I sighed down at the fast decay of the body before us, and could do nothing, but watch and hope I would be able to find something once the poison ran its course. This would last for another ten minutes, or so, and the basilisk's poison left almost nothing. What was available, however, were a few tarnished rings and a small sack that jingled with a few coins. Curious, I tore opened the sack, and poured a few silver and copper coins into my large, clawed hand. They were too small, even for one such as I.

Squatting low to the ground, I lifted the rings one by one, but could not identify them. It seems I would need others' help, if I needed more information. Which was true, and I would need help with understanding this world, but for now I needed to leave. However, after killing this female, I gained more knowledge in the form of spells. Two spells allowed me to become a human and half wood elf, half human, but I believed I should just stick to being a human, especially if there are others like the party from before. The other spells consisted of two damage over time spells, one that could remove minor enchantments, several buffs, and one fear spell. There was another spell among my repertoire, and that one allowed me to return to the gilded chair I was sitting in when the party walked through the doors.

Moving the chair didn't seem to bother the spell, as I would always appear right where it was at every cast of the spell. It would be useful if I needed a quick escape. There was one spell that I had since coming to this world, and was called ">". Whatever I was holding, gripping, or touching would increase in durability, and I did so to myself and the living armour, whose name was Zabartik. Unfortunately, it seems that spells also meant the floor I tread upon, for it became increasingly harder with each cast of the spell. I only noticed this because my feet, which would always leave indents in the rotting wood, only scratched it.

This made me curious, and I plied multiple layers of the spell on myself, and had Zabartik strike my open palm as hard as it could. Not only did its punch only create minute hairline fractures on my open palm, but it bent its mailed fist into a flat surface. For now, though, we went searching the rooms of the cathedral. I had to crawl to get inside a few of them, a couple I could only look into, and the rest had an opening large enough for me to squat down and enter like a gorilla. There were a few gold coins in a pile here and there, a few stray gemstones, but what made me truly giddy was armour for what looked like a large riding beast. There were spikes along its sides, and even two larger ones along its forehead. What was truly amazing, though, was that it looked to be old armour for a six-legged horse. It was strange, but I was curious.

Pointing a finger at Zabartik, I said, ">." The living armour collapsed into a heap of old armour, to which I moved over to the other one and intoned, ">," upon it. Once more, silver mist flowed freely from my body, weakening it further, as it claimed both sets of armour. Both seemed to flow, stretch, and grow together, as the magick worked with my mind to create something new. Once finished, the creature before me was something of a replica of my skeleton form, but on a smaller scale. It peered up at me, but to my surprise, it fell over and became pieces once more.

Of course I was disappointed, so I intoned the spell once more, and once more, Zabartik stood at attention next to me. "We need a cart," I muttered, looking at the pieces of discarded armour. When I turned to peer at my pet/minion, however, I noticed it was gone. Curious, I went searching for it, and found it pushing what looked to be a large two wheeled wheelbarrow, with great difficulty, into the cathedral's main hall. Even though I wanted to question where it got the barrow, I would not received an answer. Shrugging my shoulders, I motioned it to follow, as we went about looting what we could find.

Sure, there were traps and puzzles to figure out, but the traps could not pierce Zabartik's shield, nor was I in the mood to figure out the puzzles. So, like any good undead, I would smash my way through them. Sometimes, however, I would be rewarded with singed bones, as fire and holy magicks would rain down upon us. These sorts of traps could do very little towards me, as I had already strengthened myself with several shield spells prior to doing this.

At one point, we found a trapdoor that led us to a small tomb, and I had to slowly pry the opening larger to allow my frame enough room to enter. Inside the tomb was a lonely coffin with unknown letterings along the side. Unfortunately for me, however, was the fact that the coffin was empty. It was possible some idiot released a terrible curse, or simply looted it of all its valuables. Well, no matter. Turning my back on the coffin, I noticed a small chest to the right of the trapdoor. I did not take much stock in the trap, and was surprised there was none, when I opened the chest to reveal a faded black and gold robe.

I had Zabartik lift it up, because I was afraid it would disintegrate once I touched it. Looking at it at that time, I felt a residue of some sort of spell woven into its threads. It didn't feel vile, or even holy. No, it was more neutral, and I longed to try it on. Once I started longing for it, I remembered my illusion spell that could turn me human. I stood tall, placed my hands upon my breast bone, and said, ">." Silver mist flowed out of my hands, wrapping my body tightly, and I could feel my second set of arms flowing into my own body. It wasn't at all pleasant, but it didn't hurt. No, instead it tickled a bit.

Within my inner mind, the Human I shaped was that of an old, muscular male. Upon the head was a long, silver mane of hair, with a curly silver beard that stretched down to the center of its chest. The face that was not covered in hair was rugged, but had the same old lines showing him to be past his prime. The eyes, though still an emerald green despite my trying to change them to an iron grey, looked tired and unamused at the world. It was safe to say that the eyes had seen the world in its entirety, and was bored of it. The body of the human had lean muscles, depicting a more wiry tone of a body, than that of an overly muscular brute. Because I did not have much of a libido in my own world, I chose it to be of average size, and let it hang limply.

Once done, my skeletal body began to shrink down so that this new body could accommodate my skeleton. Truth be told, having a new body, after somewhat getting used to the giant skeleton, was still strange. Gone was the extra pair of arms and tail, and now I was stuck with a regular, frail, human body once more. I sighed and stretched in this new form for a time, and actually felt cold for the first time since coming here. It was a strange feeling, to be sure, and I had trouble pinpointing this in the beginning.

However, my purpose for doing this was so that I may try on the faded robes, and try them on I did. The fabric was soft, and I felt comfortable enough to close my eyes and just sleep for an age or three. However, I could not sleep, and began to move about carefully. There were a pair of old boots in the bottom on the chest, and I found out, after carefully applying the shielding spell to them several times over, they were quite comfortable to wear. There was also one other item in the chest, which was an old, dirty leather backpack. Upon opening the pack, however, I noticed that I could not see the bottom. It was rather strange, even for one such as myself. I who could perfectly see in the dark, could not see the bottom of the inside of the bag.

Well, no matter. If the bag was what I believed it to be, then moving the treasures and artifacts would become less of a hassle. "Come, Zabartik," I called to the living armour, "Let us make haste, and leave this place. I fear more will swarm this cathedral, and I do not wish to perish after arriving so soon." With that, we left the ancient cathedral, and stepped into an unknown world.

___________________

AN: As always, folks, leave a comment on whether or not you like it, or have a question thus far.