Miggrel showed a hidden room beneath the floor to the party.
(Nice! He was hiding something! But why he said that SHE would turn the house upside down? Does he know the guild master or by any chance she is somebody much more important that I though?) – though ClownFrog.
"What are you waiting for, come down." – said Miggrel after opening the trapdoor, revealing a ladder.
Miggrel began climbing down with the party fallowing behind.
After using a latter, the party found themselves in the storage room containing a lot of different materials and plants.
"Fallow me." – said Miggrel while walking through the storage room.
The Miggrel walked towards a brick wall and grabbed his necklace he was holding and held it near the wall. Moments the stone wall faded away, revealing an stairs leading down.
The party fallowed Miggrel right behind and arrived at the very wide open space that was located underground.
In the underground room there was many different more sinister looking tools laying around with even some of them being covered in blood and a walls with a pinned skeletons as well as corpse of various races hanging on the wall.
(This is definitely screaming "Evil", no matter how you look at it.) – though ClownFrog.
"Okay, so this is your real "Laboratory" or something. What do you do here?" – asked Shri.
"…. Making something that I can use for my revenge." – said Miggrel.
"There is no point in hiding if you were to report to the guild master so I will tell you." – said Miggrel.
"Some people say that being reborn as unliving is blessing since you have second chance in life, but for some like me is a torture instead."
"As you can see, I'm unliving demonoid, when I was still normal, I was just a regular demonoid alchemist that studied medicine and poisons in order to help out people when they are sick or injured."
"I was even married and had a babe child. But that FUCKER HAD TO APPER!"
"Prince Arnold from the Adernul, a prince from the country I was living in decided to do a little hunt even to relief some of stress. Specifically, the target of his hunt was our village."
"In Adernul kingdom the demonoid are not seen in very positive light because of the past events and the prince Arnold was known for making random excuses for his horrible acts. However, no one could have ever expected THAT to happened! Nobody would expect he would do something like THAT! It came out of the nowhere."
"He and his man slaughtered everybody! Not only demonoid but also other races that lived in there! Even my wife that was human! She wasn't spared!"
"Everything was destroyed! Everything!"
"But somehow, I was revived after a long time as an unliving. When I returned back, the village was nowhere to be seen and only the burned house remains were left."
"I tried to find any survivors or any clues, but just as I feared, everybody was killed that day."
"I was the only one lucky enough to be revived."
"My wife, my child, my friends, all gone."
"I wanted a freaking revenge against those fuckers! However, I was just a simple doctor that was making medicines for a people."
"So, I decided to run away, I discarded my real name and hid here. I spend 20 freaking years in here, conducting my research."
"I have no way of transporting all of that in short amount of time and this place is fruit of all my years spended here. Even if I were to escape, I would have nothing and all my years of work would be gone."
"The reason why I told you about it was because if you would tell HER anything about this, it would be all over in an instant. I can't leave this place or run away, it's impossible."
"So, you want a revenge against the prince?" – asked ClownFrog.
"No, I want to destroy that entire country! Every one of these bastards that lives in that country, I want them all dead!"
"…."
(Oh boy. This guy is consumed by revenge that he isn't thinking straight. He should only be wanting to murder the prince but now he wants to destroy the entire country he lives in and kill all people living in it? He doesn't care one bit if he kills innocent people at all.) – Though ClownFrog.
(Honestly in those kind of plots the hero is supposed to stop the mad man that got consumed by revenge before he does anything stupid.)
BUT WE ARE NOT HEROUS! WE ARE BAD GUYS! SO, OF CORSE WE WILL HELP OUT :D
"…. So, you want to barge with us then? Since you have no option anyway." – said ClownFrog.
"Yea. If you promise to help me out, I will give you all the most valuable stuff I have on me and even let you kill me." – said Miggrel.
"?"
"Why kill you?"
"Because there is no way of hiding this. Now that the adventure guild leader is suspicious of me, its just matter of time before I get found out."
"I'm already tired as well, everything, everyone that were dear to me are gone. I just want to lie down and don't wake up, but I have yet to have my revenge against that kingdom and its people."
"So, I want to make a deal. Help me out and you will have my head."
"…. Let's say we agree. What do you want us to do?" – asked ClownFrog.
"…. There is a village that is near the border between this country Avalanjn and the country where the shit bastards lives in Adernul. The village in question are located on the Adernul side. I want you to kill all of the people there and collect their souls."
[Quest has been generated.]
[Miggrel and his mad plan.]
[Quest Rank: C]
[Miggrel was once living in the country of Adernul with his human wife and a child in the demonoids village. However, one day a prince Arnold who was also the next ruler of the country decided to have little fun by killing everybody in the village, not only the demonoids but also other races including humans that lived there just for fun. Miggrel consumed by rage and regret wants you to help in his revenge before he gets found out.]
[Kill everybody in the village targeted by Miggrel and collect their souls using a special device.]
[Reward: Depends.]
[Do you accept it?]
[YES/NO]
"?!"
"Could you please wait a moment?" – asked ClownFrog.
"…Sure."
ClownFrog with his party quickly moved away and began talking with each other quietly.
"It's a C rank quest! C rank! It's a highest quest rank we received yet! The rewards will be worth it no matter how you look at it!" – said Shri.
"On top of that, this is the first EVIL quest we can do! I'm all down for it!" – added GreyHunt.
"And if by any chance this is a chain quest, the rewards could be even better." – said Oron.
"…."
The party walked back to Miggrel.
"Fine. We will do it."
"?!"
"You are not thinking of betraying me are you not?"
"Nah. Let's just say we kind of make a lot of chaos in that place as well. So, our goals may aligns with each other." – said ClownFrog while extending his hand to the man.
"…. Fine. I will trust you." – replied Miggrel and shacking the hand with ClownFrog.
[You have accepted the quest.]
"Here." – said Miggrel before taking objects out of the box nearby.
"Lanterns?" – said Shri.
"Does are soul lanterns. They collect people soul when they are killed. Each one of you need to have it equipment when killing people. However, when on the mission, you cannot be discover at all! The people of that shitty kingdom can't find anything, so kill any witnesses you see. Also, don't you fuking dare lose them, do you have any idea how hard it was to get them? Got it?" – said Miggrel.
"Got it." – replied everybody.
"Good."
Miggrel took out a map from a shelf and showed it to the others.
"The village in question is here. You will need to take path here to not be found out by a bordel patrol. I already checked the path and it was safe, there aren't any people like a knights patrolling there and the monsters there shouldn't be too big of a problem for you considering you killed hunger bear." – said Miggrel while explaining things to the party with use of the map.
After receiving instruction from the Miggrel as well as the quest the party left the Miggrel house and headed straight to the border between the kingdoms.
"The first evil quest we will be doing huh? But wasn't expecting it to be genocide of all things. I was thinking something smaller or like taking small steps at the time." – said GreyHunt.
"Huh. I though you would have suggested something like that instead?" – said Shri.
"Well, like said before, we are not strong yet so we need to be careful, but doing C rank quest can give us big advantage above everybody else."
"True. Doing it maybe even gave us lead over the other players." – said Oron.
"Well, I can bet that some people would do that quest without even asking for details or anything from him because of the greed." – said Shri.
"But still, some people would probably hesitate, since the NPCs feels like real people. Even that guy."
"…."
"Do you want reconsider it?" – asked ClownFrog.
"…. No." – replied Shri.
The party continue walking through the forest, slaying any monster they encountered and managing to cross the border without much of the problem.
"According to the info, we should be already in the Adernul kingdom, keep your guard up no matter what." – said GreyHunt while checking the map.
After walking through the forest more, the party was finally able to see a village from top of a cliff.
"This is our target. Just making sure, if somebody don't want to participant, you can back away now." – asked ClownFrog.
"…."
"No? Good. Was making sure. Well, then get ready."
(These people are obviously just a farmer. We don't know them or anything but we are about them slaughter them all.) – though ClownFrog.
(….)
(Honestly, I thought I would hesitate or something, but I don't feel like that?)
"Kill everybody you see, don't spare anyone no matter what."
The atmosphere in the village was peaceful. Nothing stood out or anything, it was a very ordinal village.
However unknown to them, the peace would not last very long.
"?"
"Hey did you heard that?" – said the lady carrying a basket.
"What?" – asked the man next to her with a beard.
"I think I just heard something back there."
"Tch. Its probably again that dog eating the random trash the people threw away. For crying out loud granny need to do something about her pet. Wait here." – said the man before walking between the houses.
"…..."
"Hey. Is everything okay?" – asked the woman after the man didn't returned or heard any sounds.
"…"
The woman and walked the same path the man just used, trying to find him.
"Hey are you- "
The girl turned around and as soon as she did, she saw multiple spear heading straight at her.
"…."
"Let the chaos begin." – said ClownFrog.
Suddenly in the middle of the village a woman began screaming, this immediately catched the attention of the other villagers.
When the people looked what was going on, they saw a skeleton with a spear that pierced a man right through the chest.
The one who screamed was a woman next to the man that was just killed. The woman tried to run away, but as soon as she did the skeleton monster stabbed her to death.
"M- "
"MONSTER IS IT THE VILLAGE! CALL THE- "
Before the man could finish his sentence, he was crushed to death by the undead bear monster paw.
Undead suddenly appeared out of nowhere and began killing villagers left and right, causing a panic and fear to spread all around.
Some of the villagers as well as hunters tried to fight back, but they were overwhelmed by the army of undeads.
The villagers tried running away, however they were chased and killed by the undead monsters.
Some of the villagers that manage to escape the undead monster were however killed by Phiul and her tamed monster or by Oron and GreyHunt. The villagers path of the escape were all cut off and there was nowhere where they could hide.
The cries of the despair were heard everywhere, but that did not stopped the party, nobody was spared no matter even if they begged for mercy.
After some long time passed the entire village became silent.
It was a one sided massacre that ended up with all the villagers being killed by the party.
[The Soul Lanter has collected the victim souls.]
"…."
"Are you okay?" – asked Shri to Oron.
"Yea, its just…. It was easy. Way too easy. I was expecting some form of resistance or anything, but it was quite easy killing them. On top of that, it kind of felt, weird?" -said Oron.
"Well, it was easy killing them, but if even one of them manage to escape, then it would be all over. But honestly, killing them felt weird to me as well. The NPCs don't respawn, they have only one life. I don't really know how I feel yet about killing them." – said Shri.
"I get what you mean. It just feels way different from killing NPCs than when I was killing players." – said GreyHunt while walking to the pair.
"Huh, I though you wouldn't feel different about it, considering that you were the player killer ever since the day one." – said Oron.
"I though so too." – replied GreyHunt.
(It felt really weird. I killed a lot of people, but killing NPCs gave a different kind of feeling. Players can just respawn after they die, but NPCs in this game have only one life. If they die, they are gone for good. I thought I wouldn't feel any difference, but…... Honestly, I'm quite confused about it.) – though GreyHunt.
"Anyway, we should get going now and give these souls back to the guy. We don't know if he won't give us more tasks or something to do and he warned us that some merchants may come by and see the massacre. We are going back now." – said ClownFrog while walking to the group after gathering all of his scattered undeads.
"…. Hey, question." – said GreyHunt.
"Yes?" – said ClownFrog.
"How did you feel when killing an NPCs?" – asked GreyHunt.
"…. I don't know…. Weird. I killed monsters nonstop and even killed players, but this is the first time I killed the NPCs. Honestly, I don't know. I don't know how to answer that. But if I were to give any answer, I think I don't have problem with killing them?" – said ClownFrog.
"…."
"Okay, lets get back already." – said GreyHunt.
The party quickly headed back to the Miggrel house. After they got back the party with Miggrel headed back to the secret underground room.
"Quickly, give it to me!"
The party handed over the soul lanterns back to the Miggrel.
[You have completed the quest: Miggrel and his mad plan.]
[Your favorability with Miggrel increased.]
"So, now we are your partners in crime for real. May you now tell enlighten us about your plan?" – asked GreyHunt.
"Yea."
"Do you know that there is dessert in the Adernul kingdom?" – asked Miggrel.
"No. This was the first time any of us even put the foot in that kingdom." – replied Oron.
"…. Well, then let me explain."
"Long ago the Adernul was much smaller compare to now. Exactly the half of the kingdom that is a dessert was a completely different kingdom. Umil. It was country named Umil and it was ruled by the queen Arrianhi Umil."
"Arrianhi Umil controlled her country with an iron grasp. She received both a fear and respect from her people, all thanks to her power. She was extremely powerful necromancer and any who dared to challenger her rule were turned into undead servants that would serv her for eternity."
"The king at that time the Davion Adernul, decided to make the power of Arrianhi Umil his own, he tried various schemes like asking for her hand to even trying to abduct, but the queen wasn't that stupid as he though and in the end the all out battle broke out between two nations. He tried to make her his by force."
"The king was obviously though that the fight would be easy, but he underestimated the queen power of the necromancy and her undead servants. The king realized that at this rate the fight would end up in his defeat, so he became desperate."
"He used a special sword that was able to handle many curse at the same time and stabbed the queen right through her heart. The king ended up however dying after stabbing the queen, but the curses blade did it work."
"The curses ended up spreading all through the body of the queen, she tried fighting the it with her necromancy, but it did not manage to save her, instead she ended up falling right into a trap. The sword absorbed the necrotic mana and created a special cursed seal, killing her and transforming her into a mindless undead monster with no intelligent."
"Not only she lost her sense of self, she lost her power and the sword power ended up affecting her undead legion that were connected to her directly, ending them."
"Her fallowers took the monster that was once their ruler and hid her away, trying to restore her, but the war would end up with the victory of the Adernul kingdom and all fallowers of the queen would be killed before they could even save the queen."
"In the end the monster that was once the queen was never found and over time forgotten."
"I originally did not knew the real story of what happened. The story written by the people of Adernul kingdom was full of crap and lies, like for example the king heroic sacrifice or the madness of the queen that wanted to conquer the kingdom."
"However, with my years of research I manage to gather the truth about the case and even confirmed that the queen her self maybe still alive since she was turned into undead."
"Let me guess. You want to revive her something?" – asked ClownFrog.
"Precisely! She despised that country even more than me and if she were to be revived and see what happened to her lands and how they threated her legacy, she will go on rampage and turn all of them into her undead slaves. She will be my instrument of the revenge!"
"…. So, how do you plan to do that? From what you said she became a middles undead." – said GreyHunt.
"Yea. Her heart was destroyed by the cursed sword and infected her. I'm planning on making a new heart for her will be able to lift a cursed seal and restore her sanity, allowing her to break free off the curse and restore her sense of self. Reviving her in the process."
"I know where she is located, but I still didn't had the heart on me that could replace her lost one, until today."
Miggrel quickly took out a heart of the hunger bear and put it on the stone pedestal with blood simples written all over it.
The man took out a many different ingredients and begin brewing a potions that he later mixed with a blood, he even began tinkering with the soul lanterns he received before and the unknown bloody potions he made.
"Go on to that wall over there and don't do anything! This is very delicate process so I cannot afford any screw ups!" – said Miggrel while pointing his finger to the far end of the room.
The party fallowed the Miggrel instruction and walked away from him.
"…. Okay. You can do this." – said Miggrel to himself.
Miggrel poured the bloody liquid into the stone pedestal cracks before putting his hands together.
Afterwords the man began chanting something and the bloody liquid began moving by itself into the heart and making it beat once again.
The heart began emitting a grim energy and beating faster each moment; however, moments later the heart began violently beating before growing larger and exploding and turning into black smoke.
"…No."
"No, no, no, no, no, NO! HOW?! IT SHOULD HAVE WORKED THIS TIME?!"
"…."
ClownFrog walked to the man.
"Are you okay?" – asked ClownFrog.
"Does it look like I'm okay?! I tried everything already but it failed again!"
"Dude, calm down. If its materials then we can kill another bear and bring it heart to you again."
"…. It's not that."
"?"
"The heart of the hunger bear was perfect. Its vitality and the amount of mana it could handle was something already beyond anything you can get here. The heart manage to accept the mana and the power itself, but it was unable to contain in the end. It wasn't the first time I used the heart or the souls of the living people, however after all those failures, this was my best result thus far, but it also showed that the heart of the hunger bear could never work. There is no point of getting a new hunger bear heart now that I know it would never handle the process."
"…. So, you give up?" – asked ClownFrog.
"Of course not! But I can't do anything! I don't know what other heart with even way higher poetical that hunger bear could be found and the adventure guild master is observing me, meaning I don't have time. I can't…. I can't do anything. I'm all out of options." – said Miggrel before falling on his knees in despair.
"…. Question. The reason why the heart failed was because it couldn't handle the necrotic mana and the power as well, correct?" – asked ClownFrog.
"…. Yea…. And there is no better heart than hunger bear heart that could work out with the creation process."
"Then let me ask you something, would something like that work?" – asked ClownFrog.
Miggrel slowly turned around and saw ClownFrog holding a beating heart.
"?!"
"W-what is that? T-this energy, is undoubtedly necrotic mana. W-what kind of heart is that?! Where did you manage to get that?!" – asked Miggrel while getting up.
"It's a heart of the power undead monster called The Corpse Of The Amid. I can tell you it was way more powerful than a bear many times over."
"…. Can I have a look?" – asked Miggrel while walking slowly towards the ClownFrog.
"Sure."
ClownFrog handed over heart to the Miggrel and began inspecting it.
"…. How is it possible?" – said Miggrel.
"So, if I were to give it to you, would that work out?"
"…. I…. No."
"It will work out. It will definitely work out with this."