It was slow going as Terry made his way along the road back the way he had come. He was going to try and make it back home and he hoped his parents would still be alive when he got there. Walking along the road was weird in the dark, he had to keep making sure he didn’t drift off it and lose his way. But walking in the dark was harder than it would’ve been if the stars were at least out.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

He heard the three booms and looked around but just saw the blackness. Suddenly though, his HUD was filled with words:

Welcome to the system of Clarity, it is time for you, the people of Earth to wake up and start your new lives. Good Luck.

he read through it and closed the message. When his vision was clear once more he was standing under the blazing heat of the sun and it was just as bright as Death was in the darkness. Oh man, it’s going to be a long walk back home, isn’t it? He thought and he wished he had a hat to block some of the sun.

At least the traveling would be a bit easier now that he could see where he was going, he thought as he turned and started walking again. While he was walking he was looking out into the fields, watching to make sure nothing came out of them. Even though there was nothing for as far as he could see and he would be able to see anything coming he was still cautious. Too many times he had been playing when suddenly something came out of nowhere and jumped him.

As the miles went by, he didn’t see anything, human or beast. He was surprised at that; he thought there would be monsters to kill right away. Maybe since it’s so barren out here they won’t be in this area for a while. I bet all the major cities are getting hit so hard right now. He tried not to think too much about that though. He couldn’t help them even if he was there.

After what seemed like a hundred miles and twelve hours but was really only ten miles and a couple hours, he finally saw a sign that pointed to a gas station five miles ahead. Oh, thank god. Finally, some place to rest. He was sweating up a storm, almost like he was in a sauna, and truthfully it was very close to a sauna, just not enclosed.

When he finally saw the gas station, he picked up his speed and swallowed what little spittle he had left and hoped they had some water. He pulled open the door and went straight to the coolers and opened it, grabbed a bottle of water and drained the whole thing before grabbing another and one more to pour over himself. He grabbed one more and slid down the glass door and sat on the floor, slowly sipping that one.

He looked around at the store but didn’t see anyone. It looked like it had been abandoned, like the people had just up and left. Everything was still in its place and nothing was touched. He got up and grabbed one more bottle as he started walking around the store looking for someone, anyone. Not finding anyone in the store he walked outside and looked left and right, only seeing dust swirling in the distance. He walked to the left of the store and around the side but all that was there was an ice machine and it was locked anyways.

Coming around the back of the store made him stop. He turned around puked what he had just drank, heaving until nothing came up and then dry heaving some more. It was a blood bath in the back. There had to have been about twenty bodies piled up and blood was everywhere and was soaking into the ground. Limbs and other parts were laying around and blood was sprayed along the side of the building.

Now he had hunted before and had seen blood and guts but seeing it with animals was totally different than this. This was a slaughter.

After his stomach calmed down, he took a deep breath and turned around again. This time though he was ready for it. He took a step towards the pile, then another and slowly he made his way towards them. When he got to the pile of bodies, he saw that not only had they been slaughtered, they had also been chewed on. With this information, he started looking around, hoping the thing or things that did this weren’t still in the area.

Not seeing anything moving in the distance he turned back to the pile and tried to see if they might have anything he could use. He wasn’t trying to be callous or anything but they were dead and there wasn’t much he could do for them at this time. As he reached down to pat one of the bodies down his hand dipped into some blood. He was about to wipe it off when he decided to look at it.

Item scanned.

New Item found: Human blood

Human blood can be used by the Necromancer in many different ways including, sacrifices, summoning’s, rituals, and body manipulation.

I wonder how I would be able to collect all of this he thought and looked at the blood in a whole new light. He bent down and looked at the blood more closely and then stuck his finger in it, put in inventory, he thought and sure enough the non-dried blood disappeared. He then brought up his inventory and saw it was full of stacks of blood. With a thought he moved the stacks into his special inventory and repeated the process until all the non-dried blood was his.

With the blood mostly gone, the pile of bodies was less intimidating for him. That still didn’t mean he really wanted to dig through the bodies. He focused his attention on the closest one and saw a message pop up after a second.

Item scanned.

New item found: Human body (deceased)

The Necromancer can use human bodies to summon skeletons, weapons, and armor among other things. Be careful when summoning as people aren’t too keen on seeing how the summoning’s happen nor seeing human bodies used in that fashion.

Finding a mostly intact male on the far side of the pile he pulled him out and laid him off to the side. Pulling a few more bodies off to the side he pulled up his abilities menu and looked at what he had.

Abilities:

Summon skeleton Summon bone weapon

Summon bone armor Leech life

There were only four abilities listed and they were all greyed out. The rest of his abilities seemed to be hidden until he reached a certain level. He had three ability points to use so he put one point into summon skeleton and summon bone weapon but had a hard time deciding where to put the last point. He finally figured that since he had the health potions, he wouldn’t need the leech life just yet, so he put the last point in the bone armor.

Once he had put the points into the three abilities he focused on each one and a description popped up. He glossed over them since they all seemed pretty straightforward with their names and such. He was just excited to be able to summon something and wanted to see how it looked, that he didn’t even see that he could have five skeletons summoned at a time.

Summon Skeleton Soldier

Level 1/3: Points 1/5

Cast Time: instant

Cooldown 10s

Level 1: The Necromancer pulls the skeleton out of a targeted body and may control up to five skeleton Soldiers at a time. +2 stat points in each stat

The summoned skeleton is the same level of the necromancer but with the unassigned stat points from the class distributed as 6 to Strength and 5 Constitution Each ability point adds +2 stat points in each stat to the skeleton. Mana Cost: 30

Summon Bone Weapon

Level 1/3: Points 1/5

Cast Time: instant

Cooldown: 10s

Level 1: The Necromancer uses a corpse to summon a weapon of their choosing. Some weapons may need the whole skeleton while others only part of it. +10% of Necromancer's strength to damage

Each ability point adds 10% of the necromancer’s strength stat to damage. Mana Cost: 50

Summon Bone Armor

Level 1/3: Points 1/5

Cast Time: instant

Cooldown: 10s

Level 1: The Necromancer uses a corpse to summon armor. Either chest, boots and gloves, or helmet and pants will be summoned from the corpse depending on what the necromancer needs. +5% of the necromancer’s constitution stat to the armor rating.

Each ability point adds 5% of the necromancer’s constitution stat to the armor rating. Each piece has its own armor rating. Mana Cost: 20

Quickly closing out of his abilities he got down to business now that he had some abilities and some bodies, he was ready to go. Targeting the mostly intact man, he cast summon skeleton. It was an instant cast but had a ten second cooldown but he didn’t worry about that just yet. As soon as the ability finished casting the body that was target spasmed and started to move. With a loud ripping noise, the skin split open and the organs started spilling out. One skeletal arm ripped out of the skin and then the other. They then reached up and pulled apart the face and as the skin fell apart the skeleton beneath stood up and the rest of the organs fell out.

If it wasn’t so fascinating to watch he would have been bent over dry heaving some more. He just watched as the skeleton shook off the last of the skin, the whole process taking less than two seconds. Since he had taken the blood it wasn’t as bad, he guessed. Walking around the skeleton he admired how white it looked, and so clean too. He tried smelling it but it must not have been old enough to have that decaying smell. When he got back in front of it, he looked at its eyes and saw they had red glowing eyes but for some reason he didn’t fear it. Looking at the pile of skin and organs it left behind brought up another message:

Item scanned

New item found: Pile of flesh

Pile of flesh, the remains from the Necromancer’s summoning. Can be used in rituals and summoning’s at higher levels among other things.

He grimaced as he placed his hand on the pile of flesh and put it in his inventory and hoped that it would be worth it. He did not want to think about what people might think about him if they found out he was carrying around the skin of people he just ripped the skeleton out of. But if the remains would come in handy later on, it might not be a bad idea to have some handy.

After he was done admiring his work with the skeleton, he targeted the next body and cast summon bone weapon while thinking of a long sword. That one was an instant cast with a five second cooldown. With that ability though instead of the skeleton pulling off the skin and stepping out, the body spasmed but the bones crumpled together and moved under the skin like it was filled with worms, or maggots. The process for the weapon was just as fast as for the skeleton and when it was done there was a bone handle sticking out from between the body’s legs and the skin was deflated like a balloon.

He reached down and grimaced as he pulled the sword from the body. Just like the skeleton the sword was bone white and even came with a scabbard. He looked at the body and guessed that the scabbard could’ve come from the skin but he wasn’t about to investigate that. Now that he had a weapon, it had a three-foot-long blade and about a foot-long handle good with a cross guard. It looked just like some of the swords from games he had played. he attached it to his belt and it was awkward but better than the tire iron. He cast the ability a second time and watched the process repeat itself. When he pulled the sword out of the body it was the exact same make and style of his. He then walked over to his skeleton and handed it the sword.

Would you like to equip Bone Sword to Skeleton?

Yes, he thought and the sword disappeared from his hand and showed up in the skeletons. Nifty, he thought, then went to the last body he pulled out and cast bone armor. This ability was definitely weird, as when the ability finished casting the body spasmed and floated up like it was alive but then the bones themselves ripped out of the skin and flew at him. Jerking back in reaction to having them rush him, they narrowly missed, but then they started circling him faster and faster before he knew it, they had molded into a breast plate and slammed into him knocking him down.

When he opened his eyes, he was now wearing a bone white breast plate. I wonder if this will protect my whole body or if I have to summon it again and again until I have a full set. Figuring he might as well try it, he pulled another body out, this time it wasn’t a whole one, and cast bone armor on it. The same process happened again but afterwards he was wearing gauntlets and boots. One more time he tried it and that time he was wearing bone armor that covered his thighs, whatever those are called and a helmet.

I wonder if it’s always the same order? Or if it changes depending on what I’m already wearing. Terry had those thoughts from time to time. Being decked out in full bone armor was awesome, until he tried to move. He took one step and almost fell face first onto the ground. Holy crap this is heavy. How am I going to fight in this? And this is only the level one stuff.

Luckily nothing was around just yet so he took some time to walk around in the armor and get used to it. It took him about an hour of walking around and doing some running and dodging before he was somewhat comfortable in it. As he was doing that the skeleton just watched him, it was kind of eerie, if he thought about it.

Walking back to the pile of bodies he got an idea. What if I took the bodies with me? I may not find any others anytime soon and I may need the weapons and armor. Would that make me a monster to be carrying around dead human bodies, not even a day after the world ended? He thought about it and he found he was weirdly okay with it. So, he went over to the pile and started putting the bodies in his special inventory.

Once the pile was gone Terry headed back into the store and started looting it, all the food, water and other things he might need went into the special inventory. Even things he didn’t know he might need. Luckily it was a fast process of putting things in there so it only took him just under two hours to empty out the store.

Not really wanting to stick around and see if the things that killed the people would return, Terry started off down the road again with his skeleton in tow.