The Monarch Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 346
The Hell Giant was Diamond-rank.
A troll’s combat power was Gold-tier.
The difference between us was greater than that between a fully grown adult and a small child.
Winning the fight was only natural.
“I didn’t expect them to die without even brushing against you.”
What were trolls, after all?
The monsters that symbolized regeneration!
Even if an arm or leg was torn off, they were grotesque creatures that could simply spit on the wound and have it reattach with a snap.
The Ultra-Regeneration skill I had completed through the synergy of various essences had also been inspired by trolls.
The Hell Giant’s specialty was close-quarters combat.
The ice blades that sprouted from its footsteps were merely one application of cold energy.
It had been nothing more than a polite introduction before the real exchange of blows.
The key point was that an entire pack of trolls had been wiped out by what couldn’t even be called proper attacks.
Frost Armor
“Better than I expected.”
『It is fortunate that I did not disappoint my Master.』
“Let’s run a few more experiments.”
Trolls alone couldn’t draw out the Hell Giant’s full potential.
Were there any ogres passing by?
While I looked around with a hint of disappointment, the Hell Giant extended something toward me.
It was the corpses of the trolls it had just hunted.
They were perfectly preserved in a frozen state…
『I present these troll corpses to you.』
That Ark.
He was doing things I hadn’t even ordered.
“It’s fine. Turn them into undead.”
『Doesn’t Master grow stronger by devouring corpses?』
“Don’t forget why we came all the way out here.”
『Understood. I shall keep it in mind.』
Ark, seated upon his throne, chanted a spell.
Dead Rise
A chilling aura seeped into the troll corpses.
With the sounds of tearing muscle and snapping bone—crunch, crack—the bodies were reassembled.
◈ The troll corpses, nearly twice as large as they were in life.
◈ The massive undead known as Zombie Tyrants let out thunderous roars.
“To create undead of this caliber from troll corpses…”
–Was it truly such a monstrous creature?
“It’s classified as high-rank undead, after all.”
On par with a Death Knight.
Its actual combat strength was a notch below, but the Zombie Tyrant’s true advantage lay elsewhere.
It was a walking siege engine.
With monstrous durability and the aura of death, it could absorb corpses to automatically restore itself.
To think he had dismantled some of the twelve troll corpses to use as materials for high-rank undead.
Even with reduced stats, he was still an Archlich Lord.
In terms of undead creation skill, he surpassed every Earth-born player I had seen across both my previous life and this one.
–One of the creatures is rather small.
Indeed?
The undead barely reached the knee of a Zombie Tyrant.
At about two and a half meters tall, it wasn’t small by human standards.
But compared to the original troll, it was far smaller.
『It is a Death Wizard meant to assist in commanding the army.』
“You turned a troll into a magic-type undead?”
『There was one shaman among them. I allocated the unnecessary parts to the Zombie Tyrants and reinforced the spiritual aspects.』
Yeah.
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
I had gained some knowledge of necromancy through Devour.
My experience wasn’t lacking either.
Yet I still couldn’t understand what Ark was saying.
It reminded me of how Representative Amelia would rattle off magical theory like a machine gun.
『Now. Go and find prey.』
“Kwaaaaaah!”
The Bone Drakes scattered in every direction.
The eyes of the undead holding the recruitment registers for the legion of the dead glowed with an icy blue light.
“Kroooooar!”
The Hell Giants charged forward in formation.
Ice surged from their footprints.
The passive skill that struck nearby enemies had activated.
“Krrk.”
The lizardman pack couldn’t even swing their weapons properly before being skewered by ice.
It was only natural they couldn’t leave a scratch given the spec difference.
However.
The story changed when over a thousand creatures couldn’t even touch a single hair on the giant’s body despite being moving targets.
Frost Armor
An ice armor that covered the giant’s entire massive body.
Its hardness surpassed even diamond.
It also had the effect of dispersing and weakening impacts.
To think it could wear full-body armor that even my normal attacks couldn’t break in a single blow?
And if it took damage, ice spikes would shoot out and reflect some of the damage back.
The large surface area wasn’t a flaw at all.
Simply approaching it would let Niflheim’s chill seep in, causing frostbite and various status ailments.
Two Hell Giants would probably be enough to fight Ping Lei head-on without losing ground.
–Is it truly that strong?
“It doesn’t mean Ping Lei would lose.”
I was only talking about a straight-up frontal clash.
To land an effective hit on a Hell Giant, a decisive single strike was needed rather than a barrage of small attacks.
Not to mention the extreme cold that inflicted damage upon approach.
It had terrible synergy with clones.
“Keep a moderate distance, focus fire on a single point, and you can win.”
The agility penalty that came with such a large body.
Use a few clones to buy time.
Then pierce the head with stacked Seon Magic.
See? It’s pretty easy, right?
“Jiyoung can handle up to three at the same time.”
However.
If we assumed fighting twenty Hell Giants simultaneously,
The Yeokcheon team—excluding Muguk and Yellow Storm—wouldn’t be able to win.
Because the cold grew stronger the more it stacked.
Raise Undead
The aura of death surged from the ground like a flood and swallowed the corpses.
The pitch-black current, thick like viscous liquid, wriggled and burrowed into the lizardmen’s bodies.
Within seconds, they were reshaped into beings that defied the natural order.
A lizardman’s combat power was roughly Bronze-rank.
It was common knowledge that large-scale necromancy produced undead weaker than the original.
Yet every undead Ark had just raised possessed combat ability between the peak of Bronze and the early stages of Silver.
Ark mass-produced the strengthened undead as if stamping out fish-shaped pastries.
“It won’t take long to reach ten thousand.”
『The exact number is 11,097, my Creator.』
“……You increased the numbers that much in less than a day?”
By the way.
Could he really control that many undead?
Even with the support of the Throne of the Indomitable King and the Lich Lord’s Frostblade, he had barely managed twenty Hell Giants.
Although the number of Hell Giants had been halved,
Once the number of undead soldiers increased, the limits of his control would surely show.
『There is a method for everything. Please leave the organization of the undead army to your servant.』
Ark displayed absolute confidence.
After being separated by the power of the Shining Trapezohedron,
his ego seemed even clearer than before.
Well, it didn’t matter.
Even though Ark had become an independent entity, the master-servant relationship remained intact.
He couldn’t possibly harbor any other intentions.
–You left one corpse over there.
“Ah. You’re right.”
A monster roughly twice the size of a regular lizardman.
It must have been a chieftain or a general.
『Since there happens to be a useful corpse, allow me to demonstrate.』
Dead Rise
A spell for creating high-rank undead.
Shouldn’t a lizardman corpse only produce mid-rank at best?
The corpse, having absorbed an abundance of death energy, suddenly gushed black liquid from its pores.
The black fluid clung to the large lizardman corpse and transformed into full plate armor.
It looked similar to a Death Knight.
However.
The aura and oppressive pressure it gave off were completely different.
“It feels weak?”
『Correct. The true value of a Death Champion does not lie in raw combat strength.』
Death Champion.
It was a name I had never heard before.
I had experienced everything the Tower of Babel had to offer—land, sea, and air battles—yet here was a monster I had never seen.
Well, that made sense.
There had also been cyborg zombies that only appeared in Gates.
The Tower didn’t contain every principle or creature from every dimension.
『A Death Champion commands the undead under my authority.』
“So it shares the burden of domination power.”
『As expected, Master’s insight is truly remarkable.』
This guy.
His loyalty is a bit excessive, isn’t it?
『It can also raise lower-rank undead.』
The Death Wizard creates mid-rank undead.
The Death Champion revives those with lower specs.
『I shall cultivate an army of one million—no, ten million undead and offer it to you, Master.』
Hmm.
I didn’t want quite that many.
Seeing the blue flames blazing in Ark’s skull, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him to restrain himself and simply said, “Do your best.”
We began our northward advance from Vladivostok.
Using ten Bone Drakes as scouts, we conscripted every monster pack we encountered into our undead forces.
『We welcome your voluntary enlistment.』
–Gruuuuugh.
『Skeleton. You belong to Death Champion Zaiden.』
『Come this way, Zombie Soldier.』
The Death Champions each commanded their own undead soldiers.
Just one day after landing in Vladivostok,
the undead army had swelled to nearly twenty thousand.
“We’ll use that island as our base of operations.”
『Compared to Master’s glory, it is a rather modest territory. If you entrust it to your servant, I shall expand our forces……』
“Shut your mouth.”
What forces? Forces my ass!
The only land the Russian government had leased to me was Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island.
Calling it an island within a river made it sound small, but its actual area was half the size of Seoul. There was more than enough space for the undead army to stay.
『Please at least permit me to transform this place into a Necropolis.』
“Necropolis?”
『It is a city and fortress of necromancy.』
Hmm.
I stroked my chin.
Since there had never been a player on Earth who reached the pinnacle as a ‘Necromancer,’ information on this subject was scarce.
I had fought powerful necromancers inside the Tower, but I only possessed fragmented knowledge—such as what skills they used or which undead to watch out for.
『Please grant your servant permission to build a powerful army that will not tarnish Master’s great name.』
“The restriction that they must not harm people. Can you uphold it?”
『All undead can be perfectly controlled by your servant. However……』
“Speak.”
『Do we need to show mercy to the living who set foot on the island?’
“Record them and detain them. If that proves difficult, kill them.”
『That is sufficient, Master.』
The lease of Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island was now fully settled.
Anyone who tried to enter land teeming with undead would surely have ulterior motives.
“But controlling the area outside the island will be more difficult, won’t it?”
『We will only send out a portion of our forces.』
“Ah. Then controlling them will be much easier.”
In that case, I could accept it.
『Your servant has one request.』
“Anything except asking for a guarantee or a loan.”
『I wish to borrow Master’s mana.』
Oh.
I hadn’t thought of mana.
–Heh heh. Now you can’t back out.
Exactly.
“What do you plan to use my mana for?”
『To create the foundation of the Necropolis.』
“Fine. I can do at least that much.”
I extended my right arm.
A bony hand grasped my forearm.
A chill penetrated deep into my body.
『Please forgive this servant for having no choice but to commit disloyalty.』
“Enough. Just finish it quickly.”
I didn’t resist the chill invading my veins and instead sent the mana residing in my heart toward him.
My mana was the only stat that had surpassed its previous-life value after my regression.
Thanks to being fused with the Primordial Dragon Heart, both the output and total volume I could release in one go had far exceeded my previous life.
『It is tremendous. Master’s mana truly knows no bounds.』
Ark pressed his other hand against the ground.
Shhhhhhh!
Land roughly half the size of Seoul was swallowed by a pitch-black energy resembling shadows.
He had absorbed my mana,
converted it into death energy, and forcefully poured it in.
Ten minutes.
Thirty minutes.
And then two hours.
I continuously poured out mana for a long time, but my recovery rate was faster, so there was no actual depletion.
『All preparations are complete.』
Necromancy — Create Tomb World
Soul Binding Curse — Earth Bound
The intricate movement of mana resembled a grand spell.
The mana he had drawn from me was converted into death energy, infused into the land, and used as a catalyst to activate the magic.
Rumble—!
The ground shook violently as if an earthquake had struck.
Tombstones rose everywhere, and an ominous energy enveloped the entire island.
『Please wait just a little longer. I shall transform this place into a land of death that will satisfy you, Master.』
Yeah.
Sure.
Give it your best.
How much bigger could it possibly get just because I shared a bit of mana?
“I’ll leave the management of the island to you.”
–Where are you going?
“To collect the essences I haven’t eaten yet.”
Even the ‘Troll Shaman’ turned into a Death Wizard was an essence I hadn’t claimed.
I had been swept up in the moment earlier and couldn’t stop him,
but since we had come all the way to Siberia, shouldn’t I collect the essences of monsters that didn’t appear in the Tower?
–Is it acceptable to leave your subordinate unattended?
“There are things that only grow when left alone.”
I had no intention of staying in Siberia for long.
My main base was in Korea.
To manage the guild members, handle promotion matches, and control various other factors, I needed to be in Seoul.
Staying in Siberia long-term just to increase the number of undead would be a loss.
“If I observe them for three weeks, I should get a clearer picture.”
Whether it was right to let the undead roam free in Siberia,
or if I would have to clean them up because they couldn’t be controlled.
It was something I had never done in my previous life.
Even I wasn’t entirely confident about raising an undead army.
–Wise.
“There’s also one more reason to stay here.”
–Oh?
Nyx let out a short exclamation, expressing her curiosity.
Void Projection cooldown has ended.