Damn Necromancer - Chapter 83

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Spendthrift Necromancer (83)
He’d known about the Wave long before it arrived, having scouted it through Hayangyi.
‘The numbers—at least three thousand.’
To hold them back?
He needed far more summoned creatures.
The mages currently undergoing continuous training.
He’d have to cancel their summons first.
‘No way around it.’
After canceling the mage summoning, he deployed every summoning skill at once.
[Using Bone Golem Summoning (A)!]
[Using Specter Summoning (C)+9!]
[Using Skeleton Mage Summoning (E)+9!]
[Using Skeleton Summoning (F)+9!]
One colossal bone golem.
One hundred specters.
Five hundred skeleton mages.
And finally, nearly twelve hundred skeletons.
An enormous undead host rose to its feet along the path where the Wave approached.
“Make ready!”
Clatter!
Skeleton Number One, commonly called Hae-il, snapped a sharp salute and thrust his blade forward in a gesture of advance.
[Hae-il begins commanding the soldiers!]
Click. Click.
The skeletal soldiers marched forward in perfect formation—rows and columns aligned—a testament to the training they’d received from Cedric.
They’d formed ranks.
Enormous shield-bearing skeletons took the vanguard. Behind them, skeletons with various weapons fell into position.
The mages did not idle.
[Mae-il begins commanding the mages!]
[The Skeleton Mage Legion obeys its commander’s orders!]
[One hundred mages attempt Magic Formation Construction!]
[Success!]
[A medium-sized magic formation has been completed!]
[Four hundred mages begin gathering Rain of Bones into the formation!]
A vast magic formation hung suspended overhead.
Mana continued to pour into it relentlessly.
The specters positioned themselves throughout the sky.
The strategy itself was straightforward.
While the skeletons fixed the enemy’s attention, the mages would hurl magical damage. The specters, positioned much like assassins, would deliver burst damage during the chaos of battle.
‘But this isn’t the end.’
Kim Min-woo drained a Supreme Mana Potion.
Mana surged rapidly through him.
In the distance, the monster horde rushed forward—gremlins, gnolls, dryads, giant spiders, and more.
Their bodies writhed violently, saturated with magical energy. The average level appeared to be around two hundred twenty.
That wasn’t all.
Minotaurs, ogres, trolls, and other high-tier monsters were scattered throughout the ranks.
A direct clash would disadvantage the undead forces. Despite various enhancements he’d layered on them, their average level remained frustratingly low.
So he’d need to offer a bonus.
There was a skill he’d learned but had never actually used in combat.
Land of Death.
Its range was quite extensive.
And there were no friendlies nearby.
Nothing but enemies.
‘Let’s see.’
Just how far a fully prepared necromancer could go in war.
[Casting Land of Death (S)!]
[Land of Death grants its blessing!]
[All allied undead gain a 20% increase to all ability scores!]
Allied ability scores: twenty percent increase.
But that wasn’t all the effect entailed.
The charging monsters stumbled as if caught by invisible chains.
Being trampled underfoot was merely an afterthought.
[Land of Death effect activated!]
[Enemy revives as Undead!]
[Death Lord Effect applied!]
The corpses of those trampled to death rose again as Undead. Ordinarily, corpses resurrected as Undead proved weaker than they had been in life. But the creatures stirring now were different.
A fifty percent increase to the ability scores of all summoned Undead.
And within the scope of this “summoning,”
it appeared the Undead raised through the Land of Death were included as well.
‘This is unbelievable.’
The Undead shrieked with savage fury, hurling themselves upon the monsters nearby.
Creatures fell in waves, dying in mere moments.
Yet the calamity was far from over.
Tap-tap.
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
Rain began to fall from the colossal magic formation suspended overhead—a deluge of sharp, bone-white spikes.
Falling across a range so vast it swallowed three thousand bodies whole.
Jagged bone shards pierced through monster flesh. The cascading area damage from the Land of Death and Rain of Bones accumulated relentlessly.
Undead spawned Undead, which spawned yet more Undead.
Monsters possessed intelligence, however dim. Recognizing the hopelessness of their plight, the horde wheeled about and charged toward his position.
At once—
Bang!
Skeletons collided with the monster wave. A mana-soaked ogre’s log-club sent Skeletons flying skyward.
That very ogre—
Thud!
A massive shield met it head-on.
Dolstones, a summoned creature whose raw strength yielded to no one.
Its bulk rivaled the ogre’s own.
The ogre’s eyes narrowed as it felt the weighty resistance thrumming through its grip.
—Krraaagh!
The ogre swung its log-club.
Dolstones answered with its mace, crashing a blow squarely into the ogre’s torso.
Kill and be killed.
Chaos erupted across the field.
Skeletons fell one by one, and Specters too.
Yet the Undead horde’s numbers only continued to swell.
[Specter 2 resummoned…….]
[Death Lord Effect activated!]
The faded Specter blazed back to full vigor, weapon singing through air—a monster’s head flew clean away.
Rising once more.
The Undead raised through the Land of Death were no different.
In mere moments, the Undead had outnumbered the monsters.
‘It’s insane.’
Kim Min-woo felt genuine awe wash over him.
The Death Lord and the Land of Death.
The synergy between these two skills was nothing short of absurd.
He’d been prepared to join the fray himself, yet it seemed there’d be no need at all. His chest swelled at the sheer magnitude of it.
Passive farming, sweet as honey.
His level was rising steadily even as he stood motionless.
‘This is why.’
This was why he’d chosen to become a Necromancer.
It was a class with truly transcendent potential.
* * *
Panic seized the knights and Magic Legion holding position near the Watchtower. Dolores and a student from the Swordsmanship Department had sprinted in first to report signs of an incoming wave.
“Stop the exam at once! It’s a wave!”
“Student Dolores, are you certain?”
“Of course! Would tremors like that just happen for no reason? I felt it—the mana is pouring out everywhere!”
It wasn’t only Dolores’s group that had sensed the anomaly and sought escape.
Other leading teams, positioned at the vanguard, had felt the tremors as well. They’d bolted from the forest without a backward glance.
As reports continued to flood in, the professors’ faces hardened like stone.
“We must mount a rescue operation immediately!”
Most of the students were still inside the Demon Forest.
A defensive magic formation?
It wouldn’t last three minutes against a Wave before collapsing.
If the students were slaughtered in mass, a catastrophic backlash would follow. The exam didn’t matter anymore—rescue was the only priority.
The Sun Knight Order and the Magic Legion.
Even the professors had entered the forest. The students who’d already returned followed after them as a bonus.
A monster Wave was no trivial matter, so they needed every hand they could get, including the students’.
Magical flares erupted from all directions. Students nearby joined one by one, and the group kept swelling.
When most of the students had assembled.
The professors exchanged puzzled looks.
‘The Wave hit, but……’
‘Nobody’s died?’
‘We haven’t heard a single distress signal?’
The top-ranked teams were understandable. They had the skills to back it up.
There was nothing strange about them evacuating the forest faster than the Wave’s approach.
But the mid-ranked and lower-ranked teams were another story.
Many of them should have been swept away by now.
Yet there were no casualties.
Not a single distress signal had sounded.
Had the Wave simply vanished into thin air?
The Knight Commander turned to the professor and asked.
“Which team is unaccounted for?”
“Team 232. These two are the only ones we haven’t found yet—Merhen and Cedric.”
“……I see.”
The knights and mages’ minds grew turbulent.
A monster Wave.
They’d braced themselves for at least some casualties.
That was their mindset entering the forest.
By good fortune, they’d rescued nearly all the students.
Only two remained.
“If they’re not responding even after we set off magical flares……”
“They must be somewhere deeper inside……”
Did they really have to venture into the heart of the Demon Forest to rescue just two people?
While guiding students as well?
While they deliberated.
A skeleton and a person appeared in the distance. Oddly, a dragon-headed skeleton was half-carrying the person on its back.
“P-please, help us!”
“Merhen?”
“Where did Cedric go?”
“He went to hold back the Wave! Alone!”
“……!”
Everyone’s eyes widened in shock.
Could it be—had the Wave quieted because Cedric had drawn its attention?
No matter how they looked at it, that seemed to be the case.
Noble self-sacrifice.
It’s easy to speak of.
Actually doing it is another matter entirely.
But Cedric had done it.
And he’d done it facing thousands of monsters alone.
The Knight Commander gripped his sword tight.
‘That’s not the resolve of merely a student.’
It was the resolve of an already-perfected knight—noble and complete.
“Merhen, do not worry. The Sun Knight Order will go and bring him back.”
“We of the Magic Legion shall accompany you. As for the rest of you students, you should return now.”
“No. We’re coming too!”
“Cedric saved our lives. If we leave now, what does that make the Swordsmanship Department?”
“The Magic Department will also come with us.”
The students steeled their resolve.
There were hundreds gathered here alone.
Add the Sun Knight Order and the Magic Legion, and they could handle an ordinary Wave themselves. And having received help, wasn’t it only right to repay the favor?
“Then let’s go.”
No one objected.
The entire group pressed deeper into the Demon Forest. With each step forward, the magical energy grew thicker and more oppressive. Seeing the grotesque landscape unfold around them, everyone gripped their weapons tighter.
After they’d ventured far into the forest,
they spotted a solitary figure approaching in the distance.
“K-Kern?”
It was Kern.
Walking toward them without a scratch, completely unharmed—everyone’s eyes went wide. But the shock lasted only a moment before the professors rushed forward in alarm.
“Th-the Wave?”
“I’ve handled it all.”
Everyone blinked.
Handled the monster Wave?
Alone?
“Y-you didn’t just run away or anything like that?”
Kern shrugged and pulled out the Crystal Sphere. The professors’ eyes widened at the sight of it—completely blackened, saturated with magical energy. In all the dozens of trials conducted so far, no student had ever absorbed this much mana into the sphere.
―5,032 points.
The professors were even more stunned when they saw the score hovering above the Crystal Sphere.
“F-five thousand points?!”
Creatures like gremlins usually grant a single point each. In other words, Kern had slain at least five thousand of them.
‘Could it be… fabricated?’
The spectacle was so absurd that suspicion flickered through their minds—had Kern somehow rigged the Crystal Sphere’s score?
But that doubt evaporated quickly.
Everyone moved to verify whether the Wave had truly ended.
Not long after, they encountered a sight beyond comprehension.
Ogres, trolls, minotaurs, and thousands upon thousands of other monsters lay scattered across the earth, their bodies desiccated and withered as though drained of every drop of blood.
“G-good Lord…”
“This can’t be real…”
As if gazing upon a monster,
everyone stared at Kern—no, at Kim Min-woo—with incomprehension in their eyes. This was no mere student’s performance.
The shock, however, was fleeting.
The expression on the Knight Commander’s face grew grave.
The original priority had been to extract the students and escape the forest.
Dealing with the Wave was supposed to come later. But now, suddenly, the Wave was over.
‘…Then perhaps.’
They could resolve the root cause of all this.
He looked toward the mages.
“…Have you pinpointed where the magical energy is emanating from?”
“Yes. We’ve got a direction. We need to hurry. It seems as though something is forcibly widening a passage—the magical energy is intensifying by the moment.”
“Can it be stopped?”
“If we inscribe a Sealing Magic Formation, we should be able to contain it for a time. After that, we’ll need to send an official investigation team.”
Then it happened.
―Heheheh, too late.
A grotesque voice echoed across the forest.
The air split with a sharp crack, and an enormous winged demon burst through. Seeing it, Kim Min-woo tilted his head.
‘…A Balrog?’
One of the highest-ranking demons.
They started at a base level of 700.
And this particular Balrog looked nothing like the others he’d encountered before.
Its frame was far more massive.
The aura radiating from it was immense.
It felt almost like confronting Cedric as he’d been in the past.
―Hahahaha! This sweet air! It’s been far too long since I walked the human world!
Cedric, who had moved silently to his side, spoke with a face frozen rigid.
―…It’s Balkan.
“Balkan?”
―…The Death Lord’s first legion commander. Be careful. If he’s here, it means…
As he spoke, an Undead figure emerged from the torn rift in space.
A Lich wearing a Crown studded with Jewels.
Its form seemed familiar.
It bore a striking resemblance to the Death Lord’s shape that Min-woo had encountered just before beginning the second round.
‘Could it be coming out from here?’
Kim Min-woo’s face hardened at the sight. The same rigidity seized every person gathered in that place.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————