Gob No. 1
Clack-clack!
Goldie came trotting up dragging a box full of goblin bones behind him, his tail whipping back and forth in delight.
"There's a good boy. Yes, yes, my Goldie. Look at you — such a clever boy, such a clever boy."
Scrub, scrub, scrub-scrub.
With a toilet brush he'd bought for the express purpose of petting his skeletons, Dohyeon scrubbed Goldie down with long, vigorous sweeps.
"You were smart before, but now you actually understand every word I say. There's never been a genius dog of the century quite like you."
Having given Goldie a proper brushing, Dohyeon poured 35 Spirit and 35 Mana into the goblin bones, refining them into jade bone.
Ssssssss—
The Dohyeon who had once spent a full half-month crafting a single Goldie no longer existed. With stats grown by leaps and bounds and a deep well of hard-won experience, he had become something of an expert at jade bone crafting, and he turned an entire goblin into complete jade bone in the space of a blink.
For the first time ever, a full set of goblin bones had become jade bone. He'd converted skulls before, when making skull engines — but never a whole skeleton's worth, top to tail.
Dohyeon reached out and laid a hand on the goblin jade bone.
"Raise Jade Bone! Your name is Gob No. 1!"
Ding!
"Gob No. 1" has sworn complete loyalty to the summoner, and may be raised without occupying any Domination stats.
"Huh?"
My name is Kergeurek.
I was an ordinary member of a goblin tribe. I had no gift for shooting a bow, no gift for making one, no gift for fighting — I was just one of the rabble, drifting along with the crowd.
And that same me was captured by a lunatic necromancer and thrown into a prison of biting cold.
He is......
He is cruel beyond all measuring.
He set his servant dog upon us and cut us down without mercy, scattered the flesh from our corpses with a single gesture, then seized even our souls to keep as trinkets.
He is strong beyond all measuring.
After passing through a small house and a paper box, I came to be locked in a prison where the breath of winter lingers all day long. Outside, the summer heat must surely be blazing — yet past a single wall, the inside of this prison is forever cold.
The artifact mounted high above never rests for even an hour, spewing its icy wind. A necromancer who keeps frost magic running around the clock purely to torment his prisoners...... Fear packs my hollow skull to bursting.
Nor is his servant beast any less cruel. The skeleton shaped like a dog lets itself into the prison several times a day to gnaw away at the piles of bones too helpless to resist.
We no longer thrashed in pain, life having already left us — but at some point those skeletal teeth took to wearing a power that could wound even souls, and they tormented souls who could not fight back.
He is...... cruel, and cruel again.
He abandoned us to eternity and frost and torment, and even that was not enough: he laid hands on our very souls and made us into components stripped of all reason.
Just recently, one goblin, one orc, one orc shaman, and one troll fell into his hands and lost themselves.
They can no longer die, can no longer think — they have become cogs that will grind away for untold ages.
To think that even the already dead could die once more.
If that second death overtakes me, it is truly over. Eternity, frost, torment — none of them frighten me as much as that.
O, gods above — his servant beast has marked me as its next target.
O, necromancer — I will gladly become your hands and feet. Only, I beg you, do not leave me locked away for untold ages.
O, necromancer — I will gladly lick your boots. Only, I beg you, do not abandon me in this prison of biting cold.
O, necromancer — I will gladly do anything at all. Please, please! Do not plunge me into a death in all but name and the yoke of endless labor......
O, necromancer......
O, gods above......
Clack-clack!
"So what you're saying is... you pledged your loyalty to me?"
Dohyeon stared at Gob No. 1, who knelt there with the devotion of a faithful priest, wearing an expression of pure disbelief. Gob No. 1 pressed his palms together and bowed his head as though welcoming a god.
A monster — practically the living emblem of savagery — swearing fealty......
"It's absurd, honestly. But a jackpot's a jackpot."
Make the thing a skull engine as well, and he'd have himself a laborer, free of charge. Dohyeon picked up the skull engine Goldie used to wear — an item crafted from an orc's skull, modeled on a dog's heart. Handed over to Gob No. 1 as it was, no crystal required, it would still be plenty to power a single goblin. And yet his heart wasn't in it.
Goblins were mammals too, so the fit would be close enough — and still he hesitated. Whatever the creature had been in life, it was now a summon that had sworn him its complete loyalty. Call it Stockholm syndrome or what you will; it all but worshipped him as a god, and that made him care that much more.
"Gob No. 1. Bring me the orc shaman's bones."
Gob No. 1, all reverent deference, presented the orc shaman's bones and knelt back down.
Ssssssss—
Dohyeon poured his remaining mana into the orc shaman's skull. A new skull engine meant jade bone first.
Clatter-clatter.
Watching him work, Gob No. 1's frame trembled finely. Was it terror of the cruel necromancer driving yet another soul into a death in all but name? Relief at escaping such a fate? Or, failing that, gratitude for a master's grace?
The finished shaman's jade bone became a skull engine. Goldie, Taesan, and Soran had each received heart-shaped ones — a heart shaped just like a dog's, a heart shaped just like an elephant's.
But this time — well, would you look at that. Stirred by an inspiration he'd never felt before, Dohyeon shaped the skull engine meant for Gob No. 1. Under his Skull Engine skill and Advanced Jade Bone Processing, the orc shaman's skull took on a soft, flowing texture: a priest's robe with a deep, drooping hood.
The skull engine in the shape of a priest's robe drifted toward the kneeling Gob No. 1. The moment it settled snugly around the skeleton it had been made for, brilliant jade light poured forth.
Clack-clack......
Long after the jade light had gathered itself away, Gob No. 1 kept his hands clasped — like a retainer bathed in royal favor, like a priest who had received a revelation. As if vowing loyalty and worship all over again.
"What in the world is this......?"
Yoo Seol-ah — Cassandra — who had come running at Dohyeon's call, sank into shock as she appraised the priest's robe. The three skeleton siblings, meanwhile, had huddled into a tight cluster to gawk at their new underling.
"What's the matter?"
"No, Goldie's big brother, sir...... Th-this is...... what did you even make?"
After flailing in shock for a good long while, Yoo Seol-ah pulled out an appraisal sheet and her fountain pen.
Scratch, scratch.
Dohyeon read over her shoulder.
— Effect activates only while worn by Gob No. 1.
— The wearer may use weak healing and purification abilities.
— For Cha Dohyeon and his summons, healing and purification apply at 5× potency.
"Wow. We've got ourselves a healer!"
After a moment's deliberation, Yoo Seol-ah added a single word in front of "weak."
— The wearer may use very weak healing and purification abilities.
"Weak" had become "very weak," but Dohyeon paid it no mind. It applied at five times the potency to him and his summons anyway, and if he crafted another from better materials down the road, the performance would only improve.
Thump!
Cassandra's official seal came down on the bottom of the sheet. Yoo Seol-ah held it out with an expression that looked almost like fear.
"Goldie's big brother, sir...... You're not thinking of mass-producing this item too, are you?"
Dohyeon accepted the sheet with a look of supreme indifference.
"Mass production's out of the question. It only works for Gob No. 1 anyway — it's an item born half out of sheer luck. Even I couldn't tell you how it happened. Oh, and please keep it secret from the Management Bureau. I hate hassle."
Arms hanging limp at her sides, Yoo Seol-ah's mouth opened and closed mutely a few times; in the end not a word made it out, and she turned and walked away.
"Cassandra! As promised, when a new Golgu comes out, you get first crack at it. I'll be in touch then."
"......Ehh."
Yoo Seol-ah answered in a voice drained of all strength.
"Is it really that much of a shock? No matter how good an item is, I don't see how it warrants that kind of reaction."
Had Yoo Seol-ah or anyone from the Management Bureau heard that, they'd have yelped and leapt a good three meters straight up. A necromancer — a class treated as thoroughly ordinary — had just produced a healer, something rare even on its own terms.
Granted, all sorts of conditions came attached — but prototypes always ship with defects.
Guest seen off, Dohyeon headed for the stable with Gob No. 1 at his heels.
"Come on, Gob No. 1. Time to say hello to the animals of Hyung's Ranch."
Clack-clack!
Hood on, Gob No. 1 snapped to it and moved with the crisp energy of a private freshly transferred to his new post.
Tower Floor 19. One floor below Dohyeon's record — and the floor where orc villages begin to appear.
Having realized that an orc shaman's head was a far more valuable resource than a troll's, Dohyeon had come to harvest the skulls of the shamans roaming this floor.
"Cha Dohyeon's Legion — move out!"
Their numbers still fell short of a legion, but each and every member cut an imposing figure. Goldie, Taesan, and Soran bounded over the roughly stacked log palisade of the orc village in a single leap.
At 400 kilograms apiece, the elephant skeletons were nowhere near heavy enough to smash straight through posts driven into the earth — at their living weight, perhaps they could have managed it. In exchange they had gained tremendous strength and shed most of their bulk, and a wall of orc construction was a height they could clear with an easy spring.
Skreek! Skreeeek!
The three skeleton siblings had begun the slaughter — the orcs' screams rang through the air.
"Back on my first run through Floor 19, we couldn't even use aura. Winning should come a lot easier this time."
Dohyeon clung to Gob No. 1's shoulder and climbed a tree tall enough to give him a view over the palisade. For all that Gob No. 1 had been built on the frame of a lowly goblin, he had been reborn a Jade Bone Skeleton, and with the orc shaman's skull engine his output had climbed — hoisting Dohyeon up a tree was no trouble at all.
Inside the village, the three skeleton siblings were running wild, exactly as advertised. Standing upright on two legs with their eyeline suddenly towering high, the elephants swatted orcs flat like a game of whack-a-mole, forefeet sheathed in primal aura, while Goldie — small enough, next to them, to go unnoticed — prowled the melee like a black leopard, raking at orc napes.
Had Dohyeon not ordered them to keep the bones intact, the village would already have been cleared.
FWOOOOSH.
A fireball from an orc shaman burst against Soran. The Floor 19 monster's firepower wobbled her where she stood on two legs, and the elephant heart between her ribs flared with light, knitting the damage back together.
Vmmmm—
Just then, Gob No. 1, standing at Dohyeon's side, reached out a hand and invoked its healing power. The same brilliant jade light that had shone when the priest's robe was first donned gathered over Soran — and by the time the glow dimmed, not so much as a fleck of soot remained.
Clack-clack!
Running on triumph, Soran charged the orc shaman.
Skree — skreeeek!
The last orc shaman alive whirled round and round a wooden totem trying to shake Soran's forefeet — only to be run through by the tusks of Taesan closing in from behind.
Ding!
The moment Floor 19 was cleared, Taesan and Soran smashed the palisade open so Dohyeon could enter the orc village.
KRA-KOOM!
Two logs ripped up out of the earth, opening a gateway through the wall of timber.
With the mana that had recovered in the time since Gob No. 1's creation, Dohyeon put a quick burst of Jade Bone Crafting into the orc shaman and a handful of orcs. Then, flourishing his hand to scatter the dust that had once been flesh, he called out:
"Alright! Gather up all the bones, weapons, and clothes!"
Clack-clack!
Gob No. 1 shouldered a bag — crafted through Advanced Jade Bone Processing — taller than he was, and scurried this way and that, scooping everything up.
"Now this is necromancy."
The astonishing usefulness of a summon with hands! With a look of deep contentment, Dohyeon savored the breeze.