Seeing the approaching hand, Cale's inner heart skipped a bit. He wanted to attack this professor, but it didn't take him long to realize that it would only make it harder to get away from this place.

'Tch...there's nothing to do but endure and hope for better,' Cale sighed inwardly. As hard as it was to accept, if he tried to offer any resistance, not only would he be easily suppressed, but he would also become a new toy in Kelton's collection.

"Hmph... The bones are even stronger than I expected," Kelton inspected the skeleton from all sides before taking Cale's leg in his hand, "The leg goes first!"

Kelton then placed his feet on Cale's knee and grabbed the edge of the white bone. Without any more useless thoughts, Kelton began to apply pressure onto Cale's knee, trying to dislodge it from his body.

To his surprise, it wasn't such an easy action.

'Tch...this bastard!' Cale burst into intense pain, sending shivers deep into his soul. Unconsciously, he resisted Kelton's attempts to break his bone, but with his current strength, it was by no means feasible.

After a few seconds, the bone had already gone awry and Cale nearly fainted from the pain.

"Damn it! My back!" Kelton, who was already drenched in sweetness, threw the leg on the ground. "What kind of monster was this person before his death?" he wondered.

"Ahh..." Kelton eyed the skeleton as he straightened his back, "This is too exhausting...I can't do this myself"

"Guards! Come in and help me!" he called out, but even after a few moments of waiting there was no response.

"Guards!" Promptly Kelton opened the doors, only to see a dark corridor with not a soul passing by. Visible veins emerged from his forehead after failing to find anyone nearby.

Boom.

Kelton suddenly slammed the door, causing a loud noise.

'Is he gone? It seems I still have some of my luck,' Cale smiled inwardly as he immediately grabbed his knee. Gritting his teeth, Cale began to push his leg back into its original position.

It was extremely painful, to the point that all the torture Cale had experienced before his death was nothing but a joke. However, Cale didn't stop and continued to push until eventually...

Crack!

....it converted into its primary direction.

"Sigh...finally," Cale sighed in relief, "Wait...did I just speak? But how is that possible? What the hell is happening!"

Again, a barrage of questions assaulted his brain which he quickly disregarded away. He had to act swiftly before this professor came back, but at least he knew that this skeleton seemed to function just like a normal body.

"I better get out of here first," Cale leaned against the wall, slowly rising from the ground. The pain in his knee still didn't completely subside, but Cale didn't care about that injury at the moment.

After a few seconds, Cale finally got to his feet. All of his bones could be seen trembling. Although it felt almost the same as his real body, there was a sort of weakness and deformity running through his soul.

"I need to run fast" Cale moved towards the door, sometimes falling to the ground. It was a frustrating experience, but Cale still managed to reach the door after a few moments.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Unexpectedly, the door didn't even budge, no matter how much force Cale exerted on it. It didn't take him long to understand the reason for the recalcitrant wall.

It was locked.

"Keys! I need keys!" Cale didn't even think for a second as he turned and walked towards the bloody table. He had already looked around the room a few times, searching for any valuables he could use to escape this place.

Unless Kelton had several hidden places, the only place to keep the keys was the section under that table.

Zoon! Zoon!

While Cale was stomping towards the table, a sudden sound rang in his ears. The gem that has been stable until now suddenly began to shimmer in different colors while slightly floating into the air.

Immense Qi pressed down on Cale and after only a few seconds, he was stuck to the ground, struggling to get back up.

Despite the throbbing in his bones, Cale didn't seem to be trying to put any resistance at all. All of his attention was focused on the glowing stone that seemed to be going to explode at any second.

"What is this feeling....hunger? Why do I want to...eat this stone?" wondered Cale as he habitually reached out his hand towards the glowing gem. For some reason, he couldn't help but feel the urge to devour this stone.

"I...am hungry," Cale crawled towards the gem, his vision blurring slightly. With his mind somewhat wavering, Cale didn't even think before taking the medium-sized stone in his hand.

"!!!" Immediately, a sharp pain shot through all of his bones as he fell to the ground with a loud thud. Still, he didn't let the stone out of his hand, proceeding to absorb the bizarre energy from within the gemstone.

[59%]

[64%]

[71%]

Suddenly, a screen appeared in front of Cale with many different numbers forming on it. Unfortunately, Cale didn't have enough time to examine them closely as he proceeded to pump the energy from the stone into his body.

For some reason, this sensation felt addictive.

[98%]

[99%]

.

.

.

.

[Activating]

-

[Name: Cale]

[Current Condition: Statisfied]

[Divine Powers: None]

[Qi: Early Rank Dispicle]

-

As a lot of other screens popped up around Cale, his skull fell to the ground, sending a powerful shockwave through his bones. He was so exhausted that he couldn't even muster the strength to lift his chin.

"Why do I feel so refreshed?" Cale asked himself, glancing at the gemstone in his hand. To his surprise, it didn't shimmer with the rainbow colors as it had earlier but turned bearish.

"Damn it! I gotta get out of here!" Cale immediately righted himself from the spot, only to fall back to the ground. Although he felt stronger, that didn't change the fact that Cale had no way to win against these guards, so he had to get out of here as soon as possible!

Tap! Tap!

Suddenly, soft footsteps echoed from the other side of the door as Cale immediately looked up, his body subconsciously crawling into the corner. After a few more steps, the door handle finally moved, and two figures stepped into the room.

"So why do you need my help, Professor Kelton?" asked the guard.

"Nothing difficult, you just need t--What!?" Kelton's face contorted as he saw the scene in his lab, "WHAT HAPPENED!!!?"

"What's wrong, Professor?" the guard muttered, slightly confused as he looked around the room. However, when he saw the empty piece of stone lying on the floor, his face darkened.

"QUICKLY INFORM THE PRINCESS! CLOSE ALL THE GATES! DON'T LET ANYONE LEAVE THE KINGDOM!" Kelton pushed the guard out of the room who sprinted through the corridor at the fastest speed he could muster.

After the guard disappeared, Kelton grabbed his hair, pushing it forth with visible rage on his face. "MY NOTEBOOK!" he added, rushing towards the bloody table.

He promptly retrieved a metallic key from his pocket and opened the box under the table. Fortunately, the dark notebook was still secure as the professor's expression eased up.

"I've only been gone for a few minutes, and already something like this has happened...Does this mean that other kingdoms have already found out about our plans?" wondered Kelton with a calm expression. The energy of the stone was stolen, but as long as all his research isn't taken, it's only a matter of time before he makes a new gemstone.

"But it's truly bizarre...there were no Qi fluctuations in the area and if someone wanted to force that energy into another source, it certainly wouldn't be a job of a few minutes" Kelton took the stone in his hand and inspected it closely, "Why didn't the thief just take the stone and run away? Wouldn't that make his job a whole lot easier?"

"So strange..."

While the professor and everyone else in the kingdom panicked, Cale watched everything intently from the corner. Although he could probably take advantage of the current situation and attack the professor, it still wouldn't end well for him in the end, especially now that the entire kingdom was in an uproar.

'I should understand what is the use of this screen' Cale directed his attention to the blue screens that kept appearing in his vision.

'What the hell is that?' A huge question mark formed above his skull.