Damn Necromancer - Chapter 59

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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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Extravagant Necromancer (59)
This was Murim, but it bore no resemblance to the stages that typically appeared in novels. Usually, Murim was constructed on the foundation of ancient China.
‘But here is simply…… an entirely different world.’
It was as if Murim had simply sprung up on some unknown continent.
If the Chinese Murim was Grade-A Murim,
then this place had the feel of a Grade-C Murim.
There was nothing strange about it—the Gate itself was an Other World Fragment.
In any case,
since I’d intended to stand out from the start, I had already thoroughly examined the castles and internal sects of places that could serve as escape routes.
‘Hanrim Castle.’
A city with 10-meter walls, ruled from within by the Lee clan—members of the Murim Alliance.
‘Come to think of it, their eldest son died at my hands.’
Lee Je-hyung, with the bearing of an older man.
He was the one who’d been overwhelmed while coordinating an attack with three members of the Orthodox Sect.
They would have heard the news by now; at this moment, he’d likely be grinding his teeth in this direction.
‘I heard the martial artists of this world move the government.’
That’s how this world’s Murim operated.
Officials must remain untouchable?
Not to that degree.
Officials practically had to bow their heads and knock them against the ground in submission.
The reason was simple.
‘Every hundred years, a Strongest emerges from the Murim.’
What good were soldiers or masters when even a hair on the true Strongest’s head couldn’t be touched?
Had those who obtained a Clue to Ascension continued to remain on this land, martial artists might have become emperors generation after generation.
‘It’s a relief they went to the heavens.’
I’d heard that after ruling for decades, they’d suddenly vanish one day.
No doubt they’d ascended to the Heavenly Realm, just like Mutakta.
In any case,
after being carved up like that several times, the government had apparently begun bowing its head of its own accord.
The government could be moved easily.
= If one was willing, it could simply be commanded.
= The city’s soldiers could be deployed at one’s discretion.
This was roughly what it meant.
‘Well, it might be difficult to turn soldiers beyond the castle walls…….’
The Lee clan was said to be a relatively powerful household, but they were still just one among many families within the Murim Alliance.
Even so, an emperor and his court had their dignity. They couldn’t possibly cede military command over such small fry to any clan’s whim.
Only the Murim Alliance, Sadoryeon, or the Demonic Cult’s main body would be capable of such a performance.
Wait.
All three had banded together?
‘……If they caught me, they’d truly swarm like a pack of dogs.’
For now, they were merely chasing with feigned casualness, but if I managed to slip their grasp and flee far enough?
They could even deploy every soldier from the Capital and scatter them across the land.
‘Is that why it’s Heaven’s Net Inescapable?’
Damn it.
In the end, it all came down to a race against time.
The dark night.
Far ahead, a city stood with its gates firmly shut.
Between blazing torches, soldiers stood watchful in the darkness.
“Take these.”
I handed her several potions.
[Strange Stealth Potion]
[Grade: Common+]
[A potion that seems to render you transparent when drunk. However, it appears there are side effects as well.]
[Effect 1. Upon consumption, you become transparent for 20 minutes.]
[Effect 2. Upon consumption, you experience a random side effect.]
“……A Strange Stealth Potion?”
She examined the potion, tilting her head in confusion.
It was a creation of the skeletons.
Originally, it was five minutes when first crafted, but as the crafting grade increased, it extended to twenty minutes.
“……But there are side effects?”
“I’ve tested it, and it’s not a big deal. It just reduces my ability scores for a few hours. Compared to the invisibility, it’s a negligible cost.”
“How invisible are we talking?”
“On a night like this, even someone around Level 200 wouldn’t spot me.”
Amateurs would miss it; professionals would catch it. That was the range.
‘Still, it should be useful enough.’
Slipping past the soldiers on the wall would be easy.
Potions that boosted health, mana, or ability scores were common enough.
But potions with strange properties like this—you couldn’t make them without either finding the recipe or learning the craft directly. That’s why there was almost no market for them.
Fortunately, the skeletons had been taught directly by elves, so it didn’t matter.
‘Elves weren’t called masters of alchemy for nothing.’
They could produce potions in batches that a normal human alchemist couldn’t create in a lifetime of effort.
Like dwarves, in a way.
“The plan is simple. I’ll slip in and open the outer gate. You find us horses—as many as you can.”
“To shake off pursuit?”
He nodded.
A pack was equipment too.
When a skeleton was unsummoned, the Equipment Retention skill meant the gear and bags remained behind.
Put a skeleton on a horse you’d found?
‘The weight would be about the same.’
The pursuers would be thrown into confusion again.
“Get them however you can—threaten them with force, do whatever it takes. Just bring them toward me, and we ride straight for the gate I’ll have opened.”
Gallop away on horseback.
Even so, the horses should manage a full day of hard riding. After that, they’d be too exhausted to be useful.
‘I’ll worry about that when the time comes.’
He’d been running all day and hadn’t slept.
If they couldn’t find horses, it would end in exhaustion.
She nodded.
“Then I’ll circle around and position myself by the other gate. Once the chaos starts, bring the horses over.”
“Understood.”
They split up.
‘I’ll draw their attention first.’
Quite a few skeletons had been unsummoned by now—roughly five hundred in total. That didn’t mean all ten groups had been wiped out, though.
A few from each squad had been unsummoned, probably the ones hidden away in caves or mountains. With Dol-soe, Cedric, and about five hundred skeletons—
‘Opening the gate will be nothing.’
A night raid.
Did they really think two people were attacking the castle alone?
‘Probably not.’
Word would have spread, so they’d be on some level of alert. But not much more than that.
‘The guard won’t be too tight.’
There weren’t many martial artists.
The shortage was being made up by soldiers on patrol routes.
He’d already figured out the patrol schedule, so it was time to slip inside.
He drank the Strange Stealth Potion.
[You will be invisible for 20 minutes!]
[Side effect: Strength and Agility will decrease by 10 for two hours!]
The moment a soldier passed, he leaped hard toward the castle wall.
His powerful ability scores let him clear ten meters in a single bound.
The inner city was deathly quiet in the night.
‘No guards below.’
He dropped down and sprinted forward. After about twenty minutes of running, the opposite gate came into view.
Here too, a handful of martial artists and many soldiers stood watch.
He drew his sword and rushed them.
“Who goes there!”
The martial artists sensed his presence an instant before the soldiers. But the distance had already closed to melee range.
A skeleton burst from the ground, swinging its iron mace to bash a martial artist’s leg.
“Ugh!”
Another skeleton hacked through the fallen martial artist’s neck with an axe.
Kim Min-woo cut down a charging martial artist in a single stroke.
“An a-attack!”
The entire castle erupted into chaos.
* * *
Lee Won-pyeong, patriarch of the Lee family.
He woke from his sleep at the commotion outside.
“What is it?”
“Pa-Patriarch! Disaster! Those men on the Alliance’s wanted list have appeared!”
“……What? You mean they got inside the city?”
“Yes. The North Gate was breached, and they’ve fled with dozens of horses!”
Lee Won-pyeong’s hair stood on end.
Baek So-cheon and Choi Aeng-aeng.
He’d heard their location hadn’t been discovered yet.
Whether they’d head toward the Capital remained uncertain, and he’d naturally assumed they’d skirt around the Capital and take a wide detour if they came at all.
But what madman would actually breach the city walls and cause such havoc while the Alliance’s armies were in pursuit?
It was as good as screaming their location from every rooftop.
‘That bastard Baek So-cheon……’
Lee Won-pyeong’s jaw clenched.
He’d heard the man passed the test that killed all but three. There was a chance—not a small one, judging by the scores—that this was the very man who’d slain his firstborn son. Revenge incarnate.
Yet despite that, the Lockdown Order from the Alliance had forced him to remain barricaded inside the city, forbidden from venturing out.
But this changed everything.
Their location was already pinpointed.
Pursuit was now permissible.
“Send a messenger pigeon to the Alliance at once, and gather the family’s warriors! I will personally track down those wretches!”
“Understood, Patriarch!”
He bolted toward the magistrate’s office, eyebrows flying.
The office was already in chaos from news of the intruders.
Lee Won-pyeong approached Kam, the administrator overseeing Hanrim Castle.
“Kam—can I borrow the city garrison?”
“……Haven’t I already lent active assistance to the lockdown? That is the extent of what we can do.”
“Those men are traitors the Alliance is pursuing! You must cooperate more actively!”
“……Traitor is not the proper term here. One becomes a traitor only after committing actual rebellion.”
“……Kam. This will become difficult for you. The Alliance won’t overlook it when they find out later.”
“Then do you have another document bearing the Alliance’s official seal, as you did before?”
“……”
Lee Won-pyeong fell silent.
When the lockdown order came earlier, he’d moved the magistrate with documents bearing the Alliance’s seal.
But this was different now.
The men had only just been discovered.
No matter how swift the messenger pigeon, it would take hours to reach the Alliance—there was no way he could produce a sealed document in time.
“Without that, I cannot order the garrison beyond the gates. We have a duty to protect the Emperor’s territory and subjects.”
“……Ha! What a lofty scholar you are!”
As if that emperor mattered one whit.
Lee Won-pyeong swallowed his retort and spun on his heel. At best, they might spare him some horses.
Those men were formidable.
It was burdensome for the Lee family to stop them alone—which was why he’d sought the magistrate in the first place.
‘No help for it. We’ll have to move ourselves.’
This was a matter where a clue to ascension hung in the balance.
By merely delaying long enough, he could garner tremendous credit.
And besides.
‘They took multiple horses, he said.’
Were they planning to switch mounts midway?
‘No.’
If that were the case, there’d be no reason to take so many.
One person’s weight was negligible at most. After a day of hard riding, they’d all collapse from exhaustion anyway.
‘They’re trying to scatter pursuit.’
He’d heard they’d played tricks with corpses before.
They could do the same here—mount some horses and try an identical maneuver, splitting the pursuit again. But if he pushed forward and discovered which way they were truly heading……
‘Then the highest honor would be within reach.’
Lee Won-pyeong’s eyes gleamed.
When he reached the family estate.
Nearly four hundred warriors were already mounted and waiting for him.
“We pursue them without mercy. Ride as though death itself were at your heels. Go!”
“Yes, my lord!”
The pursuit teams began to mobilize from within the city. Even after running for nearly twenty minutes, the abundant hoofprints continued forward without pause.
‘I’ll see through any deception they throw at us!’
If they split the horses in pairs to confuse the pursuit, he would simply divide his forces accordingly.
Each squad was equipped with Firecrackers, and the main force carried five Messenger Pigeons besides.
A number befitting the Li clan, who enjoyed the prosperity of their station.
That was when they entered the Forest Path that stretched in a perfect line.
Lee Won-pyeong’s eyes narrowed sharply.
Something glinted in the darkness—he could see it now.
Even for him, the highest-ranked among them, it was barely perceptible.
His eyes widened the next instant.
‘A chain?!’
Under cover of darkness, a thick chain hung strung between the trees on both sides.
“Jump off!”
Lee Won-pyeong threw himself aside to the forest’s edge. The warriors at the front followed without hesitation.
But those of lesser skill could not.
Before they could even react—
The leading horses caught on the chain and tumbled, tangling with others as bodies crashed to the ground.
The warriors suffered the same fate.
Skeletal figures burst from both sides of the forest, attacking the fallen warriors.
In that devastating ambush, hundreds of warriors fell without ceremony.
But that was not the worst of it.
Thud.
Thud.
A massive bone-forged monster emerged—and that alone should have been enough.
‘Baek So-cheon. Choi Aeng-aeng.’
Two figures whose faces matched the wanted posters exactly had revealed themselves.
‘They laid a trap.’
Lee Won-pyeong’s eyes widened.
He had thought them capable only of flight, never imagining they would set an ambush instead.
Haste had bred his ruin.
“You bastards…!”
Lee Won-pyeong ground his teeth.
One trap alone.
The blow was catastrophic.
Nearly three hundred and fifty warriors had been ground to nothing.
What remained was barely fifty of his elite.
And the enemy’s numbers?
‘Close to two thousand.’
In every direction, a field of the dead waited.
Could fifty warriors hope to capture those two and the dead arrayed against them?
Could they even break through this encirclement?
Every face darkened.
A true master could face dozens of similar warriors with ease.
And weren’t those two the very monsters who had slaughtered the late-stage masters of the Yongbong Association—the ones people said were incomparable? Lee Won-pyeong’s voice cut through to his men.
“Send the Messenger Pigeons now!”
The Firecrackers were useless.
There were no reinforcements within reach. His men hurriedly scribbled messages on paper and released the Messenger Pigeons into the sky.
Five Messenger Pigeons took flight.
Then—
Choi Aeng-aeng unslung the bow from her back.
Twang!
She pierced one of the Messenger Pigeons straight through.
At this impossible sight, Lee Won-pyeong and the other masters’ eyes flew open.
“Stop her! That woman!”
Twang! Twang!
Twang!
Without even drawing breath, Choi Aeng-aeng drew her bow again and again. Four more Messenger Pigeons fell in an instant.
Only then did Lee Won-pyeong, who had barely managed to close the distance, lunge forward with crimson eyes and unsheathed blade.
“You wench!”
Clang!
Choi Aeng-aeng drew her sword and engaged the creature directly. Only then could Lee Won-pyeong breathe easier.
At least one of them had survived.
They’d been pulled into the heart of the encirclement, but they’d avoided the worst.
“Everyone, break through! Each for their own survival!”
“Yes, sir!”
The warriors of House Lee scattered in all directions.
Each fighting for a chance to live. That was when the chaos erupted.
The sole surviving messenger pigeon, still in flight—
Thud!
With the impact, its body crumpled like a small car struck by a truck, and it began plummeting helplessly.

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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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