Second World

”Hm, they are close to my Blade Dancerʼs level. How convenient,” Jack said as he walked forward and cast Magic Weapon. His staff transformed into its sword form.

Six Cemetery Ghouls were sighted. Jack was not sure if there were more hiding inside the fog. But if they were level 35 elite, he didnʼt have anything to worry about even if there were more.

He dove into amongst the ghouls and started dancing with his sword art. The ghouls were not slow like zombies, they were even faster than average monsters, but Jack was still faster. Their advantage in number was non-existent as Jack expertly evaded every attack with Eight Diagram Illusory Steps while slashing them at the same time. His persistent training showed its result, his evasion art had now reached a decent level. He could easily evade nine out of ten attacks.

The ghouls didnʼt possess any special attack skills. Their claws, however, when hit, caused Poison and Weakness. Jack used his Golden Noble Headbandʼs ability to purify the negative effects. He curbed his reckless assaults and fought more prudently to avoid getting hit again after that one time.

After he took out half of the six ghouls, a pair of hands suddenly emerged from the ground underneath him and grabbed his leg, immobilizing him. It gave him a decent jump scare due to this unexpected obstruction. While he was still in shock, another pair came out and held his other leg.

The three Cemetery Ghouls didnʼt let go of this chance as they pounced at Jack while he was immobilized. Jack hurriedly used his racial skill, Willpower. The two pairs of hands were swatted away by an invisible force, letting go of Jackʼs legs. But they soon came back to make another attempt at grabbing. Jack did not let them. He somersaulted back, avoiding being grabbed again and at the same time moving away from the three ghouls that came clawing.

When he landed, another pair of hands came out. Though he was surprised, he now paid attention to the ground as well, so he took action before his legs were grabbed. He backflipped, again and again, because when he landed, another pair of hands came out non-stop.

ʼHow many f*cking hands are down there?ʼ He cursed while backflipping.

When he reached the edge of the cemetery ground. Finally, no more hands came out. The hands disappeared back into the ground.

”Shit, does this mean I canʼt fight within the cemetery ground?” He wondered but didnʼt think too much of it. Since he had put so much distance to the three ghouls that were still coming at him. He aimed his magic weapon at them and started shooting ranged attacks and spells.

The thee ghouls were already low on health after the previous batterings, so it didnʼt take many hits to finish them. All three went down before they reached Jack.

With the threats gone, he tried stepping into the graveyard again. No hands coming out. He could continue his investigation again. The trail brought him deep into the graveyard before the ghouls interrupted him. He was not sure if the ghouls were originally in this graveyard or they were connected to the missing children case.

He walked back to the previous place where he last followed the trail, all the while paying attention to the ground. In case those freaky hands decided to play grab again.

Before he reached the place, though, he heard a screeching voice. It was low at first but increased in intensity as time passed. It was now a wail, a hair-raising wailing. Jack had a problem determining where the wail was coming from. The fog not only incapacitate his radar, but it also distorted the sound.

His mana sense suddenly told him something was coming from his left. He turned and saw a ghastly-looking ghost-like apparition. It was an old woman in a grey robe, floating in the air as she approached. Her hair was swirling around as if weightless. She had two round black holes instead of eyes and her mouth was opened wide. The hair-raising wailing came from her.

”Scary. But Iʼm facing you as Storm Wind, not Jack,” Jack uttered fearlessly while using Inspect.

Banshee (Special Elite monster, undead), level 40

HP: 98,000

The Banshee suddenly screamed. The voice was so loud it hurt Jackʼs head. He tried to put two hands on his ears to dampen the voice but to no avail. He backstepped away from the Banshee while receiving notification that he was afflicted with Fear and Confused.

The Fear effect gave him an irrational feeling to flee the scene and prevent him from attacking the one that cause the effect, while the Confused effect made his skills and spells have a chance at failing.

The Banshee made another scream, but it wasnʼt a long shrilling shriek like previous. It was a short shriek that caused the air in front of her to distort as bullet-like energy came rushing at Jack.

Jack used Rangerʼs roll to dodge. He was originally planning to use the Roll to bring him closer to the Banshee for a melee fight, but he ended up rolling sideways, away from the Banshee.

”Crap! This Fear status is more potent than I thought!” Jack exclaimed.

Since he couldnʼt get near, he started shooting again using ranged attacks and spells. No problem with the standard ranged attacks, but when he cast Energy Bolts, it fizzled and nothing came out. Yet, the cooldown was still applied.

”How can I prevent myself from her scream that causes status effects? Does that scream have a cooldown?” Jack asked. Even if he removed the effect now, it would be pointless if the Banshee screamed again.

The Banshee continued shooting her voice bullets while Jack dodged and sent her his ranged attacks in retaliation.

”You canʼt dodge a voice attack. Other than having high status-effect resistances, there is little you can do to,” Peniel answered. ”But that long scream of hers does have a cooldown. It was around two minutes.”

”Two minutes? Okay then, Fast Heal!” Jack uttered. His Fear and Confused resistances were at 30%. Although they could be considered high amongst players, he was still going to be affected two out of three times. He was also worried at first that the graveyard hands would come out again. They hadnʼt all this time, so Jack decided to go on the offensive.

Peniel cast her healing spell, healing Jackʼs HP and removing all negative status effects at the same time. Jack then used most of his heavy-powered range skills and spells while running over, Sword of Light, Wind Slash, Shredding Fang, Mana Beam. He didnʼt use them before because it would be a waste for these skills and spell to fail due to the Confuse effect.

He cast Barrier then Charge to rush over to the Banshee. He noticed that the Banshee received less damage from his physical attacks and skills. But the magic weapon on his left, caused normal damage when it hit because it delivered magic attacks instead of physical.

”This Banshee had incorporeal form, which reduces all physical damage,” Peniel explained.

One weakness of this Banshee, though, was that she was slow. She almost never moved from her floating position. So Jack could easily hack at her like she was a stationary punching bag. But she was not exactly doing nothing while being attacked. She emitted a scream that radiated outward. It was not the one that caused status effects like the first one, but a damaging kind like the second one. This third one was AOE, so Jack couldnʼt avoid it. The damage it caused was lesser than the second one, though.

The battle became a contest of who could dish out more damages. No evasion or dodging was required.

Under normal circumstances, the special elite monsterʼs high pool of HP would ensure the monsterʼs advantage in this kind of contest. But Jackʼs high passive recovery allowed him to survive such a contest. Yet, his HP bar still went down at a faster rate compared to the Banshee.

When two minutes had passed and the Banshee uttered her long scream again. Jack activated Gold Scale Armor, reducing the damage he received while becoming immune to all negative status effects and buffing his recovery speed. His HP bar was no longer going down but steadily increased instead.

When the three minutes duration of the Gold Scale Armor was out, Jack asked Peniel to use Healing Field, keeping him immune from the status effects again. By the end of the Healing Fieldʼs duration, the Banshee fell.

Jack had activated Runestone of Luck. Gold coins, mana cores, and a familiar-looking plate were on the ground where the Banshee was floating before.

He stored the coins and cores. After using Inspect on the plate, he found that he didnʼt recognize wrong. It was indeed a Recall Plate. The same one in Sinfulʼs possession that had summoned Master. While still looking at the plate, he heard some clappings.

He turned and saw a mysterious figure wearing a coat and a hood coming out of the fog.

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