Damn Necromancer - Chapter 8

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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 (8)
Dragon Knight
A pitch-black space devoid of any light.
From within it came a melancholy voice.
[If this activated, it means someone took my power.]
My power?
“Forgive me—are you Death Lord himself?”
[No use asking questions. This is only a recorded voice. Simply listen.]
The answer came at once.
I understood.
Once these words finished, everything would begin.
Right now was preparation time!
“Rise, you idiots.”
[Using Skeleton Summon!]
Clatter.
Clack!
Skulls erupted from the ground—and thanks to my gear, an enormous swarm of them poured forth.
Well over three hundred skeletons!
[Opening Subspace Ring (Intermediate)!]
Equipment piled up like mountains before the skeletons.
Beyond the cost-effective Black Heart Set, countless other pieces of gear lay arranged in rows.
Swords, spears, halberds, war hammers.
Brutal weapons that would deal damage even if swung carelessly.
“Get dressed! Grab a weapon! We’re out of time! Move!”
I barked orders while chugging a Mana Potion.
Now was the only moment to equip the skeletons.
All the while, the voice continued playing.
[I came seeking vengeance. I dyed the continent in death. I believed I had achieved my purpose.]
Clatter.
Clack!
Helms, armor, trousers, gauntlets, boots.
The skeletons diligently donned the five-piece sets in muted black.
“Put on everything else too! If you don’t know how, just throw on an extra breastplate!”
I had roughly two hundred of the Black Heart Sets. The rest I’d have to fill with individual pieces.
[Yet at some moment, I came to realize. I was nothing but a puppet on a stage…….]
“Pretty pathetic, in retrospect.”
[Even with my power, I could not match them. So I resolved to make preparations for the future.]
Wait—no reaction to that?
The lines flowed on in seamless succession, without the slightest hesitation.
It really did seem to be a recorded voice.
‘Did I get caught up in something?’
From the way he spoke of dyeing the continent in death, he clearly wasn’t some pushover.
Who could be the powerhouse that even such a necromancer couldn’t oppose?
‘Could it be an Outer God?’
If it was a being from beyond, affecting other worlds wouldn’t be difficult.
But that’s not what matters right now.
Look at this—
The moment I got distracted, some idiot had grabbed two massive shields, his arms swinging uselessly.
“Hey, you! Only one shield!”
I flicked him on the forehead, pried away one shield, and handed him a sword instead.
[Now I shall test your worth.]
[If you survive and prove yourself, you may gain my authority.]
[But if you fail to prove yourself…….]
[You will be trapped with me for all eternity. Even a merciful death would be a luxury.]
That’s quite an ominous thing to say.
“Yeah. Everyone’s geared up now.”
My fighting power should’ve increased at least fivefold.
Whatever happens, show yourself already.
[The first Trial begins…….]
The scenery shifted once more.
Everything blurred.
[You are participating in the Eternal Battlefield – the Battle of Hurulunif!]
[You have participated in the Ancient Battlefield!]
[You have obtained the Title: ‘Just How Far Will You Go?’]
***
Kim Min-woo found himself standing atop a massive fortress wall.
A space where time seemed to have stopped, seized by a deathly silence.
‘What?’
He looked around in a world of nothing but gray.
Fortunately, the armed skeletons from moments before stood lined up beside him on the wall.
But what was strange…….
‘These aren’t the skeletons I summoned.’
Skeletons he had not summoned were arrayed in endless rows.
Skeleton Mages.
Skeleton Warriors.
Skeleton Archers, and more.
The Undead did not end there.
Dullahans, Liches, Specters, Death Knights, and…….
‘A bone dragon?’
A colossal dragon made of bone visible below the fortress wall.
It was a castle of the Undead itself.
[This is an ancient battlefield created from the Regret of the Brave Knight Cedric.]
[You are in a Virtual Body. Your skills, stats, and inventory remain the same.]
[However, you cannot gain experience points.]
[The player participates.]
[Time, which had been frozen, begins to flow.]
Color seeped into the gray stage.
One by one, flames kindled in the eyes of the Undead.
Then…….
A voice flowed into his mind.
―Is it you? The one the Lord arranged?
His head turned naturally.
Upon the bone dragon’s back.
A skeletal knight of immense size, gleaming golden, was mounted there.
‘What kind of monster is that……?’
A skeletal knight whose body was composed of golden bone. Blue flames flickered in his eye sockets.
A suffocating pressure emanated from him.
The Death Knights seemed like child’s play by comparison.
“……Are you, by any chance, Cedric?”
The golden skeletal knight nodded.
―……Clumsy Necromancer. I do not ask much of you. Only this—survive. If you can.
[You have been granted authority by Commander Cedric!]
[You can now command the Undead forces of Fortress Wall Sector 16!]
[Currently commandable Undead: Death Knight 1, Lich 1, Dullahan 5, Specter 5, Skeleton 500]
[You have obtained the Title: ‘Fledgling Commander’]
Immediately after…….
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Orc! Orc! Orc!
A tremendous roar erupted from the front.
The plain before the fortress wall.
Countless orcs stood lined up there, too many to count.
A horde of orcs clad in black armor, rhythmically pounding their weapons on the ground to stoke their war spirit!
But the problem was not limited to that.
‘This is insane…….’
Not mere bone dragons.
A true dragon, so enormous its form was visible even from that distance, flapped its wings.
And nearby—wyverns, hydras, cyclopes, kodos, Death Witches, and more.
Top-tier monsters, each one terrifying, stood in formation.
‘Wow, this is seriously brutal.’
It was clear at a glance that there were many problems ahead.
Even with the advantage of the Fortress Wall, the difference in numbers was overwhelming. And could they count on superior quality to make up for it?
No.
A living dragon is far stronger than a dead one.
There were high-tier Undead like Death Knights and Liches, but they were few and far between.
Whether at the lower ranks or the upper, they were decisively outmatched in both quality and quantity.
‘Nowhere to run?’
Ahead, Orcs swarmed like a pack of wild dogs.
Then behind?
A precipice yawned into dizzying distance.
‘The fortress layout is basically a death trap, isn’t it?’
Surely the solution wasn’t to throw himself off the cliff and search for some miracle…….
‘So I’m supposed to fight, then.’
The first thing that came to mind was a time limit.
Survive for a certain period, and perhaps Cedric or whoever would acknowledge him and the battle would end, something like that.
Or reinforcements would arrive.
‘Cedric does look strong, I’ll grant him that…….’
There was one problem.
Orcs! Orcs!
Among the guard Orcs, a towering figure emerged — an Orc Hero.
This Orc was no ordinary specimen.
It looked genuinely formidable at first glance.
A sinister aura was completely engulfing the surroundings.
It seemed far stronger than that dragon……?
Could he really stall against something like that?
‘Think it through. A frontal assault would be murderous in difficulty.’
With only a pittance of stat caps at fifty and a single Summon Skill learned, whatever got summoned wouldn’t be much.
How strong could a summoned creature be under such circumstances?
At best, he’d be a stumbling Necromancer in the level thirty to forty range.
There was no way to handle a Death Lord (EX) with that.
Dumped in a place like this with no resources and told to survive?
Gate Hunter was a difficult game.
But it wasn’t an unreasonable one.
‘There must be a workaround. Is Regret the keyword?’
A battlefield built on the foundation of Regret.
He still didn’t know what Cedric had come to regret, but solving that would likely end the battle.
‘One way or another, a strategy exists.’
He just had to find it.
To survive, he absolutely had to!
Shrieeeeeeeeeeeeek!
The Orc Hero.
It thrust a glaive forward.
Orcs! Orcs! Orcs!
The Orcs began surging toward the Fortress Wall, long ladders in their grasp!
“Loose! Don’t spare a single arrow — fire at will!”
“The commander has ordered it. Shoot.”
At those words, the Death Knight on the wall thrust his hand forward.
Whisper-whisper-whish!
A torrent of arrows rained down.
A few Orcs fell, but it was a drop in the ocean.
Thud!
Ladders slammed against the Fortress Wall.
Orcs poured forward like a tidal wave.
“You lot, grab your pikes!”
Scrape!
The Death Knight beside him drew his sword. The Lich raised his staff, eyes gleaming with menace.
The Dullahan brandished a double-headed axe, and spectral smoke curled from the Specter’s lips.
The small skeletons under his command were preparing for battle too. They hefted their weapons as if ready to strike at any moment.
Never mind that they were Level 1 and trembling with the effort — their arms quivering pathetically with lack of strength.
The moment an Orc’s head appeared over the Fortress Wall, he swung his blade with all his might.
Slash!
In that instant, Kim Min-woo grasped a crucial truth.
‘My body—it moves far more smoothly!’
His stats were identical, certainly.
Yet his body’s motion was different.
Like a butterfly taking flight after shedding its skin, far more fluid.
Apparently, when Kim Min-woo had become a Virtual Body, his physical talents had vanished.
‘But that’s actually better!’
An orc’s neck flew clean off in a single stroke.
But the true onslaught had only just begun. Orc heads emerged from all directions, as if in a whack-a-mole game.
“Bring down the weapon with all your strength!”
Thud!
Crack!
Shriek!
[Skeleton 1 has defeated an enemy far stronger than itself by causing it to fall! Combat experience begins accumulating rapidly!]
[Skeleton 171 has defeated an enemy far stronger than itself by causing it to fall…….]
[Skeleton 223 has…….]
.
.
The advantage of holding the Fortress Wall.
The orcs climbing upward fell helplessly to attacks raining down from above with full force.
But that lasted only a moment.
The baby skeleton, having learned, brought its weapon down with all its might onto an orc’s skull.
An ascending orc caught the hammer in one hand and gripped it tight.
Clink?
The skeleton shook its seized weapon frantically, but the orc’s grip held fast as if bonded with glue.
Roar!
As the orc pulled with force, the skeleton was sucked in and plummeted down the Fortress Wall in an instant.
Crash!
One by one, the skeletons’ bodies shattered completely.
[The Undead begins to revive…….]
[Skeleton 1’s summon is cancelled!]
[Skeleton 16’s summon is cancelled…….]
Once revived, they found themselves in an orc-infested field.
The skeletons began vanishing without resistance.
And that was far from the only problem.
Whoosh!
Orc archers on the ground began loosing arrows!
Min-woo barely dodged an arrow that grazed past his face.
“Hans! Cut the ladder! Acid magic!”
[Lich ‘Hans’ uses Acid Touch!]
Acidic hands materialized in midair, gripping the top of the ladder securely.
The ladder snapped instantly.
Orcs climbing upward let out pitiful screams as they fell.
But the stream of ascending orcs seemed endless.
And the problem extended beyond that.
At first, only common orc soldiers and warriors had climbed up.
Now, higher-ranked orcs were beginning to appear.
Roar!
An orc berserker.
A species that grows stronger the more it sees its own blood spilled.
Its massive axe grazed perilously close above his head.
He drove his sword deep into its abdomen.
The blade sank smoothly inward.
Blood welled in its mouth as the creature’s jaws opened wide, as if to bite his face.
He pushed the orc back with a kick, then swiftly snapped the neck of another orc rising beside him.
[You have slain an Orc Warlord far exceeding your level!]
[You have acquired the Title ‘Orc Hunter’!]
What was that effect again.
Probably a damage increase against orcs, he supposed.
He resummoned the skeletons whose contracts had been entirely cancelled.
Mana poured away in a rush.
In moments, nearly two hundred Skeletons had been replenished, though sadly most lacked weapons.
It had been far too long since they’d fallen beneath the Fortress Wall, beyond any hope of recovery.
“Grab anything you can, quickly!”
The Skeletons scrambled to snatch up weapons.
The chaos was such that even borrowing an ant’s legs wouldn’t have helped.
Thirty minutes.
One hour.
Two hours.
Hold the line. Hold it again.
In the meantime, mid-tier Undead like Durahan and Specter fell one by one.
Death Knights and Liches in the distance had begun to fade as well.
He cleaved through Orcs, then cleaved through more.
[You have hunted five hundred Orcs of far superior level!]
[Your Title ‘Orc Hunter’ has changed to ‘Orc Slayer’!]
[Warning!]
[You have consumed too many potions in a short time! Overload is beginning!]
‘This won’t do.’
Save it for later and it becomes waste.
“Hans! Use something big!”
[Lich ‘Hans’ activates Earthquake!]
A deep, grinding roar——!
The earth before the Fortress Wall split open like a crevasse, and hundreds of Orcs were sucked down into it. They finally had a moment to catch their breath.
They’d managed to hold the line reasonably well up to this point.
Up to this point.
A guttural shriek.
The Orc Hero’s cry began to consume the air around them.
A violent flutter——
The vast wings of a dragon moved.
A draconic roar——!
The creature’s form rushed rapidly toward the Fortress Wall.
Straight toward Sector 16, where he stood.
‘I can’t dodge this!’
Even with the Death Knight and Lich Hans present, there was no confidence in this situation!
He cried out by reflex.
“Cedric!”
Do something!
I’m going to die at this rate!
That moment.
A violent flutter——
A bone dragon came flying from behind, colliding its body against the native dragon.
The golden skeletal knight atop it leaped toward the creature with all its might.
A spear shrouded in dark energy drove down, piercing the dragon’s skull.
The creature thrashed its head wildly in pain.
―… I was planning to step in anyway.
Damn it, watching from behind with arms crossed this whole time, and now you make your move.
Min-woo bit back the reflexive curse that nearly escaped his lips and cleaved through an incoming Orc’s head.
That one.
If he ever does become my subordinate, I’m working him like a dog.
Min-woo made an inner vow.

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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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