Chapter 05: Fucked Up Shit and Great Strategies

As Alexia, Alice, and Lana had finalized their plans and were intent on doing what was needed to keep Alexia out of prison for the remainder of her life, all three of their phone ranged at just about the same time and simultaneously answered.

Alexia, on her phone, recognized the number as her old partner, Allen Mccoy, who she saw as a brother and her closest friend as well as her partner from when she was an FBI agent. Without hesitation, she picked up, hoping it wasn't about John Carlton, and said, "Hey Allen..."

"Turn your T.V. to the news, now quickly!" Allen said with a voice of great worry.

At the same time, as Alexia was talking to Allen, Alice had just answered her phone and said, "Hello?"

"Alice get to St.Addison's Cemetary. Most of everyone in the office has already been informed except you and a few others. Have you seen what's on the news? It's a real fucking disaster." Jacob Haze had said over the phone with a loud voice.

Alice turns to see Alexia turning the T.V. on to the news channel as bright "Breaking News" letters went across the bottom of the screen. Confused as to what's going on, she said, "Jacob, what the hell's going on?"

"I don't know, Alice. I haven't got there yet. But everyone's been called there when I say everyone I mean FBI, CIA, NSA, and Homeland Security. God Alice, we're in for a shit show." Jacob says while Alice watches the T.V. news anchor telling the public that 23 police officers and 13 FBI agents arrived in the cemetery, and only 4 survived an attack of some sort.

The news anchor looked to her side as a man approached and whispered something that made her jerk her head back, giving a confused expression. She then leans back toward the camera and says, "Ok people this just in at the cemetery it has been confirmed that over 130 corpses are now missing. Along with this new information from the first people on the scene, onlookers have reported that it seems that the graves and crypts were destroyed from the inside as if the dead clawed and punched their way out. This is Jackie Asagawa signing off for now, and we'll keep you informed of any changes that occur."

Lana coming back to her senses, closes her mouth, which was opened as she dropped her jaw while listening to the news anchor. She didn't usually curse, but when moments like these occur, she couldn't help but say, "What...the...actual...fuck. Ok, mom, I know you have to go to that scene but please be careful. Me and grandma will be here until you get back, and tomorrow we'll go to this bank on Allen Street."

Already on her way out the door, Alice says, "Ok, sweety, I'll be back as soon as possible. If I'm not back before, then go ahead without me."

The door closes, and Alexia finally hangs up the phone looking at the T.V. that had just reported the gruesome scene. She couldn't help but feel an increasingly intense feeling around her chest and stomach as if what she had done was linked to the cemetery somehow. She looked at Lana, who was now wondering who her grandmother was talking to since she had retired from the FBI a long time ago. She then looks back at the T.V. that was now reporting John's murder and says, "Well, the authorities found Johns body."

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John had used his {Shadow Manipulation} to teleport him and his horde of 183 back deep within the woods miles away from the cemetery. His horde now included the 19 remaining zombie dogs, the 130 corpses from the graveyard, and 32 police and FBI agents who were now all zombies under the command of John. As he turned and looked around to see all of his minions standing around staring at him like a massive mob of people looking for a leader, John fell to his knees as what he had done shocked him.

Remembering back to the scene, John had known himself as a cautious and shy person which he hated about himself as his shyness and pussified character was never as brave as tonight. He thought back to when he was tried in court for the murder he never committed when he was 10, 'Only if I had this courage, I was younger,' he thought.

Before he could wallow in any more self-pity, Dixie interrupted and said, "Oh, I forgot, Ding. Congratulations on reaching the max level with leftover experience now, you can use your {Evolution Manipulation} skill to choose your next evolution. Choose wisely; you won't be able to change back later."

Hearing this brought John back to his feet. He opened his menu and used his {Evolution Manipulation} skill, which took him straight to his evolution tab, and it shows a web that connected to different shapes and figures that eventually connects to him who was at the very bottom with a label of Skeleton. John wasn't surprised seeing that he at the bottom; after all, he was a boney ass Skeleton. (Author note: Yes I know it's a very sinful pun, but ya at least have to give a dog a bone (Hehehehe))

John saw that he had two possible evolutions that were high lighted. On the left was a Skeleton Magician, and on the right was Magic Zombie. At first, neither looked good as the option to see their abilities showed that they both only had abilities that were lesser or already fell under one of John's skills or abilities.

Seeing as there wasn't much of a difference between them, so John chose the Skeleton Magician, and everything around him went dark as if he was swallowed up by a shadow construct. All was quiet until Dixie appeared in the form of a small person that just barely fit in his hand instead of a ball of light like before. She was smiling before she said, "Prepare yourself, John, it's gonna hurt like hell."

John at first was surprised by her new appearance but thought back to what she had said and said in his head, "Well, I've been beaten and shot dead what could be worse."

Dixie looked at John and said, "Why does everyone say that phrase "What could be worse" when something worse is bound to happen. Know what? Fuck it, I tried to warn you."

John wished he could roll his eyes, but before he could imagine himself doing so, he felt a tingling sensation coming from his chest. To be more precise, it was his soul that was increasing that had increased by a radius of 30 meters. In his consciousness, his soul was the size of a mountain, but whenever he looked at, it was only ever the size of a basketball. Now, after being swallowed by this unknown darkness, his soul grew to surround him like a dome.

At first, he didn't think much about it as he believed it would be a quick process, such as going to sleep and waking up transformed. That was was until he felt an immense pain shoot throughout his body. He looked at his pearly white arm and leg bones to see them turning into a smooth and glossy obsidian that reflected the light of his soul that gave a brighter red and fiery pattern than before on his blackened soul. After his transformation, his body still seared with immense pain, A pain he'd never felt before as he groveled on the ground in agony.

"AAAHHHHHggggg Fuck fuck fuck fuck. Goddammit this hurtssss." John says as smoke begins to leave his mouth as a red light begins to permeate from his mouth as he speaks.

Dixie flew down to the ground and bent down near John's face and says, "See what I mean. They all regret saying those words sooner or later, but eventually, like you, they all learn to shut up and follow my instructions."

As Dixie walks off playfully, John shoots her a look of pure anger as he wanted to crush the kitten sized woman, but he remembered he still needed her in case something he couldn't make sense of appeared.

After a couple of minutes, the pain subsides, and John rises back up with one knee still on the ground and looks around as the surrounding goes back to normal, and his soul condenses to its original size as if nothing had just happened.

John was relieved that the pain had faded away, but now he had to inspect himself. His skeleton body was now entirely black and shiny as if he was now made out of obsidian. His fingertips and toes were now sharpened like claws, which John found to be cool. While inspecting his hands, he noticed a glow reflecting off of them from his face that made John curious as his radius bone to give him a better view.

What he saw gave him a chill downhill spine. Not because it was creepy but because John found it outstandingly the best part of his transformation into a Magical Skeleton. What he saw was what he believed were small red flames that gave him a menacing appearance. Along with his eyes was his mouth, specifically where the back of his throat would be, glowed red as a small red ball of light floated as if hung by a thread.

"Those flames in your eyes and mouth are nothing more than Mana that which gives you abilities so small that they are really recognized as abilities by your menu. From my records, you can now see Mana around you along with see-through objects, which the limit to how far you can see through is based on your level, P.S. test it later. The Mana in your throat gives you the ability to speak out loud clearly than before, and whatever you say or hear is translated to whatever the other person understands as their language." Dixie said non stop while noticing that John still had stat points he could spend.

She flew by John and said, " Ok enough of that, it's time to assign your stat points."

John looked up as if finally realizing that he had forgotten about them. He looked back at his stats and saw that he was now level 10 and thought about his current abilities and skills. Since his stats were very game-based, he looked back at the times where he played such games. From his memories, he remembered that his stats determined what a person was good at when it came to a fight. His highest stat happened to be Mana, which due to his evolution, had increased to 9500.

He looked at his other stats, except luck, which had also increased because of evolution by 25, which fell under the whopping 500 increase of his Mana.

His stats were now:

[stats]

Name: John Carlton

Species: <Magic Skeleton>

Level: 13

Str: 37 Wis: 225

Dex: 35 Mana: 9500

Agi: 35 Hp:155

Int: 175 Stat points:90

Lck: 0

John looked over his stats and was surprised that his luck hadn't increased, not even by 1 point. Seeing this, John thinking back to the previous event, remembered that during that event had nothing to do with his luck or vice versa, but then he began what would have happened if his luck stat was higher then.

Hearing his thoughts like a radio, Dixie said, "Your luck stat doesn't really affect much other than your luck in doing something, looking for something or when in a dire situation it affects the chances of the Dues Ex Machina system will come to your aid. In most cases, it wouldn't really help until your luck stat reaches around the 300 mark, which most species never reach unless they have an item capable of doing so."

At this point, John started wondering what kind of shitty system the gods had made, but quickly put it to the side as he decided to put 30 points to his luck stat, another 30 to his strength, 10 to his dexterity, 10 to his agility, and finally 10 to health.

Finally feeling satisfied with how his stats looked, he left his menu and looked at his horde of zombies as they stood and shuffled around, never going too far as they all still needed orders. John thought it was wonderful as his horde had in one night already stood at 130 zombies. Although there was one thing that stayed on his mind as he thought back to when he brought the entire cemetery back to life, It would quickly become more and more irritating if he had to bring back billions of humans.

Before he could think further, it struck him, when he was younger before his father died, he'd let him secretly play Resident evil on his old GameCube. He remembered although the zombies were slow, a bite or a scratch meant infection and eventual transformation into a zombie. He thought back to all the uses for the {Necromancy} ability, and he remembered that one of the sub-abilities included {Curse Manipulation}, and from the sound of it, he didn't even need Dixie to understand what he needed to do.

He channeled his magic for a mere second while thinking about the type of curse he wanted. He knew that with the current technology of today, curses couldn't be detected, so he put a lot of his faith into it.

He wanted his curse to be capable of bringing back the deceased no matter how long they've been dead. He needed it to be capable of spreading from the scratches and bites from all the undead under his control while also having a 32-hour time limit before a survivor turns while slowly eroding their minds and putting them under his command from the moment of transmission. He knew this was a gonna be sure-fire curse that was going to be his best weapon in bringing down human civilization. He just needed to get his horde to the right places during the right time, and all will be game soon as he found a suitable hideout.

John thought back to how he could get into the city undetected, and he remembers that on his way back to the cemetery, there was a huge drainage pipe that seemed to go under the graveyard and into the city. That'll be the perfect way to sneak over a 100 walking corpses into the city

John smiled as he thought, "It's good to see that increased intelligence coming in handy."

Without another thought, he wills the undead to begin their march to the sewage entrance as he makes them spread apart like Noah did the Red Sea.

"Oh jolly, this gonna be fun. Heeee! the beginning of our mission begins now!" Dixie said as she stood on John's head, pointing forward like he's a ship.