NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 27
Necromancers are all just a bunch of petty little brats.
In other worlds, they often show up openly, but the World of Asagok is different.
They control the undead from safe spots and assess the situation using their senses.
As long as their location isn’t revealed, it’s like a corpse factory churning out undead minions.
It was a structure where we couldn’t win unless we found and took care of the necromancer.
“Seriously, they don’t seem to be slowing down at all…!”
─Kwachik!
Rynelle darted forward and kicked the approaching zombie’s head clean off.
The zombie, made of worn bones and rotten muscles, lost its neck, which fell away from its body.
Landing, Rynelle sent sparks flying toward the swarm of undead closing in.
The tiny spark ignited fiercely the moment it touched skin, spreading out in a fan shape.
─Gwooooork!
─Uwoooor!
The fire-sensitive undead were engulfed in flames, turning to ashes.
A dozen of them were incinerated at once, but the number of undead remained unchanged.
Actually, they were crawling out faster than we could deal with them.
“Professor! Are you up there? Don’t just watch, hurry up and help me!”
I had been caught silently watching from the rooftop.
Her skills were so impressive for her age that I couldn’t help but be mesmerized.
I wanted to observe more, but I knew I’d hear complaints if I did.
“Setting coordinates.”
I designated the range.
All space within 10 meters around Rynelle.
The endpoint was set at the rear of the undead, creating a space in my palm.
I squeezed it like a ping pong ball and then released it.
Air and mana vibrated violently, causing the undead to crumple.
They transformed into sticky gum like they were being pressed in a compression press.
After clearing them out, I approached Rynelle, who was chuckling to herself.
“That’s just absurdly powerful, isn’t it?”
“You’re speaking just fine.”
“That’s not the point! More importantly, why didn’t you come help sooner with this kind of power?”
I averted my gaze from Rynelle, who was glaring at me with a frown.
She seemed intent on holding me accountable for just watching from afar.
“Is it okay for a professor to treat their student like this?”
“I’ll give you extra credit.”
“I don’t need that. Compensate me with something else.”
“What do you want?”
Rynelle leaned forward as if she had been waiting for that question.
Feeling her momentum, I had no choice but to step back a bit.
“Spend tomorrow with me in the city.”
“I want to take a day off tomorrow…”
“Can I reveal to the involved party who saved the princess?”
“Fine, just promise to hang out.”
“Hehe!”
Rynelle smiled brightly as if my response pleased her.
This was why I shouldn’t let Rynelle have leverage over me; it was my mistake.
Thanks to that, I was about to sacrifice my entire weekend without rest.
“Instead, you have to help with what you promised?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll show you grades close to an A.”
Rynelle resumed manipulating her mana to cast spells again.
I demonstrated even double casting, creating a fiery sphere that filled the air.
At the same time, the undead, who had been quiet for a while, reappeared.
“Professor, you know where the necromancer is, right?”
“Of course.”
“Go ahead, I’ll keep the necromancer’s attention here.”
“Oh, then good luck.”
“Hyack!”
I tapped Rynelle lightly on the shoulder as a sign of goodwill.
Even that little touch made a strange sound escape Rynelle’s lips.
She turned her head and gave me a sharp glare, so I hurriedly fled.
A teenage girl was a perplexing creature to me.
“Physical enhancement.”
I lengthened my stride and took a big step forward.
There was no burden on my body; in fact, it felt like I might fly.
With the thought that I could go all out, I kicked the ground hard and leaped high.
Floating in the air, I scanned the surroundings thoroughly.
And soon enough, I could spot him.
“I found you.”
Undertaker Tarus was a veteran necromancer known for his classic style.
He controlled the mana of cadavers, keeping himself hidden from the enemy.
He was a tricky opponent, but he had a crucial weakness.
He controlled the undead type from a distance, so there must be an undead in between.
“Caw!”
A crow, known as a carrier bird, was flying alone at night.
Upon closer inspection, patches of flesh were missing, exposing bones, and one eye was hanging out.
No matter how you looked at it, it didn’t seem like a living being, so I traced back the faint mana emanating from the crow.
A long trail of cadaver mana extended below the ground.
It turned out Tarus was hiding in the sewer beneath the academy.
I pinpointed the location, but Tarus must have realized his mana was detected.
I couldn’t give him a chance to prepare.
I twisted space and instantly arrived in the sewer.
“Ugh!”
The unpleasant stench pricked my nose, making me frown.
Considering it was a facility for expelling wastewater, the smell was expected—but this was different.
The source of the stench wasn’t the rancid wastewater, but a pile of decaying bodies.
In fact, there were so many corpses piled up they blocked the passage to the sewer.
“What a crazy bastard.”
Did he kill so many innocent people?
No, there are far more nefarious villains in this world than Tarus.
The reason I cursed him as a madman wasn’t just because of the body pile blocking the entrance.
─Woodak!
One of the corpses at the center grotesquely twisted and bulged out its flesh.
Then, black blood erupted as it exploded, causing other bodies to burst in succession.
The bones of the human body shattered and scattered everywhere.
The ground trembled, and the ceiling collapsed as the sewer crumbled.
Of course, I didn’t get buried in the rubble.
I isolated the corpses to create chain explosions without affecting the facility.
In the contained space I created, they were popping and scattering flesh and bones all over the place.
Simply put, it was like dropping bombs into a shelter and sealing it shut.
As the explosions ended, I obliterated the remaining mass of blood and flesh.
“Gwoooo!”
As the explosions subsided, something roared and charged from within the sewer.
A chimera zombie made from the corpses of various animals.
Every step it took shook the ground with its size and weight.
So, I sliced it into three pieces with space cutting.
This time, instead of annihilating it, I sent it floating down the current.
“Kyahhh!”
After the chimera, wraith-like beings like banshees shrieked and rushed in.
Since physical attacks didn’t work on them, I teleported them all at once.
I sent them to a queer club I had passed through in the red-light district.
It was a place overflowing with yang energy, so the ghosts would love it there.
“What’s next?”
Out of nowhere, a door appeared in the empty air.
The door, made of human bones, rattled and opened, with black hands reaching out.
They were hands trying to drag me to the underworld, so I simply folded the door in half.
“Shit! This battle is really fucking annoying!”
As I blocked all incoming threats, Tarus soon emerged from beyond the sewer, showering me with praise.
He was gnashing his teeth, swinging wildly as if he had been driven to a boiling point.
His skin, usually pale, was flushed red like a monkey’s backside due to the dark mana.
“I exploded over 500 corpses! I even sent in my precious chimera zombie and banshee squad! I even summoned a gate to the underworld! So why are you still unharmed? Why?!”
“That’s because you’re weak….”
“Just because I’m weak? Don’t bullshit me! At this level, even the Empire’s Sword Master—no! Even the Sword Master grandpa couldn’t have stopped me!”
He wasn’t wrong.
If it were a Sword Master, they would have been finished after the corpse explosions.
In reality, Tarus was a villain caught only after many professors sacrificed themselves somewhere mid-story.
“I poured everything into this! So how can you still be fine without a scratch!”
But he had picked the wrong opponent and was now beating his chest in frustration.
He usually acted slick, only showing his true nature when cornered.
But seeing his eyes already rolling back in his head meant he had revealed all his cards.
“Shit….”
In the end, Tarus kneeled and began to laugh despairingly.
If I had even a scratch or was tired, he might have fought back, but since I was completely fine, he seemed to have given up.
He had surrendered to the overwhelming difference in power.
“What are you doing? With your precious magic, hurry up and finish me off!”
“Do you want to live?”
“If I say yes, will you let me live?”
“Of course, not with just words.”
“You mean with conditions. What’s the condition?”
“A soul contract.”
A soul contract was a tool used by necromancers to bind another’s soul.
The moment you betray or are ordered to die, your soul would be dragged to the underworld and meet your end.
Think of it as a necromancer’s version of a slave contract.
And now, Tarus, who had surrendered to me, was binding various notable personalities of the empire with soul contracts.
So if I captured Tarus, their lives would inevitably come to me too.
“You want me to sacrifice my soul?”
“If you don’t want to, I can kill you. But I won’t send you off gently.”
“Dammit, I have no choice…!”
─Snap!
When Tarus snapped his fingers, a blood-stained parchment appeared.
He bit his fingertip and wrote my name in the signature line before handing it over.
Tarus hesitated for a moment, but accepting that he had no other options, he signed.
Once the contract was finalized, fluorescent chains shot out from Tarus’s chest and wrapped around my hand.
Strangely, the sensation of the chains was absent, and even when I gripped them, they didn’t hold me back.
It seemed to be a sign indicating that his soul was bound to me.
“Is that it?”
“There’s still one more thing.”
“What now?”
“Drink this.”
“What? What’s this disgusting-looking green juice?”
“It’s good for your health, so stop whining and drink it.”
“Come on, are you already managing your slave?”
Tarus scoffed, but he didn’t refuse.
Even though it was an unnecessary potion since we signed the soul contract, I still handed it over.
After all, it was a gift from a lady, and as a man, I couldn’t reject it.
Thus, the mid-level villain, the undertaker, received a grand welcome ceremony.
“Ugh!”