Surviving as a Genius Necromancer in the Game

Chapter 1

『 Translator – Divinity 』

My dream was to be a funeral director. There wasn't any particular reason for it.

My father was a funeral director, my grandfather was a funeral director, and my great-grandfather was a funeral director.

It wouldn't be strange to say that it was a profession passed down through generations in my family, and naturally, I came to dream of becoming a funeral director too.

If life had gone as planned, I would have become a funeral director.

Yes, if things had gone the way they were supposed to.

Swooooooosh!

Rain poured down. The ceiling, made of wood instead of concrete, became damp and soaked.

Several parts of the ceiling weren't just getting damp; water was actually dripping down.

‘Tsk.’

Wiping away a raindrop that fell on my shoulder with the back of my hand, I turned my gaze towards the sky beyond the window.

Wooooooosh–

In the gloomy, rainy sky, an opaque, gigantic whale was swimming.

That wasn't something only I could see.

It was an existence that any living creature in this world could see.

'Sky Whale.'

A transcendental being that appears in the RPG game, 'Rafnus', swimming in the sky and summoning rain clouds.

It was also a being that could often be seen from the 'starting' point of the game I was currently in.

'...Shit.'

...That's right.

This was inside a game. Inside the RPG game I just mentioned.

'Why this game of all games?'

Rafnus was a pretty famous game. It was famous for its outstanding quality, but what made Rafnus most famous was its difficulty.

A game that no one in the world had ever 'cleared'!

The reason I came to play this game was simple.

'Hey, you wanna try this?'

'What is it?'

'I heard no one has ever beaten this game. But you're good at games, right? If you play it, wouldn't you be the first to clear it? This is a real opportunity.'

A recommendation from a classmate in my first year of high school.

At first, it was just interest.

I thought I'd just play a few rounds and quit, but Rafnus wasn't an easy game.

I was repeatedly defeated by the difficulty, which was much higher than I expected, and at the same time, a desire arose within me. A desire to clear this game no matter what.

That was the first goal I had in my childhood.

My life was no different from what had already been decided. I just had to get decent grades, graduate from college, and immediately inherit the family business.

Everyone envied my life, but I found it rather boring.

I wanted to have something I could truly achieve, at least once, and pour all my time into it.

That's how Rafnus became my target.

'I shouldn't have done that.'

Except for the time spent studying to become a funeral director, eating, and sleeping, I poured all my time into the game.

I solely focused on defeating the final boss and clearing the game, raising numerous characters, and managed to reach the boss room about 10 times.

But I couldn't kill the final boss.

The final boss, named the 'Planet-Swallowing Serpent,' was, simply put, a 'fucking goddamn boss.'

Just how many instant-death patterns did it have, and how much health did it have...? With just one mistake, my character would die.

To kill it, I had to deplete all of its health and then stab its exposed weak point at the very end. Somehow, I managed to get to the point of depleting its health, but stabbing the weak point was too difficult.

It took a month before I could play a character that died to the final boss again. During that time, I couldn't play that character at all.

That applied even to the characters I had created with all my effort.

In the end, to kill time and research new classes, I created a new character.

-------------------

[Sihan]

Level: 1

Class: Necromancer

Affiliation: Black Tower.

Abilities: Necromancy (S), ???.

Stats: [Strength 1] [Agility 1] [Stamina 1] [Mana 1]

-------------------

...The problem is that this is now my body.

'Ah, I really should have just immersed myself in another game.'

Why? There are plenty of healing games or games with easy difficulty, aren't there?

Why did it have to be a game with extreme difficulty that I got possessed in?

There's even a world where you can just laze around with animals...

And even worse.

'It's going to be destroyed soon.'

In 5 years, if the final boss isn't killed, this world is definitely doomed.

'This is fucked up.'

But I couldn't just give up and accept death.

Aspiring to be a funeral director, following my father around, I've seen countless deaths.

I've seen people's sorrowful cries, despair, and the state of being unable to do anything.

Just like that, I didn't want to die without achieving anything.

To survive and return to Earth, I have to clear this game.

In that sense, my goal itself hasn't changed much.

Clearing this world. No, clearing this game.

If I clear the game, I might be able to return to Earth with the reward, the [Wish Stone].

Of course, I couldn't be sure, but currently, the Wish Stone was the only hope I could grasp.

Fortunately... there is hope for me in this despairing world.

The special ability possessed by this character I'm inhabiting.

Not the common necromancer ability, but a different one.

As of now, this was the reason I hadn't left this starting point for the past three months since I've been possessed.

'I need to leave after thorough preparation.'

Entering the main story a few months early won't change the outcome.

It was better to enter the main story after sufficient preparation, even if it was a little late.

And the starting point was the place where I could obtain what I needed.

"Hey!"

The sound of splashing and footsteps interrupted my thoughts.

I lowered my gaze to below the window.

A man, who had walked through the heavy rain with only a raincoat, called out to me.

"Sihan! Come out now!"

"Yes?"

"What do you mean 'yes'!"

The senior and mentor necromancer you meet at the starting point when playing the necromancer class.

Jack yelled.

"We have to go bury the bodies!"

♱⋆☠︎︎⋆♱

Necromancers belong to the Black Tower. The Black Tower's schools were classified into three categories.

The Summoning School, the Poison School, and the Curse School.

Among these, the school with the most necromancers was the Summoning School. It was a school that mainly dealt with corpses and bones.

This was because corpses were representative of necromancers and were much easier to handle compared to other fields.

Compared to poison or curses that require knowledge, all you needed was the ability to handle mana and control your undead.

Of course, it didn't mean raising just any corpse. ...Well, there were those who did, but most necromancers didn't choose that method.

The most humane method. That was...

Thud! Thud!

"Should I bury it here?"

"Yes. Yes, that's right. That... Is it the right one?"

"Ah, I told you it is."

It was about helping with the village's 'work' and obtaining 'corpses.'

The work mainly involved managing the cemetery, burying bodies, and fending off approaching beasts or monsters.

Jack, the mentor necromancer who had just buried the body of an old woman who had recently died, wiped the cold sweat off his brow.

"It's done. With this depth and thickness, even if it becomes a ghoul or a skeleton, it won't be able to come up. And since I sprinkled red soil on top, mana won't be able to penetrate easily."

"Oh my. Thank you for your hard work."

The village headman bowed repeatedly. No matter how normal a necromancer might seem, one never knew when they might crave corpses and turn people into them.

Jack noticed the headman's fear, but he didn't point it out and instead asked a question.

"By the way, this makes five bodies buried. Now, you should give me the reward. Which corpse can I use?"

"It's, it's over there."

In the place the headman pointed to, lay the corpse of a robust young man who had died in an accident.

It was the corpse received as a reward for helping with the work.

From the perspective of the headman and the villagers, a necromancer who received corpses instead of money wasn't so bad. It saved them money.

The problem was that they didn't know when that corpse would come back to haunt them.

"P-Please don't turn other corpses into ghouls or skeletons."

"...I won't. Don't worry."

After calming the headman, Jack reached out to the corpse.

Ominous black mana emanated and dwelled within the corpse.

And then something amazing happened.

...Grooooan–

With a sound like escaping air, as if its vocal cords had already lost their strength, the corpse moved.

The dead had begun to move.

A ghoul.

A basic undead that necromancers of the Summoning School absolutely had to know how to handle.

Jack manipulated the ghoul and sent it towards me. He spoke in a voice the headman couldn't hear. This was possible thanks to the pouring rain nearby.

"Here. It's a corpse we've obtained after a while. Let's use it wisely. Do you remember everything I taught you?"

"Of course. What should we try first?"

"First, let's assess the corpse."

I nodded and mobilized my mana.

A foreign energy that I had never felt on Earth moved within my body and gathered at my fingertips.

Black mana, emitted like a beam, dwelled within the ghoul. As if a picture was being drawn in my head, the ghoul's condition was revealed.

'Hmm. The condition of the corpse isn't bad. However, it's been dead for a while, so the flesh has rotted, and the muscles have decreased considerably. There's also a large wound near the chest. Was it stabbed in the heart?'

"Have you assessed the corpse? Then try to mend the weak points."

I nodded.

It wouldn't matter if I just moved the corpse, but true experts start by compensating for the corpse's weaknesses.

Missing body parts couldn't be helped, but in cases like this where there was a wound in the chest...

Fzzzt, fzzzt.

I used my mana to seal the hole.

If I went further, I could even restore or evolve this body.

'This is really a shame.'

Of course, there were clear limitations.

Unless I reached the 7th rank, equivalent to an 'Archmage' in terms of mages...

Before that, it was difficult for my undead to surpass the level they were at when they were alive.

Only higher beings like Death Knights or Liches could surpass the level they were at when they were alive.

When turned undead, their stats would be lower than when they were alive. That was a major drawback of necromancers.

'It's also a shame that the necromancer's own stats are weak.'

Stats like mana were high, but other physical stats were lacking.

"Good. Well done. You've got the assessment and the basics down... Now all you have to do is control it. I'll release the control, so try moving it yourself."

Undead controlled by another necromancer cannot be controlled by a different necromancer. That was something that could only be done by reaching a higher level.

Rank. The term that distinguishes levels.

Currently, my rank was 1st. My mentor's rank was 4th, so normally, I wouldn't be able to control his undead.

'I feel like I can do it even without him releasing control.'

Surely, that would normally be the case.

But I kept getting a strange feeling.

As if someone was telling me I could do it.

Should I give it a try?

I spread the black energy flowing from my hand throughout the undead's body. And before my mentor could remove his control, I snatched it away first.

Grooooan–

My mentor looked at the ghoul with a shocked expression.

"...Huh? How did you do that?"

"I was lucky. I infused my mana at the exact moment you were about to release control. The timing was perfect. This is all thanks to your good teaching."

"...Really?"

My mentor just grinned.

I didn't pay much attention to his reaction. I just nodded, satisfied that I could properly utilize the knowledge I had learned.

'Three months of studying paid off.'

From how to use skills to the essential 'knowledge' that one must know beyond skills.

For three months, I crammed my head with information that I had no way of knowing, nor any need to know, as a gamer.

In this world, information was power. I had to know these basic things.

"By the way, when are you going to move to the next village?"

Jack spoke up.

"It's been three months now. It's time for you to graduate from being a novice necromancer. You need to go to the Black Tower and register as a proper necromancer."

That was the first storyline for the necromancer class. Going to the Black Tower and registering as a necromancer.

For this purpose, novice, or in other words, 'candidate' necromancers were assigned mentors. Jack was one such mentor.

Mentors were there to guide talented individuals to the Black Tower without losing their way, which was why he was making this suggestion...

'Not yet.'

Neigh!

Just then, the sound of a horse's cry came from outside the village. I listened intently. There was only one set of hooves pounding through the sound of the rain.

'It's not an army or anything like that.'

Sometimes villages were devastated by rebels or imperial knights sent to catch them. Fortunately, that didn't seem to be the case now.

In both cases, knights and mercenaries would come in groups, or the army would come directly.

If it was just one, then perhaps...

"Is there a cemetery in this village? If possible, I would like to bury my friend in that cemetery."

"Hmm, there is a space..."

A mercenary wearing a robe was talking to the village headman. On the back of the horse he seemed to have ridden, there was a corpse wrapped in a white cloth and what looked like vinyl.

Sometimes there were mercenaries like that. Their comrade died in an accident, and they couldn't bring themselves to bury the body just anywhere, so they paid money to bury it in the cemetery of a nearby village.

And it was those corpses that I was after.

Rushing over in a single step, I bowed my head with my hands clasped to the mercenary with a gloomy expression.

"May the deceased rest in peace."