Damn Necromancer - Chapter 69

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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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Spendthrift Necromancer (69)
● One of the main cast, Seo Ye-rim, has achieved her long-cherished dream!
● You receive 200 Achievement Points!
● You own an Achievement Vending Machine! Double points are deposited!
[Achievement Shop unlocked!]
[Rank: Silver (Total Achievement Points Earned: 1,030)]
[Current Achievement Points: 500]
‘A long-cherished dream fulfilled, then…’
It seemed Geom-seon had acknowledged her. With her talent in archery, it was more than possible.
Thanks to that, my points had shot up to 500 in an instant.
‘The vending machine really is divine.’
I checked the product list.
[Product List]
[1. Limit Break Elixir]
[Required Achievement Points: 100]
[2. Undead Cocktail]
[Required Achievement Points: 100]
[3. Necromancer Equipment Random Draw Ticket (Legendary~Ancient)]
[Required Achievement Points: 300]
[4. S-rank Bound Skill Book]
[Required Achievement Points: 500]
[5. ???]
[6. ???]
‘Undead Cocktail, huh.’
What the hell is that to cost 100 Achievement Points?
I examined the details.
[Undead Cocktail]
[Grade: Special]
[A cocktail that the dead can drink. Consuming it grants special effects.]
[Effect 1. Only Undead can consume this.]
[Effect 2. Upon consumption, all ability scores of the target Undead increase by 10%.]
[Effect 3. Low probability of granting a skill to the Undead upon consumption.]
[Effect 4. Upon consumption, the target Undead’s senses become slightly more active.]
It was a type of Undead enhancement item.
‘Not bad.’
Summons can’t use elixirs, skill books, or titles. Unless they’re special cases like Cedric, they’re naturally far weaker than ordinary Awakeners.
‘Stat increases and skills granted, then.’
And on top of that, sense activation.
Tempting.
Especially since I have Cedric.
If I feed the cocktail to that guy who’s already pulling his weight…
He’d go absolutely berserk.
But buying it right now felt premature. Achievement Points are obtained in double amounts, but they’re still a precious resource.
And the rest of the items on sale were no worse than the cocktail.
The Limit Break Elixir especially went without saying.
‘The equipment draw ticket isn’t bad either.’
Legendary and Ancient-grade equipment, no less.
Even if they weren’t accessories, such items were fundamentally difficult to obtain.
‘That’s also why each price tier is marked up across the board.’
Ideally, I’d want to acquire Unique-rank equipment or higher, of course.
But there has to be inventory for that.
Unique-rank items and above were already hard to find even at auction houses.
And if we’re talking Legendary or Ancient?
They don’t list those—they peddle them separately at exclusive VVIP auction houses instead.
Items like that started at price tags in the hundreds of billions, and the 10% commission was devastatingly steep.
‘I should visit the Celestial Auction House sometime.’
The grandest auction house held by the system itself, opening once a year.
Everything from high-level, high-grade equipment to accessories appeared there. What’s more, this auction house charged only around 2% commission—very reasonable.
The problem was that it wasn’t the kind of structure where you could simply choose to attend.
‘You need an invitation to go.’
The system selects merely a thousand people worldwide and sends them invitations.
Usually it considers Level, reputation, and available funds.
It’s early February now.
‘The invitations will probably start circulating around April.’
After selecting the candidates that way, the Celestial Auction House would open around May, roughly a month later.
This was one of the reasons he’d begun moving in earnest.
Given the conditions, it was rather selective—sudden fame alone wouldn’t earn you an invitation.
He needed to build up his standing gradually from now on, or he might not receive one at all.
Either way.
‘Three hundred Achievement Points and decent equipment.’
They’re Necromancer gear, after all.
There might be variation in quality among the pieces, but nothing worthless would come up.
‘The S-rank Skill Book is solid too.’
It’s bound.
That meant no duds either.
An S-rank skill would be useful for quite some time once acquired.
‘This is a tough choice.’
The problem was that everything was worthwhile—he had more points than he could spend. If the score overflowed, he’d take it all.
‘I have to pick something though…….’
There was no benefit in hoarding points.
Especially not when he’d soon need to hunt down the Death Lord’s second incarnation—after much deliberation, Kim Min-woo made his selection.
The S-rank Bound Skill Book.
The Limit Break Elixir wasn’t necessary just yet, and while the Undead Cocktail was tempting, his own strengthening came first, before Cedric’s.
Besides, he’d only be able to train Cedric properly if he had leftover points.
‘As for the equipment…….’
It was a shame, but the skill book still trumped the gear.
[Will you purchase the S-rank Bound Skill Book?]
“Yes.”
[You have obtained the S-rank Bound Skill Book!]
[Using the skill book!]
Light erupted.
Then.
[You have acquired the Necromancer skill: Land of Death (S)!]
‘Land of Death, huh.’
He examined the details.
[Land of Death (S)]
[Level Requirement: 151 or higher]
[Consumes 1,000 Mana to transform a designated area into the Land of Death for two hours.]
[Effect 1. Enemies standing in the Land of Death suffer impeded movement and continuous vitality drain.]
[Effect 2. Enemies who die within the Land of Death are resurrected as Undead.]
[Effect 3. All Undead standing in the Land of Death receive full Stat bonuses.]
‘An area-effect skill.’
It wasn’t ideal for single targets—the Mana cost was too steep.
But in a multi-enemy engagement?
‘The impact would be enormous.’
While he’d gain stat buffs, his enemies would lose vitality, suffer constant harassment, and if they fell, they’d rise again as Undead—all at once.
He activated the skill and a massive circle materialized before him.
‘The range…….’
It was far wider than expected.
Everything visible around him fell within the circle. It covered an area roughly the size of several athletic fields laid end to end.
“Not bad at all.”
The skill’s greatest advantage seemed to be its scope of application.
If he and Cedric found themselves in a group battle when summoned by the Death Lord, this skill would shine brilliantly.
‘Worthy of S-rank.’
He nodded in satisfaction.
* * *
News spread across the world.
It wasn’t only the general public that paid attention.
Shadow did as well.
From Agent One through Agent Seven, they all gathered in one place. In the interim, Shadow had been carrying out their assignments while simultaneously searching for whoever had killed Lee Seo-yoon.
Despite thorough investigation into the forged identification and connections across the financial and political worlds, they’d turned up no one with actual grounds for suspicion.
By that point, the inquiry had stalled halfway through.
Then the news broke.
Kim Min-woo had cleared an A+ Grade Gate with Geom-bong alone.
About that man.
“Could that actually be real?”
“Geom-bong’s got pride that reaches the heavens. She’d sooner slit her own tongue than fabricate a lie. Why would she?”
“I kept wondering why our investigation turned up no plausible suspects……”
“The one who killed Lee Seo-yoon—no matter how I look at it, it has to be him?”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Kim Min-woo.
The kind of man who could forge and erase identification documents without effort.
And that’s not all.
At merely a hundred levels, he supposedly held an equal claim in the Gate clear with Geom-bong.
With that much raw skill and talent, he must have been devastating in the lower level brackets as well.
If he’s tearing through A+ Grade Gates now, why couldn’t he have taken down a single Grade B Awakener back then?
Lee Seo-yoon, merely a promising newcomer at best, would’ve been disposed of easily inside a Gate.
Han Baek-gil’s eyes gleamed.
‘Kim Min-woo. So it was you.’
At last, he’d identified the new face who’d killed Lee Seo-yoon.
“Chief, don’t you covet that one?”
Han Baek-gil nodded.
Of course he did.
Even setting aside wealth—the leveling speed was extraordinary.
Combined with remarkable skill and talent.
An Awakener who made Lee Seo-yoon look pitiable by comparison.
If Shadow could recruit him, he’d become an incredible asset down the line.
“I’ll make contact personally.”
“……Chief, no disrespect, but can you even recruit someone like that? He has everything already. And he’s not unhinged like Lee Seo-yoon was.”
“But we can’t just leave him alone, either.”
“That’s true, but……”
Everyone in the room nodded at Han Baek-gil’s words.
Most of those gathered here held high social standing.
Most held positions in successful guilds, and some were even guild masters themselves.
So they understood.
An Awakener growing at that pace would certainly bring upheaval—and it was only a matter of time before he threatened their own interests.
A typhoon doesn’t deliberately uproot trees.
Trees just get torn away by the wind.
This was a typhoon.
A massive one at that.
Doing nothing was the worst option. An Awakener who’d grown that much in just two months.
In half a year, there was a high chance he’d reach a level even Shadow couldn’t touch.
By then, they’d have no choice but to hold their breath and survive
Whether they recruited him or eliminated him.
One way or another, they had to confront him.
Of course, Han Baek-gil wasn’t acting without any strategy.
“We can offer him something special. We’re not entirely without leverage.”
“……Chief, you’re not thinking of conducting a Baptism immediately, are you?”
“If recruitment is possible, we’ll have to offer at least that much.”
“Hmm……”
Everyone from First through Seventh fell silent.
Baptism.
Receiving power from a great existence to enable rapid growth. Of course, there was a price—never free.
One had to offer periodic ‘sacrifices’ and fulfill assigned missions.
But the rewards were commensurate.
That’s why they occupied these seats.
Which was why this was so serious.
A Baptism operated on a share structure—everyone fed from the same pool.
With one recipient, all the power flowed to them alone.
Growth becomes possible faster than anyone else. But what if the numbers increase?
Power fractured among them.
First through Seventh.
Every person gathered here had proven their worth through countless trials under Han Baek-gil, whom they called their captain.
That was why they’d been able to receive the Baptism. Even Lee Seo-yoon hadn’t received it outright—she’d had to crawl and claw her way through first.
Into the silence, Han Baek-gil spoke.
“Of course I know none of you want to. But besides that, do you have any way to persuade him?”
“……No, doesn’t look like it. Making him start from the bottom like Seo-yoon or the others—honestly, his tier is just too high for that.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
A monster whose leveling speed outpaced even Isabella’s.
What could he possibly lack that would make him seek this?
If anything, they were the ones who needed to hold him back now.
If persuasion worked, it would be an enormous gain.
“Fine. I’m in favor.”
“Me too.”
Unanimous consent.
“But what if persuasion doesn’t work? Do we eliminate him?”
The question hung in silence. Elimination was far from simple.
You couldn’t just swarm him with numbers and call it done. Given his standing, the aftermath would grow complicated beyond measure.
In reality, killing him was extraordinarily difficult. Nearly impossible, in fact.
Once it was done, they’d inevitably be caught.
Which meant it would have to happen inside a Gate…….
“……Let’s table that for now.”
They all nodded.
And so the form of Han Baek-gil, captain of Shadow, vanished.

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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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