A tough start

Mark was on his way to work by car when he skidded on the icy roads and was hit by a truck. He died instantly. He was looking at his life to move on when all his memories were mixed up. Suddenly he stood before two paths that both shone brightly. Mark was confused why there were two paths, and there was no clue for either.

Mark approached the right path first, and he noticed how his soul became calm, and he felt free and peaceful. Then he approached the left path, and he felt his soul trembling with excitement, and his mind told him that adventure was waiting there.

The left path slowly became smaller. Mark did not long for peace, so he ran along the left path before the light disappeared.

Everything turned black for a moment, then it shone brightly. He opened his eyes as a loud noise rang in his ears, followed by a gentle voice. "Grim Reaper System has been installed in your soul. You are part of the natural order. Your greatest enemies are the undead and ghosts."

Mortis Lv 1 Reaper

Strength 6, Agility 6, Intelligence 4, Vitality 4, Stamina 5, Mana 5, Charisma 1 Abilities:

Scythe Swing: The scythe fills with mana. The next swing deals 50% more damage. Costs 5 mana. Passive abilities: When they kill something, they absorb its soul, which restores 10% health, 10% mana, and 20% endurance. They deal 20% more damage with the scythe but cannot wield any other weapon. They deal 30% more damage to undead, and ghosts and undead fear them.

"Get up, Mortis. You have slept enough. We are on a battlefield. It's time for you to make it out alive."

Mark knew that he was the one being addressed and wondered, but he struggled to get up. He realized that he was surrounded by corpses that smelled of blood and rust. In his right hand, he held a black scythe, and his clothes were torn with a cut at chest level.

It seemed that his soul had taken over this body, and his name should be Mortis.

But before he could attend to his situation, two skeletons with swords appeared on a mountain of corpses with a red glow in their eye sockets. They quickly approached him.

Mortis took the scythe with both hands and got ready. He swung his weapon back and waited for the two to get close to him. He did not want to move, as it was too dangerous to focus on the enemies and not stumble over the corpses. When the first skeleton reached him, he roared, Scythe Swing. The weapon in his hands began to emit dark mist, and almost automatically, he swung it towards the skeleton's head. Mortis hit, and the skull shattered into a thousand pieces. There was no time to rejoice because the second skeleton was already there. He wanted to activate the ability again, but nothing happened.

He became a bit nervous but swung the scythe at the undead being anyway. He missed with the long blade but hit the back of the skeleton's head with the handle. Mortis grinned, jumped backward, and pulled the scythe towards himself with all his might, slicing the blade through the skull in two pieces.

"Level up. You can distribute six stat points."

Mortis grinned, distributing two points in strength, two in agility, and two in endurance. He felt more rested at his level up and realized that he was getting stronger as he distributed his points. "Hurry up, go forward. It doesn't look good for the humans," the voice echoed in his mind.

"You can't even gloat or check the situation," Mark complained.

"Stop complaining. Your job is to put the dead where they belong and protect the living," his mistress admonished him.

"Yes, mistress. I'll get it," Mark grumbled, climbing over the numerous corpses.

As he made his way through the still raging battle, Mark wondered why he had ended up in such a situation. Couldn't he be reborn in another world, as a child? It didn't seem so, and now he was surrounded by enemies. But despite everything, he was having fun.

The stress and adrenaline pumping through his veins were right up his alley. His joy increased even more when he encountered new enemies. He even forgot where he was and that he had a new body. The desire to fight had taken hold of him and he became faster and faster.

He gripped the scythe tightly and charged toward the skeletons. From the side he used momentum and split three skeletons in half.

Mark's eyes glowed silver as the soul remains flew to him. He felt himself getting fitter again and his mana getting stronger. He switched stances and used the scythe as a barrier to keep the enemies away, stabbing the tip into the monsters' skulls.

He killed four skeletons when a voice in his head said that his ability was ready to use and he had recovered enough mana. Mark didn't think twice and used it immediately, causing three more enemies to fall.

"Level up! Spread out your SP!" said Mortis. While Mark was stabbing at the skeletons again, he noticed that he was full again and immediately used "Scythe Swing" again, this time at chest level, splitting five skeletons in half.

He quickly got used to the weapon in his hand and became bolder, tempting him to plunge further into the fray. This was a big mistake.

Although his passive ability ensured that undead would shy away from him somewhat, the preponderance of skeletons weakened him. Thus, he became the main target of all the undead in the vicinity. These walking bones didn't know themselves why they were targeting him and lost sight of their target, but he was their enemy, they felt it down to the marrow of their bones.More and more swords were swung, coming towards Mortis. He could easily dodge or block the attacks from the front, because the skeletons were slow. But he got some cuts from the side that hit his arms or his upper body.

Mortis was getting angrier and slowly backed up to avoid the encirclement. With powerful swings, he tried to bring everything in front of him to its knees.

A deep voice bellowed, "Boy, what are you doing? Come to us, it's safer!" But Mortis was deaf at that moment. The only thing he perceived were his enemies.

"Level up! Spread out your SP! Put everything into mana!" roared Mortis.

"Scythe swing, scythe swing!" And 8 skeletons fell to the ground. Now he had more room and the still moving dead had a harder time getting to him. He felt more and more comfortable in his new skin, and finishing them off ensured that neither his mana ran out nor his stamina waned.

His wounds were healing, which itched badly, but focusing on the coming wave of enemies he didn't mind. He continued to fight his way back with the enemies in front of him, wave after wave.

It didn't take much out of him physically, as he was constantly regenerating, but the mental strain was enormous. Not getting lost in the fury and keeping everything in perspective demanded everything of him.

"Level up! Distribute your SP! You have reached level 5. New ability acquired: scythe whirl. You jump forward flat for 3 meters and swing the scythe 360°. Your damage is increased if you hit multiple targets. Cost: 10 mana."

He redistributed his SP into 2 Str., 2 Ag., 2 Stm.

Mortis, Lv. 5

Strength: 14

Agility: 14

Intelligence: 4

Vitality: 4

Stamina: 13

Mana: 11

Charisma: 1

The waves subsided, no more skeletons followed. He moved too far away so that he no longer posed a threat.

Loud screams could still be heard and the clashing sound of iron. So Mortis approached the scene again, which no longer seemed as hopeless as it had 30 minutes ago.

A small bunch of people, together behind shields, refusing to be overrun by skeletons, could now be seen. Mortis quickly ran in their direction to join them. But no sooner was he near the bones than he was their focus.

It was time to test his new ability. Just before he got to the undead, he used Scythe Whirl. With a quick, shallow jump, he was ten feet away and did a quick spin. He hit more than six pieces, the last two were not only chopped in two, but pulverized.

A vicious grin spread across Mortis' face. He knocked down four more skeletons, then used "scythe whirl" again. This time he simply jumped into the middle of a huge group, killing ten bones in a single blow.

He turned around, knocked down three more skeletons, and worked his way to the other people pretty quickly. He made three more levels before he got to them, spreading his stats out to 4 Strength, 8 Agility, and 6 Vitality. It seemed like no one recognized him, because no one greeted him or was happy to see him.

Mark didn't care, after all, he didn't know anyone either. A deep voice said, "Boy, I didn't think you'd make it to us when I saw how many of those bastards were rushing at you. These are the last isolated enemies, when they are gone this battle will be over. Grab a sword and shield while we block them with our shields."

Mortis however could only use his scythe, as if ignoring the other he turned and stood in front of the shields. He was now hot to raise his level further. After all, these monsters were now no longer enemies, they were very slow and a normal slash or swing was enough to kill 2-3 at once.

So he used "Scythe Whirl" and jumped into the crowd, killing 8 at a time and working his way forward.

The soldier thought he wasn't looking right. This ugly little bastard really just mowed through the skeletons. Which was very pleasant for him and the others, but they wondered how that was possible and where he was all this time.

After half an hour, there was not a single standing skeleton to be seen in that field. Mortis even realized internally that no undead was around anymore. He did another three levels and distributed the points to 4 Strength, 6 Agility and 8 Mana. He tried to put Charisma points, but that was not possible.

Mortis, Level 11 Reaper

Strength 22, Agility 28, Intelligence 4, Vitality 10, Stamina 10, Mana 19, Charisma 1

Ability acquired. Walk in the spirit realm. They cover themselves with spirit energy and can walk through the spirit realm. If they touch living beings, they are thrown out of the realm and become visible.