“What would be good?”
“Nana! An Iron ○ suit! Make me something like that!”
Sinhyeok scratched his head, recalling the cutting-edge toy of some obscenely rich plutocrat.
“Something realistic….”
“Hmm….”
Hong Ichan was greatly disappointed by the word “realistic.”
“But Hyung always makes unrealistic stuff.”
Baek Arin snickered at the quite sensible remark.
“He’s got a point.”
“What’s so unrealistic!”
At those words, he asked Ichan again what he wanted.
“You need a suit?”
Nod, nod!
At Ichan’s violent nodding, Sinhyeok seriously pondered.
*‘Should I get a robot shell and synthesize one for him?’*
No matter how much he thought about it, it was inefficient.
It was downright terrible.
“No way. No matter how much I think about it, it’s weird.”
“Hyung, I’m disappointed.”
Seeing Ichan pouting his lips, Sinhyeok smiled and picked up a rock.
“Come here. Should I smash your noggin and talk again with a clear head?”
“Hey, hey! I was just saying!”
Ichan quickly scrambled away from Sinhyeok.
Then he shouted loudly once more.
“Daggers! Good ones for stabbing in secret! Twin daggers, please~”
“Two daggers. Okay.”
Those were the most familiar weapons to him.
*‘If it’s roughly daggers, the function is pretty much set….’*
Ichan’s weapons absolutely had to contain buffs related to necromancy.
“Brother~ come here again.”
At Sinhyeok’s gesture, Ichan watched his mood and scurried back over.
“There’s one problem that’ll come up during the next siege. You know it too, right?”
He flinched.
Feeling pointlessly guilty, Ichan scratched his finger and averted his gaze.
Sinhyeok blatantly pointed out an unavoidable problem.
“The entrance is too clogged up.”
Provoked by Sinhyeok’s words, Ichan shouted in anger.
“But! I’m working hard too! You can only control a few with necromancy to begin with! It’s because it’s me that it’s even this many!”
“I know.”
Just how many undead could one control with necromancy?
The answer to that question was simple.
By human standards that had yet to achieve “Transcendence”—so up to roughly the 6th Circle.
Usually, even at most, it was one hundred.
Controlling undead and simply reviving them as undead to let them roam free were strictly different matters.
How many vassals one could create who swore to offer their souls was a Necromancer’s talent.
No matter how high that talent was, there was a set limit.
One hundred.
Currently, Ichan was slightly past that limit, pushing his innate talent to its utmost boundary.
In other words, he was overexerting himself.
“I can’t anymore. I want to pull in more too, but I just can’t control any more.”
Ichan made a dejected expression.
“I can store plenty of them, but controlling them is completely out of the question.”
“You have to overcome that limit.”
Hong Ichan looked at Sinhyeok with a puzzled face.
“How?”
“How else? We gotta overcome it with item power.”
Ichan’s expectations soared.
Seeing his expectant expression made Sinhyeok worry even more.
Sinhyeok scratched his chin, worrying over materials.
He had worried about this for a while.
*‘If I had to pick a direction, it’d definitely be the World Tree of the Night.’*
He would try using the method that had allowed Ichan to store vast numbers of specters within his body.
Just as they had used traces of the World Tree.
“First, let’s do some research.”
[Opening the Akashic Pocket.]
[Accessing accumulated data on necromancy, Dark Elves, and the World Tree of the Night.]
Countless documents were listed in the air.
“That’s a lot.”
Ichan looked around, curious about what Sinhyeok was seeing.
“What?”
“It’s a shame that I’m the only one who can see this.”
There truly were a lot of documents.
By A4 standards, the pages exceeded five thousand.
“You guys sure have a deep history?”
Ichan nodded with a face that said it was obvious.
“Of course. We’ve existed since primordial times.”
“Right. Go~ over there. I’ll call you if I need you.”
“Okay!”
Sinhyeok sat somewhere comfortable and checked the time.
*‘There should still be some time left, right?’*
Just to be sure, he double-checked.
“Ichan! How much time do we have!”
Hong Ichan checked the World Tree and shouted.
“It’s long this time! We’ll have about two weeks!”
“That’s a relief.”
There was ample time to think.
He began reading through the accessed data.
[The limits of humans who have not achieved Transcendence are clear. Regardless of how high their realm is, the maximum number of souls a single human can dominate is in the range of one hundred.]
“Anyone can see this is a fact.”
He flicked through with his finger.
[Since ancient times, many mages have pondered “Transcendence.” Is there no way to utilize “Transcendence”? In reality, looking around us, we can easily see ordinary people using the authority of “Transcendence.”]
*‘Who?’*
[Representative examples are priests and High Elves. Priests enjoy divine power received from gods. The High Elves’ absolute affinity and favor with plant growth, spirits, animals, and mystical creatures also stem from the authority of the World Tree.]
[From this, we can see that Transcendence can be shared. Then, could this not be applied to necromancy as well? The easiest method is, of course …… the Demon King. Because they always extend their hands to humans….]
“Phew. That doesn’t mean I can sell Ichan off to a Demon King.”
[If there is no Demon King, we can think of another being. Above them exists the Demon God, who is the Transcendence of the Demon King, and devils also exist.]
“I hate that even more! Even more!”
Annoyed, Sinhyeok flipped the page.
Swish—he moved back and settled on a certain page.
[Regarding the origin of Demon Kings….]
[Originally, a Demon King was recognized as a mature being that had undergone three moltings to reach the final growth stage of a demon, a monarch ruling a region. However, looking at past records, it is different.]
“Hmm?”
[The Demon King is the legitimate heir of the Night chosen by the universe. It is not something reborn, but something predetermined, belonging to a domain that even the devils known as Demon Gods cannot decide.]
[The authority to rule the Night belongs not to devils, but to the World Tree of the Night, the Yggdrasil that embraces the night.]
[Then, what would happen if a Demon King appeared?]
[There is no data beyond this point. Further details require contact with more demons or approach from a devil.]
“Damn it! Right when it was getting good!”
The page cut off right at the most exciting part.
“Getting my hopes up for nothing.”
Someone oddly came to mind.
A certain immature, undergrown Dark Elf circling the World Tree over there.
“Hyung! Look at this! It’s a spirit! It seems like it’ll be born soon!”
He points to a black spot on a tree branch, spouting nonsense.
“Yeah, yeah. That’s a bug. Get rid of it quick.”
“It is not! Apologize to the spirit quickly!”
“Ebebe.”
“Kiyayaht!”
Sinhyeok left the excited him alone and flopped down on his back.
Lying comfortably, he worried over “Transcendence.”
*‘As expected, the power of a Transcendent like a devil is the answer. But…… those guys are no good.’*
Then there was only one thing left.
He had to use the World Tree of the Night, which matched Hong Ichan the best.
“I’ve decided the base material to use….”
*‘How do I make him overcome the limits. The exact method to make him control more.’*
Sinhyeok stared blankly, pondering while gazing at the sky of the Netherworld.
“If I use the World Tree, how much would the limit increase?”
He sprang up and prepared the simulation.
*‘Just one leaf….’*
He went and plucked it off.
“Ah! Hyung! I told you not to pluck them carelessly!”
“Yes, yes, yes. I’ll just use it for a moment.”
Sinhyeok grasped the leaf and activated the simulation.
[Initiating simulation.]
[Scanning materials.]
[Leaf of the World Tree of the Night detected.]
“I want to synthesize a normal dagger with this. Is it in the data?”
[Yes.]
[Proceed with virtual synthesis of the Leaf of the World Tree of the Night and a normal dagger?]
*‘I need to put in necromancy too. The rune language closest to necromancy is….’*
“Add an enchantment too. Put in some black magic runes corresponding to Undead Rise.”
[Request understood.]
[Caution.]
[Genetic factors cannot be selected for fragments of a Transcendent. Proceeding with random synthesis.]
“Yeah. I get it, so hurry up.”
[Synthesizing virtually…….]
“Ah, ah.”
His head burned fiercely.
It felt like he could hear a roaring engine sound inside his head.
“Ugh, my brain is burning. Burning!”
Whiiiiir.
The virtual synthesis didn’t stop.
Sinhyeok clutched his head and muttered.
“So damn long. I’m really gonna die like this.”
Drip.
A nosebleed flowed clearly.
Sinhyeok wiped it away with a dumbfounded expression.
Drip, drip.
“I-I’m going crazy….”
[Synthesis complete.]
“Phew. What a relief.”
==========================
[Synthesis Simulation: Predicted Result Generated]
Synthesis Base:
Leaf of the World Tree of the Night
Normal Dagger
==========================
[Predicted Main Features]
Necromancy Domination Limit Increase
Due to pure night mana, the limit sees a slight increase of up to roughly 1–10.
==========================
“That’s really low.”
The result that came out was miserable.
“An increase of 10 at most.”
“Woooaaah! Hyung, 10 whole people?!”
Ichan, who had been meditating in front of Yggdrasil, was surprised and sprang up.
“You sure have a modest scale, don’t you?”
“Hyung! That’s amazing enough! If you fill the 100 with Death Knights or something, it’d be incredible!”
“Then do it.”
Ichan quietly sat back down and focused on meditating.
“Dark Elves have something called shadow spirits instead of such crude black magic….”
“Shut up, what shadow spirits. You gotta have them to use them.”
[Shadow spirits are important Soul Mates to Dark Elves, sharing their lives and actively utilized in combat. They are an extremely rare type of spirit possessing both non-physical and physical characteristics.]
“I got it. Close Akashic Pocket. It’s noisy.”
[Exiting access mode.]
“Maximum of 10.”
*‘Too few. With this, there’s no way to solve the bottleneck during the next Wave.’*
They would be pushed back and pushed back for 12 hours straight.
*‘Even digging a trench leading to the universe has its limits.’*
What to do about this…….
A way to drastically increase it.
A way to transfer subordinates hierarchically.
“…Hierarchically?”
He suddenly became fixated on that word.
“It feels familiar.”
Sinhyeok soon realized why it was familiar.
“Ah! Multi-level!”
Having realized a tremendous method, Sinhyeok ran to Ichan with an excited face to verify it.
“Hong Ichan, wake up!”
Ichan slowly opened his eyes and looked at Sinhyeok.
He felt strangely uneasy at Sinhyeok’s unusually excited expression.
“What?”
“This hyung thought of something incredible. But I need to verify it!”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“Let’s go multi-level! You control a sorcerer instead of an undead.”
“Aha!”
Ichan understood Sinhyeok’s words immediately.
“If I control one necromancer who can control 10, then naturally I consume 1 slot, right?”
Sinhyeok nodded.
“But that’s still equivalent to 10. Wouldn’t it actually cost more? Since a necromancer of that caliber would have higher standing.”
“It probably would. But we’re using the World Tree! Wouldn’t it bear that much of a burden together?”
Ichan’s mind grew busy.
“Hmm…… that’s true. Then how would the consumption of spiritual power work?”
*If an intermediary medium called “Transcendence” intervened.*
It was hard to predict in what way the burden would decrease.
Sinhyeok said with an excited face.
“Filling 10 slots directly and having 1 person who can bear the burden of 10 won’t be exactly the same, right?”
“Th-that’s true. It takes up a little less. It’s not exactly using spiritual power for exactly ten people.”
“Worth a try?”
Ichan nodded with a puzzled expression.
“Ah, probably?”
“Then that’s settled. The rest is experimentation. And we just so happen to have the perfect material.”
The remaining essence of a Lich that had been shoved deep into the inventory.
When he took it out, he could still hear the faint cry of the Lich’s soul.
*‘Save me! Let me go!’*
Sinhyeok pulled out the black heart that was only half remaining with a sinister face.
“This is going to be a very good time.”
At Sinhyeok’s quite eerie expression and tone, Ichan took a step back.
“Hyung, again! What’s with you?”
“Material selection complete. The rest depends on the blueprint.”