The Great Mausoleum

System notification: Accept the quest [Return of the Dead], awaken the deceased Emperor Odyssey, and bring him to his Burying Ground.

Xiao Yu knew a little about the Rhine Empire. When Andrew explained the mission details, some information about the Rhine Empire naturally came to mind. Because of his character's background, he had carefully researched the relevant information.

According to the game's official backstory, the Rhine Empire was once the ruler of the southern territory of the Lost Continent, ruling the southern continent for more than 500 years. The Rhine Empire had a mature military system, and its huge Legion composed of professional soldiers were invincible in their conquests.

However, more than a hundred years ago, things gradually changed. Several barbarian kingdoms rose to power around the empire, including a Mage Alliance. Meanwhile, the nobles within the empire gradually became corrupt and decadent, losing their former bravery and warlike spirit. Like most empires that rose to prominence and then declined, the Rhine Empire fell into an irreversible decline, which was most evident in the military.

The Rhine Empire gradually began to suffer defeats in its wars of conquest, and even Emperor Odyssey, with his great talent and ambition, could not stop it.

Most importantly, the Rhine Empire has always upheld the Emperor's Majesty being paramount. This displeased the gods, as these were not illusory deities of the real world, but powerful gods with genuine divine power.

The gods originally wanted Odyssey to relinquish some of the empire's power in exchange for their protection, but Odyssey refused.

Therefore, the gods quickly sided with the newly rising barbarian kingdoms. The Kern Kingdom worshipped the God of Order, the Stein Kingdom worshipped the God of War Tempus, the Duchy of Tratus worshipped the Sun God Pelor, and the Mage Alliance embraced the Goddess of Magic, Mystra.

With the gods' favor, the allied forces of the Kern Kingdom, the Stein Kingdom, the Duchy of Tratus, and the Mage Alliance achieved continuous victories, while the Rhine Empire suffered repeated defeats, losing soldiers and territory.

Left with no other choice, Emperor Odyssey personally led the Imperial Guard Legion to confront the rebellious coalition of nations.

The two armies eventually met on a Wuming wasteland. During the battle, under the personal command of the emperor, the Imperial Guard Legion displayed exceptional combat prowess, once pushing the Four Kingdoms Allied Forces to the brink of defeat.

However, at the crucial moment, Emperor Odyssey's lieutenant and close friend, Olorin, suddenly betrayed him, leading to Emperor Odyssey's defeat. He was seriously wounded in the battle and died shortly afterward on the retreat.

Based on his memories, Xiao Yu judged that the battle his character participated in during his lifetime should have been the final battle of the Rhine Empire. In that case, he and Emperor Odyssey did have some connection.

When Emperor Odyssey died, he was surrounded by only a small number of guards, most of whom also perished in battle. They were buried together in a large tomb located in a desolate area on the edge of the battlefield.

It's near the Death Wilderness, just across a river.

However, the tomb is still under the control of the Kern Kingdom, and for some unknown reason, the Kern Kingdom has always sent soldiers to guard the tomb.

To awaken Emperor Odyssey, the first challenge is figuring out how to get past these soldiers.

Andrew didn't tell him the exact number of soldiers, but it couldn't be too few.

It seems I need to assemble a team, Xiao Yu thought to himself.

Upon leaving the Great Tomb, Xiao Yu's first action was to use Divine Spell Stealing from the Temple of God of Death.

Having already reached the level 6 Blasphemous Priest, he can now cast level 3 divine spells.

The level 1 and 2 divine spells that appeared this time were mostly the same as before, but there were a few decent level 3 divine spells.

Summon Undead III, Negative Energy Shockwave, Corpse Explosion, Bone Spear, Plague Wind.

Xiao Yu nodded in satisfaction, when suddenly, he heard a system notification.

System notification: You attracted the attention of the god of Naraku, God of Death, while using Divine Spell Stealing, and you have triggered divine punishment.

"Holy crap, no way!" Xiao Yu was immediately shocked. He thought to himself, "I'm done for, I'm going to die!" He tensed up, bracing himself for the divine punishment, when a beam of green light appeared out of nowhere and struck him. After a few seconds, Xiao Yu found that he seemed to be completely unharmed.

What's going on? He quickly opened the battle log.

[Battle Log: The Naraku, God of Death used Finger of Death on you. You were hit by Finger of Death dealt 0 damage to you.]

"Wow, that was terrifying!" Xiao Yu breathed a sigh of relief after reading the record.

Finger of Death is an instant-kill spell that can instantly kill a living unit, or severely injure it if it doesn't kill it. However, it has its counter; this spell is ineffective against the Undead.

Haha, I've practically escaped with my life!

However, this also served as a reminder to him that he could no longer ignore this divine punishment.

Feeling relieved, Xiao Yu walked out of the temple and stood in the square of the Burying Ground, calling out to people.

He naturally wouldn't directly say that he needed help with his mission, but instead shouted it out.

The King's Return: Epic Quest group is now open! Join now if you want to get the achievement. Players below level 8, please do not disturb. Players above level 8, please state your level and class.

After shouting this several times, a large number of players immediately came to report.

However, he immediately discovered an awkward situation. Because the five of them leveled up so quickly, they were already at the top of the level hierarchy, and the people they could team up with were generally lower level than them. Although he had lowered his level to eight, there were still very few people who could join his group. Many level six or seven players came to ask if they could join. Xiao Yu saw that there were really not enough people, so he finally teamed up with a few level seven players, barely making up twenty people. Xiao Yu thought to himself that this task was going to be quite difficult.

Leading their Great Graveyard and followed the route indicated by the mission. Half an hour later, they arrived at the outside of a cemetery.

This is a very large cemetery, a huge white tomb surrounded by a stone wall, covered with the gray plants characteristic of cemeteries.

Even from a distance, Xiao Yu could see some soldiers from the Kern Kingdom guarding outside the tomb; there were at least fifty or sixty of them.

Holy crap, there are so many people!?

Xiao Yu was speechless. Fifty or sixty people might not seem like much, but this was a real mission, unlike the idiotic NPCs in dungeons. These NPC guards were just as intelligent as the players, and if attacked, they would undoubtedly swarm out.

Just then, the guards saw these Undead and became alert.

This makes things a bit difficult, twenty against fifty or sixty, quite a challenge. But it's alright, if it were someone else, they might have been outmatched, but I know magic.

Thinking of this, he turned around and glanced at everyone. "Alright, everyone get ready. I'm going to start the fight. After luring the enemies out with one wave, I'll try to gather them together. Use spells to blast them with anything that can be used for area-of-effect attacks."

"Is the boss any good? How are we going to fight so many enemies?" one of the new recruits asked hesitantly.

"What's there to be afraid of? We know magic," Big Water Cunt explained smugly.

"Spells?" The newcomer was taken aback. "Undead can use spells? How did they learn them?"

Xiao Yu didn't bother to explain. He nodded at the Sword of the Fallen Angel then launched a Flame Missiles at the stone wall.

To their surprise, they were immediately met with a counterattack. There were thirty or forty archers and crossbowmen among the soldiers on the stone wall, and arrows and crossbow bolts rained down upon them.

Fortunately, the Undead are resistant to piercing damage. Some zombies can withstand several arrows from divine spells without dying, as long as they are not hit in the head.

The gaps in a skeleton's body give it a 50% chance to be immune to piercing attacks, and ghosts are even more immune to physical damage.

However, simply taking hits isn't an option; after a few rounds of ranged fire, they couldn't outshoot each other.

"The ghost is here; find a way to open the door."

Before the words were even finished, the door opened on its own, and a large group of soldiers from the Kern Kingdom emerged from it.

In front of them was a large group of infantry, and behind them was a group of archers, totaling more than a hundred people.

Holy crap! No way!

Xiao Yu thought to himself, "Those on the stone wall aren't all of them. This is really bad. 20 against over 100, how am I supposed to fight?"

Damn it, no matter how hard it is, I have to give it my all!