"What's that?" Halls asked curiously as he saw the small orb in Izroth's hand. The moment it left Izroth's inventory, the chiming sound that only Izroth himself could hear was now available for everyone in the party to listen to.
"Wind chimes?" Luna said with a questioning look on her face.
Since no one was around at the time Izroth acquired Vozrak's Gift, they had no idea it even existed. Therefore, Izroth took a second to explain what the item did and how he had come across it back in the dungeon Goblin's Paradise.
"What incredible luck you have." Mariposa said with a helpless expression on her face. In truth, her Sleeping Gardenia had canvased the original area near the location of Goblin's Paradise, however, they were not fortunate enough to locate the dungeon itself.
If only they had searched a little harder at that time and been more thorough, then it was very likely that they would be the one in possession of an SSS-ranked quest!
However, they were not expecting anything so valuable to be so close to a starting village area and their main focus was on leveling up to become stronger. Therefore, it was only natural that they did not use too much manpower to conduct the area canvas.
"Gilidore…" Zi Yi muttered that name to herself as she furrowed her brows. For some reason, that name sounded familiar to her, but she could not place her finger on it. As for Vozrak, that was someone she had never heard of before even after going through both the public library and the first floor of the palace library.
But, that was not anything too unusual. After all, there were only whispers and rumors about the few handfuls of legendary figures mentioned in both libraries. Zi Yi believed that if she wanted more information, she would have to first gain access to higher floors within the palace library.
"Hm? Are you familiar with the name?" Izroth asked. When he had met Gilidore, it only showed him as a simple elite NPC. However, he quickly evolved into an epic ranked boss thanks to the power bestowed upon him by the corrupted Vozrak.
"The name sounds familiar, but I may just be mistaking it for something else. Whatever it is, it was probably just a passing thought at the time." Zi Yi replied.
Izroth went deeper into the underground chamber as Halls led the way in front of the group with his shield and sword ready to go. Around five minutes after advancing forward, Halls came to a sudden halt causing everyone else to follow suit and stop moving as well.
"There's something blocking the path up ahead." Halls stated.
In the near distance was a creature made up of nothing but bones. Its bones looked as if it came from a humanoid existence and there was a faint aura of death wrapped around its skeletal body.
Name: Undead Netherworld Skeleton(Normal)
Level: 38
HP: 7,158(100%)
Guan Yu frowned and said, "It's so weak. I was expecting some of those Puppet Chained Assassins to be down here." He was a little disappointed that a weak normal monster like this was the first that they ran into down here.
Cheeet! Cheeet! Cheeet!
The sound of rattling could be heard coming from the direction from the skeletal creature. At first, it was an isolated sound that revolved solely around the Undead Netherworld Skeleton. However, just a few seconds later, the sound of bones rattling increased by a great deal. Now, it sounded as if there were a parade of bones constantly hitting up against one another.
"So loud!" Halls shouted as his voice was beginning to be drowned out by the sound of countless bones rattling together.
'The numbers are increasing.'
Izroth unsheathed his Sword of The Storm as a strong gust of wind blew around him.
The noise finally settled down to a tolerable level, however, the aura of death that was seeped into this place seemed to have risen greatly in the past few seconds alone. This was due to the innumerable number of Undead Netherworld Skeletons that was currently blocking the path forward. It was unclear what their exact numbers were, but it was well within the hundreds!
The attention of the skeletons was unfocused and none of them appeared to be aware of Izroth's party's existence. However, as a purple shine appeared in their empty eye sockets, the small army of skeletons seemed to gain awareness of their surroundings. At the same time, the hundreds of Undead Netherworld Skeletons set their sights onto Izroth's party.
"Now this is more like it!" Guan Yu said with a large grin on his face. Being able to fight against large numbers like this was something he enjoyed the most about RML. It was certainly much better than fighting against one weak normal monster.
The small army of skeletons swarmed towards Izroth's party at a great speed, however, the movement of the skeletons were clumsy and without purpose in mind. It looked as though the only thing they wanted to do was rip apart the players before them!
Guuuuuuuow!
Halls positioned himself properly so that he would pull the aggro of skeletons, but with these numbers, he was not confident at all in being able to prevent some from straying off out of his control.
Ding! Clang!
The bodies of the skeleton crashed into Halls' shield. They were clawing, kicking, throwing their bodies, whatever it took to try and take down Izroth's party.
Woosh!
Zi Yi shot an arrow into the air. As that air arc in mid-air and came soaring down from up above, it split into two, then four, then eight. It continued doing this until there was an entire rain of arrows that covered a radius of fifteen meters!
-4,095
«Critical Hit»
-8,190
…
A stream of damage numbers flooded the battle logs Zi Yi's attack struck dozens upon dozens of skeletons.
"Their defensive capabilities are practically zero!" Zi Yi said when she noticed the damage she was dishing out. Even with the damage increase provided by the holy attribute that undead creatures were naturally weak against, the damage from her AOE skill should not have been that high.
"That works out just fine for me!" Guan Yu said as he rushed forward and brandished his guandao. As he charged forward, the guandao in his hands spun rapidly like a wheel at the side of his body. When he collided with the wave of skeletons, his guandao shattered the bones of the skeletal creatures when it made contact and mowed down whatever stood in its path!
-6,442
…
Izroth, on the other hand, had a skill that as perfect for this kind of thing. An overbearing aura appeared his Sword of The Storm and every time he would swing his blade, the life of a skeletal creature would be taken.
-11,112
〈System Alert: Congratulations, you have defeated an Undead Netherworld Skeleton!〉
〈System Alert: You have been awarded 351 EXP!〉
The experience itself was not all that great, however, there were hundreds of skeletons and added together, it was not a bad amount of experience to receive for their troubles.
Of course, thanks to the side effect of his First Baneful Sword: Destruction, the cooldown on the skill reset every time he eliminated one of the skeletal creatures. Therefore, Izroth could quite literally destroy every skeleton with a single swing of his sword! It was practically free experience!
It took Izroth and his party nearly ten minutes to finish off the seemingly endless wave of Undead Netherworld Skeletons.
Although the skeletons did not drop any loot, they received approximately 230,000 experience! While it was not enough for Izroth to level up, it was still a nice chunk of easy experience to acquire.
"That was pretty easy." Mariposa said as she stayed on guard. She did not want a repeat of what happened back at the village with the two elite NPCs.
"Refreshing! Ahahaha!" Guan Yu shouted as he let out a burst of joyous laughter.
"It's a shame that no loot dropped from these guys." Halls said as he shook his head.
"It probably wouldn't be anything good anyways. These skeletons were basically trash mobs." Guan Yu commented.
Cheeet! Cheeet!
The shattered and scattered bones on the ground began to shake and vibrate violently! Soon after, small tremors could be felt as the entire underground chamber trembled.
"More skeletons?!" Guan Yu said with a hint of excitement in his voice. He was ready for round two to commence at any time.
A powerful gust of cold wind blew throughout the underground chambers as the mist beneath everyone's feet began to converge at the center of the room. Not too long after, the bones that were lying around everywhere on the ground started to be sucked towards the swirling vortex of mist and formed a sphere made entirely out of bones.
'The temperature has dropped again.'
Izroth felt the shift in temperature as he could now see his own breath when he exhaled. The strange thing was that the coldness he was experiencing was more of an internal rather than an external feeling.
"Living beings have no right entering the tomb of my master! Only your death will correct this!" A deep and raspy voice came from the core of the swirling vortex of mist. At the same time, the spinning of the vortex became faster as the bones were now locking onto one another and bonding together as if they were trying to form something.
"It seems that we are not alone." Luna said in a somewhat uncomfortable tone of voice. For some reason, ever since she entered into the underground chambers, she felt as if the life was being drained from her body.
Luna had no idea why she was experiencing this sudden bout of weakness, however, no one else within the party seemed to feel the same way as her. There were also no alerts from the system that explained this feeling, therefore, she figured that maybe she had been overworking herself lately. She decided to brush it off for now and told herself that she'd simply rest a bit more from now on.
"Are you feeling alright?" Zi Yi moved closer to Luna and spoke in a low voice after seeing her uneasy appearance.
"I'll be fine. I'm just a bit tired is all. Thank you." Luna responded and gave a small smile in return.
A few moments later, the swirling vortex disappeared and what remained in its place was a chimera-style skeleton over fifteen meters in length and five meters in height. Just like the previous skeletal creatures, this one also had purple light within its empty eye sockets as he stared in the direction of Izroth's party.
It looked like the skeleton of some type of dinosaur creature with a long tail made of bones. However, its actual appearance was not just the skeleton of one creature, but many.
"I knew things wouldn't be so easy, but isn't this a bit much for a welcome party?" Halls said as he observed the skeletal creature.
"This is an SSS-ranked quest, I'd be surprised if we received any less of a welcome." Mariposa stated.
Name: Nekrostis, Servant of the Netherworld Envoy(Rare Boss)
Level: 42
HP: 562,000(100%)
A rare boss! Not too long after entering into this tomb and coming across a small army of skeletons, they actually ran into a rare boss right at the beginning of their quest! Was this luck or a potential disaster?
"The Nether Realm shall welcome its newest members, in death!" Nekrostis roared as a deathly aura poured into the underground chambers. It was a deep purple aura, however, it reached out to every corner of the chamber and did not miss a single spot.
All of a sudden Izroth and his party were hit with a stream of messages from the battle logs after the deathly aura made contact with their bodies.
