Zombies, Changes in Strength

“In the year 442 of the New Star Calendar, the adventurer Lynn unlocked a new entry in the monster encyclopedia—Zombie. Current unlocked entries: 14.”

“6 more entries must be unlocked before the next Rune reward.”

Not long after the notification from the monster encyclopedia sounded, a pair of hands, dirt caked beneath the fingernails, broke through the soil, reaching toward the moon they would never touch.

The long-stiffened and decayed corpse dragged its heavy body up from beneath the earth, ready to exact its vengeance on all living things.

“So this is a zombie?”

Lynn watched with great interest as the monster rose from the dirt.

As a monster with a Challenge Rating of 1/2, a zombie was actually not particularly powerful. Their movements were slower than those of an ordinary human, and in exchange, they possessed physical strength roughly equal to that of a Goblin Champion.

Lynn even suspected that if they were buried in coffins, nailed shut, and covered with a thick layer of soil, these zombies might not be able to break out of their graves at all.

The only reason these zombies in the Public Cemetery could crawl out of the ground was actually simple—none of these people could afford a coffin when they were alive.

Those buried in the Public Cemetery were mostly bottom-tier adventurers.

Having only gone on one or two missions before tragically dying during a quest, they could only wrap their bodies in “decent” linen and bury them in the “shared coffins” provided by the church.

A shared coffin was a reusable casket.

A trapdoor was built into the bottom of the coffin. Once the grave was dug, the trapdoor would be opened to dump the unlucky fellow and his worthless belongings inside, completing the burial ceremony.

“Urrgh—”

The reanimated corpses began to stumble around the Public Cemetery, completely unbothered when their already decayed clothing snagged on roadside branches and tore away.

They were searching for the scent of the living.

The most obvious living targets on the field were clearly the three adventurers standing nearby in formation.

Stimulated by the scent of the living, the zombies' movements finally grew swifter. Waving sharp claws coated in corpse poison, they rushed toward the trio.

The first three zombies to awaken lunged together at Lupa, who stood at the very front.

Before they could reach the group, a crossbow bolt struck one of the zombies in the head. The bolt pierced cleanly into the zombie's eye socket but was stopped by the bone at the back of the socket, failing to penetrate the brain. These zombies seemed to have a much higher defense than they did in life.

Lynn hung his hand crossbow back on his waist.

It felt like this hand crossbow, which he had bought to supplement his ranged damage, had never actually been effective against any monster.

Now that he had learned Eldritch Blast, he probably wouldn't need this thing anymore.

Unfazed by the pain, the injured zombie continued its charge toward the three.

“Lupa, watch out for the two on the right,” the Monk said in a low voice. He swung his long staff, pressing it against the chest of the zombie on the left to keep it away from Lupa.

Meanwhile, Lupa had already raised her tower shield, thrusting it forward and to the right.

Hardened fingernails, grown after being infused with fel energy, scraped against the metal shield, producing an ear-grating screech. However, they failed to pose any threat to Lupa's tower shield.

If it had been an iron-rimmed oak buckler typically used by average adventurers, the shield might have shattered on the spot.

“Get lost!”

Lupa roared, the bloodline within her body activating and instantly boosting her Strength. Even with the two zombies working together, they couldn't suppress her; instead, she forcefully shoved them back, nearly knocking them to the ground.

The strength Lupa displayed after activating her bloodline had likely reached the standard of an official class-holder.

Lynn, of course, was not just standing idly by.

Taking advantage of Lupa holding the front line, Lynn entered Stealth and silently slipped behind the zombies.

His shortsword slid into his hand.

The zombie finally noticed the movement behind it and began to turn around, but it was too late. With a thought from Lynn, a blood-red mark appeared on the zombie's back, and Backstab activated instantly.

Giving the zombie no time to react, the shortsword pierced through its tough hide, sliced through its latissimus dorsi, and instantly impaled its heart. The zombie's movements stiffened, but it did not die. As an undead creature, a zombie would remain active until its brain was completely destroyed.

However, the Skill effect of Backstab had already taken hold. Even a mindless zombie operating purely on instinct was forced into a stunned state. Half a second was neither long nor short. Just as the zombie was about to recover from the stun, Lynn's spell was fully charged.

Booming Blade!

As he spun the blade, a yellow-white electrical current crackled along the metal. Pulling the shortsword out of the zombie's body, he swung it in a smooth arc and stabbed it backward into the creature's brain. The tough skull that had blocked his crossbow bolt was sliced through as easily as butter by the lightning-infused shortsword, and the current instantly detonated within the flesh with a violent crackle.

When Lynn pulled his shortsword out once more, the zombie's brain had been charred to ash.

With its internal fel energy hub destroyed, the corpse instantly lost its source of movement and collapsed straight to the ground.

The other zombie quickly reacted, breaking away from Lupa's restraint and leaping to lunge toward Lynn.

Lynn sheathed his sword, not even looking at the approaching monster.

However, his Echolocation kept the zombie's position locked in real-time, and in his other hand, he raised his flintlock-shaped staff, aiming it directly at the gaping maw of the mid-air zombie.

Lupa had bought Lynn enough time to chant his spell.

Violet magical light gathered at the tip of the staff—the muzzle.

Eldritch Blast—

A beam of purple light shot straight out from the gun-staff, pouring directly into the zombie's mouth.

A massive surge of mana gathered in the zombie's mouth and abruptly detonated. Its head exploded in mid-air like a dropped watermelon, splattering green and white fluids everywhere.

Meanwhile, Lynn had already used Burst Step to dodge the zombie's “death rattle.”

In the blink of an eye, even without using the First-Circle spell Magic Missile, two monsters on par with Goblin Warriors had been effortlessly dispatched by Lynn.

“Two zombies killed. Obtained Bloodline Points (Zombie) x2.”

“Feast stacks +2.”

Killing zombies actually stacked Feast. It seemed the gods also deeply detested such desecration of corpses.

“Roar—”

The last zombie was swept back by the Monk's full-force staff strike, its arm bone bending at an unnatural angle from the impact of the iron staff. Lynn, of course, would not let his Bloodline Points go to waste.

As Lynn slipped over, the Monk understood his intention and took a step back, refraining from pursuing the crippled zombie.

It worked out perfectly, as holding off this zombie had taken a fair amount of his energy.

With Lynn's help, he finally had a moment to breathe.

Relying on his Agility attribute, which far exceeded the zombie's, Lynn easily circled behind it. Activating Backstab once more, the weakness mark happened to refresh right on the back of the zombie's head. Lynn did not let this opportunity slip; with the bonus from Strike from Shadows, he easily pierced through the cranial suture at the back of the zombie's skull.

This time, even before the forced stun effect of Sneak Attack could trigger, the zombie had already collapsed to the ground, dead.

“Feast stacks +1.”

Having harvested another Bloodline Point, Lynn did not lower his guard.

With the three zombies dead, restlessness began to stir across the field. Lynn could even feel the ground beneath his feet trembling slightly as numerous grave mounds began to churn.

...

【Zombie】: Fel energy has desecrated holy death, pulling these corpses from their eternal slumber and granting them a new source of movement. The price, however, is that zombies no longer possess thought; only simple instinct remains. The brain, once the vessel for thought, has become the hub for negative psionic energy.

Lacking a brain to direct them, zombies gain unrestricted muscle strength but lose neural flexibility. Fortunately, the fel energy (negative psionic energy) additionally grants them hide as tough as cowhide and hard claws tainted with corpse poison, allowing them to easily grab weak adventurers and consume their brains.