Why reincarnate as a useless skeleton?

While the mansion was not the largest or most luxurious in the noble district, it was still quite impressive.

The dwelling had a gothic style and featured a large front garden with a fountain where various fish and aquatic plants could be seen.

The mansion had a total of two floors and a basement. On the first floor were the living room, the dining room, the kitchen, some rooms and a huge library that reached the second floor. On the second floor there were two other larger rooms and a large white marble bathroom in a style very similar to that of the Roman baths.

The bathroom was filled with steam as the hot water flowed into the huge bathtub. Inside, a skeletal being was floating in the water as if relaxing after a long day's work.

'Haaaaaa... This is what it's like to be rich?.... Not bad. But I still think this is a waste of money.'

It had already been two days since Marcus arrived in the port city of Neima.

After having sold most of the treasury's relics, Marcus had asked the obese appraiser, Paul Gerson, where he could get a place to stay for the time he was in town.

Since the auction house considered him an important client, they had been more than willing to help Marcus find a suitable place for him to stay for as long as he wanted.

Although Marcus originally planned to stay somewhere in the residential district, his position as a wizard did not allow him to do that. After all, if someone whose status was higher than several nobles in the city would be staying next to commoners, it was sure to draw attention.

In his past life, Marcus had been born as someone of low economic means, so the idea of spending so much money on lodging simply created conflict for him.

But since he had no choice, Marcus had simply chosen the cheapest and most isolated house in the district. Even so, the rent for the mansion was 30 gold Raels a month!

In the port city of Neima, a farmer's monthly salary was 2 silver Raels. Even if the mansion was the cheapest, the rent of the place was equivalent to the salary of 15000 farmers!

Marcus decided not to think about this anymore, got out of the bathtub, put on a bathrobe, and headed for the library.

Another reason Marcus had chosen this mansion was the huge library that took up almost 25% of the interior of the house. With so many books, he could surely get all the information he needed about this world.

Marcus walked through the gigantic library, took a thick red-covered book from one of the shelves, sat down on a couch that was in the library, and began to read.

Although the curtains blocking the windows of the library made the room dark, this was no problem for Marcus who had [Dark vision].

Marcus looked at the cover of the book and read the title which was written in golden letters.

[The History of the Ages. Myths, legends, and truths of Genaerrsis.

By Cristopher Naifus]

****

...

{Wisdom has increased by 5 points}

...

The history of this world was really long and extensive.

Genaerrsis was a universe almost 4 million years old and the various periods were divided into five eras or ages.

The first age, also known as the age of origin, was the longest period of this world and lasted almost 3.6 million years. This time began with the creation of this world and ended with the arrival of the gods of creation.

To tell the truth, there was not much information about the age of origin since at that time no living being or divine entity was inhabiting the universe. So historians could only speculate that the universe had been created by a set of unknown forces, but that it never became a space where life could develop on its own.

But 3.6 million years later, things changed and the second age began.

The second age was known as the golden era and lasted about 120,000 years.

In the second age, beings from another world, led by the 7 great gods of creation, had arrived in this world, transforming it into their image and likeness.

These great gods were: Solaeris god of light, sun, and day; Satrris goddess of darkness, moons, and night; Harios god of nature and king of elemental beings; Arragas god of wisdom and knowledge; Raums goddess of spacetime and magic; Yhalene goddess of reincarnation; and Saerich god of blacksmiths and craftsmen.

Together, the gods and the 7 great gods made Genaerrsis a habitable world, thus creating the first three races, each with their characteristics.

The humans, who had a great capacity for adaptability and reproduction.

The Asrakians, beings with four arms and coppery skin, who despite their great stature, which exceeds 3 meters (10ft), were excellent craftsmen and blacksmiths who preferred to live underground.

Finally, there was the Alument. A race with a long life expectancy and a great affinity for elemental beings.

This was the most peaceful and harmonious period in the entire history of Genaerrsis, where war was almost non-existent and the civilizations of the earthly world experienced constant development and progress.

And then... then it all went to sh*t.

By the end of the second age, five powerful cosmic entities known as the five calamities, arrived on Genaerrsis bringing an army of interdimensional creatures known as demons with them.

These interdimensional creatures had a single purpose: to cause pain, death, and suffering.

Thus it was that the third age, commonly called the dark era or the age of chaos, began and in a short time, the landscape of Genaerrsis changed completely.

The skies turned red and the air became toxic. Corpses piled up to form mountains, monsters roamed the world destroying everything in their path and the dead rose from their graves to kill the living.

This war between the demon gods and the gods of creation had lasted almost 30,000 years!

Finally, the war came to an end when both the five calamities and the demons that made up the base of their army were defeated and imprisoned in a dimensional plane called Onur, now known as the demonic realm.

Then there was the fourth age or the age of legends, which began shortly after the five calamities were imprisoned in Onur and lasted approximately 150,000 years.

After the third age, the earthly plane of Genaerrsis had been devastated and, although the demons had been imprisoned, there were still many monsters roaming the world.

Unfortunately for the people of Genaerrsis, both the 7 gods of creation, as well as the other gods who served them, had suffered heavy casualties and were greatly weakened. So they could not intervene to help the mortals.

According to some historians, at the beginning of this era, it was more likely to be killed by a dragon or other mythical creature than by natural causes or disease. Faced with this situation, the inhabitants of Genaerrsis had to fend for themselves to try to survive.

Thus it was that various groups of people created multiple meditation techniques and methods to channel and utilize the power of the Rehi of the environment.

Thus learning to use the power of magic and aura as a weapon for combat, which until then was only used as a tool.

This was a true age of legends, where warriors could destroy mountains with their fists alone and wizards could freeze or dry up seas with a simple spell. In fact, many magic users and aura users of this age had managed to achieve divinity and had ascended to the heavens becoming gods.

Finally, there was the fifth age, which was the current period and was only about 20,000 years old. But unlike the previous ages that began abruptly, the fifth age began differently.

At the beginning of the fourth age, the number of dangerous creatures, warriors, and high-level wizards was quite abundant. But as time went on, things changed.

By the middle of the fourth age, many meditation techniques, cultivation techniques, magical artifacts, and high-level spell formulas had been lost due to the fall of great civilizations and empires caused by wars over time.

Also, the resources and high-level monsters that were the power base of many nations became extinct without a trace. Even dragons who were once very common became beasts of myth and almost disappeared from the face of the world.

All these factors combined caused the power of the inhabitants of Genaerrsis (People and monsters alike) to gradually and steadily decline.

By the end of the fourth age, all-powerful monsters, wizards above the eighth realm of Rehi, and elemental aura warriors had disappeared without a trace.

Because of this, it was that today, at least among humans, magic users and aura warriors were truly rare. To the point of being treated as nobles in some countries and nations.

After reading this, Marcus was very perplexed.

After a moment, he put down the book he was reading and picked up a blue book that was on the table to his left.

On the cover of the book, it could be read that the title of the book was [The Fall of an Empire and the Rise of Darkness].

One of the first things Marcus had done after moving into the mansion was to look for information about the Guerrmanic Empire and the Dark Lands that Paul Gerson had mentioned.

And after searching the library for almost two days, he had finally been able to find this book that told the whole story in great detail.

The Guerrmanic Empire had been a powerful nation, whose creation dated back to around the year 50,000 of the fourth age.

In its early years, the empire had enjoyed great wealth and power. But after nearly 5,000 years, the state of the empire had increasingly deteriorated.

By the year 55,600, the emperor of the Guerrmanic Empire was desperate to restore his nation's former glory, so he began a series of large-scale military campaigns.

At first, the empire was successful, managing to conquer much of the continent. But this rapid expansion of territory caused many neighboring kingdoms to fear the empire.

In the year 55,670, the empire had stopped its expansion with the excuse of organizing the newly annexed territory and rebuilding the cities that had been destroyed during the war. But the reality was very different.

After almost 70 years of war, the state of the imperial troops had become very worn out and the financial situation of the Guerrmanic Empire was terrible. Therefore, the empire needed time to solve all these problems.

This gave the other nations that had not participated in the conflict time to form alliances and prepare for the future. When all was ready, the nations that considered the Empire a threat began to counterattack.

At that point, the worn-out troops of the Guerrmanic Empire could not withstand the sudden onslaught of the forces of the allied nations and quickly lost ground.

But just as the allied forces were about to invade the capital of the Guerrmanic Empire, a powerful necromancy spell burst forth from the imperial capital, turning everyone into undead.

The necrotic energy of the spell spread across the continent, covering the sun and turning it into a land plagued by the undead. Years later, that continent would become known as the Dark Lands.

At that moment all the dots connected in Marcus' mind.

Faced with the desperate situation of being cornered by the forces of the allied nations, the ruler of the Guerrmanic Empire had turned to the church of the living corpses for help.

The church of the living corpses was one of the main dark churches that worshipped the five calamities. More specifically Ramauris, the demon god of the undead.

Together, the empire and the church of the living corpses created the Eclipse project. But something had gone wrong and an entire continent was destroyed in the process.

This was a cataclysmic event that had not taken place since the end of the third age!

Even today, more than 100000 years after the fall of the Guerrmanic empire, the Dark Lands were still contaminated with necrotic energy and the undead still roamed the continent freely.

....

{The solar energy in the environment is gone.}

...

{All of the user's stats and skills return to normal.}

...

After listening to the system messages, Marcus put the books back on their shelves and left the library. He walked through the corridors of the mansion until he came to a small square room with no windows.

The room was empty and there was only a thick iron door. Marcus took out a set of keys from his [Inventory] and unlocked the door.. Behind it was a staircase leading down to the basement of the mansion.