Death Knight Awakening
Jang Won-seok was thirty-eight years old. He was a gravely ill patient who had spent most of his life confined to a hospital bed. After years of fighting his condition, his body had finally reached its limit. Hooked up to medical equipment across every inch of him, he was barely clinging to a fading life.
Just then, his mind was transported to the job selection room. There he met a rat-headed fairy who introduced herself as Yeon, and she allowed him to choose from a spread of job cards.
What a pity. No matter which job you choose, the moment you return to reality your remaining lifespan will—huh?
Won-seok’s body glitched like bad reception, flickering apart before stabilizing again. Yeon stared at him with wide eyes, then shook her head with a sigh.
Oh dear… this is unfortunate. Your body has just died. To think you couldn’t even last those few short seconds… Well, in that case, choosing a job card no longer holds any meaning. With your physical form gone, your mind will soon vanish as well. I’m sorry, but it looks like you’ll simply have to—
As Yeon spoke, a burst of light erupted from the air and a new card materialized. The fairy’s eyes widened in surprise.
Well now, this is another fascinating development. It seems you’ve been given a chance. This newly generated job card is a rare four-star. If you draw it, you’ll be able to resurrect even your dead body. Truly your final opportunity. Will you take the challenge?
The moment Yeon finished speaking, the cards she held shuffled themselves and rose into the air, lining up in a neat row.
Ten cards, only one chance. Can you beat the ten-percent odds and return to life? Test your luck.
Won-seok stared blankly at the floating cards. Claiming he had no lingering attachment to life would be a lie. With a trembling hand, he reached out and chose one.
I had never seen the man before, yet something about him felt strangely familiar. “That subspace ring—will you hand it over?”
“I-I’ll give it to you.”
Whoa, he’s actually doing it?
He began sliding the ring off his finger, then flinched. His gaze darted between his guild members and me before he shook his head violently. “W-wait, hold on. Giving this away might be a bit…”
Hmm. So it really is that difficult? I suppose it was a pretty unreasonable request. Still, he had been on the verge of handing it over. I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. Why did I feel such familiarity toward this person, and why was this hulking, muscular uncle acting so deferential toward me?
It looked like we needed to talk. I turned to Geunyuk-ajeossi. “Let’s set the ring aside for now. Could we have a conversation?”
Geunyuk-ajeossi flinched at my words. After a moment of hesitation, he issued a few quick orders to the guild members behind him, then spoke to me again. “Let’s move over there… I have quite a few questions myself… sir.”
He was clearly struggling to force out the polite speech. I followed him to the side. When he noticed Ji-su trailing after me, he said, “Wouldn’t it be better if we spoke alone—”
“It’s fine. This friend is essentially one with me.”
Ji-su looked oddly moved. The man started to protest, then gave up and simply stared at me. The hand gripping his massive sword kept twitching. Eventually he let out a long, heavy sigh, as if surrendering. “I don’t understand this at all. In my mind I feel like I could cut you down right this instant… yet my hand refuses to move. What exactly have you done to me?”
“I haven’t done anything. But I think I have a rough idea why this is happening.”
“And what would that be?”
Instead of answering the question from the wide-eyed Geunyuk-ajeossi, I asked what I wanted to know. “What is your job?”
Asking someone’s job so bluntly was normally quite rude—practically a challenge if you were strangers. It was like demanding they reveal critical information about themselves. Even so, Geunyuk-ajeossi couldn’t bring himself to get angry with me. He wavered for a moment, let out another deep sigh, and finally answered.
“Death Knight… My job is called Death Knight.”
Just as I thought. That familiar aura I sensed from him was the aura of death—the same one I felt from my thralls. That must have been why Ji-su said she felt close to him too. Still, it wasn’t exactly the same. My thralls were steeped completely in death, whereas this uncle felt… partially overlapped with it. A being who was dead, yet not dead. I wasn’t even sure what I meant by that, but the conclusion was clear: this Geunyuk-ajeossi was a death-aligned existence similar to my thralls. And as the necromancer—the king of death itself—he couldn’t help but submit to me.
Of course, he didn’t have the absolute obedience my thralls possessed. He belonged to death, but he wasn’t one of my own. Still, the fact that he had nearly handed over the subspace ring suggested he would probably follow most orders. Maybe I had just gained a powerful ally in an unexpected place.
I looked at Geunyuk-ajeossi. “My job is one that rules over death-aligned beings like yourself. That’s probably why you can’t cut me down and find it difficult to refuse my commands.”
“Ah…”
Understanding dawned on his face, quickly followed by a look of pure resentment. It must have felt unfair. He had received an incredible job and had been rampaging across the battlefield with overwhelming power, only for some scrawny kid to show up and render him completely helpless.
Geunyuk-ajeossi lowered his head. “What do you intend to do with me?”
“Hmm? I don’t really have any specific plans.”
“Pardon?”
He lifted his head, eyes wide with surprise. Had he expected me to treat him like a slave? That idea wasn’t exactly bad, but was it necessary? I already had five loyal thralls who obeyed me without question and protected me. He might act subservient, but he wasn’t under absolute compulsion, and I didn’t particularly need a burly, muscle-bound man hovering at my side.
That said, I had no intention of simply patting him on the back and saying, “Do whatever you want, I don’t care.” There was no way I would waste such useful talent—especially talent that already bent to my words. I would put him to good use.
Geunyuk-ajeossi could fill a similar role to Daejang-ajeossi, who was currently in the second dungeon. He already seemed to have built up his own faction, so he could continue expanding it and lend me strength when I needed it. Since he wasn’t a complete thrall, I would have to build some rapport and secure his willing cooperation.
I spoke to the still-startled Geunyuk-ajeossi. “Let’s have a proper talk. There’s a lot we need to discuss.”
I summoned the Gate of Rest and ordered Ji-su to bring out three camping chairs. As she stepped through the portal, Geunyuk-ajeossi’s eyes widened again.
“What… what is that door?”
Whoa. Even I was surprised. He could see it? Until now, no one outside of me and my thralls had been able to.
“You can see that door?”
“Yes? Of course I can…”
“Can you see inside it as well?”
“Inside the door? No, I only see the door itself…”
Good. It seemed he couldn’t see into the Cradle of Rest. I gestured toward the portal. “Would you like to step inside?”
“M-me? Inside there? Why would I—”
“Just go in once. There’s something I want to confirm.”
He approached the Gate of Rest hesitantly, then turned back with a miserable expression. “D-do I really have to? For some reason it feels… unpleasant…”
“…”
“I mean…”
He looked genuinely terrified. I sighed. “If going all the way in bothers you that much, just stick your hand through. I need to check something.”
Geunyuk-ajeossi gritted his teeth and edged closer, face pale and body trembling. It was almost pitiful. Still, orders were orders. He reached toward the open Gate of Rest—then stopped.
“Huh…?”
His hand wouldn’t pass through, as if hitting an invisible wall. His face brightened instantly. “I-it won’t go in! It seems blocked!”
Perfect. The door was visible, but entry was impossible. That was a relief. If anyone besides me and my thralls could enter, my absolute trust in the Cradle of Rest as a safe haven would have been shattered. The fact that he could see the Gate of Rest at all was likely because he was a Death Knight with one foot already in the realm of death.
After the simple test, I waited a moment. Soon Ji-su emerged from the Cradle of Rest carrying three folded camping chairs. We set them up and sat facing one another—me, Ji-su, and Geunyuk-ajeossi. I listened as he explained how he had obtained his job.
How interesting. His body died while choosing a job card, yet at that exact moment a Death Knight card was generated and he managed to draw it, coming back to life. I suppose you could call that good luck.
Death Knight. A four-star job with a broken passive that could nullify fatal damage once per day. Even if his head was severed or his heart pierced, he wouldn’t die. On top of that, every time he experienced death his stats increased permanently. In short, he grew stronger with every death. Thanks to that skill he had accumulated an impressive amount of stats so far.
Listening to his story, I finally saw the common thread between him and my thralls: if the game ended, he would end too. Returning to the normal world would simply return him to a corpse. Someone who shared that fate couldn’t possibly oppose my plan.
Just as I expected, Geunyuk-ajeossi showed intense interest the moment he heard it. “To be honest, the future terrified me. Returning to the world is no different from dying for me. But if I can delay that indefinitely… I’ll do anything!”
“Are you sure? Among the people you lead—your guild members—there must be quite a few who want the world to return to normal.”
He exhaled sharply through his nose. “Every one of my guild members owes me their life. Since I saved them, it’s only right that they work to save mine, isn’t it?”
Now that was a mindset I could respect. I liked that he didn’t bother dressing up his self-interest with fake morality.
“All right. Then I can count on you to help me from now on?”
“Of course. I may have nothing but strength to offer, but I will assist you with every ounce of my being!”
Geunyuk-ajeossi’s voice rang with sincerity. With this I had secured both a reliable ally and the force he commanded—an unexpected windfall.
I looked at the resolute man. “Then I’ll be in your care. Nothing needs to change from how you’ve been operating. Continue building your own power. When the time comes that I need assistance, I’ll contact you, and you can help me then.”
“I will do exactly that. We’ll need to think of a communication method.”
A communication method, huh. If he were one of my thralls, telepathy would solve everything, but since he wasn’t, these little complications arose. I stood up from the camping chair. “Let’s meet again once the event dungeon closes. I’ll come up with a way for us to stay in touch.”
Geunyuk-ajeossi rose as well. “Understood. We’ll most likely be sent back to the square where we first entered. I’ll find you there.”
He turned to rejoin his group. I called after him. “One moment.”
“Yes?”
He looked back, eyes asking what else I wanted.
“You can’t just leave like that. There’s something you’re supposed to give me, isn’t there?”
He stared at me blankly for a second, then flinched and clutched his hand. “Ah, you mean the subspace ring?”
“Obviously. My plan requires me to take first place in this dungeon and obtain the items. So hand over that treasure and be on your way.”
“B-but…”
“Come on. You already agreed to join my plan—don’t tell me you’re going to start complaining now?”
Geunyuk-ajeossi bit his lip, agonized for a moment, then reluctantly held out the subspace ring. I smiled. “Keep the ring. Just take out the treasures and give them to me.”
His face brightened considerably. He must have felt relieved to at least save the 500-gold ring. He removed two treasures from the ring and handed them over. I stored them inside the Cradle of Rest.
“I’ve collected five treasures now,” I told him with a smile. “I won’t be gathering any more, so just collect three—four at the absolute maximum. That should be enough for second place. Understood?”
With his strength, four treasures should be easy. Geunyuk-ajeossi nodded, looking rather glum.
He returned to his guild members and spoke with them at length. Finally he glanced our way, gave a small bow, and led his people away.
Event Dungeon, Day Two. I had gathered every treasure I wanted and even obtained a valuable new fighting force. This event dungeon really was a gold mine.