Hiss...
Several smoke bombs were thrown out in quick succession.
In an instant, thick white smoke spread through the entire passageway.
Holding up a torch, John silently drew the Bloodfang from his waist.
Step by step, he moved forward.
"First tile on the left, second on the right, the one directly ahead after three more steps..."
John remembered every trap mechanism in this area with perfect clarity.
His body shifted left and right as he advanced through the smoke as though walking on level ground.
After taking a little more than a dozen steps, John suddenly paused.
His gaze turned toward the front right.
There, within the haze, a blurry outline gradually revealed itself.
[Common Undead] Lv.18
[HP]: 9800
[Stats]: Attack 467, Defense 378, Agility 177, Stamina 400
"Found you."
Looking at the undead creature clinging to the wall, the corners of John's lips curved upward slightly.
The whole reason he had bought smoke bombs was to expose the movements of these undead creatures.
They might possess invisibility,
but as long as they were inside the smoke, the drifting mist would give away their positions.
Pretending not to notice, John continued forward at the same steady pace.
As he passed beside the undead creature sprawled against the wall,
its head—little more than flesh stretched over bone—slowly turned to follow his movement.
Its eyes stared straight at him, eerie beyond words.
John remained unmoved and kept walking.
The undead creature also began to move, pressing itself tightly against the wall without making a sound.
Ten steps later, two more undead shapes appeared in the smoke.
One was crouched on the ground, the other overhead. After spotting John, neither made a move right away.
Instead, they followed him like a festering curse stuck to bone.
That was the nature of these undead creatures.
They would adjust the timing of their attack according to a player's strength.
Once their numbers reached a certain threshold—
once they believed they could kill John for sure—
they would no longer remain hidden, but erupt all at once and swarm him from every direction.
The deeper John went,
the more undead creatures gathered around him.
By the time he reached a corner where the space widened slightly,
the number of undead trailing him had risen to seventeen.
Front, back, left, right, above, below—
undead were almost everywhere.
Their eyes glowed with a sinister crimson light, malice already evident in their gaze.
Clearly,
they believed they now had enough companions to kill John.
"ROAR!"
One vengeful spirit-type undead let out a howl and unleashed a Mind Shriek.
It struck John instantly.
At almost that exact same moment,
all seventeen undead creatures revealed themselves and lunged at him.
Among this batch of undead, the weakest were at least Lv.18.
The strongest had already reached Lv.23.
They sprang out from the ceiling, the corners, and the walls on all sides.
One shrill cry after another rang out, like a summoning hymn drifting up from hell itself.
With so many undead launching a sneak attack at the same time, any other player would have died without question.
And yet,
facing such an overwhelming number of enemies,
John remained perfectly calm as he pulled out another smoke bomb and tossed it to the ground.
Smoke instantly spread across the open area around him, making sure that if any undead deeper within the passage rushed out for a surprise attack, they would still be exposed.
Then the first undead attack landed on him.
It was a skeleton. Wielding a bone sword, it thrust straight toward John's chest.
In its eyes, the thin white robe John wore was no more protective than paper.
This strike would surely pierce straight through and tear out his heart.
But then—
[-0!]
A pale damage number floated above John's head.
The skeleton's bone sword struck him as if it had hit a slab of heavy steel. It failed to penetrate even the slightest bit.
After its stats had been modified, the Lightnight Robe provided an astonishing 1540 Defense.
How could the attack of a mere Lv.20 skeleton possibly hurt John?
[-0!]
[-0!]
[...]
A string of white nullified-damage numbers appeared.
Those undead couldn't even break through John's defense.
Their attacks looked like a complete joke, wasted efforts with no effect whatsoever.
These undead still retained a trace of the intelligence they had in life.
The moment they saw this,
they realized something was wrong and began retreating, preparing to vanish once more.
Unfortunately for them, John had just thrown another smoke bomb.
At that moment, every direction of their retreat was laid bare.
John smiled faintly.
"Now then... it's my turn, isn't it?"
The moment those words fell,
several flashes of skill-light burst across his body.
[Boundary Break] — range increased.
[Annihilation of All] — all enemies within 500 yards of the target take the same damage.
Whoosh!
The Bloodfang in John's hand flashed with cold light as it shot forward.
In the blink of an eye, it struck one of the walking corpses in the back.
[-6071!]
Level 30 stats, combined with the modified attributes of Bloodfang, plus the back-attack critical from his class talent—
and finally the effect of the [Absolute True Damage] talent—
meant that with just a single strike, the walking corpse, known for its high HP, instantly lost most of its health.
And that wasn't all.
Above the heads of the other sixteen undead creatures in the passage, bright red damage numbers also appeared at the same time.
[-6071!]
Some of the frailer undead were reduced to a sliver of life on the spot.
John pressed the advantage and decisively activated Instant Move.
His figure flickered and appeared directly behind the walking corpse.
In that lightning-fast instant,
he pulled out Bloodfang and drove it in once more.
[-6391!]
"Ghh—!"
The walking corpse let out a miserable howl.
Its HP dropped completely to zero.
Annihilation of All activated.
[-6391!]
[-6391!]
[...]
The HP of all the undead creatures around it was emptied as well.
Plop. Plop.
Within the smoke, dull thuds sounded one after another, like rotten mud slapping against the ground.
The undead creatures collapsed one by one, limbs broken, bones shattered.
They lay still and motionless.
Well aware of their traits, John gripped his dagger and silently counted to three in his heart.
Then he stabbed twice more into their backs.
Thrust.
On the ground, the walking corpse had only just started twitching—its HP hadn't even had time to reappear before it vanished again.
[-6172!]
[-6191!]
Nearly the entire cloud of smoke was filled with bright scarlet damage numbers.
The undead creatures that had made all the NPCs in Novice Village tremble in fear looked like nothing more than a pile of punching bags in front of John.
[You killed Lv.21 Walking Corpse. Copper Coins +3000, EXP +5000!]
[You killed Lv.20 Skeleton Undead. Copper Coins +2500, EXP +4000!]
[...]
Kill notifications flooded the screen in an instant.
Watching the undead creatures on the ground rot away and disappear one after another, John calmly sheathed his dagger without the slightest change in expression.
At that moment,
a glowing notification appeared before him.
[You have plundered the B-rank skill "Vanish" from a Lv.20 Common Undead!]
[Invisibility: Consumes 10 MP to enter an invisible state. Ends after attacking. Cooldown: 1 minute.]
"So there really is an invisibility skill."
At last, John saw what he had been after.
As expected of monsters from an A-rank dungeon—even the skills plundered from them started at B-rank.
"And this is only the appetizer. If I clear out all the undead in this place..."
"I can probably synthesize even an SS-rank skill!"
At the thought, John's eyes burned with excitement.
Without the slightest hesitation, he gripped his dagger and strode deeper into the tomb.