Episode 191
Hassan, the Necromancer of the Black Star
191 ? Black Star Necromancer Hassan #2
Pishung-.
Something flew through the bushes with a rustling sound.
Bam-!
It soon lodged itself in the head of the bone goblin that was confronting me. The bone goblin I named Right because of its large right arm.
Oh no!
The one on the right had blue eyes flashing as if he was angry at whoever put the arrow in his head.
At that very moment, a rustling sound is heard in the bushes, along with a few signs.
“Oh, you got it! You, you there! We’ll help you!”
Soon after, four adventurers appeared. Judging from the gray metal identification tags dangling around their necks, they all appeared to be adventurers wearing iron plates.
A four-person party of two men and two women.
Each of them was armed with a short dagger or small shield, a long sword, and a long bow, so the party balance seemed pretty good.
In particular, the longbow carried on the woman’s back looks like it would be quite valuable, as it also has a strange snake-shaped decoration.
“Skadi! Cover me!”
Soon, a female adventurer with a dagger and a small shield lunges at me. Shit, I thought I was caught engaging in cult activities.
“This bastard!”
Thud-!
The short golden-haired female adventurer hit the head of the bone goblin standing in front of me with her small shield and then turned her back to me?
“We are the adventurer party ‘Skarji’ of the Minerva Guild! We will help you! You guys, come over here quickly!”
Minerva’s Adventurer Party Scarz?
These guys turned their backs on me and fought with the Bone Goblins as if they were trying to protect me from these Bone Goblins.
It’s quite agile and quick movements, so much so that it’s admirable.
But these guys’ attitude is a bit strange. Don’t these goblins know that I summoned them?
Because I was wearing a robe over a mask, I was prepared to be attacked because I looked like a cultist doing something suspicious to anyone.
Perhaps it was because of the mask festival that had taken place a while ago, but I looked ordinary wearing a mask. So these guys seemed to have mistaken me for someone who had just been caught up in a monster attack in the forest.
We actually fought as if we were attacked by goblins.
Anyway, it was an interesting situation in its own way.
I asked, hiding a relieved smile under my mask.
“Minerva Adventurer Party, you said Scarji, right? How strong are you? These guys are pretty strong monsters. Do you think you can handle them?”
The female adventurer of Small Shield answers my question.
“All of our combined karma is over 10! You can rest assured, we’re veterans! We’ve fought against skeletons many times!”
“We also participated in the social war that happened a few weeks ago-!”
indeed.
Anyone who has a total score of over 10 can be considered a Bronze Tier adventurer.
It would be safe to say that they are among the top Iron Tier adventurers and are about to be promoted. That is why they are confident and, as befitting members of the Minerva Guild, they are full of a sense of justice.
A balanced 4-person party with a total score of 10.
While I was deeply moved by the thought of wanting to save me, I also thought that this might be a good opportunity to test the abilities of my minions.
I have ten of my followers in total.
All of them are around level 13.
How well can they hold up against this promising party of new adventurers?
So I looked at the goblins I saw through the hole in my mask.
A bone goblin with an arrow stuck in its head – right.
I narrow my eyebrows as I look into his blue eyes.
-Try to fight.
And then he didn’t forget to whisper in a voice that no one could hear.
Kwaaaaah-!!!
Then, unlike the time when he had hesitated while dealing with me just now, the right side let out a huge roar that was truly a surprise.
The other minions follow him, their blue eyes flashing like flames as they scream for the entire forest to disappear.
“Kwaaah, Wh, what kind of monster scream is that!”
The female swordsman with the small shield who had been blocking my path flinched as if she was terrified. I felt that not only the female swordsman, but also the party itself was greatly diminished.
Could this be the fear emission skill that my original goblins possess? Honestly, when I hear that horrible scream, I want to cover my ears too.
At that very moment, the skinny, gray-haired man standing to my right slammed his cane on the floor and recited a spell.
“The Magic of Fear Resistance-.”
Bang, bang, bang-.
When the long staff is struck three times on the floor, the bell-like object hanging from it jingles.
As I listened to that sound, I felt a strange sense of strangeness, as if the loud roar I had just heard was being added to it.
Since it’s a law, is it something like magic?
The adventurers who had been cowering are once again holding their shields and weapons and straightening their stances as if it were a lie. The female adventurer in the shield shouts loudly.
“Good job, Jircal!”
The name of that skinny stone-clad man is probably Zircal. A wandering priest or something? Priest Zircal said, frowning.
“Come on, Kashiya-!”
“I’ll stop it!”
Keaaaah!!
The blonde swordswoman with the small shield called Kashiya deflects the huge right arm of the right-hand man rushing at her with her shield.
It was a technique called parrying that is often used in games.
Because of this, the one on the right stumbled and fell to the floor, perhaps because he couldn’t keep his huge right arm in balance.
If you put a small shield on your hand, you could use it like that.
That’s funny.
But I suddenly frown because I think my original goblins are fighting worse than I thought.
These kids have no discipline.
So, at that moment, I was starting to have doubts about the usefulness of my necromancy.
Keraaaak!
Guard, guard!
Except for the one on the right who fell and got up, the rest of the guys started to attack from all directions at the same time.
“Hey, that’s fast!”
“I guess this isn’t just any ordinary, run-of-the-mill undead!”
These goblins soon begin to attach themselves to the party members’ bodies and dig their claws and teeth into them.
“You guys, take these guys off!”
“I’m busy too! These guys are stronger than I thought! They’re just skin and bones…!”
Crunch, crunch.
Because of this, not only the shield woman named Kashiya, who was standing in the vanguard, but also the archer woman, the priest Jircal, and a man who didn’t know what he was doing were caught up in the muddy melee.
“My, my oak shield!”
Small Shield Kashiya was on the verge of having the shield on her arm snatched away by goblins who saw it. Anyone can see that there was no other moment of life or death.
“This, this! Why are these guys so tough!”
Kashiya, an adventurer with a small shield, keeps kicking away the goblins that try to steal her shield.
Geeeeeeek-!
However, the bone goblins are stronger than you might think and easily regenerate their cracked bodies and continue to attack.
“You’re even playing it! Leroa, the order, the order is still far away!?”
“It’ll be over soon! I’ll go, I’ll go-!”
As Shielder Kashiya shouted, the male adventurer who had been crouching in the corner mumbling something finally raised his hand high and shouted.
“Holy-bolt!”
Phageit.
Then, something like a strange electric current shot out from his fingertips. It was so strong that it was visible to the eye. Was it electric magic?
Electric magic was one of the attack magics that was quite effective, along with Elfriede’s fire magic and Velmina’s ice magic.
The last man was a wizard.
Keruuuuuuuck-!
All the goblins who were hit by the lightning were stunned as if they had lost consciousness. Soon, they were unable to maintain their form and collapsed.
The wizard Lulua gets up, shaking off the bones embedded in his body.
“As expected, it seems that monsters are powerless against Jupiter’s holy lightning. Hehe.”
Looking at his face without his hood, he was a rather noble-looking boy. Was he a nobleman?
“But, it won’t happen again, right…?”
The boy wizard seemed nervous as he tapped the remains of bones strewn across the floor with his long staff.
Of course, my original goblin will regenerate after taking moderate damage, but if it is hit by a certain amount of force, it will fall down as if it were being unsummoned.
As expected, the attack magic is quite strong.
Holy Bolt. Looks a little different than just lightning. Is it some kind of undead weakness?
Knowledge has increased.
“Whew-. How is it? Is everyone hurt anywhere?”
When all ten of the bone goblins had turned into piles of bones, Small Shield’s female swordswoman, Kashiya, looked around and asked about the situation.
Most of them suffered injuries, including scratches to their equipment and cuts and bleeding on their faces. However, none of them were fatally injured.
Is this at a usable level?
I was thinking about raising the fallen minions again, but I decided not to do that because it seemed like my necromancy would be too obvious.
There are wizards and priests, so they might be able to sense some sort of hellish magic.
“Whew, those undead are stronger than I thought. There are a lot of them.”
The female swordswoman Kashiya mutters while checking her shield. The priest Jircal responds to her words.
“Their eyes are blue and creepy. Why on earth did the undead show up here?”
The person who asked him the question was a blue-haired woman carrying a bow.
“It must be because of the festival. Festivals gather the dead.”
“That’s just a legend. How old are you, Skadi, to believe in a wandering dead person?”
“Leroi, I told you that I saw a real ghost when I was little.”
“Yeah, that’s a lie-.”
They were adventurers, each having their say.
I could definitely tell that they were a fairly well-balanced party with a priest, a magician, an archer, and a vanguard swordsman. They were really classic and good opponents.
And since I’ve managed to corner these guys, I guess my goblins are pretty useful too?
I asked.
“You use lightning magic. Can you use it multiple times?”
“There are limitations, since mana is limited. I can’t tell you the details though.”
I see.
If we had continued to revive these goblins and have them fight, I think the goblins would have had a chance of winning.
It was a pretty satisfying fight.
* * *
Minerva’s Iron Tier adventurer, Scarzi.
They said they often clean up these abandoned sanctuary sites periodically, which was originally done by Iron Tier adventurers from the Mars Guild.
Now that the Mars Guild is failing in its role, the job has been passed on to the Minerva Guild.
“So, we named him Scarzie, taking the first letters of our names. Sounds fun, right?”
Kashiya kept babbling on about things I didn’t even ask about.
But rather than being talkative, I felt like they were trying to calm me down when I was scared by the undead attacks. They were generally friendly to me when I first met them.
“Kashiya, don’t reveal too much information.”
Of course, there were some who weren’t like that.
A blue-haired woman with a long bow on her back. The party leader named Skadi seemed to still be wary of me.
Skadi asked, her eyes not hiding their wariness.
“So, what were you doing in the forest?”
“I was just, you know, picking herbs. I had to make a living.”
So I had to prove my alibi by showing the herbs I was carrying on my waist.
I found some grasses that Luna would like and saved them, so I’m glad they came in handy at a time like this.
“Hmm-. It’s so big, and it’s a medicinal herb…”
But Skadi narrowed her eyes as if she was not satisfied with my answer. Soon, a short, plain blonde woman named Kashiya spoke to her.
“Skadi, are you still suspicious of this man? If he was a cultist, why was he being attacked by the undead?”
“Am I social?”
“Skadi thought you were a cultist! If you were a cultist, you wouldn’t be attacked by the undead. Isn’t that funny?”
“Yeah, I was mistaken.”
Archer Skadi seemed reluctant to admit that she was mistaken, but in fact her intuition was quite sharp. After all, it was I who was commanding the undead.
I wonder what would have happened if the timing had been off and they had caught me summoning the undead. It probably wouldn’t have ended well.
In many ways, I would say that both they and I were lucky.
Anyway, this friendly party of adventurers escorted me to the entrance of the forest. And they didn’t forget to give me a word of scolding.
“These days, there are a lot of goblins in this forest, so it’s too dangerous to walk alone. I’ve even heard that a silver-rank monster, the Goblin King or something, is digging a hole.”
I felt slightly intrigued by the words of the cheerful blonde female prosecutor.
“A silver-grade monster?”
“It refers to the subjugation level that can be defeated by Silver-rank adventurers. The King of Goblins, creepy, huh? That’s probably why the bone goblin appeared… .”
“Kashiya. The Minerva Guild told us to keep that a secret if possible. And it’s not like it’s certain!”
“Okay, Skadi. Don’t reveal too much information, okay? Anyway, you should never come into the forest alone!”
“Yes, I will be careful. Thank you for saving me. The adventurer’s party of Minerva Guild, you said Scarji? I will spread good rumors about you.”
“Hehe, I didn’t really want to hear thanks, but I’d appreciate it if you would do so.”
With that, the adventuring party and I split up. I went outside the forest, and they went inside to hunt more of the growing goblins.
“The King of the Goblins-.”
A silver-tier monster? It was a rather eerie story. It would be a monster too powerful for Hassan, a bronze-tier adventurer, to deal with. It would be something like a giant max goblin.
But what about the necromancer Hassan?
I thought I had heard an interesting story, so I took it to heart and returned to the city, to the slums to the west, and to the cabin where Luna was waiting.
“Luna, I’m home.”
When I arrived at the first floor and took off my mask and clothes and hung them on the wall, there was something about the strangely quiet atmosphere inside the cabin that bothered me.
Did Luna go out to the market?
“Hey, did Luna go out?”
Woof, woof.
Since it barked twice, does that mean it’s on the second floor?
So, I went upstairs just in case. I saw Luna fast asleep, face down on something like a makeshift dressing table on the second floor.
It was still a little early in the evening, just before dusk.
Luna must not be sleeping well. Is she having a hard time because she made the elixir? Despite all that, there were no elixir stockpiles or jars on the first floor.
“Luna, did you sleep well all day today?”
After the festival ended.
Luna often sleeps long hours like this, as if she’s catching up on the sleep she’s been putting off.
So much so that I was worried that something might have gone wrong.
Sleeping regardless of day or night.
“Luna, wake up.”
I pressed Luna’s shoulders and neck with my fingers. Then I heard her take a deep breath.
After a while, a laughter sound was heard.
“Huh, Hassan’s here? When did I fall asleep-?”
“You must be very tired.”
I rubbed Luna’s shoulders and back with my hands. Then Luna yawned and stretched.
“Ugh, it’s so stuffy!”
Even though she said that, Luna’s emerald eyes were wide and clear, perhaps because she had been sleeping soundly. Seeing Luna’s bright and cheerful appearance as always, I felt a slight sense of relief.
“Hassan, your back hurts! Did you train again today?”
Luna pointed to my side. Now that I think about it, the blood on my waist where I got hurt by the goblin earlier was caked. It wasn’t a big wound, so it should heal in about a day.
“Well, you might get hurt while training. But Luna, aren’t you sleeping too much these days? Does anything hurt?”
I was really nervous about the possibility that Luna might get sick. To the point where I thought that if something was wrong with Luna’s body, I would rather it be me.
Is this what love is like?
So I felt Luna’s pulse on her wrist.
『Name: Luna Noxdotty Lv. 17 20
Strength: 4 5
Agility: 10 11
Stamina: 3 4
Quirks: 《Running around》》Eater-loving》》Nocturnal》
Status: The Curse of Nox》 The Curse of Erebor》
There didn’t seem to be any major issues with her status, except for her level going up. More importantly, when did she level up so much? Luna is already level 20. Her growth is really fast.
“Is there anything wrong with your body?”
“Don’t worry, Hassan. I often sleep like this. I do this once a year or so.”
“really?”
“I usually sleep a lot in the winter, but this year, I think I’m going to sleep in the summer.”
Luna said it really casually. Maybe it was growing pains or something. They say that beauties sleep a lot.
However, I couldn’t help but be worried, so I decided to wake up early tomorrow and go to the treatment center with Luna.
“Hassan, you seem to be more worried than you think. But Hassan, it’s going to rain stars tonight! The stars will really fall from the sky, so let’s go look at them!”
“Star rain?”
I didn’t know what star rain was. Stars falling from the sky. Was it a meteor shower? While I was imagining the night sky in my head, Luna added a few more words hesitantly.
“Paranoid, don’t let Hippolyte come over to play, just the two of you in the yard. You didn’t play well even at the festival.”
Certainly, we couldn’t enjoy a proper festival because of the raids by the Knights Templar and the Courtyard of the Dead.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
I nodded because Luna looked quite happy as she looked out the window.
Luna leaned out the window and looked up at the sky, almost worried that she might fall.
“Huh, when will the sun set-.”
The sunset seen beyond Luna’s shoulder is still bright, though it has set.
Is it a star?
I was starting to get a little excited at the thought of having a night date with Luna.
[Work Review]
This 191st episode is longer than I thought… It’s like 1.5 episodes…
And now, the real…story…begins… Season 3… Full-on… !!!
It’s true…!!!
