Chapter 111: The Fallen Lord of the Dead

Castle of the Dead.  

The lord of this place, Dead Frederick, where death surged like waves, peered through a gap between the walls made of bone to observe the battlefield outside the castle.  

“Pathetic.”  

The enemies were weak.  

Their potential seemed high, but they had not grown enough yet.  

It seemed they had compensated for their lack of combat power with powerful equipment to push this far.  

“Still, I must admit the skill of their blacksmith.”  

The trebuchet was what had forced Dead Frederick, the castle lord, to come out.  

Its power was stronger than expected.  

If he hadn’t stepped in to block it, the walls would have collapsed without a doubt, and the monsters inside would have been crushed.  

However, the lord was experienced.  

Since their combat power wasn’t threatening enough on its own, he sent out his legion to destroy the truly dangerous trebuchet.  

“As expected.”  

The humans couldn’t withstand the legion’s power.  

At best, they struggled upfront to slow the legion’s advance a little.  

Meanwhile, the blacksmith appeared to be building walls behind them.  

“Hmph!”  

What difference would a little more wall make?  

It was a meaningless act.  

Thinking so, just as he was about to lower the wall, from the center of the undead legion, a huge blaze rose.  

“Flare! ” 

“What is that?”  

The problem was, that was only the beginning.  

“Flare, flare!”  

Flames burst out one after another.  

Not only that, a variety of projectiles spewed flames as they attacked the undead legion.  

The undead legion silently endured the attacks, but they were gradually losing strength under such lethal assault.  

Then the attacks began to subside.  

“…Ha, haha! Of course. They can’t just fire those attacks recklessly.”  

The attacks had been quite threatening, but the undead legion still had numbers.  

There was a momentary variable, but he thought it was just the end of it.  

“Bwoooom~!!”  

Once again, specialized projectiles were fired.  

Fangs like a beast burst forth, piercing through the undead legion.  

The projectiles embedded into the ground, and thorny vines grew to ensnare the undead.  

A liquid poured down like rain from the trajectory of the projectiles, causing the undead legion to rot.  

“Th-this can’t be.”  

The legion sent out just now was half of the Castle of the Dead’s forces.  

He had deployed that much, yet they were pushed back by just about a hundred humans?  

Was that even possible?  

Still, seeing the undead legion finally reaching the human-built walls, he clung to hope.    

“Grrraah-.”  

In the end, the last undead soldier fell to the hands of a human.  

Swallowing dryly, he looked down.  

Half the legion remained inside the castle.  

But he could not send them out.  

“If I send out the remaining legion, then I…?”  

Dead Frederick, lord of the Castle of the Dead.  

In truth, his combat power was not particularly remarkable.  

His true strength was the castle itself.  

He could raise the walls like he was doing now to repel enemy attacks.  

His ability was to manipulate the castle like a labyrinth, tormenting enemies who had entered inside.  

Furthermore, he enhanced the monsters within the castle to attack the humans trapped in this maze.  

That commander-type boss monster was Dead Frederick, lord of the Castle of the Dead.  

Because of this, if he sent out all the undead legions left inside, he would lose his combat power.  

If the undead legions dispatched in this situation all fell like they had just now?  

He would have no choice but to stick out his neck and wait for the enemy.  

“If we hold on? No… it can’t be.”  

The second option: a defensive battle.  

But that wouldn’t work either.  

To block the humans’ projectiles, the walls had to be raised, which consumed magic continuously.  

Eventually, all the magic would be depleted, and they would be helpless against the incoming trebuchets.  

“Graaaargh!”  

He could neither go out nor wait passively.  

That was the predicament.  

The boss monster of the Rank 8 Gate, ‘Lord of the Castle of the Dead’—Dead Frederick—was cornered.  

***

After stopping the undead legion completely,  a brief lull ensued.  

Just as they were about to attack the castle again with the trebuchets due to a lack of response,  the castle gates opened.

“Creeeak—.”  

“Grrraaaah-!”  

Once more, an undead legion marched out.  

Though the types of undead were different, their numbers were about the same as the first wave.  

At first, Vulcanus Guild had been terrified of the undead legion.  

“Let’s go! We need to delay the monsters!”  

“Master! Please take care of us!”  

But not anymore.  

Unlike the first encounter with the undead legion, confidence was written all over the faces of the Vulcanus Guild members.  

In return, my special projectile soared through the air. 

“Twuung!”  

There weren’t many left, but I wasn’t going to hold back.  

No wonder.  

“Guild Master! You really have to make me a proper one later!”  

“I told you, I will.”  

“Promise! Promise! I risked my entire fortune to get this!”  

“I said I got it.”  

“Promise!!”  

The material just handed to me by Team 9 Leader Jeon Ji-min.  

An S-class material, Kirin’s Horn.  

S-class materials aren’t something you can easily get from the system Auction House.  

I had no idea how she obtained it, but 9-Team Leader Jeon Ji-min had tearfully handed it over to me.  

Of course, the Kirin here wasn’t an ordinary animal, but a mythical creature and a monster.  

It had the head of a dragon, body of a deer, tail of an ox, hooves and mane like a horse, its body covered in dragon scales, and its deer-like antlers contained the power to control lightning.  

Naturally, projectiles made from its horn carried a fierce electric charge.  

“Crack!”  

The projectile condensed intense lightning energy.  

It felt like a waste to use an S-class material as a one-time-use bullet, but a life was priceless.  

Besides, the moment before we entered the Gate, we had received dozens of S-class materials from supporting nations recently.  

Among those were some electricity-related materials, so I could give those to Jeon Ji-min later.  

“Twuung!”  

The projectile made from Kirin’s Horn flew through the sky.  

Though several special projectiles had been fired, the undead legion’s numbers still overflowed.  

Above the flying projectiles, lightning struck the dry sky.  

“Crack!”   

The projectile immediately stopped midair, drawing dark clouds around it.  

Right after,  as the undead legion raised their heads to the darkened sky,  

“Zzzzt!”  

“Rumble!”

“Krarung, bang! Krarurung!!”

Thunder and lightning poured down from the heavens.  

As expected from an S-class material projectile, its power was incomparable to the A-class materials.  

The undead legion turned to ashes in an instant.  

Of course, that didn’t mean the undead legion was wiped out by a single lightning strike.  

“Charge!”  

The Vulcanus Guild did not miss this chance.  

The undead’s characteristically tough skin was blackened by the lightning.  

Their tough muscles stiffened under the shock.  

At this very moment,  the undead legion was nothing more than soft sandbags.  

“Pababpat!”  

Team Leader Park Sang-hyun swung his sharp claws wildly, sweeping through the ranks like a beast.  

Like a wolf among sheep, Park Sang-hyun mercilessly slaughtered the undead legion.  

In terms of attack speed, he was undoubtedly the best in Vulcanus Guild.  

“Squeak—”  

Team Leader Yoon Hee-joo’s scythe swung widely, and the undead caught in its range went limp and collapsed like puppets.  

No one knew why Yoon Hee-joo’s attacks worked against undead without souls, but she was showing unexpectedly strong power.  

In fact, when you think about it, finishing off the dead might as well be the Grim Reaper’s job.  

“Krarrrrrr~!”  

The third team leader raised his shovel with all his strength.  

The earth cracked like a wall as he struck down, crushing the undead legion.  

All the guild members were strong, but the team leaders’ combat power was even greater than I had imagined.  

Luckily, before the opportunity created by using the S-class material Kirin’s Horn as a one-time projectile ended- 

“20,000—”  

“Boom.”  

“They’re all down!”  

“We won!”  

We had defeated the entire undead legion.  

“Thud.”  

The Vulcanus Guild members collapsed to the ground as if by unspoken agreement.  

Although there was a brief respite, we had stopped the massive undead force twice.  

We kept drinking recovery potions steadily, but mental fatigue was stacked to the limit.  

“Just in case, let’s keep distance and rest before starting the next operation.”  

For now, we rested.  

We couldn’t relax fully since monsters could appear anytime.  

Unconsciously, I focused my gaze on the Castle of the Dead while eating simple rations and taking turns resting.  

But something strange was happening.  

“Master.”  

“Yes.”  

“There’s suspiciously no reaction from the Castle of the Dead.”  

“That’s right.”  

Since the second appearance of the undead legion, there had been no reaction from the castle.  

This made us gradually anxious.  

“Could it be that they’re preparing a last move inside the castle?”  

“It’s possible. Since it’s an rank 8 Gate, we can’t predict the boss monster’s patterns.”  

You know how it is in games?  

If you leave a boss monster alone, it might begin a long cast to prepare a powerful skill.  

Could it be the same now?  

This quiet moment might be the eye of the storm.  

Thinking that, my willingness to rest completely vanished.  

“Let’s try harassing them with the trebuchets first.”  

We repaired three trebuchets and fired projectiles at the Castle of the Dead.  

Of course, all the special materials were used up, so no special projectiles were fired.  

We consistently launched compressed earth clods created by the third team leader’s earth magic.  

The castle seemed startled and raised its walls again to block the attacks.  

Five minutes.  

Ten minutes.  

Thirty minutes.  

Despite continuous attacks, aside from raising the walls, there was no other response.  

How much power were they concentrating to endure this without reacting?  

By this point, not only I but the entire guild was beginning to feel uneasy.  

“Prepare to attack.”  

“Yes!”  

We dismantled the makeshift base and assembled battering rams and siege towers.  

Using the walls of the battering ram and siege tower to defend against enemy attacks, we cautiously approached.  

There was no reaction even when we reached right in front of the castle.  

“Thud!”  

We struck the gates hard with the battering ram, sending heavy vibrations.  

The bones that made up the gates thickened as if startled again, blocking the battering ram’s attack.  

Since the gates were tougher than expected and the attack wasn’t effective, I thought of another plan.  

[‘Vulcanus Siege Tower’ has been dismantled.]  

[‘Vulcanus Siege Tower (2)’ has been dismantled.]  

The walls had grown too high, making siege towers ineffective.  

So, we dismantled all the siege towers and instead—  

[Upgrade complete.]  

[‘Vulcanus Enhanced Battering Ram’ acquired.]  

We remodeled the battering ram to be bigger and stronger.  

The battering ram became as huge as the castle gates.  

With that siege pillar, we struck the gates. 

“Boom!!”  

Though the gates had thickened and hardened bones, they could not withstand the enhanced battering ram’s attack for long.  

Impatiently we started hitting the gates with all our might.  

“Rrrrummmbbllle.”  

“It broke through!”  

“Prepare for battle!”  

Eventually, the thick gates collapsed.  

We entered the castle cautiously, maintaining a defensive stance with the battering ram in case of surprise attacks.  

But—  

“…Huh?”  

“What?”  

“Why is there nothing?”  

There was nothing inside the castle.  

Since the Gate was named Castle of the Dead, we had expected a tremendous threat lurking inside.  

Not only that, it didn’t seem like a huge something was being prepared, as we had feared.  

Curious, I observed the surroundings.  

“There! It looks like the boss monster!”  

Lord of the Castle of the Dead—Dead Frederick.  

The one who clearly looked like the boss monster.  

“Eek!”  

He was trembling in fear upon seeing us.