39. Reinforcing Combat Power (1)

“Disposal of byproducts. I’ll help you out with that on a regular basis.”

The Madam tossed the line off the moment they stepped out of the suburban house.

“I saved a younger friend of yours, and that’s all I get?”
“You were paid the proper fee for a proper commission by the chairman, weren’t you.”
“How stingy.”

Yujin didn’t push the matter.

“You did good work too, business partner.”
“Heh. Thanks to you, I had quite the extraordinary experience.”
“Inspiration just gushing up out of you?”
“I haven’t even finished sorting out the realization I had during the Golem Synthesis, so this is a real problem. I’ve got far too much to do.”

Shin Junseok went on scribbling something into a small notebook.

What in the world did he write?

Just look at the man. The handwriting was atrocious, and the bizarre knack for inventing his own private cipher on top of it had Yujin clicking his tongue.

When Yujin read through it with some patience, he found that Shin Junseok had boiled all sorts of data down into formulas: the reaction between the mana wavelength thrown off during the Golem Synthesis and the Reinforcement Circuit, and the like.

Right now he’s writing out the Mana Discharge formula.

At this rate the man would soon be claiming he’d caught his inspiration just from breathing. Geniuses, as a species, had to be all like this.

Yeah. I’m pretty impressive myself.

Letting Kronos’s nagging go in one ear and out the other, Yujin let his head fall back against the seat. A short rest was never going to shake off all that fatigue.

“Don’t bother me until we arrive.”

With that, he shut both eyes.

1.4 billion.

That was what offloading the byproducts and the mana stones had brought in. Before the regression, earning even in units of a billion had cost him years, and the feeling of it now was beyond measure.

“Shall I look into other elixirs too?”
“The Human-Shaped Snow Ginseng is enough.”

Yin essence paired well with the dead. If Fafnir took it in, he’d need a good while yet before he fully digested the elixir’s power. Better to invest than to lock up an elixir he had no use for right now.

“Business partner. Take this.”
“Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands… just how much is all this!”
“I’ll earn you even more going forward, so don’t fret about funds — just work hard.”
“Thank you. My loyalty!”

Shin Junseok panted like a man ready to lick the soles of Yujin’s shoes. From the look of him, he’d already scrubbed every trace of their spectacular first meeting out of his head.

“Alchemist.”
“Yes!”
“Could I make an investment as well?”
“No. Who do you think you’re poaching.”

Yujin shot the Madam’s investment proposal down flat.

“Hoho, I wasn’t speaking to you, you know. I’ll be hearing my answer from Alchemist Shin himself.”
“I’m his business partner, you realize?”

The Madam had an uncanny nose for the scent of money. Drawing in investment was well and good, but a bigger pie meant a bigger share to hand out, and getting tangled up with her of all people, a woman with several serpents coiled in her belly, was hardly a good ide…

“I’ll give it some consideration!”
“Ah.”

Yujin pressed hard at his temples.

When they got back to the Paju workshop, the Scraps were waiting for Yujin.

“Boss. You’re back.”
“Did all of you clear the Ancient Proving Ground?”
“Yes!”

Hoh. A flicker of surprise crossed the corners of Yujin’s eyes.

“All three of you toughed it out. Well done.”
“We just did exactly as you taught us, Boss!”

At Lee Seongmin’s answer, Yujin ran a thumb along his chin.

I figured the other two would make it through, but for even this kid to hold his own against a Draconian.

He’d taught Kang Minho and Kang Minyeong how to make proper use of their unique traits, and at an equal Stellar Rank few could match the pair short of a Hunter already granted a Constellation’s blessing. But Lee Seongmin wasn’t on that level, was he?

“How did you get through?”
“I made use of my Space ability the way you taught me, Boss.”
“Space?”
“I packed in as many shields as I could.”

A rift split open in front of Lee Seongmin, and from inside the sub-space his unique trait Space carved out, a grayish object came into view.

“So you opened the space right before the Draconian’s attack landed?”
“Yep! That’s right!”

Learning mana control from Yujin had multiplied his sub-space’s storage capacity several times over. Fifty kilograms, now. After he heard what the trial involved, Lee Seongmin had bought every magic-grade shield he was allowed and packed them into it.

I never taught him that far.

This kid. Not half bad, was he? He’d be worth raising alongside the Mirror-Hunter siblings.

Shin Junseok looked back and forth between the waiting Scraps and Yujin.

“Are you heading into the borderlands again?”
“Yeah.”
“Then…”
“I’ve got to bring the Blood Golem along too.”
“Noooo!!!!”

Shrieking as though the world had ended, Shin Junseok crumpled to the floor in despair.

“Sir. Are you all right?”

Kang Minyeong watched him with a look of pity, but Yujin only waved a dismissive hand.

“He’s putting on an act.”
“My research! New inspiration is bubbling up by the bucketload!!!”
“You said you had plenty to digest. Do that first.”

He had a whole mass-production line for mid-grade potions to pick apart, and all the alchemy he’d worked through synthesizing the golem besides. So much for that mountain of material he’d sworn was piled up waiting to be analyzed.

Leaving the whining Shin Junseok behind, the party stepped into the borderlands once more.

By the end of several days’ forced march, the entire Scraps team had climbed to the 2nd Rank, an incidental gain along the way.

— You’re far too late!

The thunderous scolding fell on them the instant they reached the Necropolis. The blue flame lodged in Fafnir’s empty eye sockets shook violently.

“Late? Late for what?”

— You never said it would take this long!

“I never promised to come within a few days, either.”

— What a heartless master. To abandon me all alone in a lawless land swarming with monsters!

Coming from a 6th-Rank powerhouse of his past life, the complaint carried no weight whatsoever. Yujin let out a short sigh.

“Here. Take it.”

— My mood won’t be soothed by some gift.

“It’s Human-Shaped Snow Ginseng, though?”

Fafnir’s body jerked to a halt. As though time itself had frozen over, even the wavering blue flame went still.

— Hu-Hu-Human-Shaped Snow Gin-seeeeeng?!!!

“It’ll pair well with you.”

— How on earth did you come by something so precious. Master!

“I cured someone, and.”

— I can’t believe it. That my master played the part of a Priest.

The same reaction as that backwater goblin spirit.

“If you don’t want to eat it, then don’t.”

To tease him a little, Yujin drew the bag back at a slow, deliberate pace. But what was this? Slow as the motion was, Fafnir had every chance to react, and yet he didn’t so much as twitch.

“You don’t need the elixir?”

— Hmph. Here’s the thing, Master. The truth is, it seems I have no need of an elixir.

Fafnir’s thoughts settled into a calm hush. Yujin kept his own silence and waited for what would come next.

— Even after your party left, there were quite a few monsters who set their sights on the Necropolis.

“I’d imagine so. This is the borderlands, after all.”

— But here’s the thing. By mistake, I put a monster’s mana stone in my mouth.

Fafnir’s thoughts wavered this way and that.

“Was it really a mistake?”

— I’ll be honest. I don’t know why, but all of a sudden a delicious smell came drifting off it.

“A smell, coming off a mana stone.”

— So I ate it. The moment I put it in my mouth it melted away and slid down into my belly.

An undead that ate mana stones? Even Yujin, who’d reached the very summit of necromancy, was hearing of such a thing for the first time.

“That’s not where it ends, is it.”

— My total mana increased.

Yujin let out a dry laugh.

To think it would be that easy a method.

The Eldritch Dragon was a growth-type undead, grown from a Draconian’s corpse and cobbled together through irregular tricks and shortcuts, which had saddled it with the label of “incomplete.” And since it was an undead Yujin had never once managed to make in his past life, information on it had always been thin.

I’d thought it strange that no number of battles could push it past its limit. Maybe I should have gone the simple route from the start.

Yujin swept his hair back and let out a low chuckle.

A shortage of mana. That the condition for its growth was nothing more than filling the empty Dragon Heart had never once crossed his mind.

“Then the Human-Shaped Snow Ginseng will be a big help too.”

— For now the mana stones alone are enough.

“Why?”

— At my current level, it seems I wouldn’t be able to draw out all the mana held in the elixir.

A fair point.

Well, a shame he won’t eat it right away. Still, I’ll just have to settle for the tie I’ve forged with Seongcheon Enterprise.

“Anyway, glad we found the answer.”

— Will you be all right?

“With what.”

— If I eat the mana stones, your income drops, Master.

Ah. So that was why Fafnir kept circling back to the mana stones; there had been a real reason behind it after all.

“Money is ultimately just a means.”

— A means?

“One of the roads to growing stronger.”

Money bought time. Enough of it could put what he wanted within reach, and fast. But the things he truly needed, money alone could never buy.

“For my shining future, I’ve got a great many enemies to deal with.”

Within the country alone there was the Arahan Guild. House Romanov, his nemesis from the life before the regression, made another. And the Seven Great Families, who had stood by and let it all happen, were tacit enemies every last one.

“How much could I earn off a few mana stones, anyway? You growing stronger matters far more.”

— Ma-Master!

Moved nearly to tears, Fafnir rushed at Yujin.

— Thank you for understanding! Master!

“Hey, hey! Squeeze me like that and you’ll crush my organs!”

— I swear it. That I shall fight for my master until my white bones crumble to dust and dirt!

“Kurk.”

With that one strangled cry, Yujin’s head drooped, and only then did Fafnir realize he’d put too much into the squeeze. The moment he eased off a touch, Yujin hauled in a deep breath and fed air back to his head.

Wow. I nearly died a second time in this world.

Kronos laughed himself out. This time even Yujin had no comeback to throw back at him.

“Right. Is Jo Seungcheol doing all right?”

— You mean the noisy wraith. He’s over there.

Fafnir pointed to the tip of the obelisk, where a pale soul circled the spire without rest: Jo Seungcheol, reduced now to a wraith.

“Come here.”
“Kihihihi!”

The wraith flew to Yujin’s side.

Oh. I happen to know another vagabond spirit who isn’t much use either.

I never said it was you, Constellation? You must just picture yourself that way out of habit.

Kronos went quiet. Payback enough for all that roaring laughter earlier.

Wraith in tow, Yujin moved to the Profane Graveyard, where he had an Armored Skeleton dig Jo Seungcheol’s corpse up out of the ground.

Now that I’m at the 2nd Rank, I’d best learn a new spell.

Alchemy aside, there was still more knowledge he could carve into his head from fields he’d already inherited.

A single character short of Raise Undead. For that one character’s difference, the result was something else entirely.

Using Flesh Control to strip every scrap of flesh from the dead man, he gathered spirit-power into his hand.

“Answer my call.”

Loosing a forceful cry, he released the spirit-power condensed in his palm. He breathed it into Jo Seungcheol’s corpse, by now nothing but bone, and the body shot upright with a rattling clatter.

“As I thought, burying it had its effect.”

The Profane Graveyard breathed spirit-power into any corpse buried in its soil, shaping it into a form fit to be raised as undead.

The very first thing buried there after its construction had been Jo Seungcheol. Perhaps thanks to that, his reinforcement rate, which had never once topped 100 percent since the regression, climbed another 10 percent.

“Even reinforced, it’s only at a 2nd-Rank level, though.”

Its specs fell well short of the Armored series. Specialized for magic attacks it might be, but it was hard to call it the same 2nd Rank.

I haven’t even started yet, though?

That’s right.

Yujin snatched up the wraith as it drifted about without rest.

“Kihihihi?”
“Hold still.”

Pressing down on Jo Seungcheol’s wraith with the spirit-power sheathing his hand, he pinned it so it couldn’t slip away, then stuffed it into the Skeleton Mage’s skull.

I’m going to sync the two of them together.

The body’s original owner had been Jo Seungcheol, now turned wraith. Low-grade undead carried no soul of their own. But what would happen if he seized that spirit by force and synced it back in?

Knowledge not even the Ring of Black Darkness had on record.

I named it Unison.

Yujin’s spirit-power locked the wavelength of Jo Seungcheol’s spirit to that of the corpse, and a pale current seeped down into the skull.

“Ge-gel!! Chaos, destruction, des—!!”

A bright blue flame surged violently within the empty eye sockets.