Chapter 6 : Undead (1)

Laughing off the situation, I quickly grasped what had happened. Honestly, there wasn't much to think about.

Hans had died.

The connection was completely severed, making a reverse summoning impossible.

During meditation and various skill trials, I came to understand more about "avatars."

An avatar, upon death, can be regenerated after a certain period.

The newly created avatar becomes a new entity, with all previous progress reset.

The loss of the recently deceased avatar, who had only undergone a few days of intense training, was regrettable but not a major concern.

It was time to figure out the cause.

Why did Hans die while in a supposedly safe village?

And how did he die without even realizing it, even in deep sleep?

'Well, the problem is pretty obvious.'

If it had been just an external attack, I could have noticed it somehow.

So, what was the issue?

'That old man...'

I couldn't help grinding my teeth.

I thought I was lucky.

I had managed to take down a leopard in the dangerous forest by myself, found a small village nearby, and the village chief had treated me kindly.

Sure, I had been naive.

It was the first time meeting in a strange land.

The people I met in the village weren't harmless NPCs like in a game.

But I couldn't just be on guard and aggressive all the time.

After all, wasn't it me who sought their help first?

'What did he do? Drug the drink? A sleeping potion? But I didn't feel anything odd until I fell asleep...'

Even the drink I shared with the village chief showed no immediate effects, even after a while.

'Maybe I'm just overthinking it, and it was an unexpected accident...'

Slap!

I stopped my wandering thoughts by slapping my own cheek to regain focus.

The loss I suffered wasn't significant.

It was just a few days of Hans' effort, the food expenses, and some lost belongings.

In fact, losing Hans before any greater loss and learning more about "avatars" turned out to be a valuable gain.

However, I couldn't afford to be naive and positive indefinitely.

The dangers of another world were proven by the average return rate statistic of 20%.

Had it not been for the avatar, I would have died in less than two days after arriving in the other world, and everything would have been over.

It was time to think about a response.

Should I send another avatar? But the Summon Teleportation Circle has a cooldown of a day, so it's not immediately possible.

I'm hesitant to send to a place with unknown dangers again.

Should I send it somewhere else? The teleportation circle can only send to places the previous avatar had visited.

Even if it's far from the village, it's still in the middle of a dangerous forest.

As I was fretting over what to do...

...I reconnected with the avatar in the other world.

***

The first thing I heard was the village chief's voice.

"Tsk... thought you were of some use, but you turned out to be a dud."

"Indeed, sir. Considering he made it through the forest of beasts on his own and seemed quite capable in his work."

"To think I expected more than an Elite Skeleton. My expectations were too high. Let's leave it at that."

"Yes, master."

The village chief's voice faded as he locked the door.

Unconsciously tensing up, I relaxed my stiff body and sighed.

Click—

No, it was just my imagination.

As I realized, my body didn't relax, and no sigh came out.

As I was about to check my body condition...

"Your species has been changed to 'Undead'. You have acquired the special skill 'Decayed Heart'."

I looked at the message with a grimace, then inspected my body again.

It was like the human skeleton model I saw in the school nurse's office.

After a closer inspection, handling my arm bone and peering between the ribs, I came to a conclusion.

'My heart is missing?'

'Decayed Heart,' huh?

I grumbled about the generic naming without considering the entity's characteristics.

The village chief was a necromancer, who killed me and then revived my corpse as an undead.

And 'Hans' became a moving skeleton, an Elite Skeleton.

"Avatar Information"

- Name: Hans

- Species: Undead (Elite Skeleton)

- Common Traits: 'Mind Hub', 'Super Recovery'

- Unique Traits: 'Decayed Heart', 'Magic Affinity'

- Notes: Transformed into undead through forbidden sorcery. Immune to all negative effects such as death, poison, curses, and illusions. 'Mind Hub' prevents mental contamination.

My head hurts. Well, I suppose it's just a figure of speech since I don't have a brain.

But soon, I stopped wallowing in self-pity and decided to assess my surroundings.

The sudden change was disorienting, but it was an avatar I had considered lost, so there was nothing new to adjust to.

Observing my surroundings, I noticed differences from before.

First, despite being in pitch darkness, I could see everything clearly.

Or should I even call it 'seeing'?

Curiously, I inserted my finger bone into my eye socket. Yep, it was hollow.

Removing my finger from my eye socket, I looked forward again. Despite lacking eyeballs, there was no hindrance to my vision.

Moreover, unlike humans who have limited fields of view due to the focus of their pupils, my entire frontal view was visible in one glance through the empty eye sockets.

I could also sense the vitality around me.

Yes, the presence of a mouse, scurrying in and out of a hole behind me, was distinctly felt.

This must be an effect of the 'Decayed Heart'.

A quick check showed that I had skills typical of the 'Undead', from resistance to mental attacks and cold, to undead infection and a hatred for living beings.

'With "Mind Hub," I should be able to filter out the negative effects, so no worries.'

It seemed I was in a large underground storeroom.

Glancing around the dilapidated cellar-like surroundings, I approached where I had felt the mouse.

'Ah, jeez! What are these?'

There stood a line of undead like myself.

Scattered amidst them were various objects, and they stood still in the darkness, unnoticed until now.

From zombies to skeletons armed with bows or clad in armor.

Watching them for a moment, the mouse that had been noticeable earlier scampered out and approached one of the zombies.

It then grabbed a dangling toe bone and darted back into its hole.

'Ugh... disgusting...'

Shuddering at the sight, I took a closer look at the zombies, feeling somewhat responsible.

...There were men, women, elderly, and even children among them.

'These bastards... did they...?'

I recalled the scene.

From the moment I entered the village until I roamed around the next day, there were no children to be seen.

And the most significant reason I thought it was a pioneer village was the attached fields.

While helping around the village, I hadn't seen a single person working in the fields. Back then, I had overlooked it due to my lack of knowledge about farming...

'These bastards have taken over an entire village!'

The malice of these beings was infuriating.

At the same time, I was overwhelmed with how to proceed.

'Of course, sighing is out of the question. No, enough is enough!'

The entire village seemed no different from a stronghold seized by warlocks.

Considering there were undead that resembled knights, they must have been disguising a regular pioneer village to deceive others and hatch their plans.

And I had cheerfully walked right into the jaws of the monster.

Thinking back, the questions the village chief asked seemed intended to check if my disappearance would go unnoticed.

The day's grace was probably to ensure no trouble would arise from consuming me.

'How can I deal with these fiends?'

Although realizing I had been killed or turned undead did annoy me, it wasn't until I saw the sacrificed children that my displeasure peaked.

They had crossed a line too far.

Ignorance was one thing, but knowing and doing nothing was another.

Especially now that I was undead, there was nothing to lose.

If I could get back at those who betrayed me, great; if not, so be it.

'First, I need to gather information.'

After all, time was all I had.

***

Over the next few days, I explored the underground storeroom where I was confined.

Though it only amounted to a bit over a day in Earth's time.

There seemed to be originally two entrances, but one was completely collapsed and unusable.

Essentially, there was only one passage the village chief and his disciple used.

'Wow, how many are there?'

Next, I examined the other undead present.

The zombies appeared to be mostly ordinary villagers, but there were also skeletons armed to the teeth with various weapons.

There were about fifty zombies. Including skeleton soldiers like the skeleton knights, there seemed to be at least three hundred.

Click, creak—

The sound of a lock being undone and a door opening was followed by approaching footsteps.

I immediately ceased my actions and stood still like the other undead.

Since becoming undead and being confined here, I learned that the village chief's disciples would check the storeroom every two or three days alternately.

"Ugh, how long do we have to stay holed up in this backwater?"

Grumbling while casually surveying the storeroom was a face I recognized from when we repaired the village palisades together.

His name was Jephy, wasn't it?

I had thought he was lazily shirking work back then, but he turned out to be a disciple of a dark wizard.

"Huh?"

Sensing something amiss, Jephy turned to look in my direction.

'Did he notice something?'

My non-existent heart seemed to drop. Well, except for the 'Decayed Heart'.

"Why is this here? As always, no one does their job properly but me. [Move over there.]"

With those words, a compelling force tried to move me. Immediately, I realized I could resist it if I chose to.

But it wasn't the right time yet.

I allowed the force to guide me, moving without resistance to join the other skeletons.

"What, everything looks fine. But really, why bother checking every time when it's just us here? The old man is too fussy."

Waving his glowing staff carelessly, Jephy eventually left the storeroom, still grumbling.

Click—clack

Even after the door was locked, I stood still for hours, then carefully started to move. There was no need to rush.

Being too hasty could lead to getting caught, better to be cautious in everything. After all, 'Hans' had all the time in the world.

And there was a significant discovery this time. The force Jephy used to control me felt familiar.

And for good reason—it was the same force that moved my body.

The mechanism that moved this undead body was different from that of a living being. After all, I had no muscles.

The power flowing through my body, the so-called 'dark magic', acted in place of sensory organs and muscles, causing various actions. This must be one of the 'Decayed Heart's' basic effects.

Having 'Magic Affinity', I could replicate this newly understood use of power directly through my body.

'I can control other undead.'

Conveniently, there were hundreds of undead around me, left unattended.