The Curse of the Truman Undead

The coffin lid revolved in the air for a few rounds before it landed heavily on the ground. The screeching sound of the lid dropping onto the ground was amplified multiple times in the empty hall, its echo making one's eardrums throb.

A dried and rotten palm appeared on the edge of the coffin, followed by the whole body. The monster's body was covered in patches of dark yellow moldy spots. There were two eyeballs fixed onto its skull, and it carried a black colored book. A series of eerie sounds were heard as it moved its jaws.

Dark Summoner Lesse: Level 9 Elite, Health Points: 1900.

"Dgagh…" (Language of the Undead: Revival of the Dead!)

Light Empathy!

Lin Jie activated the skill that came along with his alias. Holy Light flashed across the Dark Summoner's body. The summoner laughed coldly—it was not affected by the Holy Light at all.

In The New Age, when the dead were revived with vengeance, they would be considered as 'Fallen.' The stronger their faiths in their past lives, the more powerful they would be once they had fallen! Some examples included the Fallen Angels and Fallen Paladins. Dark Summoners were classified as the Elite tier as they were strong believers of their faiths when they were alive. This type of creatures was immune to Lin Jie's interruption techniques.

The creaking sound of the bones sent chills down one's spine. One after another, the Undead rose up from underground beside the tightly packed weaponry racks in the hall.

'Run!'

A Dark Summoner which could not be interrupted was even stronger than a Dark Gold Boss!

Lin Jie took a brief look at the book the Dark Summoner was holding on to. His eyes narrowed, and he simultaneously activated Hunter's Forward Charge and Wild Charge, increasing to double of his movement speed. Like a gust of strong wind, he ran past the Dark Summoner and disappeared from its vision.

The book also disappeared together with him.

——————————————————

At the Weaponry Hall.

"Old Qing1, you will be returning to teach one month later right?" Wine God Elder spun his hammer around casually, bringing up a gust of wind which blew off the monsters surrounding him. "Do remember to visit me on your weekends. I will die of anxiety if I can't move around for a whole week."

Wine God Youngster's eyes turned red. "Don't worry, I will bring you around when I visit you every day."

"Su- wait, what sound is that?"

Dong——

Dong——

The sound of a series of concentrated footsteps startled them. A wooden door exploded the next second—tens of rotting Undead barged into the place from the doorway, carrying all sorts of weapons. They looked around with their blood-red mouths opened and ran excitedly towards the Wine God Brothers once they saw them.

"Old Qing, run!" Wine God Elder shouted. 'Where the hell did this group of monsters come from?!' He used his body to attract the attention of the Undead before turning back to call his brother.

A gleam of cold light flashed past Wine God Youngster's eyes. Sparks flew out from his spear as Wine God Youngster struck it out against an Undead carrying a heavy ax. He grabbed his brother's right arm and retreated quickly.

The Undead swarmed towards them like tidal waves!

The two of them escaped in a panic, and soon they were out of the main hall and approached a corner of the Weaponry Hall.

"Hey, where are the monsters?" Wine God Youngster was stunned for a moment. He probed his head ahead cautiously, and his pupils constricted when he saw the scene inside.

A figure stood holding a copy of a dark colored book in front of the whole army of Undead, donning a messy black armor suit and carrying a rusting heavy sword, his greyish-brown Rune's Cape floating in the air.

Lin Jie stroked the book with his right hand. Ripples of air radiated outwards from the place where he stood, and the Undead cowered backward in fear.

"Come and help me."

"Sure."

The pair of brothers threw a look at each other and took their positions besides Lin Jie, one on the right and the other on the left. The Undead caught the scent of new living bodies, and driven by their desire for flesh, they dispelled the fear in their hearts and rushed forwards, screaming loudly.

"Weaken!" Stroking the book lightly, several black halos of light surged outwards from where they stood.

Wine God Elder stomped heavily down, creating a fissure on the ground surface!

Consecration!

A big wave of 40 plus damage points floated up and was being absorbed by the Undead. However, Wine God Elder was surprised when he saw that each of the Undead could only cause around 10 plus damage points in return. Their attack power had been weakened!

Taking the chance to drink a Health Potion, Wine God Elder felt more refreshed. He immediately struck out his Hammers of Discipline and started killing off the believers one by one.

Meanwhile, Lin Jie remained at his spot. He stroked the book in his hands from time to time and emitted rounds of queer halos from where he stood.

Clang-

Clang-

The Undead dissipated into the air and dropped their weapons onto the ground one after the other.

There was a huge increase in Lin Jie's EXP bar simultaneously. He was about to reach Level 6!

"Thanks a lot," Wine God Elder saluted to him. As the common saying goes, 'one should be flexible to change and adapt to different circumstances.' Wine God Elder could look down on Lin Jie before due to his skills, but he was also flexible enough to accept the fact that Lin Jie had saved them, and thus, he thanked him sincerely.

Lin Jie grinned widely. At the same time, his eyes fell upon the book in his hands, his thoughts racing fast as he tried to process what happened a while ago.

That "Curse of the Undead" was the book he snatched from the Dark Summoner. The moment he flipped open its pages, Lin Jie's health bar dropped by 30 points. In exchange, he learned the Language of the Truman Tribe Undead. This was a small tribe within the whole species of Undead, but they were skilled at cursing people and casting the Dark Grudge spells.

Curse of the Truman Undead (Dark Gold)

No job restriction, Assisting Accessory.

Requires: Level 5

Attributes: None

Additional: You are allowed to use the skills of a Truman Curse Master. However, you will not be able to move during the period of time you equip this book.

The spells Lin Jie used just now were known as the "Weaken Grudge" and "Dead Grudge." That was a very special type of equipment. The longer one equipped himself with it, the more skills they could learn from the book. However, just in that few seconds of battle that had passed, Lin Jie had noticed that his Endurance points had decreased by one! That was something he had not expected.

Only the Undead and Mages which pursued extremity would use such equipment.

"Rare equipment?" Wine God Elder took a look at the book and smiled. "You can just address me as 'Old Mai'2."

Wine God Youngster chuckled. "My bro's very thick-skinned. He most probably had forgotten how impolitely he treated you previously. Please don't mind him."

Lin Jie couldn't help but smile. This pair of brothers were indeed very frank.

As they sat down and replenished their health with bread and water, Lin Jie asked politely, "Are you guys mercenaries?"

Though Lin Jie would really prefer to drink potions, he still joined them and attempted to make small talk.

"Mercenaries?" Wine God Elder raised his brows, "you can say that. We just established a two-man workshop recently… But I do like the sound of mercenaries. Okay, I have decided, I will be a mercenary from today onwards!"

Lin Jie blinked his eyes, feeling rather dumbfounded. 'What, you mean they were not mercenaries from the beginning?'

'Erm, did I just lead them on their destined paths before the stipulated timing…?'

In the midst of their conversation, Wine God Youngster had picked up and stored the weapons dropped by the Undead away.

"There are a total of 27 pieces of Level 5 Bronze Sets. Their attributes are much better than those sold in the shop, they should be quite popular."

"Give all the weapons to Fu Sheng."

"But, Brother Wine God…"

"Just call me Old Mai, I can't get used to the sound of my username."

"Sure. Old Mai," Lin Jie relented in. "I don't have enough space in my bag for storing. Maybe the two of you can have them instead."

Old Mai took a look at the equipment's attributes. "Well, I didn't expect the monsters to spawn so much equipment at a go. I guess we can most probably earn a few thousand dollars by selling them off. How about this, I will transfer you $1,500. The rest will be counted as the labor fees for our efforts."

"Sure." Lin Jie did not bother to reject this kind gesture. It was definitely good to be able to earn more money.

As the Dark Summoner was revived, there were no monsters refreshed in the Weaponry Hall for the time being. They sat down and talked for a long time. Wine God Elder kept trying to find out more about the Mercenary Association, but Wine God Youngster just sipped on the wine he brought along and at the same time kept on correcting the wrong words used by his elder brother in his speech. Lin Jie told all he knew of about the Mercenary Association to the two brothers. He even told them the secret tactics they could use to level up their own mercenary team. With those tactics, their mercenary team would be able to level up to Level 2 immediately, which could save them a lot of time.

"Wow, I can't wait for this." Wine God Elder laughed. "It's been a while since I got real action. I have just been trying to level up this whole time since the game was launched."

Wine God Youngster chuckled. "Fu Sheng, if you are interested, you can stay here for a while with us. We can bring you around and help you level up. At the level you are at now, you might be looked down upon by arrogant fellows who don't know you well."

Wine God Elder coughed dryly. "True, true…"

Lin Jie shook his head. His primary goal for this trip was to get the Sub-Legendary equipment. Even though those two players had good reputations, it was best to be more cautious when it came to the matter of getting Sub-Legendary equipment.

'Better to be safe than sorry.'

"I will give this book to you." Lin Jie placed the "Curse of the Truman Undead" book on the ground. He added, "The Weaken Grudge can decrease 15% of the monsters' stats, Old Mai will enjoy a good time killing monsters with it. But do remember to put it away immediately after the spell, or else it will decrease your own Stats."

"Wh-this is Dark Gold equipment, I cannot keep this!" Old Mai was just about to push the book back to Lin Jie, but he was already gone.

——

"Giving gifts and leaving dashingly"—this was the swankiest act that was well employed by players of the Bandit jobs.

Imagine this scene: before a great war, a gallant knight gritted his teeth, plucked a bunch of fresh roses and handed them silently to the maiden of his dreams, without giving a damn to his bleeding palms caused by the flowers' thorns. He activated Stealth mode and left the lady, while she gazed at his back longingly with her bright and watery eyes, now brimming with worry and anxiety. Her long hair flowed in the light breeze, while his blood and tears dripped down on the battlefield far away…

Many male players had attempted that stunt before. The next moment, their Friends Column would light up, and tons of questions would rain down upon them, all of them from the girl: were you confessing to me or just kidding around? If you were serious about this, come over to my house instantly. All my family members—my father, mother, and my distant relatives—were all waiting for me to bring a guy back home…

——

Lin Jie went back to the crossroad. Since the Sub-Legendary equipment was not found at the Weaponry Hall, where could it be?

The Main Hall? Or the Library?

'The Library doesn't seem a likely place for storing equipment. Better check out the Main Hall first.'

Ding~

Ding~

Lin Jie opened the system's notification bar. One was from the bank. Wine God Elder had transferred $4,000 to him. That included the price of the Dark Gold equipment he wanted to give them for free.

The other notification was a reminder from the outside world.

'Seems like Mother is calling me for dinner…'