Bro, I'm not an Undead!

[Your prey emits the Essence of Null Life. Would you like to extract it? Remaining time 58 seconds]

Skullius gazed at the notifications he had gotten in awe. The sheer amount of experience he had gotten alone made him leap for joy as he did a clack of his teeth that he was used to.

It didn’t feel the same for some reason.

“That’s a lot of experience!” Skullius exclaimed.

Since the monstrous human was now dead, he could behave however he wanted.

When he saw the notification about the Null Life Essence, he reflexively stretched out his hand to accept, a stream of energy flowing into his body.

“Oh…”

A surprising thing occurred. It wasn’t the first time he had noticed this, but it became apparent in this instance.

The value he received was different. This time he was able to identify how much he had gotten as there was but a single target.

75 Null Life Essence Points!

That’s how much he had received from a single human being!

“Is it not about size then? Hmmm… this is getting more interesting… and confusing.”_.

A bubbling excitement wrapped around Skullius nevertheless and he threw all that Eobald had told him to the back of his mind for the time being, focusing on the next notification.

[Would you like to appoint Exp to ‘Null Lifeform (Boneman)’ or ‘Discount Human’?]

“I can choose? Well…?”

Skullius looked at his status once again and seeing the dismal numbers brought down his enthusiasm by several notches.

Aside from him being terribly weak, he saw that his racial advantages were gone as well as his class skills. The only exception was [Null Extraction] which was rather convenient for him.

“I was warned by the skill, I guess. I only have [Null Extraction] to count on now.”

Skills he acquired from extraction and action were still there but he couldn’t even use them because of his low amount of mana.

“Bro, even in this disguise I’m still doomed?! My luck is still atrocious too! And I don’t even have a name?! Flesh this! I’ll level up my original form,” Skullius said with a huge frown on his face.

[Are you sure you want to appoint Exp to ‘Null Lifeform (Boneman)’?]

“Without a doubt!”

Skullius felt a surge of mana wrap around his body and then disappear into his core.

“Huh? That’s it?”

[‘Null Lifeform (Boneman)’ has reached LV8]

“Yes!”

Skullius wore a triumphant grin as he then went to look at the corpse of Eobald.

“This skill really saved me, otherwise I really would have died. I doubt there is any tale I could have told that would have saved me from that situation.”

Surely, when recalling what had just happened right after he transformed, he imagined the worst would have come to pass had he still been a skeleton with blue flames in his sockets.

“Alright! I don’t need this anymore. Cancel the skill [Flesh It Like You Mean It].”

[Skill cancellation failed. The skill will remain active for the stipulated duration. Time remaining – 24:58:16]

“Wait, what? Come again!”

[Skill cancellation failed. The skill will remain active for the stipulated duration. Time remaining – 24:58:14]

“No! You’re kidding! I- I can’t cancel the skill?! But… Wait! I have to stay like this for 24 hours?! No! Please no!” Skullius yelled in disbelief almost kneeling down.

He couldn’t believe it.

Or rather he couldn’t afford to believe it!

How was he supposed to survive like this when he had barely been scraping by up until now?!

“Red bro!” Skullius thought before he turned to where Red Rage had been hiding.

As he looked, he saw the skeletal body of Red Rage lying on the ground!

Skullius rushed over and knelt beside the short figure of his Apostle.

The lights within the sockets of the short boar were no more. He merely laid on the ground lifelessly.

Deathlessly.

“What… what happened?!” Skullius asked a question that he dreaded the answer to.

[‘Apostle’ Red Rage has been laid to rest by Serenity]

[Apostle ‘Red Rage’ does not have the means to sustain himself while his ‘Vehement Bone Nullmancer’ is in hibernation. Higher Tier required]

“Put to rest? He’s not…gone?”

Skullius fell to the ground, feeling exceedingly relieved. At the very least it didn’t seem like Red Rage was gone.

Since he was no longer a Nullmancer, Red Rage was disabled. He only wished that things would go back to normal when the duration of [Flesh It Like You Mean it] was up.

If he survived long enough, that is.

Skullius gazed at Red Rage with a forlorn look. He suddenly felt alone. When he came to this world, he had always had VOW bro to interact with.

When VOW bro left, Red Rage had been by his side. Even though it was merely a single night and a few hours, he cherished his Apostle.

It was at times like these that Skullius wondered why he and the other Moronic Undead were so different. The Death Knights and above did not show emotion at all while all the undead below that could feel camaraderie, jealousy, anger among other emotions.

Was it some kind of sick joke that Somanda relished in or was it for their convenience?

Skullius took in a deep breath, the feeling being weird as he sensed that within him, there wasn’t actually that much ‘stuff’.

It was like someone had put a cover with no substance over a skeletal body. If someone experienced were to poke him or cut him open, they wouldn’t find much in the way of organs at all.

His boy merely mimicked human activity but he didn’t have lungs or a heart. There was the sound, but no actual organ.

It was all fabricated by magic in such a way that magical detection of a specific level wouldn’t be able to see anything wrong but physical analysis might make the multitudes hold their bibles.

“This feels… vaguely familiar…” Skullius mumbled.

He looked at Red Rage’s body and nodded.

He took the steel sword from Red Rage and began to dig up a hole.

It was just enough for the short Apostle to fit in.

He carried Red Rage’s body and laid it gently into the hole.

He carried the axe Red Rage had procured from the orc earlier and laid it on top of the Apostle along with the steel sword and other weapons that Red Rage liked to use.

“Wouldn’t want something to happen to your body while you rest. I’ll come back for you bro. You can count on it,” Skullius said.

He then went on to cover the hole and gave it a nice pat.

When he was done, he recalled something that VOW bro had said.

[True strength is forged when one is alone and resolute, after all…]

(A/N : Chapter 12)

“Oh well… let’s see what this lone bro can do.”