The Lich Becomes a Hunter! Episode 4

Earth (3)

-Woof, woof!!

“You verminous skeletons!!”

Surprisingly, unlike other monsters, the Hell Knight could speak.

Like a monster endowed with intelligence, the Hell Knight displayed refined swordsmanship, striking down the skeletons that rushed at him as he flew into a rage.

Against the Hell Knight, who possessed both high-level swordsmanship and sturdy armor, the skeletons could not inflict any meaningful damage and collapsed one by one, scattering bone dust.

As the Hell Knight continued clearing away the skeletons one at a time, he saw a human approaching him.

“And what is that? After these worthless skeletons, now a worthless human? Haa…… how irritating.”

As if the very fact that he was stuck here displeased him, the Hell Knight let out a sigh, gripped his sword properly, and spoke.

“Let’s deal with this quickly and return, Cerberus.”

-Woof!

At the Hell Knight’s words, the heads of the Cerberus beneath him barked, instantly separating the neck and torso of a skeleton that had been charging at them, then rushed swiftly toward the human slowly approaching them.

“Die, human!”

And befitting a C-rank monster, the Cerberus boasted tremendous movement speed as it stood before the impudent human who dared oppose them.

Then the Cerberus opened its mouths wide, trying to bite down and devour the human in one go, while the Hell Knight sought to sever his neck from his body with his sharp sword.

Unfortunately for them, the human standing before them was no ordinary human.

Whoosh!

-Yelp!

The moment they stood before him, a Bone Arrow flew forth and pierced Cerberus’s foreleg.

Cerberus let out a mournful cry at the Bone Arrow lodged in its foreleg, but that was not the end.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Countless Bone Arrows flew in and embedded themselves all over the shrieking Cerberus’s body.

The time it took for dozens of Bone Arrows to lodge in the massive Cerberus’s frame was only a few seconds.

There was no being in the world that could have holes punched throughout its body by dozens of arrows and remain alive.

The Cerberus before Choi Jinhyeok, the man who had fired the Bone Arrows, was no exception.

Thud—

The impact from Cerberus’s massive body collapsing shook the entire ground beneath Choi Jinhyeok’s feet. At the same time, Cerberus let out its death throes and closed its eyes.

“Y-you baaastard!!!”

And its master, the Hell Knight, shed tears of blood at the death of his mount, drew his sword, and charged at Choi Jinhyeok. Watching the Hell Knight, Choi Jinhyeok said,

“Now then, who is the prey……? Ah, and don’t worry. That dog over there and you will be together even in death.”

As my loyal subordinates, that is.

* * *

“Kehk…… cough…….”

The Hell Knight, who had driven his sword into the ground and was coughing up blood, looked at the man standing before him with empty eyes.

‘Just…… what the hell is this human bastard!’

The Hell Knight was a demon. Of course, among demons, he belonged to the lowest class, but a demon was still a demon.

Strength greater than a human’s.

More mana than a human.

A lifespan incomparably longer than a human’s.

A demon was a being that possessed all of these. Yet despite possessing all of the above, the Hell Knight had not only failed to defeat the human before him—he had not even managed to inflict a proper wound.

All he had done was make the man’s complexion turn slightly poor from expending a large amount of mana.

Seeing Choi Jinhyeok like that, the Hell Knight despaired at the fact that he had failed to land even a single proper attack until the very end, and closed his eyes.

“Is he dead?”

Choi Jinhyeok stared blankly at the Hell Knight, who had died standing with Bone Arrows embedded all over his body, then plopped down onto the ground.

“……Tsk. As expected, there’s a limit to what I can do with this pitiful amount of mana.”

Originally, he had planned to take the magic stones obtained here outside and form his first circle, but thanks to Cerberus and the Hell Knight, he had used up a large quantity of magic stones, so things had gone wrong from the very first step.

Even so, a smile lingered at the corners of Choi Jinhyeok’s mouth as he said that.

“Still, the harvest isn’t bad.”

The Hell Knight before him was, astonishingly, a demon. Of course, he was not a particularly strong or high-ranking demon, but a demon was still a demon.

Demons were a race far superior to ordinary monsters or humans.

If he made an undead out of such a demon, it was only natural that the efficiency would be better than with other things.

On top of that, along with the Hell Knight, the Cerberus lying far away had been his mount even when alive.

If he made that corpse into a Bone Hound, it would surely possess far greater efficiency than mounts made from other things, so Choi Jinhyeok was in a good mood.

“Hoo, I suppose I have no choice but to break a few more magic stones.”

Even if the efficiency is poor.

In truth, the method of breaking magic stones like this and absorbing the mana, rather than absorbing it through a magic circle, was extremely inefficient.

That was because most of the mana contained in the magic stones scattered into the air. But it could not be helped. Dragging such enormous corpses away with just the two of them was too much.

And so Choi Jinhyeok immediately broke the magic stones.

Crack— crack— crack—

As a bonus, Jeong Cheolsik’s face turned deathly pale as he watched.

Soon, a large amount of mana burst forth from the shattered magic stones and was absorbed into Choi Jinhyeok’s body.

At the refreshing sensation of that mana, Choi Jinhyeok let out another exclamation of admiration, then stretched out his hand first and began turning the Hell Knight into a skeleton.

When Choi Jinhyeok’s mana settled into the Hell Knight’s body, the Bone Arrows embedded all over the Hell Knight pulled themselves out, and soon his bones and flesh separated.

And in the eye sockets of the separated bones, red ghost fire formed.

Standing before the successfully created skeleton, Choi Jinhyeok rested his chin on his hand and pondered.

“Hmm…… Calling it a Warrior feels awkward, and calling it a Knight feels awkward too.”

It was because of the name of the skeleton he had created.

The reason Choi Jinhyeok was agonizing over this was none other than the skeleton’s abilities.

Thanks to its base as a demon, it had become a skeleton with higher correction values, but because its innate rank was low (C-rank), it was a little too weak to call a Skeleton Knight.

“Well, a name is a name. Since you were called a Hell Knight in life, I’ll specially call you Knight.”

As Choi Jinhyeok said that and patted the Knight on the shoulder, the Knight knelt and offered a gesture of loyalty.

Leaving the Knight behind, Choi Jinhyeok headed toward the Cerberus in the distance, which had become a pincushion.

“A loyal knight needs a good steed.”

Strictly speaking, it was a dog, but since it was a dog the size of a horse, it could be said that Choi Jinhyeok’s words were half right.

And Jeong Cheolsik, who was watching the scene from afar, had an expression filled with nothing but shock.

‘Is he…… really the same human as me? What am I looking at right now?’

Even as Jeong Cheolsik watched Cerberus transform into a skeleton, he could not believe what he was seeing.

He even secretly punched himself in the face because he wanted to tell whether this was a dream or reality.

After about ten minutes passed, Choi Jinhyeok, having successfully turned Cerberus into a skeleton as well, strode toward Jeong Cheolsik.

When Choi Jinhyeok suddenly approached, Jeong Cheolsik, who had been watching blankly, was startled and asked,

“D-do you need something from me?”

“……Aren’t you going out?”

“Ah! I-I am! I’m going out!”

Only then did Jeong Cheolsik realize that Choi Jinhyeok had approached not to order him to do something, but to leave. With an embarrassed expression, he walked toward the gate that had appeared the moment the Hell Knight died, then threw himself into it.

After Jeong Cheolsik disappeared into the gate, Choi Jinhyeok swept his gaze over the inside of the dungeon one last time and thought to himself.

‘……I’ll make good use of your body.’

With that thought, Choi Jinhyeok gave a brief bow to the empty dungeon, then climbed onto the back of the Knight, who was already riding atop the Bone Hound, and said,

“Then…… shall we go?”

With those words, the Bone Hound strode powerfully into the gate.

* * *

Flash— click, click—

And what greeted Choi Jinhyeok when he exited the gate was none other than the glare of cameras and the sound of shutters.

At the barrage of flashes so intense they hurt his eyes, Choi Jinhyeok wondered if it was an attack and was about to give an order to the Knight, but soon realized from the original owner’s memories that these were cameras and reporters, and stopped.

Just as the barrage of flashes began to subside, the reporters then bombarded Choi Jinhyeok with questions.

-Mr. Choi Jinhyeok! According to Mr. Jeong Cheolsik, you cleared the Trap Dungeon alone. What was the boss monster?

-Are you currently affiliated with any guild? If not, what guild do you plan to join in the future?

-What are those skeletons beside you? Is it summoning magic, perhaps? Or taming magic?

-Mr. Choi Jinhyeok…….

At the nonstop flood of questions, Choi Jinhyeok finally frowned and was about to say something when someone stepped in front of him and shielded him from the reporters.

“We will be cutting off all further questions. Mr. Choi Jinhyeok has just come out of the dungeon and is in an unstable state, so our Association will be escorting him.”

It was a man dressed in a black suit, with a sword at his waist.

And the man, who had rendered the reporters speechless with a single sentence, turned around, looked at Choi Jinhyeok, and said with a refreshing smile,

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Choi Jinhyeok. I’m Kim Minsik, an S-rank Hunter affiliated with the Republic of Korea Hunter Association.”