The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: Volume 8 Read online

  It was surprisingly compassionate coming from her. Nothing was strange about it, of course. If anything, it was incredibly kind.

  “No, I’m just a little shocked to hear you say that,” I replied. “I think it’s a good idea.”

  “Well, I’m the pinnacle of compassion, after all,” Nive said with a chuckle and a shrug. “I’m kind to all people.” She was acting the same as usual, but the words coming out of her mouth were absurd.

  “Rentt, do you know how to do this?” Myullias asked.

  “Yeah, just purify them with divinity like you would anything else, right?”

  “Yes. I recommend that you do it one at a time, though. Trying to purify them all at once will cost more divinity. I’ll start from over here, so please start from over there.”

  Myullias headed off to one end of the line of half-formed thralls, so I walked down the line from the opposite end. They didn’t react at all when I purified them, their bodies turning to ash from the fingers up. They didn’t even scream or wail. Instead, I saw peace in their eyes.

  Once they had all turned to ash, only their clothes and belongings remained. All of us, including the freed captives, sorted through their belongings to try and determine their identities.

  “Hm, what’s this?” Nive asked. She approached a pile of ash from a thrall I’d purified and picked up a plant that had grown from my divinity. This time it wasn’t a sprout, but a sapling. A tiny, skinny sapling, but a sapling nonetheless. “What in the world is this?”

  “I was blessed by a plant god, so plants grow when I use divinity,” I explained. “I don’t think it does any harm.”

  “A plant god, you say? This is a rare specimen. May I take it?”

  “That’s fine with me, but it’s just a tree.”

  “Most trees aren’t tinged with divinity like this. Maybe this could grow into a holy tree one day. Those produce materials that are extremely difficult to come across, so it would be nice to have one around.”

  “I don’t think that’ll happen. Also, how do you get ahold of materials from a holy tree?”

  “Yes, well, I borrowed a branch or two,” Nive answered. “And I thought I was going to die during that whole debacle, let me tell you.”

  The land of the high elves wouldn’t even let adventurers into their borders. I couldn’t imagine how hard it would be for someone to get in and take a piece of the holy tree they so cherished. The leaves alone were supposed to contain more divinity than my entire body, according to Clope. But somehow Nive must have gotten some.

  “You snuck in?”

  “It’s not like there’s another way to get holy tree branches. Those high elves pelted me with so much magic. If I had gotten hit, I would’ve been vaporized.”

  “That’s awfully reckless,” Lorraine said. As naturally curious as she was, even she wouldn’t trespass on a place as highly secured as the nation of the high elves. “What did you need holy tree branches for, by the way?”

  “Want to know? Well, it’s a secret. I’ll show you if the chance presents itself, but you’ll have to wait until then.”

  It was typical for adventurers to reveal as little as possible, so I could understand why she wouldn’t tell us about something she’d gone to great lengths to obtain. We decided not to ask about it further. We went ahead and finished gathering up the thralls’ belongings.

  “Hey, I’m sensing a lot of energy over here!” another adventurer said as he arrived. Some of the other elite adventurers who’d departed from Maalt with us had gotten here. We explained what had transpired.

  “Then we should take these people back to town right away,” said a middle-aged man who seemed to be their leader. “We’ll take them. You should keep searching the dungeon.”

  “Are you sure? We’ll get all the accolades if you do that,” Nive said. She held the highest rank and had the most experience of any of us, so she acted as our representative.

  “You’re the ones who found the vampires first, so that’s fine. You have more skill and experience than we do. Besides, getting these folks back to town safely is important too. Take down whoever did this to our allies.”

  “Of course. We’ll destroy every vampire we see. Look forward to that.”

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  We left Raiz, Lola, and the other captured adventurers with the middle-aged man’s party and proceeded deeper into the dungeon. We were still only on the first floor of the New Moon Dungeon, though, and this floor was easy to traverse. It was also vast, but Nive had a map that automatically mapped out the floor, so we never came close to getting lost. Either way, I had the Map of Akasha too. But the strange thing was that while we could fully map the dungeon using it, it didn’t show any thralls or vampires. We could see the humans and their names, so maybe I was using the map wrong. I’d talked with Lorraine about its various functions, but we didn’t know everything about it, so there wasn’t much we could do. After this commotion was over, I figured it might be wise to think about different ways to use the map in dungeons.

  “Here’s some more,” Nive said and came to a stop at another corner. She must have found another vampire. “I’ll charge in first, and you two can come in later. There are some active thralls this time, so you can handle those.”

  I looked around the corner and saw a room similar in size to the last one. There was a boy who appeared to be a vampire, along with a number of thralls. Unlike the boy, their faces were rotten, and their flesh was dry and peeling off.

  “Here goes!” Nive said as she ran into the room.

  “Who are you?!” the vampire cried tensely.

  “Vampires aren’t worthy of knowing my name!” Nive replied. Then she flailed her claw.

  “Adventurers? I see, so you found us.” The boy dodged the claw, and the battle began. “Thralls! Attack this woman!”

  The thralls were unable to follow his orders, since we had run in after Nive and begun fighting them. Thankfully, there were only five in all. They were a type of lesser vampire, but they were fairly powerful compared to orcs. For a couple of average Bronze-class adventurers, this would be a difficult battle. But while I was Bronze-class, I stood above the pack with my monster body, along with my mana, spirit, and divinity. Also, Lorraine was a full-fledged Silver-class. Not to say this battle would be a breeze, but we were capable enough to keep the thralls from interfering in Nive’s fight with the vampire.

  Lorraine and I had to work together, however. I could probably beat them all myself if I made full use of my superhuman mobility and all of my divinity, but that would expose my powers to Nive and Myullias. I didn’t think they were bad people, but I didn’t want them to know everything either. Even if they didn’t learn I was a monster, there was no telling what could get us on their enemy list. Religion was a largely peaceful and casual affair in Yaaran, but Lorraine had told me that the Church of Lobelia could be extremely unforgiving, so it didn’t hurt to be cautious around them. They were probably going to find out a few things regardless, but nothing that would expose me as anything more than an ordinary adventurer.

  I fought them up close while Lorraine attacked from behind—the most obvious approach. I used my sword to defend against their bites and claw swipes while slashing at them when I had an opening. Lorraine filled the gaps in my attacks and fired off spells at any thrall that tried to go after Nive.

  Of course, fighting several foes like this would normally end poorly, but Lorraine and I had a decade of experience working together. We synchronized perfectly. We knew exactly what the other would do next without a need for words. For example, I slashed at a thrall, but it blocked the blow and knocked me back a bit. The thrall then came straight after me, but I sensed mana behind me and ducked, allowing Lorraine to launch a fireball straight at the thrall and set its head on fire. We took the thralls down one by one in this manner until only one remained.

  “It’s over,” I said and cut its head off. I turned around to look at Nive and the vampire, and that fight was nearing its end
too. The vampire looked unharmed, but he was panting. He’d probably used Division to regenerate so many times that his stamina was wearing thin. Unlike the two young vampires from before, though, he wasn’t turning into sand.

  “You’re not using Division too rashly, I see,” Nive said to the vampire. “It doesn’t look like you’re using San Arms either.”

  The vampire scoffed. “What, did you fight Jiziu and Wugong? I’m not like them. They only joined us recently, so they haven’t been taught much about their power yet.”

  “That’s awfully cruel. If they’d been taught that overusing that power was dangerous, they could have avoided such a meaningless demise,” Nive replied, but I felt like that wasn’t actually true. She probably would have destroyed them in some other way.

  “They’re dead? Huh. Well, we didn’t hide that information from them on purpose. If we had, I’m sure they could’ve stopped you before you got here.”

  Nive raised a brow. “You were going to tell them later?”

  “Obviously. Well, after they got a little more combat experience. But to be honest, I wasn’t expecting you to have this much skill. When it comes to small cities like Maalt, Silver-class adventurers are about the strongest you see. With Division, you’ll never die and you can easily run away. In theory, at least.”

  Normally the boy’s expectations wouldn’t have been far from the truth, but Nive’s obsession and her sense of smell were a bit extraordinary. If it wasn’t for her, maybe they could have bought a bit more time and escaped after triggering this chaos. But Nive wouldn’t let any vampires get away.

  “But all things considered, you still seem to have a lot of fight left in you,” Nive said. “I see. Interesting.”

  Objectively speaking, the young vampire was backed up against a wall. He had little energy left and nowhere to run. Despite that, he kept smiling as if everything was going according to plan. Nive must have noticed it.

  “Oh, you can tell?” the young vampire asked.

  “Buying time, I take it? Your real objective was in town, I’m guessing. But most of the adventurers are in town. What’s the point of this?”

  “Nive Maris, you undersell yourself. Without you, Maalt is no more than a hunting ground for us. Well, maybe that’s going a little far. I recently learned that this little city has a surprising number of talented adventurers. Either way, hardly any of them could capture and kill us. It’s possible that someone could kill me, if I’m being honest, but they wouldn’t stand a chance against Mr. Shumini.”

  I didn’t know how to feel about that. There were a fair number of powerful folks, and I’d just learned that a vampire’s regenerative abilities weren’t limitless. If we fought them for long enough, we could probably destroy them eventually. But fighting in a cramped dungeon was one thing, while fighting outside was entirely another. They could use their Division to flee in that environment. Maybe Nive knew some way to counter that, but none of Maalt’s adventurers specialized in hunting vampires. Guildmaster Wolf probably had some general countermeasures, but only a vampire hunter would know how to exploit their weaknesses. Adventurers had to fight more than just vampires, so it was rare to find someone who focused on only that.

  The previous vampires had mentioned Shumini as their leader, but apparently this boy wasn’t him. The boss was in town, from the sound of it.

  “I see. Very well, then,” Nive said. “I’ll kill you, head straight back to town, and finish the job.”

  “You think I’ll let you do that?”

  The boy laughed, pulled a red rapier out of nowhere, and filled it with mana. The rapier emitted an unsettling energy that flowed into the boy and transformed him. His slender, dainty body made a popping sound as his arms, chest, and thighs swelled and his well-tailored clothes burst off.

  “What the hell?” I whispered.

  “That’s the power of San Arms,” Nive explained. “It’s functionally identical to how holy swords enhance humans. They’re the secret weapon of middle and greater vampires, but San Arms themselves are rare, so they’re seldom seen. Anyway, this is bad. When a middle vampire does this, their strength matches a greater vampire.”

  The boy no longer looked like a vampire, instead resembling something closer to an ogre. But compared to an ogre, I could see intelligence in his eyes, and something about the way he moved was smart. That was no ogre. It was far more dangerous.

  “Can you win?” I asked Nive.

  “Yes, but it might take a bit. It wouldn’t be much of a problem at any other time, but we aren’t in the best of circumstances. Rentt, could you and Lorraine head back to town? Find and destroy the boss vampire.”

  “Are you sure?” I was positive she would want to do it herself.

  “Well, I can’t do everything. But as soon as I destroy this vampire, I’ll return to town. If the boss vampire is still alive by then, I’ll swoop in and take care of him,” she said with a grin. She almost seemed cool to me there, but I didn’t say so out loud.

  I turned around and said, “Lorraine! We’re going back to town!”

  “Right!”

  We ran out of the large room and down the hallway.

  “Oh, you’re not going anywhere,” the ogre vampire said. He was next to us in an instant.

  “Oh yes they are!” Nive shouted. She appeared right after the ogre vampire, knocking it back into the room with her claw before it could hit us. “Now go!”

  “See you later!” I shouted, and left it at that. She was actually acting like a mature adventurer in this situation. I respected that, but I didn’t mention it.

  Myullias had remained in the hallway and was simply watching Nive’s fight with the vampire. I thought she might come with us, but she had to stay and purify the vampire after the fight. “Be careful!” she told us.

  We waved goodbye to her and left.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  I doubted that Nive trusted me to beat the boss. Rather, I assumed she wanted to be sure that all the vampires in and around Maalt were killed. But the one in the New Moon Dungeon was equivalent to a greater vampire, and while I was stronger than I used to be, I couldn’t be sure that I would win even with the full extent of my power. Nive must have known it would be impossible for me, so she decided to do it herself.

  We didn’t know why the vampire was in Maalt or what he was trying to do, but he had to have some goal other than making thralls go on a rampage. Whatever he wanted to do, it took enough time that he had to lure Nive to the New Moon Dungeon and keep her occupied there with San Arms.

  The young vampire was right that Maalt’s forces weren’t entirely reliable, but they were probably able to buy some time for Nive to defeat him and make it back to Maalt. I think that was what she wanted me to do too. She acted like I could beat the boss vampire, but likely only to convince me to go. I would have struggled against a middle vampire, so I couldn’t win against a potentially stronger foe. But maybe I could hold him back for a while. I just needed to get in his way and wait for Nive to arrive. I at least had to try. I could probably manage that much.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  When we got to Maalt, we heard a loud boom.

  “Rentt! It came from the central square!” Lorraine said and rushed over there. I ran after her. She was a lot slower than me, but I would need the help of her magic to fight the boss vampire.

  “Let’s pick up the pace,” I said. I then lifted up Lorraine as I kept running.

  “Rentt! Sorry,” she said, but I was just doing what made sense. I had the body of a monster and the training of a swordsman, so I was much more physically able. Lorraine was a magician and served as more of a glass cannon.

  “You can pay me back when we fight the boss vampire,” I said.

  “Yes, of course.”

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  It was pandemonium. The central square was full of wailing adventurers rolling around on the ground. Some were bloody, and some were covered in wounds. Others had broken bones, while some had holes in their bodies.
Healers were running around everywhere. But among all the injured people, one man was still standing and giving orders.

  “Wolf!” I shouted as I put Lorraine down and ran toward him.

  “Rentt? How was it at the New Moon Dungeon? And where’s Nive Maris?”

  He was still standing, but he had wounds all over his body. Blood dripped from his skin. I couldn’t waste too much divinity, but I at least stopped the bleeding with my divine arts.

  “You sure are convenient,” Wolf said, his eyes wide. He had mostly recovered.

  This might have been the first time he saw me use divinity. He seemed only mildly shocked, though, maybe because nothing I did could surprise him anymore. This was much more commonplace than someone turning into a monster, anyway.

  “So what happened? Who did this?” Lorraine asked Wolf. There were signs that something had exploded, but there was no culprit to be seen in the central square.

  “Probably a greater vampire,” Wolf answered. “I couldn’t guess if he was a middle or greater vampire from his appearance alone, but his power was off the charts.”

  “It was probably the boss vampire,” I said. “We met some vampires who served him at the New Moon Dungeon. One of them said he was planning to do something in Maalt. Nive is still fighting that vampire, but she should be back once she’s done.”

  “Getting all these thralls to tear up the town was bad enough, but he’s still got more in store? I have to do something,” Wolf replied as he coughed up blood. The mild healing I’d given him only helped so much. I held up my hand to heal him some more, but Wolf stopped me. “Save your energy. I don’t know who that vampire was, but he went that way. The mostly unharmed adventurers chased after him, and I want you to do the same. Take him down. Show him what Maalt’s adventurers can do.”

  “But Wolf, somebody should heal you first.”