Legion of the Dead (2)
Creak. Creeeeak. My Legion of the Dead skeletons couldn't stand still for even a second. They kept shifting their weight with constant rattling sounds, twisting their bony joints at unnatural angles. Inside their empty eye sockets, tiny blue flames flickered like candlelight.
Ji-yoon turned to me, her voice filled with surprise. "Is this... the new skill you got, oppa?"
"Yeah. It's called Legion of the Dead. I mean, calling it a 'legion' feels a bit generous right now."
"It's not shabby at all. It looks like an amazing skill. A little scary, though..."
Well, she had a point. If anyone else saw this, they'd probably scream. They were literally skeletons, after all.
Still, I wondered how strong these things actually were in a fight. That would require some testing.
I called Dong-seok over. He shuffled toward me with a dazed look in his eyes. His current level was 13. He didn't have a combat-oriented class, so his movements weren't exactly graceful, but his stats alone were enough to handle two or three goblins without too much trouble.
I handed him a goblin dagger and set up a one-on-one match against a single skeleton.
Just how much combat power would these skeletons display? My expectations crumbled almost as quickly as the skeleton did, collapsing into a heap shortly after the fight began.
What the hell? Why was it so weak?
The fallen skeleton didn't get back up. It simply melted into the ground and vanished. I clicked my tongue. Its fighting strength was barely at goblin level.
Hiding my disappointment, I sent two skeletons against Dong-seok next. After the previous letdown, I wasn't expecting much, but the skeletons fought far better together than alone. They moved with organic coordination, like two bodies sharing one mind, and eventually managed to plant a dagger in Dong-seok's back.
Now that was an unexpected result. If it had been two real goblins fighting Dong-seok, he definitely wouldn't have lost. His stats were high enough to trade blows evenly with three goblins. Yet these two skeletons, moving in perfect sync like ten-year friends, had managed to stab him in the back without much difficulty.
That meant... Individually, each one has the combat power of a goblin. But when they fight together, they create significant synergy.
Deciding more experiments were needed, I called over Daejang-ajeossi.
"Ajeossi, do you have any poison needles left?"
"Poison needles? I have exactly three remaining."
"Three. Perfect. Take them and fight these guys for me."
"...Excuse me?"
Daejang-ajeossi stared at me with wide eyes. His current level was 15. His stats weren't much different from Dong-seok's, and their levels were similar. But once he got doped up, everything changed. Three poison needles would probably boost him to around my current stat level.
I was curious to see how a fight between doped-up Daejang-ajeossi and the skeletons would turn out.
He looked at me with a worried expression. "Are you sure this is okay? These are your thralls too..."
"Don't worry. They're beings I can resummon anytime. Feel free to smash them all to pieces. Give it everything you've got."
"In that case..."
Daejang-ajeossi pulled out the poison needle case from his pocket. He stabbed all three needles into his arm, and thick veins immediately bulged across his skin.
"Haaaaaaa..."
His muscles swelled dramatically, stretching his shirt tight. With his face twisted in concentration, he looked at me. "Shall we begin?"
"Yes, start right away. Everyone, attack!"
At my command, nine skeletons charged toward Daejang-ajeossi. He met them head-on with lightning speed. The first collision completely shattered the lead skeleton.
But then—
"Huk!"
Taking advantage of the opening created by the first one's destruction, three skeletons leaped at him, trying to envelop his entire body. Their arms spread wide, they weren't aiming to attack but to restrain him.
His swinging fist crushed another one to pieces, but the remaining two managed to latch onto him, their rattling bones tightening around his body like a vice.
"Damn it! Get off me!"
He thrashed wildly, twisting his body with all his strength to shake them off. One of the clinging skeletons shattered from the force, but in that moment, three more armed with daggers rushed in. Daejang-ajeossi couldn't avoid their strikes.
"Kugh!"
The daggers targeted only vital points—head, heart, solar plexus. But the gap in stats prevented them from piercing his skin. He struggled to tear away the ones clinging to him, but two more jumped on, leaving him completely immobilized as the daggers continued stabbing him repeatedly.
The three dedicated to attacking kept striking the exact same spots over and over. Eventually, the blades began to penetrate his skin, and black smoke started rising from his body.
"You bastards!!!"
As the panicked ajeossi desperately tried to break free from their restraint—
"That's enough."
At my command, the skeletons smoothly withdrew from Daejang-ajeossi. He stood there panting, staring at them with an incredulous expression.
I used Siphon Hand on both him and Dong-seok, who had also been stabbed in the back. Once his wounds had healed, I asked for his honest impressions.
"Haa... Individually, they're definitely weak... but their intelligence is remarkable. They divide roles perfectly and execute their assigned tasks with absolute precision. I felt like a raid boss being hunted by a coordinated party. And their attack patterns... they focused exclusively on vital points that could kill a living creature. If I had been a normal human, I would already be dead."
Daejang-ajeossi shook his head as he spoke. From his assessment, I could roughly gauge the skeletons' capabilities.
Weak individually, but excellent at teamwork. And smart too. They're not at the 'absolutely incredible' level yet, but this is pretty damn good. Once the skill level rises, they'll eventually live up to the name 'Legion of the Dead,' right?
I clenched my fist tightly.
...I got a good skill.
I waved my hand to dismiss the skeletons. The remaining six collapsed on the spot, their remains sinking into the ground and disappearing.
After unsummoning them, I looked at my companions. "We're done here. We have somewhere to stop by, so let's head there. Dong-seok, go find us a decent car."
He staggered off to search. I turned to Daejang-ajeossi.
"I'll give you a ride back, so you should return to your group. Stronger monsters will start appearing now, so you need to prepare properly."
He nodded with a serious expression. "Understood. Since I received the poison combination set, I'll use it to strengthen our defenses. Oh, and..."
When I looked at him expectantly, he continued. "While fighting the skeletons, I had an idea. If we coat their daggers with the poisons I create, their combat effectiveness should increase significantly. What do you think?"
Hmm. That was actually a pretty good idea. I didn't know what kind of poison he'd make, but if the skeletons could apply poison to their blades, their fighting power would easily double.
I nodded. "That's a solid plan. Think about what kind of poison would work best and try making it. Contact me when it's done."
"Yes, understood."
While we were talking, the sound of a car engine approached from the distance. Soon, Dong-seok pulled up in a white van.
We all climbed in, and the vehicle sped off smoothly. After dropping Daejang-ajeossi off at his survivor camp, I used a communication pebble to contact Lee Su-ah and learned the location of their guild's base.
Walking there would have taken a considerable amount of time, but that wasn't an issue for us. The power of a car was tremendous. We drove without stopping and soon reached the area where Lee Su-ah's guild was located.
The car that had been racing along suddenly screeched to a halt in the middle of the road. It was time for another break to replenish Dong-seok's depleted mana.
We got out and sat down, looking around. Ji-yoon asked me, "Oppa, where are we going exactly?"
"We're going to find the person who placed third in the dungeon I entered. We agreed to exchange information. She said their guild set up their base at an elementary school in this area."
"Ah, I see." Ji-yoon nodded in understanding.
Si-eun, who had been quiet until then, suddenly spoke up. "Oppa."
"Yeah?"
She looked me in the eyes. "Something feels a bit strange."
"Strange? What is it?"
"After the event ended, they said new monsters would appear, right? So why haven't we seen any? Not just the new ones—even the goblins we used to see everywhere are completely missing today."
Now that she mentioned it... We'd driven quite a long distance with Dong-seok at the wheel, yet we hadn't encountered a single monster group. Normally, we'd run into packs of five goblins quite frequently during travel. Today, not once.
"You're right, that is strange. If their numbers increased, we should be seeing more of them. What's going on?"
It was a puzzling question, but one without an immediate answer. Once Dong-seok's mana had recovered, we got back in the car and continued on our way. I planned to get closer to Lee Su-ah's guild and use the communication pebble again.
But we had to stop shortly after setting off.
We were on a relatively elevated section of road. Far below in the distance, I could see a writhing sea of green.
I got out of the car and stared at the green wave in the distance, muttering, "That's... goblins, isn't it?"
No wonder we hadn't seen any goblins nearby. They were all gathered there.
The largest group of goblins I'd seen before was around a hundred, during one of our previous travels. That group had been the pitiful ones answering Juniel's call, heading to become food for Granteil.
But the goblin army visible in the distance now far exceeded that number.
"Just how many are there..."
"At least a thousand, I'd say? I see quite a few goblin warriors too..."
"Why are so many of them gathering? We've never seen anything like this before..."
A thought suddenly flashed through my mind as I muttered.
-As higher-intelligence monsters begin to appear, the monsters will start forming groups and building their own forces.-
That was something the rat-headed guy had mentioned when he came to give me information about the large-scale update. Was this exactly what he had been talking about? Had some highly intelligent entity appeared and united the goblins?
"It's a Goblin Lord," Juniel said, having approached my side at some point.
"Goblin Lord?"
"Yes, a Goblin Lord. It's an entity that commands goblins. See it? The scrawny one standing in the middle holding a staff."
She could see that from here? Her eyesight was incredible. To me, it just looked like a massive writhing mass of goblins.
I narrowed my eyes, staring at the horde as I asked Juniel, "So they're all gathered because of this Goblin Lord? But what are they doing just standing there? They can't be gathering for no reason, right?"
Juniel nodded. "Of course not. From the looks of it, they're not just gathered—they seem to be moving somewhere. Look closely. They're slowly shifting in one direction."
Now that she mentioned it... she was right.
"What? They really are moving. Where the hell are they going?"
Juniel shrugged. "I don't know that part, but... if a group this size is migrating together, they're probably heading out to establish a base. They've built their force, so now they need territory for that force to occupy."
Hmm. That made sense. Where would a group this large settle? The best locations would be places like schools—well enclosed by walls, with open grounds and proper buildings already in place.
If they were looking for a place like that... Wait... hold on.
I examined the surrounding terrain, then quickly ran down to the lower road to check the still-intact road signs. My companions watched my sudden actions with surprised expressions. When I returned, I muttered to them, "This... seems really fucking bad."
"Oppa? What's wrong? What happened?" Si-eun looked at me with wide eyes.
I looked at my companions and said, "The direction that army is moving in... it looks like it's heading toward the guild base I'm trying to reach."
Call it a coincidence or fate. The direction this massive goblin legion was marching toward was exactly where Lee Su-ah's guild had established their stronghold.