As I stepped through the doorway, my feet crunched on bones. I looked around. It was a circular arena with stands and everything. Some sort of magical light shone from above. The floor was covered in bones. The entire ground was just a thick layer of bones.

  There were people in the stands watching and looking down at us. I use the term people loosely here. There were skeletons, wraiths, banshees, death knights, and even draugr. I think I even saw a dullahan. The man was holding his head in the crook of his arm, but there was no horse around. How can you be a headless horseman with no horse?

  I bumped into Valda because I kept walking forward, but she had stopped. She was looking around, trying to figure out the same thing I was. Where was our opponent? Would they be released from somewhere on the other side of the room?

  There was a rumble among the bones. Valda gripped her mace tightly. Suddenly, a massive creature came bursting out of the bones. Bones fell away from its body. I expected the bones to fall away and reveal a body, but eventually I realized it was just bones. The creature was made of bones.

  Two dark pits on its face functioned as eye sockets. It stared us down for a few moments.

  "Welcome to my arena!" the bone golem said. "I am Glogmore and I will be your host and opponent for this fight!"

  "What do we get if we win?" I asked.

  "No one's ever asked that before," Glogmore said. "If you won, you would get to leave."

  "Right," I said. I sighed. I was hoping for something more, but it was more realistic this way.

  "Oh!" he said. "Wait! There are more things here."

  He disappeared among the bones once more. After half a minute, he emerged carrying a pile of weapons and armor in one arm and a bunch of coin purses in the other.

  "If you win, you can have the possessions of those who lost!" Glogmore said. "Glogmore is generous! Glogmore is kind! Glogmore will crush you into bones, but at least you'll get a prize if you kill him."

  "Thank you, Glogmore," I said.

  "Yes, thank you, Glogmore," Valda said.

  "You're welcome!" he said. Glogmore smiled as much as a bone golem can smile. "Can we fight now?"

  "Yes!" I said.

  I lifted my crossbow and fired a shot at him. The bolt passed through his body, creating a large hole that looked small on his massive frame.

  "Owie!" he said. "You hurt Glogmore. Glogmore hurt you!"

  Glogmore leapt thirty feet into the air and fell towards me and Valda. We both dodged out of the way, Valda doing a better job than I did. I only got five feet away by the time he landed and bones sprayed my face, temporarily blinding me.

  I blinked the bone dust out of my eyes while walking backwards and my vision cleared to see a massive arm made of bones coming down on me. I fired my remaining four shots into the fist above me and it broke apart, showering me with bones.

  I was smart enough to close my eyes this time, so I didn't get anything in them. When I opened them, I saw Glogmore grabbing at his missing hand like he was hurt. Then I saw something weird. A glowing purple bone was barely sticking out of his arm.

  He quickly covered it with his other hand. He was trying to keep me from seeing it. But I did. I turned on Analyze and an image of the purple glowing bone appeared as a hologram in front of me.

  A name and description appeared under it. It read, "Master Bone: Bone golems use these magical bones to control the bones that comprise its body. Destroy these bones and you destroy the bone golem."

  That seemed pretty self explanatory. I tried to communicate that to Valda, but instead, what came out of my mouth sounded like nonsense.

  "Bones! Hit his purple bones!" I said.

  "What?" Valda asked. "Where? I don't see any purple bones!"

  "They're inside his body!" I said. "You'll know it when you see one!"

  "Ok!" she said. She looked back at the golem and charged him with her mace held high.

  "Don't tell Glogmore's secrets!" he said. "Glogmore own person. Glogmore has right to privacy!"

  Valda charged up an impact strike and slammed her mace into his leg. Glogmore was about twenty or more feet tall. Valda's head only came up to his knee. Or where his knee would be if he had one.

  Her mace tore through his leg, the silver burning through the bones that made up his body. She smashed through half of his calve, ankle, and foot, revealing a glowing purple bone. She grabbed it and yanked it out.

  "Is this one?" she said. She waved it in the air.

  "Yes!" I said. "Now destroy it!"

  "Hey, that Glogmore's!" he said. "Give back!"

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Valda crushed the bone in her hand.

  The rest of Glogmore's leg fell apart, and he toppled over. His whole body fell apart into lifeless bones. I looked around. I knew that didn't kill him. The Analyze ability said he had more than one of those bones, so he had to be under the bones somewhere.

  The master bones must have been his actual "body." And they could swim through the bones freely. I saw a fin made of bones crest the surface. Then it sank back down. He was literally swimming through the bones now. As some sort of fish or serpent. I reloaded my crossbow.

  Valda was looking around, too, staying on guard. Then a mouth full of razor sharp bone teeth came out of the ground right in front of me. I tried to jump out of the way, but the mouth grabbed my leg and began to pull me under.

  I shot at the mouth and it let go, but I was buried up to my calves in the bones. The last bolt missed and hit me in the leg. I tried to yank my feet out of the bones, but they wouldn't budge.

  "Ah!" I said.

  "What?" Valda said. "Did he get you?"

  "Sort of," I said. "Help. Pull me out of these bones. I'm stuck."

  Valda rushed over and pulled me out.

  "Maybe we should stick together," I said. I pulled the bolt out of my leg and dropped it on the ground. "He seems to know I'm the weak one. That's why he keeps targeting me."

  I drank a health potion and my leg healed. Good thing he hadn't bit it off. I wouldn't have been able to heal that without at least a rare health potion. And I'd need the other half of the leg to reattach it. Full regeneration took an epic health potion or higher.

  "Good idea," she said.

  I reloaded my crossbow and pulled out a second one. Just one didn't seem to be enough to hold him off. Valda and I kept a look out. Then the bones around us began to stir.

  I immediately jumped out of the circle and so did Valda. Just in time too. A giant Glogmore sized fish burst out of the bones and came chasing after us.

  I aimed my crossbows and fired into the creature's mouth ten times. Tons of bones fell away, revealing another master bone. Valda saw it and rushed forward, smashing it with her mace. Another mass of bones fell away, revealing another master bone. She smashed that one too. And then another.

  All the bones fell away and there was one purple bone rattling on the ground. Valda lifted her mace, but I ran in the way and grabbed the bone.

  "Glogmore!" I said. "I have an idea."

  "Yes?" the bone said. "Glogmore listening."

  "What if you helped us fight?" I asked. "We won't kill you if you help us. But you're weak now. If you betray us, we will kill you."

  "Glogmore thinking," he said. A few minutes of silence went by. I absently looked at my wrist expecting a watch to be there, but then I remembered they hadn't been invented yet. "Glogmore do! Glogmore help!"

  "Ok," I said. "Do you promise not to betray us?"

  I wouldn't go through this childish routine unless I was certain it would work. And I was certain.

  "Glogmore promise!" he said.

  "Now, remember, you promised, so you can't betray us now," I said.

  "Glogmore know," he said.

  "Ok," I said.

  I gently placed the master bone on the ground. It wiggled and struggled until bones started to form around it. It turned into a large ball shaped creature with a big mouth and sharp teeth. It didn't have any legs. It was about the size of a large dog.

  "Glogmore help!" he said.

  He wandered over to the pile of weapons and coin purses and ate them. Sort of. They popped out of his head, handle first, like he was handing them to me.

  I grabbed them and put them in my large bag. The weight was quartered, but there were dozens of these things. The bag was starting to get heavy by the time we moved onto the coin purses.

  Once we had loaded all the coin purses into the bag and I put it back on, it felt like I was carrying 70-pounds on my back. Which meant I was carrying 280-pounds in the bag.

  Luckily, I had a 5 in strength, or I'd be in big trouble. As it was, it was just uncomfortable. Not heavy enough to pull anything in my back. That reminded me.

  I still had 3 stat points to distribute. Instead of putting them all in intelligence, I decided to shore up some weak points. I increased my constitution to 5 and my charisma to 3.

  I knew I wasn't going to be picking up ladies, but at least having above average charisma would be nice to have. I thought of it as a quality of life thing. Everyone I encountered would find me slightly more likeable.

  Not enough where it was like cheating, but enough where life would be slightly more relaxing with non hostiles. Hostiles would still be hostile, but friendlies and neutrals would be kinder and friendlier.

  With my constitution at 5 and my level at 5, my health was now 125 points and my stamina was also 125 points. Stamina and health maximums must have both been calculated off constitution.

  I was now tankier, with better endurance. This would be useful in the future. My health total had been a weak point, and now it was a strength.

  I was thinking I might want to bump up my charisma to 4 on the next level up, just to get into the same range with the rest of my other non-intelligence stats, and then I could go back to straight boosting intelligence.

  I looked up to see Valda just staring warily at Glogmore.

  "Are you sure we can trust this thing?" Valda asked.

  "Glogmore not thing!" he said. "Glogmore has feelings, you know."

  "Settle down Glogmore," I said.

  "Ok," he said.

  He calmed down, unlike anyone who has ever been asked to calm down. He clearly wasn't human, whatever he was.

  "I think we can trust him," I said. "He did promise, after all."

  "You don't think he'll betray us because he promised?" Valda asked.

  I leaned in and whispered into Valda's ear.

  "He's not smart enough to go back on a promise," I said. "He's mentally a child. A very murderous child."

  "Oh!" Valda said. "Right! Because he promised. That's right Glogmore! You can't betray us because you promised you wouldn't."

  She wagged her finger at him.

  "Glogmore know. Glogmore cooperate," he said.

  "Good," I said. "Now, let's get the hell out of here. This place is giving me the creeps. The audience is just watching us."

  Valda looked up and saw what I saw. The audience wasn't clapping or cheering anymore. They were just staring at us with murder in their eyes. We walked through the door on the other side of the arena and closed it.

  Name: Gwen

  Class: Maker

  Level: 5

  Stats:

  Strength: 5

  Dexterity: 4

  Constitution: 5

  Wisdom: 4

  Intelligence: 9

  Charisma: 3

  Resources:

  HP: 75 hit points

  MP: 160 mana points

  Stamina: 75 stamina points

  Proficiencies:

  Bartering: Apprentice (3)

  Appraisal: Apprentice (3)

  Repair: Apprentice (3)

  Alchemy: Master (6)

  Blacksmithing: Expert (5)

  Enchanting: Journeyman (4)

  Tinkering: Journeyman (4)

  Artifice: Journeyman (4)

  (And More)(Far too many to fully list)(Will come up in the story as they become relevant)

  Abilities/Spells:

  Analyze: Ability to analyse people, objects, and creatures, and learn information about them, such as identification, classification, level, abilities, health, etc.

  Design: Create 3 and 2 dimensional designs, plans, and schematics in your mind and holographically in front of your eyes. Can only be seen by the user.

  Test: Ability to test designs, schematics, and plans to see if they function.

  Assemble: Ability to automatically put together crafting products if all the individual parts are already made.

  Manufacture: Ability to complete crafts from raw materials.