Chapter 61: Chapter 61: Bone Armor Skill

The skeletons clawed their way out of the soil, empty sockets staring ahead.

“Spread out,” he said calmly.

Just like before, they moved in different directions, disappearing into the trees. But this time, he wasn’t looking for another camp.

He needed the exit of this forest.

He couldn’t stay here forever hunting scraps.

While waiting for a signal, Aiden leaned against a tree and opened his status screen.

[Name: Aiden (Level: 13)]

Class: Necromancer (Death God — Locked)

Basic-Grade Summon: 12

Bronze-Grade Summon: 4

Iron-Grade Summon: 0

Silver-Grade Summon: 0

Gold-Grade Summon: 0

Legendary-Grade Summon: 0

Mythical-Grade Summon: 0

Summon Slot Available: 16/23

Active Skills: Lord of the Dead, Bone Shield, Bone Spear, Undead Reinforcement, Undead Sight, Possession Command, Fear Pulse

Passive Skills: Mana Channeling, Necrotic Sustain

Skill Points: 2

Level 13.

He had gained two levels from destroying four bandit camps.

It wasn’t surprising. Most of them were ordinary fighters. Only one had reached the Body Tempering Stage. The experience gain wasn’t huge, but it was steady.

Still, it showed him something important.

Fighting groups was efficient.

His eyes moved to the Skill Points line.

Two points again.

He opened the skill section and reviewed the remaining options carefully. Offensive skills were tempting. More control skills were useful.

But then he remembered something.

The ambush at the city gate.

The chase.

The feeling of being one strike away from death.

His undead were strong. His control skills were improving.

But his own body?

Too fragile.

“I almost died because I was careless,” he muttered.

After thinking for a few minutes, he made his decision.

Bone Armor.

The moment he selected it, the knowledge settled into his mind. How to channel mana outward. How to form bone plates from condensed necrotic energy.

He read the description once more.

[Bone Armor

Active Skill – Encases the caster in hardened bone plates, significantly increasing physical defense. Slightly reduces movement speed while active.]

He activated it briefly to test.

Dark mana surged from his core and spread across his skin. Thin fragments of bone began forming over his chest and shoulders, layering like overlapping plates. They were pale and slightly jagged, fitting tightly against his body.

He flexed his arm.

He dismissed the skill, and the bone plates crumbled into dust.

Aiden nodded to himself.

“Good.”

If another Body Tempering practitioner rushed him, he wouldn’t be as vulnerable.

The forest around him remained quiet, but through the faint threads in his mind, he could feel his skeleton scouts still moving.

Somewhere ahead, there had to be a road.

Aiden closed the status screen and let out a slow breath.

For a moment, his thoughts drifted somewhere else.

Back to the time when he still tried to learn martial arts.

He had tried. Seriously tried.

He followed breathing techniques. Practiced stances until his legs trembled. Struck trees until his knuckles split open. He even copied the methods body tempering practitioners used, cold-water immersion, repetitive bone strikes, controlled breathing under pressure.

Nothing.

No matter what he did, there was no progress.

No warmth gathering in his muscles. No sense of strengthening bones. No signs of stepping into Body Tempering.

It was like his body simply refused.

Eventually, he stopped.

It wasn’t frustration that made him quit.

It was logic.

“It’s a waste of time,” he murmured under his breath.

If something doesn’t move no matter how much you push it, then you’re pushing the wrong thing.

He glanced at his hand, faint traces of dark mana swirling around his fingers before fading away.

“Maybe it’s because my soul isn’t from here,” he muttered.

Earth.

A distant planet, now nothing more than a memory. A world without qi, without cultivation, without monsters hiding in forests. Maybe his soul didn’t match this world’s rules. Maybe that was why he couldn’t temper his body like everyone else.

Or maybe it was the system.

The strange interface only he could see. The thing that gave him levels, skills, summons.

Who knows.

In the end, it didn’t matter.

What mattered was this.

He was becoming something this world didn’t even know existed.

A necromancer.

No sect. No cultivation manual. No ancient inheritance.

Just him.

He pushed himself off the tree and started walking again, letting the forest sounds fill the silence. Birds fluttered somewhere above. Leaves rustled under small creatures moving unseen.

Then—

A sharp tug in his mind.

One of the skeleton scouts.

Aiden stopped immediately.

He changed direction at once, moving quickly but carefully. Branches scraped against his clothes as he pushed forward, following the mental thread guiding him.

The signal grew clearer.

The air felt different.

Less dense.

Then finally, the trees began to thin.

Light poured through in wider streams. The ground became less cluttered with roots and fallen branches. And ahead, through the last row of trees.

He saw it.

A dirt road stretching across open land.

He dismissed the three skeleton scouts with a thought. Their bones collapsed and sank into the earth once more.

Aiden stood there quietly, looking down the road.

He didn’t know where it led yet.

Aiden adjusted the pouch at his waist and started walking down the dirt road.

The forest was now behind him. Open land stretched ahead, rolling fields of dry grass, patches of farmland in the distance, and a faint trail carved by wagon wheels over time. The sky felt wider out here. Lighter.

He kept his pace steady.

After about half an hour, the road began to slope upward. Aiden followed it to higher ground, boots pressing against loose gravel and hardened soil. When he reached the top of the rise, he paused.

Below him, not too far away, was a town.

It was smaller than Breim City. Much smaller.

The walls were short and clearly old, stone blocks stacked unevenly, some parts repaired with wood instead of proper masonry. The gate looked reinforced but worn, as if it had seen years of use without proper maintenance.

Still, the town wasn’t poorly placed.

It sat between two natural slopes, with only one clear main road leading in. On one side was a shallow river. On the other, rocky terrain that would slow down any large force trying to approach.

Aiden narrowed his eyes slightly.

“Good position,” he murmured.

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