V51C1P5 – The Star of Palrangka

All the humans who fought in the Palrangka War had eventually fallen.

Then their corpses were raised as undead by Weed.

An army of undead that consisted of Zombies, Skeletons, Ghouls, Dullahans and Death Knights!

“Get the Necromancer first!”

“The source of all evil. Let us rid of the foul being that defies nature!”

In order to face Weed, tribal chiefs and warriors of non-human races stepped up to the frontline.

Elves were natural-born archers, shamans and mages, and they were not too bad with swords, either… A race whose abilities were optimized for battle despite the fact that they loved peace!

As for the Barbarians, there were many different tribes, all of them possessing remarkable strength and physical toughness. But the most prominent person among them was a Barbarian who was wearing a bone necklace.

A long time ago, Weed had contacted KMC Media and made a request for all the recorded materials on historical figures of the Versailles Continent.

Among the 10 volumes of doc.u.ments, which were each 500 pages long, he found the record of one particular person:

< Narinturger, the Barbarian Fighter

He was crowned as the chief of a league of 32 different Barbarian tribes. Gifted with such mighty strength, he could break down great boulders and even make a mountain collapse!

He liked to wander around the remotest regions of the Continent, and was known to have never suffered a defeat in combat.

During peaceful times, countless soldiers and Barbarians would flock to him to learn the art of axe-wielding. >

This was pretty much all there was in terms of his personal biography, but in the various historical events that involved him, there were a lot of things worth noting. The records said that he pulled off some great feats such as defeating a level 600 monster and tearing down the iron door of a stronghold with an axe.

‘A Barbarian who is likely to be a master of axe-wielding. His abilities as a Warrior are equally outstanding, too.’

An axe warrior possessed the most destructive single-blow damage, and with the strength and toughness characteristic of the Barbarian race on top of it, he made for an extremely dangerous opponent. The other Barbarians he was leading were also known to have excellent skills.

“Switch to a defensive position first.”

“Understood.”

Van Hawk commanded the undead to stand in a defensive formation, but that meant little more than a.s.sembling close together and waiting for an attack, their weapons and armor not being as good as the humans’.

Elves were rus.h.i.+ng past the Skeleton soldiers like the wind. The Barbarians that were following the lead of Narinturger smashed the bones of the Skeletons with their swinging axes.

“Urraahhh!”

The Dullahans and Death Knights lunged at them with a mighty roar, but could not hold out for long. The Elves carried strange artifacts, which could emit an intense ray of green light and scorch the Skeletons and Dullahans into black nothingness.

Weed’s undead legion was collapsing hopelessly from the combined forces of the non-human armies.

“Sir Knight, do you intend to fight with them as well?”

Weed shook his head.

“No, let’s run now.”

“What…?”

“They are a little difficult to deal with, and it doesn’t look like I’ll get anything of worth from fighting them.”

“But… What about your pride as a Knight?”

“I’m a Sculptor.”

“Doesn’t a Sculptor also have pride of their own?”

“Well, I exchanged it for a piece of bread. And I must say that was a good price for my pride.”

“…”

Weed escaped from the grasp of the non-human army by throwing his undead minions at them.

Elves and Barbarians who loathed the undead attacked fiercely, but they were also soon trampled by monsters like the Cyclops; the endless stream of monsters was attacking all of the Elves, the Barbarians and the Bayner Kingdom.

Narinturger and the rest of the Barbarians couldn’t have fought more bravely; to say that each of them could match a hundred enemies wasn’t quite enough to describe the epic battle they displayed, and the arrows shot by the Elves also pierced many monsters.

However, history dictated that the final winner of the Palrangka War was to be the monsters.

Weed rode on a phantom horse with Princess Remi and fled to a mountain far away.

“We’re safe here, for now.”

Most of the undead that Weed had left behind had disappeared during the fight.

But at this point, he had as good as cleared the quest related to Princess Remi during the Palrangka War.

He couldn’t help but feel rather sorry and regretful that he could not play a bigger part in the battle, but this time, his priority was to protect Princess Remi.

“Thanks to you, I was able to come to a safer place, sir Knight.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“As a token of grat.i.tude for my… um… honorable… Knight, I shall reward you with one of the items that I have.”

Princess Remi took out a small mirror.

< Bejeweled Mirror of Princess Remi

This mirror is decorated with emerald and sapphire.

It is a treasure that has been handed down for generations in the royal family of the Isran Kingdom, and it has an extremely high value.

# Options :

When received as a gift, increases the effects of one’s Fame and Honor.

Dignity +50

Increases the effect of the Trading skill by 4%. >

Although it was not a magical item, there would still be plenty of people who’d want to have it. Weed took the jeweled mirror from the princess and was about to put it into his bag when he sensed that something felt a little odd.

‘The material is a bit… rough.’

It was unmistakably named ‘Bejeweled Mirror’, yet the part that was made of metal felt incredibly solid.

Weed took out a blacksmith’s hammer and put the Bejeweled Mirror on the floor.

“Is something wrong?”

“I have a slight suspicion…”

“About the mirror?”

“Yes, Princess. It’s a bit of a shame to… but I can just make it again if I’m wrong!”

He hit the mirror with his hammer.

*Shatter!*

The Bejeweled Mirror was broken to pieces instantly.

< A Special Blacksmithing material! You have found Chisel of Ocean. >

When making a weapon or armor, this material gave additional characteristics to the crafted equipment, and it could also be of great use in creating rare items.

The fifth floor of the Tower of Heroes.

Weed managed to take every last hidden jackpot he could possibly get during his adventure in the battle of Palrangka.

***

KMC Media.

Manager Kang and his staff had dark circles around their eyes.

“I hope I don’t faint after this.”

“That’s what I am saying.”

“Phew, I wonder if we’ll even have time to go to the bathroom when the original broadcast starts…”

KMC Media and other broadcasting companies had been preparing some special videos for airing.

– Life Story of Bard Ray

– Life Story of Weed

– The History of the Hermes Guild’s Growth

– The History of the Arpen Kingdom

– Warfare Preparations in the Garnav Plain

– Current Situation in Castle Aren

– Introduction to Famous Users Partic.i.p.ating in War

– Introduction to Different Groups in the Gra.s.s Porridge Cult

– The Organization of the Haven Empire’s Military Forces

– Scenes from the Past Battles

– Predictions by War Experts

These videos would have made for at least 10 hours of broadcasting time before the battle in the Garnav Plain began, but now they were quite useless as the video of Weed in the Path of Struggle continued on to the Palrangka War. It was not an easy decision to make to stop the live broadcasting in the middle of things, when the said broadcast was showing the adventure and challenge of none other than Weed. To use a baseball a.n.a.logy, it would be equivalent to suddenly interrupt the live match for a news report in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs — the worst possible situation.

The viewers’ response to the video was also quite explosive.

– This is a Necromancer. A TRUE Necromancer.

– *tremble in fear*. Isn’t he just so game-breakingly overpowered? A Warrior and a Necromancer. Sculptor is just a little extra.

– He was sent to the Palrangka War just to rescue Princess Remi, but he’s wiping out the whole battlefield instead.

– Are all Necromancers this strong?

– No, it’s just Weed.

– It hasn’t even been that long since he switched his profession after becoming a master Sculptor. How is this even possible?

– It’s like when a major corporation enters a new market… Although I’m not sure if Sculptor as a profession can be compared to a major corporation.

Even broadcasting companies were astounded by Weed’s overwhelming combat abilities.

On the KMC Media channel a famous user named Jeanne, who was said to be the most powerful among all the currently active Necromancer players, made an appearance.

“It has not been a long time since Weed-nim changed his profession to become a Necromancer; is this profession normally so quick to grow in power?”

“I don’t quite understand it myself. But I do have a hunch.”

“What is it?”

“For a profession like Necromancer, power depends heavily on the user’s understanding of its skills. It is crucial to have a firm grasp of the characteristics of the profession and to make use of them appropriately.”

There had been a lot of arguments in the online forums as to the difficulty level of being a Necromancer. After Necromancer became a possible choice of profession in the game thanks to Weed, a lot of users had taken the challenge and became Necromancers. Some of them recommended it as one of the best cla.s.s options, but others called it the worst profession possible. Summoning undead creatures was quite useless before one had experience in summoning them for a large number of times, due to the low skill level. It was quite common for a Necromancer to wander around with only a couple of weak Skeleton soldiers, only to become the first target of attacking monsters and get killed. Undead summoning and curse spells were all that was available during the early stage of this profession, so one could hardly fight back in the event of a melee combat.

The Necromancers could not rely on hunting in a party either, and had to do everything by themselves.

Jeanne spoke on with confidence.

“Weed-nim has opened up the path of a Necromancer as one of the possible cla.s.s options. He is the one who defeated the Immortal Legion, and I believe that his understanding of this profession based on his experience in dominating the undead army in large-scale battlefields surpa.s.ses mine.”

“And that understanding would be the key to his strength.”

“Just one of many reasons. Other than that, his leaders.h.i.+p and wide range of tactics in operating his troops would also account for his power… The weaknesses of a Necromancer don’t seem to apply to him much, either. Even if there was a Necromancer that had exactly the same skills and equipment as him, I think their hunting speed would be at least two times slower than Weed-nim’s.”

The scenes in which Weed’s undead army was sweeping through the battlefield during the Palrangka War was aired live, maintaining the ever high viewing rates.

***

*Clang! Clang! Clang!*

Fabio and Herman had built a blacksmith’s workshop.

“What a reckless plan they got themselves into, making 3700 sculptures!”

“Phew. I’m glad that I was able to help at least a little.”

Not only them, but all the dwarven blacksmiths of Kuruso were giving a hand in this construction project.

They prepared molten iron and built each specific statue elaborately and beautifully.

Users who chose craftsmen as their profession found joy in making something. Working alone was nice, but there was a different kind of happiness to be had in collaborating with many other users to create new pieces of art.

“Delivery of 30 sharp beaks completed.”

“We need a bent antenna piece. We placed the order yesterday…”

“Come back in one hour!”

The workshop was crowded with users.

They made various different shapes and parts needed for building large sculptures, and crafted steel structures. As they were also secretly making gears and equipment for the war on top of those, things were very hectic in the forge. In the sections where expendable items such as s.h.i.+elds and arrows were being manufactured, they were even getting help from some users who had not chosen their profession yet.

“Wow. It’s amazing.”

“There’s so much heat here. So this is what the workplace of a blacksmith is like, huh?”

Chaser the adventurer brought Lava Sealing Stone to increase the efficiency of work. It created a lava well, which could be used by experienced blacksmiths.

Fabio put down the hammer with which he was beating a slap of steel for a moment, and gulped down a gla.s.s of beer.

“The Rain of Flame is about to be completed.”

“Kuuu. The Squashy Sticky Wriggler is almost done, too.”

It was also quite a new feeling to perform the art of sculpting as master blacksmiths. Their ability to handle materials such as gold and wood was at the highest level, which made their large sculptures even more valuable. As there were also a great number of sculptors in the Garnav Plain who had gathered from all over the Continent, it was not too rare to find Fine Pieces.

An art contest for large sculptures!

The users held contests among themselves to gather many new ideas. Once they decided upon the shape of a new sculpture, they spared no labor and materials to construct it, which led to the creation of quite a few Fine Pieces, and in some rare cases, even Masterpieces.

There were presently two Magnum Opuses.

< Magnum Opus! A Roc Covering the Whole Sky!

An artwork that depicts a legendary mythical creature often appearing in the tales of old elves! It is said that when this mystical bird spread its wings, its body can reach from one end of the Earth to the other. Metal, earth, wood, water and wind were all forged into one in this masterpiece. The number of users who constructed this piece together is no less than 23,742.

Artistic Value: 9,837

# Special Characteristics:

Those who behold the statue A Roc Covering the Whole Sky will receive a 24% increase in their maximum Life Force and Mana.

The statue will improve the vigor of the flying creatures in the vicinity.

The righteous Roc will suppress the power of evil. It reduces the potency of Black Magic, Necromancy and Curses.

All stats will increase by 34 points.

For a one-time use only, anyone can use the skill ‘Winged Leap’. >

The Roc statue was incredibly wide, as its name suggested.

They had sculpted a bird that reached 500 meters in length, and its wings were made of fast-growing trees that had been put together by Elves. As Shamans had bestowed it with the features of wind and water, the whole sculpture looked very mystical indeed.

In fact, there had been some controversy among the users after it was completed because of its effect that suppressed undead summoning skills.

“Is this going to be bad for Weed-nim?”

“Yes, but… It feels like would be a waste to give up a Magnum Opus sculpture.”

“Well, Necromancers are rare. It’s a penalty that only applies to few people, but Weed-nim did not request this, so let’s just wait and see.”

< Magnum Opus! The Great King of the Desert!

The days when a single Scimitar and Camel swept the whole world!

He who was called the Great King of the Desert conquered the vast continent with his brave warriors.

A ruthless killer, a greedy and nasty rascal, and an abominable, notorious villain! Every town that was attacked by his troops was thoroughly destroyed in pillage and arson, which resulted in them being condemned everywhere they went.

However, he was the one who put a rest to the Warring Age that had thrown everyone into frenzied chaos, and who wiped out the Church of Embinyu which had been growing in power in the dark.

After he defeated Ausollet, the Chaos Dragon, he was eventually seen in a different light.

Artistic Value: 11,394

# Special Characteristics:

Those who behold the statue of The Great King of the Desert will receive a 27% increase to their maximum Life Force and Stamina.

Strength will increase by 10%.

Each time a victory is achieved over an enemy, additional experience points will be granted, and combat abilities will be temporarily improved.

The combat skills of Desert Warriors will be improved by 1 level.

All stats will be increased by 41.

Endurance and Toughness will increase by 30.

Warriors will be able to summon a camel for a duration which depends on their level, with a maximum of 20 minutes.

The blacksmiths who touch the Great King of the Desert sculpture will gain special proficiency in Metal Grinding Skill. >

The sculpture was depicting the Desert Warrior Weed in a size that was about 5 meters in height, which was relatively small compared to the other statues. A sculptor named Debbs was in charge of crafting the sculpture, and he had melted some precious metals that had been brought by adventurers and merchants. Some of the most talented blacksmiths, including Fabio and Herman, had also taken part in creating this work.

“Ooohhh. I want to finish it up quickly and have some cold beer.”

“We are almost done now.”

Blacksmiths smiled faintly even as they moved around busily, knowing that this hard work would soon come to an end.

There was not much time left until the battle against the Haven Empire broke out. Once the war began, the role of the blacksmiths would not be as important.

Many large sculptures were still unfinished, but they were running out of time. Now they were only concentrating their effort to those that they could actually complete, so their work would soon be done.

At that moment, the scenery in one of the corners of the workshop s.h.i.+mmered and swayed, and Yurin stepped out from there using her Picture Teleportation skill.

“Fabio-nim. Herman-nim. I have a favor to ask.”

“What is it?”

Both of them had met Yurin, Weed’s younger sister, before — the aqualight painter who roamed about the continent freely as she met different people and drew paintings. They also knew that, in fact, Weed himself was having quite a headache because of her habit of scurrying around just about anywhere.

“It’s actually my brother’s request. I believe you are making a sword with Helium?”

“Hmmm. Well… About that…”

This gave Fabio and Herman a pause. They had been tasked with making an excellent blade out of Helium, but they had not yet produced anything. As those master blacksmiths were competing with each other, they were both trying to make a sword that could certainly surpa.s.s their rival’s work.

“My brother sent over a few more materials.”

Yurin unpacked her backpack and took out the items she had brought.

The hide and heart of an Essen Poratt, a first-cla.s.s mana crystal, the Iron Mace of a Gratorgue, the Metal of Ruin. As Weed’s Contribution Points with the Arpen Empire had increased, he had even been able to get some ‘Dragon Tears’, albeit a small amount.

“Hm-hmm…”

“Why, such precious items…”

All of these materials were new to them, but they could still tell that they were extremely high-quality ingredients.

”Oh, this is quite a surprise.”

“He’s going to make just a sword with these materials? They are enough to craft a full set of armor, aren’t they?”

Other dwarven blacksmiths, Bambi and Mark, also flocked in to take a look.

Yurin gave them a wide smile that made her dimples visible.

“Then please make armor for him; my brother has faith in you two.”

“I guess you don’t know much about a blacksmith’s work. We couldn’t possibly finish making armor by tomorrow.”

“Yes. We need to first study the materials as we beat them… Find the best possible ratio of mixture. It also takes time to come up with the shape of the new armor.”

“Hmm. So making the sword is being delayed, and now you can’t craft the armor quickly enough, either?”

“…”

“Well, I thought you two were the best blacksmiths in the entire Continent, but if you’re so sure you can’t possibly do this… I guess I’ll have to ask someone else.”

Fabio and Herman knew they were not going to get any sleep or rest. The only thing they were left with was the overnight work, but they were also driven with motivation after seeing all the rare materials.

(To Be Continued…)