The legendary Moonlight Sculptor

V53C9P3 - Hero rescuing the world

Weed was engaged in battle, raising the undead.

"Mud golem. Charge towards your enemies."

The golem let out a low moan as it lumbered forwards, beginning its battle against a horde of Urgos, monsters with a horse-like head.

Fundamentally, a golem was a life-long partner of the necromancers.

Like a loyal knight, it protects its summoner, and at other times it destroyed enemy formations by fighting alongside the undead.

- The ruler of death commands us!

The Urgos, numbering over a thousand, scattered out over a wide area and threw their spears.

The mud golem took the blow of over a dozen spears and returned to the earth.

< Mud golem was destroyed. >

Weed clicked his tongue as he witnessed the moment.

"Tsk. My golem crafting isn't getting all that better."

Golem crafting had gone up to Beginner Level 7, but it was a skill difficult to master even through tedious grinding.

Necromancers such as Jeanne or Gruzed could erect fire golems or iron golems.

Fire golems were capable of a powerful AOE spell, and iron golems had the endurance to tire and defense to tire out any enemy that targeted them.

They had been training together with golems since they first became necromancers.

"It is what it is. All of you, go out there!"

"I've been waiting for that command. Baharaaaa!"

Warrior Bahamorg ran out with an axe in hand, tailed closely by Knight Serville and Valkyrie Gernika.

Together they faced the horde of Urgos, monsters known to excel in mobility and to have mastered the use of formations.

They tossed spears from range, which when combined with their high levels in and around the late 500s, made them a particularly difficult group of monsters to fight.

In the past, they resided beyond the Kilizar Pass in the outskirts of the northern continent, but there was news of them invading the pioneer villages of Arpen.

"Now that we've arrived, I will take everything from you all, to the last piece of leather!"

The Urgos were throwing their spears while galloping in a large circle.

Bahamorg, Servilleand Gernika were caught up at the frontlines blocking incoming spears with their shields, but even so the army of 300 skeletons led by Van Hawk were crushed immediately.

Weed riding on Wy-3 avoided hunting the monsters to save time. He had brought a small undead force into the Urgos camps.

*Crumble!*

That moment, the earth began to shake and something massive surged from the ground.

The Death Worm, whose combat strength was amongst the highest of all the sculptural creatures raised by Weed, its combat strength rivaling the Phoenix and King Hydra, rose violently from the ground.

The Death Worm with its mouth wide open, swallowed 5 Urgos on the ground at once.

- Nom nom nom. Gulp. Kyaaah.

The Urgos froze to the ground. The Death Worm's presence made them cower in terror.

"Terrain destruction."

By Weed's command, the Death Worm disappeared into the ground and resurged 10 meters away.

The Urgos favored wide fields and so they were restricted from running around freely.

"Focus your attacks with composure!"

"Pay attention to the trembling of the earth. We can deduce where the worm will pop up next."

The highly intelligent Urgos scattered strategically against the Death Worm and lunged their spears.

- Kwek!

Death Worm was targeted by over a hundred spears as it swallowed a mouthful of Urgos. With its sturdy but slippery skin, it reflected all but 7 spears.

"Aerial reinforcement."

Just as Weed gave his command, baraags flew in from the forests and and breathed fire on the grounds.

- I was growing impatient waiting. - We will roast everything.

The Urgos' combat strength relied on rapid movement and group formation to execute powerful mid range attacks.

Bahamorg and the other sculptural creatures acted as bait and lured the Urgos into one place.

Next, the Baraags' focus fire turned the grounds into an ocean of flames.

"Come back to the land where you once lived. In this place of darkness, in this black and rotten land. Carve the laws of darkness that will never fade into everyone. Undead Rise!"

Weed summoned the undead from within the flames.

The corpses of the Urgos killed by the baraags' attack turned into death knights at the very least and also resurrected as doom knights.

< The essence of darkness converted the tainted corpses of the Urgos into the undead. The proficiency in the undead summoning skill has increased greatly. Intelligence and wisdom is permanently increased by 3 points. >

The undead scorched by flames rose to their feet and became caught up in battle.

"The gorge of decayed bones."

Weed, taking any chance he could, summoned clumps of bones that spread poison and blocked off the rear.

The Urgos would never turn tail and run of their own volition, but he prepared if such a situation were to arise.

Now, Weed wanted to try out the curse skill tree and offensive magic spells that were inferior compared to his undead summoning. However, he was interrupted.

- Seoyoon : Mordred is in danger. The monsters that spewed out from the underground dungeons are overwhelming the city.

Mordred was the capital of the Niflheim empire.

The whisper pertained to the monsters clustered in a wide area of ruins.

"Okay."

Weed thought to himself that something that was on his mind had finally come forth.

"Shall we head to Mordred?"

If he were to hunt in Mordred, it would be at maximum efficiency as he wouldn't need to revoke his undead summonings.

Undeads are incredibly useful in taking down moderately powerful monsters.

Large monsters were spawning consistently and no other users were around to leech experience; such an environment was the perfect catalyst for a necromancer's growth.

- Seoyoon : I don't think we can regain it. Mordred is a vast ruins area and the monsters keep spawning from the ground. Other locations would fall in danger while we focus on Mordred.

"I suppose so."

- Seoyoon : The monsters spawning in Mordred will be fended off by relying on the walls of the nearby villages and the city. I assembled the Arpen Imperial army already.

"You responded quickly. Will they be able to defend successfully?"

Seoyoon : To some degree. We would have to bear with a few stray monsters to the northern continent.

Now that the appearance of monsters had become active all across the Versailles continent, danger was imminent anywhere.

The discussion boards were already full of posts from agonizing users that fell victim to the monsters.

- Seoyoon : More importantly… Are you planning to master necromancy?

"Why?"

- Seoyoon : I acquired some information about a special warrior job class. It could be connected to the Savior of the World.

"The Savior of the World?"

Weed knew about many job classes including martial artists.

Savior of the World was the job class he had during his days as the Great King of the desert.

'I advanced from the warrior of the sun. However, that path was not exclusive for the warrior of the sun. Just one person out of the top climbers in the knight and warrior class had the privilege.'

When Weed crushed the Embinyu Cult and closed his books on the days as the Great king of the desert, Hestiger succeeded the position of Savior of the World.

It was truly the pinnacle of the combat class!

"That job class is possible to acquire?"

- Seoyoon : I can't say for certain. But, you would be able to gain access to the advanced level of the warrior class. Savior of the World can be acquired after that.

"That makes sense. It is not an easy job class to come by."

Back when he became the Savior of the World, there were threats called the Embinyu Cult and Ausolet.

The job class that can only be fulfilled by transcending the limit of human strength and having received the quest to save the world.

"Kaybern could be…Hmm. Normally I wouldn't bet on it, but the world is troubled and receiving such a quest is highly probable."

Weed recently came to think that there was no real need for him to master necromancy.

Fundamentally, the necromancer was a job class that wields power that transcends the boundaries of death.

Therefore, it could only be powerful if one could freely use curse and dark magic spells as well.

In the process, the user will lose various stats, the penalties were great compared to the sculptor that has a slow growth rate but can stack stats.

'Just proficient enough to reach the greatest hunting speed. Also, I could master undead summoning one day if I use it consistently. There is no need for me to go out of my way to reach the top as a necromancer.'

A high level necromancer would have to offer special and unusual sacrifices to increase skill proficiency.

Each job class had different methods of progression and few shared the need for excessive and repetitive grinding that the sculptors were subjected to.

In the past, necromancy had been valuable for its hunting prowess despite the difficulties, but perspectives changed greatly after the Hermes guild was defeated.

- Seoyoon : If you do not master necromancy and go through the job advancement, the skill proficiency of the undead summoning will decrease a little bit.

"It doesn't matter. I can overcome it with grinding."

Weed thought that such a penalty had little meaning.

If the job wasn't mastered, proficiencies declined upon job advancement depending on the user's standings.

If one were to go through job advancement from a ranger to an archer which is similar, the archery proficiency would not decline.

However, if one were to change from the mage class to a warrior class, the user would suffer some loss in skill proficiency or stats.

- Seoyoon : First, you must advance into a warrior and head to the desert.

"Hmm. So the desert is where it begins?"

- Seoyoon : There could be another way in the central continent, but the easiest starting location was in the desert.

Thus, Weed decided to change job class.

He started out as a sculptor, but he also took on the role of a necromancer and became an emperor. Now, his goal was to become the Savior of the World.

***

Bart was expanding the trades all the way to the central continent after the Garnav battle.

"When the opportunity comes, you must seize it and proactively build on it. If you start a day late, you would suffer that much more loss."

He purchased a huge amount of goods such as potions and ores from the north and established trades with the cities in the central continent.

The head merchants Helten and Delmong that he became friends with in the process, joined him in the trade.

"Is there a reason to go all the way to Kallamore? There is enough demand just in Tulen."

"We must. If there is someone in demand, a merchant must go wherever that may be."

"The prices are firm here too…"

"We must sell first to those who absolutely want to buy it. Merchants become successful through credit, not money."

Bart led the wagons full of iron ores and headed to the Kallamore region.

Castle Evaluk was destroyed by the dragon and monsters were wreaking havoc, but he managed to arrive in Castle Zenia.

It was the fourth city in Kallamore, but its advantages of transportation traffic attracted users and served like a capital city.

"Selling iron ore! Iron weapons for sale. I brought lots of horns and wood that can be crafted into bows."

Helten and Delmong that followed Bart sold half of the goods to the trade station and started a street stall in the town square with the remaining half. Then, they accomplished an insane record of selling all their goods completely in 20 minutes.

All they did was start selling in the corner of the town square, but an endless line of users bought every product.

The bow materials especially were hot items that got sold out within 10 minutes.

"How's that? We sold out like a breeze, didn't we?"

"Yeah. It was worth it."

Bart accumulated contribution points in the city and could spread his reputation across the city.

With the fall of Castle Evaluk and the increasing activities of monsters resulted in exponential increase of demand for bows.

If a siege war were to break out, the weapon to grab regardless of one being warrior or a merchant was the bow.

"Insane! Now we can buy products for a lower price. But hey. What do we purchase on our way back?"

"Let us buy some medicinal herbs on the way. Various kinds grow around this area."

"How do you know that?"

"Market assessment is the basis of trades."

Bart used up all the money that he had and purchased the medicinal herbs.

Helten and Gamong joined him, and they got back on the road to Tulen with other users.

They could expect great profit if they were to sell in Tulen or the Britten region.

'When a war breaks out, the merchant must not be hindered and sell his goods even more diligently. Produce anything he can and sell. There is always someone in demand of the goods.'

When he managed the Hosung Inc. in the past, it was all the same.

When others said it was too early, he made early investments and led the skills development.

'Even after that, it all crumbled down… But I know, my management method wasn't wrong.'

Bart lost all his motivation and fell into despair when he lost ownership of the organization.

He had an enormous amount of money left to sustain his life, but it was heartbreaking to be branded as a failure of a manager.

One could ever so easily say as much about him.

'He's gone down but still lives a boastful life without any financial worries, no?'

It wasn't an understatement.

Even so, he had lived as a manager of an organization but his role disappeared at once. Hearing voices mocking him as one defeated was a lot worse than what people thought.

Tens and thousands of jobless folks and their families.

He was deeply sorry for them and felt ashamed of himself. However, the affiliate companies of the Hosung Inc. soon found a new owner and proudly began to make revenue.

The early investments in skills and equipment had begun its slow start in the display of its true value.

'Fortunate. If I had been able to overcome the financial difficulty just that once… Phew. Let go of the regrets. Anything can be successful or fail miserably by the slightest of differences.'

(To be continued…)