I looked at the notification in confusion as I reread what it said. "Experience? The hell? Why does something like that even ex-.... I guess i'm technically in hell or something so it doesn't really matter why it exists or how it exists... so yay me for earning experience??" I said to no one in particular as I finished putting on the leather armour from the skeleton. It was ful or holes and was very old. I also took the spear, which was surprisingly well maintained. Who would have known that a skeleton would take care of its weapon. "I also got this pouch filled with these weird coins. Wonder what I can buy with them? But for real though, the picture on them is weird"

I stared at one side of the coin, which had the skull of a dragon on it with its jaws wide open in a fierce pose with snakes wriggling out of its eye sockets. Looking at the picture made me feel creeped out, like it was actually staring back at me so I put the coin away. The coin itself was black but the dragon skull was white and the snakes were green with black eyes. "I just hope i can use this spear well enough to scare away any would-be murderers. I really don't want to get punted like back then." I shivered at the memory of the steroid ogres that punted me like a golf ball.

Leaving the building with my spear in tow, ready to stab anyone. I saw no one near so I continued my skulking down the street of this abandoned medieval town. I encountered another skeleton after a couple of minutes, but this one was standing near a dead body. I recognized this body as one of the people that was sent into the dreadlands with me. It was the bodybuilder who was supposedly weaker than a baby. I felt sick to my stomach when I realized he was dead but I didn't want to end up like him so I swallowed back my fear and nausea as I swiped my spear diagonally trying to destroy the skeletons head or chest area but ended up missing terribly and lopped the skeletons left arm off. Unfortunately it wasn't the arm holding the sword.

"God damn its a lot harder to use a spear than animes make it seem to be. This thing is so damn hard to u- Woah man watch where you're swinging that thing!" I stopped my rambling and scrambled backwards after nearly having my head cleaved off by the skeleton who didn't seem to care about my plight, but I could have sworn the blue flames in its eye sockets were mocking me. For some reason having a dead guy mocking me made me rather angry.

"I'll show you! Damn pile of rotting bones!" This time the skeletons blue flames started burning brighter, as if it was pissed off at me for calling it a pile of rotting bones. "Guess you don't like that huh? Pile of rotting bones! Haha!" I laughed at the skeleton, which seemed to anger it even further somehow as its attacks came at me far more fiercly than before. I barely dodged a swing that literally cleaved into a stone wall, embedding the sword into it and getting it stuck. The now disarmed skeleton looked at me as if this was my fault. I simply swung my spear as wildly as I could and got a lucky blow against its neck, severing its head from the rest of its body.

Aweful Spearmanship Level 1 gained!

....

"Why does it feel like this notification system is making fun of me for how I use my spear? I would like to see you use a spear for the first time and kill an undead skeleton in the same hour! Huh?! I thought so!" I was smirking at my victory of the noticiation system when I heard the sound of footsteps nearby. I quickly scrambled off towards a nearby building and hopped over the windowsill and hid inside.

A few seconds later I saw a group of several people armed with a mishmash of equipment. Some had swords, daggers, spears as well as random bits of armour. Someone had a dagger and a leather helmet, while another dude had an iron chainmail set with a sword. It was a pretty weird group. But they seemed to be looking for something, or someone.

"Hey, you said that screaming was coming from this way right? I don't see anything here other than a dead skeleton." said some guy off in the middle of the group. I then saw someone at the front, a person wielding a broadsword with a full set of leather armour, as well as iron gauntlets who I recognized as someone else sent into the dreadlands. He kept looking around with a sharp glare, and I felt like he found me numerous times. I don't know why but I really didn't want to be found by him. I also recognized a couple of other people from the group as being from the people that were sent into the dreadlands with me, but obviously couldn't remember all of the faces as there were thousands of people sent here.

They kept mumbling amongst themselves while looking for me when I heard the man wielding the broadsword, who was probably the leader, yell something. "Alright he probably killed the skeleton but had his friend here die in the fight, so he can't be that well armed. The other guy here looked like he was fighting with a dagger.so lets sweep the area for him and take out any undead while we move. Careful you don't run into any of those freakishly muscly ogre monsters. They killed over a dozen of the people in my previous group before we managed to kill it and escape with our lives." His warning seemed to have done its job as everyone shut up and looked far more alert than before as they scanned the surroundings.

They moved on away from where I was but I didn't leave until what felt like 15 minutes had passed. I was always terrible at keeping track of time so more time probably passed than that but whatever. I peeked out and saw no one was there, so I carefully hopped over the window sill, making sure to not make any noise as I did so. Once I was over I started to look around I kept moving at a brisk but silent pace for a couple of minutes as I walked down the street.

All of a sudden I felt something grab the back of my neck and drag me towards an alleyway. I tried screaming but felt a knife pressed against my neck so I quickly shut up. I then heard "Hey boss, you were right! He was still hiding out around here! I found him trying to escape after he thought we had left for good! The damn fool revealed himself so quickly." I then heard more footsteps quickly approaching our location. I didn't want to face the leader of the group because he scared me for some reason so I started to think in overdrive. 'Think Dane, how can I get out of this situation? Can I kick the guy? He'll end up slitting my throat if I do that. That's no good. What else? Cmon cmon the footsteps are getting closer.'

I was panicking more since the footsteps were nearly at us at this point. I made my decision at that point. "Screw it! I won't die anyways!" I decided to struggle as much as possible because I remembered the whole soul core deal and tried to make a break for it. The man holding me had a solid grip on my neck and refused to let go. He cut into my neck and I started to bleed quite a lot. It hurt like hell and I was feeling like I was drowning but I kept fighting. I almost made it out but the group came around the corner and I had another idea. I went limp and stopped struggling and acted as if I had died, because I looked like that to anyone else.

The dude holding me said "Aw shit....boss is going to be real pissed at me for this. Hey bro wake up! Cmon man the boss is approaching me! Cmon dude I know you're alive. Bro the boss is coming towards me and has his broadsword out!" I could hear the panic in his voice at this point and felt like giggling at his plight but couldn't. Both due to me pretending to be dead and the fact that I was still in extreme pain and could barely breath as my weird soul body started to regenerate the wound. I then heard the dude practically screaming in my ear."B-b-boss I swear it wasn't my fault! The dude simply struggled and wouldn't stop, cutting himself against my knife! I swear I didn't do it on purpose!" I heard the boss stop walking and I was dropped on the ground with a loud thud as the dude probably backed up away from the boss in an attempt to explain the situation and out of fear. I just hoped my wound didn't heal too fast for me to make a plan and escape.

I heard the deep voice of the boss from my left, "Didn't he heal his wounds like several other people we found? Several people are able to do that ressurection type thing at least once. He might be one of them" The boss then kicked me and I held in the scream I wanted to yell out due to the pain, although I wouldn't have been able to scream anyways. Damn asshole is going to pay for that, one way or another. I vowed to myself that I would get revenge somehow. but my thoughts were cut short as something stabbed my gut. I didn't scream out because my throat was still too damaged to make sound, but I sure as hell wanted to scream. I wanted to scream, cry or just plain make noise to get rid of the tearing pain in my gut. I couldn't think straight from the pain but I managed to not move my body and go into a fetal positon clutching my gut. That would show I was still alive, and I wanted to be as dead as possible if I wanted to live. That somehow seemed backwards but I didn't care at the time as I was in agonizing pain.

After what felt like hours but was probably only a minute the boss took my spear and the pouch from my pocket and said "Let's go, he has nothing else of value on him. The armour he's wearing is too damn full of holes but this spear is rather good. Jennie you take the spear for now and hand that piece of junk to some newbie." I then heard more talking and footsteps as they left. I waited for another minute or so until the footsteps were very far away before moving into action.

I clutched my now healed stomach and sat there holding it for another few minutes before the pain subsided. I then got up and hobbled away, now penniless and without a weapon, as well as in pain. "Freaking asshole stabbed my gut and just left me here in pain. Also what the hell did he mean by 'several other people'? Arn't they all able to come back to life using soul cores? Or are only some of them able to do that? If so why am I able to come to life so many times if most people are not even able to do that once." I kept mumbling to myself as I hobbled away in pain. What I didn't notice was the 2 horned figures on a rooftop staring down at me leaving the group. They kept staring with predatory eyes looking at prey, but I didn't notice any of this and obliviously let out complaints as I wobbled down the street and looked for a place to hide and recover.