Seeing Odelia entering the shop again, Drune asked “Still haven’t found him?”

“No...even after searching all of Asheton again, he was nowhere to be found.” Odelia sighed in defeat, “To think I was the one highly underestimating the Heir.”

“He just disappeared in front of you? Are you sure it wasn’t Invisibility, or maybe some new type of Teleportation?” Drune suggested, throwing out some ideas.

“If it were Invisibility or Greater Invisibility, I would have definitely still heard him there, but I could not. As for a new type of Teleportation, I would think he would still need time to cast it, which would have given me plenty of time to catch him; but instead he was there one moment, then disappeared in a blue flash in the next.” Odelia smiled happily though, “The Heir only keeps getting more and more intriguing.”

“Umm...Lady Odelia.” Mako spoke up, addressing Odelia politely as her Master’s wife. “If you really need to know, I can try to find out where Eyes is for you.”

Taking interest, Odelia asked “Drune said you were a Fighter Class, do you somehow have some type of Divination Skills? Or maybe know someone in town that does?” Drune also took interest.

“I don’t know about all that, but I can communicate with Eyes from anywhere, and all I need to do is ask him where he is.” Mako explained.

“If you please then.” Odelia gestured to go ahead. “Though I already lost to Lord Eyes, I would still love to know where he actually disappeared to.”

Nodding to Odelia’s request, Mako opened up her Menu and sent Eyes a message. “All done, now we just have to wait for him to reply.” While they all waited for a response, the couple both started to question Mako about how exactly she could communicate with Eyes, and Mako tried her best to explain without telling them about the Players.

***

The Warrior Chieftain turned to me, roaring “Rarghhh! Betrayer! I am King!” But even with not having full control of my body still, I easily made quick work of him, simply sending a Twin Arrow to his skull and killing him like the others.

"Even if they're undead, they must still count as part of Goblinkind since they're dying so easily. It's all thanks to the 30% Damage against any of Goblinkind from the Goblin Slayer Title." Believing that's why they all seemed weaker than they should be.

Ejecting from my body, the ghostly figure of Goblex appeared in front of me, shouting in a hollow and ghostly voice, “Useless idiots!” and I could feel myself having full control again.

You are no longer affected by the Status Debuff: [Possessed].

“But don’t go thinking you're making it out of here alive, Betrayer!” Pointing his ethereal finger to the doors, “The thousands of other goblins outside will make sure of that!” As he then disappeared into the ground.

Collecting myself for a second, I saw that I got a message from Mako a few minutes ago, and considered asking her for help.

Mako Nomura

Mako- Hey, where’d you go? Lady Odelia’s been searching all over town for you.

Sorry, I was caught up with something.

What’s up?

Almost immediately she answered.

Mako- That’s okay, but can you tell me where you are right now, I forgot to give you something.

“Odelia must’ve asked her to find out where I am.” I figured, checking the Status again.

Virus Progress: 4.98% (22 Hrs, 43 Mins, 24 Secs)

“This is bad, if Goblex possesses me again, or if he just hides in a wall somewhere, he could really waste a lot of my time and I might not end up making it.” Also considering, “Plus the time it takes to get to Asheton, and then somehow finding a cure for a zombie virus.” Having no other obvious choice, I decided to let Mako know.

Okay I’ll tell you where I am, but first I need you to do me a favour.

Mako- A favour? What kind of favour?

I need you to go and find me a way to cure a Zombie Infection, or maybe a Zombie Virus.

Mako- What? A Zombie Virus?

You read that right, and it’s exactly what it sounds like.

Mako- Okay sure, but where should I bring it when I find one?

Only Odelia is fast enough to bring it to me in time, so when you find a cure, tell her I’ll be waiting for her inside Castle Creedmor, North of the Asheton and in the middle of the Crescent Mountains.

Oh, and if you can’t find a cure in less than 22 hours from the time of this message, I’ll be dead and a zombie.

Mako- Wait, are you being serious?

Extremely.

Mako- Hmm…what’s in it for me?

Wow, I didn’t expect you to be like that Mako. You know I’m dying here, right?

Mako- I understand, but Master’s been teaching me to be more greedy and selfish as a Blacksmith. If I want something to happen, make it happen, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to ask.

Fine, what do you want then?

Mako- I want you to help me help Master Drune and Lady Odelia.

Wait, you being greedy is just you wanting me to help other people? You really do need to be more greedy and selfish.

So what exactly do you want help with?

Mako- I haven’t known Master Drune for long, but I already want him to be happy, and from what I noticed he isn’t happy. He won’t say it, but not living together with Lady Odelia clearly makes him sad, and when I confronted Master about it, he completely ignored me and dismissed the conversation.

But when he did that, I got a random Quest.

I suddenly heard slamming against the doors to the throne room, and decided to rush Mako.

Sorry, I really don’t have time for the whole explanation right now, can you please just shorten it and get to the point? I’m kind of on the clock right now.

Mako- Right, sorry.

In short, I need you to help me reunite them together since I know you’re close enough to them that they’ve sworn to serve you, and right now I don't even know where to start.

Ok deal, I'll come up with something.

When I typed and agreed to help, a new Quest randomly popped up.

Quest

Separated Lovers:

Find a way to reunite Drune and Odelia in a place they can truly call a home.

Reward: ???

Before I could even think about the sudden Quest, the throne room doors swung wide open, and thousands of different types of undead goblins came spilling through into the room—almost like a swarm of ants.

Jst rembr les thn 22 huors

I messingly typed as some arrows and spells already came flying towards me; being sent by undead goblins who still had their eyes, or skeletons who could somehow see without them. “Well, looks like all I need to worry about now is dealing with the rest of them, I’ll leave everything else to Mako and Odelia, and hopefully they make it in time.” Gripping my bow tighter, I said to myself “I guess it’s my turn to massacre the goblins.” Charging up an even more powerful Charged Arrow, I aimed it directly at the incoming undead horde, and I couldn’t help but smile at the challenge in front of me.

***

Speaking with a slight concern in her voice, Mako said “Lady Odelia, I know where Eyes is, but I think he needs our help as soon as possible.”

“Lord Eyes, needs my help? And as soon as possible?” Mako nodded yes, “Of course! Where is he, and what does he need of me?” Odelia enthusiastically asked, becoming slightly concerned by her Lord’s wanting of help.

“Is the Kid—I mean Eyes, really in trouble?” Drune asked, also slightly concerned.

“If he’s being completely serious about what he said, I think he somehow got infected by a Zombie Virus, and that he needs a cure in less than 22 hours or he’ll die.”

“A Zombie Virus?!” Drune and Odelia yelled out in unison.

“Are you sure that’s what he said, Mako? A Zombie Virus?” Odelia questioned, trying to make sure.

“I’m sure, why? Is something wrong? Is that really bad?” Mako questioned back, clueless of the exact significance.

“A Zombie Virus, or a Zombie Infection, is an extremely rare and dangerous thing to hear about, and is enough to cause most to have concern. The last major one being so troublesome that it was dubbed ‘The Ending Plague’, and single handedly ended the War 300 years ago.” Drune explained, telling Mako “It is the sole reason everyone is rightfully concerned about always blessing the dead till this day, and this means that things could be very bad if it gets out of hand and isn’t dealt with quickly.”

“A Zombie Virus could even destroy the major cities if enough of the right people were infected and turned.” Odelia commented, ” For example, if Drune or I were turned into zombies, Asheton would surely fall in under an hour, turning everyone in town into a horde of zombies.”

“That does sound dangerous,” Mako agreed, “but everything should be alright as long as we find a cure, right?” She hoped for the best, but Drune and Odelia looked down. “What, what’s wrong now?”

“Finding a cure is not that simple, especially so in a simple town like Asheton.” Odelia stated, looking increasingly concerned.

“We would first need to identify which Zombie Virus it is, find an Alchemist or Apothecary with the skills and knowledge to create a cure, and hope they have the ingredients and time to do so.” Drune continued, “But to my knowledge, there’s no such person in Asheton.”

Staying optimistic, Mako suggested “Okay, if we can’t find a cure here, why don’t we go search for one in a nearby town? Or what about asking a Healer if they can help out? There must be another way to cure a Zombie Virus.”

“There is,” Drune confirmed, “but we doubt there’s a Healer in town that could use such a rare Skill as Cleanse."

"For one has to be truly pure to have obtained it.” Odelia said, finishing Drune's sentence.

“So what, you’re just gonna let your ‘Heir’ die and become a zombie then?” Mako asked, in a provoking tone.

“Never!” Odelia declared, then muttering “Though I do not know what to do, or if I should take drastic measures...” Clenching her fist as she tried to come up with another way.

They all stood in silence for a moment, but that silence was quickly interrupted by the shop door opening to a young plain looking customer; a customer who wore the starting armour of the Fighter Class. Staring at him for a while, a realization came to Mako, and she shouted “A Player!”

“A what?” Odelia repeated.

“Umm...excuse me.” The customer spoke softly and timidly, “My name is Rando, and I’m looking to buy a new weapon and armour.”

Odelia ignored him, “You sound like you have an idea.”

“I do, just give me a few minutes and I think I can find someone who can help.” Mako said, holding her hand out and opening up the Social Menu.

“Umm...excuse me.” The customer said slightly louder to try to get their attention.

Drune walked up to him and said “Sorry about that, why don’t you come with me.” Then turning to the women, “Looks like you girls got this handled.” giving a thumbs up as they both left the shop together.

***

“Man this is endless, Goblex must’ve told them where I was.” I thought to myself, alternating my Skill use to try leveling them up. “At this rate I’m gonna get trapped in here, I better make my way outside where there's more space to move, and before I get overwhelmed by their numbers.” Doing my best to dodge their attacks, I still got hit by a few, but I ran and forced my way through the horde.

Standing surrounded in the foyer, I noticed that the Charged Arrow I shot in the throne room earlier completely destroyed the marble statue in the center, but it did make it so that I could see that the entrance had even more goblins coming from outside. Quickly recognizing that I couldn’t make it through that without taking more damage, I shot a Power Shot to the left side of the foyer to make a small path, and decided to head for the destroyed tower which opened up to the outside.

Clearing a way using Power Shots to try to conserve my mana, I made my way to the destroyed tower and reached the courtyard through it; though as soon as I did make it outside, I heard Goblex shouting “No, he’s over here now!” and I could see he was ordering the horde from right above me—floating high up in the air.

Turning their attention away from the entrance and instead to Goblex’s voice, the horde of thousands of goblins—with eyes and without eyes—all began chanting as they angrily charged towards me. “Kill the Royal Guard! Kill the Betrayer! Kill the Royal Guard! Kill the Betrayer!”

Out of spite, I shot a single training arrow at Goblex above me, but as expected the arrow flew straight through him and disappeared over the walls. “Hahaha…” Goblex hysterically laughed at my attempt, saying “Like it was our grave, this shall be yours too, Betrayer!”

Not having the time or the resources to waste on shooting a ghost, I ran to the stairs leading up to the walls, and started shooting down at the horde—aiming to kill the ranged attackers first. However, also needing to deal with the sheer endless numbers following me up the stairs, I focused on clearing as many enemies as possible; mainly using Charged Arrows costing about 100 Mana, but switching to Arrow Shower when there wasn’t a good line up, or to Power Shot when I was running out of mana.

Dealing with the goblins like this for a while, I soon noticed in my peripheral vision that the goblins had made it up on the other side of the wall, and were now aiming to flank me from both sides. Knowing I had to avoid a situation of being surrounded, I jumped off the wall and landed in the middle of the courtyard. Then running towards the half broken second floor balcony—dodging as many attacks as I could—I used Leaping Shot to jump up and reach the railing, pulling myself over it. I smirked when I could visibly see Goblex get frustrated by me, as I continued to kill the horde from the balcony. Though eventually I heard the sounds of the horde coming from inside the castle, and saw that the various spells hitting the balcony were causing it to start breaking and crumbling away. Jumping again and landing back in the middle of the courtyard, the balcony finally broke off entirely, and falling out of the second floor doorways were the goblins coming from the inside.

Swiftly gathering up the arrows stuck in the dead corpses nearby, I made my way back up to the walls while continuing to pick off the ranged goblins, and cleared the waves of melee ones that got too close. Having nowhere else to safely go, I ran along the walls towards the back of the castle, and came to the conclusion that my best option was to kite(killing while running away) the horde of goblins that continued to mindlessly follow me. When we reached the back garden and I saw there were other goblins already trying to cut me off on the other side of the wall, I instead headed back inside the castle, through the halls, and made my way back to the front courtyard. All the while whittling down the endless horde, alternating through all my different Skills to level them, and picking up any arrows I ran by. I repeated the kiting path when I realized they really were mindlessly following me, and only changed when Goblex informed them to.

With the battle continuing for what felt like hours, my body felt increasingly weaker the more time passed by, and being damaged a lot while kiting inside the enclosed space of the hallways, I started paying more attention to my current Stats after the fourth lap around the castle.

Health: 1018/3390 Mana: 364/2260 Stamina: 420/2260

Worried slightly by my now low Stats, I knew killing more would solve most of my problems, so using my remaining Mana on another Charged Arrow, I waited for when we were on the walls and lined up a perfect shot to clear up a few hundred goblins. Though not being enough, I also drained all my Stamina with a few Power and Rapid Shot, and as I anticipated, a replenishing surge of power and burst of golden light filled my body again.

Congratulations you have Leveled Up! All Stats have increased by 2, and you have gained 10 Available Points. Health: 3,435/3,435 Mana: 2,290/2,290 Stamina: 2,290/2,290

“Wooo!” I yelled out, feeling incredible and full of energy, yet I could still tell my body was getting weaker. “I don’t know where you are Goblex, but this won’t take much longer, and I’ll be coming for you next!” Smiling, I continued to kite and run over the now dead again bodies starting to litter the entirety of castle grounds.

Only taking me four more laps around the castle, I returned to the courtyard with only a few hundred melee goblins left that followed me, and I wondered to myself “Where did Goblex go? Did he run away? Or is he just hiding somewhere?” While I had a casual target practice with the remaining undead and blind goblins, I opened my Menu and took note of the timer.

Virus Progress: 36.75% (15 Hrs, 17 Mins, 55 Secs)

“Not as bad as I thought it would be, but I thought there might've been a chance Leveling Up would've made it go away, guess not." I thought, spending the next few minutes relaxingly killing the remaining undead goblins.

Now standing in the middle of the corpse-filled courtyard, I shouted out for Goblex to hear. “Goblex! Where are you hiding! Come out while I‘m still asking nicely, and give you a chance to die painlessly!” The air stood silent as I peered around the area and waited for a response.

Partially rising from the ground again, Goblex looked shakened, saying “H-How is this p-possible?” He stuttered, “Y-You k-killed all of them...”

“I did, and now it’s your turn.” I stated, drawing my bow once more.

“W-W-Wait!” Goblex pleaded, coming up completely from the ground just to grovel on his ethereal knees. “P-Please spare me my King, and I will devote myself to you for the rest of my eternal life.”

“King?” I repeated, lowering my bow slightly.

“Yes, yes, you are the King now!” He proclaimed, “Not I or anyone else for that matter deserves such a title, I see that now!” Goblex then hugged and kissed my feet.

“Eww, stop that.” Lightly kicking Goblex off my feet, and telling him “Look, you’re a horrible horrible creature, and I don’t really care whether you live or die cause you seem to be pretty pathetic compared to the other goblins, but I gotta get out of this Dungeon and since you're the Boss—”

Goblex interrupted me, saying “Oh, consider it done my King.” and a moment later something unexpected happened.

The Dungeon Keeper has relenquished their ownership of the Dungeon, and with no other eligible creatures remaining inside, the Dungeon is now closing. All the Monsters in the Dungeon have been killed. The Closed Dungeon has now been cleared.