Cracked Stone Fortress.
The morning sky had still been a cloudless azure, like a gemstone washed clean by water. Yet just past noon, dark clouds had filled the sky in the blink of an eye.
Before long, a fine drizzle began to fall, joining into a curtain of rain and bringing abundant moisture to the Oak Forest that half-surrounded the fortress.
Green branches swayed in the rain and grew proudly upward, while frogs croaked from the wetlands... This should have been a scene lush with greenery and bursting with life.
But then, a bare skeletal foot suddenly appeared and stepped onto the mossy ground.
With a sizzle, the moss around the point of contact instantly blackened and withered, giving off an ominous aura.
Upon the Fortress Wall, the Slime guards braved wind and rain alike. With determined, earnest expressions, they held their little iron spears as they continued pattering and bouncing along the wet roadway on patrol, faithfully carrying out their duties as guards.
Within the patrol, a Metal Slime suddenly seemed to spot something. It stopped bouncing, its tiny eyes peering through the hazy rain curtain toward Cracked Stone Pass in the distance, which stretched across the land like a black ribbon.
A trace of confusion appeared in its eyes.
Unlike usual, that ribbon was now like pigment dropped into clear water, constantly spreading outward. That unsettling blackness had even crossed the pass and silently crept into the reed beds before the fortress.
"Gurgle?"
"Und... undead?"
The Metal Slime gave a puzzled hum.
Though it did not understand what was happening, it instinctively sensed that something bad was afoot. It immediately bounced over to the bronze bell and rammed it several times with its gelatinous body.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The urgent ringing instantly pierced through the rain curtain and