The lizard monster charged at Ethan with terrifying speed, and he barely had time to react. His reflexes weren't fast enough to dodge in time!
It's okay. It's okay. Even if he died… he'd just come back.
He threw himself to the side, trying to dodge as best he could. But instead of hitting him, the monster crashed straight into the ground in front of him, thrashing wildly, thick strings of saliva dangling from its jaws. Then, without warning, it bolted off again.
Ethan raised both arms instinctively, bracing himself to block or strike back, but the creature didn't even glance his way.
It ran right past him.
"What?"
He turned, watching the monster as it crashed into some rubble, then veered off again, slamming its body against debris like some blind beast on a rampage.
"What the hell… why didn't it attack me? Could monsters in this area be... friendly?"
Or—
Then he noticed it.
Up close, the monster's skin looked bloated and torn, its flesh rotting and dark with decay. It didn't move like something alive. How could he describe it…? Like a freaking zombie lizard.
Wait a second… Was he too confident in thinking it didn't consider him a threat? Was it possible that this creature couldn't even sense him… because he, too, was just another pathetic undead, a lesser skeleton?
Curiosity got the better of him.
Ethan bolted after the creature, which had already turned into another side street, disappearing behind a collapsed wall. He followed, slipping through broken concrete until he saw it again. Now pressed up against the crumbling edge of a ruined building, thrashing erratically, smacking its body against the rubble like it had no control of its own.
This thing was completely brain-dead.
This was his chance.
Alright then, let's kill this damn thing!
Ethan drew his sword, a sinister grin flickering through his mind. At least, that's how it felt, despite the permanent, expressionless grin of his skull.
He scanned the scene, eyeing the crumbling wall near the thrashing creature. It looked unstable, almost ready to fall on its own…
He had no idea what level this monster was. But screw it. No better way to learn than jumping straight in. This would be his first real experience.
He rushed toward the weakened wall and began shaking it. Damn, it was heavier than he'd hoped. Shifting tactics, he slammed his whole skeletal body against it. It groaned but barely budged. He threw himself again and again, bone rattling on impact.
Damn it, this body wasn't as sturdy as he'd imagined. He only hoped his bones wouldn't shatter before he managed to kill something in this new world.
Finally, the wall gave way. Stone and debris crashing down.
Ethan dashed forward just as the wreckage slammed into the monster, pinning it with a sickening crunch. The beast let out a shriek, flailing wildly beneath the rubble.
He didn't waste a second.
He lunged in, driving his sword toward the creature's eye. But it wasn't easy. The blade met resistance, and the monster squirmed and bucked beneath him.
Gritting his teeth, Ethan leapt onto the beast's head, forcing the sword down with all the strength he could muster.
"Argh! Die, just die already!"
The blade sank deeper.
The monster convulsed violently, trying to throw him off. Then, with a final burst of force, it shoved itself free from the rubble, dragging Ethan along as it slammed its body into the nearest wall. But he refused to let go.
If only he had an offensive skill, this might be so much easier.
Still, he didn't stop.
Ethan kept driving the blade again and again into the creature's skull, pressing through the eye socket, twisting and pushing. Moments passed. Tense, chaotic, and brutal, until finally…
The thrashing slowed.
The monster let out one last groan.
And then… it went still.
It died. Right?
Please tell him it died.
[You have killed Carrion Lizard Revenant Lv. 12]
[You received 67 Exp]
[You have leveled up]
[Level 2]
[Exp: 17/55]
[You have received 10 stat points.]
Ah… finally dead.
Ethan took a cautious step back, then reached forward to pull his sword from the creature's skull. The blade came free with a wet crunch, and a thick, dark green ichor oozed out of the wound.
"And damn, there it is."
The kill notification floated before him in glowing clarity. A level 12 Carrion Lizard… Revenant. So, his guess had been right, it was an undead-type monster.
And with that kill, he'd received 67 experience points, enough to push him straight to level 2. Just as he'd learned, a level-up granted him ten fresh stat points to allocate.
A very solid win for his first ever kill.
Then suddenly… something stirred in the air.
From the monster's remains, a strange dark energy began to swirl, like mist laced with shadows. It drifted toward him. Ethan instinctively lifted one hand as the energy neared, only for it to surge straight into his body.
He flinched as a strange crackling sensation echoed through his bones.
Crk… crk…
The sound of shifting joints and grinding marrow. It wasn't painful, but it was definitely unnerving.
Something had just changed inside him.
[Bone Leech activated.]
[Absorbing target remains…]
[Your skeletal frame has grown stronger.]
[Residual soul essence absorbed.]
[Minor skeletal damage repaired.]
[Soul-core efficiency stabilized.]
Bone Leech activated the moment he killed that thing, just as expected. A notification followed, telling him that his bones had grown stronger.
Interesting.
Now the question was, was this growth separate from the basic stat points listed in the system? It seemed so. Maybe the skill worked outside the standard stat structure, evolving his skeleton independently from those 10 points he could manually assign.
If that were true… then perhaps, with enough kills, this skill might eventually allow him to evolve his form entirely. Who knows what he might become after piling up enough corpses?
And then there was the soul essence, that strange energy that had flowed into him. Ethan had a theory: it might be directly tied to his Animus stat. Just like how humans regained their Stamina through rest and food, perhaps he had to keep killing to restore his own version of energy.
Which meant… as long as he kept murdering monsters, he would constantly replenish himself.
Wait.
Did that mean he was basically destined to become some kind of unstoppable undead killing machine?
Hah… interesting.
Because right after that first kill, he genuinely felt refreshed, like the fatigue that had clung to him before had been completely wiped away. His movements felt sharper. His focus clearer.
And to think, that monster had been over 10 levels higher than him.
He'd been lucky to bring it down with such a gap between them. But if this was the result?
Then maybe this world was going to be more generous to him than he thought.
Ethan opened his status window. Ten stat points, waiting to be placed.
Out of curiosity, he tried putting one into Magic, the only stat still sitting at zero.
[You are currently unable to receive or utilize magic. Stat point allocation denied.]
So that was it. The reason his Magic stat remained empty. He simply couldn't use it.
Likely a limitation tied to his form as a Lesser Skeleton. Hopefully, that would change someday. Maybe an evolution or a future class unlock could open the path to magic.
For now, he had only four real options: Strength, Agility, Constitution, and Animus.
His Strength was already high at 17. Animus, decent at 12. But Constitution sat at a weak 3, and Agility wasn't much better at 5.
Since Ethan planned to fight up close using a sword, the most logical path was to pour his points into Strength and Constitution. Agility could wait.
Alright. He'd made his choice.
[Strength: 18 | Agility: 7 | Magic: 0 | Constitution: 10 | Animus: 12]
Hehe, that looked much better.
Time to resume the hunt. The night was still young.
Ethan shut his status window and glanced around, then froze.
Shit.
He turned his head sharply to one side, then the other. From the shadows, five Carrion Lizards crept into view, crawling low and fast, their sickly, undead eyes fixed in his direction.
Wait… they weren't going to attack him, were they?
But in the blink of an eye, the creatures rushed toward him in a sudden burst of motion.
Not him. They were heading for the carcass of the fallen lizard. But he was standing too close.
He didn't have time to get out of the way.
[You have been killed by Carrion Lizard Revenant Lv. 11]