Chapter 02: Dirt and Tears

Fear weighed heavily on Alexia's chest after making it home. Fear of being caught for the murder she'd just committed. Thoughts ran through her head lighting speed. She's never killed someone on accident even when caught terrorists and serial killers while working in for the FBI.

'Of course, what I did was right, right? Nobody is going to miss a monster like him. Even when he was dying, he continued lying. But why'd he want me to find this safety deposit box key?' She thought as her head spun at the thought of doubting her actions.

She entered the two-story house that she's lived in ever since she first married her now-deceased husband. As she walks into the house, all of the lights flip on, and in an instant, she whips out the very same pistol she used on John and points randomly at people in front of her.

All the people around her stood still in fear and some in shock. A middle-aged woman approaches with her hands raised just above her breast as a worried expression settled on her face.

It was Alexia's daughter, Alice, who was in her 50's who had secretly orchestrated a surprise party as tonight was her 80th birthday. As she saw the gun, she knew her mother was spooked and scared. She never saw her mother as scared as she is now, so she knew something was wrong.

"Woah, their mom everything's alright why don't you just put that down," Alice said softly as she slowly pushed the gun down and took it away from her mother.

Alexia looked around and to see the shocked expression on the other 12 people's faces as she came to her senses. Remembering that today's her birthday, and this was a surprise birthday party, she quickly came up with an excuse and said, "Oh... oh, I'm sorry I thought I was being robbed. You know you can't surprise me like that, especially in this neighborhood ."

Even though she said that playfully she could clearly see that she didn't fool her daughter and granddaughter.

After everything was over, and the guest left 3 hours after the get-together. Alice sits next to her mother in the living room, staring daggers at Alexia, who, although she looked calm and peaceful. Her fidgeting hands and feet gave her away.

Knowing that her daughter, who was a well renown FBI interrogator following in her footsteps, she sighed and whispered, "After thinking things through, I believe I killed an innocent man tonight."

Alice's eyes went wide at what her mother had just said, but she quickly jerked her head as behind her, Lana had dropped her phone in shock, revealing she had been eavesdropping.

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John was close to landing as he could see the city that he grew up in. While he was falling, he wondered how exactly does he look wrapped in a purple energy while burning the oxygen around him.

He was now just 15 second from impact as he came closer to the ground

passing trees and just barely missing a one-story house.

'Thhooooom"

The sound of him landing in the outskirt of the city made a thundering sound that echoed for miles to come, easily making all other noises seem like a leaf landing on the ground compared to a tree falling.

John opened his eyes to see that he was in a crater the was 3 meters deep and very wide. After doing a thorough check of himself and finding nothing else out of the ordinary other than him being a walking skeleton in a crater within a cemetery. Knowing that someone would come to check the impact area, John quickly surveyed the area he was in.

Thankfully because he was on the outskirts of Hornbrew City, a city north of Nashville, Tennessee, there was a forest surrounding John on all fronts except his south.

After examining his surroundings a little better, John could see that he was in a cemetery with hundreds of well taken care of graves surrounded by a forest and mountains to all sides except the south where a street ran parallel with the edge of the cemetery. Some even had their own crypts, which meant even more graves.

This reminded John that he was supposed to be working towards becoming a The God of the Undead, so he must have something to bring the dead back. But before he could open his menu, a bright light from a flashlight is shined upon his back, making his shadow appear on a nearby crypt.

'Damn, have I already been found out?' John thought as he slowly turned to the blinding light.

Past the blinding light, he could just barely make out the appearance of a young groundskeeper wearing a dusty brown jumpsuit that's clearly seen better days. The young man's face was one of complete fear of the crouching skeleton in front of him. John knew that if people knew of his existence before he could even put together a plan for his revenge on the human race, his whole quest would become exponentially harder.

Knowing there were several ways to fix his problem, he could only think of a sure-fire way to minimalize his exposure. He stands up in front of the six feet tall man who stood still out of complete shock and horror. Although John didn't have eyes, he could see that the was a graveyard marker behind the groundskeeper high enough for him to trip. But John didn't think about tripping him; he had something else in mind.

John quickly stepped forward and smacked the flashlight to the left with his boney right hand, unintentionally smashing it to pieces. Before the young man could react fast enough, John had already grabbed the poor man by the throat with his right arm bone. John looked the young man in the eyes while showing him the pitch-black emptiness of his skull where his eyes once were. The area by the young man's crotch quickly became dark and wet, making John feel repulsed by the young man's act of fear.

'Come on your grown-ass man, probably in your mid to late twenties. At least die with a little dignity,' John thought as he didn't have lungs nor a voice box to voice his opinion toward the young man.

Feeling a little irritated by the young man's clutching his arm bone with one hand while trying to pry John's cold hard finger bones from his throat, John raised the slightly heavy young man up. Without warning, John quickly put his left hand on the young man's back, and with all his might, he slammed the guy's head into the corner of the grave marker, making a cracking sound from the young man's skull.

The cracking sound of the young man's skull slightly unnerved John, but John quickly put it past him as he knew this was just the first of many things that was going disturb him and the more there was, the quicker he'd become desensitized to the genocide he'd commit in the future.

After killing the young man, John could make the sounds of sirens and fire truck horns in the far off distance. Knowing it would be worse for him if the police just happened to see a skeleton standing over the dead groundskeeper, so he ran north into the sea of trees.

Six hours after running into the trees, John stops running, thinking he'd ran enough stops to look at his surrounding. The forest had nothing but trees and bushes, giving John a sense of relief, giving him the chance to let down his guard.

[Level-up]

A feminine voice from within his mind says as clear as day spooking John and making him look for the origin sense he wasn't aware of anyone else near him.

"Stop looking idiotic, Mr.skele. I'm in your big empty head. Just focus hard on your mind, and you'll enter your consciousness where I am," The feminine voice says, calming John, who was slightly scared despite being in an attack stance.

John, not knowing if he could truly trust the voice better yet trust the voice crouches near the nearest bush to hide himself, then focuses as hard as he could, and everything becomes black. The only thing John could see was complete darkness except for two orbs light that floated in front of him. One of these orbs was red and mist-like and huge like a mountain that was completely still. The other baseball-sized orb glowed blue and had small translucent wings.

"Who or what are you, and what is this place..." Before John could ask anything else, he stopped and was stunned by the fact he could talk despite still being a skeleton within this black void.

While bobbing happily forward, the small orb approaches John and says, "Oh, don't be surprised we're in your mind where it doesn't matter if you speak what you want to say or think it. I'll hear it. Also, I'm Dixie, your personal assistant that comes with the god system that Creation Goddess gave you."

Flying back towards the larger orb of light, Dixie says, "This here is your soul that's been enlarged due to two factors: Your tortured life before dying, which made it the size of a basketball, and the Creation Goddesses gift to you."

Dixie continues talking by saying, "Look at your menu in the stats tab. Thanks to the Creation Goddesses gift, your stats are far superior to that of any human in this world. Especially considering that in this world, the average human has a stats averaging at 5 or 8. Although some humans go above the average mainly because they happen to have occupations ranging from hard labor, Athletes, Law Enforcement, all the way to being soldiers."

John following along with Dixie, looking at his stats, and if he had facial muscles, one could see his shocked facial expression at his stats.

[Status]

Name: John Carlton Level:2

-Stats-

Health:130 Mana:9000

Intellegence:150 Wisdom200

Strength:12 Dexterity:10

Agility:10 Luck:0

Stamina: Infinite

Stat points: 10

Seeing his Mana, wisdom, Intelligence, health, and stamina clearing standing above John looks back at Dixie, who says, "The Creation Goddesses gifted you was a massive increase to your mana stat. While all the other stats like your health, which in normal humans would be 100 and never increase, only increased 30 because of your level, which is now 2.

Understanding this, John began thinking his life has now officially become a game thanks to the gods. John didn't mind since playing games was something he found joy in between work, finding evidence, and avoid contact with other humans before being shot dead.

Feeling that John was now at ease after comparing his life to a game, Dixie continues by saying, "Now if you went over to your skills and abilities tab, you'll see the different skills and abilities that the other gods gave you."

Willing his menu over to the skills and abilities tab John saw the six different skills and abilities the gods had blessed him with along with several other skills that John could guess from their names were all due to him being an undead.

Before he could see what all they could do, Dixie yelled, "John watch out we're surrounded."

John left his consciousness and looked around him and saw he was indeed surrounded by 20 feral dogs. They all looked starved and feral while most looked sickly with ill. To them, John looked like a buffet despite being a skeleton.

"Ok, John, I'm gonna advise that you use your {Darkness Manipulation} skill to either conjure or use the darkness around you to defend yourself since it's night time already. Just focus on your soul and try and pull the energy, which is Mana, to your hands and will it to either pull the darkness around you to your aid or make it from nothing. But you have to hurry since this looks ugly." Dixie says in a worried tone as she knows John doesn't even know the fundamentals of magic yet.

John knowing the situation is dire, begins to focus will the Mana from his soul to his hands to will the darkness to the ground around him. This reminded John of all the Dracula novels he read, while being locked up in the insane asylum, where Dracula impaled his enemies on poles. So using the darkness that he had made into a round defensive perimeter that covered everything within 7 meters with darkness, he waited, ready to spring his trap.

Although the dogs felt the fear and dangerous intent of the circle, their hunger reaching the max, driving them all crazed and rabid. They all bolted simultaneously without a care in the world as long as the hunger now their minds dull and their appetite ravenous.

John waited for the majority of the feral dogs to enter his defensive perimeter before he could spring his trap. Within seconds they were all in his perimeter, and the closest feral dog had already pounced intending to take a couple of John neck bones.

With a little focus, John willed spikes from the darkness that coated the ground within his perimeter and impaled the feral dog that aim for his neck. Following afterward was the feral dog behind John that had tried to take John's left leg and so on. All 20 feral wild dogs had now been impaled by Johns's dark spikes, which he felt like he'd be calling {Black Spears} from know on.

John looked up at the moon that over him along with the dead feral dogs as if they were an offering to a god. It was a horrible sight, but John felt nothing. No remorse for slaying the wild dogs nor feeling any empathy or sympathy for them either. It was like John had let the hatred and sorrow that had built up throughout his 80 years of his life all out at the same time, which killed his ability to feel anything for the lives he'd soon come to take.

While John was admiring his work, he heard a chime.

[Ching]

Playfully Dixie says, "You've leveled up."

[Status]

Name: John Carlton Level:9

-Stats-

Health:130 Mana:9000

Intellegence:150 Wisdom200

Strength:12 Dexterity:10

Agility:10 Luck:0

Stamina: Infinite

Stat points: 90