Standing at the location where he had died, SV immediately pressed his right middle and ring fingers against his palm, curious about whether his talent would activate without a target. Predictably, nothing happened.
Then, throwing all caution to the wind, SV approached the nearest corpse. It was a woman in a tattered linen dress. The tattered parts gave view to the rotten flesh underneath. Her face was a bloody mess, leaving her age a mystery, and her disheveled hair flowed haphazardly around her head.
He extended his hand to touch her raised ones as she approached while keeping his two fingers pressed against his palm. He was going to see this talent activated one way or another.
When his index finger touched the tip of the corpse's hand, his whole body turned to grey dust. SV's vision remained where his eyes used to be before he felt himself being sucked into the corpse in front of him.
[Possession has been initiated.]
The dust that used to be his body traveled towards the corpse's face and drilled down her throat, making the corpse utter strange muffled growls in confusion. SV's vision rapidly traveled from his location to the corpse's face to the journey into the dark that was her throat before suddenly gazing out from a pair of new eyes, feeling himself in a body that didn't respond to his will at all.
Suddenly, he felt a sharp tingling pain in his new head, and a system notification flashed in his new eyes.
[SPR check has been initiated. 6>5. Check failed. Possession failed.]
'Fuck!' He cursed as he tried to somehow fight for dominance, but unlike the previous experience where he could at least move, this new body didn't belong to him at all. The pain intensified, and he could only watch helplessly as his vision darkened.
—
SV in his ethereal form watched as the corpse stood in place for a moment before moving away as if nothing had happened. He stood silently for a moment before cursing.
'Does it have to be so extreme? Why the fuck do I need this do-or-die ability for?'
'Can you at least tone down the sensation a bit? Why does it have to be so frickin' visceral? It's a game for fuck's sake. There's no need for so much realism!'
SV vented for a moment before calming down. Only then did his brain start to look at it from another angle. Admittedly, the talent was very powerful; if his guess was correct, then it was basically a literal instant death skill. However, while powerful, it touched upon his shortcomings. His SPR was so low that tutorial mobs could defeat him.
Another thing he noted was the similarity between his possession and the mobs'. Did that mean possession was common in this game? Or maybe it was just a coincidence. Or perhaps he wasn't randomly teleported to this location.
He had no way to verify that for now, so he archived it in the back of his head.
He opened his logs to check whether he had missed anything. Apart from a new death message, there wasn't anything noteworthy. He turned to look at the graveyard again.
As it stood, his talent was unreliable and direct combat was unadvisable, both for the same reason: his low SPR. A part of him wanted to try a few more times to see if he would chance upon a corpse with a low SPR but the sensation of his recent failure left him unnerved.
Looking at his options, he could either try ranged attacks next or take the literal meaning in the quest and just find a way to escape. However, SV wasn't one to run when the enemy wasn't undefeatable to him yet. It was doable; he firmly believed so.
He clicked on revive.
—
Having gotten somewhat familiar with the game's method of lurching him into position, SV quickly stabilized himself and looked around. He turned and ran where the mobs were more scattered.
Having done it once already, he managed to quickly gather them again in one single horde. He ran from one edge to another and approached one of the crawlers left behind. The crawler was a decently preserved male corpse, if not for his mangled lower body. His hands clutched the ground as he stiffly moved forward.
He picked up a decently sized rock nearby, about the size of a watermelon, and raised it above his head. He threw the rock on the corpse's head that was about two meters away from him and immediately took a few steps back.
The heavy rock crashed into the corpse's head, splattering brain matter everywhere. He looked at the corpse that showed no reaction and waited for a moment. He narrowed his eyes, for he didn't see any red light at all.
'Was it hiding?' He didn't know. He quickly checked his logs but didn't find anything new. Then he looked at the approaching horde, and a thought occurred to him. He wondered what would happen if another mob touched it.
At this point, he was almost certain the red light's possession ability was almost, if not exactly, the same as his.
He situated himself between the horde and the mob and simply waited. The footsteps and growls grew louder and louder as the horde approached. Finally, a corpse at the forefront stepped on what used to be the crawler. SV was watching with rapt attention, uncaring for the approach of the horde.
A red light suddenly jumped from the crawler's corpse and went straight into the corpse that was stepping on it. It was so fast that SV would've probably missed it had he blinked. The corpse went stiff for a moment, and that was enough for it to be pushed down by the corpses behind it.
SV gradually stepped away while still facing the horde to see how it was going to end. The corpse that fell made two others stumble, but they quickly adjusted themselves. It, on the other hand, was trampled on into a mess. The mess possessed another corpse, and by the end of it, the horde had lost four members, while the graveyard had gained another crawler.
SV was amused before he realized that he had reached the edge of the graveyard. He swiftly made a beeline for the other edge, skirting around the horde.
By now, he had found a suitable way to deal with these mobs. However, this method prevented him from gaining any Exp. Of course, he wasn't sure whether it was possible to gain Exp from killing monsters in this game yet, but that didn't mean that he should disregard the possibility. There were at least a hundred corpses in front of him; even if each one gave one point of Exp, that was enough for him to level up.
Looking at the approaching horde, he realized that he had no ability to deal with these corpses yet. Ultimately, it all came down to his low SPR.
He could only turn to the gate behind him. Suddenly, he noticed the two sconces around the gate.
'No way, right?' Did he miss something so obvious?
He approached one of them and tried to pry it off the wall, but he couldn't. He tried the other with the same result. It was firmly stuck to the wall, and it didn't look like it was burning coal or anything like that.
'A magical construct?' It didn't matter right now as the horde was close by. He narrowed his eyes and guided the horde to the other end of the graveyard again.
When he came back, he carried with him a stack of linen fabric he'd scavenged from the corpses. He bundled them up into several balls and lit one up, taking it to one of the crawlers lying around.
As he drew near, he threw the ball of fire to the crawler. The ball landed on it, and the fire spread to the crawler's clothes and hair. However, the crawler seemed wholly unconcerned about the clothes burning its flesh and continued its attempts to approach him.
SV was speechless for a moment before another idea came to him. He left and found another crawler. He took a rock and smashed its head. Then, after guiding the horde to the other end for the umpteenth time, he brought another ball of fire and tossed it to the crawler's corpse. The clothes on the corpse burned as SV waited for some sort of reaction.
Nothing. Nothing at all.
'Was it hiding too deeply?' In frustration, SV had an idea. He brought his right hand in a swift gesture to touch the corpse briefly through the heat of the flame. A red light flashed and popped out of the corpse but was immediately engulfed in flames, and with a sharp hiss, it disappeared. A notification popped up in front of his eyes just then.
[You have slain a Fractured Spirit. Exp +3]
A grin plastered itself on SV's lips. Finally! He finally found a way to deal with these shitheads! The joy was so immense that he temporarily ignored the slight inflammation in his hand.
After the joy subsided, he turned his gaze to his right hand, only to see a slight redness. Not a big concern for now. But it should be treated with caution.
He wondered whether he could wrap his hand in fabric before touching the corpse. Heck, he could use his leg instead, for he had shoes on. Then he remembered how the previous crawler corpse was stepped on by another corpse, and it led to it being possessed.
He turned to look at the approaching horde as plans formed in his mind. The practical concern was the dearth of fabric. He only had seven remaining, which was nowhere near enough for the 90+ Fractured Spirits remaining.
'No,' his thoughts suddenly stopped in their tracks. He only needed to finish off about 30 of them to level up. If his level increased and his level-up brought his SPR up by even one point, then the rest of the cleanup would be much simpler.
He could simply let them possess him or he could possess them. With the do-or-die attitude of the possession talent, his only concern would be the judgement check when both parties had the same SPR value. Well, he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.
[You have slain a Fractured Spirit. Exp +3]
[You have slain a Fractured Spirit. Exp +3]
...
[You have slain a Fractured Spirit. Exp +3]
After nearly half an hour of back and forth between the edges, SV finished his last ball of fabric. He was already panting, and his throat felt parched. He had forgotten how realistic this game was; it seemed that he wouldn't survive without food or water.
But that was a problem for later. SV shook his head and took a quick glance at his profile.
======
[Name: Bandit Emperor]
[Race: Human(?)]
[Sex: Male(?)]
[Lv: 0 (Exp: 24/100)]
[Class: None]
[Attributes: STR 10, DEX 7, CON 9, INT 7, WLL 8, SPR 5]
[Talents: Possession Lv1]
[Skills: None]
======
The progress motivated him to move forward. Hopefully, the debuffs would be cleared out once he leveled up. Hopefully. Well, alright, he knew the game wouldn't be so helpful, but whatever.
Next, he needed more fabric. He had two options: divest his simple shirt and pants and commit suicide, then respawn. But he was almost certain that death would reset his Exp. His other option was to sacrifice a few pieces of Exp to get their clothes.
Feeling that he had no other option, SV naturally opted for the latter approach.
He immediately turned towards the burned crawler and smashed its head. It was finally time for it to be useful. The following scene was a hectic fiesta of stumbles and stomps.
Having gotten into the rhythm, SV moved mechanically through his tasks.
Kill a crawler. Burn a crawler. Kill a Fractured Spirit. Create a crawler. Gather clothes. Repeat.
His only joy was the occasional system screen pop-ups.
[You have slain a Fractured Spirit. Exp +3]
[You have slain a Fractured Spirit. Exp +4]
...
[You have slain a Fractured Spirit. Exp +3]
[You have leveled up. Lv0 -> 1. Attributes +1]
"Finally!" SV shouted as he watched the last Fractured Spirit hiss away.
He immediately opened up his system panel.