I gazed at the setting sun, watching with hood shrouded eyes as the ball of fire descend behind the mountain range. As it did, the sky caught aflame; red and orange dancing across the sky. I looked down, noting for what felt like the thousandth time that my breasts blocked my feet from sight. Still, I could see the sickly green smoke that circled around them.
All around me, it hugged the ground, coercing the empty bones beneath the dirt to rise once more. I gazed at the tome held open in my left hand, the characters within glowing the same sickly green as the smoke. A Grimoire. My Grimoire. Used to raise the dead, regardless of the time they've rested or of their past lives.
"Spiritless below me," I began with a voice that felt foreign to my ears. As I spoke, I held my hand out in front of me, palm toward the sky, "ARISE! Take form once more!"
As I finished speaking, a skeletal hand pushed out of the dirt. As the screaming of the approaching mobs reached my perch on the hill, more skinless hands joined the first. One after another, they breached the soil, gripping the dirt so as to pull what followed above ground.
I lowered my hand as a skull followed the first hand. This was followed by the spine, clavicle, ribs and arms, until, finally, the entirety of the skeleton was above ground. With it, it had carried up a rusted and chipped sword and buckler. Other skeletons joined the first, bringing up weapons and armor that had been chipped and cracked in battles long past and rusted by their time below the earth.
As the number of arisen skeletons reached the twenties, and continued growing, I slowly raised my hand toward the advancing goblin horde. As I did, the characters in the Grimoire ceased to glow. Instead, the pages began to flip wildly, as if taken by a strong wind. After a couple seconds, the pages began to slow. The last page turned painfully slow, revealing two blank pages...
...stained with blood.
"Advance and feast upon the living!" I shouted, my hand outstretched toward the mobs.
As the first skeleton began it's charge, I found myself thinking of the past. Of when I had first came here. Not to this valley, but to this world. When I had first awoken to this world of stats and skills. When I had awoken to this new body with it's strange abilities.
Work had ended a couple minutes ago. My Sergeant had dismissed me, reminding me to stay by my phone in case of any changes to tomorrow's work call. I remember that, that was a range day where we had qualified on our M16 rifles. Because of that, I had all of my range gear in an Assault Pack, minus my vest, that I had tossed in the back seat of my car.
The drive to the barracks had been as uneventful as it always was. Pulling into the parking lot, I had turned off the car and heaved a sigh. Stepping out of the car, I donned my cap before grabbing my vest and pack. After a second of thought, I had put on the vest on, my lazy attitude keeping me from wanting to carry it.
Walking inside, removing my cap when I crossed the threshold, I went straight to my room and had barely dumped my bag and vest before sitting at my computer. After unlocking it and clicking the Elder Tales icon, I had stripped off my top and tossed it aside.
Having looked at my carbon covered hands, I remember I stood and went to the sink to wash them. As I washed them, I had looked at my face with tired, hazel eyes. My brown hair was close-cut, well within regulations for males such as myself. Noticing that my glasses were slightly crooked, I quickly fixed them before drying my hands and moving back to my room where a login screen awaited me.
After sitting back down, I had typed in my username: "AridSandstorm". I had then carefully typed in my password.
The character screen came up next. I only had two characters. One was a Lvl. 73 male Guardian named: "AridSandstorm". The second was a Lvl. 32 female Summoner named: "Wilted_Rose".
I guess I should level up Rose, I remember thinking as I clicked on her data plate and moved the mouse to the 'Enter Game' button.
The sound of that click is the last thing I remember of that old world.
A/N: Just a short little prologue introducing my new story. Will continue when time allows.