Chapter 29: The Missing
The Spirit of Death which could change the surrounding air just by its presence, tore up the space and appeared in front of Lee Shin. It was made up of black smock and had a ghostly appearance. An eye beam emitted from the ghost to Lee Shin.
‘This is... the Spirit of Death…’ thought Lee Shin.
Lee Shin gulped, because the Spirit of Death was difficult to handle. People often said that no one could deal with them. Even the God of Death, which was their role model, was a God from the master class.
Lee Shin had seen a Spirit of Death that was of a low rank. The low-rank one was not as intimidating as this one, but they had a similar aura. All those who dealt with the Spirit of Death were said to be high-ranking believers or the apostles of the God of Death. There was a saying that if an ordinary person handled the Spirit of Death carelessly, it would put them closer to death.
Despite such a terrifying rumor, Lee Shin was confident. Therefore, he made such a request to the God of Death. Lee Shin could vaguely feel that this God thought well of him. This favor was not to the point of getting him locked up in a contract with the God of Death. However, the God of Death had brought an intermediate-rank spirit, not a low-rank one.
# Contract with a low-rank spirit
This was the function of the silver wand, but the Spirit of Death would make the silver wand work a little differently. If it was the intermediate rank spirit, Lee Shin could not use the function of this wand. Would the God of Death have sent Harpness without knowing this?
- It was a pleasure to meet you, He Who Knows Death.
God knew that Lee Shin was He Who Knows Death. Lee Shin had decided to be confident. There was no need to be scared anymore.
"Harpness," Lee Shin muttered.
- He Who Observes Death… No… Nevermind.
Harpness’s voice was cold.
- You are... the one who knows death. A man who had experienced countless deaths and realized...
Was Harpness seeing something? Lee Shin wondered if Harpness was looking at Lee Shin’s past life when he had died. At that time, Harpness, who stopped talking, approached Lee Shin.
- Dear, He Who Knows Death... I will spread the word of death.
Lee Shin could instinctively realize what these words meant. It implied he wanted to make a contract. Lee Shin then used his mana to cover Harpness. As Lee Shin’s black mana and Harpness began to unite, he could feel that there was an invisible connection between each other.
[You now have a contract with Harpness, the intermediate rank Spirit of Death.]
[Your Dominance has increased.]
[Your Dominance has increased.]
[Your Dominance has increased.]
[Your Dominance has…]
[Harpness]
He is a death sentencer. Those who have died from Harpness cannot be free from death.
# Intermediate rank Spirit of Death
# A death sentence
# The chain of death
# A path between life and death
[Death Sentence]
Harpness’s scythe of judgment takes away the rest in death.
# Creates the undead
# The undead becomes a subordinate to the contractor of Harpness. However, if one’s Dominance is low, they may escape from subordination.
# Sends the undead back to rest.
[Chain of Death]
He who is bound by the chain of Harpness must wait for the coming death sentence.
# It binds the living, and they cannot resist this as long as they are alive.
# The binding time is determined by the contractor's Dominance.
[Path Between Life and Death]
It connects the path between the world of life and death.
Lee Shin was astonished by Harpness's abilities. He could not believe the Death Sentence, Death Chain, and the Path Between Life and Death were all the powers of an intermediate-rank spirit.
The Death Sentence deprived a creature of its rest in death. This applied to anything that was alive; meaning, any creature that Lee Shin could kill could be turned into an undead.
Of course, depending on his Dominance stat, overly powerful ones could not be turned into a part of his clan. However, this skill was already great in itself.
Considering what the existing necromancers had, this was a ridiculous ability. Even a necromancer from the middle floors could not turn all life into the undead, especially the ones that were more powerful. It just did not make sense that one could make an undead unconditionally, whether it could be subordinated or not.
What was special about the Chain of Death? It forcibly restraints targets, and they wouldn’t be able to resist as long as they were alive. This, too, was an outstanding power, although the binding time was determined by one’s Dominance stats. In fights between top players, any restraint of even a fraction of a second could be fatal.
And the most ridiculous power was the ‘Path Between Life and Death.’
Lee Shin could not stop being amazed by the world of death.
The dead were creating a connection, a path to the world of the living. Of course, whether or not it was possible to cross this path, it was amazing enough to be able to connect. Lee Shin wondered if he had been too hasty in signing the contract with Harpness? Wouldn’t the God of Death have known about these advantages? The reason for not receiving the power from the gods was that the moment they received it, they were likely to become trapped in a contract with the God of Death. Seeing the Spirit's ability, Lee Shin could not erase the discomfort that he had become more intertwined with the God of Death.
The more one received, the more one had to give back. Even if the other party did not want anything in return, that was how the world worked.
There is a saying in the human world that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
There is no favor without a price.
‘This must be just a price for helping one of his believers.’ Lee Shin knew nothing would change even if he thought about it further.
He just had to accept it and move on. Lee Shin only thought more about how to use this ability in the future.
"Shakhan…" Lee Shin called him.
"Thank you, He Who Knows Death. Thanks to you, our tribe could be saved," Shakhan thanked Lee Shin.
[We have finished tallying your achievements.]
[The reward is calculated.]
"Are you leaving now?" Lee Shin asked.
"Yes, my tribe is in the realm of the God of Death, so I won’t have to worry. If you come back here from your missions, please drop by again," Shakhan asked.
"Alright," Lee Shin answered.
[You have cleared the fourth floor.]
[Your achievements will be recorded.]
[You have reached 200,100 points.]
[You have received 200,100 points.]
[Your Health Point has increased by 5,010.]
[Your Mana Power has increased by 15,000.]
[Your Strength has…]
[Your Agility has…]
His rewards were endless. Lee Shin could tell that the achievements on this stage would be better than any other achievements to be accomplished on the 20th and 30th floors. The satisfying part about this stage’s reward was the increase in Dominance.
In addition to the Dominance he had gained after signing a contract with Harpness, his Dominance has increased by 15 as a reward for clearing the stage. Currently, this was the stat that Lee Shin needed most. With the exception of Divine Status and Chaos, the increase in Dominance was the most effective one.
[Your close friendship with the Dark Frost Troll tribe is at its peak.]
[Your reputation has greatly increased.]
[Your name is occasionally heard in the conversation of the apostles.]
[You have acquired the 『Title - Pioneer of the World』.]
"Take me to the waiting area on the fifth floor," Lee Shin asked.
After checking all the messages that popped up, Lee Shin headed to the waiting area on the fifth floor.
* * *
The village of Goblins was spread out over a large mountain range. There were crude houses built here and there. And there were the occasional high-quality buildings. Lee Shin clicked his tongue at this sight.
"Hmm..." He did not check the ranking while he was climbing up to the fifth floor.
He could roughly assume the scores of the Undermost challengers. And there was no way that they would already get eliminated or anything like that. However, it was different from the fifth floor. This floor allowed the challengers to choose the level of difficulty, and this had dramatically reduced people’s chances of survival.
Unlike the second floor, they could not give up in the middle after realizing how difficult it was. They had to set the difficulty level from the beginning. There was no giving up midway. If they failed, they died.
Lee Shin frowned at the odd ranking.
# First. Park Joo-Hyuk: 83,010 points
# Second. Park Hye-Won: 78,300 points
# Third. Kim Kang-Chun: 73,820 points
# Fourth. Hwang Kang-Woong: 71,080 points
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.
.
As expected, the names that he had expected to see were on there. However, the problem was that one name was missing from the rankings.
‘What is this kid doing?’
Lee Shin could not find Baek Hyun’s name. He was one of the top three challengers in Undermost. Even when he scrolled to the very bottom, Baek Hyun’s name was not there. He could still be clearing the fifth floor as he might be delayed by something else, but that was not what Lee Shin’s intuition was saying.
"Tsk." Lee Shin clicked his tongue. Knowing Baek Hyun's personality, he must have challenged the Hell Level.
Sometimes there were stars who showed great talent. Those were the guys who made others around them feel inferior just by being their friend. And one of them was Cha Yu-Min. However, such people were usually more dangerous because they knew they were special.
Being able to choose the difficulty level on the fifth floor was a trap for such people. Lee Shin had seen too many cases where the stars that used to shine brightly disappeared helplessly. The fifth floor was a solo stage. Lee Shin felt bitter, because there was nothing he could do. Lee Shin had joined the community for the first time in a long time. His community was already full of messages from numerous people, but Lee Shin erased all of them except a few. And he had asked some people about Baek Hyun's whereabouts.
# Park Hye-Won - Master! You're finally answering! Baek Hyun oppa is…
# Park Joo-Hyuk - Baek Hyun is missing from the fifth floor.
# Kim Kang-Chun - Master, please help us.
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.
.
Messages from these people were delivered one after another. After leaving a short response, Lee Shin had deactivated his status in the community, and closed the window.
Lee Shin approached the manager in the waiting area on the fifth floor, the Chief of the Goblin Village.
"Klekle... Are you going to challenge yourself?" the Chief asked.
"Send me to the Hell Level," Lee Shin nodded and replied to the Chief.
* * *
The news of Lee Shin's climb was posted in the community almost every second. Ever since the moment he cleared the second floor, followed by the third and fourth floor, every step he took drew people’s attention as he climbed the tower.
└ The ranking of Lee Shin appeared on the fourth floor.
└ What? What's the score this time?
└ This is crazy... He scored 200,000?
└ What the hell did he do to get 200,000 points?
└ There was literally nothing on the fourth floor though. I think 200,000 is too much?
└ I mean… If we think that he caught the Black Orc on the third floor, he could have scored that point on the third floor. But what was even on the fourth floor?
People were confused by the news of Lee Shin's fourth-floor ranking update. Baek Hyun going missing was also one of the topics of the community, but the news of Lee Shin took the attention away.
# First. Lee Shin: 200,100 points
# Second. Park Hye-Won: 42,100 points
# Third. Park Joo-Hyuk: 41,350 points
# Fourth. Kang Ji-Hoon: 40,015 points
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.
.
People were speechless when it came to performance scores that were so absurdly different. It was even greater than the difference they saw for the second and third floors.
Since the fourth-floor challenge was quite straightforward, the achievement scores of other top challengers were not that different. Their high scores on the second and third floors were understandable, but the difference on the fourth floor was an incomprehensible gap.
Now, there were many people who wanted to give up on trying to understand Lee Shin. Another interesting topic in the community had been Cha Yu-Min's ranking. His journey, which had started a long time ago, was now attracting attention again.
Cha Yu-Min’s ranking was pushed down to four digits as the Undermost challengers started climbing the tower. It was such a shock that there were people who even said Cha Yu-Min was now old and gone. However, he stood out once again as many challengers reached the fourth and fifth floors.
Cha Yu-Min, who used to be first on the second floor, was quickly pushed back to the middle of the top 1000. On the third floor, he was 985th. And on the 4th floor, he was in the 803rd place. On the fifth floor, he was 189th.
└ Wow... Isn't Cha Yu-Min amazing?
└ I know. How can he be up there in just the five floors?
└ You're watching Cha Yu-Min's ranking make a comeback.
└ Is it because the 5th floor was a special case?
# 189th. Cha Yu-Min: 30,400 points.
Cha Yu-Min’s ranking was already in the hundreds, on the fifth floor.
└ Looking at it like this, he is amazing. How was he able to break the Hard Level on the fifth floor without much training?
└ I know... We gotta re-evaluate Cha Yu-min.
└ We have people clearing the Extreme Level too. Aren't they more amazing?
└ If Cha Yu-Min had learned from Lee Shin like they did, wouldn't he be able to master the Hell Level?
└ Agree.
└ That’s so freakin’ true.
└ What are you saying? Do you think the Hell Level is that easy?
└ I know. Are Cha Yu-Min's followers still alive?
└ Why don't you say that Cha Yu-Min will win against Lee Shin?
└ That's a little...
└ But Lee Shin is on another level.
└ I'm a regular member of Cha Yu-Min's fan club, but I don't agree with that either.
└ Forget it, please come up quickly and help with Merteng!
└ Yeah guys! Please hurry and come up!
The community was on fire today as well.