Swordmaster by the Grave, Episode 2
Chapter 1: Now I Am the Necromancer (2)
It was a voice recorded through magic.
‘If I obtain the Necromancer class in Jiseokgyu’s place, can I really do this well?’
Jinhyeok pondered for a moment with a worried expression.
But he soon reached a conclusion.
He had once reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship with the common Swordsman class. He was confident he would reach the summit this time as well.
“I shall defy the gods and claim the name of the strongest.”
-Death shall always be by your side.
Light erupted from the Tome of Death and engulfed Jinhyeok.
Soon after the light faded, he felt death lingering by his side.
Swallowing dryly, Jinhyeok looked around. He could feel the presence of corpses filling the communal graveyard.
He heard the wailing of vengeful spirits.
“There’s no turning back now.”
Jinhyeok muttered to himself.
‘First, let’s examine the Tome of Death in detail.’
As Jiseokgyu had advised, Jinhyeok began to read the Tome of Death closely. The book meticulously recorded the methods of creating undead and storing them in subspace.
It stated that subspace was granted upon class change and grew larger depending on one’s mana capacity.
“Open?”
Space tore open and a gate to another dimension appeared. It wasn’t large, but the presence of the subspace was undeniable.
It seemed useful in many ways beyond just storing corpses.
‘Necromancers are unwelcome beings. The only thing you can trust is power. Gather many corpses. The robe the skeleton was wearing isn’t a good item, but it has the effect of increasing mana, so it’s best to wear it despite its ominous aura.’
Jinhyeok nodded and donned the eerie robe the skeleton had been wearing.
By putting on the black robe, he became a full-fledged Necromancer.
His gaze turned to the white skeleton.
A Skeleton Mage could be made using a mage’s corpse.
He reached out his hand.
“Undead Creation.”
As he uttered the incantation and imbued mana, the skeleton lying on the ground rose up.
Bone fragments gathered to form a staff, and green ghost light glowed from its empty eye sockets. It was a perfect Skeleton Mage, no matter how one looked at it.
Having gained confidence from creating the Skeleton Mage, Jinhyeok also made about four Skeleton Soldiers.
He wanted to try making zombies as well, but only bare skeletons remained, so it was impossible.
He hurried his work to create an undead army.
Jiseokgyu had said that while there was a method of raising the dead all at once through simple Necromancy to assign them to the army, doing so resulted in significantly inferior performance compared to crafting undead one by one with care.
Therefore, he chose to personally dig up the earth to excavate corpses.
“Come here and dig the ground.”
Jinhyeok commanded several Skeleton Soldiers to dig graves in his stead, but they couldn’t understand the order.
“Not too bright, are you?”
Jiseokgyu had said that the first undead he created had remarkably low intelligence… but Jinhyeok hadn’t expected them to be this unintelligent.
Jinhyeok shook his head.
“Watch. You do it like this, like this.”
Jinhyeok demonstrated how to dig.
Only after repeatedly explaining for about thirty minutes could he deploy the Skeleton Soldiers to the digging work.
Even so, once the Skeleton Soldiers joined in, the grave-digging work accelerated.
Jinhyeok crafted undead until his mana ran out, then sent his creations into subspace so they could be summoned at any time, and took a rest.
He stationed two Skeleton Soldiers as sentries, just in case.
* * *
‘Is today the fourteenth day?’
Jinhyeok, who had devoted himself entirely to making undead all this time, suddenly surveyed his surroundings and recalled what Jiseokgyu had said.
‘I don’t remember exactly, but I probably discovered the communal graveyard around the fourteenth day. If you see me being chased, I hope you won’t turn a blind eye. It’s been truly difficult escaping pursuit.’
Since today was the fourteenth day, it was about time for Jiseokgyu to appear.
“Monitor the surroundings with magic. And if anyone approaches, report to me.”
Jinhyeok stationed the Skeleton Mage, capable of detecting presences over a wide area through magic, as a sentry, and continued digging graves with the Skeleton Soldiers.
It was while he was sweating, laboring to excavate skeletons. The Skeleton Mage appeared before Jinhyeok.
“What is it?”
The Skeleton Mage gave no answer.
It couldn’t answer because it lacked vocal cords.
“Is someone coming?”
At Jinhyeok’s question, the Skeleton Mage nodded.
“Everyone, get inside.”
Jinhyeok returned all the undead to subspace. Then he headed toward the outskirts of the graveyard.
From afar, someone was running urgently toward the communal graveyard. Upon discovering a person in the graveyard, he picked up speed.
“H-Help!”
It was Jiseokgyu.
He looked much younger than the Jiseokgyu Jinhyeok had met in the squad, but he was recognizable enough.
“Save me!”
The plea for help instantly changed to a plea to be saved.
Four armed men were visible behind him.
“So he couldn’t shake off the pursuit this time…”
Perhaps it was because Jinhyeok had slaughtered the initial group, causing a variable to come into play.
“Over here!”
At Jinhyeok’s shout, color returned to Jiseokgyu’s face. He was exhausted from hunger and tension, but fortunately, he managed to get inside the graveyard.
“Th-thank you.”
He expressed his gratitude with a bright expression, but belatedly realized there was no one around to help except Jinhyeok, and his face went pale.
Jiseokgyu tried to flee again, but Jinhyeok grabbed his arm, leaving his feet rooted to the spot.
“W-We have to run…”
“No need to worry, so relax.”
Despite the voice full of certainty, Jiseokgyu couldn’t relax easily.
If he ran away, all plans would go awry, so Jinhyeok didn’t loosen his grip on Jiseokgyu’s arm.
“Let me go! At this rate, we’ll both die! There are four of them!”
“No problem.”
Jinhyeok’s gaze shifted to the entrance of the graveyard. Four men opened the old gate and approached with murderous eyes gleaming.
“Eeheehee. There’s one more? Seems our ‘food supply’ has increased?”
“D-Delicious. Hihihi.”
Hearing the conversation of the two men, Jinhyeok furrowed his brows.
It wasn’t a normal conversation to have in front of other people.
‘Cannibals.’
The rations provided by the guide barely lasted three days for twenty people if they rationed.
If they didn’t conserve, the bottom could be visible in just a day.
In extreme cases, some among those who developed a taste for killing transformed into cannibals.
Those chasing Jiseokgyu seemed to be of that ilk.
The cannibals surrounded Jinhyeok and Jiseokgyu.
“W-We’re going to die. We’re going to die!”
Jiseokgyu, paralyzed with fear, collapsed weakly and muttered in a small voice.
Jinhyeok placed his hand on Jiseokgyu’s shoulder and spoke.
“Relax. You won’t die.”
And raising his hand while glaring at the approaching cannibals with a mocking laugh, ominous green mana nestled in his palm.
“Because I have friends.”
Smiling, Jinhyeok scattered the green mana into the air, and the subspace opened its massive maw.
And from the pitch-black subspace with no visible end, undead poured out.
“Wh-What is this?!”
“Relax. They’re ‘friends.’”
Jinhyeok spoke in a calm voice to reassure Jiseokgyu.
At the word ‘allies,’ his trembling ceased, but he still surveyed the surroundings with anxious eyes.
“What are these boneheads?!”
“Aaaah! Monsters!”
The army of over thirty undead was enough to overwhelm the cannibals.
They had been confident in their numbers, but seemed quite flustered when the situation reversed.
“M-Monsters. S-Save us.”
“S-Save us!”
It was an army of the dead reeking thickly of the stench of death.
Even cannibals who had developed a taste for man-eating and come to enjoy killing as the selection test dragged on couldn’t help but be consumed by fear before this supernatural power.
But not everyone was trembling in terror.
There was a man calmly surveying the situation with a cold, detached expression that radiated a frigid chill.
The face was familiar. After briefly searching his memory, Jinhyeok recalled his name and deeds.
‘The Man-Eating Ghost, Yu Hantae? He was chasing Jiseokgyu at this point in time?’
Yu Hantae, bearing the epithet of the Man-Eating Ghost, was the most infamous cannibal in the Otherworld.
Even after the selection test ended, he continued to indulge in cannibalism and was eventually branded an outlaw and placed on the wanted list, ultimately losing his life at the hands of Jinhyeok, who had been working as a bounty hunter at the time.
However, Necromancer Jiseokgyu had never mentioned that his pursuer was Yu Hantae.
‘A variable, then? Either way, that bastard is evil. Killing him now would be for the best.’
Jinhyeok radiated killing intent and drew his sword.
Sensing the killing intent instinctively, Hantae pulled up one of the cannibals who was kneeling and begging for his life, opening his mouth.
“Don’t panic and draw your swords. That bastard is going to kill us all anyway.”
The cannibals who had been begging for their lives listened to Hantae and composed themselves as best they could, looking at Jinhyeok.
His gaze was as if looking at bugs. It felt like he would stomp on them and kill them at any moment.
“Damn it! We won’t just die!”
“Uaaaaah!”
The cannibals raised their swords again. They also let out loud, bizarre screams to drive away their fear.
“I’m sorry. I’m too tired to help.”
Jiseokgyu spoke with difficulty. Faint mana could be felt from his body.
‘It seems he’s completed his Mana Awakening.’
Mana Awakening literally meant the state of realizing the existence of mana and becoming able to wield simple elemental magic.
Mainly those with high innate mana affinity on Earth awakened upon crossing over to the mana-rich Otherworld, but their numbers were few.
Occasionally, there were cases of forced awakening by the guide after the selection test ended.
Mana Awakening was practically the sole class-change prerequisite for a Necromancer.
Jinhyeok hadn’t been a mage, nor did he have high mana affinity, but it seemed he was treated as an Awakened because he already knew how to handle mana.
“There’s no need for you to step forward.”
Jinhyeok said. He had drawn his sword for now, but it seemed the Skeleton Soldiers could handle everything.
The Skeleton Mage probably wouldn’t even have anything to do.
“Kill them.”
At Jinhyeok’s command, the Skeleton Soldiers advanced in unison, wielding spears and swords made of bone.
“Kuaaack!”
The spear thrust by a Skeleton Soldier pierced the chest of the cannibal at the very front.
As the Skeleton Soldier pulled out the bone spear, he clutched his chest and collapsed with a scream of agony.
“S-Save… kuk!”
Having bravadoed earlier, they belatedly cried for help, consumed by fear at the sight of the approaching dead. But no mercy returned to them.
A sword made of bone pierced a cannibal’s throat.
The cannibals had grown accustomed to killing, but not to fighting.
Most of their killings had been by overwhelming others with numbers. Therefore, standing against Skeleton Soldiers was too much for them.
“Uack!”
The third cannibal fell. But Hantae held out until the end.
His entire body was covered in wounds, but none were deep. However, when the comrades holding the front line fell, he was completely surrounded.
“Kuek!”
Groaning, Hantae recognized that the situation had turned against him.
The Skeleton Soldiers closed the distance. He couldn’t block the spears thrusting from all directions.
“Kuaaaack!”
His entire body was wildly pierced by bone spears.
Yu Hantae, the Man-Eating Ghost who devoured people, died in agony by Jinhyeok’s hand, unable to even set foot in the Otherworld.