Surviving the Apocalypse as an All-Time Best Overpowered Necromancer - Chapter 86

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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 86
86. A New Combination (1)
‘What’s this?’
Though he couldn’t say why, the sensation of being watched made Lee Gang-hyuk uneasy.
‘Something’s here.’
In situations like this, there was usually a reason. Lee Gang-hyuk raised his hand, signaling Seo Hwa-rin and Seo A-rin.
‘Careful. Something nearby. Stay alert.’
Nod, nod.
“Whee-!”
Once the two women acknowledged his hand signals, Lee Gang-hyuk whistled to alert Jung A-ram’s team.
“…….”
Hearing the whistle, Jung A-ram’s brows furrowed as she looked back at him.
She seemed displeased that he’d used their signal system without permission.
But Lee Gang-hyuk paid no mind to her gaze, gesturing toward the surroundings instead.
‘Nearby. Hidden.’
Since this cooperation had come about suddenly, they hadn’t established hand signals. So Lee Gang-hyuk made his movements exaggerated for clarity.
“What the—— crazy. Whee!”
Jung A-ram showed bewilderment, then seemed to understand, letting out a whistle of her own.
When she scanned the surroundings following Lee Gang-hyuk’s gesture, she felt a familiar presence.
Snow humans.
Back when she and Park Mu-jin were heading out to subjugate the snow humans.
It was the same presence she’d felt just before those creatures revealed themselves from their hiding places.
Which meant…
Snow humans were concealed somewhere nearby. She signaled her team and immediately hurled herself toward the baseball field.
Since the snow had melted from the fire magic, there was nowhere for them to hide.
But as if sensing the alert, ten snow humans suddenly emerged from their hiding spots and attacked her.
“Screech-!”
Crack!
A needle-sharp icicle materialized and shot at Jung A-ram.
“Tsk.”
Thwack!
Even though she’d caught on to their presence, she hadn’t expected such a direct assault. Jung A-ram failed to dodge the icicle, exposing her ribs to the attack.
Fortunately, she twisted her body at the last moment and avoided a fatal wound.
But as the cold seeped into the injured area, Jung A-ram’s expression hardened instantly.
“Protect the captain!”
The members of the Jungnang-gu Alliance shouted and rushed to Jung A-ram’s side. Seeing this, Lee Gang-hyuk turned to Seo Hwa-rin and Seo A-rin, calling out loudly.
“A-rin, handle the zombies! Hwa-rin, attack the snow humans with them!”
“Got it! Aqua Barrier! Water Ball!”
“Fire Wall!”
Lee Gang-hyuk called out to the Jungnang-gu Alliance members, then exhaled a long breath as he surveyed the zombies outside the field.
The bodies and barricades made an exact count impossible, but at a rough estimate, there had to be around a hundred.
It might have been fewer, but the visual impression was that much.
Meanwhile…
The number of zombies and skeletons he’d tamed was twenty.
Remaining mana: ninety percent.
There was Seo A-rin, but Im Jae-beom and Electric were exhausted, their core power depleted.
Fortunately, because he’d set up barricades using bone orbs and corpses, the zombies couldn’t approach easily.
Now was the time to kill more zombies.
The more zombies that died,
The more corpses accumulated,
The more spiked barricades would grow, and the more stable the battle would become.
‘Is there a good way to do this?’
He couldn’t create a tidal wave, the zombie and skeleton count was already at full capacity, he’d used all the bone orbs to make barricades…
All that remained was the corpse of the massive zombie he’d just killed.
But if he showed them crafting items from a mutated zombie’s core, they’d find out about that too.
‘Or should I try the Obsidian Staff?’
He didn’t know the materials needed to craft bows and arrows, so creating ranged-type skeletons was difficult. But magic-type skeletons were still possible.
‘It should be fine to show them making skeletons with weapons.’
Even though they were cooperating, Lee Gang-hyuk decided to keep the mutated zombie’s core hidden for now. He reached toward Seo A-rin.
“Would you give me the staff?”
“Huh? Yes!”
Caught off guard by the sudden request, Seo A-rin stopped attacking and handed him the staff.
“Thanks. Buy me some time.”
“Got it! Water Ball!”
Understanding his intent from those words, she nodded eagerly.
A new skeleton created with the staff as material—
What would it look like?
Excited, Seo A-rin continued pushing back the approaching zombies with her skill.
Reassured by her efforts, Lee Gang-hyuk set the staff beside a corpse and used his skill.
“Undead Creation!”
[Creating an Undead.]
[Your skill exerts an influence.]
[Variable detected.]
……
……
[List of creatable Undead:]
Lesser Lich X 1
‘A Lesser Lich!?’
The moment Lee Gang-hyuk saw the name in the list, astonishment seized him.
A Lich!
A Lich was among the highest ranks of undead, alongside Death Knights.
That was certainly his understanding of Liches.
But…
He could actually create such a powerful being?
Even with “Lesser” attached, wouldn’t it live up to the name Lich?
Anticipation mounting, Lee Gang-hyuk continued the creation.
[Your magical power influences the created Undead’s abilities.]
[Lesser Lich created.]
Shortly after, the notification he’d been waiting for appeared. He was about to give an order with a smile when—!
Another notification suddenly flashed before his eyes.
[New combination discovered.]
[Root Job Combination.]
– Bone Swordsman, Bone Shielder, Bone Assassin, Lesser Lich.
– Attack Power + 3
– Defense Power + 2
[Activate the new combination?]
“Activate.”
Lee Gang-hyuk nodded as he confirmed the notification and answered, immediately agreeing with the term “Root Combination” and issuing a command.
“Attack.”
“…….”
Click! Click! Click!
As he pointed to the zombies and gave the order, the Lesser Lich’s jaw moved rapidly.
It moved as if chanting an incantation, and a violet sphere materialized before the Lesser Lich.
‘That’s…’
He recognized it instantly.
First-tier magic.
Death Bolt.
The knowledge surfaced naturally, as if someone had injected it directly into his mind.
‘First-tier Curse, second-tier Unholy Shield and Bone Armor only?’
As all the magic the Lesser Lich possessed came to mind, Lee Gang-hyuk found himself breathing out involuntarily.
‘So that’s why it’s Lesser.’
The Lesser Lich could use four types of magic in total.
Still, it had attack, defense, and utility all covered.
Depending on how it was used, the applications could vary.
The only issue was that it felt slightly insufficient for the current situation. But there was one saving grace…
The new combination had boosted the skeletons’ abilities.
With increased attack and defense power, the skeletons methodically cut down the zombies closing in and pressed forward. As zombies struck by the Lesser Lich’s Death Bolt collapsed, Lee Gang-hyuk expressed satisfaction.
The flesh at the points where Death Bolt hit melted as if it had been burned away, and the zombies simply perished.
‘Yes. Better than nothing, anyway.’
First-tier magic was enough to kill zombies.
Lee Gang-hyuk found that sufficient. He suddenly stroked his jaw as he contemplated the magic tiers.
‘In a normal system, they wouldn’t have distinguished only Lich magic by tiers…’
Then did Awakener skills also have tiers like magic?
“Hmm.”
Struck by the sudden thought, Lee Gang-hyuk decided to experiment once they returned. He issued a new command to the Lesser Lich.
“Forget the other spells. Have the Bone Shielder use only Unholy Shield.”
Click! Click! Click!
Snap!
Swoosh.
Following his order, the Lesser Lich raised the Obsidian Staff, and a protective barrier formed around the Bone Shielder at the front.
Yet the Lesser Lich didn’t lower its hand.
Apparently, maintaining the shield required holding the staff up.
‘Tsk… really awkward to use. Though if mana were sufficient, the shield probably wouldn’t break…’
Lee Gang-hyuk stroked his jaw, confirming the Lesser Lich’s performance, then surveyed those fighting the snow humans.
“Burst Burn! Fire Wall! Push them back as much as possible with your skills!”
Very good.
They were doing well.
Thanks to Seo Hwa-rin, the fire Awakener, they were overwhelming the snow humans.
But Jung A-ram, wounded as she was, seemed to be their concern. The Jungnang-gu Alliance members stuck close to her, facing off against the snow humans.
‘Should I send A-rin over? But this side… wait? Why didn’t I think of that sooner?’
As he deliberated, watching them, a good idea struck Lee Gang-hyuk. He stopped his thinking and called out to Seo A-rin.
“A-rin, how’s your core power?”
“It’s fine! I still have more than half left!”
“Then please join them and protect Jung A-ram.”
“If I leave too…”
If she went over there, Lee Gang-hyuk would be facing all the approaching zombies alone.
Of course, Lee Gang-hyuk was skilled enough to hold his own.
But Seo A-rin hesitated inwardly. Then she met his confident gaze and sighed, nodding.
“…Understood. I’ll be back soon! Aqua Barrier! I’ll protect you, so go ahead and attack!”
With those words, Seo A-rin cast Aqua Barrier on Jung A-ram and shouted to the Jungnang-gu Alliance members.
Thanks to her arrival, their defensive movements became more aggressive.
‘That should be enough.’
Satisfied as the situation improved with Seo A-rin’s reinforcement, Lee Gang-hyuk looked at the zombies.
“Well then… should I burn through all my mana?”
Deciding to act on the thought that had struck him earlier, Lee Gang-hyuk called over one of his tamed zombies from the very back.
“Sorry.”
As the zombie approached, Lee Gang-hyuk apologized, snatched the bone axe it was holding, and immediately struck its neck.
“Corpse Manipulation!”
Then he tamed one of the approaching zombies, called over another tamed zombie closest to him, and beheaded it as well.
And so…
When two zombies died and a new one took their place, Lee Gang-hyuk realized his experience points hadn’t increased.
‘They’re blocking free kills?’
Baffled but accepting it, Lee Gang-hyuk continued severing the necks of his tamed zombies, taming new ones in their stead, repeating until his mana bottomed out.
As a result,
The zombie count, once too many to estimate, had dwindled to just forty remaining.
Exactly forty-two.
Though using Corpse Manipulation consecutively left him with only fifty percent mana, and the loss of experience points from the killed zombies was staggering.
Still, it was fine.
Experience could be earned anytime, and even without mana, his tamed ones remained, so there was no real problem.
The problem was…
The snow humans, which had somehow multiplied to twenty.
‘The ones that revealed themselves initially were bait for the ambush.’
The moment Lee Gang-hyuk saw the suddenly increased number of snow humans, he grasped their tactics and understood the situation.
But his mana was depleted.
To support them, he’d have no choice but to kill all the remaining zombies.
“All units—charge…”
Just as he was about to give the command,
Shiver.
“What the…”
A sudden chill ran down his spine. Panicked, Lee Gang-hyuk quickly scanned his surroundings.
‘Could there be another mutated zombie? But… this feeling is familiar somehow…’
As he studied the area, unease mounting, Lee Gang-hyuk felt a strange familiarity. He tilted his head in confusion.
But he couldn’t tell from the presence alone whether it was foe or ally. So Lee Gang-hyuk pushed aside his confusion and examined his escape routes.

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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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