Spoiler Alert!
Unhhh…
Did you pass out again? That game was so much fun, as always!
Huh?
Where are you?
You look around and find yourself on a cliff overlooking a forest.
Weren’t you in your room just now?
You look at your hands.
You’re wearing…gauntlets?!
Very familiar gauntlets for some reason…
You look over yourself…you’re covered head to toe in full-body silver armor!
Isn’t this the armor of Arc, your avatar in the online game you played just last night?!
You reach over your back…yes, your sword Caladbolg is there!
Wow! It feels a bit heavy, but it’s really in your hand!
Maybe…
You aim at the trees behind you and imagine yourself using the Wyvern Strike skill from the game.
Suddenly, you feel a strong force emanate from the sword, cutting a swath of trees in half!
Seriously??!!
Arc should be a Heavenly Knight now, so he shouldn’t be able to use a Knight skill like Wyvern Strike.
Is it possible that you could use all the skills from your character’s previous classes?
Let’s see…there’s Mage, Sorcerer, Summoner, Warrior, Knight, Holy Knight, Priest, Bishop and Pope.
Could you use skills from all these prerequisite classes for Heavenly Knight?!
This is way too convenient!
Let’s try the Dimensional Step skill. It’s a skill that can transport the avatar to any location on the map and it can be used for in-game emergency escapes. The cooldown time is pretty short too.
You look at the sky in front of the cliff and think, “Dimensional Step!”
You find yourself in the sky. After a few seconds, you look ahead and use the Step again. In this world, it seems to work like a short-distance teleport spell. It’s almost like you’re flying!
…
The sun’s setting…how long has it been?
You’ve had so much fun “flying” that you lost track of time!
Despite wearing armor, you don’t feel hot or tired at all.
Ah, a river.
Maybe a drink will help…
You take off your helmet and reach into the river…
Not good…
Skeleton Knight in Another World (骸骨騎士様、只今異世界へお出掛け中, Gaikotsu Kishi–sama, Tadaima Isekai e o Dekake-chuu) is a web novel, light novel series and manga written by Ennki Hakari (秤 猿鬼, Hakari Enki).
After passing out from a long night of playing an MMORPG, a middle-aged salaryman wakes up in an unfamiliar world, possessing the body of his in-game character, Arc the Heavenly Knight. He quickly learns that he also retains the various powers he earned from the online game. Unfortunately, Arc retains the appearance he set his character at in the game – a skeleton hidden only by his full body armor. Deciding that money and survival are his first goals, Arc comes upon and rescues a noble lady and her maid from bandits. The two women then guide him to the town of Lubielte, where he registers himself as an adventurer.
At a bandit hideout, Arc releases and befriends a small, fox-like creature that he names Ponta. Later, he finds a gang of slavers transporting elf slaves. Suddenly, a female elf with white hair attacks the slavers and Arc comes out to help her. After the slaves are released, the white-haired elf introduces herself as Ariane Glenys Maple and recruits his aid in following the slavers’ trade route. Arc and Ariane gradually uncover a criminal organization in the Roden Kingdom secretly sponsored by several human nobles. Along the way, they meet and eventually befriend the beastwoman ninja Chiyome, who is on her own mission to free beastman slaves.
After the organization’s boss is killed, Ariane invites Arc and Chiyome to Lalatoia, her hometown in the Great Kanada Forest. There, they learn of a magical spring located in the valley of the nearby Dragon Lords Mountain Range. Several days later, they find the spring and Arc bathes in it. Although he briefly gains flesh, he faints from shock a moment later and his new flesh disappears. A local dragon later tells Arc that his original body is still on his original world and that the sudden shock of fully regaining that body could potentially kill him. Having now acquired resistance to the spring’s magic, Arc resolves to find another way to regain his flesh. Arc, Ariane and Chiyome then set off for the southern continent after hearing another elven agent’s report about fighting a robed warrior using two swords there. Upon learning this, Chiyome becomes particularly interested…
Main Characters
Arc, an adventurer and a former Japanese salaryman. Easygoing, practical and principled, he always looks for ways to earn or acquire more money, but he will stick to his moral code whenever it counts. A fan of anime, movies and video games, he sometimes quotes them either aloud or in his mind. Arc’s emotions are somewhat stunted because of his skeletal state, but he still needs to eat and sleep like other people. Later in the story, he is made an honorary citizen of the dark elven town of Lalatoia by Ariane’s mother Glenys, thus giving him the name Arc Lalatoia.
Arc’s armor, cloak, shield and sword are all high-quality, magical items from his online game that grant him physical resistances (e.g. curse resistance, fire resistance, knockdown resistance) and ability boosts (e.g. agility up, attack up, defense up). Although his main character class is Heavenly Knight, Arc retains the levels he earned in previous prerequisite classes from the online game. As a result, he has a wide plethora of combat abilities, arcane spells and divine spells, in addition to his Heavenly Knight abilities. His most notable abilities are Dimensional Step (instant movement to anywhere within line-of-sight), Lightning Downpour (a storm of lightning bolts within a targeted area) and Summoning (can summon powerful monsters including giant beasts and archangels). Because he was an ordinary man with no actual combat experience, Arc relies mostly on his overpowered abilities but he gradually becomes a skilled fighter over time.
Ponta, a small, fox-like female spirit beast, known as a bento volpiz. Curious, gluttonous and a bit spoiled, she became loyal to Arc after he rescued her from slavers. Ponta’s companionship is what convinces others that Arc can be trusted.
Ariane Glenys Maple, a 50-year old dark elf agent of the Dark Elf Kingdom in the Great Kanada Forest. Decisive yet righteous, she conceals a softer side such as getting embarrassed over her family with outsiders. Over time, Ariane’s feelings for Arc grow to the point that she gets jealous whenever he is kind to other women, despite her own denials of such. Like other dark elves, her full name consists of her first name (Ariane), her same-sex parent’s first name (Glenys, her mother) and the name of her current home (the capital city of Maple). As a covert agent, Ariane is skilled in swordsmanship, magic and stealth.
Chiyome (birth name Mia), a beastwoman ninja of the Jinsin Clan. Gentle yet professional when on a job, she holds her loyalty to her clan above all else. Orphaned as a child by human bandits and adopted by the Jinsin Clan, she trained hard in ninjutsu in order to conquer her own weaknesses. Eventually, she became skilled enough to earn the name “Chiyome”, one of seven names inherited only by the best Jinsin ninjas. Chiyome can throw and wield kunai with great skill and is an expert in stealth and subterfuge. She can also use water spirit magic.
Personal Thoughts
Aside from the main hero having the body of a skeleton under his armor, this story is a fairly straightforward sequence of heroic quests (e.g. rescuing slaves, uncovering conspiracies). As long as Arc remains careful in revealing his unusual appearance, he has few real problems to deal with because he is very powerful. He also quickly gains the trust of others with his unselfish behavior (and Ponta’s companionship), so people learn to trust him and won’t mind his appearance that much if he reveals it.
Although Arc’s personal goal is to regain his flesh and blood, he seems to have no solid plan on how to do so for now. Despite this, he still helps his friends and fights with them. Being generally selfless and practical, he also fights for what he believes in and to acquire enough money to sustain himself. There is no single overall goal in the story, so the heroes push forward doing what they believe in or following clues when they are found.
Often, we find ourselves lost in life or realize there’s a long-term problem that cannot be solved anytime soon. At times like these, the only thing we can do is press on. We do whatever we feel is right or whatever can help others until we find a solution or come to terms with the problem itself. I had a relative who was dying from cancer for almost two decades who decided to enjoy life as fully as possible by travelling to various countries and trying out new foods. By moving forward and doing what she believed in, she lived life with no regrets.
Moral
There are times when the only thing we can do is move forward.
Isekai Eye 