I rolled onto my back and let out a groan, lush grass cushioning my body. I laid there for several moments, a smile dancing on my face. This was the first time in years I had felt nature’s embrace. I wondered absently if the events with Sirus were just a dream, it seemed so far fetched.

  But I opened my eyes and watched the two suns orbit in the clear sky above me. Unless my world had suddenly gotten a second sun, I wasn’t there anymore. My quiet contemplation was rudely interrupted by a flash and appearance of a set of words bordered in a tiny box..

  System initializing.

  Updating.

  System updated.

  Syncing with [Error] Crowley.

  Sync complete.

  Welcome to Hanastin [Error] Crowley.

  I closed my eyes again. Nope. I wasn’t dealing with that quite yet. I gave myself a couple more minutes before delving further into my new reality. I had really died, the conversation with Sirus had happened, and I was in a new world with new rules. It was a lot to wrap my head around but I wasn’t going to make any progress just lying there in blissful ignorance of the things to come.

  “All right,” I muttered while getting myself into a sitting position against a tree, “Let’s see how this works.”

  I stared at the welcome message, it hadn’t changed and didn’t look like it planned to either.

  “All right,” I chewed on the inside of my cheek and directed my next words at the box of text in front of me, “How does this work?”

  The text changed rapidly and presented a new message.

  Initialize introductory guide?

  “Oh for the love of the gods, yes,” I replied quickly. Getting a guide was more than I had hoped for after realizing Sirus was a fey. It wasn’t uncommon for them to trick other beings and leave them with nothing, not even bread crumbs to follow.

  Initializing, please wait.

  I waited, as patiently as I was able to given the circumstances. It was only now I was remembering that Sirus had said this world was infested with monsters. I fidgeted in place after that pleasant thought.

  Initialization complete. Introduction beginning.

  Welcome to the Chrono System, where you can follow the path to power with a simple guide and explanation of your personal attributes and skills. To access these independent screens, focus your thoughts on what you would like to be visible. Please focus on an aforementioned screen to continue.

  I read it, read it again, and then read it again. I was brimming with questions, my curiosity getting dangerously close to overwhelming my sense of danger. Chrono System? Must be the gem I was given, but how does that work? Attributes and skills? I was familiar with the terms but not in this context. And path to power? Sirus had mentioned something like that before he handed me the gem.

  “All right, let’s pull up this attribute screen,” I said to the box of text, focusing my thoughts on the word attribute.

  A new and slightly larger box of text appeared in front of me.

  Name: Crowley

  Class: Necromancer

  Attributes:

  Strength 12

  Agility 12

  Constitution 10

  Endurance 11

  Spirit 15

  Intelligence 15

  Perception 10

  Willpower 12

  I frowned as I read over the information. Once again I understood the basic terminology but in context I wasn’t sure what it meant. Perhaps it was the fact that a fey had provided this that made me hesitant to trust my initial judgements.

  As if the System was reading my thoughts, which it more than likely was, another box of text appeared.

  Strength is the measure of your physical prowess. Agility governs your general speed and ability to perform complex maneuvers. Endurance measures the limit of your physical body. Spirit houses your mana maximum, ability to regenerate your reserves of mana, and aids in the manipulation of mana.

  Intelligence is a measure of your ability to comprehend and understand new information and aids memory retention. Perception governs your mundane sense. Willpower boosts your natural Will and governs the maximum of your available minions.

  Note: Please keep in mind that these attributes govern your potential as well as your ability. To receive maximum benefits, understanding of the task performed is recommended.

  “Huh,” I said aloud, “I wasn’t expecting for it to be laid out like that for me. Thanks I guess.” I awkwardly said to the box of text.

  So my initial understanding wasn’t completely wrong, I felt a little gratified by that. But what was confusing was the class.

  “Why am I a necromancer?” I thought aloud.

  [Error] Cannot answer.

  “I wasn’t actually,” I sighed, “Nevermind.”

  The box of text disappeared.

  I thought about necromancers in my home world. What was it they got up to? I knew their trade revolved around raising undead minions, curses, and dark rituals. But they were never a major threat, they mostly lived in caves with said undead minions. Usually a cult or something. The Clergy dealt with them swiftly and never with much issue. There were rare occasions where a necromancer would preside over graveyards, keeping restless spirits in check. I sat in thought for who knows how long before I decided to ask the system another question.

  “What does being a necromancer mean in this world?”

  Necromancers are mages specialized in the use of death magic. Known for creating hordes of undead and making a mockery of the cycle of life. Using curses, hexes, rituals, and various undead to achieve their goals.

  “Lovely,” I replied, “Doesn’t seem like the greatest thing in the world, but I’m stuck with it. Might as well make use of it.”

  I thought about the various uses for undead, and wondered what types of undead I could create.

  I paused in my musings, remembering briefly that Sirus had said I could defy the system if I wished.

  Will you defy the System and choose a new path? Warning: This will cause total destruction of the System and render you unable to access it again.

  Continue?

  “No no no,” I half shouted, waving my hands frantically.

  I watched the message disappear, leaving the box of text containing my attributes floating there unchanged.

  I blew out a breath. That was far too close for comfort. It might be unpleasant but this system and the class it had given me were my only tools in this new world. If I wanted to survive, I needed it.

  I leaned back and rested my head against the tree, taking a moment to relax after panicking so much. Eventually I sat straight and focused on the word skills. It was time to see what tools were available to me.

  Class: Necromancer 1

  Skills: Animate; Bind Specter; Death Bolt.

  Passives: Death Energy reservoir; [Error] Locked behind prerequisite; Basic Swordsmanship; Basic Archery; Basic Riding; Basic Sorcery.

  I frowned and focused on the locked skill, in response another box of text assaulted my eyes.

  Would you like to answer the question, “What is the value of a soul?”

  Note: Reward dependent on the answer given.

  “I’ll hold off on answering that,” I replied to the prompt. Bewildered, that question had followed me to this new world. And that it held a skill hostage. The box of text vanished from sight, leaving me with a rather short list of skills.

  “Let’s see what you all do.” I mumbled, focusing on Animate.

  Skill [Animate] : By imbuing deathly energy into a corpse the caster has the option of bringing the corpse back to life as a zombie or skeleton. Note: Individual parts can be animated for reduced cost. Will be applied at a discount to your maximum minion count if only a portion of the corpse is animated.

  “Uh huh,” I focused on Bind Specter.

  Skill [Bind Specter] : Bind a preexisting soul to your service. Whether through persuasion or domination. Specters have the innate skill [Possession] allowing them to possess a living body or a corpse. Unlike typical undead Specters do not die when defeated, instead dematerializing and drawing on the casters' death energy reserves to reconstitute their forms. Note: Specters must materialize in order to interact with the mortal world.

  “Interesting,” I focused on Death Bolt next.

  Skill [Death Bolt] : Launch a bolt of condensed death energy, dealing immediate physical damage and applying the status effect [Necrosis], causing the target to suffer necrotic damage over time.

  I glanced down to the passives, the basic ones must be things that carried over from my old life.

  I focused on the Death Energy Reservoir.

  Resource [Death Energy Reservoir] Passively absorb death energy from nearby corpses and the environment. Allowing you to bolster your mana reserves or spells. Note: Death Energy can be used as a mana substitute.

  I drummed my fingers on my knee, “This is all painting me as a typical villain. But I can think of a few ideas for these skills.”

  I stood and stretched my now stiff body and froze halfway through and smiled. I was standing, all on my own. That in and of itself was good enough a reason to come to this new world. After my inner revelry I realized the box of text was still floating in front of me, blocking most of my vision.

  “How do I get rid of this?”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  The box of text disappeared.

  “Huh,” I focused on it reappearing and it did. I repeated this process until I got used to how long it took to pop up and vanish. And attempted to adjust to its general existence, but that would take more time. Meanwhile, I needed to figure out what to do next. I glanced around the small clearing I had woken up in.

  I was surrounded by a forest with thick underbrush. The smallest tree I could see was twenty feet tall. It might do me well to climb one to get a lay of the land. I shook off that idea, I was barely used to walking again, climbing would be suicide.

  Off in the distance I could see a mountain poking into the sky above, I’m sure clouds would cover its peak if there were any in sight.

  “Hmm, which way to go then,” I wondered aloud, “Regardless I’ll probably be in this forest for a while yet.” I decided on searching the immediate area, maybe someone else woke up nearby. It was better than picking a direction and wandering off with no plan or goal in mind.

  Hopefully someone was nearby, as peaceful as this forest looked. I couldn't help but repeat the fact that this was a monster infested world. It didn’t take long for me to stumble upon someone else.

  It was a man a couple years older than me by the looks of him, blonde, almost straw colored hair drawing a sharp contrast to the deep brown of mine hanging in the corner of my vision. And more stoic facial features compared to the soft angles of my own.

  I raised my hand in greeting when he looked up, “Hey there.”

  “Um, hi,” The man replied and stood, testing his movement in the chainmail he was wearing. I was a little jealous of the protection. I just had a rough hewn shirt and, admittedly, a fairly nice coat. I doubted it would stop even the most unenthusiastic attacker though.

  “You get the same deal as me?” The man asked, his body tensing as I grew closer.

  “I was told to come colonize this world by a fey,” I shrugged, “You?”

  “About the same,” He answered and held out his hand, “I’m Harald.”

  “Crowley,” I reached out and shook his proffered hand, “You get your system up and running yet?”

  Harald nodded, “Not sure how it’s supposed to work.”

  “It gave me some sort of introduction, ask it for that.”

  “Ask the system?”

  I nodded in response.

  He frowned but did as I instructed and I watched his eyes grow wide at what I assumed was the expected screen. “Give me a minute to sort through this.”

  I stepped off to the side and leaned against a tree, watching Harald go through the boxes. Not that I could see them myself.

  After a few minutes of watching him nod to himself and repeatedly state, “Oh that makes sense,” he finally announced, “All right, all finished.”

  “What class did you get?” I asked, stepping away from the tree.

  “It was a pretty massive list, but I chose Knight,” Harald responded, eyes hazy from looking at the boxes, “You?”

  “You were able to choose your class?” I frowned.

  He nodded, “Weren’t you?”

  I shook my head, “I was assigned one from the start.”

  “Huh,” Harald frowned, “What did you get?”

  “Necromancer,” I replied cautiously.

  “Really?” Harald exclaimed, “That’s fantastic, I didn’t see that one on the list.”

  “Fantastic?”

  Harald nodded happily, “Undead have all sorts of uses. And I’ve fought against plenty of necromancers, some of them had some interesting ideas.”

  “Where did you fight necromancers?” I was curious, from that statement alone it was obvious we were not from the same world.

  “During the Frontier Wars with the Acluan Empire,” He replied, “Didn’t you fight? It seemed like damn near every nation was banding together against them.”

  I shook my head, “I’ve never heard of the Acluan Empire or the Frontier Wars.”

  Harald frowned, “Must have lived in a pretty isolated place then before this.”

  I shrugged, a little surprised he wasn’t putting two and two together. He didn’t seem like the type of person to miss the detail that we’re in a different world. It didn’t take much to realize that not everybody was going to be from the same place.

  The dawn of realization came a few moments later.

  “Oh, we’re not from the same world are we?” He realized.

  I shook my head, “Looks that way.”

  “I guess that isn’t too far-fetched given the situation,” He shrugged, “Sorry this is all a bit much to take in.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I half smiled. There was something off about Harald, the longer I talked to him the deeper that feeling penetrated my gut.

  “So what’s the plan from here?” He inquired.

  I shrugged, “I assume we’ll need to defend ourselves at some point. And we’ll need to find food, water, shelter,” I ticked off the items on my fingers, “Basic essentials for right now is probably the best way to go.”

  Harald nodded his agreement, “We’ll need more people too.”

  “Yea,” I agreed.

  We set off into the forest after that, there was no ironing out the details. It wasn’t really a plan, more like a list of goals. Find people, food, water, shelter, and see what the local wildlife was like.

  It didn’t take long to accomplish one of those goals. We ran into three more people, though it took most of the day. Like Harald and I we found a party of two. Robin and Eustace. The third fell from a tree when Robin startled her. That one was Tyriel.

  All together we had Harald, a Knight, Robin, a Ranger, Eustace, an Inquisitor, Tyriel, a Rogue, and myself, a Necromancer. I was beginning to realize the troubles my class would cause at dinner the next night.

  “So let me get this straight,” Tyriel said, taking a freshly roasted rabbit from the fire, “You,” She pointed at Eustace, “Have absolutely no issue working with a Necromancer?”

  Eustace shrugged his massive shoulders as if mimicking the swaying of branches in the breeze,

  “Not particularly. I just met the guy yesterday.”

  He looked over at me enjoying my share of the roasted rabbit.

  “And what about you?” Tyriel looked at me.

  “What about me?” I asked, pausing in my feast.

  “Don’t you have an issue with working with an Inquisitor?” She narrowed her eyes, “Or even an issue with your occupation? I mean why the hells would you choose something like that?”

  “First, I don’t have an issue with Eustace. I don’t see why I would,” I held up two fingers, “Second, I didn’t get to choose my class like the rest of you. It was already assigned when I woke up.”

  “Bullshit.” Tyriel huffed, “There’s no way that out of five, one didn’t get to choose their class. There was a whole explanation on the classes and everything. You just don’t want to fess up to your questionable morals.”

  “Questionable morals?” I raised an eyebrow, “Says the rogue.”

  It wasn’t much of a point in the discussion, but I was growing tired of Tyriel and her ravings.

  “Why do you have such an issue with Crowley?” Robin interjected, delicately placing another rabbit to roast.

  “Because he’ll be working with dead things, which is disgusting and completely disrespectful to the dead. I want nothing to do with it.”

  “Then leave.” Harald added, his voice low and menacing.

  “You’d take some corpse fucker over a practical rogue?” Tyriel startled.

  “I would. He’ll be more useful.” Harald replied.

  “Hang on now,” I started to try and defend myself but was silenced by a look from Harald.

  “He can raise zombies, expendable troops in a war against who knows,” Harald continued, “Not only that, but undead are tireless labourers. There’s plenty of use for his skillset. Yours?” He gestured widely with his arms, “I don’t see any locks to be picked, purses to steal, throats to cut in the traditional sense. As far as I’m concerned, we don’t need you.”

  Eustace raised his hand slowly and Harald nodded towards him.

  “I dunno if this helps, but the System or whatever it is did guide me to be an Inquisitor. It’s not too far-fetched to think his class was chosen.”

  “Eustace, we’re beyond defending Crowley’s claim on that right now,” Robin said softly, she shook her head lightly, turning the rabbit over.

  “Right,” Eustace nodded, a slight flush coloring his cheeks.

  “Well I’m not leaving,” Tyriel sneered.

  “Then deal with working with a Necromancer.” Harald finished the discussion.

  “What’re our next steps?” Robin asked, changing the topic as quickly as possible.

  “Well,” I started, “We still need to find shelter and a source of water. I don’t think we’ll need to worry overmuch about food, there’s plenty of wild game out there.”

  “Not to mention monsters,” Harald added, “We’ll need to see if they’re edible.”

  I nodded my agreement and continued, “We don’t have the tools to set up a well or anything sophisticated. We’ll need a river.”

  “Moving water would be better than still,” Robin nodded her agreement, “Especially since we don’t know how cold the winters get here.”

  “Then that’s what we’ll do, at first light we set out to find a source of water and begin to settle in the area.” Harald concluded.

  We all nodded in agreement.

  Now the methods we used were typical of someone in the wilderness. Due to my time in libraries I had studied a number of maps and knew we should head downhill. Following the natural depressions. Robin added keeping an eye out for animal tracks and paying attention to where birds roost in the mornings and evenings. With these methods in mind we were able to find a river within the next two days. But before we found that, we encountered our first monsters in the morning of that second day.

  It was a chill morning, a sign that fall was fast approaching. Not that any of us knew how to sow a field or raise crops. We were traveling in a line, Robin and Tyriel in the front, our spotters and trackers due to their higher perception stats, Harald was in the middle, followed by Eustace, and then me.

  Was it the most efficient line up? I don’t know. But it worked out in this instance.

  Tyriel let out a cry of alarm and Robin nocked an arrow to her bow, swiveling to acquire the threat. There was some sort of deer-like creature lying prone on the ground, its insides ripped outward. All that was left was dried blood and various bits of muscle. The organs and meat itself were all gone.

  Tyriel hurled our meager breakfast onto the dirt, followed by some light gagging from the rest of us. It was apparent she was the only one who had not witnessed such a scene before. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t get any easier to witness gore but eventually you're able to hold your stomach a little better. And in this case, we were all thankful it was just an animal.

  Yips and shrieks came from the underbrush, whatever had killed this creature had come back to claim the rest of its prize. The ‘whatever’ turned out to be six goblins. All armed with rusted daggers, swords, and one poor fellow with a rock. Said rock hurled through the branches and caught Eustace in the shoulder, letting loose an audible crack. Followed by a shout of pain.

  The goblins decided quickly, splitting off into groups of two and harassing us at first. Taking safe jabs and rushes, pulling back when any opposition presented itself. Harald pulled everyone together brandishing a small axe in one hand and wooden shield in the other. Must’ve been some sort of starting equipment like Robin's bow. Tyriel produced jagged daggers and took a ready position. While Eustace pulled a mace from his belt with his uninjured arm.

  I felt around my belt and found nothing, not only had I not been able to choose my class, I didn’t get anything but the clothes on my back to defend myself. This was an observation I had made previously but being in danger makes you forget things like that. Plus, even when I was bed bound I always had a dagger nearby. Would it have helped if someone had wanted to kill me? No, but it inspired false safety.

  The goblins realized that their original tactic wasn’t going to work and reverted to groups of three, rushing two sides at once. We could hold them at bay for now, but eventually someone would slip up. Now I know these are goblins and you’re probably wondering why we were going through so much trouble fighting them. After all, they’re just goblins right? Well you try fighting green skinned goblins in lush underbrush that’s as tall as they are and you tell me how well that goes for you.

  I tracked the next assault and raised my hand, planning to cast death bolt. The issue was, I couldn’t see a damned thing until they were already engaged with one of the others, by then it was too risky to take a shot. I focused my eyes, desperately seeking some form of identification. It was in vain until a box of text appeared.

  Skill [Soul Sight] obtained.

  Would you like to enable skill [Soul Sight]?

  “Sure,” I replied aloud, not realizing at the time how much this was going to help. I just wanted more options.

  A pale teal shroud covered my eyes for a moment, revealing a new world when it was gone. I could see hundreds, no, thousands of wandering souls. Little orbs of various colors just flying around. And of these souls I saw three bright green ones, vines of energy spreading out in the vague shape of a humanoid body. I checked behind and saw the same three.

  Everyone else’s souls were much the same, though Eustace possessed a dull gold orb, Tyriel a lavender orb, Robin a mixture of green and brown, and Harald a mixture of blue and red, though a different method of mixing. It wasn’t a half and half mixture, it looked more like there were red tears in the blue. I’d have to learn about the intricacies of this skill later.

  I focused my attention on the three bright green orbs in front of me and resumed my focus on death bolt.

  Energy flowed from my core and up to my hand, coalescing into a pale teal orb before flying off towards my target. Almost as if it was homing in on the soul I saw. I blinked a couple times, I had assumed I would to do some sort of gesture but apparently not. I felt the impact on the goblin before I saw it.

  One of the orbs slowed significantly and I watched the energy tendrils from the soul sputter and die out as the necrosis from the death bolt consumed its mortal vessel. I debated on whether or not I should use animate or bind specter. I wasn’t sure which one would prove more useful in the current situation. On one hand I wasn’t comfortable with binding someone’s soul. On the other hand, I didn't want a walking corpse following me around.

  I did a quick review on the skills. Bad battle habit I know but we were in a brief lull due to me taking one out of the fight. So I judged it worth the risk.

  Skill [Animate] is only capable of producing low intelligence undead such as zombies or skeletons. These types of undead can only follow simple orders at their current level. Unable to adapt without the casters intervention.

  Skill [Bind Specter] is capable of producing intelligent minions that are able to adapt and function more autonomously. The quality of the Specter depends on the soul used.

  I glanced up at the wandering souls surrounding me. If I’m going to use Bind Specter why don’t I just use it on a wandering soul? I frowned, that was edging a little too close to slavery for my liking.

  But it did mention that the soul could be willing, so maybe I could make a deal with one of them and gain a Specter that way. I shook my head, this wasn’t the time. I concentrated on Animate and raised the corpse of the goblin. Disregarding its wandering soul.

  I couldn’t help it, I grinned. I was about to turn this fight on its head. But the sight of more souls like the first moving closer put my plans on pause. There was what, seven, eight more of the little bastards moving in on us? I could either have my new undead fight with us or ambush the new goblins. We were holding off the current goblins just fine, but I knew we couldn’t handle much more. Especially if they’re all at a higher level than us.

  I ordered my new undead to ambush the newcomers and to notify me when and where they died so that I could animate them. It was time to see what kind of range and visual limitations Animate had. It was frighteningly simple to mentally give my undead the order, all I had to do was think it and my will would be done. I could see why Necromancers could become power hungry. That kind of control could be intoxicating to the right people. I knew at that moment I would have to have some serious self control to not wander down that road.

  I continued to throw Death Bolts at the remaining goblins fighting us, raising them and sending them to fight the other crowd. By the end of the fight I had three undead and the newcomers hadn’t made it far. I didn’t raise all of the corpses, mostly due to feeling light headed. It was probably a side effect of using too much mana. But the experience I earned made it all worth it.

  Goblin, level 3 has been defeated, times four. Experience points earned. Due to defeating an enemy above your level,. additional experience has been earned.

  Goblin, level 2 has been defeated, times three. Experience points earned. Due to defeating an enemy above your level, additional experience has been earned.

  Class [Necromancer] has reached level 4, Attribute points gained 15.

  Class Attributes assigned.

  Skill Selection available.

  Racial Trait revealed, [Limbo].

  “Limbo?” I questioned before collapsing to the ground and passing out. From what I would later learn, due to mana exhaustion.

  Now despite the fact I was unconscious my mind was rambling ever onwards about the moral compromises I might have to make due to my class. This world was sure to be crueler than I could ever imagine and I would need strength to survive. But could I really cross those lines?