Chapter 12

Chapter 12

[Transplant successful!]

[You react more sensitively to surrounding mana.]

[Proficiency in Skill: 'Mana Sensitivity(Lv.3)' has been inherited.]

'Mana Sensitivity!'

I nearly grinned so widely my jawbone fell off.

To think a skill that was practically a passive survival ability in this insane fantasy world, where mana flowed like air, had simply fallen into my lap.

'Wait, could this maybe synergize with [Precise Observation]?'

If the ability to perceive the invisible flow of mana were layered three-dimensionally over the observation ability that let me identify a target's structure and physical weaknesses with my eyes? Just imagining it sent a thrill through me.

I was contentedly stroking the black sternum settled in the center of my chest as though it were some precious treasure when another system window appeared.

[New Trait 'Trace of an Ancient Species' has been added.]

[Remnants of an ancient species' mana dwell within you.]

[Awakening conditions not met. A latent effect exists.]

'So there's something even bigger waiting later.'

In this world's setting, ancient species were usually portrayed as either gigantic beings or products of lost technology.

Could I evolve along a similar line in the future? Just thinking about it was exciting.

And this was a trait, not an ordinary skill. Even if I lost this sternum, the trait should remain.

'This was quite the haul.'

A soundless laugh naturally escaped me. I would've regretted it terribly if I'd simply passed this place by.

I climbed back up the wall of the pit. Perhaps because the core's mana had stabilized my circuits, the climb back up was far easier than the descent had been.

As I retraced my path, I also found low-grade mana cores among the wreckage of the Mud Golems caught in the explosion.

They weren't meaningful cores for me now that I had the Guardian's Mana Core, but I could probably earn at least a little pocket money by selling them at a shop.

As I passed through the ruined passage and headed toward the first-floor entrance, a sound traveled down through the deep echoes of the abandoned mine.

"Help! Is anyone there?! Please!"

'Someone's here?'

I quickly moved toward the first floor, where the voice had come from.

A human voice. And a fairly young one at that.

Because of the cave's structure, the sound bounced around and became amplified, but there was no mistaking the urgency in that cry.

I stopped and hid myself in the passage where the sound had come from.

Peeking out from behind a pile of rocks to assess the situation, I saw a young human soldier desperately crawling backward along the floor in the middle of a dust-filled mine tunnel.

And hanging precariously from his chest was a worn breastplate.

Painted on it was an all-too-familiar wolf emblem.

'The Red Wolves Mercenary Company?'

But he wasn't an experienced regular mercenary like Rena Kassel. Judging from the way he carried himself, he was a green recruit who looked as though he'd only just learned how to hold a sword.

"Eek! D-Don't come any closer!"

Cornering him were two Mud Golems that had remained near the outskirts of Area 2.

Every time their massive muddy fists slammed into the ground, the boy's body sprang up like popcorn as he desperately dodged.

'Looks like he got unlucky and fell deeper into the mine during a scouting mission.'

It also meant the mercenary company had expanded its search range all the way out here.

Terrified, he crawled backward while wildly swinging an old dagger at empty air. Naturally, it was a completely futile struggle.

'What should I do?'

My mind rapidly ran the calculations.

To infiltrate human society, information and connections were essential. If I saved that rookie mercenary, I might gain an excellent shield—or perhaps someone to vouch for my identity—in the form of the Red Wolves Mercenary Company.

The problem was how I looked.

I was wearing a robe, but both my left and right legs were the reverse-jointed legs of a Black Hound, bent like an animal's. My left arm was the unnaturally long bone of a Goblin Chief. A blue golem core was embedded in my chest, and I was a skeleton wearing a horned helmet.

'If I jump out there, he'll probably faint because he'll think another monster showed up.'

He might even panic at the sight of me, swing his sword, or die of a heart attack.

And even if I saved him, there was no guarantee he'd obediently guide me to a human village.

[Arcanus's Polymorph Reagent x 3]

My gaze shifted toward the glass bottles in my leather pouch.

Only three bottles. Precious consumable items that lasted merely three hours per use.

"BWOOOOO-!"

"Aaaagh!"

The boy was sent flying after being grazed by one of the golem's blunt punches. I could see him limping.

Either way, if I left him like that, it was only a matter of time before he got flattened.

'It'd leave a bad taste in my mouth to just stand by and watch someone get turned into minced meat right in front of me.'

And even setting aside whatever meager Korean sense of compassion I had, there was now something about those golems that I could see that I hadn't been able to before.

They would make excellent test subjects too.

I made my decision and pulled out one bottle of reagent. Then I removed the cork and poured the entire thing over my head.

FWOOSH-!

The moment the reagent touched my bones, it turned into smoke as though vaporizing and wrapped around my entire body.

[Arcanus's Polymorph Reagent is being applied.]

[Transforming appearance...]

I felt something filling out between my bones.

Flesh grew, skin formed, and the outline of my body changed. Even traveler's leather clothing wrapped around my body as though being woven out of thin air.

When the smoke cleared, I looked down at my hand.

It was a perfectly normal human hand.

[Imperfect Polymorph activates.]

[Your appearance is mimicked as a 'Human'.]

[Duration: 2 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds]

[Warning! The mimicry may be dispelled if you receive a strong impact or your mana is disrupted.]

With trembling emotions, I raised both hands.

Instead of gaunt pieces of bone, rough human hands covered in flesh entered my vision.

The sensation of clenching and opening my palm was vivid.

'Oh. I have flesh. It's warm.'

The sensation known as 'body heat', something I had been completely unable to feel as a skeleton.

Without realizing it, I touched my cheek. The texture of skin traveled through my fingertips.

It wasn't my real body, but even if it was only an illusion, having blood and flesh was enough to bring tears to my eyes.

'I'm still just bones on the inside, but at least outwardly I'm a perfect human.'

This wasn't the time to get sentimental. The timer had already started running.

"Aaaagh!"

The boy's scream tore through the cave. One of the golems had clasped both hands together and was about to smash them down on the crown of his head.

I launched myself out from behind the pile of rocks and shouted.

"What are you doing? Get down!"

It was my voice.

Not the clacking sound of jawbones striking together, but a real human voice resonating through vocal cords!

Holy shit, I can even talk!

At my thunderous shout, the boy reflexively flattened himself against the ground.

[Skill: Beast's Leap(Lv.3) activated!]

I kicked off the ground and sprang into the air, knocking the golem's arm aside and changing its trajectory.

But the instant I landed, a subtle sense of wrongness struck my entire body.

'Ugh, damn it! Why does this feel so weird?'

Visually, my legs looked like ordinary straight human legs. But my actual skeletal structure consisted of an animal's backward-bending joints.

The appearance my brain perceived and the mechanical trajectory of how my bones actually moved were subtly different, creating a strange mismatch.

Stagger.

My landing posture collapsed, and I nearly rolled across the ground, but I forcibly regained my balance.

The Mud Golems paused as though confused by the sight of a robed human suddenly dropping out of the sky.

I drew my newly acquired steel bastard sword.

SHING-!

A clear metallic ring. The texture was completely different from some chipped old longsword.

'It feels like the range of motion in my joints doesn't match between the outside and the inside... but this much is manageable.'

My opponents were only level 12 low-grade golems anyway. There was no longer any need to resort to tricks.

[Precise Observation(EX) activates.]

[Skill: 'Mana Sensitivity(Lv.3)' activates in conjunction.]

Along with a flash across my vision, the resolution of the world seemed to increase by another level.

Over the wireframe produced by [Precise Observation], which had previously only revealed a target's skeletal structure and physical weaknesses, invisible streams of deep-blue mana were now layered over it three-dimensionally like blood vessels.

'I can see the flow of mana!'

Inside their enormous muddy bodies, mana extending from their cores pulsed in real time, revealing its paths in vivid detail.

Which joints were bearing the load, where mana was concentrating to give destructive power to their fists, and where the backlash caused gaps in their mana cohesion that became vulnerabilities.

All of it poured into my field of vision like helpful guidelines on a tutorial screen.

'This synergy is insane.'

"KUOOOOOO!"

The Mud Golem on the right let out a beastlike roar and raised its massive muddy fist high.

I could clearly see mana being recklessly funneled from its shoulder all the way to the end of its fist.

The reaction was immediate.

As mana concentrated into its upper body, the cohesion supporting its lower body loosened like the receding tide. In particular, the connection at its right knee joint flickered precariously, as though it might snap apart at any moment.

WHOOOOSH-!

A fist the size of a house tore through the air and came crashing down toward my head like a thunderbolt.

I kicked off the ground and slid forward.

BOOM!

With a deafening roar, dirt and dust exploded in every direction like a shotgun blast, but my body had already slipped completely out of its trajectory by a hair's breadth and entered its perfect blind spot.

'Completely open.'

The joint in its lower body, now hopelessly vulnerable after the mana had drained away.

I swung the steel bastard sword upward with all my strength.

SLASH!

The blade of the bastard sword sliced smoothly through the Mud Golem's right knee, directly through the center of the loosened mana circuit as easily as cutting butter.

With one of the supports holding up its massive body destroyed, the golem's knee buckled and it toppled forward.

The Skeleton Soldier Is Good at Replacing Bones

Author:

Metdoyo

Publisher:

Jakga Dabang

Publishing Registration:

No. 2025-000022

Address:

3rd Floor, 50-9 Myeongmul-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Telephone:

02-313-7388

Email:

info@jakgadabang.com

ISBN/UCI:

G720:N+A475-20261015075

Publication Date:

October 23, 2026

Copyright © Metdoyo.

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