NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 16 - Ruler of Death (4)
Chapter 16: Ruler of Death (4)
[You have changed to the unranked class, ‘Necromaster,’ and can now redistribute your stats.]
[Magician-type classes do not receive bonuses for strength and agility. HP is adjusted to 10 times your vitality, and MP is adjusted to 30 times your spirit.]
[As a unique hidden class, your existing skills will be modified to suit your profession.]
Yeonwol’s eyes widened in surprise.
Even for high-tier magician classes, a spirit bonus of 20 times was usually the limit. But this class provided a staggering 30 times bonus.
It must have been due to the influence of the Necromancer class, which governs a vast number of corpses, significantly increasing MP.
Moreover, the vitality adjustment of 10 times wasn’t bad either.
Some hidden classes didn’t receive any vitality bonuses or only received up to 5 times.
‘This is better than most melee combat classes.’
However, it wasn’t all good news.
[By changing to an alchemy-related class, your alchemy proficiency increases by 20%.]
[By changing to a magician-related class, your magic proficiency increases by 20%.]
[However, by changing to the Necromaster class, you cannot use Necromancer spells like ‘Dark Discipline,’ as well as dark magic and curses.]
[Additionally, you cannot use magician spells such as elemental magic or awakening spells.]
The penalties were severe.
No Necromancer skills could be learned.
No dark magic skills could be learned.
No magician skills could be learned.
He was essentially a magician who couldn’t use magic.
In other words, he had no offensive skills and couldn’t rely on the ‘Skill Support System.’
‘The worst possible start.’
There was not a single advantage as a magician.
And it wasn’t as if there were any extraordinary offensive skills to compensate for this.
The only skill he received was the ability to resurrect the dead as loyal subordinates.
Additionally, the lack of Skill Support made it difficult to use alchemy and other skills.
‘Not that I need it much anyway.’
For others, such penalties might have been despair-inducing, but Yeonwol remained calm.
He turned off the system alerts and checked the skills he had acquired.
Since he had no information about this in his past life, this moment was both thrilling and nerve-wracking.
[You have acquired the class skills: ‘Spectral Transmutation,’ ‘Memory of Death,’ ‘Spectral Mirror,’ ‘Spectral Enhancement,’ and ‘Ruler of Death.’]
Each name sounded more menacing than the last.
Yeonwol began checking the skills one by one, starting from the top.
Proficiency: 1%
Description: Transform a defeated enemy into a summoned being. You must contribute at least 20% to the kill, or it must be a finishing blow. The summoned being retains its abilities from life or becomes stronger depending on the summoner’s stats and materials.
However, the specter loses all memories of its life.
Limit: Summonable Specters 0/5
Defeated enemies are stored in the skill ‘Memory of Death.’
This was the main skill of the class: summoning the dead.
However, the limitations were extreme.
‘You can only summon up to five beings you personally killed? This might increase as the skill proficiency rises, but for now….’
At a glance, it seemed inferior to a regular Necromancer.
A typical Necromancer used ‘Dark Discipline’ to scatter mana over a wide area, raising all corpses within it.
Even skeletons from centuries ago could be revived!
However, the skeletons summoned this way usually had weakened powers.
This skill, on the other hand, was different.
The summoned beings retained all their abilities from life and could even surpass them based on skill proficiency and materials.
In other words, instead of leading an army of weak skeletons, he could carry a few elite summons.
In some ways, it might be better than a regular Necromancer.
Necromancers often relied solely on numbers, with no overwhelmingly strong units.
‘Having fewer but stronger summons will make it less conspicuous and easier to act.’
But to control such specters, he needed to personally defeat and subdue them afterward, making the summoning process quite restrictive.
‘And they expect me to kill something and turn it into a summon with this hollow character?’
He let out a hollow laugh.
Now he understood why Deathcalibon was infamous for its extreme difficulty.
‘If I didn’t have my memories from my past life, I wouldn’t have been able to create a single summon.’
He couldn’t use dark magic, regular magic, or curses.
As a magician, his body was frail.
And yet, he was expected to subdue and defeat a specter to earn its loyalty?
It was absurd.
A novice player who chose this class might have quit the game immediately.
Even the Spirit Summoner, a class considered a weaker variant of Necromancers, was known for its extreme difficulty.
Spirit Summoners had to summon weak zombies and ghosts to fight monsters one by one, gradually growing stronger like pouring water into a bottomless jar.
They were slower to grow than even typical magicians.
Their efficiency in parties was poor, and hunting solo was slow due to their low attack power.
But Necromasters were even worse.
Proficiency: 1%
Description: Summon specters stored in ‘Memory of Death’ using Spectral Transmutation.
Resource Cost: Does not consume mana to summon. However, if the specter is damaged, MP will be consumed through Spectral Transmutation to heal it.
“…This is it!”
Summoning without consuming MP!
No other summoner class had such an overwhelming advantage.
Even the strongest Necromancers required immense mana to summon and maintain their summons.
‘This is a windfall.’
The class he chose to escape the Skill Support System turned out to have far more power than expected.
He examined the list of specters registered in ‘Memory of Death.’
The Khazaram and Kaladoro he had killed earlier weren’t listed.
It seemed only enemies killed after acquiring the skill were eligible.
The Steel-Plated Knight was a special case, summoned by Deathcalibon’s authority.
‘It’s unfortunate, but it can’t be helped.’
Proficiency: 1%
Description: You are immune to the aura of the dead and can dominate weak specters.
You control the dead, but you are not among them. You can receive normal blessings of divine power.
50% reduction in death penalties.
Once every 30 days, resurrect without penalty.
Undead creatures 30 levels below you won’t attack you, and you can subdue undead 50 combat levels below you. You also gain partial immunity to curses and dark magic.
Satisfied with what he saw, Yeonwol nodded.
‘The death penalty is halved. Even if I die, I only have to wait 24 hours instead of the usual 48.’
When a player dies, their level, proficiency, stats, and even equipment may drop randomly.
Having such penalties reduced by half compared to others was a significant advantage.
It seemed that the penalty would further decrease as proficiency increased.
Additionally, the ability to resurrect without penalties once a month was a huge benefit.
One could never predict when or where they might die, and losing too much each time would be a massive setback.
Most importantly, being a class within the dark magician category but still able to receive divine power properly was a tremendous advantage.
Being able to receive buffs and healing through divine power meant unrestricted access to cities and temples.
The aura of death was completely hidden, allowing him to act as an ordinary human.
Yeonwol checked the last skill.
Proficiency: 1%
Description: Temporarily empowers the body of a specter recorded in ‘Memory of Death,’ granting it immense power.
Effect: Grants a 30-minute buff that increases one of strength, agility, or wisdom by 50 for a single specter.
Resource Cost: 500 MP
Can only be used on specters whose body structures have been perfectly understood through the skill ‘Memory of Death.’
Summoner classes typically had skills like this that buffed their summons.
At his current low level, he didn’t have many of these skills, but more would likely unlock as he leveled up.
As Yeonwol read the description, he had a suspicious thought.
“Can it only be used on specters whose structures are perfectly understood? Then wouldn’t it work on other bodies as long as their structures are fully understood?”
In this game, if a skill’s limitations weren’t explicitly fixed, they could often be applied creatively.
For instance:
“Spectral Enhancement! Strength!”
[A high level of body comprehension has been achieved!]
[Strength has increased by 56!]
Using a skill intended for summons on oneself.
Crackling!
A silvery aura enveloped Yeonwol’s body, and his strength surged instantly.
Whistling in satisfaction, Yeonwol noted that because he understood his body better than any specter, the effect was even more pronounced.
[Strength: 174]
An extraordinary increase. His strength had nearly doubled.
In all his experiences, he had never seen a buff skill produce such a significant boost at just 1% proficiency.
Such buffs were typically only usable on summons.
‘Using this on myself instead of summons makes it insanely effective. I’ll just keep this for myself.’
What Yeonwol was doing could be considered a cheat.
Normally, buffs cast on players weren’t as efficient, but those designed for summons were far more potent.
Applying a summon-focused buff directly on himself naturally yielded overwhelming results.
If other players saw this, they might accuse him of hacking and cause another uproar.
‘This buff is mine.’
Yeonwol had no intention of relying on summons.
Summons were merely part of the process of mastering death, and he was determined to strengthen himself by any means necessary.
He temporarily equipped the crystalline skull in his alchemy kit.
[Equipping the Crystalline Skull of Death to the alchemy kit increases additional effects related to alchemy!]
If shaped into a staff, it could enhance magic effects, but that wasn’t needed for now.
After all, he didn’t even know how to use magic.
Thinking he had finished everything here, Yeonwol was about to press the [Exit] button but hesitated.
The Twelve Pillars.
The twelve Death Knights standing before them.
The violet flames atop the pillars had extinguished upon Deathcalibon’s death.
The Death Knights all stood with their swords sheathed and heads bowed, except for one.
One Death Knight stood differently, with its sword slightly drawn.
Approaching it, Yeonwol noticed that, unlike the others, this knight’s slab had inscriptions.
[Castle of Mist]
[Emerald Tablet]
“So, it’s a hidden job quest.”
It appeared to indicate the location of one of the sacred relics of Deathcalibon stolen by Riolis.
The quest seemed to suggest retrieving them one by one in sequence.
The Emerald Tablet was a rare artifact he wouldn’t even dream of approaching at his current level.
After inspecting each Death Knight, there were no other clues.
The inscriptions on the slabs only seemed to appear after completing the first quest.
After examining every knight, Yeonwol finally approached the colossal skull.
He sensed a peculiar vitality emanating from it.
‘A candle. A flickering candle about to go out.’
The Death Knights had long since lost their lives, but this one was different.
Even after Deathcalibon’s disappearance, it still clung to life.
Though not for much longer.
Struck by a sudden thought, Yeonwol used alchemy to build a staircase.
Constructing the steps using Basic Alchemy took some time, but he calmly worked to raise a platform to meet the giant skull face-to-face.
“All-Seeing Eye.”
As soon as the skill activated, his MP drained rapidly.
It was a sign that this entity was beyond his current level of comprehension!
[Lv.? Death Colossus]
[HP 1/???]
*Description: The greatest masterpiece of the Necromancer King, Deathcalibon.
Revived through his authority as the last great war machine, it has lost its physical body and all its power.
On the brink of destruction, it has endured despite the collapse of all its foundations.
Its sole purpose was to channel life to revive its master…
Even in its final moments, it gathered the lives scattered across the world to save its master, though now even that effort has become impossible.*
‘I see…’
Even in the face of destruction, it had collected death for its master but ultimately reached its limits.
With the Colossus gone, Deathcalibon’s life force would also dissipate, leading to his inevitable demise.
[The Death Colossus is grateful to you for allowing its master to rest in peace.]
[Now, it wishes to rest under your hand.]
Yeonwol drew the Blue Sea Blade.
With a gentle strike, he delivered a single blow.
Clang!
The sound of glass shattering echoed as the colossal skull disintegrated into a shimmering rainbow-colored powder.
[You have defeated the Death Colossus.]
[You have gained 1 experience point.]
[By dealing the final blow to the Death Colossus, it has been registered in ‘Memory of Death.’]