Chapter 348: From Yujun's Perspective...

From Yujun's point of view, it was fair to say the Great Cataclysm had worked in his favor.

It hadn't thrown his companions into danger, and an experience event had begun that a first-year player like him was perfectly placed to milk for everything it was worth. The Demon God Worshippers growing stronger was hardly welcome news, but it wasn't the sort of thing to drive him to despair either. And if killing them granted even a little extra experience, that might offset the penalty that came with cutting down other players.

"Yujun!"

He turned at the call. Do Jiyun and Kim Yohan were both looking at him.

"What is it?"

"Did you see the message?"

"I did."

"What do you think is going to happen now?"

He'd assumed something urgent had come up. They only wanted to scratch an itch of curiosity.

"Why ask me?"

"Because back when we were playing War of the Gods, you had an uncanny knack for calling things like this."

Kim Yohan nodded so hard it might as well have been a second ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠opinion.

"Half the time I was just talking without thinking..."

"And it all came true anyway. That's what made it uncanny."

"Come on. Out with it."

The two of them pressed, and Yujun swallowed a sigh.

"They're not going to hand us a convenient situation and then call it a Great Cataclysm. We'll probably end up fighting whatever new enemies just showed up."

"You mean those players, and the new race?"

"I don't know either. But they don't look like the sort to live in peace, so the odds of a fight are pretty high, don't you think?"

"If they're appearing at a time like this, how strong are they?"

"They called it a Great Cataclysm. Whatever's coming, it won't be some ordinary race."

Yujun was the only one who had picked up even a brief briefing on the Tesila. They could wield the four great elements, dark demonic energy included, and honestly, it was hard to be weak with a toolkit like that. The Demon God Worshippers were unusually strong precisely because of that dark demonic energy. If an entire race was born already able to handle all of it...

He decided to treat the Tesila as enemies. So long as they carried dark demonic energy, the chance of them ever standing with him was remote. Their mere existence was already feeding strength to the Demon God Worshippers, and that was only the beginning. If they so much as joined hands with the Worshippers—the cult—some horrific hybrid would be born of it. The odds of that actually happening were high.

There will be Demon God Worshippers among the summoned players, too. Or people who are about to become them.

He had to move before that. Given their scale, being merely one step ahead of the Demon God Worshippers ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would not be enough.

"...Looks like we've got something we have to do first?"

Kim Yohan was the first to speak, looking faintly dazed. Do Jiyun tilted her head.

"Do you really think the undead would bother coming all the way out to a backwater like this?"

"I thought the same thing. I've changed my mind."

"What?"

"They're coming."

At that, Do Jiyun hurriedly checked the ground beyond the village. There was nothing.

"I don't see anything."

"They're still a ways off."

"..."

Outside the village lay open plain. Not so much as a hill.

"Yujun. I've been curious for a while—just how far can you see?"

"I'm not seeing it with my eyes. My senses are just good."

"I know. But even senses have a limit. Unless your stats climb into the tens of thousands..."

"Right."

His combined stats, as opposed to his raw ones, were in fact extremely high, just as Do Jiyun said. He could hardly tell her that outright.

"So you have some special ability?"

"That's right. A sensory-type ability."

He brushed it off. If he claimed a range like this came from stats alone, she obviously wouldn't believe him—and even if she did, it would only become a headache.

"Anyway, they are coming. At their current speed, about ten minutes."

"Coming all the way out to a place this remote... They're planning to bring the outskirts down slowly, starting from the edges, aren't they?"

"It's more that there are simply a lot of undead. The System said all across the Continent. Take that literally."

"And how do you know there are so many?"

"I've already spotted plenty of other hordes. One of them is headed for this village. More precisely, this place sits on the road to wherever they're going."

"Wow..."

Do Jiyun sounded genuinely impressed.

"That's incredible. I can't sense a single one. Undead are supposed to be easy to pick up."

"They're just very far away. Once they get closer, you'll know right away."

Yujun passed the warning not only to the players he had called, but to the village's players as well.

"Wh-why our village, of all places?"

"Isn't it because of you people? Gathering here for no reason and drawing the undead's eye?"

A few of them piled on in that vein.

"Then it'd be fine if we left the village, wouldn't it?"

The moment Yujun stepped forward and said it, the village players who had been griping went quiet as dead mice. Even in a frontier village, there wasn't a soul who didn't know the name Shin Yujun. If anything, the more remote the place, the more his strength got inflated in the telling.

"Wh-what kind of nonsense is that to the hero who protected our village? You lot! Can't you see those fireballs still falling? You worthless bastards!"

A man who looked to be the village chief appeared and roared at the players who had been complaining.

"I'm sorry, Sir Shin Yujun. Foolish children said it. Please put it out of your mind."

"Understood, for now."

He hadn't intended to leave anyway. The undead horde bound for this village was on the large side. He could have gone out and wiped them out first, but then he couldn't keep the shield up. Fireballs were still dropping from the sky without pause. They were tapering off little by little, yet if he let the shield go, the players would be left fully exposed.

The ten minutes Yujun had named passed, and the undead slowly came into view. So many were advancing that "great army" hardly did them justice, and the momentum rolling off them was enough to drain the color from every player watching inside the village.

"Those are really undead...?"

"The System wasn't just trying to scare us."

"...Can we even win this?"

They hadn't quite lost the will to fight, but every one of them looked cowed. Yujun, of course, did not.

Should I just sweep them with magic?

There was a spell he had been wanting to try on undead anyway. With no test subject but Paranet, he had been saving it, and at last the chance had come.

Absolute Turn Undead.

That was the name of the spell he meant to use. He had made it himself, so he had simply taken the existing Turn Undead and tacked Absolute onto the front.

Ordinary Turn Undead boasted the frankly cheating effect of returning undead to nature, but it failed against undead of a high enough grade and was all but useless in practice. Abysmal mana efficiency was another reason. The difference, if one had to name it, was that Absolute Turn Undead could easily send back undead of a far higher grade. On paper the gap looked small. In reality it was enormous. In theory, it could return even a Lich Lord in a single cast.

Yujun kept the shield raised and drew up his mana. A mere exertion of will would have triggered the spell on the spot, but he held it. Absolute Turn Undead was not a spell that could be used at long range, so he waited until the undead legion entered its reach.

Before long the basic monsters showed themselves first—zombies, skeletons, ghouls, skeleton knights, skeleton mages. A lineup meant to go easy on low-level players, perhaps. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠One look at what followed wiped that thought clean away. Death Knights and Dullahan were too numerous to bother counting, and Nightmares, High Specters, Dark Trolls, Zombie Lords, Ghoul Lords, and Liches were thick among them as well. The uncanny aura pouring off them sucked the souls straight out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the living.

Undead: a race incapable of growth. Gathered in one place, though, they were no different from a walking impregnable fortress. And now that they possessed dark demonic energy, each of them would be stronger still. With hordes like this erupting all across the Continent at once, plague was about to become a real concern.

A strange feeling made Yujun glance aside. Paranet was staring out over the plain packed with the undead legion, eyes gleaming.

"Don't tell me you want to join them."

"...Come now. Of course not."

"That answer was a little slow."

"I was merely astonished."

"Astonished? By what?"

"Had I been unlucky, would I not be out there as well, compelled by the System?"

Paranet answered with eyes soaked in sentiment—eyes he did not, in fact, possess.

"You're a summon. You're compelled either way."

"Please. To become Master's summon is an immense honor. If anything, I am grateful to have been compelled into it."

"So you're not envious of them."

"Of course not! That is the very opposite of my romantic ideal."

"And now? Isn't where you are now pretty far from romance, too?"

At the probe, Paranet shook his head.

"Places I could never have reached alone. Strange, special places, traveled with Master. How happy do you imagine that makes me?"

"Then that's a relief."

No need to worry about the undead legion stealing Paranet away. If he put Paranet out front, they might well try to seize him. Even to Yujun's eye, Paranet had no equal among death knights. Lumping him in with ordinary Death Knights was an insult.

They're in range.

Yujun confirmed that half the undead legion had entered the reach of Absolute Turn Undead. He waited another thirty seconds, then cast.

Shwaaak—!

A faint light blanketed the plain. It flew straight for the heart of the undead legion and dropped fast, and most of them failed to dodge before it struck.

Crack—! Crackle-crack!

Less shattered than weathered into dust, the undead vanished in rapid succession. Several thousand of them disappeared in an instant and became Yujun's experience.

The level that had refused to budge for so long climbed by one. The experience event had paid off handsomely.