Since I’ve been digging for a while, Wang-wang seemed really excited about it too.
“Hey— just a little bit lower. Yes, right there, now a bit more to the right. No, not left, right!!”
As Wang-wang was adjusting his direction according to my guidance, he suddenly began digging faster as if he had discovered something.
Before long, he emerged from the dirt, completely covered in soil, with a metal box almost as big as his face caught in his mouth.
“That’s right!! Look at this pretty thing!”
Wang-wang spat out the handle he was holding and placed it on the ground before wildly wagging his tail in front of Yeon-hee.
“Wow, Wang-wang!! You’re so amazing! Oh my gosh, you’re really cute.”
As I removed the dirt from him, pouring all the affection I could muster into Yeon-hee, I calmly opened the softly glowing red box.
Inside it was a ring that was about the size of a donut. It was more like a bracelet than a ring.
Just as I was entranced by the beautiful light emanating from the ring, Yeon-hee suddenly shouted loudly.
“Il-wol!! Ddung-i, Ddak-ddak-i!!”
Growwwww—
A dark, low growl echoed as if the world had resigned, yet it carried a yearning for something.
Seeing her summon all her creatures except Ran right away, I hurriedly placed the item in the box onto her finger. The oversized ring fit perfectly on Yeon-hee’s finger.
“Uh?! Wh-what is this—”
=====
Blessed Anduwi’s Mithril Ring
– Magic Power +200
– Low-Rank Heal (1/1)
=====
“Whoooa— Il-wol…”
Yeon-hee called me with a voice full of distress, but this wasn’t the time for such talk.
‘Wearing two artifacts might be a bit burdensome, but I’ll take the next one, so no need to worry too much.’
The second artifact would significantly boost her magic power and even allowed a heal once a day.
Of course, it was low-rank, but still a very useful skill.
“Ahhhh— I really don’t know what’s what anymore, heuu…”
“Clap, Clap, Clap!!”
I ruffled Yeon-hee’s hair as a sign to get it together and pointed to the zombies rushing towards us.
“Eek!! Oh, I get it!!”
Once the calm observer on the battlefield, she now seemed flustered… and I felt a bit bitter, thinking it was all my fault.
She immediately summoned Spirit Ran.
(Yahoo!! Spirit Ran is here!! What an honor to be called twice today. Truly a blessed day indeed!!)
Just like always, he rambled on but diligently cast [Acceleration] on Yeon-hee while keeping an eye around us.
– Agility +5
After receiving the agility buff again, I smashed the head of an approaching zombie with a hammer just before it got close.
Crunch—!!
Kiyah!!
Even after its head was smashed, the zombie let out a guttural noise as I crushed its skull underfoot.
– Zombie defeated!
– A small amount of experience gained.
– Low-Rank Mana Stone acquired. The mana stone moves to the summoner’s inventory.
– This entity does not possess skills. While dealing with this entity, the probability of stealing the Trait [Thievery] increases by 5%.
‘There’s no way a zombie has any skills. Is that a 5% increase for passive trait stealing as compensation? Pretty reasonable, right?’
I had some expectation that the zombie might have some useful trait.
“W-why are there so many?!”
Just moments ago, it was just a corpse without any magic power, but now it felt like all the buried ones were rising to the surface.
Noticing something strange, I keenly observed the approaching zombies.
To my surprise, I discovered faint threads of magic connecting each of them.
‘Someone’s here. Where are they?’
I spread my senses to the maximum. With dozens of zombies creaking toward us, it was a potentially precarious situation.
However, with her magic power significantly increased, Yeon-hee had already summoned three lizardmen and established a solid defense.
Thanks to that, I could concentrate solely on sensing the surroundings.
‘Found you! They’re about 35m away.’
I consciously expanded my sensory range to its limits and detected two monstrous beings at its edge.
It was painfully clear why they were targeting us.
‘The artifact… did it stand out too much? They shouldn’t have been chasing us… Were they initially hunting in this area? Whatever it is, having necromancers nearby isn’t good… Damn it.’
We were caught in the worst situation, having to engage in combat amidst prime corpses for a necromancer.
‘I can’t just charge at them now.’
If they moved even slightly away, Yeon-hee would be in trouble unless she stayed by my side; it was painfully obvious we would run into trouble soon.
‘Okay, I’ll hold on. Just once, let me catch them for real.’
Thump!!
The lizardman blocked an attack from a zombie and dispatched another with his machete as I gathered my thoughts.
– Zombie defeated…
‘They should just be E-rank necromancers. They shouldn’t have enough magic power to raise Ents.’
I slowly pushed Yeon-hee back a bit, ensuring we had our backs to a pile of shattered Ent corpses.
‘It’s not good to fight running away from wherever they might appear. Let’s hold our ground, whatever happens.’
“Let’s hold on!! I know that there won’t be as many zombies as in ‘Nargul’s Dungeon’!!”
‘Bingo. The scary part here isn’t the zombies, but the thick poison exuded from the Ent’s corpses, so I’m not too worried about the zombies.’
But we couldn’t afford to drag this out too long. Even though we prepared lots of masks, swapping them in battle would be burdensome for Yeon-hee.
Growww—
As the zombies surged toward us, I began defending with the three lizardmen.
Thump!! Crack!!
Even when I pushed through and trampled them to the ground or smashed their heads, unless I decapitated or thoroughly crushed them, the zombies clung on relentlessly.
– Zombie defeated…
– Zombie…
“Clap, Clap!!”
As we were becoming surrounded by the increasingly overwhelming zombies, she began sending her summoned creatures into battle as well.
Throwing a tanky armored bug created a huge distraction as over 30% of the zombies diverted their attention elsewhere.
‘Good, Yeon-hee is completely unharmed.’
With her in a state of acceleration, she actively joined the attack among us. Though archery wasn’t exactly effective against zombies, she cleverly focused on impairing their mobility by targeting their legs.
Hehehe~
And beside Yeon-hee was her bodyguard, Ddung, the kobold, drawing their primary attacks.
Swish swish—
Ddung’s stone hammer strikes proved useful against mindless zombies while the three lizardmen couldn’t land fatal blows but kept smashing their brains.
And I…
Boom boom boom boom—
I threw fire bombs at the clusters of zombies, diligently smashing the weakened heads of those who caught fire.
Magic: 25/55
‘These corrupted breathers aren’t the problem, and I don’t need acid spray or slams, so I have enough magic left.’
I focused on using magic only on fire bombs to maintain our balance among allies while dealing some fire damage to the zombies at a distance.
Grrrwwww!!
As I surpassed 30 zombies defeated, a bright light shone from both Yeon-hee and me. Whether it was due to their resilient life force or not, zombies seemed oddly worthwhile monsters and my level quickly went up.
– Zombie defeated!
– Level up!
– Trait [Thievery] activated.
– Randomly steal the zombies’ traits.
– Gained the trait [Pain Resistance].
‘Oh, damn it!!’
Pain Resistance
– Reduces incoming pain by 20%.
Thievery activated quickly and I stole a trait, but it was useless to me as an undead, and I couldn’t help but feel disappointed.
=====
[Skeleton Soldier Il-wol – Lv.22]
Strength: 69 Agility: 73 (+3)(+5) Health: 58
Intelligence: 24 Magic: 70 (+3) Resistance: 1
Sense: 24 (+3) Recovery: 5
Traits: Calm, Protection, Thievery, 98 Lives, Adhesion, Ovez’s Blessing, Pain Resistance
Skills: Slam, Stealth, Dagger Throw, Acid Spray, Basic Transformation, Reckless Charge, Low-Rank Fire Bomb, Corrupted Breath
Equipment: Kobold’s Improvised Stone Hammer, Big Boar Leather Armor
=====
I quickly invested the stats earned from leveling into agility, magic, and sense. The reason for investing into agility again, thanks to Ran’s buff, was that I had no intention of letting those who’d provoked us off the hook.
‘Okay, now I can see things clearly.’
As my sense stat increased, I clearly felt the two figures observing us right at the edge of my magic wavelength.
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