Skeleton King

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

VILLAINS AREN'T BORN, THEY'RE MADE.

Awakening in a dungeon within a strange new world, Kaden finds himself trapped in the body of a skeleton. Struggling to survive without any allies or guidance, he's forced to defend himself against the world's inhabitants who deem him a threat.

Meanwhile, a mysterious entity that claims ownership of his soul operates in the shadows, weaving a secret web of plans with untold consequences.

As Kaden seeks a way to reclaim his humanity and free himself of his servitude, he must gain the power to control his own fate and defy the entity binding his soul.

What To Expect

- Weak-To-Strong

- Character Development

- Non-Human MC

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2024
Author: TheHawkk

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Views: 341

Chapters(29 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

Thane of HyruleRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Great writing, great story. The MC is engaging and I’m loving Slib! The level up system is well done and interesting!
The writing is very descriptive, and orients the reader easily to what is happening in the story - creating a vivid picture in the mind of the reader.
I’m looking forward to see how the story develops and how the MC evolves. A great read!
bnazRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Don’t get many stories about skeletons around these parts. Story is still in the early phase, so tbd on how the character progresses, but so far so good. Main character isn’t some savant that can game the system. They are figuring things out and utilizing whatever advantages they can find. While I do hope to see the MC one day become OP and start taking names and kicking ass, we aren’t there yet.
KatjiezRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Style:
The story is quite dark and filled with struggle, often with a feeling of, hopelessness but fighting back against it despite the bleak situation. E.g never giving up.
Seems to be mostly 3rd person limited with maybe a dash of omniscient thrown in sometimes.
Story:
Pacing is good and I'm very interested to see how the plot keeps developing. Theres a sense of mystery in the background that makes it hard to wait for more. I just want to find out what happens immediately.
Grammar:
Very good. I haven't caught many mistakes, and of the ones I did they were rather minor. I think once or twice I saw a sentence repeated that looked like it should've been deleted, but again, all minor stuff and didn't ruin my immersion.
Character:
Theres not many characters yet, but the main character is interesting and well rounded. His behavior is realistic in the situation he is in, and sort of fluctatues back and forth a little. The character development seems to be a strong focus, and I feel like I understand the main character well.
For the other characters or races, it is easy to tell them apart in their behavior, which makes the world feel grounded and real.
Mark HRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Ive been reading this and I gotta say im really into it. The main character is kinda twisted but in a cool way. You can see him slowly turning into more of a monster as the story goes on and im actually enjoying seeing him get darker and more evil. Im rooting for him and waiting for him to become more of a bad guy hopefully in not too long.
The goblins in the story are super funny. Theyre like not very intelligent and their behavior is kinda weird but I always find myself smiling when theyre there so im really enjoying the current situation where the story is at. The story is rather dark at times so it helps having them there to be ridicoulus and lighten things up. Its a good contrast to the main characters usual brooding.
For me the writing and style is good, not perfect or whatever but keeps me hooked. Neither any issues with the grammar but ehh its not really something I usually worry about anyway. The background plots are setup well and I get a sense that there are a lot of things going on that its building up to, the author has done a few very short POV changes that I think worked well.
This is a good story to read if youre into monster main characters and overall dark villainy stories.
Rookie12Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Before you, we have a reincarnation story. Our MC, Kaden, clearly has a tragic past, as we have seen in how he passed from his original world. But, where such a thing is used to invoke sympathy for a character in other works (and it does work here, don't get me wrong), the author explores it further, and you can see how the past life influences the boy's decision in the new one.
The MC is taken by some unknown entity and is thrust into the body of a monster, then cast into a dungeon (or a maze). Right from the start, we understand that this isn't a kind world and that even death can't bring Kaden liberation. Driven by stemming from both his past and his current body, Kaden begins his journey to grow strong enough.
Style: The passing is fast and organic; the descriptions are brief, but enough to give you an idea of how the situation and people looks. There is an abundance of swearing, but it actually works, considering how young the MC was before he was thrust into this world. I hear the use of such words from the youngsters all the time and won't fault the author for authenticity. Five stars.
Worldbuilding: There is a system that gives us enough info about classes. But the world itself feels a bit like a simulation. Even discounting monsters, the humans make way too many mistakes considering how dangerous this place is. We have an intriguing mystery involving Kaden's patron, but otherwise there is not much to say about the setting. Four stars.
Grammar: Take it with a grain of salt. I am not a native English speaker, but I have found no mistakes. Five stars.
Story: It is very character-based. You see how Kaden is edging on committing vile acts; you can understand why he would be ready to make them (if being good didn't work out in the past life, why try now?) and how he is stubborn enough not to give in to darkness from the start. It is curious to see if Kaden would fall and become a murder hobo or ascend in the end, so five stars from me here.
Character: Kaden is ne
pirak manRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
First of all, it is well written, something which has become more and more important to me over the years, having read countless japanese light novel style novels on this site, where everything is one short sentence after the next. I like a mix of sentences that vary in length and aren't just the same all over. I've been here for a number of years, and the dominance of short paragraphs is still widespread on here. Short paragraphs are fine, short sentences are fine, but not when it is the only thing. Gets really boring.
More than that, I think it is just really fun. I really enjoyed the first few chapters, which have an almost sort of roguelike feel to them because
the main character respawns quite a lot, and its like each time hes a little smarter or better equipped for what comes next. I hope the main character dies more because its an interesting mechanic that I think is fun to read about. I enjoy it.
The pacing is great, and while not everything seems to tie in to the plot, everything does tie in to some sort of progression. I have yet to run into a chapter where I feel like I would have been better served as a reader, by it not being there. That's to say, theres no filler. Also a big plus because again, I have gotten quite used to a lot of webserials doing whatever they can to add padding, either by repeating themselves endlessly, or with entire chapters where nothing happens. There is some of that classic webserial stuff where we get to read about not so important thoughts and considerations in regards to skills and potential stuff about the world. I would rather be without it, but I do understand it is a stable partly because readers tend to enjoy it. It is thankfully quite toned down here and kept rather brief, and I don't feel like my time is wasted, so I can live with it.
SyennaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Read everything avaliable in less than a day! It just kept getting better and better the more I read. Sad to have caught up because I really can't wait for the next chapters to come out. Also the sort of evolution system for his skeleton thing is everything I ever wanted
ShadowOfWarRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This story is great, it's easy to read and very fun. I would binge 100 chapters of this if I could. I don't mind the occasional grammatical error as it doesn't affect the story at all thanks to the style and the fact that they are very small. I like how the main character has to fight against madness. The power leveling part is great.
LoltareeeeemRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Overall I would say that this story is really nice and captivating, the plot is always developing along side the MC, which I really enjoy.
Style: I don't enjoy the style much in the first chapter for me personally especially the use of single sentences in the first quarter of the first chapter, although it paint a really good picture for a starter, However, later on in the story I got no complain about the style.
Grammar: Yup. 5 Stars. No mistake found.
Story: Very strong plot. The story is really good and paint a really, REALLY dark picture of a life(afterlife?) of a teenage guy trying to survive. Can't wait to see how the plot will progress after he made it out of the cave
Character: I must admit I enjoy Kaden really much, from the profanity of a teenage guy and the will to resist himself from doing... stuff, but, right now it's feels a bit bland with Kaden being the only MC at the moment. It would be nice to see other side characters moving forward, with him going to be a skeleton king in the future(guessing from the title), I would enjoy him having a conversation with his subjects or even friends.
CaptainPompadourRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
STYLE
I really like the style for the most part -- it does a good job blending the personal voice of Kaden with the narrator's own, although sometimes it's to a fault. For instance, there was one time, in chapter 1, where the narration perspective all of a sudden just shifts to Kaden's. "I need to do this, I need to do that," but with no indication that these are internal thoughts.
I think it's an easy enough remedy, you could use italics to differentiate thoughts like that, or just give some kind of indication that we're rolling into internal monologue territory. Otherwise, the style is a lot of fun to read through. I found this one of the easier stories to get into so far.
Only other nitpick is that there's like...SO much swearing. I cuss like a sailor, so I'm not really a prude about that sort of thing, but it does get a little distracting in the earlier chapters. As I go through, though, it seems to dither out and gets replaced with nice, vivid descriptions of Kaden's inner turmoil. Good work especially in these last couple of chapters I've read.
CHARACTERS
Kaden is an interesting, well-rounded, three dimensional character. I can really feel the guy's struggle through the narration and his own internal thoughts. He reacts to just about everything in the same way one might expect anyone to -- has a realistic feel to him and it's been interesting getting to know the ins and outs of his character. I also really appreciate that he isn't just some edgelord with a bone to pick with the world, he's driven to do some pretty dark stuff purely because of the circumstances he's finding himself in.
As for some of the secondary characters so far, they could use a little work, like the adventuring party that came into the cave in the first and second chapters for instance. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it feels a bit like Kaden is the only one being somewhat reasonable so far? Then again, if I saw a talking skeleton in a cave I'd probably be pretty suspicious as well.