Damn Necromancer - Chapter 14

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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 Wasteful Necromancer (14)
Osiris’s Tomb
A Gate.
The in-game mechanics were straightforward.
It was a kind of fragment—a region torn from another world and repurposed here.
And there weren’t just one or two of these other worlds. Fantasy, martial arts, cyberpunk, regions crawling with yokai—the variety was endless.
Really, remarkably diverse.
‘Low-level zones are usually fantasy-oriented, though.’
Goblins, wolves, orcs—that sort of thing.
Once you hit C-Rank or higher, you’d start running into Gates with actual flavor to them.
In any case.
Players could clear these Gates and earn all manner of rewards—Mana Stones, items, Experience, Titles, and more.
F-Rank Gates were a dime a dozen.
There were several reasons I’d chosen Osiris’s Tomb among them.
First: it had no gimmicks to speak of.
‘Those gimmicks can be genuinely tiresome.’
Puzzles you had to solve, hidden elements you had to find before the path opened—that sort of nonsense.
Gimmicks within a Gate weren’t fixed elements. They shifted slightly each time you entered.
‘Which is why they take so long to solve.’
But this Gate was refreshingly honest.
Follow the path, smash whatever moves, and you’re done.
Beautifully simple.
‘And then there’s the tomb itself, right?’
A tomb.
On the surface, it seemed like it had to connect to the Necromancer somehow.
I hadn’t had the chance to confirm it before. I’d been a player who wanted to clear content as fast as possible, and each character had a job class that suited them best.
Like Park Si-woo the sword prodigy, or Han Si-ah the magic genius.
You couldn’t exactly pick Necromancer while carrying traits like those.
And Namkoong Min and Seo Ye-rim, at the third and fourth difficulties, started with their jobs already assigned, so Necromancer wasn’t even an option in the first place.
‘But now things are different.’
What is Kim Min-woo now?
A Necromancer.
And this is a tomb.
How could I not?
‘I couldn’t possibly hold back.’
Of course, I had no guarantee that something Necromancer-related was hidden here.
Necromancer was a niche class, sure, but there were always people who deliberately picked what everyone told them not to.
Other Necromancers had probably come through this Gate before.
‘But they probably had lower Achievement Ranks, right?’
An S-Rank Necromancer with an Achievement Rank?
There weren’t any in Korea, at least.
Even A or B-Rank ones were about as common as endangered species.
The reason was simple.
For a Necromancer to grow strong, you fundamentally had to pour money into them.
And not just a little.
You had to dump money in exponentially.
Only then could they surpass other job classes.
It was a widely accepted formula.
So most people found the class unappealing compared to others.
Even with backing from a nation or major guild, it didn’t matter.
They weren’t fools.
Whatever money they gave you was debt you’d have to repay eventually.
And picking Necromancer with a precious S-Rank skill book?
Unless your father was President Kim, choosing the class on that kind of backing alone would be reckless.
‘You’d end up in debt while still not surpassing anyone.’
A shortcut straight to hell. So anyone with sense didn’t pick Necromancer.
The only wild card was an absurdly wealthy person awakening the class.
‘But how would they even know the awakening condition?’
A rich person would just try things at random. If they awakened easily, they’d cap out at a low Achievement Rank.
But what if they couldn’t awaken at all?
It meant the conditions were stringent.
Even if a billionaire’s grandfather came instead, he wouldn’t be able to figure out the Awakening condition.
And even if he did.
‘How am I supposed to reach S-rank?’
He’d fought against Geom Seon for S-rank even though he knew the condition.
Could soft, wealthy men achieve S-rank so easily?
This was why there were no Necromancers with high Achievement Ranks.
The conclusion.
If anything related to Necromancers existed, the odds were high that he’d claim it.
Of course, since it was an F-rank Gate, he wasn’t expecting some extraordinary reward.
He had to clear it anyway.
‘Even just one Title would be fine.’
That was roughly the extent of his expectations.
If he was going to set a World Record, it had to be done the hard way—what glory was there in making it easy?
That was the final reason he’d chosen this place with its 95-point Difficulty.
He reached out his hand.
[Using Cedric Summoning (SSS)!]
[Using Skeleton Summoning (F)+9!]
He’d bought replacement equipment identical to what had been destroyed in the last battle, adding 28 Mana to the summoning.
On top of that, the Indomitable Spirit effect stacked on as well.
A monstrous total of 113 Mana.
Plus the Death Lord’s 50% Mana cost reduction.
[422 Skeletons are summoned!]
Skeletons flooded the interior of the sprawling Gate.
‘Didn’t public opinion say I’d summon maybe a hundred and fifty at most?’
Kim Min-woo chuckled, recalling the discourse.
Nearly three times that number.
And these weren’t the mindless Skeletons of old either.
Through Cedric and the Death Lord’s amplified learning effect, they were absorbing education like water through a sieve.
Was that all?
Their stats were inflated by 50% as well.
And furthermore.
[Subspace Ring (Intermediate) opens!]
Solid equipment to arm the bone soldiers—in an instant, his overall combat power began to explode exponentially.
‘President Kim, thank you.’
After confidently declaring his intention to set a World Record,
President Kim had thrown his full support behind him for the third time.
That was precisely why the Subspace Ring and countless pieces of equipment had materialized again.
Snap!
Snap!
The armed Skeletons began moving in perfect formation, their lines locked and organized. An enormous din of footsteps echoed through the space.
At that sound, the monsters inside the Gate began stirring awake.
Scratch.
Scritch-scratch.
From all sides came the industrious skittering of insects crawling.
‘Here they come.’
A massive swarm of enormous cockroaches blocked his path.
Corpse Cockroaches.
Insectoid monsters he’d be encountering relentlessly in this Gate.
Their average Level was around 40.
Repulsive appearance, impressively hard carapace, the stubborn vitality befitting their name. Sharp mandibles.
Added to that, overwhelming numbers.
‘Of all their traits, the most troublesome is.’line>
Their blood.

The blood carried toxins, and those toxins were random.
From hallucinations to toxins that ate away at health, to poisons that inflicted terror—they inflicted genuinely difficult status ailments.
‘That’s the main reason this Gate earned a 95 rating.’
Cockroaches swarming from all directions.
Inevitably, chaos erupted, and amid the fray, dodging all the blood spraying from countless places was brutally difficult.
Take enough blood hits and your mind and stamina became rags, your clear failing.
‘Cedric would spot an approaching attack and dodge it cleanly, sure—but most hunters can’t.’
Most of them can’t avoid it.
That’s why the standard strategy requires an Antidote, though even that only lasts about thirty minutes at most.
And it costs a fortune.
Hunters come in to make money and walk out having spent it all.
‘That’s why this Gate’s so unpopular—despised, really.’
The baby skeletons would probably take plenty of blood hits today.
But that didn’t matter to him.
The skeletons get unsummoned?
Wait until their numbers thin out appropriately, take a potion, summon them again. Done.
An ordinary Necromancer would clear one group, drink a potion, repeat—but he wasn’t ordinary.
With his current skeleton army, he could crush five or six groups in a single sweep.
And they’d resurrect once besides.
For Kim Min-woo, this Gate posed no real challenge.
The Corpse Cockroaches swarming forward faltered the moment they caught sight of his forces.
Skitter?
Skritch?
The insects weren’t particularly intelligent, but they had basic survival instinct. So many enemies—far more than themselves!
“Come on. First time you’ve seen numbers like this?”
…….
“Cedric. Let’s grind them all to dust.”
—Master, I’ve been waiting for those words. Forward, brothers!
Clatter!
Clack!
The skeleton spearmen fanned out in a needle-sharp formation with Cedric and charged.
Squelch!
Splat!
Corpse Cockroaches impaled on spears, spraying green ichor everywhere.
Moments later, skeleton soldiers wielding clubs descended on the insects’ bodies with savage abandon.
Though the skeletons swinging the weapons lacked real strength, their gear was premium-grade—items they’d been equipped with since the early forties.
Shriek!
A screaming Corpse Cockroach clamped down hard on one skeleton’s torso.
The skeleton immediately crumpled, surrounded and crushed.
Its resistance growing feeble, its strength draining away.
Shriek!
The insect’s triumphant roar died moments later.
Squelch!
The resurrected skeleton’s blade tore its innards to shreds.
Cedric was operating at peak efficiency.
Each swing of his spear sent Corpse Cockroach heads exploding in bursts.
‘This is perfect.’
This was the true elegance of automated hunting.
He stood motionless while monsters sorted themselves out on their own.
[You have hunted 41 Corpse Cockroaches!]
[Your Level has increased by 5!]
Five levels climbed in the blink of an eye.
“Ahh. Now this is the life.”
[Your Skeleton Squad has gained combat experience against insectoid monsters!]
[Your Skeleton Squad has gained Experience!]
Summons could never exceed their master’s Level.
Until now, his skeletons had dutifully remained at Level 1 together.
But that would change starting today.
As Kim Min-woo’s Level climbed, his skeletons’ average Level would begin to rise as well.
Of course, with 422 skeletons dividing the experience equally, their growth would move at a glacial pace.
‘Growth is growth, wherever it comes from.’
Better than stagnation by a hundred times over.
‘Now that I’ve got a read on the skeletons’ capabilities…….’
Time to let loose.
He drew his blade in pursuit of the World Record.
* * *
[You have hunted 52 Corpse Cockroaches!]
[Your Level has increased…….]
[You have hunted 55 Corpse Cockroaches!]
[Your Level has increased…….]
[You have hunted 60 Corpse Cockroaches!]
[Your Level has increased…….]
Once Cedric joined the fray, their advance accelerated to something approaching superhuman speed. The level gap between them and the insects was substantial enough that each encounter brought a flurry of stat gains.
‘Of course.’
A normal person would have formed a party before coming here.
So instead of a party splitting the experience, he was absorbing it all himself — not leveling up would have been the strange thing.
‘That’s why I prioritized raising my stats first.’
Leveling?
Anything that could wait could be deferred.
He could always rush through it later.
[You have acquired the Title ‘Insect Slayer’!]
[Damage against insectoid monsters increased by 10%]
He’d picked up another Title along the way.
By the time he reached the boss chamber.
‘Exactly two hours.’
He’d stopped once in the middle.
More than half his soldiers had been ground down, so he’d had to drink a Mana Potion and resummon them to regroup.
‘Current Level: 22.’
A leveling speed ordinary people couldn’t even fathom.
He’d gained a staggering amount from a single Gate clear.
Cedric, sharing his levels, was in the same boat.
As his level rose, the Summon’s spear work grew steadily more refined.
“Look at you grow. Makes me proud as your master.”
―Though it’s more recalling the past than actual growth…….
“Hey. I told you not to talk back.”
―……it was just a personal observation.
“Now we’re taking down the boss.”
―What’s the boss here?
“The Tomb Guardian.”
―A Tomb Guardian? Is that also an insect?
“Yeah. A disgustingly huge cockroach.”
Which was why it shattered the mental fortitude of Awakened hunters.
Especially when it fired endless streams of smaller cockroaches from its mouth like a barrage — some Awakened would simply freeze in horror.
Disgust was disgust, Awakening or no.
―Master, doesn’t the sight of insects disturb you?
“Well, it does. But it’s fine. I’ve seen so many of them.”
There wasn’t just one or two Gates that spawned insectoid monsters. He’d long since transcended such squeamishness.
Cedric tilted his head at that.
―You’ve seen many? Does your house have an insect problem?
“……Roughly speaking.”
―You should pay attention to your hygiene. The place looks clean enough. It’s good to tidy up right after eating.
“Shut it, you pest.”
―Master, you were only worried about me, so why are you hitting my head?
“That’s because I care. Now let’s go.”
He opened the door to the boss chamber.
[The boss of Osiris’s Tomb, the ‘Tomb Guardian,’ appears!]
Screech!
“Kill it.”
The fearless skeletons surged forward in a wave.

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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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