Chapter 34: First Major Update
Next day.
After finishing the 4th period class, we gathered in the club room.
“Welcome~. The teacher has the computer turned on~”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you, teacher.”
Kim Sujin teacher had cleaned the club room during our class and turned on the computer so we could start the game immediately.
After thanking the teacher, we connected to the Hero game.
⊳ Everyone, let's go to the inn entrance.
⊳ Yeah!
At the inn entrance, a carriage was waiting, and the merchant was talking with the territory knight.
Stabilize Blood Castle
[There is no such law. We must depart today for the caravan.]
[No one can leave the city due to the lord's order.]
[That's...]
The merchant couldn't respond to the lord's order.
[What's going on?]
[Ah... Mercenary, our caravan must end here.]
[You're quitting the caravan?]
[It has come to this.]
[Quest completed]
Go to the mercenary guild to receive rewards.
Even though we hadn't reached our destination, Earth Castle, the quest was completed.
[You, are you a mercenary?]
The knight who was talking to the merchant approached.
[Yes.]
[Mercenary badge?]
Although the knight's casual speech displeased me, I obediently showed my mercenary badge.
[D-rank. Tch. Not very helpful, but come with me.]
[What do you mean...]
Just as I was about to protest, a notification popped up.
Stabilize Blood Castle
A forced quest.
It seemed there was no choice.
Moreover, it wasn't a situation we could escape from by force.
Up until now, we had hunted diligently in the beginner dungeon and leveled up quickly.
Even so.
A novice knight exceeds level 100.
An intermediate knight is level 150 or more.
[Family setting (4/4)]
You can set as family.
- Seolhwa (Lv. 76)
- Elena (Lv. 63)
- Fersin (Lv. 75)
- Sarah (Lv. 75)
I opened the family setting window and checked the party members' levels.
At our current level, even one knight in front would be tough to fight.
If he was intermediate knight or higher, even if all five of us rushed, we couldn't win.
We were forcibly taken to the territory soldier dormitory.
There were many others like us who had been brought there.
[Sit down, everyone who just came in.]
The knight who was speaking from the podium said looking at us.
[As explained so far, you all must assist in investigating the murder incident that occurred overnight. This is the lord's order.]
Murmur. Murmur.
It felt like something had gone wrong.
Our plan to go to Apse Mountain Range for hunting was disrupted.
The knights forcibly assigned zones to the mercenaries to guard overnight.
After the assignment, when we had a moment of free time, I asked the mercenary next to me what happened.
From what he heard, the situation was serious.
Seventy territory citizens died or went missing in one night.
[Tsk, you all be careful too. The culprit isn't just one or two. There have been deaths across Blood Castle.]
[I see. Thank you for the explanation.]
I guessed why the lord gathered mercenaries under the pretext of strengthening security.
He had gathered the mercenaries suspected of major crimes along with strengthening security.
[Cain, do we have to stay here?]
[No choice.]
We came to play the game, but we have to sit quietly in the territory soldier dormitory.
It was frustrating.
Even so.
We are weak.
We can't do anything here.
If we move wrongly, we might be suspected as criminals.
In the worst case, we might die at the knights' hands.
Then, character deletion.
Throughout the game, we followed the knights' instructions.
We patrolled the assigned zones in Blood Castle.
Together with other mercenaries, knights, and territory soldiers...
Due to the large-scale murder incident yesterday, the streets were deserted.
When searching the quiet streets, we discovered a blood-drawn line.
Stabilize Blood Castle
[Everyone, be quiet and follow me.]
The knight gave the signal to be quiet and followed the blood line.
The blood line led to a certain house, and inside it...
-[damage] HP
[Groan...]
An NPC corpse was pinned to the wall, and unknown magic circles were drawn around the corpse.
Murmur. Murmur.
[Effect description]
Duration: [Time remaining]
[Cain, what is that... It's scary.]
Elena grabbed my arm and said.
When I turned back, Seolhwa was holding Sarah.
Fersin was staring at the corpse without changing expression...
[Damn it! Who is doing such a thing!]
The knight kicked the tools inside the house with his foot and went outside.
We found more magic circles and corpses.
But we couldn't see the culprit's shadow.
They were moving secretly and targeting only ordinary territory citizens.
[Kyaaak!]
When there was no clue, we heard screams from afar.
-[damage] HP
[Everyone, follow me!]
The knight ran at the front.
Where we ran...
[Ghoul?]
[What? A ghoul in the middle of the castle!]
[Everyone, pull yourselves together! Kill the ghouls!]
When the mercenaries and territory soldiers were in panic, the knight ran out and shouted.
[Elena, Holy Weapon please.]
[Yes!]
Elena applied Holy Weapon to the party members.
The holy effect of Holy Weapon is effective not only on skeletons but also on ghouls.
[Seolhwa, Elena, and Sarah stay in the rear.]
[Yes!]
Together with Seolhwa and Fersin, we rushed at the ghouls.
Chop. Chop.
We dealt with the ghouls coming from the front.
There were quite a lot.
No matter how many we killed, it didn't end.
[Everyone, be careful with your feet!]
We heard an exclamation, and looked down.
Ghouls were coming up from the floor.
We cut off the head of the ghoul coming from right below and retreated.
[Seolhwa! Fersin! Join Elena!]
[Yes!]
As ghouls appeared from the ground, the situation became a melee.
Now, not only from the front, but from all sides, even from underground, ghouls appeared.
[Cain, be careful on the side.]
At Seolhwa's words, I turned my shield to the right.
-[damage] HP
Bang!
The situation was bad.
As the melee continued, our party took damage gradually.
And.
[Ghost!]
[Ghost!]
Ghost.
A monster in ghost form, immune to physical damage.
With the appearance of ghosts, the mercenaries who couldn't use aura died instantly.
Thanks to Holy Weapon, we could somehow fight them, but it wasn't easy.
Ghost hunting is appropriate level 100 or higher.
[Run!]
[Aaaah!!]
The mercenaries and territory soldiers started running together.
[Cain, should we run too?]
[No, let's go towards the knights.]
[Yeah...]
Monsters were already filling all sides.
Escaping here wouldn't improve the situation.
So, it was better to stick to the strong allies.
The allies were the knights using aura to kill ghosts over there.
[Specter!]
[Specter appeared!]
[Aaaah!]
Screams came from where the allies ran.
There, a specter wielding a huge scythe was slaughtering the soldiers.
[Damn... Follow me. Let's retreat to the lord's castle.]
The knight observed the surroundings and started clearing the path.
Seolhwa and I also did our best to help the knight.
If we couldn't escape here, it would be death.
[There is the lord's castle. Hold on a little longer.]
[Yes.]
We stuck behind the knight and could retreat to the lord's castle.
There were many knights in the lord's castle, and they blocked the invading monsters well.
[Sorry. Lord Commander.]
[It's fine. It's not your fault. Who are those?]
[Recruited mercenaries.]
[Rank?]
The knight commander asked, and the accompanying knight turned his head to me.
[We are D-rank mercenaries.]
[What a pity...]
The knight commander expressed regret at the D-rank.
[We have to receive their help too. Lord Commander.]
[I understand. Place them appropriately.]
[Yes!]
We helped defend the inner castle, precisely the lord's castle wall defense.
Standing on the wall, the situation looked even more serious.
Monsters filled every place within sight.
A large monster had breached the city gate, and zombies and ghouls were pouring through.
And.
On the inner castle wall we were blocking, ghosts and specters were flying in.
[Everyone, be careful.]
-[damage] HP
Kwaaang!
I blocked the specter's scythe with my shield.
But, due to the overwhelming level difference, I was afflicted with 'Stiffening' status.
[Cain!]
-[damage] HP
Puk! Puk!
Fersin attacked the specter with a sword blessed with Holy Weapon.
The specter ignored Fersin's attack and raised the huge scythe again.
Towards me.
[Cain!]
Chwaaaak.
Kiiiieeeeee.
Seolhwa approached and attacked the specter with the Ice Dragon's Sword.
The specter hurriedly lowered the scythe he raised high and took a defensive stance.
[Fire Arrow!]
-[damage] HP
Pung!
Kiiie.
The specter screamed again from Sarah's magic attack.
Ghosts and specters are immune to physical damage but weak to magic or holy attacks.
While the specter was in pain, Seolhwa, Fersin, and I attacked again.
After a while, the specter disappeared into smoke.
[Cain, are you okay?]
[Healing!]
Seolhwa said worriedly, and Elena who approached used healing.
[Effect description]
Duration: [Time remaining]
[Everyone, be careful. You might die from one specter attack.]
[Yeah...]
The specter was stronger than the one in the last floor of the beginner dungeon.
Without the territory soldiers and knights fighting together around us, our party would have been wiped out in an instant.
The fierce battle continued even after sunset.
As night fell, ghosts and specters pressed harder on people.
Chwaaaak.
The five party members combined forces and barely killed one specter.
[Healing!]
[Cain... Look around.]
[Ah...]
No hope.
The enemies kept coming endlessly, and the number of allies was decreasing.
The Hero game valued realism.
It doesn't give easy quests just because levels are low.
It just progresses the events according to the game situation.
[Haa...]
A quest with ghosts and specters appearing when levels hadn't even reached 100.
-[damage] HP
Kung. Kung.
A large monster was knocking on the wall.
[Haha...]
It was absurd.
The large monster hitting the wall now was a level 200 monster.
[Cain...]
[Cain, no. We have to somehow survive. We can die, but... We must... at least Seolhwa and Fersin...]
Even in this situation, Seolhwa was worried about Sarah and Fersin.
[Sorry...]
No way.
This wasn't something I could do well.
Looking at the number of monsters including large monsters, even if the average level was 200 higher than now, it would be hard to survive.
[Sarah...]
[Unnie...]
Seolhwa hugged Sarah.
As if facing death...
[Cain, is there no way?]
[Sorry. Elena...]
When waiting only for death.
A huge light flashed from one side of Blood Castle.
[Quest title]
📍 Location: [Place]
🎁 Reward: [Reward]
[Eh? What is that?]
[What?]
This time, a huge light flashed from the other side.
The light flashes got closer to the lord's castle over time.
After a while, we could identify the light's identity.
[Holy Knights Order!]
[Holy Knights Order!]
[Waa!!! We survived!!!]
A mounted holy knight approached the inner castle holding a holy light-emitting sword.
Chwaaaaak!
Kiiiieeeeee
Kung!
The large monster fell to the ground from the holy knight's attack.
Several times, the holy knight's sword pierced the large monster,
and the struggling large monster died.
[Cain, did we make it?]
[Yeah... Seems so.]
After confirming the appearance of the holy knights, I took my hand off the mouse.
The sweat from my hand had made the mouse wet.
[Waaaaaaa!!!]
[Waaaaaaaaa!!!]
While the holy knights sorted the monsters in Blood Castle, Seolhwa and I just stood there blankly.
Physically and mentally too exhausted...
...
[Thank you to the mercenaries who helped. Rest today and come to the lord's castle tomorrow. The lord will personally commend you.]
The priests following the holy knights used Turn Undead in various places,
and could defeat all monsters in Blood Castle.
[Let's go to the inn.]
[Yeah...]
We moved the character to the inn and logged out.
"Seolhwa, now we have to go to the dorm."
"Yeah... I'll pull you right away."
On Eunhye's monitor, Seolhwa was stroking Sarah's head.
After telling Sarah to see her tomorrow, Seolhwa ended the game.
"Everyone, are you okay? You look tired."
"Teacher, today was too hard."
"We almost died. Teacher."
Eunhye and Naeun approached Kim Sujin teacher and told her what happened today.
"Hohohoho. You all worked hard. Let's go to the dorm."
"Yes, teacher."
"Yes."