Chapter 2
A month ago.
[You have Awakened. Open your status window for details.]
After finishing work and returning to my tiny apartment, I was lying in a corner when this system message appeared before my eyes. I was filled with pure elation.
It meant I was now part of that 1%, after all.
At the same time, anxiety began creeping up on me.
I had to win another draw with a 10% chance of success to get into a dungeon.
“Please! Please!”
After repeating ‘please’ dozens of times, I opened my status window.
And the status window appeared before my eyes.
[Name] : Kim Segyun
[Level] : 1
[Type] : Magic
[Class] : Necromancer
[Trait] : Infinite Legion Commander (EX)
The name was, well, my name.
Let’s read from the top.
My level was 1, which made sense since I’d only just Awakened.
And my type... Magic?
At that point, my heart started pounding.
With magic, there wasn’t much chance I’d drawn a dud.
Even if I didn’t have combat magic, as long as I had useful magic, I could enter a dungeon. And even if I couldn’t, useful magic outside one could still put food on the table.
When I looked at the class window, my voice trembled with anticipation.
“N-Necromancer?”
Jackpot! I’d hit the damn lottery!
A Necromancer!
The world’s strongest Hunter, Ahmad Triane, who was said to single-handedly account for 10% of France’s GDP, was a Necromancer.
The Necromancer class had been popular before, but after Ahmad Triane cleared the highest-difficulty dungeon in existence—the Stage 57 dungeon—in a short time, its popularity shot through the roof.
You might be wondering: How could one person possibly account for 10% of a country’s GDP?
Processing the monster byproducts from that dungeon could yield a substance called Elixir. When a high-level alchemist worked on it, the result was an elixir.
A magical potion that doubled your lifespan and cured every disease just by taking it regularly.
That dungeon was the only place it could be obtained, and he was the only one who could excel there. So saying he accounted for 10% of a major power like France’s GDP wasn’t an exaggeration.
Then I could be a Necromancer like Ahmad now...
“Kim Segyun, you crazy bastard. Get a grip.”
I was only a freshly Awakened Level 1. What did I have to do with Ahmad?
Besides, Necromancers were heavily dependent on their traits and skills.
So I needed to have a decent trait...
[Infinite Legion Commander (EX)]
Description : Removes the individual limit on all summoning-type skills.
There was a saying, you know.
Short descriptions are powerful.
And this one was powerful.
It was fucking powerful.
“Miiiiind-blowing—!!!”
How could I not get excited?
At that point, there was no way I could stop myself from getting carried away.
I spent the rest of the night unable to sleep, then headed to the Awakened Rank Assessment Center in Gangnam at eight the next morning.
It was a center built to weed out all the riffraff, so they wouldn’t wander into dungeons and die.
Awakened made up only 1% of the population, but that was still 500,000 people.
Dozens of people claiming to be Awakened showed up at the center every day, so the clerk taking applications looked at me, standing there all flushed with excitement, and spoke disinterestedly.
“You’re here for a rank assessment, right?”
“Yes.”
“Your level’s one, I assume. What class?”
“I-I’m a Necromancer.”
Flinch.
The clerk flinched, and I couldn’t help grinning.
The people waiting behind me started murmuring too.
Wow, so this is what Awakening feels like.
“Just a moment. I’ll take you to Assessment Room 5.”
When I followed her to Assessment Room 5, I found corpses of various animals inside.
“Ugh...”
It was a sight that made my brows furrow, but I was a Necromancer now.
It was a sight I had to get used to.
Having to get used to corpses was horrifying, but it was something I couldn’t avoid once I became a Hunter.
At least I was mentally prepared.
Once I entered the assessment room, a voice came from a speaker mounted on one side.
─Can you hear me? If you can raise any of the corpses in there, you pass.
That’s an easy bar to clear.
It wasn’t supposed to be this easy.
Other classes had to prove they had the combat ability to survive at least a Stage 1 dungeon.
Were they underestimating a Necromancer with the ‘Infinite Legion Commander’ trait?
As I tilted my head, the voice continued over the speaker, sounding embarrassed, as if they’d noticed.
─As those in the Necromancer class know, it’s hard to level up early on. So as long as you demonstrate the Undead Rise skill, the government actively supports and trains you.
So I’d even get a free ride, guaranteed.
Kim Segyun’s life was turning around in one fell swoop.
─All right, then. Please use Undead Rise.
“Sure.”
I answered calmly, then quietly spoke to the orc corpse before me.
“Undead Rise.”
A message appeared at the same time.
[This target cannot be used with the skill.]
“.....?”
What the hell did that mean?
It was a corpse.
When nothing happened, the voice on the other side of the speaker sounded flustered too.
─You... did use the skill, right?
“Yes, but...”
Maybe it didn’t work on orcs, so I’d try the goblin next to it.
“Undead Rise.”
[This target cannot be used with the skill.]
Then at the very least, the cow beside it...
“Undead Rise.”
[This target cannot be used with the skill.]
Then the pig, dog, chicken, and even cat.
Every one of them gave me the message that I couldn’t use the skill.
─Are you messing with us right now? Get that guy out of here!
The people on the other side of the mic sounded angry too. Employees rushed in, shouting furiously.
“W-Wait. It says the target can’t be used with the skill...”
“We’re swamped, and you come in here trying to scam us!”
“Do you want to go to the police station?”
“I-I really am a Necromancer! I can’t show you my status window, though!”
“What kind of Necromancer can’t even raise one undead? Get out!”
A Necromancer who couldn’t raise a single undead.
The last thing I heard as they more or less forced me out of the center lingered in my mind for a while.
Right. What kind of Necromancer couldn’t raise a single undead?
In despair, I plopped down on a park bench near the center.
What was the problem?
“Skill List.”
[Skills Currently Possessed] : Undead Rise (Unique) / Unsummon
It was simple, but a Necromancer could make a living with just Undead Rise.
Other skills were expensive, but I could earn money and learn them from skill books.
“Undead Rise, skill description.”
[Undead Rise (Unique)]
Description : This Undead Rise skill has been modified according to the methods of the legendary Necromancer Avicenna. Can only be used on targets of a certain size. As skill proficiency increases, you can raise smaller and more diverse targets. (The target limit has currently been removed due to your trait.)
It was different from the Undead Rise description I knew.
It definitely fit the saying that short descriptions were powerful.
What I’d seen on YouTube was definitely...
[Undead Rise]
Description : Raises undead. Depending on proficiency, you can raise a greater number of targets, as well as stronger and more diverse ones.
That was it.
After searching on my phone some more, I found out that what I had was a unique skill.
Skills with special effects or much greater power than standard skills.
This was a kind of lottery win too.
It wasn’t widely known, but apparently almost all top-rank Hunters roaming the highest stages had unique skills rather than standard ones.
By that logic, it should’ve been a good thing.
“Why me... Why...!! Of all things...! Aaaaaaaargh!”
The more proficient I became, the smaller the targets I could raise.
What kind of bullshit was that?
If my proficiency increased, I should be able to raise bigger targets, not smaller ones! How did that make any sense?
What, was I supposed to revive insects or something?
“Insects...?”
Could it be that I really could revive something about the size of an insect?
I looked around, then stepped on an ant passing by and killed it.
“Undead Rise.”
It was ridiculous to use the skill on a single ant, but I tried, just in case.
But.
[This target cannot be used with the skill.]
“You fucking piece of shit.”
If it didn’t work on insects, then what size was I supposed to use it on?
**
A month passed like that.
My half-day reign ended just as absurdly as a three-day reign, and I returned to my daily life.
I decided to give up on stupid fantasies like becoming a Necromancer.
Thank God I hadn’t impulsively quit my job just in case.
From now on, I’d just live like a non-Awakened person.
“Segyun.”
After finishing a fulfilling...
No, a shitty day at work, I was packing up to head home when the section chief, who’d been tapping away at his computer beside me, called out.
It never ended well when he did this.
“Yes, Chief?”
“You’re heading home now?”
“Yes, why?”
“Got anything to do after work?”
“I’ll go home and rest, I guess?”
“Then go do one more run.”
“What?”
Just as I thought.
What the hell was this asshole of a section chief talking about?
“Do you know what time it is? It’s already eleven. I came in at eight this morning and did three runs. You’re telling me to do a fourth?”
“What can you do? The client wants someone there right away.”
“Ah, this is driving me crazy.”
“Still, it’s not a difficult job. The Seonggwang Bio lab in Hwaseong.”
“Well, that’s better, at least.”
“Go.”
I got stuck with overtime, more or less by force.
So what was my job? Waste disposal.
Of course, not ordinary recyclables or household trash. I was a third-year employee at a company specializing in the disposal of dungeon byproduct waste.
In particular, we mainly handled outsourced work for biotech labs.
That meant it was our job to deal with the rotting monster corpses that the labs’ crazy scientists had chewed up, torn apart, sampled, and otherwise had their fun with.
3D work referred to jobs that were Difficult, Dirty, and Dangerous, and this one was all three.
If you mishandled a toxic corpse, you could die, so you needed to be able to identify all kinds of monsters even when their corpses had been chopped into pieces. It was difficult, and obviously dangerous. As for dirty, what more was there to say?
“At least the Seonggwang Bio lab is a little better.”
For some reason, most of the waste that came out of there was powder that looked like sawdust.
Sure, there were a ridiculous number of sacks of that powder, but sawdust wasn’t dangerous or dirty.
There was no getting around the fact the work was grueling.
I drove the box truck, rubbing my closing eyes, and barely made it to the Seonggwang Bio lab in Hwaseong.
I waved to the guard I always saw, and he opened the barrier and handed me a visitor pass.
Taking the pass, I casually asked the guard,
“What happened that they called us in at this hour?”
“I don’t know the details, but it looks like the group chairman’s coming to the lab tomorrow. Guess they called you in a rush because they can’t have messy garbage around when the chairman visits?”
“Ah...”
Damn it.
You had to call me in at this hour for that?
It was already midnight, so there was no chance I’d get off work today.
They say the lot of the underling is to do whatever the big shot demands, but this was too much.
“Sigh. What can you do?”
It wasn’t like I could quit.
With things as they were these days, this was still a pretty decent job.
I sighed and went into the lab, where the night-duty employee at the front desk was asleep with their head down.
What a wage thief.
Someone could just walk in and they wouldn’t even know.
“Excuse me.”
Snore.
“Excuse me!!”
I raised my voice, and the employee jolted awake, looked around, then saw me.
“H-How can I help you?”
“Hello. I’m with Hanyeong Systems. I was told there was waste to pick up.”
“Ah...”
Perhaps relieved that I wasn’t an in-house employee but a subcontractor, they let out a sigh and pointed behind them.
“Take that elevator over there to the second floor, then go into Room 2001 and start clearing things out.”
What kind of novel bullshit was this now?
“Not the collection area?”
Usually, my job was to deal with the garbage piled up in the collection area.
But they wanted me to go directly into the labs and clean them out?
“They gave us an urgent order to clear it out before it goes through the process of moving it to the collection area.”
“No, I can’t do the job like that. How am I supposed to collect all of it from the labs by myself, one item at a time?”
“I was just told to say that.”
The employee merely shrugged, with an expression that said, Don’t take it up with me~.
These bastards, seriously.
The curses rose to my throat, but there was nothing to gain by getting into an argument with this employee.
With no choice, I trudged toward the second floor.
Knock, knock. I knocked on Room 2001 and went inside.
An empty laboratory.
Was the security here okay?
Thankfully, the waste was neatly packed in sacks.
Surely they wouldn’t expect me to clean the place too.
I went around the rooms, slinging a few sacks over my shoulders at a time and carrying them to the truck.
Normally, I could park by the collection area and load it all at once, but having to keep going back and forth to the truck took forever.
I spent two hours going back and forth to the truck, drenched in sweat, and at last only the final lab remained.
I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open.
As I lifted a sack, thinking I’d better finish quickly and go, I swayed a little, perhaps because I was drowsy.
At that very moment.
Crash. I heard the sharp sound of something breaking.
I turned to see a small Petri dish lying shattered on the floor.
I must have knocked it off the desk with the sack; it had been sitting precariously close to the edge.
“Shit...”
I’m screwed.
This isn’t some kind of pathogen, is it?
Or... a zombie virus?
In movies, a zombie virus always gets released into the world because of an accident like this.
With a trembling hand, I touched the Petri dish shards and saw a label barely clinging to the broken glass.
[Perpetuus Exomodulus : obligate anaerobic, absolutely no contact with air]
The phrase obligate anaerobic made me feel relieved for the moment.
They say even a dog at a village school can recite the classics after three years, and I’d been in and out of labs like this for years, so I knew a word like that.
It meant bacteria that died as soon as they came into contact with air.
That meant there was no risk of a pathogen infecting me and spreading throughout the world.
No, wait, that wasn’t a reason to relax.
If it was an obligate anaerobe, that meant they were all dead...
Did I just accidentally kill all the bacteria they were researching in the lab?
“Ah, shit... I’m fucked. What do I do?”
I stared at the broken Petri dish for over five minutes.
Seriously, what do I do?
It’s not like I could bring dead bacteria back to life...
[Would you like to use the Undead Rise skill?]
[Target : 2,889,716,653 Perpetuus Exomodulus bacterial corpses.]
The system message I thought I’d never see again appeared before me at that very moment.