The fast-paced, high-level combat was no place for a low-level golem, so Bones didn’t bother summoning one. Even he struggled to navigate the open field. Everywhere he looked, there was potential experience to be gained, but he couldn’t afford to draw too much attention to himself by making enemies of both sides—at least not yet. Out of the thirty-one bombs he had made, he used seven during the night and two immediately after joining the battle. The tempered bodies of the second-tier silver rankers rendered the effects mild at best, but not all participants were at that level. Those most affected became Bones’ primary targets.
In the chaos of battle, seconds felt like minutes, and minutes stretched into what felt like an eternity. Fifteen minutes into the fight, Bones barely registered the ding of a level-up notification, followed by a slew of others. His second level gained in less than ten hours! The bonus combat experience from fighting humans, combined with the level difference, allowed him to accumulate absurd amounts of experience in a very short time. The gains were high, but so was the risk.
It was mentally exhausting to keep his senses sharp, constantly avoiding attacks and projectiles, and never stopping. He felt tired, drained. His mana would deplete one moment and surge back the next, while his health dangerously hovered below half. But it wasn’t just him; the others felt it too. The mental strain, and unlike Bones, physical exhaustion.
The soldiers were hardened veterans from the main camp, with plenty of battle experience, and it showed. Even as their bodies strained and their injuries made fighting more difficult, they pressed on with the same ferocity as when the battle began. The difference between them and the low-level soldiers from the South Camp, who spent their days guarding gates and patrolling city streets, was immense. Bones acknowledged that his own experience was lacking. Even in the few precious moments of respite between fights, he chastised himself for thinking he could rely solely on past experiences. But he was learning!
Bones unleashed a barrage of Bone Lances at the man in front of him. Three projectiles bounced off the plate armor, but four penetrated, killing the man. Bones’ mana, nearly depleted, quickly regenerated as he moved to his next target. A hastily cast Mana Blast deflected incoming arrows and staggered a charging soldier. His mana drained again, and the cycle repeated.
The battle was one of attrition. There was nothing to win, only the goal of culling the number of enemy soldiers. After two hours, both armies ceased their attacks. The Aphitonians withdrew back to the border, near their main camp, and Wezar’s army chose not to pursue, having lost many and lacking the manpower to continue. The soldiers set up a perimeter around the open field and began tending to their injured. Meanwhile, Bones looted the enemy bodies, taking what he needed before retreating back to his hiding place.
By the time he climbed the tree, Bones felt better—refreshed, even. He had dropped the cuirass on his way back, and his robes were tattered beyond repair. He’d been stabbed, slashed, crushed, and burned, and his health points had plummeted to below twenty percent. The hardened mud that had protected him during combat had crumbled and fallen off almost completely. As he sat in the tree, he watched over the next few hours as numerous cuts and cracks on his damaged bones gradually repaired themselves.
"I had the wrong impression of what health points were," he thought. "The books I read and the information I gathered all taught that health points represent the state of one’s body, and by all means, that is correct. Once health points reach zero, the person is either fatally wounded, on the brink of death, or already dead. It’s an accurate explanation—for the living, that is. But I’m an undead, without flesh, muscle tissue, or organs. It’s only my bones that take the damage from physical attacks."
"The amount of damage I received far exceeded the amount of health points I have. Health points represent the integrity of my bones, and VIT increases their durability! Now the question is, what happens when my health points reach zero? Death? That shouldn’t be! The undead die when they lose their source of power, which would be their core. My core! So technically, as long as my core doesn’t break and shatter, I can’t die, and my body should be able to reform… I already knew that, but I think I’m only now beginning to truly understand the implications."
"What if I could replace my damaged bones, a broken arm or leg, with a new one on the spot? Would my health points jump to full? That’s something to think about! If I understand correctly how the system operates, I could control to some extent which upgrades and skills I obtain. Having a skill that would allow me to affect, change, or replace my bones would give me a huge boost to defense. The problem is…"
Bones took a hard look at his arms, then the rest of his body. Even if he could replace bones, his Bone Aura and the recent Revenant transformation had changed his body. He was no longer just a skeleton; he was something else.
"Tch. That ship might have already sailed. I tried to shape my bones before, but this new body of mine is completely resistant to shaping. No, wait… that’s not entirely true."
Bones observed the imitation of muscles made from bones as they contracted when he clenched his fists. He had no control over it and did it subconsciously.
"That reminds me… Why didn’t I shape bones when I was making the golem construct? At that time, engraving completely occupied my mind. It didn’t even occur to me to try and improve the Lizardman skeleton in some way!"
"What’s done is done. Perhaps I could remake Skully, and I still have an Orc skeleton to experiment on! I’ve already done engravings on it, but I can always redo them. As for me… the only way I see myself making changes is while reforming my body, but that… that’s a risk I’m not willing to take at this point. If I gain a skill or perhaps an upgrade that’ll allow me to make the changes I want, great! If not, I’ll find a way. Speaking of upgrades and skills…"
Bones displayed the blue screen in front of him and was flooded with notifications. The most important one was a new level up in the Revenant race and Bonemancer Adept class, bringing him to level thirty-five and granting him a new skill. Bones read through the description of his new skill and exhaled.
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Skull Bomb - A Bonemancer Adept creates a fragile skull in humanoid shape and imbues it with mana that detonates on impact, releasing the compressed mana contained within in the radius around the location of the impact. The radius and the strength of the explosion increases with a level in skill and is affected by Mana Manipulation and INT attribute.
Mana cost: 50 mp
How surprising—I’m speechless! Not a bad skill, actually. The effectiveness will depend on the radius and the explosion's strength. I’ll give it a try as soon as I finish with these notifications.
Over the last few days, many of his skills had leveled up, and his Bone Spikes finally advanced a tier.
Congratulation, your skill Bone Spikes has reached level 20
Upgrades available: 2
Bone Spikes > Boneyard
Bone Spikes > Bone Steak
Two upgrades again? Bone Armor had two as well. Let’s see... Boneyard seems like a straightforward improvement of Bone Spikes from what I can tell. It increases the radius and doubles the number of spikes, but the spikes are smaller, likely dealing less damage. And the other upgrade is Bone Steak... Steak?
Bone Steak - Instead of using Bone Spikes as a crowd control ability, Bonemancer Adept raises a single stake, but much larger in volume and density to skewer his target. The ability has a small delay as it takes the ability time to charge before it is used. The user can queue the skill in advance, significantly reducing the delay time at twice the mana cost for each stake queued. The strength and durability of Bone Stake increases with level in skill.
Mana cost: 80 mp
I see. The second upgrade focuses on damage, while the first one further enhances crowd control. Bone Spikes is a skill I use frequently, and its ability to impair targets is irreplaceable. More damage would be nice, but I already have a single-target damage spell.
It was a straightforward decision, and Bones upgraded his Bone Spikes to Boneyard. He looked down from the tree and slightly raised his hand. From the ground below, twenty spikes, about thirty centimeters long, emerged in a ten-meter radius. The spikes looked sharp, though the difference in length was noticeable. It will be fine. I can control the radius of the skill to some extent and make the area smaller. The upgraded version also gains one spike per five levels in the skill.
Bones cast Boneyard again, this time reducing the skill’s radius, and saw he could shrink the area to a base radius of six meters. The number of spikes remained the same, and Bones grinned, seeing a densely packed, impairing trap. Also, since he could cast the skill from high up in the tree, the range seemed to have increased as well. After twelve seconds, the spikes began to dissipate, and the skill faded away. Bones turned his focus back to the notifications and saw that his Bone Nova still had a few levels to advance a tier. It wasn’t a skill he often used, as it didn’t have much impact. Maybe I could find a synergy between the skills and fuse them into something more useful later on?
The rest of his skills were gradually advancing toward the master tier, but it would take quite some time before he reached that level. General skills typically leveled up more slowly, with the Identify skill being the slowest. Only level fourteen, huh? It’s a shame I haven’t had much time to use Soul Magic these past few days. I’m close to leveling up and gaining a new skill at level fifteen. Definitely something to look forward to! I also have a general idea of what skill might be awaiting me. I guess that’s it for the notifications. The only thing left is…
Bones looked up and groaned. He had five free attribute points to distribute, and he had completely forgotten where he had planned to allocate them. I should really start making notes… Ah! Bones suddenly remembered the parting gift given to him by the dwarves. He took out the small booklet from his inventory and started flipping through the pages.
He hadn’t initially planned to take out the booklet until he was out of Wezar Kingdom and on his way to the Remore Kingdom, but this was as good a time as any to browse through the content. Bones searched for any information on attributes, and luckily, Darsumi had the foresight to include guidance on stat distribution.
Bones focused on the section about mages, which mentioned that their biggest weakness, compared to other system users, is their poor physique. While INT is the most important stat for a mage, the majority invest their free points in physical attributes like STR and END to compensate for that weakness. The most balanced stat distribution recommended adding free points to STR, END, and VIT.
At the end of the page, there was a warning stating that a user’s body can handle at most twice the amount of VIT in any other attribute like INT or STR. Exceeding this limit would strain the body, lowering the user’s performance. In extreme cases, where the user couldn’t handle the power coursing through their body, the mana pathways could be destroyed, leaving the body crippled and unable to gather or circulate mana.
Below the warning was a barely readable scribble, which turned out to be exactly what Bones was looking for.
Special note: Bones, I’ve no idea if the 2:1 INT to VIT ratio holds true for an Undead like yourself. You know your body best, and I’m sure whatever you put your points into, it’ll work out just fine! Considering you plan to use golems to fight by your side, you might want to take on a more supportive role and allocate a few points from INT to WIS or VIT.
P.S. You can’t go wrong with VIT. Best regards, Darsumi.
“I remember now. I did plan to invest my free points in VIT. Thanks for the reminder, Dar.”
Bones didn’t rush to allocate his points to VIT. The points weren’t going anywhere, and spending them now wouldn’t make much of an impact. After a moment of hesitation, he closed the character screen, leaving the five points available for later use. He then looked out at the clearing in the distance and saw soldiers busy securing the perimeter and setting up camp.
It seemed the army from the main camp was dividing into several smaller camps, arranged in a semi-oval shape from the North Camp to the new clearing camp, and back to the South Camp. A risky strategy, he thought, but in the event of an attack, the other two camps could quickly respond.
With nothing else pressing, Bones continued practicing his shaping skills until evening. Eventually, he decided to stretch his legs and explore the dangers deeper in the swamps.