A lone wisp hovered over an Unholy pool tainted by Necros Aether, quivering like a puppy in the cold. It bobbed up and down, floating near the water, taking small sips and then going back up. It was the size of a big tennis ball, with a glowing grey inner light, which was it's core. It's form was like liquid fire, shifting between solid and liquid. One felt drawn to it's light but also hesitant, like wanting to touch a dying flame, and yet the Wisp was ice cold.
This wisp was Tobias, the soul of Mama V's guard that Lesley had taken.
He'd agreed to become a spirit, which had sounded better than being a skeleton. Luckily it had required very little Soul points, after Lesley converted his Necros points to Soul points.
Tobias soul was apparently weak enough to only require 0.1 Soul points. It was a degrading fact that made the wisp weep in self doubt and crushed self esteem.
But there were benefits.
[
|•|
Name: Tobias
Species: Undead Spirit
Rank: Low level Wisp {Summon}
Class: None
Main law: None
|∆|
PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES:
Strength: 1
Agility: 5
Stamina: {Limitless}
Vitality: 15/15 {+ 1.5}
Endurance: 1/1
Sanity: 80.0
Loyalty: 50/100
|∆|
MAGICAL ATTRIBUTES:
Spirit: 20
Spirit Core: Grey {Awakening}
Aether: 10/10
|∆|
UNDEAD ABILITIES:
[ALLURE | Level 1]
[LIGHT FLASH| Level 1]
[PHASE| Level 1]
[LIFE SENSE | Level 1]
|•|
]
He had powers! Real supernatural powers!
That was freaking cool to a guy who had just been a bottom feeder in an apocalyptic world most of his life. Sure having no arms or legs was strange, but he had been like that for a while inside Lesley's Soul space. He was honestly grateful to be outside in the world again, being in another dude didn't feel right to him.
Of course, he was aware of the clauses and his current position of being a Summon spirit. That meant he was here to do whatever Lesley said, or he could take a hike. Talk about being in a hard place and a tight corner, at least some would think that but he didn't.
Being inside Lesley's Soul space, he had seen some of the memories in Lesley's head and he honestly felt sorry for the kid. He reminded him of how he used to be as a kid in the slum of Old Greenhit. His parents had eaten each other and he'd had to put them down himself.
Then came the fighting, clawing his way from group to group till he ended up in Mama V's group. Things had been different back then, he'd struggled a lot to believe in Mama V but he'd had no choice. She would have killed him along with the group he had been with. He was happy she'd taken a shine to him.
Better to be alive and better off than dead and proud.
Ironic he was thinking that now, when he was no longer human or alive. However things were different here, he wasn't forced into this. When Lesley had asked him what he wanted, he'd actually been thinking about it for a while. Joining the kid's mission seemed better than to join his enemy.
To fight Death, Tobias chuckled as he looked at the direction where Lesley and Mel were sitting and watching. He honestly couldn't believe the kid had the guts or the insanity level to want to do that. It was rash and dangerous, but the kid had a goal, something to live for. Tobias never had that, sure he did fight for Mama V, but that was to stay alive.
He'd had no purpose. He mulled over each day, living it like a zombie, bored and unsatisfied. That day when Lesley had absorbed his soul... was the day he was set free from the shackles of life. He was something else now, something more and his purpose now, was to see the kid fulfill his goal. He'd help with everything he had, which upon comparing to Mel, was little, but he'd prove useful.
Damn, he thought, me a Survivor allying with a Red cross and a zombie, what a world this is?
For that was why he was there, floating upon a Defiled Pool, using his ability [ALLURE] to attract other wisps in the area. Any zombies that wandered close were dispatched by Mel with brutal efficiency.
Tobias was getting really scared of that blonde zombie and wondered how Lesley could stand next to him so nonchalantly. Then again, the kid wasn't any less ruthless, the few that got past Mel were executed with quick savage attacks that made normally dying seem pretty. The two were beasts in Tobias eyes and he wondered if he'd ever reach their level. At the moment, he was as strong as a baby and one punch from either Lesley or Mel would fatally injure or outright kill him.
He wondered what dying a second time was like.
"Hey Tobias!" Lesley shouted as he walked to the edge of the pool," You sense any other Undead spirits?"
"Uh...no. Look I can't really sense anything here but this pool of green water." Tobias floated higher," I mean my ability [LIFE SENSE] doesn't really work on the Undead and [ALLURE] works on anything with high enough Sanity. If a Spirit did show up, I would probably have no idea."
"It's okay, we will do this for an hour, then we'll leave. You'll kill some low level zombies and grow stronger. Before you ask, we'll help." Lesley glanced to the left and jumped across the pool, landing a vicious punch on a wandering zombie," Got that Tobias?"
"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, Boss." Tobias quivered as the bloody juices of the zombie littered the place like a psychotic painting of black and red.
Lesley sighed softly and slowly looked around, checking for any straggler zombies that escaped Mel.
"Interface, what are the chances of Undead spirits being here?" He asked and the Bloodline interface answered quickly as usual.
[Places with high levels of death force have high chances of containing undead creatures and spirits]
[Host is advised to be patient with his Wisp]
"Hey, it's not like I'm rushing him or anything." Lesley replied sharply," I just want to gain some useful abilities. The ones I have are good but none of them are for combat, either defense or offence. Also, I want to stop leaking Aether everywhere and the possibility of causing trouble."
[Host should not be feeling guilty. Your Aether Core draws Aether into your Aether Soul Sea and your body. However your body lacks meridians, passageways for the Aether to enter and be contained. You are only a Cultivator in name after all]
"Is that an insult I hear?" Lesley was starting to feel moody when talking to this interface. It just had a way of reminding him he was a freak with a disjointed way of power and soul.
[Bloodline interface is incapable of insults. Only Critic and Advice. On that note, your Wisp is trying to get your attention]
"What?" Lesley saw Tobias floating towards him," Oh, hey did you sense a spirit?"
"Uh...no, I sensed a-" Tobias tried to answer but Mel cut him off.
"Human. A living human is here." Mel said sniffing the air and looking west.
"Seriously? Who would be dumb enough to walk into a zombie infested cemetery at night?" Lesley asked, ignoring the fact he'd walked through hordes of zombies when coming there.
...
A small group of zombies stood underneath a dead tree, clawing the bark with their broken bloody fingers. High above in the tree, a figure rested on a thick branch, looking down with trepidation and anxiousness. Their figure was hidden by a dirty brown rain coat and they wore pink sandals. They held a small crimson satchel tightly to their chest like a treasure.
It was unclear how long they had been up there, but that didn't matter. Because as soon as the zombies try and manage to start to climb, the person above will be in true danger. Zombies weren't the smartest bunch when in the low rank with a low rank core and mostly were walking starving dummies.
But one thing zombies had to their advantage was an unending level of stamina, where they don't even get tired. Humans needed rest and recuperation, necessaties shared by many living creatures and one major reason they fall under the onslaught of the undead. A zombie can claw at a door until it breaks, bash against a wall until it gives and crawl for miles with no rest, all for a bite of life force.
The figure in the tree could not stay up there forever, and would have to come down and die. Unless another factor were to act, the person's fate was sealed. But the likelihood of that happening was minuscule and very unlikely. People didn't help each other anymore, especially strangers unless they had something to gain. If a group of crazy survivors were to get near enough to the cemetery, and notice the person in the tree, they would most likely toss rocks at the person for them to fall and die.
But no one ever went near the cemetery.
It had the most zombie population and the air itself had a burning sensation that made living creatures feel like breathing in poison. Not like they were breathing in poison, but that they should breath in poison. The atmosphere of the cemetery craved death, and most people who ever came into the cemetery would start to crave death. The death force would influence their minds making them either commit suicide or mass murder. For death was forever hungry for life, and their forces were in constant flux over the other. Life impedes death but death devours life and such is the way of things.
The figure jumped from the branch towards the ground.
A blurring ball of light appeared amongst the zombies and pulsed with a hypnotic light, drawing the eyes of all the undead and freezing them in place. The figure landed on the ground and froze, waiting for death to come in clawed hands and vicious assault. When they noticed the zombies not doing anything, they looked up and saw the ball of grey blue light too and also froze.
A blonde haired young man walked softly amongst the group of undead and grabbed the human, covering their mouth so they wouldn't scream and then quickly moved out of there. Six seconds later, the zombies started moving again looking around for the human but not finding her, and gone too was the ball of light. All of this had happened in 10 seconds, which was how long Tobias could use [Allure]
Meanwhile Lesley leaned against an old tree in the cemetery, stroking it's bark and trying to see the energy inside it, or to sense it. The Bloodline interface said cultivators had a talent for sensing energy if they focus, and since he was waiting for Mel and Tobias, Lesley decided to give it a shot.
He had nothing else to do till they were back.
He closed his eyes and took slow breaths, his hand holding the tree trunk and his mind focused. Slowly he tried to reach his consciousness towards the tree, to try to sense something more than bark and dry sap. It was hard, especially with the occasional wandering zombies groaning and moaning making him on edge. But slowly, he closed the rest of the world out and became utterly focused on the tree.
A tiny flicker of green appeared under his eye lids as he faced the tree, tiny little sparks then appeared and disappeared. They followed a channel, a pattern made from trails and when Lesley got a good look, he saw the outline of the tree. Lesley looked down at his hand and saw green sparks floating in a slosh of green and grey with no order, no order that was utter chaos.
Looking around, he saw other sparks, of various colours and hues, but the most prominent were black and red. Lesley tried to touch them but they seemed to fade through his hand, evading him sometimes. He tried to use [Necros Absorption] but whatever the sparks were, weren't undead energies he could absorb. He did however notice the grey sparks in his arm become more chaotic than the green sparks and then some of the external black sparks move closer to him a tiny bit.
"Hey Interface, what are these things?" Lesley asked mentally.
[That is Mana, it is a form of energy used by Mages, Rune Masters, Knights and Mana Beasts]
"Mana? Then where is Aether? How many energies are there?" Lesley asked in confusion.
[There are three different types of energies within the Plane, each different in efficiency and use. These energies are Mana, Divine energy and Aether. There are others, like Qi or even Origin energy, the highest known form of energy, but it is not included since it is found outside of the Realm and not produced by a Plane.]
"Hey, isn't Qi used by Cultivators? I remember reading about it." Lesley asked," I should have asked Lych about this."
[Correct. Qi is used by Daoist cultivators but you are not a Daoist cultivator. You are an Avatar Cultivator.]
"Avatar? What's that mean?" Lesley wondered out loud but was surprised by the answer he received.
[Lych has forbidden you obtaining this knowledge until you reach the Soul Ascending rank.]
"He...what? Why?" Frustration built up in him again for being denied information.
[There are various things you will know, but they will be provided at the proper time. Overwhelming you with information will only lead to confusion.]
"Ugh, fine. But where is the Aether I absorb? I only see Mana sparks all around me." Lesley replied softly, looking around with his eyes closed still.
[Host is correct. There is no Aether in the vicinity. Outside of the Reanimated dead, there is no Aether within the city or the planet. The only energy abundant on the planet is Mana.]
Lesley lost focus and opened his eyes in shock," What?"
"Hi Lesley," A young voice said behind him, getting his attention.
"Wait...Veranda?"