“No. A four-stack [Life Ravagement] combo is this strong?”
Park Il-sang looked dumbfounded.
Frogmen.
These creatures were utter weaklings.
Once they touched the aura that drained life force, they would simply cry out and die in ten seconds.
In fact, a Frogman corpse had collapsed right before his eyes.
“No, well… there is no need for a war of numbers or anything, which is supposed to be a Necromancer’s specialty. It was not this strong even in my previous life….”
Park Il-sang recalled the time when he had been a novice Necromancer in his previous life.
He had learned while hovering between life and death, and because the world was already in a state of collapse, he had been thrown into battle as soon as he became a Necromancer and had nearly died. Those memories came back vividly.
To Park Il-sang, it was simply absurd.
Why was he this strong?
Was this right?
“Well. Good things are good things!”
Park Il-sang set his bewilderment and worries aside and began to run.
He had a lot to do.
First, he stripped the Dungeon bare.
Even after discovering the Boss Room, he deliberately went back and cleared out every cave he had not entered.
In that way, he killed every living being in the Dungeon without leaving a single one behind.
There was not even any need for the Skeleton Beast to step forward.
It took longer to make Skeleton Shield Pikemen from the creatures he had killed like that.
Then a serious problem arose with the Skeleton Shield Pikemen he made afterward….
These things.
They could not keep up with the Skeleton Beast’s speed.
Their builds were different to begin with, and these creatures were bipedal. On top of that, because they were fundamentally made from Frogman bones, their movements were more Frogman-like than human, which made their awkward posture a problem.
Their vengeful spirits must have belonged to Frogmen as well, so that made it even more so.
What good was it if their shape was humanoid? Their software was still those damned frogs.
The Skeleton Beast was only fine because it was quadrupedal.
So he had to modify them a bit.
“Oh, this is not bad.”
What he made like that was a Skeleton Centaur.
He made the lower body into a cheetah-like quadrupedal skeleton and attached a human-shaped upper body to it.
When he did that, however, the software malfunctioned this time.
With a Frogman’s vengeful spirit (and one that was closer to something stitched together in tatters at that), it could not control the quadrupedal lower body while moving the two arms of the upper body.
So he discarded it.
He simply turned them into quadrupedal beast forms.
They were, in a sense, Skeleton Beasts (Small).
With this, they followed him well. They could not handle weapons or use tools like shields, though.
At least they followed the extra-large Skeleton Beast well.
After making ten Skeleton Beasts (Small) like that, his Necro Mana finally ran out.
If not for the [Corpse Box], which could cram in as many as one hundred corpses, he would not have been able to do even this.
Of course, if he waited, Necro Mana would be generated.
But was there any need to do that?
He had already stripped the Dungeon clean anyway, so he simply had to clear it now. Park Il-sang headed straight for the Dungeon Boss Room.
And there, just like yesterday, was the Nest Guardian sleeping.
“Go! Kittymon!”
At Park Il-sang’s words, the Skeleton Beast charged with its massive body.
BOOM!
Because they were similar in size, it did not die in a single blow, but with the first hit, the Nest Guardian’s face had already become a bloody mess.
Even if their builds were similar, the Skeleton Beast was currently covered in all sorts of Buffs!
And that was not all.
SLUUUURP!
Life force was continuously drained from the Nest Guardian’s body and absorbed into Park Il-sang. It flowed straight into the [Corpse Box], where it began producing and pumping out Necro Mana.
“This is it! Heh… This is what makes Necromancers great.”
That was right.
The [Life Force Absorption] spell did not exist for no reason.
Using it, one could heal wounds and create Necro Mana.
Life force was truly an excellent resource!
The Skeleton Beasts (Small) were even merely standing by.
As he watched a great monster showdown unfold, Park Il-sang nodded and shouted.
“The frog contestant is down! Ah, this is dangerous! If its neck gets pulled like this, it is going to die!”
“Keeeeek!”
THUD!
Park Il-sang was enjoying himself alone.
In the meantime, the Skeleton Beast truly bit into the Nest Guardian’s neck and delivered its death sentence.
-You have cleared the Frog Nest!
-You will be moved to the Settlement Room.
His vision darkened.
Soon, he was moved to the Reward Room, just as before.
[You have cleared the Dungeon.]
[Measuring Dungeon clear grade.]
[A Clear.]
[Measuring Dungeon clear contribution.]
[Your Dungeon clear contribution is 100%.]
[You can acquire 2 Skills.]
[You can acquire 1 item.]
[You have acquired sufficient experience, and your grade has risen.]
“Oh.”
He had been F-Grade, and previously he had become F-Grade. But now, he had become F+!
It was tremendous.
Instinctively, he knew that he could handle Necro Mana more precisely and intensely.
At the same time.
He learned that the number of Undead he could control had increased from twelve, excluding items, to twenty-four.
A twofold growth all at once!
“In any case, an A-Rank Clear…. I heard there are A+ and S+ too. How does one receive those grades?”
Park Il-sang pondered while looking at the grade for a moment.
S+ Rank. How did one get it?
He wanted to receive it!
Then he shook his head and checked the Skill list.
There were still many spells to learn.
He immediately acquired the two Skills [Soul Capture] and [Soul Utilization].
[Soul Capture] was, just as the name said, a Skill for snatching souls and carrying them around, and [Soul Utilization] was a Skill for making use of the souls he had acquired.
He could absorb them to recover Necro Mana, grant them to Undead to strengthen them, or insert them into items to enhance those items.
In other words, it was a useful Skill in many ways.
“Whew. I have taken one step closer to my previous life. The next Skill will be… [Soul Processing]. Let us work hard.”
Park Il-sang was satisfied.
And this time, an item appeared again as well.
It was the same list as before.
It seemed the items were fixed.
That said, choosing the tongs again was not quite right.
So he chose the [Human Bone Staff].
In truth, he had deliberately not made a staff because he had thought the same items might appear again, so this was perfect.
After sorting everything out like that.
He arrived before the fallen corpse of the Boss Monster.
He extracted the Magic Stone.
Then he left the Dungeon.
Today had been a very worthwhile day.
***
The total price of the Nest Guardian’s Magic Stone was four million won.
It was a perfect amount to divide into four parts, and Han Da-young had decided to sell it.
-Shingeum Bank : 1,000,000 won has been deposited.
Then the deposit text arrived. After checking it on his somewhat old phone, Park Il-sang put the phone back in his pocket and moved on.
One other noteworthy difference was.
Two Undead were walking alongside Park Il-sang.
When an emergency occurred.
It was dangerous because taking Undead out of the [Corpse Box], which had become a bag on his back, took a long time.
So he was bringing them around in advance like this.
Even though they looked this way, these two were special. They had been made by fusing a full twenty corpses, and using [Soul Utilization], he had infused them with large quantities of the souls of the dead (incomplete and fragmented things).
Thanks to that, they were scattering ominous Necro Mana, and their actual strength was also at a level that mere F-Grade Hunters would struggle to deal with.
Because of that, controlling these two creatures consumed control power equivalent to thirty corpses.
Should he call them somewhat inefficient creatures?
Still, he could not go around dragging a horde of Undead with him, so this was just right.
To conduct money transactions in this lawless 5th-class residential district, one needed at least this much.
After moving together with those two special Skeleton Soldiers, he arrived at a shop operated by one of the black-market dealers in the 5th-class residential district, a place Park Il-sang had often used in the past.
Its name was ‘Empty House Trade.’
CREEEAK.
When he opened the old door and went inside, he found a space resembling a pawnshop.
Iron bars. And a counter made of bulletproof glass. A man was watching the TV beside him from inside.
He was Lee Ho-gyu, the owner of the black-market shop ‘Empty House Trade.’
“Huh, what is this? Is that you, Park Il-sang? I had not seen you lately, so I thought you had died. You are alive? …And what are those things on either side of you?”
“They are summons. I Awakened this time.”
“Oh… Congratulations! You finally Awakened? You worked yourself to the bone for ages…. Good. That is a good thing.”
The owner seemed to remember Park Il-sang and welcomed him with a sly smile.
“This is the Magic Stone dropped by the Boss of the Frog Nest. I would like to sell it.”
“Let us see…. It is genuine. You know the market price, right?”
“I do. This sells for around four million won, does it not? If sold to the government.”
“You know well. On our side, it is 3.5 million in cash.”
Even though the world had turned out like this, cash was still maintained.
Should he call that astonishing?
“I will take that.”
“You are refreshingly decisive. Wait a moment.”
Lee Ho-gyu opened the drawer below and took out bundles of money.
A moment later, he took out exactly 3.5 million won and handed it over.
Park Il-sang received it and counted it.
“By the way, you. Did you catch that thing alone?”
“As if.”
“Right? I thought so… unless you were some sort of super rookie.”
“Then I will be going. I hope business goes well for you too, boss.”
“Sure.”
Park Il-sang put the bundle of money against his chest and left the shop.
Somehow, his steps felt lighter.
***
He had obtained money.
And he spent money.
He paid the overdue rent right away.
After that, he headed to the place rumored to be the best restaurant in the 5th-class residential district.
Although the 5th-class residential district was a lawless place, that did not mean there were no good restaurants.
It was just that most places like this were managed by organizations.
If something made good money?
There was no way an organization would not get involved.
“Ha… This is happiness.”
From the middle of the day, he came to a famous gukbap restaurant, drank down a bowl of deeply brewed gukbap made with cultured meat (pork), then bought a cola and poured it into his mouth.
Because it was a famous restaurant, one bowl of gukbap cost a staggering 13,000 won, but it clung wonderfully to his palate.
On top of that.
Here.
The kkakdugi kimchi tasted like a work of art.
“Whew… This really is nice.”
After finishing that one meal.
He patted his stomach, and his mood was unbelievably good.
Until now, he had lived while struggling and pinching pennies because even eating one bowl like this felt like a waste.
Not anymore.
He could eat it every day. He could eat it whenever he wanted.
Of course.
This would not be the only thing he ate.
Pizza, hamburgers, steak.
He would eat all of them!