Chapter 26
Chapter 26
Episode 26
Park Kang-chan's ninefold prostration was a knockoff invented by wuxia novel authors. It's commonly described as "bowing nine times," but the original meaning refers to the nine "methods" of bowing found in the Rites of Zhou.
But what Yoo Hye-yeon just performed was the real thing.
Of course, the details differed slightly from the etiquette in my memory, but the fact that it was nearly identical was surprising.
Originally, the formal initiation rite of the martial world was to summon the spirits of heaven and earth in all four directions, then bow before the master's spirit tablet or the sect's founder portrait.
And she actually went and found one to bring with her.
"......Huh."
Admiration escaped me before I knew it.
I suppose this is what it means for her fundamentals to be different from Park Kang-chan's.
Yoo Hye-yeon let out a sigh of relief.
"From this moment on, you are a disciple of the One Extremity Martial Origin Sect. Do not wield martial arts recklessly, and do not lay martial arts aside lightly either. Do you understand?"
"Yes. Master."
Yoo Hye-yeon bowed her head deeply.
Unlike Park Kang-chan, she seemed like someone I could accept as a direct disciple right away.
Of course, that was something to observe a bit longer.
And so, with Yoo Hye-yeon, I had taken on two disciples.
* * *
I had gained another disciple and a secretary (in name, though really a housekeeper).
So what was it that I had to do?
Mining!
First, I needed to secure a supply of corpses.
According to what I'd seen while browsing the necromancer community, for a necromancer, it's corpses first, corpses second.
The basics were to scrape together corpses, put them in the ossuary, and draw necromantic mana from them.
And naturally, using them as materials to make this and that was also something I had to do.
That was why necromancers were said to always be starving for resources.
Because.
The corpses placed in the ossuary ultimately had to be undead that occupied the necromancer's own control capacity stacks.
So they always had to agonize over it.
They had to carefully balance the number of undead stored in the ossuary against the number of undead taken out for combat, apparently.
Wow. Being a Necromancer was a pretty brutal profession, huh?
In that regard, as the utterly broken Necron Emperor class, I don't consume control capacity stacks for Walking Corpses.
So I could pile an enormous amount of corpse resources into the Necron Ossuary.
In other words, even if I hadn't used my past-life knowledge to turn undead into jiangshi and make them capable of using martial arts, Necron Emperor was an insanely overpowered class.
Hmm. I guess that was enough to make me a super rookie.
It was certainly worthy of the world's attention.
Undead Control Capacity: 10/29
My current undead control capacity was 29. The Copper Jiangshi only took up 10.
This was actually a bit surprising. Because Copper Jiangshi were a grade slightly below ghouls, yet they only occupied about 10.
A single ghoul was said to eat up 30 control capacity stacks, but I was at barely a third of that.
Well, now.
Were jiangshi better than ghouls?
They seemed more cost-effective too.
On top of that.
Once you crammed internal energy into a jiangshi, it could use sword aura or fist aura, just like a ghoul wreathed its hands in necromantic mana.
So in the end, weren't jiangshi just better?
I couldn't help but think that.
Anyway, with that sorted out.
I got ready to go mining.
First, I readied the undead I'd take on the mining run. Then I turned on the stream.
-He's heeeere! My fix has arrived!
-This is the lobby? But you're already riding the throne lolololololol
-Emperor cosplay? Well, your class is Necron Emperor, so I guess it fits.
-Oh man lolololololololololol
I placed the imperial throne on top of the bone palanquin support and combined them.
And just like that, the throne palanquin was complete!
When I sat on the throne and turned on the stream, the viewers came in and started cracking up.
I watched them with satisfaction, then spoke.
"Welcome to the One Extremity Martial Origin Sect, strangers. I am the enlightened martial artist who watches over my fine disciples, the Corpse-Spirit Martial Sovereign."
-Dizzying from the very start.......
-No, what era is that game joke from lolololololol grandpa! Seriously!?
-The way you talk is really weird but kinda funny lololololololol
Oh-ho. There were people who caught my joke. That made the joke worth making.
"Nice to see you, viewers. Today I'm going mining. I looked through some community guide posts yesterday, and they said corpse resources are important for Necromancers. So I'm going to dig up some corpses. And make money too."
-Corpse mining... damn.
-Scary.
[Coffee-Flavored Mint Choco has donated 1 DP!]
Aren't you going to make the woman's body you found in the corpse pit into an undead yet?
"For now, I've set that aside separately. I'm not going to use it as a resource either. I'll say this in advance. I'm not going to use human corpses as resources, and I'm not going to make them into undead. Understand? It's a bit iffy, you know? Ethically and morally."
-Well, that's true.
-Honestly, making undead out of human corpses is kind of messed up.
-No, then how are you supposed to make a living as a necromancer.......
[Holding Back Laughter has donated 1 DP!]
But you already made undead out of people, didn't you?
"Those are clones provided by the Tower. They look like people, but are they people?"
-A profound question indeed.
-Is a clone made without a brain human?
-Well, the Dimensional Tower made and provided them, and they have no soul or ego.
"Alright, alright. Let's stop here. I'm heading straight out to mine. Entering Dimensional Tower Floor 1, Small Stone-Pile Village!"
When entering a new floor of the Dimensional Tower, the destination was random, but on floors you'd already passed through, you could select and re-enter a map you'd done before.
Running a familiar stage like that, farming items, and coming back out—that was what people called mining.
Because, well, it was for making money.
Since dying 100 times in the Dimensional Tower meant permanent expulsion, there were many people whose goal was to earn money safely.
Or there were also those who did reckless broadcasts fully prepared to die.
And so I re-entered the Small Stone-Pile Village I'd been to before, the place people commonly called a defense or siege map.
[Dimensional Tower, Floor 1. You have entered Small Stone-Pile Village.]
[Defend Small Stone-Pile Village.]
[If an awakened dies, or the village temple collapses, the Floor 1 trial fails.]
[May luck be with you.]
Seeing the familiar messages I'd seen before, I nodded.
This time, the goal was corpse collection.
And what was needed for that?
Overwhelming numbers!
"Come out."
Sitting on the throne palanquin, I summoned undead, Walking Corpses, from the subdimension.
My shadow spread wide, and goblin undead began pouring out in a line.
Shhk. Shhk.
Walking Corpses crawled endlessly out of my shadow.
I had released all of the hundreds of goblin undead I'd made directly on Floor 1 last time and brought out with me.
They went out beyond the earthen wall and stood on one side of the village.
"Hmm. The numbers are too small to surround the entire village."
Even if it was a small village, a village was still a village.
According to the internet, about three hundred people lived in this stone-pile village.
So to completely surround this village, I'd need at least twice the undead I currently had.
Even so, this was still something. With my current undead, I could at least block half the village.
"Graaah."
"Grrrr."
And even in the very center of it all.
[Throne of the Small Empire's Emperor] was mounted atop the [White-Bone Palanquin Support].
And on that throne sat none other than me, sitting primly.
The throne palanquin was designed for four bearers.
And eight goblin Walking Corpses were carrying it.
The reason it was a four-man sedan chair but eight were carrying it? Because goblin bodies were small.
I'd have to switch them out for a species like orcs later.
And on either side, two Copper Jiangshi stood like sect guardians.
Just look at this setup.
It looked like a tyrant emperor on procession.
Nice, right?
While I was thinking that, just like before, other hunters began appearing around me one by one.
"......?"
"Wh-what the hell is that?"
"Holy shit, isn't that the Corpse-Spirit Martial Sovereign?"
"Crazy, he showed up on this map again!?"
"What is that? A palanquin? Who rides around in a palanquin?"
Sounds close to screams burst out from all over.
A hundred hunters were all staring at me at once.
And with their mouths hanging wide open, at that.
Well.
I understood.
They'd entered a siege map, and right next to them a super rookie had shown up, riding a palanquin and doing emperor cosplay while leading close to seven hundred undead.
This was bound to be a shock.
-lolololololol look at the other players' faces.
-No, what even is that;;;
-From their perspective, it must be absolutely baffling.
-Mining Floor 1 from a palanquin;;; boss-level dignity;;;
-Corpse-Spirit Martial Sovereign blew up, and now he shows up on Floor 1? That’s a carry. Total carry.
My viewers' chat was also going wild.
"Nice to meet you all."
Still seated on the throne, I lightly raised a hand.
"I shall handle this half myself, so you all need only hold the opposite side."
"......."
"......."
"......."
A hundred hunters fell silent at once.
Faces that didn't know how to react.
Then one of them opened his mouth with a trembling voice.
"B-bro! Thank you!"
Someone called me "bro."
Maybe he was the same sort as Park Hyeon—BJ Hyeonggang.
Because on a map like this, if someone handled things for you, it was an absolute jackpot.
The other hunters also seemed to come to their senses then, and I could see them slinking off to the opposite side of the earthen wall.
They'd all figured it out.
That there was no need to step forward here.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
The bell rang.
And far away.
A familiar sight unfolded across one side of the plain.
A wave of mixed green and black.
An army of a thousand goblins was charging forward, shouting battle cries.
"SKREEE!"
"GRAAAH!"
Crude ladders and spears, and swords.
It was exactly the scene I'd seen last time.
Except this time was different.
"Heaven-Overturning Eight Formations Diagram. Deploy."
As I flicked a finger while seated on the throne.
The seven hundred goblin Walking Corpses lined up inside the earthen wall began to move in perfect unison.
They all filed out beyond the earthen wall in orderly fashion and spread into formation.
Ah, this was the great undead formation!
As the Heaven-Overturning Eight Formations Diagram unfolded, the undead legion began to rotate like a massive whirlpool.
[The Heaven-Overturning Eight Formations Diagram unfolds.]