A Rising Power

As Keat reached the bottom of the wall, he immediately moved towards the closest structure to begin sifting through the rubble to see if he could find any clues. As he progressed deeper into the ruins, however, his hairs began to rise, and he had the distinct impression that he was being watched. Regardless, he pressed on, refusing to give up on this lead. Whatever was here, was going to give him an advantage, and he would make sure that he got it. After several minutes of searching, the best he could find were old bricks and some petrified wood, so he continued deeper into these ruins. As he went to leave, however, he came across a pile of petrified bones. The bones began to move, structuring themselves into a full sized skeleton. As it was lethargically forming, Keat quickly pulled his Firestick out and concentrated. He held off firing the Firebolt until the creature had finally formed, doing his best to aim for the largest target on it; it's chest.

-70 mana

The Firebolt flew towards the skeleton, crashing against it's chest and shattering the bones around it. What bones were left, slowly began to burn until they, too, cracked and splintered. After only a few seconds, the bones collapsed to the ground.

'Thank Yrosa that the skeleton is so old, or it might not have been that easy." Keat thought to himself as the notification rang out in his head.

.:.Undead Skeleton killed, +200 XP... XP Maxed, acquire material in order to level up.:.

'Huh, Well, I guess that's what I'm here for.'

Keat quickly picked up the rust covered sword from the skeleton, before he continued to press on, more wary about his surroundings than before. Now he knew that there were dangers in this place. He continued moving towards the center of the ruins, He believed that whatever he was looking for would likely reside within a central keep of some sort. Eventually, after nearly a half hour of walking, he arrived in front of an inner wall. He stared at what clearly used to be a gate with a number of bones surrounding it's former entrance.

'Those are definitely enemies, and I count 4 skulls. This one is going to be difficult..." Keat thought to himself as he considered his options. He tightened his grip on his blade, and pulled out his Firestick. As he readied himself to attack these skeletons as fast as possible, he felt a chill run up his spine.

"Hello there, fleshling. I'm curious as to how you found our humble little home?" A voice asked from behind him.

Keat quickly spun around, while trying to concentrate his mana into the firestick. Unfortunately, he did not have enough training, and the mana simply evaporated before it condensed into a firebolt.

-15 mana

"Shoot! Wait, who's there? I don't see anything?" Keat asked, puzzled and a little dazed.

"I asked you a question, fleshling, and I would hate to have to repeat myself." The Disembodied voice replied, in clear annoyance.

"I was just looking for some material to level up." Keat continued to try and scan his surroundings, believing whatever this entity was, it must be invisible. He was doing his best to look at the ground to identify any footprints or broken twigs.

"I didn't ask WHY you were here, I asked HOW you got here. And I grow tired of asking it." The voice said, before a black skeleton creature in rusted armor appeared before him. It wielded a great sword that had it's own rusted red coating, although Keat could tell that ancient dried blood resided on the blade.

"I...Uh... Well, a Goddess told me about this place, and I just kind of felt a pull when I entered the forest." Keat answered honestly, as there was clearly something off about this place.

"Interesting, that makes sense to some degree. Well, Fleshling, it's your lucky day. Mortals of this Cycle cannot enter the ruins that remain from the last Cycle, so you are my only chance to be free of this place. So, I've decided; I'll be going with you." The black skeleton said, as simply as if it were taking a breath.

"Wait, what?! You can't go with me, my family would lose their minds! Why can't you just leave on your own?" Keat asked him, trying to think of a different way to appease this hulking skeleton.

"Don't worry, fleshling, I know where an old Phylactery is, I wont be around physically. But first, you need a class. Come with me." The skeleton told him, as he placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. Then they vanished, appearing inside a room of black marble, with several torches with no flame illuminating the room. In it, a robed skeleton was in a pile, with it's skull shattered. In the pile, there rested a single black orb, of which light seemed to be consumed when touching it and what appeared to be a black scale. The black skeleton walked forward and grabbed the items, before walking to Keat and presenting them to him.

"The Orb is the Phylactery, and you can use the scale to acquire a class. It's a scale from an ancient black dragon, so it's pretty potent. Once you have a class, we can sign a contract. You'll probably be a necromancer, since it's got a lot of negative energy." The Skeleton told him, clearly proud of itself.

Not seeing another option, he grabbed both items from the skeleton. This must have been what Yrosa wanted him to do anyway, but it would definitely pose an issue with his family. Imagine what the church would do if they found out he was a necromancer! He put the orb away, and held the scale cupped in both of his hands. As he did, he received a prompt from the system itself.

.:.Material Acquired... Would you like to consume this material in order to acquire a class? [Yes | No].:.

'Yes.' Keat responded in his head, and then the scale seemed to turn into particles and seep into his skin. Immediately, he hit the ground and curled into a ball as an immense pain rocked his body. His first thought was that he was back in his car, dying, and that this had all been a dream. The idea quickly faded as the pain did as well.

.:.Class Acquired... You have been given the class... Death's Sovereign.

You have been granted the class abilities Magical Knight, and Undead Companion!...You have gained the ability to cast level 1 spells...You have learned the spell Dark Wounds... You have gained 5 ability points...Congratulations!.:.

Keat immediately pulled up his status screen, investigating his newfound abilities.

Magical Knight - This Class Ability allows you to your weapon as a catalyst, and you no longer have to consume material while cast spells.

Undead Companion - You can select any willing or mindless undead, and have it join your legion! Simply approach the undead, and activate the ability.

'Well, those are pretty useful abilities...Now what about that spell...'

Dark Wounds - Condenses negative energy and can be used as a projectile. Heals undead, and harms the living.

'Well, that's certainly interesting.' Keat thought, before turning back to the skeleton. Before the Skeleton could even say anything, Keat activated his Undead Companion class ability.

"So, what should I call you?" Keat asked the creature.

"I went by Radomire a long time ago, but names aren't important to me." Radomire replied nonchalantly, before he accepted the pack and teleported back to where they were originally.

"Well, Radomire, lets go ahead and wipe out the skeletons here!"

After he said this, he tightened his grip on his blade while rushing over to the closest skeleton. Radomire, however, was much faster, and began fighting his target. As they approached their targets, all 4 skeletons began to stand up. Keat concentrated his mana through his blade, and it roared to life, wreathed in flame. He was able to strike the skeleton before it had fully formed, leaving a spiderweb of cracked going along it's shoulder.

'Crap! I missed the head.' Keat cursed to himself, before taking another swing at the skeleton. The skeleton lunged forward, not even trying to protect itself and aiming to skewer the fleshling before it. Unable to dodge, Keat traded blows with the skeleton, taking 10 points of damage, while he shattered the remains of the skeleton infront of him. Radomire, however, had simply dropped his great sword off of his shoulders, and let the gravity shatter the first skeleton he approached. After destroying that skeleton, he kicked his right foot and simply launched himself in the direction of a second one. He crashed into it, and sent the creature flying into one of the stone walls, where it cracked and splintered.

The third and final skeleton, however, rushed towards Keat. Keat concentrated his mana on his blade once more, and then aimed his sword at the skeleton's weapon. After knocking the blade away, he followed up with a swipe to the skeleton's chest.

'I need to avoid getting hit! That one hit took half my HP!' Keat thought to himself in a slight panic. Just as he was stepped back to block again, Radomire appeared behind the skeleton, and punched it in the back of it's skull with his gauntlet, ending it. Then, they both stared and the last skeleton, as it was rushing back into the fight. Keat simply stepped back and let Radomire finish it off with a swing of his great sword.

+800 XP