Chapter 3 · 9 min

Chapter 3

Just as my fingertips were about to touch the soldier's humerus.

BZZZT-!

A tinnitus-like noise erupted in ears that didn't even have eardrums. At the same time, the inside of my empty skull grew scorching hot as though it had been burned.

Dieyoumonsterdiedirtyboneshowdareyoudie

A voice filled with resentment.

A warning message flashed red before my eyes.

[Warning: These are the bones of the 'Human' race.]

[The remains of 'Humans' strongly retain their memories and grudges from life.]

[If you covet flesh that has not been granted to you, your Mental Strength may permanently decrease due to the 'Grudge of the Deceased'.]

'...Ugh.'

I reflexively pulled my hand back. An unpleasant sensation like static electricity sparked from my fingertips and swept through my entire body.

'Damn it. Figures they wouldn't just give it to me for free.'

In <Dungeon and Empire>, the Holy Empire of Rachenos was portrayed as being particularly obsessed with granting the dead their proper rest.

It seemed that touching their bones was blocked by some sort of taboo system.

On top of that, the setting stated that humans of the Holy Empire remained under divine protection even after death.

'That's why even necromancers use complicated rituals to raise corpses...'

So of course it was probably too much for a newly born level 2 skeleton to steal the bones of a human who had been alive only moments ago using 'Bone Replacement'.

'If my Mental Strength drops, I could end up afflicted with status effects like 'Confusion' or 'Berserk', so I'll have to be careful.'

Feeling awkward, I withdrew the hand I'd extended into the air. I wanted to smack my lips in regret, but without a tongue, all I could do was clack my jaw joints.

'Yeah, maybe this is for the best.'

No matter that I'd been transported into a game and survival was urgent, ripping the limbs off another human being like myself and inserting them into my own body left a bitter taste.

Of course, I had pierced this guy's neck...

But that had clearly been self-defense. We'd been enemies pointing blades at each other on a battlefield.

Mutilating a corpse without permission was a completely different matter. The Geneva Convention... no, the final line of my conscience wouldn't allow it.

I forced myself to turn away from the soldier's corpse sprawled on the ground. I deliberately avoided the gruesome sight of red blood mixed with white bone.

'Phew...'

Pretending to sigh, I looked around.

The battle was ending in a miserable defeat for the monster army.

It was only natural.

This place, the 'Screaming Plains', was the tutorial zone that human players passed through when they first started the game.

There was no way monsters placed here merely to serve as experience-point fodder for players could win.

THWACK!

With a dull impact, three or four skeletons in the distance were launched into the air at once. Bone fragments rained down as if a bomb had exploded.

'...What?'

A bad feeling swept over me, and I instinctively hid behind a pile of rocks and looked in that direction.

Through the pale cloud of dust appeared a female warrior with a red cloak fluttering behind her.

Every time the massive greatsword in her hands danced, monsters were swept away like fallen leaves in an autumn gale.

Her speed and destructive power were on an entirely different level from ordinary soldiers.

[Rena 'Red Fang' Kassel]

[Affiliation: Red Wolves Mercenary Company / Position: Platoon Leader]

'Shit, that's Rena Kassel?'

The platoon leader of the Red Wolves Mercenary Company and a named NPC from the early tutorial section.

In the original game, she had been an ally who gave quests to players, but from my perspective as a monster, she was practically the Grim Reaper.

'If that woman catches me, there won't even be bones left to recover.'

If our eyes so much as met, I'd be headed straight for the afterlife.

Feeling as though cold sweat were running down me, I mixed in with the routed soldiers and desperately fled toward the forest.

Limp, clatter.

Every step made an ominous sound come from my left leg.

'Damn, this is bad.'

[Status: Compound Fracture of Left Tibia]

[Movement Speed decreased by 30%.]

It was because I'd been kicked by the hoof of a human cavalryman's horse while fleeing earlier.

A long crack ran through the middle of my shinbone.

Every time it supported my weight, the tiny fracture seemed to spread.

'Ugh...'

At this speed, getting caught before I even made it into the forest was only a matter of time.

I could become food for a wild monster, or the pursuing humans... especially Rena Kassel, could reduce me to powder.

My mind was racing, but my body wouldn't keep up. It was driving me insane.

Then, at the entrance of the darkened forest, an eerie sensation ran down my spine.

"Grrrr..."

A low animal growl.

I reflexively stopped walking and stared toward the source of the sound.

Two red eyes gleamed fiercely between the dark blue shrubs. A cunning, persistent gaze followed me like a hyena drawn by the smell of rotten meat.

[Black Hound(Lv.4)]

A wild dog of the Demon Realm.

<Dungeon and Empire> was such a masterpiece that even the ecosystem between monsters had been obsessively implemented. When they weren't fighting humans, monsters hunted and ate one another to level up.

In this Demon Realm where the strong devoured the weak,

the bastard had clearly followed us while targeting an injured straggler.

'Damn it. Of all things to run into.'

Its gaze was fixed precisely on my cracked left shin.

It had identified my weakness.

'That's a bit much for a level 2 skeleton.'

I unconsciously reached toward my waist.

The longsword was gone.

'Damn it!'

Apparently, after killing the human soldier earlier, I'd left the longsword stuck in his corpse.

I'd been so startled by the sight of Rena Kassel and fled that I hadn't even thought to take my weapon.

What a rookie mistake.

But it was already too late for regrets.

The average level of a Black Hound was between 4 and 6.

On top of that, it was a monster specialized in agility.

Even if I'd brought the longsword, it probably would've torn into my neck bones before I could swing it.

More importantly, with my leg in this condition, evasive maneuvers were impossible.

I saw the muscles in its hind legs tense tightly.

Preparing to leap.

I hurriedly looked around.

Weapon? None. Shield? As if.

All I could see was mud and broken chunks of wood.

Then I noticed the remains of what had once been a comrade lying at my feet.

The remains of a skeleton infantryman whose skull had been completely smashed.

Among its scattered bones, a sharply broken femur jutted out.

'That's it!'

I instinctively threw myself to the ground. At the same moment, the Black Hound shot forward like a black bullet.

CRACK!

Its teeth tore into the rotten wooden post where I'd just been standing. Pieces of bark flew everywhere. Rolling through the mud, I snatched up the dead skeleton's femur.

'Senior! I'll borrow this for a bit!'

Its sharply broken end made an excellent substitute for a dagger.

"KYAAANG!"

The Black Hound, having missed its attack, let out an irritated shriek and turned around again.

The distance between us was only about three meters.

I couldn't run with my ruined leg, and its teeth would soon tear my whole body apart.

Then there was only one option.

'Give up flesh to take bone.'

No, in my case, I'd have to give up bone to take bone.

"Grrrr."

When I stared straight at it as though provoking it and clacked my jaw, it closed the distance.

Those things had a habit of biting the defending limbs first to disable their prey before going for the neck.

I thrust my gaunt left arm forward like bait.

'Come on, you son of a bitch.'

The Black Hound charged without hesitation. Its jaws opened wide and closed over my left arm.

CRUNCH!

My vision shook along with an ominous cracking sound.

There was no pain.

Only a flashing red warning window obscuring my sight.

[HP has decreased!]

[Left Forearm Bone has been destroyed!]

Its teeth crushed my bone and sank deep into it. The beast growled as if certain of its victory.

But that was its mistake. If its teeth were lodged in my bone, that meant it couldn't move for a moment either.

'Eat this.'

I gripped the pointed femur dagger in a reverse grip.

Then I drove it straight down toward its gleaming red eye.

STAB!

A sickening, squishy sensation traveled through my fingertips.

"YELP! KYAAAAH!"

The beast screamed and thrashed.

I climbed directly on top of its body. Then I yanked the bone from its eye and frantically stabbed at the vital point on the back of its neck.

Once, twice, three times.

THUD! THWACK! THUMP!

Sticky, dark-red blood soaked my white ribs.

It bucked and twisted wildly, but after taking a critical injury to the brain, its movements had already slowed.

STAB!

Perhaps the final blow severed its carotid artery, because its violently resisting body suddenly went limp.

[You have defeated Black Hound(Lv.4).]

[Your level has increased.]

[You have become Skeleton Soldier Lv.3.]

A system message appeared. Only then did I slide down from the beast's corpse.

_________________

At the same time. The mercenary company's encampment on the outskirts of the plains.

"...So, Walter was killed in action?"

A cold voice cut through the air.

Rena Kassel, the red-haired female warrior wearing a pauldron emblazoned with a red wolf, looked down at the soldier kneeling before her.

Black blood from monsters still dripped from her greatsword, the heat of battle yet to fade.

"Yes, that's correct, Platoon Leader. He suffered a precise stab wound to the back of the neck and died instantly..."

The soldier giving the report, Kane, had gone deathly pale. It wasn't only because of his comrade's death. It was because of the bizarre phenomenon he had witnessed.

THUD!

Rena irritably slammed her greatsword into the ground and bit her lower lip.

"That idiot died to nothing more than a pile of bones? What a disgrace to the Red Wolves."

Her tone was harsh, but anger over the death of her subordinate was clear in her voice.

"But... there's something strange."

"Tell me."

"When Walter was attacked... I saw it. That thing's head was definitely lying at Walter's feet. But..."

Kane swallowed dryly. Even remembering the scene he'd watched while hiding behind a tree sent chills down his spine.

"Only the headless body stood up and attacked Walter from behind. It aimed precisely for his neck, as if... it had invisible eyes."

Rena's eyebrow twitched.

"Its body moved without a head?"

"Y-Yes! It wasn't how an ordinary skeleton moves. It wasn't just staggering around. It moved with clear killing intent..."

"Nonsense. Once a low-rank skeleton's skull is separated, it can't perform purposeful actions. That's common knowledge."

Rena snorted. She assumed the terrified recruit had imagined things. But Kane's eyes were not merely serious. They were desperate.

"I doubted my own eyes at first too. But after it killed Walter, it picked up its own head with its hands and put it back on. Then... it disappeared into the forest."

It put its own head back on? A deep crease formed between Rena's brows.

A low-rank undead with enough intelligence to repair its own body and withdraw from the battlefield. Was it simply a coincidence, or had some sort of mutant been born?

Either possibility left a bad taste in her mouth. Her mercenary company was responsible for exterminating the monsters in this area, and above all, that creature had taken the life of one of her precious subordinates.

"...I'll have to confirm it myself."

Rena adjusted her grip on her greatsword and stared toward the forest. An ominous demonic energy writhed within the darkness blanketing the woods.

"Kane, recover Walter's body. I'll track down that 'oddity'."

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

Telephone:

02-313-7388

Email:

info@jakgadabang.com

ISBN/UCI:

G720:N+A475-20261015075

Publication Date:

October 23, 2026

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