"You better explain what is going on around here," Shio said, his voice deep and threatening. He stomped his feet onto the ground as he stood up from the pedestal he was lying on. The girl immediately backed away from him while holding one of her hands up; her face filled with fear.

"Y-Your Highness, please… Let me explain," the girl said before once more bowing down to the ground.

The way the girl act confused Shio at first, but then it hit him. There was supposed to be a new event that would differ between players as it took into account your Karma, Race, etc. And… that's it. That was the only official information ever given out about the event. The rest of the information he got was mostly speculations and rumors floating around the forums online.

Maybe this is the prologue of it? Seeing how I started at a tomb and an NPC telling me about being asleep for a hundred years, I think it would make sense for my character.

"Alright," Shio said as he sat back down. He wondered how the event would be, whether it would be a multiplayer experience or a single-player one. Though he was disappointed to revert back to his Zombie avatar. It looked cool, but the Skeleton was just much better.

The girl returned to her previous kneeling stance and started telling him the story.

Inertia, as everyone called it, was mostly populated by humans. Any other race that wasn't a pure human was looked down on and treated like an inferior being. But it wasn't always like that. The world used to be more peaceful, with little to no discrimination against other races.

It was the creation of The Holy Kingdom that started the chaos.

The Gods and Goddess that guided the Holy Kingdom, beings of unknown origin and possessed tremendous power, believed that creatures other than pure human was an abomination. They decreed for the erasure or domination of race other than pure humans. Hence, The Holy Kingdom started its holy crusade.

Many joined The Holy Kingdom. They either agreed with the ideology behind it or feared what the Gods and Goddess were capable of. But not all was lost. Some bravely rejected The Holy Kingdom and joined the other side of the war. The Crusaders against the Union.

For a while, things looked bleak for the Unions. The Holy Kingdom was expanding fast, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop them.

At least, until a particular Necromancer appeared.

Necromancy was a forbidden teaching that only a handful of races accepted. Most of its users were either Demon or Undead. With an undead army numbering almost three times the humans and high-tier spells rivaling the Gods and Goddess themselves, the Skeleton Necromancer was a formidable foe. He took control of the Union and turned the tide of war.

Where did he come from? And how did he learn so much about dark magic? No one knew. It was as if he appeared out of thin air to answer the Union's prayer for salvation.

Many of the Necromancer's followers believed that he was the one ruler of both the living world and the afterlife. Those people decided to stay loyal to him in the hope they would gain immortality themselves. Others supported him at first. But when some of them saw how he treated innocent humans, they started to doubt him. They felt that he was not the savior they wanted. They didn't want to win the war; they wanted peace between humans and other races.

A rebellion started to brew among the Necromancer's followers. They started planning on how to stop the Necromancer from becoming a tyrant. And at the same time, end the war to usher back in a peaceful time between humans and other races and creatures.

Their plan came to fruition quite soon after.

At one assault to a human city, the Necromancer King oversee the operation himself. The rebels took this as a golden opportunity and contacted the humans. In return for helping them end the Necromancer King, they would end their crusade. And thus, when the time came, the Necromancer King found himself surrounded from all sides. Both by the rebels and by the Gods and Goddess with their army.

The battle was later on named The Fall. Not only because the Necromancer King was defeated, but also by how many lives were taken that day. However, even though he was defeated, his energy proved too strong for the humans to destroy. Not even the Gods were capable of erasing him. Holy people from all across the world came to purify him, to weaken him so he could be destroyed. But all they achieved was turning him from a Skeleton into an Undead Zombie.

His power was much weaker in that form. So while the humans weren't able to destroy him, they managed to seal them away, to be forgotten by time. The weakened Holy Kingdom became dormant, but there was no telling when they would start another crusade.

"That is what the story my mother told me… And I believe you're the Necromancer King, Master," the girl finally finished what he thought was the prologue or the origin story of his.

That explains my zombie form. It was said that skeleton form allows the user to manipulate dark energy better for some reason. I wonder how my guildmates' stories would be. They all have different combinations. Would it change depending on what they are?

He made a mental note to ask his guildmates for their stories. For now, though, he must focus and enjoy his own story.

"I see. What is your name?" Shio asked.

"I-It's Lula, my lord," she answered with her eyes glued to the stone floor. When he looked at her closely, he realized a tail with a heart's shape flailing around behind her.

A succubus, huh?

"I have slept for too long," Shio stood up before continuing, "Lula the Succubus, I thank you for awakening me from my eternal slumber. I must take back my rightful place in the world, and you are going to help me."

"O-of course, my lord!" Lula kneeled down. "I, Lula the Succubus, pledge my utmost loyalty to you."

He nodded with satisfaction. However, there was one problem that bothered him ever since Inertia was mentioned. Assuming that since the world had a different name, it was also a different world from the game he played. That meant he knew jack shit of the world.

"Unfortunately, I am still weak for the time being…" Shio said with a weak voice as he sat back down. "I need time to regain my power, but I also don't want to waste any time."

"What do you propose, master?"

"Lula, I want you to get as many books as possible about the world for me. And if you can, bring me some men. That I can experiment on," he added the last part in a hurry as he realized what he just said sounded weird without the explanation.

She is a succubus, so it wouldn't be a problem, right?

Being a succubus, gathering some random men for him would be an easy feat. After all, one of their primary skill was seducing men to do their bidding.

"As you wish, my lord," Lula stood up, bowed, then rushed up the stair.

Now, let's check what I have.

By saying the word menu in his mind, a screen appeared in front of him. There were stats, inventory, spells, and notes. Of course, he would check spells first as it piqued his interest the most. By pressing the button, the screen changed to show only three spells.

Raise Undead (Basic), Spell Duplication, Heat of Death.

The only spell he recognized was the Raise Undead (Basic) one, while the other two sounded new to him. Luckily, he could check the description for each spell.

Raise Undead (Basic) was, of course, creating an undead zombie, ranging from level 1-10. It took a little bit of mana if a corpse was used and would take a considerable amount of mana if created from nothing.

Spell Duplication seems to be like the ninja's class copycat technique, though it worked differently from him. By placing his hand on someone's head, he could duplicate spells the person know that he hadn't learned. It has a high possibility of killing or making targets deranged if they resist or had a low mentality, except for the Undead and Demon race.

Lastly, Heat of Death. It sounded similar to the Wizards' fireball spell. Only this one was much smaller, weaker, and in the color of black. What made it special was that the flame will keep going until he ordered it to die out. But it would take mana for as long as the fire existed.

Hm… the three spells seem pretty good. Maybe I can try the duplication spell on Lula since succubus are Demon, and she won't resist me. Hopefully…

Closing the spells screen, Shio returned to the main menu. He continued by checking inventory. He didn't have anything, and thus the screen that popped up was entirely blank. It also showed what he wore, which was a simple brown traveler cloak.

Seems like those bastard humans didn't make me look good when sealing me. Shio internally cursed.

Next on the list were stats. Character attributes were divided into core stat and side stat.

Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Intelligence (INT), Agility (AGI), Perception (PER), Vitality (VIT) fall to the core category.

Resilience (RES), Aptitude (APT), Wisdom (WIS), Perception (PER), Mentality (MNT), Stamina (STM), and Luck (LUK) fall to the side stats category.

A glance at his stats was enough to see that most of his points were placed on Intelligence, Wisdom, Mentality, and Perception. The leftover points were divided almost equally among the rest of the stats. A little curse escaped his lips as his carefully placed stats also didn't carry over.

The last one was called notes. It seemed to store any information Shio received. It already had a note with the title Origin Story, which was probably Lula's story earlier. Other than that, there was a bar to search for information based on keywords, which would be very helpful later down the line when he filled it more.

A couple of hours passed. Shio mostly spent reading his origin story or cast the spell Heat of Death to the wall and watched the flame burn for a second before putting it out. When he heard the sound of footsteps coming from the stair, he immediately assumed an intimidating stance.

"M-Master! I have brought everything that you asked!" Lula excitedly reported as she rushed down the stair.

On her back was a brown backpack that seemed to be filled to the brim. And following behind the girl were five ordinary-looking men with a blank stare. They were definitely under Lula's charm, ready to do anything that she told them to.

"Good. Place the books on the pedestal; I want to experiment with these people first," Shi stood up and walked to the five men.

Lula nodded. She put the bag down beside the pedestal and started putting everything inside out on the pedestal.

CRACK

Lula almost dropped the book in her hand when she heard the loud cracking sound. She snapped around to find one of the men fell to the ground; his windpipe crushed. Shio stood before the man, looking at his bare palm. Even with his low STR, he still could break a human's neck if he put all of his strength behind it.

Focusing on his mind, Shio cast the raise undead spell on the dead body. A dark mist appeared from the ground around the body. It encased the body for a couple of seconds before entering the body through all orifices. The man's skin slowly turned greyish, and his pupils turned red, just like Shio was. Slowly but surely, the man stood back up, his neck seemingly in good condition.

Without seeing any screen, he could know all of the zombie stats and abilities. The thought just popped up in his head. The zombie was Lv. 3, which was pretty low, in his opinion.

Ah well, I can try it again.

On the next guy, he used his spell duplication first. He didn't get any new spell, but it instantly killed the man since the guy just fell to the ground after Shio used the magic on him.

He raised him as a zombie.

It was Lv.6 this time. He did it once more to the next guy and ended up with an Lv. 4. He was starting to notice a pattern. The zombie level depended on the corpse it was raised from. The first and last zombie was created from the corpse with a normal-sized body, while the middle one was created by a more bulky man. That would be interesting if it was true. The level was randomized in the game, so this spell wasn't a reliable way to get strong zombies.

Continuing on the fourth man, he cast Heat of Death. The man doesn't react since he was still under Lulya's control. But the fire worked. It made quick work of the man's clothes before starting to burn the man alive. The flame burned the man into crisp, and not even once the man reacted to it.

Weirdly enough, he felt a little guilty after doing all that. He knew they were just NPCs, but he still felt guilty.

I mean, these guys were just minding their business when Lulya kidnap them. Some of them probably have a family waiting for them at home.

He dismissed that idea immediately. They were NPCs; they don't have a feeling. He enjoyed the game so much in the first place because he wasn't bound to society's morals. He could do anything he desired, as long as he had the skill to back it up.

Another thought popped up. Zombies were half-human and half-undead, so a higher intelligence zombie could sympathize with humans. He made a mental note about this, as sympathy in humans could cause trouble for him in the future. This also made him more determined to get back to his skeleton form as soon as possible.

With the last man, he just cracked his neck and turned him into another Lv.4 zombie.

"Master! The books are ready!" Lula exclaimed as she turned around toward Shio.

"Is there any book there about the location around here?" Shio asked while walking toward the pedestal where rows of books could be placed on top.

"I think there is a book filled with a map. I thought it would be useful."

"Good intuition," he patted her head before sitting back on the pedestal.

She looked down. Her face was as red as a tomato. She didn't expect she would be getting praises from the Necromancer King himself.

"You four. I want you to patrol the area, make sure to let me know if anyone approaches. And drag that filthy charcoal out of my tomb," Shio ordered the zombies. He didn't know why he called them by words since he was telepathically connected to them. He just did it in reflex.

Looks more charming that way, I guess.

The zombies shuffled their way out of the tomb, dragging the burnt corpse along with them.

"Lula, could you get me more men? But make sure they won't be missed. We can't draw attention to ourselves yet."

"Of course!" Lula bowed energetically. She vowed to herself she would keep making her new Master proud of her. The succubus rushed up the stair.

With the zombies and Lula away, the tomb felt more spacious and quiet. Kei started reading the stacks of books provided by Lula to learn more about the new game world.