Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Art of Death (1)

TL by Yoni

Edited by Yoni & Myoni

A stretch of flat, barren land .

Against an army of a million undead, more than a million humans fought .

Most of the humans used swords and spears, while a few users of holy energy and magic were mixed in the crowd .

However, there was a great variety of undead .

No, there were so many of them that looked so bizarre, it was difficult to define them as undead .

Zombies with wings of an angel, skeletons with Pegasus’s horn pierced through both of their hands, vampires with the body of a bear, and 3 frog-headed Cerberus……

They weren’t simply different in appearance, but they were far stronger than a typical undead .

They even had an amazing ability to think for themselves and had cognitive capabilities .

The general belief that undeads were just dead bodies who moved simply was destroyed .

Humans struggled to protect their base, but it was useless .

In an instant, there was a mountain of corpses .

Massacre, there was no other way to describe this scene .

And in the middle of all this, there was a huge lich with a red cape fluttering in the wind .

The Death Lord .

As the Death Lord raised his hand, thousands of corpse were lifted off the ground and completely reconstructed into the form of a giant .

“Death is a beautiful thing . ”

Gwahhhhhhhhhh!

The giant roared out loud .

As the Death Lord gazed at the huge giant, so large that it seemed as if it could touch the sky, he nodded his head .

Doesn’t it look amazing for something made out of mere humans?

As the Death Lord walked, all the corpses he passed by came back to life .

The comrades who used to fight with them in battle were now ripping apart and chewing on their hearts and swinging weapons in an attempt to cut their throats off .

It was an unbearably horrific scene .

Against the overwhelming power, humans were only helpless .

“Since I’m the King of Death, worship death!”

The ruler of all deaths .

He was the Death Lord .

*

The body was burning with a fever .

After Muyoung had collapsed, he was continuously in a hypnagogic state for the entire day before he could finally get up from his spot .

‘What… was that dream?’

While he was passed out, Muyoung had a dream that could have been part of a movie .

He felt like he had seen a war movie through a big screen .

However, it felt strangely vivid . A dream, but not just a dream .

Thump!

He tripped over his own legs and fell back on the ground .

Muyoung lightly clicked his tongue .

It seemed like he needed to first take care of his body before he could even think about the dream .

‘Hmm, I wasn’t able to completely remove all the poison . ’

He remembered using herbs right before he fainted, but it seemed like they didn’t completely heal him .

Muyoung gazed as his ring on his finger .

“Paranormal . ”

The first reward he received in the Blue Temple by killing monsters .

Even if it was limited to 5 uses, it allowed for an effect to increase all his stats by 2 for ten minutes, cast a Healing Wave, or a Fire Bolt .

‘I used it twice already . But, I’m not sure if 3 healing waves will be enough for my body to recovery . ’

He used it twice to fight against the giant serpent .

Swaaaa!

He chose the Healing Wave skill among the effects offered by Paranormal .

Right away, a green light emitted from the ring .

The light wrapped around him and rejuvenated his body .

After casting it two more times, he was back to his lively self .

His body seemed to have recovered and gained resistance to the poison .

‘It’s done . ’

Since it wasn’t a powerful poison, it seemed like the tiny bit left in his body would naturally recover on its own .

Swoosh!

However, since he had used Paranormal to the full, the ring shattered into dust .

He felt as if he had wasted it, but considering the situation, it was the best choice he could make so he didn’t have any regrets .

‘By the way… I clearly remember that messages popped up before passing out . ’

He remembered seeing a few words floating in from of him .

But he could not remember what it was about .

After Muyoung sipped some water using his water producing magical item, he looked at his watch to see what had changed .

First, he looked at his abilities .

Achievement Effect –> Gremory’s Anguish (A, +3 to all abilities)

Class Effect –> Death Lord (Lord class, Ruler of Death)

Abilities –>

Strength 44 (33+11) Agility 37 (34+3)

Stamina 35 (32+3) Intelligence 17 (14+3)

Wisdom 16 (13+3) Fighting Aura 19 (16+3)

Special Note: Fighting Aura has been awakened .

The armor you are currently wearing or using: Anguish (Strength +5) and Herculean Strength Leather Armor (Strength +3) .

Nothing greatly changed about his abilities .

His strength was definitely the highest, but since his pure stat was only 33 with an added stat of 11, it just seemed very high .

However… Something he had never seen before was written under class effect .

‘Death Lord . ’

The Ruler of Death!

But, it was the first time he heard of this .

There was also something unfamiliar .

‘Lord class?’

Not even a secret class, but a lord class?

There was no one with a lord class, at least from the people he had killed in the past . Even Muyoung, who knew quite a lot of classified information, was totally clueless .

‘Wasn’t this the place where he could receive the secret class, Necromancer?’

Muyoung instantly shrugged his head .

This was the place .

The trials were also the ones he had to complete as well .

Then, he could only believe the cause was the amount of time he spent on clearing the trials .

‘It clearly stated Masters of Darkness were examining me . I don’t have a clue what all this means . ’

Masters of Darkness and lord class, they were all things unfamiliar to Muyoung .

For a moment, Muyoung furrowed his brow .

The reason he wanted to earn the Necromancer class was because it was a class that specialized against a large group of opponents .

However, if the Death Lord’s class specialized against only a few opponents, then he couldn’t say he had achieved his goal .

He needed to carefully examine the classes he was planning to earn in the future .

‘Skills . ’

Muyoung turned the pentagram of his watch to look at his skills .

There was an addition to his skills besides the skill of the Demon Commander of the 27th Legion .

Skill Title: Art of Death (F)

Description – Reinvent and reconstruct death into art . Once the undead is created, it will be graded . Its abilities will be determined by this grade .

“Death is a beautiful thing . ” #DeathLord[1]

Even if he had only gained a single skill, he felt like he understood what it could do .

‘This wasn’t simply a dream . ’

The transfigured undead in his dreams .

It was probably the skill to make those kinds of creatures .

Death Lord led an army of a million transfigured undead to massacre humans .

If it was that powerful, then it seemed enough to fight off the troops of Demons, the legion of Demon Commanders .

‘First, it was a type of Necromancer class . ’

His initial worries disappeared .

It also seemed like a higher class than the normal necromancer .

If he just polished this skill, he believed he could reenact the scene he had seen in his dreams .

Also, as he increased his rank, more skills would be added .

Muyoung approached the dead giant serpent .

Out of the Five Gatekeepers, it was the monster that tormented him the most .

Didn’t he almost die from it?

He felt it would be beneficial to make it as an undead .

“Art of Death . ”

When you didn’t know how to use a skill, if you just say its name, it usually worked .

Soon after, a dark aura emitted from the tips of Muyoung’s fingers and it wrapped around the giant serpent .

Swish .

The giant serpent started to move slowly .

‘If it’s an art score of 0, then does it reduce the strength of the undead?’

At first, nothing really seemed different .

The sluggish movement and basic patterns .

However with a glance, he noticed that it was definitely weaker than before .

It just seemed like a great big undead giant serpent . That was all he could say .

It was nothing compared to the undeads in his dream, who moved on their own without an order, could think for themselves and overwhelm the humans .

Stumble!

Muyoung was barely able to stay up by leaning on to the giant serpent .

Maybe it was because he used a skill, he felt as if he was becoming exhausted at an alarming rate .

‘Somehow it seems as though I spent my stamina . ’

It must had been a skill where he couldn’t abuse it constantly .

From the state he was in, it looked like he could use this skill at most 3 times a day .

It seemed like he needed to use it wisely .

To increase the art score, different types of materials were generally required .

If he used the corpse of the boss that attacked every 10 days, he thought he might be able to get a better score .

‘Let’s go down . ’

After thoroughly examining the Death Lord class, he started his way back .

He passed out for quite a long time . There wasn’t any time to waste .

*

Even if the giant serpent had lost 50% of its abilities, it was quite useful .

Its thick hide was a fine shield for Muyoung, as he climbed down the cliff .

Thanks to the serpent, Muyoung was able to climb down safely .

The Guide was waiting for Muyoung at the bottom of the cliff .

He looked at Muyoung in admiration .

“Huk . Huk . Didn’t think you would really make it . ”

Although he did not have any ill-will, these words could have caused a misunderstanding depending on who heard them .

Muyoung shrugged his shoulders and spoke,

“Did you want me to die?”

“No, but it’s hard for me to believe that this is real . And from your aura, you don’t seem like an ordinary man . It seemed as though you have earned an incredible reward…”

Muyoung nodded .

The Guide was the other self of the supreme magician .

Although Muyoung didn’t deliberately try to hide the change, it wouldn’t have been weird for the Guide to notice his changes .

‘What perfect timing . ’

Muyoung asked one of the questions he had about the Death Lord class .

“Who are the Masters of Darkness?”

As if it was trivial matter, he answered .

“They are the ones who couldn’t become Gods and by Solomon’s Laws, became the ones who managed the darkness . But, how do you know… ah, no, did you?”

“They said one of the Masters of Darkness has chosen me . ”

“…!”

The Guide’s eyes widened .

[1] TL note: Blue Temple has Twitter?