A skinny pale boy lay down on a rough floor, eyes wide open in contemplation. He stayed the way only turning to look out of the only window available in his cell like room into the forever dark lands of ORBIOUS the land which in exchange for an abundance in the mythical metal mithril was cursed by the overlord to be forever shielded from the sun. He sighed as he reminisced about the past, about the time where he had experienced the rarest of commodities in this world, about his family, about his crush Isis the blind yet cute girl from his village, about hap… His train of thought was interrupted by a loud bell. He sighed as he got up and walked to a glass like rock. He removed his sleeping attire and looked at his image, he was skinny as fuck, he could count quite easily the number of ribs he had the, light crystal reflecting on the glass rock making it so. His skin pale due to the lack of sunlight, his cheeks and eyes sunken to an extreme extent his only redeemable quality being his questionably lustrous black hair. "Hey Skimp, stop admiring yourself and get to work" a voice mocked. "Ha what's there to admire his basically skin and bones" another joined in. Yes, he's Skimp the smallest, weakest and youngest slave of Warlord Operandi the Baron of Orbious. He hurriedly wore his work clothes and took his pickaxe which was at least two times smaller than a normal one, then he made his way to the mines.
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Skimp sighed as he kept on hitting the same spot on the cave wall not really expecting to hit anything. Slaves were put to work in mines that had been squeezed dry of any mithril with a promise of freeing the slave who actually finds an ore whilst workers were put in the good mines which were literally made of mithril. Skimp rolled his eyes at the older yet newest slave of Operandi who was desperately hitting the cave walls in search of any ore. "I give him a week" a slave commented. 'A so the betting pool has started' Skimp thought referring to the only source of fun for the slave, betting how long it'll be before the new slave gives up. Just then Skimp hit something that was clearly not stone. His eyes widened as he took out his chisel and hammer and slowly removed the casing around that area revealing a greenish metallic looking rock. "An ore" Skimp whispered in fascination a glimmer of hope forming in his soul for the first time in five years. Then all that was snatched from him by a giant hand. "I got one, I got one" an excited voice said. Skimp broke out of his shock in time to see the thief. He clenched his hand in anger as he realized that his freedom was just stolen from him. "That's mine you cock sucking donkey humping motherfucker." He shouted. Everything suddenly became silent. "What did you just say?" the thief asked "You heard me the first time you grown ass bitch" Skimp replied with a smirk. Then things went to hell the thief pounced on Skimp and began dishing out blows all of which connected with skimp. Skimp in an attempt gain an upper hand in the beat down hit the thief in the balls. The thief screamed and in retaliation struck Skimp in the head with the ore. A crack was head as Skimp slumped dead with a large cut over his eye. Just then as if they were waiting for said moment a group of armored men rushed in two of then took away skimps body. Then the lead soldier took the mithril ore from the thief then declared "Killing a slave of Warlord Operandi the horseman, the baron of Orbious and the conqueror of a dozen valleys is a crime punishable by death but the mithril you hold saves you shall not be given your freedom but you will live to see another day" then left. The thief fell in despair as the reality of the situation dawned on him. He had killed a child for nothing.
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The two soldiers with Skimps body walked out of the slave yard and headed towards a cliff. They threw his body of the cliff unto a pile of dead bodies at the bottom then walked away.Skimps body lay still for about ten minutes before he suddenly jerked awake. "Fuck" he shouted in pain holding his head. He grunted then shook his head to clear his vision before looking around seeing a sea of corpses. "Shit they threw me in the pit. For fuck's sake I was only unconscious. Tch" he grumbled as he got up looking at the cliff. He searched for any way up but he didn't see any. There were no ridges or cracks to hold on to climb back up. After searching for hours Skimp gave up and began to walk away from the cliff in hope of finding another way out. He walked for what seems like days but was only a few hours, the blood from his cut making it harder by tinting his left field of vision red. After walking for so long he gradually left a sea of corpses to a sea of skeletons until finally he made it to bare ground. He looked around seeing no sign of an exit he let out a frustrated scream. "Shut up, will ya?" an annoyed voice complained. Skimp immediately looked around trying to find the source of the voice in the pitch-black darkness with no light crystal in his possession it was hard but he finally saw a dim silhouette in the darkness. "Who are you?" skimp asked. "wait ya can see me?" the silhouette asked "Yeah retard, it's a little hard with it being dark and all but I can definitely see your silhouette" Skimp replied. "Hmm, interesting. Follow me kid." The silhouette said as it walked away. Skimp desperate not to lose his only contact decided to follow it against his better judgement. They walked for a while the silhouette remaining silent refusing to answer Skimps questions. The silhouette suddenly stopped then shifted a little before murmuring a few words. Skimp had to squint his eyes as they were assaulted by bright light. After adjusting to the light, he looked around trying to find the source only to find non hell even the darkness that blocked the sun as well as the sun itself was nowhere to be found. Skimp turned in the direction of the silhouette finally seeing the person. He was male about 6 feet with light brown skin and a slightly lean body covered with tribal tattoos. He was wearing what seemed to be a very expensive loincloth as well as some kind of necklace both lined with gold. "Usekh" the man said interrupting Skimo's train of thought "huh?" Skimp questioned "The necklace it's called the Usekh" the man elaborated. 'wait did he just-' 'Read your mind, yes" a voice in his head interrupted. Skimps eyes widened as he immediately went on guard. "who did that?" he asked. The man laughed before looking at Skimp
"relax kid just trying to lighten the mood" he said. "You did that? was that sorcery? are you a sorcerer?" Skimp asked in awe. "Yes, I did that, it was sorcery but I am in no way a sorcerer." The man said. "Then how…" Skimp trailed of as he realized the man was bowing. He opened his mouth to question the man when the world seemed to ripple. A large being appearing before them the being wore a thick black coat with a hood completely covering its face and it held a purple orb in its right hand and a scythe floating behind it. Skimp looked at the being specifically the orb or rather the literally bony hand holding the orb. Then the being then spoke with great authority "For what reason do you summon me Anubis and will you shed that skin of yours it irritates me". The man who had led him thus far stood up quickly and raised his hand immediately dust rose and covered him from view. When the dust settled it revealed not the dark sinned man who he had followed but a twelve foot, purpled skinned, jackal headed, muscled being. The purple being wore the same clothes as the man except there were more gold artifacts on his body. "Lord Death, tank you for answering my abrupt request to meet you, but as I was strolling through the forgotten lands, I came across this fine specimen of a human who could some how see me." The purple jackal explained. "I see" the bony being said. It was at this point Skimp caught up with everything. "Wait you two are Anubis the god of the underworld and Death one of the four horsemen!" Skimp exclaimed. "Speak with respect when in the presence of an abstract being." Anubis the purple skinned jackal berated "hmm, don't worry about it Anubis, he's simply ignorant am sure he won't repeat the same mistake." Death said. Skimp realizing his blunder immediately bowed and apologized. "See Anubis he learns unlike the others who think they could stan in my presence, speaking of which shouldn't you be joining him on the floor." Death ordered. Anubis immediately followed in Skimps example. "Ah, how nostalgic, both mortals and gods groveling at my feet, brings back memories. Now child I'm certain you're wondering why Anubis brought you all the way here." "Yes, lord Death" Skimp said. "Very well, Anubis brought you to me because you're a POENTIAL advocate." Death stated emphasizing on the potential. "Before you ask, An advocate is in simple terms is the champion or should I say representee of a horseman whilst a potential advocate is some one with the ability to see celestial and abstract beings." Death explained. "I understand normally not being able to see abstract beings but gods gave up their post and came to live among so shouldn't we be able to see them?" Skimp questioned. "Allow me to answer this question my lord" Anubis requested. Death gestured for him to continue so he did. "Despite what you mortals think not all gods gave up their post, some of us can't actually. Imagine if I the god of the underworld in charge of guiding the dead to the scale of judgement decided to quit, the entire world will be full of lost souls. So, in an effort to prevent this all the gods in charge of an aspect drew straws the one who drew the shortest straw got all the power of the rest as well as the responsibility." Anubis explained. 'The fate of the world was decided by drawing straws, gods are really frivolous.' Skimp thought blandly. "Make no mistake though some gods volunteered to keep their post but the rest gave up theirs and entered the cycle of reincarnation. It came at a cost though their decision of forcing themselves into reincarnation annoyed a lot of aspect beings including nature, fate and some others" Anubis finished. "Thanks for that history lesson-that I definitely didn't need" Skimp muttered "but now I gotta ask I apologize for my language but what the fuck do I have to do as an advocate?" Skimp asked. "Nothing much child, we horsemen like competing so the only thing you have to do is to be stronger than the other three. Yes, the other horsemen have their own advocates." "Very well I accept" Skimp said still bowing. Death let out a chuckle before saying "You didn't have a choice to begin with." Then a large black leather-bound book appeared in front of him. It flipped for a while before it abruptly stopped. "Ah yes, this will do" Death said. Immediately a black fog rushed out of Death's orb, crashing into Skimp's body. The fog entered into his body through every hole available on it. His body began to convulse violently emitting a golden light which slowly turned black. "Interesting" Death commented. "What is?" Anubis asked. "Nothing to concern yourself with" Death answered. After a few minutes Skimp calmed down short on breath. The process is completed, as an advocate you are gifted with sorcery as an advocate of death, you will have the sorcery known as necromancy or rather an aspect or it. Here's a grimoire it'll help you learn the art but you have to figure it out yourself. Anubis take him back to the warlord's slave quarters. "What, Why?" Skimp asked. "Don't question me child do as you're told. Anubis take him away." Death commanded in an irritated tone. Anubis nodded before getting up from his bow and held Skimps shoulder the last thing Skimp saw before a tornado of sand swallowed both him and Anubis was Death shaking. 'He's laughing' Skimp realized.
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Skimp stumbled as he exited the sand tornado. He looked back and saw that Anubis had already left and a pile of sand was what remained. He looked closer and realized that there was an earing in the shape of the all-seeing eye and a pouch, resting on the pile he took the pouch and found it empty he shrugged then filled it with the sand. "might be useful he muttered as he kept the pouch in his pants then, he took the earing and immediately kept it on, ignoring the searing pain that came along with piecing his ear as well as the blood that dripped from the wound. He sighed as he looked forward and realized that Anubis really dropped him just in front of Operandi's slave quarters. His frown was immediately replaced by a look of rage as he looked into the slave yard and saw the slave that stole his freedom. Disregarding all reasoning, he clenched his fist and ran at the slave. The slave could only look in horror as the fist connected with his cheek with the force of a bull, knocking him down. Skimp didn't take even a moment to wonder how his punch knocked down a grown man when previously he couldn't lift a normal sized pickaxe no, he straddled the slave and began raining blows on his face "You took everything from me" he shouted in rage. He continued to pound the poor slaves face till he got his hands on a rock, taking the rock he repeatedly hit the slave till his head was nothing but a mixture of flesh, bone and brain matter. He got up taking in gulps of air oblivious to his surroundings until two strong arms held him. He struggled against the hold until a voice said "For killing a slave of warlord Operandi you are sentenced to death." Then he saw a blade heading for his neck. In a burst of desperate strength, Skimp tore himself free from his attackers and pulled out the sword of one of them and in that split second, the sword felt like it belonged in his hand yet it felt wrong like he was betraying someone or something. Ignoring the feeling, Skimp expertly maneuvered out of the way of the blade jumping back giving him space to analyze his attackers they were bath cursed soldiers of Operandi covered from head to toe with mithril amour. The only openings being the holes in their visor and the lack of heavy amour at their joints. The soldiers not wanting to give him enough breathing space attacked him. Despite never holding a blade, Skimp managed to keep up with them albeit barely. Seeing that he was tiring, the soldiers pressed harder. Skimp realizing he was about to lose did something unpredictable. He threw the blade at one of the soldiers as the soldier crossed his arms to block the blade Skimp slid between his legs and pulled at his ankles causing him to fall then Skimp took the fallen blade and stabbed it into the back of the soldiers knee, pinning it into the ground the guards shout of pain stunned the other soldier long enough for Skimp to disarm him pushing him to the floor and stabbed the blade through the visor effectively killing the soldier. Skimp tore out the blade and walked towards the incapacitated soldier just as he was about to finish him of, He felt a sharp pass through his head before he began to lose consciousness he looked up and saw a large man in a full body mithril armor and a void behind the slit in his helmet. 'Operandi' Skimp realized before darkness took him.