Boy's first System quest (part 3)

"Appease undead."

*Haaaa~*

*Bu-dum...*

[Skill failed]

[EXP points granted]

"...tsk..."

Zorey used the Skill, but it ended up failing, making him click his tongue without stopping his movement even for a second.

His clothes were torn apart by the claws and fangs of the dozens of rat-type monsters, and his body was beaten up and bleeding – but there was no hesitation in his movement.

It was a harsh practical lesson – if the opponent's ATK was 5x lower than his DEF, then he would suffer no damage at all.

Between 4x less and equal, the damage he would suggest was always 1 HP point.

And if Mosnter's ATK was higher than his DEF, the damage he would take was the difference between those stats.

Zorey being alive at the moment could not even be considered as lucky – it was a straight-up miracle.

He only survived the initial attack of the swarm because he continuously activated the Bullet Punch skill while holding the staff, causing the System to bestow him with a staff-exclusive passive Skill - Piercing impact – that made all of his attacks hit multiple targets and retain up to 80% of their power when passing from one opponent to the next.

Without it, and well-timed Mend that he remembered only because of Kaipo's words, it would be over.

Still, that alone wasn't enough – during the encounter, the black-haired boy ended up leveling up three times – and the combined +3 HP he gained was exactly the amount of HP he was hanging on to live with right at that moment.

He has been on 2 HP for two hours already, after an insanely ballsy and just as risky decision to forsake the healing-type Skill and pull all of his MP to appease the undead one, keeping his attention razor-focused on not allowing even a single monster scratch him

...and this time, Kaipo wasn't there to force the health potion into Zorey's throat...

"Appease undead."

*Haaa~*

*crack*

"Sure! Scree!"

*TA-DING*

[You have successfully appeased the undead (Undead dwarf lesser rat)]

[EXP points granted]

The young priest of death felt that his MP had recovered enough and used the Skill again – this time succeeding and witnessing the entire process of the undead monster's data returning to the System.

*TA-DING*

[Proficiency level reached. You gained a skill – Lesser mana spring (passive) (level 1)]

"...oh...?"

The next moment, a rather unexpected notification informed him about the System, allowing him with a new Skill, and Zorey's eyes widened as he let out a gasp feeling his MP recovering at an accelerated rate.

If it was that fast, then even without the blessing of the Sacred Ground like the Temple, he could use Appease undead right after the specter form of the appeased monster would disappear into 0's and 1's!

Zorey could feel his heart beating faster – even the monster with the least amount of time necessary for it to rise again still had over a minute left... in that case, he could also wait and then...

"Appease undead! Appease undead! Appease undead! Appease undead! Appease undead!"

Eventually, there was only a handful of monsters left, and Zorey used his Skill on all of them in succession.

*Haaaa~* x5

*Bu-dum...*

[Skill failed]

[EXP points granted]

*Haaa~* x4

*crack* x4

"Screee!" x3 "Scree. Scree!"

*TA-DING*

[You have successfully appeased undead (Undead dwarf lesser rats)]

[EXP points granted]

Not all were successful, but it still felt amazing – there was literally only one monster left as all the rest had their data returned to the System and their earthly remains turned into dust.

The last monster was freshly incapacitated too, which gave Zorey a bit of time to look around.

The house really appeared to be empty – and ransacked too.

The only remaining furniture was broken. There were no ornaments or decorations of any sort – damaged or not – chandeliers were also gone, and it even seemed that all consents had been torn out of their walls.

It was rather an odd sight – if the house was inaccessible due to being cursed, to the point of becoming the object of System quest - why did it look like humans had been there and taken everything of any value?

"...?"

Zorey raised his brow in confusion.

Was he supposed to assume that the swarm of rats did all of that...?

The young priest of death checked out the entire place – with the exception of one trapdoor blocked with the remains of a cabinet in the back of the pantry.

The trapdoor was the spot of origin for the stream of black fog that encompassed the entire building.

Zorey, the origin of the curse, had to be there, but he wasn't keen to go there in his current state.

At least not right then and there – he at least wanted some information...

...otherwise, he would have just appeased the last undead rat, after all...

The only thing that Zorey ended up finding was a pair of torn-up pants that some of the living rats seemed to attempt to turn into a nest. The boy took it and returned back to the dusty hallway, where he used the cloth to neatly wrap the incapacitated undead.

"Scree...? Screee!"

The debuff timer had run out, and the undead reanimated – it began to realize its position and started screeching in anger, unable to move even a bit.

"Lesser prayer."

*haaaa~*

The black-haired boy reached out his hand and used a skill that activated properly first try.

"Sure! (Go away!) Score! (Haven't you humans taken enough from the owner!) Score! (It's all our fault! The owner didn't want any of this!)."

The monster screeched furiously, not giving up and continuing to struggle.

"I am not here to take anything from the owner. I am here to complete a System quest – do you know what that is?"

"...scree...? (... System... quest...?) Scree? (So you're not one of the bad people?)."

"Bad people?!"

The undead monster stopped attempting to break free and screeched in hesitation, making Zorey gasp.

"Scree! (Yes, bad people!) Score! (They threw the owner in the basement and took whatever they wanted from the house!)."

"..."

The rat screeched in agitation, causing the black-haired boy's expression to turn grim.

"...say, is the owner still in the basement...?"

Zorey asked, turning his head towards the directions the whisks of black mist were flowing from to fill the entire building.

"Scree! (He is!) Scree! (Back when he was alive, there were not enough of us to break him free!) Scree! (And after he died, he would only ask us about paper and ink and kept writing!)."

The rat confirmed.

"Is he... aggressive?"

The young priest of death asked, although he had a feeling what the answer would be.

"Scree. (No, the owner didn't leave his spot once since he died.) Scree. (He only told us to keep watch on the house and to not go outside bothering anyone.) Scree. (It seems that the owner is waiting for something.)"

The rat screeched and accidentally ended up rolling to the side.

"Let's go to him. I have a hunch that he might be waiting for someone like me."

"...scree...? (...someone like you...?)."

Zorey decided and untangled the undead dwarf lesser rat from its clothy prison and patted its side as it screeched in hesitation.

"You want to help the owner, don't you?"

"Scree! (Yes!)"

The boy asked and decisively walked towards the pantry and the blocked trapdoor, having the undead let out a screech and start hopping after him.

The thickness and amount of the black mist pouring out from the spot were a bit lower than the one given out by the Artificial Rat King, but it still made Zorey hesitate.

The strength of the monster had very little to do with it, after all.

It was plausible that whatever was inside was just a rank F monster, but it could be something terrifying like a glitch or other rank B or even A one.

And he only got the word from the undead rat that the being inside wasn't aggressive – the young priest of death was quick to take action, but he wasn't stupid enough to lack any awareness.

"...mister Owner, I am a priest of death and came here to hopefully appease you or at least have a peaceful talk. I'm sorry, but I ended up appeasing all of your friends. Do you know how the undead rats are? They get a bit silly and do not think things through properly, so they attacked before I could explain myself."

Before he even tried to move the broken cupboard, Zorey crouched by the trapdoor and called out through a small hole punched through it that could barely fit something like the dwarf lesser rat, not to mention some facts, just in case...

"...scree... (...we did, didn't we...)"

"Go and repeat it to him in case he can't understand human speech. You can communicate with each other, right?"

The undead rat flinched and fidgeted in remorse, but the black-haired boy didn't bother with its self-reflection and urged him while the Lesser prayer was active.

"Scree! (Okay!)"

The undead rat screeched and dived down, losing pieces of mangled fur on the jagged edges of the hole.

Zorey waited a bit, at least until he heard muffled screeching coming from below.

"...ah... damn, Kaipo would start crying if he saw my HP... haaa... Mend."

*CRACK*

The black-haired boy flinched and sighed before using the nearly-forgotten healing Skill – and having something in his torso made a really unpleasant sound.

"URGH...!"

The pain that pierced the young priest of death's body was nothing to scoff at, but his wounds and bruises began to disappear as his HP refilled bit by bit.