Chapter 14
The Skeleton Lord sat alone on a colossal throne.
His eye sockets were empty; through magic, he shared the sight of one of his Skeleton Generals.
What he saw was a band of humans who had invaded his territory.
“They dare invade my land with fewer than fifty?”
The Lord felt less contempt than fury at their tiny numbers.
So he decided to brand that anger into them with overwhelming force.
He ordered every skeleton in his territory to converge on the humans’ position.
The massing of his troops went quickly.
There were thousands of them, so it still took half a day to gather them all.
After that, the Lord sent out scouts in groups of six.
He wanted to judge the humans’ level by sharing the scouts’ vision.
He even stripped them of all their gear, intending to enjoy himself a little.
They were given only swords and shields, and no horses at that.
Then, suddenly,
“...Hm?”
The humans began sprinting through the dense forest, where fog had settled so thickly that they couldn’t see a step ahead.
They were running so hard they kicked up sand and dust.
They looked as if they wanted out of the forest immediately.
“...?”
The Lord propped his chin on his hand and thought it over.
The situation had changed all at once, and he could make neither head nor tail of it.
All the skeletons in his territory had gathered there and surrounded the humans.
Even if there was a human among them capable of detection magic and had noticed the skeletons nearby, it was already too late.
The encirclement had already been completed, and once that happened, preventing escape was easy.
Things were going exactly as the Lord had wanted.
And yet he couldn’t laugh at the humans.
Because they had made the one move that was exactly right for that situation.
They had been late, yes, but among all the moves available to them, it was still the best one.
“What is it? What could possibly be vexing my mood like this?”
As if trying to shake off his irritation, the Lord slammed a fist down on the throne.
The motion carried as an order to the Skeleton Generals stationed far away, and the ordered generals immediately sent their soldiers charging forward.
Thousands of skeletons began rushing toward fewer than fifty humans.
＊＊＊
Our run was cut off in vain before we had even managed to clear the forest.
There were far more of them than we had expected.
The moving mana generator had formed a dome-shaped encirclement, and the skeletons kept surging in like a white tide.
The mage immediately threw up a barrier with magic, but it was shattered at once by the endless mass of skeletons.
In the end, six A-class hunters stepped forward and formed a hexagonal defensive line.
Now and then they failed to stop a skeleton, and injuries were sustained, but fortunately the hunters assigned to my escort worked together to deal with them, and there were no fatalities.
Standing at the twelve o’clock position around the moving mana generator, Woo Yeon-hoo swung his spear through the skeletons and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Hold them! Don’t let a single one through!”
His voice carried a fierce determination not to let any skeletons into the dome.
Maybe they could feel the will of the leader who was fighting hardest and killing the most skeletons.
The five combat team members held their ground and refused to give even an inch at their assigned positions.
Each of them put forth every ounce of strength they had, fending off the skeletons’ wave of numbers.
Thanks to that, the logistics team members, who were no different from ordinary civilians, were able to keep themselves alive.
But even that wouldn’t last long.
Humans eventually grew tired, and the skeletons, fully armed and mounted on horses, were on a completely different level from the ones we had sent out for reconnaissance.
I drew my longsword and walked forward to help the combat team.
“Ji-on, no!”
“Please don’t advance! Back up, back up!”
Kim Min-ju and Woo Yeon-hoo tried to stop me as I stepped up.
If I died, this expedition would lose its chance to harvest Udamhwa, and everything would be over.
But the expedition would end just the same if the combat team were worn down and could no longer hold back the skeletons’ assault.
What good would it do if I alone survived and harvested Udamhwa after everyone else had died here?
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me and keep fighting!”
After shouting that, I poured mana into my longsword and moved forward.
Warm Touch, once, twice...
In no time at all, I had filled the equivalent of ten uses of Warm Touch.
Had I put too much mana into the longsword?
The mana coating the blade looked almost like a blue edge.
Woo Yeon-hoo’s eyes widened at the sight.
Then he grinned and nodded.
Hm. He seemed to have misunderstood something.
Still, I’d have to let that pass for now.
There was no time to calmly untangle that misunderstanding.
I moved to stand beside the female mage, who was busily casting spells.
It wasn’t because she was weaker than the other team members and needed help.
As a mage, she needed time to chant her spell, and I was buying that for her.
“Th-thank you!”
As soon as I took position in front of her, she seemed to grasp my intent and thanked me.
In answer, I murmured World Tree Slash under my breath and swung my longsword.
A crescent of blue light shot forward.
“...Huh?”
I had intended to cut only in a fan-shaped arc.
But contrary to what I expected, World Tree Slash had been launched.
The crescent-shaped blue light surged ahead and split the skeletons cleanly in two.
How many had it cut down? Around fifty, perhaps?
The blue light disappeared as if scattering away after severing the neck of a skeleton captain.
“Flame Strike!”
Now that she had finished chanting, the mage fired her spell toward another direction.
She had room to do so because I had cleared the space directly in front of her with World Tree Slash.
Flame Strike erupted in front of Oh Juhan, who had been killing skeletons more slowly than the mage after him.
Mana exploded up from the ground, and a pillar of fire surged skyward, burning the skeletons.
The pillar then spread violently to the sides, incinerating and killing a great number of skeletons.
Thanks to that, Oh Juhan finally had the breathing room to look around.
“Ten o’clock!”
Oh Juhan, scanning the battlefield to assess the situation, shouted out.
Everyone who heard him looked toward the ten o’clock direction.
I did too, gathering enough mana to use World Tree Slash again before checking that way.
Sure enough, the encirclement there was thinner than elsewhere.
If we all charged like a spear point, we might be able to break through it.
Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something about it was artificial.
They seemed like they were simply attacking with sheer numbers, and yet their movements were perfectly coordinated.
Would a group like that really leave an opening in its encirclement?
No, wouldn’t it be more accurate to think of it as a trap leading straight to a dead end?
“I think it’s a trap!”
“A hunch?”
At my words, Oh Juhan asked immediately.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a hunch.
It was closer to reading the situation from the way they were moving.
“Yes, a hunch!”
But I answered that way anyway.
It seemed easier to convince them like that.
I used World Tree Slash toward the front.
The blue light surged ahead and killed the skeletons, but the gap was immediately filled again, as if water had rushed back into place.
There really was no end to them.
Woo Yeon-hoo seemed to make up his mind and shouted in a loud voice.
“Let’s break through!”
“But...!”
“I know it’s a trap! But the other sides...!”
He cut down the body of a skeleton charging at him and continued.
“We can’t break through them! Let’s force our way out there at least!”
“...Understood!”
He was telling us to charge straight at the place that was obviously a trap.
And it was also the only sensible choice.
It had the greatest chance of keeping us alive among the options we had now.
Everywhere except the opening we’d found was blocked by a wall of skeletons too thick to pierce.
And continuing to hold out here wasn’t a good option either.
Before long, we’d all be worn down by fighting thousands of skeletons.
Then I’d be the only one left alive, with infinite SP, carrying the whole thing on my own.
Standing at six o’clock, Oh Juhan pulled back and shortened the defensive line.
He was preparing for the charge toward ten o’clock.
Following him, I and the mage at four o’clock also gradually tightened our line.
As we drew back, the mage asked me,
“Ji-on, can you hold out?”
“Do your job!”
“Thank you!”
I immediately understood what she was after and answered at once.
She was probably planning to leave me to hold the four o’clock side while she sprinted toward ten o’clock.
To break through the skeletons’ encirclement, we needed either a powerful charge skill or a wide-area magic skill.
Among everyone here, the person with the strongest firepower was her, the mage.
I switched my longsword from my right hand to my left, then used Warm Touch.
“Now!”
At my shout, she immediately began chanting and ran toward ten o’clock.
With the mage who had been blocking them now gone, the skeletons attacked even more fiercely.
As I gathered mana for World Tree Slash in my longsword, I used Warm Touch to tap the skeletons that had rushed all the way up to me.
Each time the tip of my index finger touched a skeleton’s body, it crumbled into dust.
This was different from the orcs, whose bodies had exploded.
The way skeletons died made it look as if priests were using healing skills on the undead.
Was that because it was a skill of the World Tree, which was also called the holy tree?
“Flame Strike!”
From behind me came the sound of the mage casting her spell.
Then I heard the sounds of people racing forward with all their might.
The mage’s magic had broken through the skeletons’ encirclement.
“Ji-on!”
“Understood!”
The instant I heard Woo Yeon-hoo calling me, I swung the longsword in my left hand.
Once again, blue light surged forward.
It split the skeletons apart with absurd ease.
I turned and ran hard in the direction everyone was pouring toward.
It looked like my guess had been right.
The skeletons blocked our path, but their resistance wasn’t severe.
By the time the logistics team pulling the moving mana generator were gasping for breath, we had left the forest and entered a vast canyon.
“Damn it...”
Woo Yeon-hoo, standing beside me, muttered under his breath.
He had realized it.
This canyon would become our grave.
We were walking into the prison that would seal us in ourselves.
Still, we had no choice but to keep running.
We couldn’t stop here.
A few more minutes passed, and from the front, Oh Juhan’s voice rang out.
“Halt! Everyone, halt...!”
At the sound of it, people stopped one after another.
We had reached a dead end and could no longer go forward.
Some trees were blocking the path.
Oh Juhan swung his dagger to cut them down, but they didn’t budge at all.
The people stood there in stunned silence, staring at the trees obstructing the way.
Even with the skeletons glaring at them from behind with hollow eyes, they still only looked up at the trees.
The trees standing in a dense wall looked as if they were gnawing away at the people’s hope.
...Hm? Trees?
“We’re saved!”
Before I knew it, I shouted at the top of my lungs.
The others looked at me as if they wanted to say, “What the hell are you talking about?”
Woo Yeon-hoo did too at first.
As time passed, light gradually returned to his face, and before long, he burst out laughing.
The others, not understanding a thing, looked at me and Woo Yeon-hoo as if we’d both gone insane.
He gathered mana through his whole body, raised his spear, and took his place in front of the skeletons.
I immediately sprinted toward the trees.
“Please! Ji-on!”
“Yes, this will be over in no time!”
There was exactly one person here who understood what we were saying.
Kim Min-ju.
While everyone else stared at us in confusion, she was the only one who started encouraging the others.
“Just hold out a little longer! We can make it, so hang in there just a bit more!”
As I listened to her cheering, I reached out with the index finger of my right hand toward the trees.
Warm Touch has touched a C-rank Layer Tree.
If the current state is maintained, harvesting will begin.
With probability correction, harvest chance: 100%. Harvest commencing.
3, 2, 1.
The Layer Tree I had touched with my finger sprang up with a pop.
Then I touched the other trees as well, and in just three seconds they shot out their roots and disappeared.
“...??”
The people stared at me in utter disbelief.
They all looked as if they were asking, “What exactly are you doing right now?”
Seeing those faces, I couldn’t help letting out a laugh.