Record of a Thousand Lives

Bushes rustled audiblyas the ambushers split into three groups to chase after the wooden dolls. Kang Yoon-Soo was the first to stand up and draw his black longsword, and Shaneth and Henrick followed afterward.Seeing some movement throughthe tall, dense foliage, Kang Yoon-Soo nimbly rantoward therustling and swung his longsword.

“Graaaaahk!”The ambusher screamed in pain as he collapsed, blood spurting everywhere.

Henrick went over to examine the corpse, and his eyeswidenedas heexclaimed,“What? Isn’t this an orc?”

Thegreen-skinnedcorpse holding a longbowbelonged toan orc, and judging by the leather armor it wore, it seemed to have come with the intention to fight.

It was at that moment…

“Karuk!”

An arrow flew, let loose byanother orcwho had come overafter hearing the sound of battle. The arrowcamefrom quite ashortdistance and easily avoiding it was out of thequestion.Just asthe arrow was about to lodge itself deep within Shaneth’s shoulder, Kang Yoon-Soo quickly swung his longsword in alightning-fastmovement.

Clang!

Kang Yoon-Soo’s longsword parried the arrow.

The orcwho hadfired the arrow crouched down as it maintained a low position, hidden within the bush. It continued to rapidly fire arrows at the group.However, KangYoon-Sooeasily blocked all of the arrows with his longsword as he slowly walked toward the orc—not even one arrow managed to hit him.

The orc was stricken with fear as it roared,“Guriyaaak!”

The bloody longsword sliced thegreen-skinnedmonster in half. Kang Yoon-Sooflickedhis longsword to rid it of blood as he walked back toward the group, not even having receiveda scratch.

Henrickstaredat him with alook of wonderon his face.“That guy, is he even human?” he asked.

“You’ll get used to it soon enough…” Shaneth answered.

The rest of the orcs gathered after two of them were killed by Kang Yoon-Soo, and tens of them encircled thegroup, exclaiming,“Guri!Guriiik!”

The orcs surrounded thegroupand aimed their bows,lettinglooseseveralarrows at the same time. There were no gaps for the partyto avoid the arrows even if they wanted to, and all that awaited them was to become a pincushion of orc arrows.

At that critical moment, Henrick suddenly put his hand in his summoning boxand exclaimed,“Summon twelve shield dolls!”

Twelve large wooden dolls that held large, rectangular shields that resembledRoman scuta[1]surrounded the trio. Henrick imbued his mana into the threads connected to the shield dolls and they immediately went into a defensive stance;the arrows bounced off the large shields.

A normal Puppeteerwhocontrolled two dolls was treated as anabove-averagePuppeteer. However, Henrick’s skillateasily controlling twelve dolls at the same time was unheard of.

“I want to ask you the same thing;are you even human, Mister Henrick?” Shaneth asked.

“Isn’t it laughable compared to that guy?”Henrickreplied.

Kang Yoon-Soo jumped over the shield dolls and charged toward the orcs as they were speaking. None of the arrows shot by the orcs managed to even graze his clothing, and three or four orcs were beheaded in an instant when he swung Ravian’s Longsword.

“Guriiiik!”The orcs’ battle formation was broken, and they threw their weapons down as they ran away without even looking back.

Shaneth and Henrick finally joined the fray. Shaneth swung her Death Scythe in a crescentarctoward the back of one of the orcs who wasrunning away;the scythe slashed the orc apartas if it wereabloodthirstybeast ina frenzy.

Henrick sent the wooden shield dolls back and summoned a differentset of dolls.They werearmed with shortbows—archer dolls.

“Longbows for a bunch of orcs? Not bad;I’ll make good use ofthem,” Henrick said as he moved his hands that were connected to threads imbued with mana. The archer dolls picked up the dropped bows and quivers and usedthemagainst the orcs. Whenever an archer doll let an arrow loose,it founditself buried in the back of an orc’s head, andthe orcs fell down one by one.

Henrick’s control skillswerenothing short of extraordinary. The fact that he was able to calculate thetrajectoryof the arrows from the perspective ofhis dollswas a nearly impossible feat by itself.

All of the orcs soon died one by one, leaving behindonlya trail of blood. The loot thepartyobtained from the orcsconsisted ofa steel whip, several pieces of steel, and a large hexagonal crystal.

“Where do you think these orcs came from?” Shaneth asked.

“I’m guessing they lived in the nearby woods, and by the looks of them being equipped with longbows and leather armor, I’m guessing they werehell-benton hunting for humans. Something’s not right though;orcs usually never leave their burrows…” Henrick answered.

Kang Yoon-Soo silently raised his right arm and said,“Mass Raise Dead.”

The dead orcs rose from the ground as undead.

[14zombie orcshave been sent to the summon dimension.]

[Summons currently stored in the dimension: 14zombieorcs, White, and Sally.]

[Remaining space for additional summons: 684]

Henricklooked onin horror as he tapped Shaneth’s shoulderand remarked,“Hey, little miss nag, I think it’ll take quite a while to get used to that guy…?”

“I was initially the same, but it’s not that bad once you get used to it,” Shaneth replied.

“Hmm…Is that so?”Henrick mused.

Shaneth and Henrick felt a strange sense of companionship.

Kang Yoon-Soo stared at the hexagonal crystal dropped by the orcs; ithad the same color as the ‘Ring of Life Suppression’ he had.

[Mysterious Crystal]

A mysterious mineral. It seems to be composed of a different materialfromother crystals.

A message suddenly appeared on the wrist device the moment Kang Yoon-Soo picked up the crystal.

[You have discovered the real value of the crystal due to your commencement of the legendary quest.]

[Crystal of Darkness]

A crystal made by the Death General Kalriven. The power to dominate life forms is stored within it. You will find thepathto theCastle of theDead if you break it. However, the Death General will be hostile to you.

The Death General was an undead general that boasted great leadership, and it was also considered to be a top-class monster among the violent and vicious undead. Itwasalso infamous for its deadly swordsmanship, as well as its ability to command a large legion of undead.

‘I need to meet up with this guy to strengthen my Necromancer abilities,’Kang Yoon-Soo thought to himself.

The Death General was not a monster that could be facedintheir current state, but Kang Yoon-Soo did not even think twice before breaking the ‘Crystal of Darkness’.

Crack!

Kwachik!

[Gyaaaaaaah!]

Anear-splitting, hair-raisingscream flowed out of the crystal after it was broken by Kang Yoon-Soo, and numerous translucent souls flowed out of the crystal, forming a fog—they were lost souls. The lost souls gathered together to form aneerie-lookingwhite road.

Kang Yoon-Soo confidently followed the road. Shaneth and Henrick, on the other hand, were shocked out of their wits.

“H-hey, Mister Kang Yoon-Soo?” Shaneth called out.

“Hey,you punk! Where are you going?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!” Henrick screamed at him.

However, Kang Yoon-Soo nonchalantly replied, “We have business here;follow me.”

The two looked at each other before sighing andfollowingbehind Kang Yoon-Soo.

Henrick ground his teeth as he grumbled, “It hasn’teven been a day since Itraveledwith you guys, but I’ve decided. If I die, it’s that punk’s fault.”

“I agree,” Shaneth grumbled next to him.

Kang Yoon-Soo quietly followed the road; it was unknown whetherhe was aware of the killing intent(?) his companions were emitting behind him.

The sound of the lost souls wailing in agony echoedwithevery step they took on the road, and it feltas ifthe scenerywasgetting darker and more sinister the farther they went downit. They walked quite a distancealongtheeerieroad,passinginto a secluded forest; eventually,a vast transparent lake greeted them. The lake was so vast and wide that they could not see the other side of it.

“How will we cross this lake?” Shaneth asked.

Kang Yoon-Soo pointed somewhere with his chin as if hehad beenwaiting for her to ask that question.Just as he gestured,the eerie road made by the lost souls continued over the lake, anditsclear watersfrozeoverto form a road made of ice.

“This is getting very creepy…” Henrick muttered under his breath.

The trio walked across the vast lake on the icy road paved for them by the lost souls. The top of the lake was deathly silent, andneither the criesof beasts nor insects could be heard in the entirevast place.Even after they traveled across the surfacefor quitesomedistance, there seemed to be no end in sight.

Henrick suddenly raised a suspicionthat hadbeen bugging him.“Isn’t it supposed to be morning by now?”

“I agree, but this place is still dark, and there’s no trace of life anywhere,” Shaneth added.The place was not only creepy;it also made one feelfearcreeping up their body.

At that moment, Shaneth suddenly exclaimed,“It’s a castle!”

An enormous black castle stood in front of them in the middle of the lake. The castle was quite luxurious, except for the fact that the whole place was uniformly asingle color, and that color was black. The castle was also surrounded byadark fog that resembledstormclouds.

Henrick could not help but grimace at the sight of the castleas he muttered,“A castle in the midst of a frozen lake. I don’t know who the lord of this castle is, but they must bequite romantic.”

The castle was not visible from a distance, and it was certain that only thosewho walkedalongthe road paved by the lost souls would begiven the privilege to enterit. It was definitely a grand and majestic castle, butitalso gave off an eerie atmosphere.

“Don’t you think thecastle will be filled with corpses?” Henrickasked.

“Don’t say that. It’ll actually happen if you say thatkindof stuff…” Shaneth grumbled.

Then, Kang Yoon-Soo, who had been quiet for quite some time, suddenly said in his usual emotionless voice, “It’s a castlethe dead reside in.”

“…”

***

As they walked toward the black castle,theycould see that thewater surrounding itwas frozen solid.At the very moment theyreached the castle gates, however, a group of knights wearing rusted armorsuddenly fell down from the castle walls.

“Halt…! Who… goes… there…?!”Avoice that definitely did not belong to a human resounded.The knightbeneath the armor was none other than a skeleton, and it was one of thehigh-tierskeleton variants—aSkullKnight.

“Clack! Clack…!”

“Filthy… intruders…!”

“Stop… the… intruders…! Foolish… humans…!”

The other skeletons also spoke.

“Get lost,” Kang Yoon-Soo demanded.

“We… re… fuse…!” the skeletons responded.

“Then die,” Kang Yoon-Soo said coldly.

The party prepared for combat as Shaneth readied her Death Scythe and Henrick summoned his combat dolls from his summoning box.

TheSkullKnights, that numbered around twenty, also drew their swords as they exuded an immense amount of killing intent;the way they wielded theirswordsproved that theywouldnot be easyopponents. Theywere around Level 90, andchargedtoward thepartyin a single group.

Kang Yoon-Soo stood on the vanguard and blew away theSkullKnightat the forefront. He stabbed the collarbone of theSkullKnightandsubsequently swung his Staff of Lightning, anda flash of blue lightningstruck from above.

Bzzzt! Boom!

Five skull knights received a significant amount of damage as they retreated, and Henrick did not miss this opportunity as he controlled his combat dolls to smash the skull knight’s bones.

Shaneth, on theother hand, used her most recently acquired skill, calling out,“Pyrokinesis!”

Flames suddenly appeared andwrappedthemselvesaroundthe Death Scythe.Sheswung herscythein a large motion, and sparks of fire flew across theentire area as it passed by. The flame surrounding the Death Scythe was hotter and much more powerful than average fire magic.

FiveSkullKnights were setablazeby theattack, andthey staggeredaround while covered infire.“Fire… hot…!”they exclaimed as they hurriedly retreated to the rear.

Suddenly, a catastrophe occurred.Cracks began to form across the thin portions of the ice.

Cr… Crack…!

The wholeice sheetstarted to wobble as one portion ofit broke apart, and Henrick could not help but jump upfuriously, exclaiming,“You stupid miss! Where the hell did you get the idea to use fire on top of ice?! Ack!”

“I’m sorry! It was my first time using this skill…Kyaahhh!” Shaneth exclaimed.

The ice tiltedheavilyto one side as it lost its balance.

Cr… Crack…!

TheSkullKnights fell intothehole that formed from the cracksinthe ice as they fell into the water,struggling to stay afloat. Shaneth and Henrick were no exception,as they toostruggledto keep their balance and stayatopthe ice.

However, only one person was exempt from thatstruggle.Kang Yoon-Soo leisurely walked across the ice as if he weretaking a stroll aroundhisneighborhood.

“Come here,” he said.

1. The scutum is a rectangular, iron-rimmed shield, usually made of wood or wicker covered in leather, used historically by the Roman army.👈