Chapter 45

The Boundless Necromancer

Chapter 45: Dungeon Incursion (4)

Voom… 

As we stepped through the crimson portal into the boss room, I couldn’t help but be amazed at the monstrosity before me.

It was sitting on a roughly chiseled stone chair, and it let out a low-pitched growl.

“Krrrr…”

Lee Cheolwon stared at the monster, which was three or four times the size of a normal lizardman. 

“I noticed that there were a lot of lizardmen here. That must be the lizard king.”

Seemed fitting.

‘A lizard king.’

A more evolved version of a lizardman. 

They usually had a lot of utility skills, and their weapon skills were several times more deadly than normal lizardman’s.

They could temporarily disable a target’s movements and even poison them. 

They might seem like a pain in the ass to deal with, but they actually aren’t that bad. 

I knew even though I had never fought one.

The hunter association said that an experienced B-rank hunter could solo this thing.

Lizard kings had a variety of skills but didn’t specialize in anything. 

‘I read that it shouldn’t be too hard as long as you can use some of your skills.’

The skills that I got from the tower should be more than enough.

“W-what are you going to do…?”

The innocent D-rank hunter questioned me nervously.

He must have thought that the two of us wouldn’t be able to take it on, but that wasn’t a problem. 

“Just wait here for a bit.”

“Huh? I-I mean, do you have a plan? I can support you…!”

“I’m good. Just stay back. You can help me if I look like I’m in trouble.”

I could finally see exactly how much stronger I had gotten in the tower. 

Beating this boss with Lee Cheolwon’s assistance would be pointless.

‘Eh, it doesn’t look like it’ll take that long.’

Koong.

The ground shook as the displeased lizard king stood up from his throne.

It was then.

“H-he’s going to attack! Be carefu-”

Craang!

I dashed forward before Lee Cheolwon finished speaking.

I already knew about the pre-attack signal.

“Wind’s blessing.”

「 Activating the skill ‘Wind’s Blessing.’ 」 

「 All speeds increased by 10%. 」 

「 Number of stacks – 1/7 」 

The crisp winds cloaked my body, and I moved as if I were immune to friction.

“Graw.”

A strange force rippled through the air as he let out a short growl.

「 You have been exposed to the skill ‘Roar of Lethargy.’ 」 

「 All speeds decreased by 25%. 」 

‘Another debuff skill…’

The past me would have found a way to work around the debuff, but I was different now.

‘I’ll just ignore it.’

「 Activating the skill ‘ Forceful Breakthrough.’ 」 

「 The player’s mana is more than two times that of the entrapper’s. 」

「 Ignoring movement debuffs. 」 

“Grr?!”

As I sped up again, I started circulating some mana throughout my body.

Not only did it strengthen my body, but it also helped me increase my speed even more.

At the same time, I swung my sword at the lizard king.

A typical D-rank monster would have dropped dead on the spot… 

Clang!

‘Oh…’

But the lizard king quickly regained his composure and defended himself.

He pulled out a longsword and blocked my attack.

As expected, he was more difficult to deal with than his henchmen.

‘I guess I’ll have to try a bit harder.’

There was no need to hold back.

「 Activating the skill ‘Wind’s Blessing.’ 」 

「 All speeds increased by 60%. 」 

「 Number of stacks – 6/7 」 

I stepped back for a second to buy some time to summon a couple of baits.

「 Consuming multiple souls to summon a skeleton. 」 

「 Number of souls in possession – 21/30 」

The souls disappeared in an instant, and my ‘summoner’ abilities activated.

Clack, clack.

Dark smog rose from the ground, and a small skeleton appeared as the fog dissipated.

Tsss.

There were white flames where its eyes should’ve been.

The little rock star ran toward the lizard king.

‘Hm, it doesn’t look like I can control their actions…’

Not bad, since I wouldn’t have to split my attention during battle.

However, it might not have been worth all those souls. 

Crack!

The skeleton broke after taking one hit from the lizard king’s sword.

「 The summoned skeleton has vanished. 」 

It was pretty weak considering how many souls were needed to summon it.

But it already did its job.

Since the lizard king felt threatened by the speed at which my skeleton rushed toward him, he had taken a large swing. 

He had left many openings along the sides of his body.

‘I can take him.’

With six stacks of Wind’s Blessing, I was already pretty fast.

「 Due to Boots of Swiftness’s (C+) effect, your acceleration is momentarily increased. 」 

And I felt like I was walking on air after the effect of my new item kicked in.

I struck the lizard king with all my momentum. 

「 The dungeon boss ‘Lizard King’ has died. 」 

「 The boss will appear again 14 days later. 」 

***

***

Slaaat!!

Well that was a bit anticlimactic.

Plop.

“…”

I wiped the splattered blood off my face and laughed.

The boss shouldn’t have been hard to deal with, but I didn’t expect it to be so easy to kill. 

‘The skills I got through combination are more effective than I thought.”

Strengthened Eyes didn’t do much for me, but Forceful Breakthrough was on a different level.

I felt like I had overcome my weakness against restriction-type skills.

‘Forceful Breakthrough might not work against some opponents, but that’s why I got Mana Resistance.’

Also, the rewards from the 7th trial were crazy.

Wind’s Blessing increased all speeds by 60% at virtually no cost, and the boots enhanced that effect.

Having Force Breakthrough and Wind’s Blessing was already overpowered… 

Combined with my new ‘summoner’ abilities, the synergy was insane.

Even though the skeleton got one-shotted, it was still useful for distracting enemies. 

I was pretty satisfied with the battle overall.

The skeleton could have been more sturdy, but I would take care of that later.

“Uhhh…”

I turned around to find Lee Cheolwon gawking at me.

“H-how?”

He seemed very confused, but I didn’t really have an answer for him.

‘I just did it because I could…’

Maybe the battle meant more to him than it did to me.

I get it though.

It wasn’t every day that you got to join a boss raid.

And I was a tad stronger than a typical C-rank hunter.

“A-are you a high-ranking hunter who had their slate wiped clean?”

Lee Cheolwon wouldn’t be satisfied with a half-assed answer.

“No, it’s not anything like that. And I’m not a part of an org either.”

“B-but C-rank hunters usually aren’t this strong…”

“I dunno. I’m not sure exactly how strong I am since I just got stronger recently.”

“…”

That was a lie.

I had a fairly accurate estimate of my current strength level.

In terms of combat skill, I was probably on par with A-rank hunters.

I just didn’t want to reveal all my information to him.

“Anyway, the dungeon belongs to us now since we beat the boss.”

I changed the subject of the conversation to the dungeon.

“Right, the ownership of the gate… Since this is a persistent gate, you can do whatever you want with it.”

Best news I’ve heard in a while.

I could use the extra cash.

‘I’ll just sell it if I can.’

Then I would buy some items to take back to the tower.

I could just use the dungeon for myself, but that was harder than it looked.

I didn’t want to fill out all the paperwork, and it would be annoying to grind the dungeon over and over again.

Plus, it wouldn’t really help me grow anyway.

“I have nothing to say about the gate’s ownership.”

“Then you have no complaints about me taking the gate for myself?”

“Yeah. You basically soloed this dungeon anyway…”

He probably thought he was lucky to have gotten even a fraction of the rewards.

“Well, let’s loot the lizard king and get out of here.”

I headed to the lizard king’s corpse before Lee Cheolwon could change his mind.

Looting it was only second to what I really wanted to do.

「 You have absorbed the soul of the lizard king. 」

「 Proficiency increased by 11% 」 

‘As expected.’

The lizard king far surpassed the lizardmen’s 0.7%.

As I approached the corpse to extract the core, I activated necromancy.

「 Permanently increasing your stats using the lizard king’s soul. 」 

「 Strength increased by 2. 」

「 Agility increased by 1. 」

「 Stamina increased by 4. 」

「 Mana increased by 4. 」

「 Tenacity increased by 5. 」 

I left most of the souls alone just in case I needed them for protection or something, but the lizard king’s soul was worth consuming for the stats.

Increasing my stats for the 8th trial was one of the reasons I came to Earth anyway.

‘Hm, not bad.’

But the messages weren’t over.

「 Acquiring one of the lizard king’s skills. 」 

“…?”

I had completely forgotten that this could happen.

——

Bin- Go little rock star~

Phylicia- :rseveryonelookingatnankit: I only kept that part so Bin could make this joke :/

Bin- Why the skelly so weak it seems like a waste

——