Necromancer Survival

Chapter 3

Feeling anxiety from this post and all the comments, I quickly became a member of the community and searched for the term “Necromancer.” I read everything, from the old to current.

All of the latest posts were nothing but mockery, only the older ones had some analysis of the class….The more I carefully read, the darker I felt.

In particular, when I read the words of Hong Seungmin, a sunbae 1 who walked the path of Necromancer before me, I wanted to tear my head off.

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<Why is Necromancer an inferior class?>

Poster: Hong Seung-min

This post is a PSA. For anyone who believes they’ve become a successful Necromancer, validate yourself and write some tips. But I bet there aren’t any lolol.

I’m a Necromancer, and I’ve been a Necromancer for three years–this class is a mess. It’s not that I’m a bad User, I’m objectively stating some facts.

From the very beginning, the whole explanation of the class is a scam.

A partner to spirits, A friend of darkness and night.

By this description, you become a solitary ruler of the battlefield…Young Users who love anime or old legends may be tempted by that image. (F*cker, that was actually how I felt). But I assure you, this skill’s introduction is fraudulent.

I’ll explain why, one by one.

First – One-man army.

Looking at this, you would think that if you could manage to just kill at least one enemy in battle, you can begin to grow a limitless army. But, the number of enemies that each servant can kill and convert is fixed by the grade of the servant. If you just kill anything and turn it into a soldier, it’ll become a low-level zombie which isn’t much help in real combat.

To make it easy to understand, the low-grade skeleton that all necromancers first receive, can only make low-grade zombies even if it were to successfully bite and kill an enemy. It’s not one plus one….even if it were to bite many enemies, only one of them would turn into a zombie. Low-grades can only raise 1 zombie, mhmm.

Furthermore, the bitten and revived zombie will lack in ability. This will never happen, but if, for example, your low-grade skeleton bit and revived a swordmaster, the swordmaster zombie will only groan and move sloppily. He won’t revive as the swordmaster he once was….

So, I’ve done various research….It turns out that the only way to maintain the skills and levels of the dead or monsters is to make a ‘formal contract.’ A servant can only kill and revive enemies into low-level zombie legions. It’s not a horrible skill, but it’s not a great skill.

2nd – Fear.

I don’t exactly know what the set probability is, but after years of experiments, it rarely triggered. In my experience, in ten thousand times of using a skill attack, it’ll trigger once.

Also, the fear effect only really works on opponents that are much weaker than the Necromancer. Stronger monsters gain immunities to Fear, and it rarely works. What’s the use if you Fear an easy level 1 slime anyway? It’s putting a shiny coating on an absolutely useless skill.

3rd – Friend to Darkness and Night.

Now this is the real crux of the scam…[Increase skill attack by 10% in night, shade, and darkness]. You may think it’s a good skill when you see it, but Necromancers are already naturally reduced by 10% in the morning and day, in bright daylight!

Not only that…I only once got together a party to raid in the middle of the night, and it wasn’t easy. Users generally sleep at night and start to explore the Dungeons in the morning.

In other words, it’s a perilous skill. It doesn’t explain any of the risks and only shows the advantageous parts to deceive people. “System Messages” aren’t supposed to be User-friendly in the first place, but Necromancer’s are especially deceptive. Even if you’re an ordinary person, just from what I’ve written, you’ll know that this job is hopeless.

Lastly, Necromancers have no recourse to make money, but must instead break their bank.

A Necromancer’s ability is determined by how many useful servants they can gather. Simply put, the more high-level servants, the better. The only way to get servants, though, is through making contracts, which are divided into two methods: [vengeful spirit contract] and [sacrificial offering contract].

The problem is that these two are particularly tricky to trigger.

I don’t know much about [vengeful spirit contracts] because I’ve never raised a ranker-grade soul before…But, in any case, the contract requires a soul filled with grudge nearby.

So, to attain this type of contract, I pitched a tent in a cemetary Dungeon for 30 days. I deliberately checked into the hospital, wandered around intensive care units, and lingered in funeral halls, but none of this worked. Only “Contract conditions are not met” windows would appear and it was of no use.

I can’t even understand how one forms a contract. I asked around to see if other Necromancers knew how, but not even they had any idea. There may be a bastard who knows and won’t tell me. Anyways, I’ve never gained servants using this method.

Next is the [sacrificial offering contract], which summons servants with materials. If the offering is properly prepared, there is a 100% chance of it working.

But, even getting the materials for an mid-grade Skeleton is very difficult and costly–a ‘mana stone’ will definitely be consumed. A low-grade mana stone the size of your fist is already priced at 70 million won on the current market. To summon an intermediate Skeleton, 10 low-grade mana stones are required.

So, ‘just go earn 70 million won,’ you say? Do you think you can take one Low-grade Skeleton and clear a Dungeon…Crush mobs? You’re more likely to crush your head.

Still, wanting to be successful as a Necromancer, I somehow saved money for two years and summoned an Mid-grade Skeleton. But… For the money and effort I spent, the specs were too inferior. Definitely not worth the money and the mana stones…

Furthermore, Necromancers can’t receive a decent amount of buffs. Perhaps because the concept of the class relies on desecrating the dead, any of the Priests’ blessings will not apply. Buffs or weapons of sexual nature cannot be effective either. Since a Bard’s ‘performance’ buff is usually of sensual nature, the so-called “Buff High” 2 is unavailable to Necromancers as well.

Any parties formed must work at night, Only Low to Mid-grade Skeletons are available for the beggars…Of course I can’t even dream about a fixed salary. I’ll fail all guild interviews; I can’t go to the Dungeons that are supposed to match my level… I eventually got to the point where I couldn’t even earn enough to afford potions.

So what’s left…

There’s a way to increase the strength of your original servants. If you look at the bottom of your servant’s ‘Status Window,’ there is a button to ‘Reinforce’ them.

But this, too, is impossible lolol

Because, no matter how I search auction listings or put request posts on the forums, the reinforcement materials they ask me to collect can’t be found. I’ve searched for any traces on the internet, but I can’t even find the data. lololol

So, I believe that these are materials that aren’t available from any of the current open Dungeons but are from Dungeons that haven’t been cleared yet. In other words, if our current progression is not advanced enough, the materials will remain unavailable forever. It’s virtually impossible to strengthen your Skeleton.

Conclusion: So I…after settling all my accounts during my time as a User…went and took a test to become a Police Officer.

I know there are <class reset scrolls>, but its market value is 200 million these days. I gave up since I heard that it’s not only just your class, but levels as well. Thinking of all the effort and sweat wasted, I felt that giving up was the answer.

Maybe it would be different for people who were born with a gold spoon…but instead of investing hundreds of millions into this class, just reset until Priest is one of your options.

No, just choose to be a Warrior instead.

Anything would be better than Necromancer.

I’ll summarize in three lines.

Don’t be a Necromancer Not even if you’re rich You won’t look cool. It’s a class where you’re dragging around weak skulls while shedding many tears.

End.

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After reading all of this, my mind felt empty.

He…for 3 years he tried to endure, but in the end he couldn’t afford potion costs and eventually became a police officer?

But, come to think of it, I haven’t really made money this past year as a User either….I’ve survived with the money my family sent along with the savings I’ve gathered in college. I’ve chipped away at that nest egg slowly; I couldn’t survive with the items I’ve gathered from the Dungeons.

My Skeleton (Lackey) is cute, but Hong Seung-min is right. He doesn’t have any attack power, and his only skill is to bite. Mob clearing has to be done one enemy at a time, by luring a straggler away from the crowd. Levelling is slow going since that’s a tactic that can only be used on low-tier monsters such as slimes and orcs

I thought about changing classes, but, of course, there was no way I could afford 200 million won. Besides, if I reset myself, a year’s worth of hard work will go down the drain…

I felt ashamed and wondered if I should give up being a User and take a civil service exam like the other Necromancer.

But….

“Yes, Mom….” I answered the phone.

–Aigoo3, is our son doing well?

“Yeah…..How about you, mom?”

–Momma’s doing well….You’re eating and living well, right?

“Yeah. I guess….”

–Why do you sound like that? Should I send some allowance?

“You don’t have to! I didn’t call to ask for money…”

–Then, did something happen? Did you get hurt in the Dungeons?

“No. I have potions, I’ll be fine… How are you lately, mom? Doing well?”

–*Sigh* You know I went to the hospital last time, right? The doctor says that he’ll need to run more tests.

“Ahh….Yeah. How was it?”

–Well, it’s the same as always… He wants me to retire. Haah…Ever since my shoulder surgery, my arm won’t raise up all the way. And it’s not as if I can deliver kimchi by walking…

“That’s why I said you should rest on the weekends…”

–Aigoo, it’s all right. By the way, why did you call?

“… It’s nothing. I was just curious about how you were doing…”

–Your mom is in a cafe with her church members. Ah, that’s right! You remember Gyu-joon right? Gyu-joon hyung 4. He used to live next door.

“Yeah….I remember him.”

–Apparently he just recently got married!

“Ah….Is that so?”

–Do you have a girlfriend yet?

“No, I don’t even have time to date.”

–I guess if you go into Dungeons, it takes the entire day?

“Y-yeah….”

The more I heard about my mom’s inconsequential stories about daily life, the less I could speak. Though my mom spoke about Gyu-joon, who became a 7th rank civil servant and married this year, she was always proud that people took interest in her “son who goes Dungeon diving”. I mean, ordinary people think that all Users are somehow successful.

In the end, I couldn’t say what I wanted to and ended the call. However, as soon as I did, she sent 500,000 won to my account. I felt guilty–I said I was okay…

–Cheer up! And come down to visit every once in a while….I want to see my son’s face.

Thinking about what she said before I hung up, I wanted to sob.