Endless Evolution As A Skeleton In A Game-Like World

”Did I really get eaten by a worm?” Ark could not believe his sorry predicament.

If the rank one player back on earth could see him now, he would probably be hysterical with laughter.

Ark, global ranked two swallowed whole in a beginners tutorial...

It was a sentence that was sure to make headlines in the gaming community back on earth.

”Tch.” He hissed as he shuffled around in the space.

Currently, he was curled up in the fetal position, stuck in what must have been the gullet of the Grave Keeper worm, and covered in corrosive slime.

The inside of its throat was pitch black and smelled of what should not be described. Ark was a skeleton so he could still see clearly in the darkness, but there was nothing he could do about the smell.

”Why can I even smell things as a skeleton?!”

The worst part of his predicament was that he had no idea where he was.

From the vibrations, he could tell that the moment the monster swallowed him, it booked it, and it had been tunneling ever since.

But how far had it gone? Were they going closer to his party, or was it taking him even farther away?

If he was taken too far from his party, then there was a chance he would not make it back in time for the boss fight.

”Where the hell are you taking me you bastard?!” He screamed, pounding his arm into the fleshy wall, but that likely didn’t even tickle the monster.

’I need to find a way out of this place...’

The monster could not run forever, the injury Ark had given it was fatal and this was probably a heist it pulled while within an inch of its life.

It was still bleeding profusely, and worst of all it was tunneling, which would put even greater strain on its injured body.

It was only a matter of time before the worm died, and before that time, Ark needed to find a way out.

But first...

Ark turned to face the direction that led to its stomach. Since he was here, why not make the best of it, eh?

There was a wall of muscle, a sphincter of some sorts trapping him in this layer of its alimentary canal.

He summoned his dagger and plunged it right into the muscle, repeatedly stabbing and slashing until they relaxed, opening a path to its stomach.

But the moment the opening was created, an even worse stench evaded his nostrils, causing him to reflexively gag. If he was not a skeleton, then he would have emptied his stomach five times already.

Ark crawled into the disgusting stomach and took a look around the place. It was large enough to not just crawl but squat without his head touching the ceiling, but it still felt tight.

Still, instead of cringing with disgust, Ark’s eyes shone as though he had found liquid gold.

”Perfect, hahaha!”

He had come here based on a simple hunch, the Grave Keeper was an apex predator, meaning it could likely hunt everything in the forest, even the monsters that Ark could not defeat...

Now, what would happen if he somehow wandered into the stomach of such a monster? Two simple words... infinite resources!

Bodies piled up in the stomach, each of them at various levels of degradation. To a normal person, this would have been nothing more than a vulgar lecture on monster internals.

But to Ark? It was as though he had stepped into an upgrade shop and given a free purchase coupon.

He smiled internally as he counted the bodies. Apart from those that were likely far too gone to be of use, there were eight monster corpses, and about seven worm corpses, making fifteen in total.

”Did it eat its dead children?” There were animals who did the same, but Ark did not think he would find similarities between monsters and animals so soon.

Well, to be fair, monsters were just overgrown animals.

”Alright let’s get started!” He rubbed his hands together and walked up to the first corpse, placing his hands on it.

[Harvest Failed!]

He had tried to harvest a monster who had all but melted, leaving only a vague outline of its body, and just like he expected, it didn’t work.

Ark slid his hand onto the next monster and activated his ability.

[Harvest successful! You have successfully received 2 mana points!]

”Wait really?” From his experience, mana was one of the rarest stats. Just what kind of monster was this before it died?

It looked like some sort of tree man, but some parts of it were covered with far too much slime for him to identify.

But unlike that monster, Ark could easily tell what the next one was.

A giant spider... classic

It looked like something that had crawled out of a nightmare, with a hairy body, sharp pincers, and a limb as tall as him.

Its crimson eyes glowed like rubies, and even in the presence of so much acid, they looked perfectly fine, actually, the monster looked pretty okay when compared to the others.

Ark was already feeling a searing sensation all over his body. The acid was not as strong as whatever the worm had spat out at first, but it would not be wise to linger long in it...

He placed his hand on the black back of the spider...

[Harvest successful! You have successfully received D-Rank skill, Steel webs!]

[Harvest successful! You have successfully received F-Rank trait, Minor Toxin Reaistance!]

Ark’s eyes glowed brighter. ”Two skills just like that??” For someone that had been having bad luck since the very start of the trial, it looked like his luck was finally turning around!

He immediately opened up the descriptions of the skills and began to go through them.

> [Steel Webs]

It looks like your foes have gotten themselves in a steely situation...

Summons a stretch of steel spider webs. Creating webs takes a minute portion of the player’s manna.

Ark gave the system tab a blank stare.

’Minus a thousand aura points for that disgusting joke...’

> [Minor Toxin Resistance]

Increased resistance to poisons and corrosive substances. The host’s resistance will naturally improve based on the number of toxins they have been opposed to.

They were both excellent skills by all ramifications. The toxin resistance was a huge plus considering how many corrosive monsters were in Eden.

It was a little disappointing that it was so low ranked, but Ark appreciated it anyways. And as for steel webs, he could use it to create traps, or he could swing through the forest like spiderman for all he cared.

With a skill like that, its uses were only limited to how much you could imagine.

Ark glanced at the remaining corpses, feeling even more giddy than earlier.

”Let’s see what other surprises await me...”