313 The Source
The conditions were easy enough to understand, so I wasn’t really bound to encounter much trouble.
That said, I hated being slowed down. It was due to this flaw in my personality that I often faced many dangers that nearly cost my life.
‘My (G) Factor is still 90, though… I haven’t been careless since that time.’
Our group’s advance was slow, thanks to the Undead swarming us. I could blow them away, but that would only cause them to get damaged. Using [Subspace] to collect all their annoying bodies would be effective, but…
‘What if the Tower tries to kick me out because of that?’
Ultimately, I decided to try something else—my Undead army.
By summoning some mobs, I was able to spawn soldiers around us.
These soldiers were Undead, so the enemies didn’t seem to pay much attention to them—Undead hated the living, after all. Unless my minions attacked first, they wouldn’t be addressed as threats.
Utilizing that to my advantage, I made a barricade, encircling myself and the other Gifteds around me with Undead. Once I achieved that, I instructed my soldiers to spread out, creating more room for us at the center.
Before long, they had gotten rid of the clawing Undead that tried to bare their fangs at us.
“Bahumath.”
The Undead member of my elite force came out. I left him in charge of the army. Since he was a Grade Demon—as well as an Upper-Tier Undead—and there existed a clear hierarchy among Demons, he would be able to keep them at bay.
Once I got rid of the surrounding Undead, I progressed with my Party and made it to the largest building at the center of the village. Common sense would tell anyone that this was the cause of the disaster… and they would be partly right.
The building had a strong concentration of Miasma, so much so that I had to intensify the purifying effect of my Skill, lest my comrades were affected.
Huge waves of negative energy stretched into the sky, like smoke coming from manufacturing plants.
‘That must be what is polluting the area…’ I thought, noticing how the energy merged with the thick clouds.
The clouds darkened even more.
“So, we’re supposed to take down this building? Is it as simple as that?” The one called Darwin spoke.
I almost shot him a stare that said “We?”
Even forgiving his conceited statement, the man was still wrong. Yes, the upper part of the building seemed to be releasing the most energy, pouting into the sky, but that didn’t mean the source was at the top.
Most people, using the Tower as a reference, would rather climb a building to face the big bad. However, that wasn’t always the case.
Sometimes, a Boss stayed at the topmost part of a structure. However, in some cases… like this one… they would be better found underneath.
‘Undead are undead, after all… what better place to find where they lurk than beneath?’
With a smile on my face, I entered the building and the rest followed.
The internal structure was eerie, ringing with fear and smelling like death. The atmosphere was tense, and darkness surrounded us. Other than the pink glow around, nothing could be seen.
Of course, I provided illumination and easily brightened the area. Using a luminous stone that I created by merging several objects, I brought visibility to the area around me—not that I needed it.
The walls were grimy, black like tar.
For a place that was meant to be the enemy stronghold, it had an awfully quiet ambiance. Shouldn’t enemies come after us now that we had invaded the premises? Many would think that they would encounter enemies climbing upstairs, or would even relish the fact that they didn’t need to fight monsters… but not me.
“Beneath us, eh?” I murmured, using my heightened senses to confirm that there truly existed some form of space underground.
Many would have missed this if they were too focused on what awaited them above.
“Let’s do this.” I raised my right foot, preparing it for action.
“Brace yourselves!”
My leg descended in a straight stomp, smashing apart the building’s floor.
>BOOOOMMMM!!!<
Instantly, the false platform shattered and I found myself falling to another surface beneath. The others with me were screeching and yelping in surprise, so I created a board to serve as a platform for everyone—then descended it slowly.
Within a short while, we reached the ground, and my floating orb of illumination brought light to our surroundings.
“GRRRRRRRRRR”
Sure enough, we were surrounded.
“Eeeek!” I heard a squeak from someone beside me, causing me great irritation.
I nearly shot him a glare but decided to keep up my Masked Hero act.
Monsters that looked like dogs, but with much larger builds, appeared. They were grimy black, having some portion of their bones showing from their rotting flesh.
They snarled, releasing venomous drool, and glared hatefully at our group. I stared at the monsters’ red eyes and decided to stop holding back.
“Shut it!” My voice rang in the vast underground room.
The snarling dogs instantly ceased their annoying display. They made no sound at all. My Skill—previously Rule, then Command—was called <Authority>. Basically, it was an advanced version that prevented weaklings from defying me.
I could have used this on the mob from earlier, but I didn’t know if that would trigger the System’s condition on not harming the Undead. A downside to this Skill was that it was a forceful, complete hijacking of the Undead will—if they had any.
Mind attacks could be considered ‘harmful’, and this was something similar to that. I just couldn’t risk it.
But, now, I didn’t need to hold back.
Why?
Because these guys were the enemy. Unlike the ‘innocent’ Undead that filled the town, these guys were exuding extreme hatred and bloodlust. Plus, since this was an enemy base, we were allowed to kill any opponent found here.
It was a relief, really.
“Kill yourselves,” I told the subservient dogs.
They instantly obeyed and started assaulting one another. I saw flesh being torn apart and bones breaking apart. It wasn’t really a fun scenario, since it was basically dogs killing fellow dogs.
There were like a hundred of those things, so I couldn’t wait until they were done. Instead, I simply walked away with the surprised Gifteds with me.
‘I guess we’re on the right track…’