Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 26

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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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Chapter 26. The Necromancer
Sniff-sniff!
A white bundle of fur caught the scent and trotted excitedly through the Swamp Area.
Anubis.
Usually hidden beneath Park Chan-woo’s trouser leg, the creature had begun to move with fervent energy the moment they entered the “Swamp Area,” thick with poison mist.
‘It’s reacting to something.’
Park Chan-woo tilted his head.
There was nothing here that should provoke such a response.
Only the stench of decay drifted through the air.
All that lay before him was the murky bog itself.
He could not move forward easily in such terrain.
‘I have no clear information about the Swamp Area.’
The truth was, he had no proper intelligence at all.
All Park Chan-woo knew was that a “Miracle” had occurred here.
However, the moment he entered the Swamp Area, one thing became undeniably clear.
《White Poison Immunity. Your body resists the ‘poison mist.’》
《The ‘poison mist’ causes hallucinations and muscle paralysis.》
The poison of this swamp was formidable.
Now he understood why information about this place was so scarce.
If the poison paralyzed the body and conjured illusions, no one who crossed the Swamp Area could possibly retain clear memories of it.
‘It was designed so people would witness the Miracle.’
From the start, he had intended to conjure a “Miracle” here.
To make terrified people sing his praises as they beheld his achievement.
Otherwise, there would be no reason to lead people into a poison-mist-choked swamp.
Which meant—
‘…he’s already made a contract with a Creator as an Incarnation.’
Park Chan-woo wasn’t certain whether his current Creator was one of the Great Nine Lords, but there was no doubt the creature had formed an Incarnation contract.
Because there was no way he could have orchestrated all of this alone.
Moreover, the fact that the host of “Water God Abyss” had surrendered an entire region suggested the Creator was of considerable rank—possibly even a “Named Creator.”
Or perhaps the host of the “Water God Abyss” was the creature’s contractual partner.
Either way, he was planning to manifest his Miracle with the Creator’s full backing.
‘Born a villain, then.’
Park Chan-woo shook his head inwardly.
As long as the contract hadn’t been sealed, there had never been any possibility to begin with.
So even his last shred of hope evaporated.
In the early days when the Abyss swept over humanity—
Many had been saved by this creature.
So he had harbored a sliver of hope, it was true.
Hope that at least in the beginning, it had not yet made an Incarnation contract.
But if he had been an “Incarnation” from the start, then there was nothing more to say.
Everything it had done was calculated.
It had staged miracles, displayed them, and led people toward them.
And in the end—
‘…it opened the worst Abyss imaginable.’
Just the memory made his teeth clench.
Park Chan-woo cast aside the thoughts.
“Anubis. Do you know the way?”
He called out to Anubis, who moved ahead as if guiding him.
The creature pressed forward without pause.
It moved as though it knew where it was going.
But the Swamp Area was a labyrinth.
Worse, the paths shifted constantly.
Along the way, Park Chan-woo had left marks on thick vegetation and trees; more than once, he found those same marks again.
If it truly knew the path, why would it double back through the same places?
‘It’s avoiding something.’
…Anubis was steering clear of danger.
Since he hadn’t encountered anything hostile in the Swamp Area so far, it seemed highly likely that Anubis was deliberately guiding him only along safe routes.
That was why they kept circling back on themselves.
Even though Park Chan-woo possessed the trait of “Non-existence,” which suppressed his presence, it was far from making him invincible; it merely concealed him.
He remained vulnerable to the aggressive properties that permeated the entire region.
For instance, the toxic miasma of the Swamp Area that affected you the moment you set foot in it, or the traps and barriers scattered throughout.
Non-existence prevented others from being aware of Park Chan-woo’s presence, but things that moved automatically without requiring such awareness could still pose a genuine threat.
Patter-patter-patter-patter!
Park Chan-woo followed behind Anubis, whose fur was bristling and trembling with each step.
How much further had they walked?
‘……!’
He stopped in his tracks at the sight of something in the distance.
There, far ahead, stood an Altar.
An Altar was a structure necessary for conducting grand rituals.
But the beings standing before it were far from ordinary.
A monster draped in a black robe, scattering dark magical power while maintaining a barrier, and
“Croak, croak!”
“Screeeech!”
Hundreds of Venomous Zombies with greenish skin wandered about, emitting sounds that made the skin crawl.
‘A Necromancer.’
One who presides over death.
A creature closest to death itself!
Moreover, judging by the sheer number of Venomous Zombies it had summoned, this was no ordinary specimen.
Here stood a monster capable of devouring even the boss of a high-tier dungeon Abyss.
Within the Abyss, those who directly wielded death were exceedingly rare, and even among those of the same level, their status and hierarchy operated on an entirely different plane.
Park Chan-woo’s attention fixed on the Altar behind the Necromancer.
‘…There’s a Treasure Chest sitting on the Altar.’
He could see it clearly.
What the Necromancer was guarding.
A Treasure Chest atop the Altar, emanating a blue glow.
This must be the arrangement the Creator had prepared for that worthless bastard.
‘It’s certainly on a different level from the other arrangements.’
The arrangements that were merely guarded by monsters or hidden away were no match for this.
It felt as though this entire Swamp Area had been created solely to protect that Treasure Chest.
What could be inside?
Intensely curious, but.
‘I cannot pass.’
The Necromancer, the barrier guarding the Altar, and the Venomous Zombies circling around it—
all stood in direct opposition to him.
These were mechanisms through which Non-existence held no sway.
Any forceful approach would result in his body being crushed outright by the barrier.
Patter-patter-patter!
Yet the Radiant Anubis did not stop.
Park Chan-woo watched quietly as Anubis pressed forward.
Just as the Necromancer presided over death,
or rather, Anubis was even more deeply connected to death itself.
Hop! Hop!
Having successfully approached the barrier’s edge while evading the Venomous Zombies, Anubis began hopping and leaping before the Necromancer.
Then light kindled in the Necromancer’s eyes, which had been dark and lifeless.
「What… are you?」
A note of confusion colored the Necromancer’s voice.
「How did you awaken my sealed soul?」
A reaction of utter bewilderment at the present situation.
And rightly so.
The Necromancer had been tasked with guarding this Altar and erecting a barrier to prevent any unauthorized approach.
Yet that was not the Necromancer’s will.
A soul sealed by another.
Its body had been forcibly affixed and was being used solely to guard the Altar.
But now some white, furry creature had appeared before the barrier and called forth its sealed soul.
Soon the Necromancer’s soul grasped the reason.
「Ah… you are one who summons death. So that is how you could awaken my soul. But why does such a sacred being, one who guards the Temple of Death and guides those to death, find themselves in a place like this…….」
The Necromancer recognized Anubis.
For Anubis, guardian of the Temple of Death, possessed a standing far superior to any mere Necromancer.
Even as but a young one, Anubis was incomparably beyond a Necromancer who did nothing more than animate corpses.
Hop! Hop!
“Dismantle the barrier? I’m afraid I cannot. My body no longer obeys my will—bound by a covenant too powerful to break. None may cross this barrier save those who have been granted permission, or those of my own kind. And even if you are descended from a divine being, unless you attain the form of a full incarnation……”
The necromancer’s spirit spoke with something like regret.
Then it continued, as if talking to itself.
“Ah… why do I still guard this altar? When false offerings are placed upon it, when we are mocked and desecrated. It is agony. I wish to follow my fallen comrades… to go where they have gone……”
A voice thick with sorrow.
Listening to these words, Park Chan-woo considered the matter.
‘A barrier that only the permitted—or one’s own kin—may cross.’
He was unpermitted.
And even recognizing Anubis for what he was, the necromancer had spoken with certainty that the barrier could not be crossed. This was no ordinary barrier.
That much was clear.
If even a full incarnation of Anubis would be needed to breach it, this barrier possessed a defensive strength far beyond what a defense stat of one thousand could overcome.
‘No ordinary necromancer, then.’
But who?
He had a suspicion.
The necromancer had been guarding this altar from the start.
Examining the altar, Park Chan-woo deduced the spirit’s origins.
‘…Orcish.’
Faint hieroglyphics were carved into the altar’s surface.
Most of them bore some relation to orcs.
Rude, utilitarian drawings, distinctly orcish in their crude metaphor.
‘Death, life, reproduction—an altar embodying three primal forces. The necromancer guarding it must have been an orc priest.’
And that priest had erected this barrier with their own hands.
This altar was their deity.
Yet what rested upon the altar was not an offering befitting their god—but a treasure chest.
A mockery. A desecration of the priest himself.
Park Chan-woo suppressed his presence as much as possible.
Before him lay countless zombies.
A horde so vast that the moment his existence was revealed, they would tear him apart in an instant.
Yet he walked forward without hesitation.
As long as his Non-existence remained active, the venomous zombies could not perceive him.
He cut through the multitude and stood before the barrier with quiet certainty.
Then, slowly, with grim resolve, he opened his mouth.
“Chiik!”
“……!”
《The unique option of the Chwiik Belt activates.》
《Chiik! When you make this call, the orcs will think you one of them and lower their guard.》
Now.
Park Chan-woo crossed the barrier in a flash.
He had never imagined he would use the Chwiik Belt this way, but in that instant, the necromancer’s body and spirit alike had perceived him as an orc—and that perception alone had made it possible.
“Huh? How long have you been there? Wait… just now, I distinctly heard the voice of one of my kind……”
Park Chan-woo exhaled quietly, relief flooding through him.
There had been only one chance.
Had he failed, the danger would have been considerable.
But nothing changes without taking the risk.
Even as he crossed into the barrier’s interior, the necromancer’s body made no move against him.
All its functions were committed to summoning venomous zombies and maintaining the barrier.
Park Chan-woo’s eyes fixed on the treasure chest resting atop the altar.
Magical force flowed across it like an electric field.
To touch it rashly would be to court disaster.
“Do you know how to open this chest?”
Park Chan-woo asked, and the necromancer’s spirit answered.
“……I do.”
“If you tell me, I’d be grateful. After all, you’re not guarding it out of devotion, are you?”
“Grant me rest. Then I will open the chest for you.”
“You mean… destroy your body?”
“Find the Life Vessel and shatter it.”
“Where is it?”
“I do not know. But it exists somewhere, I am certain. Destroy it, and at last I shall find the peace I have desired.”
Park Chan-woo stroked his chin thoughtfully.
So that was why the magical reserves had felt so vast.
The opponent was a necromancer who had become a Lich.
And a Lich conceals its Life Vessel—a vessel containing its soul and lifeforce—in a hidden place.
As long as the Life Vessel remained intact, it could live forever.
Of course, he had an inkling of where it might be.
‘That thing must be carrying it.’
So this was what it meant to have created a miracle.
It seemed the thing’s plan was to destroy the Life Vessel and kill the Lich.
Once the Lich died, the barrier would vanish as well.
A truly flawless arrangement.
A miracle designed so that only ‘that thing’ could obtain it.
‘…What am I to do.’
Should he hunt it down now?
But hunting it down and killing it carried enormous risk.
He still couldn’t be certain which Creator it had contracted with.
If it were truly one of the Great Nine Lords, the very act of trying to kill it immediately would be dangerous.
He would need to possess at least several hundred coins before he could even attempt such a thing.
Unlike ordinary Creators, a Named Creator does not stand idle while their Incarnation dies.
They contract with only one human whom they truly favor.
And when their Incarnation dies, their pride is wounded, and they seek revenge.
Bounce! Bounce!
That was when it happened.
Outside the barrier, Anubis began leaping again.
“A divine being is requesting that the barrier be lifted,” the necromancer’s spirit said.
“How?”
“Lower the staff that my body holds, and the barrier will be dispelled.”
Park Chan-woo lowered the staff just as the necromancer’s spirit instructed.
The barrier that had occupied the space around the altar vanished without a trace.
Patter-patter-patter!
The moment the barrier disappeared, the radiant Anubis bounded onto the necromancer’s head.
“What are you trying to—”
Whoooosh!
In that instant.
A pure white light streamed from the radiant Anubis’s entire body.
The light soon transformed into the shape of a budding flower, its petals slowly unfurling and blooming.
《The radiant Anubis activates the Flower of Life (Legendary).》
《The radiant Anubis guides the death of Orc Priest Yan.》
Watching this spectacle, Park Chan-woo’s eyes blazed with understanding.
‘…So that’s why it was the radiant Anubis.’
Now he finally grasped what those words in the description meant.
Orc Priest Yan was no less astonished.
“This—this is the power of a Guide!”
No, Priest Yan’s reaction far surpassed Park Chan-woo’s.
His body trembled as though seized by convulsions, his eyes wide with disbelief.
A luminous flower bloomed fully atop his head.
It had summoned his own lifeforce, which should have been sealed within the Life Vessel.
This was something only a mature Anubis could accomplish.
“To summon death, to guide death…”
But by nature, Anubis was a divine being who summoned and guided death.
It was remarkable that a small one was exercising the Guide’s abilities, but not incomprehensible.
The problem lay in what came next.
Right now, the radiant Anubis was consuming the death it had summoned.
Crunch!
Munch! Munch!
……It was eating the bloomed Flower of Life.
“A devourer of death…”
This was far removed from the role Anubis had been given.
Anubis could not consume the death it called forth and guided.
Anubis’s sole duty was to summon and guide death to the Temple of Death.
Bound as it was to the Temple of Death, it could never consume life and death.
Such an act was impossible in itself, and should it attempt it, it would be stripped of its status in that very instant.
One who summons death, guides it, and devours it.
There is but a single being capable of doing all these things.
“Wait, surely… you are……!!”

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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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