He continued like this, following his intuition to find the enemy patrols and slowly clearing the quest requirement as he went.
After what felt like multiple hours, he looked up to the hill once more and realised he was approaching what would be the Southern Road according to his mental compass.
Moving with speed, he approached the corner of a building. ‘They all seem to be some kind of quarried stone on this side of town, these buildings look bigger and more opulent than those on the other side, maybe this district was for nobles or warriors of rank’
Verdant crouched low against the crumbling corner of a ruined stone building, his breath barely audible beneath the oppressive silence. The Southern Road stretched before him, its cobblestones cracked and choked with frost-tipped weeds. Pale shafts of soul-light from the maelstrom above filtered through the swirling mists that clung to the settlement, casting long, wavering shadows across the street.
He peered around the corner—and froze.
At the far end of the street, a contingent of undead soldiers marched in a tight, disciplined formation. Their skeletal frames were clad in corroded armour that clinked faintly with each synchronized step, their eyes glowing with a faint blue wyrd light that flickered in the gloom. Six melee fighters carried jagged swords and axes: their movements unnervingly fluid for bodies long dead. Behind them, four ranged attackers stood with decayed bows drawn, their arrowheads glinting like icy fangs.
But it was the figure at the center that stole Verdant’s breath.
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---{Rimulf [Ragehowl Berserker] Level 26 {Corrupted})---
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Once a J?tnar berserker for an Einherjar warband, Rimulf’s unyielding rage made him a terrifying force on the battlefield. Even in death, his massive skeletal form radiates feral power, his bloodcurdling howls driving him into a frenzy that few can withstand.
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Primary Abilities
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· Ragehowl: Amplifies Rimulf’s combat stats and makes him immune to pain, but he takes increased damage in this state.
· Whirling Cleave: A devastating spinning attack that creates shockwaves, damaging everything in a large radius.
· Bloodrage Resurgence: Rimulf becomes stronger as his health decreases, making him deadliest at low health.
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<td style="text-align: center" width="605">
His rage did little to save him from the curse.
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Rimulf towered above his subordinates, a skeletal colossus whose presence seemed to radiate malice and cold. His bones, blackened as though charred by some ancient fire, gleamed faintly under the spectral light. Strips of tattered leather armour hung from his massive frame, a mockery of his once-great stature. His ribcage expanded unnaturally, releasing a low, guttural growl that sent a ripple through the air. In his skeletal hands, he gripped an enormous steel axe, its edges etched with jagged runes that pulsed with faint fel-green light, as though feeding on the ambient wyrd.
The mist seemed to coil around Rimulf’s feet, drawn to him as if he were its master. His hollow sockets burned with pale wyrdfire, and his jaw opened slightly, releasing a faint, chilling exhalation akin to a death knell. He stood at the head of the contingent, radiating a palpable sense of rage and bloodlust.
The group advanced slowly down the road, their formation precise and unyielding. Verdant''s hands tightened on the edge of the wall, his heart pounding. This wasn’t an ordinary patrol—this was a kill squad, and Rimulf was the greatest threat among them.
Throwing Assess at the other soldiers, Verdant was horrified.
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Rattling Dead [Ash-Sworn Defender] Level 20 {Corrupted}
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<td style="text-align: center" width="605">
The true elites amongst the soldiers of the old Raeskir settlement – Ashwood. They have been killed and turned to a darker purpose by the corrupted enemy commander. Their eyes burn with wyrdfire, denoting their status and strength among the undead.
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<td style="text-align: center" width="605">
These are not the rank and file you have faced so far. Be wary.
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‘They might not be marked as [Elite] but I feel like these guys won’t be so slow or easy to take down. Why the hell haven’t I seen these guys before. Wait, if the glowing eyes denote status and strength, does that mean Aesgir was faking his shuffling gait? Fuck.’
Some thing was niggling at the back of his mind. He had missed something, and it was important.
His stomach dropped when he realised. ‘They’ve got classes.’
‘Fucking hell… I’ve been fighting classless enemies this whole time. It’s no wonder they’ve been so slow and without any real skills, they don’t have any classes. Is that part of the turning process?’
Verdant was horrified.
Then he was excited. ‘Except for that pansy keep-away archer I fought earlier I haven’t had a single challenging fight out here. I have a huge reserve of health and mana to use, if I take out the archers first, I might be able to cripple this elite force and run away before I get too embroiled in the conflict.’
He was sorely tempted. Growing like he had the past few days and feeling the explosive power in his body; he ached to fight and experience a true challenge. His ache for battle was so strong he could feel it burning in his chest.
‘Fuck it. I’m in. I can always run away from the big fella if things get hairy.’
He stepped back from the corner of the building, moving down to the opposite corner, so he could wait and observe the patrol as it passed by. Maybe he could get the drop on them and take out the archers before they became a threat.
As Verdant was standing by the corner, he noticed his warpick had started to make a noise, a whining hum like the live rail on a train track. It started to tingle and warm up in his hand. Looking at the weapon, he was alarmed to see electricity running back and forth across the weapon. Arcs of electricity passed between it and his side where it sat, it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling.
‘What is happening?’
When he focussed on it, Verdant could feel that energy from before running from his chest, down to his weapon and back again, in an unbroken circuit. ‘My wyrd.’
He closed his eyes and imagined his Wyrd Heart, in a moment he was there. He looked around noting that the pool of energy from before was still here, sitting in the basin of his new heart.
He lifted his head and saw a glowing blue rune, pulsing with electricity and he knew without thinking; This was Sowelo. A rune of the Elder Futhark he had intuitively engraved upon his wyrd heart. ‘If what Bolva said is correct, then this rune should be a representation of Lightning. It looks agitated.’
The rune glowed with a pulsing blue light, throwing sparks against his mental avatar and shooting arcs of electricity over the surrounding walls.
He sensed anticipation from the rune, an unwillingness to back off or stand down.
‘This is supposed to be part of me huh? Can’t say I’m mad about it.’
Leaving the mental space, Verdant found himself back in the alley behind the stone building; he glanced around the corner and saw the contingent of soldiers had passed his street and were moving on.
‘Well, as my old man used to say; I ain’t here to fuck spiders.’
He firmed his grip around his weapon and left the corner with a measured grace, his leather boots moved across the hard ground with the silence of death.
Approaching the back line of archers, Verdant brought forward his now radiant weapon, sparking with barely restrained electricity. He willed all the built-up energy out of his core and into his strike, activating Bloods Wrath at the peak of his swing, bringing the weapon down with magnified force.
In his periphery he watched as his mana bar dipped deep into the lower ranges, flashing dangerously red.
It exploded with all the fury of a summertime electrical storm; his first target was turned to dust immediately; before thick ropes of lightning shot out from the epicentre and jumped from one target to the next.
Verdant was in awe as the strike continued, scorching the bones of his enemies until they glowed white hot, conducting through the metal on their bodies before leaping to the next target, leaving a molten, glowing heap behind.
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Finally, the streams of lightning all hit Rimulf at once. He roared in agony, bellowing in rage as the electricity caused his charred bones to glow a white hot before he collapsed to the ground.
Verdant walked along the remains of enemies he wasn’t sure he could defeat only moments ago, before he had obliterated them in one massive strike. He was pleased to see that the disintegrated foe he had struck first had been automatically looted and began looting the remains of his once foes as he walked, pushing the prompts to the side.
He continued to walk, finally reaching the fallen form of Rimulf. Checking his quest progress, he was satisfied to see that with these kills he had reached just over ninety with the latest encounter.
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<td style="text-align: center" width="600">
Quest Updated!
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Home is where the monsters won’t hurt you (1/3) {Corrupted}
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<td style="text-align: center" width="600">
The second wave has arrived. Destroy the {Corrupted} with impunity. 93/150 0/3 (2/3 waves)
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<td style="text-align: center" width="600">
Pay attention and you might just learn something.
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Looking closer at the prompt, he realised that the number denoting elite enemies hadn’t changed.
‘Oh, so he’s still alive? Well, we can fix that right now.’ He lifted his weapon high over the head of his fallen foe and prepared to bring the strike down and finish him.
With a sudden clang his weapon was knocked off its arc, slamming into the ground next to Rimulf’s head.
An arrow had struck his weapon, knocking it off course at the last second. Before Verdant could react, another arrow slammed into his shoulder, his arm hanging limp. ‘Fuck. I have to get out of here.’
Running in a zig zag pattern, Verdant tried to escape his dogged pursuer as arrows flew past his weaving form.
Entering the streets on the far side of South Road Verdant dove into the first alley he could find and tried, once more, to lose his pursuer between the buildings.
He continued running between the walls around him, making snap changes in direction down one alley or another, swiftly ending any groups of enemies, he came across.
Eventually, he slowed and stopped. ‘It looks like I’m moving away from the wealthy area now, these buildings are going back to the same rough stone and wood.’
He took a moment to glance at his quest progress; pleased with the result.
‘Well, things aren’t all doom and gloom, I’ve been out her for about four hours now and I’m most of the way through the basic enemies.’ Verdant focussed on his instincts and where they were leading him, ‘Weird there are two clear pings in the south-east that it seems to be pushing me away from, could that be Aesgir and Rimulf?’
He continued to sense around himself, becoming agitated when he noticed that all of the signals around him were converging on a location, back towards the north. ‘Don’t tell me the other [Elite] is there.’
‘If they’re all moving to one point, I need to find somewhere safe to hole up and recover my mana, I can’t face the entire force like this.’
He moved west, away from the hall and towards the south-western side of the wall. ‘All of the training grounds were out near the wall when I came in, maybe I can find some old barracks or fortification to hole up in.’
Moving without delay, Verdant found a straight enough road and ran down it as fast as he could manage. ‘There wasn’t a timer indicated on the quest, but from what I’ve seen, the forces seem to be somewhat dynamic and move around. It feels weird, so far, it seems like I’ve only fought undead who used to be defenders of the settlement, where are the enemies?’
He dreaded to think what the answer to that question would be as he continued to move at a loping pace down the hard road.
All around him, the buildings glowed with the same sickly green light, like they were diseased and not fully corporeal. The sight set his nerves on edge, but it was nothing compared to the gargantuan, spinning death spiral overhead. It had only grown with his recent kills, and the howls of the damned souls had become unbearable, pounding in his ears.
He did his best to ignore the noise. If he let the sights and sounds get to him, he would break; he knew it.
Time passed quickly in this hellscape, and he soon reached the western training fields, without encountering a single undead soldier. ‘I don’t trust this; something is going on. I can feel it in my bones.’
Ghostly apparitions with weapons in their arms sparred in the fields, some macabre display serving an unknown purpose. ‘I don’t really see a defensible building… wait! When I entered from the breach in the wall I saw towers on the wall that looked to be in good shape, I bet one of those would be pretty defensible.’ He looked past the fields and along the wall to the north before spotting one of the towers he’d seen earlier, several hundred meters along from his position. ‘That’s it!’
Verdant ran past the remnant soldiers training in the fields, making it to the wall and running along it before reaching the tower he had spotted. He couldn’t help but notice the same green ethereal light glowing out from the wall next to him as he ran, and it looked to be in pristine condition, as though it had been maintained regularly. ‘Looks like whatever is happening to the other buildings in the settlement has happened here too, I need to get inside and consolidate my gains before making a plan. I don’t know how much time I have but I can’t afford to waste it.’
He reached the tower and opened the door at the base. He jumped back in a start when a rusted blade split the air in front of him as he dodged a cross swing targeting his midsection. The blade continued its wide arc and landed with a thunk in the ghostly wooden doorframe.
It was one of the superior undead he had killed earlier, level twenty with a warrior class. He lunged forward bringing his warpick down over its head before it could recover its weapon, a notification chimed, bringing his basic kills to ninety-four. ‘The bastard almost got me, I was careless. What’s the point in having this skill if I don’t use it when it matters?’
Before entering the doorway, he stepped to one side, kneeling to loot the skeleton and pushing the notification away before falling back against the outside wall and feeling with his internal sense. ‘I can’t feel anything else inside, I wonder what it was doing here. There aren’t any other soldiers anywhere in range… wait… please don’t tell me there’s going to be one of these in every single tower… surely not.’
He thought about it for a moment, before deciding. ‘No, that’s not possible, there can’t be that many or I’d go well over my one hundred and fifty basic enemy target. It’s got to be a fluke.’
He entered the room carefully, treading lightly, just in case his skill wasn’t as reliable as it wanted him to believe. ‘Trust but verify Verdant. Trust but verify.’
Verdant moved around the room, clearing it of targets to confirm there was really only what he could see within. Two glowing beds and a table and two chairs with that same glow against the far wall as well as clear handholds carved into the wall, leading higher into the tower, it looked to be close to ten meters from the bottom up to a trap door barring his entry to the next floor.
Climbing the stone ladder, Verdant reached out, touching the glowing wood above his head he pushed with his not inconsiderable might and heard a loud bang as the trapdoor slammed back against the floor behind him. Climbing a couple more rungs, he stuck his head up and pleased to note that his sense hadn’t steered him wrong and there were not, in fact, any enemies on this floor.
He climbed out of the hole and closed the trap door once more, before moving a large water barrel, filled with ghostly water, from across the room, on top of it.
Now that he had barred his entry point, he observed the room in greater detail. It was spartan and without much in the way of decoration. Truthfully, it wasn’t too different to what he had expected from a guards’ room.
The whole room glowed with the same ethereal light of the buildings outside, the walls look strong and well maintained with no signs of the damage he had seen when he’d first entered the settlement. ‘There has to be more to this, the buildings and apparitions look like what I’d expect a typical ghost to look like, but the buildings are solid while the villagers are not. I need to figure this out, so far it appears that I’ve only fought undead that used to be defenders, but why?’
He walked to the only door in the room and opened it, outside he saw a wraparound balcony where defenders could take positions, or a lookout could report incoming forces. ‘I couldn’t see a way up from the outside, I’ll take a look and make sure first.’
Verdant stepped out and broke his pace immediately. It had only been, glancing at his timer, five-ish hours, but the settlement had changed significantly. Fel green lights flared high beyond the northern wall; a blue barrier blocked them from entering the city.
He broke his eyes away from the sight and did a quick lap of the walkway to confirm there was no point of entry outside, before returning inside. Closing the door behind him, he sat down with his back against it, blocking it from being opened before, finally, willing a summary for the last several hours of combat.
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<td style="text-align: center" width="600">
Summary of Notifications
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<td style="text-align: center" width="600">
Combat Summary
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83 x Rattling Dead [Raeskir] Level 18{Corrupted} Slain 17,928
2 x Rattling Dead [Ash-Sworn Defender] level 20{Corrupted} Slain 480
5 x Rattling Dead [Horned Assaulter] level 20{Corrupted} Slain 1200
4 x Rattling Dead [Ashen Marksman] level 20{Corrupted} Slain 960
20,568XPS +20% Hubris’ Folly bonus.
Total XPs = 24,681XPS
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Loot Summary
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<td style="text-align: center" width="600">
83 x Tiny Aether Crystal {Corrupted}(Common)
11 x Small Aether Crystal {Corrupted}(Common)
94 x Raeskir Soul Fragment {Corrupted}(Uncommon)
As this is an active quest scenario, currency rewards will be assigned upon its successful completion.
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<td style="text-align: center" width="600">
Skill Summary
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<td style="text-align: center" width="600">
Assess(C) 5 > 6
Target Weakness(R) 6 > 7
Bloods Wrath(B-U) 5 > 6
Pathfinding(C) 6 > 8
Combat Tactics(UC) 4 > 6
Acrobatics(UC) 4 > 5
Weapon Mastery: Warpick (UC) 6 > 9
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<td style="text-align: center" width="600">
Summary Complete
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<td style="text-align: center" width="600">
Access System log at any time to view old notifications at your leisure.
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</table>
‘I wonder what happens when a skill reaches level ten. It’s got to be significant, right? Some of kind of qualitative change maybe…’ Verdant closes out of his system screen after admiring his hard-earned gains. ‘What now? Just based on the quest updates, there’s got to be another fifty-seven basic enemies and the two elites I saw earlier, as well as one other elite I haven’t seen any sign of. Even if I’m really tanky with lots of life, I can still get overwhelmed by sheer numbers AND I’m almost completely out of mana. It’ll take hours to get all of it back.’
He willed his resource stats into a full-sized screen in front of him. As they popped up from his periphery, he was shocked by what he saw.
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Stats
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Health - 422/678 (25/hr)
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Mana - 46/319 (17.1/hr)
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‘I know I’ve taken some scrapes from enemies over the last few hours and that archer elite got some damage on me, but I didn’t realise my health had fallen that far. I even have the bars up there. Maybe I should make it flash yellow when it reaches a certain amount, I’m almost down to half and I didn’t have a clue.’ His skin paled a ghastly white when he noticed how close he’d come to emptying his mana pool. ‘It’s been almost two hours since I encountered the berserker and used up most of my mana, just how close was I to empty if I’ve only got this much after a couple of hours. I could have passed out and been completely vulnerable to enemies, I’d have been done for.’
‘I need to be more careful, especially when I’m playing with shit I barely understand. I have to fill my resources and get over to whatever is happening where the troops are gathering.’ Willing fruit from his inventory to his hand, he ate two before feeling a familiar satisfied feeling.