A Necromancer's One Weakness
Mei Lian slowly opened her eyes and let out a small groan as she could feel every part of her body aching.
Goddamn… it hurt so much…
The sun had long vanished from the sky and now the only source of light came from the faint moonbeams which penetrated the holes in the temple's roof.
She glanced at her right arm and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the wound had already been bandaged.
Wait… what?
Mei Lian heard a faint rustling noise, so she quickly turned to face the direction where the sound had come from.
There in the corner of the hall was a woman dressed in a pale white gown.
Her feet floated a few inches off the ground and her body was wrapped in heavy iron chains that clinked softly with every mournful movement.
The woman's face was hauntingly beautiful yet there was one significant flaw.
Two empty sockets stared forward, bottomless holes that wept with thin trails of shadow-like ink that vanished before hitting the ground.
(Oh? You… can see me? You truly are one of his most talented descendants)
(I wonder if you will survive meeting his other heirs… hehehe! I look forward to the fun!)
A gentle melodic voice echoed in Mei Lian's mind as the ghostly woman floated over and placed her pale hand on her forehead.
(Don't worry sweetheart… as long as you don't tell… I was never here)
Playful giggles echoed through the empty hall before the specter disappeared as if she was a mere figment of Mei Lian's imagination.
Mei Lian bowed her head towards the location where the ghost woman had vanished and whispered a quiet word of thanks.
She didn't know who that mystery NPC was, but it wouldn't hurt to have a powerful ghost ally.
Now she just had to figure out what to do next…
The tutorial quest had finished but there were no markers or indicators on where she should go to find the next objective.
And there was a bigger concern in Mei Lian's mind.
It seemed like an impossible thought but… this place… it seemed too life-like.
Yes, the status window existed but everything else felt as though it was part of reality.
She had been in this game now for several hours and it was unlikely that her brother would have left her in this world for so long.
And virtual reality helmets only had enough battery life for three hours at best so even if he didn't, the power should have turned off thus bringing her back to the real world.
"Is this a dream? An afterlife? Have I been teleported to an alternate world?" Mei Lian asked a series of questions out loud and received no reply.
She gently touched the bandaged wound on her right arm and recoiled in pain. The blood that soaked the bandage was thick, dark and still warm.
It was not an image. She could feel the real sticky wetness and the dull jolts of pain.
This was… real.
"But the game was on a website… this was just a tutorial quest…" Mei Lian trembled violently as she felt an overwhelming wave of panic mixed with guilt.
Mei Lian felt her heartbeat quicken as her eyes darted at the corpse of the bald-headed bandit who still hung lifelessly upon the bone spear.
The bone spear had struck clean through his chest, splitting bone and flesh with unnatural precision.
He was dead. No one could survive a blow like that.
The truth was before her eyes and yet she still clung to denial like a drowning man clutching desperately at a life float.
If this was real, then she… she… she had killed those men.
Mei Lian put a hand to her mouth and fought the urge to vomit as the weight of what she had done finally crashed against her mind.
They were not good people, but did that make it right that she had murdered them?
In the stories that she had read as a child, killing the bad guys was something that every hero did.
But she didn't feel empowered, righteous or heroic… she felt dirty as if a stain now clung itself to her soul that she could not erase.
She had killed them.
She had killed them.
She had killed them…
Mei Lian got up and ran towards the exit of the hall as every single corpse in the room seemed to face her with their eyes accusing her of being a murderer.
She ran outside the hall and past the rooms of the temple that were decaying and had been left to ruin.
She kept running and running until her feet touched the grass outside the temple.
Outside the temple was a green, suffocating wilderness where nature had long since reclaimed dominance.
Towering trees, their barks gnarled rose high above with their branches interwoven like a cathedral roof, blotting out parts of the night sky.
Mei Lian looked upwards at the sky and saw two bright moons surrounded by a sea of stars.
She slumped to the ground and felt the cold breeze brush gently across her face.
Was it even possible to return home?
"Log out… log out… log me out…" Mei Lian muttered hopelessly as if somehow this time she would receive a response from the wall of text.
Nothing.
The status window did not reply to her pleads.
She was on her own.
Alone in this strange world with an injured right arm and a body that was badly bruised from a fight with bandits from the tutorial.
Mei Lian did not even want to imagine what kind enemies she would have to face in the future.
Now that she knew that this was a real world… would she be able to kill them?
The residents of this world weren't NPCs; they were people made of flesh and blood. People with families, children, loved ones...
"Status Window," Mei Lian chanted quietly.
[Summoned One: Mei Lian]
[Necromancer Level Two] [Novice Apostle]
[Abilities]
[Bone Spear] [Blackened Soul]
She looked at the golden text for a brief moment before letting out a light sigh.
There was only one faint hope left.
Maybe she wasn't the only player transported to this game world. If she could find other players then hopefully, they could team up and figure out how to get out of this place.
There was a barely maintained path leading north from the temple so with no other option, Mei Lian decided to move forward.
The forest was not silent, and Mei Lian could hear the sounds of leaves rustling along with roars and cries made some kind of large animal or creatures.
She wrapped her arms around her body as the cold continued to enter bones. Her black gown may be fashionable, but it did a really shitty job at keeping her warm.
The path was little more than a dirt road so Mei Lian had to constantly look down to make sure that she wasn't going off track.
If she got lost in this forest, she would be truly screwed.
Maybe ancient humans could handle living in the wilderness but for a modern city girl who mainly spent her days working in an office or watching internet videos…
She felt way out of her depth.
Mei Lian had no way of tracking the time but felt as though she had been walking for at least a couple of hours.
Her legs and feet were starting to hurt and the wound on her right arm had reopened so droplets of blood trickled down her body.
Suddenly a low, wet growl erupted from a nearby bush which caused Mei Lian to immediately put up her guard.
The undergrowth ahead twitched and then burst open with a sudden thrashing of branches and snapping twigs.
It wasn't a wolf… it was something far worse…
A giant rat, the size of a large dog lunged from the shadows on grotesque misshapen limbs that seemed too long for its frame.
Its eyes were beady and glowed with a faint crimson hue that shone in the darkness.
Patches of flesh hung loosely from its sharp canines.
It was clear that the monster had been feeding well… and often.
Mei Lian stumbled back in panic and raised her left hand. She could feel the death energy inside her body begging to be unleashed.
"Bone Spear!" Mei Lian yelled frantically pointing her fingers at…
At…
At…
Fuck.
There were no corpses nearby.