First Expedition (2)

Honestly, I wasn't jealous.

It had only been a short while since I'd become a woman, so it was more of a mild "good for her" feeling than anything else. Who gets envious of their own subordinate, anyway?

Okay, fine. I was a little jealous. Just a tiny bit.

What I actually envied was her height. Mari looked well over 175 centimeters. I'd been tall myself once—close to 180. Either way, I was not jealous of the chest.

"……."

Sensing my sour mood, the mummy fidgeted and glanced around nervously.

"Go get Ttacttac-i."

"Goo?"

"That skeleton over there. We're going to stick together."

From what I could tell, the people around here weren't exactly the friendly type. Was sticking a knife in someone's face just standard apocalypse etiquette?

If I wander around alone, I'll end up killing everyone I meet.

Anyone who attacked me would just die on the spot, after all. Even if it felt a bit forceful, I needed to use numbers to establish dominance so nobody would dare make the first move.

-Clack? Click-clack!

"Goo."

-Click-click-clack!

When Mari didn't come back, I stepped outside and found Ttacttac-i putting her through military drills.

-Clack!

"Guu!"

-Rattle-rattle clack!

"Guu! Guaah!"

Mari was doing the world's most pathetic jumping jacks. Ttacttac-i must have done his military service in his past life.

I went outside and scolded him.

"Ttacttac-i. Stop bullying her."

-Clack. Rattle-rattle.

"If you know you did wrong, apologize to the mummy."

Ttacttac-i bowed his head to Mari, and she bowed right back. Peace restored.

"Oh, and her name is Mari from now on. Got it? No objections?"

-Clack?!

"I said, any objections?"

-Clack….

"Guuuu!"

It was barely a modification of "mummy," but Mari seemed thrilled. She suddenly charged at me and crushed me in a tight hug.

Ugh—I was going to suffocate buried in that chest.

"Stop, stop! We're heading upstairs now!"

Mari finally released me—only to grab my hand instead.

Well… this much was fine, I guessed.

"The first floor seems empty, or full of dangerous types. Anyone who rushes us dies, so let's look for people higher up."

Both undead nodded at once. I gave Mari a light shove.

"Alright, Mari—you lead the way!"

"Guuuu…."

"What? I said lead."

Mari hesitated, then pointed at herself and the floor in turn before crossing her arms into an X.

"You don't know this place well?"

"Guu, gaa."

Then she made a swirling motion with both hands.

I had no idea what she was trying to say. Still, I gathered she hadn't originally lived here.

"Ugh, useless. Just follow me, then."

"Gaa!"

I took the lead, and Mari trotted after me with quick little steps to match my stride.

Now that I looked, Ttacttac-i was a bit shorter than Mari. I felt a sudden kinship with him.

"The elevator's… completely wrecked."

The doors hung open, but there was no car inside—just a sheer drop above and below. Fall in, and you'd be dead on the spot.

I'd expected the elevators to be out of commission, so we started up the stairs.

This was the real start of the expedition.

I'd figured the lower floors would be empty—people avoiding outsiders—but signs of life appeared almost immediately.

"Barricades?"

Obstacles cobbled together from furniture and planks. But they must have been too crude. Something had smashed straight through the middle, or torn the tops clean off.

"Looks like monsters did this."

-Click-clack!

Ttacttac-i agreed. These were monster traces, not human. I knew the difference from my hunter days.

"Ugh… and so many spiderwebs."

Something odd: there was no smell of corpses at all. Outside in the open apartment complex, the stench of death had been overwhelming.

"Maybe we should start searching around here?"

Unlike the barricaded stairs, the hallway was relatively clean—though the stains refused to be scrubbed away. Dust blanketed the floor, and pockmarks showed where people had fought monsters.

I quietly knocked on the door closest to the stairs, so we could run if needed.

"…No sound."

Disappointed despite myself, I turned to leave—

—and my clothes caught on the doorknob with a soft clunk.

Creeeak…. The door, which I hadn't even considered might be open, swung inward. I looked inside on pure reflex.

Skreek.

"Uh…?"

Inside, a spider monster the size of a Chihuahua stared straight at me with all eight eyes.

"Eek! Ttacttac-i, handle it!"

I shrieked at the grotesque sight. The spider and Ttacttac-i charged at the same time.

And the winner was….

Skreeeaaak! Crash!

"Ttacttac-i is ridiculously weak!"

In a single exchange, every one of his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bones flew apart in every direction!

Oh no! He had to drive—he couldn't die!

"Mari! You've got a knife! Do something—wait, what?"

But.

Ttacttac-i wasn't dead.

Clack. Rattle, tap.

His bones slowly rose into the air and began reassembling into their original shape.

Regeneration? No—more like reassembly.

Undead were neither living nor dead. Monsters that existed as byproducts of life. Simply by existing, they could come back to life just by being put back together.

Skree…k?

The spider hesitated, startled. The moment reassembly finished, Ttacttac-i charged again.

"So this is… a top-grade undead?"

The top-grade undead described in the Mythic-rank skill, Death's Conductor.

I'd known a Mythic-rank necromancer would be impressive, but this exceeded expectations. True to the name, an undead that wouldn't stay dead just kept breaking and coming back… over and over.

"Nice! Keep fighting, Ttacttac-i!"

He charged again and kicked the spider in the head. Only a tiny mark appeared on the carapace, and he lost his leg in the process—but it didn't matter.

The leg reattached in five seconds!

The eternally reviving one-damage Ttacttac-i versus a spider that could smash him in one hit—what a heart-pounding duel…!

"Guuu."

"Ah."

Thud! Skyaaaah….

But the duel ended when Mari slipped behind the distracted spider and drove her knife between its carapace plates.

Ttacttac-i glared at her resentfully. Mari just gave him a pitying little smack instead.

Still, it had been a pretty solid hunt.

"Mari as the DPS, Ttacttac-i as the tank—perfect!"

The first rule I'd learned as a hunter: one person draws aggro while the others finish it fast. We'd pulled it off perfectly.

In that sense, Ttacttac-i's role had been the most important—but Mari, whether she knew it or not, strutted around in front of him like she owned the place.

"Guu! Guuuu."

-Click-clack… rattle.

The senior who'd been lording it over her had been completely outclassed by his junior in just thirty minutes.

I patted the shell-shocked skeleton on the shoulder and stepped into the room.

Spiderwebs were strewn everywhere in a chaotic mess, but the floor was only a little sticky—nothing that would trap us.

"The fridge is… ugh, everything's rotten."

The power must have gone out, spoiling all the food. They'd probably gone out looking for more, and the spider had come in and finished them off. Thinking about it, the spider was likely what had smashed the barricades too.

In the master bedroom, I found two skeletons. The spider must have eaten all the flesh and blood—there was no smell.

As I approached the pair of skeletons, text appeared.

"So it works even if I didn't kill them myself?"

I resurrected them as skeletons on the spot. They rose in a wash of blue light.

They seemed loyal enough, but a little vacant—not much intelligence on display. I understood instinctively: bodies that had been dead a long time came back dull and stupid. Low-grade, you could call them.

Still, it wasn't as if they had no self at all. After a moment they bowed their heads to me. And the two who had probably been a couple looked at each other, then took up positions behind me as if to guard me.

"Ttacttac-i, these are your new juniors. Real juniors—not thick-skulled ones like Mari."

-Click-clack!

With that I left the room—and this time a notification I truly hadn't expected appeared.

"Monsters work too!"

The system window that hadn't appeared earlier because the kill hadn't been instant now confirmed I could turn monsters into undead as well. There seemed to be only one type available this time, but from what I'd seen it was roughly a C-rank monster. If I could make it undead, it would be a solid addition ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to my forces.

Grinning, I selected it. Blue smoke billowed from between the plates of its carapace. Moments later the spider had become an undead, etched with gray stripes. With no flesh visible on the outside it was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mostly a color change, but its movements and gaze radiated rigid loyalty.

And something else… gratitude?

"What are you grateful for?"

I couldn't quite define it, but I thought I could feel the undead's emotions, just a little. A vague impression I couldn't pin down.

"Hmm. You're a combatant from now on. Got it?"

Skreek!

The spider nodded and took up a post beside Mari.

From there, everything moved like clockwork.

We worked through the other units one by one. If a door was locked, the spider body-slammed it open; if it was open, we walked right in. When a spider showed up, Ttacttac-i took a hit while the spider and Mari ambushed it and finished the job.

Me? I just watched and turned the corpses into undead.

"So this is… what being a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠necromancer is like?"

Auto-hunting, without lifting a finger!

Basking in the greatness of the undead, I swept the entire second floor. The moment my undead count passed ten, text floated up in front of my eyes.

"Ohh… so achievements give you skills?"

The first achievement had granted a class; after that it seemed to be skills.

But the skills didn't stop at Squad Leader. Keeping the auto-hunt rolling the same way, more achievements kept popping up.

As I swept floor after floor of the apartment and my numbers climbed, new achievements kept appearing.

Squad Leader had evolved into Platoon Leader, then into Company Commander. Skills in the same line seemed to replace one another.

"Company Commander? I never even went to the army."

I'd awakened before enlistment and done alternative service as a hunter, so the terminology felt a little foreign.

Anyway—if their physical abilities had gone up, how much was that, exactly?

"Ttacttac-i, do a flip!"

Whoosh!

Ttacttac-i spun through the air with a flexibility that made it hard to believe he was made of bone. Like one of those Black YouTubers in the shorts.

Unfortunately the slower ones only got a little faster. They didn't get any smarter.

"Alright—keep pushing!"

-Gruu.

-Clack!

Three hours later, I had swept everything but the last two floors. My undead count: 220 skeletons and 14 spiders.

"Terrifying. Heh heh."

The skeletons still felt like walking scarecrows, but the little spiders—estimated C-rank—were another story. At full power they could put a decent dent in a steel door!

Nothing could stop us now. Bring it on!

Thinking that, I started up the next flight with the spiders.

Then one of them, a little too excited, bounded ahead of the rest—

——Crunch.

A dull, crushing impact.

And a hideously crumpled spider came tumbling back down toward us.