Chapter 69

Chapter 69

Spendthrift Necromancer (69)

Repercussions (2)● ‘Seo Yerim,’ one of the main characters, has fulfilled her lifelong wish!● 200 Achievement Points are awarded!● You possess the Achievement Vending Machine! Double points are awarded![Opening Achievement Shop!][Grade: Silver(Total Acquired Points: 1,030)][Current Achievement Points: 500]‘Fulfilled her lifelong wish…….’Apparently Sword Immortal had finally acknowledged her. With her talent for archery, it was more than possible.

Thanks to that, his points instantly rose to 500.‘The vending machine really is god.’He checked the product list.[Product List][1. Limit-Breaking Elixir][Required Achievement Points: 100][2. Undead Cocktail][Required Achievement Points: 100][3. Necromancer Equipment Random Draw Ticket(Legendary~Ancient)][Required Achievement Points: 300][4. S-rank Bound Skill Book][Required Achievement Points: 500][5. ???][6. ???]‘Undead Cocktail.’What was so special about that for it to cost 100 Achievement Points?

He checked the details.[Undead Cocktail][Rank: Special][A cocktail that undead can drink. Drinking it grants special effects.][Effect 1. Only undead may consume it.][Effect 2. Upon consumption, all stats of the target undead increase by 10%.][Effect 3. Low chance to grant the undead a Skill.][Effect 4. Upon consumption, some of the target undead's senses are awakened.]

A kind of undead enhancement item.‘Pretty good.’Summons couldn't use elixirs, Skill Books, or titles. Unless they were special cases like Cedric, naturally they were much weaker than ordinary Awakened.‘Stat increases and Skills, huh.’And sensory awakening on top of that.

Tempting.

Especially because he had Cedric.

What if he fed a few cocktails to a summon who was already more than earning his keep?

He'd go berserk.

Still, buying it right this second felt questionable. Even if Achievement Points were now coming in doubled, they were still a precious resource.

And every other item in the shop was just as attractive as the Cocktail.

Limit-Breaking Elixirs went without saying.‘The equipment draw ticket isn't bad either.’Legendary and Ancient equipment.

Even if it wasn't necessarily an accessory, equipment of those ranks was fundamentally difficult to obtain.‘That's why people end up wearing Rare gear from head to toe at every level range.’Of course he'd rather obtain Unique-grade or better equipment if he could.

But there had to be listings.

Items Unique and above were difficult to find even at the auction house.

And Legendary or Ancient?

People didn't list them there at all. They sold them separately through VVIP auction houses and the like.

Prices for those started in the hundreds of billions of won, and a 10% commission was brutally expensive.‘I need to visit the Sky Auction House someday too.’The most extravagant auction house in the world, hosted by the System once a year.

Everything from high-level, high-rank equipment to accessories appeared there. Even better, the auction house charged a very reasonable fee of around 2%.

Unfortunately, it wasn't somewhere he could enter just because he wanted to.‘You need an invitation.’The System selected only one thousand people worldwide and sent them invitations.

The main things it considered were level, fame, wealth, and the like.

It was around early February right now.‘Invitations should start going out around April.’After selecting the attendees, the Sky Auction House would open roughly a month later, sometime around May.

That was one reason Minwoo had started moving more seriously.

The conditions were fairly strict, so merely gaining some sudden fame wasn't enough to receive an invitation.

He needed to start building his qualifications now if he wanted even a chance at one.

Anyway.‘The equipment is pretty tempting for 300 Achievement Points.’It was Necromancer equipment, after all.

Some items would obviously be better than others, but there was no chance of drawing something completely useless.‘The S-rank Skill Book is good too.’And it was bound.

Meaning there was no dud here either.

An S-rank Skill would remain useful for a very long time.‘This is a hard choice.’The problem was that every item was good. If he'd had points overflowing from his pockets, he would've bought everything.‘Still need to buy something…….’There was no point hoarding points forever.

Especially when he would soon be answering the Death Lord's second Call. After thinking for a long while, Kim Minwoo chose an item.

The S-rank Bound Skill Book.

There was no urgent need to buy a Limit-Breaking Elixir yet, and while the Undead Cocktail was good, strengthening himself still came before strengthening Cedric.

He needed points left over before he could afford to raise Cedric too.‘As for the equipment…….’A little disappointing, but a Skill Book was still better than equipment.[Would you like to purchase an S-rank Bound Skill Book?]

“Of course.”[You receive an S-rank Bound Skill Book!][Using Skill Book!]

Light burst out.

Then.[You have acquired Necromancer Skill Book, Land of Death(S)

!]‘Land of Death.’He checked the details.[Land of Death(S)][Required Level: 151 or higher][Consumes 1,000 Mana to transform a designated area into the Land of Death for two hours.][Effect 1. Enemies standing upon the Land of Death have their movement hindered and continuously lose vitality.][Effect 2. Enemies who die upon the Land of Death rise again as undead.][Effect 3. Undead standing upon the Land of Death receive bonuses to all stats.]‘An area Skill.’It wasn't particularly useful against a single target. The Mana cost was enormous.

But in a large-scale battle?‘This could be huge.’His side received stat buffs, the enemy had their vitality drained and suffered all kinds of interference, and anyone who died even rose again as undead.

When he tried activating the Skill, a gigantic circle appeared before his eyes.‘That's the range.’And it was much larger than expected.

Everything he could see nearby was inside it. It was almost the size of several athletic fields placed together.

“Nice.”

The Skill's greatest strength seemed to be its enormous area of effect.

If the Death Lord's Call turned into another mass battle like the one with Cedric, this Skill would perform incredibly well.‘Definitely worthy of S-rank.’He nodded in satisfaction.* * *The news spreading throughout the world.

The general public weren't the only ones watching.

Shadow was as well.

Numbers One through Seven had all gathered in one place. While carrying out their assigned missions, Shadow had also continued searching for the person who killed Lee Seoyoon.

They had torn through the chaebol and political worlds over the forged identity, yet hadn't found a single plausible suspect.

In the end, they'd more or less given up on the investigation.

Then the news came out.

Kim Minwoo.

The man who had cleared an A+-rank Gate with Sword Phoenix, just the two of them.

“You think that's real?”

“That Sword Phoenix bitch has pride reaching the heavens. She'd cut out her own tongue before making shit up.”

“So that's why nobody plausible came up in the investigation…….”

“No matter how I look at it, isn't he the one who killed Lee Seoyoon?”

Everyone nodded.

Kim Minwoo.

He had more than enough power to create and erase a forged identity with ease.

And that wasn't all.

They said he'd contributed equally with Sword Phoenix despite being only in the Level 100 range.

With that kind of skill and talent, he must have been absurdly powerful even at lower levels.

He was already rampaging through A+-rank Gates now. Would he really have been unable to kill one B-rank Awakened back then?

Someone like Lee Seoyoon, who had only been a promising rookie, could've been quietly erased inside a Gate with ease.

Han Baekgil's eyes gleamed.‘Kim Minwoo. So it was you.’At last, he'd found the new face who had taken down Lee Seoyoon.

“Boss, don't you want him?”

Han Baekgil nodded.

Of course he did.

Even setting aside his wealth.

His leveling speed was incredible.

His skill and talent were exceptional too.

An Awakened so outstanding that comparing him to Lee Seoyoon almost felt insulting.

If they could recruit him into Shadow, he would become an overwhelming asset in the future.

“I'll make contact personally.”

“……

Even if it's you, Boss, can you really recruit someone like him? He already has everything. And he's not crazy like Lee Seoyoon either.”

“We can't simply leave him alone either.”

“True, but…….”

Everyone nodded at Han Baekgil's words.

Most of those gathered here held high social positions.

Many occupied important posts in powerful guilds, and some were even Guild Masters themselves.

That was why they understood.

An Awakened growing this quickly would inevitably cause upheaval.

Before long, he might begin infringing on their own interests.

Did a typhoon deliberately uproot trees?

No.

The trees simply got torn out by the wind.

That man was a typhoon.

And an enormous one.

Doing nothing was the worst possible option. He had grown this far in barely two months.

After another half year, there was a strong possibility he would grow beyond Shadow's ability to touch him at all.

Then they would be left with no choice but to live quietly, unable to do anything.

Recruit him or eliminate him.

Either way.

They had to collide with him somehow.

Of course, Han Baekgil wasn't planning to move without any card to play.

“We can grant him a special power. It's not as though we have nothing to offer.”

“……

Boss, don't tell me you're planning to Baptize him right away?”

“If recruiting him is possible, we'll have to offer at least that much.”

“Hmm…….”

Numbers One through Seven all fell silent.

Baptism.

Receiving power from the Great Being, allowing one to grow at exceptional speed. Naturally, the price wasn't free.

They had to periodically offer ‘sacrifices’ and carry out missions.

Of course, the benefits were worth the cost.

That was why they were sitting here.

Which was precisely why this was so serious.

Baptism was fundamentally a resource that everyone shared.

If only one person received it, all the power flowed into that person alone.

They could grow faster than anyone else. But when the number increased?

The power became diluted.

Numbers One through Seven.

Everyone gathered here had followed Han Baekgil through countless tasks and proven their qualifications.

That was why they'd earned Baptism. Even Lee Seoyoon had been worked to the bone before receiving it rather than being Baptized immediately.

And now they were talking about giving it to Kim Minwoo from the start.

Han Baekgil broke the silence.

“I know none of you like the idea. But if we exclude that, do we have any way to persuade him?”

“……

No. Probably not. Telling him to crawl through the mud like Lee Seoyoon or the others…… honestly, he's already far beyond that level.”

Everyone nodded.

A monster leveling even faster than Isabella.

Why would someone like him accept that?

If anything, they were the ones who needed to hold onto him right now.

Recruiting him would bring enormous gains.

“Fine. I'm in favor.”

“Same.”

Everyone agreed.

“But what if recruitment fails? Are we eliminating him?”

At someone's question, silence fell once again. Eliminating him was anything but easy.

It wasn't as though they could simply mob him and kill him.

His identity alone made the process incredibly complicated.

First of all, killing him in the real world would be extremely, extremely difficult. No, nearly impossible.

Because whoever did it would inevitably be caught.

That meant eliminating him inside a Gate…….

“……

We'll discuss that later.”

Everyone nodded.

Then Han Baekgil, leader of Shadow, disappeared.