The Death Giant Emerges
The result of fusing the split Soul Stones together.
Rare grade, huh.
Still, it met the requirements for a Soul Stone.
A stone that holds a soul. Master, what do you intend to use this for?
What a silly question.
Obviously for crafting Death Warriors.
The Split Soul Stone Fusion function can be used again in 24 hours.
A full day of cooldown.
Actually, that worked out fine.
Unbound Split Soul Stones weren’t exactly flooding the market. The option that had a 10% chance of removing the binding on use—while the other 90% simply applied an option to an item and then vanished—meant they were treated as lottery tickets nobody could even sell.
“Still, they dropped fairly often, did they not?”
She was talking about the times we hunted in the Challenging Realm.
“I got lucky back then.”
Calling it luck when I’d kept pulling an item everyone else wrote off as a dud left me with a strange feeling. The support team kids had been openly disappointed every time one appeared.
“Open your eyes.”
“Kill!!”
Corpse Crafting
1 Death Warrior has been crafted.
Its specs sat about 10% lower than one made with a Unique-grade Soul Stone. Same A-rank, but a clear difference in stats.
Still, a gain was a gain. The baek—the residual life-force residue left behind by people who had reached a certain level—that could be harvested from Director Jeong’s workplace wasn’t infinite. Places like Old Man Alphonse’s lab, which you only got to visit once, I’d scraped clean without mercy. Director Jeong’s office, though, I planned to collect from over time.
And now I had a new way to supply Soul Stones?
“So what if the specs are a little lower.”
Being able to buy the core material for A-rank undead with money was an enormous advantage. No hard limit on the number of servants like a summoner had. No constant mana drain for upkeep like a traditional necromancer.
Was this what they called pleasure without responsibility?
“In exchange, you pull all-nighters as if they were meals, do you not?”
Shh.
Sir Isra.
Some truths were better left unspoken.
“Maiden. I’m looking forward to the Lich research as well.”
“That side isn’t going so smoothly.”
If the Death Knight analysis was around 50%, the Lich hadn’t even reached 20%. The slow progress came down to the creature’s unique nature.
“It became undead while still fully conscious, so the structure itself is completely different.”
It squeezed the life force out of its own body to create a seal, then piloted the empty shell. That was the Lich’s mechanism.
“The Life Force Vessel is the key, but…”
It had shattered into pieces when we took the thing down. I’d been painstakingly restoring it bit by bit and examining it over and over, but it wasn’t easy.
“A magic-user is causing our Lord trouble, I see.”
“I’m doing this to become our Lord’s strength, you iron-headed fool!”
“Is your own power insufficient?”
“Hey!”
While the two subordinates snarled at each other—
Grrrrumble—
A structure standing in one corner of the Death Blacksmith. Something was being drawn out of the Giant’s Tomb with a heavy grinding sound.
I turned my gaze that way.
The lid of the coffin-shaped building slid smoothly to the side, then thudded down at an angle on the left.
“No way.”
Was it finally finished?
Something rose abruptly through the open roof.
Height around ten meters. A humanoid frame modeled after a person, yet the finer details were different. There was no neck beneath the head; it was fused directly into the torso. More curves than angles, giving it a slightly rounded impression. Instead of veins, mana circuits stood out prominently across its body, scattering white light.
Death Giant has been crafted.
An additional crafting undead added through Megus’s intervention.
The Death Giant revealed itself.
Race:Golem
Classification:Golem
Rank:A+
Skills
― Magic Armament [S]
― Large Species [A]
― Immortal Legion [A]
The specs listed on the status window were a little higher than the Predator—Rex. Dig deeper, though, and because it hadn’t been made with Corpse Crafting, it didn’t receive the related stat bonuses. Rex also had the 50% boost from the Primeval Species trait on top of that, making him far stronger overall.
Even so, the Death Giant’s specs were solid. With the Large Species correction boosting its close-combat stats, pure numbers alone looked respectable.
“Yet it has rather few skills.”
“Oh my.”
“Just a big empty shell, ain’t it, sir.”
Presence. There.
The four subordinates each offered their brief impressions. Large Species was simply a correction from weight and bulk. Immortal Legion was a skill common to all undead. That left only one real skill of its own.
Keh-heh-heh! Excellent! Truly magnificent!
Megus’s excited thoughts thundered through the Death Blacksmith.
“I’m going to need an explanation.”
Magic Armament is a skill that reflects this old man’s design philosophy—the concept of an all-purpose weapon.
“All-purpose weapon?”
A golem is an imitation of a god. Magical armaments, in the end, also begin with the golem.
“Skip the preamble and get to the point.”
Tsk. No fun at all.
Didn’t he realize his explanations ran too long? I never expected anyone—or rather, any undead—to enjoy lecturing more than Sir Gerard of the Twelve Heroes.
It was made to handle a variety of situations. That is Magic Armament.
Megus raised both arms high.
So…
I’d appreciate it if the great Magic Armament would actually tell me how to use it.
Give the command.
“What kind of command?”
Something specific is best—ranged bombardment, close-range defense, or approach mode, for example.
“Ranged bombardment.”
Magic Armament — Ranged Bombardment Mode
Clack-clack-clack!
The Death Giant’s left arm reconfigured itself into a cylindrical barrel. Complex magic diagrams that even Golden Rule and Origin of Magic couldn’t fully parse were engraved on the inside.
― Hyper Mana Beam [A]
― Auto Target [B]
― Magic Boost [B]
― Overdrive [B]
― Cost Down [B]
Abilities I’d never seen in the Death Giant’s skill window had been added.
“So skills appear depending on the form it takes?”
Correct. Master’s intelligence is passable enough, I suppose.
“Old man. You’d do well to watch that mouth of yours.”
“How dare you speak to my Lord that way!”
As the two subordinates snarled, Megus flinched back a little.
“Close-combat mode.”
Using the commotion as background noise, I tried a different command.
Shhhk!
The left arm that had become a cannon returned to normal. This time the right arm stretched out, its tip rounding before shark-tooth-like blades densely covered the surface. It looked exactly like a chainsaw.
Close-Range Armament — Chain Sword Form
― Slaughter Crushing Blade [A]
― Great Fury [A]
― Critical Damage [B]
― Chain Damage [B]
― Defense Break [B]
Wiiiiiiing!
The saw blades spun furiously. The vibration in the air reached all the way over here.
Getting hit by that wouldn’t end with just losing an arm.
There were other modes as well—close-range defense, ranged defense, and more. Multiple transformation functions that could adapt to the situation.
“To think you could create something like this.”
The main material was corpses, sure, but in the end it was still a golem. At this level, didn’t the Death Giant deserve a spot among transforming robots?
Transforming robots.
How was a man supposed to resist that romance?
Share your impressions, Master.
“It’s the best.”
I extracted only the pure essence of this old man’s golem engineering to create it.
“As expected of the great arch-alchemist. Amazing!”
Keh-heh-heh.
Even though it was a golem, the Immortal Legion skill meant it was also treated as undead. What did that mean? It could be stored in the Death Space or the Pit of Malice.
Death Blacksmith capacity exceeded.
12,193 / 6,000 kg
If weight is not reduced to the allowed limit within 10 minutes, stored items will be randomly destroyed.
Capacity limit. Fortunately, materials that went into the Giant’s Tomb didn’t count toward the weight. I stationed the Death Giant in the Pit of Malice. With Immortal Legion, it would receive the maturation stat-boost effect as it aged.
“Eheheheh!”
Until we entered the Cross Gate…
How many more of these could I make?
My mouth was watering.
Until the Cross Gate entry, I only went into places known for high clear difficulty even among A-rank gates.
“If Big Bro says it’s fine, then whatever.”
“We can handle ourselves to some extent now.”
“I learned disruption magic, so it’s okay, hyung.”
“Should we provide long-range support at least?”
The support team raised no objections to my decision. If anything, they looked eager for a chance to pitch in.
“Wait a hundred years, brats.”
“Oh my. Your turn will never come, dears.”
“Great Lord. Shall we take care of them?”
Skill. Display.
The subordinates seemed both pleased by the support team’s enthusiasm and stirred by competitive spirit. The support team kids had succeeded in their own way—they’d managed to provoke the fighting spirit of powerhouses counted among the strongest of their respective eras (Zaug excluded).
“Death Giant. Your turn.”
『Command. Standing by.』
“Ranged bombardment. Maximum firepower.”
Hyper Mana Beam
Blue particles poured from the left arm that had become a mana cannon. A beam-type attack that reminded me of Emilia’s Photon Ray.
The monster some distance away assumed a defensive stance—
Boom!
One of its arms was blown clean off, rendering the defense meaningless.
“Whoa.”
『Mana. 17% consumed. Remaining 83%.』
Powerful as it was, the mana cost matched. I could dump everything into one shot or reduce the output for suppression fire. A true all-rounder specimen.
“Skeletons. You going to let that golem steal all the glory?”
“Keh-geh-geh!”
Burst Flare × 10
Boom! Kaboom-boom!
A scorching heatwave swept across the front.
“The magic-user seems rather impatient.”
“It’s not that bad.”
If the Death Giant was an all-rounder that could handle both close and long range, the Witch Corps could adapt to various environments with their many spells. Pure firepower didn’t lag behind when they used Solar Eclipse either. And above all, they held an overwhelming numerical advantage—looking only at destructive power, the Death Giant was still far behind.
“Mass production is impossible, so that will remain the case for a while.”
“Kraaaaaah!”
While I was talking with Sir Isra, Rex, unable to suppress his aggression any longer, charged out.
“You insolent cur! This body is our Lord’s First Sword!”
Sir Isra hurriedly gave chase.
What a mess.
Haah.
“Great Lord. Ain’t the high-difficulty places dangerous, sir?”
“The boss said it’s better to do it anyway.”
To shake Mir Guild from the roots, my performance was necessary. Clearing places even the major guilds had put off would strengthen the Rift Bureau’s influence and let me assert my presence as “Ranger No. 1.”
“I need to make money either way.”
Most of the magic stones from the A-rank gates had been sold. Split Soul Stones went for about thirty million won each, so crafting a single Death Warrior cost over a billion. Even with lower specs, it still reached A-rank monster level and could project Aura. Not cheap, but an enormous amount of money was flowing out regardless.
What else could I do?
I’d just have to work even harder.
Until we entered the Cross Gate, I focused on clearing difficult gates and expanding my forces.