***
***
“Uncle, why are we suddenly destroying the hill?”
“That’s what I was talking about earlier.”
“Ah, a premonition?”
“Yeah. Let’s go together, everyone.”
“Yes, I understand!”
Following Seong Jihan’s story, the TOP 100 were convinced and followed Seong Jihan’s lead.
With their arms crossed, they watched the undead tear up the ground.
With swords, spears and other weapons, the Death Knight troops crumbled the hill.
“Even with swords… the ground is torn apart….”
“They’re also using dark sword energy. Those Death Knights seem quite strong.”
“Just by looking at them, Blocking the first wave wouldn’t have been easy.”
While people were impressed by the strength of the Death Knights, Seong Jihan, who was giving them orders, had a different perspective.
‘It shouldn’t been difficult for the first wave…’
No matter how strong the Space League was supposed to be, monsters appearing for the first time in this promotion match weren’t usually this strong. Balancing to enable appropriate countermeasures was common in the game, but the Death Knights now appearing exceeded those standards by far.
‘Is it because of the power of death?’
Not only perfectly commanding these countless undead, but even strengthening them on top of that.
The power given by The Constellation of Dead Star was clearly tremendously effective.
If you handle undead then you’re a necromancer, it was an ability anyone would want to obtain no matter what.
‘It’s pretty good, but not to my taste.’
However, Seong Jihan, who was actually using this, was nonchalant.
He preferred fighting directly rather than handling undead.
Even though the Death Knights had been enormously enhanced, he wasn’t satisfied and studied whether he could apply this to himself.
‘Let’s try applying it to my body first.’
Swoosh…
As a crimson light spread across Seong Jihans’ body and his figure became halfway obscured.
His body felt as light as if he had received a powerful blessing spell.
‘The buff works huh.’
A hint of surprise floated in Seong Jihan’s eyes.
‘After getting Martial Soul, the blessing effects were useless to me…’
Having brought out all the potential of Marital Soul, even receiving buffs was the same as nothing to Seong Jihan.
But the additional ability given by the power of death, he could clearly feel its effect.
Of course, compared to the Death Knights becoming two or three times stronger, it was only around a 20 percent effect.
‘Where is this…’
The expression of Seong Jihan, who had been bored just before, clearly changed.
A 20 percent increase in strength, he had to somehow take it with him.
As Seong Jihan tried to take in more of the death aura into his body.
[You are a living being.]
[It is impossible to completely fuse with the power of death.]
Warning messages popped up from the system.
‘If I want to see more effects, do I have to become like those undead?’
Even in the state of a reaper, it seemed that being alive was a limitation. While Seong Jihan was deeply researching the power of death, Yoon Seah urgently called him.
“Uncle! Over there! Something came out!”
The place she pointed at was the hill the undead had been tirelessly digging into.
Swoosh…!
A dazzling white smoke burst out from between the swords digging into the hill in an instant.
“Uh…”
“The Death Knights disappeared?!”
The Death Knight units that were digging into the ground were buried in an instant.
And, the hill, which had been dug up by the undead for a while, disappeared into the smoke in an instant.
Swoosh…
One by one, something began to emerge in the area filled with white smoke.
“What…what is that…?”
“A… skull?”
What floated up from within the smoke were the skulls of various beings.
Including that of the Death Knights who had just been absorbed, up to the skulls of gigantic monsters.
The skulls of all sizes and colors glared sharply with ghostly lights in their empty eye sockets.
And looked towards Seong Jihan’s group all at once.
[How dare you desecrate our resting place…]
[Stop… Let us rest.]
[Or… will you come too?]
Eerie voices erupted from the thousands of skulls.
The voices were so intense that even players who had reached Diamond rank were bewildered.
“Ugh…”
“My body won’t… move… Please cast protection magic…!”
“Divine Shield!”
It was only after the supports’ divine power was applied that the sounds became barely bearable.
However,
“Hehehehehe…”
As thousands of skulls simultaneously burst into laughter, cracks began to appear even in the divine protective shield.
The overwhelming, eerie laughter was difficult to endure, even for those who were considered elite players.
=Uh! It suddenly feels like we met the final boss!
=Seong Jihan! Was it the right choice to dig into the ground?! All the Death Knights you commanded got completely swallowed!
=How can you not trust in his judgement?! His choices have always been right so far! Doesn’t he have premonitions?!
=If he can pull it off this time as well, I’ll definitely become a believer!
=Just what kind of hint did he get in that dream?
The viewers all watched the screen expectantly, waiting for what solution Seong Jihan had prepared to face such a monster.
Thump! Thump!
Having taken in half of the death aura, Seong Jihan approached the horde of skulls.
He reached out his hand and released his strength.
Then,
The thousands of skulls looked toward Seong Jihan simultaneously.
[This is… the power of death?]
[How does a living being…]
And so the skull collective ghost hesitated for a moment.
=Oh…! Does the power that controlled the Death Knights work here too?!
=As expected of Seong Jihan, he had another card up his sleeve!
The announcers acted as if the situation had already been resolved as they watched, but
[Hahaha…! To think you’d try to control us…!]
[You will become one of us too…!]
Far from yielding to the power of death, the skulls showed clear enmity towards Seong Jihan instead.
[Kaaaahhh….]
As the skulls opened their mouths wide, a dazzling white smoke burst out simultaneously.
And concentrated towards Seong Jihan.
“Di-Divine Shield!”
The players who had been watching this from behind hurriedly tried to protect him, however
Seong Jihan himself remained composed.
‘These guys are out of my league.’
It was too much to try and control the hidden boss with the 1st wave undead monsters.
Then there’s no need to stubbornly hold onto control that doesn’t suit me.
‘The Constellation quest is just to make use of the power of death somehow anyway, right?’
Ping! Ping!
Crimson lights wrapped around Seong Jihan’s two fists, symbolizing the power of death.
“I’ll be back in a bit.”
And his figure instantly disappeared into the smoke.
[Haha, so you’ve come to become one yourself…!]
[I’ll drink his blood first!]
[And I’ll have the flesh…]
At first mocking Seong Jihan’s charge, the skull collective.
Soon had bewildered expressions.
[What… he’s not getting eaten?]
[Why isn’t he being assimilated?!]
Instead of Seong Jihan getting swallowed, skulls exploded in all directions.
At first it was just one or two skulls shattering.
“Well, this is nothing much.”
But as Seong Jihan started moving more aggressively, they burst dozens at a time in an instant.
* * *
=Ah…!
=Is this the method Seong Jihan came up with!
=Indeed, a Player speaks with his fist! He’s showing the textbook style of a Player!
Seong Jihan, who had been called the strongest player of humanity through the Chaos Battlefield despite being Platinum.
Once again, solved the game with a Player’s method this time as well.
Having semi-fused with the power of death, he wasn’t damaged by the spectral collective’s attacks at all.
He quickly shattered the skulls.
After a considerable amount of time,
Swoosh…
The smoke completely occupying the hill noticeably thinned.
And Seong Jihan popped out from within.
“Now.”
He reached out his hand and emitted the power of death once again.
“Now, how about this?”
Showing the difference in strength, Seong Jihan used the power of death again.
[Dare… to try to dominate us…!]
[We won’t yield…! I’m already dead, why would I fear destruction?!]
“Weren’t you afraid? You desperately tried to run away so your head wouldn’t break.”
[Don’t insult us!]
“All right. Then let’s go again.”
[Wa-wait a moment…]
As Seong Jihan went back inside without hesitation,
The sound of things smashing was heard for a while and the smoke occupying the hill reduced to 1/4th.
And he came back out again.
“Now?”
Once again, a crimson aura shone from Seong Jihan’s hand.
Swoosh…
[We can’t… endure this anymore…]
[We pledge loyalty to the Reaper.]
[Please give us… your command.]
Their initial defiant spirit completely disappeared.
The skulls, now reduced to 1/4th, lowered their heads towards Seong Jihan all at once and swore their allegiance.
[‘The Fallen King’s Spirit’ has been placed under control.]
[The power of death has been greatly enhanced.]
And thus, the power of deathbecame even stronger.
But Seong Jihan paid more attention to the name of the spectral collective that appeared in the system message.
‘Fallen King…’
A Fallen King, with only skulls left of the enemy.
It reminded him of the skull-blathering Constellation Of The Dead Star for some reason.
Deciding to look into this later, he ordered, “Guide us to your ossuary.”
He immediately moved on to tackle the map’s special point.
[This place…]
As the ethereal form of the Fallen King’s Spirit dimmed, the remaining hill that had not been excavated disappeared in an instant.
And what was revealed there was a giant triangular structure.
At the bottom, a giant skull supported it, and above it, a pyramid of reversed flesh and blood, creating a bizarre appearance.
At regular intervals, it emitted dense aura around it.
Swoosh…
And each time, undead beings were fully generated in the smoke, similar to the Death Knights that Seong Jihan had dominated earlier.
‘An ossuary that spawns undead…’
On Giant Graveyard maps, an ossuary to spawn the undead monsters to be used for the monster waves.
Since all the 1st wave undead had been devoured by the Fallen King’s Spirit, production had stopped for a while.
And once the Death Knights were created to a certain degree.
Flash! Flash!
Portals were generated to the east, west, south and north of the inverted pyramid.
And the skull holding up the very bottom turned its head west.
Creeeeak…!
As a red light emitted from the eyes of the bottom skull, an undead legion headed towards the western portal.
‘Our portal is the west one.’
An ossuary creating monsters and sending them out.
The default portal position marked by the bottom skull was exactly where the current TOP 100 were stationed, the giant graveyard.
‘The elves occupied the ossuary and turned that head.’
In the competition shown during the broadcast, it was subtly revealed what the opposing team was doing.
In the previous life, humanity understood why the elven planet consistently ranked first by watching this.
The elves dug up the hill with the earth spirits, threw a special sacred item at the Fallen King’s Soul, and then, as the soul weakened and the ossuary was revealed, they entered from here, turning the head of the bottom skull.
‘We can’t tell where the east, south and north portals lead, so it’s completely random, but…
We’d prefer it if it sent monsters to the elves as much as possible.’
In this competition, the most significant opponent to restrain was undoubtedly the elves.
Orc was a weak race that fought Humanity for the bottom rank even in the previous life, and Meccan, although it consistently maintained a mid-tier position, had less presence than the elves.
If possible, it was necessary to bring down the elves from the first place.
“Wait a moment.”
Seong Jihan, who immediately dominated the summoned undead legion, entered the northern portal to find the elves.
And then…
“What the, why are the elves here the moment I leave the portal…?!”
Fortunately, right there, he found the elves.
***
***
