Surreal

In a sense, I was stupid.

For the vast majority of my life, I'd done nothing other than sitting around in my room playing games, watching movies or even just porn. Hardly traveled and never really had to do any chores. My parents took care of that.

And they were awfully lax in almost everything. Even to studies and stuff; they were always hopeful that one day I'll change my ways and stand on my own feet. But as time marched on, and it became clear I couldn't go to college, things changed. They stopped having hope for me. They stopped even talking at times.

Did I care? Not really. I still had my games. I still had my porn. I didn't need their affection. I didn't need anything from them. After all, I had everything.

Only once they were dead though, did I realize… yeah, I needed every darn thing I thought I didn't. After all, in reality, I had nothing.

If I was a little smarter, I wouldn't have lost the house. If I was a little hard working and actually worked before, I could have gotten a decent job and not be on the streets. If… I wasn't so useless, I wouldn't be dead.

"That's Brailen. It's just a small city but for our purposes, it should be good enough," said the girl, pointing.

A triangular city of sorts with walls and fire on top of the walls. And no, it wasn't small by any means, at least twenty kilometers of area. Two hundred, three hundred visible buildings. Stone or maybe even bricked! And hundreds of smaller buildings.

We'd been walking for well over an hour. The east coast had been lighting up a little. These two both wore their helmets so their words came out with a metallic tone. 

Given their explanation, it was clear this wasn't the same world. Or at least that's what I would have assumed and that's what I had. However, they still called this place Earth. So maybe I was just in a different version of earth? A parallel universe perhaps?

According to them some good ten, eleven thousand years ago, the world blossomed anew with the advent of the undead and the undead ruled for a good ten millennia and then crumbled.

Now about a thousand years later, I was probably the first new undead. Or maybe just a recycled version of the past?

I did wake up after dying so maybe this was what happened? Or maybe not. I had no idea really. Cause this seemed and felt like an entirely different world. Besides, I didn't see light bulbs or cars, or buses, or planes- nothing. And the city down there? It barely had any modern architecture and it didn't take a genius to figure that much out. So, this couldn't possibly be the same earth.

"Do you know any magic?" I asked. And given how they could just take out things out of nowhere, I knew there had to be. Actually, us being alive, was also magical.

Also, some of the grass had been glowing the whole time? How the hell didn't I notice?

No, it wasn't that I hadn't noticed. Rather, I'd just taken things for granted. I'd been marveled… at this world. This new world and without question, walked with these two.

"Yes, we can use shadow magic. And as a pureblood you should be able to use darkness, I think," he said. "Actually, you could just give it a try. Point at that glow grass and yell Dark!"

'Is he making fun of me?' As if magic would be that simple. 'I've watched hundreds of anime I'll have you know!'

You'd need imagination and all that crap!

"Dark-"

A ball of darkness surrounded the grass, snuffing out its light.

Eh?

Huh?

Wha?

Drowsy…. "I feel tired," I mumbled.

"Yes, that's because you used up some mana points. You just woke up, so you probably don't have enough; you'll be fine once you rest up in town."

Their concepts were very video game-ish but I didn't have any menus or icons or whatever around me.

Oh well.

"Any other spells?"

"Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, and alike. I'll buy you a beginner book in the town," the girl said. Apparently, her name was Siarre?

Those spell names were awfully familiar… "Do they have stronger versions?"

"Oh yes, for fire, it's Firen, Firon And Firirin!"

It felt… like a rip off of a certain franchise…

"I'm guessing the rest are similar?"

"Yes. For dark it's a bit different though. Dark, Darken, Darkeen and Darkenin!" He, Escalor laughed out loud. "But please don't worry. We can only cast darkness magic, so you won't have to remember other names anyway. Oh, and don't use the higher tier spells. They'll drain you so fast, you'll fall asleep."

Hah, hah, very funny.

A golden ray.

'The sun…'

Wait. Wasn't the sun like… the bane of all undead?

Staring back, I saw it.

The deadly red ball slowly rising. Big, big red ball. The sun. Its golden rays fell on me- us-

"ARGHH!!!" I screamed… "Ah?"

But no, it didn't burn me. I for sure thought it'd smoke the hell out of me.

'You watch far too many vampire crap…' A mild sigh.

"Something wrong?" Siarre asked.

"ARGH!" I cleared my throat. "N-not really. Just practicing my voice but only groans come out."

It was true though. Only groans came out. They were only understanding me only thanks to the darn rings….

Escalor chuckled.

And though I heard the girl snicker as well…I proceeded to ignore all that.

But to be honest this whole thing was… surreal. 

We were fairly close to the city but it still took us half an hour.

There was a crowd before the gates on both sides. People were about to get in. and some were trying to get out. Carriages: Some were pulled by horses, while others; cows, big lizards and even ostrich like birds?

The moment we arrived?

We were the center of attention.

I guess cutting the line and just walking up to the guard wasn't a great way to not stand out.

***

"Name and ID SIR?"

Both zombies just showed the guardsman their IDs.

Meanwhile I looked around.

 A vast majority of the people here were not humans. They looked fairly human but with deformities. Some had long ears, some had long nose, some even had long necks or toes. Some people had extra appendages while others lacked hands altogether and had wings or tails.

Although it felt very fantastical and stuff at first, in the grand scheme of things… it also felt kind of creepy. Why? Because I didn't see a single 'normal' human being.

Then again, were humans ever normal to begin with?

"Name and ID sir?" the guard wore a chainmail vest along with a helmet and a spear. He seemed very… rugged in a sense.

And the people were similar in that nature as well. Almost everyone had armor of some sort. Only few wore typical clothes but there was nothing special about them. As in, just raglike mute colors and style.

"Groan."

"Your name is Groan?" He let out a mocking groan. Definitely skeptical. A tall guardsman, almost as tall as me. "Can I have an ID 'please?'"

Why call him tall despite me being average?

Because-

Because!

Everyone, every single person around me were short.

They were barely five foot five.

Also, their faces were very symmetrical almost like the east Asians.

'Did I travel to Asia?' No wait, I was dead. And this was a different world.

"SIR? ID?" His grip on his spear tightened as his voice grew more violent.

"He can't speak. He only recently revived," Siarre said.

"Revived? You mean-" the guard paused.

"Yes, he is a Skeleton," Escalor said, pumping his chest up. "A highborn Undead." Yeah, I had a feeling they didn't introduce me first thing just so they could gloat about it.

I'd been keeping the rag pretty tight over my body, so they probably didn't notice? No that wasn't it. They should have at least had a glimpse of my skull.

'Oh?' The guard actually didn't look up at me. At my face.

Was he- was he afraid?

"P-please go right in… Sir." His tone changed dramatically and his gaze remained on my feet as he shivered lightly.

The rest of the people near us? All had their heads lowered.

 Creak!

The barbed door creaked, inching upwards. It took a good three minutes before it fully opened. Now normally, these people had to either crouch or pay a hefty fee for the gate to be fully opened (Probably for the carriages) but for us, they just opened it without a moments delay! Still took three minutes though.

Quite thick walls. and they even had outposts within the walls. Small rooms. On the other side, I saw houses. Mud, stone, wooden houses. And even concrete like. Not bad architecture. But there was a problem. That being- 'Not a trace of tech, huh?'

Almost all the houses were two storied. I couldn't read the signs. I did understand the local tongue though.

"Shall we head off to the guild first?" Escalor said.

There were plenty of people here and of course they stared as though they were staring at foreigners.

"What? No! We should first let our lord rest and then shop for his clothes and armor. How long will we keep him in that rag?" Siarre hissed.

But I wasn't worried about any of that. What I was worried was the sky. And the moon. Or rather- the big, really big, almost breaking apart moon that seemed to be coming down in a sense.

"Hey, has that always been up there like that?" I asked.

"What? The Moan? Yes. It looks like that but I've been told it's been the same for thousands of years."

Yup, definitely double. And it was breaking apart. Surreal didn't even begin to describe the damn feeling.

A lot of take in but- "I need information. Up to date information before anything else."

"Then the library?" Siarre asked. "But should we head to a store to buy armor?"

"Let's do that afterwards…"