Chapter 68: [Arc 2] Chapter 15: The Undead Dragon

"Turn Undead! And you! And you too! Here's an extra! And to you too! And-" - Garami

"Enough, ENOUGH! You're already passed the required amount! We're going into the second phase already!" - Jack

What, already? That was too quick. The poison must have done its thing, as only class-holding Skeletons came out of the poison cloud. The winds blew the cloud further west, covering the skeletons that laid in wait there.

All we needed, was to walk forward together with the poison cloud and firing a few Turn Undeads. It turned into a melee at the end, so I needed to rapid-fire the spell. [MP Enhancement] reached LV20 as a bonus, so who's complaining.

Including that, all of us, even Jack and Orimaru, who both didn't do anything, went up in levels big time. Me, Orimaru. and Raoul, all reached LV5, and Jack reached LV4.

They do get more EXP, those weaker species. Jack went up 3 levels with a fifth of what Orimaru and Raoul needed to reach LV5.

I've obtained two new titles: [Skeleton Slayer], and [Undead Slayer]. I've not appraised them yet, but they must be the undead variants of [Beast Slayer]. The Skeleton one must give me a boost against Skeletons, while the undead one is for any kind of undead. No slaughterer titles yet. Must be since I've not killed enough of them yet after I got the titles.

There's not only good news: we have only reached the middle of the bridge. Not that we can advance any further, as the poison cloud has turned so big, it covers the whole west-half of the bridge. The barrier has trapped it inside, as the cloud is considered my attack. Speaking of the devil,

"The barrier disappeared." - Jack

Don't go and steal my line! I'll Turn Undead you! 

The barrier did disappear, releasing a large amount of poison dust. Oh crap!

"Crap! Detox! Detox!!" - Garami

Phew, that was close. I only used the poison cloud, since I knew that it would be trapped by the barrier. Releasing something like that into the world would give me some kinda Biohazard title. Therefore, I planned to poison the Lesser Skeleton to death, then remove the poison when phase two started 

To do that, I got myself the [Detoxification] skill. Just one skill point, what a bargain. This skill removes any toxic one makes, but it's useless against alien poisons. You can only use it against your own poison, so it's more of a cleanup skill than a recovery skill. I knew instinctively what I could detox or not. [Hydra] wasn't among the available choices. Gotta be careful with that one.

The skill got sucked right into Hydra when I got it. That increased the skills range by a ton, so it's alright. I just needed to cleanse one part of the poison cloud, and the rest would follow suit like a domino effect. 

Now that the barrier is gone, it's too risky to use the poison cloud move from now on. I could only use it when the barrier kept it from leaving the bridge. If it spreads out too much, then I won't be able to purify it.

In the worst-case scenario, where the boss turns out to be too strong, I'll just blind it with light spells, then run like hell. I've got the web-bombs left to use, so I can stick it in place if that's needed. Speaking of which...

"Where's the boss?" - Garami

"Good question..." - Jack

The bridge is empty, save for us, and some stranglers amongst the Skeletons. No boss monsters for miles.

Just as I was thinking that a magic circle, way bigger than the Skeleton summoning ones, appeared right in front of us. With a bright light, what appeared from it, was...

"U-u-u-u-un-un-un-un-un-" - Jack

Whoa, that's some impressive boss. Gotta turn on [Silent].

"UNDEAD DRAGON!!" - Jack

Phew, just in time. Through [Silence], I made it so that the voices of me and Jack wouldn't be heard by the dragon. I also used [Stealth], but it's a question of time before it notices us. If this is also some kind of undead, then it will have [Life Detection]. I hate that skill.

The dragon looks around confused. No wonder, it was suddenly teleported here after all, if it wasn't created by the Quest. Even so...

"Ain't it a little too small for a dragon?" - Garami

So much for being a big, and bad dragon. Most of its body is covered with dark-grey scales, save for its pale grey stomach. Its empty eyes are filled with a purple flame, similar to Jack, and it has no wings, a long tail. sharp claws and fangs. While it wasn't decayed in any viable ways, and there was no rotten stench, you could still smell death from it. The same smell as the Skeletons, the smell from a funeral.

Yup, definitely an undead dragon.

Its height is a little above 2 meters, and some more than that in length. All in all, it looks more like a personification of death, or dragonification, instead of being the corpse of a dragon.

But, compared to Virt and co, or Glavras and the Dungeon Bosses, it doesn't look that impressive.

"Who cares about the size?! Even a young dragon is enough to devastate a whole village! Shit! Couldn't it be a Skeletal Dragon, or even better, a Dragon Zombie?!" - Jack 

This guy knows his undead dragons, despite this being his first encounter with them. Suspicious. Is this thing so dangerous? One appraisal will show me that.

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Nameless

Race: [Undead Dragon]   | Level: 2

Karma Value: -29

Skills: 9

Titles: 1

Skill points: 1.4

HP: 158/158   | MP: 115/115   | SP: 156/156

STR: 125   | VIT: 120   | MAG: 74

RES: 116   | SPD: 123  | DEX: 63

INT: 95   | LUC: 115

=====================================================================

Nothing too wrong here. It's stats are higher than your average Skeleton, but this is a dragon. Still not what you expect from something that could 'destroy a village' as Jack put it. What about the skills?

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SKILL LIST

Attack Skills: [Claw Arts LV4] [Drain Touch LV1] 

Passive Skills: [Running LV5]

Resistance Skills: [Magic Resistance LV1] [Death Resistance LV2] [Bodily Status Resistance LV1]

Racial Skills: [Undead Dragon LV1]

Elements: [Death Element LV1] [Lesser Ghost Element LV2]

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Eh? [Magic Resistance]? [Drain Touch]? [Undead Dragon]? What's going on here? And worst of all, [Bodily Status Resistance], which reduces the effect of my poison, if it could affect this guy anyway.

I kinda get the first two mystery skills, but why does it got a skill that's the same as its species?

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Skill: Undead Dragon

Skill type: Racial skill

Attribute: Death, Ghost

Effect:

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Okay, that's bad. What about the title?

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Title: [Undead Dragon]

Acquisition condition: Being, or have been, an Undead Dragon.

Effects:

Description: A title given to the Undead Dragon, the undead creature that stands at the top of every dragonic undead-monsters.

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WHAT. THE. HECK?! This is way too OP! Shouldn't the undead become weaker to holiness, the more undead it becomes?! And why only the beneficial traits?! Give it some more weaknesses, for God's sake!

"Why did something like this come to an F-rank Quest!?" - Garami

"Glad you've caught up to our current pinch. And I don't know. Maybe it's the same reason that Skeletons with classes came in the first phase?" - Jack

So went our conversation, in the loudest, silent voices we could, so that we didn't stimulate the Undead Dragon.

But, ugh. The overload of Death aether. If all the monsters were summoned as a means to reduce that, then it wouldn't be too far-fetched that something like this coming up in this situation. Wished it didn't though.

"Tch, Jack. Get ready to run towards the exit while I keep this guy occupied." - Garami

No more Skeletons are being summoned now, and all that's left of the ones from phase one lies spread out over the bridge. If this guy gets too busy with chasing me, then Jack should be able to get to the other side. That could clear the Quest, and send this thing back to where it came from. 

"What?! But what about-" - Jack

"We don't have time for whining! This thing is catching up to the current situation as we speak!" - Garami

As a small blessing in our disaster, the Undead Dragon is something taken from somewhere, and not something created with the aether or whatever. It has some intellect, which made it look around in wonder. That gave us some time, but it will start attacking us soon, either because it thinks we're the culprits, or because it's hungry.

"Ugh... fine! But don't you dare die on me!" - Jack

Did something like that happen to him before? No matter, time to do some kitting. 

"Hey, you big overgrown lizard! Yeah, I'm talking about you!" - Garami

I stopped talking in the small voice I'd used since the arrival of the Dragon, started with the taunting. Who needs skills to piss off someone?

"GRWAAAAHH!" - Undead Dragon

Here it comes! Like I thought, it's more interested in a fresh demon than the bag of bones that Jack is.

And don't start saying stupid stuff like that I've turned into a softy. There are two reasons why I volunteered to be the bait. First, the dragon may be sent back to where it came from, as long as one of us reaches the other side of the bridge. The second one is,

"Turn Undead!" - Garami

"YIIAAAAHHH" - Undead Dragon

Despite the resistance the skills and title give the dragon, it's not enough to stop me. Come back after you've become a Disaster, you shrimp!

---

Now then, as some people may remember, Living Weapons gets skill points whenever the owner uses them to kill monsters. The important part here is, that you don't need to physically use that Living Weapon to do it. Just having them equipped does the trick.

Due to that, Raoul and Orimaru got tons of skill points due to the massacre of the Skeletons. In total, Raoul got 8.6 skill points, while Orimaru got 4.3 points. The difference must be that Raoul used to be a holy rosary, while Orimaru is a katana. Double the points for certain enemies. Wonder what Orimaru gets double points for?

Anyway, when I started to taunt the Undead Dragon, I also used half of Raoul's skill points and powered up skills that could boost Turn Undead. I don't know when I'm able to get another spell by increasing the level of [Holy Magic], so I stuck to what I knew would work.

The improved Turn Undead shaved off around 10 HP from the dragon. Not much, but knowing the Undead Dragon's defensive abilities, and stats, this much is good enough. In my hindsight, I see Jack run towards the exit. If the dragon is still here after Jack has escaped I'll just run away myself, after gluing the dragon to the bridge with my web-bombs.

"Come on, come on! Is that all you-yikes!" - Garami

"RRROAAAARRR!" - Undead Dragon

The dragon, obviously annoyed with my taunting, let out the dragon's greatest attack, the dragon breath.

Too close- hey! The bridge melted! Is that [Corrosion Breath]? Why am I asking, no way that isn't [Corrosion Breath]! What else can melt, no, rotten a bridge made of solid rock?! 

"Raoul! Use the rest of the skill points and power up the Turn Undead spell!" - Garami

I would love to do it myself, but I'm kinda busy with this dragon of death at the moment! The dragon started to slash at me with its claws. That would be bad since it has [Drain Touch]. I jumped backward and had to dodge the dragon's secret trick, a flying slash from the claws, by doing a somersault in-air. And it still scratched my jacket! The Mirage Mantle is transformed into a scarf since it would just be in the way as a mantle.

After I landed, I threw another Turn Undead at it while moving away from its body-tackle. I threw a web-bomb towards it, but it dodged by copying me and jumped up. I took the opportunity to give it another Turn Undead and dodged to the side to escape the tail-slam the dragon gave in return. 

And now it's charging up to another breath. Those take a few seconds to charge, depending on the strength of it. The lower the power of the breath, the faster the charge. Not gonna help. Flashbang!

*BOOM*

The spell collided with the breath of the dragon, but it fired off the breath too soon, so my Flashbang didn't make it into its mouth. I tried to recreate the move I pulled on the T-Rex when it fought Virt, but this guy is smarter than the T-Rex, and I didn't have the element of a surprise either. I've kept [Stealth] on this whole fight, but [Life Detection] always finds me!

Undeads are my bane! But please don't be it for real. Now that the dragon is in turmoil due to the explosion, I have a small breathing room to check it's stats since the corrosion cloud is making it impossible for both of us to charge in. ?!

That guy's HP hasn't gone down at all! No, it's lowered with around 20 points since I last checked him, but that's two Turn Undead ago. That's around 10 points of damage for each one. Didn't Raoul boost the power of the spell some more?

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SKILL LIST

Ability Skills: [MP Enhancement LV1] [MP Auto-Recovery LV1]

Magic Skills: [Light Magic LV1] [Holy Magic LV5] [Illusion Magic LV1]

Passive Skills: [Magic Enhancement LV3] [Holy Enhancement LV2] [Concealment LV1]

Resistance Skills: [Holy Resistance LV1] [Curse Resistance LV5] 

Racial Skills: [Living Treasure] [Holy Rosary] [Transformation LV1]

Elements: [Holy Element LV2] 

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...... He really powered up [Holy Magic]! I asked you to boost the performance of Turn Undead, not the skill that Turn Undead is in! The increased levels of the Magic-, and Holy enhancement skills, and the [Holy Element] skill is what I did myself, but this idiot pushed all the remaining skill points into the magic skill! 

Fine! If that's the case, I'll bombard him with web-bo-! 

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*CRASH!*

While I was planning my next move, the dragon started on its, with pouncing on me, disregarding the corrosion cloud. I jumped out of the way, with the web-bombs still in my hand.

Now then, what do you think happened with sphere-formed stuff that you hold in one hand while dodging a dragon that comes towards you? They fall out of your hands, and on your feet. And web-bombs, which are spherical, stick to anything they land on. Do the rest of the math yourself, and you get my current situation.

Crap! This is not what I needed! I touched the mess the web-bombs had made and removed the stickiness, and when I looked up again, I was met with a new breath from the dragon. And I'm not finished with the other web yet! Stickiness, go away! Disappear! Go, poof!

"ROOAAARR!" - Undead Dragon

*Shine*

NOOO! To think it would end like this! Before making my own Dungeon, or visiting a red-light district, or getting one decent meal! ...Why is it taking so long? Have I melted already?

I slowly opened my eyes, which I had closed in fear of the breath, and saw a wall made of golden light. Isn't this similar in feeling to Turn Undead?

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Skill: Holy Magic

Skill type: Magic skill

Attribute: Holy

Effect:

Known magics:

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Raoul got a new spell. "Sacred Wall". Is that this glowing barrier? Sorry for calling you a no-good idiot Raoul! 

[Appraisal] told me that the Sacred Wall spell can block any black arts, meaning Death, Darkness, and Chaos related attribute attacks, but it's useless against physical strikes, and you lose MP for each strike against the wall. Attributes which are only partly black arts take more MP as well.

Even so, it stopped the breath, even if all of Raoul's MP went with it, knocking him unconscious. I removed the last webbing, just in time to dodge a claw-attack from the dragon. Alright, time for my counter-attack. Who cares if it only does 10 damage? I've got MP to fire this thing for ages, and a recovery skill for it as well!

Turn Undead!

*......*

Eh? What? Hey, Raoul! Keep your act... not on! He's knocked out! Can that even happen to mimics? Tch, then we'll do this the old fashioned way. 

I drew Orimaru and waited for the dragon's next attack. A reenact of the previous one, the claw attack. I slid under the flying slashes, and tried to slash back with Orimaru using [Mana Blade (Darkness)], but couldn't break through the force of the claw-art. This position turned out favorable for the dragon, as I was right in front of it, so it tried to bite me.

Another pinch for me! It is not what this is, but a counter-attack inside the counter-attack! As the dragon's mouth came closer, I kicked upwards, aiming at the dragon's chin. I used Fatal Blow, and Mana Burst to power up the kick, and [Surprise Attack] worked as well. This will rattle the dragon somewhat, giving me time to reposition myself to throw new web-bombs.

*DANG!" 

Whoa... The dragon was sent flying. Is that normal?

*CRASH!!*

Ouch, the dragon landed hard on its back, without bracing it for the fall at all. Was its brain rattled by the kick? Thinking about it, does this thing even have a brain?

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Nameless

Race: [Undead Dragon]   | Level: 2

Karma Value: -29

Skills:

Titles: 1

Skill points: 1.4

Condition: Fainted

HP: 28/158   | MP: 53/115   | SP: 56/156

STR: 125   | VIT: 120   | MAG: 74

RES: 116   | SPD: 123  | DEX: 63

INT: 95   | LUC: 115

=====================================================================

WOW! It had, I don't know, over a hundred HP before that? The corrosion cloud could have hurt it a little, but to think my attack did that much. And,

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APPRAISAL RESULT: Fainted

Type: Bad-Status Condition

Infliction Conditions:

Effect: Unable to take actions.

Removal Method: 

Description: A Bad-Status Condition that makes the inflicted party unable to do any move, until they are healed, or take more damage.

It is inflicted when the receiver takes a large amount of damage, either to their body, or their mind.

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50% or more. When did I become Heracles? I don't have any titles that say I am, or maybe I do. I got [Monster Slaughterer], [Undead Slayer], and [Dragon Slayer], all who strengthen the damage against opponents of that type. The Undead Dragon is a triple hit, quadruple even if that part about sharing racial traits with Skeletal Dragon lets [Skeleton Slayer] work too.

Then, the Turn Undeads I used on it, did way more damage than it should do. I underestimated this guy's resistance abilities big time. It even managed to keep up with my speed, despite me being almost three times faster than it, if not more. Can dragon make more out of their stats? Humans have limiters on their bodies, but do dragons have them? If not, it will explain why Jack was so freaked out before.

Oops, I almost forgot about this guy. I could finish it off, but I got another idea.

Now then, ladies and gents, see now, as I take a simple Kigal-Note out of empty space. This ain't everything folks, as I shall now make the dragon disappear! All that is needed is to point the book towards the fainted Undead Dragon, and say the magic words:

"Absorb!" - Garami

From the opened Kigal-Note, a black vortex appeared and started to suck up the Undead Dragon.

"? RWAAA!?" - Undead Dragon

Unable to process what was happening, the Undead Dragon was sucked into the Kigal-Note.

"Rwa! Ra, ra, raa!!" - Undead Dragon (chibi-version)

The dragon was now on the page of the book, in a miniaturized size. I produced some tape from the spine of the Note, thanks to the ability it has to produce writing utensils. They only work on the Kigal-Note, but I don't need to worry about not having a pen or something.

The tape is also part of the Kigal-Note's secret effect, the [Absorb, Seal, and Re-Use]. Alvatria is the one who named it, I'm innocent. I always wanted to see how it that one worked, and the KO-ed dragon was the perfect opportunity. 

But, the boss is captured, so does that mean the Quest is finished? Where's Jack by the way? There, on the other side of the ravine. So every living member of the party must cross the bridge then. Oh well, I'll take it easy, and maybe collect some weapons on my way over there.

---

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QUEST PROGRESS:

Location Quest: [Dead Man's Bridge] is completed:

Bonus Objectives is completed:

Rewards can now be collected.

Do you want to collect your party's reward?

YES/NO

=====================================================================

When I walked off the bridge, the physical message screen from before, popped up, showing the Quest results. 142 of 100... what's this? A Skeleton bargain-sale? Good thing they couldn't transform... 

I walked towards Jack, who was standing a little away from the bridge.

"Good escaping there." - Garami

"......" - Jack

"Are all dragons that rule-breaking? It managed to keep up with me, despite having a third of my SPD value." - Garami

"........." - Jack

"Um, hello?" - Garami

"............" - Jack

There's no response.It's like talking to a corpse. I know that he is a corpse, but even so. What's up with him? The fire in his eyes are gone, and he has his mouth wide open. Is this...

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Jack Loupe

Race: [Remnant Skeleton]   | Level: 4

Karma Value: o

Skills: 10

Titles: 0

Skill points: 2.2

Condition: Fainted

Main Class: none

Sub Class: Locked

HP: 33/33   | MP: 19/19   | SP: 35/35

STR: 17   | VIT: 13   | MAG: 9

RES: 31   | SPD: 32  | DEX: 38

INT: 103   | LUC: 95

=====================================================================

He fainted. Like, for real. He's HP is a-okay, so it's not that. Weird.

I'll be kind to him, and wait till he recovers on his own. Not sure that the recovering-method will do any good with his HP at max, and to be honest, that crazy power I used against the dragon freaked me out. Don't wanna one-shot Jack.

In the meanwhile, let's see what the reward is. And press the button.

A treasure chest appeared in front of me and Jack. The rewards must be divided like that. What have I gotten? I opened up the chest, and inside I saw two parchment scrolls. Scrolls!? Are these-!

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APPRAISAL RESULT:

Skill Scroll: [Poltergeist]

Spell Scroll: [Summon Skeleton]

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Greydra

Kigal-Note/Race/Undeads: Ghosts

Ghosts are a type of undeads where only their soul remains after their death.

Ghosts can be 'born' when someone dies and refuses to pass on, or they can be spawned by large quantities of Death aether.

Ghosts are made of a special substance called ectoplasm, which allows their souls to gain a semi-corporeal body, that can fly in the air, and pass through solid objects.

Ghosts are, due to the mentioned abilities, resistant, or straight out immune, to pure physical attacks. They are instead weak to light, so much that weak ghosts will disappear when exposed to sunlight. Other ways of fighting ghosts are to use magic, or physical attacks enchanted with magical, or elemental, properties.

Some of the higher-ranking ghosts are impervious to the normal weaknesses of ghosts. However, all ghosts are not able to deal much damage directly, and they are incapable of using magic. Instead, they use special Ghost-attribute skills to mess with their opponents.

These skills are wide in variety, being able to possess the opponent, steal their life force, and moving from space to space as if teleporting.

Ghost-attribute skills are possible to be obtained by non-ghost creatures.

Usual ghosts include White Ghosts, Specters, Vengeful Ghosts, Samcas, and Banshees.

Ghosts are mostly hunted by Acolytes that hopes to train their Holy-type skills.

Ghosts are used by Spectermancers, before being able to summon more types of undeads as Necromancers.

Jack's comment: Ghosts can be the worst if you don't have any anti-ghost plans at hand.

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