The Elder Lich
The result emerged from the box in the blink of an eye.
Jeon Jaewoo nearly stumbled backward in pure shock. What had crawled out of the chest this time was a skeleton—a hunched, desiccated mass of bones swathed in tattered rags, clutching a gnarled staff. Just looking at it sent an eerie, bone-chilling draft drifting across the room.
Standing beside him, Myeolgeop promptly provided a summary of the creature.
“It is an Elder Lich, a monster belonging to the undead lineage. In ancient warfare, they were deployed to overwhelm enemy lines through human-wave tactics.”
“Do you two know each other by any chance?”
“I am familiar with the species, but this is my first time encountering this individual. It is, for all intents and purposes, a newborn entity.”
“Ah, right.”
Jaewoo immediately opened the creature's status window to inspect its details.
[Elder Lich] — Bound (Jeon Jaewoo)
Description: An undead entity that forcefully summons souls to create immortal soldiers to battle its foes. An apex entity among undead, capable of wielding high-tier sorcery.
Type: Undead
Traits: Sorcery (S), Resurrection (S), Evocation (S), Barrier (A), Energy Wave (B)
He had extracted only the latent energy lingering within the swords and tossed it inside, yet an undead monster had materialized. It seemed feeding the box spiritual mana had steered the synthesis in this direction.
Looking over his newest household member, a sudden thought struck him.
Wait. If I knew this would happen, maybe I should've extracted the aura from the Skeleton Knight King’s armor before handing it over to the Hunter Administration.
Both the blades and the armor worn by the Skeleton Knight King were steeped in a similar aura of death. Had he blended the armor's essence into the mix as well, he might have birthed an even more formidable creature. Then again, the Bureau had promised to pay him an exorbitant sum for it, so he couldn't complain too much.
Clack, clack, clack!
Just then, the lich’s jawbones chattered noisily as words rattled out from between them.
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Maker.”
“...?!”
Jaewoo jumped, completely caught off guard. He had never expected the skeleton to speak. It didn't even have a tongue, yet articulate speech flowed naturally from its mouth.
“Oh, uh... hello there.”
Because the voice sounded like that of a wizened old gentleman, Jaewoo instinctively slipped into polite honorifics.
The Elder Lich broke into a dry, clattering cackle, seemingly amused by the formal address.
“Addressing a newborn child with such formal deference? What a peculiar Maker you are.”
“...No matter how I look at you, you don’t look like a child. You don't even look like an old man—you look like someone who’s been dead for centuries.”
Still, having just popped out of Heaven's Box moments ago, being called a newborn wasn't technically inaccurate.
Jaewoo glanced over the status window once more. As expected, the Elder Lich was an undead entity boasting a staggering three S-grade traits. While it couldn't quite rival Myeolgeop, who wielded Transcendent-grade traits, it was still an absurdly powerful existence. With stats like these, it was probably stronger than whoever held the title of South Korea’s top hunter.
Of course, when it came to Myeolgeop—who possessed two Transcendent-grade traits—it was doubtful whether any awakened hunter in the entire world could stand against him.
“Well, I look forward to working with you, Elder Lich-nim.”
“The pleasure is entirely mine. I entrust myself to your care. And you may simply refer to me as Lich.”
“By the way, what exactly do your traits do? Just reading the descriptions doesn't give me a clear picture.”
Sorcery was likely some form of dark magic, and traits like Barrier and Energy Wave were easy enough to deduce from their names. But the rest were vague.
The bone structure around the Lich’s mouth twisted faintly, mimicking a grin.
“If curiosity grips you, witnessing it firsthand would serve you far better than words. Pray, grant me a brief moment.”
A sudden spike of unease shot through Jaewoo, and he hurriedly held up a hand.
“Wait, you’re not going to break anything, right? Unleashing destructive force inside this room would be a massive problem.”
“Fret not, I shall demonstrate with utmost care. Even I possess enough tact to read the room.”
Thud.
The Lich channeled dark mana into his skeletal staff and tapped the floorboards twice.
Craaaack!
“What the—?!”
Jaewoo’s eyes went wide. The floor of his one-room studio apartment fractured down the middle, dark mana venting from the fissure. An instant later, another skeleton pushed its way up through the shattered laminate.
“This is how it is done,” the Lich announced, sounding immensely proud of his handiwork.
“......”
A true necromancer’s craft, befitting an apex undead creature. But that wasn't the issue right now—the issue was the giant rift running through his floor.
“...Moving forward, please refrain from using that trait whenever we’re inside the house.”
Then again, looking back at the status window, there hadn't been any trait explicitly named 'Summon Skeleton.'
“When you called that skeleton just now, did you use Resurrection or Evocation?”
“I used both. To be precise, I wove the functions of both traits into a single art.”
Seeing Jaewoo’s puzzled expression, the Lich raised his staff once more to demonstrate.
“Observe. First, through Evocation, I summon forth the drifting souls residing in the vicinity...”
Vwoooom!
Jaewoo instinctively scrambled behind Myeolgeop’s broad back. A heavy, ominous shroud of mana had manifested out of thin air, every bit as chilling as the aura the Elder Lich had radiated upon his birth. Its nature was strikingly similar to the vengeful mana drawn from the Grave of Swords. Seeing that Myeolgeop remained calm and motionless, however, Jaewoo deduced there was no immediate danger.
“Next, by invoking Resurrection, I fashion a physical vessel residing at the threshold of death, allowing the summoned soul to inhabit it.”
Craaaack!
The floor split open once more, and a second skeleton clambered out from the debris.
Dammit all.
First thing tomorrow morning, he was going to have to call a flooring repair service.
Still, he now had a crystal-clear understanding of the creature's capabilities. Turning his head, Jaewoo asked Myeolgeop,
“What do you think? With this kind of support, do you think we can comfortably clear an Ancient-grade ruin?”
“Yes. It is entirely feasible.”
In truth, Myeolgeop alone was probably capable of conquering an Ancient-grade ruin by himself. The issue lay in the complications that arose whenever Jaewoo entered a ruin alongside him. Once they crossed the threshold together, Myeolgeop wouldn't just be battling monsters—he would also have to dedicate attention to protecting a master who possessed zero combat capability.
Furthermore, as ruin ranks escalated, their difficulty spiked exponentially. The battlefield would become incomparably more chaotic than anything seen in a Legendary-grade ruin. Left unguarded in the rear, Jaewoo could easily find himself in mortal danger. If Myeolgeop was thoroughly occupied mid-battle, a stray threat could reach Jaewoo before the golem could intervene.
Leaving Jaewoo alone in the real world while Myeolgeop cleared an Ancient ruin wasn't a viable option either. Soloing a ruin of that magnitude would take an extended period of time. Recently, Jaewoo had drawn the world’s spotlight by single-handedly conquering a Legendary ruin. Domestic conglomerate Hunter Companies and foreign intelligence agencies alike were desperate to uncover his identity and location. If Myeolgeop was absent for days, there was no guaranteeing some hostile faction wouldn't target Jaewoo in the interim.
Jaewoo had previously suggested sending Myeolgeop to tackle an Ancient ruin solo, but the golem had refused the order, citing that his Creator’s name had already spread and leaving him unprotected was too great a hazard.
With an Elder Lich of this caliber in their ranks, however, all of those problems dissolved. Even inside an Ancient-grade ruin, Myeolgeop could cut loose on the frontline to his heart's content while the Elder Lich safeguarded Jaewoo in the rear.
“In that case... shall we go conquer an Ancient-grade ruin sometime soon?”
Lately, the Korean Hunter Administration—and indeed the entire nation of South Korea—had been swept up in a frenzy of excitement. The cause was none other than the back-to-back conquer notices for Legendary-grade ruins.
Securing even a single Legendary ruin in a month was considered a massive national triumph, yet South Korea had claimed two in rapid succession. The fact that a single, unidentified hunter had achieved both feats set the public imagination ablaze.
Even the President had delivered a public address extending profound gratitude to the hunters who had secured such monumental milestones for the nation’s ruin industry. Naturally, public intrigue skyrocketed. Just who on earth was this hunter capable of conquering two Legendary ruins all on his own?
Meanwhile, inside his private office, Yoo Jeongtae was stroking the jet-black armor acquired from Jeon Jaewoo, wearing a contented, doting smile. He handled it as delicately as a priceless family heirloom, taking care not to let a single speck of dust settle upon its polished surface. Today, he planned to bestow this relic upon a hunter who could truly draw out its potential.
Knock, knock.
“Come in.”
“You called for me, Commissioner?”
A female hunter stepped into the commissioner’s office. Though she appeared to be around Jaewoo’s age, the pressure rolling off her presence was immense. It was Kim Yumin, one of the premier S-rank hunters representing the Republic of Korea. From the moment of her awakening, she had captivated the public eye as an unprecedented prodigy, and her striking beauty only amplified her enormous popularity.
Yoo Jeongtae gestured warmly toward the desk.
“Ah, Yumin, you’re here. Come over and take a look at this.”
Kim Yumin’s eyes widened the moment her gaze fell upon the armor resting on the desk.
“Commissioner... could that possibly be...?”
“Indeed. It’s the suit of armor recovered from the conqueror of the Legendary Ruin.”
“Whoa...”
An involuntary gasp escaped her lips. Even to an S-rank hunter like her, the armor radiated an overwhelming, dense pressure. Kim Yumin was a frontline combatant who wielded a greatsword to battle monsters face-to-face. Aside from its somewhat ominous aura, the piece was an absolute masterwork tailor-made for her combat style.
“Well, it’s yours now. Put it to good use. Though, of course, you’ll have to return it if you ever leave the Administration.”
A brilliant smile bloomed across her face.
“Are you serious? Really?”
“Of course. Is there anyone in our agency who could utilize this armor better than you?”
“Thank you so much!”
“Don't thank me. Direct your gratitude toward the person who brought it to us.”
Kim Yumin gathered the heavy armor into her arms, hugging it tightly against her chest. Ominous undertones aside, she was thoroughly enchanted by it.
“This is the artifact brought back by that hunter who soloed the Legendary Ruin, right?”
“That’s correct.”
“You’ve met him in person, haven't you, Commissioner? Who in the world is he?”
At present, Jeon Jaewoo’s identity was known only to Yoo Jeongtae himself, a select few high-ranking agency executives, the Minister of Disaster Administration, and the President. Not even the S-rank hunters under the Administration's umbrella were privy to the truth. Jaewoo was vehemently opposed to his identity being leaked, and there was no benefit in disclosing it to other hunters anyway. If someone sought him out out of sheer curiosity and sparked a conflict, the fallout would be catastrophic.
“Don’t be so impatient. Just wait a while, and you’ll find out soon enough.”
“Aw, come on, you know how curious I am! Is he not planning to join the Hunter Administration?”
“Who knows?”
He desperately wanted to recruit Jaewoo into the ranks, of course. Yoo Jeongtae was turning over every stone trying to find an angle, but given Hunter Jeon Jaewoo’s fiercely independent temperament, it seemed unlikely.
“Setting that aside, how is your condition? Do you feel ready to tackle a Legendary-grade ruin?”
Kim Yumin flashed a confident smile and nodded firmly.
“With this armor, I’m certain I can pull it off.”