Necromancer Survival

After a little more time passed, my exhaustion faded. It was as if I opened my eyes, waking up refreshed after a good night’s sleep.

[Fatigue Recovery Drink – Gold]

Type: Recovery PotionDurability: 10Use Level Restriction: NoneSpecial Skill: Fatigue recovery (S)

Description:

A Fatigue Recovery Potion made by the Alchemist, ‘Choi Kyung-sik.’

Made through the combination of high-quality ingredients that would draw a king’s envy and ire, such as mermaid horns, in exquisite balance. This potion will quickly stabilize the body and mind of any modern User.

However, its cost is incredibly expensive.

Caution: Take care to only consume one bottle a day.Taking the potion in bulk may drain one’s account balance.]

After drinking the potion and checking the status window, I had gotten a notification that I had obtained a new item alongside the item’s description.

I examined the potion’s description and suddenly became curious about its price. Honestly–the warning to only take one bottle a day wasn’t due to possible addictive qualities or any other side effects?

“You feel better now, right?”

“Well…”

When Choi Kyung-sik met my eyes, he grinned and asked how the potion did. Though I didn’t know how much it cost, I nodded for now because my aching body felt fine. The servants who perceived that my condition was now better, took their watchful eyes off me one by one.

“So, now that Kyung-sik-ie joined…” After a short silence, Seo Dawon continued, “If Kyung-sik was successfully summoned, I had an idea to speed up our current sluggish situation. I wanted to talk about that.”

After saying that, Seo Dawon looked at the servants sitting around the room. I hadn’t heard anything about this, so I was confused…but most of the others didn’t even change their expressions, clearly understanding what Seo Dawon was referring to.

Even Choi Kyung-sik, who had just been summoned, nodded. “You’re referring to the dummy?”

“That’s right.”

“Hm. Something like a dummy isn’t so difficult to use, even now, but…”

As I listened carefully to their back and forth conversation, I looked towards Seo Dawon. The Mage looked like he was going to say something more to the Alchemist, but he focused on me instead. “What’s up?”

“…What’s a dummy?”

“Ah. So… It’s like a doll–a fake body.”

A fake body? I couldn’t get a sense of what it was even after his explanation; Seo Dawon also had a contemplative expression on his face, like he was trying to find the right words to explain this concept.

At that moment, Choi Kyung-sik naturally intervened and took over the explanation, as if this were his field of expertise. “In our current Vengeful Ghost states, we’re severely restricted if Choi Lee-kyung-ssi doesn’t summon us. This, you already know, right?”

“Yes?”

“Mm. Would you be flustered if I bluntly described it as a ‘limitation’? In any case, that’s exactly how it is. The foremost limitation on the servants is that we must flock, all together, according to Choi Lee-kyung-ssi’s movements. I suppose I’m quite free for a dead person. But, I have to stay within a certain distance from you, other people won’t notice nor acknowledge us. If the necessity to draw the opponent’s attention arises, we have no choice but to be summoned.”

“Ah…”

I nodded, acknowledging all that; in that regard, I was aware of the various inconveniences the servants experienced to some extent.

After seeing my expression, Choi Kyung-sik continued his calm explanation. “So, in order to overcome the constraints on servant movement, we’re considering creating an item called a dummy–a temporary ‘body replacement’ object. Though an Alchemist cannot create living beings, with proper ingredients they can at least make something that moves.”

For example, like a golem. Choi Kyung-sik tapped on the floor, ready to show us a demonstration. White lines began drawing itself on the normal living room floor; something akin to the Mage’s magic circle was created in a blink of an eye.

Placing his hand in his inventory and rummaging around, Choi Kyung-sik took out and threw down a fist-sized sparkling gem on the shining lines. The gem did not clatter and roll about on the living room floor and instead was swallowed, like a pebble thrown into a pond.

Then, the white lines shined red; after a few minutes, what seemed to be a lumpy cotton pillow gradually rose out of the ground. The cotton pillow-like thing was tied up with string and was quite large–almost 170 centimeters in length. It stood, balanced, reminding me of scarecrows hanging in a rice field.

Within a few seconds of being summoned, it began to shake even though nothing touched its body, jumping in place. Startled, I stood still as I watched the scene unfold before me.

“This is the dummy’s basic form. An advantage to using the dummy is that it keeps its structure until it is completely destroyed. It doesn’t need any additional ingredients nor mana. In our discussion, we were trying to figure out how to get past limitations on our movement by ‘possessing’ this item with a bit of effort on our part.”

However, as soon as Choi Kyung-sik finished speaking, Jung Garam, whose cheeks were inflated with air like a pufferfish, raised his hand and said, “I’m definitely against it.” 1

Accompanying his resolute tone, Jung Garam’s brows were heavily furrowed as the young Assassin glared at the standing lump of cotton. He really looked like he detested it. And the reason why he so loathed that thing was…

“How could you ask me to possess something so ugly?”

…was because of the dummy’s appearance.

Of course, the cotton lump didn’t resemble a human being at all; even if it were to be possessed and made mobile, there were still many limitations. And, like Jung Garam’s biggest complaint, it looked a little grotesque.

The face of the dummy looked like it had been poorly drawn by a child with crayon–[ ‘ _ ’ ] scribbled onto the cotton head… If I were Garam-ie, I don’t think I’d like to go into that doll either.

However, at Jung Garam’s comment, Woo Ragi snorted and sarcastically said, “Still, you’d at least be taller?”

“You wanna die, hyung?”

“This punk must think he’s alive right now?” Woo Ragi snorted.

Immediately Jung Garam looked at Woo Ragi as if the young Assassin were ready to fight at any moment; Woo Ragi raised his chin arrogantly, unwilling to lose to the younger.

I was nervous, worried that if they continued they would start brandishing their blades around recklessly.

Seo Dawon cut the short-lived energized atmosphere and intervened with a comment of his own. “First, the dummy only has one leg; it won’t suit Ragi or Garam-ie who needs to be fleet-footed. The appearance is a bit disappointing as well. No matter what, it looks suspicious. It stands out, so there are many limitations on our use of the dummy.”

“That’s because this is the basic form. To make it more useful, a huge amount of gems are required.”

Seo Dawon offered his very logical reasoning, and Choi Kyung-sik shrugged lightly, agreeing to his statement. Garam-ie also seemed mollified by the promise that the dummy wouldn’t become his new body; he reigned in his annoyance and leaned back against the sofa with arms folded across his chest.

At that moment, Kim Olim, who seemed to be lost in thought all this while, belatedly expressed her own opinion. “Can’t you make it as close to human-like as possible? Unless it’s at a level where I can move and utilize my equipped weapons without being hindered, I don’t think using a dummy would be all that beneficial.”

As soon as Kim Olim finished speaking, Choi Kyung-sik rubbed his chin as if he were caught in a dilemma. “There’s no dummy at that level. To reproduce a living body, a dummy is insufficient… you’d need at least a [homunculus]. That’s even more expensive and time-consuming than a golem.”

“Homunculus?”

“Yes. A [Homunculus], unlike the dummy, is trickier to make than a Golem due to its half-organic qualities. It’s hard to mass-produce as well… Moreover, when I changed my class into an alchemist, I had already chosen to receive a [Golem] recipe. So, to create the [Homunculus], I’d have to first acquire a skill book. However, since it’s so unpopular, it’ll be hard to find a recipe. If it were during the [Red Lotus] heydays, we would have all sorts of avenues with money and manpower, but… I think it’s impossible in our current situation.” Like an engineer, Choi Kyung-sik explained in detail why that method wouldn’t work. While this explanation could have been filled with hard-to-understand jargon, the Alchemist tried his best to make sure we understood and eagerly expressed why the [Homunculus] was so difficult to create.

‘Mmm… Then, I guess we can’t do that.’

So, though I honestly didn’t fully understand, I understood that Choi Kyung-sik found it impossible…

Seo Dawon, who kept nodding as he listened to the Alchemist, smiled as soon as Choi Kyung-sik’s long and wordy explanation was finished. “Then, organize the materials and time needed to make the [Homunculus].”

“…What? Really, to put it another way, since this is a difficult method considering our current circumstances, I’d rather we…”

“So, it’s just hard, not impossible?”

For the first time, I saw a crack in Choi Kyung-sik’s slick expression. Speechless, Choi Kyung-sik pushed up his glasses with his middle finger; he nodded with a slightly weary expression. Of course, simultaneously, he tried to argue until the very end. “…Yes, well… But, according to my calculations, it’ll take at least five years to acquire the ingredients.”

“Haha. Since 5 years is a long time… Isn’t there a way to reduce that to 5 weeks?

“…What? 5 weeks?!”

“Is there no way?”

“……”

I was a little shocked. Seo Dawon was… He was far from what I saw in Choi Kyung-sik’s [Vengeful Ghost Memory].

‘He seemed like such a balanced and ardent leader in the memory…’

He seemed like such a rational leader who communicated well with others…

However, looking at Choi Kyung-sik’s drooped shoulders–as if the Alchemist had given up… perhaps this intimidating Seo Dawon was closer to the real Seo Dawon than the one I saw within the [Vengeful Ghost Memory].

Choi Kyung-sik’s despicably chic expression became wan, like the living dead. “I…don’t think it’s impossible…”

“Report on this matter in two days.”

“Huh? But…”

“We don’t have much time. Did I resurrect you before Chanyoung or Eunji for nothing?”

“……”

“You can do it, right?”

“……Yes.”

Seo Dawon playfully charged the Alchemist with ‘proving his usefulness.’ Choi Kyung-sik’s complexion became a little paler.

In such a quiet living room, everyone could hear Woo Ragi’s quiet mumble. “Ah, fucker… It feels like I’ve gone back to work.”