NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 17
Chapter 17: Assault on Necropolis (3)
“Who goes there!”
In an instant, both liches hurled blasts of fire and ice my way.
The scene unfolded like a simultaneous recreation of an Antarctic storm and a gas explosion. I clicked my tongue and quickly wrapped myself in a prepared protection spell.
“Impressive. But are you sure it’s wise to fight inside? The giant seems to be in pain.”
ROAR!
Suddenly, Necropolis let out a monstrous groan, shaking its massive head violently.
The liches hastily withdrew their magic, their glowing blue eyes flaring with anger.
“Protection magic? An Archpriest?”
“How… How did this brat, a living being, manage to infiltrate here!”
“Where? Where else but through that massive eye socket over there?”
I pointed toward the large hole far beyond the skeletal throne.
“Necropolis only has one eyeball, after all. Though it’s riddled with other gaps as well.”
“Enough with the nonsense! How did you sneak in undetected!”
“Through stealth.”
“Stealth?”
“Yeah, something like that. But wow, hearing about the secret behind Quincy’s Sanctuary? That’s shocking. Guess coming here early has its perks.”
Not to mention the information I’d overheard about the lich sealed beneath the Grand Temple—who would’ve thought such a grand backstory was in play?
“So, do I need to visit there later? Quincy’s Sanctuary wasn’t even on my radar.”
“What is this brat rambling about!”
“How dare a mere mortal defile the throne! Unforgivable!”
At that moment, Azran, the lich in the red cloak, stepped forward.
This time, instead of elemental magic, he unleashed waves of dark energy—necromancy, specifically Soul Rush. That one was quite a troublesome spell to deal with.
But then, all of a sudden—
“Enough! Everyone, stop!”
The Undead Lord rose from his throne. Azran hastily dispelled his dark aura, stepping back as he responded.
“But Lord! We must eliminate this intruder at once!”
“I said enough. If he is to die, it will be by my hand. Step aside.”
Krok, the Undead Lord, walked past his liches, making his way toward me.
He appeared as nothing more than a middle-aged man with sickly gray skin.
However, his true form was that of a corpse puppet, a body made from the compressed remains of hundreds of dead bodies.
A puppet that had received the power of Quincy, the God of Death, and ascended to become the Lord of the Undead.
What mattered now wasn’t his grotesque origin but rather the fact that his eyes were heterochromatic—one golden, the other blue.
One of those eyes must be the legendary Eye of Appraisal I had read about in the book.
“My eyes are blue too, so it would be nice if it’s the blue one. It won’t stand out as much.”
“I don’t care who you are or how you made it here,” Krok said coldly, trying to build an ominous atmosphere.
“I can see it. Your magic has already reached its peak, both your elemental and holy magic are at their limit. I imagine you used those powers to come this far. But none of that matters. What truly matters is…”
Krok widened his heterochromatic eyes, locking his gaze onto my face.
“The hidden potential within you.”
“Potential?”
“You possess a natural talent for necromancy. No human has ever wielded such innate ability. So if you wish to live—”
“Ah, that’s enough. You can stop right there.”
“Hmm?”
“So you’re saying you want me to become your student, learn necromancy from you, and eventually earn the title Master of the Undead from the elders at your base?”
“How could you know….”
Krok stopped mid-step, surprised. I slowly raised both hands, preparing a spell as I spoke.
“Turns out arriving at Elston Castle was a stroke of luck. I was thinking of resting for a day, but then this happened.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Think about it. If I had come a day later, I would’ve missed out on this crucial information. I didn’t even know Necropolis had moved this close. Honestly, it’s a blessing—the shorter the travel time, the better. I’ve been so tired lately, losing sleep is hell.”
“…You won’t be leaving here alive.”
Bzzz!
Suddenly, black wings sprouted from Krok’s back.
At the same time, dark smoke filled the eye sockets of Necropolis. Krok flapped his blade-like wings slowly, his voice a chilling threat.
“Choose now. Will you embrace death and be reborn as an undead, or will you submit and learn necromancy under me? And of course, you’ll tell me how you know about our base and the elders.”
“Oh, scary.”
I playfully poked the sharp edge of his wing with a finger, grinning.
“You are strong, no doubt. After all, you’re the Undead Lord Krok, the one who nearly single-handedly repelled an entire wave. But before we get to the end, give me just a little time, okay?”
“Are you choosing death?”
A fog of grayish smoke began to seep from Krok’s mouth. Ah, so now he’s preparing Soul Breath? It seems like he’s about to unleash everything at once.
“I don’t like wasting time. So now—”
“It won’t take long. Just hear me out. To be honest, I wasn’t planning on taking you guys out this early. Even that Eye of Appraisal was lower on my priority list.”
“You know about the Eye of Appraisal?”
Krok faltered slightly, retracting the smoke from his mouth.
“How? I’ve never spoken of it to anyone! How much do you know, exactly?”
“Almost everything.”
“Almost everything?”
“I know pretty much everything about you and your kind. Although I’ve learned a few new things today that make me a bit anxious, I’ve figured out most of your abilities, whether you’re friend or foe.”
“…Do you possess the Eye of Appraisal yourself?”
“No, just experience.”
I shook my head.
“But I’m definitely interested in mana crystals. You always have two liches flanking you, right? I figured this would be a perfect opportunity to grab two in one go, no, make that three.”
“Wait, you intended to face all three of us at once? Ha ha…”
Krok’s sneer grew as his massive wings began to coil around me. Matching his laugh, I nodded.
“Exactly. I was waiting for the moment you three were gathered together. If I had taken you out one by one, word would’ve spread, and none of you would’ve shown your faces.”
“Word?”
“I’m talking about… ‘Turn Undead,’ ever heard of it?”
Without any further warning, I unleashed the ultimate divine spell, Turn Undead, sending all the dead back to eternal rest.
Everything within Necropolis’ massive eye sockets was instantly bathed in radiant light.
“Ugh….”
“Aaah….”
“No….”
The shrieks of the dead dissolved into the light, fading into shadowy wisps as they vanished.
Simultaneously, the entire skull of Necropolis disintegrated into ash. Without the ground beneath me, I began to plummet.
Slow Fall.
In moments like these, Slow Fall is much more practical than a mana-draining flight spell. I landed gently on the squishy ground below, glancing up.
Ash rained down in torrents from above.
Among the falling debris, two shimmering mana crystals shot toward me, swiftly absorbed into my body.
“Ugh….”
I felt a bit dizzy, but nothing unbearable. Perfect. I’d gained two more lich mana crystals.
Off in the distance, something glimmered faintly from a pile of ashes—an orb glowing with a faint golden hue. That must be Krok’s Eye of Appraisal.
But why is it gold, not blue?
I hesitated for about three seconds before casting Fly again to snatch the orb.
“This might change the color of my eyes… but what exactly am I supposed to do with it?”
The orb looked eerily like a human eye. Wait, don’t tell me I need to gouge out my own eye and replace it with this?
Before I could contemplate further, the eye dissolved into golden smoke in my hand, dissipating into the air.
“Huh?”
The smoke swirled around me before being absorbed into my body, just like the mana crystals had.
“…What?”
Unlike the mana crystals, which had no side effects, this one made my left eye throb painfully, and I felt a feverish heat spread across my face.
“Ugh, what’s this…? Huh?”
At that moment, a skeletal soldier wielding a rusted sword emerged from a hole below.
Species: Undead
-Current Strength: D-
-Potential Strength: C
-Current Necromancy Skill: D
-Potential Necromancy Skill: D
Ah, so this is how the Eye of Appraisal works.
It even displays the undead’s abilities like school grades. Is it because I used to be a teaching assistant, grading student exams all the time?
Before the skeleton could swing its sword, I blasted it away with a gust of wind.
Boom!
As it tumbled into the hole, I tossed a Fire of Tempest spell into the gap, setting the entire lower section ablaze in a crimson storm.
“Phew….”
The hundred or so undead that had been crawling up vaporized in the flames, giving me a moment to catch my breath and survey my
surroundings.
I had landed near the giant’s collarbone.
Necropolis was so massive that Turn Undead had only managed to annihilate its skull.
This moving fortress, or rather, this dead, walking fortress, was teeming with thousands of undead of all kinds inside its body.
If I left it be after taking out the head (including the Undead Lord), it would eventually wreak havoc on Elston County.
I could keep throwing spells at it, like dumping pesticide into an anthill, but doing it this way might take all night.
“Better refill my sugar levels first….”
I pulled a sugar bar from the pouch Rania had packed for me. Ah, this is the stuff. Every bite of that sugary goodness revitalized my body.
More undead were scrambling, trying to claw their way up.
“There’s so many….”
Chewing on my third sugar bar, I quickly calculated how many more Turn Undead spells I’d need to wipe them all out.
“Maybe six… no, seven casts?”
At this rate, I might go through all ten sugar bars. I should’ve asked Rania to pack at least twenty.
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