Awakening (5)
A white light radiated between a gap of bandages. The skeleton was a bit uncomfortable, it had grown a new head...
Underneath the skull was still there but wrapped in bandages. Mr. Skeleton looked to the walls and was in a very to escape with its belongings.
When it wanted to move, suddenly it felt a warping sensation and its body had moved forward a couple of meters in the blink of an eye.
It could see through the maze walls as well! The skeleton dashed through the walls in split seconds. However, it couldn't warp out the entire tomb, meaning there was a distance limit.
The skeleton wasn't intelligent enough to recognize this, it simply teleported through walls looking to ensure its survival...
Once it traveled through a wall and stepped on a pressure plate. A ball of sure came launching at it!
The skeleton couldn't react in time however strangely the skeleton felt a weird sensation. The bandages floated and separated from each other.
Its body felt both separated and yet... Together. With this ability, it managed to escape unharmed from the ball of fire.
-Vwarp!
-Vwarp!
-Crack!
It kept on spamming its new ability. It wasn't true spamming, there was a cooldown and it crashed into a wall expecting to warp through.
-Rumble!
-Rumble!
The skeleton finally saw the opening it came in from, it managed to reach it with little trouble except for avoiding the rubble falling and accidentally stepping on pressure plates.
-Rumble!
The tomb was beginning to sink into the sand, like the titanic. The skeleton was now safe and watched as the tomb began to sink in on itself...
The skeleton deep down was a bit downcast, it saw a tonne of shiny things it wanted to collect but alas the shiny things are gone.
If it could, the skeleton would have sighed. For now, it just took time to remember the location coordinates.
Its not as if the skeleton gained nothing from this. The skeleton learned some rudimentary archaeology, geography, puzzle-solving capabilities, linguistics, and the urge for knowledge.
It had the knowledge and desire but was lacking the fundamental ability of understanding.
Like an incomplete A.I it had some of its code sorted and even feelings, cannot fundamentally learn on its own without taking from others...
Not that it would know this, of course, it was just busy... existing.
-Rattle
And so with sack and spear in hand, it sets off!
Walking through the white desert that contrasted with its ebony bones. It rattled away for hours until it reached... a border.
The skeleton was confused it looked like how flat Earthers would believe you fall from the edge of the earth. There was an invisible barrier it couldn't cross.
Its new ability was unable to breach that border. So for now it gave up to look at this abyss. Purely nothing just... Darkness.
The skeleton experienced that weird feeling if when you stare into the abyss it stares back at you. But it didn't reject it... Since it was new.
It got distracted but it knew that it still preferred the night sky. All those shiny things in the sky were just *chefs kiss* to the skeleton.
So it took a 180-degree turn however it heard an interesting sound.
-Vwarp!
Like the sound, of its teleportation its goblin ears could pick up most sounds in a kilometer if it focused...
It teleported shirt distance multiple times, with haste! It wanted to see what existence was doing something it recognized.
...
"Lily come on! We've finally reached the 6th floor!"
A young average looking man appeared from an oval-shaped portal. He was wearing a suit of what looks to be leather armor with a cloak on top and a few extra accessories.
He sheathed a sword on his waist.
Behind him was a cute girl in a similar age range. With maroon hair and purple eyes, she wore a much more witch-like dress, with a black robe and pointed hat.
She was panting and had some green goo on her body. With a staff in hand. She leaned on her knees panting roughly.
She punched the guy in the shoulder,
"Ow! Why'd you do that?!"
"Pant, pant, it's because... Pant... You have no consideration for us mages... At all!"
She glared at the boy, who laughed awkwardly in response...
"Anyways... It's really like the boss said huh? It's almost beautiful in a way..."
The girl, Lily, spoke as she admired the desert and its night sky.
"Pfft, this is probably nothing. I hear the higher floors are way~ better."
Lily just shook her head,
"Percy you seriously... Sigh."
She smiled kindly at this boy's passion to climb these "floors" if there would be one thing she admired it's this...
...
Mr. Skeleton slowly approached and could now see the creatures that entered from a portal.
It tried to listen and understand what they were saying, it could only remember a few words it learned.
"&$## &-#($..."
"`|¶∆#;° £ @*+'-#."
It was mostly gibberish but there were words it got. Floors, moon, mages it could recognize and so it felt a kinship.
...And how did this skeleton treat its
"siblings" before? Well let's say... all that milk calcium didn't save them.
-Rattle
-Rattle
The humans looked at this skeleton with horrific gazes. However, they're pretty experienced and recognized the danger quickly.
The skeleton was weirded out by the energies coming out of the two of them. Its bright white eye saw an aura on the boy's body, and a colourful hue emanating from the girl's staff.
The creatures it had met so far had not had this feature. It felt danger but you know what's better than danger?
Shiny stuff!
The skeleton teleported in front of the boy after placing down its valuables, not including the spear. The boy's sword got pulled out of its sheath and swung for the head.
Much to his fear, it hit thin air. The girl was there as a backup and the sand around them began to warp into 5 swords in the air.
-clank
2 made contact with the spear, one missed and 2 pierced its leg. However, without a brain, its nerves received no pain.
-Vwarp!
Appearing behind the girl it stabbed the spear forward.
-Clank
Stopped by a sword the two smirked at each other, and the sword charged with blazing red colour, while the staff an ocean blue.
The boy learned from his mistake and didn't aim for the head instead aiming to cut at its spine.
The skeleton managed to protect itself with the spear, however surprisingly cracked in half!
The sword swung and...
-Crack
Its spine broke but it didn't split its density was much greater than expected... But the onslaught didn't stop the girl launched a blue-coloured attack that crackled menacingly.
-Boom!
The skeleton was hit! It disappeared from their view... Completely erased.
The two watched the smoke disappear and its body was gone!
Only a few of its ribs remained in the ground.
...
'We did it! We got the... The thing!'
Lily was excited out of her mind their teamwork saved them. The creature could teleport, split its head, use a spear decently, move agilely with great strength, and had a high defense.
Percy was shocked out of his mind at all the abilities the creature had. There were no reports of such a thing. He'd report it to the boss...
"W-we did it!"
Percy turned around excitedly to look at Lily she had a bright expression. Feeling the same feeling he was...
-Srcch!
-Stab!
-Drip, drip
From behind Lily, a black hand pierced her chest. She looked down and up, towards pierce. She mouthed quietly with her mouth full of blood,
'I'm sorry, I lo-'
She dropped to the ground, after having her skull crushed from behind. Percy began hyperventilating,
'What just happened?'
He knew what happened... They grew arrogant. They completed the previous floor after so long and were now here. They got cocky and thought they'd get something for discovering a new monster.
But would he admit that? No! It's the monster's fault! Why did a new monster have to appear? Why did it have such a powerful move set? Why, why, why, why, why...
He was frozen in place, and this nightmare just took a turn for the worse. The bandages unfurled and a black skeleton skull was revealed.
Its singular white eye, and one that was abyssal black.
It was morphing... Growing fair skin, growing locks of maroon hair...
It was Lily.
"You... What are you?"
There was no answer just a cold look on the girl's face. Slowly approaching him. It was taller than him. Its hand slowly pierced his chest.
He stood stunned, unable to process anything. He looked at the creature in front of him and looked at its face.
It now had one eye shining a bright white light, and one a nostalgic purple. It had traces of... Sadness? Emptiness? Who knows!
"You!! I will kill you! ... Aghhhhhh!"
He was powering up with a red colour aura around him,
"I'm taking you down with me!"
The skeleton seemed to understand? It shook its head and raised another hand. It transformed into bandages and it stuffed it down his throat.
He choked, the suffocation distracted him from his goal, and his eyes rolled to the back of his head till he... Let out his last breath.
The skeleton smiled with a sad expression in its eyes, while it was now growing muscle tissue in its torso area it looked at the message in front of it.
[...Welcome you are now a new species with access to...
The origin]
***
Serus was currently pulling on a cart filled with all sorts of valuables. He told everyone the direction of the city and so they followed behind.
It took a couple of hours and even the sun had completely set. Revealing a crescent moon.
They were all silent the kids were either carried on people's backs, or some laid on the carts.
Once the fires had gone out, the groups had gone down to collect tusks of all shapes and sizes. They were pretty valuable to guilds and merchants, they also took the swords, spears, and staves for the same reason...
"Serus, you okay?"
Scarlet approached and asked, she had a very relieved but still cautious face. Some of these people were afraid of even the slightest sounds.
"Hmm? Oh, Scarlet yeah I'm fine..."
Scarlet didn't really believe him as his eyes were red from tears. He had puss and scratches all over his skin. Clearly in pain but keeping silent.
"Alright, if you say so... So tell me about yourself."
"...Sure."
Serus narrated his experience in a long-winded manner, he stretched the part about losing parts of his memories, talked about having adventured, and that he's an orphan.
"Wow... So you lost some of your memories. Do you know how it happened?"
"Not really, I just woke up in a forest with blurry memories of being robbed and such. To be honest I've been having a bit of an existential crisis haha~"
"Whistle~ sounds rough buddy..."
"Enough about myself tell me about your job before all this... Happened."
"It would be my pleasure..."
...
"Everyone we've reached!"
-Woohoo!
-Yeah!
There were cries of celebration and sadness. They slowly approached the gate. Serus was surprised to see street lamps.
A large, grizzly man came from behind the walls that protected the city.
"Halt! Who are all of you? Why do you come to Sherria?"
Scarlet and a few others in tears explained their situation. She winked back towards everyone when they were clear to enter after inspection.
"Sigh we need to report all of you to the mayor here he will be the one to take care of you for safety.
I trust all you to stay put, for tonight we'll put you up in an inn.
-Thank you!
The kids and women were all very grateful for the city's generosity and smiles were slowly starting to appear on their faces.
Serus had a small smile on his face, to which he felt a nudge.
"Heh~ you are finally smiling!"
It was Scarlet who said in a teasing voice.
"W-what?!"
Serus was not expecting to suddenly be talked to
"You've been down the whole time I've seen you so it's good to see you smile. You have NOTHING to feel guilty for.
If you didn't appear today, a majority of us would have died. We are all thankful, you were the spark we needed to have our justice."
Serus solemnly smiled,
"Haha~ maybe your right..."
"Hey, you want to join us for dinner. The mayor is willing to pay for tonight's dinner."
All of them were in a large but cheap-looking inn currently, called "Sherria's scent". It was warm and the owners, a middle-aged couple, were preparing a feast for them.
"No... I don't think so... sorry. I just want to rest for now."
Scarlet pouted but then sighed,
"Oh how sad, you know a few of us are going to get drunk who knows what could happen~?"
The people were all sitting on rows of tables, not in the happiest of moods but more relaxed than they've been in a long while...
Serus wasn't so dense to see the image of women getting drunk, lonely, depressed, and looking for a light in their lives. Serus wasn't the type to exploit those feelings though...
"Sigh sorry, I see what you're getting at but I'm going to hit the sack."
"Hmph! Fine, but you'll regret it~."
...
"Haah... That was exhauuusting..."
Serus lay on a small but decent bed. He looked up at the ceiling in a daze thinking about today. Despite its... Ups and downs. He was feeling optimistic.
He was in a new world, and he couldn't remember the more feeling aspects of Earth. Things about family, friends, and the like were non-existent.
He went to take a basic shower with a bucket and faucet to wash off the remaining dirt and grime on him.
-Shhhhhh~
-Creak~
His door was unlocked and a silhouette walked in...