The Skeleton Soldier Failed to Defend the Dungeon

Chapter 80: You’ll Be Able to Do Something Fun (6)

It might seem absurd for a skeleton to be startled by a human. However, the figure before me was neither entirely human nor completely skeletal, and her appearance alone was enough to elicit both awe and dread.

So this... is what she is?

The woman who emerged from the darkness was breathtakingly beautiful, her features crafted with an almost cruel precision that seemed to transcend the human realm. Her proportions followed the golden ratio with unerring accuracy. She was both breathtaking and intimidating, to a degree that bordered on terrifying.

However, she was half-human, half-skeletal—a hybrid of bone and flesh. Even her hair reflected this strange duality, with curling, bone-like strands cascading elegantly behind her ears to frame her forehead.

Around her mouth, three fine, deep lines extended from her lips to her jaw and down her neck. Her half-red, half-pale white lips blended seamlessly between flesh and bone. As she opened her mouth, the lines parted, revealing the pristine white bone deep inside.

”Hmmm...” the woman murmured.

Creak.

She raised her hands—one human, the other a bluish, with an ethereal glow radiating from her skeletal fingers. Both hands rested on my shoulders, tapping lightly.

Ding!

[You’ve come into contact with a powerful necromancer!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Conditions not met. Scenario activation denied.]

What?

I checked my status window. Sure enough, my level had increased by two. I had been slowly leveling up from battling the skeletons in the cave and reached Lv. 8. Now, I instantly had reached Lv. 10.

Just from tapping my shoulders?

It was absurd. The message about a scenario also nagged at me.

[Conditions unmet... scenario activation... is denied...]

I stared blankly at the translucent blue status window and then back at the woman before me. She seemed completely unaware of the floating interface that had just altered my reality.

She exclaimed, ”I’m surprised! Am I really that famous?”

Was I right?

”You’re quite the curious little thing. How did you even know my name?”

I hesitated, but not for long.

Gith-Za-Rai.

She was the legendary necromancer I had heard about from Lady Succubus, the one Rubia and I had planned to seek out in the hope that she could provide insight into the strange cycles of death and rebirth I was experiencing. I believed honesty would be the best approach.

Without any embellishments, I told her about myself. ”I’ve died eight times so far. In my first life, I died twenty years from now. I lived as a Skeleton Soldier for two decades before I returned to the beginning. I only learned of your name long after that.”

Truth, however, was rarely kind.

Her expression turned into shock. ”Huh?”

I explained, ”Or should I say, long ago? I’m trapped in time.”

”Goodness...”

Her eyes—one flesh, one a ghostly socket—widened. The skeletal half of her face, strangely skin-like in its texture, didn’t appear peeled or stripped but simply coexisted alongside her human features.

Her reaction was genuine. She looked at me as though I were a priceless treasure or perhaps a long-lost child reunited after decades of separation. Her bone-white brow arched above her large, trembling eye.

She swallowed hard, the delicate motion of her throat betraying her excitement. ”Good heavens... a mad skeleton!”

Ding!

[Gith-Za-Rai’s Affection has increased by 15!]

[Current Affection: 35.]

I was dumbfounded.

Why is her Affection increasing? And why is it already at 35?

I couldn’t answer the first question, but the answer to the second question became clear as I examined my status. One of my perks that I had long dismissed as useless was responsible for Gith-Za-Rai’s Affection level.

[Perk: Necromancer’s Lover (Active)

— Gain a base Affection of 20 with all necromancers.

— Affection increases by an additional 10 points when entering a servitude relationship with a necromancer.

— Your presence inspires necromancers, accelerating their necromancy proficiency by 5%.

— This is a heroic-grade perk. It will remain active until another heroic-grade perk is chosen.]

I had largely ignored this perk, as it seemed irrelevant to most of my experiences. Now, I realized it clearly had played a role in everything—from being abducted to this inexplicably high level of attention. Her excessive interest in me, which had felt unfounded, now made sense.

Swoosh.

Gith-Za-Rai reached out, her eyes sparkling with excitement. Her warm, human hand grabbed my wrist.

”What are you doing?” I asked.

Her warm hand held my wrist firmly while her cold skeletal hand rested on her abdomen.

The legendary necromancer laughed, her body shaking with amusement. ”Ahahahahaha... This gentleman here says that this is his ninth life!”

Clatter! Clatter!

Still gripping my wrist, she twirled me around joyfully as if we were dancing. Unable to resist, I was dragged along like a puppet in her grasp.

”I crossed the sea and struggled through waves to get here! ♪”

Clatter! Clatter!

She held my neck with one hand and my wrist with the other, stepping energetically as she improvised a song.

”The waves crashed against the ship! It felt like it would break apart at any moment! But it was all worth it! ♪”

Clatter! Clatter!

”I’m a necromancer! I wake the quiet dead and make them noisy! I came here looking for dragon bones! ♪”

Dragon bones?

My thoughts lingered on her words as she jerked my wrist around. There were no dragons in this world, so there would certainly be no dragon bones. However, the necromancer seemed utterly unbothered by my doubts, continuing her song and dance.

”Oh well! I couldn’t find anything close! But it’s fine because I found this instead! A skeleton who’s gone mad even after death! It’s a first! Today is a day for celebration!”

I felt my mind cracking under the strain.

Is this what it means to feel wounded?

My wrist, which shouldn’t even register pain, felt sore.

I desperately demanded, ”Let me go.”

Gith-Za-Rai stopped dancing, though she didn’t release my wrist. ”Ahahaha... hahaha...”

She removed her other hand from her waist and chuckled again. ”Even your whining is adorable. Where did you come from? Who made you, really? Ahahahah...”

I wanted to snap her out of it or simply escape. Her mockery was unbearable, her eccentricity stifling.

Should I issue a warning?

”I have something to say.”

Her gaze sharpened slightly. ”Speak.”

”Whether you believe me or not, I’m a regressor. And you’re going to die soon.”

Her expression darkened, her amusement fading. ”What?”

I spat words at her recklessly. ”You don’t have much time left, Gith-Za-Rai. I know you perform bone-grafting procedures. The Wizards of Azure see it as a threat and will kill you for it.”

Gith-Za-Rai blinked rapidly, and she let go of me. She clapped her hands, perhaps to conceal their trembling. Her unease was clear.

”Where did you hear that?” she demanded. ”I’ve never told anyone about that.”

She didn’t seem to believe me.

We both fell silent for a moment.

Finally, she asked, ”Is there some sort of clairvoyance embedded in your skull? I might have to take a look.”

Of course, there wasn’t. But before I could object, she reached for my skull. Her hand was different this time. It was covered in bone, like a carapace, as she extended it toward me.

Thud.

Her hand touched my skull. Every movement ceased. My vision blurred, though my consciousness remained intact. I couldn’t surrender to oblivion, even if I wanted to.

Screech.

From the moment I met her, I’d been stripped of control.

Screech.

Is she peeling my skull?

The top of my head felt bare. The necromancer scraped something off my skull and placed it on her own. There’s nothing on my head but bone, so it must be that—she had scraped off some of my skull.

Screech...

She experimented, attaching pieces of my skull to her skeleton minions. They clattered and moved under her gaze as she carefully observed them. Through my blurred vision, I could see her expression of dissatisfaction grow with each failed attempt.

Screech, screech, screech...

How much time has passed?

The necromancer’s face soured further. ”What’s going on? Why do you only have such mundane skills? Where’s the madness, the curses?”

I couldn’t move a single finger. My vision clouded with fog. All I could do was stare at her.

Madness and curses? Is that what she was expecting?

Apparently, there was nothing remarkable about me to her. Of course, there wasn’t. I wasn’t imbued with madness or curses. All I had were fear and anxiety—weak, common emotions that didn’t qualify as madness.

She’s looking for madness.

I wanted to retort that she seemed far more insane than I was, but even if I had the desire, my jaw refused to move.

Gith-Za-Rai asked, ”What’s wrong with you? Huh?”

She pressed me, but I had nothing to say.

Did she scrape off too much of my skull?

My consciousness dimmed further. Darkness crept in, narrowing my vision to a single point.

Is this the end?

The thought was suffocating. In this life, I’d achieved absolutely nothing. I’d been reborn countless times, but I always died in the face of a true opponent. My enemies always trampled me like a helpless toy before my demise.

The necromancer sighed, frustrated. ”Why... why is there no reaction?”

If only you had believed me from the start.

Before I could voice that thought, my consciousness slipped away.

Thud.

***

Boom! Crash!

Whoosh...

I opened my eyes and listened to the surrounding sounds...

A graveyard?

My vision hadn’t returned yet.

”Rubia!” I cried into the empty air.

I was back in the graveyard.

Wasn’t this supposed to be forever out of reach?

For so long, I had returned to that cave over and over.

Who knows when—or if—I’d ever return to the graveyard? This time, could I protect her? How much could I help?

Rubia... Rubia... Rubia...

The name echoed in my head.

A hallucination?

The sound of rain, the rumble of thunder, and the crack of lightning were gone. Even the wind was silent. I groped my surroundings to move around. There was nothing to touch. It felt like I was suspended in an empty void.

A cave?

Have I returned to Rena instead?

I hope I didn’t wake her from her sleep.

However, it wasn’t either of those.

”Phew. Finally, you’re awake.”

Gith-Za-Rai stood before me, watching me. ”Sorry about scraping your skull. Oh, but I only took part of your parietal bone.”

Didn’t I die?

”If I’d scraped it all, you’d have died. Instead, I replaced what I took with my own. How’s that feel? Not too bad, right?”

Tap, tap.

She knocked on her bony hair. Its tips were noticeably shorter than before, where parts had been taken.

”Did you dream of Rubia?”

”...”

I turned my head away, avoiding her gaze.

Gith-Za-Rai smirked. Even her smirk adhered to the golden ratio, unnervingly perfect. Her beauty was so mathematically precise that it felt more like an abstract sculpture than a living thing.

”Bones are good. They grow well. I even planted some of my essence in yours. Honestly, I don’t know why I’m being so generous. I could’ve just discarded you.”

Her words were horrifying, but she delivered them with complete nonchalance.

Then, she added, ”You’ll be able to do something fun soon.”