Standing next to a deep pit, Solus looked inside. Skeleton bones could be seen, sticking out of the ground where he had placed them. It had taken days to find and destroy the ten skeletons he had needed to get this many bones. But, he had gained something more out of it too. Apparently, he could still gain a slight increase in his manafield by destroying them, as it had increased to 83 by the time he was done. This of course meant, he would soon evolve and he wasn't ready for that yet. First, he would need to increase his bone density so he would get more evolutionary choices.

He waited until it was dark and then headed towards the building next to the giant trail of destruction, it was the nest of the worms. Looking inside, he had no idea if the worms had moved. But he didn't think they had. Standing outside the house this time, he picked up two stones. He would aim for the one closest to the entrance so he the worms wouldn't crash into each other. He had no idea what would happen if a charging worm hit another one, but it probably wouldn't be good. Standing still for a moment, preparing for what was to come, for a moment he felt fear.

“What an interesting emotion.” He thought.

Although it didn't feel as pleasant as many others, it did make him more clear-minded, which was helpful in many ways.

Throwing the stone at the worm he got ready to run.

‘Ploink’

The stone hit the worm right on its head, but nothing happened again which pleased Solus greatly. If the worms were predictable it would make this a lot easier. The second stone flew through the air, and the worm, almost in identical fashion as the first, caught it and crunched it into small pieces. It looked at Solus and charged. Turning and rushing towards the town, Solus dodged stones and rubble as fast as he could. After a few minutes, he heard the sounds of the worm going in another direction. He was that much faster? Or had the first time been similar? He couldn't recall, but he turned around and headed towards where the worm was smashing into buildings. After a few seconds, he saw it. The worm hadn't noticed him yet. Picking up another stone he threw it at the worm, which seemed almost startled when the stone hit it on its tail. Turning around it started chasing Solus again, who had slowed down enough for the worm to be able to track him.

Dashing through the street he ran up a slight slope. At the top, he leaped over an almost perfect circular pit. He turned around and saw the worm about one hundred meters behind him. Now was the moment of truth. Would the worm see the hole or not. He himself could barely see it. It was in the shadow of one of the few buildings standing higher than two floors. It was also night. Raising a stone in his hand, he glanced over his shoulder. He had planned for everything, if needed he would jump across the railing. There was a small outcrop he could hang onto. With some luck, the worm would fall to its doom if the trap didn't work. The worm, though, had gotten way to much credit. Rushing like mad, it reached the pit without even noticing it, dropping down and crashing into the opposite wall carried by its own momentum. Then it started sliding down, desperately trying to hold on to something with its maw. But, it only got a maw full of stones and dust, before it fell out of view. A second later a massive bang could be heard and a high pitched scream followed. Moving towards the pit, Solus looked over the edge. The worm had been very unlucky. Three of the broken skeleton bones had pierced it completely. Although it wasn't dead yet, it wouldn't last much longer. Sitting down on the edge, Solus looked at the worm. He was patient, one of the greatest advantages of being a skeleton.

When daybreak came, the worm had not moved for a long time. Solus had prepared one makeshift skeleton bone spear for himself. Standing up he placed the spear between his ribs. Then he fell forward, pressing his hands against the opposite side of the pit. Pushing with his hands and feet to slow the draw of gravity, he slid downwards towards the worm. Around two meters from his target, he raised his knees and fell down on the worm feet first. He ripped the leg bone out of his ribs and hit the side of the worm. It didn't shiver or give any other semblance of movement. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, Solus started ramming the leg bone in the side of the worm. It was tougher than the bottom, but not by much. Repeating his previous action he almost hollowed out the entire worm.

When he was almost done, he saw a lonely ray of light that had managed to reach down into the pit, reflect on something. Stopping his assault, he reached in and ripped out the crystalized energy sphere. He felt jubilant for a moment. Looking at the sphere in his hand, he concentrated his manafield. It felt like he was trying to move his hand while it wasn't connected to his arm. He could still move it, but it took immense effort. After a few minutes, his manafield shimmered into existence, creating a blue light that illuminated the entire pit. He tried focussing it on the sphere, but it wasn't even needed.

Right after the manafield appeared, it started concentrating around his hand. Looking like a miniature blue sun had entered the sphere, he could feel the weight of it decreasing, while a stream of heat entered his bones. He felt himself become heavier as his feet pressed firmer onto the ground. Immediately, he heard a string of dinging sounds from his status. It took only a few minutes for the entire sphere to disappear. Raising his hands Solus punched the wall. Cracking sounds could be heard, but not from his bones this time. Lines moved away from the spot he had hammered the wall, showing a small crater. He felt much stronger than before. Standing next to the wall, Solus knew it was time to leave. He used the handholds and footholds he had made by hacking at the wall with more skeleton bones, many of which had broken during the process. It had been a must, though, because he didn't want to stay in this pit forever.

It took him a few tries to climb out, but eventually, he stood tall in the sunlight again. Looking down in the pit, he knew he would need more traps if he wanted to keep hunting worms. He could reuse some of the skeleton bones, but not the pit. The worm was too heavy and large to get out and any other worm falling in would just fell on the first one.

Turning around, he started sprinting towards his hideout, taking only half the time he had previously needed. Climbing inside was a breeze as well. Sitting down on his stone plate, he summoned his status and saw a line at the top.

“Bone density increased by 31 - value now being displayed”

Seeing his current bone density, and the increase it had gained, a new emotion flittered through his mind for a brief moment...hunger. He wanted more of those crystalized energy spheres so he could increase his bone density. He was pretty sure that if he got it to one hundred before his evolution, it would benefit him greatly, and If every sphere would increase it by thirty he would only need to trap two more worms!

Rushing around town, he managed to find a few more suitable locations for traps. Making them ready took longer than he wanted, but it was worth it.

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After two days Solus was running through the destroyed streets, a hungry worm hot on his heels. Remembering the ease of the first time, he was already wondering how much the next sphere would increase his bone density. He had been a bit too optimistic though, because at the moment he arrived at the pit and leaped over it, something unexpected happened.

Turning around he saw the worm pass by the pit, stretching its long neck to take a bite out of Solus. Dropping to the right Solus managed to dodge the worm, which had too much momentum and passed by him, sliding to a halt. Solus ran towards the pit again and jumped across. This time the worm was less lucky and it dropped inside. A loud crash told of its arrival at the bottom of the pit, but no scream was heard. Looking down, Solus saw the worm spiked by two of the skeleton bones. It was still moving though, so apparently, it didn't die. He waited an entire night, but the worm kept struggling. When morning arrived he stood, looking down into the pit. What should he do? Going down seemed like a terrible idea, but he couldn't really leave it there like that. Or could he... After thinking about it for a while Solus decided to accept the fact for what it was. He couldn't get lucky every time. Without even looking at the worm again, he turned and headed back towards the worm-infested building. He would have to wait until night had fallen to try again.

Eventually, it took him almost four days to trap two more worms. The last one had even managed to take a bite out him before it fell.

Looking down at his unlucky arm he wondered if it was cursed. His ulna, first broken and then misused as a spear, had disappeared into the pit, firmly held in the maw of the third worm. Looking over the edge at the hateful worm, he wondered if he would be able to find it again. Dropping down with his spear in front of him he managed to pierce it through the worm which had fallen with the side facing up. Ravaging the soft side again, he managed to locate his fractured bone, broken into three parts. He pieced it back together best he could, but he knew it wouldn't hold up to any intense use. Glancing down at the remains of the worm, he saw the last of the crystalized energy spheres he would need. The sockets of his skull glowed a very faint blue as he bends to pick it up. He turned around and sat down on the carapace of the worm, looking at the sphere in his hand.

“Now let's see what happens...” he thought.

His manafield emerged and started absorbing the crystalized energy in the sphere, turning his hand into a blue sun again. The energy was changed somehow, by his manafield, and then fed into his bones. He started feeling his weight increase, slow at first but then when the sphere was almost gone he felt a sudden surge and his weight increased with a jump. Then his manafield retreated, leaving behind a very dull gray sphere in his hand.

The sphere wasn't completely gone, apparently, he hadn’t been able to absorb all the energy inside of it. Now for the moment of truth, he thought as he called his status.

Race

skeleton

Name

Os Solus

Type

elite

Class

-

Age

unknown

Sex

male/-ERROR

Strength

8/8

Constitution

5/6

Dexterity

4/6

Endurance

*

Intelligence

5/6

Wisdom

1/4

Charisma

ERROR

Manafield

89/100

Bone density

100/100

Inscriptions

2/7

Mana generation

3

All his stats where almost at the limit of his current evolution! Only dexterity and wisdom were lagging behind. He had some ideas about how he could increase his dexterity and would deal with it soon. Wisdom would be more difficult, and he had no idea how to go about increasing it and decided he would leave it for now. He had a feeling that his intelligence would probably increase by itself soon. His constitution was now only limited by his manafield, and that would solve itself. He wanted as many choices as he could get for his first evolution.

Looking down at the remains he was sitting on, he dismissed his status. Having an idea, he hopped off the worm and grabbed the edge of one of the plates. Using his newfound strength he ripped a plate of the worm carapace with surprising ease. It felt light in his hand, but when he tried breaking it he only managed to bend it a little bit. He ripped off a few more and wondered if he could use them to protect himself like the worms were doing. Perhaps he could graft them on his bones somehow? Looking up, out of the pit, he started throwing the plates up. The first one landed so far he could barely hear it when it landed. He would have to learn to control his new strength. When he had almost dissected the entire worm he climbed out of the pit and looked at the plates scattered around. It would take a few times to bring all of them back to his place.

In the end, it took almost till morning, but he managed to bring them all to his broken down house. Sitting back down on the stone he glanced at the plates and picked one up. He put it next to his still mending arm bone. It didn’t do anything, but that was what he had expected. Focusing on his manafield he tried surrounding the plate with it. After a few moments, the manafield shimmered into existence, brightening the dark room with a blue glow. Focusing, he made it surround the plate. Waiting a bit nothing seemed to happen. He released his control of the manafield and it faded away again. Disappointment flittered to through his mind for a second and he made a tossing motion to throw the plate back towards the pile again. But it wouldn't budge, the plate was stuck to his arm bones. Examining the new addition to his frame he didn't see anything actually holding it. It seemed like how his own bones were stuck together, most likely done by his manafield somehow. Picking up another plate he repeated the trick on his other arm, and it worked. Raising his arms and waving them a bit he noticed that, although the plates were not that heavy, he felt it and it would need some getting used to. After he outfitted a few more of the plates across his legs he got a “ding” from his status.

Curiously he opened the window and noticed a new line.

“Multiple engravings added, two more engraving slots free”

Startled he wondered what else he could engrave on himself, and if it had been a good thing to engrave the plates. Looking down at the ones on his legs, he wondered if he could remove them again. Concentrating on one of them, he repeated the same trick, but this time he tried to remove the plate. It gave with ease, falling on the ground next to his leg.

“This will make things easier!” he thought to himself, feeling a happy emotion for a moment.

Now he would only need to wait as his manafield increased. Although it wasn't very fast, not even one point each day, it would leave him some time to increase his dexterity.

Picking up some more plates he wondered where he should place them to have the best effect.