Soul of Shining Salvation
[SR]
“SR-grade.”
Of all the souls he had obtained so far, the highest had been Basago’s. That one had been SR+-grade. This Soul of Shining Salvation sat one tier below it—and still, it was a soul of considerable rank.
I never expected a reward this big.
Jinwoo slowly ran his fingers over the soul.
You have obtained a warm soul.
Soul Sight proficiency has increased!
Necromayster class level has increased!
The number of minions you can command has increased.
8 → 9
The number of minions he could command had risen by one again.
Nine now.
“That’s a fair bit of breathing room.”
He currently had six minions with him, which left three open slots.
My Nobility score went up too.
Jinwoo’s Nobility score already sat at five.
I’ll save this soul for when I make a new minion.
Whatever he forged with it was bound to be formidable.
“Good work, all of you.”
Making the impossible possible had hinged, more than anything, on his minions.
“It. Is. An. Honor. To. Meet. Your. Expectations.”
“I did it!”
Pur clenched both fists and thrust them skyward in pure delight.
“Pur’s performance decided it this time.”
“Piiin—!”
The remaining minions had no choice but to concede the point. It truly had been a spectacular showing.
Kwagak—! Kwagagagak—!
The landscape around them shattered like glass. In the same breath, Jinwoo found himself returned to where he had started.
The wasteland, once again.
“You must have hoped I’d stay forever.”
Jinwoo looked toward the dragon’s lair.
“That’s too greedy by half.”
You couldn’t keep a disaster locked away forever.
The fallen dragon, Shadow Wing, smashed and smashed again at the chains that bound him. Where countless links had once wrapped his body, only five remained. Every broken chain already lay scattered across the ground.
“Almost there.”
In the age of peace, the long war had ended through negotiation. Shadow Wing had signed a ceasefire with them, swearing there would be no more war between their kind.
These chains were a sealing magic born of that ancient covenant with the dwarves.
“That tedious peace is over.”
But peace was finished now. The promise had become hollow smoke.
“The incarnations of evil shall come. And the greater one who leads those incarnations of evil shall come.”
Shadow Wing intended to be the vanguard of the world that greater being would bring. He would spread that power far and wide and remake everything.
“This place will become a beautiful land for that great existence.”
This wasteland would become a world filled with his power.
Kwaduk—. Kwadududuk—!
Every time Shadow Wing moved, the remaining chains cracked, earthquakes rolled outward, and volcanoes erupted.
Kwaduk— Kwadududududuk—!
Another chain shattered. Only four left.
“Krrrrr…”
Shadow Wing gathered his strength for a moment.
“Those dwarves, bringing a human along… or perhaps not. Maybe it wasn’t them at all.”
He thought of the human he had seen earlier.
“If they had asked the humans for help, he would not have come alone.”
Perhaps he was simply some fool of a human dreaming of becoming a dragon slayer.
“In that case, this ending suits him perfectly.”
Shadow Wing bared his fangs in a grin.
“That miner has been bound to this wasteland for ages—chained by such fierce despair he could not even leave.”
Shadow Wing had tried to claim that powerful despair and regret as his own strength, and failed. He had managed, barely, to make the miner a slave, but the creature could only be summoned in that one place. Summoning him anywhere else was impossible.
So Shadow Wing had turned that slave into a trap.
“A trap that can only be used there.”
He would seal his enemies inside the miner’s regret. Fall into that regret, and there was no escape.
“Inside that regret, the miner never dies. He only keeps trying to break the mountain and carve a path.”
And that mountain could never be broken.
“How could anyone split a mountain and open a road with a single pickaxe?”
If a human could shatter a mountain with one pickaxe, he would no longer be human.
“Even I could not do it with a pickaxe alone.”
There was no chance that human could accomplish what even he could not.
“I meant to use it on those bothersome dwarves.”
For the dwarves, he had planned a taste of his breath.
“They love flame so much. How happy a life it would be, to die inside the fire!”
Kwaduk—.
Kwadudududududuk—!
One more chain snapped. Only three remained.
With each chain that vanished, the binding weakened. Shadow Wing no longer even needed to rest. It was finished. Everything was finished.
“Krrrrrrrrr.”
Kugung—! Kugugugugung—!
The chains began to come apart in earnest.
“Now.”
Every constraint that had bound him was gone.
“It’s all over!”
Iron Helm and every underground land around it would become the domain of the incarnation of evil he would now serve.
“Do not resist.”
Shaaaaaaaak—!
Lava began to erupt from the volcanoes. The wasteland grew still more desolate, and the earthquakes would not stop.
Shook—.
The fallen dragon, Shadow Wing, unfurled his wings.
“Kyaaaaaaah.”
Then he opened his jaws. The aim was exact—straight toward Iron Helm. The energy gathering in his mouth was as corrupted as the fall that defined him.
In the instant that pitch-black breath was about to fire—
A tiny arrow came flying.
An extremely tiny arrow.
Shadow Wing paid it no mind. He had no idea who had loosed it, but assumed it was some worthless dwarves arriving late. In that case, of course, it could not even harm him. It was not worth dodging.
Swaeeeeek—.
But something was wrong.
The speed was unnaturally fast.
Shadow Wing twisted his body at once. This one he had to avoid. Yet at the last stretch the arrow only accelerated further.
Kwaaaaaaaaaang—!
The arrow that punched into Shadow Wing’s body detonated with a force that delivered crushing damage, as if it had exploded on impact.
“Khuk.”
The recoil damage from the breath he had been about to unleash only deepened Shadow Wing’s rage.
“You insignificant creature…!”
He looked down. Corrupted flame licked at the corners of his mouth.
“…You.”
But the one standing below was no dwarf.
A human.
The very human he had cast into the miner’s trap and sealed inside the Yoke of Eternity.
“How did you—”
Shadow Wing’s wings trembled. The shock was that great. He had sealed the man inside the Yoke of Eternity without question.
“I’m a blacksmith.”
Jinwoo spoke.
“I solved it with gear.”
“……!”
“But you… you look pretty startled.”
Jinwoo met Shadow Wing’s gaze.
“You were sure I couldn’t get out, weren’t you…”
Then he drove the point home.
“It was a place even you couldn’t leave. And I walked out of it.”
Jinwoo scraped the dragon’s pride raw.
“How freely that vulgar mouth of yours runs.”
In an instant Shadow Wing charged another breath.
“You should have stayed there. Look at me, human. The seal that bound me is gone.”
Shaaaaaaaaak—!
“I already told you.”
Jinwoo grinned.
Then he released his dark energy. At the touch of Jinwoo’s darkness, light flared in the eyes of every minion.
“Hahahaha—!”
Shadow Wing laughed uproariously.
“What can those husks do—the ones that froze in terror before my power and could not even move?”
He had seen it with both eyes: every minion except Jinwoo quailing in fear. And that had been while he was still sealed. Now that the seal was broken, how much worse would it be?
Shaaaaaak—!
Corrupted energy flooded the surroundings.
Dragon might.
The overwhelming power of a dragon—the force that stood at the apex of every living thing—crashed down over Jinwoo and his minions.
Shaak—!
“Pur.”
But the minions were no longer the same.
Pur, above all, had changed completely. Having absorbed Basago’s soul and risen in class, Pur was no mere undead any longer.
A hero-grade undead.
The chill of the netherworld coiled around his frame.
“Show him.”
Pur stepped in front of Jinwoo and swung World Tree’s Judgment into the oncoming breath.
Kwaaaaaaak—!
The corrupted Enemy Breath collided head-on with Pur’s strike.
Pur’s hero skill—Netherworld Frost—blazed to life.
Jjeojeojeojeok—!
The corrupted Enemy Breath froze solid where it stood.
“…….”
Everything should have burned away to nothing.
Yet the human, and the living husks he commanded, stood unharmed. If anything, their presence had only grown fiercer.
“That weapon…”
Only then did Shadow Wing focus on the arms his minions carried. The arrow that had flown first, the weapon that had just erased his breath—none of it was ordinary.
“So it wasn’t empty talk.”
The claim that he had “solved it with gear” no longer sounded like a bluff; the impact had been too great. And that minion—he was unmistakably different from before. The power he held was considerable. Cold enough to freeze an Enemy Breath solid… that kind of chill meant he had reached the very edge of the highest tier among the undead.
“You wasted no time while you were gone.”
Until now he had been nothing special.
“Fine. Good. A little entertainment is welcome.”
Shadow Wing spread his vast wings.
Buung—!
Nothing constrained him any longer. He could wield his full power without reserve.
“My servants.”
Kuguk—.
Kuguguguguguk—!
The ground shook, and things began to rise from the earth.
Blaze Worms.
Obsidian Golems.
And corrupted kobolds clawed their way upright. Their numbers easily surpassed several hundred.
The Fallen Dragon, Shadow Wing, has set his gaze upon you!
⚠ Difficulty far exceeds your level!
“Doesn’t matter.”
Jinwoo glanced at the warning. Shadow Wing and his thralls—even a glance made the difficulty look brutal.
But that was fine.
“Because it’s been this way every time.”
Until now, Jinwoo had lived as a challenger.
Shaaaaaaaaak—!
Having summoned his servants, Shadow Wing beat his wings. The land around them turned corrupted, and a dense miasma of pollution flooded the air.
This place was now the domain of the fallen dragon, Shadow Wing.
“No.”
Jinwoo stamped the ground hard.
“As long as I’m here—”
Everything here was—
“—my domain.”
Domain Declaration
Shaaaaaaaaak—!
Shadow Wing’s domain and Jinwoo’s domain slammed into each other with crushing force.
Pajijijijijik—!
Crimson-black lightning tore upward into the sky.
“Let’s do this.”
Jinwoo raised his Blaze Worm Chitin Bow.
“The strong take everything.”