Chapter 665 Ghouls

Earlier today.

Late at night.

Bright firelight illuminated the night, and the surging heat stirred the pale gray mist in the surrounding air, giving the currents an almost physical shape.

It was a small camp in the middle of the forest.

A few cloth tents were pitched around a central campfire, with warm blankets spread out beside the flames.

"Blub, blub—"

Bubbles churned as the aroma of food drifted lazily through the camp.

An iron spoon stirred slowly, swirling the thick broth. Potatoes, dried meat, and unknown wild vegetables bobbed up and down with the motion, soaked in the fragrant liquid.

They were limited by the crude conditions of wilderness adventuring and lacked spatial equipment capable of storing large amounts of fresh supplies like Xia Nan had.

Even with ample wealth, Zanfrey and his party could not enjoy the elaborately cooked, luxurious meals of a tavern while out adventuring.

Fortunately, Ake had considerable travel experience and had served as a steward in the Wilmot Family residence for many years, honing excellent culinary skills in the process.

Even a common pot of mixed stew, with his fine control over the heat and the ratio of ingredients, tasted just as good as a dish in an ordinary restaurant.

On the surface, he was just a guard for the family's young master. However, as the only person in the party who had obtained a Class Level, and possessing far more adventuring experience than the other two youths combined, Ake had taken on the role of leader ever since the mission began.

Seeing that the stew was just about ready, he stepped forward, stirred the iron spoon, and scooped a steaming bowl for his young master sitting nearby.

However, Zanfrey's expression seemed rather tight.

He took it, gave a slight nod, and said nothing.

This, of course, was not his natural disposition.

Although he sometimes threw a young master's temper, he was born to a maid, had experienced the fickle nature of human relationships since childhood, and had received a certain level of etiquette education. Compared to the young lords and ladies of the Imperial Capital, Zanfrey's character was at least above average.

Usually, he would take the bowl with a look of anticipation, close his eyes to take a deep breath of the stew's aroma, and shove a massive spoonful into his mouth despite the scalding heat, wincing from the burn while giving Ake a thumbs-up.

His current display—seemingly impolite but actually a sign of a depressed and conflicted mood—naturally had its reasons.

Thinking of this, Ake cast his gaze toward the other side of the campfire, where the fisherman youth, Winsor, sat with his eyes closed and his lips moving in prayer.

He scooped a bowl of stew for him as well.

"Eat something hot, and rest early today," Ake said.

Winsor showed not the slightest hint of annoyance at Ake interrupting his prayer. As always, his face betrayed no obvious emotion.

He took the bowl with both hands and politely thanked Ake.

Then he carefully placed the bowl on the blanket in front of him, crossed his wrists over his chest, and resumed his prayer.

They were both fifteen or sixteen years old; having some friction was perfectly normal.

As a bystander, Ake had witnessed the entire conflict unfold.

Well—strictly speaking, it couldn't really be counted as a conflict in the true sense of the word.

It was just Zanfrey sulking on his own.

The cause stemmed from an encounter that afternoon.

According to the plan, the party of three had smoothly arrived at the small battlefield marked by the mission.

Just as Bloodcast Keep had expected, the negative energy brewing in this battlefield had undergone a qualitative change, likely influenced by the recent monster frenzy phenomenon.

It caused the thoroughly deceased soldiers to return to the Material Plane as undead.

The enemies they encountered were six skeleton soldiers.

One of them wore relatively intact armor and wielded a longsword, looking like it had been the squad's captain in life.

It belonged to the elite type of skeleton monster, possessing a Challenge Rating of around Level 1.

Such quantity and quality were naturally beyond what the two youths, who hadn't even attained a Class Level yet, could handle.

Ake stepped in and dispatched two of the enemies, including the skeleton officer, leaving four bags of bones for them to practice on.

Zanfrey had studied under his family's Class Holders since childhood, and Winsor looked like he had also undergone some combat training.

In Ake's view, dealing with four skeleton soldiers simultaneously might be a bit difficult for the two of them, but as long as they cooperated a little, they would probably secure the victory.

Things developed exactly as Ake had expected.

Two against four. At first, the youths seemed flustered and cut sorry figures, but like raw iron under the blows of a forging hammer, they quickly took the initiative to cooperate under the pressure of the monsters.

From fighting independently, they gradually developed a tacit understanding.

But it was precisely because of this.

The distance between them narrowed by combat allowed both sides to clearly perceive each other's previously unnoticed flaws.

Zanfrey had an intense, outgoing personality. However, having been born into the "Shield of the Silver Lake" family, he wielded a shield as his primary weapon. While fighting with passion, he leaned toward utilizing his advantages to protect his teammates.

Sometimes he would rather take a few extra hits on his shield to ensure the absolute safety of his allies.

And Winsor—

The combat style of this silent fisherman youth formed a stark contrast to his usual passive and groggy mental state.

Like a berserker, he completely abandoned defense, uncaring of how many injuries he sustained, gripping his short blade and launching furious assaults wherever the enemy was.

One youth wanted to protect his teammate behind his shield, while the other had only the enemy ahead in his eyes, striking each blow as if resolved to perish together with them.

The friction manifested almost instantly.

Facing the slash of a skeleton soldier, Winsor charged head-on without a second thought, only for Zanfrey to rush in from the side, pull him back, and grit his teeth to block the attack.

When Zanfrey had already raised his shield to defend and readied his Faceted Hammer for a counterattack, Winsor would bypass the shield entirely and viciously hack his sword into the skeleton's bare skull.

This sort of unorthodox behavior was completely unacceptable to Zanfrey, who adhered strictly to the combat principles taught by his family's Class Holders. The moment the battle ended, he sought out Winsor to share his thoughts.

As for the result—

Evidently, Winsor, back in his usual state, gave such a gloomy, passive, and tersely direct reply that Zanfrey felt like he had punched a pile of cotton.

Even though the other boy promised to cooperate with him in the future, his tone sounded genuinely perfunctory.

This was exactly why the blond youth was currently keeping quiet, pulling a long face, and sulking by the campfire.

Well—one could tell that Ake's culinary skills were indeed quite good. Even with Zanfrey's stiff expression and depressed, conflicted demeanor, his cheeks bulged with food, and his hands never stopped moving.

Ake actually wasn't worried about the friction between the two youths.

As he saw it, it was nothing more than a clash of combat styles and the growing pains of a party learning to mesh.

Gaining some experience on the borders of Bloodcast Keep would eventually smooth things out.

And to put it bluntly, Winsor and Zanfrey didn't necessarily have to form a permanent party. Once the recruitment office reopened, they might well be assigned to completely different squads.

Right now, they were merely making early preparations to adapt to future military life on the frontier.

The group soon polished off the entire pot of stew.

Ake told the two boys to rest first while he took the night watch.

Just as he was about to clean up the stew pot by the campfire, Ake's brows suddenly knit together.

His Class Grade physical constitution allowed him to detect a bizarre, abnormal scent amidst the lingering aroma of food.

Unlike the heavy rot of the completely dead skeleton soldiers they had faced during the day, the scent he smelled now was a "fresh," overwhelmingly pungent, and nauseating stench of decay.

Instantly alert, he snatched up the heavy shield resting close at hand and raised it in front of him, slipping into a defensive combat stance.

At the same time, he barked a low warning to the two youths in the camp, "Careful, on your guard!"

Not yet fully asleep, Zanfrey practically leaped off his blanket the second he heard Ake's warning. By the time he rushed out of the tent, his round shield and Faceted Hammer were already gripped in his hands.

Winsor's reaction was no slower; he arrived at Ake's side almost at the exact same time as the noble young master.

Under the crushing pressure of danger, the petty friction between the youths was naturally shoved aside.

The three stood back-to-back, facing outward in their combat stances as they carefully kept watch over the pitch-black woods around them.

The approaching entities made no attempt to conceal their movements.

As the pungent stench of decay grew thicker in the air, a barrage of dense footsteps—accompanied by a distinct dragging sound—echoed through the forest.

"Whoosh—"

The night wind blew. The swaying canopy allowed moonlight to spill through, briefly scattering the profound shadows beneath.

What entered everyone's eyes were hideous walking corpses with shriveled, hunched figures and festering sores covering their bodies.

As if mutated by the catalyst of negative energy, these corpses standing in the woods had bloodshot eyes that gleamed with a bloodthirsty, berserk light. Their jagged, twisted teeth made it difficult for them to close their jaws, and a foul-smelling, viscous drool dripped incessantly.

Their fingertips had elongated into beast-like claws, and beneath their tattered trousers, their legs were thick with animal hair. Some had even transformed entirely into bestial hooves.

These were a full ten ghouls, boasting Challenge Ratings as high as Level 1!

Ake's rich combat experience allowed him to assess the situation and make a decision the instant the enemies appeared.

They had to run!

Faced with dangerous monsters of this caliber, the two youths behind him might have been able to offer some help in a one-on-one situation.

But with the enemy's numbers reaching double digits, whether it was Winsor or Zanfrey, getting dragged into the fight would result in only one outcome: death.

He might possess a Level 3 Class Level, and the class system of the "Shield of the Silver Lake" family gave him a far more solid foundation than other Class Holders of the same rank, but completely protecting the two youths behind him from the siege of ten infectious, rot-poison-carrying ghouls was no easy feat.

And most crucially, standing behind these surrounding ghouls, deep within the even darker shadows...

Ake vaguely spotted a noticeably bulkier figure radiating thick malice.

Clearly, an elite leader was hiding among the ghouls.

They couldn't stay here!

Faced with the ghouls closing in from all sides, Ake made a prompt decision.

The heavy shield in his hands, engraved with the "Shield of the Silver Lake" family crest, rapidly gathered a flickering, silver-blue light upon its surface.

He shifted his stance, aimed toward the rear where the ghouls were positioned more sparsely, and violently bashed his shield forward.

"Voom—boom!"

Like a projection, the silver-blue glow originally clinging to the shield's surface shot out in the direction it was aimed, forming an illusory shield composed of pure light.

Gale winds howled. Thinner fir trees snapped right at the trunk, and tangled, flexible bushes were completely pulverized.

Of the two ghouls caught in the path, one was struck head-on by the light shield. As if hit by a speeding train, it spewed a mist of blood, reduced to an unrecognizable paste of flesh as it was blown far away.

The other was merely grazed, but what should have been its left arm was left as nothing more than a severed bone clinging to bloody flesh.

At the exact moment the light shield blasted out, Ake, whose face had paled slightly from the massive instantaneous expenditure of stamina, shoved the heavy shield back onto his back. Clamping his arms around Zanfrey and Winsor on his left and right, he charged straight for the breach he had temporarily opened with his combat technique.

The good news: Ake's breakout plan was executed incredibly successfully.

The outward thrust of the light shield not only cleared the enemies blocking his path but also swept away the obstacles in a small area ahead, allowing his initial burst of speed to peak instantly.

The bad news: the ghouls didn't just let their chosen prey escape.

Almost the very second Ake charged out of the encirclement with the two youths, the elite entity hiding deep within the shadows let out a threatening shriek.

At that command, the ghouls in the bushes dropped to all fours and bolted in the direction of Ake's retreat like wild beasts.

The even worse news: whether it was a pure coincidence or something happening deep underground...

Not long after Ake broke free of the ghouls' encirclement, a violent tremor erupted from beneath his feet.

His body swayed. He struggled to maintain his center of gravity during his high-speed sprint, making it impossible to accelerate further.

Behind him, the madly pursuing ghouls closed the distance between them at a visible rate.

A flash of resolve passed through his eyes. Using his momentum, Ake violently hurled the two youths he was carrying forward, simultaneously slamming his feet down to brake hard.

He raised his hand to draw his shield, holding it protectively in front of him as he completed his turn, directly facing the chasing ghouls.

"You run first! I'll catch up later!"

Tumbling across the ground rather pathetically, his fair face stained with dirt and dust, Zanfrey froze for a moment, but snapped back to his senses the very next second.

Gritting his teeth, he grabbed the hand Winsor offered beside him and hoisted himself up.

Without wasting a single word, the two prepared to continue their escape.

But right at that moment—

Rumble!

The gradually escalating intensity of the earthquake finally hit its peak.

It was as if some incomparably colossal monster had opened its terrifying maw just beneath the surface.

Trees, grass, and gravel plummeted downward in a cloud of swirling dust.

Ake, having just settled into his combat stance, suddenly felt the ground give way beneath his feet.

In the very next instant, nothing remained before his eyes but endless darkness.

The ghouls, the shield-bearing middle-aged man, and the two youths vanished from where they stood in the blink of an eye, swallowed up by the violent tremors and obscuring dust.