I once again headed into the tomb to find two lumbering zombies, endlessly repeating their dull routine. Before making headway, I decided I must practice and comprehend my combat skills. Getting by using only charisma and dialogue has its charms, but Spirit of Darkness was never that kind of game. If one wants to take down an ancient world-devouring demon, one can only communicate by sword.

I searched through my leather bag. A short while ago I made an important discovery: the bag is far larger on the inside than it is on the outside. Calvar called it a Bottomless Bag, an enchanted item commonly used by adventurers. Games always let you carry enormous amounts of loot on one's person, but it's rarely explicitly stated how that is accomplished. After digging around in the bag, I found the object I needed. The dusty skull looked disinterested.

"Say, is it okay if I practice my combat skills on Steve?" I ask.

"Who?" he asks.

"Steve. You know, him." I point at the lumbering zombie.

"Oh. Oh, Steve! Yeah, sure. Nobody is gonna miss a brain-dead zombie. What kind of loser would get attached to one of them?"

I'm never sure if Calvar is speaking seriously or facetiously. I stuffed him back into the bag and pulled out a dagger. Daggers were previously some of my least favorite weapons in SoD. Short range, bad damage, and they rarely stunned the enemy. Critical damage tended to be decent, but it never made up for the faults, leaving them practically useless. I could practice and get better with them, but that seems like a waste of my time in the long run.

I began thinking. This isn't really a game anymore. It's real life, right? I can do things here that I could never before. For example, previously each weapon only had one move-set. If a sword was made for slashing, you could only ever use it to slash. A game character simply didn't have the option of doing something that wasn't intended. This dagger in my hands, however, could do anything. I could slash, stab, poke, or even throw it. It's a dagger. But does it HAVE to be a dagger? Could I use it as something else?

Inspiration sparked through my head. I ran outside and began looking for ingredients on the forest floor. After several minutes I found somethings that worked: a long stick and some tough vines. I placed the dagger handle against the edge of the stick, and tied it together with the vines. It wasn't the best-made, but it held together well enough. I now possessed in my hands an haphazardly-made spear.

Spears, unlike daggers, were some of my favorite weapons. In a game where you needed to avoid getting damaged at all costs, range was king. If you could hit the enemy while they couldn't hit you back, you've already won. In addition, the poking attacks of spears were very effective at penetrating armor and tough hides which slashing tools had a difficult time with. Yes, out of the basic and easily available weapons, spears were often the safest and most optimal choice.

I confronted Steve the Zombie with my weapon in hand. I carefully crept up behind the creature and stabbed it in the back. In-game this would deal critical damage and knock the enemy to the floor, but here it had no such effect. Instead, the zombie finally acknowledged my presence. It chased after me with its hands outstretched, with surprising speed compared to the pace of its previous lumber. It was, however, far too dumb to deal with the superior range of my spear. I could easily maintain my distance and stab it continuously as it made its way closer. After a few minutes the accumulated damage crippled its ability to move. A few more pokes after, and it was done. It collapsed to the floor in a heap. As it did, I noticed a blue wisp escaping its body.

"Wow, you really made a mess of him! Poor bastard never saw it coming," the skull said.

"Calvar, there was some sort of blue wisp escaping just as it died. Do you know what that was?"

"Probably aether."

It's just as I thought. Aether was another name for experience points in Spirit of Darkness. In the lore, it represented life energy, or the soul of all living beings. The player could use aether to level up and make himself stronger. This meant I could defeat monsters and grow in strength, a very important fact! A problem remained, however, in that I have no idea how to level up. In the game all you had to do was access a menu and allocate your points. Needlessly to say, there are no menus here. If the action is possible, then there must be an alternate way of accessing it. I considered asking Calvar, but realized such a question is both pointless and possibly insane. He stated he was not an adventurer, so at most he would only have passing knowledge of the subject. And asking something like "hey, how do I access my stat menu?" would be ludicrous. I must at least maintain the pretense of being a normal inhabitant of this world.

I examined the body of the dead zombie. I began wondering how exactly it was made, and how it functioned. Did zombies have to eat? If they didn't, where did they get the energy to move? I did know one fellow undead, so I asked him for advice.

"Calvar, do you know these zombies are made?"

He dismissed the question.

"What, do I look like a necromancer to you?"

Thinking about it, the question had some merit.

"Actually, you kinda do. You almost look like a lich."

The skull chuckled.

"Me? A lich? You think far too highly of me. I you want to know necromancy, you need to speak to my master. He was truly a great wizard ahead of his time..."

The skull's eyes glistened with fondness. He truly appeared to hold this person in high regard.

"What happened to your master?"

"Oh. I have no clue. I've been trapped by that boulder for who knows how long, so I have no idea what happened to him. My last task to guard this tomb right here. At that time, there weren't even any zombies here! And the truth is, that's the main reason I wanted freedom. I wanted to go and find my master."

Calvar seemed to be making an appeal to me.

"So what you're saying is, that you want me to find your master?"

"Well, of course! You promised to act as my arms and legs, remember? In exchange for pulling my head off? Only after you find my master will our agreement finally complete. It's a vow between men, so I expect you to follow through!"

A spellcaster, and a necromancer on top that, would be a valuable resource. There was basic magic in Spirit of Darkness, but something as complex as necromancy was out of the player's hands. Being able to perform such sorcery myself sounded tantalizing. There was a small possibility it could be a trap, but it seems to be worth the risk. I should keep a watch out for this nebulous necromancer.

In the meanwhile, I decided to quench my curiosity by giving the zombie an amateur autopsy with my dagger. I am not a medical specialist by any means, but I took a few basic biology courses at school. The corpse was dried and effectively mummified, so it was much easier and less disgusting to dissect than something like frogs. There definitely seemed to be something off about the body, however. I quickly realized the problem and double checked that I had the right corpse

"Eh, Calvar?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you know Steve was a woman?"

"....what?"

"Yeah. I double checked and made sure I got the right body. This is definitely the one you called Steve."

The skull's face filled with sorrow.

"You mean, this whole time, I had TWO beautiful women all to myself instead of just one? Oh, how could I squander such a gift! If only I had known this years earlier, the things I could have done. I'm not sure you know, kid, but there's some things you can only do with three people!"

Unpleasant imagery floated into my mind. In any case, nothing useful arose from the autopsy.

The mysterious silver pendant, the fate of Calvar's master -- more mysteries are appearing before me. In the first place, I don't even know how I came into this world, or what this world has to do with Spirit of Darkness. Now that I had basic combat competence, I felt confident enough to pursue my goals. I decided to head outside and find some answers.