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Attack on Undead

“Church quest status.”

[ Church Quest Window

Current Quest: [Investigate the Undead Shrine]

After successfully investigating the nearby villages, a majority of the undead that plagued the area have fled to the Plains of Despair. However, remnants of the undead legion appear to remain in this area. Proceed to destroy the undead shrine and capture their leader for interrogation.

Difficulty: B

Compensation: Determined based on results.

Quest restrictions: Limited to members of the Church of Freya. Must be at least level 200. Must be recognized by the Church. ]

After clearing away the undead corpse retrieval unit, Sun checked on the objectives of the church quest.

A Church Quest was different from a normal quest that users receive from NPCs. Even though there were church commissioned quests given to users, they were distinctly different from the church mandated quests.

Church Quests were missions given to members of the Church of Freya from a member of the church that was above senior rank. These missions are not given to a single member and they can’t be shared with others. They are given to a collective group assembled by the church to accomplish a church objective.

The rewards for such a quest were different from a normal quest. Usually a normal quest would give some fame, experience, contribution, or some item of sorts. Church Quests usually gave high experience gains, contribution to the church, increased skill expertise, and increased the influence of the church. In some cases, it was possible to receive a job promotion and new high tier skills.

Since equipment was provided for members of the church, there was no need for monetary gain from a church quest. Unless a great achievement was made by a singular person, there was hardly any equipment handed out. Gold was given out according to their rank within the church so there was no money given out. Fame was not given out either. The reason for this was because, as a member of the church, influence had a similar effect to fame so the collective influence of the church increased each member’s reputation.

To put it simply, a Church Quest was a quest performed for the good of the group rather than the individual. The increase in level and skills would raise the quality of the church’s members and improve the church’s overall strength.

“Careful.”

The small girl, Alena, that they had picked up from the bandit camp had spoken to him suddenly while he was checking the quest window.

“What?”

Sun was caught off-guard by the little 10 year old girl’s sudden remark.

“You will be faced with a challenge that where your actions will decide your fate and the fate of those around you.”

Before Sun could ask her what she meant by that, she had already walked away and went to sleep in the carriage. He thought of going over to ask her but then a voice called out to him.

“Sun, it’s time for the strategy meeting.”

Calvin called Sun over into the tent. At this time they were about five hundred meters from the enemy shrine. With a spell of shrouding cast over them, the undead would not be able to detect their movements. They briefly set up a base to prepare for the assault on the enemy headquarters.

Sun walked over into the tent, looking over to see the rest of the members that have been gathered.

Calvin was the leader of the expedition so it was natural that he present during the briefing. As the main representative from Somuren, Alveron was seen as a high ranking member and a crucial part to the execution of the plan. Aside from those two, there were five other paladins in the tent. These paladins were the high ranking paladins that oversaw the rest of the troops. These paladins were one rank above the other paladins and roughly 40 levels higher.

Everyone in the tent walked over to a large table that was set down in the middle of the room. On the table was a rough map that they had sketched of the area with a number of different colored rocks placed on it to signify units.

“So what’s the situation with the shrine?”

Sun asked, looking over to Calvin who had received a report from one of their scouts.

Calvin took out a couple of piece of paper as he began to report about the undead shrine.

“As you can see from this map that we spread out, these small white pebbles represent our forces. Of this time, the enemy still does not know of our presence but since we have wiped out a number of their undead they will be on guard for attacks.”

Calvin then motioned over to a picture of a building surrounded by many small rocks.

“This is the enemy’s headquarters. From what we have seen, the enemy are great in numbers and clearly there are high rank Necromancers that have been producing these undead. Unlike the undead that our fellow brother Sun wiped out back in the Corpse Tomb, these undead are of much higher quality and can only be summoned by at least a second tier Necromancer.”

“What other conditions are we currently faced with?”

Alveron asked Calvin to elaborate on the finer details. With a situation such as their own, every little fact was vital.

Calvin flipped a couple pages ahead through his report before continuing with the details.

“The lesser undead we should have no problem taking care of. With our holy light we can purify them quickly. However, there is a considerable number of lesser undead and they make up most of the undead army. With our current level of holy light, we could purify about 80% of their forces at once. The remaining 20% is the troubling part though. The reason for this is because most of these remaining undead are at least second tier undead. A few third tier undead may be thrown in as well.”

They thought about these facts for a moment and saw the problem with blasting through with holy light. Assuming that they did just go with that tactic then they would deplete all of their mana and would be forced to fight the higher tier undead while they were empty. The Necromancer leaders wouldn’t simply stand by either.

“A few gigantic class undead were sighted in the area as well. From our reports there are approximately 3 of the gigantic class undead that are approximately 10 meters in height. Most likely these undead are created from Giants, Trolls, or other large monsters. Though they are weaker than a normal giant monster, they are still problematic.”

Giant class monsters. These monsters were quite strong compared to ordinary monsters. They were still nowhere close to dragons or legendary monsters but they were still difficult for the average user to deal with. With their large bodies it would take a considerable amount of holy light to destroy them.

“Is there anything else we need to know?”

“No, that is the current status update that we have regarding the undead forces.”

“I see. So let us begin to talk about our strategy. I believe that you said that priest Sun had one in mind?”

The paladin that was speaking looked over to Sun. Unlike player that discriminated against certain classes, the NPCs saw any capable person as a useful addition to their forces.

“Yes, Sun had told me before of his plan and it seems highly feasible.”

“Then, would you care to explain your plan Sun?”

Everyone in the tent directed their gaze towards Sun. Other than Calvin, he had not explained his plan to anyone yet.

“Keoheom!”

Sun took a brief moment to clear his throat before he began.

*****

“What is with this plan?”

The others in the tent looked on with disbelief. Even under normal circumstances did they expect such a tactic to be used.

“Are you certain that this tactic will work? It does seem possible but that’s only on the theoretical level.”

“It will work, I am certain of it.”

Sun had confirmed his tactic before on other undead and certain that it would succeed.

“This will take out a majority of the lesser rank undead while conserving our mana to take out the higher rank undead. To make this plan work we need to kill all the giant class undead before we start.”

Everyone in the tent looked at each other before a smile came onto their faces. If this plan worked then there was a chance for them after all.

Alveron had a smile on his face as he let out a slight laugh.

‘I was right. Grisia, you really are an interesting person.’

*****

“Do you have the positions of the giant class undead?”

Sun asked the rest of the expedition. This part of the plan was crucial to implementing the rest of it so they had to succeed.

“Two of them are approximately 100 meters from us while the other is 250 meters away.”

Since the giant undeads were crude undead they did not have high intellect. Gifted with large bodies however, they could show off extremely high levels of strength. Not matter their strength, they could be outwitted easily and they were not smart enough to call for help.

“Is it ready?”

Sun asked some of the paladins that he had asked to run a task for him earlier.

“Yes, it took quite a lot of resources but we have managed to prepare it.”

“Lure it over.”

On Sun’s command, a few paladins charged at the two giant class undead. They quickly threw a few holy spells at them before turning around and running back to the group.

The large undead monsters quickly became aggressive and started chasing after them.

“Not yet..”

Sun and the rest of the expedition waited for the perfect moment.

The giant monster rapidly approached their hiding location.

“Now!”

Everyone scattered from the place they were hiding at. The giants were too slow to respond to the sudden change in their situation. They were faced with a larger number of enemies than they thought and their movements threw them off. For a brief moment they were unable to make any decision and stood there.

That moment was more than enough time.

Before they had lured the monsters into a trap, Sun had requested the paladins to dig as large a hole as possible. It wasn’t a very large or deep hole, only a few meters deep and wide, but it would suit their purposes. Now that the two giant monsters were on top of the hole, the plan could start.

Under the weight of the giant monsters, the hole caved in and the giants fell inside. Given that the hole was only 5 meters deep, the monsters were still poking out from the top. Their feet could not get out but they could easily use their hands to get out. That was only if they gave the monsters enough time to get out.

“Sacred Rain!”

Sun, Calvin, and Alveron called forth a spell that would create rain clouds over an area and shower the area with rain. This rain would increase the effects of plant growth but that was not the purpose that they were using it for.

The rain clouds quickly gathered and covered the area in water. Prior to luring over the monsters, Sun had made sure to burn away the surrounding plants. Though it seemed to be against the doctrine of the Goddess Freya, the sacred rain would allow the plants to quickly regrow.

The ground rapidly became muddy under the torrential rainfall. With the ground the way it was the giant monsters could not hope to escape from the pit, leaving them to flail around in vain.

This muddy earth made it impossible for the paladins to attack the giants with their swords, but that did not mean that they were completely ill prepared for this situation.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

A number of paladins pulled out crossbows while other used throwing objects against the giants. Aside from ranged attacks, the paladins used what little holy spells that they had. The damage individually wasn’t much but they could deal a fair amount of damage together since they were currently buffed with support spells.

Sun, Calvin, and Alveron were not idling either. As soon as they finished casting Sacred Rain, they immediately began using their holy magic. Holy Fire and other related spells would not work in this situation, but there were plenty of other skills that they could utilize.

Pew, pew, pew!

Arrow after arrow of Holy Arrows were shot at the vital points of the undead monsters.

“Kugraah!”

The monsters were getting weakened but showed no signs of falling yet.

“The remaining giant class undead is approaching.”

“Damn it! It’s too soon!”

They had yet to kill these giant class undead and the last remaining one was quickly approaching. They had thought that they would have more time before it showed up, but it had seen the Sacred Rain spell that was cast and was coming over to find its source.

Luckily for them there were only a few lesser undead in the area, but it was already bad enough that the remaining giant undead was coming at them.

Tch.

Sun quickly sounded his frustration before yelling to his men.

“I’ll try and distract this one. Be sure to finish these two off!”

Sun quickly ran ahead towards the giant undead that was approaching them. Avoiding the muddy areas, he looked to see how far the undead was from them.

‘Still about 100 meters or so.’

Sun started chanting a spell to draw away the monster’s attention.

“Holy Fire!”

He threw his spell at the giant undead’s face. It dealt a considerable amount of damage since it was undead, but it was far from killing it. The Holy Fire that he cast had only served to switch its aggression to him.

Notching light arrows into his bow of light, he shot them as quickly as he could while running. Guided by arcane holy magic, the arrows only slightly deviated from their mark. With every chance he got, he would use the holy arrows to shoot at the undead giant’s eyes.

Since in Royal Road damage was distributed by a number of different factors, the holy arrows dealt a decent amount of damage. They were not strong enough to pierce the monster’s eyes, but it still dealt high damage and blinded the enemy for a moment.

Sun continued to run while shooting arrows at it. The monster used one of its hands to shield its eyes from the attack.

“So much for that…”

Sun muttered quietly. He switched the target of his arrows to the monster’s feet to try and slow it down as much as possible. Though the monster was slow, as a priest he did not have the kind of stamina to run forever.

“Hah hah…”

Sun sprinted as fast as he could from the monster. Even though he had cast a number of spells on himself earlier to supplement his weak body, his base stats were far too low to benefit from it much.

The monster, at this time, began to pick up large rocks to throw at him.

Crash!

Using the trees as cover, he managed to avoid the flying rocks that were being thrown at him.

“Holy Fire!”

His Holy Fire spell was one of his stronger spells that he had at his disposal. It would slowly eat away at an undead’s health with a burning effect. Since the giant undead had large resistance it would only work for a few seconds but it was still better damage than his Holy Arrows.

The spell that he cast was targeted at the monster’s free arm that was throwing rocks at him. He wanted to damage it as much as possible so that it wouldn’t be able to throw stuff at him.

After a few more spells the undead’s arm started to show signs of damage but it simply started using its other hand to throw stuff and use its injured arm to defend its face.

Sun did not waste any time and continued to pour down spells on the monster’s hand, the injured one blocking its face.

The giant undead made a sweeping motion with his hand and knocked up a large gust of air blowing Sun away. Sun was knocked into the air and bounced against the ground a couple of times before being stopped by smashing into a tree.

“Kuh!”

Sun yelled in pain before he coughed out some blood from his mouth. He got up with his injuries and continued to run. With whatever spare time he had, he would cast a Healing Hand spell on himself. With his more severe injuries healed, he looked back to check his distance from the giant undead.

Thankfully he had damaged the undead’s legs enough to gain some distance from it and the gust of wind had knocked him a far distance away. The large number of trees between them caused the undead to slow down quite a bit as well.

“Holy Fire!”

Sun could not afford for it to lose aggro from him now and jeopardize the entire mission. He had not checked how much health the other two undead were at, but it looked like they were only at 80% health from the condition they were in when he left. He had not been keeping track of time since he started his diversion but it didn’t feel like it had been very long.

His fire spell exploded onto the monster’s arm once more but it was not enough to blow its hand off.

“Human!”

Even though things were bad enough already, a small dispatchment of undead roaming the area had found him. They were rather small in number and could be easily dealt with...if he was with the paladins. Now that he was alone it was going to be difficult.

There were two undead mages, an undead assassin, and an undead archer. Luckily there was no undead warriors but the assassin would prove troublesome since they had high agility.

“Illuminate!”

For now he decided to blind the lesser undead with a light spell. It was already in the afternoon so the sun was not as strong as it would be in the morning, but this illumination spell would serve to weaken the undead with its light. Using Holy Arrows, he quickly killed the archer and the assassin.

“Guah!”

The undead mages had cast a hex spell on him, inflicting all sorts of curses on him. Sun cast healing spells to purge the undead mages before using a cleansing spell on himself.

Sun ran as fast as his remaining stamina would let him. The monster was quickly approaching since he needed to stop to fight the undead and was running out of stamina so his speed was dropping.

He could feel the monster’s footsteps shaking the ground as it got closer. He tried to slow it down with more spells but to no avail. He then decided to change his tactics a little. All of his previous spells had been meant to disable some of the monster’s function and deal damage.

“Slow!”

Sun cast a slow spell on the giant undead. While he ran he continued to stack the slow spell onto the giant undead monster. The monster was slowly down but only slightly.

Looking into his bag, he reached in and took out a piece of bread that he had baked earlier. He quickly ate the bread while he was running so that he could replenish his stamina.

The bad news was that he was now at the worst possible place to be. He had been running with all his might with no regard to direction. Soon he ran out of the densely packed forest into a wide opening. Now he was stuck at the edge of a cliff and surrounded by monsters for the second time since he’s arrive in this world. The giant undead would catch up to him in a minute and he could not run back the opposite direction since the monster would catch him if he did.

He checked through his bag for anything that would help him in this situation, but he was poorly equipped to deal with it. He did have a grapple and rope that he could use to descend the cliff, but it would do him no good since it would take too long and the undead would catch up to finish him off.

‘Of all the times to not have teleport magic.’

Teleportation was a skill that was available to high level mages, as was the spell of flight. However, he was not high enough level to learn either of them.

He tried to remember if he had any skills that could help him in this situation.

There was nothing that could help him now that he was corner. All that remained for him now was death.

“To think that it ends like this…”

Sun lamented to himself. To think that he finally had gotten some clues to his world only to end up dying in a place like this.

‘At the very least I’m going to die fighting.’

Sun began charging up his final spell against the giant undead.

The giant undead had finally caught up to him and was only moments away. As soon as it emerged from the forest he cast his spell.

“Holy Burst!”

In this one spell he put into everything he had. All of his remaining mana and almost all of his health. A gigantic wave of light wrapped itself around the giant undead. He could feel the mana and life draining from his body as the spell raged on. The more he put into the spell, the more damage it would do and the longer it would last.

He shortly reached the point where he could not go any longer. Now he could only hope that the monster was dead or at least incapacitated.

Weakly looking up, he checked to see what state the monster was in now.

The monster was severely damaged all over its body and the spell had ignited it on fire. It was weakly standing and it had its damaged arm completely blown off. The monster tried to take a step forwards before falling onto the floor.

‘Please stay down.’

Sun prayed as hard as he could that the monster would stop moving.

The undead was collapsed onto the floor and unmoving. Looking over the giant’s condition, it seemed that it was at the very least unable to move.

“Haah…”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Sun sat up from the ground and tried to catch his breath. His entire body was covered in sweat as well as dirt from the forest.

“And to think that I took a proper bath a few days ago.”

Sun started to laugh at the current state of his body. For now he decided that he would recover as much as he could before meeting back with the group.

Rumble rumble.

“You have to be kidding me…”

The giant monster sluggishly made its way to its feet and stood back up. It was still severely injured but now Sun had no means to kill it, having depleted all of his mana. His health and stamina were at their minimum amounts and he could not run away even if he wanted to.

The giant undead monster lifted its remaining hand and slowly made its way to pick up Sun and crush him, since it was so injured that it could not make any excessive movements.

The undead’s hand slowly came closer to him, intent on squeezing the last drops of life from his body.

The monster suddenly doubled over and fell over the cliff past Sun.

Ttiring!

-You have leveled up.

“I hope that we’re not too late.”

A familiar voice called out from the forest. He looked over to see Calvin’s smug ass face looking back at him. They had managed to finish off the rest of the undead giants and swiftly made their way over. Thankfully with the horse drawn carriage and the paladins’ running speed they had made it in time.

“No. You guys are mad late.”

Sun complained a little bit before collapsing onto to floor in exhaustion.

“Let me rest for a bit…”