Balram's Coffin
His quick break took about 20 minutes. Arthur logged back into the game and saw multiple messages from Doux. Apparently they found an unknown building that looked like an abandoned church. There was no information from the system but they were sure to find a treasure in the area. They sent a photo of the building, the supposed church was covered with black vines. The gothic styled church's multiple windows made out of colored glass were shattered. There was a flock of crows always standing on top of the building and the door was apparently firmly locked. The brick used to build the church was starting to lose its color and was cohabiting with moss. The plants in a permeter of 1 kilometer were all blackened. Overall the atmosphere was even worse than in the Cursed Canyon. There was a slight black fog coming out of the broken windows and it seemed to only appear when players were nearby. The most important thing, was that it smelled like blood, to the point that even humans could realize it. There wasn't any corpse in the surrounding yet the smell of blood was dominant there. They didn't know how to enter the church but they guesses that this zone must be around level 20 considering the level of the surrounding areas. Apparently, the church was well hidden and Doux only stumbled upon it by chance. They didn't realized the black plants until they were deep enough in the zone, as if there was some sort of protective illusion around the church.
Arthur was very interested by the abandoned church. He only needed about 20 golds to complete his goal and start the money machine, and this secret location might be worth these 20 golds. Maria told him that she already visited most cities in the entire Empire and already had plans to take a step into the Empire. But they couldn't start anything if they didn't have the fund for it. So they absolutely needed the shop. They already crafted a generous amount of flintstones so they were ready to make money. The cost for a flintstone was about 2 coppers and they could easily sell it for 5 coppers, that was nearly double the cost in profit.
Arthur joined his guild members and arrived near the church. Arthur thought that Athena's descriptions were toned down. The atmosphere was truly disturbing, Arthur could feel the hair on his body rise everytime he approached the building.
" This could be a perfect location for a horror movie. " joked Doux.
" I thought the same, maybe a evil ghost nun type movie. But I think we have enough of those. " answered Arthur.
He tried to open the metal door in the front, but it didn't even budge, as Athena said.
" There has to be an entrance somewhere. Anyone knows if gothic churchs typically have some sort of back door? " asked Arthur, not actually waiting for an answer.
" Not that I know, but then again I'm not sure I could qualify as a gothic church expert. " answered Vita with a small smirk.
" Maybe we simply have to get in by the windows, but that'll mean that once we're in, it'll be harder to get out. " said Arthur
At his words, they looked for ways to get to the windows and realized it was indeed doable.
" Well, I'll go first I guess " said Arthur as he climbed and reached the broken window.
" You guys can come in ! " shouted Arthur from inside the church once he got in.
One by one, the whole party got inside the church, but this time Vita actually had to block her nostrils because pf the intensity of the blood smell.
" Alright I don't know what smells blood like this, but this is getting ridiculous. " said Flaming Flower with a uncontrollable frown on her face.
Arthur simply shrugged and visited the interior of the church. Even after 10 minutes, they couldn't identify the source of this odor nor another room for the church.
" Well, we can't find any secret door, yet the smell is still here, but our sense of smell isn't good enough to localize the source so I guess we can only search. " said Doux, looking under a putrified wooden bench.
" I may have found something " said Athena who was behind the priest stand.
The floor at this place was unequal, as if a part of the floor has been removed then someone put it back. It was a typical case of hidden stairs. Doux grabbed with his two hand the tile that was slightly out of proportion and removed it, revealing like they guessed a hidden stair. But at the same time, the smell of blood assaulted their noses once more and even Arthur found it hard to not frown this time.
" Jesus just how much blood is there down there. " said Athena as she turned down the smell sensor in her parameters.
Everyone did the same, although they usually kept every sense at maximum in order to be in perfect condition, this time the odor was so intense and putrid that it would actually hinder them. Arthur was the first to go down and realized that there was a large, really large decorated with gold ornaments room, a white coffin that looked noble and blood. Blood everywhere. The room was actually flooded with blood. There was so much of it that the blood reached the middle of Arthur's tibia.
When the whole got down and approached the coffin. They saw a hand open it from the inside and a body rose like it took a nap.
" Who dares to awaken me, the great Balram! " roared the person inside the coffin. His appearance screamed one thing, Vampire.
Eclipse's members immediatly backed off and prepared for combat, but they sweated a bit when they saw the stats of the creature in front of them.
[ Balram, 89th Baron Of Evernight ] ( General Monster )
Level 15 ( Weakened )
HP: 6000/6000
This was by far the strongest challenge they were gonna have yet, and Arthur was getting excited at the idea of fighting him. But suddenly, the blood under their feet started to move, and got absorbed by Balram.
" Ahhhhh, now I'm ready to deal with you insects. " said Balram standing up from his coffin.
[ Balram, 89th Baron Of Evernight ] ( General Monster )
Level 15
HP: 12 000/12 000
' Ok maybe this isn't going to be that simple ' thought Arthur. When he turned around to see the face of his companions, he saw nervousness written all over their faces. He thought about something to reassure them.
" No need to be that stressed, if the Light Element is effective against Vampires, I'm sure we can kill him " said Arthur to his team.
They simply nodded, but now instead of nervousness there was determintation in their eyes. Athena got in front of Arthur and the rest of the team got into position. Balram was now fully out of his coffin and watched the humans with a sneer, as if looking at a weak prey that tried to desperatly defend itself. He dashed towards Doux at a great speed, but the warrior was ready for him. The moment he sensed he was going to get hit, he used {Jumping Strike } to dodge the strike, he landed at the same place.
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He didn't deal a lot of damage but the vampire was stunned for 2 seconds, and Arthur wouldn't miss the opportunity. He used his sword energy infused in Excalibur and slashed the vampire 5 times during these 2 seconds, while Athena hit him twice with normal attacks and Flaming Flower hit him with a fireball.
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In a single stun, the Vampire suffered nearly 8000 damage. This was simply unbelievable. The power of Excalibur was displayed in front of the members of Eclipse. It proved that the Vampires were weak against Light based attacks.
The Vampire screamed in pain, and tried to rip apart the puny humans that dared to hurt him that much, but they already retreated back since the end of the stun. Suddenly the Vampire's eyes went from silver to bright red, and he disappeared into a blur. Arthur was the only one that saw him moving and knew he targeted Vita the healer. He managed to slash the Vampire's face before he sunk his pointy teeth into the neck of Vita, which would have probably resulted in an instant death and him resplenishing his health.
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When the Vampire saw that he had a burning scar accross his face, he screamed in anger.
" YOU DARE HUMAN, YOU DARE INFLICT A SCAR ON MY FACE!! " shouted Balram.
Two blood spears appeared hovering above him and flew through the air at a great speed towards Athena and Doux.
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This attack alone nearly killed them both but Vita instantly healed Athena with her healing spell and used { Healing Wires } on both of them.
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She realized that the Vampire's ability reduced her healing potentiel. The vampire didn't let the team rest as he once again lauched himself towards Arthur this time. He was the one that had aggro since he was the one that inflicted the scar on Balram's face. But this time Athena was ready, as the Vampire's canines only hit the steel of Athena's shield and as another strike infused in light approached his face. This time Arthur had the time to aim thanks to Athena's doings.
Arthur hit Balram's left eyes, rendering him partially blind and inflecting 674 damage. The Vampire' health was getting dangerously low, and all of his attempt to heal has failed until now. He looked at the human in front of him as possible threats instead of just food now. He simply watched their mouvement, panting because of the damage he received.
The party did the same. They kept watching out for the Vampire's next attack. But what the Vampire did next surprised them. A magic spell appeared on the ground under him and as they tensed thinking that it was an attack, the Vampire Baron simply disappeared. At the same time, they received a notification.
Hidden Quest Received : ' Rank : Legendary
Inspect on the mouvement of the nobility of the Vampire City, Evernight in the Vaenith Empire.
Rewards: ?
They actually received a legendary quest, they couldn't believe it. It was said on the official website that Legendary quest were supposed to only appear at level 200 or so, and that they would normally take several months to clear. It noted the danger of these quest, yet they received one by nearly killing a level 15 monster. This was beyong being lucky, or so they thought.
What they didn't know however, was that Balram was the weakest of the nobility of Evernight, and that the difference between even one rank was like the difference between the heaven and the earth.