“I can’t believe I’m only 90.”

“I can’t believe I’m 62.”

“34… THIRTY FOUR!!! This is outrageous, my father will hear of this.”

The monsters all marvelled at their own numbers. There didn’t seem to be a single positive emotion. Arne wondered what number he had. It was incredibly interesting to him to know this.

Loko stood there. Completely still. Staring at the list, Arne walked up and slapped him on the back. He asked Loko what number he’d got. Loko was frozen. His eyes didn’t move.

“Are you mocking me? Can’t you read?” I’m 120.”

“That’s not too bad. You could be lower couldn’t you.”

Looking at him, Arne felt a mixture of anger and shock resinate from him. “No. It can’t get any worse than that. I’m at the bottom of the list.”

Loko’s head resigned, he stared at the floor. He stood there silently; unmovingly. He slowly sorrowed his way back to the dorm, he walked into a student on the way there.

“Sorry sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.” Loko’s head was stuck on the ground.

“Yeah you better be sorry, you lowly skeleton. Get out of my face before I beat the shit out of you.”

“Yes. Sorry.” Loko walked away.

He passed Oslo on the way there. Oslo seemed a lot cooler than before. He greeted Loko but got no response back, he noticed Arne staring at him and walked towards him.

“What’s up with him?”

“He got a low number apparently.” Arne said, Oslo turned around and noticed the list.

“Let’s see here. List of strength: One, Karn; two, Zen; three, Koslo… 118, Oslo, 119, Arne…”

Oslo stopped for a second. “Hahahah, I’m stronger than you mother fucker.” He punched Arne’s shoulder. Arne punched Oslo back, he punched Oslo’s shoulder back; and said, “Not for long you shit.”

“Well. Besides that. I learnt some more air magic. Wanna see?”

“Yeah sure,” Arne said.

“Look at this?” He made a ball of air appear in his hand, it disappeared after a short moment. “That’s so cool right?” He almost started jumping. His teeth cackled.

“I guess so, but wait, about the list. How did they get my name, and don’t we need to get stronger.”

“Well you got admitted to the school. Of course they know your name.”

“I got admitted?”

“Yeah of course. Did you think you could just walk in here?”

“I guess so.”

Arne pondered about that. Did someone admit him? Who?

“And about getting stronger. It’s easy. We just have to train harder I guess. Not more than that. Anyway. Have you borrowed a book yet?”

“Well about that. I have a little secret.”

“A secret?”.

Arne learned closer to Oslo, and whispered. “I can’t read.”

“Well shit. No books for you I guess.”

…

He returned to the crystals. This time he entered another crystal. He spawned on an endless battlefield. Corpses littered everywhere. From every direction possible monsters charged at him. He materialized his bow and shot them. A single shot and they disappeared.

“+1 Xp.”

“Bow mastery 39.1/1000”

He is another monster. It disappeared.There was different monsters, some huge, some smaller, some on two legs whilst others on four legs. The only thing they all had in common was that they disappeared with one shot.

“+1 Xp”

“Bow mastery 39.2/1000”

Suddenly, a large hammer collapsed on him. The scenario was restarted. He saw the monsters charging at him. He began shooting them. He shot two monsters before he got killed. He had to be more aware. He kept looking behind his shoulders, not to be surprised.

After an hour he gained.

“+10 stamina.”

“+4 perception.”

“+2 strength.”

“Bow mastery 50/1000”

His bow mastery no longer increased from shooting the monsters in that scenario. When he got out, he saw a student sweating and panting. His shiny forehead was covered in sweat. Arne realized that he couldn’t feel exhaustion. He could push himself to the limit, but he couldn’t feel exhausted. He was going to exploit this.

He entered another crystal. The crystal that allowed him to fight against a monster quicker then him. He found himself on the same platform as before. The white figure in front of him was a lot more slim. It rushed towards him. He punched, but before he knew it he received a kick to the ribcage and flew off limit.

The hallway was completely silent. There was nobody there. Arne laid on the floor. He was completely exhausted. He opened his status.

------

Status:

User: Arne

Race: Skeleton

Class: Shadow Archer

Level: 17

“Bow mastery 50/1000”

Speed:50

Strength: 50

Perception 50

Stamina: 50

Vitality: 1

Fearsome: 5

Xp: 130/300

Skills: Focus lvl. 1, Shadow circulation lvl 3.7 (passive), Shadow bow lvl 1

------

He had just reached 50 in speed, it seemed like the most difficult one to raise. His stats wouldn’t increase any further than 50. There was a cap. A window appeared in his sight.

“Limit has been reached.”

“Error!”

“#!”#!”¤! Kings lie in sleep#”!%!”%!”#”

“##!#! THe pig that smells dies¤”#!#!”

“Error!”

“Evolution for skeleton archers does not exist.”

“Does the user wish for the system to create it?”

“Yes, No.”

Arne mentally thought of yes.

“...”

“Evolution has been created.”

“Users must go to sleep for evolution to begin.”

Arne laid down for a while. He needed to ask how a skeletons energy system worked, this was causing him great confusion. He waited for a while, function came back to his body. He walked towards his dorm.

Oslo was already asleep. Loko was nowhere to be seen, Arne laid down on the bed and quickly fell asleep.