The legendary Moonlight Sculptor

V50C4P3 For This Beautiful Sea

The north coast of Shelgium.

With its black sand and lines of jagged rocks, this seaside had been an unpopular site in the past.

Currently, there were over a million users gathered in this place, standing along the shoreline and observing the sea.

"Will they really succeed?"

"I wouldn't have any hopes up if it had been anyone else, but it's Weed-nim we're talking about. His adventures have never failed before."

"That's right. I'm willing to trust and wait if it's Weed-nim."

Users from both the Northern and the Central Continents sat around together chatting. Normally there would be merchants from various stores selling food like chicken skewers, but since all of them had moved to the Garnav Plain, the place was almost quiet.

The people who had decided to put off joining the greatest festival in order to gather at this beach were those who loved the sea and the scenery of nature.

"You know what? My brother said that Weed-nim has actually gone on this adventure for us."

"For us?"

"Yeah. Apparently this is his gift to all the Central Continent users; to show that the Arpen Kingdom is full of such enjoyable adventures every day."

"Do you think that's really the case?"

"Well, we'll need to keep watching to be sure, but it's true that Weed-nim has never let people down. I've only watched him through broadcast, but don't you think he's quite trustworthy?"

Weed's unusually high popularity had resulted in such baseless yet positive rumors spreading among the public.

- They have already succeeded in hunting the 14th Essen Poratt!

- Look at the sea. A small whirlpool has been formed and it is swallowing the smaller Poratts.

- Pale the Battle Slave! He draws the bow with all his might. The arrow flies like a flash of lightning and hits the eye of an Essen Poratt.

Through the crystal balls the users could watch the live broadcast of Weed's adventure in real time. If Weed's adventure concludes successfully, it will change the course of history! Although there had already been such an incident, during which the Embinyu Church was defeated, this time it was related to possible changes in the geography of a region. The Wulhoff Reef, with its incredible landscape that people could only see through broadcasting screen… There was a chance of that beautiful ocean appearing in front of them once again, so many users had gathered and were waiting expectantly.

The tiny Weed inside their crystal balls charged headlong into the enemy lines, flying on the back of a Bone Poratt.

"What, what on earth is he doing? That's so dangerous!"

"Whoa! They're making Breath attacks!"

"Did you see that just now? He jumped off from the Bone Poratt!"

The sight of Weed rushing through the field of poison and Breath without hesitation made the hearts of the users who were watching beat faster with excitement.

"Wow…"

"Ah, such thrilling moves! This is crazy."

"This is almost like a movie, don't you think?"

"It's even better than a movie. It's as if he has several spare lives."

In the middle of the splendid aerial battle, Weed on the back of the Bone Poratt was rampaging through the sky. He swung his sword and shot arrows, and even threw bolts of lightning at times using Myul's Thunderspear as he engaged himself in battle. In reality, it was the sight of him desperately trying to get the last hit on enemies in his state of frenzy caused by his greed for booty and level improvement, but to the eyes of common users it was simply a wonderful scene.

- All undead creatures, follow my orders. I am the supreme commander of the army of darkness!

- I've indeed met a wrong master, seeing I have been dragged into this mess of a place. The blood of those winged fish simply has the worst taste.

Van Hawk the Death Knight and Torido the Vampire Lord had been summoned as well.

- This will make an excellent conveyance.

Van Hawk rode on the back of a Bone Poratt and joined the fray, while Torido cast spells of illusion and charm shrouded in a cloud of bats. In terms of combat capacity only, those two were not so extremely powerful as to pose a serious threat to the Essen Poratts, but their strength became the most apparent when commanding a large scale army or fighting against human opponents. Despite their limits as a Death Knight and a Vampire Lord, they managed to buy some time by distracting the Essen Poratts.

"That's an undead air force."

"This is just so cool. I wish I could have an epic battle like that…"

As the time limit of the Undead Rise skill drew near, the Bone Poratts revived by Weed began to disappear, starting from the tips of their wings and tales slowly turning to dust. Even then, Weed continued using the undead summoning skill every time another Essen Poratt was killed.

Weed, having over twenty Bone Poratts under his command, fought in a deadly aerial combat!

He yelled out, using Lion's Roar.

- There are creatures that deserve your anger and resentment. Strike those that are still alive!

- Kuuuaaargh!!!

The Bone Poratts slammed their own bodies against the enemies, full of hatred towards their living kin.

"Just keep at it and eradicate all of them!"

Pale was also creating wonderful scenes of battle as he directed the squads of Baraags. Commanding an army in an aerial fight was not in any way an easy task, but he had ridden Wy-3 plenty of times when he was in the Arpen Kingdom. Previous experience of watching Weed mobilizing his army during battles also proved useful when conducting the fight in midair.

'Start from the weaker ones. Formation is important in this kind of combat encounter. I must take care not to lose our forces, too.'

While Weed valued victory in battle itself, he always avoided any wasteful loss of lives at any cost. From the beginning of his adventure in the Rosenheim Kingdom, he made sure that everyone under his command down to the lowest-rank soldier could grow in strength by minimizing unnecessary sacrifice; it was his way of securing military strength so that he could be ready for any worst case scenarios.

There was plenty of space that could be utilized in an aerial battle. Half of the Baraag squads were drawing the attention of the Essen Poratts, keeping them at their tail, while the rest hunted down those that broke away from the group using their great mobility.

- This is good strategy!

- I like this way of fighting.

The Baraags acknowledged the efficiency of Pale's conduct of maneuver and followed his orders faithfully. Due to Pale's background as a pure archer, leadership and charisma were never his forte. It might have been better if Weed himself took charge, but after he summoned the undead servants he entrusted the task of commanding the Baraags to Pale.

"I will probably be too busy harvesting. It's just such a waste to let these Baraags kill all the boss-level monsters. These Essen Poratts are especially rare things, too, so they're bound to drop some really special loot."

"…What?"

"In other words, you go and become a hero, Pale-nim. I'll settle for a building owner."

"…!"

A plan to let Pale make the most distinguished contribution in the battle itself, while taking all the real benefits from it!

'Well, I don't mind his way too much.'

Pale was afraid at first, but once the battle began, he was so focused on the fight it looked as if he fell into some sort of trance. Weed wouldn't have maintained such a close relationship with anyone for so long just based on their early acquaintance. He knew that Pale had never once failed to do his part during a battle, and that was why he could entrust him with an important role. The thirty Baraags managed to buy a considerable amount of time while keeping their position stably against the force that outnumbered them for more than a threefold.

"Here comes your death!"

Seasoned Crab erupted from the shadow of an Essen Poratt and drove his sword into its throat whenever he had a chance. Python was swinging his greatsword like a knight; Romuna, Surka, and Maylon were all contributing to the fight in their own ways admirably as well. In the meantime, Bellot and Hwaryeong were having a hard time as they had to play an instrument and dance while staying on the backs of flying Baraags.

"Watch your step, sister!"

"*Yelp!*"

Their dancing and playing jarred on the nerves of the Essen Poratts while improving the strength of the allies. On top of that, as the Bone Poratts led by Weed fiercely joined the combat, the tide of the battle began to turn to their favor. Soon the sky was dotted with the bodies of Essen Poratts plummeting to the sea, only to rise again as undead. The balance of power had completely tilted towards Weed and the Baraags.

"Victory!"

The annihilation of over a hundred Essen Poratts that had been dominating the sky!

The aerial battle had concluded in the victory of Weed's side, but now they had to stop the Poratts from reaching the shore as those monsters swarmed in like a great tidal wave.

"Dive in!"

Weed deployed his Bone Poratts into the sea. As they were originally a race of fish with wings, there was not a second of hesitation as they threw themselves into the water.

- Devour them all!

Weed looked down upon a sea swelling with deep blue waves from the top of a Bone Poratt's head.

"It's going to be quite a chore dealing with all of them."

A great mass of Poratts was streaming in, their number large enough to cover up the whole sea. Thanks to the zones of ice created by the Snowmen, the Poratts, which were weak to cold, were staying far at large for the moment.

"It will take some time, but it won't be too difficult."

Weed gripped the Staff of the Corrupted Saint.

"Rise, vengeful spirits, those who could not fully close their eyes, and found no rest in their death; rise and take revenge upon the living, the ones who destroyed you. Undead Rise!"

A spell of undead summoning!

He turned the bodies of the Poratts in the sea into undead, making them attack their former allies.

* Crunch, chomp! *

The skeleton Poratts tore at the flesh of their nearby friends. The undead Poratts couldn't be compared to zombies or skeletons in terms of fighting strength, but their power was enough to devour the living Poratts around them. Beside, each time Weed cast the undead summoning spell, more and more Poratts were revived as undead.

<You have gained experience points.>

<You have gained experience points.>

<You have gained experience points.>

…

Even Weed had not expected this. A Poratt normally gave even fewer experience points than what one gets for hunting a rabbit, but with the entire sea packed with them, a hunt on an enormous scale took place whenever the tens of thousands of Poratts moved around and attacked them. While it still wasn't enough to increase Weed's level, which was over 500, the experience points gained from killing them were piling up steadily.

< Your Undead Summoning Skill's level has reached Intermediate 8.

You can now appoint powerful Death Knight heroes.

The summoned undead legion will have increased speed.

Less amount of mana will be consumed to maintain the summoned state of the undead. >

"Even my skill level is up. The sea is the future of humankind indeed."

Weed's eyes were shining brightly as if he had just spotted a dropped wallet. In fact it was even better, since it would be wrong to take the wallet that belonged to someone else whereas hunting the Poratts in the sea would contribute to the important battle.

Completing the quest goal as well as gaining experience points and skill levels!

The only thing missing here was the loot, but he had already gotten quite a satisfactory amount of booty from hunting the Essen Poratts, for he had obtained plenty of their hide and bones as first class blacksmithing materials and plenty of their meat as first class cooking ingredients.

"Rise up, my undead creatures. Let us slaughter every last living Poratt in this place!"

The numerous Poratts that had taken hold of the entire sea had all been reduced to mere prey that provided experience points and skill proficiency.

"Corpse Explosion! Corpse Explosion! Corpse Explosion!"

Although the situation underneath the surface of the sea could not be seen, the outside turned into a pandemonium as the Poratts leaped out from the water.

<You have gained experience points.>

<You have gained experience points.>

<You have gained experience points.>

<You have gained experience points.>

<You have gained experience points.>

…

Weed was casting Corpse Explosion or Undead Summoning spells as often as his mana allowed.

"Kuhehehehehe!!"

A smile that could not be restrained hovered over his mouth.

A frantic laugh of a madman!

Pale and the other companions could not do anything besides watching him from afar.

"It seems Weed-nim is making quite a fortune here."

"Mm-hmm. I'm certainly envious, but it's somewhat…"

"…scary, isn't it?"

Even Weed's long-time companions like Irene and Surka did not dare to approach him freely.

Weed cast Undead Summoning spells, flying over the sea on the back of a Bone Poratt.

The sea turned into a living hell while flocks upon flocks of Bone Poratt preyed on their kin.

Which was immediately followed by Corpse Explosion.

Seasoned Crab spoke in a trembling voice.

"It was fortunate that Weed-nim started as a sculptor."

"What?"

"If he had been a Necromancer from the beginning, or changed his profession in the middle…"

"…Hmmm…"

An image was being created in the head of Weed's companions.

Necromancer, as a profession that dealt with dark power and allowed a rapid growth, was accompanied with considerable penalties as well. If it hadn't been for the many accomplishments he had made as a sculptor and a hero who had led numerous adventures to success, he might have created a massive Empire of undead by now — the Undead Legion of Arpen instead of the Arpen Kingdom. Weed would never have stopped at being just an ordinary Necromancer.

"I must say it was indeed a tremendous stroke of luck, for the whole Versailles Continent."

Irene smiled, but Seasoned Crab still looked uneasy.

*Sigh*

"But the problem is that we don't know what will happen in the future. Maybe Weed-nim will still turn into a great villain."

"…"

Even Weed's long time companions found it hard to refute that claim. To be perfectly honest, Weed becoming the great evil mastermind who threatens the peace of the continent simply felt like a very natural course of event. Even now, he was wreaking havoc on the sea by reviving the dead Poratts as undead.

"Jump, jump!!"

Upon hearing Weed's shout, the undead Poratts gave mighty leaps out of the surface of the sea. Several thousand Poratts that had risen 7 to 10 meters into the air fell into the water again.

A fountain show of undead Poratts — it was a sight which could never be created by an ordinary, sensible Necromancer.

(Continued on …)