Endless Evolution as an Undead

Chapter 4: A Brutal Toll

The suffocating weight of the Level 5 Skeleton made the humid air inside the cavern even more suffocating.

Arthur didn't even get the chance to catch his breath before the towering beast started charging toward him with frightening momentum. Its heavy, chipped greatsword cut through the darkness, sending a brutal gust of wind that almost knocked Arthur off his feet.

Clang!

Arthur attempted to parry with his shortsword, but the sheer force behind the blow nearly broke his wrist, sending him backward onto the stony ground.

“Fucking hell!” Arthur hissed, his jaw snapping wildly as he managed to duck under the horizontal sweep, which cut the rock he had been beside to pieces.

He dodged and attacked once again, utilizing his speed to exploit the blind spot of the monster. Following that, he shoved his shortsword deep into the body of the monster, driving it between its ribs.

Scratch.

There was a dull, grating sound echoing throughout the cavern as Arthur’s weapon barely sank into the dense bone of the skeleton.

The Level 5 Skeleton ignored the attack, sending its heavy elbow backward directly into Arthur’s ribs and throwing him backward.

“Damn it!” Arthur cursed, slowly dragging himself off the ground with a groan. “Fuck... maybe I should have actually kept some points for Strength and Stamina after all! At this rate, all I can do is dodge or run away, but I can't do that for long.”

Arthur was fast, yes. He could evade the attacks of the brute and hit with counterattacks from time to time. However, the battle had turned into a game of attrition—and Arthur lost that game spectacularly.

Despite the fact that his strikes landed, his Strength stat of 8 was simply not enough to inflict any real damage to the immense health pool of the monster.

At first, speed alone would have been enough to carry him through the battle. However, there was one crucial flaw with Arthur—he was out of Stamina.

Stamina: 3.

With each dodge, each frantic leap, and each clumsy strike, the terrible, hollow feeling of fatigue consumed his body. His breathing became even faster and heavier, slowing him down and making him unable to move properly. The obvious imbalance in his stat distribution was back to haunt him now.

The monster raised its greatsword high above its head, intending to smash Arthur to pieces with a powerful vertical slash.

Arthur attempted to dodge, but his heavy, unresponsive legs wouldn’t let him move fast enough to evade the incoming blow.

There was no time left.

Arthur’s response was brutal. He did not attempt to dodge anymore—he jumped forward, right toward the descending sword, letting the blade cut through his right shoulder joint.

CRACK!

Arthur lost his entire right arm in one go, dropping it in a shower of white bone fragments onto the stony floor of the cavern.

But the sacrifice wasn't wasted. He had finally closed the distance between himself and the monster in an instant.

Yelling out in an anguished scream, Arthur shoved his shortsword with his left hand right inside the socket of the beast’s left eye, then drove the blade deep into the skull core of the monster.

The Skeleton Soldier stopped mid-swing. The blazing fires in its eye sockets flickered violently before finally dulling out and crumbling into a huge pile of dried bones.

Arthur staggered and fell backward, kneeling on the ground. Panting hard and struggling to even move a bone afterward, he shifted his gaze slowly downward, looking at his right arm on the floor across from him.

“Lost an arm for a damn grunt...” he muttered through gritted teeth.

A familiar blue window of notifications flashed in front of his eyes once again.

«[System Notification]

* Level Up!

* Congratulations on reaching Level 2.

* 10 unassigned stats have been awarded.

* New Skill Acquired: Survival Instinct (Rare) — All stats increase by 10% when fighting a monster of higher combat ability. Not restricted by level or stats.

* Evolution Progress: 32%»

Arthur looked at the notification screen with a mixture of amazement and disbelief written all over his skeletal face.

“It fucking shot up in one go,” he muttered, shaking his skull.

“At first, it was increasing by 3% at most, and sometimes even less when I was killing all those Level 1 Skeleton Soldiers. However, a single Level 5 Skeleton Soldier managed to raise it from 11% to 32%, a tremendous 21% boost in one go!”

A small smile curled around his lips as he moved quickly to the next notification, the skill acquisition notification.

“A rare skill, not bad. Maybe because I’ve been getting broken Mythical skills all this while, my standards have become way too high. Even if a rare skill sounds underwhelming on paper, it is still a rare skill,” he muttered.

Looking at the detailed description of the new skill, he frowned.

...All stats increase by 10% when fighting a monster of higher combat ability. Not restricted by level or stats.

Arthur’s face twisted into a mischievous grin.

“A 10% increase in stats will definitely be even more useful in the future, especially when it becomes even harder to level up.”

Gaining a sudden burst of energy, Arthur jumped to his feet in one swift move. His whole body immediately knit itself back into shape, healing everything—from the cracks in his ribs to the missing right arm that had been cut off just moments before.

Once again, the golden rule of the system proved to be true—after each level-up, all injuries, status abnormalities, and accumulated fatigue were completely reset.

He clenched his fists, flexing his fingers.

“I’d better learn my lesson about distributing my stats more intelligently this time around,” Arthur declared, pulling up his attribute panel. “If I keep ignoring my physical foundation like this, I won’t be able to survive another monster on this scale.”

After a few quick calculations, he changed his stat distribution.

«[Strength: 8 ➔ 11]

[Stamina: 3 ➔ 10]»

An aura of abyssal energy swirled through his body, instantly filling his hollow bones with denser, more stable power. Arthur could literally feel the thickness of his skeleton increasing, along with the vanishing phantom pains.

Bending down, Arthur reached out for his old, battered shortsword and grabbed the heavy, chipped greatsword that belonged to the Level 5 Skeleton he had just killed. Picking it up with one hand, he swung it a couple of times.

“This will do a hell of a better job than that rusty toothpick,” he smirked, his mouth spreading into a vicious grin.

Without even looking back, he took the massive blade in his hands and continued moving deeper into the darkness.