31. Necropolis (2)

Before heading back into the borderlands, Yujin had a job to assign.

“Get me one kilo of ghoul bone, fifty kilos of desert sand, and fourteen kilos of strong moss. And a B-grade mana stone while you’re at it.”
“In case you’ve forgotten, I haven’t got a single won to spare, what with building the potion factory.”
“I’ll pay up front this time, so ease off the glaring.”

His account was flush again, now that the proceeds from fencing the Red Spider’s gear had landed, and a sum running into the hundreds of millions vanished with a few taps.

“Go on, check it.”
“Where in the world did you get this kind of money?”
“I took on a decent commission.”
“Don’t tell me.”

Whether or not Shin Junseok was gaping at his guess about where the money came from, Yujin waved a hand to wall off whatever was coming next.

“The money’s clean, so don’t worry about it.”

There was no way the cash the Madam of the Galaxy Pub had slipped him could be dirty.

Shin Junseok let out a long sigh and spoke up again.

“But still. Ghoul bone aside, what do you mean to do with desert sand and strong moss?”
“No fun if I tell you ahead of time.”
“You’ll be borrowing my hands for it. I’d like to brace myself, at least.”

Sharp.

Yujin clicked his tongue and parted his lips.

“A golem.”
“You mean a golem that runs permanently as long as it has a power source, not a summon?”
“Then should I put the order in as summon-feed instead?”

The alchemist class had appeared in the world barely a year ago. Mana-circuit engraving and the like were yielding visible results, but on the golem side only a prototype or two were just beginning to trickle out.

“O-ohhh! G-go-go-go…!”
“We haven’t even started and you’re already worked up.”
“Even the big corporations can manage no more than a basic prototype in golem research!”

Yujin took an involuntary step back from the way Shin Junseok’s eyes had tipped clean over the edge, a glint that bordered on eerie.

I’d forgotten. Shin Junseok was a madman who’d clawed his way to the summit of alchemy entirely self-taught. Behind that bumbling face hid a derangement that more than matched his dazzling talent. A textbook specimen of the mad scientist.

“Ah. One more thing while I’m at it.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“Have you learned Reverse Mana Flow?”
“Quite the demanding spell, that. But come now—who do you think I am!”

Shin Junseok’s already-high nose climbed higher still.

Ugh. The urge to flick it down with a finger keeps welling up.

“Inscribe it on parchment for me.”
“For nothing?”
“Suit yourself if you’d rather not.”
“That much I’ll throw in as a freebie.”

An alchemy spell that reverses the flow of mana.

His preparations were in order.

“So now you’re off to the borderlands?”
“Just pray I make it back in one piece.”
“Should I pray to the one my partner serves?”

Don’t bother. That Constellation’s too useless to grant anything you’d pray for.

“I’m joking.”
“I’m dead serious, though. Starting today I’m going on a dedicated prayer regimen.”

At the faint gleam in the corners of Shin Junseok’s eyes, Yujin’s shoulders gave a slight twitch.

— Gugugugung!

The iron gate swung open with a ponderous groan. Yujin’s party passed between the doors and set foot in the borderlands for the second time.

“Never thought I’d come here twice on my own two feet.”

Kang Minho grumbled it under his breath, but the odd flicker of anticipation in his eyes bled some of the meaning out of the muttering.

“I’ll make you strong.”

Maybe it was because the words Yujin had spoken the night before were carved so vividly into his mind. Even though they’d entered a place a notch more dangerous than any gate, there was somehow strength in his stride.

Yujin, who’d caught the mutter, glared at him.

“If you’ve got complaints, head back.”
“Aigoo. My mouth ran off on its own. Boss!”

Kang Minho clapped a palm over his mouth in a flustered fuss.

Watching the display as though it were pathetic, Fafnir cast a glance around.

— Master. What’s the goal of this trip into the borderlands?

“I’m going to build a Necropolis.”

— Necro… what?

“A city of the dead. The domain that becomes the wellspring of necromancy.”

Where a mage or an alchemist keeps a workshop, a Necromancer wrings the most from his craft by proclaiming a domain of his own.

Before the regression, I laid necromancy-amplifying conduits all across the world to push my forces to their limit. To make and command more undead, I need to build a Necropolis.

The borderlands were the ideal place for a Necromancer’s domain. Ground fused with a gate carried a far denser mana distribution than ordinary land, and the monsters there regenerated without end. Between being hunted by Hunters and waging territorial wars among themselves, the place brimmed with the scent of death.

True.

Yujin fiddled with his chin.

In the borderlands, unlike inside a gate, the grade of monster that turned up wasn’t fixed. There were said to be tacit borders drawn between them, but those were hardly absolute. The one infamous around Paju as “Eye-Patch,” in fact, prowled the ridgelines now and then, cutting down any monster or Hunter that crossed its sight at random.

Care for a taste of a 7th-Rank mutant Ogre?

Eye-Patch wasn’t even a Twin-Head Ogre, and on top of that it was a mutant fluent in magic.

If something like Eye-Patch came barging into the Necropolis, I’d count myself lucky just to walk away alive. Even with Fafnir pulling out every stop, I doubt he’d last five seconds.

A land where opportunity and danger lived side by side. For the Scraps to throw in with Yujin here had taken real resolve.

I’ll raise you lot into something useful, too.

With an instructor as fine as Fafnir, they were bound to grow steadily stronger. The twins had already proven their aptitude.

Lee Seongmin I’m less sure of, but as long as he doesn’t fold on his own, he should be able to build his skills up well enough.

— But where are we headed?

“I’m going to scout out a plot worth raising a Necropolis on.”

— Better find somewhere mountain-backed and water-fronted, then.¹

“Don’t tell me you’ve taken an interest in geomancy?”

Yujin shot back, flabbergasted, and snorted.

— Just something I picked up.

“It’s not quite mountain-back, water-front, but it’s close. We’re after a place where water-essence flows.”

Land where water runs carries strong ghostly energy. Where water-essence pools thick, ghosts appear, or sleep paralysis sets in.

“In alchemy’s four-great-elements theory, the realm water governs happens to be the soul.”

East or West, what holds a close bond with the soul is water. Water-essence, in other words.

— Then I should’ve brought chopsticks along.

“You mean a dowsing rod.”

— Hm. The name isn’t the point!

Huffing it out like that didn’t lend the claim a single gram of weight. Yujin let out a short laugh, then drew up his spirit-power.

— Sseuseuseut!

A whitish energy shimmered across his retinas.

— Come to think of it, Master. Did you just imbue your eyes with spirit-power?

“It’s nothing, just a little trick.”

— A little trick? Your modesty’s gone too far!

Fafnir cried out as though startled out of his skin, all but interrogating him.

“Why are you suddenly so worked up?”

— Breathing intent into energy to give it form is the first step of aura manifestation.

Yujin let out a hollow laugh.

“It’s one branch of spirit-power application. Nothing to be measured against aura.”

— You don’t seem to grasp how impressive what you just did is, Master.

Muttering it low, Fafnir scattered blue ghost-fire as if put out.

“I need to concentrate, so let’s talk later.”

Once more, Yujin bent every sense to the spirit-power work. Knitting optic nerve to spirit-power was a makeshift route toward unfurling the ‘Spirit-Eye,’ a feat his current attainment couldn’t dare so much as glimpse. One slip in the deployment, one scattering of his focus, and his eyesight could fail for good.

I can see it. The water-essence running beneath the ground.

The souls that had died in the borderlands rode that current, drifting toward lower ground. The path the water-essence traced was, in short, a spirit vein.

A minute or so of focus, and his eyes turned gritty. When he drew the spirit-power back, the corners of them stung as if dusted with pepper.

— You all right? Your eyes have gone bloodshot.

“I’ll live.”

Tracing a spirit vein’s flow takes proper gear, something like a dowsing rod. The genuine article, with a circuit engraved into it, not the kind of stick lying around just anywhere.

No teeth, so you gum it.

Soothing the ache in his bloodshot eyes with Life Drain, he pointed the way the water-essence flowed.

— Heh heh. Leave the vanguard to me.

Fafnir took the lead.

“Boss. We’ll cover the rear—”
“Ah. For lookout, just put this one to work.”
“Kihihit!”

The wraith of Jo Seungcheol, lodged inside Yujin’s body, burst free and flitted about, venting its pent-up grudge.

“Uh, uhhh.”
“You’re not gonna peep on us later or anything, right?”

Flabbergasted, the Scraps trailed along behind Yujin all the same.

“Kihit! Kihit!”

Barely a few steps in, the wraith bared its bloodlust, spinning round and round to trace a wide circle in the air.

— Enemies.

The undergrowth rustled, and before long a monster drew close enough for its outline to register on the eye.

“It’s a Lizardman. Boss. Weaker than an Orc but quick, and—”

— It’s just a flimsy lizard.

— Thud. Thud.

Before Kang Minho could finish, Fafnir shot out, stamping huge footprints into the ground.

“It coats its scales in oil, so it’s got resistance to impact attacks!”

— Crunch!

A ponderous blow landed, overlapping Kang Minho’s cry. The Lizardman’s chest caved inward where Fafnir’s fist had buried itself, and blue blood welled up from between the crushed bone and muscle.

— What was that you said?

“Th-that, uh. That impact doesn’t work too well on it.”

— Next time you land in a spot like this, take a moment to weigh whether the real problem wasn’t a shortage of strength.

— Bang! Ba-bang!

Overwhelming violence swept the pack of Lizardmen away.

The corpses, flesh and bone parted, were put to use as material for Armored Zombies. Three zombies clad in heavy armor joined the ranks.

“Fafnir. I’ve got to chase the spirit vein’s flow, so I’ll leave the fighting entirely to you.”

— Leave it to me.

Gnolls, humanoid monsters with the upper body of a dog. Kobolds nimbly working an assortment of tools. And beyond them, creatures so varied the place might have passed for a monster museum kept spilling out.

“This is different from last time.”

Clicking his tongue in amazement, Lee Seongmin dug a mana stone out of the heart of a Kobold that had just dropped.

“Because we’re cutting across the monsters’ territories.”

The place where Park Haneul’s soul had lingered was Orc territory, so roaming nearby turned up little besides Orcs. Now they were chasing the spirit vein, slicing across the borders between one monster’s ground and the next.

“Then isn’t that dangerous?”
“Turn back and it’ll never end. Better to push straight through like this.”

It was a mercy this was only the borderlands’ shallows. Deeper in lay the haunts of Trolls and Ogres. At this party’s level, things would be settled at the Ogre line, with no need for Paju’s named monster, Eye-Patch, to so much as stir.

“Grrwoaaargh.”

The Armored Zombies swelled their numbers smoothly as well, topping the command cap back up to 18 + 2 (Fafnir and the one wraith).

Tsk. Kronos clicked his tongue.

“The sorrows of a Necromancer.”

The more his forces grew, the faster he could move, too.

“Kurk, how did you know I was hiding!”
“Kihihit!”

Even when a monster lay in ambush, he saw through it, thanks to commanding a wraith keen to the presence of the living.

Yujin had been tracing the spirit vein without much trouble.

“This spot will do.”

A small hill overlooked the river’s course. The spirit vein running beneath it flowed strong, and it stood as the highest ground nearby, the terrain well suited to a Necropolis.

— You sure? It juts out a fair bit, so it stands out.

“You have to accept some risk.”

— Look. The residents already here aren’t exactly thrilled about a new neighbor.

Where the sharp claw pointed, the monsters of the area were closing in on Yujin’s party atop the hill. Even at a rough count, their numbers ran into the hundreds.

Kang Minho swallowed hard and reached for his weapon.

“You lot, get the camp ready.”
“The enemy’s numbers are tremendous. Shouldn’t we pitch in too?”
“I was needing corpses anyway, so this works out fine.”

Yujin floated four magical armaments into the air with Bone Control.

Know what a Necromancer’s strong suit is? A war of attrition. However long it drags on, the one who wins is me.

— Shaaaaak!

The cursed armaments forged from ghoul bone tore through the air and shot toward the enemy.