Chapter 298

“Come on, grow. Skeletons, skeletons…”

Beep!

System

• Lv. 105 Skeleton Warlord has used a special Skill!

• Special Skill, Summon the Dead, has been activated!

• The sleeping dead answer the Commander’s call!

I had never felt so at ease.

Every time I watched a Skeleton shoot up like a bean sprout, happiness welled up inside me.

Is this how farmers feel?

What a bumper crop. What a harvest.

I beamed and swung my sickle—no, my spear—and began reaping.

Every time I smashed the skull of a Skeleton that had only just awakened, a beautiful sound rang out.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

System

• You have defeated Lv. 71 Skeleton Warrior!

• You have gained a small amount of EXP!

• You have defeated Lv. 70 Skeleton Archer!

• You have gained a small amount of EXP!

The Skeleton Warlord, now forced to offer up his subordinates as EXP, muttered sorrowfully.

“Ah, my soldiers. Forgive your disloyal commander. To fall prey to the schemes of a wicked human and be erased before you could demonstrate your true strength…”

I was about to swing my spear at the next one when I suddenly stopped.

“What did you just say?”

“I called you a wicked human!”

Well, look at this guy.

He was supposed to be groveling, yet here he was glaring at me and talking back. Apparently, his fury at being demoted from commander of the great undead army to EXP factory manager had overcome his fear of Erasure.

“I would rather be erased than offer my soldiers to you!”

“Whether you get erased is for me to decide. More importantly, repeat what you said before that.”

“Wicked human!”

“Not that.”

“Not that? Then what?”

“You said they didn’t get to show their true strength, right?”

“…What of it?”

“Come to think of it, you have some weird Skill. Commander’s Rally, or whatever it was.”

“H-how do you know about that?!”

“Oh, right. No wonder something felt off. I forgot all about it.”

I beamed and stroked the Warlord’s skull.

“Use it.”

The Warlord asked again, sounding genuinely baffled.

“Commander’s Rally? Why?”

“The buff raises their Levels. I need to squeeze every last bit of EXP out of them.”

“…!”

“So hurry up and use it. If you do a good job, I might even let you go.”

“R-really?”

“There’s a saying in the human world: a man’s word is worth a thousand pieces of gold. It means a man always keeps his word.”

“A man who lost his mama is worth a thousand pieces of gold? What a strange saying.”

“Why would he lose his mama? Making mom jokes now, you fucking bastard? Maybe I should just erase you.”

Crack.

When I tightened my grip around his head, the Skeleton Warlord cried out in alarm.

“Wait! My bone—it’s cracking! My bone!”

“Lord, I’m sending one up.”

“Wait!”

“So are you going to do it or not?”

The Warlord’s green pupils darted anxiously from side to side.

For a Skeleton, he displayed a surprisingly wide range of emotions. After a moment, he finally forced out an answer.

“I-I’ll do it.”

“Good choice.”

“But do not misunderstand. This is not submission. It is a contract!”

“A contract?”

“That is right! Not obedience, but a contract mutually agreed upon by both parties!”

“…This bastard is more human than I am, and he’s a Skeleton. So what are the terms?”

“In exchange for cooperating with you, wicked human, you will guarantee my current position.”

“The master of the Black Forest and commander of the undead army?”

“Correct! In addition, cease this indiscriminate and barbaric slaughter!”

“…”

What had I just heard?

A monster, of all things, had just told me to stop my indiscriminate and barbaric slaughter. My head spun for a moment.

“Are you out of your mind? Is that something a monster should be saying?”

“How insulting. I am a Skeleton Warlord possessed of cool judgment and intelligence. Though I may have become one of the fallen undead, the spirit of chivalry remains engraved deep within my soul.”

“…If you had upheld chivalry, you wouldn’t have fallen like this in the first place.”

“…The truth is, my memories of life were erased when I became undead.”

“Then don’t go on about chivalry. You’re a real piece of work.”

Still, perhaps because he was a Named Monster, he was clearly different from ordinary monsters that were ruled by instinct and did nothing but howl.

Anyway, a contract.

I considered it carefully, then finally spoke.

“Fine. I’ve decided.”

“Human. Will you accept my contract?”

“No. I don’t want to.”

“…Huh?”

I continued as the green light in his eyes quivered with confusion.

“I’m okay with the first proposal. You can be the master of the Black Forest and the commander of the army, or whatever. But…”

“But?”

“From now on, you’re the Peace Guild’s EXP factory manager. In exchange for guaranteeing your position, you’ll supply me with as many Skeletons as I want.”

“That is absurd!”

“Don’t like it?”

“I would rather be erased than become a human puppet!”

“Your wish has been received, valued customer.”

Crack.

The Skeleton Warlord, a crack running across the crown of his skull, answered in a solemn voice.

“On second thought, it is not such a bad contract.”

“…”

“A commander cannot abandon his soldiers. Human, as master of the Black Forest and commander of the undead army, I accept your proposal.”

“You just said you’d rather be erased than become a human puppet.”

“An army falls apart without its commander. Do not misunderstand. I am merely enduring a moment of humiliation for the sake of the soldiers waiting for me.”

“But those are the very soldiers you have to offer up.”

“I will remember their noble sacrifice until the day I am erased. So, how much is this month’s tribute? No—how many troops must I offer?”

“…”

Look at him, giving them away without holding back since he wasn’t the one being destroyed.

At this point, he wasn’t a puppet. He was a snail bride.¹

When I stared at him with an utterly dumbfounded expression, the world’s first pro-human Named Monster, the Skeleton Warlord, hurriedly began chanting.

“Grow stronger, Skeletons, Skeletons!”

Beep!

System

• Lv. 105 Skeleton Warlord has used a special Skill!

• Special Skill, Commander’s Rally, has been activated!

• The Strength, Agility, and Magic of the monsters under the Skeleton Warlord’s command have been enhanced!

• The enemies’ Levels have increased by 5!

…He can do it all by himself now.

The harvesting was easy.

The first time was the hard part. After two or three repetitions, I got the hang of it.

The Skeleton Warlord made full use of his abilities as a commander to gather the tribute troops as quickly as possible.

“Legion! Assemble!”

Clatter, clatter!

Around a hundred freshly sprouted Skeletons gathered in one place. All I had to do was unleash Spear Energy at the monsters assembled under his command, and EXP came raining down.

Swoooosh! Boom!

Ding. Ding. Ding.

The sound of EXP rolling in brought a smile to my face. As he watched, the Warlord muttered in satisfaction.

“Hmm. This is much faster and easier.”

“…”

“Human. Have you witnessed my command ability? This is the majesty of a commander.”

What a pro-human bastard.

Watching him take pride in devising a more efficient way to offer up his soldiers, I felt like I finally understood why his soul had become corrupted.

If the winds of liberation² ever swept through the Black Forest, the Skeleton independence fighters would put him at the very top of their purge list.

Why do I feel like I’m the invader here?

Feeling strangely conflicted, I began collecting the loot.

Skeletons were one of the most dirt-poor monster species around. Their so-called by-products were either rusty weapons that could cause tetanus or half-rotted bones.

You could at least get beef and bone broth from a Minotaur carcass. Apparently, no matter how long you simmered Skeleton bones, all you got was the taste of a grave.

“Oh, a Magic Gem and some armor.”

At least Skeleton Knights, which appeared about as often as beans in a drought, sometimes left behind one or two Magic Gems and decent pieces of Equipment like these.

Of course, even that only happened once in a blue moon.

“A Magic Gem this size should easily fetch tens of millions of won.³”

Sending the Guild members away had been the right call. I got to monopolize both the EXP and the Magic Gems—the best of both worlds.

As I happily pocketed a Magic Gem the size of an adult’s fist, the Warlord asked me a question.

“Wicked human. What are you doing?”

“Can’t you tell? Collecting the fruits of my labor.”

“Do you intend to absorb it later?”

“Absorb it? Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I’m going to sell it.”

“Foolish. Magic Gems are the source of power. Is it not only natural to eat them and grow stronger?”

“That’s something monsters like you do. Humans are different.”

It was common knowledge that humans weren’t monsters’ only enemies.

Monsters often fought among themselves, and some grew stronger by devouring the monsters they defeated.

“Is that so? Humans are truly an incomprehensible race. You could grow stronger by absorbing Magic Gems… Is this thing called money really so wonderful?”

“We need money to live whether we like it or not. Besides, humans can’t absorb Magic Gems.”

The energy contained within Magic Gems was commonly known as demonic qi. It was the foundation of a monster’s strength, but to humans, it was no different from poison.

It was a type of qi, but the easiest way to understand it was to think of it as a contaminant.

After I gave him a rough explanation, the Warlord tilted his skull.

“You cannot absorb it? How strange. A group of humans I encountered long ago used Troll blood to heal their bodies.”

“Ah, potions? That goes through a purification process…”

“Then why not purify Magic Gems as well? Just as you do with the Troll blood you call potions.”

“If it were that simple, we’d have purified them long ago. You really are simpleminded, just like a monster.”

If Troll blood was a fruit-flavored drink with one percent fruit flavoring, a Magic Gem was one hundred percent fresh fruit juice.

People couldn’t even remove all the toxicity from potions, yet he was suggesting we absorb Magic Gems.

I let out a short laugh and continued.

“Anyway, humans can’t absorb Magic Gems.”

“Why?”

“Stop asking questions, you question-mark murderer. That’s the established academic consensus. I’ve never heard or seen anything like that.”

“I have never heard of a human like you, either.”

I was about to smack the Warlord’s skull when I stopped.

Wait. He has a point.

There’s no need to be bound by common sense all the time.

Wasn’t I living proof that common sense didn’t apply to everything?

Even the so-called accepted academic consensus was only a conclusion based on what people currently knew.

The Mana Cultivation Method is the same.

Only a tiny handful of people knew it existed.

I hadn’t even considered that before getting tangled up with the Ares Guild.

Their private league had remained unchanged both before and after the appearance of monsters, and its secrets had always been shared only within the boundaries they had drawn.

Absorbing a Magic Gem…

Should I give it a try?

Just as I was about to open my Inventory and take out the Magic Gem again, the Warlord spoke.

“Heh heh. You look as though you have just been struck. Wicked and foolish human.”

“Oh. Want me to hit your skull with an Erasure Punch?”

“…That was a rash remark. I apologize.”

“You apologized within three seconds, so I’ll allow it.”

Having escaped Erasure by observing the universal three-second rule, the Skeleton Warlord muttered,

“There is no greater humiliation. Consider yourself fortunate that I have not grown stronger, human.”

“You started as a Skeleton Knight and became master of the Black Forest through a coup. I’d say you’ve risen pretty far.”

“I am a Warlord now! Master of the Black Forest and—”

“Commander of the undead army. Yeah, yeah. I’m getting calluses on my ears from hearing it.”

I only learned later that he had taken over the Black Forest.

He had defeated the black wizard, who had practically been its true master. He must have absorbed an incredible number of Magic Gems.

“So this is a complete human—or rather, Skeleton—victory. Going from an ordinary Skeleton Knight to the master of the Black Forest, and even evolving into a Warlord… You must have absorbed an enormous number of Magic Gems from the black wizard, right?”

“What are you talking about? He did not possess any Magic Gems.”

“Huh?”

“Besides, the black wizard was the one who summoned me directly. Until recently, his commands were absolute. A summoned creature cannot defy its summoner.”

“Then how…”

“You mean, how was I able to defeat him?”

The green light in the Skeleton Warlord’s eyes narrowed.

“I do not know the reason myself. Not long ago, I suddenly felt that I had escaped his control. Perhaps you could say that I climbed one step higher when my magical power surpassed that of my summoner.”

“Suddenly?”

“Yes. My magical power increased tremendously, all at once.”

What was he talking about?

But just as the Warlord said, even he couldn’t properly explain what had happened to him.

After thinking for a long time, he managed to add only one thing.

“Borrowing a human expression, it felt as if I had been possessed by a ghost.”

“…Is that something a Skeleton can say?”

Maybe that bastard isn’t actually a Skeleton.

It was at that moment, as I stared at the Warlord with an incredulous expression, that—

“Hmm?”

The Warlord’s skull rolled around atop his neck, then stopped facing one direction.

The green light in his eyes shone as he gazed south and clacked his jaw.

“An intruder.”

“An intruder?”

“I am master of the Black Forest. I know everything that happens within it. More wicked humans have just set foot in my territory.”

“They’re my friends, you idiot.”

Whack!

I gave the back of his head a hearty smack, picked up the Warlord’s skull, and headed toward the Gate entrance.