Chapter 250. Beginning his exploration

Calmly observing the situation, Michael waited thirty seconds until his Golem respawned but still didn't make a move.

Two minutes later, the demons continued pouring out of the portal, and they showed no indication of stopping anytime soon.

Fortunately, after his Golem died the first time, it created four Corpses due to its passive skill. Every time it lost 25% of its Life Points, it shed a Corpse.

'This is pretty bad. The portal is not a 'consumable' that disappears after a certain number of demons are brought in, nor is it a temporary means of transportation that vanishes after some time passes. This can only mean that I must wreck it to stop the demons from flooding me with superior numbers. The bigger problem, however...'

Hearing the demons laughing and seeing them point at him as if he were a slab of meat sitting on the chopping board, the Necromancer's face changed.

Unlike the puppets he had previously encountered, these were real bodies. Real bodies implied that whatever combat experience they had, they would be able to exhibit it in a much better fashion than what he had experienced in normal Dungeons.

Remembering the Barbarians he fought against in Mephisto's vision and how badly he got his ass handed to him, he was starting to panic slightly.

'I can't remain passive. The more time passes, the more convenient it is for them. Fuck! I can only go on the offensive.'

Judging the distance, the portal was about three hundred meters or so away. By now, over thirty demons had crossed over, putting him at a severe disadvantage. 

Ordering his Quarterback to charge forward, Michael followed about five meters behind it.

He still didn't dare check by himself if all traps had been disarmed. 

When the demons saw his actions, their sneers grew wider, giving Michael a bad feeling.

He immediately stopped charging forward but could only allow his Golem to tank whatever the demons had noticed.

Once the charging tank was only fifty meters away from the enemy, four white flashes appeared in quick succession, directly separating the small giant into four chunks of its original body.

Seeing the sharp blades cut through the Golem like a hot knife through butter, Michael wiped his non-existent sweat from his forehead and immediately summoned his Reapers and two Cold Mages.

Leaving two Corpses on the ground, he braced himself as the demons, which had now reached forty, charged at him.

Casting Decrepify three times in a row to cover all incoming enemies, he patiently waited for them to enter the range of Corpse Tendrils.

Once they did, he immediately activated the skill, followed by Corpse Explosion.

He couldn't - or rather didn't dare - follow his previous strategy of following behind his minions and using Reap to create more Corpses, mainly because, unlike what he had previously faced, this wasn't a motley crew.

The more buff demons were at the front, already bashing his Reapers, while the leaner ones avoided fighting and bypassed them, directly 'assassinating' the Cold Mages.

And if that wasn't enough, archer and mage-type demons were bombarding him from afar.

Even with his increased Intelligence, his mind couldn't come up with a strategy fast enough, so he could only let his body and instincts do the work.

Immediately raising his shield to block some of the projectiles, he cut sideways at one of the sneaky demons that made it past his minions, using Reap as well.

The damage numbers were upsetting, to say the least, with Reap barely dealing 85 damage and the Corpse Explosion he previously cast not having even 50% of its usual effect.

Still, continuous Shadow damage coupled with Decrepify's passive effect of decreasing cooldowns allowed Michael to use Corpse Tendrils once more five seconds later as he was fighting off two assailants.

His minions weren't faring much better than their master, so he immediately used Raise Skeletons to top up their Life Points and buff them with increased attack speed and damage.

Plenty of bodies were stacked on the small battlefield, but the Necromancer didn't explode them all at once to 'clear the board' but focused only on the Corpses closest to the portal.

While he was indeed suffering under the oppression of the demons who were bullying him with superior numbers, he was reluctant to use all his trump cards before he even started exploring the Nightmare Dungeon.

So he could only endure and use this as a training opportunity. Fighting while keeping an eye on his minions, he quickly used the Corpses to resummon whichever one fell, keeping them on the battlefield at all times.

When thirty seconds passed after its death, the Golem rejoined the fight, and Michael had it head deeper into enemy lines and use taunt once it was closer to the portal.

That way, he could sneakily use the dark miasma to damage the damned thing without drawing too much attention.

Hacking one of the arms of the demons reaching for his face, he couldn't help but inwardly curse at how annoying it was fighting against intelligent opponents.

Whatever strategy he would use now would become ineffective the next time he was ambushed by one of these Nightmare Portals.

This wasn't a comic in which the enemy just kept throwing bodies at the MC, and he kept pushing forward with the power of friendship.

Three minutes into the fight, the portal finally crumbled, and Michael could focus on the enemies. Fortunately, the tunnels weren't vast, so even if the demons bypassed the Skeletons and his Golem, they couldn't attack him in huge numbers.

Counting about fifty or so left, he sighed after seeing his minions being overrun and directly used his Bone Storm.

The swirling mass of bones began rotating around himself and his Quarterback, dramatically increasing the damage they were dealing and limiting the number of enemies they had to face.

Corpses kept disappearing every now and then due to the Legendary Aspect on his Osseous Gale Loop.

[ Legendary Aspect: Legendary Aspect: Your Bone Storm consumes up to 8 Corpses to increase its duration up to 8 seconds. (Necromancer Only) ]

Constantly adding Decrepify on his enemies and blessing them with Corpse Tendrils and Corpse Explosion to control the battlefield, he successfully reduced the cooldown enough for his Ultimate to become available again.

The last enemy fell before his Bone Storm ended.

'That wasn't so bad. Their fighting skills are much worse compared to the Barbarians, and the damage I deal is not as bad as I expected. Furthermore, even if they get some hits in, I can lifesteal those Life Points back through the Skull gems I have in my equipment. There's also the Thorns continuously dealing damage every time I get hit by these bastards, so overall... it is not as bad as I expected it to be.'

His glee was immediately cut short after realizing he hadn't even started his exploration, and even more so after realizing he killed almost 100 demons, and his experience bar rose by less than 1,000 points.

'*Sigh* That's a bit disheartening, but there's nothing much I can do about it. I got no items from the kills but made almost 5,000 gold coins from that fight alone. I'll take what I can! Also, my damage reduced significantly, but it's not that big of a problem. Even after being stacked five times, the highest it reached was 1,200 points. This means that fights against Elites and Bosses will be even longer...'

Furthermore, this proved Michael's assumption about these Nightmare Portals: the devils controlled them and could send their troops to ambush him.

The only thing yet to be confirmed is these portals' 'random' attribute. If they appear randomly, then it's okay.

If it isn't random, but instead, the devils control the timing of their appearance, he was royally fucked.

'The Sanctuary kept alluding to the possibility of a Nightmare Dungeon lasting even a week or longer. It's fine if the portals are random since I can't do much about it. But if the devils control them, they won't allow me to rest - especially when it comes to sleeping. They have the home-field advantage and can keep sending well-rested demons to siege me without a break, but I won't last more than three days without sleeping. Even if my constitution improved, lack of sleep would make me negligent. I won't be at 100%, meaning that my chances of dying increase tremendously.'

Looking at his inventory, he had prepared a tent, a mattress, a pillow, and a quilt. They were taking up precious space, but it couldn't be helped since how well he rested would determine whether he could clear this Nightmare Dungeon.

Food and drinks were similarly not needed since he could easily go through a week with only drinking a liter or two of water and just that. 

Ultimately, these are only my speculations. The deeper I go, the more answers I'll get. Judging by the connection with my minions, the furthest I can send them is 1,000 meters. Beyond that, my link with them is still present, but it's similar to having too much static during a phone call—you can't understand each other clearly. So, let's first make use of the plenty of Corpses we have available.'

Signaling with his right hand, the minions moved forward, exploring up to a kilometer ahead of their master. 

On their way there, over a hundred traps were triggered. Blades, arrows, pit traps, falling rocks, acid baths—it was absolutely ridiculous watching everything through his minions' senses.

In the end, he ran out of Corpses before he cleared 800 meters, having no other choice but to repeatedly send Quarterback to his death multiple times in a row.

Frowning, he opened his MAP and realized he spent over two hours moving barely a kilometer from the entrance to his point. To make matters even worse, he had only encountered the demons coming out of the Nightmare Portal but no enemies 'local' to the Nightmare Dungeon itself.

Sighing, he continued advancing behind his minions, clearing one thousand meters at a time.

Unfortunately, no matter how far he traveled, the tunnels continued with no apparent end.

To make it even more terrifying, the traps increased rather than decreasing in number.

'And now there are even forks in the road...Fuck! Let's see how much time has passed... 12 hours, huh? The goddamn Dungeon entrance is so far back, but I have yet to encounter any 'natives.' There's no helping it, then. Let's test the waters.'

Walking back about two kilometers, he found a location where the cave wall was carved in, creating one of the alcoves Lorath had previously blabbed about. There, he began clearing the rocks and stalagmites with his minions, preparing to set camp.

About half an hour later, a tent stood erected with a fluffy mattress, quilt, and pillow combo. He patiently waited for over half an hour while resting on the floor in front of the tent, but there was no movement from the demons' side.

Seeing no response, he calmly took out a sandwich and a fruit smoothie from his inventory, obviously taunting the enemies with his 'unruly' behavior. 

Unfortunately, even after he finished licking his fingers, nothing happened.

'Since that's the case, we can only deploy my second Ultimate!'

He began stripping off his armor and depositing it back into the inventory. Once he was in his casual clothes, he took it even further and changed into sleepwear.

Grinning inwardly, he slipped inside the tent, covered himself with the quilt, and prepared to sleep. 

He purposely left the tent's door open in case the Sanctuary couldn't see what he was doing on the screen outside.

A strange sound immediately drew his attention, and he opened his previously closed eyes. Through one of his Accountants, he saw the same blood tendrils folding themselves into a portal about two hundred meters away from his campsite.

Snorting, he immediately ordered his minions to attack in full force, prioritizing the portal.

A group of five demons successfully teleported, only to be greeted by Quarterback's fists and kicks, while the Skeletons took down the portal.

It took less than three minutes, and even without Michael doing anything, both the portal and the demons were cleared.

Grinning, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

'Leaving aside the first time the Nightmare Portal appeared, it's been more than 12 hours until the second one popped up. So, this can only mean that it might either be as 'random' as the Sanctuary described it or that the devils were only testing the waters.'

Yawning, he turned on his side and went to sleep.

From now on, it was a psychological battle between the two sides. The first one to make a move would end up exposing more of their trump cards.

He left behind some orders for his minions to repeat the same process if a single other portal appeared. He kept a single Accountant beside the tent in case an unforeseen situation occurred, and he was sleeping too deeply.

Then, the Cold Mage could act as his personal alarm clock, rousing him up to deal with the problem.

Smiling for the 'audience' to see, he fell asleep in a matter of minutes.