Most individuals who aspire to be adventurers usually have a strong innate disposition to one of the three abilities—about, say, half of them were that way. Someone like me, who was neither here nor there, was very much a rare oddity. In fact, people like me would have probably just chosen a normal, non-combative job, and would live their entire lives out that way in relative peace. I, too, should have done that; at least, that’s what I would say in hindsight.
One thing prevented me from doing as I should have, though: the fact that I had a great dream.
From a young age, I had chased it, and have continued to do so—to become a Mithril-class adventurer. There was no way I could give up after all this time.
But as a result of my great dream, I appeared to have ended up as a skeleton of sorts. While nothing much could be said about that right now, I still didn’t feel like I should give up. Regardless of my current appearance, I was apparently not completely dead. While I had no idea why I was still alive to begin with, I felt like I was on the luckier end of things, given that my body still moved.
It is said that humans will find a way as long as they have life. They are able to achieve great feats precisely because they live. It was with that thought in mind that I continued to live on.
Come to think of it, being a skeleton wasn’t entirely a bad thing. Although it was a huge problem in and of itself, in addition to not knowing if I was truly alive, I could move, and thus was not entirely helpless. There was nothing inherently wrong with thinking that I could continue to work hard from now on, even in my current form.
Just to be sure, I gave the abilities I had when I was “alive” some short test runs. Mana, spirit, and divinity all seemed functional, having apparently followed me into the afterlife. I felt like I had more than enough to go on with these advantages. At the very least, I could say that I had quite the leg up from a typical skeleton monster of this level, who definitely would not have any of said abilities. I could probably fight with this—it was more than enough.
It’s also worth noting that while my aspirations to evolve into a ghoul sounded alarming, I had no intentions of eating human flesh. I was doing so just to obtain a more human form. Either way, I did not recall ghouls requiring human flesh for sustenance. If I were compelled to do so by instinct or some other reasons, I would cross that bridge when I came to it.
Perhaps I would do it in secret, or at least find some way to sate my hunger; for now though, that was not worth thinking about. More importantly, it was vital to verify the extent of my strength in combat and to continue my task of evolving into a ghoul.
To achieve that, I had to defeat the denizens—more accurately, monsters—of the dungeon I was currently in. Justifying my actions in doing so was simple: Existential Evolution was only triggered by monsters gaining more experience and strength with time—at least, that was how the typical explanation on the matter went.
The best textbook example of this would, ironically, be a dragon. Dragons, born as juveniles and eventually maturing over the years into an Ancient dragon, were a good illustration. However, dragons were monsters with a high amount of latent ability and power in the first place. Compared to dragons, skeletons simply remained skeletons, regardless of how much time had passed.
Undead monsters were very much dead after all. Even if they were to spend thousands of years standing in place, they would simply just exist. Accounts of undead monsters becoming stronger simply by standing in place were virtually unheard of. The logic behind this was simple: bones were bones. A pile of dead bones did not grow.
I once again found myself at a loss, but not for long. I had to gain experience; I had to fight.
It was said that monsters absorb the life force of other monsters should they fall in combat. This definitely held true, both for humans and monsters, with the core difference of humans remaining human regardless of how much strength they absorbed from fallen monsters. While there were many strong, seasoned fighters and adventurers, they were still human on the inside.
Monsters, however, differed from humans in this aspect—after obtaining a certain amount of experience and absorbed strength, the typical monster evolves into a stronger form via the phenomenon of Existential Evolution. Based on that, it would seem like my path had already been laid out for me.
Of course, the problem of whether or not I was really a monster to begin with still remained; even so, I would be able to find out easily via trial by combat. I viewed it as a prerequisite that had to be carried out before evolution.
As such, my first task was to locate and defeat a nearby monster.
As for monsters that even a simple skeleton could defeat... Slimes, goblins, and other skeletons came to mind. Thankfully, they could all be found within this very dungeon. Although I was currently in an unexplored section of the Water Moon Dungeon, I did recall seeing a number of monsters on the way here.
There were multiple theories as to why monsters existed in dungeons in the first place. All those theories, however, seemed to agree on the fact that monsters reappeared after a set amount of time once slain. The phenomenon, colloquially referred to as “re-popping,” would see monsters resurrect themselves at any time, within 30 minutes, or days, or sometimes years. Weak monsters in dungeons, in particular, were observed to reappear within approximately one hour.
While I could not precisely determine how much time had passed since I had been eaten by the dragon, I was sure the time required for said monsters to reappear had long passed. My death, after all, did not feel like a mere five- to ten-minute affair. Though it seemed silly thinking that my biological clock would make any sense, given that I was currently a dry pile of bones, all I had to do was wait around should my estimate of time be off.
With that in mind, I set off back toward the way I came in, having deemed this the fastest way to encounter another monster. Lifting my bony feet, I began to walk, returning to the worn path with a series of heavy steps.
Upon actually trying to move, however, I discovered that my body was painfully heavy—I supposed that I could not fight like I was able to in life. However, the fact that I could move somehow filled my heart with relief.
Although I was currently the weakest in the overall monster hierarchy, I was still considerably faster and stronger than an average human. I could only hope that it would somehow work out, but that could have simply been baseless optimism on my part.
As for my weapons, I found myself still equipped with my well-worn one-handed sword and armor from my previous life, so there appeared to be no problems in the equipment department. All other aspects of my combat potential, however, would have to be tested in the field.
It did not take long for me to cross paths with another monster, only about, say, five minutes after I had set off on my quest. My opponent, for better or worse, was just like me, albeit without any kind of weapons or armor—another skeleton.