Chapter 2: When it was strange, there was a farming thing (2)

Dusk settled.

I took out the will-o’-the-wisp I’d bought from a street vendor from its glass jar.

The floating blue light softly illuminated the surroundings.

Tens of thousands of gravestones densely packed the hill.

Thinking of them as the tombs of the forgotten dead, it felt eerie.

A massive graveyard. Its scale was unknown.

Gravestone Hill, as it was called, was located on the outskirts of the royal capital.

Half-doubting the Old Man’s words, I arrived here.

“Right. As a senior grave robber… no, a civilian archaeologist, if I had to pick a hot spot, it’d be Gravestone Hill!”

After a long haggle, I got the shovel for 300,000 Necrons.

Normally, I should have haggled more, but we agreed on the Old Man giving me a ‘honey tip’ instead.

More importantly, this old geezer. He finally admitted to being a grave robber, didn’t he?

“Gravestone Hill is mainly used by commoners, isn’t it?”

I retorted.

Bodies that couldn’t be sold as Cadaver Stones were usually buried by their families in Gravestone Hill.

They needed at least minimal offerings to prevent them from returning as ghouls or evil spirits.

“Tsk. The darkest place is right under the candlestick. Is there any guarantee that an SSR corpse will only appear in a famous spot?”

The Old Man clicked his tongue dismissively and continued.

“Young Zilvinas founded a nation based on the undead he raised from Gravestone Hill.”

In the days when necromancers were burned and their ashes made into soap.

The one who raised an army against unreasonable oppression was Zilvinas I.

The Necromancers’ Heaven. The progenitor of the Revenant Kingdom.

“Then something amazing must be buried there.”

“That actually makes sense.”

“Right? *Ahem*. If you show a little more sincerity…… *Hmph*.”

You swallowed a month’s worth of my meal allowance, and now more?

When I glared, the Old Man awkwardly cleared his throat and spoke.

“Just kidding. Descendant of Sir Pedrolino. They say a challenge to find something always begins with a beginner’s luck. See you later.”

A squirming sensation. I closed my eyes for a moment due to the strange feeling.

At that moment, the robed old man vanished.

Literally in the blink of an eye.

As if he had never been there.

–Anyway, only after arriving at the hill did I realize.

It was daunting to figure out which grave to dig.

Gravestone Hill had existed even before the kingdom was founded.

Countless humans found their rest in this land.

The Old Man had guaranteed an SSR corpse would appear.

In other words, most of the corpses would be N or R grade.

How was this any different from ‘it’ll drop if you roll now’!

‘I must have been crazy. I was blinded by talk of romance.’

But I had to do it. I couldn’t be held back a year.

I barely managed to hold onto my sanity.

Because there was something I absolutely had to achieve at Revenant Academy.

Just then, two moderately old gravestones stood before my eyes.

I raised the index finger of my non-shovel-holding hand with a *cheok*-.

And then, I chanted a secret spell with my mouth.

‘Which one will you choose?’

‘Guess and see!’

*Ding-dong-daeng-dong* –

My finger stopped at the gravestone on the right.

My fate was decided.

I closed my eyes slightly and took a deep breath.

“Alright. I choose you!”

I boldly opened my eyes and declared.

As I aimed my gaze along the tip of my finger, this time there was the gravestone on the left.

‘That’s strange. It definitely stopped on the right, didn’t it?’

It wasn’t my finger.

Rotten flesh and festering bones.

It clearly belonged to a dead person.

“Whoooaaaaa!”

When I turned my head, I met dull, lifeless eyes like those of a frozen pollack.

Walking dead, Zombie.

The most common wild undead.

It was a corpse whose soul had not returned, so it lacked intelligence and could only perform simple attacks.

The gravedigger probably disinfected regularly, so it must have cleverly avoided that.

“What? You scared me. It’s just a zombie.”

I regretted screaming so ungracefully.

Zombie subjugation is easy.

Because zombies stop moving if you destroy their heads.

*Kkaang*–!

I struck the zombie’s head with the shovel.

Though I was often mistaken for being weak due to my lanky limbs.

My grandfather had forced me to train since I was young, so I was confident in my physical strength.

[Zibbet……!]

Its head was destroyed in a single blow.

As I plunged the shovel into its neck, its dangling head flew off.

The zombie stopped moving while still standing.

“Now I have to dig another one!”

Processing complete.

It was the moment I grumbled slightly and put down the shovel.

[Hamuramo… Mepasho…!!]

An eerie incantation flowed from the zombie’s throat.

Flames erupted from its severed neck.

It wasn’t the characteristic blue flame of necromancy.

It was blood-red.

The zombie’s head rapidly regenerated.

Something unbelievable happened!

Of course, it wasn’t surprising for undead to regenerate wounds.

The reason corpses replaced summoned beasts or spirits.

Was because they possessed transcendent stamina and recovery power with little magical energy.

However, regenerating a head was the domain of high-level necromancy.

It was rare even among high-grade undead.

Moreover, a zombie was the lowest of the low. It was impossible.

Besides, I had seen that flame before.

Flame of Purification.

A spark of life for the living. The hellfire of torment for the dead.

It was the power of those church-goers, formerly called the Holy Flame Cult, who used to turn necromancers into soap.

‘But divine power and necromancy are antithetical.’

That mutated zombie was defying all common sense.

It would be a scoop as a rare undead at the Necromancy Academy.

‘Wait. Isn’t this like a pumpkin rolling in on its vine?’

“Mr. Zombie. I’m sorry for hitting you without thinking. Would you perhaps become my soul partner?”

I scratched the back of my head and extended my hand.

Although our first meeting was the worst, we just had to overcome it well from now on.

Sparring classes with Mr. Zombie. School trips with Mr. Zombie. Royal court matches with Mr. Zombie. Warm sauna dates….

I could see the future!

The future that the strongest duo would create, that is.

The mutated zombie began to tremble.

‘Was it so delighted by my offer that it was trembling with excitement?’

[Deshyaaaaaaaat──!]

However, Mr. Zombie charged while screaming.

‘Was it a delusion, or did I feel resentment, even though it shouldn’t have intelligence?’

‘Well, I guess so. I’ve never heard of anyone taking a zombie as a partner before, either.’

[Grrr…!] [Guoooooot-!]

As if the desperate scream was a signal, zombies rushed forward, vying with each other.

There were easily dozens of them.

It was too many to be considered a natural occurrence.

*Kwajuk*-!

I tested it by smashing another one’s head.

Sure enough, it regenerated with the Flame of Purification, just like the previous zombie. Was this a swarm of mutated ones?

I gritted my teeth and swung the shovel, but they charged again.

Their speed, unusual for zombies, made them difficult to deal with.

‘I came to find a corpse, but I’m about to become one myself!’

Could I last until dawn like this?

The answer was clear.

I firmly gripped the shovel handle and put strength into my hand.

And then, I took flight over the hill, employing the thirty-six stratagems of escape…….

****

How far had I run?

I had escaped the mutated zombies, but I had gotten lost.

Because Gravestone Hill consisted of multiple hills, ridge after ridge, stretching from the outskirts of the royal capital to beyond.

The cheap will-o’-the-wisp was on the verge of going out.

“Haa… haa….”

I caught my breath and slowly surveyed my surroundings.

The number of graves had decreased, and the names on the gravestones were worn away by wind and rain, covered in moss.

‘This must be the oldest graveyard area.’

Judging by the vegetation, I could tell it was an area close to the western forest.

Going further in would be dangerous.

I should rest a bit, then move east.

If I was lucky, I might encounter a gravedigger.

Exhausted, I slumped down right there.

I immediately felt pain and stood up.

A sharp thorn had pricked my backside.

“Ugh. That hurts.”

A thorny bush grew thickly.

It was dark and thick, so I thought it was a tree stump.

I struck the tip of my shovel down in frustration.

Then, a glittering light appeared among the bushes.

‘What is it?’

As I cut away the thorny bushes, a pure white gravestone was revealed.

It was beautifully luminous under the moonlight.

To carve a gravestone from moonstone, a gem. The person buried beneath must be extraordinary.

It was impressive that it hadn’t been grave-robbed until now.

The inscription was only three sentences.

He who opens this tomb.

Abandon your humanity.

N■ ■I■E QU■E■

The last sentence was illegible.

The phrase ‘abandon your humanity’ was certainly unsettling.

If I worried about every curse or warning, I’d get nowhere.

The brave are the ones who obtain corpses.

I began to dig around the gravestone.

The more I dug, the stranger it became.

For some reason, instead of damp earth, a pleasant fragrance wafted up.

However, the coffin was nowhere in sight.

“There it is.”

When I had dug about three times deeper than a usual burial.

My shovel struck a coffin buried vertically and diagonally.

A wooden coffin made of spruce.

It wasn’t a type of wood typically used for coffins.

I carefully laid the coffin down and opened it.

It was a girl.

No. ‘Girl’ might be a slightly imprecise term.

More accurately, she was a small child.

Moonlight shone on her pure white hair, making it sparkle like crystal.

Her body was immersed in rose oil.

She was excessively fresh for a corpse.

I swallowed hard and brought my index finger to the girl’s cheek.

*Kkuk-kkuk*.

Unbelievably soft for a corpse!

It was chewy like *tteok*, yet elegantly pushed back.

This was the epitome of softness.

I got addicted and kept doing it, then suddenly snapped back to my senses.

‘No. Wait. Isn’t this really dangerous?’

‘If I take her, I feel like I’ll be arrested in a different sense, won’t I?’

It was as I was hesitating.

–Cutting through the twilight, spirits began to gather one after another.