The Boundless Necromancer - Chapter 67

Chapter 67: Skill Acquisition (2)

Murim.

A place where those whose interactions begin and end with martial arts resided.

Or is it more accurate to say that they convinced others of their virtues through their martial arts?

A world where people conveyed information or proved themselves using simple martial strength.

Each individual trained to survive in the world where the weak fall prey to the strong.

But no matter which world you’re in, there’s always someone who stands out.

Even the martial artists who cared for nothing except strength had organizations and respective leaders.

The three most notable ones were the Murim Alliance, Dark Society, and Heavenly Demon Cult.

The Murim Alliance was not a small organization and was made of dozens of different factions.

It was supported in particular by the pillars— the Nine Clans, One Sect and the Five Great Houses.

But…

The pillars that supported the Murim alliance were starting to fall apart.

It was due to the fact that one of the elders of the Murim Alliance had disappeared.

The news of his disappearance spread like wildfire.

The Namgoong House of the Five Great Houses was not an exception to this.

“Grand elder Baek Sunhak seems to be untrackable at the moment.”

A man wearing a teal gi reported.

And—

“From the Flickering Lighting Clan?”

The successor to the Namgoong family, Nam Goonghyuk, questioned back inquisitively.

“Yes, sir.”

“I recently heard he was attempting an ‘intrusion’ in the tower.”

“And he hasn’t come back even though he was supposed to have been back a while ago.”

“Is his ranking in the tower gone now?”

“Yes, grand elder Baek Sunhak’s ranking completely disappeared.”

After hearing the report, Nam Goonghyuk narrowed his eyes and started to tap the arm of his chair.

“Hm.”

Knowing that he only did this when in deep thought, the man continued to speak.

“We can never be 100% sure, but the other elders believe that he may be dead as well.”

“Makes sense. That’s the only reason his name would be gone from the rankings.”

“But it doesn’t make sense. Where could he have intruded to lose his life like that?”

“Considering how careful he is, he probably didn’t intrude anyone from Murim as it could have political consequences.”

“We think so too. He probably went to a different world.”

“Well I’m not sure which world he went to, but it’s interesting that he ended up dying on a lower floor.”

The man seemed to hesitate for a moment and started talking again.

“Hmm… Well, I guess this isn’t bad news for us. Since one of the representatives of the Flickering Lightning Clan died, we might be able to submit someone we sponsor as a replacement.”

“Probably.”

“But I am a little curious.”

“…?”

“Baek Sunhak may be petty, but he rose to the ranks of a grand elder on pure skill. Even if he did lose all his power, isn’t it interesting that he lost to a challenger of a lower floor?”

“Maybe. The tower does provide dark arts-like skills to all the challengers.”

“I guess he could have let his guard down. Well, that’s probably not wrong but…”
He trailed off and smiled slightly.

“I’m curious to see who exactly killed Baek Sunhak.”

“Meaning…?”

“Spare no resources to find the person who killed Baek Sunhak and bring him to me.”

“Yessir.”

The man in the gi bowed his head to show respect.

At the same time, the man felt a little sympathy for this mystery killer.

Nam Goonghyuk was a true martial artist who felt joy from destroying other martial artists.

This mystery challenger from another world would obviously peak his interest.

He couldn’t easily kill people from this world because of his position in the family and the political discourse it would create but…

‘Challengers from another world are a different story.’

The man mumbled to himself as he walked out of the office.

“It’s been a while since the last bloodbath.”

Heavenly Azure Dragon, Nam Goonghyuk.

The dragon of the Namgoong family was making his way back into the tower for the first time in 5 years.

***

The victories were non-stop after the power was up for grabs.

Players saw the power and challenged me in hopes of maybe being able to win it.

As a result, I ended up stacking up quite a bit of a collection to combine with.

Of course…

‘Now that my name is pretty well known, people are shying away from challenging me again.’

They probably realized that I wasn’t an easy target.

“Too bad.”

I even revealed my actual name for this.

To be fair, I did squeeze every possible drop I could from this.

And I wasn’t the only one who thought this way.

「 Administrator ‘Iron-blooded Monarch’ wants more out of the arena. 」

The reason was clear.

The number of skills I had obtained here was comparable to the ones I’d gained my entire journey here.

I walked out after determining that there was nothing more to be gained here.

And…

“Interesting.”

I stared at the darkness covering the sky and admired it.

Who would have guessed that ‘night time’ existed in the public area?

The stars shone through the darkness as if they were trying to appeal their existence to me.

‘I guess this is better than it always being day.’

With a smile, I started walking away from the arena.

Since my business with the arena was done, I wanted to check out some of the other things I could do here.

The auction house, casino, marketplace, etc…

There were still a lot of things I hadn’t experienced in the public area, but I didn’t have the energy to go visit all of them.

Obviously.

‘How could I not be tired after spending all day fighting in the arena?’

My body was about to give out after the dozens of battles I’d just been in.

‘I’ll just go see what’s there.’

I didn’t really have a plan so I first strolled around the plaza.

As I took a look around, I noticed that there were a lot of challengers talking to each other and exchanging information.

Using the public area for what it was actually intended for.

‘I guess I’m the weird one for spending the whole time fighting when we’re not even in trial.’

In the middle of my walk, I came across a sudden thought.

“My name being revealed might become a hassle back on Earth.”

Just the thought of my name being brought up in the community was already annoying me.

But…

‘It’s not like they can use it to harm me.’

I wasn’t scared of anything they could do, nor was I weak enough to take it lying down.

Not after everything I went through to get here.

“…”

Thinking back, I sure had gone through a lot since I got to the tower.

I killed another human being for the first time and found out what it meant to get stronger.

My life that stagnated for 7 years faced rapid growth as soon as I entered this tower.

And now, I knew who I was and why I wanted to get stronger.

I was tired of being looked down upon.

I knew how it felt to be powerless in the face of true strength.

Whether it was in real life or the tower, the weak always get trampled on.

In conclusion?

‘I have to get stronger if I want to survive.’

I wasn’t climbing the tower to blindly get stronger.

If I was strong as I am now when the dungeon break happened, my parents would still be alive.

I was weak then, and paid the price for it.

And…

「 Administrator ‘Iron-blooded Monarch’ is confused at the silent walk. 」

「 Administrator ‘White Crane Sword Saint’ enjoys this aspect of you as well. 」

「 Administrator ‘Black Devil’ yawns at you being deep in thought. 」

I had to learn what exactly these administrators wanted.

The more administrators that took a liking to me, the more powers I’d be sponsored with.

First—

‘’I’ll have to go back to the waiting area.’

It was time to make use of the skills I got from the arena.