Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: Curse Necromancer Harban
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Curse Necromancer Harban.
He was a hero-level pioneer who had ascended 15 times.
However, that was only because he had been chased by the Empire and couldn't ascend further.
His pure stats were packed tight, nearly reaching 16 ascensions.
On top of that, with his obsession toward curses and his collection of curse gear, his curse skills could be called the best in the world.
And right now.
He was chasing after one man, unleashing curses upon him.
Sizzle!
A curse blooming from the darkness melted the surrounding plants into a gray sludge.
Above the forest where curses poured down.
A red shadow raced through, dodging the curses.
"For someone who boasted so confidently, you're only running away!"
Harban cackled grotesquely as he shouted.
He closely pursued Leyzon's shadow with high-speed movement.
Yet his feet didn't move an inch.
Beneath his feet, a sticky liquid had sprouted.
The liquid was black moss.
An undead belonging to Harban, who specialized in slime molds.
Before being a curse sorcerer, he was also a necromancer.
Naturally, he had his own dedicated undead.
The black moss spread out, dominating the entire forest.
As it did, the radius in which Harban could move grew ever wider.
The black moss, which Harban had lovingly nurtured, multiplied almost infinitely.
Especially here, a place with a lake.
It was an environment optimized for the black moss to proliferate.
"Giving time to a curse sorcerer? Nothing good will come of that!"
The number of curses hanging over the entire forest kept increasing.
Curse skills had a unique structure different from regular skills.
There existed a concept called resonance between curses.
Depending on which curse was added to another, the number of curses multiplied endlessly.
Of course, there was no limit to the number of added curses.
Harban possessed a total of 12 curse skills.
He constantly resonated these 12 curses.
The combinations this created were too numerous to count.
Yet Harban handled all of them with skillful ease.
Thus, curses continuously birthed from his hands.
The forest gradually became dyed in curses.
The once beautiful scenery faded away.
In its place, bizarre plants never seen before began filling the surroundings.
A forest straight out of hell slowly took shape.
Moreover, the black moss, absorbing moisture from the lake, grew ever larger.
Before long, the black moss had grown massive enough to blanket the entire forest.
The black moss blotted out the sky.
Darkness descended upon the surroundings.
Within the black darkness.
Cursed winds whipped about.
Vicious winds that peeled skin and drew blood merely by touch.
Harban stood tall at the center of the curses.
Soon, he raised [Zannavi] and tapped the ground.
Thud— Thud—
Monkey skulls blazed with fierce light, spilling darkness.
Harban's staff and fingers danced a melody.
Currently, about 100 curses overlapped in this space.
That number continued to grow even now.
Squirm—
Yet despite this immense pile of curses, Harban sensed Leyzon's presence remained intact.
Within the black moss.
Though invisible to the eye, he could feel Leyzon moving.
"Impressive."
Even with curse-resistant gear, no one could withstand this many curses.
Did he have some clever trick up his sleeve?
Harban swallowed a hollow laugh and gripped Zannavi tightly.
"I wonder if you'll stay intact even if I blow away this entire space."
The monkey head atop Zannavi gaped its mouth wide.
Then, it began devouring the curses filling the space one by one.
Zannavi's special effect.
Curse Digestion.
Thud!
With each curse swallowed, the monkey head grew larger.
Thud! Thud!
At the same time, vibrations spread out from Zannavi.
Curses stacked until the forest became a forest of death.
Zannavi continued devouring them like a predator.
Even amid this, Harban's hands didn't stop.
He replenished curses as fast as they were consumed.
As if determined to use every curse available here.
Step—
At that moment, the sound of footsteps reached his ears.
Harban's head snapped up, looking ahead.
Beyond the monkey mask.
Leyzon emerged, clad in pitch-black skin and a mask.
The closer to Harban, the stronger the curse's influence.
Yet he kept walking forward, fully aware.
Harban's eyebrow twitched.
'Unaffected by the curses?'
Or merely pretending?
He couldn't read Leyzon's expression, hidden by the black mask.
Whichever it was.
One thing was clear.
Harban grinned wickedly.
"What, can't block this one?"
The curses Harban had gathered in Zannavi.
Leyzon had deliberately revealed himself to counter it.
Red shadows rippled at his feet.
It seemed he was preparing a total assault, but Harban slammed his staff down to show it was futile.
Black mist-like substance gathered around him.
"Looks like you don't know what curse I activated first."
The first curse Harban activated was one that protected him.
Just as excessive divine blessings or transcendent boons could become poison.
Curses, when used differently, became a means of defense.
Black mist swirled around Harban.
This black mist was the curse of weakening, layered countless times.
No matter what attack was launched, the moment it passed through the black mist.
Its power would diminish to near zero.
In other words, no matter how powerful the attack.
It couldn't harm Harban.
At that instant, Leyzon's mouth opened.
"Didn't you just say giving time to a curse sorcerer was foolish?"
Leyzon referenced Harban's words as he casually lowered his staff.
"While we're at it, let me tell you something."
Harban realized the sky above his head had brightened.
He looked up, and the black moss covering the sky was vanishing.
Instead, moonlight poured down from the heavens.
Alarm flickered in Harban's eyes.
Then, his eyes slowly widened.
'No, it didn't disappear.'
There had been no black moss in the sky from the start.
What occupied that space was darkness.
A darkness Harban had never seen before.
"......What is this?"
He stared up at the sky in a daze.
At that moment, the moonlight in the sky began to wane.
There, something as enormous as the moon itself loomed.
Within the pitch-black mass of darkness.
A sinister purple vortex swirled.
Chill!
Goosebumps erupted across Harban's entire body.
He didn't know what it was.
But he felt the sensation of a colossal reaper gazing down at him.
Necromancers were beings closest to death.
They had long forgotten fear in the dead of night.
Yet now, he felt fear.
"Uh, uh."
He mumbled incoherently, lips trembling.
Plop—
At that moment, straw spilled from Leyzon's sleeve.
Amid the scattering straw, Leyzon slowly raised his staff toward the sky.
The colossal entity blotting the sky.
It was Leyzon's ultimate one-shot kill.
"You called me the Abyss."
Beyond the black mask, Leyzon's lips curled up.
Harban's shoulders twitched.
At the same time, he whipped his head toward Leyzon with eyes wide in shock.
To confirm what he had just heard.
"So I named it that."
Leyzon's staff began to glow.
"My glass cannon build, 'Abyss'."
The Abyss.
The pinnacle of necromancy.
For Harban facing it, all he could do was flail desperately to survive.
"Ah, aah!"
Zannavi's mouth gaped open.
Through the trait 'Curse Digestion,' the curses it had swallowed until now poured out all at once.
Followed by 'Curse Manifestation,' creating his original technique.
A barrage of curses mingled with hundreds of millions of skulls exploded in all directions.
The remaining vegetation shredded apart, and the earth flipped over.
Monkey wails laced with curses rang out, deafening enough to burst eardrums.
Kraka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka!
Before the onslaught of curses.
Leyzon didn't dodge; he took it head-on.
Watching this, Harban's eyes bulged.
Shatter!
The curses shattered to pieces upon touching Leyzon.
Shatter! Shatter! Shatter!
As if refusing to allow any curse to touch him.
The curses that reached Leyzon couldn't harm him at all.
It was as if he were declaring to Harban.
Who the true King of Curses was.
If Harban was the pinnacle of curses among necromancers.
Eden was the archetype and essence of curses itself.
Casting curses on a curse doll.
Was no different from the world's dumbest act.
"This is..."
Harban expressed awe bordering on reverence.
"The Abyss."
The Abyss he had never hesitated to revere.
Before it, Harban looked up in a stupor.
"All done."
Leyzon aimed his staff at Harban.
"Now it's my turn."
At the same time, the Abyss filling the sky opened its maw.
"Fierce Poison Cataclysm."
And the Abyss swallowed the forest whole.
Flower Deer Guild's annex, atop the hill.
A forest that originally boasted beautiful scenery with the moon hanging overhead.
That forest had vanished overnight.
As a result, Flower Deer Guild Master Leo stared in a daze.
Atop the hill.
The annex had been prized for the natural vista the forest provided.
Now that the hill was barren, it felt utterly desolate.
"......Should we plant some flowers?"
His aide asked from the side, and Leo sighed.
"Better than nothing."
Still, it was fortunate it had ended at this level.
The night before.
The horde of necromancers that had raided Flower Deer Guild.
Had they not been repelled, Flower Deer Guild would surely have gone bankrupt.
It was the annex where guild masters and merchants had gathered.
If that annex had been attacked.
The responsibility would all fall on Flower Deer Guild.
The necromancers' numbers were cunning.
They had meticulously prepared curses beneath the lake long ago, then unleashed them on the entire annex.
As a result, even the hero-level guild masters were endlessly weakened.
In the end, they fell helplessly to the necromancers.
But fortunately, there were those immune to curses.
Serin Night Guild Master, Aegis Gaibel.
Steel Wolf Guild Master, Rafila.
Sun Pavilion Guild Master, Barcabaras.
For some reason, they weren't afflicted by the curses at all.
Thanks to them, the necromancers were actively defeated.
After the matter settled.
The Flower Deer Guild Master asked them how they hadn't been cursed.
But strangely, they all dodged the question, refusing a proper answer.
"Hm, how could I reveal my dear friend's secret?!"
Among them, Barcabaras the water buffalo's eyes sparkled toward Rafila.
He was originally itching to devour Rafila.
Especially after the Obilon incident, he should have been even more furious.
Yet him acting chummy with Rafila was utterly baffling.
Something seemed suspicious, but with even Aegis keeping silent.
In the end, Flower Deer Guild Master couldn't press further.
Digging into blame for this incident would only cause headaches.
Failing to prevent the necromancers was clearly Flower Deer Guild's fault.
Swish—
The Flower Deer Guild Master watched the ships departing the annex.
The guild masters aboard each had hardened expressions.
These renowned pioneers had been caught off guard last night.
Through this, they realized one fact.
Rejecting necromancers just because the Empire did.
Had left them without any means to counter necromancers.
'The era is changing.'
What they gained from this wasn't hatred toward necromancers.
The necessity of necromancers.
All the guild masters had come to this realization.
'But.'
No one knew how far the Empire would permit it, but much would change.
Just then, one ship caught the Flower Deer Guild Master's eye.
It belonged to Steel Wolf.
In the front seat, Rafila sat with arms crossed.
Before him, a man named Leyzon yawned leisurely.
At that moment.
"Hm?"
The Flower Deer Guild Master spotted a black shadow trailing the ship.
He hurriedly rubbed his eyes and looked again.
But the shadow had already vanished.
Flower Deer Guild Master shuddered with an inexplicable chill.
'Steel Wolf.'
They had now caught the eye of not just guild masters, but merchants too.
'Perhaps.'
The era might shift with Steel Wolf at its center.