Death Ledger

He was the most feared necromancer on the continent. Then he died.

Graves spent thirty years binding the dead, breaking spirits, and building a reputation that kept most problems from becoming his problems. Then his apprentice put hemlock in the wine, and everything went sideways.

Now he's a Level 1 spirit in the Shallows, a grey wasteland governed by a System that treats death like a game, complete with stats, skill trees, and a corruption meter ticking toward oblivion. Every act of necromancy fills the Decay gauge. Hit 100, and he becomes a Hollow, a mindless monster that feeds the very machine trapping them all.

Pip, a fast-talking dead thief who'd rather crack jokes than fight, becomes the first spirit Graves binds. Their partnership starts at knifepoint. It becomes something neither of them expected.

Sera, a paladin who died searching for her kidnapped daughter, needs Graves's abilities to navigate the afterlife's deeper levels. She hates everything he represents. She needs him anyway.

Maren, an information broker who trades in secrets and favors, knows more about the Shallows than anyone alive. Or dead. She has her own reasons for following Graves into the dark.

The System wants Graves to grind levels, consume souls, and feed the machine like every other spirit. But Graves didn't become a master necromancer by doing what he was told. When he discovers the System isn't sorting the dead but farming them, he'll have to choose: play the game, or break it.

The Decay meter is climbing. The Hollow King waits at the bottom of everything. And somewhere in the machinery, something vast and hungry has noticed that Graves keeps making choices the System can't predict.