The Sovereign Necromancer and the Dominator Necromancer

Quite a lot. They were only basic skills, yet the haul was generous—and among them sat a buff skill for summons.

There it is. He had expected as much. The question is whether they're compatible.

Jin-soo called forth the Shadow Knight that had been hiding in his shadow. A heavy thud answered him, and the knight dropped to one knee before him.

Ominous mana rose in a faint shimmer from the Shadow Knight's body, and a pitch-black heat haze bled from the armor. At the last, jet-black light flared like fire within the helm.

It worked. All three buffs had taken cleanly. Because it's a Shadow Summon, most likely. Still, he needed to be sure.

"Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!"

"Peck! Peck! Peck!"

Jin-soo looked over at Leo and Kkami, both utterly lost in their feast, and tried the Sovereign Necromancer's buffs on Leo.

No change. Leo went right on eating, as if nothing at all had happened. The buffs had not landed.

Living summons and non-living ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠summons really are different. A non-living summon was not a living creature, and so a necromancer's buff could take hold. A living summon was alive, and the same buff could not.

Good. From where Jin-soo stood, the test was a success. It was a shame the buffs would not take on Leo, but he had more or less expected that. And even if they had landed properly on Leo and Kkami—neither of whom had any real combat ability—he could hardly have looked for much use from them in a fight.

Summoning is a finicky art. The Sovereign Necromancer was a kind of summoner, and so the class possessed a summon skill, but there was a condition. The Po has to remain upon the earth.

When a living being died, only its soul-spirit was left behind. Of that pair, the Hun—the ascending soul—rose to the heavens, while the Po—the lingering physical spirit—remained on the ground and slowly faded. Army Summons, the Sovereign Necromancer's class skill, fashioned a summon from the Po left upon the earth.

I'll only know the result if I test it in a hunt. He wanted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to start hunting again at once, but there was still one more thing to confirm.

Jin-soo switched his status window from the dark affinity to the holy, and at once changed class to Dominator Necromancer.

What does this class even have? He looked through the Dominator Necromancer's skills. Nothing special just because it's holy. Holy and dark merely split a class's nature; either affinity could hold the same profession. Even so, this is an extremely unusual case. A necromancer might be one branch of the summoner, but at a glance the class looked anything but compatible with holy power.

The summon skill is identical? The Sovereign Necromancer's summon skill was Army Summons. The Dominator Necromancer's was Army Summons as well. Because they came from the same dungeon?

He called up the details. They're exact opposites. The Sovereign Necromancer built summons from the Po that remained on the ground. The Dominator Necromancer, by contrast, built them from the Hun as it ascended.

What difference does that actually make? Honestly, he could not see why it should matter whether a summon was shaped from the Hun a creature left in death, or from the Po.

"Ah!"

Then the realization struck. The Sovereign Necromancer makes a summon with the Po, and the Dominator Necromancer makes one with the Hun. Which meant that even a single monster might yield not one summon, but two.

That could work. A summon required only one half of the soul-spirit. Make the Dominator's from the Hun, and the Sovereign's from the Po. That's all. With an ordinary monster, one could simply spend two kills to make two summons and be done. An Out-of-Spec Monster like the White Drake was another matter entirely.

The buffs are similar, too. Immortal Heart, Sacred Armor, Radiant Sacred Flame—those three were the summon buffs of the Dominator Necromancer. The names don't look like necromancer ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠buffs at all. He called up one of the White Drake's teeth as a Dragon Tooth Soldier and cast all three.

Holy mana poured from the Dragon Tooth Soldier's entire body, and a brilliant pure-white light burst forth, gorgeous even at a glance. Radiance kindled in its eyes.

This is supposed to be a necromancer buff? Perhaps because the affinity was holy, the effects were the precise reverse of their dark counterparts. Then maybe...

Hopeful, Jin-soo looked at Leo.

"Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!"

Leo was still lost in chewing a hunk of meat and savoring the taste. Jin-soo cast the buffs on him anyway. Once again, nothing changed.

I hoped, just in case. Shame. As expected, they were not buffs meant for living summons. Now I need to test it for real. That would be the surest answer.

"Let's start hunting again."

"You're finished?"

At Shin Sua's question, Jin-soo smiled and nodded.

"Yeah. I got something useful. I want to try it out."

"Congratulations."

She said it with a bright, open smile.

"Thanks."

The two of them set straight to the hunt.

"Nyaaaang!"

Leo's wide-area taunt roar rolled across the field. The ground drummed under a rush of feet, and growls tore the air as beast-type monsters in the shapes of wolves, bears, and leopards poured in from every side.

For the first time in a long while, Jin-soo cleared the beasts with the skills of his Ice Dragon Mage.

So this is how it works. He could not see it. He could, however, feel the Hun on which Army Summons might be used. Then shall I try? Army Summons.

He activated the skill.

Brilliant light whirled, and five summons that looked like beasts of pure white took shape before him.

Definitely not undead. They did not look like living creatures, either.

"They look like statues carved from marble."

Jin-soo nodded at Shin Sua's words. The summons called by the Dominator Necromancer were exactly like finely wrought marble statues. At level 2, five is the limit, then.

He swapped his status window at once. With a dry rustle, the five holy summons—the ones that looked like beast-type monsters—crumbled where they stood and vanished.

At once he judged whether another summon was still possible. It is. He could feel a Po on which the skill might be used. So they really don't overlap. In the very place where he had made summons from the Hun, the presence of the Po remained.

Army Summons.

He used the skill again.

Dense darkness gathered, and five jet-black summons in the shapes of beasts revealed themselves.

"Same as the ones from before. Only the color's different, right?"

"Yeah."

Jin-soo agreed. If the Dominator Necromancer's summons were statues of pure-white marble, the Sovereign Necromancer's were statues cut from black obsidian.

Dominator and Sovereign both—neither of these is an ordinary necromancer class. Every necromancer he had met before his regression had been dark affinity, and every one of them had used the undead. He had naturally expected undead summons. He had been wrong.

Then again, putting the name necromancer on a holy affinity was strange from the start. Necromancy was a branch of summoning, but its nature leaned toward darkness, not the holy. They use the soul-spirits of the dead, so calling them necromancers isn't wrong. Even so, he could tell plainly that the Dominator Necromancer and the Sovereign Necromancer ran on a different track from any ordinary necromancer class.

I was worried the holy Dominator Necromancer would turn out weaker. Looking at the summons now before him, that worry seemed unnecessary. Well. I'll only know for certain once I test their strength.

He switched the holy status window back to dark and cast Army Summons once more. The five beast-formed summons that had vanished earlier took shape again. No cooldown. I like that. Shadow Summons were powerful, but the cooldown had always nagged at him. Army Summons had no cooldown at all.

Then let's finish the test. An advantage was no reason to celebrate blindly. The Dragon Tooth Soldier summon had no cooldown either—yet if the dragon-type tooth that served as its material was permanently destroyed, the summon could never be called again. I need to see whether this is the same. The raw power of an Army Summons skill sitting at a mere level 2 needed testing as well.

"I'm counting on you."

Jin-soo stroked Leo's head. Leo, who had been packing away meat without pause, lifted his face as if ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to say he would earn his keep.

"Nyaaaang!"

The wide-area taunt roar rang out again, and the beast-types swarmed in once more.

Jin-soo swept the beasts aside in an instant. This time, he did not wipe them out.

"You left them alive on purpose? To test something?"

Shin Sua asked it while she watched the beast-types hemmed in on every side by the flame barrier, unable to advance or retreat.

"Yeah."

Even as he answered, he sent the five summons made through Army Summons into the barrier.

"Grrrr!"

"Kyaaaak!"

Trapped inside, the beasts bared their fangs the moment an enemy appeared. A heavy blow landed, bone cracked, and a savage fight erupted between the monsters and Jin-soo's summons.

The summons lost.

"Huh? They lost."

Shin Sua looked frankly incredulous. She had clearly assumed his summons would win.

Of course they did. These were summons produced by a skill of only level 2. Beating the monsters had never been possible. Still, they didn't fold without a fight. Feeling neither pain nor suffering—just as the undead feel none—they had fought with fierce courage. What he had wanted to know was whether a summon, once destroyed, could be called again.

Resummoning works. So long as he spent mana, he could call them back. It was not unlimited. The Po was consumed. In the instant he tried to resummon, he felt a portion of the Po—the summon's very foundation—permanently vanish. After they're destroyed, three or four resummons is about the limit.

A new question followed. Once destroyed, would every summon made through the Sovereign Necromancer share that same number of resummons? Or would each one differ?

I only have to check.