Damn Necromancer - Chapter 58

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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 Spendthrift Necromancer (58)
“This is ridiculous. Absolutely infuriating.”
Yang Jeong-hak, master of the Murim Alliance.
He narrowed his eyes, staring down at the ground.
Not long after beginning the pursuit, his subordinates had started calling him over.
The reason was simple enough.
It lay in the footprints scattered across this stretch of earth.
Dozens upon dozens of branching trails, and the size of each footprint—even the weight pressed into the soil—was nearly identical.
It had become difficult even for him to distinguish which was genuine.
Hide a tree, and you hide it in a forest.
This was the strategy to perfection.
Just then.
Gu Yang-cheon scratched his head in exasperation.
“……They’ve calibrated the weight this precisely? This bastard didn’t just bolt on impulse. He set the board up properly.”
“……True. And the bigger problem is…….”
“They’ve mixed their own footprints completely with those of the undead. This has become a real headache.”
Yang Jeong-hak nodded.
They’d divided the force into groups of fifty, then spread outward in all directions—each group deliberately treading over the tracks already laid down. Even for men like them, tracking became impossible under such conditions.
Every direction was choked with hopelessly muddled footprints.
‘There’s no telling them apart.’
It spoke to thorough, meticulous training.
Yang Jeong-hak tilted his head.
“……Is it even possible to train the undead with such precision?”
“That wretch Baek So-cheon, master of the Sage Sect—he’d know.”
“…….”
Baek Hak-sung, too, kept his stern gaze fixed on the ground.
He spoke shortly after.
“Training them to this level is possible, yes. But it requires the undead to be sufficiently advanced. At minimum, they’d need to be Jiangshi-tier.”
“Then you’re saying Baek So-cheon’s level is that high?”
“No. He was a type of undead I’d never seen before, but the aura emanating from him wasn’t particularly strong. Normally, such low-tier undead cannot be trained at all.”
“But they did train him. How?”
“……I don’t know either.”
“Damn it. If that’s how it stands, we have no choice but to divide our forces.”
The other two nodded at Gu Yang-cheon’s words.
“Search every direction?”
“……There are certainly directions they likely didn’t go. But we don’t know their escape route. We cannot dismiss even a single possibility.”
The two men nodded at Baek Hak-sung’s words. A cunning opponent indeed.
He might have feinted us by heading in a direction so unlikely we’d dismiss it, or—a slim chance, but real—they might not have moved from this location at all.
The thread to ascension hung in the balance.
Not a single small risk could be overlooked.
Yang Jeong-hak stroked his chin and spoke.
“Then we divide by seven hundred each. Search it all. Each group must include at least two elders.”
No one objected to this proposal.
They’d gathered information on the Dragon-Phoenix Tower Contest from Cho Won-hui, who’d placed third.
The rule was to kill until only three remained.
The finest young talents in the Murim had participated. Not a single mediocrity among them.
All possessed strength and standing that would make them formidable anywhere.
And yet the strongest—first and second place—had fled.
Especially the first-placer, rumored capable of commanding thousands of undead.
Sending only mediocre forces would likely result in them being devoured before they could even stall for time.
At minimum, two elder-class cultivators would be needed to buy any time at all.
Fortunately, all three sects that dominated the Murim had gathered here.
Arranging such deployment posed no difficulty.
Only one thing remained.
Whether to intermix personnel from the different sects, and which search direction to assign to whom.
“The Demonic Cult takes this area.”
Gu Yang-cheon pointed straight ahead, consulting the map as he spoke.
Both men’s faces immediately darkened.
“You’re joking. Don’t mess with us.”
“You, are you treating our Sage Sect like fools?”
If those two fugitives had chosen their direction of escape, it was most likely toward the front. They could change direction as much as they wanted from there.
By contrast, fleeing toward the outer perimeter would leave them with limited options if they got surrounded.
“So what are you suggesting?”
Gu Yang-cheon asked, his face creased with displeasure.
Yang Jeong-hak offered his answer.
“We space them out from this end, alternating between them. Sage Sect, Murim Alliance, Demonic Cult, in that order. Sage, Murim, Demonic, Sage, Murim, Demonic. That should work.”
“You’re saying we send scattered groups like that? They won’t even communicate with each other, much less coordinate.”
“But if we do it your way and commit everyone to one direction, the groups covering the other routes will have grievances. Wouldn’t they?”
A slight cough escaped Gu Yang-cheon’s throat.
There was indeed merit to what Yang Jeong-hak said.
“Besides, a single group catching both of them would be difficult. Once they’re spotted, we’ll need support from nearby units. This arrangement means all three organizations can actively pursue them.”
The two men nodded.
With this deployment, whenever one organization spotted the pair, the only places nearby where they could request aid were the other two groups.
Even if they called for help from their own organization stationed far to the side.
‘They’ll notice.’
The moment one group surged toward a single location, the units beside them would catch on and chase after them.
It was, at least in terms of fairness, the optimal arrangement. Though efficiency, one could argue, told a different story.
But efficiency was something you worried about when capture seemed impossible.
‘There’s no way we fail.’
The three men shared the same conviction.
Failure had never been an option from the start.
There had to be some distance to the escape point.
If the escape point were close?
‘They wouldn’t be running in circles like this.’
If it were close, the smart thing would be to just run flat-out instead of wasting time with these tricks.
Of course, given how cunning these prey were, they might still pull something like this even if escape were near, but…
That was a complication they couldn’t account for. How could you catch someone whose escape was already within reach? So they chose not to entertain that possibility.
‘They will be caught. Definitely.’
Nearly thirty thousand pursuit troops.
And whatever direction those two went, a Castle Town existed somewhere along the way.
Of course, Carrier Pigeons had been dispatched to every Castle Town days ago, ordering them to blockade passage and let no one through.
Both rear and front were sealed.
The hunt would succeed, even if it took a little longer.
“We’ve aligned our views. Let’s move out. Time is critical.”
“Agreed.”
All three nodded.
And so the pursuit forces were mobilized.
* * *
There are limits to human endurance.
That held true even for exceptional Awakeners. After running over several mountains in succession for a full day, breath came in ragged gasps.
Kim Min-woo glanced at Seo Ye-rim.
Exhaustion was beginning to show.
Her Ability Scores were higher than his, but that didn’t mean she felt no fatigue.
‘We need to rest for a moment.’
They’d been running all day without pause.
And since he’d scattered the fifty skeletal pursuers in every direction, the enemy’s pursuit should be in disarray.
They’d bought themselves some time.
He surveyed the surrounding terrain.
By fortunate chance, a suitable cave lay nearby.
“Phew. Let’s rest there for a bit.”
He and Seo Ye-rim entered the cave and sat down. He chewed an Energy Bar while studying the mental map that had surfaced in his mind.
[Distance Covered: 20%]
[Distance Remaining: 80%]
‘So we’ve made it about one-fifth of the way.’
In other words, at this pace they’d need to run four more legs to reach their destination. Worse still, several stretches on the map required them to pass through Castle Towns.
And those Castle Towns were in regions where the Murim Alliance held sway.
His mind grew heavy with the weight of it.
Seo Ye-rim’s face bore the same troubled expression.
“We seem to have disrupted their pursuit to some degree, but… should we just go in a straight line?”
A route straight up the map.
We pass straight through the Castle Town.
From the map, it looked to be roughly the size of a city.
The advantage was that we could move as fast as possible.
The disadvantage was…….
‘By now, they’ve probably scattered Wanted Posters everywhere.’
Carrier Pigeons travel dozens of times faster than a running man. They’ve already been released in all directions.
If we went straight ahead, there was no chance of slipping through quietly.
“I’m weighing our options. But if we turn back, they’ll catch us much faster.”
A straight line versus going around in a circle.
Obviously the direct route is far quicker.
Besides, going around meant we’d have to scale mountains.
The drain on our stamina would be overwhelming.
“It doesn’t seem like they’ve picked up on which direction we went yet. Wouldn’t it be better to circle around and stay hidden?”
“There’s a problem. The skeletons lose their summoning link if we get too far away.”
Of course, that range was wider than one might think.
The real issue was that with every moment we sprinted forward, the distance between us and the skeletons grew steadily larger.
‘……Best case? Maybe half a day?’
The farthest ones would start losing their link gradually.
“…… No matter what we do, their search area just keeps narrowing.”
“I never thought we could make it through completely anyway. Besides, the skeletons are slow. They’ll be caught up with soon enough.”
True, the skeletons here had respectable Ability Scores thanks to Bone Exchange, Death Load, and equipment effects, but they were naturally far slower than actual martial artists who trained and ate real food.
Especially burdened as they were with full armor and packs on their backs.
‘I did give secondary orders, though…….’
As we went, whenever we spotted mountains or caves, I’d ordered them to scatter and hide, one by one.
To be as bothersome as possible.
But the thing is.
‘It’s all just buying time.’
The conclusion.
Eventually the search area narrows, and we’ll inevitably be tracked down.
Seo Ye-rim’s face darkened.
“Running all day and we’ve only made 20%…… So we’d need at least four more days…… How long can the skeletons buy us time?”
“I’d guess thirty thousand troops got divided among all of them. Even at best, my summoned units will be dead within a day.”
“One day. So at best we’re at 40%?”
“That’s because we’re taking mountain paths. If we could pass straight through the Castle Town, we could probably push our progress up to halfway. If we could find horses? We might do even better.”
“At minimum 50%…….”
The target looked tempting enough that Seo Ye-rim’s eyes grew distant.
She spoke while taking a sip of water.
“The problem is…… they’d pick up on our direction, and since it’s flat terrain, they can bring riding mounts to pursue us.”
You can’t ride horses on mountain trails.
Of course the martial artists have to run on foot too.
But would only we be struggling?
No.
Those pursuing us would be just as exhausted.
But on flatland?
They have nothing holding them back.
They can ride horses or carriages all they want.
They could even easily swap out for fresh, swift mounts along the way.
Meanwhile we’d struggle with everything—finding horses in the first place, then following roads while mounted.
And with how obscenely high the bounty is, the moment they find anything suspicious, reports will flood in from everywhere.
“Could we just hide in some remote ravine…… No, wait, if a Gate opens…….”
“Yes. If it does, we all die.”
A Gate opening?
That means a failed Clear.
All Awakeners inside die. A+ Rank Gates give three months until first Clear.
It’s already been about a month, hasn’t it?
We have barely two months left.
Just hold out?
We can’t.
“Even if we somehow survived without dying, enduring like that wouldn’t mean much. Do you think they’d give up on this lead after a few years?”
“…… No, they wouldn’t.”
“Either way, we need to make a choice now.”
Seo Ye-rim spoke with a nod.
“Let’s think it through. If we circle around, we’ll be discovered later, but they’ll still pinpoint our direction eventually. And it’ll be slow.”
“Yes.”
“If we go through the Castle Town, we can move faster, but the pursuit squad will swarm us like a pack of dogs. Am I right?”
“There’s one more thing we should consider, though?”
“……?”
“Beyond this next city, there are more cities ahead in our direction. Why would that be?”
“……They’ll be chasing from ahead too, not just behind?”
“That’s what makes it an A+ Rank Gate, isn’t it?”
“Hah…… This is rough.”
Kim Min-woo nodded.
Recommended party size: thirty people.
There was a reason the recommendation was set so high.
“Still, the forces ahead probably won’t be that formidable. The elite squads will have already been pulled to the Dragon-Phoenix Tower Contest.”
“……So what do you want to do about it?”
“From my experience, in situations like this, the right move is to just barrel straight through without looking back.”
“You mean break through the Castle Town?”
“Yes. If we half-heartedly circle around, those three old monsters will catch us, and we’ll end up in pieces.”
At those words, Seo Ye-rim shuddered.
“……All right. We go head-on.”
Then.
―Caw.
Ha-yang-i flew into the cave.
Soon after, the bird began pecking the ground with its beak.
Seven marks in total.
With an X beside them.
Then it started scratching the ground with its talons.
Eight tally marks appeared.
“Well, well, my clever one. Impressive, truly impressive. Dad’ll get you a snack.”
―Caw!
Ha-yang-i devoured the treat with eyes rolled back in bliss, then promptly sent a hopeful glance asking for more.
“Once we’re out, Dad will buy you plenty of snacks. For now, just be patient. Understand?”
―Caw!
Ha-yang-i nodded vigorously.
Such a capable Divine Beast.
He turned to Seo Ye-rim.
“The pursuit squad numbers roughly seven hundred. The distance is about eight hours. Thankfully, the three old monsters aren’t included.”
“……Ha-yang-i told you that?”
“Our Divine Beast does this sort of thing. All right, let’s get moving.”
He rose to his feet alongside Seo Ye-rim.
Before the tail behind them grew any longer.
The time to break through the Castle Town was now.

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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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