[Episode 4 'Attack of the Necromancer' begins.]

At the same time as the alarm sounded, the eerie presence of mana was scattered in all directions. Right after that, the ground in front of me shook and something jerked!

A hand suddenly barged out from the ground.

It was a skeleton hand.

Next second, a skeleton with a lot of unpleasant mana condensed into it sprang up.

One could feel just by looking at this enormous amount of mana, that it was not an ordinary skeleton, but a 'skeleton general'.

It was a skeleton that had been given the 'command authority' directly from the necromancer, and it was a sub-boss level skeleton, and only three such appeared in this episode.

If I attacked it normally, I would die in a matter of seconds.

Of course, I had no intention of dealing with it normally.

Kad-dack! Knock!

As the Skeleton General popped his head out, I activated the Argento Sword.

It was an iron rule not to touch magical girls and heroes when transforming, and it was also an unwritten rule to watch quietly when a boss level demon was summoned.

What if I ignored the rule sometimes? After all, my life was more important than my pride.

Kuuu!!

The Skeleton General suddenly stretched out its head and both arms. Then, it twisted its head before trying to pull out the lower half of its body.

It was at that moment that I hit its head with the Argento sword.

“Go back in. Go in."

Puck! Puck!

When a particular game starts to linger for a long time, old players start rehashing old content.

It was bound to happen.

After all, Aether World was a 10-year-old game, and it had many old players.

There was a time when content which revealed faster ways to clear the main episodes, and the details of sub-characters was very popular in the community and internet broadcasts.

I was more interested in PVP than that, so I had never raised a sub-character, but thanks to the players struggling to find 'faster and easier routes', I kept a record of the hidden routes and loopholes in all kinds of maps in my archive folder.

Defeating this Skeleton General before being summoned was also a kind of hidden route.

Skeletons that exist within a certain range

The Skeleton General, who could manipulate the skeleton soldiers and had the ability to receive and transmit the skeleton's senses to the Necromancer, was a threat in itself, so hunting them in advance like this would be a great loss for the Necromancer.

Puff...!

After completely cutting off the limbs of the Skeleton General, it was helplessly half-stuck in the ground. I took out and lifted the skeleton, with only its spine and skull remaining.

“Spine blade complete.”

Crackle!

It tried to resist somehow with his remaining teeth, but its struggles were futile.

I had no intention of killing it like this.

It was a strategy that took advantage of the fact that Necromancer had to make contact in order to retrieve the command authority once granted to the general.

In addition, this general class had a special ability that could 'stop' other skeletons around it by itself, so just carrying it was a big help.

That was the player's way.

I had no intention of ignorantly navigating between the skeletons.

So, I just used my head to make the most of the information I had.

“Then, let’s go now.”

Kdeuk!! Amidst the rising skeletons from the ground, Edna was greatly embarrassed to see Eisel.

'Now, wait a minute... Why is she hanging out with them? What about Mayuseong?'

She knew this episode because she had read it in the original romance novel.

In this episode, Maayuseong almost solved the incident by himself, but after that, he was fatally injured and was about to collapse. However, after thorough preparation, which included the usage of sacred potions, along with a strong support force called Haewonryang, he somehow solved that episode after a lot of struggles.

However, Eisel, who was supposed to bring Mayuseong, came with her strange seniors ....

'Where the hell is Mayuseong?'

They had already reached the depths of the forest. Everything was convenient in this world, but there was a disadvantage that long-distance communication methods were inconvenient compared to modern times. It was impossible to summon Mayuseong now.

‘Can't it be... do I have to solve it with this number of people?'

She thought about it while biting her nails, but in the end, she had no answer.

The reason he was able to successfully block the Necromancer's attack was because of one of the fraudulent characteristics of Mayuseong: [Lightning Explosion].

A trait that became stronger the more he fought and the more he enjoyed fighting.

He constantly slaughtered skeletons and demonstrated a strength that was one step higher than his level. Even though Necromancer was at Class 5, he was defeated by Mayuseong due to his weakness that his strength weakened when he was alone.

'What about seeking cooperation from other mercenaries?'

Impossible. They never undertook uncommissioned tasks. They were probably too busy running away by now.

‘How should......!'

Thud!

Haewonyang burned down a skeleton that had risen from the ground and put his hand on Edna’s shoulder.

"Calm down. There is nothing to be afraid of. You learned enough about skeleton in class, didn’t you?”

"...... Huh. I did."

“First, I will send a rescue request to Stella Academy.”

Stella's pocket watch had numerous functions, one of which was a rescue request in an emergency situation.

‘Okay. If we wait a little bit, Stella's professors will come.'

Edna cleared her mind. Although it would be impossible to defeat the necromancer from here, it would be possible to escape if one tried.

“Pu, Edna...? What’s this all of a sudden?”

She looked at anxious Jecky.

In the first place, she and Hae Won-ryang decided to go hunting alone, but Jecky forced her to follow them, so she had no choice but to allow her to join them.

‘I thought she wouldn't be in much danger, so I decided to bring Jecky…’

'It's my responsibility. I have to save Jecky and take her out.’

She smiled as much as she could, as if to reassure her.

“Don't worry, calm down. I'll do something about it.”

“...... Who said that? I am not scared at all?"

Seeing the smug Edna, Jecky gritted her teeth and poured mana into her staff.

She swept it vigorously.

'I can do it too.’

Soon, after completing a magic circle, the icicles froze and tied the feet of three skeletons.

'Good! That's enough...'

At that time, Edna spun her staff splendidly and thumped on the ground!

kakaka!!

Vines rose from the ground and bound at least 10 skeletons, pulling them up into the air.

Then, she stirred the staff one more time.

Perseok! Boom! Boom!!

In an instant, all of the skeletons' skulls were shattered.

‘What, what...'

The overwhelming sight shocked Jecky.

'This... is absurd...'

Even though they were the same age, the difference in their magic power was so enormous.

Did Jecky know? To get through the dark future, Edna had been training to sharpen her skills everyday. Jecky, unaware of her struggles, simply bit her lips, blaming the absurdity of the world.

“Everyone knows how to kill a skeleton, right?”

"Of course."

“Even an elementary school student knows that!”

There was only one way to kill a skeleton!!

It was completely crushing its skull. Necromancy was the most powerful magic among the black magic. They learned how to cope with it from elementary school, but it was the first time in actual combat. Despite that, there was nothing to be embarrassed about not knowing its weakness.

‘Eww...'

However, the fear and disgust that came up from their instincts could not be completely erased.

The fact that something made of bones was roaming around made them instinctively afraid of it, and even some skeletons were very repulsive because they were not completely restored to pure white ashes.

“Secure the retreat this way!”

“Huh!”

Denmark hit the floor with his fist.

The ground turned upside down and few skeletons were buried. But even then, for a while, the skeletons dug up the soil and pushed their palms out to the ground.

Their appearance was sick, but Edna tried not to look at and ran on the path made by Denmark.

“This is a cemetery, so the more time it takes, the more skeletons will come! We must hurry back to base camp!”

The basics of a Necromancer was 'territory control'. They must completely dye a certain area with their own mana to summon a skeleton in that area. It was that simple.

In other words, it was similar to acquiring territory.

Slowly, little by little, as the Necromancer expanded his territory, it was good to say that the odds of winning would decrease for the opponent.

"They're all over the place!"

“Ha! It's fun!”

“What fun! Try to understand our grim situation!”

Ben scolded Denmark, but as he fought in the forefront, he confidently swung his fists vigorously, putting his mind at ease as a supporter.

Eisel said with a firm expression.

“Looks like a necromancer who came prepared. The level isn't that high, but... it's highly likely that he made a 'Mana Vessel.”

"I think so too. This is a headache.”

The Mana Vessel was a technique in which Necromancers continuously injected and stored their mana for as long as several days to several years.

No matter how powerful necromancer you were, there was a limit to mana storage, and if you summoned skeletons normally, it was difficult to summon a dozen of them at the level of Class 3-4.

“The level of a skeleton isn't that high, but to have taken over such a wide area... he must have gathered an enormous amount of mana into the Mana Vessel."

In other words, this current situation was not an impromptu performance, but a planned event.