He didn't know how long he had been flying. Eric felt his spirit becoming incredibly drained, almost to the point of falling from the sky.

  But in order not to be captured again, he kept flapping his bone wings, flying towards a more distant place. The farther he got, the less likely he was to be caught up with.

  Finally, Eric couldn't fly anymore. He had to lower his body and land on the ground. But he still felt insecure. It was all because of the scare he got in the skeleton den, where he saw skeletons everywhere and was tortured by Lucia for so long.

  Just thinking about it made Eric feel uncomfortable all over. But now he didn't have the strength to move anymore; he had to think of other ways.

  Come to think of it, it made sense for skeletons to be buried in the ground.

  Without hesitation, Eric lay on the ground, cast earth magic, and buried his body in the soil.

  "I am a corpse now, I am a corpse now," Eric repeated, hypnotizing himself.

  In this self-hypnosis, Eric slowly fell asleep, as if he were truly a corpse, lying still in the soil. And as he slept, the missing parts of his bones began to grow back bit by bit.

  Just as Eric had thought, as long as he evolved with the limbs attached, the skills in the limbs would become his own.

  Even if the limbs carrying the skills were lost, the skills could still be used. In other words, every time he evolved in the future, he could change his limbs and bones to integrate skills.

  When Eric, buried in the soil, regained consciousness again, it was because of the noisy sounds that woke him up. Eric thought it was the succubi from Pound's subordinates who had come to chase him, and he was so scared that he dared not move at all.

  "I am a corpse, I am a corpse, I am a corpse," he continued to hypnotize himself in this way.

  But soon Eric realized that it was not the succubi from Pound's subordinates. Those voices were very rough and loud, and even underground, Eric could hear them. Even the dying screams of succubi were soft and seductive. So, these were not succubi.

  Moreover, he also heard a faint female voice, trembling a bit.

  "Don't come any closer!" Tadela shouted while backing away.

  "Don't be so scared, we just want to make friends with you and have some fun together," said a muscular man in front of Tadela, ignoring her shouting and continuing to approach.

  Behind the muscular man were two other healthy adult men.

  One was a bit fat and wore leather chest armor, and the other was a bit shorter and wore linen clothes.

  How could Tadela believe such a claim? She pulled out a dagger from her waist. She was so small that even with the dagger pointing at the man in front of her, it had no deterrent effect and instead made the men in front of her whistle teasingly.

  Desperation welled up in Tadela's eyes, and she steeled herself, pointing the dagger at her neck.

  "Back off! Unless you want to play with my corpse!"

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  This sentence clearly had an effect, and the men stopped in their tracks, but they didn't back away.

  "Miss, we just want to have some fun with you, no need to be so nervous," said the muscular man.

  "Back off!" Tadela continued to shout, but her hand holding the dagger couldn't stop trembling.

  "Alright, alright, we'll back off," said the muscular man, pretending to retreat.

  Tadela let out a sigh of relief in her heart, but she didn't expect the man to suddenly rush forward. His movements were so agile that he didn't seem like an ordinary thug. He grabbed Tadela's wrist and took the dagger away.

  "What kind of girl plays with daggers?" Tadela struggled to free her wrist, but the man's grip was like a vice, holding her wrist firmly.

  "Bastard!" she cursed and kicked the man in the groin.

  "Oh, oh, oh, quite a temper you've got there," the man said, easily deflecting the kick.

  "You two, come and hold her down, I'll check her out first."

  The remaining two men grabbed Tadela's arms from either side and pinned her in place.

  At that moment, a strange noise came from underground. The soil began to wriggle as if something was about to break through the surface.

  "What the hell is that?" The three men's attention was momentarily diverted.

  Then, a bony hand emerged from the soil.

  "How could there be a skeleton here?" The muscular man drew his short sword from his waist.

  "Forget it, I'll take care of it first."

  "Hurry up, boss, we're eager to get to this high-quality catch," said one of the men.

  The muscular man waved his hand, holding his short sword and approaching the skeleton.

  A newly revived low-level skeleton, for whatever reason, couldn't possibly pose a threat to him.

  But in the next moment, a mud and water mixture shot out from the ground, turning into mud arrows that struck the muscular man's eyes.

  In an instant, his vision was taken away.

  For the skeleton, as long as the first move was successful, chivalry was not in its consideration.

  "What the hell!" The muscular man was shocked and swung his sword to block. But the next second, he felt a chill on his neck as his neck was crushed.

  "Captain!" The remaining two men finally reacted, horrified, and forgetting about Tadela, they drew their short swords and charged at the skeleton.

  The skeleton turned its skull, its hollow eye sockets looking at the two men rushing over.

  "Swamp."

  The ground instantly turned into mud, and the two men running on it fell right in.

  "Damn it!" The angry shouts had no deterrent effect on the skeleton.

  The skeleton turned into a white shadow, snapped off a rib bone that had turned into a bone sword, and easily slashed through the throats of the two men in the mud.

  For Eric, dealing with these men below level 10 was a piece of cake. However, the experience they provided was only a few dozen points. He didn't bother with the corpses but turned and walked towards the woman who was sitting on the ground like a duck.

  Seeing Eric approaching, the woman quickly raised the dagger again. After all, she didn't expect a skeleton monster to spare her.

  However, Tadela felt a bit grateful for the skeleton. If it hadn't intervened, she would have probably met a much more miserable end.

  The skeleton walked up to Tadela. Tadela forced herself to stop trembling and thrust the dagger forward.

  Eric easily caught the dagger with his handbones.

  "Gak... Gak..."

  "I... gak... won't... gak... gak."

  Damn it, it's so hard to talk!

  Hearing the strange noises from the skeleton, Tadela looked up at it with suspicion.

  "Are... you... speaking?"

  As soon as she asked, Tadela inwardly mocked herself. Skeletons can't possibly talk, can they?

  "...Gak... gak... yes... gak."

  "Really... speaking?"

  Tadela doubted her ears. After all, the skeleton itself was quite strange. It could use magic, and it had shown signs of intelligence in the previous fight.

  She thought for a moment and continued.

  "If you have intelligence, please 'gak' once."

  "...Gak."

  Tadela's eyes widened as she looked at the terrifying skeleton in front of her.

  "I'm sorry, I thought you were just an unconscious skeleton monster."

  "Thank you for saving me, Mr... Skeleton."

  To show her gratitude and sincerity, Tadela let go of the dagger in her hand. Although the dagger was already controlled by the skeleton.

  "Gak... no... gak... thank... you."

  Eric adjusted the growth of the bones in his throat while speaking. According to the principle of sound transmission through vibration, he grew a thin bone plate in his throat to produce sound by vibrating it. He had been adjusting the size and thickness of the bone plate since he started speaking, and his voice gradually became clearer.

  "Gak... gak... gak... gak..."

  He turned and began to deal with the corpses, muttering tongue twisters to adjust the bone plate in his throat.