Momentarily stunned, Bone Breaker and Stainless Steel could only look at the spot where the Boss had disappeared.

Did the boss just scam them for their items?

That wasn't possible. NPCs don't lie to players!

"ALFRED!!" roared Bone Breaker, seething with rage.

The butler AI appeared in front of them.

"How can I be of service?"

"We were just scammed by an NPC! He took our items and disappeared!" Bone Breaker shouted at the AI..

"That is not possible. One moment while I check the logs," said the butler.

The AI's eyes turned milk-white for a moment then returned back to their original black color.

"The incident you describe was not an error or glitch, your poor decision making and judgement are to blame. You were fully aware that when a quest is issued the Player receives a quest table. Always. You had your doubts about the circumstances that led to this predicament precisely because you did not receive a quest table along with the quest. You even discussed the possibility that the quest was not legitimate. But, because you were greedy, you continued to follow your ill fated course. Your avarice clouded your judgement and you have no one to blame but yourselves. I am done here, good gaming to you."

The butler disappeared.

The two players looked at each other for a moment, then a stream of blasphemous curses and angry threats echoed throughout the chamber.

***

A white light shone in the middle of the area where the Undead Captains were gathered.

Dave was back at the Dead-Realm

In the middle of the plaza where hundreds of thousands of Undead-Captains stood next to each other, all looking at the far away Bone-Palace with reverence in their hollowed eyes.

He couldn't help but laugh imagining the expressions on the faces of Bone Breaker and Stainless Steel.

For acting as the Boss Guardian of the Desolate Temple Dungeon (for 24 hours) you have been awarded 240,000 EXP

Level Up!

You received 2400 CP

"That was a nice chunk of easy EXP, and I hit level 106! I'm definitely doing more of those missions when I can. The rewards are good." Dave smiled, happy with his new stats.

'But just to be safe I'm not going to do any more dungeon missions for a while. I need to be stronger in case I run into high-level players. Though I can pay the CP to disappear, it could get costly.

'The things that have been happening recently are beyond coincidence. It's highly improbable that I'd run into the TNT again like that by chance. For them to so conveniently have a quest that gave me the information I need to find the second piece of armor for my quest is crazy. It seems Alfred is manipulating the game In a biased way, influencing the quests for his own purposes.

'I don't know what Alfred is doing, what his agenda is, or whether he's helping me or trying to sabotage me. I can't do anything about that right now, I have to focus on what I need to do next.

'I know the Black Skull Order's location. But I can't go there yet, the area is too high level for me right now. So Drahma's quest is going to have to wait.

'So, I need to stay here in the Underworld and do some grinding; go on shoot-n-loots, do more level appropriate quests, overall just get stronger and gain levels. There's no need to rush finishing the high level quests.'

Dave went to the nearest Undead-Shop, purchased some Teleportation Scrolls, and inscribed them with the location of the First Raid Zone, the Undead frontier.

Dave tore one of the Scrolls open and appeared at the Temple of the Undead Frontier.

Hundreds of the undead stood in formation as if on high alert while others carried construction material, building troop garrisons and siege weapons.

Dave wondered what was going on, it looked like someone had kicked an anthill over. He entered the Temple and saw the lovely Delvina issuing orders to her subordinates.

"Hey there Delvina," Dave greeted her.

"Kis'Shtingbrah! You are finally back, I heard you were on dungeon guardian duty yesterday. How was it?" she asked in a friendly manner.

"It was alright. A bit boring."

"Hmm, you can still feel boredom. Drahma was right, you must have only recently joined the Undead, to actually still have the notion of boredom.," she said with a gentle smile.

"Delvina, what is going on? I saw the undead constructing some barracks," Dave asked.

Delvina exhaled a long sigh before she answered Dave.

"A squad of dunlords scouts spotted a demon army headed to the Undead Frontier,. We are preparing for a siege. Now that you are here, I need you to go on a mission for me." Asked Delvina

"Sure, what can I do to help?" Dave asked as he smelled a quest opportunity.

"I need you and your battalion to inform Abyssal Knight Lord Samael to send reinforcements."

"Isn't the undead army you have here enough to hold the line?" asked Dave.

"We are not just here to defend this territory. We will soon begin our push into the second Raid Zone, the army of lord Dagla is headed there now. Our objective is to unify all the Underworld under the Undead King."

"So Lord Dagla, the abyssal Knight of the Sorcerer Faction is leading the invasion of the second raid zone?"

"Yes, the orders came yesterday,"

"Alright, where do I find Lord Samael?" asked Dave

"You can find him in the cliffs north of the Undead Frontier, take this plaque and give it to him. Fair warning, Lord Dagla does not like idle talk and chatter."

A new location was flagged on Dave's map and a new quest item appeared in his inventory.

A window popped into Dave's view:

[Chain Quest

Quest difficulty A

Find Lord Samael and deliver to him the plaque given to you by Delvina]

The quest difficulty was high for such a simple task.

"Although I trust your strength, the way to Lord Samael is fraught with danger. I am assigning a squad of Dunlords and two Death knights to accompany you," said Delvina.

Two Death knights appeared, they bowed slightly toward Delvina and saluted Dave.

This quest actually aligned well with Dave's plans. An Abyssal Knight is one of the strongest powers under the Undead King, and Dave became thrilled at the notion of meeting one.

A notification appeared in Dave's vision:

[You can now hire a new type of Undead Soldier: Dunlord]

Dave went into his interface and saw a new icon in the troop acquisition page.

The symbol looked like the curled and segmented tail of a scorpion, complete with bulbous stinger on the end.

He clicked on the "More Information" tab and a holographic image with text underneath it appeared. Dave's dessicated eyes nearly popped out of his draugr skull when he saw the Dunlord in the hologram.

It was huge. A chimeric mix of human and giant scorpion. Like a centaur, it had the head and upper torso of a man joined to the chitin-armored beast body. Except the proportions of the fleshy human torso part were far larger than an average human's, close to ogre size.

The Dunlord in the hologram image carried a crossbow the size of a ballista in its 'human' arms. In addition it had two outsized claws that stretched out to the sides and forward of where the upright human torso was, just as a natural scorpion's claws did. A segmented scorpion's tail hung over the elongated beast-form, like a guillotine promising instant death. The bulbous segment on the end of the tail was the size of a wrecking-ball and a curved sword-size stinger protruded from it.

'Huh, looks like that tail can crush stone or pierce heavy plate-armor, maybe even batter its way through fortification walls.'

The description below the image of the dunlord stated the monster had the ability to dive into and burrow through the ground like a fish swims through water.

"These guys are total badasses!" Dave exclaimed.

He looked at the price to hire one of them and almost fainted.

"Holy crap! 20,000 CP per unit!"

Dave summoned his platoon- no, his battalion and his Undead minions appeared behind him in an organized procession, the Boyz at the front.

"Alright, let's move out!"