The Boundless Necromancer

Chapter 57: The Murim Challenger (1)

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Ashen Blood’s effect was simple.

Regeneration grew proportionally with tenacity, with an additional three times multiplier at the time of injury.

And up to 50% pain resistance depending on the severity of the injury.

“What the hell…”

This skill was so much better than I thought.

Accelerated Regeneration reattached my almost served arm at D-rank…

And Ashen Blood could automatically reattach severed limbs.

‘What kind of bullshit is that..?’

If this skill was on a monster or another player…

‘I don’t even want to think about it.’

And if you considered the protection from necromancy, it was even more unbelievable.

Absorb most of the damage with the passive then heal the rest with Ashen Blood.

That would effectively render any attack useless.

In other words, I could use it to turn the tide of the battle.

‘Would I be able to beat something like this if we had similar stats?’

Could I even be considered human at this point?

‘It’s hard to tell now…’

And my tenacity was only around 60 right now.

What would happen if it went up?

‘I was just planning to throw away some of the more useless skills but…’

I somehow won the lottery.

Satisfied, I turned on the community.

Just to see if the 9th trial was a group trial or not.

‘A group trial would give me more chance to test out ashen blood.’

And I also wanted to know if anyone else was talking about challengers from another world.

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「 You have entered the community.
」 

「 Difficulty – Hard 」 

「 Floor 9 Community (2315/3498) 」 

OhChoonsuk: Bruh, what the fuck is an otherworldy challenger? Who the hell is intruding on our trials? ArmedWithPencil: Lmao… I barely managed to form a contract with an administrator and this is what they do? What the fuck? MaxLevelHunter: I just used my question for it and they said some bullshit about the merging of the tower.
Does anyone know what that is? ILoveSoup: Holy shit.
Who the hell are these people and why are they merging with us on the 20th floor? I don’t understand anything.

“Huh..?”

I couldn’t help but be shocked at the amount of information that everyone already knew.

I thought it would take at least a couple of floors until everyone found out…

At least I knew that I wasn’t the only one thinking about this problem.

MaxLevelHunter: Basically, there seem to be other worlds and they also have towers.
And the challengers from those towers are invading our tower… Wiiiind: Ye, they were just trying to kill me. ArmedWithPencil: Fuck, and we have to start competing with them starting from the 20th floor.
What the shit is that? Headygongdu: I don’t know… It’s not like anything else made sense around here. OhChoonsuk: More importantly, that means more and more challenges are going to come to loot our trials. Swordphile: So what are we doing about the fucking intruder? Wiiind: Well, I don’t think the hunter association can help us with this. ArmedWithPencil: lol, of course they can’t.
They can’t even stop people from getting dragged in here.

Judging by their tone, they seemed to understand the severity of the situation.

And like me, they weren’t able to come to a meaningful conclusion.

Even after a continuous conversation, they weren’t able to get anywhere.

Invincible: Whatever happens, we need to find our own ways to deal with the intruders. ArmedWithPencil: Fuck, I guess so.
No other way to protect yourself. Guriring: At least they tell us when there’s an intruder in our trial. MonkSupremacy: Well I guess we should notify the hunter association when we get back.
They’ll put out a notice about it if they have half a brain.

‘Seems like a reasonable call to action.’

Maybe they’ll sponsor us with more resources.

If they hear that there was a chance that otherworldly challengers could kill us at any moment.

There were other things to be gained from the conversation too.

KimSeunghoon: I fought against some knight from Aries or whatever it was called.
His swordsmanship wasn’t that great but he combined it with magic. OhChoonsuk: There was some dude from a place called Murim and his swordsmanship was literally insane. Swordphile: Oh same.
Their swordsmanship was unmatched but… items and skills were pretty effective against them. Guriring: Hm, I haven’t run into one yet.
I’ll take note though.

They were all talking about the different challenges they ran into and…

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I made sure to take note of them all.

***

Besides that, there were no realistic measures we could take against these guys.

‘I guess we should be satisfied that we’re even aware of them.’

And the different types of intruders would probably be useful to know in the future.

‘Also, the 9th trial is probably an individual trial.’

I was looking through the chat logs but…

I couldn’t find a single mention of a group trial.

‘Let’s speed through the 9th floor and get to the 10th.’

That’s where more powers become available in my exclusive store.

‘And the 8th trial was pretty simple as well…’

I then examined my equipment to see if I should replace anything.

‘I think the sword will be useful for a bit longer because of the electrocute.
And I’ll just use the shield until it breaks and sell it at the hunter market.’

But I don’t think I can sell the pendant or the boots.

They’re too useful to sell at the moment.

After careful consideration, I came to a conclusion.

‘I think I can use them more a little longer.’

‘And just in case.’

「 You have purchased a Recharngable Stamina Potion (E-).
」

「 5,000 points deducted.
」

「 You have purchased a Rechargable Mana Potion (E+).
」

「 5,000 points deducted.
」 

I got some food with some potions on the side.

Why rechargeable? 

‘I might as well if I’m going to buy more potions later.’

I could still see myself using potions a couple of floors later.

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The effects might not be very strong, but that wasn’t important.

I could still replenish my stats using my souls.

「 Rechargeable Stamina Potion 」 

「 Grade: E 」 

「 Replenishes 20% of lost stamina upon consumption.
」 

「 Usable twice before recharging.
」 

「 Takes one full day to completely recharge.
」

「 Rechargeable Mana Potion 」 

「 Grade: E 」 

「 Replenishes 25% of lost mana upon consumption.
」 

「 Usable twice before recharging.
」 

「 Takes one full day to completely recharge.
」 

“That should be enough potions for a while.”

And with the absence of the wait timer…

「 Do you accept the 9th floor trial? 」 

And a familiar blue portal greeted me as I stepped into it.

「 Entering Tower of Trials floor 9.
」 

「 Difficulty – Hard 」 

「 The objective of the following trial is tournament.’ 」 

「 We wish the challenger a satisfactory ending to their choice.
」 

It didn’t take long for me to recognize that I was standing under the glaring sun in the center of a colosseum. 

「 The 9th floor trial is starting.
」 

「 Remaining time – 1 day 」 

「 Trial success condition – Kill all monsters in the colosseum 」 

「 Trial fail condition – Time out or challenger’s death 」 

「 Trial success reward – Skill ‘Beast’s Instincts (C-)’  」 

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「 Trial fail penalty – Death 」 

I didn’t have an audience but I was going to have to fight off a bunch of monsters.

But…

「 (!) Current challenger ‘Han Sungyeun’s 9th trial is not safe.
」 

「 (!) Murim challenger’s intrusion has been confirmed.
」 

「 (!) Murim challenger has stolen the trial objective.
」 

I didn’t expect such a sharp aroma of blood everywhere.

“…”

The tethers of flesh on the ground were connected by a river of blood… leading up to the corpses of three trolls.

「 Recalibrating objective.
」 

And…

“You’ve finally arrived.”

I saw an old man standing next to the stacked corpses.

Wearing a white gi and holding a white sword…

He looked out of place in the bloody arena.

“Nice to meet you.”

I knew at first glance.

‘An intruder…’

He gave off different energy from the black knight, but I was certain.

“My name is Baek Sunhak, an elder at the Murim Alliance.”

As the old man combed through his beard and introduced himself—

「 Kill the Murim challenger Baek Sunhak.
」 

Looking at the message, I gripped the sword tightly.

‘Damn it…’

It was my second one.

 

——