Chapter 81: A Tomb Awakens

As one might expect of a tomb, its underground corridors were dark and narrow, and only the light of their torches allowed them to make out the path ahead.

But aside from the features common to any tomb turned dungeon, there was something genuinely unusual about the place.

"No zombies, no ghouls, not even skeletons..." Yvene, the healer, remarked as she looked around. "We haven't encountered any undead at all so far."

"Not that that's a bad thing. Not at all," Bastor, the tank, added. "But..."

"I know what you mean." Edran, the party's leader and attacker, nodded as he led the way. "It's really strange. I have a bad feeling about this."

Ily, walking beside Nerez at the rear of the group, gave him a know-it-all smile. Nerez winked back.

What Edran just said was clearly a flag, though the truth is that it's perfectly normal that we haven't run into any monsters like that. I sent every soul bound to this tomb straight to the Underworld the moment we entered... But flags are powerful things. Now that he's said it, who knows what we'll end up running into?

It wasn't long before the group reached a fairly large chamber illuminated by a strange bluish light emanating from carvings in the walls.

!!

And sure enough, the moment Nerez and Ily, who were bringing up the rear, entered the chamber, the door closed behind them as the bluish light intensified.

Well... of course it couldn't have gone any other way...

"It's a trap!" Edran exclaimed, drawing his sword. "Everyone, take your positions!"

"Edran, look at the floor!" Yvene shouted, covering her mouth with one hand.

A little farther ahead, they saw that the chamber floor was covered in corpses. There were skeletons, decomposing bodies, and finally...

"They're those unpleasant fellows from yesterday..." Bastor said in a subdued voice.

Lying dead before them were the eight veteran adventurers they had crossed paths with at the inn not even a full day earlier.

To be honest, this was to be expected too. They had raised a pretty big flag themselves.

That was when the walls began to move. Or rather, a massive stone door sank into the floor, and through the opening came a creature that looked as though it had stepped out of a nightmare.

A gigantic quadruped now stood before them. Its body was the sickly color of rotting flesh and seemed to be made of exposed bone and muscle, while its head was a pointed, horned skull crisscrossed by bulging veins.

I see. Despite how it looks, this thing is alive, so the Soul Ledger didn't send it to the Underworld with the rest of the souls...

"A crypt aberrant!" Yvene exclaimed, feeling the strength drain from her legs.

"This looks bad," Bastor said, raising his shield and readying his mace.

"Novice adventurers have managed to escape from monsters like this before," Edran said as he slowly began circling the creature, trying to get into position for a flank attack. "Don't lose hope!"

At the back of the group, Nerez and Ily exchanged a glance.

"Shall I eliminate this beast, my lord?" Ily whispered into his ear.

"No, keeping a very low profile isn't that important, but if you kill it with a single arrow, it'll draw too much attention... In fact, seeing these bodies gave me an idea. This might be a good opportunity to try something."

"Try something?"

Nerez merely smiled and walked to the front.

"Edran, I have a skill that could serve as a distraction. But you're the party leader, so it's your call."

"That would be a huge help," the swordsman replied, already positioned at one of the monster's flanks. "For some reason, the crypt aberrant still hasn't attacked us. It seems preoccupied with something, but I don't think that will last much longer."

Nerez nodded and raised one hand.

I really don't like this skill. I find it rather disgusting. That's why it's the only one I still have at proficiency A... But I figured out the hidden condition for raising it to proficiency S a long time ago.

[Epitaph]

[What better way to remember the dead than to have them rise again?]

At proficiency E, the skill could only reanimate skeletons. At proficiency C, it could reanimate any kind of corpse, while proficiencies B and A granted additional attributes to whatever it reanimated. However, what proficiency S would grant remained a mystery.

What is clear is that to raise the skill to proficiency S, I need to reanimate all kinds of bodies at once. That's the hidden condition, and what better place to fulfill it than this?

A green light began to spill from Nerez's raised hand, growing brighter by the moment. Soon, it filled the entire chamber.

"The corpses!" Yvene exclaimed.

"Wait, all of them?!" Bastor blurted out as he looked around. "Is that normal for a necromancer?!"

"I don't know much about necromancers, but I'm sure not every necromancer can raise an army whenever they please," Edran said with a smile. "Just as I thought, Nerez's abilities are every bit as impressive as Ilyra's."

"That much is obvious," Ilyra replied with a smile, pretending she was about to draw her bow. "But you haven't seen anything yet."

"Anything?!" Yvene asked, dumbfounded. She was certain she could never destroy that many undead with her divine magic, even if they lined up neatly in front of her. And that was nothing yet?

That was when all the undead in the chamber rushed at the beast, including the reanimated party of veteran adventurers.

"How can they move that fast?!" Bastor exclaimed as he watched them hurl themselves at the crypt aberrant.

The beast let out a roar, but had they been able to understand it, they would have known it was the desperate roar of a creature that knew its time had come.

!!

The crypt aberrant lashed out with one skeletal paw, its sharp claws slashing through the air with tremendous force. But to everyone's surprise, a lone undead blocked the blow with its axe.

"How is this possible...?" Edran stammered, stunned.

The undead that had blocked the attack was none other than the scar-faced leader of the veteran adventurers.

But what made the sight even harder to believe was that half his torso was missing, yet he had still blocked those enormous claws with the axe held in his only remaining hand.

"If he was that powerful, how did he die in the first place?!" Bastor exclaimed, unable to believe his eyes.

"No... but this..." Yvene faltered. "Reanimated bodies are supposed to be much weaker than they were in life..."

Meanwhile, Nerez covered his face with both hands.

I'd forgotten just how weak mortals and monsters are! This was way too much!