[Lan Tian, Shield Warrior Lvl. 62 has died.]

[Jiang Ling, Shield Warrior Lvl. 61 has died.]

[Xia Peng, Cleric Lvl. 60 has died.]

[You have dealt 23 damage to Murmillo Marcus Lvl. ???]

"Shit!" cursed Yuan Zan. "The enemy is too powerful! Retreat!"

Yuan Zan is one of the team leaders of the Hao-Wei Excavation Groups currently in the Inner Catacombs. He, along with the teams scattered in the catacombs, recently received a new order from Hao Ling to converge on the epicenter of the earthquake they experienced a few hours ago.

They learned that Captain Hao Ling and her team had been eradicated by a mysterious player and were instructed to hunt down the man.

Yuan Zan led his team to the path they received in the real world from Hao Ling herself when suddenly, they found themselves fighting several groups of undead in increasing frequency the closer they reached the epicenter.

At first, the enemies they encountered were manageable- mostly zombies or skeleton-type undead around levels 40 to 50. But not long after, the levels of enemies kept increasing until they encountered a Gladiator-type undead whose level couldn't be detected by their scout and scanning scroll.

Not even 5 seconds have passed since they encountered the undead, yet they already lost both of their tanks and one of their cleric. It is painfully clear that this is not a fight they can win.

After narrowly escaping the Undead Gladiator, Yuan Zan ordered one of his members to log out and inform Captain Hao Ling of what happened.

"What the hell was that?" one of his members exclaimed in frustration. "That has to be at least Level 100!"

The frustration is reflected by the other's agreement. Their party is composed of mostly level 60 to 70 members and is in the mid-tier of the current player level across the Lorikan server. However, fighting a Level 100+ undead is a little too early for them.

Not long after, the member who logged out to relay the news returned, and his face was grim.

"Well, what did Captain Hao say?" asked Yuan Zan.

"We were ordered to retreat immediately." the member responded. "Any surviving Hao-Wei guild member is to leave the Inner Catacombs and fall back to the Summoning Chamber, ASAP."

'I guess a 20-year-old amateur ranker cannot issue an appropriate order,' thought Yuan Zan in disappointment. 'Had I known, I would have just joined the group trying to get to the fortress.'

He finds the order to be a bit excessive. While it's true that they encountered a powerful undead and lost 3 team members immediately, having all of Hao-Wei retreat immediately seems to be an overreaction.

Unbeknownst to him, it wasn't just his group that was experiencing a hard time. All across the Inner Catacombs, the Hao-Wei teams are locked in a desperate fight against large groups of high-level undead.

"Did Captain Hao explain why we need to resort to this level of precaution?" asked Yuan Zan diplomatically, not letting his inner thoughts show.

"Well, sir..."

Then, the team member began to explain what he learned.

"What!?" exclaimed Yuan Zan. "How is that possible?"

His opinion about Hao Ling's order made a complete 180 turn, while he first thought it was excessive, now he thinks it's not enough. If it was up to him, Hao-Wei should leave the Forgotten Temple right now.

Several Hao-Wei teams were wiped out. From what the member learned when he logged out, several teams encountered multiple powerful undead enemies and didn't stand a chance. It appears that all the undead in the area started to converge to the epicenter as if they were somehow drawn to the place.

The undead don't seem to be particularly interested in fighting the players, the teams that were annihilated were the ones deeper inside the Inner Catacombs with no path to escape on and had no choice but to confront the incoming undead.

Yuan Zan's group is lucky that they haven't gotten that far inside yet, which would explain why they were able to retreat with most of them surviving.

It is estimated that out of the main members of the Hao-Wei Excavation Team, approximately 30 are still alive.

The grunt workers and other support players are not counted as they are not part of the combat or exploration force.

Needless to say, this would cause a serious delay in the progress of their exploration as the respawn period for players is 3 in-game days.

Acknowledging that the young Captain Hao has actually made the best decision possible out of the situation they were in, Yuan Zan ordered his team to retreat and leave the Inner Catacombs.

It is an order that they obeyed a little too enthusiastically.

About two hours later, they finally reached the Summoning Chamber. However, they were surprised to see that only his team was in the rendezvous area. Thinking that there's been a change of plans, Yuan Zan once again asked one of his team members to log out and get a report from the real world.

Not long after, the team member is back with them.

"What did they say?" asked Yuan Zan directly. "Where is everybody?"

"Sir, it's just us. The rest... were killed." said the member he asked to log out. "We're the only ones who made it."

"What the hell just happened?"

***

Death Spiral Effect

This is the term used when an undead summon or minion loses connection with the necromancer that was controlling them. When the necromancer that controls the undead has fallen, but the undead themselves are still surviving, the minions can be trapped in a never-ending loop of roaming around the area where the summoner died.

This is the event currently happening in the Inner Catacombs.

The only known way for the summons to break away from the Death Spiral Effect is for the fallen necromancer to revive as a Revenant and regain its control of its minions. Or at least, that was the commonly accepted fact in Adam's first life.

When Dark Priest Novhekaar fell, there were still several thousand undead that were not able to reach the clearing on time due to the sheer distance separating the undead minions from their summoner.

Normally, the undead would just circle a certain radius of the area now that the Lich has been dispatched. But when Adam wore Novhekaar's Cloak, the Death Spiral Effect was temporarily lifted and all the undead that were trapped in a loop became drawn to his location.

Novhekaar's Cloak (Legendary)

Type: Cloak

Armor: 3

Weight: 2

Durability: 50/50

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Requirements: n/a

Description: Novhekaar himself created this powerful cloak to possess enchantments he deems useful.

Assassin's Woe: +10 Perception, Negates a critical hit once every 24 hours.

Necrotic Allure: The undead are drawn to the wearer of this cloak.

Divine Resistance: Grants 20% defense against Holy-based magic

Magic Repair: Can be repaired using essence.

From the lowest zombies and skeletons to the higher-leveled minions; every undead that the fallen Lich had summoned and commanded before its final death is now slowly, but surely converging toward Adam's location. And it wasn't just the Lich's minions, the naturally-formed undead like Ghouls, Revenants, and Draugrs all started heading towards the center of the Inner Catacombs as well.

But while Hao-Wei experienced severe loss of personnel due to the Death Spiral Effect, the man who is directly responsible for it is having a great time.

[You have slain Laquearius...]

[You have slain Hoplomachus...]

[You have slain Retiarius...]

[You have slain Skeleton Soldier...]

[You have slain Skeleton Archer...]

[You have slain Skeleton Mage...]

[You have slain Ghoul...]

[You have slain Revenant Necromancer...]

[You have slain Revenant Warrior...]

[You have slain Revenant Sorcerer...]

The undead keeps on jumping down from the hole above the clearing. Luckily, with Adam's increased perception, he can tell the approximate number of undead so he is never caught off guard.

For the most part, the undead that keeps on jumping down are groups that Adam can handle with relative ease. Since many of his spells are AoEs and have the holy attribute, he was able to consistently make short work of the undead one after another. As such, Adam had been continuously fending off the undead nearly non-stop.

And he is glad for it; his accumulated Essence is near 900,000 thousand now. This is partially thanks to the seemingly endless batch of undead and the effect of his Sacrificial Dagger that grants extra Essence.

During the moment when there is no undead coming from above, Adam instructed the grunt workers to organize the corpses of the undead that he dispatched. For the next several hours, this had been the primary assignment of the grunt workers he hired. And to his surprise, their efficiency at working neatly organized almost 80% of the corpses; looting it later would be much easier and organized.

The workers had previously completed the tasks he set them for.

First, nearly a thousand Crystal Beasts carcasses have been recovered and looted- Adam chose to also keep most of the bodies of the Crystal Beasts for leatherwork. Second, the Grappling Crossbow he lost during the fight has been recovered and is thankfully in relatively good condition.

Unfortunately, the rest of the weapons he put out had been destroyed by the cave-in. Nevertheless, he still decided to recover the destroyed pieces of his former equipment as it could still serve as items to practice his blacksmithing repair skills later on.

Eventually, the maximum time allowed for a helmet player has been reached and the workers have no choice but to log out. They had originally requested for Adam to kill them after the job was done in order to easily return to their respawn point, which is the Summoning Chamber. And also, they want to avoid being suspected by Hao-Wei as spies.

But after the bodies of the undead started to pile up with many of the fallen undead having fairly decent loot, Adam employed their services once more so they could help him loot the bodies for him once they could log back in. And so, for the next several hours, Adam had been killing undead while waiting for his workers to return.

Ding!

[You have slain Revenant Necromancer Lvl 100. You have absorbed 8000 Essence.]

[You are the first player to accumulate 1 million Essence without using it. The title and achievement 'A Million Essence' has been added.]

"I knew it," said Adam triumphantly. "There is a title and achievement for reaching 1 million Essence!"

This made him wonder; if there's an achievement for 1 million, would there be an achievement for 2 million? 3 million? 10 million?

But such an endeavor would take way too long so he can't see himself saving 2 million Essence anytime soon. Plus, he knows of a few dozen titles and achievements he can achieve with relative ease.

"Another Revenant-type Necromancer, huh?" said Adam curiously. "These are supposed to be the rarest type of Revenant but I've already killed several of them."

Since the area is the Inner Catacombs, it is only natural that there are some undead that are not summoned by the Lich.

Even after nearly 18 hours of straight combat, there still appears to be no sign of the undead group stopping.

Granted, he's not always fighting, and there are occasionally several minutes of gap in between the batch of undead's arrival. But Adam couldn't help but wonder just how wide the range of his cloak's Necrotic Allure is. He considered taking it off to control the flow of undead coming his way but ultimately decided to keep it on to take advantage of the easy grinding spot it provided him.

Plus, he has a feeling that having countless undead flooding the Inner Catacombs would prevent Hao-Wei from returning the way they came from to exact revenge on him.

All in all, it's a win for him.

Not long after, the workers were able to log in again.

"Welcome back, boys!" greeted Adam.

The workers returned his greeting.

"Hello, Mr. White Mask," said one of the workers. "We're back to do the job you contracted us for."

Upon seeing the pile of corpses that they had to work on, even they felt intimidated by the sheer number of them. There are hundreds upon hundreds of undead monsters- a quick estimate would put it at 3,000- not counting the bodies they already organized before they had to log out.

'Mr. White Mask managed to kill this many undead?' thought one of the workers. 'He hasn't taken a break since we first met him.'

White Mask is the name they used to refer to him due to the mask that he is wearing. After all, it seemed pointless to ask a masked man who he was so they decided to call him Mr. White Mask- something that Adam allowed them to do so.

He learned that it was Hao Ling who first called him White Mask. All the workers logged out and went to the Mercury Auction house- pretending to have been killed, as instructed by Adam.

Then, when they asked for their full payment due to being killed on the job, Hao Ling personally asked them if they too had been killed by the White Mask. Obviously, they played along in order to get paid.

They also received a bonus under the condition they don't breathe a word of what happened to the team- something they happily accepted. Besides, they have a reason not to speak of their encounter since they're working for the man responsible for killing their first employer.

Afterward, they logged back in to continue working for Adam and it was then that they relayed the news they'd heard.

Adam liked the sound of the nickname so he told the workers they could call him Mr. White Mask for the duration of their contract with him.

When the workers returned from their mandatory log-out time, Adam removed the cloak to stop the undead from being drawn to him. And almost immediately, he felt that the undead that was supposed to jump down from the Inner Catacomb floor suddenly didn't. From the sound of it, they seem to have suddenly resumed roaming around aimlessly.

It was only then that Adam remembered the Death Spiral Effect.

'I see. The cloak temporarily has them drawn towards me,' thought Adam with realization. 'But when I took the cloak off, the Death Spiral Effect lopped them in again.'

Now he realized why there were so many undead in the area; most of them were the minions the Lich summoned but couldn't make it in time to join the battle.

It also explained why so many of the undead he had been destroying are all pretty high-leveled. After all, a Lich summoned these undead so it is no surprise that they would be more powerful than a typical undead minion.

Now that the legion of the undead stopped coming from above, Adam and his hard-working crew began to loot all the bodies of the undead he killed.

Although the workers seemed professional and honest, Adam still didn't take any chances and personally rummaged through the special undead like the Revenants and Undead Warriors. In particular, he gave strict instructions to the workers to not touch the Revenant Necromancers as they are one of the rarest types of naturally forming undead and usually hold valuable loot.

And Adam was proven right, he managed to collect several valuable loot. To date, the Revenant-types gave out loot that is only eclipsed by the loot he got from Dark Priest Novhekaar, which had two legendary items. However, he decided to tinker with them at a later time.

Right now, he just wants to be done with the tunnel and return to his Blacksmithing teacher.

He then let the workers continue sorting through the bodies of the rest of the fallen undead. While they were busy sorting the loot, Adam paid a visit to the Mercury Auction House to anonymously sell the stuff he deemed undesirable- including all the equipment of Hao-Wei.

The equipment of Hao-Wei is of decent quality, but the ones he fought are not particularly high in the hierarchy of the guild so their equipment isn't particularly impressive. Only the captain's gear is remotely decent. But even then, Adam judged that the money he could earn was better than keeping Hao Ling's gear. He even sold the bag of holding that Hao Ling was carrying.

There's simply no reason for Adam to carry them around, even with his now infinite inventory.

Finally, after nearly 8 hours of non-stop looting, all the bodies of the undead had been completely stripped of anything valuable.

As agreed upon, Adam prepared to kill the workers so they could conveniently respawn where they originally started. But before doing so, he decided to give them each a reasonable bonus for a job well done.

"It's been a pleasure working with you, gentlemen," said Adam, while shaking their hands one by one. "I hope to work with you again in the future."

The workers too benefited greatly from working with Adam.

Not only did they get paid generously for their job, but Mr. White Mask turned out to be a far more decent employer than the arrogant captain of Hao-Wei.

"Likewise, Mr. White Mask."

"Looking forward to the next time, sir."

"Just give us a call any time, Mr. White Mask."

"Here is our website, feel free to contact us if you need anything. We'll prioritize your request."

With the job fully completed and pleasantries done, Adam swiftly slashed their throats to kill them as per their original request.

"Huh?" said Adam in mild amusement. "So even a Level 1 player can yield this much Essence if killed with the Sacrificial Dagger."

And with that, he also prepared to leave the clearing. He tore a tethered Teleportation Scroll to return to the cavern.