Chapter 64: A New Wind (1)

Well, this certainly complicates things.

I crossed my arms, studying the status window before me:

This was the information about the item Jo Yongtae had been holding earlier.

Even if he was cornered, I never imagined he’d resort to such a desperate, suicidal move.

Suddenly—

Krrrrumble!

Within the arena shrouded in pitch-black mist, a form began to materialize.

With a chilling ghostly wail, a monster emerged from the fog.

It resembled a bride veiled in white, except that beneath the veil, its three-meter-tall frame was composed entirely of jet-black bone, stripped of any flesh.

“Th-that’s the Black Death Bride!”

“Shit! We’re screwed! We’re all going to die!”

“Snap out of it! We have to help!”

The Black Death Bride was an A-Rank Wraith monster, notorious for unleashing high-level curses in all directions.

Screeeeech!

The Black Death Bride, which had been scanning its surroundings, suddenly emitted a piercing shriek.

“Uwaaaah!”

Members of the Hwiryung Guild, who had been scrambling to their feet, immediately clutched their ears and collapsed to the ground.

“An S-Class curse right from the start? This is no joke.”

The training ground had instantly transformed into a hellish scene of chaos and carnage.

I looked up at the guild members who had collapsed under the curse’s influence.

The Wail of Lamentation—a deadly curse that incapacitated Awakened and relentlessly drained their Vitality.

We couldn’t afford to waste any time here.

Looks like I’m the only one still standing…

Just then, a figure landed softly beside me with a thud.

”…”

It was a middle-aged man with white hair.

He wore a neatly tailored suit, his polished boots echoing through the arena as he walked.

His hands were encased in pristine white gloves, and he leaned on a jet-black steel cane.

He looked like a quintessential British gentleman.

“I’ll help,” he said.

As soon as I met the man’s gaze, I suppressed my surprise and spoke.

“Lord Nine Heavens Bone King, I presume? The safety agent, I mean.”

Nine Heavens Bone King.

The unparalleled Necromancer who had dominated the world for nearly twenty years since the Great Change, wielding the arcane power of Blood Magic.

In his youth, he had roamed not only Korea but the entire globe, rescuing countless souls wherever his aid was needed.

Globally, he was a hero even more renowned than First-Generation Hunters like Cha Taesu or Ma Daechun.

Yet, three years ago, he had abruptly announced his retirement, vanishing almost entirely from public view.

I never imagined the Nine Heavens Bone King himself would be here.

Go Geonho frowned and retorted, “The safety agent?”

Go Geonho frowned and repeated, “Guild Leader Ko Youngmin mentioned hiring security personnel to maintain control of the spar, no matter how it unfolded.”

“Security personnel? That’s a novel concept, but not exactly a flattering title.”

At that moment, another terrifying ghostly wail reverberated through the air.

The Black Death Bride spotted Go Geonho and me standing unharmed. Its empty eye sockets began oozing a putrid green light as it lurched toward us.

“Anyway, let’s save the chatter for later. We need to deal with that idiot’s summoned Evil Spirit before things get any worse.”

Go Geonho enveloped his staff in a thick, blood-red mana.

“I’ll handle that one myself,” Go Geonho declared.

“Personally?”

“The Black Death Bride possesses significant immunity to the Holy Attribute. Unless you wield Holy Power beyond the norm or my Blood Magic, subduing it instantly is impossible.”

The Nine Heavens Bone King glanced at Iratu before continuing, “That bizarre Skeleton Warrior, and even your own strength, won’t be enough to handle this monster. So, I need you to cover my back. And…”

“No. There’s no need for that,” I interrupted quietly.

“Hmm?”

Puzzled, the Nine Heavens Bone King shifted his gaze from the Black Death Bride to me.

Before the hero of the Great Change, I stood with a faint smile, staring straight ahead.

The monster charged forward, claws bared, its wail a venomous torrent of resentment.

Hmm, an unorthodox Holy Attribute spell, I thought.

I fixed my gaze on the creature and spoke to the skeleton standing beside me.

“Iratu.”

“Y-yes…?”

“Use the Holy King’s Aura.”

Iratu’s eye sockets flickered.

“B-but… now?”

“Yes.”

“H-however…”

The skeleton hesitated, its bony fingers hovering over the hilt of its sword. It had never used the Holy King’s Aura before and couldn’t predict the penalties it might incur.

But I couldn’t afford to indulge its reservations in this situation.

“Iratu.”

”…As you command.”

Finally, the skeleton’s jaw clattered softly.

Swish! A longsword, radiating a dazzling spectrum of iridescent light, was drawn from its sheath, revealing its majestic form.

“Hmm? What’s that…?” Go Geonho’s eyes widened.

He recognized the extraordinary Holy Power surging through the blade. And then, a diminutive skeleton, wielding the longsword with the fluid grace of a seasoned swordsman, swept it horizontally.

A semicircular arc of rainbow-hued sword energy sliced through the air.

Kwaaaaaah!

A semicircle with a diameter of three meters bisected the center of the arena.

Even with its diminished power, the radiant holy light was more than enough to dispel the Demonic Energy unleashed by the Black Death Bride. The resplendent Holy Light devoured the darkness.

A vengeful wail was swallowed by the resounding crackle of holy energy.

The pitch-black mist that had blanketed the arena like a storm cloud shattered into fragments.

As the holy light purged all darkness, striking the Black Death Bride’s corrupted body, a single drop fell.

Thud.

The Ghostly Wail faded away like scattering dust, vanishing along with the Black Death Bride’s form, consumed by the light.

“Gurgle…”

Jo Yongtae collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth, his consciousness extinguished. In his place, a fist-sized essence stone tumbled to the ground with a soft thud.

”…”

The First Guild Master of the Hwiryung Guild stood frozen, speechless.

“Forgive me for this rude introduction,” I said with a smile. “But that essence stone is mine, Lord Nine Heavens Bone King.”

An hour had passed since the Black Death Bride had vanished, reduced to a handful of ashes.

“Medical team, over here! We still have a cursed patient!”

“Damn it, kid. Even so, how could you sacrifice your last strand of hair to protect me?”

“Still, it’s a miracle no one was seriously hurt.”

The Arena was a hive of activity as Hwiryung Guild members bustled about cleaning up. Necromancers were carried out on stretchers, while others used vacuum-like items to suck up the lingering Demonic Energy from the monsters. Ko Youngmin, his face still pale with shock, barked orders at the guild members. Jo Yongtae, though alive, remained unconscious, sprawled out on the ground.

Watching the scene unfold, I leaned against a wall at the edge of the Arena.

“Whew, that was rough.”

As my stomach churned, I turned my gaze to the Status Window floating before me.

That was a close call.

The moment Iratu swung his sword and unleashed the Holy King’s Aura, my Mana reserves nearly vanished in an instant. I knew that skills attached to Unique-grade items boasted extraordinary power, but I never imagined they would devour such a massive amount of Mana so rapidly. With this level of consumption, even most A-Rank Hunters would collapse from exhaustion without even being able to activate their skills.

“And to think I hadn’t even anticipated that when Iratu activated a skill attached to an item, the Mana cost would be deducted from my own reserves.”

Manager Mi was right.

After all, Iratu could use any item regardless of its special requirements, and even cast the skills attached to them.

But if there were no resource consumption penalties when using these skills, even with their halved potency…

After loading Iratu with every item I had…

I could have just left the dungeon clearing entirely to him and focused on navigation.

“Guess there’s no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to skills in this world.”

I smoothly ignored Manager Mi’s objection and turned my head to the side.

The Skeleton Warrior stood there blankly, the Star Cluster of the Holy King still in its hand. The lingering Holy Power within the weapon emitted a multicolored glow of Mana like a fading fragrance.

“Good work, Iratu.”

But Iratu gave no response.

He remained motionless, staring straight ahead.

“He must be too exhausted to speak,” I muttered bitterly. “Well, after battling for a full hour, that’s understandable.”

Whirr!

Instead of his skull turning, only the eerie blue glow from beneath his eye sockets swiveled to face me, his gaze brimming with resentment and indignation.

Well, I didn’t need him to glare like that to know.

He wasn’t frozen in place from exhaustion.

Iratu

This debuff was a consequence of using the Holy King’s Aura.

Petrification…

As befitting its power to instantly obliterate even the Black Death Bride, the risk was substantial. If the user failed to eliminate their opponent immediately, they would inevitably fall victim to the petrification.

Passing it to Iratu was definitely the right move.

No matter how devastating an item’s power, I steer clear of those with lingering debuffs.

My body is too precious for such risks.

Iratu shot me a disgruntled glare, as if he could read my mind.

The skeleton warrior, barely reaching 170 centimeters tall, looked anything but intimidating.

I tapped his shinbone and said, “Well, it turned out alright in the end. You leveled up again, too.”

Of course, it wasn’t exactly the timing I’d expected. He leveled up right after being Petrified, not when he annihilated the Death Knight and Black Death Bride.

…Thanks to this, he gained a skill that greatly increases his physical defense for a limited time.

The more he grew, the more his skills veered toward the Warrior System rather than the Magic System—and undeniably toward becoming a pure meat shield.

“Uh, it seems like you’re drifting further and further from your intended class progression.”

The blue light in Iratu’s eyes dimmed and drooped, his spirit clearly deflated.

Of course, this wasn’t what he wanted.

It would have been better if he’d been reborn as a lowly Skeleton and lost his memories, but even that hadn’t happened.

“Still, don’t get too down about it,” I said, trying to console him. “Who knows? Maybe there’ll be a chance for a second class advancement later.”

Just as I was trying to cheer up Iratu, who stood frozen in petrification, looking sullen, a low voice suddenly echoed from above.

“Are you alright?”

It was Go Geonho, who had vanished immediately after we defeated the Black Death Bride. This time, he was cloaked in a pitch-black robe with the hood pulled low over his face, likely to conceal his identity from the Hwiryung Guild members.

“Ah, of course, I wasn’t asking you,” he added quickly.

As he approached, Go Geonho pointed his steel-tipped cane at Iratu.

“That skeleton… it seems to be afflicted by a rather troublesome debuff.”

His observation was sharp. To all appearances, Iratu seemed perfectly normal.

I nodded. “That seems to be the case.”

“Do you need to take any special measures?”

“No. If I dismiss the summon and let it rest for a bit, it should recover on its own.”

With that, I snapped my fingers.

A violet dimensional gate materialized, swallowing the stiffened Iratu whole.

After the skeleton vanished, Go Geonho narrowed his eyes with apparent interest.

“Unsummoning them is quite remarkable,” Go Geonho remarked.

“Is that so?”

“Normally, when Undead complete their tasks, they crumble into bone dust and seep back into the earth. Unlike ordinary Summoned Beasts, Undead are essentially puppets crafted from corpses and bones. When their power source is severed, they naturally return to their rightful place in the Nine Heavens.”

I hadn’t known that.

After all, back when I was a porter, I’d never accompanied Necromancers on expeditions. Naturally, I assumed Skeletons vanished through Dimensional Gates like other Monsters.

“To my knowledge, there’s only one type of Undead that disappears through a Dimensional Gate upon being unsummoned.”

The Nine Heavens Bone King paused, his expression heavy with implication, before continuing.