Chapter 70: They Backed Away
A corridor packed with zombies.
There were too many to count, but Walfred kept walking, unfazed.
A short while later.
Something incredible happened.
Twitch!
The zombies, who’d been standing around in a daze, started backing away one by one to avoid the approaching Walfred.
The creatures crept backward until they’d opened up a full gap, clearing a path. Watching this, Walfred’s eyes gleamed as he fingered the ring.
’This thing performs like a dream.’
He’d assumed it just kept enemies from striking first, but he never expected the zombies would actually back away on their own.
And that wasn’t all.
The ghouls, which looked a little different from the zombies, also gave Walfred a wide berth. Like prey that had stumbled upon a predator while crossing its path.
Just as the path opened up like the parting of the Red Sea.
"...!"
"Wh-what is that?"
The hunters watching through binoculars near the barricade couldn’t hide their shock.
They were so startled that their bewildered voices carried all the way to where Walfred stood.
"...I didn’t just imagine that, did I?"
"The zombies aren’t attacking?"
"What on earth is that..."
Of course they were stunned.
To them, with no way of knowing about the [Ring of the Decaying One], the sight must have looked like magic.
After that, Walfred strolled leisurely through the corridor packed with zombie hordes, as if out for a walk. Around the time he passed hundreds of zombies and pushed deep into the interior.
Ding!
[Warning: Blessing of the Frost Dragon]
[Distance from the resonator (Elsa) is too great.]
[Current distance: 1,319 ft]
A warning alert blocked his view.
Along with a message that his distance from Elsa had hit its limit.
’The Blessing of the Frost Dragon has a range of about 1,640 feet.’
If he got just three hundred feet farther away, the buff enhancing his physical abilities would vanish.
But there was no need to worry.
Because just a dozen or so yards ahead of where he stood, he could feel a presence on an entirely different level from any of the zombies he’d seen so far.
And then.
[Warning! A powerful monster has appeared!]
[Elite: Corpse Lord]
[Rank: B]
[This is an opponent requiring caution!]
With the familiar warning message as a cue.
A massive monster, its bones and flesh grotesquely matted together, revealed itself.
’So that’s the...’
The B-rank Elite Monster, the Corpse Lord.
The moment Walfred saw it, he understood why it had been given that name. Because it had a body made by chopping up hundreds of corpses into pieces and stitching them back together.
If there were such a thing as a flesh-lump golem made of corpses, bones, and entrails, wouldn’t it look something like this?
Just as he was entertaining that idle thought.
Crunch, crunch!
An irritating sound suddenly reached his ears.
Snapping out of his musings, Walfred examined the Corpse Lord’s behavior closely, and then his eyes went wide.
"...!"
What the creature was gnawing on so greedily.
It was a corpse that looked like it had died not long ago. Judging by the look of it, this had probably been a member of the shelter who’d recently fought the undead here.
Just as he was furrowing his brow at the disgusting sight.
[Support: Sharp Eye Activated]
[Identifying the target’s weak point.]
[Duration: 5 seconds]
The buff Mitchell had cast on him kicked in.
A moment later, his vision shifted to black and white, and out of the Corpse Lord’s entire body, only one spot flickered with a brilliant white glow.
The dead center of the Corpse Lord’s belly.
He could see a mana stone the size of a human head lodged deep beneath the thick skin and rotting entrails.
’First things first, I’ll need to split that belly open.’
Otherwise, getting anywhere near the mana stone would be impossible. But he couldn’t just attack blindly.
His opponent was a B-rank Elite undead.
It possessed powerful frost-attribute resistance, so to deal any real damage, he’d have to trigger the special skill [Ice Shatter] first.
’And to do that...’
Rather than one powerful blow, he’d need to land multiple attacks to raise the odds of the [Ice Shatter] mark.
Walfred made his move.
"Ice Needle."
Twenty ice needles appeared in the air.
Glaring at the belly of the Corpse Lord as it kept up its filthy feast, he said:
"Launch."
At that, the ice needles circling around Walfred shot out like bullets.
But.
Pap-pap-pap-pak! Tonng!
The ice needles failed to pierce the Corpse Lord’s tough hide and bounced off. Or else lodged in very shallowly before being crushed where they stuck.
The reason soon became clear.
[Warning! Warning!]
[The target has high frost/cold resistance.]
[70% of damage is negated.]
Because its resistance was absurdly high.
Meaning even if he dealt 100 damage, only 30 got through. And as if his luck were rotten too, he’d landed twenty hits and [Ice Shatter] still hadn’t triggered.
’Damn it.’
Walfred’s face screwed up.
Just as he was about to prepare a second attack.
[Gurgh! Gk! Graaaaah!]
Was it because its meal had been interrupted?
The Corpse Lord let out a deafening shriek.
At that, the hundreds of zombies and ghouls that had cleared a path for him just moments ago all glared at Walfred in unison.
And then.
"Kreuk! Graaaaah!"
"Kyahaaaa!"
The zombies and ghouls came charging like madmen.
A moment earlier, by attacking the Corpse Lord, he’d broken the first-strike defense granted by the [Ring of the Decaying One].
’Just as I expected.’
Walfred didn’t panic.
If anything, he calmly lowered his stance and stretched out his palm over the sheet of ice covering the floor.
"Frost Nova!"
A radius of sixty-five feet centered on Walfred.
A powerful frost shockwave whirled out.
As a result.
The zombies and ghouls charging at Walfred froze solid mid-rush, exactly in their charging postures. And the effect of [Frost Nova] didn’t stop there.
-----
[Special Ability: Ice Spikes Activated]
▷Frost-attribute damage taken by targets increased
▷Slow applied: -30%
-----
Crunch! Krakakakaka!
Ice Spikes, the special ability that activates only when there’s snow or ice nearby, erupted upward and mercilessly skewered the torsos of the zombies and ghouls.
The Corpse Lord was no exception.
Sploosh!
An ice spike pierced clean through its thigh.
Its frost resistance was that high, so how did a spike punch through its thigh? Just as that question crossed his mind, the reason became clear.
[Blessing of the Frost Dragon: ’Ice Shatter’ mark applied]
[Ignoring the target’s frost tolerance.]
[Duration: 30 seconds]
The [Frost Nova] he’d just used had triggered [Ice Shatter]. Walfred’s expression brightened.
’There it is!’
The timing to attack had finally arrived.