Broken

Chapter 66

It wasn't long after the meeting that the main strike force and the 'porter', John, set out for the expansive tundra zone of the instance. I couldn't say I was shocked to find us hurrying to get back into clearing this five-star instance; we were literally on a very dramatic time limit after all. I now had just under six days to live.

Though this area was nearly as flat as the lake had been, it was nestled between shale mountains capped in snow, with sporadic clusters of trees braking up the view. The ground was frozen stiff and covered in rocks and brown grass between the snow drifts.

But, perhaps the largest difference between the instance's tundra section, and it's lake area was the atmosphere. Even though the lake had thick cloud cover, and here on the tundra it was mostly sunny, there hung an air of tension about the place. It was like the entire region was heavy, bogging down the body and the mind.

It didn't take too long to find out why the atmosphere felt like we were walking through the land of the dead. It was because we were walking through a valley of the dead. The lake had Snow Snakes and Phantasms, but the tundra seemed to be laced with the dead.

"It looks odd..." Eric stated as we all crowded behind a large boulder, watching an armored skeleton wander aimlessly several dozen meters away. The second Kuro had set eyes on it, Carson had ordered us to take cover to asses the situation.

"Of course it looks odd." Greyson snapped back. "Its a damn skeleton!"

Like myself, the twins had never been to an instance with the undead. In fact, such instances were rare, and typically reserved for five-stars. So, even though it was rare, it wasn't unheard of to find such monsters stalking an instance like this.

"No, Eric is right." Stated Nick, peeking around the rock. "Its not a human skeleton..."

Aiden sighed, and Alex looked just as exasperated. The young mage spoke. "Despite what you've seen in your anime, the undead in instance's aren't human corpses." he said, shaking his head. "If you stop to think about it, it makes sense. How would human bodies make it into an instance to become an undead minion."

"Typically you see goblin skeletons, or orcs... I've seen a few best type monsters resurrected as a necromancer's plaything before." Said Kuro, looking around the opposite side of the boulder from Nick.

"You've been in one before? An instance with a necromancer?" I asked, curious. My hands- gloved as they were- were tucked into my arm pits for warmth. I could only assume it was an affect of <Curse of the Frozen Throne>, but staying warm was steadily getting more and more difficult for me. 

Kuro nodded. "It was just after we made the guild. Aiden, Bryce, Carson and I joined in with a Northern Paladin raid, and it turned out to be a rainforest with an Undead Priest as the boss monster."

"It was in that instance that Kuro got his Shadow attribute stone." agreed Bryce.

"The Paladin's let you have that?" Greyson asked, clearly not believing the Paladin's master- Ryan Parker- would be anything close to something that generous.

Aiden grinned. "Parker's father was the leader back then. Kuro saved his neck during the raid, and he offered him the stone. Ryan was there and didn't look all that pleased... but he didn't object either. Several months later, the father retired and Ryan took over."

"Anyway, as we were saying, it isn't odd to see the strangest of monsters as the undead." Said Carson, getting the conversation back on topic.

"Well... these undead monster's have tails... and weird heads." Nick said, not being helpful in the slightest.