Damn Necromancer

Chapter 418: Eastern Witch Coven (2)

Over the tea table, Kim Minwoo handed over the operational rights of Earth to Mary.

"I have to step away for a bit. Please take care of Earth running in the meantime."

"Do not worry, Master. Daily operations are scheduled to run at 99.97% efficiency."

"What's 0.03%?"

"It is the part where my reporting becomes somewhat withered because the Master is not here."

Kim Minwoo smiled with a pishik.

"You're getting more brazen by the day."

"I watched the Master and learned."

Kim Minwoo stood up from his seat.

Hayangi, who had been dozing off on his shoulder, familiarly burrowed into his embrace.

A crow circling in the empty air cried out kkaak and tore a dimensional gap to create a pitch-black portal.

Kim Minwoo threw his body into the portal without lingering attachment.

Paaaat—!

[You have entered the First City of the Special Dimension!]

The moment his vision brightened, a light whistle leaked out of Kim Minwoo's mouth.

"This completely slaps the face of a massive dimensional merchant guild, doesn't it?"

Beneath a sky where a mysterious aurora swayed, antique spires soaring dizzyingly high and massive floating islands formed a grand spectacle.

Eastern Witch Coven.

Since it was a place where witches gathered, he had imagined a gloomy and quiet atmosphere…….

'Reality is completely different.'

The heat here was much hotter than a large market on Earth.

"Oho, are you kidding me? You said it was the spine of a Hellhound from the Demon Realm's District 4. The demonic energy is drained by 2 percent, so how dare you try to get 3 Witch Coins for it. Take it away immediately before I strike it down to 1.5."

"Ah, you're being so strict. Do you know how much I spent on bribes to break through the Demon Realm distribution network. 2.5 Witch Coins! I won't sell for anything less than that!"

In the plaza below the spire, a blood-splattering haggling was taking place with pitch-black demonic beast corpses laid out.

Next to a cauldron the size of a building, witches had floated complex magic circles and were sharply appraising the quality of the inventory, while all sorts of rare elixirs and byproducts that had crossed dimensions were endlessly loaded onto carriages and brooms.

Rather than a holy land for noble scholars studying magic, it was the very home base of a merchant guild doing business by sticking a straw into the entire universe.

'They said they do business crossing dimensions, but everyone is heavily money-grubbing.'

It was while Kim Minwoo was moving his steps toward the outskirts of the plaza following the crow's guidance.

On one side of a street stall, a pile of books with a familiar silhouette drawn on them caught his eye.

『The Capitalist Beyond the Dimension: The Biography of the Death Lord Kim Minwoo (Critical Biography)』

What was drawn on the cover was……

'Me?'

On top of that, how they knew was a mystery, but even the drawings of the four Legion Commanders were added.

Next to it, written in small letters, was 'First Edition Limited Signed Copies Nearing Sold Out'.

"……What is this?"

Kim Minwoo's mouth opened slightly.

Without him even knowing, a critical biography of himself was being distributed in exchange for witch-exclusive currency.

It was that time.

"……Uh? O-over there."

"……Have my eyes gone bad? That man who just passed by looks exactly like the cover, doesn't he?"

"No way…… The Death Lord? The real Death Lord?!!"

The witches who had been appraising demonic beast corpses stopped one by one, stared intently at Kim Minwoo, and began to cover their mouths.

The murmuring spread like an epidemic in an instant.

"Heol! It's the real Death Lord! It's the real-life 『The Capitalist Beyond the Dimension』!"

"The living myth of an insignificant creature from the absolute bottom 10th dimension rising to the seat of a Higher God in a mere 3 years!"

That was right.

To ordinary witches, a Higher God was the distant apex of the universe that could not be reached even after going through hundreds and thousands of years of tedious pursuit of truth and magic training.

Yet a mere human born on Earth, the lowest dimension, had smashed all causality of the universe and achieved an ultra-high-speed promotion.

From the perspective of witches who had been steeped in academic zeal and deadlines, paying off loans for hundreds of years, Kim Minwoo was truly a peerless idol who cleared their stuffy insides and a walking cheat code that destroyed all common sense.

"Hey, go and at least make an impression! If we sign an exclusive supply contract with our Snake Faction, 1st place in performance for this quarter is in the bag!"

Ungseong.

Ungseong.

Before he knew it, dozens of witches began flocking around Kim Minwoo with their eyes flashing.

They were said to be magical geniuses gathered from all over the universe, but right now, their gazes were exactly the same as the greedy gazes of an enthusiastic fan club that had discovered a super-massive blue-chip stock and a cosmic superstar.

"D-Death Lord! Please grant our Spider Faction an exclusive on byproduct distribution……!"

"Please invest in our floating island merchant guild! We will definitely pay the interest!"

"P-please, just one autograph for me! I'm enjoying reading your critical biography!"

It was the moment Kim Minwoo was about to furrow his brow at the contracts and quill pens being shoved at him from everywhere.

—Kkaaaaak!

A flock of crows that seemed to cover the sky poured down like a storm and fiercely blocked the approach of witches from other factions.

And witches of the Crow Faction, wearing pitch-black robes, stood sharply in front of Kim Minwoo.

"Everyone step back. This person is our Crow Faction's top VVIP customer. How dare you try to stick a straw into someone else's blue-chip stock?"

"He is an honored guest invited directly by the Grand Witch. If you approach, we will refer you to the Coven Disciplinary Committee for obstruction of business, so get lost immediately."

As the stern warning fell, witches from other factions smacked their lips jjeok-jjeok and backed away regretfully.

From the middle of the crow flock, the Grand Witch Ananke, wearing a small monocle, alighted gently.

"Welcome. This is your first time in our neighborhood, right?"

"Yes. But the neighborhood atmosphere is quite brutal. What was that just now? Some kind of critical biography is floating around too."

Ananke approached Kim Minwoo's side and took the lead.

"Ah, that? One of the rookie witches in our faction compiled and published an observation journal on you. It sold so well that it even came out as a paperback, you see?"

"I don't recall agreeing to that."

"But you owe us a debt."

"……."

Kim Minwoo was silent for a moment.

Did he owe a debt?

Right.

He owed a debt.

After catching Lupus in the Heavenly City.

He had once pulled a massive haul on credit from the Coven to raise the ransom.

The payment was structured so that he would pay it off every time the Coven sold the goods he handed over.

Naturally, he still hadn't been able to pay it all off yet.

Because he had pulled so much.

"Wouldn't the profitability match up if we slap a premium on the in-kind goods we received from the Lord and sell them off? So we did a bit of idolization work. 'Limited edition crafted items personally made by the universe's fastest Higher God!' How is it, doesn't it really stimulate your appetite? That critical biography is just an add-on product for that branding."

To think the mysterious witches beyond the dimension were actually doing business by branding him like selling idol merchandise.

"Well, since it's already come to this. Since the branding is done, please raise the payment price for my goods by 10% from now on."

"Alright."

As he moved his steps toward the top floor of the Crow's Tower where a massive pitch-black tree stretched out, guided by Ananke like that, Ananke opened her mouth lowly.

"How is it? Your thoughts on coming to the Eastern Witch Coven?"

"That witches are no different from office workers? Everyone lives more diligently than I thought."

"Of course. To build a decent tower and set up a laboratory in the Coven, it easily costs about 1 billion won…… in the value of your Earth money, Lord. Everyone is doing business with bloodshot eyes to pay off the interest."

"If you're a witch, don't you easily earn around 1 billion won?"

"But the land prices are enormous too."

Ananke asked back playfully.

"Isn't there a country like that on Earth too? Hong Kong."

……He felt like he roughly understood the vibe.

"No wonder the gazes of everyone looking at me were like hyenas looking for an investment."

"Business is business, but your existence itself is massive big news. A human of the 10th dimension rose to the position of a Higher God in a mere 2 or 3 years since awakening? The Lord is currently an unprecedented myth itself across all dimensions. It means we aren't falsely manipulating public opinion."

Beyond Ananke's monocle, something like a golden thread of fate swayed for a moment.

Upon entering Ananke's quiet and antique private office at the top of the tower, she flicked her finger.

A top-grade teacup set flew from the empty air and filled with fragrant black tea.

"Now, enough with the compliments. Shall we get to the main point?"

Ananke, sitting opposite him on the sofa, lifted her teacup and flashed her eyes.

"So you want to pierce through the system's ironclad security and enter the Ascension Ritual……."

"What is the method?"

"Fufu. The Lord is truly consistently greedy."

Ananke smiled cheerfully and scanned Kim Minwoo's entire body with a hand gesture of fiddling with her monocle.

"Right, a method to deceive the system's eyes and enter. Do you have anything you thought of separately, Lord?"

Kim Minwoo lightly tapped Hayangi, who was dozing on his shoulder, and answered.

"First, I was thinking of distorting the system's observation with Hayangi's chaos attribute, and then using the mystery of compression to shrink my status as much as possible to disguise myself."

Ananke nodded her head.

"It is certainly a valid method. If you mix the attribute of the abyss and the knowledge of the Outer God, you could temporarily disrupt the system's scanner. However…… that alone is not enough."

"Is it not enough?"

"No matter how much you distort the outside, the system cannot completely fail to feel the essential mass itself of being a Higher God. The moment you enter, it will notice the strange sense of incongruity between the shell and the core and try to exclude you."

"Then what is your solution?"

"The thread of fate I will add, and a special tool."

"A tool?"

"Yes. A physical seal I prepared personally for you."

A strange smile spread across Ananke's lips.

"But you know, right? A transaction is always accompanied by an exchange."

"What is it that you want?"

"The Dragon Legion."

At the words coming out of Ananke's mouth, a distinct color flashed in Kim Minwoo's pupils.

"The time is ripe. We have pinpointed the coordinates of the home base of those arrogant reptile bastards. Before long, our Coven will launch an all-out offensive there."

The corners of Kim Minwoo's mouth slowly curled up.

The Outer God's faction that even the Grand Witch was reluctant about, a super-massive cosmic raid to completely rob the home base of that vicious Dragon Legion.

Rather, it was a buffet invitation Kim Minwoo would welcome with open arms.

"I will participate. Once the Ascension Ritual is over, I will move immediately. So now, bring out something certain. How are you going to push me into that ritual?"

"It is one of the few items in this universe."

Ananke reached out and cleaved the empty air.

Along with a bizarre rupturing sound, the dimension opened, and with a rattling sound, an old and heavy object dropped heavily onto the tea table.

Kung—!

Kim Minwoo's eyes narrowed.

What was placed on the table were ignorantly large and thick iron cuffs and shackles.

Looking at that hideous object that brought an ominous feeling just by looking at it, Ananke said.

"Named the 'Restraints of Tartarus'. It is the genuine shackle used when permanently confining high-ranking divine races who once caused a rebellion to the bottom of the abyss."

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