BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!
A man, known as the leader, slammed his shotgun down onto the desk and recalled that the subordinate who had brought him the report was still standing by, waiting. He cleared his throat.
“Ahem—so what’s the conclusion?”
“··· According to the priest’s ‘arrangement’, we couldn’t find any clues to identify our organization. This is an internal document that our personnel extracted from the administration office.”
“Hm—has the underground space been cleaned up completely?”
“Yes, Elder.”
The man, referred to as the Elder, put his hands together on the table and fell into thought for a moment before speaking again.
“Then we couldn’t find out who interfered with us?”
“······ It’s hard to ascertain at the moment.”
“Currently? If given time, can you find out?”
“······.”
“Ha—there was definitely a priest in that area until the offerings were made. So it’s after that… the list?”
“It’s on the last page of the document provided.”
Swoosh—
The man briefly skimmed through the list and sighed as his finger pressed against his temple, then waved off the reporter.
“Then—”
As the reporter left the office, the man sighed again and softly gazed at the nearly thousand names listed.
“They will definitely pay the price······.”
His hand, stroking the broken desk, trembled with anger.
* * *
“But didn’t we do anything wrong? Was there really a need to hide it?”
Yeon-hee asked as she shook Wang-wang, who was sprawled on the floor like a rice cake.
‘No matter how bad those guys were, if they killed eleven of them, they must have gotten tired somehow. Besides, there was no need to inform Jo Gi-man of such performances.’
I shrugged my shoulders, and she thoughtfully touched her chin with a serious expression.
“Hmm… Ugh, I don’t know!”
Yeon-hee, lying flat on the floor, pulled out two brown summoning scrolls.
“When in doubt, let’s draw lots! Let’s use two of them and keep one!!”
With three extra scrolls in her possession, she used two and, as usual, summoned two Lizardmen.
“You’re Lizard 6, and you’re Lizard 7. Got it?”
Slurp—slurp—
The two Lizardmen signaled that they understood, sticking out their tongues.
“With a 90% probability, one of them should’ve turned out different, but it’s just these guys again. Well, I’m not complaining.”
Probably, the 90% mentioned was the chance of summoning a fixed creature from the scrolls.
‘At that rate, it’s essential for a decent creature to be summoned early on from the upgraded scrolls.’
This time, the strongest Lizardman among the low-tier summons appeared, allowing us to create the Lizard Squad. However, if only mediocre ones had kept coming out, concentrating our power would have been tough.
“The summoned creatures have subtly varying wavelengths, so if too many types are deployed on the battlefield, it becomes hard to maintain.”
‘Oh, I see… That’s why she fixed on Lizardmen early on. It’s quite impressive to maintain that many summons during battle while also performing decently as an archer… No wonder she was called a genius.’
It wasn’t merely about the quantity of Magic Power. Anyone skilled in handling mana would know how delicate and complex the task of controlling it was.
Yet Yeon-hee was juggled not three but ten, making it impressive!
Yeon-hee summoned Lizard 1 and then commanded it to train 6 and 7.
I wondered if that creature would understand such orders, but Lizard 1 took the two newly summoned ones to a corner and whispered something.
‘Wow… Is that even possible?’
I couldn’t tell if they were truly training for combat, but seeing 6 and 7 nodding earnestly gave the impression they were following Yeon-hee’s commands well.
‘Well, they seemed to be moving rather systematically during combat. So Lizard 1 must be taking the leader role?’
When I looked closely at Lizard 1, who I had previously ignored, it was visibly larger than the newly arrived ones, and its scale color was a darker shade of green. It must have leveled up significantly from repeated battles.
‘Hmm—will those guys ever seek job changes someday…’
If that were to happen, it would be a great boost. Even now, the Lizardmen were performing beyond my expectations.
“First, let’s move into the two-room place and um…”
She had been looking for a new nest for several days as the contract date approached.
The next day, we lightly hunted in the Ent Forest once again, and with the money Yeon-hee had accrued through her Hunter endeavors, we secured a new nest not far from the one-room apartment.
I thought we wouldn’t have much to move, but it seemed she couldn’t bear to throw away belongings that carried her mother’s touch, making the moving process look quite substantial.
“Seems more than I expected…”
She scratched her head, looking troubled, but as I stored her belonging into my inventory in a flash, she stuck her tongue out.
Recalled to the new nest, I unpacked everything I had stored in the spatial compartment and arranged it neatly.
‘It’s a bit larger, but… still cramped just the same.’
Though the previous place was closer to a one-room apartment, this one undoubtedly had a ‘living room’ set up.
“The contract is for a year. Do you think we can move somewhere else in a year?”
Nod—
“Okay—great. We’ve been working too much lately, so let’s just do nothing today and rest.”
‘… Resting… what do we do for that?’
In a place devoid of even the common TV, nothing immediately came to mind, but she literally did nothing and rolled around on the floor all day.
Seeing Yeon-hee, who had become rather plump while clutching Wang-wang and messing with her smartphone, made me realize I often forget that she had just turned 20.
‘Hmm—then I…’
It was about time to make a decision.
Skeleton Bombardier
– Recognized as the most distinctive class among the melee undead, leading battles primarily with magical bombs. It has extremely high attack power and receives positive adjustments to all abilities related to magic. However, there are constraints on strength increases.
Special Ability: +30% damage on attack hit against enemies.
‘To amplify my stealth ability, this selection should be the best choice. And later, when I gain that ability, there would also be a synergy effect.’
– Would you like to undergo job change to Skeleton Bombardier?
It was a moment so tense my finger bones trembled.
“Haah… I’ll change my job.”
CRUNCH CRUNCH CRACKLE!
As soon as I chose to change jobs, small lines descended from the skull bone, rapidly spreading down my body as if piercing through my bones.
The lines resembled tiny channels like blood vessels or components from a machinery article, branching out continuously, and by the time they reached my feet, it was hard to keep track of with just my eyes.
– There are characteristics compatible with the ones obtained from your job change. Will you fuse them?
– There are skills compatible with those obtained from your job change. Will you fuse them?
Adjusting to the boosted state of my body was overwhelming, but the messages continued to urge for choices unfazed.
‘Hey, can you at least tell me what happens if I fuse?’
I harbored complaints inwardly, but the term fusion felt very positive, so I readily agreed.
– The characteristics obtained from the job change will fuse with Obez’s Blessing, greatly enhancing the effect.
=====
Obez’s Blessing
– A small blessing conferred by Obez, the origin of the Fire Monkey tribe.
– Additional damage +120% (+100%) on fire attribute attacks.
=====
‘What the heck?! A 100% increase?!’
It seemed that the characteristic gained with the job change had a similar effect to Obez’s Blessing, massively boosting the existing characteristic.
– The skill obtained from the job change has fused with [Low-level Fire Bomb], greatly increasing the storage capacity and damage.
=====
Skeleton Bomb
– Process the bones of monsters you directly defeat into magical bombs for storage, and when needed, throw them to inflict damage (300% of magical attack power).
– Higher-grade processed bones yield additional damage.
– Currently stored 0/50.
‘3, 300%… Plus the capacity for 50. But do I need bones to do this? That might be a bit tedious… Still, I do have quite a few bones from Goblins, Big Boars, and Fire Monkeys…’
In any case, the damage for my main skill significantly increased, which was a very successful change.
‘This isn’t just a job change, it should be called evolution, right?’
Nodding, I inspected the changes in my stats.
=====
[Skeleton Bombardier Il-wol – Lv.24]
Strength: 60 Agility: 60 Health: 60
Wisdom: 54(+30)* Magic Power: 90(+20) Resistance: 7(+5)
Sense: 31 Recovery: 17(+10)
Characteristics: Calm, Protection, Thievery, 98 Lives, Adhesion, Pain Resistance, Obez’s Blessing
Skills: Slam, Stealth, Dagger Throw, Acid Spray, Basic Conversion, Reckless Charge, Contaminated Breath, Skeleton Bomb
Equipment: Sage Argen’s Protective Dagger, Big Boar Leather Armor.
=====
‘Huh? Is the intelligence value replaced with wisdom? Is the Skeleton Bombardier then a magic class?’
Typically, the stats related to intelligence would influence magical attack actions, but their effectiveness is often lower.
For instance, if I had poured a crazy amount of points into intelligence expecting to improve the fire attribute’s low-level Fire Bomb after the job change, I would likely have been disappointed with the results.
This is because intelligence, as commonly noted, has a low coefficient for increasing magical attack power. However, it does enhance cognitive, reasoning, and response abilities when encountering situations or phenomena.
In contrast, classes with wisdom have a higher coefficient for increasing the attack power of mana-based assaults.
However, if a class with a wisdom stat were to invest the levels earned into strength, they would raise it by only 1. Moreover, the special ability of growing by 5 every five levels wouldn’t apply here, either, so they’d only increase it by 3.
In short, they wouldn’t be able to invest in strength even if they wanted to.
The portion that stated constraints on strength increases in the description for Skeleton Bombardier was likely referring to this.
I expected this class, judging by its name, wouldn’t be a magic-class, so I had shelved my hopes, yet unexpectedly, a jackpot had fallen into my lap.
‘Wisdom by a whopping 30… Magic Power by 20, Resistance by 5, Recovery by 10… At this level, it’s comparable to a second awakening.’
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