An Extra’s POV
chapter-353

"What appears to be the issue? Perhaps I could assist in enlightening you."

Once again, there was a condescending element in the tone of the black-suited man despite how polite his words were.

Claudius could tell that this man saw them as inferior.

It didn't particularly vex him—though Claudius didn't like the anxiety that came with that realization.

"Why can your Undead regenerate? Does it have a Skill to do so? It didn't seem like the type to possess healing-type Skills."

"Hmm…?" The black suited man cocked his head slightly.

'Is he playing dumb? Did he not understand my question?' Claudius thought to himself.

Either way, the more time went by, the better for them. Stalling for the moment Shuri would be done with her Summoning was one strategy he could employ.

Still… he was curious.

"I've merged corpses before, so I know they do not possess such qualities. As long as they do not possess the inherent Skills in that particular field, they can not exhibit such special abilities." Claudius spoke audaciously, taking a step forward.

He had to let this man know that he too was an experienced Necromancer who had spent his whole life exploring the art.

"It's also very unlikely, or impossible, for you to have healed the Corpse on your own. Your Skill Limit is full, and even if it wasn't… I didn't see you activate a Skill."

Claudius had explored all the options, so he desired a response out of the current conundrum.

"So how did you do it?"

For a moment, there was silence.

Tension rose in the air.

All the thousand members of the Mercenary Gang were careful about even their breathing as they watched with palpable anxiety.

Unlike the likes of Claudius and Feyu, they knew full well how powerless they would be against the Compound Corpse.

It was too strong and fast for them.

It just went to show the gap that existed between the Heads of Destruction and regular soldiers—even elites.

After a silence that seemed to last for an eternity, a sound finally came forth.

"Kukukukuku…"

Everyone's eyes widened a little.

"… Kukukuahahahahahahahaaha!"

Their eyelids spread even more, taking in the sight of malevolence before them.

They could hear the ugly cackles of the man before them. It sounded like metal scraping metal, loud enough to cause all that heard to nearly fall in submission.

Claudius held his ground despite all of this, furrowing his brow as he frowned.

'Is this a Skill too? No… it just feels like natural pressure. What in the world…' His eyes were blurry as he looked at the man who stood at the mansion's elevated entrance.

'… Is that man?!'

As soon as he had the thought, however, the laughing man suddenly stopped cackling.

He still had a wide smile on his face, but it was the kind that a person had when they saw an ant that they lit on fire, or some kind of horrid thing befall an inferior entity.

It was a look of spite… utter disgust, and the amusement derived from it.

"What are you even talking about? Special ability? Healing? How much of an amateur are you?"

Claudius didn't know how to respond to this.

'I've been practicing Necromancy for thirty years now.'

He was the best expert he had ever encountered, not that there were many Necromancers to begin with.

Thanks to his Exclusive Skill, and his incredible dedication to the art, Claudius could argue that there was no man in the entire Alliance who knew more something about Necromancy that he didn't.

… Until now.

"Do you not know the qualities of a Compound Corpse? You mistook it for a Clustered Corpse, didn't you?"

"E-eh…?" Claudius found himself looking dumbfounded.

'They're not the same thing?!'

He had been operating on the assumption that the Compound Corpse he faced was the same as the merged corpses that he had experimented with in the past—Clustered Corpse.

To think they were not the same…

"It seems I have been a little underestimated. Why would I utilize such a crude technique?"

'Crude? Did he just call it crude?' At this point, Claudius was bordering on the edge of absolute confusion.

Yes, Clustered Corpse was a very rigorous technique, but it wasn't particularly low-leveled. Its benefits were worth it, especially if one could stack up enough corpses as sacrifices.

The only reason Claudius didn't indulge any further into the craft was because of the amount of people he would need to kill to get the materials necessary for a proper Clustered Corpse.

Plus, the exposure to Miasma in making such a corpse was incredibly higher than other techniques—but that only went to show how complex and powerful it was.

In order to preserve his physical well-being, Claudius decided to abandon the method.

'Yet… he calls it crude?!'

"Listen here, Compound Corpse is a Hollow Technique… one of the high-leveled ones under the Chaos Art."

'What… is he talking about?' Claudius found himself on the borders of ignorance.

Even though he was a Necromancer, he had learned a lot about Magic and everything related to Skills or Spells in that category.

What was being mentioned—Techniques, Arts—they were not in his purview.

"It's Ancient MajiK, so I don't expect you to get it. You're still too young. This world is too young too… so I suppose it hasn't aged enough to learn these things."

Claudius felt like he was hearing nonsense.

"H-how does that explain the Corpse's Regene—?"

"Hush now. I'm still speaking." The black suited man placed a finger on his lips and stared at Claudius with a complicated look.

The latter gulped without realizing it.

'W-why did I fall silent so quickly?' He asked himself, though something inside him already knew the answer.

This was a survival reaction—the blessing of instinct.

"Compound Corpses have multiple lives. They possess the same amount of lives as the number of Corpses used in creating them."

As the black-suited man uttered those words, the colossal entity began to stand on its two feet.

Rather than having two hands, like before, four hands grew from its sides, and its new head had three faces.

Two faced the side, and one gazed straight towards Claudius and his two remaining Knights.

"You only killed this Corpse twice." As those words echoed in the air, an ominous ambiance took over.

"It seems you still have a long way to go."

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Thanks for reading!

I wonder just how much Ater knows about the world and everything about it. Sorry if this whole thing is dragging out for too long.

It is what it is…