MMORPG: The Elementalist

At the entrance of Aricus Underground Ruins—deep in Kane Jungle, several Tier 4 players, clad in Gold equipment were quietly lurking behind the bushes. They peeked through the bushes checking out an open space in the woods. There were a group of Hellhounds and a Spectral Shaman…

Yes, the Undead.

More and more Undead creatures were flocking to various places in the Mythical Continent from the warp portals. They emerged from the highlands, underground caves, plains… and even forests and jungles like Kane Jungle. They were everywhere!

And the ones in front of the players were… a dozen of Hellhounds, several dozen Skeleton Warriors, Arcane Zombies, and a Tier 5 Miniboss. An Undead mini-militia like this was rare in these parts of the world.

The Tier 4 players behind bushes consisted of a Priest, two Swordmasters, a Berserker, and two Elementalists. They were excited and anxious after seeing the group of Undead appearing in Kane Jungle…

They quietly called for a small meeting, “Hey, so how about it? This is a good opportunity… a rare encounter…”

“Yeah, let’s do it…”

The two Swordmasters were trying to convince the other four members to take on the Undead group.

The Spectral Shaman was, after all, known to be the “easy” type to kill amongst the Tier 5 Minibosses. Its damage resistance was much weaker and had a much smaller hit area and range. Even though the Shaman did not tend to drop a lot of loot, it was still a Tier 5 Miniboss—meaning that it could also possibly drop Dark Gold grade equipment.

Of course, they could find Spectral Shamans in the Buried City. Yet, their numbers had been declining there too. And if they did ever spawn, it was usually accompanied by a huge swarm of Undead Horde. If they, the Tier 4 players ever tried their hand in there, they would be wiped out instantly.

This particular group that they encountered here, though, was all but a small crowd.

In addition to that, the temptation to own Dark Gold grade equipment was an immensely powerful one. This was why they were discussing if they should attack, as the Shaman hid right behind this small group of Undead.

“Look, there’s like a dozen Hellhounds, man. It’s too risky. Let’s get more men to join our party first.”

“Oh, come on! Stop being such a pussy! Back then, Qin Ruo was able to kill everything in sight in Kane Jungle when he was still Tier 3. Not even the Galewind Wolves could make him flinch.”

“Yeah duh… but he’s the Winter Demon.”

“If we want to make a name for ourselves, we’ll have to take the risk!”

“Make a name my arse…” The Radiant Priest in the party stared at the Undead while trying to argue his case with the swordmasters when he suddenly noticed something peculiar. “What’s that?”

The Priest saw a huge grey mist billowing out of the Spectral Shaman’s body. The mist was spreading fast, widely affecting the surrounding areas…

The Hellhounds, Skeleton Warriors and Arcane Zombies that were guarding the Shaman suddenly headed towards a direction, as though they had received an order.

“What the hell?”

They stared in awe, as the Spectral Shaman’s underlings gradually moved away. They had left the Spectral Shaman standing in the woods, all alone. Then, the Spectral Shaman too turned away and tailed its underlings from behind them.

“Are there other players coming too?”

“… maybe. Let’s have a look.”

Six of them then silently stood up from the bushes and followed the group of Undead.

A short while later, the woods were filled with noises of combat and also the roars of monsters. The noise, however, was not loud and intense, and only lasted for a short time. The woods got quiet again in just a few minutes…

“Aww… Those unlucky morons…”

As the others were feeling sympathetic for the “unlucky morons” having been locked on and wiped out by the Undead group, the Radiant Priest frowned and spoke to them, confused. “No. Listen. Is it just me or that’s the noise of a Shadow Scorpio-snake?”

“Oh, don’t be silly. That couldn’t have been a pet!”

As they bickered among each other, they then heard more noises of skirmishes coming from afar, and the fierce roar of monsters—including a mix of hissing noises.

By this time, they finally realized that things had probably turned out differently than they expected.

Two battles. And yet, they did not hear any noise or the voices of the players—hearing only noises from monsters. Usually, players who dared venture into Kane Jungle were very alert. Besides, the players were either teamed up, or were with powerful lone Bandits or even Warriors. They would not usually attack head-on or remain fighting the battle if they faced monsters that they could not handle.

Yet, from the noises from the two battles that they heard, there was a distinct wailing of monsters… the ones that would be emitted if the monsters were dying…

This was eerie and very weird!

After ensuring that there was no remaining danger, they walked over to the place where the Undead were fighting earlier.

The bushes and trees in the area were obviously singed, and there were burn marks on the ground from magic attacks and combat skills. Yet, no players’ corpses could be found anywhere. All that could be seen were the corpses of a Shadow Scorpio-snake and a Galewind Wolf. These players were familiar with Kane Jungle and knew every monster that lurked here. For if they had not, they would not have believed that these corpses were in fact the ones of Shadow Scorpio-snake and Galewind Wolf.

They stood there unable to move for over ten seconds. Then, they started to follow the tiny trails along the way to check on what had happened.

As they ventured deeper into the woods, they saw more and more monsters’ corpses. Every single one of them had their bodies cut open and all their bones were gone.

“I have a bad feeling about this…” said the Priest as he looked over the corpses on the ground while speaking to the others. “Obviously.” replied one of them. “It must have been real bad being surrounded by this many Undead.”

The Priest raised his head up in surprise after hearing this. Then, all of a sudden, even more noises were heard coming out of the woods. And then, that’s when he saw them—the Skeleton Warriors, Arcane Zombies, Hellhounds, a few weird skeleton-snakes, and wolves that were made of bones surrounded the six of them.

Level 42 Skeleton Scorpio-snakes!

Level 35 Skeleton Galewind Wolves!

These monsters that were purely made of bones… their numbers matched those of the monsters’ that they found earlier along the way.

Then, a system message that announced the official invasion of the Underworld Army rung in their ears…

They looked shocked as they synchronously prepared for combat.

“Mutated Lich? The hell is that?”

“Undead attacking monsters… and then turning them into Undead themselves. This is nuts!”

***

WIthin the insanity that echoed amongst Kane Jungle, was a nightmarish scenario that was going on a few hundred meters away. Every player in that area legitimately thought that the world was coming to an end!

Hundreds of Skeleton Dragons and vampires were flocking towards the vast plain.

The official name of the grasslands was “Asma Plain”. However, due to a huge population of Tier 4 Elemental Wolves residing in the area, players had coined the name “Elemental Wolf Plain”.

Usually, the plain was a place where players could visit for level-grinding.

And yet today… right after the system message echoed across the game, a huge horde of flying Undead soared over, much like a dark moody cloud. They were led by a Lich.

Although the numbers of the horde were not huge, there was still a Tier 6 Megaboss amongst them. These players were all merely Tier 3 and Tier 4. There was no way they could handle the invading Undead Horde, much less take on one that was so ferocious they even killed monsters on sight.

As more and more players fell in the hands of the Undead, the fleeing players noticed that it was not them that the Undead were after—rather, their targets were the monsters in the Mythical Continent… The Skeleton Dragons and Vampires dropped down from the sky as they fled… and then…

Dragon’s Breath!

Shadow type Magic Attack!

The Undead creatures rained down a flood of attacks at the Elemental Wolves under the command of the Lich… then, a huge white tide rose up from the grass…

The Undead advanced toward them, quickening their pace and in a widening formation. Then, in mere minutes, the entire Elemental Wolf Plain became the playground for the Undead—corpses of Elemental Wolves could be seen littered everywhere. Meanwhile, thousands of Skeleton Elemental Wolves started to attack the players!

“Sis Pretty!”

Xin Yu looked at Pretty Woman in panic while the latter frowned and replied with determination. “Xin Yu. Use the Return Scroll. Hurry!”

The Tier 4 Skeleton Elemental Wolves were not a threat to Pretty Woman. She was after another Tier 5 player. In fact, she was the only Tier 5 player in the plain at that time. However, she needed to take care of Xin Yu and her pet “Little Eye”. Besides, there was also a huge wave of airborne the Undead Horde in the air. She could not take on those alone, especially when there was a Lich among them.

“But what about you?”

“There’s a Lich here. I’ll hold the ground here while I wait for Slash’s arrival.”

“If you’re not leaving, then I won’t too.”

“Fine… you can stay. But we need to back away first. Don’t do anything rash until Slash comes…”

“Yay! Alright!”

The duo quickly took a foothold in an area where it was safe from the monsters and the Undead. It was then when Pretty Woman sent Slash a private message.

Watching the Elemental Wolf Plain slowly turning into a hellhole, Xin Yu sighed and said, “Sis Pretty, by the time our Clan Leader arrives, how many Skeleton Elemental Wolves do you think would there be?”

“Yeah…” Pretty Woman looked at the Skeleton Elemental Wolves’ increasing numbers and replied, “If they multiply this quickly… at this rate… it would be really scary.”

***

As he received the news from Pretty Woman, Slash also received hundreds of reports from other members in the Ascendant Saber Clan. Apart from the Buried City, there were also swarms of Undead creatures appearing in other places where the players would usually do their level-grinding. Some of the Undead Horde even had pairs of Liches appearing with them.

What they did not know yet, was that Slash and his teammates were facing a much more dire situation in the city…

Thousands of players were watching in horror as thousands upon thousands of Undead flocked outside of the city. The city was surrounded by a huge buffet of Undead—Skeleton type, flying type, zombies, and even Liches.

In the meantime, the city’s warp portal had also set a limitation—one that banned players from teleporting out of the city. At the very least, until the city was lifted from the siege, the players could only enter the city, but not leave.

Then, a system message could be heard, warning them.

“The city must not fall. And no Demigod NPC is allowed to help. If you fail, every player in the city would be punished by having their Honor Points wiped clean. This included the ones that were offline.”