Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Spendthrift Necromancer (41)

Divine Beast (1)

He checked the ring first.[Ring of the Four Apostles (1/4)][Rank: Unique/Fragment][Required Level: 101 or higher][A ring worn by the Fourth Apostle, Belitas. It seems somehow incomplete…….][Effect 1. Magic +50][Effect 2. Mana recovery speed +20%]

“A fragment?”

Kim Minwoo's eyes gleamed.

A fragment item.

Gather every fragment, and its true performance would be revealed.

There were three fragments left to collect.‘The other Apostles must have them.’If he gathered them all, the item's performance would improve dramatically, at minimum becoming a + item.

If he got really lucky, its rank might even jump by one whole tier.‘A Unique accessory is already incredibly valuable…….’A Unique+ or Legendary accessory?

You couldn't buy one because nobody sold them.

Any Awakened who got their hands on something like that would equip it first and think later.

“Nice.”

He'd run into the other Apostles eventually.

He could take the rings from them then.

He removed one of the Spatial Rings from his finger and equipped the Apostle's ring.[Equipping Ring of the Four Apostles!][Magic increases by 50!][Mana recovery speed…….].‘The options are good too.’Magic +50 went without saying.

And increased mana recovery speed was also an extremely rare option.‘Hard to find outside a few buff skills.’Recovery-speed skills usually belonged to classes like Priests or Shamans.

It was one of the rarest effects to find on equipment.‘Extremely rare.’Potions were expensive, and even if you had mountains of them, overload and addiction meant you couldn't drink them infinitely.

That was why Minwoo relied on natural recovery in most situations too.

One percent per minute.

Without any buffs, that was exactly how quickly Stamina and Mana recovered.

An option that raised that rate was obviously excellent.

And it still had room to grow.

After all, this was only one fragment.

He picked up the Skill Book.[You have acquired a Bound Skill Book.][You have acquired the Necromancer Skill Book, Bind Equipment(B)

!]‘Huh?’Bind Equipment?

Don't tell me it was the skill he knew?

Kim Minwoo's eyes gleamed as he checked the details.[Bind Equipment(B)][Required Level: 115 or higher][You may bind equipment to your summons. Bound equipment will not drop even if the summon dies. In addition, the performance of bound equipment increases by 20%.]‘It is.’A skill that bound equipment to summons.

One of the essential dream skills of every summoning-class Awakened.

The reason was simple.

The process of summoning and equipping minions was incredibly annoying.

Take Skeletons, for example.

Summon them, dump equipment from the Spatial Ring, then have them pick it up and put it on.‘A fucking hassle.’Enemies didn't give you time to prepare.

Sometimes he needed to summon Skeletons beneath an enemy's feet to stop their movement.

Other times, they would be unsummoned and he'd need to summon them again immediately.

Naturally, there was no time to re-equip them in those situations.

Without gear, the summon had to fight holding nothing but its default bone weapon.

But with Bind Equipment?

The equipment remained fixed to the summon, allowing fully equipped minions to be deployed exactly where needed.

There was no better skill for expanding tactical options.

On top of that, equipment wouldn't drop when a summon was unsummoned, and the performance of bound gear increased too.‘This is really good.’Until now, he'd kept the Skeletons' equipment around Magic-grade.

Cost was part of it, but the biggest reason was to prepare for accidents.

Back when he'd challenged Death Lord's arrangement.

He still vividly remembered returning without being able to recover hundreds of armor sets.

What if he'd equipped them in Rare gear and something like that happened?

It would've been impossible to stomach.

Money aside, reacquiring all of it would take an enormous amount of time.‘No need to worry about that anymore.’And now that he had crafting skills, he could even mass-produce + items.

This single skill would probably raise his combat power by at least 50%.

Jackpot.

Now the only thing left was…….

He looked at Belitas's corpse.‘Take it or leave it.’Creating undead from corpses was fairly troublesome.

First, you needed the relevant skill.

And it consumed plenty of materials too.

Most importantly.‘The corpse has to be high quality.’Lee Seoyoon had high potential.

That was why he'd kept her.

Even if he only obtained an undead-creation skill later, someone like Lee Seoyoon would be worth the trouble of raising.

Belitas, on the other hand?‘Kind of iffy.’He'd been strong because he was a boss monster, not because his individual talent or potential was particularly high.

“Hmm…….”

After thinking for a moment.

Minwoo stuffed him into the Spatial Ring anyway.

At the very least, the guts he'd shown in challenging Minwoo to a commander duel at the end were worth acknowledging.‘Maybe I'll raise him someday.’Or he could simply keep the corpse and use its bones for replacement later.

With the food gone, he had spare room anyway.

No harm in taking him as a bonus.―Gruk! Big Brother! We cleaned everything up!

Urkan shouted proudly while holding a bloodstained axe.

“Good. Don't go any deeper into the inner keep. Wait there.”―Gruk! Understood! Anyone who goes inside gets their skull split by this axe!

Minwoo entered through the wide-open gate of the inner keep.

A brutal chill immediately struck his body.

Elise, who stood beside him, shivered slightly and spoke.

“……

The fragment is probably beneath the inner keep. The farther inside you go, the colder it will become.”

“Wait here. I'll destroy it and come back.”

“Will you be all right?”

“I prepared something for situations like this.”

At that, she nodded.

“Cedric!”

He called Cedric, who had been clearing out the keep.

Together with the approaching Skeleton, Minwoo entered the castle.[A violent chill descends!][Your body temperature drops rapidly!][You consume Heat Potion(Highest-Grade)

!][You consume Cold Resistance Potion(Highest-Grade)

!]..Money was god, and potions were invincible.

After drinking several Highest-Grade Potions in succession, the cold eased considerably.

He descended underground without hesitation.

When he finally entered the deepest room.

He found a door frozen completely solid.

“Break it.”[Cedric uses Dragon Strike(S)

!]

Booom!

The door shattered, revealing the interior.

At the center of an enormous cavern.

A tiny blue fragment floated in the air.

An overwhelming chill swirled around it.

The moment he looked at the fragment, information appeared.[Fragment of Winter][Rank: Special][A fragment created by splitting a portion of the Essence of Winter. It contains enough cold to freeze an entire region solid. It would probably be wise not to touch it.][Effect 1. If you consume it and overcome the cold, you may wield the Ice attribute. However, if you fail to overcome it, you will freeze to death.][Effect 2. If you consume it and overcome the cold, you may gain resistance to the Ice attribute. However, if you fail to overcome it, you will freeze to death.]

“Hmm…….”―Master, what is it?

“I don't think I should get close.”

―It looks that way to me too.

“But I can't exactly leave it alone…….”

He had to destroy the fragment to stop the cold.

Of course, eating it would probably make the cold disappear too.‘Absolutely not eating that.’Courage had limits.

Getting close already looked difficult, and he was supposed to swallow it?

This wasn't a question of having a strong soul or anything like that.

You only attempted a strategy when there was at least some path to success.

This wasn't something a few Cold Resistance Potions could overcome.

“Go, Cedricmon. Use Dragon Strike.”

―…….

Cedric hesitated for a moment, then charged toward the fragment.

Truly a display worthy of 100 Loyalty.

Then.[Cedric uses Dragon Strike…….][Frozen!]

Crack!

When Cedric got within ten steps of the fragment, ice engulfed his entire body and froze him solid.

Then.

Shatter!

The ice broke apart, and Cedric was unsummoned.

Death Lord's effect revived him once, but he'd already stepped into hell, so it made no difference.

After shattering twice.

Minwoo summoned Cedric again.

“Breath.”

Cedric opened his mouth wide.

A tremendous torrent of flame shot toward the fragment.

When the breath came within the same ten-step range.

Fsssh!

The flames scattered and vanished completely.

“……

That's insane.”

Kim Minwoo's expression stiffened.

An attack that had demolished a B-rank boss couldn't even get close before disappearing?‘This is harder than killing the Apostle.’Long-range attacks?

That last attempt had answered the question.

Whether magic or arrows, they'd all freeze before reaching it.‘Maybe something like Meteor would work…….’Meteor was an S-rank spell.

Unfortunately, Kim Minwoo wasn't a Mage.

“There has to be a way to clear this…….”

He simply couldn't see it yet.

Then.―Coo.

“……?”―……

That wasn't me.

“I know. Did you hear it?”

―I did. It sounded like…… a bird's cry.―Coooo.

“What the hell is that?”

Something was clearly crying, but he couldn't sense any presence at all.‘Is this one of the gimmicks here?’Then.[The Divine Beast

that has been watching you reveals itself!]

Flap!

He heard wings beating and felt a light weight settle on his shoulder.

It was a tiny bird.

A bird with pure-white feathers.

Strangely, a horn grew from its forehead.

Kim Minwoo stared at it.

Divine Beast.

He had a rough idea.‘The title effect?’One Who Stopped Eternity.

The title he'd earned after ending the Battle of Hrulunif.

One of its effects had definitely been…….[Effect 2. You smell delicious. A Divine Beast

is currently watching you.]‘So this was the Divine Beast?’Then.

Cedric spoke.―I think I know what it is. A Seven-Colored Bird.

“A Seven-Colored Bird?”

―Correct. Its feathers were used when my old body was created.

Come to think of it, Cedric had mentioned something like that in passing.

Bones of a Gold Dragon Lord, bloodline of an Abyss Lord, feathers of a Seven-Colored Bird, and so on…….

“This is that thing?”

―Yes. A Seven-Colored Bird has a white body, a horn on its forehead, and a faint blue color around its nape. This one is the same. But did Seven-Colored Birds exist in this world too?

Cedric tilted his head.

“It was probably following me. I saw a message before saying one was watching me.”

―When was that?

“When I came out of the Battlefield of Hrulunif.”

―……

Hmm. I think I understand. Seven-Colored Birds normally absorb seven attributes. Death is one of those attributes. It was probably drawn by the Lord's aura.

So that was why the message had said he smelled delicious.

“And then an Ice-attribute fragment appeared, so it couldn't resist showing itself?”

―Probably. In the language of Master's world, I suppose it was like placing pizza and fried chicken in front of it at the same time.

Ah.

Yeah, no one could resist that.

Minwoo understood instantly.

He looked at the Seven-Colored Bird on his shoulder.

When he pointed at the fragment, its eyes turned toward it.

“You want to eat that?”―Coo.

It nodded.

“You understand me?”

―Master said it had been watching you, correct? Then it was probably following you continuously. It seems to have learned some human language along the way.

Minwoo nodded.

A Divine Beast should be intelligent.

There was nothing strange about it learning some words.‘As for following me into the Hidden Gate…….’It was a one-person Gate.

Put differently, that only meant no more than one human could enter.

A bird wasn't human.

Then.

One thought crossed his mind.

“Wait. Does that mean you want to eat me too?”―Coo.

“Hey, you're not supposed to nod at that!”

―Coo?

The Seven-Colored Bird tilted its head.

Minwoo looked at Cedric.

“Mr. Seven-Colored-Bird Expert. How do I handle something like this?”

―Judging by its size, it appears to be a hatchling. There should still be room to educate it.

“So it won't eat me?”

Cedric nodded.―I've never heard of anyone raising a Seven-Colored Bird…… but there's no reason it should be impossible. Usually, people couldn't raise one, rather than choosing not to.

That made sense.

“But can it really eat that thing?”

―……

Probably? Seven-Colored Birds aren't stupid creatures. It wouldn't covet something impossible for it to consume.

Right.

Trust the expert.

Minwoo looked at the Seven-Colored Bird.

Astonishing concealment ability.

Intelligent enough to learn language.

Capable of solving his current problem.

And if it truly handled seven attributes, it had enormous potential for future use too.‘No reason not to take it.’Wasn't this the classic late-blooming pet?

Conclusion.

If he could win it over, jackpot.

He stroked the Seven-Colored Bird's head.

“Say Daddy. Daddy.”

―……

Coo.

Coo?

“Aww! Good job! That's my baby!”

He gently stroked its head.

The Seven-Colored Bird cooed happily.

Minwoo spoke to it.

“I'll give you lots of delicious things besides that. Want to come with Daddy?”―Coo?

“Yeah. Daddy's right here. If you come with Daddy, you'll get lots of tasty things, and you won't have to hide anymore.”

At that moment.―Coooo.

The Seven-Colored Bird rubbed its head against his finger.[The Divine Beast wishes to accompany you!][Would you like to accept?]‘Got it!’Kim Minwoo grinned.

A Divine Beast had practically fallen into his hands.