Chapter 90

Lee Chul-woo and the rest of the basement family had gathered in the Masked Castle’s grounds. No one could enter the grounds unless Yoon Sang-hyuk allowed it.

"I’m nervous."

Dina Kruger, uncharacteristically tense, was tapping her leg.

"We did our best. What else are we supposed to do now?"

Michael Chang was guzzling whiskey straight from the bottle. Lee Chul-woo snatched it from his hand and took a long swallow himself.

"I don’t get why you all drink that awful stuff so much."

At Kurihara Ayane’s remark, Lee Chul-woo and Michael Chang shouted at the same time.

"You’re the one who drinks the most out of all of us!"

"What are you talking about, you terminal alcoholic?"

Yang Su-chan clicked his tongue at them with an expression of utter contempt.

"Tsk, the way you act, you’re all just kids."

"Shut up. Where do you think you’re sticking your bone fetish?"

"You, you! Watch yourself. You never know when my babies might crush you."

"Sounds like you don’t want any tattoos on your undead anymore."

"Gah!"

Yang Su-chan raised both hands and backed away.

"Why don’t we stop talking and get started?"

At Andrei Ivanov’s calm suggestion, everyone nodded. Their eyes all settled on the object at the center of the room: a small golem made of metal, only about knee-high.

It was small, but every technique from the golem blueprints had been packed into it. The material inside its heart was tiny, so its output was low, but that made no difference for confirming normal operation.

"Who’s going to make the soul contract?"

A golem gained life through a contract with a mana-bearing being. In other words, the moment the contract was made, the golem would gain a will of its own.

"Dina. Why don’t you do it? You worked the hardest."

Because she was the magic engineer, there wasn’t a single part of the golem-making process that Dina Kruger’s hands hadn’t touched.

Dina Kruger’s face twisted sharply.

"Are you kidding me? Of course I’m going to contract with the first properly finished one. Old man Chul-woo should do it. You barely even go hunting anymore, don’t you?"

"Hmm, that’s true enough. Fine. I’ll do the contract."

The others all let out sighs of relief. None of them had wanted to contract with the tiny golem made for test operation.

"I’ll get it ready right away."

Andrei Ivanov drew the golem contract magic circle around the small golem. Michael Chang sprinkled mana stone powder over the circle, then placed a small mana stone at the points of the hexagram.

The magic circle was completed in an instant.

Yang Su-chan, standing beside Lee Chul-woo, drew a dagger made of bone from his waist and handed it over.

"You know how to make the contract, right?"

"Do I look like you?"

Taking the dagger, Lee Chul-woo slashed his palm without hesitation. He brought the bleeding hand to the golem. The blood running down his palm soaked into the golem’s body, then dripped from it onto the magic circle.

Vooooom-

The circle burst into light. As the whole formation shone bright, Lee Chul-woo began the contract.

"Let the sacred vow of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Titan, handed down from ancient times, now begin. I offer my blood to your heart of iron. May my blood make your iron heart beat. Open your eyes."

The resonance rang clearly in his ears.

- I answer the sacred vow of the Titan. You who are bound to me by blood, speak my name.

"Atom! Your name is Atom!"

- My name is Atom. The sacred vow from ancient times is fulfilled.

The light pouring from the magic circle was swallowed entirely into the golem’s body, Atom. The basement family watched with tense eyes as the circle went dark and the golem was given a name.

"Atom. Come here."

Clank. Clank. Clank.

Atom walked right up to Lee Chul-woo and stopped before him. For a golem, its movements were astonishingly fluid.

"Ooooh!"

"That’s cool."

The basement family erupted in admiration all at once.

"But it’s so small it doesn’t look that strong."

"We didn’t make it to look strong."

At Yang Su-chan’s comment, Dina Kruger bristled.

"Still, it’s a golem. We should check its combat movement too. Want to run a test?"

"How?"

"We can test it with one of my undead."

"Your undead are too strong. That’s not ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a test."

Dina Kruger objected, but Yang Su-chan wasn’t backing down either.

"Atom was made with Misraum alloy. It’s got durability almost on par with mithril. No matter how strong my undead are, they can’t destroy mithril."

The others agreed.

"Now that you mention it, yeah. The Misraum alloy we made really is impressive."

"But..."

Dina Kruger, about to say something else, eventually nodded.

"Fine. Let’s do it. Which undead are you planning to use?"

"Poison Hell ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Bone Hound."

Once the test was decided, everyone backed away from Atom. Yang Su-chan promptly took a Poison Hell Bone Hound out of his undead storage subspace. It was an undead he had newly made after the original was wiped out by Park Ho-sung in Egypt. He had improved its flaws while remaking it.

The Poison Hell Bone Hound was stronger than before.

"Atom."

- Speak, oath-bound one.

"Get rid of the undead in front of you."

At that moment, Yang Su-chan also gave his own command to the Poison Hell Bone Hound.

"Crush it!"

The Poison Hell Bone Hound attacked first. It lunged with its jaws gaping wide to bite down on its target. Compared to Atom, its body was several times larger. Its mouth was big enough to swallow Atom in one bite.

The moment the Poison Hell Bone Hound tried to clamp down on Atom’s tiny body,

"No way!"

"Is that even possible?"

Atom had reached out and caught the hound’s upper and lower jaws in its hands. The Poison Hell Bone Hound shook its head, trying to wrench its muzzle free, but Atom’s arms did not budge an inch.

The basement family, all of whom knew exactly how terrifying the hound’s bite strength was, let out cries of amazement.

Then something even more astonishing happened.

Thud-!

Atom lifted the Poison Hell Bone Hound, despite the fact that it was several times larger than itself, and slammed it into the ground. The moment the hound tried to rise again, Atom stepped in even faster.

Crack-

Atom’s fist smashed into one of the hound’s front legs. The leg bone, hardened through multiple enhancements, magical enchantments, and tattoos until it was stronger than steel, shattered from a single punch.

From there, the fight became one-sided. With one leg gone and unable to move properly, the Poison Hell Bone Hound couldn’t withstand Atom’s attacks.

"Stop! Big bro, I said stop! My baby’s gonna die!"

"Atom. That’s enough."

Atom, who had been about to bring its fist down on the hound’s head, froze like a still frame.

"Good work. Come here. Damn, Atom, you’re insanely strong."

That wasn’t just flattery. It was beyond expectations, no, beyond imagination.

"If Atom’s this strong, just how powerful are the ones that get made properly?"

"They’d better be strong. You think we spent all that money for nothing?"

"True enough. Still, the combat power per investment is going to be ridiculous."

"Each golem costs almost a trillion won just to make. Add in our labor, and do you know how much one unit comes out to?"

"We’re not even selling the golems, so why the hell are you obsessing over the cost?"

While the basement family bickered, Lee Chul-woo was stroking Atom’s head. The chill of the metal felt appealing in his hand.

"Atom. Take good care of us from now on."

- Oath-bound one. I feel the same.

* * *

Yoon Sang-hyuk staggered and drank a potion.

"I’m sick of chocolate flavor already. Next time I’ll have them make orange."

The dragon-slayer set he was wearing was in tatters. He’d been injured so many times that it would have been faster to list the parts of his body that weren’t wounded. Everywhere else, there were cuts made by the Abyss Knight.

The Abyss Knight wasn’t exactly normal either. Shards of darkness had broken off all over its body. Just as Yoon Sang-hyuk was bleeding, the Abyss Knight was also sending black smoke rising from its entire frame.

"Kheh... it hurts. It hurts so much. Heh-heh-heh, that’s why I like it."

It groaned like a lunatic, then laughed.

"This is only because it’s the first time. Next time we meet, someone like you’ll be as good as gum, gum. Got it?"

Thankfully, the Abyss Knight never struck first. It only counterattacked when Yoon Sang-hyuk attacked. If the knight had attacked on its own, he wouldn’t have lasted.

"Let’s finish this now. That’d be easier for you too, wouldn’t it?"

Yoon Sang-hyuk walked toward the Abyss Knight. The knight raised its greatsword. As Yoon Sang-hyuk steadily closed the distance, there came a moment when he surged forward at a speed too fast for the eye to follow, pressing the knight hard.

The Abyss Knight’s greatsword came down vertically. He twisted his body just slightly.

Bang-

The greatsword struck his left shoulder. He clenched his teeth and endured the way his knee tried to buckle. Then he drove the sacred sword Idea in his right hand upward from below.

He could clearly feel Idea’s blade sinking into the Abyss Knight. Yoon Sang-hyuk twisted the sword at once, turning the edge upward, then kicked off the ground and leaped.

He had to finish it before the Abyss Knight’s body could turn spiritual again.

I cut it.

In that instant, a tremendous blow slammed into his back and hurled him into the ground. The Abyss Knight had smashed his fist into Yoon Sang-hyuk’s spine.

Yoon Sang-hyuk tumbled across the floor and only stopped when his body hit the wall.

"Aaaaaagh!"

He screamed without holding back the pain. His left shoulder felt ready to tear off. And his back? It hurt so badly he almost wondered whether his spine had been broken.

With great effort, he turned his head. The Abyss Knight was there, its upper body split clean in two.

The final attack had landed.

The knight’s body began to collapse slowly. Like sand falling through an hourglass, the darkness that had formed its body turned to powder and poured downward.

"See? Someone like you’s just gum, I told you. Kheh-."

Yoon Sang-hyuk clutched his left shoulder and cried out again.

Then it happened.