Chapter 7

Chapter 7

[Skeleton Soldier(Lv.7)]

Before I knew it, my level had gone up, and I had even acquired a longsword after killing a low-level goblin, so I was feeling pretty good.

"Grrrr!"

Red eyes flashed between the bushes, and another Black Hound sprang out.

This one was a slightly larger, leader-class specimen.

[Black Hound(Lv.6)]

'Oh, perfect timing.'

I clacked my jaw in delight. My mismatched legs had been making my pelvis feel twisted for a while now, so it had been quite uncomfortable.

The moment it saw me, it charged.

"Woof!"

Fast. But.

'I'm not slow anymore either.'

I put strength into my left leg and leaped sideways.

At the same time, I stretched out my left arm and snatched the beast by the scruff of its neck.

It was definitely different.

The old me would have missed that timing, but my left hand, enhanced by the Goblin Chief's strength and dexterity, accurately seized its hide.

[Skill: Sneaky Pickpocket(Lv.2) activated!]

Why the hell is Pickpocket activating here?

Ah, the instant I grabbed the scruff of its neck, my sense for exploiting its opening became sharper.

Still gripping its neck tightly, I stabbed the longsword into its side.

Stab! STAB!

"Yelp!"

[You have defeated Black Hound(Lv.6).]

[You have gained experience.]

A clean hunt.

I skillfully dismantled its hind leg. This time, it was the right one.

Without hesitation, I ripped out my right human leg.

'Ugh...!'

The unpleasant sensation of tearing out living flesh... no, living bone was still there, but the result was sweet.

[Transplant successful!]

[Your body's balance has been corrected.]

[Agility has greatly increased.]

[Skill: Set Effect, 'Beast's Sprint(Lv.3)' has been unlocked.]

Oh, even a set effect?

Anyway, I was finally free from having mismatched legs.

I jumped in place a few times.

Both legs now had the reverse-jointed structure of a Black Hound.

My walking posture was now closer to a beastkin like a werewolf than a human, but the mobility was incomparable.

The moment I kicked off the ground, my body sprang upward as lightly as a feather.

'At this level, I could shake off most knights.'

I hurried on again, humming something like a tune through the clacking of my jaw.

I had grown noticeably taller, and my balance while walking was perfect.

My appearance looked fairly decent too.

My left arm was reinforced with goblin bone, and my lower body had the sleek legs of a magical beast.

With even a horned helmet I'd picked up on my head, I looked grotesque if you wanted to call it grotesque, but from a gamer's perspective, it was actually...

'...Not bad?'

Efficient. An evolution optimized for combat.

If I kept replacing my bones and growing stronger like this, wouldn't I eventually become something even more perfect than a human?

The human body was weak. It got sick, grew old, and bled to death from a single stab wound.

But this body could grow stronger forever as long as I kept replacing its parts.

Maybe I didn't necessarily need to return to being human...

...No. What a dangerous thought. It was all because the thrill of growth had been so intoxicating.

Just as I stepped forward lightly, full of confidence.

Gurgle.

'...Huh?'

I heard a strange sound.

No, I had no stomach, so there was no actual sound. But a hollow, dreadful hunger surged up from the pit of my chest.

An emptiness rising from somewhere inside my hollow abdomen, along the inner side of my spine.

'What was that? That feeling just now?'

Was I actually hungry?

Impossible. I had no stomach, so there was no way I could have an appetite.

And yet this sensation was unmistakably 'hunger'. A steaming bowl of blood sausage soup shimmered before my eyes. If I poured in some radish kimchi broth and mixed rice into it, I felt like I wouldn't need anything else in the world...

'This is driving me insane. They say Koreans run on rice, but even inside a game?'

I shook my head, trying to cast aside the distracting thoughts. But the farther I walked, the worse the hunger became, turning into severe dizziness.

My vision blurred.

'Damn it, why would a skeleton even have an appetite...'

The strength left my legs.

Even my sturdily modified Black Hound legs staggered.

I stumbled and leaned my shoulder against a tree trunk.

My vision flickered. Red warning messages filled my sight.

[Warning! Mana Depletion]

[You have left the Necromancer's domain of control.]

[Mana supply has been cut off.]

'Ah...'

Tell me this kind of thing sooner, you bastard.

At the edge of my vision as I toppled toward the ground, I saw something running toward me.

Clatter! Clatter! Clatter!

A white skeleton running like mad.

It was that stupid Orc Skeleton I'd thought I'd left behind.

The last thing I heard was it catching my body and clacking its jaw as if saying something.

Then the world went black.

_____________

Ding-dong-!

The cheerful sound of a doorbell struck my ears.

'It's here!'

I sprang out of bed like a coiled spring. When I opened the front door, a delivery driver wearing a helmet held out a golden-glowing box of fried chicken.

The savory smell of oil. The glorious sight of crispy batter.

Overcome with emotion, I picked up a chicken leg and took a huge bite.

CRUNCH.

Huh? The texture was strange.

Did chicken always taste like this? No, did it even have a taste? My memory...

"..."

My eyes snapped open.

There was no chicken.

All I could see was the familiar canopy of the forest. And red moonlight filtering through the leaves.

[You have returned within the Necromancer's domain of control.]

[Emergency Power-Saving Mode has been deactivated.]

[Current Mana Remaining: 3%]

I had definitely collapsed earlier because my mana had hit rock bottom.

When I tried to sit up, my joints creaked. Fortunately, nothing seemed to be broken.

Clatter! Clatter!

A loud noise came from beside me.

When I turned my head, a massive figure was crouching there, looking down at me.

It was the Orc Skeleton.

'Were you the one who brought me here?'

Nod, nod!

It nodded so hard its jaw nearly fell off.

It must have been quite a distance from where I'd collapsed to here.

Dragging my limp body all the way here must have been a lot of work.

'Thanks. You saved me.'

When I patted its shoulder, it proudly thumped its own rib cage once with its fist.

Its body was the size of a mountain, but its behavior was exactly like a puppy.

But the touching moment didn't last long. I analyzed the situation coldly.

'This is serious.'

I felt around the area beneath my sternum. Inside my hollow rib cage, the mana circuits running along my spine were faintly pulsing.

This wasn't my own mana.

I was merely receiving mana transmitted from somewhere else, like Wi-Fi.

'So in the end, I'm basically a kite tied to a string.'

The mana supply network created by the necromancer 'Malach'.

If I left its range, I crashed like a drone with a dead battery.

At this rate, there was no way I could go looking for the Chameleon Slime or anything else. The cave where the slimes lived was outside this territory.

But I had even less desire to be dragged to Malach's tower and turned into a test subject.

'I need independence.'

Somehow, I had to secure my own power source.

While I was lost in thought, the Orc Skeleton quietly held something out to me.

Shove.

'Huh?'

Resting on its rough palm was a dark red crystal about the size of a thumb.

Its light was murky, but I could definitely sense faint mana from it.

'This is...'

[Low-Grade Mana Stone(Black Hound)]

[Contains a small amount of mana.]

It was clearly something that had come from the corpse of the Black Hound leader I'd killed earlier.

A crystallization of mana formed near a monster's heart.

Normally, it was used as a way to make money, but right now, it was more precious to me than anything else.

'You kept this? To give it to me?'

Nod, nod.

It puffed out its chest proudly.

What a good guy. I accepted the mana stone without hesitation.

'Thanks for the meal.'

When I gripped the mana stone and applied force, the hard solid instantly vaporized and seeped into the bones of my palm.

Ssssss...

A refreshing sensation spread through my dry joints, as though moisture were filling them.

[Absorbing mana from a Low-Grade Mana Stone.]

[Mana Remaining: 3% → 11%]

Now I finally felt alive again.

Eleven percent. Nowhere near enough, but it was sufficient to move for the time being.

Still, this didn't solve the fundamental problem. I couldn't survive indefinitely by constantly picking up and consuming mana stones.

Right, mana stones.

Crystallized mana found inside monsters.

If I used one as a power source, I could move without relying on the necromancer's supply.

But mana stones from trash mobs like Black Hounds were little more than disposable batteries.

What I needed was a sustainable, high-output battery.

Something like Iron Man's Arc Reactor.

'I need to revise the plan.'

Finding the Chameleon Slime, disguising myself as a human, and gathering information would have to wait. I'd collapse before I even reached the edge of the forest.

I opened the world map of <​Dungeon and Empire> in my mind.

One dungeon came to mind, located precariously near the boundary of Malach's territory.

[Abandoned Mine: Nest of the Forgotten Golems]

A place where players in the low teens went farming after finishing the tutorial.

It was crawling with 'Golems', artificial lifeforms powered by mana.

And embedded in the heart of a golem was a 'Mana Core' that served as a semi-permanent power source.

What if I stole a golem's core and transplanted it into my rib cage?

'Theoretically, it should work.'

My body itself would operate like a golem, meaning I would no longer need to depend on the necromancer's Wi-Fi signal.

'And there's a shortcut there too.'

In <​Dungeon and Empire>, this mine was considered a so-called 'abandoned dungeon'.

The reason was simple.

Its experience efficiency was terrible, and most of the items it dropped were just rocks.

On top of that, it was the worst possible place for someone like me.

Because golems don't have bones!

Why would I waste my precious time in a place that didn't drop a single bone fragment? So even I had never personally gone there to farm.

But I always read strategy board posts thoroughly. You never knew when they might become useful.

Especially Area 3.

The place players nicknamed the 'Minefield'.

If I wanted to break through to the depths of the mine with this weak skeletal body, I'd have no choice but to use that area.

My gaze turned away from the direction of the mine entrance and toward the area where traces of battle remained.

I should be able to gather useful items left behind by the human soldiers and among the goblin remains.

'Alright, let's go.'

The moment I sprang to my feet, the Orc Skeleton jumped in surprise and grabbed my waist.

It seemed worried that I might collapse again like before.

'I know, idiot. I won't die this time. I'm just going to prepare before I leave.'

I removed its hand and turned deeper into the forest.

A little while later.

I carefully gathered two old torches discarded by the soldiers, a piece of flint, and even the dried resin stuck beneath the bark of nearby dead trees. Not a bad haul.

Clatter.

The Orc Skeleton tilted its head. It looked like it was wondering why I was collecting that stuff.

'Even cheesing something takes preparation.'

Instead of answering, I waved a hand and turned toward the mine.

The objective was set.

About 2 kilometers to the boundary of Malach's mana range. From there, another roughly 800 meters to the entrance of the golem mine.

The problem was those 800 meters. With the 11% mana I'd charged from the mana stone, the time I could last... calculating backward, probably no more than around forty minutes.

Within forty minutes, I had to enter the mine, defeat a golem, seize its core, and finish transplanting it.

'Tight, but not impossible.'

I'd cleared time-attack dungeons hundreds of times in the game.

Back then, all I had to do was move the keyboard and mouse quickly. The only difference now was that I had to throw my entire body into it.

I'd already finished preparing, so I should be able to shorten the time even further.

I began running through the forest.

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.

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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.