Emopa had entered the cave, its damp, mossy walls leaving behind a rather peculiar smell.
Ugh... Smells a little odd in here.
Emopa continued to walk, his vision much better in the dark now due to his Lich nature. There was no need for a light source because of this.
As he walked, he felt something crunch beneath him. Lifting up his boot, he saw a small spider that got crushed. "Must be getting close."
The further he went in, the more spiderwebs seemed to cover the cave. He stopped for a second and put his hair in a bun to avoid most of the webs.
He eventually came to a cave opening that was lit up by the sunlight above.
There were various dugout caves with one massive one in the middle. "Why did I take this quest? I hate spiders..."
Suddenly, small dog-sized spiders began to crawl from the caves rapidly, Emopa readying his odachi in response to it. However, they all avoided him, which confused him a little, then it hit him.
"Ah shit."
Emopa saw eight red glowing eyes coming from the massive cave, watching as a massive spider crawled out.
Emopa's eyes narrowed as he summoned a bunch of fodder summons, wolves, beasts, and skeletons.
The spider looked at Emopa and began to move with a speed that betrayed its size, catching Emopa off guard. "What the hell?!"
Emopa dodged to the side, avoiding a stroke from one of its legs. The force of which it used to run left cracks in the ground.
Emopa swung at one of its legs, but once it connected, all he saw were sparks. "This thing is nearly forty feet, can move as fast as a normal spider, AND HAD REINFORCED EXOSKELETON?"
Emopa yelled as the spider roared, swinging one of its legs and knocking Emopa against the wall.
The summons all tried to do something but found they did absolutely nothing. The spider spit webs on them, pinning them in place and crushing them one by one.
A green light began to shine from the cave Emopa was in, a beam of light narrowly hitting the spider's leg before it swiftly moved out of the way.
"Come at me, you oversized arachnid." Emopa said, his eyes now having a serious tint to them as Skarlok was behind him, beginning to freeze the ground.
Emopa summoned Morgul as well, who had a large greatsword. Nothing special, just a normal one.
They both dashed forward as Skarlok sent a trail of ice they used to slide on.
Emopa jumped into the air as Morgul held out his hand. Emopa landed on his palm, and he was thrown into the air, a green light forming at Emopa's foot. It started slow but began to slowly spread around his boot, casting a green shine.
Morgul's muscles tensed up as he swung his sword, managing to cut off one of the spider's legs. It fell slightly, and Emopa kicked the air, sending a slash wave of green light at the spider, decapitating it.
"Okay... So it had a weakness to magic... Seeing as how it avoided my attack so easily, but then how strong is Morgul?" Emopa questioned.
As he landed, Morgul and Skarlok went to him. "Great job, you two. Now, let's see... He said to look for an egg, I believe." Emopa extended his hand, darkness and green mist beginning to surround the spider.
"Heed your master and rise up from the grave." He commanded as the darkness and mist began to shoot up in the air, as if its soul was resisting.
"What?!" Emopa began to output more mana, getting slightly pushed back.
"Emopa, it won't work as you are. You may be a Lich, but even creatures as stupid as this one can resist past death." The Father said.
"Unless you want to sacrifice one of your cores to do so?" The Father offered, a skeletal hand phasing into his neck and grabbing a hold of the core in his throat.
"I'll take it." Emopa said, the core inside being crushed, which caused him to spit blood.
The darkness calmed down and coalesced around the giant spider. It then condensed into a black and green orb and shoved itself into Emopa, the knowledge of the monster flooding his brain.
Emopa reeled from the sudden burst of knowledge. "A Tremor Spider? You're telling me the one I fought didn't reach full size? Lovely."
Now where's that egg?
Emopa looked around, seeing nothing but tiny spider eggs. "This dude didn't tell me what the egg looked like!"
Emopa's frustration was notable, but he pressed forward. He went through the cave the spider came out of, it getting much darker.
He summoned a small shining light that illuminated the whole cave and tossed it forward, sending it flying into the air.
It illuminated an opening, one that seemed to be a large chamber. As Emopa looked around, he saw a rather unique-looking egg with a reflective surface similar to metal.
"That has to be it." He said, walking forward.
"Wait." A voice called out, making Emopa turn around.
As he did, he smelled a terrible odor. "Eugh! Did something die?!"
"You are not to touch that egg." The voice slowly became more gurgled as a person standing at the same height as Emopa began to walk toward him, holding two longswords.
"I don't know who you are, dude, but finders keepers." Emopa said, the person immediately dashing forward and kicking him square in the gut, knocking the wind out of him.
Emopa crashed against the wall, leaving a cloud of smoke.
Emopa gasped for air. "What..." He immediately got up, lurching forward as he held his stomach. "Not cool, dude!"
He took a few steps forward, slowly returning to his normal posture. He readied his odachi and dashed forward, appearing right in front of the person.
However, he immediately jumped back, realizing this one wasn't normal. The stench emanated from them, and Emopa could see bits of rotting and decaying flesh.
In fact, whatever skin was left looked like it was molded in with the burnt parts of the armor.
"Name yourself." Emopa said, summoning Skarlok to grab the egg.
"Dema." It said, dashing for Skarlok, but had his attack blocked by Emopa.
The two clashed for a bit before Emopa swung with more force, leading to the entire cave getting sliced in half.
Dema had dodged the attack, landing on the ground as the cave began to collapse in on itself.
Skarlok cloaked himself along with the egg to hide.
The two dashed at each other and clashed blades again. Suddenly, the two were outside of the cave and in the air.
Emopa swung the odachi at Dema, the force of the swing sending an invisible arc of razor-thin air at it.
Dema parried it, however, and kicked Emopa to the ground, sending a large cloud of smoke into the air. The impact sent a small shockwave across the forest, causing birds to fly away.
Emopa immediately got back up, the pain being tangible, but it was either fight or death.
Dema landed in front of him, and his blades lit up in azure flames. He swung the left one upward, creating a small, flaming tornado that Emopa avoided.
Emopa's odachi gets coated in a green light. He dashed forward, swinging his blade and sending both arcs of invisible wind and arcs of light.
"Morgul!" Emopa yelled, Morgul appearing behind Dema and raising his greatsword in the air.
Dema reacted immediately, spinning around behind Morgul and grabbing him, using him as a shield.
But Emopa thought ahead. He immediately recalled Morgul, the slashes hitting him head-on.
Emopa dashed forward, about to stab him in the chest, but Dema's arm snapped back; the sound of his shoulder being dislocated could be heard before he swung his arm forward, hitting Emopa's shoulder and slicing his entire arm clean off.
Emopa's eyes widened as he yelled in pain, kneeling to the ground as Dema stood before him. "Shit! My arm!" He held the bloodied wound.
"It's your loss, warrior. I must say, you did quite well." Dema said, reverse-gripping the blade on his right before raising it in the air, stabbing Emopa in the head.
Emopa went limp. "Now where's that egg?" Dema said, taking his blade out and beginning to walk away.
Suddenly, he felt a chill down his spine, causing him to turn around immediately.
Emopa wasn't there anymore, already behind Dema as his eyes glowed a deep crimson. A grin on his face, and the bloodlust being thick in the air.
"True Sword Style: Fall of Kings." Emopa said, bringing down the odachi and slashing Dema in two.
Morgul appeared in front, slashing Dema's midsection, cutting him into fours.
Morgul was immediately recalled as the force from Emopa's swing cleaved the ground in two for a mile. Spikes of light mingled with the slash as he fused it with the attack.
Emopa's red eyes began to fade to their usual purple, his arm having already reattached itself.
Emopa stared at the body, panting as he narrowed his eyes. The red hue began to return as the grin came back. "Did I say you could die? You serve under me now. I'll name you Rot."
Emopa said black and blue smoke began to form around the body, turning it into an orb of the same color, and slamming itself back into Emopa.
Emopa obtained the memories of the person, his eyes widening at the prospect, but the memories were fragmented.
"Alright... Let's get back to the guild hall." His eyes returned to normal, and the fatigue began to set in.
"Shit..." Emopa summoned a wolf, hopping on its back and laying down. "Go to the guildhall, boy. Skarlok, follow."
The wolf began to run to the guildhall as Emopa drifted into sleep.
After more than a few hours, Emopa woke up outside of the guildhall. Skarlok, Morgul, and Rot keeping guard, as well as the wolf.
Being a necromancer, people actively avoided him, but since he wasn't harming anyone, the guards couldn't do anything to detain him.
Emopa stood up, recalling all of them and grabbing the egg Skarlok left behind. He brought it inside the guild hall, his muscles aching, especially his arms.
"There. Got your stupid egg. Hope this is worth it." He said, dropping it in front of Termin, who had the same grin on his face.
"Looks like that spider gave you a hard time, eh?" He said, grabbing the egg and taking it to the back, signaling Emopa to follow him.
Emopa followed him to the back, Termin placing the egg on a wooden desk.
"Alright. What happened?" Termin asked.
"Spider was easy... There was another person guarding the egg... I had to fake dead." He sounded quite frustrated, his own 'weakness' being evident.
"Ah, okay. For your troubles, I guess I'll raise your guild to a AAA+ ranked guild. That sounds fair. Termin tilted his head.
"Yeah, sure, whatever..." Emopa said, turning around to leave.
"If you want more rewards other than a rank raise, I'm here." He said, the grin on his face never faltering.
"Who made you like that anyway? Play dead, I mean." He inquired.
"Some rotting knight named Dema." Emopa said, leaving the room.
Termin sat there in silence, looking at the egg. "Dema, huh..." He grinned even further.
The Seraphim's eyes were now officially AAA+ rank.
Emopa went into the inn, the group no longer there. He went to his room and plopped down on his bed, turning in for the day.
Meanwhile, in the dead realm, The Father sat on his chair of bones in an opulent palace. "Emopa just awakened partially without realizing it. This'll be interesting."