Volume 23 Chapter 8 - The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor

Volume 23 Chapter 8: Great Disaster Nature Sculpting

It required a lot of time for Undeads to walk to Natalia plain.

Skeletons were really good at marching as long as they had perfectly fine legs.

It was because they walked as they were ordered to, while dragging swords on the ground.

But with Zombies and Ghouls they staggered and they kept going in the wrong direction.

“Get back in the line!”

Necromancers were busy managing Undeads.

Over 110,000 Undeads!

Skeletons had high attack power so they were useful in battles.

They could be revived and if necessary, curse spells could be activate through the corpses so their departure was delayed as Necromancers tried to bring as many Undeads as they can.

“No matter how many monsters are in Natalia plain, we should be able to win easily.”

“With our forces, we can even kill any boss-material monsters.”

Necromancers were relieved looking at their Undeads force reassuringly, but Weed waited for battle anxiously.

‘I have to hunt more, I have to take more items. With this many Undeads there could be less monsters for me.’

A source of endless greed!

Any expectations of clearing the quest with impractical ease shattered right after they arrived at Natalia plain.

[El Vance Monastery]

It was a place of monastery established by the Imperial family of the Niflheim Empire.

This is a placed embedded with sacred power.

Weakens Undeads body and cleanses any curse spells.

Necromancer’s magic abilities decrease by -24%.

Destroyed Undeads cannot be revived.

Faint wisp of holiness was rising from rapidly from the ground. As holy power touched his body, warm feeling spread and strength fell from his sword bearing arm.

Strength decrease by -3.

Health decrease by -240.

With the effect of Balkan’s Death Aura, his health was supplemented again but on Natalia plain an enormous aura of divine energy was rising up.

In the dark night the streams of holy energies rising up looked very beautiful but to the Necromancers it was a serious horror.

“Ku… At this rate how are we supposed to attack with the Undeads?”

“Magic?”

“Curses or dark magic will get weak as it tries to penetrate the holy power and it won’t even be in range.”

“Let’s try it first.”

Jeanne and Otem combined their power and activated their dark magic, calling up a cloud of poison.

Monsters immediately went hiding inside the wall of El Vance monastery.

Even if it was a monastery its wall were really high and its structure wide, so it could be possible that tens of thousands monsters could have gathered there.

These monsters’ reproduction rates were beyond imagination.

“Go! Pour down vicious poison rain!”

The poisonous cloud headed toward the direction of monastery but the rode up the rising holy energy and disappeared.

“This is really headache inducing.”

Weed’s expression soured as he also looking at the monastery.

‘This is not just a quest given out in vain to meet Balkan.’

They had to penetrate through the most horrifying thing for Undeads, holy energy.

The holy power outside of Natalia plain wasn’t as strong but inside the monastery lights were shining bright.

Far away from the plain was scene of gloomily gathered Undeads, their expression souring at the light.

When they were human holy power felt slightly bright, now they stung the eye with its brightness.

‘Undeads seem to feel holy power more sensitively.’

Necromancers couldn’t come up with any definite solution and just stood behind where the holy power couldn’t reach them.

Weed considered time as money so he gave an order.

“Youngest skeleton.”

“Yes, lord”

“Run straight forward.”

The shortest skeleton from Weed’s unit run limpidly along his way to the monastery.

Even though they were Undeads, they still had their instinct about death so they feared the holy power.

But the great, peerless Weed perfectly controlled the skeleton with his charisma and leadership.

Tadadadada, tuktuk, boom!

The Skeleton ran forward hard while getting hit by the holy power here and there.

About halfway to the wall of the monastery, it looked like he was burning from the holy power.

With reduced health, it collapsed while walking down without even swinging its sword once.

Before long it purified the Skeleton with even leaving a corpse, leaving the Necromancers with their tongues hanging out.

This time, Weed lifted his finger and pointed at a Skeleton warrior.

“Advance.”

“Yes, lord”

The Skeleton warrior was able to withstand a few more steps but he still couldn’t make it to the wall.

“Skeletons can’t seem to go.”

Necromancers were disappointed bitterly by the fact that the majority of their Undead armies were completely useless as it was composed of Skeletons.

Only thinking vaguely about the fear of holy power, they now could feel keenly after seeing the sight of melting Skeletons.

“Dullahan, go forth as well.”

“Yes, I will follow your order.”

Dullahans were very fierce warriors.

With their standards they were able to make great achievements in battles but Weed carried out his experiment freely.

The Dullahan reached the wall that looked like it was about to collapse, but died under monster attack as it was about to go over it.

Looking at Weed Death knights were pierced with horror.

As next time, it was their turn.

Undeads were shivering in great fear as underlings of Weed as he was a remorseless liege.

‘Hmm.”

But Weed didn’t deploy any more Undeads after sending out the Dullahan.

‘If about a Dullahan, then Death Knights should be able to fight, at least for a short amount of time…’

Even if he gather every Death Knights from other players, it would be hard to gather over 2,000.

If they send that much to fight the monsters, they will be able to achieve something but they would melt completely like ice creams in hot summer.

‘Quest will fail after that.’

A quest with four day limitation!

They spent seven hours trying to get here because Undeads weren’t nimble.

If all their Undeads got eliminated, they wouldn’t have enough time to gather the current quality and number of Undeads.

‘There is only one chance.’

Weed was locked into a deep thought as he looked behind the enemy lines.

They needed varieties of meticulous strategies.

“Don’t you think this quest difficult is way too high?”

“Did the quest really say to destroy them? This is completely impossible.”

“There are no solutions with the Undeads. Maybe it’s a quest that can only be succeed at high level? To be stopped like this here…”

“Maybe we should have hunted monsters in advance so they wouldn’t gather here. Even in the canyon I let some monsters run away, they must have all ended up here eventually.”

The Necromancers could not get the point right now.

It was when Necromancers were in panic.

Harien came to where Weed and Marie were.

Last time she heard a great method from Weed so she came here for advice.

Weed was murmuring intently on his own.

“Japtem… Leathers not so good… If there are treasures left in the monastery…”

He look like he was struggling hard, locked in deep agony!

“Perhaps are you thinking about solution to clear this quest?”

“Guessing monsters tendencies… the possibilities of gold, silver and treasure… but definitely the treasures…”

Jeanne and Otem came along while Harien was waiting for her reply.

While observing Weed, they did considered Weed as a great player as well.

It was hard not to acknowledge his abilities, with him coming all the way here not with a magic class that could summon Undead but a combat class.

It’s hard not to acknowledge him.

As a single power Weed’s Undead was quite strong.

About ten minutes elapsed, Weed was writing words and numbers on a ground with his finger.

~Leather, very rough and defective so 1,750.

~Japtem, variety of items. Less relevant to the quest, dispose as lump-sum to Mapan-nim.

~Monastery, information about Niflheim empire history’s past holy weapons, not enough.

-Decision postponed.

It was difficult for Jeanne, Otem and Marie to understand how the cipher like phrase related to the monsters at all.

Harien waited, waited and finally asked.

“Is there really no way to clear this quest?”

Weed while looking at the phrases piercingly, lifted his chin.

“Yes?”

“Weren’t you trying to come up with solutions for this quest?”

“No I was calculating something else.”

“Ah….”

Realizing that she was waiting and expecting for something great out of Weed’s irrelevant actions, she backtracked quickly.

Harien was dispirited to think that she was expecting something from Weed’s weird behavior.

“Huu, some hope he would rekindle… I shouldn’t have waste my time.”

Jeanne and Otem were about go back to other Necromancers.

Even if they go to them it was a hard problem they were trying to solve but if they agonize it together they might find a slightly better method.

They were in a position where they needed to find a solution fast.

But Weed talked as if there wasn’t any problem.

“We just have to beat the monsters in the monastery.”

“Yes but how?”

“There are many ways.”

Weed had no need to waste any effort in thinking about monsters.

He made decisions immediately and was now estimating for after the hunt.

He took number of monsters inside and their approximate levels, item drops and rough schematics on the monastery and even the whereabouts of potentially hidden treasures into consideration!

‘Since it’s filled with holy power there must be something there. The probability of it being in the basement is high.’

As that treasure might high extremely high value he was in serious thought about it.

_______________________________________________________________

Necromancers pass over their authorities for their Undeads units to Weed.

“Please just go.”

“Just walk a little bit, hmm?”

It was because the Undeads wouldn’t listen to the Necromancers.

“Forward.”

“Yes, lord.”

“Death Knight shall follow the commander-nim’s orders.”

Undeads didn’t resist against Weed command.

Part of it was because he was a Death knight but his absurdly high leadership ability and items influenced a lot.

There were many occasions where he suffered many damages from large-scale battles but in the end, Weed achieved victories and obtained a title of glorious Undead Commander.

When he was a Lich he killed Kubicha in Jigolaths and obtained the title of Immortal Warrior.

Because of that Undeads believed and followed Weed even if it leads to their deaths.

They were Undeads maintained by Necromancers’ mana but they moved according to Weed’s order.

“Full attack, run forward!”

Weed shouted out in a loud voice.

Skeletons and Dullahans ran towards the monastery as one.

A major offensive of 11 thousand Undeads!

Once all these Undeads disappear, there will not be enough time to collect Undeads again.

“Kuaak!”

“Too hot, too hot!”

Through the holy power the Skeleton’s started caught fire and started burning, but even so the other skeletons continued running, stepping over their fallen allies.

In the middle of night the burning skeletons were running down the plain.

It was like the Undead were making a flaming path, even the Necromancers were awed at the sight.

“Let’s open paths for them, Bone Wall!”

“Dark Crow”

Necromancers supported the Undeads move forward by summoning walls of bones and growing plants that grew by feeding on darkness.

Skeletons and Dullahans were able to move forward a bit more by stepping on the bones and plants.

Of course it didn’t last long and burned because of the holy power rising from the ground but Undeads used it as stepping-stone.

Under unbelievable suffering, Undeads move steadfast while taking damage. Weed’s plan was to move in with every Undead and fight a final battle with monsters.

A position of Undead armies’ Chief Commander with heavy responsibilities.

Usually it was difficult task if it was shared, but there was no better method than this.

If the Undead closed the distances with the monsters, Necromancers can fight with Corpse Explosions and curses.

Streams of holy power rising randomly from the ground dealt a lot of damage to Undeads but mobilizing every Undead at the same time so they can step over each other was the plan.

“This is impossible.”

In a situation in when their joined strength was lacking, there were Necromancers complaining rather than casting supporting spells that could increase movement speed or defense of the Undead.

They disagreed with Weed’s plan in the first place but as Jeanne, Otem, Harien agreed, other Necromancers followed with them.

But now as the Undeads were crossing the plain and incurring massive casualties, these Necromancers started to protest.

“It’s still not too late. Let’s stop here and find another way.”

“I’ve been telling you it’s a reckless plan from the beginning. If it proceeds like this and even if they get to the monastery, they will all die before they can even fight. We know about monsters’ strength very well. We must cancel this idiotic plan now.”

Players who agreed with Weed’s plan started to doubt themselves.

It was understandable because all they could see were Undeads burning and getting purified by the holy power.

It’s true that their chance of success were looking smaller.

But if they stopped or retreat the Undead now, the quest would end in complete failure.

They should have spoken before Undeads moved out, right now it was seriously late.

They already invested over half Undeads!

After the Necromancers started protesting, the Undeads agreed as well.

“If we go forward we will be annihilated.”

“I don’t want burn to death like this!”

As bulk of the Undeads disappeared by holy power, a situation arose where the remaining Undead tried to disobey Weed’s order.

They had to keep pushing additional Undeads forward.

If the deployment of Undeads stop like this, the forces currently running forward in the plain will all burn or melt down.

Riding on his gargoyle Weed raised up his rusty legendary sword.

And then opened his jaw.

A smell… There is a smell

I am singing but I still there is a smell

Even if I stop, the smell won’t stop.

“…..?”

With no tune and no rhythm, definitely a song that was sung as the lyrics just popped up.

Sound of Death Knight with slightly hoarse voice spread widely across the whole plain.

Jeanne, who was using magic near the vicinity of Natalia plain, turned her head around.

“The person who sings this kind of song…”

Harien, Otem, Bohram, Gruzed, Varenna and other high-rank Necromancers also stopped what they were doing and shifted their gazes to where Weed was.

It was a song they never heard before.

There is no way a reckless song like this would ever be composed.

But they knew a person who would sing a song like this in a battle.

Today is a dark night, very dark night

I am a Death Knight

I am a Death Knight who doesn’t wash his face

I don’t have to wash my feet as well

“War God...”

“It’s Weed!”

They had some suspicions as he chose a combat related class and was far ahead than any other.

But that person, singing a senseless song that no one could absolutely mimic, singing a ridiculous song.

Even senior granny players in Versailles continent knew him, watching palpitating videos of him through the night.

It explained everything now.

“That Weed was with us…”

“Use magic. Invade the monastery and kill every monster!”

The loud mouth Necromancers sprouting it was impossible started to do their tasks.

Marie was just waiting for Weed to sing.

He took out a harp made by dwarves and matched Weed’s song, improvising a performance.

‘It’s harder than composing a new song.’

A best bard was matching Weed song.

Keuheu, keuheu

Price for melon rose

Strawberries are really expensive

Mandarins are too precious to eat

Don’t eat anything at night

Sleeping early is fine

Undeads gathered here, start singing

My dear Undeads who knows no hunger, or exhaustion.

You shall go forward

As soon as Weed finished his song, he took out a horn.

A horn announcing victory in Treserk.

A unique item that can bring out incredible abilities in soldiers.

It was a treasure that could make someone famous just by having in his possession.

Weed put the horn to his mouth and blew it with all might.

TOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!

Undeads’ morale is rising.

Undeads are craving for victory.

Temporarily boost physical potential by +120%.

Bad things will happen often to the enemies.

“Advance!” Weed suddenly gave Lion’s Roar.

Then the rebellious Undeads started rushing toward the monastery in unison.

Even the Undeads suffering under the holy power sped up and ran forward.

They were weakened by holy power but they were acting beyond their potential capabilities.

The loss of skeletons was at an unspeakable level but they got close to the monastery.

Fierce and strong skeletons stepped over their allies’ heads and shoulders to jump out to the front.

“Time to deploy the Death Knights.”

Weed flew high on his gargoyle.

The underling Death Knights also got on their gargoyles and flew up beside Weed.

“Phantom steed summon!”

Death Knights commanded by other Necromancers got on the phantom steeds summoned by their owners.

Holy power from Natalia plain to rose up till the sky but the Undeads were fully covering the ground.

The Undeads became shields.

Either piercing through the Undead, or avoiding the stream of holy power rising up, it was possible to approach from the sky while flying.

“Let’s go!”

Weed flew with his Death Knight units toward the monastery.

About that time Undeads arrived as well, taking down the walls in three different places and were fighting with defending monster.

As the Undead’s health was almost gone they collapsed to the counter attacks.

‘But they are very weak.’

As he expected, monsters weren’t normal as well.

It was not as much as the Undeads but the monsters were also overwhelmed by holy power.

Multiple of Undeads ran into monsters and about 3~4 Undeads clung to one monster.

“Let’s go down to the ground.”

Weed went inside the monastery riding on his gargoyle.

He was able to see bright lights gathered in a bunch on the ground.

The gathered light pierced the ground and a thick stem of holy power rose up threateningly.

Some Death Knights fell from their gargoyles but most of them avoided with sharp turns and landed safely inside the monastery.

You have arrived at El Vance Monastery.

Due to the abundant holy power physical abilities reduce by -45%.

Health decrease by -300 every second.

It’s difficult for Undeads to be active in a church or a shrine.

It was not a place that Death Knights could withstand for a long time.

Monsters came unceasingly toward Weed.

“It’s the Undeads. Kill and eliminate them.”

“It’s the Death Knights commanding the Undeads!”

Monsters had capacity for rational thought so they targeted Weed first.

If they took Weed down, he would not die alone but shake up every Undead underling for losing their commander.

Its influence would be lower for humans or elves but losing a commander was a hopeless situation for Undeads!

Of course for orcs it didn’t matter if their commander died or not.

Whoever held the glaive and shouted first become an orc captain.

“Heriam Fencing!”

Weed while performed attack skill, slashed monsters.

His level for Heriam Fencing went up, enabling him to strike 13 times consecutively.

And every time the strike succeed strength, agility and destructive power increased.

Because he wasn’t far from mastering the skill the swordsmanship skill proficiency rose steadily.

Weed’s Death Knight underlings fought together while guarding him.

________________________________________________________________

“Wow…. He really is amazing. Even if he’s Weed and trying to clear the quest, how could he just jump into a place swarming with monsters?”

“I doubted him until he got on his gargoyle but he really went in. Does he not find his life valuable?”

Necromancers were deeply impressed by Weed’s brave action.

A commander jumping into an enemy base full of dangers just to win!

‘Just like the rumor.’

‘There is chance of really victory in this battle.’

Weed rekindled hope and bravery to the Necromancers.

Necromancers recovered health to the Undeads that weren’t completely destroyed and strengthened them with supporting spells.

“This front is relatively safe now let’s advance as well.”

The land was polluted by the corpses of the collapsed Undead.

The holy power couldn’t rise up and just burned up the wreckages of the Undeads.

Necromancers got on the ghouls’ backs and headed toward the monastery, close enough to throw spells.

________________________________________________________________

“Attack!”

While Weed was provoking monster and putting more effort into hunting more, he glanced sideways.

He was attacking the inner area of the monastery with his fearless Death Knights, preventing any chance for the monsters to become more active.

Rather than being heroic by being in the forefront, he was making the Undeads fight and waiting behind for the perfect chance!

“I’m sure there are great treasures somewhere in the monastery.”

His craving for items led him to the inner side of monastery.

If he comes with other Necromancers after the battle ends, he would have to share the treasure.

But there was no need to share treasures he picked up secretly!

Now was the only chance to search the monastery.

Pushung!

In front of his eye the holy power gathered and erupted skywards, far away the ground was hit with magic casted by Necromancers and Skeleton mages.

After deploying the Undead and judging the place to be slightly, the Necromancers advanced toward Natalia plains.

‘There must be a treasure somewhere. I need to look for a collapsed structure or stairways to downstairs.’

Even for Weed it was difficult to find clues about the unknown treasure with the monsters and the wreckages.

Because monsters were heading to Weed he was also busy fighting with his Death Knights.

“Cut them all!”

He gave an order to raise the Death Knights’ morale.

“I follow commander’s order.”

“Kill the monsters!”

Weed’s class was a combat related Death Knight.

Even if he had underlings with same class, there was nothing like being outnumbered by monsters.

As Undead who found it hard to withstand the monastery, the Death Knights could not win over the holy power and began the collapse.

Weed’s health was decreasing scarily fast.

To others’ views, it was either fearless bravery or completely craziness.

‘There is no reason why this old and desolate monastery has so much holy power left.’

If Weed didn’t get the feeling that there was enormous treasures here, he wouldn’t have started such a reckless battle.

“I guess I have no choice.”

Weed took out a sculpture from his sides.

It was not a Fine, Masterpiece or Magnum Opus sculpture.

Made out of woods, it was a sculpture based on a storm he encountered coming back from Jigolaths on a ship.

Dark Clouds and Thunders

Sculpture made from dismantling woods from the mast and wine barrel on the ghost ship.

With the two wide wooden board representing earth and sky, in between lightning and whirlwind is blowing.

Due to the limitation of the material, it lacks many artistic expression. An inerasable scent of wine still permeates.

Artistic Value: 49.

It was worthless to sell it as a sculpture anywhere.

But Weed stored it preciously, waiting for someday to use this sculpture.

‘The day has is today.’

Weed decided to use a secrete Sculpture skill and acted immediately.

“Great Disaster Nature Sculpting!”

Great Disaster

Nature Sculpting

has been used.

Art stat decreased by -20 permanently.

20,000 health and mana has been consumed.

All stats reduce by -15% for four days.

Affinity to Nature dropped.

Great Disaster

Nature Sculpting

can only be used once per day.

When dangerous disasters are called upon, depending on the damage fame or notoriety can increase.

You can die in the middle of the disaster so be careful.

Even though there were many monsters left, Weed disarmed his sword and laid down on the ground.

“Death Knights get rid of your sword and lay down!”

Death knights couldn’t follow the sudden change of command while battling.

Weed ordered again.

“Throw away your swords and defend with wooden shields.”

Death knights threw away their rusty swords and raised their basic wooden shields.

It was broken and rotten so no one knew whether it could function as a shield but it was better than nothing.

Taking one-sided attacks from monsters for about ten seconds, Weed raised his head up slightly.

“Did the skill fail?”

Great Disaster Nature Sculpting differs in its strength based on Affinity to Nature but didn’t have to raise it separately through skill proficiency.

While Weed was all confused, the wooden sculpture that was used in the skill dismantled like soft sands and spread out everywhere.

“Kaoh! Kill the Death knights!”

Monsters were fighting Death Knights with axes.

CRAAAAAK!

Lightning struck monsters!

The aftermath was incredible, the 6 monsters in the vicinity was burned charcoal black.

A great disappointment descended on him as Weed was expecting something incredible force.

“So should I have used a Masterpiece or a Magnus Opus as the basis for this skill?”

Even though it was a secrete Sculpting skill, it was disaster that felt empty.

It was the same power as a simple lightning bolt used by magicians.

Even though it was not something that completely changed the battle situation, there was no need for Weed to suffer so much in learning this skill if it was at such standard.

Suddenly, although no one noticed it because it was early morning, stars in the sky gradually hid themselves.

Soon, dark clouds completely covered the sky and unusually loud sounds occurred.

ZZZZAAAAAAPPP

Instinctively it gave him the chill.

“It just comes late.”

Weed hurriedly hid his body in a pit.