Alpha_Ruby

After Earth collapses into dimensional entropy, billions of people are scattered across broken worlds and forced into a brutal survival game known only as the Shattered Trial. Each player gains a random class. Most wield magic, swords, or elemental power.

But Iden Virel, a former engineering student, is given something else.

A black ring. A broken interface. And the command:

[SUMMON: Skeleton – Worker Class]

With a system unlike any other, Iden can summon and assign skeletal minions to tasks—miners, scouts, warriors, mages, builders, and more. These skeletal followers don’t sleep, don’t eat, and never stop improving. The longer they work, the smarter they get.

Together with his sister Rael—a rare Sanctum Channeler who can empower and evolve allies—Iden must lead his growing skeletal force through monster-infested zones, hostile player factions, and ancient ruins... all while preparing for the apocalyptic battle known as the Final Judgment.

In this world, only one law remains:

Build. Adapt. Conquer. Or be erased.

Endless March: Skeleton King Ascends

In every direction, preparations surged. The scouts moved in silence across the ridgelines, runners trained in staggered intervals, and the builders had begun trench work alongside reinforced barricades. Traps of bone, pressure runes, and sharpened mana-twine lined hidden paths. Mage skeletons cast shielding wards across supply routes.

But to change the rules of battle.

"Kael," Iden said, sweat slicking his brow. "We're not summoning this. We're building it."

He laid out the schematics—rough and drawn by memory. Cylindrical casing. Stabilizer fins. Propulsion glyphs aligned with condensed mana cartridges.

"You're trying to make… a missile," Kael said, blinking.

"No, not trying. We will." Iden's voice was sharper than usual. "In my world, one well-aimed rocket could level entire squads. We won't match that power, but even scaling it to this world—"

"—Could give us the punch we need when Valtross arrives," Kael finished.

Kael summoned a mix of high-density bones, darksteel from scavenged beast cores, and a fusion crystal from the Raid Store cache. The casing was reinforced with carved runes for heat resistance, while the internal mana-guidance systems were bound with threading drawn from Eline's familiar glyphs.

[Custom Research Initiated: Arcane-Missile Platform Prototype I]→ Requirements Met: Knowledge Transfer + Schematic Completion→ Prototype ETA: 12 hours→ Assigned Researchers: Kael, Iden

→ Impact Radius: Medium→ Effect: Mana-Compressed Detonation→ Launcher Stability: Unrefined

Warning: "Testing required. Unstable under direct fire. Use at calculated distance."

Rael directed the herbalists and rune-wrights to set regenerative camps behind the outer walls. She'd stationed two of her strongest healing skeletons behind the fallback gate, using refined sap from beast trees to enhance their potency.

Nyra, flanked by Veyra and her elite scouts, was finalizing the third kill corridor—an extended trap line masked with illusion sigils and a cliff-based fallback line.

"Let them walk in," she told her team, placing a flint-tipped arrow into a carved channel. "We won't be kind on the way out."

Children trained with wooden blades under watchful civilians turned warriors. Familiar pairs swept the forests. Civilians became guards. Hope became grit.

The launcher was raw, still glowing with excess mana discharge.

A thick triangular chassis mounted on wheels, marked with stabilizer glyphs and a binding array that connected directly to Iden's control sigil.

"Ready?" Kael asked, standing by with barrier skeletons.

"No," Iden said. "But I'm doing it anyway."

The first missile locked into the channel.

Iden aimed at a target ridge about 800 meters out—one marked with combat dummies and reinforced beast armor plates.

With a thunderous crack and a shriek of ignited mana, the missile roared forward.

It struck the ridge—and erupted in a brilliant burst of blue and silver flame, flattening the test field and sending a shockwave that knocked the dust from nearby trees.

[Prototype Launcher Test Successful – Effectiveness Rating: B+]

→ Blueprint Created: Mana-Missile Launcher Mk. I→ Resource Requirement High→ Status: 1 Built / Ammo: 1 Remaining→ Skill Unlocked: [Targeted Devastation] – Direct control over mana-based artillery systems.

"But enough," Iden replied, eyes hard. "We won't just survive this siege."

"We'll teach them what it means to attack Sanctum."

Chapter 52 — Steel and Sorcery