It only took a few moments, but once his eyes adjusted he readied himself for a fight, but nothing came. A quick search around him showed he was still alone, only surrounded by the undead dead. He smiled and looked into the chest. The inside looked way bigger than the outside. “Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey.” He smiled at the inside joke. He peered into the chest.
Inside, a pair of dark gauntlets lay atop a yellowed roll of parchment. Their surface shimmered faintly with an otherworldly glow. He reached for them, and a notification blinked to life.
Item Acquired: Wraithforged Gauntlets
Item: Wraithforged Gauntlets
Rarity: Rare
Type: Armor (Hand)
Effect: Increases intelligence and Wisdom stats by 20.
Jace gawked at the. He slowly slid the gauntlets on, a surge of power coursing through him as they tightened to fit—like a second skin, pulsing with energy, resonating with something deep inside him.
Since they gave in 20 in stats he was very deficient in it was already a plus.
Name: Jace Halloway
Race: Soulborne (Unique)
Class: Soulreaver (Unregistered)
Level: Error, current class unable to gain experience
Health: 344/344
Stamina: 191/191
Mana: 177/177
Strength: 74
Dexterity: 56
Endurance: 27
Intelligence: 29 (20)
Wisdom: 28 (20)
He watched his stats surge again. His mind sharpened, clarity buzzing through every nerve. He felt good, really good. All of these massive boosts in stats were a little heavy, especially having so much gained at once.
Then he remembered. His attention quickly shifted to the parchment.
Spell Scroll Acquired: Analyze
Without hesitation, he grabbed it and unraveled the scroll. The knowledge instantly flooded his mind like ink spreading through water.
A new notification appeared.
New Skill Acquired: [Analyze] (Rank 1) – Allows the examination of living or organic entities. Reveals surface-level traits such as species, health status, Strengths and Weaknesses. Results may be obscured or fragmented depending on the subject’s resistance or soul complexity.
He immediately felt how the skill worked and knew exactly what to do. Although his excitement flickered through him, he realized he needed to be more careful with any scrolls.
He thought it would offer him a prompt or something, not have him immediately learn it.
A faint smile curled his lips when he heard the footsteps. He turned toward the Draugr, focusing as he activated his new ability.
Draugr Warrior
An undead warrior of ancient times.
Level: 12
Strengths: Melee Combat
Weakness: Blunt Damage
Absorb: Strength and Dexterity.
"Good to know why my club worked so much better than that rusty sword," Jace muttered, flicking open the lingering system screen with a twitch of thought. The information shimmered faintly—half-broken runes, fractured text. “Too bad the info’s so sparse. Figured it’d give me more.”
The analysis had confirmed it though: the undead were soft to blunt force. Very soft. Damage Type Bonus: Bludgeoning – Effective.
“Nice to know I’m not imagining it,” he said, cracking his neck. He closed the prompt with a mental flick and gripped his makeshift bone club tighter.
Armed with fresh insight and mounting aggression, he surged into the next chamber—half-collapsed and scattered with bones and bodies too fresh to be comforting. Three Draugr turned toward him, slow and shuffling, as if unaware of the storm bearing down on them.
Jace didn’t wait.
He brought the club down like it owed him money. The first blow caved in a skull with a wet crunch, the next collapsed a ribcage like dried reeds. Undead bones snapped and flew as the third barely raised its blade before it, too, went airborne in pieces.
“Who knew y’all would be so weak to blunt damage?” Jace called over the chaos, grinning wide. “Kinda feels like cheating… but honestly, I’m not about to complain.”
His sharp smile was more predator than man.
Every swing sent a jolt of power and recoil through his arms. The club wasn’t balanced. It wasn’t meant to last. But he was too deep into the rhythm to care—until he overcommitted.
The swing came too hard, the angle too wild, and the impact—glorious. The bone club slammed into a Draugr’s sternum with a bone-shattering CRACK! It exploded. Not the undead. The weapon. His club detonated in a burst of brittle bone splinters, shards whistling through the air like deadly confetti.
Jace staggered, blinking dust out of his eyes.
All four Draugr stood still—then collapsed, each impaled by multiple jagged bone fragments. The one he’d struck directly was already a mess of broken ribs and crushed armor, twitching on the stone floor.
He exhaled. “Well… that happened.”
Unarmed again, he looked around. “Okay, okay, think fast—”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
His gaze fell to the shattered remains of the Draugr. Specifically, it's mostly-intact arm.
Jace grabbed the skeletal limb without hesitation, tested its weight with a quick flourish, and then—on sheer instinct—whipped it sideways into the nearest shambling corpse. The arm hit like a blessed bat. Skull crunched, body dropped.
Jace blinked. Then grinned. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
He spun it in one hand, testing its balance. It clattered awkwardly, bending where no hinge should bend.
“Moves like janky, undead nunchucks,” he muttered.
And then—he kept going. Whether he had broken bones or not, momentum was still on his side.
Skill Leveled Up! [Makeshift Bone Weapons] has reached Rank 2 – Create sturdier and more refined bone weapons with improved durability and cutting power. Weapons now hold against sustained combat and can briefly absorb enemy strikes before shattering. Can craft dual weapons or enhance a single weapon’s lethality.
A manic grin spread across his face, he felt his Soulreaver Core surge with unbridled power.
What followed was a surge of hunger—raw, primal, and gnawing at the edges of his soul. But deeper still came the anger. Not the kind that burned out, but the kind that built with every groan from the undead, every scrape of bone on stone, every mocking creak of this rotted tomb trying to keep him here. Anger at the Draugr. At the dungeon. At this whole damned world.
He clenched his jaw and let that fury fuel the flame coiled within his core. He wouldn’t survive this place. He’d conquer it. Break it. Burn it down to ash and silence.
His hand tightened around the bone-forged haft of his weapon. It still steamed faintly, fresh from the summon. The weight felt right—imperfect, crude—but personal. His.
He lunged forward, feet slapping stone, and slammed the weapon into the first Draugr’s chest with enough force to cave it in. Bone cracked. Dust burst. Without slowing, he spun, letting the momentum carry him into a sweeping arc that shattered the second before it could raise its rusted blade.
And then—he felt it.
That power. The thing thrumming in his core, just outside reach. Tangential, slippery, but real. It shimmered like a second heartbeat. He reached for it, focused, and it surged to meet him—raw soul energy, eager and wild.
Jace grinned.
He shoved it into the weapon, not gently, not cautiously—but like slamming fuel into a fire.
The bone weapon pulsed. Glowed faintly with something deeper than magic—something hungry. And for a moment, it felt like it growled with him.
New Skill Acquired! [Infuse Soul] (Rank 1) – Use stored souls to temporarily enhance weapons with energy, increasing its damage potential.
The energy pulsed within, waiting to be unleashed. Jace focused, channeling the souls he had harvested into his crude bone nunchucks. A faint blue glow surrounded the weapon as it thrummed with newfound power. Yet, he felt something drain deep within him. He shook it off, but the sensation lingered.
With a renewed sense of vigor, he tore through the remaining group of Draugr, his enhanced strikes crushing and smashing through them like a wrecking ball. Each death felt fluid, more right than before. He craved it.
As the final enemy fell, he took a deep, steadying breath. He had survived. He had conquered them.
The notifications flooded in.
You have killed a Level 12 Undead Draugr.
Massive XP Earned!
ERROR…
Class unable to gain XP…
Massive XP forfeited…
Reaper’s Touch Skill activated.
+1 Soul Fragment Reaped.
You have gained +4 to Strength, +4 to Dexterity due to level discrepancy.
Soulreaver Core Progression Activated.
Soulreaver Core: 23/100
…
You have killed a Level 12 Undead Draugr.
Massive XP Earned!
ERROR…
Class unable to gain XP…
Massive XP forfeited…
Reaper’s Touch Skill activated.
+1 Soul Fragment Reaped.
You have gained +4 to Strength, +4 to Dexterity due to level discrepancy.
Soulreaver Core Progression Activated.
Soulreaver Core: 40/100
Infuse Soul activated.
You have spent 5 souls to imbue your weapon.
Soulreaver Progression: 35/100
"That answers a few questions, but opens a whole new can of worms." He silently mused. He could now use the souls he'd gained to infuse his weapons, but at the cost of what looked like souls from his core progression.
He really needed answers. He had to get out of here and into some sort of civilization. He wanted to call out to the voice, but he hadn’t felt its presence since their last conversation. He felt utterly alone.
He checked his stats and found he could show only the parts of his sheet he wanted. It was as simple as willing it up.
Name: Jace Halloway
Race: Soulborne (Unique)
Class: Soulreaver (Unregistered)
Level: Error, current class unable to gain experience
Health: 412/412
Stamina: 259/259
Mana: 177/177
Strength: 142
Dexterity: 124
Endurance: 27
Intelligence: 29 (20)
Wisdom: 28 (20)
His lopsided stats nagged at him, though. But his Strength and Dexterity had skyrocketed. He was rising fast. Maybe too fast. He felt the massive flush of power just as the pain slammed into him. His body grew too fast for his mind to keep up. It felt like his entire body was ripping apart cell by cell.
Finally his mind cleared of the pain and his muscles stopped spasming and he felt incredibly powerful. He clenched his fist and he felt the power. His arms had bulked up to almost double the size. He lifted his shirt—and nearly lost it. He was stacked, packing a massive whatever pack that would put a super hero to shame.
This felt good. Too good. He shouldn’t feel this alive after all that death.
He wondered how to try out his heightened Dexterity when a new notification popped up.
Title Gained!
ERROR!
Warning: Stat threshold anomaly detected — Strength exceeds expected parameters for Level 1.
Standard Title protocols failed to execute.
Title access rerouted…
[Legacy Title Path Accessed – Source Unknown]
“...You were never meant to crawl…” A melodic voice erupted in the silence.
New Title Acquired: [Titan-Blooded] – Your strength has surpassed mortal limitations before your time. The world bends before you—not because you leveled, but because you refused to kneel.
+5% bonus to all Strength-based actions. Physical resistances slightly increased.
Title Gained!
ERROR!
Warning: Dexterity exceeds designed threshold for current level.
Standard designation rejected.
Consulting alternative title archive…
[Legacy Title Engaged – Signature Unverified]
“...Even shadows envy your step…”
New Title Acquired: [Shadow-Walked] – You move like something not meant for this world—graceful, unpredictable, inhuman. The System doesn't understand you. It simply obeys.
+5% bonus to evasion, speed, and reflex-based abilities. Slight increase to dodge chance.
“Two new Titles!” Even though they looked to be mired in system glitches. Either way, he's got them. Titan blood and Shadow Walked. They gave some pretty nice benefits too. Much better than his Paragon title that was still glitches out.
It almost made him forget about the voice that sounded in his head after each title… he knew that voice, He had heard it before. It was the same as before. But why was it reaching out to him?
“Hello?” Jace asked out into the silence. A few minutes and there wasn't any reply. “Fine, keep your secrets.”
The dungeon was silent now, save for the faint drip of water echoing through the halls. Jace stared down the ruined corridor, still lit by the ghostly green torches. He flexed his fingers, took a breath. He needed to test his dexterity—and he only knew of one way, he moved. Not a sprint. A flow.
His body blurred forward, feet barely tapping stone as he slipped between collapsed pillars, vaulted a cracked sarcophagus, and twisted midair to land silently atop a jagged ledge. He didn’t stumble. Didn’t breathe heavily. Just stood there, blinking. “No way,” he whispered, staring at his hands. “That… was me. This is something else.”
He turned his thoughts outward and began to quickly move through the now silent crypts. He hadn't realized that in all the fighting and testing, he had pushed himself pretty much all the way through the vast chamber as he danced with the undead.
He walked confidently through the rest of the crypts until ahead, an archway led to a staircase. It looked to go up and out of the crypt.
Jace wiped his brow, rolling his shoulders. The path ahead was clear—at least, as clear as a dungeon exit could be. Whatever waited beyond these stairs, he’d face it. He had no other choice.
He stepped toward the stairs and began his climb.
Find out on the next episode of... Harmony… of the Fallen, BONED TO BE WILD!
What do yall think about the inability to gain xp?
