Chapter 102
‘He really was a perverted old man!’
I frowned deeply and stared at the message window as if I were looking at some enormous bug.
He was asking to see a picture of my body.
He definitely knew that I was in the body of a young girl.
So he was not only a necrophile, but a pedophile too?
A necrophilic pedophile—what kind of creature that should never exist……!
No matter how much he coveted the staff, I could not trade with someone like this.
I sent a reply filled with contempt.
[True Ancestor: Drop dead, human.]
[True Ancestor: The deal is off.]
[CorpseLover: Eeeehhhh?!]
[CorpseLover: Why-y-y~?! ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
He was grieving as if the world had come to an end.
But I did not feel sorry for him at all.
Of course he would be sad.
Because he could no longer make a shady deal with a child vampire!
[CorpseLover: (Voice message)]
At that moment, an audio file arrived instead of text.
‘What is this?’
Wondering what kind of nonsense he had recorded and sent me, I braced myself and pressed the play button.
- “Waaaaah! Why are you suddenly doing this~?! What did I do wrongggg?”
“……?”
The voice was brimming with a sense of injustice.
But the voice was different from what I had expected.
‘……A girl?’
It was not an old man’s voice at all, but a girl’s.
Besides, she spoke exactly the way she did in chat.
The system had said that voice messages exchanged through it could only be sent in the speaker’s own voice, making forgery absolutely impossible.
Then…… was CorpseLover a girl?
‘So she wasn’t a perverted old man?’
No. Then why would a girl want a picture of my body……?
Curious, I sent her a message.
[True Ancestor: Why did you say you wished to see this body’s form?]
[CorpseLover: Because I’m an undead too, so I’m curious~!]
Hm?
CorpseLover was an undead too?
I knew there were cases among Awakeners where their bodies underwent transformations due to their classes, but were there really cases so extreme that their race classification itself changed to undead?
I immediately picked up my smartphone and scrolled through the list of rankers from around the world.
‘Let’s see…… the highest-ranked necromancer-type ranker.’
I soon found one name that immediately caught my eye.
The world’s fourth-ranked ranker, the Necromancer King.
Number one among necromancers.
An S-grade unique class.
A Russian whose gender and age were both undisclosed.
According to the description on the profile, the Necromancer King’s true form had never once been revealed to the public and only acted through the undead army they controlled.
‘Could CorpseLover be this Necromancer King……?’
Even on the Hunter Gallery, many people praised the Necromancer King’s mysterious persona as cool.
But now that I thought about it, this person was a lot like me, wasn’t it?
I, too, kept my true form in my room while dispatching only my familiars outside to fight.
On top of that, we even shared the fact that we were both undead.
To make absolutely certain, I sent another message.
[True Ancestor: How could this body know whether your words are true? If you truly desire it, prove your appearance first.]
[CorpseLover: Okaaay~!]
[CorpseLover: But True Ancestor-nim, this is for your eyes only~?]
Ding.
A photo file arrived along with the message.
‘Whoa. She revealed even her face.’
It was a photograph of a girl with mint-colored hair and purple eyes, flashing a peace sign.
She was grinning playfully, revealing a mouthful of sharp, pointy teeth.
Her body was somewhat thin and petite.
She was wearing a thoroughly tattered robe, and together with her pale skin, it gave her a distinctly undead air rather than a human one.
Judging from the circumstances, everything she had said seemed to be true.
‘So the mysterious Necromancer King’s true identity was a hyperactive beauty like this…….’
I felt a little deflated, but only for a moment.
I fell into thought.
‘Hmm, then…….’
It had been proven that the other party was not some strange perverted old man.
Honestly, if I could send her one picture of myself and get an S-grade item in return, that would be an incredible bargain.
Do you know how much an S-grade item is worth?
‘B-but sending my face to a complete stranger is a little much……!’
I was not keen on sending a full-body picture, either.
If I sent one, I wanted to show only a certain part of my body.
The safest choice would have been my hand, but pictures of my hand had already spread all over the community.
If I sent her that again, she might be disappointed and back out of the deal.
‘Hmm.’
Something similar to a hand, yet relatively easy to reveal……
‘……My foot?’
I looked down at my foot stretched out across the bed.
A small, white bare foot.
If it was only my foot, there would be no chance of my identity being exposed, so wouldn’t it be all right?
Of course, I had heard that there were strange people in the world who enjoyed looking at pictures of other people’s feet……!
But CorpseLover was not an old man; she was a girl.
If she was genuinely curious about undead anatomy, a picture of my foot should be harmless enough.
Besides, I felt sorry for having misunderstood her and told her to die earlier.
[True Ancestor: Ahem. This body seems to have misunderstood somewhat. I withdraw my order for you to die.]
[True Ancestor: This body cannot show you its entire form, but I shall permit you to see its foot.]
[True Ancestor: However, only you may see the photo of this body’s form.
[It must never be leaked outside!!]
[CorpseLover: Oooooh! Great~! Of course I’ll be the only one who sees it~!]
She accepted my terms.
I contacted 24-Hour Inquiries Welcome and obtained a contract.
[24-Hour Inquiries Welcome: Just enter it here and the contract will be concluded~!]
It was a parchment-shaped system contract.
I entered the agreed-upon terms.
[The second party (CorpseLover) shall pay the first party (True Ancestor) ‘Guide of the Dead (S)’.]
[The first party (True Ancestor) shall lend the second party ‘Ritual Dagger (A+)’ for 30 days and send one photograph of the first party’s foot.]
[However, the second party shall never leak the photograph sent by the first party to outside parties.]
‘Hmm.’
As I read through the clauses of the contract, I felt a little strange.
It was clearly a perfectly wholesome transaction……
So why did the situation somehow seem so indecent? Was it just my imagination?
In any case, I stretched my foot out over the fluffy bedcovers, turned on my smartphone camera, and took a picture with a click.
‘Ugh. This is embarrassing…….’
Wiggle, wiggle.
It was my first time sending someone a picture of my foot, so my toes had curled up slightly out of embarrassment.
But retaking it would be awkward too.
‘Whatever! Send!’
I simply attached it to the system window and pressed the send button.
[CorpseLover: Waaaaah! I got it~!!]
After confirming the intense reaction coming from CorpseLover,
I remembered the rule that 24-Hour Inquiries Welcome had emphasized so strongly.
I was not allowed to conduct trades inside my domain, right?
I tiptoed to the front door and unlocked it.
Beep.
Creak.
I opened the door slightly and checked the hallway.
Although the inside of my room was a dazzling, state-of-the-art apartment, the building itself was still an ordinary one-room villa.
Fortunately, since it was nighttime, there were no neighbors passing by.
I dragged my slippers only half a step outside the front door, then took the [Ritual Dagger] from my inventory and held it out toward the empty air.
Flash!
At that moment, the dagger in my hand scattered into blue light and vanished.
At the same time, a staff appeared in midair with a flourish.
It was an ash-gray staff with an eerie yet magnificent skull ornament, exactly like the one I had seen in the photograph.
‘Ooh!’
Nice.
A notification appeared in the system window right afterward.
[10,000 gold has been paid to 24-Hour Inquiries Welcome.]
I also confirmed that the brokerage fee had been deducted for 24-Hour Inquiries Welcome.
At roughly one thousand won per gold, ten million won was a fairly substantial sum, but it was not at all excessive as payment for safely trading an S-grade item and preparing a binding contract.
I could pay that much without hesitation.
‘Then let’s hurry inside!’
Worried that a passing neighbor might see me, I quickly shut the front door and hurried back inside.
[CorpseLover: Waaaaah! It’s really a foot~! It’s amazing that it still looks so full of blood even though you’re undead~!]
[CorpseLover: Does it smell at all~?]
When I checked my smartphone, CorpseLover seemed unbelievably satisfied with the picture I had sent.
Her slightly strange commentary made me feel a little uncomfortable, though.
And did she somehow like the picture of my foot more than the dagger……?
As I was thinking about that, a good idea occurred to me.
‘Wait. Maybe I could introduce this girl to Yair?’
The Necromancer King, CorpseLover.
And Yair, the dark mage specializing in necromancy.
Seeing how she had gone wild and wanted to analyze even a single dagger made by Yair, I thought the two of them would get along well.
If I received another tribute from Yair later, perhaps I could give it to her and exchange it for useful items.
I sent her a reply to butter her up.
[True Ancestor: Mortal. If there are any tributes that pique this True Ancestor’s interest in the future, I shall gladly entertain another trade.]
[CorpseLover: Huh! Really~?! Okaaay~]
She was incredibly pleased to hear that I was open to another trade.
[The Lord’s Great Feat (Unique)]
- Current completion rate: 28%
The feat’s completion rate had risen by another 3%.
Apparently, establishing a trading relationship with the world’s fourth-ranked ranker counted toward the feat.
I got an S-grade item and completed a quest with a single photograph!
Today was truly my lucky day.
‘Good. Shall I equip the staff now?’
I gripped the ash-gray staff tightly.
[Would you like to equip the ‘Guide of the Dead (S)’?]
‘Equip.’
Ding.
[Equipment has been equipped.]
[The item’s effect unlocks ‘Necromancy Mastery’!]
[You have acquired the skill ‘Skeleton Summoning (D)’.]
‘Yes!’
I exclaimed inwardly.
Necromancy was originally a unique skill that could only be used by necromancer-class characters.
But this item ignored that class barrier and allowed characters of other classes to learn necromancy as well. It was an absurdly overpowered item.
It basically allowed me to summon skeletons, and once I met the proficiency requirements, it could even upgrade my mastery.
For now, I could only summon a D-grade skeleton.
But if I worked hard to raise my proficiency, I would eventually be able to command higher-grade undead as well.
‘Let’s see, shall I summon a skeleton right now?’
It was just as I was about to use the summoning skill, full of anticipation.
Ding—!
[※ A class-exclusive hidden effect has been activated!]
[’Guide of the Dead’s true power is revealed.]
‘Huh?’
A red system window appeared before my eyes.
[‘Necromancy Mastery’ changes to ‘Blood Necromancy Mastery’.]
[The skill ‘Skeleton Summoning (D)’ has been changed to ‘Blood Golem Summoning (A)’!]
‘W-what?’
So, um, didn’t this skip ahead a bit too much?!