The Monk's Resolve, The Powerful Psionic Corpse

The moment the Psionic Corpse appeared, the Monk's face turned deathly pale.

As a veteran adventurer, although he had never seen this kind of monster with his own eyes, he remembered every monster recorded in the Wingen Town Guild's archives with absolute clarity.

The corpse before him, from its withered yet intact skin to its bizarre, bluish complexion, perfectly matched a certain monster—

A Tier 2 monster: the Psionic Corpse.

This kind of monster was extremely fast and excelled at using psionic energy to attack. If a non-class-holder novice adventurer encountered it, death was virtually guaranteed.

The Monk didn't complain in his heart about why they had run into a monster of this tier during what should have been a simple commission.

If you walk by the river often, you're bound to get your shoes wet.

As an adventurer who drifted along the border between town and wilderness, crossing paths with an insurmountable monster was just a normal part of the journey.

Still, the hand gripping his iron staff trembled slightly with fear.

Monk Gan suddenly recalled his childhood. Just like Lynn, he had once been an ordinary country boy.

However, he hadn't been as fortunate as Lynn, growing up to fifteen or sixteen and becoming a noble spellcaster.

When Gan was twelve or thirteen, a band of bandits raided his village, killing his parents.

Gan himself only managed to escape the village because the militia captain fought desperately to buy him time.

After narrowly escaping with his life, Gan wanted to report the village's situation to the local lord and beg for assistance.

The lord had received him quite warmly.

But the very next day, the lord suddenly announced to the public that Gan was a spy sent by the roaming bandits, sentencing him to be executed in public.

Gan couldn't understand, nor could he accept it.

In a stroke of luck amidst his misfortune, a monk from Garan Temple was also imprisoned in the dungeon. It was said the monk had been locked up for injuring the lord's son, who had raped a woman.

The monks of Garan Temple banded together to raid the prison, rescuing both Gan and that monk.

After that, Gan joined Garan Temple to become a Monk, wanting to master martial arts so he could return and exact his revenge on those bandits.

His talent was mediocre. It wasn't until he was nearly twenty that he barely mastered a decent level of martial arts.

After seven or eight years, Monk Gan decided to leave Garan Temple and return home for his revenge.

The other monks didn't stop him. Upon his departure, they simply crafted him a set of iron-studded cloth armor and a fine iron staff, advising him not to warp his original intent and to use his martial arts where they were truly needed.

Eager for revenge, the Monk lost no time in rushing back to his hometown.

But times had changed.

Seven or eight years had passed, and his hometown was no longer what it once was.

The bandits had long since been wiped out by the Church.

Even that lord had already been decapitated by a Paladin.

With all his targets for revenge sent to the Underworld by others, the Monk was momentarily lost, not knowing where to place his purpose in life.

Wandering through the Kingdom of Vallenia for a year, the Monk eventually arrived in Wingen Town.

Most of the kingdom's citizens looked down on Wingen Town, considering it a monster-infested den.

But after the Monk arrived, he realized the lives of the townsfolk here were actually much more peaceful and comfortable than in most parts of the Kingdom of Vallenia.

Unlike the numb villagers elsewhere, the locals here were very warm, and they stood united under the threat of magical beasts.

Here, the Monk felt a long-lost sense of peace. Wingen Town became his new home.

And so, the Monk decided to become an adventurer here, helping the villagers subjugate monsters.

He had been an adventurer for four years and seven months now.

Over those four years, the Monk had received countless smiles from the villagers, gratitude from rookie adventurers, and had witnessed many tears.

And now...

Recalling his past, the Monk's trembling hand slowly steadied.

He tightly gripped the staff crafted for him by his fellow monks.

It was cold, yet it brought him comfort.

Gripping the staff felt as though his elders—the militia captain, his masters, and his senior brothers—were standing right behind him, silently supporting him.

Those invisible hands at his back allowed the Monk to summon his temporarily lost courage once more.

The moment the Monk regained his courage, a brilliant glow suddenly erupted from his body, even outshining the moonlight over the cemetery.

At this moment, the world bore witness to his resolve and his will. No one could deny it...

The class of 【Wayfarer】 coalesced at this very moment.

Suddenly becoming a class-holder brought no surprise to the Monk, nor did it bring any joy.

Even as a class-holder, he was still far too powerless against the Tier 2 monster before him.

“I'll hold it off. Take the driver and run!”

The Monk spoke briefly, with no fear left in his voice, only a sense of content peace.

A genius like Lynn shouldn't fall in a small place like Wingen Town before he even had a chance to shine.

As long as he could buy Lynn and the others two minutes, everyone could escape.

But Lynn had no intention of leaving.

For he knew well in his heart that even if the Monk sacrificed his life to buy them a minute or thirty seconds, it still wouldn't be enough for them to escape the pursuit of the Psionic Corpse.

Once the Tier 2 monster appeared, Lynn knew that relying solely on 【Burst Step】 would not be enough to escape.

Although he had the one-time active skill "Incorporeal," Lynn could escape no matter what if he truly wanted to.

But was it worth using "Incorporeal"—which could only be used once for now—just for a Tier 2 monster?

The answer was, of course, no.

Lynn stared intently at the monster before him, raising his gun-staff as the spell model of "Magic Missile" formed in his mind.

On the other side,

after the Psionic Corpse emerged from the ground, the skeletons on the field stopped their movements in unison.

It wasn't that they stopped on their own accord, but rather that the Psionic Corpse was controlling their soul fires!

Specks of green psionic light drifted out from the skeletons' soul fires, converging toward the Psionic Corpse.

As a massive amount of green light gathered, the color gradually shifted, finally refining into a deep blue.

A ball of blue psionic fire began to orbit the Psionic Corpse.

Over three seconds had passed, and Lynn's "Magic Missile" was finally fully charged—

A cyan-and-red projectile of mana shot out at a speed nearly imperceptible to the naked eye, piercing through the cold moonlight and arriving before the Psionic Corpse in an instant.

The Psionic Corpse didn't even try to dodge, allowing the First-Circle spell to slam directly into its face.

Only the ball of psionic fire automatically floated into the missile's trajectory. No matter how Lynn tried to guide it, he couldn't make the missile bypass the flame.

The Magic Missile passed through the psionic fire, its momentum slightly weakened, yet it still smashed squarely into the Psionic Corpse's face.

It was a heavy, powerful blow.

The projectile of light was more powerful than the Psionic Corpse had anticipated.

Forced back several meters by the direct impact of the light projectile, the Psionic Corpse, which had been floating in midair, was slammed straight back into the grave that originally belonged to it.

But the effect of the Magic Missile was also clearly below Lynn's expectations.

First-Circle spells were commonly used by Level 1 and Level 2 Mages.

Only Level 3 Mages could learn Second-Circle spells.

In other words, for anyone below Level 3, the power of a Magic Missile should have been enough to kill or severely wound.

But the Psionic Corpse...

The Psionic Corpse climbed silently out of the dirt pit, looking thoroughly disheveled.

Though battered, it didn't look injured.

Only that single blue ball of psionic fire had dimmed slightly.

After taking a Magic Missile directly to the face, the Psionic Corpse had only suffered light damage!

The spell Lynn had cast at the cost of nearly half his mana could not be called negligible, but it was barely better than nothing.

The dry corners of the Psionic Corpse's mouth curled upward, wrinkling its withered skin.

It stared intently at Lynn, the only Mage on the field, its eyes blazing with a fury that seemed ready to erupt.

Yet, the Psionic Corpse made no move to retaliate. Instead, it floated up once more, resuming its absorption of the skeletons' soul fires.

While the Magic Missile was hitting its mark, the skeletons had briefly regained their movement, starting to shift toward both Lynn and the Psionic Corpse.

But as the Psionic Corpse rose again, the skeletons stopped moving once more.

Lynn's eyes lit up.

This Psionic Corpse, in order to ensure the skeletons wouldn't swarm it, was currently unable to make a move against them!

If that was the case, the appearance of the Psionic Corpse was actually a good thing for Lynn's trio!

Previously, while being surrounded by skeletons, Lynn had been racking his brain for a way to withdraw with his teammates.

But now that both the skeletons and the Psionic Corpse were locked in place by each other, Lynn's opportunity had arrived!

...

...

...

【Psionic Corpse: Corpsefire】: When an unwilling soul wishes to rise from its corpse but is constrained within an immobile body, fel energy finds room to expand freely. Once the fel energy within the corpse grows to a certain level, a Psionic Corpse is born.

As a highly concentrated mass of fel energy (negative psionic energy), a Psionic Corpse possesses the ability to control psionic energy, shaping it into flames. When a Psionic Corpse condenses its third flame, it will enter the "Corpsefire" state, during which the effectiveness of magic against it is greatly reduced.

...

Specter: Yes, the zombie and I have a child.