Chapter 10: 10

– Imperi… -nim!

– Pri… Resc…

Villagers had no time to react at all .

Their voices grew increasingly distant .

My vision grew darker . A huge wolf was biting into my shoulder, its eyes glaring at me . With the awful stench of a rotting corpse and disgustingly thick demonic energy added on top, too .

…Goddammit, it was a zombie wolf .

“Let me go!!”

I held the shovel shorter and stabbed it into the creature’s neck .

Because my posture was all wrong and also with my bitten shoulder, I couldn’t muster enough power behind the strike . My attack didn’t even inflict a small nick in the monster’s thick hide .

Getting dragged any deeper would be too dangerous for me .

By being isolated inside the cave all by myself, it would mean I’d become surrounded by zombies and get devoured for sure .

“Screw this…!”

I focused divinity on my hands, and then activated the skill [Horrifying Curse] . I felt the divinity immediately drain out of my body .

As the sense of dizziness filled my head up, I could hear a faint voice .

[You have granted a blessing . ]

Now wasn’t the time to mind my anemia or whatever . The blades of the shovel glowed softly . My digging tool was now imbued with the reverse effect of the [Horrifying Curse], [Blessing] .

“You stinking son of a b*tch!!”

The shovel carrying the aura of divine blessing stabbed into the zombie wolf’s neck .

STAB–!!

Forget about the smell of burning flesh, the dang thing actually melted away .

1

The sensation of a heated metal chopstick melting down plastic got transmitted through my fingertips . The shovel dug in even deeper . However, the zombie wolf still didn’t let me go .

“You stubborn son of…!”

I pulled the shovel out and stabbed the damn wolf again .

Eventually…

Boom…!

1

I finally managed to extricate myself out from the damn thing’s maws after its neck completely melted away and its body collapsed into a heap .

I rolled ungainly on the floor several times . The pile of bones and rotting corpses acted as cushions to soften my landing .

While pressing my head on the ground, I screamed out, “Uwaaaahk!! This f*cking hurts!! This… Son of a b*tch…!”

Seriously man, the pain was no damn joke .

My trembling hand reached up to my wounded shoulder . I flinched when my fingers touched the gouged-out flesh . Almost as if I got burned by something, intense heat rose up from the wound .

I couldn’t tell whether I was screaming out or grunting from the pain when I muttered to myself, “Why do I have to go through this sh*t anyway?!”

I held my shoulder and injected divinity into the wound .

This was the basic healing skill that most Priests possessed . I also added the skill [Horrifying Curse] on top, too . No, maybe I should just rename it to [Blessing] instead .

I felt the divinity drain out of my body, and in turn, the wound healed at a visible rate .

The demonic energy permeating within my muscles caused a negative reaction and my skin ruptured, but that only lasted for a short while . Broken bones realigned as new flesh grew to replace the old one .

3

“That freaking hurt . ”

This adverse reaction between divinity and demonic energy–healing the undead’s bite wound would always be accompanied by horrible pain .

Only after the wound was completely healed without a scar did I breathe a sigh of relief .

“…No, hang on . I shouldn’t be relaxing right now . ”

Maybe I should blame the instinctive fear I felt for the sudden bout of talking-to-myself syndrome . I scanned my surroundings, but my vision remained dark . I couldn’t see anything properly at all .

1

But that too lasted for only a short while as well . I quickly got to confirm the locations of the creatures shuffling towards me thanks to [Mind’s Eye] .

– Ku-oohhhh… .

Yup, it was a horde of zombies .

Zombies, halfway to becoming skeletons after most of their flesh had rotted away, were currently staggering and shuffling towards me, their jaws falling open as if they discovered a tasty treat in front of them .

“…I’m screwed . ”

I was already pretty fatigued, but now I had to fight them too?

Ahh, the Goddess of love and mercy, Gaia!

“…Please, please just spare me once, will ya?”

2

I begged the silent Goddess as my hands grasped the shovel tighter .

**

The whole cave was filled with a disgusting stench .

Rotting corpses and discarded bones were literally rolling around on the ground . As an added bonus, I could even sometimes see the walking dead snack on them .

Zombies that were busy feasting on the discarded bones and flesh discovered me and stood up from their spots . They staggered while coming in closer .

Thankfully, there were no fleet-footed zombified animals among their midst like the one from before .

“Man, I might go crazy at this rate . ”

As it turned out, I got dragged pretty deep inside the cave . This meant that I shouldn’t wait for the villagers to come and rescue me .

I raised the shovel up before stabbing it down on the ground .

[The Divine Puddle has been summoned . ]

With the shovel as the center, a holy water-filled puddle gushed up from the ground . It rapidly spread all around me in a diameter of around 5 meters .

The approaching zombies stepped into the puddle and began to unsteadily totter about before falling face-first to the ground . They then slowly melted away .

Unfortunately, another zombie stepped on top of the fallen zombies and got closer . Using their fallen ‘comrades’ as footholds, these damn things slowly shuffled towards me .

3

What a bunch of tenacious evil creatures; mere slaves to their instinctive desire to devour the living despite knowing that they would also perish in the process . This was why I felt so spooked too .

I quickly swung the shovel at the ones coming in closer towards me .

Along with a dull crack, a zombie’s head shattered, its rotting brain matter scattering about .

I knew that this was simply me buying time and nothing more . I needed to completely, utterly destroy them, and do it over a wide area too .

“The [Plague of Debilitation] . ”

I took a deep breath before muttering these words out . After raising the shovel up, I stabbed it back on the ground and closed my eyes . A large Rune letter suddenly appeared on the ground beneath the zombies, and then, particles emitting bright light exploded upwards .

[You have carried out a wide-area blessing . ]

The light particles that rose up from the ground came in contact with the zombies, causing their rotting flesh to burn away . One by one, the undead turned into ashes and dispersed away .

One, two, seven, ten…

Nice! It’s working! At this rate…!

Too bad, just as the hopes of survival formed in my heart…

BOOM-!!

…My bright expression turned gloomy in an instant .

I raised my head up .

– Ku-ooohhhh… .

The damn thing was at least three meters tall .

It had shaggy fur covering its thick hide, alongside large arms and a humongous torso . A bipedal creature that possessed hook-like claws now stood before my very eyes .

I muttered to myself, utterly dazed by this sight, “…A goddamn zombie bear?”

6

Yup, it was indeed a zombified bear .

I didn’t know which species of bear it was, but…

[Name: King of Gluttony

1

Age: …

Speciality: Biting, crushing, smashing, scooping out internal organs

+ Currently strengthened through Necromancy . ]

…This guy wasn’t something I could handle at the moment .

A pretty vicious creature had turned into a zombie, it seemed .

“Yup, I’m losing my mind here . ”

Every time the zombie bear took a step forward, I in turn also took a step backward . Even though the light particles from the wide-area blessing touched its body, the damn monster had no problem moving its body .

It then crushed the melting zombies underfoot and stepped into the puddle of holy water . Its fur did somewhat melt, but due to its thick hide, the effect was minimal, to say the least .

This guy was on a whole other level altogether compared to the zombies I had been dealing with so far .

Should I run now? However, if I showed my back against it, I got the feeling that it’d suddenly pounce on me with a frightening turn of speed .

The scarier creatures other than humanoid zombies were the undead predators . Why? Because they possessed faster movements than regular humans, that’s why .

2

If I tried to run towards the sloping exit of the cave, my back would be ripped apart in no time at all . And I’d probably get killed in an instant .

I gritted my teeth while my hands held the shovel even tighter .

“A man can die once, but for a second time?!”

3

Dying once from electrocution was already more than enough for a lifetime . I definitely didn’t want to die again after being crushed by a damn zombie .

2

I extended my hands as I gathered more divinity .

“The [Resurrection of the Dead] . ”

2

As soon as my words came to an end, the divinity quickly spread around the cave’s interior, causing the corpses found within to writhe .

Undead zombies slowly stood up while emitting white light particles, their breaths filled with divine aura .

– Oh, ohhhh!!

1

And then, the cave was rocked not by the bone-chilling howls of the undead, but pure and clean hymn-like singing instead .

Fin .