Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 208

“Let’s go with the feint attack.”

That was when Ji-Han spoke up.

“Um Ji-Cheok and Reable. I think you two can go ahead on the guerilla warfare plan.”

“Wait, why would you pick a Necromancer instead of a better ranged Damage Dealer?”

Mu-Cheok protested impatiently.

“Because they are more mana efficient, and Reable also has the ability to drain mana from corpses to restore his.”

“I see that you know more about me than I thought. You’re an asshole for blabbing about other people’s secrets like that, Jung Ji-Han~”

Being called an asshole by an evil God did exactly zero to affect Ji-Han.

‘I knew Reable could pull souls out of corpses, but mana?’

It was like looking at a human-sized multi-purpose knife. Ji-Cheok was surprised that this strange being, who was equally a master of Mana Body and Necromancy, could also do such a thing.

‘At this point, I should just ask him what he can’t do. That would be faster.’

Mu-Cheok clenched his jaw in frustration at Ji-Han’s logic, but he could not refute it.

With this, the plan was in motion.

“It is also important to clear the dungeon for us to destroy it. The rest of us will be clearing the dungeon, and in the meantime, I need you two to delay the enemy through guerilla warfare,” Ji-Han said.

‘Delay? You must be kidding me. I’ll annihilate them.’

However, Ji-Cheok didn’t say it out loud, as he knew the others would be worried about him.

They moved out right away.

* * *

Vroom!!

The engine revved up. Ji-Cheok and Reable were in the sky, traveling at a whopping three hundred kilometers per hour. Even on Jeju Island, it wouldn’t take long to get from one shore to the other at this speed.

They arrived at the forested ruins of the Cultists’ base in no time. Normally, the ruins would have been a mini dungeon, but the group had taken over and turned it into a fortress. A hemispherical magic shield covered the entire ruins, and Ji-Cheok could see that a strange ritual was being performed underneath. Given what the team had witnessed, it had to be a human sacrifice.

“Wow~ This is so much fun~!”

From his babbles, it seemed like Reable loved the speed.

“So, the reason why you’re here is that you can do something about that, right?”

Ji-Cheok slowed down his bike and stopped over the fortress. He had cast an invisibility spell, so there was no chance of being spotted by the Cultists.

“Of course! You’re saying all the obvious things. I’ll show you in a moment.”

Reable gestured at the Cultists. An unearthly glow of magic radiated from his hand. Then, to Ji-Cheok’s surprise, he saw Undead rising up from the ground inside the fortified ruins of the fortress.

‘Wow, wow, wow! What’s going on?!’

“This is where my metagaming knowledge comes in handy! See, my Undead can be stored below the surface of the ground. Now, as for what the ground surface actually is, the System simply defines it relative to where I’m standing, which means it could be the ground right below us, or it could be the ground inside the barrier! The power of the System makes this possible~”

‘That’s… so overpowered.’

“Alrighty then, I think this is good enough. Corpse explosion.”

The Undead that Reable had popped out of the ground clung to the group of Cultists. Naturally, this was followed by a massive chain explosion.

Boom! Boom!

The barrier was broken at once, and the entire ruined fortress started to crumble. The sight of it being destroyed as if it was eating the entire payload of a B-2 bomber gave Ji-Cheok goosebumps.

“Next step~ I absorb the mana of the dead~”

From the destroyed ruins, vivid blue energy was sucked into Reable like a waterfall flowing backward. His outfit and the light surrounding him made him look like a human-shaped black hole.

“And again, corpse explosion.”

Boom!

The entire ruined fortress exploded once more. And when the dust settled, all that remained was… the dust that settled.

The sight left Ji-Cheok speechless.

‘This guy… If he can do this kinda stuff, why does he even need me and my team members?’

“If you’re going to do it all by yourself, what do you need us f—huh?”

Ji-Cheok was just about to say something about this ridiculous situation when something interrupted him.

“Kuaaaaaaaa!!”

A roar erupted, accompanied by a ripple of tremendous mana. Down below, in the shattered ruins, there were exactly two dozen Cultists that had survived, and it was the largest of them all that was roaring. It looked a bit funny, yelling and making a fuss while being unable to detect the two attackers.

‘This feels a little bit cowardly.’

“My skill is great for smurfing on weak enemies, but it is not as effective against stronger ones. Also, since I have to use the corpses for explosions, I can’t even make new Undead. But it really is pretty good for cleaning out the weak ones.”

‘It sure looks cool, but too bad I don’t think I can use this on my video. Which means I can’t get Likes from this.’

“You should hear their side of the story before complaining. You just blew apart a few hundred Cultists in one go,” Ji-Cheok said.

“That’s their problem~ Our problem is dealing with the ones that survived, right? It’s going to be a lot harder to do that part~”

“So you’re saying you can’t fight anymore?”

‘Of course not, I remember his words clearly. He had said that corpse explosions were best done with cheap Undead. In other words, I’m sure he’s got the good and strong Undead stashed away somewhere.’

?Indeed, Master. That is an excellent insight.?

“Hahaha! Mr. Umji knows me well now, but even so… I can’t last long with just my Undead babies.”

“I will go down too.”

“Great! Then, I will pull the rest of my Undead out!”

Reable snapped his fingers. Seven huge, thick creatures burst through the devastated ground. There were two giant Undead made of bones, and five giant Undead made of tangled flesh. Each of the seven stood more than eight meters tall.

* * *

Rubble and debris were strewn all over the place. Bits of flesh, bones and charred entrails were scattered among the stones and dirt.

“AAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHHH!!”

High Priest Kain roared in rage as he looked over the devastation left behind by the explosions. His anger boiled like lava, and he could not contain it even with all the screaming.

“WHERE ARE YOU?! A mere Necromancer! Find—”

Unlike the others, he had not suffered much damage. The divine halo around his body had instantly reacted to the blast caused by the Necromancer's magic. His unimaginable resistance and strength of his physical body also helped. Combined with his ungodly regenerative power, he was unharmed even after two rounds of bombardment.

He was about to shout and order his men to find the attacker, but he quickly shut up, because some of his men had not been as fortunate.

They all had divine power, but they were weak, and their flesh was not as strong as Kain’s. As a result, most of them had been swept up in the explosion, their flesh torn away like paper, and now there was no trace of them.

Twenty-four remained, and Kain was the only one who appeared to be unharmed. All the others were gravely wounded or near death. They had lost—or, as they put it, surpassed—their human form, but they were still living things. Injuries such as missing limbs and spilled guts could still kill them.

“AAAAAARGH!!”

Kain did not have any detection skills. He never had one in the first place, and the dungeon God that he worshiped, the [Twisted God], had not granted him any such powers. Thus, he could do nothing but rage. His helplessness only fueled his seething rage, both at himself and at the enemy who had caused this.

Boom!

The ground suddenly burst open, revealing massive corpses. There were two giant skeletal knights, with only bones visible, and five Undead giants that looked like they were made by stitching a bunch of corpses together.

“What the hell!”

“Look out!”

The giant beings were overwhelmingly larger than everybody, except for Kain. The Cultists themselves were about three to four meters tall, but the Undead attacking them were twice as large. Exploding out of the ground, they launched vicious attacks on the heavily injured worshippers.

Swoosh!

Crack!

The skeletal giant knight’s greatsword slashed through the air, killing a worshiper in one fell swoop. There was no regeneration skill that could save him from being cut in two.

Swoosh!

Boom! Thud!

A fleshy Undead giant slammed its massive fist down, crushing another worshiper into a meat pie. The difference in size was simply too great, and the already injured worshiper was unable to even defend himself, dying in one blow.

“You corpse-eating piece of shit!”

Enraged, Kain unleashed his divine power. Holy fire, burning with the heat of a miniature sun, struck the Undead directly.

“Venomous Fangs!”

“Breath of Death!”

“Wave of Pain!”

The other Cultists used their skills as well. The reason why they were using skills with poison, acid, and pain attributes was that they were acting on instincts that had been honed over a long time. It was a habit that had become ingrained over the years of struggle in this dungeon. The Undead, already burning with holy fire, were struck by all these skills head-on.

The holy fire was slowly roasting the Undead, but it didn’t seem to be causing any critical damage, as the Undead didn’t fall. Instead, the Undead moved about even while burning, searching for their next victim, only to be struck by a barrage of skills from the cultists.

Tssss.

The poisonous liquid covered the flesh of the Undead, but it had no effect, and the acidic substance in the Breath of Death dissolved the flesh, but that was it. It didn’t even have any effect on the skeletal giants. While acrid smoke was coming out of them, the Undead spread in all directions, looking for enemies to kill.

“My poison skills are not effective on the Undead!”

“My pain skills too!”

“We need to find stronger ski—ARGH!”

The Cultists immediately tried other skills, but a few more heads had already been claimed. The Undead, which were both large in size and wrapped in powerful dark magic, were far too mighty for the heavily injured Cultists.

Death was upon them.

“How dare you, Undead bastards!”

High Priest Kain, the only one that sported a similar size to the Undead, charged at them.

The lion’s front paws slammed into a giant skeletal knight’s back, shattering it, and three different heads bit into its bones.

Crunch!

In one fell swoop, the giant skeletal knight was shredded to bits. In the meantime, Kain summoned a giant halberd and grabbed it with his human hand.

“Return to the soil to grow new life!”

Boom!

The halberd crackled with divine power and struck down like a bolt of lightning. The strike instantly destroyed the other giant skeletal knight.

Then, an eerie sensation made Kain grip the halberd tight with both hands and lift it up in front of him, in a defensive stance. He actually felt death drawing near! His beastly instincts told him this, and he naturally used his divine power to defend himself.

However, that did not do much.

Slash.

A sword of light gently slashed past the halberd, slicing through his body.

“I can’t die like this!”

Desperately, Kain threw himself backward. His chest was scored by a massive cut, and two of the three heads rising from the lion’s body were directly severed by the sword of light.

The pain was immense, and Kain felt like his brain was on fire, but he pushed through and looked ahead.

A tiny Hunter stood before him. He wielded a sword in each hand, and he was the one who had used the sword of light. Seeing this new enemy that was clearly dangerous, Kain gathered every last shred of his will to fight.

“I will offer you as a sacrifice to God!!”

‘Dear God! Have mercy on me!’

The Cultist High Priest charged forth.