Back to New Herbal (part 6)

...a series of notifications that were too confusing to be comprehended on the spot made Vernlily freeze up...

Why... why did it look like she was supposed to remove the villagers from the villagers?

Why did death count as being saved?

And why does 51 villagers remaining mean the quest has failed?!

Those were the questions echoing in Vernlily's mind.

"...survive the 5th wave... so... this wasn't the 5th wave...?"

The girl mumbled to herself, turning around and looking towards the road connecting New Herbal with Little Barn...

[Race: Humanized wolf (Wolfman shaman)

Rank: C

Level: 33

Stats: (High-level Appraisal skill necessary)

Skills: (High-level Appraisal skill necessary)]

"?!?!?!"

The command for stopping notifications and monsters' Status Windows had already lost its effect, and a translucent blue window popped up in front of Vernlily's vision, partially blocking the sight of the creature that was standing in the middle of the road.

The Status Window faded away, but the creature was there.

Vernlily could not tear her eyes off of it as if she was in a trance.

At first glance, it was a large wolf, but the more anyone looked at it, the more they would realize that it couldn't be the case.

There was no doubt that it was something wolf-like, but at the same time, it had this uncanny aura around it.

Was it the fact that it was wearing its own fur like a suit, covering its nakd whitish-pink skin?

Most likely.

Was it because its front paws were elongated into proper fingers, and there were long spider-leg-like thumbs growing out from behind its wrists without being connected to actual palms?

Also yes.

Was it because it was because even on all fours, it was holding a staff or maybe a scepter made out of twisted tree root?

That too.

"Grrrr...!"

"...!"

The beast bore its fangs underneath the hood made out of its previous skin, and the movement almost made Vernlily throw up.

"Grrrr-rrraveious wound!"

The monster climbed up at its hind legs unsteadily, barely lifting its hands off the ground in an unnerving, almost crouching-like manner, and growled out the name of a Skill while pointing its staff at the Bound Guardian knight.

*GHAAAGH*

Particles of murky light gathered in the twisted root and erupted into a filthy-looking beam that shot straight at the girl.

"!!!"

Vernlily acted on reflex, and her eyes shone brightly as she raised whatever was left of her shield, but...

*CRUNCH*

"...?"

One of the planks shattered, while the last one was grazed a bit. The confused girl took a few steps back and ended up leaning against the locked gate.

"Ghhhh...!"

Vernlily tried to take a breath but ended up wheezing in pain as her chest exploded in pain.

She didn't want to take her eyes off the monster even for a second in case it would attack again, but she just had to glance down to see what exactly happened to her equipment to make her feel so much pain...

"...eh...?"

Vernlily looked down and felt her heart drop to her stomach.

Unfortunately, only figuratively.

Why?

Because Vernlily didn't have a heart anymore, as proven by a gaping hole in her chest, oozing with pugnant puss.

"...Status... Open..."

[Name: Vernlily

Race: Human

Class: Bound guardian knight (Bound to New Herbal village)

Level: 27

HP: 30*^^^^ (0/30) MP: 56* (10/56)

ATK: 22* MAT: 21*

DEF: 60* MDF: 7*^^^^

SPD: 27* LUC: 40*

*Class buff

^Curse stack

Skills:

Vigilance (passive) (level 4)

Shield proficiency (passive) (max level)

Living fortress (passive) (level 2)

Shield bash (active) (max level)

Shield bulldozer (active) (level 1)

Night vision (passive) (level 3)

Basic swordsmanship (passive) (max level)

Way of the savage sword (passive) (level 5)

Sever (active) (level 8)

Meatgrinder (active) (level 8)

Impale (active) (level 6)]

"No... no... please, no..."

*splurt*

Vernlily felt her eyes fill with tears and sobbed, slowly raising her arms towards the festering wound, and the movement made the puss gush out.

She looked up, past the rank C monster in the distance, and saw the reason she was still alive in the first place.

[Vigilance (00:00:51)]

...a Skill that was giving her a few more seconds of life before it deactivated...

|Healing...! Maybe... maybe if I get healed...!|

The girl's vision was getting blurry, and the system notifications were the only ones still crystal-clear, giving her a small hope to cling on.

"...!" *thump*

Vernlily gritted her teeth, turned around, and knocked on the locked gate, gathering her strength to raise her voice.

*thump* *thump*

"H... help m..."

"Stay where you are and do your job!"

The black-haired girl kept knocking on the gate and cried out while looking up pleadingly for anyone to show up – and someone did...

Only that it was Zorey's mother with more unkind words.

The woman was holding a large pot – in fact, it was one of the defenses that the villagers came up with. Inside it, there was a mixture of water, oil, and monster bones, which kept boiling in order to be poured out of the gates on monsters to halt their advance.

"No one wants you within the walls in the first place!"

*SPLASH* *KSHHHHH*

Zorey's mother didn't bother to have a good enough look at Venrlily to realize that something was wrong and dumped the scorching concoction right in the girl's face.

With how high Vernlily's MDF was – since elemental damage, including hot and cold counted as MAT and MDF was the one responsible for defending against it – this wouldn't have any effect on her whatsoever.

But now...

"...aaaagh...! Uuu... uuuugh...!"

*thump*

The black-haired girl fell to her knees and slumped to the side as the pain of having her skin melt off her face was combined with the one from the festering wound.

If she was free from the suffering even for a moment, Vernlily would feel disgusted that the most painful injury she ever received wasn't from a monster but from a villager she was protecting.

From a mother of the boy who wished to marry her.

"...Zorey... Zorey..."

Vernlily cried, clawing at the ground, hearing the voices of the voices of the unbothered and unaware villagers from the other side, coupled with the sound of the uneven footsteps of the approaching Wolf shaman.

Because of the boiling concoction getting her eyes, everything was becoming blurry, then she could see only vague shapes, and then the colors started fading away, leaving the things in her vision a bunch of shadows moving around in the light...

[Vigilance (00:00:01]

"...haa..."

...and then her Skill timer has finally run out, and everything went dark...

The darkness didn't last long as his vision changed.

In a short flash, Zorey was able to see some of the images from Vernlily's perspective after she was corrupted into an undead, and her level and stats dropped significantly.

The black-haired girl turned into a Cannibal Zombie and was still acting in accordance with her Class guidelines and was fighting with the monsters in the village – only that the monsters were all undead forms of the villagers.

Monsters bear a resemblance to their human counterparts with clothes and equipment that each person had on them at the time of death.

Vernlily had no skills that could permanently deal with the undead, so she would only push them into an incapacitated status and move on to the next target without ever getting her new level increased.

The vision cut off the moment when Vernlily approached the incapacitated undead wearing Zorey's mother's clothes and raised her broken sword...