Corpse Splicer

The hour had passed midnight, deep into the early morning. Solomon began walking through the darkness of Downtown District 4, along the Street of the Wandering.

This was a district packed with every kind of medium, occult shop, and guild that specialized in necromancy. Amid the eerie, skin-crawling air thick with the scent of death, Solomon calmly assessed his current situation.

The various new tools he had acquired through Maya. A Ghost Unit hacking tool for infiltration and the Webweaver Kit, which would prove extremely useful for stealth operations.

The fence around the cemetery wasn’t some particularly difficult structure to breach, so it didn’t seem like he’d need to use something like a grappling wire right away.

As he crossed the street in that state, the wide-open cemetery finally came into view in the distance.

Using his Black Spirit Eyes, Solomon carefully scanned the positions of the necromancers patrolling the cemetery. A few were wandering the area like guards, while two stood in fixed positions right beside his target.

‘Once I activate the device and enter the hidden underground mausoleum, there’s no way they’ll just let me pass.’

The two that absolutely had to be dealt with during the infiltration process. And they had to be eliminated without giving them any chance to notice or react.

The cemetery, with its endless rows of tombstones, was far closer to a warehouse than a place to honor the dead, just as Violet had said.

Even the tombstones weren’t meant to commemorate anyone. They simply marked where massive quantities of corpses were buried… in other words, where the “inventory” was stacked.

The inscriptions on them didn’t even list names, only things like gender and age range, as if categorizing products.

Countless such tombstones, each marking piles of inventory, stood densely packed, stretching endlessly beyond the horizon.

‘Just how many corpses are buried here…?’

The mere thought sent a chill down his spine.

Now advancing through the graveyard shrouded in an ominously thick black fog, Solomon took in the sight of his destination through the vision of his Black Spirit Eyes. He paused for a moment and thought.

‘Invisibility is a 2nd-level spell. It eats up one of my 2nd-level spell slots.’

The number of spell slots he could use was fixed. He had to make the optimal calculations within those set costs. So Solomon pondered for a moment.

Invisibility wasn’t just about not being seen. In fact, the fact that you couldn’t be seen wasn’t the core point.

The real value of the Invisibility spell was that even if the opponent noticed Solomon’s presence, he could slip back into an invisible state and land another ambush.

In simple terms—forced stealth attack.

‘Stealth.’

The dexterity stat of Solomon here was not something that “ordinary people” of this world could obtain through ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠normal growth.

From the beginning, he had intentionally min-maxed the stats to an extreme degree.

The character called Solomon had been born solely to become stronger. That was his entire reason for existing.

In the darkness, within the graveyard enveloped by an ominously thick black fog, Solomon moved. Not a sound was made.

The distance closed rapidly in silence.

The two necromancers guarding the tombstone where Dr. O’Neil was hiding. Their backs came into view. In their hands, they held dark, strangely glowing magical lanterns that illuminated the surroundings.

“…That guy. Is there really a reason to go that far?”

They seemed to be exchanging idle, meaningless chatter. Solomon’s extremely sharpened ears didn’t miss a single word of their conversation.

“Just do what the higher-ups tell you to do. What choice do we have?”

“I’m saying, because of that bastard, the ‘Blade’ from the Sword Watch might end up moving personally…”

“The guild must have their reasons. Besides, I heard something too.”

“What?”

Solomon silently stopped moving and listened closely to their conversation. The virtue of a contractor was to handle the problem. Not to question why the problem had arisen.

Even so, he remained silent out of curiosity—not as a contractor, but as the player Solomon.

“That guy, Dr. O’Neil. Not only him, but the corpses he’s fused with… their heads are apparently stuffed with absurd amounts of information.”

“Information?”

“Something that could flip the City Council upside down. It won’t end with just a few big shots stepping down…”

“W-wait… then isn’t this even more dangerous?!”

“Yeah. The fact that they’re doing this even though they know means the guild leadership has something in mind.”

“…Do they have any countermeasures?”

“How would I know? But they must have something they’re relying on, right?”

“Tsk, so in the end you don’t know anything either.”

“No matter how crazy he is, if the Sword Watch’s ‘Blade’ is glaring at us, they must have prepared some kind of plan.”

The conversation ended there. After that, they returned to meaningless topics. Solomon moved once his silence was over. A shadow dashed through the darkness. Without a sound. Before long, he gripped the Ghostwhale Bone Blade fixed inside his sleeve with a string mechanism and stood directly behind one of the two necromancers.

—Solomon was right behind him. Close enough to feel his breath. Yet neither of them noticed his presence. Someone standing directly at their backs. Like a ghost.

In that state, Solomon moved.

An ambush. A strike the opponent could never perceive.

Shaaak!!

The Ghostwhale Bone Blade plunged through the darkness into the necromancer’s body. Instant death. A clean kill.

“Hey, why have you been so quiet all of a sudden…”

Only after blood gushed out like a fountain from the first strike did the necromancer beside him realize what was happening. By the time he realized, the necromancer next to him was already dead, spraying blood like a fountain from his corpse.

‘Hide.’

Solomon’s figure was no longer there. He had already cast the Invisibility spell.

In the end, Solomon’s decision had been correct.

The moment they saw him, a jet-black curtain enveloped the necromancer’s entire body. It was a defensive spell. A barrier that couldn’t be easily broken by normal attacks.

But it was useless against Solomon, who used Invisibility to deliver the strongest attack the rules of the game allowed.

Crunch!

A forced ambush from an invisible state. When that strike came down, the Ghostwhale Bone Blade tore through the jet-black barrier and dug into flesh. It pierced the mage’s armor and defensive magic without resistance.

Shaaaaak!

It ripped apart the barrier and pierced a vital point. An instant kill that left no room to trigger an alarm.

‘Phew… that was too close.’

He could tell from the sensation at his fingertips. If it hadn’t been a forced ambush just now, the strike wouldn’t have been able to tear through the barrier and reach the vital point.

That brief moment would have been more than enough for the enemy to trigger the alarm.

He had neutralized the alarm by the slimmest, razor-thin margin. Without giving them any chance to respond.

In the end, using the Invisibility spell had been the right call.

“The device should be around here…”

After dealing with the two necromancers, Solomon activated the mechanical device on the tombstone Violet had told him about. A secret passage leading to the hidden underground mausoleum.

Thud!

There was a sound, but fortunately it didn’t echo far. Even now, the remaining necromancers being monitored through his Black Spirit Eyes had not noticed the situation.

Without concern, Solomon dragged the corpses of the two dead necromancers down below. It would be a headache if the bodies were discovered right away.

‘.’

In that state, he activated an indispensable 1st-level utility spell. A spell that allowed him to see through the thick darkness and even beyond it without interference.

The first thing he saw was the door at the end of the passage leading down to the underground mausoleum. It was firmly locked.

‘There’s a locked door ahead.’

When Solomon approached the door, his pitch-black eyes, which had lost focus and gleamed like obsidian, were already seeing the scene beyond it.

‘And beyond that… is Dr. O’Neil.’

Even if he picked the lock here and opened the door, there was no risk of being detected. The target was deeper ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠inside. Solomon knelt down right there and took out the items he had prepared.

Crudely trying to cut it with a portable laser cutter would trigger an alarm spell. That was why Solomon took out the seven types of automatic spider lockpicks from the Webweaver Kit.

He knelt carefully and gripped the set of automatic spider lockpicks with caution.

There was no need to manually assemble hook picks or rake picks according to their purpose. There was no need for that at all.

“Spider Lockpicks, simultaneous activation.”

Click. Click-click.

The moment the words left his mouth, the “seven little spiders” in Solomon’s hand began to move. With the sound of small springs turning, they moved like living creatures, their eight spider legs gliding forward.

Straight toward the lock right in front of him.

And then the seven types of spider lockpicks—seven mechanical spiders. Their legs began to dig into the lock like sharp bladed devices.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

Because Solomon could see inside the lock using his dark vision, he understood.

This was no ordinary physical locking mechanism. It was a fortress-like lock woven ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠together with various magical effects, magitech engineering, and all the technology of this era, making it impossible to breach carelessly.

The spider lockpicks were assaulting that lock like an army conquering an impregnable fortress.

All seven spiders clung to the single lock at once, thrusting their eight legs like tentacles and beginning to ravage its interior.

They nullified the barrier magic cast inside, shut down the magitech system, and attacked in every way possible, like a predator disabling its prey.

Clack. Clack.

With every sound, another layer inside the lock was released. The outer wall and inner wall of the fortress fell one after another. Solomon didn’t even need to do anything during the process.

Clack!

Before long, the lock that had been firmly securing the underground mausoleum was undone. However, the seven mechanical spider devices of the spider lockpicks had not yet finished their work.

As soon as the lock opened, they slipped through the gap in the door like oil and began spraying a slick liquid. It was to lubricate the hinges and erase the sound of the door opening.

‘Wow, expensive tools really are worth the price.’

Once the seven spider lockpicks returned after finishing their task, Solomon couldn’t hide his admiration as he finally stood up. Thanks to the slippery lubrication, the massive stone door opened without making a single sound.

Solomon continued forward. He examined the structure of the underground mausoleum through his dark vision, heading toward his target waiting at the end.

Without a sound, repeating his silent steps, he approached the bizarrely grotesque monster.

Because of that, there was no longer any need to use his 2nd-level spell slot on Invisibility for the first ambush. Simply approaching “quietly” was enough.

The monster was there. A monster with countless corpses crudely grafted onto its body. The corpse splicer, body splicer, Dr. O’Neil. He had piled the underground mausoleum high with what appeared to be academic books, and was completely absorbed in picking them up, opening them, and reading with the numerous arms attached to him like a centipede.

The Gilbert Graham fused to him was also holding a book in his hand and reading, like conjoined twins.

Solomon stood behind them, sharply focusing his awareness through the chaotic mess of grafted flesh.

Every living thing had a vital point. Even a monster that had layered countless corpses onto its own body was no different. To Solomon, that gap was clearly visible.

Critical hit. Or fatal strike. The path that led to death.

Before long, Solomon stood directly behind Dr. O’Neil. Like the Grim Reaper looking down on him from behind.

‘Blade in the Dark, activate.’

A trait that once per day guaranteed a critical hit on a single strike, no questions asked. On top of that, the “Master of Ambush” trait that added a fixed 6 damage to ambush attacks.

He delivered the most destructive physical attack the rules of this game allowed—a critical ambush strike.

The blade in the dark came rushing down.