Chapter 016 – Greysoul Cemetery (2)

Once Sungjin was gone, the remaining four people decided to work together as a group .

“Yeah, just leave it to me . I got this!”

Hiro was too talkative .

“…”

Akanna was too quiet . But regardless of their differences, they agreed to stick together to clear the graveyard .

In the front stood Henrik with his axe and Hiro with his Katana . In the middle stood Akanna with his spear, and in the back stood Kultu with his bow .

Before entering the cemetery, Henrik and Kultu both took out the Lantern they had prepared .

“What’s that?”

Henrik answered matter of factly .

“What, this lantern? It was on the information page you know . It says the Cemetery is dark so you should buy a lantern at the Black Market . ”

Hiro tilted his head .

“Is that so?”

Akanna also blinked with a blank expression . Henrik shook his head .

“Mine in the front and Kultu’s lantern in the back, we’ll probably be okay with the lighting . Let’s just go . ”

Henrik made his way towards the cemetery . Some time later,

“Grrah!”

Few zombies appeared .

“Zombies!”

“Alright!”

Hiro fearlessly ran ahead .

“Wait…!”

Henrik had been planning on watching his enemies and responding defensively . Hesitantly, he ran forward to assist Hiro . However, Hiro proved to be better than he thought .

He wielded his blade as if possessed . Once the zombies reached his strike zone, their arms and legs were cut off and sent flying . When the zombies stumbled and fell due to the loss of their legs, they were beheaded with a lightning fast attack before they even hit the ground . Henrik instinctively swallowed .

‘I see why he’s acting so cocky . ’

While he was distracted, a Zombie charged at him . Henrik hurriedly swung his axe instinctively and cut off the zombie’s wrist without resistance .

But this became a problem . A living being would have hesitated from pain, but the Zombie continued to charge at Henrik disregarding the physical harm .

Henrik, having just finished his attack motion, was in no position to defend himself . He was vulnerable to the zombie’s bite . A moment of peril .

“Aho!”

Akanna’s long spear penetrated the zombie’s head through its face .

“Iho!”

Whenever Akanna thrust his spear shouting out strange words, holes appeared on a zombie’s face .

The zombies hit in the face by his spear all fell powerlessly on the spot without being able to so much as wave their arms . Thanks to the spirited fighting by the two men, Henrik and Kultu did not have much to do .

“Orya!”

“Kaho!”

All Henrik and Kultu could do was provide light for Hiro and Akanna to fight properly .

“Alright, Henrik! Bring the light a little closer please!”

At least Hiro actually needed the light to fight .

“Ahoho!”

Akanna would run into the impenetrable darkness alone, and kill the zombies on his own .

“What the **** am I watching”

Henrik, who had lived in Copenhagen all his life, had difficulty adjusting to what he was witnessing .

But thanks to the effort of the other two men, Henrik and Kultu could progress through the raid without much trouble .

Sometimes ghouls, which were faster than zombies, would threaten Henrik and Kultu . But whenever they were in danger, Hiro and Akanna protected them from harm .

Henrik thanked the two of them .

“Thanks to you two… I think we will be able to clear this raid without much trouble . Of course, we would have to see the boss first to know… but from what I could see, we should be enough . The real concern is that teenager Kei from earlier . I worry about what might have happened to him . ”

However, Hiro’s expressions were strange . Hiro spoke as if he was put off by something .

“Yeah, I guess so… But isn’t something weird here? This Round?”

 

“What’s weird?”

“I mean… well, I guess something like…the number and strength of the monsters… Don’t you feel that somehow it’s even easier than Ahenna’s Forest?”

Kultu agreed with his observations .

“I think you’re right . Compared to the endless wave of wolves from the previous raid, there does seem to be too few enemies in this raid . There are Ghouls too… but bears were far more threatening . Is it because we haven’t entered too deep inside yet?”

“Ig”

Akanna interrupted the conversation by making strange noises . Henrik looked over to him .

“What is it Akanna? Do you have something to say?”

Akanna wordlessly motioned for Henrik’s lantern . Henrik understood his gestures and obediently handed it over . But the question remained .

“Akanna, you… I thought you didn’t need light to see?”

“Ig Ig”

Akanna left the other three and ran off somewhere . He then stopped and put down the lantern on the ground . The other three men opened their mouths in surprise .

“What the…”

Not far from where they had fought, there was an unimaginable number of zombie and ghoul corpses lying around . Henrik walked up to Akanna to picked up his lantern . He looked around the area with the lantern held low to the ground .

There he found not only corpses of ghouls and zombies, but also chopped up remains of skeletons as well . Henrik murmured to himself, overwhelmed by the implications .

“What in the world…”

*

Sungjin wielded his katana like a bolt of lightning .

“Kueueu~”

In a single strike, two zombies were cut down at once . The blood and bile splashed all over Sungjin’s face .

‘Krraaa Graahh’

Smelling the thick scent of blood, ghouls appeared from nowhere . Deeply bent back, jagged and uneven teeth, rotting flesh .

Sungjin instinctively swung his katana . Anything that his sword touched was cut apart without resistance . Of course, spewing disgusting unidentifiable liquids everywhere .

‘…’

There were largely two main complaints about the ‘Greysoul Cemetery’ . One was that the enemies were smelly and gross; mostly zombies and ghouls .

The second was that these things were only dangerous when overrunning their opponents with sheer numbers . Although they did not pose any significant threat to Sungjin, fighting them was in no way hygienic .

‘I can’t wait to clear this map . ’

It was already his second time, but he couldn’t get used to this . Hidden piece or not, he just wanted the raid to end .

Once he finds a red magic circle hidden within the cemetery, he will be able to locate the boss monster ‘Deathmond’ . Kill the boss with all due haste, and search for the Hidden Piece . That was his plan .

‘…where was that again?”

But he couldn’t remember where the magic circle was located . Greysoul Cemetery was far too dark, so dark that it was hard to tell where anything was .

Last time, the five of them roamed the cemetery aimlessly until they accidentally stumbled onto the magic circle and just barely beat the boss within the time frame .

‘…Maybe I should have bought a Lantern…’

Without a doubt, the information pamphlet about ‘Greysoul Cemetery’ would have urged the Hunters to purchase at least one Lantern .

He, once again, penny pinched too hard to save money to buy legendary tier items later on . Recalling something, Sungjin called upon the Operator .

“Operator . ”

[Yes, esteemed Hunter?]

“Take out the Salamander’s ash that I received as reward last time’

A package appeared on top of the cube on command . It was a reward he had received from ‘Ahenna’s Forest’ . Sungjin lifted it up .

Salamander’s ash

Normal Consumable item

Special Effect: Flame(I)

Flame(I) – imbues an item with a weak flame . 5 Minute duration .

Ash collected from a dead fire lizard, Salamander .
It is said that there is a place in the world where Salamanders are raised on a farm to be harvested for their ash .

Sungjin rubbed the ash over his Katana . Soon, Sungjin’s weapon lit up on flames illuminating the surroundings .

‘…useful . ’

It was an item originally meant to be used to strengthen attack power, but Sungjin treated it as nothing more than a source of light .

His damage was already high enough . Selling the Salamander’s ash only gave back a single Black Coin . With the five minute duration, he was confident that it was plenty of time for him to find Deathmond .

‘Clack clack’

Perhaps it was due to the burning Katana that an army of Skeletons was marching towards him . Sungjin preferred these guys though; at least they didn’t have rotting flesh and blood .

Instead, they each carried spears, swords, or axes . And it goes without saying that they were no match for Sungjin’s speed .

Wielding the Katana in one hand and the scabbard in another, Sungjin fought as if performing two-handed sword style combat . Cutting and bashing .

No matter with what Sungjin hit, he shattered the bones to pieces . Once the enemies were destroyed, Sungjin paused to look up at the night sky .

The moon was nowhere to be seen . He had no sense of directions . He didn’t know where he came from or where he needed to go .

‘… I don’t know where that Magic circle is… what should I do?”

Sungjin pondered for a moment before coming to a plan of action; brute force everything and search as wide and as quickly as possible .

If he ran into enemies, then it was a place he hasn’t been to, and if it was an area filled with corpses, then it was a place he had searched before .

Although Sungjin was sick and tired of creating mountains of zombie/ghoul corpses, he decided to swallow back his disgust and do it all over again .

*

“Did that… Kei person, do all this by himself?”

Henrik asked in disbelief . Hiro replied

“Who else could it be?”

Hiro sounded angry .

“Well, I guess it is a good thing as long as we clear the raid, right?”

Henrik consoled him, but Hiro kept his arms crossed and remained quiet . It appeared as though he felt some sort of rivalry between Sungjin and himself .

The four hunters fought with the ‘survivors’ as they searched through the ‘Greysoul Cemetery . When suddenly

“Eh?”

Akanna stopped on the spot . He could see far into the darkness . The others tensed up, but he put down his spear

“Amero Hum manieh damondi!”

He fell to his knees and started bowing feverishly . The others looked over to see what he could be bowing to . There, they saw a person in the distance clad in a white dress .

“Eek! EEEE!”

Hiro started screaming like a woman and hid behind Henrik .

“What… what’s wrong?”

Hiro answered Henrik’s question .

“G…Ghost!”

Henrik looked over again . He saw the white-clothed person . Pale face, long hair, white dress .  She was approaching them .

But her motions were too smooth . When he looked carefully, he saw that there were no feet under the hems . Henrik tried to encourage Hiro .

“We should f . . fight then!”

Hiro held onto Henrik’s clothes and murmured

“G…ghosts are scary!”

Akanna continued to pray and chant .

“Raome kani Besemeres”

Henrik was starting to panic . The two aces of the team showed zero will to fight and were behaving strangely .

Henrik looked over to the ghost again . Even now, the ghost without legs was gliding towards them .