Chapter 16: Art of Death (1)

A stretch of flat, barren land.

Against an army of a million undead, more than a million humans fought.

Most of the humans used swords and spears, while a few users of holy energy and magic were mixed in the crowd.

However, there was a great variety of undead.

No, there were so many of them that looked so bizarre, it was difficult to define them as undead.

Zombies with wings of an angel, skeletons with Pegasus’s horn pierced through both of their hands, vampires with the body of a bear, and 3 frog-headed Cerberus……

They weren’t simply different in appearance, but they were far stronger than a typical undead.

They even had an amazing ability to think for themselves and had cognitive capabilities.

The general belief that undeads were just dead bodies who moved simply was destroyed.

Humans struggled to protect their base, but it was useless.

In an instant, there was a mountain of corpses.

Massacre, there was no other way to describe this scene.

And in the middle of all this, there was a huge lich with a red cape fluttering in the wind.

The Death Lord.

As the Death Lord raised his hand, thousands of corpse were lifted off the ground and completely reconstructed into the form of a giant.

“Death is a beautiful thing.”

Gwahhhhhhhhhh!

The giant roared out loud.

As the Death Lord gazed at the huge giant, so large that it seemed as if it could touch the sky, he nodded his head.

Doesn’t it look amazing for something made out of mere humans?

As the Death Lord walked, all the corpses he passed by came back to life.

The comrades who used to fight with them in battle were now ripping apart and chewing on their hearts and swinging weapons in an attempt to cut their throats off.

It was an unbearably horrific scene.

Against the overwhelming power, humans were only helpless.

“Since I’m the King of Death, worship death!”

The ruler of all deaths.

He was the Death Lord.

*

The body was burning with a fever.

After Muyoung had collapsed, he was continuously in a hypnagogic state for the entire day before he could finally get up from his spot.

‘What… was that dream?’

While he was passed out, Muyoung had a dream that could have been part of a movie.

He felt like he had seen a war movie through a big screen.

However, it felt strangely vivid. A dream, but not just a dream.

Thump!

He tripped over his own legs and fell back on the ground.

Muyoung lightly clicked his tongue.

It seemed like he needed to first take care of his body before he could even think about the dream.

‘Hmm, I wasn’t able to completely remove all the poison.’

He remembered using herbs right before he fainted, but it seemed like they didn’t completely heal him.

Muyoung gazed as his ring on his finger.

“Paranormal.”

The first reward he received in the Blue Temple by killing monsters.

Even if it was limited to 5 uses, it allowed for an effect to increase all his stats by 2 for ten minutes, cast a Healing Wave, or a Fire Bolt.

‘I used it twice already. But, I’m not sure if 3 healing waves will be enough for my body to recovery.’

He used it twice to fight against the giant serpent.

Swaaaa!

He chose the Healing Wave skill among the effects offered by Paranormal.

Right away, a green light emitted from the ring.

The light wrapped around him and rejuvenated his body.

After casting it two more times, he was back to his lively self.

His body seemed to have recovered and gained resistance to the poison.

‘It’s done.’

Since it wasn’t a powerful poison, it seemed like the tiny bit left in his body would naturally recover on its own.

Swoosh!

However, since he had used Paranormal to the full, the ring shattered into dust.

He felt as if he had wasted it, but considering the situation, it was the best choice he could make so he didn’t have any regrets.

‘By the way… I clearly remember that messages popped up before passing out.’

He remembered seeing a few words floating in from of him.

But he could not remember what it was about.

After Muyoung sipped some water using his water producing magical item, he looked at his watch to see what had changed.

First, he looked at his abilities.

Achievement Effect -> Gremory’s Anguish (A, +3 to all abilities)

Class Effect -> Death Lord (Lord class, Ruler of Death)

Abilities ->

Strength 44 (33+11) Agility 37 (34+3)

Stamina 35 (32+3) Intelligence 17 (14+3)

Wisdom 16 (13+3) Fighting Aura 19 (16+3)

Special Note: Fighting Aura has been awakened.

The armor you are currently wearing or using: Anguish (Strength +5) and Herculean Strength Leather Armor (Strength +3).

Nothing greatly changed about his abilities.

His strength was definitely the highest, but since his pure stat was only 33 with an added stat of 11, it just seemed very high.

However… Something he had never seen before was written under class effect.

‘Death Lord.’

The Ruler of Death!

But, it was the first time he heard of this.

There was also something unfamiliar.

‘Lord class?’

Not even a secret class, but a lord class?

There was no one with a lord class, at least from the people he had killed in the past. Even Muyoung, who knew quite a lot of classified information, was totally clueless.

‘Wasn’t this the place where he could receive the secret class, Necromancer?’

Muyoung instantly shrugged his head.

This was the place.

The trials were also the ones he had to complete as well.

Then, he could only believe the cause was the amount of time he spent on clearing the trials.

‘It clearly stated Masters of Darkness were examining me. I don’t have a clue what all this means.’

Masters of Darkness and lord class, they were all things unfamiliar to Muyoung.

For a moment, Muyoung furrowed his brow.

The reason he wanted to earn the Necromancer class was because it was a class that specialized against a large group of opponents.

However, if the Death Lord’s class specialized against only a few opponents, then he couldn’t say he had achieved his goal.

He needed to carefully examine the classes he was planning to earn in the future.

‘Skills.’

Muyoung turned the pentagram of his watch to look at his skills.

There was an addition to his skills besides the skill of the Demon King of the 27th Legion.

Skill Title: Art of Death (F)

Description - Reinvent and reconstruct death into art. Once the undead is created, it will be graded. Its abilities will be determined by this grade.

“Death is a beautiful thing.” #DeathLord

Even if he had only gained a single skill, he felt like he understood what it could do.

‘This wasn’t simply a dream.’

The transfigured undead in his dreams.

It was probably the skill to make those kinds of creatures.

Death Lord led an army of a million transfigured undead to massacre humans.

If it was that powerful, then it seemed enough to fight off the troops of Demon Gods, the legion of Demon Kings.

‘First, it was a type of Necromancer class.’

His initial worries disappeared.

It also seemed like a higher class than the normal necromancer.

If he just polished this skill, he believed he could reenact the scene he had seen in his dreams.

Also, as he increased his rank, more skills would be added.

Muyoung approached the dead giant serpent.

Out of the Five Gatekeepers, it was the monster that tormented him the most.

Didn’t he almost die from it?

He felt it would be beneficial to make it as an undead.

“Art of Death.”

When you didn’t know how to use a skill, if you just say its name, it usually worked.

Soon after, a dark aura emitted from the tips of Muyoung’s fingers and it wrapped around the giant serpent.

Swish.

The giant serpent started to move slowly.

‘If it’s an art score of 0, then does it reduce the strength of the undead?’

At first, nothing really seemed different.

The sluggish movement and basic patterns.

However with a glance, he noticed that it was definitely weaker than before.

It just seemed like a great big undead giant serpent. That was all he could say.

It was nothing compared to the undeads in his dream, who moved on their own without an order, could think for themselves and overwhelm the humans.

Stumble!

Muyoung was barely able to stay up by leaning on to the giant serpent.

Maybe it was because he used a skill, he felt as if he was becoming exhausted at an alarming rate.

‘Somehow it seems as though I spent my stamina.’

It must had been a skill where he couldn’t abuse it constantly.

From the state he was in, it looked like he could use this skill at most 3 times a day.

It seemed like he needed to use it wisely.

To increase the art score, different types of materials were generally required.

If he used the corpse of the boss that attacked every 10 days, he thought he might be able to get a better score.

‘Let’s go down.’

After thoroughly examining the Death Lord class, he started his way back.

He passed out for quite a long time. There wasn’t any time to waste.

*

Even if the giant serpent had lost 50% of its abilities, it was quite useful.

Its thick hide was a fine shield for Muyoung, as he climbed down the cliff.

Thanks to the serpent, Muyoung was able to climb down safely.

The Guide was waiting for Muyoung at the bottom of the cliff.

He looked at Muyoung in admiration.

“Huk. Huk. Didn’t think you would really make it.”

Although he did not have any ill-will, these words could have caused a misunderstanding depending on who heard them.

Muyoung shrugged his shoulders and spoke,

“Did you want me to die?”

“No, but it’s hard for me to believe that this is real. And from your aura, you don’t seem like an ordinary man. It seemed as though you have earned an incredible reward…”

Muyoung nodded.

The Guide was the other self of the supreme magician.

Although Muyoung didn’t deliberately try to hide the change, it wouldn’t have been weird for the Guide to notice his changes.

‘What perfect timing.’

Muyoung asked one of the questions he had about the Death Lord class.

“Who are the Masters of Darkness?”

As if it was trivial matter, he answered.

“They are the ones who couldn’t become Gods and by Solomon’s Laws, became the ones who managed the darkness. But, how do you know… ah, no, did you?”

“They said one of the Masters of Darkness has chosen me.”

“…!”

The Guide’s eyes widened.