The Necromancer Boss (2)
There were many different kinds of black magic.
From curse-type spells that bordered on superstition and shamanism to possession-type magic that involved forming direct contracts with demons.
The practices of black magic were so varied that it was difficult to lump them all under one label.
Those disgusting bastards.
Still, if there was one common thread, it was that they made you want to puke.
Even if you weren’t some overly righteous animal lover, watching a human torment a helpless kitten right in front of you would naturally fill you with revulsion.
Even a hero who had seen it all still felt that same instinctive rejection whenever he encountered black mages.
Because no matter how diverse the end results of black magic were, the root was always the same.
The suffering of the weakest.
The sacrifices they favored most were children.
The weakest beings.
Only from them could one extract pure mana, and the process always came with agony.
That pain produced the crimson mana that powered their spells.
Whether the caster was a necromancer, a lich, or a demon contractor, black magic always followed the same filthy pattern.
That was why Junil felt a surge of dark satisfaction right now.
Annihilate the Necromancers
🎁 Reward: 300 Feelings (FL)
So you’re the big one.
Shuk!
The goblin dagger punched straight through the necromancer chief’s jaw in the blink of an eye. That was why.
The necromancers’ eyes flew wide open.
“Wh-what the…?!”
“What the hell is that guy!? Wasn’t he F-rank?!”
“They said he was just a porter!”
The necromancers panicked.
They scrambled to pull out their staves and swing them, but they were far too slow.
The moment they stood in front of the veteran hero Julian and started babbling in confusion, they were already dead men walking.
Junil’s figure had already shot forward like a bullet and was right in their faces.
A blue sword flash tore through the air.
Slash!
Squelch!
Several arms still gripping staves were severed almost simultaneously.
Insane?
Gasp.
They watched their own arms fly away, unable to even scream.
N-no…
Another horizontal slash sent three upper bodies toppling at once.
Splat!
Three down.
Junil had already counted the necromancers present.
There were sixteen.
Thirteen left.
Barring any hidden threats, thirteen remained.
What came next was the real problem.
He had successfully interrupted three castings, but—
Vrrrr!
“R-rise!”
Other necromancers were chanting spells, and green magic circles began glowing on the floor.
Junil’s eyes darted quickly.
Four casting.
Four of them were casting simultaneously from different spots.
The bones scattered around them began to tremble and float into the air.
You first.
Whoosh—
Junil hurled his sword straight at one.
The careless caster’s pupils widened as if thinking that’s too far to hit, right?
—Thud!
The dagger pierced the eye and drove straight into the brain.
“!”
Without even managing a scream, the necromancer collapsed along with the skeleton he had been trying to raise.
“Is he insane?”
“What kind of magic is that?!”
To them, the dagger throw looked like magic.
Now only three casters remained.
Tap.
Junil kicked off the ground, lightly launching his body.
Flash Step.
His figure scattered, then reappeared.
—Pop!
Right in front of the other casting necromancers.
“Wh-when did he—?!”
“What the hell!”
“That bastard’s unarmed now! Keep casting!”
He was literally empty-handed, yet—
Swoosh.
A blade appeared from thin air.
“Who said I didn’t have a blade? I’m the porter, remember?”
It swung immediately.
Splat!
Red blood sprayed across the cave wall.
“Insane, what kind of porter—urk!”
Thud!
In that moment a blade buried itself in another one’s abdomen.
Two more necromancers fell at the same time.
Thump!
One of them dodged.
But only one remained.
“Casting complete! You’re dead!”
The spell finally went off.
The corpses twitched and began to rise.
Subordinates created from corpses that still had flesh attached.
Ghoul Lv.12
Two ghouls. Level twelve each.
Considering the champion goblin had been level fifteen, these were quite formidable.
“Krrrrraaaaagh…!”
Tap!
The creature charged on all fours.
The necromancer shouted with a laugh.
“Go! Body slam!”
But before the ghoul could slam its body into him, something else struck first.
Shuk!
“Huh… wha?”
A dagger had embedded itself in his eye at some point.
He fell backward still wearing that smile.
Thud.
“Fell for it again?”
The two ghouls he had painstakingly summoned also collapsed, returning to mere corpses.
Still quite a few left.
But the ones in other directions had successfully completed their summons.
They had even changed tactics.
“Kill the lights!”
“Don’t let him see you!”
“Dammit, that’s not F-rank! What the hell is he?!”
They had finally acknowledged Junil’s strength.
They scattered in every direction, hiding behind corners and pillars, casting spells from cover.
Vrrrrrr!
“Ugh. These annoying bastards.”
Rattle.
Two skeletons rose on his right.
“Grrrrr…”
“Grrrr…”
“Krrrk!? Krrk…”
On his left, a swarm of ghouls slowly advanced, applying pressure.
This was different from dealing with the mindless goblin swarm.
These were humans using tactics and even psychological warfare.
The constellations were also flustered by the sheer number.
This is getting tiring.
Junil’s combat style became disadvantageous when the enemy numbers grew.
It had been similar back when he was Julian.
He had trained primarily to face one overwhelmingly powerful foe.
After all, a hero’s job was to defeat the Demon King.
Dealing with large groups at once was the job of the mage who always accompanied the hero party.
Of course, the current F-rank porter Junil had no such party members.
But I do have this.
Fortunately, he had something similar.
Click.
He raised his hand, revealing a sparkling violet ring.
Gravity Ring.
It was an item obtained from the champion goblin dungeon.
A hero-grade ring.
It allowed the user to cast one gravity spell.
Of course, it didn’t provide any instructions on how to use it.
The basics of magic are imaging.
Julian’s party had always included a mage.
Even though he never cast spells himself, he had absorbed their knowledge countless times.
Swoosh.
He imagined the target area and activated the magic.
Gravity Field
Creates a powerful gravity field in the designated area, pulling enemies together and crushing them with immense weight. Cooldown: 2 hours.
Thud—
Blue mana vibrated, then oxidized into violet light and pressed down on the ground and air.
The entire space literally warped.
Crack!
Rocks crumbled into stones, then into sand.
Anything caught inside had no chance.
“Kuaaaagh?!”
“Kkgh…!”
Splat!
The crudely made corpse subordinates were simply crushed into red pulp.
More than half the summoned forces vanished in an instant.
“……What?”
“Insane… what the hell is that?”
“What class is that bastard? He’s using magic too?”
“He’s been using magic from the start. He keeps throwing stuff. Continue.”
The necromancers had moved past panic and into outright terror.
This was exactly what Junil had intended.
No need to fight them one by one anymore.
If there was one thing he had learned from facing the Demon King countless times, it was this:
War was not a game of how many enemies you killed.
Killing them all individually was far too inefficient.
What you truly had to aim for was the enemy’s spirit.
Their will to fight.
Their morale.
Once that was shaken, the enemy crumbled more easily than expected.
Cool BGM
[Stopped]
“Ahem.”
Junil cleared his throat for a moment, then shouted loudly.
Mana Roar
“Listen up, every single one of you bastards here!”
The mana-infused roar would have invigorated allies, but—
“Ugh…?!”
“Kgh…!”
To enemies, it was pure terror.
The necromancers flinched as if their hearts were being crushed, just like with the gravity magic earlier.
They had never experienced a skill like this before.
“You guys can’t beat me anyway.”
One of the abilities attached to Mana Roar was “increases persuasiveness.”
When even a little persuasiveness was added to terror, any human would waver.
The necromancers, who had been ordinary modern people until recently, were no exception.
H-he’s right. We can’t win.
Dammit… that monster porter! We can’t beat him!
They all died in one hit earlier.
I couldn’t even follow his movements with my eyes.
If they had combined their strength, they might have given Junil some trouble.
But despair was the only thing filling their heads now.
Hadn’t they just watched countless subordinates get crushed by a single gravity spell?
The fear that they would soon suffer the same fate drenched their entire bodies.
And when despair was at its peak, if even the slightest hope appeared?
“But it’s all right!”
“I only have some questions for you! I didn’t come here intending to fight like this! If I hadn’t heard those strange words, that is!”
A rotten rope.
But a human trapped in despair would grab even that.
No matter how much nonsense it was, humans might desperately believe it.
To survive, they would believe even sentences that led to death.
The necromancers whispered among themselves.
“Wait, that’s what this was about?”
“Dammit. He should’ve just said so from the beginning…”
“Sigh… It’s all Dukho-hyung’s fault. He kept poking us with those dad jokes.”
“I told you to stop with the F-rank dad jokes, Dukho-hyung!”
Why would they fall for such an obvious scam?
Why would they believe such a blatant lie?
When they were in their right minds, they wouldn’t have.
The actual words of the scam weren’t what mattered.
The problem was that they had been driven into a situation where they had no choice but to fall for it.
Junil knew exactly where that point was.
Right now.
“Starting now, first-come-first-served! I’ll spare the first five who cooperate!”
Scramble scramble scramble!
All the necromancers came crawling out.
The necromancers gathered together in one spot, getting along nicely.
“I-I got here first!”
“It’s me! I’m first!”
First-come-first-served, five people.
Obviously, there was a trap.
“It’s first-come-first-served among those who cooperate.”
Not the order they gathered, but the order in which they cooperated.
“Wh-what do we need to cooperate with?!”
“Boss! I’ll do anything! Anything!”
Junil looked down at them and asked.
“Good. I’ll spare the ones who answer first. Raise your hands and answer.”
“……Yes!”
The dagger flew straight at the one who had just answered and embedded itself.
Thud!
“Wh… why…?”
The necromancer fell backward, still wearing a face full of confusion.
Thump.
He was dead.
“Why? I told you to raise your hand and answer.”
“……!”
“Question one. You guys offer sacrifices, right?”
Whoosh!
Everyone raised their hands at once.
“No, I’m not done with the question yet, you idiots. Again. What kind of sacrifices are we talking about here?”
Whoosh!
The man who raised his hand first.
Junil pointed at him and nodded.
“Okay. You.”
“Yes! We offer living people!”
The necromancers’ eyes shook for a moment.
Are you insane? You’re just going to say that?
But it worked.
“Good. Stand over here.”
“Yes!”
Junil placed him on his right side.
The survivor stood beside him with a smile.
You idiots. I lived.
Bewilderment flashed across the other necromancers’ faces.
But that bewilderment quickly turned into fighting spirit.
I’ll definitely answer the next one correctly.
I’ll get it right…!
Survive the quiz here.
Thus began the deadly golden bell quiz.
“Next question.”
When Junil opened his mouth, light began to shine in the necromancers’ eyes.
“Where exactly do you obtain the people you offer as those sacrifices?”
Whoosh!
Countless hands shot up.
Look at those sparkling eyes!
How meaningless it was.
No matter how brightly their eyes shone, they could not see it.
Their already decided fate.
Annihilate the Necromancers
🎁 Reward: 300 Feelings (FL)
“You. Answer.”
“Yes!”