The Final Boss Has Returned
Chapter 74
[I shall grant thee a Lich as a summon.]
At my words, the Undead King replied.
A Lich!
If judged as an NPC, a monster possessing the power of a high-level archmage, and an immortal magician who did not die as long as its Life Force Vessel was not destroyed!
If I could command such a Lich as a summon, then though it was slightly regrettable, it was not as though I could not return Laevateinn.
‘If he’s giving me a useful summon, it certainly isn’t a bad deal.’
Having judged as much, I took Laevateinn out of my inventory.
“Fine. I’ll return it.”
[A splendid decision.]
No sooner had I finished speaking than Laevateinn floated gently above my hand!
The blue flames of Laevateinn, which had been in the form of a sword, transformed into a single orb of flame and flew toward the Undead King, beginning to blaze.
The Undead King, his entire body wrapped in blue flame!
His right hand moved, and soon he summoned a crystal orb filled with a red liquid and slowly sent it floating through the air toward me.
[This is the promised reward.]
[You have acquired the item ‘Lich Dice’s Life Force Vessel’.]
Lich Dice’s Life Force Vessel!
Having acquired the item I wanted, I immediately checked its information.
[Lich Dice’s Life Force Vessel]
[Grade: Hero]
[Classification: Miscellaneous]
[Durability: 10000/10000]
[A crystal orb in which the life force of Lich Dice, a great archmage in life, is sealed.]
[As long as the Life Force Vessel exists, Lich Dice can revive again within 24 hours even if he dies.]
[Item Effects]
[Mana +100]
[Health +100]
[Dark Attribute Damage +1%]
[Dark Attribute Resistance +10%]
[Lich Dice Summon/Unsummon: You can summon/unsummon Lich Dice.]
[This item allows you to summon Lich Dice even while stored in your inventory.]
Lich Dice’s Life Force Vessel!
Seeing that item’s effects, I smiled involuntarily.
Being able to summon a Lich was a given, along with the sizable stat boosts, and to top it off, the message said the item’s effects applied even while stored in the inventory without equipping it!
A jackpot item that checked every box had rolled into my hands.
“I’ll make good use of Lich Dice.”
[Very well. As for the remaining reward, thou may take one item from Our treasure vault. The same goes for thy companions.]
Hearing of the Undead King’s additional reward, I nodded.
It was more or less what I had expected, and since the items in the Undead King’s treasure vault would be Hero grade at minimum and Legend grade at maximum, there was hardly any downside.
Just as I thought I had finished everything and was about to turn to leave.
[And now that thou art part of the alliance, there is something We must tell thee.]
The Undead King spoke to me.
“What is it?”
The Undead King looked at me in response to my question and spoke again.
[It concerns the Dark Elves.]
* * *
Dark Elves!
One of the six races specified in the Path of the Apostle quest that I had to subjugate!
That clue had just come from the Undead King’s mouth.
I stopped the footsteps I was about to turn away on and looked at the Undead King. The Undead King gazed at me and moved his jawbone.
[Long ago, or rather, five years ago by the reckoning of the living, the Dark Elf Kingdom dispatched an envoy unto Us.]
“So?”
[The Dark Elf envoy told Us that the Dark Elf Kingdom had originally maintained a policy of isolation, but a serious problem had erupted within. As it could not be resolved by the kingdom’s own strength, they requested aid from Us, their former ally.]
No sooner had the Undead King finished speaking than a video appeared before my eyes.
A cinematic video I was now used to!
I quietly watched the video.
The video began with a forest.
And not just any forest, but an endlessly spreading tropical rainforest!
In the midst of it was the Dark Elf Kingdom.
A city of massive stone buildings gathered together, much like those of the Mayan or Aztec civilizations!
Inside the city, Dark Elves could be seen moving about busily.
At that moment, cracks as if in glass began to spiderweb across the empty air.
Seeing that sight, the Dark Elves shouted.
“It’s a Rift!”
“It’s a top-tier Rift! Gather the soldiers!”
A Rift!
According to the lore of the Arde World, ever since an incident called the ‘Great Cataclysm’ occurred over ten years ago, Rifts had become a common phenomenon that could be seen anywhere in the world, along with Dungeon Gates.
Simply put, dimensional rifts would open, and monsters would pour through the gaps!
That phenomenon was called a Rift, and in Arde Saga: Second, rifts would sometimes open randomly out in the field and unleash monster waves.
Anyway, the scale of a Rift could be estimated from its size and the fluctuations of magical energy flowing from it, but the rift that appeared above the Dark Elf city was enormous enough to safely be called top-tier.
Thus, it was only natural that the Dark Elves were placed on high alert.
The moment in the video when the Dark Elves gathered holding spears, swords, bows, magic staves, and other weapons.
The thin cracks in the air widened, and a gigantic eyeball blinked open from within, followed by tentacles poking out.
‘Tentacles?’
I watched the video with narrowed eyes.
A monster with tentacles attached to a giant eye?
Such a monster did not exist within the boundaries of my knowledge.
Of course, it could be a monster that had not yet appeared, but anyway, while I was rummaging through the monster database in my head, the video continued.
Tentacles descending from the Rift!
The Dark Elves fired magic and arrows at the tentacles, but the tentacles did not even have so much as a scratch.
At that moment.
Eerie purple smoke flowed from the tentacles, and the bodies of the Dark Elves touched by the purple smoke began to twist grotesquely.
Tentacles sprouted from their faces, and by the time the mutation of the Dark Elves was complete, with their waists bent grotesquely, what remained there was no longer a Dark Elf.
[For the Great One!]
[This world shall be purified by the Great One!]
[We are one!]
Dark Elf mutants babbling incomprehensible words while slaughtering those who had not yet mutated with the weapons in their hands!
The still-intact Dark Elves resisted, but they eventually either succumbed to the purple smoke and mutated, or met their deaths at the hands of the mutated Dark Elves.
A horrifying sight that could truly be called hell on earth!
The high-ranking Dark Elf NPCs watching that scene began a conversation.
“Your Majesty. The enemy’s onslaught is no trivial matter. We must leave this place now.”
“How can a king abandon the capital!”
“But right now, we can no longer withstand the enemy’s onslaught. It is regrettable, but those who have mutated are no longer our kin. If you wish to save the remaining kin, Your Majesty, you must make a decision.”
“I understand.”
Persuaded by the Dark Elf who appeared to be her subject, the Queen decided to retreat, and soon the unmutated Dark Elves flooded out of the city like a receding tide.
In the city the Dark Elves had evacuated, thick purple fog swirled, and soon tentacles and flesh began to envelop the city.
At that very moment.
[Create the ‘Gate’.]
The eyeball within the rift in the air spoke its first line.
[Understood.]
[We shall obey your command.]
[All is according to the will of the Great Providence!]
As the eyeball spoke, the mutated Dark Elves prostrated themselves in worship right there, and finally, the tentacles withdrew and the rift closed, ending the video.
‘This isn’t a simple race quest.’
And I realized it the moment I saw the video.
Dark Elves!
Whatever the content of the quest related to them, it wouldn’t end as a simple race quest!
‘There’s no doubt this is a quest related to the mastermind behind the Great Cataclysm.’
And I was instinctively certain.
The Great Cataclysm!
A disaster that had occurred over ten years before the starting point of Second, one that had overturned the entire world!
I thought that this was undoubtedly a quest connected to the cause and the mastermind behind that disaster.
‘Great Providence, the Great One, and a Gate. It obviously leads to a typical quest repertoire where they summon the Great One or the Providence through something called a Gate.’
Through the keywords that had appeared in the video, I immediately inferred the quest’s final goal and the mastermind behind it.
The Great Cataclysm!
If the clash between the Light and Darkness, the two camps, was the classic main story hook that had continued since the Mythical Age, then the Great Cataclysm was the main story hook newly created in Arde Saga: Second.
Through the event known as the Great Cataclysm, the Arde World was transformed into a completely different appearance from the previous game, and countless lore settings were added.
From the sponsorship and contract system of Transcendents on the small scale, to the changes in the continent’s topography and the very concept of ‘Dungeons’ on the large scale!
The cause of all those changes was precisely the Great Cataclysm, in which dimensions were shaken and otherworldly beings flooded into the Arde World. It was such an important hook that even the Temple of Myriad Gods and the Temple of Demon Subjugation, which had fought countless times over the long years since the Mythical Age, were driven into a state that was written as a ceasefire but in reality was a cold war.
And today, the thread of that hook had finally come into my grasp.
Of course, this single quest couldn’t completely reveal the mastermind behind the Great Cataclysm, nor could it make all the anomalies caused by the Great Cataclysm disappear.
But at the very least, my heart began to pound at the fact that I had found a hook that even Yujin had yet to discover.
At the moment when I was performing countless analyses and thoughts in an instant.
[A quest has been generated.]
A quest had been generated, and I quickly scanned the contents of the quest that appeared next.
[The Tragedy of the Dark Elf Kingdom]
[Grade: Legend]
[Two thousand years ago, after the failure of Saion’s Dark Empire reconstruction plan, the Dark Elves severed contact with the outside world in the Southern Great Rainforest, pursuing a policy of isolation and living peacefully in self-sufficiency.]
[But the clutches of the Great Cataclysm showed no mercy even to the Dark Elf Kingdom, and Moonlight City, the capital of the Dark Elf Kingdom, was destroyed and contaminated by unidentified enemies who emerged from a massive rift that opened five years ago.]
[In response, Idun, the Queen of the Dark Elves, broke the principle of isolation that had lasted for two thousand years for the first time and sent an envoy to the Undead King, sovereign of the undead and their former ally. However, the Undead King gave the envoy a negative answer, and the Dark Elf envoy had to return without any achievements.]
[Now, five years later, you have heard this news from the Undead King.]
[If you wish for the Dark Elves to join the alliance, it would be best to first make contact with the Queen and find out what has happened over the past five years.]
[Quest Objective]
[Make contact with the Dark Elf Queen]
[Will you accept the quest?]
Seeing that the objective was making contact with the Queen, there was definitely more to the quest ahead.
Thinking so, I accepted the quest.
“I accept.”
[You have accepted the quest.]
Having accepted the quest, I turned my gaze toward the Undead King.
“Undead King.”
[Why do you call, Apostle?]
“I want to find the Dark Elves. Do you happen to have any information received from the envoy who came five years ago?”
[According to the envoy, since Moonlight City was destroyed, they were heading to Night Haven, the kingdom’s second city.]
“Where is this Night Haven?”
Moonlight City!
And Night Haven!
Both were cities I had never heard of.
Which was only natural.
Dark Elves!
Since the previous game, there had only been rumors that such a race existed, but no players had actually sighted them.
In such a situation, it was obvious that I wouldn’t know about Moonlight City or Night Haven.
[We shall give thee a map of the Dark Elf Kingdom.]
As the Undead King waved his right hand like before, a map floated up before me.
I grabbed it as it was.
[You have acquired the Map of the Dark Elf Kingdom.]
I placed the acquired map into my inventory and finally asked the Undead King if he could dispatch a Lich and a Death Knight to Lawless Haven to serve as class change instructors. The Undead King readily answered that he would.
And so, my meeting with the Undead King came to an end.