Being a Hunter Is Too Easy for a Former Necromancer - Chapter 21
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Necromancer from My Previous Life Finds Being a Hunter Too Easy — Episode 21
As it happened, the Combat Truck never faltered once, and the group could continue charging forward without interruption.
“Park Il-sang, you possess summoned creatures far more impressive than the rumors suggested.”
Beside them, the Skeletal Beast Lord Yayong-i continued to bound alongside the truck.
This thing’s as fast as the Combat Truck itself!
“Well… it wouldn’t be wise to reveal every card in one’s hand, would it?”
Hunters never show all their abilities at once.
You never know when you might get stabbed in the back.
“Still, if you’re going to display it in combat anyway, I’d appreciate a heads-up beforehand. It changes our tactics. Of course, anything you truly must conceal can stay hidden.”
“Then allow me to ask in return. What’s the effective range of your Concealment Veil, and how long can you sustain it?”
“A radius of one hundred meters. Duration is thirty minutes.”
‘One hundred meters… that’s quite extensive. If so, then…’
Park Il-sang did the math in his head. Since Undead don’t tire by nature, as long as he matched their pace, he could move an entire escort unit around without any issues whatsoever.
It was practically consumable in nature.
With corpses, he could produce as many as he needed.
Corpses became his Necro Power, became his troops, became his item materials—what a gloriously efficient profession Necromancer was!
In his previous life, it was the Necromancers who had wielded the greatest power right up until the world’s end, dedicating themselves to the world’s protection.
And yet, in the end, the world fell anyway.
‘Tch. Thinking about my past life leaves a bad taste. At least this world will turn out all right, won’t it?’
Though the world had partially collapsed, the economy was still standing, and according to recent city government notices, the population was even showing an upward trend.
Though honestly, the “upward trend in population” part didn’t quite make sense.
‘My thoughts have wandered. But… space isn’t an issue, so why not try it?’
“Team Leader, have you separated the Goblack swarm?”
“Shin-woo, any updates?”
“None currently within detection range.”
“In that case, if you’d stop the truck for a moment, I’ll pull out some things that should prove useful for this request.”
“Very well. All stop!”
The Combat Truck came to a halt.
Everyone turned to look at Park Il-sang, their expressions asking what he meant to show them this time. Park Il-sang gestured a command to the Necro Guard hanging from the truck.
Thump. Thump-thump-thump.
The Necro Guards dropped to the ground.
And the bag-shaped Corpse Boxes hanging from their backs opened, spilling corpses onto the earth.
He didn’t empty them completely.
He kept back enough to maintain his Necro Power generation.
What spilled out was a practical, usable quantity of corpses.
The number reached two hundred.
Each of the ten Corpse Boxes could hold one hundred bodies, so out of the thousand corpses he carried, roughly a hundred’s worth—including Yayong-i—had been dumped.
It was only natural that Yayong-i accounted for about a hundred’s worth.
“Corpse Processing.”
And there, before his allies’ eyes, Park Il-sang activated the skill. His Necro Power was still abundant; this much wouldn’t be difficult.
Crunch! Crunch-crack-crunch!
The appearance of one hundred skeletal soldiers began to shift.
They transformed into quadrupedal beast forms, and long bone whips—or rather, tentacles as one might call them—sprouted from their backs in sets of four, undulating.
“Spirit Processing.”
And simultaneously, he processed their spirits. No longer human or bipedal spirits, but something like the souls of quadrupedal beasts.
That way the Undead would move more naturally and ferociously, making them far more effective in combat.
In an instant, one hundred Frogman Skeletons had become beast-form skeletons.
“That’s… that’s absolutely broken. Necromancer is seriously overpowered, isn’t it?”
Kim Ye-rin’s expression had turned to absolute shock. Understandably so. The sheer number of one hundred was overwhelming in itself, but watching them all transform together was nothing short of spectacular.
In some ways, it was even unsettling.
The Team Leader himself had gone blank for a moment before finding his voice again.
“You intend to use these as an escort?”
“Yes. It’s not as if I’m overextending myself. I can produce as many as I need, as long as I have corpses. I’ve been harvesting them primarily from Frog’s Nest.”
The fact that Park Il-sang had been clearing Frog’s Nest multiple times a day was already common knowledge among hunters, and his team knew it well.
“I see. That dungeon does have a low Difficulty Level, making it ideal for corpse collection. I’m grateful you’d go this far for us.”
“Not at all. Shall we depart again then?”
“Yes.”
The group set off once more.
One hundred Skeletal Beasts charged alongside the Combat Truck.
* * *
In the old days, they say it took two or three hours to get from Seoul to Daebu Island.
But now it takes a good eight hours.
The roads aren’t properly maintained, stretches become impassable, and monsters keep popping up along the way.
While only a limited number of monsters can keep pace with the Combat Truck, sometimes entire packs like the Goblins lie in wait and ambush you.
Hence the eight hours.
Under those conditions, the Team Leader’s skill—the Concealment Veil—can’t be kept active all the time.
Supposedly the limit is about an hour per day?
So the strategy is to push through enemies like the Goblins by simply crushing them, and only deploy the Concealment Veil when something too difficult to handle appears.
It turned out the Team Leader was a specialist in this kind of work.
About two hours after breaking through the Goblin horde.
Orcs appeared.
And not just appearing.
They were blocking the road!
‘What the hell? Orcs demanding a toll to pass?’
In the distance, something like a banner hung across the way.
[STOP!
Pay
up
and
go!]
The crudely scrawled message left his mind reeling.
‘No. Orcs… collecting tolls?’
Posts like this showed up on the Hunter Bulletin Board from time to time, but seeing it in person made his head throb.
These bastards were like bandits—maybe they were running some kind of Orc Bandit Gang operation?
The Combat Truck had come to a stop in the distance.
The Team Leader spoke over the comm.
-They’re charging an exorbitant toll. We’ll have to break through by force.
-How long if we take a detour?
-We’d have to circle around at least five hours… and as you know, it’ll be nightfall.
Nightfall.
Nightfall was problematic.
Nocturnal monsters roamed after dark, and so did the Undead.
Park Il-sang himself was a Necromancer, but wild Undead required caution. There were plenty of wild Undead stronger than he could dominate.
At least in Korea, you could reach another city before the sun set.
If you departed at dawn, you could manage to reach Busan if things went well enough.
Of course that was too tight a schedule with too many variables, so they used places like Gwangju or Daejeon as waypoints instead.
-For now, while Kim Ye-rin draws them out with long-range sniper fire, if Kim Dong-soo takes down the barricade, we can just charge straight through…
“Wait a moment.”
Park Il-sang stepped forward.
“Let’s change the plan. I’ll handle it.”
* * *
Orcs are basically rated as E-Class monsters. Though calling them particularly strong would be a stretch.
After all, they’re creatures that get shredded by bullets.
But the special individuals commanding Orc packs were somewhat different.
The Orc Warrior variant started at D-Class. Bullets do penetrate, but they don’t pierce the hide completely.
You need high-caliber rounds to kill them, so from this point on they become troublesome.
Naturally there were ones even stronger than Orc Warriors.
The Orc Warlord—standard rifle rounds couldn’t even wound the hide, and high-caliber rounds didn’t deliver fatal damage either.
Even worse, this one wielded an Aura.
When it wrapped itself in Aura, high-caliber rounds were useless until the Aura faded. At that point you’d need something like heavy machine-gun fire to kill it.
There were ranks above that as well.
The Orc Chieftain. And there was also the Orc Shaman in the mage position.
The Orc Chieftain had allegedly withstood tank artillery, so its threat level could be considered A-Class. The Orc Shaman was treated as roughly B-Class, though with a successful snipe it died easily enough.
Mages were fragile wherever you went.
According to Shin-woo, the detection support specialist, there were no Chieftains or Warlords among them.
If that was the case, the job became manageable.
The Combat Truck was equipped with a turret that fired rifle rounds and a cannon that fired high-caliber ammunition, so fighting several hundred Orcs wasn’t particularly difficult.
The only problem was if a higher-tier Orc appeared in the middle of it.
And.
Winning wasn’t the problem.
Bullets alone could be consumed at a considerable rate.
But wiping out the orc horde wholesale and securing loot was no simple matter either.
As discussed, if an orc warrior or chieftain appeared while he was gathering spoils, the situation would turn dire very quickly.
One way or another.
Breaking through in a single push and fleeing was the better strategy.
And Park Il-sang now possessed an ability perfectly suited to doing exactly that.
“Then we begin.”
He snapped his fingers.
And then.
The skeletal beasts launched forward at a terrifying speed.
The Combat Truck had been parked in a spot invisible from the passage the orcs controlled, so from their perspective, it must have seemed as though a bone-constructed beast had erupted from nowhere.
“Shriek!”
“Grawgh! Grakaragh!”
While the orcs screamed whatever they screamed.
A skeletal beast hurled itself toward the hastily erected orc barricade.
And then.
Boom!
It detonated outright.
The impact was considerable—layers of the stacked barricade turned to powder.
“Shriek!? Waaaaaaahhhhh!”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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