Rotten and fetid smells greeted June as the flash of the teleportation faded. The pair stood in the middle of a dusty cavern carved from stone and earth, some kind of burial chamber. Dirt walls peeked out from behind crumbling stonework as roots burst from the soil. June stood atop a raised stone dais with runes faintly glowing across its surface. Around the platform was a mix of different stone sarcophagi. Some were broken open, falling to pieces, others remained sealed. Dust and cobwebs coated the walls and floors. Blue flames burned within rusted braziers in the corner of this chamber. The light cast from the braziers bathed the scene in a dim glow as shadows danced on the walls.

The dwarf turned to June and spoke softly. “Before we get started, let’s talk about a few things. For one, might want to check your level, you’re going to need some better stats. Then, that gem. You need to absorb that,” said Bullin as he pointed to the small glittering gemstone in June’s hand. She checked her progress, seeing she had gained a few more levels. She picked her levels and spent her points as best she saw fit. She invested her Attribute Points, but decided to split her Class Points. June dumped seven points into her offensive class skill, saving the other seven for later. There was an instance of power flowing through her bones, as she felt like her body was hardening, growing stronger.

Name

June Vallentra

Race

Undead (Skeleton)

Magical Offense Defense Crafting Arcane Prowess Tier 2

Death Magic Tier 2

Fire Magic Tier 1 One-Handed Weapons Tier 1 Physical Resistance Tier 1 Level: Total: 4 (Summoner Tier 1) Class Points: 7 Attribute Points: 0 Magic Affinities Combat Affinities

Death Magic (Racial)

Strength

Endurance

Agility

12

12

15

Willpower

Intelligence

14

18

Passive Perks

Active Perks

Mana Sense

N/A

With that finished, she pondered the blue skill gem. As she remembered the black jewel she had received, June held it to her Class Gem, and nothing happened.

A laugh escaped Bullin’s lips before he instructed June, “Not like that. You need to force your essence into it to activate it. Be prepared though, stuff gets weird with these things.”

As they stepped off of the dais, June settled into a seated meditation position to one side of the room. She followed Bullin’s directions, forcing the mana to flow out of her core and into the glittering blue gem. As it did, June could hear faint whispers. At first, she thought of the death mana whispers, but this time, they formed into words.

“Little dead thing,” a taunting voice sang over and over in her mind. Then, a pair of fiery eyes appeared within the blue jewel, followed by a pair of arms, then legs. As if formed by the jewel itself, a face formed atop a small burning body. As the flesh formed, the color of a dying fire, ash hardened over it like stone—a tiny creature formed in the dust. A minuscule orange crack in its ashen face spread into a demented, gleeful smile. Its first words came amid hisses and pops, “A little boney thing...”

This living ember couldn’t be taller than June’s knees at full height, “Who are you calling little, short stack?”

As the living fire looked up at her, it snapped back. “A little fire in your belly. I like you boney one. They call me Kotor, and I guess you can too.” said the newborn Fire Imp in a sing-song voice.

“I’m June, and you should call me that, not anything else,” June said as the tried to project a feeling of anger.

A smoke-filled laugh echoed from the ember-thing’s mouth. “I’ll do that once you prove yourself.”

“Well, this is some bullshit,” June thought bitterly. “Guess this is something else I’ll have to figure out on my own,” June cast a sideways glance at Bullin.

In the instant she looked away, the tiny imp scampered off deeper into the chamber, skipping across the stones. “Free!” It shouted as it went. The scamp charged off through an opening in the wall, into the shadow.

Thoroughly through with this bit of nonsense, June walked after it. “I’m going to drown you, you little freak...” June thought as she began to charge after the rambunctious minion. Before she could catch up with it, the imp came running back.

“Bad bones! Big bad!” shouted the imp as it ran past June, hiding behind her legs like a child.

“What good are you, seriously?” She thought as she crept forward, drawing her sword from its sheath. The imp followed carefully behind her.

June stalked into the next chamber. More blue light spilled from braziers. In the walls of the stone chamber, amid a mess of bones and skulls, multiple broken caskets sat in crypts. As she crossed the threshold through an archway, the cracking of bones could be heard to her left. Whipping her head towards the noise, she saw a skeletal hand reaching out of a casket tucked against the opposite wall. Stones were knocked loose from the walls around the undead as it rolled out of its hole. The bones of the creature tumbled out in a heap onto the rocky floor. A skull rolled out onto the pile, turning to face June. With a clatter and a clank, the bones formed themselves into a human shape. The rusted sword in its hand dragged against the ground, as the dead thing struggled to lift it. Crimson eyes burned like floating embers in the dark.

As June braced for its attack, she fired Mana Sense. While she traced the Death Mana swirling around its form, June followed the wisps to its center, echoing the advice from Varren.

Enemy: Skeleton Tomb Guard Level 5 Stats Unknown

As she watched, energy played on the opposing skeleton’s blade. Mana danced across its edge, pooling like dew, with a shimmering moonlight edge. In an instant, the undead warrior charged. The battle began between the two skeletons with a scream of steel. Swords rose and fell in blue light, slicing through the darkness with flashes of mana. Her foe’s strikes were almost lazy. June easily deflected them as she retreated out of its range. June pushed Mana into her own blade. Lightning arced around her feet, crackling like an angry fire. Their battle was cold butchery, ruthless. Amid the echoing silence of the tomb, bone and steel impacted, leaving behind smoke and fragments. Like ice, bones melted. June stood over the heap, content with her victory.

And then another clatter came to life behind her. June focused her mana once more. Forming a Fire Bolt with her offhand. Focused, she scanned for the threat. Embers floated in the shade, watching. June fell back toward the lazy blue light near the brazier. Her grey scale vision worked better there. As she waited, more clatters came. One...two...three pairs of crimson eyes prowled the darkness.

A flurry of spells flew from her hand, extinguishing one pair. Before she could focus her magic on another target, the rusted blades came swinging at her torso. With a thud and a crunch, one blow connected, sending her off-balance, bouncing off the wall to her left. June rolled away from the next blow, keeping tight to the stone wall. A Hex lashed out into the darkness, towards the closest pair of eyes. Dull globs of energy flowed back into June’s hand from where the spell landed. The burning lessened from her wounds, and June felt refreshed enough to push off from the wall at a run, away from the advancing pair of walking dead. As she moved, June traced a pair of Lesser Curses in the air, connecting the spells with both targets. Black tendrils wrapped around their ribs and legs, slowing their movements.

They followed her flight toward the next chamber. In a deft move, she wheeled around and tried to go around the threat. As she ran around the two warriors, impacts of metal echoed off the ground just behind her. But even with the Curse, she was too slow, as a second set of blows aimed at her legs sent her sprawling. Landing hard on the stones just before the doorway, June lay stunned for a beat. Turning over, the two skeletons loomed over her. Determined, she threw herself up into a sitting position to plunge her Vampiric Edge dagger into it, channeling mana into a quick slash. To her dismay, the dagger glanced off of the target’s bones. June only felt a tiny glimmer of renewal from the strike.

Scuttling backward, June tried to get to her feet. A wave of power flew past June at that moment, and the remaining skeletons halted their advance as they were bathed in fire. The heat washed over June, leaving her just as stunned as her two undead foes. Behind her, the miniature imp had just launched a fan of fire from its hands.

Ash hung off of singed bone, but the two undead remained steadfast in their pursuit. June scrambled to her feet, launching Fire Bolts into the advancing undead, felling the two foes beneath a torrent of flames combined with more fans from her companion. Silently, June waited for more undead to come trundling through the passage, but none came. She sheathed her weapons and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Now, channel their mana!” Bullin shouted, seated on the dais, casually watching.

The shock shook her battle-focused mind back to the present. Understanding the threat had passed, June complied. She flared her Mana Sense again and followed the threads of lingering Death Mana hanging off of the piles of bones. What replaced the usual form she expected was a vibrant fabric of black tendrils. Her Mana Sense also highlighted several glittering objects. After she picked the bones clean of mana, she grabbed those glittering objects. From each of the slain skeletons, she obtained a crystal. These tiny crystals looked like jagged pieces of milky white glass.

Item Gained

Name

Tier 1 Mana Crystal

A crystallized form of mana harvested from a monster in the wilds. These stones are often used as currency, or in item manufacturing. Crystals form out of the fracturing of cores that happens on the death of a being. Many different tiers exist, as the more powerful beings contain more purified mana. This one is as basic as it gets, but still has many uses.

Rarity

Non-Magical

Grade

Material

Affinity

—

Effect

—

As June pulled the mana into herself, visualizing her engorging core, the effect was immediate. Energy flowing in recharged June’s entire being. Her high from absorbing the mana was more powerful than the best cup of coffee. The burning sensation from her wounds was instantly abated, and she felt more aware of her surroundings. Snapping out of drawing in mana, June excitedly fired off a question before she stopped herself. “So is this just an XP system?” she questioned, the flub escaping like an excited toddler running amok. Bullin’s strange look told her he’d heard her. She hated that her mouth got the better of her, even in this new world.

“What did you say?” He asked, staring at her quizzically.

“I said, is this just an extra system?” she said. “That’s a strange thing to absorb the power of the dead.”

A beat of silence passed between them as Bullin stood and crossed his arms, staring daggers at her.

“OK...anyway, you did pretty good back there, and you’re taking to the training well,” Bullin beamed. “Ya seem better adjusted to this than most other undead I’ve trained,” Bullin said through squinted eyes. “I know you said you remember little about life before being made into this,” he said, indicating her skeletal form. “But you have to remember some things.”

“Damnit,” June said to herself, searching for a response. “It’s still pretty hazy, and really shocking to end up here, of all places.” She said, telling the partial truth. “I get sights when I’m channeling most of the time, comforting visions and stuff. I do remember a lot of books for some reason, knowledge about magic filters in as well,” she finished. He didn’t need to know that most of the reading in her past life was trashy ebooks. She just hoped that he bought her lies. June didn’t relish the idea of having to explain to a terrifying undead dwarf he lived inside an MMO, or what Reddit and video game sites were.

Bullin’s expression practically screamed ‘are you serious’ at June. “That’s pretty common with new undead, though memories do sometimes come back...” he said while continuing to bore holes into her with his eyes. She returned his gaze, trying to silently command him to shut up with a stern look. His expression looked haggard.

“We’ll see, I guess.” She lied, hoping Bullin didn’t keep asking questions. “So why is killing things so much better?”

He paused before answering, considering his words, and tapping his foot. “Maybe there’s more to it than I know,” said Bullin. “But from what I understand, the real path to power is in killin’ things. Cultivation is fine if you’re near a powerful source of mana, but that isn’t useful in battle.”

“It’s true, ya know,” came a whisper in her mind. Kotor’s dark whisper continued, “the blue man has a point. Dead things are fun.”

June ignored the ember’s internal monologue, then she asked, “if it makes it much easier to get stronger, why not just constantly kill things here and never leave?”

“Everything that dies within these tombs draws mana from the dungeon’s power source. Wiping out all the other undead here might make for one very tough zombie, but one zombie can’t stand against an army.” The dwarf said.

“And has that kind of thing ever happened? Have you ever had an army on your doorstep?” June asked.

“Not that bad, but they have raided us before. That’s part of why you’re here. The lords need some extra muscle to deal with incursions into our land,” Bullin said plainly.

“So I get to be a weapon for your benefit, fun,” June said to herself. “That means this place is an in-game dungeon.” Although the name Sharth’ax didn’t ring a bell, she had heard rumors of event dungeons being a thing. Being the first few months of an MMO, high-end players tore into the game, exploring every nook and cranny. And there were scant few mentions of an endgame multi-level raid or dungeon being found. She didn’t even recognize the area that she had seen marked as the Tombs as being part of the game.

Bulin interrupted her thought, and continued, “speaking of the goal here today, you have a task.” Bullin pulled something from a pocket in his armor. Bullin held out a piece of carved wood. June inspected it, seeing glinting runes etched into the ebony wood.

“Your goal is simple. I need you to find some more of this wood and bring it back to me. Use your Mana Sense and trace it to the place it came from. Fair warning, you’ll have to go through a grave or two. Also, tie this around your belt,” he said as he tossed her a simple leather pouch he had pulled from his own belt.

Quest Begins!

Obtain at least one Mana-Rich Wood for Bullin.

Reward: ???

“Great, now I’m getting fetch quests,” June thought, increasingly annoyed. She instructed the imp to follow her, wishing to get this over with as quickly as possible. Before heading out, June scanned the piece of enchanted wood with her Mana Sense, seeing a wave of colorful mana trails falling off of it.

She deposited the mana crystals into her new pouch and set off. She headed back into the room with the now slain undead and crept onward. Stepping past more piles of skulls and broken bones, a staircase loomed in the darkened tunnel beyond. Slowly pushing up the crumbling steps, daylight peeked through and filtered down, casting beams over the steps.

As she reached the top, she found herself in a cramped entranceway. On both sides were rows of sealed stone coffins, covered in muck and dust. The floor of the new chamber heaved with exposed tree roots and plants. A rotten, fishy odor hung in the air. The stonework was damp, drips could be heard echoing around the partially-flooded tomb. Before she could step down into the sodden chamber, the imp scampered up onto her shoulders.

“Right, fire and water don’t mix, got it,” June said aloud, trying to get comfortable with an unfamiliar weight attached to her body.

After a few more steps through the dark corridor, June arrived at the exit. With renewed curiosity, June stepped out in the day for the first time since she’d come to this wretched place, it overcame June with a potent mix of odors, sounds, and emotion.

The bog surrounding June was alive with motion and noise. A web of roots pierced fetid earthen flesh. Frogs croaked, insects buzzed, adding to the unease June felt. As she looked around, mud burped and churned a chorus of sickening sounds. Peat and dead wood mated within the mud, slowly being sucked down to a watery grave. Obsidian-black trees stood petrified amid the murky waters, giving unseen foes shadows to cloak in.

Taking a cue from what Bullin had said, and the quest window, June set off, following the wisps of mana she could see. Like a hunting predator, she stalked her prey. She made slow progress, kicking her way through the muck caked her new leather garments in mud.

“Boney, I don’t like this, no, no, no...” said the imp perched on her shoulder. June ignored it.

After a few minutes, the path of mud and sunken logs changed to one of brackish water. Sheepishly, she lept from log to log, using her hands to hurl her body around. A few times, when a bit of wood snapped, it sent her sprawling into the mud. Kotor got luckier, as he could leap from her shoulder and perch on a log or rock. June passed multiple dilapidated graves overwhelmed with vegetation. Pools of water dotted the landscape, collapsing grave markers into muddy messes.

After several more minutes of meandering, she saw a structure sticking out of the mud amid a copse of dead trees. Approaching the worn stone building, June inspected the surrounding area. The stones were covered in vines and dead wood, but she could see a void beneath the natural mass. Cautiously, June crept up on the entrance she saw underneath the mess of plant matter.

“Oh well, why not dive in face first,” said the filthy skeleton. She fired off her Mana sense, looking for traces of the mana she was hunting. Tiny traces of the mana escaped out of a small hole, deeper inside the structure. Odors of ash and rot wafted out of the hole.

“Think you can scout it out?” She asked Kotor in a whisper.

“Uh-uh, maybe very big dangers in there, boney one.” said the little living ember peering into the dank hole alongside June.

June considered her options, then spoke. “Well, climbing down with you is going to be tough. Is there a way you can come along and not be attached to my hip?”

“Silly bones, I’m not on your hip,” sang the mocking imp. “Just feed me some mana and I can do what you want, though.” As she did so, the ember stretched out into a long line of fire. After a few seconds, the ember lazily trailed into her Class Gem.

“See? Now I can be with you and not be in the way. Yay!” said the imp inside June’s head.

“How do you come out?” June asked.

Kotor spoke through her mind, “just command me to come out, and I will. I want some mana, though.”

“Of course you do, everything in this world wants a piece of me,” June thought.

June dragged herself through the mess of vines, using her dagger to cut a way through. As she reached the hole leading deeper into the tomb, a deep pit revealed itself. Carved through the earth as if by a massive claw, jagged rocks stuck out at odd angles. Listening before crawling in, strange noises wafted out. Sharp like icicles, a high-pitched voice came to her in an unknown language. Laughter wafted out of the hole as well, cutting through the darkness. After a few moments, light spilled towards the hole June was crouched over, advancing closer.

“Shit, they’re headed this way,” she said internally.

June scuttled out of the hole as best she could, not worrying about being careful, she just wanted to get out of sight. As the firelight crept closer, so too did the cold voice. The knocking of stones echoed out of the hole just as June hid behind a nearby pile of loose rocks and roots. A moment later, a human came crawling out of the hole, laughing in that same chilly tone. June couldn’t see his face, but got a look at his thick black armor. Leather wrapped in furs must have been stupidly hot in this fetid, muddy hell. But it didn’t appear to bother him.

He was standing in front of the hole she had hastily crawled out of, staring off into space.

“Why is he just standing there?” She thought, wondering what could cause such odd behavior. Then it clicked. The odd vocalizations to no one, and now the vacant expression, meant this was a distracted player. She recalled many a time when she was alt-tabbed to look up something on the web, only to be ambushed by a wandering NPC because of her carelessness. She couldn’t let this golden opportunity go.

Focusing on him with Mana Sense, she nearly gasped at what she saw. Behind the status window, a thin ring of ragged green mana swirled around him. The rotation wasn’t tight or orderly; it was more like a merry-go-round trying to rip itself apart. Wisps of mana sheared off as the ring rotated wildly around his form.

Enemy: Thief Level 8 Stats Unknown

The status window confirmed it. This had to be a player. What other reason would there be for his mana spiral and his completely bizarre behavior. Deliberately pulling out her dagger, she made her plan of attack. Feeding mana to her blade, she charged the mana leech runes. June also fed a scrap to Kotor.

“Come out, but stay hidden as best you can, then burn him when I make my move,” she commanded.

Creeping her way around the pile of debris, she anxiously treaded on logs and stones, trying to get closer. Crouched in the mud wasn’t the way she expected her first PVP to go. After what felt like an eternity, with anxiety running roughshod through her mind, June crept into range. Pushing a tendril of mana into a Lesser Curse rune, she prepared her dual strike.

In a flash of excited motion, she drove the dagger into his lower back, releasing her spell at the same moment before diving away. Landing hard against the mass of stones and vines beside him, she watched as Kotor’s jet of flame enveloped his back as well. The dagger worked well, sapping magical strength from her foe. His pain tasted like fresh spring water.

In an instant, her foe whirled around, and a chillingly stone-faced enemy poised before her. Pale blue eyes looked distant as they stared at June, as if staring through her into something only he could see. His eyes were glazed over, as if he couldn’t really see June as she stood up in front of him. The sack remained perched on his shoulder, and he seemed almost frozen in place. When the unknown thief started moving, his movements were panicked and disorganized. But with surprising speed, he drew a dagger in his free hand, charging at June.

The momentary advantage evaporated almost immediately, as June was caught off-guard by how fast her foe moved. As he swung his dagger, a Fire Bolt lept towards his cold, emotionless face. Seemingly unphased by the impact, her foe landed his first attack on June. The strike took far more out of her than she expected. A racking pain replaced the burning of previous wounds, as if her bones had been broken and crushed all in one blow. If she had lungs, they would be bruised and hemorrhaging. Laying against the muddy stones, June’s vision blurred as she struggled to stand.

A fan of flame cooked the back of the advancing thief, but he didn’t seem to care. Tracing a Hex, June used another chunk of mana to charge the Life Leech in her dagger.

“If I can’t get away from this guy, I’m done,” she thought to herself.

In a fit of desperation, she fired a Hex from down in the muck. The ebony tentacles of mana wrapped around his legs, slowing his movement as the globules of energy traced back to her form. The Hex reduced the pain rampant in her body and her vision cleared. Extending her arm to stab the mana-charged blade into his gut, June left herself open, a swift kick to the knee sent her tumbling before her strike connected. Her mind spun as she thought through what she knew of Thief builds. PvP wasn’t her forte, but any newb could recognize the Tripping Strike ability he had used to knock her prone.

Letting her second Hex fly blindly while down in the mud, it didn’t connect. But, at that moment, the thief paused his advance.

“He must think I’m just an NPC, and shouldn’t be able to resist Knockdowns to fire spells.”

Firing Mana Sense, she saw a swirling of golden mana forming around his blade. Mana coated it like a syrup. The dripping honey held nothing but sinister intent, despite its sweet appearance. That had to be a poison-based class feature of some kind, she guessed. Before she could enact a plan to get out of this jam, a living ember leaped onto his back, digging into his neck with fiery claws. June used the momentary distraction to lunge for him again, driving her dagger into his gut and charging almost every bit of mana she could spare into the Life Leech runes. Using the last bit of mana she could spare, she fired a Shadow Spear directly into his face at the same time. The leech effect cleared the bits of darkness swimming at the edges of her vision.

She felt more and more lifeforce flow from her foe's body, and as the flow ran out, the thief's tense form relaxed. The most horrifying thing about the dying foe before her was the complete lack of reaction. As Death mana chewed into his face, turning it to rot, his eyes didn’t flinch—no sound escaped his lips. As his flesh turned leathery and his features gaunt, no pain was visible on his face. Even as his corpse dropped to the ground, he had absolutely no reaction.

The fire of combat left her bones, and June slumped into the mud with the fresh corpse. Kotor was still standing on its back, a flaming smile beaming up at June.

“We make a pretty good team, boney,” it said, finishing with an excited cackle.

“Yeah...” she said.

Glancing at the slowly rotting corpse in front if her, June snapped out of her daze at the brown sack still on its body. The carnage she had unleashed on the hapless player was driven out of her mind by the glee of victory, and the prospect of more loot. Maybe this was the brand’s doing, but her entire emotional state felt alien—happiness came in waves. A feeling she was deeply uncomfortable with dominated the logical part of her mind.

When June pulled open the sack, she thrust her hand in without regard. The feeling like a mound of soft sand threw her for a loop. “What the hell...” Pulling her hand out, ashes fell between the bones of her hand. “So that’s what happens to gear that’s destroyed on drop,” she thought.

June dumped out the pack onto a nearby assembly of stones that was raised just above the mud. As she went through the mess of ashes, she found a few useful items.

Items Obtained

16x Tier 1 Mana Crystal

2x Minor Healing Potions

4x Mana-Rich Wood

3x Piles of Grave Dust

June picked up the sack, hefting it over her shoulder. “I’ve got what I need. I just hope I don’t have to do this again anytime soon,” she huffed. The living ember perched beside her nodded eagerly. As June made her way back through the flooded graveyard, June retraced her steps, although the process was much easier with a fairly empty sack. Trotting down the stairs leading back to the crypt, June found Bullin waiting for her in the main chamber, lying down on his back.

“I fought a shard carrier!” She shouted at him, sluggishly trudging over to the supine dwarf.

Bullin smiled up at her, and excitedly said, “let’s go get his body then, would be pretty useful. Did you at least get the wood I asked for?” He said, barely paying attention as they trudged up the stairs.

“Yeah, it seems like he was after it, I found him crawling out of a hole a few minutes away. The fight wasn’t easy, but I managed it,” June said.

After a few minutes of trudging through the mud again, they arrived at the collapsed structure and the body was still there. Although it seemed to have rotted significantly in just a few minutes.

The dwarf spent a few minutes surveying the corpse, checking it over. He pulled out a scroll of parchment from some unseen pocket in his armor, and unfurled it. When the dwarf began speaking, it was in a language that June couldn’t understand. The runes inscribed on the scroll lit up in vibrant blue light, before turning to ash amid blue flames. In that instant, the flames enveloped his hands. Bullin raised his hands toward the corpse, A flow of visible dark mana flowed from his palms. The mana wrapped around the body, cradling the corpse in an ebony grip. To June, it looked like the mana was reversing the decay, locking the dead thief in a state of preservation. Bullin completed whatever ritual he was casting and heaved the body over his shoulder.

“Let’s head back, I’ve got a few things to teach you about your friend there,“ he said, pointing to Kotor.