Chapter 15: “Dad is a Legend”
While Weed was busy crafting sculptures, his three companions had moved past anxiety and nervousness into a state of total despair.
The relief and joy they felt when realizing he was the famous Weed lasted only a day or two.
Five days, six days, seven, eight.
The days kept passing, but nothing changed.
Even the most positive thinking couldn’t save their dying spirits now.
“It’s over.”
“He’s just given up and is spending his final moments carving statues.”
“Is this the stubbornness of an artist? I wish we had at least tried something together. Though honestly, it wouldn’t have made much difference.”
By the tenth day, the three companions had fully accepted that today was their last.
They had gone through countless waves of resentment and anger toward Weed.
After hearing stories about his legendary achievements in Royal Road, they’d hoped for something, but seeing him do nothing, their hopes turned to despair.
“I never imagined I’d die this pointlessly.”
“I was curious how I’d die… dragged into Hellfire Stage 3 and losing my life like this, huh.”
“I know it’s pointless, but I’ll at least draw my sword and face death. I can’t just sit and wait.”
“Mr. Barton…”
Each of them prepared for their final moments, when suddenly, from afar, they saw Weed rise from his spot.
‘If he was going to do this, why did he even summon us?’
‘He should have just died alone…’
‘We believed because he was Weed, but was it just a nostalgic memory of youth?’
The three stared with resentment and anger as Weed began walking alone towards the abandoned fortress.
They knew: if the challenger died, their lives would disappear too.
“Is he going to die now?”
“Looks like it.”
“So… does that mean we don’t die but just vanish?”
Prepared for their last moments, the three followed behind him.
Soon, the fortress gates opened, and knights and soldiers poured out to surround Weed.
“He’s not even running away.”
“Seems like he’s completely given up.”
“This is it.”
With no hope left, they watched.
And then they saw it—the activation of an ultimate magic.
The Mirror of the Abyss reflected over the entire region.
“All living beings,
I cast upon you an undeniable death…!”
Dark energy stormed out from Weed like a hurricane.
The knights and soldiers were engulfed in the dark force, and their flesh melted away where they stood.
The knights and soldiers died on the spot and transformed into skeletons.
—Graaaargh!
—Death… death to all the living!
A Skeleton Army.
The knights who had accumulated terrible karma turned into towering, 5 to 7-meter-tall monstrous skeletal mutants.
Weed pointed towards the military fortress with his hand.
He likely shouted, “Advance!”
The skeletons all charged toward the open gates of the fortress.
A siege battle had begun—an overwhelming assault by an undead legion.
The abandoned fortress, built from red bricks, bore scars of collapse and fire.
Dozens of bodies hung from trees along the roadside.
The fortress radiated a brutal, barbaric atmosphere—far removed from Royal Road’s typical beauty and peace.
‘Looking at the bodies, could we have gotten help from the nearby villages?’
(Possibly.)
There wasn’t just one way to clear Hellfire difficulty.
Still, no one had thought of using the Mirror of the Abyss to completely annihilate the enemy.
(The Mirror of the Abyss affects a 300-meter radius.)
(It’s best to approach the fortress closely. The enemies guarding the gate and walls… About half the fortress will fall within the magic’s range.)
The soldiers on guard spotted Weed.
“Is that a lost human?”
“Looks like a mercenary… Goblin armor? Wearing a bunch of crude stuff.”
“A club? He’s armed, so he’s an enemy!”
Ding! Ding! Ding!
The soldiers rang the alarm bells.
More soldiers appeared, and two knights arrived on horseback to form an encirclement.
Archers took positions along the walls.
“This many spectators… not bad.”
(Over 70% of enemy forces are within the Mirror of the Abyss spell range.)
Weed had been waiting for this moment while carving his sculptures.
Experience, loot—none of it could be given up.
Surrounded by knights and soldiers, Weed activated the magic.
“Mirror of the Abyss.”
The spell was unleashed for the first time in Roanoke.
The air felt cold as ice, a massive black vortex rising from the ground and bursting outward.
The Mirror of the Abyss reflected over the entire region.
“All living beings,
I cast upon you an undeniable death…!”
Even the poorly equipped soldiers with leather armor and spears,
Even the knights in iron plate armor on horseback—
Their flesh melted right off their bones.
The black energy passed through the fortress walls, dissolving soldiers on the other side.
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
…
An endless flood of level-up notifications.
Those struck by the black wind transformed into undead.
Even those who had been dead and hanging from trees for days fell to the ground as skeletons.
‘It’s been a while.’
The familiar Skeleton Legion.
Though different from the undead Weed once commanded in Royal Road, these skeletons looked even scarier.
Their bones were denser.
Some of the skeletons combined, forming massive 7-meter tall mutant skeletons, like giant siege weapons.
“Attack. Kill them all.”
Following Weed’s lead, the skeleton army began their assault.
“D-Damn… What are we even watching?”
“Oh my god… Undead…?”
Sen and Luria had long given up any hope as time passed.
They had resigned themselves to death, but Weed activated magic, and they realized they were saved.
“He was hiding his power all along! Urgh… Crushing everything at the last moment like this!”
“There was a reason for his relaxed attitude!”
The undead quickly took over the gates and walls.
“I knew it! I believed in him!”
Barton shouted.
Shortly after Weed entered the fortress with the skeletons, flames began rising from within.
“Our goal was to defeat the stragglers from Hellfire Stage 3, right?”
“From the screams, it sounds like he’s just killing everyone.”
Truly, there was nothing for them to do.
Weed’s earlier words—“Don’t try anything”—had been the correct choice.
In the past, major broadcasting networks like KMC Media and CTS Media controlled viewership ratings.
During Royal Road’s golden age, with average ratings over 5%, they had even threatened terrestrial TV.
As players succeeded in their adventures and cities grew, the political landscape of the Versailles Continent shifted.
Guild rivalries were prime entertainment.
But Royal Road’s peak popularity hadn’t lasted 20 years.
Over time, ratings declined.
Streamers on video platforms took over that space.
―Weed suddenly appeared, and I’m honestly shocked. When I was younger, Weed was a legend.
―Just attempting Hellfire Stage 3 in Roanoke is amazing. No one’s ever cleared it. Risking your life for this difficulty? Incredible.
―I used to watch Weed on TV when I was little. Ratings were through the roof. Royal Road was called the Dream Continent back then…
―Watching him clear Stages 1 and 2… it leaves me speechless. That’s how you clear this place. If I played Roanoke, I’d have done the same.
―Now we’re at Hellfire Stage 3. No one’s ever succeeded here… For now, all he’s done is craft sculptures.
Millions of subscribers followed these streamers.
To them, Roanoke was like a treasure island.
They gathered footage from Roanoke’s homepage and broadcast it live.
They watched their subscriber counts rise like never before.
Weed’s videos, especially, gained enormous popularity—almost matching Roanoke’s other famous stars.
“Sweet. So sweet.”
“We have to upload the footage before Weed dies.”
The young streamers in their 20s regretted learning about Weed only now.
Users in their 40s and 50s, who never used to watch their streams, were pouring in.
“I gained 300,000 subscribers in one day.”
“The growth speed is insane. At this rate, we’ll be a major channel soon.”
“If my new older viewers want more, Weed can’t die…”
If Weed perished at Hellfire Stage 3, their streaming content would disappear instantly.
But then, Weed—who had been crafting all this time—finally moved.
The streamers didn’t even need to fake excitement.
The tension skyrocketed the moment he cast Mirror of the Abyss.
―Undead! Weed has summoned undead!
―The Mirror of the Abyss is a legendary spell that can’t be learned by normal means. It’s only obtainable via Legend Points! This is ultimate magic!
―There aren’t many necromancers in Roanoke for a reason. Kings and nobles see them as dangerous, and hunting squads often go after them…
―Necromancers are powerful. Seriously powerful!
―An undead army—that’s every necromancer’s dream!
As Weed raised his undead, the streamers went wild.
Skeletons swung bone swords within the abandoned fortress.
Even if their limbs were severed, they kept fighting.
“Trample them. Destroy them. Kill them all.”
The places the undead swept through—nothing remained.
They killed the stragglers, then devoured them.
The undead summoned by the Mirror of the Abyss were both powerful and merciless.
Level up!
Infamy increased by 41.
Weed’s level and infamy rose rapidly.
‘This… this is why I love raising undead.’
The stress built up during all that sculpture-making now felt completely released.
(Livestream viewership is skyrocketing, Master.)
(Players who used to play Royal Road… many are cheering for you to revive sculpture arts in Roanoke.)
Listening to the AI Versia’s report, Weed scoffed.
‘Not a chance.’
With undead, life was just too easy.
“Graaaaargh!”
Some skeletons swung weapons, but most charged at living people like they hadn’t eaten in ten days.
They bit heads and necks, grabbed and clung to limbs.
“Don’t back down! Fight!”
“They’re just aberrant creatures!”
The stragglers had at least been trained as soldiers.
They tried to regroup.
But it was hopeless.
Their formation had already collapsed.
A massive mutant skeleton rampaged through the fortress, shrieking.
“Gaaaah!”
Screaming in agony, it grabbed boulders and hurled them at soldiers.
It stomped the ground as it ran, grabbing live humans and stuffing them into its mouth.
