The Necromancer Who Was Despised

‘Chance.’

I’m not going to miss this chance.

[Strengthening]

I was going to use it to see how strong it would be, but if it was influenced by me, it would be better to use it now.

Of course, my physical performance is still lacking, but it will improve a little.

I strengthened it mainly to amplify my strength rather than my endurance.

While strengthening the skeleton, I cut down a slightly bewildered goblin.

Taking a step closer, I killed another goblin that was horrified, and then Kyla, who had just arrived, took one side, forming a triangle.

“You’re stronger than I thought. It seems that the undead are strongly affected by the summoner’s influence. If the master’s physical ability is lacking, it will be just like that.”

“I’m surprised too. Usually, I’m more affected by the body.”

The reason I thought of my first playthrough instead of now was because of the difference in physical ability.

Because I, who lacked physical ability in the past, looked just like that.

While having a short conversation, I mechanically slaughter the goblins that are still in chaos.

As a dozen or so goblins were slaughtered, the goblins began to hesitate.

The skeleton did not give the goblins a chance.

Mechanically advancing, he tried to charge again with his shield, and when the goblins counterattacked, he blocked each attack with his shield and faithfully fulfilled the role of the vanguard by keeping the opponent in check with his sword.

In the meantime, Kyla ran in to assist the skeleton and slaughtered the ones who rushed in, and I also moved freely within the formation to keep the goblins in check and slaughter them.

‘Twenty-three goblins stand out.’

Before I knew it, more than half of the goblins were lying on the floor, and we continued to press the goblins.

‘It’s more useful than I expected?’

As I expected, the skeleton should have been destroyed once already.

I expected that it would happen because I strengthened its durability and paid a little attention to it.

But somehow, it fought better than I thought, so I strengthened its strength instead of its durability, and it fought even better than I imagined, so it was able to play the role of a solid vanguard that allowed Kyla and me to run wild.

The skeleton didn’t kill any goblins directly.

However, if you only look at its role, it was doing enough for one person.

If not for that, we wouldn’t have been able to slaughter this many goblins already.

This was why the role of the vanguard was important.

The attackers can only move freely and comfortably when the vanguard supports them solidly.

Kyla had a fatal weakness in that her movements were awkward, but the skeleton didn’t have that.

In addition, since it was autonomous and my undead, it moved by understanding my intentions well, so I couldn’t help but be very comfortable.

Thanks to that, Athena could pay more attention to observing if there were any escaping instead of supporting, and even without Athena’s support, we were able to press the goblins unilaterally.

“Kieeh!”

A goblin howls loudly.

Suddenly, the village became noisy, and suddenly, goblins rushed out.

They realized that the three of us pushing back more than twenty goblins were not ordinary humans, so they called for reinforcements.

‘It’s too late.’

However, thanks to the skeleton’s unexpected performance, we were able to wipe out all the ones that rushed out first before the reinforcements arrived.

“Don’t give them a chance. Close it right away.”

Clack, clack, clack.

In such a one-sided and overwhelming battle, Kyla and I had more than enough stamina left, and the skeleton had infinite stamina as an undead.

“Kie, Kieeeh!”

The number of goblins exceeded thirty.

We ran towards them and carried out a one-sided massacre.

Thud, thud!

Whether it was because their level was lower than the ones we had encountered earlier, the goblins this time started to get killed off by even the skeletons, one after another. Kayla, gradually adapting to the skeletons’ movements, was slicing through the goblins more vigorously than before.

“Keee-eek! Kee-eeek!”

However, as if they were determined not to be defeated like this, the goblins persisted in their tenacious movements, desperately trying to inflict even the smallest wounds on us.

A strategy of using their dead comrades as bait to charge.

It was the best option available to those who had the advantage in numbers. After all, their claws were poisonous.

Great.

However, they did manage to exploit an opening and successfully inflict a wound, but the target, ironically, was a skeleton.

‘Those guys are as dumb as they look.’

The poison wouldn’t affect the walking bones, but the goblins, who had probably never faced the undead in a monster’s land, had no way of knowing that.

On top of that, the unpleasant magic must have had a slight effect of provocation.

‘Well, they didn’t have a choice other than the skeletons.’

No matter how much the goblins used their comrades as bait to find an opening, neither Kayla nor I were at a level where we would allow them to inflict even the smallest wounds.

Even if the situation became somewhat dangerous, we had the skill to use our defensive equipment appropriately and get through it safely.

The goblins seemed to have realized that the skeletons were relatively weak and started to focus all their attacks on them.

“Keek, keek…”

However, as expected, the skeletons were neither affected by the poison nor did they collapse.

Whenever a critical moment arose, Kayla and I would provide appropriate support, so the area around the skeletons was soon filled with the corpses of goblins who had died in vain.

As time was running out, we renewed our buffs and scouted the goblin village.

The village was in complete turmoil.

And then.

“Ina! Behind you!”

I turned my head and saw a horde of goblins running from afar.

A horde of goblins.

It seemed that they were the ones who had gone hunting.

Honestly, I had guessed as much.

Nevertheless, we had decided to attack, because it was only natural to strike when the enemy’s forces were weak.

‘It felt like we were taking them out one by one.’

They had returned earlier than expected, but that didn’t matter.

The skeletons’ performance had exceeded my expectations, and the goblins were even more idiotic than I had thought.

To be honest, I wasn’t particularly afraid of them coming back now.

‘Judging by the fact that Athena isn’t reacting much, Tia must be okay.’

It meant that the boundary stone wasn’t reacting.

“Let’s take care of those first.”

“Athena! Get out of the way!”

If she recklessly tried to help, she would only get in the way.

At my command, Athena retreated to a safer location.

The goblins, who had arrived late, were enraged at the sight of their comrades’ corpses scattered everywhere, but it was no use.

There were about thirty goblins that had appeared.

Their level was higher than the ones we had fought initially, but they were still goblins, so we dealt with them the same way as before.

When the hunting party, which we had expected to return last, was also taken care of by us, the remaining goblins in the village became agitated, and soon, we could see the entire village becoming chaotic, even from a distance.

“Are you okay?”

“I think I’ll be fine against mere remnants.”

Even if the fight was one-sided, fighting three consecutive times took its toll on our stamina.

I wasn’t too weak to fight, but I wasn’t in the best condition either.

However, like Kayla said, it wasn’t difficult enough to struggle against mere remnants, so we immediately headed towards the village.

In response to our movement, some goblins blocked the entrance to the village, but it was laughable.

They were trembling in fear, knowing that they were no match for us.

‘Hmm?’

At that moment, I saw Athena moving.

‘Ah, so that was the bait.’

It seemed that some goblins were trying to escape through the back of the village.

‘…There shouldn’t be that many.’

There were some that we had already dealt with and some standing at the village entrance, so there shouldn’t be that many. Judging by the way Athena was moving without saying much, she seemed to be able to handle the number on her own.

‘She’ll call if she needs us.’

She’ll manage.

Since goblins are smaller than humans, the entrance to the village wasn’t that wide. However, it wasn’t so narrow that only three of us couldn’t pass through, so Kayla, the skeleton, and I lightly dealt with the goblins who were trying to hold us back by throwing stones at them, and entered the village.

Even if they have a bit of intelligence, goblins are still goblins.

The inside of the village was extremely dirty and crude.

As we searched for and dealt with the remaining goblins, Kayla said,

“Let’s bring Tia first.”

I thought it would be better for me to go instead of her since her leg is injured, but tidying up this place would also require a lot of walking.

And she doesn’t like being treated differently because of her leg that much, so I just let her go.

‘She understands when there’s no other choice.’

I first cleared out some of the dirty parts of the village with the skeleton.

Since the inside was so dirty that it couldn’t be cleaned up in a short amount of time, I used the skeleton to dig a large hole in a corner, pushed all the filth into it, and covered it up as much as possible.

We collected usable leather and wood for recycling, and after forming a suitable open space inside the village, I sent the skeleton back.

‘We should use everything we have as much as possible.’

Even though it was dirty, the village’s crude fences were much better than nothing.

By then, Athena had returned first.

“Huh? Where’s Kayla?”

“She went to get Tia.”

“Really? But this place is really dirty. It’ll take a month to clean it all up.”

Even though it was somewhat cleaned up, I couldn’t argue with Athena’s words.

There was a limit to how much we could clean up in a short amount of time.

“Oh, I dealt with all the goblins that escaped.”

“You worked hard.”

“I’ll help you out for now.”

We brought something like a tent, but since we would be staying for almost three weeks, we needed various things.

A toilet, for example.

In addition, we had to reinforce the crude fences and greatly increase our defensive capabilities.

‘When you rest, you must rest comfortably.’

Tia had to exercise even when she thought about the curse, so she had to secure a space to exercise at the very least.

‘Well, the space is ample, anyway.

It would just take time to organize.

While cooperating with Athena to increase the size of the vacant lot, I could see Kyla bringing Tia and the packhorse from afar.

I could see Tia being surprised after looking at the goblin corpses in the vicinity.

‘Oh, dear.’

I hadn’t thought about that.

Tia probably hadn’t seen something like a monster’s corpse before, but she still wouldn’t have been used to it.

However, Athena surprisingly didn’t seem to think anything of it after seeing Tia like that.

‘… Well.’

It was something that you had no choice but to get used to in this world.

‘She may look young, but she’s 17.’

She wasn’t a flower that had bloomed in a greenhouse. She had actually become a slave and experienced the bottom of society.

I even thought that I might have been through more than Athena.

Well, she was a bit surprised, but she didn’t show much resistance because of it. She even asked Athena if she was hurt anywhere.

‘Let’s get rid of the corpses first.’

We had to clean that up, too. We couldn’t get rid of the smell of blood, but we had to, because it could cause disease.

After the luggage arrived, we began to build a base camp in earnest with the group.

Tia didn’t slack off here, either. She also moved diligently and helped with the construction of the base camp, and as a result, she succeeded in reinforcing the most important fence, cleaning up the living space, and burying the goblins’ corpses far away after sending them far away.

It was a natural choice to get rid of the corpses as far away as possible, because there might be something that would come to eat them.

Honestly, that was the hardest part.

Still, thanks to moving diligently, we were able to finish before the sun went down, and we immediately ate the food we had prepared and talked about the request.

“Tomorrow, Master and Athena will go on a recon mission, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Then, in the meantime, Tia and I will continue to organize the base camp. “I feel like this is still lacking.”

That was true. It was impossible to complete the base camp in one day.

“Do that.”

“Oh, and speaking of which, I think it was in this direction.”

“What was?”

“The village. The village where Tia and I lived. It was quite a distance away, though. Tia, aren’t you familiar with it, too?”

“Was it… ?”

“Yes. And you ran away in this direction. “I found your trail late and tracked you, so it must be right.”

“I don’t…” remember exactly. “I ran away in such a hurry.”

Tia thought about Athena’s question for a moment before she spoke as if she had remembered something.