Level Up!

Since the groups of undead were near identical except for the quantity of them per group, Locke wasn't able to clearly identify just how many there were. The groups had between three and six Wandering Corpses on patrol. Since he had a better understanding of their strength, he planned to take out another group of three which should level him.

Locke waited for a group of three and it did not take long. He flung a loose rock at one of the corpses which caused the group to aggro towards him. The one he had hit with a rock was a few meters closer than the others which would give him enough time to kill it and kite the other two.

However, as soon as the corpse reached his side, he froze. Truthfully, Locke was quite good at games, especially roleplaying games with fighting. However, what he did not expect was the level of realism. He had always suffered from combat paralysis since a child. Whenever a situation would get too intense or violent, his body would stiffen.

This was the primary reason why he died so many times. However, no one knew this about him and just assumed he was really bad at the game. He stood there slightly shaking as his senses were overwhelmed by the three undead approaching him. He simply stared at them; his muscles locked.

Inside his head, scenes from his childhood were playing out over and over causing him to be unable to do anything in game. He and his best friend were being kidnapped. When they were taken to an abandoned facility, the kidnapper threatened his friend. Locke snapped and got ahold of a pipe. He beat the kidnapper to death right before the police arrived.

No one blamed him and he was sent to therapy. However, his friend was afraid of him and began to avoid him. Over the years this warped into a fear of confrontation and his body would lock up in many situations. Unable to afford any treatment, he just lived with it and delved into gaming.

[You have been slain by Wandering Corpse Level 2. Do you wish to activate Soul Anchor Y/N?]

It took Locke another five minutes before he calmed down. He silently cursed his memories which wouldn't go away. No matter how much he pushed them to the back of his mind, they would always come back with the slightest stimulation. He confirmed the resurrection and woke up in the cave where he died.

Fortunately, he had lured them instead of engaging in the chamber or he would probably die immediately upon reviving. He looked at the server time and realized he had been playing for twelve hours since first coming to this cave. Locke logged off and lied in his bed staring at the ceiling.

He started crying out of frustration. Punching the side of his head, trying to rid his mind of the thoughts which plagued his psyche. When his head began to throb and the pain numbed his thinking, he got up and shuffled into his dilapidated bathroom. He turned on the shower and cold water covered him from head to toe.

Once his clothes were drenched, mind blank in pain and temperature dropping slowly, numbing his body, he dried off, changed and went to bed. In the morning, he woke up fresh and excited. After eating some dehydrated food and chugging some water, he logged back into the game. Locke had completely forgotten about why he died and was ready to level up.

"Once I'm finally level 1, I don't even care if I die. The experience requirement goes down by 50% to get back to your previous level! I can't wait to show those guild bastards who the real trash is. Once I take first place in the leaderboards, people will beg me to join their instances."

Locke lured a group of three over and got to work. He swung at the first undead twice with normal attacks killing it with ease. He swung at the second one, recognizing the half damage, he used one [Bert's Crushing Blow] and then switched to the third undead. While dodging and attacking, he only got hit once before taking out both level 1 corpses. Then used finished off the level 2 corpse.

[You have defeated Wandering Corpse Level 1: 21 exp, +2 copper coins, +1 soul chip.]

[... 21 exp, +1 copper coin, +1 soul chip.]

[... 84 xp, +3 copper coins, +2 soul chips.]

Ding, ding!

[You have reached level 1. +5 free attribute points gained. +1 free skill point. New skill Life Sense acquired.]

[Warning: Death energy exceeding body's limits. Allocated 3 attribute points into END.]

'Five attribute points! The top class only gets three attribute points a level! But dammit, the game screwed me out of three points for no reason. Whatever, I'll put the remaining two into strength and level up [Early Grave].'

----------------------

Name: Lucky Skeleton

Class: Death Acolyte [Lvl. 1]

Status:

38/38 HP

3/16 SP

STR: 3 (5) - AGI: 1 - END: 5 (7) - INT: 2 - MYS: 4 - LUK: 1

Skills: (Level!) Early Grave [Lvl. 2]; (New!) Life Sense [Lvl. 1]

Details:

Life Sense [Lvl. 1]: Within 15 meters, sense the soul of any living creature. Sensed creatures may be targeted with non-projectile spells. Toggle: 1 SP/minute.

Early Grave [Lvl. 2]: Target enemy with level less than Early Grave's level plus user's total level (3). Spend soul points to trigger a natural death between 4 minutes to 45 minutes. Cost: 1-200 Soul Points Cooldown: 1 hour

------------------------------

While he was admiring his stats, he suddenly got a notification on his menu. He opened it up and the phone icon was shaking with a red "1" next to it. He pressed it, and Black Bull was calling him. The conversation started with Bull shouting 'Dude' with an elongated 'u'. When he finally finished Locke was able to reply.

"What is it?"

"You leveled up! If I was a gambling man, I would have just earned a thousand credits! Damn dude, next time you want to do something like this, let your buddy know. The people in our guild you were kicked from would lose a ton of money to Uncle Bull."

"How did you know I leveled so quickly? It only just happened."

"Psh, man, I check on you ever day to make sure you haven't offed yourself. I don't know where you live, but I can at least alert the game authorities to check on you. If you aren't on every day, I'd be worried."

Locke was stunned by his declaration. He always assumed Bull just pitied him and liked a good laugh occasionally. He never realized that this stranger considered him such a close friend. Locke felt a bit bad for not considering him a friend before. He made a decision at that moment and couldn't help but blurt it out.

"Let's start a guild for just two people. I will be famous in the future. Nothing can stop me from taking over the top position and crushing those damn arrogant bastards. Once I'm strong, I'll take all of the achievements and first clear bonuses."

"You serious dude? Did you get a hidden class or something? You haven't acted like this since the day I met you. It's refreshing. I missed that spunky kid who had a dream of success."

Locke realized he was getting ahead of himself and remembered the first month of playing. He was so happy and proud to play the game when it came out with everyone else. At first, the amount of time he invested was seen as a huge boon and he was quickly accepted into a famous guild.

However, after his consecutive deaths and remaining in the starting area for so long, he was kicked without even a mention. One day Locke logged on and saw the notice in his inbox. He was so frustrated that he died three times that day.

"Never mind. Ignore what I said. Talk to you later."

Locke hung up and felt melancholic. He was so excited from leveling that he had forgotten just how much it hurt to fall after climbing. He pushed away his ideas and refocused his priorities. Locke had long since agreed to focus on earning coins and improving his life.

'Fame isn't for me anyway. I would just screw it up like I've always done. Its best if I can move into a decent apartment and have some luxuries in this poor life.'

Locke checked his pouch and looked at the 2 silvers he had. This was all due to farming the level 0 corpses yesterday. He hadn't gotten the chance to post one yesterday, so he quickly set it up. A silver was 300 credits, it would cover a month of rent with some of the money he had saved.

He turned back to the corpses that occasionally wandered within his vision range. The cave was covered in luminescent mushrooms so it was fairly decent lighting. He pondered his next steps, while deep down, a seed of hope was slowly blossoming. Locke didn't realize it, but he really wanted recognition from the public that he rejected.