[Blacksmithing Chain Quest: Recreate Vetius’ Dagger]

It is the quest that has been sitting in his quest log for nearly 2 weeks now.

Due to the finale of the first quest, he had no choice but to abandon his hunt for crystal beasts and ores. Right after that, he headed straight to the crypt where he spent several days clearing its floors.

He even met Rebecca, Dexter, and Jessica earlier than he anticipated. Fortunately, the encounter ended on a positive note.

Now that there's no immediate event he needs to intervene at, he can focus his attention on hunting for ores and Crystal Beasts known for eating valuable minerals and ores. He tore the teleportation scroll tethered to the cavern and in a few seconds he found himself back to the place where he had been crafting potions.

As soon as he arrived, he readied his weapon in case the place was no longer safe as it was back when he left it. Fortunately, the cavern is as barren as the last time he cleared it of anything valuable. With nothing more to do in the cavern, Adam continued his journey deep underground.

He walked past the cavern and continued exploring the tunnels. He took out the torches of Dead Fire he got from the crypt and used them both as a light source and marker of places he has explored. It made both navigation and exploration easier.

He continued walking for a few more hours when he encountered the carcass of a Crystal Beast, this one looked like a mole.

He then opened its carcass to check if there were any ores in its stomach but it was empty. Since there wasn't much to be gained from it, Adam left it and continued exploring the tunnels.

For the next several hours, Adam walked and walked through the tunnel systems.

Strangely enough, he didn't encounter any Crystal Beasts or any enemies of any kind. On top of that, he didn't find an area where ores could be mined either. The only silver lining was that there were the occasional underground mushrooms he could harvest- at least the time he'd spent exploring the tunnels wasn't completely void of any gains.

This went on for two days. His solo exploration continued without encountering any Crystal Beasts or mining caves.

At this point, Adam is certain there's something weird going on. After all, he encountered a Crystal Beast early on in his exploration back when he first arrived in this place.

Something happened since the last time he was here. The only question is, what changed here?

The answer to his question was answered after another day of exploration.

***

It was the third day of his exploration. At this point, he has covered a significant section of the tunnels and has now been lit with the dead fire torches.

Eventually, he reached a place with a wide clearing where several paths converged. And on this clearing were the monsters he was originally looking for.

There were close to a thousand of all manner of Crystal Beasts piled up on top of one another- all dead. It's as if someone or something took the time to pile all their carcasses to form a mountain of corpses.

Sensing that the area was not safe, he did not approach the clearing. Instead, he tried to sharpen his senses as best as he could and observe from a distance.

As far as he can tell, there appears to have been some kind of cave-in. At the top of the clearing is a wide hole and it seems that the roof above collapsed, then fell onto this area in the tunnels. Adam thinks the floor above that fell in this area was once a section of the inner catacombs. And most likely, this section was the original dwelling place of Crystal Beasts that now lie dead.

'This area must be right below the inner part of the catacombs,' thought Adam, trying to estimate the location of the tunnel and the inner catacomb.

'But on the bright side,' he optimistically added. 'I won't need to hunt Crystal Beasts anymore.'

At least the mystery of the Crystal Beasts' absence has been solved. But while the corpses right now appear available for looting, Adam is under no illusion that it will be that easy.

If what his instinct is telling him is right- and he knows it is, then this mountain of Crystal Beast corpses would be raised as an undead the moment he gets near it. And Adam can feel that it will be coming from the mountain of corpses itself. Though he cannot see it, he knows something is in there.

This situation would have been a problem had he been a mere level 52. But now, it will be a huge boon to him- provided he plays his card right.

Adam has become much more powerful than the last time he was here; he is currently Level 99, has become an Adept Pyromancer, has spells that have been upgraded several times, and has the Sanctified Ring that grants his attack the holy attribute. In other words, he has become the embodiment of an undead's weakness.

Furthermore, he remembered that the first Crystal Beast he encountered exhibited pyrophobia. If all these Crystal Beasts were still alive and he started casting Pyromancy spells, many would have most likely fled in fear instead of staying to fight. Looking for this many Crystal Beasts would have taken days, if not weeks.

Now, he doesn't need to worry about them running away from him. On the contrary, they would most likely rush at him the moment they became undead minions.

After observing for a few more minutes, he reached his conclusion and figured out what he was up against.

If a guild is in his place right now, they would have chosen to retreat and guard the place until they had a sufficient number of party members close to Level 100. But Adam, as he has demonstrated several times now, would not back away from a fight if he had the resources that could tip the scales in his favor.

He started setting up everything he would need for yet another boss and swarm fight.

The first thing he did was to log out and go to the Mercury Auction House. After all, he is not locked in combat so he is free to log out. There's no reason for him not to take the opportunity to prepare as much as possible.

In the auction house, he scrolled through the items placed for auction and available for sale to look for his favorite consumable item when facing the undead: Concentrated Oil. Luckily, several players sold their oil flasks for a decent price. Without any hassle, Adam was able to buy several dozen flasks- which fortunately replenished his near-depleted stock. He was even able to secure a few barrels of Concentrated Oil- though these were put up for auction and he had to outbid several guilds to win it.

He also bought Holy Water. Unfortunately, this item is in low quantity and he was only able to buy a few.

Aside from that, he also bought various spell scrolls. Each one costs quite a bit as various guilds and independent teams are interested in them as well. However, since Adam had decent earnings from the potions he sold, he had some leeway when it came to bidding. He ended up buying a few AoE, binding-type scrolls, and even pyromancy scrolls of the spells he already has.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

If anything, he felt elated at being able to secure these many resources with the budget he had to work with. After several hours of bidding and browsing items for sale, he ended up spending over $28,000. It's a budget that a small professional guild would not be able to easily spend, and even guilds like Maxima or Flora would have to ask for a higher-up's approval before such an amount would be allowed.

In reality, he ended up overspending and could have probably bought everything he did at around $25,000 if he had patiently bought them in small quantities. And yet, Adam did not feel a single bit of regret in his shopping spree.

Incidentally, this put his remaining money back to less than $10,000. But he didn't mind it at all. Besides, with the last set of potions he scheduled for sale, he expects to earn at least about $6,000 in a few days so the budget for his basic needs would not be compromised.

Once his business in the auction house was concluded, he logged out to smoke. After finishing his cigarette, he logged back in.

First, he prepared his weapons. Aside from his bow and arrow, Adam also took out his Old Longsword in preparation. With multiple pathways in the clearing, there's a good chance that an enemy might get the jump on him. Having a melee weapon to immediately fall back to is best to ensure he is not swarmed by the undead.

Just in case his weapon broke like it did when he faced the minotaur, he decided to put several weapons out in the open so he could immediately use them as needed; since the majority of the would-be undead minions are Crystal Beasts, they wouldn't be able to pick up the weapons and use it against him.

Next, he did a quick check on his oil flasks. He was able to secure 5 barrels of Concentrated Oil and he has a total of 120 oil flasks. He then used a few flasks to douse all his remaining arrows in it.

And to make sure he doesn't have to rummage in his bag for essential items, he puts them all out in the open so he can pick them up as needed.

Finally, he also invested all the essence he had accumulated so far into leveling up. he had close to 800,000 Essence at this point so he had more than enough to reach level 109 in one go. All the stat points went to his Willpower.

'I guess I won't reach 1 million Essence this time either.' sighed Adam.

He previously accumulated nearly 500,000 Essence but had no choice but to level up during the last few duels with the Undead Paladins to gain an edge. And now, he is once again spending his Essence to ensure he has as much edge as possible against the horde.

Ding!

[You are the first player to reach Level 100. The achievement ‘First Level 100’ has been added.]

'The top player is just level 82,' thought Adam. 'I'm truly ahead of everybody.'

Name: Adam

Level: 109

Essence: 51,061 (74,367 Essence to reach Level 110)

HP 260/260 (+200)

MP 680/680(+400)

STATS

Vitality 20 (1:3 Stat to HP)

Endurance 40

Willpower 20 (1:14 Stat to MP)

Strength 28

Dexterity 14

Perception 15

Intelligence 14

Clarity 6

Harmony 34

Mystery 6

SKILLS:

(Intermediate Alchemist 67.08%) Purify

(Adept Pyromancer 39.13%) Firebolt 6, Fire Enchantment 6, Fireball 6, Fire Breath 1, Blazing Will 3, Wall of Fire 3, Flame Aura 3, Flame Pillars 5

(Novice Blacksmith 0.00%)

TRAITS:

Botanist, Toxic Resistance, Flame Resistance, Frost Resistance, Metallurgy, Flame Augmentation

+200 HP/MP, HP/MP Regen 20% (Necklace), +200 MP, 50% Holy Attribute (Ring)

TITLES: see more

ACHIEVEMENTS: see more

By leveling his Willpower stat, his mana pool has considerably increased and can now let him cast more of his spells- which all have high MP costs. He also purchased Flame Pillars and upgraded it to Tier 5.

There is one reason why Adam felt the need to level up and prepare thoroughly for the fight, and it wasn't because of the Crystal Beasts.

A necromancer would not have been able to revive a Crystal Beast. This is because Crystal Beasts have an innate magic resistance due to their unique bodies. As such, only a much more powerful entity can revive so many dead Crystal Beasts and turn them into its minions.

In particular, only a high-tier necromancer can bypass this resistance: a Lich.

There is one major difference between a Necromancer and a Lich.

A Necromancer is still counted as a living mage that has a high affinity for the Dark, but ultimately they are still bound by their limited mana pool. However, a Lich is an entity that has transcended the limits of mortality and possesses near-infinite mana. While a Necromancer can usually summon 10 to 20 undead minions, a Lich can easily summon up to a hundred thousand.

Depending on certain factors, a raid against a Lich would require anywhere from a few players up to several dozen high-level players. But Adam knows of a strategy to defeat a Lich and he has the materials required to try and do it. Although it's not easy, it is doable.

To think that such an opportunity fell on his lap. As dangerous as it was, he couldn't help but feel glad.

He cannot let this opportunity pass. If he had been Level 52 as he was originally when he arrived here, he would have been forced to retreat. But now that he is at Level 109, he has a fair shot at it since his abilities are ideal for hunting undead monsters. Not only that, but he is also well aware of how a Lich fights.

As soon as the fight started, the Lich would cast its highest barrier-type spells on itself and rely on its undead minions to swarm its enemies. But if the threat somehow survives the swarm, it will start firing offensive spells while its minions swarm the target. It is a very simple, but brutal and effective strategy.

Cities and kingdoms have fallen due to the Lich's ability to keep on summoning hordes upon hordes of undead minions. What sets a Lich's summoning skills apart from a generic Necromancer is that Lich can summon the dead many times over and can use bodies that have been severely damaged.

For Adam, his best chance is to target the Lich before it can summon more of its minions. The location is quite ideal for Adam. It is spacious enough that there's reasonable space to maneuver, but not too spacious that the Lich would have enough space to call all of its minions.

And on the subject of minions, the Lich does not have immediate access to the thousands of corpses in the catacombs. Even if the Lich turns them into minions, it would still take some time for such a huge number to be converted. Then, it would take even more time for all of them to get here. The reason is that this Lich appears to be in deep slumber and most likely hasn't had the time to convert the recently slain monsters at the Forgotten Temple yet. Of course, this is more of Adam's hypothesis than a concrete fact, but he thinks he's spot on with this assessment.

Adam knows this is his golden opportunity. He has a few precious moments to take advantage of a rare instance when a Lich is not readily guarded by several thousand minions.

One of the major quests that Sanctus Lux Fortress would later issue is the subjugation of several Lich slumbering in the Undead Region.

This is why players raided the catacombs even after the first quest had been completed- all in the name of exploring the locations where a Lich would most likely reside. After all, what better place for a Lich to settle in if not an ancient structure known for sacrificing a massive number of creatures?

Although Adam can't see where the Lich is, he has a strong feeling it is in the center of the clearing where the Crystal Beasts are piled up. No doubt the Lich somehow managed to gather these corpses to protect his coffin while it slumbers to gather dark mana until it's ready. Judging by the fact that the Sanctus Lux Fortress storyline is about to begin, the time for the Lich to awaken is coming very soon. All Adam is doing now is to fight it ahead of time.

During Adam's first life, he remembers an announcement from Maxima that they had slain a powerful Lich deep in the catacombs. Although they didn't divulge any key details, it is known that Imperatrix Demetra rewarded the top players of Maxima with Lorikan nobility as recognition for what they presented to her at the climax of the Sanctus Lux chain quests. In contrast, other players granted nobility status had to present several numbers of Necromancer's Hearts and complete a series of high-difficulty quests.

Whatever they gained from the Lich was several times more valuable than several Necromancer's Hearts. And this is why players accidentally found Vetius, Adam's Blacksmithing master. Other players wanted to replicate their success by exploring the inner catacombs for anything Maxima might have missed.

But Adam erased the thought immediately; he could not afford to be dazzled by loot and reward he hadn't earned yet.

He took a deep breath. There is no more reason to delay.

First, he hurled one of the barrels straight at the top of the mountain pile. With his strength, it is a physical feat that he can accomplish with little issue. The impact shattered the barrel and the oil poured over the corpses. Then-

Pause. Nothing.

He was expecting the mountain of corpses to spring to action, but no such reaction happened.

The barrel did not register as an attack. Perhaps it's because there is no magic or direct contact involved in the process.

'It seems I overestimated the Lich's automated defenses,' grinned Adam. 'Okay then.'

He threw another barrel at the corpse mountain. Once again, there is no reaction. The second barrel also shattered and its contents was poured into the pile of corpse.

He concluded that the Lich would only awaken and summon its minions if it felt it was under attack. But any noise like what Adam just threw wouldn't count as an attack. After all, if a cave-in didn't woke it up, then a barrel being thrown on top of it definitely wouldn't.

At this point, he decided to preemptively throw oil flasks in and around the area and set up other traps in advance. He originally was planning to deploy them on the go but since there was no reaction, it would be a monumental stupidity not to take advantage of it.

Afterward, he used a few Proximity Mine scrolls and set them between himself and the pile of corpses. However, he did not dare place it near the corpse for fear of the Lich detecting it.

Scroll: Proximity Mine!

He also activated some scrolls specific to binding the undead. Once again, he set it around the clearing.

Scroll: Undead-Paralyzing Glyph

He also had holy barriers ready to be activated; he just set the scrolls on the floor so he could immediately pick them up at a moment's notice.

And then, after concluding that he could be as ready as ever, he threw a grenade at the top oil-soaked mountain of corpses.

Fire Grenade!

KA-BOOM!

A powerful explosion engulfed the clearing. With it, the Lich raid has begun.