The Center of the Yellow Spot

"For now, act as you have been so you don't arouse suspicion."

"Yes..."

"And hide the fact that you engaged in combat with us. Just tell them Michael hasn't returned yet. The bastards outside have only been waiting for twenty-four minutes anyway, so it's hard for them to gauge the time that's passed in here."

"Yes, I understand..."

"Also..."

I gave Erickson a series of orders. I told him to maintain the current state of affairs, just as he had been doing until now. Erickson nodded, having grasped most of what I wanted. I also instructed him to check periodically in case anyone presumed to be Nick or Michael happened to resurrect. It would be a headache if they respawned at their own base. Furthermore, I told him to move as much soil as possible to the ruins in the Narak, rather than the Crimson Zone. Since water occurred naturally there, it seemed more suitable for farming than the foul-smelling Crimson Zone. Of course, just having water didn't mean farming would be easy, but we could fill in the other requirements one by one. For instance, I wondered if bringing in LED lights for plant cultivation would have some effect.

I recalled that Jeong Ji-yeon, the engineer, had a skill called Scientific Farming. I thought if I leveled her up soon and had her learn it, she might be able to create items useful for agriculture. As for the rapid growth of plants, that could be easily solved by inviting Heeseon-noona or the plant farmer Joo In-hye to the Narak. Even if I didn't go that far, time flowed differently inside and out, so if I just had the slaves manage it, I could probably harvest a massive amount of crops in just a few days. Regardless, the slaves would have plenty to do—hauling soil from the mountain behind to the Narak, building rain gutters to prevent the water dripping from the ceiling from turning the soil into mud...

Of course, the heavy lifting would be handled by the Parasitic Tree hosts or the Mushroom-folk, so the human slaves only had to deal with the complex tasks. Ha Jin-seong had told me before that some slaves were perfectly satisfied with just that. It was the same situation as having the Parasitic Tree hosts handle all the loading and unloading while the human slaves just sorted the goods. It occurred to me in many ways that perhaps a Necromancer was actually the optimal job for manual labor or farming.

As I sat and rested for a moment, wondering if there was anything else to assign, Kashnakas spoke up, grumbling.

"Ah, you startled me... Ah... Yes... Haha..."

I wish she'd turn on a turn signal before entering. Sometimes I get startled when Kashnakas speaks to me suddenly. Though, she seems to enjoy it.

Even Indikron chimed in at Kashnakas's words. Well, I had been eating without much thought... Since I'd never had an upset stomach, I suppose you could say I just blindly stuffed my face.

'Ah, Botamilli-nim.'

Indikron had told me the seal would soon be broken, and it seemed it had been completely released. Aside from when I faced her directly, her voice sounded clearer than any of our previous conversations.

'Oh...!'

Of course I remembered. When I faced her, she had given me a mysterious red fruit and upgraded Twisted Carapace, a mediocre defensive skill, into Distorted Scales. While the original Twisted Carapace was merely a hard defensive barrier, Distorted Scales added the effect of absolutely defending against all types of projectiles three times. Thanks to that, I had escaped death's door a few times. But now, she was saying that skill was inferior to the original.

Botamilli, who had instructed me on how to make the offering, projected information about the grace she would grant into my brain. A tiny fraction of the secrets of the void, which humans were never meant to know, flowed into my head. My head throbbed as the effects of the Veil of Void began to be injected into my mind.

"Ghhhuuu..."

It had been a while since I felt such cerebral pain. I let a drop of saliva fall and fell to my knees. How could I not kneel before the power of a god? Of course, it was just that the strength in my legs had given out slightly, but regardless, I was now able to understand the detailed information about the skill.

If Distorted Scales had absolute defensive power limited to projectiles, Veil of Void was a skill that possessed absolute defensive power against all attacks except for divine ones. It didn't seem to block divine power, but I shouldn't have been wishing for that much. Just the fact that it returned the attacks of all Awakened to nothingness was incredible. It was a skill effect truly befitting the void. Moreover, while Distorted Scales had a limit of three uses, Veil of Void had even shed that restriction.

'Instead, the mana consumption is... 100 per minute each time I use it...'

Even casting Veil of Void for just five minutes would consume a whopping 500 mana. Perhaps an ordinary Awakened would be reluctant to use it even once due to lack of mana. But my current mana was approaching a staggering 800. Considering that combat situations almost always ended within five to ten minutes on average, I could deploy absolute defense for more than enough time.

'Botamilli's power... as expected of a sealed entity, it's immense...'

Yes, by awakening a sealed god, I had gained absolute power. You could say I had obtained a shield that nothing could pierce. With this, I had perfectly captured the trinity of utility, offense, and defense. The Tentacle Ejection granted by Kashnakas could be used in place of hands, providing high utility, and Abyssal Maw was an extremely aggressive skill that was hard to predict and block unless you were a superhuman-level NPC. On top of that, having obtained a barrier that returned all attacks to nothingness, I felt like I had truly become an unkillable monster.

I could clearly realize how great a contribution killing Nick and Michael had been to the Manma-jeon. At the same time, I wondered what kind of skills Nick, the hero class of the Good Gods, would have had. After all, if there was a shield that blocked everything, there was bound to be a spear that pierced everything. The battle of spear and shield. Nick surely had one skill that penetrated all types of defense. That was probably the Holy Sword.

'Come to think of it...'

The three swords I looted from Nick's corpse. Two of them were weapons named Sword of the Full Moon and Sword of Green Shade, respectively. However, the last one wasn't even an item...

'It was just a child's toy...'

It was a slightly hard plastic toy sword that looked like something out of a tokusatsu show. When I pressed the button, even a song in Japanese played. Through this, I learned another fact about the Holy Sword. I suspected the Holy Sword wasn't something with a physical entity, but a kind of skill. It was likely an object summoned in the form of possessing something like this toy. Therefore, it meant I hadn't been able to steal the Holy Sword from Nick.

'Still, since I took two of his weapons... Nick must be lamenting.'

The two ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠swords looted from his corpse. These were significant treasures.

Perhaps because it was a sword used by a hero, the performance was insane. I immediately handed the Sword of the Full Moon to Areum, who had changed her class to Sword Master. Palus would be envious, but... that human could cut through dragon scales even with a wooden stick, so I just gave it to Areum.

This was a unique sword that changed its characteristics by absorbing the earth's energy. It seemed the power it exerted changed depending on the state of the ground, so I thought it could be used according to the situation. I handed this to Areum as well for now. Since Areum used dual swords, she would be able to use it well.

"Erickson. Bring me about three of the oldest people here."

Time had passed while I was thinking about the swords. I called for Erickson before it was too late. Since the Veil of Void Botamilli showed me was a skill I needed to obtain immediately, I thought it would be better to get it now. Soon, Erickson brought over some Awakened who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠looked a bit older.

"Erickson, how old are these guys?"

"Starting from the far right, forty-five, fifty-two, and fifty-one."

"I see."

Of the three men, the white man in the middle was the oldest. He was a man who looked like a sheriff from some American drama. "His class is just Fighter... and his name is Walter." Botamilli was a god who only asked for the heads of the elderly, not caring about the offering process itself.

"Goodbye, Walter."

I grabbed Walter's head and used Unholy Touch. Soon, his body shuddered, and his head melted into foul-smelling green slime.

"I offer this."

My first offering to Botamilli. She made a smacking sound as if savoring the memories of the one I had offered.

However, it seemed Walter's memories weren't enough to tear the Veil of Void from her.

"Hmm. Then."

I grabbed the head of fifty-one-year-old Louis. Louis trembled so hard his teeth chattered, begging me.

"Please..."

He squeezed his eyes shut and begged to be spared. But it couldn't be helped. I melted Louis's head.

"Gyaaaaaaah!!!!!"

Louis died with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a scream as his head melted away. Erickson, who had been standing to the side watching this process, eventually couldn't hold back his nausea and started vomiting in one corner.

"Indeed. I'm glad I prepared three."

It seemed she had a bigger appetite than I thought. Well, she must have been just licking her lips while sealed, so that was to be expected. I placed my hand on the head of the last remaining offering. His name was Brian, and his class was uniquely a Wrestler. A peculiar class where most skills were grappling techniques. However, it was just peculiar and not a very useful job, so I offered him to Botamilli without hesitation.

-Thud.

Only after offering the three did Botamilli let out a satisfied breath.

Soon, with a chilling sensation, I felt someone touching my soul. A stifling feeling, as if a snake were constricting me... The skill was transforming. Distorted Scales was in the middle of changing into the Veil of Void.

"Huu..."

Scales with a unique pattern that looked like they had been mosaic-processed sprouted from my palm and disappeared in an instant. The power of the void had entered my hand.

******

After drinking the antidote Hellus had hastily manufactured, my body felt significantly better. Since there was no point in wasting more time, we decided to depart immediately.

"I'll be back! Everyone, wait patiently!"

After greeting the personnel remaining at the base and telling them to guard the house well, we headed toward the Yellow Spot. As I held the arrow-tipped flail the Seeker had provided, the sub-piece of the flail trembled and pointed in one direction. There was no need to worry about getting lost.

"The center of the Yellow Spot must be at the end of this path. Phew..."

Henry said he had never entered the center of the Yellow Spot. He said he only vaguely knew of its existence and didn't know the details. It didn't matter much since I was taking him along as a combatant rather than a guide. The flail told us the way anyway.

So, we advanced without rest toward the direction indicated by the arrow-shaped sub-piece attached to the flail. After walking for a long time, it was already the 25th hour. A white and yellowish fog appeared, visible to the eye.

"Master, yellow dust is starting to float in the air. It must mean we've entered the Yellow Spot."

"Oh. Finally..."

We each put the mouthpiece the Seeker had made into our mouths. As long as we had this in our mouths, the poisonous smoke of the Yellow Spot couldn't harm us. Instead, conversation had become almost impossible. We had to advance while communicating only through gestures. If we spat it out even once, the effect would disappear.

******

"Huu.. Huu..."

"Ugh?"

"Ughhh."

Since conversation was impossible, we communicated with rough grunts and finally found the center of the Yellow Spot.

'This is it...'

An old building erected in the center of a completely polluted underground lake. The sub-piece trembled and pointed to the center of the underground lake. That building was the center of the Yellow Spot. The building was small, and even that was so damaged it was hard to recognize its shape, and it looked dirty, covered in yellow vines. I wondered if it might have been a very beautiful temple once. But now, it had turned into a place where yellow poisonous gas was spewing out, making it a place one would be reluctant to approach.

I wanted to order the mushroom-people I had brought along to carry us forward, but my mouth was blocked, so I couldn't give orders.

"Ugh."

"Ugh."

In the end, I gestured for Henry to cross the underground lake first. Henry was startled, frowned, and shook his head. Since it was clearly a place where you'd die if you entered, even Henry refused to go in. He even looked at me as if asking how I could give such a cruel order.

'This is driving me crazy.'

How was I supposed to get over there? While I was contemplating whether to go there using Mer's wings, a voice came from the center of the underground lake.

[Cough.. Cough.... How long has it been since I heard the news that you were coming... You did all your own business and only now come crawling here... You heaven-forsaken bastard... Cough..!! Kahk ptoo.. Damn it... Don't make an old man wait... I don't even know when I'll die.. Goodness..]"

As the voice of a dying old man was heard, a stele rose from the bottom of the underground lake, creating a stone bridge. 'That bastard... the helper...?' Listening to the grumbling of the entity sealed in the center of the Yellow Spot, I felt for some reason that it would be good to offer him to Botamilli.