[Skill Acquired: Bone Dash]
[Active Skill - Bone Dash: Instantly lunge forward in a straight line up to 5 meters, phasing briefly through light obstacles.]
[Item Acquired: Hollowbone Chestguard]
[Item - Hollowbone Chestguard: Reinforced from scavenged beast bones and fused with cursed sinew. Offers light protection without hindering movement.]
[Stat Boost Granted:]
[+5 Agility]
[Dimensional Storage Unlocked]
[Capacity: 1 cubic meter]
[...]
Ethan's vision returned in a flash, followed immediately by a sharp jolt of surprise as blinding daylight seared into the hollow sockets of his skull.
Ah... it was already daytime.
He blinked, or would have, if he still had eyelids, and scanned his surroundings. No sign of the monsters anywhere.
Quickly, he gathered himself. In broad daylight, he'd be far easier to spot, and that was the last thing he wanted. He wasn't ready to die again, not after getting trapped in that suffocating, endless void.
He pushed himself upright and swept the area with a cautious gaze. Not far ahead, he spotted what looked like a commercial district, rundown shops and shattered buildings. Without hesitation, he broke into a sprint, weaving through debris and ducking low behind ruined structures.
There. A broken pharmacy window, glass already cracked, half of it missing.
He walked toward it, punching the remaining shards to clear a path, ignoring the brittle clatter as they hit the ground. He slipped inside, hunched slightly under the frame.
The interior was still intact enough. Dusty shelves, collapsed counters, but shadows, plenty of them.
He moved quickly into the darker corner of the store and sat down, letting his bones rest and his thoughts settle. He needed to hold still now.
This time, he had access to time and date. He could actually study what happened, understand the experience of being revived, compare what changed, and prepare better for the next time.
Ethan reached into his dimensional storage and pulled out his phone once again. He tapped the screen, digging into the system logs, the time stamps… and then he paused, frozen for a moment.
He'd been revived exactly two days after his last death.
Two days.
Well… not bad for a waiting time, right?
The real question now was whether this two-day revival delay would stay consistent, or if it would change over time. Would it grow longer? Shorter? Random? He'd have to observe closely and gather more data with every cycle.
Still, time wasn't his biggest concern.
His true worry was: what if the glitch stopped working altogether? What if, one day, he died… and that was it? No return. No starter pack. No second chance.
But for now… he'd come back. And with new rewards, too.
This time, he received a skill focused on mobility. An excellent boost, especially with how low his level still was compared to the monsters lurking around the area. He also scored a chest armor piece, along with a +5 increase to Agility.
He took a look at himself, and yeah, his old clothes were shredded beyond saving. Likely torn to pieces by the violent chaos of that night's encounter.
So, he started rummaging through the pharmacy.
He pulled out whatever cloth and fabric he could find, mostly bandages, and figured they'd make decent material to wrap up his skeletal body.
Time to work.
He carefully wrapped the fabric around his limbs, covering his bones in neat, overlapping layers. Then, he strapped on the new chest armor over the makeshift wraps. Lastly, he took more of the bandages and wrapped his skull completely, leaving no trace of bone exposed.
Now he really did look like a mummy.
Fortunately, he was still wearing his old pants, which, while worn and torn, were just intact enough to keep him from looking completely ridiculous. And the look came together with his tattered black cloak and, of course, the cowboy hat perched on his head.
Hah. Not too bad, right?
If anything, he actually looked cool now.
There was something strangely stylish about his appearance, wrapped head to toe in bandages, armored, cloaked in shadows, and topped with a stylish cowboy hat. He looked mysterious and dangerous all at once.
Of course, this kind of cool needed to be backed by real strength and levels. No point looking the part if you couldn't live up to it. So yeah, he'd continue the hunt when night fell again.
Speaking of the starter pack glitch, Ethan gave it more thought. If it did start taking longer than two days for each revival, then hunting monsters and staying alive would be far more efficient.
Leveling up the traditional way might not give him free skills or storage upgrades, but it let him stay active and keep growing without waiting in that void.
At the very least, staying alive gave him time, more time to gain experience, find loot, and build his power base.
So even if dying brought him absurd rewards, it was still better to survive and grow the hard way. And besides, the glitch… it wasn't something he wanted exposed.
Especially not to those humans.
It was weird even hearing himself think that way, but yes, those humans. Pathetic creatures. Ha!
**
Ethan spent the rest of the day honing his sword movements, something he hadn't had the chance to do the night before. The weight, the balance, the way his bones shifted with each motion. He was starting to get used to it.
And surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as he had feared.
With each swing, he gained more control over his current body. The awkwardness began to fade, replaced by calculated precision. Slowly but surely, the unfamiliar form was becoming his.
Night arrived before he realized it.
Ethan adjusted his cowboy hat with a slight tug, stepping out from the ruins of the pharmacy into the quiet night.
He scanned the area.
Time to hunt again.
This time, he'd kill smarter, picking off monsters one by one, using the fact that they didn't recognize him as an enemy. His skeletal form had a natural advantage among the undead.
After wandering the ruins for several minutes, he finally spotted his first target of the night, a wounded lizard monster, its body already scarred and mangled. It wasn't clear what had injured it, but Ethan wasn't about to waste the opportunity.
He surged forward, driving his sword directly into the creature's mouth before it could react. Then, he leapt onto its back, gripping tight and pushing down with all the strength he had, trying to keep his balance while the beast thrashed violently beneath him.
The struggle lasted only a few minutes before…
A flurry of notifications lit up before his eyes.
[You have killed Carrion Lizard Revenant Lv. 11]
[You received 36 Exp]
[Exp: 53/55]
[Your skeletal frame has grown stronger.]
He yanked his sword free from the monster's skull with a wet crack, then quickly dashed away. No way he was going to get caught off guard again by a pack of those lizard freaks swarming in for the carcass.
He ducked behind a collapsed wall, watching the shadows warily for any signs of movement. Nothing followed. Good.
He glanced back at the floating notifications. Huh.
The experience he'd gained from the kill wasn't enough to push him to the next level.
A bit disappointing, but still, he wasn't upset. The monster had only been in the low teens. Even so, stacking kills like this could let him level up steadily without needing to risk a direct confrontation with higher-tier beasts.
So... was leveling really this easy?
Then why had that man, Leon, only reached level 25 after five full years?
Did leveling get drastically harder the further you climbed? Or maybe the early phases were meant to be fast, a way to build momentum before the grind truly began?
Something didn't quite add up yet. But he'd figure it out. One corpse at a time.
The hunt continued through the long stretch of night.
Ethan moved like a silent shadow, stalking the ruined streets and alleys, picking off monsters one by one.
By the time he brought down the seventh monster, the sky had already begun to shift. The deep black of night was softening into the faint gray of dawn.
That last kill... it marked the end of the hunt.
At least, for tonight.
[You have killed Carrion Lizard Revenant Lv. 12]
[You have leveled up]
[Level 6]
[Exp: 46/83]
[Your skeletal frame has grown stronger.]
As the final creature collapsed, Ethan caught his breath, or rather, stilled himself. But before he could retreat into the shadows, a new notification blinked into view before him.
[You have obtained Shroudgrip Gauntlets (Uncommon)]
Eh?