Yena and I immediately entered Lord Heukmuhyang’s Palace.
The servants of Heukmuhyang tried to stop me for a moment while waiting in the annex, but it was no use.
“This is problematic. Please wait outside.”
“It’s fine.”
“No. It’s problematic…”
“It’s really fine.”
“……”
[LOL]
[Aww, it’s fine, LOL]
[It better be fine]
[Lily: If you don’t want to die, step aside]
[Big Lily]
[Let’s just kill it]
The palace of Lord Heukmuhyang looked quite different from the Castle of Jeokmu-hyang.
Given the nature of the lord, there were many magic arrays related to death due to the handling of ‘Holy Energy/Dead Energy,’ and some practitioners were even ghosts.
Translucent ghosts floating in the air.
Maybe they were strong in life, as they emitted an aura on par with avatars and knights, but they weren’t particularly threatening.
“If you come in here…”
“I guess this is Lord Heukmuhyang’s study.”
“Wow~ it’s really big.”
“Over there.”
“Speaking of death, doesn’t Miss Yena have something similar? Echo of Death?”
“Oh, that’s right. I haven’t used it in a long time…”
“……”
It was a legendary item previously used by Yena, containing undead orcs.
At the time, it was quite a useful piece of equipment and showed excellent performance at low levels.
However, after Yena obtained the Green Hermit, her usage frequency significantly dropped, and I hadn’t seen her use it since she changed races.
It was probably mainly because the power of the Spirit God wasn’t related to ‘death.’
[Haven’t heard about Echo of Death in ages]
[Wow]
[Didn’t you sell that?]
[What is Echo of Death?]
[Do you still have it?]
[😨]
[The way the ghosts are panicking is hilarious]
[LOL]
[For real, LOL]
Yena took out the pendant from the air, and just looking at it, you could feel the Holy Energy.
“I still have it. But right now, it’s sort of sealed due to lacking compatibility with my current abilities.”
“It’s a power that’s opposite to the Spirit God’s.”
“It’s a bit unfortunate, but it can’t be helped.”
Mhm. While Yena felt a bit regretful, she reacted with indifference.
And rightly so, considering the huge power she gained compared to not being able to use Echo of Death anymore.
After all, Echo of Death was an item that used to be useful in the past, but even rankers outside the top tier could handle it easily now.
Yena grasped the pendant tightly, perhaps reminiscing about old times.
“Wow. I really put in a lot of effort to get this… despite its looks, it’s an item with huge potential.”
“I really tried to get it… This is an item with incredible potential, you know?”
“Really?”
“Meow. Seriously, if this had gone to a necromancer or a summoner job, it would have been amazing, right? It’s ‘growth-type’ after all.”
“Growth-type?”
I had never heard of that before.
“Yeah. But I don’t really like summoning, so I just used it for stat boosting. At that time, my class was just an assassin, so growth wasn’t an option…”
“I see.”
“So, I didn’t use the Echo of Death, and a lot of users came asking to borrow or buy it. It’s a nostalgic item, so I didn’t give it away.”
So that’s what happened.
Considering most items and equipment are complete forms, a growth-type item of that level is extremely rare.
I was still looking at the ghosts murmuring, ‘This area is off-limits…’ when I suddenly turned my gaze to the chat window.
[It’s a shame it’s stuck in storage lol]
[For real lol]
[I didn’t say anything because Yena seemed to use it well, but there was a lot of talk]
[I miss Yena who used the Echo of Death…]
[Necro assassin. I miss it.]
[Death… is coming! Death… is coming! Death… is coming! Death…]
[Let’s level it up]
[It’d be fun to grow it massively here lol]
[Let’s go for infinite enhancement~]
“Should we? I happen to have a lot of materials.”
“Meow?”
“Could you lend it to me for a moment? I’ll give it back quickly.”
“The Echo of Death? Here it is, meow.”
Yena handed me the Echo of Death.
Barely a minute after talking about how nostalgic it was, the blood-red pendant was passed to someone else.
If it were the original me, I wouldn’t have used this pendant.
The pendant, filled with death energy, could never withstand ‘holy’ power.
Of course, I could force myself to use it, but I didn’t really like the vibes related to death either.
“But now…”
The blood-red energy surged up.
Now, I was in a situation where the holy power was sealed due to a penalty.
If I wanted to, I could easily wield techniques close to magic.
“Oh?”
The energy swirled ominously around me, and someone began to appear.
An old orc with blood-red skin.
The orc’s hand reached out into the air.
[Death… is coming!]
Puhwaaaak!!
“!!”
“What is this…!”
“Lord Jeokmuhyang is using magic?”
“This is…”
The ghosts widened their eyes and stepped back, and the living servants showed surprised reactions too.
Around me, about 30 undead orcs appeared.
Orc soldiers armed with blood-red armor and weapons.
The undead, with three tattoos drawn on their faces, looked quite impressive.
En was incredibly cool.
[Whoa]
[Looking again, it’s really great]
[Oh]
[Cool tier 1, acknowledged]
[Death is coming…!]
[The activation phrase is indeed cool, lol]
[Aah… this is what an ‘Orc’ looks like]
Yena approached one of the Undead, bouncing in excitement at seeing familiar faces after a long time.
She then tilted her head.
“Huh?”
“What’s up?”
“Were they always this weak?”
On the outside, they seemed like impressive Orc Undead.
Just by looking, they looked strong enough to defeat an Avatar Phase practitioner, but the reality was the opposite.
‘At best a smoke screen?’
The Orc’s strength was no different from the lowest tier of the subworld.
Of course, thanks to the Undead’s traits, they boasted near-immortal regeneration, but that was all.
Against a practitioner of Record Phase, they would surely be torn to shreds.
“Well, that’s to be expected. They’re only around level 60 at most, right?”
“…In my past memories, they seemed really strong.”
“Maybe your past has been romanticized?”
It had been well over a year based on that standard.
In Deoen terms, a year could pass with the landscape changing about ten times without it being unusual.
I called over what seemed to be the highest-ranking servant, leaving behind Yena, who was lamenting, “My Orc soldiers aren’t like this…!!!”
By the way, the highest-ranked servant of Lord Heukmuhyang was a ghost without flesh.
Their level was at the third stage of Record Phase.
“…Did you summon me?”
“I need things that help with the growth of ghosts. To be precise, things that help the ‘Dead Ones.’”
“There are some available, but you need Lord Hyangju’s permission─”
“I’ll pay later. It’s a matter of urgency.”
“Later… you say?”
“Yes. Lord Hyangju has some debts to settle.”
The pure lifespan I had to collect from Lord of Black Mist, Jooam, was 80,000.
As long as I could convert some into various resources, I had already met the target lifespan, so it wasn’t a big problem.
Above all, the pure lifespan of a Display Case Practitioner was priceless.
“It’s urgent. Hurry up. Please.”
“…What’s so urgent? I don’t mean to be rude, but you don’t look busy…”
“Those who watch over me want to see me.”
[LOL]
[Whoa]
[Thinking of the viewers, Lily LOL]
[Great Lily]
[Oh, they said they miss me LOL]
[An Orc Heavenly Horse that has drained all the riches of Lord Heukmuhyang? How can I hold back?]
[For real LOL]
The servant trembled slightly and then bowed, seemingly out of options.
“…I will comply.”
■
Strengthening the Echo of Death? The work was not as easy as it seemed.
But that wasn’t the case.
First of all, most of Heukmuhyang’s techniques required having a ‘self’ to work.
No matter how good the technique was, if the ‘Dead One’ turned into a ghost and couldn’t understand it, it would be meaningless.
So, despite some trial and error, I exchanged opinions with Heukmuhyang’s expert (who apparently spent years as a ghost).
There were discussions and rebuttals, but the conclusion was to just pour everything in and form a ‘self.’
I gathered the spirit herbs and the holy energy stored in Heukmuhyang’s palace and fed them to the Echo of Death.
There were some wails during the process, but everyone in the palace was technically Heukmuhyang’s property anyway.
Since Heukmuhyang was supposed to deduct some of his lifespan, it seemed like a fair exchange.
“Is that really an exchange?”
“Hmm. Probably?”
“Probably sounds about right, right?”
“……”
Of course, the servants screamed to feed the leftover souls of lower-level practitioners instead, but naturally, I didn’t listen to them.
As a result of feeding it everything to help it grow…
[Oh wow]
[This is insane, lol]
[Is this really you, Lily?]
[My, you’ve grown]
[Oh snap]
“…I think it grew too much, lol?”
“Hmm.”
I could see an orc standing in front of me.
Other than its physique being twice as big and its face looking a bit ferocious, there wasn’t a big change in appearance.
‘On the outside, at least.’
The orc undead had reached ‘Phase 4 of the Record.’
To be precise, it was in a state filled with ‘death energy’ equivalent to Phase 4 of the Record.
In terms of a martial artist, it meant no level, just a ton of internal energy stacked up.
It felt a bit unstable like a water balloon, but it was enough to call itself a ‘Heavenly Horse.’
“From now on, I will call this orc Orc Heavenly Horse.”
“Heavenly Horse will be angry, meow.”
“It’s a Heavenly Horse until he arrives.”
I tapped the shoulder of the Orc Heavenly Horse with a pleased smile.
“From now on, your name is Orc Heavenly Horse.”
“…I accept the name.”
“That’s nice.”
As I turned my head satisfactorily, a servant who looked like he aged ten years bowed his head.
“Hoo… I’ve fulfilled all the requests. Now, could you please leave…”
“Excuse me? We’re just getting started?”
“…Huh?”
There was still a lot to do.
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