Chapter 53: Rotten Bones Archbishop

Lancaster underground sewers, Rotten Bones Church hideout.

Ugart felt the situation was somewhat off.

As the archbishop of the Rotten Bones Church, his body had already been converted into skin and bone, making him look like a skeleton with a layer of rotten black skin on him. He had lost all the senses he had as a human, but now he used the blessings of the evil Rotten Bones God to emulate his former senses.

Ever since he stopped being a human, this was the first time he felt disturbed.

Around six days ago, the originally silent underground sewers were plunged into chaos.

In the east, the Swamp Fishmen which had migrated into the sewers from some time ago and refused to leave started croaking and screeching, a sign that they were about to undergo another migration. From their cries, he could tell that they were panicked and angry, and also a little scared. It sounded like they were about to flee rather than migrate, and he had no idea what made it so that they had to leave in such a hurry.

The tyrant of the south was a hundred-year-old Berserk Armored Alligator that was roaring in rage after being woken up from hibernation. To Ugart’s memory, no resident of these sewers would have the guts to attack this monster, even he would have a hard time against it. In theory, even if there were some small fry that didn’t know of its horrors and provoked it, they would have probably become its feed in a few minutes. However, the Berserk Armored Alligator hadn’t calmed down ever since it started going berserk. Every time it started to calm down, it seemed to be enraged by something once more and repeat the cycle. The loud bellowing rageful roars of the monster had already become somewhat hoarse, but the unknown influence that was enraging it seemed to not have given up.

Originally, the rat hordes that moved endlessly around the sewers were the loudest sounds heard every day, like a machine that kept on creating noise. Somehow or another, this noise machine stopped even making the smallest sounds from one day, as if the hundreds of thousands of Hogwash Rats had suddenly disappeared…

Of course, just these minor changes hadn’t affected his cold dead heart.

The real thing that made him uneasy was the fact that the believers under his command were disappearing.

This disappearance wasn’t that of traitors.

As the archbishop of an evil cult, he had experienced the betrayal of believers under his command before, to the point where their hideouts would be exposed by the traitors so he had to bring his remaining followers to roam until they found these sewers that served as a passable hideout.

He had mixed in some of his most trusted subordinates in within each and every team to prevent the same thing from happening. Even so, none of the teams of believers or even their Black Corpseflies that he had sent to investigate the abnormalities had returned to the hideout…

“Zaccarah.”

He made his way to the foyer of their hideout and called his right-hand man, one of the three black-robed bishops of the Rotten Bones Church. “Tell our believers in Lancaster it is time to kill the hundred infants that our Lord has chosen, and to send their hearts and marrows to me!”

“But your Excellency, if we do so we might lose the support of the nobles who had supported us in the shadows…” Zaccarah replied worriedly.

“Don’t mind them, they’re just a bunch of pigs that have fats for brains. When the time comes you just have to feed them enough Rions and they’ll shut right up.” Ugart replied in a dismissive tone. “Putting that aside, something has been wrong with the underground sewers as of late, so I’m going to have to go on with our plans for the possession ceremony. When our Lord appears, not even the ascetics from the Brilliant White Church could stop us!”

“As you wish…” Zaccarah bowed and prepared to leave and send the message.

At this moment, the main entrance of the hideout that had been renovated to look like an underground courtyard was broken into violently from outside with a resounding crash, and from the ashes stood the silhouettes of several youngsters.

“Holy sh*t, there really was a hidden level in here! There weren’t any signs of it from the outside!” The youngster that stood at the front exclaimed as he carried a broadsword, seemingly the culprit of the break-in. “Edward, if it weren’t for you being so cautious as to check out the large unoccupied space in the map, probably no one could have noticed…”

“Joe, don’t let your guard down, there might be a hidden boss!” The young man known as Edward said calmly with a strangely shaped staff in his hand.

“There’s someone there…With HP bars! Something’s written on there, Rotten Bones Archbishop and Black-Robed Bishop, one is Level 30 and the other is Level 25… I think we’ve found the boss room!” A skinny boy who was holding a bow and arrow shouted.

“According to the system, these bosses have special reward systems. If we cause 1% of damage to the Rotten Bones Archbishop we will get 200 AP, while we’ll get 100 AP for 1% done to the Black-Robed Bishop!” The girl who was standing behind them all informed the party.

“I see, well how can we leave these bosses unattended? Miss Jessica, help me heal while I try my hand!” In the party, a middle-aged man who was the eldest and had the least amount of hair said excitedly.

“Sword Skill—Slippery Slash!” He shouted, dashing forward with odd footwork into the courtyard—the long sword in his hands held in front of him flashing with a bright white light as he slashed toward Urgat!

But before the sword even had the chance to touch Urgat, the latter raised his crooked finger—an obsidian light shooting out from it towards the man’s heart.

The man’s shocked expression froze on his face before his entire body turned into a bunch of speckled lights and disappeared…

“Miiissteeer Maaarniiii—!” Joe who was a warrior too mourned the loss of Marni, drawing his voice comically long.

“I-I hadn’t even had the chance to cast a healing spell…”The young girl stood there not knowing what to do.

“He really fed them just like that huh…” Edward sighed and face-palmed. “Thankfully I already spent most of my AP just now. Everyone, let’s test this boss out!”

Seeing the youngsters want to duel him to the death, Urgat emotionlessly clapped his bony hands and from the hideout came more than ten high-tier Rotten Bone believers.

“F*ck, he can summon lackeys, that’s so unfair!” Gou Dan grumbled.

The high-tier believers were not as emotionless as the archbishop was as the corruption on their heart wasn’t as heavy as his, so when they heard his words they could not help but frown. Who was this small fry that looked like a peasant wearing leaves (equipment) to call them lackeys?

Even though the situation was extremely unfavorable for the intruders, Urgat was shocked at how none of them chose to flee and how they all fought to the death. Even that girl who seemed the weakest never uttered a plea of surrender while Gou Dan was killed immediately…

Urgat thought that the ones that were causing the chaos in the underground sewers were these people, but from their prowess, they were too weak.

He furrowed his brow, feeling that things weren’t as simple as it seemed.

Just then, a few unfamiliar voices were heard from outside the hideout.

“Oh? Something’s wrong with this wall…”

“Oho? It’s a hidden level!”

“A hidden level! Lemme see if there are any goodies!”