Chapter 38
Squish—
“Hik!”
Dalnaerim Forest.
After leaving the clearing, Eric had been making his way for hours through thick vegetation toward a massive tree that stood tall among the foliage.
Lilian, startled by stepping on something squishy, froze in place. Eric tilted his head as he observed her.
“L-Lord! This….”
Lilian pointed nervously at the ground. Approaching her, Eric crouched to examine the object scattered on the forest floor.
“It’s a wolf corpse. Judging by its state, it’s been dead for quite some time. Seems like it perished early on during the incident.”
Unlike the other undead they had encountered, this Moon Wolf’s corpse appeared fairly decayed. Its half-closed eyelids bore dark spots around the pupils, suggesting it may have already been revived once.
Unlike ordinary corpses, whose eyelids droop as their strength fades, this was a phenomenon common to undead who keep their eyes wide open, causing the whites to dry quickly.
“Lord! There’s more over here!”
“Over here too, a corpse….”
Hearing the calls from all directions, Eric rose from examining the wolf corpse.
Beneath the thick underbrush, there were at least ten more bodies hidden from view. The knights of the Winterrose family, tense as they drew their swords just in case, looked around nervously. Eric calmly inspected the wounds on the wolves’ bodies.
All of them… slashed by blades. None of these are animal bites.
“Could it be that the wolves and those mercenaries… had an internal fight among the undead?”
“Well… even among the same species, they sometimes fight over territory. It’s not impossible, but considering the previous ambushes involving undead wolves and mercenaries together, I don’t think that’s it.”
Leona seemed to be contemplating the same thought. After a brief pause, Eric shook his head.
Internal conflicts among undead? He had never heard of such a thing. The dead only ever pursued the living.
—Rumble.
“It’s an attack!”
Perhaps a scout had been nearby. Eric glanced around curiously for a moment.
—Uoooar…
“Still more undead… C-Captain?”
A gaunt old knight emerged from the underbrush. He approached slowly, worms spilling from his open mouth. Eric recognized him immediately, narrowing his eyes as he watched the knight step back in shock.
“No way!”
“Aurus-sama….”
The reaction was completely different from when they had faced another undead before.
Ghoul (Human Knight)
Level: 30
Strength [40]
Agility [23]
Stamina [40]
Mana [10]
Traits: None
Examining the old knight, Eric noted the ghoul’s far superior stats compared to typical ghouls. He sighed quietly, understanding the situation.
—Groooar!
“Ah….”
Later, as the ghoul approached, the knights hesitated to swing their swords. Just as Eric was about to signal Leona with a glance,
Thud—
Berl, recovering his wits, stepped in front of the ghoul and shouted to the knights.
“Everyone, stay alert! We knew this could happen!”
His lips were pressed so tightly together that they were wounded, and even from a distance, the trembling of his sword-hand was evident.
“…Right.”
“At the very least, let’s not let anything happen to the Captain’s body!”
Seeing him, the frozen knights steeled themselves one by one and charged at the ghoul.
“…I apologize. I came to help, and yet I showed you such a sight.”
Afterward, having successfully dealt with the following undead alongside his fellow knights, Berl turned to Eric with a remorseful expression.
“Aurus-sama… the Captain was like a father to our order. Everyone here has been under his guidance since childhood.”
He had likely sent the soldiers back from the clearing to avoid them becoming undead themselves.
“Since they went missing while trying to retrieve the caravan with the Count, we anticipated this outcome… but seeing our past attachment nearly ruin the mission, we have no excuse.”
“I truly regret how things turned out.”
“…No. If anything, hesitating until this point would have been a shame before you, Lord… I mean, Hero.”
Berl and the knights lowered their heads, dejected. Eric quietly offered words of comfort, then summoned Malefica as they attended to the corpses of those the knights had carefully laid to rest.
Honestly, he wasn’t sure it mattered, but in this world, people believed that priests of the order could guide the deceased to a better place through prayer.
“This is… strange.”
“Strange? What do you mean?”
While bowing respectfully to the dead, Eric glanced at Malefica, who spoke quietly while keeping her eyes closed.
“That wolf… If someone killed the revived undead, it would have been the Count’s party, who were the last to be affected in this forest…”
She glanced at the knights and whispered so they wouldn’t hear.
“So, undead were roaming this forest even before the Count and his party arrived?”
Eric felt a chill run down his spine. Something was definitely wrong.
As Malefica said, the incidents in Dalnaerim Forest were caused by the Count’s heirloom, the Gem of Life, running amok. Yet undead appearing before the Count’s party arrived did not fit the timeline.
Except for one case.
…Someone is here.
Undead rising for reasons other than the Gem of Life’s frenzy. While spontaneous undead occurrences weren’t unheard of, it was highly unlikely in a forest so full of life.
This meant the wolves were resurrected artificially. Someone had been in the area before the Count, and they were skilled enough to command undead in a forest so vibrant.
Perhaps they used a separate necromancer despite planning to trigger the Gem’s frenzy, just to hide the connection between the Count’s heirloom and the undead.
Eric already knew from the game that the Gem of Life was a key ingredient for the Nightmare of the Dead, so he understood its power. Yet even Ophelia, the Count’s daughter, would have assumed it was just a treasure to fertilize the land. She had no idea it could summon undead.
Had she known the gem caused this incident, she could have sought the Church’s help without involving the Duke’s house. The severity differed greatly between a single necromancer’s influence and a gem that naturally resurrected the dead.
Eric considered that the perpetrator likely knew this and handled the situation carefully. If the Count himself had been taken by undead, people would not suspect the connection between the forest’s incident and his heirloom.
…But Eric wondered:
Did I ever say the Count’s heirloom caused the undead outbreak?
He paused, reflecting on the situation, then looked suspiciously at Malefica.
That tone just now… she sounded certain that the undead were connected to the Count.
Of course, when they first encountered undead in the forest and discussed the Count’s heirloom with Ophelia, she had been present. She could have inferred a connection, but that alone wasn’t enough to gain certainty. She must have heard something beforehand.
Could the Church also be hiding something…?
“Ah! Lord! I found it! Over there!”
Later, after finishing their respectful bows, Lilian spotted the massive tree first. Eric let go of his worries and looked ahead.
“This is…”
“Could it be a cave?”
A hole carved beneath the towering tree, so high that its top could not be seen. Standing at the darkened entrance, Eric cautiously stepped inside, scanning the shadows.
Thud—
“Hero-sama.”
“Just call me Lord. We’ve come this far.”
“…Lord. I think we should be careful.”
Taking a sturdy branch as a torch, they followed the knights deeper into the tree for about ten minutes. Eric felt Malefica tap his shoulder. He paused and listened.
“Why? Is there a necromancer nearby?”
“No.”
Eric raised his eyebrows, wondering who could have caused this if not the necromancer who had opposed the Count’s party.
“More than that…”
Kraaaaang—!
A deafening explosion rang out nearby. Eric pushed Malefica back and drew his sword.
Thud-thud—
Wood chips fell from walls and ceiling. Beyond the floating sawdust, a shadow gradually appeared.
Boom—
A massive figure stepped into the reddish light hitting the ground. Eric swallowed dryly at its grotesque form.
“What… what is that…?”
Long starved, its legs were emaciated. Its eyes were unfocused, and its face was completely drained of blood. Yet its upper right side bulged with unnaturally swollen flesh, as if ready to burst.
“Count…?”
—Uooaaargh!
<Revived Visus Winterrose>
Level: 35
Strength [125]
Agility [25]
Stamina [160]
Mana [50]
Traits: <Titan>, <Necromancy>
The former head of the Winterrose family: Count Visus.
“…I sensed a dangerous aura.”
The Count, who had suffered misfortune in Dalnaerim Forest, had now become a named entity, residing within the massive tree.
