The Necromancer Who Was Despised

When a sacred object falls, its effects change.

There were cases where it remained similar, and cases where it completely changed, but honestly, I hoped that Rob would remain the same.

“It’s perfect as my defense gear.”

I gained a lot from this incident. I thought my level had risen to the point where I felt like I was getting extra benefits.

“I need to release the seal of the sword and armor, and there’s also aftermath to deal with…”

Although I learned about the oppression of other religions, to be honest, I already knew that the Goddess Faith was trash, so I wasn’t too surprised. However, I was a little surprised that the owner of the diary suspected that the Goddess Faith might be related to the Dark Mage.

“There’s no evidence, though.”

Maybe that’s why they’re excessively oppressing the Dark Mage.

Even if I know now, there’s nothing I can do about it immediately.

Still, I obtained unexpected information and learned about a hidden history, so I decided to be satisfied with that.

“I also found out the locations of hidden temples with treasures.”

Considering that the Goddess Faith secretly discovered and assassinated people, it’s likely that not everyone is clean.

However, as the Earth’s Shield was discovered later, I might be able to find a few places.

So, it wasn’t a complete waste.

“Have you finished reading?”

“Yeah? Ah, sorry. I kept you waiting.”

“No, it didn’t take that long, and it was quite interesting.”

“Yeah, it was fun. I also got some results. It seems there are a few more places like this.”

“What kind of place is this?”

“Yeah, well, according to what’s written here, not everyone will be safe.”

I summarized the contents for Kailla, who looked curious.

“…There’s no difference between nobles and priests or anything.”

“I don’t know. The Goddess Faith might be especially dirty.”

In reality, I had seen small temples in the past that were decent.

“There are decent places within the Goddess Faith too.”

However, it was undeniable that their heads were quite rotten.

“It’s better to keep that content hidden.”

That’s what I thought.

“I’ll cooperate fully with destroying the temple too.”

There’s no need to make a big deal out of it now.

As I grow stronger, they’ll eventually come to hate me, but for now, I’m just a talented Dark Mage, so they won’t openly antagonize me.

My talent might be too visible, but that’s enough for now.

We immediately went upstairs, locked the scripture and diary, and called Tilde after contaminating the Cup of Abundance to a certain extent, just like Mother’s womb.

“I’ve confirmed it. You’re quick.”

“The purity of my magic is high, so it’s natural.”

“It’s certainly true. You’ve made a contract with a high-ranking demon, it seems.”

I smiled wryly and avoided answering. Hiding the identity of the contracted demon is a common practice, so Tilde didn’t say anything.

“As long as it’s not the Demon King, I don’t care.”

It’s not that I particularly dislike the demon king, but I do have a contract with him.

If I had a contract with the demon king, I would view him as a target to be eliminated, surpassing hatred.

“Well, then… let’s destroy the temple as promised.”

“The scale is bigger than I thought, so I wonder how long it’ll take…”

“It won’t take that long, anyway.”

“Since we’ve crossed the wall this time…”

I was thinking of showing off a new undead.

I smiled lightly at Tilid, who was puzzled, and began preparing to create an undead.

With my 5th class, I could now control more undead and create higher-level ones as well.

Among them were those belonging to the medium-to-large category.

“I’ll finally make this.”

The holy power within the temple was gradually decreasing as the sacred vessel was corrupted.

What was unfortunate was that the ruined Guardian’s holy power was dwindling, causing it to decay, which was unavoidable.

“There was no shadow of the soul, either.”

Analysis was also impossible. Since it was created through sacred law, not magic, the system itself was different.

So, I had initially shown some interest, but now I had lost all interest.

“I wish I could make a Draugr or a Flesh Golem, but…”

The materials were insufficient. The explosion of corpses, especially Minotaur’s, had used up a lot.

As a result, my options were limited.

“At least the bones are plentiful, so that’s a relief.”

The bones of Minotaur, which had once been imbued with holy power, were also losing their holy power as the temple’s holy power decreased.

Thanks to this, I could use these numerous bones within the temple with simple processing.

[Create Bone Golem]

As my magic activated, the bone mound began to shake violently.

It then broke apart and merged to form a massive body.

“The state isn’t that great, though.”

The durability of the bones had decreased significantly.

They were old bones, and since they had once been imbued with holy power, many of them couldn’t withstand the new magic and were crumbling.

So, I started compressing numerous bones to prevent them from collapsing immediately.

Kyiiing.

The ring rotated rapidly, absorbing a large amount of magical power from my body.

But it didn’t stop.

“I’ll need at least a month to destroy everything here without this.”

Having a medium-to-large undead would be useful in many ways.

This wasn’t just an undead to be used and discarded.

It was going to become one of my reliable collections, capable of holding the front line for a while.

The problem was that it was too large, so if I added this one, I wouldn’t be able to store additional permanent undead…

“There’s another way, though.”

With my higher class, I could do more things, and I could handle that much.

So, I made up for the lack of materials with my abilities and began creating the bone golem, bit by bit, from the ground up.

The golem, made from bones, was completed with a gray, almost black color due to the influence of my magic.

Artina expressed her impression, looking at the created golem.

“It’s not as disgusting as I thought?”

“It’s just made of bones, so there’s no need to make it look like a skeleton.”

Appearance is important. A disgusting appearance will only lead to rejection.

Therefore, it’s better to avoid a disgusting appearance if possible.

“Now we have a big guy, about 4 meters tall…”

“It’s quite large. If we place it at the front, it will certainly be intimidating.”

Any ordinary low-ranking mercenary would die instantly if hit by the golem’s fist.

“It’s only effective against humans, not monsters.”

There’s a clear limit to its power against monsters.

“It’s strong, but it’s not easy to deal with fierce monsters like that.”

Even a troll would be difficult to defeat alone.

But if I provide support, the story would be different.

Of course, we need to test it in battle to know for sure.

“Let’s see how much power it has.”

“Let’s start then.”

Tilde nodded at my declaration.

The golem raised its hand, and soon…

Crash! Boom! Rumble!

The golem moved according to my will, destroying the temple’s pillars one by one.

The place, which was once the last temple of the Earth Church, slowly lost its remnants.

From the perspective of the Earth Church people, it would be tearful, but from my perspective, I didn’t care.

“It’s nothing compared to corrupting a sacred object.”

Leaving some remnants wouldn’t earn me any goodwill, so I destroyed everything without hesitation.

“There was a mural-like thing too.”

I took a rough look, but it seemed to be a depiction of the Earth Church’s mythology.

“I need to erase that too.”

Tilde would want that as well.

Thanks to the golem’s hard work, the building itself collapsed in no time.

Then, I erased the mural and completely sealed the entrance to the small cave.

In the previous cycle, I had thoroughly erased it, but this time, I didn’t have the confidence to delicately erase the remnants, so I took a strong measure to block the cave itself.

After completing the cleanup, we returned to our territory.

On the way back, Anelis woke up, but due to my curse, she couldn’t say a word and was knocked out by Artina’s hand after struggling.

“I would have done it even if you didn’t help.”

“I just wanted to do it. It’s annoying.”

Artina replied briefly to Baldur’s words.

As we entered the mercenary guild, the receptionist greeted us with a surprised expression.

“You’re back. But what about the others…?”

“Most of them are dead.”

The receptionist’s gaze turned to Tilde.

“That’s right. During the request, most of them died. And Annelise abandoned her comrades and tried to flee.”

“…Are you saying there was a betrayal? Did that happen because…?”

Tilde didn’t respond. If they had to justify it, it was true that they had abandoned their comrades in a desperate situation, but it seemed they didn’t want to make excuses.

“As for the punishment, we’ll leave it to Inha’s party to handle. The mercenary guild will officially process it.”

“…Alright. I’ll report it to the higher-ups.”

After confirming that the request was complete, they paid us the remaining fee and additional compensation, implying that we had worked hard.

“What will you do now? If you’d like, you can stay with us for a while…?”

Tilde shook their head at my words.

“It’s fine….I’ll return to the temple and focus on my training for a while. I also need to hold a funeral for my comrades.”

Then, they looked at me and said, “You don’t need to worry about that place. You kept your promise, so I’ll keep my silence until the moment I die, as sworn in the goddess’s name.”

The temple was destroyed, and the sacred artifacts were all corrupted. From their perspective, there was no reason to speak.

“I believe you.”

They had sworn in the goddess’s name, which was similar to a mana oath.

If they spoke, some of our information would leak to the goddess’s followers, but Tilde would definitely die.

“It would be desecrating the goddess’s name.”

Considering their own life, and thinking about their flexible mindset as a priest, it was highly likely that they wouldn’t betray us and hand over our information to the goddess’s followers, even if it meant sacrificing their own life.

And even if they didn’t betray us, it was only a matter of time before I caught their attention.

“I’ve grown faster than I thought.”

The goddess’s followers might not be able to directly touch me, who was active within the 6 Kingdoms Union, but it was likely that they would see me as a person of interest.

The goddess’s followers intensely hated black magicians like me, constantly criticizing the official black magician system and demanding that the 6 Kingdoms Union formally reject black magicians.

“The 6 Kingdoms Union is just pretending to be unaware.”

There were definitely followers of the goddess within the 6 Kingdoms Union.

You couldn’t suppress every religion.

However, their influence wasn’t as great as that of the Sacred Empire or the kingdoms that followed the empire, like Maladin and Maricos.

“They allow multiple religions, and while the nobles might not, the royal family isn’t particularly close to the goddess’s followers.”

Many prominent nobles also kept their distance from the goddess’s followers, knowing about other religions.

Of course, not all nobles were the same.

So, if I became an official black magician, I would inevitably attract their attention.

At that point, it wouldn’t matter even if it became known.

It was dangerous if it became known immediately, but if it became known later, it honestly didn’t matter.

My growing abilities would also shorten the period of danger.

After Tilde left with their compensation, the receptionist asked me, “When will you have time to meet with the guild leader and Inha?”

They asked cautiously, as if they didn’t want to burden us with an immediate meeting.

“Um… let’s meet tomorrow.”

I thought of taking a break, but I wanted to finish as quickly as possible.

“Tomorrow… got it. I’ll send someone to meet you around evening tomorrow. You’ll be at the Sleeping Bear Inn, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”