Legion of Bones
The hopgoblins rose as skeletons.
The humans crushed by the giant hopgoblin did not undergo undeath.
The moment the corpses that had been dead just seconds ago stood up, it looked as though a small army had appeared.
Multi Corpse Resurrection's skill level has increased.
You can now resurrect corpses as lesser undead.
“Krrrr……”
The hollow-eyed skulls rose clutching broken weapons.
Lowest-grade undead, skeletons.
Though their intelligence was low, they only let out gloomy moans.
Even so, their numbers far exceeded what an ordinary necromancer’s revival skill could achieve.
A normal necromancer had to find a skilled black mage and change classes, a grueling process.
Necromancers consumed considerable mana and materials even to resurrect a single corpse.
Multi Corpse Resurrection, however, required nothing but mana.
It was truly the secret art of a necromancer meant to build an army.
Kang Yoonsoo pointed at the giant hopgoblin.
“Kill it.”
“Clack clack!”
The skeletons clattered their bones and charged the boss monster.
The giant hopgoblin roared and swung its machete in a wide arc.
The skeletons fell like autumn leaves.
Kang Yoonsoo stood with arms crossed, his expression blank, waiting for his depleted mana to recover.
The Life Suppression Ring greatly accelerated his mana regeneration.
Meanwhile, the skeletons carved wounds into the giant hopgoblin’s hide with their weapons.
“Korororok-!”
The boss monster growled and crushed the skeletons one after another.
Then Kang Yoonsoo’s voice rang out from behind.
“Corpse Explosion.”
Kwa-ga-gang-!
One of the skeletons that had returned to being a corpse exploded in an instant.
The blast dealt damage even the giant hopgoblin could not ignore.
The boss monster’s face twisted in rage, yet it dropped to one knee.
Corpse Explosion was a spell of tremendous destructive power, but its range could not be controlled and it consumed the corpse entirely.
If the blast radius was misjudged, the user or allies could be caught in it.
Kang Yoonsoo used the skill without hesitation.
“Corpse Explosion.”
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-gang-!
Another explosion swept across the giant hopgoblin’s entire body.
The vibration was so violent it seemed the cave might collapse.
The monster’s skin tore open, exposing crimson muscle.
Corpse Explosion's skill level has increased.
The power of the explosion has grown stronger.
“Kurrrrk-!”
The giant hopgoblin let out a thunderous roar and charged at Kang Yoonsoo.
It swept away the annoying skeletons with its machete.
Kang Yoonsoo showed no surprise. His usual emotionless expression unchanged, he drew his sword and spear.
“Life Drain.”
A pale blue-white aura gathered at the tips of the weapons.
The strange wave touched the giant hopgoblin’s body and began sucking out its life force like a vacuum.
The absorption rate was still low because the skill level was low, but the monster’s vitality was steadily being drained.
The giant hopgoblin closed in and swung its machete savagely.
But Kang Yoonsoo was no longer there.
Having predicted the monster’s movement, he stepped on a skeleton’s skull, leapt, and landed on its broad shoulder.
Then he drove the sword and spear in with all his strength.
Thud-! Thud-!
Struck at the temple, the giant hopgoblin staggered, bleeding.
Kang Yoonsoo bent slightly and thrust the spear into the left side of the hopgoblin’s chest.
Thud-!
The sharp spearhead sank deep, followed by the sound of a heart bursting.
The giant hopgoblin’s massive body collapsed.
The stone floor shook violently.
You have defeated the Giant Hopgoblin (Boss, Level 52).
Experience gained by owned undead is not transferred to the owner.
Your level has increased by 3.
Kang Yoonsoo took the machete from the giant hopgoblin’s hand.
The enormous monster had used the machete as a one-handed sword, but to a human it was a broad greatsword.
Steel Machete
Grade: Normal
Cutting Power: 14
A large machete forged from high-quality steel.
Kang Yoonsoo discarded his sword and spear and equipped the machete.
When he slung the massive greatsword across his back, its heavy weight settled on him.
While waiting for his mana to refill, Kang Yoonsoo checked his status window.
He invested all three points into Regeneration.
Regeneration strengthened the bodies of resurrected undead, holy resistance, and overall durability.
He felt his mana completely restored.
A minor drawback of Multi Corpse Resurrection was that it consumed all available mana even when resurrecting only one corpse.
Kang Yoonsoo extended his hand toward the giant hopgoblin.
“Multi Corpse Resurrection.”
All his mana drained away at once.
The giant hopgoblin, which had been rampaging moments ago, rose with glowing blue pupils.
It had been resurrected as a zombie.
Its intelligence remained low, but the appearance of a massive undead was a tremendous addition to his forces.
Kang Yoonsoo raised his hand and commanded the more than seventy undead.
The skeletons walked toward the far end of the cave.
“Corpse Explosion.”
One of the skeletons lying against the cave wall exploded.
Kwa-kwang-!
After a shockwave that threatened to bring down the ceiling, the wall caved in, revealing what lay beyond.
It was a mine filled with raw ore fragments, like a tunnel.
“Dig.”
Kang Yoonsoo slung the dead Kim Minsoo’s backpack over his shoulder and gave the order.
* * *
Undead excelled at repetitive labor.
They felt no fatigue, no boredom, and simply followed orders.
The skeletons dug into the mine until their finger bones crumbled, extracting ore.
Kang Yoonsoo filled the backpack until it was packed full.
He turned to the idly standing group of skeletons and commanded,
“Return to the summoning realm.”
The skeletons’ forms grew faint and vanished.
78 skeletons have been stored in the summoning realm.
Currently stored summons: 78 skeletons, 1 giant hopgoblin zombie.
Maximum storable summons: 421
The summoning realm.
It was a separate dimension where summons, including undead, resided.
Classes such as summoners and tamers usually stored their summons in the summoning realm and called them out only during battle.
Keeping summons with them at all times was inconvenient.
Therefore, they generally kept their summons stored in the summoning realm.
The number of summons that could be stored depended on the owner’s ability.
Kang Yoonsoo shouldered the ore-filled backpack and left the cave.
The sky had grown dim.
Kang Yoonsoo walked expressionlessly across the desolate land.
Before long, a man came into view, staggering unsteadily in the distance.
It was Choi Chang-seok.
“Y-you bastard!”
Choi Chang-seok turned and bared his teeth like a wild animal.
As if he had encountered his mortal enemy.
However, with injured wrists and ankles, Choi Chang-seok was far from peak condition.
Kang Yoonsoo calmly drew the greatsword.
Choi Chang-seok’s face twisted in alarm.
“A-are you seriously trying to fight me right now?”
“If I leave you alone, you’ll come for revenge later.”
Kang Yoonsoo spoke in a low voice.
“If I let you escape, you’ll definitely come back to kill me. So I’m going to kill you now.”
Kill me?
Choi Chang-seok was dumbfounded.
To say something like that so brazenly.
The look in Kang Yoonsoo’s eyes as he stared at him was no different from when he hunted monsters.
Kang Yoonsoo approached slowly.
Choi Chang-seok broke into a cold sweat and drew his own sword.
This guy is serious!
“Damn it! Don’t come any closer!”
Choi Chang-seok swung his sword in a wide arc.
But Kang Yoonsoo ducked low, slipping beneath the blade’s trajectory.
At the same time, he thrust his sword forward in a swift strike.
Choi Chang-seok desperately tried to block the chilling blow.
With injured wrists and ankles, he was no match for Kang Yoonsoo.
Clang-!
Kang Yoonsoo’s massive blade struck the edge of Choi Chang-seok’s sword.
The sword flew from his grip, spun half a turn in the air, and rolled across the wasteland.
Disarmed, Choi Chang-seok lost even his will to fight and stared in terror.
He limped away in a frantic retreat.
“S-save me! Please, save me! You goddamn bastard. Don’t you have any guilt……!”
Kang Yoonsoo walked over without emotion and drove the blade into the back of Choi Chang-seok’s neck.
Two light cuts.
Blood sprayed as Choi Chang-seok fell forward.
After a brief convulsion, he stopped breathing.
You have killed an innocent civilian.
No witnesses, so your crime index has not increased.
If the body is not properly disposed of, it may later be discovered as a murder case.
Kang Yoonsoo glanced down at Choi Chang-seok’s corpse.
He had just killed a person.
Yet he felt no guilt whatsoever.
It was as though he had merely plucked a handful of weeds; there was no emotional response.
He looked around and spotted a flat rock.
Kang Yoonsoo sat on it.
The front pocket of the backpack contained a damp canteen.
He took a sip of water.
Then he spoke softly.
“I don’t feel sorry for killing you. I’ve done so much killing that it’s become tedious.”
There was no one around.
Yet Kang Yoonsoo stared at a single point in the empty air as if someone were there.
“Sometimes I even envy people like you. At least you can die like that.”
Kang Yoonsoo put the canteen back in the backpack and stood up from the rock.
He continued walking while muttering to himself.
His words were so bizarre that anyone who heard them would have thought he was insane.
“Every single moment, the urge to kill myself rises. Because I’ve lived a thousand times. Every morning when I open my eyes, every time I see this tiresome sight, I’m seized by the impulse to gouge out my own eyeballs.”
His previous life had vanished, and he had been erased from the memories of those he cherished.
He had lost all the power and skills he had built up to the peak.
The most vicious villains had all been revived.
Everything had been reset.
The moment a new life began was when it was easiest to go mad.
He could not endure without talking to himself like a madman.
Kang Yoonsoo repeated like a paranoid patient.
“I cannot die by my own hand. I cannot die by anyone else’s hand either. I must never die. If I die, everything ends.”
He could not die.
No matter which life it was.
A red sunset was sinking beyond the western sky.
* * *
The rural territory, Kellin.
It was a small territory where the wasteland had been skillfully cultivated into farmland.
The farmers had finished their work and returned home, while passersby laughed as they entered taverns, perhaps thinking of having a drink.
Well-ripened barley shone golden, and the sweet steam of beer tickled the nose.
Even with sweat on their brows, the residents smiled as they ended their day.
It was a territory that felt as fragrant and comforting as a mother’s embrace.
Kang Yoonsoo gazed at Kellin.
‘Nothing has changed.’
Beautiful scenery, the sound of people’s laughter, a brilliant sunset.
Any traveler who had lived in a harsh reality would have found peace of mind here.
But none of it reached Kang Yoonsoo’s heart.
Suddenly he felt strength gather in his grip.
‘I want to kill them all.’
The impulse to kill was strange.
Why did seeing such a peaceful territory make him want to slaughter and tear everything apart?
Even though they were innocent, good people, the urge arose.
Was it because this was the first village he encountered after regressing?
Stress from repeated regressions?
Or simply because he had gone mad?
Kang Yoonsoo wiped his forehead.
Killing the residents would bring no real benefit.
‘Useless thoughts. I only need to remember one thing.’
Kang Yoonsoo had only one purpose for living.
To kill the Demon Lord.
To crush its head, shatter its heart, and tear it apart cruelly.
Yet despite his burning hatred, killing that transcendent being seemed eternally impossible.
However, in his 990th life, Kang Yoonsoo had found a clue.
Just before dying, the final strike he had landed had, for a brief moment, distorted the Demon Lord’s face.
‘The Demon Lord is not invincible. That much is certain.’
The Demon Lord was an existence comparable to a god.
Even if one fled to reality, it would cross dimensions to pursue and regress them twenty years into the past.
Yet the Demon Lord had a weakness.
With each regression, the Demon Lord grew weaker.
At first, he had thought it was merely speculation.
But after repeating the past nine lives, Kang Yoonsoo gradually became certain.
The Demon Lord, who had once been indifferent to any attack, was increasingly showing signs of pain.
Of course, he had never inflicted a wound severe enough to cause death.
But the fact that he had caused even slight pain was enough.
The reason the Demon Lord was weakening was unknown.
But it was undeniably true that it was growing weaker.
Killing the Demon Lord was not impossible.
That single fact alone gave Kang Yoonsoo a reason to keep living.
In this life, Kang Yoonsoo would strike at that weakness.
The Demon Lord would appear in twenty years.
Until then, he had to reach the highest level and grow using all the knowledge from his previous lives.
To end the endless regressions and prevent the world’s destruction.
‘First, I need her.’
A woman who was weak at first but would grow into his companion by the end.
Her traits were essential to overcome the trials and obstacles ahead.
Moreover, she was one of the reasons he was still alive.
As he climbed the hill, a modest mansion came into view.
A soldier wearing a deep-pressed helmet stopped him.
“Halt. This is Lord Hermia’s residence.”
The guard pointed a sharp scythe at Kang Yoonsoo.
Unlike the relaxed residents, the lord’s private soldiers were highly vigilant and possessed excellent combat ability.
Kang Yoonsoo silently opened the mouth of his backpack.
Inside were rough chunks of ore.
A source of valuable gemstones.
Even with moderate refining, it was enough to buy several territories.
Normally, raw ore was crude compared to refined gemstones.
But the ores Kang Yoonsoo possessed were clearly of the highest grade at a glance.
Though the guard’s expression was hidden beneath the helmet, his attitude became slightly more cautious.
“What business do you have in our territory? Are you perhaps a merchant? If you wish to trade, it would be better to visit a larger trading post.”
“I have business with the lord.”
“What?”
He had come to meet the lord?
No matter how unique Kellin’s lord was said to be, she was still the ruler of a remote territory on the edge of the wasteland.
She could not possibly have the wealth to trade such valuable ore.
Kang Yoonsoo spoke calmly.
“Tell her that someone who can handle the Orb of Oath has arrived.”
The Orb of Oath.
A precious artifact promised since ancient times.
A hidden piece that would aid his future journey.
Kang Yoonsoo looked up at the mansion’s window and said,
“She has probably already heard my voice.”