Stray Soul

“MOVE!” Grok yelled at the goblins that were starting to slow down from the back of the group that he was leading, no reason to let them dilly dally around when they were so close to the exit now, was there?

As the goblins in the front started to speed up once again, Grok started to go over what they’d done in the dungeon today which... wasn’t much, just a normal delve.

They took the short route through the caverns when they entered, kissing the right wall, not bothering with the rest of the caverns as there wasn’t much reason for them to go there unless the delve only had H and G ranks.

Then they moved through floor 0 proper, and he let the G ranks deal with the weak undead that wandered the halls of the floor, then they moved to the higher floors and gave the H ranks a few hours to go fight with the monster there, not alone, of course.

Then they retreated outside the dungeon for a bit to rest and eat, then delved deeper into floor 1 to give the G ranks appropriate monsters to fight with that weren’t the bulky golems and the aggressive undead.

Overhaul, even though this day was boring, Grok would call it a great day for the delve!

Some H ranks were even able to rank up!

So, as long as nothing out of the ordinary happened while they were returning to the encampment, he could rest knowing that he had done a good job—

*thump*

“I SAID MOVE! NOT STOP YOU TWIGS!” Grok yelled at the goblins at the back of the group that had stopped, making him bump into them but, weirdly, instead of continuing to move, they stood still.

*clank*

Suddenly, the sound of something dropping to the ground came from the front of the group, and just as Grok was about to scream at the imbecile who dropped his spear to be more careful of his weapon, he saw a weird figure standing in the entrance of the dungeon.

Squinting his eyes, Grok tried to see what was standing outside which was made harder as the last rays of the sun were flooding inside from the dungeon gate, but even then, Grok was able to make out the figure of something with 4 legs.

Pushing past his men, as he slowly got closer to the entrance, he could finally make out what was actually standing in the entrance.

A zombie.

A deer zombie to be specific.

Then Grok started charging past his men, yelling at them to move as many of whom were just H ranks, who weren’t supposed to come near a zombie, whether it was a deer, or not.

They just couldn’t deal with a monster as aggressive as a zombie.

Then, he started to tighten his grip on his spear, and started aiming to throw it at the head of the zombie, preparing to destroy its brain, and cut off its mana supply, like how his father had thought him to deal with zombies.

Then, as he moved mana to his arm, preparing to throw his spear, every moment felt like years as he was scared that the unfortunate ones in the front of the line could get damaged by the zombie, but after only a few more seconds, he was ready, and then he threw his spear as strongly, and as accurately as he could.

As the iron tipped spear flew through the air, making noises as it cut the very air they were breathing, Grok’s heart raced. Had he done it? Was he fast enough? Was his spear going to hit? Had he thrown it strong enough?

But before he could give answers to any of his questions, his spear hit true, and went through the skull of the zombie, throwing it back with such a force that he was impressed by the strength of the zombie’s neck.

And before long, he felt a really small wave of mana brush against his skin, the sign of the zombie dying as undead like it couldn’t keep mana in their bodies after death as well as living beings could.

Calming down, Grok heaved a sigh, and prepared to yell at whoever was at the front and the other goblins for getting scared by just a simple zombie.

But as he was about to open his mouth, he remembered something.

“I didn’t get the system message...” he muttered to himself, but he was sure the nearby goblins could hear him as they stiffened again the moment he said those words.

Then as he once again focused on the undead, he realized the thing hadn’t fallen to the ground, and was standing straight even though its head was bend backwards, and he could clearly see the shaft of his spear pointing upwards.

Then, as if to despise him, he saw the zombie’s neck rise up, and its 4 eyes stare at his group with an anger and hatred that he didn’t know an undead could possess.

By now, the goblins that were away from him had realized the zombie was still fine too, and he could practically see the one in the very front of the group quaking in fear.

Then, vines came from the back of the de—the vine deer and grabbed the shaft of the spear and pulled it forwards.

*thunk*

As the spear’s tip hit the skull of the zombie once more, it made a thunking noise.

*thunk* *thunk*

Then, the zombie tried to dislodge the spear a few more times by pulling it forwards, alas, the spear’s tip continued to hit the skull of the monster.

But after a few more tries the undead suddenly stopped and moved its vines to the back of its head, continuing to stare at us, but I could feel that it wasn’t looking at all the goblins, no, its eyes were specifically locked onto me, probably sensing that I was the gravest threat to it.

Breaking out of my stupor, I quickly grabbed the spears of one of the goblins near me, and looked at the spear at my hand, weighing it and looking for any defects that I’d need to consider while using it, though, thankfully, it was just a normal flint spear, nothing more, nothing less.

*swoosh*

But as I was looking at the spear at my hand, I heard the sound of something sliding through... something.

Turning to look at the zombie, I saw that it had removed the spear from its head, holding the spear from its tip with its vines, and a large hole could be seen on the forehead of the creature, large enough to allow anyone looking at it to see the forest behind the creature.

Then the undead pointed the shaft of the spear at the goblin at the very front of the group with, and then thrusted the shaft of the spear at the goblin at the very front, causing the goblin to flinch and fall back, but it was saved by its friends behind it.

But before the shaft of the spear could hit the goblin, the undead stopped it, and just pointed it at the goblin and just... continued to point it at it.

Then after a few moments of nothing happening, the undead started to sway the spear to the sides, and up and down, clearly trying to get the goblin at the very front to grab the spear.

And after a few seconds, I could see that the goblin had grabbed the spear.

Then, the undead just let go of the spear, and moved a vine behind its head and... grabbed an eye, pointed it towards us, placed it on the back of its head, into the hole I made with the spear, turned around, and started to slowly walk towards the tree line, the eye at the back of its head still locked onto us.

As the undead continued to get farther and farther, the goblins left the dungeon, and stared at the zombie that continued to walk towards the tree line, and then proceeded to disappeared into the forest after passing the tree line.

As confusion and bewilderment took over the group, I quickly moved forwards and took my spear from Gob, who was supposed to be a G rank that could actually deal with zombies, and opened my mouth.

“NO ONE TALKS ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED HERE! I AM PUTTING A GAG ORDER UNTILL FURTHER NOTICE!” I yelled at the group I was leading, knowing that it wasn’t a wise decision to let loose the fact that an intelligent zombie that couldn’t be killed through conventional means was wandering through the forest.

“I need to inform father.” I thought to myself gripping my spear, realizing that this undead was probably the same one from last night, and promptly started to organize the goblins so we could get moving and be prepared for any attacks, just in case the zombie wasn’t actually gone and just pretended to be.

Looking at the goblins that were organizing into lines for our march, I continued to think and decided that, maybe this wasn’t such a normal and calm day after all...

“THAT MOTHERFUCKER!

ONE DAY, I SWEAR IT, ONE DAY I AM GOING TO BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF THAT FUCKER WHO THREW HIS SPEAR AT ME!” I said in a fit of rage, which was only justified as my brain, my most important organ, was destroyed by a random FUCKER!

“...Aughh... for fucks sake man... what the hell am I going to do with this small amount of mana...” I lamented and once again looked at my status window.

Name: William Race: Stray Soul (Vine Deer)

Level: 14 Exp: 28/31 Rank: H

Health Points: 0/52 Mana Points: 232/270

Strength: 0 (10)

Vitality: 0 (5)

Agility: 0 (12)

Intelligence: 27

Wisdom: 29

Charisma: 0 (3)

Free Stat Points: 0

Skills: Ethereal Body (S), Mana Sense (Z), Bind (Z), Soul Sense (H), Soul Manipulation (H), Mana Control (Z), Mana Strengthening (Z) +

Titles: Reincarnator (S), Otherworlder (A)

Quests: Meddling with the Unknown (S), What Lays Beyond? (C)

You see it, right? Thanks to a certain SOMEONE, my days of having a convenient amount of mana was over as SOME FUCKER decided that it was okay to throw a spear at someone’s head!

...That mother fucker is so lucky I reigned in myself and didn’t kill him and all the other goblins.

Which took a lot less willpower to do as even though that fucker in leather armour attacked me, the others were just... scared.

Which I can relate to after fighting that skeleton, I mean, who wouldn’t?

Turning around and looking behind me for a few seconds, to make sure no one was fallowing me, I went next to a shrub, or a bush, whatever you call it, and started to dig it out of the ground with my hooves as I needed something to reinforce my barely standing neck, and something to also close the inconvenient hole in my chest.

And shrubs should make somewhat decent limbs too as the only advantage I have against animals is my brain, and the ability to wield simple weapons with limbs I can make out of plants.

Which will prove very useful soon as I am kinda in a dire need for a new body, one I will have to hunt down when I am under strength... how fun.

But, seriously, what can I even hunt?

I can probably hunt a lynx or a rabbit, or maybe a fox, but they just don’t seem big and strong enough to house my soul, so I’d need a small army of them to be of any use, and with small army I of course mean an amount that can be counted on a single hand.

And I am not going to go hunting down anything that small as... well, they are fast, and while I am fast like them... hunting multiple of them might—will prove to be a challenge in the small-time frame I have.

So then, what do I go for?

Not a goblin as, like I stated before, I am not willing to hurt a creature with capacity for complex thought, and emotions.

And, while I am more than willing to hunt a deer or a hog, or hell, even a bear or a wolf, those animals may prove a bit too challenging for me to deal with in my... battered state to say the least.

Shifting through every animal I could think of, that I encountered in this world, I could only thing of 2 that I could hunt down in a reasonable time frame, Terror birds, and river bugs.

But both of them had their own downsides in the shape of terror birds being big carnivores that were more than willing to eat rotten carcasses that they encountered, and the river bugs had too many members in their swarms for me to be confident in being able to hunt down the biggest of them without trouble.

“...Guess I gotta go after the river bugs...” I said to myself as, while they were absolutely swarming, river bugs could at least be killed with this broken body of mine, while a terror bird could prove to be a challenge, or even deadly for me.

So, it was a no brainer to hunt down the biggest of the river bugs, and then use them to make my way up the food chain once again.

“So, plan of action. Kill big river bug, find and kill a terror bird, or a deer, doesn’t matter if it’s a vine deer or not, and then... profit?” I monologued, and... that looked like a plan!

Then I continued to break apart, move my soul into, and manipulate a few bushes, more than enough for me to use a few to reinforce my neck, chest, legs, and make a lot of limbs out of... is what I want to say but, we are just starting the night and I need to actually do all the hard work before I can actually do the things I just said I did...

“Well, it seems like it’s going to be a long, long night for me... as I stay in an abandoned part of the forest... with nothing of interest happening... great.”