A Dragon's Curiosity

Enjoy the chapter ~ I'll eventually need to make a discord link signature or sth

“As a senior from the same Hall, that man shocked the whole kingdom with his crazy actions.

By the time the Guild and the kingdom noticed his aggression towards human settlements, several tens of villages and two cities fell under the sudden onslaught of the undead monster army.

Even worse, each fallen settlement meant that human practitioners joined the undead army as new recruits.

The whole southeast went into an uproar and the Blackburn family gathered all their retainers in their key cities to guard against the undead.

Smaller villages rarely had more defensive fortifications than a simple wooden wall and the stele from the guild to deter mindless monsters.

While the kingdom and guild dispatched teams to gather information and prepare a counterattack, the [Seven Star Church] noticed several clues about the leader of the horde and offered their support proactively.

Infuriated by that man who abandoned his humanity, the three different forces soon found his position and were greatly alarmed that he almost neared the upper limit of rank seven and prepared to attack rank eight.

Perhaps with a couple more cities razed to the ground, he would have the life force needed to advance.”

While Miss Thana recounted this old story, her emotions generally fluctuated little, only showing the sadness and helplessness from her recollection.

The old priestess made an effort to distance herself as the storyteller, who was uninvolved in the events, but Nisha observed that she also lived through the disaster, perhaps with a cultivation not much higher than her own.

Thanks to the multitude of information contained in the recount, the dragon wanted to ask some questions right away, yet she decided to wait until Miss Thana finished her story first.

“At that time, the head priest of the Hall of Life and Death just recently broke through the ninth rank, and his good deeds almost earned him the title of saint with the common citizens.

Almost no one dared to compare themselves with his talent in healing and mending wounds, and according to rumors, the head priest could turn certain death into heavy injuries and long recovery instead.

Concerned about the possible connection with the priest that went missing fifty turns ago, he accompanied the first expedition team, which was comprised of many prominent rank eight warriors and magicians.

The court and the guild wanted to rout out the undead before they grew unstoppable and threatened the entire kingdom, hence they sent their court magicians and famous warriors of the highest renown.”

Nisha refilled her cup with the still steaming hot tea from the kettle and painted the scene of the past in her head.

She wondered whether her late grandfather Eldrin also took part in such an expedition, and how many existences at the eighth rank were hidden in the capital.

To the current dragon, such eminent warriors and magicians were still far away from her current cultivation, and a campaign that included many of them on both sides inspired awe and reverence from a story alone.

“When they set off, the streets were full of commoners cheering for the heroes who set off to protect them from an undead disaster.

I also watched the contingent of priests gather from the Halls of Fire, Light, and Life and Death gather on the temple plaza before they joined the campaign.

With high ranking priests and the head from our hall, everyone wished them swift success for the peace to return.

Sadly, everyone underestimated the madness that drove that priest who abandoned his humanity.

As the invoker and master of the undead disaster, his strength should have been the upper limit for his servants, or the servants should have devoured the master to strengthen themselves instead.

With his seventh rank aura cultivation, the investigation from all three parties, the church, the crown and the guild, indicated that the campaign should have had the absolute advantage.

When the undead army and the human party clashed in the south eastern hills and forests, the enemy completely exceeded the scope that they expected.”

Miss Thana sighed and put away her empty cup. Silence reigned over the small yard, and a priest exited his room nearby.

He nodded towards Miss Thana and her guest, then he headed for the Hall in front of the buildings.

Nisha gave the older woman the time she needed, and eventually the old priestess resumed the story.

“Rather than funneling the life force of all fallen creatures into his body to facilitate another breakthrough, the undead priest reared more skeleton warriors with good potential instead.

He already knew that the kingdom would have to respond to his undead army when they attacked the first village and constantly plotted a countermeasure.

Instead of going for absolute control and safety, he picked the most suitable and talented corpses after each raid and rapidly raised them through the ranks.

So when the contingent of priests, warriors and magicians eventually arrived, a squadron of mid eighth rank skeleton warriors and monsters who had never taken part in any skirmish suddenly emerged and dealt a heavy counterblow to the humans.

The contingent was trapped inside a siege by the elite unit of skeletons warriors and magicians, and at the same time a sea of low ranking undead swarmed them.

Only those at the eighth rank survived the initial blow.”

Ghostly wails and desperate struggles for survival appeared inside Nisha’s mind as she imagined the story.

The current progression did not explain much about the [Blackroot Plague] yet, but the elf saw how important the topic was to Miss Thana, hence she played the role of a serious listener with utmost effort.

Learning about the history of the capital was a nice bonus.

“That fallen priest arranged spell arrays and aura inscriptions beforehand to trap the team coming for them, as well as preventing information from leaking.

If he had succeeded in hunting down so many high ranking living beings and seized their life force, there would have been quite a good chance for him to break into the eighth rank and retake control over the other undead.

Furthermore, the dead fighters and magicians would have had high potential to become strong skeletons as well, essentially replenishing the undead armies strength.

Thankfully, the head of the Life and Death Hall had volunteered to go with the expedition, his ninth rank strength allowed him to use a relic from the temple to send back an urgent message to the [Seven Stars Church].

Faced with the incoming failure and death of the contingent sent to subdue the skeleton army, the capital went into an uproar, many citizens felt that there was no more hope left and the city was left on the verge of a riot.”

Miss Thana kept herself as a spectator in her narration, the elf only noticed that she subconsciously included herself when it came to matters pertaining to the Hall of Life and Death and the past head priest.

She tried to imagine how things would unfold if the current Thurgau learned about a massive army standing on the border of the kingdom, ready to invade and kill every single living being.

The dragon had encountered undead creatures before, fights in the Wilderness did not always have a victor and without scavengers scattering the bones and cleaning the bodies, the dead sometimes returned as skeleton monsters and very rarely undead beasts.

Thankfully, the quality of the body before death had a direct influence on the rank a skeleton monster attained afterwards.

As such, these rare incidences barely troubled the [Dragon’s Den] and each of the four siblings in charge had dealt with them before.

“At the most critical moment, the last king passed an edict to dispatch his personal troops and the head of the court magicians and asked his vassals for their support.

On top of that, the [Adventurer’s Guild] paid a heavy price to invite the two strongest members of theirs to take an emergency mission and go to the rescue of the trapped expedition.

Assisted by the Dukes Whitehall and Silverwood, the rescue team rushed day and night to prevent the fallen priest’s plan from succeeding.

When they arrived at the siege location, anyone below the eighth rank already died and half of the eighth ranked warriors and magicians died as well.

But thanks to the sacrificial spirit of the knights, priests and magicians, those who knew their end was inevitable detonated their spirit or body to prevent the dark magic deployed there to make use of their corpses.

As a result of that, the rescue team accomplished their goal and eradicated the high tier skeletons before they had a chance to retreat and cleaned up the mob of low ranking cannon fodder in large batches.

Most of the survivors had grave injuries, and the head of the Hall of Life and Death was not an exception.

Still, he recognized the priest that abandoned his humanity and found clues to the true cause of the undead horde.

Instead of going back with the rest of the survivors first, he asked for an escort from the royal guard and court magicians to track the source of the disaster.”

Sighing with emotion, the old priestess brushed away the hair that covered her eyes and lifted her gaze to the sky.

When the silence passed again, she closed her eyes and prepared herself for the most demanding part of the story.

“The surviving members and the Dukes returned to the capital through several big cities, while the head of the Hall of Life and Death convinced the royal guard to follow him towards the first village that disappeared from the assault of the undead horde.

His injuries worsened as a result of the delayed treatment and his state fell back into the eighth rank, yet the head priest insisted on uncovering the source of the undead before returning to the capital.

Following the wake of destruction in the Wilderness, they managed to find an underground ruin, where the remnants of dead magic confirmed that the fallen priest resided here before.

An ancient mage had buried himself in his tomb and left rituals for undead magic behind, planning to revive later on.

The [Seven Stars Church] found his traces and sealed the structure underground to prevent any accidents,unfortunately the fallen priest sought them out when he neared the end of his lifespan.

With a combination of restricted materials from the collection of the church and the rituals left behind in the ruin, he turned his body into a risen skeleton and set his eyes on the living beings in the kingdom.

He resented all living things and planned to establish an undead empire, with himself as the highest ranking undead.

The head priest collected the forbidden journals and undead rituals in the ruin and planned to take them back to Thurgau, to prevent such a disaster from ever occurring again, when his barely stabilized condition broke down even further.

Suspicious of the ruins, the court magicians investigated the place and found out that it was not only the fallen priest who had a sinister plan.

Unwilling to let others take advantage of his tomb, the ancient magician placed seals through magic arrays on his burial ground.

When the fallen priest intruded, he broke those wards to retrieve the knowledge for the undead resurrection spell.

In a twist of fate, the trap left behind for ages did not spring on the priest, as he abandoned his body right away.

It was only when the head priest and the royal party entered the ruins that they figured out that the disaster had not yet ended.

That magician from the past collected and sealed items contaminated with the [Blackroot Plague], wishing to take revenge on those that disturb his tomb.

And worst of all, the fallen priest already carried the disease out of the tomb when he emerged as a skeleton magician.

It was only the death of the creatures that he faced with his undead horde that stopped the spread of the plague, as the disease cannot grow without living beings.

Alarmed, the royal party hurriedly tried to cleanse themselves, but the injured members of the expedition had already arrived back in the capital.”