The Modern Man Who Never Played Video Games Is Now An Adventurer!

We found Tenda patrolling along the eastern side of the village. I called him over to explain what we discovered. To our surprise, Tenda looked shocked when we told him we found it in the forest.

"How is that possible? If the monster is in that forest, it might not be something as simple as a Lesser Lich." He started thinking to himself. He must have decided on something, since he looked at me and said, "Let's gather everyone by the cemetery. We will need all the help we can get in this fight."

Twenty minutes later, just as the sun that couldn't be seen was starting to change the color of the sky, everyone finished gathering by the cemetery. Tenda stood before everyone and explained the situation.

"Lucifer and Bella have found the monster in the forest just past the cemetery. I know that shouldn't be possible but I checked for myself, and the Lich is indeed there. It seems someone managed to spread corruption into the forest's shrine, causing the blessing placed on the shrine to slowly fade away."

Lots of whispers broke out at that. Apparently, it was a big deal for the village if the shrine no longer protected this small forest. It seemed that the village had been at peace for many years because they had a blessing placed upon that shrine, keeping monsters away. Now I understood how they could live here without a defensive wall.

"Everyone!" Tenda called out to refocus those who were whispering back into the topic at hand. "As long as we can defeat this Lesser Lich, everything should return to normal. Trust in us, and we will help save your village."

Tenda then went on to explain how we would fight this Lesser Lich. Apparently, the Lich itself was weaker than it's undead minion, so the fight should be somewhat easier. However, if you fought it and didn't know to remove the core right after defeating it, the Lich would take you by surprise.

The best way to remove the core was with light magic surrounding you hand, but fire magic worked almost as well. Since the Lich can use dark magic at a high level, Tenda would fight it since my light magic mastery is at most at two out of ten.

Anyway, we all formed a wide half circle and walked forward into the forest in unison. I had my Presence Detection on, so I knew where the Lich was. It seemed everyone could use it, so we had no problem walking towards our target in silence.

I moved around a large boulder and some bushes before suddenly stopping. I finally saw the Lesser Lich for the first time. It looked like a skeleton made out of rotting, blackened bones, and was easily twice my height. It's eyes sockets glowed a menacing blood-red color, making it look like it walked right out of the fires of hell.

I flinched a bit when I saw it, but managed to not make any noise. A moment later, our group had surrounded the Lesser Lich. Tenda walked forward then, and I finally realized where he got his alias from. He had a sword that he left in it's sheathe, and instead flames started spreading along his hands. His fists were a bright red, as if they were heated metal.

The Lesser Lich noticed him almost instantly, and started chanting something in an eerie whisper. Slowly, a black mist started spreading from the Lesser Lich's feet and rising upwards. It looked like a deadly miasma. Tenda noticed that and broke into a sprint as he pulled back his arm to punch the Lesser Lich directly in the skull. Somehow, the Lich was actually quite agile and bent backwards to aviod the blow.

I started worrying that Tenda would end up driving through the miasma and was about to call out when I noticed he was smiling. I watched as wind started swirling about his feet, pushing the miasma away from him, even as it tried to stick to his body. I was stunned. His magic control was far above mine.

He kept on pushing the Lich back with repeated punches that seemed to create wind with ease. Suddenly, Tenda stuck out his leg while punching at the Lich's ribs, causing it to trip over his leg and land on its back.

Tenda's punch curved down at a sharp angle and smashed the Lich's skull into many pieces. Lifting his hand, he held the magic core in his fist. The villagers cheered in elation, knowing that they were safe once more. Bella and I cheered because he looked so cool while taking down the Lich.

As he stood up, the blackened bones of the Lich started deteriorating rapidly. Soon enough, it was completely gone, only leaving the magic core that was in Tenda's hand.

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Two of the village's retired adventurers remained in the forest to verify that the shrine was cleansed of the corruption now that the Lesser Lich was dead. The rest of us headed back to the village. Tenda, Bella and I thanked the retired adventurers for their help, before returning to the village chief's house.

The sun was finally rising above the horizon as we knocked on his door. Almost instantly, the door swung open and the village chief asked us what had happened.

"The Undead won't appear anymore." I announced confidently, before Tenda could speak. "Tenda took care of the Lesser Lich that was the cause of the problem. Everything should return to normal. The safety of Gryffon Village has returned."

The village chief's face lit up as he grasped each of our hands. He thanked us all profusely, and after a few minutes, we managed to calm him down enough to ask if we could rest anywhere.

"Of course! Come in. I've prepared beds for you all. You must be extremely tired after last night." He said as he led us to two rooms in the back of his house.

I didn't know about Bella and Tenda, but I was super tired. The moment I saw the bed, I plopped down on it and before I knew it, I was out like a candle in the wind.