Chapter 47 …
Irade Back Alley.
This rather impressive-sounding name wasn’t its official one.
People simply called it “Irade Back Alley” for convenience, after the nearby Irade General Store.
There was a story behind how this place first became a hotspot.
‘They say the first Legendary skill in Raven appeared here.’
Right here, the very first player to obtain a Legendary-grade skill had emerged.
Pulling a Legendary from only their second random draw ticket was such absurd luck that it could’ve gone down in the history books. And in hopes of inheriting even a fraction of that luck, more and more people began flocking here.
Naturally, the more people who opened card packs, the higher the chances someone would hit something good.
News spread of players pulling powerful skills. More people gathered. More successes followed.
That virtuous cycle repeated itself until the place became the famous spot it was today.
‘It’s practically superstition, though….’
But that’s just how human psychology works.
People look for lottery vendors with lots of winners. They line up at restaurants just because there’s a long queue.
In reality, it’s just probability increasing with the number of attempts.
Some players looked down on that mindset as foolish.
Unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately—Dohyeon wasn’t one of them.
‘Sometimes, superstition is more accurate than anything.’
No one searched for lucky spots more diligently than Dohyeon.
He hadn’t always been like this.
But every time he tried his luck, he ended up pulling trash. Eventually, he started paying attention to “famous spots.”
And the first day he drew a card at one of those locations—
‘I’ll never forget that yellow glow as long as I live.’
For the first time ever, he had pulled a Hero-grade skill card.
It might have been coincidence, but to Dohyeon, it was an overwhelming moment. From then on, he visited every so-called lucky spot he could find.
Perhaps thanks to that, he’d managed to snag a few Hero-grade skills here and there.
‘Those who believe shall be rewarded….’
After finishing a prayer to a god he didn’t even believe in, Dohyeon stepped into Irade Back Alley.
The scent of countless card openings tickled his nose.
“Mm~ this is it. How long has it been since I felt this kind of energy?”
He had been relying too much on the Eye of Truth lately, and it had made him complacent.
He had even used a random draw ticket and ended up with nothing but a rare skill… That wouldn’t do. He needed to tighten his discipline again.
That was why he had come all the way to a lucky spot just to use a mere Low-Grade Skill Draw Ticket.
“When did I ever discriminate against draw tickets? This is what happens when your mindset gets weak.”
He used to treat every card opening with utmost sincerity. But after encountering the revolutionary Eye of Truth, he had turned into a weak opportunist.
This card opening was a sacred ritual to reclaim his初心.
—…Humans are strange after all.
“Tsks. What would you know? I need to focus now, so be quiet.”
From the goblin Jihad Black’s perspective, this was utter nonsense.
But Dohyeon was serious.
And he had even more reason to be.
‘Right now, this actually matters….’
To others, all the skills would look similar and ordinary.
But Dohyeon was an All-Master.
He had no idea which class’s skill might appear.
With only ten cards containing skills from all kinds of classes, he could only hope the most useful one would show up.
If he was unlucky and pulled an Explorer skill, that would be the worst.
With the Eye of Truth, nothing could be more useless to him.
‘I still don’t get why Explorer isn’t considered a production class.’
Was it because of a few self-defense skills?
Or because its buffs were too awkward for a production role?
Either way, Explorer was always a class he had to be cautious about.
[Would you like to use the Low-Grade Skill Draw Ticket?]
Seeing the message window before him, Dohyeon rubbed his hands together to calm his nerves.
‘Hoo.’
He did this all the time, yet it was always nerve-wracking.
After steadying his mind, he tore open the card pack.
Ten cards scattered through the air as if flung outward.
Even amid the faint brownish glow—the unmistakable “trash color”—Dohyeon carefully scanned them and reached out.
‘This one!’
The third card from the left.
When in doubt, number three was the rule.
Flash!
The brown light filled his vision, followed by a cheerful notification sound.
[You have obtained …… .]
“Huh? This?”
Dohyeon’s eyes sharpened as he looked at the result.
It wasn’t on the long list of skills he had imagined.
Yet, strangely enough, it was also the one he had wanted most.
An enigmatic expression crossed his face, but soon a smile formed on his lips.
As he exited the back alley, Jihad followed and asked,
—Already done, Master?
“Yeah.”
—Then where are we going now?
The answer was simple.
There was only one thing to do in Raven right now.
“We run.”
Level 24.
Until he reached the level to receive the graduation quest, the only answer was mindless grinding—just hunt without thinking.
Deep within Raven’s Western Forest.
The terrain was rough and filled with obstacles, so players rarely chose it as a hunting ground.
As a result, monsters overflowed here.
In that very place, one player was hunting.
Slash— Thud!
Kieeek! Kek!
[You have defeated Forest Red Goblin.]
[You have defeated Giant Spider.]
No—it couldn’t even be called hunting.
It was closer to slaughter.
Though the situation was an abnormal one-versus-ten, surprisingly, it was the monsters—more than ten of them—who were being slaughtered.
Crunch! Bam!
[You have defeated Giant Centipede.]
Thrust!
Kukek!
[You have defeated Forest Blue Goblin.]
One strike, one kill.
He calmly killed them one by one.
At some point, the monsters began stepping backward.
Instinctively, they realized they were no match.
[You use Charge Slash.]
[You have defeated Forest Red Goblin.]
But the approaching death was unavoidable.
They only had two choices—
Die while fleeing,
or charge bravely and have their skulls smashed open.
His ruthlessness was enough to make one pity even these mere monsters.
—Tsk tsk, pitiful creatures….
Watching this in real time, Jihad Black genuinely felt sympathy.
Though Jihad once wandered around turning monsters into undead to build his legion, even he hadn’t been this violent.
—How is that human? I’m telling you, he’s Satan.
He had suddenly rushed into the hunting ground after talking about sacred rituals and card openings, and had been committing slaughter for a full hour now.
Sacred ritual, my foot…
It was starting to feel like that ritual had been preparation for tearing monsters apart.
—With that devil, it’s totally possi— Hk!
Muttering to himself, Jihad locked eyes with Dohyeon and hurriedly shut his mouth.
Only after Dohyeon casually looked away and resumed hunting did Jihad release the breath he had been holding.
—…He didn’t hear that, right?
His heart was still pounding.
The distance was considerable, so surely he hadn’t heard… but with a master like that devil, who knew?
Others might think Dohyeon was fairly kind.
But to Jihad—who had only memories of being thoroughly beaten—Dohyeon was Satan, and Satan was Dohyeon.
…Maybe I should step back a bit more, just in case?
Shff—
Just as he was carefully increasing the distance—
“Jihad. Come here for a second.”
—H-Huh? Why… you mean?
Did he hear?
Sweating bullets, Jihad hesitated, but when Dohyeon frowned slightly, he hurried over.
Only then did Dohyeon relax his expression and gesture toward the corpses.
“Turn them into undead.”
—Ah, okay.
Quick-witted as ever, the goblin immediately understood and stretched out both hands.
A black aura flowed out and seeped into the corpses.
One, two, three—from the left.
When it reached a total of three—
Saaa—
Their eyes turned pitch black, then snapped open.
Crack— creak—
Twisted bodies forcibly straightened themselves as they rose.
Anyone could tell they were undead.
With eerie expressions, they looked at Jihad Black and dropped to one knee.
[Guardian Jihad Black has succeeded in turning Forest Red Goblin into an undead.]
[Guardian Jihad Black has succeeded in turning Forest Red Goblin into an undead.]
[Guardian Jihad Black has succeeded in turning Forest Blue Goblin into an undead.]
[Guardian Jihad Black has failed to turn Giant Spider into an undead.]
[Jihad Black’s level is insufficient.]
“Three, huh.”
—I-I could command a legion originally, but I lost my true power, Master.
“So three is your limit right now?”
—…Yeah.
Embarrassed at struggling with just three, Jihad lowered his head.
He couldn’t even lift his face.
But in truth, Dohyeon was rather satisfied.
‘This might be useful later.’
Necromancers typically unlocked higher limits every ten levels.
Without skills or items boosting it, it usually went something like:
Three at level 10, five at 20, ten at 30…
In that sense, for a mere level 1 to turn three undead was by no means a small number.
‘They can only raise monsters they’ve killed… but maybe since he’s a Guardian, mine count too.’
Was this the power of a Hero-grade Named Guardian?
For someone of that title, he was more capable than he looked.
And that wasn’t the only unusual thing.
Normally, when a Necromancer raised undead, the monster would be reconstructed into a skeleton soldier.
But Jihad’s undead retained relatively intact forms.
‘I wonder if there’s a difference in combat power.’
He hadn’t tested them in battle yet.
As he pondered Jihad’s unexpected performance—
[Jihad Black’s mana has been completely depleted.]
[Undead Summon has been canceled.]
…
[Undead Summon has been canceled.]
[Undead List]
Forest Red Goblin Undead ×2
Forest Blue Goblin Undead ×1
“Huh?”
Along with the cheerful notifications, the undead dissolved into smoke.
Dohyeon slowly turned his head.
—Ahem, hm….
“……”
Jihad avoided his gaze, clearing his throat awkwardly.
Watching him stubbornly pretend ignorance, Dohyeon sighed.
It seemed handling undead properly was still difficult.
Understandable.
He was level 1, and those undead were higher level than him.
But if his only skill was creating undead, and he couldn’t even use that properly… wasn’t he just a freeloader?
‘Well… they say raising divine beasts requires heavy investment.’
If he counted as something close to a divine beast, surely he’d be useful someday.
For now, Dohyeon would think of it as an investment and carry him.
Of course, he had no intention of letting him do absolutely nothing.
“Hey.”
—Yeah?
Dohyeon met Jihad’s tilted gaze and jerked his chin to the side.
“At least pick up the loot.”
—…Me?
“Should I do it then?”
—You’ve been picking it up just fine so fa— uh, right. I’ll do it, Master. I love picking up items.”
Though his pride as a former Named Boss seemed bruised, one clenched fist from Dohyeon made him quickly change his tune.
[Affinity has increased by +1.]
It even raised his Affinity.
Already at 21.
As expected, fists spoke louder than laws.
Just as Dohyeon lowered his fist, feeling that immutable truth once again—
Shff.
[Affinity has decreased by -1.]
“……?”
Dohyeon doubted his own eyes.
