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Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Apprentice (2)

In the midst of the chaos, a phantom knight blocked their path.

—…Human?

The knight looked puzzled, glancing between himself and Cedric standing beside him.

At that moment.

—Graaagh!

Two orc chieftains, Urkan the Second and Decum the Third, charged in like wild animals.

They were the finest warriors among the orcs.

Their axes clashed with the knight’s sword.

Clang!

Despite the overwhelming level difference, the chieftains didn’t easily give ground.

‘This must be the equipment advantage.’

The knight’s movements became sluggish.

There were openings everywhere.

For Cedric and Kim Minwoo, piercing those openings was as easy as yawning.

—Thud!

With a swift thrust, a silver-plated sword pierced the knight’s armor near the heart, delivering a fatal blow.

Cedric’s spear also deftly punctured the knight’s body.

Unable to withstand the combined assault, the knight’s body melted within seconds.

Then.

Ellum’s eyes glowed blue.

As he extended his staff forward…

Thud!

Hundreds of undead rose from the ground.

Over two hundred ghouls, and nearly a dozen dullahan.

“Kukuk, clear a path!”

Ellum, whose face had turned pale as he had exhausted his mana with this one spell, shouted.

The horde of ghouls and Dullahan plowed through the incoming arrows, oblivious to them.

Chimeras and phantom knights also lent their hands.

Their strong determination to break through in only one direction could be felt, regardless of the attacks coming from all sides.

‘Well, I expected that.’

Even without the elves, they would have had the upper hand.

With nearly two thousand orcs, and nearly half of them armed, the situation would have been difficult for Ellum’s side even in a fair fight, let alone with the added ambush.

In such a situation, how many options could they really have when surrounded and facing demise? At most, they could aim for a breakthrough.

‘The more I do this, the more my soldiers will melt away.’

That was the case now.

Should he just charge forward in one direction?

That meant they were incredibly vulnerable to attacks from behind.

Every time the orcs struck with their axes, Ellum’s lackeys were dying without putting up a fight.

‘Should I wrap it up soon?’

Unlike Ellum, his mana pool was full.

Furthermore, he had canceled the summoning of the skeletons in the smithy upon receiving the message that they had set off.

Summoning was possible at any time.

Now was the time to utilize the skeletons he had saved.

As they pushed with all their might to clear the path, pale hands grabbed their ankles from below.

Ellum’s shaky troops staggered.

Meanwhile, in the front, a horde of skeletons was summoned and charging towards them.

“What, necromancer?”

Ellum’s eyes trembled in astonishment at the unexpected sight of his skeleton army rushing towards his own forces.

Though their armaments and levels were weak, the problem lay in the fact that time was being wasted.

“Damn it! Why are you coming back to life!”

The enemies they thought they had killed were moving again, clinging to them like ticks every time they tried to ignore them.

It was impossible to disregard them. Each time they tried to push forward, the orcs stuck to the slowed-down minions.

Ellum’s forces were quickly dwindling.

“Clear the way! I said, clear the way!”

After finally managing to clear away the skeleton horde, a despairing sight met their eyes.

Once again, over a thousand skeletons blocked their path.

“Ah, no…”

Despair filled Ellum’s eyes as he looked around.

“Ah, ah…”

Another thousand skeletons were blocking their path.

Dullahan, ghouls, corpse collectors, phantom knights, they had all been wiped out.

Not even twenty remained.

They had died while breaking through, while being hit by arrows, while being delayed.

The orcs were now approaching from behind, drooling with anticipation.

‘I’m a bit sorry.’

The effects of the top-rank mana potion needed to kick in.

A single bottle could replenish his mana fully in the lower-level range. Unfortunately for Ellum, Kim Minwoo was a potion mogul.

—Graaagh! Kill them all except that human!

The orcs faithfully carried out his orders.

Soon, only Ellum and the staggering orcs remained on the snow-covered ground.

The orcs approached him.

“Heuk, heuk.”

Ellum, gasping for breath, his chest pierced by arrows, looked at Kim Minwoo with bloodshot eyes.

“It was you… who gathered the orcs…”

“Yes.”

“Clear… please… spare me. If you kill me… it’ll truly be irreversible!”

“And if I don’t kill you, it’s reversible?”

“Yes, yes! The Apostle still doesn’t know about this. If I explain it well, he’ll surely forgive you.”

“He still doesn’t know?”

Nodding vigorously, Ellum spoke with determination.

“Yes. Your undead are quite special. To be resurrected! You can definitely make a big contribution even at the fortress. Then, you’ll receive all kinds of rewards…”

He slit the guy’s throat.

[You have defeated the Necromancer ‘Ellum’!]

[Your level has increased by 2!]

‘Oh.’

Even with just the finishing blow, the experience gained was tremendous.

He truly was a high-level named monster.

In addition to the rewards, there was something else shining next to his corpse—a book. Kim Minwoo’s eyes immediately became serious.

‘It’s a Soulboundskillbook!’

When defeating monsters, they often dropped skill books.

These dropped skill books were random in terms of profession and their effects weren’t particularly outstanding.

‘They usually just drop basic skills.’

For necromancers, it might be skeleton summoning or mage summoning. For warriors or mages, it could be elemental mastery or swordsmanship mastery.

These were commonly referred to as ‘basic skills.’

In other words, they were skills that only covered the basics. To achieve more than one person’s worth of power, you needed to learn special skills as well.

The most representative method was the awakening achievement. As long as you achieved high achievements, you would be given a lot of skills that you couldn’t even get at level 1, even the highest level Awakened.

‘So people go crazy for achievements.’

Kim Minwoo was no exception.

That’s how he learnt the Ex-rank Skill ‘Death Lord’ at level 1

Another method was to obtain soulbound skill books.

Soulbound.

In short, it is an item that cannot be traded from the moment it is acquired.

As such, it had a powerful effect. Once acquired, the job group and usable level are matched.

This means that there is no such thing as an accident where you get a Soulbound Skillbook but you can’t learn the skill because your job is different or your level is too low.

‘And there’s more…’

Instead of basic skills, much better skills appeared in the Soulbound Skillbooks.

‘The ranking is determined by how many of these skills there are.’

The drop rate was very low as the effect was good. It was almost safe to say that it hardly ever came out of ordinary monsters.

‘As expected of a named monster.’

It was worth the finishing blow.

Kim Minwoo glanced at the soulbound skill book and his eyes widened.

[You have acquired the Necromancer Skillbook, Bone Exchange (B)!]

‘Huh?’

He quickly looked through the contents.

[Bone Exchange (B)]

[Level Restriction: Level 75 or higher]

[Allows you to exchange a summon’s bones by body part. However, exceeding the capacity is not possible. The capacity is proportional to the average level of the summon.]

[Applicable Summon]

[Skeleton (Capacity 0/25)]

[Skeleton Mage (Capacity 0/17)]

[Cedric (Capacity 0/75)]

‘Oh.’

He had a vague idea of what it did. It probably allowed you to gain some effect by exchanging the bones for something else.

‘This seems like it would suit me perfectly.’

Bones—couldn’t you just buy those with money?

[Would you like to learn this skill book?]

“Of course.”

It was clear that the skill was overflowing with effectiveness. There was no reason not to learn it.

[You have acquired Bone Exchange (B)!]

At that moment, Urkan approached.

—BIg Brother! Over there, those pointy-eared fellows said they want to see you! So, I didn’t kill them yet!

As he said, far away, a group of figures dressed in robes had gathered.

“Well done. You shouldn’t swing your axe recklessly. Except for witches or the Ice Dragon faction.”

—Urkan is smart! I remember everything you say!

“I’ll go and come back. Wait here.”

—Understood!

He approached the elves, and one of them stepped forward as a representative.

“Greetings. My name is Elise, the guardian of the Mother Tree’s forest.”

“I’m Kim Minwoo. Thank you for your help. Thanks to you, the fight ended easily.”

As he had received assistance, he politely nodded first.

Elise nodded and said.

“I have heard rumors about you. That you are organizing a resistance against the witch.”

“That’s correct.”

“Can we elves join the resistance too?”

He grinned.

Elves were known to be noble and secluded. But they not only came to help but also asked to join the party?

There was no reason for them to act like this unless they were backed into a corner.

“Elise, before we proceed, may I ask you something? Are the elves also under attack by witches?”

“…Yes.”

“It seems like the situation is not good.”

“……That is true as well.”

“I’m sorry. While it’s true that we’ve received help, it seems difficult to decide on joining just based on that.”

“…Is it a refusal?”

“No, it’s not a refusal. It’s just that we need to discuss it further.”

“Please, go on.”

“Dwarves supply weapons to orcs in exchange for safety. I assume elves want something similar?”

“That’s correct.”

“Then, what can the elves offer in return for safety in our resistance force?”

“We can provide troops and maps of the surrounding terrain.”

“What is the size of the troops?”

“We have about this much…”

“It’s not enough. Not even close.”

He shook his head.

While the elves had helped, they had only sent about thirty warriors, which was hardly enough. On the other hand, if they were to help the elves?

As tough as the situation looked, hundreds of orcs would die.

Exchanging that for thirty elf troops on a single map?

Both were useful, but…

‘It still doesn’t make sense financially.’

It’s the worst possible deal.

The best he could do with the help he had received was to give them some dwarf equipment and send them off on a good note. He couldn’t just throw his life away for nothing.

“……Then we can also supply fruits, herbs, and so on…”

“Lady Elise. Do you think the lives of our resistance fighters are so cheap? Enough to ask us to die to hundreds of orcs for this amount of help?”

She was speechless.

“Since we’ve received help, we will also repay. We will provide dwarven equipment. You may leave now.”

Where do you think you’re going to get that?

Without hesitation, he turned around.

And that’s when it happened.

“……Wait a minute!”

Elise hurried over and grabbed his shoulder.

“Please tell me what you want.”

“The Divine Fruit of the Mother Tree and a large supply of potions. We must at least receive this much.”

The Divine Fruit was an exceptionally rare fruit that occasionally formed on the Mother Tree.

On top of that, elves were a race renowned for their alchemy. They were said to be skilled at making potions and other such things.

These were both representative items that could be obtained from the elves.

‘It’s not a bad deal, after all.’

Honestly, he had been thinking that this much was the least they could do for him to risk his life to protect them.

Otherwise, the dwarves would feel unfairly treated.

“……!”

Her ears trembled.

The elves behind her seemed equally shaken.

“The Divine Fruit! No, Lady Elise!”

“And we don’t even have enough potions for ourselves! Let alone in large supply!”

The elves protested in panic.

He looked at Elise.

“You can refuse if you don’t like it.”

“…The Divine Fruit is a precious treasure.”

“Our lives are just as precious.”

“……Aren’t you fighting the witch?”

He chuckled.

This elf seemed to be misunderstanding something.

“So what? Yes, we are a group that fights the witch. But we are not the elves’ babysitters.”

“But if we fall, the resistance will too……!”

[TL/N: I don’t know what the elise meant when she said that. Cause i last i checked she wasn’t in the resistance army yet]

Fail?

Judging by the way she was blurting out such things, it seemed like the elves’ situation was very urgent.

And yet, she was making such a suggestion?

They say that racial traits never change.

They were indeed a proud race.

“Is that so? I’ll buy you time until you’re on the brink of destruction. We’ll make good use of that time.”

The elves murmured.

Could it be that they were really not going to help?

The atmosphere seemed to suggest that.

Then what were they going to do?

Their intentions seemed quite clear.

He felt like he could see right through their thoughts.

They seemed like they were trying to cling on to him like a toothless gum.

‘This isn’t some kind of hostage negotiation.’

Elves?

Of course, it would be nice to have them.

But they wouldn’t die without them.

This was especially true now that the orcs had gathered and their ransom had skyrocketed.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Elise spoke with a firm expression.

“……Please give us a moment to think. We need time to make a decision as well.”

“I’ll give you five minutes. After that, I’ll reject any offer. Just take the equipment and leave.”

Elise and the elves nodded and stepped aside to discuss.

It sounded like a heated debate was ensuing, with voices echoing around.

Precisely 4 minutes and 55 seconds later, Elise approached.

“…We’ll accept. However… a large supply of potions is realistically difficult. We lack alchemists who can produce them.”

“Then, make them.”

“……What are you talking about?”

“Alchemists. We have plenty of dreamers on our side.”

And the number exceeded a thousand.