The Queen of Nightmares inquired.
“How did it go?”
A gaunt, dark-skinned demon clad in a hooded robe, meditating, removed the hood—perhaps out of courtesy.
With only a skeletal face remaining, its eyes glinted as it bowed its head.
“So?”
“It seems they intended to hold a funeral, as they gathered them in one place, making things easier for us. Even if the specters went to assist, they wouldn’t have anticipated this.”
The necromancer could perceive through the corpses it animated.
It wasn’t as direct as specters, which could transmit what they saw and heard across space.
But the faint neural signals from the animated corpses allowed it to sketch out distant places like a charcoal drawing, even without seeing them directly.
“Relying on specters was a mistake.”
“Those with only their egos left, without a body to anchor them, are hard to pin down due to their nature. But a body without an ego is excellent material, Your Majesty.”
Among demons, ghouls and necromancers perished alongside the succubi.
Demonic corpses can’t be used for necromancy, and the prime resource—human corpses—had dried up in that world.
The Queen of Nightmares’ domain, however, didn’t pursue level-ups through human hunting.
It was a sanctuary where the last humans fled, so after their annihilation, she possessed millions of zombie bodies.
Thus, necromancer-class demons joined her clan to secure these corpses.
Skeleton soldiers were no issue since bones were plentiful despite humanity’s extinction.
But zombies, less decayed, with toxins, corpse explosions, and nerves for remote sensing, were a resource necromancers couldn’t afford to miss.
“But can we be sure it was eliminated?”
“Just to be safe, please dispatch a strong warrior to finish off the near-dead giant and breach the dungeon safely. Even if the dungeon’s giant isn’t dead, it won’t rise for days after that.”
“What about you going?”
“Me, Your Majesty?”
“Yes. There are still plenty of corpses strewn across my domain. Didn’t you say you wanted to control a giant as a zombie?”
“A giant zombie…”
The necromancer’s expression lit up at the term “giant zombie.”
“I heard you’re a ghoul. If that world is truly full of giants, couldn’t you consume their corpses and absorb their traits?”
“Indeed.”
“Besides, that place must have plenty of things to turn into corpses, no?”
“I will obey your command.”
The ghoul-born necromancer bowed deeply.
With humans truly extinct, there were no more corpses.
Yet the Queen of Nightmares not only offered the corpses from her domain’s final stand but also suggested a world where more could be made.
“But for now, eliminating the fairy exile is more important than capturing the dungeon’s gatekeeper.”
“They’re likely already dead.”
“If not, end their life yourself. I’m counting on you.”
“I’ll leave animated, less-decayed corpses here and bring you news of victory through them.”
“Good.”
***
Dew keeps dripping from the Fairy’s Flower Bud.
It’s humid, and with the air conditioner drying the room, the separated balcony might still hold moisture.
When I asked if it was crying, more water dripped.
Is it actually crying?
“Plants must sweat when it’s hot. Cough.”
I don’t think that’s impossible.
Jumping trash bags, talking rice cookers—why not a crying plant?
I’m mopping the floor.
It hurts, but I’ve got to clean up the remains.
My body’s still mobile, so I staggered and cleared the trash bags and corpse gas residue.
The zombie and skeleton soldier remains, after the gas explosions, mostly vanished without a trace, leaving only torn trash bags and the gold coins they dropped.
Still, I cleaned the house first.
<air purification lv1>
Air-purifying devices neutralize toxic mist.
<air conditioner limit break available>
“Bullshit.”
The air conditioner’s been running, doing its part to purify.
It’s been mitigating the lingering plague’s damage-over-time effect on my stamina.
Now it’s accumulated enough experience for a limit break.
But I brushed it off with a curse.
What would I do with a limit-broken wall-mounted air conditioner, and what if it breaks and I have to pay for it?
“Cough. Ugh, damn it.”
It hurts like hell.
It feels like someone’s twisting my whole body.
The pain makes curses spill out endlessly, and I’m not in a good mood.
[Are you okay?]
“Not okay. You, make some rice.”
Above my head floats
<super regeneration>
[Super Regeneration LV4 is restoring your body.]
Below the description is a clock.
[Time until recovery: 52:30:21]
Quantifying the recovery time is a nice system.
When people are sick, not knowing how long it’ll last leads to drinking or skipping meds, only to collapse again.
But with the recovery time displayed, I just have to hold on.
[Additional stamina damage will delay recovery time.]
[Rest and recuperate during this time.]
It’s telling me to lie down for two days straight.
RiceCookerMan’s rice buff lasts less than seven hours, so I need to cook rice.
If I don’t eat, I could take more damage.
Despite the pain, I washed rice with brown rice mixed in and cooked it.
Cooking now means I can steam any remaining enemies in the rice cooker if another attack comes.
There’s no guarantee they won’t invade while I’m down for two days.
[I’ll cook it deliciously!]
“…”
The overly chipper RiceCookerMan says it’ll take responsibility and cook.
Why the “dog” in “dog-delicious”?
“Okay… where’d you learn to talk like that?”
[From people around!]
“What? There are no people around… oh.”
I don’t watch my mouth in my room.
Come to think of it, I didn’t in school either.
When I’m with friends, no matter how much I want to use kind words, curses slip out.
“Groan. Ugh, it really… no, it hurts a lot. I’ll rest. Wake me when the rice is done.”
I scooped out the cooked rice before sleeping.
I need rice now, but I’m in such bad shape I had to lie down.
They invade about once every two days, so if they don’t come right away, I’ll be fine.
***
In my dream, a thumb-sized girl was crying.
[You took that horrible poison to save me, because of me…]
[No, I was just worried the balcony glass would break.]
[No, it was because of me. It was definitely an attack aimed at me. You had no reason to block it.]
No, seriously.
I might say “I love you” to the plant, but I don’t want to date it or sleep with it.
Of course, it’s a dream, so it didn’t escalate like that.
The little girl in the dream must be the fairy girl I imagined would bloom when the Fairy’s Flower Bud fully opens.
She’d be cute in that form.
If that tiny thing ate finely chopped fruit, it’d be adorable.
But I don’t want to date her.
If I did, how’s that different from dating a figurine?
“Groan. Ugh, I’m awake. It hurts so bad. Ugh, annoying.”
Did I wake up from the pain, or did it hit me right after waking? I don’t know.
The humanized plant from the dream lingers in my mind.
A thumb-sized little girl.
[I think I heard her name…]
I can’t remember her name.
Her hair color, faintly pink like an apple, matches the Fairy’s Flower Bud.
“No way…”
The Fairy’s Flower Bud still has the same dew drops I saw before sleeping.
I thought it was sweating, but I ignored it in my pain, just wanting to lie down.
Dragging my aching body, I opened the balcony door and wiped the dew from the Fairy’s Flower Bud.
The dew on my finger felt cool.
The gripping, stabbing pain in my body seemed to vanish from my finger.
I tasted it slightly.
<Fairy’s Droplet>
Water infused with magic enhances healing effects.
“Oh.”
My stamina, stuck at 6 in the red, jumped to 16.
The clock, which had 47 hours left, dropped to 40.
The flower bud waved its leaves like arms.
It was dripping like sweat just moments ago, but after I wet my tongue, it stopped.
It must’ve been urging me to drink it and get up, even in my dream.
It was really her.
Nothing surprises me anymore.
“Groan. Ugh.”
It’s a bit better, but it still hurts.
The worst pain ever.
Would cooking rice with fairy tears boost recovery?
[Rice is done.]
“Wake me.”
[You didn’t get up!]
I must’ve lost my mind.
RiceCookerMan doesn’t speak out loud except for “Cooking complete.”
I grabbed spicy tuna from the pantry and scooped RiceCookerMan’s rice.
The delicious rice at LV18 seems to have a better stamina recovery effect than before.
“Ugh, this sucks…”
If only I had medicine, but I guess rice is the medicine.
Oh.
Of course, the gate opens now, shimmering with light.
“Who’s sending this crap? Just let me catch you…”
I’m in pain and exhausted, so these constant attacks are pissing me off.
My strength and speed are intact, so crushing them isn’t hard.
But if it’s a troublesome enemy or another group attack, it’ll be tough.
I don’t want to move, but just in case, I grabbed the knife.
Strength and speed triple.
[This is the place. Where’s the giant’s corpse?]
What appeared was a grotesque humanoid monster.
<ghoul necromancer lv94>
A low-tier demon that learned to manipulate corpses by consuming them. Necromancy-capable demons aren’t treated as the lowest class.
A ghoul necromancer.
I know the concepts vaguely, but it’s a weird creature.
A corpse-eating monster and a necromancer who controls them, right?
Despite my aching body, I sat up.
Something tells me.
This guy’s behind the ten-wave zombie attack and the trash bag explosions.
“You, huh?”
[Hmm?]
The necromancer wore a hooded robe.
It looked similar to the red mage, but while the red mage’s robe was red, this necromancer’s…
Zooming in, it looks like human skin.
“Goddamn… crazy bastards?”
I saw something like this in an Aztec codex, and the creepiness makes me curse instinctively.
The necromancer, snooping around, notices my cursing and turns toward my bed.
[Oh, the giant of this place? You’re surprisingly alive.]
Surprisingly alive?
I’m harboring serious resentment toward these otherworld beings.
People can ignore others’ pain, but I can’t stand my own.
“Just in case, I’ll ask once. Are you the one dumping corpses?”
[What if I am?]
“Then you die.”
[You think you can do that after taking that corpse poison? Soon… you’ll be my thrall—gack!]
I grabbed the ghoul necromancer, squeezing it so only its head stuck out.
Low speed, huh.
I tucked the kitchen knife under my arm instead of using it.
Holding it in my mouth would feel like copying a manga.
[W-what is this?]
It was surprised, so I snapped at it.
“What? Did I look like an easy target?”