Manhwa / Skeleton Soldier Couldn't Protect the Dungeon

A dungeon belonging to a succubus queen is raided. She and all her servants are cut down, including a weak skeleton warrior with no notable achievements to his name. But right before he dies, he gains the ability to level up and gain power with experience. The first benefit this grants him is the ability to resurrect on death.

The skeleton soldier wakes up twenty years previously, on the day a necromancer first raised him from his grave. After he watches her cut down by bandits and is killed again, he discovers his strange "level up" abilities and slowly gains enough experience to save the necromancer.

With a second chance at life, he decides to continue on until he can meet the succubus who he so cherished. But the world is not kind to skeleton soldiers, and he faces danger at every turn.

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This manhwa provides examples of:

• Affably Evil: The High Priest of Botis is nothing but friendly to those he likes. He is also a Sadist that turns humans into furniture for his entertainment.
• Alas, Poor Villain: The spider queen dies trying to save her last egg.
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: The "Female Duke" Laurence/Laura, who seems to use both masculine and feminine pronouns, wears make up and a provocative dress, but also is extremely muscled and has a goatee. It's unknown whether they are nonbinary, a crossdresser, trans, or what, but they're so scarily efficient that no one bats an eye at them.
• Anti-Human Alliance: The Demon Lord Purson's followers are an alliance of various races that believe that humanity should be exterminated for harming them. A few of Purson's followers are Boomerang Bigot humans.
• Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: The skeleton soldier tries not to kill other skeletons. They don't share this sentiment, so he has to kill them in self-defense.
• The Archmage:
  • Isaac was one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world before he got cursed, and remains one of the world's most knowledgeable.
  • The mysterious author, Kevin Ashton, was even better versed in the world's secrets than Isaac, and his sheer mastery over the true nature of the world enabled him to create the spell that raised the skeleton soldier and manipulate the blue windows guiding the skeleton soldier's journey.
  • There are also the masters of the tower, who while greatly inferior to the above, are still capable of taking out entire armies single-handedly.
• Asshole Victim: A group of thugs, who run an orphanage where they abuse the children and sell them to corrupt nobles, get killed by Lime when an orphan girl ran away from the thugs and seeks protection at Lime's orphanage. The thugs demanded not only the girl back, but also wanted the rest of the orphans under his care to sell them as well.
• Attempted Rape:
  • The mercenaries Rubia's Evil Uncle hired to kill her decide to rape her before doing her in, but are presumably interrupted by the skeleton soldier's reset as he dies.
  • After Rubia is captured by slavers working for the Cult of Botis and commits suicide, one of them decides to rape Rubia's corpse, only to be attacked by the skeleton soldier and interrogated to find out what happened to her.
• Body Backup Drive: The Imperial Palace has a collection of People Jars containing empty clones of the world's historical heroes, others who could see the blue window. When the time is right, the Imperial Family plans to resurrect those heroes in these bodies, with themselves in charge.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: When faced with a hopeless battle against Duke Laurence, the skeleton soldier decides to turn his sword upon himself. In general, situations where he's doomed either way always present this as a viable option for the Skeleton, such as running into a Hopeless Boss Fight like Leandro or the Grey Knight with the only motivators to keep sticking around either sheer determination to keep fighting as long as he can or a desire to gain more information to avert this situation next time. Accordingly, the only real situations that pose a threat to the Skeleton are ones wherein he loses the option to terminate himself and 'undo' his present crisis, such as being turned into a mindless puppet by the High priest of Botis.
• Big Bad Ensemble:
  • While his presence is not directly felt, the demon, Botis, is worshiped by the Religion of Evil that secretly rules the empire, and he is the architect for many of the tragedies the skeleton soldier has been trying to prevent.
  • The mysterious Imperial Family has also been manipulating tragedies from behind the scenes. They are allied with Botis, but are also implied to hold their own agenda.
  • Even Botis and the Imperial Family are implied to be but servants of the Powers That Be, a Greater-Scope Villain that transcends the world itself.
• Big Bad Friend:
  • Duke Laurence is in love with Marquis Leandro and occasionally helps him even at the Cult of Botis's expense. It's too bad that, Incompatible Orientation and preexisting lover aside, Marquis Leandro tends to oppose the cult's plans more than the Duke can afford, which usually ends in Duke Laurence piercing Leandro's throat. Nevertheless, in a timeline where Leandro gets a better idea of what's at stake and confronts the Empire's corruption more aggressively, the Duke challenges him to an honorable duel to the death and happily dies by his hands.
  • The High Priest of Botis becomes this to the Skeleton Soldier after they briefly join forces in one of the cycles. Under his influence, the Skeleton Soldier starts showing sadistic tendencies and a complete disregard for human lives.
• Big Bad Wannabe: The Demon Lord Purson's followers expect him to help them Kill All Humans. He is outclassed by the other demon lords and is destined to die quickly when the demon lords join the war.
• Big Good: The mysterious author, Kevin Ashton, who appears to be responsible for guiding the skeleton soldier's journey.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
  • Rena is introduced playing a flirtatious maiden while planning to kill the other two members of her party and steal their riches. However, she grows attached to the skeleton soldier over time. After completing her scenario, her past is rewritten, making it so that she was adopted instead of having to survive in that way.
  • Vibiro, Honorary Duke of the Empire is a gentle-looking old man that spends his time tending to the poor and giving gifts to the kids. He's also the High Priest of Botis and the one pulling the strings behind everything wrong in the empire, as well as a Sadist that turns humans into furniture for his entertainment.
• Body Double: Even Isaac hasn't seen any members of the actual Imperial Family for centuries. All apparent appearances are actually dolls standing in for them.
• Book Worm: With her father's help, Rubia built up a library of rare books that she likes to peruse.
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • Staying inside a dungeon too long causes Skeleton Soldier to assimilate with it and view any intruders as enemies to be slain for the sake of his succubus mistress. Before, he was very willing to just let people go unless they attacked him and would even let them run if they did, but when the dungeon is affecting him he even attacks his ally Rena without a second thought.
  • Demon Lord Botis corrupts the minds of anyone that comes into contact with him, twisting them into sadistic monsters who's the only goal in life is to fulfill his every whim.
• Brawn Hilda: Part of why Christina is nicknamed, the Ogre. She has enough raw strength to rip apart metal and she has a rather masculine appearance.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Played for Laughs. The skeleton soldier shows ample evidence that he knows Isaac quite well. Even before learning about the resets, Isaac does not find it at all surprising that he doesn't recognize the skeleton soldier, assumes that he's one of the countless people he's wronged, and immediately starts groveling for mercy.
• Butter Face: The right side of Gilles de Rais's body is a beautiful orange haired woman who could pass for Rubia's sister, but the left side of her body is a strange skeleton, even having bone hair. How much of her body is like this is unclear, though at the very least her arm is also skeletal.
• Butterfly of Doom:
  • For all the skeleton soldier's significant meddling, the overall shape of the future remains unchanged. However, Isaac wonders what will happen as all the skeleton soldier's small changes continue to build up.
  • With Nanyau Ret-Gone, the T&T guild she founded still exists, but was founded by a relative instead and goes by a different name.
  • With Isaac Ret-Gone, the Chandler noble family that he enslaved with Mind Manipulation is a lot more powerful, ambitious, and ruthless. Particularly notable is the fact that Rubia's family are no longer nobility in this timeline, their lands instead just being part of the Chandlers'.
• The Chessmaster:
  • Kevin Ashton appears to be responsible for setting up the skeleton soldier's entire journey, correctly predicting a lot of the situations the skeleton soldier would get involved in and providing the skeleton soldier with hints as if by coincidence.
  • The Skeleton Soldier starts developing into one by sheer necessity over the course of his first couple of loops, going from stumbling from one encounter to the next in a desperate attempt to prevent the death of those close to him and getting blindsided by an unexpected outcome that forces him to work in further variables into his future attempts once he resets, to somebody that accurately predicts said variables well in advance and takes action to either neutralise or adapt them to his benefit. One example is Yublam. The first time the skeleton soldier approaches it, he ends up letting Rubia get killed by letting her walk into it unprotected, and his Revenge upon the Necron society working in the town leads to him being tricked and killed by his only apparent ally inside the town in one loop when he gives him a flamethrower that is as dangerous to the Skelton as it is to his enemies. Later loops have him successfully infiltrate the town and use his knowledge of it's inner workings to kill the thugs in ways that obscure his involvement, so as not to alert those in a position of power with an interest into the town's criminal dealings of his existence, gaining his Iconic Item in the process. This goes further when he successfully makes an ally out of Issac, whose knowledge of the world and insight of it's inner workings proves invaluable when paired with the Skeleton's looping ability and increasing repertoire of abilities, allowing them both to make the correct choices and actions needed to draw closer to their goals without alerting the Government Conspiracy and various allied forces that would use the Skeleton for their own ends.
• The Chooser of the One: Kevin Ashton is a mysterious author who understands the true nature of the world better than any other mortal. He also appears to be the one responsible for guiding the skeleton soldier's journey and was the person who left the spell that awakened him in the first place.
• The Chosen Many: While the skeleton soldier and Rubia are the only ones known to be active, there have been a number of heroes who could see the blue window throughout history. The Imperial Family plans to resurrect most of them under their control.
• The Chosen One: Kevin Ashton and the mysterious power behind the blue windows have been guiding the skeleton soldier to fulfill certain tasks, complete certain stories, and ultimately rewrite the path upon which the world has been traversing.
• The Chosen Wannabe: Isaac had no doubt that he was special, and is disappointed to confirm that the blue window exists, and he is not among the people capable of seeing it.
• Clock Roaches: As best as Isaac can tell, the true purpose of the Gray Knight is to protect casualty. If destiny goes too far off course, the Gray Knight warps in to kill off the people distorting it.
• Clone Army: When the Cult of Botis needs full control over someone, they will usually kill them and feed their corpse to a worm, which will then take on the appearance, personality, and abilities of the person it fed on while obeying the cult. It is possible to feed the corpse to more than one worm, making it useful for building an Elite Army if the victim in question is a highly skilled warrior like Leandro.
• Co-Dragons: Duke Laurence and the High Priest of Botis are the highest-ranking members of The Conspiracy controlling the Empire. The High Priest controls the Cult of Botis and the Archduke controls the nobles. Both answer to the demon, Botis, the apparent Big Bad. Neither of them completely get along, especially since the Archduke feels Unrequited Love for Marquis Leandro, who sometimes gets in the way of their plans.
• Consummate Liar: Isaac plays the skeleton soldier like a fiddle, telling lies both big and small. When the skeleton soldier decides to recruit his help in a new reset, part of the deal is to stop lying. This condition clearly causes Isaac a great deal of suffering and even as badly as he wants this alliance he can still only make himself agree to not lie for a limited time.
• Cool Big Sis: Rena acts as one towards the younger children at the orphanage, including her actual little sister.
• Creepy Crossdresser: A high ranking agent of the Cult of Botis that leads The Ghosts, is a buff bearded man wearing a red dress called The Lady.
• Crusading Widow: By default, Marquis Leandro's secret lover is killed by Gill de Rais when Gill assassinates the (decoy) Emperor. Marquis Leandro will then try to investigate the circumstances behind her death and take vengeance, which always ends in him getting killed. In one timeline, the skeleton soldier takes her armor, which then makes him the main target of Marquis Leandro's revenge. Usually, it results in him interfering with the Cult of Botis's plans, which leads to him getting killed by Duke Laurence.
• Curse: Isaac was once one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world, but has since been Depowered and lost his physical body. Isaac says that the goddesses placed him under a curse as punishment for desecrating their temple with a brothel. In actuality, it's because in his quest to master the secrets of magic and the world, he attempted to intrude upon their domain. After trying to break into the realm where the rules of the world are defined by force, he was repulsed and reduced to his current state.
• Damsel in Distress: Rubia in most timelines. While she has slowly grown stronger over the resets, she usually lead a comfortable life before needing the skeleton soldier, and when the timeline changes enough for her to even have one, her job doesn't exactly specialize in combat, like Rena's. Furthermore, the Imperial Family has a strange obsession with her territory, making her a target. Even when changes to the timeline turn her into a popular government official as opposed to a noble, the Chandler family targets her to abuse that popularity.
• Dark and Troubled Past: In Rena's original past, she had to murder and rob in order to survive after she and her sister were orphaned. After completing her scenario, her past is rewritten to make it so that she and her sister were adopted.
• Deal with the Devil: It is possible to make contracts with demons in return for borrowing the demon's power. Demons loan more power to those who win their favor. One of the best ways to win a demon's favor is Human Sacrifice. Even the most lenient contracts allow the demon to keep an eye on their contractor, some allow the demon to manipulate, possess, or kill the contractor whenever they please.
  • The skeleton soldier's first demon contract is with the demon, Malphas. This contract is largely beneficial and boosts his power greatly. It helps that Malphas is opposed to Botis, the Big Bad, and is comparatively sympathetic towards humanity relative to the other demons. Nevertheless, the skeleton soldier feels uncomfortable with letting Malphas watch him and figures that the end of their contract is for the best.
  • The skeleton soldier later signs a contract with Botis, the Big Bad, figuring that this is a good chance to learn the inner workings of the Religion of Evil that runs the empire as well as improving Rubia's New Game Plus when time is next reset. At least for that timeline, this contract goes a lot more poorly, since the skeleton soldier and Rubia are both corrupted by Botis's Mind Manipulation. However, the skeleton soldier manages to uncover a lot of valuable secrets, and gains a powerful resistance to mental attacks as a reward for breaking free.
• Deflector Shields: When signing a contract with Botis, those whom Botis favors the most are protected by a magical barrier strong enough to block the strongest attacks the skeleton soldier can produce.
• Dem Bones: The title character is in fact a living skeleton.
• De-power:
  • Isaac was once one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world and ruled his own country. But after ticking off the goddesses by trying to break into the place where the rules of the world are defined, they cursed him, causing him to lose his original body and become unable to use most of his power. Using too much of the power he has left also attracts their notice, resulting in them trying to take him down even further. He recovers his full power after absorbing enough Lulium, only for the Administrators to Ret-Gone him as punishment for throwing the world Off the Rails.
  • It is implied that the skeleton soldier's true self was considerably stronger than he is now, and a higher power is keeping him under constraint as a nameless mere skeleton soldier.
    • When he finally manages to force the world completely Off the Rails, he attracts the attention of a pair of apparent system administrators. They retaliate by attempting to Ret-Gone him. They discover to their surprise that they are unable to erase everything, but they do succeed in depriving him of all of his stats and skills. Nevertheless, his previous memory of having those skills allows him to relearn them faster.
• Divine Right of Kings: There are signs that the Imperial Family is fake and fraudulent, but they claim that their right to power is derived from their alleged ancestor, the First Emperor, the one who saved humanity from the Apostles. The Merchant's Union, which has strong ideals of a system of laws and meritocracy, hates the Imperial Family's claim to authority by right of being sacred beings, opposing them on principle.
• Driving Question:
  • Who is "Kevin Ashton"?
  • What are the "blue windows" and what is the true nature of the world?
  • Who was the skeleton soldier in life, why is the world suppressing his original identity, and why did Kevin Ashton choose him? It is heavily implied that he was or was connected to the First Emperor, Saeron.
  • What is the assimilation rate that keeps appearing around the Skeleton Soldier referring to and what causes it to go down? What will happen to the Skeleton Soldier once it hits Zero? Notably, when the Skeleton first resets, the assimilation rate is shown at 97.3% rather than 100, implying that something already caused it to decrease during his first life, despite the skeleton having never experienced the RPG Mechanics 'Verse aspect of the blue windows prior to that point. It is implied that the world's Genius Loci has sealed most of the skeleton soldier's abilities and original identity, and the decreasing assimilation rate reflects the world's control over him slipping.
• Elaborate Underground Base: The real Imperial Palace (as opposed to the fake the ministers go to) is concealed behind illusions and a Pocket Dimension. It is filled with treasure, laboratories, books, and other supplies, apparently designed to let the Imperial Family hide out from The End of the World as We Know It that they themselves plan to bring about.
• Enemy Rising Behind: The Skeleton Soldier himself does this to the hammer-wielding mercenary hunting Rubia upon his first resurrection, punctuated by Dramatic Thunder as he hoists a massive rock overhead. Unfortunately, even with the sneak attack, he's not strong enough to kill the mercenary in a single blow and lets his guard down for his target to return the favour with his hammer.
• Engineered Heroics: The protagonists speculate that the Imperial Family's Evil Plan is to start a long and bloody war, use the spilled blood to summon all of the demon lords, allow them to massacre most of humanity while they hide in a secure location, and then unleash The Chosen Many to kill the very demon lords they summoned. When the demon lords are slain, they will come out of their hiding place to portray themselves as the saviors of humanity to the survivors.
• Enlightenment Superpowers: Magic is based on understanding the connections between the outer world and inner world and manipulating them. Kevin Ashton was able to setup the skeleton soldier's journey by understanding these connections better than any other mortal. The goddesses reside within the deepest parts of the inner world itself where the rules of the world are defined, though they are mostly content to observe.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Isaac is distraught to learn that the followers of the Demon Lord Purson massacred all of his descendants and offered them up as Human Sacrifices.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": All non-hostile people refer to the skeleton soldier as Sir Knight. Even he doesn't remember his true name.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The High Priest of Botis promises the skeleton soldier that he will make Rubia into a powerful lord. He genuinely cannot understand why the skeleton soldier is horrified when Rubia is Reforged into a Minion.
• Evil Uncle: Rae Kurk's relationship with his niece, Rubia. His brother's best efforts to make him a decent person failed, and he was only too happy to work with his brother's killers in return for becoming a puppet lord. Even after claiming the lordship, it was under his orders that Rubia was killed in the first few timelines. Several timelines in, Ruby finally managed to kill him in a duel. After that, Isaac is Ret-Gone, and the absence of the extremely powerful Evil Sorceror drastically changes history for the worse. After this, a more powerful and evil version of the Chandler family owns what was Rubia's territory in previous timelines. Rubia herself is no longer a noble heir, but a popular government official, and Rae Kurk completely ceases to be relevant.
• Exact Words: Skeleton soldier is given a flamethrower that shoots unquenchable flames and a fire retardant powder that he's told will keep him from feeling the heat. He uses the flamethrower, torches a bunch of thugs and spiders, and suddenly melts, unaware that he was in any danger. He couldn't feel the heat, but it wasn't actually protecting him as he thought.
• Explosive Leash: Lower ranking members of the Cult of Botis are given a magical snake tattoo. Botis can make the snake strangle them if they start divulging the cult's secrets.
• Failure Knight: It's right there in the title. The first thing that ever happened to the skeleton soldier was he failed to protect the necromancer who raised him; apparently, the next twenty years weren't much better, and he died failing to protect his succubus queen. Many of his lives end with him being unable to protect his allies. The ending of season 3 hits him with this the hardest yet, once he finally succeeds in irrevocably throwing the events the World wants to proceed Off the Rails, the System administrators personally appear and Retgone Issac and Nanyau, before initiating a Cosmic Reset, with the Skeleton Soldier barely managing to trigger his revival as they attempt to remove his existence as well and partially fail, instead erasing all his accumulated skills, stats and abilities, resulting in him being returned to his grave without any of the abilities or allies he'd become reliant on to progress in the scenarios, effectively putting him back to worse than square 1.
• Fantastic Racism: Everyone attacks the skeleton soldier on sight, which is probably understandable since normal skeletons are mindlessly aggressive. But even when they find out that he can talk and he politely asks them to leave him alone, they still attack, since skeletons are usually very weak. However, Rena's past let her see him as a potential ally.
  • Marquis Leandro demonstrates a deep hatred of non-human beings that heavily implies It's Personal with them for some unspecified reason, looking down on the Skeleton Soldier as just another monster to be killed irrespective of the circumstances and being continually dismissive of his presence every time they meet, looking upon him as a mere pawn of those who revived him, rather that an individual following his own agency. At one point he tracks the Skeleton Soldier down once he steals the Guard Captain's armour in the aftermath of Gill de Rais' assassination attempt on the Emperor, but instead of killing him, takes him hostage under the belief that he's following the will of his summoner and to lure them out, never even considering the possibility that the skeleton was acting under his own will. In another loop, the Skelton Soldier sets up a meeting with Leandro to discuss the ongoing corruption in the empire and request that they collaborate to root them out, hoping to avoid an unnecessary conflict. The skeleton soldier even tells him about his eventual deaths, and the Skelton's own revival ability, proving it by tossing him a metal emblem he learned was a Trust Password between Leandro and his secret lover in prior loops. Leandro pretends to be listening... only to try and attack the Skeleton Soldier mid-sentence and making it clear that rather than trusting him, the Soldier has only cemented his decision to kill him immediately, disregarding whatever advantages working with him would bring out of blind disgust towards him. Leandro's mother was killed by a monster, so he sees it as his duty to cut down monsters in order to avenge her death and reduce the amount of evil in the world.
  Leandro: This token is not something a monster like you should have. No matter what information you have, it's over. Now, sparing your life is out of the question.
• Feel No Pain: The skeleton soldier and Rena are given a powder that will keep them from feeling the heat of a magical fire they'll use to wipe out a cave of spider monsters. As a result of using it, the skeleton soldier doesn't realize it's harming him until his body melts.
• Flaming Sword: A swordsman that has obtained enlightenment can manifest energy in their blade. A swordsman that also happens to be a mage can infuse their blade with spells, including literal fire.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When he first awakens after being killed in Chapter 1, the Skeleton Soldier shows no surprise or confusion at the blue window that appears to tell him his stats and inform him of his 'successful transmission', showing only puzzlement at the meaning of the phrase and that his lv has returned to 1 despite him retaining the stats he had as a lv 36 skeleton soldier. It turns out later on that the soldier had always been able to see the blue windows, and assumed that everybody else can see them as well, being surprised that they are apparently unique to only himself and certain other people of importance.
  • In her introductory chapter, Rena claims to have no problems working with the skeleton soldier because she hates humans. It's later revealed she was raised at an orphanage run by a slime monster that disguises itself as a human.
  • Two specific "Scenarios" are locked to the Skeleton Soldier; the one involving Gill the Necromancer and Lady Karin. It's stated he needs to fulfill some other requirements before these scenarios can "properly" unlock. Gill herself might have provided the requirement as she gave the Skeleton Soldier a cryptic Trust Password just before she died a second time, now believing he really can travel through time.
• Founder of the Kingdom: The First Emperor, Saeron, is the one who saved humanity from beings known as Apostles. The Imperial Family claims to be his descendants, though the fact that they have all somehow inherited his silver hair regardless of in-laws has left some people suspicious that they might be fake.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: A very brief one. The Skeleton Soldier needs a lot of Lulium and the easiest and safest way to get it would just be to take the blood of the thieves' guild founder. However, not only has she been a been a loyal and helpful ally, she's also responsible for taking in Rena and giving her a place to stay after he partially rewrote her Dark and Troubled Past. Since Lulium doesn't respawn when the Skeleton Soldier travels back to a checkpoint, this would have consequences well beyond just betraying her for a single timeline. It turns out Isaac was expecting the Skeleton Soldier to reject this suggestion, and only brought it up to make his subsequent riskier suggestion seem more palatable by comparison.
• Friend to All Children: Slime loves children and runs a human orphanage. Slime is also a member of Purson's Anti-Human Alliance and believes the human race should be exterminated. Needless to say, the contradictory feelings cause Slime to have a mental breakdown when the war Purson's followers have been so eager for finally arrives.
• Gave Up Too Soon: Long ago, humanity was being wiped out by beings known as Apostles. Many of them took refuge in underground tunnels. After living without hope for too long, they gave up and committed mass suicide. If they had waited just a little bit longer, the first emperor would have saved them like he did the rest of humanity.
• Ghost Amnesia: The skeleton soldier has no memory of who he was in life. Every time he gets close to recovering it, the world interferes and forcefully shuts it out of his mind again. The skeleton soldier suspects that he might not have even had an ego before Mistress Succubus started talking to him, being little different than other low ranking skeleton soldiers.
• Godhood Seeker: Isaac wishes to learn the true nature of the world, and when suggesting long-term goals for the skeleton soldier, implies that he should consider this.
• Go Out with a Smile: Duke Laurence dies with a smile, happy to die by Marquis Leandro's hands.
• Government Conspiracy: On the surface, the Empire is run by a traditional feudal hierarchy, with an Emperor on top and land-owning nobles beneath him. But behind the scenes, the Empire is actually run by what amount to a series of interlocked criminal conspiracies, including the secretive Imperial Family and a Religion of Evil known as the Cult of Botis. The nobles hold some power, but when they don't do as the cult or Imperial Family want, they tend to get purged under mysterious circumstances.
• Grand Theft Me: Isaac lost his original body long ago thanks to a curse from the goddesses. In the first timeline in which they meet, Isaac determines that the skeleton soldier's body will make a perfect vessel for his essence and steals it. With the skeleton soldier lacking in skills and willpower, he is unable to resist. It ends up backfiring when Isaac attempts to transfer the skeleton soldier's soul into a helpless trinket, only for the spell to rebound on him.
• Greater-Scope Villain: It is implied that the world itself is a malevolent Genius Loci that has been manipulating humanity into disaster and has been opposing the Skeleton Knight specifically. Isaac speculates that their ultimate enemy is a being that surpasses even the goddesses.
• Hammerspace: The skeleton soldier is eventually bestowed the power to produce an inventory he can store his stuff in. It works by basically turning off an object's presence in the outer world. It is actually a form of divine power that can be used for far more than just storing stuff, such as forming an impassible barrier that the Skeleton can use to corral his enemies if needed When the Skeleton is partially affected by an attempt to Retgone his existence despite loosing all the stats and skills that were directly tied to his body, it turns out he still retained access to the inventory along with several items that were looted from the underground of the royal palace, despite the Cosmic Retcon and time looping meaning he shouldn't have them by that point, meaning the inventory and items within it has some resistance against the Administrator's absolute control over the world.
• Hated by All: Selfish, cruel, and incompetent, nobody actually likes Rae Kurk. The people of Erast only obey him out of fear of the Imperial Family. Even the Imperial Family is only supporting him as an obedient puppet lord and will readily kill him if he messes up. While fending off the Imperial Family is a different matter, claiming Rubia's rightful position is very easy. In one timeline, all it took was for the skeleton soldier to kill the handful of guards working for the Imperial Family and for Rubia to assert herself in front of the local soldiers, who were more than happy to side with her against Kurk.
• Hellish Horse: After unlocking the Skeleton Knight skill tree, he gains the ability to summon a Skeleton Horse at will.
• Helpful Hallucination: At a particularly bad moment, after Giles and the Skeleton Soldier have been betrayed, a hallucination of Isaac chastises him and reminds him of the feelings used to control his inventory to use it as a Deflector Shield and weapon.
• Hero Antagonist: While Marquis Leandro ends up in opposition to Skeleton Soldier more than once due to his hatred of monsters, he is in fact by far the highest-ranked member of the empire that is not corrupt, a cultist, a murderer, or anything of the sort. He's brave, honorable, noble, and suspicious of the higher-ups, but the situation always just so happens to put them at odds with each other. They don't become allies until Leandro learns that the empire isn't just corrupt, but is led by full fledged traitors to humanity, and even then, it's Teeth-Clenched Teamwork at best.
• Heroic Sacrifice: After Isaac betrays the skeleton soldier's trust one too many times, the skeleton soldier tells him to get lost. Isaac makes it up to him by sacrificing his existence to save the skeleton soldier and give him a major boost for his upcoming fight. Isaac notes that he would sacrifice countless lives before his own, yet has been brought down to doing this for the skeleton soldier, in the hope that it improves their relationship in future resets. In a later reset, subverted when Isaac admits that this was still done with selfish interests in mind, since the instance of Isaac that sacrificed himself simply wanted to make sure the skeleton soldier didn't use the resets to take terrible vengeance and also hoped that his memories would be passed on.
• Heroic Suicide: Before the High Priest of Botis can shut down his consciousness and turn him into a puppet, the skeleton soldier kills himself, both to foil the high priest and to reset what was done to Rubia.
• Hero Killer: The Gray Knight, a mysterious armored Humanoid Abomination associated with the Imperial Family. It tends to appear out of nowhere when people threaten the Imperial Family's interests and is capable of taking out protagonists as powerful as Nanyau, Marquis Leandro, and even Gill de Rais with no effort. Oddly enough however, it never actually tries to kill the skeleton soldier, imprisoning him in a Prison Dimension at the very most. Isaac speculates that the entity is a Clock Roach intended to enforce casualty and prevent all efforts at Screw Destiny, but it is so far beyond his understanding that even he cannot figure out more.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: The ultimate authority controlling the world wants each timeline to end in a particular and rather tragic way, but the why is yet to be known.
• Hidden Villain: The most powerful known antagonists are the Imperial Family, and the demon lord Botis, but it is implied that there is a mastermind behind them as well, a higher power surpassing even the goddesses.
• High Priest: The demon-worshipping cults each have a high priest as their head.
  • Isaac is the high priest of the Demon Lord Malphas. After Isaac gets Ret-Gone, Malphas, upon noticing the skeleton soldier, who somehow carries his mark (due to previous timelines), recognizes him as his new one.
  • Honorary Duke Vibiro is the high priest of the Demon Lord Botis, suspected to be the Big Bad.
  • Gill de Rais is the high priestess of Vassago. However, he eventually gets bored with her and betrays her, attempting to use her as a Human Sacrifice.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Skeleton Soldier has a bad habit of trusting people who are clearly manipulating him. Thankfully, his reset ability makes it easy to turn the tables on them after realizing their true motives.
• Horrifying the Horror: Isaac is one of the most ruthless and powerful sorcerers that the world has ever seen. He doesn't even fear the goddesses, who technically have a lot more power than he does. But when he encounters the Gray Knight, it is so far beyond his understanding of the world that even he becomes nervous. And then things get even worse when the administrators show up, wielding power even deeper into the true nature of their Platonic Cave than the goddesses and the mystic network of threads used to manipulate sorcery, throwing him into absolute terror.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Humans have a tendency to enslave, exploit, or slaughter monsters that are just minding their own business, and commit horrible crimes against other humans as well. This makes it easier for us to relate to the monster protagonist, who kills evil humans without remorse but protects innocent people.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: As the skeleton soldier resets every time he dies, situations like this are the only real threat to him.
  • When Isaac notices that the skeleton soldier doesn't seem to have any fear of being destroyed, Isaac threatens to seal his soul inside a trinket instead. Isaac ends up Hoist by His Own Petard when his spell backfires upon himself.
  • When the High Priest of Botis's attempt at More than Mind Control breaks down, he resorts to brute force mind control that would shut down the skeleton soldier's consciousness and turn him into a puppet. The skeleton soldier hastily kills himself while he is still able to.
• Iconic Item: An In-Universe example. Though he doesn't always gain access to it, the Skeleton Soldier shows a preference for the purple-coloured armour that Rubia picked out for him in Yublam. Initially it was more of a combination of Tragic Keepsake and practicality, needing to obscure his inhuman visage as well as a reminder of his failure to save Rubia, especially since it seemed she'd stay dead for good after his scenario 'saved' past the point of her demise. However, after the skeleton completes Rena's scenario and gets to return back to his 'true' starting point, it becomes an easy way of identifying him to his allies, especially once both Rubia and Rena start to share his Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory.
• Immune to Mind Control: After the skeleton soldier manages to break free of Botis's Mind Manipulation without help, that earns him a skill that greatly increases his ability to resist mind control, possession, suggestion, and confusion.
• In Spite of a Nail: Even altering major events in the timeline results in substitutions, leaving the overall shape mostly the same. However, the changes can build up dramatically over time. The Powers That Be have been progressively making the world more horrible in each timeline, bringing humanity closer and closer to its doom.
  • Even though Nanyau was Ret-Gone, the guild she founded still exists, it was simply founded by a former family member with a different name.
  • Even though Isaac was Ret-Gone, the war he once waged against the Imperial Family was waged by another country instead, albeit with inferior results..
• Invisibility: The Demon Lord Botis grants his elite cultists a special barrier that protects them from being seen or otherwise sensed.
• Ironic Echo: In one timeline, a member of the Cult of Botis smashes a monster egg in the skeleton soldier's face, asking him if he likes eggs and provoking the egg's mother into attacking him. In successive timelines, the skeleton soldier likes to pay back the favor.
• I Thought Everyone Could Do That: The skeleton soldier thought everyone could view their information via the blue windows because Mistress Succubus told him as much. Isaac informs him that no, aside from the writings of Kevin Ashton, he has never seen or even heard of such a thing. Realizing that Mistress Succubus lied to him makes the skeleton soldier wonder for the first time if she had had some ulterior motive for being kind to him and was planning to use him somehow.
• It Only Works Once: Anytime the Skeleton Soldier uses Lu-lium, it does not reappear when he dies and returns back to the past. Whatever benefits he gained remain, but he cannot simply acquire the same Lu-lium over and over.
• Jerkass Gods: The goddesses superficially support justice, and have a small chance of bestowing their blessings upon those who smite evil in their name. In practice, they don't do a damn thing apart from smiting people who try to figure out how this world really works. Demons about to start the apocalypse? Not their problem.
• Kangaroo Court: Rubia ends up in a fight with another noblewoman, who falsely accuses Rubia of demon worship. Said noblewoman is the daughter of an inquisitor, who presides over Rubia's trial. Needless to say, Rubia is found guilty instantaneously and sentenced to a Fate Worse than Death. For further hypocrisy, said inquisitor is secretly a high-ranking demon worshiper himself.
• Karma Meter: The System keeps track of a person's sins versus their virtues with a number, with negative values for the wicked. The skeleton soldier finds it ridiculous that the goddesses would judge humans with such a simple system.
• Kavorka Man: A walking skeleton seems to have at least two, potentially up to three human (and maybe even one demon) women in love with him, despite lacking any fleshy bits and also not pursuing them romantically. How? Why? None of your business!
  • Later timeline loops make it clear that it's at least in part thanks to both woman starting to share in the Skeleton Soldier's Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory and increases to their abilities from his successive looping and work on their scenarios, not only becoming stronger and more better off thanks to his efforts, but also remembering the lengths he's gone to in order to help them or protect them before, even in loops where he ultimately failed to do so.
• Kill All Humans: The followers of the demon, Purson, want to take advantage of the coming war to annihilate the human race. While they have the potential to kill many, they stand no realistic chance of succeeding.
• Knowledge Broker: The skeleton soldier supports Rena in order to promote her to a position where she can acquire information for him.
• Les Collaborateurs: Roughly one in ten humans sided with the demon lords against the rest of humanity. Most of them were just going with the flow, some of them had to pay up their Deal with the Devil, a tiny handful were Boomerang Bigots that genuinely wanted the human race to be exterminated.
• Light Is Not Good: The Goddess of Light is mostly a case of The Gods Must Be Lazy and is usually content to observe. But the rare cases in which she chooses to intervene are pretty ruthless, and as per her title, she has power over light, giving her the ability to interfere with those touched by it or focus the light into a beam of destruction.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: A recurring theme. The entire world the Skeleton Soldier lives in is a lie and a Platonic Cave, possibly covering up an even worse reality than the Crapsack World they live in already is.
  • The citizens of Ember can enjoy several hours a day in a machine that delivers them their sweetest dreams. When the Skeleton Soldier warns them that the Empire is conducting The Purge on all anti-war nobles and preparing to commit genocide against Ember, the Chairman of Ember attempts to rally his citizens in preparation for war against them. However, the preparations for war would mean rationing their dreams further. The citizens proceed to delude themselves into believing that the threat of war is a selfish lie, and that even if it was hypothetically true, life after the war would not be worth living without their dreams. They become so outraged that they vote the Chairman out of office, choosing to enjoy a few years of guaranteed dreaming at the tiny risk that the Chairman isn't lying over sacrificing that to an uncertain future where they will no longer dream.
• Loving a Shadow: The Skeleton feels like the innocent sweet personality of Rubia was more of him projecting that view on her but wonders if it was his actions that changed her to be darker. As he starts to remember anytime before when it came to her uncle she had no qualms about the idea of killing him.
  • To an extent, Lady Succubus falls into this too. She's the first female companion the skeleton Soldier has during his 'first' life, and it's the desire to ultimately save her at first that compels the Soldier to prevent her eventual demise by becoming strong enough to handle any threats that come after her, eventually branching that same protective instinct to Rubia and Rena throughout his journey. However, since her destined meeting with Skeleton Soldier doesn't happens for years, and his repeated demises thanks to various factors meaning that chronologically, he's not even advanced a full year in any one scenario, her presence is restricted only to flashbacks, leaving her character sorely lacking in comparison to the other two. Probing his memories about Lady sucubuss in one scenario also leads to Skeleton Soldier to the suspicion that she might have only expressed interest in a lowly Mook like him in the first place becuase of his ability to see the blue windows.
• Magic Knight: The skeleton soldier's combat style. He specializes in swordsmanship, while infusing his sword with a Battle Aura and a variety of spells that are hard to defend against.
• Manipulative Bastard: The High Priest Isaac plays the skeleton soldier like a fiddle. Among other things, he has manipulated the skeleton soldier into fighting with the followers of a rival demon lord and hid the fact that he gave Rubia a Mercy Kill in order to give him an incentive to become stronger.
• The Many Deaths of You: The skeleton soldier has died many, many times, usually to adventurers or cultists.
• Master Swordsman: The empire has four swordmasters, Marquis Leandro, Duke Lawrence, Querti, and a mysterious missing fourth.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: In the first timeline, the demon lords succeeded in engineering enough war, senseless bloodshed, and Human Sacrifice among the humans to descend to the mortal world in person. But ultimately, despite the terrible losses, humanity was able to prevail and kill them all.
• Mellow Fellow: By demon lord standards, Malphas is very much the laid back sort. He never bothered to seek out a High Priest on his own, Isaac came to him himself. He was content letting Isaac do whatever he wanted, simply giving him more power in return for the occasional offering. In a timeline where Isaac never became high priest, Malphas is entirely The Hermit. When he notices that the skeleton soldier somehow has his mark, he sees it as a good thing, doesn't bother to question it, and just casually accepts the soldier as his high priest, wishing him luck in whatever he is doing.
• Mini-Mecha: Titans are an ancient type of war machine. The Powered Armor known as iron men are said to be their inferior successors. When Marquis Leandro and the skeleton soldier infiltrate deep into the Imperial Palace, they are confronted by all eleven of the Empire's Co-Dragons, each piloting one machine.
• Monster Is a Mommy: The spider cave's boss is a spider queen that reacts viciously to its spawn or eggs being threatened. While she and her children eat people, the story is not unsympathetic: It's very clear that her children are hostages, that she cares for them deeply, and isn't particularly malicious or anything, just a carnivore doing what comes naturally. The demon worshippers are going out of their way to capture humans to feed to the spiders for their own purposes.
• Mook Chivalry: While facing a Clone Army of Marquis Leandro, the skeleton soldier notices that while the collective will not let him escape, they are also only fighting him one at a time due inheriting the original's sense of honor. This gives the skeleton soldier a fighting chance, since each clone is individually much weaker than the real Leandro. Cue Villain Override by Duke Laurence, forcing them all to attack him simultaneously.
• Morality Chain: Isaac was an enemy in the first timeline he was encountered in. In later timelines, he discovers that the skeleton soldier was chosen by Kevin Ashton, an author who knew more about the true nature of the world than any other. Desperate to learn Kevin Ashton's secrets, he agrees to become the skeleton soldier's ally, and tones down his ruthlessness to stay on the skeleton soldier's good side.
• More than Mind Control: When the skeleton soldier agrees to do work for the High Priest of Botis, he falls under Botis's influence. He becomes more sadistic, enjoying the act of killing people he had worked with in previous timelines. He also becomes a lot more grateful than he should be towards the high priest for helping Rubia inherit her father's position, forgetting that the Cult of Botis is responsible for most of the tragedies the skeleton soldier has been trying to prevent in the first place, including hers. The conditioning starts to waver when the skeleton soldier is puzzled by the disappearance of several allies and breaks completely when he realizes that Rubia has been Reforged into a Minion, no longer able to ignore or rationalize the high priest's actions. The high priest for his part is surprised that the skeleton soldier would react so badly to how he fulfilled the soldier's request. He resorts to brute force Mind Manipulation, shutting down the skeleton soldier's consciousness completely. The skeleton soldier is forced to commit a Heroic Suicide before the high priest can succeed.
• Muggle with a Degree in Magic: Rubia knows quite a bit about how magic works from all the books she's read, but she has shown few signs of being able to use it herself. Even the spell she used to raise the skeleton soldier is heavily implied to have been based on borrowed power.
• Necromancer:
  • Rubia, the rookie necromancer who raised the skeleton soldier. Her necromancy skills are purely amateur and based on what she read in books, using them out of desperation for a bodyguard when she becomes a Noble Fugitive. It's highly probable that it wasn't even her power that raised the skeleton soldier in the first place. In later resets, the skeleton soldier rises from his grave before she can even arrive. The spell she used to raise him was an arrangement made by Kevin Ashton. It was extremely simple and consisted solely of verbally calling the dead, suggesting that the spell borrowed someone else's power.
  • The skeleton soldier later meets Gill de Rais, who is rumored to be the most powerful necromancer in the world.
  • The skeleton soldier later becomes one too after absorbing Gill's essences.
• New Game Plus: Effectively what happens whenever the skeleton soldier dies. While his equipment is lost, he retains all of his skills and memories from the previous timelines. Certain accomplishments also make minor modifications to the timeline each time it resets. Whenever he absorbs lulium, it remains absorbed in each reset, disappearing from wherever it was previously stored. Additionally, when he makes enough progress in the scenarios of certain associates, they gain the ability to retain memories and skills they earned in previous timelines, improving their pasts in each reset.
  • It's later revealed that, whilst Rubia was the one that originally cast the spell that resurrected him, said spell seems to take effect at the start of each loop regardless of Rubia's presence at the scene, meaning that with the constant updates and alterations to Rubia and Rena's backstories that he makes with each reset, the circumstances of his 'awakening' can change as well, the only constant being that he always awakens in the same unmarked grave.
  • Played with when the Skeleton Soldier, Nanyau and Issac decided to absorb the lulium from the Empire's stasis chamber and caused the server admins to show up try to resolve the issue by deleting them all. The Skeleton Soldier survives, but loses all of his accumulated skill. However his memory remains intact, which gave him some advantages by talking his way out of things (although it initially fails because, with Issac and Nanyau retgonned, the world has drastically changed). This allowed him to get on Gilles's good side and regain his absorbtion power much faster than he did in the last life.
• Noble Fugitive: In the first few timelines, Rubia starts out as one. Her father was murdered and she is herself being targeted by her Evil Uncle, who has taken over her father's position with the help of the Cult of Botis. Later resets take place at an earlier point in time, and Rubia herself starts becoming stronger with each reset much like the skeleton soldier, making it easier for her to avoid this fate.
• No Name Given: The skeleton soldier has no memory of what his name is and his grave is unmarked, or more precisely, the tombstone has been buried and its text deliberately damaged. At one point, Isaac tries to recover his name to gain more control over him, only for it to backfire. It is implied that a Greater-Scope Villain is keeping the skeleton soldier's original identity and abilities sealed and interferes whenever the skeleton soldier gets close to recovering them.
• Not Worth Killing: The blacksmith of Yublam gives the skeleton soldier a flamethrower to get their mutual revenge against the Cult of Botis operatives in the town for killing people important to them. However, the blacksmith in question is a Fantastic Racist, realizing that something not human is wearing the armor, and sets up the skeleton soldier to be killed himself afterwards. When Rena discovers this, she wants to kill him, but the skeleton soldier doesn't consider him worth it since the blacksmith's life has already pretty much fallen apart.
• Obstructive Code of Conduct: Marquis Leandro, to a tee. He's a Hero Antagonist and one of the World's Strongest Man who opposes the Skeleton Solder on principle of him being a monster and their paths crossing in unfavourable situations, but he's staunchly against The Conspiracy within the imperial family and intends to root them out at the first opportunity he has. However, he's ultimately unsuccessful on multiple occasions in various loops due to a combination of his fervent devotion to the empire and loyalty to the throne meaning he still follows official orders, allowing the High priest of Botis and Duke Lawrence to send him elsewhere whilst their plans are in motion, and his self-same unbending principles that ultimately necessitate his death and conversion via worms into a cloned army for their needs meaning he absolutely refuses to trust the non-human skeleton soldier or see him as anything less than an evil, manipulative monster, even when the Soldier is earnestly trying to get him to work with him against their common foe.
• Off the Rails: The skeleton soldier suspects that whoever has been guiding him through the blue windows probably did not incorporate the possibility of recruiting Isaac into the plan.
• One-Man Army: The distance between the median and the elite is enormous. The strongest in the world, such as the sword masters and the tower masters (and eventually even the skeleton soldier himself) are capable of single-handedly wiping out entire armies of normal soldiers.
• Out of Continues: Skeleton soldier is not sure how many times he can resurrect, and isn't interested in testing it. The only hint that he may run out is that when he dies his assimilation rate goes down. What happens at 0% is unclear. He doesn't have to worry about running out of resets per se, but the world as it originally was is very slowly corroding. The skeleton soldier's influence has made some of these changes for the better, but the Powers That Be are making things worse. After Isaac and Nanyau are Ret-Gone, the corrosion increases dramatically, and the event that ruins the world via Demonic Invaders is moved ahead of schedule.
• Paradox Person: Implied to be part of what makes the skeleton soldier special. An attempt to Ret-Gone him weakens him, but leaves his existence intact, which the system authorities interpret as a glitch. Furthermore, their attempt to erase him does succeed in erasing the logs of his history, meaning that he can tell an entirely truthful tale about his past, and the World System will interpret it as a lie because it doesn't remember it, causing it to glitch and give him a lying skill.
• Peggy Sue: The Skeleton Soldier is killed during an ongoing war between humanity and monsters in the world and is somehow sent back in time over 20 years ago to the day he was first raised as a last-ditch effort by Rubia to gain a loyal protector after her Evil Uncle's ascension to the throne put her life in danger and robbed her of all other resources. Over the course of his numerous failures and loops, the Skeleton becomes determined to use his knowledge of the future (incomplete as it is because he was a mere Mook and unaware of the numerous parties involved in the war) to protect Rubia, Rena, and the numerous allies he meets, whilst also trying to become stronger so he can deal with bigger threats. Notably, however, whilst the situation initially seems like time travel, it rapidly becomes clear that it is not exactly true time travel. The Skeleton's efforts in completing Rubia and Rena's scenarios allows them to share in his Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory, and can even retroactively alter their lives before his 'reset' point for the better, such as Rena becoming part of the T&T guild and having a happier childhood. The RPG Mechanics 'Verse aspect to his blue windows and Issac's explanation about the true nature of the world, not to mention the various digital effects that his windows start to grant him access to as he levels up (such as an item store that accumulates points based on his merits) make the whole situation seem more akin to a New Game Plus effect, as if the Skeleton Soldier was a player character in a game, reloading his save file with every death but retaining his status and advantages each time.
• Perception Filter: When the skeleton soldier tells the story about how Nanyau and Isaac were made to be Ret-Gone, Gill de Rais's Dullahans get major headaches, and even Gill isn't completely immune, stating that there is a powerful barrier protecting that information.
• Platonic Cave: The world is in some way a lie or trap. Isaac has long been suspicious that something about the world was off and felt as if some higher power was observing, but could not find any direct proof. The author Kevin Ashton wrote a theory in more detail. Certain special people have the ability to see the blue windows, which have some sort of relationship with the true nature of the world. Magic is also based on understanding the connections between the outer world and inner world and manipulating them.
• Player Killing: The skeleton soldier and Rubia are the only "players" known to be active right now, but there is a Body Backup Drive for the world's historical heroes. When the skeleton soldier lures a monster to kill their empty bodies, he ends up looting some of their own merit points for himself.
• Puppet King:
  • The forces trying to prevent the coming war attempt to assassinate the Emperor. But since the Emperor is a completely disposable puppet, The Conspiracy behind him doesn't care when he gets assassinated and the assassination ends up solving nothing.
  • Key nobles within the empire itself are being killed and replaced to back the war.
  • Rubia and her father are among the targets of The Purge, with the intention of replacing them with Rubia's Evil Uncle. In one timeline, the skeleton soldier makes a Deal with the Devil to let Rubia inherit her rightful title. The High Priest of Botis fulfills his end of the bargain and uses Rubia instead of her uncle, but still takes measures to turn her into a puppet.
• The Purge: All of the nobles that are resisting the Imperial Family's push to war are steadily being killed and replaced with shapeshifting worms that will obey the Cult of Botis's followers.
• Reforged into a Minion:
  • In timelines where Duke Laurence kills Marquis Leandro, his corpse is then fed to worms that can assume the shape of what they eat and even replicate their abilities. In one timeline where the skeleton soldier manages to take the war to the empire's capital, they unleash a Clone Army of Leandros, and while the skeleton soldier is strong enough to take them out one at a time due to them inheriting Leandro's strong sense of Mook Chivalry, he doesn't stand a chance when the Duke forces them to attack at once.
  • The High Priest of Botis remakes Rubia into an obedient Human Weapon with Lovecraftian Superpowers. Rubia's consciousness is implied to be in an And I Must Scream situation as Botis points out he took great care to make sure she feels every bit of her skin being torn when she uses her powers.
  • Leandro's mother was supposedly killed by a monster she hunted. In actuality, she accidentally learned too many of the Empire's secrets and was defeated by Duke Laurence for it. Duke Laurence rebuilt her into a monster, pretty much destroying her mind. Duke Laurence eventually salvages what is left of her mind and reveals her as a twisted "gift" for Leandro's birthday. Leandro gives his mother a Mercy Kill.
• Religion of Evil: There are several demon worshiping cults. Some demons are more malevolent than others, but most of them seem to enjoy Human Sacrifice. The Cult of Botis is the one that the skeleton soldier opposes the most.
• Resurrective Immortality: When skeleton soldier inevitably dies once again, typically because he stuck his nonexistent nose where it didn't belong, he revives back at a save point with most of his abilities intact but his level reset.
• Retail Therapy: The skeleton soldier has no idea how someone with stamina of 9 is able to spend over two hours trying on clothes.
• Ret-Gone: When the skeleton soldier pushes the world completely Off the Rails, a pair of apparent administrators retaliate by erasing his companions, Nanyau and Isaac out of history, with even the skeleton soldier struggling to remember them. They also attempt to Ret-Gone the skeleton soldier himself, but the skeleton soldier proves to be partially immune, losing all his skills and stats, but retaining his memories and fundamental existence. With Nanyau, a legendary thief, and Isaac, one of the strongest sorcerer's in the world erased from history, the timeline is changed substantially.
• Revenge: Marquis Leandro once sought it against a monster for killing his mother, ruining his family. He developed something of a grudge against monsters in general, making him something of a Tragic Bigot. He eventually learns that the true culprit was Duke Laurence and manages to kill him in a duel.
• Revenge Before Reason:
  • At times, the skeleton soldier's desire for revenge against those who wronged him (usually by killing a companion), causes him to lose sight of everything else, always resulting in his death. One death is caused by him going wild with a powerful weapon and, it's implied, accidentally killing the woman he was trying to protect along with himself.
  • After Gill de Rais's failed assassination of the Emperor, Leandro (who's lover was the slain captain of the entourage) relentlessly pursued the skeleton soldier because the latter stole the Mithril armor worn by Leandro's lover. Leandro came to the conclusion that whoever raised the skeleton would be the necromancer responsible and it caused him to violently attack anyone who associated with the skeleton. This up and included exploding the ship he was on and jumping into the belly of a kraken to chase them down, apparently no longer caring if he lived or died as long as he gets his revenge. It's also implied he's so blinded by rage that he legitimately ignored actual evidence that the person who killed his lover was already dead.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: The skeleton soldier remembers what he has experienced whenever time is reset. Likewise, his quest targets, such as Rena and especially Rubia, start to inherit their memories and stats from the previous timelines when he makes enough progress in their quests, giving them an increasing advantage whenever the timeline is reset.
• Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: The World wants the timeline to go a certain way, and will make subtle tweaks to causality to enforce it. If someone starts to push it Off the Rails too quickly, it will send Clock Roaches to kill those responsible. If someone pushes it so far Off the Rails that the desired future becomes impossible, the World will drop all subtlety and just directly kill off the perpetrators while editing the timeline. Gradual changes do seem possible, but the Skeleton Soldier seemingly has to complete quests to accomplish anything substantial without getting everyone smited.
• RPG Mechanics 'Verse: It's implied that everyone can level up, but the skeleton soldier is the only one with actual menu screens and system alerts. Much later, it's revealed that Rubia could also see these blue windows since she was a child.
• Sadist:
  • Those who follow Botis start to feel pleasure in causing others pain.
  • During their first meeting, Isaac threatens the skeleton soldier with a Fate Worse than Death For the Evulz.
• Samus Is a Girl:
  • One of the skeleton soldier's opponents during the Tournament Arc turns out to be a woman.
  • The leader of the Emperor's entourage turns out to be a woman as well. Specifically, she's the love interest of Leandros, the Blue Knight that keeps hounding the skeleton soldier.
• Save Scumming: The skeleton soldier doesn't just resurrect on death, he goes back in time with all his memories and abilities intact, giving him a chance to save his allies that he couldn't protect in past lives. Despite retaining his powerful stats and skills, he's considered level 1 in terms of experience, so he can rapidly level up early on by killing enemies that are no match against him but would have been far outside his ability to defeat when he was truly level 1.
• Scaled Up: The High Priest of Botis, Honorary Duke Vibiro, has the ability to switch between the shape of a human and a gigantic snake, and it's the latter form he usually uses for combat.
• Schizo Tech: The world is largely medieval, but there are traces of advanced machinery here and there, especially when it comes to warfare. The Imperial Family in particular possess some pretty developed tech within their secret base.
• Screw Destiny: The highest level items in the skeleton soldier's item shop offer the power to oppose the world.
• Semi-Divine: The skeleton soldier's ability to reset and use an inventory are actually divine powers, making him more like the goddesses. He is the only one who can use these powers without paying a physical price. Isaac later learns how to borrow some of the skeleton soldier's power.
• Sequence Breaking: Someone who is aware of the skeleton soldier's ability to reset setup a secret quest with a goblin. The first timeline in which they meet, the goblin tells the skeleton soldier the story of a goblin that created a Bag of Holding and tells the skeleton soldier to go to mountains shouting a password to obtain it. The skeleton soldier gives it a try, but nothing happens. The second timeline they meet, the skeleton soldier tells the goblin that nothing happened, triggering a preprogrammed message telling him to go to the desert and do the same thing. Fearing another Snipe Hunt, Isaac wipes the goblin's memory, allowing the skeleton soldier to repeat their conversation now mentioning the mountains and desert without having to go through another reset to unlock the final message.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: At the end of season 3, after hundreds of timelines of getting squashed like a bug, the skeleton soldier finally manages to push the world completely and utterly Off the Rails by destroying a mysterious shrine the Imperial Family needs for their plans and stealing all the lulium they need to resurrect their puppet heroes. In doing so, he attracts unwanted attention from two of the System's authorities. They retaliate by Retgonning two of the soldier's companions and Depower the skeleton soldier of all of his stats and skills. They also undo all his progress in thwarting their plans by filling the holes in history randomly with a Cosmic Retcon. While they fail to Ret-Gone the skeleton soldier himself, most of the skeleton soldier's hard work is completely undone, bringing him back to square one. He is ultimately left only with the knowledge that there are forces capable of threatening him even across resets, and that he is up against not only powerful mortals, but the very Powers That Be.
• The Sleepless: While it's still possible to render the skeleton soldier unconscious, he doesn't actually need to sleep what with being undead.
• Smite Evil: The skeleton soldier eventually unlocks Hellfire, which unleashes bonus damage against targets with a low Karma Meter.
• Snakes Are Sinister: Serpents are extremely dangerous because they serve as Botis's Animal Motif.
• Stat Grinding: The skeleton soldier can increase skills by using them, but he learns simply practicing over and over can become difficult. Grinding his swordsman ability requires he swing his sword exactly right every single time or it doesn't count, so he can't simply zone out as he practices.
• Stay in the Kitchen: While female knights, even high ranking ones exist, they are a minority, with Christina facing a lot of discrimination due to her sex. After great difficulty, she nevertheless manages to find a couple different masters that respect her skills in different timelines, with Lord Chandler in one, and Lady Rubia in later timelines.
• Stealth Expert: One of the skeleton soldier's most useful skills allows him to sneak around without being seen.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • The skeleton soldier and a rogue set up shop in a low-level dungeon, killing assassination targets that the rogue brings to him. The nearest city soon sends a band of high-level knights to find out why so many people are disappearing in a low-level dungeon.
  • When Rubia decides to go into town alone to get some armor for him, she unsurprisingly ends up dead. Not only is she a wanted fugitive of the local lord, but she's also an unarmed woman with a lot of money on her wandering in a strange town. As the Skeleton Warrior finds out in later lifetimes, almost every single person in the town was trying to go after her because they saw her as an easy mark.
• Taught by Experience: Besides actually leveling up, the skeleton soldier does better each time he resurrects because he knows what tricks his enemies will use, not to mention gains a deeper understanding of the multiple plots and parties involved in the situation on the empire.After the Cosmic Retcon at the end of season 3 put him back to being just a level 1 skeleton without any of the abilities or allies he'd relied on to progress before, he nonetheless proves capable of manipulating several guards that come across him through applying his future knowledge of events to pretend to be the side of the Empire, all to lure them into taking him to Giles De Rais, having learned that there are better ways of using his unique abilities than becoming a better fighter, and having nothing else but the memories of his past loops to work with at that point.
• Tin Man: The protagonist considers himself emotionless, but he does display at least muted emotions quite regularly. Anger, self-disgust, camaraderie, and so on are quite common. It seems to be occurring more often as the Assimilation rate goes down and the Skeleton Soldier spends more time interacting with people in order to forge alliances, though it's unclear if he's merely acting the part to disguise his non-human status, or genuinely becoming more emotional the more he becomes involved in protecting his close friends from their fated ends.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the first few timelines, Rubia is a sheltered noblewoman and Damsel in Distress with no combat abilities whatsoever. She is physically frail, and while she knows some theory, she has no practical skill in using magic. After the skeleton soldier makes enough progress in her scenario for her to remember the resets, she toughens up and takes up swordsmanship.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: The Chandler noble family was enslaved by Isaac for generations with Mind Manipulation. In the original few timelines, they cared greatly for their people and were eager to ally with the skeleton soldier and Rubia. When Isaac is subject to Ret-Gone, the Chandlers become a lot more powerful in the new timeline and are ruthless and ambitious. It isn't clear if the kind Chandlers the Skeleton Soldier befriended even exist in this timeline, but if they do, they are not the ones in charge.
• Tournament Arc: Starting with chapter 23, the skeleton knight competes in a tournament being hosted by Rubia's uncle.
• Town with a Dark Secret: A town the skeleton knight and Rubia visit is filled with opium addicts and the noble running it is breeding spider monsters in a nearby dungeon.
• Tragic Bigot: While there is no shortage of evil monsters in the world, monsters are no more inherently evil than humans, who have plenty of evildoers amongst themselves as well. But Marquis Leandro, a Hunter of Monsters, treats monsters as Always Chaotic Evil to such a degree that it's implied It's Personal. His mother was assassinated by the Empire due to He Knows Too Much, and her murder was covered up as a monster attack, creating Leandro's grudge.
• Tranquil Fury: Usually doesn't have emotions except for a few strong moments. Seeing someone he cares about die gets him there.
• Trust Password:
  • When the skeleton soldier tries to warn Gill de Rais that he has already seen her plan to assassinate the emperor fail, she refuses to heed his warning until it's too late. Confronted with her doom and forced to accept that the skeleton soldier truly can travel back in time, she tells him exactly what to say to her next time to convince her to believe him. Her cryptic words turn out to relate to her secret and deepest desire, and when the skeleton soldier calls out the phrase in a new timeline, it causes her to freak out.
  • Leandro has one for Isabella, the captain of the Emperor's entourage, in the form of a sigil folded from wire. The Skeleton, under the influence of Vibiro, learns this and teaches it to the priest of Botis, who then uses it to unnerve Leandro after Leandro came to harass him about the missing gem. In a subsequent reset, the skeleton soldier himself show the sigil to Leandro to try to convince him that he has seen the future.
• Two-Faced: The necromancer, Gill de Rais, has the face of a beautiful woman on one half of her face, while the other half (including her hair) appears to be reshaped bone.
• Unfinished Business: The undead can be released by clearing their regrets. However, most undead are in no condition to do so.
• Unobtainium: Lulium, the blood of Apostles and a rare substance that can be used to modify the world. It does not disperse, meaning that one does not have to worry about it evaporating or permeating into the ground. It is sometimes used as a power source for machinery, one person used it to make herself The Ageless by replacing her blood with it, and the skeleton soldier became able to improve his magic and Character Class every time he absorbs it. However, it has the strange property of not reappearing after the Skeleton Soldier dies and resets the timeline. Instead, it remains absorbed in his body, which causes ripple effects in the world from the 'missing' Lulium's absence, and means the Skeleton Soldier has to be careful about where he absorbs more of it from whenever he finds another source of it.
• Unreliable Expositor
  • Whatever is responsible for telling Skeleton Warrior about his level ups and available quests refers to Rena as a backstabber that will turn on him the moment he's vulnerable, (This is a bad translation, as it was actually meant to state that Rena will betray him if she will get more out of the betrayal than staying with him. As he remained not only helpful but also friendly, she came to value him more) but she rather quickly falls in love with him and repeatedly throws herself into mortal danger (and possibly mortal wounds) to save him even when it would be far safer to flee and she has nothing to gain by staying.
  • Isaac is one of the most knowledgeable characters in the series, but he also lies constantly and for seemingly no reason beyond It Amused Me. For example, for a long time all we knew about the goddesses is that they smote him for defiling one of their temples with hedonism and sheer debauchery... and he later admits that this was a complete and total lie. The only true part is that he was struck with divine punishment some centuries beforehand.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Leandro eventually managed to hunt down a rare monster from the same species as the one who killed his mother, but he realized it was too young to be the one that actually killed her, and he had no more leads to follow. Feeling empty, he decided to become a Hunter of Monsters to do at least some good in the world.
• Vigilante Execution: A lot of criminals get away with the legal consequences of their crimes by bribing the authorities, but they still risk getting assassination contracts put on them by their victims. Before her past was rewritten, Rena made a career out of fulfilling such contracts.
• Villain Takes an Interest: In one timeline, the High Priest of Botis is impressed by the skeleton soldier's abilities and offers to recruit him and become his benefactor. Figuring that it will give him important information about the Cult of Botis and improve Rubia's life in the next reset, the skeleton soldier accepts. The skeleton soldier quickly becomes one of the high priest's favorite followers.
• We Have Reserves: In one timeline where the skeleton soldier survives long enough to participate in the war, the Empire gives the soldiers opposing The Alliance forces curiously little support, as if they don't care at all if every single last one of their soldiers is slaughtered. Even Isaac cannot figure out what the Empire is thinking. They don't send in any real muscle up until the Alliance makes it right next to the capital, at which point they Curb-Stomp Battle most of the Alliance forces with the aid of only one tower mage. The Imperial Family are basically traitors to humanity, and plan to use the blood spilled by the war to summon the demon lords. They view their army as completely disposable and are including them among the Human Sacrifices needed to complete their Evil Plan.
• Wham Line: When Rubia asks the Skeleton Soldier if he can see the blue windows too.
• Widely-Spaced Jail Bars: The demon realm's prison bars are just wide enough for a creature as thin as a skeleton soldier to pass through. Course, the bars are also reinforced by a Force-Field Door, so it's not like the prison's designers were completely stupid.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Very powerful forces have been trying to prevent a terrible war from taking place, only for every string they pull to be miraculously cut, as if the world itself demands that the war take place.
  • Interestingly, it seems that the Skeleton Solder can fight fate, as completing Rena's scenario gives her a happier childhood and better life than she had before, implying that the Skeleton has the ability to alter the fate of those he interacts with retroactively and in the future, though Rena still ends up dying in several successive loops thanks to forces far more powerful that the Skeleton Soldier targeting her and the T&T guild. Nonetheless, it's implied that if the Skeleton Soldier makes the right choices he can avert fated deaths and improve the standard of living for those around him, though obviously, it's a massive uphill struggle that he fails multiple times at before he starts to 'get it right'. And when the world gets pushed too far, it starts dropping all subtlety as it pushes back.
  • After hundreds of timelines of getting squished like a bug, the skeleton soldier finally manages to push the world completely and utterly Off the Rails by destroying a shrine crucial to the Imperial Family's plans and stealing all of the lulium the Imperial Family needs to resurrect The Chosen Many. The World's counterattack is horrific. First it sends a Clock Roach, the Gray Knight, killing Marquis Leandro. When the skeleton soldier manages to overcome it using his inventory, the World intervenes directly, triggering a Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies, flat out erasing Nanyau and Isaac.
• You Remind Me of X: Duke Laurence suspects that Leandro's relationship with his secret lover is due to her resemblance to his late mother.

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