Chapter 57：The Wailing Woods

The party entered the door leading to the next level and was surprised that the surroundings were vastly different. The dead trees are no longer present but it was a lush forest that is teeming with lively plants but the eerie thing about the place is that it was quiet. Not even a sound of a cricket was present. It was so quiet that it was making Adrian's skin crawl and even his soulbounds feel that something is not right because they are in high alert and ready to pounce the enemy if it shows. Even Saena looks serious but instead of looking cool it looked adorable.

As they ventured deeper in the forest, Adrian heard a whisper in his right ear.

" Go back"

Adrian reflexively looked towards his back but found no one there. It creeped him out. Another voice came from elsewhere and it was Marlon who heard it this time and he even felt being embraced.

" Welcome to the Wailing Woods, daaarling"

Marlon jumped from the sudden fright and stumbled down. Adrian immediately helped his friend up and told him to not be afraid because it shows in his status.

Party Name: Best friend's BUS Ride

Equinox Lv. 22

Levin Cloud Lv. 46 (Fear Status)

The reason that Adrian knows that they were inflicted by the fear status was because it showed in his system prompt.

[You have resisted the fear status]

When the system prompt appeared, Adrian knew that this was probably a trap designed to inflict the challengers with a status effect to corrode their senses and mind. The fear status effect was not permanent but it was like the Bleed status that stacks upon the user and if the stacks increase by about an increment of 10 then the player would finally be afflicted with the Terrorized status that drops stats by 50% for a few minutes and even hours depending on the stacks that accumulates.

Adrian has a 50% chance to nullify status effects that are cast on him because of his 50% Asmodian bloodline. It gives him chills that one day he could be 100% immune to status effects. Adrian then ordered Kanlaon to carry Marlon to the middle of the woods which could probably be the location of the boss because the voices are telling them not to go there. Adrian grabbed Saena and jumped at the back of Sirius and told him to run towards the center of the forest. Numerous voices was heard there were some which were audible and some coherent.

" Do not enter there"

"Stay away. She's sheeee"

"Get away. You cannot handle herrrrr"

"Ahbahsushsa"

"Whaaat areee you doooiing get awayyy"

Numerous system prompts appeared in the party log.

[Party Member Levin Cloud has been afflicted with fear.]

[Party Member Equinox has resisted the fear status]

[Party Member Equinox has been afflicted with fear]

[Party Member Levin Cloud used Purify. The party has been cleared of negative status effects.]

Skill: Purify

Tier: Uncommon

Effect: Cleanses the party of any negative status effect. Has a 50% chance to cleanse greater curses or greater status effects. Cannot cleanse curses made by Gods, Devils, Dragons or any being that equals that of a God.

Cooldown: 10 minutes

Cast Time: 2 seconds

Mana Cost: 300 MP

A few minutes later, the party made it into a clearing and wails of different voices started to be heard. It was like four different orchestras playing together. The sound of the wails were deafening and could make your head spin but it all stopped when a woman who was sitting in the middle of the clearing suddenly standed up. There was complete silence in the meadow, when the woman suddenly spoke to break the silence.

" Ara ara...I did not know we had visitors."

The woman's voice was clear and sounded serene. It was a cleat sounding voice that could woe the gods. The woman wore a beautiful dress that was black in color. It looked like a funeral dress from the Victorian era. She also had a veil that was black in color but it did not hide the beauty that she has. She moved with grace and elegance like she was of noble birth. The most noticeable feature was her long flowing silver hair that shines when moonlight struck it. The best friend's were enamored by her beauty but was struck by terror when they read her description using the Inspect skill.

Name: Argent Soulscreech

Tier: Legendary

Level: 35

HP: 500,000/500,000(100%)

Description: The Silver Moores Banshee that has regained some of her former powers due to siding with the Corruptants. The Silver Moores Banshee was once a follower of the God of Death and a noble of the Krishna Kingdom before becoming exiled due to her prophecies of death that she made towards the royal family of her kingdom. Due to being exiled, she used the powers given to her by the God of Death to harm the living. She was cursed by the God of Death because of the abuse of the blessings he has given her. She was cursed to be nameless and to never be able to receive eternal peace. She managed to recover some of her powers back and broke the curse because of the contract she made with the Corruptants.

Adrian was now regretting jinxing himself. He should not have even imagined that the boss would become stronger because of his quest. To makes matters worse the previous Silver Moore Banshee was an old hag. She was not youthful and was erratic. She did not even wore decent clothes but wore rags and had disheveled hair. Yet reality was different, the boss transformed into a Named NPC which only numbered in the thousands according to the rumors. Named NPCs are different from other boss monsters because they have lower health compared to dungeon boss monsters that are in their level range but is more intelligent and even show supreme judgement compared to normal dungeon bosses or NPCs.

The reason that the name Silver Moores came to be was not because of silver colored plants growing inside the dungeon but because of the hair color of the Silver Moore Banshee that resided inside of the dungeon. The Silver Moore Banshee was infamous for her sonic attacks and her quick change aggro because she immediately switches her aggro to anyone that landed a hit on her. But now it is different. The two best friends can no longer rely on the guide in the forums to kill her. All their battle plans went up in smoke because they were not prepared to take down a named NPC. Named NPCs have a tier system to distinguish their impact on the worldview of the game. The Silver Moores Banshee now had a proper name which is Argent Soulscreech and was even a Legendary Named NPC. An NPC king only had the tier of Epic which was divulge from one of the broadcasts when a nation was under attack and a Knight player had to defend the king at all cost. A skip in tier also meant a power spike. The power spike was not linear but exponential which means the higher the tier for the Named NPC, the stronger it is. Even if Argent Soulscreech is just level 35, the legendary indicator is a nightmare to deal with.

Numerous ideas on how to deal with the situation was popping into Adrian and Marlon's head when Adrian suddenly started walking towards the Named NPC. Marlon tried to stop him but could not because he was restrained by an unknown force which means it was a cut-scene.

" You should not have made a contract with the Corruptants, wench. The God of Death, Abaddon, was planning to reduce your sentence because he thinks that you have been suffering long enough." Adrian spoke with conviction. Well at least his AI possessed body did. Inside, Adrian was crying because he never once in his life called another woman a wench.

" Ara...Ara... A puppet of Abaddon dares lecture me on what I wanted to do with my life. Why don't you crawl back to the pit you came from demon and tell your master to extinguish his essence for he is just a forgotten god to the residence of this world." Argent said with a murderous glint in her eyes.

" The people might have forgotten about the God of Death but he has not forgotten about his people. A true god does not need numerous prayers or devotion which Abaddon is. Unlike your pitiful new masters who requires sacrifices for sustenance because they do not have power to even apply their power in this world. They who defile the laws of this world are no different from a hoodlum hiding in the back alleys of cities." Adrian said mockingly.

" You dare Demon! I who have been abandoned by not only my people but also my god. You will regret opposing me who is now more powerful thanks to the power given to me by my new gods. YOU SHALL MEET YOUR GOD TODAY, DEMON!" Argent screamed knocking Adrian back to his previous position.

The party now regained back full control of their bodies which means the fight has finally started but Adrian's mind lies elsewhere.

" I must never tell my parents about this or else I would be forced to pray the rosary everyday."