Chapter 398: Sigil monster (1)

*SQUISH*

/Low-level player character defeated

You receive EXP

The blood of the man that Zombie knock out and left in what he thought was an empty monster pen gushed out from between the segments of the treasure trove serpent's body – and a system message informing Zombie about the gain of the experience points confirmed beyond any shadow of a doubt that it was his fault showed up as if mocking him.

"Ha...? Zombie what is this supposed to b...?"

"Shhhh..."

Since Cranberry would always receive a portion of the experience gained by her undead familiar, she furrowed her brows and turn to him for answers, but she got silenced by a blue index finger pressing to her lips and angry shush of Zombie – who wasn't even looking at her, too preoccupied with glaring at the massive monster that The blond prince was facing.

...the monster that was started emitting a distinctive red and black glow...

...and that had a pulsating mark begin appearing on its head...

|Tell me this isn't happening...!|

Zombie gritted his teeth already activating his skills, fully aware of what needs to be done.

|Roan is an essential character! What are you waiting for?! GET HIM AWAY FROM THAT THING BEFORE IT WILL CREATE A BARRIER!|

Patience restlessness went from zero to a hundred really really fast, spurring the blue undead to action.

"Stay here with Claymore and the rest!"

Zombie called to Cranberry and shoot out from his spot like a speeding bullet...

"Oh, no you don't!"

Meanwhile, the prince roared and rushed at the serpent using the run-up to wind up for a wide vertical slash as the monster's torso instead of backing off when there was something weird going on with the beast he was facing off...

"OH, ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!"

...which caused Zombie to roar out in anger and disbelief.

The blue undead reacted faster than anyone else and was grabbing onto the expensive defensive apparel that the young prince was donning.

"...?!"

Roan flinched in confusion when he felt someone pulling him away by his collar like a baby kitten, but sadly...

...it was too late...

*BOOOOOOOOOM*

The snake monster's body exploded with a terrifying force and the blond boy was launched away by the force of the shockwave alone – together with the blue undead still holding on to him.

"BARON!"

"!!!!!!!!!!"

The desperate roar of the little blue undead was the last thing that the stunned nobles in the audience heard before the half-transparent black and red dome closed off most of the arena, locking off all of the dust cloud raised by the monster's explosion.

"(Master...? What happened? I can't see anything!)"

"Who said that...?!"

Unable to see anything due to the dust that was only beginning to settle, the blond prince groaned, slowly getting back on his feet.

"Ugh... What even happened...?"

He added, muttering to himself and shaking his head, trying to get rid of the ringing in his ears.

"Weakling prince, for your own good – stay back."

"...?!"

The response came from somewhere in front of Roan, making him flinch.

It was certainly the voice of the blue undead – but, how did he get there so fast...?

"Baron, could you get rid of this dust?"

The blue undead sounded as if he had no intention of explaining anything and just clicked his tongue and asked.

"...baron...?"

Roan furrowed his brows, but the next moment he was hit by a sudden gust of wind – and was left speechless.

There was the little blue undead with his back against him, holding a sword even bigger than the greatsword in prince's possession, with just one hand, and next to him...

"A...! A dragon?!"

...there was a monster the size of a carriage, with bright red scales, and massive wings spread open as if it just finished flapping them.

"Wh-what the...?!"

But if that was the only shocking thing, Roan would not take a step back...

Both Zombie and the red dragon had their back turned on the first prince – because they were facing an enormous snake monster...!

But it was not the same monster that Roan remembered – this one was actually smaller than the treasure trove serpent, but looked far more sinister and powerful, with red and black heads from which each and everyone had a different separate precious material growing out of it.

The right-most left had rubies bigger than the head of an adult male, the next one had sapphires, the middle one had jadeites, the next one - emeralds, and the final one had diamonds – and there were gold veins thicker than an adult's thigh running thorough the whole – now smooth – a body of the terrifyingly beautiful monster.

|... and here we have the absolute rarest encounter in the game... the treasure trove serpent filed with hatred towards the humans, that absorbed the evil energy that poured through the seal of the Eternal, and ranked up into the world's desires for reaches given a physical form... the remnant of the luck god, Happy, Pleonexus Hydra.|

Patience sighed inside Zombie's head, sounding as if she was looking away, gritting her teeth.

|The fuck do you mean it ranked up into a remnant of Happy?! You said that the remnants were already out there in the world!|

Kopia shook in Zombie's grip as he clenched his fist so hard that his knuckles turned light-blue.

|You remember when I said that I don't want to tell you everything because you would rush out to do things? That is one of those things – while there are beasts like the Pheonix that is the remnant of Wing on its own, some remnants will spawn only after a certain condition will get accomplished – and we need all the remnants to complete the special quests for each capture target after they inherit the avatars titles.|

The sealed overseer explained bitterly, sounding as if she really didn't actually want to disclose any of the info that she just shared.

|...|

|It really is better for you not to know.|

She added in response to Zombie's hostile silence.

|Are you telling me that if you trusted me more, we could have been traveling around the kingdom searching for the remnants of the dead avatars in preparation for the main quest instead of just staying in the same place...?|

Zombie's expression turned bitter as he could not keep a calm face on the outside.

|There's time and place for everything! You have said that you trust me, didn't you? Then continue doing that and everything will be fine!|

Patience scoffed back, sounding as if she crossed her arms and turned away anxiously.

|WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO FIGHT THIS THING, PATI, HOW'S THAT PLAYING INTO YOUR PLAN?!|

|IT WORKS OUT FINE, SO JUST GO AND FIGHT IT ALREADY, YOU STUPID IDIOT!|

They yelled at each other before the furious Zombie launched himself right at the Pleonexus hydra without any warning, leaving Roan, Baron, and Cranberry in the dust...

…

…?

Cranberry?!