Just as my fingertips were about to touch the soldier’s humerus—
Bzzzt!
A tinnitus-like noise erupted in ears that no longer possessed eardrums. At the same time, the inside of my hollow skull grew searing hot, as though it had been plunged into flames.
Die monster die filthy pile of bones how dare you kill me die—
A voice seething with resentment.
A crimson warning message flashed before my eyes.
[Warning: These bones belong to a member of the Human race.]
[Human remains strongly retain the memories and resentment they possessed in life.]
[Coveting flesh that has not been granted to you may cause your Mental Fortitude to decrease permanently due to the “Resentment of the Deceased.”]
...Ugh.
I reflexively pulled my hand back.
An unpleasant sensation like static electricity surged from my fingertips and swept through my entire body.
Damn it. Of course the game wouldn’t give them to me that easily.
In Dungeon & Empire, the Holy Rachenos Empire was portrayed as a civilization obsessed with granting the dead their proper rest.
Apparently, tampering with human bones was prohibited by some kind of taboo system.
Furthermore, according to the setting, humans of the Holy Empire continued to receive their god’s protection even after death.
That must be why necromancers need complicated rituals to raise human corpses...
If even necromancers needed such preparations, a newborn, level-two Skeleton Soldier like me had no hope of simply stealing the bones of someone who had been alive moments ago with Bone Replacement.
If my Mental Fortitude drops, I might become afflicted with conditions like Confusion or Berserk. I’d better be careful.
Feeling awkward, I withdrew the hand I had extended toward the corpse.
I wanted to click my tongue in disappointment, but since I didn’t have one, all I could do was clatter my jaw.
Fine. Maybe this is for the best.
Even if I had been transported into a game and desperately needed to survive, ripping the limbs off another human and inserting them into my own body would have left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Admittedly, I had just stabbed this man through the neck...
But that had unquestionably been self-defense.
We had been enemies pointing weapons at each other on a battlefield.
Desecrating his corpse without permission was an entirely different matter. The Geneva Conventions—or, more accurately, the final line drawn by my conscience—wouldn’t permit it.
I forced myself to turn away from the soldier’s body sprawled across the ground, doing my best to ignore the gruesome mixture of crimson blood and exposed white bone.
Phew...
I mimed a sigh and looked around.
The battle was ending in a catastrophic defeat for the monster army.
That result was only natural.
The Screaming Plains was a tutorial zone through which human players passed when they first began the game.
The monsters stationed here existed solely to provide players with easy experience. There was no possibility of them winning.
Thud!
A heavy impact rang out, and three or four Skeleton Soldiers were launched into the air in the distance.
Their bone fragments rained down as though a bomb had exploded.
...What was that?
An ominous premonition swept over me.
I instinctively hid behind a pile of rocks and examined the area.
Through the cloud of pale dust, I spotted a female warrior with a crimson cape billowing behind her.
Every time the enormous greatsword in her hands danced through the air, monsters were swept away like fallen leaves before an autumn wind.
Her speed and destructive power were on an entirely different level from those of the ordinary soldiers.
[Lena “Red Fang” Cassel]
[Affiliation: Red Wolves Mercenary Company]
[Position: Platoon Commander]
Holy shit. That’s Lena Cassel!
She was a platoon commander of the Red Wolves Mercenary Company and a Named NPC from the early tutorial section.
In the original game, she had been a friendly NPC who gave quests to players.
From my current perspective as a monster, however, she was death incarnate.
If that woman catches me, there won’t be enough left to bury.
Making eye contact with her would earn me a one-way trip to the afterlife.
Feeling as though cold sweat were pouring down my body, I slipped among the retreating monsters and desperately fled toward the forest.
Limp, clatter.
An ominous sound came from my left leg with every step.
Damn it. This is serious.
[Status: Complex Fracture of the Left Tibia]
[Movement Speed has decreased by 30%.]
A human cavalryman’s horse had kicked me while I was fleeing earlier.
A deep crack ran across the middle of my shinbone.
Every time it supported my weight, the fracture seemed to spread a little farther.
Ugh...
At this speed, getting caught before I reached the forest was only a matter of time.
Either I would become food for some wild monster, or the pursuing humans—especially Lena Cassel—would reduce me to powder.
My mind was racing, but my body refused to cooperate.
It was maddening.
Then, as I reached the darkened forest’s edge, a chilling presence crawled down my spine.
“Grrrrr...”
The low growl of a beast.
I stopped reflexively and stared in the direction of the sound.
Two red eyes shone brightly from within the dark blue undergrowth.
Its cunning, persistent gaze clung to me like that of a hyena drawn by the scent of rotting flesh.
[Black Hound (Lv. 4)]
A wild dog of the Demon Realm.
Dungeon & Empire was such an obsessively detailed masterpiece that it even simulated an ecosystem among monsters.
When they weren’t fighting humans, monsters hunted and devoured one another to increase their levels.
The Demon Realm was governed by the law of the jungle, and this creature had clearly followed our routed forces while searching for an injured straggler.
Damn it. Of all the things I could have encountered...
Its gaze settled precisely on my cracked left shinbone.
It had identified my weakness.
A level-four monster is too much for a level-two skeleton.
I instinctively reached toward my waist.
My longsword wasn’t there.
Damn it!
I must have left the sword embedded in the human soldier’s corpse.
The sight of Lena Cassel had frightened me so badly that I had fled without even remembering to retrieve my weapon.
What a rookie mistake.
But it was already too late for regrets.
Black Hounds averaged between levels four and six.
They were also monsters specialized in agility.
Even if I had brought my longsword, it might have torn my neck apart before I could swing it.
More importantly, dodging was impossible with my leg in its current state.
I saw the muscles in its hind legs contract tightly.
It was preparing to leap.
I hurriedly glanced around.
A weapon?
None.
A shield?
Not a chance.
All I could see were mud and broken pieces of wood.
Then I noticed the remains of what had once been a comrade lying near my feet.
They belonged to a Skeleton Infantryman whose skull had been completely crushed.
Among its scattered bones, a sharply broken femur protruded from the ground.
That’s it!
I instinctively threw myself down.
At the same moment, the Black Hound shot forward like a black bullet.
Crunch!
Its teeth tore into the rotten tree trunk where I had been standing moments ago.
Pieces of bark exploded in every direction.
Rolling through the mud, I snatched up the dead skeleton’s femur.
Senior, I’ll borrow this for a moment!
Its broken end tapered into a sharp point, making it an excellent substitute for a dagger.
“Graaagh!”
The Black Hound released an irritated shriek after missing its attack and whirled around.
The distance between us was barely three meters.
I couldn’t escape with my ruined leg, and its fangs would soon tear every bone in my body apart.
That left me with only one option.
Sacrifice flesh to take bone.
No.
Since I didn’t have any flesh, I supposed I would have to sacrifice bone to take bone.
“Grrrrr.”
I stared directly at the creature and clattered my jaw provocatively.
It began closing the distance between us.
Those creatures habitually disabled their prey by biting the defensive limbs before attacking the throat.
I thrust my gaunt left arm forward as bait.
Come on, you son of a bitch.
The Black Hound charged without hesitation.
Its jaws opened wide and closed around my left arm.
Crunch!
My vision shook with the horrifying sound of something breaking.
There was no pain.
Only the flashing crimson warning windows obstructing my sight.
[Your HP has decreased!]
[Your left forearm bones have been destroyed!]
Its teeth crushed my bones and lodged themselves deeply inside.
The creature growled as though victory were already assured.
But that was its mistake.
If its fangs were stuck in my bones, then it couldn’t move for the next few moments either.
Eat this.
I gripped the sharpened femur dagger in a reverse grip.
Then I drove it straight into the creature’s gleaming red eye.
Shnk!
A revolting, squishy sensation traveled through my fingertips.
“Yelp! Graaaagh!”
The creature screamed and thrashed violently.
I immediately climbed onto its back.
Yanking the bone out of its eye, I began stabbing frantically at the vital point on the back of its neck.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Thud! Crunch! Thump!
Sticky, dark-red blood splattered across my white ribs.
The creature flailed wildly, shaking its entire body, but the critical damage to its brain had already slowed its movements.
Shnk!
My final strike must have severed its carotid artery.
Its violently resisting body suddenly went limp.
[You have defeated Black Hound (Lv. 4).]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have become a Skeleton Soldier Lv. 3.]
The system messages appeared.
Only then did I slide down from the creature’s corpse.
***
At the same time, at the mercenary encampment on the outskirts of the plains—
“...So Walter was killed in battle?”
A cold voice sliced through the air.
Lena Cassel, the red-haired warrior wearing a pauldron emblazoned with a crimson wolf, looked down at the soldier kneeling before her.
The heat of battle had yet to leave her body, and black monster blood continued dripping from her greatsword.
“Yes, Platoon Commander. He suffered a precise stab wound to the nape and died instantly...”
The reporting soldier, Cain, had gone deathly pale.
It wasn’t merely because of his comrade’s death.
It was because of the bizarre phenomenon he had witnessed.
Boom!
Lena irritably drove her greatsword into the ground and bit her lower lip.
“That idiot was killed by a mere pile of bones? What a disgrace to the Red Wolves.”
Her language was harsh, but anger over the death of her subordinate burned within her voice.
“However... there was something strange about it.”
“Tell me.”
“When Walter was attacked... I saw it happen. That creature’s skull was definitely lying near Walter’s feet. But then...”
Cain swallowed dryly.
Even recalling the scene he had witnessed while hiding behind a tree sent a chill down his spine.
“Only its headless body stood up and attacked Walter from behind. It targeted his neck with perfect accuracy, as though it had invisible eyes.”
Lena’s eyebrow twitched.
“Its body moved without its head?”
“Y-Yes! That wasn’t how an ordinary skeleton moves. It wasn’t stumbling around aimlessly. It moved with unmistakable killing intent...”
“Nonsense. Once a low-ranking skeleton’s skull is separated from its body, it becomes incapable of purposeful action. That’s common knowledge.”
Lena scoffed.
She initially assumed the terrified rookie had imagined it.
But the desperation in Cain’s eyes was too sincere to dismiss.
“I doubted my own eyes at first. But after it killed Walter, it picked up its skull with its own hands and put it back on. Then... it disappeared into the forest.”
It put its own head back on?
A deep crease formed between Lena’s brows.
A low-ranking undead intelligent enough to repair its own body and withdraw from the battlefield.
Was it merely a coincidence?
Or had some new mutant been born?
Either possibility left her uneasy.
Her mercenary company was responsible for exterminating the monsters in this region.
More importantly, that creature had taken the life of one of her valued subordinates.
“...I’ll have to investigate.”
Lena adjusted her grip on her greatsword and stared toward the forest.
Ominous demonic energy writhed within its depths, where the darkness lay thickest.
“Cain, recover Walter’s body. I’m going to track down that ‘freak.’”