Single Wish: Rise Of The Omniscient Paragon-Chapter 826 - 823: End of The First Night

Outside, the undead stood still.

Dozens. Hundreds of them.

Some swayed slightly, others tilted their heads at unnatural angles with their necks twitching and their jaws were slack.

Corey sat near the broken frame of a dusty window and watched them.

He watched how they didn’t dare approach the transparent barrier that was surrounding the house they were in.

Some creatures clawed at the air, trying to cross the barrier, but they could not no matter how they tried.

One pressed its face so close to the barrier that Corey could see the split in its cheek. Another just... giggled.

Quiet, hoarse. Over and over.

But they couldn’t enter.

For now at least.

Corey’s mind went to the inverted triangle that had been drawn on the door, and his mind analyzed the symbol.

Or to be more precise.

He was trying to analyze the hundreds of runes that were in such a simple looking symbol.

’I was lucky... I noticed some buildings with these symbols, but I was not sure if they were safe zones or danger zones.’

’Fortunately, I listened to my instincts.’

Sigh

Corey shook his head softly as he recalled how lucky he and the members of the Thirteenth Dawn were lucky the building they were in was a safe zone and not a danger zone.

While Kieran, Myra, Zeke, Yara, and Aelric were battling the horde of undead, he had been scanning their surroundings with his Eyes of Omniscience, and he noticed some peculiar things and also minute details that most would ignore.

One of them was the inverted triangle symbol on some buildings.

When he noticed these buildings, he knew that it could either be a death zone or a safe zone.

He had not been certain, but after observing everything that had been going on for so long, he knew that the chances of the buildings with the inverted symbol being safe zones was high.

If he wanted to take the somewhat safe route, he could have decided to slaughter every single undead since the strongest undeads he saw were Tier 5s.

His mind went to the Tier 5 undeads he saw, and he could not help but take a subtle glance at the Thirteenth Dawn.

’The Tier 5 undeads are the ones directing the Tier 3 and Tier 4 undeads to attack us. If a single Tier 5 approaches us, I doubt they’ll survive.’

Corey frowned.

’This is troublesome... Very troublesome.’

Inside the house, the air was stale than the one outside. The room was dark and narrow, filled with cobwebs and dust that had soaked deep into the walls.

Furniture sat in odd places. A table was nailed to the ceiling. A mirror reflected nothing, and the floor creaked even when no one moved.

Despite the horrifying state of the house, it had one good thing apart from the fact that it was a safe zone from the horde of undead.

The death energy in it was extremely minute, causing the rate at which their necrotic resistance charms degraded to reduce slightly.

The members of the Thirteenth Dawn sat or leaned wherever they could, and no one spoke for a long time.

Myra was beside Rhys, dabbing a cloth- soaked in a black paste Aelric had given her- against his wounds.

His shirt has been torn off, revealing a long gash from his waist to his shoulder. The skin around the injury darkened with each passing second.

Rhys trembled.

Not just from pain.

But from fear also.

"I can’t feel my left hand," he murmured. "Is that... bad?"

"It’s the death energy," Aelric replied as he crouched beside him.

His right hand glowed faintly with a pale green hue.

Necromantic Art: Spirit Cleansing Touch

Faint tendrils of pale green fog seeped out from Rhys’ wound as Aelric muttered these words softly.

The death energy in Rhys’ body resisted.

"It’s clinging to his mana pathways," Aelric muttered as beads of sweat appeared on his face. "I’ve never encountered Death Energy like this before... It’s like it’s sentient."

Everybody remained quiet, and Corey furrowed his brows slightly.

Kieran stood by the door, his twin sabers in hand as he watched the barrier like it might shatter at any moment.

He was tense.

Extremely tense. But he didn’t show it.

He was the captain. How could he show his anxiousness when they were just at the beginning of the trial?

’We need to survive... No matter what.’

"Will he live?" Myra asked, her voice disrupting Kieran’s thoughts.

Aelric didn’t answer immediately. A second later, the glow of the pale green hue brightened.

Rhys groaned.

"Will. He. Live?"

Aelric’s voice was quiet. "If I can keep the corruption from reaching his heart and mana core... then yes... But he’s not going to be fine. Not for a long time. He’s going to need an actual healer or priest."

Silence fell again.

Zeke slumped down against a broken wall, reloading his pistols with trembling fingers.

"This trial’s a joke," he said under his breath.

"A really sick joke."

Yara was seated beside the fireplace. There was no flame in it. Just bones. Child sized bones.

"This wasn’t made for us to win... We battled dozens of Tier 4s, and I could sense the aura of numerous Tier 5s in the distance." she said with her gaze falling on the child sized bones in the fireplace.

The room went quiet, and Kieran broke the silence after some minutes.

He sighed and looked at the rest of the group. "Alright. Let’s go over what we know."

"Fire and lightning works. But fire works better." Myra said immediately.

"So does black magic," Aelric added as he leaned back and closed his eyes.

He was recuperating the mana he had used to heal Rhys.

"But physical damage?" Zeke shook his head. "Might as well throw rocks."

Yara tilted her head. "They can still move if you cut off their heads, but if you completely shatter their heads or cut it into pieces, they die... I’m guessing their head is the most important part of their bodies."

Everybody nodded, and some seconds later, Corey spoke while leaning against a wall.

"How do we deal with what is taken from us? If every night, we have either our sight, hearing, touch, or something completely random taken from any one of us, our chances of survival would drastically reduce."

Everybody went silent, and then they glanced at Rhys who was deeply asleep.

Kieran looked at the window beside him, his gaze landing on the undead standing outside the barrier with smiles and giggles.

"We don’t have a way to deal with that. In fact, I don’t think we can deal with it at all."

"We need to locate the source of the curse like the system said. Surviving for seven nights is not going to be easy at all."

Myra stood while wiping her hands. "We need to find more of these marked houses. We were lucky that Ryan noticed the marking on the house and was able to guess that it was different from the others. A safe zone to be exact."

"If we can find a marked house before nightfall, then we should be able to survive the horde of undead."

Everybody nodded, except for Corey.

For some reason, he had a feeling that things were not going to be that easy.

If it was, then surviving this system trial would be easy.

’I hope I didn’t jinx it.’ Corey smiled wryly.

Kieran folded his arms with a solemn expression, "Once it’s day, we scout for a potential exit route... If there is one."

"There won’t be," Zeke muttered.

Nobody corrected him.

"Our main goal is the center of the city. We don’t know where the curse is, but the chances of it being at the center is high."

Everybody nodded once again, including Corey.

Although he had not been able to locate the center of the city through his Eyes of Omniscience, he also had a feeling that the center of the city was going to be their goal.

’Our original mission, Whispergrove... The source of the curse was meant to be at the center of the graveyard.’

’And since this Dying City also came from the same space as the system trial, the chances of the source of the curse being at the center of the city is high.’

’But I can sense a very powerful aura in that direction... A Tier 6 or higher?’

’This is so troublesome.’

Sigh

Corey released another subtle sigh as he had these thoughts.

The room fell into a dull, exhausted silence. Then some hours later, a chime echoed in the air.

The system screen appeared above them, faintly glowing in the darkness.

Only one line could be seen on the screen.

-----

[FIRST NIGHT- COMPLETE]

-----

Corey closed his eyes, and the others exhaled.

But none of them felt relief.

Not truly.

Because if that was only the first night... What would the second bring?

The thought of it sent shivers down their spines.

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