Damn Necromancer

Chapter 427: The Blood Lord (1)

The control room of the golden altar overseeing the Ascension Ritual.

The Archangel, who had collapsed grabbing the back of his neck, smiled fishily while staring at the mana monitor with bloodshot eyes.

[Auto-scaling operation complete.]

[The difficulty of the 2nd trial has been adjusted upward to Despair rank.]

[Trial Theme: The Blood Lord's Annihilation Battle]

"Kukukuk…… Yes. No matter how much they awakened the surpluses into elite soldiers through their spot-on tutoring, they can't avoid the system's natural calibration."

The administrator standing next to him swallowed dry saliva and carefully agreed.

"Yes. If it's the Blood Lord…… isn't it by far the most vicious and highest-difficulty test existing within the system."

"That's right."

Evil madness flickered in the Archangel's eyes.

The Blood Lord.

A primordial vampire that the system side had forced into the testing ground, no, captured through a certain deal after paying a massive price in the past.

The status of his very existence was tremendously high.

An immortal monster difficult to even scratch, let alone kill, with ordinary physical force or magic.

Furthermore, what was even more terrible was the state of the vampire legion he commanded.

"To begin with, bastards called vampires have an innate race value that is on a different level from ordinary monsters. Moreover, the tens of thousands of vampires trapped there have not tasted fresh blood for a very long time, so their eyes have completely rolled back."

A vampire legion that had lost its reason, starving and craving only blood.

Into the middle of such a hellscape, 30,000 fresh prey with boiling blood had walked in on their own two feet.

"Will they truly be able to overcome this test safely? Hehe."

The Archangel leaned against his backrest and let out a sneering laugh.

"Of course, those unidentified apostle bastards, those monster-like five people will survive. The strong surviving is a natural law of the Ascension Ritual, so that doesn't matter. But……."

A vicious toxicity appeared in the Archangel's eyes.

"I absolutely cannot stand seeing even the weak bastards obstinately surviving and taking a free ride. The Ascension Ritual is not an easy enough place to allow such a bus ride. Because in front of the rampage of immortals crazy for blood, the strength gained from that petty tutoring will be of no use whatsoever…… Kukukuk."

The Archangel's evil and refreshing laughter echoed in the control room.

Thinking that the test would finally be normalized now.

---

Kkigigigigigigik— Kwang!

The massive iron gate opened, and the unpleasant red fog that obscured their vision began to clear.

A disgusting smell of blood piercing the nose.

A damp land hidden by thick dark clouds and fog, where not even a ray of sunlight enters.

The panoramic view of the stage for the 2nd trial, the Blood Swamp, spread out before the eyes of the 30,000 challengers.

"Keureureureuk……."

"Blood…… It's the smell of fresh blood……!"

The ground consisted of slushy bloody water that sank up to the ankles, and among the dead trees, tens of thousands of vampires flashing red eye glints were waiting, drooling.

"V-vampires!"

"Oh my god! Of all things, an immortal species in swarms……!"

Screams full of astonishment burst out among the challengers.

Vampires. A race notorious as the worst monsters even in each dimension.

It was because it was difficult to even leave a scratch on them with ordinary attacks, and if bitten, not only would their blood be sucked, but if unlucky, they would lose their egos and be reduced to ghouls, the bastards' puppets.

"Get into formation!"

"Don't get pushed back! We got stronger too!"

The challengers holding weapons struggled to raise their spirits, but there were not a few retreating trembling in various parts of the formation.

It was only natural.

They were guys who were starving to death just a week ago.

They had eagerly stamped their thumbprints and became believers of the Death Cult after being given bread and water and having their specs raised by spot-on tutoring, but…….

Honestly speaking, there was no way they could have become fanatics who didn't even fear death in that short amount of time.

At best, they were at the level of ordinary believers who had received a favor.

In the face of overwhelming fear of death, they had no choice but to shrink instinctively.

It was that time.

Olivia, who had been hiding in Kim Minwoo's shadow, popped out tilting her head.

"Huh? I smell something familiar from these guys?"

Olivia's sunset-colored eyes interestingly scanned the depths of the swamp.

She was the one who had reigned as the Vampire Queen in the Demon Realm in the past.

"Should I step forward and make them kneel? I think they'd grovel on their own even if I just roughly spewed my aura."

At Olivia's words containing a hook, Kim Minwoo's eyes sparkled.

'Were they Olivia's past subordinates?'

However, Kim Minwoo shook his head without a single second of hesitation.

"No. Leave them be."

"Why? There's no need to fight annoyingly."

"Because it's no fun if we just subjugate them."

Kim Minwoo's gaze headed toward the lower-tier challengers trembling in fear.

He had expanded his forces by giving them food and tutoring them.

However, that shallow belief easily crumbles in front of the fear of death.

To turn them into true fanatics, something decisive was needed.

'Belief requires a miracle.'

"Keuaaaaak—!"

Before his thoughts could end, the full-scale 1st wave began.

A swarm of blood-starved vampires kicked off the swamp, flew up, and covered the challengers' formation.

Although Kim Minwoo and the four Legion Commanders ground up the vampires like a blender with overwhelming martial prowess at the front, they could not perfectly protect a personnel of 30,000.

"S-save, save me!"

"Keuaaak! My n-neck……!"

The defensive lines on the weaker side collapsed mercilessly first.

The challengers, whose napes were torn by the vampires' fangs, rolled on the floor while having their blood sucked like mummies.

The battle was fierce.

They barely managed to block the 1st wave after an hour of terrible bloody battle, but hundreds of corpses were scattered in various parts of the swamp along with red blood.

"Heok…… Heo-eok……."

"C-crazy. Hundreds of people died in just the 1st wave……?"

"How are we supposed to hold out when there are still tens of thousands of those monsters left!"

Thick despair appeared in the eyes of the surviving challengers.

The cruel reality of the Despair rank trial was shattering their shallow belief to pieces.

In that gloomy and terrifying silence.

Kim Minwoo casually shook the bloody water off Hell Rhapsody and walked forward.

"What are you all so scared of."

At the leisurely voice echoing in the swamp, the gazes of the 30,000 focused on him.

"I told you, didn't I? If you become a believer of our Death Cult, eternal life will be guaranteed."

Kim Minwoo's gaze headed toward the hundreds of corpses scattered on the ground.

It's no work at all to deploy the area-of-effect skill, Land of Death, and raise them as undead.

However, guys roughly revived like that were nothing more than bones or meat shields without ego or intelligence.

To maintain their intelligence like living people and revive them with a normal outward appearance, a full-scale ritual was needed.

"Cedric. From among those corpses, sort out only the guys whose faith orb lit up somewhat brightly earlier and gather them here."

"Understood, Master."

Cedric and the Legion Commanders moved quickly and dragged roughly a hundred corpses to the center of the clearing.

At that bizarre action, the challengers held their breaths and looked at Kim Minwoo with blank faces.

Could it be?

Kim Minwoo reached out into the empty air and opened his inventory.

Rare magic stones, bones of demonic beasts, and top-grade materials poured down to the floor.

'They are the best talents in all dimensions, this amount of investment is peanuts.'

Kim Minwoo, having scattered the materials generously, drew a massive magic circle around the hundred or so corpses in a single breath.

And then he solemnly chanted a line like a cult leader reeking heavily of a scammer.

"The great God of Death never forsakes his faithful lambs who truly believe and follow him."

He really wouldn't forsake them.

Weren't each of these guys excellent underlings who would create branches in the future.

He intended to revive even the guys with shallow belief as undead later.

'Of course, I won't revive them now though.'

Since he had to show that only those with high faith get the chance for resurrection right now, he planned to just store their corpses in his inventory for the time being.

[The Magic Circle of the Dead is activated!]

[Return of the Dead — Undead transmutation begins!]

Paaaaat—!

The dense black mana spewing from under Kim Minwoo's feet flowed along the magic circle and spewed a blinding light.

The expensive materials laid on the floor melted down in an instant and were sucked into the corpses' bodies.

Then, a bizarre thing happened.

"Uh, uheo……?"

"The wounds…… the torn necks are regenerating!"

The flesh of the corpses that had shriveled like mummies filled out, and the torn napes and severed limbs were seamlessly stitched together.

Soon, the hundred or so challengers lying on the floor gasped 'Heok!' and jumped up from their spots.

Just like when Lee Seoyun was first revived, outwardly they looked like perfect living people with blood flowing and breathing.

Naturally, they were high-ranking undead bound as Kim Minwoo's dependents while maintaining their intelligence and thinking ability exactly as in life.

"I-I came back to life……?"

"My neck was definitely torn and I died……!"

The hundred or so who revived groped their bodies with confused faces.

At that moment, the thought of their creator, Kim Minwoo, struck their minds like lightning.

— Everyone can hear me, right? Don't make it obvious and pretend you revived perfectly fine. Don't get caught being undead, and praise saying the God of Death bestowed a miracle.

The creator's command is absolute.

However, even without compulsion, there was no reason for them to refuse this brazen play.

They were just widely publicizing the benefits they received anyway.

The eyes of the hundred or so revived who received the command flashed with loyalty and a strange desire to show off.

Like actors aiming for the Best Actress award, they simultaneously knelt toward Kim Minwoo and began to shed tears.

"Ohhh! It's a miracle! The great God of Death has rewarded our faithful belief!"

"We do not die! He has bestowed true eternal life upon us!"

Fanatical praise echoed loudly in the Blood Swamp.

The 30,000 challengers who witnessed that marvelous miracle of resurrection right before their eyes felt goosebumps all over their bodies.

Outwardly, there was absolutely no smell of a corpse or bizarreness unique to undead.

It just looked like dead comrades had received miraculous healing and stood up perfectly fine.

In fact, it might be a natural thing.

If being undead was obvious in the first place, Lee Seoyun, who was revived first, wouldn't have been able to walk around perfectly fine at the airport.

"R-revived?!"

Astonished hollow breaths leaked from the mouths of the challengers who were former highest-ranking priests called saints or popes in their respective dimensions.

No matter how highest-ranking a priest was, pouring out heals and squeezing out divine power, perfectly reviving a corpse whose breath had already stopped and soul had left was absolutely impossible.

Because that is exclusively the domain of the gods.

Yet he did that right before their eyes.

'H-how is that a God of Death!'

'Only the name is brutal, he's basically an angel in this world!'

Compared to the real angels trying to starve them to death from the sky and throwing them as monster food, that evil god looked hundreds of millions of times more benevolent and holy.

Naturally, anyone and everyone had no choice but to roll their eyes back, bow their heads, and blindly believe in the God of Death.

Because becoming a faithful believer in this cruel Blood Swamp where this life was worth less than a fly's was perfectly synonymous with getting a confirmed resurrection ticket.

However, this miracle of resurrection was not given to everyone.

Those who just received the benefit of resurrection were the ones who fought fearlessly at the very front of the formation during the 1st wave and died in battle.

In other words, only the faithful and brave ones whose faith orb had spewed the brightest light earlier.

Kim Minwoo raised Hell Rhapsody and drove the wedge with a loud voice in the clearing.

"The great God of Death never turns away from the brave ones who shed blood and proved their faith! Fight! And prove yourselves! Death is not the end, but merely an admission ticket for great eternal life!"

As soon as that declaration fell, an explosive fire was lit in the hearts of the challengers.

That's right.

They couldn't receive that VIP resurrection benefit by just roughly pretending to believe from the back.

'Only by fighting fiercely without fearing death can one be acknowledged as a true believer!'

'If I just back out and die in the swamp anyway, it's a dog's death ending with 1 coin. But if I fight hard at the front and die a grand death? I might get a chance for resurrection?'

"Praise the God of Deathhhhh!"

"My belief! I will prove my worth! Oh great God of Deathhh!"

"Move aside, I'm going to fight and die first!"

The challengers' eyes flipped more viciously than the vampires.

In the place where the fear of death perfectly evaporated, 100% pure madness to seize the miracle of resurrection filled up.

It was the moment when shallow belief was forged into blind faith and fighting spirit, and a true fanatical assault squad of 30,000 people was born.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!