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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“It can’t fight that well. It would lose even against Athena. But it can be regenerated quickly even if it breaks, so it should be more useful than you think.”
Moreover, since it’s an undead, poison doesn’t work, and it emits magical energy, so it can provoke monsters as well.
Magical energy is an unpleasant force, so even monsters have an aversion to it.
If the level is low, they would be afraid, but my skeleton’s level was too low to induce a sense of overwhelming pressure or fear.
‘At best, it’s a provocation.’
“Indeed, if it has such an effect, it would be helpful.”
“Athena, you provide support from the rear and focus on dealing with the ones that are running away.”
“The rear again?”
“If you have room, you can engage in close combat with the fleeing ones. But it’s forbidden to get involved in a melee.”
“Follow the master’s orders. Don’t recklessly step forward when you have no experience in melee combat. And if something happens to Thea, you’ll have to rush over immediately, so are you planning to stand in the front line? Do you think it’s easy to get out of a melee?”
“…I’m sorry, Teacher. I understand. I’ll do as you say.”
‘It seems Athena is gradually wanting to gain close combat experience.’
Even if Kayla hadn’t explained, she would have stood in the rear anyway. She’s someone who follows my words for now.
However, she seemed to be trying to express her opinion a bit in advance, but the timing wasn’t good, so she got scolded by Kayla.
‘Well, Kayla’s words are right too.’
“What will you do, Master?”
“I’ll also stand in the front line.”
“The front line… you say?”
It seemed she thought I would actively contribute to the party as a magician this time, since I had supported with black magic last time and had brought out the skeleton this time.
“Yeah. The front line.”
“I thought you would use various support magic on the skeleton… I heard that’s how Warlocks, especially necromancers, fight.”
“I can do that while fighting too.”
“Hmm… Now that you mention it, unlike other magicians, you certainly don’t form a spiritual link or pact, Master.”
“I use a spiritual link without a contract.”
“…You’re definitely not an ordinary person.”
She seemed to have guessed the reason why I was confident in being able to fix her leg.
She wasn’t a fool either, so while looking, she must have known that my current level was lower than she had thought.
Nevertheless, she must have guessed that I was different from an ordinary Warlock.
It didn’t make sense for a low-level Warlock to discover and treat a curse that even a high-ranking priest would have difficulty finding.
She seemed to think that the root of my uniqueness was the blessing of mana.
‘I have the blessing of magical energy, though.’
I had no intention of correcting it one by one. Unless they were a magician or close to one, they usually didn’t know the difference between mana, magical power, and magical energy.
I also didn’t need to fully explain my hidden abilities.
With the skeleton taking the lead, Kayla and I slowly approached the goblin village. Athena followed behind us.
“Squeak?”
The goblins who spotted us showed a puzzled reaction.
It was natural. It was rare to see humans in monster territory. Yet, humans had appeared in their territory.
And with only three of them. It was a situation where they couldn’t help but find it strange.
“Kikiki.”
However, it wasn’t something that concerned them at all.
Prey had appeared. And with only three of them. Although there was one ugly-looking skeleton, the other three were ordinary humans.
When prey had walked in on their own, they couldn’t be in a bad mood.
The unpleasant skeleton was something they could laugh off.
“Squeak!”
“Kiee? Kiee!”
At the goblin’s cry, numerous goblins reacted and revealed themselves outside the village, and the goblins who had spotted us rushed out of the village cheering.
Athena’s footsteps slowed down, widening the distance, while Kayla and I slightly increased our speed.
At the same time, I gave the skeleton a charge order.
Clatter.
The skeleton wielding a sword and shield quickly ran forward, and I closely followed behind, while Kayla followed with a slightly drooping posture due to her leg.
I glanced back and saw Kayla’s face stiffening.
She seemed to resent her own leg that wouldn’t move as she wished.
“Kihee!”
In the meantime, the goblins approached even closer, and finally, my skeleton and a goblin clashed for the first time.
“Kaak!”
The skeleton collided head-on with the goblin, shield at the forefront, and perhaps because it had underestimated the skeleton, one goblin was sent flying.
‘Unexpected.’
Although the goblin’s equipment was in poor condition, I didn’t expect it to be blown away like that.
Surprisingly, the skeleton’s posture of holding the shield and colliding was quite textbook-like.
A strangely familiar posture.
‘Is it my influence?’
The way it ran and collided with the shield, as if pushing, reminded me of myself from the first round.
Although the corpse was Nenson’s, the one who created the skeleton was me.
Even skeleton mages use magic based on the abilities of the caster unless they are separately trained, so there was no rule saying they shouldn’t be the same for warrior types.
‘Usually, they are more influenced by the corpse’s abilities when they were alive.’
I couldn’t tell if it was due to the influence of the weapon it was holding or because my ability at the time of creation was so poor that it barely inherited the corpse’s abilities.
In any case, our side had the upper hand in the first clash.
The goblin that was sent flying collided with the other goblins behind it, causing the already chaotic formation of the charging ones to become even more disorderly.
‘Chance.’
I wouldn’t miss this opportunity.
[Strengthen]
I was going to use it after seeing how skilled it was, but if it was influenced by me, it was better to use it now.
Of course, the lack of physical performance would still remain, but it would improve a bit.
I mainly strengthened it to amplify power rather than durability.
While strengthening the skeleton, I cut down a slightly startled goblin.
As I approached further, I killed an additional goblin that was shocked, and by the time Kayla arrived, she took one side and formed a triangle.
“It’s stronger than I thought. It seems undead are strongly influenced by the caster. If the master’s physical abilities are lacking, it would be just like that.”
“I’m surprised too. Usually, they are more influenced by the corpse.”
The reason I was reminded of myself from the first round, not the current me, was precisely because of the difference in physical abilities.
In the past, when my physical abilities were lacking, I had a very similar appearance.
Even while having a short conversation, we mechanically slaughtered the goblins who were still in confusion.
As a dozen goblins were slaughtered, the goblins began to falter.
The skeleton didn’t give the goblins a chance.
It mechanically advanced and attempted to charge with its shield again, and when the goblins counterattacked, it blocked each attack with its shield and restrained the opponent with its sword, faithfully fulfilling its role as the front line.
In the meantime, Kayla assisted the skeleton and slaughtered the ones that charged in, and I also moved freely within the range that didn’t disrupt the formation, restraining and slaughtering the goblins.
‘Twenty-three goblins have popped out.’
Before I knew it, more than half of the goblins had fallen to the ground, and we continued to drive the goblins back.
‘It’s more useful than expected?’
According to my expectations, the skeleton should have been destroyed at least once by now.
Even that was because I had strengthened its durability and paid a bit of attention to it.
But somehow, it fought better than I thought, and it was even providing a solid front line role, allowing Kayla and me to run wild.
The skeleton hadn’t directly killed any goblins.
However, if we only look at its role, it was sufficiently doing the work of one person.
If it weren’t for that, we wouldn’t have been able to slaughter this many goblins so quickly.
This was why the role of the front line was important.
The attacking team can only freely and comfortably act when the front line is solidly supporting them.
Kayla had the fatal disadvantage of having difficulty moving, but the skeleton didn’t even have that.
Moreover, since it was autonomous and also my undead, it moved well, understanding my intentions, so I couldn’t help but feel extremely comfortable.
Therefore, Athena could focus more on observing if there were any escaping ones rather than providing support, and even without Athena’s support, we were able to unilaterally drive the goblins back.
“Kiee!”
A goblin let out a loud scream.
The village quickly became bustling, and goblins poured out at once.
Realizing that we weren’t ordinary humans after seeing three of us pushing back over twenty goblins, they had called for reinforcements.
‘It’s too late.’
However, thanks to the skeleton’s unexpected performance, we were able to completely wipe out the ones that had popped out first before the reinforcements arrived.
“Don’t give them a chance. Attack right away.”
Clatter.
The battle had been so one-sided and overwhelming that Kayla’s and my stamina couldn’t help but remain, and the skeleton was an undead, so its endurance was infinite.
“Kie, kieee!”
Goblins numbering well over thirty.
We charged at them and carried out a one-sided massacre.
Clatter!
Perhaps because they were inferior to the ones that had come out first, these goblins began to be killed one by one even by the skeleton, and Kayla was gradually adapting to the skeleton’s movements and slicing the goblins more vigorously than before.
“Kieek! Kieeek!”
However, as if determined not to be defeated like this, they persistently tried to inflict even small wounds on us by using their comrades as bait.
A strategy of charging in, using their dead comrades as bait.
It was the best choice that numerically superior ones could make. After all, their claws were poisonous.
Clang.
However, even though they succeeded in inflicting a wound by exploiting an opening in that way, the target was ridiculously the skeleton.
‘Their intelligence is obvious.’
There was no way poison would work on bones, and in the first place, those who had never faced an undead in monster territory wouldn’t know such a fact.
Moreover, the unpleasant magical energy might have had a slight provocative effect.
‘Well, there was no choice but the skeleton.’
No matter how much they used their comrades as bait to aim for openings, Kayla and I weren’t at a level to allow small wounds from them.
Even if a truly dangerous situation arose, we had the skill to safely spill blood by properly utilizing our armor.
The goblins seemed to have figured out that the skeleton was relatively weak, so they began to focus all kinds of attacks on the skeleton.
“Kaak, kaaak…”
However, as expected, the skeleton neither succumbed to the poison nor collapsed.
Kayla and I provided appropriate support at critical moments, so only the corpses of goblins that had died in vain piled up around the skeleton.
As the time was running out, I renewed the buff and surveyed the goblin village.
The entire village was in turmoil.
And at that moment…
“Inha! Behind you!”
When I turned my head, I could see a group of goblins running from far away.
A group of goblins.
They seemed to be the ones who had gone hunting.
To be honest, I had anticipated it.
However, we still carried out the attack because it was natural to strike when the enemy’s forces were lacking.
‘It felt like defeating them one by one.’
They did return earlier than expected, but that was all.
The skeleton’s performance was beyond imagination, and the goblins were more foolish than I thought.
Honestly, even if they returned now, it wasn’t particularly frightening.
‘Judging by Athena’s lack of reaction, Thea should be fine.’
It meant there was no reaction from the boundary stones.
“We’ll deal with those ones first.”
“Athena! Stay out of it!”
If she gets caught up trying to help, she’ll only be a hindrance.
Following my instructions, Athena took cover in an even safer place.
The belatedly arriving goblins became enraged upon seeing the corpses of their kin scattered all around, but it didn’t matter.
The goblins that appeared numbered a little over thirty.
Their level was higher than the ones we fought first, but they were still goblins, so we dealt with them in the same way as before.
As even the hunting team they had finally hoped for was handled by us, the remaining goblins in the village became agitated, and soon we could clearly see the entire village becoming chaotic.
“How’s your stamina?”
“I think I’ll be fine for the remaining ones.”
Even though it was one-sided, fighting three times in a row made the stamina consumption gradually noticeable.
It wasn’t to the point of being unable to fight, but it could be said that it wasn’t in the best condition.
However, as Kayla said, it wasn’t to the point of struggling against mere remnants, so we immediately began moving towards the village.
In response to our movement, some goblins tried to block the entrance of the village, but it was only laughable.
They also seemed to know that they were no match for us, as their legs were trembling in fear.
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