The Regressed Necromancer Prepares for the Apocalypse - Chapter 38

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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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The Necromancer Who Returned Prepares for the End — Chapter 38

A Player’s body is a vessel that holds Mana.
Though the capacity varies depending on a Player’s Affinity and Level, fundamentally an Awakened one’s Mana dwells within their flesh and is channeled through their Class and Skills.
But what happens when a Player wills that Mana to flow wrongly?
What if a Mage draws in Mana beyond their limit, or a Warrior concentrates all their Mana into a single point?
What becomes of that Player’s body?

‘It ends. Utter annihilation.’

Do Jin clicked his tongue. The intruder Leader before him was wringing every last drop of Mana from his entire body.
Along the Leader’s veins, through his limbs, all of his Mana converged to a single point—his right Spear.
If left to continue like this……

‘That fool’s body will collapse while still alive.’

This was something Do Jin had never known during the Tutorial Season before his return.
It was only after the Main Scenario arrived—a world where one could survive only by risking their life—that Do Jin learned this gruesome truth.
Before his return, he’d known a Player who, while raiding a Monster, had greedily drawn their Mana beyond its limits to claim the spoils.
The Monster raid had succeeded, but that Player had……

‘Turned to ash while conscious, crumbling away bit by bit from the extremities.’

That final gaze—aflame with a scream—as he scattered and vanished still burned before Do Jin’s eyes.
One wrong move now and he’d witness that spectacle again.

‘Damn it all. Why are they so eager to throw their lives away.’

Do Jin gritted out a curse. He had to act—now.
Do Jin’s Mana perception sharpened further still.
The Mana within the Arena, the interweaving and shape of the Mana that formed the Arena’s structure, the resonance of Mana between the Arena and the System and the Players.
And within that web, a target Do Jin had locked onto.
The intruder wielding Dual Spears. The one becoming a Mana bomb by forcing overload upon himself.

“……!”

Do Jin’s eyes snapped wide. Something unforeseen had entered his perception.

‘What are those?’

Things clinging to the intruder Leader’s entire body.
They were absolutely not Mana.

“……!”

In an instant, the world froze.
Or so Do Jin’s mind perceived it.
His brain, the flow of his Mana, his senses had all accelerated and sharpened to such a degree that, by comparison, everything else seemed to stand still.
In that briefest of moments, Do Jin observed the presence before him, everything around him, and his own circumstance—piece by piece perceiving, examining, and judging.

A sharp sting.
A flash of pain—whether in his eyes or ears, his head or his heart, he couldn’t say.
Accepting it, he pressed deeper into the information before him.
The Arena wrapping around him. And threading through the Arena, himself, and the other Players like a web—those things.

‘Is this the System itself?’

Each individual particle of Mana composing the Arena became visible. They gathered into bricks, linked together to form pathways, and through those pathways connected to the circuits etched within a Player’s flesh.
Roads of Mana.
That flow was one-sided, rapid, and so numerous that there was no way to suppress it all……
But thanks to that, something caught his eye.

‘What is that?’

Stains of some kind clung thickly to the Player before him.
They were stuck all over the Leader—at his neck, his head, his shoulders, everywhere. They didn’t seem to be doing anything special to disrupt the flow of Mana or his five senses……
Yet it didn’t feel right.

– Ahhhhh……
“……?”

As Do Jin observed them a moment longer, a sound reached his ears.

– Grrrrrrr……
– Ooooooo……
– Hehehehe……

Simple sounds without meaning or intent—like the garbled noise that came from playing a corrupted audio file.

‘Like traces of something.’

Just as running through sand dusts you with grit, or jumping into water soaks your clothes.
The actions the Leader had taken thus far had left invisible traces that were now connected through the system.

‘But why am I detecting it now?’

Then a notification window suddenly appeared.

An Apparition that can be made into a Servant.
Will you bind it?

Yes / No

‘An Apparition?’
It was a peculiar term. In all the times Do Jin had raised the undead, he had never once seen that word.
Yet something nagged at him.

‘Am I finally meeting my fourth undead type?’

Servants Currently Available to Create
1. Skeleton (Bone Affinity) : Unavailable

2. Zombie (Poison Affinity) : Unavailable
3. Vampire (Blood Affinity) : Unavailable
4. Ghost (Spirit Affinity) : Available

The Necromancy skill at rank C that Do Jin had acquired the first time he cleared the Under Arena.
From that point on, he was able to take ghosts and spectral monsters as Servants as well.
However, Do Jin had never actually made a contract with a Spirit Affinity undead. The reason was simple—there were no Arenas where Spirit Affinity undead appeared.

‘In the Tutorial Season, Spirit Affinity undead are creatures that appear only in at least the highest-tier B-rank Arenas.’

So he had thought he wouldn’t even see one until his own rank reached B-tier at minimum.

‘Then those stains must be an Apparition? Is that the system’s interpretation of ghosts or specters?’

That must be it. Even after becoming able to contract with a Spirit Affinity Servant, Do Jin never developed shamanic sickness or gained the supernatural ability to see ghosts on the street like a psychic.
And carrying such traces on one’s body meant, most likely……

‘That he’d killed before. Probably as many times as there were stains.’

Do Jin had no intention of condemning that fact. After all……

‘I’m hardly any better.’

As the Main Scenario progressed, humanity had to witness hell.
Monster Waves and Dungeon Breaks destroyed production facilities, depleting humanity’s wealth, resources, and above all, food supplies.
Food scarcity was what dealt the first fatal blow to human survival.
In that spiral of decline, humans began killing and plundering one another simply to survive.
Eventually, humans came to view other humans as no different from monsters.
And then came the appearance of the traitors that followed, and their disposal as well.
Among the survivors, there was probably not a single soul who hadn’t stained their hands with the blood of their own kind.

‘Yet my own body bears no stains. After I regressed, were all records of murder erased as well?’

Do Jin smiled bitterly. In any case, it was time to move.

“Awaken.”

The moment Do Jin’s lips moved.
The delicate lines of Mana that flowed through and around Do Jin began to stir.
Like a spider’s web vibrating once given a signal, like dominoes tipping in a chain reaction, the Mana transmitted in an instant.
Do Jin’s Mana touched the stains clinging to the Leader.
There were five in total.
The stains fell away from the intruder Leader’s body—rigid as a statue. They accepted the Necromancer’s verdant Mana, and in turn were tinted with that same green light.
And five Mana masses drifted in midair like dandelion seeds, bobbing softly.
Soon they took on a definite form. Five cool, verdant flames that burned without kindling or heat, burning in empty space.

[Ghost]
Servant of the Necromancer.
Possesses chilling ability. Seeps into targets to absorb body heat and life force (−5% per second). Limited to 3 seconds.
Possesses hallucinogenic ability. Can put targets who perceive the Ghost into a hallucinogenic state with certain probability (maximum 1 second, 5 Mana per cast).

Immediately after the five ghostly flames connected with Do Jin’s Mana.
Do Jin’s world finally returned to normal.
Do Jin’s loyal Servants scattered in all directions, completely subduing the intruders.
The last remaining intruder, the Leader, was on the verge of unleashing his Mana in a reckless surge—as if prepared to take Do Jin with him.

Just then.
Do Jin’s eyes opened to a narrow slit.

“A rather amusing scheme you’ve devised.”
“……!”

The Leader threw one spear aside. He poured every last bit of Mana into the remaining one.
To deliver a final, desperate blow—his last act of defiance.
The attack itself was simple. Thrusting a spear transformed into a Mana mass directly at Do Jin.
The problem lay in another action.
What he was attempting was none other than—
The initiation of Streaming.

‘If only for an instant, should your image wielding the Red Spear appear on the Streaming broadcast!’

No matter how much the Hangang Group backed him, they would be helpless.
The Leader’s last shred of Mana was beginning to access the Streaming system!

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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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