The Undead Flock

When the last imp had been defeated a message appeared in front of us. It was different than the messages that the system sent us, this one lacked any of the elegance the system had. It was only a single world.

<Continue? Y/N>

After some discussions we selected yes. We had not nearly put our all into this fight, and felt that clearing the next floor should be doable. Little did we know the horrors that we would be forced to experience.

Our bodies once again experienced the weird process of traveling that we encountered when entering the dungeon to begin with. This time there was a difference. A rush of holy energy could be felt pouring into our bodies. Pain filled my body. Pain that was so intense it caused tears to well up on my face and screams to escape my mouth.

Alex was different. Her response was one of pure ecstasy. Her body began to shake and eventually she could not hold it in any longer and a seductive moan escaped her lips.

Unfortunately, I did not have the luxury appreciating her appearance at that moment. The pain in my body reached a climax, and I grit my teeth to hold it in. Moments later the holy energy retreated, causing my body to feel as light as a feather. Beside me Alex's face was a slight crimson, which stood in sharp contrast to my own pale complexion. She was panting softly. a look of ecstasy in her eyes.

I chose to not interrupt her moment as I struggled to my feet. My eyes traveled the area around us, observing the minute details. We were still in a church. I could tell from sounds of organs playing and the church pews. I could also tell that the church had been corrupted. The biggest evidence of this was the skeleton who was standing behind the pew in Dark robes.

The skeleton noticed my gaze and the empty sockets filled with disturbing green flames. He lifted his skeletal hand and then church pews were filled with the corpses of what were once his flock. Each of the corpses were in a different state of decay, some of their limbs were missing. others had their chests caved in. They did not move. They simply stayed there in a grotesque display of unholy power.

The skeleton priest did not make any aggressive moves, rather he took the book he had been reading from and slowly walked towards me. The disgusting sound of bones cracking could be heard as the monster moved, but I held my ground. Rather I could not move even if I wanted to. My body seemed frozen, not reacting to any of my movements.

The skeleton finally stood in front of me. My core began to violently spin in the opposite direction as the skeleton forced its book upon me. My core span faster. My body cried out in pain as it rejected my cores movements, but I could not react at all.

The book slowly started to disappear, turning into a pixilated form as it was absorbed by my core. When the book was completely absorbed the skeleton turned to dust, and the horrifying image in front of me disappeared.

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.

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I opened my eyes to find myself staring at the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Her green eyes had traces of tears in them as she worriedly looked down at me. My head ached as if I had been stuck in a math class that was far to advance for me, but was forced to find the answers to all of the questions.

As I rubbed my head I looked into the eyes of the maiden before me. "I must have died, because you Alex are an angel."

Alex Hmphed at my words, but her signature smile that showed of her two sharp canines, appeared on her face.

"Are you ok? When we selected yes you started screaming. You did not stop until a few moments ago."

I continued rubbing my head as I sat up. "It was the holy Energy; my body can't handle it. You seemed to be having a good time though. Plus, I had the strangest vision..."

My words stopped as I looked at the scene before me. We were in the room I had seen. There were various corpses in the church pews, but there was no sign of the priest.

Dread filled me as I saw the corpses begin to twitch. Their heads turned towards us, some of them moving a complete 180 degrees as their heads were now facing backwards as they looked at us.

Their teeth began to clatter as their mouths opened and closed in a biting motion. Their bodies moved in a remarkably quick matter as they rushed towards us. There was a total of 20 of them, and their speed was equal to the imps from earlier.

I raised my pistols and began to fire. Each of my bullets aimed at the heads of the undead. My poison was useless against the undead. It could not damage that which was already dead. But the force behind my orbs was enough to slow down their movements. A few shots in the same spot could pierce their heads, which would cause the green glow in their eyes to disappear as the fall to the floor.

Alex had it easier, and yet harder. Her maul attacks were deadly. They possessed both speed and power. Unfortunately, they also required her to get in close to the undead, and she soon found herself surrounded.

Individually the corpses stood no chance against her massive hammer, but in a group her strong attacks became a hindrance. I helped when I could, Shooting the heads of the undead trying to clear out a path of escape for her. Even if the undead did not fall Alex would take advantage of the corpses brief pause to unleash a fatal attack towards it.

The fight lasted for a solid five minutes; the corpses disappear into pixels as they fell. I asked Alex why they did that.

"The corpses are absorbed by the dungeon; it is how we get our rewards. The more corpses we absorb, and the stronger they are the better our rewards. Of course, The dungeon gains from it as well. The more energy it absorbs the more powerful the dungeon becomes."

"Dungeons have ranks, just like we do. Our dungeon is a C rank dungeon. So, we cannot experience a dungeon stronger than C rank. But after it has gained enough power from the creatures that the adventurers defeat it can crank up."

"If our dungeon successfully upgraded to B rank in the future our town will see a massive growth. Our city itself will upgrade to a B rank city and the kingdom will invest more resources in it. This is why the Adventurer's guild is so important. Only licensed adventurers can enter the dungeons, and this is where the real source of income comes from."

"What I'm saying is, one of the rewards from clearing dungeons is always coins. Both from the shop and our nation's currency. The city levies a tax on these coins, and half of them go to the city automatically, before it even hits your inventory. But they will not touch the items or other rewards you get from the dungeon. It's a win win really."