Is this really a Game?!

"What happened Cameron?" Reign asks Cameron while the latter was drinking a glass of water in the living room. Everyone was present, interested to find out what had made Cameron so weird. One should know that Cameron was a part of the second strongest group in the territory, each of them was level 18, well level 20 now as it seems that the event that Cameron was here to tell them about was enough to allow them to level up.

"It happened last night, you all know how forests around the castle zone change at night, we were coming back from a hunt in the black forest and it was already evening, we didn't really care that much as we were in the dark forest at that time, the monsters there weren't strong enough to pose a threat to us usually." Cameron talks as his eyes change suddenly, fear was present in them.

"We were wrong, I don't know why, but the whole area around the castle went under a huge change last night, thousands of undead were roaming the forests, not only the usual low-level zombies, elites, wraiths, skeletons, and more were present." He slowly continues as he remembers the difficult situation from last night.

The forest was full of monsters as a lone party was fighting through it. Explosions were happening everywhere while tens of undead died every passing second, the undead were mostly between level 10 and 15, with only some higher leveled ones. A group of them would usually pose no threat for the experienced squad that Cameron was a part of, but going against a seemingly endless horde of them was beyond being hard.

Cameron and Ronny were slashing apart the incoming enemies with their swords while running forward, they knew that the only chance of survival was to get back to the castle. Lea was relentlessly launching arrows towards the horde, her fingers had started becoming numb but she didn't care, they all needed to fight with everything they had in order to survive this ordeal.

A man wielding a pair of claws was cutting the zombies apart near Lea as he made sure they wouldn't be able to come close to her. As an archer Lea's close combat capabilities were low and she would definitely be overwhelmed quickly if a couple of enemies were to attack her.

They all gave it their best and didn't bother keeping track of their mana as they unleashed skill after skill.

Snapshot

Chain Blow

Power Slash

Mortal Carve

The zombies and the other undead were either getting slashed to pieces or blown apart by the many skills that were thrown towards them and yet more would simply take their place.

Even after getting back to the newbie forest the zombies still pursued them relentlessly, even there more zombies waited for them as they charged at them with no regard for their safety. The zombies in the newbie forest were weaker of course as they ranged from level 1 to 10, but their inexhaustible numbers were the stuff of nightmares. After a long time fighting the group was overjoyed to see the castle walls in the distance, their tired bodies were once again filled with energy as they charged towards it.

The soldiers on top of the wall were surprised after seeing the huge amount of undead coming near the castle, they quickly opened the gate when they spotted the group coming towards them. A couple of soldiers stood in front of the gate as they waited for Ronny and the others to arrive. They mercilessly killed any monster that dared come near the walls before making space for the weary players to enter. The undead were a different story as the soldiers used their skills to kill hundreds in front of the gate, it was only after some time that the undead stopped charging towards them, it was as if they had received some sort of signal.

Their lifeless bodies slowly moved back towards the forest while Jack made sure to destroy the bodies of the slain monsters that littered the surroundings.

"After we got back in the castle we told Jack what had happened before going back to our rooms to rest," Cameron told them after finishing his story.

"It wasn't only us, a couple of other squads were also attacked, more than half luckily managed to survive but others were not so lucky." He said with a sad voice as he slowly raised his head to look at Reign.

"I don't know what it was, but everyone felt a slight disturbance of mana in the newbie forest, vice-captain Jack confirmed it himself, something had happened in the newbie forest and was slowly spreading to the other forests, if we don't do something soon then every place around the castle will become a haven for the undead."

"That's worrying, we have come across zombies and other undead creatures at night in the newbie forest and the dark forest, but not even close in size to what you have, the black forest had none even during the night, but it seems that could easily change," Wolf said while contemplating about something, everyone was silent as they were deep in their thoughts.

"Wait, Shadow!" Wolf suddenly shouts as Shadow stands up in shock.

"Why are you shouting?!" Shadow angrily asks while looking straight at Wolf.

"The diary, do you still have the diary you got back then?"

"Diary, what dia- wait." Shadow suddenly widens his eyes as he scrambles while looking through their inventory. Finally, he managed to find the diary he had received from a zombie a long time ago.

Everyone gathered around Shadow as they looked at the decayed diary. A dark type of mana was swirling around it, something they hadn't noticed the first time as they were still not skillful with controlling it back then.

Shadow opens the diary as a dark wave of mana passes through them, the mana was weak and didn't do anything to them, however.

[ Special quest initiated, please read the diary players. ]

Everyone glanced at each other while slowly reading through the diary.

Day 1

We entered the necromancer's hideout after sundown, the infiltration was successful and we managed to sneak past his undead army that guarded it. The fifth battalion is currently led by me and the court mage Aethion, our mission to eradicate the evil starts now.

Day 2

The necromancer's hideout was much bigger than we thought, his vast army could be found inside as well, their numbers are far bigger compared to what we had previously believed them to be. The court mage was of immense help as his magic managed to hide us till now, still, I will follow the mission given to me, the crystal is fully charged and ready to be used.

Day 3

Half of the battalion is gone, the undead, they managed to find us even through the spell. I and the survivors are currently recuperating and hiding in one of the many chambers inside of the hideout. The court mage was wounded during the battle, luckily he managed to teleport us away from the army in time.

Day 4

We managed to find a hidden path through the hideout, I don't know if the necromancer knows of this path but so far we have not come across any enemy while using it. We are slowly getting near his location, the death mana is becoming thicker as we walk.

Day 5

The commander was right, Aethion, he was the necromancer. My battalion is gone, all of them dead, but not for long I believe as the bastard will bring them back to life so they can serve him. I managed to escape successfully, I am continuing with my mission, I will my way to Aethion's throne and detonate the crystal.

[ The players have initiated the special quest, " The Coming of the Necromancer" ]

The necromancer Aethion used to be amongst the most powerful creatures on his planet. He had terrorized the kingdoms around his area for decades before finally being defeated by the captain of the fifth battalion, or so had everyone thought. Players, find the hideout of Aethion and defeat him before his army of undead make an appearance on your planet, take caution as the more time passes the stronger Aethion will become.

Ding!

[ Too much time has passed, phase 2 of the quest initiated. ]

Ding!

[ Too much time has passed, phase 3 of the quest initiated. ]

Ding!

[ Too much time has passed, phase 4 of the quest initiated. ]

The necromancer Aethion has managed to recover enough to make a small army of undead. The players are advised to immediately head out to his hideout before he becomes too powerful. As so much time had passed the rewards have been increased as well.

"Damn." Shadow curses as he looks at the diary.

"If we simply opened it before, none of this would have happened." Beast laments as he sits down. They never bothered inspecting the diary after they had received it, they focused on becoming stronger and stronger before finally leaving for the town. Knowing that their inaction had actually allowed a necromancer to make an army of the undead that had killed so many players made all of them angry at themselves.

"Let's go." Shadow suddenly says as he puts the diary back in the inventory.

"Wait, there is no disturbance in the mana during the day, you won't be able to find his location." Cameron suddenly stops Shadow.

"Don't worry, we'll try, if we can't find it before night falls then we will simply find it then." Reign pats Cameron on the shoulder as he tells him reassuringly.

"Tell everyone not to stay till late today, if we can find the hideout during the day then the undead will probably not show up, but if we can't then it will be dangerous again," Wolf tells him from the side as they all slowly go to get ready. It was time to hunt a necromancer.