It seemed the undead rats never dwindled in number but increased. The ruined houses seemed to get farther and farther apart leaving larger space to run. However the more space around the more undead rats seemed to be surrounding them. In a matter of minutes they had a group of twenty jumping at them from time to time.

Walker caught himself wondering why there weren’t any other undead around until he started focusing on his surroundings. Every once in a while they would pass piles of old clothing or armors. Others there were piles of broken bones that looked gnawed on. These undead rats were consuming anything and everything that moved in their territory. This was their part of the ruins and nothing that entered left.

Immortal king was surely laughing at this, it knew the in and out of the ruins. Sending them to escape from this depth of the ruins was a death sentence!

Remey was starting to find her punches missing and Su found two or three would hang up on her. These may just be undead rats but they had enough intellect to hang up on to their prey. This reason alone was why they posed such a threat.

Gil had resorted to firing arrows at the ones behind them to keep them away from their openings. This was working so far but it seemed like the undead rats used their speed to properly dodge.

“Su we need to get rid of these rats all at once, if you taunt them they will all focus on you and I might be able to burn them.” Walker knew the situation would only worsen over time as they wore down the party’s stamina.

Su was worried she wouldn’t be able to block all of them but remembered her poison resistance skill. ” yes I should be able to do that but you will need to be fast we’ll only have a moment” the second she taunted Walker would need to attack.

“Gil. Remey, Midnight be ready to get the stragglers. We’ll need to be quick.” Walker said the orders to ready everyone. “Alright Su on your mark!”

This was the moment. Walker had his staff ready to aim at the biggest group. “Get over you! You stupid vermin!” Su shouted her taunt and every undead rat turned to her direction. They quickly moved in to a jumping position obviously planning on hurling themselves at the same time toward her. This was definitely more dangerous but the second they jumped walker could hit almost all of them.

A slight squeal was made by the largest of the group of undead rats and then they were off. They had all jumped at the same time aiming at the same spot on Su’s shield. “Evil consuming flame!” Walker aimed and fired his white flame at them. It was perfectly set up hitting the rat in the center of the group. Some immediately fell to the ground burning. Others landed and ran around in panic.

Arrows whizzed by Su as Gil fired at the two Walker had not caught in the fire. Midnight was swatting away the ones that were burning from Su. While Remey was stomping on the ones that had lost mobility to finish them. Their small plan had worked and twenty undead rats were either defeated or turned ashes on the stone ground.

They wanted to rest but knew they needed to keep moving. The sun had begun to rise and they knew that this was a temporary relief in pursuit. They had a fairly straight path to exit the ruins but they could see small groups of undead shambling through the streets. As they ran they dodged and ignored any other undead. The sun had risen significantly in to the sky by the time they stopped moving.

Once they had begun to recognize their first hunting area from when they were luring undead it was simple. They relaxed a bit knowing that the majority of the undead had been defeated by them.

Easily reaching the square they had begun to feel the fatigue of running most of the day. But knew they couldn’t stop until they’d left the ruins completely. With a final burst of energy then moved towards the outskirts. However, they were blocked by a lone zombie. The strange part about this zombie was it held a small box in its hands. Before they could do anything they heard immortal kings voice. “I believed the rats would get two or three of you but I did not expect all five to survive. It was rather entertaining, so I’ll allow you to pass.” With that, the zombie turned to dust leaving the small box.

Walker approached it hesitantly seeing the system prompt that they had completed the quest and passed immortal kings test. No reward was displayed meaning it wasn’t a system reward but a reward from immortal king itself.

Carefully opening the lid five silver skull rings shined in the sun. Using his all around appraisal skill walker checked them.

‘ silver skull ring

Rings made from minerals found in high level undead. This naturally repels low level undead’

This was a fairly useful way to avoid the undead swarms since most were made of low level undead. Walker was relieved it wasn’t anything insane and dangerous. He passed out one to everyone mentioning what it did and found that the one he gave midnight expanded to fit the front leg.

They walked a bit farther to where they had camped in the past. As soon as their foot hit the campsite the system updated them.

‘Chain quest completed:

Escaped the catacombs.

Rewards:

200exp multiplied to 2000exp.

Chain quest completed, all optional sections completed, all rewards collected’

Upon seeing the notice everyone instantly let the sheer amount of stress roll off them. With barely any energy to set up tents, they started to rest. They had finally escaped. The thoughts and worries of the adventure guild rank up test were not to be found. All that mattered was they had escaped with their lives after meeting a terrifyingly strong creature. They weren’t sure anyone at the guild would believe them even after showing their proof. But that was something to worry about later. They needed rest and to travel back to be evaluated.