Kaden crouched in a small alcove, his skeletal form perfectly still as he waited with bated breath while the footsteps drew closer. This was the chance he had been waiting for, and he needed to seize it.

Since his death at the hands of the spider swarm, several days had already passed. Days in which he accomplished very little other than dying repeatedly.

First, he ran into a colossal snake which promptly decided to swallow him whole before he could utter so much as a single word in protest. That left him stranded in its stomach for several hours while it slowly digested him, his bones dissolving from the putrid yellow acid.

In the following life, he met a band of human adventurers and had the misfortune of freezing to death after their mage girl encased him in a block of thick ice.

It might even have happened twice… with the same girl… not that he was keeping count, of course. Unlucky enough to run into them twice, and clueless as to how he managed it, one thing was certain. She had officially made it onto his list of sworn enemies, somewhere near the top.

But of course that wasn’t all. As if the world thought he needed a little more pain, a group of starving wolves stalked him before ripping his skeleton apart. On the bright side, they clearly found the bones thrilling and tasty. Kaden could honestly say that they enjoyed them much more than he did. They were even kind enough to leave him alive for a few days as a cripple—during which he watched them lay and relax without a care, licking and chewing on his bones. Thankfully, once those ran out, they quickly returned to their snarling aggressive selves, shredding what remained of him into pieces.

There were a few others, but… he never wanted to recall those.

Yet, those lives he lived weren’t a waste. During the time he spent undergoing entirely new experiences, he learned a few things about the cavern and the world. The first of which being that the cavern was enormous. Having traveled as far and wide as he could, he explored lots of different areas, but still had yet to encounter a place he had been before. Or at least as far as he remembered, locations weren’t always so memorable when you were being ripped into pieces.

He also confirmed firsthand that there were a vast number of adventurers coming and going. For the most part, he avoided them as best he could, having become quite familiar with the blood thirsty behavior of the humans in this world.

But he needed to learn about the world, and so he spent a little time observing them for as far away as he could, during which he realized that most of them carried bedrolls and various supplies on their backs. To him, this indicated that the surface was probably a distant trek, possibly taking days.

However, it wasn’t humans that he was lying in wait for in this moment. He was nowhere near daring enough for something like that. Instead, his target was goblins, and this time around, he was well prepared.

Having grown weary of cycling through lives, dying with no way of fighting back, he spent hours in each of his lives planning and trying new methods. So far, as the number of deaths clearly showed, all of them had failed miserably.

He knew no fighting techniques and wasn’t strong enough to overpower the monsters or humans he met. Not to mention, nearly all of them traveled in groups.

Having thought that his teeth would be a fantastic weapon, he had used it in an ambush and lunged at his enemies, attempting to snap them to pieces.

It was not completely useless, but it was far from great either. With no reach beyond his skull, he needed to get way too close to his foes. This left him very susceptible to attacks, the close distance narrowing his field of vision and leaving him with massive blind spots. And when the attacks came, he could not react in time and dodge.

He tried a few other things, but they showed themselves to be just as useless. If he had a weapon, it would have been easy, but those were scarce and hard to come by down here. One thing he tried was following the humans and seeing what they left behind, hoping to scrounge up some stray materials he could hack together into a makeshift weapon, or maybe a few spare bones he could eat. But that was sort of how he ended up freezing to death twice. He wasn’t very good at sneaking.

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Still, this time, he was very well prepared. This time, his plan was going to work. It had to.

His only remaining hand gripped tight around the bone spike, showing his resolve. Knowing that a weapon was key, he had ripped off his own arm and used his monstrously sharp teeth to fashion it into a sharp spike. A genius plan if you asked him.

Now, all he had to do was wait for the goblins to get closer, and then drive it into one of their tiny little stupid hearts, hopefully killing it instantly.

It didn’t matter if he died. As long as he got one of the two goblins, the plan would be an immense success. He wasn’t quite sure when it first started, but over time he began relying on the reincarnation that always followed his deaths, expecting it and using it to try risky ideas in the hope of something working out.

While he relived his memories, the goblins had gotten close, and he could hear them arguing. Their shrill voices grumbled back and forth, light thuds audible as they shoved each other.

“Give me now! Me want it! I need it!” The first goblin grunted in a high-pitched grating voice, its face long and ugly. The creature had a huge, pointy nose, with ears that hung low, almost reaching down to its neck.

“No! It mine! Me found it! My treasure!” the other goblin was small and chubby, its fat stomach wobbled as it moved, its fingers clutched tight to a glinting object.

The other one was not having any of it and shoved the chubby goblin against the wall, quickly prying its fingers loose, grabbing the object, and sprinting off on its stubby legs.

“Now mine!” it cried in victory and Kaden winced as its loud voice pierced his ears.

Seeing his opportunity, Kaden moved. He dived out of the alcove and summoned all the strength he had, his bones creaking as he clenched the spike as hard as he could. The goblin’s eyes grew wide as the spike approached, and before it could react, Kaden drove the spike right into the goblin’s chest, tackling it to the ground.

The goblin squirmed underneath him as it tried to free itself and let out a horrible cry. Kaden pinned it to the ground with his knees, and as it desperately pushed with its arms to push him off, he lifted the spike back out.

A brutal gush of murky red blood shot out from the gaping wound in the goblin’s chest. Underneath him, the goblin convulsed violently, its body shuddering in the final throes of life.

Its eyes looked up at him with fear, its mouth opening in a gurgle of noise that Kaden didn’t even hear. It tried to raise its arms to cover the wound, but was too weak and unable.

Kaden drove the spike back down again and heard flesh being pierced as the spike sank in deep with little resistance. Blood began spilling out and flowing down in small trails, dripping on the ground.

“Die die die!” Kaden screamed as he twisted the spike within its chest, the goblin slowly weakening in its struggles before it grew still, head hanging limp and body entirely slack.

Seeing the goblin no longer moving, Kaden scrambled back and sat up. He couldn’t help but grin, his bony teeth clanking against one another.

─ Level 5 Goblin slain.

─ Reward: 279 Experience Points

He was happy with the results and didn’t feel even a hint of guilt over killing a mere goblin. But a part of him couldn’t help but think it was a shame the other one had gone and ran off. If he could have killed both of them, it would definitely have been enough to level up.

With a shake of his head, he dismissed the thought. He was getting greedy and arrogant here, trying to swallow more than he could chew. If he had to fight both of them at once, it was extremely unlikely he could win. Managing to take down a single one was already a success and was exactly what he hoped for. Just that one kill was more progress than he had made in the past few days.

Surprising him, even after waiting, there was no quest to devour its bone essence. He had expected one to come and felt disappointment over not getting an extra stat point or any bonus experience.

Still, he was planning to do it regardless. Quest or not. Days had passed since he last ate anything at all and he was longing for it. The hunger was always present in the back of his mind, nagging him, encouraging him.

It took all he had to hold himself back as he began searching the goblin’s body, wanting to strip it of valuables before he ate so he didn’t accidentally destroy something. The clothes were pretty useless to him, and beyond that, the goblin had little more than a couple of odd trinkets. He found a crude rock knife tucked into its waistband, and used it to cut off a strip of the goblin’s clothes, tying it around his own waist and using it to secure the knife in place.

With the practical stuff out of the way, he let the fervent hunger run free and began devouring the goblin. The familiar feeling of bones crushing between his teeth filled him with a rush. Oh, how he had missed it.

His left shoulder itched as a tiny bone spur peeked out, slowly growing bigger as the white light shone in sync with audible cracks.