Ordinary weapons do not work on undead-type monsters. The best way to deal with them is either by using weapons blessed by a priest or weapons imbued with holiness (silver weapons are a representative example). Next best would be weapons infused with mana, which can still deal a certain amount of damage.
Inside the Blue Mountain Range, a heavy, silent stillness hung in the air. The only sound was the rustling of grass beneath the feet of my party and me. Occasionally, chilling cries would echo faintly in the distance, but following my and Go Yeon-Joo's advice, everyone intentionally ignored them. The moment you are drawn to those cries, encountering a Banshee becomes inevitable.
"Haa... Haa..."
Before we knew it, Sol was breathing heavily. Despite deliberately slowing our marching pace, she was still struggling, suggesting that she was more affected by the area's morale drain than the others. Sometimes she even stopped walking, as if overcome by some inexplicable anxiety.
"I can't believe it. Is this really the same Blue Mountain Range we saw from the outside? How can the atmosphere change so drastically in an instant?"
"Just the fact that undead are here explains a lot. This Blue Mountain Range... is cursed land. With every step forward, you can feel the resentment and malice pressing in. It's chilling... and ominous."
At Go Yeon-Joo's reply, Vivienne clicked her tongue, clearly displeased. Still, it was fortunate that at least the two of them could hold a conversation; the rest of the party was probably going through the same struggle as Sol. This atmosphere was on an entirely different level compared to the undead we encountered in the Ruined Laboratory.
Back in the first life, the caravan I was part of had only managed to enter the Cave Of Wailing thanks to the sacrifice of an archer who had been leading the way. The caravan leader at the time—aside from having a hot-blooded personality—was someone with fairly solid skills, as far as I remember. Thanks to his efforts, the caravan managed to reach the very end of the Cave Of Wailing.
However, the moment we entered the room at the end of the cave, we encountered a nightmare. The leader, who had always led us so passionately, was torn to pieces by that nightmare, and the remaining caravan members didn't even dare to resist — we simply fled, like prey being chased. It was only after nearly half of us were torn apart during
"O- Oppa... It's dangerous."
Sol, who had been matching her pace with mine ever since we entered the mountain range, stopped walking with a tense expression. Impressively, Sol had been almost perfectly predicting upcoming dangers based solely on her intuition. I gently patted her trembling head and calmly raised my right hand — a signal to prepare for battle.
"Player Kim Su-Hyeon, this isn't good. It's not a Banshee, but... I can hear the ground rumbling periodically, and something brushing past us at the same time."
"A Death Knight. Or a Lich. In the worst case, it could be both."
"We can only hope not. A Lich is even trickier to deal with than a Banshee. Named monsters showing up already... Seriously, what the hell is wrong with this mountain range?"
"This is my first time here too. I don't know everything, you know."
"Aigoo... You're going to be the death of me."
At my words, Go Yeon-Joo shook her head dramatically. I exaggerated a little and then fell into thought. We had two choices: confront them or avoid them. Fighting them wasn't the real issue — the real problem was the noise the battle would cause. Even now, the creatures that had picked up on our presence were lurking about, and if we made the usual explosive racket during battle, there was a good chance we'd be completely surrounded. And among them, there would likely be some we really didn't want to face... like Banshees.
Still, I didn't want to avoid it either. While I had to keep all possibilities in mind, the chance of both enemies appearing at once was rare. And even if they did appear…
I quickly made up my mind and slowly started moving forward. This could be more dangerous than anything we had faced so far. If Go Yeon-Joo's prediction was correct and both a Death Knight and a Lich appeared, we wouldn't have the luxury of taking it slow. That meant there was only one answer: swiftly subdue the undead before more creatures could swarm us, and get out of there immediately.
After walking cautiously for about five minutes, I heard Sol gasp sharply.
Through the thick trees ahead, a long procession exuding a gloomy aura was approaching us. I observed their forces briefly and realized my prediction was only half correct. There was no Death Knight. But atop a ghostly horse rode a gaunt skeleton wearing a crown and a tattered robe — a Lich. Surrounding it were skeletal soldiers, armored to a certain degree, their teeth clattering as they escorted the Lich.
There were about a dozen of them, but their formation was strict and an intense aura of discipline radiated from them. They must have spotted us too, because they marched straight toward us before stopping at a certain distance. Even as they stood still, the clatter of bones echoed intermittently. Sol swallowed nervously and raised her staff slightly.
The Lich seemed to recognize that I was the leader standing at the front. I could feel the burning blue fire inside its hollow eye sockets fixed directly on me. And then, I saw it — the Lich's skeletal mouth slowly opening.
Hrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Haaahhhhhhhhhh.
I couldn't understand exactly what it said, but I could tell for sure it wasn't anything good — all the heavily armored skeleton soldiers around it simultaneously raised their weapons and showed clear hostility toward us. Well, to be fair, we already had our weapons drawn too, so we couldn't really complain. Still, the atmosphere was definitely turning in a bad direction. And there was no way I was going to just stand here and let them strike first.
So, I leveled my sword at mid-guard and calmly spoke.
"This is a high-tier undead, a Lich. We don't have much time, so I'll explain the tactics quickly. Melee players will form a 'Phoenix Wing' formation with me at the front, while ranged players will stay behind and provide support. Player Go Yeon-Joo will act as a keeper. I'll take care of the Lich — the rest of you focus on dealing with the skeleton soldiers."
As I quickly gave out orders, the Lich also started to move. I saw its withered hand, holding an old staff, slowly rise, and without any hesitation, I gave the order to charge.
"An-Hyun and Yun-Jung, move in from the left and right! Let's go!"
With that, I sprinted straight toward the Lich. The surrounding skeleton soldiers tightened their defensive formation even further, and I noticed the Lich's free hand — the one without the staff — aimed straight at me.
Fsssst. Bang! Bang! Bang!
A black orb formed in its outstretched palm and then fired at me in rapid succession. Dark Cannon, huh. Ideally, dodging would be best, but since it could endanger my companions, I lightly swung my sword and shattered the orbs mid-air. I couldn't read its expression — it was just bones, after all — but somehow, it felt like the Lich flinched a little.
Since I charged in first, it was only natural that I would reach them first. As I stomped hard on the ground and leapt over the skeleton soldiers blocking my way, I could clearly see the Lich aiming its staff at me. Should I use Spatial Displacement, or should I push off the air one more time?
There wasn't much time to decide. The moment I saw the pulsing black energy shoot from the tip of the Lich's staff, I immediately channeled mana into my feet and forcefully kicked off the air. I somersaulted midair, flipping behind the Lich. From behind me, I heard a gasp — probably from Go Yeon-Joo. Given her skills, she would understand just how high-level the move I had just pulled off was.
Spinning around once in the air, I used the centrifugal force to bring my sword down in a straight line toward the Lich's crown. At that moment, the Lich's body turned semi-transparent, as if it had been expecting this. Its jaw split open in a grotesque grin. I simply grinned back and pressed down even harder with my descending sword.
Spat!
My blade cleanly split the Lich's body in two, and its form scattered left and right like smoke being torn apart. Normally, the sword would have just passed through or, even if split, the Lich's body would reattach itself. But this time, it couldn't. On top of that, I had also slashed through its ghost horse, and as a result, the Lich's body collapsed immediately.
Liches do not truly die. Unless their Life Vessel is destroyed, they will resurrect after a few days.
But that rule didn't apply to me.
Lich's body was in total disarray. It had tried to evade my physical attack using a phasing spell, but it was cleanly cut apart anyway. Watching the creature, split in half and unable to do anything, I casually snapped my fingers. A clear flame soon engulfed the Lich's entire body, and I couldn't help but let out a low whistle.
It hadn't even taken me eight seconds to deal with the Lich. Clicking my tongue at the companions who were staring at me blankly, I then pointed my sword toward the skeleton soldiers.
With the Lich destroyed, the skeleton soldiers were no longer truly our enemies. Even though they were fairly heavily armored, they couldn't win against opponents being supported by mages. The only reason the undead we had just faced were so troublesome in the first place was because the Lich was supposed to be bombarding us with powerful magic while also coordinating its soldiers. But by taking out the Lich right at the start, we were able to easily wipe out the remaining skeletons.
After wrapping up the fight and quickly moving away from the area, I couldn't help but notice Go Yeon-Joo's gaze following me the entire time. She looked at me with a face that was partly overwhelmed, and I could understand how she felt.
Although I had fought a bit seriously this time, I hadn't expected to take down the Lich so easily. For a moment, it hit me — each of the abilities in my body really were like cheat codes. In any case, this battle confirmed one important thing for me: choosing Sword Specialist over Spell Sniper in the early stages of my second life had definitely been the right call. Mages could no longer match me.
And that's exactly why Go Yeon-Joo kept sneaking glances at me. My battle just now had, in a way, invalidated more than half of the value of mages on the whole continent. Unless a mage could bring an entire legion to overwhelm me, I doubted there was a single mage who could beat me one-on-one.
The group's mood had lightened, even if just a little. At first, they had been subtly lacking in confidence, but after I swiftly crushed the Lich and they themselves took care of the skeleton soldiers, it seemed they had regained some of it.
Even though we encountered a Lich near the entrance, the two groups of undead we ran into afterward didn't include any high-ranking monsters. At worst, there were only Abyss Knights.
Thus, Sol and I continued leading the group deeper into the mountains, following the route we had agreed upon.
The deeper we went, the more clustered the undead became. Every time we cleared them out, we immediately left the area, repeating the cycle. After over two hours of marching through tense, razor-thin battles, we finally crossed the second mountain peak — meaning we had reached the targeted point. I immediately activated my Third Eye and began calmly scanning the surroundings.
The place we needed to find was a valley where water flowed. The location of the Cave Of Wailing was attached to a water-filled valley, nestled inside the mountains. If we traced the sheer cliffs of the valley, we would eventually reach a wetland. Around the cave, there would be clusters of trees and shrubs forming a ring-like formation.
Recalling those old memories, I made my way down a slight slope. Soon, I could faintly hear the sound of trickling water in my ears. Following that sound and lowering my gaze, I saw it — just as expected, a long, sunken terrain stretched out below. Now, all that was left was to find the narrow, oval-shaped passageway somewhere at the bottom of the valley.
"We'll be entering the valley now. We've reached the target point, so stay sharp, everyone."
Speaking quietly to the group, I turned my head toward Sol. She showed no signs of hesitation about going into the valley, and was carefully taking her first step down the slope.
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