Chapter 40: No Way Back

Wow, this is brutal.

Despite the foul stench, there was something satisfying about the feel.

‘It’s tough.’

There’s no way an undead would have mastered external martial arts.

But still, it’s tough.

The malevolent energy flowing beneath its hardened body is what makes it so solid.

‘Here, do they call this energy demonic power?’

Even skeletons made of nothing but bone are tough.

Whooong—

It’s wielding a club, so it must be a Skeleton Warrior.

I can dodge it easily, but for an average person, it’d be hard to stand against such ferocity.

Even if you block it, the corrosive poison sticks to you even worse.

Undead are truly weapons crafted for murder.

‘This is fun to analyze. These things— they’ve learned weapon techniques, and while their bodies are low-level, their external martial prowess is better than Jiangshi, right?’

There were similar things in the Murim as well—Jiangshi.

Aside from the shoddy ones created by low-level unorthodox sects, the Demonic Cult or Blood Sect used them as military strength.

They were weapons to make up for lacking numbers.

They didn’t care if it was a martial artist or a commoner—they’d turn anyone into a corpse.

‘It’s only an issue because of notoriety. If it’s just efficiency, they’re top-class.’

Depending on how strong someone was in life, sometimes a Jiangshi would be born with even greater power.

Those Jiangshi were usually divided into four types.

Iron Corpse General, Copper Corpse General, Silver Corpse General, and Gold Corpse General.

That was the standard before the Blood Corpse General appeared through the Blood Sect, or before the Demonic Cult’s ultimate techniques created new kinds.

‘Up to the Silver Corpse General, it was manageable, but from Gold Corpse General up, just forming a strategy was overwhelming.’

Jiangshi inherently possessed corpse poison.

That alone was frightening, but there was another advantage.

‘The body itself was the real problem.’

In fact, even a Silver Corpse General needed to be handled by an apex master.

Because of its tough body.

Without using sword energy, it couldn’t be cut down.

Gold Corpse General were basically superlative experts.

If you ever encountered one that used the martial arts it had in life, you’d have to dispatch a true peak master.

They not only had invincible bodies but could use martial arts as well.

Even the Copper Corpse General beneath them was never weak.

Jiangshi had that toughness.

Since their movements were slow, they could be lured and taken down with strategy, but that was all.

Copper Corpse General were practically massacre weapons.

-Grrrr.

And the zombie in front of me, waving its hand—

‘Definitely weaker than Copper Corpse General. Maybe close to Iron Corpse General.’

It seemed to be about the level of a freshly forged Iron Corpse General.

Slow, but tough, and it never tires.

That alone makes it a tremendous weapon.

‘If it became a ghoul, it would definitely surpass Iron Corpse General.’

-Grrr.

Pow!—I had to use my inner force techniques to break it completely.

Its durability was impressive.

‘Now I see why Holy Water is needed.’

You can only attack them at all because you have the opposing attribute: Holy Water.

Look at the current party of three—without Holy Water, all they can do is endure.

‘No wonder Necromancers are so terrifying.’

I’d heard that Necromancers who wield demonic power control the undead.

They say they can control dozens, even hundreds of these murder weapons.

No wonder Necromancers who command the undead inspire fear in people.

Dealing with the dead.

And having the dead move to cause death—just that is fear itself.

“Not bad…….

Ssshh— Pow!

But even so, seeing them collapse one after another in my hands was oddly entertaining.

Someone unknown must have prepared all this.

It was far too many to be natural.

It was kind of fun to crush all that someone’s effort so easily.

‘Maybe a twisted hobby… well, it doesn’t matter.’

Besides, the gains from defeating these were considerable.

“Waaah! Stab it, quick!”

“I’m stabbing it!”

The three Mercenaries fighting behind me.

Maybe emboldened by watching me, they’re gradually advancing and stealing glances my way.

They watched me intently, trying to memorize even a single move I made.

‘They’re in learning mode.’

At the same time, they were beginning to feel a sense of awe toward me, unconsciously.

‘Perfect.’

Just as I wanted.

There are usually three ways to win people over.

One is through fear.

The other is through respect—respect can also turn into awe.

Reton, the magician I gained through the Oath of Mana, was acquired through fear.

Fear is a fast and easy way to win people, but—

‘It’s not as effective.’

Compared to making people act of their own will, it often falls short.

Respect is different.

Those who serve you out of respect move voluntarily.

Sometimes, they can even surpass their usual strength.

‘That’s a good thing. Respect is……..’

But I add one more to that.

The third way to win people is through transaction.

‘People work harder if they have something to gain.’

Whether it’s a reward for loyalty or faith, it doesn’t matter.

The object or subject of the deal doesn’t matter either.

What’s important is whether there’s something to exchange.

I showed my strength.

-Grrrr.

Crunch

To them, it’s power they’d wish for even in their dreams.

And they saw that value with their own eyes.

‘That’s enough.’

They’re only working as Mercenaries because they have no opportunity.

No one seems to have taught them, but they have the martial ability to be at least second-rate warriors.

A desire for improvement.

They’ve reached a level that can’t be reached without wanting to rise higher.

They want to climb up.

‘If I teach them well, they could become first-rate. Maybe even beyond that.’

If given the chance, they’ll want to make a deal with me.

I get their loyalty, and they get power.

The actions I’m showing now are the groundwork for that transaction.

Whooong—Pow!—Grrrk.

I could swing my sword thousands of times to win people over.

I swept through the undead more overwhelmingly than ever.

The Skeleton Warriors had long since all fallen.

Only a few zombies remained.

Pow!

All I had to do was finish those off.

“Almost done now…… hm?”

Suddenly, a flow of mana began to surge.

‘What?’

The flow of mana erupted instantly.

The demonic power held by the undead, and the mana in the air, swirled and reacted.

As the undead perished, their demonic power shook the atmosphere.

Wooooong—woong—

As if waiting, the mana buzzed and began to move, tracing out a pattern.

A magic circle hidden in the floor revealed itself.

“It’s a trap! Run!”

“Ugh, damn! We need to get out—….”

Neither Gajei nor Hoden had time to escape.

The magic circle swirled from the outside and trapped the entire party.

-GRAAAAH!

BOOM!

The last remaining zombies exploded.

The moment all the undead vanished, the magic circle was complete.

I didn’t even have time to interfere.

“Damn. So this is how it works?”

No wonder the undead hadn’t been discovered.

The magic circle that was created was a higher-dimensional array, beyond what I could use.

The goal spoken by the multiple Runic Language scripts engraved in the circle was clear.

‘Teleport…….’

Transportation to an unknown place.

Flaaash—

Before I could even brace myself, everyone, myself included, was engulfed in light.

“Ghk……”

Magic stones with Light cast on them overhead illuminated the inside brightly.

We arrived inside a cavern behind a sparkling magic circle.

The entire space was surrounded by stone walls, and the interior was quite large.

There was an unnamed stone coffin.

Beside it, a massive stone statue looked so grotesque it seemed it might come to life at any moment.

‘We moved quite far. This was made with precise calculation.’

I have no idea why someone would want to move people like this.

The important thing is, whoever survived fighting dozens of undead was transported here.

Even if it’s not like a past life, I’d started to move according to a plan to slowly reveal my strength.

‘Didn’t expect to have a real adventure like this.’

It felt like I’d found something even greater than a lucky chance in the Murim.

“How, how did this happen?”

“Is this an artificial Dungeon?”

“Must be.”

I answered the three as they panicked and checked my condition.

The dizziness from the sudden teleport had long since faded.

About half my internal energy was left.

Even though I’d used it efficiently, a certain amount of depletion was unavoidable.

But my mana was completely refilled.

Wooooong—woong—

For some reason, the mana in the cavern was writhing and reacting.

That bothered me.

Still, my body was in top shape.

As long as my body’s fine, I was confident I could escape anywhere.

‘I even remember escaping traps with no martial arts at all. This isn’t as hard as that.’

Back when I was Jegal Hyeon, building up my clan—

Even without martial arts, there were many who targeted the rising power of the Jegal family.

Assassins were blocked by Jinbeop and the Jegal clan’s martial artists.

When I was caught in traps outside on diplomatic missions, I used the enemy’s own traps against them to fight back.

I analyzed the Jinbeop of the trap at speed and made it my own.

Sometimes, I even used myself as bait to fool the enemy.

‘It was brutal.’

Compared to those times, this situation was many times more favorable.

The only problem was the other three.

“What the hell are we supposed to do?”

“Are we gonna die here or what?”

Allies consumed by fear can sometimes be scarier than the enemy.

Especially Hoden, whose face had turned pale blue from terror—he was on the verge of a fit.

“Uuugh…… I didn’t come here for this. Damn, damn. At this rate, at this rate……!!”

If he kept going, he might snap and cause an incident.

“Hey!”

“…Uh.”

I raised my inner force and shouted, and finally, his rolling eyes returned to normal.

All three were looking at me.

“Get a grip. There’s nothing to gain by panicking.”

“Then what do we do?”

They ask.

There’s only one answer at times like this.

“Just follow me. I’ll show you the way out.”

“Ah…. I”

Give them confidence.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have proof.

At times like this, as long as someone stands at the center, chaos can end more easily than you think.

Luckily, Gajei, who’d been silent, chimed in.

“Alright, we’ll leave it to you till the end. Can we trust you?”

“Yeah. Trust me. I’ll make sure you won’t die, even if you die.”

“Yes. I trust you. That’s enough.”

“Whew… I never expected things to turn out like this.”

“Damn.”

He understood my intention.

Proof that he was quick on the uptake.

Hoden might be hopeless, but Gajei, who held the shield, was more talented than I thought.

“Whew. Whew……”

They exhaled, trying to calm themselves.

While the three of them gathered together, the next reaction came.

Grrrrrr—grrrr—

The stone walls of the cavern began to tremble.

‘Fascinating. This is also magic. The center must be there.’

At the same time, the mana was reacting.

There was definitely a magic circle behind the stone wall.

The moment the resonance of mana ended—

-……Devour.

Grrrrr—

A bizarre inanimate thing was approaching them.