I Die to Rise: Resurrection System

Sam kept her staff raised as her eyes swept through the trees, feeling uneasy about their focused stares on them.

Her grip tightened slightly as her eyes began to move, taking them in properly now.

They were wrapped in layers of white clothing that left the arms and shoulders bare, showing off too much skin, and had long pointy ears.

Some of them wore masks made of bones, and from their builds, male and female were easy enough to distinguish.

However, it was the way their green eyes unnaturally caught the light that kept pulling Sam back. Eyes that were not feral, rather they looked aware and intelligent.

Sam had read cases of monsters in dungeons displaying intelligence before, heck she met one not too long ago clad in gold. But these creatures seemed different in a way she couldn’t explain yet.

Behind them, the pack had completely retreated, and Jerry’s voice dropped to a whisper. "I have a feeling these things are worse."

Sam did not answer because she was too focused on them—not their weapons or stance, but their eyes. Likewise, they were not looking at Jerry. Their gaze was fixed on her.

One of them stepped forward slowly and Jerry raised his hand in protest. "Okay, no. Don’t come any closer. I’m warning you!"

"Don’t," Sam interrupted, stepping forward herself. She took just one step, neither aggressive nor submissive.

The figure halted a few meters away and studied her before tilting its head slightly. The gesture was curious, not hostile.

Another moved behind it, then another, forming a loose formation that neither encircled nor trapped them as they simply observed.

"They’re not hunting us," Sam said quietly.

Jerry let out a shaky breath. "That is a wild conclusion to jump to."

The one in front lifted its hand slowly, palm open and empty. Then it reached behind its waist and pulled something free, making Jerry tense. "Yes, that is definitely—"

But it did not attack. Instead, it tossed the object lightly as an offering, and it landed a short distance from Sam’s feet. It was a fruit, blue-skinned and faintly glowing.

Jerry stared at it in disbelief. "We are not eating dungeon fruit offered by dungeon monsters. That is how people die, Sam."

Sam bent down, picked it up, looked at it once, then took a bite, and Jerry made a strangled noise. "Are you serious right now?"

She chewed and swallowed with no reaction. Then her eyes lifted to meet the figure’s gaze. "Thank you," she said.

Although it did not understand the words, it understood the intent. Then a second figure stepped forward from the group. Taller than the first, broader across the chest, male, clearly.

He approached more slowly than the others, curiosity outweighing caution. He stopped in front of Sam, looked at her, then at the fruit in her hand, and then back at her before smiling.

Jerry blinked. "No. No way. This cannot be happening right now."

Sam tilted her head slightly. "You understand?" She asked, but the creature did not answer. Rather he gestured towards his kin and spoke words Sam couldn’t understand.

"Zoro’kai veth, amara su’len." He gestured towards himself, then to Sam and Jerry, and lastly, toward the dark beyond the tree line.

The response from the group was immediate and divided. Several of them answering at once.

"Su’len keth vai, Zoro’kai." One of the females shook her head, a flat refusal in any language.

"K’zara thul’nak... vesh’ka nar’zul. Thar’kesh... boss’ra. Order... restore." He countered.

The others shifted uneasily and an older one said, "V’kesh nar’zul. Too dangerous."

Another clicked sharply. "Kesh’ra... no."

But the male stood firm, repeating with quiet insistence: "Thul’nak. Guide. Boss’ra." He beat his chest and pointed at Sam. "Zoro’kai," he said again, firmer, and turned to the oldest-looking of them.

Sam couldn’t understand the words, but the body language was clear: he wanted to lead them somewhere. The rest didn’t agree. He was arguing for something they considered risky.

One of the masked females stepped forward and removed her bone mask, handing it to him. He accepted it with a solemn nod, fastened it over his face, and turned back to Sam.

She didn’t know what to call him yet. "Monster" or "creature" felt wrong in her head. After a moment she settled on something simple and human.

"Zoro," she said quietly, testing the name. She’d heard him and his kin use Zoro’kai as something that meant either his name or his title or both, and she’d settled on Zoro.

He tilted his head at the sound, as if accepting it. Then he gestured for them to follow and started walking.

***

The first hour was silent as Zoro walked ahead without looking back, but still endeavored to keep track of them.

At one point, he stopped abruptly and raised a hand, prompting Sam to halt instantly.

A second later, something massive moved through the grass ahead, and Zoro didn’t move until it passed. Then he continued walking like nothing had happened.

Later, when Jerry tripped over a root and swore under his breath as he rubbed his ankle, and Zoro glanced back for the first time.

Without a word, he walked to where moss grew thick on a tree’s north side, peeled off a handful, and tossed it at Jerry’s feet.

Jerry stared at it. "What am I supposed to—"

Zoro pointed at Jerry’s ankle, then mimed a wrapping motion.

Jerry picked up the moss hesitantly. The moment it touched his skin, cool relief spread through the injury. "Oh," he said, surprised. "Uhm... thanks."

By the second day, he started leaving things behind like fruits and water pods. But he never handed to them directly, simply placing it where they’d find it.

The journey stretched for days, and Sam was able to mark time by the rhythm of the two suns rising and falling together, and by how much of the dried ration she’d eaten from her pack.

Zoro continued to lead the way. When monsters appeared, be it packs of smaller predators or lone stalkers, most simply retreated the moment they saw him. A few attacked anyway.

During one such encounter, a Stripe-back lunged from the tall grass, jaws wide. Zoro dropped to one knee and slammed his palm to the ground.

Green energy flowed through the glowing patterns on his arm like a river of light, and Crooked black-barked trees erupted from the earth as branches wrapped around the tiger in seconds, strangling and pinning it in place.

It thrashed once, forcing a strain on Zoro from the frown he made, but the branches tightened, putting an end to its movement. Afterwards, Zoro stood up, breathing hard as he dusted his palms together.

Sam stared, stunned. "That was a B-rank monster..."

Jerry swallowed hard. "Yeah, a low tier one. Big deal."

They kept moving, and eventually, night came, bringing with it new threats, but Zoro’s presence turned most of them away.

Sam walked beside him now, studying the patterns on his skin that was constantly shifting, the way he moved, the quiet intelligence in his eyes behind the bone mask.

She still didn’t fully understand him, but she trusted the feeling that he wanted to help.

Then, on what felt like the fourth day, they crested a low rise and froze. Sam at this point was running on fumes. Her feet were blistered, and her pack was nearly empty.

Impossibly, ahead stood three figures.

One of them she knew by the trench coat. The way it moved, the shoulders, the unhurried length of the stride even when moving quickly.

"Kurt?"

He saw her at almost the same moment, and she watched his pace break from a single missed step as he closed the remaining distance fast.

"Sam." His eyes widened, and his face lit up with raw relief. "You’re alive."

She dropped her staff, placing her palm over her mouth as tears welled in her eyes, and then, over his shoulder, she registered Cassandra, and... wait, was that the Reaper!?

Sam’s breath caught. "What...?"

Kurt took one step toward her, smile breaking across his face. Then his gaze shifted to Zoro, standing two meters behind Sam, the bone mask in place, and his expression changed instantly.

Blue flames roared to life in both palms as he dropped into a fighting stance, fire swirling into a concentrated ball. "Oh no you don’t."

Sam’s heart quickened. "Kurt, wait—!"