Something moved through it. Humanoid shape but the proportions were wrong, limbs too long, joints bending in places they shouldn't.
[Corrupted Villager - Level 22]
[HP: 1,840/1,840]
[Warning: Corruption spreads on contact]
It lurched forward with sudden speed, closing thirty feet in three uneven strides. Samael raised one hand. The creature compressed mid-step, bones breaking inward with wet sounds.
[Enemy Defeated: Corrupted Villager - Level 22]
[+180 EXP | +220 Credits]
More shapes emerged from the fog. Six. Ten. Fifteen. All moving with that same lurching, wrong-jointed gait.
"They're herding us," Samael said, his attention tracking the creatures' positioning. "Driving us toward the village center."
Riri checked Vesper's extended senses. He was right. The creatures were converging from three directions, leaving only one path clear.
"Let them." She shadow-stepped forward, Crimson Fang finding the neck joint of the nearest Villager. "We find the corruption source faster if they're showing us where it is."
They moved deeper into the village, fighting in synchronized rhythm. Samael compressed targets at range, his kinetic manipulation making creatures simply stop existing. Riri handled anything that got through, shadow-step carrying her between targets faster than the Villagers could track. Loki absorbed the few that broke past both of them, his jaws crushing corrupted flesh with mechanical efficiency.
Vermillion drained health from three targets simultaneously, red mist flowing through the fog in thin streams. The stolen HP distributed itself through the bond network, keeping everyone topped off.
[Enemy Defeated: Corrupted Villager - Level 22] x8
[Enemy Defeated: Corrupted Villager - Level 23] x4
The village center opened before them. A town square, cobblestone wet with something dark. Buildings ringed the space, their windows all facing inward like watching eyes.
And in the center, a well.
The corruption flowed from it in visible waves, black oil seeping up from underground and spreading across the square in slow, deliberate patterns. The smell intensified, rot and copper and something underneath that made her teeth ache.
[CORRUPTION SOURCE LOCATED]
[WARNING: Source is defended]
The well's stones shifted.
A hand emerged from the darkness below. Then another. Arms pulling a body up from underground, movement wet and wrong, joints bending backward as it climbed.
[The Drowned Priest - Level 25 - Boss]
[HP: 28,000/28,000]
[Warning: Summons reinforcements every 2 minutes]
[Warning: Corruption aura deals 50 damage per second within 30 feet]
Twenty-eight thousand HP. Level 25. And a summon timer already ticking.
The Priest's head turned toward them, neck rotating too far, too fast. Its face was bloated and pale, eyes filmed over with the same black corruption that seeped from the well. When its mouth opened, water poured out, carrying words in a language that felt wrong to hear.
[Corruption Aura: Active]
[Riri HP: 794/844]
[Samael HP: 1,873/1,923]
The damage ticked down steadily, fifty points every second. They had maybe three minutes before the attrition became a problem.
"Fast clear," Samael said, already moving. "I'll handle the boss. You manage the summons."
"Acknowledged."
He crossed the square in four strides, blade leading. The Priest's arm swept toward him, movement impossibly fast for something so bloated. Samael's kinetic force caught the limb mid-swing and compressed.
Bone shattered. The Priest's HP bar dropped.
[The Drowned Priest HP: 26,780/28,000]
But the arm kept moving. Bone fragments and corrupted flesh reforming even as Samael's force tried to hold it contained. Regeneration, passive, keyed to the corruption flowing from the well.
Riri shadow-stepped to the well's edge and looked down.
Black water, surface roiling with shapes that pressed up from below without breaking through. The corruption flowed from somewhere deeper, a source underneath the source.
She pulled a Greater Health Potion from her belt and drank it without looking away from the water.
[Riri HP: 844/844]
"Loki, defensive position. Vermillion, intercept anything that spawns. Vesper, I need your eyes on the well."
The fox shadow-stepped from her shoulder to the well's stone edge, peering down into darkness. Through their shared senses, Riri felt him focus, his perception cutting through the corruption's visual interference.
There. Twenty feet down. A stone altar submerged in the black water, glowing with the same wrong light that permeated the village.
[CORRUPTION ANCHOR DETECTED]
[Destroy the anchor to stop regeneration]
Behind her, Samael was systematically destroying the Priest's body. Every limb compressed. The torso crushed inward. But the corruption kept pulling it back together, regeneration outpacing the damage.
[The Drowned Priest HP: 24,340/28,000]
The two-minute timer hit zero.
The well's water surged upward. Corrupted Villagers climbed out, ten at once, all Level 22 or higher, all converging on their position with lurching speed.
"Managing summons," Riri said, shadow-stepping into the closest three.
Crimson Fang moved in rapid succession. Throat, neck joint, temple. Hemorrhage stacked across multiple targets.
[Hemorrhage x3 applied to Corrupted Villager - Level 22] x3
Loki hit the fourth Villager before it reached the well, his jaws closing around its spine. The creature came apart.
[Enemy Defeated: Corrupted Villager - Level 22]
Vermillion locked onto three more, HP Drain pulling life out of the corrupted and feeding it back through the bond network. The stolen health kept the corruption aura's damage from becoming critical.
[Riri HP: 844/844]
[Samael HP: 1,923/1,923]
Seven summons down. Three remaining and already closing distance.
Samael compressed two without looking away from the Priest, his kinetic manipulation handling threats at the edge of his awareness with casual precision.
[Enemy Defeated: Corrupted Villager - Level 23] x2
Riri shadow-stepped behind the last one and drove Crimson Fang through the base of its skull.
[Enemy Defeated: Corrupted Villager - Level 22]
First wave cleared. The Priest was still regenerating, HP climbing back toward maximum despite Samael's sustained assault.
[The Drowned Priest HP: 26,120/28,000]
"The corruption anchor is twenty feet down," Riri called. "Submerged. I can't reach it from here."
Samael's attention shifted fractionally, his eyes tracking the well's edge without breaking his assault on the Priest. "Can you breathe underwater?"
"Not for twenty feet of that."
"Then we do this differently." His blade caught the Priest's reaching arm and severed it at the shoulder. The limb dissolved into black oil before it hit the ground. "Keep the summons off me. I'm ending this."
His kinetic force intensified, no longer compressing but pushing, sustained pressure applied in one direction. The Priest slid backward across the wet cobblestone, away from the well, away from its power source.
The regeneration slowed.
[The Drowned Priest HP: 25,680/28,000]
Another two-minute timer appeared in Riri's interface. The next summon wave counting down.
Samael didn't wait for it. His blade moved in surgical strikes, each cut targeting structural points that made the Priest's regeneration work harder to compensate. Throat. Spine junction. Both knees.
The boss collapsed but didn't stop moving, crawling toward the well with single-minded determination.
Samael compressed its head.
[The Drowned Priest HP: 18,340/28,000]
The timer hit zero. The well surged again.
Twenty summons this time, pouring out of the black water in a writhing mass. Level 23 and 24, all converging on the square with coordinated intent.
"Handling it," Riri said, shadow-stepping into the formation's center.
This was attrition. Twenty targets, all capable of spreading corruption on contact, all regenerating as long as the well remained active. She couldn't kill them faster than they spawned.
But she didn't need to.
"Kirin," she said through the bond, pulling him from the Sanctuary. "Chain Lightning. Now."
The juvenile drake materialized in the air above the square, wings flaring, golden eyes locked onto the targets below. Static crackled across his scales.
[Chain Lightning - Activated]
The primary bolt hit the lead Villager and jumped. One. Two. Five. Ten. Fifteen. The lightning spread through the corrupted mass like fire through dry grass, each jump carrying 60% of the previous damage forward.
[Enemy Defeated: Corrupted Villager - Level 23] x12
[Enemy Defeated: Corrupted Villager - Level 24] x8
The square cleared in three seconds.
Kirin chirped, high-pitched and smug, electricity still dancing between his scales. He landed by Riri's side with complete confidence.
"Good work," she said, one hand steadying him.
He gave a happy chirp and a huff before settling down by her feet.
Behind her, Samael's blade found the Priest's torso and drove through, pinning the boss to the cobblestone. His other hand rose, kinetic force building with visible intensity.
"Clear the area," he said.
Riri shadow-stepped to the square's edge. Kirin took to the sky once again, Loki and Vermillion moving with her. Vesper remained near the well, obsidian eyes fixed on the corruption anchor below.
Samael's kinetic force released.
The pressure didn't compress. It pushed down, sustained and overwhelming, driving the Priest's body into the cobblestone with enough force that the ground cracked. The boss's HP bar dropped in a clean, continuous line.
[The Drowned Priest HP: 12,680/28,000]
[The Drowned Priest HP: 8,340/28,000]
[The Drowned Priest HP: 3,120/28,000]
The regeneration couldn't compensate. The corruption tried, black oil seeping from the well and flowing toward the pinned boss, but Samael's force held it separate.
[The Drowned Priest HP: 0/28,000]
[Enemy Defeated: The Drowned Priest - Level 25]
[+2,400 EXP | +8,800 Credits]
The boss dissolved into black oil that spread across the square in thin streams. The corruption aura cut off abruptly.
[Corruption Aura: Inactive]
But the well still flowed. The corruption anchor remained intact, twenty feet down, still feeding power through the village.
Samael turned toward the well, blade resheathing itself at his hip. "Twenty feet?"
"Twenty feet," Riri confirmed.
He walked to the well's edge and looked down into black water. Then he raised both hands.
The kinetic force extended downward, invisible but tangible, pushing through the corruption like a blade through silk. The water displaced, forced aside by sustained pressure, revealing the stone shaft and the altar at the bottom.
[CORRUPTION ANCHOR EXPOSED]
The altar glowed with wrong light, pulsing in rhythm with something Riri couldn't see.
Samael's force intensified. The altar cracked. Once. Twice. Then shattered, stone fragments dissolving into nothing as the corruption lost its physical anchor.
[CORRUPTION ANCHOR DESTROYED]
[VILLAGE PURIFICATION: IN PROGRESS]
The fog lifted in stages, burning away like morning mist under sunlight. The buildings straightened, their angles correcting from wrong to merely old. The sky shifted from bruised purple to pale gray. The corruption oil evaporated, leaving the cobblestone dry and clean.
[MISSION COMPLETE: CURSED VILLAGE]
[Objective Completed: Corruption Source Eliminated]
[Time Elapsed: 47 minutes, 12 seconds]
[Performance Evaluation: PERFECT CLEAR]
[Base Rewards: +12,000 EXP | +45,000 Credits | C-Rank Loot Box x2]
[Bonus Modifiers:]
[Perfect Clear (No Deaths): +50%]
[Speed Clear (Under 1 Hour): +30%]
[Level Difference Bonus (Cleared at Level 20): +40%]
[System #2 Passive - Triple All Rewards: +200%]
[Final Rewards: +61,200 EXP | +229,500 Credits | C-Rank Loot Box x6]
[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]
[Riri Lee: Level 20 → Level 22]
[+30 Stat Points Available]
[Loki: Level 20 → Level 22]
[Vesper: Level 20 → Level 22]
[Vermillion: Level 20 → Level 22]
[Kirin: Level 14 → Level 17]
Kirin made a pleased sound somewhere over head, his Bond-connection pulsing with satisfaction. Three levels from forty-seven minutes of work. Not bad for his first Mandatory Mission.
The village square stabilized completely, corruption purged, leaving only old stone and quiet buildings.
A portal materialized at the square's center, exit gateway back to the Hub.
Samael walked over to where Riri stood, his expression carrying the same flat assessment it always did. But through the Bond she felt his satisfaction, the specific quality of someone who had run scenarios and found the execution matched the plan.
"Forty-seven minutes," he said.
"Under an hour for speed bonus." She opened one of the C-Rank Loot Boxes, golden light spilling across the square. "And perfect clear for no deaths."
[C-RANK LOOT BOX OPENED]
[You have received: Boots of Swift Shadows (Rare - A-Grade)]
[Effect: +35 Agility, Passive: Shadow-step cooldown reduced by 30%]
She opened the remaining five boxes in quick succession. Two more A-Grade equipment pieces, a skill upgrade token, and enough consumables to restock their entire inventory twice over.
Samael opened his own rewards. The loot distributed evenly through their shared Bond, credit pools combining, equipment options available to both.
They stood in the purified village square, forty-seven minutes into Phase Two, already two levels higher than they'd started.
"Second mission tomorrow?" Riri asked.
"Second mission tomorrow," Samael confirmed.
They walked through the portal together.
The Hub materialized around them, the Mission Gate Zone's containment barriers still glowing with active portal energy. Other Players were still filtering back from E-Rank and D-Rank missions, many looking considerably worse for the experience.
Riri and Samael moved through the crowd without stopping, heading back toward the Clifftop District.