Chapter 67: The Nastiest One of All
Walfred laid Elsa down on a nearby bench.
Sienna removed her gloves and placed a hand on Elsa’s forehead. As she murmured something under her breath, like reciting a prayer, a brilliant light enveloped Elsa.
Flash!
The light traveled from the crown of her head, past her shoulders and waist, all the way to her toes. When it finally engulfed her entire body, her rigid frame loosened and softened.
"Whew."
Sienna released the breath she’d been holding.
She turned to Walfred and said.
"I’ve removed the Petrification curse, at least. Her stiffened body is back to normal too. However..."
"However?"
"...The Eternal Sleep curse is beyond my level to remove. I’m sorry."
Beyond her level to remove?
Walfred’s brow twitched.
"But a light attribute Hunter should be able to..."
"Being light attribute doesn’t mean I can break every curse. I can only remove curses of my own rank or below, and I’m a C-rank Hunter."
Sienna explained in a bitter voice why she couldn’t break the curse. Walfred fell silent, and a heavy quiet settled over them.
Just then.
"...One week ago."
Mitchell spoke up.
His expression carried a complicated weight.
"A gate of unknown rank appeared near the drainage tunnels on Basement Level 4. We tried to clear it at first, but we failed, and in the end the gate broke open."
He seemed to be explaining how things had come to this. Walfred quietly listened to Mitchell’s account.
"After the initial suppression failed, undead poured out of the gate, zombies included. The right call would’ve been to abandon the shelter and run, but..."
"We just couldn’t bring ourselves to."
Sienna cut into the conversation.
"Our shelter has a lot of children. We judged it impossible to travel through a blizzard with dozens of kids. So..."
"We chose to stand and fight. We fortified the underground arcade and held the line against the undead. But the gate boss flipped the entire battle on its head."
The gate boss, the Corpse Lord.
The creature targeted Hunters using curses it could trigger even from long range. As a result, the core Hunters fell asleep one by one, and the defensive line crumbled back.
"Then at dawn today, the defensive line on Basement Level 3 was breached entirely. That’s probably why the curse, which had stayed underground until now, reached the surface."
"I’m so sorry. If we’d held out a little longer, you never would have been dragged into this..."
Sienna bowed her head again and again.
But Walfred knew it wasn’t her fault, so he didn’t blame her. Instead, a single question filled his mind.
’But why did it curse us?’
Walfred and Elsa didn’t belong to this shelter, and they’d never fought the undead here.
All he’d done was scarf down snow in the plaza and sleep in the station office.
So why had they become targets of the curse?
As his confusion deepened.
"By the way, the child’s level must be quite high."
Mitchell abruptly spoke.
Where did that come from?
When Walfred shot him a questioning look, Mitchell explained himself.
"The Eternal Sleep curse prioritizes the highest-leveled beings within its radius when it activates."
"...Ah."
Walfred let out a groan.
So the curse automatically targeted whoever had the highest level.
’Elsa’s level is the same as mine.’
The reason he and Elsa had both become targets of the curse at the same time was suddenly clear.
The puzzle pieces finally fit together.
Walfred calmly organized his thoughts.
’Okay. I understand the situation now.’
There were three ways to break the curse.
But the first and second methods were no longer options he could count on.
That left only one.
’Eliminate the one who cast the curse.’
Exterminate the Corpse Lord. That was all.
Eyes flashing with fierce resolve, Walfred turned his head straight toward Sienna.
"There’s something I’d like to ask."
"If it’s something I can answer..."
"I need information on the Corpse Lord."
"...What?"
Sienna’s eyes went wide.
"In, information on the Corpse Lord? Why would you...?"
"Because I need to break the curse."
Walfred answered flatly.
A moment later, as the meaning of his words sank in, bewilderment spread across Mitchell’s and Sienna’s faces.
"Don’t tell me you intend to exterminate the Corpse Lord...!"
"No! That’s reckless!"
The two of them blanched, waving their hands frantically.
"The Corpse Lord is a B-rank Elite Monster! It’s the kind of beast that takes at least five Hunters of the same rank just to barely bring down!"
"I never said I was going to fight it. Yet."
"B, but..."
"Just tell me what you know. That’s all I need for now."
A resolute gaze and a serious expression.
After agonizing for a moment, Sienna exchanged a look with Mitchell, then let out a heavy sigh.
And she began to talk.
About the Corpse Lord, everything they’d experienced firsthand and everything they’d gathered from the Hunter Community.
"...The Corpse Lord’s own combat strength isn’t that impressive. According to the community, it’s only around C-rank Elite level at best."
The moment he heard that.
SSS-rankProfessor’s words flashed through his mind.
The ones about how creatures that used creepy skills like curses usually had weak combat power. Those words had just been proven right.
"But the truly terrifying part is the legion the Corpse Lord commands. It directs the zombies and ghouls, and dramatically strengthens their abilities."
Sienna’s voice trembled.
"To reach the Corpse Lord, you’d have to cut through a horde of hundreds of zombies and ghouls. And the whole time, the Corpse Lord hides in the back, hurling long-range attack skills and curses."
And that wasn’t the only problem.
"The nastiest one of all is the curse that turns you into a zombie."
[Curse: Create Zombie].
One of the reasons SSS-rankProfessor had named undead public enemy number one. As Sienna brought it up, her face darkened rapidly.
"That curse is the single biggest reason our defensive line collapsed. It’s B-rank, so I can’t remove it, and every ally we lose adds to the enemy’s numbers..."
"With things as they are, the remaining Hunters are all too afraid of infection to take the offensive. All we can do is scramble to hold the line."
Which is why we keep getting pushed back.
With Mitchell’s words as the close, Sienna looked up at Walfred again and said.
"Now you understand, right? How reckless it would be to go after that thing..."
"..."
Walfred didn’t reply.
Instead, based on everything he’d just heard, he calculated his odds of winning a fight against the Corpse Lord.
The conclusion came quickly.
’I can take it.’
The dangers Sienna had described posed no threat to Walfred whatsoever.
First, the curse that infected people into zombies.
It was a B-rank curse. Which meant it wouldn’t work on Walfred, who’d absorbed the Bone Drake’s Bone Powder and gained immunity to all curses of A-rank and below.
Second, the horde assault of hundreds of undead?
That didn’t matter either.
The [Ring of the Decaying One] Walfred wore prevented all undead of A-rank and below from attacking him first.
In other words, he could skip the fight with the hundreds-strong zombie horde entirely and stroll right up to the Corpse Lord’s face like he was taking a walk.
’And finally...’
Third, the combat power to take on the Corpse Lord.
He had that in spades.
Elsa was asleep, but fortunately, [Blessing of the Frost Dragon] was still active. So he was confident even in a one-on-one battle against a B-rank Elite.
Having finished sorting his thoughts.
"One more question."
Walfred turned back to Mitchell.
Then he asked.
"From here to where the Corpse Lord is, roughly how far is it in a straight line?"
"We’ve given up Basement Level 3, so... in a straight line, probably about a quarter mile. But why are you suddenly asking that?"
"I’m going to go kill it."
"...What?"
What did I just hear?
Mitchell asked back blankly. Beside him, Sienna stared at Walfred with the same dumbfounded face.
But only for a moment.
"Absolutely not!"
Sienna planted herself in Walfred’s path.
Arms spread wide, she pleaded with him in a thin, trembling voice.
"I, I just told you, didn’t I?! There’s a horde of hundreds of zombies standing in the way. Charging in like this is suicide!"
"I’ll be fine."
"You will not be fine!? Are you planning to leave your daughter without a father?!"
Her face and voice overflowed with worry.
Sienna was genuinely concerned for Walfred and Elsa. But when Walfred showed no sign of backing down, she attached a condition.
"...If you absolutely must go, then please, just wait a little."
"Will waiting produce a solution?"
"Yes! I posted on the community asking Hunter Walfred for help!"
She clasped her hands tightly together.
Then she spoke with eyes full of hope.
"Hunter Walfred single-handedly exterminated an A-rank Elite undead! If he helps us, there’s definitely still hope!"
"Teacher, that’s..."
At Sienna’s words, Mitchell started to say something, then shut his mouth. He’d probably been about to say there was almost no chance Walfred would come.
But saying so would crush Sienna’s hope, so he couldn’t bring himself to.
Having finished his little deduction.
Walfred shrugged and spoke.
"Then it’s all settled."
"Settled?"
Sienna looked at him, bewildered.
As if asking what on earth he meant.
Walfred looked her straight in the eye and said.
"Because I’m Walfred."
"...What?"