Chapter 1642 – 1642. God’S Atlantis
“Use Fireball.”
The skeleton mages use Fireball at my command. Fireballs rain down on the oasis.
Boom! Bang! Fwoooosh!
The fireballs explode, instantly evaporating the water in the oasis. I glared at the oasis, now emitting a hazy mist.
The water level had decreased, but it was a negligible amount compared to the overall size of the oasis.
“It would be faster to dig a channel and drain the water.”
Fortunately, I had tireless workers around me.
“Work, corpses! Move it, move it, and drain the water from the oasis!”
The undead legion began to move to drain the water from the oasis. I even modified some of the undead into laborers, giving them a shovel in one hand and a pickaxe in the other.
An hour passed.
All the water from the small oasis was drained, revealing the bottom. There, was an ancient door engraved with a sphinx. It felt somewhat sacred.
‘The Book of the Dead 2 is inside there.’
I sent the undead in first and then slowly entered myself.
「You have entered the Ramesseum for the first time!」
「You have acquired 30,000 AP.」
「The Son of the Sun is watching you.」
I entered the interior. It was a vast space, large enough to accommodate a thousand-man army. The pillars were huge and thick, and the ceiling was at least 20 meters high. The building exuded grandeur.
‘Ramesseum? I feel like I’ve heard that somewhere before.’
In times like these, it’s good to take a quick trip to reality.
I went online in the real world and researched the Ramesseum.
It was the temple and tomb of Ramesses II.
‘The Son of the Sun must be Ramesses II.’
Ramesses II didn’t seem particularly hostile to me.
‘Is he not very interested in Atlantis?’
From my perspective, that was a good thing. It would be annoying if he tried to interfere.
I checked the map first. The Blessing of the Desert was still active here. It showed me the map of this disgustingly large and vast temple.
‘It seems like there are five underground levels. I need to go there.’
The surroundings were silent.
Quiet with nothing around. There were no living creatures, not even a breeze.
Of course, I wasn’t careless. In places like this, it was a sure thing that something was lurking.
I had been walking for a while when it happened.
A notification window popped up with a solemn voice.
「Pharaoh! Overcome all ten plagues and prove your majesty!」
「The first plague begins.」
Right after the voice ended, something fell from the ceiling with a thud. Something wet.
Ribbit, ribbit.
It was a frog.
Countless frogs were falling from the ceiling.
Splat!
A frog landed on my mask. I grabbed the frog with a twitchy hand. I made eye contact with the frog.
“Annoying.”
I threw the frog to the ground. The frog’s body burst. Guts and blood splattered.
I commanded the undead.
“Kill all the frogs.”
The undead faithfully followed my orders. Ghouls devoured the frogs, and skeleton knights swung their swords at them. Swish! The frogs jumped around, dodging the skeletons’ swords.
“You useless bastards. Can’t even cut down a frog?”
I clicked my tongue.
The skeleton mages were the only ones I was pleased with. These guys were mindlessly firing fireballs, massacring the frogs, regardless of whether their allies were hit or not. It felt like more allies were dying from the fire… but it must be my imagination.
“It doesn’t matter if they get hit. Undead can be replenished. Rise.”
The dead frogs rose. This was where the Undead Modification (SS) skill shined. I combined the corpses of 1,000 frogs to create a giant undead frog. The giant frog devoured the other frogs with its long tongue. The giant frog grew larger with each frog it ate.
I used the corpses of the frogs to create ten giant frogs. The giant frogs continued their meal. And then, at some point, the croaking of the frogs was no longer heard.
「You have overcome the first plague.」
「The King of the Heavens says it was a pathetic plague.」
「The second and third plagues begin.」
I was a little tense. Even if the first plague was pathetic and absurd, I couldn’t let my guard down.
About three minutes passed.
A new notification window popped up.
「You have overcome the second and third plagues.」
“What happened?”
「The King of the Heavens tells you that they were plagues related to disease.」
“…I see.”
It was natural that nothing happened.
Me and my army were undead. Already dead bodies. What meaning could disease have for a corpse? None.
I continued to move forward. I found a staircase leading underground. Without hesitation, I went down.
The underground was a wide space with a one-way passage. The problem was that the space was filled with water. The walls were solid stone, making it impossible to drain the water. I couldn’t use magic to do anything about the water either. The black magic I knew was limited.
“The water is about 5 meters deep.”
Should I build a boat?
But that’s too much of a hassle.
“Just move forward. You guys are dead anyway, so you won’t drown. Go.”
The undead army advanced into the water.
I sat comfortably on a wooden plank that I used as a palanquin. Large, enhanced ghouls grabbed the ropes connected to the wooden plank and pulled.
“Tsk. It’s too shaky. Pull carefully.”
I nagged. I didn’t think the enhanced ghouls understood. They were just adjusting their speed in accordance with my will. I glanced below the water. Armed undead were striding forward.
I could see the giant frogs swimming. Even though they were undead, they swam well, like frogs.
‘Should I entrust the ropes to the frogs? …No. On second thought, seeing how those bastards swim, the ride would be terrible. Let’s just go like this, even if it’s slow.’
「The fourth plague begins.」
The water turned red.
I put my hand in the water and pulled it out. It had a viscosity that was more than just water.
‘Blood.’
Since I was undead, I couldn’t smell it.
‘The water has turned into blood.’
And that wasn’t all. Dozens of crocodiles were swimming in the blood-turned water. They were so huge, at least 8 meters long.
“How amusing. You dare try to stop me with mere crocodiles! You stupid corpses! Tear those crocodiles to pieces! Bring me their skins!”
The undead soldiers showed hostility towards the crocodiles. However, the undead’s movements in the water were much slower than usual. The giant frogs were the only ones moving quickly, attacking the crocodiles. But it wasn’t easy.
Once bitten by a crocodile, it was over. It was called a death roll. When a crocodile bit an undead, it would immediately rotate its body, tearing off the undead’s torso. Even if the undead couldn’t die, there was nothing they could do if they couldn’t move.
“Tsk, damn it. You useless corpses… you’re no help.”
There was a reason why I hadn’t modified them for underwater combat.
‘This is a desert, why would I consider fighting underwater?’
Of course, I had no intention of considering it now either.
I stood up on the wooden plank and used black magic.
“Dark Lightning! Dark Lightning! Dark Lightning!”
I shot out black lightning. It was very effective in the water. The crocodiles that were hit were electrocuted and died.
“Don’t think you can die peacefully after blocking my path! Rise!”
I turned the dead crocodiles into undead as well. I preserved the corpses as much as possible. Unlike humans, their huge bodies, reaching 8 meters, would definitely be helpful.
“What are you doing! You’re undead crocodiles now, so hurry up and bite your own kind to death!”
At my urging, the undead crocodiles lashed their tails nervously and swam towards their fellow crocodiles.
“These bastards…”
I didn’t like them for some reason. I should use the undead crocodiles as modification material later.
Even then, I was still firing Dark Lightning. I had to keep them in check to reduce the damage to the undead army. It seemed like about 50 had already been irreparably damaged… but losing more would be a greater loss.
‘It’s one thing to lose them in battle. But losing them meaninglessly like this is unacceptable.’
I had to kill the ruler of the golden desert. Now was the time to conserve the undead legion.
“Dark Lightning! Dark Lightning! Dark Lightning!!!”
I killed all the crocodiles.
After that, the crocodile swarm attacked twice more, but thanks to my active intervention, we were able to cross the blood-turned water without much damage. 100 new undead crocodiles were created. Considering the undead that were damaged by the crocodiles, it was a net zero.
At the end of the blood-turned water, I saw a door leading to the next level.
「You have overcome the fourth plague.」
“Crossing the water was harder than the crocodiles.”
I moved to the second underground level.
「The fifth plague begins.」
I looked around. I wondered if something unusual would pop out. But the surroundings were quiet.
‘Is it like the third and fourth plagues, where diseases are rampant?’
I waited for three more minutes.
Nothing happened.
“I don’t know what the plague is. Move forward.”
Thump, thump!
The undead marched in step. The undead crocodiles were at the forefront. They were big, so it was fun to watch.
And then I belatedly realized what the fifth plague was.
Lice. The bugs that parasitize hair.
Lice were sticking to my skin, trying to suck my blood. I watched the lice closely. They weren’t ordinary lice, they pierced my skin. The lice seemed to suck blood, but then immediately fell off my body.
I was undead.
No blood flowed through my body. The blood in my body was all stagnant and rotten. And that was the same for the other undead, if not worse.
“It’s nothing. Let’s ignore it and go.”
「You have overcome the fifth plague.」
「The sixth plague begins.」
Wiiiiiiiiing!
I heard the sound of a drone flying. I looked straight ahead and opened my mouth.
A swarm of flies, each about 10cm in size, appeared.
