Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 158

Chapter 158

When Ji-Cheok woke up, it was noon and Mu-Cheok had made them lunch.

“Oh this is rice! Delicious healthy food that is highly praised by people around the world. I love it!” Reable said.

‘Where the hell did this bastard learn this kind of stuff? I know the Gods can watch videos on GodTube. I just hope he didn’t just watch videos about Korean culture. If you watch even one video, the GodTube algorithm will bombard you with so many related videos. I hope that is not the case for him”

“Hyung, can we trust this guy?”

“His abilities will definitely help us.”

Mu-Cheok looked at Reable with a perplexed expression on his face, and Ji-Cheok was dumbfounded too. This amazing God was sitting beside him, but he seemed like he was missing a couple of screws. Ji-Cheok knew that they had a lot of work to do if they wanted to function as a team.

“Mu-Cheok, how’s your mana?”

“It’s fully charged. I’m ready when you are. Why, you want to clear dungeons just the two of us?”

“No, I want to add Reable. So it would be the three of us.”

“You’re talking about me!” Reable smiled, with a few grains of rice still stuck to his lips.

“Yes. I saw how strong you are yesterday, but we still need to clear dungeons together to work on our teamwork. I need to see exactly what you can do.” Ji-Cheok said.

“Sounds good! If we’re going into a dungeon, that means I can show you more clearly~ I’m looking forward to it.”

?That means we cannot stream today, Master.?

‘I think so too. Let’s just shoot a video first, edit, and upload it if possible.’

?Yes, Master.?

* * *

Ji-Cheok looked for a dungeon, called the Hunter Assistants, and entered the dungeon. It didn't take very long to get this far.

They were now in a dungeon named [Tomb of the Broken Machines]. It was a three-star dungeon with the recommended level of entry 60. There was also a ten-member limit to the parties of Hunters that could enter this dungeon. As a general rule, at least three Healers had to be part of the team, but if the Hunters’ level was above 80, an exception could be made so that four Hunters could enter with only one Healer. The rule was enforced by the government department that managed dungeons, but it was, of course, possible to enter as an exception if a big corporation guaranteed for the hunting party.

That was how they had entered the dungeon. If this had been a popular dungeon, there would have been a lot of Hunters on the waitlist, so they wouldn’t have been able to get in right away. However, that was not the case. The most prominent feature of this dungeon was that all monsters were inorganic beings—so-called Golems. The inside of the dungeon also looked like a factory from a steampunk movie.

If the dungeon from the Namsan Tower was unpopular because of mental attacks, the problem with this one was simply that the Golems were too strong. The monsters’ sheer physical attacks were extremely strong. Because of this, Healers always had a hard time here.

Healers were extremely expensive to hire, compared to any other jobs. Of course, there was a reason why Healers were considered the upper class when it came to being hired, but either way, it was hard to make any profits if there were three of them in a party.

‘It’s kinda funny to say that after experiencing the end of the world.’

Even if they tried to reduce the number of members by bringing in Hunters over level 80, that also didn’t work, because those people could just make more money elsewhere. More specifically, another reason why the dungeon was unpopular was that the loot was nothing special. Combined with the strength of the monsters, this made the dungeon just as unpopular as the [Land of Walking Boulders].

‘But a dungeon like this is perfectly suitable for us.’

Their purpose right now was not making money. They were here just to test Reable’s abilities. These inorganic monsters were among the most annoying to deal with for Necromancers, because they had no soul and no life. It was like tying the Hunters’ hands and feet and throwing them into a pool of sharks.

?It seems that you are being rather temperamental, Master.?

‘Cheok-Liang. This is the only place where we can see the true abilities of Reable. We all know that he’s good at hiding his power.’

?Your judgment is frighteningly accurate, Master. It is indeed difficult to get good information if we clear an easy dungeon.?

“Wow… So we’re here,” Reable said.

They stood at the entrance of the dungeon. The entrance was set as a safe zone, so they could still chat without being attacked.

“You know this place?” Ji-Cheok asked.

“I know quite a few dungeons. I’ve been watching you intently~ I guess we’re here because my ability is related to Necromancy,” Reable said, looking around the inorganic steampunk world.

The world was full of cogs and steam. There were no living beings.

“That’s right.”

Ji-Cheok had no intention of lying. Reable stared at him.

“This is so strange. The mere ant is trying to test the God, but why am I not getting angry? That’s probably because it’s you and not other ants. A Fragment of Chaos.”

“I heard that most of your power was sealed.”

“Hahaha, I can recover my abilities one by one anyway. Hm… Let’s see…”

Reable took a step forward.

“It might be a good thing to teach you the difference between mortals who receive and use abilities from the System and immortals who look at the System from above.”

He touched the ground with an incomprehensible smile. The ground rumbled and Undead beings came out.

‘One, two three…’

In an instant, countless Undead popped out and filled the surrounding area.

“Seventy-two… That’s seventy-two Undead in total,” Mu-Cheok said.

Some of them were Zombies and some of them were Skeletons.

“This just shows how scary pyramid schemes are, Mr. Um. I lured in seventy-two sacrifices with just my phone,” Reable said.

‘So the corpses piled up on the altar weren’t even all of them?’

It seemed that Reable had already been attracting criminals with his phone like showing a jar of honey to some ants, without the need to use seduction magic or whatever. Ji-Cheok wondered what he said to these criminals who lived outside of the border, at the bottom of the temple. And all the corpses were…

“...in good condition.”

Reable had killed them with the intention of turning them into the Undead from the very beginning.

‘Looking at the Skeletons in the mix, they must be some of the first criminals he killed when he came to our world.’

?That is a valid inference, Master.?

Reable laughed mischievously.

“They are a bit too weak to be called my underlings. They’re the kind of Zombies and Skeletons that often appear in lower-level dungeons. However!”

Something black flowed out from Reable’s hands. It created a magic circle in front of him, then spread out in all directions like tentacles.

The moment that the black energy touched the Undead, something terrifying happened.

Crack. Crack.

The Undead started to cling to each other. Five or six Zombies grabbed each other tightly, starting to form a single mass.

‘Hey, I’ve seen that before!’

“Isn’t that similar to the Ghoul giant you dealt with last time?” Mu-Cheok said.

“...I guess that’s one of the Necromancer’s skills.”

“Voilà, an instant Abomination! In fact, making Undead is similar to making kimchi. They become stronger if you age them, but if you’re in a hurry, you can also use them like this! Even the Geotjeori is tasty if you make it right. They’re delicious in their own way. And if I gently cast some magic on them… ” Reable explained in a cheerful voice.

He created several more magic circles like the one before, and the same thing happened again and again: the Abominations started to fuse together, one by one.

In the end, only two Undead remained. Both were fully covered in armor made of intertwined bones, crude and rough. Ji-Cheok was rather glad that he couldn’t see what was inside the armor. It would have been hard for ordinary people to stay sane if they saw what was inside.

The fresh Abominations had four arms wielding a large sword, a shield, a mace, and a spear respectively, all made of bones.

“Voila! The Giant Undead Warriors are now complete! Please give them a warm round of applause!”

In the empty dungeon, the only clapping echoed from Reable himself. He looked like a child playing with sand.

“Ahem. Anyway, to give you a little intro, their main bodies are made of Zombies, and the armors and weapons are made of Skeletons. In the process of merging, they’re filled with the Undead’s unique spirit magic, which makes them even more powerful. With these boys, you can pretty much steamroll a dungeon like this.”

‘What? He can do that with these low-level Undead?’

?I have never heard of a skill like this, Master! Usually, Necromancers kill strong monsters and use their corpses as their underlings. To forcibly strengthen the Undead by fusing them together… It is unheard of.?

This was definitely knowledge that mankind did not have. And since Ji-Cheok had mastered both cultivation and magic, he could immediately grasp through his senses that the amount of mana Reable had used was quite small. No… the mana that went into creating these two Undead warriors was minuscule beyond imagination. It was the same amount of Ji-Cheok swinging his swords four times.

“How did you do that?” Mu-Cheok asked.

“Hm~? Which part are you curious about?”

.

“Compared to the strength of those warriors, the consumption of mana was extremely small. How is that possible?”

‘Wow, Mu-Cheok figured it out too? As his older brother, I’m a little worried that Mu-Cheok is getting stronger too quickly these days. I have to be the one who is always stronger than him. I should train while he sleeps to widen the gap.’

It was his duty as an older brother.

“Ah-ha! You’re curious about that? Hahahaha!”

Reable laughed bizarrely and replied,

“What do you think about the terms ‘Vengeful Soul’ and ‘Vengeful Spirit’?”

‘Vengeful Soul and Spirit? Does that refer to a soul or a spirit that feels strong resentment because of some grudge?’

“Well, you see, the emotions of the living… They can also be used as a substitute for mana. That’s why some Necromancers prefer quantity over quality. The reason why the mana required to create and control the Undead is relatively small is that the Undead have Vengeful Spirits. That vengeance becomes the driving force, reducing the consumption of mana. Of course, these two guys are a little more special,” Reable explained.

‘Special?’

?Master! That… That’s Parasite Poison! He used Parasite Poison with the souls of the Undead… How is that possible??

‘Wait, Parasite Poison? Isn’t that when you put poisonous creatures such as centipedes, scorpions, and poisonous toads together in a jar and make them eat each other. And in the end, the surviving creature has the deadliest poison… So that’s what it is?’

?Yes, Master. He made the Vengeful Spirits eat each other. That is how they become one. It is different from the evil spirits you saw at the Namsan Tower. They were just merged together physically, but not fused together like this.?

‘I don’t know which one is more terrifying… Honestly, from the point of view of a human being, both are equally terrifying.’

“Ah, it seems like Mr. Um Ji-Cheok noticed what’s going on. Oh wait, your brother also noticed it! You two are correct! These guys are very special~ Humans who receive powers through the System cannot make these~ I guess they could?receive a related ability as a System skill, but it would have to be a Legendary skill~” Reable said.

‘Of course it would be a Legendary skill.’

Reable was using the spirit that survived by eating other spirits to power an Abomination. Ji-Cheok looked at him as if he was about to go insane.

Of course, Ji-Cheok was nowhere near being a nice guy. He would never sympathize with the souls of criminals. These people who lived outside the DMZ would smuggle and murder for fun. They were also known for human trafficking. However, that still didn’t make Reable’s craziness okay.

1. A kind of kimchi that you eat right away as opposed to letting it ferment for a few days, as is usually done.

2. Demilitarized Zone between South and North Korea. From a South Korean point of view, those “outside of the DMZ” are in North Korea.