Chapter 110
Chapter 110
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 110
Chapter Title: The Second Floor of the Trial Tower
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"Is this the second floor of the Trial Tower?"
Shin Yu-hyun looked around.
The first floor of the Trial Tower had been bright midday, but the second floor was shrouded in the darkness of night.
A brilliantly shining blue moon and starlight hung in the dark night sky.
And spread out beneath it was...
'A graveyard.'
Countless tombstones stood erected across a vast plain overgrown with short grass.
"Again?"
Shin Yu-hyun clicked his tongue.
He had half-expected it, but sure enough, the trial's difficulty had been ramped up this time too.
'Hmm.'
Shin Yu-hyun stroked his chin as he read the message floating before his eyes.
On the first floor, he had to prove his worthiness to inherit the Immortal King's power using only his own strength, without any undead summons.
That was why he could use his swordsmanship, the Immortal King's skills, and dark magic.
But on this second floor, it seemed the opposite was true—he could only use undead summons.
He figured this trial was meant to test his undead command skills and tactics.
'1500 of them...'
Considering that ordinary necromancers could barely handle a few dozen at most, it was an absurdly massive number.
But Shin Yu-hyun was different.
The Immortal King's authority and unique trait: Dominance Enhancement.
Shuv Ranigdu, one of the Seven Arcs, ruler of Geummunseong, and supreme commander of the immortal legions.
On top of that, Hades' Gauntlets and Quinair's option effect for dominance amplification.
Thanks to them, Dominance Enhancement granted a 4x boost, Quinair another 4x, and Shuv joining as the legion commander added another 2x boost to Dominance Enhancement, for a total multiplier of 32x on his dominance.
And.
'My current dominance stat is 51.'
That meant the theoretical maximum number of undead summons he could control right now was a whopping 1632.
He simply didn't need to carry that many around, and Ka-mang-i had limits on how many undead troops it could transport, so he hadn't summoned them all.
At that moment, a message appeared before Shin Yu-hyun's eyes.
And the very next instant.
Kuduk! Kwadduduk!
Arms began bursting out from the ground beneath the countless tombstones.
"Ka-mang-i."
Kyuu!
At Shin Yu-hyun's call, Ka-mang-i on his shoulder let out a cute cry and got to work.
Black shadows spread out from Shin Yu-hyun, encroaching upon the ground.
Sussuk.
Moments later, skeletons with glowing blue eyes emerged from the dark shadows.
In the meantime, an enormous horde of zombies had revealed themselves before Shin Yu-hyun's eyes.
<4-star Drugged Zombie>
<4-star Burly Zombie>
<4-star Prairie Dash Zombie>
<4-star...>
"All 4-stars, huh?"
Probably because the skeletons Shin Yu-hyun summoned were 4-star rank, the zombies crawling out from underground were all 4-stars too.
Kihehek!
Kirruk!
Soon, the zombies that had clawed their way out began charging with eerie shrieks.
'They're fast.'
As expected of 4-stars, their movements were nothing like the shambling zombies one might imagine. The drugged zombies in particular came rushing in at insane speeds.
Kwang!
But the skeletons were already braced for the enemy assault.
Ka-mang-i could currently transport a total of 450 skeletons: 140 Sabers, 130 Lancers, 150 Archers, and 30 Casters.
He had adjusted the ratios as much as possible per Shuv's advice, but tweaked the Archers and Casters to his own preferences.
'Casters are still tricky to use effectively.'
Casters packed a punch but lost combat power drastically once their mana ran dry.
And they weren't quick to recover mana either, making them feel like advanced summons that were hard to handle.
In comparison, Sabers and Lancers were a breeze to use, while Archers had the drawback of limited arrows but weren't as finicky as Casters.
And Shin Yu-hyun had employed a little trick.
'Put the Casters on support duty instead of direct attacks.'
More precisely, as arrow suppliers for the Archers.
Depending on the situation, enchanting Archer arrows with elemental magic wasn't a bad idea either. Casters could imbue weapons with fire, ice, poison, and the like.
Kirruk!
Kiaak!
In the meantime, hordes of zombies swarmed in, hammering away at the Sabers' kite shields with gusto.
And more zombies kept coming relentlessly from behind.
"That's a ton of them."
Shin Yu-hyun whistled at the sight. Under the blue moonlight, the zombies crossing the plain looked downright chilling.
He glanced back.
There stood Archer No. 1, holding the glowing Frostbite frost bow.
To his right was Saber No. 1, dual-wielding the ice sword Frostwhit and the flame sword Blazebloom, while to his left was Lancer No. 1, planting the cursed poison spear Acad into the ground.
The two were flanking Shin Yu-hyun, acting as his guards.
"Archer No. 1, get ready."
Tung!
At his words, Archer No. 1 thumped its chest with a fist.
The skeletons' salute, apparently.
Then Archer No. 1 nocked an arrow to the Frostbite bow.
Kiiiiiik!
The 50 Archers lined up in the first row behind it did the same.
"Fire!"
Tititing!
Swaaaaek!
At Shin Yu-hyun's command, the Archers loosed their arrows toward the night sky with its blue moon.
Countless arrows trailing blue mana light poured down like rain upon the zombies.
Pfufuk!
Dozens of arrows felled some of the oncoming zombies.
Kwang! Jjeojeojeok!
Archer No. 1's performance stood out in particular.
A massive ice arrow from the frost bow crashed into the center of a zombie horde, freezing dozens solid.
'So that's how it works.'
Shin Yu-hyun smiled faintly.
So when the initial message said defeated enemy undead would join the allies, this was what it meant.
The skeletons downed zombies that then became allies, plain and simple.
The allied undead count message popped up alongside it.
"Second row, fire!"
Shin Yu-hyun promptly ordered the next 50 waiting Archers.
He was rotating them in rows of 50 to keep up constant arrow fire without pause.
Tititing! Swaaek!
The Archers' arrows next traced blue trails across the night sky before raining down.
Pfufuk!
Kieek!
Zombies screamed and collapsed. They soon rose again, only to start biting at their fellow zombies nearby.
'The decoys are working great too.'
In truth, the blue-glowing arrows shot into the night sky were fakes.
Blue trails stood out starkly against the dark sky.
So he predicted the zombies' dodges based on the lights and mixed in mana arrows that gave off no glow.
That's why the zombies couldn't evade the arrows pouring from the darkness and ended up swiss-cheesed.
"Third row, next!"
Shin Yu-hyun kept commanding the third row of 50 Archers without rest, picking off the zombies swarming from the rear.
While doing so, he activated Split Thought to survey the battlefield.
'The Sabers are holding strong for now.'
The Sabers and Lancers' tactics were straightforward. Sabers blocked up front with shields while Lancers behind them skewered zombie heads with their long spears.
Plus, the downed zombies turning ally provided extra shielding for the Sabers.
It kept the burden off the Sabers.
However.
'There are just too damn many.'
Zombies kept pouring in endlessly.
Just eyeballing it, there were easily a few hundred.
Against that, the skeletons numbered around 450, with only about 100 allied zombies so far.
Yet they were holding.
Teotetung!
Kieek!
Zombies were repelled by the shockwaves from the Sabers' basic skill, kite shield bashes.
Seogeok-!
Off-balance zombies were bisected before the Sabers' gray longswords.
'Yeah, too much damage prevents recruitment.'
Shin Yu-hyun eyed a zombie cleaved in two by a Saber.
Evidently, severe damage kept even undead from joining forces.
But that was fine. Zombies kept crawling up from underground without end.
As the battle with the zombies raged on, the allied forces had now surpassed 1400.
Allied zombies and enemy zombies tore into each other chaotically.
The force numbers fluctuated rapidly as a result.
Shushushuk!
But the Archers' rear support proved most effective. Zombies pierced by arrows joined the allies in batches of dozens at a time.
Kraaaaa!
Kiaaaaa!
Suddenly, zombie shrieks echoed from both flanks where Shin Yu-hyun stood.
Up front, about 100 Sabers held a semicircular formation blocking the zombies, with Lancers waiting behind spears at the ready.
But now zombie packs were charging the rear flanks where Shin Yu-hyun was.
About 30 on each side.
"Go, No. 1s."
At his order, Saber No. 1 with ice and flame swords and Lancer No. 1 with cursed poison spear Acad plunged toward the flanking zombie groups.
10 Sabers and 10 Lancers followed each.
They soon clashed with the zombie packs.
Flames and ice flashed in the darkness, zombies impaled on the cursed spear, and allied undead numbers skyrocketed.
Saber No. 1 and Lancer No. 1 downed them with minimal body damage.
Kwaaaaaang!
At that instant, a massive explosion rocked the front lines, the ground erupting violently.
And something emerged from the blast.
Seeing it, Shin Yu-hyun clicked his tongue.
"Figures. For a Trial Tower trial, I wondered why it was just zombies."