Hours later, we finally arrived at our destination.
Near the ruins connected to the dungeon known as the Crude Catacombs.
“…It’s a bit different from what I heard,” Gerda muttered, slightly furrowing her brow.
“I heard the dungeon entrance was sealed…”
“Looks like they broke through,” Amy sighed lightly in response. It was clear that the paladins’ sealing of the entrance had undoubtedly failed.
“Grrrrrr… Dii Lokkar…”
“Unch…”
Even though we hadn’t even entered the ruins yet, as soon as we stepped into the forest, I was greeted by those familiar faces.
“Hi… Hiiik! Adventurer ladies! Do something!!” shouted the coachman, driving the cart, completely panicked at the sight of the horrific undead monster.
“Don’t worry. That’s nothing to be concerned about,” I said confidently, calming the coachman before drawing my sword and jumping under the cart.
“Gerda, stay with Amy in the cart and support us. And Friede? Let’s see what you can do. Take care of the one on the left.”
“Yes.”
“Got it.”
Gerda nodded and pulled out the bow she had slung over her back as Amy opened her spellbook, aiming her staff at the wight.
“L-Leave it to me!”
Finally, Friede grabbed the great sword she had leaned against the cart wall and leaped down just like I did.
“Kaaak! Diraan, keraak!”
That’s when the three wights, sensing our hostility, let out sharp shrieks and crawled towards us like hungry fetuses.
They were opponents that were hard to relax against the first time we met, but seeing them again, there wasn’t even a hint of tension.
Was it because of my experience fighting monsters like the Vengeful Spirit Spider?
“Attack!”
“Ignis Sagitta!”
As soon as my signal dropped, steel arrows and fire arrows shot through the air towards them.
“Haah!”
“Ha!”
Friede and I launched ourselves like arrows at the monsters.
◆◆
“Kaaaaa…”
The battle ended in an instant.
It was only natural. The wights were monsters I could handle even solo before acquiring my Special Skill.
And now, with Amy, Gerda, and Friede joining the fray, victory came surprisingly easily compared to before.
Especially, Friede’s skill was absolutely impressive.
She danced around, swinging her sword longer than her height in every direction, jumping and spinning like a whirlwind at astonishing speed.
The sight of her spinning and slamming into the wight’s side was like a human blender… no, a killer top blade, perhaps.
“…Impressive.”
Even Gerda was taken aback, making it clear that Friede’s abilities could easily surpass the average adventurer.
“Gaar… Liil, Lehu…”
In the end, within three minutes, the trio of wights collapsed in a state resembling discarded steak tartare, unable to withstand even a fraction of the fight.
It was merely a warm-up.
There wasn’t even a need to activate my Special Skill.
◆◆
After cleaning up the wights, we unloaded our gear from the cart and walked into the ruins.
Originally, we had planned to ride the cart right up to the ruins, but the coachman cried, saying he couldn’t go any further.
Even refunded part of the fare to do so.
What could we do?
I couldn’t force a regular citizen like the coachman to drive us into the heart of the woods where the undead were crawling out.
He had no choice but to send us back.
So, after occasionally converting the undead we encountered into dead bodies, we made our way deeper into the area until we eventually came across a hunting party dispatched by the church.
“Ah, are you the adventurers who accepted the request? Nice to meet you. May the goddess bless you.”
When I wondered if the hunting party had been completely obliterated due to the wights roaming the forest, it turned out everyone looked relatively unharmed.
It did seem like they had certainly been through a battle, as there were scratches here and there on their armor.
“Thank you. We are the fellow adventurers, Hilde, here in response to your request form.”
I grabbed an appropriate greeting as I lifted my adventurer badge to show the paladin.
“But… it seems that the situation is somewhat different from what was written in the request form? There were undead scattered all over the way here.”
I asked what was currently going on while looking around at the undead lying about in the forest and the temporary camp set up by the church’s hunting party a short distance from the ruins.
It didn’t look at all like they had successfully sealed the entrance.
“Well, that’s…,” the paladin sighed slightly as he explained the detailed circumstances.
He explained that the hunting party was currently divided into two.
One elite unit had ventured into the dungeon while the second unit was here at the camp, standing by.
Originally, they had planned to push through with the elite unit and then send in the backup to mop up the remaining enemies one by one, but it seems the plan had gone awry.
Undead that had been hiding in the walls and floors ambushed the front line, cutting off the communication with the backup unit, forcing them to retreat out of the dungeon.
The front-line unit was left isolated within the dungeon.
“Moreover, after we retreated back to the top of the dungeon, while we were reorganizing our forces to rescue the advance team…”
A horde of over a hundred undead crawled out of the forest, surrounding and attacking them.
Among them, there was even a figure suspected to be the Abyss Priest.
Although they managed to repel the assault after a fierce battle, they did not annihilate the enemies; they only pushed them back into the forest.
That’s why they were in a stalemate like this now.
“If we disregard the undead and charge into the dungeon… in the worst-case scenario, we could be surrounded and annihilated from both sides.”
They couldn’t recklessly enter the dungeon until all the undead lurking in the forest were eliminated.
“Fortunately, thanks to your active support, adventurers, we can now consider a counterattack.”
“Right. Then our task is…”
“You may join us for one of three objectives: attack, defend, or search.”
The paladin explained the modified request.
A team to enter the dungeon to rescue the advance party.
The defense team to hold the temporary camp.
And a search team to locate the Abyss Priest likely hiding somewhere nearby.
All they had to do was select one of the three and lend their strength.
◆◆
“You said your name was Hilde, correct? So, which team do you choose?”
“Hmm. Give me a moment; I think we need to discuss this first.”
I shook my head slightly, signaling to my party members and asked for their opinions.
“Well… the attack team seems a bit dangerous,” Gerda pointed out the risks of the attack mission.
“It’s rare to fall for the same tactic three times, but that means getting caught twice is quite common, you know? If the undead ambush us again in such a confined space like a dungeon… retreat won’t be easy,” she explained.
If undead swarm in from both ends of the corridor, there would be no place to escape and we’d be forced to fight.
“On the other hand, if we choose the defense or search teams, even if we’re surrounded, the density shouldn’t be too high, making it easier to secure an escape route. We might also be able to rely on the support from other parties or the paladins.”
That made sense.
Even if we found ourselves in trouble during defense or search missions, if we just fired off the signal flares provided by the paladins, all nearby forces would come running to support us.
“So, while the safest choice would be to join the defense team, it also means there wouldn’t be any opportunity for glory,” she continued. “If the undead don’t attack the camp, we might finish without even swinging our swords.”
Taking the safest route carries the risk of it being a wasted trip, so were they suggesting we choose the search team instead?
It sounded like a patrolman’s opinion. Patrols were often military so they usually took on search duties.
Unless they switched to becoming thieves instead, using their honed patrolling skills to rob passersby.
“Is that really okay…? I think search might be more dangerous. The undead are one thing, but what if we run into the Abyss Priest…”
Amy, on the other hand, thought the attack team was better, saying it might be safer than the search team.
“If we spot him, we have to fire off the signal flare immediately, but until the paladins arrive, we’d have to hold our ground with just our own strength,” she pointed out.
She had a point.
While we could likely handle ordinary undead without much issue, the Abyss Priest was a formidable enemy that couldn’t even compare to a bunch of wights.
Unlike mages, who face multiple restrictions in casting spells through their spellbooks, they could unleash their magic just by speaking.
It’s like how priests mumble their chants to manifest holy miracles. That’s why they’re called Abyss “Priests” and not Abyss “Mages.”
In fact, many of them employed strange and unknown magics that made it hard to counteract their spells.
They used necromancy or summoning techniques, and especially curses were among the most dangerous.
In general, most offensive spells could be dodged or blocked, but curses often activate immediately upon casting, making them harder to deal with.
Plus, high-level curses were universally horrific in effect. You’d rather take a hundred hits of fire than endure one of those.
For example, there’s a curse called petrification.
A terrifying high-level curse that turns the physical body of whoever makes eye contact into stone.
Favored by Abyss Priests possessing the walls and ceilings, excited by monsters and sculptures, and if someone falls victim to it, they’d be doomed to live forever as a stone statue.
For the lucky victims who might be discovered before completely petrified by adventurers, they wouldn’t find much comfort in that.
If they had intervened before full petrification occurred, it might not be a big deal, but for those fully turned to stone, breaking that curse isn’t an easy feat.
Their future likely leads them to being sold to nobles or wealthy merchants, decorating their mansions or gardens as mere statues.
Selling or displaying petrified victims is a clear illegal act, but what can you do if someone nonchalantly insists that it’s just an ordinary statue?
There’s no way to legally punish a person insisting this isn’t a cursed person but a mere decoration, as it is impossible to distinguish between a fully petrified human and a stone sculpture without completely smashing it to bits.
…That got a bit long-winded, but I hope that gives you an idea of how terrifying curses can be.
Well, it’s true that you won’t encounter someone casting deadly curses like petrification unless you venture deep into a high-level dungeon.
