Chapter 20 · 9 min

Chapter 20

"KUAAAAAARGH-!"

A monstrous roar that shook the entire tower echoed out.

The enormous Fusion Chimera twisted its entire body wildly and roared into empty air.

Rena Kassel adjusted her grip on her greatsword and watched the bizarre scene before her.

That disaster-like monster, formed from hundreds of bone fragments and pieces of flesh tangled together, had clearly been radiating merciless killing intent toward them only moments ago.

A monster that had tried to crush them beneath overwhelming mass and infinite regeneration.

And yet its current state was bizarre beyond belief.

"Ku, kururururuk...!"

The Chimera staggered in place, letting out cries that could have been pain or confusion.

Its forepaw, swung toward empty air, barely missed the mercenaries' formation and smashed apart an unrelated stone pillar instead.

Ever since that man had willingly jumped into its revolting maw, the creature's movements had visibly slowed.

The Chimera would stop attacking Rena's group and suddenly claw at its own throat or violently strike the mass of bones around its chest.

It twisted its entire body while screaming in agony, as though trying to vomit up some enormous fireball it had swallowed.

'Somehow... even its regeneration is slowing down.'

The speed at which its shattered bones reattached was also noticeably decreasing.

Its blind destructive rampage, driven by sheer size, was still dangerous, but it had fallen to a level the mercenaries could now block and evade.

Rena frowned and stared at the Chimera's chest.

The black-haired man who had thrown himself into the beast's mouth without hesitation earlier.

Arcanus.

'He's taking quite a while.'

"P-Platoon Leader! What about Sir Arcanus?! Could he have been digested inside its stomach?!"

Toby shouted, his face on the verge of tears.

Rena bit her lip hard.

By common sense, that would be the obvious conclusion. He had leaped barehanded into the body of a Chimera boiling with cursed mana, so the chances of survival were slim.

Moreover, several minutes had already passed since he'd jumped into the creature's mouth. No matter how skilled a warrior was, there was no way to endure long inside a magical beast filled with acidic mucus and poison.

'But that man's eyes didn't look like someone prepared to die.'

If anything, they had been filled with certainty. The eyes of a predator who had seen straight through the monster's weakness.

"Stop making a fuss, Toby! Its movements have slowed. This is our chance!"

Even as she shouted that, damp sweat had begun to gather on Rena's palms.

Just as Rena raised her greatsword again and rallied the mercenaries.

"KUEEEEEEEEEEK-!"

The Chimera suddenly threw its upper body backward and unleashed a horrific scream that sounded as though its head might burst.

And then, from the exact center of its enormous chest.

Dark-red light erupted from the place protected by thick walls of flesh and layers upon layers of bone, and the mana circuits making up its entire body began snapping all at once.

CRACK! BOOOOM!

The Chimera's massive body suddenly swelled as though it were exploding.

Then, like a taut string snapping, tens of thousands of bone fragments and rotten chunks of flesh that had lost their cohesion in an instant scattered in every direction.

"Kuh, AAAAAAARGH-!"

A death scream.

Along with a chilling echo like the grudges of hundreds of creatures dispersing at once, the Chimera's gigantic body collapsed helplessly.

"Shields up!"

At Rena's shout, the mercenaries raised their shields above their heads.

The rain of debris finally stopped amid a deafening series of impacts, and thick dust filled the first-floor lobby of the tower.

Rena cautiously lowered her shield and stared through the haze.

The dense dust and bone powder slowly settled.

In the center of the silent wreckage, a man's silhouette stood upright, rising through the pile of bones.

"...?"

A man standing tall, covered from head to toe in some unidentified sticky liquid and debris.

It was Arcanus.

Without realizing it, Rena lowered her greatsword and let out an incredulous laugh.

"Ha, haha... Just what the hell did you do in there?"

At Rena's question, the man swept back his slime-dripping bangs and answered with a deliberately solemn expression.

"Nothing... happened."

_____________

'Nothing, my ass.'

I grumbled inwardly as I shook off the disgusting slime.

It was nice not being attacked, but even for me, crawling around inside that foul-smelling, jumbled space had been rough.

[You have defeated Giant Fusion Chimera(Lv.???)!]

[You have gained a large amount of experience!]

[Your level has increased.]

[You have become Hybrid Skeleton Soldier Lv.9.]

Level-up notifications ran rampant across my vision.

As expected of a boss monster, it had filled my experience bar very generously.

And that wasn't all.

[Skill: 'Sneaky Pickpocket' has grown to Lv.3.]

[Skill: 'Ironclad Grip' has grown to Lv.6.]

'Even the skill proficiency payout is generous.'

The inside of the Chimera had truly been hell.

But thanks to the Orc Skeleton's navigation, I had been able to reach the core at its deepest point in one go.

Following the direction indicated by the Orc Skeleton's skull, I hacked through the flesh like crazy until I discovered the enormous core that powered the Chimera.

The problem was that the core had been tightly wrapped in Malach's hardening magic and dozens of layers of bone.

But none of that mattered against pure physical force.

'I used Sneaky Pickpocket and Ironclad Grip at the same time and just ripped the thing out by brute force.'

Using [Precise Observation] and [Mana Sensitivity], I waited for the exact moment when the mana circuits' connection weakened the most, forced my way in, then grabbed the core with reptilian grip strength and tore it out.

The instant the core came free, the gigantic Chimera lost cohesion and collapsed.

That part had gone perfectly.

I'd just briefly forgotten that the place it was collapsing from was high in the air near the top of the tower.

'I almost died from the fall.'

Good thing I used the thousands of falling bone fragments as stepping stones and spammed [Shadow Leap] like crazy to descend.

If my timing had been even a little slower, I would've died screaming one second after killing the Chimera.

But the ordeal had been completely worth it.

[Item: Incomplete Chimera Core(Grade: Heroic)]

[A medium capable of fusing the mana and skeletal structures of numerous different species.]

'Heroic Grade!'

That old Necromancer had used some excellent materials.

I had no idea what I could use it for right now, but the description alone was enough to make my chest swell with excitement.

"Sir Arcanus! Are you hurt anywhere? The smell, urgh, I mean, you're incredible!"

Toby approached while pinching his nose, fussing over me.

"This little bit of slime will wash off. More importantly, now it's time to deal with the true boss, the master of this tower."

At my words, Rena and the mercenaries all nodded at once.

We climbed the tower's half-destroyed spiral staircase and headed straight for the tenth-floor laboratory at the top.

The final boss battle should be waiting for us now.

"Stay alert. We don't know what kind of trap that vicious Necromancer may have prepared."

Rena raised her greatsword while giving instructions to the mercenaries, then kicked open the laboratory door.

But.

"..."

The inside of the laboratory was deathly quiet.

"...Cough, kuh-hack..."

There was no fierce boss battle like we'd expected.

On the dark laboratory floor, in the middle of a large pool of blood, a man in a black robe lay collapsed and convulsing.

[Necromancer Malach(Lv.???)]

[Status: Near Death / Mana Circuit Collapse]

"Kuh-hack, cough... my... my masterpiece..."

It was Malach.

The Chimera he'd created by eating away at his own life force had been destroyed in vain, and he had been unable to endure the resulting severe mana backlash, causing him to self-destruct.

He flailed with unfocused eyes, shed bloody tears, and then lost consciousness.

"This is... anticlimactic."

Rena lowered her greatsword and muttered in disbelief.

She slowly approached the fallen Malach and prodded his body with the tip of her greatsword.

There was no resistance.

Rena sighed and put away her weapon.

"I'd like to cut his head off... but I suppose I should restrain myself."

"You plan to keep him alive?"

When I asked, Rena pulled a heavy pair of shackles from inside her clothes and answered.

"We need information about the remnants of the Lord of Immortality still operating around here. If we hand him over to an Imperial Inquisitor, they'll be able to squeeze every secret out of his head."

She raised the corner of her mouth slightly and added.

"And the bounty for bringing him in alive is three times better than for a corpse."

A practical decision worthy of a mercenary platoon leader.

I let out a sigh of relief inwardly.

'Good thing she isn't killing him right away.'

In truth, I also preferred capturing Malach alive.

Inside my [Abyssal Mucus Sac], I had carefully stored the rescued Orc Skeleton's skull and the rest of his body parts.

Ignoring his repeated attempts to stop me as though saying he was fine, I had picked up the skull buried inside the Chimera and gathered each of his original bone parts scattered everywhere.

It had taken a little while because of that, but...

In any case, if I wanted to restore him to his old, normal condition, I would definitely need this crazy old man's techniques or information.

If we kept him alive, I could always steal him away later or threaten him into giving me information.

We bound the completely unconscious Malach, slung him over our shoulders, gathered our spoils, and escaped the collapsing tower.

_____________

The next morning.

The mercenary guild counter in the frontier city of Rodein, located on the border between the Demon Realm and the Empire.

The old wooden building, filled with morning sunlight, was bustling for the first time in a long while.

Naturally, since a major event like the subjugation of the 'Tower of White Bones' had just occurred.

Disguised in human form, I leaned back in a chair at the counter and hummed to myself.

'Finally, settlement time.'

On the other side of the counter, a stern-looking receptionist wearing glasses furiously clicked an abacus while calculating the rewards.

Contribution to the capture of the Necromancer Malach.

Contribution to the subjugation of the Tower of White Bones and extermination of the surrounding undead.

And on top of that, a bonus for rescuing an apprentice mercenary belonging to the Red Wolves Mercenary Company.

'Even by a rough calculation, I should get at least dozens of gold coins, right?'

A single gold coin was enough money to stay luxuriously for several days in a frontier city.

With this money, I could buy up top-grade mana catalysts and even pay information brokers to search for the whereabouts of my original body.

At last, I was finally escaping this miserable life as a penniless pile of bones!

Clack.

The receptionist set down the abacus, wrote out a long list of details in the ledger, then smiled and pushed it toward me.

"Your settlement is complete, Sir Arcanus!"

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

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