The Cursed Blacksmith Who Regressed - Chapter 106

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 106

As she began to tell her story, everyone present started to listen intently.

Having become a Necromancer, she used ‘Walking Dead’, one of the basic skills given at the start, to revive her boyfriend.

However, level 1 Walking Dead was literally just at the level of raising corpses.

There was no consciousness.

It was literally a walking corpse.

Still, it was good.

Though her dead boyfriend’s body had no warmth, no consciousness, no memories, nothing at all, just the fact that he had risen as if alive again was a great comfort to her.

The problem started after that.

She was neither the boyfriend’s legal spouse, nor in a common-law relationship, nor family.

The mortuary staff later discovered her actions through CCTV and called the police.

The bereaved family was furious, and people experiencing such a case for the first time also couldn’t look at Han Su-kyeong favorably.

No, rather, they looked at her with disgust.

As if she were an unprecedented perverted psychopath who couldn’t accept human death and used supernatural powers to revive the dead.

But she was neither a pervert nor a psychopath.

She was just one of many pitiful people at that time who couldn’t yet let go of their loved ones.

‘The police who arrived late tried to separate her from her boyfriend, but she resisted, and when the master was attacked, the boyfriend who had become Walking Dead automatically attacked the police. The situation continued to worsen.’

The court had a headache.

Because this was the first such case.

They couldn’t just cover it up.

After all, a report had been filed, many had witnessed it, and illegal acts had been committed.

No matter how sympathetically they viewed it, they couldn’t cover everything up.

Even calculating very conservatively, she had committed many illegal acts.

The boyfriend who became undead had even attacked police officers.

In an era when there was no system for everything, when even pets could be euthanized for biting people, let alone being bitten by an undead.

There was a high possibility it would be classified as a monster and disposed of.

‘If you examine and nitpick each thing, there are endless charges that could be brought.’

Since she had unauthorized turned a corpse belonging to the bereaved family into an undead, it was corpse theft.

Since the intact corpse became undead and was consequently damaged through a series of incidents, it was corpse desecration.

Also, though Han Su-kyeong didn’t attack the police but it was an automatic attack by the system, since there were no precedents for everything in those early days, obstruction of official duties and assault on public officials were also mentioned.

As a result, she was sentenced to one year in prison as everything got tangled up.

Her boyfriend was cremated and placed in a columbarium as a human instead of being killed as a monster.

That was Han Su-kyeong’s story.

‘It’s true that there are many ex-convicts among Necromancers. But most of them are people like Han Su-kyeong.’

It’s true that Necromancers find it easier to kill people compared to other job classes.

Because it’s easy to use poison and curses, and they can carry out assassinations without getting caught through undead summoning.

But when you think about it, all other jobs are similar.

If you make good use of supernatural abilities like skills and items, what job class would find assassination difficult?

So while it’s true that there are many ex-convicts among Necromancers, this shouldn’t be taken at face value.

‘It’s like a statistical trap.’

But it was true that the recidivism rate among Necromancer Players was high for various reasons.

This was due to structural problems in society.

That’s what life is like for ex-convicts in our country.

Once you get a criminal record, many things become difficult.

Especially employment-wise.

Our country claims to pursue both punishment and rehabilitation, but that’s only on the surface, and in reality, most ex-convicts are branded as criminals, making it very difficult for them to reintegrate into society.

‘So naturally, everyone has no choice but to get involved in illegal work, and the vicious cycle repeats itself.’

Among the 37 people here, there isn’t a single violent criminal.

Those types were filtered out in advance, like during the Tamer screening.

In other words, the people here either have no criminal record or are in similar situations to Han Su-kyeong.

When Han Su-kyeong’s story ended, Choi Hyun naturally looked at the others and asked.

“Is there anyone else who would like to share their story similarly?”

Starting with Han Su-kyeong, people began sharing their stories one by one.

The microphone was passed around in turn, and before long, the atmosphere in the auditorium became not that of a job interview or screening, but like those cancer patient meetings you’d see in American movies.

This was what he had aimed for from the beginning.

Though he was hiring Necromancers for various projects including unmanned raid teams, Necromancers were living people like us, not tools.

Finally, everyone’s stories came to an end.

The atmosphere had changed significantly.

Some were crying softly, others were sighing deeply.

Some found comfort in the stories of people in similar situations to themselves.

Now it was Choi Hyun’s turn again.

“Actually, I already know all of your stories through your job applications. But the reason I asked you to share them again like this was because I wanted to tell you that you are not bad people.”

Choi Hyun’s gaze swept over the Necromancers.

“If you go to prison, everyone says they were wronged. Of course, I’m not saying that everyone here was unconditionally wronged. After all, you are people who crossed the lines set by law and were punished, and now you have paid your debt to society. That’s why I think the people here are very different from the typical ex-convicts people commonly know about.”

He took a step forward from the podium.

“Among those here, there are also people who simply changed jobs because they thought Necromancers were cool, without any particular story. But after the First Great Catastrophe occurred, as time passed and various legal regulations were strengthened, it became a world where it was difficult for Necromancers to use their power. Of course, aside from social structural problems, the skill and stat environment itself is somewhat difficult for solo growth.”

He pressed the remote control switch.

The screen changed to blank.

“So let me ask you one thing at this point. How much do you know about Necromancers?”

A sudden change of topic.

Those who had been sad naturally began to take interest in the changed subject.

He pressed the switch once more.

Three pictures appeared on the blank screen.

“Generally, the types of power that Necromancers handle are known to be three kinds. Projectile, Curse, and Summoning.”

Projectile literally referred to magic itself that is fired to strike enemies.

Dark Bullet, Dark Spear, Black Arrow were typical examples.

‘A Necromancer’s mana is basically converted to dark magic, so they can’t use normal magic.’

So they use projectile-type dark magic that’s exclusive to them.

Curse literally meant all kinds of curses with debuff properties.

Poison, paralysis, blindness, petrification, burn, frostbite, etc.

Depending on how they’re used, these can be debuffs, enchantments, and if you go into crafting, they’re also used for poison production.

‘Finally, summoning.’

This meant undead summoning.

Once created, undead don’t require separate mana for maintenance.

So theoretically, if conditions are met, one person can create an army alone.

‘However, the problem is that undead can’t just be summoned – you absolutely need a medium for summoning. Things like bones and corpses. And for basic undead to reach a level where they’re useful as summons, you need to be quite high level, and most importantly, the biggest problem is that there’s no place to store undead separately until you reach level 100.’

Everyone nodded at Choi Hyun’s explanation.

“Summoning isn’t the only problem. Projectile has good destructive power, but it consumes a lot of mana, so your mana runs out after just one or two skills. So most Necromancers use weapons, but to compensate for insufficient mana, they have to invest every stat point they get into mana, so they practically can’t even use heavy weapons and armor.”

The conditions and circumstances were as difficult as those of Tamers.

To grow, you need support, but no one helps Necromancer Players who have no ability and no connections.

Let alone in regular parties.

When hunting in the early-mid stages, it’s faster to just beat monsters to death rather than bother cursing them.

“There are so many problems. So how exactly should Necromancers grow?”

Everyone fell silent at Choi Hyun’s question.

Their faces showed expressions that said, “If we knew that, we would have used that method long ago.”

Choi Hyun smiled and pressed the switch.

What appeared on the screen were Summoners.

“Does anyone here know about Demon Summoners among Summoners?”

Summoners summon various beings.

Among them, there were quite a few Summoners who specialized in summoning demons.

Demons were surprisingly cost-effective beings if you made good deals with them.

‘The most outstanding demon summoner I knew was Stein.’

Stein was the only one who succeeded in the Regression Project and sent Choi Hyun back to the past.

It was all thanks to the greater demon that guy had summoned.

One of the applicants answered.

“Yes, I know.”

“Doesn’t something seem strange to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Demons are closer to dark mages or Necromancers if you really think about it, so why are Summoners the ones summoning them?”

“Well? Maybe that’s just how the System decided it?”

“Is that explicitly stated somewhere? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of such a thing.”

“Who knows? I haven’t checked it separately either.”

“Yes, that’s exactly it.”

Choi Hyun pressed the switch once more.

Then the triangular formation representing the three types of power from earlier changed into a square formation, and the word ‘Contract’ appeared in the empty space.

“You couldn’t utilize it until now because you didn’t know. There’s no law saying only Summoners can command demons. If you really think about it, the first ones to command demons weren’t ordinary Summoners but Necromancers. And this is exactly the new growth method I’m proposing to you all.”

“A new growth method?”

“Yes, we will become stronger through contracts with demons, not through other methods.”

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