Damn Necromancer - Chapter 41

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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 Extravagant Necromancer (41)
Divine Beast
First, he examined the ring.
[4th Apostle’s Ring (1/4)]
[Grade: Unique/Fragment]
[Requirements: Level 101 or higher]
[A ring worn by the 4th Apostle, Belitas. It appears to be an incomplete ring of some kind…….]
[Effect 1. Magical Power +50]
[Effect 2. Mana Recovery Speed +20%]
“A Fragment?”
Kim Min-woo’s eyes lit up.
Fragment items.
When you collected all the fragments, the item’s true performance was revealed.
He needed three fragments in total.
‘The other Apostles must have the rest.’
Once he gathered them all, the item’s performance would improve dramatically — at minimum reaching the Plus tier. With real luck, the grade itself could climb another step higher.
‘Even a Unique accessory is priceless…….’
A Unique Plus or Legendary-grade accessory?
They were impossible to find.
Any Awakener would equip one first and ask questions later.
“Not bad at all.”
He’d meet the Apostles eventually.
He could recover the rings then.
He removed one of the Subspace Rings from his hand and put on the Apostle’s ring.
[You have equipped the 4th Apostle’s Ring!]
[Magical Power increases by 50!]
[Mana Recovery Speed increases…….]
‘The options are excellent.’
The magical power boost was invaluable, needless to say.
The mana recovery speed increase was equally precious.
‘It’s a rare option, aside from a few buff skills.’
Recovery speed increase skills were typically held by priests and shamans.
It was one of the hardest options to find on items.
‘Very rare indeed.’
Potions were expensive, and even if you had mountains of them, overload and addiction meant you couldn’t drink infinitely.
That’s why he relied mostly on natural recovery in most situations.
One percent per minute.
Without any buffs, health and mana recovered at exactly that rate.
An option that increased that speed was as valuable as they came.
And it still had room to grow.
This was only one of the fragments, after all.
He picked up the skill book.
[You obtain a Bound Skill Book.]
[You obtain Necromancer Skill Book: Equipment Installation (B)!]
‘Huh?’
Equipment Installation?
Was it the skill he was thinking of?
Kim Min-woo’s eyes gleamed as he examined the details.
[Equipment Installation (B)]
[Level Requirement: 115 or higher]
[You can fix the equipment of summons. Fixed equipment will not drop when the summon dies. Additionally, the performance of fixed equipment increases by 20%.]
‘That’s the one.’
A skill that fixed summon equipment. It was one of the essential skills every summoner dreamed of acquiring.
The reason was simple.
The process of summoning and equipping was terribly cumbersome.
Take skeletons, for example.
You had to summon them, spread equipment from the Subspace Ring, and equip each piece — a needlessly complex sequence.
‘Damnably tedious.’
Enemies didn’t grant much prep time.
Sometimes you had to summon creatures right at an enemy’s feet to block their mobility, or resummon immediately after they were forcibly dismissed.
In situations like that, there obviously wasn’t time to equip anything separately.
In such a state, summoned creatures would have to fight with just a single basic bone weapon, nothing more.
But if Equipment Installation existed?
Since gear became fixed, I could deploy fully equipped summons wherever and whenever needed.
There was no better skill for diversifying strategy.
On top of that, even if they were unsummoned, the equipment wouldn’t drop, and the performance of fixed gear increased as well.
‘This is actually amazing.’
Until now, I’d been outfitting the skeletons at Magic tier quality.
Cost was one thing, but the real reason was to prepare for the worst.
Back when I challenged the Death Lord’s chamber.
The memory of returning without recovering hundreds of sets of armor was still vivid.
If something like that happened after I’d equipped Rare-grade items?
I couldn’t handle it.
Beyond the money itself, sourcing replacements would take an enormous amount of time.
‘Now I don’t have to worry about that anymore.’
Even better, I was in a position to mass-produce gear using crafting skills and items.
With this one skill alone, my fighting power seemed like it would balloon by at least fifty percent.
It was incredible.
Now the only thing left was…….
I looked down at Belitas’s corpse.
‘Should I take it or leave it.’
Creating Undead from a corpse was a fairly complicated process.
First, you needed the relevant skills, and gathering the necessary materials was just the beginning.
And most critically.
‘The body’s quality has to be high.’
Lee Seo-yoon had high potential.
That’s why I’d kept her.
Even if I obtained undead-creation skills later, Lee Seo-yoon was valuable enough to warrant the effort of raising her.
But Belitas?
‘It’s ambiguous.’
This creature was strong because it was a boss monster—not because of any individual talent or high potential.
“Hmm…….”
The deliberation didn’t last long.
I just stashed it in the Subspace Ring.
At least that audacity in requesting a final all-out battle at the end deserved some respect.
‘Well, maybe I’ll raise it someday.’
Or I could always leave it and use the bones for something else later.
Since I had space left and no food to spoil, there was no harm in taking it along.
―Screech! Big brother! I’ve cleaned everything up here!
Urkan let out a triumphant shout, blood-stained axe in hand.
“Good. Stay in position out there—don’t go further into the fortress.”
―Screech! Got it! Anyone who tries to sneak in, I’ll split their skull with this axe!
I stepped through the wide-open fortress gates. Instantly, a savage cold struck my body.
Elise, clinging to my side, spoke through slight tremors.
“……The Fragment is probably in the fortress basement. It’ll get colder the deeper we go.”
“Stay here and wait. I’ll break it and bring it back.”
“Are you sure you’ll be alright?”
“I came prepared for exactly this situation.”
At my words, she nodded.
“Cedric!”
I called out to Cedric, who’d been cleaning the fortress. Together with him as he approached, I entered the stronghold.
[Savage cold descends upon you!]
[Body temperature drops rapidly!]
[Heat Generation Potion (Superior Grade) consumed!]
[Cold Resistance Potion (Superior Grade) consumed!]
.
.
Money is god, and potions are invincible.
As I drank the superior-grade potions in succession, the chill subsided considerably.
I descended into the basement without hesitation.
As they entered the chamber at the very bottom of the underground level.
A completely frozen door came into view.
“Smash it.”
[Cedric uses Dragon Strike!]
Crack!
The door shattered into fragments, revealing the interior beyond.
In the center of a vast cavern.
A small blue fragment hung suspended in the air.
Above it, a tremendous cold swirled in a vortex. As Kim Min-woo gazed upon the fragment, information surfaced in his mind.
[Winter Fragment]
[Grade: Special]
[A fragment created by splitting apart a portion of winter’s essence. It possesses a cold so intense it could freeze an entire region solid. It would be wise not to touch it.]
[Effect 1. Upon consumption, if you overcome the cold, you can wield Ice Attribute. However, if you fail to overcome it, you will freeze to death.]
[Effect 2. Upon consumption, if you overcome the cold, you gain Ice Attribute Resistance. However, if you fail to overcome it, you will freeze to death.]
“Hmm…….”
―Master, what troubles you?
“It doesn’t feel right to approach it.”
―It appears the same to my eyes as well.
“And yet we can’t just leave it untouched…….”
The cold will only stop once the fragment is destroyed.
Of course, consuming it to eliminate it might also work to end the cold.
‘Absolutely not.’
Even audacity has its limits.
Approaching it already seemed difficult enough, and they wanted him to consume it too?
This wasn’t a matter of spiritual fortitude or lack thereof.
You attempt a strategy only when the angle of attack is clear.
This lay far beyond what a mere Cold Resistance Potion could overcome.
“Go, Cedric. Strike it with Dragon Strike.”
―…….
Cedric, who had hesitated for a moment, charged toward the fragment.
It was the very picture of perfect loyalty.
Then.
[Cedric uses Dragon Strike…….]
[Freezes!]
Crackle!
When Cedric closed to within ten paces of the fragment, his entire body froze solid within a layer of ice.
Immediately after.
Snap!
The ice shattered into pieces, and Cedric was unsummoned.
He survived once more thanks to the Death Lord effect, but having already crossed into the abyss, there was no salvation. So he broke apart twice over.
Kim Min-woo summoned Cedric again.
“Breath.”
The creature’s jaws yawned wide.
A tremendous gout of flame shot toward the fragment.
The breath approached within ten paces of it, and then.
Whoosh!
The flame scattered and vanished completely.
“……This is madness.”
Kim Min-woo’s face went rigid.
An attack that had shredded a B-rank boss couldn’t even reach it before dissipating?
‘This is more troublesome than fighting an Apostle.’
Ranged attacks?
The previous assault had taught him the answer.
Whether magic or arrows, everything would simply freeze before it even reached the fragment.
‘Unless I use magic like Meteor…….’
Meteor was an S-rank spell.
Sadly, Kim Min-woo was not a mage.
“There has to be some way to clear this…….”
But what that way was remained unclear.
That was when.
―Coo.
“……?”
―……That’s not me.
“No, did you hear that?”
―I heard it. It sounds like a bird’s cry…….
―Coo-oo.
“No, what is that?”
I could clearly hear something calling out, yet I sensed no presence whatsoever.
‘Is this some kind of mechanism in this place?’
That was when it happened.
[A Divine Beast that had been watching you reveals itself!]
Flutter!
With the flutter of wings, a light weight settled on my shoulder.
It was a small bird.
A bird made entirely of white.
Peculiarly, it had a horn on its forehead.
Kim Min-woo stared at the bird.
A Divine Beast.
I had some idea of what this was.
‘The title effect?’
Eternal Stopper.
The title I’d gained after finishing the Hrulunerf Battlefield.
One of its effects was surely…….
[Effect 2. You smell delicious. A Divine Beast is taking an interest in you.]
‘So this Divine Beast was that?’
Then.
Cedric spoke.
―I think I know what it is. It’s a Seven-Color Bird.
“A Seven-Color Bird?”
―Yes. I used Seven-Color Bird feathers when creating my body.
Now that I think about it, he had mentioned something like that in passing.
Something about Gold Dragon Lord bones, the blood vessels of the Abyss Lord, and Seven-Color Bird feathers…….
“That was it?”
―Indeed. The Seven-Color Bird has a white body, a horn on its forehead, and its neck is tinged blue. This one is identical. But did this world have Seven-Color Birds too?
Cedric tilted his head.
“It’s probably the one that was attached to me. I saw the phrase that it was watching me last time.”
―Last time? When was that?
“When I came out of the Hrulunerf Battlefield.”
―……I see. Seven-Color Birds typically absorb seven different Attributes. Death is one of them too. It probably was drawn to the aura of a Lord.
So that’s why it said you smelled delicious.
“And with a Cold Attribute Fragment appearing, it couldn’t hold back and burst out?”
―Perhaps? In your world’s terms, it’s like having pizza and chicken placed in front of you at the same time.
Ah, nobody can resist that.
I understood instantly.
I looked at the Seven-Color Bird on my shoulder.
I pointed at the Fragment, and its gaze followed.
“You want to eat that?”
―Coo.
The bird nodded.
“You understand words?”
―If it’s been watching you as we discussed, it likely followed along. In that time, it seems to have learned some human language.
I nodded.
A Divine Beast would be intelligent.
Learning some language was hardly strange.
‘That it followed me into the Hidden Gate…….’
It was a single-person restricted gate.
In other words, it should close unless at least one person entered, right?
But a bird wasn’t a person.
Then.
A thought flashed through my mind.
“Wait. So you’re saying you want to eat something too?”
―Coo.
“Damn it, what am I supposed to do if you nod at me like that?”
―Coo?
The Seven-Color Bird tilted its head, bewildered.
I turned to Cedric.
“Seven-Color Bird expert. I need your professional opinion here.”
―By its size, it appears to be a chick born not long ago. There should be room for training.
“So I can raise it?”
Cedric nodded.
―I’ve never seen a case of anyone actually raising a Seven-Color Bird before, but there’s no reason to assume it’s impossible. Usually it’s just that no one has tried, not that it can’t be done.
That made sense.
“But can it actually eat that stuff?”
―……Probably. The Seven-Color Bird is no fool. It won’t crave what it can’t consume.
I’d have to trust the expert’s judgment on this.
I looked at the Seven-Color Bird again.
Remarkable stealth capabilities.
Intelligent enough to learn language.
Able to resolve my current predicament.
Commands seven attributes, with potential for future usefulness.
‘There’s no reason to refuse.’
Wasn’t this the classic late bloomer among pets?
Conclusion:
This was a jackpot waiting to be won.
I spoke while stroking the Seven-Color Bird’s head.
“Say papa. Papa.”
―……Coo. Coo?
“Attaboy! Well done! My little one!”
I gently stroked the Seven-Color Bird’s head. It seemed pleased, letting out a satisfied cooing sound.
I spoke to it.
“I’ll give you lots of delicious food besides that. Will you stay with papa and travel together?”
―Coo?
“Yes. I’m your papa here. If you travel with me, you can eat lots of tasty things, and you won’t need to hide anymore.”
In that moment.
―Cooouuu.
The Seven-Color Bird rubbed its head against my fingertip.
[A Divine Beast wishes to be with you!]
[Do you accept?]
‘Done.’
Kim Min-woo smiled broadly.
The Divine Beast tumbled into my palm.

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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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