《Skeletal Rebirth》Chapter 2. He Who Seeks the Light
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A cold chill permeated through the air, an unnatural cold that seemed to devour the slightest bit of heat. The frozen spectacle that was in front of him was undoubtedly the cause for the hungering chill. Dumbfounded, not knowing if the thing in front of him was a reality, or just an illusion he had conjured before death. The skeletal monster before him began to turn his head and soon, it was looking right into his own eyes. He sensed no hostility from those blue glowing orbs instead, he felt relief. The obsidian skeleton began to face the liches, it grabbed the blade of it's sword then-- "BOOM." A loud crackle of thunder consumed the silence, the obsidian skeleton was standing still, in his hand was a sword clad in lightning. It immediately kicked off the ground and flew straight at the liches, brandishing the lightning sword, little sparks of lightning began to appear and flicker following the trace of the sword swing. The sparks began to grow, and after reaching the size of fist, burst into ethereal blades of lightning shooting in the direction of one of the liches. Unable to dodge the lightning fast blades, one of the seven liches were instantly vaporized by the shear heat of the swords. The more the skeleton swung its sword, the more flickering apparitions appeared. The liches had begun to chant in unison, gathering mana to fight back against the obsidian skeleton. By the time they cast their spell, two more of the flesh-less mages had burst into a brilliant light after being slew by the unending dancing blades. The sight was unbelievable, gliding around the glacial swords while displaying such dignified swordplay, one would not be able to describe the scene in front of it. The glowing swords of lightning dancing in the air seeking their target, the orbs and sparks of lightning flickering endlessly, and the frozen field shimmering due to the magnificent lights floating above it. Only minutes had passed when the glorious spectacle had ending, mesmerized by the power of the obsidian skeleton, the group of adventurers remained still as their mouths hung open. The skeleton turned to face the veteran warrior and began to walk towards him. He knew that if they were to fight, he along with his group would be completely decimated. Knowing this, he should have felt some sort of fear as he watched to obsidian skeleton walking to him and yet. The longer he looked into the blue lights were its eyes should be the more he felt calm like, the skeleton in front of him not monster. The answer finally hit him, the reason he didn't fear this entity was because it felt human. Looking at the skeleton and pondering his sudden realization, the being in front of him had opened his mouth and with words not fitting of a skeleton it greeted them. "Good-evening, or is it morning? You really can't quite tell in this place but I digress, the name is Argus and if you'd be so kind. Can you tell me as to where exactly this place is?" Staring at the skeleton with eyes wide and mouth ajar, the veteran warrior composed himself and began to speaking to the undead anomaly.
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After my battle against the liches, I turned to speak to the person that looked to be in charge. To my surprise, he didn't seem to hold any hostility towards me at all. With that in mind I spoke to him in my up most friendliest tone, "Good-evening, or is it morning? You really can't quite tell in this place but I digress, the name is Argus and if you'd be so kind. Can you tell me as to where exactly this place is?" He looked at me completely stupefied but quickly readjusted himself, he then started to introduce himself. The veteran warrior identified himself as Zerok Medvella, the leader of the adventurer group known as Lobo Sword. He then answered my question as to where this place was, Graverot Marsh. Once know for being an elven forest, it became contaminated by death when a human kingdom had dispatched an army to exterminate the elves and harvest the trees. The amount of death was enough to give birth to a dark miasma which plagued the dying forest even more, eventually the miasma began producing dark mana which started raising the grudged filled dead from their graves. After digesting the information I had received, Zerok started to ask questions regarding me and my ability to handle magic so skillfully. Thinking about if I should reveal who I was in depth I decided to answer, "Well like I said earlier, my name is Argus and as you can see, I'm a skeleton. As for my ability to use magic well, I guess I didn't lose my touch after dying. It's not like I gained these abilities after turning into an undead in fact, it seems like I've lost the ability to use certain magics." The man looked at me with utter confusion and explained that the ability to manipulate mana was lost centuries ago, and that the only way to use magic was by using a mana infused crystal. Shocked by this sudden news I asked about the mages he had in the back that were able to cast spells, his response was that they all had mana crystals embedded on there staffs and wands. I then questioned him about the liches, he told me that monsters that can use magic were usually created or effected by mana in some way. In the liches case, they were skeletal monsters that took in a large amount of dark mana and thus were able to use magic without a mana crystal. The only thing I could come up with was that fact that after I had died, that somewhere in time, the study of magic was either forbidden due to fear of creating a strong mage, or lost and forgotten due to something wiping out most of the mages. Maybe a war that spread across the world had broken out, or maybe there was an order to expunge all mages, either way, it seems like most people in the world now aren't able to freely manipulate mana. "Only if I had known this before I want out and starting casting spells left and right. They might try to capture me and send me to some magic academy for experimentation." While I was trying to think up a plan of escape, Zerok had begun to thank me for saving him and his group, he then told me about why he was here and how he felt something weird was going on. I internally agreed with him about the fact that something was definitely happening in this swamp, the group of liches were the proof of that. I asked him if liches usually attack in groups, but he quickly informed me that it takes a large amount of dark mana to even create one lich let alone seven. I could see worry etched on his face. Even though he accepted the request to survey Graverot Marsh, he wasn't stupid enough to risk him and his group to die for some coin. Soon after thinking it over he thanked me again and bid me farewell, he then turned to his group and began telling them that to gather everything and start heading back to town. "Smart choice" I thought to myself as I watched the group of adventurers quickly taking apart their base. Luckily for them, no undead skeletons attacked while they were busy deconstructing everything and without any hindrances, the group called Lobo Sword was swiftly exiting the rotting marsh.
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Alone again with only my thoughts, I decided to take a look around Graverot Marsh. With my knew found knowledge of the current world, I decided that I probably shouldn't leave the swamp until I had a solid plan. Lucky for me, being an undead meant that I wouldn't be attacked by the other skeletal monsters as long as I didn't attack them first. Knowing this, I was glad that I didn't have to worry about being attacked every step I took. After walking about a couple hours or maybe more, I can across a small house that was standing next to a surprisingly large tree. Interested in the change of scenery I began to make my way towards the singular house only to be drawn in by some sort of magical light. Slowly getting closer to the house, I could now make out what looked to be a bright pale green light floating in the middle of the house. "What could this light be that seems to call out to me?" Thinking about the light that seemed to draw me in, I found myself at the door of the house. Reaching to open the rotting door I heard the whispers of an unknown man. "Those damned liches still haven't came back! With the amount I sent there shouldn't be any problems, Did they perhaps know that this was a trap? Damn it all! All that work setting up a request and getting a decent group for nothing. No I shouldn't be to rash, Maybe they just put up more of a fight then calculated. I should go and check to see, I might even have to kill them myself." After the man had finished speaking, steps could be heard quickly approaching the door. Standing still face to face with the man, he let out a loud yell. "GAH! What in the hells?" He quickly stumbled back a couple steps and continued to speaking "What the hell is this? Some new species of undead? Hmmm, I can't seem to feel any hostility from it. Maybe I should try to control it." The man brought up his arm along with what looked to be a lantern, but instead of a normal light, the color light was that of a pale green, and what swirled around the center of the light was that of the souls of the dead.
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