NOVEL NEXT Adventure 220 – Liam vs the Undead?
What the fuck?! Liam thought as he got a good look at the five people who had swung their heads around to look at him.
At first glance you wouldn’t be able to tell they were undead, at least not from afar. With them staring at him now, he could tell thanks to their eye sockets being empty and hollowed out. Drool escaped their lips as a snarl formed on their mouth. Even their heads bouncing from left to right, almost like a bobble head, as they turned to look at him showed how much control over their bodies they have lost.
Liam tried to assess them and was shocked at what appeared.
“Possessed Zombie. 795/795 HP. 0/0 MP. Level – 15.”
“Possessed Zombie. 853/853 HP. 0/0 MP. Level – 17.”
“Possessed Zombie. 898/898 HP. 0/0 MP. Level – 18.”
“Possessed Zombie. 898/898 HP. 0/0 MP. Level – 18.”
“Possessed Zombie. 898/898 HP. 0/0 MP. Level – 18.”
Possessed Zombie? What the fuck does that mean? Liam tried to process but failed to continue as the Zombified Hobgoblin let out a loud roar of anger.
That one action was enough for every creature in the clearing to start moving right for him. The five closest to him, the Possessed Zombies, pushed off in a jog. While they were faster than the zombies he had fought against back in the Black Dungeon in the Tutorial Area, their movements were off. It looked like they were drunk as they stumbled forward. Their upper bodies were either too far forward or flung back almost making them fall down.
The Zombified Forest goblins had almost similar actions except their movements were slightly more improved. They looked less drunk moving around and more like they had just finished a long run so their muscles were tight and sore, hindering their speed.
Staring at the group heading right for him, he went over the options he had. He had two options. One he could run away and report this to Lady Arachne. Or two he could try and eliminate the creatures before leaving and reporting this.
He could probably get away without any of them catching him, but there would be a problem. Others could get caught in the crosshairs. He didn’t know if these creatures would give up after a while or if they would search him out. Another thing that made him hesitate to run was there could be much stronger people here, but there were also those who might not be capable of fighting these guys. The five in front of him were prime examples.
The issue with fighting them brought him back to the last time he was up against these monsters. Even though he had won, it had taken a toll on him. However, last time he was handicapped due to the Debuff he had. This time could be different.
While going over his choices something caught his eye that made him choose. The man who was pinned down earlier had noticed the creatures had their attention were on Liam instead of him. He scrambled to his feet and sprinted as fast as he could out of the clearing and away from there. A few of the Zombified Forest Goblins saw him and turned to pursue him.
Liam let out a groan and mentally as well as physically preparing himself, he chose to fight. He threw a few throwing daggers at the ones who began to chase the man and were met with a couple of throwing daggers to the head. Their aggro had switched to him after that.
He pulled his throwing daggers back while taking a few steps backwards before turning towards the ones closer to him. He started his assault with his throwing daggers upon them. He missed a couple of times due to their erratic movements, but the ones that did strike sunk right into the chest of the ones wearing leather or cloth while the plate armored one received a couple of daggers in the throat.
A nasty gurgled noise escaped the lips of the Possessed Zombie who looked like he was the tank of the party. Liam felt disgusted as a blackish red liquid oozed out. the attacks didn’t slow them down though. Even through the struggle they approached him at a decent pace.
Liam pulled his daggers back two at a time. Every time two came back he threw them at a new target. He kept this up, trying to whittle their health down as much as he could. He found the Zombified Goblins were easier to hit than the Possessed Zombies and was able to shave off more of their health than the other group. As he did this, he kept an eye on the Zombified Hobgoblin. The creature just stood there with a nasty looking expression on its face.
After a few seconds had passed, the first Undead creature had finally arrived. Liam pulled out his Shadow Moon Blades and sprinted towards the Possessed Zombie. This one looked like he was a healer due to the equipment he had on. Liam easily dodged the bad claw strike he attempted. He stepped to his left, drove his daggers into the man’s side, pulled them out and stepped behind him. He then created a Shadow Double and left it with the creature before making his way towards the next one.
Liam kicked the archer zombie in the chest, knocking her into the tank looking Possessed Zombie. He created another Shadow Double and sent it on them before ducking an attack from the Rogue looking Undead. After he ducked down, he pushed off the balls of his feet and jumped backwards. He rand both his daggers along the creature’s sides before stopping himself right behind it. He then ran both daggers right into the back of the Possessed Zombie’s neck.
Blackish red liquid gushed out from the wounds created. Liam could smell the nasty scent of decay. He tried not to feel sick from it as he yanked his weapons out, kicked the man in the back and towards the Shadow Double who had just finished killing the healer looking Possessed Zombie.
Liam turned to see where the other Possessed Zombie was but felt like he didn’t have to worry much since it was on the ground struggling to get back up. Liam was slightly confused as to why this one was like that but decided not to waste any more time on it focusing on the Zombified Forest Goblins instead.
He ran towards the closest one, aimed for one of the joints connecting the shoulder and arm on the right side and sliced right through it while it brought it up to strike at him. Blood sprayed out from the open wound, but Liam disregarded it as he moved on to the next creature.
Liam did this a few times as he danced in and out of the attacking range of each Zombified Forest Goblin. He created another Shadow Double while doing this, taking some of their attention off of him. This allowed him to take out an arm or a leg amongst the monsters, crippling their attacks and allowing his Shadow Doubles to finish off the creatures with ease.
After the last creature, the Possessed Zombie that was crawling around on the ground, finally died, Liam wondered why it was so much easier to take them out. This could have been the results of his Stat Shatter Debuff no longer holding him back, but he didn’t think that was the case. He felt it was more them than him.
He didn’t have any more time to think about it as the Zombified Hobgoblin let out an annoyed howl. Liam turned his attention back to the monster. He mentally commanded his Shadow Doubles to rush in and attack the monster as he took a few steps back. Even before this fight he had a better grasp on his physical conditions. Since he had a good idea on that he was going to test out his other condition. His Magical ability side.
He pointed his Moon Blade Dagger at the Zombified Hobgoblin and started chanting, “Radiant and majestic, we admire you in the night. Deadly and poisonous, many don’t know your terrible might. Caress my target with your light like a gentle kiss. Remind them why you’re as dangerous as the abyss. Epidermis Luminescence.”
Liam watched as the hand that went to strike down at one of his Shadow Doubles suddenly flashed a pale white light. The disgusting monster jerked its hand back before letting out an angry yowl.
Liam didn’t stop there. He pointed his Shadow Blade Dagger at the creature and started up another chant, “Hidden beneath and lying in wait, the unseen’s poison is never delivered late. Bellow out in a puff of smoke and slip into the stream. Corrupt the body, Corrupt the mind. Deliver the fear you wish to create. Shade’s Corruption.”
As he finished the chant he mentally commanded his Shadow Doubles to move away right as a plume of black smoke exploded from underneath the creature and covered its entire body. Liam stared at the area and waited for it to do something. He didn’t have to wait long.
The Zombified Hobgoblin stumbled out from the clouded area, swinging its arms out wildly. Liam took this chance to assess the monster.
“Zombified Hobgoblin Warrior. 521/955 HP. 0/0 MP. Level – 25.”
Liam blinked as he stared at the information that had popped up. As he did the health bar had changed. However, instead of it being higher, the numbers on the monster’s health part plummeted at a fast pace.
The monster, finally realizing it was out of the painful smoke, glared at Liam with hate in its eyes. It let out a challenging war cry and raced towards him. Liam prepared himself as he planned out what he was going to do.
When the creature was within striking distance, Liam spun to his left allowing the fist to fly by him. Liam then jolted forward while digging his dagger’s right along the forearm and halfway up the bicep before it started to curve up higher.
Liam then planted his left foot down before changing his direction directly right to dodge a kick from the monster. Liam swung his dagger in his left hand right across the belly of the monster. His body then dissolved into black smoke as he activated Shadow Step right before the monster’s left fist collided into him.
Liam reappeared right behind the monster. As soon as he appeared, he activated the bandage wraps on his right wrist. A decent amount shot up and wrapped around the monster’s neck. After fully securing and tightening, Liam used the bandages to pull himself up towards the back of the monster. After he reached his destination. Liam loosened the bandage wrap as he plunged both daggers right into the bottom of the Zombified Hobgoblin’s neck. With as much weight as he could put into it, Liam yanked down, dragging the daggers along the creature’s back.
As soon as Liam got close to the ground he felt the monster try to turn around and grab him. Liam kicked off the monster’s back, allowing him some distance before the Zombified Hobgoblin turned around to glare at him. It took a step forward to go after him but then collapsed as the four Shadow Doubles, Liam had on standby earlier, jumped the monster.
It didn’t take long after that as Liam watched as the monster’s health plummeted quickly to zero. Liam had kept his eye on the creature in case anything happened, but as he stared at the monster he noticed something he hadn’t seen earlier.
The physical condition of the Zombified Hobgoblin wasn’t like the last one he had fought. Taking away all the damage he had done to it, Liam noticed stuff he didn’t cause. Patches of grey had almost completely covered it. Majority of those patches had bones protruding out or skin that was so brittle a simple scrape of a hand could accidentally tear flesh.
Liam wasn’t entirely sure if this was because it was a Zombified creature or if maybe someone had injured it before he got here. However, this brought him back to the other oddities from this fight. Like how disoriented the Zombified Forest Goblin’s movements were. The same with the Possessed Zombies. What exactly caused them to turned to that? He knew about the type of zombies he had fought before, but none were possessed. No…there were some he had fought, but they were possessed by a Demonic Large Dybbuk.
Liam’s eyes widened at that thought. He swirled around to stare at the people who had turned into the Undead and was about to ready a spell to try and find any hidden extras, but was stopped as Eri said, “Do not worry. They aren’t possessed by any Dybbuks.”
How do you know that? Liam asked still scanning just in case.
“Because of that creature the Zombified Hobgoblin took out and tried to place into the man that escaped,” Eri informed. “However, You should probably hurry and burn all the corpses as fast as you can.”
A little puzzled, Liam questioned, Why?
“I’ll tell you after you do it. Now get it done,” Eri stated. She then added, “Oh, don’t forget to loot and harvest their soul orbs first.”
Liam shook his head but did as he was told. It took him a little time, but he had harvested their Soul Orbs before looting and piling them all together. After pouring enough oil to cover them all, Liam used Light and Burn on them. As the bodies burned, he heard strange popping noises from within the pile. He wasn’t entirely sure where they were coming from nor the cause of the sounds, so he just brushed it off as the bodies making it.
He didn’t get a lot of loot, but what he got from the Possessed Zombies surprised him. It both surprised him and made him feel sad. He had received their A.I.D.’s as loot. He knew he couldn’t look into them since they were attuned to their mana, but he felt that maybe the Adventurer’s Association might be able to see who they were. Maybe they had been missing for quite a while and someone needed closure. He didn’t know so he decided to do that.
As the bodies burned, Liam walked around the area picking up the throwing daggers he had used earlier. He was coming up to the last one but paused. It was the one he used to stab the creep spider creature the Zombified Hobgoblin tried to use against the pinned man. Liam stared at it and felt both disgusted and horrified as he stared at it.
He knew this world was different and was reminded almost on a different day about that but staring at this spider with an almost human upper half really drove it in more. He was so happy Earth didn’t have creatures like this. If any of these were found in a house then probably a whole neighborhood would burn down just to make sure it was dead.
Liam assessed it to see what kind of information he would get from it.
“Toxo Corpse Controller. 0/25 HP. 0/700 MP. Level – 5.”
How the fuck does something with that low level have so much mana? Liam thought to himself as he looked back at the dead creature. As he stared at it he understood what Eri was talking about earlier. The name of this creature said it all. Those Possessed Zombies must have had a Toxo Corpse Controller inside them. These must have caused the Possessed portion of the name.
That thought brought some other questions to the front of his mind. If that was the case and it came out of the Zombified Hobgoblin then why didn’t the Zombified Hobgoblin also have the Possessed portion in its name? Also what about the Zombified Forest Goblins? Did they also have these Toxo Corpse Controllers inside them?
He couldn’t come up with answer no matter how hard he thought about it. He figured he should ask someone who should have the answers. Before he could ask though, Eri suggested, “Place that thing in a jar.”
Liam was surprised and taken aback by the suggestion. He was so taken aback all he could do was ask, Why?
“So you can use this corpse as proof of what you’re dealing with,” Eri replied.
What exactly am I dealing with? Liam asked, still confused.
“Bring it to Lady Arachne and you’ll get all the answers you want. For now, place that thing in a jar and put it in your inventory. Then look inside the cave to make sure nothing else is in there and then leave this place,” Eri stated. Liam wasn’t entirely sure, but he felt like there was a bit of urgency in her tone.
Liam didn’t fight back on this nor ask any more questions. Instead he placed the corpse in the jar and wiped the blade clean. He needed to do the same with his others, but he figured he’ll do that later. After that he entered the cave and felt sick to his stomach.
The entire cave was full corpses. Many were goblins. Some were wolves. There was even two Hobgoblins as well. Liam wanted to puke. The stench that filled the entire cave was enough to make him want to bleach his nostril so he couldn’t smell it any more.
Liam stepped away from the cave, eyes watering. He wanted to say fuck it and not go back in there, but a message from Eri stating it was important that he burned those corpses as well made him look feverously for something to block out the smell. He was kind of lucky as he found a bandana used to cover the nose while doing Poison Craft. He drenched it with one of his few last vials of Minty Extracts, placed it on his head, took a deep breath bringing in the fantastic smell of mint, and entered the cave.
He was a bit happy that the Minty Extract helped mask the foul gut wrenching stench of corpses, but he wasn’t entirely happy since a small bit of the smell still leaked into his nostrils. It was at that moment he found out he knew what minty corpses smelled like and decided he never wanted to know that.
It took him some time to finish his business inside the cave. After lighting the corpses on fire, Liam raced out from the cave and as far away as he could get. As soon as he was far enough, he deactivated his Spirit Weave, pulled the bandana away from his mouth and nose and upchucked all over the ground.
It took him a few minutes to gather himself from that. He washed out his mouth to get that nasty taste away and looked back in the direction he came from. With a grimace he toward away, activated his Veil of Shadows, and headed towards the exit of the dungeon. He needed to get to Lady Arachne and report this incident.