Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Just as I was about to close the status window in bewilderment.

There was one more unread notification.

[Warning: The incompatibility between soul and body is accumulating.]

[If you fail to find a suitable body, the sense of self within your soul will gradually be diluted.]

I stared quietly at the sentence for a moment.

Diluted.

So if I stayed in this skeletal body too long, the person called Han Seungwoo would slowly evaporate.

Han Seungwoo would disappear, leaving behind nothing but a wandering skeleton.

That was different from dying. Perhaps it was an ending even worse than death.

'...'

A heavier feeling than expected surged inside my rib cage.

I could somehow endure being reduced to this pathetic trash mob.

But having the person I was erased required a bit more resolve.

For the first time, I felt around my empty eye sockets with my hand.

Nothing but hollow holes.

Right now, no one except me knew that a human named Han Seungwoo existed here.

'How much time do I have left?'

Naturally, the system was kind enough not to tell me anything like the remaining time.

'The most irritating kind of timer.'

Still, I decided to accept it calmly. Whether there was a countdown or not, my goal of obtaining a human body hadn't changed.

Panicking wouldn't change anything.

'Wait.'

In that moment, a hypothesis flashed through my mind like lightning.

'If my soul is embedded in this status window like an item... then what about my body?'

If my soul had been classified by the system as an 'existence outside the specifications' and inserted into this skeletal body, then what about my body?

What kind of game was <​Dungeon and Empire>? Wasn't it made by lunatics obsessed with lore?

It was a crazy world where souls and bodies could be separated into items and even synthesized through alchemy.

If only my soul had been pulled out and placed inside this skeleton.

My body.

Wouldn't at least the body of the character I had been playing exist somewhere?

Ding.

As if affirming my hypothesis, the system window displayed a new message.

[Trait: Player's Soul]

[Your soul feels extreme discomfort toward the body it currently inhabits. It awaits a suitable vessel.]

'No, well. I've been feeling uncomfortable from the start.'

In any case, what the system was trying to say was clear.

This skeletal body was not a suitable vessel for my soul.

At that moment, something hot surged up inside my chest.

'I can find it!'

I wasn't simply fated to live and die as this pile of bones.

If I found my body, I should at least be able to return to being human. No, I had to.

I had no idea how I'd ended up inside this game, much less possessed the weakest kind of monster, but I felt a strong conviction that if I found my body, I could also reach the cause behind all this.

Now that I had a goal, my fighting spirit flared.

But for the moment, I couldn't move.

Step, step.

Because something ominous was walking out of the darkness.

I quickly got to my feet and slipped into the group of skeletons, pretending to be vacant-minded.

A man in a black robe.

The way he stood leaning on a staff made from fused vertebrae made him the very image of a necromancer.

"Those Red Wolves have expanded their patrol range all the way to the outskirts. At this rate, they'll discover the tower..."

The man muttered in a hoarse voice like metal scraping against metal.

From beneath the hood of his robe, green light flashed within a face as dark as the abyss as he looked over the gathered skeletons. Wherever his gaze landed, it felt as though frost formed in the air.

I quickly put on a stupid expression and stood at attention among the other skeletons, staring straight ahead.

'Not that a skull has any expression.'

I never thought I'd be so grateful that I didn't need to act with my face.

In any case, running now would get me killed. In my current state, there was no way I could fight that necromancer.

The man slowly looked over the group of skeletons as if sorting livestock brought to a slaughterhouse.

"More survived than I expected. I'll pick out the useful ones, and the rest, hmm."

The man lightly swung his staff.

"I'll use them as materials."

The instant he finished speaking, the crumbling skeletons in the front row collapsed all at once.

In the blink of an eye, they turned into white bone powder that scattered through the air, and the powder twisted like snakes before being sucked into the man's staff.

'Shit, he really knows how to recycle efficiently.'

The man slowly moved forward.

His gaze lingered on skeletons limping from injuries or with half their bones shattered.

"This one is missing an arm. Rejected."

"Its joints have become deformed. Rejected."

The injured skeletons vanished one after another.

I desperately tried not to stand crooked on my Black Hound leg.

'I need to look as intact as possible.'

Step. Step.

The chilling sound of dry leaves crunching drew closer until the man's footsteps stopped directly in front of me.

The shadow of his black robe hung deep like an abyss.

Within it, the green glow swept over my entire body.

His gaze dug into every joint as if taking an X-ray.

'Damn it.'

I mimed swallowing dryly and hunched my shoulders.

Ever since earlier, he'd mercilessly ground up anyone injured or deformed.

Just look at me.

My left leg was the reverse-jointed leg of a beast, while my right was human-shaped.

My left arm was the long, crude arm of a goblin, while my right was a gaunt human bone.

'I'm screwed.'

Anyone could see I was disposal material.

The tip of the man's staff slowly rose toward the center of my forehead.

"This imbalance... this unconventional disharmony..."

Hmm, should I just get the first hit in and run?

I gathered strength in my left leg.

If there was no hope anyway, I might as well struggle...

CRASH!

At that moment, a huge shadow standing near me toppled forward with a loud racket.

It was the Orc Skeleton.

The massive orc skeleton came crashing down toward me. If it landed on me, my flimsy ribs would be smashed apart.

But in that instant, the flames inside its eye sockets flickered toward me.

As though signaling.

'This guy, don't tell me it's doing this for me?'

There was no time to hesitate. It had created a one-second opening for me.

I reflexively kicked off the ground.

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

FWOOSH!

My body shot straight upward in an instant.

I easily cleared the man's head, flipped through the air, and gracefully landed on the ground on the other side...

CRASH!

...or failed to. Because my right leg was shorter, I lost my balance and tumbled pathetically across the ground.

"..."

Silence.

The man's staff had frozen in midair.

I hurriedly fixed my posture and stood up. The Orc Skeleton lay sprawled on the ground, groaning.

'Was that not what it meant?'

I'm screwed. I'd just performed a cheap stunt in front of a necromancer.

Since I had no intention of dying like a dog, I was about to grip my makeshift femur dagger and take a defensive stance when,

Clap, clap, clap.

A slow sound of applause came from somewhere.

When I looked up, the necromancer was clapping while his eyes gleamed strangely.

"Excellent... truly excellent!"

"...?"

"This harmony of asymmetry! The unconventional dissonance created by joints from different species! And that leap just now—you used the side where your center of gravity was shifted to generate rotational force...!"

The man approached me while exclaiming in admiration.

"Truly, beautiful!"

'...What?'

I nearly dislocated my jaw from sheer disbelief.

This was beautiful?

'This bastard has no taste.'

His aesthetic sense was nonexistent.

I'd heard necromancers were intelligent but utterly hopeless when it came to aesthetics. Apparently the rumors were true.

He was calling this ragged, patchwork skeleton beautiful.

Art required something like the golden ratio of a dragon's wing bones spreading open, or the balanced perfection of a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Guys like this were always the ones who said nonsense during client meetings like, 'Make it more impactful, but simpler.'

"Heheheh, to think an individual like this would appear. It doesn't seem like the bones were forcibly fused. Rather, they look as if they attached because they wanted to."

The man gave me a sinister smile. Fortunately, he didn't seem hostile.

If anything, it looked more like the curiosity of a mad artist.

At that moment, the Orc Skeleton sprawled on the ground groaned as it tried to rise.

Clatter, snap.

A thick crack had formed in its right arm bone. It seemed to have put its weight on it badly when it fell earlier.

The man's gaze moved there. The interest in his eyes immediately went cold.

"Tch. Big frame, but terrible durability. Useless scrap."

No.

'This guy got hurt trying to help me!'

I couldn't just stand there. I quickly approached it and tapped the forearm bone hanging at its waist.

A freaky necromancer like this would definitely find it interesting.

Maybe it understood my intent. The skeleton flinched in surprise, grabbed the bone hanging at its waist, then hesitantly held it out in front of itself.

But it kept a firm grip on it, as if absolutely refusing to let it be taken away.

"Oh?"

The light gathering at the tip of the man's staff faded.

"A skeleton that understands the concept of repair... I can see the potential for it to become a higher-ranking individual."

Interest returned to the man's eyes.

In <​Dungeon and Empire>, if a low-rank skeleton broke an arm, it would simply keep fighting until it died. They barely possessed the concept of maintaining their own bodies.

The man stroked his chin.

"Interesting. Normally, it's more mana-efficient to grind up a broken one and summon a new one..."

The man tapped the Orc Skeleton's broken arm with his staff.

"But you two are quite interesting. You're too valuable as samples to use as simple consumables."

Hummm-.

A viscous black liquid flowed from the tip of the man's staff. The liquid seeped into the cracks in the Orc Skeleton's bone. Like adhesive, it instantly filled the split and hardened.

[You have witnessed 'Necromancer's Bone Restoration'.]

The Orc Skeleton rotated its arm in amazement, then bowed its head at the man's feet in gratitude.

The man let out a satisfied chuckle.

"Consider this much a service. Payment for piquing my curiosity."

The man looked at me again. That sticky gaze felt like it was licking my marrow, sending a chill through me.

"Mutants like you are perfectly suited to my experiments. Come to the 'Tower of White Bones' beyond the western forest."

The moment he gave the order, the man was engulfed in black mist and vanished. He disappeared in an instant as though teleporting.

Once his overwhelming killing intent disappeared, silence returned to the forest.

'The Tower of White Bones...'

Why the hell would I go there? If I did, I'd obviously end up strapped to an experiment table for a skeleton disassembly show.

Besides, I had absolutely no intention of becoming a test subject under someone with zero aesthetic sense.

[Forced Command: Move to the Tower of White Bones]

- Details: Travel to the laboratory of the necromancer 'Malach', the Tower of White Bones.

- Time Limit: 24 hours

- Failure: Forced Annihilation

I raised the bone of my middle finger toward the direction the man had disappeared.

[Player's Soul rejects the command.]

Remote self-destruction and whatever else were only possible if mental domination worked in the first place.

According to the system, my soul was outside his authority.

'Now then, where do I go?'

According to my original plan, I needed to search for clues about my body. The most reliable sources of information would be human villages or guilds.

'The problem is this appearance.'

I looked like something guards would obviously sell off as ingredients for bone soup.

And throwing on a robe wouldn't solve a body shape like this either. Reverse-jointed legs and mismatched arms—anyone could tell I was a suspicious monster.

'Getting a polymorph item right away would be difficult.'

I needed a human appearance immediately. Even if only for a short while, I needed a disguise that would let me talk to humans and gather information.

I recalled the game's map in my mind.

Near here, on the outskirts of the [Screaming Plains], was the hidden dungeon, [Echoing Cave].

A very special monster lived there.

Chameleon Slime.

If I covered myself in its mucus, I could pass for human for a short while. It wouldn't be perfect, but with a robe over it, it would be enough.

On top of that, the cave also contained a beginner-grade unique item, so I could kill two birds with one stone.

I changed direction. East, toward where the red moon was rising.

It was the exact opposite direction from the Tower of White Bones.

At that moment, something tugged at the edge of my belt from behind.

Clatter.

It was the Orc Skeleton.

It anxiously pointed toward the west, where the tower was, clacking its jaw as if warning me that disobeying Master's command would bring disaster.

'Let go. You and I are going different ways.'

I coldly shook off its hand.

It was still under mental domination, so it was destined to go to the tower. This was where we parted ways.

It was a little regrettable, but I had enough problems of my own.

'Take care of yourself. Go become some sturdy higher undead or something.'

Without looking back, I pushed my way through the forest.

_____________

How long had I been walking?

There were slightly more low-level monsters along the route toward the eastern cave.

Which also meant there was more prey.

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

Copyright © Metdoyo.

This e-book is a copyrighted work protected under copyright law.

This e-book was published under a contract between the publisher and the author, and unauthorized reproduction, duplication, distribution, or sharing without the written consent of both parties is prohibited.