A moment of silence filled the air as my mind reeled at the realisation I'd been mocked by a talking bag of bones.
Two can play at that game. I lower my sword to my side and walked towards the lead skeleton.
"Now listen here ya talking leftovers, ya clearly understand my concerns here so how about giving me the benefit of a proper explanation." I poke him in the middle of his rib cage once I'm close enough to fully promote my sarcastic attitude.
"OH! OH!", the skeleton erupts with disbelief, "It looks like we have a comedian in our midst." He pokes me back as he continues…
"You want all the proper treatments of a warm welcome and nice conversations right AFTER BLOWING UP THIS HILL! ARE YOU MAD!" he flails his arms wide as a gesture to the now non-existent hilltop.
Once again, I'm stunned but I'm not one to back down either, so I yell back, "I HADN'T CONSIDERED THAT PART! THAT'S MY BAD! BUT ALSO! WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU POPPING UP OUT OF NOWHERE LOOKING LIKE A HALLOWEEN SKELETON DURING THE GOD DAMN APOCALYPSE!"
The other skeletons started looking back and forth from each other with evident concern on their expressionless faces as we yelled at one another.
"I DON'T HAVE A CHOICE ABOUT MY BODY! AND I DON'T HAVE ANY CLOTHES EITHER SO WHAT CAN I DO!?"
"FAIR ENOUGH! HOW DID YOU BECOME A SKELETON!"
"WE WERE CURSED!"
"Cursed?", I asked, all intentions to continue the banter vanishing as I realised this could be bad for my health.
"Yeah. Cursed. It happened about five years ago. When the monsters started showing up. One of them cursed the town."
That's a new one. I've never come across a monster that can curse a town.
The skeletons don't rush me as I think about this new information.
After I while I say hesitantly, "is it still around?"
"Oh NO! God's no. We haven't seen it since it cast the curse." The skeleton was waving its hands in panic as it tried to convince me the beast was gone.
"The beast has been since that fateful day, so you don't have to worry about getting cursed yourself. I think."
"Then why did you all come to me. If not to make me one of your own."
The skeleton seemed somewhat offended that I thought it would want to do that.
It's odd. How I've met more skeletons than people recently. The last guy was hell bent on killing me though.
"You're not the first skeleton I've met, or even the second. Maybe the thousandth. The last mob was intent on killing me too so can you blame me?"
It's strange how despite the lack of skin and muscle I can tell that the skeleton in front of me is mortified to hear of my experiences with skeletons.
"Well I don't know where the hell you were that you found a mob like that but maybe that beast is still alive and cursing folks around."
"Ah no no the beast wasn't involved with them. You see I died and ended up in a mass war against grim reapers with my soul on the line. It didn't matter how many I killed, they just kept coming back."
The more I spoke the more unsure the skeletons around me felt. When you can't kill it with fire this is the next best option.
Just confuse the fuck out of it.
And even better if everything I say is literally true.
"Well… that sounds like quite the experience. If you were able to kill those skeletons then perhaps you can help us after all."
"Sorry?"
"Kill us."
The skeleton leader and I just stared at one another after his declaration of their death wish.
This guy is cut from the same cloth as I am. Shameless.
"Why do you want me to kill you?"
"Because this shit sucks."
Another moment of silence filled the air.
… he isn't going to explain unless I ask but that would be admitting defeat.
I gesture with my free hand for him to continue the story until he eventually digressed.
"That dark water stuff down there is the cause. During the day the water, us included, flees the sunlight and seeps deep underground. And every night the water rises, dragging us with it. Basically, we are dead during the day and return to 'life' at night."
Well now I know where this dark expanse came from which is a good start.
"As you might be able to imagine being a skeleton isn't exactly glamorous. We can't eat or drink anything. Our clothes have long been lost as they don't get pulled underground with us. The town is nearly collapsing from water damage, and we don't have the materials to fix so eventually we will be homeless too.
We can't kill ourselves and trust us we have tried. We've smashed each other with rocks, jumped off roofs headfirst, even just ripped each other apart with our bare hands but we always survive. We also can't find the edges of the dark water to try and escape.
We've tried everything to get away from it but we also get dragged back underground and rise again the following night. As you can imagine it is a monumentally boring existence, and we would really appreciate it if you could find a way to kill us. Isn't that, right?"
The skeleton paused as he gestured to the other skeletons who nodded in agreement to his statement.
Flabbergasted I looked at each of the skeletons near me as they showed their deathly resolve to find a way to die.
Can't say I've ever been on that end of the spectrum before. Usually, I'm really trying not to die so this is an odd one for me.
Regardless I agree, "Ok then", as I swing my blazing sword with my full might, reinforcing it with [Accel], [Incras] and a coat of burning mana. I target the skeleton leader's rib cage to try and destroy as much of his body as possible.
However, instead of slicing clean through him, the blade took the rib cage with it and sent it flying far into the darkness, of which the rest of the bones simply collapsed to the ground.
"Did it work?"
"NO YOU NITWIT! YOU DIDN'T LET ME FINISH TALKING!"
It clearly didn't work as the angry voice was coming from the disconnected skull laying sideways in the hilltops molten rock.
"Well, I don't know how else you expect me to kill you if that doesn't work."
"I was about to get to that when you split me into pieces! Do you know how long it's gonna take to find those ribs?"
I scratch at the back of my neck as I give him a puzzled look. Why would I know how long that would take? I've never lost my rib cage before, have I?
"What I was going to ask was if you could have a look around during the daytime. We've searched everything around here at night and tried to of ourselves, but we can't investigate during the day. There has to be something that is keeping this curse going right? Or if not then could you one day find and kill the beast responsible. Surely that would end the curse if nothing else would."
Right. Right…
That makes more sense…
"Ah yeah. Sure. I can do that." Staring down at a talking skull is an unusual experience in and of itself. It's jaw fell off so now it makes even less sense how it's talking.
"Thank you." It says as one of the skeletons nearby came to pick up its head. Another few collected the rest of it's bones at the same time.
"We'll head back into town then. I'm sure having us around isn't going to do much for your nights rest so we'll take our leave and pray you successfully kill us in the morning."
"Ah yeah… sure. I'll give it my best."
With that the skeletons retreated into the darkness, disappearing from sight in moments.
The rest of the night was entirely uneventful, but I naturally couldn't get any good rest knowing an army of skeletons could rise from the darkness at any moment.
Although they didn't, and the same came up only a few hours later.
True to the skeletons claims the dark expanse around me started seeping into the ground as the sun rose over the horizon. Before it had even fully revealed itself the dark water was gone.
I did promise to try my hand at killing the skeletons, but I need enough time to get as far as I fucking can from here before nightfall as well.
So, without a moment to waste I returned to the dingy rundown town to have a look around.
Same as the previous day the town looked deserted and creepy. The buildings were still dripping dark water but when the droplet hit the ground they didn't splash. They just went straight through the ground.
That's unsettling at best.
Not wanting to be here any longer than necessary I try to find something that could be the anchor for their curse. But as our investigated every house and every room, nothing gave the impression.
Ultimately, I don't believe that anything is here that is keeping the curse going. That means that the beast itself is likely responsible, and I'd have to kill it to break the curse.
That being said, a monster that can give rise to an army of indestructible undead isn't something I can defeat yet.
Given that I don't seem to be able to break their curse I go to one of the buildings and rip a large piece of timber from it. It almost falls apart in my hands but enough of it remains for my purposes.
I use my finger and a hot flame to burn a message into the board "I'll kill the beast" and take the board to the hilltop to leave it where they'll be able to find it. It wouldn't do if the water washed it away when it rose again.
Then before leaving I set the entire town on fire.
This could just leave the poor skeletons homeless and angry at me but I have no idea if I'm even capable of finding whatever could be maintaining the curse, so this is the best way for me to ensure I didn't miss it.
If it's not here, then they find the board and just have to wait until I take care of the beast. Which I will one day. Just might not be soon is all.
With that taken care of I bolt into the distance to get as far away as possible from this ghost town.
I don't know how far the dark water reaches when it rises and I really don't want to touch it in case it curses me. I head straight north, opting to hurry my search for civilisation, as I've had enough talking to dead skeletons to last me a lifetime.
I want to find people that are still alive.
I would like to find people on the archipelagos, but I don't think it's likely. Either way I want to speed up the search, so I'll aim to reach the first island within a week.