Emergency Quest

The night was unusually quiet and the air was chilly. But the tranquility was broken by the eerie footsteps.

The figure halted by the graveyard which was approximately a mile from the former Monkshood estate.

A grin formed on its pale sunken face as it stretched its skeletal hand. It threw a packet on the ground.

In turn, a huge reddish pentagram had formed and it rippled through the yard.

Though it created such a spectacle, the temporary freeloaders from the estate did not hear the commotion. Hence, they did not have any idea of what danger they might get into.

As the night grow deeper, the combination of fog and miasma from a nearby swamp had grown thicker.

As the spell got completed, the ground shook and cracked. Out from it, several skeletal hands had emerged.

Aliester was sleeping peacefully on his bed. He had already been transmigrated in this realm for about a fortnight, but Raiha did not contact him.

The annoying Zarame would only give him vague hints as well as make him irritated with her remarks.

On the positive note, his body has remarkably healed and he could already move about. The healer gave him potions so that he would fully recover.

Unfortunately, the memories from his predecessor were still fragmented and some of his skills were still affected by the abnormal status.

Despite the discomfort that he had been feeling as of late, the young man had finally forced himself to sleep and not think about the situation he was in.

To say the least, the past few days they were in the mansion were quite peaceful. There was no attack from their pursuers so far.

Only his nostalgia and his lingering attachment for his siblings had been bothering him.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded which made Aliester bolt up.

[Warning: enemies had been spotted!] Zarame announced.

"Say what?!" Still a bit groggy Aliester asked. "Seriously? In the middle of the night?"

[Emergency quest!] Zarame declared. [No other option but to fight.]

The young man wanted to complain but was not given the chance since Zarame gave another notice.

[Notice: enemy has already breached the perimeter! Some of your allies are engaging in battle.]

Aliester could somehow see a map with several reddish dots around mansion. But he was not able to ask anything.

[Initiating tutorial mode. Get ready with your sword.]

Just after Zarame's announcement has ended, Aliester could heard the sound of fighting.

Although he wanted to ask Zarame about the tutorial mode, he was unable to ask since the fight seemed to have intensified.

Without thinking much, he took the long sword by the bed side table and ran downstairs.

When he joined his companions, his eyes widened in horror.

"No freaking way…" he muttered as his eyes shook in fear.

He had a good reason to be afraid, after all, they are facing several undead.

'What the hell is with this apocalyptic like setting?' he barely stopped himself from shouting.

'What's with all of these zombies? Biohazard? If only I knew that we would be dealing with undead, I would have brought guns and grenades.' He muttered while trying not to panic.

There were some of them which had already been dealt with by the knights and had been lying on the lawn beheaded.

Aliester was thankful that the knights had taken care of some of them but there were already about a few who had managed to slip through the defense and reached the front yard.

'Seeing these guys on the computer screen was ok. But seeing them in person, is definitely mind blowing. I almost wet myself. These guys are scary!" he muttered while trying not to be a nuisance to his companions.

Some of the walking corpse were almost skin and bones while others must have just started decomposing a few days or weeks ago.

The most gruesome of the bunch had skin peeled off and the rotting flesh is still hanging about. Aliester almost threw up but held it all in.

Remembering that he had a long sword, he decided to fight alongside the others. 'I slacked off from training when I was Aris. I do spar with Aria from time to time. But I am not that strong.'

Aliester's hand shook as he unsheathed his weapon. 'I had been using wooden sword in the other realm. This is a long sword. This is definitely different. This is the real deal!'

Then he stopped short and asked. 'Zarame, did you just say tutorial mode?'

[Answer: yes].

'So, can I die and get revived just like in RPG's if I fail?' he queried while keeping an eye on the few knights who were with him.

The knights were already in bad shape but they seemed to be holding off the undead well. Their light leather armor give them advantage. They could move with ease.

[Answer: you can die but you won't get revived. If you get revived this time, you will become a zombie like those.] came Zarame's reply.

Some were fighting the undead while the others are working together to put the barricades and stop the enemies' advances.

"Damnit!" Aliester cursed as one of the older knights, the one in the nearest the gate and served as their frontline, got bitten.

Reality sunk in.

Although, Aliester wanted to help that fallen person, he knew that it was a lost cause. Soon enough, the poor man was overwhelmed by several undead.

With just a few minutes after he died, the fallen knight had joined his new companions.

[Reminder: This isn't a game this is real life. Aliester, make sure that you can survive. And for your information, you can kill those undead by severing their heads.]

Aliester gritted his teeth at Zarame's words.

'You don't have to tell me that! I just died from Fahren. I have to live here…No need to remind me…' He thought.

'But to think that the same principle like in the games applied.'

Unfortunately, Zarame's reminder was somehow blown off when he seemed to have heard groaning.

It came somewhere from his right. An undead managed to get through a broken window and had zeroed in on him.

"Comrade…" It groaned while extending its decaying hand towards Aliester.

Usually in games, the zombies would groan "brains". Aliester sarcastically thought. He recalled the information given by Zarame that he can be considered as a reanimated corpse.

But he would never accept that he is the same as these witless walking cadavers.

"Like hell, I am your comrade!" Pissed, Aliester shouted while avoiding a swipe from the zombie.

"This is tough!" he gritted his teeth and with all his strength gripped the handle and hacked the neck. With a few tries, he had succeeded in severing the zombie's head.

"Good thing the undead are rather slow. And I am grateful that this body has remembered its training." He muttered while preventing the bile that had risen up from spilling his mouth.

He did not have time to rest because another one had emerged from the same window and was coming his way.

"I am moving as if it is ingrained in me as part of my reflexes." he thought as he side stepped to dodge the zombie. With a swing, the undead's head flew off.

"My reaction time is quite good despite the fact that I had suffered an injury a few weeks ago." He seemed happy with himself.

But unfortunately, he could not hold it in. 'The stench of decay is horrid! blerggh' he retched whatever dinner he had earlier.

"My lord!" Mephisto exclaimed before he charged.

Aliester's eyes widened as Mephisto swung his sword. It turned out that another undead had emerged and had Aliester as its target.

Mephisto was able to take that undead down and secure the young man.

"Are you all right, young master?" he asked while giving the young man a once over.

Aliester nodded.

"Sir Mephisto, you have to take the young lord to safety. We will stay here to deal with these." One of the younger knights said while trying to close up the broken window where the undead had emerged.

"Even if you say that, I am not sure if we can easily slip out. These things are endless." Mephisto was out of breath. He had taken down the remaining undead in the vicinity.

He then order the surviving knights to fall back inside. They managed to kill all of the ones that had breached the gate. They sealed off the doors and holed themselves inside the mansion.

Once inside the mansion, Mephisto told them the plan. "We need to abandon this place. I think the younger ones must go and protect him. You will be able to outrun those things. We will act as decoy so that you could slip away."

Aliester wanted to make his own suggestions but was interrupted when Zarame showed him the map.

[warning: A new wave is coming!]