Chapter 5 – The Undead General

“Skeleton Evolution Points: 1.26”

The battle against the gray wolves had yielded substantial evolution points, rapidly increasing from 0.88 to 1.26 in a short time. This indicated an extremely fast point generation during combat, possibly… related to Little Skeleton’s potential being pushed to its limit in this fight.

Regardless, it was a positive outcome.

Mu Yuan summoned Door-Shield Skeleton before him. Though one of its arms was shattered, the soul fire in its skull still flickered healthily—an optimistic skeleton indeed.

At this moment, the evolution points began to glow faintly.

Mu Yuan dragged this special energy and applied it to Door-Shield Skeleton. This time, there was no failure—instead, a notification appeared: “Skeleton Evolution Points -1”.

The next moment,

Miracle’s power bathed the small skeleton. Just as it began to show astonishment, its entire being… the whole skeleton transformed into light.

Encased in white radiance, Little Skeleton’s form began stretching taller and broader, its frame appearing more robust.

Soon, the evolutionary glow receded, revealing the transformed skeleton’s new form to Mu Yuan.

This was a large skeleton standing approximately 1.8 to 1.9 meters tall, towering over Mu Yuan’s game character, let alone comparing to those frail, hunched small skeletons that barely reached 1.6 meters.

Not only taller and stronger, the reborn skeleton now wore complete armor including a helmet, breastplate, and combat skirt. Its machete was no longer rusted but polished to a shine, while its left hand gripped a round shield.

While this equipment couldn’t be called luxurious, it was undoubtedly multiple tiers above its previous beggar-level appearance.

「Notification: ‘Little Skeleton (Common★)’ has evolved into ‘Skeleton Soldier (Common★★★)’」

「Notification: Skeleton Soldier has learned the skill ‘Cleave’.」

…

Freshly evolved, this skeleton—whose expressions were notably more vivid than others—stood staring dumbfounded at its own body. It reached out and patted its gray-black armor, producing solid thumping sounds.

Good sound meant good armor.

Even two-star Lancers were significantly fiercer than small skeletons. Mu Yuan looked forward to seeing how this three-star Skeleton Soldier would perform. If nothing else, he was quite satisfied with this armor set—other small skeletons would struggle to penetrate it with their rusted machetes.

The equipment gap was substantial.

The Skeleton Soldier’s improvements over small skeletons manifested in numerous aspects.

“Come, test your strength and speed.”

Mu Yuan called over another confused small skeleton as a test subject, but the height and size difference between them was so pronounced that the larger skeleton might send the smaller one flying with minimal effort.

Thus, the Skeleton Soldier approached a large tree and threw a powerful punch.

Boom—

The tree branches shook violently, raining leaves everywhere.

The Skeleton Soldier continued pounding repeatedly, completely oblivious to pain… well, skeletons don’t feel pain, but this was excessively straightforward.

Mu Yuan hurriedly stopped it.

“Now test your speed. Run at full capacity.”

Observing from his computer screen, Mu Yuan couldn’t examine details clearly, but he could still see the Skeleton Soldier moving with vigorous strides, its running speed multiple times faster than small skeletons.

They simply couldn’t be compared to small skeletons.So, Mu Yuan called upon himself, and when he got serious, he directly ordered himself to sprint a hundred meters. Comparing himself to the Skeleton Soldier, he quickly discovered…

“Little Skeleton is weak in speed, walking with a staggering gait. Even at full speed, it only matches a human’s brisk walking pace, and its agility is even worse. Setting aside its advantage of being impervious to injury, Little Skeleton’s overall capabilities are inferior to an average person.”

“But the Skeleton Soldier is different. At full speed, it’s easily at the level of a national athlete, and it never gets tired.”

Is a unit that hasn’t even leveled up and is only a common three-star already this powerful? No wonder they say top-tier units can overturn rivers and seas.

Compared to its full-speed running, the Skeleton Soldier is rather stiff in small-scale dodging and evading—after all, it’s not an agility-type unit.

Even though its speed has improved, its most suitable combat style remains similar to before: accumulating advantages through a trade-injury-for-injury approach.

After conducting some tests on the Skeleton Soldier, Mu Yuan found that it could single-handedly take on several Little Skeletons and still secure a steady victory.

Truly, the demeanor of a General.

Moreover, he hadn’t forgotten that during this evolution, the Skeleton Soldier had also learned a skill.

Cleave.

“Let’s test this skill.”

“Understood. Skull.”

A speech bubble actually appeared above the Skeleton Soldier’s head, startling him.

Soon, Skeleton Soldier Ah Bing began preparing. At first, it seemed a bit clueless, frequently glancing at Mu Yuan with a look of wanting to ask for guidance but hesitating.

“You have to believe in yourself. As a leading skeleton, you must learn to explore and improve on your own, so you can set an example for the other little buddies. You understand, right?”

The Skeleton Soldier nodded repeatedly with a bang bang bang sound.

Mu Yuan then stood by and watched as the Skeleton Soldier figured things out on its own… After all, he didn’t know how to do it either. Don’t ask him how to use the skill—he didn’t even know what the skill was. Strategy posts hadn’t mentioned it, so he guessed skills were relatively advanced content.

Using skills wasn’t easy because it involved the application of energy.

After pondering for over ten minutes, the skeleton with the bearing of an Emperor gradually figured it out. It raised its saber high, and strands of black mist slowly gathered along the blade. Covered in black energy, the Skeleton Soldier charged for seven or eight seconds before finally slashing down fiercely at the gray wolf corpse serving as a target.

Boom—

Like a hot knife through butter, the gray wolf’s tough fur and bones offered no resistance, cleanly severed by the slash. The saber’s gleam, infused with black energy, continued unabated, leaving a slight mark on the ground.

So formidable, truly formidable.

“My skeleton indeed has the demeanor of a General.”

Not only that, but after releasing this Cleave, the Skeleton Soldier stood still in contemplation, pondering, reflecting, and improving.

Its intelligence was already significantly higher than other skeletons, and it had improved markedly after evolution. After mulling it over for a while, the second Cleave it executed had a noticeably shorter charge time.

“Not bad.”

Mu Yuan was very satisfied.

Of course, this was also thanks to the excellent guidance of him, the Lord. If he hadn’t fully utilized the Skeleton Soldier’s initiative, allowing it to learn through self-exploration, how could it have improved with such Godspeed?

Two Cleaves had consumed the vast majority of the Skeleton Soldier’s energy, making it difficult to unleash a third.

After all, it was still just a level one baby. Mu Yuan understood this very well.He watched the Skeleton Soldier who was still pondering and practicing on its own—diligent and full of promising potential—and thought it was time to bestow a name upon it. It wouldn’t do to keep calling it Door-Shield Skeleton or Skeleton Soldier Ah-Bing.

After all, it was destined to become a General of the territory in the future.

How could a dignified General not even have a proper name?

“Stand at attention. I shall grant you a true name.”

“Since you are of undead origin and a skeleton, why not call you… Deadbone!”

(End of Chapter)