DIE TRYING [A Roguelite Extraction LitRPG]

Scroll of Raise Dead: Restore a soul to any defeated target and reanimate their body. Target affected will be soulbound and loyal to you.

The scroll burned up in blue flames, embers floating away.

It also triggered a primal response from Wade: He'd gotten his hands burned before when pouring boiling water in ramen packs while half asleep. The experience both woke him up real fast, and made his jobs ridiculously hard for a good week while his hands healed.

Difficult to stock a store when just grabbing anything made him flinch.

Since then, he's had a primal reaction to anything that could burn his hands another time.

Thus, when seeing paper burning away in his hand, he moved on trained reflex and threw it as far away as possible with a manly terrified squeak.

He was lucky he didn't need to hold onto it anyhow, else he'd have been real pissed at wasting the scroll.

Blue flames erupted from the skeleton's remains, floating off the bones without any smoke. The flames didn't spread outward but rather inward, coalescing around the bones and seeping into them like liquid. The skeleton's scattered pieces began to tremble, then skitter across the ground toward each other. Connecting like lego parts.

"Holy shit." Wade muttered, scrambling back further.

Selena had her spear and shield out, and aimed right at the skeleton, preparing for the worst.

The bones reassembled themselves with unnatural precision. There was hardly any sound too as each piece connected and held firm. Wade watched in fascinated horror as the flames spread over the body then concentrated in the eye sockets, burning with an eerie blue light.

And then nothing more.

No more fire anywhere, even within the eye sockets. It looked like any other skeleton now, just put back together.

And it stayed on the ground, unmoving.

"Did it work then?" Illy asked, "Identify's showing 'Level 37 Undead Nathir Slave' at full health. If that thing comes at us, I swear on me mam's grave I'll chuck you right at it first."

"Uhhh…" Wade realized he had no idea what to expect. The scroll had said it would restore the soul and reanimate the body, but what did that actually mean? Would it be able to speak? Would it remember its past life? Or was it just a more advanced version of the mindless skeletons they'd been fighting?

Well. Might as well ask the expert here. "Selena, any advice for a budding necromancer? Asking for a friend."

She huffed, spear kept aimed at her target. "Be certain your binding spells are tied correctly. Souls animating their own skeletal body will always be feral and must be manually controlled at all times."

Wade watched the skeletal body. "Always?"

"If they're pulled back to skeletal remains, it means they've lingered too long in the spirit realm, exposed to the current. No one survives that many cycles. I hope you are prepared to command it correctly. I sense no binding enchantments anywhere on the body."

Her ears twitched a frantic, completely different set of sentenses. Mostly in the 'I have a lot of questions, would like to scream at you, but I'll be professional about all this. Also, you're all insane so far, so I'm not quite surprised there's skeleton reanimation going on without even the most basic preparations and safety.'

"You and me both." He muttered.

They didn't need to wait for long, because it finally started moving.

Both arms began to lift up, then move right before its skull. Turning them around, curling fingers as if testing them. More like someone amazed they even still had hands. Its jaw opened up slightly, then it finally began moving its skull around, taking in the room for the first time.

"Is it me or is it… not acting wild?" Wade asked.

Selena narrowed her eyes, ears twitching in confusion. "That is certainly abnormal behavior. Are you certain you have pulled the original owner's soul into this body, or have you brought a more recently dead spirit? That shouldn't be possible for a number of reasons, however at this point..."

The skull turned to look at the source of the noise, and Selena quickly stepped between Illy and the skeleton, shield raised. It stared back at the paladin and the girl scrambling her head to the side of the shield so she could watch.

"What else can you tell about it?" Wade asked.

"It has a soul, I can sense that." Selena said, "Do you have adequate control over it? Human Wade, if there is no control bindings, an undead creature will attack at its leisure and without care if it harms the very master that's brought it back."

"Uh, not sure about the control thing." He turned to the skeleton. If it had been normal, it would have attacked them all right about now so something was different. "Can you understand me?"

That hadn't been english. It also hadn't been elvish. What came out of Wade's mouth was Nathir. It almost stunned Wade at how rough and guttural the language sounded. He hadn't meant to be insulting, but the words were said as an implicit challenge. "Jesus, even their fucking language makes them dicks." Wade shook his head. "Sorry, let me try again. Are you able to understand what I'm saying?"

This time he focused on being polite and non-abrasive. It was remarkably difficult in the Nathir language, but still possible. It just made the sentence very long as he had to continually add declarations to clarify his intent. Almost felt like putting post-it notes to words in order to describe them better.

The skeleton stared at him. Then tilted its head to the right with a small jerk.

"All right good, uhh, do you remember anything from your past life?"

Another jerk to the right.

"Are you Eri LE-10?"

Yes. It was Eri LE-10.

"Selena, it says it remembers its past life and I'm pretty certain it's the original soul."

"This is impossible. These bones have enough mana for several centuries of accumulation, parts of them could outright be used as a catalyst even. There is no possible way any soul could remain lucid that long exposed to the elements."

The skeleton rose up from the wall, standing back up tall. It looked over them all without expression, although difficult for a skull to do that. It mostly stared at Selena however. As if it had never seen an elf before.

Selena instantly kept position, backing up to give herself room for a fight.

"Oi! Knife-ears," Illy protested, trying to see past the shield wall. "I don't need your helicopter parenting here, fecking let me see what's going on!"

The skeleton once more raised its hands in front of itself, turning them around and testing how it moved. It seemed more amazed at its body now, looking down at it.

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It turned to Wade and opened its jaw as if talking. Nothing came out. It stopped, then felt at its throat, as if searching for what happened to it. All it touched was the spine on the other end.

"Yeah, I think you'll have a hard time talking without lungs or vocal cords. Sorry about that." All the other skeletons had equally been silent. "But you do remember everything about your old life right? Like as a rebel fighting the Nathir golems here?"

The head jerk to the right again. Then it moved its jaw to the left, the sign of confusion or question.

"Uhh, long story short: You died here. I think you realized that."

It did, yes.

"And we've found a way to bring you back. Do you remember attacking me yesterday?"

A head tilt to the left, but then it stopped and tilted slowly to the right.

"Is it more a dreamlike memory to you?"

Another tilt to the right.

"Gotcha. And you feel lucid and sane right now?"

That was another yes.

"So you're... aware. And you remember your past life, but its kinda dreamlike?"

The skeleton tilted its head to the right and then to the left.

"Okay, you remember your past life and it's not dreamlike… but your time after you died and turned undead is?"

It gave another affirmative, then rolled its shoulders, testing its body. The movements looked human, in control. Nothing like the feral ones run into earlier.

"Well, least you're not trying to murder us which is a massive improvement over your buddies,"

The skeleton's skull snapped his way, the jaw twisting to the side slightly. What buddies?

"… uh, you do know about other skeletons in this city?"

No.

"… Have you fought any skeletons at all back when you were alive?"

I did not.

Then it looked down at its hands, once more flexing them, examining how they functioned. As if this was the first time it had seen such a thing.

Wade turned to his own group. "I don't think the city was completely dead in the past. It says it doesn't remember ever fighting skeletons. Or at least not in its days."

Its days? His days? Or her days? He asked as much and got an affirmative when he mentioned male, in the form of a quick absentminded nod. Eri looked more focused on figuring out how he had come back from the dead in the first place. Which was a fair thing to think about in his shoes/skeletal feet.

Selena on the other hand was keeping an eye on the skeleton, spear ready. "We have larger issues to consider human Wade. I have no inkling of how you managed a necromancy spell that would restore both personality and identity to a soul."

Well, the scroll said 'restores the soul'. The System had restored Eri LE-10 to exactly who he had been before he'd stepped foot into the spirit realm looks like. But the body had remained as it was, a skeleton rather than a human.

"It's outright impossible." Selena continued as Wade considered what was going on. "Even in theory, I cannot see how it could be done. What exactly did you weave here? I..."

He could tell she was about to say something along the lines of 'I demand answers, again!' and then realized that would be unbecoming of professional mercenary moonwing paladins, since their reputation was all about not asking questions and handling anything that came their way, and she was really annoyed at herself for almost breaking character like that.

Wow, Market's blessing was an absolute heavy hitter when it came to filling him in on context from even the least obvious clues. "What do you mean impossible?" Wade asked next.

"When aspects of a soul are carried away in the currents of the spirit realm, they vanish into oblivion. There is no spell or power that can hold onto the identity of someone. How would one even begin with such a concept? Mana can bind and control a soul, however I wouldn't know a single way to hold such an esoteric concept as a personality."

"Guess it is possible." Wade said as the skeleton in front of them took steps forward, testing his abilities and balance. The jaw opened up a few times, but still no sound came. He wanted to speak, but had no vocal cords or lungs to work with.

"However you've done it, it will not be permanent." Selena said with a gruff huff. "That soul is still exposed in the spirit realm as we speak. We are protected from the current due to our bodies, the living essence. Bones are long dead and offer no protection at all. This minion of yours should be treated the same way a wild spirit is, with deep suspicion as it can lash out any moment once enough of its senses gets swept away. Give a few tests in terms of orders, so I can see you have full command over it. I am asking from a security point of view, to be clear."

Wade shot her a thumbs up, realized moonwing elves don't quite use that, and swapped the hand gesture to something she was more used to. Then he turned to Eri. "Hey, the elf here is worried you might go feral on us at anytime. Who do you serve?"

The skeleton seemed to bristle at that, as if insulted he would serve anyone. But then it stopped in his tracks, before looking down at his hands again. Then slowly, one bony finger pointed up at Wade. Almost as if surprised.

"Are you serving me out of obligation and a little resentful about it?"

Shake to the left. No, he didn't feel any sense of resentment. Maybe the loyalty is more deeply baked in? Wade didn't know where on the morality scale that ended, felt a little bit close to mind control. The skeleton clicked his jaws a few time with one hand gesture.

"Okay, I don't know if you're intentionally being rude there, or if that's just standard Nathir." Wade said, but it did get the idea across.

Eri felt a sensation that the person who'd returned him alive and protected him was Wade. But Wade had no idea why there was any mention of protection in that sentence, the scroll hadn't said a word on that. "Uhhh, if I gave you orders, could you ignore them?"

Eri moved his shoulders. Seems a shrug was somewhat the same here.

"I order you to sit down on that chair, and also test if you can break that order."

The skeleton gave a right tilt, acknowledging the command. But he thumped the ground with one skeletal foot, clearly capable of refusing the command, and the Nathir body language translated to something more of another insult, like 'What a pathetic request, I refuse it easily.'

"Okay that might be a little dangerous." Wade muttered. The System had restored the skeleton's soul, had vaguely giving a sense of reason that his existence was tied to Wade's, but it wasn't a master-slave relationship either.

Wade didn't know if that was a good or bad thing.

On one hand, a slave who'd fought to the death for his own freedom and to save others only to be brought back as technically another slave even in death? Sounded a little too on the nose evil for Wade.

But if Selena was right that souls could snap at any moment, then the skeleton here was a possible danger.

Did he have the time to test these things out?

"Can you fight?" Wade asked. "We're about to go up against what I'm pretty sure is the same Tier Nine golem you and your team tried to fight. And we could use the help."

Eri locked his eyeless gaze with Wade, as if the answer to that was obvious. He scanned around the room, then pointed at the greatsword Leon had brought.

The Russian lifted it up, then sent an unworded question to Wade.

"Yeah, let him have the sword." Wade confirmed. That had been what he'd intended when asking the Russian to grab it on the way out.

The skeleton reached a hand, and Leon passed the weapon over. "Very strange now that I seeing one of these up close without having to fight. No cartilage anywhere, can't see why bones remain together and moving. Is very fascinating."

"That's not what you should be looking at." Illy said, looking wide eyed. "Use yer identifies."

Level 44 Skeletal Greatsword Champion - 100%

Eri straightened up, holding the greatsword. Something was off, the skeleton seemed surprised, as if testing the weight.

Internally the System had reclassified him as something different with a different level. "Aye, happened the moment ya passed him that blade. Level shot right up like a rocket." Illy said.

So equipment and skills were one way for non-player characters gain levels. Interesting.

"Cannot be the sword itself mind you, or Leon would've had his levels boosted too, right? Seein' as he was the one lugging the thing around first." Illy hopped over to Wade, giving him a few heavy pats on the back. "Guessing you don't feel any more buyer's remorse here huh?"

Eri stabbed the sword into the ground just then, and turned to the metal table. One hand reached to grab the edge - then lifted the entire thing with only that hand.

That was a full metal table, it had to weigh at least fifty pounds or so. The group stared as the skeleton lifted it up and down like a chicken wing.

"It is the mana in the bones." Selena explained, her feathers betraying growing concern. "It's channeling that power straight into physical might and resilience by instinct."

Wade remembered that the skulls and bones of these things were far stronger and more durable than normal, and only once they were killed did they revert to something weaker.

Eri himself seemed to be surprised at this, retesting the weight of the greatsword. Wade realized that's what the skeleton had been testing with the sword. It had felt too light compared to what it must have been back in his human body.

Wait. There was a drawback to this. "If he's using up mana to power his body, does that mean he's technically burning through his life right now? How long does he have?"

"I'd suspect about a week perhaps? The average conjured skeleton only stays animated for around half a day."

"Eri, are you able to use spells or your training?" Wade asked.

The skeleton glowed bright blue for a moment, then took a small hop forward. It wasn't so much that the hop was far or anything, it was how the Eri didn't quite fall down as fast. Like gravity had a far reduced control over him.

Light flashed over the greatsword, the skeleton nodded to that. Then brushed its hands over the blade and crackles of blue lighting seemed to flow into the blade, leaving it further enchanted.

"Featherfall." Selena said to Wade's side, "Higher order magic, often used to allow warrior to make leaps and safe falls. Empowered impact on the blade, and that last spell is something I don't recognize."

"... Does he have more skills?" Wade asked, with a glint of greed in his voice. This could be good. This could be everything he'd hoped for.

Eri nodded to himself, content with the abilities, then turned that skull up to Wade, gave the man a salute with the greatsword before pointing it out to the sewer entrance.

"I think he's telling us it's time to settle an old score."