stamina: 52 / 91 {96}] Huh.

I regained some Mana and Stamina since raising my new ally. Because I have Black Guard active, my maximum possible amount for both are reduced by the cost; 10 Mana, 5 Stamina. The squiggly brackets are my maximum, and then the regular digits are the current maximum based upon committed Arts. He held the shield up in front of him, and said, "Fall back," once more. His minion began moving backward, still keeping the skeletons back with sweeping strikes of the poleaxe.

Luke was able to get up next to him, then said, "Guard my rear!" and the minion pulled his poleaxe away and moved behind Luke. That opened Luke up to the five skeletons, who had taken glancing blows. They only had claws and teeth, and as they rushed forward to surround Luke in a frontal-facing arc, he raised his shield and caught the blows from his left, then swung wide with the sword.

He cut one in half at the waist with a clack and the top half fell to the floor but kept crawling to attack his legs, while the bottom half stayed still. The head is the weak spot to kill them, Luke thought. He felt more scratches against his armor and shield, then saw one pale hand dart into his vision. He felt it scrape across his cheek, and he felt pain—like getting a razor cut. He reflexively inhaled sharply, and lashed out with his sword in a lopping strike.

He wasn't a skilled fighter, but his foes were Mindless Undead, and seemed to have no care for tactics or using some fighting style. Luke knew he had a chance here, to let his Melee Familiarity (Blade) and Armor Familiarity have whatever time was needed to take their full effect. Every few seconds that passed, Luke felt more comfortable.

The armor wasn't as difficult to move in, and he could seemingly reflexively move in the right way to ensure an incoming strike would hit the most protected part of the scale-covered coat. His weapon swings became more sure as well, and he found himself hitting the mark consistently. He wasn't tiring, thirsty, hungry, or experiencing any real exertion.

He was taking little bits of damage here and there, but a quick Pale Flame Bolt which surged into his right, sword-wielding hand, and then immediately slipped back into him, kept him topped off. The activity was rote, and Luke kept fighting for what had to be at least five straight minutes. At that point, he stopped being injured, and began killing his foes. Or, re-killing, he supposed.

His sword swings found skull again and again, and when he had one skeletal foe remaining, he instead shoved his shield forward, and spent the next minute only fighting with the shield. I think I'm familiar enough, he thought. He twirled his bastard sword after a deflection and kept the blade firmly in his grip. With a quick thrust, he stabbed right through the skull, and dropped the foe. Its bones clattered to the ground, and Luke stayed put, listening for any more movement. But none reached his ears.

He took a breath and said, "I did it." Yet nothing more reached his ears. Well, Luke thought, at least I know that I can defend myself in this new life… unlife. He looked at the remains of the skeletons, and felt a stir of pride in his chest. He had done well against these things… once the familiarity kicked it, that is. Words began to fill his vision, and he heard the deity once more.