[Warning. Your skeletal body has been found by the target(s) of revenge]
[Warning. One of the target(s) are above S-rank]
[Warning. If the skeletal body is destroyed, you'll lose 50% of your all stats as well as half of your default skills. The skills will be chosen at random]
[Current skeletal body damage status: 0%]
"W-what?"
Yurei stopped his haunt as soon as those messages popped in.
"Damn it... Is it Rio and the others?"
Yurei grimaced and turned his possessed Kobold body around.
[
{ Evolution II ( Class Quest/ Mandatory ) }:
Difficulty: C
Time Limit: 5 days 10 hours 59 minutes remaining
...
Hunt down the monsters on the lower floors of the Death Flower dungeon.
Clear Conditions: Kill Kobold Warriors (700/1000); Kobold Archers (312/500), Kobold Shamans (5/20) and the Kobold Queen (0/1) on Fifth Four.
Clear Rewards: Understanding Rate + 40%; Level + 10, rank + 1
Failure Conditions: Dying / Time running out
Failure Penalty: Instant Death
*Warning, during the quest, the dungeon's difficulty from Floor Five and below will be increased by tenfold
]
"They finished the third floor in so little time?"
He knew that B-rankers and above could fight for days without food or water... But even in that case, this speed was monstrous.
"I need to get back... Dammit. I was making good progress too..."
His kobold face frowned as he rushed back to the teleportation stone.
But just before he was about to teleport, he stopped.
"Do I really need to rush?"
He thought as he stopped his small hands from touching the stone before him.
"The kobold's hasty mindset is affecting me... Let's think calmly first."
Yurei had already figured out that the monsters or the people he possessed could change or corrupt his personality depending on the host body's true personality.
He had ultimately concluded that he couldn't possess a body for too long, and he couldn't possess too many bodies in a short period. Doing either might end with his consciousness exploding.
It was a scary thought, to say the least. But it also came with an added perk, he could use the default moveset of the possessed body without any issues.
And now that he knew about the corruption of his mind, he could think and adjust his decisions more calmly. Most of the times, at the least.
And this situation was an example of that.
"Knowing the guild master, he wouldn't vandalize a dead person's corpse no matter how much he hated them. There's a high chance that I'll make things worse by returning there... Let's just hunt here for now. If they try to vandalize the skeleton, then I'll just rush back to the third floor, yeah."
Yurei took a deep breath and turned around. He was still worried about his skeleton. Yet, he took his steps forward without hesitation.
--------------------------------
"Guild master, are you sure he'll come back for his body? It has been hours since we camped here."
A party member complained as he looked at the skeleton in the middle of the room.
The skeleton was surrounded by a holy barrier created by the healers of the party. The barrier would repel and in cases trap any evil spirits going near that skeleton.
But so far, it had caught absolutely nothing.
"I am sure he will..."
Rio said with a sigh and closed his eyes. The old guild master knew about the unfortunate E-ranker from the very moment the latter had stepped into this town.
How could he forget? The day Axel had come to Quin for the first time, several houses caught on fire, twenty cows died of an unknown disease and two kids almost drowned in a nearby pond.
At first, he had just shoved all those away as mere coincidences. After all, a human couldn't possibly be that unlucky.
However... As time passed by, Rio became convinced that Axel was plagued with bad luck.
The boy had been staying in Quin for around seven years before his death. And every day was filled with misfortune for him.
Yet, he never gave up.
For that, just for that, Rio admired the young man. He had hoped that the young man would one day miraculously escape his tragic fate.
But... The reality was harsh. Before he could achieve anything, the young Hunter tragically died look thought with a bitter smile as he glanced at the skeleton in front of him.
"The guy was the most hardworking of us all... What a shame. Even after death, he wasn't spared..."
He wasn't yet sure that the young man had returned as an evil spirit. But judging from how Bayek was killed and Lily's body was missing, there was a high chance that what Drake had said was true.
If that was the case then...
"I will put you down by myself and give you a proper burial... That is the least I can do to atone for my negligence."
His whisper reached no one in particular, but his determination to see through this whole ordeal was strengthened.
And then... hours passed by without them encountering anything.
--------------------------------
"Finally... Hah... Hah..."
The kobold panted as it pulled out its sword from inside another kobold's head.
"Tsk... Using a D-rank monster has a lot of disadvantages... Hah... Hah... I miss Lily's body..."
The kobold, or Yurei's words sounded extremely creepy, but there wasn't anyone around the object to them.
[
...
Clear Conditions: Kill Kobold Warriors (1000/1000); Kobold Archers (500/500), Kobold Shamans (20/20) and the Kobold Queen (0/1) on Fifth Four.
...
]
"Thankfully, the skills were working fine... Otherwise I would have died by now..."
[Heal] hadn't previously worked on Lily's body as it was an undead, but the kobold's body reacted normally to the spell.
"Though... Am I not an undead? Then how come I can heal myself... ? Wait, I never tried healing my soul... Seems impossible. In the first place, wasn't [Predation] there to restore my soul's damage?"
Yurei murmured as he walked through the caves which were the homes of the kobolds.
The fifth floor was really a large network of caves, with a few small forests here and there.
As Yurei had never been to the fifth floor, it seemed normal to him. However, a common Hunter would have screamed and retreated by now.
Death Flower was a beginner dungeon, and the floors were small. But the current four and fifth floors Yurei had been hunting on were almost the same as the floors in an S-rank dungeon.
But the spirit didn't, or couldn't understand that.
"Let's get this over with, Kobold Queen."
Oblivious to the feats he was achieving, Yurei walked into the large cave at the end of floor five and directly faced the kobold queen.
--------------------------------
"Let's head to floor four."
Rio finally stood up after hours of waiting. The spirit hadn't shown up after all.
His party members quickly packed up and prepared to leave. They weren't keen on going further down the dungeon, but the guild master's words were absolute.
Besides, now that they had found some clues about this "dead hunter's spirit", they were less reluctant to continue the journey.
So the group went to the boss room and defeated the death knight there without much of a hassle. Then they activated the teleport stone and stepped onto floor four.
Immediately, all of them gasped.
"W-what the hell is this place?"
One of them shouted as they stared at the vast area in front of them.
"So Drake was telling the truth after all..."
Only Rio was calm as he scanned the surroundings. The energy around him made it clear that the dungeon difficulty had spiked up significantly.
"Everyone, be careful. This is closer to an S-rank dungeon than a beginner dungeon. We shouldn't have any issues dealing with the monsters... But make sure you aren't caught off guard."
The veteran hunter warned the others as he walked forward.
S-rank dungeons could be cleared by a party of A-rankers easily. The dungeon difficulty, in the first place, was determined based on the strength required to clear it solo.
As such, parties with Hunters one or two ranks lower than the recommended rank could clear the dungeons.
"Whether we could deal with the monsters isn't the issue here... Guild Master."
One of the healers spoke up with worry.
"I know. We'll need to investigate this in detail after returning to Quin. But for now, let's scout the area and try to find Lily or at least her body."
"Understood."
With their plans set, they made a beeline straight to the boss room, which was by default located on a straight line from the entrance, just across the floor.
The party moved fast but cautiously. They made sure to keep track of their surroundings and didn't let their guards down.
"The lack of monsters is surprising... it's almost as if someone swept through the floor just before us."
Rio commented as he looked around.
"Did Axel possess Lily's body and went through the floor? Seems extremely likely."
The old master thought. His pace fastened as he realized how absurd this whole situation has become.
Just then...
"Guild Master! Look!"
One of the party members suddenly yelled and pointed at the edge of the cliff to their right.
On the edge was what seemed to be like a small hill, and on that hill was a large rock. All the Hunters here were top-rankers, so even at a distance they could make out the letters on it.
It was a crudely-made tombstone, made to honour the death of the young archer girl they were searching for.