Adventuring!
Traveling the great unknown, with just a bag on your back, and a sword by your side.
That’s the dream isn’t it?
Freedom!
The skyline holding untold wonders just waiting to take your very breath away, but more importantly… unknown relics, and treasures ripe for plunder!
Well, if that’s what you think being an adventure is, you would be oh so very, WRONG!
Hells, wrong doesn’t even begin to cover how absolutely dreadful being an adventurer actually is, after all is it a dream to go days, weeks, or even months without being able to bathe?
AND NO!
Hopping into a freezing, often smelly, creek or lake does not count!
Particularly! when there are bloody water elementals or even stupid FISH that will try to eat you alive, and don’t even get me started on “spot washing” No, bathing requires SOAP, and a steaming tub of hot water, where one can soak all of their woes away or even a nice hot steamy shower!
But hey, maybe you’re the smelly type, or are allergic to not smelling like filth (shrug) I’m not one to judge, but I do wonder how you will handle the silence.
Walking miles by yourself while trying to not to make a sound or worse listening to every snap or clunking noise your party members make, all the while knowing if you’re lucky the worst thing that noise will attract is bandits, and if you’re not?
Well, a whole lot of animals like to play with their food, and you are most definitely on the menu.
Do you know what that also means?
Cooking hot meals, particularly meats or fish can, and often does draw the attention of predators or bloody goblins in a range of miles!
Weeks to months of cold rations or fighting off a goblin horde, pick your poison, then there’s the weather.
Have you ever walked for miles outside while the sun is trying to boil you alive?
“Just walk at night” Hahahaha, do you have any idea, l how many monsters are nocturnal?
No?
Well you’ll certainly find out pretty quickly, if you wander around in the dark like an idiot who lacks even an ounce of self preservation.
Not that staying in camp is some grand guarantee of safety or comfort, given those same monsters certainly aren’t above raiding your camp in the middle of the night, after you’ve spent all day walking a hundred miles, and a little camp fire or tent certainly isn’t enough to keep out the freezing cold or even bloody blizzards, you will inevitably find yourself in… Let me tell you right now, none of this is anyone’s IDEA OF A GOOD TIME!
Now, if this was the worst of it, maybe “adventures” or “adventuring” would be worth it, but sadly these issues are among the least of your worries, given you’re not going camping, you’re, adventuring!
You’re traveling into the wilds or to the places those in power, otherwise known as the strongest people in any given area, are unable to tame.
From forgotten ruins filled with golems, to those snow covered mountains you have stared at your entire life or maybe even that enchanted forest, you were just never able to work up the stupidity to actually travel into given YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD YOUR ENTIRE LIFE that they’re nothing more than monster infested death traps… (Stare) and sure some of these death traps are probably filled with riches, from forgotten relics, to valuables worth more credits than someone could spend in a lifetime.
They’re probably even filled with awe inspiring sights, snowy cliffs, gigantic trees, or shining flowers in shades beyond imagination.
Sights, which would forever etch themselves into your mind, but if you’re one of the lucky ones, this awe will quickly be replaced by something else, fear.
Once you see someone swallowed whole by some beast or even a bloody tree, suddenly the glowing flowers lose a bit of their luster, and it will finally makes sense why a random herb can be worth more than what some make in an entire year or why that mason in your village, who can crack boulders in half using nothing, but the palm of their hand stays the hell out.
Surely this must be the worst of it though right?
A life of being smelly, with terrible food, while being bored out of your mind oh, and potentially with weather or creatures trying to murder you every single day, but no, noo, you sweet summer child, one thing any real adventure worth their salt knows all too well, is that it can always get WORSE!
Let’s say against the odds you somehow manage not to get murdered, robbed, and even manage to make some coin from your adventures, you made it!
You’re even celebrating at the local tavern, now tell me who you also see in the tavern… is it just adventurers who against all of the odds managed to claw their way into some coin, or is a farmer drinking the same mead you are?
The same mead they DRINK EVERY SINGLE DAY, while being surrounded by music, people, HOT FOOD, and all the while having access to indoor plumbing!
For fun, let’s say your adventure wasn’t successful, let’s even say that you were even robbed, and don’t have a credit to your name.
How do you think your local city or even village will treat you?
The answer, AS LESS THAN A HUMAN, A HUMAN OF ALL THINGS!
You will be seen as less than one of the least trustworthy things in existence!
Fall asleep in an area even near someone’s “property” if you’re lucky a farmer, with his Gods forsaken seven sons will send you on your way with pitchforks, and if you’re unlucky?
The guards will show you how they handle layabouts, adventuring is just homelessness with sparkles, hells a poor adventurer is treated worse than the local bums, because at least those people are seen as a part of their community, instead of as “outsiders” and NO, you’re not different.
You’re not going to make it big, every or at least almost every bandit or person who was eaten by goblins thought they would be that one in a million adventurer who makes it, news flash they didn’t.
Those in power are literally sending you out to die, why do you think you never see any mages going off into the woods to hunt PACKS of magical wolves, which shoot fireballs?
Because it’s bloody stupid, and cities actually value them, but you?
In their eyes you’re not even worth the mana to feed or train, just another useless thing, to throw away… it’s odd how IN MY OPINION, the saddest part of being an adventurer, has almost nothing to do with actual adventures, and a whole lot more to do with our willingness to just throw people away, but hey, I guess at the end of the day, you either do the bending or the breaking.
Roma’s a disillusioned adventure and… a Bandit Lord (70,000 credit bounty)
____________________________________________
At long last, my arduous adventure has finally come to an end, and of course the first thing that greets me is a solid iron gate that’s locked.
Long metal chains are wrapped around metal bars, with a single padlock sitting in the middle of it all, but with a wave of my hand or rather a single mana blast it pops off.
The lock clanging to the ground, with the chains quickly following after, and onward I go.
The grass is green, the sky is gray, and endless rows of tombstones pass in an unchanging blur.
The graveyard is completely empty or how some might describe it solemn, or even hollow, but really this is literally just what peace, and quiet is.
Some people really just need to get out of the city some time, because there is absolutely nothing special about graveyards.
Well, other than the amount of space they take up in cities, which never seem to have enough space.
At times even stretching for miles all while being filled with nothing, but tombstones or worse gaudy mausoleums worth more than people make in years, and sure, maybe having places to pay respect to lost loved ones is important.
The question just is, if it’s more important than the millions of things the space could be used for, like housing or raising an unstoppable horde of undead to ensure that I’m not murdered… priorities are strange things, but then again, being a necromancer would probably be a rather terrible fit, if I viewed graveyards as these untouchable sacred places.
After an eternity or rather a few more minutes of walking some fancy mausoleums come into view, which to the surprise of no one, are of course also locked.
People really seem to love their locks, it’s almost as if they’re trying to keep someone out or something, regardless I keep marching on, until the marble monstrosity comes into view.
It’s a newer fancy looking mausoleum, a bit smaller than a studio apartment, adorned with statues of angels, pillars covered in Greek engravings, and covered in stained glass windows that have a faint silverish glow flickering on the other side of them…
It’s almost as if someone just picked all of the most expensive options, when they had this thing built “And people say you can’t take it with you.” with a shake of my head, I decide to check this one out, who knows maybe it could even be my new home.
Perks of the apocalypse, free real-estate, even if it’s a tomb.
Mana wraps around my hand, before slamming into the door sending paint chips, and shards of wood flying, but still remaining firmly locked.
My eyes narrow “Looks like we got a tough guy over here.” A few mana blasts, accompanied by a few kicks later, and the door pops open, sadly in a way that leaves the door swinging no longer able to be closed, but alas that’s life.
The mausoleum is a bit smaller than expected, solid marble blocks taking up a bit more space than the typical paper thin walls found in studios.The tomb has two marble slabs resting in the middle of the room, one engraved with the image of a woman, the other a man, and the two side walls are filled with a series of slots covered with engraved headstones, but something is a bit different about the back wall.
Rubble, shattered urns, skeletal remains, a round portal made of dense silver light, takes up two thirds of the entire back wall, and cleanly cuts through what once was a wall of crypts.
A whole new world is on the other side of it at least if the system or the aliens are to be trusted.
“Oh, and a quick cleanish death on Katar.” A place possibly filled with things I can’t even imagine or more realistically, just another shade of what can already be found on Earth, after all how different can a world truly become?
“Still, l can’t help, but wonder, what’s on the other side?” My stuff falls to the floor with a plop, before I wander over to the portal.
It’s buzzing, it feels like static electricity is running across my body, and it grows in strength the closer I get to the portal.
Which! of course means, NO touching the glowing portal of death, but throwing things through it on the other hand.
My hands quickly find their way to a couple pieces of rubble, and when they’re thrown through, the rubble just vanishes, disappearing into the void, without even causing the portal to flicker “Convenient, insta trash disposal.”
A few more pieces are tossed through as I wander about, when a glimmer catches my eye.
Something is sticking out of the rubble, three shimmering blue gems with a chain of gold.
My hands find their way to the jewels in an instant, and I pull on them without really putting too much effort, but that doesn’t prevent something from swinging out of the rubble.
A skull attached to a spine slams into my face, almost as if some undead monster is trying to give me a kiss, before immediately snapping from the spine, and flinging into the air as I crumple to the floor.
The skull slowly rolls across the floor, against all odds stopping in a way where it’s staring directly at me.
It’s hollow undead eyes judging me, as my heart tries to pound its way out of my chest, but in the end it’s just a skull, and the empty remains of what was once a person quickly lose their power over me.
My eyes though, are once again drawn to the sapphire encrusted necklace that’s still wrapped around the skeletal spine.
I then go to one of my bags, wrap a towel around my hand, and use it to grip the spine, before shaking the necklace free.
After all, who knows what weird bacteria resides on the bodies of the dead, I certainly don’t?
It’s not like the risks of grave robbing are taught in the typical biology class or even just all the weird diseases one can catch from the bodies of the dead.
The necklace is then wrapped in the same towel, while with all my expertise in jewelry, I take a closer look at it, and surprisingly don’t get a whole lot more than shiny, given you know I have no real knowledge on jewelry, but hey who doesn’t like shiny things?
Real or fake, either way this certainly makes things a bit more interesting.
“I wonder what other treasures are just waiting to be discovered.” A smile finds its way to my face as I take in all of the tombs potentially filled with treasure “But I’m certainly not going to be the one to pick things off of the dead.”
Raise The Dead, Skeleton CC: Tier Zero 15, Tier One 45, Tier Two 165, Tier Three 375, Etc
With two hundred, and seventy mana I can either raise eighteen tier zero skeletons or only six tier one skeletons.
A tough decision with the whole mana drain thing, but I really don’t know how bad it will even be yet.
With a wave of my hand, black oily mana begins to pour from me, and floats toward the tomb on the left.
The mana sinks under the marble lid of the tomb, as the room is filled with the sound rattling, and even the tomb itself starts to shake, before suddenly growing entirely silent…
“Rise?” The tomb lid silently slides up, before crashing to the floor, a small wave of dust bursts throughout the room, and when it clears a five foot skeleton in a decrepit suit with glowing blue eyes is staring at me from the middle of their tomb.
“Okay then… still not sentient right?” It just keep staring at me “Righhhht, notifications”
Notifications
Experience Earned
Class: Your power grows, as your dark magic begins to shape the very world itself or at least you’re now starting to raise more of your own kind, which certainly could only lead to great things.
Combat: Your enemies fall my liege!
This time even one by your own hand!
Impressive, slaying a mighty bird, whatever will you manage to slay next?
Level Up
Health Restored
Mana Restored
Stamina Restored
1 Assignable Attribute
Skill Gained
Athletics
Spells Leveled Up
Mana Bolt +1
Raise The Dead +1
Skills Leveled Up
Athletics +2
Attributes Increased
Intelligence +1
Strength +1
Dexterity +1
Constitution +2
New Skill
Athletics – What separates real men, and women from the prinny ninnies who spend all of their time lounging around in their towers made of gold?
Athletics!
The ability to walk miles with 100+ pounds of weight, without breaking a sweat.
The ability to at least run, and at higher levels even escape from the jaws of dragon all the while wearing full plate mail!
This skill can only be earned through hard work!
Congratulations on taking the first step at becoming a real man, at the young age of 27… I am sure that you made your parents reeeeal proud.
The status screen is of course being as charming as ever, but more importantly it’s making no mention of the mana drain… Which means I could currently be losing a ton of mana every minute or next to nothing, but there’s no way for me to easily tell.
“The system is such a pain in the ass… status screen.”
Status Screen1
21
I manage to wait an entire two minutes, before checking my status screen again where my mana hasn’t moved an inch.
Still at full meaning the drain is probably less than my regen, but still some unknown number haunting me.
A pain, but it’s possible that after enough time they’ll naturally tier up, just like I did.
Even if they don’t though, temporary undead can still serve a purpose.
Especially with their mana cost being less than half, they’re just possibly not worth having right now.
“At least, with my mana regen still playing mystery.”
Stares at the status screen, which continues to completely ignore my existence.
I guess tier one minions are just the way for now, higher initial cost, but no maintenance is definitely the safer choice.
Leaving just the question of the higher tiers, but with a single tier two costing me most of my mana… Definitely a temptation that has to wait, maybe when I wake up tomorrow or whenever it’s time for my next level up?
“Either way, not now.” My eyes lock onto the skeleton “Now, what to do with you?”
Tier Zero Human Skeleton – Life, death, an endless cycle which has repeated itself since the dawn of time, energy constantly swirling, and giving life to new beings at least, until they too meet their end.
Everything, even the stars themselves at some point coming to a close, for nothing is truly immortal, and with the passage of time, will inevitably find its way back to the void.
Fate, chance, or simply time has found a new vessel to give a new chance at life, this simple skeleton, but what they will become is yet to be determined.
Monster, a mindless minion, or something else entirely; only time will tell where this skeletons life will bring it, assuming of course it even manages to live beyond a few days, after all the universe is a cold, cold, place, and necromancers rarely have sympathy for the living, let alone the dead.
Nice, a guilt trip, which basically makes this skeleton seem like they have their entire life ahead of them, instead of being the cool cold killing machine they should be, but then again.
It’s probably a good idea to see the differences between tiers of creatures, and it’s not like some unknown drain is going to ruin me….
“Well, probably, raise the dead tier one skeleton.”
Mana shoots out of my right hand covering the remaining tomb in a haze of darkness, the room fills with the sound of snapping, and shaking, until the tomb itself explodes outward sending shards of stone flying.
In the remains of the tomb stands a skeleton covered from head to toe in a faint blue glow, and a long dress made of black mist.
Tier One Human Skeleton – The dead walk among us, fear them mortals!!!
For they now have access to mana, and they’re getting smarter 0_0 granted… How smart can a walking bag of bones really get?
Like, it’s the wrinkles which give beings their intelligence, and this thing doesn’t even have a brain, at least in the traditional sense, after all, organic physiology is hardly the only path of development!
Regardless, the point is that the gears are starting to turn, for better or worse, and this undead has reached the point where it’s starting to produce mana, I would watch my back if I were you 0_o
Two eerie sets of glowing blue eyes are locked onto me, while I examine, and compare the two.
The tier zero skeleton, almost seems like its bones are on the brink of crumbling, and their mangled suit, a single day from falling apart.
While the tier one on the other hand, has a dress made of mana, bones that are crisp, and white.
There’s definitely a difference between tier zero, and one, but let’s see what the two of you are really made of.
“Remove the bones, along with every body in this mausoleum, and separate them into your own individual piles outside, while also placing any jewelry you find into,” I pause while looking around the mausoleum, until my eyes lock onto the still intact tomb, the first skeleton crawled out of “That tomb, oh, and toss every broken piece of marble through the portal.”
Their eyes start to whirl, shifting from a bright blue to a crimson red, and back again, until the tier one undead skeleton starts to move.
The other skeleton locks onto them, watching as they go over to one of the cubbies, before smashing it open, and dragging the remains outside.
Then it’s as if something clicks for the other skeleton, and they start to follow suit.
For a few minutes I watch both of them breaking into the tombs of the dead, while scraping off any shiny bits they find, and one of them even snaps a golden tooth out of a skull.
Then… one of the skeletons arrives at a corpse, which is shall we say, a bit fresher than the rest, and starts to drag a bloated smelly body outside, leaving a black trail in its wake.
“Promising.” I grimace at the mangled body covered in black goop, but how effective they will be remains to be seen, now in the meantime “Enable UI mana tracker.” A little translucent blue bar appears above my right eye
Mana: 258/300
“Looks like my mana has already gone up, meaning my regen is definitely greater than the drain, even if the exact rate is still a bit of a mystery, but I will figure it out! Even if math can be… daunting.” Then again, maybe it’s not even a set rate, and is more dependent on how much mana is in my environment, after all why would minions be the only ones impacted by mana density?
“Ugh, why can’t everything just be simple?”
I then walk outside, which is looking more, and more like a whole lot like rain, while the undead honey badger, along with the crows trail behind me.
“Honey badger stay behind, and keep everything here safe, while me and the crows see if there are any shovels around here.” I mean there has to be a groundskeeper or a maintenance shack around here somewhere, right?
After a few minutes of mindlessly walking around, I crest a hill, where a sea of endless rows of tombstones await me, and then it hits me.
I’ve no idea how big this graveyard actually is, and that it’s entirely possible for me to wander around here for hours without finding the needle in the haystack, if it even exists, but luckily there’s no need to wonder, when I have access to a marvel.
A device that can very easily show me where to go, two seconds later, I successfully pull up a map, where the maintenance is even labeled.
How people found anything, before GPS is beyond me, and off I go!
More walking yay.
____________________________________________
It turns out the maintenance “Building” is really just a couple of shipping containers, where they happen to store their tools, lawnmowers, and a mini excavator.
All ever so tempting to take on a little joy ride, alas they require something not so easily circumvented by a mana bolt, an ignition key, but I have found my shovels!
A whole six of them, which kind of seems low for an entire graveyard, but then again, with the backhoe, how often do they really need to dig graves by hand?
The tools are quickly laid out onto the ground, before I head over to the nearest grave, and once again raise the dead!
Black mana sinks into the ground, before the grass starts to shake, to shift, and a skeletal hand bursts out of the ground, before clawing the rest of its body out.
Shining white bones, covered in red dirt, and its misty transparent black suit is for some reason dirt free.
I hand it three of the shovels, before picking another grave, and once again send my mana into the ground.
“Raise The Dead!” only this time something is different, something is well missing… The skeleton that crawls out of its grave is a little smaller than expected, it’s well, entirely missing its legs “I guess they can’t all be winners, but the real question is why did it still take the same amount of mana, even though it’s only half of a skeleton?”
…
…
…
“Soooo, no system notice, nothing, just going to leave me hanging?”
…
…
“Ughhh, whatever… you two? Follow me, and I will try to fix your legs once you make it back to base.” The last three shovels are propped against my shoulder, as we start making our way back to the lair, with the undead trailing behind me.
One falling a bit further behind with every step, but still endlessly crawling in my direction, two glowing orbs locked onto me, while its skeletal hands dig into the ground, and drags itself forward.
“Which is totally not creepy at all” After a few minutes of walking I make it back to my lovely mausoleum, which has something new towering in front of it.
Two piles of various decomposing bodies, something that doesn’t exactly smell like sunshine, and rainbows.
In fact, the smell of putrid rotted flesh really makes me reconsider the whole piling bodies directly outside of where I plan on going to sleep idea.
A few raindrops fall onto my head, and I glare up at the sky “But then again, it will work for now!”
Something though, is odd about the piles of bodies, one of them is significantly bigger than the other, by like a lot.
Around five times bigger than the other, which is strange, like sure, the two undead definitely aren’t the same, but this difference doesn’t really make sense, at least until I see it… There is a bright red trail of blood leading out of the mausoleum, and it feels like someone is punching me in the stomach with every step forward I take.
My heart pounds in my chest as my eyes take in the bright red streak of blood that leads directly into the larger pile, and I hesitate, before following it.
At first, there’s just various bodies in different states of decay, mostly skeletons, but some of them still have some rotting flesh attached to them, but then the pile shifts, and reveals a pair of worn black work boots sticking out of the pile.
It feels like an eternity passes as my eyes stare down at those boots, trying, failing, to find the courage to just give them a little tug, and when I finally do?
A body drenched in red blood comes tumbling out of the pile, it, it’s the body of a man, older at least in their fifties to sixties, with a head filled with gray hair covered in blood, in grime, wearing a long sleeve tan shirt, and blue jeans, which are still dripping his warm blood… His brown almond eyes are the most jarring part, they just stare into me, two empty, hollow, lifeless eyes, that almost seem like they’re asking how this happened, how something ripped out their throat, and tossed them into a pile of corpses like they’re nothing more than a worthless sack of meat.
A rattling stumbling sound drifts behind me, before the door to the mausoleum swings open, revealing a skeleton whose skull is dyed crimson, their torn suit is covered in red blood, and one of their legs is completely shattered.
The undead is still mindlessly dragging the remains, while my head goes between the dead man, and my undead, but thankfully?
He drags the remains he’s carrying to the smaller pile, and I almost start to relax, but then my other undead comes out.
She is drenched in blood, at least her bones are, it’s as if she poured blood directly onto her skull, somehow leaving her clothes completely blood free, but every bit of exposed bone is crimson… I can even see bits of flesh still in her teeth “This isn’t my fault I-”
‘Thump’
Another body joins the pile, and the undead starts shambling back “Notifications”
Notifications
Experience Earned
Class: Claiming territory, digging up bodies, and raising an endless horde of nameless minions who die fulfilling your will, it’s almost like you’re a necromancer or something.
Combat: A groundskeeper walked onto YOUR TURF, well technically his turf given he literally planted the stuff, but then again, he just worked here…
Ehh, well he learned a valuable lesson, before he went to meet his maker, when one sees bodies piled outside of a tomb, don’t investigate it, and in fact one should RUN the other way.
1 Assignable Attribute
Spells Leveled Up
Raise The Dead +1
“A groundskeeper… so it is my fault.” I stand there, as one body joins the pile after another, until a raking sound draws my attention.
My legless skeleton, finally managing to catch up, and let out a deep sigh, while staring down at them.
“Then again, no one made them attack my skeletons, no one forced them to make that choice!” I shake my head doing my best not to look at the groundskeeper’s body, but that doesn’t prevent them from constantly appearing in my mind.
“Well, let’s see if we can fix you, harvest.”
The groundskeeper’s body erupts in a spray of red, the flesh melting off their bones, as a red stream swirls into the air, their clothes sink into the ground, and their body deflates like a burst balloon.
My eyes stare into the sockets of their crisp white skull as it flakes apart, before throwing up, and collapse to the ground facing the cold gray sky, while four glowing orbs slowly circle above me.
“This is insane, am I really cut out for all of this?” https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XHSR!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0720e110-87e5-4a4a-bad5-f86e49da8b67_701x706.pnghttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_knj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2c1a8248-6a7a-4b89-9d5b-503d74fb958b_702x441.png
Due to formating issues this story doesn’t quite look the way it’s supposed to 0_o and you can read an updated version on Kobo, or other platforms. https://litrpgandpolitics.wordpress.com The story is also at around chapter 60 with around 400,000 words, and will posted once per day, until it’s caught up.
Then it will either be weekly, or twice a week, with that being said, I still welcome any feedback, after all I’m still editing everything 0_0 and different perspectives can so often help one see the things we take for granted.
Thanks for reading, and I hope that you have a great day!