Chapter 19
Chapter 19
Episode 19
Name: Lee Mu-seon
Class: Necron Emperor
Level: 13
Skills: Corpse Control / Town-Grade Undead Subdimension / Necromantic Mana Arrow / Necromantic Mana Manipulation / Dignity of the Corpse Lord / Undead Recycling / Self-Reclamation
How do I check the number of undead I can command?
The moment I wondered about that,
A new window appeared.
Undead Control Capacity: 10/29
"Aha. So this is it? The thing that reacts to your thoughts."
The Dimensional Tower's system was known to be friendly in some ways and incredibly unfriendly in others.
There was a lot of talk like that in the community.
People said that if you wondered about something you didn't understand, the system would respond like this.
As expected of the Dimensional Tower. It even reads your thoughts.
It's the best.
"Anyway...... 29, huh."
The original three.
If I subtract those, it's 26...... Is this number my level multiplied by 2?
The 10 had to be Experimental Jiangshi No. 1, now that it was a Copper Jiangshi.
Hmm. At times like this, I just have to ask.
I immediately connected to the Dimensional Tower Community and went into the Necromancer board.
[Guys, I'm a baby necro. Is it true you can command two undead per level?]
Title says it all.
Two per level, right?
And then.
Amazingly, no one paid any attention to it.
Even after I waited a while, the post still had zero replies.
What made it even more irritating was that
within a few minutes, my post had already been pushed several pages back.
This little attention?
Well, it was a board used by Necromancers all over the world, so I supposed that was inevitable.
The Dimensional Tower Community had automatic translation by default, so everyone could chatter freely.
Should I just use the Korean Necromancer board, a sub-board of the main Necromancer board, instead?
Even so, this is just too much.
"Hah...... Have the morals of the martial world fallen this far?"
If I'd known this would happen, should I have just asked before ending the stream?
But turning the stream back on just to ask this felt a liiittle awkward too.
"Hmm...... I guess there's no choice. I didn't want to do this, but...... I have no other option."
I decided to use my last resort.
What is it, you ask?
It's!
Searching for it myself!
First, check the top posts and the notices!! Then I'll find the information I need!!
I didn't want to because it was a pain, but I had no choice!!
I steeled myself and rummaged through the community.
After a full two hours and twelve minutes, I finally found the post I needed.
Just as I had guessed.
Just as I'd guessed, you really could command two undead per level.
Tsk. Should I have just turned the stream back on and asked?
What a waste of time.
* * *
"So it's not a skill—he has to actually be able to use martial arts......."
The man using the GodTube handle Big-Spender Ajusshi muttered as he watched the footage he'd recorded.
On-screen, a Walking Corpse was smashing a troll's skull.
"I'm curious where he obtained that kind of knowledge......."
What floated around him wasn't a monitor.
Or rather, calling them monitors would have been misleading.
More than a dozen holographic panels floated in midair.
Bluish magical light flowed in a lattice pattern, while footage of the Corpse-Spirit Martial Sovereign's stream played across the panels from multiple angles.
Each panel was a video-projection magic circle powered by Magic Crystals.
Electricity? None of that here.
Everything in the room ran on mana.
A massive mana circulation furnace was embedded in the ceiling, sending sapphire-colored liquid mana through transparent tubes that wound around the entire room.
Thrum...... thrum.......
Each pulse of the circulation furnace made the equipment throughout the room flicker like it was breathing.
The holographic analysis window displayed the following:
[Analysis Target: Unknown energy-control pattern]
[Match with existing database: 0.0%]
[Conclusion: Unable to analyze]
"Unable to analyze. So it's different even from people who use martial-arts Skills...... Interesting."
Big-Spender Ajusshi leaned back in his chair.
Even his chair was anything but ordinary.
Its frame was made of a mithril alloy, and a levitation magic circle engraved into the backrest lifted slightly whenever he leaned against it, distributing his weight.
It felt like sitting in zero gravity.
That chair alone cost more than a typical employee at a small or medium-sized company earned in a year.
Dismantled Dimensional Tower items were scattered across his desk.
A magic sword cut open to expose its magic circuits, unidentified parts tangled with gears and runes, and crystal gauges that seemed to measure some unknown quantity.
Whenever the Corpse-Spirit Martial Sovereign's footage played, the gauge needles quivered precariously.
The mana reading itself was insignificant compared with Big-Spender Ajusshi's own power, but the pattern was one he had never observed before.
Moreover.
He couldn't learn the details from footage alone.
He'd have to raid the Dimensional Tower alongside Lee Mu-seon, the Corpse-Spirit Martial Sovereign, and analyze him in person to know more.
"I've dismantled Dimensional Tower items from all over the world...... and I've never seen a control method like that."
Big-Spender Ajusshi.
He was one of the world's top-ranked Dimensional Tower hunters, the finest engineer on Earth, and the foremost authority on Magitech Engineering.
The world had given him the nickname [Arcane Professor].
His genius for reverse-engineering Dimensional Tower items and recreating them in reality had rapidly made him one of the world's richest people. He was also the founder of Haneulnuri, a corporation influential enough to sway the world.
That was why spending 140 billion won in one shot was within his means.
"Eiruna. What do you think?"
-It is highly likely that an anomalous fate is involved.
A hologram of a beautiful woman appeared beside him.
She had long black hair, and her eyes glittered as their color shifted from moment to moment.
She was the world's most advanced AI, painstakingly created by Kim Yu-han, the man known as the Arcane Professor.
"I've been thinking the same thing. The question is what kind of anomalous fate it is."
-At present, there is insufficient information.
"Then I'll have to make contact."
To learn more about Lee Mu-seon, he ultimately had to make contact.
Big-Spender Ajusshi's eyes gleamed intensely.
Like a starving scholar standing before an unknown truth.
"Corpse-Spirit Martial Sovereign. I absolutely have to meet you."
He tapped the keyboard of light again.
One hologram panel switched to a communication screen.
The line rang once, and the other party answered.
-Yes, Chairman.
"Accept the conditions the Corpse-Spirit Martial Sovereign set. All of them, immediately."
-Understood.
"Grant any other requests too. If HR can't handle them, report directly to me."
-Yes. Understood.
Big-Spender Ajusshi, Kim Yu-han, hung up the phone.
He kept staring at the screen, eyes blazing.
* * *
"Hmm...... I should get going."
By the time I'd browsed the community and worked on turning the remaining corpses into Copper Jiangshi in the Dimensional Tower lobby, quite a bit of time had passed.
It had taken roughly twelve hours to evolve No. 1 into a Copper Jiangshi and fill it with thirty years' worth of internal energy.
Naturally, No. 2 and No. 3 would each take about the same amount of time.
I also had students to teach at the martial arts school, and I still needed time to eat, wash, and sleep, so I had to leave before finishing No. 2.
Just one more and I'm done.......
Actually, since each Copper Jiangshi consumed 10 points of Undead Control Capacity, there was no rush to make No. 3.
My current capacity was 29, which meant I could only control two Copper Jiangshi anyway.
I'll tackle Floor 3 later. For now, I need to finish Copper Jiangshi No. 2.
Or should I run Floor 2 a few more times?
Earning more DP and picking up more items wouldn't hurt.
With that in mind, I returned to reality, steamed a frozen dumpling, ate it, washed up, and went to bed.
The next morning, I got up, spent an hour on my usual external-arts training, heated my special medicinal decoction in the microwave, and was drinking it when someone knocked on the door.
"Coach Mu-seon! It's me, Kang-chan! Open the door, please!"
No. Why is a big dark-skinned guy coming to someone's house in the morning and yelling?
I really couldn't understand it.
I downed the decoction in one gulp, went out, and opened the door.
Park Kang-chan.
One of Korea's more successful Dimensional Tower hunters stood there, staring at me with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes.
Whoa boy.
That was uncomfortable.
"Kang-chan. What are you doing here this early? You're being a nuisance. I haven't even eaten breakfast yet."
That was my routine.
I'd get up, train in external arts, drink my decoction, wash up, and only then make breakfast.
Ah. Compared with my previous life, what a lazy, leisurely existence this was.
Back then, I'd swallow a single fasting pill and spend all my time training.
Wash? Who had time to wash? I had training to do!
Ah, those long-gone days.
While I briefly reminisced about my previous life, Park Kang-chan fidgeted apologetically.
"Ah! Sorry, Coach! I...... I watched yesterday's stream and couldn't hold back......."
"I've told you over and over to have some patience. That's why you keep throwing telegraphed punches. Anyway, what couldn't you hold back from that made you come all the way here?"
"Coach, can you really use martial arts without Skills? Is that why you were already so strong in the real world?"
Aha.
Aha. So this was about the mission from Big-Spender Ajusshi, who'd handed me a glorious 140 billion won yesterday.
"You couldn't hold back over that...... tsk, tsk. Anyway, have you eaten breakfast?"
"I haven't either......."
"Then let's have breakfast together."
"Sounds good!"
And so, I had to take the big dark-skinned guy to a nearby restaurant to eat breakfast.