Chapter 28
Chapter 28
Episode 28
The enlarged body shuddered for an instant, then collapsed as if the transformation had never happened.
THUUUUD.
The massive corpse toppled straight down, shaking the ground.
The shaman and the elite troops were already being swept into the vortex of the Heaven-Overturning Eight Formations Diagram and vanishing.
And the corpse, its enlargement effect released, could be seen scattering away into light.
"...."
Park Il-chim stared at the monitor for a long while, unable to close his mouth.
No words came to mind for what to type in chat.
Then he slowly moved his fingers over the keyboard.
Tap.
-That's sick....
That was all Park Il-chim could write.
That was the strongest reaction he could manage.
* * *
"Oh. Cleared it."
The enlarged hobgoblin general really had been finished cleanly in a single blow.
Last time, hundreds of undead had swarmed it like ants and barely managed to crush it, but this time it was a one-hit kill with just two of them, Heukgang and Baekgang.
This was the true pleasure of raising jiangshi.
It was enough to make me newly understand how that bastard Corpse-Spirit Demon Lord had strutted around in my former life after making a single Corpse-Spirit Heavenly Jiangshi.
If you make one of these properly, it really is reassuring.
Even if it wasn't autonomous and I had to manually control every movement myself.
Still, what more could I ask for?
And then came that moment.
[Not a single village resident has died.]
[You are the first to fully clear the Dimensional Tower Floor 1 trial.]
[The level difference is less than 10, so the condition is satisfied.]
[You have been confirmed as the highest contributor.]
[The first-clear reward for the Dimensional Tower Floor 1 trial is being generated.]
[The accumulated bonus reward is being generated.]
Oh. There was something like that? Protecting all the NPCs counted as a full clear?
I didn't know about this either. If these messages were right, the hunters on the other side must have worked pretty hard too.
Or maybe I'd drawn aggro so well that they all came to my side.
And it also didn't count as a clear if the level difference was around 10?
Well, sure.
If some level-500 guy came here and slaughtered all the goblins, that wouldn't exactly be a normal clear.
Just as I was thinking that, messages began popping up one after another.
[Level increased by 1.]
[Level increased by 1.]
[Level increased by 1.]
This time my level went up by 3 at once again.
I'd been level 13 just a moment ago, so now I was a respectable level 16.
And right after that, another string of messages popped up.
-Another first clear!?
-Insane. This... actually works?
-This is crazy!
"All I did was go mining one more time and there's another reward. Is this really okay?"
As I leaned back lightly against the throne's backrest, a chuckle escaped me on its own.
Dimensional Tower.
Aren't you just entertaining me far too much?
Just as I was thinking that.
[A wondrous and astonishing achievement!]
[You have obtained a Legendary Grade reward.]
Oh... so the full-clear reward had been rated Legendary Grade.
It was a shame it wasn't Genesis or Mythic Grade like during the tutorial.
But Legendary Grade alone was plenty good.
You could tell just from the fact that this throne came out as Legendary Grade, right?
-Legendary Grade again!!
-What's it going to be this time?
-Can't wait can't wait can't wait
I was excited too. What on earth would come out?
Just as I was thinking that.
The reward finally appeared.
[You have acquired 1 Hero Soul Summoning Stone.]
"Huh?"
What's this? A Hero Soul Summoning Stone?
-Insaaaaaane!
-A Hero Soul Summoning Stone here!?
-Wow... that's insane.
I didn't know, but apparently all the viewers did.
While I was standing there bewildered.
The Floor 1 stage ended and I returned to the lobby.
"No, seriously. What is this thing that everyone's making such a fuss about?"
-Did you actually look around the internet?
-This is why rookie necromancers are hopeless, back in my day....
-That's our Corpse-Spirit bro. Still a total blockhead today! Nice!
Since I wasn't a martial arts master like in my former life, I couldn't properly read the chat window as it poured down in a torrent.
But I could tell from the words that occasionally caught my eye that the viewers were mocking me.
Ah, shit.
I apparently still had a lot to learn about necromancers.
So I ignored the viewers and checked the item.
[Hero Soul Summoning Stone]
Grade: Legendary
A summoning stone that randomly summons the soul of a being worthy of being called a hero.
The summoned soul is bound to the user and provides assistance.
Function: Hero Soul Summoning
Function: Bound
Wow, there was actually an item like this?
Just as I was thinking that.
[Cheokcheok Seoksa has donated 1 DP!]
That's an essential item for necros. The souls you call with it all have good abilities. If you make them into undead, they're really strong. And the most important thing. They have egos, so they help a ton. You don't have any Intelligent Undead, so you can't run your facilities, right? They'll manage stuff like that for you too.
Aha.
So, in other words. It's an item that can get me something like my android secretary Jegal Yu-yeon?
Of course, Jegal Yu-yeon was a manufactured product, even if a very expensive one, while this was a being that had actually been alive. That part was different.
But what the hell did this Cheokcheok Seoksa guy do to know all this random stuff? His name said seoksa, but was he a total jobless bum?
"Thanks, Cheokcheok Seoksa. You really do know all kinds of things."
-Isn't it just that Corpse-Spirit bro is the blockhead?
-They say ignorance isn't a sin, but please study a little;;;;
-This is a super rookie? My heart's shrinking
I had a feeling the viewers were badmouthing me... but whatever, it didn't matter.
"Let's see. How about we do a little tallying now."
I'd reached level 16.
And I'd gotten this as a Legendary Grade reward, but my real goal had been something else.
Mining, of course.
Hadn't I played Floor 1 one more time precisely to get corpse resources?
Let's see... whoa. A big catch.
3,281 bodies.
More than 3,000 undead were under my command.
"Can I put all of these into the Necron Ossuary?"
[Cheokcheok Seoksa has donated 1 DP!]
The ossuary's undead storage limit is 1,000. Though I don't know about the Necron Emperor. Normally, once one ossuary is full, you have to build more.
Oh, so the ossuary had a separate storage limit.
"Cheokcheok Seoksa. You seriously know all kinds of things, don't you?"
I had no idea where this person had rolled in from, but they were a walking encyclopedia.
"But let me ask one more thing. How do you handle control capacity, then?"
I was a broken class with unlimited control capacity when it came to Walking Corpses, but other necromancers weren't.
How did those guys put undead into an ossuary?
[Cheokcheok Seoksa has donated 1 DP!]
Later, among the subdimension buildings, a structure that controls lowest-grade or low-grade undead gets unlocked. If you build that, you can control them without control-capacity limits. But only inside the subdimension. You can't use it in the Dimensional Tower. It's a resource-supply building.
"Aha. So that's how it gets solved."
I found myself nodding at Cheokcheok Seoksa's explanation.
It was absolutely perfect for resource supply, filling the ossuary to pump out Necromantic Mana.
"Alright. Then let's try putting in everything I've got for now."
The 3,281 corpse resources I'd just gathered from mining.
I sent all of them filing into the Necron Ossuary.
Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack.
An eerie undead procession stretched on endlessly.
The Necron Ossuary took them in and began emitting an even deeper light.
And I could see system messages popping up one after another.
[The Necron Ossuary's corpse storage has exceeded 1,000.]
[Undead Control Capacity increases by 10.]
[The Necron Ossuary's corpse storage has exceeded 2,000.]
[Undead Control Capacity increases by 10.]
[The Necron Ossuary's corpse storage has exceeded 3,000.]
[Undead Control Capacity increases by 10.]
"Oh... isn't this actually insane?"
I couldn't help letting out an impressed sound.
My Undead Control Capacity, which had just risen to 35 from leveling up.
It shot up to 65 in an instant.
"This isn't just a sweet deal."
I'd thought it only increased my Necromantic Mana recovery.
But every time I crossed a storage threshold, it raised my control capacity too?
Wasn't this basically an all-purpose facility?
-Absolutely insane, for real, holy shit
-Isn't that ossuary broken???
-So it gives bonuses in 1,000-unit chunks lololol
-Confirmed that Necron Emperor is a truly insane class
-A class that gets stronger the more corpses you collect, that's crazy
The viewers were boiling with excitement in the chat window too.
"Alright. Then it's decided."
I sank deep into the throne's backrest and spoke with arrogant ease.
"I'll keep mining like this."
-The mining maniac has appeared, everyone clap!
-Are you going to dig up more corpses, Bro?
-At this rate, is Corpse-Spirit Martial Sovereign never going to leave Floor 1?
Well, the viewers weren't entirely wrong.
The efficiency on Floor 1 was insanely good right now.
I could dig up corpses, gain levels, and increase my control capacity all at once.
At this rate, there was no reason to leave this place.
"Entering Floor 1 again. Small Stone-Pile Village."
And so I headed for Floor 1 once more.
Actually, I hadn't even used any Necromantic Mana earlier.
Other hunters would be gasping for breath after one run because they were out of mana, but not me.
Once I entered, this time I surrounded the entire village with an undead legion.
And the goblins that appeared were ground down and vanished before the undead wall.
The Hobgoblin General, too, was killed in a single blow again by Heukgang and Baekgang's combined attack art.
[Floor 1 of the Dimensional Tower has been cleared.]
Like that, I repeated Floor 1 over and over with the same pattern.
Leveling up. Collecting corpses. And collecting the equipment the goblins had been carrying too.
[Your level increases by 1.]
[Level can no longer increase.]
My level had finally reached 20 and hit Floor 1's leveling cap.
The Necron Ossuary, too, had reached its limit before I knew it.
[The Necron Ossuary's corpse storage has reached its limit.]
[Current storage: 10,000 / 10,000]