Chapter 16 – Greysoul Cemetery (2)

Once Sungjin was gone, the remaining four people decided to work together as a group.

“Yeah, just leave it to me. I got this!”

Hiro was too talkative.

“…”

Akanna was too quiet. But regardless of their differences, they agreed to stick together to clear the graveyard.

In the front stood Henrik with his axe and Hiro with his Katana. In the middle stood Akanna with his spear, and in the back stood Kultu with his bow.

Before entering the cemetery, Henrik and Kultu both took out the Lantern they had prepared.

“What’s that?”

Henrik answered matter of factly.

“What, this lantern? It was on the information page you know. It says the Cemetery is dark so you should buy a lantern at the Black Market.”

Hiro tilted his head.

“Is that so?”

Akanna also blinked with a blank expression. Henrik shook his head.

“Mine in the front and Kultu’s lantern in the back, we’ll probably be okay with the lighting. Let’s just go.”

Henrik made his way towards the cemetery. Some time later,

“Grrah!”

Few zombies appeared.

“Zombies!”

“Alright!”

Hiro fearlessly ran ahead.

“Wait…!”

Henrik had been planning on watching his enemies and responding defensively. Hesitantly, he ran forward to assist Hiro. However, Hiro proved to be better than he thought.

He wielded his blade as if possessed. Once the zombies reached his strike zone, their arms and legs were cut off and sent flying. When the zombies stumbled and fell due to the loss of their legs, they were beheaded with a lightning fast attack before they even hit the ground. Henrik instinctively swallowed.

‘I see why he’s acting so cocky.’

While he was distracted, a Zombie charged at him. Henrik hurriedly swung his axe instinctively and cut off the zombie’s wrist without resistance.

But this became a problem. A living being would have hesitated from pain, but the Zombie continued to charge at Henrik disregarding the physical harm.

Henrik, having just finished his attack motion, was in no position to defend himself. He was vulnerable to the zombie’s bite. A moment of peril.

“Aho!”

Akanna’s long spear penetrated the zombie’s head through its face.

“Iho!”

Whenever Akanna thrust his spear shouting out strange words, holes appeared on a zombie’s face.

The zombies hit in the face by his spear all fell powerlessly on the spot without being able to so much as wave their arms. Thanks to the spirited fighting by the two men, Henrik and Kultu did not have much to do.

“Orya!”

“Kaho!”

All Henrik and Kultu could do was provide light for Hiro and Akanna to fight properly.

“Alright, Henrik! Bring the light a little closer please!”

At least Hiro actually needed the light to fight.

“Ahoho!”

Akanna would run into the impenetrable darkness alone, and kill the zombies on his own.

“What the hell am I watching”

Henrik, who had lived in Copenhagen all his life, had difficulty adjusting to what he was witnessing.

But thanks to the effort of the other two men, Henrik and Kultu could progress through the raid without much trouble.

Sometimes ghouls, which were faster than zombies, would threaten Henrik and Kultu. But whenever they were in danger, Hiro and Akanna protected them from harm.

Henrik thanked the two of them.

“Thanks to you two… I think we will be able to clear this raid without much trouble. Of course, we would have to see the boss first to know… but from what I could see, we should be enough. The real concern is that teenager Kei from earlier. I worry about what might have happened to him.”

However, Hiro’s expressions were strange. Hiro spoke as if he was put off by something.

“Yeah, I guess so… But isn’t something weird here? This Round?”

“What’s weird?”

“I mean… well, I guess something like…the number and strength of the monsters… Don’t you feel that somehow it’s even easier than Ahenna’s Forest?”

Kultu agreed with his observations.

“I think you’re right. Compared to the endless wave of wolves from the previous raid, there does seem to be too few enemies in this raid. There are Ghouls too… but bears were far more threatening. Is it because we haven’t entered too deep inside yet?”

“Ig”

Akanna interrupted the conversation by making strange noises. Henrik looked over to him.

“What is it Akanna? Do you have something to say?”

Akanna wordlessly motioned for Henrik’s lantern. Henrik understood his gestures and obediently handed it over. But the question remained.

“Akanna, you… I thought you didn’t need light to see?”

“Ig Ig”

Akanna left the other three and ran off somewhere. He then stopped and put down the lantern on the ground. The other three men opened their mouths in surprise.

“What the…”

Not far from where they had fought, there was an unimaginable number of zombie and ghoul corpses lying around. Henrik walked up to Akanna to picked up his lantern. He looked around the area with the lantern held low to the ground.

There he found not only corpses of ghouls and zombies, but also chopped up remains of skeletons as well. Henrik murmured to himself, overwhelmed by the implications.

“What in the world…”

*

Sungjin wielded his katana like a bolt of lightning.

“Kueueu~”

In a single strike, two zombies were cut down at once. The blood and bile splashed all over Sungjin’s face.

‘Krraaa Graahh’

Smelling the thick scent of blood, ghouls appeared from nowhere. Deeply bent back, jagged and uneven teeth, rotting flesh.

Sungjin instinctively swung his katana. Anything that his sword touched was cut apart without resistance. Of course, spewing disgusting unidentifiable liquids everywhere.

‘…’

There were largely two main complaints about the ‘Greysoul Cemetery’. One was that the enemies were smelly and gross; mostly zombies and ghouls.

The second was that these things were only dangerous when overrunning their opponents with sheer numbers. Although they did not pose any significant threat to Sungjin, fighting them was in no way hygienic.

‘I can’t wait to clear this map.’

It was already his second time, but he couldn’t get used to this. Hidden piece or not, he just wanted the raid to end.

Once he finds a red magic circle hidden within the cemetery, he will be able to locate the boss monster ‘Deathmond’. Kill the boss with all due haste, and search for the Hidden Piece. That was his plan.

‘…where was that again?”

But he couldn’t remember where the magic circle was located. Greysoul Cemetery was far too dark, so dark that it was hard to tell where anything was.

Last time, the five of them roamed the cemetery aimlessly until they accidentally stumbled onto the magic circle and just barely beat the boss within the time frame.

‘…Maybe I should have bought a Lantern…’

Without a doubt, the information pamphlet about ‘Greysoul Cemetery’ would have urged the Hunters to purchase at least one Lantern.

He, once again, penny pinched too hard to save money to buy legendary tier items later on. Recalling something, Sungjin called upon the Operator.

“Operator.”

[Yes, esteemed Hunter?]

“Take out the Salamander’s ash that I received as reward last time’

A package appeared on top of the cube on command. It was a reward he had received from ‘Ahenna’s Forest’. Sungjin lifted it up.

Salamander’s ash

Normal Consumable item

Special Effect: Flame(I)

Flame(I) – imbues an item with a weak flame. 5 Minute duration.

Ash collected from a dead fire lizard, Salamander.

It is said that there is a place in the world where Salamanders are raised on a farm to be harvested for their ash.

Sungjin rubbed the ash over his Katana. Soon, Sungjin’s weapon lit up on flames illuminating the surroundings.

‘…useful.’

It was an item originally meant to be used to strengthen attack power, but Sungjin treated it as nothing more than a source of light.

His damage was already high enough. Selling the Salamander’s ash only gave back a single Black Coin. With the five minute duration, he was confident that it was plenty of time for him to find Deathmond.

‘Clack clack’

Perhaps it was due to the burning Katana that an army of Skeletons was marching towards him. Sungjin preferred these guys though; at least they didn’t have rotting flesh and blood.

Instead, they each carried spears, swords, or axes. And it goes without saying that they were no match for Sungjin’s speed.

Wielding the Katana in one hand and the scabbard in another, Sungjin fought as if performing two-handed sword style combat. Cutting and bashing.

No matter with what Sungjin hit, he shattered the bones to pieces. Once the enemies were destroyed, Sungjin paused to look up at the night sky.

The moon was nowhere to be seen. He had no sense of directions. He didn’t know where he came from or where he needed to go.

‘… I don’t know where that Magic circle is… what should I do?”

Sungjin pondered for a moment before coming to a plan of action; brute force everything and search as wide and as quickly as possible.

If he ran into enemies, then it was a place he hasn’t been to, and if it was an area filled with corpses, then it was a place he had searched before.

Although Sungjin was sick and tired of creating mountains of zombie/ghoul corpses, he decided to swallow back his disgust and do it all over again.

*

“Did that… Kei person, do all this by himself?”

Henrik asked in disbelief. Hiro replied

“Who else could it be?”

Hiro sounded angry.

“Well, I guess it is a good thing as long as we clear the raid, right?”

Henrik consoled him, but Hiro kept his arms crossed and remained quiet. It appeared as though he felt some sort of rivalry between Sungjin and himself.

The four hunters fought with the ‘survivors’ as they searched through the ‘Greysoul Cemetery. When suddenly

“Eh?”

Akanna stopped on the spot. He could see far into the darkness. The others tensed up, but he put down his spear

“Amero Hum manieh damondi!”

He fell to his knees and started bowing feverishly. The others looked over to see what he could be bowing to. There, they saw a person in the distance clad in a white dress.

“Eek! EEEE!”

Hiro started screaming like a woman and hid behind Henrik.

“What… what’s wrong?”

Hiro answered Henrik’s question.

“G…Ghost!”

Henrik looked over again. He saw the white-clothed person. Pale face, long hair, white dress.  She was approaching them.

But her motions were too smooth. When he looked carefully, he saw that there were no feet under the hems. Henrik tried to encourage Hiro.

“We should f..fight then!”

Hiro held onto Henrik’s clothes and murmured

“G…ghosts are scary!”

Akanna continued to pray and chant.

“Raome kani Besemeres”

Henrik was starting to panic. The two aces of the team showed zero will to fight and were behaving strangely.

Henrik looked over to the ghost again. Even now, the ghost without legs was gliding towards them.

Note: Next release is on Wednesday as per the schedule unless there is a sponsored chapter in queue. Also please do check our recruitment post on the home page, we are in need of korean translators to bring to you another novel! Thank You