After sitting and recovering some of his energy, the rush of adrenaline that had fueled his survival began to fade, leaving a different kind of thrill in its wake. It wasn’t the frantic, fear-driven desperation that had kept him alive, but something darker, more primal—a savage sense of triumph. He had won. The realization set in, surging through him like a storm.
Unable to contain himself any longer, his gaze shifted to the glowing words that were hovering in the periphery of his vision. The instant he focused, they drifted before him, demanding his attention.
─ Level 8 Giant Rat slain.
─ Reward: 1035 Experience Points
Kaden scanned the message, laying eyes on the creature’s name and just barely choking back a laugh—it was so fitting, utterly mundane, but precisely what he thought when he first saw it. But the urge to laugh vanished as his gaze fell on the number below.
"One thousand and thirty-five," he murmured, reading the number aloud as if hearing it would make it more real. More believable. He repeated it, still unwilling to trust his eyes. It was an absurdly large amount—far more than he had expected. He wasn't a numbers guy, but even he could tell something was off. It didn’t add up.
Puzzled, Kaden tried to make sense of it. Maybe the creature was special in some way, something beyond the system’s usual parameters. Yet, the notification contained no additional information, no explanation.
Thinking back, the memory of a previous encounter came to him, and he realized this wasn't the first time the experience rewards had been inconsistent.
‘Right... the spiders,’ he thought, his mind churning as pieces started falling into place. The reward now was excessively high, whereas the spiders had offered disappointingly low returns. It hinted at something more complex—perhaps different tiers or classifications of monsters, just like there were for proficiencies and classes. Something like elites, or even bosses?
Whatever the reason, Kaden wasn’t about to complain. The unexpected windfall had brought him closer to his next level, and for now, that was all that mattered.
His eyes drifted to the giant rat lying motionless in a pool of its own blood, small trickles of red still dripping rhythmically onto the floor. Its grotesque form a stark reminder of the battle. One only he had survived.
The shattered remains of his spike were spread all over the ground, nothing but useless, broken shards of bone. He felt an odd sense of loss.
“So much for that,” he groaned, wincing as the pain in his jaw flared from speaking. A stupid mistake when there was no one to hear. Part of him wished he had a mirror—he felt like an absolute wreck and was curious to see if he looked it too. He survived, barely, but the spike hadn’t even lasted one fight.
As he eyed the rat’s corpse, a new thought took root. He was tired of constantly missing limbs and figured that he could make a new spike out of the rat’s bones instead—an even bigger one. After all, there was plenty of material to work with.
His gaze settled on the sharp claws protruding from its paws. Hell, those would probably work too. They were about the length of a dagger, wickedly sharp, and, judging by the gouges in the walls, incredibly durable. Shorter than his spike, sure, but they were freely available and he had no other use for them. No sacrifice needed.
With a groan, Kaden forced his battered body to move. He crawled toward one of the paws and, with a grunt of effort, hauled himself onto it. Picking a claw at random, he gripped it firmly and bent it upward, straining and gasping until, with a satisfying snap, it broke free.
He weighed it in his bony hand, surprised by the heft of it. A strained grin formed, his few facial bones struggling to move into place. It was rather heavy for its size.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
A clear mark of its durability, he thought, feeling quite satisfied with his new weapon. He snapped off another claw—one for each hand. Better to have it prepared for when he got his missing hand back.
With that taken care of, he turned his attention back to the slain beast. Its massive size gave him pause. It was a foe he doubted even his insatiable hunger would be able to defeat. Not to mention… the potential effects devouring it would have on him.
Once he gave in to the hunger, it only became harder to control, never stopping. If he ate this much, wouldn’t it destroy him?
He hesitated, a twinge of fear holding him back. But the hunger gnawing at him, that relentless, insatiable need, would not be denied. He knew there was no stopping it, no fighting it. It was inevitable. He forced himself to lean down and take a bite.
“Bwah!” he spat, recoiling in disgust the moment his teeth pierced the flesh. It was vile, rancid—downright putrid. The taste was similar to what he imagined sewage slam to be like, maybe even worse. Quite unappetizing, to say the least.
If he still had a stomach, he was certain he’d be retching by now. A small upside, he supposed. Like some cruel joke, the hunger slithered into his mind, urging him to continue.
He didn’t want it, but it didn’t matter. That other part of him—the madness ruled by the incessant hunger—demanded it, and it didn’t care for his opinion. No, not one bit.
Before he realized it, he was no longer in control. The madness took over, and he became a mere passenger in his own body. Powerless, he watched as his jaw clamped down again, the foul taste overwhelming every sense.
Like a starving beast unleashed, his skeletal form gorged on the giant rat, tearing through fur, flesh, and bone with an insatiable frenzy. It had no regard for Kaden’s suffering, devouring without pause or hesitation. As if consumed by a black hole, the fur-covered remains disappeared without a trace, the essence of the bones drawn into a strange, white light within him.
His mind was split in two—half horrified by the taste, the other half desperate to consume more, the line between them blurring with every bite. It was a grotesque spectacle, this skeletal figure devouring the massive creature. From an outsider’s perspective, it would have seemed impossible. The skeleton, dwarfed by the rat’s body, gorging on large chunks of meat and bone, the remains vanishing into nothingness.
Kaden groaned as his bones began to shift and crack, the cacophony of sounds echoing through the cavern, drowning out the chime that signaled his advancement.
─ Advancement Criteria Met!
─ Brittle Skeleton advancement to Solid Skeleton
─ Reward: +2 To All Stats
He didn’t need to hear it—he felt the change. With a sudden, forceful shift, his body jerked back and began to convulse, bones creaking and realigning with excruciating force. A scream, hollow and terrifying, escaped him as his missing arm shot out from his shoulder faster than a bullet, the recoil so powerful it sent tremors through his body.
And it didn’t stop there. Leaving him no chance to recover, his leg twisted, spinning like an unwinding rubber band before snapping back into place with a sickening crack.
Every part of him was in motion. Bones thickened, lengthened. They pushed against one another, fracturing under the immense strain.
Kaden felt himself growing taller, his entire form reshaping as his skeletal body restructured itself. The pain was unbearable—a constant cycle of bones breaking, dislodging, realigning, over and over, with no end in sight. Even his teeth threatened to break as he bit down hard enough to shatter them.
Until finally, with one last violent twitch, every fracture repaired itself at once, every crack overlaying in a resounding burst.
“Ugh,” he groaned, laying completely still, too afraid to move, scared the pain might return. Nearly every inch of his body felt foreign, like it had been entirely replaced.
He didn’t know how or when, but somehow, along the way, he had come back in control. For once, the hunger was silent. The sudden quiet almost making him uneasy. But how long would it last? He could tell it wasn’t gone, no it was still there, dormant. Hiding away in the back of his mind, waiting and resting, almost as if it was… satisfied. For now.
If that was the case, he just had to enjoy it while he could. He cautiously clenched his fist, feeling it close. No pain. It moved without issue.
A faint white light caught his attention, drawing his gaze to his chest. The strange source of light that he had come to think of as his new heart was glowing brighter than ever, pulsing in rhythm with his newfound strength.
At least that answered a longstanding question—the light grew in sync with his skeleton race advancements.
Shaking off the remnants of pain, Kaden sat upright, flexing his newly regenerated limbs. There was still discomfort, a lingering ache in his new body that rose with every movement, but there was also something else. An addictive rush he had come to crave—a feeling of power. Pure, intoxicating power.