[You have now started the second Fable: “Undead Delivery”!]

[Trial of the Second Fable #2 – “Prove your Faith to the Dead”: The King of the Dead wishes to receive an item in your possession. Traverse through the Underworld and head to the Castle where the King resides and deliver the item to him. Avoid the undead that wishes to stop you or you will die and become one of the dead, stuck within the underworld for all eternity. Upon completing the Trial, Player will receive a blessing from the King. Good Luck!]

“So, I am in Hell…” Vlad groaned while reading the new message panel before him. He scratched his chin while pondering over his current mission. “I have to deliver an item, huh? But kind of…”

Before he could finish his sentence, his hand that wielded the silver bow started to shake. He felt the vibration as the weapon made a low yet melodic hum. When he looked down to examine it, something clicked in his brain as he figured out the “item” he was supposed to deliver to the King.

“You, huh?” Vlad raised his hand that wielded the Bow so he could get a better look at it. When he did, his eyes widened when he realized that the silver bow was glowing. And not like how it glistened in the light back at the forest.

The silver bow gave off a very pale white glow, like a glow stick or something similar. Kind of like the Ethereal Maidens he fought along with their weapons. Then again, this was given to him by the Goddess of those Maidens, so it made a bit of sense, in that regard. While holding the bow, Vlad felt a powerful energy emanate from the weapon. The energy pulsed rhythmically with the humming as if it was making music. Vlad’s attention was quickly pulled away after hearing a roll of thunder rumble in the distance. His eyes then trained toward the source where the castle resided.

Although he was quite far from the place, thanks to his heightened senses, he managed to get a good look at the place from his current location. With his telescopic sight, he zoomed in on the castle to examine it further. From what he could see, the castle didn’t have Victorian-era architecture. If anything, it looked way older than that. Probably medieval-era, though he wasn’t sure.

If Arthur were here, he could probably tell what the architecture was. Sadly, he wasn’t. Neither were his other friends. Which meant he had to do this on his own. Looking away from the castle of hell, he gazed over at the path leading to it. It was a pretty narrow yet straight path, though, it wasn’t the path that intimidated him but the surrounding area. Outside the route to the castle were fields of the dead. And it wasn’t just skeletons, either.

Floating around the fields near the path were transparent light blue figures. It didn’t take long for Vlad to realize that they were ghosts. From what he saw, they were just aimlessly wandering the fields with no destination in mind. Aside from their upper torso, their legs weren’t seen as they were mostly covered with long skirts. Then again, they probably didn’t possess legs since all of them were floating around instead of walking.

Vlad examined the ghosts for a little while before questioning if they were hostile or not. The trial did say that the dead were going to try and stop him from delivering the divine silver bow to the King of the Dead. Since ghosts were pretty much part of that category, it was a fair question to ponder over.

“I should probably just get moving…” Vlad muttered soon beginning his journey to the castle of hell.

While traversing through the land of the dead, Vlad couldn’t help but continue examining his surroundings. The very ground he walked on was an ashen gray color. Even the grass all around the path he was walking on was of the same shade. Between the sky, the ground, and clouds, this entire place was pretty much a gray gothic world, devoid of all color. It was pretty depressing.

Unlike the beautiful chirping of crickets, he now heard vicious cawing sounds from crows flying around him. Why were there crows here when this was the Underworld? Vlad had no clue. Perhaps they were reapers in crow form or something. Crows have been associated with death, so it could be possible. Of course, Vlad had an even bigger question that didn’t involve birds.

And that question was why in the hell was he in…Hell? First, he was in a forest, and now he was in the Underworld. Just what was this trial for? Why was he here, and why was he delivering some bow to the King of the Dead? What was the point of all of this?

Interrupting his train of thought, Vlad felt an ominous presence nearby. And it was rapidly approaching him. He frantically turned around, only to see an old sword being swung in his direction.

With his newfound reflexes, Vlad jumped to the side to avoid getting struck down. As he did, he glared at the attack that tried to kill him, only to see something rather horrific. That being a tall skeleton monster before his very eyes. The thing was around six feet tall, completely made of bones without an ounce of human flesh on its body, and wore light battle armor, which was a chest piece and helmet. In its right hand was the same slightly worn-out sword that was just used to try and split Vlad’s skull in half.

Its sword didn’t look like your typical medieval sword that knights wielded. The weapon was slightly shorter and the handle didn’t possess a cross-shaped guard. If anything, it looked more like a short sword.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

For a brief moment, Vlad appraised the skeleton, curious as to what he was facing.

[Spartan Skeleton - Level ???]

Vlad couldn't help but groan. Of course, its levels were question marks. What else did he expect? But wait, it was a Spartan Skeleton? As in the soldiers from Greece back in the BC era? Why was he going up against one of them?

He made the mistake of examining its status for too long because he didn’t pay attention to the skeleton charging at him once more until the last second as it raised its sword to strike a second time. He quickly shifted his body to the side, easily avoiding its attack. Vlad noticed that his movements were a lot faster and better than before. Back when he was fighting the Hunting Maidens, he couldn’t move like this. Not only that, but the maidens were a lot stronger and faster than him, likely since they were like what Vlad was now; a Divine Hunter.

Vlad tried to gain some distance by leaping back away from the skeleton. Once he got some space, he attempted to reach for his spear to use against his enemy. However, he quickly realized something major. He didn’t have his weapon on him.

“W-where the hell…” Vlad questioned the location of his weapon, only to soon remember his abrupt teleportation out of the forest. “Shit.”

He didn’t grab his weapon before he was transported to the Underworld. It happened so fast that he didn’t even consider it until he needed it the most. Shouldn’t it have been teleported with him? Why didn’t he get some kind of warning, huh? While desperately trying to find something to defend himself with, Vlad suddenly remembered that he did have a weapon. Taking a glance at the divine silver bow, Vlad gripped the weapon, knowing his next move.

This weapon was Mythic Grade, so he should be able to use it and easily defeat the soldiers, right? But, he then faced another problem as soon as he thought about using the bow. He didn’t have any arrows to shoot it with. Without arrows, this bow was basically a gun without bullets.

“M-maybe it’s a magic bow,” Vlad tried to reason. “Magic bows don’t need arrows, since they manifest them when they pull the string back, right?”

Again, the weapon was Mythic-Grade, so it had to be magical, right? Out of desperation, the Hunter got into a shooting position with the bow. His arm with the bow extended as he used his other arm to pull the string. Thanks to his newfound strength as a Divine Hunter, Vlad found it easy doing this. There was barely any tension he felt from the bowstring at all. However, even when he pulled the string, a magic arrow didn’t materialize before him to be shot at the skeleton. If anything, it looked like he was just pulling a string without an arrow to fire, making him look like a complete fool.

“Come on,” He grumbled, watching as the skeleton monster closed in on him.

Suddenly, another panel appeared, but what it said only caused more problems for Vlad.

[Error! User cannot use Divine Silver Bow due to it being a Quest Item.]

"The hell?!" He shouted. "You seriously give me a bow, and I can't even use the damn thing?!"

While Vlad snapped at the system, the skeleton continued getting closer to Vlad, prompting him to change tactics. Okay, so the bow was completely useless. Mythic Grade, his ass. New plan, then.

When the creature swung at his head, Vlad put away the bow and quickly ducked while sweeping the monster’s leg, causing it to collapse on the ground. Its bones rattled violently while lying lifelessly on the ground as if it were dead. This, however, didn’t last long before the skeleton started to pull itself off the ground. It raised its head while glaring its empty yet ominous sockets directly at Vlad. Even without showing any emotions physically, he knew that the skeleton was angry.

“Like I’d let you!” Vlad shouted, charging his way at the skeleton and kicking it down before it got the chance to get on its feet.

He then reached down and snatched the skeleton’s sword. With a firm grip, the weapon was raised before getting swung down on the still-collapsed skeleton. Vlad aimed right for its exposed skull, instantly smashing it to bits the moment the blade made contact with its cranium. Bone fragments scattered about and the rest of the skeleton’s body went limp, like a puppet whose strings got cut off.

[Spartan Skeleton has been defeated! Error! Due to Player being in a Trial, no EXP can be obtained!]

With a huff, Vlad sighed with relief after defeating another enemy. He glanced down at the double-dead skeleton as if making sure that it was truly gone. Thankfully, the bones didn’t make a single move and remained deathly still. It was truly deceased, for a second time.

Vlad slowly calmed down after confirming his kill. However, this was his mistake as his senses warned him of another enemy nearby. And it wasn’t just one this time.

When he looked around his surroundings, he witnessed more skeleton monsters rising from the ground. Some were on the surface simply becoming reanimated as they hauntingly pulled themselves together before standing up to fight. Then there were the ones under the ground, suddenly poking their skeletal arms from the dirt, like some haunting scene from a zombie movie.

As a horde of them rose from the ground, Vlad watched in horror, unable to act from the fear instilled into him from the scene before his eyes. His legs shook like crazy and his blood went cold while his face lost its color, making him paler than even the ghosts wandering the fields of the underworld.

It didn’t take long before nearly a dozen of them showed up, all of them wielding weapons and wearing some armor on them. They looked like an army of the undead, which only added to the terror that Vlad felt while staring at them. The skeleton army then turned their attention toward him, all of their heads turning in his direction in unison. Vlad momentarily flinched at this before stiffening with fear.

For a moment, Vlad appraised the monsters, only for his vision to get bombarded with panels that said the same thing.

[Spartan Skeleton - Level ???]

[Spartan Skeleton - Level ???]

[Spartan Skeleton - Level ???]

Neither the skeletons nor Vlad made a move after that. The two parties simply stared at one another, waiting for the other to act. And it was Vlad that took action first.

“Yeah…nope!” Turning his back to the army, Vlad gave it his all and sprinted away from them.

He then set his eyes on the castle in the distance. His mission was to deliver the bow to the King. That meant he didn’t have to fight skeletons and such. So, with that in mind, Vlad established a new goal for himself.

And that goal was to ignore everything and high-tail it to the castle, ASAP!