My Skeleton Soldier Is Strange - Chapter 31

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 31
“Before we head to the Shadow Fortress, there’s something we need to do first.”
The moment the video recording ended, Jae-beom declared this to Ye-jin.
“Leveling up, right?”
“No, courage training.”
…
Originally, I had planned to level up as Ye-jin suggested, but watching the footage, there was no way she could accomplish anything at the Shadow Fortress if she was that frightened.
“That was… just a reaction for the YouTube video, you know.”
“…What?”
Ye-jin tilted her head in bewilderment.
“Weren’t you filming a reaction video for upload?”
Jae-beom asked in shock.
“How did you know?”
Though Jae-beom was a newbie to Evern Online, he wasn’t a newbie to YouTube. Even when playing Warlord Online, he had filmed other people’s gameplay countless times.
Of course, he had obtained their consent before uploading to YouTube, but he had never been caught in the act of filming.
“You were filming when we cleared the Sphinx Dungeon last time too, weren’t you?”
Watching Jae-beom grow increasingly flustered, Ye-jin wore an expression of genuine confusion.
“Is there anyone who doesn’t film when they’re with me?”
…
I felt wronged. Deeply wronged.
It was as if I had secretly filmed her just because of Ye-jin’s beautiful face.
“You can upload it. Including the previous one.”
“…Thank you.”
What made it worse was that I couldn’t completely deny it. After all, a beautiful female party member had a significant impact on YouTube view counts.
“Yes, you’ll tell me your YouTube channel name once the Quest is over, right?”
“I suppose so…”
Jae-beom forcibly changed the subject.
“Anyway, so you’re saying you’d be fine even if demons appear?”
“Yes, as long as we can defeat them, there’s no reason to be afraid.”
Ye-jin seemed genuinely sincere. And Jae-beom smiled slightly.
‘She said I could upload it, right?’
Since I was already misunderstood, there was no reason not to take advantage of it.
* * *
“…Where is this place?”
Ye-jin asked, gazing at the desolate landscape. Her expression was slightly frightened—whether because she knew they were filming or out of genuine fear was unclear.
“The Beast Forest.”
It was a location I had obtained additional information about from the Library.
“So what exactly is that?”
And naturally, Ye-jin had no information about it. The Demon Realm had only been open for less than a day, after all.
“It’s said to be a place where players level 30 and above level up rapidly.”
“…The explanation seems rather insufficient, doesn’t it? Just a place where you can level up quickly?”
“Ah, well, I’ve heard the mortality rate is equally high… but if you don’t die, it doesn’t matter. I believe it’s possible with your abilities, Ye-jin.”
He meant it sincerely. Ye-jin had earned my approval since the last Sphinx hunt. And in my standards, approval meant someone capable of at least reaching Ranker status.
“I see… Let’s go in.”
Ye-jin muttered as if resigned to her fate.
Now that I knew the truth, I couldn’t tell if even that attitude was an act, which made her appearance slightly unsettling to me.
―Ding!
[You have entered the Beast Forest field.]
[Attacks from the beasts roaming the forest will now begin.]
[Warning! Your level is too low to challenge the Beast Forest!]
“It says my level is too low?”
“That message appeared during Sphinx as well. Don’t worry about it.”
“I see.”
Though the logic was absurd, Ye-jin—who was gradually growing accustomed to someone like me—said nothing more.
“Dercan.”
―Whoooosh!
Dercan, who had been destroyed by Herman, appeared exactly as he had been then.
“Wait, just a moment. This is Dercan? That Dercan from back then?!”
Ye-jin made a fuss. Under normal circumstances, I would have asked what all the fuss was about, but….
Even to my eyes, Dercan’s appearance had changed more than just a little.
“Children usually grow in the blink of an eye, you know.”
“It’s not a child!”
“Dercan, how old are you?”
―….
From Dercan’s expressionless face, an atmosphere of unrelenting gloom emanated for the first time.
However, as I continued to glare, Dercan hung his head low and spoke.
―…Dercan one… eleven.
“Are you insane?”
Ye-jin spoke seriously. It was a joke I’d crafted for YouTube after much deliberation, but it didn’t seem to land well with her.
“Dercan?”
―Auntie, Dercan… sad.
“What do you mean auntie! And what kind of baby is this—he’s a student at a Korean language academy!”
As Ye-jin and I bickered back and forth, a question flashed through my mind.
‘…Could I win if I fought Dercan?’
Herman had destroyed Dercan relatively easily. And my specs were, at least in physical ability, inferior to Dercan’s.
Moreover, my equipment was far lacking compared to Dercan’s. Dercan’s gear had evolved alongside him, but my weapon had not.
“Hmm.”
‘I can’t guarantee the outcome.’
Honestly, I didn’t think I’d win cleanly. It was still true that I surpassed Dercan in technique.
But he was in a state of ‘learning’ by observing me. Though no matter how much time passed, I doubted Dercan would ever catch up to me in instantaneous judgment rather than technique….
‘The stat difference is just too vast.’
―Rustle… rustle rustle!
That was when it happened.
A sinister aura crept through the shadowed undergrowth.
Along with a growl that threatened to split eardrums, crimson eyes blazed from the darkness.
The next moment, beasts burst through the dense branches, revealing themselves.
[Grrrrr…]
[Krraaaagh!]
“Tsk.”
Jaebum, annoyed at the interruption to his thoughts, clicked his tongue once and turned his head to regard the monsters.
The creatures, massive in frame, were drenched entirely in crimson. Their deep red fur, as though stained with blood, bristled sharply and cut through the air like blades, while their muscular legs and claws evoked those of a ferocious beast.
Drool dripped from around their mouths, and with each breath they exhaled, a putrid stench reverberated; the two horns curving long above their heads gave them the appearance of demons themselves.
Seeing their forms, Jaebum muttered.
“…Looks like a unicorn over there.”
“Aside from having horns, they have nothing in common! And the horn count is different!”
Those blade-sharp protrusions spread outward on both sides, resembling weapons capable of targeting an opponent’s vital points.
It was a form that even a unicorn—let alone a bicorn—would protest, saying ‘You’re really stretching the comparison here.’
[Warning! The level difference is significant.]
The system sent another warning to Jaebum, urging him to flee.
―Whoosh….
“The warning message keeps appearing.”
“Same here.”
“Is there a way to turn this off?”
“Why would you want to turn it off? And sometimes you should actually listen to warnings. If you die, it’s not just access suspension—your equipment durability gets damaged too. If you’re unlucky, items can be destroyed.”
Jaebum glanced briefly at his own equipment before answering.
“Well, it’d be a shame to lose something, sure… but equipment doesn’t really concern me.”
“It concerns me! It concerns me!”
Ye-jin cried out in exasperation, but all Jaebum could say was.
“We won’t die anyway, so don’t be upset, alright?”
There was nothing else. Getting angry at someone with whom you share no common ground often proved futile.
Ye-jin, frustrated for a while, suddenly looked toward Dercan and shouted.
“Dercan, let’s go!”
Dercan nodded.
―Ye-jin, Ye-jin.
Ye-jin, who had begun to advance, stopped short and glared at Jaebum with a fierce expression before asking.
“Did you train it to do this too?”
Jaebum hesitated for a long moment before shaking his head.
“…It appears to be engaging in self-learning.”
―…!
Dercan’s head snapped up to look at Jaebum, but Jaebum had no intention of retracting his lie.
No matter how I looked at it, Ye-jin’s savage expression wasn’t for the broadcast—it was genuine.
* * *
The three of us hunted with mechanical precision and relentless efficiency.
As Dercan charged toward the beasts, one of them snarled and raised its front paw to strike.
The heavy limb, laden with crushing force, cleaved through the air and came crashing down toward Dercan.
―Boom!
Dercan swiftly ducked, evading the beast’s attack.
In a low crouch, he slipped beneath the creature’s legs.
―Slash!
Nearly prone against the ground, Dercan swung his twin blades with all his strength.
The moment the steel kissed the beast’s ankle, a piercing metallic shriek tore through the forest.
Like an axe splitting thick timber, the twin blades severed flesh and bone, snapping tendons clean.
―Thud!
The beast’s front leg went limp and useless.
Crimson blood gushed from the severed ankle, revealing the grotesque wound where flesh had been torn away.
Wracked with agony, the beast let out a harrowing cry—but that was all it could do.
This sequence repeated countless times. Dercan would swiftly sever the beasts’ tendons and immediately move to the next target.
“Hm!”
In the next instant, Jae-beom’s steel staff appeared above the fallen beast’s head.
―Crack!
With a dull thud, the beast’s skull caved in.
Though Jae-beom’s specs fell short of Dercan’s, his technique was more refined, and for crushing attacks from above, a blunt weapon was far more effective than a blade.
The mortally wounded beast convulsed violently before going slack.
―Hisssss….
Soon, a crimson glow erupted from the beast’s corpse.
―Pop! Pop!
Meanwhile, behind us, Ye-jin was drawing her bowstring.
Arrows streamed from her fingertips toward the pack of beasts.
Her precise, rapid shots targeted beasts that Jae-beom and Dercan couldn’t handle simultaneously.
―Whoosh whoosh… Thwack! Thwack!
Each arrow aimed for the beasts’ eyes and hearts. Few fell instantly, but each time one was struck, the creatures that had been charging at Jae-beom or Dercan would pivot toward Ye-jin instead.
Ye-jin turned her head once, as if surveying the surroundings, then rotated her body in a way that looked most natural from Jae-beom’s angle.
“…?”
For a moment, Jae-beom was gripped by inexplicable dread and glanced back.
―Crack! Slash! Thwack thwack!
Ye-jin was nonchalantly firing arrows.
It wasn’t until much later, when Jae-beom reviewed the recorded footage, that he felt his skin crawl.
And so, the mechanical slaughter continued.
―Aaaahhhhh!
An hour passed.
―Grrrrrowwwl!
Two hours passed.
―Boom.
Three hours, four hours, five hours—time slipped away.
Finally, as the roars of the beasts began to subside.
―Thud! Thud! Thud!
Unmistakably different from before, a colossal footstep echoed across the forest.
“A Field Boss.”
Ye-jin spoke for the first time in five hours. Her form was drenched in blood from the relentless hunt conducted in near-total silence for combat efficiency.
“…??”
Yet strangely, her face remained almost entirely clean of blood.
Ye-jin seemed to sense my gaze. She tilted her head slightly and offered a faint smile. And that smile was directed—unmistakably—just slightly below my face.
Toward the YouTube recording angle.
‘I thought she was just some newbie weirdo… but she’s a complete YouTube veteran!’
I found myself reconsidering. Until now, I had showcased overwhelming dominance and captured plenty of footage for the video.
‘But I was just… a player who happened to be good at the game.’
The caliber was different. Ye-jin had questioned my identity, but I was far more curious about hers.
―Crackle, crackle.
Meanwhile, cutting through the superheated air of combat, an ominous footstep drew steadily closer.
The sound of splintered branches underfoot, the groan of earth crushed beneath tremendous weight.
All of it heralded the approach of an overwhelming presence.
―Crash!
At last, a massive form burst through the trees, shattering them in its wake.
Its entire body trembled with rage, and blood-tinged saliva dripped from its maw.
A colossal predator, drawn by the scent of beast blood.
[Warning! You have encountered the Field Boss Beast Bear.]
[Due to the overwhelming level difference, your body’s movements are sluggish.]
A broad forehead and short snout, muscular arms that dwarfed the shoulders.
And massive legs that struck the ground with devastating force.
Though it bore the appearance of a typical bear, its overwhelming size and the aura surrounding it made it incomparable to any wild beast.
―Hisssss….
From its back, covered in silver spines, a crimson aura rose like mist.
Imbued with demonic power, the surroundings took on a malevolent hue.
With each exhale, the stench of sickening decay assaulted the nostrils.
Watching this spectacle, I frowned slightly and spoke.
“But seriously… why does your concept feel different?”
Though called the Beast Forest, it was undoubtedly a region of the Demon Realm. I had expected a horror aesthetic, but disappointingly, the Beast Bear appeared like just another ordinary monster.
[Roooaaarrr!]
Whether it understood my words or not, the Beast Bear unleashed a furious roar.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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