I sat next to Yolanda’s body and stared at her blue eyes. “I’m useless.” I zoned out and looked at BlightFangs body which twitched and continued to spill out blood like some kind of twisted fountain. The blinking box in the lower right-hand corner of my vision became increasingly irritating. I let out a deep sigh. “Allow notifications.” An overwhelming surge of system notifications filled my vision.

‘Congratulations! You have slain Blightfang’

“You mean Yolanda has slain Blightfang.” I retorted back to the unfeeling voice.”

‘Quest Failed: Rescue the Priestess!’

My heart sank into my stomach. “Yeah, I know.”

‘Level up! Character Level 8 acquired. You have unspent skill points.’

‘Apprentice Necromancy 1 Acquired’

I can’t believe this happened. I looked at the soul of light that I still clenched in my hand. How was I supposed to know her damn blood would do this. I was this close to saving her, and not only is my friend dead but now I am stuck as a goddamn necromancer. I know a bit about necromancers from other games, but I would have never picked to play as one. Turning the dead into zombies is creepy as hell, not to mention they are usually bad guys in every game or story.

‘New Necromancy spell learned: Animate dead: Target humanoid corpse is raised as the casters servant in the form of a zombie or skeleton depending on the level of bodily decay. Cast time 5s, mana usage 100.

Fun, just like I thought. Everyone loves necromancers! “Oh hey guys, just ignore these flesh-eating zombies following me around. Hey, I see that your son died; mind if I make him into my undead minion?” This is a bad joke.

I looked at the corpse of my dead friend and tried to hold back my anger and frustration. About to cry, I jabbed myself in the stomach. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself!” There is no way in hell this world doesn’t have a revival mechanic. I just need to find a high-level healer or item of some kind. I’ll just bring Yolanda back! I looked at Blightfangs oozing corpse. “I’ll come back for your loot later, you oversized shit.”

Now the most important question; what to do with Yolanda’s body? I can’t leave her here, or the rats will eat her. IF you can revive someone in this world, I’m sure they require the body not to be chewed up and disgested. Could I possibly carry her out of the cave?

Bending over, I took Yolanda’s arms and, after several tries of wrestling with the dead weight, pulled her onto my back. Once stable, I took a step; suddenly, intense pain began shooting up my leg until I couldn’t bear it anymore and fell over. “Dammit!”

I guess my legs aren’t quite healed enough to carry her. So I can’t carry her, and I can’t leave her here; that leaves just one option.

“Please forgive me for what I am about to do.”

As I re-read the spell I was planning to cast, a question wormed its way into my mind. Do NPC’s have souls? I mean, It’s entirely possible that using animate dead could make her un-revivable. Her soul, if she has one, maybe destroyed in the process. At the same time, turning Yolanda into a zombie could potentially keep her soul or AI or whatever makes Yolanda who she is attached to her body. I doubt the game would keep the data lying around indefinitely; Regardless, this is my only option.

I looked at her sweet soft face and tried to think of anything else I could do. Anything to avoid turning my friend into a damn zombie. Unforchanetly nothing came to mind.

“Animate Dead.”

Green tendrils of my mana poured into her. The body shook and twitched; every convolution made my heart sink deeper and deeper into my stomach. Suddenly her eyes opened wide; her soft blue eyes were now grey and glossed over. Her skin went from pure white to the color of ash. A slight moan escaped her dry lips. “Yolanda?” I asked, somewhat hopeful I would get a response. But she just stood there. My heart sank even deeper; I took a deep breath as I pushed my emotions down as far as I could.

“Follow me.”

We walked for twenty minutes in the dark cave; the only light was a bioluminescent moss that grew on the cave walls. I wished I could summon Romeo, but the Animate Dead spell had drained all my mana; I didn’t even have enough for a Magic Missle. It was a terrifying thing to be alone in the dark with no way to defend myself. But, Finally, I saw the light in the distance.

All thoughts left my head as I ran as fast as I could to the smell of fresh air. The cave walls getting tighter and tighter as I ran until a hole only large enough to squeeze through separated me from the outside world.

“No goddamn way.” I stood outside the cave entrance, looking out at the very same river I had hunted bog ducks at on my first day. Trees and plants may have well concealed it, but I can’t believe I never found it. I cast my glance to Yolanda standing in the entranceway, unable to muster the motor skills to squeeze through the cave. “Stay here.” If I brought her to town, it would raise a lot of questions. Questions I was not ready to answer.

I walked the path back to town. The warm afternoon sun made me feel a bit better, but it also did a fantastic job at reminding me I was soaking wet and covered in blood. Every step I took, I felt the water sloshing around in my boots and the blood drying on my face.

“Almost back, Grey, almost back.”

As the town came into view, I saw the familiar sight of merchants operating their storefronts and children playing in the streets. Just the sounds coming from the starting village eased my sadness. I smiled for the first time in what felt like years.

“Where is she!”

I came out of my happy trance to see the village chief, Alnod, aggressively approaching me. He wore a set of old plate mail armor and held his massive club. Veins rippled out of his dark red face as he bent over to get eye level with me. “Where be my daughter Adventurer!” His thick Scottish accent made his words even more fierce. I assume he meant Yolanda; I mean, who else could he be talking about? But they didn’t look anything alike. Maybe she was adopted?

I looked him in the eyes, trying to think of what to say. Do I tell him the truth? How will he react when I tell him I turned her undead? I thought about every lie I could possibly tell him but mentally regretted them all. How can I lie to a father whose daughter I defiled; what kind of monster would I be. “Alnod, please sit down; ill tell you everything.”

I recapped the night’s events, from finding the note up to Yolanda’s demise by BlightFang. I recounted the fantastic display of magic she threw at the beast, not leaving out one detail of bravery. He just sat silently with his head in his hands.

“How long?” he said. I just looked at him, unsure of what he meant. “Grey, how long has she been dead?”

“A few hours. But why does that…”

“Then it’s too late.” He looked down, sinking his head into his hands. “If I had gotten to her within the hour, I could have saved her.”

“Why an hour?” I asked the grieving father. He looked at me, a hint of annoyance buried in his sadness.

“It takes one hour for the soul to leave this world; after that, you cannot bring it back again. A few know the technique to bind a soul to this world. Certain spells and magic items have this power. But after the soul leaves this plane, it is pointless.”

The giant man began to weep, massive tears falling from his face. But what he said gave me hope.

“Alnod, you said that if the soul is bound to this world, you can still resurrect someone, correct?”

He glanced up at me and gave me a slight nod. “I need to tell you the rest of what happened.”

Grabbing me with his bear-like hands, the ferocious man thrust me into a tree, knocking all air from my body. I prepared myself for death, But then, without saying anything, he put me down. His face was empty; he adopted the same facial expression I had up to this point, dead inside.

He starred off into the distance, his expression blank for a long while. But then, something seemed to dawn on him, his expression turning panicked. He grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me in close; he then looked around as if he was about to tell me a secret.

“Listen to me, laddie; your actions were immoral and rash; by god, I want to burry you in a ten-foot hole. But ye may have given me daughter a chance. Listen closely; an old friend of mine goes by the name of Ghen. He can bring my daughter back; I’ve seen him do it before. Find Ghen my boy, and you save Yolanda.

“Where is he? Why is he the only one who can save her?”

“Resurrecting the dead is one thing, but resurrecting the UN-dead is a complete other story. Only a healer of the highest power can conjure the spell. But fret not my boy, as long as Yolanda is whole, she will be saveable. Ghen is a mysterious man; last I heard, he was commanding a group of mages at the border to the east.”

“Wait, if her soul is still attached to her body, can’t we just bind her soul with that magic item or spell you talked about?”

Arnold looked at me, eyes so wide I thought they might fall out. “Necromanery is unholy taboo magic. Only the highest level of holy mage will be powerful enough to cleanse the victim’s tainted soul. You didn’t just bind my daughter’s soul Grey; you poisoned it.”

Just then, all the emotion I buried inside of myself exploded outward. Unable to control myself, I threw my body into Alnod, spilling tears and snot onto his beautiful armor. I waited for him to throw me off, but instead, the giant man wrapped his arms around me in an embrace. I have no idea the last time anyone hugged me. Maybe my babysitter when I was young? All I knew was this fatherly hug caused my sadness to disappear. After a few minutes of rusting Alnod’s armor, I regained my composure and smiled at the giant knight. “I’ll do it. I’ll save your daughter.”

“That’s the spirit.” The man’s eyes lit up; a surge of happiness grew in him, matching mine. “One more thing, lad. Archbishop Maxwell must be avoided at all costs. He leads the order that trained Yolanda. You must not let anyone know what you have done, or he will come for you. It’s also possible they already know what happened and are on the way to get you now.”

Alnod then pulled a small badge out of his pocket. An upward arrow with two crosses shooting out diagonally from the center was engraved into it. “If you see this symbol, run, laddy. The Light-Oath Paladins can detect dark magic; they will kill you.” I stared at the badge, memorizing the symbol depicted.

“Thank you, Alnod. I promise to make this right.” He patted me on the back and, without saying a word, walked away toward the river.

‘Quest received: The Chief’s Daughter. Find a healer capable of resurrecting Yolanda 0/1.’

Making my way through town, I came to the church once again. My health had been going up slightly, and so had my mana, but I still wasn’t fully recovered. But the thing that bugged me the most was how tired I was. I opened up the double doors and walked to the back of the church. I know I shouldn’t need it, but all I could think about was sleep. I took off my wet clothing and entered what I could only describe as the deepest sleep I have ever had.

I awoke to the sound of a rooster’s cry. I know I shouldn’t need to sleep, but damn, I am glad I did. The new day and goodnight sleep filled my body with a fiery determination. I grabbed my almost unwearable clothing and slipped them on. “Guess I’m going clothes shopping today,” I said, chuckling. After that, I’m off on my adventure; I’m going to revive my friend and, most importantly, enjoy the damn game.

I looked in the cracked mirror and smiled; first thing is first, I’m no help to anyone if I’m weak. I pulled up the skill point store and searched around for what I could buy. There was a fair amount of new skills available to purchase, most of which seemed to stem from me being a necromancer now. I scrolled through the skills until one caught my eye.

‘Lich’s Disciple, Unlocked by being the first player to discover and obtain the necromancer class. Description: The one who will conquer death.

I had been mad about this necromancer class and wanted nothing more than never to use magic again. Unforchetly for me, my inner gamer took over. It cost all my hard-earned skill points, but I bought it nonetheless. “I can’t pass up on a skill only I can get, right?”

‘ALERT: Converting all arcane magic.’

‘Apprentice necromancer 7 acquired.’

‘Magic missile has been replaced with Blight Bolt.’

‘Mana Chains has been replaced with Bone shackles’

‘Arcane talent has been replaced with Necromancer Talent’

Well, shit, those look like some upgrades. I took a minute to scan through my new spells. Bone Shackles was interesting because now, in addition to hindering movement, They also drained the enemy’s health and transferred it to me. Undoubtedly impressive, but the most significant change was the Blight Bolt spell. ‘Send a sphere of necrotic energy at a target, applies poison, decay, and rot.’ Magic missile had only cost 10 mana to cast, but Blight Bolt costs a whopping 45 to cast, and that was with the reduction from the necromancer talent. Reading the description it was easy to see why. Blight Bolt poisoned the enemy and caused something called rot and decay. I will have to test out my new arsenal today to see what they do.

I got my things together and left out the door of the church. Just then, something caught my attention; In all my excitement, I hadn’t noticed a blinking message notification. I opened it up.

‘Message from S7-1.’

I sighed. “Again? Why cant they fuck off. It’s literally in my contract that they wouldn’t contact us. Don’t make me call my half-elf lawyer!” I chuckled and began reading.

‘This message is for subjects 1-03, 1-07, and 1-09.

Good Evening, this is director Frank Mattis. We have come to an alarming discovery, the subjects who expired did not have a compatibility issue with the game. After reading the in-game reports, it has come to light that the deceased test subjects passed away after dying in Realm of Fantasy Online.

It is our theory that the Gamepod cannot process the unique way the game handles respawning. The brain of the deceased test subject were subject to massive hemorrhaging after they respawned in the game. We apologize for this inconvenience. On a happier note, we are pleased to inform you that we will not be canceling the project, and we will not remove you from the game. Good luck, and enjoy your new lives.

From,

-Director Frank Mattis.