Chapter 62
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 62
Chapter Title: Crossing the Sea of Death (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The small pile of bones thought.
Or rather, it was more of an emotion than a thought.
Something like disappointment, or feeling slighted.
- Why does he not pat my head? Why has his attention waned so?
That sensation he'd grown accustomed to, like a gentle tapping on his skull.
It had become infrequent lately.
The pile of bones was disappointed.
- *What’s the big deal?*
Sometimes, a snort of laughter escaped it.
Considering its true form, it was a ridiculous emotion to have.
Who was he?
Was he not the greatest lich, who had once painted the entire continent with his undead legions and shrouded it in endless death?
Human emotions like disappointment should have been worn away and vanished over eons.
- *But this sensation… it’s strange.*
So, it was a little fascinating.
Every time it felt the tapping on its skull.
Didn't a warm light briefly illuminate the pitch-black world before its eyes?
The more familiar the sensation became, the clearer the light grew, and the longer it lingered.
- *So, pat me.*
That was why.
The pile of bones, once the mightiest lich, grew impatient.
- *Pat me more! Show this great one more affection!*
It had realized that this very sensation was something that could change it.
It grew desperate.
Just one more time, if he would pat it just one more time, something felt like it would change!
And perhaps that wish, that obsession with affection, was conveyed.
Tap.
A warm sensation touched its skull.
Soft, supple, comforting.
Ah. This was it.
This was what it had been waiting for.
Flash!
From beyond the surrounding darkness, a light began to spread.
Like the sunlight that heralds the dawn.
It was strange.
Before, it had hated the sun to death, but now, no light was sweeter.
And so, Iramatus realized.
That light was the power that would resurrect it, the nourishment for its Life Vessel.
Clatter!
The loosely piled bones began to move.
A brilliant blue light ignited within the insignificant skull.
- *Death, pay homage. I have crawled forth from the nineteen hells once more.*
Grind, its teeth gnashed.
And finally, from the pile of bones.
- *Now, once again, I shall stain the heavens and the earth with death!*
“Clack! (Waaah!)”
The undead lich who had led countless seas of corpses and rivers of blood over eons.
Iramatus emerged.
“Clack? (Waaah?)”
In the form of a tiny skeleton, not even sixty centimeters tall.
* * *
“Wh-what is this?”
[Undead Lich, Iramatus, is now subservient to the Lord's Castle!]
The undead lich had clearly returned.
The pixelated skeleton that appeared after Iramatus's bust vanished was the proof.
The problem was.
“Why is it so small?”
It looked completely different from its appearance in the 702nd wave.
Its size had shrunk to be comparable to an Ice-Ear Turtle, and it wasn't equipped with a robe, a staff, or anything else.
What I saw in the pixel art window was.
A tiny skeleton that looked even weaker than a 2-star Skeleton Soldier.
Something suddenly crossed my mind.
- ※ Resurrected monsters may be incomplete.
The phrase written in the description for Iramatus's bust.
“No way.”
[Pay 25,000 gold to hire the Undead Lich Iramatus?]
25,000 gold was a whopping ten times Jen Karuk's cost.
Still, since it was my trump card, I had to see it through to the end.
I touched my earlobe, and a fist-sized rift immediately opened.
Thud!
The rift spat out an orb in which something like black tar writhed.
I caught it and threw it immediately.
Poof!
With the sound, a murky gray smoke billowed out.
“Clack!”
With the sound of clattering teeth, Iramatus appeared.
And I.
“……What am I supposed to do with this?”
I sighed quietly, looking at the baby skeleton that had appeared before me.
Iramatus looked exactly like its pixel art.
It was barely tall enough to reach my thigh.
Its skull and the bones making up its body were small, and its blue ocular lights shone in round pools.
Overall, it was an incredibly cute… little skeleton.
“Clack? Clack!”
Iramatus clacked its teeth and looked around.
It seemed it hadn't grasped the situation yet.
“Sage, Express Analysis.”
But this time, the Beholder trotted over and stuck close to my side.
[The Sage wishes to carefully inform you.]
“What is it?”
[The Sage informs you that the baby skeleton before you is still undergoing a stat adjustment, and thus, a detailed status check is impossible.]
“……”
This thing really is useless in this dungeon.
[...(๑•﹏•)]
“How long do you think it will take?”
[The Sage predicts the adjustment will be complete in about an hour.]
An hour.
That's long enough to wait…….
“----.”
……or so I thought.
But apparently not.
Suddenly, San-gun, who had been lying beside me, growled and staggered to its feet.
[Prepare yourself. The undead wave is heading for the Woodcutter's Cabin. The wave will not stop until the source of the undead is eliminated.]
The mission had begun.
A clear change was already occurring in the undead legion in the wasteland below the mountain.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
The ground rumbled, and a grotesque roar, almost a groan, clearly pierced my ears.
From beyond the horizon, the undead began to charge toward us like a swarm of insects.
A horrifying sight.
It was a scene that would make an inexperienced rookie Hunter piss their pants without a second thought, but.
“Right, this is what an A-rank dungeon should be like.”
I summed up the current situation at about that level.
There was no point in panicking just because things weren't going my way.
“-----!”
San-gun disappeared down the steep cliff.
Thump!
My minions popped out from the orbs that fell one after another.
“Let's go.”
I, too, began to charge down the slope with them.
* * *
The undead, especially the ones called zombies, are a weak but tricky species.
Individually, their abilities are even lower than a common goblin's.
But their true terror lies in their survivability.
They keep moving unless you smash their heads and completely destroy their brains.
“Groooaaan!”
Shwaaa!
Because of this, Jen Karuk's large-scale water magic was ineffective against them.
“Jen Karuk, use the Tears of the Ancient God defensively rather than offensively! It's better to cover us!”
“Shiiit!”
Jen Karuk rolled its yellow eyes sluggishly.
It seemed frustrated that it wasn't being of much help.
‘It can't be helped. These things don't die just because their bodies get torn to shreds.’
Crunch!
“Kiit!”
A Lizardman who had been holding up its shield and thrusting its spear beside me let out a scream.
A zombie that had crawled in, already in tatters, had bitten its ankle.
Yes, just like that.
We even end up missing the crawlers and allowing them to attack.
Crack!
I immediately plunged my sword into the head of the zombie that had bitten the Lizardman.
“Fall back.”
“Kiit.”
The Lizardman soldier shook its head.
Thanks to using an 'Undead Resistance Scroll' beforehand, it didn't receive any curse or infection debuffs.
However, separate from that, the torn ankle made it difficult to even stand.
In this state, it couldn't maintain the phalanx.
“Dark Elves!”
Two Dark Elves appeared from the rear.
They were the Dark Elf archers I had hired just before clashing with the undead legion.
They supported the Lizardman and fell back.
“Shiit.”
The Lizardman captain, holding a crescent blade, filled the empty spot.
But it, too, was covered in bite marks and scratches.
‘This is tougher than I thought.’
I wiped the rotten blood trickling down my face and stared ahead.
Aside from the path we were blocking, the other areas were near-cliffs, impossible for the zombies to climb.
In other words, we just had to defend this path with all our might.
The problem was.
As expected, there were just too many of them.
Thwip-thwip-thwip!
“Groooaaan!”
When the arrows from the Dark Elves and Lizardman crossbowmen struck the zombies' heads.
Those whose brains were properly destroyed collapsed onto the mountain of corpses.
But.
“Groooaaan!”
New zombies poured out from behind them.
It would be a bit better if Odolph were here, but.
[Flames of Hellfire]
Judging by the skill activation info popping up in the corner of my vision.
He was also fighting near the cabin.
Some undead had reached the cabin via other paths.
‘This is pointless.’
I had to unsummon a few injured Lizardmen, and San-gun had left the path to me and disappeared to hunt down other zombies that had crawled up the mountain.
Ten thousand was a number that far exceeded my expectations.
I was just busy trying to block the mountain path.
Even though I had to break through the undead legion and eliminate the source to succeed in this mission.
‘Hiring Akasha would be meaningless.’
Summoning the queen ant Akasha in this situation would only be counterproductive.
With her massive body, she would be nothing more than a delicious meal for the zombies.
I was in the middle of considering various countermeasures.
“Shiit!”
[Tears of the Ancient God - Cascade]
Suddenly, a huge torrent of water shot out from behind, sweeping past the Lizardman legion and Gono.
The torrent soon became a wave.
The wave began to wash away the swarming monsters before us.
The zombies climbing the mountain of corpses were helplessly swept away.
“Jen Karuk, nice one!”
Now that the path was clear, this was our chance.
“Kiruk!”
My summons, having read my mind, moved first.
Crack!
With Gono's club smashing the head of a floundering zombie as the signal.
A legion of troops began to charge into the middle of the zombie horde along with the blue wave.
The Dark Elves stayed behind.
They would guard the mountain path to the end.
Swoooosh!
Jen Karuk's torrent of water exquisitely covered us, clearing a path.
I, Gono, and the Lizardmen advanced, smashing the heads of the staggering zombies.
The water swirled with black blood, entrails, brains, and other bits of flesh.
We were an unstoppable force.
The towering mountain behind us grew more distant by the second.
But.
“Groooaaan!”
Jen Karuk's magic wasn't infinite.
How far had we advanced?
Before I could even guess, the torrent weakened, and the zombies' teeth began to reach us again.
“Crunch!”
“Shiit!”
One by one, the Lizardmen on the outermost edge fell.
Fortunately, they disappeared and returned to the Lord's Castle before taking fatal damage.
But in exchange.
Our speed decreased noticeably.
And eventually, at some point, we were completely bogged down.
‘There's still a long way to go.’
Advancing any further is impossible.
At this rate, we'll just be swept away by the zombie wave, leaving only our bones behind.
[Trikeon Defensive Formation]
So, in the end, I formed a defensive perimeter.
We were now holding our ground in the middle of the undead legion.
I couldn't tell exactly how far we were from the source.
Except for the fact that the remaining distance was greater than what we had already covered.
Clack, clack!
Beyond the blue barrier of the Trikeon Defensive Formation, the sight of zombies charging, clacking their teeth, was starkly visible.
I think I've seen this scene in an American zombie drama.
Though there, it was a glass window, not a protective barrier.
‘From here, I'll have to hire Akasha and somehow break through.’
As I was thinking that and about to link to MonMonMak.
Snort!
The Sage poked its head out.
[The Sage announces that the information analysis of the Undead Lich Iramatus is complete!!!!!]
Iramatus!
The little guy was sitting on a Lizardman's shoulders, looking around as if everything was fascinating.
……Will he really be of any help?
But the moment I checked his information, my eyes widened.
[Iramatus]
[Type: Named Monster]
[Rank: 3-star (MonMonMak Standard)]
[Stats: STR 13, AGI 14, STA 10, INT 70]
[Skills: Undead Dominator Lv. 10 (Inactive), Absolute Aura (Inactive), Reign of Death Lv. 5 (Inactive)]
[A reborn baby lich. It is in a very clean and pure state. To regain its true form as an undead lord, it will require various forms of curses. For a lich, curses are life!]
“……It needs curses?”
Curses, huh.
Right, there is one item that definitively bestows a curse.
An item on par with S-rank, if you ignore the fact that it curses you to die within 24 hours.
Ssk.
I untied the High Priest's Dimensional Pouch hanging from my waist.
What I pulled out from it was a rod that looked like it was made from a human arm and hand bone.
A ritual staff where the hand bone clutched a purple orb that emanated a sinister aura.
Holding it, I approached the baby skeleton.
“Iramatus.”
“Cla-ck? (Gah?)”
Iramatus's blue ocular lights turned toward me.
Soon, its gaze shifted to the staff in my hand.
I smiled and held it out to the little guy.
“A present.”
“Clack-clack?”
Its blue ocular lights widened into circles.
It seemed to hesitate, grabbing onto the Lizardman's head.
Soon, it carefully leaned down and reached a hand toward the staff I offered.
As its tiny hand grasped the handle of the arm-bone-like staff.
“Clack! (Kyaa!)”
[Undead Lich, Iramatus, has equipped the 「Staff of Demonic Talent」.]
Immediately after, an unbelievable change occurred.