Chapter 33
Chapter 33
Mad Black Mage's Tower Strategy
Chapter 33
The 4th floor of the tower arrived with brilliant light.
Opening his eyes, Seo-jin stood in place and looked around his surroundings.
CAWW- CAWW-.
Crows wandering in search of prey above the gloomy sky.
A hill where only withered, twisted dead trees stood alone.
Stone crosses densely planted in the dry soil without a trace of moisture.
A quite ominous scenery greeted Seo-jin.
It seemed the random teleportation location was above a cemetery.
'How unlucky.'
Even though cemeteries were scattered all over the 4th floor, to fall right in the middle of one.
Just as Seo-jin grumbled and took a step forward.
CRUNCH-.
A skull was kicked by his foot and crumbled into pieces.
Seo-jin looked at the remains that had crumbled with the passage of time and his eyes lit up.
'No, this might actually be a good thing.'
The 4th floor of the tower was a peculiar place.
The 3rd floor, which was surrounded by tropical rainforests and swamplands, was quite a strange place too, but not as bizarre as the 4th floor.
'This 4th floor is a land where people struggle to survive against the army of the dead.'
It was a world said to have continuously fought against the massive army of the dead led by the Lich King in the past.
Fortunately, the climbers managed to subjugate the Lich King just before the natives were completely annihilated, but due to the Lich King's residual thoughts scattered everywhere, undead waves still occasionally occurred.
'In fact, the 4th floor's climbing test category is defense.'
It was a defense category where you had to block the army of the dead that came to the village every night and obtain high scores.
For this reason, it was difficult to see climbers on this 4th floor.
There was nothing else to gain from staying long in this place of only ash and death.
It was merely an ominous crossing that one had to pass through as quickly as possible to reach the next floor.
However,
'The story is different for black mages like me.'
Especially for black mages who dealt with corpses and undead and studied necromancy, this would be a floor with much to gain.
Just as Seo-jin stood still and was lost in thought.
"Who's there!"
A loud shout from far away struck Seo-jin's ears.
Looking in the direction the sound came from, a giant man with a large shovel strapped to his back was striding toward him.
A one-eyed man wearing a grayish-white coat.
His fierce face overflowed with hostility toward outsiders.
Seo-jin kindly answered the man's question.
"A black mage."
"……!"
The man's good eye flashed wide at Seo-jin's answer.
He gritted his teeth, gripped his shovel, and immediately rushed at Seo-jin.
"Another bastard who wants to disturb the rest of the dead has appeared! Die!"
THUD THUD THUD-.
The one-eyed giant rushed forward at tremendous speed that didn't match his build.
If it had been a rookie climber who had just reached the 4th floor, he might have been flustered by the sudden attack and gotten hurt, but Seo-jin was on a different level from such rookie climbers.
Seo-jin calmly extended his hand and spoke.
"Black Chain."
WHOOSH-!
Black iron chains suddenly shot up from the ground with Seo-jin's single word.
Magical chains woven with black magic. Commonly called Black Chain.
It was a 4th Circle black magic spell unlocked after changing jobs to a black mage.
Originally a spell specialized in restraining opponents, but Seo-jin's Black Chain possessed considerable killing power.
CLATTER-.
The black magic chains that shot up from all directions soon intertwined like a net and bound the one-eyed giant.
"GRGH!"
The giant was completely wrapped in chains and couldn't move an inch.
Having easily subdued the giant, Seo-jin approached him and asked.
"Are you the gravekeeper of this place?"
Judging by the thick grayish-white coat and the large shovel strapped to his back, he was definitely a gravekeeper.
'The role of gravekeepers on this 4th floor is special.'
Because corpses couldn't be disposed of in ordinary ways here.
Whether you burned corpses to ash, drowned them in water, buried them in the ground, or disposed of them in any way, if the Lich King's magic reached them, they would come back to life as bones and become part of the army of the dead.
The only way to prevent this was to use the ley lines near the cemetery to create a barrier so that the Lich King's thoughts couldn't reach them.
The one who took on this responsibility was the gravekeeper.
The giant shouted.
"Shut up! I have nothing to say to a black mage."
The gravekeeper glared and shouted at Seo-jin at the top of his lungs.
Seo-jin knew well what the hostility he was showing stemmed from.
'The 4th floor is the optimal training space for black mages learning necromancy.'
Especially the cemeteries managed by gravekeepers were like treasure troves where you could obtain the highest-grade skeletons.
Therefore, black mages ignored the natives and dug up cemeteries, taking out skeletons that had been resting and making them their servants.
This alone was an enormous nuisance, but the important thing was what happened next.
'The Lich King's thoughts.'
Low-level black mages couldn't withstand the Lich King's thoughts spread everywhere and became the Lich King's minions, being absorbed into the army of the dead.
Not only did they dig up the graves of family and friends to make them servants, but they were also dominated by the Lich King's magic and became beings that swelled the army of the dead.
They were truly walking disasters.
The gravekeeper's hostile reaction was only natural.
"You people are disasters! Please, I beg you, get out of this place."
The gravekeeper shouted at Seo-jin almost like a scream.
But Seo-jin was a being on a different level from such pathetic black mages.
Seo-jin's appearance could become a ray of hope rather than a disaster for them.
"How prickly. Even though I look like this, I'm a good black mage."
Seo-jin shrugged his shoulders and made a wound on his fingertip, letting a drop of blood fall.
And the moment that blood touched the ground.
SIZZLE-.
Magic was imbued into the skull that had been crushed under Seo-jin's foot, and it slowly began to rise.
The gravekeeper's eyes widened as he saw this.
If he revived the undead, he would be discovered by the dead beings hidden in the cemetery. They would soon draw in the Lich King's thoughts.
This meant the army of the dead would increase.
"Th, this……."
The gravekeeper, who had seen countless other black mages do the same thing, shouted as if having a seizure.
"You, you! Stop it! Soon the Lich King's thoughts will reach you……."
But Seo-jin ignored him and continued speaking to the gravekeeper.
"When did that guy die anyway? Watch carefully."
As the gravekeeper said, as soon as he revived the skull, he could feel some of the Lich King's thoughts spread everywhere gathering.
WHOOSH-.
The Lich King's magic approached riding on a blood-red mist.
The magic that gathered like a pack of wolves that had caught the scent of blood seeped into the skeleton Seo-jin had raised.
CREAK- CREAK-.
At the same time, the skeleton's joints twisted grotesquely, and soon its eyes glowed red as it lunged at Seo-jin.
"KISHAA!"
The skeleton that had risen through Seo-jin's blood was instantly dominated by the Lich King's magic and immediately showed hostility toward Seo-jin, its master.
This kind of mental erosion would soon transfer to the caster, the black mage, and the Lich King's thoughts would make even the black mage into his puppet.
However,
Seo-jin stood leisurely without avoiding the skeleton's attack.
Just before the skeleton that had become the Lich King's servant bit Seo-jin.
HALT-.
Suddenly, it stopped right in place.
Not only that, but the red glow in its eyes also disappeared, and the skeleton hung limp, quietly waiting for Seo-jin's commands.
It had obeyed, prioritizing its contract with Seo-jin over the Lich King's magic.
The gravekeeper looked at this and muttered blankly.
"How, how on earth……."
No black mage he had seen so far had been able to overcome the Lich King's magic.
Even the strongest one among them had cast a spell to escape from this world to somewhere else as soon as he lost control.
There had been no one who had won against the Lich King's magic head-on.
To the gravekeeper's question, Seo-jin smiled and said.
"It's a very simple principle."
Seo-jin raised his finger and pointed at the gloomy sky.
"I'm stronger than that skull-head's thoughts."
***
The gravekeeper's dwelling.
Seo-jin was invited to the gravekeeper Lubal's house and decided to stay for a while.
And he got to hear more details about the 4th floor's history and current situation, which he had only known fragmentarily.
"I understand the situation."
The Lich King's subjugation had been accomplished in the past, but as he knew, the situation hadn't ended.
The guy's residual thoughts and magic still remained on this land, exerting dominance, and the army of the dead that rose every night continued to invade the natives' territory daily.
Climbers participating in the Management Office's tests for tower climbing were helping to maintain the territory, but that wasn't enough for a fundamental solution.
To make this 4th floor a place where people could live, the Lich King's curse would have to be completely uprooted.
But no one knew how to do that, and there was no reason for the outsider climbers to undertake such difficult work.
'Because the 4th floor is a land of only ash and ruins where no profit can be gained.'
There were no decent hunting grounds or dungeons here. It was a useless floor where you couldn't obtain specialties or magic stones.
All that existed was barren land where no crops would grow and ash left from burning corpses.
Moreover, it was just a floor you passed through briefly during the climbing process, so who would bother doing something that would result in losses?
However, the natives who couldn't leave this floor were in a different position.
Having finished his explanation, Lubal asked.
"You're saying it's possible for you?"
"Of course it's possible."
Seo-jin nodded and opened his status window.
[Lee Seo-jin]
[LV.20] [Black Mage]
Health: 20 (+4)
Strength: 20 (+2)
Magic: 40 (+7)
Agility: 20 (+4)
Luck: 20 (+1)
[You have distributable stats.]
+7
Seo-jin's current magic including items was 47 points. Even if he invested all the distributable stats into magic, it would be 54 points.
It was far from enough to suppress the Lich King's thoughts.
It was a problem on a completely different dimension from merely taking one undead away from his control.
Of course.
'It's not like there's no method.'
If output was insufficient, it was a problem that could be handled with efficiency.
In the past, he hadn't paid much attention to necromancy, but he planned to carve new related magic circuits into his arm using this opportunity.
If he optimized the magic circuits needed for necromancy, he would be able to handle the Lich King's residual thoughts as well.
Also, insufficient magic could be borrowed from elsewhere.
[But is that something that can be done just like that?]
Hyeon-wol's question was valid.
Just recently, he had watched So-yul suffer for a whole week with just one mana circuit.
But now he was saying he would carve new magic circuits right away, optimize them, and defeat a boss monster.
"Of course it will work. I'm a genius after all."
[Stop talking nonsense.]
Beyond where the exasperated Hyeon-wol disappeared.
CREAK-.
With the sound of a door opening, he could see a young girl poking her head out.
Looking at the cute girl who appeared to be about 10 years old, Seo-jin asked gravekeeper Lubal.
"Your daughter?"
"Yes."
"This isn't a suitable place to raise a child. Wouldn't it be better to live inside the fortress walls?"
Most natives of the 4th floor lived gathered inside the safe fortress walls. It was a measure chosen to avoid the undead hordes.
But Lubal shook his head.
"That's difficult. There are circumstances."
"Because you have to guard the cemetery?"
"That's part of it, but…… Lea, come here."
When the man called her name, the girl who had been half-hidden behind the door slowly revealed herself.
Half of her cute face was rotted and festered.
She seemed to be suffering from some kind of disease.
"……."
"You foreigners who just come and go briefly wouldn't know well, but this isn't such a gentle world."
Lubal stroked his daughter's head as she approached and said.
"Lea's disease doesn't spread to others, but the townspeople drove Lea outside the fortress walls."
"Because they don't have the mental capacity?"
Lubal nodded silently, and Seo-jin fell into thought.
'Indeed.'
The townspeople wouldn't have the mental capacity to accept someone different from them, or someone who might be problematic even in the slightest chance.
Perhaps this cruel world had made them stubborn.
"Then…… why are you guarding the cemetery?"
Why was Lubal protecting the village and castle that wouldn't even accept his sick daughter?
To this, Lubal answered without hesitation.
"It's simple. This is the land where I was born and raised, and I'm the gravekeeper of this place."
"I see."
Seo-jin nodded and stood up from his seat.
Then he knelt on one knee in front of Lea.
"May I examine the affected area for a moment?"
When Seo-jin approached, Lea was startled and quickly ran into her father's arms.
"It's okay. Stand in front of that uncle for a moment."
"Do you trust me?"
"No, I'm just placing a glimmer of hope. And if you had made up your mind, I would have died on the spot."
At Lubal's answer, Seo-jin chuckled and slowly extended his hand to Lea, who was trembling with fear.
"Excuse me."
Seo-jin brushed aside Lea's bangs and examined the scar in detail.
THROB- THROB-
Black blood vessels pulsating beneath the blackened, festered skin.
'This is a trace caused by demonic erosion.'
If it was a scar caused by demonic erosion, it could definitely be improved.
He could treat it to some extent with the secret elixir he currently possessed.
'But this is too toxic for a young child. Plus, the side effects are significant.'
Also, since the area was what it was, imprecise treatment could cause permanent disability.
Then there was only one method.
Seo-jin covered Lea's eyes and quietly recited.
"Eye of Insight."
RUMBLE-.
"……!"
At Seo-jin's call, a giant demon's eye revealed itself.