Soaring above the Thornwood Forest, Victor’s robe billowed in the wind as he surveyed the sprawling canopy below. The sun had gone down, replaced by a crescent moon in the sky that cast a faint, silvery glow across the treetops, where dark clusters of foliage swayed gently. From this vantage point, the vast forest seemed peaceful — serene, even — so much so that it gave Victor goosebumps, considering this was supposed to be a dark forest filled with creatures.

  He had cast {Demonic Eye}, summoning spectral eyes to sweep through the forest for traces of the rumored abomination. Faint wisps of residual corrupted elemental particles glimmered faintly in certain areas and strange carcasses lay scattered throughout the forest. Yet, nothing substantial stood out. Above all, the supernatural phenomena that were supposed to haunt the forest seemed to have vanished, as if deliberately avoiding this region. Strange.

  After circling the area for some time, Victor descended gracefully, landing in the middle of a clearing. His boots touched the soft earth with barely a sound. The atmosphere felt wrong… eerily devoid of the sounds that should have been there. It was too quiet. Far too quiet.

  A sense of discomfort crept under Victor’s skin. A feeling of being watched by some unseen entity gripped his heart. How can I feel scared, even as a Magus? Victor frowned.

  No matter how much he scanned the surroundings with his mana sense, he couldn’t detect anything. Whatever this thing is, it’s trying to avoid me…

  This unsettling feeling was strangely familiar to Victor. He recalled playing a pixelated game as a child and setting the difficulty to peaceful mode. With the monsters gone, exploring places like fortresses that should have been crawling with enemies felt unnervingly wrong. Questions like who kept the place running and tidy without a single soul made it worse. And when the eerie background music struck, Victor would get chills down his spine, wishing to quit immediately.

  This felt exactly like that.

  The oppressive sensation of being watched by an unseen, unknowable entity was all too real. Victor was sure it wasn’t just his imagination. His heightened intuition as an Elemental Adept Magus screamed warnings at him, an incessant alarm that refused to quiet down.

  “Still, I can’t just return empty-handed,” Victor muttered under his breath.

  The side mission didn’t tell him to find or even slay the monster, so he only had to investigate it, and the task should be done. But it was ambiguous enough, wherein he couldn’t stop until there was a mission accomplished notification. It was akin to a wild goose chase.

  Redoubling his courage, Victor moved toward the half-eaten carcass that he’d located through the spectral eyes. Crouching beside it, he examined the remains closely. Hmm… It looks like a corpse of a Thornback Boar. But… The body wasn’t simply torn apart or gnawed on, as one might expect from a beast. Instead, the carcass was hollowed out from the inside. The cuts around its orifices were unnatural, as if something had burrowed into the boar and consumed it from within.

  “What kind of abomination am I dealing with here?” Victor went into his soliloquy, his brows furrowing deeply. No matter how he analyzed it, the pieces refused to fit together.

  A thought suddenly surfaced in Victor’s mind, something he’d read long ago. Beings from beyond Seraphia were said to defy the natural laws of life, their forms and existence vastly different from anything typical. Terrifying beings of all kinds of shape did exist. One such example was the minions of the Outer Gods. At the time, Victor had dismissed it as fanciful nonsense, likely penned by some over-imaginative writer seeking fame, much like the Lovecraftian stories on Earth.

  But…

  What if the entity watching him was something as horrifying as that?

  All of a sudden, a melodious chime rang out, jolting Victor’s body as if struck by lightning—

  “—Eep!”

  [Mission Accomplished!]

  [Congratulations on passing the mission. You have successfully ascertained the truth behind the rumors of the abomination’s existence.]

  [The reward (Bet-tier {Indomitable Will} spell book) has been issued.]

  “Fuck! You scared me for nothing!” Victor shouted, stomping the ground in frustration as his eyes fixed on the glowing holographic screen. Then it hit him — the mission had been marked as complete, so his conclusion must have been correct.

  “Oh, shit! I need to get out of here! Now!” Without wasting another moment, Victor shot into the sky, leaving the eerie forest and its oppressive silence far behind.

  As the cold wind whipped past him and the immediate danger faded, Victor couldn’t help but think about Lumen. It had been weeks since he last saw her, that magical mount of his. What had she been up to all this time?

  Stolen novel; please report.

  It wasn’t unusual for Lumen to disappear for a week or so, but she would always return with the carcass of a magical beast in tow. But ever since their confrontation with the twin overseers, she had been missing entirely. Quite a curious thing. Could it be that Lumen is chasing after this abomination?

  The more Victor considered it, the more plausible it seemed. As a Celestial Moonhowler, Lumen was sensitive to evil beings like the minion of an Outer God. And with the connection Victor shared with her, he could pinpoint that Lumen’s location wasn’t far from this part of the forest.

  In any case, he decided to return to the academy first before making any further plans. The advancing undead army was a more immediate concern. Reports from the players indicated the horde was drawing dangerously close to the academy. By their estimates, it would be no more than three or four days before the undead were knocking at the academy’s gate.

  Victor had already activated the academy’s magic barriers, but the enemy’s ability to pinpoint its location was troubling. Perhaps it had something to do with SuperNova’s disappearance…

  “Troubles never seem to end…” Victor muttered, shaking his head.

  ***

  The Land of the Dead.

  At first, players thought it was merely the name of the expansion. But once they ventured to the source of the undead horde, they realized the title must have been meant for the place itself. Thick with decay and an oppressive atmosphere that seemed to gnaw at the edges of their resolve — this was how every player described it.

  William tightened his grip on his staff as he scanned the lifeless landscape ahead. Thick, ash-gray soil stretched all around, broken only by jagged, decayed remnants of trees and scattered bones. It looked like an apocalypse had been unleashed in this area.

  Ahead of him, Storm brandished his dual swords, which gleamed faintly in the dim light. To his right, Mike hefted his newly favored sword-and-shield combination, a combo he had recently picked up to balance offense and defense. Zero flanked William’s side, holding his crossbow steady, ready to cast a spell at a moment’s notice.

  In this game, there were no restrictions on weapon choices, leaving players free to experiment with whatever suited their style — or looked the coolest. This flexibility had become second nature to William and his group since they wanted to prioritize magic use for critical moments. After all, if their infused mana pools were used up, they would be no different than stronger mortals and become sitting ducks.

  Still, there was something different in their party composition. There was actually a female player holding a magic wand with them, standing at the rear. She was “RainbowUnicornUWU,” a newly recruited healer and a temporary replacement for the missing SuperNova. Surprisingly, despite being part of the earlier batches of players, she had been under the radar, spending most of her time in the game as a humble berry seller.

  Her status as a second-stage Initiate Attunement player and one of the few Bio-elemental healers would have been reason enough to recruit her, but it was her appearance that sealed the deal. What group of male players wouldn’t want someone with long, flowing blue hair and a pretty face in their party? Of course, practicality played a role too. All the other high-ranking female players, like MsMelody and MariaC, were already committed to other parties, leaving Rainbow as one of the few options available.

  “Everyone, be careful,” Zero cautioned, stopping in his tracks. “This place feels dangerous. Although we haven’t spotted any undead just yet, who knows what will happen.”

  “It’s too quiet,” Storm added. “Feels like something’s waiting to ambush us from all directions.”

  “Hey! Don’t jinx it!” William retorted.

  Mike, however, stepped confidently in front of Rainbow, offering a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, missy. You’re safe with us around.”

  Rainbow, for her part, seemed utterly uninterested in the tension building around her. Instead, her attention was fixed on the barren ground. “Hmm,” she muttered, crouching to inspect a patch of ashen dirt, more accurately the shriveled clump of what might have once been grass. “Not a single berry or mushroom can be picked around here… What a waste.”

  The group exchanged incredulous glances. Even in the heart of enemy territory, Rainbow’s scavenging instincts seemed to take precedence over everything else.

  Well, the plants weren’t just dead — they were rotting. It was like life in this land had been warped beyond recognition. Finding any living flora here would’ve been more unsettling than the decay itself.

  After another half hour of searching, William stopped and commented in frustration, “This mission just says to investigate and find clues about this place, but there’s nothing remotely interesting as far as the eye can see…”

  Unfortunately, SuperNova, the only one who possessed a scouting spell, was not there. Thus, it became more challenging to search around. After all, none of them had expected him to be missing at such a critical juncture.

  “I don’t like this…” Storm’s voice dropped a notch. “Has anyone ever played Resident Evil 4 before? Quiet usually means one thing: something’s about to go horribly wrong.”

  As if summoned by his words, a low, guttural growl echoed from the surroundings. Then, with a sickening crack, the scattered skeletal remains began to move. Bones clattered together as if guided by an unseen hand, forming into horrifyingly humanoid shapes. At the same time, patches of earth erupted as decayed hands clawed their way free, announcing the emergence of rotted figures with lifeless eyes.

  Skeletons! Zombies!

  The party froze, disbelief filling their eyes.

  “Ambush!” Zero shouted, raising his crossbow as he spun to face the nearest threat.

  William groaned, clutching his head as the skeletons and zombies began closing in. “Damn it, Storm! You really did jinx it this time!”

  “Now’s not the time!” Storm yelled as he swung his dual swords at a zombie nearby, trisecting it. “Everyone! Focus on staying alive!”

  Mike raised his shield, positioning himself between Rainbow and the advancing undead. “Missy, stick close to me! I’ll keep them off you.”

  Really, Mike? Aren’t you in some sort of a relationship with the village NPC girl? William thought as he prepared to cast a spell.

  Rainbow tilted her head curiously, seemingly unfazed by the rising undead. “Tch. They really ruined the soil here. No wonder there’s nothing good to scavenge,” she muttered, drawing a small, glowing staff that pulsed with Bio-elemental energy.

  The party quickly formed a loose defensive circle. Weapons were drawn, spells ready to be shot.

  Their fate would be decided in this battle.

  https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0F395N5JL

  Patreon first sometime next month. Furthermore, I won't be making new membership tiers on Patreon when I do publish the new story on RR. So, anyone who subscribe to the current membership tiers will be able to read both stories in advance without having to pay more.