Devon stared at the golden panel hanging in the air, the text glowing black. A flush of excitement warmed him, the idea of gaining Anubis's power, but something about the text bothered him.
'Why is the damn status so long?'
He focused, reading the lengthy text from the top, his eyes scanning every line.
[STATUS WINDOW]
[Name: Devon Adams Lambert]
[Title: Heir of Anubis]
[Rank: C — Adept Absorber]
[Level: 1]
[Health: 220/220]
[Mortuary Essence (ME): 100/100]
He blinked at the initial bars. 'You've gotta be kidding me," he whispered, careful not to wake Raline. "This is… this is like a real LitRPG."
He let out a short, nervous laugh, a mix of disbelief and gallows humor. "I read so many of these novels, they always talk about power systems. And now I actually get one?"
His eyes slid to the next section.
[Statistics:]
- [Strength (STR): 14]
- [Agility (AGI): 13]
- [Vitality (VIT): 15]
- [Intelligence (INT): 16]
- [Wisdom (WIS): 17]
- [Charisma (CHA): 10]
- [Defense (DEF): 13]
- [Luck (LCK): 11]
"Fourteen Strength?"
Devon paused. He remembered the stat blocks from his comic reading. Normal humans usually maxed out at five or six. Maybe an elite soldier hit eight.
"So I'm… superhuman now?"
He looked down at his hands, then clenched a fist. Something did feel different. A subtle density in his muscles and a lightness in his lungs. Curious, he reached for the backpack he had packed earlier. He lifted it easily with one hand.
"Holy shit."
His mind, conditioned by endless hours of fiction, immediately began to analyze the panel. "C Rank… so I'm not starting from scratch. Systems usually begin at E or F."
As he scrolled down, a cold dread replaced the excitement. The list of skills was unsettling.
[Skills:]
- [Death Sight]
- [Essence Siphon]
- [Minor Life Drain]
- [Spectral Hand]
- [Ephemeral Shift]
"All of these… they're about death."
A shiver ran down his spine. He swallowed hard, trying to regain his composure. "Death Sight… means I can see auras? Essence Siphon… drawing out death energy? And Life Drain… sucking the actual life out of people?"
Devon inhaled deeply, letting the breath out slowly. It was shaky. "So… I'm some kind of Necromancer. But, like, the Anubis edition."
He continued reading, and the final line made the hairs on his arms stand up.
[Corruption Gauge: 0%]
"Corruption…" he murmured. So, the warning Anubis gave him, the one about not becoming like the demons—it had an actual indicator.
"Oh, fuck." He realized the crucial difference between this and typical Necromancy. "A regular Necromancer just controls dead bodies. But this system… it's like I'm becoming part of death itself."
He stared at his palms with rising horror. "Every time I siphon a soul, I get stronger. But there's a risk of going mad… it's way riskier than boring ass Necromancy."
"Devon…?"
Raline's voice, rough and weak, cut through his thoughts.
He started, and the golden panel instantly vanished. As he turned toward her, a second shock hit him.
The huge, empty, dark mini mart was completely visible to him, just as if all the overhead lights were on. But the power was still dead.
'Is this the Death Sight doing its thing?'
"Devon… why is it so dark?" Raline's voice came again. He could see her clearly as she tried to sit up. He rushed to help steady her.
"Why are you up?" Devon asked, grabbing a bottle of water for his sister. She took it, gulping down two mouthfuls.
"I've slept too much," Raline replied, glancing around, though all she saw was pitch black. The candle Devon had lit earlier had burned out. "We're still here, huh?" she said, sounding unsure.
Devon sighed. "Yeah. Don't know how long we'll stay, but we're safe for now."
She nodded. He asked her, "Are you hungry?"
Raline turned her head towards the sound of her brother's voice, which she couldn't see in the dark. She answered, "No. Besides, we can't see anything. How would you even find it…"
Devon bit back the urge to say 'I can see everything, though.' Instead, he simply reached for the snacks he'd gathered earlier from the overturned racks. "I organized stuff this afternoon. Makes it easier when it's this dark," he said, setting a few packets next to Raline.
Her face brightened, even though he was the only one who could see the expression. She instantly grabbed a packet she recognized as her favorite chocolate bar. She ripped it open and ate with obvious pleasure.
He watched her, considering his options. Should he tell her about the system, about his vision, which he knew wasn't a dream—of Anubis?
As she enjoyed her chocolate and Devon debated, a quiet but distinct scraping sound echoed in the dead silence of the night. The sounds seemed to come from the ground, from places where asphalt and cement didn't cover the earth.
Devon tensed. The sound wasn't in one place. It was in several, simultaneously. "What the hell is that…" he whispered, his voice catching in his throat.
He stood up immediately. Raline, who had also heard the noises, didn't move. She knew getting up would only increase the risk of her stumbling and making a noise that could attract any nearby skeletons.
Through a small gap in the boarded up third floor window, he peered out. Even without streetlights, he could see everything clearly. The patches of earth, especially beneath the trees between the buildings, were moving, as if something was pushing its way up from below. Almost every patch of exposed dirt was disturbed.
From the moving ground, Devon saw a faint glow of dark black light streaked with thin, golden threads. He squinted, recalling the description of his new passive skill.
[Death Sight (Passive): Detects the presence, movement, and residual aura of souls, both living and dead, within 200 meters. The clarity of vision depends on spiritual resistance and environment.]
'Don't tell me what I'm seeing now is the aura of a bunch of undead…'
His hope was immediately dashed. From the disturbed soil, skeletal hands, their white bones contrasting sharply with the dark aura surrounding them, clawed their way out of the ground.