As he traveled deeper into the forest John could feel the air getting colder and the atmosphere became gloomier.
He continued to gather herbs as he found them though he noticed his Detect skill was detecting less and less of them.
John started to notice more and more dead plants and trees, all molding away with black marks on them.
The deeper he went the more death seemed to thrive around him.
Eventually as he passed a particularly dense patch of dead bushes, he noticed a green glow in the distance that seemed to be flickering.
As he reached the edge of some trees, he peered between them and saw that the other side opened into a small clearing and in the center of the clearing was a fire floating above a magic circle that glowed a dark poisonous green.
Wooden stakes surrounded the magic circle, each holding up a dead animal and angled just enough so that when blood fell from the bodies it fell onto the edge of the magic circle.
John had no idea what the magic circle was for, but it was red where the blood fell before slowly changing to the poisonous green in the middle where the fire was.
Barely visible because of the fire that was between them, John saw the outline of a humanoid, but he could not tell more because of the flames.
At this moment his quest notification went off.
[Quest Notification]
[Sickness in Yesta Forest. (Unique)]
[Quest has been updated]
[Sickness in Yesta Forest Part 2 (Unique)]
[You have discovered a diabolical magic circle in the Yesta Forest that uses the dead carcasses of animals and seems to be the cause of the sickness.]
[You have two options ahead of you.]
[Option 1: Return to the Mayor of Yesta Village and inform him of what you have found so he can send a force to deal with the individual behind this.]
[Option 1 Consequences: The evil will most likely be defeated by the combined forces of Yesta Village however it will cost the lives of villages and by the time they arrive the magic circle will have spread the sickness around much of the forest.]
[Option 2: Confront the mysterious individual controlling the magic circle and attempt to defeat them.]
[Option 2 Consequences: If you defeat the individual the sickness will be stopped and you will be rewarded for your valiant deed, however, should you fail to stop the individual, Yesta Village will not be informed in time to stop the magic circle and the Yesta Forest will die.]
[Please make your choice.]
John considered which choice he should make, logically he should retreat and warn the mayor even if it meant the cost was part of the forest.
On the other hand, if he could beat the individual he would save the whole forest, but the opposite was also true, if he failed the whole forest would die.
(Inspect) John thought.
[Name: Vulred (Corrupted) (Elite Boss)]
[Race: Elf]
[Class: ???]
[Level: ???]
[HP: ???]
[MP: ???]
[P ATP: ???]
[M ATP: ???]
[END: ???]
[*NOTICE* Corrupted targets have their HP and END halved while their MP, P ATP and M ATP doubled.]
(Well shit a boss) John thought when he could not see the stats.
That meant the enemy was ten or more levels higher.
Also, this corrupted thing, whatever that was, caused Vulred's defenses and health to halve while his attack power and mana doubled, he was basically a glass cannon now.
John was still deliberating on what was best to do when a voice called out to him.
"I know you're their young friend, don't you think it's rude to spy on people?"
(Did he detect my Inspect!)
[Quest Notification]
[Sickness in Yesta Forest Part 2 (Unique)]
[Quest has been updated]
[Sickness in Yesta Forest Part 3 (Unique)]
[Because you were discovered by the individual named Vulred you will now be forced to confront him, and you must defeat him in order to save Yesta Forest.]
[Quest Goals:]
[Defeat Vulread to stop the diabolical magic circle from activating]
"Damn there goes my choice." John mumbled before he stepped out from the trees and moved to the side so that he could see the individual.
"Welcome my young friend, though I must admit I was not expecting visitors."
The one who spoke was an elf, but he seemed sick.
He appeared to have the same sickness that was affecting the forest and as John looked closer, he recognized the elf.
It was the same elf he met on his very first day in Genesis that was sleeping in the forest clearing that told him how to find the village.
The once handsome elf's face had turned black down one side while his long hair that was green before was now all black.
John also noticed that the equipment the Elf was wearing seemed to be corroding away and had basically disintegrated offering little to no protection.
"Ah the human from the other day, so you decided to stay in Yesta Village? It's a shame the village won't exist for much longer even though I have tried to stop this."
"What do you mean? Why are you causing this sickness?"
"Me? I am not the cause of this, or at least I don't want to be" Vulred said but as he finished speaking his face twisted and he looked quite mad.
"That's right brat it was all me, it took me weeks to find a suitable host that could use magic." As he finished speaking his face returned to normal before the Vulred spoke again.
"Ahh shut up, I did nothing, it was all you damn monster."
"Monster? Hahahaha." The face said after twisting again.
"Maybe I am but now that I have control of your body our plan can begin."
"Our?" John asked.
"Hehehehe oh did I perchance say too much? Well, no matter what, you will be dead soon and your delicious human blood will be used to empower the spell."
"Your blood may not be as magical as the other races here, but it will definitely be delicious, and I might feast on some."
"Wait…" The crazy Vulred said before sniffing.
"Why do I sense such strong magical power from a human?"
"Are you really human or some bastard half elf?" The crazy Vulred asked.
John didn't respond but just stared at the crazy elf, though he noted this was the second time that someone had mentioned about sensing strong magical power from him.
"Well, no matter, I will just have a taste of your blood when I hang your body out to drain on a spike hehehe."
The elf's face returned to its normal shape though looking like it was in pain before saying.
"Human, you must kill me now so that we can stop this monster's magic before it activates."
"What is this magic circle for?" John asked.
"It's a long-range teleportation spell used by druids to reach our enclave that only we can use."
"It normally acts within a few seconds however because it has detected the foreign presence of this monster it won't activate hence; he is using the blood of the animals that some druids commune with to force it to activate."
"Then why does it need my blood? I'm not an animal or Druid?" John asked, confused.
Vulred's face turned crazy again before it laughed.
"Hehehehehe foolish human, do you think I don't know about the cunning ways of humans? I can feel the power of nature in your magical power and also this host can sense the presence of a beast of the wilds mark on you."
"A what?"
"Do not try to trick me human, now die."
John, who had been on alert the whole time, dodged to the side before pointing his hand at Vulred and saying.
"Moonfire."
[Damage Dealt: 18 to Vulred]
[MP: 190/190>>175/190]
"Shit, even with his defense halved I only do that little, this will take a while." John mumbled as Vulred suddenly turned, raising his hand and spoke.
"Lightning Bolt"
[Damage Taken: 103 by Vulred]
[HP: 460/460>>357/460]
"AH FUCK!" John yelled as the lightning bolt hit him from point blank range.
"HEHEEHEHE, how do you like that human brat."
"Now try this for size." Vulred said before he pointed his hands at John who noticed a black power gathering in them.
"Oh shit." John said recognizing a charged attack from when he fought the four bullies.
Since he was near the tree's he peered through earlier he made a mad run and dived behind a tree just as Vulred said.
"Darkness Blast"
[Player Dodged]
[Damage Taken: 0 by Vulred]
[Damage Dealt: Moonfire Tick 15 to Vulred]
BANG
The darkness spell hit the tree with a loud bang and made it shake as twigs fell from above.
"HEHEHEHE Are we playing hide and seek now?"
(I hate to say it, but this is going to take a while, guess my best bet is to keep evading him and let my Moonfire ticks hurt him.) John thought as he decided to drink a health potion.
[HP: 357/460>>457/460]
[Minor Healing Potion x 3>>2]
John peeked his head out around the tree to see Vulred waiting before.
"Lightning Bolt"
[Player Dodged]
[Damage Taken: 0 by Vulred]
Luckily, he only had his head out a fraction and there was some distance now, so he managed to pull his head back in time and dodge.
(I need a way to move around without being in the open too much.)