Damn Necromancer

Chapter 420: Ascension Ritual

Paaaat—!

The blinding golden light that filled his vision slowly cleared, revealing an endlessly stretching pure white marble square.

In the middle of the square stood a massive golden altar soaring through the clouds.

Around it, tens of thousands of challengers from other races were gathered, glaring sharply at each other.

[You have entered District 1 of the Ascension Ritual.]

[Summoning of all 1,322nd challengers complete.]

A flying race with six massive wings spread behind their backs.

A dragonkin spewing fierce lightning from between their scales.

An archmage from another dimension cloaked in overwhelming mana that distorted even the atmosphere, and demigods emitting a faint halo from behind their heads.

It was a gathering place of monsters and geniuses from all dimensions who had honed themselves their entire lives dreaming of ascension.

Right in the middle of such a solemn and brutal sanctuary of elites, Kim Minwoo's party surged up along with a pillar of light.

"……What is that? That thing?"

"Humans? Furthermore, just what is with those appearances……."

The challengers' gazes simultaneously focused on one spot.

And thick contempt and dumbfoundedness filled their pupils.

"Eigugugu. What mountain valley is this again."

An old man leaning on his hunched back like a bent-over grandfather, making groaning sounds.

"Ah, damn it……! Why do I have to eat this sickly sweet thing…… Eubeub!"

"Oh my! Be quiet, you little kid! How vulgar in front of adults! Tsk!"

A snot-nosed little kid getting smacked on the back while trying to crunch and crush a lollipop, and a tough middle-aged woman in tacky baggy monppe pants scolding him.

"Cough, cough…… The air is stale……."

A malnourished civil service exam student pushing up his thick horn-rimmed glasses, looking as if he would collapse at any moment, a fat neighborhood pigeon pecking at breadcrumbs dropped on the floor……

And in the center of it all, a thick-eyebrowed country bumpkin carrying an old black iron scythe on his shoulder, looking around with a stupid expression.

It was exactly a gathering of riffraff who looked like they had been rolling around in the bottom of some countryside.

From the mouths of the participants filling the surroundings, hollow laughs burst out as if they were dumbfounded.

"……The water of the Ascension Ritual has become very muddy. To let such a ragtag group set foot in the sanctuary."

The universe was vast, and the participants of the Ascension Ritual were extremely numerous.

There must be numerous districts, not just this District 1.

However, even combining all those districts, it would be rare to find guys with such funny appearances.

A man wearing flashing golden armor pinched his nose and muttered.

"They're humans. The lowest race with the most distinct innate limits across all dimensions."

"……Is this some kind of special admission for dropouts?"

Of course, even if their appearances were like that, those guys must also be strong people who had reached the apex in their respective dimensions and come up.

They shouldn't let their guard down just looking at appearances.

They could be deceivers hiding their skills.

Everyone was equipped with that level of basic survival sense.

However, no matter how much they racked their brains, not a single bit of threatening energy could be felt from the appearance of those guys sticking together.

If there was anything that stood out, it was only the red shackles placed on the hands and feet of that farmer-like country bumpkin.

Did a peculiar appearance mean they were incredibly skilled?

Usually, ninety-nine out of a hundred were just riffraff.

'It would be perfect to slice their necks right as it starts and fill up the scoreboard.'

There was no way to hide the sneers and cynicism that unavoidably leaked out.

The farmer, no, Kim Minwoo looked around.

The four Legion Commanders seemed to have found acting somewhat fun and were doing a decent job of putting on a clumsy front.

In particular, Cedric was pulling off the act of a bent-over old man suffering from arthritis amazingly well, putting his usual identity as a serious and inflexible Dragon Knight to shame.

While waiting on the ark, he had enthusiastically watched Earth's extreme morning dramas and human documentary TV media, and it seemed that experience watching media was shining here.

Merhen and Olivia were also acting enthusiastically in their own ways.

Unluckily, only Vulcan, who became a child, couldn't suppress his original fiery temper and was just puffing in anger while trying to crunch and crush his lollipop.

[Very good. Everyone, keep acting like ordinary participants just like that.]

Kim Minwoo secretly transmitted his thoughts to his subordinates.

Even though his authority was greatly reduced, he could communicate freely to this extent.

There was no reason to go around blabbing to the whole neighborhood from the beginning that they were summons.

Of course, it wouldn't matter much if they were found out, but when others were voluntarily mistaking them for participants, was there a need to show his cards first.

The hitting feeling is much more satisfying when you smack the back of their heads after making them thoroughly let their guard down.

'Anyway, is it roughly at this level?'

His pupils flashed bizarrely.

Even though his raw stats and authority were hitting rock bottom, crushed by the Restraints of Tartarus, his stagnant water instincts were sharper than ever.

Those undergoing the Ascension Ritual.

It seemed they were roughly at the level right before becoming a Lower God.

'There was a reason my participation was rejected.'

If a Higher God descended in a place like this?

It would literally be no different from a disaster.

'Well, that's why I matched the level, right?'

Tens of thousands of arrogant elites.

Every single one of them was a powerhouse representing a planet.

In other words, it meant there were thousands, tens of thousands of planets existing in this universe.

'It'll be perfect for proselytizing.'

He had heard that in the majority of Ascension Rituals, most of the participants were annihilated.

A structure where only the extremely few survivors enjoyed the benefits.

But what if he could let even a portion of them live and send them back?

'The speed of proselytizing would become incredibly fast, right?'

Weren't they people who held some sway on their respective planets.

It was when he was lost in such thoughts.

Uuuuung—!

A brilliant pillar of light poured down onto the golden altar in the middle of the square, and an existence in the shape of a massive angel descended.

[Welcome, arrogant mortals.]

[From now on, the first trial, the Stairway of Struggle, will begin.]

Following the angel's hand gesture, a massive marble stairway piercing the clouds and stretching up endlessly revealed itself.

The angel's hand gesture cleaved the empty air.

At the same time, the sea of clouds densely filling the area beyond the square fluctuated as if a massive earthquake had occurred and split wide open to the left and right.

Gogogogogo—!

Along with a roar that shook heaven and earth, the stage of the trial hidden beyond the clouds revealed its overwhelming majesty.

A stairway.

The form was definitely a stairway.

However, its scale was far beyond the common sense of mortals.

The area of a single step of the stairs was like a massive marble plain combining dozens of large stadiums.

An ignorant size where even if not 10,000 but 100,000 people entered at once, their shoulders wouldn't even bump.

Such violently scaled tiers were steeply carved out layer upon layer like a massive mountain range, piercing the clouds and stretching up like a space elevator to the universe at the distant end of the sky.

While the challengers held their breaths, overwhelmed by the massive geometric architecture filling their vision, the angel's proclamation continued.

[Every time you climb a tier, gatekeepers blocking your path will manifest. The higher the tier, the more cruel and powerful the enemies become.]

[Prove it. Your martial prowess, your qualification!]

Waking up from the overwhelming feeling along with the resounding proclamation, tens of thousands of challengers began to surge like beasts toward the massive stairway while shouting.

"I am 1st place!!"

"Ascension is mine!"

The first few dozen stairs were smooth sailing.

As expected of those who had some sway, they lightly slaughtered the gatekeepers and kicked off to climb.

Because the area of a single step of the stairs was so massive, even when tens of thousands of people pushed up at the same time, they could fight their battles in their respective areas without interference.

However, from the exact moment they surpassed the 50th floor, the atmosphere of the stairway sharply reversed.

Kaaaaaang—!!

"……Keoheok?!"

A beastkin warrior who was pushing ahead to the lead was hit directly by a knight holding a massive pitch-black greatsword and rolled down vomiting blood.

"Kkeuaaaaaak! The mobs suddenly got incredibly hard…… Cough!"

Blood-splattering bloody battles took place here and there along with screams.

The gatekeepers in the section past the 100th floor were monsters that easily surpassed the raid boss-level monsters of average dimensions.

What was even more dumbfounding was that every time a challenger stepped onto the next tier, these monsters spawned in heaps in proportion to the number of challengers from the magic circles on the floor.

Ordinary geniuses had their limbs torn off by a single strike from a gatekeeper, or barely saved their lives and began to crawl on the floor.

Chaeng!

Kagagagak!

In the pandemonium of that terrible bloody battle, Kim Minwoo, wearing the mask of a country bumpkin, was leisurely moving his steps and observing the surroundings.

'They can stamp out things like this as if running a macro?'

Kim Minwoo clicked his tongue.

This structure that spat out a near-infinite monster legion in real-time according to the difficulty as they climbed the tiers.

Even for him, who had molted into a Higher God, creating and maintaining a Colosseum of this scale independently was impossible. No, it would be lucky if he could mimic half of the stairway at best.

Thick curiosity and greed settled around the corners of Kim Minwoo's mouth.

Meanwhile, in a corner of the 130th-floor square.

Kyle, a top-tier ranker from the 3rd dimension and a dragonkin Sword Demon, was panting as he barely cut down the massive gatekeeper of the void in front of him.

"Heok, heok…… D, damn it……."

Thick drops of sweat fell from Kyle's forehead.

The place he had currently reached was the 130th floor.

Looking around, there were less than 100 challengers who had survived and climbed up to this height.

'It's different from what I heard from my seniors. They said the content and difficulty of the test change every time, but isn't this round exceptionally, ignorantly tough from the start?!'

Already, his mana was scraping the bottom and his muscles were screaming.

The gatekeepers of the 130th floor were at a level where Kyle had to give it his all to barely defeat them one by one.

However, a rough smile hung on Kyle's lips.

'Still, at this level, I am in the top 10. As expected of the bloodline of the great dragonkin. The inferior ones must have all become corpses at the bottom already…….'

It was exactly the moment he was intoxicated by his overwhelming talent and achievements, filling up with a so-called sense of superiority.

Tok, tok. Peok!

Along with light footsteps, the sound of something bursting against something blunt hit his ears.

"Eigugu, why are the monsters strewn all over the street like this. Blocking the path."

"……!?"

Kyle whipped his head around with eyes filled with astonishment.

Standing there was that arthritis-ridden human old man everyone had sneered at earlier.

The old man was passing by, lightly tapping the gatekeeper Kyle had cut down with all his might just a moment ago with the wooden cane he was leaning on.

Kwajik!

It only touched the cane slightly, but the head of the raid boss-level gatekeeper burst like a watermelon and turned into ash.

Witnessing that firsthand, Kyle's jaw dropped wide open.

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