Necromancer Survival

Chapter 16

<I> paused while perusing <my> skill window and turned around. 1

There was a peculiar noise not far from here. When <I> failed to utilize a skill, Olim, who was covering my back, asked “What’s wrong?” She also turned her head, wondering what caught <my> attention.

“Is there another party here today besides ours?”

“Huh? I doubt it?”

“Hey! Seo Dawon! What are you doing spacing out!” What an ill-tempered guy. As soon as <I> tried to listen to the noise more carefully, <I> was distracted by Woo Ragi’s husky shout.

<I> turned back towards the front, forehead wrinkling. The first thing <I> saw was Ragi blowing away the Death Knight past the last Guardian Boss Monster of the room. White, transparent blades connected together by something string-like flew around as he brandished his chain sword.

Though <I> didn’t think that my attention was swayed all that much to warrant such racket from my party members, it was true that the interweaving timing of spells was sensitive. Missing that window of opportunity would be annoying.

“Gravity.”

As the staff glowed green, a magic circle quickly surrounded the Boss Monster’s, [Lich Lord], and his summoned Death Knights’ feet. As soon as the guild members saw the magic circle, they each threw one last blow towards the monsters they were confronting and agilely escaped the immediate area.

Soon afterwards, the gravity skill was invoked. The skeletal Death Knights crashed to the floor as if they were nailed to the ground by an invisible hammer. The Lich Lord had accurately perceived that <I> was the source of the magic and sent a curse <my> way. However, the attack was canceled long before it reached my body as Kim Olim blocked its path with his shield.

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Then, one of Jo Chan-young’s summoned Kirin bit the boss on the shoulder–the shoulder connected to the hand holding the staff. The weight of the Kirin toppled the Lich over; his body leaned precariously, tantalizing victory with his his movements.

“Ha…..Really boring. So boring.”

Even in this situation, no one could relax.

In particular, Kim Olim next to <me> was subconsciously releasing a string of complaints under her breath. Everyone could relate to her sighs. <I> was similarly exhausted.

No matter how many times we brought the Lich Lord’s HP to zero, he revived and gnawed away at our stamina. Just earlier, Hitman Eun Ji’s most powerful skill, [Scud Genocide] had shattered his skull. The Lich Lord simply faltered for a moment before his headless body regenerated his head with an unpleasant chant.

Eun-ji was about to approach him once again, but <I> gave her a signal to step back. She bit her lips but complied. <We’ve> already confirmed that <our> firepower was spent in vain like pouring water into a bottomless pit. <I> no longer wanted to waste stamina with useless attacks.

However, the issue still persisted and there seemed to be no appropriate response. <We> had claimed victory every time he revived, but <we> were reaching our physical limitations.

According to the “Scenario,” the Lich Lord was a resurrected wizard–a typical undead that held a human-skull staff in his hand.

When he first died and resurrected, <I> was a bit annoyed but had no further thoughts. This type of pattern was quite typical for an undead. Considering the dungeon’s infamous name and difficulty, this resurrection gimmick wasn’t too unbelievable.

But when the Lich Lord resurrected over three times, something felt out of place.

We definitely knocked him down several times with all the force our bodies contained. The first killing blow was dealt by a holy attribute summon–very effective against the undead. Jo Chan-young, a special summoner, had torn apart the souls of the undead in the previous stage with his Kirin and Phoenix, casting [Sacred Sanctuary] to embolden his summons.

However, a minute after the dust had settled, a message [The Lich Lord has resurrected] popped up. This time, <I> immediately attacked with a high level spell: [Flame Nightmare]. (<I> had upgraded the skill by adding the holy attribute to it before the boss battle).

Even still, he had resurrected. Faster than the first time he died….

Next, at the very front of the party, Woo Ragi, the Weapon Master, flicked his chain sword. He pointed out a rich purple heart in the middle of the lich’s skeletal ribs and suggested that the heart might be the core. This time, Ragi tore out the Lich’s eyes, and Eun-ji, the assassin, buried her arms into his chest and crushed the pulsating heart.

This time, the Lich Lord seemed truly agitated. He gave off an ear-splitting scream–several pottery around the room broke. <We> were sure that the raid was completed. However, the system did not award us the reward items; a minute later, “The Lich Lord has resurrected” message reappeared.

Since then, <we’ve> attacked countless times, destroying everything <we> could. The heart, eyes, head etc…all of which are usually a boss’s weaknesses. The party had even destroyed prominent structures or items in the room, just in case.

Nevertheless, the Lich continued to revive.

Less and less time was spent for the resurrections. After the fourth death, the boss spent less than a minute dead despite the party’s great efforts.

Even though the guild members were all rankers, they were still humans first. <Our> limits continued to loom closer. Jung Garam, the team’s “Special Hunter,” offered to look through the previous rooms, searching for a missed clue. It would be unwise for Garam to move alone, so the team’s healer, Bae Jaemin, decided to accompany him.

Until Garam and Jaemin returned, <we> decided to attack in rotations, saving as much physical strength as possible. Olim and I did not attack, and were instead closely scrutinizing the Lich Lord from a close distance.

We had agreed on this plan believing that someone of Garam’s caliber would be able to return within an hour. However, the two did not return for at least 10 more resurrections.

“Why isn’t Garam accepting the team’s messages?” Olim said.

“He’s not reading them?”

“Yeah….Are they being attacked by something? I can’t reach Jaemin either….”

“We have to wait, then.”

Though Kim Olim still looked worried, she closed the message window and began to fix her weapon. Ragi threw a spear at a Death Knight that attempted to sneak attack him from the side.

Originally, Ragi in his top condition would not have allowed a monster to come so close….but without Garam, he had to fill the main damage dealing position all by himself. So, he was moving around nonstop, and it was obvious that, of all the party members, he had expended the most stamina.

<I> looked at Olim, wondering if <I> should send her to Ragi’s side. Mages are vulnerable to close ranged attacks, so normally <I> would need a melee attacker by my side…but Ragi’s strained breathing weighed on <my> mind.

“Should I go?” As soon as Olim and <I> made eye contact, she immediately understood <my> concern. At my nod, she ran off with heavy footfalls to Ragi’s side. Ragi said nothing, but he stepped behind her shield, ‘Holy Night,’ and breathed deeply.

“Dawon-hyung! There’s only four minutes left to operate on the golem’s clock” After Olim left, Kyung-sik slid by <my> side.

At his words, <I> gave him a hurried glance. He was riding a gigantic Golem ravaged by sword attacks. The countless slash marks onto its gas chamber frame made it look quite shabby.

The golem was summoned earlier to destroy all the buildings and formations in the room, but it was so noticeable that the Lich Lord and the Death Knights chose to focus the majority of their attacks on it. The golem was already broken in so many places; <I> don’t think it’ll be useful to hang onto it for another four minutes…

“Let’s explode it.”

“What?”

“You said that there were four minutes left. I’ll pay for the repairs.”

“Aww…You’re too much. It’s going to take so much time to rebuild it….” Kyung-sik whined, but the situation was too dire. He steeled himself and moved the golem through the controller to less than a stone’s throw away from the boss’s side.

Upon receiving <my> signal, all the guild members ran as far as possible from the golem. As soon as Kyung-sik pressed the skull button on its controller, the shell of the golem cracked, and bright light leaked out through the spaces. Perhaps the Lich Lord grasped the danger, he tried to run away, but the golem collapsed onto the lich’s body, pinning it down. The golem exploded with a deafening boom; its surroundings became shambles.

The Deaths Knights that were flailing wildly paused for a minute, turned into ashes, and scattered in the wind. Since the army was fueled by the Lich’s mana, when the source disappeared the summons were also destroyed as well.

<We> all collectively held our breath and watched the battlefront.

Will he be revived again?