Chapter 26: Chapter 26

Translated by: ShawnSuh

Edited by: SootyOwl

Unable to do any harm to the Orc Warrior, the Lich Doll ran and hid behind its master, who chuckled and walked toward the orc with the Orichalcon Dagger in his hand. Sensing hostility from the champion, the orc put on an intimidating look and raised his oversized axe. At which point, black aura coiled around the monster, enhancing its combat ability. However, before the orc even had the chance to put its enhanced abilities to use, the champion swung his dagger. His eyes flashed, and a white streak of light distinct to Min Sung shot out of the dagger, decapitating the orc with ease.

[The Orc Warrior has been slain!]

[You’ve earned 152,111 experience points.]

Then, with an explosion, the orc’s body shattered and scattered into blue shards like that of broken glass, and a certain item spun in the air and fell on the ground.

[Finest Enchanted Gem]

It was a gem highly-prized and sought after in the market. After picking it up, Min Sung put it in his inventory and went on his way. Then, he stopped in his tracks all of a sudden and looked back at where the orc’s body had been. There was a blue flame in its place, and the Lich Doll, with its hands stretched out toward it, was chanting a spell.

‘What’s it doing?’

From the looks of it, the blue flame seemed to be the soul of the orc and the doll was trying to seize the soul and turn the orc into an undead. However, even minutes after, the soul remained unaffected, and eventually, the doll lowered its arms. Sighing, it looked up at its master and scratched its head awkwardly.

“What a surprise,” Min Sung said annoyedly, and the doll quietly looked away from him. At that moment, a message appeared before the champion’s eyes.

[You can level up your familiar by feeding it the Enchanted Gem.]

Remembering the gem he had picked up after killing the orc, Min Sung opened his inventory and looked at the gem and then at the Lich doll.

“Hey, you.”

At the sound of its master’s voice, the doll looked up at him.

“Have you ever had an Enchanted Gem?”

“…?”

“Maybe it doesn’t know what it is yet,” Min Sung said. Then, taking the gem, which was about the size of his fist, from his inventory, he gave it to the doll. Upon taking the gem as big as itself, the doll gave the champion a puzzled look.

“Go on. Eat it.”

Despite the master’s command, the doll handed the gem back to him and shook its head, expressing clearly that it was opposed to eating it. However, Min Sung opened the doll’s mouth by force and pushed the gem into it. At which point, after resisting, the doll eventually bit into the gem reluctantly. Then, its eyes flashed, and a gold exclamation mark appeared above its head. With that, the doll opened its mouth wide and started chomping away at the gem frantically.

‘Crunch! Crunch!’

What seemed like a rigid, solid rock crumbled away like chocolate between the doll’s teeth. Then, having consumed every bit of the gem, the doll cackled with satisfaction.

[Your familiar grows stronger.]

[Lich Doll has reached Lv150!]

[You fed Lich Doll its very first gem.]

[Lich Doll’s skills have been enhanced.]

Staring at the doll dancing for joy, the champion said, “If you’ve had your fill, go back to sleep,” and put the doll into his pocket.

—

In the ‘Impossible’ labyrinth, the champion was quickly rising to the top of the food chain, taking the lives of monsters as he dashed through the dense forest like a ghost. Soon, he had reached his hundredth kill. However, the champion was still hearing footsteps in the surroundings. The forest seemed to have significantly more monsters than the previous labyrinth.

Since he had run out of inventory space, Min Sung was forced to repeat the process of throwing away low-grade items and replacing them with better items, feeding enchanted gems to his familiar whenever he would come across them. Since its first experience with the gem, the doll was now eating gems like it had been starving for them. As a result of feeding the doll consistently, the familiar was on the verge of reaching level 1,000 within the same day of entering the labyrinth. The doll was growing at an exponential rate.

At the deadly swing of the champion’s dagger, the cyclops’ head, along with its lifeless body, fell to the ground and exploded into shards, dropping yet another Enchanted Gem.

‘Another one? It feels like I’m doing the little guy a favor.’

Before he knew it, the doll jumped out of his pocket and looked up at its master with puppy eyes, rolling its feet anxiously. When the champion tossed the gem at the doll, the doll caught it with its teeth and chomped away at it in the blink of an eye, cackling with satisfaction. At that moment, what seemed like black flames engulfed the Lich doll, and a series of messages appeared before the champion’s eyes.

[Your familiar grows stronger.]

[Lich Doll has reached Lv999!]

[New skill acquired: Language]

“Master,” the doll said, its eyes glowing black as it bowed politely to the champion.

[You can now name your familiar.]

Staring intently at the doll, the champion asked, “Do you have a preference?”

After brief contemplation, the doll looked up and said, “I’ll gladly accept any name you give me.”

“I’m sure you have something in mind.”

“Hm… Then, how about Parvis Harian Xenon Tark Von Flake Hartz? Or, maybe Dyens Van John Calistal Arfenon Karl Pace. What do you think?”

“Got anything I can actually remember? Perhaps shorter?” Min Sung replied impatiently. Then, after staring intently at the doll, the champion nodded and said, “I’ve got one.”

“…?”

“Bowl. Yes, let’s go with that.”

“Bowl!?” the doll let out, losing its composure.

“‘Skull’ just doesn’t have the same ring to it. From now on, your name is Bowl.”

[Would you like to name your familiar ‘Bowl?’ (Accept/Decline)]

Then, just as Min Sung was about to approve, the doll’s head jolted up, and it said, “M-master!”

“What? You said anything goes.”

“That, I did…”

With that, Min Sung tapped ‘Accept’ on the message window.

[You gave your familiar the name ‘Bowl’]

At that, Bowl fell to its knees.

—

Before long, the champion was facing the final boss of the dungeon. Whenever the behemoth walked, it left footprints as big as that of a dinosaur.

‘Lv2,700 Ogre’

Armed with a scythe linked to a chain, its weapon was as big as a person. However, being well acquainted with the monster and its weapon from his time in the Demonic Realm, the appearance of the monster did little to intimidate or excite the champion. The fact that he was desensitized to killing monsters meant that he had become used to it, and the size and appearance of the monster were hardly of importance. Looking up and locking eyes with the ogre made the behemoth shudder. Staring into the champion’s cold, cruel eyes, the ogre started to tremble.

However, it wasn’t long before the behemoth overcame its fear. Soon, with the sound of a chain dragging, the giant scythe came flying toward the champion. At which point, Min Sung held his Orichalcon Dagger tightly and swung it upward. A bolt of lightning struck it and coiled around the dagger, and when he swung it again, the scythe flying toward him shattered, scattering into pieces in midair.

While the ogre stared at the pieces of its weapon in shock, the champion took the opportunity to land a blow. As he swung his dagger, dozens of streaks of light came shooting out and flew toward the monster, coiling around it, ripping and tearing into its thick, leathery skin. Soon, with blood gushing out from all over, the monster fell to the ground, raising a cloud of dust upon impact. Meanwhile, staring at the monster lying lifelessly on the dusty ground, the champion sneered. In comparison to the ordinary monsters within the dungeon, the ogre seemed to be able to endure slightly more damage. Despite the deadly blow, the ogre was still breathing. Nevertheless, it was at the brink of death, completely vulnerable and incapable of resisting any further attacks. At that moment, just as the champion was about to walk over to the ogre to finish it off, he heard a strange sound. Furrowing his brow, he turned toward it and asked, “What are you muttering? It’s bothering me.”

Squatting on the ground, the doll was idly drawing a series of circles on the dirt.

“I said, ‘What are you doing?’” Min Sung snapped impatiently.

To which, Bowl replied gloomily, “I’m just a low-level doll that can’t do anything to help my master… All I do is munch away at the gems… Heck, I’m a Lich! Yet, I don’t even act like one… I’m just a useless walking skeleton…”

“… Come here,” Min Sung said with a furrowed brow. When Bowl looked toward him, still looking down and depressed, the champion said, “See the ogre? Finish it off and eat it.”

At that moment, Bowl’s eyes burst into black flames.