69. The Best Assistant

Kiya.

So this is another way to come by an emblem.

Unlike a blessing, which could only be received from one’s own patron Constellation, an emblem was something the System handed down.

‘Just like the one I got from the Ancient Proving Ground.’

A mission where you had to outlast a Draconian for a set stretch of time. Hold out ten minutes, and the Emblem of Endurance was yours.

But picking up a second emblem here hadn’t been part of the plan.

‘Then again, personally enthroning a Constellation and raising it a temple on top of that isn’t exactly an everyday affair.’

Back in the days when he’d pulled off every manner of bizarre stunt and great feat as a Necromancer, an emblem was something he’d almost never laid eyes on. The System’s criteria for handing one out were brutally strict. Why else would the major guilds keep places like the Ancient Proving Ground all to themselves?

‘Because there, an emblem is a sure thing.’

The conditions for earning an emblem were something even Yujin, a regressor, knew next to nothing about. Even after he’d climbed to the 9th Stellar Rank and taken the title ‘Undying King,’ the emblems he’d amassed by then came to a mere five. And here he’d thrown up a single structure too shabby to even call a temple, a humble little shack at best, and walked off with one of those precious, precious emblems.

‘It’s a Priest-specialized option, but who’s complaining?’

The spells Kronos had granted were so powerful that Priest-class Hunters of the same tier couldn’t even dream of them. Giant’s Strength was a mere D-grade buff, yet it amplified power by a full seventy percent. The Wedge of Retribution grew more efficient the more impact piled up, and could be unleashed to tear into enemies. The Negation Shock Shield blocked even an aura-laden blow outright, then flung the damage straight back at whoever had struck it.

‘A few screws loose here and there, sure.’

One was dead weight until its stamina-drain penalty bit or its damage stacked high enough; another could guard only a single face. Each came with one glaring flaw in exchange for its outstanding effect.

‘Well, use them in the right place at the right time and a penalty’s nothing.’

A tool performed worlds apart depending on who wielded it, and Yujin, who before his regression had reached the realm of transcendence, was confident he could wring every last drop out of their strengths.

‘Considering what lies ahead, I need to collect Priest-side emblems too.’

House Romanov. The Sorcerer King. And the remaining seven of the Seven Great Families who had thrown their weight behind driving Yujin out.

The Necromancer’s abilities alone wouldn’t be enough. Not against ‘King’-class Hunters who drew their blessings to the very limit and wielded Divine Power, the native force of a Constellation itself.

‘I have to raise my abilities as a Saint, too.’

Yujin’s eyes turned cold.

‘With what?’

‘Let’s say that’s it.’

Beating his own drum and clanging his own gong all by himself, what a racket. Yujin didn’t bother to set Kronos’s misunderstanding straight.

‘Say, our Lord Constellation.’

‘Now that your force of existence has grown stronger too, couldn’t you grant me a blessing or something?’

Kronos, who’d been laughing so heartily only moments before, abruptly cut off his psychic projection.

Oh dear.
So it can’t be done.
‘Got my hopes up for nothing.’

‘It’s letting myself get my hopes up in the first place that gets me burned. My own fault.’

Our Lord Constellation. You’ll have to put your back into it and grant me a blessing, you know.
Dmitri’s already taken Zeus as his guardian star, founded a whole House, and is doling out the Olympus stellar field’s blessings to the talents beneath him. If you don’t buckle down, things get awkward on my end too.
Heh heh heh.

Yujin laughed under his breath.

Even with the temple’s construction finished, the work left to handle piled up without end.

“Kararaak!”

— Die. The great Master has so commanded.

— Kwaang!

The interior of Yeonpyeong Island still crawled with monsters. The Rerics scattered across it outnumbered the ones he’d already cut down after making landfall.

— And here I thought it was all over.

“The cleanup’s always the harder part.”

He shot a glare at the grumbling Fafnir, then looked down at the Reric corpse.

“Answer my call.”

This time he used Flesh Control to peel the bone from the flesh first, then cast the spell. What rose was an undead other than a Returner.

‘The two undead are made for different purposes.’

The Returner, with its high Endurance, soaked up the punishment at the front. The Skeleton Warrior leaned on its standout agility, a close-range dealer that overran its enemies.

‘Different purposes or not, honestly the Returner’s the more useful one.’

‘Right. Starting to get the hang of this, are you?’

The Returner shared a zombie’s weakness. Without preservation work its rotted flesh and skin and muscle simply decayed away, which left it ill-suited to the long haul.

‘And another weakness is that it’s slow.’

It wasn’t as though he’d be dug in on Yeonpyeong Island for ages, anyway. For putting down Rerics, the Skeleton Warrior beat the slow-footed Returner by a wide margin, and corpses to turn into undead lay strewn everywhere besides. A slight dip in fighting power was no great loss.

‘Those things are hard to control.’

Against high-Stellar-Rank enemies like the mutant Rerics, sheer numbers counted for little. A Skeleton Warrior would have to swing its bone-blade hundreds of times just to crack those hard scales, and the things weren’t about to stand there and take it with their hands tied. Crafting Revenants was no simple matter of choice; it was one of necessity.

‘For mopping up the stragglers, these ones are better.’

Three days and three nights the fighting had raged without a break, and the Rerics entrenched on Yeonpyeong Island had taken catastrophic losses.

“All right. Let’s call it here.”

Fafnir swayed his blue ghost-flame this way and that, as though puzzled.

— There are still Rerics left, though?

“This is an erosion zone. Give it time and they’ll just regenerate all over again.”

Like the borderlands, the island had fused into one body with a gate. A gate melded into the land would spew out fresh Rerics the moment it had drunk its fill of mana, so wiping them out for good was impossible.

— Fair enough. Even when we were holed up in the borderlands, the monsters welled up out of the ground on a regular cycle.

Recalling the days he’d kept the Necropolis alone, Fafnir nodded.

“It’d be a problem if any people were left. But everyone here’s already among the dead, aren’t they.”

— So we just need to sweep the Rerics out on a regular basis.

“It’s a hassle, but it can’t be helped. Yeonpyeong Island is strategically important, so it has to be held.”

He’d already recovered the Shard of the Void buried beneath the cathedral, so the man-hunters couldn’t draw a blessing even if they seized the island. A hallowed ground and the Shard of the Void: the channel to the evil-god Constellation had been a ‘miracle’ that held only when both conditions were met.

‘I’d still rather not hand it over, though.’

The man-hunters’ main force was monsters. Unless they tamed some sea beasts, they had no way to project their strength onto Yeonpyeong Island. Meekly surrendering a key point that would count for so much in the struggle over the West Sea? That wouldn’t sit right at all.

“Fafnir.”

— So I am the most trusted retainer of all, after all?

“…Yeah. You are, but. How do you even know what I’m about to say.”

— You’re going to ask me to take charge of Yeonpyeong Island’s defense.

Quick on the uptake, this one.

Jo Seungcheol worked his jawbone violently up and down.

— Great Master. Grant that honor to me as well.

“What’s gotten into you now.”

The Jo Seungcheol of his living days would have wept tears of blood to see this. No, that very soul still dwelt inside him too, so it really was him.

“Fafnir’s the strongest of my minions, so it’s only right he’s the one who stays here.”

— Heh heh heh. Behold. You, the one with naught but bones left. This is the bond between Master and me.
— Kgh, how galling.

The two undead’s blue ghost-flames blazed up fiercely.

Fafnir. In your past life, Park Haneul was taciturn and so very dependable — what on earth has gotten into you.

— Are you leaving right away?

“After I expand the Necropolis a bit.”

Three spirit veins ran beneath the island. Their spirit-power concentration was a mere 1, which made raising a Black Obelisk a tall order, but it had to be done all the same.

“I’m going to blanket the island in the Necropolis’s mist.”

— Then you’ll spot anyone trying a landing on Yeonpyeong Island in no time.

“And defending gets a whole lot easier.”

The Necropolis’s mist narrowed the field of vision for the living, and since it layered a buff onto the undead on top of that, it amounted to wringing the home-ground advantage for everything it was worth.

‘It’d be even better if I could raise a Bone Tower of the Dead or a Tower of Souls, though.’

Those were structures built for the Necropolis’s defense, intercepting enemies with the bones and souls of the dead for ammunition. Their reach was long, too, so even a single one would keep the man-hunters from setting so much as a foot on the island.

‘No materials, and the Necropolis’s grade is low. Nothing for it, I suppose.’

He clicked his tongue once, ruefully. There was no use chewing over what he couldn’t build right now. The minion Yujin trusted most would be standing guard over the island, so he just had to trust it would hold without trouble.

— Master. Let me ask one favor.

“There aren’t any more mutant Rerics, though?”

— It’s not that. I was wondering if you might teach me necromancy.

Necromancy?

At the unexpected request, Yujin’s eyes went round.

“There’s no reason not to. But what’s got you interested in necromancy?”

— While eating the mutant Rerics, I picked up the Undead Command trait too, didn’t I.

“So you mean to make them yourself and command them.”

— Since I’ll have to hold Yeonpyeong Island alone, I figured I’d have plenty of time to practice necromancy.

Teach Fafnir necromancy?
Hmm—.

Yujin let out a short groan.

‘Why didn’t I think of that brilliant idea until now?’

Among Fafnir’s traits was Martial-Mage, a broken, cheat-like Unique trait: whatever stat you poured points into, mana climbed right alongside it, and talent carried across both martial arts and magic.

‘Come to think of it, he always had a knack for dark magic after becoming a Death Knight, too.’

The very reason he’d settled on crafting an Eldritch Dragon when the Draconian corpse fell into his hands was that he’d had Fafnir’s talent in mind. So there was no reason that same talent couldn’t take to necromancy as well.

‘I had someone — no, a minion — right at my side to do my overtime for me this whole time?!’
Good heavens.
How could I have been this dense!

No. Fafnir’s talent might be outstanding, but whether it would carry over to necromancy too was anyone’s guess.

“Then let’s run a test.”

— A test?

“From here on, I’ll teach you Raise Undead, the basics of necromancy.”

— You’ll judge whether there’s potential by how fast I master the spell, is that it.

Yujin nodded in agreement.

There were two ways to pass on a skill. The first was to hand the other party a manual laying out one’s own insights. The second was to directly explain and guide a skill whose proficiency stood filled to 100%.

‘The conditions are met, so I may as well start right away.’

Once inherited, necromancy skills sat at 100% proficiency, since his pre-regression experience carried straight over into them. He’d taught alchemy and necromancy to plenty of others before, so instructing Fafnir came easily too.

“First I’ll explain the activation principle behind Raise Undead.”

— I’m all ears.

Fafnir bent his whole attention to it. Yujin laid out the traits of the Raise Undead spell and the method of rearranging spirit-power in plain terms. Fafnir took in the entire explanation and nodded vigorously.

— I see. So this is how it works.

— Uuuuung—!

And in the same breath, he drew spirit-power up into his hand and rearranged it.

Hold on a second.

“If you twist the spirit-power there…”

The spirit-power, snarled up midway through the rearrangement, tore itself forcibly loose. Fafnir, having taken the shock of the misfiring spell into his body, flexed his trembling fingers.

— That didn’t hurt all that much.

“Hey, you.”

Giving people a scare like that. A curse itched at the back of his throat, but he clamped down on it. An ordinary Magic-class Hunter would have taken a severe internal injury from a recoil like that.

“Be glad you only held up because I built that body of yours sturdy.”

— Watch closely. This time I’ll get it.

Fafnir rearranged the spirit-power, declaring it with confidence.

Ugh.
I mean, if it worked just from hearing the explanation once, then anyone could be a necroman—

— Answer my call.

The Reric corpse heaved up. A moment later a single zombie rose, drool dribbling everywhere.

“It actually worked.”

Yujin muttered, hollow.