A heavy sensation met my fingertips. My hammer, enhanced with holy power instead of mana, struck the skull of a zombie that had turned toward me with perfect accuracy.
The feeling was familiar. A weapon crushing flesh and breaking bone. Like cracking a walnut with a hammer, or smashing a boiled egg on a desk. That satisfying impact with barely any resistance, yet knowing you''ve completely shattered something.
But what followed was an entirely unfamiliar sensation.
"These bastards explode too!"
"Poison! It''s poison! Watch out for armor fragments and gas!"
The orc zombie''s crushed skull swelled up before transforming into a purple smoke bomb.
Like how monster corpses turned into mana stones, the flesh seemed to transform into poison rather than organs splattering everywhere. But their armor flew outward like shrapnel as dark purple gas burst forth.
The startled knights swerved sharply, carving furrows in the plains. While they might handle explosions, there was no reason to breathe in what was clearly deadly purple gas.
"Roland, you okay?!"
"Thanks to the holy power, I''m fine!"
I''d forgotten since I hadn''t encountered dark mages in this world, but thinking back, dark mages in my past life always used corpse explosions and bone magic.
Fortunately, I''d drawn on holy power instead of mana this time. No special reason - I''d just thought I''d casually use holy power since we were dealing with mere zombie meat shields - but it proved quite helpful.
If dark mages exploding zombies was common sense, then dark magic being weak to holy power was equally common sense.
"These ones just spew poison? They don''t chain explode!"
"Knights fall back, we''ll handle this from range!"
Naturally, dealing with the zombies became our party''s job rather than the Ice Cross Knights''. Though Irene''s holy power could provide immunity beyond purification, casting purification on all 26 people just for some shambling zombies would be wasteful.
I smashed them one by one in the center using holy power while Grace''s arrows and Han Se-ah''s magic swept away the slow-moving ones.
Sluggish movement plus isolation without support troops made them perfect targets for archers and mages.
''Come to think of it, not just Katie''s sword but Irene''s sacred law counters this too.''
Meanwhile Katie, having apparently asked Irene for blessing, circled the zombie horde''s perimeter with holy power protection, methodically cutting them down.
Seeing how zombies sliced by Katie''s special enhancement stone-enhanced blade turned straight to mana stones without exploding, the terrifying conclusion emerged that three of our five party members countered dark mages.
I remembered rage-quitting mobile game arena PvP when three of five opponents were counters - looked like we were carried again.
As I busily crushed zombies one by one, I found myself missing the suicide goblins. Their explosions took out multiple targets, while these zombies had to be killed individually since they released gas when dying.
So boss monster hunting progressed smoothly, capturing suicide goblins and zombies seemed feasible, and ogres were still nowhere to be seen.
Han Se-ah''s voice cut through the Ice Cross Knights'' praise of the hot soup, perfectly summing up the situation.
After clearing the outpost''s monsters, Han Se-ah buried the zombie barracks with Earth Control since it felt gross. As usual, the knights then set up tents and cleaned the area while Irene and Han Se-ah prepared meals.
"But isn''t this seriously a problem? Never mind me not finding any - there aren''t even rumors of Imperial trainee commanders having their lives ruined by ogre encounters? I really think we need to check with Ellis at the Adventurers'' Guild about what''s going on."
But today''s Han Se-ah had been tormented enough by hardcore enhancement fanatics.
From the moment she opened her eyes and greeted viewers to find chat spammed with "ogre", to getting hit with "should''ve enhanced staff lol" after cleanly handling the new zombie horde without wasting mana.
It had reached meme levels, with viewers beating up Han Se-ah in unexpected ways like suggesting enhancing Mom''s rosary would make food tastier. In response, Han Se-ah kept initiating fights with viewers as if trying to prove she was Korean.
"I mean really, right? If I just had bad luck and couldn''t find them that''d be one thing, but are there any reports of ogre encounters? The merchants buying supplies haven''t heard anything, and the adventurers and mercenaries at the safe zone we visited earlier said they haven''t seen a single ogre either."
-Come to think of it, seems that way lol. Don''t think it''s just her not finding them
-Maybe some event started when floor 60 opened? Like the dark mage took all the ogres
-What is this, some merchant monopoly? Dark mage boss hoarding ogres?
-Ah lol territory grabbing and claiming ogres so the hero bitch can''t enhance items lololol
-At this point could seriously suspect a bug from rushing through too fast lololol
True to her Korean nature, she''d exclaimed "I mean" over a dozen times while sitting in a corner with her soup bowl.
Perhaps her heartfelt complaints resonated with viewers. The prevailing opinion shifted from Han Se-ah being unlucky to suspecting some quest-related bug.
Though nobody remembered exactly which floor they''d caught the previous ogre on, they hadn''t seen any on the way to floor 60. So watching the suicide goblins and zombie bombers, theories emerged that berserk ogres had been captured as the army''s secret weapons.
Hmm, plausible?
Capturing rampaging berserk ogres from the wild to turn undead - wasn''t that exactly what a dark mage should do? Just as knights practiced lance charging and mages researched, there was an unwritten fantasy rule that dark mages should modify wild monsters into troops.
"Oh, oh! Hanna! Hanna!"
"I mean, this isn''t my fault... What is it? What?"
"It''s an ogre! An ogre''s coming this way!"
But in this world, bad luck took precedence over common sense.